Being married

When summer started, Sam taught Charlotte this game in the car: 

I'm not sure why, but it's called "Being Married."  The first time they play Sam suddenly broke out into a panic and said, "Mommy, I think I'm going to cut off my head from being married."

It took everything in me not to crack up at that close-to-home comment and asked her to clarify.  Apparently when she reeeeached like that it dug the strap of her carseat into her neck.  She had a bright red indent.

Recently she's adapted the game to use her foot.  Charlotte doesn't mind.  She immediately reaches for Sam once I buckle her in so she can "be married" to her sister. 

The Wall

Is still very popular.

But much louder with two making the laps...

Flashback and Preview

 

I've seen this uniform on so many kids the past few years, but seeing it on her was a little surreal.  I wore the exact same one for seven years. 

 I'm very excited for her to go, but I also realized the other day that I won't be able to take her to her first day of school. 

And now I shall go to bed and shove that fact out of my mind less it hits me over the head again  and makes me question myself as a mother.

Summer Peace

Every once in a while the Older will be gentle enough that the Younger doesn't try and squirm away.  And that's when I grab the camera.  Because the other times the Older is busy writing an apology letter. 

Cousins

11.9 months and 9.5 months

Summer Sun

Daddy was being so mean...making her get wet...

Sam can never decide which swim suit to wear, so she wears 1/2 of one and 1/2 of the other.  She calls them her "Mix Match"  swim suits.  I tend to see it as the "It looks like your mother is too cheap to buy you a real swim suit" or "Looks like your mom needs to do laundry swim suit" but I think it's easier to just call it the "Mix Match".

The Block

I want to remember these few days where she was mesmerized by a little block. 

It was all she would play with.

For 30 minutes at a time she'd sit fiddle with it until she got it to nest in the next size bigger.

When she'd felt that she'd mastered the puzzle, she'd find something else to do...but bring the block with her.

And randomly stop to admire it.

She sounded like a pirate with a peg-leg crawling with that thing in her hand.

Hm...

*fiddle fiddle*



She one-handed-played for a good two days. 

Birthday Gift

Amanda is turning 19. She really has blossomed into womanhood this past year.  She moved in next door this month and Sam is asking every 30 minutes in the evenings,  "Can I go see if Amanda is home yet?" We are enjoying the current living situation as much as possible right now as her next move will probably be when she has a different last name... Which everyone is guessing will happen here in a year or so. 
Anyway there are a lot of possibilities in her future at the moment and the suspense kind of gets to her at times.  She's got an AMAZING faith and her relationship with Christ is one that I can only hope to have someday in the distant future.  That being said she is also very eclectic and hard to shop for... And it doesn't help that her love language is (thoughtful) gifts.  This means a gift card just doesn't cut it.  I came up with a vague idea  in my head  and scored all the pieces on clearance at hobby lobby.  Can you decifer the message?

House update

It is finished!
Remember this?


 

A ceiling makes all the difference!







 

Big screen thanks to Grandad last Christmas.

 

 

 

 

Jer's Man Corner

Eight

 We have two children, but eight car seats.  This fall there will be four cars in three different families transporting the girls.  It's just easier than moving car seats every day in the winter.  Especially a Radian.  Those suckers are HEAVY. And the Evenflo Triumphs.  We love them due to their easy adjustment straps, but they are SO. WIDE.

 

 

I had budgeted $300 for enough car seats for everyone and managed to score the (FOUR!) extra we needed for $95.  The first to expire will be December 2015, so I won't have to worry about restraining devices for a while.  Which nice, as it's not fun. 

Cousins

 

 

 

Raspberries

Ready??

aaaaand

pppbbbbbthbbbp

and squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeal!

Summer Playdates

This has been the summer-of-playdates.  We have one almost every day.  Usually with this sibling duo.

I love toting around a full van.

 



Occasionally we shake things up a bit and other friends play too.

Jeremy always will call and ask how the "daycare" is going that day and who all I have at the house at that moment.
I've been told a few times that I should open a daycare. 
And every summer I ponder it.*


 

*make lists of pros and cons, create spreadsheets of costs and financial viability, consider every angle from having more kids, the size of vehicles, if I'd only take part-time, full-time, teacher's kids, etc...


Cousins

I gotta work on Charlotte sitting like a lady with her skirt on...

They always have to inspect each other. 
11 months and 9 months

 

These two beauties has a "Princess for a Day"

Both are so amazingly gorgeous for completely different reasons. 
Their beauty just takes my breath away.

 

Paper Dolls

We've been reading the Little House on the Prairie books.  She's just fascinated by their family. I'd constantly find her reading one of the picture books she got for Christmas and just assumed she was looking at the pictures.  Then one night she closed it and squealed, "Mom!  I memorized it!  Listen!"  and she sang "Pop Goes the Weasel" without skipping a beat.  She even throws in a finger-snap when she says, "POP!"
One of the things Laura and her sisters play with is paper dolls.  One day Sam came running to show me the clothes she'd made for her doll:

 

Then I showed her how I used to play with paper dolls by getting magazines and advertisements, cutting out the people and creating "families",finding them beds, clothing, accessories, etc.  She's been going at it all day.

Note the vacuum and the swimming pool.

I told her to go put the paperdolls in her room.

She said, "But Mommy, there isn't any room!  There's paper EVERYwhere."

 

Le sigh.

Bottoms Up

It cracks me up and I'm still running for the camera every day.

 

 

She's checking to make sure I didn't miss a single crumb/onion skin/speck of dirt on the floor.

 

Remember grass being Sam's kryptonite? 
Yeah, Charlotte doesn't even notice.
 Especially when my coffee cup is just sitting there, alone and unattended...