Playtime.

 

Visitors!

When we moved north a few years ago I was thrilled to be closer to an aunt, uncle, and various cousins. We haven't gotten together as much as we SHOULD, but we have seen a LOT more of each other than we otherwise would!

Today, Aunt Susie and Susana came down for a quick visit. The boys showed off until it was time for them to go and they both got grumpy. Unfortunately, a little car malfunction caused them to have to wait on Eddie to come and save them so they witnessed the meltdown of both kids. Oh well! It's real life!

{Yes, I did just notice the placement of his hand. It's still too cute not to share. Sorry, girl moms! Ha!}

We have plans to see them both again a few times in October! Yea!

The Bike.

A few weeks ago at our yardsale, we bought a bike trailer for the boys from the Trains. Only problem? I don't have a bike! Ha! 

I'd been thinking about getting bikes for myself and Eddie for Christmas so we went ahead and snatched up the trailer before it sold. We looked and looked for bikes but I honestly just didn't know what I wanted. Did I want a cruiser? A hybrid? A mountain bike? There are too many choices! 

Luckily, Anna saved the day! I think Dad bought this bike for her about 15 years ago. Ha! Maybe not that long ago, but it's been around for a while. I got it from his house after Eddie and I got married and I was pregnant with James. Eddie was running and I rode alongside him. After James was born the bike just sat so Anna took it to her house and she and Lance rode for a bit. 

A few weeks ago when I was in Tifton I borrowed it back just to be sure a mountain bike is what I want. So last night we cleaned it up, pumped up the tires, and attached the trailer!

James said, "Stand back everybody! I needa fix somefin' wif dis strewdriver!"

After it was ready, James and Eddie took it for a short ride.

So today was the day! After we all got up I put the boys in the back and off we went!

The first mile was okay. I was huffing and puffing a bit and my thighs were burning, but it wasn't terrible. I got a little overambitious and thought I could swing around to the back of our neighborhood. The front is pretty flat, but the back has big hills. We went DOWN the big hills (I'm not that dumb) but then even the little hills were horrible. I stopped to "check on the boys" and James asked my why we weren't going anymore. Please note the blanket in the picture below. (This picture was taken on another break.) I was worried that they'd be cool since it was low-60s outside and I'd be going fast. Bwahahaha. What a joke.

We made it home. I'm totally disappointed that we didn't go all that far. I was dying, though. The crazy lady in the picture above forgot to eat breakfast (not unusual - I just hate to eat right away and then often forget) and it hurt me. I felt YUCK when we finally got home. We'll try again but I may stick to the flat side of the neighborhood for a bit. This is quite different from riding my bike all around town as a kid! I wasn't pulling 55+ pounds back then!

Scarf Swap!

I'm linking up today with Meredith Tichenor for her annual scarf swap! Yea! Meredith is a fellow boy mom and I have thoroughly enjoyed reading about her life among the men in her household for almost a year now. Her youngest, Miles, is exactly a week older than Will and I've so enjoyed that!

This is my first time participating in Meredith's scarf swap. I was paired up with Darci, who happens to be another Texan and one of Meredith's real-life friends! Darci has the cutest blog and a precious little boy, Jackson. I'd never been to Darci's blog before but once I began reading I realized she loves PINK and ORANGE! :) We emailed each other as well to give a little background about ourselves. She is just the cutest thing!

{Both scarves are from Loft.}

I sent Darci this pink and khaki scarf. I almost ordered myself one I liked it so much!

James picked out a Halloween treat for Darci's son, Jackson.

Then we got this cute pink box in the mail!

Leopard! I love it! Silly boy...

She also sent a great fall candle and a notepad in pretty fall colors!

With the cooler weather we're having today, I am set! Bring on the fall!

Thanks, Darci!

Cough, Cough, Sniff, Sniff...

Those are the sounds heard at our house lately. I started with this cold, James got it, Will got it, and it's back to me! :) Hopefully we'll kick it soon. Do y'all think we're sick ALL the time? I texted my Bible Study leader last week to tell her we'd be out and she responded that she remembers when they went through that season of their lives. Hopefully it is, indeed, just a season and once these boys are bigger their immune systems will be nice and strong!

