Walking Our Babies

We have a really sweet book called, "Baby Dear" that is a favorite of the girls. It's about a little girl who gets a new baby doll and baby sister on the same day and how she cares for her doll just like Mommy cares for her new baby sister. There's a page where the Mommy and little girl walk their babies together. The girls decided this Sunday they wanted to take thier carriages out and walk their new bears and a doll with Mommy walking Ashley in her stroller when we went to take a family walk together after church. It was really cute.

A Beautiful Day

We homeschool year round, taking little breaks when we need them. This works best for our family so that we can be very flexible. Last week we took our things outside and did homeschool on our back deck, which we do sometimes when the weather is nice. Afterwards and in between activities and lessons we all played together in the beautiful sunshine and nice 72 degree weather. I love beautiful days like this spent with my little ones.

After a morning of playing outside, Ashley was so tired she fell asleep in her highchair right in the middle of lunch.

Cosi

We went to Cosi a couple of weeks ago. We met Uncle Richard, Rachel, and Sarah. The kids had a great time exploring all the exhibits. I'd say the favorite areas was the yesteryear area where they had an old fashioned villiage set up to explore. There were old phones to talk on, a vegetable stand, a carriage, saddle, post office, an old diner etc. The girls loved hearing about the diner when Daddy told them Nana and Papaw used to go to diners like that when they were teenagers. "Wow! That IS old!", they commented. :) Ashley's favorite activity there was taking a plastic potato and throwing it in front of her like a ball and then picking it up, laughing, and then doing it again. The girls loved spending time with Rachel and we all had a very nice time together.

Build a Bear

This year for Alexis's birthday we told her she could pick somewhere special for us to go. She thought and thought about it and finally decided she wanted to do build a bear. We had a little family party for her a couple of days before her actual birthday with her grandparents and then on her actual birthday we were going to do build a bear, which is in Columbus. We decided if we were going to drive into Columbus, we might as well take the girls to Cosi at the same time, since they've never been. Well, her birthday was a Monday and unfortunately Cosi was closed, so we went to the park and out to eat instead and we told her we would do the build a bear and Cosi sometime soon. Well, 5 months later we finally did. The girls were so excited. They had been in build a bear before but had never actually made one. After a lot of thought, they finally decided on pink bears. Apparently they were both the favorites and to tell them apart would be easy, they claimed, because, "They would have different names." :) Alexis ended up accessorizing hers with a pink headband and Emily got little flower clips for her bear. They love their bears and both sleep with them every night.

First Spaghetti

I always wait until my babies are over a year before giving them tomato products so a couple of weeks ago Ashley had spaghetti for the first time. I always love the first spaghetti photos. :)

Golfing With Daddy

When Don was younger he used to really love golf and he would play every opportunity he got. Now he's not as into golf as he used to be, but he still enjoys a nice game every now and then with his father. Well, when he was cleaning out the garage he came across an old set of clubs we had picked up in a garage sale for $10 one time several years ago. We weren't using them for anything, so he decided it would be fun to cut them down to the girls' size. So he spent an afternoon doing that and putting new grips on them. When he was done he just smiled and said, "Aren't these so cute?" And they really are cute teeny tiny golf clubs. So that afternoon he took Alexis and Emily outside and showed them both how to hit a golf ball with the clubs. It was pretty cute to watch. They mostly hit the air and dug holes in our yard, but they did hit a few. Alexis got several good shots in. Don stood behind Emily and held her hands and helped her hit one really far across the yard. Her face beamed and she looked at me and exclaimed, "Mommy! Look how far I hit it!" :)

Here's Ashley while the girls were with daddy. It's her first time wearing shoes for walking and she didn't know how to move her feet in them. She just stood there and bobbed up and down on her legs.

I finally took the shoes off and just let her go in her socks. Now she's happy!

Peanut Butter Playdough

We tried out a new peanut butter play dough recipe this month. It was big hit. It was also Ashley's first time playing with play dough and since it was completely edible she could play and eat all she she wanted. Yummy!

Family Get Together in July

We were fortunate to have my sisters, Rachel and Susan, drive up from Tennessee and Oklahoma for almost 3 weeks in July. They brought their little ones with them and we all had such fun visiting together. I wanted to write down about all the fun we had together those 3 weeks, so this may be my longest entry as of yet. We took the children to the park several times. The sandbox and tire swing were the biggest attractions.

Aunt Susan pushing children on the tire swing:



This is fun!
Sandbox fun:
more sandbox fun:

If you step on these, they make musical sounds:

Ashley loves the swing:

Weeeeee!

They also spent a lot of time playing in the backyard. Aunt Becca bought some neat 3D chalk that was a big hit.

Here's Kaitlyn on Emily's tricycle:

Alexis and Carson playing with the 3D chalk:

A.J. and Emily blowing bubbles:

playing ball:

2 year olds teeter tottering:

Ashley in the sandtable:

We spent a fun 4th of July together. On July 3rd, we drove to see fireworks at Buckeye Lake, but had a hard time finding a good spot. The kids didn't seem to care, though. They were just happy to see them. On the 4th we barbecued hot dogs and hamburgers and roasted marshmallows on a campfire built by Daddy and Uncle Jason. They were all so excited to roast their marshmallows. Then that evening the kids got to play with sparklers and Daddy and Uncle Jason put off their own little fireworks and crackers for the kids. The big scare of the evening was a run away firecracker that whizzed over the kids heads and right past Grandma, missing her by inches. We moved the guys far away after that. Unfortunately this was not the first time my husband almost got my mom with a firework. The same thing happened years ago when we were dating and he was, again, playing with fireworks with my little brother on the 4th of July. Hmm... I wonder why they make those fireworks laws?

Emily with a sparkler:
Alexis with a sparkler:
watching Daddy set off fire crackers:
more fire cracker fun:
campfire roasting marshmallows:

watching fireworks at Buckeye Lake through somebody's fence:
We held Family Home evenings together. We would have a very short lesson and scripture story with the kids and then the rest of the time we would sing songs and play a few games. The favorite game by far was Family Hide and Go Seek. It's my kids favorite family game and they were very excited to play with the cousins, Aunts, Uncles, and Grandparents. We actually played this more than a couple of times while everyone was here.


Here's Aunt Susan hiding:

Uh Oh... They found us!
Playing during family Home evening:

We enjoyed watching all the cuddles between the kids all week:

We took a couple of walks together as a family:

The kids had a movie night where they all watched The Wizard of Oz and ate popcorn.

The kids put on a cute puppet show for us after going to library and watching one earlier that day:
They all wanted to play instruments so one day we relented and had a VERY noisy afternoon. :)

They had a blast playing outside in the water:

They were all so cute gathering in the girls cardboard playhouse:

The 4 bigger kids (4 and up) spent an afternoon playing Wii while the mommies shopped with the babies:
We went to Grandma and Grandpa's house for part of the time we were all together. We had fun there seeing our old friends at church on Sunday and of course, just being together. Here are the kids eating Popsicles and watching a movie: Emily and Carson reading together:
Grandpa rocking Ashley:
Giving backrubs and visiting:

We celebrated a triple birthday while we there. Rachel and Susan's birthdays were technically in May, but we decided to combine their birthdays with Grandma's since we couldn't see them in May. Grandma got a new Beatles CD for her birthday from Grandpa. We put it on and everyone got up and danced and danced. It was so much fun.

Afterwards we all sang "Happy Birthday" and blew out candles.

I am so grateful we were all able to get together this summer for such a nice long visit. I love being with my sisters and I wish we all lived closer. But it was nice being together and I look forward to doing it again! :)