Ready or not, here comes summer

May crept up on me and surprised me, and now it's practically gone.  Never ceases to amaze me at how fast time literally flies by.  The boys and I have been keeping very busy, but mostly with fun stuff.  Brian has been busy at work.  He completed his second trial in 3 months.  It's very rare he takes a case all the way to trial, but this seems to be the year for it.  It's not like Law and Order when a case goes to trial and the witness still has bruises from her attacker :)  It's years and years of filings and such and generally a summary judgement or settlement is achieved.  We aren't used to having him gone for several days at a time, but as long as I keep the kids busy - time flies and he's home before we know it. 

Our neighborhood pool isn't open but we seem to always find a cool place to get wet.  Here the boys are at the YMCA.  Leave it to boys to figure out how to turn a splash park into what looks like a giant stream of pee.  So proud...

Here they are naked in the backyard.  I think this is sweet.  Carter has his hand around Cole's shoulder.  He's showing him the flowers and trying to tell him which one is what color.

 

We still go to swim class weekly (Cole goes twice a week).  Carter is doing beautifully.  He has the freestyle down (it's not as pretty as an olympic swimmer or anything, but pretty darn good for a 4 year old).  And now he's working on learning the backstroke.  He was promoted to Swordfish at the beginning of May and has already acheived 60% of the goals the have listed.  Cole is making great strides as well.  Poor kid has huge fins to fill, as I say.  He has been struggling, or shall I say fighting lately.  He's so strong willed.  Fortunately he's paired up with the director who is his instructor and is as strong willed as he is.  We had a breakthrough a couple weeks ago and he will now finally float without kicking and splashing and screaming.  He's even turning from back to front and vice versa to traverse the pool like he's supposed to.  His favorite thing is to dive for rings on the bottom of the pool.  Here's a video of him from May 11.  This was just a few days after he stopped fighting his teacher.  We've made a lot of progress since then as well.  Though, he likes to hold the hair on his head with his left hand.  He refuses to let go while he's floating.  Hey, right now - I'm just glad he's floating and learning to swim.  As opposed to sinking to the bottom of the pool!  Pardon the fuzziness, it's through a two-sided mirror.

 

Carter's last day of preschool was on the 14th.  They had a Super Summer Send Off Party.  I was in charge of collecting money and getting the teacher gifts this year.  I made a gift card bouquet with some potted Gerber Daisies.  They turned out cute. 

Sno cones for snack. 

They are doing the Congo dance.  Look how tall Carter is compared to the other kids in his class.  I wasn't joking last time I posted about that.  He's the one in the navy and white striped swim suit and matching swim shirt.

Here they are pretending to ride surf boards.  Carter has his hands in a "hang ten" formation and he yelled Cowabunga. 

Going down the water slide.

It appears he's yelling, but actually he was so excited.  They were having water gun fights in the play ground.  That is shaving cream on his head - his teacher did that to several of the kiddos.

The homemade "Bear Creek Kid Wash" - very cute idea.  Water was squirting out from all the pipes.  Clever.

Two days after the end of school, we started our vacation to Indiana to see family.  While I hate putting it like this since it's family, but we "killed two birds with one stone."  Brian's family is up there in Indianapolis and my twin cousins were graduating from Notre Dame just 120 miles north of Brian's parents house.  So, we went up there for a week a took a day to celebrate Ian and Parker graduating from the business school. 

We normally drive when we go up there. It is roughly 1000 miles and takes us 18+ hours which we do in one day.  One very long day.  We had plans to drive again, but a good airfare fell my lap and we couldn' t resist.  The last time either of us had flown was when Carter was 8 months old.  And Cole has never flown.  Leading up to the flight was rather anxiety producing for me.  We aren't regular fliers and were flying on an airline we weren't frequent flier members of.  So we were going to have to pay to have our bags checked.  $50 per bag round trip.  And since you can't have any liquids on the plane, I had to check all our toiletries which take up space.  We ended up checking two car seats (for free thankfully), two big bags, and we carried on Brian's work computer and 3 smaller bags - plus we lugged around the kiddos throughout the airport!  To say we had our hands full is an understatement.  I got this shot of Carter laying on his carry on bag that Brian was pulling.  But it wasn't the shot I wanted.  Carter had been pulling it through the airport with Cole laying on it.  It was hilarious.  But by the time I got the camera out, the scene had changed and the shot was blurry anyway.  But it gives you an idea of what was happening.

