Family Updates

Alright, here are the updates on the family...

Julia got her first tooth finally! It's been just under the surface for awhile, but finally popped through yesterday. There's no sign of any of the others yet, so it looks like she might be one-toothed for a little while.

Chloe jumped off the diving board!! She had been still being afraid (and told me that morning that she would jump off the diving board when she turned 8...so a little over 2 years from now). But we were at our friend Lisa's house, and she started challenging the girls (Chloe and Corrinn...who is Chloe's best friend) to swimming and jumping challenges. She would say, I bet I could swim from here to there without taking a breath, or I bet I could jump off the side and go underwater. Chloe was starting to get very frustrated that she couldn't keep up with Corrinn (who is 9 months younger than Chloe, but who is a natural swimmer...she swims all over and jumps into the pool and dives down to the bottom of the deep end). So, it made Chloe step it up, and she started holding her breath and going under water, and jumping off the side of the shallow end. I then convinced her that if she put on a ring, then she could go deeper and deeper and still just go under the water a little. So, she moved a little at a time until she was jumping off the diving board. And she LOVED it!! She must have jumped in 20 times before we made her get out!!

Gracie... hmm Gracie doesn't have anything new to report. She's still doing really well with potty-training, and starting to be more reliable without having accidents. She also fell asleep last night at dinner, which was really cute and sweet! She had just told us "I'm really sleepy" and we told her "It'll be bedtime soon, but right now you need to eat". But apparently, she couldn't wait that long.

Julia is continuing to find more trouble to get herself into, now that she's getting more and more mobile. She's constantly going for the dog food, and she loves to pull all the play magnets off of the refrigerator. Last night, though, she got herself stuck behind the couch. She likes to go play with the cords to our network, but she decided to keep going and got herself a little stuck. She ended up crawling back out with no problem, but she was a little concerned when she realized how tight it was back there.

Those are the updates for today, along with a picture of our puppy, Izzy! (she doesn't have much to update...we're still having trouble getting her consistently house-trained, but hopefully it'll kick in soon)

Summer is for... Strawberry picking!

We've been wanting to go strawberry picking for awhile, and the berries were finally ready this weekend, so we ended up going yesterday to pick some. We went to a really nice farm with lots of rows of strawberry plants (they also had SO MANY blueberry bushes with lots of little green blueberries on them...they should be ready in another month or so, so we'll have to go back then and get blueberries).


The girls did really well! Even Gracie found lots of great strawberries. She was a little less selective, so I had to throw a couple out that were a little too early or too late. But overall, she picked a bucket of great strawberries. A shower popped up over us right about the time we started picking, and it sprinkled on and off the whole time. The girls were a little cold and whiny at the beginning, but then they got into looking for strawberries, and were focused!

We got lots of great berries... 4 containers full. It ended up being 8 or 9 pounds of strawberries, and they're delicious!! We've already eaten quite a few berries today. I want to try my hand at making homemade strawberry jam. I've never done any of that before, so it'll be interesting to see how it turns out. Then, we'll have to see what other great strawberry things we can make...

Our Father's Day weekend

We had a very busy weekend, with buying a new van and celebrating Ben for Father's Day. This past year, we've been using Mom & Dad's van while they've been overseas in Europe for the year. We've really appreciated their generosity and enjoyed their van this year (so, Thanks, Mom & Dad!!!). They fly home in 2 weeks, so we had to go van shopping. We picked up our new van on Saturday. It is a 2005 Chrysler Town & Country. It seems like it'll be a great van for us for years to come. It has some amazing perks (automatic doors, built in DVD, stow n go seats) and is definitely the nicest car we've ever owned. We had a fun time getting to play with it this weekend. The girls loved being able to open and close the doors with just the touch of a button! Here are some pictures of the van.


Then, on Sunday, we went to play Putt-Putt. We hadn't ever taken the girls before, so we thought it would be a fun excursion. It was a really neat place with a train theme. They have a little train you can ride around, and of course, ice cream to eat! We had a fun day. The girls did pretty well at playing mini-golf. Gracie got board with the golfing pretty quickly, and was mostly just running around, jumping up onto rocks and going over bridges. She would come back in and play a hole here and there, but mostly didn't play. Chloe on the other hand, did really well and played most of the game. They especially loved one hole where you get the ball into one hole and it goes underground and pops out 10 feet below at the hole. They enjoyed throwing their balls into the hole and then running down to see it come rolling out. Then, we got to ride the little train ride around the park (which was fun, and Julia LOVED).

Unfortunately, Gracie is not very graceful

Gracie has a long history of trips & falls. Thankfully, she's never broken any bones or needed stitches or anything. But she's had a lot of busted lips, bruises, and scrapes from what seemed to be minor falls. On Easter last year, she tripped on the way to church and had a bloody, swollen lip, nose, and forehead for the next few days (luckily, we'd already taken Easter pictures). She also fell into a pool one time (she was looking behind her at something she was dragging and walked right in). She was under the water for what seemed like a long time before I could make it to where she'd fallen in. I know I was a lot more scared at the time than she was! She had another day recently where she tripped 3 times walking on our sidewalk and got 3 separate scrapes on her knees and feet!! The most recent fall resulted in this bruise on her cheek. She was getting off of an inflatable boat at our friend's pool and somehow fell. She says she fell on the wall, and within minutes a bruise had come up on her face. Our poor accident-prone child!! We'll see if we can keep her out of the ER for awhile longer...

