A Very Relaxing July 4th

I love holidays. Always have. Christmas is, of course, #1, but I love them all! And since I grew up in Virginia Beach (with lots of military around), Independence Day has always been a big one for me. This year however, I decided to go low-key. We ate hamburgers and watermelon after church, talked about living in the USA and how lucky we are. Then we did sparklers in the backyard. Elena decided a few days prior that July 4th was Baby Liam's birthday too, so we had a cake and little party for him as well as America.

The girls in red, white, and blue. The boys were coordinating too, but Kevin was asleep at this point in the day

For some reason, Elena was in her pajamas by the time we took the rest of the pictures. Here she is being adorable.

Skip ahead to after dinner:

This is what happens when Kevin realizes that we have to dispose of the sparkler when it is done sparkling:

Happy birthday to Baby Liam. He is Elena's #1 baby doll (although Teddy Pig is her #1 toy overall). She's so attentive to her "babies".

It was a nice afternoon and everyone got to go to bed on time. :)
Don't think that I'm not already planning how to celebrate next year...

June 29th & 30th

Abuelita went back home. :( We knew it had to happen eventually. Dan put a hold on his studies the night before she left and played games with his mom and me. I got this cute picture of them.

And these funny ones:

The next morning, we went to the airport. Instead of coming right home, the kids and I stopped at Kristin's house near Charlotte and I got to enjoy her hospitality and company while the kids all played. I didn't get any pictures of the children playing together because I was too busy chatting, but here are a few of them sitting/standing. :) Thanks for having us, Kristin!

Will and Elena:

Kevin wanted to sit in the chair too. Now, whenever we go to a friend's house, he will rush right to the kid-sized chair if they have one.Beautiful Audrey:

Penske and his new biggest fan:

Getting all caught up:

About a month ago this video wouldn't download, but I promised my mom I would try again. So here it is: Kevin eating his little cake on his birthday! Once we picked it up off of his lap, he ate it all in just a couple of minutes. :)

World Cup

We really enjoyed watching the World Cup this past month, and we are sad it is over. We had fun rooting for the US and Mexico, and watching Spain win today was great! 4 years is a long time...
Elena isn't even that old yet!

Grandfather Mountain

Grandfather Mountain is a few hours away, but the drive was nice (if you take the Blue Ridge Parkway), and we will definitely go back before we move. Next time we'll make sure that Dan can make it. There is also a mini-zoo there with bears, deer, otters, cougars (Go BYU!), and eagles (Go USA!). I don't have any pictures of that because my camera died, but the kids loved it. They also have picnic benches and a candy/fudge shop. There is a little museum that is pretty pointless, but has clean bathrooms. :) It was a perfect day.

This is the view from the beginning of our drive up the mountain. We actually didn't have to do any hiking, but you can if you want to. The picture at the top of the post is taken from the parking lot.
Elena said, "I want to stop the car and take a picture with my favorite rock!" It's called Split Rock and I'm standing under the other half.

This is after we crossed the Mile High Swinging Bridge. Behind us is the gift shop where they sell yummy ice cream.

Right after crossing the bridge: It is a little intimidating because there are no guardrails or anything once you go up those steps. That's why I took one kid at a time. The other one would wait right here with Abuelita.
Some photos of the view:
The full 360 from the top of Grandfather Mountain:

God is so good to give us these glimpses of perfection. It is gorgeous there!

Kevin's First Haircut

Before:

The Baby Hair:

After:

Kevin had his first haircut a couple weeks before his birthday. He was looking a little mullet-ish. The long hair in back wasn't super noticeable; I made it stick out for the "before" picture. Normally it would just lay flat, but it was getting too long. I just used clippers on the back (I didn't have to touch the top) and Voila! -- Instant big boy!

Kevin's 1st Birthday

I have a lot of updating to do. We have been very busy since Dan's mom got into town last week. I will write about all of that soon, but I just wanted to take a quick minute and acknowledge how wonderful Kevin is and how glad we are that he is a part of our family.

