TODAY I.....

Today I....

*Woke up at 5:30 to mow the grass and weed the flower beds(It's too hot to wait till any later, plus I have to do it before the boys get up)
*Embroidered 2 burp rags and 2 bibs while feeding the kids breakfast
*Cleaned the majority of the house in 45 minutes(with Cooper's help)
*Made a Target and Dollar Tree run in under an hour with both kids(that was a miracle)
*Decorated and made food for a baby shower while putting Carter down for a nap and changing clothes because I had already sweated through my previous clothes
*Had a wonderful time with friends at the baby shower
*Wore only one earring through all of this, Kaitlan why did you not inform me I only had one earring on? :) LOL!!
*Forgot to take pictures of the baby shower, well I guess we can't remember everything can we?
And all of this happened before 2:00 p.m.

Seriously I think it is time for a mid-afternoon nap!!! :)

Melting!

The weather has been hot, hot, hot!!!! We have had 98-100 degree weather for the past two weeks. We have been doing everything we can think of to keep cool, but even the ocean water and the pool are of not much relief when they feel like bath water. Popsicles melt the second they come out of the freezer and the kids are sweating before they even get out the door. But this is the South and every year I swear it was not this hot last year, even though I am sure it was! Anyway, here are some pics from what we have been doing while trying not to melt away like our popsicles.

My sister-in-law came down with her kids for a few days!

Proof that I was there!!

While at the beach we did a mini photo-shoot with the all the kids!!
Popsicles at the pool!

Happy Father's Day Blaine!

I know this is late, but I have been wanting to do this for Blaine. So here it is, HAPPY FATHER'S DAY Blaine! You are a fabulous father! It has been a wonderful experience watching you become a dad, seeing you cradle your new baby boys for the first time, catching you sound asleep with tiny baby fingers wrapped around yours, watching you run around with a wobbly toddler, seeing you play with the ever curious 2 year old, hearing you answer question after question from an inquisitive 4 year old, and watching you lull 2 boys to sleep with fantastic bedtime stories. The boys truely love, respect and look up to you. When they are scared or excited the first person they look for is you! They love for you to rock them in the chair and tell them stories while rubbing their hair. You are their comfort, their story teller, their playmate, their friend as well as their disciplinarian. They watch every move you make and try to be just like Daddy!! When you have had long hours at work, Cooper will say "I can't wait to grow up to be a Doctor just like daddy, so then we can go to work TOGETHER!" My favorite moment of the day is when they hear the garage door opening and they run to the to the door yelling, DADDY, DADDY, knowing you are soon to be home! It will soon be 5 years since Cooper was born and it has been a wonderful journey into Fatherhood in which I am very happy to have been along for the ride! We love you very much!

Watering the Kids!!

We haven't had any rain for about a week here in Mobile. My lawn was starting to get a bit crunchy. Since it was 95 degrees out yesterday I decided to turn the sprinkler on and water the lawn. The kids found this the perfect opportunity to have a little water fun. We normally don't play in the front yard becuase it is close to the street, but it was so fun letting the kids run in the sprinkler and wave to all the passing neighbors!

Looking for Cooper

Cooper loves to hide from Carter and then make Carter look for him. Here is one of our hide and seek sessions in action!

Chore chart

I have been getting VERY overwhelmed lately with the house work. So I finally decided Cooper should pull his fair share around here! :) I made him a chore chart and he gets 10cents for every chore he does. He loves this idea because he can get popsicles at the pool with his money! We tried it out last week and I was surprised with the results. That kid can clean like no one else when motivated properly.

He kinda had to run behind the vacumn cleaner to get it moving, it was so funny to watch!

Declaring his INDEPENDENCE!

Yesterday I went to Cooper and Carter's room to see this on the door! :) Cooper then informed me it was his room and Carter was not allowed to come in. I obliged for a little while, keeping Carter out while Cooper built a city with his blocks. But it didn't last too long, because when night time came around Cooper was more than happy to let Carter back in the room to sleep with him!! :)

He spelled this all by himself backward s and all!!

Cooper's got skills...

A couple of days ago, I got Blaine and the boys outside to take pictures together. After only taking one picture Cooper decided he wanted to take the pictures. So I gave him a quick picture taking lessson and showed him how to hold the camera and let him go to town. He thought it was the best thing ever, well next to chocolate cake! :) He did really well and enjoyed it very much! It was alot of fun seeing what he had captured from his point of view when he was done.

Our heads are cut off, but as he told me he meant to do that!!!

This picture captures Carter all too well! He truely is a MESS!!!

Carter LOVES cars and trucks. This is one of his favorite activities!!

He had to take pics of mom and dad!!

I took this one. He was very proud of his photography skills!

All about Cooper and Emily

On Sunday Blaine's mom, his sister-in-law and her daughter (Emily) came down for a visit!! Emily and Cooper LOVE playing with each other, but haven't seen each other very much in the last year, so they were very excited to get to spend three whole days together. I think everyone had alot of fun, but I wanted to dedicate this post especially to Cooper and Emily. They were so cute together and got along really well. I really got some priceless pictures of them enjoying each others company! Nothing better than a cold popsicle on a hot day!
It was Emily's first time at the beach and she had a BLAST!!
This picture is so cute, Cooper laid out, tired, not half listening, and Emily still talking trying to get him to listen!!! Who knew the man/women roles started so young?! :)

At the Exploreum looking out the window at the statue!