Over the Woods and Through the Hills

to Grandmother's house we go.  Except, we go by highway - lots and lots of highway! 
This is the after shot of a short swim and lots of unintentional diving.  While I was drying Liam's hair it looked so crazy and cute.  Oooh, I could just squeeze him and eat him.
Awwww...poor thing. He went under one two many times.  It was at this point that we called it quits on pool time.  Looking back, I think the reason he kept slipping and going under is because his little but was so slippery against the plastic pool.  Maybe a swim suit or diaper would have helped.  Nice one Mom!  Gosh just remember him going under and how he must have felt not being able to breath is giving me a sick stomach and a bit of a panic attack. Yuk!
Karen and I were laughing so hard at just how white trash we were for the afternoon  -flamingos in the yard, plastic pool and naked kid.  All we needed was beer and some smokes. Oh, and maybe a little Skynard playing in the background.  Tee hee hee. I know, I just took it too far!  When I showed the pics to Adam we were laughing at how Jude looks like he is taking a MAJOR potty in the pool. If I could just get Adam to photoshop the hose out of the pic.

SO BIG!

Notice the proximity of Jude's chair to Laim's highchair.  This was not set up for the photo - just ask Papa Dude!  When Jude loves someone, I mean REALLY loves someone, he wants to be all up in their business all the time.  Jude doesn't get to see Papa Dude as much as he would like so while he's in Texas, this is how close Jude is to him! ha ha ha.  When it's just the four of us, this is how close Jude is to Liam every single solitary time we are at the kitchen table!  But, with that has come this cute little thing the boys do with their heads. They lean on one another and love on each other.  The image above captures one of those precious moments.

On to some serious business...it's bad guy battle time and they better watch out!  Jude was shooting his new yellow (current favorite color) watergun that Jamesy gave him and I asked him to give me a mean face that would show the bad guys that he means business.  This is what I got.  I'm scared, are you?
tee hee - just a little fun in action.  He's getting so big.  boo hoo hoo.  Every time I look at him lately I am reminded of how quickly they grow up.  Mmmm - soak it in - every minute.  That is my Summer '09 motto.

If you can't stand the heat...

Make your sand box a pool!  It's freakin' hot here and the need to stay inside all day long is killing us.  I love the image above and the several others that I captured of this special moment. Liam is learning how to stand on his own and Jude is more than eager to help him out.  I am so blessed to have two boys that love one another so much.
The proud big brother and the little achiever!  This didn't last long though.  Once I snapped the photo Liam stood for another second or two and then PLOP! back down in the water.
I think that if Liam could talk he would be saying, "look, if you're going to shoot me, I'm outta here!"  They had so much fun playing in the pool and I had so much fun watching.  Life has been really great with the boys lately.  I have been praising the Lord every day that I have these two amazing little boys and that I have been able to thoroughly enjoy them lately.
Boys can not bet kept indoors - especially Jude!  Thank goodness Aunt Sister gave us TWO sandboxes when Jude turned 2 and that we never got rid of this one - we had never used it before this.

Things are changing...

And I don't like it!!!!  Not one bit.  The first year of Liams' life was pretty laid back once we got past the first 6 weeks of the breast milk crisis.  Everyone commented often on just how laid back Liam was.  I would smile and say, "I know, God gives you what you can handle and I can't handle much so I prayed for both my boys to have their Father's disposition."

Well, that was then and this is now.  Liam has decided that he has an opinion about pretty much everything.  And in his world, that encompasses food, play time and sleep.  The sleep is managed pretty well for the most part.  But, the food thing and play thing is getting a little crazy.  If he doesn't want something he lets me know about it by screaming, pointing at what he DOES want, pushing things out of his way or spitting it out of his mouth.  Lovely.  Yesterday Jude tried to take something away from him and Liam tried to bite Jude.  What?

I think he is going through some type of new developmental stage or something.  He desperately wants to walk and can't, and he wants to talk so badly.  Poor guy, he just doesn't realize that he can't do the things that everyone else in his world is already doing!   How frustrating is that?  But I have to be honest, if he screams or pushes my hand away while I'm feeding him just one more time, I may officially lose my mind!

Getting Old

There are no pics for this post, just a quick little something from Jude.  Yesterday we were sitting down eating (something I have decided we do WAY too much of lately - 7-10 times a day? Come on!) and I asked Jude if I was old because I was feeling a little out of it mentally and very tired. He said, "no."  I asked, "Really?  I don't act old or look old?" His reply, "Really.  You don't.  No. No. No." I was feeling pretty good about this so I asked him, "Do we know anyone that is old?" His quick response was, "God!"  Tee hee hee.  I love it!  I was laughing so hard I forgot all about being old.  I thank God for kids and their honesty; it keeps me on my toes.

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.