July Wrap Up

we've had such a fun-filled month! it's been one of those time where i just didn't want the days/weeks to pass & wanted to hold on to every wonderful moment. i have found myself thanking God so often this month for this time of relaxation and rejeuvenation and feeling how incredible blessed we are to have this time as a family. there are times i can actually feel myself being revived and restored.

this month matt finished teaching his ACT prep course & we actually have had some vacation time the past 2 weeks! hurray! after the spring we had, our family really needed some down time to just hang out and be together. we've been sleeping later & staying up later. matt and i have been able to watch some movies at night after the kids are in bed & have even had some naps in the afternoon. :) we've colored, played games, tickled, built pyramids, crafted.....all as a family affair. how i wish it could be like this all the time, but maybe, because it can't -- it makes this time all the more special.

the kids have so enjoyed having daddy home to play with them & having his full attention so much of the time. of course, we've also been tackling some of those little home improvement projects that we put off during the year. and by "we" of course i mean "matt." :)

so we're just soaking up time together. playing, laughing, relaxing. we opted to not vaction this year -- just too hard with 3 little ones and instead we bought the playgound. it was the best choice for us -- the kids loooove the playground & we've been able to have vacation time just around here.

so here are the random pictures that are lurking on my camera for this month.

i took this picture of miss charlotte during her afternoon nap one day. i love it when she sleeps with her little bootie up in the air!
we've done some arts & crafts this month as well. i haven't taken too many pictures of them, but these are some we did one morning just for fun. gotta love that dollar section at target!

the kids made their own little "house" one day using harrison's tool chest. they've had fun playing at home this summer & not having a schedule. and oh, the messes they've made! yikes!

harrison aka belle....this poor boy needs some boyish dress up clothes. he's getting pretty good at walking in heels. hahaha

one afternoon we looked outside in a storm and noticed that the kids old swingset was almost in the pond! matt made a beeline out there to rescue it -- in a torrential downpour. after 2 years in this house & some major storms where the swingset never moved, a summer rainshower did it in!

we've been letting charlotte stay up a bit later this summer as well. some nights we just relax with her after the kids are in bed. i think matt & i have both enjoyed having some special time with her....and she loooooves it as well! funny how they're sitting the same way in this picture.

we met our friends aj, drew & adam at the splash park one day. madeleine was so much braver than last year & ran through all the sprinklers.

harrison was a little less sure, but eventually he warmed up.

while matt was at a lunch meeting one day, the kids enjoyed a muffin tin lunch. always a fun treat -- and a great way to clean out the pantry. :) and, yep, they're lunching in their pjs. another great thing about summer!

charlotte had her first sink bath. she's gotten so big that she just makes a huge splashy mess in her baby tub. she seemed to really like her sink bath, although it was harder to get her all washed off. she splashed and splashed and grabbed at all my soaps stuff, too. i'm sure this isn't the last time she'll get a bath in there.

charlotte and madeleine before church wednesday night. my mammy got them these outfits -- aren't they so cute! i made madeleine a bow to match her outfit & charlotte seemed quite content in her hat. you can't really tell in this picture, but it looks like a little flower on her. adorable!

that pretty much wraps up july for us. what i don't have pictures of are the many, many braums trips we made! hahaha!

Coming Soon to a Head Near You

with school fast approaching and charlotte getting bigger, i decided it was time to make a few new bows. this is something that i really love doing; i just never seem to find the time to actually make it happen! i've been collecting ribbons/accents for a very long time & i was excited to find some time to sit down & make some bows! i wish i could say that every bow is perfect, but for me, good enough is the new perfect. ha!

of course, once i finished them, i had to try them out! so that night after her bath, miss charlotte got to be my model. :) nothing cuter than a cubba wubba baby sporting only a diaper & big ol' bow! here are a few of my favorites. some of them you can't see the bow too well since i couldn't resist capturing charlotte's many faces on camera -- the bow was the afterthought.

oh yes. she's a chunk! and i love it!

