Cute Pic Post -- June 2014

June was awesome! It was a great combination of fun, relaxation, routine, swimming, and family. I was totally sane and loving our summer. ;-) The boys are at such fun ages right now that I enjoy hanging out with them at home and taking them to fun places. I'm definitely better-suited for these little-older stages! They enjoy hanging out with each other, too and miss each other when they're not together. One of Graham's first things he says in the morning is "where auten?" if Austin's not still in his bed. And when Graham went to spend a day with Nonnie and Gramps, Austin asked about him all day he missed him so much.

Here are a few pictures from June.

This is what happens when you attempt to skip your nap and you're 3.5. 

You fall asleep on the floor behind Momma's chair.

Austin loves doing his flashcards. Here he's sorting all by color. But he can also sort by shape.

I wish I could figure out how to spend more time doing stuff like this with him! Graham's always having a meltdown or breaking stuff, so it's been a challenge this summer to do anything like "school."

Momma and Graham selfie!

Someone figured out how to take off their zipper jammies!

And has a significant amount of snot hanging out. But still smiling!

When he had a day with just Momma, I let him buy a toy and he chose this sword. 

He also chose to buy this for his best friend's birthday, seen as Spiderman in the picture below.

Eric and Austin, summer 2014

I love that he's into role playing all by himself now! This is a serious RescueBot mission.

Austin got some practice taking pictures with my phone. Here's one he took of Seth. lol

We spent every Saturday evening swimming and eating dinner at Park Forest Pool. 

We had SO much fun!

After a long day of activities, sweating, and swimming, this Elizabeth Mott mascara looks perfect!

Also: Don't tell me my boys get their blue eyes from me. I clearly do not have blue eyes.

two bunnies!

I don't know how he did it, but he did it himself. 

Doing a little bit of arts and crafts... finger paint in a baggie!

Decorating Eric's birthday card.

And keeping the little brother content doing some painting too...

Just look at that concentration!

We went to a couple of the Summer Movie Clubhouse $1 movies...

Seth is the best seat in the house!

I love this action shot. I know it's blurry, but brother pushing brother waits for no camera.

After my photography class, I started squatting a lot to get on their level. 

This is Graham copying me as I was trying to get a picture of him carrying the empty bag for me.

lol. I love how this chair looks now that it's recovered and I love how he looks sitting in it!

Graham always wants a blankie or pillow on his lap while sitting on the couch. 

Takes after his Momma!

They are rarely both sound asleep in the car, and I love the sweetness of this photo!

these boys, I tell you!

More of Austin's picture taking...

This boy is ready for anything! sword-check! lanyard-check! cheesehead-check!

Georgia Mae in her I'm-not-pleased ball.

The wrestling is already so rough that it's scary, but there's rarely an injury, and nothing serious so far! Graham is so unfazed, he's still playing Legos here!

Monkey See, Monkey Do

I make them pull their own weight whenever possible, and that includes movie theatre boosters, even when they are way too big to carry themselves. I'm so nice that I'll even take a picture of their struggle!

Watching brother play on his "super duper computer."

We recently attended the Cruise Forest Reunion (that's one of many links; there's a group on Facebook and an actual event there too!) and got to spend some time looking at some cool cars. I don't know who enjoyed it more--me or Austin! He wanted to pose with several cars, and was full of personality/attitude. Love it!

We sat and watched some do some cruising (burning rubber!) which was fun, but next time we'll bring chairs and bug spray! It wasn't too hot, so it was actually enjoyable--even for me who typically avoids the outside in the TX summer!!

Chick Hicks*

Lightning McQueen*

I have to interrupt here and say that after I took the picture of Austin and "McQueen," he took my phone from me and showed the picture to McQueen. Just writing that makes me cry at Austin's sweetness!

Sheriff* (one of Momma's favorites cuz Momma loves old cars)

Seth might get his Miata ready and bring it up next time!

Best $5 ever spent.

*These are obviously not the actual cars from Cars. They are not even trying to represent them. But to my 3.5 year old son who lives and breathes Cars, they were. Don't ruin it. Thanks.

Sprinkler Fun!

We got out the water toys and had fun one hot evening, so I decided to put my photography class learnings to good use. Here's the some of my favorites from that night:

Graham trying to turn the water back on.
He has no idea what he's doing, but he sees Daddy turn it on by going over here
and putting his hand to the ground, so he figured he'd do the same!

And if we're going to need baths anyways, might as well have popsicles! 

(dislike Seth's foot shown here)

Austin's First T-Ball Season, 2014

Austin is having a busy, full, well-rounded spring/summer! He's been in dance class all year at PowerHouse (the Creative Movement class for 2 and 3 year olds) and recently had his recital. He was also recently in soccer at The Y. And now he's in T-Ball. Signing him up for T-Ball was a pretty easy decision because it's with the same team (and hence same uniform) he played soccer with. That's a lot of savings for us, so we went for it. We also felt like the less-confrontation-ness of T-Ball would be good for his sweet disposition. And, well, it's been a journey so far!

The first game was just Austin, Graham, and I (635 was a traffic mess that night and Seth was over an hour late getting home). I was parenting both while trying to explain to Austin how to play and needed to run bases with him while holding Graham. I think I shaved at least a year off my life during that game. (never-doing-that-again) But Austin was SO excited to play. He got the ball several times, he hit well, etc. Since that first game, he's not been excited to play and actually says he doesn't want to. (I think it might be a combination of one of the dads is a little scary/intimidating and he's always chosen last in the batting order, etc. Definitely not all-things-equal on this team of people who all know each other except us.) There's been a lot of bribing and encouraging going on which I wish wasn't necessary. But, we have resolved to stick it out since we paid for it.

Austin's first game; he was so excited!

Here are some pictures from one of his games after he was not-so-thrilled to play anymore.

Seth's teaching him how to stand while playing the field.

He loves to just stomp/plop down on the base as hard as he can.

Our last game and award ceremony:

The opening code recital...

Seth was trying to teach him how to stand.

But this is how he looked most of the time. 

Always a good hitter, though!

Look at him hustle! 

They started moving them around and Austin got a chance to actually field the ball!

Two Grahams

He is so proud of that thing!

I guess Graham wanted another popsicle! 

my sweet baby...

yum!

Next year, he'll be older and can choose between Soccer OR T-Ball. Or neither if he doesn't want to play either of them. But I don't think we'll let him play both. We just felt that he wouldn't know if he was interested until we signed him up; we didn't want to wait for him to request participation. (Here's a blog post that explains pretty much exactly how I feel.) And with two fall birthdays and my love of all things fall-namely, sitting around watching college football on tv and generally being relaxed, our falls are too busy to add sports of any kind, so the spring will be the only season we will pursue sports during. At least until they request otherwise and are old enough that it matters.

Cars and Cuts

My friend Nicole, who has been cutting my hair for like four years, recently told me she was more flexible because she was no longer at a salon and mentioned doing cuts in homes. I came up with this idea of her coming to my house to cut the boys' hair. (That's one drawback of having boys... they require haircuts so much more frequently!) They could watch a movie, I'd get cheap, good haircuts for them and she'd get some easy money. And then, since she was coming over anyways, I invited friends to come over too and the response was amazing! We had more interest than we could possibly fit into her time at my house. And it was really successful so we're already planning on having one in August, right before school starts!!

We set up in the kitchen with the highchair base (so there wasn't a back in the way) which has a straight-line view to our tv. Kids watched Cars and got their hair cut! And once the cut was done, most hung around and watched more of the movie and ate some snacks.

Austin went first.

Followed by Graham...

Our friends who came...

Thanks Nicole! See you in a few weeks!!!