Halfway to One

This little man gets cuter by the minute and we fall in love with him a little more with each passing day.  We can hardly believe he's halfway to ONE at this point.

Thanks to our dear friend Bridgette Bloomquist for the gorgeous photos of our little man!

 

He's so close to sitting up on his own, but needed a little help from the Bumbo seat.

He's starting to fill out a little more now that he's on solid foods and loving them!
(Bananas are his favorites.)

He's just started reaching for us when he wants to be held and we scoop him up every chance we get!  What's that saying?  "Babies don't keep…"  Yes, I know the snuggles and reaching arms will be far and few between when he's mobile and on the go! 

Starting to blow bubbles!  Such pretty lips!!

Happy, handsome boy!

There's just something so classic about a baby boy in a monkey hat, right?

Marin has BIG love for her little brother!  Classic...

I love this one because I can just hear Marin's squeaky little voice talking to her baby brother saying something like, "It will be okay, sweet boy."  She also loves to repeat directions to him that the adults are saying like, "Now Sloany, you be a good boy and look at the camera!"  I'm sure there's no shortage of advice that she's bound to give him in the upcoming years!

Sweet love.

We are so blessed to be entrusted with two beautiful, healthy kids.
My hope is that they grow up to always love each other as much (and more) as they do here!

 

Learning To Swim

Marin took swimming lessons in Nebraska this summer from the high school swimming coach in my hometown.  The instructor told as as long as she can blow bubbles in the water, she's ready.  Up to this point, it's been a struggle to get her to 'go under,' but she's always been willing to blow bubbles so we thought we'd give it a try! Marin took infant swimming lessons at Emler and never took to the water (to the tune of $25/lesson). *gulp*  A week of private lessons in corn country were $45!  Hallelujah!  If it didn't work out, I figured we weren't out too much.

The first few days of lessons went great.  She wore goggles, blew bubbles, immersed her face, put on the flippers, went down the slide, swam through a hoop, etc.  I was thrilled.  Toward the end of the week, she wasn't as enthusiastic about learning and this fully-clothed mama got to participate in the lesson as well.   There was no extra charge.  :)

As it turned out, she really gained confidence in the water and was swimming with her face immersed by the end of her lessons.  I consider it a success!

Here she is jumping to my {skinny-skinny} niece, Hannah a.k.a. 'Stretch.'  Hannah is 5'10" going into her Freshman year of high school.  She's a great athlete and Marin adores her…we all do!

This is the pool at my brother's house--the farm where I grew up!  It's alwasy a treat to go back!
Proof is in the pudding…her face is in the water!

There was more swimming in Columbus (Jason's hometown) too!  Look at those long arms!!  

Sloany even got a little pool time too!  Unfortunately is was pretty hot most days, so he got to stay home with Grandma!  

The swim teacher told Marin that she could come back again next summer for more lessons, BUT it was going to cost us $1 more due to inflation!  So funny….  May we sign up now???

Celebrating Jack

I'm terribly behind on posting pictures to the blog, but I'm hoping to get caught up within the next few days!

It was such an honor to host a sip and see to celebrate the arrival of the long-awaited Baby Jack!  He waited nearly two weeks past his due date to make his grand entrance.

God bless his momma for her patience!
 

We celebrated his big sis too!  For a long time she insisted that she would only accept a sister.
Fortunately, she's pretty smitten with her handsome brother!

Mimi working her magic.  She's one of the best!

 

 

 

 

 

Congratulations, Balagias!  We can't wait to watch Jack grow!

Ordinary Days

These two little monkeys LOVE each other.  Marin gets the biggest smiles from Sloan all of the time.  We've been so fortunate that she has been so affectionate toward him and we've never had to worry about her being 'mean' to her baby brother.


Sloany has recently started squeaking like a dolphin--a very high pitch noise.  Marin will respond to him with the same high pitch squeal and they go on and on squealing back and forth at each other!  

Strong boy!  I put him in the Boppy pillow so he doesn't roll across the room.  He's fast!

We just love his big smile and bright eyes.  He's been such a good baby.

More snuggles from big sis.  Marin is an incredibly good mommy to Sloan and she'll say in the sweetest voice, "Sloan, those are my ____ (lips, eyes, ears, cheeks, etc.)"
Then she turns to me and says, "Mommy, I'm a good teacher for Sloan!"  Indeed.

Hanging out in her pj's playing a game on the iPad…one of her most favorite activities!

 

Baby Ballerinas

Here's our little ballerina on her recital day getting 'fancied up!'

Waiting….waiting...

This was our first recital experience and it was a cluster to say the least.  It was at Anderson High School and Marin's teacher said, "Oh, there will be TONS of signs--you won't have any problem figuring out where to go."  This was not the case.  Oy!  There weren't enough seats in the auditorium, the girls had to sit backstage and wait to go 'on' without Mommy or Daddy, so by the time Marin got out there she apparently wasn't in a dancing mood.

On stage….no movement….paralyzed from staring at a huge crowd.
(Fourth from the left.)

This was the first beat of the song and she popped her little arms up and then she was done!
Poor little honey.

 

After the show, she was all smiles and danced a little jig for us outside.
Arabesque! 

 

Nothing is cuter than a little girl in a tutu!

Love those little girls!

Each little ballerina got a medal at their final class.  Marin will move up to the 4 year old class in the fall, so it will be exciting to see the new things she learns…minus the recital.