TTT: Season 3, Episode 32

1. We had our first bout with summer sickness this week. Everybody gets a little sick at least once each summer, right? Like a little summer cold. No? Well for us it was a fun little baby virus called Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease. It typically only afflicts littles aged six months to four years, and wouldn't you know it, all three of mine fit in to that category and all three picked it up. Grant was the first and the worst. You know this fella is sick when he actually sits with me and lets me cuddle him. When he's well, our cuddles last no more than five seconds. He woke on Friday morning with an obvious fever and nothing more. Poor guy, you could just tell he couldn't get comfortable. I went ahead and got him a doctor's appointment since it was Friday and I didn't want to get stuck on the weekend with an ER trip if things got worse. And sure enough, by the time we went to his appointment, he had a noticeable rash all over his feet, legs, hands, and even a little around his neck. The doctor swabbed him for strep but when it came back negative and his ears also looked fine, he checked his throat (which wasn't hard at all as Grant was wailing in sheer terror over the fact that I laid him down on the exam table) and he confirmed that is throat looked just like the rash he had elsewhere. By Saturday Reagan was also running a fever, though no rash. The two of them were finally cleared up by Monday and I assumed that Kolbe had dodged the bullet. But on Tuesday he too had a fever that just lasted one day. Now we are all finally cleared and healthy. And after a week and a half absence, we made it to the pool today! Call me selfish, but a summer illness that mama doesn't have to worry about getting isn't too bad after all!

2. As I've mentioned many times before, my shop has taken off this year in a way that I never could have anticipated. And due to it's growing success, it has really left me with very limited time to do projects for our home. We moved in last May, just weeks before Grant was born, and over the past fourteen months, I've spent the majority of my time caring for a new baby, taming wild animals raising two young boys, and managing my growing shop. Needless to say, though I look around my home day after day thinking of all the things I'd like to do to improve it's 'homey-ness," nearly all of it has gone un-done. Partially due to money, but largely due to time. (Not every home improvement project has to break the bank!) In fact, several of the projects I've been planning have already been bought and paid for...just remain incomplete in the form of cans of paint, piles of fabric, etc. I've already picked the colors, bought the supplies, and yet it sits undone as I certainly can't do it while the kids are awake and free time during the day is all spent filling orders from my shop. So I've decided that it's time for a little break. My little helper, Angelina, will be going back to school in two more weeks, so I'm going to utilize her help for the time being and then shut down shop for a week to tackle some projects. Hopefully by next week I'll have a clear outline of all I want to conquer, but for now, I'm just looking forward to actually doing some of the projects I've had planned for quite some time.

3. A few more days and the summer Olympics will be over. And, thankfully, I'll be able to return to my normal bed time! One of my favorite things that I've loved noticing in our boys as they've watched the games is their observations of the athletes. While they do take note of certain features such as long hair, baldness, tattoos, etc, they have yet to ever point out the color of someone's skin as his/her outstanding feature. For example, Rudy tells me the other night, "Hey Mama, that guy with the brown head is real bald." (referring to Usain Bolt...so obviously he's aware that Bolt is Black, but finds his baldness more notable.) And then from Kolbe: "She has a long pony tail like yours." (referring to Allyson Felix) My parents raised me well. They raised me to never ever even notice or consider a difference is a person based on their skin color. We lived in Germany, San Antonio, TX, Columbus, MS...plenty of places where we were exposed to people of different races. None, of course, can quite compare with our time in Mississippi. I remember walking in to a Burger King on our very first trip from Lubbock to Columbus and suddenly becoming very aware that the people in my family of seven were the only white people in the entire building. I told my mom "Mom, we're the only white people in here." And she replied with, "That's okay. That's just how it is in Mississippi." And that's just how it was. I quickly learned that not everyone was raised the way I was. In fact, most weren't. They were raised from very early on to notice a difference. To assume a difference in color meant a difference in quality. Lord, I am so thankful that I was raised to know better. To know more. To respect life in all shapes, sizes, stages, and shades. To know that people are people and my opinion of them should be based on their actions and words alone. And oh, I pray that my babies will feel the same way. So far, it makes me so happy to see that they quickly point out the fact that someone's accent sounds funny instead of the fact that his eyes aren't shaped the same as theirs. I'm certain that in time they will be exposed to opinions from others that don't matter, but I just hope that we will have raised them well enough to recognize the ones that do.

