Hey June

"Belly" by Abby - I am actually much larger than this looks, but I'll take it!

Self portrait

Intense underwater swimming in the kiddie pool


If you're going to lounge, why not choose the hard tile floor?

Nate, at the Legoland Discovery Center in Grapevine. He earned a trip there by not (for the most part) sucking his thumb for 3 weeks. He's had some relapses (including the morning of our Legoland trip) but he has finally made the decision to stop!! He wears a thumb guard at night to help kick the habit, but during the day he has made huge strides. I'm so proud of the little guy.

Jake at Legoland, having the time of his life - obviously.

Brooke is Two!

Happy Birthday to our little sweetness. The low down on Brooke: she loves to wear dresses. She wears them to bed, to the pool, and to anywhere else we go. She freaks out if I try to slip a T-shirt underneath the sleeveless ones and Abby is always asking why Brooke wears immodest dresses. Sometimes you just can't win. Brooke has a cheerful, upbeat, lively, and fun personality. She loves to play with her siblings, read books and cuddle with Matt and I, draw all over her body with marker, and play! She's very independent and is happy to play by herself. She also loves to sing and read books. She loves animals (especially dogs) and gets really animated when she sees one. She mimics us all the time with what we do and say and her vocabulary is expanding rapidly. She stands up to her siblings and can dish out whatever it is they're giving her. We love this little girl and are so happy to have her in our family.

Swimming, Dancing, and the Arboretum

The boys took swimming lessons for the past two weeks and LOVED it! This was a huge contrast to last year for Nate. Last year he flipped out, crying and screaming, when we left him with the teacher for lessons. This year he looked forward to it everyday and learned a lot. He is quite comfortable swimming with his face in the water and is improving with his form. When it ended last Thursday, he was sad. Jake has done well also. He can swim with his face underwater and loves to jump in the pool from the diving board. We've spent a lot of time at our neighborhood pool already so it gives them both lots of time to practice.

Abby is comfortable swimming and Brooke has no fear of the water. She wears a lifejacket and I have to either hold her or be literally one step behind her the whole time we're at the pool. She also likes to pillage other people's swim toys.

I'm a nervous wreck with my kids at the pool so I'm doing all I can to get them swimming on their own. I've had to pull both Nate and Jake out before when they've slipped under the water and it's scary how silently they float under water, without thrashing around or giving any indication that they're drowning.


Swim lessons could get a little boring for us waiting, so Nate and Abby took turns taking hundreds of pictures with my phone. Here are some of their winning photos.

Self Portrait by Nate

Ode to a Grape

He did it! (we didn't get a picture of Jake with his button....)

Brooke is turning out to be our very own dancing queen. Anytime she hears music, she starts to dance. She usually likes to pull me or Abby up and get us to dance with her. Here we are outside a shopping center the other day (with the boys away at preschool). I'm pretty sure both girls get their dancing skills from me.

With Brooke as the dancer, Nate is the DJ. He loves to turn music on for us to listen to. Sometimes he'll pick up the radio and bring it to the room we're in so that we can listen. His favorite songs are Bob Sinclair's "Freak Show" and the Brothers Four "Edy Stone Light." I can't figure out if the Freak Show song is inappropriate or not, but it cracks me up that Nate loves it. He takes after Matt with his music tastes - lots of funk and folk.

And pictures from our latest jaunt to the Arboretum. We were there on the perfect day - hot, but we played in the water to cool off, no crowds, and beautiful flowers and greenery. I think my kids will wear their swimsuits all summer long????

Spring!

Spring brought with it warm weather, Abby's birthday, Nate's graduation from preschool, seasonal allergies, bike rides on the trail, a snake sighting in the backyard (just a tiny one), visits from the Myers cousins (in town for cousin Matt's soccer tournaments), thunderstorms, a tornado scare, a visit from G&G Myers, a trip to the zoo, baby bunnies in the backyard, and LOTS of playing outside and in the water.
At the Dallas Zoo. No matter where we are, if there is water, my kids will play in it.

The big 7! Abby was so excited for her birthday and kept counting down the days. She planned the menu for her special day - waffles with whipped cream for breakfast, ramen noodles for lunch, and tomato soup for dinner. Easy for me and perfect for her! She enjoyed opening her presents and got to do some special activities for her birthday.

I love this swimsuit!

At our favorite splashpark.

The mama bunny burrowed underneath our green onions in the container garden to deliver her babies. Unfortunately, they didn't survive...and after a proper burial for the bunnies, we ended up emptying our container of its growing herbs. But never fear, there are plenty of bunnies in our yard - even a baby or two - who are alive and well, surviving mostly on a diet of any flower we plant in the backyard.

For Nate's preschool graduation, they did a short 10-15 minute program singing songs. Afterward, they each got an award handed out by their teacher. In typical Nate fashion, he refused to hug or even acknowledge his teachers when they handed him the award:

Worst Easter basket idea ever

Colored bubbles seemed like a fun idea at first, but the kids quickly realized that the bubble solution would serve better as body paint. Luckily it came off their skin and their clothes with only minimal scrubbing. And okay, they enjoyed painting themselves much more than they would have just playing with bubbles.

Easter pics

Well, we tried....