Rain, etc.

We had a nice rain shower one evening last week, and T took the girls out back to play in it. They had so much fun running around and splashing in the puddles. Even SJ got to experience it! She was fascinated with how it dripped off the roof!

"We're soaked!"


This photo is not rain-related, but it was taken later that night when I went in to peek at SJ. She was sound asleep when I found her like this!

Taking Another Spin...

Week before last we also had a visit from Gran and PopPop. On Saturday morning we took the girls to ride the carousel again, and of course they had a great time!

Nana-o-Rama

Last week Nana came for a short but fun-filled visit. She got here Tuesday afternoon in time for some good playtime with the girls.



Of course, in addition to lots of swinging and silliness from the girls, there was plenty of sweetness to go around!


The next morning we went to the last storytime of the summer at the library and then to pick up a few beach toys (only a few weeks to wait!) and have lunch at Chick-Fil-A, topped off by ice cream cones...


and showing Nana their sliding ability on the playscape there. AG mastered this one a while back, but LL just went down the slide for the first time a few weeks ago. However, she proudly declared, "I'm not scared of the slide!" and, as you can see, she and AG had a great time going down it over and over.



Thanks for coming, Nana! We all enjoyed having you here!

Playing Tag

I'd heard about babies who liked tags on their blankets before, but since neither of our first two seemed to notice tags at all, this was something I never gave much thought. Now, however, we have a serious "taggie" of our own. SJ finds every tag on every reachable item and claims it in her tight little grip or, if she's in the mood, carries out a tag taste test. Stuffed animals of all sizes seem to be the most common, but pretty much all toys (including her sisters' doll strollers) are fair game. Here she is last week, carrying out her usual playtime routine while Nana was here to observe!




*Thanks to Nana for the "catchy" title! :)

What she's been thinking...

Last night at bedtime, LL asked, "Why did Uncle David write "The Lord is my shepherd?""

Exuberance

If you look up the word "exuberant" in the dictionary, you will find it means "Joyously unrestrained and enthusiastic." Then you'll see this picture:



This is the word I think of all the time when I watch LL just being LL!

Yesterday was exactly 3 months until her 3rd birthday, and she's been talking about her party already for weeks. We spent the day with Nana doing lots of fun things (I'll post more about that later!).

A few cute LL stories from the last month:

One day she was putting on a dress-up dress (happens a few times daily...) and had it backwards, so I told her, "Take it off and spin it around." A second later I looked back and she was holding it up in front of her, twirling around! Then she was ready to put it back on!

One day, weeks ago, she asked me, "Who is Rocko Bama?" AG said, "L, it's Barak Obama!" (I had no idea they knew stuff like this...) Then LL asked, "What's Clinton's name?" Little ears pick up a lot from my morning news show!

She loves to play a little game by saying (really quickly, it's so automatic...)
"I'm not going to give you another big hug...FROWN!" Then when you look sad, she immediately jumps on you with a huge hug and screams, "SURPRISE!!!"

A Few New Views

The girls all dressed up in their ladybug dresses before church last Sunday (don't miss T's finished built-in cabinets in the background!)


A rare moment of SJ getting to sit on the couch with her big sisters


Cute choo choo!


Red, white (Mommy's, not pictured!), and blue!


Hope y'all have a great time celebrating this 4th of July!

Ready, Set, Swing!

The girls are still loving their swingset, and we moved SJ's swing onto it so they can all 3 swing side by side. Seeing how much fun they have makes it worth facing the heat and humidity!


Of course the slide is lots of fun, too. LL loves to raise up her arms and legs and see how fast she can go, and she also likes to slide like this...


AG has learned to not only get on the swing by herself, but now can also get herself going, and she's really proud of this accomplishment!


Our swinging sweetie!

OK, I take it back!

This is actually a follow up to my last post, which, for good reason was just published a few minutes ago although I wrote it two days ago. You many want to scroll down and read it first so you can get the full effect.

So I left it incomplete, since at that very moment I was interrupted by a HUGE POP!!!, followed by the sound of shattering glass and our electricity flicking off momentarily. All the girls were down for naps, and as I'd said, the weather was ominous, but when I typed those words describing our recent weather patterns, little did I know what we were about to experience. I didn't know what had happened but I knew glass had broken in our house and I could smell a burning smell, so I went and got AG, who was still awake and immediately dialed T at work, asking him to come home while I walked from room to room looking for the broken glass. When I walked into our living room, this is what I saw...


One of the two trees in our front yard, the one that is only about 10 feet from the house, had been struck by lightning! Panes from two windows in our living and dining rooms had been broken out by debris, which was all over our front yard,


and when T came in he said most of the bark had been stripped off the top of the tree. After the storm passed we were able to go out and take a closer look and a few pictures, which at least give an idea of the damage. We could see that one of the big upper limbs had been hit and was bare, and then it came all the way down the trunk and went into the ground.



There were big shreds of the inside of the tree on the roofs of several houses across the street from us! Here's a shot of T and the girls with one of the bigger pieces of bark...there were dozens of pieces almost this big.


