Here are some shots from our 4th of July. It was insanely hot, but I don't need to tell you that! Pretty sure it was 100 degrees wherever you were too! We went to the Urbandale parade that morning. These summer parades are fun for the little kids. Big trucks and lots of candy. But I have to say, since neither of us were raised in Iowa, it seems kind of strange to see all the families and older couples there without young kids. It would be a little boring! But what do we know? We don't understand May Baskets or telling jokes on Halloween either :) We found a shady spot to park the chairs, brought lots of water to drink and a spray bottle to mist down to stay cool, so we didn't completely melt.
Later that day we went to Nana and Pop's to hang out with the cousins. We hadn't planned on them playing in the sprinkler (not sure why not, considering the temerature...) but thankfully Nana keeps enough bathing suits there for all of them!! Caleb (who's 7) changed first and put on a 2T. Dawson's wearing a 3T. :) You would never know these kids were related!
It's always strange when there are new babies in the family and these two can't be called the babies anymore:
And there's nothing "baby" at all about these kids anymore! No more chubby cheeks and bellies. Just long limbs:
They had lots of fun with sparklers before Dawson grabbed the wrong end and got a big burnt blister on his hand even though Jon told him several times what part not to touch. Poor thing. (And can I just say, I have no clue how to photograph in low light. The camera wouldn't focus on their glowing faces so I was getting many good shots. I will take a photography class some day! Some day...)
We went home late and watched a great fireworks show from our back deck over Camp Dodge (our neighborhood is across the street from a military base).
We kept the festivities going with a pool day on Friday. Channing took his first dip in the pool. I didn't take many pictures because I was too busy swimming! Man, it felt good to be in the water. I don't know about you, but most of the time I don't actually swim. The water's too cold and I don't really want to get my hair wet because then I look crazy the rest of the day. (I know...the ridiculous things girls think about). But that day it was just too hot to worry about that and it was so fun. We swam for hours.
Bennett's officially a swimmer. Amazing, how just a few weeks ago at my mom's, he'd panic in the deep end but now he's completely confident. I finally got his flip (not quite a full but not bad for a barely 5 yr old!!) on video:
Dawson loves jumping in too and is just as brave as Bennett in the water:
Channing turned four months old this week. He is a chunky little thing and rocks his double chin. He is still the sweetest baby on this earth and I smooch him all day long. So does Bennett. This month he learned to blow raspberries, giggle, fake cough, roll over, took his firsttwo road trips and went to the nursery for the first time! Big stuff. He still eats 5 times a day and takes 4 naps in his bassinet. He sleeps on his belly with his right thumb in his mouth and his left hand on the back of his head. I need to get a pic of that. It's the cutest thing ever. I have to wake him up every morning, usually between 9:30 and 10. I know. Ridiculous. (Ridiculously awesome. If you have less than 3 kids, don't be jealous. I earned that. If you have 3 kids and they all wake up at 6am, I'm so incredibly sorry for you.)
I love this outfit in his four month picture. Its a hand-me-down from my good friend, Manda, who's son Eli is now 9 years old! Boys clothes are great like that--they never go out of style.
Bennett wore it to his first trip to the beach! 10/4/07:
Can you tell he just ate, by his bulging belly? :)
Baby cleavage always makes me smile:
For the grandmas--his second time ever rolling over and his fake coughing:
Six days after we got back from Memphis, we loaded up again and headed to Oklahoma City. I just repacked the suitcase that was still laying on my bedroom floor, half unpacked. It is quite a feat to pack for four people. I make multiple lists and check and recheck. This was the summer regional meeting for all the Edward Jones agents and their families in the Wichita area. And since that is one of Jon's sales regions, he was chosen to come and speak during the weekend to represent his company. The seven hour drive felt much shorter than the 10 hours to Memphis, but Dawson and Channing didn't do so hot. Channing only slept for about 20 minutes each naptime, and as usual, Dawson never naps in the car, so going into the weekend, he was already tired. It was fun to be a part of the weekend since our meals and hotel were provided, but to all be in one hotel room for four nights put the fear of God in me. I think we've only stayed in a standard hotel room with kids twice since Bennett was born and that was for one night each. Not my cup of tea. They stay up super late, wake up earlier than usual, not to mention, having to be super quiet at night and during naptime when they are sleeping. I knew this would be a stressful situation so I was determined to have a good attitude and not complain about it. I think I did very well, all things considered! Thankfully we have a crib tent for Dawson that goes over the pack-play, and we just cover it with blankets and he has his own little cave to sleep in, so he can't see us. He and Bennett were still up until around 10pm every night and woke up at 7:30 or 8 every morning. He got a normal nap on Thursday (while Bennett and I hung out in the hallway of the hotel with the baby monitor for two hours because I knew he wouldn't be quiet enough in the room) and about a 20 minute nap on Saturday. This was tough for him since he usually sleeps 12 hours at night and takes a 2 hour nap almost every day. He's very affected by lack of sleep so we pretty much just expected the worst from him. I suppose when you expect the worst, anything short of that is tolerable!
