Feel the love

Here are some things we love:

The kids. How they love each other. When they snuggle and hug. The zoo. 

Rachel barefoot in skits. Doing balance beam climbing on every curb and ledge we can find. Church playground. Bright colors of summer. 

Goodbye hugs for daddy before he leaves for work. Giving him hug after hug after hug and then furiously waving bye bye. 

Date night. Conversation and laughter. 10 year anniversary next month. Bardo on 21st. 

Cass: co-worker, babysitter, friend and playmate for the kids. She gave us freshly-picked asparagus while JB was in India (I gobbled that right up), homemade cookies and fresh strawberry jam. She loves my kids and is such a good friend. 

Pony tails. Pig tails. Blonde hair blowing in the wind. 

Alexis. We were so sad when liz moved but Alexis is awesome and the kids love her. Rachel adores hugging her and J even gave her a hug last week too, which is HUGE! 

Being outside, Soccer. Long shorts and tall socks. Friends from school. Running. Being outside. Farmer tans. Birds. Breezes. 

Deep squat. Pig tails. Blonde hair, Head Tilt. 

Best friends. School. Ms Becca. Holiday crafts. Icing. 

Siblings. Buddies. Smiles. Laughter. Kindness. Protective big brother. Adoring little sister. 

This girl. Into everything, none of it being toys. 

Family days. Skinny Dip fro yo. Zoo afternoons. Time together.

Daddy. Porch swing. Cool afternoons. Sunshine. These two together. 

Final days of summer and into the fall

September and early October have been a whirlwind, to put it lightly. We had the start of 5 day/week school for Jackson, the start of church events, my Women's Bible Study talk, PT meetings, a church course for JB, Rachel's 1st birthday and still trying to maintain the basic activities and responsibilities of daily life. We knew that September would be slammed so it was one of those, "take a deep breath and enjoy everything that is going on but know there will be a big rest when it's all over" kind of months. 

I've enjoyed getting my camera out more to practice. Some shots are actually turning out really well and it's been great to have pictures of both of the kids. I actually may have completely reversed the typical stereotype for a second child to have virtually no photos. Up until now, Rachel has sat still better than Jackson and she has tons and tons of photos! Here is what we've been up to: 

Jackson started Little Strikers soccer league. The first weeks were rough with lots of complaining on his part and coaxing on his. But then he really got into it and was enjoying it! And then the nor'easter and hurricane weather hit and we've been off for many weeks. He plays for a few minutes and then when they take water breaks he also expects to have several grapes waiting for him each time :) 

 Rach loves to flirt and make sweet faces for our neighbors. 

 I love the heads-down focus of the three boys during one of our ODU tailgates. This was great fun and then we had even more fun when it suddenly started to POUR and the kids splashed away.

 J and R just adore Grandad! 

 We had a spontaneous compound crab boil to close out summer. It was my first time eating crabs and it proved to be so much fun, and delicious, to sit around picking crabs and drinking beer with friends. 

 JB and I had a date afternoon/night planned in early September. This was part of my motivation for weaning Rachel at the end of August. That went well and we arranged for the kids to stay with Beth and Matt for the afternoon and bedtime. We got to Water Country around 2 and rode all the tube rides (none of that water-slide-that-goes-straight-down business for us!). We dried off and made it to Busch Gardens around 3:15, rode a ride and then it started to rain. We grabbed some beer from the fest house, people watched and then jogged to our cars before it really started to pour. We hit the outlets for an hour and headed back to BG when the rain stopped. Several more rides later and too nauseous to go on, we left and went to dinner in Newport News. Although I was nauseated for the next few days (one of the downsides of getting older), it was a great, spontaneous date day! 

 I ran the Rock N Roll again this year, making it my 8th RNR with Team Hoyt. It was an incredibly hard race for me, but great to be out there pushing my athlete rider and running with a neighbor of ours. Plus, Rachel was waiting for me in this cute onesie: "Someday I'll run with mommy". 

 We had one final beach day with the McNabbs, Lyons and Kelly. Sweet summer coming to a close. 

 And one of the perks of J not starting school until Thursday following Labor Day was that we had the whole beach to ourselves to take Lincoln and have a family morning. 

Virginia Aquarium. 

We're in the 'independent eating' phase where she doesn't know how to use a spoon yet but she sure doesn't want to be fed by one. So, everything goes in via her hands. Oatmeal, casseroles. Also turns out that she was mildly anemic at her 1 year old check up (whoops, couldn't remember if the doc said vitamins WITH or WITHOUT iron so I erred on the side of caution and got without). So, we've made valiant attempt to get spinach into things and we have found the 1 food she does not like. I don't blame you baby...I mean, liquidly canned spinach. Gross. I welcome all ideas of how to get large doses of green leafy veggies into foods that a girl with only 8 teeth can eat. 

By from our happy girl who loves peek-a-boo, laughing and is a great hide-and-seek seeker!