Snuggling with my sick guy...at least he still knows what "Say cheese!" means.

We had a nice rain shower on Sunday afternoon and once the thunder and lightening passed, we took the opportunity to play in the summer rain. The boys had a blast!

My handsome crew

Does this say 'summer fun' or what!?! Grant loved making mud pies!

Listening to thunder on the front porch...I can't believe my baby is almost five.

Even Grant has gotten in to the Olympics!

Working on their synchronized diving routine

My future Michael Phelps!

Kolbe, my little artist, loves working on pictures during his daily quiet time. After finishing a picture this week, he showed me where he had written "Pa" at the time, as Pa (my dad) was to be the lucky recipient. I told him we could hold on to it until the next time we saw Pa but he told me that he wanted to mail it to him instead. Thus begain our first lesson in envelope addressing. He was so proud of his first piece of out-going mail! I think I better stop by the post office and pick up some more stamps...he's ready to send Kolbe-grams to everyone!

TTT: Season 3, Episode 31

1. I now interrupt my incessant viewing of Olympic events to bring you my weekly blog post. I'll be brief. Thankfully, my DVR is on pause, and really, let's be honest, if my DVR was nonexistent, I'd probably be skipping this week's post and rolling it in to next. How did I manage to watch the summer games four years ago with a newborn and no DVR!?! Sheesh. Shamelessly addicted to modern technology. Anyhow, I'll admit that I have managed to keep the TV off most of the day and have strictly used the DVR to record the events I want to watch, but I'm not kidding when I say that I've stayed up till at least midnight every night since Friday watching all of the events. So yes, I'm a bit tired. But it's well worth it! I only have two complaints: 1) I don't like not being able to watch live. (Yes, I know it's available on the internet, but let's get real people.) They leave things out when it's not live. Like if the Americans are doing horrible, they just cut to another country. I still want to see USA, misses and all. 2) The USA's gray podium jackets are ug-ly. Perfect Dr. Evil Halloween costume attire. Couldn't they have at least gone with white? Or navy? Heck, it doesn't have to be blaring red or have stars and stripes all over it, but at least something that might even come close to saying, "Hey, those might be Americans." I've loved all the swimming and of course the gymnastics, but I'm ready to start seeing some track now. Go Team USA!

2. Amidst my jumbled mix of life, work, and Olympics, we managed to get to spend some time this week with my brother, Mike, his wife, Casey, and their babes, Jackson and Kennedy. They were passing back through from Alabama on their way home to Mountain Home, Idaho and got to stay for several nights. Since they live so far away, the times we get to see them are few and far between so we feel bless that we got to see them not just once, but twice this summer, and they'll be back for Christmas this year too! Jackson is the cutest little fella and follows along great with the big cousins, Kolbe and Rudy. And Kennedy and Grant were so cute babbling back and forth at each other. Okay, I'll be honest...Grant would screech to get attention and then Kennedy would echo him in response. Ha! We sure wish they lived closer! And I'm pretty sure that with their visit, our summer "events" are pretty much over. Back to normal life for now.

3. It's August. Just five more months left in 2012. Starting to have thoughts of Oh yeah, remember that bucket list you created? Are you going to be one of those people that tries to get it all done in the month of December? No, not you. Get off your butt...okay, after the Olympics....get off your butt and get some of these done! So have I made any progress? The water drinking (#1) is still hit and miss, though I have a great old friend who sends me email reminders from time to time. An accountability partner of sorts! But I've discovered that part of my hatred of drinking tons of water is having to go to the bathroom all the time. I don't like to be interrupted for such trivial things. Ha! I did try some sushi that Mark brought home a few weeks ago so the trying new foods (#2) thing is going alright. As for the sushi, it was just eh. Not bad, not great. Needed salt. Blog more often (#7) is slipping. I'm behind all the way back to Grant's first birthday. And a lot has happened since then! Maybe I'll make that my mission this week. Or when the Olympics are over. One horn that I can definitely toot and check off my list is #21-meet my yearly business goal for my shop. Seriously. It's August 2nd and I've already met it. Never in a million years did I think my business would become so legit, but it did. And it's kind of cool. Keeps me living in a constant state of action and semi-stress but I've determined that that's just how I like to operate. If I didn't have it, I'd find a way to create it. I don't sit still easily.

