Babies Everywhere!

Dentist Time and Buddy Time

2012-05-12T21:02:16Z

After the excitement of our trip to the fire station and our time with Mikey and company, we had a week with a bit of trepidation. Owen is growing up, and with his advancement in age comes the burden of maintenance. It was time for his first trip to the dentist.

Cartoons usually help ease the process.

They called their names, and we escorted him into a room for a quick discussion about how we were going to handle things. He's much more independent ("I do it myself!") than Max was at this age, so we weren't sure how he was going to react to having to be still while someone poked around in his mouth. We eventually decided he could handle more than just a cursory inspection.

He noticed none of this process.

His brother was already in position when we went in, and Owen had a chance to enjoy some of the provided entertainment.

Video games!

Once we were finished with that, we told him to just do what his brother was doing.

Done.

He then defied all expectations and was perfectly well behaved throughout the whole process.

Hooray!

Yet another milestone passed, which much more ease than we'd expected. The rest of the week was our standard routine, but we had something planned for the weekend to reward the boys for being so good at the dentist. It's been a while since we had a play date at the house, so we invited over some school buddies for the boys to play with.

Cody and Drew! Drew is back there, promise.

We began things with an art project in the back yard.

Max and Drew were cool with that.

So was Owen, who brought a more serious tone to the proceedings.

Cody had a little bit of anxiety about being away from his parents, so he wasn't really into the painting process. Instead, we took him around and pointed out various bugs and flowers in the backyard. That worked a little, but we had to bring out the big guns to win him over.

Bubble guns!

…or maybe bubble trumpets?

Once we'd finished messing around in the backyard, we dug something out of the garage that hasn't been getting much attention lately.

Car time.

They had a pretty good time driving up and down the street.

Though they had even more fun when they thought they were going to run me over.

We made a full circuit around the block and through the nearby field, then we brought everyone back to the house for some more subdued activities.

Ahhh, kicking back with some TV and a ring pop.

Immediately after that, we reintroduced crazy time.

Been a while since we had a playroom closet ball pit.

They, of course, found this quite hilarious.

As if that weren't enough to wear us all out, I just had to get involved in all the crazy.

Photos do not do justice to how hilarious Cody found this.

Then, of course, dad rides.

Everyone had a great time, and we topped it all off with some time in the bounce house (read: some time for mommy and daddy to sit down and watch them play). It was a nice way to close out the week. That'll do it for this round. If you want to check out the rest of the photos, you can click here. See you next time!]]>

Fire House and Mikey's House

2012-05-02T02:18:03Z

So, where were we? Ah, Easter. We spent the rest of the following week trying to recover from all the crawfish and pulled pork, which means our pictorial review of events begins on Saturday.

He's in there somewhere, I'm pretty sure.

Not long after, we headed out to a birthday party for one of Max's school buddies. This would mark the kids' first visit to a common childhood field trip destination.

To the fire station!

The boys enjoyed a nice long tour of the station, which of course ended with a look through the fire engine.

I think he's cool with that.

They don’t tell you this, but they use those to listen to Kanye on the way to emergencies.

Owen approves.

Once they were done with that, they had a nice sit down for a minute...

Best I could get.

More approval.

...then we headed back inside for some cake.

Cake and hats.

Once we'd finished with that, we grabbed our goodie bags and headed home for some lunch and a quick nap. That wouldn't be the end of our activity for the day, though, as we had some plans for the afternoon as well.

We also had some biking to do at our buddy Mikey's place.

No to mention some bug hunting.

…and butterfly chasing…

…and some more biking…

…and going to a nearby pond and throwing things at it…

…and showing daddy what we think of his camera…

…and getting photobombed by a T-Rex…

…and crawling around under the bed…

…and playing with the arcade machine…

…and playing Candyland…

By the time we were done, everyone was exhausted yet again. We got the boys home and in bed, then we all tried to get as much rest as we could to get ready for the week ahead. In fact, we were so worn out that we didn't do much of anything on Sunday, and we emerged with photos of but a single moment.

"I'm daddy!" "I'm mommy!"

With that, the week drew to a close. If you want to check out a couple more photos, you can click here. Otherwise, we'll catch you next time!]]>

Easter 2012

2012-04-19T02:16:58Z

Per usual, our routine (with a little help from illness) has put us past the deadline for a timely post. Well, that and the fact that I needed to sort through several hundred photos from Easter weekend.

