A long 5 days

Last week Jeremy had a business trip. It was only his second work trip in nearly 5 years with this company. I think that sounds pretty good. Though he will have his third trip before this month is over. He was scheduled to leave bright and early Monday morning and return late on Friday night. Five full days. I knew it would be tiring for me. He helps out a lot around here the moment he walks through the door until the boys are in bed. He typically does some playtime after dinner with the boys, bathtime, bed time story and the whole shebang. He just takes over and I assist. He's a good daddy and husband. I'm thankful that he comes home ready to dive in and help. So it would be five full days without those extra hands. Like I said, I knew that it would be a little tiring but I wasn't all that worried about it. I knew that we would have plenty to keep us occupied and entertained. We would make trips to the waterpark, the library, Nana and Papa J's house, etc. My plan was to stay busier so that my days didn't feel as long. And that all sounded like good plans, until the rain started on Monday morning. And it didn't stop until Friday. Not exactly. That's an exaggeration. But the week was full of sporadic storms and lots of rain that never failed to interrupt our plans. So it felt like a long 5 days. So last week, we had no water park days and very little swimming and outdoor time. I even hired a sitter for Abe and attempted a movie with the big boys. Halfway through the movie the entire theater lost all power due to the storm. They were speculating that lightening had struck the back up generator also. Nice. Here I had thought storms and rain couldn't stop us from seeing a movie and yet I was proved wrong. But we did indeed survive the week. It just didn't go exactly as I had imagined. A few pictures from our long week without daddy.

They loved painting these terracotta pots. And in them, I am now trying to keep alive basil and cilantro to use in my cooking.

 

Pax is really starting to enjoy puzzles so he had some puzzle time.

 

 By far the highlight of their week were these water balloons. At Aldi I purchased a $5 water ballon set the night before Jeremy left town. We've used them several times and still have half a container of balloons left. After this water balloon battle, Holden told me I was his favorite mommy in the world. :) He is my water boy. Water is his love language. ;)

 The big boys took turns sleeping in bed with me. This is a little memory I have of my childhood on the occasion that my dad was out of town. They thought it was pretty special to be sleeping in daddy's spot while he was away.

 

 We went swimming in Nana and Papa J's community pool one evening. There were grey clouds over us the entire time and even some thunder, but we stuck it out. We needed that swim!

This guy pulled his 8th tooth. We texted Jeremy this picture to show him.

One morning they rode bikes for over an hour in the empty school parking lot. I just walked around with Abe in stroller the entire time. The boys loved splashing through the rain puddles and I was just glad to have us all out of the house.

 We made homemade popsicles. 

 I tried out a new style on Abe. I saw a little boy at the water park with a big poofy ponytail on top of his head. I loved it. But I don't think it's the right look for Abe. He gets mistaken for a girl way too often, without the ponytail. The big brothers thought it was hilarious.

 

Most days I had Holden and Pax skip naps so they would crash hard in bed at 7:30. So as soon as they crashed, I turned on an old Netflix movie, poured me a glass of wine and worked on the boy's baby books. I am way behind and this gave me several hours to start playing catch up. Abe's is still in the plastic wrap, so even though I did make progress, but I'm still behind!

On Friday the big boys did take naps so they could stay up extra late to welcome daddy home. They enjoyed a movie night, with pillow forts that Pax had built for them, and stayed up until around 10pm when Jeremy walked through the front door. They were excited that daddy was back home. And so was I!

fall snapshots.

To make this catchup quick and simple, here are a few memorable moments from the last 6 weeks or so.

We took the boys to their first real football game. TCU versus TEXAS! It was also, MY first real football game. Unfortunately right before halftime, a storm came through. We tried to wait it out for at least 2 hours, in order to see more of the game. But the game was delayed until 11:30pm! The big boys were tired and done with football. Plus we were paying for a sitter for Abe and our cost was going up as we waited it out. So we called it quits and missed most of the game. Luckily our tickets were free through Jeremy's work. :)

 

We took the boys to an annual carnival that our church hosts. It's a fundraiser for a unique ministry for families of special needs children in our area. We go each year. The boys love it. And our money goes to a great cause!

Blurry Pax, random girl and Holden. They loved this slide and rode it over and over again.

 

Holden road this terrifying thing with some boys from church. He loved it!

 

And we left as the proud owners of two new goldfish named Silly and Goldie. I'm not sure why we stopped at WalMart and bought fish food. We should have fed them breadcrumbs. They were dead in less than 24 hours. :( Dead fish gross me out. Jeremy flushed them once he returned from work. Pax cried. He wanted to keep them. Dead and all. :) It was hard not to laugh as he said that through his tears.

We had a little cousin time. I just loved this picture.

Carson and Abe. The oldest grandchild and youngest grandchild on my side of the family.

Mister Abe has decided that peekaboo behind the curtains is his new favorite game.

