Vacation Pics... Two Months Late

Yes, I am finally posting pictures from our trip to Panama City Beach, Florida We went at the end of July, so it has been two months and I am a slacker. At least I am putting them up.
This picture is my favorite picture of the four of us... the beach is behind us and the sun is setting.

This is my studly husband... wouldn't that shoulder look better with something on it? Oh well, maybe next year honey.

The guys weren't supposed to be in the water because the police told them that the rip current had killed three people that day. The guys didn't believe them, but they stayed in the shallow water. But later that day when we were watching the news we found that Mr. Policemas wasn't lying.

I wish I could nap on the beach everyday.

I LOVE this picture!

We celebrated Josh's 27th birthday while we were in Florida. I made some amazingly yummy peanut butter pies.

So cute!

Auntie Talitha is so fun

Charis was not a fan of the sand or waves, so we played in the pool a lot. (Why did we go to the beach?)


It was a fun trip!

Happy 6 Months Selah!

Fun at the Zoo

We went to Brookfield Zoo with Jordan, Crys and Noah a couple weekends ago. It was a lot of fun and Charis really seemed to enjoy it. The weather was perfect - sunny yet cool. The zoo is so huge that we didn't see everything, but we saw everything that we really wanted to.

Charis and Crystal enjoying the dolphin show

We also got to pet sting rays - so gross! They were slimy. It still makes me cringe just thinking about it, but I guess it was pretty cool.

Charis has no fear - she just walked right up to this goat and started petting it

If you are wondering where Selah was at in all of this, she did a great job for such an exciting day. She watched everything, wide-eyed. Not much comprehension though. :)

I love the "Night-night" part

Yea! Another family picture - not the best, but at least it has all four of us in it.

And this wasn't while we are at the zoo, but I love how it shows her big blue eyes. How did Josh and I get these kids?

Charis Turned Two!

Charis officially turned two on September 1st. We celebrated with the family the day before because her birthday fell on Labor Day. It was a yummy celebration with ice cream sundaes (cake can never compete with ice cream). The whole family came over and made her feel loved.

She got this great Dora the Explorer chair. She loves it and likes to watch Dora while sitting in it.

She actually ripped the wrapping paper this year!


Thanks to her aunts she will be looking fabulous this fall


Our exciting gift for Charis this year was tons of flap books and a savings bond - wahoo!

This is our version of "Happy Birthday"

On her birthday we went to the park as a family and had a blast

Wheeeee - the big slide

Beautiful girl

Yes, that is Selah's drool

We do have another daughter if you have been wondering where she is at.

Selah started solids and is doing pretty well

Sister love

Can You Believe I am Posting!

So we are back and settled after a busy couple of weeks. It started in July by going to Pennsylvania for Josh's brother's wedding. It was beautiful. The travel wasn't bad at all, but the rest of the weekend was a little stressful. But that is to be expected with two small children. Charis did a great job being the flower girl - I will have to post pics when I get them. I am so excited to have a new sister and it is even better that they are living around here now. In fact, I put her cell phone in my speed dial today. Yea for new sisters and new friends! (BTW, this picture is our first family picture - kinda sad.)

I love this picture!

We also went to Panama City Beach in Florida. Again travel in the car was great. We got to see Jeremy and his girlfriend (for now - yea!) Melissa on the way down. The weather was fabulous and the beach was beautiful. Charis did not like the sand though, so we spent a lot of time in pool. The girls got all off their schedule and were waking up two hours early - not easy sharing one room. I wouldn't call the week relaxing, but we had some special moments that we wouldn't have had if we would have stayed home. My mom has tons of pics that I will have to post later, including a good family picture!

This summer has flown by for me and the girls. Selah is almost five months and has learned to roll over from her tummy to her back. She is really close on sitting up by herself and rolling from her back to her tummy. And she is getting very vocal, i.e. cooing, "motorboats" and blowing rasberries. Sometimes she just stops eating and looks at me and starts "talking". All of this makes up for the fact that she still sleeps less than Charis.

Charis will be turning two in a couple weeks. I can believe that I will a mom of a two year old. Her vocabulary has taken off this past month. She now says her name, "Selah", and can repeat pretty much anything you say to her. Grant it, it still has her little twist, but it is still really good. We have also been working on her counting. She can count to five, yet sometimes decides to skip some numbers, like 1-2-5!

They keep me busy, but I love being the mother of these two.

This past month Josh also celebrated his 27th birthday and was really busy with the youth. They went to the Indiana Dunes, paintballing and he is now prepping for a church garage sale on Saturday and the Fall Film Festival in September. (My video with my girls is awesome!) Next time I post I will fill you in on all of this. Hopefully it will be a lot sooner.

Charis is a little OCD

So here is a story - She has been lining up all her toys, remotes, shoes, basically anything she get her hands on. So while we traveling in the car she would try to line up her Little People, but they kept falling over because of the unevenness of the car and the braking. She would put one up and then it would fall over and she would get frustrated. I would try to explain it to her, but she would keep trying. (Yes, I did have the girls unbuckled in our 12 hour drive to Pennsylvania and our 16 hour drive to Florida - and I do not feel at all guilty.)

Charis loves to wear people's shoes - including my heels. I don't know how she does it considering I can barely walk in them.

I had such a fun time hanging out with Emily and Megan the other day. It was a little crazy being with five children two and under, but it was so good to be with my friends.

Summer Fun

Our summers are always filled with a lot of fun. In June we celebrates our anniverary, my birthday and went on the youth group Senior Trip. Here some pics from our adventures...

For my birthday Josh got my family to watch the girls and we went downtown. I had such an awesome day! We got to do the touristy things that I haven't done in the 25 years I have lived in the Chicagoland area. We went to Navy Pier, wandered Millenium Park, shopped Michigan Avenue, took a trolley ride, saw Buckingham Fountain, waded in Lake Michigan and ate at the Taste of Chicago.

This is Josh on the Ferris Wheel at Navy Pier. He is not such a big fan of heights.

We walked the city for about two hours. It was beautiful and exciting.

Millenium Park was so much fun! This is called "The Cloud."

After our time downtown we went to my parents for dinner with the family. All in all, it was one of the best birthday's that I have ever had.

Just two days later we went to Mount Olympus in Wisconsin Dells with our graduted seniors as a final goodbye. We had a blast at their outdoor and indoor theme and water parks. The pic to the left is of Hades, a rollar coaster that plunges below the ground and comes out on the other side of the parking lot only to chuck you back again!

I enjoyed my time with Matt and Amanda as we waited to go on the go carts.

For dinner we went to an all you can eat seafood buffet. They brought huge platters of crablegs to the table with gallon sized buckets for the "scraps." They went through four platters, plus the buffet. I was sick just looking at them. : )

We had a great day with our seniors and will really miss them in the youth group next year.

As for the girls, they are growing like weeds. Check it out...