Beach Bums!

Brian's Grandpa visited for 5 days from St. Louis, so we braved a trip to Galveston to take the kids to the beach.  They had seen plenty of episodes of Dora or Max and Ruby going to the beach, so they had their hopes up to see lots of crabs, dolphins, sharks, mermaids, and octopuses.  They weren't disappointed, both Brian and his Grandpa found shells with little hermit crabs in them (and thankfully this time, no one put them in their mouth - Jacob did this the last time I took him to Galveston when he was about 18 months old).  Annie did eat her fair share of sand, so that was super fun trying to keep it out of her mouth and constantly running her down to the beach to get her dipped off, only for her to be covered again in about 5 minutes.  Jacob LOVED the water and the waves, he wanted to be out there the whole time with Brian.  Gwyn liked to dig, and enjoyed walking down to the edge of the water and then turning around and running away when a wave came in...she didn't want to get her feet wet!  Here are a few pictures from the day, we had a great time!

Oh, and Brian was super proud of his deep hole he dug, just wide enough for his arm/leg to fit down there...this is the last picture before we packed up and headed home, you can tell Annie had enough!

I think Brian's Grandpa had fun with the kids, Annie warmed right up to him, and the kids had him playing hide and seek within about 30 minutes of his arrival, so needless to say, he had a very active weekend with us!  I had gone to lay Annie down for a nap, only to come down to find Grandpa scrunched up behind a couch playing hide and seek with Jacob and Gwyn.  I asked the kids what they were doing and they said it was their time to count like they just did this everyday with him.  Jacob and Gwyn had him reading books to them, serving him dinner from their kitchen, playing Batman house, and Dr Jacob and Nurse Gwyn were doctoring him right up!  Rick came in for the weekend as well, and the guys went to the Cardinals and Astros game on Monday night. 

Jacob was surprisingly content with just wearing a shirt to match the guys and staying home with us, instead of going to the game with them.

I took the kids to a friends house for a playdate this week, where she had a tea party set up for the kids.  The girls sat at the fancy tables and the boys sat at the big table.  Gwyn picked a seat out right away that had Minnie mouse on it, and then got upset when Addison sat down because she wanted to sit with Jacob.  It was pretty cute, Gwyn actually cut her little muffin with a knife and fork and drank her apple juice out of a little cup.  I dressed them all up and they all looked so cute!

Annie took part in the fun too, but after she grabbed the napkin that Gwyn had laid everything out on and pulled everything off the table, she got quarntined to play with the baby toys:

 

School starts tomorrow for the kids, Jacob will be in Pre-K and go four days / week, and Gwyn will be in the 2 1/2 yr old class and go two days / week.  We went up to their school today, they had an open house so that the kids could see the rooms, and both the kids are pretty excited.  Each room has a painting station, craft table, dress up area, kitchen, tools, tons of toys, reading centers, blocks, puzzles, games, etc.  They will both get to go to Motor (gym), music and Chapel each week.  I just hope whenever they see each other, that they are fine to part ways, Gwyn usually has a meltdown at church when she sees Jacob on the playground because she wants to go in his class.

The other night Gwyn was walking around in her dress up shoes and talking on her fake cell phone.  I said, "who are you talking to?"  She said, "I'm calling a knight to come rescue the princess."  She then said she was the princess.  Oh, how the times have a changed!  If a princess is in need of rescue, she just needs to flip open her cell phone and call a knight and let him know!

Here are a few random pictures from this week:

This one is before bed one night, they really are the cutest kids!  Gwyn told me this week that Jacob was her best friend and Jacob said that Annie and Gwyn were his best friends even though he thought you were only supposed to have one best friend.  I told him you could have more than one.  One night, when I had to put them all to bed by myself, I let Jacob and Gwyn watch one episode of a show (so they had to agree on one, or they couldn't watch any) while I gave Annie her bottle and put her to sleep.  Gwyn immediately said Little Bear, which is Jacob's favorite.  I told Jacob how nice that was that Gwyn wanted to watch what he liked, and he said tomorrow when he got to choose, he was going to choose Dora...he gets it!!!  How sweet! 

Annie loves her some finger foods, she pretty much wants to eat whatever we are having which usually makes for a big mess because she just shovels food by the handful into her mouth...I'm guessing about 30% get in and the rest is either in her highchair or on the floor.

