an amazingly wonderful, terrific, fun-filled, very good day.

 Today was one of those days I hope to look back on 3 months from now and just smile. Smile because it was pretty much perfect.  A warm summer day filled with so much joy I spent most of the day trying to savor and soak it all in. All 3 meals were spent eating together as a family. Both kids were happy, played together and shared their toys. The tv was off. There were no time-outs. We met friends for a playdate.  I watched Carter ride his big boy bike better than he'd ever ridden before...and the excitement on his face was priceless. We picked veggies from the garden. Played with playdoh. Puzzles. Blocks. Baby dolls. We swung on the swings until my arms were going to fall off from pushing so long. Lucy had a great nap and Carter, beginning to transition out of naps, spent some quality one-on-one time with me practicing his letter writing.  He was more focused and concentrated than I've ever seen before. His determination, albeit many reminders to "just write the letter!" was reflected in the smudged red and yellow markered-up pages and stained hands. I went for a walk, they ate popsicles and covered their faces in red-stained juice.  We ran in a big grassy field at the park chasing dragonflies. We picked blackberries.  Lots of them! And stained our fingers trying to eat every.last.one. They swam in the pool, dug in the sandbox and read books until they fell asleep.  And I will enjoy some homemade peach cobbler in a few minutes.
It was a really, really great day.

 A delicious breakfast to start the day off right.

 Lots of Buzz Lightyear action. And playdoh (they rarely like to do arts and crafts)

 At the park, soaking in the sunshine.

And a perfect way to end the day. 

Don't worry...we still had a few meltdowns, whining and a couple poopy diapers to bring me back to reality!

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here comes the bride.

Matt's best friend just got married last weekend and we were lucky enough to be a part of a super fun wedding weekend!  It started on Thursday night with the rehearsal dinner.  It's a rare occasion for us to get dressed up these days, so I was pretty excited to go shopping for some new clothes.

Us before the rehearsal.

 Saturday morning the festivities began in Seattle.  My parents took the kids for the weekend and we were kidless for over 24 hours!  It was a fun break to be in the city with time for just us to shop, relax and spend time with wonderful friends. Matt was the best man and spent the day doing his best man duties with the groomsmen, which left me some quality time alone to wander through downtown stores and do a little shopping, eat a quiet lunch and get dressed without any interruptions.  It was heavenly!
The wedding was perfect.  Beautiful location, gorgeous decor and flowers, stunning bride, handsome groom.

 Matt walking down the aisle.

 Happy groom seeing the bride as she entered the room.  I always love to watch the groom and bridal party when the bride enters, the joy on his face says it all.

 Absolutely gorgeous!

 And they are married!

 Jake & Kelly Lipscomb.

 Us, all dressed up! The reception was so fun and I danced until I literally had blisters on my feet.  Worth every ounce of pain though.

 Matt's mom was still on a cruise with her friends but luckily Matt's dad was able to come.

 And me with the beautiful bride.  A little blurry but it'll work.

 Such a fun weekend celebrating some really wonderful people.

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a little bit of this, a little bit of that.

None of these pictures actually go together but they all contain 2 cute kids so I decided this would be a jumbled post of summer fun.  Here goes:

Carter earned his 3rd badge at the Lowe's Build & Grow days.  He is loving this time to hit a hammer and "build" a new toy each month.  I left my phone in the car so I couldn't take a picture of him actually building the truck, but he did so well! 

 Bath time has become more like "let's try to flood the entire bathroom floor every night." Thank goodness for shower doors.

 We discovered a new donut shop right near our church so naturally had to try it out one Sunday morning. And then we discovered about 12 new donuts we want to try out in the future.  Uh oh.

 Lucy loves to splash in the pool but rarely gets in.

 She's much more interested in watering the vegetables!

 And getting herself a little wet in the process!  Love the look on her face!

 We took the kids over to Wallace Creek Swamp Park the other day which is this awesome nature reserve only 5 minutes from our house.  It has tons of walking trails and a creek (hence the name) that flows down the middle with lots of fun places to play in the water and throw rocks.  The kids were so sad when it was time to leave.

 We'll definitely be going back a few more times this summer!

 Lucy was very serious the other morning with her breakfast. I remember reading every little detail of the cereal box when I was a little girl.  Like mother, like daughter.

 Such.a.stud.

 (disclaimer: I do feed my children plenty of fruits, vegetables and whole grains and they love them. But, it's not fun to take pictures of kids eating vegetables all the time).  I took the kids to the donut shop again for a special treat after Lucy got a vaccine.  Another perk is our pediatrician is in the same parking lot as the donut shop.  Big uh oh. Carter devoured this enormous maple bar in about 8 seconds.

 So we burned off all that sugar at the park!

 Cutest face ever.

 Always happy in the morning, just like her mama.

 And another self-take tonight before bed.

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my babies.

This will probably be a sappy post (warning) but after looking through some pictures, I've realized I no longer have a baby and a toddler.  I have a toddler and a preschooler.  What the heck happened?

Just like that my little ones are growing up. 

Lucy still loves to cuddle but now also climbs into the bathtub by herself, likes to "brush" her own teeth, tells me when she has gone potty in her diaper, eats with a fork and spoon and copies every little thing that her big brother does.

 Carter continues to say the funniest things, is sincere and sweet, cares so much about how other's feel, asks a thousand questions a day just to learn every little detail, eats like a horse, could read books for hours, hits a baseball better than any 3 year old I know and loves his family so much.

