cherries, a concert, and turtle OH MY!

Our neighbors have let us pick their cherry trees the past few years. 

Ari was a big help in picking...but Evangeline just wanted to eat them, or squish them, or throw them in the pond.

AJ and I got last minute tickets to a concert through his bank. I was having flashbacks to the last concert we attended 3 months ago when I was in labor. This time we were able enjoy the music instead of timing contractions every 5-8 minutes.

We had a random visitor in our yard this week. The turtle must have been on a mission with how fast he was cruising. Ari made sure to keep a safe distance.

We caught Ari sleep walking one night before we went to bed. He made his way down the stairs and after several minutes of trying to get him to talk to me he said he was going to swing.  It seems that Evangeline has been broken of her random sleep-crashing habits for a few months...so lets hope Ari isn't starting a new trend with this!

There is never a dull moment when you have kids...even if they are supposed to be sleeping.

Father's Day and such

We've stayed busy these last few weeks with (ongoing) projects around the house, having sleepovers with friends, a wedding, and spending quality time as a family.

We've been spending lots of time outside too . This summer has seemed more mild than the last few years so we have not been forced to come inside because of the heat.

We went to a strawberry festival with some friends..and when we left they were all asking where the strawberries were. I guess I should have explained that we were there to enjoy all the free activities and not necessarily there for the strawberries. :)

However we have enjoyed some strawberries from our garden and from a friends garden. The kids were eating them faster than we could pick them.

Here we attempted to get a Hillebrand picture of the kids and grand-kids for Father's Day. I count it a success when we can capture one without someone crying and all happen to be looking in the same direction.

Evangeline really enjoyed some ice on a humid day. A friend gave me a good idea to make ice cubes with popsicle sticks in them. I'm sure my kids would love that! For those of you who have never been to our house, we consider ice a luxury around here.

The kids love to picnic at the park and Father's Day was no exception.

AJ loves to spend every waking minute with the kids when he is home from work. He takes them to the park, to go fishing, play sports outside, or just for walks. He is the best dad because he makes them a priority.

Ari and Evangeline have their days when they just irritate each other. Then there are days when I find them snuggling together and giggling over something silly like chapstick.

Selah is all smiles these days. She is easily entertained and will gladly tell you she is excited by her squeals. She gives the best laughs when I tickle her.

She wants to be up all the time now. If I put her in the bouncer then she will strain her neck to sit up.

Her hair is starting to come in light just like the other two kids did. It will be interesting to see if hers is straight like Ari's or if it will have some curl like Evangeline's. 

end of May

May is always so busy, but yet so fun. In fact, it was so busy that is why this post is a few weeks late!  Selah and I visited this new little man. I've known his mommy since 4th grade and now we are having kids of our own. Time goes by so fast!

Every year we have a cookout with all my cousins. The kids play so hard that they don't have time to nap. That is unless you are Evangeline...she will always find time for that no matter where she is.

Then we had a fun time hanging with some friends.

Evangeline has no problem getting dirty when she eats. She has been walking around ever since asking for "strawberry cake".

AJ took us to Patachou on his day off and then to the zoo. I could hear bits and pieces of Evangeline talking in the back and she was saying things like "thank you", "obey", "Jesus", "Amen". When I turned around she had her hands folded and her head bowed. Melt. My. Heart.

She really gets in to singing songs and doing hand motions and always requests Veggie Tales to be playing while we are riding in the car...which is then followed by Ari saying that he is all "veggied out".

For some reason we have never visited the gardens or the butterfly exhibit at the zoo in all the times we have been there, so this time we planned to go there first so we didn't run out of time.

Ari liked to play tour guide and was escorting us around.

I don't have any clue why...but the "race a cheetah" is always a big hit. 

This time Evangeline wanted to do it...but when it was her turn she just got up there and started to cry! Thankfully we knew the people behind us and she was able to have her random meltdown without us feeling too badly for holding up the line.

Apparently we hit her breaking point at the cheetah exhibit because it didn't take long for her to fall asleep on the way home.

We love doing picnics at the park. We don't have to rush them home to get the kids fed and I don't have to cook!

3 months {selah}

Selah still continues to have such a calm, sweet spirit. She is still sleeping great at night, somewhere between 9-12 hours and is a great eater. The only adjustment we've had to make with her is that she spits up. The other two never spit up after feedings but she does it a lot. I will use that term loosely because I know it could be a lot worse, but it just seems like a lot compared to our other kids. It doesn't seem to bother her and it doesn't ever effect her eating schedule so we are good. I guess we'll have to wait and see if she grows out of it or if it's something she will just do.

AJ is the best daddy. He is so intentional with the time he has with the kids. It looks like we will have another daddy's girl.

This next picture makes me laugh. I had to set Selah down to grab her a new outfit and realized she was laying next to this doll. I had to do a double-take. The doll was mine from when I was a little girl (probably 3 or 4) and used to drag it around by its arm because it was so large compared to me and nearly impossible to carry properly. It was always referred to as "big baby" since it was an abnormally large doll. Now Evangeline has it and gets frustrated playing with it because of its size. 

Of course I had to try and get an official 3 month picture in her pretty dress, but she wasn't having it.

I think she was begging me "Please mom, enough with the pictures!" I don't blame her.

Ari and Evangeline continue to love on her. Ari loves to entertain her and will come running over just to see her smile. He pays special attention to what she is doing and takes every opportunity to stop and talk to her.

One day Evangeline dragged a chair from the other room all the way in to the kitchen. I stood back and watched carefully to see what she was up to (because she normally gets a chair if she is going to get in to something.)  :)

But then she parked it right in front of Selah and started gently bouncing her with her foot. My heart melted. She kept watch of Selah for quite a while a really enjoyed just watching her sleep. Evangeline is such a little mama. 

We can hardly remember what life was like before Selah came along. She is so special to us and brings us so much joy.