Catching up...

I have taken so many pictures this summer that there is no way I'll ever get completely caught up on blogging! But here are a few snapshots of our summer thus far!

First...Nanny Gentry!!! I think I may have shared a bit in another post, but our friend Gentry came down for about 5 weeks to help out with the girls and it couldn't have gone better!!! The girls LOVED having Gentry around and so did I. What a huge help and it was just so fun to have her around!!! Thanks for a great few weeks Gench! We miss you already!!! Father's Day 2011! We had a fun day all together... Church in the morning and then an afternoon playing at the park... We love you Daddy!!! I am so grateful that my girls have such an amazing Dad. They just adore their Daddy and I know as they grow older, they will appreciate more and more the GIFT of a Daddy who loves them and sacrifices so greatly for them... Joel, you truly are a one of a kind! So thankful for you!
In June, Ellie turned 35 months (pictured above) and Alexa turned 13 months (the two pics below!) These girls just keep growing and changing like crazy. I wish time would slow down cause they are getting big TOO fast! But it's so fun to watch them become better friends by the day and they interact so well. We're just entering the "don't mess with my stuff" phase as Alexa gets more mobile and into all of Ellie's projects. It's actually quite hilarious and provides for some good teachable moments as we help Ellie understand the importance of sharing and helping Alexa learn to do things... It's a fun and very hands on stage for both of them.

Yes, LOTS of baths down here as it's been very hot and humid and the girls play hard! But, it tends to be the favorite part of each of their days! :)

I'm so thankful for the creativity of grocery stores. This makes getting groceries a lot more fun for the girls and a lot easier for Momma! :) Don't they look adorable in their little car? And they each have their own steering wheel. Genius, I say. :)

Ellie and Alexa had their first boy babysitters while we were down here in Gulf Shores. A team of guys offered to watch the girls for a couple of hours so Joel and I could go and get some time together. It was SO CUTE! The guys arrived with a huge coloring book and box of 64 colors... Alexa did GREAT. Ellie actually was the one that took some warming up and kept trying to run to the girls rooms. Ha! But all around, I think they all had fun! They took Alexa on tricycle rides, colored and played hard. Great job guys! Thanks for taking such good care of the girls! And we even got this sweet little picture. The students have been INCREDIBLE at loving our girls. I am so thankful that they get the chance to grow up around such wonderful college students. We are all very blessed, for sure!

Just another cute shot of Alexa wearing big sister's sunglasses one afternoon while we were out visiting students at work! :)

Ellie and Alexa just LOVE our staff girls... Here is a pic of our two Ellie's... These two have a very special bond. I think part of it may be because Miss Ellie (as we like to call her :) lets our Ellie get away with quite a bit... She has a very high patience level and just loves this little girl to pieces. Again, we are very blessed. :) Ellie is bound to go Greek one day. She has learned the sign to almost every sorority this summer and she usually flashes an ADPi diamond or a PiPhi arrow or one of many other sorority symbols. It's adorable how the girls have adopted her. It will be interesting to see which house she actually chooses one day!

Another one of Ellie's favorite pasttimes has been running through the fountains located close to our hotel. She used to be a little leary, but now she is quite bold and blazes a trail through them! It's a lot of fun to watch. Next year I am sure that Alexa will join in the fun once she is running!

Ellie decided to jump in the back of the stroller with Alexa when she was all wet... This is actually my favorite face that Alexa makes. Isn't it cute? :) She scrunches up that adorable little nose! Aaah... I could just eat her up!

Remember those colors that I was telling you about earlier? Well, Ellie LOVES to color with them! But notice how the colors started... out of the box and all lined up...

Then she progresses to dividing them into color groups. She did this all by herself, but wanted to show Daddy...

This tells you a ton about our firstborn's personality. Everything in order and color coded. Ha! She will do this with her bath letters, too. I go in and she has the letters up on the tub, separated by color. It's hilarious!

Well, there's a random little update! It's been an incredible summer. I'm sad it's moving by so quickly... We're all going to go through withdrawals once we don't have the students down the hall and around every corner. But we're really thankful for the time we've had. One more month and it's back to Manhattan!