4th of July

Yesterday we celebrated the 4th of July with some friends from our Bible Study.  Vilo and Dawn invited us and another couple to their house.  Vilo and Dawn have 4 girls so Julia had a blast.  :)  First, we went to their community swimming pool.  Then we went back to their house for a BBQ.  After that, we walked to a local park to see the fireworks at the mall.  It was a LATE night for our kiddos, but they had fun and so did we.  :)

The girls eating their dinner

 

Caleb chowing down (he sure can eat a lot!)

 

The men BBQing

 

Our family...  This year I bought matching shirts at Old Navy.  I couldn't resist.  :)

 

When Dawn was handing out ice cream sandwiches, Caleb reached out and grabbed one and tried so hard to eat it.  But, he doesn't quite know how to bit into things, yet.

 

But then he figured out how to get the ice cream out with his fingers.  He loved it.

 

Julia didn't like how loud the fireworks were.  :)  She covered her ears the whole time...  She kept saying, "Can we go home, now?"  Poor girl.  But at one point she did say, "The fireworks are so pretty."  It's funny that she was actually smiling for this picture!  She was a trooper, despite the fact that she didn't really want to see the fireworks.

 

Caleb would cry everytime a loud firework boomed.  so, I picked him up and he immediately fell asleep on my shoulder.  It was so precious!

Announcing...

Yup! Baby #3 is on the way... :) My due date is January 8.



Caleb is going to be a big brother! He'll be 18 months holder. Julia is 20 months older than Caleb.

This picture was taken on Mother's Day. This was the day I found out I was expecting baby #3! What a wonderful Mother's Day gift!

Almost 14 weeks pregnant and starting to show.

Our 2 1/2 Year Old

I have really slowed down on taking pictures of Julia because she went through a phase where she didn't like her picture being taken.  :(  Thankfully, that phase has passed and she is more willing (most of the time) to let me take her picture. 

Our daughter has grown up so fast!  I think the biggest change in her in her vocabulary.  She is quite a talker!  I love it that I can have full-on conversations with her.  Some other changes I've noticed is that she is less fearful.  She used to be very cautious but now she is getting more adventurous (like at the playground I hold my breath as I see her climbing things that are quite high!).  She is also more friendly to people (we have had to work on this) which is fun.  It's cute because sometimes we'll be at the store and she'll say "hi" to the person if front of us or the check-out person.  This would have never happened months ago!  Her hair has grown long and is quite curly.  I'm scared to get a hair cut because I don't want to cut off the curls...  Her favorite things to do right now are read, color, and pretend cook in her play kitchen.  She also loves to sing.  Her favorite movies right Mary Poppins and Beauty and the Beast.

This picture was taken at "BabyGym" which is a Mommy and Me playtime for toddlers at our church.  It includes a song and Bible story time.  She loved going to it and I am looking forward to when it starts back up again in the Fall.

Julia loves "driving" our van.  :)

Loved this dress on her.

She puts on her own shoes now... but usually backwards.  :)

 

Julia playing with her daddy

 

Julia loves setting up food for us or her stuffed animals to eat.  :)

 

 

Making a yummy meal

 

The four of us went out to a donut shop one Saturday.  We let her choose the donut and she chose a chocolate old fashioned donut with sprinkles.  :)

 

 

All smiles about her first donut  :)

 

Eating her lunch

 

 

We went to this thing called, "Touch a Truck" where they had firetrucks, ambulances, police cars, etc.  Right when we got to the park she was excited to see the bunny and duck characters and actually gave them high-fives. 

 

She was more excited about the balloons than the trucks...  :)

 

 

At the beginning, she didn't want to get into any of the trucks.  But, right as we were leaving she actually wanted to get in the truck.  Yay!  I guess it just takes her a little bit of time to warm up to new things...

 

 

She was brave enough to get into a police car, too.  :)

 

 

We got Julia  pair of sunglasses and she loves them.  This picture was taken on our way to a swimming pool... Let's just say she did NOT like swimming AT ALL!  She screamed the whole time.  Sigh.  I wish we had taken her swimming more often as a baby.  Hopefully she'll warm of the idea of swimming in the near future.  :)

Aunt Lisa and Julia, both wearing their sunglasses  :)

 

 

Love her smile

 

 

 

 

 

Family Visits

Over the past 6 months, my parents have visited a few times, Phil visited, and Phil and Jaime have visited with their kids.  It is so nice to have my family around.  I wish they lived closer!

Uncle Phil holding Julia and Caleb

 

Uncle Phil!

 

Grandma holding Caleb (8 months) - wished I had a picture with Grandpa to post, too!

 

Julia with her 5 cousins!  She loved having them around...  :)

 

Julia and Matteus.  Matteus is the cousin closest in age to Julia.

 

Ella painted Julia's fingernails.  Julia loved it!  :)  I was surprised she could actually hold still that long.  :)

 

Ella also painted her toenails (and mine too!)

 

The only picture I have of Jaime...  Ella painted her toenails, too.  :)

 

Uncle Phil holding Caleb 

 

 

Phil, Jaime, me, and all the kiddos took a trip to Master's where we walked the campus.  Then, we walked up to the dorm where Phil and Jaime met and they told the kids funny stories about their years at college.

Siblings

Caleb loves his sister.  He loves following her around the room and trying to play with what she is playing with... It is not always appreciated by his sister, of course (him trying to play with her toys, ha!).  Recently, they started playing this game together where they crawl behind the couch chasing each other.  It is quite cute because that is the first thing that they have played "together."  I try to capture moments on camera when they are playing well together... since that is not always the case.  :)  Here are some of the moments I captured over the past 6 months or so:

Eating their breakfast together

 

Something they both love, climbing all over daddy :)

 

I love this picture of my kiddos!

 

Julia loves giving him hugs...

 

Julia teaching him how to play with his stand-up toy

 

At the park together

 

You can tell he loves his sister in this picture

 

This was a nice stage... where Caleb was content to play side by side with Julia and didn't try to take away her toys.  :)

 

Parallel play

 

At the park again