Summer Daze are coming to an End :(

We are so sad that our summer days are coming to an end. We've had a great summer. It's been so different with a toddler, we found ourselves almost ever weekend toting her around to show her all the local grand attraction. We've done stuff every weekend as a family. It's been wonderful. We are amazed daily at our little toddler and how much she has learned. She communicates so well with us and can answer all our questions and she'll tell us all sorts of things.

Some of the cute stuff she's been up to lately is she plays this little game with me where she'll say to me "Your priddy" and I'll say back to her "Your pretty" and we bounce back and forth with that. It's really cute. Another cute thing is she now sings her ABC's she knows almost all the letters and parts of the song but things get kinda jumbled up. So she starts out singing ABC-then moves on to EFP and then "Now I know my ABCs" then MNO. It's really cute because she's singing this and it's all out of tune in cute baby voice. I'm trying to capture this on video which is much harder then it sounds. She has video camera radar and will stop as soon as I go to get it. Her favorite show right now is Super Why it comes on PBS weta kids and it's this really cute cartoon about a super hero who reads to "save the day" so she hears the ABC's a lot from this show. It's really educational and more for the level of a 3-4 year old, so of course we feel proud that she loves this show and is learning to read at the age of 22 months!

She is really funny, anytime you ask her something and she doesn't know she'll say "I don't know" which is a lot. Sometimes I ask her stuff on purpose that she doesn't know just so I can hear her say "Idohknow". She is also still a big time apologizer and will constantly say that she is sorry. Any time she bumps her head or falls down she says "I sorry". She spilled a cherry slushy all down her at Busch Garden's and she kept saying "I sorry". It was hard not to laugh (she was crying because it was so cold). She also is very good with her manners, she always says "Thank You", "welcome" and "bless you", she sometimes gets them mixed up as to when to say them but she tries and it's always so cute to hear. One of her latest little phrases is "I want it too" anytime she sees something she wants or gets flustered for words she says this and we're automatically suppose to know what she wants.

We also had a chance to take one last getaway before the summer melts away. We went to Williamsburg to see my brother Troy, Katie and Collin. Troy apparently has senioritis from Law School and took a break and played with us for the day. It was fun hanging out with them, we went to Busch Garden's together and then to Virginia Beach (just the 3 of us went). It was a great mini-vacation. It was really cute to see Collin and Kate play together. We were fascinated with Kate at Busch Gardens and all the rides she went on by herself. I had no idea 22 month old child could do this. Here are a few pictures.

Kate and Collin at Busch Gardens, Collin did such a great job assisting Kate with the rides, he was such a big helper and is going to be a great Big Brother when the new baby arrives!

Kate loved to play in the sand at the beach, and at first she was less then thrilled about the ocean and would run from it. After awhile she did warm up to the surf and she let us hold her in the water as the waves came in. We could've spent days there but all we had was the afternoon , it was so worth it. It was perfect beach weather, we didn't even set up our umbrella's or chairs we just sat down at the edge of the water and played with Kate.

Introducing All The Cousins

Here are all the cousins on Brock's side of the family. Notice how they are ALL being good (for the most part) except one little girl, I won't mention who it is! This picture is special because there is a new cousin here just 2 weeks old. Nana and Grandad are holding Kara Afton.

Brock with his new niece

Play Date with Allie

We had Allie over for a play date. She was a lot of fun and it was cute to see Kate as Allie's shadow. These girls are more like sisters then anything. They are in day care together. It was kinda funny I asked Allie if her dad worked to which she said "Yes" and then I asked her if her mom works to which she replied "No". I'm sure her mom wouldn't agree that taking care of kids all day isn't work. Allie thinks that kids show up at her house everyday to play with her! That's one lucky kid.

Sleep Tight

As many mom's know there isn't any thing cuter then a sleeping child. They are even more cute when they look like this...

Remember the post about all her stuffed animals? Her bear is her pillow and she is completely snuggled on top of her pillow

This picture is just funny

Fun at the Fair

The county fair came to town and we had so much fun we went twice, both times with Ms. Kimmie and her family. The first day we went with the daycare and mom's which ended up being Ms. Kimmie her daughter Allie, Kim and Cole (neighbors as well as go to the daycare) and us. We had such a great time, there was so much to see. The biggest hit was the petting zoo and the rodeo. The rodeo was so much fun we wanted to go back and bring the husbands so we ended up going back for a second day of fun, sophie came with us the second time. Here are pictures. I know it's a lot.

Kate was so cute with the animals, she loved feeding them

This is a funny site, it's a little people train we had Cole hold Allie's leash and Allie hold Kate's leash. We got a lot of head turns for this one.

I couldn't resist sharing this one

This was the 2nd day we went back Kate was a little braver this time and let the camel eat from her hand

That ol'camel actually liked little ol Kate!

This was a game Kate played where she had to pick a duck, she picked the Lucky Duck so got to pick any prize she wanted. She picked a stuffed purple duck. It was really cute watching her pick moving ducks from the water

It was fun to have Sophie come along with us, Kate loved hanging out with her big cousin. Sophie is in the pink shirt

No fair is complete without a corn dog

Sophie was so cute, she helped Kate pet the calf

This picture is just adorable and again we got a lot of comments and head turns from this. Notice the purple duck!

Morning Rituals

This is something that Brock calls "our morning rituals". Every morning, after breakfast and while still in Pj's Brock and Kate go "water the tomoatos". When Kate hears daddy say "lets go water the tomoatos" she runs to the back door yelling "outside!". She loves helping dada but doesn't water anything except the patio and her watercan (you'll see in the video). It's so cute that the two of them do this. The video is actually really boring so bless you if you make it through it. I think it's cute only because I love the subject of it! My favorite part of the video is when Brock says "this is probably the best part of my day" referring to him and Kate "watering the tomato's". Oh Brock is very very very proud of his tomoto plants and shows them off to me daily. Oh I hate how I talk on video, I'm going to try and be less of a dork.

The Circle of Life

This ended up being a crazy week and my head is spinning a little from it still. On Sunday July 20th we found out a childhood friend of Brock's was killed. It is tragic that his life was cut so short. His name was Luke and he was only 27. We went to the funeral yesterday (Friday, July 25th). It was sad to be there are be reminded that his life was cut short, it just seemed like he had so much more life to live. It's hard to heal from the loss of a loved one, even with the knowledge of the Gospel, it's still hard to understand why we can't be with our loved ones a little longer on earth.

The same day as the funeral, Lark and Jacob (Lark is Brock's littlest sister) welcomed their first born into their family. Welcome Kara Afton we are so glad you are here! Born sometime around 5pm-ish, she was 3 weeks early due to some complications with preclampsia she weighed in at 7lbs exactly and 18" long.(I'm gonna try and get a picture) We can't wait to meet our new neice.

Life is good and bad, and hard and sometimes easy. The circle of life helps me appreciate everyone around me. I'm so thankful for my family, I try and not miss an opportunity to be with them and let them know how much I love them. You all think I'm blogging for you, but I'm really bloggin for me. It helps me remember lifes little moments with Kate and Brock I'm so thankful I have both of them.