Playing Catch Up

I'm seeing how much I can resize and post while someone we know and love catnaps.

We've stayed fairly busy recently with Zack starting a new job within his current company and taking a week long trip to Holden Beach. I have a lot of beach photos to sort through, so unfortunately you'll have to wait on those. But until I get time to sift through and narrow them down, here are some pictures of my family for your enjoyment!

The Justice's gave us some CUTE tie dye outfits for our kiddos before the 4th of July. Here's Mara sporting hers before she left for school one morning. She likes to put goldfish in her front chest pocket and munch on them. Let's hope that doesn't turn into her squirreling away food in her clothing pockets as she gets older and I wonder how a fist full of macaroni ended up in the washing machine...

 We make sure that teeth are brushed before heading out!

 I wanted to show you the stages of picture taking. Sometimes it takes a series of shots to actually get a decent SMILE. We have to go through the "cheeeeeese" progression and then facial relaxation. Case and point. Mara, Mommy wants to take your picture.

"CHEEESE"

 

 Ahhhh, much nicer. Not looking like she's about to bite your head off, right?

 A rare shot of me and my kiddos, courtesy of Daddy.

 This really highlights those with hair and those without. And those with tamed tresses and those without. Ah, bother.

I try to snap some pictures of my kids when I think about it... even if it's right after diaper changes. Believe it or not, this is NOT using the fisheye lens... Little chipmunk cheeks. HEHE. He still looks surprised that I have that black box attached to my face. Better get used to it, Isaac.

 And here's the size difference between my two loves. Crazy to think that one on the left used to be smaller than that one on the right, and they both were INSIDE of me at one point! (Thankfully, not at the same time). Seeing Isaac grow and wiggle and do things really emphasizes how much Mara has grown and what a little person and lady she's turning into. She's losing her toddler baby-fat look and I get glimpses of what she may look like in 3 or 5 or 10 years. It's scary and makes me tear up when I catch those glimpses. I find consolation in Mara-Mommy hugs and kisses and the occasional small tantrum reminder that she IS only 2 and a half. Whew!

 These two make me smile on an hourly basis. They make my heart SING!

 Isaac with his cute giggles and smiles and "oooooooo"'s, which I translate to "Thanks for wiping my butt crack, Mom." or "Thanks for shoving your boob in my face again, Mom." (or more tactfully, thanks for taking care of me and feeding me, Mom. I love you.") Who knows what babies are thinking, but it's fun to imagine.

 Mara, all you gotta do is ask her. Or sometimes, not even that. She is such a great talker and enjoys making her opinion known or talking about what she sees or thinks or connects with. I think we were talking about ponytails and about how it's mostly girls that have ponytails, and she commented the difference between boys and girls (again) that boys have penises. Yes, honey, girls mostly wear ponytails and boys have penises. We'll talk about more complex differences between boys and girls as you get older and wonder what the heck is going on in the male mind. (I still wonder this).

 Still, her view of the world is so pure and inquisitive. We must answer a hundred "Why"'s a day, but when you hear her speech and sentence formation and vocabulary, it's totally worth it! Yesterday, I heard her say in these exact words, "Dad, you're blocking the TV."

Her brother, on the other hand, gives me a series of grunts and burps and farts. Actually, come to think of it, most of my family does this. Some are just more capable of leaving the room or saying excuse me. Meh, he's cute enough he can get away with it. FOR NOW.

I don't know why I took this picture. Super hero helmet? Daughter being goofy? Yup. I had no idea the level of safety my dishware would provide when I bought them.

My little crazy girl is such a big help to me. Here I was taking pictures of Isaac and he started crying and look who swooped in to help. Haha.

 I did catch her yelling "Isaac, shut up," from the other room a few days ago (I was shocked!) so I had to kindly tell her that we speak nicely to each other. Try saying "Isaac, please be quiet," which she did. I was shocked, mostly, that she knew the words, but also because she is SO SO SO SO patient with him (and us!). She really never gets frustrated at or with him, so I don't think she was annoyed with him when she said it... I think she was testing the affects of the phrase when he was crying in the other room. We'll see - she hasn't said it since.

Here's Isaac "playing" on his playmat. He lays there with this goofy look on his face and kicks and kicks and kicks and kicks. This kid will have some muscular legs and abs, I tell ya what!

 Alright, Mom, I'll stop a second so you can admire my handsome features and take a picture for the record books.

 We had a visit a couple Fridays ago from a week old baby Elam. Elam and Isaac are 6 weeks apart, and it's so amazing the difference between a 1 week old and a 7 week old! When you're living with them, the changes seem so gradual, but seeing these two next to each other makes you realize just how quickly babies change, grow, and mature!

 

 Isn't Derica a gorgeous new Mommy???

 Our kid has some serious competition in the foot department. Elam came out with huge feet! Or Isaac came out with stumpy feet. Either way, the chubbier, pasty white foot is Isaac's.

These were the last photos I took before we went to the beach, and Isaac is complaining that I'm paying attention to the virtual Isaac of the past and not the very real, very present, very much making his living self known, Isaac. Daddy hit the jackpot of animals when he mowed the yard before our beach trip. He found a baby bunny AND this cool box turtle. We saved the turtle for a couple of hours to show Cherry and Grahampa when they stopped by on their way through to Holden Beach.

 Mara was pretty pleased with the turtle but did keep talking about putting him back to his home (which we did). I didn't take a picture of the MASSIVE snake-like dump that Mr. Turtle left me in his temporary confinement. It seems like I deal with poop in some form or another (baby, toddler, dog, turtle... etc) 90% of the day so be very grateful that 90% of these pictures are not of THAT.

Ignore the fact someone's golfclubs are peeking out from the kitchen table. We don't feed them gourmet meals, bathe them in lavender soap or tuck them in silk sheets at night. We are not to that level of obsession. Yet. HA. They were only there temporarily until our beach trip.

I'd never seen a box turtle with spots on his head. Pretty cool looking, huh?

Anyway, that's it for now! I will try to filter through, resize, and post the beach pictures and Isaac's 2 month shots SOON.