HOT Monday

Last Monday Melissa had asked me to join her and the kids to a mother's day outing at Mercer Arboretum. I have never been there and William and I are always up for new things, especially new places to take pictures. To say this place was beautiful is an understatement. I couldn't believe all the plants, flowers, and the all around view. My allergies behaved that day, thank goodness, and the kids had a great time! I always love hanging out with the Sorensen's, when our kids get together, they are just full of life!! Anna and William are just adorable. I honestly thought Cole might dive into a pond or something. He always has this look like he's up to something. If he would have, I might have joined him. At one point I thought my flip flops were going to melt it was so hot that day!

Who knew you could have so much fun with a leaf! The kids were taking turns holding the leaf and playing follow the leader, then we had to get each one a leaf...sharing got kind of old!

Sunday Funday

About 2 weeks ago, the Schoen family joined us out for some fun picture taking and playtime. Chris and Dustin fall into their old habits of being the big kids of the group! You would think the way they acted they were brothers instead of cousins. It's funny, the same mannerisms they have, Jakob and William have too. Tasha and I have grown to be patient with our "big kids", I think they are incredibly entertaining. It was such a fun day, until the heat kicked in and we had to call it a day. Is fall coming anytime soon?

Boys and their bugs!!

For some reason when ever we are together the boys always play...hard. We all use to live together back in the day and had a huge yard perfect for badminton. We would play all the time, it was nice to see the boys branching out into the world of frisbee!

Seriously, this is so sweet. William LOVES his best friend Jakob..so adorable.

If you know Dustin and Chris, this shot is CLASSIC!!!

The sweet couple...awww!

Here is the extremely talented Tasha!!

Cute boy!!

Katy Outing

In addition to visiting the Train Depot in Katy, there was another park that I wanted to check out. It was so hot and didn't stay long, but afterwards William and I treated ourselves to an ice cream treat...absolutely pointless since it melted IMMEDIATELY!

With a 4th birthday around the corner, I just couldn't resist his growing feet. I really can't believe these adorable toes are going to be 4 soon...tear.

What a Summer

Aside from the fact that it's BLAZING HOT outside (my car read 106 a few days ago), it's been an awesome Summer! William is having so much fun and we are getting reacquainted with Katy, Texas, or at least I am. For those of you who don't know, William is in LOVE with trains. He has train books, shirts, movies, and the list goes on. Thomas the Train has been going strong in our house for over a year now. Transformers is slowly moving it's way up to first place, but trains are still in the lead. It's almost impossible to keep up with his favorites, you never know how long that phase is going to last. For a while it was Cars. Now that we have all the Cars, he moved to Thomas and who knows if Transformers becomes a phase or something different all together. Lately, William has been asking to ride a train. In October Thomas is coming to Austin, so we will have to wait to ride one, but Katy has a cute little Train Depot. William was so amazed, he loved playing the "conductor" and pretended to "couple" the trains and make sure the "buffers" were working. All big words he learned from his 50 Thomas videos. He's absolutely hilarious. I love his imagination!

Pee EVERYWHERE

This week has been a week of testing my patience. William seems to be going backwards in the potty training world. He's been potty trained since February and he's been doing awesome, except recently. He has been peeing on the rugs, carpets, door mats, basically anything that can absorb pee, he's peed on it. I have no idea why William is acting out this way, but it is driving me and Chris up the wall. The other day he was in time out in his room and he peed under his bed. Then he peed next to his bed the following day. Yesterday I caught him peeing under his easel in his playroom. A week ago he peed on the rug in his playroom. After giving him a stern talking to and told him do not pee on the rugs, he peed on the floor next to the rug. A tad bit witty since technically he didn't pee on the rugs, but still unacceptable. I have no idea what his deal is, why he's doing this and why he thinks it's funny. My patience is running out...quickly.

Bye Bye Nap Time

Oh I have been dreading this day but knew it was going to happen sooner or later. William is rapidly growing out of nap time. I cherished this time of the day, I loved it, I celebrated it and now its gone. Two things are wrong with this. First, I looked forward to 2 hours of complete alone time and sanity. It was my time to regain my composure and take on the second half of the day. Not to mention, clean and organize in peace and quiet! And second, my boy is growing up...tear! It's just one more milestone that we are facing....oh what's next?

