HE CAN BLOW A BUBBLE

And he is the envy of his brothers! After trying

and getting tickled and trying again, 

Grant has perfected the art of blowing a bubble. That's monumental, people. Do you know how long he's been trying? 

Mac can't quite do it yet so he was a little irritated by it all. :)

Reid didn't mind, though, as long as someone was brave enough to keep blowing bubbles FOR him so he could pop them. 

Somehow I ended up being that someone. Don't be fooled by that little fake smile he has going on. And that hand, well he's not waving at me. He's waiting for me to blow another bubble and will smack me a good one if he thinks it'll make a loud noise. 

Guess it beats playing with lizards.

LIZARDS.COM

While playing outside we came upon a baby lizard. One that Grant in all his lizard expertise, concluded had strayed from his mom too early. It was a tiny thing.

And one who obviously didn't find Grant as a threat.

Grant asked to keep him. I told Grant I didn't quite know how to care for a pet lizard, especially such a small one. He replies, "Well, just go to lizards.com and it'll tell you all about it." :)  If only everything there is to know in life was just a "dot com" click away.

KITCHENAID

Fall ball practice has begun which means daddy, Grant and Mac will be busy with practice leaving Turbo and me to fend for ourselves. I'm quite sure this will change very soon but one of the things Reid likes to do is help me clean, whether it's in the kitchen, with the laundry, etc. This day was no exception, and he actually didn't mind me snapping a few pictures. In fact, I think he enjoyed it. ;) He was a little ham. And doesn't everyone clean the kitchen with a camo backpack and hunting boots??

RESTAURANT WITH REID

This one's for me. I enjoy so much watching videos of Bethany when she was younger, and I regret that I haven't made more of the boys. This one is of Reid playing "restaurant" the other day. Excuse the episode of Cake Boss going on in the background. We were having some quiet time on the couch watching it then he got up and decided he wanted to play. They have been quite creative with the old keyboard Reid's playing with. The quality is not good because it's with my phone. I had to be discreet. There's no way he would've kept playing if he knew I was recording him, so I had to act like I was just holding my phone in my hand. It may be hard to understand some of the things he said, but I know every word. And they are so precious to me. I have no doubt it's something I will enjoy looking back on.

Quite a change from that little hot-head in the prior post. :)

A COUPLE OF RANDOM THOUGHTS

These girls:

are something else! That's all I have to say about that... for now.

And please tell me I'm not the only person who has a child that acts like this:

Hey, at least he's not one of those people who keep it all bottled up.

PAIRED PIRATES

The moment Reid came into this world my first thought when I looked at him was, “He looks just like Grant.” I thought that might change, but to me the older he gets the more he looks like his big brother. He will even see pictures of Grant as a baby and say, “Aww, wook at me.” It's amazing to me how two brothers can look so much alike while one looks completely different. But Mac was rightfully named. Mac is short for McHugh, Chris' mom's maiden name, and boy is he FULL of McHugh - in SO many ways! :) 

Halloween is a big deal at our house. We love it! Every year around this time the boys and I will sit around the computer and scour the internet for costume ideas. Yesterday when a rain shower moved us indoors, we did just that. We came across a pirate costume, and Reid wanted it right then. Reid being the Turbo he is didn't understand why we couldn't go to the "computer store" and get it. Thankfully I remembered  where Grant's old pirate costume was. As soon as he put it on, the pictures of Grant wearing the same costume popped in my head. Grant was the same age as Reid when he wore it. When I compared the pictures it confirmed to me yet again how much they favor.

Grant - 3 years old:

And here's Turbo - the hat's not on quite right but, you know, Reid knows everything.

And just for nostalgia:

I say it all the time, and it sounds so cliche but... WHERE DOES THE TIME GO?

SOMETHING AS SIMPLE AS EMPTY COFFEE CONTAINERS

and a little water kept the boys entertained for an entire afternoon.

Well, at least until I got my camera out. Then one certain little someone who we affectionately refer to as the Professor realized he was in his skivvies and decided he was a bit too modest to have his picture taken in them. So he quickly headed inside.

But not quick enough! :)

HAPPY 36TH, BOWLING, and the ICE CREAM TRUCK

HAPPY 36TH BIRTHDAY to the man who drives me crazy yet keeps me sane all at the same time! :) Actually it was yesterday, the 15th, but I didn't want to take time out of our day to blog. Thank you for all you do for us! I love you! 

A look back - WAAAY back. HA HA! I'm kidding! (not really)

Saturday while my baby girl and I had a few hours of girl time which we needed and always love

these little wild men were with Meems and Granddaddy experiencing bowling (other than Wii bowling) for the very first time! 

They were so excited and had a blast. I do believe I see a bowling birthday party in Mackey's future. 

