Amelia the Inchworm

I guess the time has come.  Amelia is now mobile.  But not in the normal way. She doesn't crawl forwards (yet).  She moves like a little inchworm...backwards.  It is quite entertaining to watch!!!

I normally sit her next to the bed as I get ready each day.  She doesn't stay sitting next to the bed anymore though.  She scoots her way under it.  Thankfully she hasn't scooted past this point yet.

 Jack thought it looked fun, so he gave it a try! Great idea sister!

Not sure if this is considered crawling or not. Do I mark this in her baby book as crawling if she can move several feet away from where I left her but it is only by moving backwards?  Oh well. I can at least say she became mobile by around 6 1/2 months.

Time for another Trim

It was about time to give this curly headed boy another hair cut. Kind of silly that he turns 2 1/2 this week and he is only getting his 2nd real haircut.

 Before Picture.

As cute as can be.

 Getting his haircut from Ms. Paula in our kitchen.  How convenient!  Start to finish took no longer than 5 minutes. He did great!

Still as cute as can be! And he still has his curls. Yay!

Father's Day

Happy Father's Day!

Love, Jack & Amelia

Amelia gave Daddy an extra special gift for Father's Day. She said her first word: Da-da.  Not sure she really knows what she is saying, but I sure think she could!

 We celebrated a great Father's Day with this wonderful Daddy of Jack & Amelia's.  So thankful for him! He is always full of energy and can always bring a smile to our faces. We love him so much!!!

 This past week or so Jack has been making sure that we all know that Barrett is his Daddy.  He will be near Barrett saying, "MY Daddy, MY Daddy." He really is turning into a Daddy's boy right now.

 For dinner we went to the chinese food and crab leg buffet.  The last time we were there (which was actually on Mothers Day) Jack saw this cat statue and fell in love!  It's arm moves up and down like it is waving so Jack enjoys trying to imitate the cat.

 I am so thankful for MY Daddy that is such a great Dad to myself and awesome Pepa to Jack and Amelia.  On Saturday night I took Jack and Amelia to the pool with my parents.  Pepa held Amelia for a while in the pool and before long she was sound asleep on his shoulder. Precious!

I am so thankful for my father in law too, who is an outstanding man and a wonderful Pa-Pa to Jack & Amelia.  He is always eager to talk to and play with the the kids.  Jack is always excited to sit down and talk to Pa-Pa on the phone each week.

It is an honor having each of these men as a part or our lives.

 Happy Father's Day!

VBS

Jack and Amelia went to Vacation Bible School last week for the first time! They had fun learning and doing fun activities while I helped out teaching in a class of 3 year olds.

Ready for a fun day at VBS.

 It was an amusement park theme this year so Jack got his picture taken here next to a mini roller coaster and Ferris wheel.

 Jack enjoyed all the music, crafts, stories, snacks and special activities like the petting zoo and train ride.  Amelia also did her first crafts in her classroom too - cute things with fingerprints, toe prints, and footprints. It was a great week!

Summer is Here!

Is this normal?

Doesn't everyone's extra freezer in their garage look like this at summer time?!?!

Whatever it takes to stay cool in this Texas heat! Some people go swimming...

...we eat Blue Bell. :-)

Jack the Bowler

I decided early on that if I had my say in what sport I want Jack to play, bowling it would be.  Why? Because it is a sport he can not get hurt playing (unless of course he drops the bowling ball on his toes..there is no safe sport is there?), it is played indoors in the air conditioning, he gets to wear those cool bowling shoes, and I can eat pizza & nachos and drink cokes while watching him play! Well, he had his first taste of bowling this summer!  There is a program this summer (kidsbowlfree.com) that allows kids to play 2 games of bowling each day for free!!! (plus the cost of renting the cool shoes, unless the guy at the desk thinks your kid is cute and too little to need shoes than it is totally free. Yay for us! Added bonus!)

 Jack LOVED it! The bowling alley had this cool ramp that the smaller kids could use and just push their bowling ball down the ramp instead of picking up the heavy ball.  Worked great!

 So many colorful balls to choose from!

