Family

Family. At the end of the day, that and Jesus are what keep me going. They're the people that make my days busy and the people that I wouldn't trade one minute with for anything. 

Summer Evenings

These are my favorite summer nights. The ones where we eat at home and have time to enjoy each other. Even though being outside feels miserable, it's still where the kids want to be. Last night, we enjoyed a meal of (drum roll...) leftovers, went for a very hot walk/jog and came back to play in the sprinkler. It was simple and just what we all needed. 

"Baby" the Paci Bear

Today was a big day for my little girl. She grew up. A lot. Every time I'm proud of her, my heart simultaneously hurts. She has potty trained and now gotten rid of paci. Our next step will be a big girl bed. We have talked to her for about a week now about getting rid of paci, since she is a big girl. We decided to make it a special moment for her and take her to the Build A Bear store in the mall and let her choose a bear to put her paci inside of. She was very excited and seemed to handle it very well. The distraction of having a new bear was great, but now we'll see if she actually sleeps without it. 

She chose her bear and helped the lady put stuffing inside. She was quite apprehensive. I'm not sure if that was because of losing her paci or having to talk to a stranger. 

She chose a heart to put inside. 

And next, in went paci. No tears were shed! (Ok, ok. Mama's tears don't count!)

She got to give Baby a bath.

And choose some clothes for her. She chose a tutu :)

And she made Baby's birth certificate. 

Now time to pay for Baby. 

And she got to choose some bows for her. 

And ta-da! Good job Savannah! Mommy was so proud of you! 

Back Porch Pool Fun

When it's way too hot to play outside and you have kids with way too much energy to play inside, what do you do? Put as much water into the pool as you can and fill them with popsickles! It works, trust me ;) 

Doughnut Date

We love to treat our sweeties occasionally and this was a fun trip to Krispy Kreme just because :) 

First Soccer Season in the Books

When we first had children, I always looked forward to our first seasons of watching our babies play sports. Well, Porter just finished his first soccer season and it was even better than I expected. We decided we weren't going to push him at all into doing sports, but this was his idea and he was ready. He started out very shy, but ended up doing really well and even scored goals at 2 games. He really loved his coach, Coach Troy. He came out of his shell some and watching him build his confidence was amazing. But the best moment of the season was watching him win an award for being the "best listener". He was such a good boy and made very good choices. Way to go Porter!!!! 

Sullivan at 9 months

Sweet baby Sullivan is now 9 whole months old. The last 9 months have been a bit of a roller coaster ride with him, but some things I'd like to remember are: 

-he can sit up, but still topples occasionally 

-he rolls around incredibly fast and seems to get wherever he wants to be by doing so

-he is raising up on his arms, but not crawling yet

-he will eat any fruit or vegetable I purée, but bread is most definitely his food of choice! 

-he is a mama's boy to the core 

-he is very apprehensive with strangers, but will still wave and smile 

-he takes 4 bottles each day

-he takes 2 2-3 hour naps during the day and sleeps 8-8 at night 

-he loves car rides now 

-he likes his paci, but doesn't seem as obsessed as the other 2 were 

-he does really well going out to eat or hanging out in his stroller 

-being in his stroller is the only way he stays in nursery on Sunday 

-he weighs 19 lbs 6 oz and is 29.5 inches long 

-he is saying "mama" and "bye"

-he can sign "more" and "eat", but only does them selectively 

(Porter and Savannah asked if they could "help" with Sullivan's pictures :)

Weekend playtime

This weekend began our first heatwave of the summer. And it seemed like the perfect time to break out the kiddie pools and picnic table umbrella. The kids had a blast. They jumped from pool to pool, enjoyed Popsicles, drank some likely dirty pool water, splashed and made huge messes. It was awesome! 

Boys' Night/Girls' Night

Porter has been all about baseball lately, so Sean decided to surprise him with a trip to go see the Tourists play. He was elated to spend time with just him and daddy. The plan was $1 hot dogs and watching the fireworks after the game, but pizza sounded better once they got there and due to a rain delay, they didn't make it through to the end of the game, but they had a great time! 

Savannah, Sullivan and I stayed home and had fun here. Savannah's dinner of choice was macaroni and chocolate milk. 

We read books and went for a walk to look for rainbows after the rainstorm. When Sullivan went to bed, Savannah and I enjoyed some girl time painting toenails and watching princess shows. Have I mentioned lately how much I love having such a girly little girl?!