Lake Kemp 2011

At the end of July we spent a week at the lake Meme, G-dad, and the whole fam. This was our 4th year to have "lake week" and it is always a lot of fun. For me this year was hard because I was 8 months pregnant at the time and couldn't do too much. But it is fun to see everyone and watch all the little guys play. Kade got to go on his first (well I guess not really first, but first where he knew what was going on) jet ski ride. He kept calling it a motorcycle. And he LOVED it! He would say, "Ready, set, GOOOO!" and Bryan would make them go "super fast!" I was a little nervous at first, but Bryan was really careful with him and they really didn't go too fast. I am just jealous that I would go ride with him and here him laugh! He also went on his first ride on the tube with Bryan. Meme bought him his first fishing pole and he loved sitting with Braxton and fishing! It was so cute! I am sure we will have many more years at the lake with tons of memories!!

 The Stephens Family

Ella Claire

For the most part Ella's nursery is finished! I had SO MUCH FUN decorating a little girls room. It turned out exactly how I had pictured. I feel like I sit in there all the time because it just makes me happy :) I am about a month out from my due date and it can't come quick enough. The weather here has been record breaking. We are on like Day 34 of 100+ temps and the forecast for tomorrow says it is going to be 110. WHY AM I 8.5 MONTHS PREGNANT DURING THIS RECORD BREAKING SUMMER?! All I know is that I am counting down the days until fall....hopefully it comes sooner than later! Here are some pictures of our sweet girl's room :)

Aquarium

The new Sea Life Aquarium opened up at Grapevine Mills a few weeks ago, so we met our good friends Mary Beth and Lorelei to go check it out! It was really cool and a lot of fun! We went opening week so it was CROWDED...I am still counting down the days until the big kids are back in school! Kade loved it though, and kept talking about all the "fishies" he saw. When Bryan came home he was talking to him about it and he asked Kade what all he saw. Kade replied with "fishies..yellow, orange, seahorse, shark, and ribbits." Now I didn't see any "ribbits" (frogs) but who knows, maybe they were there?! We asked him several more times what all he saw and he forgot somethings, added a few more, and "ribbits" were included every single time. We bought a season pass and can't wait to go back when it isn't as crowded!!

 

 

 They have a 360 degree tunnel you can walk through...Little man was scared.to.death.

Offended

As of today, I am 31 weeks and 4 days pregnant. So we will just go with 8 months pregnant. I am fat, hot, swollen, hot, have terrible hip and back pain, and just to throw it out again HOT! I am so over being pregnant and September 8th can't come soon enough! It doesn't help that I have to be 7, 8, and 9 months pregnant during one of the worst summer's we have had here in Texas. I actually have felt that mood swing wise I have been doing pretty good, I mean I KNOW it can be worse. But both of the boys that live here highly disagree. I knew Bryan thought I was pretty bad but over the past week my 22 month old had proven to me that I am 1. gripey and just generally not in a good mood, and 2. that I am in fact fat.

Example one: We have a piano, I loved the piano when we first got it. Bryan played and the sound was beautiful. Then we had a kid and the newness of the piano wore off really fast. I now despise the piano. When we converted the guest room into Ella's nursery we moved the piano into our bedroom. I was against this from the start but I also didn't want to pay for a storage unit for a year or so until we decided to move. So I caved and put it in out room, with a few rules about when it could be played (Bryan has in fact broken every single one of them, and I threaten him everyday that I am going to call someone to haul it off...if only I actually had the guts to do that.) But back to the piano, Bryan always, ALWAYS plays when he gets home from work. He takes Kade with him and they play a few songs, Kade loves it! I on the other hand do not at all, it is more the noise than anything else, I just want the house to be quiet for a little bit and when you have a loud piano echoing through it, you might just go crazy. So one particular day I had had enough the boys went to the back and I hear the loudest most obnoxious song being played, I march my fat hiney back there, turn the corner ready to lay into someone (I know I am crazy I am not normally this mean, I blame it on my pregnancy hormones) when I catch eyes with my sweet little boy. He had just climbed up on the piano bench got situated, his little hands ready to play when I came stomping in the room, he looked at me with the sweetest eyes and just yelled back at me, "MAMA PLEASEEE!" Bryan looked at me laughed and gave me an, "I told ya so" smile. And I just walked out of the room. Sweet little Kade, he knew I was about to lay into Daddy about playing the piano, and he just wanted me to let one thing slide...::sigh::

Example 2:  Kade has known all his animnal sounds for quite some time. But we still love to ask him to do a few of our favorites (donkey, monkey, and rooster.) So the other night Kade was sitting with Bryan and they were talking about some animal sounds. When out of no where Bryan asked Kade what sound Mama made. And without skipping a beat Kade replied, "MOOOOO!" No prompting just his true thoughts apparently.

So there you have it, if anyone else asks how i am doing this pregnancy I will just tell them to ask Kade. I am mean and fat in his eyes :) At least he loves me even in these conditions!

Family Game Night

We had our very first family game night on Saturday night. Candy Land was the game of choice. Kade had NO CLUE what was going on, all he wanted to do was "drive" the game pieces across the board. He was my teammate and Bryan was all by himself. Towards the end he kind of started to get the idea of waiting for turns and things like that. He did have fun though and asked us the rest of the weekend to play "candy cane." :)

 

Oh and just to add, Kade and I won. Not only did we win..we kicked Bryan's tail big time :)

Dentist

Kade had his very first dentist appointment on July 5th. I was told by his pedi that he need to go just for a check up sometime before his 2 year well visit. I waited as long as possible because taking my strong willed boy to the dentist sounds miserable. But I got my act together and scheduled his appointment and off we went. We talked for several says about the dentist and practiced saying "aahhh," and I was feeling good about it. We after all of our practice and preparation the dentist came in and to put it nicely, all hell broke loose. Kade FREAKED out, he was screaming, yelling and crying. The dentist and I had to hole him down so she could look in his mouth, at least he was screaming and she could see in there. The time spent with the dentist was about 5 minutes and it seemed like an eternity. But the good news is he got a clean bill of health and we were told his teeth looked perfect! WooHoo!

Practicing on the way there didn't do much good...

A little playtime before the screamfest.

4th of July Fun!

We celebrated the heck out of America's birthday this year! We started with our neighborhood parade and picnic on Saturday, July 2nd. The night before we went and got Kade a bunch of patriotic decorations to put on his wagon so he could participate in the parade. When I say parade, I mean the neighborhood kids decorating their bikes, wagons, scooters, etc and "parading" around the park. We got there in time for a little playtime and then it was time for the parade. They lined up and took off on the "long" parade route. Kade pulled his wagon and Bryan and Gracie followed behind. He almost made it the entire route before he got too tired and decided he needed to sit down for a drink. Bryan and Gracie pulled him to the end, and they all three earned a prize for Best Group Entry! It was fun and following the parade was a little cookout and picnic. We had fun and just love our little neighborhood as it feels like a little step back in time. We went home and ALL took 3 hours naps...BLISSFUL!

 

Sunday, July 3rd we headed up to Trophy Club to my parents house early to swim and hang out. We were so bored because when it is 104 degrees outside there is nothing to do BUT swim. So we went up there and swam and took naps. Then we all showered and got dressed to head to dinner and into Roanoke for their celebration and firework show. We met the Sonsini's up there and all watched the firework show together. It was a lot of fun!  We stayed the night at my parents and woke up on the 4th to hang out and celebrate some more. We swam all.day.long! When it started to get dark we went up to the country club and watched Trophy Club's fire works show. It was such a great holiday, but we were all pooped by the end. We got home late on the 4th and went to bed immediately!