The last days of summer...

Marc's brother and his family are spending the week at our house, so we took the kids to the pool at Lansdowne yesterday. Cathy actually got a room there just so they could use the pool-- it's so pretty there! They swam for a solid 2 hours. The only thing that stopped them was a basket of chicken fingers and french fries. Hannah and Ashley were so tired when we got home that they actually asked to go to bed-- that's rare!

Oh, and I can't use a point and shoot camera to save my life :( I took Marc's camera with me since I didn't want to add any bulk to the 3 bags I already had. I had the hardest time with it-- give me a complicated SLR anyday!

Jacob's redneck side...

Took these before the kids went swimming the other day. They make me smile :)

Happy Friday!

So today I feel like complete crap! I'm tired (Mr. Jacob isn't sleeping all that great) and Aunt Flo has returned after over a year. To be honest, she wasn't missed at all! I quite dread her company and since its been so long since we last visited, she's really pulling out all the stops this time. But I'll be looking forward to her monthly visits from here on out, I suppose. I'm hoping next time she'll pack lightly and only stay for a few days! Ok, I'm cracking myself up-- on to the point of my post. Guess what, no pictures today! I have two things:

1. Marc and I have started the Nutrisystem weight loss program. We both have about 20 extra pounds that we need to shed. Yes, folks-- I weigh more now than when I put on the freshman 15. As a matter of fact if you combine Jacob's current weight and the 20 pounds that I haven't lost-- that's what I gained during the entire pregnancy-- 42 pounds. So... since it has been 6 months, I've stopped nursing, and I'm still +20... I decided it was time to take a bit more action. The heat and our crazy schedules put a quick halt to our jogging routine-- but we are determined to pick it back up. So a HUGE box came yesterday for Marc with all of his pre-packaged food (that by the way looks much better in the picture). He packed up some for work this morning and so far has reported that a) the blueberry muffin he had for breakfast smelled like those dog food crumbly pattie kibble things that we used to feed our dog--YUMMY, can't wait for that and b) he's about to burst from drinking so much water. On a brighter note, he wasn't able to eat all of what he was supposed to eat for breakfast... so at least he isn't going hungry. My food will come in the next couple days, so I'll be sure to keep you posted on my progress :)
2. Yesterday, I got a mini Boden catalog and found some of the cutest little things for Jacob... the girls are picky and they've moved on to a new store :) Anyway, Marc looked at a page that I had doggy-eared and said, "Wow, that's a little expensive for a pair of pants... for Jacob". It is-- $32-- but they looked so cute! So as I was folding clothes last night, I noticed how utterly gross and stained Jacob's clothes are. Even after both girls wore clothes when they were babies, they still looked immaculate-- no stains. Well I guess its one of the many differences we're seeing between girls and boys. As I thought about a pair of $30 pants getting puked and pooped on, I decided that Target and Old Navy was a much better option. So today during lunch, I went next door to eat at Pei Wei (PF Chang's Asian Diner-- love it) and stopped at Kohl's on the way. I saw some cute baby blue and brown clothes (LOVE that combination for boys), but they were up to 9 months. Mr. Meaty is wearing 12 month clothes now-- so I'm buying 18 months for fall. So I went on back into the infant department (rather than newborn) and found the cutest table of little boys clothes. They were by Sonoma (Kohl's brand) and were so stylish and soft. They actually looked like some of the things that mini Boden sells. I am pleased to report that I bought 8 tops and 4 pants for less than it would have cost for 1 outfit from the catalog. At $5 a pop, you can't go wrong! I had a blast mixing and matching-- who said shopping for boys was no fun?

Have a great weekend!

Just playing around...

I've been so busy lately that I haven't had a lot of time to just sit and "play" with the kids. After we finally got the house back into shape today, the girls went over to our neighbor's house to play with their friend... so Jacob and I got to play. First we played with our food... no pictures of that... then we played in the wet grass, lots of pictures of that. Then we played peek-a-boo with the blankie, one picture of that. Then "we" were tired, so one of us fell asleep and the other one is playing on the 'puter.

Yesterday before dinner I did some playing with the girls while Jacob was napping. They would jump as high as they could and I'd snap a picture. It was fun for them and fun for me :) Even big kids like to play with their toys! I loved Hannah's expression even though her legs were completely behind her which made her look like she had no legs :0

A bit behind...

