A good night for golf

Remember when I talked about Joey's birthday gift from my parents coming in the mail?
Well, yesterday afternoon, our UPS guy (who seriously knows all of our names---do we get too many packages??!!), brought a big box to our front door.
Joey excitedly opened it to find a new set of golf clubs. You may remember that he did get a set last year, but we found that those were way too big for him.
So, my parents got him a set for 4-7 year-olds.
He was ecstatic! We called Joe right away to see if he would take Joey out golfing after work. It doesn't take too much to convince Joe to go golfing...

Joey in the fairway.

Let's take a little closer look at this picture to see how much like his daddy this little boy is trying to be...(click on the picture for a larger view)

Look at that back swing.

Joey loved being on the course with daddy.

Kylah spent most of her time in the cart with me, eating Twizzlers...

...and drinking Powerade.

Joey gets to pull the flag out for himself and daddy on every green.

Kylah decided to take a break from the Twizzlers and Powerade to see Joey do some putting.

Joey is showing Kylah the finer art of putting.

It was so much fun to go golfing together as a family. This is the first time I've gotten to see Joey on the golf course, and it was great to see him in action!

Thanks again Papa and Gramma!

Fish don't bite

Both of my parents were able to come visit for a fun weekend.

Joey has been looking forward to donuts and fishing with my dad since he got to go with him last summer. Papa did not disappoint...they woke up bright and early on Friday, got donuts and chocolate milk, headed to a lake for a few hours, got (only) one fish, learned about patience, then went back to get more donuts and strawberry milk! Joey was pretty excited about the whole thing!

Joey learned that fish don't bite. He said that a few times to me when he got home, so I'm thinking that's what he is telling himself over and over in this picture!

Joey and Kylah had a blast with their Papa! He gets down on their level the whole time and plays hard. I don't even have the energy he does half the time, but the kids love it!

Here he is playing with Joey on the Slip 'n Slide.

And then giving Joey a Face Wash because he was full of grass.

This process repeated over and over and over and over...

Kylah didn't want much to do with the Slip 'n Slide, but she did want to get in on the Face Wash from Papa! She loved to do anything that Joey did with Papa. She would always say, 'me too, Papa.'

And then daddy came and really got in on the action of the slip 'n slide!

Joey couldn't get enough of Joe going down with him and behind him!

They would chase each other up to the top; Joey would go down; and then Joe would follow and 'crash' into Joey. It was great to watch!

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Since my parents aren't able to be here for the kids' birthday, we had a little birthday celebration for both Joey and Kylah. Kylah just went along with it, but Joey was having a hard time grasping if this was his real birthday and if he was 4 now. I tried explaining it to him (and I even got the calendar out to show him), but I'm not sure that he still gets it. Oh well. Regardless, he enjoyed the presents!!

Gramma got a yummy ice cream cake.

Candles were lit, and Happy Birthday was sung.

They both blew out the candles and then licked the frosting off.

And then it was present time. Kylah got all the accessories for the kitchen that we got her. It was great. She has all these little pots and pans and great utensils! (There are even wooden spoons in with the utensils, and you'll never guessed what her and Joey pretended to do with those wooden spoons right away!)

Joey will be getting his big birthday present from Papa and Gramma in the mail (we'll post about that when it comes...) But he still got plenty of loot, and he was pretty excited about it!

Sweet hugs for Gramma.

And noogies from Papa. Joey kept asking where Papa's hair was, and my dad would tell him that Joey gave him too many noogies! :)

Kylah girl giving Papa big hugs. That little girl loves her Papa. She had some great alone time with him and Joey on Thursday afternoon while I was at work, and I think that was the best thing for the kids to have that time with him!

Now that the kids have accessories for the kitchen, they have been playing with it nonstop! And of course, we were eating the "food" they cooked for us all weekend!

Kylah got some pretty princess slippers from Gramma.

Time with Papa wouldn't be complete without playing some baseball. Joey loved it, and got some good pointers from his Papa.

Papa pitching to Joey. He definitely didn't hit every one, but when he did make contact, he would hit it far! Papa was teaching him to have a wide stance, bat to the sky, and watch the ball. Good tips for us to keep telling him!

Kylah was cheering for Joey. She'd be playing, and as soon as she heard Joey hit the ball, she would stop and say, "yay Joey!" and clap! :)

Family baseball game.

Mom and I snuck away for a little bit to go get pedicures. So fun!

We had such a great time with my parents here. Our only wish was that they lived a little bit closer to us so we could see them more often. Joey kept wanting to know if Papa got to come back next time with Gramma.

Actually, the awesome thing this time is that we will be making a long trip out to my parents house over July 4th, so it won't be too long before we see them and the rest of my family!

Thanks again for coming mom and dad! We had a great time!

crab legs

Wednesday night we went out to eat with Dave and Mere (and Matty!) for Joe's birthday. We went to Fish City for 'All You Can Eat' Crab Legs. It was amazing! It was so fun to go out with Dave and Mere...it'd been a few weeks since we have gotten to hang out with them (other than at the hospital). Amazing how we have gotten so used to living close to them and seeing them all the time already!

