Summer Catch Up

I've been a blog slacker lately but I guess that is a sign of being super busy and enjoying summer!  We have definitely been enjoying our summer whether it has been relaxing at home and at the pool or being on the go with friends and doing other fun things.  I absolutely love every minute of summer and it makes me so sad to think in a few weeks it will all be ending.  I love having Cohen home from school even though there are days I think I may go crazy.  Its all part of life and I love it.  The girls are so fun and are really at a good age to play together and be able to go out and have fun with both.  Over the last few weeks we have had fun at our Bible school which was a sports theme this year, we have made visits to the farmer's market & peach orchards, I took the girls to see Disney Jr. Live in Athens, and just this past weekend the girls had so much going on while they stayed with Sug and Suzy while Kelly & I were gone to the Bahamas (another post entirely).  July has overall been a calm month for us though and we have also enjoyed weekends at home which we love.   I love being able to relax at home and then stay outside late playing with our neighbors.  The kids love being able to play with their friends and it just reminds me that its the little things that they love the most and enjoy just as much as any big outing.  We have loved going to Ronnie & Tonya's pool too.  Both of these girls love the pool!  Kate also loves going to the pool and having snacks!  I celebrated my birthday last week and the girls were precious with their sweet cards they made me and doing everything they could to make my day special.  Cohen and I went to have pedicures that day which is something special we can do together.   She loves getting her toes painted especially with a design, and on that particular day she wanted to sit in the chair and have her feet "washed" like I do.  She is precious.  Kate has become a big fan of our flowers in the yard because they attract a lot of butterflies.  She will stand outside at the flowers and try her best to catch one, and most of the time she is successful.  She also loves to catch fireflies when it starts to get dark.  I love it!  It reminds me of when I was little.  Nothing thrills her more than to catch a bug!  This summer Kelly and Cohen picked some blackberries in our backyard and with my mama's help we made jelly!  That was big in my book!  haha! 

Last week we made our monthly visit to the doctor for our baby check up.  It was my glucose test.  I actually had both girls with me on this visit which was fine.  The visits are so short and they did very well.  Kate had to take in a balloon from my birthday the day before and they had a brief balloon hitting match in the room but otherwise were very well behaved.  The baby's heartbeat was 140, and everything is doing great.  I know it is coming so quick!  I am now 28 weeks and I know once school starts it will all start flying by at the speed of light!  

Here are a ton of pics to sum up a lot of what we have been doing these past few weeks!!

Night 1 of Fam Jam:

Someone got wet at messy games

Kate playing soccer 

Cohen & Savannah Carrying the ball with no hands involved 

The favorite Cheeto game

Digging for worms!

Night #2 and the fun dress-up pics from having a sleepover with Josie!

Sums these 2 up!  I love these silly girls!

More fun at messy games!  Cohen had to have 2 nights of it!

Kate playing football

This was from the last night...she was enjoying the ice cream

More random summer fun pictures!

Kate & Nolan at the pool

About to grab a nasty bug!

Cohen was taking a rest during our visit to the farmer's market

Kate loves to ride with her window down...she will beg to have her window "up"...aka down!

Shelling peas

My sweet birthday cards...from all my artists

Pedicure time with my favorite

One of my birthday gifts was a chaise lounge chair for the porch...I love how Kate is twirling her baton too!

selfies in the doctor's office!

 While we were in the Bahamas, Sug and Suzy kept the girls busy.  On Thursday the girls got to walk to Sug's school when she was little and then play on the playground.  On Friday they went to a petting zoo and both girls rode on the ponies.  I loved getting the pictures and seeing the fun they were having!

Here is Kate trying to catch a butterfly on our flowers 

Hiking!

Sunday we decided to take the girls and go on a little hike.  There are so many waterfalls to hike to that are close by or just a short drive to get to over in South Carolina.   Kelly had pulled up about 4 choices and we decided on one that was fairly short and not very hard.  It also said it was a great little swim at the waterfall especially for children.  It turns out that moderate on paper meant a short trail, but very narrow and steep.  One that was fine for adults but made this mama nervous with 2 kids!  They did great though and we made it fine.  The waterfall was Brasstown Falls and it was very pretty.     We did the first part of the hike and then let the girls swim in the water and climb around on the rocks.  They both loved it.  Cohen was climbing all over the rocks and kept wanting to go to the edge of the water where it dropped off to another waterfall.  She must have been feeling extra brave!   They had a blast splashing around in the water though!

Cohen was so sweet helping to make sure Kate didn't slip

We decided to try hiking down further to see the next waterfall.  It wasn't far at all but it was a rough trail and very NARROW!  A lot of the time we had to do some climbing (down & up).  When we got to the waterfall we decided right away this would be as far as we would go.  That swimming wasn't quite as good for children since it was colder and deeper.  Kate didn't even get in at all and Cohen was in and out pretty quick.  The waterfall itself was very pretty though, so I'm glad we went on down.  When it was time to climb back out, Kelly decided to put Kate on his shoulders which still made me nervous.   I sure didn't want them both slipping or tripping!  He made it fine though and soon we got to a point that she could walk.  She was most excited about him finding her a worm!  You know Kate...nature girl who loves worms, caterpillars, frogs, you name it...just not a bug!  Cohen had made the mistake of telling her it would be a good place to see frogs so she was wanting a frog so bad but the worm made up for it.   I think it ended up in 2 pieces...yuck!  On a good side note, we have been making more progress with potty training these last few days.    We had the potty in the back of the car with us and she went all day in it.  YAY!  Its the small victories that we take and celebrate!  We finished our day by eating at McAlisters in Clemson.  Kelly and I had our first date at McAlisters in Athens and we miss that place dearly!  I'm glad Clemson isn't far and we can go to that one...the one good thing about Clemson ;)   It was a perfect way to end the day!

You can tell here that the water was a little bit deeper :) Further back was over Kelly's head!

Coming out on the little trail

Climbing up!

Showing off her worm...she was one happy girl!