Random

Really?  Does it get any sweeter than this?  I had to wake Liam up yesterday morning to keep him on his schedule and this is what I found upon opening the door.  I love this little guy.  He's so cute with his paci and all snuggled up with his lovies.
We had community dinner at a friend's Dad's house the other night and his garden was full of beautiful flowers.  Above is a small sampling.  Lucky me, I got to take some home!
Jude is officially going pro!  He has the jersey, NBA cuffs and headband and an official ball.  Now if he could just get his lay up down and grow 4 feet or so!
Walking to the park on Monday turned out to be more adventurous than we planned.  Jude wanted to take us to the "new" park and on the way he was playing with a chain link fence rather than watching where he was going and tripped over a big rock.  I was ahead of him with Liam, but when I heard the hollow thud, I locked Liam's wheels and ran to get my big baby!  It was so scary.  I thought for sure he had split his head open.  Thankfully, the Lord has blessed him with one seriously hard noggin!  He came away with lots of tears, a scraped nose and big lump and raspberry on his forehead.  My poor guy.  I can still hear the noise in my head and it makes me sick to my stomach!  I guess when you're four it doesn't occur to you to put your hands in front of you rather than falling directly onto your face!

Texas Summer = HOT

As the heat index rises and it becomes increasingly more miserable to be outside, the pool at Gramma's club is the only place that really provides relief.  Liam loves the water and Jude loves it too as long as he stays in the little pool!
It's fun to watch the boys play together and have so much fun with one another.  For Jude's birthday we all went to the pool.  Jude and Daddy tried to attack Mommy and Gramma with water guns but with some quick thinkin' on Gramma's part we drenched them!  It was awesome!  Once the boys figured out that Girls really do RULE and boys drool, they decided to play some water football.
"Bird."  One of Liam's favorite things to do while eating lunch at the club is to point out all of the birds.  It's so cute.

Funny Memories...

Tee hee hee. I came across these photos while looking for some others and just laughed.  Hope you enjoy them too.

Grandma Pat celebrating her birthday years ago.  Looking good!  I love the hat.  Too bad we didn't get to keep it.

The direction from the photographer was "make funny faces."  I love the end result.  We took this in October while staying at Heather's lakehouse.  Liam was sleeping, finally.  It was a rough weekend for the poor little guy.  Thanks to Julia for rocking him for 2 hours and GG for singing him a song.

Brotherly Love

Splish Splash at the waterpark with Community Group girls. The water was super cold and it was a breezy 74 degrees.  There was a lot of teeth chattering going on!
Look what Gramma did to us.  I swore I would never put my kids in the same stuff, but Jude loves it.  What's a Mommy to do?
Ma followed suit with matching basketball uniforms.  Again, Jude loves it. Can you feel the love here?  These boys are so smitten with one another and I am smitten with them. I love, love, love my boys. Is it just me, or do their feet look enormously out of proportion here?  They are HUGE!

Happy Birthday Liam!

Liam's birthday was a total blast.  The cupcake didn't go over so well at first.  I think he thought it was a toy. Then once he got a taste is was all over - a face plant right into the cupcake, eat your way out kind of bliss!  Following was a quick scrub down in the kitchen sink.  

I thought I would do a little first year of life run down... Liam has 6 teeth, can crawl, pull himself up to a standing position, say "Mama", "Dada", "Bubba" for brother, "nigh nigh" for night night, "moah" for more and "ball."  Ball these days pretty much means anything that is round from grapes to lights to actual balls, including Bakugan balls much to my dismay.

The best thing is that he and his brother love each other VERY much.  Yesterday we spent that latter portion of the afternoon playing in Liam's room laughing, hugging, reading and lots of other stuff.  He and Jude just look at each other and laugh.  They make faces at one another all the time and Jude just dotes on his baby.  I am the most blessed woman in the world.

Sing A Long

Last Thursday was Jude's last day of school for the Spring Semester.  The 3 year old classes put on a Singalong for the parents, so Pop and Ma came to see the show.  Jude didn't know they were coming so instead of singing with all the other kids he was talking to Pop and Ma and Liam.  "Are you coming to my house after this?"  "Liam is staring at me!" "Why is everyone looking at me?" "Look at Liam and Pop and Ma." "Mommy, are Pop and Ma coming to my house for a long time?" Seriously kiddo?  Sing, would ya?!

This is Jude and his teacher Ms. Cathy.  I love her and she loves Jude and Liam.  I am praying we get in her class for Summer School.
This is Ms. Sheridan.  She has tried and tried to nurture Jude's craft skills and desire for the arts this year but all he wants to do is play super heroes with Jackson and Mitchell.
This is Jackson!  Can you feel the love?
Jude and Eva are on the far left.  They both did more talking than singing.  Shannon and I were cracking up!
Now that's just good stuff right there.  Warms my heart!  My Dad, Pop, is the only guy other than Daddy that can pick Liam up without him crying!  There's a bond there.  

Memorial Day Weekend Update

No need to adjust your screen, the cake only looks like it's on fire.  Adam turned the big 34 on the 20th so we needed a LOT of candles. Karen and Jude baked a cake and The Fishes drove down from Iowa for a surprise visit. He had no clue - we really got him this time. 
Liam and Doola had breakfast together every morning while Adam and I slept in.  I guess I kind of got a birthday gift too huh? Liam was so sweet, every time he looked at Julia he got a huge smile on his face and sucked in air in while making funny noises and causing himself to choke! So stinkin' cute!
We played a little baseball in the backyard.  Ok, Dave, Jude and Julia played while Adam took photos and Anna and I chilled with Liam.  It was a beautiful day and very relaxing. Too bad we can't see Aunt Anna face here - she is so beautiful (inside and out.)
The bad guys always seem to attack while Pappa Dude is here.  Therefore, he and Jude are forced to fight crime.  Jude kicked Daddy aka "Shimber B. Tingers" right in the throat.  I think we watched a little too much Kung Fu Panda!
Julia shot this one of the boys having fun in the tub. I love that they make each other laugh so hard.  But I love even more that if I need to kill an hour during the day, I can stick them in the tub and they think it's the best thing ever. Thank the Lord for little blessings.

We had so much fun while The Fishes were here; we were all sad to see them go. Come back soon you guys!