This One...

This one...let me tell you, he is giving me a run for my money! He can be so sweet and he has SUCH kissable cheeks, oh but he is strong willed, my goodness! Kale is strong-willed, for sure, but believe it or not, Liam is turning out to be more so. Kale is a definite rule follower, Liam says, "rules, what rules?" He has quite the vocabulary these days and is already speaking in short phrases. As a result of being vocal, he voices his opinion quite frequently and if he doesn't get his way, you can count on major melt-down mode! The other day we were at the park. It was time to go home for lunch, but Liam did not want to go home. He screamed (very, very loudly) the entire walk home, which was about 10 minutes. I could literally see my neighbors looking out the window to see what all the commotion was all about. When we got home, Liam went to time out...for longer than the one minute recommendation; after listening to all that screaming, mom needed a time out too!

He is almost too long for his crib. I don't know if I am ready for this one to go to a big bed yet.

 

So the other night around midnight, Kale started crying in his room. I talked into the monitor (which is a 2-way monitor) and told him that it was okay, go to back to sleep. A few minutes later we heard Liam cry for a few seconds. Then, in my sleepy haze, I swear I heard babbling...babbling from 2 different voices. But my head was under the pillow (I frequently sleep that way to block out Kris' snoring), so I thought I was hearing things. A few minutes passed and Kris asked, "Is that Kale?" We got up to go check and sure enough, Kale had gotten out of bed at midnight, went to Liam's room, turned on the light, and started to play with Liam. At midnight!!! I think he woke up and was confused about what time it was and for some reason thought that it was morning. These 2 keep us busy!!

Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden

We made a trip to the botanical garden here in Richmond today. I have been wanting to go visit for awhile because I have heard such good things. The gardens did not disappoint. This is the perfect time of year to go too--everything is in bloom and it is just beautiful.

The featured exhibit was "Butterflies Live. " We went to visit the butterflies in the butterfly house, which was so humid!! It was neat to see (not nearly as neat as the butterfly exhibit in Houston, but...). Kale was scared of the butterflies, but Liam was so excited. He kept screeching at them and trying to "jump" and catch them.

We went with my good friends, Emilie and Rachel, and their kiddos. The Garden has a really neat Children's Garden. The Children's Garden is quite large and has so many different activities for the kids. We spent a lot of time at the splash pad as today was H.O.T!!!

There is giant old mulberry tree in the Children's Garden. The kids are allowed to climb the tree. Let me tell you, Kale is a monkey and he makes this momma nervous! He is great climber and scurried right up the tree like he was a squirrel. He would have gone higher, except I started freaking out and made him come down. (You can see the people on the ground underneath, if you want to get an idea of how high he is.)

I brought our wagon and ALL the kids wanted in the wagon. With all 4 of them in, they actually weighed more than I did. It was tough pulling them at times, but they enjoyed it.

 

It was a wonderful day, made even more wonderful by the fact that the boys are taking nice long naps now!

Kale's First Movie

I took Kale to see his first movie on Saturday. We went to see Monster's University. He has recently started to watch actual movies (as opposed to short TV cartoons.) I thought he was finally ready to sit through a whole movie. I have to admit, I was really excited to take him to his first movie. As we went on our "date" together, he acted like such a big boy!

He is so tiny that he wasn't heavy enough to keep the seat open. It kept folding up on him. I finally took my purse/diaper bag and put it behind him. The added weight helped keep the seat open. I offered to let him sit on my lap, but he wanted nothing to do with that!

He loved eating the popcorn and candy that I bought him! I ate for the entire 2 hours we were in the theater.

The movie was cute. I even enjoyed it. Kale did very well sitting through the movie and paying attention. We went to see the movie on Saturday--today is Monday. Every day since we went to the movie, Kale has asked me to go "see a mobie, eat popcorn and candy."

