Happy Independence Day!

We had a nice, but pretty uneventful day.  We went to our town's parade in the morning, then went and got some groceries for Jackson's party tomorrow, and then went home.  The boys napped, Phil stained our back fence and worked on his Jeep, and I worked on Jackson's birthday cake.   Here are some pics from the day:

Trying to get a cute picture of the boys in their Independence Day outfits... they weren't nearly as obliging as they were the other day:

My sweet boys and me before we left for the parade:

Jackson watching the parade:

Poor guy, he's his mother's son when it comes to loud noises.  He had his ears plugged for most of the parade, after getting really upset when the jets flew low overhead and he didn't have his ears plugged.  Emmett, of course, is totally not phased at all by loud sounds, be they gunshots, jets, sirens, whatever.  Here he is all tuckered out after watching the parade:

Just a little side note:  Our town's little 4th of July parade is one of my favorite things.  We make sure to go to it every year.  It's a pretty short parade, but I seriously tear up several times while I'm watching it.  Just seeing everyone being so patriotic and happy... it makes me so proud to be an American.  The best part of the parade today was the big truck that was carrying a whole bunch of soldiers who just came back from the Middle East.  Everyone was cheering and yelling "Thank you!" to them.  It was so great!

Part of the reason we had such a laid-back day today was that we had a really fun day yesterday.  We went to my friend Michelle's house for lunch to celebrate her daughter Addy's second birthday.  Then after the boys napped we drove out to a beautiful lake near here to meet some friends for dinner.  There were a ton of people camping at the lake for the holiday, so there was all-you-can-eat BBQ and a live band playing.  There was also a big bonfire later in the evening, but we didn't make it that long.  The wind was blowing pretty hard and it was fah-reezing!!!!  The boys had a great time, though, just running around and climbing on rocks.  Emmett's favorite thing by far was the band.  He was completely and totally mesmerized by the music.  A future band nerd for sure!!

We had to keep going after him because all he wanted to do was walk right up to that band.  He would have climbed up on the stage it I had let him.  Here's Phil trying to clean him off after dinner:

And in these next two pictures you can see Emmett making his way back over to the music.  I'm telling you - he loved it!  At one point the band called kids up on stage, so I took Emmett up there.  He stared at the musicians playing literally the entire time we were up there.

We went on a short walk down by the water.  It had to be short because Emmett ran straight for the water and would have completely gone in over his head if I hadn't snatched him up.  It was a good thing I brought a change of clothes because he got wet up to his knees, and like I said, it was freezing!  We couldn't believe how fast he made a beeline into that water.  We took a few quick pictures and then I took Emmett up to change clothes while Phil stayed down by the water to let Jackson throw rocks in the lake.  He loves that.

HA!  That last picture makes Phil and me laugh.  That is how our life is most days!  Those boys do not want to be still, but we love them!!  :)

Hope you had a wonderful Independence Day!  I am so thankful to live in our wonderful country and for all of our veterans and servicemen and women who make/have made it possible for us to do all of the fun things that I write about in this blog.  Thank you!  God Bless the USA!!

New Pictures

I realized the other day that I've seriously been slacking on taking pictures of the boys. So I've decided to try to be better about it and take at least a few every day. I cannot believe how fast they're growing and how time just flies by. I know I say that all the time, but it's TRUE!

The weather has been gorgeous here lately so we've been spending time playing outside, going on walks, and playing inside with the windows open. So nice! Something that's not so nice: Emmett is a climber. I went to the bathroom for just a few minutes today and when I came out I saw this:

Uh-oh! Constant supervision needed, stat! After we ate lunch today the boys were in great moods so I took advantage of that to take some pics. Of course, I got several of Jackson with his eyes closed:

But then I actually got a pretty good one.  Hello, handsome!

Emmett is always pretty good at taking pictures, for now!

Then I even got two cute ones of the boys together!

But all of that nice, sweet posing was very short-lived.  Two seconds after I snapped those pics, this is what happened:

Emmett tried to climb over the arm of the chair and Jackson tried to stop him.  Emmett put up quite a fuss, so Jackson gave up (see next picture)...

"Whatever!  If you want to climb over and fall off, then go right ahead!"

Sprinkler

The boys are miraculously playing nicely together in Jackson's room, so I have a few seconds to upload this post. I'm trying to sneak through the bathroom to check on them periodically without being seen. If Emmett sees me, it's all over.

