Cow Appreciation Day 2011

Friday morning I gathered up my little cows and met our friends at Chick-fil-A!  The kids were excited about wearing their costumes.  Erin even made me refer to them as brother cow, sister cow and baby calf!  I, of course, was mommy cow.

We made our costumes the day before.  Luckily, I already had a white t-shirt for all of us so all we needed was some black felt.  I cut out the spots and glued them to our shirts with spray adheasive.  I added ruffles to the back of Camryn's onesie!   Then, I made each kid a set of cow ears.



We met up with our friends at the Chick-fil-A operated by a family from our church.  They were passing out big balloons and little Chick-fil-A cows along with the free food.

One of Camryn's friends from Cradle Roll, Brooks.

Sweet friends!

Cole, trying on the cow costume for size!

I think we have started a tradition!

Our 4th of July

We swam.

Played with cousins.

Such a sweet girl.



Did I mention we swam?

We celebrated America's birthday at mom and dad's with a cook out.  We had such a great time!  Brian and Liz, who just moved to Florida, were able to make it and our cousin Kristin and her sweet family came too!  It was so nice to get to visit with them and the kids had a blast swimming all day long!  I didn't manage to get many photos and the photos of the adults at the party are scarce.  I must get better at making sure I get every one's picture!  By the end of the day i think we were well fed and exhausted.

Camryn Can Crawl

I shot the video with my phone.  Sorry for the poor quality, but you get the picture. ( I need a new cord to charge our video camera.)

Camryn has been trying to crawl for a while now.  She would take a few strides then sit back up.  Last night, I put her down in my room while I was getting ready for bed and she started to crawl towards me without resting!  She made it all the way across the room.  The kids have now realized that their toys are fair game for the taking.  She has already had one boo boo.  She crawled over and pulled herself up on a kitchen chair this afternoon and fell backwards, with the chair.  She hit the back of her head on the floor and the chair fell on top of her bruising her lip : (  Poor baby! 

Do You Instagram?

Hunter, my first willing subject.

 So, I am probably the last one on earth to download the Instagram App to my iPhone.  I have had some fun with it.  Here are a few of my creations.

My self portrait taken right after I got my haircut.

Rapunzel siting in our backyard.

Erin's turn behind the camera.

Bathing beauty

Playgroup Pool Party

Friday we had a pool party for our little play group from church.  We only had a few to show up, but we had a great time!

Papa should be pleased to know that his giant turtle was a hit!  All the kids enjoyed taking rides on his back.

Camryn enjoyed hanging out with the big kids.

The lunch table.  Grant is the only guy much of the time.  He doesn't seem to mind right now.  The cutie sitting beside him is his future bride!

It's tough being little.  Baby Camryn couldn't keep up and needed a little siesta before she could swim some more!

Camryn's Pictures and My Water Bugs

I had to get a few outdoor photos of Camryn for Stephen's Father's Day present.  

So, I took advantage of my dad's nice green grass.  (Ours is not so lush right now!)

Poor girl is cutting four teeth right now!  She keeps sticking her tongue out and rubbing on those new teeth.  She is a little fussy too :  (

Her Daddy can still make her smile!

Guess who can swim without her swimmies now!  

I have two water bugs.  (Grant's swimsuit is on backwards.  He dressed himself.)

Grant and Erin love to run and jump in the pool doing a variety of jumps.  I wish I had some pictures of these goofy kids, but my memory card was full and I didn't bring a spare!  

A Little Rain

Friday afternoon we actually had some rain.  Our rain gauge measured one and a half inches!!!  This was a big deal because we are enduring a terrible drought here.  There are fires all over North Florida and South Georgia and the smoke and heat combined have been extreme!  We need rain!

While it was raining the kids asked to go outside and jump in the puddles, so after dinner that is just what we did!

They jumped and jumped and finally just sat down in the mud and made mud pies.  They were dirty!  I had to hose them off outside.  Then I rinsed them off in the bath tub, drained the water, and then bathed them again.  It was totally worth it though!