I thought they might enjoy a little change of pace from the little bubble wands.

They were very short lived.

From there, we shifted gears into full-on Easter mode. We went up to the school to split our time between two Easter parties.

Thanks for the classy photo, guys!

Owen's basket was bigger than pretty much everyone else's.

Max had already finished his Easter egg hunt earlier in the day, but we were right on time for Owen's.

For some reason, he only picked up half those eggs.

Eventually he just abandoned the basket.

Victory!

We took a day off on Friday so we could have a relaxed trip down to Houston. This left us with plenty of time for some other activities.

Like filling these bags with something.

The boys have a book about the Easter bunny hiding chicks all over the house, so we thought they'd enjoy an opportunity to live the dream.

Mommy was working out, but she was happy to see the recently discovered chicks.

Owen is very good at finding chicks.

The Easter bunny was kind enough to put that one in its own little baggie.

More victory!

Since the Easter bunny was hanging around, I guess he decided to hide some things outside, too.

They dispatched with that pretty quickly.

When we found our way back inside, we took a little time to empty out all of the eggs. In the process, we discovered that we'd been joined by some unexpected guests.

We found three of them in various eggs. I guess they like chocolate.

We let them eat some of the candy that wasn't touched by slugs, packed up the car, and headed south for the weekend. When we arrived, we helped make room in the backyard for a bit of fun.

Bounce house time!

Owen had a lot of trouble climbing the ladder, but he kept at it.

He got wet by spending about two seconds in the pool, then realizing it was a bit too cold for his tastes.

Looks like I have a new favorite photo of Max.

Owen insisted on having some paired slide runs.

As if that weren't enough, we were also celebrating a birthday over the weekend.

Happy birthday, Kyle!

Even after a full night of sleep, the boys were pretty exhausted.

Collyn seemed okay with some snuggling, though. So it's all good.

Lazy, lazy Saturday morning.

We eventually got them out of their pajamas and forced them to go outside.

Max couldn't resist trying out this lovely scooter.

And, you know, monkey see…

Did I mention that Nan had a bunch of huge eggs in her yard?

The rest of the day was spent going in and out of the house, sampling various foods as they arrived, socializing with the family...

…and meeting some crawfish.

Owen seemed especially excited about them.

In the first boil, he actually ate more than Christy did.

The kids did everything they could possibly find to do.

Making faces.

Playing Wii.

Decorating eggs.

Enjoying what had become a bounce house waterslide.

Making more faces.

Hunting for more Easter eggs.

Sorting through our spoils.

And, eventually, crashing.

We all ate way too much crawfish (thanks again, Papa!), cake, pulled pork, candy, and anything else that happened to be sitting around, and we topped it off with a nice night's sleep. We awoke for Easter morning proper, and got right back into the swing of things.

First we dyed eggs.

Then we dyed more eggs.

Once we'd dyed all the eggs in the fridge, we moved on to what I believe was our fourth Easter egg hunt. Owen napped through the one on Saturday, so it was only fair.

C'moooooon, let us out!

Owen is an egg hunting master.

Church went as we expected, with the usual visit to the fish tank.

Somehow, we managed to get a couple of decent photos with the boys.

Yay, a Nan and Papa photo!

Yay, a mom and dad photo!

Of course, the boys worked hard to keep us from getting any of the two of them.

Really hard.

Though they behaved a little better when mommy got between them.

Somehow that didn't carry over to me.

Good enough!

We made it back home in one piece, and somehow managed not to put both boys in a candy coma. I'd consider it a successful Easter weekend. If you want to see the rest of the photos (yes, there are more!) you can click here. Have a good week, everyone!]]>

Nerfin' Around

2012-04-12T03:29:53Z

Before all the insanity of Easter, we had a weekend of insanity of a different kind. We had some birthdays to celebrate, and that meant piling into the car to travel around and have some fun.

Uhhh, Birthday Boy, what's your 20?

Standing ten feet away from you. Over.

We began with plenty of general playtime, as usual.

Sliding!

Swinging!

See-sawing!

Rock 'em Sock 'em Roboting!

Guinea pig watching!

Indoor balloon volleyballing!

Once that was done, it was time for the main event. The invitation for this birthday party indicated that our son was being drafted for war. This time comes eventually for some young men, and he was ready.

War face!

