Decision Made

We have been mulling it over for about a month now and last weekend we finally made our decision. Makin's surgery in July is cancelled and we will be flying to Virginia for his surgery instead of using the surgeon here. Right now they are saying it will probably be Oct. because the summer is packed with school kids, but we have no set date yet. We should find out in the next few weeks. It boiled down to just trusting our parental instincts for what is best for Makin in the long run. It is not the practical choice, but it is the choice of our hearts and guts, so we are going to try and trust that. Hopefully we are making the right choice. One of the hardest choices we have made as parents and thanks for all of your support. :) Will let you know the date as soon as we know.

P.S. Forgot to mention that he weighed in at 23.8 lbs at his 9 month appointment. :) In the 90% for both height and weight. And he continues to clear out our pantry way to quickly. :)

Makin's Color Book

Anybody think I forgot? ;) I thought it would be fun for our parents to get a smaller version in the mail and see the pictures for the first time then. So now the rest of you you are finally seeing the pictures I took in May for Makin's color book.

I have to say he was about 10 times easier than Lorelei because he didn't know how to crawl yet. Got it done just in time!

Enjoy!

Indoor Fun

I found out storytime at Barnes and Noble was Thursday at 11 in the summer, so decided that would be our Thursday activity. Very much look forward to these kind of days because I get Starbucks, and also inside with AC and pushing a stroller is waaaaay easier than outside in the heat lugging around kids and their stuff.

We had a peaceful start and enjoyed our scone before heading to the children's section very early (you never know with these things) and had time to read some books ourselves before the crowd showed up. And when I say crowd I mean a huge "field trip" from some daycare with school kids. Lets just say we will be waiting until the school year starts up again before going to any more B&N story times, and we'll see how they are after that.

On our way to lunch we found this fun board that had different pictures on it! Totally fun to keep them entertained.

Then we headed to have lunch while watching the ice skaters. Lorelei had a blast and loved to imitate them skating backwards, twirling, and working on their dance (to Thriller I might add, think I want to go back same day next week to see how much better they are) and Makin loved dancing to the music. We even got to see the Zamboni afterwards! Maybe you don't know what that is? The little machine that drives around and cleans up the ice. Yep, learned something from Caillou didn't ya? ;) Only Caillou gets to ride one, and she was a bit annoyed she didn't get to as well, but the driver did wave to her. :)

The Little Man's Dance Moves

Finally got it on camera! This guy cracks me up pretty much every day. He loves music and loves to dance to it! Got the hang of this dropping the ball in today and loved that it made music, as you will see he starts dancing before the music even starts! :)

Hair Gettin Longer

And curlier. :) We are finally seeing some good hair on this boy. The back curls up when wet, and I just spiked up the front while having some fun after lunch today. Loved this one with his bright eyes. Many people who see him comment on his beautiful eyes. :) They seem to be getting more and more brown but still have some blue.

This N That

We have been attempting a lot of "to dos" this last week or two so have gone on a bit of a picture fast as phone calls, errands and chores are not that fun to take pictures of. :) But after almost a week of hardly any pictures, I was going into withdrawal, so have a hodgepodge for you.

Playing teacher. Loving the chalk board lately and Makin is ready to try out drawing with the chalk right there with her.

















The corner that makes me crazy. For some reason this is where he always wants to walk or crawl. Right where he can hit his head!
















Just playin.














We kicked off our weekend with a very fun Friday. Got to Skype with Sara and girls in the morning and then after Brad got home we headed over to the Fur house to enjoy one of their community pools and had pizza too. I'm not sure a pizza man has ever seen such excitement at his arrival from three little starving girls! :) Then took the trip out to see the house.

A few attempts at fun mixed with chores this weekend:

Special breakfast of pancakes and smoothies! Yum!


















Brad and Lorelei went on a lunch date to McDonald's.












Can't get enough of this boy covered in spaghetti sauce from head to toe.

Makin's Antics and More From The Chatterbox

Makin has gotten down quite a few tricks. His favorite by far is, "give me five!" :)



And of course, the never-ending stream of Lorelei's chattiness. :)

I was getting out the iron (not to actually iron though, just an iron-on patch of course, its only used for that and extra counter space for coffee cakes at Christmas) and Lorelei said "What is that?" After I explained she said, "It like Grandma!" and I was pondering this as I didn't think she had seen her grandma iron and she explained, "Caillou's Grandma!" :) Yep, she knows ironing from a cartoon character's grandma. :)

And a stream of sayings...(Uh oh, starting to hear myself a lot, and who-knows-who else sometimes)

"Cuse (excuse) me people!"
"Don't freak out."
"Sorry guys. High guys, Look guys." pretty much calls us guys a lot of the time unless she sometimes says...
"Night boys." (to Brad and I) or
"I want to spin around Ma'am." (to me)
"Shhh!" (when on phone, having a baby doll asleep or supposedly going to sleep herself in the car)
"Watch my moves." (dancing)

