More Ways To Enjoy The Hot Heat

 As with most places, we've been enduring awful heat and humidity the past few weeks.

It's not that bad.  Unless you hate heat and humidity, as I do.

But beautiful flowers help.

These are my anniversary flowers.  They were delivered to my door mid-morning on the day marking Nine wonderful years of marriage to my best friend.

And watching these beautiful lilies bloom and blossom over the following week was a really bright moment in every day.

For those less inclined to appreciate flowers (or for those who's only desire it to crush and break the beautiful flowers), there's always ice cream.

 Messy face ice cream.

And any time the camera comes out, everyone else needs to be photographed.

This was so much fun watching how happy it made him.

And how proud he was of the Messy Face.

Than again, what's not to be proud of?

Summer's Happenings

A bit of how we've been enjoying the warmer weather:

This one has been doing her best put on some cute fat rolls and chubs.  And she's succeeding quite well.

I bought some new shoes and finally braved church--with all of the baby-hungry hands wanting to hold her!

The kids wanted to show how they were all color coordinated.  Of course, Trey wanted nothing to do with the camera.  Surprise.

Proud Papa.

I saw this pose and couldn't help myself.

It's amazing how many photos I took of this completely unmoving subject.

But, isn't she just darling in all her chubby glory?  Aren't sleeping babies just perfectly divine?

And this is a small portion of the bounty we've been enjoying from our overabundant garden these days!  So yummy!

Patriotism

We had a lively Fourth, in spite of having a tiny little baby.

Starting with a church breakfast and bike parade.

Kayli has taken to wearing this huge floppy hat under her helmet.  She has always had such a great sense of fashion.

I am not very skilled at taking pictures with Blake's phone, so these aren't the best.  But here's my cutie on his scooter.

And now you can see that Trey pretty much only wears pajamas these days.

And then we had the traditional 4th of July slip n' sliding.

I still love his faces.

All decked out in her patriotic best.

Great fun!

And then it was time to begin the fun!  Poppers first!

Let the record show that I strongly disapproved of letting my 7-year old light any fireworks.  But, I was stuck holding the cutest, most adorable, little 3 1/2 week old on the planet and my verbal objections when completely unheeded.

Don't worry--he's only running away to copy his big sister.  He was not lighting anything.

For some reason, our fireworks were enjoyed by a whole bunch of jumping.

Jumping

Is the best way to express your excitement and enthusiasm.

My newest little princess and I skipped the jumping and just enjoyed the show from our chair.

It was amazing what a show we got from right here in our driveway.  People here in the Middle O' Nowhere go crazy about Fourth of July fireworks in a way I've never seen in any other state I've lived in.  For days on end.

But, Blake was responsible for the firework that most impressed all of the neighborhood children.  It had something like 70 parachutes inside it.  Here they all are taking off after them.  And then they brought back handfuls they'd caught.

The kids are still talking about it.

That, and the fact that we let them stay up past 11 P.M.  Yeah.  It was entirely too noisy for anyone to sleep.  That was their daddy's excuse.

It was a fun night, but we'd be remiss if we didn't mention the reason for all the celebrating.  Of course, we're all quite grateful for our freedom and those who've fought and sacrificed so much so we can continue to enjoy it.

Babies

I'm sure you've all been in suspense over the tuft of hair on the ear I mentioned previously.

Here it is.  Although, we've yet to be able to take a picture that truly does it justice.

A friend's daughter couldn't stop touching her ear the other day because "it's so soft!"

Look at these precious little fingers!

I was thinking the other night about the difference in Blake and I as parents now versus when Kayli was this age.

When it was Kayli crying, we were at our wits end and frantic to do anything to make her stop.  Now with Lanaya, we smile and comment on what a cute little, sweet cry it is.

With Kayli, I thought the newborn stage was so tedious and boring.

I can't even comprehend that any more.  It is such a fun and delightful stage.

With Kayli, I thought the first 6 months were an eternity.

Now, it's all I can do to not cry over Lanaya being four weeks already because I know these baby days are going to be over before I know it.  And long before I'm ready for them to be.

And there are a million other differences.  It makes me feel bad for Kayli.  I wish I could go back and be the mom I am now to her back then.

I guess that is the plight of the oldest child.  They are the guinea pigs for the lessons to be learned.

It's a good thing we had such an amazing oldest child.

Pajama Time

I know what you've all been thinking:

Isn't it time for a post all about pajamas?

I think I already posted about these awesome straitjackets swaddle blankets we got for Lanaya.  She sleeps wonderfully in them, but on occasion, she manages to sneak her little hands out the bottom.  This was the first time.

This was one of the last photos taken by my mom before she left.  A cute pj photo (complete with a toothpaste smile).

Thanks so much for coming, Mom!  Your presence made such a difference for all of us!  We loved having you here and we miss you quite a bit!

And this is our sleeping arrangement.

Well, we usually only have one extra child in the bed.  It's a good thing we got the king size bed back in January.  It's still a bit of a tight squeeze.  But, it's so nice having her right there in bed.  It makes it a lot easier to meet her nighttime needs.

I think we're all getting more sleep.

Although, she is about the noisiest sleeper on the planet.  I need to bring the camera in to document sometime.  The volume and oddity of the noises is really unbelievable and indescribable.

And here are some more pajama-ed cuties!

My pretty girls!

Fishing For Patience

The kids have been begging to go fishing.

It's quite a bit of effort, so we thought it best to go while my mom was in town.  I had to sit with Lanaya while my mom helped entertain the kids while Blake did all the dirty work with the poles and the bait.  It was amazing to see just how much work it was.  Poor Blake never got a second for a break in between setting up poles, helping bring in (and release) caught fish, de-tangling line, and starting the whole process over again.

Bryce was the first to catch a fish.  I believe he caught three in total.  You can see how proud he was.

Daddy was pretty proud, as well.

Kayli caught the next one.

I like their teamwork and excitement for each other.

This little one was so excited about his new pole.

But when it came down to it, he didn't want anyone else to touch the pole.

He caught a fish, but this was as close as they ever got to seeing it.  By the time he let Blake touch his line, it had jumped off--taking the hook with it, poor thing!

He's a good dad, that's for sure!