What is THAT?!

What is THAT Avery found hanging from the tree in our front yard on Saturday?!
At first it looked like something just crawled out of its cocoon?
But definitely not - those are legs and eyes - it must be molting...
Look how brave I got to show you how big this thing was...
Then Travis brought a ruler.
So, does anyone have any ideas? And is that some sort of stinger on its rear, maybe I was a little too brave...

P is for Park, Plane, PLAY!

Avery has been asking to fly his Spiderman airplane for a while, and on Saturday we finally did. After getting the grocery shopping done, with a promise to Avery that something fun would follow if he was a good helper, we took the deli sandwiches and fruit we bought to the park for some lunch. Avery was super excited to see that we had brought his plane along (that's right, we were super stealthy getting that one in the car without him seeing beforehand).

The boys anxiously await as Daddy primes the plane for another flight:
Unfortunately, by the time we finished our lunch, the wind had picked up a bit and that resulted in the plane being carried quite a ways off and up into this tree:
Here comes Daddy to the rescue with a borrowed football:
Carson says, "I dunno, do you really think he can hit it?"
Sure enough, hero Daddy saved the day:
"Good job Daddy, I knew you could do it, honest!" (I think Carson is actually growling here...)
And as we walk back to the car, I am again jolted when looking at Carson without his curls... It was quite sad the other day when Travis decided to point out that taking away his curls took all the baby away...

Mmm, yogurt

So I don't like cleaning. Why allow a mess to be made if you don't want to clean it, right? Well, 2 days ago I decided to be nice and actually let Carson attempt to eat yogurt by himself. (We never bought Yo plait yogurt with it's narrow opening and that lip which catches the spoon for Avery back when he was still learning - what was I thinking?)

Of course, Carson thoroughly enjoyed himself (not that you can tell since he's selfish with his smiles and the camera). And he did really well with the top half of the container. After that it got a little dicey.

He was also using his right hand up until I broke the camera out, so don't be fooled, I think he's right handed.

When it got too difficult to get the spoon maneuvered to the bottom of the container, the obvious next step was of course to use your hand! Oh, wait, that narrow opening makes it hard to get your hand back out though...

Go Go!

One of Carson's first words that was obvious to anyone who heard it was GO! As in "let's go bye bye!" He'll say it as he brings you his shoes, as he stands by the door, as he brings you your shoes, or even the other day as he brought my sunglasses to me.
I've been meaning to get some video of this in action for a while, and finally made the attempt as we got ready for his haircut (of course then I forgot to put the video in that post - but that's okay, it's good enough stuff to make it it's own post, right?) The results weren't great - no really long strings of "go go" or any of his big long "goooooooooes" mostly because Avery seemed to know what I was doing and kept interrupting with copying Carson and being generally obnoxious. (It's what 3 yr olds do best, right?)
Anyway, here's the bit of video I got:

Carson's First Haircut

Avery never had any curl to his hair. His hair just came together in a little rat tail in the back. You can read about his first haircut here. Since Carson's has a bit of curl, I was avoiding the first haircut. But after just so long, it just got too long without enough curl to make it worth it. Time for the mullet to go! Avery was 17 and a half months, but Carson only made it to a couple days shy of 16 months, but if you look at the post on Avery, you can definitely see Carson has more hair!
The first snip:
Curls are gone, time to finish up:
We went to a place just for kids where Carson got to sit in a race car and, as seen here, intently watch the movie Cars (the first thing he's really found interesting on the tv only just last weekend).
WHAT is that buzzing thing!?
As Daddy gives a final inspection, Mommy says, "Oh, how handsome!"
No more mullet!
Carson freaked out about the cape, so he went without and Daddy used the lint roller on him instead. Meanwhile Carson is still way into Cars. The hairbrush was definitely essential though, since right after Travis wanted to go out to dinner to celebrate his not having any more finals.
The person who cut Carson's hair was great, and at the end he got this cute little certificate they do for the first-timers:

A Baby Shower!

Last night 2 of my fabulous friends, Kristel and RaQuelle, threw me a baby shower!

