Colorado Visitor

Poppy came to VA on his way up to PA to visit with a friend. It was such a great time being with him. Most of the time was spent in the hotel pool - as usual! That is one happy Poppy!

Florida Visitors

Andy's Aunt and Uncle stopped by to pick up the family bassinet so a cousin could use it for their newborn. We hadn't seen them in about 2 years! It was great to see them and show off our newest cutie.

It was pretty good timing since we had just gone to IKEA and purchased a crib for Rosemary!

Girls Weekend / Boys Weekend

The boys went camping with Papa Bear while the girls stayed home. Annabelle and I had such a lovely weekend together. I will always cherish it. We had a full day on Saturday. A slip and slide party and a going away party during the day. There was a ton of leftover cake from the going away party so we brought some home for us and then to share with the boys. Our night was filled with chocolate cake and sewing. Perfect in every way. I love spending time with her one on one. She is maturing so much and I can really feel our relationship changing. I can't believe I'm getting glimpses of what our relationship with look like in the years to come while she's three, but it's happening. Time is flying.
 

Here she is modeling her new baby carrier. She wore it to church the next morning.

The boys after they got home.

Tinkertoy Creation

Sam's First Loose Tooth

We were at the park with some friends and one of the kids, who was almost 6 had her 4th loose tooth. It was dangling by a thread. Samuel was so interested since he still hasn't lost a tooth. The mom was a little shocked he hadn't lost any yet and kind of jokingly asked him if she could see his teeth. When she looked in his mouth she saw that there was an adult tooth growing behind one of his baby teeth. He had told me the day before he could feel something in his mouth, but didn't realize it was a tooth. I tried to wiggle the tooth and it did move a bit.

Here's to a new phase of life for Sam. He commented this is the best thing that has ever happened to him. Haha. He's pretty thrilled.

Sleeping Angel

Just about the only way this angel will fall asleep these days is if she has her blanket in her hands and her two fingers to her left hand in her mouth and she's in her car seat or crib. But, here she fell asleep without either of those things. It was glorious.

Sock Situation

Since we school year round we rarely take off long stretches of time from school. This summer I decided we would take about 2 straight weeks off to get some big projects around the house done.

One project was the miss matched socks. It was out of control. At the end of winter last year I decided to put all of our socks in a huge basket after they came out of the dryer and we would just keep them there and go through everyone's as a family, getting rid of old ones, pass down too small ones and finally seeing what we actually in the sock department.

Samuel and I decided to tackle this together because it was honestly too daunting for one of us to do it alone. When all was said and done we matched 152 pairs of socks for the entire family and still had 49 single pairs of socks remaining!!! Just insane.

We are now all ready for the cooler weather!

Rosie's Thought Progression on Wrestling

"This is so fun! I love wrestling on the mats!"

"Okay, that's enough. I was having fun, and then you all had to go and keep doing it."

"So, you're saying I won? I just laid there. Wow, you guys have low standards."

"Yes! They finally left me alone. I guess I have come to realize it's just the mat I like. Not the wrestling part."

Trip to Sloans

We went for our 2nd annual trip to North Carolina to visit with the Sloans. We had a lovely time once again. Not only do I love Jennifer, but our children all love one another. It's the icing on the cake to a very special friendship.

We have done SO much traveling this summer. My little road buddies are such troopers.

Joseph snapped this picture while we were driving home. Such an angel from heaven.

Rosemary - 8 Months Old

Childbirth Training Weekend

I had a workshop for my childbirth education program up in DC so we made Gigi and GranRan's our headquarters. They watched the 3 older kids while I took Rose Puppy to the class. Even though she was welcome there, I was a little anxious about how it all would go because she is definitely at a wiggly age now and doesn't easily fall asleep in the carrier. But, at the same time, I knew the Lord wanted me to attend this, and He also knew Rosemary needed to come since I don't pump my milk. I shared my concerns with some friends and asked for prayer to be able to absorb everything I needed to even though I had a noisy mover and shaker with me.

It worked out perfectly. It was in a small urban church and they had a small nursery with a pack-n-play, a monitor and a noise machine all right there. The drive to and from DC each day was a breeze and Rosie literally wasn't an issue. She slept the entire morning, was up for our lunch break and a little afterwards, and then slept the whole afternoon.

The class was amazing. The amount of information I received during the weekend was overwhelming. I was very encouraged at what an excellent fit this field is going to be for me. I am so passionate about giving new parents options as they venture into the uncharted territory of parenthood. There are SO many false assumptions related to birth and childcare that are so harmful to the mother, the baby and their bonding it's scary how often people just go with what's normal today because they simply are not educated about the alternatives.

I am confident parents would enjoy parenting more, children would be happier and the bond between mother and child would drastically improve if people changed a few key things. I'm praying that I can make a difference in that regard.

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While we were headed home we drove by a small airport and saw some parachutes landing. The boys had just gotten some parachute men as their pillow presents from Gigi. 

At the Howard County State Park with Gigi and GranRan

Albemarle County Fair

The weather has just been incredible. I cannot get over how nice it's been. This particular Saturday we had just set aside to do housework... well there was no way we were going to stay inside with how gorgeous the weather was. So, we decided to hit up the county fair. I'm so glad we did. I just stayed up late that night to clean and got it mostly done. Definitely worth the loss of sleep.

Rosie slept almost the entire time we were there.

My dancing princess.

My two sons! Oh how I love them so!

But we did get her to take a picture being a pig.

We were able to watch some fun animal races, take a tractor ride, pet some cute animals, watch a bee keepers demonstration, look around at the 4H winners and have some yummy food. So thankful for Saturdays together as a family.