Hard Work

All this jumping has worn me out!

Frogging Day 2

After the major meltdown and broken heart the first day we let the frogs go I decided we would get some more frogs from the pool today with the understanding that we were going to let them go and they would eventually jump away. Once we had that understanding we headed back to the neighbor's pool and scooped up THIRTEEN MORE frogs. I will say that these ones were MUCH smarter and harder to catch. They obviously got the memo about the crazy lady with 2 boys who may look nice, but will remove you from the pool and proceed to baptize you. We were able to catch all the frogs that were in the pool at that time, but since then they keep coming back even though the neighbors have been adding chemicals and all sorts of tricks to keep them out. This is just one more reason this mama is happy THEY have the pool and we don't. (I will probably be super jealous when it's 100 degrees out and they are chillin by the pool, but I am hoping our attempt to help with the frogs will get us at least 1 invite to the pool).

Ty looks like the Frog Ranger. He's in charge and means business.

Day 2 and we have another bucket full!

A little action shot.

We decided that we would let them go in the backyard and just watch them instead of taking them to the pond.

I was really impressed with how brave Myles was with the frogs. He even decided he was going to try to catch one on his own.

I LOVE these pictures. He was trying to hard to catch them, but each time they jumped right as he was about to do it he would laugh his little heart out. SOOOOO much fun. We could have played out there for hours.

Ty on the other hand had NO desire to touch them, but was kind enough to offer them his pretzels.

Myles was trying so hard to teach him how to catch them.

So close!!!

My little frogger

And that's how we do it in Kentucky!

Frogging

Earlier in the year we got an AWESOME blessing in the form of new neighbors. We already loved our neighborhood and were insanely happy with the neighbors we have, but the vast majority of the neighbors are more in the "retired" state of mind rather than the "chasing after kids" state of mind. Our new neighbors, Todd and Elizabeth, have 2 girls who are almost exactly the same age as Ty and Natalie. Ty and Elaine or less than 2 weeks apart in age and Natalie and Cora are only 1 day apart. ANYWAY.....They did the same thing we did with their house, bought it, tore it apart, and built it back up. Yet another reason we love them. They are just as crazy as we are! Well last week with all the nice weather their pool was invaded by frogs. When Elizabeth told me she was grossed out by "all the frogs" I just didn't understand what she was talking about. She said there had to be 15 of them I KNEW she wasn't exaggerating, but I just didn't think it could be real. Let me tell you, it was real!!! I told her we would come take some for the boys to see and play with and that is exactly what we did. I went over with all 3 kiddos and we had a BLAST scooping frogs out of the pool. By the time we got to THIRTEEN frogs I was kind of grossed out myself so I figured that was enough for the day. Neither of the boys would touch them, but they did like them. I really had no idea what we were going to do with them and I wanted to get them away from her house as much as possible so we took them to the pond behind our house.

Loving all the frogs he saw!!

Watch out frogs!!! The frog catchers are in town.

I love how focused they are at getting the job done.

Every good frog catcher needs his sippy cup close by because it's hard work!

Day #1 and this is our catch. Not too shabby!

So here we are at the pond behind our house. This pond actually belongs to the church and is where they do Baptisms at Easter! One of our sermons recently said that as Christians we should try to help bring at least 1 person a year to Jesus and have them be Baptized. I figured what is good for humans is good for frogs too. So now people can say "Holy Frogs" and have a different meaning.

Taking charge and dumping them out for their Baptism.

I think they were saying "Praise God!"....or not...

This is just disturbing....

Here is the day ended. In all our fun and excitement I forgot to explain to Myles that we were letting the frogs go FOR GOOD and we would not be bringing them home with us. Poor boy. He was devastated and I was not going to head back down to the water to try to re-catch one. I told him we would head back to pool and get more tomorrow. He was ok with that and we got in the van and rode home in peace and quiet, minus 13 frogs.

5 Months!!

Yet another month has sneaked by us and we could not be more in love with our sweet baby girl. This month has been a HUGE month of growth. I feel like she is totally out of the infant stage and into the mover stage. She has had MANY changes this month and has handled them so well. She is just such a good baby!! The first big change was transitioning her to formula. I was not really planning to go to formula yet, but she was not allowing Nat to take care of her and he was getting pretty frustrated. I want them to have a great bond and it was just not working well so we decided to change it up and she is doing much better now that she knows daddy can give her everything that mommy can give her. We did have a little scare when 48 hours after changing her to formula she had a "reaction" to it. Changing her to a soy formula seems to have been the answer. Rolling has been a new game that she has perfected. It took her about a week, but she can now roll all the way across the room and the days of putting her down and expecting her to be in the same spot when we get back are done. With the rolling came the end of the swaddling at bedtime. I am STILL amazed, but it only took one night of letting her cry it out and she is back to sleeping through the night. Such a little champ. Her newest favorite toy is her jumperoo. She can get those legs kicking and she just goes to town. She also loves being able to keep an eye on her every entertaining brothers while being safe and sound in the jumeroo. She has also really started finding her voice which I LOVE!! I realized I better start really working on her vocab so I am repeating MAMA as often as possible. (I am going to beat Nat on this one for sure!!) The final "victory" for Mama is that Natalie's hair is growing finally and we were able to put a bow in her hair WITHOUT the headband. I love my little girl looking like the sweet thing I know she is.
I totally stole this from a friend's blog and I LOVE the little facts each month so I am going to start keeping track of this.

