Lola is My Helper!

Lola has become a very big helper since her brother came along. Many times she will run to get me a diaper, wipes, burp rags, or keep her brother company if I need to step out of the room. He has started to recognize her and he smiles BIG at her and laughs.
Most days we all take a nap together. In the picture below they were both sleeping and she popped her eyes open right when I stood over them with the camera.
Tummy time!
Tonight Lola set the table for us. As you can see there is a napkin, fork, and knife at each place.

She is a wonderful little girl and I am so thankful that she is mine.

In other news.................................

I was trying to take Deacon's picture on Monday afternoon. He kept slouching over, so I put him on his tummy, AND........................................

He rolled over!

"Watch me, mom! Here I go!"

He has done it a total of 3 times. He has to be pushed up all the way on his arms, which is still hard for him to do because of his chubby little belly. You can tell he is really trying to though.
That's all for now.

Here's a few pictures from the last few days.

Deacon liked his jumparoo.

Why are you taking our picture again woman?

This one's cute even though it came out blurry.

I do have some pics of Lola to upload, but I am going to bed now. I hope you all don't think I favor one of my children over the other.......I'll post pics of Lola very soon.

Goodnight.

~Jessica~

Title-Less

It's just every day life around here. Lola is still in swimming lessons through next week, and Deacon is being a sweet little nugget and growing like a weed. Below is him sleeping like a pea in a pod.

Lola (aka Betty Crocker) bakes brownies!

Hollywood here I come!

Deacon's duckie jammies. Look at the feet!

At the end of each session of swim lessons the kids get to ride in this huge raft.

Lola was a big fan of the "big boat."

She has become a great little swimmer. Here she is about to take off with her noodle around her.

Lola went off the diving board last week! The guy catching her was her teacher, Mr. Ryan. This week at her new session, she has a different teacher, but Mr. Ryan is close by. He saw that she was nervous the first day and came over to her and helped her get in the water. He is really great with little kids!

Last week Dean's aunt Sharla and cousing Marissa (below) were in town and we spent the day with them at Mamaw's. The week before that, Uncle David, Aunt Ruth, and cousins Tyler and Matthew were here and we got to see them too.

We are having a fun summer. I am really tired at the end of the day, but it is worth it. After swimming lessons we have 4 weeks until preschool starts so I will be looking for constructive things to do. Having to be somewhere every morning really helps us stay on a good schedule.

Respect the Afghan

Many of you are familiar with my Afghan, or as I call it my rainbow blanket. One of my dad's aunts or great aunts made it a long, long time ago. I sleep with it every night. I have also used it as a backdrop in several pictures, as you can see below.
Last night at work my awesome friend, Melissa, started teaching me how to crochet. It was a lot more difficult than I ever imagined! I am going to keep with it though. Expect some blankets, scarves, etc.... from us for Christmas! Anyways, I will forever have huge respect for my afghan.

This is just a funny picture I had to add in here. If any of you think Deacon doesn't look like Dean, then Dean has never made this face at you!!!!!

I have many more pictures of swim lessons and updates coming soon.

~Jessica~

Always take Sir to Swimming Lessons..........................

Sir was here for a couple of days this week on his way home from a hiking trip to Colorado.
We had already had 2 very TRYING days at swim lessons, because Lola wouldn't even get into the water without screaming. Luckily Sir decided to hang out with us for a little while on Wednesday, and he went with us. After Lola ran halfway around the aquatic center from me, I picked her up, put her in the pool, and hid behind the stroller. Sir stood and watched her and she showed off big time! She did great!

She did awesome yesterday, too. She went under water, blew bubbles, and practiced her kicking and her "scoop."

I hope you enjoyed the pictures. Thanks for visiting us, Sir!

Off to swim lessons we go..............................

Nine Lives - Seriously???

Since I last posted, we have had a very interesting week. Last week I finally got our house semi-clean on Thursday morning. The kids and I were going to leave for a short grocery trip after lunch. Lola and I were in the garage looking for something, when I heard her say, "Good morning, kitty!" I looked over and saw my cat, Olivia, laying down with what looked like major injuries. So, I packed up the kids, put the cat in her carrier, and finally got ahold of our regular vet after driving around looking for one that was open at lunchtime. They told me to bring her right in.




That night, the vet called and said she would most likely recover in a few days. However, on Friday, they called again and said they had operated on her leg because she had gangrene and they had to remove some of the muscles. Then I learned that she might not be able to keep her leg! We were faced with the decision to have a 3-legged, unhappy cat, or put her to sleep.




To make an already long story a little shorter, we visited her and the vet said we didn't have to make a decision right then. He could continue to give her antibiotics and see if she improved. I was still pretty sure we would have to put her to sleep.




I talked to the vet today and he said she is showing signs of improvement and may be able to come home tomorrow!




When we visited with the vet Friday, he speculated that she may have been shot. How I feel about that is a whole other post.................they are not 100% sure how she was injured. Either a dog or a gun. Let me just say that neighborhood cats can be found in our front and backyard at multiple times every day and I have not once thought about shooting one of them, even though they are the ones usually attacking my cat!




We are wondering how in the world this cat is still alive! She has been beat up multiple times by other cats, and she still continues to recover. The problem with her is that she cannot defend herself outside because she only has back claws, but she runs out of the garage everytime it opens. I am not putting her food and water or her litter box in the house with little kids living here, so that is just going to have to stay in the garage. Basically, I am much too busy taking care of humans to pay a lot of attention to a cat right now. If anyone would be interested or knows someone who would be interested in giving Olivia a new home where she could stay inside all the time and get lots of attention, please let us know. She is a really sweet, fun kitty. She is 4 1/2 but still likes to play, and she will sleep at your feet at night if you let her. She doesn't eat much either.




We did get to enjoy the parade on Friday morning. Below is Lola and Deacon in their 4th of July outfits with Nana. I intended to get better pictures of them in their outfits because they looked SO cute, but Deacon's clothes don't usually last him more than a few hours (if you know what I mean), which was the case at the parade. Oh well.

Lola watching the parade with Nana and Aunt Gay.

Kicking back Deacon -style.

The best part of the day was that Dean and I went out for a few hours Friday night with some friends from his work. It was a lot of fun!

More pictures, updates, and "Conversations with Lola" coming soon!

~Jessica~

3 Months Old!

Deacon is 3 Months today! He is doing normal 3 month old things, like holding his head up, laughing, smiling, and cooing. He loves to be sung to. He recognizes Dean and I, and recently he has started smiling at Lola. I think he will sit up early because he seems very determined to do it. He can lift his upper body, but his big ol' belly gets in the way. He still prefers to be held most of the time. He still wakes up once at night, but I think that will end soon. He has also found his fist and knaws on it and drools on it a lot. He has a tooth bud on the top, but so far it hasn't broken through.
He is a sweet precious baby and we are so glad he is part of our family. We love you brother!

Here is Lola at the same age. To me they look alike, like you can tell they are brother and sister. She was so pretty! She is a great kid and a wonderful big sister. We love you Lola!