Not Much Goin' On

It has been a really nice and relaxing week. We haven't been in a hurry to do much of anything and we've loved spending some time with Dad. I took these pictures of the boys watching Bob the Builder which they got from the library. They love Bob. "Can we fix it...Yes we can."

Alan has been finishing up some school work and getting ready to go on his big boat trip and I have just been getting things going for the Enrichment Activity I am in charge of. The boys, well this has been a fun week for them. They have played, played, played.

We are excited to go to Utah for the next month and see family.

Sea World San Antonio

We have been talking to the boys about going to Sea World for a couple of months now and we finally got the opportunity to go. We told them about the whales, penguins, and sharks they would get to see and they talked about it every day last week. So they were really excited to be there. Here are my boys Samuel, Jacob and Alan in front of the penguins. For some reason the boys were having a hard time focusing on taking pictures so I didn't get many with them smiling and looking at the camera at the same time.

We were a little disappointed that the water park part of Sea World was closed because the temperature was in the 90's and we were very hot. But there was a spray park open that we were able to play in, the boys loved it. Jacob got knocked over by some bigger kid and here he is with Dad a little upset about it. Sam is below running in the water, he had a blast.
Here we are waiting to see the Shamu show. This is the one thing Alan and I enjoyed the most. It is amazing to see those animals so close.
The boys weren't sure about riding the kid roller coaster at first. But Sam went on it twice and Jacob three times. They have been talking about that roller coaster since. Dad and Jacob
Samuel and Mom.
Here are the boys when we first got to Sea World and we were waiting to see the Sea Lions. They just kept asking where the Sea Lions were and then when they came out they liked them for about 10 minutes and then they were done. Funny boys.

New Car

So we finally did it. We are a two car family now. Here are some pictures of the boys with the car. It is a light green but I just realized looking at the pictures that it looks silver in them.
The boys really love the trunk.

Our Budding Artists

This last week was kind of a crazy week. Alan has been working on a big project for school pretty much 24/7. And the boys were getting a little antsy not being able to go anywhere (since Alan had the car) and they were also missing their daddy. So we did this project one day. Some old crafting paint I had and some Q-tips, tissue paper, stickers and googly eyes and the boys made these...
Wonderful collages.

Yesterday Alan finally finished up his project so the boys and I hung outside on the patio playing with our hose and eating popsicles so that daddy could sleep.

Jacob aslo got a hold of the camera and this was the result!

Easter Outfits and Silly Boys

We bought the boys some new Easter Outfits and here the boys are looking mighty cute if you ask me. Below is a picture of the boys last year in their Easter outfits, they have grown up so much in this last year.

Jakie and Sammy love snacks. In fact that is all they ever want to eat are snacks. Last October when my Uncle and Aunt from Dallas came to visit us they brought some Nutra-grain bars with them, my uncle is the king of the coupon and I am sure got some slammin deal on them. Anyway, after that experience the boys decided that "fruit bars" were their new favorite thing. That is all they ever seem to want to eat now. Of course we only buy them sometimes, but here the boys are sharing a treat while sharing a chair.

When I lived in Egypt I bought this little outfit and it finally fits our boys.
Sam thought it was fun to wear.
Jacob not so much.

But here are some pictures of Jacob acting very silly.
Gangsta' Jakie
Playdough face Jakie.
Jakie in the dryer. Alan helped in with this one, I think he was mored excited about this than I was. Notice Jacobs crazy hair, that is why they just got haircuts.

Easter Morning and Egg Hunts

Happy Easter!

Jacob and Samuel with all their loot from the Easter Bunny. They were so excited to have the Easter Bunny come they were up early and I could hear them talking about him in their little cute voices. They got way too much candy and are currently still on the sugar rush.
Jacob finding the eggs we dyed that the Easter Bunny hid for them to find.

Samuel with the egg he found.

Jacob and Samuel at an Egg hunt we had with some families in the ward. They loved finding the eggs on the ground, but they especially loved all the candy they could eat before we finally took it away from them.

A family picture. Typical, Samuel and Jacob are not looking and Alan and I are looking right at the sun. I don't think as a family we are very photogenic.

Jacob finding candy-filled eggs.

Sam excited to have found all his eggs.

We had a great Easter, we hope you all had a great holiday too!

Blue Bells

Spring in Texas apparently means Blue Bell season. Everyone seems to be taking pictures by the Blue Bells which are mostly in patches along the freeway but also can be found in random fields. So we decided to do the Texas thing and take pictures of the boys in the Blue Bells.

Samuel

Samuel and Jacob

Jacob

Go Spartans!

