Great fall Saturday

There's this wonderful Saturday in September that a lot of goodness falls on.  Here's last year's. Jake helped out at the same 5K this year, but we didn't run it as a family.  Jake and I are both training for the Atlanta Half Marathon, and I had just had a long run the day before... and it appears my knees know I'm approaching 30.  So we decided to just hang out at the race while Jake helped. I couldn't resist a few shots afterwards. 

How Joy felt about wearing a hand-me-down of Abby Jane's (however cute) instead of a new Auburn dress like Blythe and Janie. Just kidding- she probably liked it better b/c there are little Aubie's on the pockets! 

Next up was Taste of Kennesaw, where we sampled local fare, scored some balloons, face paintings, random other freebies, and were absolute cheapskates because we just let the little girls people-watch...

while Jake took Janie to jump in an inflatable that you had to pay for.  After getting spoiled by all the free inflatables at the festival a couple of weeks ago, paying for three kids to jump (when the babies were content in the stroller) seemed like highway robbery!  I know, we're horrible.

Now this family picture might not seem remarkable, but it is since the display on our little digital camera is broken, and you basically guess every time you take a picture.  Some nice lady stopped and offered to take a picture of us, and she said she thought she could see us in the extremely dim/ mostly not visible display.  I was impressed with her effort and results.

Eating some dinner by the old caboose on display by the train depot.  Joy missed the memo that it's not nice to have your mouth open and full of food when everyone else is smiling for a picture.  Classic, though.

After naps and watching Auburn pull out another win!!, we headed over to the Owens for pool playing, more football for daddies, and a great dinner. It was an awesome night of the chaos and fun of six kids three and under, great fellowship and sharing of what life is like when you have kids (i.e. football Saturdays have a lot less conversations about sharing and not pushing and "please finish your dinner" and "no, Joy, we're all done eating" when there aren't this many children!)

I actually forgot the girls' bathing suits, so Blythe, Joy, Grant, and Dylan (all the one yr olds) all were running around shirtless. I think Blythe and Joy could really dig being boys.

Ericka is a fabulous hair stylist, and she brought her shears to give Abby Jane a quick trim after dinner right on the Owens' driveway.  Maddy decided she needed a haircut, too.  It was amazing to see two busy three yr olds sit like statues for Miss Ericka!

Here's Joy's real twin, Grant.  We've just been hiding him away all this time. :) Isn't it amazing, though, how much more they look like siblings that Blythe and Joy do?

By the way, it just occurred to me in the last couple of weeks that Blythey's curly hair comes from my mom and her mom.  My mom's mom, who us grandkids called Miss Skip, looked like Shirley Temple when Shirley Temple was quite the hit.  So we're nowhere near that many curls or tight ringlets, but at least we figured out where Boo gets her sweet angel head of hair!

When they were 21 months...

Because now they're 22 months, and I never got around to posting about 21.  21 months was a continuation of verbal explosion and disclosure of personality.  Exhibit A and B follow.

At 21 months, Blythe rarely said "yes" and had four versions of "no."  Blythe's "No", defined:

1. A simple, diminutive "no" (sounds like "new") meant "yes." 99% of the time.

2. "No, peas": no please.

3. "No, tank tu": no thank you.

4. "No" with vehement head shaking: no, you idiot, do you not understand what NO means???

Blythe is still just our sugar lump. My curly headed, coy, giggly, snuggly little sugar lump. She's the one who rides on my hip while Joy walks, but she's not just a mama's girl. When Jake gets home, Abby Jane and Joy race out the door.  Sometimes Blythe goes, too.  But often she'll go hide and wait for Daddy to come to her.  Smart girl. She is also extremely ticklish and just dissolves into precious hysteria when you find the right spots.

Joy started saying "I love you" spontaneously last month.  But in true Joy fashion, it was all out.  We would be at the store, I would be 10 feet away, and Joy says, "Mama. Mama!  MAMA!!!  I LOVE YOU!" I feel compelled to joke about how I paid her to do that when bystanders start to laugh.  Joy's heart is on her sleeve, for better and for worse, but this is one of the best aspects of that part of her personality! She remains our spice, spunk, spitfire, pistol... you get the idea.  But she'll go straight from amazing you by her aggression (seems to think it's her job to take on little boys as her adversary) and bull-in-a-china-shop nature to just giving this sunny contagious grin that could melt the continent of Antarctica and pucker up for a sloppy smacker. Her heart is genuinely precious and tender. Lord help the man she marries.

