Water Babies

With summer in full swing & triple digit temperatures, we try to take friends up on their swimming invitations as often as possible. These pictures are from a month ago, but I just never got around to posting them. Amy invited us over to swim one afternoon before small group. It was the babies' first time in a pool, & they had so much fun!

The water was a bit chilly, but they didn't care. They were kicking & laughing the whole time.

These $15 floats are one of my best baby purchases ever. They stayed so happy, & I didn't have to hold onto slippery babies.

They even got to sport some cool shades.


Later that night, our small group had a little fellowship time out by the pool. Dallas was having a "cool front" that day, so it was quite nice.


Give this girl a plastic cup & she's happy.
Despite her face in this picture, she LOVES Hattie.
Thanks for having us, Garrett & Amy! We had fun!

Sold!

I've been looking forward to writing this post for several months now. As of today, we are the proud owners of only ONE home! We finally sold our old house & closed on it today. I've been hesitant to even mention that we were getting close for fear that I would somehow jinx it. This was the fifth offer we've had on the house. The previous four all fell through after negotiations for one reason or another, so it's been a frustrating process. We realize how blessed we are to have been able to go ahead & move into the new house while we were trying to sell the old one & are very grateful for that opportunity.

While I am in love with our new house & am glad we moved, selling the old one certainly puts me in a bit of a nostalgic mood. That was our first home, & it holds a lot of wonderful memories. In the three years we lived in it, we took on all kinds of projects, from painting rooms to redoing floors.

Our formal living room that was still dark paneling when we moved in
Our den where we hung out & watched TV
Painting the nursery
Jake & Mal's first roomReplacing the hardwood floors

Tiling J's closet
Putting new hardware on my kitchen cabinetsThat house will also always be special because our first memories with our babies are there. Here we are before taking them to church for the first time.
I have so many pictures of them in their bumbo seats in that kitchen. They were so tiny!
And, of course, I love all the shots of them eating in this window sill.
So we say farewell to our house on Goodwin Drive. It was a wonderful first home for us, & we hope that the new owners are blessed as they live there, just as we have been.

Fun With Friends

We've had several fun play dates lately that I have a few pics from. After many failed attempts, we finally got together with the Moore twins a few weeks ago. Here's sweet Kathryn, who was so happy the whole time she was at our house. This girl knows how to chill!You can see by Mal's expression how excited she was to have friends over.
Play dates at this age tend to be more "let's all play in the vicinity of one another" than "let's play together." Garrett is having a very important phone conversation here.
We failed to line the kids up for a true group shot, but here's Mere with all four of our wild ones.
It didn't slip Kathryn's notice that Jake is one handsome dude.
Last week, my cousin Amy brought sweet Noah over for a little visit. My kids were so ridiculously crazy that day that we didn't dare put Noah where they could reach him for a picture. This was the best we could do. See what I mean? Crazy.
Lastly, Tami hosted our prayer breakfast this month, & the kids had a blast with Kate. We definitely may have to copy this toy idea. They loved the ball pit!

Grandparentitis

Do you remember going to your grandparents' house when you were a kid & getting to do whatever you wanted? They let you eat chocolate for breakfast, didn't put a limit on the candy jar & allowed all kinds of fun you'd never dream of getting by with at home. That's what grandparents are for, right?

I think Jake & Mal are already getting the hang of this routine. They haven't actually gone to either of our parents' houses without us yet, but I do notice some differences in their behavior when our parents are around. Sometimes they're angels pretending that they behave this well all the time for Mommy. Sometimes they're terrors just because they know that Mimi or Nana will save them long before Mommy would have if they don't want to take a nap. Either way, we're so blessed that our children have two sets of wonderful grandparents that they get to see regularly.

Mimi & Pops came to visit a few weeks ago, & we had so much fun! As mentioned in my previous post, Daddy & Pops took on all kinds of projects that week, from hanging swings to fixing plumbing problems & everything in between. We're very thankful that Pops comes ready to work!

Two cool kids tuckered out after our evening walkMe & my favorite mother-in-law, Karen
Rare pic of just me & J, just because we had someone there to take it!
Silly kids making their motorboat sounds after our walk on a different evening
Checking out what grass feels like with Mimi & Pops. They are fascinated by grass & leaves!
All dressed up for church with Pops
Family pic, again just because someone else was there to take it
Mimi also came prepared to work. Her visit coincided with the ice cream social that we hosted, so she was kind enough to clean my house from top to bottom before the event. My house has probably never been so clean!

Mimi & Mal
Jake studying Pops' buttons
Reading Goodnight Moon with Mimi on her last night here
Thanks so much for coming to visit, Mimi & Pops! We love you!

Ten Months Old!

I can't believe I'm posting these pictures 10 days late! Growth pictures are one thing that I'm actually pretty prompt with most months, but oh well. We didn't get to take these until Saturday since J was out of town most of last week, & they definitely are not our best work. I guess that's what I get for being late.

This shot reflects Mal's mood of late. She is apparently having some teething pain & has been quite the stinker about not sleeping well. As a result, she ends up tired & cranky a lot more than usual.
Photo session problem #1: Jake trying to escape
Photo session problem #2: Mal is easily distracted
Sadly, this is about as good as it got this month.
Despite their uncooperativeness, the twins are doing well & getting to be such big kids! They are both crawling at warp speed, pulling up, cruising around furniture, getting into mischief & generally wearing me out, but it's also a really fun age.

This was the only shot we got of Mal where she wasn't crying. She's showing you her serious side.

According to our at-home estimates, at ten months, she weighs 16 lb 10 oz. She still has no teeth but is finally starting to get some hair. Mallory talks, shrieks, screams & finds new ways to make noise constantly. She is our little busybody & loves to dance, whether there's music playing or not.

We tried valiantly but failed to get a decent picture of Jake for this month. Here are our outtakes.

(see photo session problem #1, above)
Immediately after this was taken, he proceeded to dive head first off the chair. Don't worry - I caught him.
Poor Mr. Bear!
Ah, those mischievous eyes!Jake now weighs approximately 18 lb 3 oz. This boy loves to eat! While Mal daintily picks up her food with her tiny little fingers, Jake shovels it in as fast as he possibly can, all the while whining for you to hurry up & put more on his tray. His latest talent is waving & saying "hi," which is so cute, but I haven't gotten it on video yet. He still just has his original two teeth, but I have a feeling that more are coming very soon. Jake is our fearless little ball of energy & has the sweetest belly laugh.

We love them both so much!