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... of catching up

Sorry it's been so long, loyal blog followers (read: grandparents). Things have been extra special hectic around the Smith home the last few weeks as we prepared for the first of three large garage sales in which we are trying to sell 99% of everything we own. I promise to explain the reason for this at some point in the very near future, I just have to find the time to sit down and really give that explanation the time and thought that it needs. I do realize that I mostly write as if I am only updating grandparents, but the truth is that I am now just over 20,000 views on my blog! For the professionals, that isn't that big of a number, but for an amateur like me, that's a lot. And even though my kids do have three sets of grandparents who are loyal blog followers, I do not imagine that they have visited this site 20,000 times combined. So I want to make sure that I share the plans for our future in the best way possible, since it's going to be a really big thing for us, and not approach it with the non-chalant, late night, rambliness the likes of which you are about to experience.

With that said, this is really just a post to share a large amount of pictures from the last few weeks/today. So here goes:
Abram helping me go through my closet in preparation for the garage sale.  His favorite task was lining up my shoes over and over again in different parts of the room.

A few of the 22 bug bites that I got on my legs alone from preparing for the garage sale on Friday night.  I am a magnet.
Abram hanging out with Obie, who ran away one night and appeared in the garage 24 hours later.  We have to find a new home for this amazing cat in the next 4 weeks and it's breaking my heart that it doesn't look like we are going to be able to find one. If we can get him into a shelter, that may be what has to happen, but we may not even be able to get a shelter to take him, since they are all full (Austin is no-kill now).  Praying about a solution...
Smiles from the lovely Selah lady, who is much chubbier than her brother was at this age.  It's amazing what an abundant milk supply will do for a baby!
Looking uber-girly.  The headband and skirt didn't make it too long before they came off (for practical/heat reasons).
Playing with Daddy at one of our favorite restaurants, The Frisco Shop.  

My mom has been in town for almost a week being her wonderful self.  She is such an amazing mom and Nana and is always willing to hold a baby or play with a kiddo.  And when she's not doing that she's doing laundry or doing the dishes or making lunch or doing the household things that I have never had the time/motivation to do.  She is SO awesome that she even volunteered to ride squished in between two car seats on our way to San Antonio last night.  We went to visit my sister for her birthday and the 4th and required an entire carload of stuff just to stay overnight with two kids.  

We went swimming at my sister's pool today and Abram loooooved it.  He hadn't been in an actual pool since we brought him to her pool last summer.  Here are some of the highlights:

Preparing to swim by eating Kix - he wasn't really swimming so that's ok, right?

Selah in her cute little hand me down swim suit from Miss Elliot (thanks, Shanda!) 

Spinning and splashing.



I only dipped Selah's toes in the baby pool water, which was a little chilly.  She seemed ok with it, but it was a little cold for me, so we just hung out and watched the boys.

I think she may look more like Quinn than Abram did/does... maybe...



Gorgeous.

 Then we headed back to the house for naps and grilling.  Quinn made his famous Hawaiian sliders, complete with bacon, pineapple, and sweet and sour sauce on a Hawaiian Sweet Roll.  They are too good. And I made cookies based on this recipe.
I did spice cake and vanilla pudding with cream cheese frosting with red and blue sprinkles.  Very festive and very yummy.


There's something wrong with this scenario.  Fenway knows it.

Hanging out with Nana before heading back home.

Talking in between hunger cries on the car ride back to Austin.  Whenever she starts cooing in her car seat Abram says: "Seyah talk!"  He knows how to make the "l" sound, but for some reason it doesn't translate into her name.  Kind of like how he definitely knows "p", but "up" is always "uma"  ...?...

There ya go.  All caught up.  I mean, there's a lot that's happened, obviously.  So much so that my camera has not been at the ready like it usually is.  I've got some cute videos I'll try and post soon, too.  Not tonight. Tonight I am going to unpack our bag of craziness and wait for Quinn to come home with a hopefully asleep baby.  Her new pattern is to have two good nights in a row where she goes to bed easy and at a decent hour and then to have one night where she gets overtired somehow (sometimes our fault) and then will not fall asleep despite all of our best efforts. A 15 minute car ride usually does the trick.  We don't want her to get used to it, but sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do, am I right?!

So good night.  I hope to be back sooner this time.  Hope you had a happy 4th!
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