Holding her head up high

Judith is 14 weeks. Here's a pic of Ezra about that age. Crazy, huh? Could almost be the same kid.

She loves to see what's going on around her (usually some kind of chaos).

Here's a video of her holding her head up. Got a couple of smiles in there too. Nana even got a couple of giggles out of her last night.

My Inner Redneck

Saturday night we left Judith in the capable hands of Dad and Meme and went out to have a boys night. Mom's AP owns the GatorPlex in Willis, TX and she invited all her Grangerland colleagues and their families out for a free night of racing and fireworks. Mom had been once before and she said it was super loud. I didn't know if Ezra was going to be ok with the noise or if we wouldn't be able to get him out of the car, so since it was free, I thought it was a good opportunity to try it out. We got there a little early, so we were able to find a seat before it got too loud. We watched the warm up heats. Five of the same type race cars do some laps and I guess the powers that be select which of those cars will compete in the real race. We saw about 7 or 8 of those heats.I know you can see the blue sky in the picture above. Well, that was quickly covered up by some very ominous clouds bringing lightening and hail. They ended up calling it a night before we even got to see any real races because of the threats from the storm. Thank goodness they called it before it started raining. The stand cleared amidst wind and lightening but we all got in our cars before the bottom fell out. Mom took this picture. At least she got some of the sky in the top of the picture. ;)
We all had sooo much fun and were sad our evening was cut short.

Judith is 3 months old. :) She hasn't rolled over yet, but she get stronger every day. She enjoys rocking from side to side and watching her crazy brothers.

Circus

Despite our recent trips to small, European circus' that didn't go over particularly well with Ezra, I wanted to take them to "The Greatest Show on Earth" while it was in Houston. They both did a really good job and were entertained most of the time.



We went early and were able to see the animals in their cages. We were impressed with how healthy and well groomed they all looked.

It was super expensive. Between me, the boys, and my mom, we bought 2 hot dogs, and all shared a lemonade for $22. Yikes! We all had a good time though, so maybe it was worth it. :)

Here some pics of the kids chilling on the couch.

Judith is 12 weeks old.

Here is a loud video of the boys playing. It's not too spectacular, but Jonas does a couple of funny things. When I ask him to show his "bad day" face (from a Franklin book we've been reading) he tried to cross his arms and put his head down. Also, toward the end, I'm trying to back down the hallway, and then Jonas wants to walk backwards down the hallway too.

Baby Talk

Ah, summer days at the pool...

Today was Judith's first time in the water. She gasped every time I let her down an inch further in the water, but then she was fine. She floated around with us under the shade of her pavillion. :)

This picture (above right) was taken last week at 11 weeks old. The outfit that she's wearing is the first thing we bought for her. After we found out she was a girl, Mike purchased that outfit (plus sweater and accessories that she's not wearing) to bring her home from the hospital in. It's 0-3 months, but she needed the newborn size. Nevertheless, she wore it anyway and it practically swallowed her. No more. Now, she's filling it out quite nicely. :)

It's just soooo much fun to dump water on Mommy's head...

The boys love to play in the toddler area with all the squirties.

Later, Jonas took a little rest under the "pavillion".

Uncle Garrett just went to New York for a couple of weeks, but they got in some good play time while he was here.

Here's a video of Judith babbling from a couple of weeks ago. It gets a little less exciting toward the middle because Jonas starts saying "What's that" as he pull something out of the trash. I become distracted when I realize it's chewed gum and tell him to put it back in the trash. He says, "Gum?" Oh, boys.... Then it's back to Judith and she ends the video with a sweet yawn. :)

Independence Day!

We had a wonderful 4th of July! Except for Mike being gone of course. It was so nice to actually be IN America to celebrate.



Mom and I sang in a patriotic program at church. I made it through all the practices with no emotional break downs, so I mistakingly thought I would be ok for the performance. Wrong.

One "song" was a compilation of all the military branches' songs. There were flags from the

branches on stage that were highlighted as we sung their song. I teared up through most of that song and a couple of others. I was so annoyed with myself, but I think I covered it up fairly well. Otherwise, it went really well. :)



They also had a "Wall of Honor" with military member's photos and paraphernalia set out. There is a picture of Mike and my Grandpa who was in the Coast Guard.



Then we had burgers and dogs and some amazing desserts at the church picnic.



We had the grandma's over for venison burgers and more dogs for supper, along with home made ice cream (Yum!) and patriotic cupcakes.



Later, we went over to my cousin Laney's house to watch the fireworks from The Woodlands, shoot our own fireworks, and ingest yet more cake and ice cream! The pictures of the fireworks didn't exactly turn out like I had hoped. The camera was on the "fireworks" setting so that part turned out great, but the people--not so great. Pretend they're artsy instead of bad pictures. :)Jonas and Judith loved the fireworks. Ezra loved them from the safety of inside of the pick-up where he watched them with Grandpa.

I know that there are 3 pictures of Judith with various faces. I whittled those 3 down from the 7 super cute ones I took and couldn't decide between them so you get all 3. :) I love the nose scrunch! That little bow is clipped to like 5 hairs. :)

Judith-10 weeks

Judith is 10 weeks old today. She's such a good baby aside from some tummy trouble every now and then. I just can't get enough of her precious baby smiles.

We also have a few pictures from our free (military discount--yea!) trip to the zoo.

Playing around at the house. Jonas had some help tying Ezra up. :)
I had the opportunity to hang out with some friends from high school. Good times.

My cousin owns a dance studio where she is teaching a 3-4 yr old "creative movement" class. Despite Mike's hesitation, Ezra is attending. His favorite part was when they brought out the parachute. He is on the upper right in the red shorts. You can really tell it's him toward the end of the video. He had a blast.

Jonas has the best laugh and we're trying to capture some of it on film....