Kate's First Year

Our baby girl is ONE today!! We have enjoyed a year of watching her grow bigger and develop her sweet personality. At one year Kate is very curious (but quiet! and persistent!) and gets into just about anything she can find. She wants to walk everywhere and when she falls down almost immediately gets back up to keep going. She is a climber... she has figured out how to climb onto the couch by herself - I'm sure we're at the start of many bumps and bruises! Kate loves her brother. She loves to play with him and we know whenever she is fussy Graham is the one who can make her laugh! Her laugh is a big belly laugh and goes along with her big open smile and sparkling eyes! She loves to give hugs and kisses - a little cuddlebug :o) God has truly blessed us with the privilege to be Kate's parents and we look forward to every day we are given with her! We love you, sweet girl!!

Newborn Baby Kate (May 19, 2009)
One Month (June)
Two Months (July)
Three Months (August)
Four Months (September)
Five Months (October)
Six Months (November)
Seven Months (December)
Eight Months (January)
Nine Months (February)

Ten Months (March)
Eleven Months (April)
One Year Picture to come soon!! ...after naptime :o)

More Shade

It's getting there!! Two college guys, David and Erwin, came over on Nat's day off and helped him outside all day. I am so thankful for all of their hard work.

This is what it looks like now!
A little more wood and digging (and putting down pavers) and it will be finished! It was amazing to be able to go outside at 10:30 and read without immediately rushing back into the AC. A blessing indeed :o)

Mission: Shade!

My hubby is a handyman and I love it. We are thankful to have a great backyard, however, it faces south and we have no trees (except for the ones that we planted but we are still taller and thicker than they are!). Thus, we have no shade to speak of in our backyard! Ever since we bought the house we have talked about building a pergola but we have put it off for one reason or another. But when temperatures started reaching the 90s in April, we decided that now would be a better time to build instead of realizing in June that we wished we had built one before the summer heat really kicked in! We're considering it our gifts for mother's day and father's day... and the reason we're eating rice, beans and pasta every day for the rest of the summer (think: seminary diet!)!

I know that pergola pictures aren't as cute as the kiddos, but it's been fun to work on together (really, Nat's been the one working so hard!!!) so I'm posting more than all of the steps (ha!)!

Our back patio area before anything has been done to it at all (ignore the clutter)!

Planning it all out

Another "before" shot

Getting the posts in

Our little helpers!

Two posts in and cemented!!

We dug until late at night... we're planning on extending our patio with stone pavers about a foot and a half on each side and then extending it all the way out to the fireplace (see before pictures) so we need to dig about 2 inches out. I have not been this sore since high school soccer tryouts - yikes!

Posts #3 and 4...

A new friend said hello at breakfast!

Starting the frame

Cutting some nice curved edges to make the ends a little more decorative.

Strong! ...husband AND frame :o)

What it looks like right now... hopefully we'll have more up after Nat's day off on Monday. Hooray for shade!!!

Happy Birthday Nat!!!

Nat's (1st) 29th birthday was last week! I am so thankful to have him for my husband and Graham and Kate have the most wonderful daddy... We have many many reasons to celebrate his life!!!

We were excited to have some friends come over to watch Graham and Kate for the evening so that we could go to an Astros baseball game (they lost terribly, but it was fun to get out and we enjoyed the company of some new friends, the Brummers!)... I forgot the camera, so no pictures. Since we were going out that night we wanted to be sure that Graham and Kate could also celebrate Nat's birthday so Graham helped bake a yummy coconut cake and we brought it (along with lunch) to the church!

I love you so much, Nat!!! Happy Birthday!!!

Snapshots

Just for fun :o)

3 Years of Growing

Newborn Graham

6 months

1 year (with cousin Joel)

18 months

2 years

2 1/2

3 years old!