Here I am, the Princess of course, with my sash (with cute blue safety pin to hold it together) and Miss USA-esque tiara... (Avery was stoked to see that one come home with me)
Wait - does that sash make me sound like I'm having triplets!?
Kristel and baby Kieley with me:
Kristel's visiting sis Bri, who sadly was leaving us for going home to Utah the next morning, and baby Kieley - can you see the family resemblance - Bri likes to claim all Kieley's looks :)
RaQuelle and Jenni:
Tahlia and handsome Charles:
Jess and Nikki:
Lindsay and Sammie:
Lauren and Elizabeth:
Look at the talent Kristel and RaQuelle pulled out for me! They made these fabulous lollipops out of chocolate and vanilla - they even got creative with using more than one color like on the train and rattle here:
After some great food from Bravo resuarant (who were really good to us!!) we had our delicious cake that the manager himself cut for us. It was angel food with lots of fresh strawberries - one of my favorites! Way to make the right choice RaQuelle!
I had so much fun and I'm so thankful for such supportive friends! Thanks again for such a great time and thanks to all the ladies (and handsome Charles) for coming out!

Birthdays

July 10th the Dental Gals got together to celebrate Kristin and Erin's birthday with lunch at the park.

Here's our birthday girls, Kristin and Erin with baby Emma. That's Kristin's bike in the background and considering how hot and muggy that day was - with the threat of rain all day - I personally think Kristin must either be a hero or certifiable insane! :)
Kristel and baby Kieley:
Jenni with picture cooperative Haily and Nora:
RaQuelle with Sienna and Big D (Dawson) - isn't that hat great! He looks like he should be headed out to hit the links:
Amy with Spencer (is it just me, or does going to Hawaii sans kiddos always make you look good, even if you are exhausted from only getting back the day before...)
The pregnant lady trying to get even fatter... :)
And here's Erin with Carson, Kristel with Emma, Bri with Kieley, and me - everyone's holding someone else's child, except me of course. I just wasn't willing to share yet...
Thanks Jenni for these pics!

Bedtime = Playtime

Our boys' internal clocks must tell them that when it's close to bedtime and they're getting tired, it's time to go crazy. Second wind I guess...

The craziness has become slightly ritualistic in the last 2 months or so.

One part of the process is to run back and forth across the living room and crash/jump-crash into the large chair at one end. This gets interesting as they do it together and sometimes Carson crashes in a way as to not allow Avery to clear him on one side. (Avery's pretty good at maneuvering around Carson so as not to hurt him) Sometimes this means Carson gets jumped on a little, sometimes Avery manages to do a flying leap over his head onto the chair.

Of course, there's also just the traditional chasing of each other as well.

Another aspect of the ritual is Carson teasing Avery. Carson has figured out that messing with Avery's "pooh bear blanket" is a great way to incite him into playing.

I want to back up and give some background to that. We went to 2 Brewers baseball games this season. Since the first one back in May (read here) Avery has been dragging his blanket around the house "raking the dirt" just like the "guys in yellow" do to the infield occasionally throughout the game. For some reason he just thinks that's really cool. Carson, seeing Avery run around like that, pretty quickly got the idea to try and catch the trailing blanket.

So that's how the blanket bit started. Now Avery enjoys trying to get Carson to catch it, sometimes running circles around him and wrapping him up. They also play a bit of tug-of-war with it. Since all that is great fun, Carson knows he can pick up the blanket when not in play and tease Avery a bit with it to get him going.

So here are pictures of the 2 of them in action this evening, including Avery chasing Carson, collapsing together to get a breather, Carson catching the blanket and being drug by it, Carson taking off with the blanket, and some tug-of-war.

No more finals!

Today was the last final Travis will ever have to take for a class in his life! Yipee!

Okay, so that doesn't mean he's done studying tho. There's still boards before he can be a dentist. Altogether there are 6 more tests (both practical and written) to be taken.

Still, it's a little milestone to think that he's completely done with taking classes and worrying about midterms and finals for them.

Congrats, Travis!

New words

Before I forget...!

On Wednesday the boys and I talked to Daddy on the phone during lunchtime. When it was time to say good-bye, Carson actually said "buh-bye" into the phone. We've been trying to get him to say that for some time and I certainly didn't expect the first to be over the phone!

And then Wednesday night, another first: after family prayer Carson repeated "amen" after all of us. So cute!

My brilliant move

I've always had back problems, so of course pregnancy can be a real trial with that. This third time around is once again more difficult than the last. Everything is just so loose! Lately my left SI joint has been the main criminal.

So yesterday as Avery is eating his lunch, I'm cleaning up around all the plants I have shelved in a corner of the kitchen. I moved one chair back a little more out of my way... only to try and sit on the then absent chair a few minutes later. Classic chair pulled out from you moment. I landed on my butt pretty hard and needless to say it did not feel good. At least Avery was concerned for me instead of laughing at me!

