Father's Day Pictures

I don't think I ever posted these pictures! For Father's Day, I took a series of pictures with the kids holding the letters D-A-D. I framed the pictures and gave them to Ben for Father's Day. As you can see, I didn't plan out their outfits or fix their hair. This is a true representation of our days...not a lot of hair fixing and/or outfit planning! Especially during the summer. Shoes optional. And sometimes shorts optional (for Walker). 

Queen Lainey, holding the "D"

playing tug-of-war with the "A"

I think Walker is winning.

I had a hard time getting Mr. Grumpy to hold the letter. 

Cram a few Sour Patch Kids candies into his mouth...and you have a little cooperation and a strained smile. :)

Fourth of July Festivities

We started out at the lake. A "moms and kids" vacation at the Loredo's lake house. It was SO fun and those kids wore themselves out completely. We only stayed Tuesday and Wednesday, but we managed to pack in a lot of fun before heading back to Plano. :) Thanks, Kelley, for being a fabulous hostess (as always)!

This is a GREAT hill for rolling. Itchy itchy itchy!

Lainey (if you can't tell)

Brayden, Kaitlyn, Lainey, Walker (from left to right)

Ainsley would jump over Lainey all the way down. Amazing they didn't smack into one another. :-/

This picture was taken the following morning. Isn't the view from the back porch gorgeous!?!?

Brayden and Walker on the boat. They are holding hands, their fingers laced together. So sweet. :) 

AND, on July 4th, we went over to the Baughman's house to swim and eat lots of food! :) 

Her eyes hurt. Hence the forced smile.

Flippers can make you swim SO fast. So fun!

Mr. Cutie Cameron :)

cute picture of the two main men in my life

my favorites :)

The kids threw lots of ice into the pool. (Walker has great form, as you can see...) That game kept them entertained for a good 30 minutes or so. Surprisingly, the pools aren't too hot yet this summer. It's July 6th and I'm not sure that we've even hit 100 degrees yet. If we have, it hasn't happened very often. So, as a result, the pools are still freezing and while it doesn't seem to bother the kids too much (they can go for a while before they start to really get cold), it bothers the adults! :) I was happy to have the kids throw ice into the pool if it allowed me to sit on the side and not get into the water.

I hope that everyone had a safe and happy 4th!

Walker's "Cannonball" (Sorta)

The boy enjoys the pool! Especially doing his "cannonballs" which I think are not quite cannonballs. :) And in case you can't tell, he says, "Cannonball, coming through!" in a really deep voice. He uses this voice when he's playing, pretending, or singing. Too funny.

Hunting for Rolies

Tuck and Walker, hunting for roly-polies :)

A Short Video of Walker

Walker is cracking us up these days with his confusion (and misplacement) of the pronouns "she" and "her." Often he'll say "I didn't see she" or "I don't want she to go." Listen for it in this video...he says, "I love she." He's talking about his cousin Cally. Love it. 

A few other funny Walker-isms...

• "I not hungry for food! I want a snack! And some muuk (milk)!" He says this whenever I say we're about to eat lunch/dinner and he can't have a snack. His perfect snack is "suit (fruit) snacks, crackers, and Lucky Charms." 
• "I hiccuped oreos all over the wall. That was silly." He is confusing hiccuping with throwing up. And that's true...three days before we moved he threw up all over the wall next to his crib. He got a bit of a stomach bug. :(
• He calls caterpillars "calapitters."
• Sparkles (i.e. rhinestones or any embellishment that looks like one) are called "fah-kles." :)
• He frequently says "last morning" or "last day" and yesterday I overheard him telling Brooke, "I sorry I no like you last morning." (He changes his mind hourly/daily/weekly about who he likes. He's quite opinionated.) 
• Napkins are "napins." He still does not like having messy hands. He's doing pretty well getting himself all clean when he wants/needs to.
• Walker will describe things as "awesome" and it's so cute. He says it in his little voice but it's such a big-boy word. :) 
• Whenever we're crossing the street or a parking lot, Walker wants to hold my hand because he knows he could be "smooshed like a pancake." He always states this very matter-of-factly. 
• He doesn't really like flies or any other kind of bug (other than a roly-poly) and Thomas often tries to "smoosh it like a pancake" if he gets the chance. If Walker sees a dead bug on the ground, he'll step on it or run Thomas over it just for good measure. Just to make sure it's officially dead. And then he wants me to remove it. (We're working on getting him to actually remove the bug with a piece of toilet paper or a napkin!)
• He uses a lot of the terms he hears in his Thomas the Train shows...he will ask me if I'm "cross" if I'm grumpy, and he talks about Thomas "peepin' along" or "chugging along" or "shunting trucks" or "comin' around the bend." His trains frequently fall off into "ravines" and off of "cliffs" and he uses the term "narrow gauge engine" in conversation. He also likes to look for "juicy red leaves" and "juicy red apples" for Thomas to carry. Usually, it's hard to find "juicy red leaves" so we end up settling for "juicy red leaves" that are green...yet Walker still calls them red even though he knows that they are green. Clear as mud? :) And, since we can't find "juicy red apples" that are small enough for Thomas to carry in his boxcars, we "tetend" (pretend) by using other things that look like apples. :) Walker doesn't discriminate about what he puts into those boxcars. Real food like solid egg whites (yes, from actual eggs), Matchbox Cars, Lincoln Logs, bobby pins (usually found in the parking lot at the dance studio), sparkles (also found at dance), rocks, acorns, roly-polies, sweetener packets from restaurants, tortilla chips, coins, grass, grasses that look like "Christmas trees" (those are his favorite...not sure what the actual type of grass/plant is called), flower petals...all end up in his boxcars. 
• Cuteness from Walker: He will spontaneously grab my cheeks with both hands, force my head to turn and look at him, and say (give or take a sentence), "I love you, Mommy. You my best mommy. You my best friend. You love to play choo-choos with me."
• What I hear on a daily - if not hourly - basis: 
• Walker: "Mommy?"
• Me: "Yes?"
• Walker: "Where are you?"
• Me: "Upstairs in your room."
• Walker: "Ok. I comin' to find you." 
• This little conversation might repeat itself again before he actually finds me. :)

