It's Time

To get the gate out.



- Posted from my iPhone

Standing

Sam is starting to pull/push up on furniture, toys, us, the bathtub, or whatever is around.  While we were in Blue Ridge I got this video of him on the step up in to the living area of the cabin.

What a Day!

Today we went to Blue Ridge to visit some friends who were up there for the holiday weekend.  It was a beautiful day and we took advantage of it.

We arrived a little before they got back from their morning hike so we explored the area around the river.

After they got back, lunch was started.  Reese helped Maddie season the eggplant.  She loves to help cook!

While the chicken was grilling the girls hung out.  How cute are they all just sitting on this step?

Reese loves eating watermelon!!  She wanted to take her shirt off to keep it dry.

After lunch the plan was to raft down the river.  It was a slow moving river but I was a little timid to take the kids.  We made the decision to do it anyways hoping it would be fun for everyone.  To say the least, we made a bad decision.  Sam would have been fine because he was falling asleep.  Reese, however, hated every single minute!!  It was so stressful!  We obviously have no pictures from this long hour of our life!

After that we went back to the cabin, built a bonfire, and made smores.  This was a first for Reese. 

And she thought they were so yummy!

And we got our family picture today!!  Hooray for us!

Here are our sweet friends!  Thanks for sharing a fun day with us.

Spray Park

We went to the spray park again with some friends earlier this week.  And it was a hit once again.

 

The kids had fun together.  Even though it has only been two months since we were there last it was so funny to watch Sam check it out again.

 

Too cool!

The girls had fun playing together.  It is fun to watch them pick back up right where they left off!

And Baby Caroline was soooo interested in Sam.  She is so cute!

I had a great time visiting with their sweet mommy, too. I love spending time with them!  It is so crazy to me that the girls have now known each other more of their life than not.  We met “Kay-Kay” and her mommy when we started gymnastics.  It was both girls first day and they were about 17.5 months old.  They were so small and sooooo cute!  And now they are both big sisters. Time flies when you’re having fun!

The Sad Truth

Reese’s teacher asked us to send in a family picture for next week because they are talking about families.  I started looking through my files to find one to print.  As I looked, I had THE hardest time finding a picture of all four of us.  The last time we took a family picture was when we were at the beach in JUNE!

And it is not even a good picture!

So I kept going backwards in my files. The most recent family picture I could find was from when we went to Disney…in FEBRUARY!!

Again, horrible picture and Sam could be there or we could just be pretending!!

The next picture I could find was from December and we took it ourselves!

All of our pictures are of the kids or with one of us and the kids.

Seriously!  I am so very sad about this.

So, family and friends, if you are around the four of us and we have our camera will you please offer to take our picture so we can prove to our kids that we were all together most of the time?  Thank you!

Uh-oh

For the last week Sam has been waking up in the middle of the night.  The first few times he wanted to eat and then went right back to sleep.  Tuesday night he was awake from 1:45-4:00 and then again from 5:00 until around 6:00.  Last night he didn’t actually wake up until around 5:30 but that was still too early for me.  He was wide awake and kept saying “uh-oh”.  It was cute and all but it is much cuter in the daylight when I am not sleepy!

Precious!

I bought Reese this dress at a Boutique/Consignment Sale the other day.  I saw it on the rack and had to have it.  $12!!!

I loved the little (long) hood on the back.  She loved the pocket on the front to “keep her hands warm”.

And I love this sweet, sweet face!

Mowgli

This picture is from when I first put Sam down in the grass tonight.  He wasn’t so sure about the feel of it…check out those curled toes.

He finally got adventurous.

And started his Mowgli walk.

 

It cracks me up when he crawls this way.

 

He never does it for long but he does it often.

 

I could just eat those thighs up!

 

I will not be a bit surprised when he starts standing up.  He loves to straighten his legs out.

In Love

Sam LOVES his sister.  I was taking some pictures of him and she walked up.  He started squealing and clapping.  She has her own cheering squad and he has his own personal entertainer.

A Handful

That is Reese!  She is a handful!

This age has been one of the most challenging and fun! 

She has such a big personality.  

I love her so much!  I love her random admissions of love for me too.  They usually come when I am taking a deep breath…ha!  She will hug me and say, “I just love you, Mommy!”

I just love you, too, Reese-y!

“Hopscotch”

Reese created this “hopscotch” through the kitchen today. 

Then Sam found it and wanted to play.

But Reese was not interested in sharing…this is her mean face.

Fast Asleep

After a week away, Lance has been spending a good bit of time with the kids while I do, well, nothing.  Ha!

Saturday night Lance was pushing the kids in the swing while I went to the grocery store and made dinner.  While he was pushing them Sam fell asleep.

He was still holding on.  And he was out.  It was so sweet to see.  My kids don’t just fall asleep places so this was too funny.

Tonight Lance took some pictures of Sam.  This picture is not very good but it shows all of his teeth.  The other two bottom ones have just now cut the gums so you can’t see them yet.

I need to do a better job of taking pictures. Hopefully I can do that this week now that we will be back in to our somewhat normal routine.