Out of Order

When Brody was 10 1/2 months old he started taking his first steps. He'd pull up on the couch or coffee table and then venture a step or two away before he'd fall to the floor. Then he'd crawl back to something, pull up, and try again. It wasn't until after his 1st birthday that he learned how to stand up without pulling up on something.

Barrett seems to have things out of order. He has yet to take a step, but for almost a month now he's been standing up all by himself in the middle of the room. He'll stick his bottom in the air and then slowly stand up (even carrying toys with him as he stands up). He's now able to stand up in the middle of the room for a full minute...or until he decides he wants to plop back down. I guess each kid takes a different route to the same goal.

Barrett assuming the "I'm about to stand up" position.

"See! I can do it all by myself!"

"You want me to take a step now? I don't think so! Crawling is WAY faster!"

Bryan Graduates

On June 4th Brody went on a road trip with Daddy Steve and Namaw. They went to Temple to see my cousin, Bryan, graduate from high school! Here's a picture of the grad, Bryan, with his brother, Brady (Brady's not that much shorter than Bryan...he's just standing down a row in the stadium). These guys were little boys when Mike and I got married (Brady was our ring bearer and Bryan was only 8 years old)! It's hard to believe Bryan's now out of high school!

On Friday Brody got to spend the day helping Daddy Steve fix things at Grandmommy's house. From the picture, it looks like he REALLY wanted to climb this ladder with Daddy Steve!

Instead, Daddy Steve gave Brody a job he could do by himself. Fix the door with a screwdriver. Brody can definitely work a screwdriver without any help.

It was a typical June day in Texas, so Grandmommy and Namaw took Brody to a new splash park while Daddy Steve finished working. Brody thought it was so fun to play in the water with Grandmommy!

Brody had so much fun on his trip to Temple. The other day he told me to call Grandmommy and ask her to "come visit right now!" When I told him that she couldn't come right now, he asked to email her. Then he told me that "you and Daddy need to take me to see Grandmommy again soon!"

Lunch with GG & Sissie

On Wednesday the boys and I went with Namaw to eat lunch at GG's. Julie and her kids met us there. It's always a crazy lunch when we're all there. It's probably sensory overload for GG and Sissie! I know it is for me! Barrett's schedule was off that day and he was SUPER fussy at lunch time. He's still going thru an eternal attachment phase! He doesn't want anyone else to hold him. It's nice being loved, but I'd like for him to be ok with other people holding him too!

Sissie and GG look on as Katelyn shows Brody how to draw.

Brody and Collin entertained themselves looking for animals out the window. They found it hilarious that there weren't any lions, bears, hippos, etc outside the window and we heard them laughing until they were crying while we were eating.

Lauren did a great job of keeping Barrett happy. He actually let her carry him a few times! Here they were sitting on the bench outside of GG's retirement home.

The kids were disappointed that the management didn't want pennies being thrown into the fish pond anymore (they were told that it's bad for the fish). I think the boys would've been perfectly happy if we would just let them get in the pond!

I just realized that most of my pictures of the boys from that day are from their backside! Just goes to show that toddlers are always on the move!

Helper

Brody really loves his little brother. He is always hugging and kissing on him. He also loves to help me take care of Barrett (except for the diaper part...he'll do it, but he complains when I ask him to put a diaper in the trash...tells me they really stink!) Barrett can hold his own bottle, however, he tends to make a mess when doing so. He gets distracted watching Brody run around and ends up spilling milk everywhere. Yesterday Brody was a great helper while I was making dinner. He made sure Barrett didn't spill a drop of milk!

What did you have for lunch?

Brody's favorite lunch is a peanut butter and brown sugar sandwich. He eats one practically every day!

It's Friday!

An exciting event is coming up at our house. We're going to have some very special visitors. On the 22nd Brody and I are going to make an early morning trip to OKC to pick up 2 sixth grade and 1 fourth grade girl! We're not picking up strangers...these are the daughters of some of our best friends in Kansas! Erin (Chris & Teri's daughter) and Sydney & Taya (2 of Dwayne & Rene's daughters) are going to come spend the week with us in Texas! They'll get to go to VBS at our church that week along with a few other fun things. In addition to the girls, Grammy will be coming to town late that Thursday night and will stay thru Monday (the girls will ride back to KS with her)!

Brody overheard me and Daddy Steve discussing these plans and ever since then he wakes up each morning, runs into the living room, and asks, "Are we going to Oklahoma City today?" To help him understand exactly how far away all these plans are, we made a calendar for the fridge (yes, I know what day it is today...this pic was taken a few days ago).

Thankfully this has been helping the constant "are we going today?" questions that I was getting all day every day.

This morning as soon as he found out that today isn't OKC day, he asked what day of the week it was. When I told him it's Friday he said, "Is it Daddy Steve's Friday off work?" I told him I wasn't sure. He informed me that he needed to call and see (it was 6:30 am) to which I responded that he'd have to wait until at least 7:30 (my computer clock says 7:32...good thing he can't tell time yet! lol) I asked what's so great about Daddy Steve's Friday off work? Brody said, "That means he can play A LOT with me! Also, sometimes we do really fun things on his day off work!" Guess I better post this so I can make good on my promise of letting him call (he just said, "I'm ready to go to Daddy Steve's right now. Can you just feed Barrett there when he wakes up?)

