So life has been slipping by at a very rapid pace and I have found myself struggling to keep up with the blog. This is not fair to little Peyton since I captured all of Jenna's moments, yet it is a product of Peyton as she has been keeping me on my toes.

Since my last post, we have adjusted to Josh taking on his new role with Stanley Black & Decker, which resulted in much more travel.

Jenna finished her first year at Discovery Village Preschool and was home with Peyton & me all summer.

My Brother's family, my folks and I planted a 30 foot by 100 foot garden on my folks' property. We planted 3 types of lettuce, radishes, brussel sprouts, okra, bell peppers, banana peppers, squash, zucchini, acorn squash, butternut squash, Japanese eggplant, corn, 59 tomato plants, 2 types of cucumbers, cantaloupe, and watermelon. The garden was HUGE and a lot of work as the weeds were out of control!!! We had great success with some crops, failed with others, but enjoyed a great harvest of vegetables! We learned that we really like roasted butternut squash and eggplant. I learned that a radish picked right out of the ground is 100 times more potent than one from the grocery. We learned a great way to saute okra so it does not get slimy. I learned that I can make pickles!!! In fact I have over 50 pints of dill/bread and butter pickles and 18 quarts of Kosher dill pickles down in the basement cabinets (that doesn't include all that were passed on to my folks, brothers family and friends).


Josh and I traveled to Southern California in June for my cousins Shane's graduation, but mainly for a vacation for just the two of us. The girls stayed with their Grandma and Grandpa Cowley in NJ. Everyone had a blast!

Our niece Brianna finished her first year of kindergarten and was going to spend the summer hanging out with my folks on the farm. So to make things more fun for all of the cousins, we spent a lot of time down there too so the girls could play. We also had Brianna come spend a couple of days a week at our house too. I'll definitely have to post pictures of all of our fun times.

Pete and Deb came down for a visit and we discovered that we can rent pontoon boats on Lake Norman! We spent an entire day out on the lake boating around, swimming, and tubing. It was an amazing day and definitely worth doing again.

Now we are getting back into the routine of Jenna going to preschool again as she has now started in the 4 year old classroom at Discovery Village. She has had a blast, but it has been hard for Peyton who walks around saying, "I want Jenna. Mommy, I want Jenna." Hopefully soon we will be able to get Peyton into a part time daycare so she can go to school too.

I will try to post pictures soon from all of our summer adventures.