TTT: Season 3, Episode 17

I always feel silly titling my post with "TTT" when it's not Thursday. It's Sunday. And only for an hour more, at that. And this week, it feel like I just have lots of little tidbits. So let's go with Six Sunday Shorts for a change.

- Recovery from my surgery was way easier than expected. I had the gallbladder removed on a Thursday and wasn't even taking Motrin by the following Wednesday. If one of the kiddos accidentally bumps one of my "boo-boos," it still hurts a bit, but otherwise, nothing. And the scars look great! Not that anyone is going to be seeing my belly any time soon. ;)

- My etsy shop is out of control. I need an employee. For real. Can someone who knows how to sew and happens to have five or six free hours per week just fall out of the sky and land on my porch? Ok, I'll take three or four. Just anything, at this point! When I try to slow it down by not taking orders, I'm swamped with emails asking when the shop will be taking orders again. Let me just say, my shop IS a huge blessing for us. And I LOVE doing it. LOVE it. I've just reached another "time to restructure" point.

- My mom told me that she thinks I'm too hard on myself. Instead of thinking "No, not me," for the first time ever I thought "Ya think!?!" Hi, my name is Laura and I'm a Type A Perfectionist Over-Achiever and somehow in my mind, though it all has to be perfect, I find a way to believe that I'm failing at everything. Just keeping it crazy and irrational, people!

- We are coming up on the two year anniversary of moving in to our house. In some aspects, it still feels like we're not completely moved in. Or that it's not totally ours. I don't see how military families do it...moving every two or so years. Does any place ever feel like home!?! Back on track. Other aspects of our house are definitely feeling their two-years-worth of being lived in. Like the filthy baseboards that haven't be cleaned. In two years. Or the blinds that get dusted with the feather thingy but never really dusted. I feel a major spring cleaning coming on.

- Another part of our house that has really been struggling is the walls. When you have three little boys, they're destined for dirty, dingy, marked-up grossness. After my pricey surgery, doing a full coat of fresh paint like I've been wanting has gone on the back burner. But I did managed to find an old can of the existing wall paint and tackled all the marks I could find. Still not a good wall color, but hey, at least there are no more marks all over the place!

- Kolbe had a "fun run" fundraiser at his school this week and it was the cutest thing ever. While it wasn't set up to be an actual race, Kolbe treated it as if it was the Olympic finals. Oh, is he ever his mother's son. And his father's too! Gotta keep it intense, kiddo. I was proud of him for running so hard and not giving up when all of the other kiddies got tired and stopped running. He's a little speedster!

Cutest little pre-school class ever!

On your mark, get set...

Kolbe killin' it.

Post race cool down...guess who wishes he was in big brother's class??? 

Pa getting Rudy to run laps by dangling his race car as a carrot.

And Puggy up to his usual shenanigans.

I mean, look at the face. Can't you just hear the thoughts in that little head!?!

Time for movie night!

Pinkie bought the boys Wreck It, Ralph for helping out Mama after her surgery. So we had a fun family movie night! (no, Grant didn't last more than two minutes.)

Next weekend is our last soccer game! Kolbe had a stellar week, as usual.

Grant pretended to be a movie star and flirted with Pinkie.

And took flying lessons from Pa!

Cutest little soccer face ever!

Good game, good game, good game...

Kolbe managed to figure this one out. I was changing Grant's diaper and heard, "Hey Mom, look at this." WHAAAAAAAT!?!?!

A cute moment of these two playing peacefully. It seems like it's been rare lately!

