Last year of Pre School...

This year will be Brody and Wade's last year in preschool...be still my heart...Their teacher snapped these pics on their first day!

Bowling Birthday party!

Brody and Wade had a bowling/Auto Bot Transformer/The Flash birthday party this year! They invited all of their little friends and family and had an absolute ball. They bowled and played in the arcade and chowed on pizza and cake...they giggled and cheered and loved being surrounded by all of their favorite people! Thank you to ALL who came out to help us celebrate!

It was pretty chaotic at first...but we all eventually fell into a rhythm of scooping up wandering children, accompanying little ones to the potty and passing out extra servings of cake, cupcakes and ice cream...it was a birthday party, afterall!

























This pic sums up our little family perfectly :)


These two REALLY enjoyed the icing...hehehe

The "terrible wonderful" twos...

Dear Jack,

I love you. So very much.
I really do.
But you make it extremely difficult for me to always like you when every ten minutes you throw yourself to the ground so you can kick and cry and carry on like a lunatic.

I know you think ketchup is an acceptable dinner.
I understand that you think 530a is the perfect time to take on the day.
I know how much it stinks to have to share.
I know you really want me to read just one more bedtime story, but 5 is my limit.
I know that you love to use the word no…and you do it quite well!

I know you're frustrated that I did not pick out the correct shirt.
I know everything is yours and no one understands.
I know you want to sleep in your sneakers and hat. Every night.
I understand that you don't approve of the first 3 spoons I gave you.
I understand that you cannot control your amounts of energy that came attached to you on your 2nd birthday.

I get it.
I totally get it.
Frustration is the pits and the concept of patience is beyond your reach.
But hitting your Mom/Dad/Brother/Friend in the head isn't going to make it better.
Do you really like time-outs that much??

I also get that you are funny and love to make people laugh.
I know you love to be the helper and enjoy making people smile.
I know you would love to spend every waking hour doing exactly what your big brothers do.
I know your heart is sensitive and your eyes are filled with wonder.
I know that you already love deeply and have a huge heart and give the best bear hugs.

People constantly take the time to tell us how special you are and how you are going to be something great one day. People can just sense it after spending a short amount of time with you and are drawn to you. You are perceptive and unique and have a spunk about you that I cannot quite describe! And you are probably the most smiley child on the planet...well...except for when you are throwing a tantrum. So...you are probably that most smiley child on the planet ½ of the time.

I am sorry to bother you daily with our silly rules, which you take as mere suggestions. Your keen ability to know exactly what will make us the craziest the fastest is impressive! I am continually in awe of your ability to sob loudly and quickly change to laughing in a matter of a ½ of a seconds time.

Littlest One, I sure hope the terrible two's pass quickly. You have already taken us to heights of love and frustration that we never knew existed.


Love, Momma

August 13th

The night before their actual birthday, Nana kept sweet Jack for us so we could give Wade and Brody ALL of our attention and get ready for our Big Kahuna's trip in the morning! We decided to give them all of their birthday gifts on the Eve of their birthday, instead of on the actual day, as Jack would have been pretty upset that none of the presents were his. Actually, he would have stolen all of them and claimed them as his own..."Dis is MINE BB and WayWay." Thank you Nana for giving us alone time to spoil the birthday boys!


Following tradition, we woke up and headed to Big Kahuna's! This is the 2nd year that we have kept them out of school, on their actual birthday, and played at BK's all day long. Except this year, a few of their best little buddies joined in on the action! The you Wood's and Simon's for helping us celebrate the BIG 5!! (Stacey brought along her amazing under water camera and took all of the pics in this post...mine froze...thank you Stacey!)

We woke up that morning to dark clouds in the skies and a radar forcast that didn't look too promising. But, we ventured on and met our friends at the park...During our 6 hours at the park, it shut down for about 1 hour, due to lightning...but this was actually a blessing in disguise...as the park cleared out and we literally had it to ourselves for hours and hours! No lines...no lines...no lines!!

I will let the pictures do the explaining...we all played hard and slept well that night!

Wade, Brody, Grayson, Sean and Cooper...crazy boys!








We had so much fun taking underwater pics...




Because Stacey was behind the camera, I am actually in pictures. Happy birthday to the 2 that made me a Mommy!


We love slides!


We all had a such a blast, that we purchased our 2014 season passes before we left the park...cannot wait until our next BK adventure!

