Highlights of July and August in New England

We have really enjoyed having our own back yard with a fence :). Here are a few pictures of Natalie and Rebecca with their friends playing in the water and enjoying some yummy watermelon.

I wish this picture would have turned out clearer. The girls had so much fun "riding the pony" with their Daddy. He's not home much, but they all do a great job at making the time they do have together really count. I keep reminding myself it's all about quality not quantity :).

Natalie wanted to dress up like a pioneer one day and then decided to give it a little twist. After finding her sunglasses to complete her "giddup", she came up to me and said -

"What do you think, mommy - do I look sassy or something?"

And of course, Rebecca didn't want to be left out of the party... She has been more interested in dressing up - at least with the princess shoes - these days. (She does have on a diaper - really.)

Here's the man of the house reveling in the joys of home ownership. (I would like to add that since he's rarely home I have picked up a few skills in the art of lawn mowing... and I don't do so bad - if I say so myself. My dad would be proud.)

Rebecca's hair has grown enough since this summer to actually put it up in little ponytails, pigtails, and clips - otherwise known as "pretties". Every time we put them in, she immediately says "Look!" for me to hold her up to the mirror. Every once in a while when she sees that adorable little girl looking back at her she says "Becca cute!" or "Becca special!" How absolutely correct she is :).

These two sisters have a a lot of fun playing together this summer - often while mommy has been busy organizing or cleaning something. This day in July I was busy in the garage and they were having fun riding scooters and bikes together. (I really do dress Rebecca most of the time- maybe it's just projection on my part of trying to deal with the humidity!)

Becca loves her babies and often brings them in one by one in the morning to my bed. She'll lay them down and whisper (very loudly) "Shhhh! Quiet! Baby seeping." I love to see how nurturing she is.

So the next couple of pictures will show the before and during demolition phases of the painting project we took on in my bedroom 7/31/09. Here's the before:

Here are two of my great helpers - Rebecca and my good friend, Monica:

and two other fabulous helpers, Natalie and her friend, Taylor:

Here are two pictures of the demolition process:

It was much larger of a project than either Monica or I anticipated, but it looks 100 times better than it did before. Thank you, Monica (and all our little helpers) for all you did!

I have yet to take the final results pictures - I'll post them soon.


On August 1st, we were able to drive down to the Boston Temple. It was a wonderful day. We met up with our good friends Tom, Mandy, and Finnley and enjoyed catching up with them as well. Here are a few pictures of our day there.

We live just minutes from the Connecticut River, which runs between Vermont and New Hampshire. There is a beautiful park we enjoy. We went one evening for a family picnic:

Here's my beautiful girl, Natalie:

The girls and I enjoyed a little trip to Maine to visit our friends from Seattle, who moved back East the same time we did. Here are a few pictures from our visit with them:

Above, we went to a State Park. The water was perfect. Below, the kids all enjoyed playing and reading together.

While we were there, Natalie kept telling me she wanted to cut her hair... so we did. She was very brave and it looks adorable!

The humidity has been crazy. I just didn't expect that we would have so much of it this far north - was I ever mistaken. But the kids always seem to adapt and we found fun ways to make the most of a very muggy day: