She’s Turned the Corner

With my kids, so far, I’ve seen two main transformations.  One is when they become kids.  That has happened with all of the big kids at some point over the last few months.  They just all of the sudden were “kids” and nothing else.

The other transformation is when they stop being a baby.  That just recently happened with Penelope.  One day she was a baby (or a toddler-baby), and the next she wasn’t. 

Up until now, she’s insisted that she was still a baby, but last week she informed me that she was a big kid and not a baby.  We still call her “Baby” though – so much for all that stress over what to name her!  In my mind, she isn’t quite a “kid” yet, but she’s not a baby any longer.  Except that she still has some fat cheeks.

I love those cheeks. 

“I Lost 1,067 Pounds and You Can, Too!”

The other day while I was doing laundry, I heard Henry just laughing and giggling.  And then I saw him like this. . . .

He had grabbed a pair of Gary’s shorts out of the laundry and was “wearing them” and just laughing and laughing and laughing.  It was hilarious.  He totally could be in a late night weight loss infomercial!

Anniversary Weekend

As of this past Sunday, Gary and I have been married for 12 years.  That’s more than one-third of my life.  Sometimes it’s hard to believe we’ve been married that long, and sometimes it seems like longer!  Regardless, I wouldn’t trade a single minute of it for anything. It’s been an awesome 12 years!

I spent the first part of the weekend doing some work stuff, but the rest of the weekend was just fun.  We spent a little time relaxing at the house. . . .

And we spent some time at the neighborhood pool (which we had almost entirely to ourselves for most of the time). . . .

We’ve started a Sunday evening tradition of grilling out.  With the cooler weather, it’s perfect.  The kids can run and play, and we can hang out with them.

Piper is still a puppy dog a lot of the time (you can always tell when her tongue is hanging out and she’s panting):

Rosemary loves the tractor, but is still a HORRIBLE driver.

She runs into anything and everything.  She usually throws it into reverse and tries to get out of whatever pinch she’s in, but that usually just makes it worse.  Now she just gets off the tractor and picks it up and moves it when she gets stuck.

Whatever works. 

I hope you all had a great weekend!  Looks like we’re going to be getting a lot of rain from Hurricane Isaac over the next few days around here, so our time outside is going to be a bit limited.

A Surprise

On Monday, Nana called me at work and told me that she and Papa wanted to drive down and take us out to dinner . . . and bring a surprise to the kids.  After I had her promise that this surprise didn’t involve anything alive, I agreed.  So, Nana and Papa drove down, and brought Aunt Jack, Uncle Seth, and Laramy along for the ride.

It was a GREAT surprise for the kids . . . and especially Henry!

This tractor is awesome.  It runs off a battery that needs to be charged every couple of days, and has a real honest-to-God working radio.

Piper definitely really enjoys the tractor, and Penelope likes it pretty good.  Rosemary really liked the radio on the tractor the best.  Rosemary’s problem is just that she is the worst driver ever.  It’s funny how bad of a driver she is.  Let’s hope she improves before she turns 16 . . . for all of our sakes!

In addition to the tractor entertainment, we had Uncle Seth entertainment.  Uncle Seth would put the kids on his shoulders and run as fast as he could.  The kids LOVED it.

Well, the girls loved it.  Henry was too busy driving his tractor to pay them much attention.

Little Doggies

Piper pretends to be a dog.  A lot.  She always pretends to be a dog she knows – it could be Gracie (Nana and Papa’s dog), Colby (Auntie Ann’s dog), Rosalee (Miss Sally’s dog), or most recently Wooky (Katy and Harrison’s dog).  It’s easy to tell when Piper is pretending to be a dog.  She drops to all fours, pants, sticks out her tongue, and barks in response to all questions.   

She is very good about staying in her role and almost never speaks in little girl when she is being a dog.  I was brushing her hair the other day while she was being Gracie and she whimpered in an appropriate dog sound.  Tonight she jumped up on the couch and licked my face.  A big, long swipe of her tongue that went from my chin up to the corner of my eye.  It was a little weird.

The good thing about it is that if you play pretend with her, and call her by the appropriate doggie name, then she will immediately do whatever you tell her.  Sometimes that’s easier!    We have only two times when dogs are not allowed – dogs are not allowed to walk down the stairs and dogs are not allowed at the dinner table.

Penelope also tries to be a dog.  She’s not quite as good as Piper, but she’s getting there.

Every time Piper turns into a dog, Gary looks at me and asks, “Is that normal?”  Ha!  I hope it is!

Lazy Weekend Day

This past weekend was pretty busy on Saturday – and lazy on Sunday.  It was great.  On Saturday I had a Matilda Jane trunk show, which was a ton of fun.  We had a lot of friends show up with their daughters and hang out for a while.  Later that day, we went over to a friend’s house for a playdate and dinner.  We had an amazing time and the kids are still talking about how much fun they had.  Even though I carried my camera around with me all day, I didn’t take a single shot, so no photos of Saturday for the blog. . . .

Anyway, the kids had so much fun that Henry slept in until 8am the next morning, and the girls didn’t get up until after 9am.  Henry came downstairs and was ready for his coffee.

Since everyone got up too late to get to church, we decided to have a lazy day at home.  I gave the girls pedicures while Gary trimmed nails, then the kids spent some time swimming in the backyard, throwing balls, and just playing.

Well, it wasn’t all fun and games.  Henry had to work a bit. . . .

We also chased a lot of butterflies.  Apparently we have a ton of butterflies in the backyard!

I think we all needed a lazy day.  The kids have been a little difficult lately, and their attitudes have been much improved since the weekend.

We finished up the day with some hot dogs on the grill, and looking for stars to wish on.  We found a few.