Ahoy there Matey

Arggggggh! I can't tell you how much the kids loved spending time with their cousins. And the boys were really gentle and generous and sweet with the kids . . . really!
She looks so small next to these big boys. So small yet so happy.

The Many Faces of Lutece

A week or so ago, Gayle and the boys (Stephen and Ben) drove up here from TN to see us. We had a blast with them. On our last day together, we drove to Old Fort Harrod (built in 1776) and toured the very small fort. Out front was this huge tree, perfect for climbing. Here are some the faces of Lutece.

Father's Day

Father's Day was a while ago, wasn't it. Oh well, here are some pictures from the day. "Where," you ask, "is the father in question?" Umm, at church meetings. Gotta love that.
Profile of the "Little Man." Oh, yeah, and there's our little garden in the background. Right now he's probably thinking, "I bet I could eat one of those flowers. Or at least roll it around in my mouth a bit."
And here's our little beauty, once more. I think we've told her she's beautiful a little too much, as she seems to be obsessed with it recently (although I'm not sure you CAN tell your children too much how beautiful, intelligent, funny, and generally wonderful they are). While reading the Brothers Grimm version of Snow White, she was determined to know how she stacked up: "Am I *more* beautiful than Snow White?" "You are very beautiful," I responded. "But am I MORE beautiful than her?" I won't bore you with the whole beauty-comparison talk we had, other than to note that this comparison thing was what got the wicked stepmother in trouble. Noone wants to be the wicked stepmother.

Oh-kee

I think Phx's favorite word right now is "ok" . . . which comes out "oh-kee." It means, "ah, yes, you have understood what I've just said. We can move on from here." For example:
"Get yogurt right now eat!"
"You'd like to eat some yogurt right now?"
"Eat yogurt right now, oh-kee, oh-kee." (nodding his head and smiling) "oh-kee."

Jumping Jehoshaphat

Here's a funny little video I took of Phx before bedtime the other day. He's such a ham.

Summer Dress-up

Here are the kids in their Sunday-go-meetin'-finery (thanks to Grandma DuBravac). They feed off each other these days. Four out of five times, that's not a good thing. We're working on the playing-together-nicely-without-screaming-bloody-murder thing.

Lutece, ribbon model extraordinaire.

Phoenix is talking up a STORM! I can hear him right now in the bathtub yelling at Stayc "I need go pee right now!" (I've just been informed that he did, indeed, go pee right then.) "Right now" and "Right there" are some of his favorite phrases. As is "everywhere" . . . as in, there are lots of whatever here . . . "People everywhere!" He mimics Lutece a lot. So he has begun to call out constantly "Mommy, where are you?" We are regularly in awe at how much he knows without being explicitly taught. Today he asked for some goldfish crackers, and when Stayc said, "ok, just 2 or 3," Phx responded, "No, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9." Really he did.

Walking

How fun to walk hand in hand with a friend. Lutece and her friend Grace hiked down the mountain for a good space holding hands. So cute. So I took this picture.
"Hey girls, turn around." And then took this picture.And then, "Smile!" Uhhhhhh-huh. And that's how it goes.

Hiking to Natural Bridge

We hiked to the Natural Bridge in Slade, KY yesterday with some friends. The bridge, as you see behind us, is a huge natural limestone formation. It was a .75-mile hike up to the top, where we enjoyed lunch before hiking back down.
Beautiful Kentucky! Lutece and I are at the top of the bridge. You could hike under it AND on top of it. There were no rails or barriers of any kind. Needless to say, we kept Lu's hand and Phx in the backpack the whole time.
Lutece was a trooper. She hiked the whole way up and the whole way down and didn't complain once.
We'll definitely be back. It was a beautiful hike and very kid-friendly. The trail up was different from the trail down and there are numerous other trails in the area (being part of the Daniel Boone National Forest). Kentucky has a lot to offer . . . come one, come all!