Grands' Camp 2011

The third week of July was Grands' Camp this summer, where my parents keep all the grandkids for a week. Since there are five grandkids this year, including three babies, the mommas were invited down to participate (and help)! Sarah and I watched the babies so that Mimi and Papa could take Nia and Anna to the aquarium and down for a boat ride on the river. We all went to the pool at Greg and Michelle's condo and Sarah and I took Anna to the beach one day. The daddies got to come down for the second half of the week. The big boys played golf on Friday and then Mimi and Papa kept all five kids Friday night for the parents to go on date nights! It was so fun to have everyone together and the cousins had a blast making memories. Just to record all the ages, Nia was seven, Anna three, Nellie 9 months, Jack 5 months, and Caroline 4 months. It was crazy at times, but so much fun!

Jack chewing on Caroline's ridiculously cute croc.

Mimi had all the kids make t-shirts.

Nia and Anna used their hand print to make a fish

and the babies used their footprint to make lobsters. So precious!

When everyone was there, we had 15 people total!! Wow, how our family has grown!

All the cousins in their t-shirts

Nellie sharing her table with Jack and Caroline.

Mimi and Papa with Anna and Jack

Elmo cupcakes from Daddy and Uncle Jason

Nia and Anna played dress-up with old dresses that

Sarah and I wore when we were little.

Sibling love in the pool!

Chicago

I forgot to blog about this!! The second weekend in June, Melissa and I flew up to Chicago to attend Michelle's graduation from her residency program. The three of us were bestest of friends in college. (I owe my hubby a HUGE thank-you for keeping the kids so I could go, and on his birthday weekend none-the-less!) Michelle has been in school/training for the past 14 years and is finally finished! She did her residency in plastic and reconstructive surgery, specializing in breast reconstruction following breast cancer treatments. I am so very proud of her and so excited that she finally gets to settle down and have a life! We had the best time catching up and just being the girls again. We shopped and ate and hung out at the spa. We attended her swanky graduation reception and hung out with Lucien, her sweet hubby, and her family. It was a great weekend and the perfect timing for a girls weekend away for me. I'm so blessed to have such great friends that I know are always there for me. Plus, now Melissa and I have pre-made arrangements to have our boobs tacked back up after we're done having babies!:) Yay for Dr. Michelle Roughton, Attending Physician!

Two Major Milestones

My babies are getting too big!! Jack is growing like a weed and has become too big for his infant carrier. I have recently resorted to leaving the carrier in the car and taking him in and out because it's too heavy to carry with him in it. Now the straps barely fit and the top of his head almost hits the top of the carrier! So, it was time to transition him to a big boy car seat. Will and I talked about it and thought it was ridiculous to get another car seat when we had two Britax ones already (not cheap). That meant Anna had to be ready for a booster seat. I went online and ordered a replacement cover off of Etsy to replace Anna's yellow floral one. We got it in the mail yesterday, so today became car seat upgrade day.

I pulled the old cover off of Anna's Britax and cleaned years worth of goldfish crumbs out of it and spiffied it up. The new cover looks so good! The pattern is called "Jacks"--definitely meant to be! We put Anna's new booster together and got everything all set and in place. Then we needed somewhere to go, so we loaded up and went to Panera for lunch and then to Marble Slab for ice cream. Of course, Anna had to wear her Cinderella dress! She looked 10 years old sitting tall in her booster seat. And Jack was loving the fact that he could see out of the window now. I can't believe our babies aren't babies anymore!

Two Peas in a Pod

Anna's favorite thing is to run and jump in the crib with Jack as soon as he wakes up. The second she hears him on the monitor, she asks me if she can go "get Jack up". She usually instructs me to wait a few minutes until I come up to get him. I love it because then I can watch on the video monitor while she flips him over and loves on him while he laughs and squeals. She always dashes into her room first and grabs her Bo-bo before scaling the side of his crib. This is how I found them the other day. It just melts my heart to see how much they love each other.

Jack's First Sippy Cup

A few days ago, I felt like Jack needed something to wash his baby food down with, so I grabbed one of Anna's sippy cups and put some water in it. I just wanted to see what he would do with it. At first, he just chewed on the mouthpiece. Then he was able to suck and got a mouth full of cold water. It took his breath away for a second, but then he grinned and kept on drinking! He figured out the sippy cup at 5 months old! It was so cute because every time he sipped, he would inhale because it was cold and then kick his feet from excitement. You go, Jack!

Taking Responsibility

The other weekend, Will and I pulled our cars out to the driveway to do some serious washing. Our cars were filthy (inside and out) from all the traveling we had done recently. Anna took one look at what we were doing and then announced that she needed to wash her car, too. So, she drove her car out and parked it right between ours and went to work. How cute is this?

July 4th Weekend

This year was the first in probably 10 years or more that we have not gone out of town for the fourth of July. We usually join Melissa and Wes at Lake Gaston. However, with Jack still being so little and it being a decent drive, we just decided to stay at home. We had a nice relaxing weekend. On Sunday morning, since we were all dressed in red, white, and blue, we tried to get some family pictures. Oh, how much more difficult is a picture now that we're trying to get two children to smile. Here are a few of our outtakes, followed by the actual keepers...

Yay, we finally got two smiles!

Happy 4th of July 2011!