"Makin whine. I give him mine(her food)."
"Calm down everybody."
"We going to Yo's? (Lowes) (Of course this is every L sound, but it sounded cuter with Lowes. :))


She also made up her first song the other night trying to help Makin who was very tired and crying. She said, "Sing Three Little Peas." (Naturally I asked how that goes...) and she sang in her sing-song voice, "Little Peas, Little Peas, Little Peas. Like that!" I myself think she has a great future in song writing. ;)

Her latest kick is giving fish kisses, which is making the fish face and then giving you a kiss with it. Love!

And of course, my favorite...
"I love you too much!"

Put the two kids together and you get lots of fun...

This first one is one of those that you are just cherishing and laughing and wishing you could turn on a video camera that is embedded in your brain so you can share it. We enjoyed it for probably 5-10 minutes and then Brad got the camera, so this is a little dialed down from what it was. He has now reached the point where he just sits down giggling when Lorelei comes at him.

House Update - Brick By Brick

A week and a half later, here is the house progress. Was dusk so a bit dark, sorry about that!

Cookies Done Yet?

More and more moments like this as they are getting older. :) Loving seeing them interact more and more and have fun together.

Our Father's Day

My kids are so blessed to have Brad as their dad. He knows how to have lots of fun with them, and show lots of love to them. :)

Magnum Ice-cream Bars

The best part of our Saturday. Go get some now. Soooo yummy!

Happy Father's Day!

Both dads are probably out in the field this morning, but had to get them a message just in case. :)

Splash

We are quickly learning that the only thing to do outside in Texas in the summer is anything to do with water to cool you down! After chatting with Auntie Di she invited us to come to a pool/water park area very close to her house. It was geared toward little kids so it was the perfect way to spend our Thursday. :)

(Sorry for the lousy pic Makin, but so few pictures of us three, had to pick at least one...better work on posing like your sister. ;) )

I would never do this by myself with the kids, so very thankful to have Auntie Di to take one kid! One to one is a must at these places for me. :) Sooo glad each kid can have the individual attention too.

Makin loved the "kiddie pool" and was very happy to stay there. (They are in the shallowest part there, it was only about waist high at the highest part of the pool on him.) The whole sitting and splashing thing didn't last long though, and whichever one of us had him, was basically just doing the usual
let-me-hold-your-finger-while-I-walk-around routine, just in the pool. :) He loved it!












Lorelei went all over the place. She tried pretty much every slide she could, but didn't really care to go on them more than once. She loved being able to swim around in the kiddie pool, but her favorite was definitely "the river ride" aka lazy river. (She knows river ride from a book.) She went several times with both of us, and even had a life vest so she got to do lots of floating.












Of course a much needed snack. Lorelei was thrilled that Di brought Cheetos! :) Then we have the playground area, which was generally too much water-in-your-face for L, but she made a couple of friends who seemed to talk her into the tunnel slide, and thankfully the older sister even went down with her. :) Such fun! Looking forward to going back at least once more before summer is over!

(I should also mention both kids were totally bushed and slept the entire drive home. I even got to listen to grown up music! Then both slept extra the next day too...woo hoo!)
(We also had a busy morning even before heading to Splash, because we got to Skype with some of our favorite friends! Lily, Emma and Sara chatted with us earlier that morning. It was so fun to see them and we will definitely do this Skype thing more often!)

Latest Lorelei Quotes

****Added some new quotes!!! Just look below. Found a paper I missed earlier and then had a few good ones she said just yesterday!****

Oh the cute words of a two year old. I cherish them every day. :) Jot down when I can so I'll remember them!

Lor: (As Brad is carrying her down the stairs...) "Be careful Brad." :)

L: "Come here feetie (sweetie)."

L: (As Brad is carrying Makin after bath in his towel, and she learned this from him!) "Don't pee on me!"

Me: "I need to use the bathroom as soon as we get there." (To Brad in the car, not very loud I might add.)
L: "Daddy! Pull over!"
Me: "Why?"
L: "For you!" :)
I guess my girl wants to see me use that travel potty! ;)

And my favorite for the week:

Me: "Somebody's listener isn't on."
L: "It broke."

Some more:

Lorelei using a blanket playing with Makin..."No leave on Super Makin!" "Where Makin? Peek Boo!"

Me: "What do you want to do today?"
L: "Um...play!"

L: "Go to pool. My hands get wrinkly, like raisins!"

L to Makin: "Here, this keep you in trouble." :) (she meant out of trouble of course)

L: "I'm gonna go play organize!"

June Family Picture

Lets Buld A Tower...Under The Table???