TTT: Season 3, Episode 44

1. Tomorrow is the highly procrastinated anticipated open house that I'm selling at. Yay! And that's a "yay" as in "Yay. Glad it's here. Note to self: Don't sign up to do any in-person events ever again unless you're way ahead on everything else." Eek. I know that probably sounds so rude and unprofessional. But I've come to a realization about the whole self-owned business thingy. In-person sales are fantastic for selling items that can easily be made in bulk, items that involve designing and outside production (such making a graphic design and then having ten copies of it printed...only took time to make one!), or items where the seller is a sales rep for a larger company. (jewelry, make-up, etc.) Or, I suppose, handmade businesses that are starting out and don't have an internet presence yet. It's definitely a way of getting business/orders. But the reality of my business right now is that since I've spent several years building the internet side of things, I don't have to do anything to get business. Just sit here and wait for the ding to go off on my phone. And the orders I receive dictate what I make. Whereas with in-person sales, you have to pre-make a bunch of things that may or may not sell. (By the way, let me pause for just a moment. The Christmas shopping season is just around the corner. 'Sell' and 'sale' are two different words. One is a verb and one is a noun. The poor misuse of these two is driving me crazy lately.) Back to what I was saying. I think I've been drawn to the whole in-person handmade market thing because I've seen photos and blog posts of so many and they just look oh-so-pretty and fun. Time to see other handmade products, time to be "all in" with my business, and heck, a break from the kids to spend sipping wine and chatting with other ladies! But I think the idyllic view I had of it all changes a bit when I think of what I've put myself through over the past week to try and squeeze everything in. Sure, I have several baskets of products to sell, a cool new handmade "catalog" for in-person orders to be placed, order forms, pricing sheets, the whole nine yards. But what am I going to do with all of this stuff after tomorrow!?! If the products don't sell, I'll essentially have to sit on them until I receive an order for each color/design online. And create individual online listings for the custom blankets I made. The other stuff? Who knows. I suppose it will sit in a bin in my sewing world until I agree to do another one of these someday. Please, don't listen to me ramble on and on about this. I'm obviously exhausted from staying up until at least midnight every night this week. Who knows...I'll probably come back next week raving about how well it went, how much fun I had, and how I can't wait to do it again. It's the lack of sleep talking here!

2. Among the personal madness mentioned above, my gig as mom has continued on as normal. Yes, the boys do know that I sew during nap time and sometimes after bed, but I'm pretty sure they're totally unaware of some of the insanity I put myself through. Anyhow, we had a blast doing Halloween festivities yesterday and carving pumpkins on Monday. Rudy, especially, is a huge fan of Halloween. Several of my parent's neighbors go all out with decorating their houses and giving out all kinds of gifts and goodies so we headed over there early last night. While living there for a few months when we first moved down, we became friends with many of their neighbors too so it's nice to meet up with everyone again. Then we headed back to our own street and had fun visiting with all of our current neighbors. Mark, unfortunately, got stuck in a long surgery and didn't make it home until all of the trick-or-treating was over but he still got to see the boys in their suits and help them rifle through all their goodies. The excitement was so high that they were very late to bed last night and then up early this morning so we could go to mass for All Saints Day. The older two and I had deep discussions about how the saints became saints and Kolbe informed me that he didn't know if he'd ever be able to be one because he didn't know if he could be that good all the time. Ha! While it's certainly my utmost goal to raise little saints, I appreciate his honesty! And, of course, I told him that many of the saints were the biggest sinners before they dedicated their lives to serving Christ. His response was, "Ok, well I'll try." That's my Kolb.

3. As I mentioned earlier, my brother Pat has been here off and on for the past few weeks. It has been great to spend some quality time with him! The boys love Uncle P. Unfortunately, my grandmother and aunt didn't get to come because of the hurricane, but hopefully they'll be able to reschedule soon. Despite the crazy busyness, I love this time of the year most especially for the time with family. (certainly not for the Houston weather) Next week we have tons of "events" surrounding Kolbe's birthday, the end of the soccer season, etc, but it won't be long until we are headed to Lubbock to celebrate Thanksgiving. We haven't been to Lubbock since last Christmas. It has been way too long and we can't wait! ...Maybe it won't be in the 80s when we get there...

Mama and her super heroes!

Kolbe's new favorite quiet time activity: scavenger hunt. He has to read the word and go find the object somewhere in the game room all by himself.

Carving pumpkins!

This is how our Halloween morning started. Someone found a mud puddle. It's hard to see in the picture, but knees to toes were completely submerged. 

Uncle P teaching Grant how to play with Power Rangers!

TTT: Season 3, Episode 40

1. It's late, I'm tired, and I'm sick, so I'll (try to) be brief. It has been a bit of a long week around here as we've all drudged through our first cold in a long time. No, unfortunately I speak not of cold weather but more of the sore throat, watery eyes, congested head, runny nose variety. And for the little ones, fevers too. Oddly enough, Mark and I were the first to pick it up. Usually it's the other way around with the kiddies getting it first. And honestly, I really haven't been sick in a long time. Like maybe before I was pregnant with Grant??? At least not that I can remember. (Oh, the benefits of pregnancy/nursing mom immunities!) But it has been long days of fussy babes, long nights of restless sleepers, and quite a bit of Motrin and Tylenol. We are actually expecting our first good cold front this weekend so hopefully by the time it arrives, we'll be feeling well enough to go out and enjoy the cool weather! (and by cold front, I mean the high on Sunday of 70. Not 50 or 40.)

