Washing the Van

Bert had the girls help him wash the van a couple weeks ago.  They had fun, fun, fun!  

He had gotten a rag for both Emily and Hannah, but hadn't gotten one for Claire because he thought she'd be too busy just walking around, checking everything out.  That lasted for about 2.5 seconds....Claire kept diving her hands down into the soapy water to try to find her rag, then she decided to try and take one of her sister's rags.  

Mommy went inside to get her one too.:)

E and H love their little ballerina bathing suits.  

It took Bert a little longer than he was expecting (with all the "help" that he had), but in the end we had a clean van and happy children. Win, Win!

Evening Walks

One of my ALL TIME favorite things to do is to take walks around our neighborhood in the evening as a family.  We've probably taken about a million since we moved into our house almost 3 years ago.  We have a certain route and it takes us a little over 30 minutes.  Some weeks we take three or so walks a week and some weeks we're doing good to get in one.  We usually take our walks after dinner and then come back and start getting the kids ready for bed.  It is such a relaxing time for me to just enjoy being outside and getting to chat with Bert while the kids are all strapped in and enjoying the walk as well. Our neighborhood has a couple of really big hills in it, but for the most part it is an awesome place to take walks. We have a pretty big neighborhood (a little over a hundred houses) and on most walks we see several of our neighbors out and about.  We love catching up with the ones that we are closer to and just saying hey to new neighbors.  Everyone likes our red wagon and many people have made comments over the years about wishing that they were being pulled around in one.:)

We started letting Claire ride in the wagon a few months ago and it is now her favorite place to ride.  And by "her favorite place to ride" I mean that she pitches a fit if she doesn't get to ride in it.  Thankfully her big sisters think it's a treat to get to ride in the stroller (since they almost never do anymore) so they take turns getting to ride in it. 

I know that as the kids get bigger our nights will get even busier (activities, homework, church), so that's why I'm cherishing these sweet walks with my family, and we take them every chance we get.  

A Day Trip to See Friends

Last Saturday we headed out for a day trip to see friends.  We started out the day with a FROZEN birthday party for Emily Dickerson.  Emily's mom (Misty) has been one of my best friends since kindergarten.  They had a visit from Elsa at the party and my girls were super excited!!  Elsa read them a story, sang them a song, gave them all hugs and just generally made a bunch of little girls very happy.  

They also got to dress up like their favorite FROZEN character which also was super fun!  Let's just say I was asked many, many times that week "how many more days until Emily's party?" 

After the party we headed over to Dahlonega to catch up with some other long-time friends, Nathan and Lenore Nix. Nate, who was also the best man in our wedding, and Lenore have 4 little girls. The last time we got both families together was about 5 years ago (Emily and Katelen were babies).  Bert's seen Nate a couple times since then, but it had been way too long since we all got together.  

The girls had so much fun dressing up, playing with play make-up, and jumping on the trampoline.  It was fun to see them all playing together.  

And here's our group picture!

Front row (from left to right):  Josie (7), Katelen (5), Emily (5), Hannah Watts (3), Hannah Nix (3). Second row:  Claire (18 months), Hope (almost 2).  You can see that our kids are very close in age. There are only about 2 months between Katelen and Emily as well as Hannah and Hannah.  Our Hannah was SO excited about Hannah having her "same name!"

It was a fun day of seeing friends!  God has blessed us with some wonderful people who encourage us and point us to Christ and we're thankful.  

Swimming Lessons

Emily and Hannah took swimming lessons during the month of June from the Eastside YMCA.  They went two days a week for four weeks.  I feel like they both improved so much.  I was SO pleased with their class size and teachers.  Emily had 3 kids (including herself ) in her class and Hannah's class had four (including her).  Their classes met at the same time and they ended up being in the lane right next to each other, which they liked. 

I took these next two pictures on the first day of class, before it started.  They were both so excited!  

After their teachers arrived and asked them to go sit on the steps of the pool our Hannah Banana panicked.  She started wailing and it was everything we could do to get her to stay in the pool (much less to participate).  We knew this was a possibility with her, which is why I asked Bert to meet me at the pool for this first class.  It was chaotic and a bit stressful.  Anyway, her teacher didn't seemed to be bothered by it and said if I was comfortable for the next class to try leaving the pool area and she felt sure Hannah would calm right down. She said she'd had much success before with doing this. Apparently Hannah wasn't the first child to cry during swimming lessons. :)

So, the next class came and I was by myself this time.  Hannah was fine until we got to the pool area and then she latched onto my leg and started wailing again.  I wouldn't have been able to get her in the pool without getting in myself.  Another teacher came over to help Hannah's teacher for the first couple minutes.  She held Hannah and helped her get into the water.  I stepped outside the pool area into this room that had glass windows where I could still watch.  I could see them, but they couldn't really see me because of the angle.  Hannah calmed down within 5 minutes that first day that I left and every other day she calmed down faster and faster.  By the end it was taking her about 30 seconds after I left to calm down.   Every day, after I left, she did unbelievably well.  She was doing everything her teacher asked her to do, and smiling about it.  I was so proud of my girl! 

One day I snuck back in a side door and snapped a picture of them in action.  Emily was with her teacher on the right in the picture below and Hannah was with her teacher on the left. 

