Sweet Talks with Alathea

My little Alathea has grown into such a big girl lately. I guess that is what happens when my baby is 2 1/2 now! The growing has brought out a temper and selfishness I'm sure that is typical to most 2 year olds, but it has also brought out this sweet, tender, compassionate heart. Especially towards her Mommy.

The other day I was sitting in Alathea's room helping her to clean it up and out of no where she looked at me with this overly concerned face and said, "You miss your mommy, mommy?"

 It took me a second to realize she really said what I thought she said. I replied, "Do you mean Nana?"

 She said, "Yeah, Nana, your Mommy gone now. You miss your mommy." At this point she came closer to me sitting on the floor and put her little hand on my shoulder. 

I said, "Yes Mommy misses her Mommy very, very much. Do you know where she is now?"

 Without hesitation Alathea said, "Nana in Heaven with God singing Hallelujah. Nana is happy now!" 

Wow, its amazing to realize she's been really understanding me when I tell her that. I then told her, "You're right! Nana is in Heaven worshipping God now! And you know she would love to see you in Heaven one day. But first you have to turn from your sins and love God as your Lord and Savior. She prayed that you would do that one day."

 Alathea really listens to the Gospel in times like this. I'm sure she doesn't get it, but I bet little baby seeds are planted. Then we talked about when Mommy is sad that Alathea's hugs make me feel much better, to which she jumped on me and gave me the biggest squeeze ever. Moments like this make being a Mom the greatest job on earth!

Sweet Friends

These two girls are the sweetest of friends. And they are extremely blessed to see each other every day. These pictures are from a little adventure we took around the neighborhood last night. I think it would be so fun if Swan baby #2 is a girl and then we have four girls each exactly one year apart :)

Little Buddies

Reba & I watched CJ & Avery last week and took all 5 kiddo's to the park- we had a BLAST watching them play in the mud! They were filty, but certainly had a great time! Being a kid is so much fun!! (Aren't we great babysitters :)

Alathea, Jake & Kathryn eating lunch together during our play group at the park.

More pictures of the crazy kiddos! I think they were together for 15 hours that day!

Below is Abigail meeting her newest friend Anna Cate! I think they like each other :)

The Moore boys, Seaver girls & Alathea hanging out at a Panthers Party!

I was looking through my iphoto library from the past two weeks and was struck by how many pictures I have of the girls with their friends- or as I like to call it, "Little Buddies". There are many friends I don't have pictures of here, but the ones I did have I liked too much not to post. Alathea is just like her Momma and loves being with her friends...and I think that Abigail is following in our footsteps.

Our Summer...

We'll miss popsicle eating...

and grass pickin'...

...and trip going... this is the "Harmony House B&B"...one of our favorites! Joe & I went on an awesome overnight here on July 27th for our 6 YEAR anniversary! Below is a picture of us on our "romantic getaway" and a little Abigail head is there too :) She did great and even got to sleep in her own room.

Where did the summer go? Summer is my favorite season of all. Don't even get me started on it...the warm weather, the pool, the beach, no school (I'm not sure why this matters to me now, but it still makes me happy :), lemonade, sunshine, vacations, etc. We had a wonderfully blessed summer for sure. We did have two big beach trips, but besides that, we didn't do much besides going to the pool and enjoying our family, friends and two little girlies.  I realize most people don't care what we did weeks ago, but this blog is also a helpful way for me to look back & remember what we did :) So, with that said, here are a few more everyday memorie's from our summer...

We enjoyed LOTS of pool time- and almost every Saturday with Kenni 

We also enjoyed taking little buddies to the pool too. All three of the girls had matching swim suites! Alathea, Kathryn & Abigail are all exactly 1 year apart...and once baby swan #2 arrives, there will be four of them almost exactly 1 year apart!

We spent a lot of time with Grammy at the pool too! Alathea was beyond thrilled to discover she could stand by herself in the shallow end of the pool!! She kept saying "look at me!" to anyone and everyone at the pool! She also went of the DIVING BOARD! It scared me a bit, but she loved it!

Below is some extra special sister squeeze!

There were many times it was just me & the girls going swimming. I learned how to take a baby & toddler by myself. Usually they were both in floats within arms reach, but when Alathea wanted to swim, Abi got this lovely view (above) from her Bumbo. She was such a good sport.

My Sister Julie came in town in July to watch the girls for our anniversary trip and CGL Retreat. She's pretty much awesome and the best sister/aunt 

Ju-Ju on earth. 

Above is the girls in our backyard pool. Its not much more than a puddle, but they love it. Alathea especially loves going down her slide into it head first.

And...this really deserves a post of its own, but our running threesome became a running twosome...as Jenny had to finally stop running with us. I knew this was coming as soon as I heard about her going on the Mooresville church plant, but that doesn't make it any easier. Jenny has been a HUGE part of my life since I moved here 6 years ago and we started running 3x a week together. Three times a week for six years...that is a lot of time together! I was so blessed! I miss her much!

My Baby

My Baby is 7 Months old now. Why can't she just stay little? I love little teeny snuggley newborns. But fortunately I also LOVE the baby stage. Abigail is such a delight. She's taken off in crawling across the room and around the house. It was startling the first few times I'd find her in a completely different room than the one I had left her in just moments before! She's been LAUGHING, like belly-laughing, so much lately. That certainly melts my heart. She now follows big sister everywhere. It used to be just with her eyes, but now also with her body. Its been fun watching the sister-friendship grow as she's gotten older. 

Some things I love about my Abigail: Her toothless smile and belly-laughs; her incredibly happy face every time she wakes up from a nap; how she claps her hands and her whole body jumps up and down when she's excited; how she sucks on her lower lip; her peach-fuzz little head; her chubby, kissable, squeezable cheeks; her big baby blues; how she'll follow Alathea around the house; the way she lights up when Daddy is home; her sunny and content disposition; her dimpled fingers; how she still loves snuggles and hugs and being held by Momma...I really love that one. She's still my baby girl.

Fountains

I must admit that I am soaking up every last bit of summer that is left! I've also been pondering all the memories that God has blessed us with these past three months...one of which is the many, many fun times I had with Joe & the girls at the Birkdale Fountains. We made it a regular family date to spend an hour plus just playing with Alathea in the fountains. At the beginning of the season she was a mere "distant admirer" of them, barely getting her feet wet. And then today she finally ran through the middle! She has to work up her courage over the entire season :). 

I have also made it a "tradition" to bring the girls up to the fountains every time Joe has been out of town this summer...for some extra special mommy-girlies time to keep us happy while Daddy's gone. We also made it a "tradition" to get the $1.99 kids ice cream at Cold Stone once we are done. Its a very happy ending to a fun family time. More on that later...I'm thinking of doing the next few posts on "things I loved about summer"....just one more way to keep the season alive a bit longer!