And the two of them are peas in a pod. Their faces light up when the other walks in a room, they both get ridiculously excited when the other wakes up in the morning or from a nap and they fight like, well...brother and sister.  We've entered the "referee" phase of life where I am constantly hearing, "mom...Lucy pulled my hair!' or "eeeekkkk!" (from Lucy). But then there are moments like this where they sit together, eat a snack and hug. And I just melt.

I just love and adore these two little people so much. I struggle daily with being a better mom, communicating differently to teach them respect, discipline and positive self-esteem, encouraging them to make good choices, be kind to others, share their things and simply be nice. They both are absorbing every.little.thing. I do or say and it can be a bit overwhelming at times. My mom guilt gets the best of me most days but I look at these pictures and remember they are happy, healthy and loved. And they are really great kids. Better than I could have ever dreamed of.

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the snake.

Since moving to this house almost a year ago we have discovered a zoo full of creatures.  We have a dog, tons of random birds, an enormous bees nest, lots of wild bunnies and now....a snake. I noticed it about a month ago when Matt was out of town while I was making a tiny effort to do some yardwork. Once I saw it I figured it was a sign from God that I needed to stop and let Matt finish it once he came home.  I don't like snakes!

About 2 weeks later my parents were up babysitting and my mom saw the snake again.  My dad tried to kill it but it slipped away too quickly. 

Then, last week it returned.  Again. That damn snake will not leave my little yard alone! Carter was excited to see it and wanted help moving the rocks to find it. I told him he was on his own, grabbed Lucy and jumped on our deck's bench to watch from above. 

He bravely moved each rock (well, huge stone!) until he found it hiding. (Sorry for the crappy pictures with my shadow.  I was shaking nervously, yelling at the snake, cheering Carter on and trying to document this moment all at once). 

 Then it slithered away again (see how enormous it is!!!)

 My brave 3 year old got to work using his little shovel.  He whacked it over and over as it slithered throughout the yard. I was actually quite impressed with how precise he was with his hits.

 And finally, after a minute or so it was done. The snake was dead. I was so proud of my little boy but then quickly realized that I had totally just taught him how to kill a living thing. Oops. We had a quick talk about the circle of life, moved the snake to the garbage can, washed our hands and ate some lunch.

 And the whole time Lucy just stood in amazement!  It was quite the morning.

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summer days

Just a few pictures from our lazy summer days the past few weeks.  Okay, not so lazy because it's actually been jammed packed with holidays, birthdays, a bachelor party/wedding, play dates, doctor and dentist appointments and the usual house cleaning/organizing/lawn mowing/weeding/grocery shopping days.  But, we've still squeezed in some time for fun!

 Our rental house came with this super old metal swing set that will probably not survive the summer. But, the kids love it and it makes for a perfect water slide!

 Our little risk-taker.  Always climbing up on things and now learning to walk down the slide.  I think she's learned a thing or two from her older brother.

 Much more into cars than Carter ever was!  She happily played with them for 20 minutes one morning.

And still 2 more months of summer fun to come!

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Happy Birthday America!

We were so excited that 4th of July fell on a Thursday this year so we could take Friday off and have a 4 day weekend!  The weather was perfect, kids were happy and the beach house was the perfect getaway. The night before we started off the weekend in true American fashion....getting ice cream from the the neighborhood ice cream truck!  (except now it's a creepy mini-van bumpin' hip hop music from its speakers, but still somehow All-American). Carter chose a sugar-laden snow cone that was clearly 4 years old and frozen solid. Not much luck eating that.

 Lucy was festive and chose a firecracker popsicle. She only ate about a 1/3 of it and we realized it probably wasn't worth the $4 for a "special treat."

 We headed off to Camano Island early Thursday morning.  I didn't get the kids any special 4th of July clothes so I threw a red barrette in Lucy's hair and put Carter in a red/blue plaid shirt and called it good. Carter was excited but Lucy didn't really feel like sharing the chair for a memorable photo-op.

 We spent most of the weekend on the deck watching people walk by, looking at the water, eating lunch and just relaxing.  It was wonderful!

 We headed down to the beach each day too. It's so nice to just walk down the hill to the water and let the kids get dirty playing in the sand.

 Of course we had to have a sword fight with driftwood sticks.  And of course Carter (aka Peter Pan) won. again.

 Later that day we pulled out the croquet set Grandma bought for Carter.

 He got the hang of it pretty quick!

 My favorite thing about going to the beach is just sitting and doing nothing when the kids nap.  Usually I'm at home running around like crazy trying to clean, prep meals, fold laundry and shove a snack in my mouth but at the beach I just sit, read random magazines and eat yummy food.  Like this amazing fruit we bought at a local fruit stand.  Sitting on the deck, staring at the water, slowly eating my food and just enjoying the peace and quiet.  Perfection!

 And there were times we napped too.  :)

 The kids ate all their lunches outside too!

 And our final morning on the beach.  The tide was out so we had plenty of room to run and explore.  Lucy even decided to just walk right in the water with all her clothes on! She was having so much fun until it was time to go.  Then it was a scream fest because she was cold, dirty, wet and had a poopy diaper and of course the only towel I brought down with me had somehow become soaked and was useless. That was a fun walk home!

 Matt and Carter spent over 30 minutes exploring the beach.

 And....her 1st pony tail! She is FINALLY letting me do something with her hair.  And looks pretty stinkin' cute.

 It was so hot that day even the local playground was too hot to play on so we headed into Stanwood for an ice cream treat. The kids were so happy to see sprinkles on their cones.

Such a fun, memorable, wonderful 4th of July!

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