What we've been up to?

It's summertime and I LOVE IT!!!!! I enjoy everything about summer, the warm weather, longer days, the beautiful flowers, birds, butterflies and hummingbirds. Watching the kids play outside until dark, taking long walks on the golf course, bike riding around the neighborhood, incredible hiking, sitting on my front porch in my jammies drinking coffee and not freezing to death. Oh and how could I forget summer desserts....I just love them. All the yummy fruit just makes for delicious sweet treats. I wish it would never end...... Here is what we've been up to this summer. Nothing spectacular just having fun.

Mike and I before rare date night.

My sweet Emily looking so cute that I just had to snap a shot.

And my adorable blondy looking just as cute, I just love it that my girls still like to dress alike

The girlies

Some watermelon cookies that we made...so easy and pretty cute as well.

Ok, this is just down right sinful.....blueberry cheesecake with a blueberry sauce. What a great way to use all of our yummy blueberries and to make myself feel better I know I got my antioxidants for the day. I also made Paula Deen's Double Chocolate Gooey Butter Cake and oh my goodness....more sin in my life.

To work off all those sweets we have been gardening up a storm. The previous owners of our house had landscaped using some nice plants but they had gotten overgrown and frankly were colorless. Given that for most of the year we have absolutely no color in our yard I was bound and determined to fill my yard with of color, even if it only bloomed for a couple of days. Here are some shots of the fruits of our labor.....

My front porch coffee spot

We dug up this entire bed and replanted some beautiful perennials

After months of waiting the kiddos FINALLY got their playground.....and are enjoying it to the fullest.

And last but certainly not least was the NEW rooms. The girls decided to re-locate to our guest room giving their old room to our "brown-eyed boy". The whole process took me a week but it is finally done. I painted the girls new room and finally hung all their accessories. They absolutely love their new space. Brown-eyed boy's room is almost complete and once it is I will post pics on his blog. Here are a few shots of the girls room.....

Well that is about it for our summer so far. We have a family reunion in GA and a trip planned to FL upcoming and will squeeze out as much fun as we can before I start my new job in August. Hope you all are having a blissfully happy summer too!

Happy 4th of July

The 4th of July is one of my favorite holidays. Don't really know why, I just love celebrating in a patriotic way. The whole day is full of faith, family and being reminded that the USA is the greatest place to live in the world.

This year we were kind of low key and I have to admit I missed being with family on this special day. I did make some yummy food and abandoned the healthy eating for a meal and savored the bbq pork ribs, Pioneer Woman's Brisket, Potato Casserole, Baked Beans and Dressed-up Coleslaw and to top it all off Pioneer Woman's Peach Crisp with Ice Cream for dessert. We caught some of the fireworks sitting on our patio and then when it started raining we took a drive to a spot where we we able to see the later half of the show from our car. All in all it was a great day!