Summertime = Sleepy Time

one thing i love about summer is how great the kids sleep! all that fun just wears them out -- big time. and, while we do let them stay up later (much much later) than usual the best part is that they sleep much later. :) after all the fun we've been having playing outside with our new swingset & the pool & the sandbox the kids are exhausted by bedtime. matt & i have gotten a few good laughs out of how they've fallen asleep this summer & how loud they both SNORE!!!

asleep one afternoon while they were watching a movie

even miss charlotte got in on some dead-tired action!!

The Sand Man

last week we finally got around to filling up our sandbox with new sand. while both madeleine & harrison have had fun playing in it, harrison has spent hours out there in that sand. he's played with his army men in the sand the most. and yesterday we caught him lugging sand up to the deck & making a sand castle. oh boy!

when it's time to come in (and i usually have to bribe him to get him in) he's covered in sand. i think a full bag of sand has gone down our drain this week. :) it's in his hair, pants, ears, you name it, there's sand there. i just love his enthusiasm for playtime!

my pictures aren't great since he just couldn't be bothered to stop & smile for the camera!

on a side note....we saw a "mud kitchen" at walmart last week. oh yes. it's a little kitchen that is meant for outside & mud. i think it might be our next purchase with harrison's love of outside dirt!

NWAnniversary

two years ago today we became official residents of nwa. it was a time of big change for us. we'd spent the first 7 years of our married life living close to both of our families and we knew this was going to be a major change for us but we were so excited.

the past two years here have been some of the most wonderful of my life. it took us by surprise how quickly we felt at home. after 3 years in cabot we didn't feel as much at home as we did after 3 months here. amazing, huh? i've met some inspiring women and made some great friends (that have kept me sane during matt's crazy hours!). we've become part of a wonderful church. we're involved in madeleine's school (as in, super-involved!) and i feel a sense of permanance that i really love.

i love how much our house feels like a home. i love that we can spend the evening walking around our pond out back & how matt can take the kids out the back door to do some putting. :) what bliss!

i'm looking forward to many more wonderful years here!!

Charlotte's Half Birthday

sweet charlotte turned 6 months old yesterday! how fast the time is flying by and we're already half way to her birthday. no no no no!

this has be quite a month for miss c. she's getting quite the little personality and i love it! she's so bubbly and pleasant and just generally happy. and she's still so laid-back. she's begun to notice strangers this month. if we're around someone she doesn't know she'll be much quieter that normal and want to keep me or her daddy in her view and she definitely has her favorite people now too. madeleine can still make her laugh more than anyone! and she has this chuckle of a laugh that just bubbles out of her. it makes me laugh every time! :)

she's also an amazing eater. hurray for that! she's been through most of the baby food veggies & fruits and we'll start on the meats this month. she wants our food so badly and grabs for it. actually, she grabs for anything and everything and it heads straight to her mouth.

she's almost sitting alone. she can sit for a looooong time with a pillow behind her back in case she falls. she hates to be cradle-held unless she's tired & prefers to sit up on our laps or be held facing out where she can see the action!!

she's trying to crawl now too. noooooooo! she gets those arms straight and pushes herself up tall and can get one knee up. i'm trying to slow down her progress though. i need a few more months before she's on the move. :)

i love to listen to her babbling. she'll blow raspberries until she's covered in drool and babble (blah, blah, blah -- so funny!) until the kids are telling her to be quiet. she can be really loud!

see....she grabbed her 6 month sign and started chewing on it. :)

when she's concentrating really hard, she puts her head down and purses her lips. so adorable, especially with those chubby cheeks and double chin.

i love her smile. it goes all the way to her eyes and they light up.

in honor of her half-birthday we had a little celebration complete with cake. the kids thought it was so neat! we had "half" of a birthday cake.

her daddy thought she deserved at least a taste of her cake....and gave her the teeny, tiniest bite ever.

she thought it was pretty good stuff. just 6 more months until you get the real deal, girlie!

and, of course, everyone else enjoyed it too!

happy 1/2 birthday sweet charlotte!