One thing I've learned about boys...

...is that they rarely use toys as intended.  Ok, well, they do sometimes.  But they also try to figure out ways to make it more exciting.  You know, up the ante.  Add some danger.  Because you can only play with it so long as you're supposed to before that becomes boring.

Exhibit A:

Other updates on the boys:

Caleb loves going to the pool.  He started out timid, as he has every summer, but he's getting more adventurous.  He went down the slide at our pool, which was a major accomplishment for him.  He doesn't like to be pushed into anything.  So it took him awhile to warm up to the idea.  It's funny, because he's a dare devil in many other areas, but I guess the pool takes him awhile to get used to.  Last time we were there I think we went down the slide the whole hour.

Protecting his toys from an intruding little brother.

We had a MAJOR milestone accomplishment with Caleb.  Drumroll......  He can now go to the bathroom by himself in the middle of the night!!!!  You have no idea how this has changed our lives - more specifically, David's - because he would be the one getting up with him during the night.  We potty trained Caleb back in January, and since then, I can probably count on 1 hand the times he has wet the bed or pull-up.  Instead, he would wake up in the middle of the night and scream bloody murder, "DAAAADDDYYYYY!!!  I have to go pee pee!!!!!!"  So David would have to go upstairs, walk him to the bathroom, and take him back to bed.  We saw no end in sight.  We kind of hoped he would go back to peeing in his sleep and just wearing pull-ups, but no such luck.  He woke up every night screaming to go to the bathroom.  So David started telling him he could go by himself.  And one night it just clicked.  It happened around 10pm when we were both downstairs watching tv, and we heard him whimpering.  Then all of a sudden, we heard the door open, pitter-patter running across the house, the toilet flush, running back, and the door shutting.  It was a MIRACLE!  It was so cute to hear his little feet and picture his little body doing that all by himself.  We keep telling him how proud we are of him.  And he even did it while we were at my parents' house for 4 days.  Yay!  AND, he has done this several times at 7am, and gone back to bed until I came up to get him.  We told him he can turn off his noise machine and read books until I come up, but I usually find him just laying in bed in the dark.  I love my little rule-follower.  :)

The hardest thing about Caleb's personality is that he mopes and whines.  And if something is bothering him, he can't shake it off and get past it.  He fixates on it.  I have no idea of anyone who is like that.  heh, heh.  I try to help him by saying things like, "It's over, we can't do anything about it now."  "Caleb, it's not a big deal."  "You can choose to be happy."  "Oh well, maybe next time you can do it."  I try to empathize with him too because it's something that bothers him, but at the same time helping him move past it.  Here is a picture of something bothering him.  He likes to look as pathetic as possible.  He even tries to keep from laughing and force himself to mope:

Nathan is the cutest thing ever.  Seriously, a day doesn't go by when David and I don't say how completely adorable he is.  And can we keep him this way forever?  One of my favorite things is when he sees Caleb doing or saying something, and then he does it too, but he acts like he just thought of the idea himself, not like he copied it or anything.  Like he's so proud of what he just thought to do...as he's looking out of the corner of his eye at Caleb to make sure he's doing it just like him.

 Nathan wanting to be just like Caleb.

 
When we're driving in the car, he loves to shout out "wah-der down-din" aka water fountain, and "car drans-jor-jor" aka car transporter.  This chatterbox of a kid is saying lots of sentences/phrases.  "Can't reach it."  "I did it."  "More milk please."  "Birdy over there."  "Another one!"  Those are a few we hear the most.  

He must be a gassy kid because he does it all the time.  Caleb hardly ever did or does.  But Nathan does all the time.  And what makes it even funnier is he says, "I toot" with those tiny little lips.

I gave all three boys a haircut this weekend.  I hadn't cut David's hair probably 4 years!  I think I stopped when I was pregnant with Caleb and my belly was getting in the way and it was too tiring.  So I was nervous to do his, but it turned out well.  I used the clippers on Nathan for the first time.  It's the shortest it's ever been.  A good summer buzz cut, I guess.  :)

Coloring with chalk outside.

Lately...

Let's see, what have we been up to lately?  I think this might be a long post...

We had a fun week at VBS a couple weeks ago.  The boys loved it.  I was exhausted.  :)  I don't think I officially announced it on the blog, but I think everyone knows we're expecting a baby!  First trimester nausea and exhaustion hit me for sure.

Nathan had a traumatic week recently.  He had an accident and fell out of the wagon and banged his teeth/gums.  He was bleeding a lot, and at first I panicked that he was going to lose his teeth!  I had horrific images of him being toothless until 3rd grade when his permanent teeth would come in.  But his teeth seemed fine.  It must have just been his gums.  His top lip swelled crazy big.  I couldn't get a great picture, but here is a little bit of an idea.  It looked a lot more swollen in person.  His gums turned all black and blue.  Poor guy couldn't drink out of his sippy cup without it hurting.  But he kind of enjoyed the novelty ofdrinking without the lid on like a big boy.  After telling the story to several friends, I realized how common teeth injuries are.  Now I'm slightly paranoid that he damaged the nerve and his teeth will turn gray and die.  But like David said, there isn't anything we can do now.  Everything looks fine, and I think if after a few weeks everything looks normal, then we'll be in the clear.

