July was busy!

Lots of butterflies around our house this month and Dave was able to get some good shots. The girls really enjoyed watching them and running away from the bees at the same time. Oh, and the hummingbirds showed up at the feeder, but I wasn't able to get a shot of them.

We visited Uncle Mike, Aunt Alyssa, and Lily in D.C. and went to the Air and Space Museum and it was awesome!!!

(Catherine didn't want her picture taken.)

Gymnastics is really paying off for our girls' coordination! They showed off their skills at Lily's park. Samantha has been trying to find out where the 'line' is this summer, and then she looks at  you and smiles this sweet smile and you know you've been manipulated. She loves her little brother, except when he 'gets in trouble', which means he took her stuff. She has quite a lot of site words and can read whole stories to you verbatim from memory, it's amazing!

The fireman's pole was awesome!

Lily got daring and Uncle Mike let her, but he was also a little scared ;-)

Aunt Mary Anne came to visit and there was lots of swimming, sand, and shenanigans, naturally. Catherine the summer has decided she wants to be called Cat. She continues to be such a big help around the house cooking and cleaning and being a big sister to Jake. She has gotten so very expressive  with her hands, facial expressions, and tone of voice, mostly in a good way that it makes me smile all the time. Her math skills progressed this summer as did her coloring, especially when making Shrinky Dinks. Fearless on her bike, she can do backward rolls, too!

Jake helped Dave fix the bench, first with his magic wand, and then with the correct allen wrench. He's so helpful.

Jake has been amusing everyone in the house, including himself. He has such a personality! He knows exactly when to smile at you and make you laugh, he can be a drama queen when you take away something he isn't supposed to have (not sure what the boy term is for that), and he loves to feed the dog by taking her food out of her bowl and giving it to her piece by piece. Either that or from his own fork, both of which are highly discouraged but he doesn't care. He can run and he tries to fly by putting his arms out behind him. He likes to think he can drink from a cup, but he can't really. He is getting good with his fork, though. 

We visited Dave's family at the beach: 2 sets of 4-year-old twins running around a beach house causes a lot of noise, but they had a great time.

The 2 blondes, and the 2 not-so-blondes.

We played putt putt for the first time. Sam got a hole in one! She's actually better as a leftie, which makes Dave happy. Then, on the very next hole all 3 of us girls' balls went around the cup and out, boo.

At the pool one day Catherine suddenly decided that she wanted to jump in by herself. We were shocked and proud and soon they both were doing it nonstop.

This is Jake's beach cover up. It is a trifle too big, and Dave says he looks like a Jawa from Star Wars. If you don't know, those are the ones that say "Dink Dink" in Spaceballs.

We ended the month with everyone getting sick, especially Jake. So we'll leave you with this picture, because we did this a lot. Shhhhh.

The start of summer

We've been having a lot of fun in the last month. We've been to the beach twice, gone out to lunch with Great Grandma, went to a baseball game, went to the Ft. Fisher aquarium, and tried to relax as school came to an end.

Jake is running everywhere and is into everything. He loves to touch, open, turn, and explore. He wants to do everything his big sisters do. He liked the beach, just not when it was nap time. He liked to play in the wet sand, so a bucket half full of sand and half of water was his favorite thing. Sitting in the waves was fun too, but not as much fun as being picked up to 'jump' over the waves as they came in.

As usual the girls wanted to be in the water as much as possible. But they liked to do different things out of the water, too. Sam liked to go for walks with Mommy and Nana to collect seashells while Catherine liked to help Daddy build sand castles.

At the aquarium the girls had a great time and Jake really liked looking at the fish, too. Catherine was brave enough to touch a sting ray in the touch tank and after a little coaxing Samantha was brave enough to take her picture in the megalodon jaws. Catherine showed her climbing skills on the playground and we had a great time.

This is Jake's sweet ride for the pool. Cool and shady.

At home we all help water the plants, even Jake. Our garden is doing great! The peas are almost ready, tomatoes are still green but huge, and we're still waiting for the zucchini to grow. We catch a lot of lightning bugs, well, Catherine does. Samantha is too afraid of bugs so the closest she'll get is to hold a  leaf with a lightning bug on it. Jake's favorite new game is to hide on one side of the wall while you are on the other side, and then surprise you. He laughs and laughs!

At Nana and Grandpa's house (not just Nana's house!) they learned how to dance like a prince and princess, making Nana and Grandpa laugh and almost cry. Catherine helped make pizza and Grandpa cooked it on the grill in the rain. We had lunch with Great Grandma, too. Catherine had calamari and loved it. Samantha had a lot of fun playing with the little piece of dough they gave her. It was the inspiration for pizza that night. Catherine and Great Grandma also shared their love of puzzles.

Meeting Sid the science Kid and Super Why at the baseball game. More fun stuff to come, so keep checking in.

Jake is 1!

From this (born 6 lbs 12 oz and 20 inches long)

To this (23 lbs 12 ounces and 29.5 inches)

We've learned so much about our handsome little man in this last year and love him more and more every day. He makes us laugh, he's positive and bright and smart. He figures out all sorts of problems, which usually creates more problems for the rest of us. He loves to get dirty and always finds dirt to grab and throw on the ground, or carpet, and then stick in his mouth if you aren't fast enough. 

He's walking and standing up on his own, started the week before he turned one. He kind of says 'bye bye' and 'down', and he knows who everyone is, even if he can only say 'mommom' and 'dada'. He eats everything and shares with the dog. Jake also loves his little elephant lovey and we are too afraid to see if he'll sleep without it. We'll probably go without the paci first this summer and then see how brave we get. He doesn't use either during the day unless he sees it, so we keep them out of sight, but when it is time for bed he needs those 2 things and the sound machine on 'train'. Works like a charm.

He knows where the camera is and where the ladies are. He is a flirt and a charmer with a smile that disarms you and you can't help but smile back.  You know there is a little bit of a devil behind it and yet you don't care. And he knows that, too. He loves to play games and explore.

So from those first few weeks...

...to the first few months,

…from a skinny baby who wasn't eating well...

…to a super chunk healthy little man...

…we are so blessed to have Jake in our lives...

…and can't wait to see how he grows...

…and what new adventures we will share together.

Happy Birthday Jake!