Camping

The beginning of June we had a great one night camping trip. This was the 1st time camping with kids. We used to camp every summer, but over the years that had stopped. Then it seemed like Jake was too little. This year was the perfect time to go. Jake loved every minute of it. Loved being outside all day...loved swimming in the lake, loved playing...did I say loved every minute of it!! Lily on the other hand was a little more difficult. She seemed to love it just as much and loved playing in the lake. But when it came time to sleep it was another story. She did not want to go to sleep and every time she seemed to be asleep she would wake up as soon as I tried to lay her down. Finally around midnight it was Pawpaw to the rescue and he was able to get her to sleep and stay asleep when he laid her down. There will definitely be more camping trips this summer. Jake can't stop talking about it.

 Jake out in the lake...it was hard getting pictures of him...this is where he stayed the whole time

 Wyatt...playing in the water

 Hi Mommy...walking down to the lake

All the boys fishing across the lake

Tomahawk Chop

Jake loves baseball. And we finally took him to his 1st professional Braves game this summer. It was pretty hot, but for the most part he loved it. Around the 6th inning he started asking to leave, but after a short walk around he was ready to go back and finish the game.

                                                            Doing the tomahawk chop...

Independance Day

 Daddy was working so we didn't get a picture of the 3 of us

We spent all weekend celebrating our country and the freedom we have living here. Of course it wouldn't be a summer celebration(or weekend really) without lots of swimming. We also enjoyed lots of delicious food.

 3 cousins jumping in together

Jake dancing in his 4th of July swim trunks
Sadly the fire works display we were going to see Monday night got rained out so we weren't able to see fire works on the 4th this year. Jake was content lighting some sparklers in the back yard & we even watched a few fire works shows on tv(although, it is nothing like in real life). We did remind Jake that we had just seen fire works the week before at the beach, but the last few days he keeps saying next time it is 4th of July the fireworks won't get rained out. Well hopefully a year from now that will be the case. (explaining time to a 3 year old is still a little tricky).

Water Boy

Jake has loved the pool pretty much since the first time he was in it. He is definitely our little water boy.

He does great with his arm floaties on. He will jump in & out of the pool a million times, as well as, jumping off the diving board. He has no fear.

And then he progressed to cannon ball jumping. The 1st couple of times were so cute and he would hold his knees the whole time he was walking on the diving board. And then finally he got that he was supposed to grab his knees once he was in the air. It was so surprising to see how big of a splash my little 3 year old could make.

Of course when you are doing cannon balls what fear is there in diving off daddies shoulders too?

I am pretty sure he will be officially swimming by the end of the summer, but I am hoping the arm floaties stay for a little longer. I feel safer when he has them on and he isn't as cautious as he used to be.

I can't believe how big and brave he is getting.

S'more Goodness

It is supposed to be Daily Moments post, but I only had a couple pictures from last week. So instead I am sharing Jake enjoying his yummy s'mores...one of our favorite evening summer treats.

Can we call it summer?

Last week we (well Jake & Caleb) had their first swim of the season. I was tempted to think summer might really be here. However, the last couple days it has been a little cooler.

The couple days the boys spent in the water it was in the high 80's, but the water was still freezing. How is that kids don't care what the temperature of the water is. I think half the time the boys were in the water they were shivering, but loving every minute of it.

Jake went off the diving board to break himself in and as soon as he hit the water you could see his breath was taken away from the frigid water. After  taking a couple minutes to get adjusted he was back to his normal fish self.

My sister & I of course enjoyed relaxing by the pool while the boys swam. Despite burning up we weren't tempted to get all the way in...still too cold for us.

Hoping it will be back to pool time as normal this weekend!

Fearless

We spent the day playing in the pool with some of our very sweet friends. The pool we were at had a fairly good sized tunnel water slide.

Jake said he wanted to go down the slide so I walked with him to the top. Getting ready to get in with him for us to go down together...he says "my do it by myself."  So I let him go 1st and then a minute later I came down the slide.

As soon as he was out of the water enough to talk he said he was going to do it again.
This time I stayed in the pool while he walked up the hill to the top of the slide. (can you see Jake walking up the hill?)
And went down again....

Honestly he probably went down the slide, climb the steps out of the pool, & walked back up to the top of the slide close to 100 times!!!

He LOVED IT!!!

He had no fear and even when he would come down side ways, or on his belly, or facing backward...and even when we heard a loud thump inside the slide as he was coming down....

Every time he got to the end of the slide he would say "I am going again."

It was great to watch him have so much fun...and I will say the water slide is a ton of fun!!

They have tricks

All the boys love jumping off Nana & Pawpaw's diving board. The bigger boys have mastered their "tricks" even Jake thinks his jump is a trick. Caleb is still a little too scared to jump off. It is a little hard to see who is who but I couldn't get any closer without it being super blurry. Austin jumps 1st then Tyler, then Jake, & Caleb is last standing on the board.

