Happy birthday, Reese!

Happy fourth birthday to our sweet and spicy “Reese-y Bug”!  We love everything about you!!

Sam Plays Baseball

Sam has a new game that he plays.  He seriously came up with this all on his own.  It is his version of baseball!! He will stack a ball on top of a cup and then hit it with either Reese’s princess bat or a feather duster. This kid loves any sport that has to do with balls! I mean, what little boy doesn’t?!?! If he catches a glimpse of a ball sport on TV he will yell out “Baw!”.  While at Moe’s for lunch Friday there was a TV with golf on it.  He yelled out “baw” and continued to watch it until a commercial came on. I know Lance is going to love the day he is in the back yard throwing/hitting the ball (what ever ball it may be) around with Sam.

#mommyfail

Last night I told the kids we would go to the pool if they ate all of their dinner.  They did.  We got dressed and in the car where I thought the pool key was.  It wasn’t.  I could not find that stinking card anywhere so we had to do the next best thing.

Have a pool party in the backyard…with popsicles.

Sam was none too happy when I took him out of the car but once he saw me roll the pool around he quickly forgave me.

Reese told me that she had hidden the key but didn’t remember where she hid it. Awesome!  I am sure it will turn up somewhere.

This morning we had swim lessons.  Reese is doing so well!  I am so proud of her.  Sam has done well the last two times but about half way through today’s lesson he was done.  He started crying and would not do anything that we asked him to do.  I honestly think there was too much chlorine in the pool today and it was hurting his eyes.  I am not exaggerating when I say that Reese’s bathing suit faded during the 30 minutes that she was in the pool this morning.  It went from the color of the ribbon above (more on that in a sec) to a light mint green color.  They said that they had to drain the water some this morning and it was about six inches down from normal.  So I have no idea what happened. I can only assume there was too much chlorine in there and they had to drain it and add more clean water (I am no expert on swimming pools…I am just assuming).  On a positive note for Sam, his teacher gave him his first swim ribbon today.  Isn’t that so cute?! He couldn’t have cared less but Reese was excited for him.

Updated to add:

I just took a picture of Reese’s bathing suit from today.  The picture on the left is from last night.  The picture on the right is from after swim lessons today! Can you believe it?!?  I wasn’t exaggerating!!

All About Sam

I feel like I haven’t kept up with Sam and his milestones as much as I did Reese.  So I am going to do bullet points about Sam so I will remember how cute and sweet he is right now.

*He cracks us up! If he does something that is funny and we laugh at him, he will do it over and over again.

*He is talking a lot…especially if Reese is not around.  When Reese is here she talks enough for all four of us but when she is gone Sam tries to get all of his talking in. He repeats most things that we say. Anything that has an ‘F’ sound in it sounds like a ‘B’ when Sam says it…”Bish” instead of fish, “Bone” instead of phone. One of my favorite things that he says is “Reese”.  When he says it it sounds more like “Reesssssssse”.  He always says “thank you” and will continue to say it until you say “you are welcome” back to him.

*He is clumsy. Very rarely does he NOT have a bump or bruise on his head.  Just today as we were leaving to go get Reese at VBS he was so excited and was running to the car and tripped in the garage.  I heard his forehead bang on the ground and it scared me to even pick him up.  He bumps in to walls, doors, cabinet corners, etc. And usually he has only tripped over his own feet or was not paying attention to where he is going. I know there is going to be a day when we are rushing to the ER for stitches or broken bones with him. I like to say that I think he was supposed to be Becca’s son because he is soooo clumsy. When he gets hurt he will come to me with his “boo-boo” and make a kissing sound so I will give it a kiss. (If you watch these videos on here, you will see the bump on his forehead from today.)

*He LOVES Reese.  He wants to be doing what ever she is doing.  Since Reese has been at VBS this week he is constantly asking where she is, “Reessssssse?”. I don’t know how he is going to handle her being gone for four days a week once school starts.

*Sam has ALWAYS been a great sleeper! But recently, for some reason, he has been waking up at night.  He will wake up at various times at night and will stay awake for two hours.  At first he would cry when ever I laid him back down so I would be awake for that full two hours too trying to keep him from waking Reese up.  Now when I lay him down after rocking him for 45 minutes (wide awake) he will lay down and then start whining.  I just ignore him from my bed but I am awake as long as he is. It is frustrating! I am not good at being awaken in the middle of the night for no good reason…ask my college room mate! Ha! I am hoping I can get back my super sleeper soon.

*He still has his pacifier.  It is totally my fault.  I know it needs to go but I am scared! I think I just need to make a goal and get rid of it.

