July in a Nutshell

July.

It's over.

Anyone else think this is NUTS?

Since it's been a loooong time since I posted, I thought I'd shower you with a plethora of photos! Some are fuzzy, so be warned!

To start off, here's a cute photo of Anna (this is really out of focus, but you can kind of see her smile here--something that she's only just begun to show off!)

I can't believe she's two months old already! She's getting pretty good at holding her head up, and she loves to sleep. I am so grateful for that! She's my first child that can be put in bed awake, and will fall asleep. She actually gets kind of ornery when she wants to go to bed--as in, she's sitting there trying to say "Mommy! Just put me to bed already!" It's fabulous.

This photo was from a long time ago...like, when Anna was two weeks old, but it's cute :-)

A much more recent photo, this was taken of Anna just two days ago. Note the hair sticking up on her head. We gave her a bath, and when her hair dried, it was stuck like that. No amount of brushing or patting her head will get it to go down. I have a feeling she may have "troll hair" (remember those dolls from the 90s?)

Is it just me, or is she adorable?

Just to show that I do remember that I have other kids, here's a whole section dedicated to them! At the beginning of the month Nanna, Papa, the kids and I all went to the Lexington Balloon Rally, which is held around the 4th of July. We had fun walking around and seeing the booths, and eating kettle korn and having pizza by the slice. Nanna and Papa gave the boys adorable three-cornered hats, and they loved wearing them around town!

The obligatory group photo. Don't they look festive?

Tommy is getting so big! He's gotten much better at using pronouns, and loves to sing songs to his little sister. Whenever we have the family hold hands for walking across parking lots, etc., he immediately breaks into "Weeeee're off to see the Wizard! The wonderful Wizard of Oz!" He doesn't know all the words, but he sings with gusto.

When Logan and I first got married he showed me his photo albums from his youth, and one of my comments was, "Boy, there sure are a lot of photos of you sleeping!"

Now that I'm a mom, I understand why. It's very cute/amusing to see kids asleep in funny places. Case in point:

When Jack has a meltdown, he sometimes settles into a type of cry where you just know he's going to fall asleep. This happened one day while he was sitting at the table, and he fell asleep--still sitting at the table. You can't see it here, but a lot of drool was involved. (And yes, I was a nice mom and put him in his bed, but I had to take a picture first!)

This is actually an older photo, but Anna just happened to be wearing the same outfit as the more recent photo up top. I think she was about a month old here. She has filled out a lot, and has a very expressive face! She loves to mimic mouth motions, and always looks like she's trying to tell you something. So cute :-)

The next stop on our July trip is the Rockbridge County Fair! The boys, Anna and I went with Nanna and Papa on the first night it was open, and we were sure glad we did! The next three days had weather close to 100 degrees, with heat advisories and warnings to keep your pets inside. It was probably between the mid-seventies and eighties while we were there, and it was plenty hot for us!

There was a stage coach at the fair as an advertisement for Wells Fargo, and they were kind enough to let our kids ride in it.

The Three Amigos.

Jack loved these puppets. Sadly, he did not get to keep them, but they were fun while they lasted :-)

There was no camel at the fair this year, but the boys did get to ride ponies! This pose that Tommy is doing is becoming fairly common. For some reason he thinks he needs to have a claw in photos--not sure if he's a dinosaur or monster, but it's one of the two.

Jack and Nanna with their pony.

We knew that Tommy would want to ride the rides at the fair, since he did it last year, but we were worried that Jack was too small (i.e., short) for most of them. Jack has a history of melting down when he can't do what Tommy does, and I was pretty nervous about that. Papa ingeniously solved the problem by taking Jack down to the animal barns before we got to the rides, so he didn't even know what he was missing!

Two handsome Johns.

Tommy had a great time on the rides! He talked about them for quite a while afterwards.

Tommy's favorite "ride" was the big slide, which he remembered from last year. After Tommy had already gone down twice (with Mommy) Jack and Papa joined us, and they let me take Jack up there for a ride. What a rush!

So, there you have it! July in a nutshell. Oh, and we did a lot of house hunting, too, but we don't have pictures of that.

And now, for the final event, I present a video of Anna "talking"! I wanted a record of her adorable coos, and here you have it :-)

Here's to a fantastic August!