Jillian's first baby shower

I took Jillian to a baby shower for a friend of ours. Her teeth were bothering her so she spent a lot of time chewing on the bottom of my ice cold cup of water and hugging her baby doll!

We are excited for a lot of our friends having babies in October! It is going to be a fun month and Jillian will be getting lots of new playmates this fall!

Baby Crunches

Seriously.... this baby must have abs of steel! I don't know how she lays in this position for so long! She prefers to sit up, you lay her down and she is like "NO, I want to sit up, watch me try!"

Of course she can't QUITE sit up on her own yet. She can sit with her hand in front of her tripod style, but eventually gets tired and slides down. I'll have to get picturs of that soon, but my hands are usually waiting to catch her instead of holding a camera.

It's like baby yoga or pilates, or something. It just amazes me!

....and because I can't help myself!

Fingers and Toes

Playing on her gorgeous new pink afghan made by her Great Grandma Graff.

Jillian spends a lot of time playing with her feet, chewing on her fingers, and occasionally trying to chew on her toes! :-)

Transportation Museum

My friend, Bethany's husband was in Charlotte on business, so I met Bethany half way to spend the day with her and her boys. Halfway happened to be at the transportation museum! What little boy doesn't love a trip filled with trains, planes and automobiles!

This was an attempt to get a picture of the boys on the bench with the word "good" as to say "good boys" I took 5 or 6 pictures and they all turned out to be variations of this one, each boy doing their own thing, way to excited to sit still for a picture!

This was a fabric train! I had to get a picture of Drew on this train car.

Jillian enjoying her time in the stroller, watching the boys run around.

Drew flying the pretend flight simulator.

My kids standing in front of an antique firetruck display. Look at Jillian. She is staring at Drew. Drew is her favorite person and she watches his every move!

On the caboose!

We had such a great time at the transportation museum. We followed it up with lunch and a quick trip to Dan Nicholas Park to play on the playground! We had a great time with our friends!

Go Green Lions! Drew's First Soccer Game

Drew in his spiffy Green jersey getting ready for his first soccer game!

3 and 4 year olds playing soccer is HILARIOUS! They have no concept of which goal is theirs, out of bounds, or how to play defense. The kids took turns playing goalie and he would get mad when they would run passed him out of bounds instead of trying to kick the ball towards him in the goal. The kids would be so excited about kicking the ball, they forgot about the goal! They don't keep score, but I don't think anyone scored anyways.

They play 4 quarters at 6 minutes each. Drew wasn't quite sure the first half and didn't want to play very much. One time he actually got the ball and was kicking it towards his goal very slowly and no one was trying to steal it from him! He was doing so good! One quarter he played goalie and daddy stayed close to help him focus.

The game was really guided with the coaches and referee on the field trying to help the kids go the right direction, stay focused, and have fun!

Enjoying his post game gatorade!

After the game, we stopped by Burger King for a bite to eat.

Baby Cousin Cooper turns ONE!!

Happy Birthday Cooper! Wish we were there to celebrate your big day!

Here are a few pictures from when Cooper and Matt visited on the 4th of July! Can't wait to see you again soon!

Drew Cake

Lately Drew has been more likely to eat some foods if they are arranged in a special way or spell out something. Sometimes I will cut his sandwich in the shape of a letter or make a face with his dinner foods. Pancakes are one of Drew's favorite foods, so they do not need anything special to entice him to eat them, but I couldn't resist surprising him one day recently.

Drew ate the D, and I said "Drew, what happened to your Drew cake, it's a Rew cake now!" He looked at me, picked up the R, ate it and said "NO Mommy, It's an EW cake!!" After eating the 'ew' only the heart was left and he said "look mommy, it's a love cake"

Needless to say, I have made 'Drew cakes' several times in the last couple weeks. It has become a new favorite.

(and yes, he eats them without syrup..... he only gets syrup when he asks, and usually only with his grandparents! I am such a mean mommy!)

Labor Day - Go Irish!

On Labor Day, we took advantage of Chik-Fil-A's promotion. We all dressed up in Notre Dame shirts and headed got our free chicken sandwiches! Of course Jillian didn't get a sandwich, but we took the opportunity to put her in ND gear too!

First Day of Soccer Practice

On our way to the first soccer practice

At first Drew got mad because someone else was using his ball. Eventually he got over it and learned to share and use other soccer balls. Tony stayed out on the field most of the time and they both had a great time! Drew's coach did a GREAT job. She is a preschool teacher and did a lot with the kids, kept their attention and made it a lot of fun for them.

Before long Drew was out having fun and running drills with his teammates.

He did such a great job!

Look at Drew go!

Jillian was perfectly content sitting on the sidelines with me. She sat blowing drool bubbles and trying to chew on the camera.

Happy Boy after practice!

Been a little busy.....

I promise to catch up blogging soon.

It is on my forever growing to-do list.

Here are a few pictures to show you what I have been up to until then...

"Using our words"

Playing with Baby Sister

And enjoying this beautiful gummy grin!

The kids are learning to laugh and smile at each other and it is so much fun!