slipping and sliding

Our last $10 pool from Target bit the dust after two years of a WHOLE lotta love. It was money well spent. We upgraded to a new pool with a "slide" even if the slide is a little too big for the boys.

My boys have absolutely no discrimination when it comes to pools. If it holds water, they consider it a pool.

They talked Justin into playing with them in the pool. Just even gave the pool a test drive.

 Landry loved just watching the boys and cheering them on.

She was so cute you couldn't help but give her a smooch in between slides.

Finally, Landry made it known that she wanted a piece of that pool. We didn't have her swimsuit handy so we did what we always do the in the backyard when our kids are little...she went skinny dipping! 

She loved it! And we loved watching her cute dimply bottom go crazy in that pool. 

 

She slept like a champ that night. 

One of my favorite things I love is when my kids are freshly out of the bath tub or the pool and water beads up on their long lashes. They just look so beautiful and begging for some lovin'!

I love spontaneous nights like these. Just naked babies in the pool, boys going kamikaze with their canon balls and a husband who look like they fit in right with my children.

Four LONG days

Good intentions. That's seems to be the ongoing theme in our lives since having kids. We have the best of intentions to finish projects, to do more, to be more. But after two kids I'm working on considering it a successful day if I can get dinner cooked and the kitchen isn't a wreck the same night.

So another good intention that we had back in March was to get a playground for the boys in our backyard. I remember the days of coming home and playing outside til it was dark and riding my bike when I was a kid. Now I feel like our children don't get that opportunity. I know, it's completely a different time and plus having an older brother and sister really helped. I just don't feel safe letting the boys play outside without me yet especially when I need to cook dinner inside. So a playground in the backyard seemed like the best solution.

Well before we knew it, it was June and the good Lord knows that no one in their right mind would  put a playground together in 105 degree heat. No thanks. So looks like we bought ourselves some more time to procrastinate.

Six months after our original good intention and after one month of it sitting in our garage, we finally pulled the trigger and put the playground together. And when I say "we", I really mean mostly Justin. I just took one look at all those pieces and parts and it looked like my worst nightmare.

Day one mostly involved making sense of the 15 gazillion pieces and organizing it all. Day two we had one of Justin's co-workers, Phil, come over to help. He was so wonderful to come give up his Sunday afternoon with his family.


Justin's feelings were a little hurt that I only got pictures of Phil doing the labor. So I had to make sure that I went back to show his hard work. The boys loved getting into Justin's tools and work junk while their daddy worked.


The slide was the first thing done and it's amazing how much a slide can provide entertainment!

Well after two more days of labor, this stupid playground is done! Thank you Jesus! The boys were already on the swings before Justin could even anchor the playground to the ground. Man, do these boys love to swing. Nolan shared in the duties of pushing Cam. Poor guys legs are too short to pump them anytime too soon.


All I can say is that after four long days, these boys better play with this playground until they're 30! So far, it's a huge hit.

Let's just hope that they newness doesn't wear off anytime soon.

 
I'm so thankful that my handy husband was able to figure out the world's worst instructions (or constructions as Nolan calls them). Thank you Justin for being such a great dad!

It looks like we're safe from the newness wearing off anytime soon.

 

Balance

Control Freak, OCD, Smothering...these might all be adjectives you might use to describe me as a first-time mother. I wanted to do everything by the book, do it right (still do, it's the teacher pleaser coming out in me, again). I'm letting go of that rope. Five years ago I was holding on...I mean white-knuckled death grip holding on and throwing a tantrum like a 2-year-old if you told me to let go.

I'm learning that as with everything, there's balance. There's balance that a child needs as much discipline as love. There's balance in family time and "me" time and when I don't have it, everyone feels the wrath. There's balance in being overly protective and then letting boys do what they do best, get bruises. There's balance in feeding my kids healthy food and then letting them eat cookies or a french fry even if it means getting a look a judgment from another mother. But remember....I'm letting go, s-l-o-w-l-y. Some days, it's more of a leap. Those are my "wild" and crazy days.

 
Sometimes I wonder if I was too much for Nolan, too intense. I mean when you pick your child up from school and they have a "yellow" day and they ask, "Do you still love me?" you really worry if you're doing right by them. Talk about a punch to the gut. There's no worse nightmare that you have as a mother than hoping you don't send your kid to therapy when they grow up.

No, my dream as a mom is that they'll remember me playing with them. I mean down in the dirt, kicking a ball, can hang with the boys type of mom.

I remember being pregnant with Nolan and how much the worry consumed me about him getting here safely and then the worry would stop. I know, you can stop laughing now. Little did I know, that was only the beginning of a lifetime of worry.

Speaking of worry...

I'm really getting worried about Nolan being so shy.

He's just so timid and serious.

I just wish that he could let loose and be silly.

Hmmm, maybe someday he'll come out of his shell.

Dog days of summer

It has got to be at least 300 degrees outside right now. Our little a/c unit is the little engine that could. It stopped working one night and it was definitely a sweat fest. But thank goodness for a quick fix, it was working by 8:30 the next morning! God put me in this generation for a reason. He knew my little whiney pansy self couldn't handle it in any other.

So besides packing up the kids with 10 floaties, towels, and sunscreen and heading to the pool, what else can you do to survive this heat that just takes your breath away? You slap a $10 inflatable pool in your backyard and let them run wild. I swear my kids love our $10 pool more than our neighborhood pool. It's like how they love the packaging and wrapping paper more than they love presents.

This had to be one of our most comical nights of backyard play. I hate wasting swim diapers just when they're playing in our backyard, so I just put Campbell in his swimsuit. I don't know what it is about this boy and playing in our inflatable pool that makes him have the urge, but it's almost just expected now. Last time though we caught the "warning" face first and ran him to the bathroom. It was a milestone...first poop in the potty! This time we tried to do the same but no luck. Sure enough, minutes after having him go try, we were busy filling up the pool. Suddenly, my poor baby looked like Pigpen from Peanuts but only with flies all around him. We did what any other normal parent would do…

This photo makes me laugh out loud…everytime. This poor boy doesn't even know what kind of blackmail I'm stashing away for his girlfriends.

So after we dealt with Mr. Poopy Pants, we went on with our fun. Which included giving the dog a bath. Poor Bandit hasn't had a bath in probably a year (or more).

First things first: get wet!



Then start scrubbing and rinse again.



Uh oh, here comes big brother who wants his turn.


And don't you just love how comforting big brother is…

But wait…it's time for the shake off!

And just like that, all is forgotten and life is good again.

Looks like Dad worked up a sweat. Nolan decides to cool him off.  I love how he's "cooling" him off but the water is going on both sides of him.



Pool time!

Our all-star doesn't take a break and practices his swing.



And it doesn't even matter if he's hit it or not because he looks like this when he does it.

Once again, I forget my troubles, the sink full of dishes in the kitchen, the blistering heat and all I can feel is the warmth of my heart.