2. My hair saga continues. As I mentioned last week, I was relatively happy with my Locks of Love chop but wasn't totally sold on the all-one-length 'do the stylist gave me. I mean, really, it was all one length. No shape or style to it whatsoever. I tried tapering the front around my face just a tad on my own but realized I was going to need a lot more than just that to make it look like an intentional hairdo. So I went to the salon again. I rarely go to the salon twice in a year, let alone twice in one month. But as a stay-at-home, newly thirty mom of three, I've just been feeling a little ugh about my appearance lately and just wanted a little something to help me put my best face forward. Unfortunately, I got anything but that. I even took pictures with me of a cute cut I had in college. Specifically told her that I just wanted some shape to the sides and around my face but no length take off. Even told her how much I loathed super stacked hair cuts where the back is way shorter than the front. And what did I walk out of the salon with? The exact thing I asked her not to do. I was a little worried as I watched seemingly long pieces of hair fall to the ground, but when she pulled out the blow dryer after about ten minutes of cutting, I gave a little sigh of relief assuming that a cut that quick couldn't have been much. But then after drying it she kept going. And going. And going. And going. I think she could tell I was not a happy customer; she gave me a free styling brush and a discount on my cut without any prompting. Let me pause for just a moment. You're probably picturing me with a spiked out Kate Gosselin looking mess. It's really not that bad. In fact, the front looks okay. It's just the back that I hate. It's short. Really short. Like I walked in there with a pony tail and I won't be wearing a ponytail until at least next summer now. Yes, it's just hair and I'll make the most of it. But making the most of it is going to require lots of work and styling every single day to make it look good on me. Not to mention a truck load of styling supplies. And actually, I think I've had it shorter at previous times, it's just not what I was hoping for so I'm bummed. Mark swears it looks cute and that he's not just saying that to cheer me up. Sweet, but I still don't like it. And no, I don't have a picture to show. Lord knows with our colds I've yet to style it anywhere near picture worthy in the past few days. Now if you would all pull out your violins and play me a sad, sad song, I'd appreciate it. Whaaaah.

3. I feel like I'm in a calm before the storm with my shop right now. Why? I've signed on to participate in my first ever open house/ handmade market/ boutique/ whatever-you-want-to-call-it. It's not until the 2nd of November so I've still got a month to go but there's one major problem: In order to succeed at one of these functions, you have to actually have a product to sell! With my etsy shop, all of my sales are made to order. So even though I already have the fabric, I don't produce the item until after it has been ordered. My work time each day is essentially just keeping up with all of the incoming orders online. With throwing this open house into the mix, I'm going to somehow have to squeeze in quite a few products so that I'll have something to sell at the event. Really, I'm not sure why I bring this upon myself. Not to sound smug, but I'm certainly not struggling to get business. I guess I've always just wanted to try out something other than online sales and get the experience of actually getting to interact with my customers. Plus, two of my local girlfriends are doing it with me so it should be a lot of fun. Just might not be fun over the next few weeks trying to build up a little inventory!

Despite our warm temps, it was time to break out some of the fall decorations. Now if only we could make some decisions on Halloween costumes....

My brother, Andy, his wife Abby, and their two boys, John and Will came to town this weekend and we had a blast getting to visit with them. We watched the Tech game at my parents' on Saturday night and Pa just had to squeeze in a five baby wrestle-mania! 

Abby's mom, Miss Mary, is the wonderful creator of Grant's beloved "Blankie Blue." The only problem with Blankie Blue is that he's huge. So when Grant carries it around, the majority of it drags on the floor. Plus, it's size makes it difficult to take along from place to place but perfect for cuddles at night. When Abby arrived this past weekend, she delivered a new mini Blankie Blue from Miss Mary. Grant (and Mama!) were thrilled! Can't you tell?

Uncle Mark found someone willing to lend his baby legs for a drum solo. Poor Will! At least everyone else was entertained by it! 

Kolbe and Rudy scored scrub caps and masks in the dollar bin at Joann Fabrics the other day so they could be just  like Dada.

Grant has started trying to steal the iphone. Trouble!

This fella has always been a "witching hour" baby...enjoying a good meltdown almost nightly from roughly 5-6:30. The best way to end a meltdown? A nice bubble bath always does the trick.

