Our backyard

Our backyard is my favorite thing about our entire house.  In fact, that's why we bought it.  It's where Avery catches all her "baby fish".  It's where the girls play on their swingset and in their pool.  It's where my garden is, where my bluebirds are, where we have all our fun.  

We've been trying our hardest to get out there when Mallory's napping (the heat is a bit too much for her for long periods of time).  I'm determined to keep my garden going... it's pretty difficult to find time right now, but I'm trying to make it happen.  Here are a few of the things we've enjoyed the past few weeks in our backyard...

A new batch of bluebirds have hatched right outside our backdoor.  In fact, we have a batch of sparrows in my gardening backet (apparently a great place for a nest), but I didn't want to disturb the mama and take a picture.

Warning: not for the faint of heart, but too good not to share.  I was running around trying to water everywhere before Mallory woke up and saw this on my house, a robber fly and some sort of coreid bug prey.  I wish you could see the scale... they were huge!  Insects are just really amazing to me!

Now I have to toot my own horn a little... I wish I had taken a before picture of this flowerbed, but just imagine lots of weeds and overgrown honeysuckle and cannas.  Clay and I worked hard this spring to dig all the trash plants out, re-soil and re-plant.  And I am pleased to say that we have a thriving flowerbed, even in the middle of the July heat!  Another perk is that I choose many plants that are butterfly and hummingbird attractants, so there is always tons of activity.

As I mentioned earlier, our garden is still up and running.  Our magic soil has not only produced a plethora of yummy summer vegetables, but also a great batch of sunflowers, the tallest of which hit 11 feet, 8 inches at its peak.  The sunflowers are primarily Clay and the girls' project, and that one flower was Clay's pride and joy.  The picture doesn't do it justice since the plant is 2 rows behind the girls.

And, to end, we'll thrown in a couple pictures that have nothing to do with the backyard, but make me smile.  :)

Meet Mallory Gayle

Well, it's quiet at my house.  Mallory is sleeping and Clay and the big girls are off to church and Deer Run today so I thought I'd take a little time to show off Mallory to you.  

As was said before, she came pretty quickly (if we have another one we are going to have to rethink our timing of getting to the hospital).  We are incredibly thankful for our healthy baby girl!

Here she is just a few minutes old.  She was wide awake and taking it all in.

Her Daddy was still in shock here... we kept talking later about how we couldn't believe how fast it all went.  I laid down in bed, had one contraction, then told the nurse I felt like I needed to push and she was born on the next contraction.  I'm just glad I wasn't still standing in the hall at the check-in station signing papers.

I think she is so beautiful here.  I am obviously biased. :)

The big girls got to come by that day to meet their new little sister.  They were SO excited!  I had been telling them the story of Landry's birth so they would know what to expect.  My parents took them to pick out gifts for Mallory.  They each picked out a balloon and a little stuffed toy.  Avery picked a "horse with birthday candle on its head" (I apparently haven't taught her about unicorns, but I loved that she knew it was Mallory's birth day).  Landry picked out a pink guinea pig.  Both gifts sweetly thought through... I love these girls!

After her initial shyness (there were a lot of people in the room), Avery warmed right up and wanted to hold Mallory.

Sweet big sister could not get enough.

Landry was interested... in Mallory AND the cool reclining/rocking chair AND the balloons AND all her grandparents.  Very typical of my little Landry.

She finally had explored everywhere else enough that she wanted to hold Mallory too.  Once she got up there, she would touch her head and squeal a little and talk about how soft Mallory was.

Here are some more random pictures of the girls visiting.  I can't help myself... I love to see them all together!

The girls came with Clay to pick us up and take us home.  They were so excited to show Mallory our house!  

Loading up the in car.  It's a tight squeeze, but it's going to work!

Finally home!  It felt so good!  The nurses and staff were wonderful at the hospital, but you just can't beat the feeling of home.

Avery told me yesterday, "Mom, she is so cute I can't hardly manage it!"

And so it begins... life with 3 girls.  I think Clay's word of choice for it is "ridiculous"... I love that he says it with a smile on his face and I love that he kind of likes that his life is going to get more ridiculous. :)

She has a name...

Mallory Gayle Spencer

More pictures to come when they let us go home tomorrow. :)

Baby Spencer is HERE!!!!

Aunt Jaymie here, reporting that Baby Spencer is here and.....get ready........its..........a..................GIRL!!!!!

She arrived at 8:39 am weighing 7 lb. 9 oz. and was 20 in. long.  She has a little fuzzy head of hair and a pretty little face.  She was wide awake and enjoying her new world.

Maurine is feeling great after what ended up being a quick delivery.  Clay says from the time they pulled in the parking lot to the time she was born was MAYBE 15 min.!!!!  The nurses had to "catch" the baby and the Dr. showed up soon after.

Since I'm writing and can....I will say that I HATE Maurine for looking so beautiful after she just had a baby.  This was seriously 10 min. after she was born. I don't really hate her, I'm just totally jealous.

Clay laughing....laughter seems to be the response everyone has when they find out its another girl.  Haha!!

Maurine signing the "consent for delivery" forms.......holding her baby....yeah.  There was no time for signing papers before she was born.

No name yet, but hey are working on it.  I'll post as soon as a name is announced!

Praise GOD for a healthy baby and a healthy mommy!

It's the 5th and still no baby...

... Which means we got to celebrate the 4th of July this weekend!  Clay and I realized that we hadn't really made plans since we were half expecting a baby by now (today is the due date and both our girls came early).  Even though my belly is growing by the minute now it seems, I am so grateful to have had the weekend to spend time with Clay and the girls.  We had a great time!

We kick started Saturday with our town's parade.  We hadn't ever been before and I was impressed.  There were lots of neat floats, cars, old army vehicles and horses to watch.  The girls liked it but, as you look at the next few pictures, you will notice a distinct theme.

It definitely made me wonder how we were going to pull off the firework show later that night.

After the parade we went out to the lake.  Avery, Ro and Landry all tubed together.

Although Landry didn't make it the whole time.  Apparently skipping nap time wasn't really an option.  Naptime was happening one way or another.

We got really excited when Avery decided she was brave enough to "water ski."  Clint and Clay have been trying to get the girls to ski behind the jet ski for a while now and Avery gave this arrangement a shot and liked it.  Baby steps.

Watching our city's fireworks show Saturday night... which was really good this year, by the way.

And making our own fireworks show on Sunday night... which was also really good!

Happy 4th!

What'd we do while the girls were gone?

Aside from going to two movies and sleeping in, we got an entire childless afternoon at the lake... compliments of our Hargis friends!  Thanks!

I suspect there we some ulterior motives to inviting us out... in my condition, I apparently made for a great wake to surf on.  :)

Abercrombie-esque?

Thanks for the great day!