sweet

Matix was caught reading Lullaby a book. It was so sweet. I love these little moments... Makes me happy.

the kids

Here are some recent pictures of the kids. They were looking so cute before church, so I tried to get some pictures. I took about 40 pictures, and not 1 of them all looking or smiling at the same time, except sort of in the last one but the boys are nearly cropped out of the picture, I was way too close. I did get some cute ones though, that show off their personalities a little.

sand

One of the days we were at Stone Mountain, we went on the train first, can you tell she had just woken up from a nap? 

Then to the bird show. It was very impressive. These birds could do tricks I am pretty sure I can't do.

And then we spent a looooooong time at the sand box. It is huge and is filled with all the sand toys you could ever want. There are misters on one side that keep the sand damp enough for great castle building, which my kids were mostly interested in so they could stomp on them shortly after being built.  Of course.

I wasn't sure how Lullaby would like it, but she LOVED it. It was a very sensory experience and she soaked it up.  She would dig her feet into the sand and then wiggle only her toes and watch them as the sand fell away. It was fascinating to watch her discovering.

Sand pit day 2: These pics were too cute to skip.

uh-oh

Well, there's no leaving open snack containers out for the boys anymore. I have a new little mess-maker! Cute as can be though...

trial temple day

Our church has a day each month that they offer free babysitting to encourage everyone to go to the temple.  It's super hard to find the time to go to the temple when there are three little needy babes around, so we thought we should definitely take advantage and get there last month.  Well, we got there, kids in jammies (ready for the long drive home after their bedtimes), and we found out we were one week LATE. :( So sad. Luckily we ran into some of our favorite missionaries, and ended up hanging out and chatting with them for a while.  The kids had fun and everyone crashed out hard when we did finally get home. The missionaries were good company and offered to take our picture in front of the temple for us. Good memory, even if it didn't go as we planned. We'll try again this month! :)

amazing

Paul, 

     I am ever impressed with your kind-hearted self.  While driving, we saw this car pulled over on the side of the road. I thought, poor guy... but you thought, I should help. You pulled over just in time to see a very worried old man looking at his car tire, torn to shreds. We could both tell he didn't know what to do by himself. I sat in the car and watched you as you surveyed the damage, got his spare out and rolled it over to our car to air it up.  You patted him on his shoulder and comforted him and told him what you were doing as you did it.  You took time out of your day, a day off amid many more days on, to help a stranger.  When you do things like this (which is a lot), I am always humbled that I got you. You are my husband and I hope more of your amazing goodness rubs off on me and our children, because I think you are awesome.  Thank you for being the example I had always hoped for in a father for my children.

perfection

This baby is amazing. She goes to sleep easily and wakes up like this:

Happy as can be. I love you Lullaby. You are exactly what I prayed for.

park

The purple slide park can only be made better by adding Dries and Petal, according to our kids. They love hanging out with them, and I love Charla (their mom) so it's perfect. :) Don't you love it when it works out like that?

It was hot, and Lullaby was very pink-cheeked. I love it. 

Petal should be in commercials. Isn't she adorable? She is a tiny little bug too, Lullaby weighs more than her by a few pounds.

 Hawken, my ever ambitious little show off had fun climbing up and down this curvy ladder thing. I still hate how brave he is. Nothing slows him down.

picnic

On the other side of Stone Mountain is this great playground.  We went there one evening for a picnic dinner with the Rogers.  Lullaby and Allie are the cutest little friends.

Here are a few peeks at the play area. It is huge and I only got a few good pictures of it. We will for sure go back, and hopefully get better pictures of it then.  It's pretty cool.

The sand pit was a blast. Although at one point, Matix buried his car and was pretty distraught. Surprisingly, I found it.

Look at this picture closely. Did you notice that Paul and Allie are doing the exact same thing? Phasing out and letting the sand run through their fingers. It was too funny not to take a picture. :)

Lullaby showing off her new crawling skills (she finally learned just before turning 9 months old... procrastinator).

Then it was off to the river. Just down the road there is a tiny creek perfect for the kids to play around in. It was a hot day and the water was nice and cool.

Lullaby stopping of for some snuggles.