Another random thing to note...Lainey has a way of calling to me that drives me bonkers. Sadly. I wish it didn't. She'll say (or yell) "Mah-Mah" but it's pronounced in such a way that makes me nuts. :) Sorry, sweet Lainey. But I hope you start calling me "Mommy" again soon. :)

Father's Day and Roly-Polies

Happy Father's Day! Nothing says Father's Day lunch like sushi...at Happy Hour prices. Even Walker tried some. :) The Harris clan came over for dinner Sunday evening and that was a lot of fun, as well.

Walker liked his chopsticks. He also LOVED the edamame...I couldn't peel them fast enough for him. He kept referring to them as "mommies" as in "eda-mommies." :) He kept asking for "more mommies" over and over again. It was making me giggle!

Our roly-poly obsession continues. Lainey proudly told me that her roly-poly was having babies. As in, the babies were coming out of her tummy right then and there. While she was holding it! Her only response was, "I wish roly-polies had weddings." Well, those words have probably never been uttered by anyone. Ever. 

Here's a close-up shot of the roly-polies. All the little white ones are the babies. They have tiny little legs and everything. Poor Mama. She probably didn't want her birthing process to receive so much attention. :)

A Busy Couple of Weeks

So, on May 29th, we moved! We are in our new house, we love it, and we're finally starting to feel settled. We are SO close to Greg and Tisha, Ben's brother and his wife, and the girls, Brooke and Kate. We can walk to their house! It's fabulous. It was a bit sad leaving our old house and our old neighborhood. We have so many friends and memories there. Thankfully, these kids will all still go to Kindergarten together. :) A few days after we moved, Lainey had her first dance recital. I didn't get any pictures from that day. We had four more recitals the following weekend (this past Friday and Saturday) and I was able to take a few pictures of the girls. What a weekend. I think we are all exhausted! :) 

ballet

Lainey and her friend Kelsey

little tutu booties :)

precious Allyson

Camille and Elise

Bitty ballerinas on stage during rehearsal...Lainey is second from the end on the left-hand side.

Lainey's hip hop outfit. I think she has some moves. She definitely didn't get those from me. :)

We LOVED being in the same show as our friends Kaitlyn and Ainsley.

Walker loving on his circus train. He really wanted me to take a picture of the two of them. His train was able to see the show and Walker managed to only toot its whistle about fifty times. ;) Walker enjoyed seeing the performances, however (he went to two of the five shows). He did ask frequently if "Sissy [was] comin' on next" and he got concerned during the solos when there was only one dancer onstage. He said to us, "Her have no friends. Where are her friends?" :)

the three friends

Lainey keeps calling Alice from Alice in Wonderland "Allison." As in, Allison Wonderland. I'll correct her at some point. :)

Another studio (Lainey's cousin Kate's studio) was performing in the adjoining theater. Their recitals took on the Alice in Wonderland theme. 

Lainey wanted her picture with all of the characters.

We got to see beautiful Kate! Lainey looks like a hot mess. This is after recital #1 on Saturday, but before recital #2. Of course, I had to redo Lainey's hair and makeup for that second recital! Kate was taking a break between her rehearsal and her recital. I'm so glad we got to see her! She is a beautiful dancer.

I couldn't resist. So cute. Killing some time between performances. She made the comment to me yesterday, around the time that this picture was taken, that she was "so tired of not dancing." :) Lainey loves to dance and she loves that "big stage."

Cute girls at the conclusion of the final recital.

Allyson, Anna, Kelsey, Lainey

AND...this is what four recitals in one weekend will do to a five year old. :) I can empathize!