Kind of short on pictures this week. ...What? You wanted a shot of me sitting on the couch with a large ice water watch gymnastics? I'll save that for next week.

We did another pinterest activity this week--glowsticks in the bath! Rudy stumbled into the Target dollar/junk area at the front of the store while I was strapping Grant in to the cart and came out with a $1 package of 15 glowsticks. He asked what they were and I immediately remembered the pin from Pinterest and tossed them in the cart. They had a blast with their illuminated bath water and stayed in long after if was no longer warm.

At night I love to lay in bed with the boy and tell them stories or chit chat and Kolbe has been asking a lot about heaven and Jesus lately. The older they get, the more we tell them about how Jesus died and why and what happened when he was on the cross. A few days ago I was sprawled out on the carpet just wrestling around with the boys and Kolbe asked me to hold out my arms. After I did, he took his American flag stick and started tapping it into my arm and said, "So you can be like Jesus." Sweet boy. Simple, but also so symbolic.

We had dinner down at the waterway on Monday night and fed the fish in the water afterwards with Jackson. While there were tons of little fish as always, there was also several huge catfish. Like 4-5 pounders! If you had a line and a hook, you could have dinner!

My baby. His eyes get bluer, his hair gets blonder, his tan gets darker (for real, he's dark!), and his screech gets louder. Any tips for a screamer!?! It wasn't that bad until the summer and now it has become his sole way of getting attention. And there's only so long you can do the just-pretend-you-don't-hear-it-because-if-you-acknowledge-it-he'll-keep-doing-it. Especially in public. Ugh!

TTT: Season 3, Episode 30

1. I've long professed my love of Pinterest, the internet "pinboard" that many have become hooked on. I started pinning right around the time that Grant was born and it kept me awake through many, many late nights of nursing. And yes, I'll admit that there are quite a few Pinterest inspired home decor items in our home. Hey, moving in to a new house just shortly before joining Pinterest was just too perfect of a match! But I'm definitely guilty of the long running Pinterest joke summing up to pinning hundreds of things that you never actually do. There's tons of fantastic ideas, just not always the time and funds to make them happen. That being said, I've been trying to go back through and do some of the fun summer related ones that I knew the boys would love back when I pinned them. This past week I had to run to Home Depot for an air filter and while we were there we picked up a large, plastic painter's tarp. The next morning, we folded it in half and taped up the three open sides, filled the whole thing with water and then had a blast on our massive backyard water bed. It kept the big boys entertained for a full two hours, and really, the fun only ended because the water bed got too hot to touch!

2. I mentioned last week that my helper, Angelina, started helping me out last week. She has been coming over for a couple of hours on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and man, have I ever been grateful for her help! I've been keeping her busy with cutting fabric, a task I had gotten used to doing several times a week at night after Mark and the kids were in bed. She's also been able to help out with editing pictures for me and has been learning the fine art of creating baby linens. Bless her heart, she's done really well with keeping up with my "scattered-ness." I try to have my act together when she shows up, but it doesn't always happen that day. For example, today, right as she was walking in, Rudy went streaking across the room in all his naked glory! He had snuck out of his room where he was supposed to be napping to go to the bathroom and was apparently not able to his skivvies back on. But I've really enjoyed getting to know Angelina so far and am loving that I finally have some scheduled help with my shop!

3. Can we all just pause for a moment in recognition of the fact that the opening ceremonies for the Summer Olympics is tomorrow!?! yay, YaY, YAAAY! I know I'm really a dork when it comes to this, but I love the Olympics. I prefer summer, but the winter ones are good too. It's all just so fun to me...the competition, the pageantry, the emotion...all of it. Plus, the back stories just add to the drama of it all. It's kind of like an awesome reality TV series that's on every day and night for two straight weeks. And I think all of us at one time or another dream/wish/imagine what it would be like to be completely all-in 100% dedicated to something to point of being the best in the world. (I mean, if being a mom was an Olympic event, I'd at least want to give it a shot. Ha!) But anyhow, I'm going to give the boys a week or so of putting up with my obsession so they can see what it's really about and then I'm planning to have our own little kiddie Olympics. While checking out at Joann a few weeks ago, I spotted play Olympic medals in the dollar bin and knew we just had to have our own version of the games. Can't wait!

Playing on the water bed

I tried to stick a beach umbrella out in the yard to provide a little shade but it still got pretty hot!

