Hula!

We went to a Luau at my friend, Debbie's, house last weekend. It was amazing! She hired two very loveyly hula dancers to teach all the kids. (Jake asked if they could come to his birthday party too.)


Lucy really loved the outfit,


and all the attention, but wouldn't go out and perform unless I was with her. What a stinker.


She finally loosened up and had a great time. Maybe we can get her to teach Tate and Miley.

How to know when your kids have eaten a little too much lobster

When 50 cents can buy so much happiness. . .

I hear my friends with babies say, "I can't wait for this" or "I can't wait 'til my kid can do that." I love every age and occasionally have to remind Jake that we have to have fun at every stage. I will be very sad indeed when 50 cents will no longer buy this much fun.

Cruisin'

A preview of Lucy in her teenage years:



Hopefully they'll be all be fully clothed by then.

I love my Bubba!

Tate was really "plump" when he was a baby. "Bubba" just sort of stuck to him and even though he has more than thinned out since, he still gets it a lot from me.
I love all the new things he is learning to do, but it makes me sad to think of him growing up so fast. Holy cow I'm getting all misty-eyed right now. For the love of Pete, I'm turning into my Mother-in-law!
Anyway, here's 6 things I love about Tate:

1. He is my cuddler. Wherever I am, he loves to come sit on my lap and "snuggle me". He also loves for me to draw pictures on his back with my finger to help him fall asleep at night.

2. He is so creative. Sometimes the narratives on a single drawing will take 10 minutes!

3. He is very independent. He will try something 10 different times before asking for help.

4. His best friend is his sister. He loves to make up games to play with her.

5. He is very sensitive to the feelings of others. He can't stand to see someone upset. If Miley's trapped in his crib after a nap, Tate will set him free. (sometimes before I'm ready for him!)

6. His sense of humor is just like mine. Often times something will strike one of us as funny, and when one of us laughs uncontrollably, it sets the other off. This usually happens to us at the dinner table, much to the amusement of the rest of the family.

I love love love my Bubba!

We just can't get enough of the beach!

I know our summer posts sound like a broken record, "went to the beach. . . went to the beach. . . went to the beach", but we really love the ocean. We went back to Grandma's house last weekend and as a huge added bonus, my mom and dad and Claire were there! We got to see them for most of Saturday and had fun playing outside. Lucy wanted to be buried with Claire (Tate's idea in the first place. Covering your aunt in sand? What 6 year old wouldn't love that?!)


Lucy had a much easier time getting out so she lent a hand. The rest of us less-charitable souls threw water at her while she was stuck.


Lucy wasn't too keen on rinsing in the ocean, but Daddy "convinced" her.


Tate found many lovely creatures like this while digging for hours.


By the end of the day he had an aroma similar to that of a dead fish.


"Show me your muscles!"

Anybody ever seen this before?

Tate woke up with this on his knee last Saturday. Of course it couldn't be on a day when the doctor's office had normal hours. I told them what it looked like and they let me come in anyway.



Nobody in the whole office had seen anything like it, so they lanced two of them, (Tate was SO tough!) swabbed them, and had me run them right over to the lab. One of the tests was for shingles and the other was for some other bacterial thing. They're starting to be crunchy now, so they're less worried, but still can't tell us what it is. My guess is he kneeled on some funky creature in the ocean at Granny's house.

When two teenaged girls live next door to you. . .

"This is the best day of my entire life!"

On the 4th, our town puts on this really exciting (if you're a 6 year old boy or a 30 year old artist) show by the Navy Seals. They had great music, a combat simulation, jets flying over (I really liked that part too. In fact, that was what prompted Tate to give the quote that heads this post.) and attack helicopters. After the show, all the kids got to meet the Seals and climb all over their vehicles.


Tate was in hog-heaven!

Lucy learned something new!

"Going for a walk on Sunday is okay if you go really slow, right?"

Tate convinced us to go on a family walk last Sunday and we had a really nice time! The weather was perfect, nobody was grouchy, and we ran into two of our neighbors while we were out.


Lucy was really worried about sitting on the ground for this picture because, "Bugs might crawl on my buns!"


We walked around a beach area not far from where we live. There were all sorts of interesting old buildings, gardens, and stone walls. The kids are checking out a colony of hermit crabs on a rock.


Jake was in charge of brushing Miley's post-nap hair before we left.


As un-fond as I am of pictures of my back-side, I really like this one that Jake took. Not so much for my back-side as for the kids walking along not fighting.


Miles thinks we're all insane.


Maybe he's right.


This was one of those "I have a great idea for a picture! I just need to stage it." pictures. I rarely do that because they never work out. My exact directions were, "Everyone look at me and have a nice look on your face." Like I said, they never work out.

Happy Belated Birthday America!

I LOVE the 4th of July! Anytime I can go lay on the ground and watch exploding things while eating more than I should, I'm there! We had a great time this year, as the weather was a little chilly (in past years we've lived in Phoenix, Dallas, and L.A), the food was good, there were friends all around, and we only had one minor injury (falling firework ash in Lucy's eye).

I make star sugar cookies every year, and every year, my kids lick off all the frosting and then hand me the slimy carcass for more frosting.


We wait until we're there to put the frosting on so as not to have a bag of goo upon arrival.


We brought lots of toys to keep us all happy while we waited. Playing dodge ball with the blow up beach balls was a big hit. The patriotic whistles were not so well received by the adults and surrounding celebrators. (sorry, Adam!)


I tried to get a good picture since they were all clean at once, but Miles kept chucking the ball as far away as he could so he could watch Jake run after it.


He finally got wise to our plan and bolted, but luckily Jake's pretty quick on his feet.


So, we'll settle for this as a representative picture of the festivities. This is about how the whole night went anyway.

Thank you honey

Sorry everyone, but Jake "fixed" our blog and our computer. I can no longer post because it requires 20 minutes of pleading with the computer to give me a picture, multiple signed release forms and a rain dance to produce one post. I haven't got that much time anymore since I spend so much time catching up on my soaps and eating all those bon-bons. So, until he teaches me how to do it faster or "fixes" it back, you'll have to use your imagination to figure out what we look like.

At least he's feeding somebody!

Miles hasn't been interested in food lately. He's starting to get really skinny again and we're trying every trick we know. At least his doll, Cookie, is eating well.
Oh, and Happy Birthday to my loverly friend, Courtney.

I love the beach!

Every afternoon, it seems, when we get too warm or bored, we grab our beach bag and head over to the beach. It takes less than 10 minutes to get there, it's considerably cooler, and my kids LOVE it.
We always go with our little girly friends (I guess I can't call them that anymore, since they just had a brother) and swim, dig, run, crab hunt, build until their exhausted. Lucy's not allowed to get her head under because of tubes, but she gets pretty close.


Miley especially loves to steal the straws out of everyone's drinks on the sand.


He's also really fond of tasting sand, even though (or maybe especially because) I keep telling him to knock it off.