splash! with the cousins

The week after the 4th, the girls and I went up and spent a few days with my family.  One of our days was spent at a water park in town with my sister and her kids.  The girls had a blast to say the least and still talk about all the fun we had at Splash!  All of these pictures are courtesy of Jenni-thank you! 

I think Arden went down these slides a bazillion times-she couldn't get enough!

  

a happy 4th

The 4th of July has become one of my favorite times of year since living here.  Our church has a cookout and then we all head over to the fort for fun and games before the fireworks begin.  This year we got to be a part of the scouting team with Brittany and her family to go ahead of everyone and reserve our spot-such fun!  We stayed right up until the fireworks began and decided to head out since we weren't sure how Chloe would handle things and because Esther did NOT like the stray fireworks that were going off over the water.  She kept crying, "I want to get in the car and be safe!"  We did manage to see a little bit of the show on our walk back to the car, and all in all, we had a terrific time!

the girls

the annual cake

Katie and Chloe

Esther had just finished a blue pop ice...look at all those teeth!

Arden on the run

Chloe had fun pulling up on whatever she could.

chasing bubbles

our view

At one point in the evening, Esther climbed in our wagon and curled up like she was going to fall asleep!  Woody got her playing peek-a-boo.

what can brown do for you?

Our sweet Esther will be three next month.   A couple of weeks ago, she announced that she wanted a "brown cake with a brown horsey and brown ice" for her birthday.  I'm not sure where the horsey came from, but I do know that her favorite color is brown.  She colors with brown crayons, chooses brown construction paper and she will tell you that her favorite color is brown.  It took a while for all this to click, but one day I realized that the reason she loves brown is because she loves CHOCOLATE!  She calls chocolate ice cream, "brown ice cream" and so you get the picture... she wants an all chocolate cake for her birthday!  I thought surely she won't remember what she's told me, but almost everyday since she first announced her dream cake, she has reminded me that she wants a "brown cake with a brown horsey and brown ice."  Here's hoping I can come up with something to meet her expectations!

Also, since this post is about Esther, I thought I'd write a couple of other things down that she's done lately so I won't forget them.  She loves to play "Mary" as in Mary, the mother of Jesus.  She wraps blankets around her head and calls her baby dolls, Jesus, and Arden usually ends up being Joseph.  She does normal, everyday kind of stuff like going to Publix and CVS. :)  It's really funny to watch her and really sweet too.

Esther is also really into princesses, with her favorite being Cinderella.  A few weeks ago she told us..."Daddy is gonna dance with me and he's gonna be the prince and don't forget my  swippers (slippers) and don't forget my dress and don't forget my crown!"     

nine months

Chloe at nine months...

... is still itty bitty.  She weighs 15 lbs. 3 oz. (3rd percentile) and is 26 1/2 inches long (25th percentile).

... has 6 teeth and has started eating some table food and devoured the first wagon wheel we gave her. 

... LOVES water.  She has the best time at the pool and when we're at the beach.  I think she enjoys splash park and the ocean as much as her sisters do.  She loves bath time and will cackle and crawl as fast as she can to the bathtub when she hears the water running.  And the downside to her love of water is that her favorite place to sneak off to is the toilet.  I've found her splashing in the potty way more times than I'd like to count!!  

... no longer does the army crawl.  She had gotten so fast with it and seemed to prefer it to traditional crawling, but in the last few weeks she only crawls with her belly off the floor.

... has gotten really good at pulling up and standing.  She likes to "walk" holding on to your hands and I'm sure before I know it, she'll be cruising around.

... claps her hands, waves, says "dada," "mama," and "baba"... so sweet!

... LOVES her sisters.  She squeals with delight when she sees them.

... still loves her Mama (yay!) and went a week where she would scream if I left the room (aahh!), but now she's also really bonded with her Daddy, so it's nice to get a break once in a while.

... right now has roseola, although if you didn't notice the rash all over her body (which would be pretty hard to do!), you would never know she'd had a fever most of the week because she has been the sweetest sick baby.

These last two were taken last weekend when we were in SC for my cousin's wedding.  It's the first time we've used a crib in a hotel instead of the pack-n-play.