Another year...another inch

The past 2 years we have taken a picture of my parents 4 grandsons looking out the back door of their house. The 1st time was really totally spontaneous, but then we loved it so much we decided to continue it every year. Although, 2 new grandsons have been added to the bunch this year we still just have the 4 boys in the picture. It is so much fun to compare the pictures each year.

                                                                2008(Caleb, Jake, Tyler, & Austin)

                                                     2009(Jake, Caleb, Tyler, Austin)

                                                  2010(Jake, Caleb, Tyler, & Austin)

And at the request of Oma here is a front facing picture from this year.

It is so much fun to see how each of the boys have grown. And at the same time so sad...my sweet boy was just a baby when this 1st picture was taken. Amazing how much bigger Caleb was then Jake 2 years ago and how they are almost totally caught up with each other this year. Also too cute that in 2009 you can see the top of both Caleb & Jake's diapers and this year they are both all grown up wearing underwear.

Love these memories and that we can go back to see the change every year. Hopefully when the boys are teenagers they won't get too mad when they have to look out Nana & PawPaw's back window for a picture.

Daily Moments

Another busy week has come and gone. Of course it wouldn't be a complete Project Life Tuesday post if I didn't miss a day of taking a picture. I have no picture for Monday & honestly I can't even remember what we did that day. But the rest of the week is here. We spent a lot of time with my mom this week as she was enjoying a staycation and we were enjoying time with her.

Tuesday July 20th-as part of my mom's staycation she treated my sister & I to a relaxing pedicure at Polished Beauty Lounge in the West Village. Along with a super yummy lunch at Blue Moon pizza. Thanks mom!

Wednesday July 21st-My friend Vickie & I were taking our children to the Mayfield dairy plant to see how they make ice cream. On our way there her sweet husband called to inform us they didn't do tours on Wednesdays. So off to the store we went to get ice cream sundae ingredients and let them make their own sundaes to enjoy while watching a movie.

Thursday July 22nd-Nana & 3 of her 6 grandsons. Reading a story to some sleepy boys.

Friday-July 23rd- was another treat from mom during her staycation. She took all of us to Lake Lanier Water park. Jake LOVED it!!! His favorite was the wave pool. He loved letting the waves push him over and then laying on his belly while the wave washed into him again. Because I was off being a big kid and going down all the water slides this is the only picture I have from Jake's 1st water park adventure.

Saturday-July 24th-Heather & I took the boys to The Marietta Square Farmers Market...boy was it a super hot day. We had fun walking around and looking at all the fresh produce. The boys especially loved their fresh squeezed lemonade.

 Sunday-July 25th-Daddy & PawPaw took Jake & Caleb to get hair cuts today. It doesn't matter how many times he gets his hair cut every time he looks so grown up. He is getting to be such a big boy!!

Daily Moments (7/12-7/18)

Another week is here. I feel like life is going so fast. I really feel like every time I blink it is a new day. And every time I blink I miss something. This Project Life Tuesday with The Mom Creative has really helped me to capture every day. Just the normal, silly, & fun of each day. I pay attention a little more so that I can be sure and capture that day on camera. And then the parts that I don't capture on camera I try to take a minute and breath it in. Store it away in my memory to the "I won't ever forget this" place.  Here is a look at this week. Unfortunately Sun. I didn't get any pictures.

Monday-July 12th-Just hanging out on the couch...I love that he thinks he is grown and has to cross his leg while he is sitting there. And this scrunched up eye smile is his new "cheeeeeeese" every time I pull out the camera.

Tuesday-July 13th-We have this spray bottle to keep the humidity right in the snake cage. It is filled with water and Jake loves to spray in the snakes cage...every time he is up stairs. This day he came walking down the stair spraying it in his mouth...of course he thought it was so funny.

Wednesday-July 14th-Jake is just hanging out at the pool. He didn't really want to be in the water, but was fine just sitting on the chair. (this was taken with my phone so it is terrible...can't wait until the iphone comes to verizon in January)

Thursday July 15th- Got this beach ball in the dollar section Target(love that place) Jake loves the ball. And thought it was great to sit on and do his exercise like mommy. Until he discovered it was even more fun to roll backward off the ball and fall down. Again here is his "cheeeeese" face.

Friday-July 16th-Jake helped me make chocolate banana bread & by help I mean he stared into the mixer asking me if it was down and could he lick the "mixing thing."

Saturday-July 17th-Date nights in the kitchen are so fun. Jake was sound asleep in his bed and Jason & spent time in the kitchen together. Making the most delicious homemade salsa. We were able to get 5 half pint jars and one pint jar. Not to mention fun conversations while chopping, mixing, cooking, canning, and hot water bathing.

Sunday-July 18th-again another day with no photo. We spent the day at my parents. Since the weather was yucky you can picture us playing scrabble for the grown ups & junkyard operation with Jake.