El Bell is ONE!

Eliana (affectionately nicknamed, El Bell) turned ONE in September.  Jamie said it so well when he said, "sometimes I'm so amazed that we get to be her mom and dad."  She is a precious gift.  She is full of fire and spunk, love and kisses, laughter and fun.

Her favorite book is "You are My Sunshine" so we made her party about that and she loved it.  But she really loves life so she was beyond delighted at the party.  It seems like my kid's responses to their cake and the singing are perfectly reflective of their personalities.  Eliana saw that cake and heard the singing and started shrieking and waving her arms and diving at the cake.  Ready to dive in and thrilled at everyone's attention.

 This is my favorite picture - look at her smile!

 The grandparents

 Our friends, Curt and Shelley and Gregg and Sarah

 The customary donut cake on the day of her birthday

And Then There Were Two

School starts in the middle of August around here.  We walk to school every day, we have met countless neighborhood friends through the school, we volunteer there, and now we have two little boys going to school together.  Kindergarten and second grade.  

 Caleb and his rockstar teacher

 Do you see this?  Do you know what this is?  One of God's sweetest gifts that I thought was way to much to even hope for.  Carla and her family live less than one mile away from us and her kids go to the same school as my kids.  In this big city place my kids get to go to school with their cousins. 

Growing Things

Growing things is my thing.  It doesn't involve the pressure of making things look good and there is the amazing time when everything starts to grow.  Every year I am amazed when those tiny, tiny seeds that are planted out of sight produce sprouts of green that grow and make food.  My garden is very reflective of my personality, though.  Random.  I told Jamie one day (when the dog was driving  me crazy and the third person in one day had told me that my hands were certainly full): "this garden is a metaphor for my life: overgrown and slightly out of control."  He responded with: "True, but like your life, it's highly productive."  Isn't he a nice guy?  The garden was very very productive despite the fact that I probably planted three times too many plants for the given space.

 The bugs are crazy out near the garden.  So, I dress like an idiot and avoid bug bites.

 Absolutely nothing stayed inside the boundaries this year.

Fourth of July!

We arrived home from Colorado just in time for the annual Fourth of July parade in our neighborhood.  I am constantly reminded how much we love living here.  Our eclectic group of neighbors are dear friends and it's never boring around here.  Just last week, a guy who lives across the street cut down a tree that was dying and had an artist come and carve a sculpture in the remaining trunk.  Art, crazy, free-flowing gardens, interesting people and the ability to walk almost anywhere I need to - this place is our place.

My kiddos dressed the part this year and I must say that I love the cute result!  Matchy, matchy is too muchy muchy for me on a regular basis but I might be repeating this Fourth of July outfit thing for as long as the older two will agree.

 Water Balloon Toss

 Me and my girl

This girl loves her daddy!

Fifty Years

Maynard and Judy celebrated fifty years.  Fifty years of love, commitment, with lots of kids and lots of grandkids.  Our family is so grateful for these two and it was great fun to celebrate with them (and the whole clan) in Colorado this summer.

 Three boys, being middle school boys.  Walking down the path, singing YMCA (complete with actions) at the top of their lungs.

 Happy Cousin birthday to all eleven cousins!

 The two lovebirds

 Putt putt golfing

 The five of us after a beautiful evening hike with some of the clan.

 Caleb and Doug

 At the top of the evening hike.

 Biggest little guy in our house, his first time on a horse by himself.

 Still secure on the horse with Daddy-O

 Early morning explorers

 Beautiful, chilly morning for a hike

 There was still a bit of snow :))

Thank you, Maynard and Judy for a great trip and for loving all of us so selflessly!!

We swim.

You know how some families really like baseball or soccer or drama?  We like to swim.  So... both boys were on a swim team this summer and absolutely loved it.  They loved it so much that they are already talking about being a Marlin next year.  Those little swim caps are about the cutest thing (although I no longer tell them they are cute).

 Our beloved cousins came to watch the boys swim.  Eliana was trooper to "watch" all of the swimming this summer.

Uncle Steve

My dad had this picture of he and Steve from many years ago, dressed alike and looking like twins.  The caption on the frame read: "He ain't heavy, he's my brother."