let's try that again JULY.... and the *publish* button gets the stink eye.

HA!

so this is an edit, because I'm apparently so unhinged this week I had no idea I'd actually published the july-blog-in-progress.  I'd actually decided to remove the snoozy, pseudo-pinterest-rant, feeling that it reeked of 'look at how too-busy I am to do the pinterest thing everyone else loves!'-itis.  ugh, what a bore.  in fact, instead I'm going to share the three things pinterest actually helped me do this summer:

homemade splashpad!  my favorite thing by far.

also this awesome football toss tarp for the church summer carnival, and making first aid kits for VBS (BMcD ended up using travel soap cases and let the kids decorate them).  thanks, pinterest!  I still tend to only use you when google lets me down, but whatever.

 

this is where I show you how crazy our place looks in back.  behold, we had the last of our old plumbing replaced and our back patio is now gone.  we have hopes of something else happening here.  um, sometime.  in the interim, it's a bunch of dirt and not so much fun.

and here is our lush backyard, back when it looked lush and not so almost-dead-it's-too-hot.  we talk about clearing all of this riff-raff out often and replacing the fence... but I don't love the idea of a privacy fence.  I like how they look, but I want to be able to see our neighbors and talk over the fence.  maybe a low wooden fence.

I find photos on my phone all the time that I didn't take.  this was a recent favorite.

playing with cloud dough!  super fun, and super messy.

we match:

with family and friends on the fourth of july:

y'all, TP is singing his heart out:

the big girls went to see Alice in Wonderland at Main Street Theatre:

ruby's first birthday.  she is such a blessing.

a day off.  it's amazing we all look this happy, for I distinctly remember behavior issues happening on this outing.  better this snapshot in time than one of the loud and tearful playground exit that happened ten minutes later.  moms can be so mean.

I took this because it struck me how LONG she is on the couch now:

at Ru's first year checkup:

no no, I'm not slee....peeeeeeeeee....

mgb and I took an overnight trip to Austin to see New Order... we stopped for a BBQ bite on the way and hubz couldn't help buying me this:

when we pulled up at the Driskill Hotel, I was all, what?  we're staying HERE?!  

well played, mikebell.

we've decided that when we add onto our house, we're just going to tell the general contractor we'd essentially like our new bedroom/bathroom to feel like a hotel.  except not as texas-y as this one.

when mgb and I are sans children for a night, this is what our entire packing job looks like.  

it was very freeing.

on our way to the Austin Music Hall, we stopped at Searsucker for dinner (and hooked up with our friend, Dave).  it was great and I'd totally go back, even if I did almost feel not-trendy-enough to be there...

our dear friends got married!  best reception ever... we're a dancing family, and I totally appreciated the chance to boogie down.  so did Maggie, who pretty much lived on the dance floor.

out of gas.

love.

and I totally neglected to post photos from ms. d's bachelorette party @ our house.  very spicy.  

oh july.  you had your moments.  

-m.y.