We're back!

Have you missed us? We're back from vacation, and have been busy, busy. More later, once I get all the pictures uploaded and can regale you with tales of Arizona and Grandpa Lourens' 60th birthday party.

Until then, enjoy the picture of our cute boys and refrain from reaching towards the computer screen to pinch cheeks.

Higher, Papi, higher!

Another first for the boys, swinging at our neighborhood park. Lots of fun! First 5 are of Grady, next 5 of Cole. You should be able to click on the picture to make it bigger.

Big boys!

Look at all the things big boys can do! A big boy can ride in the grocery cart seat-his first time!

A big boy is also has good input on selecting gardening equipment.


Most importantly, Big Boy listens is considerate of his brother, Only Slightly-Less-Big Boy when he wants a turn.

Countdown!

CHEEKS! I love 'em.

Cole is staring at Grady here.

5 long days stand between us and our first official baby-free getaway. We've been very lucky to have several nights when Nana & Grandpa watched the boys, but we do have the travel bug, and this will be our first time out of state for a long weekend. We're going to Arizona to spend a few days with Amy & Matt in Phoenix, and then we're tooling on down to Tucson for another few days. We leave on Saturday and will be back Wednesday, hopefully that is enough time for the dark circles under my eyes to dissapear! Let's hope, you know it's bad when the security officer at the front door of your work comments.

Anywho, please don't expect much from me this week in terms of witty posts, I am going to give you nothing but pictures. Here are the boys with Papi, before the wedding shower we hosted yesterday. Those boys throw a hell of a party.

7 Months!

We've made it to 7 months! Things are really starting to be fun, and are changing so quickly.

By the way, Cole, stop chewing your brother's paci. That's how fights get started. If you didn't want him chewing your hand, you should really leave his paci alone.

Your Brother is Not a Chewtoy.

No, you're not seeing things, I'm really posting two days in a row. Today's post is about [obviously] the boys. They are finally starting to acknowledge each other! It's SO cute. They stare at each other, sometimes hold hands-I don't think they know they're holding hands, but still cute- and yesterday as Cole was babbling for a good 30 seconds, Grady stared at him and laughed when he was done. Cole then smiled back. Maybe Cole was telling a joke? Or maybe they were making fun of my new too-short haircut? I'm not sure, but it surely just the beginning of a lifetime of inside jokes that Mommy & Papi will not be privy to.

Here are some of my more recent favorite pics of the boys together. Grady tried to gnaw on Cole's hand, you can see for yourself how well that went over.

Just another day

Nothing too exciting to report on the BabyFront, but it occured to me that I have not shared with you the wonderful things Frick and Frack have been doing. So far, we have 6 teeth between the two. Cole took the lead with 4 teeth, G-baby is sporting 2. Both are attempting to crawl, but again, Colester is a little closer to actually doing it. G is quite the stander, though, and I think that little man is going to just pull up and walk one day. Crawling is for babies! G is also the more vocal baby. He'll give you quite the talking to if you sit near him long enough! And he'll try to chew your jaw, he's not really caught on that the teething rings are there for a reason. I pretend he's giving me kisses. Cole can't keep anything out of his mouth long enough to talk too much. I've had to be more vigilant around him as I've already found leaves and tufts of Madam hair in his mouth. Makes total sense as to why Madam has been walking a wide circle around the boys lately...Here are some pics of the two, Cole with the really cool ball that talks (and gets talked back at by Grady), next is Grady, standing with his Papi's support.

Why Hello, Aunt Karen!

We really are lucky to be surrounded by fantastic people. Our great friends, the Schells, whom we love dearly and got to see last weekend, let us use their UGA football tickets for the game this past Saturday. We got tickets to the season opener! Whoohoooo! But, as usual when it comes to anything fun, "we" means Keith got to go. I briefly considered putting the boys in a Bjorn and going along, but I figured having 6 month olds at a blazing hot end of August football game would be frowned upon by other more responsible and practical people. The boys and I aren't ones to sit around while Papi has all the fun, so we loaded the car and headed north to visit some other fantastic people, Aunt Karen & her crew. Fun! It was the boys' first visit back to their birthplace and I must say that this visit was much more enjoyable than their first two weeks there.

Their cousin Greg, who is now 7 years old (When did that happen? I swear it feels likle yesterday when I was holding him at Christmas and he was only 8 months old!), is playing football, so we all got to go see him play a game. Gooooooo #29! Sara, now 5 going on 20, is an excellent baby holder and feeder. She managed to hold onto Grady, who is now almost as big as she is when sitting down. Rhett, as always, makes me chuckle. I don't know what it is about that kid, but he's funny. Starting to be slightly bossy as he made me walk up and down the stairs to the basement with him a few times (he needed an audience to demonstrate how he could do it without using the banister-Look, NO HANDS!), but as Fabulous Aunt Trudi, I was happy to oblige.

Enjoy the pictures from the weekend! I even got a picture of Uncle Scott, whose unwillingness to be captured on film is only outdone by El Chupacabra.

Trip to Knoxville