Local Event - Old Valley Music House

 A couple of weekends ago, our family got to enjoy a great day at the Old Valley Music House's all day event.  The Music House is a neighbor's old home-place that they have turned into a place for the community to come once a month and pick bluegrass music, or just sit and listen.  But, once a year they have an all day, music event which is always lots of fun; with tons of great music, awesome food, and good fellowship with friends and family!

The gardens looked so lovely!

 And the flowers were very beautiful!

 A cute idea for a flower "bed".

 We had a wonderful time visiting with our family and community

and enjoying some of the AMAZING home-style cooking that

everyone brought.

 Gavin and his Aunt Gina swinging and having fun.

 A very, thirsty, little Gavin after many

hours of playing hard.

 Our sister-in-law, Rachel Carrell

and sweet little niece, Rosaleen.

 Found this Coke that said share with your "better half".

 Someone also brought this awesome car for show.

 The great, big, giant, oak tree that stands in

front of the Music House.

 Here are a few pictures of the Music House itself.

 Gina, Chelsey, and I (Alice) practicing a little bit

on the back porch before singing on stage.

Thank y'all so much for stopping by!

Have y'all gone to any neat local events in your area lately?

A post on our house building progress is coming soon,

so be sure to check back for that!

Summer Snapshots

 Hey y'all!  It's been super exciting and busy around here.  Here are some

random pictures to give you a peek as to what's been happening with us lately. 

Our pond pictured above, with two great shade trees, makes a wonderful place to

sit and relax during the hottest part of these summer days.

 The three of us went on a lovely walk one evening and

picked a whole bunch of pretty black-eyed susans.

 Gavin having fun touching and smelling the flowers.

 The chicken coop that Jesse and I made last year.

We hope to fill it with some new chickens very soon.

 A magnificent rainbow!

 Little man tuckered out after a long day.

So precious. :-)

 The very first blackberries of the season!  Yummy!!!

We can't wait 'til they're all ripe and ready to pick.

We're hoping to pick even more than we did last year!

(click here to see an older post)

 Our lonely, surviving tomato plant is actually doing quite well.

 The main (and most exciting) thing that we've been working on though, is getting ready to start building our house! Yay!!! Above are some of the logs for our home.

The first of the wood cut for our house!

It is so fun to see it all coming together now.

Thanks for stopping by!  We'll be posting a lot more house posts soon.

Anyway, this is what we've been up to lately.

What kind of summer projects have y'all been working on?

Gavin's First Birthday

Last week, we celebrated our son's very first birthday!  Where has the time flown?  It seems like just the other day that we first welcomed our sweet little one into the world and now he's already 1 year old! (above is a picture of him at 1 year and below at 1 day)

Click Here to see the blog post of his birth.

"Hold him a little longer, rock him a little more,

tell him another story, tell him a million more.

Let him sleep on your shoulder, cherish his every smile.

He is only a baby for just a little while." ~unknown

 Since Gavin LOVES being outside, we chose to have a fishing themed party for him!

Here a few pictures of his exciting day:

"Reeds" or "Cattails"

Were made of chocolate dipped marshmallows

on sticks

Tons of sandwiches cut with a fish-shaped cookie cutter

 Jesse's masterpiece; the carved watermelon turtle!

 Everything turned out soooooo cute!  I really want to thank all of the Wrights for all of their help in making this party look amazing.  Couldn't have done it without y'all!

 Jesse made this cupcake stand from cedar log slices and I love how beautifully it turned out.

Hopefully we will have these for sale in our Etsy Shop before too long.

 Adorable "fishing" cupcakes

The tables were decorated so prettily.  The horseshoe paper towel holder was made by Jesse and is also soon to be available in our Etsy Shop.

 Gavin enjoying all of his new gifts!

 He simply loves books

and anything with wheels!

And we ended the day off by going fishing at the pond!

Daddy and Gavin gone fishin'

Happy Birthday to you, our handsome little Gavin!  We love you so very much!  You are so cheerful and kind, and we are very grateful that we've been blessed to be your parents.  Thank for all of your precious smiles and for always making us laugh.  It's so wonderful getting to watch as you discover and explore this big world around you.

We love you little man!