Shower Power

Its finally warming up in the Northeast and we have been making the rounds at the sprinkler parks. Its a little tricky for us to swim at the beach (Lizard eats rocks!) or the pool (I only have two arms!), so these little gems are great for us and the kids love them.

You probably can't tell from these pictures, but Caleb is wearing no DIAPER!!!! We still have an accident every so often (mostly when he's having too much fun) but, its going pretty well this time. (the third try I think) So, my advice to all of you mommies...wait until they are ready it goes a lot easier.

This is Onyx the police dog. We had a special field trip to visit him and his partner, Tex. My camera ran out of batteries, so this is the only shot we got. It was very cool to see what they can do!

Questions for Caleb.....

What's your favorite thing for dinner?

cheerios and chips

What's you favorite color?

red

Who's your best friend?

Shauna

What's your favorite game?

Zingo! I mean, banno binna bock (?)

If you're naughty what does Santa bring you?

A spider, a robot spider with a remote control. Wait, that's what you get if you're good.

What do you want to be when you grow up?

A drummer

What does mommy do for a job?

I don't know...plays with us?

What does daddy do?

work, lots and lots of work

I love you sideways

Lizzy got her first cheeto the other day at our pizza party. Clearly, I wasn't looking when this happened, but it was so cute I had to take a picture. She has been a little cranky lately and I just figured out its because she is getting her two top teeth. poor baby!

She can pull herself up to stand, but has trouble sitting back down. Here, she has had enough of the water table, but seems to be stuck! Check out the hairbow, I am so tired of losing them and buying new ones, that I bought a hot glue gun and some ribbon, watched a few youtube videos and can now craft my own.

On Sunday we had friends and neighbors over to eat pizza and cupcakes to raise money for my Avon walk, (www.tinyurl.com/francesoutlaw ) I am only $199 away from my minimum goal, with three months to go!!

I let Caleb decorate the deck and back yard and front yard and the side yard all by himself. He basically ran around everything until he was out of crepe paper.

Here is Caleb "pacing" on the wall waiting for Nate to get to the zoo. (Before the security guard came and told him to get down.) There was a little mix up with the mommies....I rode the train into the city with my children and went to the Central park zoo. My s-i-l drove her two kiddos to the Bronx zoo....oops! It wasn't until we were both inside our respective zoos that we realized the mix up. Because neither of the boys wanted to look at any animals without the other, she graciously turned around and came into the city. Thankfully, they refunded her money, or it would have been a pricey mistake!

Baby Longhorns

Everyone always goes on and on about how much alike my children look. I thought the same thing, until these pictures. Caleb is in the above shot at about 9 months old. I remembered this shot and set Lizzy up in the same pose last night when she was wearing the same outfit. I don't think they look anything alike! Maybe his mature face is what they are comparing her to!

How to make my husband crazy in 3 easy steps

Even though the number of children that we have has only doubled in the last year, it seems as though the number of toys has quadrupled. Despite the fact that we have a room dedicated to toys, they are everywhere. In the living room, our bedroom, the bathroom, there is even an exersaucer in the kitchen.



A couple of months ago, Brandon said enough is enough....I am going to break my neck. Thus began the "basement project." This involved semi-finishing (cleaning, painting, adding rugs and furniture-maybe a treadmill?) and most importantly moving the toys down!! It was supposed to be a three day project, but as with most things, didn't end up that way. That was a couple of months ago, and the project still isn't complete. (In his defense, we have been really busy- vacation, Father's Day, a tag sale) And that's not the point of this story!



In my excitement for a basement playroom, I promptly located a train table on Freecycle. com (yahoo groups- you should check it out) drove an hour to pick it up and planted it smack in the middle of our current, already filled to capacity playroom. My enthusiasm for a free toy and that it was something we really needed, was only a fraction greater than the irritation Brandon had for bringing in another toy. A huge room engulfing one at that.



So the other day the kids and I were dropping off leftover items at the local Goodwill. When I pulled into the donation site, what did I see? A perfect! Step 2 kitchen just right for our soon? to be completed basement.