Weight - 13.6 pounds
Diaper Size - 2
Clothing Size - 3-6 Month
Sleeping - Bed at 10 pm and wake around 7:30am
Naps- One nap from 10-11 and a second from 2-4

Here area few pics of our sweet baby girl. I even added a video of one of her first successful times rolling over.

This is a more accurate picture of the stage we are in....MOVING!

Looks like someone has outgrown the baby chair.

Nat's Birthday

Nat is now 35 and better than ever!! I wish all his old girlfriends could see these pics and see how much they are missing out and how BLESSED we are to have snagged him. :-) When I asked him how he wanted to spend his big day he said, "I just want to be with my family, eat pizza, and have my lemon cake".  Pretty simple request. We are officially in "that phase" of life and couldn't love it any more!!  Here's to another great year!!

Getting some extra help with all those candles!

I LOVE them all so much it hurts!! I can't look at this picture without being thankful to God for getting us to this place in our lives together

Daddy and his little lady. Perfect way to end the night.

Wonder Why.....

I wonder why it's so hard for me to get ANYTHING done around here...Oh wait...here is my answer.....

 

At least they are cute and fun to watch. I guess laundry will have to wait another day.

GREAT Aunt

 

When I think of a great aunt I tend to think of this.... I learned this weekend that there is a big difference between a "great aunt" and a "GREAT Aunt". The common term, great aunt simply refers to your mother or father's aunt. GREAT Aunt is the same, but there is AWESOMENESS seeping from her pores.
Well....turns out Myles, Ty, and Natalie scored BIG with their GREAT Aunt. Here is their GREAT Aunt Barb.

Last weekend we were truly blessed with a visit from my Aunt Barb. She is mom's sister from Atlanta. Barb is always such a gracious host to us when we visit her in Atlanta and I was THRILLED when she asked if she could visit us. She had a friend heading to Louisville and road with her and to Lex and stayed with us for the weekend. I don't think we could have crammed any more fun into the weekend. We even have plans in the works to have her come back in October to take in some horse races. I'm already counting down!
As you can see from the previous picture, Barb isn't scared to get dirty and PLAY with the kids and this is exactly why they LOVE her. She turns "great aunt" into "GREAT Aunt". We started Saturday morning with a little "adventure" to the pond and sand volleyball courts at the church behind our house. The boys played really well for about 45 minutes until the forces of the massive water puddles were just too strong to deny. They were, of course, wearing their mud boots and thought going through the puddles was a great idea. After about 17.5 seconds Ty fell completely in the puddle and Myles wasn't far behind. They loved it and I just kept reminding myself what my sister Jenny taught me....BOYS ARE WASHABLE! By the time we got home they had as much water in their boots as was left in the puddles. I always say that you know you've had a lot of fun when you need to completely strip down to your underoos before walking in the house. We obviously had a GREAT time.
Sunday was the first day that we really had the AMAZING warm weather. We started the day with a scenic drive around looking at horse farms. Myles was able to keep his carsickness in check and we only had to stop once to deal with his urge to get lose his lunch. Just like his mama, poor boy. The rest of the day included a picnic and playtime outside. Myles was extremely bummed to see Barb leave and even told me the next day, "Mom, I love you, but I love Aunt Barb more". Sweet boy. I feel some kind of blessed to have such a wonderful family who wants to visit us and who loves my kiddos so much.

 Here is Natalie all ready for our adventure with Barb. This is what happens when you are the 3rd child....You have to wear your brothers' clothes AND you don't even get gloves for your sweet, little hands, you get your brothers' socks.  In my defense, she is warm.....FAR from fashionable, but warm and happy!!

 Proof that there is no age limit to these things.:-)

 Sand castle fun. She was even a trouper when he wanted to knock them down.

 Bringing back hopscotch, baby. This really is a good workout if you do it long enough.

 Pure happiness from a little boy and his GREAT Aunt.

**Disclaimer....YES, Ty was a part of the weekend, but for some odd reason I only took pictures when he was inside napping. (By "odd reason" I mean when he was napping I was finally able to take a break from being the official referee between him and Myles and take pictures.)