Cousins!

The kids' cousins are in town this week and we had lots of fun in the pool last night. Here's a pic of them enjoying their popsicles after wearing out Uncle Eric. (btw, popsicles are a great way to lure kids out of the pool! Thanks Christina D. for that trick!!)

A couple of cuties

It is so miserably hot in Texas right now. Probably in other places, too. So, what did I decide to do yesterday? Take my kids out into the hot, late afternoon sun and take pictures of them! To be honest, we spent exactly 20 minutes outside. I know this because I was cooking dinner at the same time and that's how much time I had on the timer for our Chicken Spaghetti. When I walked back into the house the time had less than a minute left, so I think I managed the time well :) Anyway, we've let the grass grow high in our "field" (approx. 1/2 acre of our lot that we don't use). This makes for a good backdrop for some photos and I've been dying to try it. So here are a couple from that session:

Happy Birthday Jacob!!!!!

Jacob celebrated his 1st birthday on the 22nd, while we were at the lake! He's getting to be such a big boy. We had his party at the lake house with a lot of our family. Unfortunately I didn't get many pictures, but here are a few of him with his cake and new four wheeler (courtesy of his super excited daddy!)

At a year old Jacob is standing up on his own, cruising around while holding onto furniture or hands, and loves to play with his sister. He has three teeth (one on top and two on bottom), he's 21 lbs (25%) and 30 inches(50%). Jacob is drinking out of a cup now and loves to eat...anything...and lots of it!

He is such a sweet boy and we are all having so much fun with him!

Photo fun with Karrington

Our newest niece, Karrington Kate, was born on the fourth of July.  We went to visit this past week and I got to have some fun behind the camera. Taking pictures of sleepy newborns is so much fun! Her mommy and I had a lot of fun dressing her up, posing her, and finding fun backdrops. **Thanks Lauren for letting me play and practice my skills with your sweet angel! **

Summer Pics

While we were in Galveston I took the opportunity to take some sweet pictures of the kiddos. I'm not sure what to do to make the quality better for the web and still be able to upload a file that's not huge but I'll work on that! Enjoy!

Galveston Beach House

We spent part of last week at a beach house in Galveston with some good friends.  We all had a blast! The house we rented was called "Count the Views" and truly, every direction you looked had an excellent view of either the beach, ocean, or lagoon. We were across the street from the beach, but directly in front of the crossover. So getting to the beach was super fast and easy.

There were 8 adults and 6 kids ages 3 and under so there was never a dull moment! Each of the four families had their own bedroom and bathroom. Somehow we lucked out and got the master bedroom upstairs. This worked great for us since the closet was so big that we put Jacob's pack n play in there and he had his own little "bedroom" to himself! We also had a balcony porch off of the bedroom with rocking chairs and a great view of the beach and ocean.

The beach house was a new experience for us, and one that we definitely want to do again soon! We had lots of fun playing games until all hours, building sandcastles, catching sand crabs, and swimming in the resort pool. Not to mention all the eating that took place! We can't wait to go back next summer.

In the meantime, here are some pictures of our adventure...

View of the lagoon

View of the crossover and ocean (with the Newmans walking back)

Jacob's first time at the beach (and first taste of sand!)

View of the kitchen...notice the multiple baby monitors :)

By the way, Jacob is trying to stand on his own now.

Taylor building a sandcastle

Me & the kiddos

David and Caden

Beautiful view from the main patio deck.

Eric posing for me :)

We celebrated David's birthday while we were there.

Did I mention that Mr. David is Taylor's favorite??

Ms. Photogenic :)

She really didn't want her dress to get wet!

Another day, another sandcastle...

The fortress

Sweet Jacob

Cameron in the kids rocking chair

Jacob crawling down the crossover

I'm gonna get you Mama!!

Clint, Lisa, and Cameron

Watch Out!

IMG_4845
Originally uploaded by 4alarids

Jacob is on the move!! I've been so busy keeping up with him that I haven't added new pictures in almost two months! In that time, he has learned to crawl, pull up on furniture, cruise around while holding onto furniture, legs, etc. he's grown a tooth too :)

We've been really busy lately, it seems. So, I'll be putting up some pictures soon of all the things we've been up to.