Good Golly Moses...

Be still my heart...how is it possible to have kids this beautiful???


Gracie on Father's Day:

Ava in an old-fashioned looking outfit that my mother-in-law bought on consignment for Gracie when she was a baby. It is devastatingly cute on Ava with those blue eyes of hers. :)

In other, home improvement-related news, this is what my husband decided to do at about 5:00 p.m. this past Saturday night. He is a bit motivated when it comes to projects such as these. As it stands now (a couple of hours after this picture was taken), they only have one more row of shingles and have to put the deck rails back on and they are done. My husband, his brother, and our neighbor/friend are all working on it in this picture...we have great friends and family who are willing to help with the manly projects! :)

We did have a metal/canvas canopy thing that we bought three or so years ago to put over the table, which we liked a lot, but for one flaw: We have gone through three of the canvas canopies in the time that we have owned the thing. The first time it ripped, we called the company up and they sent us TWO canvas tops for the cost of shipping only, both of which ripped last year in only mild wind. This year, the warranty is expired and we researched replacing the canopy with our own money, but the canvas alone is close to $100.00. We think that is a bit much for something that we KNOW is not going to last (as evidenced by the THREE prior tops that ripped). We researched a retractable awning to go over the deck, which we discovered is close to $1000.00. Whoa, baby. Then my hubby decided to price out building this roof, which is going to be less than $1000.00 and permanent and oh-so-nice looking. Our neighbors actually built a roof over their deck a couple of years ago (the blue house in the picture there, but not the same neighbor who is helping us build this roof) and the guy said that he priced it out to have it built and they quoted him $5000.00 minimum if there were no problems!! I am SO glad my husband is a handy guy, or we wouldn't be able to afford to do anything! :)

Anyway, just wanted to brag on DH (for those not in the know with internet abbreviations, that stands for Dear/Darling Husband) and show the progress of the lightning-fast addition to the house.