Before heading to church on Sunday:

You can barely tell in this picture, but all three kids are in a sideways-turned pack-n-play.  We had this set up for Annie to sleep in while Brian's Grandpa and Rick were here, so for 5 days, this bed provided constant entertainment for the kids, who turned it into a house and a jail among other things.

The Big Cheese:

Funny things the kids said this week:

Gwyn (to Rick after he had Annie on his shoulders):  I want to sit on your roof too.

Jacob (totally out of the blue):  Do ants get hiccups?

Jacob: Thank you Mommy, this is delicious! (about dinner one night)

Gwyn (to Jacob about Brian's cousin Angie):  She is my cousin, not yours (Jacob got a little upset).

Gotta LOVE this face!

If there is one things our kids love to do, it is go to the park.  I must get asked that 10 times / day, "can we go to the park?"  Well, Brian caves in, so yes, we often ride or walk up to the park in July and August in Houston (the hottest months of the year!).  We may not last long, especially now that Annie has discovered how much she likes to eat mulch, the trips to the park are a little high maintenance on us (or I should say me, being on constant mulch patrol).  Here are a few pictures from the park the other day:

Annie having fun!

Climber 1:

Climber 2:

I think they look alike here!

The cutest thing:

He just never stops!

Ready to go:

Sisters:

Slide race (Jacob won):

Little Miss Annie is babbling up a storm, clapping her hands, still eating everything (we joke that her first birthday cake should be three layers of her favorite things to eat: mulch, paper and magazines, and shoes), making funny faces, eating just about everything and wanting less baby food and more finger foods, she loves her bottles (and rolls her eyes back at the first taste everytime, like it is the best thing she has ever had!) and she still smiles about 90% of the time when she is awake.  One of my favorite times, is going to get her in the morning, she is always standing at the edge of the crib closest to the door waiting on someone to come, so sweet!

She is 10 months now, and here is her official picture along with Jacob and Gwyn @ 10 months:

Jacob @ 10 months:

Gwyn @ 10 months:

Here are a few pictures from the week, that really capture the kids personalities.  Jacob doing what he does daily, drawing.  He loves to draw pictures for people, of all kinds of things.  He asks you what you think something is, and whatever you tell him, it will be wrong, and then he'll tell you what it is.  Right after this picture was taken, he decided to draw on himself (he said he ran out of paper), and used black, cheap-non-washable-marker to draw all over his face and arms!

Gwyn laughing, she loves to make Annie and Jacob laugh, and tells me "Mommy, you're funny!"  We met her teacher last week and she is super excited about going to school. 

Annie, this is her funny face she makes all the time now.  If you make this face to her, then that gets it started and it just doesn't stop!  She has her second bottom tooth now, both had been giving her some trouble for awhile, but the first one broke through last week, and the second one broke through yesterday.

Gwyn LOVES to match Annie, and thankfully their Nana and Papa and their G and Grandpa have provided some matching outfits since Annie pretty much just gets Gwyn's hand me downs.  Whatever Annie is wearing, Gwyn wants to wear the same.  She got upset the other morning when Annie had this striped shirt on and she couldn't find anything to match it!

Finally, here are some pictures of our new house, we've still got some things to do, and I didn't include any of the backyard and pool since we'll hopefully be doing some updates there in the next year or so: 

Front of house:

Dining:

Kitchen/Dining:

Living:

Living:

Playroom / Office:

Playroom / Office:

Master:

Master:

Jacob:

Jacob:

Gwyn:

Gwyn:

Gwyn:

Gwyn:

Annie:

Annie:

Annie:

Annie:

Kids Bath:

Funny things the kids said/did this week:

Gwyn (to Brian at dinner):  Girls not supposed to get in the trash!

Gwyn to Jacob wearing her new sunglasses:  How do I look?

Jacob:  Sistinguished (Distinguished - seriously, where did he learn that??)

Brian calls Jacob "Mr. Savor"  He savors every last fruit snack, candy, etc, long after Gwyn has devoured hers.  The other night we went up to bed, and he brushes his teeth first and then I go over them with him to make sure he got them good...he was being really careful and when I started brushing them and he opened up his mouth, he had a red Swedish Fish (a gummy fish) stuck to his tongue and he was being careful not to get any toothpaste on it!

The kids are learning fast and poor little Annie gets blamed for everything!  I hear Annie pinched me, Annie hit me, Annie spilled this or that, Annie hurt my feelings...poor thing!