How I survive the summer :)

Jacob actually did this to himself, and I thought it was just too funny because my immediate thought was, “what a great idea!”  Ha, just kidding, I LOVE my kids:J  What a fantastic week we have had!  We have had swim lessons, a few days of Vacation Bible School, from which the kids and I have been jamming in the car to a great cd to which the kids know all the hand motions to, swim lessons, playdates, swimming, a birthday party to see Cars 2, a birthday party at Chuck E Cheese, and a weekend with Sue! 

Jacob, Gwyn and I went to my friend Julie’s son birthday party to see the 3D movie of Cars 2…this was much anticipated, and we were excited.  We had to get a sitter for Annie because she doesn’t “do” sitting still for 2 hours in the dark and being quiet.  Jacob never took his eyes off the screen, and didn’t move the entire movie.  Gwyn got a little restless towards the end and ended up sleeping on my lap for the last half hour. 

 Here are all the kids from my little group of Mom…can’t believe how fast everyone is growing up!

Sue came in Friday night and flew back to Tulsa on Tuesday night.  The kids had a great time spending time with their G.  She taught Jacob how to sew, he even thread his own needle...a real one!  Gwyn likes to play musical chairs and make up rules as she goes along, play Elijah, Elijah, fire (very similar to duck, duck, goose), and make up games.  Her funniest game that had Brian, Sue and I on the flooring laughing was a game where you had to say something to Gwyn, and if she liked what you said, then you got to go sit by her.  Sue also watched the kids for us, so Brian and I could get a night out to go to Jason's dinner party, which was awesome!

  Jacob (especially) and Gwyn are big into crafts these days.  We took a trip to Hobby Lobby, and Sue let the kids stock up on some new crafts…here are their hats they made:

Annie didn’t decorate hers, she thought it was much more fun to pull off all the stickers from Jacob and Gwyn’s hats.

It is getting HOT here in Houston…we are swimming almost every single day.  Jacob is getting to be a stronger swimmer every day, he is ALL over the pool.  In and out, from one end to the other, he’s all over the place.  He’s working on side breathing during freestyle and backstroke. 

 He's just getting so big...he's always walking around with a water squirter...BEWARE!

Gwyn is getting much braver with her new goggles, she’s working on front floating, back floating and swimming underwater…I’d love for her to be able to swim by the end of the summer!

Annie is just working on bossing people around.  She wants in the floatie, she wants out.  She wants to swim with me, she wants to swim with Brian, she wants to swim with Sue.  She wants to get on the steps, she wants to spin around in circles.  She is a bit high maintenance in the pool right now!

Sue also brought down lots of fun things for the kids, Annie was particularly interested in the chapstick that Sue gave her.  She smelled like strawberry chapstick for a couple of days because she would rub it ALL over her face and then she would dig it out with her finger and eat it, ha!

Maddy had a little birthday party at Chuck E Cheese on Monday, so the kids and I went and gave Sue a little break to eat lunch with Brian.  The kids had a great time and got a record 270 tickets!  We walked out of there with 3 pieces of candy and 3 toys that I think broke before we even got home.  Jacob and Maddy had fun together.  They are 3 weeks apart, used to have weekly playdates when they were 1 month old, and now they are starting Kindergarten in the Fall!!

 We learned that Gwyn's fear of Chuck E Cheese has NOT gotten any better!

 Annie likes to people watch.

Funny things the kids said this week:

Jacob:  Why is Annie the only one who gets to eat chapstick?  (Uh, do you really want to eat it??)

Jacob (while practicing his reading):  I really like words that only have one letter like a or I, those are really easy.

Jacob:  How did you find Daddy to marry?

Me:  God showed me that Daddy was the one.

Jacob:  Okay.

Jacob:  Why do adults not cry and fuss when they get shots?

The dermatologist to Jacob:  Are you going to be a doctor when you grow up?
Jacob:  No, I'm going to be a baseball player.

We've got the BEST DADDY EVER!

