244/365... enJoy

Today I was looking at photography blogs and happened to find several weddings. Caroline was looking with me and seeing all of those beautiful brides gave her the idea of wanting to see my own wedding dress. So, one thing led to another and before I knew it we were playing dress up. This was a step up from the old ballet costumes that she's used to dressing up in! She was so sweet and talked about what she would like her wedding to be like. I asked her if I could come with her to shop for her dress and she seemed genuinely surprised by the thought of buying her own and not just wearing mine. I asked her where she thought she would like to get married and she said, "Wherever God tells me to."
She was so excited to wear it around the house for a bit and even more excited when her sweet daddy was willing to play the part of groom for her pretend wedding. I'm just glad that I can pretend that the years before it's really true aren't going to be here before we can even believe it.

Dress up joy...






243/365... enJoy

Who's ready for a Potty Party? Turns out Jack is! Today was the big day that he and I went on a little date to pick out his own "unnies" and officially get this potty training party started. I thought he'd have a bit of a hard time deciding between the Buzz Lightyear unnies or the Thomas the Tank Engine ones, but he was immediately certain that it would be Thomas and his friends on his little biscuits! And let me tell you, those little biscuits look pretty irresistible running around the house in unnies. He's been doing great so far and loves to celebrate his successes with all of his siblings, calling out "Potty Powty!" as he runs out of the bathroom. Jelly beans all around!

"Tank engine, tank engine!" joy...



242/365... enJoy

Our kids want a dog more than anything else in the world, so when they heard that our friend Norie was coming over this evening they immediately asked me to extend the invitation to her pups Linus and Luna as well. They are pretty adorable and willing and eager to wow their audience with all of their fancy tricks (and with all of these kids around they're certain to get a tasty reward for their efforts). I think Linus and Luna might sleep for days after a visit to our house. We look forward to the day when we have a four-legged friend (or two!) of our own.

Linus and Luna joy...



241/365... enJoy

Today Caroline and a few neighbor girls set up an amusement park for families to come and enjoy together. At only .25 cents per person we couldn't afford not to go! There was bowling, ball tossing, bubble blowing, surfing, gecko holding and even a carriage ride. A delightful time was had by all!

 fun with the neighbors on a Saturday joy...








239/365... enJoy

At four months old, Eli is our oldest baby to still be in a "newborn" sleeping arrangement. That is completely owing to the fact that I just can't yet face the idea of taking Jack (who is also our oldest toddler to still be in a crib) out of confinement. I think that day might be coming soon whether I'm ready or not.

He's bursting at the seams joy...


(this one is in black and white in order to spare him the future embarrassment over the fact that those bumpers are pink : )

236/365... enJoy

"Toys don't last forever" is a saying that we use around here when beloved toys inevitably get broken. There is one toy in our family, however, that might just prove that saying wrong. "Legs" has been with our family since the very beginning, coming to us from a friend who lived on base with us at Camp Pendleton just before Travis was born. When our babies are able to look at things in their carseat, we hang Legs from the handle. When our babies begin to play on a blanket on the floor, they play with Legs. When our babies start chewing on toys, they squeak one of Legs'  red heart squeakers. He's been loved and adored by six babies (and two parents). Legs is a part of our family.

We love Legs joy....


234/365... enJoy

"Otter Creek, Otter Creek, oh Otter Otter Creek..." That's the start of a song our kids made up about their favorite place in TR. There are many verses to the song and it is sung with great gusto and at high volumes. So you can imagine their delight when it was announced that our co-op had rented the park and would be hosting a family kick-off event! They've seen the lines on a typical Saturday in the summertime and were really excited to get to be there with lots of friends and short lines!

Since Jimmy was out of town adventuring it up racing through the mountains of NC, I called on GaGa and Grandpa who were more than happy to come over and play with the littlest two guys. It was really so much fun to be out with my bigger kids getting to play in the water with them and slide down the slides. Ben has been talking about  the red slide since last summer and he was thrilled to find out that he's grown enough to touch the bottom by himself! He must have done that slide about 30 times and absolutely did not want to be helped over to the ladder. : ) The big kids loved having a little bit of freedom to run from slide to slide with friends. They already had high hopes about how fun co-op was going to be and the Otter Creek night pretty much confirmed those hopes.

Water park with the bigs joy...