Just us...

Clara not excited about sitting in the grass:

Jack not excited about taking pictures in lieu of being fed:

Too cute:

Get the paci!
Sweet kisses:

Love, love, love:

Oh, Mom! Puhlease, can we just eat lunch!?

One more... my fav!

Married 4 years and 10.5 months,
Izzy 3.5 yrs,
Clara 22.5 months,
Jack 7 weeks

Sweet Baby Cam

Our good friends, the Fawcetts, have been living in Delaware for over a month now for the birth and care of their son, Cam, who has hypoplastic left heart syndrome. He is in the pediatric cardiac intensive care at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, which is one step more serious than the NICU. The Lord is healing Cam each day, but the Fawcetts have a long road ahead. My girls have gotten very used to praying for Cam. The other day, we were praying for our meal, and Izzy mixed up her prayers. We often pray for Justin to have wisdom at work, so Izzy knew to pray for Cam, but prayed, "Please give baby Cam wisdom." It made me smile. ;) We cannot wait to see him running some day with our little Jack, just like Maggie Fawcett and Izzy do.

One blessing that the Lord provided was for Justin to visit the Fawcetts, to get a first hand take on everything, and to give them some support from their church family. Justin said he will never forget holding that little boy. We now know how to pray for them even more!

Auntie Tess!

We had a wonderful visit with Auntie Tess! I wish my sisters could stay longer, cause they make life so much easier! The girls loved all the attention, and I loved having a few breaks from being "on call 24/7." ;)

We walked around the Matthews Farmers' Market Saturday morning, and then Tess took Izzy to get her very first real mani/pedi:
On Sunday afternoon, we had some of Justin's family over for Father's Day dinner.

Auntie loved Jack snuggles:

We spent a couple days at the pool, and Izzy had a blast swimming with Auntie Tess. I even sat on a lounge chair and read a book! That's probably the first and last time that will happen all summer, since I normally am watching the girls.
Puzzles and coloring this big poster were a big hit with the girls:

One night after Izzy's dance class while Justin was at a meeting, we went out for dinner:

Saying goodbye isn't fun for my sweet girls:

Wed nights...

Wednesday nights thru the summer, we eat dinner at church and then have classes. Izzy goes to catechism class for an hour, and we go to a wonderful class on studying the Bible taught by Dr. Bob Cara from Reformed Theological Seminary.

Henry was practicing for being a big brother this Christmas:

Although I really enjoy cooking for Justin, I love having one day off from cooking dinner. :)

Summer movies!

Regal theaters have $1 movies on Tues and Wed mornings throughout the summer.
We saw Tale of Despereaux, a book I loved reading aloud when I was teaching.

Jack slept in my sling on me for more than half the movie, and then just nursed (nice it was dark). Such a great little guy!
I told Justin I felt like the stereotypical penny pincher when all the kids were eating their theater popcorn, and I pulled out bags of cereal for the girls. ;)

Sweet little friends:

We stopped at a book store for an errand, and we saw a stuffed animal of Despereaux right after seeing the movie! (No, I didn't buy it.)
Hopefully, we'll get to Charlotte's Web in two weeks.

Growin' on up

Izzy started her first extra activity this month: DANCE!
She is in a six week summer intro class to get her used to class before the real classes start again in the Fall. It's laid back and fun, and she doesn't have to wear a leotard and dance shoes until Fall.

The first class was so funny. Whenever Izzy starts something new, she is very serious and watches everything w/o participating. She did that the first time we ever went to storytime at the library, did that the first part of seeing Barney live, etc. Eventually, she warms up to full, all out participation. Anyhow, she stands completely still watching everyone dancing all around her. I forget what she is like and start urging her to participate, which leads to a teary, overwhelmed meltdown. I was laughing so hard, cause everyone else was dancing away and my kid seemed totally unsocialized. :) I left her alone and slowly she lifted her foot, and by the end of class she was the happy little dancer! Last week, I just dropped her off and ran to the grocery store before picking her up. :)

Aunt Maggie!

My sister flew in from NYC to meet Jack and spend the weekend with us! Such a great visit.

Of course, there was plenty of "texting" and make-up with Aunt Maggie:


We made a trip to Target since things are cheaper here than in NYC:

We spent plenty of time at the pool!

The girls love bedtime stories, especially anything involving Snow White!

Snuggles with her boy:

We love when family comes to visit!

Pool time!

Our first time at the pool one Friday evening in early June was a blast! I really look forward to the opening of our swimming pools in the neighborhood all Spring. Jack is happy as can be in the water!!! The girls buzz all around. :)



And since then, I've gone on my own. I have a great system for carrying all our stuff. We go at lunch with a packed cooler, cause there's always less people at that time of day. :) Then we head home for naps!

Food, Water, and Sand

We enjoyed a morning at one of our neighborhood playgrounds with Carriel and her daughter, Georgiana. Izzy and Georgi have December birthdays 8 days apart. I always have a good time talking with Carriel! They put a new sandbox in the park that wasn't there last week!

Jack looks awfully big in this picture. Georgi, you are so sweet!

Angie and her daughter, Carissa, came to visit in early June bearing gifts. They brought hand-crocheted cupcakes for the girls' play kitchen with little "sprinkles" sewed on top (tiny beads). We are missing them this summer as they are visiting family and going to summer camps in Chicago.

Another day we met the Surratts at Blakeney during lunch time to listen to live music while the kids ran through the fountains of water that shot up from the ground. (I even walked through them with Jack. haha.) It was a fun outting for a hot day!


Another day we met Naphtali and Ella Grace for lunch at Panera. I LOVE catching up with Naph. We never, ever have enough time to talk. It takes us 100 tries to leave each other before we actually leave!

Naph is 3/4 done with her pregnancy with Baby Boy Mitten!