Feels Good Man

Well, I just want to start this blog off by saying how great I am feeling about life.  It is truly incredible the way God works things out sometimes.  Only 6 weeks after the loss of our third child, and I can unbelievably and honestly say that I have never been more satisfied with my life.  That single, incredibly sad event led me to confront issues that have been holding me back for years and reevaluate my priorities. I praise God for giving me Sam/Ellie and for using his/her life to help set mine free.  Feels good man, feels real good :)

Now, back to our regularly scheduled program--Summer-O-Fun!!!

First day "back in the saddle" after a couple of days at home recovering from strep!  

Although MUCH better than Alvin & The Chipmunks, the kids seemed a bit less interested in this one !

The 4 "big kids" sat on one side together...love Cameron's face looking at me like, "No flash photography in the  theatre!"

After the movie, we decided to treat the kids to a special lunch at Pizza Hut!  The kids were getting along so well together, and it only got more adorable at lunch <3

I think these 2 might have a little crush on each other...

Uh-oh--Tommy is turning into a ladies' man!

Btw, we were the only ones in the restaurant--hence the dance-a-thon!

I love this boy's beautiful smile!!!

Aubrey and Ethan decided to get in on the dancing fun too!

Do si do!!

Everyone joined in on the fun!

Tommy and Reagan <3

I LOVE THIS PICTURE!! 

"Get off my back, woman!"

Hehe, just kidding :)

Leslie and I were joking that maybe someday we'll be showing these pictures at prom....or gasp.....weddings!

Our theme for this week was "Baseball"!  Believe it or not, we had such a busy week that of all weeks, we didn't have a chance to make it to Hit & Run!  Even though we didn't actually get to play any baseball this week, we did get to read our new theme books and make a couple of cute crafts!

Cute book--I hope the boys will be reading it all by themselves in a couple of years!

Mommy Amazon fail right here...I'm sure the book is great, but it's a chapter book with no pics--WHOOPS!

Our "honesty" book of the week...it was okay, but I definitely liked Berenstain Bears better!

First craft up--making our own baseball fields!  Tommy cut all of his foam pieces out himself, but I did Ethan's for him.  They both put the stickers on all by themselves (except Ethan's name).  I thought it was so funny that they both put their stars around the infield in similar ways! 

Home of the Big Red!

Tooterbear Park!  

This next craft was the biggest hit of all (olololol so funny)!  Seriously though, this was super easy, and the kids are still playing with these a week later!  They were meant as a present for Granddaddy, so I think we're going to have to make 2 more!

Tommy wasn't so sure about this craft when he saw the materials on his tray :)

Now he's getting into it!

Every kid's favorite part--glue!!

I know this is another one of those things that shouldn't be that big of a deal, BUT Tommy has historically not placed face parts in their traditional places--he put the eyes in the exact right place!

Ethan was ready to get this puppet show on the road!

He did the dots himself!

They both thought their baseball puppets were so cool!!

I told Tommy to name his "Rawlings" hehe :)

Tommy decided to name him "Baseball" instead...again...could we be more creative with our names?!

Ethan cracked me up--it was like he immediately had a new  BFF!

Tommy and baseball had some really deep talks ;)

Our new friends, Rawlings (I named Ethan's instead) and Baseball!

The fun just didn't stop this week!  After Tommy's therapy appointments on Wednesday, Daddy and Ethan met us at Chick-fil-A for a quick bite to eat before a REALLY special treat that Tommy earned with his awesome pottying skills!

Since we were going on a fun adventure, I decided to dress the boys in their Toy Story gear :)

I love Tommy's face in this one--no big deal, just sippin' some milk....

And Ethan's in this one...looking like there's more than just milk in that jug!

Thanks for our special treats Uncle Steve-oh!!

A little fun before our road trip!

BAHAHAHA--Ethan is looking longingly at his leftover food...what a Mama's boy (btw--check out Tommy laughing at him in the bottom right corner!)

Oh, you got that on camera?!

I'm totally fine--who needs those extra nuggets anyway?!