 And he is sharing green smoothies with me daily. He often cries as we slurp the ending from the glass. Sweet sweet boy!

School is trucking along. We are all enjoying the structure, the new material and our time together. Here are a few pictures from some recent school activities.

 A week on leaves and fall. Cute little button trees and leaf collecting for some other projects.

 I know they are learning and growing through my teaching. But when I can visually see improvements, in things like handwriting, my heart leaps. :)

 Turtle week. Below they both acted like a turtle and pulled all limbs into the laundry basket when I warned that an attacker was coming. :) It was a very tight fit for long and lanky Holden.

Speaking of that boy, he has lost his 3rd tooth! They are falling out faster than Abe's are coming in!

And just because I was going through pictures on my phone and thought this one was worth sharing.

Jeremy ran in to the store to buy a pumpkin for our carving before Halloween, while the rest of us sat in the car. I had told him to carry it like it was heavy. And since he doesn't resist an opportunity to make me laugh, he carried it like this. And he got a few strange looks from others. I still laugh when I look at this picture. I may never delete it. :) 

And those are a few of the fun things that have been going on in our family lately. 

July.

July has flown by in some ways. But most days it has felt like the summer is moving at a snail's pace. Honestly, we've missed the water park this summer. Life just hasn't been the same without it. It definitely kept us all entertained in summers past. And we will most likely return next year with season passes. I started taking the boys when Holden was 2 years and Pax was 10 months that first year. So technically we could have gone with Abe this summer. I just felt like he needed some chill time after his many little adjustments. So by default the rest of us are getting that chill time whether we want/need it or not. I haven't been the best at planning activities at home for the big boys. And I've heard one boy complain about boredom more often than I ever want to hear again. One regular event that they have enjoyed this summer has been Monday mornings at the library, bringing home 10-15 new books to read and re-read throughout the week. They always love playing in the water, so the water hose gets pulled out a lot in the backyard. The big boys have been doing a lot of bike riding. Holden's training wheels are off and he almost has it down. If he could just be a little more patient with himself. He tends to get really frustrated by the challenge and wants to give up. But he did ride 1/2 mile last night with a few breaks in between and Jeremy running beside him. Then occasionally we do other things like sidewalk chalk, painting or other random ideas I find on Pinterest or somewhere else online. Feel free to send me any low maintenance ideas that would entertain my big boys during Abe's morning nap. I'm serious. Leave me comment with any ideas you've seen or have been doing this summer. We are always up for new activities. And my creativity has recently been at an all time low. Here are a few pictures from our fun in July.

A messy and odd Pinterest activity. They enjoyed it.

Painting.

Painting with cars.

The three boys and I took a little trip east during the week in early July so the great grandparents could meet our sweet little Abe. We ended up spending much of our time swimming, which was so much fun for the boys. Holden learned to dive and Pax became much more confident in the water. Abe loves splashing in the water. He even sticks his face in over and over again.

This was Pax the first day...all about safety. :)

See, he got a little more brave as time went on.

 

Holden became pretty good at diving. I had fun teaching him. And below is the man that taught me to dive when I was a little girl. I remember learning on the side of his pool.

My sweet Uncle Jimmy took the boys around the block in his "sports car". They thought they were big stuff! Goodness, they love cars!

And meeting the greats. They loved our newest addition.

I don't want to wish the summer away. Mainly because I know that means my little guy inches closer and closer to 1 year. That's hard for me to think about it this time around...I think because of the time that we lost. But I'm also ready for the routine that will follow when the school year begins. For now, I'm looking forward to August which will include a visit from my sister, Amanda and her little girls! Hope you all are enjoying the long days of summer!

Orbeez Fun!

My long time friend Kristy, mentioned these fun little Orbeez for kids. When I read about them on her blog a while back, it seemed like something my boys would probably enjoy. But I just didn't realize how much. Yesterday morning we headed to Target just to get out of the house and I hunted down the Orbeez. I'm so glad I did! Holden pretty much played with them all afternoon. It didn't entertain Pax as long. He played with them for about an hour and then he was done. But Holden just loved these little things. Apparently, they will keep for about a week in a closed container in the fridge. So we can pull them out everyday to play with them again and again and again. And each little $6ish box came with several packages. I didn't realize that and I bought 2 boxes yesterday. So we will have an endless supply around our house for a while. So if you're looking for something a little different to stuff in Easter eggs this year for preschoolers, these tiny packets would be a perfect addition, in my opinion. Here are a few pictures from our fun.

They told me that this was my bubble gum and mint chocolate chip birthday cakes. Then they sang the happy birthday song to me and asked me to blow out my candles. :)

Holden made this "P" on his own. Then I helped him to make an "H". Yes, we went educational with these new little toys. :)

And just because one of them caved and decided to mix up the colors and it made the other brother so so happy to have both a little green and little pink in his stash. So they had a little sweet moment that I just happen to catch. There really is a whole lotta love between these two!