What They've Been Up To

Madison continues to learn more and more each day. Her language has improved tremendously over the last 3 months or so. She says full sentences and asks very clear questions. She even understands the concept of "why?" She mimicks us frequently and one of her latest sayings taken straight from me is "Oh, my gosh!" I'm so proud of her as she now frequently says "please" and "thank you" and even "you're welcome" without prompting. She now is able to swing quite high on a big girl swing as you can see below, and just the other day she taught herself how to climb up a slide.
Here she is reading the church bulletin on Father's Day. She looks forward to church on Sundays, and she loves to lift her hands during worship and clap.
She is also pretty dramatic especially when it comes to getting a boo-boo. She bumped her chin on a chair while in Ohio and a bandaid was the only thing that made it feel better.
Carson keeps us laughing. He is a constant imitator of Madison--unfortuneatley he also tries to imitate her when she's doing something she's not supposed to be doing. His language isn't great--very similar to Madison at this age but he does try to say "thank you" which just melts my heart. He loves to hold my hand and walk down the stairs one step at a time and just today he realized that he had the ability to climb up onto the dining room chairs. Oh boy! As you can see below--he's very happy at meal times.

He loves to push things in front of him as he walks. One of his favorites--the doll stroller! If Madison isn't pushing it around he is--what a great daddy he'll make someday. When we go out on walks he is not as content being in the stroller anymore--he wants to get out and walk like Madison, so we often take the toy lawnmower with us so that they aren't fighting over the doll stroller.
Jason continues to be a very happy baby. He's now 5 months old and he weighs 15 lbs. 3 oz. We just started him on rice cereal twice a day last week and he seems to really like it. He's now rolling over from his back to his stomach and sometimes back to his back. He has found his feet and loves to grab them and even put them in his mouth. He now reaches for toys and will hold onto rattles for a good length of time.

Here he is being held by his great-grandmother Ruth.

A great shot of him taken in his crib shortly after we arrived home last week--so happy to be back in his bed!