7/30/11

July 30

Our good friends, David and Rachel, brought us dinner tonight and brought their dog along. Duece did not waste any time checking out the water table with the boys and they didn't seem to mind that he drank some of the water.


We have been quite surprised to find out that Neylan is a dog lover. This is the third time we have seen him around a dog and he has no fear and is eager to pet them. Fortunately, they have all been tolerable of him too.

July 29

This is a big step- both boys in the pool- together- and loving it!


We encouraged Neylan to walk behind the mower, but he chose to inspect it instead

July 28

Tonight, Grayson went to his first movie at the theatre with his GG, Bill, and Aunt Shannon. He went to see Winnie the Pooh. Surprisingly, he sat through the whole thing and ate his popcorn and apparently was well behaved.



7/27/11

July 27

Just put one foot in front of the other



July 26

Is that Grayson and Neylan at the same table, sharing a moment!? Let's pray for more of these!


My rockstar drummer!

July 25

Grayson woke up asking to play with his twin friends. Fortunately for him, we were able to arrange a fun play date at the pool! Grayson is a follower and not being able to swim doesn't stop him from trying!


Such a big boy now!

It didn't take long to become so confident the floatie came off 




Neylan started standing up without holding on to anything tonight while he was crawling around the pool. Won't be long before he's up and walking!

July 24

A cold front came through last night!

7/24/11

July 23

Their first popsicle!


July 22

It's nearly 100 degrees and we packed our cooler and headed outside for the evening to Theatre in the Park to see Seussical or "Cat in Hat" as Grayson calls it. Call us crazy! The boys did great and Grayson watched more of this show than he has before.



Italian ice was needed at 10:00 to cool everyone down

July 21

Just Because!

7/21/11

July 20

The fascination with shoes has begun again. But now, he can usually put them on by himself. And Grayson has been reunited with a toy he hasn't seen in a while. I loaned it out to a family I work with after Grayson learned how to walk and they gave it back yesterday. Grayson has been all about running around with the popper now. Now, if we can only get Neylan interested in walking!

July 19

This is a rare occasion these days! Spending time with Daddy and appearing to enjoy it (the Ipad helps). These boys have only wanted to be with Mommy, if we are both in the house, for the past few weeks. They are fighting hard for my attention. So, when this happened, Adam yelled for me to get the camera and document it.  

July 18

As is custom now, Grayson gets to watch a little TV show or DVD with milk right before bed. Tonight's pick was Care Bears (for the first time). And, he got to sit with Nana to watch!

July 17

Today was OP's annual Touch-a-Truck. We took Grayson to his first one last year and he loved it, so my mom and I took the boys right after church to try to squeeze this fun event in before naptime.


Fireman in training


The boys enjoyed the tactile bins full of soy beans, wheat, and corn. Neylan was hesitant at first, but quickly began raking it all into his lap.


Grayson got to take a little train ride



Sitting in the tire of a combine. I never knew how big that piece of equipment was!


We also saw a garbage truck, stage coach, bulldozer, backhoe, and got to feed the baby goats from the farm. This will probably be an annual event for us until the boys get tired of big trucks!

7/18/11

July 16

Adam went out of town yesterday, so my mom flew back into town to help out with the boys. We had a fun picnic today, so Nana and Grayson made cookies for us. They made Chocolate Chip Chickpea cookies from our cookbook. If you have been nervous to try these, do not be. These were delicious and very healthy, so you should give them a try!


This evening, after it cooled down to 97 degrees, we ventured outside for a little bike and car ride.

7/15/11

July 15

We desperately needed to get out tonight so we headed downtown to meet friends for dinner and a run through the fountains. Grayson wasted no time running right in to start the fun. Neylan was a bit more hesitant and preferred to stand on the side-lines or snuggle in someone's arms.


We couldn't get Grayson to leave until it got dark

July 14

Neylan, it's ok. You're just completely out of good clean clothes!


Oh, that's better. This outfit can be redeemed!
 (Do you notice how he calmed down with the presence of orange?)


July 13

We hit the spot! Finally, after the horrible week that we have endured, this mama found the perfect Korean comfort food for Mr. Fussy Pants! Jook. It's Korean rice porridge. Basically rice boiled to mush with soy sauce, sesame oil, ginger, chicken, and veggies. He ate his bowl and finished Grayson's bowl. Looks like I may be making this a lot. I had a bowl too. It was really good- despite how it sounds.

July 12

A homemade fine motor activity that is a HIT! Why is it the toys that don't cost a thing are the most popular?

7/11/11

July 11

Neylan was given a pair of traditional Korean shoes for babies before we left Korea. Grayson found them today and wanted to try them on. Don't they look comfortable? They don't even fit Neylan.


July 10

It is VERY hot here, so more baths are being taken to wash off the sweat. Tonight, it was to wash off the sweat and sand from playing at the volleyball court. These two have not been doing well together in the bath tub lately, but in an effort to finish the task quickly, I threw them in together. And, it turned out to be a funny bath.


July 9

Watch out!! This boy's got a new set of wheels!!


7/9/11

July 8

We spent the evening at Theater in the Park watching Aida. Both boys did a great job and the show was good too. Neylan did a lot of clapping and Grayson did a LOT of eating!


July 7

Here's how you cook with the help of two kids. It's totally possible!


Grayson made strawberry banana muffins from scratch this afternoon. Some for now and the rest in the freezer for frantic mornings!

July 6

Grayson got to go play with friends today, so Daddy could have a break while I worked. He loved this cool rocket shooter toy, which says for 8 yrs and up! When you hear "oh no" at the end, it is because he shot his rocket into a tree and it didn't come down- immediately. Oops!





Swinging on the tummy is a new thing!


July 5

A sad death! I never told this story while we were in Korea because I was trying to be as positive as possible about the whole trip, but we lost something. We had just had a wonderful afternoon at Holt Ilsan and stopped for dinner. When I got the stroller to the table, I noticed the backpack (on the back of the stroller) was leaking from the bottom. I opened it up to find that one of our water bottles had come open and spilled inside. And our video camera was floating! I pulled it out and water just poured out of every hole- for several seconds!! There was so much water in the backpack that I had to take it to the bathroom to pour it out in the sink. So, there wasn't much we could do about it at the moment. I finally had the chance to take it into our camera shop, where we bought it, today. I told the guy what had happened and asked if there was any hope. He said there was nothing that could be done. But, he would gladly show me some new video cameras! I also took my warranty/service plan we had purchased. And in true electronic fashion, it had expired 2 weeks before we traveled. So, the guy said, "if you had purchased another year on this plan, I could do something about your camera." Well, amidst the stress and craziness of those last couple of weeks before we traveled, it never crossed my mind that I should extend my service plan on the video camera!!!

Fortunately, we didn't have much on there that we hadn't downloaded, so we have all of our videos of Grayson when we was a baby. So, for now, I'll just have to take video on my still camera and we'll have to decide if we want to invest in another video camera.

7/5/11

July 4

Happy Fourth of July!

We took it easy today and just played all day. All of our company left this morning, so we headed out to the pool for the first time this summer. Neylan has been pretty hesitant to get in our pools at home, but he did great today in the little kids area and in the big pool


This pool has a very large sandbox, which we knew he would like.


Grayson kept the slide warm