This little man is now 11 months old. I can not believe how fast he has grown up. 11 months really?!!

His appearance hasn’t changed much since he was 6 months old. In fact that was confirmed when we went to the doctor last week and they showed me his growth on a growth chart. His weight was practically the same. 19 lbs. 15 oz. He is in the 18th% for weight and 5% for height. Yes you read that right the 5th percentile! I really hope he inherits his dad’s confidence. Kyle still loves his sister despite her obsession with taking his toys. He has the routine down now though. Hallie walks close to him with that look on her face and he instantly screams and makes me aware of what she is about to do. lol He can crawl up the stairs but not down. He loves to walk along furniture and while holding hands. Ben even said he took a couple steps the other day but I missed it and he hasn’t repeated it. We still haven’t found a food he doesn’t love. He likes to share things and then wants them back automatically. His favorite thing to do is chase balls around the house. He will do it for hours, literally! He wants to be grown up and do what his sister does but that’s nothing new. Recently he has become quite attached to Ben. When Ben gets home in the evening Kyle will drop whatever he is doing and cruise to see his dad. Ben of course loves it. Most of all my Ky man is still the sweetest little guy I know.

Oh how this little guy has changed my life and completed our family!

I hope we spend lots of time at the pool this summer. We are all at our happiest when we are pool side. Our townhouse ‘community’ does not have a pool so we are at the mercy of others. Big thanks to Lindsey for inviting us to her pool today. We had a blast and I got some great pictures.

Gosh I love them. They are just so stinkin cute!

This past Saturday we went on a boat ride on the Occoquan River. We often go there to walk around the “historic” town and eat yummy homemade pie. This time we hopped on a boat and saw an hours worth of the river. It was a fun family adventure.

Hallie really enjoyed feeding the geese while we were waiting to get on the boat. She is still talking about the geese fighting over the food. haha

Once upon a time we had these amazing friends named the Hooper’s. They were our first friends when we moved out east. They loaned us their microwave for the first year we lived here and have given us several of their baby items for our kiddos to use. Our husbands get along great and talk like they are in the relief society. For heaven’s sake we even share a Costco membership! haha We were the best of friends and then…..they MOVED! ahhh I cried! Alas, such is life. The good news is that we have been able to see them 3 times since they moved 10 months ago. This last time they drove out to VA to see us. We were all giddy with excitement. (Even Ben who doesn’t get excited about much. lol) Here are some pictures of our fun.

With all that we did I can’t believe I didn’t take more pictures of us all together. I guess that just means we will have to get together again! Road trip! 🙂 Thanks Hooper’s we sure love ya!

p.s. Funniest part of our trip to Great Falls was when Hallie pretended that her imaginary friend Diego fell over the edge into the water. We had to throw him a pretend rope and pull him up. He then got a lecture about being careful by his two year old master. lol I love the things she comes up with.

Summer arrived with temperatures of 95 degrees for a week straight. The only place to be when it is that hot outside is the pool. Thanks to our friends the Caprio’s and Blakely’s we went swimming twice on Memorial day. It was the perfect day! All four of us love the water. It’s a shame our skin is soooo fair because we would stay outside all day if we weren’t so scared of our babies skin burning. Oh well, thank goodness for sunscreen 🙂

This weekend has been full of Ben and the kids spoiling me with love. I got to sleep in, change less diapers, and have some girl time with friends. I am so grateful to be a mother. Being a wife and mother are the best things that have ever happened to me. They are my everything!

Easter is always a wonderful holiday! It is all about celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the promise that life doesn’t end when we die. I really tried to teach Hallie about the resurrection this year. (I don’t have anything against the easter bunny but we opted to not mention anything about it to Hallie.) When we asked her what Easter was about she would tell us that bad guys killed Jesus and then 3 days later he came back to life. Ben also took the time to teach her a lesson about our bodies and our spirits using a glove and hand.

The Easter festivities included a pre-easter party at my friend Corina’s house, a naked easter egg hunt on Easter morning (only Hallie was naked btw), a wonderful church meeting-besides me wrestling both kids during sacrament meeting (ben was on the stand being the choir narrator) and Hallie yelling at me, “Let go of me, don’t touch me!” so the whole congregation could hear. And it ended with a wonderful meal. (The sure way to please Ben!)

FYI: Potty Training has introduced Hallie to the world of being naked. She would run around naked all day if I let her…so sometimes I do. 🙂

This past week we had amazing weather. We took walks to the park every morning, played outside for hours, and wore sunscreen and short sleeves. It was heaven! One day we even went swimming at my friend Lindsey’s house. I love warm weather; it makes me and my kids happy.

I can’t seem to get enough hugs and squeezes from this chubby boy. Gosh I just love him!

Wonderful Nanna bought Hallie some rain boots and a rain jacket. Here she is living her 2 year old life to the fullest!

My favorite part was when she laid on the ground and started singing a song from the movie “Tangled”. It went something like “the grass, the dirt, just like I dreamed they’d be”  lol She was really into it! I got it on video but need to post it. It is hilarious!!!