4-H Fair with the Cabble's

The 4-H Fair is such a wonderful free event!  We enjoyed the event with our friends the Cabble's today, and Emily was in heaven with her little buddies Blake and Megan.

Here is Julie & Megan, Erik & Mary, Blake & Emily

Blake & Emily petting the Llama

Blake telling Emily something important

The kids LOVED playing in this combine 

Megan & Emily found a little seat on the front of the stroller

Craft time!  Making their pockets.

Stringing beads

Check out their snakes on their arms, necklaces and pockets they decorated. 

We had such a good time at the activity tent, we almost spent more time there then looking at the animals.

Cousins & Friends

On Tuesday and Wednesday my cousin's daughter Claire spent the day with us.  Claire is so good, and she was an awesome playmate with Emily.  It made me think what it would be like if we had three children.  

Here is Emily and Claire yesterday at the library summer program, they enjoyed face painting, crafts, moon bounce, toe fishing and snow cones.

Here is Claire holding Mary.

Emily & Claire in the bathtub on Tuesday

La la la

On the swing set

Playing dress up

Water balloon fight

Bathtub on Wednesday = bubble fun

Cuddling before Claire left 

We had such a good time, I think it was easier with Claire here, she entertained Emily for me!

Dinner at Weber's

Saturday night we went out to dinner with my parents to Weber's in Ann Arbor.  Jim has been traveling for work and been gone working on his dad's estate so we celebrated being together for dinner.  The major celebration is that Jim's dad's house is ready for the open houses and auction starting today.  I'm so proud of him getting it done, it was a lot of hard work, and there are still some things to do but the house is ready.

Bath Time

Mary is starting to like her baths a lot more.  At first Mary did not like getting a bath, but lately she coos and smiles, it's so cute.  It's hard work giving her a bath, she is so slippery, I forgot how hard it is to bath a baby!

Here are a few pictures of Mary's bath in our big tub.  I stood in the tub and bathed both girls. 

Doesn't Mary look so big here!  It's hard to believe that today at her 2 month appointment she was only in the 78% for weight, and 65% for height.  She seems like she has grown and filled out so much I thought she was going to weigh more than 12 pounds 4 ounces and be longer than 23 inches.  Emily weighed 14 pounds at 2 months, I can't remember the length, but I am sure she was longer than 23 inches.  It looks like the girls will be different.

Mary loved her new towel from our neighbors!

After her bath Mary fell asleep in her diaper.  It was really toasty in our house without the AC, I think it was 86 degrees on Saturday inside our house (on the first floor)!

Tummy time

We don't do tummy time enough, it just seems like when Mary is awake the first thing she wants to do is eat.  Then of course I don't want to put her on her tummy when it's full and then she falls asleep.  But Mary has been doing a little more tummy time and she is getting better at picking her head up, but she'd rather just lay her head down and relax.

Hi Mom!

I can do it!

Ugh, this is hard work!

Nap time

On Saturday with no power it was so hot upstairs so I laid down with the girls in our bed at nap time (our room is downstairs).  I nurse Mary while Emily cuddles too, and we sing songs, say our prayers and do stories.  After they were asleep I slipped out from between them and then took this picture.   Then I moved Mary to her bed just to be on the safe side.

Chelsea Treehouse with Friends

On Saturday we got together with some friends from MOPS at the Treehouse.  Seeing we don't have MOPS in the summer, we had been missing our friends and it was so good to catch up.

Here is Libby and Emily playing together in the toddler area.

Daniel getting a little sleepy

Lunch with Angela

Every year we go out to lunch with my friend Angela for her Birthday in July, and we have been stopping in at my old work and I say hi to old friends.  This year they got to meet Mary.  It was a quick visit this year because Mary was getting hungry, so we said hi and then took off to Red Robin for lunch.  Of course after Mary had her lunch she sat like a little angel at Red Robin.

Angela, Emily & I

Mom & Angela (mom joined us this year)

Mary sitting at lunch.  She looks sad here, but she really was content the whole lunch.

Blueberry Picking

I learned something new today, don't go blueberry picking on a Monday, there are no ripe berries!  Everyone must have gone blueberry picking this weekend because we didn't find hardly any ripe berries today.  It was so frustrating, I was ready to pick buckets full to freeze, but we had trouble finding any berries.  We were there for 45 minutes, walked to the back of the patch (me pushing Mary in the stroller) and wondered around a couple of rows, and then walked back up to the front with about 10 berries.  UGH! Emily was so bummed she wanted to come home with some berries!  So I promised her we would go pick another day.

She was happy, Emily remembers picking last year, and was looking forward to picking blueberries this year too!

Mom, I found a ripe one!

Vacation Bible School Picnic

Emily enjoyed her first vacation bible school this week at Salem (my parents church).  

Here we are before church began, Emily with her new "hee haw" hat and me nursing Mary.

Here is Emily on the donkey at the church picnic after VBS.

Saddle up - Emily climbed onto and off this saddle by herself!  I'm amazed at all of the things she can do.

Vacation Bible School at Salem

Emily went to VBS at my parents church.  I was so proud of her, my parents took and she was in a classroom with a teacher and  kids she did not know and was fine.  Seeing I stay home, I rarely leave her with anyone and this was a completely new thing for Emily.  We have talked about preschool which she starts this fall and the fact that she will go by herself; it sounds like she is ready!  Yeah!  

A couple of months ago when we were at church and it was time for the kids to go up front for the children's message Emily said to us "I'll go up front by myself today!"  It was out of the blue, we hadn't talked about it or anything, and that was right before we had Mary.  So now every week she walks up front by herself.  I can't believe how much more grown up and independent she is.

Here is Emily waiting for VBS to begin (actually standing like Pa pa is on the right).

In her classroom with "Miss Katie" - I baby sat Katie when she was little

Grandma & Emily hanging out

Emily going down the big slide

Emily on the merry go round

My mom said that Emily's teacher said she was perfect!

Tummy Time Smiles

Mary is changing so much.  This week Jim was gone for about half of the week for work, and Mary was like a new baby when he got home.  Mary is eight weeks old now, and smiles all of the time, and is cooing!  It is so adorable!  Plus I can't believe how much bigger she is getting, she is really filling out.  Her legs and arms have little rolls and her checks are a lot bigger.  And she is awake so much more during the day and a most of nights this week she slept through the night!  Mary goes to bed around 11 or 11:30 and will sleep until 5 or 6am (one morning until 7:15am but she went to bed really late that night).  So I am getting at least a 6 hour stretch out of her.  During the evening she cluster feeds a ton, but it's well worth the long stretch of sleep for me.

Last Day with the Cousins

After our water fun with the bible study group, we headed to mom and dad's to say good-bye to Sarah, Curt, SJ & Kate.

Grandpa took the kids on a gator ride

Mary got passed around so everyone held her

Me & Emily, Kate & Mary, SJ & Caleb

Sarah, SJ & Mary

Mary was tuckered out after all of the cuddling and kisses