Constance had her four-month-old check up today. She weighed in at 17 pounds, five ounces!

Here are some recent pictures:

Cousins!!! Part Two

More pictures from our visit with Ethan & Allison's family:

Elijah takes on Uncle Ethan in a game of hoops.

Emily

Aileen

Aileen is horse crazy like Mackenzie, so we took her out to meet Lucy.

Trying to get a group picture of the kids was fun.

The day before Ethan & Allison arrived, Eleanor asked me how old Emily was. When I told her that Emily was four just like she is, she broke into a huge smile and said, "We're going to have fun being four together."

And they did.

Cousins!!

We were so excited to have a visit from my brother, Ethan, and his family at the end of June. They have lived at Ft. Drum, New York, for the last seven years. They are moving to Colorado Springs where Ethan will be stationed at Ft. Carson, and stopped in Newman for a few days on their way through.

Aunt Allison was very quick to snatch up Constance. Aileen was also very taken with her new cousin.

We had brunch their first morning here and the kids played outside.

Eleanor and Emily ate their breakfast in the butterfly playhouse.

Mackenzie creating driveway art with the 3D sidewalk chalk. It really worked!

Eleanor and Mikey

Later in the aftenoon, we went to GG's house.

Fry time. Anything and everything you can think of to fry went into a big turkey fryer and we made it. Mushrooms, poppers, cheese sticks, onion rings, egg rolls...

and Aunt Becky and Aunt Connie made donuts! YUM!

Michael and Aunt Connie

Ethan with his homemade wine. He brought apple and strawberry for us to try.

Kya thoroughly enjoyed her donut.

After dark, we had sparklers for the kids and a bonfire.

Aileen

Katie and Constance

Uncle Sean helps Ellie light her sparkler

Double Trouble

I took this picture of Katrina with the fireworks setting on my camera. I thought it turned out really cool.

Eleanor dancing with her sparkler:

We had such a great time. Not only were Ethan and Allison home, but my cousin, Tammy, who lives in Texas was here also, along with most of my other Allen cousins. Our family has always been close. I love that no matter how far apart we are or how long it is between visits, we seem to pick up right where we left off, and it is precious to me to see that happening in my children's generation as well. Even though they don't see their cousins nearly as much as I saw mine growing up, there is such a special bond between them. When they do get to be together, they make the most of it.

Turkey Run

The second week of July we took our annual trip to Turkey Run with family and Wesley Chapel church friends. As always, it was a wonderful time, with beautiful scenery, good food and wonderful fellowship. This year in particular, the weather could not have been any better. Mild temps, low humidity and only a little rain the very last morning.

A happy camper

The kids did all kinds of fun activities: trails, canoeing, swimming, and go carts. Unfortunately I don't have pictures of any of those adventures since Constance and I stayed at the campsite. I don't think she's quite up for trails or go carts yet!

Still, I thoroughly enjoyed our trip. It was very relaxing to have nothing in the world to do except play with a baby and read a book when she napped.

The kids entertained us with a talent show. This has become a tradition. Sometimes there's actually talent involved.

Summer doesn't get much better than this.