The kids agree, we've got the best Daddy ever!  Even though Jacob says that he just has way too many D's in his name, he's still super cool to us!  We had a great weekend with the kids celebrating Father's Day with Brian...we brought him breakfast in bed of coffee, kolaches, and a sticky bun, followed by presents of swim trunks, shorts, and candy (and let's not forget the Cardinals baseball tickets the week before).  Annie threw him a box of Good N Plenty's and said "Open it!"  The kids were anxious for Brian to share his Swedish fish with them:)  We went to church and came home to a roasted chicken meal, which was delicious!  It was the first time I bought a whole chicken, Brian was super excited that I was actually cooking meat with bones in it, and it came out great!

Brian later took the kids to Strawberry bucks for a treat...they now have cake balls on a stick and those were a hit with the kids.  The night before we went bowling with the kids.  They had so much fun, they liked the shoes, and Gwyn loved to "hit them all down!"  Here is how Gwyn gets a strike:

 My little bowlers, Annie wanted so badly to pick up one of those balls!

It has been extremely hot here, we've hit 100 several times within the last week and we are in a drought, no rain in like a couple of months!  The kids are doing awesome with their swim lessons, we've been swimming at least 6 times / week, had several friends over to play, and we recently made some homemade popsicles:

Jacob and Annie are little bug buddies.  Somehow a baby lizard got into the house, it was on the wood floor and Annie said, "bug."  I looked over and there was this tiny green lizard.  I immediately put a bowl over it because I would not be able to sleep thinking a lizard was going to crawl on me.  I told Jacob about it, and he started freaking out.  He ran upstairs to tell Gwyn and their friends Luke and Isabel, that "listen, it is VERY important, we have a baby lizard downstairs...come see!!"  We let it go outside, after Jacob asked multiple times to keep it as a pet.  I told him it was still a baby and would miss its Mommy.  Brian mowed the yard over the weekend and Jacob found 3 baby frogs.  Annie loved to check them out!

Target had some glitter glue and tape in the dollar spot, so I surprised the kids with these one day.  I wrote Jacob and Gwyn's name on their roll of tape, and Jacob stayed at the kitchen table and used that entire roll of tape in about an hour.  He made all kinds of 3-D structures with straws, and he's really into making these books.  Here is the one he made for Brian for Father's Day (you can tell whether each person is Brian by whether or not Jacob draws hair on the top of his head...he likes to point that out):

 This one is of Jacob and Brian swimming:

 This one is of Jacob and Brian having a picnic:

 This one is of them playing baseball:

 Here is a map he made from our house to G's house.  You start at the house at the bottom and go to the right to that pond, where you get on the boat and go across.  You then follow the path and go through some trees til you get the treasure at the X.  You then go through some more trees, past the bridge with the crocodile, and then follow the path around to G's house.  He has some very elaborate stories that go along with his pictures!

The kids spend hours at the kitchen table doing all kinds of crafts (our poor table is taking a beating!), we really do this every single day, and most days, multiple times / day.  Annie is never one to miss out, and if she is ever missing, first check the craft drawer:

Jason came over for dinner and to swim last weekend...these kids don't give him any space while they are here.  It is a joke that they don't understand personal space, they are always right up in your face wanting attention:

Jacob got his haircut on Friday by Sports Clips...free from the Astros game a couple of weeks ago.  Here he is before, he likes sitting up in that chair, and I like for him to have a haircut that he doesn't look like a-boy-whose-mom-cuts-his-hair:

 Jacob takes pictures of really cool stuff...one croc with Lighting McQueen, Wolverine, and Luke Skywalker:

 The other croc with C3PO, R2D2, Batman, Buzzlightyear, and Darth Vader:

 Jacob's frog he made, he really wanted a picture of it:

Gwyn LOVES her new swim goggles:

Annie is just talking up a storm.  She talks constantly...I'm foreseeing two little Gwyn's in my future who talk and sing non-stop like Gwyn does now!  She loves pointing out things in books, and her new favorite thing is bringing over book after book after book and saying "read it!"  She says lots of peoples names, Jason is a sucker when she says his.  She loves her scicles (popscicles)!!  Here is a video I got of her the other day...she is constantly finding this stack of letter flash cards, which I have to count to make sure I've got them all over and over!

