Evie's Blog

Mandy always writes beautiful blog posts. She is very gifted at catching the spirit of each moment. Here is a link to her blog post about their visit last week:

Lazy Hazy Summer Afternoons

Special Evening

Yesterday evening, Evie and her family came over for play and dinner. It is always special to watch Evie and Graysen playing and enjoying life. All of Evie's sisters and brother are incredibly well behaved and sweet children. Lee was especially impressed with the speed at which they cleaned up the playroom. Our boys are now in trouble now that we have seen that it is possible to teach kids to clean up quickly and efficiently....

We really enjoyed our time with them and look forward to many years of Evie and Graysen growing up together.

Camping Weekend

Caleb and I went on the Second Annual Girls' ( & Caleb) Camping Weekend with Lisa, Emily, Melissa, and Lilly. We went to the Yogi Bear Campground in Marion, NC. The theme of the weekend was "Christmas In July."

All of us had a blast, despite the rain, and Santa even dropped by to give the kids a present!

Here are a few pictures from our weekend:

Slumber Party

Caleb spent the night at the Taylors' house last night where he was spoiled and got to do special things, like play with playdough! He had a great time.

First Harvest

This morning I made my first "harvest" from my garden. It consisted of two grape tomatoes.

I have found that I absolutely love gardening. However, my garden is not producing very well. So far, Lee and I have received harvests of vegetables from three different people whose gardens are overflowing with abundance.

I have identified several "opportunities" with my garden, mainly that I am more focused on beauty then production. I think that next year I am going to hire Lee as an assistant. He may correct some of the design flaws that I have incorporated into my garden this year.

My first harvest:
My garden:
The next three pictures are of the only other signs of fruit in my garden:

One small green pepper
One small banana pepper
One mal-formed cucumber
The following pictures are "opportunities" that I have identified and hope to correct next year. (Yes, most of these issues arise from the fact that I am stubborn.)

I did not buy a long enough stake for my tomato plant and it is about to hit the ground or brake.
I do not think that we will be having strawberries this year. The plant is growing at a snail's pace.
I love the glass cover on my garden and refuse to move it. However, several plants (carrots, onions, brocolli, ...) have met their death when they hit it and couldn't grow anymore. My cucumber vine is doing well since it is growing away from the box.
This box is a disaster. I tried to defy nature and plant grapes (dead), blueberries (dead), raspberries (dead), corn, pumpkins, and watermelon all in the same small box. It turns out that doesn't work very well.
Oh well... I am still proud of my small harvest and am hoping for better ones next year.

Tennessee

We had a nice weekend visiting Lee's family in Tennessee. The boys are great at traveling and I love watching them experience new things. Here are a few pictures from the weekend:

Caleb loved when his Uncle Erik took him and Sarah Grace for a ride on Papa's Gator.
We met our nephew, Peyton, for the first time. He is about 7 weeks old.
Caleb and Graysen enjoyed helping Papa feed the squirrels and birds every morning.
All three kids had a blast playing in the sprinkler.
Graysen NEVER passes out at home. He has endless energy. However, he passed out around 5 PM on Saturday after a busy day of playing with is cousins. He is all ready to go to Steve's BBQ here and we had to wake him up.
Gallatin has an amazing July 4th festival. They made an incredible amount of foam for the kids to play in using a fire truck and lots of soap. I have never seen anything like it.
And, of course, the weekend would not be complete without a visit to Mema's house.

Petting A Snake

The kids were able to pet a snake at the zoo this past Thursday. They all enjoyed getting close to it and I am proud of Caleb for petting it.