Summer FUN!

A couple weekends ago we had a cookout with our neighbors. Here's Emma and Anna playing in the pool.

And here's Leif and Drew - who kept running and doing cannonballs into the pool!

Last week, I took the kids to the Birkdale Fountains - and they loved it!



It took Emma awhile to actually touch the water. She kept running around it, and checking out everyone's snacks. But she got daring and got wet after awhile!

Here she is trying to figure out how to get the water in her bucket.

Pure excitement!

Last weekend Drew had soccer on Saturday morning. Chad volunteered to be one of the parent "tigers" where the kids chase them and try to get the red "tails." Here's Drew chasing him.

And here's Drew working on his dribbling.

This was by far his best practice - he was paying attention and doing really well the whole time - and he was breaking a sweat!

They have drink breaks several times - and he loves to use his Cars 2 waterbottle Aunt Judy sent him!

And they always finish up practice with every kid making a goal!

Then after soccer, we headed to Raleigh to celebrate Olivia's birthday! The kids (and Chad) had a blast climbing and jumping around at the party.

Here's Drew and Gracie (Olivia's BFF) jumping together. =)

This past week, Drew has been going to Vacation Bible School in the evenings. It is at the church that he will be going to preschool at next fall. He LOVED it! Tonight was the final performance, and the preschoolers did a few songs with singing and dancing! Drew (of course) was very serious, but he did really good following along. (he's in the front with the striped shirt.)

The video won't upload right now...I'll post it later! It's very cute! Drew's FIRST performance!

One night while Drew was at VBS and Chad was out of town working, Emma was being so silly, I had to pull out the camera! She used to use sign language to say "more" and "all done." But all of a sudden she started nodding her head! It was really cute, and of course she wouldn't do it as dramatically as she was before I got the camera out!




Her favorite song is "Old McDonald had a farm." If you sing the song with her, she'll say the "EIEIO" at the appropriate time!! haha

She knows A LOT of words and phrases...just can't say them yet! If I tell her to do something ("go get your milk." "Get your shoes and sit down so I can put them on.") - she totally understands and does it! She might be a little smarty pants like her brother, but just hasn't been as vocal as he was. But here she is being silly...and her dress was REALLY messy...so that's why she's half dressed!

Summer is here!

...here's pictures from a couple weeks ago...

When you live in the ONLY neighborhood in the area that doesn't have a pool...you have to make do! We've had so many days in the 90s already - so we pulled out the blow up pool for the kids! Here's Chad and the kids. I love Emma's face! And look at Chad and Drew's eyes/eyebrows...identical!

Me and the kids...before the pool had warmed up!


The Ladybug bikini!

Popsicle break!! Both kids LOVE popsicles!

They are so silly! Chad calls Emma's little dresses and rompers her "Cindy Brady dresses."

She left these glasses on the whole time we were hanging out! Hopefully she'll wear them when we go to the beach.

Emma loves the chair that Drew got for Christmas. She figured out quickly how to climb in and sit in it. Well, just recently, she also learned how to stand up and jump in it! yes, I usually tell her "no" and end up folding it up and hiding it...but I had to get a picture of the naughty little thing. She's always looking at me, smiling, while she does it!

The other day I was doing some work on the computer, and it seemed really quiet, so I peaked around the corner and this is what I saw! So sweet! They had all the books pulled out and were reading together!

It has been one year today since my grandma passed away. Here are the daisies from her house growing strong in our yard!

I absolutely LOVE how Emma is attached to the blanket my grandma made just for her. She sleeps with it every night and at naptime, and will drag it around if we let it escape her crib. "Emma" is the girl's name that my grandma told me she liked, and I loved the name. I like to think that Emma has a special connection to my grandma, and I know she's watching over her. Love you, Grandma!

Memorial Weekend in Indiana

Last week, a tree fell on my parents' garage in a bad storm. We almost cancelled our yearly Memorial Weekend trip to Indiana, but we came anyway! It was amazing to see just how BIG the tree was!

