Show me One

Since Kate's birthday was approaching we were trying to teach her how to show us she was one. Here's a little video of her showing me she's one!

It's Official...We Have A Kindergartner!!

On August 13th my baby boy started Kindergarten. It was a very big day! A couple days before the first day we went up to the school for back to school night. Gabe got to see his classroom and meet his teacher. After we left Gabe was a little quiet in the car. If you know my son well enough he is never quiet in the car. It's always question after question. So I knew something was going through his head. I asked him if he was a little nervous about going to such a big school and he said yes.But later he told me, "I'm not so nervous anymore." The first day of school went pretty smoothly. Gabe's nervousness had passed,but Matt and I were feeling it now. We took him inside and dropped him off. Gabe was ready to go into class but I kept making him take pictures. He was a good sport though. :) When we picked him up a couple hours later he said he had lots of fun! So the first day of school was a success!

No More Training Wheels!!

Gabe has been working on riding his bike without training wheels. He's doing really great so far! It only took him a couple days to figure out how to stay up by himself. He had a little trouble figuring out how to turn around without stopping, but he's getting better. All he has left to figure out is out to get started by himself. He still needs his dad to steady him when he starts. We quickly figured out that mom can't help him with that because I would never let go of the bike. I was holding onto the back of his seat and when he started to go down the driveway I just didn't feel like he was steady enough for me to let go. He kept saying, "Mama let go! LET GO!" I don't know why but I just couldn't let go! Needless to say his dad has been helping him with that and I stay back and cheer. It does make me nervous to watch him ride. He just rides so close to the curb I'm afraid that he's going to go flying off his bike.

I'm Not Listening to You!

After we left the splash pad the other day the boys were bickering the whole way home. I was so frustrated with them I think I went a little insane for a moment! I decided to break out the camera and video their argument. I wouldn't suggest actually watching this video since it might make you a little sick, I was driving while doing this so I wasn't really focusing on getting the best shot! But if you do watch look at Gabe's smug little face at the end, he's so happy that he's getting under his brothers skin. I will definitely show this to them when they get older.

A Day At The Splash Pad...

The other day we went to the splash pad to play. We wanted to try out this new place that we had never been before. A friend of mine from Blessed Beginnings Preschool, Jenny, and her son Reese along with another one of the boys friends, Brock, met us there. The kids had a great time playing in the water. It was one of the last free days we had before school started and it was just what we needed before the craziness began! Ryan was being Spiderman of course! He was doing

twists and turns and flips! He was also "webbing" everyone! I ended up getting wet within the first five minutes, which I wasn't planning on doing. I wasn't expecting Kate to be crawling all through al

l that water. I don't know why I wasn't expecting it since she is such a water baby. I was watching her play in the water and I thought I was in a "safe spot" away from all the squirting fountains when splat! I got soaked right in the face. I was standing right next to a water spout and didn't even realize it! It was quite funny! Kate was pretty intrigued with the water spouts and watching the water shoot up out of them. I caught one incident on video. She kept looking down into this spout and it would shoot up and hit her in the face. She never cried but you could tell it freaked her out a little, yet she kept going back to investigate!

Dinner and a Drive In Movie

A couple weeks ago we took the kids to dinner at Del Rancho and a drive in movie. It was a lot of fun! We've gotten Del Rancho to go quite a few times, but Matt and I haven't eaten inside the restaurant since we were both kids. The boys thought it was pretty cool that you had to use the telephone to order. After dinner we headed over to the Winchester Drive In. I haven't been there in years! We backed in the car and opened the back door. We packed our own snacks and the kids sat in the back and ate and watched Ice Age. Kate fell asleep right before the movie was over. It was a really fun night for all of us. I think it made Matt and I feel like kids again too!

So You Think You Can Dance...

