Fun at Deer Run

This month, our church designated family month and set up fun events for the church to take part in. One Sunday afternoon, it was Deer Run.  We were really looking forward to it as they have lots of space and things to do. However, it was hot, but we came prepared to swim.  Bummer though, we had to wait for a life vest before we could get in the lake.  There were so many people as both campuses were invited and Dylan and I had to wait a while.  Once we got our vests we swam in the water and watched the kids to the zip line into the water. I asked Dylan if he wanted to do it, knowing he wouldn't want to, and he of course said no, that it looked scary.  However, he surprised me by saying he wanted to do the water slide. It wasn't a small water slide, it was really long and high up. We had to climb about 3 flights of stairs and the slide was probably 100 feet long if I had to guess. I let him watch a few people before I went first to make sure he wasn't going to back out.  I jumped and slid and screamed. I went fast.  Of course the heavier you are the faster you go. Dylan got on and scooted himself down. Bless his heart, he couldn't get the speed. Once at the bottom of the slide, he had to stand up and jump in.  Dylan doesn't even jump off the side of the pool, so I wasn't sure how this was going to go. He was about 6 feet off the ground.  I told him to hold his nose and jump in. The second his feet left the slide, he let go of his nose. Oh well. I praised him and told him how brave he was and how proud I was of him.  He said "really? you are?" Then he insisted on going again. I wished I had pics by Damien was taking care of Natalie and well men don't think that way. We played a little while longer and checked out the horses before leaving.

Natalie enjoying the outdoors

Later that night, we got in late so I tried to talk Dylan into taking a shower.  He agreed. I was shocked. He hates showers.  While in the shower, I asked him when he got to be a big boy and he said when I went down the water slide.  Since then he has taken a few showers and I am proud to say, he no longer hates them.

Before meet After

This post is way over do as the office was converted to the playroom back in May.  I realized that I never posted the reveal.

At Damien's office Christmas party, he won a new lap top.  Since we were getting rid of the old PC and Damien no longer worked from home, we decided to give the office a face lift.  I found that I spent a lot of time downstairs with Natalie since she was sleeping in our room and Dylan was always hanging around under my feet.  He barely went upstairs to play, so we thought, why not bring the fun down stairs.  Then when Natalie got older, she could play downstairs as well, since she won't have the stairs mastered like her big brother.

So here is the before....

Just a plain ole office...desk, cabinet, futon, filing cabinet and bookshelf. Of course not all pictured but in the room (only photo that I had)

and here is the new and improved play room...

 Cabinet we had built based on a PBK design.  2 framed cork boards from Hobby Lobby, one for Dylan and one for Natalie when she gets older. Baskets match perfectly from L@we's.

 I searched every where for the perfect kitchen.  Since this is in the front of our house, I was a kitchen snob. I wanted it to "match" and I finally found on on cr@igslist.  I hung one of my favorite pics of the kid thanks to my group0n.  I want a wall decal below it that says "give them hope, give them praise, give them love everyday"

 and the remaining "office". we still needed to house supplies, the printer and files so we had this piece built as we couldn't find anything that would work.

Dylan loves it. When we first finished it he would say thank you almost every day and tell everyone about his new play room. I have to say it's one of my favorite rooms in the house and is a breeze to clean up.

Swim Swim

Dylan hasn't had formal swimming lessons. I didn't think it was a good idea considering I can't spend a lot of time with him in the pool this summer, but every now and then we let him take his swimmies off and we let him practice swimming. I have to admit he does pretty good considering.

Turbo + Fireworks = scared

Turbo is not a fan of the 4th...or any holiday where people shoot fireworks, which around here is pretty much every holiday...I kid you not.  We can barely get him to go potty outside.  Here he is after hearing fireworks trying to get in.....

Bye Bye Paci Bye Bye

Dylan was not a paci taker or a thumb sucker, and Natalie loves her paci.  However, I was not loving getting up every hour to put it back in her mouth.  She only needed it to go to sleep when she slept in our room, but for some reason when we put her in her bed, she all of a sudden needed it all night.  I read up on it online and everyone said it was better to take it away before 6 months.  After debating it, I pulled the trigger.  I have to admit the first few nights were hard. She would be awake for an hour wanting her paci.  I just kept going in her room every 5-10 minutes to soothe her.  Now, 6 days later, it's getting easier.  I think she still wants it and she has even found her thumb at times, but I don't want her doing that either as I was a thumb sucker and I know the damage it does. Natalie, you will thank me later but at the moment, I seem cruel.  I wish you could have found your paci on your own without making me because I know how much you love your paci.