Here's Cole eating some of the bribery candy I had reserved for the plane ride.

As it turns out, I didn't need much bribery.  I bought a few new sticker books, brought the DVD player and our iPhones made for great entertainment as well.  They were WONDERFUL on the first flight (2ish hours). 

The only mishap was on the second, short flight.  Cole fell asleep with only 20 minutes left on the flight and his seat was leaned back.  The flight attendant made me move it up for landing and it woke him up.  He was madder than a hornet.  He wanted so badly to fall back asleep, but just couldn't get comfortable.  So he cried.  The rest of the 10 minutes until we got off the plane.  Coulda been alot worse.

We arrived in Indy to a cool 57 degree day and I worried we had under dressed for the week.  It warmed up to the mid-80s and turned out to be beautiful in my book.  Here is a picture of Carter with PeePa on his new riding mower.  He loved it.  I think they only thing that could make mowing the lawn better in Carter's book (his favorite weekend activity with Brian) is to do it on a tractor like apparatus.  Lucky kid.  It reminds me of when I was young and got to ride in Grandpa's lap on the land in his John Deere tractor. 

On Sunday we drove up to South Bend to celebrate Ian and Parker graduating.  I didn't get a picture of them walking down the isle, nor walking across the stage. As you can see, Brian and I had our hands full.  Poor guys were so tired from a week with Nan and Pee Pa that they fell asleep.  And they slept through the whole ceremony, screams and all! 

I wanted a picture of the graduates together, but for some reason I got this one instead.  Future ND graduates possibly ...

My camera went on the fritz for the rest of the evening.  Bummer.  I'll have to get some photos from Sissy and Ruppert.  They had a nice celebration at a local Italian place after commencement. Nana and Papa came from Abilene as well.  Mom and Dad drove from Houston.  Erica and Jake came from St. Louis - and congrats to Erica by the way.  Or should I say Dr. Erica - she walked on Thursday and received her PhD.  We couldn't go to that, but everyone else did.  It was nice to see everyone, but the boys kept us busy.  So we barely got to catch up.  Hey, I'll take what I can get. 

We had some good food in Indy.  Size seems to be a good descriptor.  We cooked the biggest steaks I've ever seen - ribeyes almost 2 inches thick.  And Nan found these ginormous marshmallows to make smores with.  This is a half eaten marshmallow of Cole's - no joke.

No campfire - no problem.  We'll use the propane grill.  Here the boys are with Aunt Barb and the Weber grill.

Yum!

And the plane rides home went mostly well.  Nan bought the boys some pillow pals.  Woody for Cole and Spiderman for Carter.  They love them.  And you'll notice, Carter refuses to take a picture without his tongue sticking out.  I can't imagine what it's going to be like getting three boys to look into the camera.

We barely made our connecting flight in Detroit.  We flew into gate C-34 - the end of terminal C.  And had to fly out of gate A-75 the very end of a different terminal.  Lugging 4 carry ons, two pillows, two kids and a full bladder - oh, yeah, being almost 7 months pregnant doesn't help either - across the Detroit airport in under 25 minutes is rather frustrating.  But we got on just in time and made it home safely. 

We are going to take it easy for a week and play catch up around the house.  The long Memorial Day weekend is going to be nice.  We wanted to go up to Austin and check out Mom and Dad's retirement house, their making great progress.  But I think we'll stick close to home for a while.

While uploading some pictures, I came across a video and picture of our mini-vacation in March to San Antonio.  Here are the boys laying the in the pack-n-play during quiet time. 

And a video of Carter bull riding at a street fair in Market Square.

Lastly, I end with an update on the baby.  All is well.  Chugging along.  I'm a few days shy of 28 weeks and can't believe August will be here so soon.  I haven't been sleeping all that well, but I'm getting used to it.  We'll probably move the boys into one room this weekend.  The bunk beds arrived and they're a big hit.  Carter calls it their "bunker bed" and tells me that he likes sleeping on the "top shelf".  Once we get Cole moved over I can reset the nursery and organize some closets. 

