James Speak

James: Are those your work clothes?
Taylor: Yes. Are those your work clothes?
James: No. This is my pajamas.
Taylor: Oh. What are your work clothes?
James: My green dinosaur shirt and blue pants (jeans).
Taylor: What do you do for work?
James: I smash baby dragons eggs. Then I take them to their mom.
Taylor: That sounds hazardous.
James: It's not.

Racing Day

Taylor and I decided to run a 5K and yesterday was the big day. Besides the annual jogathon in elementary school (3 miles) this is the first race I have run. It was a lot of fun to 'train' with the boys. We would go out with the jogging stroller 3 times a week and run. We had a couple different routes and actually improved quite a bit over the three months since we went from walking to jogging.

The boys are great to run with because they keep me good company and they cheer for me which is the best! "Go mom!" "Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah!!!!" "You're fast, you're fast." "It's the last street." "Go mom!" They are a wonderful motivation.


The actual race was fun and I set a PR, so that was excellent. I'm not sure I caught the racing bug however. I am glad I did it, but I'm not dying to do it again. I have always known I don't care for long runs so a 5K was perfect for me. Maybe once the temp is below 85 and the humidity under 90 I will enjoy it more.

Taylor coming in...


Me almost done (I passed those two girls)...


Me coming in the finish (I SO wanted to beat that kid, but he came in about 1 second before I did)...



Me dying...

July 24th

Today was most excellent. One of the best of 26. I began by waking up at 8:21 and about having a heart attack. My boys wake up at 6:30. I believe this is a record in my mothering career. Sweet, sweet sleeping in. They knew just what I would love most!

We hung out in our pajamas until 11:30 and then ran over to Market Street. It was raining and overcast so only like 76 degrees. Perfect. James walked with the umbrella and Matthias and I just enjoyed the drizzle. We got soup and sandwiches at Potbellies, then over to Cold Stone for my free ice cream. Strawberry with cookie dough. Yum. Wandered over to the book store to pick up some books. Stopped to check out bugs and walk on walls along the way.


After heading home for naps we ran to see some friends and then home for a yummy dinner with Taylor...steak, yams, homemade bread, grilled zucchini, watermelon, and lemonade. We finished off the night with ice cream and of course sparklers. Very wonderful day!

Save 12 cents a year!

Last week a telemarketer called trying to sell me something. I actually listened for a few minutes and then politely declined. Last night the same company called again!

Me: You called about this last week and I'm not interested.
Guy on Phone: But it's so great because....
Me: No, you really already called. It's like $10 a month.
Guy on Phone: No it's not. It's only $9.99.
Me: Which is the same as $10!! No thank you.

I was laughing for about 20 minutes. It's only $9.99!

Our little climber

Matthias is our mischievous ball of energy. He is always in motion and being totally crazy. Now we thought James was always moving and he is, but Matthias is SO nuts. It is hilarious. We totally are in love with this cute boy of ours.

Matthias LOVES to swim. Loves it. He is so good in the water and just plays and plays. Lately he will drop a toy on the bottom of the kiddie pool (about 12in) and then go under water to retrieve it. He is totally fearless in the water, but handles himself so well. When he slips he doesn't panic, but just plants his feet back down and stands up again. Everyone is always commenting on how well he does in the water. In the shallow pool he just swims around, but in the deep end he has to have his floaty (pictured here).


One current habit of Matt's that drives me crazy is his love of pushing chairs into the kitchen and climbing on counters. He does it constantly! Mostly he is looking for his "be be" but sometimes candy or crackers are what he wants. We have all the kitchen chairs tied together at the moment so he can't pull them around. The other day Matthias pulled a chair over to help me make zucchini bread. When I wasn't looking he dumped the shredded zucchini into the cookie jar.


A couple weeks ago at church he leaned so far over the back of our pew that he went nose diving into the pew behind us. That must have been a funny view for the people in the back of the chapel. He does silly dances all the time. Whenever he's about to do something really naughty he'll give his 'I am so cute' grin. He really is the goofiest kid and always makes everyone laugh.


Here we are on "Overall Day" together. James took this picture (he was also wearing overalls...it was his idea). I love this photo because I have one with James at this exact same age.


On Monday morning Matthias wanders into our bedroom.
Taylor: I'm assuming you got Matt out of his crib.
Me: No, I've been sleeping.

Oh, no!!

Me: How did you get out?
Matthias: Up.
Me: Okay, but how did you get out?
James: Maybe he used a stool or something.
Matthias: Pillow.

Drat. I knew giving him that pillow was a bad idea. Sure enough he had wadded up his blanket and put his pillow on top. For the next few days he kept appearing in our room in the morning, but after a late night bail out Wednesday night that ended poorly we resigned ourselves to the fact that he was going to be free. So we decided to end the physical peril of climbing out each morning. Doesn't he look so grown up? We love this boy!

James Speak

This is all the Nited States. But we aren't in the Nited States. We live in Texas.

Nursery

On the way home from church we always ask the boys what they did in nursery. Our ward has three nurseries divided according to age so James and Matthais are in different ones. James always tells about his lesson and maybe something that happened. Matthias' standard answer is "play!"

