Family Bonding

I'll apologize in advance for the LONG and late post...We've been on-the-go and busy, busy over the last few weeks!  Two weeks ago, we packed up the family...into the helicopter...to make a trip to visit Mimi and Grandpa...and lots of cousins, aunts, and uncles, too...in Georgia.  It worked out conveniently that Daddy had to take the helicopter for some maintenance work in the vicinity, so we were able to turn a 4 hour trip into an hour and a half flight!  I have to admit, I was a little bit nervous how the girls would do...it's a bit loud, but the ride was smooth, the girls adjusted quickly to the noise, and, by the end of the trip, were sound asleep!  It was so much fun landing the helicopter right in front of Uncle Smitty and Aunt Patty's house, and right in Mimi's neighborhood!!  It caused quite a stir with the neighbors too...I think some of them still think we must be some b-list celebrities that they can't find on Google, because Gary, as usual, was very scarce with the details when they asked questions!  :)

We spent the first few days in Georgia mostly working and tag-teaming with the girls, since Daddy had to take care of a few things, and Mommy was missing out on what should have been a busy week at work!  It was nice having a few extra hands around, since Mimi, Sabrina, Clayton, and Haley were there to help (when they weren't working too!)!  On Tuesday, we made a quick dinner trip to Chili's to meet Uncle Nathan, Aunt Lauren, and cousin Emmy Cate.  The girls had a great time watching their cousin, and, as hectic as dinner has now become with 3 little ones, it was great to catch up! 

Grandpa came back home EARLY Wednesday morning, and later that day the crowds piled in...Uncle Jason, Aunt Jen, Uncle Jared, Aunt Tonia, Aunt Melissa, and cousins Reganne, Riley, and Connor came to town!  We also had a few visits from Uncle Ryan and Aunt Sheryl, so it's not an understatement to say that we had a FULL house!  The girls had a BLAST hanging out with their grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins, and they learned a lot watching the big kids play.  It was fun watching them all interact, and everyone did a great job of sharing toys and helping the babies play along too!  Ironically, even amidst all of the excitement, one of their favorite activities for the week can be seen here!  :) 

On Thursday, everyone who wasn't working went for a boatride to get lunch. Unfortunately, I had to stay home and work, but I hear that it was a hit! The marina had it's own mini-"splashpad", and from what I was told, the girls LOVED it! (Gary took a few pics from his phone, but I've maxed out my space on photobucket, and if I keep messing around, I'll NEVER get this post done!)

The big news of the week was that Macy took her FIRST STEPS!!  She has been so deligent working to get and keep her balance, and finally perfected her stance on Tuesday.  By Tuesday evening, she was ready to move.  She started with 3 steps, and was stuck at that for about a day, but now she's toddling all over!    Up until her "competition" got started, Makayla hadn't put a lot of effort into anything besides crawling and climbing (yes, she could climb into Haley's slide pretty much on her own!), but after seeing her sister for a few days, she started spending a lot of time practicing her balance too...and, Finally, this week, she started making her move as well!  She's still unsure of herself, but making lots of progress, and Macy is quickly going pro!

We left to come home on Friday, and it turns out, Aunt Lauren and Emmy Cate were able to hitch a ride back with us.  Emmy Cate really hates being in the car, so Nathan drove early with ALL of our stuff, since we had the helicopter packed to the gills on the way down, so then we had room for our passengers.  I sat in the back with the three little ones, expecting quite an adventure.  Turns out, Emmy Cate passed out almost immediately!  Our girls decided to fight it for a while, but by the time we landed, we had 3 sleeping beauties!

Fortunately, Nathan, Lauren, and EC were able to hang out with us for the weekend, and it was nice to see them, since we don't get to see them nearly enough.  Saturday was Aunt Lauren's birthday, and our plan was to hang out at the pool...unfortuantely, that thwarted by a MASSIVE thunderstorm, so we sat around watching it rain and trying to entertain the munchkins.  Fortunately, that's a lot easier when there are 6 adults to share the load!  Grandma and Papaw were in heaven!!  On Sunday, as usual, Gary headed out of town, while the girls and I made their debut at a Childers Family reunion.  It was a pretty busy afternoon, since we spent most of our time there eating (i.e. feeding the girls and trying to stuff a few bites in myself) and then it was over.  I didn't even get by the dessert table!  :)  Needless to say, I didn't really get any pictures.  We did do our best to get a few shots of the 3 girls prior to leaving for the reunion.  We all look forward to the day when it's possible to get all 3 of them to look at us and smile at the same time!  Maybe not making them face the sun will help!?  (I guess that's why there's so much squinting!)

Last week, Gary and I made a quick overnighter to check on "Little Loose" (Greg's boat) in Charleston, and it was a fun but QUICK getaway.  Thankfully, Grandma saved the day, as usual, by watching the girls after daycare and overnight. We were happy to be home to spend a full weekend together...except for those painful few moments when we had to keep our eye on that Davies kid (our neighbor)...he was getting a little too comfortable hugging on our little girl(s) on Friday night!  :)  It was so cute!!

So that's our last couple of weeks in a nutshell...I'll try to post more frequently so I don't have to write a book!!

God Bless America...

...Land that I Love! Where else could we...

...Climb to the top of our highest mountains...at least for us, personally...

...Enjoy the fruit of [someone else's] labor...(Macy and Makayla like to play with Papaya a lot more than they like to eat it!)

...Celebrate our love for our very best animal friends...

...celebrate our patriotism while taking a dip in the pool...

