Uncle Stephen Rocks!

Uncle Stephen has been living with us for the past 6 weeks and we have loved every minute.  The boys have had such fun playing chalk, reading books, playing in the back yard and being at the beach with Stephen.  We are leaving tomorrow for Atlanta so it has been a crazy couple days trying to get all packed up and getting the house clean.  Stephen offered last night to take Samuel the the beach today so I could have some quiet time to get stuff done and maybe, if I get a chance, to rest for a few moments!  Here is a picture he sent me from the beach!  I would have to say I have a pretty special son who has an uncle that loves him a lot!

Graduation from Swimming Lessons

Memaw (our swimming instructor) has really been great and has really taught Samuel a lot in the past couple weeks.  He can now stick his face under water and blow bubbles for a few seconds, can swim towards you with his head under water and even come up for breath when he needs to!  I am so proud of him, I know he has loved it and this will just make him that much happier to be in the water this summer!

Samuel's buddy Ford.  They were born on the same day and I hope they will continue to be good buddies!

The boys and their teachers.  There were 3 other kids in their class, but we have lost a few along the way!

Swimming (kind of) on His Own

Today was our graduation from swimming lessons.  Samuel did swim more than this on his own last week, so I know that if I keep working with him he'll be swimming up a storm soon!  I am proud of my little "fish"

Date Night

We decided to take advantage of the fact that we have Stephen with us for one more week.  Tonight Ryan and I left the boys at home and headed to the beach for some quiet relaxing and fireworks.  We had a great time!  Stephen, you're the best!

Enjoying a Day in the Yard

Samuel has really been interested in our garden this year!  It has really been fun talking about how our plants are growing, that the flowers will heed vegetables and being very excited seeing those red tomatoes that he can pick and eating the blackberries right off the bush!  Today we spent our afternoon outside playing with our water toys, sliding and swinging and picking some vegetables for dinner!

Friends & Daughters

My mom and I have had a website based stationery business for almost 6 years.  We have decided, through much discussion and many tears, to close down the website.  It has been a dream of ours, we have worked hard on it, but it is time to close this chapter of our life.  I know we will have many new adventures ahead of us, but it is still hard to be closing this door.

With that said, in an effort to liquidate our inventory we have reduced the prices on the site and it will be live through the end of the month.  We would love for you to check it out and see if there is anything you may want or need for gifts for others, yourself, or even getting a head start on that Christmas shopping!

Thank you to everyone who has encouraged and helped us along the way!  We couldn't have done it without you!

www.fadstationery.com

Nothing Beats a Smile

As tradition we took the boys to the beach today for Father's Day.  Stephen was kind enough to stay home until the boys woke up so Ryan and I could sit and be on the beach for a couple hours in the peace and quiet.  The boys joined us and we had a great time!  Ryan and Samuel walked on the pier, we dug holes, covered our feet, climbed the life guard stand and had lots of smiles!  I definitely think this is one of my favorite traditions!

Swimming Lessons

We started swimming lessons this week.  Samuel is LOVING them!  Everyday he wakes up he says he is ready to go swimming and needs his Pirate "baby soup" (Bathing suit) and Pirate shirt on.  He is doing a great job and I am sure that he will be swimming by the end of next week!

Samuel and "Memaw"  I honestly don't know what her real name is, she introduced herself to me and Samuel as Memaw and that is what we call her.  Well, actually, Samuel keeps calling her Nemo...trying to correct that!

Memaw and Samuel's class.  It is so obvious that he LOVES the water!

He is such a ham!

Thank You Pinterest!

We had a crazy couple of weeks where Samuel was running a 103 fever for many days off and on.  Because of that we had a pitiful little guy on our hands and thus watched WAY TOO MUCH TV!  Now that we are all better he is CONSTANTLY asking to watch a show.  Ryan and I decided to keep the TV off for the rest of the week, and it has been pretty nice!

I saw this on Pinterest and thought I'd give it a try.  I changed things a bit because I had a big roll of butcher paper, and didn't want to put packaging tape on my floor, hence the painter's tape...but it still has provided for much entertainment!

Samuel helped me decide what to draw on "Mommy's Map" (That's what he calls it!)  We have the park, church, our house and our buddies houses, the gym (we had just gotten back from the gym when we colored this!), the aquarium (Complete with fish, sharks, and of course jelly fish), Grandaddy and RuRu's house, and Pops and BeBe's house in the mountains.

Charlie joined in on the fun after his nap!

Charlie playing with the truck too

Today was the first day Samuel grabbed a toy from Charlie and said, NO That's my toy!  So we have had quite a few lessons in sharing and that the toys at our house are now OUR toys!  I am sure this is the first of MANY!

My Sleeping Babes

Neither of these are great quality (taken from Ryan's iPhone-I have yet to be impressed with that camera!) but here are my boys sleeping last night and this morning.   

Ryan and I try to go in and check on the boys at night before we go to bed.  We went first to Samuel, tucked him into his covers and gave him back his bunny that had fallen on the floor.  Next to Charlie.  We are so blessed with sweet little ones that bring us so much joy!

Samuel used to sleep like this and usually still does.  This was the first time we found Charlie with his knees tucked under and bottom up in the air!

This morning we went in to wake Samuel up because he was still asleep at 7:45 and we needed to leave by 8:30 this morning.  We found him here...what a sweet little guy!

Charlie vs Samuel

Both boys at 6 months.  Pretty similar!

Charlie

Samuel

You're 6 Months Old!

We love you "Charlie Man"!  You are so fun and always smiley.  You can sit quite well by yourself, love playing with toys, scream when no one is paying attention to you and overall are a very happy baby.  We often lay you down on one side of the room and come back moments later to find you on the other side of the room, wondering how you got there.  You're not crawling yet but you sure do like to make your way around a room!  You are such a joy and we love you so very much!