Video and Picture Update

Here are some videos and pictures from the last week or so.

Daniel and Leslie playing together:

Leslie loves her solid foods.  She is especially fond of finger foods.  We went out to eat a couple nights ago and I took a quick video of Leslie shoving pieces of food in her mouth:

We went to a birthday party last weekend.  There were lots of water toys set up outside.  Daniel had a blast and I snapped a couple of quick pictures of the fun.

A Leslie mirror picture for Grandma:

And, we had some visitors in our backyard this weekend!

Happy Father's Day!

We had a low-key, productive, fun Father's Day at our house.  We missed being with our dads and grandfathers, but we celebrated Bobby, who is the most amazing dad.  I can brag about him on here because it's our family blog.  ;)

I knew waaaaay back in the day when I fell for Bobby that he would be an amazing husband.  Never once has he disappointed me.  I also knew he would be an amazing father.  He's awesome.  He helps without being asked, disciplines with a gentle heart, can make our babies laugh when they're in a foul mood, can make me laugh when I'm in a foul mood (what?... that never happens!).  But more than anything, he's a family man.  He is dedicated and devoted, always puts our needs above all else.  I am lucky to know him, but even luckier to call him my children's father.  

Thanks, Bobby, for being my BFF and baby daddy!  We all love and adore you!

Picture and Video Updates

Not much in the way of "news" around our house, but we did snap some cute pictures and videos recently.  Enjoy!

Leslie loves bath time!

Yummy blueberry waffles

Trying not to smile  :)

Look at my two teeth!

I got him to smile... it wasn't that hard.  ;)

Daniel enjoyed our first cherry tomato of the season!

8-Months and a Wedding

Leslie turned 8-months old this weekend.  She continues to be a wonderful, happy, fun little girl who makes us laugh all the time.  She now waves, claps, and will sometimes do "so big!"  I don't think she quite gets why she is doing those things, but she does love to wave at people even if she doesn't know why.  I tried to take a video of her doing "so big!" the other day, but every time I asked "How big is Leslie?", Daniel was in the background yelling "Her's not big at all!" Then at the end of the video, she fell over and started screaming.

Now that I think about it, that's pretty much a metaphor for our life right now.  :-)

She continues to do well with eating.  Oddly enough, she really doesn't like sweet stuff (i.e. fruits) but she loves her vegetables.  Carrots and spinach are her favorites so far.  We've started adding finger foods.  She enthusiastically shoves the pieces of food (and anything, really) directly into her mouth and eats them well.

She sits by herself without trouble and will roll across a room in a matter of seconds.  She seems to be getting so close to crawling but still isn't quite there yet.  She also continues to laugh at pretty much everything her big brother does.  She can be in the middle of a full-on meltdown and he can walk up and yell in her face and she'll start laughing.  It's...weird, but really cute.

We're still struggling with sleep a bit but have made some changes recently that we are hoping leads towards consistently sleeping through the night.  She usually only wakes up once, but we're hoping to eliminate that soon.  Speaking of sleeping, here are a couple of cute sleeping pictures of our beautiful baby girl:

Also, this past weekend, Papa and Nani got married.  We were thrilled to be there to celebrate with them.  Daniel and Leslie did great at the wedding - we were very proud to show them off to family and friends, many of whom we hadn't seen for years.  It was a fun time and we couldn't be happier for the two of them.  Congratulations Papa and Nani, we love you!

And here's a few other pictures from the weekend:

Aunt Carrie Visits & Swimming

Last week Aunt Carrie visited!  While we didn't do anything overly exciting, it is always so wonderful to have her help during the week.  Daniel adores all the time they spent playing together, and Leslie enjoyed having someone besides Mommy hold and cuddle her during the day.  :)  Thank you for all your help, Aunt Carrie!

We are starting to transition Leslie to pieces of food instead of purées.  She's taking to it well!

Over the weekend, while not running back and forth to Lowes for a new ceiling fan, we enjoyed some fun at our neighborhood pool.  Even though we've lived in our neighborhood for two+ years, this is the first time we made it to the pool.  It was a great success!  We were there for about an hour and during that time, we played with the small splash fountains, swam, and even got Daniel to go down the water slide... once.  Unfortunately, as Bobby took him down the slide, they both went under the water.  Daniel decided he didn't like the water going in his nose or eyes, so he's not interested in trying that again anytime soon.

We didn't snap any pictures at the pool, but we did get a cute one before leaving the house:

Part of the neighborhood pool with slide

Just like Mommy

To self soothe, Leslie sucks her thumb, usually just when she's sleepy.  It's cute, and we've mentioned it before, but we started to notice something new with the thumb sucking... she loves to touch her hair when she sucks her thumb.  As a baby and young child, evidently this is one of the things I was famous for as well.  I would suck my thumb and twirl my hair, but I especially liked to twirl other people's hair.  Evidently this trait is hereditary.  :)

Here's a short video of Leslie self soothing:

And here's a picture of me sucking my thumb and twirling someone else's hair (I think she was a girl my mom used to babysit):

Hilliard's Visit

Our great friends from Des Moines, the Hilliard's, joined us this past weekend for some fun.  The last few years, we have been lucky enough to have them take a few days and drive down to spend some time around Memorial Day weekend with us.  This year was no exception!  The biggest bummer though was that Latsamy couldn't join us.  She was sick with a really bad cold/cough, so she rested at home while Mark and the girls (Elizabeth and Catherine) joined us.

They arrived Thursday afternoon, and immediately Daniel loved playing and running around with the girls, especially Elizabeth.  Elizabeth even told me, "Daniel is a lot more fun this year."  ;)  We ate dinner, played some more, and then it was off to bed for a full day of excitement on Friday.

On Friday, we visited Paradise Park, one of Daniel's favorite places, and I imagine after this visit, the girls a favorite of the girls as well:

Face painting

They made frogs out of Oreos, the highlight of the day

On Saturday, Bobby was able to join us - yay!  We headed off to the zoo.  It was a little chilly, but that's my favorite kind of weather.  

A rare moment where Leslie was asleep

Bobby caught Daniel touching/playing with Leslie's hair - so cute!

Daniel wanted to ride the Sky Safari for the first time!  This is pretty big considering he's usually very timid about trying new things.  He loved it!  He kept calling it the "Solar System" ride.

Mark and his beautiful girls

Saturday evening we went out to dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, and then headed home for the typical evening routine.  

Sunday morning arrived and we spent a few hours together.  Then it was time for them to head home.  But not without a few pictures of our kiddos: 

Thanks for visiting Hilliard Family!  We missed Latsamy, but know we'll see you all again soon!