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After Asheville, we stopped in Winston-Salem...

...to see my side of the family. My parents have a 5 acre farm with chickens, ducks, guineas, and a huge garden. But, most importantly they have a John Deere. And for my son...that's the greatest vehicle on earth - he LOVES tractors - granted it's just a riding lawn tractor that they have, but for a 1 year old - it's the greatest experience of his little life. Here's a few pics...

Hanging out with Nana...
My husband with his two favorite nieces
And...drum roll please...the tractor. My son talks non-stop about the tractor, and how Grandaddy rode him around for an hour on it. My head is still ringing from hearing about it CONSTANTLY...

While we were there, my parents and sister kept all of our kids so that we could go out for a half a day for our anniversary. It was SO fun...here's Nana with one of the girls while we were gone...
And another highlight of my son's trip was playing in the sprinkler with Katy. Check them out. My son loves water. He was so wet we had to blow dry his shoes!



And last but not least, Nana sitting outside with her granddaughter while Josh played in the sprinkler.

A Trip to Asheville

Matt and I took the kids to Asheville for the official introduction of the twins to Matt's family. For a little perspective...75 members of Matt's family traveled down from Asheville for our wedding - almost all of his Dad's relatives live within a few miles of each other. So, when we go in, there's a lot of people to see. It is so much fun. We are blessed to have such a wonderful, supportive extended family. Here's just a few of the family members we saw...

For those of you who know them...no introduction needed, and for those of you who don't - here's just a few pics of our great family...

Eli, Matt's cousin Mac holding one of the girls...
Will looking on as his Mom reads to Josh (Will held the girls, but they were hungry...so I couldn't get a picture before I had to feed them). Josh thought Will was the coolest guy in town and asked for him that night when he went to bed (it might be because Will was teaching him PlayStation).
The girls and Josh love their Aunt Beverly. You should have heard Josh asking for his aunt Beberlee.
Here's Mee-Maw holding one of the girls. This is Matt's grandmother on his mom's side.
Here's Josh with his Aunt Marian. She's reading him the Very Hungry Caterpillar book she bought him. Aunt Marian is a fabulous storyteller, I took a video of him getting read to, but this night there were so many people around, you couldn't really hear the story over everybody chatting in the background.
Karissa is loving her cousin Nate who held her for a long time - I was so impressed!
Here's Kathleen with her cousin Leigh Beth. Tell me some more Leigh Beth! Tell me some more!
And Bekah and her sister got tons and tons of time with the kids because we were at their house. Here's a shot of Bekah taking time out from her senior year to love on her cousin.
And Haley couldn't wait to get home and see her BABIES! Of course, Josh was her TRUE baby when we were there. They played for hours and he toddled around after her asking for Haiwee...
Nanny had tons and tons of quality time with the girls. We love you Nanny!
And every morning Josh had to say bye to his Bekah.
Here's a gorgeous shot of Haley and her little cousin...

A Visit with My Sister

Okay - so, we have had the most fun, craziest past few days! It's been a blast! My sister and her kids came down because her husband's out of town. It has been crazy fun! We have the 10 year old, Katy - who is such a joy and a help, and just so much fun to be around...and then, it's been like having a set of toddler twins (Kaylin and Josh are 3 weeks apart), and then, of course, the girls...so, here's life as it has been for the last few days...

Katy and Kathleen having a long conversation...

Josh and Kaylin playing with the phone...

Ride a little horsie into town...


Adorable shots and video of early morning reading with Katy...
...listen to them make all their animal sounds! It's SO cute...but, unfortunately a bit dark...

And finally...fun in the box with Kaylin and Josh...usually Katy is with them, but we didn't get a shot of that...

Sibling Love

Well, the girls had their two month appointment yesterday (yes, I know they're almost three, but it's been a crazy month :). I thought I'd let you know their stats:

Kathleen:
21 3/4 inches (10th percentile)
10 lbs. 0.3 oz. (20th percentile)

Karissa:
22 3/4 inches (50th percentile)
10 lbs 7 oz. (20th percentile)

The doctor's appointment went well, but next time, if at all possible I won't have the girls in the room together when the other one's getting shots. It upset them worse to hear the other one scream than to get their own shots! It was so sad! But they finally calmed down. But other than that, they're doing fabulous. They just love each other SO much!

Here's a few shots of sibling love with their brother, and a couple more of them just being beautiful! Thanks Aunt Charie and Uncle Theron for the beautiful dresses!

Josh and Kathleen

Kathleen - look at that gorgeous smile!

Karissa and Josh

My big-eyed Karissa - Check out those beautiful blues!

Late July Musings...

So, life in the Lytle household is loud, crazy, but loads and loads of fun! :). We've been busy, busy, busy. We continue to settle into a semblance of a routine - but, the girls continually remind me that they are NOT joined at the hip - and are their own persons. Hence...they don't always want to sleep, eat, play at the same time. Good reminders for mom for later years. Twins, identical or fraternal, are not the same person - just the same age :).

They are so much fun now - they are cooing and smiling, giggling and mimicing our sounds - it's adorable. Here's a few shots of our cuties...

Karissa - hamming it up for the camera

Kathleen - taking it all in and looking lovely

Both of them - taking a little rest on Mommy and Daddy's bed. Karissa's on the left, and Kathleen's on the right.

And still just as scene stealing as ever is their older brother. Check out some of his moves. He is perpetual motion - and spends most of the day not sitting, not standing, not walking, but running. Here's a few shots I caught of him in rare moments of stillness (well...semi-stillness).

Hayah! Take that bad guys - I'm here - nobody's going to take my basket away from me!

Here we have him with his new favorite outfit - one of Daddy's shirts from the laundry. He will put this on, and promptly parade around with his drill or his hammer making the sounds for them. It's SO adorable!

"Oh, Daddy, really - I can touch the real thing! Really, Really, Really!!!! That's SO exciting! (Only under very close supervision of course) but I want to be JUST like my Daddy." Matt saves most of his drill projects for when Josh is awake, because Josh absolutely loves it. I didn't get a good shot of him grabbing his little drill puzzle piece and trying to drill like Daddy was - SO CUTE!

Well...that's the Lytle family this week!

Happy Fourth of July!!

As we celebrate the 232nd birthday of our nation, I couldn't think of anything better to do than to show some pics of our wonderful children. There's nothing really patriotic about these, but believe me, they love their country!!

So anyway, here are some wonderful pictures of our son and daughters for you to enjoy.

Kathleen (left) and Karissa (right) wondering what that big black think is that daddy has in front of his face. Is it a new nose?


Karissa decides that she doesn't care as Kathleen looks on.


Josh after bath time with a homemade mohawk. He pities the fool.


Josh is now ready to front a punk band called Big Head Toddler and the Monsters.

*** Note from Karen...for those of you who don't recognize my husband's dry wit...this post was from him:). And yes, I realize Josh desperately needs a haircut - but all I have to say is THREE under TWO people :).