Summer 2011

Here are some pics from our summer so far...Despite a broken arm, four knocked out teeth, an earthquake and a hurricane (with tornado warnings), we've had a wonderful summer!

A trip to the beach with my family. So relaxing, and such precious time with a family I adore!

Robert and Jack had a blast together...again!
Little C looks so sweet and peaceful...but he's about to eat a rock. Fortunately we got it out of his mouth just in time - disaster averted!
Sparklers!
Connor and cute Katie bonded. They turned heads on the beach in their pink and blue outfits.

Our best family shot...awesome. Hopefully we'll manage a better one by the time Christmas cards are sent out!
Aunt Donna loving on the three biggest babies.
Our first fruit! The boys and I started a garden this summer. We've had to be patient because things up here take a little (a lot) longer to bloom than down south. Okay, so we weren't exactly patient. We picked it while it was still fully green, so we had to be patient again and wait a week and a half for it to turn red.
A couple of weeks ago we discovered one of the most beautiful locations we've been to since we moved. A local farm with fields full of zinnias - one of my favorite flowers!

Oh My Oh June!

The title of my last post was "My Oh May." May was extremely busy and I think I'm still recovering from it, but June - what happened to June??? It came and went and we must have been so preoccupied that we didn't realize the days were passing. Here's a quick recap...

We went to Atlanta to spend a week with my family. "BooPa," pictured here, was their favorite toy, as usual.

We took a trip to the zoo specifically to see the monkeys. BooPa loves to do monkey impressions and the boys think it's just about the funniest thing they've ever seen!

This little guy was so tuckered the day after we got home that he fell asleep on the couch - for the first time ever.
Fast forward to the 4th of July! This was one of our best 4th celebrations to date. We had low-country boil, tomato/mozzarella/basil salad, cheese bread and key lime pie - delicious (thank you, Callie!!). Here are the fab three.




And for those of you who haven't heard, Connor broke his arm. It was just one fall of thousands, but this time he fell "the right way," as one friend described it. Not too bad though and he's handled it like a champ. Praying that he'll get the cast off before we head to the beach in a few weeks!

My Oh May

I can hardly believe that so much has transpired over one calendar month, but it did and we're thankful that the Lord has carried us through both the wonderful and difficult times.

Here's a recap:

Arboretum: we LOVE the arboretum here. It's green, hilly and gorgeous. But as much as my boys love the arboretum, they love the little girl in the pink top even more!

I don't think I got a good picture of Robert on his first day of school, so I was determined to get a good one on his last day!
We love you Mrs. Vermeire and will miss you so much next year!
An after school treat - ice cream! Poor Connor looks so focused here and intent on devouring the whole thing. It fell on the ground a few bites in so Robert shared the rest of his with his little brother. I was so impressed that he did this without hesitation, but I'm pretty sure he was already quite filled with end-of-the-year goodies from the school day.
We took a trip to Vermont for a friend's wedding. Carlton and I met in this very town in Vermont many years ago, so it was especially sweet to bring our boys here. I fell in love with the state - it's stunningly beautiful! Here the boys are showing off their muscles to a local policeman.
For a little boy who will only sit for a video for 10 minutes, he could have stared at this waterfall all day!
The little men were so excited to be in Vermont that they woke up both days at 5:30. We were out the door by 6 and had two mornings of the most lovely and quiet walks! Dad slept in while we walked the first morning, but joined us on day #2.
Their favorite stop on our walks was to a farm down the street from our hotel. It was beautiful and we were there early enough to watch the farmers feed the animals!

Texas Trip Times Three!

Papawyn (Carlton's dad) came in town for a conference. The boys and I met them downtown on Saturday afternoon and enjoyed a gorgeous afternoon running around Rittenhouse Square together (the boys ran, we chased)!

We miss Texas, so we decided to visit. We went, we saw and it conquered us (or our sleeping schedule anyway!) but we had a blast!

First stop: Dallas. A precious reunion with some of our favorite people on earth! Charlie, the superhero on the right, is Robert's first best friend. They were inseparable when we lived in Dallas, and they were inseparable when reunited!
This might have been the stillest moment of the visit. Thank you, Curious George.
We took the kids out for hotdogs and frozen custard at one of my favorite Dallas eateries. Fortunately we went early because I'm pretty sure we would have been asked to leave had more people been in the restaurant. Don't you love Charlie's french fry impression??
We left Dallas to join Carlton's family in Fort Worth for his brother's TCU graduation. I didn't get any pictures, but we're so proud of you Uncle Nay-Nay!

On Sunday we headed back to Dallas to attend Providence Presbyterian Church's worship service. It was a little taste of heaven worshipping in their beautiful new building with so many we love so much!

Next stop: Houston. This was the scene five minutes after we pulled out of Dallas...
Robert learned to play the guitar.
Connor learned how to ride a horse. They're both determined to be Texans, I guess.
We were able to get together with almost all of Carlton's family at a BRILLIANT restaurant that had outdoor seating with a big sandbox and play area for the kids AND the food was amazing!

The boys got to spend some time with their cousins. I love this shot of Connor and Jody. She was playing "catch the bunny lovey" with him and he loved any bit of attention she was willing to throw his way!
We managed to get a picture of all seven grandchildren who were present (poor sweet Ross was sick at home). I guess you can call it impressive, but they did each have their own chair...

Spring Finally Sprung!

Happy belated Easter! We intended to get some good shots of our boys in their matching outfits (as this only occurs on special occasions (hand-me-downs don't usually come in sets of two)), but Mommy couldn't figure out how to work my camera so most of what we got was dark or blurry...oops!

This is their "He is risen!" rendition.
Well spring has certainly sprung around here and it is BEAUTIFUL! Dare I say it was worth the wait?! And with spring comes lots and lots of trips to the Arboretum. This is from a special visit with my littlest while his brother was at school.
An exciting part of living in a new house is seeing what pops up come spring. I was elated to see the color of this azalea in our front yard!
Today we met Daddy at the Arboretum for lunch. The boys had a blast and we're always thankful for more time with Daddy!
The boys found a frog! They climbed all over that dirty thing again and again and again!

My Little Boys

The other day we did a "craft." I do not consider myself to be very crafty but I can manage if it's mostly store-bought stuff. So here were my store-bought items: one box on Easter egg ornaments (bought after Easter last year) and two Dollar Store "trees." I was fortunate to have bought one for each boy because I realized early in the game that their craft styles are very different. Do you see the intense focus on this child's face?? Incredible, right?? Well, it lasted for about five seconds at a time and then he was off to other things.

The result: a precious little tree with only a couple of ornaments (his brother took the majority of them). Connor not only learned how to put ornaments on a tree, but he also learned that playing "kick the tree" is not an effective way to keep your tree adorned.
Robert was focused and determined, too. Some of this was definitely driven by a desire to acquire as many ornaments as possible before his brother could. Mission accomplished.
So proud of his final product!
I've wanted to capture them doing typical Robert and Connor activities and climbing up and sliding down the stairs is definitely one of them.

As is riding bikes up and down our driveway - never mind the rain!

Today the boys found mommy shoes and tried them on. Daddy would be so proud...