A moment to remember

There are moments when parenting is so hard. Then there are those that make my stomach jump and a tear comes to my eye. Sometimes I even have a few more tears than that. I love to have happy tears for my kids. :) Drew and Kennedy had one of those moments for me tonight.......

The kids are playing in my room. They both run out so excited about something. They are both talking SO fast I cannot understand a word they are saying. So I say, "Stop talking and we are going to talk one at a time." Kennedy went first and said, "Mommy, can we go get some ice cream at Mr. Boyd's?" Now, here I am a bit shocked that they came up with this so I ask Drew what he wanted. He says, "Can we please go get some ice cream from Mr. Boyd's?" This is when my heart melts because they have never come up with something like this on their own. This meant they were talking about it together and decided together to come ask us. I told them to ask the daddies and they begged and begged. The daddies are now at Bruster's with those precious babies. When did they get this grown up? I love these two...it seems like yesterday we were just waiting on them to get here. I feel like we have a lot of trouble in the future with this pair!

Summer mornings..gotta love them!!

I love mornings where you have nothing to do. You have no agenda for the day. The world is at your feet. Mmmm....I do so love the lazy days of summer. The kids played outside this morning and they were being so cute I had to snap a few pics. Don't you just love summer mornings?

It is amazing what a few pots and pans and measuring cups can do!

Almost!

Whit is doing a lot of almosts lately. He is "almost" standing on his own. He will stand for seconds at a time. I find myself so fascinated with every little change he makes. I thought it would be no big deal this time around. I was definitely wrong on that one. I was cooking dinner tonight and turned around to find this....one foot out the door!

A good friend

Everyone needs a friend they can count on. You know...the kind of friend that doesn't care that you crawled over them and pushed them away to look at yourself in the mirror. Thanks Jay for being a good friend...:)

All the Sartin's...under ONE roof!

I have come to realize the importance of family. When you have your own kids you start to really realize how special a family bond is. We traveled north to visit all our Sartin cousins. So, we packed up and loaded up with MeMe and Pops and went for a visit. It was fun, tiring, and very eventful! It is a long trip but my kids did so great. The miles and tiredness were worth it. We are creating these memories for our kids as well as for us. I hope they grow up to be close and can lean on each other. Family is so important!

All of the grandkids...Lander, Henley, Whit, Kennedy and Paisley

KNOXVILLE!! GO VOLS!


Pops and Whit looking at the trains

All the kids...can you tell Whit is never still? Paisley just got finished screaming and then Kennedy started crying because Paisley was sitting on her dress! Oh dear! Poor things...

We visited a Children's Museum. I wish we had things like this here. They have a life size doll house the kids can play in. I think this picture is hillarious because Henley looks like a giant. She was fixing everyone lunch. Whit is helping...can you see him?

Whit..working hard to help in the kitchen!

The doll house

Paisley and Kennedy

Henley and Whit

Just my size cousins...Paisley and Kennedy...I wonder what they are talking about. :)

The "big" kids

We also went to a sprinkler park. K had so much fun!!

Whit..enjoying being dry!

Oh, and did I mention that it only took 7 1/2 hours to get home. ONE STOP!!! Two kids, a MeMe and a Pops and we only stopped once. It was a long stop but how great is that?

UPDATES!! THESE KIDS ARE BUSY!!

We'll start with K: Can we say potty trained? :) Oh, yeah...well, I would not actually say we are at 100%. I would go with more like 87.5% potty trained. One week from starting and she really only has about an accident a day. I won't publicly discuss her problem with the accidents. I am SO proud of my little girl! She even did so good on the road trip. We didn't have one single accident in the car. WOO HOO!!! All I really had to do was actually stick to the training and throw in a little bribery....love it!

Whit: Well let's see. He went for a dr visit before vacation and was 18lbs 12 ounces. I don't know if I documented that already. I also have officially stopped ALL baby food!! YAY!!! I love, love, love that!! He is such a good eater. I started him on meat last week and he is a happy camper. We are transitioning from breastmilk to real food. This is easy so far! He is much happier than Kennedy was to stop a few feedings. So, no more yucky jars of food. I just feed him dinner with us and he loves it! Yay for my grocery bill as well!! :) Stopping nursing is another whole story...this is a fun but sad process for me. I don't even want to think about it. So I'll stop talking about it now.

Way to go my sweet kiddos!

My little fish

I was hoping swimming lessons would teach her to swim. She can semi-swim already I just need her to be safe in the water. It only made her braver. Seriously, now she jumps with a smile to me. Her legs are up in the air, her arms up high, and she flies into the water. I don't have to catch her. She just bounces back up and swims a little to me. We went to MeMa's tonight for a little evening swim. I love to do that in the summer. She jumped and jumped and swam and swam until she couldn't anymore. And that little brother of hers is not so bad himself. He loves the water. He'll even fall into you from the side. My little fish....I love it! Here are some pics of her from swimming lessons last week.

That's her with her head in the water swimming across the deep end!!

Practicing that kick!
So sweet!