We were watching So You Think You Can Dance a few weeks ago and the girls on the show were doing a dance routine with superhero outfits on. As you know Ryan loves superheroes right now. And Kate loves music! She loves to dance and watch people dance. So I came into the living room to find these two perfectly still and just completely hypnotized by the t.v. I just thought it was too cute!! Oh yeah and after it was over Ryan told me I needed a superhero costume like that...I don't think so!! :)

New puppy?

No we don't have a new puppy but from the looks of my furniture you would think so. Katie is chewing on everything, including my side tables! She has a total of 6 teeth now (4 on top and 2 on bottom). She particularly loves to chew on shoes, which is gross I know! She can't even be left alone with a board book because she will chew right through it and start eating it! This little girl is a mess!!

What's up with my blog?

I don't know if you've noticed, but my last few posts have looked a little weird. I can't seem to get the pictures lined up the way I want them to. And for some weird reason one of posts has a hyperlink all the way through it. I don't know what's going on but just wanted to say sorry my page is a bit of a mess! Hopefully I'll figure out what's going on!! Okay, now I'll go back to my updates. Trying to get to the current events!!! :)

Last day at the beach...

Here are just a few more pictures from our trip. On our last day at

the beach Gabe was using his Papa's binoculars to look out at the ocean, it was pretty cute! There is also a picture of Gabe makinghis goofy water face. He always makes this face when he goes

underwater. He's trying to wipe the water out of his eyes, but it's like he trying to pull his whole face off! It's pretty funny! Ryan was

having a good time playing in the pool with his Papa. I think he was trying to go underwater one of these pictures. And Gabe was getting a kick out of pushing his dad in the pool! One day before we left Florida we went to see some of my mom's family members that live there. First we went to see her cousin Patsy and then we went to her Aunt Hazel's house. The one thing I remember when I was a kid is that Aunt Hazel always has had beautiful flowers and plants in her backyard. So I knew I wanted to get some pictures while we were there. One of the pictures I didn't plan on getting was of Gabe with the slot machine! But I love it!!We had a great visit with Hazel and the kids had a good time running around her yard and feeding the koi. I have one more picture that I wanted to share, the night before we left Ryan was so tired he fellasleep eating his dinner. I got this cute picture of him!! We had a great vacation and I can't wait to go back! Hopefully we'll get to visit again next year!

Vacation Part 3

One night we went to San Destin to Baytowne Wharf. It's like this cool little village back behind a beautiful hotel. I highly recommend going to see it if you ever get a chance! It's got all kinds of neat shops and restaurants. It's also got some fun activities for kids. There was a ropes course and this huge trampoline that you jumped on with bungee cords. There was also a zip line. As soon as Gabe saw this he wantedto ride it. I immediately thought NO WAY! But he was insistent, and I saw kids much smaller than him riding this thing. So he and Matt bought a ticket and up they went! I have to admit I was a little nervous for him. They had to walk up several flights of stairs and at the top was this long platform that he had to walk out onto by himself. I had seen a few kids get scared and not step off, they ended up walking back down the stairs. I was certain that Gabe would be one of these kids. Boy did he prove me wrong! He got up to the top and slowly made his way to the end of the platform. And then he just stepped off!! I was so proud! That's what I love about Gabe, he will try just about anything once.

Getting his "gear" on and stepping off the platform.

He went all the way down there and back!!

Vacation Photo Shoot

I really wanted to take the kids out and have a photo shoot on the beach. I didn't get the shots I wanted. We just took these back behind our condo on the bay side. We never got a chance to get over to the ocean side and take some pictures. If you notice most of them are of only one or two of the kids looking at the camera and the other is not. Oh well! I guess that's the way it goes with three kids!

