Our little Englishman

This morning I had a moment to take pictures of Cael in his little Church outfit. Doesn't he look like he just came out of Masterpiece Theatre?!

Cael is such an active boy! I never would have guessed that the quiet, mellow little baby we brought home from the hospital over two years ago would grow into a crazy, destructive, and loud kid! We love every inch of him though. He loves his cars, coloring, climbing, junk food, dawdling, baths, bugs, cuddling (on his terms), kisses, and being mischievous. He hates sprinklers, lunchtime, dinnertime, fireworks, the dark, holding hands, and being told to hurry up.

We recently had tubes put in Cael's ears and his adenoids taken out. We are hoping that having tubes put in will help with his speech. So far the biggest change we've noticed is that the 'hacking' sound he use to do when talking has stopped. He hasn't really started talking more, but with speech therapy and some time he should start saying more now :)

Happy Cow Appreciation Day!

What would you do for a free Chick-FilA meal?!

Happy Late Birthday America!!!

At the Bethany Parade:

Some of our sweet friends:

All the kids (there were a TON of us):

Waiting for fireworks:

Hannah was obsessed with Milo's batman mask for some reason

We had a fantastic, busy, crazy week surrounding the fourth! Chris took off almost the whole week so we had a lot of family time :) Wednesday we kept our usual tradition of going to the Bethany parade with lots of friends. Then we came home for naps and afterwards headed over to some friends house for their own personal firework show. Even with the crazy hot weather, we had tons of fun celebrating our independence and spending time with friends. Although, we did find out that Cael has become much more sensitive to noise (i.e. fireworks) since having tubes put in. He definitely wasn't a big fan of them like last year.


The next day we packed up the car and headed to Dallas for a mini getaway. We stayed at a fun hotel that had an indoor play area along with the pool and hot tub. Thursday we mostly relaxed and played at the hotel. Then on Friday we went to a children's museum and Ikea....LOVE Ikea btw!

Visit to the fire station!

Cael was so excited to go to the fire station! He even grab his fireman's hat on the way out. After getting the kids out of the car I realized we had arrived half an hour early so I thought a quick trip to McD's to grab some ice cream cones would be fun. Cael was so excited to be at the fire station that he refused to get back in the car...even with a bribe of ice cream!

Hey, you want a smore?

Ham Porter: Hey, you want a s'more?

Smalls: Some more of what?

H: No, do you want a s'more?

S: I haven't had anything yet... so how can I have some more of nothing?

H: You're killing me Smalls!

....Smores bring out the best smiles!

El Cuarto Mes De Nuestra Mamacita!

Oh my goodness, I can't believe we've had this little girl for four months already! On one hand it seems like she's always been a part of our little family but at the same time I feel like we just barely brought her home from the hospital.

*This little girl makes us all smile. She's always so happy even when really hungry or tired.
*Cael and Hannah both love to play with her.It can't get kind of crazy! Like how Cael thinks Bekah should eat more than just milk and baby food. He's a huge stinker and can't be told otherwise! So we really have to keep an eye on him around Bekah.
*Bekah's definitely on the tall side. She's in the 99th percentile for height and 76th percentile for weight. (27 inches, 15 lbs 9 oz)

*This girl loves to chatter. I'm starting to think she just loves to hear her own voice.
*She hasn't rolled over yet, but she's really been trying to lately.
*She's still a great napper.
*I can't remember if I listed this before but Bekah loves to kick and wiggle like crazy! It's like she can't contain herself and she's just going to explode from excitement of who knows what!
*We started feeding her solids this week. Out of all three kids she seems to be catching onto it the quickest. In fact today after eating I barely even had to clean her up.

Rebekah's Blessing Day

Bekah's blessing day was absolutely beautiful! The blessing in it's self was very special but it was even more wonderful having some of our family here for it.

Something that stuck out in my mind about the blessing was that Rebekah would be blessed to be a strength to others and her family. I have no doubt in my mind that she will be. She already brings so much joy to our lives. She makes me strive to be better as a mother (and with hopes that I won't screw her up). She's so pateint with each of us: when Hannah's dancing over her and shouting or when Cael is trying to sit on her face, or when I make her wait that exta 10, 20, or even 30 minutes to eat- she always just smiles at us. I can't believe how much happiness she brings our family. Sometimes I just sit and stare at her, enjoying the moments that we make eye contact and she's gazing back at me with that beautiful smile.

(Thanks Meg for taking the pictures and for the copy of the blessing! I really appreciate it.)