Have you ever tried...

making a cat go through a cat door to try it on for size? Buddy was quite adament about not trying it out, and Aaron finally got him to go through once and then he decided to attack the door. Needless to say, we went back and got the larger cat door because if Buddy was hesitant to go through it, then there was no way that our older cat Missy would even try it!

Summer...Watermelon...and Sandboxes!

Morgan has been asking for a watermelon since the 4th of July...so we finally found her a little football size one at the grocery store. Morgan was thrilled that it was just her size!

mmmm....so good!

I love summer (despite the heat)! I love that it stays light out until 9:00pm and that Morgan absolutely loves being outside. I love to watch her and Buddy chase lightening bugs in the evenings. I love watching her build sandcastles in her sandbox. She's amazing!

Thought for the day....

I've got quite a few things running through my mind this morning, like everyone else -a never ending list of things to do, the amount of unfinished projects around the house that need to be finished soon, the mound of photograpy work that I need to process, how to guide and love Morgan through the 4 year old stage she's in right now, the nagging thought and fear that Aaron is deploying again way too soon...and I ran across this verse in Psalms and it's exactly what I need right now. Here it is "Those who know your name will trust in you, for you, Lord have never forsaken those who seek you." Psalm 9:10 It's wonderful to know that I'm not forsaken or forgot about in God's eyes, and that he's always here, and he knows what I need right now. I just need to remember to constantly pray for wisdom and focus.

It's been a little hot around here...

Yep, it's amazing how much we take for granted until it's gone or not working properly! Like Air Conditioning!!! Ours went out this morning...so it's made for a really long, hot day around here in the house. Aaron and I just kept watching the temperature rise! The wonderful thing is, is that my wonderful husband kept being persistent and finally found a couple of diconnected plugs within the AC unit - reconnected them and flipped the breaker and ta-da it works again. We still might have someone come out and look at it on Monday, just to make sure it's ok.

Just for Fun!

Can you tell we're related?!

Sisters

It's amazing really...my mom has always called us her sun, moon, and stars because even though we're sisters, we're completely different. Obviously I'm the oldest by quite a few years. I was almost 8 when Sarah was born and 20 when Carissa arrived. I think I probably have most of the characteristics of the oldest child. Responsible, Protective, Opinionated, and for the most part easy going! I call my middle sister, Sarah, the dark beauty of the family (I still think she was secretly adopted or there was a milkman or postman involved somewhere!-my mom will disagree!) She's 21 and is an amazing person. She's incredibly artistic and talented and has no limit on what she can do. Besides being an absolutely beautiful person on the outside (which by the way Sarah whether you believe or not, a lot of women would give pretty much anything to have your physique!- including myself.) she's beautiful on the inside as well. A lot of times she thinks I'm the crazy one in the family, but I can usually get her to finally smile when we're together. I really miss you girl! And then there's Carissa (aka Kissy-bug) who was indeed a great big suprise. I tease Mom all the time that she missed me so much that she just had to try to replace me while I was at college! She is by far the most intense of the 3 of us, and the most wild one. She definitely walks to a beat all her own, but she is an incredibly loving and an affecionate child. She laughs and smiles very easily. I love her bunches. Sometimes it's not until you get older that you realize how important siblings are. We share a whole lifetime of history together-the good and the bad, and even though we haven't always been close due to our distinct differences in personalities, I am so thankful for them, and that we're becoming much closer as we grow older. I love you two so much and I miss you.

An Amazing Weekend and a Happy Birthday

This past weekend was great. We were able to get so much done. I think that we have finally found a church home. We're all looking forward to going again this next Sunday. We have visited quite a few churches and have truly enjoyed them, but didn't quite feel it was home. Until now!