Cooking with Dylan

I had Dylan "read" me a recipe while I was cooking.  I don't think you want him in your kitchen any time soon. Where does this kid come up with this stuff?

Hokey Pokey

Caught in the act....I overheard Dylan singing and decided to grab the camera and catch it.  It makes my heart smile, that's for sure.

Natalie's First Dip

We haven't been able to make it to the pool as often as Dylan would like, but it's really hard to keep Natalie out of the sun.  I broke down and put some suntan lotion on her (70 SPF) and tucked her into her suit and let her get in the pool.  She was okay with it for the first few minutes but after getting splashed, it was down hill.  She especially did not like me holding her out to "kick".  Hopefully she will get use to it more and more.

Playing in the Rain

The other day, we had a monsoon out of no where.  It was the perfect playing in the rain kind of rain, you know what I mean...no lightening, no thunder, just pure rain.  Dylan insisted on playing in it.  He had to put on his boots, his rain coat and he grabbed his umbrella.  It was super steamy outside...the heat plus the rain was not very pleasant. You can tell through my camera lens how steamy it is....as it fogged up the lens.  He played for a whole 5 minutes but I guess he had fun :)

Ready, Set, Roll

Natalie has officially started rolling.  I would say around 3 months she accidentally rolled over a few times, but I don't really count that. I start counting it when it happens all the time, which started happening just after she turned 4 months old.  I was a little worried as her over achiever brother started rolling over right at 3 months, by 4 months he would hold his head up so high...she wasn't there yet, but I know that you cannot compare babies. They each do things at their own pace.  As Dr. L pointed out at our check up, boys have more motor skills and girls tend to me more vocal.  Since Natalie smiles all the time, I am going with that theory.  Here she is rolling.

Watch Natalie Grow - 5 months

First off, I would just like to point out that I know that is not a 5 but in fact a "s".  About 3 months into this idea, Hobby L@bby decided to clearance out these wooden number/letters.  Unfortunately the 5 was sold out, but they had S's still :)

Time is really flying by, yet going slow. Does that make sense? I know you understand, right.  Natalie brings so much joy into our lives and I couldn't imagine life any other way. Her smile is infectious and I love how she giggles when Dylan talks to her or acts silly. She loves and adores her big brother.

Within the past week, she has been sitting up all by herself. She can't do it for very long before she falls over, but she is holding her on.  One thing she has mastered this month is rolling over and over and over and over....you get the picture.  She is even holding her head up really high.

Another thing she has recently started doing, playing with her toes. Yes, she has found them and she is fond of them...just like all babies I guess.

How sweet is it when they try and eat their toes. I could just eat them up myself.

At 5 months
- rolls everywhere
- can sit up some what on her own, briefly
- tried rice cereal but still has a pretty active reflex so it comes all out
- sleeps about 10 hours a night, don't get excited she wakes up at least once or twice
- weighs almost 13 lbs... we have a small fry but I am okay with that :)
- starting to push up on her knees but I think it will be a while before she crawls.
- eats around 28-32oz
- doesn't spit up/throw up as much as she use to, thankfully

Wordless Wednesday

Big Girl Alert

I tried sitting Natalie up and low and behold, she could do it.  Of course, for not very long but long enough for me to snap a picture.  I was so proud of her.  

Taylor's Visit

This past week, my niece, Taylor, came to visit.  Dylan was really looking forward to her visit, and I was looking forward to it as well.  Dylan would have someone to do something with around the clock.  Her mom brought her up the weekend before July 4th.  We had a great time.  I tried to plan an outing every day so they had time out of the house. 

For the 4th, we went to my parent's house and to the pool.  At my parent's house, they got to ride the four wheeler with Uncle Billy. At first they were both hesitant, but Billy insisted he would go really slow just around the yard. After they went once, they couldn't get enough.

Taylor enjoyed it so much that she saved a seat beside her at lunch for Uncle Billy. Even Natalie and Trinity had a fun time "talking" to each other...

 

On the way home, everyone took a power nap including Taylor.