Let's face it, this blog is really all about Samuel and Jacob. A way for our family and friends to keep up with our little family. But today I just had to add a blog entry about March Madness. Every year Alan gets a little crazy about March Madness. He fills out his bracket with his friends and then faithfully follows every game to see if he wins. Unfortunately for Alan he tends to pick teams that might have a shot (and apparently this is what most guys do too, the underdog you know.) So usually his brackets don't end up looking too pretty, because who can really pick the underdog, that is why they call it the underdog, right? Well this year I decided to join the madness and fill out my own bracket. I put the winner as Michigan State, being from Michigan and seeing that it was a top 2 school in its category I decided it had a shot, maybe an underdog but a good choice. Alan laughed at me, my brother Robert laughed at me for putting Michigan State so far ahead in the competition, and the fact that it could actually win, no way, at least not in their opinion. So I know I shouldn't brag, but I never am right about sports related things so this time I am going to. Michigan State is going up against UNC and a lot of people think that they will win (not just me this time.) So although I have never been a huge fan of Michigan State ( I am more of a Wolverines fan) I really hope they can pull it out and win. Go Spartans!

The Itsy Ditsy Spider

Jacob insists that the song Itsy Bitsy Spider is actually the Itsy Ditsy Spider. I tried to tell him that it wasn't he started to cry because he "knew" he was right. What a funny boy!

Family Home Evening and pictures

So for FHE this week the boys learned about the armor of God. We talked about the different things we were to protect ourselves and how these relate to things Heavenly Father gives us to protect us spiritually. I am sure a lot of it went over the kids heads but they sure liked to "play sword fight" after the lesson.
I hardly ever get pictures of the boys when they are laughing, they always cheese it up when I whip out the camera, so here are some of the boys actually smiling and not fake smiling.
Sam showing off his brace for his sprained elbow. He finally got it off today, he was pretty sad to see it go.
He loves his new bear he got from the ER, it goes with him everywhere.

Spills and Chills

So this week has been one heck of a week. I didn't think anything could top my wonderful day that I had Tuesday, well I was wrong. Wednesday went well, false hope. On Thursday Samuel ignored the numerous warnings we have given him to not jump off the couch and decided to jump off landing on his arm and leaving him in a lot of pain. Nothing seemed broken so I just watched him all morning and put him down for a nap. After his nap it became evident that he wasn't ok. Alan took Sam to the emergency room and after a long time they came home. Sam got a new teddy bear, a coloring book with crayons and a brace for his arm. It seems that he has sprained his elbow, or so they think. We have to go the doctor this week to check him out again. The funniest thing was when Sam came home and Jacob saw him with his brace (it looks a bit like a cast with an ace bandage on it) and he gave Sam the funniest face I have ever seen him give anyone. He didn't quite know what to do with Sam wearing it on his arm. After a minute or two he finally was able to hug Sam. Even though it was only a few hours they were seperated Jacob really missed Sam. It was really cute. (Sorry I don't have any more pictures, our camera's batteries ran out and I couldn't find the charger, so I will post some more pictures soon, but here is one of Sam waiting in the hospital Alan took with his phone.)



Well on Friday we decided to brave the cold weather and go camping with our ward. There were only 6 families who showed up. And it was cold. The kids did remarkably well and we all were fairly warm except for the insane wind that blew right through the tent. On the way to the campground Jacob decided to sing some songs. He likes the show Bob the Builder and they sing a song with the words "Bob the Builder" and then they say "Can We Fix it Yes We Can!" very enthusiastically. Jacob decided to sing this over and over again, Alan and I were getting a bit annoyed with it (it was going on for about 5 minutes straight with him repeating these phrases over and over again.) But then Samuel said "Jacob quite singing that song. No Jacob he can't fix it. No, no, Jakie Bob can't fix it." He was even more annoyed than us. Jacob just thought it was funny and kept singing. Alan and I tried so hard not to cry laughing because it was so funny to hear them discussing and fighting about the song.

On another note tonight at Dinner Sam made us crack up because I was telling Jacob and Sam that they were cute. Sam looked at me and said, "I'm not cute, I'm handsome." He sure told me. And you are both handsome and cute Sammy we love our boys.

Just one of those days!

