Father's Day Blessings

We went to my Mom's pool this Thursday and we all had so much fun!!

 I finally have Jackson drinking from a regular cup and he is doing great!

 Bouncin' on Dad's knee!

 Loving on their favorite guy!  You should see how they BOTH light up when he gets home. Bailey crawls faster than I see all day straight to him :)  And Jackson is usually doing a dance of excitement!

 Bailey Boo and Uncle Stephen...or Untle Stee-ben as Jackson would say ;)

 checking out Dad's new gift!

 John had some help opening of course :)

We celebrated Father's Day with my Dad on Saturday night and my brother came up too!  We had a great weekend full of relaxing, going to the pool, eating yummy food, and just enjoying each other.  This Father's Day meant more to me than previous ones.  A good friend of mine from my women's bible study groups' brother-in-law was just given two weeks to live the other day.  He had cancer in his cheek (which they had removed successfully a few months ago) but was told it had spread to his brain and their was nothing they could do.  He is our age.  He will be leaving behind my friend's sister and their 3 children.  I had tears in my eyes a great deal this weekend as I counted my blessings on all that we have.  I should remember not to complain about not having new carpet, needing to loose a few pounds, wishing John didn't work so much, wishing our yard was in better shape, or just complaining in general.  We have the most important thing of all~love for each other & health. I can't imagine how their Father's Day must have been and I thought about that all day.  About how lucky we are.   You just never know what life may bring and you only get one chance to live. So thank you John, for all that you provide for our family~all your love and support. You have given me 2 beautiful kids and I couldn't imagine life without all of you! 

Our Little Photographer

I took this of Jackson b/c he has been our little photographer for the last week!  He LOVES to take pictures, so we let him use the old camera. He took 212 pictures! LOL  So I narrowed it down to a few where you can actually see people, but they were all hilarious!  He caught a great one of me in the bathroom (which I will never show!) and it is just super neat to see everything from his perspective ;)  Enjoy!

June girls dinner!

 From the left...Alijeh, Melanie, Nicole holding Bailey, Kristin, Allie, Meredith, Ashley, Jackson...Kayla arrived after I had taken pics :( 

 All the girls are EXTREMELY great with the kids and so helpful.  Melanie is due in August and I couldn't be happier that someone else will know how it feels to lug kids out to dinner!! LOL

 He finally warmed up and had so much fun!

 Bluiis ;) 

 Mer bear with Bailey!

Alijeh with Bailey Boo!  I love our girls dinner, but sad to say...it really is just too much with both kids by myself.  The whole point of our dinners is to catch up and visit with each other and all I do is feed kids, change dirty diapers, put Jackson in time out, take Jackson to the bathroom, sweat & get frustrated, and be constant entertainment! LOL!  Don't get me wrong...my friends really all do help a ton, but I never truly relax.  Especially when no one else has kids in my group.I know that my friends are super sweet and understanding, but you can't help but judge or wonder~why is she doing this or that crazy boy!  Shoot, I said those same things!  But, as my Mom said to me the other night...when they all have 2 kids they will be saying "now I TOTALLY understand what you felt like back then!" 

8 months and a Potty Training Update!

 This is the  first time I walked in and Bailey was kneeling!

 Jackson got super excited about it too!

 Then a few days later...she is standing!  Good thing I had lowered the crib!

 We LOVE this face Bailey makes, especially Jackson...he is shaking the doll and will do anything to make her do it!  He knows if he makes that face, so will she!

I really just can't believe she is 8 months old!  She is such a big girl now!  Watching her crawl around is just so fun!  Jackson has a love/hate relationship with her crawling and pulling up everywhere.  Sometimes he thinks its the cutest thing on earth and calls her to come over like a dog ;)  Or gives her great big hugs (a little too hard sometimes!) and says "BAILEY STANDING!"  Then other times he is freaking out b/c he can no longer hide his toys up high on the couch ;)  Bailey loves to imitate.  If you make a squishy face, she will too...if you shake your head, she will too...if you make a coughing noise, she will too ;)  She has been feeding herself puffs for a few months now and loves them!  I have let her try a few other things, but I need to be better about it.  She now has 5 teeth, she got another one on the bottom!  She is just growing up so fast...I can't keep up! LOL

Potty Training Update!  Yep...that's our boy eating some YOGLI MOGLI!!  He has not had a # 2 accident since last Friday!!!!!!  It was like I had won the lottery...seriously...I couldn't be happier!  He is now understanding the concept and knows he will be rewarded greatly just for going potty! LOL  Everyone keep your fingers crossed that things continue to go well!!!

Pool Time!!

Jessi with Bailey :)

Jackson and Liam

Sweet Baby Olivia doing what she does best :)

We spend nearly everyday during the summer at the pool. There is not much else you can do outside in the heat with a 2 1/2 year old and a 8 month old. No matter what, you have to lather them up in sunscreen if you go anywhere outside...so might as well go to the pool! Fortunately Jessi is on maternity leave still so we get to hang out all the time and she has the best pool EVER! It is even better than Whitewater for little ones! I should have taken pics of all the cool stuff they have! We have gone to our pool a few times too and the kids LOVE it.

Everyday Jackson gets better. Even today he said, "Mama go under!" which I did. Then all the sudden he dunked himself under!! He came up with a little frightened, but with a GREAT BIG smile! He proceeded to do it about 50 times! It was soooo cute! I never make him feel any pressure to do something he is not ready to do, but I guess he is just watching all the big kids and wanting to be like them. All the big kids at our pool have been SO nice to both the kids. He makes a new friend EVERY day and they are always at least 3 times his age. I love the questions I get..."are they twins?!?!", "does he talk", "does she walk". and they are endless! They play ball with him and even pull him around in their floats (with me right next to him the whole time!). We are all usually exhausted after going to the pool~we lug the entire world with us and I have it down to an exact science of how I pack and get ready for the pool.  If you want to come to our pool please let me know! We love having friends with us!!

**Another Amy tip from when Jackson was a baby: NEVER put the swim diapers on until you get to the pool...they don't hold pee pee AT ALL! It just leaks right out. I have had Bailey do it on my lap before and I was very glad it was not in her car seat on the way there ;) Which brings up another gross issue that John jokes about...good thing they have LOTS of chlorine in the pools ;)

Memorial Weekend BBQ

John, Bailey, Adam, and Aiden at Adam and Jaime's house. John and Adam have been friends since I believe either preschool or elementary school. And Jaime and I have been friends since elementary school (She is my bestfriend Allie's big sister!)

Loved this face she was making!

Hope was soooo sweet with both the kids, I love her!

Jackson and Hope played VERY well together and wore each other out! At one point they were both in Hope's tent and Hope had put the covers on Jackson and said, "it's time to sleep". He was playing right along...pretending to sleep! SOOOO cute!!!

On our way home Jackson re-played the night out loud...it was hilarious. He has been talking about Hope's bike (and thier lawn mower) all week! LOL