Ballet Practice

Here is a video from January when Libby first started ballet.

And another one, of the circle dance. They have come so far thanks to Christen McCuiston!



Uncle Andy's Birthday Party

We went to Andy's birthday party recently. It was a blast hanging out outside their cozy home and playing games.

Ty loved our little UT chair!

He also loved the watermelon that Libby was sharing with him. :)

It was a nice day to hang out outside and play some cornhole...

Bocce Ball...

and enjoy wonderful snacks and fellowship!

 Then there was a fun little campfire to hang out around. Libby put her chair right in between Andy and Meghan and then kept asking where the marshmallows were?

 Everyone hanging out around the "campfire."



Lydia was so cute sitting in the little chair next to her Daddy!

And then Gavin needed a little bathroom break - around the side of the house. :) Yay for boys! He cracks me up!

Don't worry, Allyson, I used the cover of daylillies for modesty. :)

What fun night. Thanks Andy and Meghan! I hope for many more of these as the summer progresses!

Life at home

We got to watch Annie for a little while a couple weeks ago. The kids love their cousins so this was a treat for them! They both like to play with Annie, so she just switched off between them.

While Ty was sleeping, we had a little girl time and all got mani-pedis. :)

Pretty in pink. 

Love this picture of these two! Don't know why they're showing off their guns, guess it's a girl thing? :)

Pink fingers. Libby helped me pick this color out at the store the other day.

Little hands. So sweet!

I don't know what Libby was doing in these next two pictures, but she looks so old to me in them! I can totally see her teenage years in these. I love their genuine smiles in this one.

Cracking up.

Ty loves all things boy. He loves making car noises while driving cars around.

 My little guy is getting so big!

He's so full of smiles! Although the last couple weeks those have tapered off due to teething, I think. He's still such a happy little guy, though.



 Playing with cars together. Libby sets them up to race.

 Ty just makes a mess of her neat line.

 Another sweet smile. He's so photogenic, it's sick! :)

 I love this one!

I tried to get a couple of pics of them together. This is how most of them turned out:

 But I got 1 decent one.

 Then I attempted to get one with me in it. Those are rare. I set up the self-timer with the camera propped on a couple pillows. :) Worked alright I guess.

Ty's 1 Year Old!

So I'm a little late in posting about Ty turning a year, but at least I've posted about his party!

He turned 1 year old last month. He waited till he was 11 months to get any teeth, and now he has more than most of his friends. he cut about 7 teeth at once. I think he now has 8, but he's chewing on his fingers in the back a lot, which makes me think he might be getting even more! Here is a pic of those two big front teeth coming in.

At his 1 year appointment, he has finally made it onto the charts! He is at the 3% in his weight. Before, they always write, below the 3%. I didn't realize how below he was till I got a peek at his graph at the appointment. At his last apopintment, he was WAY below the graph. So I'm just happy he now on it. At the bottom, but I don't mind that. Saves me some heavy lifting. :) He is at the 25% in his height, so up in both areas. Yay! Since then, I think he started packing on the weight. He got his double chin back!

Wild thing....

You make my heart sing.

Speaking of singing, Ty loves to dance! Anything with a beat, or even to Libby's lovely off-key singing and he is dancing. Libby loves to make up songs now, and I usually have to join in after she teaches them to me. :) After we got back from the grocery store the other day and Libby was singing about her balloon not floating away, and how everything is orange when she looks through her balloon, etc. She decided to put it to music and told me when we get home she was going to play the piano and make music to go with her song. Reminded me so much of Ash and I when we were young. I guess the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree. :)

Anyways, Ty has 2 favorite types of dancing. I'll have to see if I can catch both on camera and post them here. One is just bouncing, the other is shaking his head all over the place and is definitely my favorite. He doesn't do that one as much anymore, I think because it made him so dizzy. :)

He's now standing and bending over to pick stuff up off the floor without holding onto something very well. Especially if he's holding something, then he'll stand almost indefinitely, or until Libby or Sheeba come around to knock him over  accidentally. He took his first steps to Matt. Yay! I'm so glad that even though he's not around much because of school, he was here for that very important milestone. He now has great balance and could walk great if he knew it. He still doesn't have confidence on his own, so I have to trick him into walking by keeping him distracted so he doesn't know I let go of his hand. I think he'll be running soon. I'm not in that big of a hurry for him to start walking, becuase I'm afraid then he'll grow too independent, and I still need him to be my baby for a while. I do love his running crawl, too. I'll have to post a video of that, too. You can hear him coming down the hall with the pat-pat-pat of his little hands going so fast. And he crawls like a little bulldog with his hands turned in. It's too cute!

