summertime!

Are you ready for a bunch of random pictures?!  It's obviously been awhile since I posted, so I have lots and lots of pictures from our camera and my phone that I don't want to lose.  So in no particular order...here's what we've been up to for the past month.

Jonathan and Jordan got married!  It was SUCH a fun wedding.  Unfortunately, in the chaos of having three kids {and both of us} in the wedding party, we didn't take any pictures.  Like...at all.  But here are a few of Will getting ready, courtesy of Uncle Alex.

Love this one!!

And since the girls were, ahem, less than enthusiastic about photos at the wedding, even when attempted by the professional photographer...here's a pic of Caroline modeling their flower girl dress beforehand.  It might be the only photographic evidence that they were, in fact, flower girls!  ;)

And one more of Will in his tux!  This was actually at Men's Warehouse when we picked it up.  He was so excited to have the same tuxedo as Uncle Jonathan.  :)

We've also been working in the yard A LOT!  When we moved in, it was pretty clear that the previous {elderly} owners hadn't been able to care for the yard for several years, so we had lots to do.  But since there was so much to do inside first, we are just now concentrating on the outside.  First, several months ago, we {Matt} jack-hammered up a concrete path that went across the front of the house.  It was so close to the house that it left only about a foot for bushes, flowers, etc.  So Matt rented a jack-hammer and broke up all the concrete.  Then came the hard part.  All the super thick concrete had to be pulled out of the ground, and then Matt and Jonathan had to load up allllll the pieces into a u-haul, which we {Matt} had to drive to the city dump.  When they loaded it all up, the guys estimated that they had moved 2000 lbs of concrete.  When Matt weighed going in and out at the dump, he found out it was actually 6000+ pounds!!  And he unloaded it all by himself at 5am!  So once we got all of that out, we lined the beds with paver stones and now we're working on filling them up.  There are a few existing shrubs that we are leaving, but there are lots of areas that we've added new things.  It's fun!  I never ever ever thought I would say that I enjoy landscaping and working in the yard, but suddenly...I do!  I've been spending most of the kids' naptimes outside planting, watering, putting in paver stones, etc.  I will admit that having a pool helps a ton, because when it's miserably hot outside, it's so nice to be able to jump into the pool after working.

Back to the pictures!  Here is the demo part of the project.  Obviously, this was awhile ago...they are wearing long sleeves!

I need to take some more pictures of the flower beds, but here's a collage I made from some pictures on my phone.  Pretty flowers!

We also pulled up some weird fern/weed-ish plants that were around one of the trees in front and some monkey grass {my nemesis} that was around another.  We have also put down lots of new grass to fill in some spots that didn't have any.  Lots of work!

Will likes to help water.

{Clearly this pic was taken before the new grass arrived!}

Are you still with me?  Sorry.  That was a long tangent about our yard.  At least I didn't make you look at pictures of the back too.  We put in lots of new flowers back there too....and paver stones.  But that's enough yard talk.  What else have we been up to this summer?

We eat ice cream by the pool in pajamas.

We share food.

We hang out with grandparents.

{also in pajamas, apparently}

We do whatever this is...

 We practice writing on the chalkboard.

We send lego-man off the high-dive.

{Good luck, lego-man....pretty sure there is no pool.}

We wake up happy!

 We swim, LOTS!

We pass out in piles of books after a long day of swimming.

We wear hats.

{baby girls LOVE hats and shoes!}

We play together.  Look at Caroline in the back....she's checking to see if I'm watching...

And one leg in...

And she's in the trailer!  Success!

 {I finally had to detach that trailer because she was constantly getting in, and she can't get out without hurting herself.  Silly girl.  She is a climber, big time!}

We also play without clothes on!

{just the babies...I promise that the rest of us wear clothes.  Obviously except sometimes Will.}

Caroline

Love this. Emily got caught red-handed with Daddy's phone.  Look at that expression!

Her punishment?  TICKLE MONSTER!

And here's one of the girls' favorite games, ever.  I don't even try to fold {or let's be honest...color-coordinate} the bottom drawer of pants anymore, because they get thrown out and put back in about 10 times a day.  

This picture is kind of cool.  Looks like one baby and a reflection to me!

So funny to have twins.  So often, Matt and I look at each other and say, "Do we have TWINS?!"  You'd think the novelty would wear off after 15 months.  Nope. 

 We also have enjoyed having friends over to swim and cook out.  Sweet Ben came to play a few weeks ago.

Caroline, poolside.

 Miss Emily

Will and Brian enjoyed some noodle time together. 

One morning, we made a batch of edible finger paint.  Everyone enjoyed it!  

Here's Caroline making her masterpiece.

As with most things, Emily was a bit more thoughtful and serious. {and a little less messy}

Will is still a little hesitant with finger paints. {he never liked them as a baby}

But he had fun too!

And last week, we got to see Aunt Christa, Stephenie, and Braden!  Will immediately became best friends with Braden and kept him in the pool most of the time, so he isn't in the picture.  Such a fun visit!

And finally....we've been growing a garden!  We've been picking the little cherry tomatoes for several days, but this weekend we had our first harvest of one big tomato, a pepper, and an awesome squash.  Will was SO excited!

What a fun summer!

happy mother's day!

As I was sitting here thinking about Mother's Day and uploading some pictures, I realized that when I think about my precious babies, this is what I tend to see in my mind:

{will}

{emily}

Here's a little video of E from the NICU...just a couple of days old and so so tiny!

{caroline}

  

And a video of Caroline from the NICU...just so crazy how tiny she is compared to Matt's hand!

{little loves}

And of course, we can't forget this picture.  

total.game.changer.

But although I still think of these little ones as the teeniest of newborns sometimes, it turns out that my babies aren't quite so little anymore.  {Now, don't get me wrong...they are absolutely still babies!  Just....big babies who are turning so quickly into kids.}  And while the past couple of years have been undoubtedly crazier, busier, and more challenging than I would have ever expected life to be, I feel so very blessed to have been chosen to be the mother of these amazing kids.  I am in awe of them, and I can't wait to see what they will do next.

Love these three!

even when they're being a bit dramatic...

{my most dramatic one shown here...love you, C!}

    

I just can't get enough of these sweet faces.

And I love how they play together more and more these days!

Sweet kisses from Will

Honestly, I'm not sure if he was waving to me, or preparing to smack E on the head, but in the spirit of Mother's Day, we'll say he was waving.  ;)

So back to the point of all my reminiscing and sappy writing about my kids....we had a GREAT mother's day today! :)  We started with bagels and coffee brought home by Matt and Will, and then we spent the morning playing, watering flowers, and enjoying the beautiful weather.  Then I took a shower.  In the morning.  All by myself, and in no rush!  I even dried my hair, woohoo!  Then we had our family all over to celebrate with a cookout {and swim party, but the water was too cold for most of us to want to swim}.  I didn't take many pictures, but we took a few at the beginning:

And we can't forget the pinata.  Will had asked about pinatas for some reason a few weeks ago, so when Matt and I were at Garden Ridge buying our pool furniture, we saw this tiny little guy and had to get it for him.  And what better time to bust out the pinata than Mother's Day?!  Fun for all.

What a fun day celebrating our wonderful mothers, both of whom are so very loved by all of us.  We are beyond lucky that Mimi and Nana both live so close and are able to be such important parts of the kids' lives.  We couldn't do it without them!    

Happy Mother's Day!