Summer Is Best Spent...

finding creative ways to eat our snacks....playing with Barrel of Monkey's (and finding them everywhere!)....coloring and coloring some more....swimming at OSP....finishing the Summer Reading Program at the library....designing our on boxes and finding multiple uses for them....swimming in a friend's pool....water painting....eating delicious foods....blowing bubbles....

and much much more!!  

I hope you're enjoying your summer as much as we are!!

Thankful

Today the kids and I said a prayer thanking our Heavenly Father that my Dad is still on this earth with us.  It's been one year since he had his brain tumor removed and he's recovered wonderfully.   

My Dad is a blessing to us (most of the time...) and I can't imagine not having him around.  Hannah and Samuel sure do love their Papa...

Mary & Carroll

Have I mentioned that I hate summer?  (I hate the oppressive heat that seems to stretch on forever with no end in sight.)    But summer has one thing going for it... we stay busy.  Swimming, parties, grill-outs, traveling, gardening + many other activites help the summer fly by. 

And with traveling comes family.  We generally visit Bobby's maternal family about once a year.   Most of his Mom's family lives in Indiana so we normally go there.  Rarely do we visit his Dad's family.  Before Bobby & I married, we drove to Houston, TX to visit his Uncle Thom (Bob's brother).  And in 2009 we stopped in Maryland to visit Bobby's Grandmother, his Aunt Nota and his Aunt Janet (Bob's mother and two of his four sisters.)  

So it was a pleasant (and most welcome) surprise when Bobby's Aunt Mary called a few weeks ago and informed us that she & her husband were planning to come visit us.  Bobby and I have been married for 9 years and dated 4 years before that.  In all the time we've been together Mary and Carroll haven't been here for a visit and Bob certainly hasn't gone to visit her.  I can't imagine not seeing my sister for 10+ years!   Needless to say, I was very excited to meet another member of Bob's family.

 (listening to Bob talk...)

They arrived late Sunday morning.  We sat and talked for about an hour before anyone remembered that we all needed to eat some lunch.  We planned to treat them to lunch at the Steak House but they wouldn't hear of it.  They insisted on taking us to lunch (at the Steak House!)  After lunch we ran by Ingles b/c I needed to pick up my newspapers and we thought it would be fun to surprise Bob with an early visit from Mary.  It was so sweet to watch him walk through the doors of the dairy department and hug Mary.  I felt like crying.

We spent the afternoon looking through our photo albums and catching up.  Bob, Tommy and Emily (our neighbor) came over and we enjoyed a delicious supper with plenty of loud conversation.  We spent the remainder of the evening on our (newly cleaned) porch, drinking coffee, and continuing an endless stream of talk.  It was so relaxing and fun. At one point in the afternoon, Sam begged Carroll to come outside and watch him jump on the trampoline.  As they were walking back to the house, I noticed Carroll & Sammy holding hands.  Oh how I wish I had taking a picture of that!!  So sweet.

 Mary & Carroll spent the night at Emily's since we lack a guest room.  It worked out well since Mary & Emily are close to the same age and have similar interests.  I'm so glad they opted to stay next door instead of a hotel.   

I loved every minute that Mary & Carroll were here and I was so sad to see them go.  But we are planning on going to visit them for Thanksgiving.  Hannah is ready.

Love Letters

Hannah and I have spent the afternoon reading through a 3 ring binder full of love letters Bobby wrote to me while we were dating.  The earliest letter was dated April 1997.

 ...There were...
letters hastily written while he was waiting for one of his classes (at Clemson) to start.
letters written late at night in sloppy handwriting.
letters full of plans for our future.  Bobby was going to be a doctor you know.
letters full of apologizes for being a jerk (I may have to frame some of those!)
letters professing undying love and hope for our future.  Those are my favorites.

Most of our "plans" didn't pan out.  A few did - mainly the ones that involved marriage and children.  But those were the best and most important plans weren't they?

Twelve years later our love notes consist of:

Dear Bobby,

We're at Mama & Daddy's.  Call me when you get home.

Love,

H

____ 

 OR__

Heather,

I'm running.  I'll be back in an hour.

Bobby

Really romantic.  


So, here's a sappy little love note for my darling husband...

Dear Bobaroo,

I love you!

Even after 9 years of marriage I still get excited when you pull into the driveway after a hard day's work.  Our sweet babies get excited too.  They either rush out onto the porch to greet you or they quickly find places to hide for a little game of Hide 'N Seek.  You know they can't stay quite to save their lives so it only takes seconds to find them.

Even after 9 years of marriage I still think you're the most handsome man in the world.  And I have to say that the beard makes you look wise.  I wasn't sure about it when you started growing it but now I can't quite remember your face without it.  I love when you look at me with your gorgeous blue eyes and then smile at me.  

I'm thankful that we made it through those early years of "dating" and getting to know one another.   I was so young when we became a couple.  But here we are!  Married and with two beautiful babies.  We're crammed into our tiny house but you said it best when you said it was "cozy".  You're right - just like you normally are.  There's no where else I want to be than in our cozy little nest with you, Hannah, and Samuel.  We've both grown up a lot in the last decade though sometimes I'm not sure when that happened!

I love you.  I love everything about you.  I even love all of the little quirky things you do that drive me crazy. 

By the way, Hannah said to tell you that she loves you too and she thinks you're "actually" handsome!

Today, Tomorrow and Forever,

Heather

Farming Fun

To start, here are some cute pictures of Hannah & Samuel that I took last week...

 

Thursday our friends Lily & Stephanie came up and spent the day with us.  Hannah & Sam had so much fun playing with Lily (who is actually Sam's age).  And she had a lot of fun too, she cried and didn't want to leave when it was time to go.

This past weekend the Steele's went on a little vacation, so they asked us to take care of their chickens & goats while they were away.  We packed our bags and stayed at their house (so we wouldn't be running up & down the mountain), which the kids seriously enjoyed.  

Hannah & Sam loved sleeping on the bunk beds (we'll be needing a set of those soon Josh!) and playing with some different toys.  Plus they couldn't wait to feed all the animals in the evening...

 

(Hannah finally figured out how to do the rope swing!!)