My boys have their dad's skin. All three of them! Lucky boys! Sun screen or not, they never burn. Just get darker. Not me. Jealous. So now they all have adorable little white fannies.

Aaaaaand the fourth picture in a row that my kids aren't fully clothed! Hey, it's summer time! Just enjoying a little lunch after getting home from the pool.

My boys. I love this picture. Love. 'Cause this is just exactly how they are. Hanging with Dad on an early weekend morning, this is how I imagine them in my mind.

TTT: Season 3, Episode 29

1. Itellyouwhat, last Friday when I sat down to write my late blog post, I certainly had no idea what I had in store for the rest of the day! With Ben and Erin in town (and other family scheduled to arrive that night), the plan was to take the kiddos over to my parents, have a little double date at a local restaurant, and then head back to my parents where hopefully Pat, Abby, Andy, and nephews would have arrived. Instead, when we arrived at my parents house, I was greeted with an awesome surprise 30th birthday party! Being the goon that I am (and my mind being a million other places than at a party) my first reaction upon walking in the door and seeing a huge crowd of people dressed up in sombreros and fake mustaches was more of confusion that surprise. I spun around to see if the surprise was for someone behind me, and really, it took me a sec to realize it was for me! I was expecting to see some people (the aforementioned Pat, Andy, Abby...) but then there were plenty more who I had no idea were coming out to surprise me. My cousin Mandi, her husband Joe, and their three little ones drove all the way down from Lubbock just for the weekend to be at the party. My cousin Kristen came over from Austin. Our good friends Jared and Katie were in town for the wedding but drove up from Katy for the party. And of course my beloved local aunt and uncle, Kirk and Cathy and cousin Helen were there too. I can only speak for myself, but I think it's safe to say that a LOT of fun was had by all! The house was strewn with fiesta decor and a plethora of pictures of yours truly throughout the years. Plus plenty of good Mexican food from Berryhill, Mexican beer and my dad's margaritas, my favorite German chocolate cake...I know...that totally busted the whole Mexican theme, ha!...and the most awesome homemade pinata ever! You know, I may not get to see my family all that often or my nearest and dearest friends, but can I just say that between this weekend and the one we spent with Mark's family on my actual birthday, it's very safe to say that I have the best family and friends in the whole world. I look at my life and see how richly God has blessed me and am just so thankful. Any chance I can turn thirty again next year!?!

2. So after the huge hullabaloo that was my 30th birthday party, we got to spend an enjoyable Saturday morning with Mandi and her crew, and Erin and Jacob. It was fun to have the kids together and certainly made me reminisce on our days in Lubbock. Then it was time to get ready for Lisa's wedding. As discussed in last week's post, the rain decided to make it's daily appearance right as we were leaving for the church, but luckily it cleared up just in time. Lisa's wedding was beautiful! I did spend a good majority of the time in the back with tweedledoo, but quickly discovered that the back isn't exactly a bad place when attending a wedding mass. I got to see every last bit of it...without having to stand on tippy toes or lean around someone! After the wedding, we headed back to The Woodlands for the reception. It was held at a local Country bar/restaurant that is famous for hosting country artists in a more intimate setting. It was perfect for Lisa's Texas themed reception. We may have pushed the kids a bit by dancing the night away, but hey, we only get to attend a wedding every so often so exceptions just have to be made! Plus, they were having a blast too. Most of all, we loved getting to see Miss Lisa in love. It was so refreshing to see a couple just completely head over heals for each other and completely proud and confident in their love for each other and God. Such a fun, fun night!

3. There's too many other things that I want to talk about so we'll go random for Numero Tres.
- We had so much fun with Ben, Erin, and Jacob. There was that awkward I-wonder-if-its-going-to-be-the-same-as-it-used-to-be question in our minds before they came. It was squashed the second they arrived. We love them. Mwah!
- My "shop assistant" started this week on Tuesday! Yaaaaaaaaaay! Especially since I got like nine million orders over the weekend while I wasn't working. She'll be back today to help again. She's adorable.
- My parents are awesome. They helped me with the boys Monday and Tuesday so I could get caught up a bit.
- I have hormonal issues. No, not of the psychotic nature. More of the dermatological nature. Anyone know what to do with dry bumpy patches on the face that just won't go away? They've been there in varying degrees of bad for a few months. I've tried: coconut oil, cetaphil lotion, neosporin, hydrocortisone, etc. All the usual suspects.
- Kolbe got on our bathroom scale yesterday and weighed thirty-five pounds. That's good for him! I was proud. Until he asked me how much I weigh. I told him one hundred pounds more than that. And his response was, "Wow, Mom. You're real fat." Didn't help with the hormonal issues.
- After the surprise party/wedding weekend, I now have two big blog posts of pictures I want to do. This one and the birthday extravaganza from a few weeks ago. Must. Get. Pictures. From. All. Cameras. Present!
- I know I already mentioned this once, but I love my life. Love, love, love it!