Stephen snapped this picture of Camryn and me.  It's not a "glamour shot" of me...no make up, hair still damp from swimming earlier, but I like Camryn's expression and the fact that I am holding her in the picture.

She's getting so big so fast.  She was seven months old on Saturday!!!

See how long my hair is!  I had seven inches cut off Saturday afternoon. My hair is so thick and it gets wavier  and wavier with each baby I have.  (Just think bad eighties perm all over except for the hair on the crown of my head.  That hair is straight as a board!  Lots of flat ironing going on here.)   I just needed a change.  I don't have an after picture yet, but I like it and it feels so much healthier.  I enjoyed the entire two hours it took my hair stylist to wash, cut and dry my hair.  I told her I would need her to come over every day and do it for me.  She even massages my head and neck!  I love it!

Little Miss had to get her feet in the mud too.

My Girls

 Camryn 

Six Months Old

June 2011

Erin

Eight Months Old 

October 2008

I see some similarities between the two.  I wish I had one of Grant to compare!

Water Day

Grant's preschool closed out the school year with a water day today.  I must admit I was a little concerned about the logistics of keeping up with the Grant, Erin and Camryn, but the day was a success!

When we arrived at the school we were met with bad news.  The little church and it's fellowship hall had been burglarized during the night and the thieves had stolen five AC units from the church!  We had to wait until the police were finished with their investigation before the fun could start.  We spent about thirty minutes on the playground while they finished up their work.

The school had rented a blow up water slide.  This was a big hit!  I think Grant spent the entire three hours we were there on the slide.  Erin liked it, but she ventured around to the water table and kiddie pools too!

I wasn't sure if there would be anything for Camryn to do, but I packed her swimsuit just in case.  She loved splashing around while her big brother and sister played.

Summer is officially in full swing around here!

Camryn: Six Month Update

Well, I am a little behind.  Camryn was six months on May the 18th, but I figured I would go ahead and record an update here on the old blog.  Camryn is growing by leaps and bounds.  She weighed in at 18.6 lbs (94%) and was 27.5 inches long (97%) at her six month check up.  She's been sitting up like a pro since Easter.  This is always a good thing because she can now sit and play by herself while I get things accomplished around the house.  She is super curious and very sociable.  She loves to laugh and giggle (and I love to hear her little laugh!)  She isn't crawling yet, but she really wants too!  She would be much happier if she was mobile.  She is pulling up on her crib and anything else she deems sturdy enough to pull up on and she likes to cruise around with our help.  I don't think she will walk as early as Erin (eight months) but she might be walking by nine months like her big brother.

Camryn has cut her first two teeth.  She loves to eat!  She thinks she ought to be eating whatever is on our plates!  

Time keeps passing ever so quickly and before I know it this roly poly baby will be one!

iPhone Pics: Summer Edition

Camryn has now joined the ranks and is able to splash around in the kiddie pool.   She also can devour a Popsicle in minutes!

The kids are obsessed with Super Mario Bros.  Grant is Mario, Erin is Luigi and Camryn gets to be Toad.  Here she is "going down the pipe".

Friday, Hunter had a little adventure.We took him swimming at my parents' house.  This was the view in the backseat.  He had to ride in the back of the truck.  I was a little nervous to let him ride back there.  He normally rides in the car with us, but since he was going to get sopping wet and his coat takes so long to dry, he had to ride in the back.  We opened the window so he could stick his head inside the cab.

I was afraid he would try to jump out, but he didn't.  We did have him wear his harness and I held the leash through the open window.  I am pretty sure if he had wanted to jump out he could have.  His 110 lb frame would have won that battle.

He loved swimming!  Erin was concerned that he didn't have a swimsuit of doggie swimmies.  We assured her that Hunter would be able to swim without them.  He took off swimming using that powerful tail to navigate the pool.  Then he took a rest and sat on the steps for the rest of the afternoon.