 Me with my little bowling boy! This could be the start of something grand :-)

We went bowling with Jacks buddy Cody. Cody wasn't quite as fond of the whole bowling experience, but we will try again later this summer with him.

 Way to go Jack. First bowling score: 56. Not bad!!

Sewing Fun

My big sis Tara and I have been enjoying getting together late at night to do some sewing for our baby girls.

 Here we are with our completed outfits (excuse the way we look.  It may or may not have been around 1 AM when we finished...)  We are beginning to understand why those cute little boutique type outfits are so expensive....because it takes forever to make - especially when the patter directions and pictures don't match up! But we figured it out and have a lovely finished product.

 Amelia modeling her new outfit

Looks like she loves it!

Amelia's 1st Veggie

Amelia has moved on from just rice cereal to veggies!

 1st bite of green beans - not too sure what to think.

In the end, she loved it! 

Altogether now she has tried green beans, peas, and now is on squash. So far she has loved them all!!! I'm so proud of her.  Looks to me though that it is just the girls in this house that are veggie lovers.  Still working on those boys. :-)

Splashin' in the Pool

We made our first visit to the pool for this year this last weekend.  It was Amelia's first time to ever get into the pool.

 Jack LOVED it! Still no fear of the water.  This will make it more of a challenge going to the pool this year - a wild 2 year old and a 6 month old.  Barrett was so wonderful to follow him around the pool (I wasn't brave enough to get in. The water was still pretty cool.)

 Amelia, ready to go swimming for the 1st time.

 She wasn't too sure about the water at first, but was ok with it before too long.

 She liked to be turned towards daddy while in the water.  I guess she felt more secure that way. She knew he would take good care of her.

Hannah, and most of the rest of the family was there swimming too.  Jack loved having others there to play with.

Picnics

The weather so far this year has been beautiful! We have taken advantage of that many days recently and will take our lunch outside for a picnic on the front sidewalk or porch.  It's amazing how much better Jack will eat his lunch if we just take it outside and call it a picnic.  It becomes a new and exciting adventure, I guess!

Phone Pictures

It sure is convenient to have a camera on the phone to snap pictures while out and about and not have to carry around something extra.  Here is another random assortment of pictures taken with my phone over the last month or so.

 We got to go to a family picnic event with Barrett's work.  Here Jack got to try out what a meeting would be like in one of the meeting rooms.

 At the picnic Jack was able to go on his first pony ride.  He thought it was the best thing ever!!!

 Next was the petting zoo.  He really wanted nothing to do with petting the animals though. Not because he was scared of them but because he couldn't stop thinking about and looking at the pony ride. So we quickly made our way back to the ponies for another ride. 

 I stayed home from church one Sunday with this sick little guy.  I love that our church has live video streaming of the service to watch online when you can't be there in person.  We were even able to see Daddy on the screen while he was singing in the choir. 

 We went to a picnic at the park with our friends from Wednesday morning bible study.

 I told Jack one day that we were going somewhere and that he needed to get his shoes on (and apparently his pants too.)  He went into my closet and came out with these beautiful high heels of mine to wear.

 Amelia at her 6 month check-up.

 She got all wrapped up in her blanket to keep warm while waiting for the doctor to come in. Nice and cozy!

 Jack went to a friends birthday party where he got to wear a Woody cowboy hat (it was a Toy Story themed party.)

 On a walk going to Mom-mom's house

 Going to eat lunch at Pepa's restaurant.  I'd say he looks happy to eat some chicken & fries.

 We checked out Cabela's for the first time.  Lots of cool fish to see!

 Jack found a new toy he wants to add to his Christmas wish list.

 Amelia enjoying the nice weather on another walk.

 Jack and Mom-mom looking at the water on our walk.

 Jack and Daddy looking for fish and ducks at the pond.

 We also took a trip to Bass Pro so Barrett could do some shopping with his birthday gift cards. The boys loved climbing into all the boats.

And Amelia loved sitting in the cart, smiling at all the other customers along the way.  She brings smiles to peoples faces everywhere she goes!