Here are some random pictures from this month:

Hailey

I love these 2 soooo much!!

Hunter

Hunter

Hailey and I had a girls day, it was so much fun!!  We started out having lunch at Friendly’s.  Yummy and so nice to just sit and talk to my little miss.  She is growing up so fast.

After lunch we went and saw Monsters University.  We loved it!

We finished up our girls day by having our nails done.  It was such a nice day and Hailey made me so happy when she said it was the best day ever   And I agreed- it was a perfect day!!

Hailey and Hunter love playing the piano.  Hunter also loves wearing his hat and sunglasses all the time.

Rich had a little fun with us while we were working on an art project.

Hailey had to try out the eyes too!

And that was the end of July

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Miracle-Gro for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

If you have ever been to our house then you know that the front steps leading up to our front door were a mess. They were very uneven and needed to be redone.  I didn't get before picture, but I took one soon after Rich started the work.

You can see where he started digging to build the new steps… the old steps have dirt piled on them that he dug out of the ground to build the new steps.  You can kind of see how crooked the old steps were.

Here are the new steps all beautifully built.  Rich put a wall where the old steps were and filled it in with dirt.  The flowers were waiting to be planted.

This is up at the top of the stairs, it goes along the front of our house.

Deciding where to put the flowers.

I don't have great luck with flowers, they never seem to do very well for me.  Instead of just using the dirt that Rich dug up from where our new steps are, I thought it would be best to use some Miracle-Gro.  Some good products to use are: Shake n’ Feed Moisture Control All Purpose Plant Food and Moisture Control Potting Mix or LiquaFeed All Purpose Plant Food Advance Starter Kit. We shall see how it goes   If you have your own little fun garden projects, you can check out The Gro Project to start your own story.

Here are the completed steps with the flowers planted.

I'm hoping the flowers will do well!  Don't forget to check out Miracle-Gro on Pinterest too, so you can get some gardening ideas!

We took some family pictures while we were at the beach.  I’m convinced that when you see pictures of families on the beach that they can’t really be taken on the beach.  It was so windy, so all of us had hair blowing every which way.  And everyone was either squinting or wearing their sunglasses.  Anyway, I still think we got some good pictures!

Grandma and Pa with Hunter and Hailey

All of us

All of us again

Me, Rich, Hunter and Hailey… this represents Hunter perfectly

Ellie and Matt

My parents, with Rich photobombing

The girls

The guys

Uncle Mike and Hunter

Us

A couple of months ago my sister in law had this great idea- we (my family, my brother Matt and his wife Ellie, and my brother Mike) would all rent a house near the beach and surprise my parents on their anniversary weekend.  My parents have been trying for years to get everyone to rent a house near the beach, so it would be the perfect surprise.  Since Rich and I live near my parents we kidnapped them and took them away to their surprise.  We told them the weather report and gave them some instructions for what to bring.  They had a couple of ideas of where they thought they might be going, but I don’t think they actually knew.  They seemed surprised- so either they are good actors and we surprised them

We arrived at the house in the evening and got all settled in and had some dinner.  Then we headed out to the beach.

Hailey at the ocean for the first time.

Hailey and Rich

Hunter with Aunt Ellie

Hailey loved it!

I love this expression as a wave was coming in.

Hunter loved it too!

The next morning we got up and got ready and headed back to the beach.

I love these little footprints in the sand:

Hunter and Pa

Hailey and Uncle Matt

Hunter enjoying the beach:

Hailey enjoying the beach:

Hailey, Rich and Hunter

Hailey burying Uncle Matt

Hunter “resting”

Rich and Ellie worked pretty hard on this sand castle

The next day I didn’t take very many pictures at the beach, but here are some that I did take:

Mike- “I am smiling.”

Hunter enjoying the ocean

Mike tried to take a nap, but woke up and found he had been buried.

Hailey loved being at the ocean!!