Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Hot, Humid, Happy Days

Whew...it is definitely summer! We are giving thanks for AC and the pool (when we can make it), popsicles and shade! Here's a little of what we've been up to the last few weeks:

Singing along with Johnette Downing at the library...


Visiting the zoo with friends...





Celebrating Father's Day with the wonderful Daddy at our house...


Meeting another special guest at the library (Daisy the potbelly pig)



and lots of playtime inside.



A few things you might have heard recently if you were a fly on our wall:
-Plenty of (the closest thing our little Southern belles can get to) British accents during the imaginative "games" the girls play daily, often while galloping around the house on their horse (aka my broom, whose stable is, conveniently, in the laundry room)
-SJ's typical reply to questions warranting a response of "I am": "I'm is!"
-LL, the day after she was disciplined for telling me a lie: "I'm glad I didn't lie [today] because if I lied I'd be miserable when I grew up like Adam and Eve."
-SJ when T comes in from work: "I'm so glad you're home, Daddy!!!"
-AG, totally serious after hearing Grandpa tell us one of her almost-teenage cousins had recently told her own parents they "aren't cool anymore": "You mean like their air conditioner is not working?"
-LL, about a boy she saw at the pool on vacation: "His name is Marco. He was playing a game with his sister and she was closing her eyes and saying 'Marco, where are you?'"

"Back Home" Part 3

We finished our week away with a night at Gran and PopPop's house. The girls went in ready to do some of their usual activities, like dressing up (in some of my old dance costumes...I could never have imagined that they would be appreciated so much after all this time!)...


going for walks...

picking blueberries, going to the town library and visiting Mr. Furr's service station to say hello and receive his predictable and kind gift of candy!

We also had a great visit with my friend H and two of her children, A and L. We are always so amazed and grateful to recognize again when we are together just how blessed we have been since our friendship started back in high school. It is really sweet to see our kids have fun together.


The kids got to see water drawn from the well on the back porch. (Kind of gives a new perspective on what I consider the challenges of bathing the kids!)


And we wished PopPop a happy Father's Day a few days early!


It was a fun trip, start to finish!

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

"Back Home" Part 2

The kids and I spent the first part of last week with Nana after both T and Grandpa went back to work on Monday morning. There was plenty to keep us busy, but the main event for the girls was VBS (their first one ever!) each morning. Nana was helping, so she ran the VBS shuttle to the church each morning while I hung out with a napping RL and had some good, quiet, restful hours...a sort of daily retreat! LL and SJ were together in the preschool class, while AG was in a class for rising first graders. It was a little hard for AG the first day when she realized she was on her own in largely unfamiliar territory, but she hung in there and went back to the same class on day 2 (instead of going in with her sisters) and ended up having a really good time. I was so proud of her and glad for all 3 to have the chance to do something so different and fun. RL and I went each morning for the closing assembly so we could get a little peek into the action...talk about high energy! The girls are still singing the songs they learned there. Here's Nana with the kids after Day 2:


The girls helped pick peppers and tomatoes in the garden. (I don't know what is up with our camera in some of these...but I kind of imagine it is capturing the humidity we were feeling!)


Nana and the girls playing "red light green light" with the hose...


RL eating supper sitting up on the floor!


LL diving in for a swim...


LL and SJ conked out the night before T left while he was reading Narnia to them...


Playing beauty shop with Nana...always a hit!


And RL's wakefulness during the night did have its perks!

8 Months

Today marks 8 months since our little guy arrived! It seems like he's progressed a few months worth in just the last week or so. He really just started sitting up totally unassisted without alot of wobbling right before we went on our road trip, and now he is getting up on his hands and knees and rocking like he is almost ready to crawl. In the meantime, though, he can get where he wants to go with an army crawl/inchworm combo..."creeping" I guess? When I put him down on a blanket in the middle of the floor with toys on it, he stays about half a minute before he's off to explore the periphery of the room. Watch out, sisters! He is going to be out to get all those fun things they leave lying around. Just yesterday AG said, "Mom, L is into everything!" I'm sure this is just the beginning for this little explorer! Here's a video from today...I was hoping to get the hands and knees pose, but a little creeping was all I could get.


