Big Boy Bed

While in Myrtle, I made a trip to Target to buy Krieg some sheets and a blanket so we could convert his crib to a toddler bed. He was so excited that Kevin actually took down the rail the night we got back. Krieg LOVES it! He did great in it last night. In addition to the big boy bed, he has also proven to be growing up by going to the bathroom all by himself. I am SO thankful for this one. I've been trying to get him to go on his own without my help for so long, since he often has to go while I'm feeding Karis or have my hands full, and he finally decided to yesterday. He is so proud of himself! Looks like I will be doing a lot more bathroom cleaning these days though.

Myrtle Beach

This has been an unusual summer for our family, in that we didn't spend most of it in Myrtle Beach at the Leadership Project. I had no idea that I would actually miss it so much. Even though it has its fair share of inconveniences (living in a tiny, dirty motel room, lots of loud noise from crazy students, occasional roaches...) it is so worth it. Being away from the LP has been so confirming in my heart of how much I love our calling to invest in college students. I would not pass up those moments when a student comes to knock on my door to tell me about some huge truth they just grasped, or how God is revealing sin in their heart, for anything!

So when Kevin told me he had to go back to Project for Return Training, I convinced him to take all 3 of us along. We didn't get any pictures on the beach since Karis and I never actually made it down there. But here's one of Krieg in the pool. He learned to "jump" into the pool finally, which was more like a lean.

We had a cute family picture at the hotel last summer and I was hoping to get a similar one of our growing family, but as usual, it proved to be a little difficult. Here's the best we got.

I think Krieg surprised everyone while we were down there by how comfortable he has gotten with other people. Last summer he would not play with almost anyone for fear that I might leave him. This summer everyone was his friend, regardless of whether I was around or not. I am so thankful for how God has graciously taught him to trust other people.

Berries Berries Everywhere

I coerced Kevin into coming blueberry and blackberry picking on a farm in Six Mile this morning. It was great! They had SO many berry bushes, along with grapes, figs, muscadines, and tons of other things on the way. Krieg was in heaven, eating about as many as he put in the basket, but he was very serious about picking them off the bushes. And as usual, Karis was toted along with only a few minutes of fussing until she finally fell asleep in my arms. (She has given up on sleeping in the Bjorn- so sad!)

Our happy picker

Multi-Tasking

Small Town Love

Yet another reason why I love living in a small town (who would have ever thought!)...
Every Thursday afternoon I pack the kids up into the car and drive to Pendleton, about a 5 min drive to the next town over to go to the farmer's market. It has about 10 different vendors selling produce on card tables, and a handful of other craft type things. Well last week I had picked out some tomatoes and patty pan squash from a man, went to pay, and realized I had forgotten my wallet. When he turned down my offer to write him a $2.50 check, he told me to just pay him next week (he had seen me in previous weeks and must have known I was a regular!). So today, I drove back over there, caught him right as he was packing up early b/c of the heat, set out to pay him for last week and pick up a few more tomatoes. Then he asked, "Do you like Cantelope? Here, you can have one...they will go bad if they don't get eaten." Great, thanks! Then as I'm about to hop back in the car a few minutes later, he hands me a watermelon. "Here, you can throw this one in with it."

So much better than the grocery store! Next on our list- family trip to the blueberry farm at 8AM tomorrow morning! And on the list for the next couple of weeks, Clemson's dairy farm and organic farmers market.

Long Legs

We finally made it to a new doctor and Karis' numbers are in. Everyone who sees her comments about how long she is- and they are right- she's in the 95% in length. I guess she's my child! But, she's only 15% in weight, which means apparently I need to start supplementing with formula to beef her up a little. It makes sense now why she is growing out of all her footy PJ's but all of her pants fall off her waist!

And the best moment of the day- Kevin got Karis to laugh for the first time while blowing in her stomach. Then Krieg decided he would join in on the fun and he made her laugh too. It was so cute! I can't wait until the two of them can really play together!

This is about as much as I can get them to play right now.

Four months already

We are loving our sweet four-month old! Karis loves rolling from her back to her tummy, but has strangely forgotten how to roll back over, though she used to know how. The past two days she has decided to take all of her naps on her stomach, which is fine by me. I would have put her on her tummy to sleep sooner, but she still spits up every time she lays on her stomach, so we will probably has some gross spit-up on her face after naps. Oh well! Today she figured out how to scoot herself forward while on her stomach. She moved about 3 feet while I was playing with Krieg. Karis still loves to smile, and LOVES to put anything and everything in her mouth, paci, fingers, toes, bibs, you name it. We have our first doctors appointment with our new doctor on Monday, so we'll see how big she has gotten. (On a side note, it was ridiculously difficult to find a doctor for our 2 healthy kids. 5 Peds/family practice docs weren't accepting new patients and we got rejected by another one!)

Kriegism of the week

Our family parrot (aka-Krieg) has learned a new phrase to express dissappointment- "Oh bummer!" Apparently Kevin and I say that a lot.