One Day, Two Lakes

We are pooped but happy! What a fun day it has been. We spent the morning with our friends out on Eagle Mountain Lake. Nicholas had a BLAST and can't stop talking about it!

Nicholas got to ride on a jet ski for the first time ever. They went really fast and really far out into the lake (Mommy was a little worried). But Nicholas loved it and had so much fun. He even got to steer it!



Then they hooked up this inflatable and the boys got towed around the lake by the jet ski. What fun!





I was worried about how Rachel would do out in the sun for so long but she did great. She enjoyed playing with a shell and terrorizing a ladybug.





Thank you Mrs. Heather for convincing me to take the jet ski out for a ride and for watching Rachel for me. I haven't driven a jet ski in years and it was such a rush!



Nicholas had such a great time that he didn't want to leave. No, really. He wouldn't leave. I had to call his name many, many times in my "You-are-about-to-get-in-trouble" Mommy voice but he finally got out of the water. That little fish!



We stopped at Sonic on the way home and got slushes. We all got cleaned up and took long naps. Then we were up again and headed out to Grapevine Lake with the Mundts and their three girls for a ride on their boat, Pepperspray.





We brought along some Quizno's subs and had dinner on the boat. What a nice way to have dinner - at sunset on the lake with friends. Nicholas brought his camera and took tons of pictures.











After dinner, we broke out some water guns and squirted each other to cool off.









Even Rachel had a good time feeling the water splash and the wind on her face.










It's was a wonderfully fun day - made great by spending it with dear friends.

A Little Photo Walk for the Little Guy

We went out this morning to run some errands and Nicholas brought his camera with him. I asked him what he wanted to take a picture of. He said, "I don't know. Let's just go find a place to take pictures." I couldn't help but smile because I knew he was wanting to have his own little photo walk like Stuart and I had just done.

We ran our errands and I found a little pasture with some horses in it. Nicholas was very excited to have such a cool subject to photograph. He said, "Let's go home and put these pictures on the blog!" So here are a few of Nicholas' pictures from his impromptu photo walk.








He took this picuture below and said, "Yes! I got a picture of the horse's butt!"



More pictures taken today...









I'm so exctied that he enjoys taking pictures as much as he does. He has learned quite a few things just by overhearing Stuart and I talk about photography. He has a great little camera made by Fisher Price. It's easy to use and it's drop-proof! However, Nicholas has decided that he needs a camera that zooms and he needs a tripod. So cute!

Crawl-A-Rama

We had a little crawl-a-rama in our house today. Nicholas decided that he wanted to crawl around with Rachel. They were so cute together. They crawled side-by-side through the living room and the kitchen. They chased each other around the kitchen island. I love watching them play together like this!

I tried to get video of it but had to keep stopping because the phone rang, mailman rang the door bell, Rachel found a piece of cereal (aka choking hazard) on the floor, someone banged their head and needed a kiss, etc. So of course I don't have the best video of our first crawl-a-rama but I know the grandparents don't care how choppy it is.

A Few Of His Favorite Things

Nicholas has loved his Rescue Hero toys for several years now. Rescue Heroes are big guys that are firefighters, scuba divers, pilots, etc. that can swoop in and rescue people. Nicholas has a bunch of these guys and a few of their vehicles. Most of them were gently loved before he ever got them. Some came from freecycle but most came from various children's consignment stores. He plays with them all the time and carries them with him for rides in the car and even takes them into the grocery store with us. He asked Stuart to take some pictures of two of his Rescue Heroes for him.







At some point, the makers of Rescue Heroes decided that they hadn't completely tapped the market and they branched off to create Planet Heroes. Of course, he had to get those too. This picture was taken a while back but here he built a hanger for his Planet Hero ships out of his beloved Tinker Toys.





Rescue Heroes, Planet Heroes, Tinker Toys, and also Legos...just a few of his favorite things. He plays with at least one of these toys every single day.

Rachel is 9 months old!

I'm so excited for my little girl. She is growing up so beautifully. She's happy and healthy and she brings such joy to our lives..and a little more exhaustion too.

Rachel is able to hold herself up in a standing position for quite a while. However, she isn't crusing around on furniture yet. She will scoot her hands along whatever she is holding on to but she forgets to move her feet with her so she just falls. Poor baby! She is trying to pull herself up into a standing position but just isn't strong enough yet.

Rachel eats mostly baby food but she loves to try to eat mushy table food. She has a good pincer grip and is able to pick up small pieces of food but somehow they often slip away between the finger to mouth transfer and most of them end up in the seat of her high chair. We're working on getting her to take a sippy cup but it's going about as well as it did when we tried to get her to take a bottle. She just chews on the spout and doesn't seem to be able to figure out how to get the liquid out.

Rachel loves to grab things and shake them, especially long things like a strip of ribbon or even a particular speaker wire that she has discovered in the living room. She can fly across the room on her belly but still not crawling. Speaking of flying across the room, Rachel will play well by herself for quite a while but when she's ready for a break she quickly will belly crawl her way right over to me and pull on my clothes as she tries to climb into my lap. The other day I had her playing in the living room while I was in the kitchen washing dishes. I had not watched her for a minute or so and next thing I know she has crawled all the way into the kitchen to find me so I could pick her up.

Her hair has grown a lot but it is still baby fine and wispy. I brush it several times a day and within five minutes the curls are back and going in all different directions. I try putting headbands and barrettes in her hair to contain the crazy hair but Rachel just pulls them out.

Rachel loves swimming and playing in the grass (although she tries to eat any grass, leaves, or sticks that she can find). She loves her naps and is a very good sleeper.

And we all love and cherish her very much.