Father's Day

 

Yesterday for Father's Day we did lots of fun activities to celebrate Kris. We are all lucky to have him as a father and husband. I am blessed to have such an attentive husband and father to my children. At the end of the day, when Kris is worn out from working all day, he comes straight home and begins playing with the boys. He really seems to know when I just can't take anymore and need him to bear his share of the load, and mine, too. We love you, Kris!

 

 

Kris slept in on Father's Day and then set about opening his presents. Kale was in such a hurry to help Kris open his gifts that Kris could not even look at his presents before Kale was pulling the next item out. Kris received several Polo shirts, a new belt, swimming trunks, some items for his grill, a #1 Dad coffee mug, and a #1 dad shirt. :) Nothing too exciting, but we did attempt to get him a few of the things he requested.  

After, we went out to brunch at Urban Farmhouse, which is a great little café near out house. They use only fresh, local ingredients and the food is wonderful!

There was a fountain nearby, so we took the opportunity for a few photos. As always, it was a real challenge to get picture of everybody looking at the camera. 

After naps, the boys played outside in the baby pool and sprinkler and Kris and I enjoyed a margarita. The boys snacked on ice-cream bars.

 

Had to get a picture of Liam showing off his booty in his swimming trunks...

Brothers being sweet and watching some TV (for once).

 

Happy Father's Day to Kris! We are lucky to have you in our lives!

Sweet Friends

Today we had a few of our sweet friends over to play. We had Popsicles, played in the sprinkler and baby pool, on the playset and on the screened in porch.


The kiddos loved our giant sprinkler beach ball. They needed it too, because it was HOT!!!





Henry is Liam's age and had a good time cooling off in the pool.


Natalia and Alexa are the sweetest sisters! They loved playing together in the water.

The mommies had fun too! It's always nice to have another adult to talk too.

Cancun

Kris and I bought a grupon for a trip to Cancun. We bought it in December and have been so excited about this trip...unfortunately, tropical storm Andrea had other plans....in other words, if you were jealous of our vacation, don't be. The sky looked like the above picture about 99% of the time we were there. I think we got a total of 2 hours of semi-sunshine.

 

We arrived at the resort with good intentions. This was our first vacation without the boys since before Kale was born. We planned to eat, drink, and be merry. Kris wasted no time getting drinks in both hands!

 

The resort we stayed at left A LOT to be desired (I guess you get what you pay for...I wouldn't ever advise staying at any of the Oasis resorts for multiple reasons), however, we did enjoy lots of food (it was at least edible, some it was good). We enjoyed eating 3 meals a day for 5 days BY OURSELVES, without the interruption of the boys. So nice!

 

 

 

Since it was so rainy, we had to get creative in finding activities. We went to the Plaza La Isla, which is a high end, very Americanized mall. We window shopped, ate, drank, and got to see The Great Gatsby. Kris got his picture taken with Cookie Monster and I enjoyed a date with

 the cowboy statue.

 

 

We caught up on our sleep--unfortunately the hotel was noisy, so I didn't get to sleep in as late as I was hoping. Still, not having to jump up out of bed and tend to the boys was very nice. It was wonderful to be able to lounge in bed and get up when I was ready for once. 

The last day we were there, the sun poked through the clouds and we made it out to the pool for about an hour and a half. I managed to get a nice little sun burn during this hour and a half.

We bought an umbrella so we could walk around and avoid getting wet; unfortunately, we needed it as soon as we arrived in Richmond. The storm followed us up the coast and now it has been raining in Richmond for 2 days.

We saw some interesting shows at our resort--I won't call them good, just interesting. This one was Elvis.

We spent time at Senor Frogs. We brought back yard glasses for the boys to play with in the bathtub. We got a kick out of these chairs.

This is the view from our hotel room. Even though it wasn't the vacation we were dreaming of, it was still nice to get away and have time as "Kris and Brooke" instead of "Momma and Dada." A big thanks to my mom for flying in to stay with the boys for 5 days while we were gone. It's a TOUGH job (that I know), but the boys had a great time with her and she was nice and exhausted by the time she left.