People that are awesome: My cousin, Mandi. She made this pinata for the party! And let me just tell you she did not go cheap on the cardboard! I had to go at it with a real baseball bat! And it was filled with plenty of "granny items", my favorite candies: Riesens, Reeses, Haribo gummies, Coke gummies, and butterscotch candies, lotto tickets, and little mini bottles of liquor. I suppose a little rum in my Coke after the kids go to bed isn't such a bad idea!

Rudy "mustache" you a question....Mom, so when are you going on your date!?! (he was obviously not let in on the secret!)

Helen, Pat, and Kristen...if ever there were three peas in a pod, it could easily be them.

Dancing with my Daddy...there's nothing in the world quite like it!

See! Not such a bad view from the back!

Partying cousins! (one of many, many pictures from the reception...can't wait to see and share more!)

Obligatory picture of Happy Baby! Because, really, he is that cute. And as of today, I think he's officially a walker!

TTT: Season 3, Episode 28

1. Yet another week of lateness...hey, at least this week I'm not a full week late! Our revolving door of house guests was busy spinning yesterday as our best buds Ben and Erin Johnson arrived with one of our godsons, Jacob. This is their first visit down to The Woodlands since we moved here and we're so excited to have them here! Plus, they're coming down to attend a dear friend's wedding along with a lot of our other Lubbock friends and family and we can't wait to see everyone! It's kind of like a Lubbock reunion of sorts, but on our turf! Two of my four brothers will be here, a sister-in-law, two nephews (one of which is our other godson) plus lots and lots of college friends...sounds like the recipe for a fun wedding weekend. We are really loving having visitors!!!

2. We gave Mr. Jacob Grant's room to sleep in so Grant is sleeping down in our room in his pack-n-play. Last night, when Mark and I went in to get ready for bed, our too-loud talking woke the little guy up and he was not having any part in going back to sleep right away. Since Mark had an early morning surgery, I took the fella out to the family room and gave him some milk. With the lights out, we curled up on the red rocking recliner and my baby Grant actually snuggled with me! I've said this before, and I'll say it again: Grant's sleeping habits are definitely a bittersweet aspect of his babyhood. He sleeps like a champ. Just toss him in the crib and he's done. No crying. Just instant sleep. But that's the only way he'll go to sleep. He never nursed to sleep. Never rocked to sleep. Heck, he never even wanted to be held to sleep! So 'sweet' in that he's a super easy baby to put down which is nice with two other little ones needing attention. But 'bitter' in that I've completely missed out on cuddling my baby which to me, feels so essential to being a mama. But back to the rocking recliner. He curled right up and rested his head just beneath my collar, closed his eyes, and went right on to sleep. And for ten wonderful minutes I soaked in all of his baby-ness. Listened to his sweet baby breaths, smelled his fluffy baby hair, felt his soft baby skin. Of course, every time I tried to pat his back or smooth his cheek, he fidgeted and squirmed, so just ten minutes it was, but a lovely ten minutes. He's growing so quickly and it feels like his baby-ness is fading right before my eyes. I'll want to kill for those exact same ten minutes in years to come.

3. Beyond preparing for our friends to arrive, this week has been a whole lot of nothing. The boys and I have felt a bit like caged animals due to one thing:

Last year I think we topped out at about a total of five or six rainy days the entire summer. This year, throughout May and June we had several rainy days but no more than one a week. But this past week has pretty much been non-stop. It's been at least a full week since we last went to the pool. And I won't lie--we've had several movie days recently! I've got active boys. And I'm a pretty stir crazy mama! So, while we do love not having to water the yard, we're not really fans of the non-stop variety of rain. I don't see how people in places like Seattle do it! It has been off and on, but still, at least some every. single. day. And don't you know that in Houston, it makes for one amazing steam pit of an outdoors when it's not raining! Here's to a dryer week...and hopefully a dry wedding for our good friend, Lisa!

