More Adventures

These boys have been busy, busy busy! There is no end to the entertainment possibilities here, including a variation of the game "stairs" with Grumpy.

A little quieter activity of dot painting with Grammy. I enjoyed this one too...makes me want to go play bingo in Vegas!

Ben's furry sidekick has her own chair at the table and has gotten pretty spoiled by handouts from little fingers.

Abby does return the favor by bestowing some of her precious attention on Ben occasionally.

We've all enjoyed getting to visit friends here and I've been terrible about taking pictures. I only seem to remember to get my camera out when there are kids involved which means I have few pictures of the adults I've gotten to see. Saturday we had a swim date with Beth and her two sweet boys who currently live in our old house in Singapore (their dad works for the same company as Matt)...such a small world! Even crazier, back before any of us had kids it turns out we all lived in the same apartment complex in Houston for two years. That evening after the kids were in bed I got my own playdate with some old girlfriends from work. We laughed for hours like the good old days....a lot has changed since we all met, like twelve kids between all of us, and now all of us have gone on to new jobs or full-time motherhood. L to R: Mindy, Vivian, Kristi, me, Holly, and Gretchen

On Sunday the boys spent the morning with Grandma and Grandpa and after naptime we dropped in to see our old neighbors, the Varas, at their new house. It was reallly beautiful and I was scoping out the street for potential vacancies so that one day we might be neighbors again. Jackson kindly shared all of his toys with Alex.

Haley and Ben got reacquainted with a big hug.

All four kiddos doing anything but smiling or looking at the camera. It's hard to believe we first met the Varas 6 years ago and none of us were even thinking about kids.

Monday started our stay-cation on Lake Conroe. We're using Grammy and Grumpy's timeshare condo here and enjoying a little R&R on the lake. Aunt Stacey and Reid came Monday as well and I was interested to see how the kids would react to their new cousin. Ben has been interested and asked tons of questions (naturally) but has otherwise only complained about Reid "whining too much". In Reid's defense, he's a really good baby but of course cries when he's hungry or he knows mom is trying to eat.

Alex has barely given Reid a glance but has been more than happy to try out all of his toys. I have to keep an eye on him to make sure he's not plopping down in the bouncy seat while Reid is in it.

Reid seems more excited about the whole meeting than his older cousins.

Interestingly, Ben hasn't cared if I hold Reid (which I haven't gotten to do much since my hands are usually full anyway) but was pretty jealous when Grumpy cuddled him. He was glued to Grumpy's side the entire time.

Grumpy and all his boys.

The condo has been fun! We've been swimming a lot, watching movies, and feeding the ducks from the balcony. It's right over the water so we'll start fishing this afternoon as well.

The kids love a good hotel visit and have had a ball just being somewhere new again.

We even caught a nice rainbow one evening.

Their favorite thing by far has been the pool and they're so cute in their new swimsuits. Think this guy is excited to go?

Since Ben hated his swim lessons last year I put off re-enrolling him until Alex could go as well. We don't have regular access to a pool anymore and the water in Perth was almost always freezing, so the kids are not swimmers by any means. They're comfortable in the water but both require flotation (especially Mr. Skin and Bones Ben without an ounce of fat to keep him afloat) so these floaties have been great for me to take them both in the water by myself.

After getting chilled at the pool yesterday, Ben came home and enjoyed his biggest bubble bath yet in the jacuzzi tub. Alex still hates bubble baths and wouldn't get near it.

We were all excited to get the chance to visit with my Uncle Lindy and Aunt Nell. Lindy was always so much fun we were kids and still keeps us laughing. Here he's teaching Ben the cut-the-cheese song.

Good fun with the family :)

All good things have to come to an end and unfortunately tomorrow all the out of towners will be heading home. The kids and I will probably stay here until Friday then they'll spend their last weekend with Grandma and Grandpa while I get started on the (*gulp*) packing. We have less than a week left now so the countdown to the Longest Trip Ever Part 2 has begun....

More Fun in the Sun

We're still living it up in the good ole Texas summer. The kids don't complain about the heat but their faces show the effects. (Ben is obviously a little big for this swing but I had to laugh at how long his legs look hanging out the bottom)

Poor little Alex can sweat through his thin hair in minutes but it's never slowed down his playing.

The best way to keep cool? Strip it all off, of course.

Au natural in Grumpy's backyard.

We still haven't made it to a big pool yet but the splash pool has been plenty of fun so far. Our plans for the next week include a pool every day so I know the kids will love it.

My boys haven't been the only wild animals roaming around in the backyard. We've seen this momma and her twin fawns almost daily and I finally got a great picture of the family. Turns out they love drinking from the bird bath almost as much as the gourmet buffet of landscaping.

We did clean up last weekend for a birthday party and managed a quick picture before we all started sweating. I can't possibly hope for three smiles toward the camera but I'll accept all the faces in the right direction.

And my favorite of the week: Ben staring at the countdown clock waiting for his turn with the car in Alex's hands. I've never caught him cutting any time off it but he's been known to add several minutes to it before bedtime.

We're all still having a great time and have been busy this week with vacation Bible school at Grumpy and Grammy's church. Ben is attending the preschool class and Alex is in the nursery while Grammy and I herd our group of almost 2nd-grade boys through the morning and Grumpy heads up all the games. I have been taking the boys into the opening and closing in the sanctuary so they can sing and dance with all the big kids and they've been in top form. Ben even performed a solo tonight during dinner at a mexican restaurant, just in case all the other diners needed to hear a song about Jesus.

