Time flies when your having fun

I cannot believe Claire is 7 weeks old! We have been much busier than I anticipated this summer, having little Claire hasn't slowed us down much. She is such a pleasure and I am enjoying this phase much more than I remember. God has truly answered SO many of our prayers, one of them being that Claire would transition into the family smoothly and be able to go with the flow...she's such a little sweetheart, I just want to kiss her little face off! Got her weighed today and she is 10lbs 8 1/2 oz. already...she isn't a newborn anymore, she is looking so big already :(

Anyways, just a quick post to update our last month or so. We went to a 4th of July picnic on the 3rd at some friends house from church. Claire, my mom and I left before everybody went down the street to the fireworks. Ira took the kids, Owen is still talking about the "boom, boom, fireworks". On the 4th, my dad came down and to pick up my mom from her wonderful 2 weeks of being here, and we celebrated Owen's 2nd birthday (his b-day is the 7th). He kept asking for a helicopter cake, but I couldn't quite pull that one off.

He has also graduated to the big boy bed this past week. Him and Ethan share the bunk beds
now and so far so good. It was a good note to self that kids will truly transition through different milestones when they're ready. I am trying to keep that in mind and be patient as I have to pay for a million diapers each month, wishing Owen would just put those big boy poops in the potty!!! So gross!

Ethans birthday was this past week, August 5th and he is finally 4 y.o. I say finally, because he kept asking over and over, "am I 4 yet?" The anticipation of his upcoming birthday finally just wore off and he just wanted to know if he had gotten bigger. On his birthday when I told him he was 4 now, the first thing he did was look at his feet and say "look, my feet got bigger". Now he keeps talking about when he is going to be "10, and then 11..." I guess he doesn't care about being 5, 6 and the rest of the inbetweens, haha.

That's the most recent really, I will include some pics from June too (these are in backward order too..sorry)






Brother love


Popsicle love



Pure sugar...muah!






Leah putting curlers in her hair. She can
do this better than I can, it's scary



Me and Leah playing dress up

It was the best me and Leah could do this year, haha.


Very excited about his presents!

One of four dart guns he got...this one's from Noni





Our beach set up. My sister and my two nieces were
visiting and we decided to take a drive to the Jersey shore.
It was a little crazy...6 kids, a 1mo. old, a restaurant that only takes cash (realized AFTER we
ate), a breasmilk poopy blow out (notice the carseat drying in the sun and naked baby), sand in eyes (the two 2 yr. old trouble makers above), Ethan overturned by a wave and 100 degree hotness. Yes we are crazy!

just a small portion of the sand we brought home
with us


reverting back to his baby days....


a little gift from the bureau...future investigator, look at
that face deep in thought already, haha. hard to tell
from the pic, but it's a bib.







the glassy eyed, inbetween sleep look


A little taste of life with Owen. Thank God this was
washable marker!

Fourth of July at friends house...this is little Evie, our friends
little girl.


Ira and I celebrating our 8th Anniversary, June 17th. We shared
a steak dinner by candlelight around 9pm. Note...Claire was born 4 days later.


Spider-man Ethan, he is my little fish in the pool.

Fourth of July picnic with mom and dad P. and celebrating
Owens birthday (July 7th)

Tools and tractors, some of his favorites. Helicopters
are top on the list too!