Tommy trying to hand him one through the screen <3

After Chick-fil-A, the boys and I headed out to begin our big adventure--a day trip to the BEACH!!  Both boys have been on a beach before, but not since they were both babies during Thanksgiving trips with the Catchings' side of the family.  So, I was excited but also pretty nervous about trying to take them by myself, but I was feeling up to the task!

Tommy was ready to boogie with his new "Monsters U" boogie board!

Now, let me start by saying this (always a good sign when I start like that haha)...they slept for about 45 minutes on the way down, and we arrived to the beach around 2:30pm.  Sooooo, not much in the way of naps, but they were so excited to get to the beach!  We actually got a really good parking spot, and I loaded myself up with about 80 pounds of fun beach gear that I just KNEW the boys were going to love and play with for hours.  Well, everything was fine for about 20 steps, until we reached the actual sand.  There was a pretty steep drop-off--basically a big sand hill that we all had to walk down to get to the usable sand/beach area.  So, as my arms are falling off from the 2 large sand trucks, multiple buckets and shovels, a beach chair, and two beach bags, Ethan decides to fly down the hill with no regard to any of the relaxing people around us (the beach was abnormally crowded thanks to it finally being a nice day in the midst of over a week of rain).  Thankfully, the people all seemed really nice, and didn't seem to mind Ethan wandering through their personal space while I begged Tommy to come down the hill :)  Finally, I decided I needed to just go down with Ethan, and eventually Tommy would follow me....well...kind of....these two nice elderly ladies were eager to help our young whipper-snapper down the big hill while I tried to wrangle Ethan in!  So, we finally all get to the bottom, and I try to kind of set up a spot for all of our fun to begin.  I can't tell you how many times I heard, "I'm going to build lots of sand castles!" for the weeks following up to this moment.  How many sand castles were built you ask??  That would be zero!  I never had  time to set up because both boys started running straight for the water!  Really???  You guys won't even get into the big side of the pool, but the entire ocean doesn't intimidate you?!  Anyway, I obviously caught up to them, and spent the next hour basically making sure they were in no danger from the waves crashing over them--aka whatever water made it to them at the spot in the sand where I told them they couldn't go in any further :)  So, things finally started to settle down a bit, when I thought, "hey let me grab my camera out of my beach bag and snap a few shots of them playing in the water and sand."  Mom fail #2--left the camera in the car, and there was NO WAY I was going back to retrieve it!!

My dreamworld of Ethan playing in the sand....

After about an hour and a half, I decided I would love to at least sit in my beach chair for one minute.  So, I called the boys over, and told them to sit on their picnic blanket and have snack.  To my delight, Tommy was happy to do so....to my chagrin, Ethan was not so compliant!  He was absolutely furious that he was being asked to sit down in wet and dirty clothes--"Ohh NOO--I'm a mess...MESSSSSS...NEED DRY CLOTHES!!"  Oy.  Thank God for the sound of the waves drowning out Ethan's sorrows.  He was pretty upset, and it was after 4pm at this point, so I decided that was a good enough introduction to the beach for now!  We packed up, and Ethan was feeling much better with his dry clothes on.  That said, HOLY SAND EVERYWHERE!!!!   Being a girl, I never really thought about it, but boys' swimsuits let in and capture so much more sand than a girl's swimsuit.  I literally could not get the sand off of them--it was like it was glued onto them or something!  Haha, then my new elderly lady friends passed us by with the encouraging words for next time, "Baby powder honey!".  Thanks Grams--I'll have to remember that ;)  Speaking of Grams, it was time to head to our next stop--Grandma Jan's house!!  I always think of this little jingle every time I go see her, "We're off to see the Grandma, the wonderful Grandma of Jan!" (to the tune of "We're off to see the wizard, the wonderful wizard of Oz).  I called and gave her the head's up about the sand situation, and she was ready to act when we arrived!

I love Ethy's little squishy buns!

Even though it looks like he's not enjoying it here, both boys actually really enjoyed their "shower" :)

I think Granny enjoyed it just as much as the boys did!!

All clean!!

Okay family of mine--be prepared to be jealous!  Grandma made her famous stuffed pork chops, collard greens, fried okra, and sweet potatoes for dinner (fish sticks for the boys hehe)--it was SOOOOO GOOD! And, although I was worried about the boys sleeping in the same bed for the first time, they went down without one peep--it was amazing!  The next morning, we just hung out at Granny's house until it was time for lunch.  She treated us to McDonald's before we headed home <3

Granny and Tommy saying "Cheese" for the camera....

