A Special Conversation

Recently, Caroline and I had a special conversation, and I want to record it for our blog book:
Caroline: Mommy, how is Jesus in Heaven in the sky and in our hearts at the same time?
Me: (thinking how in the world do you explain the Trinity and the Holy Spirit to a 3 year old) Well, after Jesus died and went to be with God in Heaven, He sent part of Himself, the Holy Spirit, to live in our hearts. That is how we can have some of Jesus in our hearts even though He lives in Heaven. Do you understand?
Caroline: Yes (yeah right :-)
Me: I'm so thankful Jesus died on the cross to save our sins. And I'm so thankful He sent the Holy Spirit to live in our hearts.
Caroline: Do you want to know what I'm thankful for? I'm thankful to God for creating the whole Earth and me and you and Daddy and Matthew. And I'm thankful God loves us. And I love God very very much.
Sweet, precious girl. How I love her so. I pray her love for God continues to grow everyday.
 

Splish Splash

We are loving bath time at our Mimi's house these days!! Matthew and Caroline enjoy playing with each other and their toys, and I love that it's a great way to kill time during the 5:00 p.m. "witching hour" before Matt gets home. Caroline's bath 'must-haves' right now are water color tablets and bath crayons. Matthew's bath 'must-haves' are his whistle and ball.

The first time Caroline wrote her name!

Snapshots of Summer

I haven't had the chance to do many "what we've been up to" posts this summer with all of the craziness that has been going on (traveling and moving mainly). So here is a recap of some of our summer in snapshots...please excuse the quality of a few pictures that were taken with my phone.

The NUMBER ONE thing we've been doing this summer is SWIMMING!!! It's pretty much all we can do since it has been 200 degrees every day:

Caroline, Will, Matthew & Ellie

Caroline swimming with her buddy, Cole:

 Matthew floatin' around:

Caroline particpated in a fun ballet camp with one of her best buddies, Lucy:

We've had a couple fun supper clubs and included the kids:

Saylor, Press, Caroline and Mae (missing from the pic...James and the babies, Matthew, Julia & Gray) I think it's so funny that our supper club has grown from 0 kids to 8 kids in only 3 1/2 years. Makes me tired just thinking about it ;-)

We have had great quality time with our sweet Nannie:

There has been lots of hand holding in the car (I never get tired of turning around and seeing this):

Running in the grass on warm summer nights:

Spending extra time with daddy since he gets off work early on Fridays during the summer (hooray):

We have celebrated some very special birthdays with family and friends:

 Riding bikes in the morning before it gets to 200 degrees:

 

Practicing writing letters (Caroline has really been into this lately):

And last but not least, this summer has been full of many playdates with all of our fantastic friends!!

Matthew & Ally:

 Caroline and Parker:

That pretty much sums up our summer (so far) in snapshots!!

Comparison Pic: 8 Months Old

I haven't done a comparison pic on here in awhile, and I thought it was time. I love comparison pics :-) Here are Caroline (left...just in case you weren't sure, ha) and Matthew (right) at 8 months old:

I can't believe how DIFFERENT they look!! When Matthew was a newborn, I thought his pictures looked very similar to Caroline's baby pictures. Now that Matthew is older, I don't think they look anything like each other. What do you think?? 

All Caught Up

I finally got caught up on the ole' blog...it only took me a week :-) In case you missed them, check out my newest posts:

8 Months Old

Red River, Part 1, 2 and 3

Big Changes

8 Months Old

Sweet Matthew is 8 MONTHS OLD!!