End of Debate

My brothers have been debating for years on a single topic. Who's taller? Caleb (the older brother) or Tyler (the younger brother)? I don't know that Brody has ever taken part in one of those conversations, however, out of the blue this morning Brody announced, "Did you know that Caleb is taller than Tyler?" It was a very random thought. I think that Tyler is actually taller...but the 1/2 or so difference is probably hard to differentiate when you're only 3 feet tall.

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Brody has been asking some deep questions lately. Last night he asked, "What is under your hair...inside your head?" I told him it was his brain. Which of course led to, "What's a brain? Can you please show me a picture?" It's so fun to live in the digital age! We did a google image search and found some pretty cool/gross pictures of brains. Of course just seeing the brain didn't suffice. He had to know, "What does it do? How does it work?" I did my best to explain in a way that a 2 1/2 year old would understand.

This morning he asked, "What do we do while we're on Earth?" I was a bit taken aback by this question. I told him that we work, we tell people about Jesus, we spend time together as a family. When I asked him what else we do he said, "Play. Go to Daddy Steve's to work. Swim..." Then I said, "If we weren't on Earth, where would we be?" His response? "Well...if you believe in Jesus then you'll be in Heaven!"

Saturday Swimming

On Saturday, some of our family came up for a visit! Cindy, Ginger, Jesse, McKenna, Bryan, and Bryan's girlfriend (Kaylee) came for the day. We spent most of the day at our house swimming, eating, and talking. Cindy and Ginger left in the late afternoon to go to the George Straight concert at the new Cowboys Stadium. Tyler, Jesse, Caleb, Daddy Steve, and I all took turns swimming with the kids. I think Brody was in the pool over 4 hours before his late afternoon nap...and then he got back in as soon as he woke up! He LOVES swimming! Here are some pictures of the fun Saturday...

Wheeeeeeee! Caleb throws me HIGH!!

McKenna and Jesse catchin' some rays in the pool.

Bryan and Kaylee

Brody telling me that he's gonna jump in WITHOUT his floaties and swim to me!

Barrett claps for Brody swimming without floaties.

Barrett and I play peek-a-boo aka. "Where's Barrett?"

Barrett in his jammies ready for bed. The boys slept great after spending all day outside playing!

Owwww!

" Owww! IT BIT ME!" Brody said as he ran from the bathroom to where Mike and I were standing in the kitchen.

"What?" I asked.

"It bit me on my tongue!"

"What bit you?" I asked, a little more concerned now.

"My teeth did!" was his simple reply.

Collin's Birthday

Saturday after the Colonial, we headed over to Matt & Julie's house to celebrate Collin's third birthday! He had a Curious George cake and decorations. I was proud of Brody for not blowing out the candles after we sang "Happy Birthday" to Collin.

Brody and Collin had so much fun playing together. They both loved the new gun that Collin got as a present...and that was probably the only cause of tension. They both wanted it at the same time! Thankfully, they were both pretty good at sharing. Once they went outside they combined their love of shooting with their love of riding bikes!

They also spent a lot of time upstairs playing in Collin's room. Brody thought it was soooo fun to jump off of the side of Collins car bed onto his mattress!

Barrett isn't quite old enough to follow the big boys around yet...and sometimes that really frustrates him! He spent most of his time wanting to be held by either Daddy Steve, me, or Mike. Ann let him try on her sunglasses and he thought he looked pretty cool!

After the birthday party we took the boys to Bass Pro. We got some new decor for their bathroom (I'll have to post some pics of it...it's so cute) and of course the boys (meaning Brody, Barrett, and Mike) had to play with all the cool toys in the store. We got home just in time to go to bed for the night!

Colonial

Saturday Mike and I got to go to the Colonial golf tournament courtesy of XTO Energy (Mike's employer)! It was a beautiful morning to spend walking around the golf course...and the golf course was gorgeous! We followed around one of the golfers, Rod Pampling, that my cousin (Matt) is building a house for along with watching several other well known golfers. You're not allowed to take cameras (or phones) into the tourney, so I was excited to learn that Kodak was taking FREE pictures! Above is proof that we were really there :) Hopefully we'll get to take Brody with us next time we get a chance to go to a tournament. I think he'd love it!

That's the way the cookie crumbles

This morning started out like most other mornings. Brody woke up early. I fed him breakfast and then we waited for Barrett to wake up so I could feed him and we could go on our morning jog. Brody likes to take different things with him on our morning jog. One day he took his leaf blower and graciously blew the leaves (imaginary) off of the sidewalks for all our neighbors. Another day he took his gun and shot all the birds we saw along our way.

