My Faye-girl.

This little girl is officially no longer a baby. She hit 18 months last week, wears ponytails, beats up her brothers, says any word you tell her to, and swims under water for a second by herself.

At 18 months, kids start to attend a nursery class at church. Yesterday I took Faye in, expecting to stay with her for a while or leave her crying. She walked in, found a chair and climbed in to start playing with a puzzle. I hurried and left while she was happy, and she stayed that way the whole time! I heard she yelled "NO!" a lot at other kids, but that is typical. After I left and found myself alone int he hallways at church, I felt so odd... I wanted to go in the bathroom and cry! I missed my baby girl tagging along with me.

Faye has never been one to sit still for a book, but out of the blue a couple of days ago, she wanted to read books over and over again! I love snuggling my kids to read books, so I'm happy she finally has the attention span to do that with me.

But watch out if you don't comply with her demand to read you the book right away. She gets angry and will probably throw the book at you.

Faye says new words every day, and her brothers get so excited when she does. They also think it's hilarious to teach her to yell things like "poo!" She calls Carson "Kah-kee," and won't try to say Everett. (That shows her preference.) Her most frequently said words are "shoes," "book," and "drink." This girl is ALWAYS thirsty.

I have been waiting my whole life to have a little girl who will let me do fun things with her hair! Faye makes a complete mess of my bathroom vanity while I do her hair, but she's pretty cooperative.

When I'm holding Faye, (which is kind of a lot these days. I think it makes her a little clingy when she doesn't see her dad all week.) she often rubs my back until I tell her she's a sweet girl. Faye loves to climb up on the craft table and draw all over herself with markers or throw them around the room. She only stays in her high chair for about 5 minutes at a time, which drives me a little bit crazy. Faye loves to swim at the pool. I put her on the ledge and stand a couple of feet out into the water, and she will go under and swim for a second to me. Faye requires a bit more time and energy for me to take care of her than her brothers did at this age, but oh how I love her spunk and personality!

I took these pictures before church yesterday. (Fifth Sunday in a row with Rick at work and not being able to come to church with us! Sad!) I get up early and get everything ready, and somehow we are always outside with several minutes to spare, so we play for a while before heading to church.

What? Everett, usually the biggest stinker about having a picture taken, suddenly poses for the camera? Sometimes I think I will never understand this child's motives.

Carson, in the middle of telling me a story about something. Caught his little lisp on camera!

playing in the rain.

After living here for half a summer, my opinion is that San Antonio weather is really not bad at all. It has actually been hotter and more humid in my hometown in VA most days recently! A couple of weeks ago we also got several afternoons of rain in a row, which was delightful. The kids love to play in the rain!

Grandmama's visit: Chick-fil-A, the Alamo, and baking cookies.

My mom came down for  a visit to see us and San Antonio. Highlights included...

The annual "dress like a cow and get free Chick-fil-A" day. 

Carson's signature forehead lines. I think this one is due to the sun, but when he gets angry the forehead V really comes out.

Pigtails are the best!

One of Grandmama's best talents is getting Everett to eat.

We're pretty sure that if she lived with us full time, Everett's spot on the growth curve would jump dramatically.

Three little cows!

Another highlight was a Saturday morning spent in downtown San Antonio. We visited the Alamo and the Riverwalk. 

So, Faye and I have almost-matching dresses coincidentally. I would never match on purpose, but Rick got Faye dressed this morning and I had to go with it!

The Alamo was a good, quick and interesting tour. Surprisingly, the boys loved it and ask to go back there all the time. I've also heard Everett ask Carson if he wants to play Alamo and be the Mexicans attacking the Texans. 

Next stop, a boat ride on the River Walk.

Would somebody help me keep this girl on the boat?

Grandmama always keeps herself busy when visiting her daughters. Here's she helps make curtains.

Bubbles!

Just like a true Grandma, she baked cookies with the boys. I love intense conversations with Everett.

Flour hands.

We all agreed that Grandmama should have stayed a little longer. Can't believe that next time she comes, there will be a tiny baby to snuggle!

The house is coming along...

So, we have been busy making our house into a home. None of the rooms are totally finished yet, but I thought I'd document some of the progress we've made. There will be no pictures of the kitchen/family room yet, because I did an awful job painting the chair rail and haven't figured out how to fix it yet! We're also waiting for a sectional to come, so that room isn't really put together yet.

The living room is becoming one of my favorites. Here it is so far.

I fell in love with the fabric that will be made into that pillow into the middle... so my colors for the living room became blue, green, and a little bit of orange. The room still needs a coffee table (actually I found one on Craigslist after taking this picture), a rug, and I need to sew a couple of pillows and hang a couple more things on the walls.

