InstaSummer 2014

InstaSummer 2014

On Monday, I'm going to start posting all about our summer road trip, but we've been busy with other fun things since we got home from our vacation at the beginning of June.  Lots of photos to share!

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Vacation Bible School at our church was the week after we got home.  Mark and I help coordinate VBS, and we love that it's such a fun time for our boys and the children of our church and community.  

At the end of June, Mark and I celebrated our 12 year anniversary. We took the boys to eat with us at Mi Cocina.  Twelve very happy years!

This is what they really wanted to do for the photo.  Will looks away and Ben does a crazy pose.  Typical.

Do y'all love Ingrid Michaelson as much as I do?  She's the cutest and has a beautiful voice.

Here's a funny story.  In her song, "Girls Chase Boys" Will thought she was saying "All the broken arms in the hospital" instead of "All the broken hearts in the world still beat" and now when we listen to the song we sing Will's lyrics instead of Ingrid's.  Too funny!  Listen to the song and you'll see that Will's fit in pretty well. 

We had house finch eggs on our front porch in the exact same spot as the last bird nest.  As Big Mama said on her blog about her birds, it was all Wild Kingdom.  I'm sad to say things ended all Wild Kingdom this time for this little birdies.  I checked on them every morning when I woke up, and one morning I woke up and saw that the nest was gone.  I was afraid to look outside because I didn't want to see little helpless birds on the ground.  When I finally got up the courage to go through the garage and peek around to the front of the house, I didn't see anything on the ground.  The bird nest was even gone.  So really, nothing at all!  The one thing I did see was a cat lying (looking very content) at the end of the sidewalk.  I'm thinking that explains what happened, but I guess we'll never know for sure.

 Do your kids ever do this at restaurants?  Sit right next to you, practically in your lap when you have an entire bench to share.  I posted this on IG with the same question and a lot of friends responded.  

Ben and Will both do this, and I think it's sweet except when I'm trying to eat, ha!

This is a photo of my fat crying.  Mark and I started running and watching what we eat.  

This photo is what summer is all about--no where to go.  I love to start the morning sitting on the back porch with a cup of coffee and my Bible.  

We can't grow certain plants and trees in our area because we have alkaline soil (or at least that's what I've heard my grandma tell me my whole life), but we can grow Crape Myrtle trees.  They are spectacular in the summer and bring really vibrant color to the landscape.  This beautiful pink one is my in-law's yard.  One of my IG friends said it reminded her of a watermelon.  That's a great description.  We have several pink, one white and three red rocket varieties at our home. 

My in-law's also have the best driveway for riding bikes.  Our driveway slopes and isn't that long so we loaded up the bikes and boys and took them over for some bike riding at Mamaw's.

Let's Go Rangers!

You'd think we've seen enough baseball for the summer since we followed the Rangers on their West Coast Road trip in June, but we'll never get enough baseball.  We're true fans because we're standing by our Rangers even if they aren't doing well this year.  Just the other night Will told Mark, "The Rangers will win again" kind of like don't give up hope, and he was as sweet and sincere as he could be.  Love him!

Do you ever take a meal to a friend just for the excuse to hold their new baby?  Just kidding!  I take the meal because I know those first weeks with a newborn are rough, and getting to hold the new baby is a bonus.  When I had my babies anyone who brought us food was my new best friend.  I always appreciated those meals because food was at the bottom of my list of concerns.  My friend Jourdan just had this sweet baby girl Emmie.  She was so teeny tiny, around 6 pounds.  Both of my boys were 9.5 pounds so I never enjoyed a sweet baby girl like this.  She was just precious!

We had a bridal shower for an adorable couple in our church, Cheyenne and Rex.  My friend Brandi made the cake.  I love cake!

This photo is totally random.  I'm looking for a new chair for our living room and I stopped by HomeGoods.  This red telephone booth was there.  You never know what  you will find.  I found a chair there about a week later.  I'll have to show you photos soon.

While out shopping that day, the boys got in their 20 minutes of reading for the day.  

Another fun thing about summer is the random things you end up doing for fun.  We invited our niece Maggie over for swimming, and then we decided to make a spur of the moment trip to IKEA that night.  I was still in search of a new chair, and I needed some storage for the boys Legos.  My boys like IKEA and love pretending they are at home in all of the different model rooms.

I'm happy to report that the Legos are more organized, and I've regained some of my sanity.

This week we went bowling for the first time this summer.  My boys love bowling. 

Ben and Will love board games.  Ben ask us almost everyday to play a board game.  Poor Ben got swimmer's ear so we've tried to play with him inside this week while his ear heals. 

Here's Ben at the doctor getting diagnosed with swimmer's ear.  We've had rain in the forecast so that's helped us avoid the pool this week. 

Summer treats at DQ, this one is a S'mores Blizzard, and it was oh so good!

I'll share more photos of our pool fun later, but I liked this one of Will. He looks really old here.  Oh my!