We've also been fitting in lots of doctor appointments (well-visits, vaccinations, Ben's eyes) and playdates, so the time is really flying by. We've got less than two weeks left here and I'm already getting sad about leaving even though we're all excited to get home and see Daddy. More than anything, my stomach is tensing up thinking about getting back on the airplane and repeating the trip we made over here. I wish there was some other way to do it!

Whatever Works

The entire dinner went down this way!

New Adventures

The boys were lucky enough to attend Grandma's storytelling event at the public library and had a wonderful time watching her perform. What great fun! Especially on a rainy morning when we needed to get two restless boys out of the house.

After the rain let up the boys played outside again but the humidity definitely kept things hot. Can you tell?

Finally we coaxed them inside for some birthday gifts. I told Grammy and Grumpy to save their gifts for a rainy day and it was the perfect time to share them with the boys.

Ben couldn't wait to tear into his package.

Alex was sidetracked by his card and his dancing cracked us all up. Ben was already into his gift (his first fishing pole) and trying to get it loose. Alex got a fun car to push that has somehow already seen more action from Ben, but that's how things go with brothers.

Grumpy taught Ben the finer points of fishing before trying the real thing.

This morning we headed to the pond first thing for Ben to catch his first fish and it didn't take long! My camera locked up so I missed the genuine smile but this cheesy one will have to do. This was one proud boy and his first perch.

Grumpy showed him the fish and let Ben touch it.

At last count it was 5 fish for Ben and 2 for Grumpy. Alex and I had to take off because I had an important meeting at Mel's. (for those of you not familiar with the place, it's only the best, greasiest, home-cooked food in Texas and Friday's special is fried catfish)

Alex got his first checkup in the US and passed everything with flying colors. We're missing a few vaccinations for Texas but 3 jabs later he was pretty caught up. The nurse was amazed at how loud this boy can scream and also how quickly he forgot the shots when I pulled out the magic lollipop.
What really surprised me were Alex's 2-year stats:
height: 36 1/4 inches (90th percentile)
weight: 29lbs (50-75th percentile)
head: 20 3/4 inches (off the chart)

Somehow our little man has managed to grow up a lot and slim down everywhere else. Maybe he won't be a linebacker after all. The doctor gently asked me if we had concerns about the size of Alex's head but I laughed and told her we'd had it scanned and already know it's just holding lots of brains. We expect him to be very smart.

Fun with the Family

I had so much fun with the French family last week! It was hard saying goodbye to this sweet little face on Saturday but hopefully he and Stacey will be down for a visit soon.

Stacey, Jason, and Reid

Sisters! And Reid making it impossible to get a picture of the the ATM on his onesie and booties. We had such a great visit together but I was still happy to get home and see my boys' smiling faces.

I think Daddy has been a little lonely on the other side of the ocean because he's been calling more than any other time in our lives. We passed the computer around Saturday evening so he could talk to everyone in turn. Skype makes it so easy to keep in touch!

On Sunday Grandma and I took the boys to see Toy Story 3. Alex laughed at how the chair folded up on him but I didn't think it would be funny for over an hour and a half so he sat in a booster and enjoyed the movie. Ben liked it as well but was concerned the entire time that some of the toys left the others. Grandma and I loved it and had some good laughs.

A little more exciting was finger-painting turned naked-full-body-painting in the backyard. And apparently painted naked boys need to run in circles in the driveway.

Alex wasn't thrilled to share in Ben's body paint and cried for me to wipe him off.

Instead we just dunked the boys in the little splash pool and let them sort it all out.

Monday was Alex's true birthday and we celebrated all day. We opened presents while Aunt Amanda was visiting and watched the boys go crazy over the new toys.

The big birthday dinner was at Chili's with all the grandparents lavishing attention on the birthday boy and his brother. Both kids were very aware of all the loving adults around and were in top form.

Alex LOVED it when the servers came by to sing happy birthday. He sang along, danced, and clapped the entire time. Then he noticed the brownie and ice cream and didn't mind so much that the song had ended!

Happy birthday, sweet boy!

Here's a special message from Ben to Daddy...

We all miss Matt every day and wish he could be here with us. Visiting during the summer has been tons better than all our previous Christmas visits because everyone doesn't have crazy schedules already. It's been laid-back and relaxing, which is completely the opposite of our holiday visits which are usually packed and completely busy. Plus, it doesn't hurt that we've missed one of Perth's longest cold streaks while we're enjoying the long summer days here.

Happy Birthday Alex!!

It's so exciting to celebrate the second anniversary of the youngest member of our family...life would not be the same without our precious baby Alex. I guess I'll have to stop calling him a baby now that he's a full-fledged 2-year old, but he'll always hold that special baby place in my heart. Alex is an absolute joy and brightens any room. He loves attention and will do anything for a laugh. He's been athletic and coordinated since the day he started walking and amazes me regularly with the feats he's able to accomplish physically. Books are a favorite and he'll sit down and read an entire stack with me, especially if he can make animal sounds to go along. That little body is still soft and round and completely huggable but I can tell that each day he's getting taller and slimmer and that baby fat will be gone before I realize it. Alex gives the best kisses (sometimes with the surprise open-mouth bonus) and prefers receiving hugs backwards. His temper is still lightning fast and his volume reaches decibels that don't seem humanly possible, but thank goodness he is usually easily distracted with a little treat. Give this boy a ball or a car and he's set for life. We are all so thankful for beautiful little Alex and all the love and laughter he brings into our lives.

Sweet baby boy just a few days old...

One year old and sporting a few teeth...

Two years old, with a head full of hair (still never been cut but getting close) and plenty of birthday cupcake goodness on his face!

Happy birthday, Alex!