Spring Break and other fun stuff

Last week was Spring Break and Carter was out of preschool with all the other school kids. I got a glimpse of what our summer would be like and boy do I have my work cut out for me. I'm already researching ideas on how to keep these boys busy. Yes, we'll swim alot. But we need lots of other fun things in repertoire.

Speaking of swimming, the boys continue to do real well in swim class. Cole is floating on his own now. Little bits here in there. And he can get rings off the bottom of the pool like his big brother. Carter is working on his strokes. He can swim across the pool, but when he moves his arms out of the pool he won't straighten them - it's the funniest thing to watch him swim. I'm very proud of both of them.

Before Spring Break started, Carter had some fun days at school. One of the activities at "Hat Day" was to wear a hard hat with a paintbrush attached to it. He painted a picture for me, it was one color and just a bunch of strokes, but I hung it up on the fridge anyway! He wore his Masters golf hat that Dad bought him when he went to the tournament 2 years ago. Thankfully it has an adjustable strap, he has another year or two in it. Then Cole can have it.


Cole loves to point at things. Here he is pointing at Brian and Brian pointing back.

And of course, if Cole does it, Carter does it too. Carter does EVERYTHING Cole does. Some good some bad. Fortunately now Cole is walking most of the time and no longer really crawls. But when he did crawl, Carter crawled along with him. It would get embarassing at times in the waiting room at the doctors office when a 3 year old is crawling after a 1 year old. Carter also loves to wear whatever Cole is wearing. They have several matching outfits and I've started buying more since this obsession has started. Mom even went out and bought another shirt just like Cole's for Carter because he was so upset they weren't matching that day. He really loves having a little brother.

Another thing Carter insists on doing is having his picture taken and taking pictures. He jumps up and down 100 times a minute it seems like. He's like a hummingbird, it's ridiculous. He loves any and all attention in front of the camera. Here is one of probably 200 pictures I have of him jumping and smiling at the camera.

And because he jumps around all the time, he needs some rest. Unlike several of his other 3 year old friends, he still takes a nap. On school days when he gets home at 2 I don't generally make him take a nap because he'll sleep for 2 hours and then be hard to put down for bedtime. But sometimes he just can't make it and falls asleep watching TV. Too cute.

Another fun day they had at school was Western Day. The Rodeo and Livestock Show is in town this month and the school played on that theme. They had horses and donkeys come to school, they had mini-chuckwagon races in the gym, milked pretend cows, roped cactus, and all kinds of western things. Here he is showing off his cowboy boots that Grandma bought him.

And thanks to a nice hand-me-down from Jen, Cole had some rodeo overalls he could wear that day too.

The weather has been crazy this year, but we have started to warm up and spend more and more time outside. The grass is getting greener, our skin is getting tanner, and our hair is getting lighter. This is from two weeks ago, Cole is so cute going up and down the slide.

We signed Carter up for tee-ball that begins next month and runs through the beginning of June. Here he is trying to hit the ball for the first time with Daddy. He's getting the hang of it now. We haven't worked much on catching, though he does have the cutest 9" glove. We aren't expecting this to be a competitive sport. Its just getting him used to the idea of playing on a team, taking turns, and having some fun time with Daddy since it's on Saturday mornings.

Here is Cole walking around the back yard with his swim attire on. Carter loves to shower him with water.

I took the boys to the livestock show last week during Spring Break (just like every other parent in town apparently). The funny thing is, with all the farm animals we saw, the only picture I have of either child with an animal happens to be of Carter riding a camel. We waited in line for 20 minutes and it was definitely worth it. That thing was huge.

Here I am with my boys. Carter keeps saying he wants to ride the bull that is in this picture. We waited in line for him to ride a mechanical bull for kids, but after 25 minutes and waiting and watching other kids do it, he chickened out. Hey, at least I hadn't already paid for it!

Here's a picture of the boys in the bathtub with mohawks. Carter's hair is crazy long. At least 4 inches long in the back. He's getting it cut tomorrow it will probably be the shortests it's been since he was 7 months old. I don't kid. He's getting a summer cut tomorrow, Brian won the hair cut battle. I've given up the thought of him having longer hair (not long, just like a bowl cut or something). I've just seen too many scraggled looking skateboarders around lately and didn't really dig that look :)

I always seem to be posting about the boys, and never really talk about what Brian and I are doing. We'll we're dating again - each other that is :) Cole is finally sleeping well enough to stay at Mom & Dad's house overnight along with Carter. So Brian and I are getting a night life again. A week or so ago we went out with Seth and Jen to check out a new restaurant and bar. We toasted the night with some half yards of beer and realized that the last time the four of us went out together withOUT our kids was 10 years ago, before any of us were married and had kids. We had a great time.

I had a girls night out this month that was a blast. We went to Pinot and Picasso and drank some wine while we painted a canvas. Each night a local artist shows us how to paint one of their paintings and we all bring our own wine and appetizers. That night, it happened to be the back side of a naked women. Oh the chuckles we had. We will definitely be doing this again soon. Here's my picture. Yes I know she has a J Lo bootie, but I had several glasses of wine and never rounded all my features out.

Brian's birthday is Thursday and as a present I got him tickets to the NCAA regional games that are here in Houston this weekend. Seth has a ticket too, so they're going together and making a guys night out of it. Baylor is playing, so they actually have some one to root for.

I've been trying upload some videos of the boys playing in the yard, but I'm having trouble editing out all the good stuff and putting it in one frame. I just don't have enough time in the day I guess. Plus I think we may need a new video camera. If you recall, this one took a 3 week long shower in the backyard. I'm surprised it's still recording. Things aren't as crisp as I wish, so I may be in the market for another one. Plus, it records in widescreen, but plays back on the blog in regular 4:3, and that makes the quality even worse. That said, here is a 4 minute long video of just the normal every day playing in the backyard footage. For those of you that don't see the boys all that often, you'll probably enjoy this more.