I promise to update when things slow down....

well...

We are back!

You probably didn't know, but we left about two weeks ago to find a house in NE. We didn't want to take the boys with us because we figured they would be completely bored looking at a million houses, so we left them with my sisters. It worked out great since they had older cousins around to help and entertain them.

Andrew learned to swim....
They went to the library...
Went to a SplashPad.... And even celebrated Andrew's birthday a few days early.
Andrew was SO excited when he saw his cake. What can I say? The boy is obsessed with the ocean! After we sang, we asked if we could cut it up to eat and he asked that we wait a bit so he could just look at it. :)

The boys had a blast in Shreveport and keep asking when they can go back. I will forever owe my sisters for watching the boys. It was nice to not have to worry about them....obviously I had other things on my mind!

We did find a house! It has everything we wanted and with a little paint it will be a great place to call home! I'm anxious to get up there and get started! Not sure of our exact move date yet.

This trip made us realize how truly blessed we are...to have my sisters keep the boys, finding a house that had everything we wanted/needed, and a baby that was so easy going while we hunted for a house.

Claire did awesome on the trip. We stayed with some friends in NE and they couldn't get over what a happy baby she is/was. Her naps were definitely hit and miss on the trip, but she was a trooper. I'm so thankfully because I don't think I could have handled that on top of the house hunting stress!

Claire started saying "ma ma" before we left. Matt didn't believe me, but she proved him wrong. The boys think it's so neat that she's "talking" to them.
She's also started "crawling" today! She has a little hop to her crawl. It's quite funny. The boys have no idea what's about to hit them!!!
We got home Friday evening and Claire has done nothing but sleep since we've been back. I'm thinking she's just catching up...hopefully she's not getting sick.

This is how I found her at nap yesterday.
Crazy girl!! I could NEVER fall asleep like that!!

june...

I can't believe June is almost over. When we agreed to this move I figured we'd have at least 3 months left to veg in Houston, but there has been no vegging!!!

Here's what we've been up to....

The boys decided to have a tea party with Claire's tea pot. I wish I could say this was stagged, but it's not! :) I will be holding this one over their heads one day...

We went to the lake and rented a boat with some friends. I didn't get many pictures.
Blakers was exhausted. Something about boats...he goes right to sleep on them!

Then we went to Sam Rayburn Lake for a week with my family. Clearly Matthew is a bad influence on my children! :) The boys enjoyed all the attention from their cousins.

Claire has turned 7 months!

She's learned to clap...

and do "so big"....


and can even get to a sitting position from laying on the floor! She's growing too fast. No crawling yet. She just pushes herself backwards or rolls.

I haven't even started on her one year album or finished my pregnancy album for her. I usually do all that when they turn 6 months, but life has been crazy with the move, that I haven't had time to start. I didn't even take her in for her 6 month pictures! gah! I'm slacking! Hopefully July will slow down for us so I can start scrapping again.

Well, I'm off to get bed. I hope to get some peaceful sleep like this...

claire's latest tricks

Here are a few of Claire's tricks she can do....

She's getting better at sitting up.She's done this trick a few times and I finally caught her on tape. You'll have to excuse my annoying voice!

And lastely, I'm not sure if this is a trick, but this girl is CONSTANTLY falling asleep with her foot sticking out of bed! You'd think I didn't have bumper pad on or something!

what do you do...

when it's 3 PM and a million degrees outside???We take silly pictures of the kids! Or of Claire trying to attack Andrew's goldfish.
Easy entertainment...for everyone!!

little update...

I have so much to update on that I'm a little overwhelmed!!

First, Blake turned 3!!

He thinks he is such a big boy now! We just did a family party that night, but will have a party with friends in a week. He and Andrew are going to have a party together.

Andrew graduated from PreK!!

He's SO excited to be starting Kindergarten next year!!
This was our first year at this school and we loved it! We had a great group of parents and kids. And the teachers were AWESOME! We are sure going to miss it.

Claire is growing like a weed.

She is 6 1/2 months now. I took her to the Dr. yesterday for her well visit and she's in the 68% for weight and 94% for height! She has her two bottom teeth in and I think she might be cutting another. She's such an easy baby too! ALMOST makes me want another! However, I think 3 is enough!

In other news...we are moving to Nebraska! Everyone keeps asking how I feel and I think it's all happening so fast that I haven't had time to really think about it. Matt is working with the same company and will start up there early August! It will definitely be a big change for us, but I'm excited to see what God has in store for our family. We will really miss our sweet friends here.

campin, eatin, playin

Matt took the boys camping last weekend. They got dirty and had a blast!

Uncle Josh and cousin Jack even came down for a night!!

They had a playground and the boys really enjoyed the slide.

And, here's where they all slept. I must say that while I did miss them, I SURE did enjoy my time at home with Claire!! I've always thought she was an easy baby, but it wasn't until then that I really got to enjoy it! She's so content and easy going. And it's crazy how much time I had with just one kid!! Needless to say, I'll be pushing for them to go camping every year! :)

On another note....
Claire started solids this week!! She started with peas....

and she liked them!!!
Girl went to town on those peas. She's not six months yet, but my doc said if she seemed ready I could start her early...and the girl was ready!!

And here's just a cute pic of the boys I took one evening. I think this was right before they started fighting on who could sit on the top!
However, Mommy won that battle because we don't sit on the top!!

kids

I love when the boys play outside because it's easy entertainment for Claire. She loves to sit and watch her brothers. Won't be long and she'll be out there romping around with them.

We registered this little guy for Kindergarten.
I can't believe it. Seems like the thing to do here is homeschool, but that's just not for me! He's very excited and thinks he's riding the bus. Not sure if that will happen tho.

Claire turned 5 months this week.
She is such a sweet baby. I have been blessed with 3 easy babies...of course when they turn 2 they usually make up for it.
She loves her brothers and thinks they are pretty funny.This kid is just a mess!
Tonight Claire had a HUGE messy diaper. I got her all nice and clean, but wanted to dip her in the tub. Blake was in the tub by himself and I asked him if I could put Claire's tub in with him and clean her off. He told me to take her to my tub. I explained to him that I couldn't do that because if something happened to him I wouldn't hear him. He said he didn't want Claire to smoosh him so I just gave her a bath in the kitchen sink. How do people do that? She was slippin' and sliding all over the place!
Well, that's it from here!

where to begin...

I'm officially a soccer mom!

Andrew started playing Upward soccer a few weeks ago. So far he's enjoyed it. The season is only 8 weeks long. We've had one game and they did really well. We'll see if he wants to play next season.

We got the kiddos a fish tank.

They have been wanting one for EVER! We went to Pet Smart to look at the animals and came home with this. Not sure if you can see them, but we got 5 fish.

And Miss Claire is trying to grow up way too fast on me. This is her latest trick...

I'm pretty sure she's doing some sort of Yoga move. :)

Well, that's the latest!