So that is a huge anwer to prayer! We celebrated Aaron's 32nd birthday on Sunday. Morgan was ecstatic that it was her Daddy's birthday. For those of you who don't know - she adores birthday's -anyone's birthday is just great! It was so nice to be able to celebrate Aaron's birthday together. I'm so glad that you were born Babe. I can't wait to spend the next 32 + years with you. We also bought Morgan a swing set over the weekend. It's one of those that has a ton of lumber and an instruction manual and the rest is up to you! I had to smile at my father-in-law's comment to Aaron regarding the swing set, Welcome to adulthood- you know you've reached it when you spend your birthday putting something together for your child! How true! Needless to say it's going to take a couple more + days to complete the swingset. Our garage looks like a redwood lumber yard. I'll be posting before and after pictures when it's finally completed. Aaron returned to work on Monday (he took 2 weeks of leave which was great!) and Morgan Kellye is having a melt down every morning because Daddy's not here when she wakes up. (Heaven help us when Aaron deploys again in 4 weeks) She is such a Daddy's girl-she's his little shadow and I love them dearly.

Retail Therapy...

You know the saying "Shop till you drop!"? Well the thing is I love to shop and very, very seldom do I ever drop! I was able to go out this afternoon with Amy and her daughter and we had a good time browsing quite a few stores. Our main goal was the sales racks at the Gap store in Village point where I found the incredible red shirt above in the picture. Then after we finished there we stopped in at Whole Foods and found some stuff to eat along with a great cup of coffee and as always they have their recycled grocery bags for purchase. I love their new design for their bags for the summer (pictured above). Thought it was really cute! Then of course since we were on that side of town it would have been a sin not to stop in at the Pottery Barn stores! Sooo...off we went. Ok, well as most people know, if I had the means I would furnish my entire house out of Pottery Barn and Pottery Barn kids-it's one of my most favorite stores! But since furnishing my entire house out of Pottery Barn is not an option, I enjoy browsing the store for ideas and looking through their seasonal clearance. My splurge for the evening though was the cute little flowered piggy bank above. I've had my eye on it for quite a while, but of course it wasn't on sale like all of the other piggy banks....no000, and it had the be the last one they had in stock. And Amy said that Iwanted the pig therefore I needed the pig and I should buy it...so I caved and the pig came home with me!!! I considered putting it in Morgan's room, but on 2nd thought it'll probably end up on my desk in my office! mmm...I think I'll start a shopping fund!!!!! It's definitely the little things in life that make us smile...oh and by the way the pig wasn't that expensive, I would just rather find things on sale than pay full price- who wouldn't!? Happy Birthday, Amy! Thanks for going shopping with me today!

Oh, Happy Day!

Everyone woke up happy and in an extremely good mood today. We've laughed today, joked with each other, and had a lot of fun just being with each other. I would definitely call this a happy day!

Attack Cat!!!

Ok, so this is what our almost grown kitten, Buddy decided to do this afternoon...attack whoever walked up the kitchen stairs! We all laughed and laughed at his antics. Of course Aaron was his favorite prey!

Just for fun...

Ok, so I had a little creative moment tonight....My good friend Kim recently went to Mexico City, and she graciously gave me a copy of her pictures to browse through. They are all incredible and she has an amazing perspective when it comes to photography, especially travel photography...she could be one of those photographers for national geographic, or for a travel agency!!! But for some reason this black and white caught my eye. I love that it's just a portion of a gate with a stairway on the other side. Kim and I both have this thing for doors and gates. So other than increasing the contrast on the black and white picture-it's all Kim's work! But after playing with some other color options I love the comtemporary-graphic artwork that came out of it! For anyone who truly knows me, they know that I love color! Now I wonder how this one would print up on canvas to put in our playroom in the basement. mmmm....don't worry Kim, I still plan to have it done in black and white for my office. ok, my creative playing is over for the night, back to work editing more picures!

Fireworks around here...

Well I hope all of you had a really good 4th of July this past weekend. Our neighbors always have a huge bar-b-que and fireworks each year, and we had a wonderful time with them, their family and some of our close friends. It's been wonderful to have Aaron home again. We're trying to get some home improvement projects started around here...so we're off to the flooring place this afternoon to see what we can find for our dining room and living room. Life is still good!