T spent the rest of the evening cleaning up the yard and visiting with dozens of neighbors who stopped by to take a closer look, then yesterday we had people out to fix our AC and phone/internet, which all got messed up with the surge. Tonight we discovered our washer is also not working right, but all in all we have realized that considering what could have happened with the tree being SO huge and SO close to our house, the damage could have been much worse. We are so grateful to all be safe and our house relatively undamaged.

The saddest thing is that the tree, and its siamese twin, will have to be removed. AG said, "Where will we get another tree like that?" It's funny how some trees become really special, and these have worked their way into many of our days in our almost two years here, serving as a frequent photo spot and AG's starting line for her "exercises" (she runs from between the trees across to the other side of the yard and back). We will miss them! And even though I know God is in control of everything, I will not ever talk behind the weather's back like that again!

Oh, the fun never stops!

There have been a few days recently where we came home from the Y a bit disappointed because thunder kept us out of the pool...we haven't even gotten too much rain, but have had lots of days where the weather delivers "more bark than bite." Even as I write this, the pre-rain claps of thunder are so loud that AG just called me to ask "what is that?" Anyway, a few times we've come home and just played in the yard in the sprinkler or pool since there was no sign of bad weather by the time we got here. Last week the girls figured out they could run through the sprinkler and get close enough to it to get a "slap" of water, which AG especially thought was lots of fun!

SJ's first teeth (two bottom middle) came through the day before Father's Day, and I noticed them while we were swimming during our visit with Nana and Grandpa! She's been pretty cool about the whole teething thing

Father's Day Weekend, Part 2

After our visit with Gran and PopPop, we headed to Nana and Grandpa's for a few days. We all went to a downtown market on Saturday morning (this is where the picture of the girls on the swan was taken, outside Wyatt Waters' studio), went swimming, and the girls got to feed the neighbors' rabbit a carrot!

Below: Sweet baby atop a pile of clean laundry, AG feeding SJ her breakfast one morning while Grandpa supervised, and the (ecstatic) girls giving T his cookie cake on Father's Day. (A bit of T trivia: cookie cakes are one of his favorite desserts... he chose them as his groom's cake for our reception!)

Thanks to Grandpa and Nana for a wonderful time!

Father's Day Weekend, Part 1

We went to visit our parents (more often known as Gran and PopPop, Nana and Grandpa!) for Father's Day weekend and all had such a good time with them. The first stop was at Gran and PopPop's for a night, where the girls visited the turtles (morning, noon, and night!), watched for trains, jumped on the neighbors' trampoline, and fed a neighbor's horse. SJ had her first bath in their neat bathtub, which she loved! The other pictures below were taken after lunch at one of our favorite places (because our rehearsal dinner was held there and because the food is sooooo good...a truly special place all around!) Thanks for a fun time, Gran and PopPop!

A Special Dress...4 Months Later

SJ was baptized on Feb. 3, and that day I didn't manage to get any good pictures of her in her special dress from my great Aunt Brookie. Since then I've been meaning to take some, and finally, a few weeks ago, I did. The dress is a 9 month size, but it didn't seem too big back in February, so I was just hoping she's still fit in it! Thankfully it still fit well, even though SJ has obviously grown alot and, as you can tell from the pictures, is much more active than she was when she last wore the dress on her baptism day. It was pretty much impossible to get a picture where she wasn't examining or chewing the ribbon on her blanket or picking grass!

Little Fish

AG finished up swim lessons this week. She enjoyed them alot and is now much more comfortable in the water. Before these lessons, she would barely put her nose for more than a second, and now she will go completely under and hold her breath for a few moments. Yesterday we went to the pool and she kept "swimming" back and forth in the kiddie area, so proud of what she could do. She basically throws herself forward into the water, then kicks and moves her arms until she needs to take a breath, then stands back up. We are glad she has made some progress, but I think now we have to be even more watchful of her than we did when she was not so brave!






LL is loving swimming too, although she is not taking lessons this summer. Yesterday she and AG were taking turns "jumping" off the bottom step in the kiddie pool and "catching" each other! LL was holding her arms out to AG like she does when she is about to catch a ball!

The Happiest Baby on the Block

I can't prove it for sure, but I can't imagine a more predictably happy and easygoing baby! She is an amazing sleeper these days, and when she's awake, she is so content and delightful, wherever and whatever we are doing. What a blessing!

Early signs of itsy bitsy spider or maybe a wave? She is always wiggling her arms and legs, flapping like a little butterfly.


Out in the heat at one of AG's final swim lessons, and still smiling...still no teeth!

Hanging out this afternoon with her Daddy and AG.

It's a wonderful life!

We went to SJ's 9 month appointment this morning...hard to believe! She is doing well all around and improving on her ability to get where she wants to go in her own little crooked inchworm style. We catch her occasionally getting her tummy off the floor, but she has a way to go before she'll be crawling, I think. She is expanding her menu of finger foods and loves to giggle and play with her sisters.