5 for 5!

this week, we have broken a record in our household.

we have had dinner together as a family all five weeknights in a row.
and i loved it.

since lily was born, we have never managed to eat dinner together through the whole week due to ryan's schedule.  i think our previous best had been 3 dinners as a family.  often, we would be able to sneak in a couple of dinners as a family and then i would wait for ryan to get home the other nights of the week.

but, this week has been something special.  it felt so nice to be able to share dinner together every night and to have his help every night as i cooked.  i think i could get used to this...

from the mouth of a vegetarian's daughter...

we purchased lily's first backpack for school (gasp...is she really that old??) and she has been l.o.v.i.n.g wearing it around the house and filling it with all sorts of things.

this morning, she was apparently very busy stuffing it with important things because she had a big day planned.

she kept saying over and over, "i am going hunting today.  today i am HUNTING!!"

i didn't know she really knew what hunting was as it isn't something we've discussed before.

finally after she had said it about 10 times, i decided to ask her what she was hunting for...fully preparing myself to hear that she was out to slay her first rabbit or deer or chicken.

and she replied, "mama, i'm hunting for leaves, of course!"

that a girl!  that's what i like to hear!

(but oh how proud of you your skippy would have been if you had answered pheasant!) :)

::picture perfect::

 

colin and stefanie had an absolutely beautiful wedding.  

we are beyond thrilled to welcome stef into our family...although it's felt like she's been family for a long time now!  

congrats, col and stef! we adore you both.  have an amazing honeymoon!!

love.

trouble.

but not really at all.
these three make my heart so happy...

weekend.

this past weekend was lovely.

we are entering a stretch where ryan should be home most weekends and i can hardly contain myself.

we started the weekend by attending the county fair.

it was nothing terribly exciting for ryan and i, but lily and finn could not have been more thrilled.

finn practically leaped out of ryan's arms to get to every single animal.

and lily, our petrified-of-large-animals-daughter, insisted that we go back through the llama and bovine tent three times.

overall, a great success.

and then on saturday, ryan's awesome roommate from college and his wife and adorable son, oliver, came to c'ville for a visit. we were so thankful that they had time to spend here with us. thank you guys so much!

and my nin has become quite the swimmer this summer. she loves to tell me she is a dolphin and spends most of her time at the pool underwater. she took her first trip off of a diving board today. mind you, she was wearing a life jacket and it took a bit of coaxing. but, she immediately wanted to do it again and it seemed somewhat monumental to me! :) (unfortunately, i did not capture the second more adventurous attempt on film!)

::family::

we just returned after some time in z'ville to celebrate my gram's life and to rejoice with my cousin, becca, and her new husband adam as they got married.

it was wonderful to be with family. it always feels like home...