6 Years

On September 1st, Wes and I celebrated six years of marriage. We played with the kids at home and then fed ducks and went on a hike around the arboretum; a perfect day for us Rosiers.

The day ended with our daily wrestling match. Wes won. As usual. 

A Friday Night Car Show

A couple of Fridays ago, we went to a car show after dinner at our local Chick Fil A. As usual, the kids loved it; asking questions about every car they passed and listening to Wes explain them all. 

Our Kids at the Park

Paxton's Lexicon

Paxton's first word was BYE-BYE. His second word was BALL. And his third word was BOOBIE. Later came BABY, BABA, OKAY, and YEAH. So far, his vocabulary seems to be filled with the letter B. 

Initially, it seemed like he was on a roll in the vocabulary department, saying his first word other than Mama or Dada right around 12 months. His second, third, fourth, and fifth words quickly followed and he was using this group of words all of the time. Then, our little man's vocabulary development took a hiatus for about a month. He not only stopped learning new words, but he also stopped using the words he already knew. We have since realized that all of this happened right around the time when he learned to run. He was focusing all of his time and energy on learning this new skill, along with perfecting his climbing abilities. 

Well, now he's back on talking, picking up a few new words in the last week or so including, MORE, DUCK, CHEESE, THIS, and BOOK. It'll be interesting to see how the next few months pan out.

Auntie Bird's

The weekend that my mom came to visit, we also got to visit with Auntie Bird. We went to her house that Sunday, the kids got to open some belated birthday gifts, and we went out to eat. 

Gavin (of course) felt the need to do some yard work after lunch. It was a fun day, indeed. 

A GG Visit

A couple of weekends ago, my mom came down to Harrisonburg for a visit. On Saturday, we went to a BBQ and Music Festival with a car show component. Wes entered his Mustang and we got to do tons of fun stuff while we were there. The kids played in a bouncy house, went down an inflatable slide 43 times, pet some animals in a petting zoo, and ate some delicious BBQ. It was really fun.

Sunday morning, we all drove down to Roanoke to go visit Auntie Bird (post to come).

Playing with Ice

The other day, we dyed some water with food coloring and froze a bunch of the kids' toys in the colored water. Then, we took the huge blocks of ice outside and let each kid bang, hammer, and throw their ice block until all of their toys were out. They loved it.

2013 Back-to-School Faculty Party

A couple of Fridays ago, we went to my department's back to school faculty party. It was at one of our administrative assistants' homes, which is called The Barn at Aspen Grove and hosts weddings and parties on Saturdays. It was such a cool location, with a gorgeous dining room, screened in porch, and lawn where many wedding ceremonies are held. It was beautiful.

It was fun. And crazy. And fun. 

He's a Turn Taker

This has been a post in the making for a couple of several months now. I've just been procrastinating. And busy. But mostly just lazy.

Our little Paxton became a turn taker much younger than his siblings did. For a while now, he has been making sounds, grunts, and even saying words back and forth with us. He understands that when someone talks to him, he should respond. Even if he doesn't know how to respond. He gets that he needs to make some kind of sound. And he's understood this for months.

Typical "conversations" between one of us and Pax include things like someone asking him a closed-ended question (one that requires a "yes" or "no" as a response) and him answering by saying "okay" or "yeah," nodding his head for "yes," or shaking his head for "no." Other times, we could ask him an open-ended question and he'll blabber something back to us. We'll then respond with a sentence or two and he'll counter with a babbled sentence of his own. Still other times, he'll just walk up to you, blabber something out while usually pointing, and then expecting you to reciprocate. It's precious.

While he's been taking turns for a while now, we all can't wait for the day when we can actually understand his blibber blabbers.

Little Artists

Our kids (like most kids, I think) absolutely, positively LOVE to paint. Anything. 

I recently found these little ceramic bank painting kits at the dollar store (it came with a bank, a set of 5 paints, and a brush). Gavin and Vivian were ridiculously excited. Vivi painted a hippo and Gavin painted a train. 

They also like painting on paper, which we try to let them do as often as possible. 

Some of their work has even been framed and hung in our house or in my office.