helpers

Addie has taken it upon herself to become the dish helper. It is fantastic!!!! She asks to do the dishes after each meal. She pulls a chair over, turns the water on, and cleans them...so good that you can't tell if the dish has even been used. It is so great! She sometimes will spend 1/2 hour doing this (might be a waste of water) but hey, I am taking full advantage of this joy and willingness to do them. I get so much done while she cleans them. All I have to do now is load them in the dishwasher. Macie has also taken upon herself to start making her school lunch everyday. It is also sooo great. She gets everything out, makes her sandwich and puts everything in her lunch box. These girls are a great help!
Here is Addie working hard. 

After dinner one night.

After breakfast one morning.

Loving Life

Last Sunday the girls decided that they would like to play church. They headed up to the toy room and set everything up. They took their benches and lined them with their stuffed animals, got their book shelf and used it as a podium, and got their microphone so everyone could hear. Macie was the Primary leader doing everything and Addie was the kid in Primary. They were pretty serious about it, having singing time, talk time and the whole bit. It is so interesting to me how closely these kids pay attention to all of the little details. 

 Macie is conducting the music, while Addie sings.

 Addie is giving the talk and Macie is helping her.

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 For those of you who are wondering...here I am at 7 months pregnant! We still think that it is absolutely crazy that we have another little on the way!

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The little guy is absolutely crazy. He is moving around everywhere and wants to walk so bad. He will NOT hold still for anything. Even when you try to feed him a bottle he wants to be moving around and drinking it at the same time. He got his first tooth this past week and looks so cute when he smiles. He loves his sisters like crazy and anytime they walk into the room his face just lights up. He wants to be where ever they are and loves to destroy their play houses when they are set up.

Here he is diving off of the couch. Geoff was trying to cuddle with him because Camden was tired, but he would have none of that and was off.

 This morning it was raining and the girls wanted to go out and play. We left the door open to see what he would do. He crawled right over and sat and watched them and tried several times to escape, but each time he would come back because it was all wet. Oh how we just love our kiddos and have so much fun with them!

Summer Swimming

Living in Texas = tons of swimming!! Since we moved, our neighborhood has a really nice pool that we have been able to use. It has been so nice to just be able to walk there whenever we want and know that we will be the only ones there and it won't be crowded and the kids can just play and have fun. It has a little baby pool with a shade thing covering it and fountains. It is just so fun and nice. Here are a few pics of us enjoying our time at the pool!

Camden is getting brave and starting to crawl around in the water. He just can't sit still and is all boy. He will crawl right into the water and stick his face in and then come up with this huge smile and do it again. It makes me laugh every time. He loves the water and loves to splash and play with the toys and the fountains. 

 Here is his cute little wet face. Right after dunking his head in.

 When Geoff comes with us, the girls love it. He is able to play with them and swim with them. Something that is just to hard for me to do because of Camden. I have to be holding him or watching him at all times, so I don't have that extra set of hands to be able to jump and play. Here is Addie jumping in to Geoff. One benefit of not having Geoff here every time is that the girls have gotten really brave and will jump in alone and swim alone and have gotten really good in the water. It amazes me how well Macie swims at such a young age.

 The last time we were there as a family, Geoff and Macie had a cannonball competition. Addie was the counter and judge. She would count for them and then let them know who had the biggest splash and won. As I was trying to get the perfect shot of them jumping in, I could not stop laughing. I just couldn't get that perfect shot. I am pretty sure that I had them jump in at least 5 times and still missed it. In the 4th picture you will see Geoff's arms out. He is complaining to the judge that she judged him unfairly. She said that Macie won and he was not happy!!! HA! And I wonder where our girls get their poor sportsmanship from!! You will also notice Macie's getting ready pose and then the last picture is hilarious to me. Every time she would come up out of the water she would bring her hands up and spin as she came out saying "salute". Seriously...so funny.
We love the pool! It is such a great escape from the heat and everyone always has fun!

Labor Day fun

For Labor Day we went with some friends to check out some of the local sights. We went to the Ft. Worth Botanical Gardens and the Ft. Worth Water Gardens. Both were in our price range..(free) and both were soooo fun! We are so glad that we went and that we started early in the day before the heat got really bad. Here are some pictures of the Botanical Garden:

 The girls under a plant tunnel.

 Standing in front of a beautiful waterfall. It made you feel like you were in Hawaii! Haha.

 Looking out over the gardens. They were just so beautiful and if I could one day have a portion of the yard that this place was, I would never leave it. They actually had real, full, beautiful grass that you could step on, and sit on, and enjoy! It was so marvelous. It is also good to know that grass like that exists in Texas.

 Addie being a butterfly queen.

Camden hanging out on the ledge.

 

Then we went to the Ft. Worth Water Gardens. These were sooo cool. If you ever are in the area, these are a must. It is a block worth of water structures that you get to walk around and enjoy. This one is about 4 stories deep and you get to walk down into it. So cool!!

Geoff taking the girls down in to check it out. Addie was a littel nervous. They were big steps, so Geoff carried her down.

Hi mom!!!

Here is a zoomed out picture.

Then I took a turn and the kids wanted to come back in with me. This time Addie had to walk, because I couldn't carry her.  (Those are our friends that we went with righ in front of me with Macie)

Addie and Macie just hanging out enjoying the view. (Don't worry, I was right there, I was just taking a family pic for our friends)

Here is another fountain. The kids are just haning out in the shade enjoying the mist.

A cute Family picture. It was such a fun day, we can't wait to go back and enjoy these sights again!