The Muny

We were having awesome weather last week so we decided to take the girls to The Muny (St. Louis’ outdoor theatre) to see Beauty and the Beast. The weather that night was amazing so we had a picnic in Forest Park before the show. Since it is outside, they have to wait for the sun to go down to start the performances which makes for a late night for kids. Emma did pretty well through the first half but was starting to get a little restless so we left at intermission. On the way back to the car is I asked her if she had fun. Her response was “I had a great time at the show and I had a great time at the picnic!” We thought she would immediately fall asleep in the car but instead she just kept singing (over and over and over) “Be our guest, be our guest!”

Father's Day 2010

I missed posting about Father’s Day but I just wanted to document a few pictures from our day and take a chance to brag on Adam. Our girls really lucked out when God sent them to be Adam’s daughters. For a guy who would really love to have a son one day, he is absolutely smitten with his little girls. He has always been hands on with them, EXTREMELY patient with both them and me, very efficient at everything, and always willing to play hide and seek for the 100th time of the day! I try to put Emma to bed at night and she will say “No, I want Daddy!” Audrey also prefers Adam over me much of the time. She is very content with just snuggling with him where as she fusses at me until I feed her! Audrey definitely has her dad’s personality as she is very laid back, quiet, and smiley. Adam is not known as a talker but that’s ok because he too has a cute smile! So thanks Adam for loving our girls so much and for being such a wonderful daddy. The best part of our day when you come home from work!



Also, a few other photos from the day and Audrey’s flower photo shoot in Grammy and Pop’s backyard!

Summer Birthdays

May and June are both crazy months when it comes to holidays and birthdays. We have Mother’s day and Father’s day, birthdays for both our mom’s, and numerous cousins who are having birthdays. We didn’t get to celebrate with everyone on their big day this year (sorry Benny, Denise, and my mom!) but we did make it to both Peyton and Emilee’s parties which counts for something! Here are a few of the photos from the two events!

To start the crazy amount of pictures, here is the smiley birthday boy. (One year ago I was present for this little guy’s birth which was so neat. He forever has a special place in my heart!)

Adam was overseeing the party from a distance and keeping an eye peeled for stray dogs that were wondering around. Good thing we have him to protect us from such scary animals!

The cake snatcher. This is where Emma could always be found, right next to the cake and sneaking a bite!

Emilee and Peyton share a birthday just one year apart! Emilee had the ultimate cool party in Emma’s mind because it was “Dora”! My cousin Shana (Emilee’s mom) is just days away from having another baby so she wins the brave soul award for taking on the task of a birthday party at such a hectic time!

Cousin Catherine

My little cousin Catherine has been a faithful visitor to our house this summer and a very big help when she is here. She is also a faithful reader of this blog and I promised her a post all to herself!

Catherine was born when I was a sophomore in high school and has always been a huge part of my life. I lugged her around everywhere when she was a baby, she came to see me at college in my dorm and my apartment, was a flower girl in my wedding, was with me at the hospital when Emma was born, was one of the first visitors to see Audrey, and is absolutely one of my very best friends! (I know that she is only 11 but we have a pretty tight bond!) She loves both my girls so much and I can already see her forming the same relationship with them that I have with her! Just the other day when we were on our way home after a long weekend in Farmington, Emma out of nowhere said “Catherine is my best friend!” Adam and I are both very glad she has such a cool best friend! We love you Catherine!

Grandma and Grandpa Jarvis

Adam and I are very lucky to have six of our eight grandparents still alive. Grandma Jarvis will be 99 the beginning of August and has lived in a nursing home for the past three and a half years. My Grandpa Jarvis will be 98 in a few months and still lives at home by himself! I love seeing the interaction of Emma with both of them. My grandpa gets a real kick out of her and he loves how Emma always pays attention to him and talks to him. My Grandma Jarvis suffers from Alzheimer’s and is usually pretty sleepy but she ALWAYS perks up when Emma is around. Emma has always been very comfortable at the nursing home. I know these pictures are not very good of my poor grandma but I thought they captured Emma’s relationship with her pretty well. Emma usually just sits by grandma in her bed and will pat her arm. It always makes me smile. Since Audrey was born during flu season at the nursing home she was not able to meet my grandma until now so that also made the day extra special! I am so thankful that my kids got to meet these two special people and even form a relationship with them! (I am also hoping that I inherited their good genes!)

