Chatty William

Here's one of the best videos we've gotten of William and the range of things he can say.  He says more and on his own, but here our little performing monkey was in rare form for the camera! :)  The "aw man" and "oh no" he came up with one day completely on his own, as well as the "I'm not!" which drives me crazy most days as it is his go-to response whenever I get on to him about doing something he shouldn't be doing.  The second time he says it is what it usually sounds like!

Last of the Summer Fun

I found a few more pictures from our summer.  Enjoy!

Watching movies

Pool fun

Our 4th of July girl

 Rachel's new favorite activity over the summer was cutting out things with scissors...and I mean ANYthing (we had random bowls filled with different colored construction paper shapes all over the house; it got pretty bad there for a while!).  Here she's doing some more constructive scissoring, cutting out pictures from my leftover coupons.

 Playing with his sister's computer game in the cozy coupe car

My dad's gift to them; getting them ready for the PGA I suppose :)

 Cantalope is one of our favorite summer treats, and it turns out a kid will eat more of it if you let them slice it themselves with a butter knife!

Teaching William

The view of this video isn't the best, but I was worried that if I moved around to see them better that it would interrupt them too much and they'd stop doing what they're doing (they tend to do that as soon as they hear the camera come on) :P 

Rachel is at her cutest here teaching her little brother the ABCs with an alphabet puzzle.  She's a great little teacher!

First Haircuts All Around

Rachel and William both got their first haircuts this summer.

William got his first, and with the help of Daddy and Mama K we got it done! If his hair were straight, I don't think I'd have done it myself. But with hair this curly, if it's a little off no one is going to know! Good thing too! He did well at first, then he got pretty fussy. So we placated him with peanut M&Ms and you'd have thought he got haircuts everyday since he's been born! :P Just had to find the right diversion I guess!

Before; as you can see it was pretty shaggy!

During

Right After

A few days later (taken while waiting for Rachel's haircut actually)

I had Rachel go to the same stylist that cuts my hair, Misty. She's Awesome! I've always loved how Rachel's hair is naturally shaped, so she cut it in a really nice shape.

Before; can you believe how long it is! And see how much lighter it is at the bottom. It's crazy to think that the light hair she's had ever since she was born!

During; she did great, following Misty's direction and never getting nervous or fussy.

After; we were all very pleased with the result. Now if I can just get her to quit hamming it up in front of the camera! :)

Better Late Than Never I Suppose!

I won't make any excuses; just been really busy with, ya know, kids and all! :P Here's pictures, and I'm hoping to get caught up in the next few days. I've been a slacker!

Summer 2011, Part 2

After watching Mary Poppins, Rachel was dying to fly a kite! So we did this several times this summer. We have two parks that are really good for this.

Rachel and I had a girls' night with lots of nail painting and hair braiding :)

My in-laws celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary this past June. I was worried how the cake would turn out but I think it turned out really well.
My sweet curly haired little monster (and I mean that in the sweetest way!)

Rachel with her Mama K on her birthday

Rachel and I (well, mostly me) made these to decorate the wall above Rachel's bed.

Enjoying the sandbox (did lots of that this summer, but had to do it early in the morning or early evening to avoid the oppressive heat we had this year)

And lastly, my favorite way to spend a super hot summer afternoon!