4th of July

This 4th of July was awesome! We went to the Mannion's lake house and spent the weekend with the Sorensen's and Campbel's. William and I started the weekend early on Wednesday then on Thursday everyone else started to pile in! William had a blast with Anna and Cole. It's hard to believe how fast these kids are growing up. We spent most of our time playing in the lake, jumping off the boat and riding jet ski's. William even passed out on a jet ski ride with his Daddy. How someone falls asleep on the jet ski is beyond me, but it seemed to be the trend that weekend, Cole did the same with Melissa. We've got some crazy kids. The rest of the time, the kids played in the spa and sprinkler. All weekend the Barak's and Mannion's treated us to the best food in town, and we topped off the 4th with some sparklers and smoke bombs along with some bouncy bright fire crackers that never left the ground. Safety first...we'll introduce them to the big stuff maybe next year! Wrapping up the weekend was so hard, we all had such a good time and didn't want to leave...can't wait for our next lake trip...I'm hooked!!




(click on the picture to enlarge)

First time at the Beach

A few weeks ago William, myself and William's Nana drove to Galveston for a day trip. It was William's first time to go to the beach...how exciting!! It was the most perfect day and the weather was awesome. It's been a while since I've been to the beach so I couldn't wait. William had a BLAST!! We played in the waves and tried to build sand castles. I haven't built a castle since I was a child. It was just perfect to share that day with William, I can't wait to do it again soon!

(click on the picture to enlarge)

We also wanted to take a trip to Crystal Beach to check out the rebuild after Hurricane Ike. Let me say, it was so heartbreaking. Where houses use to stand, there was nothing but sand, dead trees, and piles of debris. The island is slowly recovering, it was nice to see Galveston bounce back.

Mr. Independent

William has always been a very independent child. He's always played well by himself and never really needed a ton of attention to keep occupied. It still holds true to this day, but I guess as a mom I'm having a little separation issues. I love helping my child and lately all Chris and I hear is, "NO, I can do it myself!" The only thing we insist on helping him with is the potty. After a few rolls stuffed in the toilet and a couple of over-flows, we keep a close eye on his potty time. Not to mention, he's getting lazy about lifting the toilet seat, it's crazy how that type of boy behavior is instinctive instead of taught...the mystery is over ladies, it starts when they are toddlers!

Catching up....yet again

It has been a while since my last post, so I have a ton of catching up to do. So much has been going on. In addition to settling in our new home, William and I are getting reacquainted with Houston. We have been spending tons of time at the pool and the Mannion's lake house. I think it's safe to say, I don't want our Summer fun to come to an end!

With William's 4th birthday creeping up on us, he's been growing up before our very eyes into a fun, energetic and outgoing little boy!! As a Mom, I am so proud of my little angel. It breaks my heart I can't call him a baby anymore...where does the time go?

Lately we have been experiencing some entertaining behavior with William. For instance, William is into giving Chris and I scripts. If he says something, he asks us to say exactly what he wants...what's funny is, most of what he wants us to say comes from movies he's watched. Can you imagine reciting Thomas the Train, or Elmo's Potty Time? His favorite is reciting Toy Story 2. Cracks us up! Lately he's been saying "Lets Roll Out..." now we are all transformers...he's so imaginative.

In addition to memorizing movie lines, he's into soundtracks. It's crazy that his mind is such a sponge, but William's got an enormous collection of movies, and the moment he hears a song, he will tell you what movie it's from. It all started with the "Life is a Highway" song from Cars, so Chris and I did a little movie trivia to see how well William's ear for music was...I must say, we are quite impressed.

1. Life is a Highway - Cars
2. Damien Rice - Shrek 3
3. Natasha Bedingfield - Igor
4. French Song - Ratatouille
5. You've got a Friend in Me - Toy Story
6. Josh Groban - Polar Express
7. Car Wash - Shark Tale
8. We are the Champions - Chicken Little (and he loves to sing this song too)
9. Ben Folds - Over the Hedge
10. Move It - Madagascar
...and tons more, that I can't think of right now.