Victory face!

In-between, there were much happier faces.

We still can't figure out who invited Tupac.

Eventually, someone got tired of waiting around on the sidelines and charged onto the battlefield.

With a little help from his cousin.

In what came as no surprise at all to those of us who watch Owen make faces all day, he got into just the right mood.

War face!

Seriously. War face.

Combining the two of them led to more photo-friendly faces.

Once all the ammo was exhausted (along with the kids), we headed inside to tie up all the loose ends.

Cake, of course.

Then the unceremonious stealing of your cousin's birthday presents.

Then, more cake.

Sadly, that is the end of the film roll for the weekend. On Sunday we attended Maggie's birthday party but realized halfway there that we'd entirely forgotten our camera bag. I might be able to salvage a little video from my phone a bit later on, but for now we'll just have to leave it at that. If you want to check out the rest of the photos from the set, click here. Otherwise, we'll catch you next time!]]>

Bubbles, Blocks, and Yardwork

2012-04-05T01:58:53Z

Last time around, we were fresh off a trip to Houston. This time around, we're preparing to head down there again. In-between packing and prepping seems like a good time to give everyone an update on what we were up to in the week after our last outing. Turns out, it was actually a pretty laid back time for the boys.

We had plenty of time to kick back and blow some bubbles.

…and some more bubbles.

The weekend arrived, and with it came an opportunity to take a bunch of our nieces (and one nephew) out to the movies. This involved abandoning our own children and leaving them in the care of their grandparents (thanks Mimi and Pappaw!). Fortunately, we had all morning to play before that happened.

So we got out the blocks for a bit.

Owen built an impressive tower.

Max built a puppy-shaped house for his puppy stuffed animal.

When we finally returned from the mall, I only had time to snap a few photos in the pizza fueled chaos.

Owen wanted to go outside and play ball with the big kids.

Max preferred a more indoor approach to his pursuits.

Everyone seemed to have a good time, and we eventually sent them all on their way so we could put the boys down for a (very) late bedtime. The next morning, we woke up bright and early and put the boys to work.

Not pictured: mommy and daddy sitting on the porch, sipping lemonade.

They were both into this new giant tool we offered them. I have no idea why.

Oh. Right.

I'M BEING COUNTERPRODUCTIVE!

We eventually gathered all the leaves back up and cleared off our long-neglected lawn, which left the front walkway ready for more fun time.

They had us draw chalk outlines of them on the sidewalk. One of our neighbors joined in the fun.

The rest of the day was spent in various states of recovery. Some of it involved a bounce house in the backyard, but we didn't snap any photos of that. If you want to check out the rest of the photos from this week, you can click here. Otherwise, we'll see you next time!]]>

2 1/2 and a Trip

2012-03-25T03:24:37Z

Last week was an entertaining one. We got a chance to enjoy some time outside, had a bit of a celebration, and did a whole lot of driving. We'll begin where we always do, with the boys doing things around the house.

Ready to go!

Nevermind!

Max was a little more willing to help out.

Only a little, though. Most of their time was spent digging around in the sandbox, which enabled Christy and I to make quick work of things. The week moved along, and a milestone snuck up on us. As of the 15th, Owen officially turned 2 1/2. We forgot to get photos with his puppy (we should probably do that at some point), but we did enlist the boys to help out with another project.

Wall stickers!

Owen was pretty excited to finalize the decorations in his big kid room.

He was even more excited about the cupcake.

Max didn't mind sharing in the spoils.

We still had more in store for them for the weekend, since both of them were out of school on Friday. We decided to take the day off and make an early trek down to Houston to visit Nan, Papa, and a few other familiar faces.

Pictured: a familiar face.

When we arrived, we were informed that everyone was hanging out at a nearby park. Naturally, we headed right over to get the boys in on the fun.

This boy loves swings way more than his brother ever did.

He tries to fake it, but we know he doesn't love it.

Okay, maybe he loves it a little bit.

We spent the next hour or so hanging out with the cousins.

RyanPaul!

Emma!

Sam!

They were having so much fun, they even managed to enjoy some time together.

Slides: the great cooperation-maker.

Some of the equipment might have been a little advanced for the little guys, though.

Uhhh yeah. Can someone maybe push this thing for us?

After that, we headed to Nan and Papa's for a quick dinner (well, not us, we went out for our anniversary, thanks to Nan and Papa) and some rest. When we awoke, we donned our green and attacked the day anew.