Lorelei is quickly realizing that her brother can be a pest. :) As she was building with her mega blocks he continued to try and help, but really just made her mad. So, the solution was (after yelling at him didn't work of course) to do her work under the table where he can't get to her. :) I got a pretty good kick out of it.

I should also mention that this tower was, "five yickers tall." :)





And our busy boy who wants to do this 24/7. Typically just one holding one hand so the other hand is free to hold a toy. Now has started just letting go of my hand a lot. Definitely the boy in him that makes him just go full force even though he will still fall at some point. He wants to walk all over the house but right now I'm still right there hovering to catch him.

House Update...Um Hello House!

One week later. Yep, the picture of nothing but plumbing and cement has now become this. In one week. Apparently Makin isn't the only one going at warp speed. I brought muffins to the workers today (which was a story in itself, they barely spoke English, and even if they did speak English, couldn't really hear me from all the electric hammering and sawing going on!) and got to check out the progress. Lets just say my jaw dropped as soon as I turned the corner to see we actually have a house on our lot! They said it would go fast but I'm still in shock. I also got to meet one of our neighbors who was taking a break from his yard work, so it was great to start meeting people on our street already. Can't wait for the next visit!

A Babysitting Day

Monday Addy and Josie came over to spend most of the day with us because their usual babysitter is out of town. The girls had a fun time and it was nice to see them all interacting, especially with the older influence of Addy leading the younger girls. A lot of fun in the tent, a little hide and seek, dress up, water painting, bubble blowing...you name it. Makin just kinda stood watching in all of all these crazy girls taking over his house. :)

My favorite quote from the day was when I was attempting to kill a bug that just would not die, with all of the girls watching in awe. Addy said "Maybe it is called a stay-alive bug!" :) Glad for a laugh in the middle of my serious bug killing mission. :) She also complimented my first attempt at home-made mac and cheese. Woo hoo!

Morning Makin!

The other morning I went to start the coffee just after Lorelei woke up and Makin was starting to talk in his crib. Sure enough when I got to his room Lorelei had climbed into the crib and was playing with him. This is a new thing since we just now had to lower the mattress, which apparently makes it perfect Lorelei-climbing height.

Happy Birthday Grandma!

First Steps

If your jaw is dropped you will just be joining Brad and I. :) Our laid-back boy is walking pretty much across a room at 9 months. Sunday just before nap we were playing and decided to give it a try going between the two of us. When he had been standing in one spot he had tried taking a few steps but I wanted to wait until Brad was there so he could go between us. Sure enough he did great and was averaging about 6 steps. This video was taken later that afternoon and he was really going! It feels like someone hit the fast forward button this week! He went from mostly staying in one room, to sit-crawling across the entire apartment, from not being able to get up from laying to sitting, to sitting up in his crib and then standing up in his crib within the last few days, to walking with a walker, to walking. One week. Okay now we better slow down. :) So proud of you big boy!

(Had to leave him tackling Lorelei in there as it makes us smile every time. :))

6 Years Later - Happy Anniversary!

And oh how things have changed! Brad and I celebrated six years married on Saturday. I have to say it was probably our most unromantic anniversary yet, but it was a great day. :) As we keep saying, maybe next year we will get to go on a real date? Have a couple of offers from babysitters so hopefully! Had to include this picture for a number of reasons. On my third year of blogging (holy cow) I have yet to even mention our anniversary! Also, I was very sad we didn't get to look at wedding pictures, which I have liked to make a tradition to at least do that each year, but they are packed away in who-knows-which closet, so we decided we had to skip it this time. Anyway, this is my favorite picture and wanted to share. :) I am so blessed to be celebrating with such a wonderful man and looking forward to many more years to come!

We spent our day garage saling, stopping by a farmers market, and swimming with the kids at the pool. The pool was wonderful time together and looking forward to many more in the next couple of months. One plus side to not having a house yet! Lots of pools to choose from. :)

Ladybug Tent

Our latest favorite garage sale find, the ladybug tent. Lorelei is having a ball playing in it, and it is now taking up her entire room as she got to sleep in it last night and for nap today. Not sure how long I want it up (huge!) but looking forward to many little "camp outs" in the future. :)

Walking With Shopping Cart

This started the day after he turned 9 months. Not sure whether to cheer or cry, but I'll go with cheering. :)

Friday Afternoon/Evening Plans!

How exciting it is to actually have plans! Jen and her girls (Addi is 5 and Josie is 2 1/2) came over after nap on Friday to check out our little beach and then enjoyed some brats and hot dogs grilled by Brad when he got home. Lorelei was beyond excited to have friends over, but you can tell she has gotten a little rusty on sharing her toys. She still did great though, and did a VERY good job being patient taking turns with Jen giving them each a different turn swimming in the big pool.