...and figure out what to cover the piano bench in, and make or find a bookshelf to put by the piano, and raise the curtain rods up a bit. Ok, so now I feel like even this room isn't close to being done!

We call this the "learning room." It's not finished... I'd like to get a smaller shelf for the toys to get rid of some clutter. That craft table for the boys has been awesome! Any art supplies they could want are readily available, and out of the reach of little sister.

We also have the computer in this room, and I love the color we chose to paint the cabinet!

The "art wall," made out of Ikea curtain wires and clips. (This is the hallway going from the learning room to the kitchen/eating area.) That purple guy is a project Rick did when he was little!

Our table: my favorite project that we've done so far!! I knew I wanted a square table, but I figured we would make do with the current table we had for a while. Well, during my daily Craigslist scouring a couple of weeks ago, I spotted a warehouse clearance sale with a picture of this table top. The kids and I went over the next morning, and I loved it just like I knew I would! It is solid, heavy wood already finished; it just needed legs. So, handy Rick (with the next door neighbor's help) got some wood from Lowe's, stained it to match, and made some legs for me.

And then the table needed new chairs, right? Another awesome Crigslist find! (I think 75% of what we own now comes from Craigslist. Those bar stools in the background? $5 each.) These chairs are metal. They were gray with black seats, so we sanded and spray painted them and recovered the chair cushions. Oh, how I love this table and chairs!! The plan is also to make a bench so that it can seat eight (or nine with three small kid bums on the bench.)

I keep thinking of putting a striped rug under that table, but don't want to deal with the messes on it. And probably a gallery wall on the wall you see in this picture.

Lots more house pictures coming soon, although progress has slowed dramatically since Rick started working 6 days a week/14 hours a day plus a long commute! I should just learn to use a drill, right??

P.S. I would LOVE any constructive criticism, like "maybe this would look better..." kind of comments as the house comes along. I am pretty much making design decisions on my own and wish I had some other opinions!

Carson AND Everett swim!

Big day yesterday!

Carson has never been a fan of putting his face/head in the water. Both boys just finished two weeks of swim lessons, where they had fun and gained a lot of confidence in the water, but they didn't really progress a ton.

 So, Grandmama is here for a visit, and since the rain let up (yes, rain! in San Antonio!) we went to the pool yesterday afternoon. Totally out of no where, Carson started taking huge breaths of air and going under water for quite a long time. Grandmama would put a ball three or four feet in front of him and tell him to go under and swim to the ball, and he did!! A few minutes later, Everett was doing the same. I still can't believe they were so brave!

Carson rides a bike!

Last Sunday evening, Carson was dying to learn to ride his bike. Unfortunately I had a baby who wanted to be held and a kitchen to clean, so I couldn't do much for him. We put it on the list of things to do with dad on his one day off. Saturday finally came, and after spending about five minutes outside together, Carson was riding like a pro!! I can't believe he learned so fast! This shows how effective the balance bike is. Carson's been riding around on his balance bike for the last couple of months, which probably helped him learn so fast. (Thanks to cousin Ryker for the hand-me-down bike, which I'm glad fit in a suitcase!)

We're so proud of Carson!

P.S. See that road drawn in sidewalk chalk? The kids are having fun riding bikes and trikes up and down it. But let me tell you, bending over to draw that whole thing with an extra large 30-week belly was not easy! It was a labor of love, for sure.

fun on the fourth.

Rick has completed his first week of intern year! He only majorly messed something up one time, and he's getting used to introducing himself to patients as Dr. Otto. We knew this first year of General Surgery was going to involve long hours, and it seems that Trauma Surgery (his first rotation) is living up to that reputation. Rick left the house at 5:15 a.m. every day and got home at around 8:30 p.m. That means the kids literally did not see their dad, with the exception of Everett who is a bit of a night owl. 

The positive of this is that today (Saturday) seems like a major holiday around here: the one day Daddy is home! 

So, without a Dad we didn't do much to celebrate Independence Day. We went to the church for a delicious breakfast, and then that night I let the kids have a treat and watch fireworks... on YouTube. It was great: the kids enjoyed the fireworks and were in bed at 7:30.

Our church here puts on a great breakfast for the fourth! 

Making flags on graham crackers turned out to be a really great learning activity: count three rows of three blueberries, patterns with the stripes, etc.

I am not a big fan of the way my boys choose to pose for photos these days.

See?

After letting Faye sit on a bar stool a few times, she's not a big fan of her high chair anymore!

Watching the low budget fireworks.

I showed Rick this picture, and he swears Faye's hair had grown a ton since he saw her last (a week ago). It is true that she changes a ton in just a few days... every night I tell Rick the new words she said or new things she did. She is seriously seeming like a big girl now!

I did promise the boys they could stay up next year to see real fireworks!