A few weeks ago, she had her first two-sentence statement on a spontaneous subject.  I was changing her diaper after naptime, which (I know, I'm lucky) runs til around 4 or 4:30 still, meaning Jake is usually home within an hour or hour and a half of them waking up.  She looked up at me, barely awake, and said, "Daddy home soon?  Luuuuv Daddy!"

22 months coming soon!

Lake Burton

We spent a five-day Labor Day weekend at Lake Burton with Jake's family, officially the last family vacay before the Gillies move to New Zealand. So I will not apologize for the number of pictures, because the weekend was one long photo op! Very gracious friends of Ken and Sandy's loaned us their fabulous home, and it was the perfect spot for our families to spread out, play hard, and enjoy God's creation in each other's company.

Ken rented a paddleboard for the weekend, and two of the mornings, Abby Jane and I went out for a pre-dawn trip across the lake. It was surreal to be in the middle of a big lake with my daughter with nothing but our board and the beauty of a sunrise on water. Morning water is one of my favorite parts of creation- the color, calmness, and beauty of water at sunrise is one of God's best gifts to man. It was such sweet time to share with my girl.

On our first morning there, Jake helped Cade catch his first fish, and this is right afterwards. Janie caught her first fish on our last morning there.

Blythe and Joy love morning water as well. I LOVE this picture. It is so THEM. Blythe is sweetly waving and smiling, Joy looks like Louis and Clark. Or Sacagawea.

Here's Betsy giving Cade and Abby Jane a ride...

Paul with Luke. Luke is not really into water, but he loved kayak rides with Paul! Something about daddies make kids a lot braver.

Joy getting a ride with big sis. I was so proud of her for not just jumping off when we were further away from the dock! We had a few close calls.

Mimi, the Pied Piper. I think I count four out of five grandkids following her along here.
Mimi is also a professional sand castle builder.
She built, they smashed.

WAR EAGLE!!! We loved watching Auburn WIN the first game of the season. Love watching Auburn, period. Looks like Cade is getting a little left out of the girl love here. Sorry bud.
Cade seems very ready to learn to surf when they arrive in New Zealand. If only they can get him to stay on the board long enough. His favorite thing was to climb up and jump off.
Bop Bop had to work really hard to get Cade to stay on long enough for them to balance on it together, but they did it!
Bop Bop with Luke and Abby Jane...

There is one very cool Mimi on a paddleboard and an equally cool Bop Bop on his kayak. Not your average grandparents.

SWEET Blythey about to jump to her Daddy.
Enjoying the view.
This girl was Trouble, in a good way, most of the time. Joy is just a mile a minute and not into wearing floaties. I'm proud she made it home with us. To say the least, she had a good time.
One of my favorite things about the weekend was the playtime the grown-ups had. During naps and while kids were up, we went on runs, paddled and kayaked, and just horsed around like kids. All the grown-ups got to really enjoy just plain playing and relaxing. There were also games at night (and I should also mention that I happened to win the longest and highest scoring game of Phase 10 ever. It went on for hours, and I think the highest score was in the 600's... but I won. :)) Pictured below is what happened when my father-in-law and sis-in-law attempted to balance on the board together. Pretty good stuff.
The weekend, on the whole, was joyful and sweet, if bittersweet at times, and a wonderful way to soak in the gift of family as we launch into this next season of our lives.

Withdrawals

I'm going to have them. I have LOVED this summer, LOVED my girls' ages, LOVED swimming, LOVED our calendar of pool playdates, LOVED having a "normal" family summer. We have either been moving, settling in, figuring out how to do life with twins, or something or another for a lot of summers, and this summer was just plain Americana life. So we have squeezed important Last Times at the Pool in and around preschool this week. Monday was with my mom, and we had the pool to ourselves.

This picture is not winning any awards, but I want a record of the fact that I have gotten to be quite the expert at doing the pool with my girls- sunscreening, swimsuiting, swim diapering, floatie-ing, lunch packing, toy-bringing, and dry clothes to change into so we can go right down for afternoon naps when we get home. I've got it down pat, and I've loved every minute (well most minutes) of being at the pool with my daughters. There aren't many pics to prove it since I'm on the other side of the camera, but officially, "I was here."

