Photo Gallery

When we first moved into this house I started a photo wall in the hallway/gallery/office. Over the years, especially the last two, we have added quite a bit of photos to our collection. I have never been very happy with my original photo wall so I took them all down and started over. Here is the first wall (See the newsprint in the top right corner? I have something being framed to put there )

Summer Days

So now that Virginia has decided to stop screaming all day we are able to get in some tummy time. She isn’t too interested in any toys yet but LOVES to watch her brother. She has also started rolling over from her tummy to her back. This caused a few bad nights/naps while she showed off her new trick but I think she is satisfied that we all know she can do it and she is back to sleeping well.

She is also loving her bumbo seat. I started putting her in it a few weeks ago but just got around to snapping a quick picture…

I didn’t use the bumbo seat as much with William but it has been really nice for Virginia to be able to sit and watch William play. She is always very interested in what’s going on and you don’t have much of a view when you are lying flat on your back. 

See, she is missing out on all the fun being up there in the swing. Nice track huh? I was pretty proud of myself for building it. We have come a long way since we first started with the trains last year. I will have to do a post on William’s our train obsession hobby. It’s taking over the house!

Watching cartoons… Our favorites these days are Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Chuggington, Super Why, and Curious George. I try not to let William watch too much but I am very grateful that he will sit and watch when I need him too. Looks like Virginia is going to enjoy it too.

This one is a bit blurry but it was too cute not to post..

We are so excited that Opa (my dad) has returned from his two week hiking trip out west. I will post on the trip later but today William enjoyed playing with all of his camping gear. Dad has grown himself quite a beard and William was not so sure about him but quickly warmed up and was excited to see him.

We have been spending a lot of time outside but for whatever reason (probably because it’s hard to keep up with two kiddos outside) I haven’t taken any pictures except when we are inside (contained). Our backyard is looking better than ever and I will be sure to post some pictures soon!

Sippin’ Cider Through a Straw

We have had some pretty scary thunderstorms here lately and while we are excited about the rain we do not like to lose power. Last week the power went out during the afternoon and it only took about 15 minutes for the house to get really hot so I packed up William and Virginia and we headed to mom’s to spend the night. In an attempt to clean out one of mom’s kitchen cabinets we found these really fun cups!

Weekend Recap

We had sod delivered on Friday. William loves trucks and tractors these days so he had a lot of fun watching the tractor unload the grass off of the truck and put it on our driveway.

We are so excited to have grass again in our backyard. Unfortunately some of the grass was “burned” by the sun before they delivered it. The sod farm told us to give it a week and see what happens. It’s been almost a week and those brown squares are still just as brown. So this weekend will be round two. We were short some grass plus we will have to pull up the dead squares and replace them. Luckily we have had a good bit of rain this week and the rest of it has greened up nicely.

We have been working on the backyard for a few years now. We will never be “finished” as we are always coming up with new ideas but we are excited to see some major progress.

Saturday morning we celebrated our friend Walker’s second birthday.

 

There were pony rides, fishing games, and of course yummy cupcakes!

I had to include a picture of the princess. She is such a happy girl these days. She is getting stronger and stronger. She is holding her head up very well and loves to stand up in my lap.

We celebrated Father’s Day with my Papa. Here is a picture of him with the three youngest David, William, and Daniel.

Just a Swingin’

Virginia’s neck has gotten really strong and she is  holding her head up well so I thought I would try out the outdoor swing today. She seemed to enjoy it. There were no smiles or giggles but she was very content while William played in the sand. YES! You read that right! After the initial freak out he got his truck and shovel and started shoveling sand. He didn’t touch it but he did play with it. It’s a start!

Notice his feet are just on the edge of the sand. They didn’t get any closer. Also take note of the white sandals. Those are really meant for church and dressing up but William has been on a shoe kick the last couple of days and insisted that he wear them. I was lucky he let me take his socks off first.

I thought he would push the mower through it but no, he just stood there.

Sand

Ryan put some sand in our front yard to help our grass out a little. William ran out to play and only noticed the sand after he was already in the middle of it. Luckily I had my camera with me so I could catch the moment. One way or another William is going to like sand before we go back to the beach.

 

Blueberry Pickin’

We didn’t have to go far. My dad planted some blueberry bushes in the backyard almost 2 years ago and they are full of blueberries this summer! William had fun with his cousin Megan.

Happy Birthday T!

We celebrated our friend Thomas’ birthday this morning at Mountain Brook Gymnastics. It was a great location for a birthday party. The kids had a blast!

Happy Birthday Thomas!!!

Team Cather

This morning we joined my mom, sister-in-law and her mom, and my nephews, in a walk benefitting the Lupus Foundation. My sister-in-law, Jennifer, was diagnosed with Lupus in 1999. There was a great turn out for the walk and Jennifer did a great job raising money for the cause. There is currently no cure for Lupus but hopefully one day soon there will be!

Some enjoyed the bounce houses…

While others relaxed in the strollers…

I Scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream!

I LOVE ice cream and up until about 2 weeks ago William would not touch it. He enjoyed a bowl of strawberry ice cream yesterday! YUM!

We don’t eat a lot of sweets around here. Mainly because Ryan doesn’t care for them and William only eats like 3 things. I would eat sweets all the time if I didn’t have to worry about gaining weight. But, I was excited that William tried something new and liked it. Hopefully we can get him to try some other new foods this summer.

3 Months

Can you tell something different about my precious baby girl?? These are not the best pictures BUT she is NOT CRYING!!! She is a happy baby girl these days with lots of smiles and even some giggles. She was 12 pounds, 10 ounces and 23 inches long at her 3 month doctor’s appointment. She is a GREAT sleeper. Most nights she is in the bed by 6:30 or 7 and gets up once to eat around 3. Sometimes I do a dream feed (I pick her up, feed her, and she doesn’t ever really wake up) around 9 or 10 before I go to bed. When I did that the other night she slept right on through the night and got up around 6. That was definitely some incentive to make me stay up until 10 to feed her. She is a great napper too! William is a great napper but it took some work to get there so I’m hoping she will just continue on. She takes one nap in the morning about an hour after she gets up and then usually takes another one around 10:30 or 11. Then most of the time I can get her back down around 1 and she will sleep 2-3 hours. Occasionally she will take a little snooze late afternoon but I am trying to keep her up so she will go to bed early. We are having to stay home more so she can sleep but I know it is worth it for a happy well rested baby. Eventually she will move into one morning nap and we will still have a few hours to get out before their afternoon naps. She is starting to love her playmat more and we are working on doing tummy time more now that she is not crying all the time. William loves to go get her up from naps with me. He also loves push her in her swing and most of the time is very gentle. His favorite thing to do is give her a pacifier. She doesn’t always want it but she definitely likes it more than he ever did. She is sucking her thumb more and more these days so hopefully she will lose interest in the passy soon.