I was thinking that maybe by the last class I would be able to sit beside the pool and watch and listen, but that wasn't the case.  Hannah cried and cried before every class, but seconds after I walked out she would calm down.  I'm thankful I was still able to watch them in action from afar.  I was very pleased with all that both of my girls learned during their classes and I'm definitely planning on using the Y again next summer!  

Father's Day 2015

Our church didn't have an evening worship service on Father's Day so we decided to head down to Falls Park and have a pizza picnic and let the girls play in the splash pad for a little bit (have I mentioned that I love downtown Greenville?).  

I can't begin to tell you how thankful I am that my girls have such a loving, Christ-centered father.  He points all of us to Jesus.  He serves me all the time.  He takes out the trash about 95% of the time, most every weekend he lets me sleep until 8 or 8:30 and he gets up early with the kids, he puts the kids to bed most every night while I am cleaning up the kitchen, there are about a million other ways that he serves out family but I won't list them all.  I know that his loving and serving us is not going unnoticed by our girls and it is definitely not going unnoticed by me.  I pray one day that they are blessed with godly men who love Jesus and love their families well.  

When we were having our pizza picnic I asked the girls to tell us their favorite thing to do with their Daddy: 

Emily:  I love to help Daddy in the garden.

Hannah:  I love to ride in Daddy's car.  

One day last week Hannah was sitting on my lap and we were just talking.  She had had a hard morning (3 year old problems) and I was just giving her extra snuggles.  I was having her list all the people that love her. I would say who else loves you?  She would answer with another family member's name.  We did this until she had named everyone in our family and extended family.  Then, I said "but who loves you the most, more than anyone?" She thought for just a minute, got a big smile on her face and said "Daddy!!!!"  Ha.  I was looking for "God" because he does.  He loves us more than we can imagine, but I loved her answer too.  I love that she feel so loved by her earthly father and I pray that that helps her to easily rest in the love of her heavenly father.  

They had fun at the splash pad!  It is possible that I may have forgotten to pack towels on this fun little excursion (my bad), but no worries, it was so hot out there they pretty much dried on our walk back to the car.  

We'll take every chance we can get to celebrate you, Bert.  We love you! Happy Father's Day! 

Lake Weekend

We were able to take a trip to the lake over Father's Day weekend (Thursday evening to Saturday, as Bert is usually off on Fridays).  

I love their matching bathing suits this year!  Emily and Hannah were trying to hold Claire down for a picture and she was not having it.

Much happier. :)

Sweet things. 

Daddy was reading to the girls one night.  He is one of the most kind-hearted, generous men I know and I am so thankful I get to call him Dad.  He loves his wife, kids and grandkids so well.  When we are all spending time together (just a few of us or the whole group) you can tell he is just about to burst with joy.  It makes him happy.  It makes me happy too.  Happy Father's day, Daddy!  

The Sanders spent most of both days with us.  The girls loved playing in the water with Jacob.  Ressie enjoyed hanging out with her Mama on land while the big kids (Yes, I'm lumping Claire in with the big kids...tear) played in the water.

Hannah asked to hold Ressie and did a great job!  

When Hannah got down Claire was standing right beside the chair and started climbing up in the chair and pointing to Ressie, "talking" to us the whole time.  She made it very clear that she wanted to hold her too.  

Ressie is going to catch up with Claire in no time.  It looks like from Ressie's facial expression that maybe she wasn't totally comfortable with Claire holding her.  Ha!

Enjoying a boat ride as relaxed as can be.  

We also got to introduce our girls to tubing for the first time, which was so fun! 

Hannah loved it, but her favorite thing to do was ride the jet ski.  She wanted to ride all the time.  

Emily jumped off the dock into the lake approximately 824 times.  She was exhausted at the end of every day but we were so proud of her!

Uncle Stan made it to the lake by Friday evening and we had a fun day playing in the lake with him on Saturday.  He and Em liked jumping in together.  

This cutie didn't get to ride in the tube behind the boat, but was as happy as a lark just sitting in it while we were playing in the water.  Win, win for everyone.  

When Hannah woke up from her nap on Saturday she walked into the living room to find Uncle Stan taking a nap on the couch, so she decided to curl up with him and rest a little longer.  We play hard at the lake!:)  

Very thankful for this family time!!  

On Friday night we got to have a Father's Day dinner with Mimi, Papa, Brett, Katherine, Ressie, Jacob, Uncle Stan and us.  It was a bit wild having that may people in such a small space, but we loved it.  We loved getting to celebrate the amazing dad's in our life.  They are strong leaders, godly men who love their families well.  We are blessed by them and thankful for them!   

Disney's Frozen on Ice

Mimi and Papa surprised us last December with tickets to Disney's Frozen on Ice.  We were so excited for the girls as they LOVE all things Frozen, but didn't mention it to them until the week of the performance. Everyone is just happier that way.  

A very sweet lady from our church offered to keep Claire for us so that we could have a special time with our big girls.  

Emily and Hannah each brought an "Anna" doll that they could hold during the show.  

Hannah cried on and off for the first half of the show.  Thankfully it was so loud in there (which was why she was crying) that she wasn't bothering any of the people around us.  

I looked over at one point and she had turned around and snuggled up on her Daddy's shoulder.  Sweet girl. 

The show was SO well done!  We were so impressed!!  

By the second half Hannah had warmed up and was excited about seeing Olaf. :)

We had a GREAT time!!  Thank you so much for the tickets, Mimi and Papa!  We love our Frozen-loving girls!