Cows at the Door??

Huh? Some of the things the kids have come up with lately are just nuts! Today I hear ding dong noises from Jaycob... Then some moooooo's. Huh? I turn around and see the table set with a full course meal, Abygail at the top of the steps, and Jaycbo at the bottom waiting to greet the cows to dinner. Abygail opens the 'door' and tells the cows, "Come eat, lots food" all while Jaycob is waving his arm welcoming them in.

Next thing I know Abygail is running crazy around the living room yelling, "Oh no! Get down! Come eat. Shoo shoo!" as she's corralling the 'cows' downstairs! Jaycob's screaming, "Come and get it! Come on cows, come eat!!"

Guess it was kinda a had to be here scene!

Which Austin Girl Are You?

I stole this quiz from Aunt A's blog. (Yep, I stole your Title too!). My results really don't surprise me that much... Though there's no way I would marry who she did, but hey!

Take the Quiz here!

Take the quiz and let me know who you ended up as!

Playgroup at the Pool

This is the first playgroup at the pool we've gone to this summer. The kids were quite timid around the water, but they eventually warmed up! Jaycob a bit sooner then Abygail. Abygail did it in true toddler fashion, was ready to swim like a fish and really get into right before we had to go!!

Maddy and Jaycob were sitting side by side and by the time I pulled the camera out Maddy was ready to go out again!

Of course soon as she seen me take a picture of Jaycob she came and sat right back down by him!

While the Cats away....

The mice will play!

Or is that the kids and daddy?!? I left for the night for a much needed mommy break. When I came back I took my stuff upstairs and noticed Daddy's pillows weren't on our bed. I immediately started feeling bad that he most likely ended up spending the night in one of the kids beds. As I continued to pick up and put stuff where it belonged I realized the kids pillows weren't on their beds either.... Of course I thought of the worse. "Great, Daddy had a rough night and had to do pee-pee laundry on top of it!" So I go to ask him what happened and if his night was really as bad as it seemed. Nope! I head down the stairs and there is a full size 4 person tent set up in the playroom!! Yeah! It really did surprise me!

I guess I know where all the pillows went! After talking to Daddy I found out that soon after I left they had dinner, put up the tent, and got ready for bed. Daddy told them that after they fell asleep he would move them into the tent and they could sleep there! So they happily went off to bed and Daddy did just what he said he would do. And they all slept in the tent last night!

Isn't he the coolest Daddy ever!

Tents, Picnics, Friends and Pools

This mornign I made a tent for them over their table. This is the first time we've done this with them in a long long time. They thought it was a great idea! When I looked down later they were having a picnic on top of their tent!

Later we had Aspen, Maddy, and Hayden over for a little bit of pool fun!

Company Picnic

Today we went to a company picnic for Daddy's work. All the kids had fun! There was so much for them to do and so much food to eat... WOW! Let me just say that the host and her family went way out of their way to provide us all the great time we had!

Here's Jaycob finishing up his lunch. And then Jaycob and Older Brother in the pool. Jaycob would not trust anyone to get him in the pool. He would walk around the edges, put his feet in, and get on the first step but that's about it! I guess long as he enjoyed himself!

Pool Time

Today was the perfect kind of day! Warm enough for the kids to play in the pool, but not too warm for the adults sitting on the sidelines!

The kids would go down the slide so fast and then come to a screeching, splashy halt that they would almost bounce right out of the pool! It was crazy!

All my little beast in the pool!! Maddy was being a turtle, Jaycob a frog, Baby T a dog, Abygail was switching between all of them!!

'Fireworks'

Since it started to rain and storm yesterday after the 4th of July festivities the 'fireworks' had to wait until today. I had just bought those poppers for the kids... The ones that you throw down and they snap/pop... The kids thought they were the coolest thing. I should have bought more!

Yes, they're in their jammies. We had taken early showers since we were supposed to get more storms... But since the storms weren't here yet we took them outside to do this!

Happy 4th!!

We went to Aspen's for our 4th of July festivities. Matt cooked pork chops and there were plenty of other fixings. We took over our moon bounce and the kids all had such a blast.

Maddy and Jaycob looking at a slug.

Awww... Couldn't help it... Baby Hayden!


We had fun and started home just in time. Once we got home the weather really started to act up and we had boomers the rest of the night!

Dreams, Nightmares, & Night Terrors

Jaycob has all of thee above and each is talked about differently.

Night Terrors: Well, obviously in true night terror fashion Jaycob doesn't remember them at all. He does have them a couple times a month. We'll have two in one week, none the next, two the following week, and none the last week. This seems to be the pattern we deal with. His night terrors consist of plenty of screaming, crying, standing up in bed and the likes. We usually just try to get him to calm down. We know 'they' say that you're not supposed to interfere and we really try not to, but when you see your baby in that state its really hard sometimes. When its done and over with he's usually back to peacefully snoring before his head ever reaches the pillow.

