Life Lately - July edition

Happy August 1st...or also known as traditionally our busiest month of the year! We just got back late Saturday night from vacation with Stephen's family. I'll post about our week away later this week, but for today I'm sharing everything else from our July. 

We're still cranking out the homemade baby food. We have plans to start introducing more solid foods this week. We'll see how that goes. I'm keeping a broom close by. I have visions of small pieces of food strewn all over the floor. Ugh. 

Our girls hit a sleep regression phase HARD this month. There was one week by Wednesday I texted my boss at 5 am saying I wouldn't be in because at that point I had 8 hours of sleep in almost 6 days. I hope this phase passes quickly. They will not sleep in their cribs. Well, they will for a while and then decide nope, not gonna do it. The crying it out option is a hard decision we're wavering on just because they're both in the same room. Do we relocate a crib until they figure it out or let them cry it out together? It's about our last option; and I'm not on board for paying a "sleep consultant" to give us advice. Anybody have great tips for us?!

We brought out all of our red white and blue for the girls first 4th of July! 

They participated in our town's Little Patriot's Parade on the morning of the 4th. It was blazing hot, but our nephews couldn't be prouder to ride beside them! 

Both girls have become very curious this month with their surroundings. And mobile. They crawl all over the house and will find you wherever you go. And subsequently destruct everything within arm's reach. 

When Mae Parker wakes up in her crib in the mornings (which let's be honest...isn't often anymore), she immediately goes to the corner of her crib and starts pulling the bottles of lotion, diaper cream, etc down off their dresser and pulls the camera off the shelf above her crib. 

Standing is by far her favorite thing to do this month. She thinks she is SUCH a big girl and is SO proud of herself!!

More Sunday Fundays! 

I just love red white and blue on babies in the Summer time!! 

Stephen's mom got the girls walkers for her house and they LOOOOVE them. It's so funny to watch them walk around the house in them. 

It's also been a month filled with watching the girls bond as sisters, friends and playmates. Where one goes, the other is not far behind. They make each other cry and laugh. It's been such a sweet blessing to watch develop. 

We've practiced our selfie game. I'll share more about that in our vacation post. 

I was picked to be on the "Launch Team" to promote Melanie Shankle's new book coming out in October! In a lull season of feeling like all I do is come to work for 8 hours then have two babies attached to my hip and feet the other 22 hours of the day, receiving this news and an early reader's copy of her book was truly a highlight for ME. Just something special for a little "me time". 

(P.S. you're going to be hearing more about this book between now and October 3rd. Click here to find out more, pre-order and snag some great pre-order offers!!

(P.S.S. Melanie herself commented on the above photo that I posted to Facebook! #fangirlmoment) 

Right before we left for vacation, I managed to take the girls 9 month photos...although they were closer to 10 months at this point. #whatevs

And we wrapped up the month soaking up the sun, sea and eating sand by the handfuls on the beaches of Destin. On a positive note: eating sand doesn't seem to hurt a baby. A 33 year old on the other hand cringes when she feels one grain in her teeth. 

Hope your Summer is trucking right along in your neck of the woods...but perhaps with a bit more sleep than we're getting these days! Happy Tuesday friends!