Stories

No pictures, just funny stories about the boys.


In the last few weeks, Tommy has started saying his "L" sound more correct. It is pretty funny to hear some of the words a little more drawn out to get the sound out. It sure is interesting how these kids continue to develop.

Awhile before Tommy could say his "L" sound, he was telling Barrett what he wanted to be when he grew up. He said, "I want to be a warrior just like dad." Yep, he meant "lawyer." (Now he just wants to be a daddy)

The other day Tommy and Damon were playing downstairs. Tommy needed something upstairs so he told Damon, "I'll be back in a flash."

We've been talking a lot about babies around here and what the boys were like when they were babies. Tommy was telling us how he was when he was a baby. "I cried and you shush-ded me."


Damon got in trouble during dinner one night. He was excused to leave the table to cry in another room. When he came back, he moved his chair and place setting away from dad (he's the one who got mad at him). Damon then said, "It's gonna be a competition. When I'm a dad, I'm gonna be a lot kinder to my kids!" The boys then laid into their dad about all the things he does that are mean or unkind. They all came to an agreement of how they should act with each other. It was really funny!

At breakfast one morning the boys got talking about jobs/careers. They told Barrett that he should be an ice cream man, that way he could park outside our house and give them free ice cream. They then decided that he should be a police man. We asked why and they said,"because then he can chase robbers." I said, "no, what if the robbers have guns?" Tommy said, "well, we need to get dad a gun!"

One day we were Skyping with Uncle Tanner. At the end of the conversation, Damon said,"Where are your kids?" Tanner responded,"I don't have any yet?" One of the boys then said,"Aren't you boring? We'd be boring without kids!"

We've been having a difficult time coming up with baby girl names. Damon will randomly suggest a name. One day he came up to us and said, "I've got the best name--Diarrhea"
Mom: Uh, do you know what diarrhea means?
Damon: No.
Mom: It means poop.
Damon super shocked: Oh! then starts laughing and saying it definitely isn't a good name for our baby.
*He really thought it sounded like a pretty name and had no idea what it really meant...he was serious...that was the best part:) 

Pioneers and Pool Fun

Our Family Home Evening this week was all about pioneers for Pioneer Day (July 24th). The boys had fun dressing up:)

Our friends moved and gave us some fun stuff to remember them by (or they just didn't want to take it along). We got their little pool and filled it up one afternoon. Tommy was hilarious just swimming away. 

I was taking this picture and right after I snapped it, Damon jumped off and just about landing on Tommy's head. Thankfully, Tommy sat up just as Damon jumped off. Yikes!

Barrett has been really busy lately and been gone most nights. He was able to take off a few hours on Kid Movie Day to join the boys and I. It was a nice little break for him...and me. The boys were really cute snuggling with their dad.

We were excited to have Saturday afternoon to play with dad. We packed up and got ready to go to Killens Pond Waterpark. Unfortunately, when we got there the waterpark had just closed because of thunderstorms in the area. We waited about 30 minutes then found out it would probably be another 30. We thought we could make it to the beach by then. Well, it was farther than we had thought and by the time we got to the beach, it was closed because of the thunderstorms...we ventured to the next beach and it was closed too. The poor boys were thinking we were the worst parents ever. We decided to just go out to eat and ended up at a Chinese Buffet. The boys had the best time and thought it was so cool that you could chose what you wanted to eat. Every time I took Tommy to get food, he'd skip and hop and dance the whole time. He asked if we could go there every night:) They loved it! We also did a little shopping at the outlets while we were there. And, it barely rained. 

The State Fair

Yesterday we went to the State Fair. The weather was a little drizzly, but only rained a few times for a few minutes on us. We had fun looking at animals and huge tractors, holding baby chicks, eating Kettlecorn and Cotton Candy, and looking at the rides. I think the only thing Tommy will remember is that his parents wouldn't let him ride any of the rides (a ride on a little carousel was going to be $5 per person!!!!). He was seriously ticked off---how old is he?