And just a shot of my dad (their son!) who was also along that day. I am also hoping that if I have a son that he will love me as much as my dad loves his mom. He is pretty faithful about going to the nursing home to help feed my grandma and is always very patient with her!

June Pictures

Here are the photos from the girl's photo shoot in June. Emma does pretty well but always takes it very seriously when she has to hold Audrey for a photo. Therefore, she is not her smiley self in some of the photos!

Summer Visitors

We spent a week in June with Grammy and some of her family hanging in the pool. Aunt Beth and Cousins Claire, Jackie, Ava, Elise, and little Lana were all part of the clan that came to visit. Emma had a blast with everyone and was pretty much all smiles the entire week. We can’t wait to spend another week with them pretty soon in Michigan!

Audrey's Baptism - June 13th, 2010

The Sunday after the shower our little Audrey girl was baptized. Her sponsors were her aunts Julie and Ali and her uncle Eric. With both aunts living out of state, you sometimes can’t get everyone together so this time Aunt Ali was not able to be with us.

Here are some pictures (an obnoxious amount) from Audrey’s day. We pray that every day her heart will be more and more filled with a love for Jesus!

A special picture of Emma and her Great-Great-Great Aunt! I guess that is such a thing. Pat is my Great- Great Aunt so that is how I am getting the three greats for Audrey! Pat came all the way from Indiana to be with us for the shower and the baptism and we loved having her!



Emma and her cousin Emilee passed the time outside in Grammy’s pretty flowers which made for some cute pictures!

A Shower for Baby Caroline

My sister Julie and brother-in-law Richard were in town for a jam packed weekend of events. We started things off on Saturday with a shower for Julie who is expecting her first little baby in late September. The shower was tons of fun filled with lots of chatter from all the people we love. My aunt Shirley hosted the shower with me and she did a wonderful job. She made it so nice and prepared some wonderful food, complete with a Texas salad for my sister (who will now forever be a Texan since she married one!) We can’t wait to meet our new little niece in just a few short months!

Country Days Weekend

The first weekend of June is always “Country Days Weekend” in our hometown. While many people hate this weekend (Adam being the number one!), I really get in to it. While yes there are some scary people walking the streets (carnivals attract all kinds of interesting people) I really like the downtown events and the parade. Even though I am not into the carnival rides (we didn’t let Emma ride any of those gross things!) we had a great time eating hot dogs, riding the horses, going on a moonlight bike ride around the town and seeing many people we know. Adam did venture out and join us at the parade as well as our traditional walk on Saturday night through the crowd just to see who could find the first person in a cut off tank top/kid in just a diaper/or jeans made into shorts.

We started off the weekend with some pedicures. We had to look good for the big event!

We spent Friday afternoon downtown at the bank’s hot dog stand and at a few local businesses checking out their decorations.

Friday evening we headed down to the “Carnival” as Emma called it. She rode the ponies, danced in the park, and saw some cousins! I took this picture of some of them walking down to the festivities. I told everyone I was going to put it on the blog with a title “Heading in to Hoosierville”! Most people think Hoosiers are from Indiana but in MO, it is just another term for a really bad hillbilly!

We ended Friday evening with a 5 mile moonlight bike ride around town. Catherine, my aunt Caren, my mom, and I all rode our bikes to the starting point and then back home (so we actually rode about 7 miles). All but one of us made it back on our bikes. My mom walked her bike halfway home and then finished up with a ride! It was midnight and she is turning 55 next week so I give her credit for completing the ride itself. Next year we will probably just drive our bikes to the starting point and stick to the ride. The elderly in our group just can’t handle much else. Here is Mary Poppins and her sister Dorothy from Kansas.

Here we are Saturday morning at the parade! Emma was really into all the freebies of candy they were throwing at her!

All of the cousins (minus Mady and Audrey) at the parade…..

Me and my grandma…..

Audrey didn’t make it to the parade because it was really hot. She did get a nice bath though and a mini photo shoot on Grammy’s porch!