*I think Sam has picked up Reese’s love of coloring.  Yesterday while I was on the phone they both ended up coloring together for a while.  This morning while I did the dishes he was coloring alone. 

*He is VERY good at entertaining himself. 

*He is so loving.  Each night before he goes to bed he will give everyone a hug, kiss, say “ni-ni” and “wa woo”.

*He is MESSY! I have the vacuum next to the table because he throws or drops his food all over the floor.  There are certain meals that I just strip his clothes off of him because I know they will get ruined if I don’t.

*He is adventurous. He climbs on the furniture and runs full force to play. I can’t wait to take him to the beach because I think he is going to love the ocean. He loves the water and loves to jump in it over and over.

*He is fun! He is sweet! He is the cutest little boy I have ever seen! I am so blessed to be his mommy!!

Little Fashionista

As normal, Reese did not nap today.  She did spend her required time in her bed playing though…which is fine.  I like that she has some quiet time (most of the time) to herself to use her imagination. 

When I went in to her room to let her get out of her bed, I saw this…

That is actually a skirt with shorts under them that she turned in to a dress. I seriously laughed so hard when I saw her. I love my little fashion girl.  She is so fun!

Not to be out done, as always, Sam wanted his picture taken too.  I love that they took their picture together.

I love the stage Sam is in where he just wants to smile and entertain the camera.  It lets me capture so many sweet pictures of him.

I LOVE my babies!!

Picture Update

I am in a blog funk.  I don’t have any thing to write about. So I will let my pictures take the lead.

For my birthday I wanted Krispy Kreme Doughnuts.  So that is what my “cake” was…and then breakfast the next day too.

Sam loved them!  And loved eating them with a fork.  Silly boy!

Reese was taking my picture with her phone.  The kids have been fighting over this phone for weeks so Becca bought Sam his own phone.

This past Saturday was party day for us.  We had three parties to go to but it was fun.  The morning started out with a 3rd birthday pool party.

Reese and Sam played in the pool but I stayed out of it because we were headed to my cousin’s graduation party from there and I didn’t have time to redo my hair.

The kids had a lot of fun at the pool but weren’t quite sure why I wasn’t in the pool with them. 

After the spending a lot of fun time with my family at the graduation party we went to another birthday party.  It was a first birthday party.  We got there a little late because of travel time but it was perfect.

It was a long and busy day but it all worked out perfectly.

This is how I spend most of my mornings getting ready.  This picture is actually pretty old but I found it on a camera that doesn’t get used much.

Reese loves play-doh and Lance is always so good to entertain her with it because I HATE play-doh.  I actually threw away all of our stash but she got some in a goody bag from a party she went to.  She has been playing with it since then.

Reese started another Vacation Bible School today.  She acted like she was shy going in this morning but the second the teacher gave her their morning craft to do she was gone.  She wasn’t even going to give me a kiss good-bye.  This week is going to be a week of getting things done while she is away.  Sam and I got a ton of things done this morning and I look forward to that feeling the rest of the week.

Our Holiday Weekend ~ Sunday

On Sunday evening our downtown area had a concert and fireworks.  We originally planned on trying to get down to the concert area but chose to set ourselves up in the shade on a church lawn.  The church had music playing, bounce houses set-up, snow cones and popcorn for sale, and tons of fun. 

It was SO hot!

We got to the church around 5:30.  The kids were really good despite the miserable heat. Around 8:30 I took Reese in the church to use the restroom and while we were in there it started thundering.  When we got back to Lance and Sam it started sprinkling.  Lance decided to pack up some of our stuff and take it to the car so that if it did start raining we didn’t have to get it all together. 

While he was gone to the car there was a huge strike of lightening and I decided that we needed to wait in the car for a little while to be safe.  We got in the car, cooled off some and then it started pouring down rain.  Fortunately, we had parked in the perfect area.  We turned our car around and were able to watch the fireworks from the safety of our car.  It was perfect.  Sam sat in my lap and said “whoa!'” over and over.  Reese sat in between us in the front for a while and then sat in Lance’s lap. While the fireworks show was going on it was lightening in the background.  It was really pretty to see and we wished we could have taken pictures of it.  God was putting on his own show during the fireworks show. I loved us all being snuggled up together in the car watching the fireworks.

I tried to get a picture of the kids as soon as we set up our little area but they were not really interested in posing or smiling for me.

Monday we spent the morning at my parent’s neighborhood pool and then had lunch with them and Becca and Tommy.  No pictures were taken but a lot of fun was had.  I hope everyone had a wonderful and safe 4th of July!!

