Another busy weekend

My dad came to visit us this past weekend. It was a really short trip but we were all glad to have him here. He'd never been to DC (or really anywhere on the East Coast) so we showed him around town a little bit. He also got to spend lots of time with Jack and Cullen which was obviously the real reason he came all the way out here. And he brought with him the COOLEST present from my whole family... a pair of Lakers shorts autographed by all of this year's starters!! The boys send huge thank you's to their grandparents and all of their aunts and Uncle Jon for this awesome gift!! And it's probably the only thing they've gotten so far that they'll be able to enjoy forever and never grow out of!! THANK YOU!!!

Jack and his grandpa in front of the Capitol

It was such a beautiful day!! Hot, but beautiful!

My dad's first time seeing the White House

Jack's seen it all before, he was more interested in napping in his comfy stroller

After church on Sunday we went to the National Archives and Cullen got to ride on his grandpa's shoulders while waiting in line

Jack chewing on the Bjorn

Just a random picture from last night but Cullen looks so cute I couldn't resist posting it!

These are adorable, I just love them!!

Thanks for coming to see us Daddy! We can't wait to see you again in the fall!

Happy Father's Day

Brandon,

Happy First Father's Day!! I can not tell you how blessed I am to have the opportunity to raise our two boys with you. I could not imagine a better partner for parenthood. I admire the ease with which you approach having children (although sometimes it annoys me), it really helps to calm me when I feel overwhelmed. I know that we can do this together and that we'll not only survive it but we'll succeed at it as long as we keep Christ at the center of our family. I can't wait for when we'll be able to talk with and play with our boys, we have so much to look forward to!

Thank you for the countless back and foot massages you gave me while I was pregnant, thank you for being the best support I could have asked for during our stay in the hospital, thank you for being such a hands-on father these past 6 months, thank you for praying with me for our boys, thank you for leading our family so well.

Jackson and Cullen may never know how blessed they are to have you for a father, but I do! I love you more than ever after seeing you become a father and I can't wait for what's to come!

Love,

Kim

Finally!!

Whenever people come over to my house I get lots of weird looks because there are no pictures up of the boys... none at all. I take a million of my own pictures but never develop them. And it took me over 4 months to order their newborn pictures from our photographer and then there was a little glitch in the order so they took almost 2 more months to get here, but they finally came!!

Yesterday, I put them all into the frame set I had ordered from Walmart (only $20 for 10 frames!!) and arranged them on the kitchen table the way I wanted them hung. Brandon graciously hung them all up for me even though it took much more time and mathematical skill than I thought it would. I went on and on about how easy it would be but it turns out he was right, I guess I didn't think it through well enough. Oh well, it turned out so great and I LOVE looking at these sweet pictures of my boys taken when they were only 1 week old. I smile every time I walk by the wall now :-) Here's the finished product:

Here are close-ups of each of the pictures. (They're pretty grainy because I couldn't figure out how to operate our scanner so I just took pictures of the pictures). And please don't ask me to tell you which kid is which because I haven't the faintest idea.

This one's my favorite, the way he's holding onto his Daddy's hand just melts my heart!

I ordered some in color and am going to frame them and put them in the boys' nursery and in our bedroom.




They were SO small and now they've already grown so much in just 6 months! These pictures are a good reminder to me to savor these days while they're still sweet babies because I'll never get them back.

Oh and a HUGE thanks to my handy husband for hanging these! Here's a funny conversation that took place as we were hanging them:

Me: "Brandon, just use the leveler to make sure all the edges are even."

Brandon: "There's no such thing as a 'leveler' Kim, it's called a level."

Me: "Well, whenever something performs an action, you can just add an 'er' to the end of the word and it becomes a noun. So I can call it a leveler because that's what it does, it levels things."

Brandon: "Oh, like 'whiner'? Yeah, I guess you're right..."

More Pictures

Here are some more pictures from the past week. This first bunch is from last Sunday when we walked around the Mall with Renee and Jon after church.

Jackson

Cullen

He's holding his own bottle!! I can't believe it!!

Here are some pictures from their first feeding

Mmm, that's pretty good Mom

Here's what I was talking about when I said they were screaming for more

A Conversation with Cullen

Yum Yum

On Monday, we gave the boys their first taste of solids!! We were going to wait until their 6 month birthday but they have been so fussy and hungry after every meal lately so we decided to give them some rice cereal a couple weeks early. And they loved it! They were literally screaming for more in between bites! It's just as messy (if not more so) than we were anticipating but it was oh so fun! Here's the videos for you all to enjoy this milestone :-)