Lately

I know I've done this twice before, but pregnancy is ex-haust-ing!! Even more so the third time around.  So please forgive my lack of posting--I've been doing lots of sitting around, eating, and sleeping....oh and, you know, growing a baby :)

We spent a few days around the 4th snuggling with this guy.  Kristi, Luke, and West came in to spend the long weekend at their parents and we all got in lots of loving from West.

It's amazing how quickly babies grow.  He had changed so much since the last time we saw him in May!

I know I still have plenty of time to get ready for the new baby, but the summer is my ideal time to do these things.  Because I have the time.  I spent several hours working in Libby's room, cleaning out.  That girl is a hoarder and you may see her one day on the tv show.  It's ridiculous.

Speaking of getting ready for the new baby,  am loving this twin bed for the girls' rooms.  Drawers underneath and a bookshelf as a headboard?  Perfect!

We went to Courtland to Justin's granddad's house.  Carried on the tradition of putting pennies on the railroad tracks.  

Blackberry jam.  YUM!

If you looked super closely, you could see that the girls are holding a baby lizard.  They insisted on a photo.

The girls spent the night with GraGra and learned how to sew.  Kyndall designed this dress and Libby came home with skirts for Cherry.

And most recently, Libby was diagnosed with strep throat :( .  Of course, Dr. Hull was on vacation so we had to go to the doc-in-a-box instead.  Thankfully, we were in and out within thirty minutes and she is feeling so much better now!

And that is what's been going on around here.  Again, forgive me for the lack of posts.  If memory serves, this exhaustion will go away soon and I can resume a regular posting schedule :)

Words + Photos: Summer Edition

I've been horrible at keeping you updated this summer.  That goals list I had all planned out?  It hasn't even begun.  For some reason, all I want to do is sleep....and eat!  So here is a quick recap of our summer, with words and photos.

Right after vacation, I had a spa day with my mom and sister.  Everyone deserves a spa day after vacation, am I right?  They had massages and I had a facial.

Our church had VBS kick-off at the skate castle.  The daddies took over and helped the littles learn to skate.

Several pool days have happened, like this one.

During Agency D3 VBS, Mrs. Amy had Agent Challenges each morning.  K got to participate and had to race another child in building the tallest Lego tower.  She won :)

We've had a few family game nights--our favorite is Crazy Eights.

We have perfected our stunting.

And our tans.

We had car races.... sort of.

And overall, are just completely soaking up every second of our summer!

Even without that silly to-do list, this first month of summer has been amazing!  We only have one more month left, but here's to more good times!

Our Summer Manifesto

For the past several years, we have created a Summer Manifesto.  A list of things we want to do over the summer break. (You can find 2012's here.  Apparently, I never posted 2013's.)  We've been pretty successful getting these things accomplished in the past, and I have super high hopes for this summer.  It also helps give a sense of purpose to our summer, instead of just spending every day mindlessly at the pool.

The girls and I sat down and made a list of things we wanted to do this summer.  It played out like this:

These are the definite things we want to make sure to schedule in our summer.  Of course, I'll be keeping my eyes and ears open for other fun activities along the way.  

I also really love the idea of creating a Summer Manifesto photo album, much like this one.  Just photos and words.

What's on your summer list?  What do you hope to do?  To create?  To experience?

Summer Reading List

We have two separate reading lists for the summer, mine and the girls.  For the girls list, we sat down and talked about books they would like to read.  They came up with a few and then I did the whole nerdy-mom thing and gave a few booktalks on ones I thought they would like.  From that list, we picked five chapter books that we want to finish this summer.  We may finish these and need more, but I wanted to start them with five.

On the girls list:

Charlotte's Web by E.B. White.  Kyndall has read this before, but it's a favorite and we both want to share it with Libby.

Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren.

Muggie Maggie by Beverly Cleary.

Beezus and Ramona by Beverly Cleary.

Amber Browns is Not a Crayon by Paula Danziger.  We have read several Amber Brown books before and loved each of them.  This is a great series!

My list was easy--I keep a running list on GoodReads, so I pulled a few from there.  I'm sure I'll add to this list along the way, but my goal is at least 10 books this summer.

On my list:

The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd.

The Antelope in the Living Room by Melanie Shankle

WILD by Cheryl Strayed.

Paper Towns by John Green.

Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline.

