Catching Up

Aidan did VBS at another friend's church last week and had a great time! It was a superhero theme and on the last day they got to wear superhero costumes. I bought him a cheap Spiderman outfit and he loves it.


One day while Aidan was at VBS, Avery and I went to a tie-dye party at my friend Julia's house. I made two shirts for the kids while Avery played on the slip and slide with her friends.



The shirts turned out great!

Aidan worked on a behavior chart for a couple of weeks. For every day that he didn't whine, was nice to Avery, and listened, he got a dollar. When he had $10 he got to pick out an Iron Man toy. He's so proud of it!

We went to a swimming birthday party for Aidan's friend Cade:

Here's Aidan and his friend Tate at our church-wide pool party a couple weeks ago. These two are good buddies from MDO and church and I've tried to make sure Aidan sees plenty of him during the summer break!

Counting to Five

I have some catching up to do and I'll probably wait until after the weekend (we're headed to Comanche for the Cunningham reunion) but I wanted to post this video that I am super proud of. Avery surprised me and her speech therapist today by counting to five!! She has always loved to count, but wanted others to say the numbers while she pointed. She's had quite a word burst in the past few weeks, and now loves to say her colors. I'm so proud of her!!

Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming

We went on a field trip to the local Petco with our moms club yesterday and ended up making an impromptu purchase...a blue Betta fish named Dory! She (he?) is named after everyone's favorite forgetful fish from Finding Nemo. Aidan was more excited about the pirate statue we picked out for his bowl.

Cedar Creek Lake

This week we took a mini-vaca and headed to Cedar Creek Lake with Daniel's family. We rented a couple of small lake houses which were right by the water. It was relaxing and tons of fun! The kids loved swimming, and one of the tall trees had a swing which the kids loved playing on. We ate, played games, and the last night we roasted some s'mores. It was great to get away for a few days!

Going to check out the lake:

Making cookies with Gigi:

Playing with Cookie:

Gigi with all her great-grandkids:


Ready to go swimming!

Cousin Hugs:

Headed to the dock:





Logan laughing at Uncle Daniel:

Playing on the floating island at Cookie's friend Mary's house:


View of the lake from our yard:

The two houses we rented:

A game the kids played outside:

S'more time:

Random Stuff

I haven't taken many pictures lately...our smaller camera broke and we just recently got a replacement. The kids and I finished up swim lessons yesterday and Avery did much better this week than last week. She screamed less and swam more. One day she swam so much that she came home and passed out while I was taking a shower - so unlike her!

She loves her games on my iPhone:


I gave her her very first pedicure the other day. I think next time I'll pick darker polish and have the nail salon do it for $10...I'm not very good!

Do you like Aidan's tool belt?

Fun with the Brooks Family

Our best friends Marcus and Jenna and their kiddos drove up from Waco this weekend. Aidan and Avery had tons of fun with Katy, Hannah, and James! They also brought their new puppy Judge. Avery LOVED him. I wonder how long my pet-free days will last with her as my daughter. James is 5 days younger than Avery, and Daniel and I think he looks just like Macaulay Culkin :)

Happy Cow Appreciation Day!

We love us some Chick Fil-A. So when we heard they were giving away free food to everyone who dressed like a cow, we were there! The kids and I had gotten some signs and hats, and I put some cow stickers on a white shirt for Daniel. Cody, Amy, Sage, and Logan were there, and Aidan saw a couple of his friends too. Thank you Chick Fil-A!

Swim Lessons

The kids had their first week of swim lessons this week at the local YMCA. Aidan loves swimming and I'm ready for him to learn to do it without his swim jacket. So far he's doing great! He had the instructor all to himself the first two days, and now there's one other boy with him. I enrolled Avery in a parent/child class the same time as Aidan's because it's cheap and I figured I'd rather be doing that then chasing her around the pool for 30 minutes. The first couple of days were okay, yesterday was awful, and today I took her out to sit in the car after 5 minutes. Her instructor is great and we're also the only ones in the class but she's too young to really get it. She loves swimming but is so strong-willed and wants to do exactly what she wants to do, so any "instruction" has been a huge fight. It's not worth it! I can't even get a partial refund for next week :(

Happy 4th of July!!

Happy 4th of July from our little firecrackers! On Saturday night we watched the City of Sachse fireworks from our driveway, and last night we drove to Richardson to see some more. We found a good spot to park and watch from Daniel's truck. Happy Birthday USA!

Ouchie :(

Friday night before bed, the kids were playing on the stairs when Aidan tripped and hit his head on the wooden part of one of the stairs (I think...Avery is the only other witness and she's pleading the fifth). It wasn't a huge gash, but bled like crazy for a few minutes. I called CareNow first but they recommended I take him to the ER, go figure! Daniel stayed home with Avery, and Aidan and I left for the hospital (by this point he was fine and back to his chatty self). I packed plenty of toys because I was sure it would take forever, but we were only in the waiting room maybe 20 minutes (then another 45 minutes or so with the nurses and doctor). It was a good visit and everyone was great with Aidan. Instead of stitches they used a glue called DermaBond which seems to work great. Now he matches his friend Tate, who got a similar injury a few weeks ago at MDO. It helped because we were able to talk about how the doctor had made Tate's head feel better too. Aidan's Great-Pa (my grandfather) also got a head gash a while back too. I guess this means they never grow out of it? :)