a year ago today...

i gave birth to this sweet little eislee! "happy first birthday baby, we all love you so much!" we will be having a little party for the big girl today and i promise i will post pictures as soon as possible! :)

my little garden helper

eislee loves the garden...

it's funny how we can think that babies are too fragile to let loose in a dirty garden... i know i've thought that before... but then i realized it's just dirt... dirt and edible plants... neither one will do her any harm...

(do you like my new garden gate? it's courtesy of my stepdad clint)

in the first few minutes of garden time eislee tried a little taste of soil and quickly decided it was no fun to eat... she just likes to put it in my camera bag... such a helper...

i hope all of you get to enjoy a little garden love, whether it's your garden, friend or family's, or even if it's a few planted pots on your patio... happy summer to you!

real summer photos

i took these photos during that first heat wave, when it finally got hot enough here to get out the pool.

notice the cows hanging out on the other side of the fence (wishing they could jump in the pool i'm sure). love that.

lately they've been using strollers like lawn chairs... easy to move where ever you want them... comfy... shade... extra seats for their "babies"... perfect.

and i was very surprised when we gave this little girl a dip in the freezing cold water and she got so excited she was trying to jump out of matt's arms.

it was cold... i dipped my feet in for about two seconds and that was more than enough for me.

but this girl, you would pull her out and she would jerk around arching toward the pool until you finally dipped her back in.

see the love...?

we have another water dog on our hands.

can you believe she will be one year old in nine days?! just when i was starting to think she might stay a baby for awhile she starts acting like a big girl. it's like she knows that her birthday is coming up and she's suddenly made a switch! well, i suppose i'll have to get used to it.

what?! she's only four!

it all happened so fast but this little girl had a wonderful birthday!

breaking in the new easel...

well, one birthday down and two more to go... i love this little birthday run we do every summer... making a new cake every two weeks and watching each kid have their own special day. it's going to be pretty strange having a baby in the winter this time. did i mention that i'm pregnant again? i guess not in this space, but i know that many of you have found out one way or another. well, i hope your all having a wonderful summer! what have you been up too?

sunny summer morning

i'm looking forward to many more of these :) if any of you make it to the country fair this weekend, layla will be performing at 11:15 sat on the youth stage with her teacher linda yapp.

little bee and a grown up lonely only

can you believe this little girl is going to be four next wednesday? i having a bit of a hard time excepting it. when i asked her what kind of cake she wants she told me that she wants a princess mermaid spiderman cake with some backyardigan colors... what?!? the second time i asked her she settled for just princess mermaid... it's funny how every year the cakes get a little more complicated. i remember last year she just wanted it to be red and pink... hmmm.

a random assortment of photos

Oobleck all you need is cornstarch and water and you get hours of entertainment

now i know that eislee will probably want to disown me someday for posting nude baby photos on the internet but i just couldn't resist they are sooo cute! do you think she'll forgive me?

these are pictures of maiko's field day, his last day of school. did i tell you guys that he will be a kindergartner again next year? he is the youngest kid in his class and it shows... anyway, more on that later...

this was layla's end of the school year concert... oh man... it was so cute... she knew all the words to the songs and all the little dance moves... i was a proud mama.

and this little girl, who is dangerously close to a year old, is crawling all over the place and pulling up... the play kitchen is one of her favorite things to get into at the moment... the little doors and drawers... tiny steel pans she can bang on the floor... she loves it.

helping grampy man the grill...

we have been living life about a million miles a minute ever since summer started... it's pretty funny when i look back and see how i was so excited for slow summer days but all i've been doing is packing our schedule :) oh well... we're having fun. we have been enjoying visiting friends and family... we went to the eugene saturday market... we got to go to the enchanted forest in the middle of the week :) and of course the beach! i have been horrible about taking pictures though, just leaving the camera at home. i promise that next time we go to the beach i will bring the camera and get photos :) so what have you been up too?