I have never seen a black chick that I can remember. This little chickadee was so soft and fun to hold!

 The boys think these things are the coolest...which is why we have so many pictures with them:)

 Barrett thought I needed to be in a picture...nothing cool in the background, but proof that my belly is growing and almost at my 7 month mark! (all my clothes are starting to get pretty snug)

 We never by food places...well, we try not to. This day was out of the ordinary and we bought lunch plus 2 snacks:) The boys got hot dogs.
                                            

Fun and Sad Times

Some of our best friends moved this weekend. We got the boys together one last time at a bounce house place. They were having the time of their lives. Even the dads had a great time trying to peg the kids with a ball or playing in the bounce houses themselves. It was really difficult to say good bye that night (well, maybe just for the moms). If I let myself think about it, my eyes tear up...so I try not to dwell on it. We will miss them like crazy, but are excited for their new adventures and the possibilities to see them when we visit grandparents:)

Summer Fun

Another week of Summer down. Some awesome friends threw me a baby shower last Tuesday night. It was so fun and so weird to be opening gifts with pink and ruffles and headbands. I also got a new car seat (woo-hoo!) and a bassinet. The treats were tasty and so cute. It was a great night out! Here's what the boys were up to while I was party-ing it up. Dress-up. A baseball player and motorcycle rider:)

On Thursdays, the movie theater shows old kids shows at 10 in the morning. For only $2 you get in to see the movie, plus popcorn and soda. I took the boys to see Kung Fu Panda and our friends met us there. It was so fun! That evening, we went to Chick Fil-A for a little farewell get together for our good friend who is moving this week. It was fun chatting with friends and ignoring the boys playing on the playground:)

The next day was free meal day at Chick-fil-A if you dress like a cow. I wasn't up to it with my growing belly, but the boys sure were excited. I didn't get a picture of them dressed up, but here is part of Damon's costume...he wrote this sign all by himself (he looked at an actual sign and copied it)! We even ran into some friends, so the boys got to play a little longer than I had planned so I could chat more.

Barrett has had a lot of busy nights lately between town council meetings and church stuff, so we'd been telling the boys Friday night and Saturday were "play days/nights". We wanted to go camping Friday, but the realization that I'd have to get up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom, but not actually have a bathroom to use, caused us to nix that idea. It was a beautiful night, so we ended up picking up a Hot-N-Ready Little Caesar's pizza and took it to the park near our house to eat and fly kites. We even stayed long enough to catch fireflies!!

Our house is in desperate need of some de-junking and organizing. We spent a good part of the morning cleaning out our room. After lunch, we got all ready to go to the water park, but 10 minutes on the road we decided it probably wasn't the best day to go...it was cloudy and overcast. So, we turned around and went home, then got ready to go bowling. The boys have never been and were really excited. Unfortunately, they were still a little young and didn't enjoy it that much.

On the way home from bowling, we stopped by Fifers Orchards to browse and play and swing. We ended up buying some corn on the cob and seconds peaches. The boys swung and played. All fun and games end when your brother throws a bocee ball at you and it lands on your toe...and that's when we went home.

We love the fun moments we get together. 

Fourth of July 2012

We had a pretty fun Fourth of July this year. Nathan came up the night before to celebrate the festivities. We had a lazy morning then went to the mall for some quick sale shopping. Nathan had prepared a delicious lunch for us of bacon wrapped chicken and pineapple kabobs. After some relaxing, we went to our friends' house for dinner. The boys loved the water slide. We rushed over to the parade and the boys loved sitting by Nathan, grabbing and gobbling candy. (Today Tommy said, "I bet those people at the parade are so sad they gave all their candy away!") We went back home then headed back out for the fireworks. Usually we just watch from our porch, but this year we watched them with the rest of town and it was really fun! The boys were way too tired to really enjoy them, but the rest of us liked it! We had a great day and ate tons of good food and soda and root beer floats:) Go America!