With harmonicas.

And koala hugs.

And…wait, weren't we just here yesterday?

You wouldn't know it by looking at them. They had just as much fun the second time around as they did the day before.

Owen is a fan of the nice, long, squiggly slide.

Max is too, but in reverse.

More swinging, of course.

Plus a little piling on Christy.

Then a brief dolphin ride.

Bonus: a rare photo with me in front of the lens.

When the afternoon came, we all hunkered down for some serious crawfish peeling. The boys took an all-too-short nap while we did that, so when they came downstairs we sent them off into the yard to find some fun for themselves.

Found it!

They somehow managed to happen upon a colony of doodlebugs, and immediately set to messing with them.

Emma decided to join in the fun.

Heeeey doodlebug.

This is what happens when you ask him to take a photo with his doodlebug.

We messed around the rest of the day, then tucked in for a bit more sleep.

Emma came in to wake up Owen.

Okay, not really. That was after they'd been up for a while. I bet she tries to do that with her baby brother all the time. We said our goodbyes to Jenn, Emma, and RyanPaul (good to see you guys!), spent a bit of time at church with Owen (who fell asleep) and Max (who was quite well behaved), then packed up the car to head home. We stopped a couple times along the way, once for a bathroom break and once because we wanted to try and get a better photo than the one we got a few years ago.

Has it been that long?

Indeed it has.

Once we'd accomplished that goal, we got the boys a cookie and hit the road. After that, it's all a blur. I'm sure we unpacked a car, got the boys bathed, and put them to bed, but I assure you I can remember none of it. If you want to check out the rest of the photos from the week, you can click here. Otherwise, we'll see you next week. Unless, of course, you want to see some videos...

Present Just a little something to welcome him to two-and-a-half.

Bounce House Sometimes you make your own fun.

Have a good week!]]>

Swimming and Sleeping

2012-03-17T13:38:17Z

It's usually pretty tough to make a late-week post, especially when we're visiting Nan and Papa for the weekend. Thankfully, we've been given a brief morning reprieve while the grandparents watch the kids so I can get this thing back up to date. Last week was fairly routine, but we did have some surprises lined up for the weekend.

So long as he has his ball with him, he doesn't fuss.

He adjusted surprisingly well, and is now swimming about 1/3 the length of the swim class pool completely unassisted.

There's also some assisted swimming, which he seems to enjoy.

Meanwhile, in the next lane over…

Max skipped a level and is working hard to learn crawls and backstroke.

…with some assistance.

They're both doing great, and they get excited every time Wednesday rolls around. Beyond swim class, we had a pretty normal week. Well, normal except that we had a running bribe all week. Once Owen figured out how to crawl out of his crib, we decided it was time to move him up to the toddler bed. We decided this would be dependent on him being well behaved at school all week. He made it all the way to Friday without incident, then he somehow managed to get bad behavior marks. We were informed that they had a fire drill in the middle of naptime, so Christy decided that some leniency was in order. Saturday came, and we determined that it would be best to handle it in the afternoon.

Both boys were pretty excited about helping make this happen.

Owen took advantage of the only time his mattress has been out of his bed for an extended period of time.

Max, of course, joined him.

After a lot of twisting with allen wrenches and near-injuries from falling crib pieces, we achieved our goal.

This is it? I was good most of the week for this?

Owen then proceeded to stand up, walk over to his pillow, then slip and fall against the side of his bed. Many minutes of crying ensued, but Christy calmed him down while I moved the guard rail opening to the other end of his bed.

Much better.

It was a little shaky at first, with some late-night wake ups, but now he's sleeping in there without any problems. No more falls, either, which is nice. The rest of the weekend was spent as usual. The kids played around with all their toys and we tried to clean up as we went.

According to Max, this contraption makes people do what he says. He walked around ordering us to do various things for him.

Capping things off with a lazy Sunday is always for the best.

Next week, we'll talk about our currently-ongoing adventures at Nan and Papa's house. Until then, you can click here to check out the rest of the photos. Have a good week, everyone!]]>

Shirts, Parks, and Faces

2012-03-15T01:09:51Z

The last couple of posts have been all about visiting various people, whether they be school friends or family. This week we decided to go it alone. Sometimes it's nice to just hang out with our little group of four.

