Outdoors

We've been spending a lot of time outside. I know the 100 degree weather will be here soon!

Chuck is always wearing some type if costume. At Halloween I stock up on a few costumes. That's the only time you can find boy dress up clothes.




Apparently Smith thinks the sand table was a sand box. At least we know it can hold 30pounds.










Trying to "break through the neighbors fence."




Investigating




Art







Sprinklers




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Mt. Petit Jean

We went to Northwest Arkansas for Easter weekend with the Webers. We had our own one bedroom cabin which was a lifesaver for the early baby wake ups and also the nights of no sleeping for the four year old. The kitchen also made mealtimes easy.

Smith actually did well with naps and at night. Chuck did not....

I didn't take too many pictures because most of the time I was helping Smith navigate boulders while he searched for little rocks and sticks.

I didn't get to get my workouts in but I thought about all the walking I did. Except all the walking was at a turtles pace.

We were prepared to take Smith on a hike with us but luckily we didn't have to. Not sure how safe it would have been. Chuck went on an easy hike with us to a "cave" but he didn't hike behind the waterfall with us.







Smith did a little "hiking" with his poppy.




Chuck had a ball running free and playing with his cousins.




Smith had fun playing in the dirt and any spilt beverage.




The Easter bunny did find the boys (twice!) and left them lots of goodies.










But with any trip (vacation?), it's always nice to be back in your own bed and back into a routine and the daily grind.

Smith did ok in the car (3 hours at a time). This was a relief since in a month the boys and I will be headed home. We will be stopping half way in Alexandria, LA at a children's museum. We will then continue to New Orleans to meet my parents and stay the night. We will visit the aquarium. On the way back we plan to do the same thing but visit the zoo and insectarium! We also have four days at the beach planned!


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Crazy

This post was supposed to be posted two Saturdays ago but i am having problems with the blog.


As soon as I feel like I got it all under control, the boys are going to throw a curve ball.

Smith suddenly developed a yeast diaper rash this week which caused his privates to swell. We were able to get into the doctor immediately and get some medicine. He has also been running a fever. I think by tomorrow most of the redness will be gone and hopefully the fever too. The first day this showed up, he napped for 4 hours.



The boy's pediatrician started a mission group and they go to Uganda every year. They also bring in their Uganda choir for two-three weeks every year. So last night a choir from Uganda sang at the ice cream place. I thought it would be fun to take the boys so we sat and ate ice cream and watched them sing.




Today the boys went to the gym with me and played while I ran. We then headed to the playground and played for a couple of hours and had a picnic. Smith took a (short) nap and we headed out in the backyard. I did everything I could not to kill the 4yo today. He has officially been banned from wearing his superhero stuff in public because the kid thinks he is a real superhero and acts like an idiot. (And yes, I told him that). I had my good and not so good parenting moments today.

Tomorrow, my plan is to pack the boys and their bikes up and go ride in the school parking lot. Our driveway is at a slant into the busiest street in the neighborhood. I want Chuck to just be able to ride free. I'm hoping my next post is not about a broken arm.

We also need to do a little yard work before the rain shows up tomorrow.

Lately Chuck has been helping me cook a lot. I'm not sure why he is so interested. I'm definitely not the one he should be learning from!

This little (big) guy has a new obsession with match box cars. Looks like he will be joining his Bobbob and Uncle Austin to future car races. He has started throwing tantrums so sooner than later we may get a similar photo to the memorable one of Chuck on the floor in the middle of Lowes.



If anyone wants to adopt a cat, we have one. I was about one second away from packing the boys and cat up in the car and finding a nice neighborhood to open my car door and shove the cat out. This cat makes me miss Molly because she was so calm and quiet. Samer makes you want to beat your head against the wall several times. Even Chuck has asked if we can get rid of him and get a dog (um no).

Check up

We visited the doctor two weeks ago. Smith had his 15 month check up and shots and Chuck had his 4yo check up and shots. You would have thought we had won the lottery with all the high spirits! There was singing, dancing, spinning, and a little superhero action.













And then they got shots. Thank goodness BobBob was here to go with me because there were intense meltdowns and crying. I really do not think I could have done it alone!

We are all healthy and both in the 60% in height. Chuck is also 60% in weight and we all know where "big shorty" lands on the weight chart.
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Four

Chuck did turn four on March 24th. We were so excited that both sets of grandparents, great grandparents, aunts and cousins were there. We had his birthday at the science museum in Tyler. He agreed to a bug birthday as long as the bugs weren't scary!

Chuck gave all his friends a butterfly net and a bug jar for favors.




He had "not scary" bugs on his cupcakes.




And had a frog, snail, turtle, and ladybug balloon..... All things that we have put in a bug jar before!




Chuck got some superhero costumes (he dresses up everyday at least once).




And even shared his new batman belt with Smith.




Chuck got a big boy bike for his birthday!




And gave his tricycle to his brother!




I'm pretty sure that Chuck would agree that he had an awesome birthday. In fact, just yesterday he asked me when his next birthday was!

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Spring Break

I'm so far behind so in going to try and catch up. Seems we have been going nonstop these past three weeks.

Spring break ended up being good. Everybody kept it together all week. If I remember correctly the Sunday that Spring Break was over, everything fell apart but by then I had made it 10 days with the boys.

One morning Dr. did have time to take Chuck to a fishing 3event. The parks and recreation releases 3000 fish into a pond and let's children fish for free. This species if fish dies when the water gets to a certain temp and it's a good way to get kids outdoors. Unfortunately, they didn't catch anything. This was the text I got from Dr. "1 hr of fishing.  20 hrs w/o sleep. Chuck says I have no friends. Only fish we got was given to us. U tell me. We had fun though."




Chuck insisted on keeping the fish so I put it in a bag in the freezer. I told him he could look at it anytime he wanted. I forgot to tell him not to take it out if the bag!.




We also got in some walks some of the days and made it to the gym a few mornings.




I took Chuck to his first movie theatre experience! He told me we needed to do it right and get coke and popcorn.




The end of the week we headed to Dallas to hang with our cousins and Marmee and Poppy.




We went to a butterfly garden, an aquarium, and even got to have a play date with our friend Mary Doran before we headed back home.







I think by the end of the week we were exhausted. Smith doesn't do well sleeping when we are traveling so Chuck and I only slept about 3 hours in Dallas and then Sunday, Smith was teething and just a trying day for us all.

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Spring Break begins.

Well the first night of Spring Break is over (thank goodness!). Last night, Smith cried all night and Chuck had a nightmare and then later teeteed in the bed.

Luckily we had a birthday party to distract us today. You guessed it.... Another bounce house party.
















This is birthday season for us and there are very few birthday places in Tyler. Since we've already been to five parties at the bounce house place Chuck is having his at the Science Museum. It is definitely not anywhere close to any other science museum I've been to. After going you usually consider soaking in Clorox but for some reason the kids LOVE it. So here is the invitation to Chuck's bug party. If you read this blog then you are obviously invited. (Although the other day Dr. Informed me that no one reads the blog.). So to my three faithful readers....




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