Andy and Kelsey's Baby Shower

Henry and I traveled to MO last weekend to celebrate the upcoming arrival of my brother Andy and sister-in-law Kelsey's new baby boy.  Mindy, my mom, and I threw a family style baby shower.  There was over 50 people in attendance at my parent's home and it turned out great.  We are so excited and happy for Andy and Kelsey and pray that the rest of the pregnancy goes as well as it has so far!  I look forward to meeting my new little nephew in the next couple months!

Summer fun

 It's been a fun summer so far, full of camps, sprinklers, pools,  parks, story times, and just fun play time at home.  Here are a few random pictures of some fun times this summer.

I took the kids to their first Roswell Puppet Show...the Three Little Bears...we had so much fun!  They actually did sit pretty still, even if they didn't for the picture :-)

We've spent lots of time at parks and have discovered several new really fun ones this summer!

We went to Alive After Five last week..a monthly big block party in historic Roswell.

There we enjoyed a picnic, live music, and of course popsicles on the hot evening

We dressed up like cows on Cow Appreciation Day at Chick Fil-A for free meals

Nicholas was the only one who was brave enough to take a picture with the cow.

We've also just spent lots of quality family time at home.  Grace is really in to playing with her dolls lately.

And Nicholas continues to be really in to building....this is one of his "cities."

Henry 17 Months

The 17th month has been a big one for Henry.  The biggest change....he is walking!!!  Yeh!!  He took his first step right after he turned 16 months and has been getting more steady and going further each day since. He still much prefers to crawl, but with lots of encouragement, he can now walk across a small room.  This month he also took his first airplane ride and did great!  He cried a bit on the descent on the trip to MO because I think his ears hurt but other than that, he was angel.  In Missouri he was able to meet his newest cousin, Connor, and was pretty good about using gentle touches.

His biggest interests right now are pushing cars and trains around, playing in the toy kitchen, doing anything outside, and just trying to do whatever his brother and sister are doing.  He also really likes to "help" me unload the dishwasher and sweep the floor.  He now uses sign language regularly for "more," "please," "thank you," and "all done."  He likes to say "uh oh" a lot, any time something drops.  The new words he has learned to vocalize this month are "no" and "baby."  He likes to hold baby dolls and hug and kiss them.  He also likes to push them around in the doll stroller and says "bye" over and over as he goes.  He has started pointing to things he wants.  He has also started screaming..very loudly, both happy excited screams and upset crying screams.  The body parts he knows are his hands, feet, tongue and ears.  He can stack blocks or rings on a peg now.  He can also stack 2-3 wooden blocks together and particularly loves to knock it down!  And my favorite newest thing he is doing this month, any time we sit down to eat (even for pretend), he spontaneously puts his hands together, mutters a blessing in baby talk and then crosses his hand back and forth over his chest for his version of the sign of the cross....on his own...never taught...just imitating what he sees us do!  Henry, you make us so proud and to be your parents and we love you!!

Henry met his cousin Connor for the first time...any resemblance??

Here he is at the airport waiting patiently for his first flight.

He loves sitting in kid sized chairs

Walking!!!