...Have a true redneck day, enjoying an all-American snack in our driveway...

...Eat until we just can't hold our head off the table...

...Cook up scrumptious meals with Mom...

...PLAY, PLAY, PLAY!

 ...And have such an AWESOME 4th of July, complete with swimming pools, boats, burgers, and fireworks...unfortunately, besides the random shots above, we don't really have any pictures to show for it. :( Busy babies mean all hands on deck for mom and dad...not a hand to spare for pictures...very unfortunately...our weekend was filled with days on the lake, dips in the pool, and good times with good friends. On Friday night, we started the weekend off, as many weekends, hanging out in a neighbor's driveway. On Saturday, we made a stop at the Crown Harbor celebration at the pool, then headed off in the boat to Mr Jim's house to say quick goodbyes to "Uncle Jimmy" who left for Afghanistan on Monday...we're sad to see him leave, but as with his many trips in the past, we're excited for his return and proud of his dedication to our country! After that, we rushed back home for Gary to head to Daytona and back...unfortunately, "back" didn't come until 4am!! On Sunday, me and the girls headed to church to celebrate God and our great country, then we met Gary for lunch before heading back out onto the water! We made a quick appearance at Mr Greg's boat party, then headed back to the neighborhood cookout. The girls were ZONKED!! We shoved down some dinner, then took the girls to Mr Chad and Mrs Tracy's house, praying that they would catch a few zzz's so we could enjoy the fireworks! Fortunately, that worked perfectly!! The girls got their rest, then we all headed home after the show! It was such a good weekend, but by Monday, we were all EXHAUSTED!! Thankfully, we were able to relax at home for one more day...as much as you can relax with these 2 busy bodies in the house!!

Life has definitely changed dramatically for us since July 4th celebrations of the past, but we've always LOVED the holiday, and still do, managing to spend as much time as possible busy on the water.  Luckily, our girls are pretty good troopers!  They like the action as much as anybody, and although it can make for pretty tiring days for all 4 of us, it's so worth it to have the whole family along for the ride!  What a wonderful life we share...and it's hard to believe we're officially ELEVEN months in!  Only one more month until the big FIRST BIRTHDAY!!!

Where did June Go???

Since my last post...first and most important, HAPPY BELATED FATHER'S DAY to all of those wonderful Father's in our lives.  We Love You all, and please forgive me for being so late and slack with my acknowledgement!  There are still cards and gifts on our counter, so I'm ashamed to say, it's not just the blog that's a little behind this year!  :(

Besides that, Gary and I made our yearly trip to beautiful wine country, Napa, CA...I'll start by saying, unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of the weekend, but the girls were under excellent care, led by their wonderful Aunt Miss.  As do all kids, the girls took up with their aunt right away, and are looking forward to their next visit with her in a couple of weeks!  They also got to spend some significant quality time with Mimi, who came up to offer re-enforcements, and they spent a little bit of time on both ends of the trip with Grandma and Papaw as well.  I'm fully confident that they were pampered with excellent care and we came home to SEVERAL new toys from a few shopping adventures with Mimi!  (The "caging" was actually after we came home, but I thought it was a funny place to link the pic! :) Thanks SO MUCH to all of you for taking care of our little ones so that we could relax and enjoy our trip...unfortunately, the trip wasn't nearly as enjoyable as it could have been.  Gary and I spent most of our time in California sick with a nasty stomach virus.  We visited some FANTASTIC wineries...unfortunately, we both had to sit by as spectators while our friends Todd and Leigh enjoyed the wonderul wine selections that were offered for tasting.  The GOOD side of the story was, at least we got to REST and didn't have to worry about passing this nasty sickness onto the girls.  The BAD side is...well, I don't even have to go there.  We're very fortunate to know that there will be other trips, so I've tried not to be too upset, but it was definitely a disappointment!  Fortunately, the virus had cleared out by the time we left Napa, so that was a good thing as well!

On Sunday of that weekend, Leigh and I made the LONG trip home from San Francisco, and I was very happy to see my babies on Monday morning.  Gary and Todd headed on to Alaska for a week of fishing in the arctic.  I think they had a pretty good time, but it was a LONG trip, and we were all ecstatic to have Daddy home!  We had a little bit of Father's Day celebration last Friday, and his gifts from his babies were hand painted picture frames and pictures of the girls.  We didn't go all out this round, since the big 1 year mark is on it's way, but we did get a quick shot in time of our active little babies!  I'll post a few of those soon, but here are a few more snapshots!

The past week has been pretty standard, and we're all enjoying a day at home together today.  We have several 4th of July celebrations to attend this weekend, and we're looking forward to spending time with friends!

The girls are busy busy busy little bees, and they are walking all over the place with the assistance of their stroller, mommy or daddy's hands, or any given piece of furniture!  They get stronger and more steady every day, so the race is on to see who will take their first step and when!  They also LOVE to climb, especially Makayla, and find so much pleasure in climbing up and down into their bouncy seats over and over.  It's dangerous, but amazingly preoccupying!  Macy continues to prove that a dog is a GIRL'S best friend, and continues to obsess over her pup. 

Meal time is still "iffy" around here, and sometimes it can be delightful, sometimes not so much!  The girls are starting to enjoy each other's company more and more, so that's a plus...I worry, on their fussy days, that they're already starting to conspire against me!  :)  They've decided that they LOVE pasta, and last night we got some cute shots of their DIRTY faces as they finished up their dinner.  They were tired little babies, and, unfortunately, tired = food everywhere!