The Great Harvest

July began with my parents coming to visit for a long weekend over my birthday

My mom made this delicious blueberry pie (my favorite)

She always finds creative ways to make my birthdays special! 

My parents got Benjamin his first bike. 

He rides rides it every day

Hannah enjoys sitting on the bike too and playing with the tassels

Benjamin and my dad mixed up the mortar for Frank as he started laying the brick border for our back yard. 

Benjamin would shovel the mortar from the wheelbarrow and carry it to Frank's pallet.

He was a very "useful engine" (Sorry...Thomas the Train humor)

Frank hung a board in the playroom for Benjamin's artwork

Benjamin is always excited to display his masterpieces

Frank has done a lot of tedious work this month on the guest house as he finished repairing and painting the soffit and fascia boards. To get in extra project time he has been waking up early (with the sun) to go work outside. Like Frank says, "It's like eating an elephant, you have to do it one bite at a time."

He also painted the siding so that we could have the gutters put up today.

Our goal is to have the exterior finished by September

Planting new corn for a second harvest

We were able to harvest red potatoes and corn this month

My mom taught me how to can green beans - it's not as hard as you might think.

She also gave me a bread machine - It's like a crockpot for bread.

Amazingly easy and delicious!

Since I was on a "make your own" kick, I looked into how to make your own laundry detergent. I found this recipe on pinterest and bought all the ingredients at Target/Kroger.

Finished product. 

I have done several loads so far and seems to do a great job for only pennies on the dollar. 

$.30/load using Tide and only $0.03/load when you make your own!

Turning 8 Months comes with many milestones

Crawling takes a lot of muscles

So Hannah does push ups to get stronger

Time to pull out the tupperware!

If you look really close you can see her 2 bottom teeth

(really close)

It's official: Hannah got the curly hair gene

Benjamin ran to me and said as clear as a bell, "Mommy, I need the broom. Hannah made a mess." Then proceeded to sweep up the puffs she had dropped and throw them away. Love that kid!

Pretty sure one day Benjamin will eat us out of hearth and home

"Mommy, look at my tower!"

This is one of my favorite parts of the day: 

After the kids wake up from their afternoon nap I bring Hannah into Benjamin's room. We hang out in his bunk beds have fun talking/playing. They are always so giggly.

Getting ready for the pool

Benjamin always asks for Hannah to join him in his tunnels/forts

Costo with two kids is much easier when they can both ride up top. 

The hardest part was keeping Hannah from eating Benjamin's food samples.

My favorite pic of the kids this month

Play dates with friends

Flannery and Hannah

(Atticus photo bomb)

Benjamin and Dylan at the Botanic Gardens

"CHEESE"

All the older date night kids in PJ's ready for Bible Time before bed

Date night at the driving range. I found out that I'm pretty terrible at golf! 

After hitting a bucket of balls Frank really got the hang of it. 

Mystery Dinner Date with two couples from our Life Group.

We didn't know with whom we would be eating until we showed up

Who would have thought that these two kids growing up 500 miles apart would one day meet, fall in love, marry, and have a beautiful family? A big thanks to both our parents who faithfully prayed for us and our future mates growing up. We believe our marriage is a direct answer to those prayers. This encourages us to pray for Benjamin and Hannah's future mates daily. 

8 happy years of Love and Marriage!

We ended the month with one last harvest - this time from the Bellevue Baptist Church garden. They maintain a huge garden where they grow vegetables for local ministries.