Gardening with Daddy

At the beginning of the summer I had grand plans to be an active participant in Chris' gardening efforts. I even planted my own herb garden!

Then it got hot. Like, crazy hot. And I got bronchitis (ain't nobody got time for that!). And I got 7 (then 8) months pregnant.

So the state of our garden is... less than ideal...

But we had grand plans! Here we are one Saturday morning at a local nursery getting our goods:

Bradley and Daddy with their wagons!

Bradley got wise on our next visit and opted to ride it out.

Hopefully cooler weather will get us back outside to harvest some goodies!

Bradley's 2nd Backyard Birthday Bash

Bradley's 2nd Birthday was themed all around one of his favorite things:

Fish!

Lots and lots of fish!

My cool dude, 2-year old:

Then some birthday magic- the three toddler cousins all smiling at the same time!!

AND an all-smiling family photo!

Some after-cake excitement:

Happy Birthday, Bradley!

You are joy in our lives and we love you SO much!

Family Camp!

Each summer our church travels to the Texas Hill Country for a big family-camp retreat. I've been on this retreat as a teenager, but this was Bradley and Chris' first year. (And my first year to go with my own little family and not stay in the River Dorms!)

It. Was. Amazing. And will definitely be a part of our family tradition for years to come! Here are some photo highlights. 

My little astronaut after an early morning wake-up:

It's easy to pick out the Hill's shoes at the pool!

Bradley LOVED swimming in the pool multiple times a day!

Walking to the pool:

And ready to dive in again!

Loving it!

Later we walked (ok, I waddled) down to the river for some family canoeing.

Bradley loved it!

A classic watermelon shoot:

Worth the efforts:

Absolutely:

And a family shot (my new favorite!) down by the riverside:

Before walking (and waddling) back up for bedtime:

It was truly a magical weekend... we can't wait for next year!!

4th of July Fun

I love our little neighborhood city for lots of different reasons... but 4th of July has got to be in the top five!


First on the day's agenda, a classic 4th of July parade!

Best we could get for the parade photo:

Walking to an outdoor parade at 6 months pregnant is not ideal, but we enjoyed meeting up with friends afterwards for coffee and doughnuts!

Later Bradley hosted some friends in the backyard:

Joey was kind enough to mow our patio:

While Charlie picked the grapes from our arbor so I could make grape jam:

And all of the boys enjoyed hunting for goldfish in our fountain:

A classic Houston downpour drove us inside where we tried to get a group photo. That wasn't very successful, but I did zoom in to get some of the kiddos smiling!

Happy Birthday America!

Bradley's 2nd Birthday

Bradley's second birthday started with French Toast made by daddy:

And ended with a cookie with his BFF, Joey:

The next day, was his Backyard Birthday Bash... which is coming up in another post!

VBS Snacks

In June our church hosted our annual Vacation Bible School. It was great!

I signed up to lead the snacks for the preschoolers. And although I had the best volunteers EVER... they weren't too excited to wear the pith helmets I bought. (Can't imagine why?!

Thankfully, Bradley was more than happy to oblige.

This kid. He just keeps getting cuter!

Backyard Fun

Bradley LOVES his water table:

And he loves to help Daddy put up the umbrella:

Even when it's not really needed...

Bradley also enjoys watering the lawn:

But he REALLY loves that water table!!

These were all taken at the beginning of the summer... we hibernated the second half. Too hot!!