Summer Lovin'

So July has been busy with moving and returning from our trip to Michigan. Aaron has been busy on his thesis and finishing up grad school. In the meantime, we've been just hanging out. The girls are really into Legos and have had lots of fun this summer building things.

We discovered a bird's nest in mom and dad's sweet bay magnolia tree out back. Unfortunately at least one of these little guys didn't make it (the girls found him swimming in the kiddie pool).  

These little beauties worked out great this year! Totally worth the investment.

We had lots of fun over the July 4th holiday. 

We took in a couple blowfish games, did some sparklers in the back yard, and even got to watch the fireworks on the lake thanks to some gracious friends who took us out on their boat. 

In other news, we are all but finished preparing to buy our next home. All the inspections are done and the repair addendum ratified.  Fortunately nothing major came back on any of the multiple inspections (to include septic, well, pool, and home), so we should be set to close on Monday, August 4th! We are all very excited. The new house is great at roughly 1900 square feet, a beautiful back yard at about half an acre complete with pool and hot tub. The inside is 3 bedrooms, 2 1/2 baths, with a FROG (finished room over the garage). The house was built in about 1995 in a nice well-established conveniently located neighborhood. It has a new roof, new HVAC, and vinyl siding. We don't have to do much of anything to move in - although we are painting a good bit of the house. For nearly the first time in our married life together Aaron and I have purchased some brand new (along with a few new to us) furniture items to fill up the extra space we will soon have.

Here is a rocking chair that we already had but got a fresh coat of paint as well as thrift store bed frame for Kendall. We have also picked up a few side tables one of which I also painted for the new sun room.

We also managed to fit in some blueberry picking which was great as we were able to enjoy some fresh, in cobbler, and had enough to fill several freezer bags. 

 We have swam A LOT! The girls are great swimmers.  Avery hasn't worn a float all summer and is practically a fish.  Even today we took the wagon down to the pool and  swam for several hours. Avery and Kendall even both swam in the deep end for a bit while I just watched.  I'd say the new pool in our backyard is going to be put to good use.

Avery has been hard at work potty training. We started in earnest right before leaving on our trip to Michigan in mid-June and she is almost completely accident free during the day now! Although she still hasn't mastered number 2 and usually wakes up in the morning wet, she has come a long way. Just yesterday we used our last pull up so we are trying tonight in big girl undies (we will see how that goes). She continues to be a little stinker. Not bad, just stubborn as all get out and full of spunk! I hope the move doesn't set us back in terms of potty training, as she is set to join Kendall at the ECC this year. It will be interesting to see how she does in a Montessori environment and in an all day program. She can almost write her full name and is almost able to stay completely in the lines while coloring now.

Sisters!

Kendall is just her same old lovable self! She has shown such remarkable maturity this summer - in showing patience as we spend more time with Avery (teaching her to swim and potty training) and in her thirst for information. She asks SO many questions! She is reading like a champ - regular chapter books whenever she can.  I think even her teacher is going to be shocked at what a difference this summer has made. She must still be hitting regular growth spurts because she is ALWAYS hungry and regularly outgrows shoes and cloths.  I wouldn't be surprised if she looses her first teeth soon as even her teeth seem to be having a hard time keeping up (they are so tiny). We signed both Kendall and Avery up for dance class this full - although Kendall will be part of the competition team this year which means (more $$ and) she will have tap, ballet, and jazz along with two big weekend events. We will see how that goes. Not sure I am ready to become a full-fledged dance mom!

We continue to make ourselves at home at mom and dad's house this summer - which really has worked out great for us! We are very blessed.