Once we got home, we got ready and headed for the pool.  I haven't been able to take Dylan to the pool as much as I would like as it's to hard to take Natalie due to the heat.  Although, today Damien and I took turns working with Dylan on his swimming. We even let him take his floaties off and he did fabulous.  I was so proud of him.  I haven't signed him up for swim lessons this year as I know that he will never want to put the floaties on again after lessons....I can't afford to be in the pool with him all the time since Natalie can't be in the pool yet. I am so proud how well he is doing without lessons.

Taylor going airborne

Of course, we had to end the day with fireworks. I bought a few sparklers for the kids but we like to enjoy our neighbor's fireworks. We have a great view of the neighborhood and a lot of people around us spend a ridiculous amount of money on fireworks...so thanks neighbors.

The next day, we went to the library to pick up some books.  We didn't realize it, but they were having a program that day. The kids learned about various things about Japan and got to do crafts.

That night, we went to Chick-f!l-a as it was family night (aka kids eat free).  There they had balloon artist, face painting and a craft. This week, the craft was a sandwich board and a cow hat for Friday's cow appreciation day.

 Dylan choose a sword for his balloon art. Taylor choose a horse.  As for face painting, Dylan picked a tiger, and Taylor picked an "ice princess". 

  

They had fun playing after all their food had been gobbled up...oh yea and can't forget ice cream.

On Wednesday, we headed to Monkey J@e's.  No pictures, just a good time.  They even made friends with a brother sister and played games with them.

On Thursday, we went to the pool first thing that morning...9am and stayed for 2 hours.  Thankfully it wasn't too hot and Natalie even got to nap a little bit.  That afternoon we just cruised the target.

On Friday, I had no clue what we would do...but they begged to go back to Monkey Joe's.  We waited until later in the day to go...and we choose to hit up chick-f!l-a again for cow appreciation day. Basically if you dress head to cow in cow gear, then you get a meal for free.  If you were a cow piece (shirt, hat, etc) then you get an entree for free.  Dylan and Taylor sported their sandwich boards and cow hat they made earlier in the week.

I wore a white shirt and black shorts and safety pinned black spots on my shirt. I made a sandwich board for me as well.  When I ordered our meal, the total was $0.  We ate for free....woo hoo. Afterwards we went to MJ's. I gave them the deal that I bought online 5 visits for $25. The girl working went back and exchanged the print out for cards.  She came back out and gave me 4 of them. She said I thought you only had one kid with you...don't worry about it. Sweet!!! Basically, our whole day of fun costs $5.  

Saturday, we headed to Chattanooga (half way) and met her parents.  Instead of turning around and coming back, we chose to hit up the zoo.  While I was in school at UTC, the zoo was nothing, but they recently did a $12 million renovation on it. Now that can't go very far at a zoo, but I was still impressed. It was small, but it made it good for younger kids. I was impressed at the animals they had too...some better than the zoo here in Nashville in my opinion.

Dylan and Taylor checking out the python (Dylan knew what kind of snake it was)

 They even had a special exhibit...dinosaurs. Dylan's favorite thing in the world :)

(thanks to my mom for coming to our house and watching Natalie so she wasn't subjected to the car for such a long trip)

Taylor, we enjoyed your time with us.

Boys will be Boys

Boys and their toys....guns that is.  No matter how much you keep guns away from boys, they will make guns with anything, sticks, legos, fingers, whatever....so just go ahead and give them guns.

Saying .... see you later

I say see you later because I don't want to say good bye.  A few weeks ago, our friends moved back to their home, Texas.  We met them Browns shortly after they moved to Tennessee almost 6 years ago and became friends right away.  We met them through our church when they joined our home group.   Over the years, we enjoyed many birthday parties, family cook outs, girls night out, and even a trip to Africa.

After the house was packed, before they set off the next morning, we had a final ho-rah for the Browns with a few of their closest friends.  It was great to have everyone together to break bread one last time with the Browns as a group and to let our little ones play with EG and N.

 With their special gift that we gave them....a scrapbook page from each family.

Of course, I don't think Dylan understands what moving means but I tried to explain it as best as possible....him and N recently started playing a lot more together (N is a few years older)...and Dylan even asks about EG.   (Just the other day, I waved at a guy at the store and Dylan asked me if it was N's daddy.  I said no baby they live really far away. He said, it looks like N's Daddy.)

It was hard saying "see you later" to the Browns because they have been such a great family to know.  They are amazing parents, stand out servants, and great friends.  The next chapter in their life will soon unfold and I know that the people who they form friendships with will be blessed because of them.

You will be missed!!!