Bluebonnets, bunnies & bumps

This week has been incredibly busy, but I know that is no excuse for you blog addicts. Good news is that I love my new camera and have already taken over 600 pictures with it! With such cute kids around me all the time, how do I not take pictures? Last week was a tough one for Wyatt. He just couldn't stay on his feet. His first major crash happened while walking through the living room and he tripped on his sandals (the shoes I loathe) and went face first into Noah's little armchair. that left a bruise covering his whole left cheek. The next day he did something (no one else was in the room, but I think it involved the bunkbed ladder) and acquired a good scrape beneath his left eye and he tore that little flap of skin that connects your upper lip to your gums. Later that day we went to a birthday party for a little friend of his and he fell at least three times. He fell so many times past two weeks that he became attached to 'Mrs. Helpful' (character shaped ice pack) and he took her wherever he went until she finally got a hole and began oozing goo. Poor Wyatt. Noah was 'star of the week' at preschool last week. That means he got to take pictures of his family to school with him to show his class and also do show-and-tell. He took Herbie and his favorite Cars cars to show. He was so excited to get up in front of everyone and talk about his stuff. His class is also rehersing for an end of the year program. He talks about it all the time and can't wait to be up on stage on the big night. I guess we don't have to worry about stage fright or fear of public speaking for him. Last Saturday we went to Skylar's 2nd b-day party. Maggy the Happy Clown did a little performance, painted faces and make baloon animals. It was Noah first time to have his face painted. He chose to be a rabbit- not a tiger- a rabbit. Greg gave a little 'humph' when the clown put blush on his cheeks. He was the cutest little bunny I had ever seen. The clown painted a yellow happy face to hide Wyatt's bruised cheek. Monday of this week Christie and Ben met us at the Wildflower Center to picnic and romp in the pretty flowers. It is the perfect place to let boys be boys. They ran, climbed, chased butterflies, swung big sticks, admired planes and trucks, hunted bugs, threw rocks in the water, stomped on bluebonnets and just had a good ol' time. There is a section where they have put in a picturesque little babbling brook that winds around, tumbling over rocks and running beneath little bridges. Little boys, flowing water and rocks are not always to best combination. Early on Ben almost fell head first into the babbling brook, but Christie literally caught him by one foot and pulled him up- I wish I had been quicker with the camera. Then the boys were doing pretty good just playing at the edge. And right when Christie and I relaxed a little and let our guard down, Ben was lying in the middle of the little stream (again, I wish I had the camera out faster). It was really shallow and narrow so he was in no danger of drowning, in fact, after getting over the initial shock, he probably would have preferred to stay in the water. But we got him out, soaked chest to toes. Wyatt was very concerned about his wet clothes and tried to help wipe him off. He spent the rest of trip in his soggy diaper and onesie. The rest of the week I have spent doing church stuff, taking kids to the doctor (just check-ups) and helping out a friend who is pregnant and on total bed-rest. The bluebonnet picture at the top was taken in a field in front of our church. After two planned photo sessions, one at the lake and one at the Wildflower Center, the best picture I got of Noah in the bluebonnets was taken spur of the moment while we were just goofing around in the field a couple evenings ago. The last picture is of my beautiful rose. Two years ago Greg gave me thorny twig in a pot for Valentine's Day (the "dumb, made up, retailer's holiday" he doesn't usually celebrate). Now the twig is a gorgeous rose bush with humungo flowers on it. So now, in the spring and summer, every couple of days, Greg gets me rose.

Thanks Uncle Sam!

I got a new camera! I'm so excited. It is awesome. Gotta love tax returns (and generous husbands)! I didn't get the camera until after Easter so I do not have any pictures from Easter. I was bummed I didn't have my new camera, plus mom and Dori were around with their fancy ones. So you have to wait for one of them to upload their pictures. This blog is filled with pictures taken in the past two days with my new camera. As for Easter, There will be no cute pictures of little darlings dressed in pretty pastels running through green grass to find brightly colored eggs. Since it was a miserably dreary weekend with rain and 38 degree temps, the best we could do were kids wearing sweatshirts purchased on clearance from Wal-Mart the day before, finding eggs in piles of laundry and life jackets in the lakehouse basement. However, the eggs were brightly colored and beautiful. Turned out that an egg hunt on a cement floor with a two and one year old is not the best idea. Immediately following the egg hunt was a boiled egg breakfast. Dacy and Wyatt loved the egg dying. Jon and Noah did about six each and went back to playing cars while Dacy and Wyatt could have dyed eggs all day long if we had let them. Even though we had a lot of fun, I can't really think of anything else to write about about our Easter weekend. Friday we attempted to take pictures of the four kids in bluebonnets. I think we may have gotten a few good ones. We'll see what Dori posts. The kids were pretty cooperative, but it is just really hard to get four little ones to look the same direction at the same time without any tongues out, noses running, hands flailing or eyes closing. We did not have an dancing dogs or Papas this time to entertain them. The rest of the weekend was eating, cleaning up kids spills, washing dogs, eating, playing games, cleaning up kid spills, eating, playing games, etc. So far this week has just been an enjoyable, playful week with the boys. I spent most of today in the garden weeding, planting and murdering aphids. Yesterday we found a dead lizard (from his physical condition, he probably died of natural causes) and the boys and I gave him a proper memorial service and burial. So when Wyatt found a rubber lizard today he attempted to bury it in the garden. It is still sitting by my tomatoes. Maybe it will scare off some bad bugs. So my new camera takes great pictures but I still have a lot to learn about it and I am not a skilled photographer by any means. But do expect to see more pics on here and my flickr. This last picture is Wyatt thinking "now mom has really lost it- she is laying in the front yard taking pictures of the sky."

