Love These Two!!

Blessed!

I am so blessed to have the two most amazing sisters.  Their beauty and wisdom and passion for God's love are just a few of the things I admire and cherish about them both.  This is the first year that we've had room for everyone for our summer get together...and it was a blast!  

We don't travel lightly anymore ...we are 13 strong

Blessed by each and every single one of them!

Left to Right:

Mason-9, Parker-5, Tessa-3, Haden-5, Keaton-6 (almost 7!), Kelbie-5, and Rylan-3

The Smith Family

The Black Family

And us :)

Sisters!

forcing the boys to pose for a boy-cousins picture

and then they insisted I capture one of boys-being-boys ;)

 morning ride around the pond - gangs all here (Tessa's in her wheels too...but didn't think fast enough to push her up into the pic)

 Tessa thought her Uncle Kyle was pretty fun :)

 And these two 3 year olds connected more than they ever have!

After Tessa's seizure in June and all the juggling with her school stuff, it was a huge blessing to have my sisters come here this year.  We were so thankful to have enough room for everyone and to just enjoy each other with nothing on the agenda but FUN.

~Whitney

A Brief Catch Up...

In Pictures of Course! 

We like to hang out together :)

So far Tessa's new sock monkey has been a hit

we're hoping she'll choose to chew on it instead of her arm!

 We finally got all her new Lite Wear Gear from Cochlear
Hopefully we'll never loose another CI again! ;)

It cracks me up how she has started 'hanging on' when we go walking/jogging.

I think really she's just playing with the canopy...but it looks like she's hanging on for dear life ;)

Our little fish these days...

I always feel so blessed to wind down a stressful day with this...

Snuggling with Serenity

Summer fun is hard work!

Getting Katie some exercise

Just plain cute!

Parker decided to roll around an snuggle with Tessa while they were watching cartoons.  She ate up every moment and it really was the sweetest thing.

Wish this one wasn't blurry...but it's so stinkin cute!

She was ready to rumble ;)

Big brother definitely made her day!!

 Love my two handsome fellas!

Ready...Set...

....Stand there! ;)

Ready....Set....Stand up Straight, Push Back & Smile!

Tessa is definitely not in any hurry to go anywhere on those two little legs of hers.  But, we'll keep practicing...it's all about providing her with the opportunity :)

Adventures in Bynumland

Exploring the pond with Daddy from a new vantage point :)

...such a little beauty

piggy back rides are fun too!

 A variety of creatures: good & bad ;)

ewww!

 Darin claims this is where 'the cool birds hang out' ;)

 Mama and her babies ~ the babies are getting so big

they swim in front of Mama now and race her to the bread

two little bunnies...was surprised they let me get so close

summertime inside could get boring...unless you tap into your creative juices like Parker did ;)

 I'm still not really sure if this was punishment or some kind of twisted adventure for all his stuffed little friends....

 maybe it was half & half: if you hung by your feet it was considered an adventure;

if you hung by your head...well, they must have done something terribly wrong!

 playing in a tent with her big brother is always entertaining

precious Saturday morning snuggles with these two

one last little grin before she passed out in the car 

I supplied the paci in an attempt to induce sleepiness

her smile says 'Mommy I know exactly what you're doing & it's not gunna work"

 a few minutes later.....

Mommy prevailed! ;)

  when she's snuggled in my arms, every last trouble melts away

our sleeping beauty

 Parker was thrilled about our Sunday morning rain!

and it made for perfect walking weather too!

 lots of rain = a full beautiful pond

Mama and babies racing to the bridge to see if we brought bread!

Some, fish with fishing poles...

others, fish with sticks :)

~Whitney