Besides, no one else has the shirts to hang with us.

The beginning of the week was uneventful (and thus not photo documented), but on Thursday we decided it would be nice to take the boys out for dinner someplace a little outside our normal radius of travel. Since we picked them up at school a while before dinner time, we figured it would be fun to go visit one of our old haunts that was along the route.

It's been a while. A looooong while.

In fact, it's been almost two years exactly since we last took photos at this park (it's near our old house).

Then.

Now.

Then.

Now.

Bonus points for anyone who noticed that Owen is wearing Max's hand-me-down shoes. It's weird how it doesn't seem that long to me. In any case, Max and Owen had a great time playing around on what to them must have seemed like a new playground.

Wheeee!

Max is kind of a cheater at slide racing.

Owen will come down right after this, turn to his brother, and say, "I win you lose!"

Owen has also become quite enamored with swings.

Max did a whole lot of independent climbing.

Then he got tired and took a break.

They ran over eventually to check out the construction equipment that was actively digging a new section of the pool.

Then they took turns playing restaurant.

You could use your imagination to figure out what that might look like, but thanks to my phone you won't have to.

Restaurant What would you like?

We took them out for dinner, then headed home just in time for bed. The rest of the weekend was mostly about getting things tidied around the house and just playing around. Owen took this as an opportunity to work on his repertoire of expressions.

He's added mischievous.

Plus a bit of shock.

And, lastly, my very favorite one so far...

ANGRY EYES.

He did that without provocation for several days at anyone he could. I had to explain to his teachers that he wasn't actually mad, he just thought it was funny to see people react to it. Thus ended another nice week with the kids. You can check out the rest of the photos here, or you can stick around for one last parting video.

Wheee Max likes to swing too, apparently.

]]>

Inside, Outside, Wackyside

2012-03-11T02:48:35Z

Amazing that I could finish three posts in a week and still not manage to catch this thing up. With any luck I'll get another two in next week and we'll be back in business. This time around, we're covering the week of President's Day.

Note to self: red-eye flash is problematic in the dim light of a movie theater.

We settled in with a bag full of cookies, and somehow managed to make it the whole way through without any trouble. Afterwards, we met up with mommy to go grab some pizza and had a pretty decent afternoon. Things went back to normal until Thursday, when I was given the opportunity to stuff my face with free meat at a work dinner (SOLD!). Christy took that as a chance to get the kids to herself for a bit.

Pretty sure they had fun.

The weekend came along, and we found ourselves up in Sherman to see Tanner play a bit of soccer.

That would be Tanner kicking a goal.

While that was going on, the boys were completely glued to the game.

By which I mean they paid no attention at all.

For the most part they just hung out with Mimi.

…and fought over the chairs.

…and played with Mimi some more.

…and fought over the chair some more.

…and…well, you get the idea.

We spent the evening being entertained at Cindy and Tammy's place.

These cheetos are for me, right?

Guys? It's still there. It keeps following me.

Owen and Max spent plenty of time playing with their cousins, which gave us an excuse to sit and vegetate on various new pieces of furniture. Every once in a while I'd get up to fulfill my usual duty of capturing family moments.

Sure. Just go right in there, puppy. It won't shrink down and trap you, promise.

We still can't figure out how he caught her in there.

We enjoyed our pizza (thanks again, Cindy and Tammy!), played a bit more, and said our goodbyes. This led us into a nice day at home on Saturday. Usually these just involve us chasing the kids around the house and lounging about, but at some point we generally have to get ourselves cleaned up to do something or other. As I was finishing getting dressed, I heard a knock on the door of our bathroom. I opened it to discover that Max had apparently found his way into the dress-up box in the play room.

"Do you like it?"

Always nice to end the week on a laugh. If you want to check out the rest of the photos of the kids messing around next to the soccer field, you can click here. See you next time!]]>

Valentines, Etc.

2012-03-08T02:27:08Z

In this week's entry, we find ourselves repeating a little bit. Two boys means two Valentine's Day parties at school. It also means we need to try and take a little break here and there to escape all the crazy.

He's always happy to see us at school.

Owen's project for the party was a little cleaner than Max's. Instead of decorating a cookie, he decorated a valentine bag.

He's always very concerned about where his stickers are going.

Once we'd finished with that, we moved on to a snack.

This is him singing the song where his hands go up, then down in his lap. This does not work at home.

