We start young here!

It's never too early to start post-meal vacuum duty! Actually he's quite good for a 12 month old - he's got the right motions and rhythm. The funniest things is that Andrew is the child who one week ago was deathly afraid of any vacuum. He has had a change of heart and now can't get enough of them!

Happy Father's Day

Well, Brian seemed to enjoy his day. We started out with early Mass and then a homemade Country Apple Coffee Cake for breakfast afterwards. The kids were excited to give him their gifts - Nicole did a great job keeping it a secret! We surprised him with golf shoes, a golf glove and tees. (Just picking out those few items at our local Golf Galaxy was quite an education for me!) Then he napped leisurely on the floor wearing his church clothes and new golf shoes! Such a life! One of the sweetest things about the whole day was the many, many times Jacob would all of sudden tell Brian "Happy Father's Day" again! It really was precious!

Princess

Just plain buggy

Well, things are getting pretty buggy around here. What started out as 18 harmless ladybugs a month or so ago has blossomed into an insect collection of staggering size and variety - mind you not all at once. We only have so many bug containers (or do we?). I knew things were getting out of hand when I looked out the back door and saw the following:



Yes, that is Brian in the back yard with the shop vac. Yes, he is vacuuming up bugs. Turns out he was trying to see how many mosquitoes he could vacuum up. A lot. (The mosquitoes are horrendous right now.)

We have been discovering SOOOOO many different bugs I didn't even think existed in the Houston area. Surprise, surprise!


MY GREEN ANOLE PICTURE WON'T LOAD - WILL TRY LATER!


The friendly green anole in his new natural habitat - an old cereal staorage container. Won't be using that one for cereal again! It was funny to watch him change colors. Nicole would come in and say, "Look Mommy, now he's a brown anole!"



Then we have the newest pet in our family (haven't had one in a while), Prickles, the fuzzy larva of the Great Leopard Moth. He is interesting because you can really watch him eat all the greens we give him. The past several days though he hasn't been eating much. Then, lo and behold, the other night Brian discovered his skin laying on the floor of his container. How lazy!



Our next specimen is my least favorite and because he was so gross for a while, he has been relegated to the garage. He was really icky when he was in the larva stage. Now he has cocooned (if that's a word) and not quite as gross, but not so lovely either. He shall remain in the garage! From what we have learned he shall be a Cutworm Moth someday. :)



And last, but not least, our latest find - an Angular Winged Katydid! He is huge - almost 2 inches. And he looks just like a leaf. Brian discovered him last night outside on the brick of the house - no wonder we found him. Must have been in transit. Poor guy. He has been captured. He is funny to watch as he walks very carefully around the cereal jar. He went with us in the car this morning to Wal-Mart.

I must say I am proud of myself. I am taking this all so well. Allowing bugs in my home, well, most of them. I have been tolerant and good natured and somewhat interested. I was a bit grossed out by the skin shedding, but who wouldn't be. And boy, oh boy, am I receiving an education I never thought I'd get! And we haven't even officially begun Kindergarten yet!

Have a buggy day - I will!

Schlitterbahn

Well, on Saturday we Schlitterbahn-ed until we couldn't Schlitterbahn anymore! It was great fun, as you can see. Brian's company picnic was held there this year and we jumped at the chance to visit our new waterpark for a great price and with a meal included! We weren't sure how things would go or how long we would stay. We went with our bestest friends across the street and had a great time. Everything went well, the kids LOVED it and we stayed longer than we probably all thought we would! Hopefully, there will be another company picnic there next year - I'm going!!!!!

My how times change!

Cute picture, huh? Yes, but doesn't every mother have a photo like this one????? Nope. Not me. You see I like to control things and keep things in order. So never with Jacob and Nicole would I have ever allowed either one of them to pull the wipes out of the wipey container and have a good ole' time doing it! Unheard of! So what's happened to me? Some kind of "mother of more than two children" phenomenon. It's quite amazing - I marvel at it sometimes. This day I happily allowed Andrew to unfurl until his heart's content. Every moment or so I glanced over from my load of laundry folding to make sure he still was keeping them out of his mouth - check! He was happy and for a brief 15 minutes I was accomplishing. And the world was happy. Besides, the other two were also occupied laughing heartily at their brother's antics. I think I may have had a few laughs myself!

I'm not complaining!

It is almost 10:30pm and I have yet to reshelve the pile but I cannot complain. This is what my Jacob and Nicole did today! "Why so proud?" you say. Yes, I know there are many children out there who could make a messy stack of books twice as high and twice as messy. All right! What I mean is that Jacob and Nicole "read" stacks of books all day long. Nicole kept getting stack after stack to "read" to herself on the sofa. By the end of the afternoon there was hardly a toy on the floor (and most of those few were Andrew's). Even when we went to Grandmommy and Papa's tonight for Grandmommy's birthday celebration, Nicole headed straight upstairs and returned with a stack of books 12 high. I am so happy! Now for Jacob, this is not quite as much of a surprise. He has loved to listen to book after book and look at books from a very young age. But there was a time when we wondered if Nicole would ever want to listen to books and we were sad that she didn't seem to enjoy them like Jacob. Well, the bookworm has come out of her cocoon and blossomed into a beautiful book-loving butterfly! And as for Andrew, he is showing early signs of being a book toting boy. May they love to read for the rest of their lives!

And on a side note (or three):

* Happy Birthday to my mom! I love you!

* Congratulations to one of my dearest friends on the birth of their brand new baby boy.

* Go on over to my favorite website and wish Danielle a very happy birthday!

Happy First Birthday Baby!

It seems just like yesterday that we made our way to the hospital, doubtful if we'd be admitted due to "imperfect, irregular" contractions. It seems not so long ago that we held you in our arms for the first time and called you Andrew. Was it already a year ago that we first introduced you to your curious and proud brother and sister? I recall with love the first smiles, first foods in the high chair, sitting up and crawling. I treasure in my heart all the sweet, happy moments nursing you in the rocker and touching your sweet skin and hair. It makes a tear come to my eye to know that today you turn one year old.

Yet it gives me great joy and brings a smile to my face to see the little boy you are becoming. It will be only a short few weeks before you walk and then run. I look forward to hearing you speak those first real words. I can't wait to see if golfing really is your thing. I anticipate with much excitement and happiness each day that I get to watch you grow and become the precious little person God has in mind. I am proud to be your Mommy!

What a special day this has been! I love you so much. Happy Birthday, Andrew.

Daredevil!

Look at this daredevil! And lightning fast too!

Thursday's Treasures

These are some wonderful treasures we found on this cloudy, rainy day:




While I was cleaning the kitchen after lunch I noticed the snail stuck to the window. I went out and plucked it off. Then I picked our ripe tomatoes and discovered our first large ripe tomato. We have already had bunches of the grape tomatoes and they are sooooooo good. And very prolific! It is great to watch the children get so excited over tomatoes and a snail. What fun - for me and the kids!