Our Summer So Far

Summer is not my favorite time of year, but we’re making it! Summer is not too different in the life of a pre-schooler and toddler, except that it’s too hot to play outside, we have one less day of MDO, no Ladies Bible Class, and a lot of people are in and out of town at church. It’s good to miss those things, though, and appreciate them all the more when they’re back! The best parts of this summer have been the little bit that Matthew, Thomas, and Mary Beth have been out of school and not out of town. We had them over almost every day the first couple of weeks of summer. The other great part is all of the time we’ve gotten to spend in the water. I get tired of it at some point, usually in July, but we’ve had lots of fun in the water. James has really enjoyed all of our water activities so far this summer. Jack, for the most part, loves getting wet, too. He usually has a look like, “I’m not sure what’s going on, but I like this!” We’ve walked to the splashpark, run over and over down our slip-n-slide, played in the backyard pool, gone swimming, run through our sprinklers, and just simply played with the water hose. We’ve been thankful for the milder than usual summer we’ve had here! This has been the best year that I can remember for weather here. We’ve had lots of cozy, rainy days, where I’ve opened the back door to listen to the pouring rain or held James in the rocking chair on the back porch while watching the rain.

Josh and I had a wonderful 8th anniversary on June 29th. I took the day off from MDO, and dropped the kids off so Josh and I could go on a date! Celebrating our anniversary is always such a nice treat. I love to reminisce together about our wedding day, honeymoon, past anniversaries, and our favorite moments together since we’ve been married. I am baffled by how quickly these 8 years have gone by. This year, I picked Josh up from work, and we went to Cafe Cappuccino for a delicious lunch. Then we headed home to watch our DVD and look at wedding pictures. After that, we spent about 15 minutes at Starbucks, before I took Josh back up to work. At that point, it was time to pick the kids back up!

We had a fun 4th of July weekend. Saturday night, we had my parents over for a laid-back evening together. We had a delicious feast, mostly prepared by my mom, and then we all sat around in the living room laughing at the kids and seeing who had the best shot into the basketball goal (I think it was me:)). Sunday night, we had a cookout with our life group and one other. Monday night, we had my parents and the Barnhills over for another fun night with delicious leftovers. Their family had just gotten back from a week on Cape Cod and had been gone the week before that as well, so we were all happy to see each other. The kids ran around with tons of energy from the excitement of seeing each other.

Another memorable thing about this summer is that Josh has been studying like crazy for his CFP test that coming up next week!!!! He’s been studying for over a year, and as each month has approached, he’s had to bump up his studying time. We miss him like crazy, and we’re all so ready for this to be behind us. It has a high fail rate, so we’re praying and praying for him to pass and not have to think about this anymore!

That about sums up our summer so far!

Jack

Glimpses of Life from the Cell Phone

This is a post of random cell phone pictures taken over the past 8 months. A couple of my friends have posted cell phone pic posts, and I enjoyed seeing little random, not posed, glimpses of their lives, so I thought I'd do the same!

This cracks me up...James in my old glasses from 7th grade!

Jack after his bath

getting his hair cut snuggled up on Daddy

James took this picture of me reading Twilight. :)

A fun trip to the zoo with Matthew (aka Manny)

This cracks me up, too. James apparently took a picture of Jack while he was sleeping. You can tell it startled him. I had no idea he had done this, so Jack either woke up and James ran out of the room and never told me, or Jack went back to sleep.

James took this of me talking on the phone without me knowing....

I love this picture

My boys singing me "Happy Mother's Day to you..."

watching the national championship game

Josh's

James fell asleep with a sucker in his mouth one night out

James and Ella Kate...James looked so grown up to me here.

Josh thought this was picture-worthy. :)

summer regional 2010

We headed to one of James's highlights of the year, the Summer Regional meeting with Josh's work, this past weekend! The boys had a great time. It was challenging traveling with the kids this go-around, but we had some fun moments in there that made it a nice weekend away. James had a blast and was so sad to leave. He and Josh went to the pool Saturday afternoon while Jack slept and I read, and they had a really fun time together. Josh said he would have still been going down the slide that night if he'd have let him. Below is a video of the first night there. All of the kids got up and introduced themselves (and their younger siblings) to the whole region! It was really funny and cute. Listen closely to what James said when asked, "What does your brother like to do around the house?"
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19 months!

Jack is just growing up so much lately. Over this past month, he has hit a language growth spurt and is loving practicing his skills in putting words together. He talks in such a sweet, grown-up way. He reminds me of a proper British boy, very intentional and calm. He little sayings that he loves to say over and over again right now are:

-Wheh's tha moo-moo? (Where's the moon?)
-" " Mama, Daddy, Mae-Mae, book, boon (balloon), ball, etc."
-I dee-dee! (I get it)
-Uh-oh, Wheh's Daddy? (right when he walks away)
-Ah-non (All done or All gone...He says this as a question when I'm putting medicine on him and it hurts...so pitiful)
-Wha-zah? (What's that? I love the way he says this.)
-Whe go? (while lifting up his hands)
-tuh-tuh-choo-choo! (chugga chugga choo-choo)


He has been so affectionate lately. He'll just come over and plant a big kiss on my lips out of nowhere. Every time he gets picked up by Josh or me, he hugs, pats, and just snuggles in as tightly as he can. This has been a wonderful and easy month with him! I can't say the same for his older brother right now, but that's a whole 'nother blog! It seems like when one's easy, the other decides to be challenging.

I got his 18 months height and weight in the middle of the month, and he's in the 37th for weight and 44th for height.

A funny thing he does is he screams "Wooow!" when he builds a tower of blocks or sees something big, like a crane or digger on the road. He has the highest pitch scream that hurts my ears every time!

He likes to pretend to go nigh-nigh in brother's bed. He'll lay his head on his pillow for a while, while I sing to him.

He grabs my hand to do something, like point to a picture in a book, and sometimes he'll grab his own other hand and make it point to something.

He LOVES spray parks and running through the sprinkler.

We've finally gotten to the point where we put him down and just walk out at night. He usually doesn't cry anymore, but if he does, it's just for a moment, and then he lays back down to go to sleep.

He likes to look at me and get a sudden serious, pouty face on. I'll copy the face, and then he'll die laughing.

"Mur-Beff"

One of James's favorite people in the world is Mary Beth Barnhill ("Mur-Beff" as James calls her). They have such a funny, adorable little relationship that keeps our family laughing every time we're together. These two are very energetic, spunky kiddos, and put together, their energy grows to even greater heights. :) They have rubbed off on each other to where they say some of the same things and make similar faces. James cries to be with Mary Beth and prays for her every night without fail. I hope they always remain close. I'm sure James will love having a connection with the older girls when they're in high school together! I had to post these pictures of them running around together after one of Matthew's programs.

...And future best friends in the making!