Mmmmm. Monkey juice.

We polished off our snack, then we sat nicely with our friends.

You're filling this with candy, no?

Owen was quite good at handing things out.

Slightly less good at looking at the camera when saying, "CHEEEEEESE!"

But quite effective at stealing his mom's sunglasses.

We went through the typical routine until Fun Friday, when Max's class theme was to dress up as any one of a number of different professions.

Max chose "Builder".

He's always telling us that he wants to be a builder when he grows up, and that mommy and daddy will be his helpers.

I guess it's a family business.

Then came the weekend. We've been having some conversations lately about putting up some curtains in our living room. That culminated in us buying a ridiculous amount of fabric, which then earned us a visit from the family seamstress (Mimi). She helped out immensely and gave Christy a chance to do this:

She requested that I get proof.

Meanwhile, Pappaw and I watched the boys and got some curtain rods put up on the wall. He was even kind enough to share his toys with the little guys.

iPad time is family time!

They even gave us the opportunity to get out of the house for a bit. We decided to go gorge ourselves on enormous king crab legs while they took the boys out for dinner.

They brought us back some elegant hats from the burger and shake place.

After we were debriefed on how the dinner went (surprisingly enough, the boys enjoyed their milkshakes), we sent Mimi and Pappaw on their way and got the boys to bed at a fairly late hour. Owen had a pretty rough night that night, but he's never one to let a sleepless night go to waste. In the middle of the night, he woke up yelling for us so I went in, checked on him, and got him to go back to sleep. This process repeated about an hour later. An hour after that, he woke up again and we decided to try and let him cry it out and put himself back to sleep. Ten minutes into that process, we heard a door open. Christy presumed that the crying had woken up Max, and that he was going to check in on his brother. She rushed down the hallway and found Max's door closed. When she opened Owen's door, she was surprised to find him standing right behind it. Owen still sleeps in a crib, so this meant that he'd finally realized he could just climb right out of it. In the morning I asked him to demonstrate to me how he managed to get out. Without missing a beat, he grabbed the side, hiked his leg over, and gently let himself down to the ground. It was so effortless that I couldn't help but be impressed. I recently had him recreate the feat so I could catch it on video.

Owendini Master of escape.

After his escape he informed us that he kept waking up because his ear was hurting. We decided to take both kids to the doctor the following morning, and they both got put on some antibiotics to fight double (Owen) and single (Max) ear infections. Poor kids.

They were just so sick. So very sick.

Kidding aside, by the time we got out of the doctor's office and got the boys home, the sleepless night finally took its toll on the little guy.

He never stays asleep once we take him out of the car. Ever.

Poor little guy. Thankfully he's back to nearly full health now. That'll do it for Valentine's Day week. If you want to check out the rest of the photos, you can click here. Otherwise, we'll see you next time!]]>

Nans and Parties

2012-03-04T19:22:40Z

When last we left off, it was something like a month ago. We were just coming off a few-photo week and were readying ourselves for the imminent change in seasons. For some reason, this meant totally neglecting this thing for weeks while we managed various things around the house. Things are looking much better around here, so now I've run out of excuses. I'm going to try and power through to the present in the next couple of days. This post covers the week leading up to Valentine's Day, when we got a surprise visitor and had some fun in various locales.

Nan!

As you can see, the boys were totally excited to see her and not at all absorbed in various electronic diversions. We had a nice dinner together at a certain Australian themed steakhouse, with some surprisingly decent behavior from the kids. Skipping forward a few days, we found ourselves visiting school so we could attend a Valentine's Day party for Max's class.

He was pretty excited to have us there.

They were each given the opportunity to decorate a cookie. This is Max putting some frosting on there.

He then added a perfectly reasonable amount of sprinkles.

Some of them even managed to make it into his mouth.

After that, it was time to hand out valentines.

The scene was very organized, with each child lined up in a circle and asked to take a turn passing out candy. This descended into chaos in about twelve seconds. I'm pretty sure everyone got their fair share, so all was well in the end. That night, we decided to do something we hadn't done in a long time.

Sofa Bed Theater!

I don't know why they enjoy that so much, perhaps just because we don't do it very often. We tried to rest up over the next day because we knew where we were headed on Sunday. Max's buddy Drew was having a party at Going Bonkers, which is essentially a giant hamster habitrail for children.