Funny things the kids said this week:

Jacob:  Why did God make us have ears?
Me:  So that we could hear.
Gwyn:  And he made our nose so that we could have boogers!
Jacob:  Our family eats germs.

Annie to everyone that walked by at Einstein bagels:  Hewo (hello)!!

H2O + SUN = FUN

We have been LIVING in the pool this past week.  We are going through sunscreen like crazy, but still the kids have gotten some pretty good tan lines.  Annie’s legs are all tan and then she has this white little toosh, so cute!  We have started our twice / week swim lessons, and the kids are doing great!  Jacob is working on the backstroke and Gwyn is doing surprisingly well.  I was a little nervous since she wouldn't wear goggles, and would have one of her freak-out episodes if water was splashed in her face, but Rachael got her to wear her goggles and has her kicking her feet and is actually getting close to swimming!!  I could not believe how well she is doing.  When she came inside, she wanted to see if I was going to tell Daddy how good she did.  Poor little Annie is a distraction and a handful when the kids are doing lessons, and throws a little fit when the kids get to go outside to do their lessons, she even brings me over her swimsuit when I'm getting the kids dressed.  I've started pulling a chair over for her to watch out the window.

We went up to the neighborhood pool with some friends and took a trip to Noah's Ark this past week.  Both places had a slide and diving board, and Jacob slowly worked up the courage to do both.  After he tried them out, he did not want to leave and is asking to go back.  

Here is a video of him jumping off:

Gwyn had such a great time, I think she went down this slide about 100 times...she really went up and down it the entire 2 hours that we were there.

Little Annie likes to swim, but also likes to watch, she's just too cute in her little swimsuit:)

Rick and Brian's Grandpa came into town last week.  They took the kids and Brian's cousin Angie to the Cardinals baseball game...everyone was in their red shirts.  Gwyn had her red shirt picked out about 4 days in advance when I told her she was going to go to the game.  Jacob made sure to tell her she didn't have a Cardinals shirt, it was just a red shirt, but his had the baseball team on it...brothers!  I had texted Brian to check on the kids at one point and he texted me back letting me know that the kids had eaten hot dogs, skittles, peanuts, popcorn, lemonade, and ice cream...they went to bed that night at 10:30 and STILL got up at 6:20 the next morning!  

This past weekend, I went on a mini weekend get-a-way to Dallas.  I got to spend some time with Emily and Neely.  It was so nice to catch up, oh, how I've missed them both!!  I got to see sweet little Grace and Sadie, who are growing up too fast!  We got to go to dinner, do some shopping, have some much needed time at the spa, and mostly talk:) With me being gone, Brian, Rick and his Grandpa took care of the kids from Friday around noon to Sunday around 2 pm.  I have a friend that lives around the corner that told me that she drove by a couple of times during the weekend and each time there was a flurry of activity going on outside...they kept the kids busy...so busy they didn't even ask for me!  I told Brian that since he handled it so well, that I could probably do that once / month...he didn't think that was funny!

We have been having a great summer.  It has been nice to not have things scheduled every single day, and we are enjoying just hanging out together.  I can't believe this is the last summer we'll have with Jacob before he officially starts school!  The kids have so much fun together.  Annie LOVES to be pushed around in this little doll stroller.  They use it so much that the little wheels are turned inward from the excess weight of Annie vs a baby doll.  Annie thinks it is great, and wants them to go fast.  She'll start to cry and whine when they stop.  

I had brought home Jacob some monster stickers from my trip...he made this picture and I think used the entire package of stickers in about 15 minutes...no wonder we can't keep stickers in the house!  I bought a 3 pack of tape at Target yesterday and you should have seen the looks on the kids faces when I gave them their own tape dispenser...it was like Christmas!!

 Sweet little sisters:

Here is a video of the girls dancing, we dance just about every single day.  I cook dinner and turn on the music, and the kids get CRAZY!!



Funny things the kids said this week:

Gwyn to Jacob:  Whatever! (Seriously, it has started already??)

Jacob as we are driving in the neighborhood:  Mommy, I just saw two houses for sale.  Nana and Papa and G and Grandpa could buy those and then they would live close to us.

Phoebe:  You’ll have to tell them about that.

