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.

father's day 2010

One amazing Daddy.  Three precious gifts.

  

Celebrating the first Father's Day as a Daddy of three.

Chloe's gift to Woody this year... saying "Dada" for the first time on Father's day!

A couple of years ago, I was reading ideas on Father's day presents and came across the idea of taking pictures of your kids each year in the shirt their Daddy wore the day they were born.  The idea was to surprise your husband with a scrapbook years from now, but I didn't think I'd be able to keep up with that, so I opted for making it a tradition to just take the girls' pics in the shirts on Father's Day.   Here's the installment for 2010...

Daddy's girls.

the recital

Last weekend Arden and Esther had their long awaited dance recital!  They have both been so excited about it and were literally counting the days until they could wear their costumes and put on makeup.  Who knew a tube of pink lipstick could make little girls so happy?  

(As a side note before I go any further, I do have to confess I was surprised, shocked might be a better word, when I found out their teacher wanted their hair down and no tights for the recital.  Having grown up dancing in a traditional school where hair was always off the neck and specific tights had to be worn, this was craziness to me.  I mean, let's face it, Esther has way more hair than your average 2 year old-it needed to be up!  I know it sounds silly, but don't worry, I got over it rather quickly...these two were just too darn cute even if their hair was on their necks!)  Okay, back to the recital... giddiness was overflowing in our house as we got ready to go and even when we got there.  As the time approached for the recital to begin though, Esther got a little overwhelmed by the crowds, the loud music, etc.  As I took her backstage right before the show started, she was crying and clinging to me.  At this point, I really didn't think she would go on stage and that would've been fine.  Once she saw her other friends, however, she calmed down and I was able to leave her.  She went on stage wearing her sweet smile and the rest is history.  Arden was elated through the whole thing and was super excited about getting flowers once she was done.  On stage, she would kinda glaze over every few moves or so like she was just taking everything in and by the end of her routine, I think she would've been content to stay on stage for the rest of the show!  Both girls did such a great job and we are so proud of them!   Thanks to G.G. and Papa and cousins, Hannah and Halli, for coming to cheer them on!

Esther's class

Each girl introduced themselves by saying their name and age before they performed...this part was too cute.

wishing our zoom lens wasn't broken...

Arden with friends

Finding their spots before doing a "cupcake roll" together.

A and E with their cheering section.

with G.G. and Papa

Some moms organized a dinner after the recital for all the families.  The girls enjoyed their "special dinner."

A and E on the dance floor with sisters that were in their classes.

All the girls had a blast out on the dance floor...

Chloe hung out with Papa most of the night... she had fun too!