Owen prepared by trying to eat all four pieces of his grilled cheese sandwich in one bite.

As the photographer in the family, it was my sworn duty to take my shoes off and chase the kids through the maze of slides and webbing. I took no enjoyment in this whatsoever.

I certainly wasn’t bouncing around in there with him.

…or climbing quickly ahead of him to try and catch better photos.

Of course, my efforts were in vain, since Christy got the best one by just standing at the bottom of a slide.

I eventually caught up to Max, who was roving around in there with his buddies.

I told them not to do that…eventually…after I got a picture.

For some reason the sweat makes his hair curl up a bit more than usual.

We all reunited for cake when we were done playing.

Can you guess what the theme was?

When they finished eating, they took turns blowing these at each other.

Yes, Owen figured it out too.

Then came the ceremonial choosing of the balloons.

We said our goodbyes, separated from the group, headed upstairs to play a few games, redeemed our tickets, and drove the kids home. We were all pretty exhausted, so we had a nice lazy evening and prepared for the week to come. That's about it for this post, but I'll leave you with our traditional link to the full photo set and toss a video in, since I've had something like a month to get one ready to go.

Owen Bonkers I was too busy with the regular camera to get any video of Max in there, but I did manage to catch a few of Owen in his inaugural visit.

See you next time!]]>

One of Those Weeks

2012-02-17T02:11:16Z

We've had one of these before. The week just whips on past us and we somehow completely forget what was going on. We get completely caught up in making sure we're finishing up home improvement projects, feeding the kids, and making sure the house doesn't burn down. When the week has passed us by, we look on the camera and find that we've only taken two photos of the boys.

Being coy about it…I know he's going to throw that at my head.

...and this.

Note the blue ball on the edge. Soon enough it will crush Max's bug.

I know we had pizza for the big game. I know the boys gave up about halfway through. I know we somehow managed to also get two videos.

Circles Makes me dizzy just watching them.

Oh Yeah Papa's favorite phrase, with a little extra fun thrown in.

I don't even have a link to the photoset, because that's all we got. I suppose at least it's a little something. Plus, next time around we have a decent haul to show off. Until then, have a nice week!]]>

Around the House

2012-02-10T03:01:11Z

Somehow we let this one slip by us, even though it's not a terribly long entry. It's been fairly uneventful lately, so we were just hanging around the house, making improvements to the garage, and generally trying to keep the boys from badly injuring themselves. This doesn't leave many opportunities for photos, but we do what we can.

Max has been asking to put together this 100 piece puzzle since Christmas.

He had a little help, but Christy said he handled most of it himself.

That afternoon, we actually had a decent bit of weather blow through. This gave us a chance to pull out something that's been hiding in the closet for months now.

Bounce house time!

Owen is the king of bounce house silly faces.

Once we'd packed all that up and put some dinner on the table, we sat down to enjoy a nice meal as a family. It came time to set out some fruit, and the boys decided they hadn't had enough play time yet.

I don't know who started it, but the other one followed not far behind.

Fairly typical lazy Saturday in our house, really. There's not much more to see, but if you're craving a couple of extra photos you can click here to see the rest. To make up for the dearth of photos, I tried to make sure I snagged some video during the week.

Zerbets The boys will forever think this is hilarious.

Owen Dies Over and over again.

Strawberries A little video accompaniment to show you what they were really doing with those strawberries.

Guess we'll see if I can get another one in before the weekend so we can get this thing all caught up. Either way, see you next time!]]>

Zoo Time and Birthdays

2012-01-29T04:43:59Z

Looks like I might be able to squeak this one in under the wire this week. Last week was a short one work-wise as the kids had a day off from school on Monday. We decided to take advantage of the oddly nice weather and take the boys out for a long-awaited trip to the zoo. Owen had really never been there at an age where he could enjoy it, so we were well overdue.

It all started with the flamingos.

He didn't seem sure what to think at first, though he was impressed when they all started making noise.

We actually got there a little late in the morning, so we went in search of food…and found this…

…and, eventually, french fries and ketchup.

From there it was on to the otters, which both boys found hilarious.

Then I forced them to sit on this alligator for a photo. It was no fun at all. Really.

They were slightly more interested in the "ride" we found.

And once we saw the lions…

…Owen was super impressed.

He caught a second wind making silly faces at mommy.

Then somehow we got them both to smile in a photo.

And...yeah…that.