So what did we do? Lots of lounging...

(Let me start by apologizing for the lack of pictures of James. He and Daddy had good one-on-one time this weekend, I guess...Sorry!)

Thursday night we had a Sloppy Joe Showdown at our house. :) We don't typically care one bit if James eats one bite or everything on his plate. We just don't make a big deal out of it. The kitchen closes after dinner and there are NO sweets, but he's welcome to eat as much or as little as he wants. That said, when you argue with me and tell me that YES you do want an entire sloppy joe instead of sharing one with Daddy (and then later turn Daddy down when he asks to have the other half), you're going to eat every bite. James sat at the table until 9pm on Thursday night. At 9 pm we put an entire HALF into the fridge for his lunch on Friday (which he did eat) and because he didn't finish the other half of it, he didn't get tv or iPad privileges on Friday. That sounds horrible that THAT is what we took from him, but it's a huge deal. Take the kid's toys away, but NOT THE TELEVISION. Apparently, we've watched entirely too much recently.

Friday, when I dropped James off at school I ran to find that kid some shoes. I went back to the shoe store for the third time and the guy working (I guess the manager?) told me that the ones I'd been looking at were no longer made so THAT'S why they weren't being restocked. Would've helped if the other employee had mentioned that last time! He ordered a pair for me, though, so by Friday hopefully we'll be out of the summer shoes! I found the ones below while I was waiting. I normally think that Crocs are just for little boys, but these are kinda cute! Ha!

Friday night was exciting! ;) We stayed in and had Mexican. I got a few things done for The Boy's birthday party. My "simple" party is turning into not-so-simple. I need a party planner to help!

 

Saturday morning I woke up feeling not-great. The boys all let me sleep late. I am so thankful for Eddie. That man is so good at home. He is such a blessing. And not just because he allows me to sleep late!

The big boys went in search of tires for Eddie's truck and Will and I stayed home. 

The mover and shaker figured out how to get UNDER the jumpy, but couldn't get out! He got a bit upset about not being able to climb back over that bar. Ha!

He and I had "coffee" together.

If you're really wondering, yes - I'm still exclusively nursing. But little man has had a cough and chokes and chokes when I try to feed him. I thought a bottle might help, but it didn't. He took three on Saturday and then I just gave up.

Then he crashed in his pack 'n play! Whoops! Had no idea he was ready for a nap!

I needed a shower on Saturday afternoon and Eddie was busy outside so I jokingly put Will in James' carseat in the hallway and told Eddie he'd be there. Ha! I didn't leave him!

But seriously, if I'm not watching he's into everything! And if he's not, James is! I have my work cut out for me! (But could you not just eat those thighs right up???)

Saturday evening Poppy and Cacky came up for us to go out to dinner. It was a quick date for dinner, but we had fun!

The first place we went ignored us for a grand total of 15 minutes after we'd been seated before we left. The restaurant wasn't full. We were one table out of about eight. AND the hostesses thanked us for coming when we left. *Sigh* We'd heard such good places about the place that we were very disappointed. We wound up at Outback instead and it was great! And then we went to WalMart. Exciting, huh?

We came home and watched lots and lots of football while I moaned and groaned on the couch because I felt awful.

Sunday we didn't go to church. I felt worse and worse and worse through the night. It's so much fun to be sick and have sick little ones. Thankful Eddie stepped in!

Instead, we tried on Will's Halloween costume! {Please excuse what looks like a gigantic mess in the background. We were putting clothes away and that huge bag is returns. Ha!}

Poor Will got his first major boo-boo this weekend. On Saturday afternoon Big Brother had had enough of Will crawling and getting lots of attention {I guess} and shoved him so he fell over into Eddie's bedside table. Talk about screaming afterwards. We weren't even sure how bad it was until today when these bruises showed up. At first, James wasn't sorry he'd done it. I think today he felt pretty bad when he realized how his head looked and that he'd caused it. I know it's just the beginning, but it made me sad.

Despite his injuries, he was a happy camper this afternoon!

