June Jewels

I stole this idea from someone else's blog but the sentiment is all mine. I think it's a fun way to keep track of the small joys in our family and to also give a little more meaningful look into our everyday life.

So without further ado, my favorite moments of June...

PORTER

• You were so excited when you discovered a bunny on our back porch (wild, no we did not get a pet) that you were speechless, and just very quietly giggled with a nervous grin on your face.
• I also love that you were so careful not to scare said bunny even though we were inside and it was outside. You tip-toed back and forth from the kitchen to the living room and whispered for a good hour. (How is it that you can be quiet and thgouhtful for a nameless wild creature but peace during your little sister's nap time cannot be found?)
• And your chosen name for our two-day visitor? Hoppity.
• Your squeals while blowing and stomping on bubbles.
• That you are too timid to sit on the kitchen counter, pedal your big wheel, play in the creek or even run through sprinklers, but are perfectly comfortable introducing yourself to strangers everywhere we go.

NORA

• Your squeals and grins every time I turn on the bathtub.
• That you'll talk to yourself in your crib for hours (ok, a good 30 minutes) in the morning before you ever cry out for us to come get you.
• That you may be the only baby on earth who loves baby food green peas and yet, you will not touch rice cereal.

ANDY

• That you built a patio for me out of rock you gathered from the mountains with your own two hands.
• That you knew exactly what parts of "Up" made me cry before you even looked over at me with your half-smirk, half-smile.
• That you agreed to a chaotic Fourth of July party at the Burt home on the tails of what has been a VERY busy month simply because you know I can't let a holiday go by un-celebrated.

ME

• That I pick the hottest day of the summer thus far to bake homemade pizzas and sugar cookies in the same evening.
• That I have not yet killed a single plant in my garden.
• That I thought I LOVED basil, added ten basil plants to my garden, and now find myself googling "recipes with basil" every-other day to use it all.

Down time with the Burts

So as our first summer in 3 years that does not include new house painting and a move, we've been surprised at how much fun summer with the kids can be. Though we've not done much in the way of big adventures as of late, we're enjoying the backyard, walks around the block and evenings with at least a little bit of down time. A few snapshots of any given night at home with the Burts.

Porter loves his hair best after he's just gotten out of bed and it's still fuzzy, and will spend the morning "making it fluffy" and talking to me while I get ready for work.

Nora loves to take baths more than any baby I've ever known. As soon as we walk in the bathroom she starts to squeal and kick, and she's happy as a clam until I pull her out of the water. She calms down once I start to goop on the lotion, loves to roll around wrapped up in her towel, and gets mad when we reach for the diaper and PJs.

Between homework and coaching, Andy's summer hasn't been quite as relaxing, but he's been a trooper, and on top of mowing the yard faithfully (and humoring my environmental whim with the push mower), he's proven himself quite the handyman. In the past two months, he has constructed a flagstone patio, built a workbench for my garden, built two decorative wood benches for our backyard, installed a custom drip system to my garden boxes, cleaned out the garage, and helped our neighbors build custom shelving in their garage (he did ours last summer). Eeek...guess I should ease off on the DIY to-do list for a while.

Best summer in three years. (Knock on wood.)

Finally, a Smile

Though Nora has been smiling for a while now, she's been a coy little gal when it comes to capturing her toothless grin on film.

Until now.