Beach

We thought Saturday would be the best day to go to the beach. My Dad grew up in Delaware and besides a mini reunion at Bethany Beach 2 summers ago, hadn't been to Southern Delaware for quite awhile. We decided to stop in Lewes to walk around a bit. We found a Farmer's Market and had a great time seeing what would catch Grandma's eye. She bought 2 tasty treats for us! My Dad finally got some sea food too:)

 Tommy found a free map and decided he needed to look at it while riding on his dad's shoulders;)

 We ventured over to a State Beach for some fun in the ocean. It was sooooo crowded, but we found a pretty good parking spot and a place to put our umbrella. We had a great time eating, playing in the waves, and enjoying the day. Tommy loved the waves his trip, but had to have both hands in a death grip with someone else's. The boys were so brave by the end, that they'd sit in the sand and let the waves carry them a little before hopping up. My dad and Barrett loved playing in the waves themselves:)

On our way home, we just HAD to stop at Dolles for salt water taffy. We were just going to drop a couple people off, but found a parking spot not even 2 blocks away. It was perfect! We enjoyed eating taffy and caramel corn on the ride home.

It was so fun having my parents here. They were really good sports in our hot, humid house the last few days. By Sunday morning, I had lost my patience with the hot house. 2 amazing people came to our rescue to help us out and Barrett played the "my wife is 6 months pregnant" card to push our management company to get someone over to fix the AC. My dad enjoyed talking with a few people at church that knew his dad and family. It was nice to have other people occupying my kids during church too:) 

It is always sad to have family leave, but at least I know my mom is coming in 3 months when I have my baby! 

Another Day with the Grandparents

We have never been to the Agricultural Museum in our town. Well, we tried once thinking it was only a dollar to get in, but discovered it was a lot more than that, so we turned around and headed out the door.  But Grandpa thought it sounded fun and we needed to do something with the boys...the weather had turned hot and humid. It was surprisingly super cool. All Tommy wanted to do was milk the fake cow. When we couldn't find him, that's where he was. My mom and I were fascinated when we'd look at an old tractor or old appliances or something and find it was used until the 50s or 60s. Not that long ago...and look where we've come. The boys loved feeding the chickens outside also. My brother called to talk about his new baby, so while I'm talking on the phone, I see Tommy run out of a barn with some feathered vulture looking thing chasing him. I think they really just startled each other, but it was pretty funny! The boys loved playing in the school house and church building. I started complaining about how hot life must have been and how I would never have survived in the humidity working a farm or anything else. I spoke too soon...late that afternoon our air conditioner went out! It was a hot 48+ hours until it got fixed!!

My parents took the boys to Chick-fil-A for dinner so Barrett and I could go out on a date:) It was great! We also stopped by the grocery store to pick up food for the weekend. It was so pleasant walking around with each other and no kids. 

Day 2 with G & G

We took Grandma and Grandpa to Fifer Orchards to pick blueberries. My mom was loving it:) We bought some apple cider donuts also, and played and played outside on the swings and with the games. My mom wishes she had a tree big enough back home to put one of those fun horse swings.

That morning, we remembered the city does concerts on the Green every Thursday evenings. It was pretty decent weather, so we ventured out after dinner. We showed Grandma and Grandpa the sights downtown, then enjoyed lollipops while listening to fun music. Tommy even started feeling the groove...it was hilarious!! He saw a little baby girl close by, so was dancing for her. He thought it was the best when she would smile at him:)

Grandma and Grandpa!

My Mom and Dad decided to come for a visit!! They look us to the Chesapeake Maritime Museum the first day. It was so fun. They said the kids could touch, play, and climb on anything!! They were in heaven. Tommy keeps asking if we can go back. Oh, and kids under 6 are free!!

 Proof that I have a growing belly and was there (it is the only picture on my camera of me)

 The boys loved climbing through this light house.

Of course we ended the adventure with ice cream from this tasty little shop. (sorry it is out of focus) The boys also played with some other kids on a pirate ship play ground.