summer flashback: father's day

we celebrated father's day this year at brian's parents house! adorable sign courtesy of my amazing sister-in-law. :) my kiddos are blessed to have a daddy, a pappy, and a papa who love them like crazy and think they are pretty awesome. the feeling is mutual, i can guarantee you!


this post truly calls for a heart-spilling paragraph about how much these dads each mean to me...and they do mean a lot to me. but we are pushing october here, folks.

moving on. :)

the kids climbed on my dad's lap for a picture, but we failed to do the same with brian or his dad... not sure how that happened! so dad, you got the grand prize for father's day!:) and hallie's thinkin, "where's my prize!?"


father's day fare included these mouth-watering, fall off the bone ribs! yum yum yum. i think we need to have these again soon! we honored the guys by letting them grill their own lunch. they did a fantastic job.


ethan was so excited to get a sneak peek at dessert.


adorable cupcakes courtesy of.... yes, my amazing sister-in-law. i think the only thing i brought to this lunch was my appetite!


my dad and ethan especially liked the golf cupcakes.


my father-in-law is a downright funny guy, and he always gets a kick out of silly cards. what is on the front of that card? no, it's not a picture of a big, big man in his underwear. no, no, we are much too refined for that.


see?! he's still laughing! i love this one. :)


like father, like son, like son!


we loved spending this day with our grandmothers, too!


thanks to brian's parents for a wonderful day, thanks to kristie for her cute little celebratory details...


and thanks to God for the gift of these men!


we are blessed!

hang on, fall!

is it really possible that the entire summer flew by without a single blog post? brian sighs a big sigh every time i blog about blogging. but i feel like i owe my (3) readers (well, 7 if you include my kiddos who will surely visit this page and read about their childhood one day) some sort of explanation. my excuse is 5 words long. ethan, caroline, amelia, and hallie. yep! my days are filled to overflowing with their giggles, stories, requests, hugs, kisses, tears, questions, and smiles. (and add in hallie's hilarious gibber-jabber that will just make your day.) they are my reason for blogging, and now they are my reason for never blogging. however, i refuse to give up on this enjoyable and convenient medium for preserving the memories that matter to me... i refuse for tenlittletoes to be yet another journal that is 1/3 written in, 2/3 blank. i have a whole box of those from the years gone by. i am determined to continue to chronicle the important and not so important happenings in the lives of the 40 little toes that run circles around me day in and day out. so don't give up on me! i thought that i would surely catch up on summer by the end of september, but here we are with pumpkins and candy corn and trips to the farm just around the corner. so it is my goal to do a whirlwind catch up of our summer. i know most of us here in florida have been anxiously awaiting the arrival of some cooler weather.... but if you just wanted summer to last a liiiiiiittle while longer, then this is the place for you! put down your pumpkin-flavored coffee, grab your swimsuit, and come on in! the water's not too cold yet!

1-2-3-go!

hallie's 1st birthday party!

we celebrated hallie's 1st birthday last month with a simple little family party.


you know the saying "april showers bring may flowers"? well, hallie is our little may flower, so i went (very, very lightly) with that theme for her party. see? there's some flowers on the cupcakes, and flowers on the napkins. :) told ya it was a very, very light theme! as the party guests arrived, they wrote a blessing to hallie on a little flower and added it to the vase.


i love hallie's bouquet of blessings! this bouquet will have a special place in her baby book with special words from those that love her dearly.


hallie helped decorate the table with her toys. :) i forgot to take a picture of the mexican lasagna that i served for dinner!


did you see those sweet books on the bookshelf in the picture above? oh, you didn't notice them? here's a closer look:


my grandmother who lives out of town sent some money to hallie for her birthday, and i was able to pick out some classic books that can hopefully withstand the love of a toddler.

hallie loved this balloon! our sweet little friend lily gave it to hallie on the night of her actual birthday, and it survived until the party! (and there were even flowers on it!)


we all piled in for a quick family picture... couldn't get the birthday girl to smile, despite the many, many family members behind the camera doing their best to make her giggle!


and then it was time for cake! hallie was ready to grab that cake!


so we sang to our sweet birthday baby...



and we all cheered for hallie to dig into her cake! aaaaaand she sat there. not exactly sure what to do.



"this is mine? this big heap of sugar is mine? i'm so confused."


i cannot stop laughing at this picture! hallie's hair looks pink because of the reflection off the cake plate, and i just can't help thinking that auntie kim gave my birthday baby a little hairdo!


hmmmm, where could i find some kids that could show hallie how to eat her cake? oh! here they come!


"oh, so you just stick your fingers in there? like this?"


i love how she loves her big brother and sisters!


"ok, ok, everybody back away... this is my cake!"


it was mama's turn to enjoy some cake with hallie.



i thought she might eat more if i gave it to her...


ok, well if she's not gonna eat the cake...


not much damage done


my baby saying "all done"


after cake, it was time for presents! hallie's cousin karina heard that she was going to need some toys for the water this summer...


and auntie kim crashed the party and brought hallie a super cute phone.


hallie pulled the ribbon off of these books with no problem, and i adore the next picture of her looking up at caroline!



the big girls are super excited about hallie's little splash pad from mommy & daddy! (i gave up on getting hallie to look at the camera at this point.)


yay for this water table from gram! it's actually a sand/water table, but we are going to maximize the water part since it is blazing hot here in florida! :)


is this not the cutest little house from the rest of the grandparents?? it sings to you and talks to you and even has a lightswitch that you can turn on and off. my favorite part is the doorbell. the big kids obviously love it just as much as hallie!


nana also brought this huge balloon to the birthday girl!


my plan was to take some pictures of hallie in the yard with the balloon, but the poor thing met its demise before i could make that happen. :( oh well. but i love this picture of amelia smiling from ear to ear with her sister's balloon!

here's a few pictures of some of our precious family who came to celebrate hallie. some snuck out too early, and i guess i was still distracted by hallie's cake! :)




this past year has FLOWN by, and we are just so excited to see what God has in store for this little girl. she is full of joy and determination, and she pretty much wins the heart of anyone who sees her do her little head tilt and smile combo. :) we praise God for our precious hallie girl, and we just don't remember life without her!

happy birthday, baby girl!