August!

We've been having a Jolly ol' time around here! The end of summer is upon us, but that brings us to a slew of new beginnings! In the month of August, Mallory will turn 4, Gwyneth starts the 2nd grade and starts soccer, too! She also discovered what the ER was like and what it feels like to have stitches, but I'll get to that in a minute.

NEAL
Early August was pretty quiet. We did have a family visit - Neal's mom and sister came to visit for almost 2 weeks. Of course I have absolutely NO pictures of them... I'll have to have Sarah email me some so I can get them posted. We played a lot of cards and watched a lot of movies. It was a really nice visit! During that time Neal did his triathlon!!! We are SO proud of him for finishing! He rocked the swim (200 meters in 4:57) I tried to swim it once... took me 6 minutes. In my defense it was the first time I'd actually tried to swim laps since I was a Freshman in high school. But this is about Neal! After the swim was a 9 mile bike ride
Finishing with a 3 mile run. The whole thing took him an 1:23:04. Now he's all excited about it and is looking for tris with longer swims... and shorter runs. At the race the girls cheered on their dad and got to share pizza afterward.
Shawna just ate grass.

GWYNETH
Gwyneth has discovered that she can stand on her head and has been doing so constantly... that is until she kicked a lamp, shattered the glass shade, and got a good gash on her pinky, which landed her in the ER. She did fine during the initial numbing stage

Although she's a little pale. However, when she saw the needle they had to hold her down for the second stage of numbing. But once we got through that, she got the stitches without fidgeting. She got 3, but probably could have used one or two more. The stitches came out on Sunday (the 23rd) and she is now fine. It helped that the nurse that checked us out was also the Shepherd of her Sunday School class. It's always nice to see a familiar face in an unfamiliar situation.

Oh - the girls also got their hair cut. Gwyn said she wanted it up to her ears, but, as you can see in the picture above, I talked her into a compromise. So she and Mallory now have basically the same cut.

School started on the 17th and Gwyneth really likes her new teacher and is excited to be a second grader! I have pictures that I will post. I need to upload them off Neal's camera. She also had her 1st soccer practice. That was pretty cool!! She still wants to be a goalie, but we'll see what the coach has planned. We don't have a schedule yet, but you can rest assured you'll hear about it.


MALLORY
Mallory is REALLY, REALLY excited about turning 4. She starts pre-school on Thursday and gets to bring in gummy snacks to celebrate the big event! She's even received a couple of gifts already. The first came from Uncle Scott and Aunt Brandy and she was really happy - as you can see by the size of the grin.

The second from Aunt Sharon. She jumped up and down when she saw the cool stripey pants and the Target gift card! She also got a "Happy Birthday" t-shirt, which she wore to someone else's birthday party - that cracked me up. I'll get pictures, promise! When I asked her if she knew why she was getting presents in the mail she said, "because they LOVE me!" She had no idea it was that close to her birthday. Too funny. Her actual party will be on Saturday afternoon. Pizza at Mr. Gattis. I'm attempting to make some Cake Pops as well as cup cakes for the party. This will all be documented for the birthday blog.
Mallory also discovered Gaige's "Puddle Jumper" when we went to the pool. That thing is cool!! It has a foam front attached to the floaties - it keeps them in a swimming position and helps to learn the motion of swimming without choking on the water. She loved it!

Oh - and here's Mallory's new do:

SHAWNA
Shawna is 10-months-old as of the 23rd!! I can't hardly believe how much she has grown. She now has 3 little chompers. Two on the bottom and a snaggle tooth off the right on top! She's currently working on the middle front two teeth and if you're not careful, she will use you as a teething toy. She crawls, cruises (walks holding on to the furniture) but won't try to walk without help yet.

She'll get there. We've also discovered quite by accident that she knows how to climb the stairs.
We took her to the pool, too. She had fun!

But CLEARLY I had more fun than she did

As for me...

LIZ
As for me, this has been a quiet time. I'm basically getting everyone through their big days this month! I did get to participate in a study at UT that is evaluating if you burn more calories running with a running stroller than without. It's been an experience, to say the least. I a VO2 Max test to see what my peak level of athleticism is... which isn't too bad. They seemed impressed with my level so soon after having a baby - so that's cool. The second stage of the experiment involved going to Tyson park and wearing a huge breathing mask and vest to hold the equipment and running a series of miles pushing varying amounts of weights... It was an experience. I can only imagine the kind of disease people thought I had. When the individuals with mental disabilities cleaning the park point and stare at YOU, you know you must look crazy. I do the last day of the trial on the 26th, so I'll try and get a snapshot. It's a site!

While my in-laws were in Neal and I also got to enjoy a date-night with Lindsay and Dale! That was a blast!! We had Sushi (you knew there would be a walrus!)Went to the movies, played corn hole (it's fun I swear) and had a few drinks. It was GREAT!

Also... our microwave broke recently, but you can read about that by CLICKING HERE