Ava Piper Manwaring

Ava was born on Saturday, July 24th at 9:03 a.m. She weighed 8lbs. 1oz. and was 21 inches long. She is such a sweet happy baby. We are all completely smitten with her!





Clark is changing Ava's diaper, he did a great job.



Look at all these children! I'm the luckiest mom in the world.



I never got around to posting how big my belly was...Nate would ask to "kiss" Ava several times a day, so I just had to get a picture of him.

A Fabulous Baby Shower!

I am so blessed to have so many wonderful friends! Two amazing women, Tenneal and Marin held a baby shower for me, and it was wonderful. Of course, everything that these two women do is wonderful...truly! I think I received enough diapers to last me a year, and the cutest baby clothes ever! Now I just can't wait for her to get here...4 more weeks.

Lauren is thirteen!

I just love this girl! I am Soooo blessed to have her as my daughter! Her birthday was last Thursday, so I'm a little late in posting. She had breakfast in bed, we went to Joe's Farm Grill for lunch,we went shopping and had PF Chang's for dinner. I have to say that so far my two teenagers have been amazing, and I am really enjoying this stage with them.

8th Grade Graduation

Clark is officially a Freshman!! He's very excited to start High School at Williams Field High School this year (Go Black Hawks!). Here are some graduation pics.

My Gardens

Okay, Dave calls me a farmer, and I don't think he's joking. I have two good sized gardens, an amazing peach tree and several orange trees. I really enjoy going out every morning and evening to water the gardens. It is like therapy for me. I love the bounty of delicious organic fruits and vegetables we enjoy. Most everything is ready in the gardens except for my tomatoes; they are coming along nicely though... I can't wait! Here is a sampling of some of my veggies.



Aaaahhh the peaches. This is summer to me; they are sweet juicy and delicous! My children loved picking them right off the tree.


Bell peppers; yummy!


Our family loves Swiss Chard; we will definitely plant this one again.


I have a few zucchini right now, waiting to get a few inches bigger.


These are Chiogga beets, they are red and white striped and sooo good.


I just collected more sugar snap peas this morning, the kids love them!


Our radishes are done for the season, they were wonderful.

28 weeks and counting...

I am officially two-thirds of the way done with this pregnancy. I am really enjoying all the aches and pains, but mostly I love feeling this little girl moving and kicking. I know it will be the last time I ever experience the beauty of being pregnant, so I'm just trying to soak it all in.

Clark, who is super talented painted this picture for me, I get emotional that my 14 year old son cares so much! I am so blessed. In case you can't see it too well, it is a stork carrying a pink bundle.

Nate is a winner!

Our bank had a contest to "guess how many M&M's are in the jar" and Nate won! His guess was 1,000 and there were 1,004. Needless to say, all of his siblings were pleased that he won...yeah they're all gone now.