family time

Yesterday we drove out and saw my family and we got to hang out for the day.  It was so nice!

Eden loves her Mia and aunt Colie:

 Ryder has the best cousins.  They are so good with him!

 Yep, it was really a hot day:

 At one point, it reached 108 degrees!  Eden just couldn't believe it:

 In the last few weeks, Ryder has been getting into Thomas the train and so his cousin's shared their set with him:

(Thank you guys so much for sharing your things with us... We appreciate it!)

 So of course we had to set it up:

(It was too hot to do anything else...)

 My mom makes Ryder laugh so hard!  I think at this point she was pretending to be asleep and then making funny noises when she woke up.  He loved it!

 I think this was the first time that Ryder had corn on the cob.

I can't remember him ever eating it like that and we could tell that it was a novelty for him too...

 Eden loves her papa!

 The day ended with arriving home to Eden getting lots of smiles, and snuggles from her dad.

(I am loving her thighs!)

It was a wonderful day of connecting with our family that we love!

We are excited for many more long summer days together...

time with friends

We had so much fun with our friends this weekend.

10 adults.  10 kids under the age of 6.

These faces are so precious!

(But looking at them, you can see why I didn't get many pictures of the adults.  We all had our hands full!)

You can imagine that with this many kids, 

dinner time was crazy:

(Kids laughter and giggles is the best!)

As well as getting them all to bed:

(This was a little story time that we did each night.)

We went to Strands beach in Dana Point.

We ate our lunches and just talked and watched the kids play.

This was Eden's first time at the beach, but I don't think she will remember much of it♥:

The girls:  

(There are 7 boys and 3 girls.  Another boy will join the group in November.  The girls are very outnumbered...)

(Can you tell that Eden is not sure about all these pictures.)

In the evenings, after we got the kids to sleep, each of the five couples just shared about where they are in life, the highs and the lows, and ways that we can pray for each other.  This group represents what it is to really live in community and to live life with people.  I am so thankful that they are in our lives and that our kids will grow up together.

To the Cleary's, Wark's, Thrashes, and Jones'~

We love you all and are so grateful that you are walking this journey with us.

We appreciate you and are so thankful for you.

Thank you for loving on us and for loving Ryder and Eden so well.

You are our family.

We are excited for the years to come!

weekend with friends

This afternoon we are heading down to Dana Point to stay with a group of our close college friends.

10 adults, (with baby jones on the way) and 10 kids under 6.

Sweet chaos.

We are looking forward to connecting, to getting all the kids together, and for the adult conversation when the kiddos go to bed.

My expectations are very low in regards to Ryder's naps...

So we are getting things together while trying not to pack the entire house.

(I'm not a fan of packing...)

I hope you have a great weekend getting to be with people you love!

a little fourth of july recap...

We had a wonderful fourth of July!

 Our street had it's 15th annual block party.  Everyone is out, talking and eating together.

It was fun to use our front yard.

(We are usually in the backyard when it comes to parties...)

 My baby girl celebrated her first independence day:

Ryder thought that he would want to ride in the parade, but was much happier being carried:

(maybe next year...)

I love this man!

 The hit of the day was the slip and slide:

He spent the ENTIRE day on this thing:

Ryder did NOT like the fireworks, so we headed home for bed.

Eden was not phased at all, but had fun listening to the noises, so we just sat and listened until she fell asleep...

It was a wonderful day and I came away from the festivities knowing my neighbors even better, a few pounds heavier from all the tasty food (Kit smoked his ribs... they are AMAZING!), and a very grateful heart for our home.  There were already plans that were being made for next year!

happy fourth!

From our house to yours...

we hope you have a very happy fourth of July!

play time

I am so proud of my big kid!  He has gotten more and more into creative play time and is very content to play with others, as well as playing by himself.

He has a stack of his favorite books my his chair and I will see him climb up, grab them, and flip through them as though he is reading them.

 

The favorite indoor toys are Buzz (aka "Uzz"), mr. potato head (thanks to speech therapy), his farm (which always comes with the singing of old Mac Donald), and his legos.

He also loves his tent from Ikea and loves bringing his toys and books in there.

He also likes to combine his toys.  We both think that Buzz makes an excellent farmer...

I mean is there anything that "Uzz" can't do?

 

His dexterity with his legos has been pretty awesome too.  He is starting to be able to build little things which is really fun to see.  Sometimes I sit down to start putting things together and I get a  "No mama" and other times I ask if I can join him and I get a huge smile and a big "SURE!"

I just take what I can get...

Right now our days are designed around naps.  Eden has her first nap at 10a-1pm.  I then put Ryder down at 1pm after he has eaten his lunch.   I will usually work in about 30 minutes of overlap so that I can eat lunch. He sleeps until about 330p.  Then she goes down for a little nap at about 4pm.  I know that there is always someone awake, but it has been really nice for me to get one on one time with Ryder and I think it's made this transition of getting a sibling a little smoother.

When I look back on these days before school schedules and extra curricular activities, I will always try to remember these sweet moments with each of my babies.

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Little updates:

Speech therapy:

It has been awesome!  He loves his therapist and has been getting better and better with articulation of words and phrases!  He cries when she leaves because she is so sweet AND she brings the best toys!

Work:

My first shift was really hard.  I felt like a new grad.  There had been lots of changes to our department,  it was a crazy busy day and I cried multiple times when people asked me how I was doing with leaving Eden.  On my second shift, the following week, I got all caught up on EVERYTHING and I finally feel like all I have to do is just go to work and take care of people and not get detracted with paper work.  I miss the kids and being with Kit, but I can see that it is going to be a great break and a wonderful opportunity to appreciate being with my kids.

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Well we are excited about the fourth of July and getting to be part of our streets annual block party.  I will have lots of pictures following the festivities!  I hope you have a great day!

Welcome July!

We are loving those long summer days where the only thing on the list is family time...

I hope you had a great weekend!

We are getting things together for our annual block party on Wednesday... I can't wait!