Today Brody opted for his camera so he could take pictures of things we saw on our walk and show Daddy later (since Daddy was at work and couldn't go on the jog with us). We'd been jogging for about 20 minutes when all of the sudden he dropped the camera out of the stroller. It bounced one time and it seemed like everything was in slow motion as I watched it come out of the bounce straight into the gutter on the side of the street! I couldn't see (or fit) down in the gutter, but looking thru the hole in the man hole cover I could see his camera laying on the concrete floor of the gutter. If only I had a way to take out the bolt on the man hole cover, lift the cover, and climb down the ladder to the bottom of the gutter...but I didn't. Brody was heart broken! He was crying so hard asking me to "PLEASE get my camera! I didn't drop it on purpose!" I felt awful for him.

When we got home, I called the city public works department. The lady there gave me the cell number for one of the guys in the field, Ernie. I called Ernie and he told me one of his guys would be there in 15 minutes! Brody was soooo excited! He even practiced saying, "Thank you! THANK you! THANK YOU!" I loaded all three kids up in the car (I was watching Jayden for Angela this morning) and we headed over to meet the city workers. I drew a few looks from the neighbors while I was sitting in front of the gutter with my car running. One guy kept coming out of his house and looking over at my car. The lady whose house I was parked in front of kept peering over her fence at me. When the city guy showed up, I got out of my car and explained to her what was going on. She was relieved to find out that the city employees weren't there to dig up her yard! They city workers, on the other hand, couldn't keep the smirks off their faces as they got to work. Brody watched as they used their special tool to remove the man hole cover. Then one guy climbed down in the hole and handed the camera back up to the other guy who handed it over to Brody. Brody just said, "thank you" under his breath.

What did I do? If you know me, you know that I asked the city employee if he'd mind me taking his picture! He stood by Brody (who wouldn't look at me) and let me take a picture. You'll notice the 2nd employee crawling out of the man hole while I was taking the picture.

So what's the lesson here? Don't drop things out of the stroller! Even though you may only drop it one time on your entire walk...that one time may be the death of your toy. "And that's the way the cookie crumbles."

Wednesday

Yesterday was Wednesday. Do you ever get confused about the days of the week when you have a holiday on a Monday? Last night I was sweeping the floors and it suddenly hit me. It was Wednesday! It was 7:50 pm which means church had just ended. I asked Mike if he realized what day it was and he just looked at me funny. When I said, "It's Wednesday!", he had a shocked look on his face. I was relieved when he told me that he wasn't supposed to teach class last night.

Just so everyone's on the same page...today is Thursday!

Memorial Day Breakfast

Growing up we were always camping with the Rhodes on Memorial Day weekend. Since our families have grown and it's hard to get everyone together for an entire weekend, Mom and Paula decided to have a breakfast for everyone at Dad & Mom's house. Surprisingly, everyone was able to make it!

Growing up it was just me and all the boys (Kyle, Caleb, Brett, & Tyler). Now that they're all married...there are girls for me to hang out with! Staci, Amanda, Susie, Audria, & Ann

Susie is due June 26th with their first little boy, Kent. That's the day before Barrett's birthday! Not much longer! She's starting to get to the point where she's done being pregnant. We offered to catch the baby if she went into labor on Memorial day.

Barrett practicing walking.

Then we put him to work sweeping acorns off the pool deck. Whew! That's hard work!

Our kids stayed at Daddy Steve & Namaw's while we went to the game. The Rhodes stayed for awhile and played games. Looks like they got to enjoy the outdoors with the little guys before they left.

Ann's Big Surprise!

We had a fun Memorial Day this year. It was Mike's first time to venture out since his surgery. We had breakfast with Billy & Paula's family (and our family) at Daddy Steve and Namaw's house (pictures to come tomorrow when I can post some of the pics from Daddy Steve's camera). Mike sat on the couch icing his knee the entire time we were there. Around noon Tyler and Ann left for the Rangers vs. Yankees game (this was Ann's birthday present from Tyler...she's a big Yankees fan). What Ann didn't know was that Caleb, Audria, Lauren, Morgan, Mike, and I were going to meet them at the game. She was surprised and excited when we arrived!

It was a fun game...if you're a Yankees fan! The Rangers played TERRIBLE! They didn't even score until the 9th inning! I thought the star on the infield was pretty cool. I need to send a picture of it to Junior to give him an idea of a cool design for a state all-star game.

Being at a baseball game made me think about working for the rec commission...especially when they guys came out to rake the dirt! Of course, the guys that take care of the fields for the LRC are a little bit younger than these guys.

Thankfully there was an empty seat (a God thing at a sold out game) in front of us so Mike was able to prop up his leg. Even with propping it up, it was REALLY swollen by the time we headed home.

Ann was the only one excited about the outcome of the game. Rangers ONE - Yankees ELEVEN!

Mike, Staci, Audria, Caleb, Ann, Tyler

As we were leaving I noticed Ann looking for "somewhat" clean souvenir cups to take home. I bet she left with at least 10!

On our way to the car we stopped to take a picture of Caleb & Audria with both the Ballpark at Arlington and the new Cowboys Stadium in the background!

We stopped for dinner with Caleb and Audria at a little Italian Pizzeria for a yummy dinner. We had so much fun at the game, but I think Mike paid a big price for being on his feet for that long. He had a fever last night and this morning and even his hands were swollen! After working from home today (and his first physical therapy appointment), both the fever and the swelling have gone down. I think he's planning on going back to the office tomorrow.