Houston is HOT, HOT, HOT!

Yes, Annie does have food on her forehead and her chin, but all 3 kids are looking at the camera, can you believe it?!?! It has been extremely hot here, so we have been laying low and playing inside, doing playdates outside (for short periods of time), and playing in the pool / sprinkler.  We had a "back to school" playdate at our house last Friday...I think 12 kids went through my 89+ filled water balloons in about 4 minutes.  It took me over an hour to fill them all (the pack of 100 that we lost 11 of with Gwyn, Jacob and Annie "helping"), and the fun only lasted 4 minutes...it was a REALLY fun 4 minutes for them all, so I guess it was worth it!  Thankfully another mom also brought water guns for them all, so the fun continued some more until our homeade ice cream was finished, do we know how to do playdates or what?!?!  This picture below was taken at my friend Lindsee's house this past week.  Jacob is feeding Annie, and Gwyn is feeding Lauren's baby (who is oddly looking at the camera!).

We've been keeping up with swim lessons, Jacob is just getting to be really good and fearless, although I'm not sure if that is good, he just jumps in and takes off.  We've been hanging with Jason at least once / week and went to breakfast with him last Saturday, we used to do this almost every Saturday, and it had been awhile, so hopefully we are resuming this routine because we love Uncle J.  All three kids had and thankfully got over runny noses that we picked up from churck the previous Sunday.  Gwyn had to have probably about 10 breathing treatments over the past few days because any cold she gets just goes straight to her lungs, but everyone is okay again! 

We started last week making the kids try one bite of everything we are eating for dinner, both will pretty much eat whatever meat I fix, they love fruit, but vegetables are the enemy right now.  Gwyn will at least try just about anything but Jacob will not.  So, we instituted a "one bite minimum" to which Jacob this past week had to eat 3 peas, 1 bite of asparagus, 1 green bean, and 1 bite of red potato.  Sadly, with the exception of french fries and corn, that pretty much sums up his vegetable intake for the past couple of years.  At one point, he spit the peas out and they landed on his shirt and he had to use a napkin to get them off because touching them would just be unthinkable! 

We have all the curtains that Sue made hung up and they look great, hopefully I'll post pictures next week since to take those pictures I'd like the house cleaned, which is an event in itself.  I also braved the mall, and not just any mall, but the Galleria with all 3 kids this week.  I met a group of moms at the new Lego store, and let the kids play at a new play structure they had there, followed by chick-fil-a (with Jason who met us there), and then Annie got new shoes!  Gwyn walked a little later and had a bigger foot, so her size 5 shoes were a little too big for Annie, so Annie is now sporting a brand new pair of walking shoes in a size 4.  I told Brian it will probably be her only new pair of shoes she gets til high school because she'll be wearing all of Gwyn's hand me downs!

Annie is growing super fast and is walking all over the place, and getting stuck in places, she thinks she can go where ever she wants, but she needs rescued as she did the other day under the table:

Having trouble:

And she's happy again!

If you've seen Toy Story 3, does this pose in the picture below not look like "big baby?"  All she needs is her clothes off with just her diaper on and to be marked on with some marker! 

Funny things the kids said this week:

Jacob (as he handed me some napkins to wipe up Gwyn who puked on herself in the car):  Here is some, and here are some more for safe keeping (for safe keeping?? where does he get that stuff?)
Jacob (when asked what the tooth fairy would bring him when he lost his tooth since all his friends are losing teeth):  Either a coin or a diamond
Me to Gwyn at bedtime:  Who do you want to pray for?
Gwyn:  Jesus (every single night)
Me to Gwyn in the morning:  Did you dream about anything?
Gwyn:  Jesus (every single morning)
Me to Jacob while I was filling up those water balloons:  Jacob, come count out these remaining balloons into stacks of 5, so I know how many I have left.
Jacob (as he puts a hand on my shoulder):  You can do it by yourself, Mommy, I know that you can. (I think I say these exact words to him about something every single day)
Jacob (later as I'm still filling ballons, and as he pats me on the shoulder):  You're doing a great job, Mommy! (Again, I think I say these exact same words to him every single day...at least he's listening!)