I rushed to the attendant, "Can I buy this please?"



She lifted her head from the bin she was working on, "you'll have to wait for me to price it."



"okay, I'll wait."



Begrudgingly, she got her price gun and stamped my kitchen $10!!! (they retail for over $100)



In hindsight, I probably could have gotten it for less if I hadn't been so excited, but its for a good cause.



So, we bring it home and clean it up and Caleb wants to bring it right inside. Oh no I say, Daddy's head will explode if one more toy comes into this house. So, we "hid' it in the freshly cleaned garage.



When Brandon came home, it didn't take long for him to discover the toy.



"Did you buy this because you finished the basement, while I was at work?" ha ha



"No, I found it today and couldn't pass it up."



He shook his head a muttered something I couldn't quite make out- thankfully, Goodwill has a no return policy, or it might have gone back.





PS. Want to know how my husband can make his wife crazy? move the clothes hamper from his side of the bedroom because its too crowded over there, and then continue to leave dirty clothes in a pile on the floor where the hamper used to be.


xoxo honey!




For those of you who missed it on FB, here's my Caleb bear picking raspberries yesterday at Lyman's orchards. Jamberry is one of our favorite books, and if you've never read it, its great by Bruce Degan.

Sparklers aren't for toddlers

For whatever reason, our town does a fire works display on the 3rd of July every year. We can see them shoot them off from our backyard, which is nice, because who wants to take babies to the beach in that crowd and then have to sit in traffic?

So, we had some friends over and grilled fajitas and ate guacamole. Happy Birthday America! I bought a variety pack of sparklers for the kids and Brandon looked at me like I was crazy. I guess three is a little young to play with something that is on fire. You live and learn. Here Caleb is helping his dad with them.

I love pictures like this, especially when I think about these two about eight years from now. They are going to be so over us trying to talk them into being boyfriend and girlfriend. Still, I cross my fingers for a Will and Grace finale repeat.

The lounging lizard princess, pictured at left, is now pulling herself up. It won't be long before she is climbing the stairs. I haven't quite figured out how to solve that problem.

I have only 83 days left until my 39 mile walk. I took a look at the training schedule. You're supposed to walk like 12 miles at a time...who has time for that? I can get out of my house for about an hour alone, and that's at 9:30. If I walked for 12 miles, I wouldn't get home until midnight. Guess I better walk faster!

I have commanded you, be strong and courageous

Here is a great shot of Caleb and Adrien in Myrtle Beach. We were so lucky to be able to share a week at the beach with our good friends. The kids had a great time. Caleb loved the ocean and would stay out in the waves for as long as he could convince someone to take him. He even got knocked down a few times, but got right back up for more!

We stayed over night in Washington D. C. and got to look around a little bit. We'll probably have to do this again when the kids are a little older because Caleb wasn't as impressed with the Washington monument as he was with the fireflies he caught and the sprinkler we let him run through.

Caleb is 3 and can finally ride the tricycle Brandon got him for his 1st birthday. Here is a picture of his birthday party, where he would not take off his Superman pj's. We had it on a Monday morning and served KK donuts and chocolate milk! yummy!

Here is Lizzy being bossy to her baby cousin Talia! and another shot of her first time in the pool! She loved it.

Eliza is 9 months old! She is pulling herself up and yesterday she tried to scoot around the ottoman to get to her daddy! I just had a tagsale to get rid of all baby stuff (sniff, sniff!) and all single strollers- there were 3!

Its been kind of a crummy summer so far, with only a few sunny days sprinkled in, all of my TX friends are probably a little jealous of the "blazing" 85 degree weather we're experiencing.

We just finished an amazing week of Vacation Bible School! I had the privilege to teach 1st and 2nd grades. Being with them was such a great experience and made me so excited about loving Jesus and sharing the words of the bible with such eager, bright, enthusiastic little minds. I have really come to love our church, although I wasn't sure it was the place for us, I am sure of it now. I am so thankful that we are there and Caleb and Eliza are going to grow up in such an amazing church family.

I will begin my days with renewed gratitude and joy for all that I have!