I Love My Kids!

Dear Friends and Family,

Let me just say how much I love my kids!  They are so cute! Let's start with Claire.  A couple of weeks ago we were praying before bedtime, and I suggested we close our prayers with an "Our Father." So I started to say the prayer for us and Claire interrupted and said, "No, Mom!  I want to say it by myself!"  I said, "Ok!" Then I prepared to jump in with words when she needed help, but to my surprise, Claire said the whole Our Father without pause!  I was shocked!  Last week I finally remembered to bring my phone to bedtime so I could get it on camera: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DerQ1qSqswg I'm always so impressed by what a little sponge Claire is!  She memorized that whole prayer by hearing it at Mass and from when I would say it in the car or at bedtime.

Lately our weather has been amazing!  We've been to the parks and the beach quite frequently.

This guy loves the water and sand!

Claire and her friend Kennedy show off their monkey skills!

And Will loves to climb and slide!

Will really does love to climb and slide! He is so "adventurous" (that's the diplomatic term). He will climb anything from picnic tables to curbs out to the parking lot...whew...and he'll go down any slide, especially the biggest one at the playground!  Here is a video of him doing the slide at he mall. I could actually pause to video tape this one since it is age appropriate and it didn't induce an immediate heart attack: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_sY-2cUhmg

Sunsets are also earlier now, so we've gone for night walks/runs around the neighborhood almost every night.  Claire is the one who decided to turn the walks into a run after being inspired by seeing Noah and Violet go for runs with Uncle Matt in my Sister-in-law, Katie's, blog.  Our neighborhood even put in exercise sign posts, so Claire likes to try to do the squats, push-ups, and jumping jacks at each station.  While we were walking, it occurred to me how adorable it is to see little Claire running up to me with a big smile on her face, so I took a four second video of her in action: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybx6c4wIqtw (I absolutely love to watch her curls bounce!)

You can see the exercise sign post at the top of this trail to the beach (near the fence to the right).  Claire is doing a stretch to touch her toes...or maybe she's just picking up another rock for her collection.

A beautiful sunset at the pier!

Will continues tickle my heart with his sweet smile and surprise me with his development.  He is now helping me read his books by saying some of the words on each page, vocalizing "Hi" and "Bye" instead of just waving, trying to eat on his own with utensils, and he's becoming a good little hopper!

Will used to be happy to take the spoon and eat once I put the yogurt or peanut butter on. Now he wants to put the food on the spoon himself.  I better go get some of those bowls with the suction cups on the bottom...because he also likes to throw things and then immediately say, "Uh Oh!"

Will likes bananas, but only when he gets to hold them himself.

And I'm in trouble...this guy knows where the pantry is and he will get the cookies out himself!

Here is video of Will at the beach trying to hop and saying "Hi" and "Bye!" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ot7KR0ntK3I

In other news, our bathroom is coming along!  Chris and I are now at the point where we just want the job to be done!  So all we need to do is electrical (lights and outlets), trim, paint, mirrors, shower glass, and knobs/towel rails.

Here's a pic of our newly grouted tile! It looks SO good with our granite!

Those missing pieces on the tub just went in yesterday. It's hard to tell in this picture, but there's actually a lot of grey green and grey blue in the marble. It's a gorgeous stone!

This weekend I also got to do some sewing!  I had lots of fun putting together some new Elsa and Anna dresses.

Claire's newest Elsa dress. I even got adventurous and put in buttons! Sorry for no front picture.  Claire said she was only going to let me photograph the back. 

My friend Heather's daughter Madison greets Claire by calling her "Elsa" so Claire now calls Madison "Anna." I thought it was so sweet that when I saw this fabric at JoAnn's I just knew I had to make them matching dresses!

I hope everyone is having a GREAT week!
Love,
Bethie