July's End

Maddox loves to play with her Daddy. They have such a special bond and it's so cute to watch them together. She's always asking where he is if he's not at home and loves his days off so they can play together. Even though she still usually chooses Mom over Dad, her life would be perfect if we were all together all the time.

Check out our adorable daughters . . . it's still a little weird to say that . . . daughterS.

What an adorable face!

Apparently not the best place to take a nap. I guess she was REALLY tired.

We went over to see Grady one night and he was in the bath so Jenn said "Hop in Maddox!" It made my night really easy! And this way, Maddox didn't cry when we washed her hair and poured water on her head. She's braver with Grady around.

Little bums!

A little too tight Grady!

Dad hanging out with his girls.

A little Hadlee play time in the morning. She spends kots of her days naked. It's hot and she's comfortable.

"I refuse to smile on demand for any pictures Mom. But I'm still cute!"

We started potty training a week ago and she did surprisingly really well. I wasn't sure she was ready but she caught on quick! She goes most days without any accidents. She wears a diaper of course during naptime and nighttime and that's usually when she poops. She won't do that on the potty yet nor in her undies. If I put a diaper on her to go out she usually won't even go in it then. She'll go in the public restrooms and can hold it quite a while. She's not to the point where she'll tell me she needs to go, but as long as you put her on the potty every hour to hour and a half she's fine. Next week we'll be on vacation at the beach so we'll see how she does with no normalcy. We may be starting over!
Show me your big girl undies!

We leave Saturday for Nag's Head, drive down the outer banks to Hatteras, driving and taking the ferries back to Atlantic Beach! A whole week of vacation with just our own little family! Our vacations usually involve our families somehow so this will be fun to make memories with just the 4 of us. And the day after we get back Suzy and the kids come! Busy busy!!

4th of July Weekend

We camped out in our backyard this weekend! I wasn't sure I wanted to try camping with two little ones far away and besides, we were too late to book a spot anyway. So we set up the tent out in the yard back near the woods. Hadlee settled right into this experience.To make up for the fact that Grady wouldn't take Maddox for a ride on his tricycle earlier in the day I told Maddox that Daddy would take her for a ride on the big bike when he got home. They rode for about 25 minutes around the neighborhood and she loved it! She kept saying "Faster Daddy, Faster!"

Then it was time to blow up the air mattress for the old folks. Or just blow Maddox in the face.

10 O'clock, time for bed! Hadlee slept in her basinette beside me all bundled up and Maddox slept in her sleeping bag beside Jeremy. It was cold the first two nights! In the 50s. Jeremy thought he could sleep with just a sheet but he was freezing and Jessi who's always cold when we camp cuddled up to him on the mattress. We all even wore our winter pj's with socks.

Saturday morning we went to Kernersville for the parade. Maddox waved at everyone and collected lots of candy. Anyone need some? She's still asking to go to another parade.

After coming home for naps we loaded back up and drove to Burlington for their July 4th celebration. It was at a park that has little amusement rides for really cheap, they had bounce toys, hours of good live music to dance to, and then fireworks with a little orchestra accompaniment. Maddox loved the rides, enough to ride them twice: the 100 year old carousel, the planes, the boats, the cars, and a train ride. She even went on them by herself and was not afraid! I was a little surprised by that.

And poor Hadlee just hung out in the stroller.

Getting ready to watch some fireworks.

On Sunday we went to church where they had the 4th of July musical. It was really good! Sunday night we stayed home and set off our own fireworks in the street. In NC all you can legally buy are fountains but that was enough for a 2 year old. We also threw some poppers and had sparklers which she keeps asking for. We stayed up late again watching fireworks in NY and Boston on tv. After 3 late nights Maddox was VERY tired the last night. She slept in until almost 9am in the tent.

We had a great 4th of July and loved showing Maddox all the 4th of July traditions. Maybe next year Hadlee can appreciate it too. And now that we know both kids do very well in the tent 3 nights in a row we can actually go camping sometime!

Summer Days

It's been so hot here that Jessi's even willing to get in the pool and have water poured on her. It's been 10 degrees above normal since spring until last week when it was finally in the mid 80s and felt SO much cooler. Grady and Maddox checking out baby Hadlee.

Doing what they do best, resting.

The Ultimate Runner was a couple of weekends ago and of course it was about 94*. This is a race that you do 1600m, 400m, 800m, 100m, and a 5K in one evening. It's a limited field since it's all on a track. Jeremy finished 11th which was great considering he had a two day old cold! Top 15 get awards so somewhere in there was the goal and he did it!

The best investment we could have purchased before the race was this water spraying fan. Maddox played with it for hours and it felt great on all of us. I even layed Hadlee out on the blanket and pointed the little fan at her to keep her cool.

Maddox's new thing is riding the back of the tricycle while Grady does all the work. He's been wanting her to do it for a month now and she was always afraid. Now she finally will do it, all the time, and Grady's about tired of it. He doesn't want to take her for a ride ever anymore! Then Maddox cries and cries.

Just a butterfly picture . . . Maddox wanted to chase it all over the flower garden.

My neighbor Amanda had a baby boy, Caleb, 3 weeks after Hadlee was born so here I am holding them both. We spend most of our mornings hanging out in Amanda's driveway because she's home with a 1 year old and sometimes Grady, who lives across the street, is home too. Amanda's got a garage full of toys that's always enticing to these kids. The neighbor next door to her will have a baby boy soon too, about another 3 weeks older than Caleb! We were all busy around August last year!