Yesterday James was wearing a tag that said 'Daddy' so I asked him about it. He said they talked about families and he was the daddy...
Me: Who was the mommy?
James: There was some of the girls that were mommies.

Um???? Some??

We found out there were also multiple daddies. Phew.


So, I had been told Matthias was playing too rough and throwing toys at some of the other kids. Matt is our maniac child. So crazy. So I was not surprised, but hope to teach him otherwise. I asked Matthias what he did in nursery...

Matthias: PLAY! Throw! (with arm motion)

So he admitted his naughty deeds. And Taylor and I tried not to laugh, but he's so darn cute.

Me: We don't throw toys at friends. It's a no no.
James: I didn't throw toys at my friends.

30 lbs of tomatoes later

Some more of my canning extravaganza! A couple weeks ago Taylor and I spent one crazy evening canning these tomatoes I had blanched and sliced earlier in the day. It was pretty hectic. With Taylor taking out the last batch at 11:30pm. Well worth the work!

The day has come...

I am going private my friends. On Saturday. So if you read my blog and you want to keep reading my blog please send me an email or leave a comment with your email and I will send you an invite. Some of you I already have sent invites to, I will keep trying to remember everyone who reads this blog. Thanks!

Interview w/ James

Stole this from my friend Jill. Thanks!!

What does mommy always say to you?
Please go to the bathroom.

What makes mommy happy?
Crying

What makes mommy sad?
Crying...(apparently I cry a lot??)

How does mommy make you laugh?
You laugh.

What was mommy like when she was little?
A toy.

How old is mommy?
Bigger. Seven.

How tall is mommy?
That tall. Four hours tall.

What does mommy like to do?
Play with me and make a mountain.

What is something mommy doesn't like to do?
Mmmm...I don't know.

What is mommy's job?
Open and close doors.

What is mommy's favorite food?
Onions.

What is mommy's favorite color?
Pink. Cuz you're a grirl.

What do you and mommy like to do together?
Play Legos. (That's all??) No, there's one more part. Play knights and cowboys and soldiers.

How do you know mommy loves you?
Cuz you love me. Cuz you like me. Cuz you love me so much.

We did in fact celebrate...

So we did celebrate the 4th of July. Parade, hamburgers, and fireworks. Only thing missing was some cotton candy...love that stuff. We did the parade with the Dibbs, hamburgers by ourselves, and fireworks with Dibbs, Frosts, and Myers. Fun times!





At the parade we got four beach balls, a frisbee, two bottled waters, two pairs of sunglasses, a yo-yo, tons of candy, two fans, and a tote bag. Quite the haul.

James holding a Roman Candle...


Sparklers, lighting a fountain with Dad, watching the artilary fireworks. We had quite of few of our own, but someone a few streets over did an amazing show about 15 minutes long with a long finale and everything. Loved being able to watch from our friends front yard!

James Speak

7:45 am going to the back yard
Kristi: Let's check out the weather.
James: It's cold! We can go running!!
(I find something distressing about 80 degrees being considered cold...)

Kristi: Maybe we can go swimming this morning. It's sunny today.
James: The plant needs watered.
Kristi: We can water it.
James: No, we really need some rain. (something Taylor says constantly!)

Stopped to look at a waterfall the boys and I run by. There is a sign which says, "No Swimming". James and I went to sound it out. First word no. Kay, help him sound out the second word...swimming.
Kristi: Do you remember the first word?
James: It was no.
Kristi: So what does the sign say?
James: You can't swim in the lake.
Excellent reading comprehension folks!

Mmm, good...

My boys and I are eating ice cream right now. In the middle of the afternoon. Just because I am that nice of a mother. And ice cream is SO good! But do I hear a chorus of "Gee mom, you're great", "Thanks mom! You are the best!". No. Instead I get "I didn't want strawberry! I wanted chocolate!" Fortunately for James I am that nice and we have chocolate in the freezer too. Lucky Matthias gets James' strawberry and James gets chocolate. We love our ice cream.


(Yes, Matthias is biting the carton)

Batter Up!

James participated in the library summer reading program and one of the prizes was two tickets to an Astros game! So we bought one more for me (Matthias is still free) and went down last night for a family outing. We had a great time! James was very interested in the game and Taylor told him everything that was happening. Matthias was happy to sit in his own seat and eat "bees" (grahm crackers shaped like bees).




After about one inning Matthias and I went to wander around and stretch. While he was running around outside the photography booth one of the guys opened the door to watch him and then rolled a ball out to him...Matthias was ecstatic! He started chasing it everywhere and the really nice man said we could keep it! Everyone started asking me where he got it...apparently there had been a home run that we missed...guess I should have asked the guy who gave it to us. But we are just assuming Matthias got the home run ball. He was so happy with it and held it tight all night and all the way home.



We left during the 5th inning (already 2 hours past bed time). The boys had so much fun and I am really glad we went! All the picture are of Matthias since I spent the whole time chasing him around. James pretty much just sat in Taylor's lap the whole time, so I only have one picture of him. Now James is asking me to be the pitcher...better go!