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. (I've had Khaled's books on my To-Read list for a while now.  I definitely want to finish this one, and then depending on how it goes, move on to A Thousand Splendid Suns and And the Mountains Echoed.

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr.

The Gods of Guilt by Michael Connelly.

Seven by Jen Hatmaker.

Sweet Water by Christina Baker Kline.

Wakeboarding, Inner-Tubing, Knee-boarding, and Sunburning

We went to the lake this weekend.  Justin and I used to go EVERY weekend when we were first dating, but those trips have gotten fewer and farther between in the last few years.  Both girls are complete water rats, so taking them to the lake and/or river is always lots of fun.  They have zero fear.

We started with a little swimming and rope swinging...

And then moved on to the major water sports.  Back in the day, Justin was a pretty skilled wakeboarder.  He could do 360's, jumps, and raleys.  He and I even used to go together, on the same board.  We have a picture of that somewhere... I'll have to find it and show you.  We didn't attempt that this weekend though.  He did help all the kids board....

And then I gave it a shot.  Not too rusty...

Kyndall and Libby both knee-boarded.  I was so impressed with how they just jumped up there.  Once the waves started, they were so light that their boards bounced all over the place, so they couldn't stay on too long.

And towards the end of the day, we all played around on the inner-tube.

Libby even drove the boat.

Birthday Week......A Celebration

The girls' birthday are 3 days apart.  Or depending on how you count, 2 days apart.  On Tuesday, July 30, Libby turned 5.  On Friday, August 2, Kyndall turned 7.  Which means we celebrate the entire week, plus some.

On Monday, we started the week off by swimming at Carrie's.  I am so blessed to have a best friend who goes the extra mile to make my girls' feel special.  She made brownies and brought out a pink candle for Libby.

On Tuesday, Libby's actual birthday, she requested a spa day (imagine that!).  From the minute she woke up, she and Kyndall were both pampered.  Gra-Gra came over to help and we had gourmet breakfast on the good china plates, with milk in the little teacups.  Then the girls took a bubble bath, put on a face mask and hair mask, and relaxed.  From there they both got massages, feet scrubs, manicures, pedicures, makeup on, and hair styled.  It was quite the day!

These photos do not do justice to the amount of makeup the girls each had on!

On birthday nights, the family comes over and each girl gets to choose what we have for dinner.  Libby's menu included hot dogs, french fries, potato chips, mac and cheese, and soapapilla cheesecake.

Wednesday and Thursday we took a trip to the American Girl Boutique and Bistro in Atlanta, GA.  It is heaven-on-earth for little girls.  K and L both picked out My AG dolls, which are supposed to look like them.  They chose outfits for their dolls, matching pajamas (big girls and dolls) and got the dolls' ears' pierced.

Friday, on Kyndall's actual birthday, she wanted to go to Chuck-E-Cheese with Harrison and Ellis.  (Yes, Carrie smuggled in cookies and a candle for K!)

Kyndall birthday dinner menu included taco salad, whole kernel corn, and vanilla cake with chocolate icing and sprinkles.

And that is the end of birthday week.... until their birthday party, which actually happens in a few weeks.  Whew!

The Story of Our Summer, Part 2

I would like to say my absence of posts is due to ALL the fun, exciting things we are doing this summer.  While we have done some fun, exciting things, for the most part we have been extremely lazy.  And it has been wonderful.  The girls have spent 90% of this summer reading, watching TV, or being at the pool.  Not having the rush of the school year has been a great thing for our family.  Since The Story of our Summer, Part One, this is what we've been up to:

These two cuties (Sam and Joe) came to stay one day.  The girls had SO much fun and are begging for a baby brother.  (Not gonna happen, chicks!)

Gra-Gra, Pops, and Mallory went to Niceragua for a week on a mission trip.  (Want a baby brother?  Pops said he is UPS-ing us one in a few weeks!)

We went to the movies, and to the Jump Place in the mall.

Of course there were cookies.

I had my 10 year high school reunion.  It started on Friday with a trip to the Splash Pad with these lovely ladies and kids.

And finished up at the Brick on Saturday night with everyone from the class of 2003, minus a few who couldn't make it.

And then there was birthday week, but that deserves a post all of its own.  In case you are interested, I AM catching up on Project Life (slowly) and will share that soon.  I'm also haphazardly following the half marathon training plan--I'm going to have to step that up a good bit, and quickly.