ICE CREAM TRUCK:

Boy does this take me back:

We live in the boonies so I never thought we would get to experience the magic that is the ice cream man with every variety of ice cream, snow-cone or popsicle known to man in his ice cream truck blaring some wacky beat of "music". It really is one of the greatest things I remember about growing up in Castlewood. We would hear him coming before he even pulled in the entrance. And because we didn't live too far from the entrance, as soon as we could hear it the race was on to scrounge up some money and make it back outside before he could get past our house. 


Being that our house sits a good ways off the road, my kids won't have exactly the same experience with it, but it's still exciting. We've been hearing it in our neighborhood in the evenings on a few occasions this past week, but it hasn't been during a time when we could get away to go find it. FINALLY yesterday as we're all getting out by the pool, we hear it. HEH-LAAAWWWWW - B, that's for you. Hee-hee! We couldn't get in the car fast enough. And although he was out of both Shrek AND Spiderman popsicles (sigh), he didn't disappoint. Not sure what's so great about an old nasty-looking van turned ice cream truck blaring music that sounds like a song from Stephen King's "It", but it just is. 

REID LITERALLY CAN GO FROM THIS:

TO THIS:

in about 2.5 seconds. Amazing! That's one tired Turbo! Happy Friday the 13th!

HAPPY 19TH!

I bet you thought I was going to forget, didn't you, Miss Booty Roll. :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MAYREE.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!!!!

This one's a little dated but it's one of my faves of you and B:

Hope you have a great day! We love you!

ALL IN THE COURSE OF A WEEKEND:

I was almost viciously attacked by a ferocious tiger right in my kitchen:

But was thankfully saved by my oldest son who was there just in the nick of time to put that tiger down:

I went to work with Reid on his big yellow tractor:

I took Reid to the doctor:

I went bowling:

I had a run-in with the police:

AND I got a tattoo:

Hope your weekends are as exciting as mine!

FYI: A WIFFLE BALL WILL BREAK A TV

Allow me to show you proof. This picture shows the point of impact up close:

It looks shattered, and I guess it is inside, but you can't feel anything from the outside. You can only see it. Here's what you see when you turn on the t.v.:

And here's what it looks like when you try to maneuver the DVR (and yes, aside from The Young and The Restless, Chelsea Handler reigns supreme in my DVR):

How did it happen? Well Mac decided he wanted to throw a wiffle ball in the air then hit it with a plastic bat. In the house. Aimed right at the TV.

When Chris got home, he sat the boys down and kindly told them he never wanted to see them playing with a ball and bat of any type in the house ever again. He handled it a lot better than I anticipated. Of course, I'm sure it tugged at the ol' heartstrings when he realized Mac was so upset about it that he crawled into his bed and went to sleep for a bit. And then there was my sweet Grant who had absolutely nothing to do with it yet offered to let us move the TV from his bedroom into the living room. Thanks, Professor! But while I'm not one to let my kids veg out in front of a TV, when there are things to be done Billy the Exterminator is a great babysitter. Yes, I said it.

I guess the silver lining is that we still have a picture - for now at least. So for the time being when Chris and I sit down after the kids go to bed at night for our daily dose of Y & R, there will be a rainbow through Victor Newman's face. :)

Boys. That's all I have to say. Boys. If you have them, you understand. If you don't, your television set is probably still intact.

FIRST DAY OF 1ST GRADE

Backpack and lunch box packed and ready to go:

All dressed and ready:

A quick pic of the Three Amigos:

Name is in the window for afternoon pick-up:

Grant with his teacher, Miss Vines:

And we're off...

SOAKING UP THE LAST OF SUMMER 2010

Summer is almost over. It's back to the daily grind come Monday. I'm a bit sad to see summer go because it seems to have gone by way too fast, but we love a routine and schedule so it will be great getting back to that. Bethany will begin her high school years. Grant will start 1st grade. Both of which are quite hard to believe (although sometimes it seems like Grant should surely be graduating by now and Bethany should already have a career - HA!). We've had family get-togethers. We've had good times with good friends. We've spent many hours by the pool enjoying our share of homemade popsicles and other cool treats. 

Where daddy showed us that at almost 36 years of age, he's still got it:

And I must second it that yes, contrary to what I thought until he proved me wrong, he does still have it even if he was seeing stars when he came up. :) 

And not to be outdone by said almost-36-year-old, B and Country Girl had to have a go at it:

As did my little daredevil, Mac:

And in true Professor style, Grant just watched commenting every now and then, "You probably shouldn't do that again, yeah, no, DO NOT do that again."

And I have about 1,978 pictures of Umby and CG trying their best to turn the boys into little stuntmen:

Of course Turbo is busy doing his own thing which is never too far from me:

We've had quite a few lake trips where we've gotten together with friends we wouldn't otherwise see very often. 

We've done our share of crafts.

 

Notice the tongue-action again. :) And doesn't everyone paint in their skivvies? 

And so on and so on. All-in-all it's been a great summer! School year 2010-11, ready or not here we come!