2nd Annual Egg-stravaganza

We did lots of fun stuff this past weekend. Friday night our wonderful neighbors watched the boys and Greg and I went on a date. We went to a shwainky new bowling alley in Austin. There were colored dancing lights, black lights, the balls and pins glowed in the dark, there were numerous huge projection screens hanging over the lanes playing music videos, really loud music and a waiter for every lane. It was pretty fun, a little expensive and really loud. Afterward, we hung out in SoCo (that is South Congress for those out of touch with the hip Austin scene). There happened to be some big custom roadster rally. The street was lined with homemade hotrods and motorcycles. We had great pizza at some little trendy hot spot- again, it was expensive and loud. We enjoyed our date night and it was even better to come home to sleeping kids and a peaceful house. Saturday we went to a family friendly dinner party at Christie and Che's. I think there were about seven couples there and almost everyone had two kids. It was a little chaotic, but a lot of fun. We met some really cool new people and had a delicious dinner on the deck. I don't have any pictures from it but some may pop up on Christie's blog. Wyatt skinned his knee pretty good and one kid ate a slug, but everything else went rather smoothly. We headed on to Mama G's that night for more festivities the next day. Sunday was the second annual Easter egg hunt in Point Venture. Big crowd. I think there were something like 16 kids- one age 7 and the rest were four and under. But Mama G was very well organized with personalized egg buckets for each kid and 300 plastic goody-filled eggs. After a big, yummy lunch and the egg hunt, there was a chocolate fountain and all kinds of stuff to dip in it (is there anything you can't dip in chocolate?). Thankfully, the kids were busy with play dough and cupcakes out on the deck so the grown-ups could act like kids inside with the chocolate. I think Greg and his dad enjoyed the constructing and engineering of the fountain just as much as the chocolate itself. Dene, Mckenna and Avery were there Sat. night and Sun. as well, so the kids were able to spend some quality time with their cousins. The picture of all the kids lined up are all of Memaw's great-grandchildren- except for Trudy (second on the left) who is a grandchild. The last picture is Noah and Wyatt in the bathtub Sunday night. They received soap as one of their Easter Gifts. It was like silly putty so you could shape it. Noah's was red and, as you can see, the red made everything red. I gave them their soap to use and then went to set out their jammies and put some stuff in the laundry. Meanwhile Noah decided to wash himself and Wyatt with the red soap. It did not wash off. The next day Noah's hands and chest were bright pink and Wyatt's face and hair were also pink.

I think I will start with a Wyatt update. Like I have said before, he is talking. He will repeat any word you ask him to. Of course, it is all very much toddler-speak. Bugs, trains, dad, new dogs, boats and the little girl across the street make him laugh and squeal. All boy for sure. This first picture is blog-worthy because of the sandals he has on. They were passed on to me by a friend who also has two boys. From the minute I pulled them out of the bag Wyatt has decided to love them. For the first three days he even wore them to bed. He has worn them every day in the past (almost) two weeks! They are a little big and have rubbed blisters on his poor toes. But he still insists on wearing them. I have been able to limit him to only wearing them outside and on trips so his toes can have some time to heal. Those sandals have become my biggest enemy. He and I have had more arguments and tantrums over those silly things...ugh. I'd throw them away if I didn't think it would really and truly break his heart! Here is another picture of Wyatt (notice the sandals) playing with his Mozart Cube- it plays several pieces and you can choose, by pushing a side, which instruments perform the song. It was funny to watch him carrying it around the house on his shoulders like an 80's boombox- bustin' a move to Mozart. The past month or so I have been taking the boys to our local library for the weekly story time. The boys love the books, silly songs and crafts. Noah even got his own library card and every week we check out a few books. Last week Christie and Ben came over for a visit. My Flickr has some pictures from that day. We took the three boys to the library story time and then went to a huge new park nearby. There, the boys ran amuck on the playground and drenched themselves playing in the fountain. Christie accidentally whacked Ben in the head with a toy back hoe and gave him a big ol' goose egg, but that was the only noteworthy injury of the day. So I'd say we did pretty good.