It has been another month full of changes for our baby boy! Matthew is doing something new almost everyday. This month, Matthew:

• Started CRAWLING!! He will take up to 3 "crawls" (what do you call that??) then fall on his stomach, push himself back up to all fours and do it again. So he hasn't really taken off yet but he is mobile and can get himself to where he wants to go most of the time.
• Pulled himself up to his knees a couple of times on the side of the bathtub and ottoman
• Learned how to push himself to a sitting position when he is up on all fours and then can get back down on his stomach from a sitting position
• Learned how to clap his hands...he is so proud of himself when he does this
• Began shaking his head "no" and sometimes does it purposefully (if he doesn't want a certain food) and sometimes does it just because it's fun and makes him laugh

 

• Started signing "all done" when he's finished eating...his version is twisting his hands all around instead of shaking them. He also imitates the sign "more" but doesn't use it purposefully yet
• Figured out how to really jump in his jumperoo and now he loves it more than ever
• Had his first pureed meats and loves them like he does the rest of his baby food
• Ate his first "table" food: very small bites of tortillas, cheese and bananas (he is NOT a fan of table food at all and either gags or spits it out...we're going to wait a couple of weeks then try again)
• Traveled to Red River, New Mexico for his first trip to the mountains
• Watched his first 4th of July parade
• Rode a ski lift
• Got his SECOND tooth (middle bottom, right next to his other one)
• Decided he hates the cold water in the pool and cries most of the time when he is in the water (either in his float or if I'm holding him)...this is quite a bummer since we tend to live at the pool these days
• Is still such a happy baby which is such a blessing given our rough start during those lovely newborn days...that's the comment we hear most about Matthew..."He's SO happy!!!"
• Continues to follow the same eating and sleeping schedule he was on at 7 months
• LOVES to laugh (especially at his sister right before bedtime...this has become quite the tradition every afternoon and/or night if Caroline is in the room when we're getting Matthew ready for bed), bang on his toys, cuddle, listen to songs, read books, play with anything he can get his sneaky little hands on, and splash/crawl around in the bath (this is scary :-)

Matthew's smile is contagious and we can't look at him without smiling or laughing most of the time. It's hard to believe Matthew is already 8 months old...as everyone always says, time is flying by and I wish it would just slow down. We are thankful for the endless joy Matthew brings into our lives everyday.

Happy 8 month birthday to our little guy!!!

Red River- Part 3

Here are some last highlights/misc pics from our trip to New Mexico to conclude the Red River posts.
Matthew's favorite morning activity...playing with a measuring cup while watching us make breakfast. He is one happy boy!!!

 Red River has a new activity...a tubing hill! They have a "bunny slope" for little kids and a big one for the "big kids". Caroline went down the bunny slope twice. I couldn't believe she did it! Once she was done, she hung out with Susan (who is not a fan of speed) while the rest of us rode the ski lift up and tubed down the mountain over and over. It was a blast! I only took pictures of Caroline because I left my camera at the bottom of the mountain while we were tubing.
My mom and Caroline tubing down the hill:

 Just starting off:

 Ready, set....

 Riding up the moving sidewalk

 View from the back porch of our cabin:

 Our back porch...a lot of time was spent out here reading and talking

 More pics of our cabin (the one we rented, not the one my grandfather built):

 We love Dwyer's Den!

 View from our front porch:

 One of Caroline's favorite activites...swinging on the front porch while playing "I Spy"

 Pretty view on a jeep ride:

 My very favorite...the beautiful Aspen!!

 My Uncle Ronnie, Trey and I went on a jeep ride one day. Popo LOVED this Willie jeep, and I'm so glad Ronnie has kept it in shape so we can still use it. I've ridden in this thing almost my entire life. I have SO many great memories of riding in this jeep with Popo looking for deer and elk in the summer evenings. We still love those nighttime animal hunts!

 I made Caroline get in the jeep for a picture...can you tell she was not happy about it? I have a feeling I'll be seeing this face quite often during the pre-teen/teen years :-)

 And we're back to being happy again:

 Caroline's other favorite activity...throwing rocks in the river and splashing/stomping in the river in her rain boots

 The cabin in the background is the one my grandfather built. I forgot to get a good picture of it.

One morning, we thought it would be fun to take the kids up the ski lift to the top of the mountain. Even though Matthew was strapped to me in the Bjorn, I was REALLY anxious the whole time. Caroline made me nervous too even though she was completely still. This was a little too adventurous for this worrying momma ;-)

Top of the ski lift:

Goodbye Red River...hope to see you next year!!!