Carter is excited about having a baby in the family.  He prays for him most nights at bedtime, as well as some random other things like ceiling fans, monster trucks, and Cole's pacifiers that we don't use anymore.  But the baby does get thought of often..  The other day we were talking about what a great family we have.  I said we have a nice big family "with Daddy, Cole, Carter"  He interupted with "Mommy and the baby". I added "Shiner" (our cat) and he promptly said "And God, you can't forget God.  He's in our family too."  Yes, sweetie - he is.  I love my family. 

May? Really? Impossible, for so many reasons.

I can't believe it is already May.  At first I was in disbelief.  We started off the month with a gorgeous spell of great weather. It was actually in the upper 40s in the morning and high in the upper 60s, maybe low 70s on days and a decent breeze, coupled with loads of sunshine.  We were outside every day soaking it up while we could.  That's just unheard of for May in Houston. And now I'm in serious denial about this for a number of reasons.  This means school is about to let out, the heat is coming, and the new baby will arrive THIS season.  Goodness!  

Time is flying by for me.  And I know that sounds cliche, but this year has been an absolute blur and I'm sure the summer will be the same way.  We have end of the year stuff going on at Carter's school and last week it was a Mother's Tea.  I had the best time that afternoon.  The moms walked through the doors listening to the kids serenade us with sweet songs, then he showed me to my table, with my specific place setting.

Close up of my place mat.  That's my hand print, we did it one morning last month - just didn't know what it was for.  When I arrived to school that morning, his teacher said "Tera, can you come in the class room for a moment?" I felt like I was back in grade school myself and being called to the principal's office, as if I or my child had done something wrong.  But no, it was just an art project :) Glad my child is still perfect :)

 The teachers had made some appetizers and brought tea and lemonade to drink.  The kids served us up whatever they thought we'd like.  Carter put one of everything, and when I would ask for more tortilla roll ups, or more canteloupe he'd bring me ONE more.  Guess he thinks I need to watch my caloric intake.  After the moms got what they wanted the kids were allowed to partake.  Though, Carter kept insisting everything was for the mommies.  All the kids were hesitant to eat or drink anything.  I think their teacher must have drilled it into their heads that they were to cater to us that day.

Like on Dad's Night, the teachers had asked the kids questions about their mom beforehand.  I'm shocked by two things, my age - seriously 42?  That's Brian's age! And when they asked him old Brian was, he told them 24.  This isn't fair.  The second thing that isn't "true" is that I go to the gym.  I think he over heard another child say that, there were lots of repeat answers.  We do go to the Y and I'll get on the treadmill for a little bit, but he doesn't know that.  He thinks we go to the Y to swim!  And yes, his favorite think to eat IS meat.

This is my plant he made and painted the pot.  It's his handprints with some tissue paper.  The back side says "From your budding blossom, Carter".

Carter loves to paint.  Which means, so does Cole.  They are so darn messy.  Thankfully it's completely washable so I don't make too many restrictions.  He loves to paint his hand and make handprints, and I generally don't mind.  But the other day I watched as Carter turned it into full body paint.  He painted his entire arms red and orange and started calling himself "Fire Man." (this is a shot of the beginning stages of the mess).  He refuses to quit painting as long there is still white on the paper.  I'll ask him if he wants another piece of paper, and his answer is "No, there still some space over here."  He paints lots of dark scary forests.  Thats the theme lately.  I mean, what else could a big green and brown blob of paint be, right?

 Cole imitating his brother. 

 I found some cheap easels at Hobby Lobby the other day.  It helps with the mess, sort of.  And yes, we always paint naked, or as close as possible.  Makes the clean up easy - stick them outside and hose 'em off.

I've done some painting lately.  I went out for a girls night with my friend Julie and her mom's group.  We had fun.  I'm too mathematical to be a good painter, because when they say "about the middle" I want to know exactly where and how long is my brush stroke.  We had a great time though. 

 Some mornings I'll take the boys to a donut shop down the street whose owner is also a mom of one of the kids at preschool.  She knows exactly what we want and has it ready when we are walking in the door.  The boys love pink iced donuts with sprinkles.  I'm a spicy sausage kolache fan.  But the best part is it's $4 and I didn't have to make breakfast!

