Week in Review

Last week was quite the week! Tuesday I got to go on a field trip with Lucas's class to the Pflugerville Fire Department. Lucas thought it was great. He answered all the questions about why a firefighter needs an ax, oxygen, and a hat. He would also clarify what the firefighters were saying a lot. If the firefighter was talking about the hoses on the truck and how big they were, Lucas would say, "So, it's just like the hose in my backyard, but bigger?" His teacher said he does this all the time and she loves it because maybe he's helping other kids understand by putting it in a kid's perspective.

After the Fire Station we went to the park and ate/played for a while. A long while. It was hot and Evan and I were sticky and ready to leave when the time came. Lucas had a lot of fun and was exhausted after school that day!

Tuesday night I was heading out for my run when I realized the house was getting hotter and hotter. Our AC was broken! We managed to survive the night with the house reaching 86 degrees. The next day was pretty disgusting. I tried to go on a couple adventures with Evan. I got pulled over by a cop for speeding on a street I drive ALL the time, in a speed trap I see ALL the time. Luckily he was impressed that I hadn't gotten a ticket since 1998 and set me free with a warning. As I drove away I started to cry. I hate getting in trouble.
The AC was finally fixed at 6:30 that night. I think the max temp the house reached was 91. It was gross. I am thankful for air conditioning. Evan was fortunate enough to get to play in the hose that day to cool off.

Thursday... well, Thursday I did some laundry since I didn't get to do any Tue or Wed. When I did the laundry I found a yellow crayon in the bottom of the washer. I thought I was so fortunate to find it before I put the clothes in the dryer. When I got the clothes out of the dryer everything was RED. It was horrible. The dryer was red, too. Through the miracle of 1+ bottles of WD-40 and 4 rounds in the washer I got the clothes pretty much clean. I threw away Ben's basketball shirt/socks immediately and my tan shorts perished in the accident as well, but everything else is wearable!

And that is how my week went last week. Here's to a better week this week... if only these ants would get out of my house!

Evan Boy

I might get a couple complaints here and there from people saying I don't post enough pictures of Evan. (You know how the second kid never has as many pictures and videos as the first kid? )Well, here you go! See, I do take a lot of pictures, I just never post them. And I'll work on the videos.

In the last picture has a story. Last week Lucas and I were upstairs getting ready to go to the pool. When we got downstairs we found Evan like this - COVERED in white powder. At first I thought it was powdered sugar because he was playing with the powdered sugar tupperware. But after a little photo session and making my way over to the pantry, I found out that he was actually covered in a most delicious homemade pancake mix. It was all over the floor. And then there were little trails leading off all over the kitchen to the different places he had visited. It was such a mess. SUCH a mess. But we managed to get it cleaned up and made our way to the pool anyways.

The whole thing reminded us of Lucas's egg incident and the unforgettable watermelon slip. You need to check those videos out if you haven't seen them.

I think I owe you some pictures:

Ben put up an awesome backsplash while I was out of town.
We had a little fine tuning to do when I got back.
You can see my piping skills came in handy.

These boys got to go shoot each other with paintballs the day before Father's Day. Ben came home the most abused. Apparently he ran out of ammo and made a run for it. He looked like he had 5 nipples and he had some awesomely colorful bruises on his legs, too. Then there was a nice gash on his knee... my fault - I put him in holy jeans for his "surprise."

Summertime is awesome. Lucas is working on mastering the cannon ball.

Evan loves the water, too.

I made this shirt for Lucas to wear to school today for their 4th of July party.
Also, Lucas likes chocolate ice cream.

Evan was pleasantly surprised by some bubbles the other day.
He also thinks it's perfectly acceptable to sit on the table.

Our summer break is almost over. Lucas starts Kindergarten in three weeks. I can't believe it. I don't know what I'm going to do with myself. We're going to have to start waking up earlier, going to bed earlier, and being organized. Ugh. Plus, I'll miss that kid like crazy!

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.

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.