A few things I want to remember:
He does this little gravelly coo, like a gentle growl, alot...so precious!
He's enjoying picking up little finger foods like puffs, cheerios, and bits of bread.
He loves to put everything in his mouth and is a great drooler, but so far no teeth have broken through. I can see them right near the surface, though, so those bottom two could be showing up anytime.
Ralph is still his sleeptime essential! Thankfully I tracked down another one which he quickly initiated into the wet stinky ear club, so now we can have one to wash while the other gets chewed on!
He doesn't really drink from a sippy cup yet, but he thinks they are lots of fun to bang and throw down.

Our Week "Back Home", Part 1

Weekend before last we began what for us was a pretty elaborate, though not very far, road trip, which included visits with both sets of grandparents, a trip to our college town to visit my aunt and uncle and go to a wedding, a ballet event, and then the kids and me staying 4 more days to do various fun things while T came back to work. Thankfully all the driving and logistics went well, and apart from a certain little someone who seems to have grown up enough to know when he's not in his crib and decided to let us hear about it a few times each night, it was a really good time!

During our visit with Uncle Mike and Aunt Cherri our girls made great strides in their comfort around dogs...a big deal since AG and LL especially have always been pretty fearful around them up til now. With 3 sweet full-grown Weimies (I don't know if I spelled that right but I won't even try to spell the full name!), 5 new Weimie puppies, a shy poodle, a friendly terrier, and a passle of super-excited bird dogs around, the girls had plenty of exposure and were soon convinced that they didn't need to go into panic mode as soon as a dog looked or moved their direction! Aunt Cherri and Uncle Mike were great hosts and made us all feel right at home! Here's Cherri introducing the girls to Barney Fife, the poodle who definitely won them over.



Uncle Mike showing the girls one of the quail he raises...a neat thing for them to get to see. I definitely don't consider us a "city family" who are starved for nature encounters, but I have been thinking more that I'd like to be more active in getting the kids out and doing and seeing more new things. It is such fun to see how they respond uniquely to interesting new situations and how much they learn.


T and I went to the wedding of a friend of his from college that night, and the next morning we were back on the road...RL was set with his favorite puppy dog, Ralph. Ear in mouth, ready to roll.


After a quick trip to Nana and Grandpa's to have lunch and recharge for a few minutes, the kids and I met Gran and PopPop to go to the first round of the International Ballet Competition. The girls especially enjoyed this...it was really neat to see dancers from around the world!


More to come!

Saturday, June 19, 2010

June Boom

So we got back home from vacation the Saturday before Memorial Day and hit the ground running...it has been a super busy month so far! Our weekdays and weekends have been filled with fun, friends, and family. The first weekend of June we went to Mimi and PawPaw's house to celebrate Father's Day early with all the family. We had a great time...we really treasure these times with PawPaw and Mimi!

Most of the family there that day...


The first RLP and the fourth RLP!


1 and 4 plus 2 and 3= 4 generations of handsome :)


Mimi and PawPaw with all of our sweet Ps!


Mimi plays piggy toes with RL


RL eats his piggy toes with Nana


RL hanging out with cousin A


SJ really liked PawPaw's old tiger beret...as I'm sure many people in our town would!


Sweet moments and sweet smiles

Wednesday, June 02, 2010

General Beach Cuteness







Beach Vacation, Part 2

Our fun at the beach continued during the second part of the week as PopPop and Gran came to join us. More pool, more beach, more sun and fun for all! A highlight for the girls was burying PopPop in the sand and painting his toenails green! (Too bad I wasn't there with the camera for that one!) Thanks, Gran and PopPop, for coming along for some sun, sand, and silliness!





Beach Vacation, Part 1

We got back home Saturday after spending a week at the beach. Nana and Grandpa joined us for the first 3 days and we had a great time swimming in the pool, playing at the beach, playing mini golf, and just hanging out! RL touched the ocean for the first time on his 7 month birthday...not too impressed overall, but he was a trooper throughout the trip considering how much sun and nap-schedule switching he was asked to endure. The girls loved it all of course! One day we had a surprise visitor on our beach blanket...see if you can spot him below. Thanks for making so many fun memories with us, Nana and Grandpa!