Friday

 This past Friday we spent the day in Mattawa at Drew's parents' house. We had such a great time just spending the day together. Drew worked in the morning so during Parks' nap I took Darcy and Ezra to Drew's grandparents' house to swim for a while. Then when we got home Drew and his parents had set up their big blow up pool/slide thing (I'm sure this is the technical term). The kids spent the rest of the day in and out of it.

Justin and Misty came over with baby Raylee too and it was nice to chat and hang out. Misty is so great to let me pick her brain with all my photography questions. She helped me figure out how to shoot into the sun which has been my dream! I am soo excited about it! With some pleading on my part Darcy eventually  agreed to let me take a few shots of her to practice and I really love them.

I really wish we could have days like that more often. Spending time as a family, relaxing a little here and there, the kids play outside in the water as much as they want, snuggling babies, and taking pictures. It doesn't get much better than that in my mind.

Train

 Darcy was striking different poses as she came down the slide and cracking us up. I loved this one!

 Ezra was pretty freaked out about the dog being outside with them and Drew helped ease his worries by joining the kids in the pool. I love watching him play with the kids. I'm pretty sure nothing is better in their minds.

 Looks like a fun day huh? :) The kids had had WAY too little sleep the night before, and then they spent the day in the sun, and Ezra is REALLY freaked out by the dog, and he got knocked down and pushed under in the water and it just got to be more than his little two year old self could handle. He had a really rough moment and eventually asked to go take a nap which he needed desperately.

 I seriously think Mattawa is one of the most beautiful places in the summer. Every once in a while I have to go over whether or not it could ever work for us to live there. I love country living. The fields everywhere are so beautiful and I was really loving the corn field behind Neil and Becky's house. I had Darcy come out and jump around in front of it. (I would also love to use Ezra more in pictures but that would require some willingness on his part. Maybe some day.) :)

 Some back lighting. So fun!

4th of July

I just found pictures from the 4th of July and realized I forgot to post about it.

Our Independence Day was even busier this year than it usually is. There were lots of places we needed and wanted to be and packing it all into that one day was pretty intense.

We slept in Mattawa the night before, and then had to be to the park in Mattawa a little before 8 in the morning for the flag raising and pancake breakfast. My mom directed the church choir in the Star Spangled Banner at the flag raising and she was a little low in numbers so I joined their choir. I haven't sung in a choir for a long time, and I had forgotten how much I love it!

After breakfast we hurried to the church for some volleyball. This was the thing I was looking forward to the most in the day, but sadly I was so completely exhausted from lack of sleep the night before and my performance was sub-par. I keep thinking I was a re-do on that game. Drew was all over it though!! Haha.  

After volleyball we hurried back to Drew's parents' house for lunch and to pick up the boat. We headed to the river for some wakeboarding/skiing with our friends and some of my family. The water was SOO cold there was no way I was getting in there!

I had planned on running over to my parents' neighbors' house after boating because that is where we usually go for the 4th but we were all so completely exhausted we decided to stay at Drew's parents' house and rest until we headed over to his Aunt and Uncle's at 8 for a get-together and fireworks. My kids were not loving the fireworks so we watched them from inside the house, and then hurried home to get a few hours of sleep.

 The kids were braver than most of the adults. They were determined to take a little dip, but they didn't last long.

 

 The two littlest boaters took naps to celebrate.

 

 I'm sad this picture isn't clearer. These little friends are so cute.

 

 Ezra hadn't been on the boat since last year and for some reason he was really nervous about it this year. He stayed glued to Drew almost the whole time.

 

 Ezra had way less sleep the night before than he usually gets and he fell asleep for a minute riding on Drew's lap back to shore.

 

When we were done there just happened to be a 4th of July passing by in Dessert Aire which included fire trucks that the little boys especially loved.

3 Months!

Parks is three months old today. It really seems like it was just a couple days ago that I was writing about him being two months. Babies have a way of making time fly.

Some things we want to remember about Parks at three months:

- 13.8 lbs. Which is 44th percentile according to the internet. This was just on my scale at home, but if it's right he has lost weight. I am trying not to be worried about that.

- He is almost entirely formula/bottle fed at this point. I never ended up adding in that third time nursing because it seemed like he had an upset stomach after he nursed. I really am not sure about any of it though.

- He is a pretty good sleeper. He usually goes to bed around 9 and wake up at 5 to eat and then goes back to sleep for a couple hours. One day he slept all the way through until 7:30. I am hoping we can get that going on a consistent basis soon.

- He takes a short nap or two in the morning, but then takes a 3-4 hour nap in the early afternoon with another short nap or two in the evening.

- We are starting to get lots of comments from people about his crazy eyelashes. I could really stare into his beautiful eyes for hours, especially when they are accompanied by a smile.

- He seems to really love light fixtures and nothing could be more exciting to him than a ceiling fan! He smiles us at light fixtures/fans and talks to them on and on. I love it.

- He sleeps really well in his car seat and is generally happy in the car which is new for us. I hope it lasts.

- He happily lays on the floor for quite a long time (maybe around 1/2 hour) after he eats unless he gets attacked by Ezra. He isn't really a fan of tummy time.

- For his three month birthday present he woke up sick for the first time in his life. Just a cold, but its sad to see him coughing and congested. Hopefully it passes quickly. I couldn't even get him to smile for his photo shoot and he is normally so quick to smile.

I love baby sneezes.

Those eyelashes. I have been trying all kinds of different angles to capture those babies.

This picture is really quite decieving. I spend most of the time Ezra is close to Parks playing defense. He has gotten more and more aggressive with Parks. He loves him and always wants to be close to him, but he isn't really careful at all. I am praying we can get this all figured out.