Love Thy Neighbor"hood"

I know that I have said it before, but we LOVE our street! It is the greatest place to live in the whole wide world! We have a wonderful variety of people and families. There are families who have been here since the early 50's when the houses were new and then there are those of us who have more recently moved into the neighborhood. One of our neighbors decided last summer that we needed to have a block party, but it never actually happened. So she started talking about it again in the early spring and our fabulous neighbors, the Greens, made it happen! They organized everything and it was a huge success! There were 65 people who said they were coming and I think they were all there. We learned tonight from one of the men who actually grew up here that when he lived here there were 35 kids who lived on the street. What a great place to grow up! He also told us that our house was the second to last house built and the kids loved to use the empty lot to build forts and play baseball. The last house that was built was the house where Pop lives now. I loved getting to hear about the street's history. I feel so blessed to live here and to have such incredible neighbors. I can't wait to have many more block parties together!

It was very hot outside, so little miss got to enjoy a nice, cold popsicle. Which she loved! She had so much fun just crawling around on the grass and pulling up on everyone's chairs. She kept trying to crawl into the street or onto the driveway. I'm not sure why the concrete was so appealing.

She and Knox having a cheerio eating contest.

We tried to do a group picture of the "5 Babies" and this is the best I got. It is always an adventure to try to get their picture! They were all born within 6 weeks of each other. Today was Liam's birthday, the day that started it all!


The "wagon of fun" filled with water!
Olive wasn't really to sure what to think about all that splashing and she was finished pretty quickly!

She was more interested in playing with Avery's shoes and watching the big kids play with the water hose across the street.

Her buddy, Hayden, is staying the weekend with us and she got to spend some time with him too! She loves Hayden!

What a great way to kick off the week that summer begins!

Strollin' in the Grass

Olive got a new toy to practice walking and she thinks it is pretty special. We tried it out in the house, but it moves way too fast on our floors and she face planted. Our super smart neighbors, the Greens have a fun little wagon that their daughter pushes around in the grass, so we moved the walker out into the grass. She still prefers to crawl around behind it and push, but she is getting there!

"I Wanna Have Dog...Toys"

I really don't know why we have all of these...

When everytime I turn around, she is playing with...

or... or...

or trying to escape...

or playing in the bowl!

Luckily Wrigley doesn't seem to mind sharing her toys. It totally grosses me out, but she seeks them out and is so happy when she finds one.

Heavy Hearted

I am unbelievably heavy hearted for a sweet couple that we know tonight. They had to face the unthinkable and deliver their precious baby at only 18 weeks because it did not have a brain or a skull. I can not even begin to fathom the agony that they are going through right now. Please take the time to lift M & S up in prayer, they need comfort that only God can provide. As I rocked Olive to sleep tonight I just couldn't keep the tears from falling. I am so grateful that she is perfect. It makes me feel so bad that I get frustrated with her ever. I wish that instead of wondering why she is screaming, I will be grateful that she has a voice that works. When she goes crawling into the laundry room to try to steal Wrigley's food, I will be grateful that she can crawl. When she spits food, I will be grateful that she has the ability to eat. I know that so many parents have to deal with terrible problems with their children that come in the form of multiple disabilities and I have to remind myself how lucky we are! Thank you God for giving us this precious angel here on earth. I know there is a special angel in heaven waiting with open arms for their sweet baby to join her. She may not be able to hold our baby here, but she will love on M & S's baby with all of her heart.

Now I Know My ABC's

Our sweet friend, Molly came over the other afternoon and we had so much fun playing! Molly decided to teach Olive her ABC's...

What a great little teacher! And as we all know, all great teachers have abnormally high pitched voices, right? :) Thanks Molly for helping Olive become as smart as you are!

10 months!

Olive, you turned 10 months old yesterday! We can not believe how fast the time with you is going! It seemed like it took forever for you to get here and already we have gotten to spend 10 months with you! Every day gets better and better!

You have one tooth that is about 1/2 way in and you look so cute when you smile! You have a real personality these days. You fake laugh anytime you hear people laughing or coughing or when you know you are being funny. You love to babble all of the time and you can say the words, "Mama, Dada, Bye Bye, Hi, Tada, Baby and Wheee!" We love hearing you talk and make silly sounds. Your favorite silly sound is a strange growling noise and clicking your tongue. You are pulling up on everything! The last few days you have been letting go and trying to balance on your own. You stood by yourself today for about 5 seconds and clapped while doing it! You have also started trying to climb things, which keeps Mommy and Daddy really busy. You have been crawling for a while now and you are very fast! You are going through a picky eating stage, which we really hope is only a stage. You LOVE yogurt and will eat anything that is covered in yogurt, which is how we trick you into eating! You like to pick dry things up to eat, but you aren't so sure about anything wet or slimy. You still love to be outside and your favorite thing to do is swing. You will play in your swing for hours! We love sitting out under the big tree and pushing you in the swing in the evenings. You really love Wrigley and you like to mess with her anytime she is in sight. Luckily, she doesn't mind having her fur pulled or for you to stick your fingers in her mouth.

We love you more than you can even imagine! We can't wait for many more adventures to come!

Fun in the Sun (Part 2)

We got a new pool that we lovingly named "Geoffrey the Giraffe". Instead of making the same mistake that we made with the crabby pool, we spent several days getting used to the new pool by playing in it without any water.

Today we decided it was time to try again. We filled the pool half way up with the water hose and then using milk jugs filled it the rest of the way with hot water. It was a nice "refreshing" warm water pool that pretty much felt like the bathtub. We eased in and she loved it!! Hooray!

She even flirted with the lifeguard!

How cute is this back view!?

Wrigley even decided to join us for a little swim!

She had a great time and we can't wait to spend many more days having fun in the sun.