Back from our trip to Tulsa!

We are back! We are glad to be home, in our own beds, and hopefully back to a normal routine, but we did have a great time in Tulsa. We were gone for over a week and made the most of our time there. The kids got to spend quite a bit of time with both Rick and Sue and my Mom and Dad. There will be lots of pictures on this post and not too much explanation since I have lots of things to do to put the house and ourselves back together!

On the way up, we stopped by the Plano Fire Department, and Em's husband Nick, showed us the fire truck. Jacob was a little scared, but had a great time with the fire truck and ended up with a Plane Fire Department tatoo...Grace also got a tatoo, but Gwyn got a badge sticker. It was great to see them again, and Em gave Jacob his early Christmas present of lots of puppets (now Brian has a project of making us a puppet theater!), and a Super Jacob cape, which he LOVES to wear.

While we were there, we were able to see Nick, Erika and Rafael, who is growing up so fast. Jacob and Rafael found a frog, and Jacob was a little too rough with it (poor frog), but it was fun for awhile! We were about to leave and Jacob ran into a table and cut his head pretty good, we thought for sure we were going to the ER that night, but the bleeding quit pretty quickly and he has fully recovered now.

We also got to see Neely and her girls Ava and Catherine. Gwyn got to play dressup for the first time! Jacob didn't know what to do with all the girly things at their house, but he'll soon have to get used to it..oh yes, I forgot to announce it...WE FOUND OUT WE ARE HAVING ANOTHER GIRL!!!! I talked Brian into finding out and we found out about a week ago. We are super excited and can't wait til she gets here at the end of October.

We also went to a splash park and met my friend from junior high Anna and her girls Kessler and Ellie. The kids had fun playing and I had fun catching up with Anna. Neither of us have lived in Oklahoma for 7 or so years, so it was great that we actually got to see each other this time when we were both in town visiting family.


Other than that, the kids just had fun hanging out with the grandparents, eating popsicles, playing in swimming pools, and just having a lot of fun! Jacob still loves the water hose, so as long as he gets some water hose time, he's happy, and Gwyn loves the water! We also went to the aquarium where the kids got to feed some turtles.

I thought the kids looked so much alike in this picture!

We love Em and Grace!

We had a great visit from my best friend from college, Emily, and her daughter, Grace. Grace is 7 months younger than Jacob and both Jacob and Gwyn LOVED having them at our house. The kids played and Em and I got to hang out, she is due 2 days after me, so Brian had two pregnant women and three kids under the age of three at the house!

Pretty much anything Jacob did, Grace would then try to do, and then pretty much anything Grace did, Gwyn would try to do. The kids played well together and after they left Jacob said "I want my Em and Grace." It was pretty sweet!

Gwyn got her toenails painted for the first time (Grace had hers painted). She sat really still and wanted the other foot painted after I finished the first one.

Jacob has a few toads that live under these rocks in a hole by our walkway. He likes to go out every night and see if they've come out before he goes to bed. He's started to place these little plastic bugs that he has for his sandbox out front each night so that his toads can play with them. Each night, Brian goes outside after Jacob has gone to bed and moves the bugs around in different positions so that when Jacob goes out to look at his bugs the next morning, they are in a totally different place because the toads played with them so much the night before. Brian has had them trying to crawl up plants, sitting on rocks, under leaves, and even hugging each other. Jacob thinks it is the coolest thing that his toads like to play with his bugs.

Gwyn has started to say quite a few words and is obsessed right now with babies. She's constantly carrying one around with her, pushing a doll or stuffed animal in the stroller, and now has to take one in the car. She even had to carry one in to Jacob's school last week when he went for a few days of Summer Fun Days that they had. She's pretty cute with them.

Green Day

Jacob and Gwyn are really starting to play so good together. He's starting to really take care of her, as well as get her into trouble along with him. He usually calls her baby, since he couldn't say Gwyn for so long, but sometimes he still calls her baby Gwyn or Sissy, but lately, it has been shortened to Babe. He'll say, "here, babe" or "come here babe" or "like this, babe." It is pretty funny to hear him call her that. She goes along with whatever he says.

Jacob is still our picky eater, and sometimes it will seem he will have a few bites of something and that gets him through the day, who knows where his energy comes from?!?! Gwyn is our little eater, the other night she finished her plate, Jacob had gotten down to go play and she walked around to his chair, wanted up in it, and then proceeded to finish off his plate (which had barely been touched).

Another funny thing is that I love these Dove chocolates (I'll claim it is due to pregnancy that I HAVE to have at least two / day) that I put in the freezer, and I don't give them to the kids (I know, I'm selfish). Anyway, I had gotten two out and eaten one, and then Gwyn got up from her nap, so I went and got her up and came back in the living room and I had to sneak the other one in my mouth so she wouldn't see it. Well, she didn't see me eat it, but she saw me chewing and came over to try to pry my mouth open to see what was inside because she wanted one...I ended up giving her an m&m.

Jason came over Saturday night to watch both kids (for the first time) so Brian and I could go out to dinner to celebrate our 9 yr anniversary. We left him at 8, and I think Gwyn went to sleep at about 8:30-8:45 and Jacob finally was asleep by 9:30 or so. They did pretty well with Jason, they both love him so much, but Jacob did manage to get Jason to feed him pizza at 9 and get two drinks of Dr. Pepper. He also tried to get him to sleep with him, but Jason said no, and he eventually went to sleep.

Jacob is still all about the color green. Everything in his life is about getting as much green stuff as possible. From the moment he wakes up he wants a green straw, green lid, and green cup for his milk. He wants to wear a green shirt, green shorts, green shoes, and if he had them, green socks. He wants green m&m's for potty training. He wants a green bowl for his snack. He wants a green juice box, he wants a green fruit roll up. He wants a green plate for dinner. He wants to play with the green legos, he wants a green bike, everything is GREEN! Brian taught him to say "Green Day" when asked what his favorite band is.

The kids got some matching pjs, Jacob still loves monkeys so they both got monkey ones and of course, Jacob's are green!

On another note, we're getting excited about our summer. We've got a trip planned to Oklahoma to visit family and friends, a trip planned to Florida to visit John and Claudia, we're celebrating Jacob's 3rd Birthday in July, along with Brian's birthday. We've got visits planned from Rick, Sue, Stacy, Justin, and Brian's Grandpa, as well as Emily and Grace.

Summer Fun has Begun!

Playing in the pool is a daily event at our house. The neighborhood pool opened up a couple of weekends ago, and will FINALLY open up during the week on Monday. For now, we've been having our own fun in the backyard. Here are the kids waiting on Carter to come over to play outside in our pool:

We also took a trip over to Noah's Ark last week. The kids LOVED it, Jacob went down the slide all by himself several times, if you notice in the picture he's got that Katterhenry tongue sticking out whenever he's really concentrating on something.

Gwyn had fun too, she just likes to splash, and plop down.

Jacob was napping and Gwyn and I were putting laundry away, she was sitting with her back to me on the floor in the bathrrom just kind of bobbing her head around and I just thought, whatever she was doing was keeping her busy and out of trouble while I was putting all the laundry in our room away...well, she wasn't really staying out of trouble:

Duplo legos are still a daily hit at our house, and Jacob is into building his own creations...this one he was really proud of because the giraffe had food to eat!

Here are a couple of videos that I thought were cute: