Happy Birthday, Dear Megan!

I can't believe it!  Six years ago today, little Megan Elizabeth graced us with her presence.  I enjoyed a little trip down memory lane today . . .

Happy birthday sweet girl!

Smile!

Meg lost her first tooth!  We discovered that it was loose a few days ago when she complained that her tooth hurt.  She wiggled and wiggled and wiggled, and then finally, I pulled it out.  She was a trooper, and is now very excited!

Here it is!

The tooth fairy was a slacker last night . . . but thankfully she remembered before Meg did.  And, thankfully she happened to have a Sacagawea dollar on hand.  So, now my little peanut running around talking about how the tooth fairy left her a gold dollar.

Right now she has a thank you note in her tooth fairy pillow "Thank you for the gold dollar" with a picture of a horse drawn on it.  So sweet!

Fourth of July

We had a great Fourth of July this year!  We enjoyed several hours at Grandma Pattons house

Fun with the Slip 'n' Slide!

Meg had a great time with Anna (her 2nd cousin)

Ali & Emma decided to play softball this year.  Of course, they changed their minds before their first at bat, but not before Daddy could give Ali some batting tips.  I love it!

Once we left the Pattons, we came back to our house to swim.  Usually we spend the evening with the Alligood family, and we still did that this year . . . but we were short a few!  Jason was in Louisville, and Jonah & Karis were in Indiana with Grammy & Papa.  So we enjoyed our time with Amber & Aubrey . . . but we certainly missed the others!

Emma, Julie, Aubrey, Meg & Ali

The 4 Patton Girlies

There were no fireworks to watch in Pacific on the 4th this year, so Daddy shot off a few in our backyard (a first for us - I don't like fireworks!)  The girls loved watching that (from far away!  : )  )  We also did our usual sparklers, black snakes and whipper snappers.  It was great fun!  Amber & Aubrey even stayed the night, so once the kiddos went to bed, the adults enjoyed some fun chat time!

Pool Progress

Okay, so I've been a slacker in the blog department here lately!  : )

Basically, our lives have been eaten up with outdoor projects . . . namely the pool and the deck.  Here is a brief summary of our progress:

May 20, 2010:  After quite a bit of rain, this is what our pool area looked like.  We had started excavating it ourselves (or I should say, "myself") but Aaron's bum knee made that an insanely ridiculous goal.  We ended up paying our builder to bring in the Bobcat to do it for us!

I didn't take any picture in between these two stages.  Probably because I had no desire to remember what a pain in the rear end this pool was!  : )  A bum knee and RAIN made this a slow process.  Thankfully we have fabulous friends who helped us take down the pool (it was given to us by the son of our old neighbor in Eureka - Thanks John! - so we had to take it apart and move it), move the pool, and put the pool back together.  (A BIG thanks to Jason Alligood, Brian Elliott, Jim Younce, Joel Patton, Mike Thebeau & Craig Tweedy!  I owe you all a pool party!)

June 13, 2010:  The pool is ALMOST all the way together

June 17, 2010:  Swimming for the first time!  Of course, we are having to use Aaron's aluminum ladder to get in and out because we still have no deck to put our deck ladder on!

Four very happy little girls!

We finished the pool and moved almost immediately into building the deck.  (Because of the previously mentioned ladder situation.)  We workd through some heat advisory days (not so much a favorite!) but thankfully had a pool we could jump in every now and then!  : )  By this time, Aaron's knee is doing pretty well, so really, he has done most of the deck building.

June 30, 2010:  Our deck actually has some of the floorboards and the girls get to sit on it for the first time!

They immediately asked if they could name it!  : )  It has now been dubbed "The Cardinal."

I'll post again once the deck is completely done!