Gwyn:  I have a boy named Charlie in my class, he is not a squirrel. (they had named the squirrel Papa caught for them Charlie)

Gwyn:  When I grow up, I want to be a sof a ball player like you Mommy.

Jacob: Mommy, if it rains jelly beans will you let us go outside and play in it?

Me:  Yes, I can honestly say that if it ever rains jelly beans, I’ll let you play in it as long as you want.

Gwyn:  Jacob, if a bee comes close to you, you just sing “shoo fly don’t bother me”  They don’t like that.

Gwyn when she wants a snack:  I'm hungry, but not for dinner.  

Gwyn when she wants another snack:  I'm hungry still.  That snack didn't make me not hungry.

Gwyn:  Can we do it just a little bit tiny?  (she uses "a little bit tiny" all the time, it is hilarious!)

Lil' Annie Bananie

Sweet baby Annie is so much fun!  We love to squeeze her soft little thighs and make her laugh.  She is starting to talk so much.  She tells Brian to “tickle” and then she’ll laugh and then say “top it.”  Then she’ll ask him to tickle her some more.  She can say so many words now.  She says Jacob plain as day,  but still calls Gwyn “Sissy.”  She loves beanie babies…we’ve got an abundance of stuffed animals around here, but she’s particularly attached to this little puppy, Tracker.

This poor little dog has been taken everywhere, in the car, outside, been dipped in the pool, etc.  Tracker has become accustomed to the washer and dryer!

My mom flew back in on Thursday and stayed the weekend, and then  both Nana and Papa drove back to Oklahoma on Sunday.  We had a great visit, and the kids are asking every day about going to Oklahoma this summer to visit everyone.  Jacob is convinced that Papa is superfast and can catch lizards and squirrels.  Dad took them on a walk one morning and they say a squirrel, and Jacob turned to Gwyn and told her to stay back so that Papa could catch it.  Well, Dad came through when he set up a trap with some corn and caught a squirrel.  Jacob totally freaked he was so excited!  We named him Charlie, and we did let him go after about 30 minutes. 

Even though Brian was still sick and recovering, we were able to do a crawfish boil.  We had 15 lbs, so with the extra crawfish we peeled, we had a crawfish pie the next day.  Jacob LOVES to pick up the crawfish, Annie likes to look from a distance, and Gwyn wants nothing to do with them!

Yummo!

Crawfish boil:

Nana and Gwyn:

Summer has definetly started, as we’ve seen a few weeks in the upper 90s and we’ve hit 100 at least twice.  Swim lessons start this week and Jacob’s second reading class starts this week as well.  Our days are quickly filling with playdates, swimming, park days, splash pad days, popscicles, and this week Rick and Brian’s Grandpa are in for a few days.  The kids are getting super excited, and Gwyn went and got her “ballgame” red shirt out about 4 days ahead of time in preparation for the Cardinals/Astros game tomorrow night.  The kids have been going this week to a little half day preschool camp at Gwyn’s new preschool that she’ll be attending in the Fall.  I thought it would be good for her to go to the school with Jacob a few times before she went there in the Fall by herself.  She LOVED school last year, and would even be upset when Jacob went on Tuesdays and Thursdays and she didn’t get to go.  The school seems awesome, and this week they did a little cooking school, which the kids loved!  I told Jacob maybe he could start cooking the dinner and doing the dishes, and he said, “OK!!” Gwyn was not in the mood for her picture to be taken!

 When the cats away, little Annie will play with Jacob's chefs hat:

Here is a video from the other night:

Summer fun, staying up later and watching Kung Fu Panda with popcorn (notice Jacob was still not feeling the greatest, we’re ready for this summer flu/virus to be gone from this house!):

 Silly little Gwyn:

 Funny things the kids said this week:

Gwyn (twirling a belt with Brian):  Come on Annie, try to jump rope!

Me:  We better let the squirrel go, it might be a mommy squirrel and need to go feed her babies up in a tree.

Gwyn:  It is not a girl squirrel.  It doesn’t have any eyebrows or eyelashes.

Jacob (after the crawfish was cooked):  Daddy!!!  I just saw one move!!!