Friday we got to go to an amusement park with the group. Super hot but super fun. I cannot wait until Bennett's tall enough to ride real roller coasters with me! For now we just do the wildest rides that he is tall enough for. He loves them, just like his mama. We put Dawson's bravery to the test on the Tilt-a-Whirl, and as you can see from the next couple of pictures, he hated it. I felt horrible. The poor kid was completely freaked out and was literally trying to climb out of that thing while it was spinning! Major mom fail.
Much later in the day, we found the kids area of the park and figured Dawson would do OK on the kiddie coaster. There wasn't anyone else in line so they all just stayed on and rode it four times in a row. Dawson was hilarious to watch. You can see in the pictures, he has the fiercest look of determination on his face. He was like that the whole ride--just dead serious. He wanted to get off after the first two rounds but got back on for the fourth. And look at the kid in front of them in all the pictures. He cracks me up! I wish I knew who his mom was so I could send these pictures to her.
Since we didn't have to pay to get in, Jon was feeling generous and bought them cotton candy. Bennett was in heaven:
I caught this moment in our hotel room. I actually didn't even pose them that way! It was one of those moments that just made my heart swell. I'm so proud to be the mother of these three gorgeous boys that God has blessed us with:
On Saturday everyone had a free afternoon so we decided to go to the zoo. If we ever have the chance to visit a new zoo, we jump on it. We all just love it. Again, it was super hot out but still worth it. A lot of the exhibits were built around these small air conditioned buildings (like spokes around a wheel and we were in the center) so there were a lot of breaks from the heat.
And as far as zoo experiences go, this was a great one for seeing animals up close and active. Dawson checking out "King Kong" with his own little Kong:
This next one isn't a great picture but I wanted to post one on here--this baby chimp was missing one of it's arms below the elbow! The poor little thing was fascinating to watch. It was sad to watch him struggling to climb from one thing to another, taking lots of tumbles, but he sure was determined. I'm glad he's not on his own in the wild:
Nobody wants their picture taken right now. But isn't that our prerogative as the mom?? Sorry honey...just appease me. You all looked so darn cute:
These tiger cubs were the highlight of the day. They were going at it, wrestling with each other! It was awesome. We stood there and watched them for a long time:
Sorry, the video is terribly out of focus but it was hilarious to hear all the boys cheering them on like they were watching a WWF wrestling match:
All in all, it was a fun trip. Bennett learned how to do a front flip into the pool! Seriously...totally shocked me when he did it. I need to get a video of it. And he swam across the full length of the pool (it was a small one). I'm so proud of him! They had childcare during some of the meetings and we got to get dressed up for an adults only dinner one night. I was freaked out trying to pack since I had no clue what anyone else would be wearing and "dinner dress" just isn't very specific! Talk about unnerving for a girl. Jon did awesome during his talks and has gotten lots of calls from that region since so I know people liked him! (Duh.) It was well worth the lack of sleep, although, we're still paying for it, big time. Dawson has been a wreck still, all week :( Thankfully Judie has them tomorrow so I can finally get that suitcase off our bedroom floor!!
Since Jon can't take a ton of time off of work, we planned a trip down to Memphis coinciding with a trip to Des Moines my parents were planning. Jon drove us down there and left for work in Kansas. The boys and I stayed for four days and then rode back up with my parents to Des Moines. This was our fourth time in Memphis since my parents moved there last year but our first time to get to swim in their pool! It was so relaxing and easy on me since Dawson and Channing could still get good naps inside and we could have fun outside. Man, I wish we could enjoy this setup on a much more regular basis. :(
Their backyard is gorgeous so I was having fun with my camera, snapping pics of what was in bloom:
Give this boy some animals and something to build a tower with and he's a happy camper (as long as his big brother's not around. Why is that?? He's seriously a different child when Bennett's not there). Hippo's on the King Kong tower:
Channing's loving the Bumbo now!
Dinner on their patio:
Lots and LOTS of jumping:
And of course, the highlight for the boys: when Grandad gets in!
We had one really rainy day there. We were sitting out under the covered patio next to the pool sipping coffee (my mom) and tea (me) in the late morning. My mom said at one point, "this is the life". It was just so calm and peaceful. My three precious boys around me; nowhere to be, nothing to do but still having fun. She was right.
Banana bread and basketball in the nude. No big deal:
He caught his first firefly. "I always wanted to catch a firefly and my dream came true!" He was so proud:
This was right before we found a giant (silver dollar sized) spider under the diving board. My mom tried to kill it with a shovel. Turns out it was so huge because there were five MILLION babies riding on her back which proceeded to scatter in all directions like some kind of plague. The sight scarred me for life and gave me nightmares. Literally. Another reason to add to my "be thankful you live in Iowa" list.
This trip was Channing's first road trip. He only slept for 20 or 30 minutes at a time in the car which was not fun but he did ok despite the lack of sleep. I just nursed him a little more often than usual. He also went to the nursery for the first time ever during their Wednesday night church. Bennett learned how to do a forward somersault in the water without getting water up his nose! I remember how hard that used to be. He also improved on his deep water swimming without any floaties. Dawson is just as brave and was jumping off the diving board on his own and really figuring out how to get himself across the pool. I hope we can get down there again this summer! Its a heckuva lot of work to pack and prepare and drive there with these three little boys but afterwards, you never really think about all of that. You just think about the fun you had while you were there.
