For some reason I can't get over it

I had no idea it would bring me such great joy to go out to my backyard and pick a large bowl full of tomatoes and by evening have a pot of freshly made spaghetti sauce for dinner. Next summer, I am definitely planting eight tomato plants again.

Birthday bash

Andrew's birthday recently came and went. He turned 31! Now it is pretty official he is in his 30's. Little Bug and I thought he deserved a new suit this year. So, the Saturday before his birthday we blind folded him and drove him to the Men's Warehouse. For the record, it is pretty hard fooling this guy what direction you are driving. As in, I'd ask him what direction we were driving and he'd say, "west" or "now we're going northeast." Who knows that?! Especially while driving blindfolded. The only reason I know what direction we are ever driving is because our car has a little automatic dial that tells you. Although he knew what direction we were going, he had no idea he was about to get a new suit. It was a pretty fun surprise. And check out that blindfold. It is a scarf I can't wait to wear in the fall.

On his actual birthday we had family over for dinner and Bug was more than happy to bake him his favorite lime cake for the event.


While creating this post it got me thinking about Andrew's last birthday when he got a surprise visit to Utah. First off, how has it been a year already?! Second, look at how much younger Little Bug looks? How can one go from looking like a baby to practically being a full fledged child in a year?! It makes me a little, ok a lot sad. And finally, wow did Andrew get a much better looking cake last year.

Time is flying by

Our little man is two months old today. We love this new addition to our family. He does everything he is suppose to - eats and sleeps! He is getting lots of cute baby chub and many people respond to him by saying he is huge. Our Little Tank is growing up quick!

He readily gives out smiles to anyone willing to tell him how wonderful and dashing he is. Catching them on the camera is another story. These two blurry ones are closest I've gotten.

Fish

Little Bug is a fish. She came out loving the water. It started with her adoring bath time and led to loving pools, sprinklers, water slides, water parks, and water tables. She even loves watering the garden (mainly because she comes inside drenched from the hose)...anything having to do with water this girl is in. Needless to say, Bug has spent the summer in the water. And I was happy to discover she has Andrew's skin that tans. I'm a little bit jealous of that one.



Bug going strong on hour three at the water park.

Utah

We just returned from a quick visit to Utah. I did a pretty lousy job documenting the trip, but it was filled with boating, trips to the park, swimming pools and snow cones! It was so cute watching all the cousins interact.

I was able to snap a shot of Little Tank meeting Grandma and Papa for the first time.

And a shot of these two cuties. I told them to be silly and this is what they gave me.

Little Bug was pretty sad to say goodbye. She ran up to cousin R and told her "I love you."

Hope we can all get together again soon!

'Playing'

When I was about five months pregnant, Little Bug and I were out shopping when another mom and little girl duo stopped next to us in the store isle. This little girl then looked at Bug and asked if she wanted to play. Little Bug responded by confidently exclaiming, "No, I have a baby brother to play with." Needless to say, it has been quite the wait for Bug. After this, we of course had to redefine the term 'play' by telling her Tank's form of play would be being fed and burped, at least for a while. So here she is with the much anticipated feeding/'playing' with baby brother.

I have to say, I had no doubt in my mind that once the novelty of baby brother wore off she would not like him. Granted, he is still pretty new, but she still likes him! Although I owe Little Bug an apology for completely underestimating her, I am still shocked.

Summer garden

We love our backyard for many reasons. One being, we finally had a spot to plant a garden! It has worked out pretty well; I was excited for the prepping and planting and Andrew has been happy about the maintaining and harvesting. We planted green beans, sugar peas, carrots, basil and tomatoes. In hindsight, we should have planted only one to two plants at a time to get more of each crop. Unfortunately, we don't have that big of an area to dedicate to the garden and have gotten sample size portions of some of our veggies.


Our first carrot. It was an anti climatic harvest.

We have eight tomato plants. I wonder what inspired me to plant that many tomatoes? Especially since I am the only one that likes them...

We all loved the sugar peas. Little Bug happily gobbled most of them up. Little Bug still has yet to expand her meat and dairy taste buds, so this was a big moment.

In addition, while my mom was here helping with Little Tank she planted us a beautiful flower garden in what use to be a dirt patch in the corner of our backyard. It is so nice to look at flowers instead of dirt.



Is it silly to say I am already dreading the end of summer?

Pictures

If this picture were of me as a kid I would look at it and think, I was not as cool as I remember.

On the other hand, if Andrew were looking at a picture like this of himself he would think, man I used to be cool.

Either way, we both hope Little Bug finds this picture as entertaining as we do in years to come.

Baking with Mama

Bug mastering the art of making sugar cookies. Despite her excitement for stirring, rolling and tossing flour everywhere, I still can't get her to try a finished cookie.

Two weeks