In the beginning I seemed alright, but it didn't take long before I couldn't even walk. The dumb fall must have jostled things around enough that my left leg just couldn't support me and all I got was a stab in that left SI joint.

Thankfully this morning I got up and things must have settled back into relatively proper order because I could walk again. For an extra measure of security I threw on the big ol' maternity belt, but unfortunately every so often I feel like I'm on the edge of that left side collapsing again!

I still have six weeks to go - here's hoping my back holds out and I don't do anything else stupid!

Tagged...

How long have you been together? Married 6 years next month
Who eats more? Travis, but I do more than enough!
Who said I love you first? Travis
Who is taller? Travis (are you kidding me? by almost a foot!)
Who sings better? neither of us can do more than carry a tune as long as we're following along with something else
Who is smarter? um... Travis has said me, but I think it's probably a draw - we each have our strengths and weaknesses.
Who does the laundry? Both - Travis NEVER folds and has difficulty putting away, but he throws a lot of loads in for me.
Who does the dishes? Me. But I put my foot down about big dishes that have to be hand washed that Travis dirties himself. Plus, there are just some items - like the indoor grill - that he just gets to do. Sometimes when I do a little pleading he'll help out with a load of big hand wash items...
Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? Me (is that right side as you're laying on it looking up, yes?)
Who pays the bills? Me
Who mows the lawn? Travis
Who cooks dinner? Me, unless it's waffles and usually Travis for the grill.
Who drives when you are together? Travis
Who is more stubborn? Travis has his moments - but definitely me.
Whose parents do you see the most? Travis'
Who kissed who first? Travis kissed me first - after asking! SO sweet!
Who proposed? Travis, while visiting and meeting my parents for the first time. It wasn't a surprise the proposal was coming since he was there to meet the parents and ask my Dad's permission. Which he did on the Scrabble board after we had played a game with my parents and we were "cleaning up" with some "help" from my Mom. So I didn't get anything elaborate since he didn't know the place, but I did get woken up early with breakfast in bed and a teddy bear - the ring was zipped into the bear's belly!
Who is more sensitive? Me, hands down!
Who has more friends? Not sure, probably me, but I certainly seem to have a need for my friends more than Travis - of course that probably has something to do with me being female...
Who has more siblings? Travis. Actually, hmm - Travis has 3 younger, I have 1 younger - but I also have 3 older half-siblings... Does that mean I have a total of 2 and a half siblings?
Who wears the pants in the family? We're definitely partners BUT, when it comes right down to it and an executive decision needs to be made after plenty of discussion, I honestly think there's more than one pair and they look very different. Travis probably has the important, expensive, CEO slacks on, while I wear the every day jeans... (Funny how that's rather backwards to what we would prefer our personal style to be...)

I tag: Carolyn Hanson, Mindy McLane, Nikki Morton

Fun in the fountains

On Tuesday, our ward playgroup headed for Atwater park on Lake Michigan. Normally when you go lake-side you expect a nice cool breeze and often about 10 degrees cooler than where our house is. No luck. It was just as hot and muggy by the lake as at our house.
After a while, a few of us decided to make the hike down the 7 long steep flights of stairs to the beach, hoping for some cool water. Unfortunately, Michigan Lake and summer often equals an algal bloom and yucky water. Yea for us, it was quite slimy.
Next stop: Bayshore Mall and the fountains for the kids to rinse off in and have some clean water to play in!

It's like a forest of water!

Avery loved getting nailed in the face!
Of course, heavy wet jean shorts on a skinny frame leads to a lot of this:
Carson: not so in love with the water. The first thing I did after seeing he wasn't having any of it was to take him over and hold his legs and butt over the fountain so I could at least get him rinsed off. At least that probably helped keep him cool as he just sat and watched...
Towards the end he did decide to check it out a little closer. Of course, the one he chooses to look at ends up being the solo shot of water at that moment! Yeah, he backed up pretty quickly, but at least he didn't run away freaked or anything...
Here's Avery and Hailey waiting for the spray as little Sadie and her big sis Brooklyn enjoy the spray from their seats...
And when you wait for the spray - this is what happens... why Avery likes to take it in the face I do not know...
I just had to add this picture because I thought it funny how, with something like fountains to play in, only kids would find interest in a grate...
How cute is this? And impressive balance to boot! Sadie loved the water so much that apparently clapping her hands alone wasn't enough to express her joy.
In the end, Nora said it best how she and Carson felt - SO over it...
Thanks for some fun Jenni, Hailey & Nora, and Nikki, Brooklyn, Ty & Sadie!