8 months!!!

On Saturday, July 24th, Ryan and Kate turned 8 months old! Can I just take a moment to say "WOW!!!" Where has the time gone? If 7 months caught me off guard, 8 months really came fast. Pretty soon school will be starting, life will get super busy around here, and then they'll be turning a year old before we know it...yikes!!!

8 month milestones:

"talking" non-stop (to themselves, to each other, to the lamp...)

waking up and playing in bed instead of crying (REALLY happy about this one)

giving lots of hugs and kisses

watching us eat and eating baby food quite well themselves

grabbing, pinching, picking up and throwing all sorts of things

making us laugh with funny faces (and then doing it again to make us laugh more)

doing push ups and scooting around (Ryan)

crawling, pulling up, and cruising around anything/anybody (Kate)

sucking on hands and feet (their own on each others)

holding hands all the time (oh so precious...hope it lasts)

call me a mommy blogger

caramel popcorn sundae

So I guess what officially makes you a mommy blogger is putting recipes on your blog. Up until now I have had nothing to share food wise mainly because I'm not sure that heating up frozen lasagna counts as cooking, and thats about all I've been "cooking" since the babies were born. I'm still not sure if this counts as a recipe, but boy is it yummy! My mother-in-law told me it would be gross when I told her about it, but I assure you it is super good even if it is super bad for the post-baby bod.

So here it is (make sure to follow directions to the letter):

Caramel Popcorn Sundae:

step 1: scoop vanilla ice cream into dish

step 2: sprinkle with warm buttered popcorn (I did use about 1/3 of a 100 calorie mini big, so that makes it slightly healthy right?)

step 3: drizzle with warm caramel

...its a lot of work, but totally worth it! =)

flip flop fun

Grammy's back from Brazil (finally!) and we were all so excited to see her. What was supposed to be a 9 day mission trip turned into an 11 day trip when the team got delayed after a cancelled flight on the way home. Nothing like spending your birthday sitting in the airport for 12 hours (sorry mom). On the bright side, they had a really great time in Brazil and had many opportunities to share the gospel and teach local women to make crafts that they can sell in the market to support themselves. Mom brought back many special presents for everyone, but my favorite of course were the tiny Havaianas flip flops she brought for Kate and Ryan.

happy feet!

What is it about baby shoes that makes them so darn cute???

(even if they won't keep them on for more than 10 seconds)

rockin' the hawk and ratllin' the cage

WOW!!! I look good!

Oh yes, that is my 7 month old pulling up on the play gate...and the crib, and the ottoman.

...our world will never be the same!

Lil' mad scientists

Last Saturday we loaded up the family in the RV that my mom and dad are considering buying (not new but still in pretty decent shape) and took her out for a test drive to Oklahoma City. We were planning to go to the zoo, but since it was raining cats and dogs, we ended up at the Oklahoma Science Museum (formerly the Omniplex). I hadn't been in several years and was amazed at all of the activities for smaller kids. Kate and Ryan had a blast, as seen in the above picture!

All 3 kids really enjoyed themselves...Naomi also enjoyed her cookie.

Hillbilly Holiday

my guys headed to the fishin' dock

The Mills Family annual Branson pic - a special redneck surprise for Dana - took alot of coordination but totally worth it to see the look on her face!

...and to prove we do actually clean up alright

We just got back from our annual family trip to Branson USA with Matt's family. Everyone had a blast, including Ryan and Kate. They slept great (praise the Lord - didn't wake the whole house crying at any point) played hard, and had a great time watching all of the big kids run around. We had a few baby "firsts" on the trip as well, including first time in a big pool (totally loved it), first time on a ride (who knew 25 cents could buy so much fun?), and for Katie - first time to crawl and first french fry (stollen from daddy's plate and quickly removed from mouth). It was a great time to be with family and we look forward to many great trips in the years to come!