I've spent the evening experimenting on James' birthday cake. The first round didn't go great but I hope I've figured out how I can fix it. Or I might sign up for a Michael's cake decorating class in October. It will meet three times before James' birthday. That's good enough, right? {Lauren Train, I'm looking at YOU! Sign up with me!}

Hopefully we're all well this week and life can resume!

Will Crawls!

He's been at it for almost a week. Crawling a few feet and then pulling with his arms. He's getting to be SO big. How did that happen? Feel free to turn the sound off on your computer so you don't have to listen to this kid's annoying mama. Gah.

He's crawling MUCH better than the videos show. He is on. the. go. Downside to that? Poor little James is showing the first signs of jealousy. :) This morning he snatched several toys from Will and poked him on top of the head. We've had lots of conversations this week about sharing toys and picking his toys up, etc. etc. His world is going to be rocked for sure!

This Week.

I'm writing this on Thursday night but likely won't post it until Friday. How is it already the end of the week? My weeks pass in a blur pretty often these days.

Just a few things about our week:

1. This cooler weather is amazing. The boys and I spent a lot of time outside yesterday {Wednesday}. Will isn't entirely sure about the baby swing, though.

He is, however, entirely sure that Scout is the greatest thing ever. She likes him, too, but she's 60 pounds heavier than him and she doesn't realize it. She's a teensy bit dangerous around him. :)

I posted the picture above on Instagram and a friend asked if he had a sword. It's a water shooter that he was using to water the patio. And the rock. And the trees. And the house. But we do have a wide variety of swords.

2. Will is still sick. We went to Dr. W.'s today just to make sure we wouldn't wind up in the ER over the weekend. My nurse-friend that always calls me to calm me down about illness was in the office when we were in the waiting room. I was thrilled to see her because someone else had called me back and I worried she wasn't there anymore. Ha! She got some squeezes from Will and carried him back to weigh him because he's gotten to be such a chunk. 20 pounds, 5.5 ounces today. Yowza! He's caught up with James at this age! We're pretty sure he has croup. He's been barking a good bit and just doesn't feel good. He slept through almost the entire exam, though, so he didn't cough for Dr. W. His lungs sounded good, though, and that's pretty key for ruling out something else. {Lessons I've learned since being a mom - croup doesn't have much to do with lungs. And I also learned today that the nurse who told me last week that I should pump up James' breathing treatments to see if that would knock out his croup was wrong. Awesome. I need the other nurse to call me next time.} He got a steroid, told me to give him Robotussin DM every four hours, and to keep him really, really cool. {A note for MB, he said if Will has a coughing "attack" to put him in the car and blast the air directly on him in his carseat. Apparently that helps to get rid of the inflammation in the larynx?} We got bored during our wait and took pictures.

3/4 of his 20 pounds, 5.5 ounces can be found in his thighs.

Knocked out. We waited an hour, though. I was bored and tired, too.

3. We've had something at our house that has been terrorizing me for over a month. If you know me in real life, you know that this is a HORRIBLE thing for me. A lizard has taken up residence in our flower bed. He likes to scare the bejeezus out of me in the garage from time to time but he LOVES to hang out on the air conditioning unit and stare at me as I lower the garage from the key pad on the side of the house. I am DYING every time I walk outside. I know the picture isn't great but I zoomed in and I wasn't getting any closer. It just makes my skin crawl. Eddie just mentioned that there could be a family of them living there. I hadn't thought of that. Worst case scenario? He invites a snake and a rat to live with him.

4. I know that it's fall tomorrow. And I know that it's starting to feel a heckuvalot better outside, but you know what? I don't think I'm going to decorate for fall and Halloween. There. I said it. *Sigh* James' birthday {and his party} are 11 days before Halloween and the party is at our house this year. If I decorate now I'll have to put it all away and pull it back out. And if I wait then it's only out for a little bit. Just don't think that I hate fall if you come to my house this season.

5. That's all I can think of for now. I have some hilarious pictures of Mom and Anna I could post but my phone is all the way across the house so they're spared for now. Y'all have a great weekend.