The Garners

I'm playing catch-up here- so this is a long one.

A few weeks ago a photographer friend of mine (who is also pregnant) and swapped maternity shoots. So here are some of those. (And I do realize that you can't tell I'm pregnant in the first one, but I really like it for a family picture.)

See the car in his hand...?
I love this- this is how they always look when they talk to each other.

This is a normal everyday occurrence- talking to the baby.

Last 4th of July Jensen colored a flag in Savannah. All of a sudden he wanted it. Unfortunately I am quick to toss clutter and that thing was not going to have a long life- I tossed it ages ago. So we promised him that we could make new flags.

The green flag is actually Jence's second flag- I stole the first from him. It took some major talking to get him to relinquish it and make another, but it was quite the milestone in creativity, so it was mine. He also had to make one for the baby "to wave around when he comes out of mommy." He felt that daddy and mommy should also make flags- so we did (I think Al was just as excited as Jence was...)

I glued them to sticks from my dead tree.

Jensen and Duke's flags.

Yes we did- a timer shot of the fam with our flags.

Here's my birthday. Jensen is beyond excited about the cake- as a matter of fact we think the words "Happy Birthday" and "cake" are synonymous in his head.

And apparently for me 29 is the age where I will no longer be blowing out my own candles for the next chunk of years.

He was having a rough time getting the last one, so this is me helping his aim.

We have also gotten to the age where I let him assist in the kitchen- which he loves because of end result of licking the utensils.

I love it because I make him wear the apron I bought in Seville...

My boys. This is a rare one- Jence is pretty clear on the fact that mommy is for hugging and kissing and daddy is for wrestling and playing, without much overlap.

Al got some resistance bands for his workouts that connect to the doorjamb.

Jensen needed to try them out.

Jence has been learning to identify sight words, and these little books have only a few words here and there that he can't read. Al is really cute to practice with him.

You can't see it but this is the side of Jensen's embarrased/ proud face upon finishing the story.

This is what we find many days at the "end" of nap time. (He's out)

Jess and Tony gave Jence a tent a long time ago and I finally set it up in his room. He played and napped and slept in it for a few weeks.

For Labor Day weekend (I told you this was catch-up) we went with Brittany and Tristan to her dad's houseboat for a lovely time. (It's tight with all the family there, so we slept in a tent on a little tiny island in the middle of the lake which Jensen loved- as did I , because I figured out that air mattresses are way more comfortable for me than our bed, so I now sleep on a air twin next to our King-sized bed. This was also the reason I chose to set up Jensen's tent. He would take naps in the tent in the woods by himself- no problem. Of course Al spent the whole two hours of J's nap going back and forth from the boat to the tent to make sure he was okay. I never would have thought that he would be the super protective one of us.)

Al got to go knee boarding for the first time.

He ended up doing really well

And being really sore the next day.

Brit and I are only three weeks apart in our due dates. I will refrain from going into the injustice of people growing little babies...

This cracks me up- we see it all the time. We are those boring parents that don't have cool phones so Jence gets to watch over the shoulder of friends and cousins who know how to work iphones and droids and whatnot.

Jensen and Tristan spend a huge chunk of the weekend feeding the fish from the side of the boat- Then daddy upped the ante and showed Jence that they would eat out of your hands.

watcing the boys play
Jence....
We were super impressed with his willingness to play play play.

He had to be coerced out of the water. We think it's because there were no waves.

At this point Tristan's teeth were chattering, but Jence was still in for the long haul.

More belly...