If that wasn't bad enough, he also had a cold that week, and then stepped in a big ant pile.  He was covered in welts.  My friend suggested rubbing apple cider vinegar on them to stop the stinging, and that worked wonders!  He never itched them, not once.  They got all nasty and pussy the next day.  Now they're all healed.   Let's hope that's it for traumatic events for awhile.

We went to see David's family on the 4th of July.  Caleb loved corn on the cob.

They played marble works with Aunt Sarah.

We took a trip to Dallas the night of July 4th.  On the way we saw lots of fireworks as we passed by different cities.  The boys loved spotting them.  Nathan called out "wacka wacka!" (firecracker) each time he saw one.  It was so cute!

I helped throw a bridal shower for my sister.  She'll be getting married in 2 months.  It's coming fast!  And I got to see the super cute house they just bought.

You know for baby showers they make diaper cakes?  Well, I made a kitchen utensil cake.  I was quite proud of myself since I'm not super crafty.

Sue and her bridesmaids

Obviously, one of her bridesmaids is pregnant - and due in one week!  That made getting fitted for a dress a little tricky for her.  But I think it'll be fine.  My dress, on the other hand, may be a different story...

So when I realized I was pregnant, I had just ordered my dress the week before.  Stupid, stupid.  Over the weekend I went to try on a different size because the one I ordered is already tight, and by the time of the wedding I'll be around 5 months.  I'm going to be a lot bigger then.  So I went to the dress shop, and tried on two other dress sizes - one just a size bigger, and one that was two sizes bigger.  I stuck my stomach out as far as I could, and figured the dress that was two sizes up would be good.  One of the seamstresses happened to be back in the dressing room, and said, "Guuurl!  You're gonna need to get a dress way bigger than that!  You're already that big and you have 9 more weeks to go??!!"  Gee, thanks.  As I was feeling slightly offended, they got me another dress two MORE sizes up, and said that would be a good one.  So here I am wearing a huge sack-of-a-dress that they say will be snug on the day of the wedding.  Yay!  So there in a matter of minutes, I went from my original size 4 to a size 12!  Let's just say Susie will look really good next to me on the day of the wedding.  I'll be the one wearing the blue tent next to her.  It's my gift to her.  :)

While we were at my parents house, we inflated a little pool and pulled the slide next to it.  Caleb loved it!  But we had a big laugh and had to admit how ridiculous it probably looked having 5 adults sitting outside and watching two kids play in a pool the size of an inner tube.  Oh well, they didn't mind.

The boys helped Aunt Susie wash her car.

They stole flags from neighbors' yards and had a little mini-parade around the cul-de-sac.  

That's the last couple weeks for us.  Hope every one is enjoying their summer too!

Father's Day Fishing Tournament

Our community had a little Father's Day fishing tournament over the weekend.  My Dad has fished for a long time and has all the gear, so we asked him to come and teach David and the boys how to fish.  It was fun.  We named our team the Fisheroos. 

Unfortunately, we didn't catch any fish!  We watched as the people across the lake from us caught one after another.  We tried all different kinds of bait - corn, hotdogs, and worms, ew!  But nothing.  I think all the turtles were scaring them away on our side.  It was good to at least learn the fishing technique though, and it builds character, right?  I mean, fishing isn't exactly an action sport.  :)

We picked out our spot on the other side of the lake where nobody was.  I think we know why nobody was there now...  :)

Grandpa showed Caleb his tackle box and how to put the wire on the pole.

Setting up.

First cast.

Reeling in!

Nathan did really well and was very patient.

Caleb kind of got bored.  He played on the playground, and kept asking when he could go home and play with his trains.

David tried to cast off to the side since we weren't having any luck in front of us.

Grandpa and Nathan.

 Aunt Susie and her boys.

Our bait kept getting nibbled off, so there must have been fish biting, but I guess they were too smart to get hooked.  Better luck next year, Fisheroos!

Happy Father's Day!

Our boys are sooooo blessed to have such a wonderful dad.  They're crazy about him.  He lets them do crazy things their mom would never do.  Jumping off of couches, wrestling, giving horsey rides.  Ok, well, maybe I do some of those things too, but it's more rowdy and fun with Daddy.  He puts them to bed by reading a Bible story and singing a hymn every night.  He works hard and serves our family, he listens to all of the boys' stories, he tells them he's proud of them, he tells them how much he loves them.  What a perfect picture of God he's showing to our little boys.  We love you Daddy!!!!