Parade

A couple of weekends ago. I loaded up the care and took Jillian and Willa to Hallettsville. It was the weekend of the Kolache Festival and there was a parade. My aunt had decided to enter a float in the parade in honor of all our military serving our country and especially in honor of my cousin, Mark, as we await his return home. They had the trailer decorated very nicely and we went earlier in the morning to sit on it for the judges.



At this point the girls were melting and it was quickly getting hot so we decided to go home and come back for the parade. We sat early in the parade route and watched all of the floats go by. The girls enjoyed watching and waved at all the participants. They also got a lot of candy thrown at them for two little girls!


Since our float was one of the last in the parade we then hopped on and rode it the rest of the way.

Jillian got to ride in her very first parade! We were excited to hear as we rounded the square that we had actually gotten 1st place in the non commercial category.The girls enjoyed playing outside at Granny's house. Jillian began picking acorns off of the ground, which I found very amusing b/c when I was little I distinctly remember doing the same thing and trying to fill up a whole big bucket throughout the fall.
Later in the afternoon they enjoyed some swimming time as well.

Picnic/Labor Day

We spent the weekend in Hallettsville and it was a busy weekend. We started off the day Saturday with pig tails and peeling potatoes for the Church picnic on Sunday. Since my mom is in charge of the potato peeling we often have to help. We aren't talking peeling a few potatoes - we are talking over a 1000 pounds of them!

In order to keep Jillian entertained so we could actually help, we opened her very own box of potatoes and she enjoyed bringing them to people. She was entertained but I think she may have actually slowed down progress because of everyone looking at her and commenting how cute she was - I sure don't mind though - I'd have to agree!

Then we were on to Ainsley's 1st birthday party where Jillian had a good time playing. On Sunday, we headed to the picnic. After a delicious lunch Jillian attempted some games. She did the bean bag toss
and rode the train (this was her favorite - she did it 3 times). James was sad that she was now a "big girl" and could ride by herself and didn't need anyone to hold her
She got tuckered out pretty quickly so we headed home for a nap
but came back for more. We tried to get Jillian to do the jumpy castles but she got through the doorway and started crying. She did enjoy playing on the deflated one though.
We finally got her to sit on the side of one and she seemed to enjoy that - maybe next year, we will actually jump!
Labor Day was filled with many labors helping Grandpa with his new project. She had to help put the nail in,
and hammer it in.
At this point Grandpa was just having her pose for pictures so we had to do a pretend hole with the drill.
We enjoyed our weekend and we hope everyone else enjoyed their holiday as well!

Baby News

Jillian is excited to say that she is going to be a BIG sister! Baby # 2 will be joining us mid March. I went to the doctor today and everything looks good!

Random Summer Discoveries

Jillian has been a busy bee this summer and she has discovered and experienced many new things. She recently had her very first Popsicle but wasn't too sure about it. She can hold ice in her hand but a Popsicle is apparently too cold.
She has figured out how to lock herself in the kennel with Bandit

She also learned that if she takes all of Mommy's bowls out of the cabinet, she...
Can hide in it!

She also climbs into anything she can possibly find

We really enjoyed our trip to Florida. Jillian did very well on the ride there. We made it in 13 hours with 2 stops to eat and a few bathroom and diaper change stops. She didn't sleep very much but played in her car seat. Amazingly all three kids were bright eyed and bushy tailed at 5 am at the start of the trip. Jon even wanted to know why Mr. Sun wasn't up yet! The beaches were beautiful with no signs of any oil at all. Jillian enjoyed playing in the sand the must. She wasn't as thrilled with the waves but would sit in them with someone else. She really enjoyed playing with Jon and Willa.








On the way back we stopped in New Orleans for two nights and by this time Jillian was pretty tired and fussy but overall she did ok. She walked Bourbon Street with us and we did some sight seeing the next day. We tried to go to an amusement park at the city park but unfortunately it was closed by the time we got there and we had to settle for pictures at the entrance.



We had a wonderful time on our vacation and created many memories. We hope everyone else is enjoying their summers as well!

Summer Fun

Jillian has been having lots of fun this summer. Mommy takes her to the play scape often and she has learned to navigate the entire thing by herself. She has good climbing skills.


She finally mastered walking over the moving bridge but she is sceptical each time she does it.
She really enjoys the slide!
She has also learned many new things this summer. She has experimented with corn on the cob on the 4th of July but doesn't quite understand which end she is supposed to eat from.
She likes walking in Mommy and Daddy's shoes
and has learned to pull her wagon