Miss Cora Gayle

I can't believe how fast Cora is growing!!! Last week she turned 8 months old. She has learned a lot of new tricks since I last posted. Here are a few things - past and present- that she loves.

This Jumpy toy. Before going mobile, she was happy to be in it most of her waking hours. Thanks Shamrell's for lending us this awesome contraption.

Being outside.

Crawling.

Pulling herself up - on everything.

Mom's favorite part - being able to sit back down on her own. Her face was damaged more than once from a fall. We've never had wood floors before and I will be so grateful to live in a house with carpet. Just the sound of the fall makes my heart beat faster and have images of the ER in my head. Here is a few pictures of her battle wounds.

Sleeping on her stomach with her bottom in the air.

Playing the piano with Mariah.

Taking walks outside

Eating some food. She still isn't that big into eating. Cora is the first child to be almost exclusively breast fed until 8 months.

Two new teeth. You have to look close, but they are in there.

Our Summer...So far

Fun Friends
We were very lucky to have 3 friends stay with us for a week while their parents went house hunting in New York. So Matt and I became the parents of 7 children under the age of 10. What a fun week!!! While there were a few challenges, we couldn't have asked for an easier time. My girls will miss you now that you are headed off to NY. Good Luck!!! We were too busy for pictures, but here are the few I took while they played in the water in my backyard.

Mariah and MarileeRuth and LaurenRachel

Swimming Lessons
We took them at the university and they were AWESOME!!! My kids made so much progress. I can't wait for them to take them again next year.


Sturgis Falls
The biggest party of the year in Cedar Falls. Everyone comes home for this weekend. We went to the children's parade (aka children dressing up how they want and walking down the street - mine went as fairy princesses - of course), the talent show (where the younger version of my clogging class took second place -way to go), and then to the parade the next morning. It was a fun filled weekend.

Marilee and MariahJaylee, Meagan, and Ruth

Fourth of July
We were here in CF for all the fun. We started out the morning by having a bike ride in the park, slip 'n slide in the backyard, then washing our van and eating Popsicles. That was all before lunch. In the afternoon we watched Tangled, went to a good bye party for some friends from church and had a BBQ. We finished off the evening with fireflies, pop it's, and fireworks with friends. It really was the BEST fourth of July ever. I love spending time together as a family.

Mariah and Marilee

Ruth's Preschool Graduation!

She did it! Not that we ever had any doubts. As Matt explained to Ruthie on the way to graduation - "Ruth, I'm not that impressed. I expect you to graduate from preschool." Way to go Mr. Dad. He also informed her that he expected her to graduate high school and she would not be receiving anything big for it (aka car or cash) - as it is also expected. It didn't seem to dampen her spirits and we went to a lovely evening of listening to preschoolers sing about colors, peanut butter and shake their bottoms at us. Thanks Ms. Sherri and Ms. Stacie for a great year. Here comes Kindergarten!!!

The proud family -

The diploma-

The Bottoms-