Nothin' Says Summer Like...

Nothin' says summer like walks in the stroller, sun hats, sun glasses, bare feet, boats, bathing suits, water hoses, swimming pools, modest baby bikinis, and who could forget puppy dog kisses! ;+)

Is this cool or what?!?!

Grandpa Jack and Jackson! Notice those Texas Crocs. Uncle Brett really loves those! Hopefully Ayla will get to wear them after Jackson grows out of them. ;+]

This is my dad's new/used fishin' boat! My dad and Justin had just gone to pick it up the day before, and they are cleaning it here. They've already been out a number of times. However, I must say... we haven't had any fish fries, so I'm not convinced they are working very hard at the fishin' part!
Notice Baylie and Hazel keeping supervising closely!

Brett is trying to keep Baylie from... (see next picture)

mauling Ayla with kisses!! Baylie just can't resist. Can you blame her???

Two Saturdays ago when I kept Jackson, I took both the kids outside to play in the water. It was a nice, sunny day, but it wasn't too hot. They had fun!!

I took a dozen things out there for them to play in the water with, but the one thing Ayla found fascinating was the blades of grass that ended up on her legs. Go figure!!!

This was bath time after playing in the water outside!
That waterproof sunscreen sure is a chore to get off!

I just couldn't leave this one out. Sorry, Justin and Sarah! :+} Okay, I'm not that sorry! After getting them out of the bath, which was quite tricky doing it alone, I managed to get Ayla diapered, but hadn't gotten to Jackson yet. I left them in Ayla's room for a minute or two (literally) to grab something from the kitchen, and I rounded the corner and found him walking down the hall towards me with Ayla quickly crawling right behind him. He looked just like this, with Ayla's sunglasses upside down on his head. I of course immediately grabbed my camera, and as I pressed the button he covered him self like he's doing in the picture. I know it was completely ironic, but it almost looks as though I told him to do it. I'm very glad I captured this cute moment. He'll hate it when I show this to future girlfriends, and believe me, Aunt Amy will!! :+]

This was taken Memorial Day at my parent's house!
We all went over the to cook out and get in the pool.

Ayla in her very modest, baby bikini! Don't those rolls look so cute. They do now, but she won't think so when she has them in her post-baby bathing suit!

My mom and dad got this little pool for the kids to use. It worked out perfectly. They could play in the little pool while we played in the big pool. :+}

As you can see... she LOVED it!

She looks so big sitting on the side of the pool like this!

Jackson is showing us his muscles in this one! It's so cute the way he stresses to show us!

The last few are some random pictures I've taken over the past few weeks.

Thanks to her Grandpa Jack, Ayla now knows how to take hats off. She is no longer the naive hat wearer she once was! :+} If she gets on eye level with my dad, and he's wearing a hat, she goes right for it. She's pretty good about taking it off his head, and when placed on hers, she's knows exactly how to get that "thing" off her head. We really did fee her this night. She just loves bananas so much... she couldn't resist! :+]
We actually thought she was just going to "gum" the banana, since she was cutting a tooth, but we quickly noticed that her little sharp tooth had made it's way past the skin and into the banana. Her second tooth has also poked through next to the one on the bottom. It came in much quicker than the first.
If you look closely at this one, you can see her tooth.
This is the Saturday "routine" Ayla and I share. She usually wakes around 7:15. I turn Disney on for us to watch Tigger and Pooh, Playhouse Disney, and Little Einsteins, I fix myself a cup of coffee (or two or three), Ayla eats puffs, Cheerios, or Craisins, has a bottle, has some water, plays with some toys, and then Sleeping Beauty (AKA: Brett) joins the party around 8:30ish. ;+]
It's pretty funny how in just a few weeks her attention span has increased quite a bit. It's cute how certain songs the character's will sing or things they'll say will get her attention. Her newest thing is "sharing" what she's eating or playing with. She'll nicely hand you a cracker to nibble on or hand you the car she's found. This morning, while watching Playhouse Disney and eating Cheerios, she raised a Cheerio up as if she wanted to share it with Mickey. It was pretty funny! I didn't have the heart to tell her that Mickey wasn't really there to share a Cheerio with. ;+]

There's that "O" face. It looks like an "O" and she says "Ohhhhhh" when she does it. I'm not quite sure where she learned this, but it sure is funny. She does it at the most random times. I've tried to do it and see if she'll copy me, but she usually won't. Then 10 minutes later she'll do it. ???


I love her sleepy, morning face!
This is the face where she scrunches her nose and mouth and breaths in and out! I have no idea where she got this one either!

There's nothing cuter than baby feet! That second toe of hers just kills me. I just hope she's able to wear flip flops one day. She won't survive in Florida if she can't. ;+] I won't ever tell her what her Aunt Sarah calls her little toe.

That's all for now!!

Pictures Perfect

While in Dallas over Spring Break, we decided to have the photographer we've used take pictures of Ayla and all her cousins on Brett's side of the family. We also planned it as a Mother's Day gift to his mom, who hadn't had all the grandkids in a professional photo, so this was extra special. The pictures were a surprise for her, so I couldn't post them until after Mother's Day. It was funny because after having them taken we all met for dinner, and even though all the kids were wearing jeans and white shirts, she didn't suspect a thing. :+}
It was also close to Ayla being 6 months old, so I took the opportunity to have these shots taken of her. I'd seen babies dressed like this on our photographer's website, and I knew I wanted to have Ayla's done the same way when she got old enough. We took them in Frisco at a park that is right in the center of all the shopping there. We never knew this park was even there, but it was a nice back drop. :+}

Ayla & her curls

Jaycee rae and Ayla

All the cousins (& 2nd cousins), from left to right: Jaycee, Stephanie (back), Garrett, Ayla, Jasmine (back), Madison, and Liam

Even though they aren't looking at the camera, I think this one is my favorite of the group. Garrett has recently gotten braces, and Ayla was quite interested in them, so the photographer used the opportunity and told everyone to look at Ayla.