TTT: Season 3, Episode 32

1. We had our first bout with summer sickness this week. Everybody gets a little sick at least once each summer, right? Like a little summer cold. No? Well for us it was a fun little baby virus called Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease. It typically only afflicts littles aged six months to four years, and wouldn't you know it, all three of mine fit in to that category and all three picked it up. Grant was the first and the worst. You know this fella is sick when he actually sits with me and lets me cuddle him. When he's well, our cuddles last no more than five seconds. He woke on Friday morning with an obvious fever and nothing more. Poor guy, you could just tell he couldn't get comfortable. I went ahead and got him a doctor's appointment since it was Friday and I didn't want to get stuck on the weekend with an ER trip if things got worse. And sure enough, by the time we went to his appointment, he had a noticeable rash all over his feet, legs, hands, and even a little around his neck. The doctor swabbed him for strep but when it came back negative and his ears also looked fine, he checked his throat (which wasn't hard at all as Grant was wailing in sheer terror over the fact that I laid him down on the exam table) and he confirmed that is throat looked just like the rash he had elsewhere. By Saturday Reagan was also running a fever, though no rash. The two of them were finally cleared up by Monday and I assumed that Kolbe had dodged the bullet. But on Tuesday he too had a fever that just lasted one day. Now we are all finally cleared and healthy. And after a week and a half absence, we made it to the pool today! Call me selfish, but a summer illness that mama doesn't have to worry about getting isn't too bad after all!

2. As I've mentioned many times before, my shop has taken off this year in a way that I never could have anticipated. And due to it's growing success, it has really left me with very limited time to do projects for our home. We moved in last May, just weeks before Grant was born, and over the past fourteen months, I've spent the majority of my time caring for a new baby, taming wild animals raising two young boys, and managing my growing shop. Needless to say, though I look around my home day after day thinking of all the things I'd like to do to improve it's 'homey-ness," nearly all of it has gone un-done. Partially due to money, but largely due to time. (Not every home improvement project has to break the bank!) In fact, several of the projects I've been planning have already been bought and paid for...just remain incomplete in the form of cans of paint, piles of fabric, etc. I've already picked the colors, bought the supplies, and yet it sits undone as I certainly can't do it while the kids are awake and free time during the day is all spent filling orders from my shop. So I've decided that it's time for a little break. My little helper, Angelina, will be going back to school in two more weeks, so I'm going to utilize her help for the time being and then shut down shop for a week to tackle some projects. Hopefully by next week I'll have a clear outline of all I want to conquer, but for now, I'm just looking forward to actually doing some of the projects I've had planned for quite some time.

3. A few more days and the summer Olympics will be over. And, thankfully, I'll be able to return to my normal bed time! One of my favorite things that I've loved noticing in our boys as they've watched the games is their observations of the athletes. While they do take note of certain features such as long hair, baldness, tattoos, etc, they have yet to ever point out the color of someone's skin as his/her outstanding feature. For example, Rudy tells me the other night, "Hey Mama, that guy with the brown head is real bald." (referring to Usain Bolt...so obviously he's aware that Bolt is Black, but finds his baldness more notable.) And then from Kolbe: "She has a long pony tail like yours." (referring to Allyson Felix) My parents raised me well. They raised me to never ever even notice or consider a difference is a person based on their skin color. We lived in Germany, San Antonio, TX, Columbus, MS...plenty of places where we were exposed to people of different races. None, of course, can quite compare with our time in Mississippi. I remember walking in to a Burger King on our very first trip from Lubbock to Columbus and suddenly becoming very aware that the people in my family of seven were the only white people in the entire building. I told my mom "Mom, we're the only white people in here." And she replied with, "That's okay. That's just how it is in Mississippi." And that's just how it was. I quickly learned that not everyone was raised the way I was. In fact, most weren't. They were raised from very early on to notice a difference. To assume a difference in color meant a difference in quality. Lord, I am so thankful that I was raised to know better. To know more. To respect life in all shapes, sizes, stages, and shades. To know that people are people and my opinion of them should be based on their actions and words alone. And oh, I pray that my babies will feel the same way. So far, it makes me so happy to see that they quickly point out the fact that someone's accent sounds funny instead of the fact that his eyes aren't shaped the same as theirs. I'm certain that in time they will be exposed to opinions from others that don't matter, but I just hope that we will have raised them well enough to recognize the ones that do.

Snuggling with my sick guy...at least he still knows what "Say cheese!" means.

We had a nice rain shower on Sunday afternoon and once the thunder and lightening passed, we took the opportunity to play in the summer rain. The boys had a blast!

My handsome crew

Does this say 'summer fun' or what!?! Grant loved making mud pies!

Listening to thunder on the front porch...I can't believe my baby is almost five.

