Backyard Water Fun

These 2 had the best time playing in the hose on Monday. They were hilarious and loved it all in their faces! Watson started it and couldn't get enough. He is not a fan of the baby pool just yet, just sprinklers and water hoses. They love just being in the backyard. It's where we spend a good part of our day, especially afternoons. We took a trip to the gardendale splash pad and they loved that! It's a hike all the way there but lots of fun once you get there. We have had a fun and busy week playing. It's getting so much easier to take them places now that they're a little bigger. These ages are fun!

The Beach

I'm getting to be kind of a lazy blogger. I think it's because it's summer! But, one major noteworthy thing to document is the incredible week that Nathan and I just had at the beach. ALL BY OURSELVES. I still can't believe I just wrote that. A whole week at the beach without either of our children close by. They were in the wonderful, eager hands of their grandparents so we had nothing to worry about. It was heavenly, relaxing, peaceful, lazy, really too good to be true. No cooking, cleaning, email checking, or chores of any kind, just the beach and sand and fun drinks and good restaurants and each other. Sort of like another honeymoon, but a very much appreciated honeymoon this go-round. It's been a little hard to get back into reality! We missed our little ones soooooo much, by mid-week I really couldn't wait to see them. They of course were completely fine without us though!

This trip really got our summer off to a good start. It was a great time of year-not too hot just yet and not very crowded. And I am really just hoping that everything went as well w/the kids as the grandparents say, just in case they want to keep them again anytime soon!! (that was just a small hint for my grandparent readers:)

The Ballet Recital

Hayes had her first ballet recital this past week. It was so, so, so incredibly sweet! Her class was first and they were called the Sweet Peas. When they opened the curtains and all those little blue ballerinas were on stage and my Hayes was one of them I thought I was going to die. I could not help but get teary. They are all 2/3 and they really did so good. Nobody cried or got upset and they all participated at some point! They did one dance and then they called out all their names and they each did a little bow. It makes all those months of not knowing whether or not she loved ballet yet all worth it. She loved wearing her blue (favorite color) sequined costume and being part of the recital. We're so proud of her!! She was so excited once she got dressed she could hardly stand it! She loved being dressed up!

Hayes and sweet friend, Lily-We celebrated afterwards with ice cream at Dairy Queen w/the Grubbs. It was a fun and special night. Little man did not get to attend. It was too late for him! Hayes was a little sad he did not get to come. Maybe next year!

Last Day of School

Today was our last day of school! Last day of the bunny room for Watson and last day of 2 yr preschool for Hayes. They have both had a fantastic year. I can't believe how much they have grown from September until May. It just shows you how incredibly fast your kids grow up. But am I sad about this year ending? That would be a NO. I am way more excited about it being summertime. Hayes' 1st day-September 2011-she ran out of her classroom screaming down the hall after me. It was terrible!

Watson's 1st day-September 2011

Hayes' last day-May 2012

Watson's last day-May 2012

My growing up babies. They totally melt my heart (and my brain.)

Morning Entertainment

Mother's Day

So THANKFUL and BLESSED to be their mommy! What an awesome privilege and responsiblity from the Lord. They make me smile and laugh everyday and I wouldn't trade the hard, silly, crazy, exhausting, wild days with them for anything! We love these babies with all our hearts!

Happy Mother's Day, sweet friends!

Ballet, Bottles and Naps

Hayes had her last ballet class for this year last Thursday. She has really enjoyed it all year and I am so glad. I think it's good for her to be a part of an organized group without me and to learn to listen and follow instructions. I know she'll miss it this summer, or she may mainly miss the sucker she gets afterwards every week! She's a precious ballerina. I can say that because I'm her mama. She just broke the strings off one of her shoes, just in time for her recital next week.

And this man has had 2 major breakthroughs just this week! First, he's been bottle-free since last Sunday with only 1 time that mama caved in and gave him one because I really needed him to nap good. I am so proud of him. He was super duper totally attached to his bottles. No sippy cup for him. I have bought so many and just couldn't find which one he preferred, because he only preferred the bottle. My friend Shannon (from her SIL) gave me the idea to fill his bottle with water and his sippy cup w/milk (and let him watch me.) That is exactly what I did for really only 1 day. He grabbed that bottle of water and chugged it. He got mad at the milk and threw his cup around and I cleaned up milk left and right from the floors from him throwing it down. It's been about 6 days now and he's just drinking from the cup. He still runs to the counter where his bottles are and whines for one, I'm just too lazy to put them away so that is my fault. But I think he knows he's a big boy drinking out of a cup like his sister!

And, he's now getting down to 1 nap a day which I LOVE. I've been trying to push him until 1:00 before he goes down for his afternoon nap and it's totally paid off so far. He's been napping about 3 hours in the afternoon. I hope it sticks!

Happy Mother's Day. I am so thankful to be a mother to my babies and wife to Nathan. There is nothing like it!

A few things

Watson is 14 months now and if you ever read anything on my blog you would probably know he is such a mess! He certainly has a few nicknames here just like his sister, but his latest one is the boy named Sue-you know that country song? Well he is rough and tough and wild and silly and loves sticks, rocks, dirt, anything outside, climbing, wrestling, and everything else boylike you can imagine. But the boy prefers Hayes' old pink lovies to sleep with and her old pink paci. And he loves the bottles, sippy cups just don't appeal to him yet. So the funny part is that he is all over that pink stuff and he will straight up fight you for it if you try to take them away. A few weeks ago we lost his blue paci somewhere in the car on the way to church. So, what do you do? Just give him the girly purple one that we use as a backup and maybe they won't have to give it to him in the nursery-hahha right! So I picked him up after church and the nursery worker (who was a different one than we dropped him off with) asked if that was his purple paci. Yes, we give our son pink and purple pacis, but only in desperate situations! Apparently he got into a little scuffle with another child who was trying to take it. No way was he letting that purple paci go! But thankfully this week we are down to just the blue and brown loveys and all blue pacis in the house. Pink ones are out of reach!

So here is the big boy with his blue paci and his sippy cup of milk that he will take a picture with, but will throw the cup down on the floor if you tell him to drink from it. I got a great tip for transitioning to the cup from bottle from my sweet friend, Shannon. I am hopeful it is going to work!!

And here is little mama. Soooooo incredibly sweet to "baby" and to Watson. She only has 4 days of school left in the 2 yr old class. I cannot believe how big she is getting. Her new favorite thing is to take showers which just makes her seem so old to me!! Her ballet recital is coming up in a few weeks and we can't wait to see how they all do.

And another thing both my children love, cooking! They love to pretend to mix anything up. Hayes always pretends to make cookies or enchiladas?? and loves to serve everybody. She won't even sit down at her tea parties b/c she is so busy getting you more food or tea or coffee. She's a hostess in the making. Even Watson will go get a bowl and spoon or fork out of the play kitchen and stir it up. They are so funny and keep us laughing with their silly selves!

I love these people

After bathtime is one of the best parts of our day-everybody is fed,clean, happy (or WILD) and ready for bed, after the Sprout goodnight show!

And this one never likes to see bedtime coming, he runs away from the bathtub and then runs away from his pajamas after bathtime. He is always still on super HIGH energy level and is giggling all the way to his bed, and sometimes banging on the walls after we put him down. Such a RASCAL!