Ten Months

This little guy is growing way too fast. At 10 months he has finally learned to crawl and is as happy as can be to be able to get where he wants to go. It also mean he likes to spend his day following me around hoping I will pick him up. which of course I do because how can you say no to this cute little face.  He is still sightly terrified of Lilly (who is completely oblivious of this fear) She is still completely and totally in love with him and would like to be touching him at all times.  All of the kids love Charlie and cause quite the commotion as they fight to sit by him in church.  He loves feeding himself but also tolerates being spoon fed, none of our other kids had patience for that by this age.  He is super cheerful and smiles and laughs easily. We all love this little guy!

Kid Swap

 Last year my friend Randi organized this thing called "kid swap" the idea was simple, families would be organized into groups 4 families in each group, once a week all of the kids would go to one persons house and have different activities while the other moms would get a chance to run errands or sit alone in her quite house. It was a win-win.  The moms loved having a short break and the kids loved doing fun activities with each other. so we did it again this year.

 This year we were in a group with the swendsens and Willards.  We tried to have a ocean theme. We made paper plate Jellyfish and for snack we strung fruitloops onto pipe-cleaners and shaped them into fish. we aslo had some bead work going on as well as water activities

 we love to play people bowling with my big exercise ball and we added a fun twist by having everyone fill a cup with water and putting it on their heads, always a favorite.

 These little guys had the best time just hanging out in the pool.  no structure needed for these three.

 Charlie just loves being in the thick of things. as long as he is around people he is happy.

 the girls had the most fun making our paper plate jellyfish. they boys were content having a water fight... anyone who says boys and girls are the same should come hang out with us.
overall I think it was a successful kid swap.

Summer Fun

This summer has been a crazy whirlwind of activities and it's flying by!  we have spent the summer swimming with friends, rollerskating, watching movies, playing at friends houses and having friends over to play. Everyday we have lots of fun activities planned. It's been great, here are a few highlights.

 A mama Swallow decided to build her nest on our outside toybox... she may be regretting that decision but it's been so awesome watching these little baby chicks grow.

 we took a trip up to Dallas to do a temple swap with the Petersens. The night before, we stayed the night in a fancy hotel, watched the lego movie at the dollar theater and ate some delicious food.

we have also spent some time at the children's museum this summer. This "bubble room" is my kids favorite, they love making paths for the ducks to race down.

 We got to hang out with my parents in GA, we had a great time at the "fun factory" where the kids got to roller skate and play in the bounce houses and jungle gyms.  we were there for 4 hours and there were still complaints when it was time to go.

 We love play dough, it offers hours of entertainment... too bad it also offers hours of clean up...

Did I mention swimming?  our summer is not complete unless we make multiple trips to the pool.

 we also had a fun time in Georgia for a family reunion with Cameron's family.  It was awesome!  we love hanging out with our cousins.

did I mention having friends over?  I would have to say that's probably one of our favorite things to do.  whether it's to play in the water, to watch a movie or just to play everything is better with friends.  

Celebrating the 4th Georgia Style

 This year we were lucky enough to get the hang out with my parents for the 4th.  We kept it pretty low key, but the 4th of July isn't the 4th without a sparkler...

Or Two...

Or Three

 The kids (and Dads)  had so much fun, I mean who doesn't love playing with cool sparkly explosives?

 Charlie and Grandma watched from a distance, that is until the mosquitoes became ravenous and started attacking with reckless abandon, then they went inside and watched from a window.