Even Grant has gotten in to the Olympics!

Working on their synchronized diving routine

My future Michael Phelps!

Kolbe, my little artist, loves working on pictures during his daily quiet time. After finishing a picture this week, he showed me where he had written "Pa" at the time, as Pa (my dad) was to be the lucky recipient. I told him we could hold on to it until the next time we saw Pa but he told me that he wanted to mail it to him instead. Thus begain our first lesson in envelope addressing. He was so proud of his first piece of out-going mail! I think I better stop by the post office and pick up some more stamps...he's ready to send Kolbe-grams to everyone!

TTT: Season 3, Episode 30

1. I've long professed my love of Pinterest, the internet "pinboard" that many have become hooked on. I started pinning right around the time that Grant was born and it kept me awake through many, many late nights of nursing. And yes, I'll admit that there are quite a few Pinterest inspired home decor items in our home. Hey, moving in to a new house just shortly before joining Pinterest was just too perfect of a match! But I'm definitely guilty of the long running Pinterest joke summing up to pinning hundreds of things that you never actually do. There's tons of fantastic ideas, just not always the time and funds to make them happen. That being said, I've been trying to go back through and do some of the fun summer related ones that I knew the boys would love back when I pinned them. This past week I had to run to Home Depot for an air filter and while we were there we picked up a large, plastic painter's tarp. The next morning, we folded it in half and taped up the three open sides, filled the whole thing with water and then had a blast on our massive backyard water bed. It kept the big boys entertained for a full two hours, and really, the fun only ended because the water bed got too hot to touch!

2. I mentioned last week that my helper, Angelina, started helping me out last week. She has been coming over for a couple of hours on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and man, have I ever been grateful for her help! I've been keeping her busy with cutting fabric, a task I had gotten used to doing several times a week at night after Mark and the kids were in bed. She's also been able to help out with editing pictures for me and has been learning the fine art of creating baby linens. Bless her heart, she's done really well with keeping up with my "scattered-ness." I try to have my act together when she shows up, but it doesn't always happen that day. For example, today, right as she was walking in, Rudy went streaking across the room in all his naked glory! He had snuck out of his room where he was supposed to be napping to go to the bathroom and was apparently not able to his skivvies back on. But I've really enjoyed getting to know Angelina so far and am loving that I finally have some scheduled help with my shop!

3. Can we all just pause for a moment in recognition of the fact that the opening ceremonies for the Summer Olympics is tomorrow!?! yay, YaY, YAAAY! I know I'm really a dork when it comes to this, but I love the Olympics. I prefer summer, but the winter ones are good too. It's all just so fun to me...the competition, the pageantry, the emotion...all of it. Plus, the back stories just add to the drama of it all. It's kind of like an awesome reality TV series that's on every day and night for two straight weeks. And I think all of us at one time or another dream/wish/imagine what it would be like to be completely all-in 100% dedicated to something to point of being the best in the world. (I mean, if being a mom was an Olympic event, I'd at least want to give it a shot. Ha!) But anyhow, I'm going to give the boys a week or so of putting up with my obsession so they can see what it's really about and then I'm planning to have our own little kiddie Olympics. While checking out at Joann a few weeks ago, I spotted play Olympic medals in the dollar bin and knew we just had to have our own version of the games. Can't wait!

Playing on the water bed

I tried to stick a beach umbrella out in the yard to provide a little shade but it still got pretty hot!

My boys have their dad's skin. All three of them! Lucky boys! Sun screen or not, they never burn. Just get darker. Not me. Jealous. So now they all have adorable little white fannies.

Aaaaaand the fourth picture in a row that my kids aren't fully clothed! Hey, it's summer time! Just enjoying a little lunch after getting home from the pool.

My boys. I love this picture. Love. 'Cause this is just exactly how they are. Hanging with Dad on an early weekend morning, this is how I imagine them in my mind.

TTT: Season 3, Episode 24

1. It's been a pretty long day here at the Asmussen Ranch. It's safe to say that we've come down with our first (and hopefully only!) summer cold. Coughs, runny noses, watery eyes...just a whole bunch of the plain-ol'-don't-feel-goods. Kolbe and Rudy try to soldier on as if nothing is wrong, but Rudy has nearly no voice left and Kolbe voluntarily got in his bed during quiet time...he said to read books...and ended up taking a full nap. When Kolbe naps, you know he doesn't feel right! But Grant has definitely been the worse. Poor fella. His little nose is like a faucet. And he rubs his eyes constantly because they're watery. And on top of that, he's got two little red spots on his bottom gums. Possibly time for a few more teeth. Hopefully this all blows over pretty quickly, because we've got a lot going on in the next two weeks! Vacation Bible School next week, then the birthday weekend extravaganza (Mark's mom, dad, brother and sister-in-law are all coming to town to celebrate Grant's first, my thirtieth, and Mark's dad's sixtieth!), and then a week with G-ma. Can't be sick for any of that!

