Meantime

Our meantime.

A girls only breakfast for my precious newly engaged little cousin all grown up.

(She's a cherry on top of life kind of perfectly in love. And I get to do the engagement pictures.)

A freshest newborn photo shoot.

(Preview to come soon.)

Cleanin' the car "for the first time in five years" as my husband claims.

(No pictures of this because I'm workin' so hard.)

And walkin' still on summer sunshine.

(With my little monkey child.)

But, of course the sweetest pure sugar meantime sweetness...

(And nobody's gonna argue with this momma.)

So, I promise. I'll make it worth the wait for a full blown post. (Promise.)

Blink

It's true.

We must have.

Just one time, so quick, we must've just blinked.

And now school supplies line the shelves.

Actually, they're probably on clearance.

And the cardigans and knee high socks and tweed are all the rage.

Even though it's still 100 degrees outside.

So to bid farewell to a sense of summer,

We had to spend just a little more time outside.

With the cousin.

With the afternoon sun.

With the playset.

And with this momma who just couldn't get enough lovin'.

Beautiful

This is what having children will do to you.

It's nine in the am.

Bubbles have already been blown.

Laps have already been run.

The tiniest little man is already back in bed.

I'm blogging.

And it's beautiful.

Golfin'

We beat the heat this mornin'.

Packed up the little ones and headed to the range.

It was a little more complicated than we imagined...

But well, well worth it.

And hopin' to share new photography soon!

Soaking

It's been my aim to soak up this summer in every way possible.

There's so much about life with a toddler and snuggly babe that becomes a daily reminder of the beauty of firsts.

So posting today about the past weekend where almost every moment was spent with family.

First at a wedding where Ellie was her daddy's date for the evening as this momma stayed home with the slumbering little boy.

So my dear hubby man came home with not only plenty of pictures to prove but stories to tell about Ellie's sweet dance moves (probably due to our daily dance breaks, often jammin' to the Bieber boy) and the unintentional matching dresses (precious).

And then along with the first heat wave of the summer, we spent the remainder of Sunday at the pool with Ellie's "Nah-mah" and "Nam-pah". She's an original with those labels, I believe. This little girl is losing her timid with the water and actually jumped this time! Milestone.

Yes, it's the sloppy sunscreen, yellow lemonade, peanut butter jelly sandwich, drippy popsicle, salty sweat, late evening summertime around here. And we're just soaking it up.

Again, I set up a photography link on the side for anyone interested. I'm excited about two upcoming opportunities...a little one turning four and a family taking the first family pictures since the two boys, now eight and nine, were one and two. My creative mind has been cooking nonstop. It's ridiculous. But so fun.

So, click here.

Five

Just wrapped up a four day weekend together...

Making up for a too long business trip gave me the chance to soak up time with not only my sweets, but this handsome fella'.

Thursday will be five years as his Mrs. And almost eight of being in love with him.

And who wouldn't be in love with the man who keeps a close check on a sometimes forgetful momma to slather snow white skin with SPF.

This man, who has not only given me my little family...

But has given me a life more beautiful than I ever dreamed.

We've shared the quiet times.

We've shared the chaos of the everyday.

And some days we've handled it all better than others.

Not gonna lie, we are a very passionate couple.

Our highs are heavenly.

Our lows...

They can be bad.

But for the chance to walk hand in hand in him for the rest of my life?

The tears, the devastations, our dramas...they're worth it.

He makes our moments classic.

In fact, the fact that he shared the total most embarrassing moment of my life is classic. You see, it really wasn't more than a month or two that we had been together. New enough that I was still trying desperately to maintain a cool image. So, we had signed up for a ballroom dance class. This in and of itself is laughs enough. And, me, loving my freshman year of college, had loved the dorm food, the fourth meal, the late night snacks a little much...yup. But, I didn't want to give up the high school jeans. Living in denial. There's nothin' like it. So after several practices, it was "test" time. Performing a routine in front of the class. And as my boyfriend lifted me in the air for an oh-so-graceful leg lift...well, those too tight jeans had had enough. They gave up. Splitting all the way up from my knee on the inner seam. Yup. Shrieking, I waddled out pulling my utterly stunned and confused dance partner out the door to drive me home crying at him the whole way not to peek. I think the diet started that night.

Yes, he's a good sport.

I really couldn't ask for more.

Poolside

To get to this point yesterday was a process.

My dear eldest has been and is proving always to be a little more on the reserved side of life.

And that's okay.

We dressed her the part.

We equipped her.

We tested the waters.

We enlisted some help.

Finally, success.

So on to the big pool.

More reassuring.

Lots of distracting.

But time with daddy proves to be the most convincing.

So what will this guy be like?

Only time will tell...

But we've got a good guess it's gonna be how it's already been.

A good time.

Don't forget...drawing for this giveaway happens Sunday.

Summer

It's here.

The watermelon and grilled burgers.



The swimsuit.



The late nights.

And we're lovin' it.