a couple videos

Mary has learned a few new tricks. When you say how big is Mary, she throws her hands up in the air, and you say SO BIG!!! She also proceeds to clap for herself. Sometimes when we're sitting around playing she will randomly throw her hands up in the air because she wants to play! You can see that here:

And here is a video of what we do during the summer. This video also shows all the things Mary can do now: crawl, stand up, get away from you...It's so great!

10 months today

Did everyone else experience that thunderstorm that felt like the wrath of God last night? I seriously have never experienced a thunderstorm THAT powerful. It just kept coming. We woke up twice in the night to the loud bangs of thunder, it was crazy. I kept expecting to hear Mary crying, but she was out like a light. Ian kept saying we should go in and get her and bring her in to cuddle with us, but there's no way she would cuddle. She'd be all excited that she got to be awake!
Anyway, she's 10 months old today ;) She now stands up all the time and scoots along the furniture. Whenever we hold her hands and walk with her she lifts her legs up really high to take steps. It's so cute!
In case your a mom in need of a 4th of July outfit, Old Navy has all theirs half off! I got that dress for her for $5. I'm not really into buying outfits for holidays, but that dress is just plain cute no matter what day it is!

Birthday Party

Last night we went to pump it up to celebrate birthday's for the Sims boys! I think Ian had more fun than any of the kids.

She didn't really know what to do at first, but she figured it out!


You got going really fast down this slide...somewhat terrifying.

Photoshop=thorn in my side

So, the title is a little dramatic. But I got photoshop and today I decided I was going to learn how to use it! I'm relatively creative and like to explore so I thought I'd be able to figure a few things out. WRONG! This is not something you can just figure out if you aren't acquainted with this kind of software. I kind of understand what all the little tool buttons mean but man...it's not easy. Luckily I have a friend who is going to help me!
Anyway, I looked online and tried to find tutorials. They all have big words that I don't understand yet. I wanted to scream, "HELLO! Can I get an idiot version here???" I guess people don't buy software that's this expensive unless you know what you're doing. Maybe they have a dummies book out there for photoshop. Amazon.com here I come!
Anyway, after two hours I finally figured something out. And it's the picture you see in this post. Cheesy? Yes. All I could figure out? Yes. So I'm proud of myself, and pumped that I could do SOMETHING on this program! I made Ian come look and he was warned that it took me a long time and he needed to be excited. He has learned this well from when I spent a day scrapbooking for Mary and I ask Ian to come look. At first he would just be like, "That's cool" and walk away. But he has learned to say things like, "WOW! That looks awesome, you did a great job sweetie! That must have taken you forever!" That's what I like to hear!
SCORE!

1 of 6, starting it out on a good note

Summers are full of weddings. I heard of someone who has 12 weddings to go to this summer. Crazy huh? Well we have 7, but we couldn't make it to 1 of them, so we'll be attending 6. Last night was the first one and it happened to be my brother's. He's all grown up now! It was a great night and everything was beautiful. As my now sister-in-law was walking down the aisle I started to tear up. And it made me think about how every bride is beautiful. That must be how Christ sees His church (which he calls his bride). Seriously I think I would cry at a wedding where I didn't know the people because brides are just so stinking happy!
Here is a picture of the happy couple:

And one of Ian and I with my niece:

Some goofy pictures, you know we had to include those:


And the rest of these are mostly for my mom but if you just love weddings like me, you can take a look!
The cake, which my niece Brooklynn called her 'birthday cake'

We're baaaaack!

Well we made it back from camp! We just spent a week at Rockbridge with 130ish students from Fairfield. It was awesome. Here's a group pic:

The drive there was a little rough. Mary didn't sleep at all except when we stopped at a rest stop. She fell asleep on one of the girls shoulders:

It was really cute! And we also had to come up with some creative ways to warm up Mary's bottle:

If you've ever been to YL camp you know that on Day 2 there is a camp wide tournament that requires costumes. Mary decided to get a little crazy and be the guy from braveheart:

And she also got to ride a bull for the first time:

I think she set the camp record at like 12 second on the bull. She's a fighter. She also got really good at crawling while we were there. We had a great week!

Busy Weekend

Last weekend was a busy one! But also very fun. We went to Coney Island with some friends on Saturday (pictures below thanks to Theresa!) and had a great time! We only spent a few minutes in the pool because the water was so cold, but it was good to see our friends and the babies got to play. Then on Sunday we went to my future sister-in-law's bridal shower. It was so nice to see a side of the family that we don't get to see very often.
It's ironic how much I enjoy pictures, yet I always forget my camera! Here are some pictures from Theresa's camera, and hopefully we will see some from Sunday when my aunt gets hers developed!
Also, for you mommies out there, you may notice the little sticker on Mary's arm and Tyler's tummy. They are the coolest things. They tell you when you need to re-apply sunscreen by changing to a darker color. We weren't in the sun for a really long amount of time so they didn't change color much, but I think they're pretty cool. Unnecessary, but cool, and a good reminder if you're forgetful like me!

Asleep

I know exactly how she fell asleep this way. She was sitting up and didn't know how to lay back down...thus, she fell asleep laying straight down on her face.

New Stuff

Mary had a good 5 minutes in her pool yesterday. Daddy thought she was getting cold so her took her out ;) He's a little overprotective, but it balances out because I always say she's probably ok. She has also learned to sit up now all on her own. It's pretty cute to watch because she has to use all her focus and energy. And it's not so cute when she keeps sitting up in her crib and playing when she's supposed to be going to sleep. She keeps sitting up then pulling herself closer to the sides of the crib then gets her feet stuck in the crib slats. Which means mommy has to keep going in, dislodging her feet, and laying her back down. She's never happy about that last part.
Aunt Amber called today from way far away in New York. It was so good to talk. And I think Mary heard her voice and wanted to talk too because she kept squaking into the phone! We miss you Ambular!