"CHEESE I SAID!!!"

The boys were so excited to get their Despicable Me Happy Meals!  They have played with their plastic Minion toys everyday since then I think!

Ethan having a nice little convo with Granny!

Time to play!!

My sweet, sweet Grandma <3

Up, up, up!!

and down!!

Ethan was more than a little tired :)

Time to go--Ethy is so sad :(

 Here are the boys literally 2 minutes into the trip home--we hadn't even made it to the highway yet--a first!

Upon returning home, I was surprised with the following treats from my loving husband (who apparently appreciated the time off)!  He is so generous and would do anything for me--I am the luckiest woman alive!

A bath "desk", 2 big bottles of bubble bath, a bath pillow, and a lovely hand-written note--don't worry I'll spare you the inside of the card!

Ahhh, a relaxing bubble-bath after a fun-filled mini-trip!

 The next day we were supposed to go swimming with some friends, but it was once again raining and stormy.  We were supposed to go to Monkey Joe's on Monday with my friend Ashley and her kids, but we had to cancel due to the boys' strep throat, so we decided to go on Friday instead!  Rain and Friday at Monkey Joe's = about 300 people...not kidding!  It was an absolute mad house, but I think the kids fed off of the craziness!

The boys had an absolute blast...we stayed for nearly 3 hours--a new record!

Tommy loved going down the biggest slide (Ethan still hasn't worked up his courage for that one yet!)

Ashley with her cutie-pa-tootie, Colin :)

Tommy had a lot of firsts during this trip--I caught this picture of him exiting one of the maze/obstacle course houses that he'd never gotten out of solo before--go Tommy!

And, another one he's never done!

Here he is coming down the final slide of the previous "obstacle course"!

I LOVE this picture of Olivia enjoying a nice lunch break before  round 2 of playing and jumping!

Ethan practically sprinted to the table when he saw the pizza coming, but Tommy thought he was outsmarting Mommy by not coming.  He thought that once we ate, we were leaving--that's why you only got 1 piece Toots!!!

The boys were EXHAUSTED after all of that.  Here they are snuggling before nap time together--so sweet!

Tommy fell asleep on the couch almost immediately...

He woke up when I told him it was time for bed--hence, Ethan's pre-cry face :)

 Even though the boys went down for a nice, long nap--my fun wasn't over just yet!  Aunt Donna was one of the people who we were going to meet at the pool in the morning, but since we had to cancel due to rain, she decided to come chat with me while the kids napped for a little girl time.  She brought Em with her, which was such a nice surprise and the three of us gals talked the entire time the boys napped!  I love having a cup of coffee and chatting with friends while the kids nap--come over anytime!

On the heels of Tommy finally putting the full potty training puzzle together, we decided it was time to give it a go with Ethan!  Let me just say--I am so ready for this stage to be over with!!  There is light at the end of the tunnel.  As I write this, we are on Day 5, and he has done a fairly decent job.  He actually started off really well, but that was when we were able to be hyper-focused on him during the weekend thanks to my Mom watching Tommy on Saturday and Sunday!  He only had 2 accidents on Day 2, and 1 on Day 3--we were starting to feel pretty good!  He had a few yesterday though, and he's had a few today.  Still, he has both pooped and peed several times in the potty, which we think is pretty good!  I'm hoping by August he'll only have a very occasional accident--time will tell!

Ethy doesn't seem to mind sitting on his potty...at least for now!

Ahhh--it is a bit of a relief to have a kid that understands the merits of a good candy bribe!  So far, M&M's have been the only source of reward necessary!

  One final note to end this post.  In addition to our normal reading and weekly special books, we have recently begun to read "The Jesus Storybook Bible" to the boys every night right before bed.  They seem to be pretty into it, which is a good thing!  One day this past week, Davey was reading about Joseph and his colorful coat.  As he was reading it, Tommy excitedly interrupted, "Hey Daddy--we did that one in Sunday School!".  Now that just made our nights <3