Letters to my two {6 months & 32 months}

Dear Cope,
You are 6 months old today! Its hard to believe it was half a year ago that we looked into those blue eyes of yours for the first time. It still melts my heart each time. The past 6 months can be summed up by saying they have been full of joy. You have added so much to this family. We love you deeply and I am so very thankful to be experiencing this love between a mama and her son. It is a strong, sweet love. You are a precious baby boy. Full of rolls, giggles and adorable snorts.
Dimply hands.

Fat feet.

Sparkly blue eyes and blonde hair.

A gummy smile with 2 precious teeth that have bothered you quite a bit.
Loving your sister so much and your daddy too! Selfishly I love that you mostly prefer me though! The days are just passing us by. I cannot believe how fast 6 months have gone by. We love you Bubby!

Dear Simms,
2 years and 8 months tomorrow. Thank you for being the little girl that you are. I will definitely say this year since you've been 2 has been a hard one for us. There were lots of changes in your little life and I don't know that I always did my best in preparing you for them, but we've turned the corner! You love being a big sister. This one took a while. You are very independent.

We are starting to see a sensitive side in you that we haven't seen before. It breaks my heart to see you poke that lip out when your feelings have been hurt. You went to VBS this year. That was kinda hard for me- it was a true example of how fast you are growing up. You help me out so much. You are full of imagination and your newest thing is wanting to play mommy and Simms. I'm of course Simms and you are mommy. We play this a lot. When you say "Amen" after the blessing or your prayers, daddy and I have started noticing you are saying "all the men."

You love to draw. We cover the table in drawing paper now so that you always have a place to go to when you feel like drawing. Your first masterpiece {in your mama's opinion} was a strawberry:

You don't like to give lots of kisses, and when we kiss you usually wipe it off and say, "no. Just a little bits." These "little bits" are you putting our face in your hands and giving us an ever so soft kiss on each side of our cheeks.
I don't ever want to forget that you do that. Its precious. We love you Simms.

Loving Sweet Potatoes...

Cope started sweet potatoes today! He loved them. Ate them all up. But if you get a good look at him, it isn't surprising! This sweet boy LOVES to eat. Nursing, bottles, oatmeal, and now sweet potatoes! If it's providing some nourishment he's all about it, no matter what form it is coming to him in!

He looks excited, doesn't he? I'd been playing this meal up all day!

First taste..Yum!?!?

I'll have some more please Mama....

Thank you, please. (As Simms would say)

Now I just need something to wash it down with!

I guess formula will be fine.

Ahhhhh. Thanks Mama!

Simms loved watching the mess this made, but looked at me several times like I should be doing something to stop it! She and her Daddy are just alike with their OCD tendencies. I've learned to accept AND love those tendencies ;-).

It's In...

Cope's first tooth popped through today! Finally an explanation for the past 3 nights..waking up at 3 AM to nurse, and not wanting to go back to sleep! Last night he slept almost 10 hours the way he normally does, so I'm thinking it must have actually come in yesterday. Glad to have our happy baby back! I'd forgotten what it was like to get up during the night! It also explains why we have had so much of this going on....

Chewing on EVERYTHING...


And SOAKING every outfit with drool...



And congratulations to our sweet friends Laura and Andrew! They welcomed their first baby, Mary Handley Trotman into the world this morning! Mary Handley is beautiful just like her mama and we can't wait to meet her!

Playing with Daddy..

Simms and Dru get some great daddy-daughter time in the early evening hours. Cope likes to be asleep around 8:00, so his process starts around 7:15ish. Dru is so helpful during this time by playing with Simms, taking her on Ranger rides, swinging, etc. She needs this time with him. It is so important, since she is with me all day, that they have their special times too. Tonight I caught them playing with the hose as they tried to revive our poor, poor hydrangea bushes (we've tried Mrs. Lil, really we have).

Before the real fun began.







And this sweet one is trying his hardest to sit up! (Sorry for the poor picture quality, taken with my phone).

Father's Day and A Day at the Lake...

