Sitting on the Dock of the BAY!!!!

We took our second official family vacation last week. Our wonderful friends, Marsha and Alan, rented a bayhouse for the week and invited us down. Brittney was there ALL week and the rest of us went down later in the week for 3 nights. (We figured we would start slow to see how the boys did away from home.) They have actually never been away from home for the night except for our trip to SeaWorld San Antonio last year and I'm still tired from that trip!

Everyone did just wonderfully. The place they rented had an elevator for Steve and everyone else that needed it. The boys had SOOO much room to run around and play. I packed their tricycles, trucks and swim diapers...they were good to go. They loved to see first hand any of crabs and fish that were caught.

We learned that Cade likes the beach and Jace doesn't. This is very interesting because Jace is more of a daredevil than Cade usually. Jace did NOT like when the waves would come up to his feet and he couldn't run away from it. He would start screaming in this little girl voice and becomed panicked! It was kind of funny, but MeMe (Marsha) finally had to take him back to the house early because he was just freaking out. He was content to kick back and swim in the baby pool.

My little girl started the week off as a girly girl who didn't want to get dirty. By the time we left, she was first in line to bait Steve's fishing hook, check the crab traps and couldn't wait to get dirty in the beach water. She even rode a little motorcycle on the beach and made smores for the first time. She had SO much fun hanging out with all of her friends. Here they are with fancy umbrellas in their virgin strawberry diaquiries.

We had so much fun and hated to come back to reality. All we did was hang out (and EAT too!). I can't remember the last time I've been able to slow down and just enjoy myself.

Summer time!

On Sunday we made the hour and a half trip north to drop Ms. Brittney off for camp. She was very anxious, excited, nervous. She is a very social child, as I've said before. We still can't get over the fact that even last year as an 8 year old, she went to this YMCA camp by herself, for the first time, without knowing ANYone. Their only form of communication with us is through letters. She ended up having such a good time that it was on the top of her list to do this summer.

Here we are at Sonic in the BIG town where her camp is. (you know it's a small town when your choices to eat are either Dairy Queen or Sonic). This was her last meal with us before checking in. This is my nephew Justin, he was staying with us for the weekend. So I made him join me in case we had any toddler meltdowns.

So from the one letter I've received, she is having a wonderful time.

The part about Christina is hilarious. I'm glad that she classifies her best friends on a daily basis. But other than that, camp must be GOOD and GREAT (as she so eloquently puts it).

But life goes on without BritBrat at the Kearley household.... yesterday was paw-paw's birthday. (my dad) . So, we went to eat at Gringo's. It was sooo good. Cade was in heaven. All you have to do is get that boy some queso and chips and you won't hear a peep out of him the entire time. Jace ended up having 3 ice cream cones. These boys are not shy when it comes to eating.

I think my dad had a good 63rd birthday. He's still a young man and just 2 years away from retirement....He can't wait!

Jace is starting this awkward smile thing. He's saying cheese and closing his eyes. It's so cute! I remember when Brittney used to do this when she was little. She was such a camera hog though...still is, come to think of it.

See what I mean?

Brittney comes home on Saturday. We miss you Sissy! Hurry home!!

Been WAY too long!

I can't believe I haven't updated my blog since MOTHER'S DAY!!!! Oh my goodness.

So much has gone on....So much to share.

First starters, we've decided to take the plunge and build a bigger house! We've been discussing the idea of moving into a bigger house since the boys came along. Our little 2300 square feet, 3 bedroom home was perfect when we had a family of 3, but now we are busting out at the seams around here. We could never settle on a location though. We found a HUGE one story plan years ago that we LOVED, but it wasn't being built anywhere around us. Then, last year they started clearing out the area behind our house. It took them forever. Matter of fact it's been a year to date and they have finally starting building homes. It's a lovely gated community that will definitely keep our property values high! AND, cue the singing angels.........they are building the exact 3100 square foot floorplan that we spotted years ago!! It's just a sign to me that it's meant to be.

The thought of the actual process of packing and moving makes me sick to my stomach. BUT it's just a small price to pay. The lot we bought is literally a 2 minute walk away. An added bonus is that Brittney will go to the same schools. Now, we just need to find a money tree somewhere, sell our house, and magically snap our fingers to have the moving process DONE.

Moving onto the kiddos. We've had BIG developments the past couple of days. I received a call at work the other day from JACE, yes my 2 1/2 year old son JACE, to tell me that he went poo poo on the potty. He was so proud. Apparently they were playing in their pool outside (in their birthday suits) and Jace was a little tooty. My mom asked him if he needed to go poo poo and he quickly answered YES. So they all headed into the bathroom to watch him poop. Well, being the typical man that he is...he ordered everyone out so he could have some privacy. Nana listened to him grunt from the other side of the door and heard his progress "plop" into the toilet. The reason I say she heard it is because as soon as Cade entered the bathroom to view his brother's accomplishment he said "yucky poo-poo" and flushed it away! No one actually saw it, but there was evidence it existed.

The SAME situation happened this evening. This time we got to witness it and we let HIM flush it after doing the obligatory "poo-poo" dance. I don't know if this is the beginning of potty training or what. I had actually thought the boys may start kindergarten in diapers still. They just have NO interest whatsoever until this popped up.

All I can say is "COOL........."

Ms. Brittney is off tomorrow to a YMCA camp for an entire week! She went last year and absolutely loved it. I won't be able to talk to her AT ALL except by letters. No phones, no email, no computers, no electronic games. Wow, what an eye opener for her. But they take a ton of pictures throughout the day and download them every night to their website for the parents to view. As long as I can see her having a good time, I'm alright.

I can't believe that I've been blogging for almost a year now. This is my 96th entry. That's a pretty pathetic rate of publication. I just can't seem to squeeze it in at the end of the day anymore. I think the days have gotten shorter. Surely I'm not getting older or anything!

A few more important items. Steve finally graduated with his masters in Administration. He's in the process of looking for a position as an Assistant Principal. His current school has a few openings and he hopes to get hired on there. We'll see.

We had a huge graduation party for him last weekend. It was soooo much fun! Boy was it hot though. What else should kids do when they're at a graduation party and they're hot? Well, get on the trampoline with the hose. That makes it good and slippery. But why stop there? Ask your mom for some dishwashing soap to lather it up and make it REALLY slippery!

I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw this going on in my backyard. They had a blast though. Later that night several of the kids broke out with a rash. Maybe an entire bottle of Palmolive will do that to you.

We went to see Stevie Nicks after Steve's graduation party. When we got home to relieve Steve's mom of her babysitting duties, we found a house that was 82 degrees and not budging. Needlesstosay after a very LONG night where the temperature never went below 82 degrees, we had to call someone out to fix our air conditioner. Keep in mind it was Sunday morning and I was scared to see how much someone could charge us for that. BUT we were willing to pay ANY amount to stop the pain. I didn't realize how spoiled we are when our air conditioning is functioning correctly. So, a mere $360 later we had air. OH...lovely air.

Isn't the timing kind of strange that the day before we put money down on our new lot, our air conditioning goes on the blink. We decided to ignore it and move on. All systems are still GO!