You Should Put That On The Blog

My kiddos love to look back at stuff I've written on here and laugh at themselves... or each other.  They especially like the quotes on the side.  Often something funny will happen around here and someone will say, "You should put that on the blog," which just means I think that we want to remember it.  Here are 3 things that the kids have lately asked me to put on the blog.

 -  I got some mylar balloons for the kids.  Andrew had a large yellow one with a smiley face.   After a few days they were losing helium and floating down lower and lower toward the ground.  One night while eating dinner Andrew suddenly leaped up and yelled "Hey!!!  Stop Eavesdropping."  We were all surprised and looked around to see who he was talking about.  Then we saw at the end of the table and little yellow smiley face was just poking up from under the table and hovering around... obviously trying to eavesdrop on our conversation.  We laughed pretty hard at his reaction.

 - Last Sunday I woke Andrew up and told him to hurry up and get ready.  We have 8 o'clock church so we are often rushed.  Andrew was moving slow and so I checked back in a few minutes later to see how he was progressing.  He groggily said, "I'm up.... Sheeeesssshhhh mom."  I looked in to see him in his jeans, polo shirt and just tying his tennis shoes.  When I told him the day he fell back on the bed in a fit of giggles.  Everyone else heard the laughter and came in.  When she saw him... Lizzy said.... Mom you should put that on the blog.

 - One night I had sent everyone off to bed but when I went into the boys room I found it scattered with toys.   I closed my eyes and said that I was going to count to 10 and when I opened my eyes I didn't want to see anything on the floor that shouldn't be there.  A moment later something moving very quickly ran smack into me in an obvious rush.  In confusion I opened my eyes and saw Lizzy falling over herself to get out of the room.  I was confused and then I couldn't help but laugh out loud when I realized that she thought I meant her.

Oh what to do with these crazies!!!

About Sam

Sam at 4 years old is a bit different than Lizzy and Andrew were at the same age.  He has older siblings and so is exposed to different things than he would been otherwise.  Having watched and remembered Lizzy and Andrew's birthdays this past year has made him wonder when his turn was coming.  He has asked nearly daily for MONTHS if it was going to be his birthday soon.  Finally the day arrived.  His gasp of joy at our simple decorations was a great way to start the day.  

 And it just got better and better...

 He reminded me about everything.  Don't forget birthday hats.  I get to eat on the special plate... etc.  Little things that I wouldn't have even thought the he'd remember.

Sam picked out this soccer shirt cake for me to make.  Did I help direct him to it because it looked easier than the spider man cake he picked first?  Maybe.

Things I want to remember about Sam at this age.

 -  Sam quotes movies and songs like nobodies business.  "What does the fox say?"  is a good example

 - Today Sam was crying about something, but he was trying to convince me that he wasn't actually crying and he was just joking me.  He'd sob and then force a big grin on his face and look up and me and say "see?"

 - Sam is a rough tough 100% boy.  He rode a bike at 3 years old, he swims like a champ, and  he plays soccer with a passion.  He begs Aaron to wrestle him every night.  

 - Sam changes clothes many times a day.  He is also very strict about what different clothes are for.  He has is soccer shorts, football shirt, volleyball pants and  cowboy pants.  They cannot be used in the wrong setting.

 - When Sam gets going he has this deep throaty laugh that is totally contagious.  

- Sam snuggles are the best.  He really can't sit still for more than a minute or two so they don't last long, but they are great.

And now for me, just a little memory fest since I am feeling nostalgic.

a few days old

 1 yr old

 2 yr old

3 yr. old

Oh my time goes fast.  Love him so much.

  

Back to School

 Annual heading out the door to school pictures.

 We totally hit the jackpot with both kids teachers this year.  Both are so so good.  Andrew's teacher actually called to check up on him a few days later after he'd gone home sick!  Seriously awesome.

 Was Sam happy to have the house to himself again.  I can't say for sure.

 But he did enjoy a little puddle jumping.

 Annual 1st day of school cookies.

Baby yoga.  Downward facing dog.

Swimming

The solution to Texas summers in my opinion is swimming.... lots and lots of swimming.   We went swimming  3 or 4 (or sometimes 5) times every week this summer.   Each time I thought.... you should take your camera and get some pictures.  The number of times that I actually did it ..... ONE.  But it was a good one.  Here's to summer of 2013.

Swimming.  All the time.  Summer 2013. 

Sunday Afternoon

Hey.  How's it going?  Check out what I found.

It's beautiful.

 Wait a second... what's that you've got there?

 Let's get a closer look.....

 Closer....

 Almost there.....

 Oh... it's you.  

Blogging Like a Slacker

So... I kind of forgot about blogging this month.  Besides that I have forgotten to take many pictures.  With everyone home for the summer life is too crazy and blogging just falls down the list of priorities.    Here are just a few random pictures from this month... they are mostly of Grayson cause he's really really cute.

 During a storm on Friday night our power flickered out and then I heard something hit against our windows in the backyard.  I looked out the window and said "Oh my word... the wind blew our trampoline over."  Then I looked closer and realized that it wasn't our trampoline hitting the window.  It was our backyard neighbor.  Amazingly... no fences were broken. The wind just picked it up and dropped it right on top of our trampoline.  It looks like our trampoline will still be usable but I'm not so sure about the neighbors.  

Grayson is 4 1/2 months old in this picture. He's starting to get very mobile and now gets up on all four and rocks back and forth.  I suspect he'll be crawling before much longer.  Oh my...

Camping Last Fall

Last fall we went camping and had a wonderful time. .  A few weeks after we returned was my birthday.... the one where I got a fancy schmancy new camera.  Our old camera was tossed aside and forgotten. Since Lizzy is going to be using our old camera on her trip... I decided to clean out the old pictures.  This is what was on there.

I put the kids in charge of packing their own bags for the trip.  This is what Sam packed.  Yip... he likes to really rough it.  He doesn't even wear clothes on camping trips.  He does, however, like to bring along some fake food and a tea set plus one fireman boot.

 Aaron tried out his cool camp chair.

 Look at that beautiful glassy water.

The most exciting part of the trip was the boys big catch.