Our Birthday Princess

Claire is 3! I can't believe it! What a beautiful, funny, silly, smart, creative and thoughtful little girl we have. We never imagined the love we would feel for our kids. She is something special, yes she is a challenge sometimes, but the good heavily outweigh those stressful times. We threw Claire a small party with family and 3 of her friends. We had a "mermaid" theme as she loves mermaids right now. Spencer spent the morning setting up the bouncy house, splash pools, turning her slide into a water slide (he had more fun then the kids did for sure!). We had a nice BBQ, cupcakes (her fave) and gifts. It was a lovely, low key afternoon. Celebrating the most wonderful little girl we could have every hoped for!

The Baby Powder Incident

I was doing something with the kids and Claire disappeared. She is pretty good at keeping her self entertained at home. However I had noticed it being oddly quiet (a key sign something is not going right!). I went and found her, and she had dumped an entire (large) container of baby powder ALL over Henry's room. It was so much it made it difficult to breath in the room. I quickly opened the window, stripped her down and threw her powder covered body in the shower. I then took a closer look around Henry's room and it was COVERED! I mean the baseboards, the chairrails, the walls, the windows. Luckily Spence came home soon after and I spent the next 30 minutes cleaning up the mess. Oh but did Miss Claire Bear have fun!! She would do it again if I let her! :)

Henry the Happy

Oh he is such a joy! Always willing to go with the flow, from here to there. Being passed around and kissed and squeezed. Tolerating his sisters love and affection (aka borderline torture). What a blessed addition he is to our family!

Camping with Cousins

Here are some shots of us Camping. We went for one night but managed to squeeze in mucho fun! We had our own private beach area for the kids with a big mud whole. We spent the day there and played and played. We were able to hike, splash around and catch some fish, which made for the yummiest appetizer!

Cousins, Cousins and more Cousins!

July was a busy month! We were lucky to have my family from the Fresno area visit for a week and Spencer's family visit from L.A. It was a whirlwind, but beyond fun!
Our L.A. visitors included Spencers cousin Dave (aka Davey), his beautiful wife Linda, and there three boys, Spencer, Cameron and Leyton. A special treat was Spencer's Aunt CeCe (Davey's mom)! It was quite the get together when we were all together: 3 boys, Claire and Henry and my neices (their hosts) Grace and Brynn. We went camping, visited the Fish Hatchery, toured the Dam, went boating, had mulptiple family dinners, roasted marshmallows and shared many laughs and glasses of wine. Here a few shots of our adventures. There are many more, so I will have to upload more later!

Little Miss Green Thumb

Little Claire LOVES to help out in the garden. Mostly it is an excuse to harvest the goods (ie Strawberries), use the hose (ie get wet), and pick flowers. She loves to be outside and it is so sweet watching her grow into such a helper!

Boating

Ahhh, we love the summer! Henry is such a rockstar on the boat. Claire always says "come on my boat momma!". She loves it too, and that girl can't get enough of the swimming. She will just jump right in (with lifejacket on) and swim without anyone else in the water. She loves it. Boating is such a blessing to our family. Something we can do together, share with our friends and extended family. It's great to be outdoors, enjoying the beautiful place where we live. I especially love this shot as it is ME with the kiddos, I am always the photographer.