Vacation Part 2

One of the main things the boys wanted to do in Florida was go fishing. So we bought them some cheap little fishing poles and went down to the pier back behind our condo. They had a great time and thankfully they caught some fish! I think the final count was 8 fish! Unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me when they caught the fish. :( But I do have some pictures of them before the fish came along. We also tried catching crab. The first night we got to Florida we went down to the pier and on the side of the pier was this HUGE crab. It was probably about the size of a salad plate. My mom would tell you it was bigger than that, but I'm not sure! :)

Ryan has this fear of heights right now. Well I guess he's always had a fear of heights. He won't even let you hold him over your head without screaming. Well every night when we'd go out to eat we'd have to go over the Mid Bay Bridge which is this long bridge that goes over the beautiful water. Ryan would always say, I'm scared of heights! I don't wanna go over the bridge! He also didn't want to go into any tall buildings like hotels because he didn't want to go up that high. Silly boy!

Mid Bay Bridge

Vacation Part 1

We had a great time on our trip to Florida a few weeks ago! We drove 16 straight hours. We started at 4:00 a.m. to head to Florida. We thought getting up that early that the kids would just sleep all morning. That didn't happen. They immediately woke up when we put them into the car. They were so excited to be going to the beach! We had a car full of chatterboxes for the first hour of our car ride. Even Kate was going crazy!! She was babbling and kicking her feet all over the place! They all finally passed out around 5:30 and slept for a few hours. It was a pretty smooth ride. No emergency potty breaks. The kidsdid good about going potty when we stopped for gas. I was pretty proud of them!

We stayed in Navarre, FL. They have some beautiful beaches there. The kids absolutely loved the beach. The last time we went to Florida Ryan was about 10 months old and Gabe was about 2 1/2 and neither one of them really liked the ocean. This time they both had a great time playingin the water.Ryan was a little timid but he warmed up. Kate loved, loved, loved the water! She's was our little fish! She would just splash and kick like crazy! The first day Matt showed Gabe how to ride on the boogie board. Gabe did great! It made me a little nervous because Matt would let go of the board and just let him ride the wave, but he loved it! He was so cute in his green floaties and his goggles!Ryan had a hard time adjusting to the waves. The moving

water would make him lose his balance alot. We really had to watch him to make sure a wave didn't knock him over, but he wanted to be out in the water with everyone else. He also liked staying on the beach and building sandcastles. Kate had fun playing in the sand as well. She was so content on the beach, I was very impressed! Everyday after the beach we would go back to the pool. I think the kids liked the pool more than the beach. I know I did! We had a pool with a great view of the bay. It was really nice! Kate loved swimming in the pool. We had a little float for her to float in but she didn't want to have anything to do with it. She wanted to be free to kick and splash all over the place. She even went underwater a couple times and she never cried once! Gabe had fun jumping off the side of the pool. Matt taught him how to do cannonballs, which resulted inGabe hitting his foot on the side of the pool and getting a huge bruise. But that didn't stop him, he cried for a few minutes but went straight back to his cannonball practice!

My Own Little Rock Band

One day I walked into the kitchen to find my kids had made their own little rock band. Gabe and Kate were banging on the bowls with some spoons and Ryan had gotten his little guitar and was singing. It was quite a sight! This is a blurry picture I got of them, I had a video but I can't seem to get it uploaded. I'll try again later.

4th of July

I know I'm behind but I just wanted to post a little about our 4th of July. We had our annual WTB (White Trash Bash). This was our 3rd year to have it at our house. We cookout, swim in our little 4 ft pool and pop fireworks in the street. It doesn't get much more redneck than that! But it's fun and that's why we do it!! This year was a very rainy 4th of July. The kids got to swim for a little bit but then the rain came. We ended up eating inside. We had lots and lots of good stuff to eat. After dinner the rain died off a bit and we decided to go ahead and try to do some fireworks. The boys had fun watching their daddy shoot off fireworks. We can usually see Moore's fireworks from our front yard so after we do our own fireworks we watch the city's. This year they cancelled them on the 4th and rescheduled them for the 5th. So everyone came over the next night and we did it all over again!

Gabe and I cheesin' it up!

Kimmie helping Kate shoot off a roman candle...just kidding!

MeMe & Kate

I just love how she's looking at her brother...

Kate & I