2. So last week I went on a rant about Mark working long hours and just feeling totally spent with taking care of the kiddos. Luckily, we had a fantastic weekend and Mark was able to take the boys several times and give me a break. So I got to start the week with my batteries recharged. And reading back through my rant, I realized that I probably sounded a bit cuckoo. Because the truth is, I've got it good compared to most people. And so does Mark. Mark finally has a job that he's enjoying, co-workers who treat him really well, and a lot of room to grow and learn with what he's doing. Not to mention the fact that the dreaded pager is a thing of the past and he's on-call way less frequently than before. And hello! I'm getting to live out my dream job in a great house with great children. My husband works hard for us so we can have all of the things we need and many of the things we just want. Life is good. So good. I've got a blessed life and have absolutely no room to complain. So I won't. That is, until the next time I feel totally overwhelmed. (but I'll try not to!)

3. Last week I also mentioned needing to take some sort of action with my little shop. I don't even know why I call it a little shop any more. Being honest, it's not little. Not little when it comes to just one person running it. It went from "steady business" meaning six to ten orders a week to "steady business" meaning six to ten orders a day. And though I try, I feel like I've reached the point where it's just too hard for me to keep up with it without sacrificing time or the quality of the time I have with the boys. I've never wanted my shop to become one of those shops where it takes multiple weeks for orders to ship. I've been running on a seven day production time for months now and that's the longest I want to go. But it's reached the point where I'm intentionally not renewing listings because I know I can't take any more orders for the day. And I always wake up the next morning to several "convos" (as they're called on etsy) saying "I'm trying to order two changing pad covers from you and it says they're unavailable. Are you still making them?" Responding with "Yes, but I purposely didn't re-list because I knew I wouldn't be able to get your order done within the next seven days" seems crazy. So anyway, I'm sure you get the jest of what I'm getting at. I've reached the point where I either decide to keep struggling along, find a way to cut the business off/ slow it down, or find someone to help me with it. And I've decided to go with the last option. I'm shutting the shop down for a week while Mark's family is in town, but when I open back up I'm planning to have a new helper in place. I've got to work on creating a job responsibility list and finding someone to fill the spot. I'm hoping to find a high school-age girl who can come by a few times a week for a few hours at a time to help with cutting fabric, folding, tagging, and packaging orders, printing shipping, and keeping up with the inventory. We'll see how it goes. Hopefully I'll be looking back and saying it's the best move I ever made for my not-so-little shop.

I'm sure you've all heard the saying that when you have kids and it suddenly gets quiet, something bad is probably going on. Kolbe has finally reached the point where that's not always the case. He often disappears now and can be found coloring or writing all on his own. He's turning in to a real boy. Bittersweet.

We had a whopper of a storm the other day. I was on my way to my parent's house and as I left the sky was dark so I checked the weather ap on my phone and it said we only had a 30% chance of rain. But by the time we got to my parent's it was full-on chaos. I was supposed to be in that turning lane above. Not so much. So many trees fell in The Woodlands. They were everywhere!

Last Friday I was working on some laundry and asked Kolbe if he'd fold and stack all the wash rags while I got Grant down for his nap. Twenty minutes later I went down to my bathroom and found this. How awesome is my kid!?! He said the stack kept falling over so he just laid it sideways. Ha! Usually I just fold them in half once and then in half again...he opted for the three fold process, making them look like tiny spa towels, and I simply couldn't bring myself to change them. They went in to the drawer just like that. He was so proud. And so was I.

My precious little baby and me! (I'm going to keep calling him that as long as possible, because it's definitely fading away way too quickly)

Peekaboo, Grant!

Two brothers sliding at the mall playground (that's probably where we picked up the cold!)

The Woodlands has thirteen different pools and we're on a mission to hit them all by the end of the season. This one was a lot of fun! This entire play structure area is only a foot and a half deep so it's super easy to let the boys go wild without having to worry too much about them.

Kolbe during his voluntary nap...they're all about the swimming and now all about the goggles! I walked in and found him just like this.

Trying out their new goggles in the bath tub!