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...

Chloe's End of Year Picnic

Chloe's school had a Kindergarten End of the Year Picnic on Tuesday. There are 4 Kindergarten classes at her school, so there were 97 kindergarteners at the park, plus a lot of their families. They had a great time playing, and it was fun to see Chloe interacting with her school friends. Gracie had a great time following Chloe around and went on one of the slides over and over again for probably 30 minutes straight. Ben went ahead and took the day off of work, so that he could come to the picnic too. We had a fun day together, and went ahead and brought Chloe home right after the picnic. We came home and the girl's played in the sprinkler in the backyard. It was a fun day celebrating that school is almost over. Just 2 more days after today!!

Here are Chloe & some of her best friends...

And here is the class waving goodbye! It's been a great year!