I meant to post these last week, but ran out of time. Just a few funny ones of Jacob and Hannah. Jacob has become a pro at sitting up in the grass...but he's yet to find the same satisfaction sitting up anywhere else. He turns into jello...anyway this captured his first official minute of sitting unassisted.

Then this was a series of Jacob attacking Hannah's nose and giving her kisses.

And this one turned out to be the last picture of Hannah with her pretty piggie tails. It'll be a while before her hair grows out enough to make braids again.

We've lost ANOTHER tooth!

Hannah has lost her second top front tooth-- now she is officially toothless and can sing the song, "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth". I'm hoping she gets them back by then for sure!

A quick trip

Over the weekend, we took the girls for a last hurrah before school starts. Things started out a bit bumpy as Jacob woke up with a fever the morning that we were leaving. Poor thing had never had a cold and didn't really know what to do. I think we all had a bit of a bug over the last week or two :) It was a quick trip, but we had a blast. We went to Dixie Stampede and Splash Country. The girls loved the cabin that we stayed in! I didn't drag my camera around with me to the water park and there were no cameras allowed in Dixie Stampede-- so the only pictures I'm posting here are ones I took at the cabin. This was the view of the Smokey Mountains from the giant two story deck. I bet it is beautiful in the fall!


As you can see Jacob loved his kitchen sink bath!

Ready for school...

We're getting ready for school at our house. We got haircuts yesterday and this weekend, we'll be doing some back to school shopping. Hannah's hair was really damaged by all the chlorine from the pool this summer and we've had some difficult mornings trying to comb it. So she decided that she was ready for a shorter cut. I think it looks adorable on her. She might try bangs next time...we'll see. Ashley has had this cut before, but it still looks cute! I can't believe that she'll be starting Kindergarten. Time flies!

Snaggletooth!

Hannah lost her first top front tooth! Just in time for Jacob to start cutting his top two teeth :) She came into the bedroom last night after I had tucked her into bed and said "Mommy, I lost another tooth"-- she had just lost one of her bottom ones last week. I was a little scared when I heard and saw it-- it was barely even loose. Apparently she wiggled and twisted it pretty hard. It wasn't even bleeding so I suppose it was ready to come out-- I just wasn't ready for it. She told me that she thought the tooth fairy would bring her $20 because it was a very important tooth! The tooth fairy wasn't quite that nice-- she had to settle for $5. It was so funny this morning when she was trying to tell me a story about her friend, "Maritha"-- I mean Marissa.

New toys and favorite toys...

Shortly after Jacob was born, we found that he loved to clutch something when as he was falling asleep or eating. I bought a few different animals for him to try. There are two, in particular, that he's loved from the start. One is Semmel (is that a name?) the bunny lovie, by the company Sigikid. He loves to nap with Semmel over his head or next to his face. I don't have a picture of him napping with Semmel, but I do have one with him riding in the stroller with him (below). The other favorite is Sandwich the cat by blabla kids. It's a colorful knit cat that is so soft. I used this one to put between my chest and Jacob when I was nursing him to keep him from scratching and pinching me. Now I put it next to him when we give him his bottle. He loves to hold onto the little legs and arms-- its the perfect size. One more link...my favorite online toy store is Oompa Toys-- they have great European toys and low shipping. We love the HABA and Hess wooden toys.

As for the new toys-- last week Marc and I officially made the committment to get into some sort of regular exercise. I promised him that I would give jogging a try-- this is a BIG step for me. I'm the kid that used any excuse possible in elementary school to avoid the physical fitness test in gym class. I also joined the track team when I was in high school to hang out with the cute boys, but when it came time for me to pick an event-- I was in big trouble. I ended up throwing the discus, but if you did a field event, you also had to do a running event. They stuck me running the 800m-- man was that a mistake. Believe it or not, there are people in the world who acutally do a full out sprint the entire way-- uggh! At about 200m, I was ready to collapse-- by the end I thought I was dying. It did get better, the more I practiced-- but the only thing keeping me from quitting was the cute boys. Lord knows why I thought they were worth the pain. Anyway, maybe the "cute boy" will keep me going in my jogging endeavor-- we'll see. I'll report back next week, after our first run. Anyway, so that we could include one of the kids-- most likely Jacob-- we bought a jogging stroller. The picture above is us taking it out for a test drive with Jacob-- he liked it :) The other pictures below are just fun ones. Jacob continues to teeth and drool, and has started grabbing everything in his reach. The other day Marc was holding him and drinking a Corona and Jacob kept grabbing the bottle and sticking it in his mouth. At least the kid has good taste!