Summer is for... SWIMMING!!

We have been having some VERY HOT weather here...at least for us. It's been in the mid to upper 90s for about 5 days in a row! We sometimes hit the 90s in August, but normal temperatures for this time of the year are about 78 or so. We don't have central air conditioning (guess it wasn't invented 100 years ago when our house was built ;) )... but we have several window air conditioners that keep it cooler in the main parts of our house. We're very thankful for that. Our first summer here in Pennsylvania, we didn't have any a/c and they were having an awful heat wave. It was in the upper-90s for a couple weeks. We had just moved from TX expecting cooler weather, and had a 3-month old baby. We were miserable!!! So, we're very glad when these hot spells come that we've acquired some a/c's to make it more bearable.

We've been doing a lot of swimming these last few days...either at the pool at our friend's house, or else at the lake near us. The girls have been having a great time. Even Julia loves the water! Chloe does pretty well swimming around. She still doesn't like to swim without a ring, or jump off of the diving board, but she does really well swimming all around, and loves to look under the water with her mask and snorkel. I'm hoping by the end of the summer, she'll be brave enough to try a few more things... Gracie likes to spend a lot of her time in a baby pool by the side of the real pool, or swinging in a kid's porch swing. She'll come into the pool some, but wants to cling to my side, even if she has a floaty on. She likes me to take her "fimming" with me and swim back and forth across the pool hanging on to me. (Ben and I were wondering why Chloe & Gracie are both fearful about the water, when their friends are all over the place, and having a great time?? We're hoping that in time they'll grow out of it, because Ben and I both LOVE to be in the water). Julia on the other hand loves every minute of being in the water. She loves to splash the water, and when she's in her turtle floaty, she'll kick her feet so hard that her whole floaty is bouncing and she actually moves through the pool that way!

So, here are a few pictures of our swim outing today...


Chloe & Corrinn towing the babies, Julia and Jocelyn & Gracie in the little pool.



Corrinn, Serena, & Chloe & Chloe with her mask

Gracie swinging in the swing, and Gracie & Chloe lounging

Julia's First 9 Months!!!

Julia is 9 months old today! Every month, we take a picture of her, and I like to look back on the changes. It's funny to look back at the 3-month picture now. I remember thinking after I took it how grown up she looked. And now, I look at that picture and marvel at what a tiny, helpless baby she still was... and it's funny that in another few months, I'll look back at this 9-month picture and think what a baby she was!!

So, in honor of another "month-day", here are Julia's 1st 9 months...



Julia at 1 day old






1 month old

2 months old

3 months old

4 months old

5 months old

6 months old

7 months old

8 months old

and today, at 9 months old!!

What a difference a Year Makes

Chloe has finished her year of Kindergarten, so I've been reflecting some on the changes she's undergone this year. Most obviously, she's learned to read! When she started Kindergarten, she knew most, but not all of her letters. Now, she knows probably around 60 words by sight and then can sound out most any 3 letter word. She definitely had some struggles along the way, but now she's fairly good at the basics. She also has learned to write. She loves to play waitress and write down our orders. She writes phonetically, so the other day, our orders were "hambrgr & chare pi". They've also learned a lot of basic math skills, and countless other things. But the thing I've been marvelling at lately is the changes in her maturity. She was barely 5 when she started school, so she was one of the youngest in her class. It's been amazing to see her blossom throughout this year. She is now more independent, and less insecure and shy. She'll go up and talk to other kids on the playground or her teachers at Sunday school, whereas before she would have hung back by mom or dad the whole time. She's a lot better about following directions and obeying (not perfect, but better :) ). She's much more responsible and organized. She loves to organize her toys, or the pantry shelves, or the pictures on the refrigerator or whatever else we might let her organize. I'm very proud of my sweet girl and all she's accomplished this year and for persevering even though some of it was really hard for her!! And a huge "thanks" goes out to her teachers Mrs. Fannock & Mrs. Eggert who worked with her a whole lot throughout the year and helped her get through lots of ups & downs with her behavior and her learning!! Chloe, we're so proud of you and can't wait to see you continue to learn and achieve new things!!!

Chloe with Mrs. Eggert and Mrs. Fannock...They were great caring and loving teachers, and a great introduction to school and learning!!

We Love our Playgroup!!

We have a great playgroup with a couple other families. We all have girls right around the same ages, and then all 3 of us had new babies (again, all girls) within 1 month of each other last September and October. We've been in this playgroup for about 2 1/2 years, so it's been fun to watch these kids all grow up. It's been especially fun to see these 3 little babies who are now 8-9 months old grow from tiny babies into mobile and playful kids! Chloe is the oldest, so she's missed out on a lot of our playtimes this year, but is so excited to get to come again now that school is almost over.

And they're off! These 3 are VERY mobile now and didn't want to stay still for long. They love watching each other and have fun stealing toys from each other, and occasionally grabbing hair or climbing on top of each other. It's lots of fun to watch them together.

Julia pictures

We're constantly taking pictures of Julia. I think she's going to be our best documented child (at least on film) in spite of being our 3rd. So, I just had to post some...