A "Low Country Boil" kinda Labor Day

Labor Day is an American federal holiday observed on the first Monday in September that celebrates the economic and social contributions of workers (thank you wikipedia).  So in honor of Labor Day my Tuesday morning group (http://lisaulrich.blogspot.com/2011/10/loving-little-years.htmlgot) got our families together for a "Low Country Boil".  What is a low country boil you ask? It's ALOT of good food and fun!  My friend Christi and her husband have a gift of throwing fun parties and making everyone involved feel quite loved and special.  We filled up on corn, shrimp, sausage and potatoes eaten right off the table!  And of course a plethora of desserts to follow.  It was a beautiful hot day in Spokane today - made for a perfect outdoor lunch!  Now we are home anxiously awaiting the arrival of Brian who was gone all weekend on his annual Labor day hiking trip...that post to follow

Here's just one site with a low country boil recipe if your interested

http://www.coastalliving.com/food/entertaining/lowcountry-boil-00400000001984/

Swim Lessons - check!

Josiah and his sweet friend Caleb did swim lessons together and they couldn't have had more fun together! They were all stars in the water and definitely didn't want to be done come that last day.  (Calebs sweet mommy has a few more pictures of the boys here on her blog http://bensarahg.blogspot.com/2012/08/swimming-lessons.html)  

Josiah kept telling everyone that would listen he could swim, the fact is he still can not swim, but he's much more confident in the water and we look forward to more lessons next year! It's hard to believe our nights are already getting a bit chilly and soon we will have to shut our house windows and hunker down for winter! Until then we are going to be outside as much as we possibly can soaking up what's left of these warm end of summer days...

Baby Belly

There's the belly carrying our baby girl.  How blessed we are to have her healthy and growing.  Just about 5 more weeks of carrying her like this, I always wonder if it's possible to get any bigger and the answer always seems to be "Yes, yes it is very possible and will definitely happen".  So here's to 5 more weeks of watching her grow via my belly!  Hopefully these next five weeks will be productive as we do a few last minute house projects (painting house and garage, staining deck, installing new glass slider door in sun room - phew!) and prepare for a newborn to change our lives for the better once again!

Fairy Children

Josiah went to a day camp all last week entitled Neverland Adventures Camp.  They learned all about the tales of Peter Pan and made crafts that went along with the story each day.  All I could really get out of him was that they read stories, had a snack and made crafts, mostly did "rolling painting"...  But it was obvious every day he had a great time and begged to go back daily.  This week we started swim lessons so that was a good distraction from the fact that camp is over. Anyhow, the last day Josiah came home wearing Fairy Wings (a little funny (Brian didn't really approve) but there are boy fairies it's true!?) :)  Gracie fit right in with her little fairy outfit from Yiayia!  To make Josiah's outfit a little more manly he did do sword fighting with his wands :)

 Then there are the days Gracie is wearing some other dress up outfit. This particular day she was Tinkerbell and I think she's the cutest Tinkerbell I'v ever seen.

More Camping

Best Campsite ever!!!

sweet Grace and Chase

Breakfast crew

view from our site

home sweet home

spent our days on the boat

did some knee boarding

got good enough to do 360 turns on the knee board

loved it

swam alot

with some persuasion got Josiah in the tube with Ty and Chase :)

loved it

wake boarded

made some sweet memories

Party at the Campground

This past weekend we went to Albeni Cove campground in Idaho. It was one of our most memorable and favorite camping trips. (maybe because our dear friends the Soehner's brought their boat for the weekend)!! Plus we got to have a birthday party to celebrate Gracie turning 2! She was a little afraid of the candle on her cupcake...

But she clearly loved her cupcake

And got a few gifts too

She had lots of help opening her gifts in the dirt too

Today She's Two

A Two Year Old

Author: unknown

A two year old is so many things.
A tiny discoverer of butterfly wings.
A hugger of teddies, a sweet sleepy head.
And someone to dream for in bright years ahead.
A special new person who right from the start,
has a place in the family and a coarse in your heart.
And just when you think you've learned all the things,
that your dear daughter is, and the joy that she brings,
a hug or a grin comes with such a sweet surprise,
that love finds you smiling with tears in your eyes.

Thank you for this sweet picture Aunti Kelli! Happy 2nd Birthday to our little Gracie Girl!