Visitors from the West.

I used to sort of lament the fact that my kids only have one cousin close to their age on Rick's side. (His siblings had actually all finished having kids before we even started.) But, after a wonderful visit from these Utah cousins, I've realized that the age gap doesn't really matter: cousins are just fun! And it was really nice to have all these good, older-cousin examples around, whom my kids just adored. We are so glad the Greer family came to visit!!

The boys' dream would be for cousin Wilson to move in with us! (NO we did not get a TV. We just moved our computer monitor into the family room to watch LDS General Conference. :)

We used our second annual free trip to Sea World (for being active duty military) to go with the cousins.

Tough guys on the top row for the Shamu show.

That is definitely Sadie's arm, not Carson's! They were braver than last time, but not brave enough to actually touch.

 

Everett feeding the dolphin a fish!

This Sea World trip fulfilled a birthday wish for Everett.

Carson remembered from last time that he did NOT want to ride this roller coaster, but Everett did it and was so proud!

The brave four-year-old!

You know Sam loved the carousel.

Banana snack.

(Part of) The gang ready for another show.

I just loved watching the faces of these two during the shows. So focused on everything going on!

Girlfriends.

My favorite times spent with the Greers were just hanging out at the house, eating good food, playing with the kids. Rick loved playing tennis with them in the evenings.

Bedtime is much more fun when it's not just your cranky mom trying to get everyone to sleep!

The Greers were here during some of General Conference weekend. Saturday, it was just me and the kids, and I tried to have it be a nice quiet day listening to the talks. This picture lasted about 30 seconds, and the rest of the day was a joke.

Things went much better on Sunday! It was us over here relaxing and listening to some wonderful talks...

...and then these two were over here manning their very own concession stand! (The nice sample lady at HEB gave me those little bowls for the nachos.) Ali helped them get everything set up and make little tickets for everyone. Then the magical part was that they sat quietly during the talks waiting for the songs when they would take town their "clowsed" sign and receive their customers. It was very cute.

Here come the customers.

Baby girl enjoyed attention from all the visitors, of course.

Faye and Wilson kept up a nose-stealing game.

Cousin bonding is so fun; I just wish we could do it a little more often!

Little gymnast.

I am dying to put this girl in a gymnastics class!

She gets up like this in her crib and then pushes off to jump back down inside.

She's a strong little thing, too. Someday, Faye!

some things.

Just trying to get up-to-date on organizing pictures and realized I have skipped a bunch, so this is a collection of random pictures taken in the last few weeks. (Sometimes I think, seriously, can I just hire someone to do things like organize all our pictures? File all those papers on the kitchen counter? THE LAUNDRY??) Anyway, here we go.

One day, the power was out all afternoon/evening. For some reason the grill wouldn't ignite either, so we had cold tuna and cheese on bread for dinner. The kids loved it.

And this little missy is joining us at the table these days. Isla mostly self-feeds, thanks to my sister introducing me to baby-led weaning. (Whenever I say that, Rick thinks I said "baby linguine.")

My kids love hammocks. We need to get one!

And Everett loves to swing; who cares if it's for babies!

Focusing on learning to crawl. Best done in the nude.

There she goes.

This was on her 6 month birthday.

Still no hair! 6 month details: around the 50th percentile for height and weight; taking three naps a day and finally sleeping better at night for the most part (but still waking up very early! This baby has been the least consistent nighttime sleeper of them all); can scoot across a room; eats bananas and avocado; very easygoing as far as getting her schedule messed up and missing naps; laughs the hardest when tickled under her chin; sees her dad about once a week; no signs of any teeth; just a cute, lovable baby!

If I ever want to make myself cry, I play with Isla and snuggle her before she goes to bed and tell myself that I may not get to do this very many more times. I love this baby!

Carson's school has a big carnival every year for a fundraiser. It was a beautiful day to be outside.

Spinning the wheel to win some coupons. (They were all for a free kids meal with purchase of an adult meal AND A DRINK. Those all went in the trash.)

Our first experience with cascarones. Apparently it's a Latino tradition. They take egg shells, fill them with confetti and decorate them. Then kids run around breaking them over each others' heads. Obviously they're really fun.

The guilty party.

I love catching these two playing together when Carson doesn't know I'm there.

Working on some patio furniture. If only we had more time to do these things!

Isla sucked on my arm one day.

Getting ready to do her plank exercises.

Right leg up, and hold.

Now downward dog.

A set of push ups. (She really needs to work on her form and get that bum down.)

And rest.

Reading practice during breakfast.

A new milestone: learning to use the bulb suction independently.

Flat Stanley from Virginia visiting Carson's class.

Everett likes making his own lego creations.

Oh goodness, look who learned to climb the fence.

Now they play in the neighbor's yard sometimes too!

A classmate of Carson's did this amazing Dr. Seuss birthday party. This was just a prop for photos. There were about 25 other home-made decorations/activities that were amazing. I'm sort of ok with the fact that I didn't do parties for either boy this year!

Baby linguine.

He's often finishing up a Boxcar Children book at breakfast. Also, we've decided he's having a growth spurt. (Except he thinks it's called a "growth sprout.") This particular day he's having both oatmeal and waffles for breakfast.

A dying baby opossum. Don't touch!

I'm really glad it somehow disappeared that night.

Isla with her daddy.

These days we often call her... I don't know how to spell it, but the Spanish diminutive for Isla. So, pronounced "eye-lita." I guess you could spell it "Aylita?" Anyone know? Anyway, we like this little nickname for her.

Just having a really good sleep.

So it's totally true in our family at least, that girls hold pencils correctly and write way earlier than boys.

She carries around a notebook sometimes and can write a few letters.

Everett and a friend.

We made a volcano erupt for our V pre school. The sides of the volcano totally collapsed; oh well!

I hope you didn't read all of that. This is really for documenting the kids' childhoods, and because I can't live with myself if I leave any pictures out!