We've finally been having some summer weather this week. Seriously - we haven't had many days yet since last summer where the high was over 75 degrees! But for the past few days the weather has been nice and warm. Lately anytime I have the hose on for any reason, Emmett is all over it. Trying to touch the water, sticking his whole face in the stream, etc. So since yesterday was so warm I decided to hook up a little sprinkler for the boys and strip them down so they could play in the water. There wasn't much water that came out of this sprinkler, which was actually perfect for Jackson because he wouldn't have liked something that sprayed really forcefully. They loved it! Emmett would stand in the stream with a shocked look on his face while sucking in air (the water was pretty cold), but go right back for more. And Jackson, of course, was running around the yard in and out of the stream (while screaming). :) Please excuse the fact that they look a little white trash-y in their underwear and diaper. This was very spur-of-the-moment and I didn't feel like putting on swimsuits.

Fini Flight

One of Phil's good friends, Vic/Chopper, is leaving the squadron and moving to Portland and last week he had his last flight in the jet here in KF. His wife Kylie is one of my good friends, too, and their boys are just precious. We are all going to miss them very much. My sister Becky was here (that's for another post), so she stayed home while the boys were napping and I was able to go out to the flightline to watch Phil and Vic land. I love "fini" flights... they're very bittersweet.

Here's Phil landing...

And L waving to Vic in the air...

And Kylie and her sweet boys walking to meet Vic at the jet...

And Phil looking very "hot/handsome" while walking over from his jet. I took several pictures of this. :) Love the bag slung over the shoulder...

The guys took Vic's ladder away, so he had to find another way to climb out of the jet...

And then the fireman helped Kylie and the boys soak him good!

And then the guys were sweet and shook hands with Chopper...

And then we took some posed pictures....

It was a gorgeous day for once, too! We're going to miss V & K lots, but hope to see them again soon up in Portland. How is it 11:00 P.M. already? My eyes are blurring... must go to bed!

Jackson

Here's what's up with Jackson these days. I can't believe he's almost three!

1. He's pretty much fully potty trained! He really did a pretty good job with it. We didn't have that many accidents and he wasn't as scared to go on the toilet as I thought he would be. We're still working on getting him to consistently tell us when he needs to go, but the whole process was a lot easier than I thought it would be.

2. He still loves Curious George, although Thomas and his friends may have taken the top spot.

3. He loves to do things with Dad, especially take rides in the Jeep.

4. He loves to watch and help me cook and bake.

5. He's very loving. He'll give hugs and kisses whenever I ask (which is a lot) and loves to sit and snuggle with me or Phil. Oh, I could just eat him up!

6. His speech is getting better everyday. People other than Phil and me can understand some of what he says now, which is nice! Here are some of his favorite things to say (and their translations):

• "Mom/Dad! DO-in?" (What are you doing?)
• "Mom, where's _______ is? (Where is _____?)
• "Mommy, what happen?" (What happened?)
• "Momma... got dere?" (What do you have/got there? Like, what are you holding?)
• "Dat's real spicy." (He loves to say that food is spicy.)
• "Jackson real sad." "Jackson fun at church." "Jackson real scared." "Jackson hit the ball." (He's always referring to himself in the third person lately.)
• "Jackson go back bed now." (Whenever he gets reprimanded for something or gets upset he wants to go back to bed. He'll even go into his room by himself and lay down in his bed... like his own personal time-out.)
• "Dat's not airpane... dat's a jet!" (Said to Becky when she pointed out an "airplane" (F-15) in the sky.)
• "Emmett crazy!" "Jackson crazy!" "George crazy!" (He loves to say that people/things are crazy.)

7. He loves to be silly and make people laugh. If he does something and someone laughs at it, it just revs him up and he gets even more silly.

8. He loves to run, run, run! And scream, scream, scream! He'll do laps around our kitchen island over and over again. He also loves to hit balls with plastic bats and golf clubs.

9. He's a great sleeper. He still takes a 2-3 hour nap every afternoon, although he has been waking up before 7 A.M. lately, which stinks! He loves his "nice, comfy bed".

10. He's not really a picky eater and will try almost anything. He just only eats a lot of something every once in a while.

11. He's such a good boy. He obeys pretty well and seems to want to behave and do the right thing for the most part. Now if we can just get him to be more patient with his brother. There's still quite a bit of pushing and "accidentally" knocking E down going on. Although when he wants a toy that Emmett has, he'll try to bargain for it by bringing E another toy and saying, "Emmett want this now."

12. It's very hard to get a picture of him nowadays. He's either too busy to stop for a picture, or he closes his eyes, or he is in a mood and won't cooperate and look at the camera. Here are the best ones I've taken lately...

Helping Mommy make cookies...

Helping water the plants...

I got three pictures in a row that look like this...

This is what he does when he doesn't want to do something. He leans over and hangs his head and arms and makes a groaning/moaning noise. It's so funny! What he didn't want to do this time was look at the camera and smile.

Finally got a decent one!

Helping Mom and Becky scrub the patio...