Pre-dinner (we could still button our pants). :)

When we placed our order, we could tell our waiter was excited. 4 people ordering the pricey all-you-can-eat Crab Legs??? Let me tell you, between the four of us, we definitely got our money's worth! They keep track of how many sets of crab legs they bring out to the table.

Drum roll please...

Our table got 41 crab legs brought to us. I think we left maybe one on the plate, so we actually consumed 40 of these pretty babies...

Let me clarify...the above picture represents ONE of the forty.
So, we averaged 10 of these per person.
I'd like to say that the boys ate 15 each and Mere and I each ate 5, but that would be a tiny bit of a lie. I'm pretty sure Mere and I kept up pretty well with the boys. It was more like 9 each for the girls and 11 each for the guys. In our defense, you don't get super full while eating crab legs...until after you've consumed 9 of those crab legs! :)
I've gotta admit, my stomach was hurting a little in the middle of the night.

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In other news, looks like someone got her mama's olive skin tone. And look at how the sun is giving her little highlights too (and no, Mere, I did not put Sun-in in my daughter's hair!) :)

She decided to have a seat in front of the washing machine this morning to blow bubbles in her milk.

Normally we don't let them blow bubbles in their milk at the table, so I'm pretty sure she was trying to be sneaky (hard to be sneaky in an 1100 square foot house!) :)

As you can tell from the tans (I swear I've been lathering them in 50 SPF sunscreen too!), we've been spending quite a bit of time outdoors. This morning we swam in our little pool outside and played with water in the driveway. Joey and Kylah were having fun putting water in their mouths and spitting it at each other---another no no inside, but outside totally fine!

Anyone who has ever been a mother of more than one child knows what a delight it is to see your children enjoying each other like this!

Kylah found her boots in the garage and wanted to play in them even though it's 90 degrees outside. Oh well, I'm sure they won't fit her next winter anyway.

Joey was supposed to be taking a nap, but how can a 3 year old nap when he can hear laughter and screaming outside his window. So, I released him from his room and sent him outside.

While I'm blogging on the deck, Joey is next door doing this with the neighbor girls.

They are so sweet to include Joey and help him. There he goes all the way down the hill!

Seems like I should be napping on a Saturday afternoon instead of blogging. Hmmm...maybe I'll go switch with Joe (who is currently napping) and try to get a little nap! :)

Happy Birthday Joe and more.

Joe turned 31 today. It was fun to see the kids so excited to make daddy's birthday special. They were really into it all day, and told Joe 'happy birthday' at least 30 times today! We got up and cooked Joe breakfast. Then after Joe left for work, we made him a birthday cake. Then we met him for a picnic lunch and shakes! We had good naps here at home, and then daddy got home early from work! It was a great day.

We had a little "party" after dinner---probably more for the kids sake than Joe's, but he had fun too! :)

We made strawberry Jello cake for Joe---his favorite (I learned from Joe's mom how to make this soon after we got married).

Joe had a few little helpers to blow out the candles.

Joey was so excited for daddy to finally open his present from him and Kylah. It's hard for a 3-almost-4-year-old to keep a secret like that from daddy! (They got him new grilling tools!)

Daddy saying thank you to his pretty little girl!

And to his Joey Bear. (Speaking of Joey Bear...We started calling Joey, Joey Bear since the first day we brought him home from the hospital. Yesterday we realized that Kylah is now calling him Joey Bear when she talks to him---it is adorable!)

Joe also got some new canvas shoes (Aaron and Esther...it's the ones we looked at while you were here...he likes them!!) and a KU license plate for the front of his car.

Joe, thanks for being such an awesome husband, daddy and leader of our family. I love you!

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Memorial Day was a fun day for us too. We spent the day with the Matchell's. Joe and Brian woke up bright and early to get 18 holes of golf in while Christine and I met up at their house mid-morning.
The kids had a blast together, and it's always nice for us to hang out with Brian and Chris.

Look at these little cuties at their picnic table.

Patiently waiting for the daddy's to finish filling up the water balloons. Seriously, it took Joe and Brian about 30 minutes to fill them all up, and then they were gone in about 1 minute. I didn't get any pictures of the water balloon fight because they started without coming in to get me inside! (and after all those songs I sang with the kids to help them wait...)

Jakin and Joey are good buds. On the walk home from the park, these boys were talking about how strong they were and how they never, ever wait for girls. Chris and I had to remind them that they are supposed to protect girls and be gentlemen! :)

If this doesn't say 'Sassy 2 year old', then I don't know what does!

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A few nights ago we stopped at a little carnival by my work. I had to do quite a bit of convincing with my husband to stop there (something about a waste of money...????)

The kids had quite the time, though.
We just let them each ride a few rides, and then we were done.
Here they are on one together. Joey's taking his driving very seriously, and Kylah's waving like she's Miss America.

Kylah on the carousel with daddy.

This was the main reason I wanted to stop. Joey and I got to go on the big Farris Wheel together!

Loving the rides. I'm thinking we might need to head to World's of Fun again this summer for more of this kind of fun!

Joey may be timid in the water, but give him a roller coaster, and he's good to go. He's like a little adrenaline junkie on those! :)

We've had a fun, long weekend. I feel like I've had a mini vacation since I haven't worked since last Thursday! (I don't work Friday's or Tuesday's, and Monday was a holiday!) It was a great break, and I feel like we got a lot of quality family time.