I think we're all just so thankful it was the garage, and not the actual house! And especially not their new addition on the house!

Here's Drew telling Parker and Will all about the tree and how it fell.

And Emma didn't seem to notice the tree. But she was laughing at my sister while we all checked it out.

The workers got their cherry picker stuck in the mud and left it...so we thought it would be a good idea to get the boys up there! Drew and Will were excited about it, but Parker took some convincing that it was a good idea!

Here's Parker and Emma in the wagon.

The boys got to play in the creek!


And Emma was not going to be left out of this activity! Chad rolled her pants up and dipped her feet in too!

And she liked the motorcycle too!

Here's Parker, Drew and Will eating dinner at the bar. It gave us more room at the table and worked out great to have them eat over there. And I think they all three ate ALL their food, which was a first! haha

Drew in the creek - with Mr. Tree watching from behind!

On Sunday, it's tradition for us to go to my brother's house to swim and listen to the Indy 500 on the radio (and my brother always figures out a way to get it on his computer and hook it up to their big screen to watch it too, even though it's blacked out in the Indy area).

Here's Chad and the three boys in the pool.

And my brother gave the boys rides on the big turtle-thing. Drew wasn't too sure about it! Parker and Will are so comfortable in the water since they swim about every day - Parker doesn't even use anything to help him float!


Emma rode in the float for a little while.


But then she decided she needed to get out and swim on her own! She liked being thown up in the air!

We took turns throwing her up.


Here's Will with his silly goggles that kept filling up with water!

Cheese! (Emma actually started saying, "Cheese!" while on this trip! And she also says, "uh oh" all the time. And she says "kitty" and "meow" and makes a clicking sound when she sees the cat like she's calling him. She repeated a couple words clear as day "hot dog" and "thank you" but hasnt' said them since.)

more pictures from my parents' visit

Here's me and Emma enjoying our awesome weather.

Emma played baseball too...sort of.

Here's Drew with his eyes on the ball, ready to get hit!


Another good action picture!

Three generations - me, Emma and my mom. We will have to get one with my grandma too next time we visit!

We got to ride in my parents' new car - here's Drew peeking around the seat at me!

This was Drew's first time in a convertible!

Enjoying the breeze!

Parents Visit and First Soccer Practice

My parents visited this past weekend. We got to play outside in the nice weather, see Drew's first soccer practice, and just hang out with the kids. On Friday night, the kids went to the Y for Parents Night Out and so we even got to go out to eat kid-free. (Which this worked out great b/c Drew had a GREAT time at the Y and was excited to tell us all about it when we picked him up!)

Friday during the day, Emma was so silly and kept bringing Mr. Potato Head's glasses to my mom so that she'd put them on her! Then she'd walk around and play with them on! But she wouldn't do it once Chad got home from work.

Then Saturday morning Drew had his first soccer practice. Here's his whole "team" with their coach. (Drew's the third one, and his best buddy Luke is next to him in red.)


Here's Drew taking a break.



Drew and Luke waiting on the white line for their next instructions.


Here's an action shot!

And running with a silly grin! =)

Here's Emma watching all the action with my dad - she's ready to play!

And a couple videos of Drew. They were supposed to kick it lightly and slowly and then stop the ball with their foot on top of it. "Slowly" was not in Drew's vocabulary that day, so this one was a little hard for him.

And then they had to kick the ball and knock over as many cones as possible. He did pretty good with this and got quite a few.

And then at the end of practice each kid got to score a goal!

Baseball

Here's Emma and I watching the boys play baseball this evening.

And here's Drew playing ball. In a couple weeks he starts soccer!

Emma on the go...with pretty nails!

Emma is practically running now! She's growing up so fast, I'm not sure where this last year has gone! Here's a video of her getting around the house.

And, yes, I did paint her toenails! They're so little, it was easy to just put a swipe of polish on each toe.

She starting to try more foods - and nutri-grain bars are one of her favorites! She gobbles a whole one down pretty fast. Here she is finishing one up ...and making a really silly face for the camera!