I did a bad job of taking pictures this week... just a couple of the boys working on math!

TTT: Season 3, Episode 27

1. This week has been a little bit of saying goodbye to visitors, a little bit of back to life as normal, and with the 4th of July, of course a little bit of celebrating! G-ma left town on Saturday and we were so sad to see her go. Visits from G-ma are much anticipated and thoroughly enjoyed by both the boys and me. What little kid wouldn't love cramming all the fun things you normally do in the summer all in to one week!?! And what mama wouldn't love ending the week with absolutely no dirty laundry to do!?! G-ma is awesome and she sure does love her grandbabies. Now the countdown begins until Thanksgiving when we travel back to Lubbock for our next visit!

2. On Friday we all took Grant to his pediatrician for his one year check up. He weighed 23.5lbs and was 31" tall. Still in the 80th percentile for both, though I think it's funny how he was over twenty pounds at six months and only managed to gain a few more in the second six months of his life. If you were around this child and saw how wild active he is, you probably wouldn't be surprised! At one year old, Grant is quite the little man. He says 'mama,' 'dada,' and 'baba' (bye-bye). He waves, claps, blows kisses, gives high fives, and loves to dance. His absolute favorite activity is climbing stairs. And while he'll readily carry on a conversation with you in baby talk, his favorite method of communication is to scream. The boys steal his toy; he screams. He wants down from the high chair; he screams. He wants a drink; he screams. His shaggy blondish brown hair is wispy with just a bit of curl on the ends. And with just two top teeth and two bottom teeth, he has the most winsome baby smile ever. And oh, those blue eyes! Grant is our best laugher and worst crier. He doesn't cry that often, but when he does it's total devastation. End of the world! And he's by far our best sleeper and eater. For someone with so few teeth, he sure does know how to take down just about anything you give him. He hates purees and has always just wanted to eat whatever we're eating.  His favorites are bananas and peeled grapes. He's got an awesome baby tan and has finally given up his favorite past time of spitting up. Grant has been our slowest to start walking. Both Kolbe and Rudy were full-on walking at this age while Grant still prefers to crawl and does it at lightening speed. He'll take a step or two from here to there but if it's long distance, it's back to being a quadruped. Really, we love everything about Grant. He's just the sweetest, most lovable little guy around and Mark and I are reminded daily how blessed we are every time we catch a smile from our little Grant.

3. Mark had to work yesterday on the Fourth of July (yes, people still need heart surgery on holidays...), but we still had a good time celebrating. We practiced singing patriotic songs, and with the Olympics just around the corner, I'm determined to teach my kids the national anthem by the end of the summer. By the way, I'm beside myself with excited that the Olympics are almost here! Eek! I'm one of those people who are super obsessed, follow every event, and watch every. single. day. Thank goodness for DVR or no one would see me for two weeks. Including my kids. Ha! Anyhow, the big boys had their first experience with sparklers and loved it! Of course they were very cautious with the first few but then once they realized they wouldn't get burned by the sparkles, they were in love. Mark had to head on to bed, but my mom and I decided to load Kolbe and Grant up and take them to see the real fireworks show in The Woodlands. We took a tip from a friend of my dad and just went to the Home Depot parking lot near our house. We were able to see the fireworks really well and didn't have to fight the crowd! Independence Day has always been one of my favorite holidays, especially as a child. I can't wait until the boys get just a little bit older and we can really go all out with the festivities.

PS:
- I had Thai food this past week! We went to dinner with some of Mark's co-workers at a restaurant down in Houston. I went with something garlic-y instead of spicy and loved it!

Two brothers bowling

We love our G-ma!!!

Brusha, brusha, brusha!!!

We've been spending a lot of time at the pool! It's the only place to be other than indoors.

Doing sparklers with my little firecracker

Watching the real fireworks show on the hood of Pinkie's car

My little 4th of July boys!

TTT: Season 3, Episodes 25 AND 26

I know, I know.
I missed last week. Believe me...I heard about it from more than one source! And it still makes me blush just a little bit to know that there are people out there who knowingly go to check on our blog every Thursday without the blaring link on Facebook. You are all to kind to care for our family like you do!

