My Gwen and My Caroline and My Eric

Haven't updated pics in a while... and I don't see it improving any time soon! So here is a quick update, pretty much just a smattering of lovely photos that I don't have time to make individual posts for but didn't want to leave out of the 'journaling' for this summer. Enjoy!

My sis, her hubby, and her 2 lil ones stopped by on their way to Iowa for dental school... so I got to meet her new lil gal, we'll call her McK. She is a month younger than Caroline, so, of course, we had to get the 2 lil ones together for comparison.... see any resemblance? No? Yeah, neither did we. As J put it: 'sure they look related... they're both human'.

I loved this series because NONE of the pictures I took DOESN'T have a blurry child in it. those kiddos... don't they know to cooperate for a photo? HOLD STILL!

Gwen is quite a lil princess

They didn't know I was watching them. I loved the Daddy-daughter casualness of these shots.

Gwen has been gettin her drama queen ON recently. Who knows why she's sad here. She might even be pretending. She does that.

our pole beans are aesthetic, I think. I love the way they curve out into the negative space.

the red chilies from our garden are so beautiful

I bottled 19 quarts of peaches... and 5 pints of bread and butter pickles (not pictured) I'm pretty proud. I wish it was a nice, round number like 20. that 19 bothers me for some reason...

Eric and I had a date night where I painted and he read to me. It was the first time I've done oils since BYU (about 4 years, maybe a lil more). It was so relaxing! I'd forgotten how soothing it is to just paint. If only it wasn't so messy. Clean up takes as much time as the painting! Well, I've started. Top pic is after our date. Bottom pic is after a Saturday nap time. Been fun! Still lots more to do...

Gwen being dramatic at the playground. Caroline was in the bjorn.

Took the girls for this 'new' (Craigslist) double stroller's maiden voyage. Went to a splash park downtown that we've never been to before. It was HUGE, lots of fun, music broadcast over loudspeakers, Sunny95 giving away free popsicles (Gwen got hers EVERYWHERE! LOL), and just a great time with our friends. My biggest beef was the traffic, the construction, pay for parking, and ... the infamous traffic incident I blogged about earlier on our way home. Other than that, a fabulous outing!

Caroline loved hanging out in the stroller

all set with her bucket, her plastic box, and her friend Shane

just bein silly

Do these pics tell a story? She wouldn't hold still! Can you tell she is totally dancing to the music? My favorite is the 3rd down on the left because it looks like she is doing some crazy disco move.

Friends: Amber, Kenzie, Shane, Gwen, Gracie, and Sabrina

at a friend's b-day party, Gwen loved borrowing these fancy Cinderella slippers

Gwen found the b-day girl's special crown and thought it was intended for her

all the lil girls enjoying a Barbie fairy movie of some kind- I have to add that this is Gwen's 2nd friend b-day party this summer... and now she talks about birthdays all the time. Thanks a lot, guys, for being so awesome. Now the bar is raised... and we're not even planning on doing a party... hope she won't be disappointed. (nah, as long as there is cake and ice cream, she should be JUST fine. :)

Gwen gets this non-blinking-zombie look on her face when she watches tv

Caroline had her first go at bananas... and I think she is starting to like em!

Also re-started our delightful International Culinary Challenge group up again and kicked things off with a lil Dominican Republic night.

Go to our blog here for recipes and pics!

Well, there you have it! Hope you liked em! Going to be gone for a while, so please don't miss us too much. I might find time to update while we're gone, but most likely it will all come as one LARGE installment upon our return.