I think I've given Libby the wrong idea about what a park is for. Whenever I mention the park, she automatically thinks we're going running. And sometimes she gets to play on the playground, when we have time. :( Oh well, she doesn't seem to mind riding in the double stroller. In fact, neither of them do. I think I've only had a crying baby on a run once, maybe twice. Libby's been wanting to run with me now, so I let her for a little ways until she gets tired. She actually made it a little over half a mile today. I think she looks so cute when she runs, with her arms all over the place.

She is definitely turning into a little girl. And so helpful, too! I heard her rumaging around in the closet the other day and asked her what she was doing. She was replacing the toilet paper in our bathroom becuase it had run out! I cracked up! She is so sweet and loves Ty so much. She also informs Matt and I on a frequent basis that we are "the best Mommy (or Daddy) ever". And that we are her best friends.

She jsut finished her first semester of ballet at our church co-op and loved it! I'll post about the recital soon.

Ty's Birthday Party

For Ty's 1-Year Birthday, we decided to do a low-country boil with the fam.

Here are the fixins for the boil, all ready to go. I love all this yummy food! I didn't get a picture of the burner in action, but it turned out great!

 Everyone raised their food in the air for a food toast, and Ty joined right in, raising his corn high. :)

As I expected, Ty loved all the food. Libby especially loved the shrimp! She kept finding them and asking us to peel them. I think she had 3 people peeling shrimp for her at once, then she just collected and ate. I'm glad she likes seafood.

Here's everyone but Andy and Meghan. The day was perfect for eating outside! We missed you, Ben and Bri! And, wait, where is Nicole? :) MIA as usual.

I forgot he doesn't have enough teeth to actually chew the corn off the cob, so I later cut it off for him.

So happy to be eating.

Ty's favorite part about his birhtday? The balloons! Ever since Kroger started handing out balloons, it seems we always have them in the house in various stages of drooping. Ty loves playing with them so I got him some for the party. He kept getting so excited to see them. :)

The cake. Butterfinger Cake. Yumm. Since I don't know Ty's favorite yet, I let Matt decide since his brithday is just a couple days after Ty's.

A bit skeptical at first. Not sure how dirty he wanted to get. He tasted the Cool Whip and didn't know what to think. Then he got some of the cake and discovered the joys of birthdays! He ate all the cake right out from under the Cool Whip.

The kids played on the hill. Peter got Libby, Hudson and Annie rolling down it. I didn't get any good shots of that unfortunately.

And this is how you dress for a good low country boil. Just strip down and dig in!

Birthday presents. Loved the maracas. I think he thought they were microphones, though.

He loves this little mower! And I love it because it's helping him learn to walk. It is by no means a stable walking toy, so he has to walk on his own and keep his balance. He can stand on his own for a few seconds now. Longer if he's distracted. And he cruises around everything. He's just starting to take his first steps, but I'll save that for the next post about him being 1 year old.

 Happy Birthday, Ty!

Strawberries and Breakfast!

Strawberry Preserves

Thanks to the kind call of a friend, we found out about a great deal on some fresh strawberries. Ashley, Bethany, Bri, Mom and I all pitched in and got a bunch. Then we decided to make some Strawberry Preserves with them. This was the first time I'd done it on our own, the last time Ashley's experienced mother-in-law, Deb, showed us how to do it. That was several years ago. The results from that were incredible so I was excited to have a go at it without supervision this time. :)

I was going to try to get pictures of every step so I don't forget how to do it, but I got as far as the chopping and then got much too busy. Here are the strawberries and the chopping process.

We got 2 flats:

Don't they look so fresh and yummy? They were!

I didn't even get a picture of the total results, only my take home portion.

Doesn't look like much, but it'll last quite a while. We decided to make various sizes as we all use various amounts of Strawberry jam at one time. I'm excited to use the large leftover jars as drink glasses. Something about drinking sweet tea from a mason jar just seems very appealing to me. I must be a country girl at heart.

Do pretty and vibrant!

I'm ashamed to say, I haven't actually broken into any of them yet. I'm trying to use up the leftover Kroger-brand strawberry jam I have in the fridge because I know it'll go bad once I break into these. They also make AWESOME cake filler for in between the layers. I usually use one for Libby's birthday cake. She's already told me she wants another strawberry one this year. :) I have to explain it's a good ways away, but she doesn't care.

Breakfast

Libby was so excited one morning that I let Ty sit at her table with her to eat breakfast. I had to pull out the camera for this little first.

They loved eating together! Especially Ty, who of course finished first and then tried to dig into Libby's as she wasn't eating fast enough. He normally crawls over and finishes off her breakfast at the little table anyways. Have to watch what I give her as he is sure to finish it off. Caught him eating her poptart this morning. I don't think those are approved for 1 year olds.