Ainsley Marin is 7 months old!  Crawling like crazy and she popped her first tooth, two teeth actually!  Both of her bottom front teeth are peeking through, evenly.  She starting waving "hello" and "goodbye" recently and does it like crazy (not just when you say hello or goodbye, but every time she enters or exits a room with someone in it).  She's getting fussy about mushy food because she's been trying and liking so much "big people" food. She loves using her mouth to chomp things up.  It's much earlier that we started the other kids, but she's been trying just about everything they eat (pasta, chicken fingers, hot dogs...you name it).  We're trying to pull back now and get her to like the mushy food with all the right vitamins in it for a couple more months anyway.  She LOVES her little walker and literally chases the other kids around the house in it. Kaelin thinks it's hysterical and really gets a work out by having Ainsley scoot around "running" after her.

Aidan Kane is 2 years and 1 month old.  A new Target opened up locally last week and we thought we'd make a family trip to the store. It turned into a couple hours, but one of the great things that came out of it is that Aidan wanted to buy some underwear. He picked out a few packs of CARS, "lightning mcqueen" undies.  We figured we'd keep them in a drawer for a few months figuring that like most boys he wouldn't be ready this early. We were wrong though...he insisted on wearing them and thus the potty training began. Within the first few days, he had two entirely accident free days!  He's so proud of himself, and although we've been keeping a diaper on him at night just to be safe, he woke up in the middle of the night last night and came into our bedroom to tell us he had to go pee.  He loves sitting on the potty, reading his truck book and having Mommy do the "pee pee and poo poo dance" when he's done one or the other or both :-)  (We'll have to market that dance, it has seemed to work as an incentive for three kids so far).  He's going through a love of rockets and torpedo phase. He carries his blue rubber torpedoes (a prize for doing pee pee and poo poo on the potty) around the house, in the pool, to bed. He loves sitting at the computer and watching the space shuttle lift off over an over again and then he talks about wanting to ride in one ("In Pooter Daddy, Rocketship, Fire, In Sky and Blast Off!" ...).

Kaelin Avery is 3 years and 3 months and Keeley Shea is 4 years and 6 months old. They have been such great buddies the past couple of weeks. It's awesome. Not the usually tug of war over things and bickering, but playing so unbelievable great together, like true best friends.  We're keeping our fingers crossed that it keeps up!  Keeley just started being able to swim across the pool by herself without stopping.  In such a short period of time, she's become so great in the water.  Kaelin might get there by the end of the summer, but definitely by next year. She's happy right now just playing in the water with the noodle and dancing like crazy in it.

Jeff's been busy replacing the front door to the house, big pain, but worth it.  The new doors and molding look great. Next is picking a new paint color for the house!  We signed Keeley up for soccer this Fall.  Jeff is coaching Keeley's team and will be busy coordinating that on Saturdays starting in a couple weeks. We're going to Wisconsin on vacation in August and are all looking forward to that trip.

Upcoming birthdays & events include:

• August 10th Mommy and Daddy's 5th Wedding Anniversary
• August 16th Auntie Kelley's 35th Birthday
• August 25th Uncle Cary's 48th Birthday
• August 27th Nana and Papa's 40th Wedding Anniversary
• September 5th Cousin Falyn's 8th Birthday
• September 19th Papa's Birthday
• September 19th Auntie Kelley and Uncle Sean's Wedding Anniversary
• October 5th Daddy's 36th Birthday
• October 15th Cousin Natalia's 4th Birthday
• October 30th Uncle Tony's 43rd Birthday

Ainsley Marin is 7 months old!  Watch out!  She's crawling everywhere, it's an army crawl but still a crawl. She can make it through 3 rooms in seconds.  She always takes the most difficult route though--under tables, through chairs, over toys. She seems to love a challenge.  We are constantly on alert trying to safety proof the floors.  She's tried pretty much every kind of mushy food now and has also moved on to cheerios and tiny bits of other melt in your mouth type foods.  She loves to "talk" but has this funny way of doing it--always putting her hand to her mouth to make music.  She loves being outside on her dolphin swing (Aidan has reluctantly passed the torch to her) and getting her feet wet in the pool.  She had a fever for two straight days this past week, runny nose and unusually fussy.  We were sure she was going to pop a tooth, but nothing yet.  We're all looking forward to Ainsley's Christening in two weeks!  Her special day.

Aidan Kane is 2 years and 1 month old.  Our little "fublemaker", still causing trouble with the girls.  He only wants to be around boys these days, especially Daddy "no girl do, like boy" he says as he crosses his arm insisting that Daddy do something for him instead of Mommy.  He's infatuated with Home Depot.  Mommy took him to the store with her the other day and in the car said "Aidan, we're going to the store to buy Mommy a new dress" and Aidan says "Home Depot?", Mommy says "Not Home Depot today" and Aidan just about flips out screaming "No! Home Depot, Home Depot, Home Depot!"  We've caught Aidan sneaking off to play Daddy's guitar and sing songs by himself. If you try to sing with him, he doesn't like it and wants the stage all to himself.  He loves being in the pool and wakes up in the morning, grabs his swim diaper, and swim trunks and heads downstairs to wait by the door out the patio. 

Kaelin Avery is 3 years and 3 months and Keeley Shea is 4 years and 5 months old. Gymnastics summer program started last week and they love it. It's a small class of only three other girls.  Swim lessons are on Wednesdays and they are getting pretty good at swimming using a noodle for support. Keeley has started going under water, and Kaelin is sure to be next.  If we had any doubt about having a pool and the upkeep and expense involved in it, it's definitely worth it with the amount of use they have gotten out of it this year, and the summer isn't even half over.  And, it always leads to an extra long nap in the afternoon which is great for Mommy and Daddy.  We finally got to some landscaping over the past two weeks and the girls really enjoyed picking out and planting flowers and now watering them every day.