Our Holiday Weekend ~ Saturday

We had such a busy and wonderful Fourth of July weekend.  I can’t believe it has come and gone already. 

Lance has been working a ton lately so Saturday was deemed “family day”.  “Family Day” took us to Chattanooga.  While in Chattanooga we visited Rock City and the Aquarium.

We got to Rock City around 10:30 and it was already heating up outside but since most of it is in the shade it wasn’t terrible (until you were in the sun). 

Reese was our official tour guide.  She kept us on track with the map.

Lance didn’t make his way in to many pictures because he was carrying the camera.  I tried to get him to put it away and just enjoy himself but now looking back at the pictures I am glad he was snapping away!

Reese was either running from the camera or posing for it.  She was so silly.

Poor Sam.  I don’t think he has ever walked that much in his life.  He was such a trooper though.  He would walk for a long time and then when he was tired he would run around in front of me and reach up to be carried for a little while.

I was amazed at how well both kids did in the hot sun and all the walking.

“Fat Man Squeeze”

It was a gorgeous day Saturday! The sky was bright blue and no clouds in the sky.

Reese was most excited about “Fairyland Caverns”.  It was the last thing to see and great because it was inside with dark, cool air.

After Rock City, we headed to downtown Chattanooga for lunch and then on to the aquarium.

The Tennessee Aquarium is a completely different experience than the Georgia Aquarium.  I think the set up is much easier to maneuver in Tennessee but the exhibits are not nearly as impressive as Georgia.

The largest exhibit was a large wall of all types of fish, turtles, etc. 

I was shocked when Reese said she wanted to touch these sturgeons.  She tried to reach for them but was never able to get to it.  They were staying too low in the water.

This shell is from the world’s largest turtle.  Can you imagine seeing that??

There was a full exhibit about turtles that was so cool.  They had tons of different types of turtles and empty shells.

Lance and I did this same trip (Rock City and Aquarium) when we were dating.  We both agreed that this trip was totally different but way better than the last time!  Trips with kids may be much harder but are so much more worth it!

Busy Pool Week

We have had a fun and busy week.  The last four days have been spent at the pool so not one picture has been taken. 

Tuesday we spent time at our pool.  I had promised the pool and then realized that our pool bag was in Lance’s car.  That proved to be more of an adventure than I had hoped.  Since Sam didn’t have his floaties, I was having to hold him the whole time and keep close to Reese.  She can reach the bottom of the pool in the shallow end so she can play with out me holding her.  She is getting so good at swimming on her own but still needs me close for comfort and safety.

Wednesday we went to a friends pool with several other friends.  They have a baby pool so the kids all played in there for a little while and the mommies were able to have a little bit of a conversation.  Later we played in the big pool and Reese was able to practice some more swimming.  Unfortunately, Sam’s floaties have a slow leak in them so it is hard to keep him floating with out having to hold him up. 

Thursday we went with the Horton’s to the Y.  It has a zero entry pool outside which is fabulous!!  You can plop yourself down in the water just like at the beach (minus the sand) while the kids walk around and play.  We, of course, had to get our swim time in too so Reese would jump in and show her swim skills. 

This morning we finally had our first real swim lessons.  I have been so slack in this department.  I finally decided to get Reese in to swim lesson to help fine tune the skills she has with a professional.  We are doing lessons through Aqua-tots and they just happened to have a class for Sam at the same time as Reese’s class.  Sam’s class is parent assisted so I am in the water with him.  I was excited about this because that meant I got to see Reese up close in the water while taking her lessons.  She did so amazing.  I know I have said this a million times but she does so much better at following other people’s directions versus mine.  I have tried to get her to float on her back almost every time we have been in the pool and she refuses.  Today she floated on her back the first time Mr. Michael asked her to.  He also got her to swim to the bottom of the pool to get some rings, kick with a kickboard and noodle, and monkey walk across the side.  We went straight to our pool after lessons to work on some of the things she learned and she did each of them once for me and that was it.  She wouldn’t do any of them again.  Stinker!  Sam was a little timid when we first got in the pool for his lessons but he warmed up and actually let Ms. Megan hold him and jumped to her.  I am excited to see how Reese does!  She is so excited about her lessons and going back again.

I love the summer and all the time we get to spend at the pool.  When summer started I was a little nervous about how Reese would stay entertained all summer but I have really enjoyed the time we have spent together.  I am glad there is still just under two months left of summer.  That means more and more pool time in our future…which also means great naps in the afternoon!!