clover jewelry

there are just some things that must be passed down to the next generation of little girls (and boys).  clover jewelry making being one them.
there is something really magical about watching my daughters faces light up with joy when I place a necklace made of flowers over their heads.  and then adding a bracelet, ring, and hair wreath...they could hardly contain their excitement.
I love the way clovers smell.  I love how tying them to one another takes me right back to childhood and bare feet and always being outside in the humid georgia summers.  helping my parents plant the garden and running around with my sisters and brother.
I love that I'm raising children that hardly ever stay inside.

 even sweet little cousin violet became a flower child.

sometimes I want to throw all of their plastic toys away.  because nothing is more delightful and entertaining than God's great earth.

babies, blueberries, and birthdays

boy, have we had some crazy, wonderful days recently!
within 5 days we had 2 precious baby boys enter our lives.  our friends and fellow casas por cristo missionaries, jason and amy, welcomed their little guy, kash, into the world in el paso.  check out his cuteness!  his mama, daddy, and brother all have red hair, too :).

THEN, my beautiful sister sarah gave birth to the 11th grandchild on my side of the family...sweet john landon.  the girls and I flew into georgia and got to see her hold him after she hadn't been able to for hours...because he had some lung issues right after birth, and stayed in the transition nursery.  I cried pretty much the whole day.  happy tears.

and I haven't been able to stop getting teary pretty much since then.  I love my families, I love my homes, I am so thankful.
we also got to be home for my niece kyrie's birthday party, and pete's mom's birthday is today!  for people that live a long way from home...this is all SO special.  never take going to family get togethers for granted...please!  seeing my children surrounded by cousins and grandparents AND great-grandparents melts me into a puddle.

this evening charlotte really got into blueberry picking and eating.  it was so dreamy to watch her.  and she happened to be wearing blue for the occasion.

doesn't get much yummier than that.
sigh.

father's day fire alarms

this father's day my dear husband woke up to the sweet sound of...our smoke alarm going off.
woops.
I got up earlier than everyone to quietly get monkey bread in the oven.  pete's mom always makes this delicious treat...and I was trying to make something he loves for breakfast.  but I think I overloaded the pan a bit and after 20 minutes or so of cook time butter started squirting all over the oven and burning and smoking...and stinking.  and then came the high pitched noise of our fire warning system and his dreams of sleeping a little bit longer on father's day were long gone.
woops.
charlotte slept through the 3 different smoke alarm soundings...but eden was awake with the first.  she gave him her cards and drawings that she had picked out especially for him.  the only t.v. show that eden watches is tom and jerry.  I'm not kidding.  she watches 20 minutes in the morning and 20 minutes at bed time.  it's hilarious.  God bless boomerang.  so when she found a tom and jerry father's day card she just about flipped her lid...because she loves watching it with pete.  he was pretty excited about it, too.
charlotte was still asleep at this point...but she decorated him a card at chick-fil-a family night and was quite proud to present it to him at church.

these two little girls adore their daddy.

we had a lovely day of smoke, food, church and togetherness.  it all ended with a dip in our friend's pool...which was nice and refreshing in our 100 degree temperatures.

one of charlotte's baby dolls made it for the pool trip.
I am so thankful for pete, and for my own father and grandfather.  I have been surrounded by Godly examples of fatherhood my entire life and I could not be more grateful.  I really missed seeing my Dad on father's day, but we had a nice phone call chat and I will be seeing him very soon!

this is a picture of my daddy and his fourth little girl...me.
hope you all had a fun father's day weekend...that didn't involve smoking monkey bread!

things I said today...

to miss charlotte mae:
"charlotte...why did you bring your potty outside?"

 (p.s. don't you love her choice of outfit: pajama bottoms with shorts and no shirt)

as well as..."charlie...don't put that cheezit in your bottom!" {as she was walking around naked getting ready for a bath with a cheezit box in tow}

and a lot of...don't put that paint brush, those rocks, that money, etc. in your mouth.  she might think she is 6 months old again.
she cracks me up. all day long.

saturday s'mores

last week I had an overwhelming desire to make and eat s'mores .  and then I started thinking about hot dogs...and grilled corn on the cob.  and well, I gave into my cravings and we made all of those delicious foods on saturday evening.  really healthy, I know :).
we spent most of the day outside.  charlotte sunbathed...and tried to swing by herself.  and eden played with her rio toys.

I put a table cloth on our porch table and eden added a plastic flower arrangement to make our feast a little bit fancy.  the girls ate in their bathing suits and we listened to the wizard of oz soundtrack (eden's pick) as we dined on this fine cuisine.

when it came time for the girls to eat their oozing s'mores they hardly knew what to do with themselves.  neither of them could believe it was ok with mom to get chocolate all over their clothes, in their hair, and covering their hands.  but after some reassurance they devoured them.  and so did I.

and boy was it a fun, yummy night.

tatted fairies

this afternoon the girls endured the pain of temporary tattooing.  since I was the tattoo artist I gave their parents a shout out.

 then these tatted beauties transformed into fairies.  at the moment the picture below was taken eden had just informed charlotte that if she closed her eyes she could make all her dreams come true.  yes!

they are so great.
we didn't hear any adoption news this week.  but I did have a new thought to help me through this wait.
a few days ago charlotte was upset because I was showering and she couldn't see me.  she kept telling me that she needed to SEE me.  and I just became overwhelmed with ooey gooey love for her.
and I thought to myself that if someone told me I could be her mother and eden's mother...but I had to wait an unknown period of time before this title came into effect...that I would wait forever.  I would wait and wait and wait to have the chance of loving them with a mother's heart.
I already love this babe I don't know so very much.  and I'll wait as long as it takes until I get to be his mother.  I'll wait through slow downs and all the new twists and turns of this journey.
I'll wait for him.  with great joy.

like mother, like daughters

one of my favorite childhood memories is eating watermelon at my grandparents house with all of my cousins.  we'd swim for hours...only stopping for chlorine flavored cheezits...and everyone's favorite...watermelon.  an ice cold one that pawpaw would bring up from the basement, slice, and serve on his finest... old newspapers.  we'd eat it quickly with our teeth chattering from our drippy, cold bathing suits and hair, and then jump right back in.   and wait for dinner time and ice cream.
yesterday the girls and I enjoyed sliced watermelon in somewhat of the same fashion.  and we called my pawpaw and memaw so I could at least hear their voices while we ate it.  they are both very young 80 and almost 83 year olds that just celebrated their 63rd wedding anniversary.  and two of my most favorite people in all of humanity.
pretty sure both girls enjoyed every juicy bite.

 when we came back outside from eating dinner...we found that java was enjoying some slices she'd stolen off our porch table.

 we finished the evening with fudge pops.  (charlotte had to change suits because of a little accident that I won't blog about. ick.)

happy summer.  happy memories.
you want a watermelon now, don't you?