Dreams: He usually wakes up and just tells us this off the wall story that we're really not sure if he just made it up or if it was actually a dream.

Nightmares: Like last night... In the middle of the night we get the screaming and terrified look, kinda like the Night terrors but he's aware. Last night he was afraid of something (something eating and or biting him) and neither one of us could pin it down. I eventually just sat with him until he calmed down/ passed back out. Fast froward to this morning and I get this story...

"A snake was eating me. He went like this with his tongue (he sticks out his tongue). And he eats me all up!" "There a frog and he goes like this with his tongue (again the tongue sticking out), but he didn't eat me! Frog eats bugs! (As he's rubbing his belly) Turtle was dreaming too. He didn't eat me (vigorous head shaking no). He out of his shell like this. (Severe neck stretching) He eats grass. Snake eat me all up!! (dramatic chomp chomp hands)"

Somewhere in there I had asked him if this was his dream last night. And his answer was, "Yeah, I scared. The snake eat me all up!" and the story continued!

I hate to say that I actually enjoy his nightmares, because I don't at all. What I enjoy is the actual conversation and insight into his mind the next morning.

All About Me Game

Open up your internet browser and do Google searches as outlined below, only use YOUR name instead of mine. Type in the following and choose the first item that comes up!

1) Melanie needs: To accept that no one is self-sufficient all the time.
2) Melanie looks like: The psychological child that she is ... (from an Alfred Hitchcock site)
3) Melanie does: The Cha Cha Slide! (I do?? Didn't know I could dance!)
4) Melanie hates: Ian (I don't know one, but I guess I hate him!)
5) Melanie goes: Home (From another book)
6) Melanie loves: Tommy (Don't know one of these either)
7) Melanie eats: A 17 year cicada (This one is a bug!!)
8) Melanie has: Been awarded two gold albums (Not to sound greedy, but I could sure use the money associated with this one! LoL)
9) Melanie died: In a plane crash of the Crossair Flight 3597 near Bassersdorf by Zurich in Switzerland. (Well hopefully I was on my way back from a vacation!)
10) Melanie will: Be featured on Triple J's next crop on Friday 25th November, also another tour on the way. (Back the 2 gold albums!)

Wow that was fun! I'll try to get back to real blogging here soon!

Mom! Dad!

No more Daddy or Mommy... Jaycob has went to calling us Mom and Dad. We were trying to figure out when or why he started this. Our first thought was that he picked it up from Older Brother and Older Sister, since they don't obviously use Mommy and Daddy. But when we really started to think about it he started it before they got here. So that can't be it!

I don't know what possesed him to start this, but I sure do miss the Mommy and Daddy's. I'm really hoping they come back and this is just a phase, but I'm not holding my breath!

PA Fish

This is at the fish hatchery in Pennsylvania. This is just like an observation tank where you can see what species are in the area... Jaycob really liked it once he figured out it was just like a large fish tank. (Abygail was at home with Grandma M. taking a nap during our outings today).

We also went fishing. Jaycob has been asking to fish for the longest time. I was disappointed in the fact that it didn't seem like he was going to get a chance to do it this trip. But we DID end up getting a chance to sneak out. He LOVED it. He'd throw it out there and reel it back in. Then we would cast it out further and he would wait and slowly reel. He did have a fish at one point but the water was really shallow and rocky toward shore and he ended up dragging the fish right off the hook as he reeled it in!! Even with that he was soooo excited!

Older Sister found her little fishing spot and was really the only one who ever landed a fish. She had so much fun, against all her expectations of fishing!

Ummmm.... Last Day

Sisters!!

A boy and his truck... Ok well it's not his truck... Uncle D was nice enough to throw some soil out for Jaycob to play in!

23rd Randomness

Us adults were trying to get pictures of all the kids together, but little Miss Thang here really wanted no part of it!!

On our way from one place to another we stopped and I took these cool pictures of this storm that was chasing us!

Fast Track to Nowhere

We went to the train park near Cousin L's house after bowling. Jaycob really enjoyed seeing the train and walking on the track.

In the Fast Lane

Today we went bowling with the whole family! Jaycob at first was not thrilled with all the noise, but he soon got used to it. Abygail was really more interested in wandering around and watching everyone else, but we did eventually get her to push a ball or two down the lane. And in true toddler fashion as we were ready to go she was THEN ready to bowl!

Jaycob did insist on pushing his own ball which would barely make it down the lane. Where you see Abygail standing is as far as she would go. So Daddy would have to give it an extra little push to make sure her ball would make it down to the pins.

Older Sister insisted that she didn't want to bowl, because she couldn't. Little did she know that her Aunt M and I can't bowl either! It actually ended up that Older Sister beat Aunt M by 1 pin!

Here's the kids final score. Down the list Cousin L, Jaycob, Older Sister, and Abygail (who's game was mostly bowled by Older Sister!).

Family Fun

This was a perfect day in my mind! Nice weather, a lot of grass to play in, family all around... Perfection