My New Favorite Picture

Thanks to Granddaddy for taking this photo of my children. It really captures their personalities, and their love of life (I think it also shows they are both total hams for the camera!) This picture warms my heart, reminds me to enjoy the small things in life, and not to get so caught up in the minutae - I'm working on it, but it's harder than it sounds! Thanks, Margaret and John-John, for being the light in our life!

School's Out "Sundae" at Church

John-John and Margaret hitting the water slide. This was the highlight of the afternoon ('til they found the ice cream sundaes - see photo below)...

Are they cute or WHAT??!? No one can tell them not to have fun!!

Margaret and John enjoying the giant ice cream sundae out of a gutter - don't worry, they were brand new...Mom and Dad weren't too excited about that idea but who are we to argue with these two faces?? (notice the amount of ice cream my children both had in front of them....there was NONE left when they walked away from the table)!

Spiderman on the Attack!

John-John and Austin having a battle of the "Spidermen" :) Sweet boys...

The Three Amigos

Austin, Margaret & John-John before the swimming chaos ensued...

Smiling for the camera

Austin and John-John in a waterhose fight -- they had such a blast!

A Sign of Things to Come?

John John had great fun with the fireman get-up at Austin's birthday party!

Trying to Stay True to my Word

So far, so good. It's only a few weeks into summer, and already I've posted twice! Yay for me. We have already spent pretty much every weekend at the pool, enjoying time with friends and quiet time with just our family (well, maybe not quiet exactly, but good quality time anyway). The kids are loving the time in the water, and Margaret is excited to take swimming lessons this summer - we'll have to find time to wedge that in along with all the other activities.
Our good friends just had a beautiful baby boy, so I am again reminded of the miracle of life! He is precious and perfect, and we were so lucky to get to meet him just a few hours into his life. Welcome again to the world, Little Man, we can't wait to show it to you! We have good friends who are waiting day to day to have their little miracle. We are excited to welcome him into the world as well - the two little boys will be able to be good friends, getting into all the trouble that little boys do, together. Luckily for all 6 of us parents, we all have older ones who will show them the way, and protect them along their journey. What a true blessing it is as a parent to watch that happen.
Work is still going well for me. It's busy, but that's a good thing when one is in sales - if you are busy it means people are actually interested in what you have to sell! Jim's work is busy too. We are looking forward to a brief respite while we are in Vegas (but I'm sure my computer will get thrown in the carry-on. I haven't taken a trip without one in over 5 years!!)
I guess there's nothing else too exciting to report - we are just continuing to spend lots of time outside...trying to teach John-John to ride his trike - right now that consists of either mom or dad pushing him down the street. Not so much fun for the parent involved. Margaret is an expert on her bike - I'm actually thinking that she might be about ready to try it without the training wheels. This is a rather big step for her Mommy as well - the first time she has had the proverbial "training wheels" removed. She really IS a big girl. They grow up so fast!

Ice Cream with Our BFFs

Aunt Steph and Jase called and invited us to ice cream tonight, and what better timing...it made all the drama of the earlier evening (see pictures below for details) fade into the distance - Amazing what some strawberry ice cream and gummy bears can do for a kid!

Take 2 - the sun is in their eyes, hence the squinting (couldn't POSSIBLY be that they don't want to listen and just smile sweetly while I'm holding the camera)...

The first documented case of a true "face-plant"

Still smiling...although she still looks a bit stunned

Back on her "A" game (with a few scrapes to show for it)

And being silly again..."C'mon mom...take ONE more picture...PLEEEZE!" (how could I resist??)

Piggy back rides

Two peas in a pod. I just wish I could bottle the moments like this, where both kids are being silly, laughing and playing NICELY with each other. I can hear the giggles and silliness when I look at this picture. And I love every minute of it!

He's STILL cute!

How is it that even crying, this little boy can melt my heart?? I don't have any idea what he was crying for, but I can assure you that mere minutes later he was back to his smiling self...I'm just lucky that way.