Simms woke Dru up this morning with the most glittered, bejeweled homemade card you've ever seen! He LOVED it. The process that it took for us to make it, another story! Simms and Cope are so blessed to have a daddy like Dru! Hands-on, attentive, fun, loving, stern when he needs to be and just a great buddy for both of them! He loves them, prays for them, gets down on the floor and plays whatever Simms wants to play, cuddles with Cope, and I could go on and on. We didn't get a great picture this morning, but I have some oldies of our sweet daddy the day he became "Daddy" for the first time, and the day he became "Daddy" to his little boy. His smiles those two days are still fresh in my mind! Happy Father's Day Dru! And Happy Father's Day also to our wonderful daddies, Papa and Ninnie, and our wonderful grandaddies, Grandaddy and Pah! What a blessing for our children to know their great-grandaddies too!

Daddy for the first time with his little girl-November 1, 2007.

Proud daddy for the second time with his little boy-December 30, 2009.

Cope had lots of smiles for Daddy before church!

We headed to the lake Friday afternoon until Saturday night. We had to be back for VBS kickoff this morning (I can't believe Simms is going. She's growing up FAST). We had a great dinner out Friday night with Dru's parents and Taylor. Dru, Simms and I went on a fun jet-ski ride Saturday morning, then we all went on a nice, long boat ride! We'd gone back to the house to get the tube for Dru and Simms, and a storm came up out of nowhere! It didn't blow over either, or just last a few minutes! It was a BAD storm, and continued most of the day! We met the Huddlestons at Oskars for dinner Saturday night and drove on back. We are so lucky to be so close to the lake!
It was a quick, but fun weekend and we can't wait to go back Friday!

Before leaving Friday. I had to put this on here because this is Cope in a 12 MONTH outfit! He is pretty much wearing all 12 month clothes now!

Ready for the water! She couldn't wait to get to the lake and find this Mickey Mouse life jacket that I'm sure was Dru's it's so old. She'd seen it Memorial Day weekend and wanted it on right away!


Cope and Simms laying on the blanket that was made by Mrs. Lil's grandmother, so their great-great grandmother. How special! It is so soft too!

Simms playing with one of Dru's old toys. Remember those things? And check out the cute seat she's sitting on. Mrs. Lil bought the cutest table and chair set for the lake for Simms and Lilla!

Simms and Papa

Living the good life!

Getting sleepy!

Enjoying a nap on the boat with Gigi!

Cope and Papa. Don't Dru and his dad look just alike? I mean I'd swear that was Dru holding Cope!

Simms developed an interest in the exersaucer! Notice her haircut? Her daddy gave her this new bob! We were aiming for a little above the shoulders, but one move by her and it ended up chin-length! We love it!

Merrill, Cope and Simms at Oskars.

Simms LOVES Merrill!

Fun at the Fox..

We took Simms to her first production at the Fox Theatre today! I grew up going to things there, usually dining at The Varsity the way we did today! Thank you so much to Gigi and Aunt Becca for treating us! It was great one on one time with Simms, and she was able to see some of her favorite characters perform! We saw Storytime Live, which included Kai-Lan, The Backyardigans, The Wonder Pets (Simms' favorite) and Dora! It was so much fun to watch her expressions as she took it all in! We had a great day with her, while Minnie and Ninnie took Cope on a little day trip too!

Of course we enjoyed a great lunch here!

Simms was a little scared when they started yelling, "What'll ya have?"

Simms really enjoyed her first naked dog!!

Simms' first Varsity hat

Such a wonderful place! Little House, Phantom and The Sound of Music are all coming soon! I think we may be going back! It's only 1.5 hours at the most!

Simms and her favorite person!

A light up toy is a must at a children's production,right?

She loved it!

We ran into our favorite boy cousin, Bennett! He couldn't wait to see Dora. The boy can speak serious Spanish!

Our best attempt at a photo! Just skip on past....

Taking it all in...She could not wait to see Ming Ming (her favorite Wonder Pet)

So much fun for her!
Simms was so excited to bring Cope a hat home: