Naked by Sunset

Once there was a family who liked to go on Saturday adventures. They picked up some dinner and headed to Pflugerville Lake. After they ate, the Dad and the boy had a great time skipping rocks while the baby watched.

The baby decided that he needed to get closer to the action. He crawled with all his might. Despite his mother's concern, she let him crawl through the rubbish all the way to the water.

The mom decided to help him stand up and walk in the water a bit. Then she let him sit by the shore to feel the sand in his baby toes.

The baby thought the water was great. He was thrilled to dig through the goopy mud with his little fingers. He did not, however, seem to like the taste nor texture of the goop when he placed it in his mouth. After some convincing, the big brother came and sat next to the baby by the water.

After a few minutes, the baby was finished and decided to leave.

The big boy (who has a fondness for getting wet at inopportune times) was not finished, and scooted closer and closer to the water.

The baby continued to hightail it out of there while the big brother had the time of his life.

While the big boy played, the baby made it clear that he was heading back up the hill to the bench where he ate his dinner. He wasn't stopping for anything.

Once he made it to the bench (all by himself) the baby decided to see if the rocks there tasted any better than the rocks at the water's edge. They did not.

With a promise of getting to walk out on the pier, the big boy agreed to leave the water. His wet shirt was removed and rung out and his wet pants sagged immensely. The baby's wet clothes were also removed and he rode atop his father's shoulders in comfort.

After finding one more place to climb and a short walk back to the car, the happy family drove home.... with some nearly naked boys.

On the way home they stopped for delicious vanilla ice cream cones. Everyone was happy and thankful that they had headed out on such an adventure. How great it is to be in Austin in the Spring.

Lucas Helps, Evan Eats Dirt

I really appreciate Lucas for how much he helps me sometimes. When we were driving home from the store the other day he told me he was going to put all the groceries away and I had to sit and watch him. And sure enough, I really did have to sit and watch him. He's such a stud. It's honestly annoying for me when I go to the store at night when he's asleep or when he's not around. Love that kid!

Friday night Lucas and Ben played outside, so Evan wanted to go out too. This is always a little nerve-wracking because we never know if a new ant hill is going to pop up or if he's going to receive a horrible laceration from our crappy Texas grass, or maybe if there's a rabid armadillo on the loose, or even a little coyote. But, Evan loves it. He loves to climb up the slide, slip back down on his tummy... over and over again. Or at least he did until he found the planters full of dirt. Tasty tasty dirt.

Weekend Fun

Last weekend we had a few grand adventures. Friday night Ben and I went on a date downtown to people watch during SXSW. We made fun of the people in line at the Apple Store waiting for their new iPads, we counted the wack jobs and then ended up eating some chocolate at the Melting Pot to escape the madness.
Saturday night we headed to the Austin Rodeo, where they have a little fair. Lucas got to go into the petting zoo, see a pig race, eat a BBQ sandwich, a funnel cake topped with strawberries and ice cream, followed by some rides. I rode the Spider with Lucas and Ben rode the Ferris Wheel with him. Lucas declared it one of "his best days ever!"

That Longhorn is lucky I don't sell this picture to the media. How embarrassing.

Sunday all three boys stayed home from church. Lucas had a bad-sounding cough, Evan was sick, and Ben offered to stay home so I could be spiritually enlightened... and maybe so he could play with Lucas.

By that night all three boys had cabin fever. We headed out to a lake for some nature exploration. There were people fishing and Lucas had a blast running around. We were lucky he never fell in the water. We took bread to feed the ducks, but there weren't any ducks. Just these other duck-like birds that were too lame to come eat bread from us.

This week was spring break here, so Lucas didn't have gymnastics (Mom's day out). Sadly, the boys were pathetic and sick most of the week, so we didn't even do anything too exciting (aside from a rooftop SXSW party at Ben's work). Next week, though, next week will be awesome for sure.

Reading Man

Lucas has been working really hard on his reading and we are so proud of him. We love hearing him sounding out words from the other room. Today Ben shot some video of him while they stayed home from church because Lucas was sick. So, please don't be grossed out by the hacking, snot, slobber, and lack of a shirt. By the way, this is a cool book designed for a parent to read one page, then the kid reads the next. This was the first time they read it.

It's been a while....

