Usually we’re just not that busy. Sure, we do regular around the house things, but nothing really in particular. This month was a crazy blur of visits, birthdays and activities. We started the month with a little photo shoot with our “babies.” We travelled to my in-laws house a few hours away and visited a photographer while we were there. We went to a nice little park and started taking picture after picture. It was very warm, and there was a very enticing playground in the back, but the children did great and resisted as long as preschoolers possibly could!

Here is our sweet Elisabeth in her White Lexi Strasburg Slip Dress. We had gotten 3 sashes that came with it, but since this was a special occasion we also got her a Strasburg wide satin ribbon that was just right for tying a big bow in the back!

William was very happy in his white collared polo shirt and his new pair of Strasburg khaki linen shorts. They were so lightweight and comfortable he loves to wear them! He’s not usually a fan of khaki, but he specifically asks to wear these!

This is one of our outtakes! It was so hard to get a good picture with BOTH of the looking in the right place. Thankfully our photographer was extremely patient and had a lot of sound effects to make them look toward the camera while she was snapping the shot!

Then, Elisabeth had her 2^nd birthday, so we had the usual round of birthday visits, cards, mail, and we always have 2-3 birthday parties per birthday so that they get to have one with us and with my family and with my husbands family. We also had a big day for the fourth of July this year! Usually the kids are so young that the spend the whole time during the fireworks display crying, but this year they were both old enough to really enjoy it!

My mother also came and spent the weekend with us several times this month. She lives about an hour and a half away, but the kids just love for “Memaw” to come over. They sit up late, watch movies, and eat popcorn until they are all so exhausted that they fall asleep in the same room! Then I get a nice break, as everyone sleeps in the next morning. This time she stayed 2 nights, so they were able to have a “slumber party” all weekend. It’s amazing the amount of candy, soda, and popcorn that they can go through in a weekend! I just look in the candy’s general direction and I automatically gain 2 pounds. These little one eat like they’re starving and I have a hard time getting them to gain any weight! The plus side to that is, that it takes them forever to outgrow their clothes so if they have an outfit that they really love we get a whole lot of wear out of it!

- Jenny

July is a month of celebration for us as it brings our daughter’s birthday.  This year was her 2^nd birthday and we have been celebrating almost nonstop since the month arrived.  We started the celebration the weekend of July 4^th when we celebrated with one set of grandparents.  This year, we even had our own local celebration on the roof. 

Lillian was ready for her zoo/animal themed party when she woke up from her afternoon nap that day.  She had been talking about her requested chocolate birthday cake all morning and was excited to see her little friends.  She loved getting dressed in her Strasburg Children Day at the Zoo Bloomer Set.  We headed up to the roof to celebrate and it was a great afternoon, despite some rain showers that made us retreat back to our crowded apartment downstairs for cake and ice cream.

Next weekend we head to visit the second set of grandparents and celebrate once again.  Yippee for July and yeah for 2^nd birthdays!  

At 4 lbs and dropping down to 3 lbs 9 oz, our sweet girl was our BIG baby! Both children were born early due to eclampsia/pre-eclampsia. Our little Elisabeth turns 2 this week! We can’t believe how much she’s changed. She has gone from a sick, tiny baby with black hair and gray eyes, to a big sturdy toddler with curly blonde hair and hazel brown eyes like my mother. Due to my husband’s work schedule, we decided to celebrate a little earlier so that we would have the whole day together. Well, actually this was her second birthday party. My in-laws live a few hours away, so we went to visit them last week and she had a little party with them too. Our son (he’s 4 years old) has realized that birthday’s are profitable for him too! Since he’s our only other child so far, and he is so little, everyone tends to get him a present too so that he doesn’t feel left out of anything!

We decided to take them to a local historical place for a little tour and a picnic! There were several hundred acres for them to run and run! They blew bubbles, played football, and were so hungry by lunchtime that they ate that picnic lunch like it was gourmet! We followed that up with sugar cookies sprinkled with pink and yellow sugar crystals. On the way home we stopped at a tiny little place that had AMAZING ice cream!!

By the time we got home, everyone had fallen asleep in the back of the car so we changed them into pajamas and they took a nap….and they slept for 3 hours! I was starting to panic because they slept for so long. When they finally woke up, we decided to open presents! The baby was so excited to find among other things, a castle, a pink fishing rod, and a beautiful little green and white Strasburg dress with a matching white satin hair bow. My Grandmother had also sent the children a box just full of the things that little boys and little girls love to play with! Lots of stickers, coloring books, dolls, dinosaurs and even a little silver crown that said “Happy Birthday” so that everyone would know who was queen for the day.

Then it was time to get everyone dressed up for the baby’s big birthday dinner. At this stage, she doesn’t care too much about where we go to eat, as long as there is food! So we picked a little place in town and had a nice dinner. The waitress knew my husband, and when she found out it was the baby’s birthday, she brought out a giant slab of 3 layer orange blossom cake with whipped cream, oranges, and pink candles on top! It’s not the type of restaurant where they sing to you, but believe me, we were fine with that. We’re thinking about going there to get a birthday cake the next time any of us has a birthday! Yum!!