Oh little girls - is there anything cuter?

Okay so any of you that have both boys and girls (or are around both often) know that oh, are they different! I'm a firm believer that we come with our personalities already formed and that our genders have a HUGE impact on our mood, temperament and ways that we react. Case in point... my sweet Rio is SO funny, loving, silly and sweet and yet SO emotional! Translation... moody and a little tantrum thrower at the drop of a hat! To be honest, it's kind of funny :)

Anyway, this post is for my little loving and silly Rio - we love you so much sweetie and all your emotions - good and not so good!

Lately, Rio has been getting attached to certain objects (including mama's hip, leg and lap - she's my little shadow) that she finds interesting for the day or a few days. Right now, she loves her sunglasses and when she sees them, she insists on wearing them either on her eyes, top of her head or around her neck (which by the way, she will tantrum if they fall of her head/neck - of course). So here is my bathing beauty in her glasses, diaper and nothing else since she got soaking wet a few moments before.

Let's just say that some of us had a hard time deciding whether or not it was summer or winter this day. Seriously? Could she be any cuter? She saw me putting away winter type stuff and she once again insisted on wearing this winter hat - pretty much all day :) along with her sun dress.

Another favorite of Rio's at the moment are these little silver shoes that I believe actually belong to our cute neighbor and friend Eliza. But one morning Rio saw them in her closet and kept saying, "shoe, shoe" and at first I couldn't understand her so she kept getting more and more frustrated until I finally figured out which shoes she wanted - the pretty silver ones of course!

***I just realized that in two of these pics, she isn't wearing clothes - please know she actually does have clothing and she does wear it... it just so happens that the first pic was a product of playing in the water and this one was during the "getting dressed and diapers changed" part of the morning.

I love you sweet Rio - you are a true joy in my day :)

Is Summer really here???

Okay so honestly, could it really be summertime? I'm not sure if I should put away the long sleeves and pants and jackets/coats for good or keep them out a little longer - it's driving me crazy! But... I've been loving this weather lately - it is so fun to let the kids out so much and they are so loving the sun and water. We are dorky bird loving people so when we go outside, the kids always look for "birs" (birds) now - I love it! They are talking so much more lately and this time in their little lives is so fun - wow, do they change so quickly. I have to remind myself everyday to love these moments and eat them up.

Spence is so busy with work, school and church stuff and is often not home a lot so my sweet dad is so helpful and comes over a mows our lawn for us sometimes but really I think he just likes the riding mower :) My kids were terrified the first time we pulled out the mower but now they love it! Rio constantly wants to sit on it in the garage and everytime we go into the garage Austin has to go look at it and he attempts to say his version of "lawnmower." He says the same thing everytime so I know exactly what he is saying - what a cutie! Anyway, the kids LOVE "granpa" and get so sad if they can't see him so I pulled out the laundry baskets over to the window and let them watch him mow one day. They loved it!! Not the best pic but I love that they were glued to the window watching him.

We've been to the park a few times with our little play group (thanks Meliss and Alicia for asking us to come with - we love it!) What a new experience these guys are having with swings, slides and sandboxes! I love that everything is so new to them this year - what a joy!

We had a family reunion on Spence's side of the family a week or so ago at a fun park. There was a huge duck pond and the kids loved it! They wanted to go into the water with them - GROSS!!! It took all we had to stop them from walking right in but we did hear a ton of "quack, quacks." Spence's family is great and we love them so much - we walked around with our cousins and aunts and uncles and played on the swings and slides. My kids are slide lovers! Rio especially, she doesn't ever want to get off and they don't quite understand the "taking turns" concept with other kids just yet. We've got to learn that quick because I know we will be at parks the whole summer.

Aunt Erin was pushing Jax and he almost fell asleep he loved it so much!

I got the kids these little chairs and they love them and want to take them everywhere they go - they go outside, down the stairs... we've even had attempts of taking them into the car and into their cribs during naps - so sad when they can't nap with their chairs :( Even Lennox has been enjoying the nice weather!

Why is it that little boys are attracted to everything messy and anything that stains!! Drives me crazy but on the other hand, I love it! Austin cannot get enough of water and mud! He thinks it's the best thing in the world.

Austin and his "mud pox" - I was watering the flowers and turned my back to him and the next thing I saw was this little muddy boy. But oh, was he happy!!!