1 and a half years old!

We are so big now that we don't have to use our trays - we can eat at the big table!

Alex is not shy with his 1/2 year birthday cupcake

Helen is so sweet - she is offering to share some of her cupcake with mommy

Ella wants to wrap up her cupcake in her mat and save it for later

Daddy reading to his girls

Mommy decided that this seating arrangement made it easier to reach everyone. The added bonus is that now everyone is within reach and can trade food.

Last weekend we went up to Georgia to visit Cecil's grandmother - we got this beach ball at the store and let them play in the yard. Ella is not shy about checking it out.

Alex and Grandmother check out the yard and the new toys

Ella tries to pick it up but it proves to be a little too heavy even for her

Helen just likes to push her wagon and stay outside the range of the spraying water

April and Ella play with the bubbles

Helen with her wagon again

Now Helen decided she wants to try to catch the water in her shovel and Alex is trying to catch it in his bucket

Ella is checking things out in the grass

After church on Sunday, we tried to get a family picture

Memorial Day

Everyone loves playing in the new ball tent

Grandma and Grandpa came to town for Memorial Day. Here's Grandpa reading to Ella

Helen likes to relax on the couch with a good book

Grandma, Grandpa, Alex, Helen, and Ella

Eating on the back porch at our Memorial Day cook out

Alex enjoying his food (as always)

Everyone is digging into to Daddy's yummy BBQ chicken

Helen is using her fork like a pro

Go Gators!! Helen and Ella are doing their elephant imitation - hey, whatever gets them to sit still for a picture!

Alex

Helen

Ella

Mommy, Daddy, Indi and three very wiggly babies

Alex loves sweeping the front porch

Our First Haircuts

Helen getting her first hair cut

After they got their hair cut, the girls also got little pony tails and their hair sprayed with glitter (Cecil was a little less than thrilled with the idea of his two daughters in halter tops and jean shorts with pony tails and glitter - but they were so darn cute!)

Ella plays in the bean bags after her hair cut

Helen with her stylish new 'do

Alex is looking pretty clean cut and handsome too (although this is really his second hair cut - he was as unenthusiastic about this one as he was the last one)

Swim lessons

Alex is learning to reach for the wall

Helen is trying to make it to the wall

Helen is not excited about her swim lesson

I think Ella's look says it all - "Why are you doing this to me? And don't think I will ever forget this!"

Ella reaching for the wall

Alex going for the wall

Cecil and I decided to put the kids in an infant water surival class. It does not teach them how to swim but it does teach them how to survive if they ever fall into water. The first few weeks are just about teaching them to get to the wall. Eventually they will learn how to flip onto their back to breathe, then flip back over to kick to the wall. Needless to say, the kids are not thrilled about these lessons but we know it is important for them to do them. All last week they got rained out and we are sure that it is because Ella was doing the rain dance every night in her crib. They are slowly but surely learning it. Alex is doing the best with kicking his feet and moving his arms to get to the wall. The girls are still floating face down instead of trying to get to the wall. I think Alex is going to be our little fish!

Long Time No Post

Ella loves snuggling up with her doggies - here she is with Jule

And here she is petting Indi

20 minutes to clean up at night, less than 5 minutes to destroy in the morning

One morning Ella got into my gym bag and found my goggles. I did not realize it until she came walking into me with the goggles on her head like this. I don't know that she has ever seen goggles before or how she knew that they go on your head.

Alex is not enjoying his time out

Helen is kicking back in her favorite chair with a good book and her sippy cup

Alex likes to sit on all the books

Ella is having a blast riding horsey on daddy's leg

Ella and Alex are going night night in their frog tent

Whew! I is amazing how fast time goes. I did not realize how far behind I was with postings until I downloaded pictures and realized it had been a month. So sorry! But we are all doing great. The kids are growing much too fast. We've been to the doctor for a check up and everyone has a clean bill of health. Ella is barely 20 pounds and Alex is almost 25 pounds. Helen is the tallest of the bunch but only beats out Alex by 1/2 an inch.

The kids are talking more - both with sign language and with words. Helen's newest word is "baby." They are really getting into their animal sounds too. Ella can make sounds for a lion, a sheep, an elephant, and a frog (for the frog, she cannot actually ribbit but she does jump up and down because she knows a frog jumps). Their receptive language is amazing. They seem to undertand everything we say. For example, it is really handy when I am changing a baby and I can ask another one to go get me a diaper - and they do it! Thank goodness they are still in the phase when it is fun to help mommy.

Ella is going through a kissing phase where she loves to give everyone kisses. Granted they are open mouth sloppy kisses but they are adorable and I love every one. She'll stop in the middle of whatever she is doing just to come over and give a kiss. So precious!

Their 18 month birthday is tomorrow - a year and a half old! So hard to believe. It goes by much too fast.

We are now in the construction phase instead of destruction - we can build towers with our blocks!

We went away for a couple of nights for our anniversary - April was a lifesaver and came to watch the kids for us. Here's Helen being coy with April.

Ella thinks she can wear April's shoes

Alex is combing his hair

Helen feeding herself yogurt - a big milestone!

Alex quickly figured out that if he can master the spoon thing, he gets a lot more in his mouth for each effort

Ella is still a little confused about which end of the spoon to use

Eating outside - after a fun afternoon of playing in the pool, it was easier to eat outside than get cleaned up to come inside. I did not think they would actually sit at the table but they did

Outside is a great place to eat pudding too