Pool's Open

Memorial Day weekend reached temperatures of about 90 degrees so we had perfect weather to start a season of pool going!  We are so glad that Pappy doesn't seem to mind the extra work of taking care of the pool.

Daniel loves to jump in and Abby seems to enjoy kicking her fat little legs in the water and splashing her arms.  Roxy, as always, loves to run around barking at everyone and will jump in if her family members are too far from the edge. 

The Rev. Matthew Mitchell

The kids and I accompanied my mother to watch my cousin, Matt, graduate from his doctorate program.  He is a pastor of a small Evangelical Free church in Lanse, PA and just finalized his degree.  These are some cute pictures of Daniel checking out the pond outside the hotel where they stayed in Souderton.  Daniel loved playing with Matt's kids while we ate some dinner and spent time catching up with my mom's brother and his family. It was a long day but I am very glad that we went.  Congratulations to Matt!! 

Doing Puzzles

Just a cute picture of my puzzlerific boy and his super cute daddy (on our 7th wedding anniversary).  A couple days prior we tried Mt. Fuji in Carlisle for an amazingly yummy sushi date!  Grammy and Pappy came out to the house to babysit for the first time Abby went without me for more than about two hours at a time.  All went well! I pray for many many more anniversaries with my great husband!

Daniel is Three Years Old!

Today started as any other - happy babies playing together. But then we had a birthday party!! 

Daniel took four of his friends to Monkey Joe's for a couple hours of crazy play time and then we went back to Grandma's house for more playing, lunch, and presents.  The kids all seemed to have a great time and I am pretty sure many naps were had in the afternoon!  Daniel loved his presents, he got a Cars shirt (which is good because he seems to only want to wear shirts if they have Lightening on them), a Match box car, and puzzles from his friends and some trucks, Handy Manny truck and tool set, baseball bat, drum set, and a super giant ball you can play inside of from us and the family (among other things).  I had a great time too although I am very glad for only one birthday a year!

We'll have Daniel's 3 year check up with Abby's 9 month in July but he seems to still be average height and skinny - about 31 pounds I think. He is still super healthy most of the time, seems to be exceptionally bright for his age, and loves to interact socially with other kids. His exuberance does tend to display a bit aggressively sometimes and he can be very bossy, but he is a kind sweet boy for the most part. We'll start home school preschool in the fall to see if he will be able to sit still and focus on one thing long enough to learn some new skills (although he is sure he knows everything already!)! Already he is doing up to 60 piece jigsaw puzzles, can do very simple addition and subtraction, and is starting to read small words phonetically. Next on the agenda - learning to listen and obey!!

Abigail's Baby Dedication

We were thrilled to get in the line up for West Shore's Baby Dedication on Mothers' Day this year.  Daniel's dedication at our previous church, while important to us and special in its own way, just wasn't as nicely done as we hoped.  Pastor Thorne takes dedications very seriously and does a beautiful job.  Abby looked amazingly beautiful and the dedication was lovely.  Pastor Phil mentioned the meaning of her name (Joy of the Father, Descendant of Royalty) and then gave her a blessing with that as the premise.  We are then asked to promise to raise Abby in the love of Christ and the congregation is asked to support us in this endeavor.  The service was lovely and Abby was perfectly behaved. 

Third Cousins

One of Kat's best friends from her early twenties married one of Jason's second cousins.  (At least we think this is the correct terminology - Jason's mom and Josh's dad are 1st cousins.)  Now that we live in Mt. Holly, Josh and Lindsay are our nearest family - they live just a few miles up the mountain!  We have started spending some quality time with Lindsay and the girls about once a week and I have been loving it. I had almost forgotten how much I love Lindsay and it is wonderful getting to know her beautiful family.  Daniel is having a blast playing with her middle girl and our babies are about four weeks apart and quite interested in each other too! 

Abby and Julia hanging out.

Great Pappy's Tractor

Daniel couldn't be happier that Great Pappy Marquiss has let Jason borrow his extra lawn tractor.  Jason has a little helper just about every time he mows.  Daniel takes over the steering much of the time and will just push Jason's hands off the wheel.