Baby Elizabeth enjoying the sun and attention. What a happy face!

Baby Mikayla not loving the camera so much, but enjoyed her beach time.

After a morning of strawberry picking the best way to spend the evening is to make jam. The only problem is that I don’t know how to make jam. So, Tracy offered to teach a jam making lesson and we turned it into a girls night out. I can’t imagine a better way to make jam than to hang out with friends and all share the work and rewards! Looking forward to eating the rewards soon!

Thanks friends for the fun time and help making the jam! (Heather would be in the photo, except someone had to take the photo)

Aunt Rachelle got to have a short visit with baby Elizabeth (her parents and grandparents too). It was a nice visit and wonderful to meet little Elizabeth. We enjoyed the simple pleasures of hugs, baths, talking baby-talk, a walk around the mall, and lots of photos. I told Elizabeth all about her cousins in Tenenssee. Hopefully, the girls will get to meet her soon.

Photos take a lot of different forms at our house. Other than the blog I am trying to keep up-to-date scrapbooks with the things we do with the girls. While I’m about a year behind, I have made some significant ground in the last two weeks. Other projects demand that I put this project up for a little while. This is something I do when the kids are sleeping, so Emily started asking every morning what new pictures did I have to show her. Before I put the girls books away I snapped a photo of the albums. The top two albums represent my hard work of the last two weeks, but the stack has the collection of my girls lives. I loved showing the books to the girls and telling them about the things we have done. I might need a new shelf soon.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about appreciating what we have while we still have it and the lessons we learn only through experience. So this Father’s Day, instead of finding a card with someone else’s words in it I’m writing my own.

If you haven’t guessed already, the little girl sitting on the table is me at an age between my girls’ current ages. What my dad thought of me at that point I will never know. The hopes and dreams he had for me are not thoughts that he chose to share with me when he had the memory of them. But, my knowing what he thought doesn’t really matter. What matters is that I’m grateful for the time that he has spent with me. If that time was letting me sit on the table at Mom’s birthday party or sitting in my car as I ran errands with he and my girls – I’m grateful for the time. My fondest memories are times that I spent with my family!

This Father’s Day, I want to wish my dad a Happy Fathers Day and thank him for the time that he chose to invest in our family. It was a wise and valuable investment.

11 years, 3 homes, 4 cars, 44 states, 2 kids, and one marriage spent together. I wish I had a photo from our honeymoon or wedding to display, but we were married in the pre-digital universe. I just didn’t have time to get one scanned in time to post, so here is a photo of us at the Grand Canyon 3 years into our marriage.

We have enjoyed our time together and it seems like it has been forever. I can only imagine what it is going to feel like in 11 more years. We have been truly blessed by each other. We praise God for the gifts and provisions He has given us in our marriage. We also pray that our marriage will be a blessing to others.