So was Grammy on Monday. We had anticipated her being able to help focus on Joy, who prefers to practice actually swimming minus her puddle jumper these days, but it's hard for me to do with her solo and also keep an eye on the others. Joy was not feeling anything other than some mean teeth coming in on Monday (and the ant that bit my shoulder and her cheek at the same time while I was holding her), so it ended up being Blythe's morning to shine with Grammy.

This morning we got in our last time with the Jones family, with whom we put our first toes in the water in the spring, so it's appropriate that our last day in the pool before Labor Day was with their family! It's amazing that our timid little swimmers are now swimming without floats! Quite the transformation in a matter of months.

Their pool has a park nearby, and the fact that perhaps my kids, if not me, are getting pool-ed out, is evidenced by how much they wanted to play at the park after lunch and had such a grand time.

And so we have a good reminder that there is wonderful life even after summer, and the beginnings of a sweet fall are just around the corner!

Pigs and Peaches

Jake and I are suckers for local festivals, and this one was about a mile from our house! We met the Owens there for a morning mostly filled with our kids jumping on various inflatables. This was Blythe and Joy's first experience with inflatables, and it was, to say the least, a big hit.

This one thought she was an old pro and was doing flips and going down slides backwards.

Jake left early to go help the Gillies move, and I stayed on with the Owens. Here are Maddy and Abby Jane looking a bit peaked as the energy expended by so much jumping began to take its toll and it was time to look for lunch.

As we wandered around the competing BBQ groups, we came across a firetruck with cartoon characters painted on its side and assumed it was there for kids to play on. All our kids and a few other passing families began to climb up and pose for pictures. This picture is significant because it was taken seconds before this huge Crazy BBQ Man came running over saying to get those kids out of that cab, that there was an air brake button and if that little BOY (referring to my beautiful Joy) stepped on it, the whole blankety blank truck was going down the hill. As he says this, we hear a hisssss, and sure enough, Joy had just hit the yellow brake button. I had Blythe on my hip, so Kristin jumped up and grabbed Joy while Crazy BBQ Man lets loose a few other expletives and jumps up to put the brake on. It should be noted that while Kristin was grabbing Joy, I was holding onto a handle on the side of the truck with my free hand... as if I would be effective in holding back the truck should it start to roll with my child inside. We just walked away, but as the day went on, I got a little angrier and angrier about the Crazy BBQ Man episode.

My words of wisdom I would have liked to impart are as follows: "If you are going to bring a fire truck with cartoon characters on it to a family festival and do not want kids to climb on it or get in the cab, then kindly put a sign that indicates as such and lock the cab door! Also, the blocks in front of the tires would have prevented any rolling, so there's no need to cuss in front of my babies in the future, thank you very much."

After naps, we headed up to Cartersville where the moving-out Gillies had arrived. We spent the evening with cousins and grandparents. You can tell Miss Blythe just needed a little down time with Mimi after a busy morning!

Miss Abby Jane needed no down time and had a great time with Cade on the gator.

The night ended... of course... with playing with ice in their driveway, though I got no pics this time. With the end of summer and end of our years of having the Gillies drawing near, we will play in ice and anywhere and doing anything they want to do to make the most of these last weeks with them in town!

Friends

Our dear friends, Victoria and Mat, had their PRECIOUS son Asher a few weeks ago, and we had the delight of bringing supper to them with our other sweet friends, Jeff and Lyndsay. Jake distracted the little girls long enough for me to snuggle that little chunk of love, and he is SUCH a treasure!

Friends and little friends.We also had a playdate at a park on a 96 degree day last week with Katie and Betsy. Were we CRAZY? Maybe. But it was fun hanging out!This was also two week old Clara's first trip to the park! Look at these sweaty happy little three year olds.Four of the seven children all within three square feet. If only they were always that easy to corral!

The Tool Bench

On our biannual consignment sale date last week, Jake made one of his all-time best purchases as a dad of three girls... a Home Depot tool bench. When we were checking out, they asked how old our son was. On the way home, I asked if it was going to be part of Christmas. Nope. When I got home from my run on Friday morning, Jake and Abby Jane looked like this.

By the time the twins woke up, Abby Jane had mastered all the power tools and wasted no time introducing the twins to them. Jake was one mighty proud daddy that his girls were so into those tools! He even got out his own to show them how they're the same.

Now I have to admit that about 30 minutes after said Proud Daddy walked out the door, Abby Jane asked me why the tool bench wasn't pink. And... reality that we are a household of girls hits again. :)