It's been a while since we last visited on this here blog. Things have happened - amazingly glorious things. Well, maybe that's an exaggeration, but things have happened.
Like, Ben had a birthday. While Lucas was at school that day, I made one pan of lemon cake and one pan of Mississippi Mud Cake - aka brownies with marshmallows and chocolate frosting on top. Awesome. After I picked Lucas up from school we headed downtown and surprised Ben at work. His coworkers were very excited.
Ben's birthday dinner was quite lame in comparison. We had a salad and roasted broccoli. Lame. But a week later we had our official celebration when I busted out the cake and the friends. Ben wanted a "cookie cake" for his birthday. But he didn't want a cookie cake in the traditional sense - a big huge cookie. Ben's cookie cake had to actually include cake. So, I made a giant chocolate chip, coconut, pecan cookie for the bottom layer. In the middle, vanilla ice cream. On top a dense chocolate cake. The cake was covered in luscious chocolate ganache frosting. Mmm. I think next time I would forgo the ice cream in the middle and just serve it on the side, as it was totally necessary with such a chocolaty cake.

We've been spending a lot of time at the park lately because the weather has been so awesome. Evan loves to play in the tunnels and just this past weekend discovered the glory that is climbing up the slide. He's a stud. If it's just us at the park, Lucas and I spend a lot of time playing "Monster" in which I chase him in circles around the playground until we both get tired. It's a great way to tire a kid out and run off the muddy buddies the mom shouldn't have eaten.

Last week I booked a job as a hand model for Dell. While I was out Jamie was kind enough to babysit for me. I owed her, so I decided to host a pizza party/movie night Friday so she and Chris could go out. The kids were good at ate a ton of pizza and carrot sticks. I didn't know quite how to deal with feeding two babies, but Evan found a good solution all by himself. I just put the food in two piles on the highchair and he stood there the whole time eating right next to Miles.

It's great having these guys right across the street from us. Jamie and I take turns running three times a week, so Anna and Lucas get three play dates a week. They play really well together now, which is awesome.
Some funny stuff:
When we first started our running dates, I overheard Lucas talking about, "Mom and Jamie running errands."
Lucas thinks a lot about his future for such a young lad. Several times a week he makes reference to when he grows up and becomes a daddy. Sometimes he worries about whom he is going to marry. He doesn't quite understand that there is more to the world and that he will meet more people. I had to break it to him that he can't marry me or his cousin, Madison. I think he understands now. A few weeks ago he was upset because he asked Eden to marry him while he was at gymnastics and apparently she turned him down. But a few days later Eden and her family were at our house for dinner and as they left he chased her out and said, "Some day I'm gonna marry you, Eden!"
But, the boy has a heart like a 15-year-old because the other day it was all about Anna. Apparently her goodbye after our run Friday morning wasn't sufficient. Probably because he was throwing a fit or running away. He started crying about not getting to say goodbye, etc. I told him Anna would be back in a few hours for our movie night. We talked about how fun it was to have a friend across the street, how they could grow up together.... eventually we got sidetracked talking about all the great milestones as we grow up... we had gotten to college graduation and then Lucas brought it right back to Anna: "I want Anna to be my woman."
Lucas is a stud - a reading stud. The other day we congratulated him for reading something, and he said, "Congratulations, I!"
Lucas is also a memorization stud. He is great at memorizing the Articles of Faith. He is on #3 right now and said it in Primary the other day loud and clear. He's so awesome.

Evan is awesome too. He's so happy. He wants to walk, but he's not quite there yet. Soon. I'm not really worried about it because he already gets into everything. EVERYTHING. He loves to play in the pantry and likes to break into the bathrooms. Today while I was doing my hair I actually heard the unfortunate sound of splashing. I guess unrolling all the TP had gotten old, so he moved onto swimming.
Last week Jamie P. came to borrow something. When she came in she had a handful of old PB&Js. The sandwiches she thought Haven had been eating for weeks were actually stashed under the car seat. She deposited them in my trash can. After she left Evan was standing next to me and the trash can. Before I knew it I heard a crunch, crunch, crunch. Guess what he found? A delicious peanut butter crouton.
And just today he got into the humidifier I was cleaning in the bathroom. I made it a split second before he put the toothbrush I was cleaning it with into his mouth. Gross.

Anyhow, we're busy. We're crazy. I love my rad boys.