More Pictures

These picture are all from our Father's Day picnic last week

Jackson

Cullen

Tough Guy

6 Months!!

I meant to post this on Tuesday which was their actual 6-month birthday but life got in the way. We had a doctor's appointment on Tuesday morning and found out they are growing big and strong! They have changed so much over the past 3 months it's hard to keep up with it all, but here's what they're up to lately:

*They will put anything and everything into their mouths as soon as they get their hands on it.
* About a month ago, they discovered that their feet are endlessly entertaining and now constantly play with them. This makes diaper changes difficult since they immediately reach for their feet and won't let go.
*They've both become a lot more clingy recently. They get very upset when nobody's in the room with them and if I leave them playing on the floor to go cook dinner they start to throw tantrums until I come back. They have been practicing their most pitiful cries and wails and save them up for these moments.
*When this happens while they're in their bouncer or activity center they throw their heads back and their arms out into the air. Sometimes, they'll accidently hit a button and music will start playing. This usually stuns them for a few seconds and they often forget why they were crying in the first place.
*They interact with each other a lot more now. They are always reaching for each other while they're playing and trying to eat each other's hands and feet. Sometimes they even smile at each other which I think is just the sweetest thing ever.
*They aren't big on rolling over although they definitely know how to do it, they prefer to just roll from side to side. If I place them on their tummies they eventually roll to their backs but they have only rolled from their backs to their stomachs a handful of times.
*They love to watch the cats and (if they're sitting within reach) pull out large fistfuls of cat hair and eat it. Then I have to spend 15 minutes fishing out a million little white hairs from their mouths.
*They now play with all the toys in their activity centers and have just recently begun frantically waving their rattles and stuffed animals in the air or banging two toys together.
*I have a feeling they will grow up to be little daredevils because they seem to love the sensation of falling. They have always liked to be bounced but now they like us to throw them in the air or jump up and down with them in our arms. They also love hanging upside down and whenever they're laying on my lap they scoot themselves so that their head is hanging off upside down.
*They "talk" incessantly and have started making gasping sounds lately too. They have also started laughing at things going on around them rather than just in response to us smiling at, tickling, or bouncing them.
*Last night they slept for 11 hours!! From 8:30 until 7:30!! Over the next few weeks we'll try to put them to bed even earlier and hopefully they'll keep sleeping for 10-12 hour stretches.
*At only 6 months their eyelashes are longer and thicker than mine will ever be. We seriously need to have a girl because it seems unfair to waste such beautiful eyelashes on boys!
*They haven't grown much hair, they're still little baldies! They even have a full-on bald spot on the backs of their heads from sleeping on their backs. When I was a baby I had masses of dark hair but Brandon had hardly any so they obviously take after him.
*Speaking of Brandon, they looove their daddy!! They already get excited when they see him walk in the door and they just love to play with him. If Brandon's in the room while I'm nursing them, he has to stay out of sight and keep quiet or else they'll whip their heads around to look for him and if they catch sight of him they refuse to nurse any more.
*They still love to go for walks and be around other people, they are great when I take them to Bible Study and are content to play on the floor and look around. Last week, Cullen started cracking up out of nowhere (I think he was laughing at a lady's foot that was above his head) and soon the entire Bible Study was laughing with him.
*They still haven't mastered sitting up but are steadily getting better at balancing themselves for longer stretches of time. Cullen is still better at it than Jack but I think this is probably because he's bigger and a little sturdier around the middle than Jack.
*When they take baths now they kick their legs excitedly and splash water all over the kitchen and me. I am excited for them to get big enough to take baths in the bathtub together, they just need to learn to sit up a little better first.
*Sometimes when they see us eating, they start making chewing motions with their mouths.

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..."