Anyhow, two weeks have passed since I last wrote. Two action packed, totally chaotic, but immensely fun weeks! I did remember to write last Thursday; I just didn't do it. Because the next day I had eight orders to finish up, "closing ceremonies" for Vacation Bible School to attend, tons and tons a food to cook for arriving guest, oh, and a house to get ready, too. So I opted for sleep instead of writing. And the boys had been at VBS all week anyway, so really, I didn't have too much to talk about other everything I had accomplished with just Grant and me. And I could hear Mark singing Toby Keith's "I Wanna Talk About Me...." over and over in my head. So I just let Thursday pass on to Friday and swept the ol' blog under the rug.

But I'm back! And I've got a ton of pictures to unload on you. I think the photos will serve well to tell the stories of the past two weeks. Really, I know there are way too many, but editing anything out would just be impossible. So here we go!

Father's Day! Mark was on-call that morning but we greeted him with presents when he got back home. One of which was a Texas flag for his developing man-garage. See our mengy looking children? We remedied that later that day.

Gotta start a Father's Day race with a good three point stance. I think Rudy jumped the gun.

After eating Mexican food for lunch, we stopped by the barber shop next door and got hair cuts for the big boys. And no, we didn't leave Rudy's in a chili bowl. Had to get a picture of it though! We later had dinner at my parents and celebrated with Pa. Apparently I didn't take any pictures. :(

First day of Vacation Bible School! I was a little worried as this was the first time for the boys to do anything without Mama or another family member...ever. I know. Probably time to cut the cord a bit! The part that worried me was that our church's program ran from 8-3 every day. That's a looooong time for little guys! Especially Rudy with no nap. They were both put in the 4 year old class so Rudy could be with Kolbe and their teacher was a good friend of my mom's that I feel really comfortable with...we see her at mass weekly and she was a perfect fit for the boys. They loved it!

But Rudy looked like this every day once we got home! He still definitely needs his nap!

On Friday night, Uncle Brian, Aunt Cristi, G-ma, and Papa Jeep all arrived for our Birthday Extravaganza! Saturday morning we all woke up and went to the Rob  Fleming Aquatic Center...one of The Woodlands pools that has a full out adult size water slide, a lazy river, and a good kiddie section too. We had a blast!!!

The birthday boys getting a little swimming in!

On Saturday night, my mom came over and watched the boys so that all the adult Asmussens could go out for a nice dinner at Brio, home of my favorite meal...the gogonzola steak. Mark's dad, aka Papa Jeep, was turning sixty on Sunday and I was turning thirty on Monday so we got to do a little pre-celebrating sans kiddos. Here are the original Asmussens!

And then with the "outlaws" included!

Kolbe did a great job of decorating cupcakes for our Sunday birthday parties!

Love, love, love this picture! Papa Jeep and Baby Grant turned sixty and one (respectively) on Sunday!

I'm going to post a whole series of pictures depicting Grant's take down of his birthday cake. It's just too good to miss! 'Cause even though this shot is good, it doesn't fully do it justice. At one, Kolbe was afraid of his cake, Rudy kind of poked and prodded but didn't do much. But Grant more than made up for their passive behavior. He was a monster! And though the cake ended up looking like mass destruction, Mark and I were guessing that he actually ate roughly 4-5 real bites. It was hysterical! He loves to make a mess!

Papa Jeep, Brian, and Cristi had to leave Sunday night, but G-ma is with us until this weekend. We headed over to my parents' house on Monday to celebrate my birthday a little more and enjoyed pizza, German chocolate cake, and margaritas. Nothing like turning thirty with both sippy cups and maragaritas on the table and a baby on your hip! I'm one blessed lady.

The pretty stacker rings that the boys gave me for my birthday...Love them! And love that Mark set up his own etsy account to order them for me! Mark also got me a Dyson. And I've run the vacuum at least 4 times in the past few days. I also got a neat chest for the top of the stairs that I'm working on decorating. It was a great birthday!

We have loved having G-ma here this week! She is so helpful and the boys just have a blast with her. And Grant has definitely fallen in love with his G-ma!

We've had so much fun that yesterday, even Kolbe, Mr. I-Don't-Take-Naps-Anymore, dozed off for a little snooze with his G-ma.

So as you can see, we've been up to so, so much and have been loving every minute of it. There are so many more pictures floating around out there that I haven't lifted off of everyone else's cameras so maybe later this week I'll make up for my missed post with a second photo post to include all the other good ones. I have to tell you all, we are such a blessed little family. Life is so good!