We tried to get one with both boys and their mom, but surprisingly enough this wasn't comfortable for Christy.

Despite his attempts to pretend he wasn't having fun, Owen has spent the last week and a half telling us about all the animals he saw at the zoo. We'll have to take the boys back out when they get the train back up and running. The rest of the week was our typical work-eat-sleep routine, which usually leads to a Friday night of lax standards.

Like letting Owen sit in his cozy coupe and play with the iPod.

This brought us into the weekend, which involved a trip up to Sherman to celebrate a couple of birthdays (including Christy's). For the most part, it was all about having some play time with the cousins.

Working puzzles…

Throwing planes around...

Wearing high-coverage bibs to protect ourselves from lunch...

We all enjoyed some delicious cake, especially Christy's specially requested pineapple upside down cake.

Owen wanted to help with the candles.

He also wanted to make sure mommy's new gloves fit.

After lunch, everyone sat down to work on some cookies.

We took a brief trip out and apparently we missed Max making a Spongebob cookie. Pity.

Got back just in time for this, though.

We had the great fortune of being given a night off by Christy's parents. This meant we could enjoy some quiet time at a restaurant, a luxury we're not often afforded. Thanks again, Mimi and Pappaw. Oh, and sorry about whatever the boys did to your sofa. I'm sure they have no idea how that orange crayon got everywhere. If you want to check out the rest of the photos from this week, you can click here. It would appear that we're continuing to make good use of the video function on Christy's camera, as we have yet another round of videos to share before we sign off.

Otters Rated the #1 exhibit at the zoo by two out of two little boys who live in my house.

Ball Bucket We've started designating Saturday as a day where each of us gets some one-on-one time with one of the boys. This is the natural end result.

Planes and Shirts Couldn't resist sharing a little bit of footage of these three.

That'll do it for this week, and with 25 minutes to spare before I'm technically late. See you next time!]]>

Skipping, Swimming, Playing, and Birthdaying

2012-01-22T03:13:33Z

For the first time in a long time, we had an entire week where we took a total of zero photos. Part of this was due to exhaustion in our return to work. Part of it was due to the fact that we forgot the camera bag when we took a trip out to see Max's buddy Mikey (and Owen's buddy Alex). Either way, the only evidence we have that the week happened was the shark video I posted last time around. Guess we'll just pick up a week later, when we finally got around to bringing a camera to swim class.

Thankfully he got past that as time went on.

If you take a closer look at that photo and check out the background, you'll see a kid just under the "NO DIVING" sign flinging himself into the pool with wild abandon. That would be Max, who was wearing jeans for "clothesline day". The idea is that the kids learn how to swim to the side of the pool if they fall in with all their clothes on.

He did pretty well, as usual.

Plus he got a chance to try it again without the jeans.

They've both been making great strides in their swimming ability, and we're proud of all the hard work they've been doing to make their mom a bit less nervous about having them around water. The rest of the week passed per usual, but we had some plans for the weekend to make up for the lack of interesting content.

Owen makes his own plans.

I believe he's singing in this one.

As for this…well…

Clearly they enjoy their play room, but we had bigger plans for the rest of the day. We chowed down on some lunch and piled into the car so we could spend some time in Forney for a birthday party.

Hooray for the birthday girl!

The boys only play together nicely when it's someone else's toy.

See? Calm, collected, cool. I will never understand it.

Now you know why we don't get very many family photos to post.

Much of the party was just spent playing around, with momentary breaks for cake and present opening.

And grilling cupcakes. There has to be a way to make this a real thing.

Have we mentioned lately that Owen loves hoodies?

The weather was just barely nice enough for us to go outside for a bit.

Which is good, because the boys love making us nervous on slides.

Not pictured: Owen almost doing a front flip down the slide due to poor foot placement.

Max decided to try out the monkey bars. Didn't get far on his first attempt.

Of course, monkey see monkey do.

We spent a bit more time hanging out, then headed out for a nice dinner with Mimi and Pappaw. The boys were a bit confused at all the yelling (we wound up in an establishment with some sport fan presence) but they seemed to enjoy it anyway. The weekend lasted an extra day for us, but we'll have to save that for our next update. If you want to check out the rest of the photos, you can click here. All that's left is a quick video of the boys at swim class and we'll call it a week.

Swimming Just another day at the pool.

See you next week!]]>