father's day

Better late than never(?)...here are some pictures from our Father's Day ice cream trip.


Claire didn't get any ice cream but seemed perfectly happy staring at Mark the whole time.


Meg got to talk on the phone to her Pop Pop AT the ice cream store. I don't think her day could get any better than that.

july 4th at the lake

9 months

Claire loves splashing in our little baby pool and in the bathtub. The bigger the splash, the better. It is so fun to watch her get this happy!


She has learned to crawl this past month and is now exploring all over the place! Meg and Katie like to pretend they are babies too and crawl around with her. Time to work a little harder on cleaning my floors...

this is a guilty look

She found a ballpoint pen.

2 out of 3 ain't bad

The girls have taken turns being sick since summer began. It is just a cold but it involves a loooot of crying and grumpiness. Can you tell who has it right now? (Hint...she is not in one of the smiling pictures below.) We've been sort of stuck inside, waiting for everyone to get well.


Claire is still not crawling, but is starting to roll around to get where she needs to go...

jacksonville zoo

We spent Memorial Day weekend with our siblings and cousins in Jacksonville and had a great time swimming, BBQ-ing, and going to the zoo!

We went to the zoo on Sunday morning right when it opened and it was like we had the whole place to ourselves. We could almost reach out and touch those giraffes. They were beautiful.

Katie had a face-off with some slightly aggressive exotic birds and I don't know who won.

My favorite part of the whole weekend was getting to spend time with my 4 nieces and my 2 new (to me!) nephews, Will and Isaac. Eight of the 9 kids eating breakfast:

Claire went swimming for the first time and the swimsuit I packed for her turned out to be WAY too small!! (It looks like Meg should be asking Claire, "how many months pregnant are you?")

last day of school

Meg's last day of preschool was Thursday and I was really sad to see it end. I can see now how parents get emotional about every tiny little milestone their children reach. Here's a picture of Meg on the last day of school (I'm not ashamed to admit I bribed her with a cookie to make her smile normally):


And here's a picture of Meg on her first day of school in September! I didn't have to bribe her to smile back then.


The preschool had the cutest cowboy-themed program and I could tell Meg was totally happy and comfortable singing there with all her teachers and little friends. She is in the front middle with the white bandana. Her "best friend" Walker is next to her in the blue bandana.


They are singing, "They'll Be Coming Round the Mountain". It was so cute!!