Catching Up After a Busy July

Summer is slipping by, but I refuse to give up on it until I wake up and have to go to work. I will squeeze out EVERY SINGLE LAST SECOND OF SUMMER and love it. I haven't blogged very much because I have been so busy this last month, but I was motivated to catch up after visiting the awesome blogs of some friends. I am kind of copying one of them here, by catching up on everything we have been doing lately. So, here goes nothing!

July in Review:
We started out the month celebrating the 4th of July with my wonderful parents. I already posted pictures of that, so I won't do that again.

Right when we got home, Daniel's brothers Andrew and Kevin came to visit. How I loved seeing those goofballs! Hanging out with them was really nice, now that we are all grown up. I was blown away talking to Kevin because he is all grown up now. When I think of him, I still envision the 10 year old version of him, not the 21 year old man he has become. We had a good time hanging out, although James was in rare form. Turns out he had strep AGAIN (more to come on that later). He always gets crazy when he gets strep. Here are a couple of pictures of the boys with their fabulous uncles!





In between Daniel's brothers coming to visit and our trip to New Braunfels, we just enjoyed some great family time. We checked things off our summer fun list. I watched as my Summer Project List grew longer and felt only moderately guilty and moderately panicked that barely anything was crossed off.







We wrapped up July with a trip to New Braunfels where we stayed with my parents in a condo and celebrated my dad's 59th birthday. We visited Gruene, went swimming, hung out at Landa Park and took James to Schlitterbahn. The boys got cookies from the oldest bakery in Texas and we ate big home cooked family meals together. All and all, it was a great trip. Brendan loved his time in the pool. He kicked his little legs and really tried to swim. He looked so cute in his tiny little suit in his float. Daniel and I took James to Schlitterbahn (HUGE Waterpark!) and had SO MUCH FUN! He was in heaven! He played and played and played and was so good. He was precious in his tube going round the lazy river. It brought back memories of when I was a kid and we used to go there. I am so excited for next summer when Brendan can go too! I wasn't brave enough to take my camera around all that water, so you will just have to imagine how handsome my guys were! Now we're back home and I am getting everything unpacked and looking at what things I still have to get done before school starts back up. James is having his tonsils and adenoids out next week and my little love bug B will be turning one next Thursday! It just keeps getting busier and busier around here! Updates on James' surgery and Brendan's birthday to come.

The Road to Becoming a Big Boy

All moms have to travel it. It is the exciting, the new, the thrilling, the somewhat scary and bittersweet journey of watching your babies become big kids. Over the last week or so it has hit me like a ton of bricks that my first born is growing up into a little boy right NOW. No longer are we saying things like "When we move James into a big boy bed", we are doing those things! It makes me so proud of him to see him growing and doing new things and having ideas and communicating them so clearly. I like that he has a sense of humor and really gets things now. Of course, he is as stubborn as a mule and that stubbornness seems to be growing exponentially day by day. I know that I am a stubborn pain in the butt myself, so I guess this is some kind of karmic payback. Joy! I look back at his baby days now with a sweet fondness and laugh out loud remembering what a little terror he was some days. Knowing him now, really knowing him, no wonder he was so ticked off at me a lot of the time! Of course he did not want to be held all the time or have his clothes changed or be contained in any way. That would just not do for big boy Jamer and I see now that babies really do come into this world already full of their own opinions and wills. (Thank goodness I was blessed with one snuggling, cuddly momma's boy or I might just have to hold James down and get my snuggles in against his will!) Anyway, James is now in a big boy bed......it was a great transition for him. If it weren't sometimes as early as 6:30am, I could say honestly that I love seeing his little face peering over the side of my bed each morning. I do chuckle though every time he announces, "I'm up! I woke myself up!" and pull him into bed with me for a couple of minutes while he is still comfy and pliable and will lie next to me for a minute or two without much protest. The "Paci Fairy" came to visit yesterday. James decorated a paper sack for her and put all his pacifiers (oh the beloved pacifiers!) into it. He left it on the porch and lo and behold, the paci fairy delivered a shiny and new Buzz Lightyear toy that has so many buttons and lights (and 65 sayings!) that I really believe it could fly itself into the real outer space. Overjoyed is too little of a word to sum of James' reaction. It was true love for him and Buzz! He had a hard time going to bed without the comfort of his paci. I actually cried along with him, he in his bed and me in the living room, silently cursing myself for ever giving him a pacifier in the first place. Then I reminded myself that I like to sleep and have two kids, and cut myself a little slack. But then it was quiet and I knew it.....I knew that my baby had become a big boy, and was sleeping soundly in his big boy bed. He woke me this morning with a huge smile, one I could see all the way. No paci was blocking it and I smiled too, feeling pride welling up inside for my big boy.

July 4th!

We spent July 4th in Houston at my parent's house and we visited the ranch too. The boys wore their matching red, white and blue outfits and we made the flag cake, a tradition we started last year. We tried explaining to James that the cake was for America's birthday, but of course he thought it was really for him. :-)








Mooooo! A couple of the cows we saw while out on the trail wagon.

Lately Brendan's been.......

working hard on eating more,

hanging out with Daddy,

helping with the laundry,

helping me with the dishes,

practicing pulling up on everything (and cruising a teeny tiny bit),

reading some good books,

showing me what needs to go in the recycle bin

and just being his happy little agreeable self!

Check that off the Summer To Do List