Birthday Shenanigans!

JB's birthday is 8-8, mine is 8-20 which makes for a busy but fun month! This year we grilled pork chops for the grandparents and enjoyed a gorgeous day together! Rachel rocked some lovely leg warmers and the kids had many grandparent hugs and kisses!

Then it was the 5th annual BBBBBBBBB (Byrnes and Ben Birthday Beach Bash BBQ Brats Burgers and Beer). Something like that. We enjoyed a smaller group this year (as the kids are starting to outnumber the adults), a gorgeous beach day, thrilling rounds of spike ball and delicious smoked ribs.   Thank you to everyone for the cards and well-wishes for our birthdays. We are thankful for another year!

 Finally, it was such a treat to see my cousins, Chris and Stacie, Amanda and their kiddos at the zoo. They had a week in Sandbridge and we were finally able to see each other, which is very hard with the kids and the distance between us (PA and CT). Many of our kids met for the first time ever. Jackson loved leading them around the zoo and the Rachel and the older girls all had a mutual love for each other. Plus Kennedy and Zoe wanted to push the stroller for me. Win win! Hugs and kisses! 

rachel is 8 months old!

Hey friends! I thought I would check back in now that I am 8 months old. I can't believe that I'm so old already. I'll be ready to drive soon! This month has been pretty fun. I really love to sit and I've started to move a lot more. I really love sitting in this cute side-sitting position. Mom thinks I look precious and keeps taking pictures of me. I sit just like she does. I love to pivot on my booty and come in and out of a pre-crawling position to get toys that are just out of my reach.  

I just learned how to sit up on my own last weekend in the pack-n-play at midnight at BB and Grandad's. Mom wasn't sure what was going on because I was crying for help. I think I was a little scared to be sitting up and no one had put me that way. Now, I do it all the time in the crib but I only get scared when I sit up during naps.  I really like doing planks and rocking back like I'm going to crawl. My parents are so funny. They keep looking at me like I'm going to crawl any day now but I will just keep them waiting!  In the meantime they keep bribing me with cheerios to crawl, hehe ;) 

 My hemangiomas are much flatter and less noticeable now too. The one on my lip is so faint that mom barely notices it. i'm glad that it didn't ulcerate and cause me to have trouble eating. The others should be gone in the next few years and in the meantime my hair is growing really quickly and should cover them soon. 

 I'm still rocking the blonde hair and dad gave me my first haircut 2 weeks ago at the beach house. It does feel much better not to have hair in my eyes anymore. I have TWO big teeth on the bottom and now I drool All.The.Time. Just like my brother, but not quite to the extent that he did. I do have to wear a drool bib every day now. I'm very content to sit but I'm starting to explore more. I like banging blocks, reading eating books ,playing with anything that Jackson has and listening to music. My favorite parts of the day are when Jackson sings to me and when mommy has a dance party by herself in the living room.  She's silly.  

 I like to sit outside on a blanket each afternoon while the big kids play. They always want to play with me, feed me cheerios and pick me up. I don't really mind it.  And speaking of cheerios, I love food. love it. "Food" and "eat" are the first two words I recognize and I start to pump my arms and bounce when mom says them. I love everything except for yellow squash. I've  branched out into eating mozzarella, egg yolks, salmon, pork, chicken, and beans. I really like mexican food! My favorite part of the meal is trying to pry the finger from my parent's grip at the end of the meal and splattering food all over my face and the rest of the house.  

 I'm down to two naps a day, usually around 9 and 1 and I think that makes mom really happy to be on a schedule. She is going to back to work part-time in July and seems to be getting life streamlined around the house. I really like having two naps and usually sleep about 1.5-2 hours most of the time. I'm a belly sleeper, butt up in the air just like Jackson. At night, I go to bed at 6pm and have finally started to sleep until about 5:30 when mom feeds me and I go back to bed until about 7/7:30. Then, we go for a morning run and play. I like playing with Jackson. He is very sweet to me and wants to climb in my crib each morning to snuggle. Then, he hugs me all day (and also throws toys at me!) and calls me pretty girl. I think he is the best big brother ever. 

Mom took me on my first bike ride the other morning. I kept trying to pry the helmet off my head for the first 5 minutes but then I think I settled in. I might enjoy this. I like my jumper, playing with friends at church, feeling the wind on my face, eating everything in sight and petting Lincoln. I like listening to daddy play instruments and sing. I can even recognize his voice when we are listening to his album.  

I love my grandparents, especially when I can talk to them on FaceTime. The light of the phone is pretty awesome. I can recognize their faces on the picture on the wall and like looking at it during meal times. They are all pretty great.  I'm still dressing in super cute clothes from Riley and Piper and could wear a new outfit combination every day if mom was that creative. I like wearing dresses and bloomers now that it's nice outside.

That's all for now! Thanks for stopping by, friends!