• Kevin is now an accomplished walker.
• He calls everything "Da", but he says it with extra emphasis around Dan "Dada". :) He will emphatically point to a book, a picture of Elena, a toy car, and call them all "da."
  
• He loves hammers of all kinds.
• Sweet Boy cries when his father passes him to me even though I am definitely his second favorite person.
  
• He makes vroom sounds when he plays with cars.
• Handsome Boy loves to blow kisses, and he freely gives hugs, kisses, and bites to those he loves. He will happily bite you and thinks it is just as fun and loving as a kiss. He'll hopefully start to understand the difference soon because it hurts!
• He laughs and laughs when Elena sits or lies on him.
• We call him "Destructo" with good reason. :)
  
• Unless he's tired or unless you have just taken a cell phone from him - Kevin is all smiles.
• He loves reading with a partner and looking at books by himself.
• Cheque loves being in the water so much that he cries when I take him out of the bath.
• Every night and morning when he gets dressed is a wrestling match. So is each diaper change.
• Mr. Man is the messiest eater (and best eater) I have even seen. He eats large portions of whatever you give him, but part of it always end up on this arms, face, the floor, the bottom of the high chair tray, etc.
• Kevin is strong and sweet and we love him!

Here are some pictures of him at his party this morning and a video that was taken at the mall this afternoon:
The expression in the picture above is so funny to me. I have no idea why he made this face; he loves his new dinosaurs.

This video showcases his new skills at the mall play area:

Trips and Preschool Graduation

I took the kids with me to Virginia a few weeks ago because Erin and her husband Bami were in town. I've been so spoiled always having her across the street from me, and later, from my parents, that I was super excited to get to see her again after almost a year apart. She and Bami live in Florida now, but are in Norway (where he is from) for the summer. Awesome, huh? I can't to hear all about it.
Kevin is finally old enough to play with Elena. I love this picture! I took a video too, but it was so grainy that it's not worth posting. They were wrestling and Kevin was attacking her with kisses. It was absolutely adorable. They also play by knocking over block towers together and dancing. I love seeing them interact.
We are working on teaching Kevin to be gentle with his sister - he loves to pull hair and does not yet distinguish between patting someone's cheek and slapping them. Boys.
I love the beach!!! I want to be buried there someday. Is that allowed?
Kevin wasn't a big fan of the water yet, but it is pretty cold in mid-May. Bethany and I both referred to it as being as "cold as California water in August." My wonderful cousins are from the Bay Area and we would freeze our tails off in the water there. :)
I'm so glad that Bethany came with me so that someone could keep Kevin from rubbing sand in his eyes/mouth while someone else went back and forth to the water with Elena.
We were able to meet up with Elena's friend Linnea and her little brother and grandmother at the Virginia Aquarium. It was a great way to spend the morning.

Classic!

My sweet boy really liked watching the fish, but his favorite was watching the people in scuba gear clean the tank. That is what he is looking at in this photo.
When we returned back home, we met up with Dan at the hospital and taught the kids how to play foosball in the student lounge.
The last day of preschool we had a little party where we practiced good manners. They were so great: "Please pass the red sprinkles," etc. I will miss this group. I really liked doing the preschool class with my friends. That's lucky for me because E still has 2 more years before she can start kindergarten.
Our little graduate. Her favorite parts about graduation were the roll of giant Smarties inside her diploma and the fact that her dad was able to be there. He drove over from the hospital, stayed for about an hour, and then went back. :)
Luke has moved to Pennsylvania, but we were lucky enough to have him over before he left. He and Elena put together this puzzle and then all 3 kids had a dance party on top of it. Elena was running in circles, Luke was break dancing, and Kevin was having a blast.
Mike and Emily invited us to go to Blowing Rock with them a couple of weeks ago and we had a great time. There are some nice outlets there, so we enjoyed some fantastic deals and the weather was perfect. This is Sadie and Elena each holding their well-loved stuffed pigs.

Me and my girl (Kevin was asleep in his car seat both times that we stopped to check out the view.