 I have a video of the boys playing at a local gym, doing an obstacle course we made but I'm so behind on blogging and organizing my pictures and printing them and putting them in albums and several other projects that I don't have the time nor energy to post all the cute videos right now.  So this picture will have to do. 

 This picture is what happened yesterday when I sat down to the computer to upload somethings to the blog.  THIS is why I get behind.  I can only do time consuming projects when they're gone or asleep.  And lately, I've got too many things on that list during the short time they give me.  One of those is rest.  I've been a little tired lately.  Yes it's because I'm pregnant, but it's also because we're staying busy and my list of projects is getting longer, i.e. the boys rooms switched, organizing/making room in their closets, getting ready for baby boy #3, etc. 

They dumped out 3 or 4 different buckets of toys, all the couch pillows and stripped down naked.  Oh boys.

I'm looking forward to a few days in June when they'll both be at summer camp for a couple hours at the SAME TIME.  I can't even imagine how productive I'll feel.  Brian gave me a gift certificate to my favorite spa in Houston, so I know I'll be using that while they're preoccupied. 

Company Picnic

Every year during OTC week (that's Offshore Technology Conference for you non-Houstonians unfamiliar with the gas lingo), Dad and his family are invited to a family picnic out at George Ranch Historical Park.  It's a gorgeous place with huge oak trees, I think I posted pics of some of those trees last May.  Anyhow, they have lots of kid friendly activities, good food, open bar (bummer for me), and live music.  We are lucky to get to tag along. 

First stop was at the clown to get Carter's face painted. He picked a rainbow ... with sparkles ... Very manly, right?  Oh well.

Cole wanted a balloon animal, but didn't want to get within 15 feet of the clown.  She turned the bubbles on and he started to warm up.

 The Merry Go Round

 The goats loved Cole.  He was generous with his feeding.

 Cole on the merry go round, again.  But not on an animal, which was nice so I could sit as well.

 Before we left Carter wanted another painting on his face.  This time he opted for a more "boy themed" picture and chose the Batman signal.  However, he had to have gold sparkles on it. 

Happy Easter

I probably can't still say Happy Easter, since that was 2ish weeks ago.  But my blog is ABOUT a Happy Easter, so there.

We started off the holy week with an Easter Party at Carter's school.  Here he is showing off his foam craft bunny.

My attempt at a picture with Carter, we just have big noses and chins since I took it holding the camera. 

Carter and a few of his classmates after their egg hunt in the school courtyard.  I have a video I could post of the chaos.  But during the hunting, one of the girls tripped and fell and all the kids ran over and started taking the eggs that fell out of her basket.  I just couldn't post it, too much "Survival of the Fittest" going on...

Every year, the night before Easter the kids put their baskets out on the front porch so the Easter bunny can leave them treats.  How else do explain the same basket every year :)

Carter showing off the Grave Digger Monster Jam Stunt Jumper that Grandma and Grandpa gave him for Easter.  And yes, that it is a monster truck temporary tatoo on his arm.  It came off before church, but forgot to get it off before the camera came out.

 Easter basket loot.

 Foam rocket launchers were a big hit.

" Hmmm, where should I look for eggs?" Cole likes to put his finger to his chin and go "hmm" alot these days.  Like he's really considering his options.

 Aha! Found one.

 Hmm, who is winning the competition.  Everything with Carter is a contest these days.  And I try to work that in my advantage.  Who can get in the car seat the fastest, who can get their jammies on fastest, and even a few times he's fallen for the "who can take the longest nap".  I'm not kidding :)

 The Easter Bunny didn't hide confetti eggs this year (the dew makes them transfer dye and it's a huge mess), but I did buy some for them to play with.  Still a huge mess, we had 36 cracked shells in the yard and confetti everywhere.  I guess there is a price to pay for fun, good thing I generally don't mind paying that price.

 Cole realized early on that there was candy in the eggs, so he just layed down and starting chowing down.

 He stuffed eggs in his shirt to give him muscles. 

We had a great Easter and hope you did too.  I like hearing Carter's rendition of the Easter story.  "Jesus had his eyes closed and then God saved him and his eyes were open again."  Then he shouts "Jesus is Alive."  Sweet little boy.