More Pics

Jenna in the tongue out/discovering this thing in my mouth stage. The walker stage did not last long before she started climbing out of it.

We had a birthday party for Sally the bunny one day and all of the most important animals were invited. :-)

More shots from W-burg in the backyard - it is as good as a beach! Andrew - don't eat the rocks!!

Ahhh, the pink bucket - coveted by both Noelle and Julianne.

Sweet Jens and Sweet Just.

To Williamsburg for Memorial Day

Another summer kick off event was our trip to The Burg. We enjoyed some time at the pool, bike rides, a visit from Iwan and Stacey and their adorable twins, lots of fun play in the backyard, and just enjoying seeing the cousins play and have a good time together. Pops, Just, and Jens...on the back porch.

Uncle Neal and Jenna - I think there is some resemblence there!

Justin with Jules and Noelle at "The Club."

Jenna's 1st plane ride! She did great until the end when she had a #2 diaper explosion all over Dad.

Jules is a pro at air travel by now.

Kicking off the summer...

Julianne in her ladybug Halloween costume from 2 years ago helps mom in the kitchen.

A wonderful visit from the Lacey family. Julianne and Camy played book store, ponies, and enjoyed the backyard quite a bit.

Mady got to ride her first carosel ride at our mall. She loved it! There is a little plastic house in our backyard and Mady recently told her mom that she wanted to go back to that sweet little house in "Zanny's" backyard. I can't believe she remembered the house or me.

Jenna and finger foods as early as 8 months - she is not going to eat that mushy baby food when big sister gets real food! She is a wonderful eater - eating everything from mushrooms to hummus to avocado while Big Sis is still stuck on peanut butter waffle and mac n cheese.

The beginning of our alphabet lessons and my attempt at some home school efforts this summer. We took a letter each week and did activities, made crafts, ate foods, etc that went with that netter. She also got a little book for each letter that I made from a website. We started with A, B and then I read to NOT go in order when teaching letters, so we then did the letters in her name, and then started just randomly picking letters. We are still going, but she has come a long way. My favorite was "N" week. We were in Spring for that week and we went to a bead shop and made a Necklace. We found some Nests at Michael's and little birdies and eggs to go in them and they are a new favorite play thing. We dressed up like a Nurse. We made and ate Noodles. We looked at a picture of Noelle and Neal (cousin and Uncle), etc. We circled all of the Noses in a magazine and made a collage with them. You get the idea. It has been kind of fun. There is also a great website called www.starfall.com that has a great alphabet game for kids. We are doing R this week so Rasberries and Rice Crispie Treats are on the menu.

Ft Worth Zoo

Well, I am playing a bit of catch up now. We have had a wonderful Summer that kicked off back in May with a trip to the Ft Worth Zoo. I braved it alone with my 2 cuties and eventhough I took a wrong turn, ended up in downtown Dallas, had to stop at a gas station to change and feed Jenna and then another one to let Julianne go potty, and then we got struck in traffic and took a back country road through the rural slums of never never land between Dallas and Ft Worth, we finally got there!!! We aimed to arrive at 10 and got there at noon - not too bad, I'd say. The Zoo is beautiful - Ft Worth is this hidden meca for the cultural arts and their zoo is top 5 in the nation. Lots of rich doners, I guess. Anyways - we had a great time and got to go back a few weeks later with Dad and the Lacey's.

Feeding the parakeets with sesame seed sticks was the highlight! Oh, and ice cream dots.

Just enjoying my ride.

Update

I am clearly not that into blogging, but here is the latest from Plano, Dallas, Texas as Julianne calls it.

Well, Jenna is just shy of 11 months and she is standing up and waving her hands wildly. She has started shaking her head back and forth (for no) when she is doing something she is not supposed to do. She scrunches up her nose and sort of breathes in and out of it very loudly while she is eating - just to make us laugh. She imitates very well - usually in the backseat of the car Julianne will squeal and a few seconds later Jenna will squeal back. If we make a tooting sound with our mouth, Jenna will do the same in return. She is sleeping through the night as of 9 months - YAY! She goes to school on Monday for the very first time. We will see how it goes!

Cute sayings from Julianne:

"Running around like a chicken with it's FACE cut off" (Trying to say running around like a chicken with it's head cut off)

"Watch my bend back" (For Back Bend)

"Paradise Estake" (For the My Little Ponies Home which is Paradise Estate)

Julianne is in Pre-K this year and can't wait to get back to school.

I am back at work 20+ hours a week for Deloitte and am enjoying it. I am looking for high level proposal writers who will work on the Firm's highest priority propsals.

Justin is doing great - recent trips to Chicago, Kansas City, and Denver. Fantasy Football looms so he is gearing up.

More later....

Jenna 8 1/2 Months

Jenna is in to EVERYTHING! She loves nothing more than to explore: opening drawers, opening doors, cabinets, pulling up on furniture, violently twisting to get out of our arms so she can MOVE!!! She has developed this little growl noise she makes deep down in her throat when she is frustrated which is not too often except for when she wants to move and can't or is hungry. She slept through the night twice this week for the first time, so that is an exciting milestone. I don't think it will be a reguar occurance, but it was nice. One of the 2 times she slept through, Julianne was up with a bad dream about a tiger, so we got one night with 8 hours a sleep in a row - maybe the first one in years. Jenna is also starting to dabble in table food - tiny bits of banana, bread, pasta, etc and she loves it. We could not get Julianne to eat some ground turkey breast taco meat and Jenna ate it so big sister decided she would try it after all and liked it.

It is fun to see how different the girls are. One thing they have common: both angels.

Posts on our trips to Williamsburg and Houston to see family coming soon....

Spring Events

We had a gorgeous Spring here, but it was too short. It is already 100 degrees, but the Spring was perfect weather. I will say the humidity here is less than Houston so that is nice - I actually want to take walks in the dry heat vs wanting to stay inside all the time, but it is still BLAZING HOT Texas style. Lots of pool time this summer is the key! Well, back to Springtime - we had Ella Grace's dedication in March and it was great. We had a nice fajita lunch at Jenny and Ryan's after church. Ok, so many many people are now saying Jenna looks just like her Daddy. Depending on who you ask, she is a clone of me, Justin, Papa John or Uncle Neal. So funny. Whoever she looks like, she is a precious angel.

3 Girls and a Dad

The honoree, Ella Grace with her parents and grandparents.

We missed Uncle Andrew, but he is serving his country and all.