Happy 5th birthday Brody Lee and Wade Aubrey!!

Weekend with the Dasinger's!

Who in their right mind would invite a family of 5, and their 2 dogs, to spend the weekend with them? Doug, Margaret and Carsen Dasinger...that's who.

We asked them numerous times, "Are you sure about this?" "I mean, we are really loud...are you sure about this?" "Ok. Final chance. We are packed and ready to head out the door...are you really sure about this??" Everytime, they responded with excited "Yes!" and "Bring it!" and "We love chaos!"

So, we went......and had an absolute blast!!!!!

Within 30 minutes of arriving, Doug and Todd walked down to the water with all of the boys, and when Mags and I caught up...this is what we found. Fully clothed and not a care in the world...


Of course, one of my boys ended up naked. Jack, Jack...your sweet hiney mooned the entire neighborhood, as you stayed like that for the entire walk back to their house :) Also, for some reason, Jack felt it necessary to "take care" of Carsen the first couple of hours. He would try to hold his hand or guide him or hug him. Poor Carsen kept looking at us, wondering just what in the heck this little boy, his exact same age, was doing. The picture kind of tells the story...


That evening, we had an adult night out. Mags and Doug hired 2 sitters...we loaded up and headed to a Waahoo baseball game, and then out on the town. We had the absolute best time. On the cab ride home, we discovered that we had been gone for more than 7 hours! The morning came very quickly...and off to the bay we went! We had the entire beach to ourselves...




After naps for the kiddos and showers all around, we all went to another Waahoo baseball game, this time with kiddos in tow...our boys first game! As you can imagine, Todd was beaming...


We kept the kids entertained with snacks, rolls down the grassy hill, jumps in the bounce house, snacks, batting cage, walks around the stadium and more snacks. They were all really good and had a great time at their first baseball game!


The colors of summer:








After the game, they allow all of the kiddos to come out on the field and run the bases. Jack stayed in his Daddy's arms, but Brody, Wade and Carsen made the loop!


Thank you so very much Dasinger clan for welcoming us with open arms into your home and space and for the baseball games...what wonderful memories we made together!

No more training wheels!

After Jack received his strider balance bike for his birthday, the boys decided they were too old for training wheels on their bikes. Great decision, considering their bikes are way too small for them...perfect for learning to ride without the training wheels! Todd removed the trainers and the pedals...taa daa...homemade balance bikes! It is pretty spectacular to see them gain speed, using their legs to push themselves to the perfect momemtum...hike their legs up...and balance! Todd and look at each other...every minute or so, with such pride in our eyes! We are going to give them about another month on the practice bikes and they will be ready to take off on new big boy bikes.





And Jack? He does his best to keep up...but looses interest after about 5 minutes and grabs the old trusted tricycle and pedals his little legs, as fast as they will go...



A few short videos...

Adventures in the classroom!

Brody and Wade had an awesome adventure in their classroom over the past few weeks! They helped draw maps on fabric and, as a class, used a sewing maching to make a quilt; They studied maps and learned what they were all about; They made backpacks and hats out of brown paper bags, binoculars out of toilet paper rolls, beaded necklaces, suitcases out of postage boxes, etc...they were incredibly proud to show off all of their hard work and creations! Such sweet little travelers!!

Grammie visits!

Grammie spent the weekend with us last weekend! She couldn't help herself and gave the boys an early birthday present...a huge popcorn maker! I am going to get in touch with their school and see if we can bring it up there next week for their birthday!


While Grammie visited...

We spent time at the pool and took bike rides and devoured popsicles...






We read stories and went to see Turbo...


We played in the sprinklers...


And even managed to fit in some good old fashioned child labor.


After Grammie headed back to PCB, we loaded up the kiddos and went on an adevnture. Drove all through the country, took backroads to Andalusia and Florala...stopped at a lake, and left quickly (felt like we were on another Budweiser commercial..hey, you can't win em' all) and a random picture of me at the movies (The Conjuring...clap clap!!) with our office staff. The reason for the picture is because I ordered a slurpee. She asked what size, and I figured, hey, a 2 hour movie...go ahead and give me a large. Well, $9.00 and 200+ ounces later, I got my slurpee. Seriously. It should have come with a forklift and a warning. We are still talking about my grand treat... :)


All in all, it was a nice, relaxing weekend!