OUR GROWING FAMILY: Summertime!

I can tell by the heat and bugs that summer has officially made her arrival :) We did have a couple days of chilly weather last week but for the most part it's days in the high 80's and 90's. The boys have been busy trying to keep the lawn mowed :)

Then cooling off with a little dip in the pool

Do these boys look happy or what!?!

I was cooking dinner when I heard James say "I'm a cowboy - John-Mark get your hat..." I had to see what they were doing - apparently James decided their kitchen was of much better use as a horse for he and John-Mark - gotta' love a boys imagination!

Stories from the week:
- With all this warm weather I'm having to stock up on sunscreen. We try to not go outside during the hottest part of the day but it really doesn't matter what time of day it is - if the sun is out James has to be covered. A couple of days ago we're in the store and I picked up a can of sunscreen to purchase. James asked if he could hold it and I let him. I have no idea what he did to this can but the next thing I know sunscreen is spraying EVERYWHERE - on him, me, the isle. At first I thought he had just pushed the trigger and once I got it from him it would stop - WRONG - it would not stop! I had to grab a bag from a cashier and wrap it up - and it continued to spray and fill up the bag. Needless to say by the time we left there I was sweating and ready for a break so I took the kids for their first trip to Dairy Queen for the wonderful treat of a Blizzard :) It really made me forget about how sticky my body was from being drenched in sunscreen :) And the boys were in heaven - ice cream AND cookies! They had no idea such goodness existed!
- Um, apparently we need to take a break from watching Sesame Street because James loves to imitate Cookie Monster and eat all of his food like him - don't know if you've seen Mr. Cookie Monster lately but he actually gets no food in his mouth - just crumbs all over the floor - James does a very accurate imitation - fun for him - not so fun for mommy :(
-We joined the gym recently and the boys are loving getting to go swimming with mommy and daddy. James seems to remember everything from his swimming lessons last summer and is already jumping in, holding his breath and "swimming" toward us. John-Mark is not long behind. Jeremy and I were talking about how different their personalities are and James seems to be more of a people pleaser and you can talk him in to doing something he may not want to do but not so with John-Mark. If he doesn't want to do it - he's not going to do it. No amount of convincing on our part does any good. However, if James does it - he'll do it. All we have to do is convince James and we know John-Mark is soon to follow :)
- Mommy- "John-Mark, are you a big boy or a baby?"
John-Mark - "Brudder big boy - he unerwear" (translation - brother is a big boy - he wears underwear)
- Lately James has taken a big interest in traffic lights. If we're on the interstate he asks me all the time where the green lights are. Then when we are on a road with traffic lights he yells, "mommy go!" or "stop mommy" whenever he sees green or red lights.
- The boys have started "racing" on their little wheeled toys through the house. I line them up - go to the other end of the house and say "ready, set, go!" and they are off and then I hear" one more time mommy!" about 50 times! We've also started "foot races" which wears them out even more! John-Mark usually lags a little behind but he'll be catching up in no time!
Grace Belle is just as sweet as ever just enjoying watching her big brothers all day long. I tell her all the time what a lucky girl she is and how boring life would be if she didn't have those two to laugh at all day long :)

There's that tongue she loves to stick out!

Check out this hair - this was one day after a nap - love the shadow on the back wall!

My sweet boy. Lately James has gotten more affectionate if that's possible. He LOVES to kiss and hug his sister and after a rough day of playing he likes to cuddle with mommy or daddy. My precious first born boy!

The flirt! All the ladies at the church nursery LOVE him and want to babysit him! Last week he pitched a little fit because James had a sucker from his class and he didn't get one. All the nursery workers were SHOCKED to see him cry - HA! boy has he got them fooled -all the ladies see are grins and those big beautiful blue eyes :)