Play Time

Here are some of the things the boys enjoy doing this summer.

Austin LOVES to crawl up onto Rexford's bed and pull the covers over him. He likes to read books there. I would move him from a crib to a bed but I'm not sure he would stay in it all night and so I'm not willing to risk that yet :)

They like to play hide-and-seek all over the house and the closet is a favorite place to hide. Here Austin is mad that Rexford is in there and he's trying to push him out and Rexford's being shy playing the recorder for me.

They love to paint and are so excited when I let them.

Austin is especially enjoying this new activity

They like to dress up and Austin loves playing with tools.

Whenever it's time for a battery change he always grabs his screwdriver and tries to open the toy.

We are having fun together and I am loving that the boys actually play together sometimes. It's fun to see them run around laughing and Austin copying his big brother and Rexford so happy that he's making Austin laugh.

An Evening at Sea World with Daddy

We go to Sea World a lot but the kids love it when Daddy gets to come too because it only happens once or twice a year. Four weeks ago we went one Friday night. The kids enjoyed the aquarium and sea turtles while Brian rode Manta (which he didn't enjoy that much because he kept saying that day that he just didn't feel right. That was the start of a terrible virus that he's just finally starting to feel a little better now that I am writing this post a month late). Anyway, after that we let the kids have fun on the kiddie rides until they were ready to pass out :)

Austin loved the aquarium

Rexford was a little sad and worried about Daddy on Manta :)

But he liked standing under this little aquarium where it makes you look like you are in the water with the fish.

Fun Wii Video

Rexford loves to play Mario v. Sonic 2008 Beijing Olympics on the Wii. It is his favorite game and he's getting pretty good. Austin likes to hold a remote and copy Rexford. I love this video because Rexford is so intense when he plays and Austin is so cute shouting "go go" and moving his arms like Rexford. I was happy to see Rexford's attitude at the end that it's okay that he lost and he'll just try again. We have been working on that :) He's getting a little better at accepting that he can't always win. He has an easier time when he loses to the Wii than if he loses to me or Brian.

This is what big brothers are for :)

Rexford and Austin have been playing together a lot more the past few weeks. In a previous post I mentioned that Austin likes to sit in the toy dump truck and one night Rexford decided to push him around. They had a blast!

p.s. You would think that Austin is always dressed in only a diaper if you look at the last few posts. He's actually usually dressed but most of my pictures lately have been taken right after dinner and I take his clothes off so they do not get ruined. I'll try to take more pictures with clothes on :) but his tan lines are pretty cute.

Austin isn't smiling in my pictures but he did enjoy it - I am just bad at capturing the smiles

Vacuum Obsession

Just like his older brother, Austin loves vacuums. He always wants to use it and cries if we use it and don't let him help.

Maybe we should turn the tv off during dinner

Sometimes the tv is on during dinner and the kids finish watching the show they had on so I could make dinner. To see the tv Austin leans in his chair so he can see around me. He gets in such a zone so I think maybe we should turn it off from now on!

And here are just some cute pictures of Rexford taken on the same night so that he didn't feel left out :)

Busch Gardens Trip #2

We went for our second trip to Busch Gardens on May 13th and it was not crowded like last time so the kids do lots of rides over and over. They had a lot of fun and I got to ride Sheikra (thanks Aly for watching the kids!) which was awesome! Alyson has pictures of Austin with Sesame Street characters I think so I'll have to add those later. The drive wasn't too terrible although the kids had their fussy moments. It was a good day and I got Rexford to ride the Grover kiddie roller coaster with me 3 times! I couldn't believe it but it was so much fun! We definitely aren't going to go during the busy, hot summer but I hope to make it there one more time in the fall before the year is over.

Rexford loved this hippo water ride

Aly and Matthew on the ferris wheel

Austin on the carousel

Rexford giving me his goofy smile

Matthew didn't want to ride an animal on the carousel so they just sat on a bench instead

This tiger came right up to the glass which totally freaked Rexford out. He was covering his head and crying. He did not like the tigers :) Austin and Matthew liked him though.

Aly, Austin, and Matthew watching the tiger

Cooling off in the splash area

Austin and Matthew having fun in the water

They really did like this ride although they aren't smiling in my pictures. They rode it over and over.

Rexford loved it too.

Kisses

Austin has the cutest little lips and whenever he gives kisses he puckers up and comes to you for a kiss. It's the cutest thing ever and we love him! What a sweetheart :)

Colorful Cupcakes

I am now working with the teenage girls at church and we were having a "Values Fiesta" for Personal Progress night. I was supposed to bring dessert and so I searched the internet for a fun value themed dessert. I found this website: http://www.ourbestbites.com/2009/05/cupcakes.html and decided that while it would probably take forever, I had to try it. Brian thought I was crazy of course :) Since I was a youth they have added a new value (Virtue in case you are old like me and didn't know about the new one) and its color is gold and so that is why I used gold wrappers. It took about three hours but they came out pretty cool and were a big hit!

All of the value colors in order

Yummy!

They left fun, colorful designs on the inside of the wrapper

Rexford did the sprinkles on this one so it has way too many :)

This is a chair, right?

I found Austin sitting in this dump truck toy watching tv one day. He fell over and cried for a second but climbed right back in again :)

Fireman Austin

Austin likes to dress up lately as a fireman. Most of the time he will pull out his fireman costume from Halloween and bring it to me so I can put it on him. The other day he wanted to wear Rexford's costume and was so cute in it.

He is just the cutest little guy :)

Splash Zone

One day last week the kids wanted to play outside so I pulled out our little pool, filled it up, and let them play while I sat in the shade :) They had lots of fun splashing, sliding, dumping water, and jumping. Austin loved the slide and filling and dumping his bucket but did not like having little pieces of grass stuck to him and would come to me to take them off. Rexford loved jumping in and splashing. Summer fun is here!