As a mother there are days when I just feel inadequate and at the end of my rope. I don't always have enough patience to deal with the things that come my way. Today was one of those days when I felt a little overwhelmed with my children. It actually started out as a pretty good morning, I slept just fine, no birds chirping, yeah! I was relatively happy to be up with my kids early. I looked out the window and I was glad I could go on a walk because it wasn't raining, yet. I got the kids ready to go and then it started to rain just a mist at first and then more and more, so we went home. It was alright, I decided to do a workout video instead and Alan was nice enough to help the kids stay off of my while I did the exercises. Then Alan left and all hell broke loose. I gave the kids a bath and Samuel dumped water onto bathroom floor, a lot of water! After bathtime Samuel and Jacob fought for probably two straight hours over toys and other things we tried to do. I acted as referee to this and was just trying to appease everyone. It didn't work. Jacob stole Samuel's favorite toy and purposely broke the wheels off of it, this after I asked him to return it to Sam. After screaming and yelling from both sides the boys finally calmed down laid on their beds and then they had lunch at 11:30. I was just counting the moments until nap time (12:30). Alan called and as I was talking to him Jacob and Samuel started up fighting again. Then Jacob screamed that he had peed his pants, all over the couch. YEAH! I hung up the phone and dealt with that, luckily we have covers on our cushions. Finally it was nap time (it may have come a bit early due to the pee incident). Anyway the nap was about an hour, usually it last 2, so I kept telling them to lay down and rest, they screamed, kicked the door threw things etc. I ignored it until I was ready to deal with them. My friend wanted to walk down the street to a new store that is on the corner and we had planned on going if it wasn't raining. It wasn't so we soon got ready and waited outside for our other friend to join us, of course it started to sprinkle, just a little, then a lot, then a little again. We decided to risk it and go anyway, about 200 yards into our walk we were completely soaking. We turned around and walked back then it stopped raining right by our houses. So we turned around and walked to the store. It was actually a fairly nice outing the boys didn't touch too many things (that's rare) and then we walked back and I let the boys play in the front of our houses while we talked the boys played in the dirt covering their hands in dirt. So we went home the boys cleaned up a bit and then I let them play on the patio. I didn't know that the bin that usually contains their basketballs and soccer balls was full of water, dirty nasty looking water. Otherwise I would have not been looking up the recipe for dinner I would have just ushered them back inside. They had undressed and stuck all their clothes (including underwear) into the water to wash it. Jacob came streaking into the house so excited saying "Mommy I'm washing my clothes."
So, now I have changed them more times than I can count today and I just looked while writing this and they are wet again all over their bums because they sat in a puddle outside together, they thought it was pretty funny. I guess I am just done with being upset today, I have had it with trying to have patience. They will just have to sit in their wet clothes in the kitchen because I don't want an even wetter couch. I am just glad daddy will be home soon and will put them to bed tonight.

2:41 AM

So this morning at 2:41 a.m. I was awakened by birds chirping outside my window. Can anyone tell me why a bird would feel the need to be chirping so late at night?

Pictures and Update

So the boys have had to stay indoors a lot recently because of sickness and most recently bad weather so we have been playing a lot of games, the boys especially love hide and go seek. Here the boys are just hanging out on the couch playing with each other.
Cute Sam!
Cute Jacob!
On a nice day the boys helped me wash some windows. They thought this was so cool, I just hope the same enthusiasm is there when I ask them to do chores when they are older.
They also love to wash the mirrors in the bathrooms, they beg me to let them help whenever I pull out the blue bottle of windex.
It seems our boys are budding artists, they discovered how much they love coloring the patio with chalk, on this day they got covered head to toe in chalk, luckily it was bath night.
Sam, check out those pants.
Jacob also had a great time.
When the boys were potty training we had many incentives for them. One incentive that we had to pull out to keep things going were these Lightning McQueen slippers (for those of you who don't watch Disney shows that much, he is a character from the movie Cars.) These slippers their cousin has and at Christmas they always wanted to wear them and so when they saw that they could have them they were super excited. Here is Jacob who earned his a couple of days before Sam.
Sam looking extremely happy to finally wear his new slippers.
I always try to buy clothes after the season for the next year, sometimes when I get bored with what they are wearing I will pull out a new shirt and make a big deal about it to get the boys to feel like something cool is happening. Here are the boys with their new shirts waiting to go on a walk.
Jacob has always loved books, and so has Sam, but recently Jacob has been "reading" to Sam a lot. Here they are after a bath. Jacob will tell the story with what he remembers from us reading to him and will act like he is reading, it's pretty cute.
Alan had spring break last week and so we went to the museum, we seem to go there a lot. They were having a special group of activities for spring break, so we got to catch a session of a laser light show. Here the boys are sporting their holographic diffraction grating glasses they used for the show. This one is Sam.
And Jacob.
And here are some cute pictures of the boys cheesing it up. They always say cheese when we pull the camera out.
Jacob
Sam

And that is what we have been doing. We are just glad to have Alan back from his geology student expo in Norman Oklahoma, the boys missed him a ton although he was only gone for 3 days. We are getting excited for Minda's brother to visit with his family from Nebraska.