Squeals and Giggles

Tonight I heard suspicious squeals and giggles coming from Jake's room when Kevin and Jake were supposed to be doing Jake's bedtime routine. I'm pretty sure energy-inducing squealing and giggling is not part of our normal routine, so I thought I'd take a look. Here's what I found...

What silly boys! I sure do love them!

Our latest adventures....

Jake and I left last Tuesday to visit Papa and Grandmama. Kevin was getting in some last minute time with Jake the morning we left, and they ended up snuggling on the bed together. Looks like he's going to miss his Daddy... Papa and Grandmama had a big surprise waiting for Jake--his own 4 wheeler. It's so cool!

It took a little getting used to, but Jake ended up riding around like a pro. He still needs a little help pushing the button in order to go on his own, but I'm sure he'll have it in no time. What a big boy!
We also took a ride on a miniature train that runs through Trinity Park in Fort Worth. It was a beautiful day with beautiful scenery along the ride. I definitely recommend this little train ride for young kids--it's a sure hit. Here's our trusty conductor...

Jake taking it all in...

The Trinity River...
We made the first attempt ever to capture Jake in the bluebonnets. The photo shoot did not go well, but we gave it our best shot!

Mommy came in to try to ease his apparent fear of bluebonnets. This was the best we got...

The last day at my parents, we got out a container filled with lots of old balls from my childhood. Jake wasn't interested in just one of them, he was interested in all of them... We then headed off to spend some time with the Lawsons. Jake LOVES playing with Cohen, and it is so fun seeing them together...

We all enjoyed a Frisco Roughriders game Friday night compliments of Big T and Nana. Frisco has a beautiful ballpark, although this picture does it no justice...and we all got free hats! I'm not sure Jake liked his...

Jake went exploring in Big T and Nana's house and decided to slowly and surely bring Big T everything from a little cubby in their bedroom. He made at least 10 trips, back and forth from bedroom to living room, and back again. Big T ended up with quite a stash: nail files, pens and pencils, a comb, and even nail polish. We think Jake might have been trying to tell him he needed a manicure ;-) Who knows what was running through his mind, but it was definitely funny to watch...

A beautiful day isn't complete without a trip to the park. "Look at me, I'm king of the world!"

A Daddy Post

This post is in honor of Daddy. Kevin usually does bath and bedtime at night, and recently he's been trying out new hairstyles for Jake. Here are a couple options...

The Harry Dunn (Dumb and Dumber) look...

The Cody Dishman look (perfect side part)....
Don't think we've found a better hairstyle quite yet, but I'm sure Kevin isn't quite done in his search ;-)

3 Day Weekend

Kevin had a 3 day weekend and Jake and I were so excited to spend some extra time with Daddy. It was especially nice because it's been about a month since it's been just the 3 of us at our house for a full weekend. What did we do on our long weekend, you ask? We...
built towers... watched a little Shrek 2 while settling down before bathtime...

held hands with Mommy as we made our way to our first UT baseball game as a family...

Intently watched the game...while looking super cute...

Didn't miss out on a family picture opportunity...

Played in the sandbox with Daddy...

faced forward in the car for the very first time...
watched Daddy and Mommy do lots and lots of yard work (Daddy did most of the work, but Mommy helped too)...

tried my best to help Mommy and Daddy. Hey, here's the rake...

and here are the trash bags (notice his golf club doesn't leave his hand)...

Attempted to climb up the ladder until Mommy stopped me...

Tried on Daddy's gloves...

and finally, took a breather after a super fun long weekend...

Shorts and Tennis Shoes

I can't even describe how happy I am for warm weather and the ability to spend our days playing outside. I know mid-July will ultimately hit, and I'll be wishing for cooler temps, but for now we're just happy enjoying Springtime. There's something super cute about a boy in his shorts and tennis shoes... Even cuter...a boy, his shorts and tennis shoes, and his dog...The other day while enjoying the park, Jake made his way up the steps to the big cylinder slide. He's gone down the slide before, but always with another adult at the bottom. I thought we'd give it a try on his own, and the end result was a crying little boy covered in yellow pollen. There is a film of yellow pollen EVERYWHERE in our neighborhood, and I guess Jake's little body was the first to "wipe" off the slide. He somehow managed some kind of flip as he was going down, which resulted in the crying, but also yellow on all sides of him. Here's how he looked at me as I did my best to comfort and console him. Yes, he's tearstained and yellow stained, "Thanks a lot, Mommy"...

It's hard to tell in the picture, but I took this one to try to capture the extend of the yellow pollen mess. It is all up and down his shirt and shorts. Luckily, Jake's quick on forgiveness, so we were able to leave the park seemingly unharmed and happy...

Easter 2010

We spent this Easter with the Lawson side of the family. We started off the celebrating on Friday with Mom Barr's birthday party. Here's Mom Barr with her 4 daughters and 5 out of her 7 great grandchildren. It was very special to have all four daughters together because Glada lives out of state, and we don't get to see her as often as we'd like. In fact, she'd never even met Jake! That was hard to believe. Hopefully, it won't be that long till we see her again.

A family gathering on Easter weekend isn't complete without an egg hunt, of course! Jake did A LOT better with this hunt than his first hunt. It might have helped that he didn't have much competition, but either way, he was a man on a mission...

He actually did much better than I expected. He carried the basket around all by himself, and put the eggs right in the basket...

We then decided to take some load off and carry the basket for him. It's important to have full mobility when you're on the hunt...

Cute family pic....Jake's just a little preoccupied with his treasures...

After the hunt, Mom Barr shared the resurrection story with the boys. She used a prop to explain the idea that Jesus' tomb was empty, meaning he was alive! The resurrection story is the most amazing for sure, but the fact that these three little boys listened intently is pretty amazing in itself. Look at that focus...

I had to include this pic because Gavin's face is priceless. He was definitely amazed by the story. I think it will take a little time before Jake and Cohen are that impressed...
After a great Saturday breakfast with more family and even time for some rest, we joined up with Cohen and Channing again for their church's picnic and egg hunt (Cassy and Chad were busy at work for the event). This hunt was quite a different experience for Jake. There were a lot of kids, even just in Jake's age division (under 5), so there was plenty to distract him from the hunt. Kevin ran him out to the middle to try to give him a good chance, but he pretty much froze. I see the egg, but I'm not sure if I really want it...

He finally managed to pick up a few eggs, although he seemed to enjoy the people watching a little more...

The Easter Bunny made an appearance at the picnic, but Jake was not a fan. Poor Chad had the job of getting him close enough for a picture...

After the picnic and hunt is was time to try our hand at egg dyeing. Cohen was pretty mesmerized by the dyeing process...
Jake on the other hand, had a really hard time understanding why he couldn't drink out of the dye cups or use the eggs as balls. He did manage to "help" with a couple eggs...

After a couple minutes Jake had about all he could take. Notice how Nana has hold of his arms...it was for good reason. Otherwise, Chad and Cassy's back porch would have been a sea of beautiful Easter color. Jake left the dyeing up to us shortly thereafter and returned to playing basketball.

The Easter bunny found his way to Gainesville to leave Jake his own special basket Easter morning. Here he is as he begins to carefully take everything out...

The Easter bunny left all kinds of treats---a kite, 3 new books, sidewalk chalk, a wind-up bunny, bubbles, and of course, just a little candy! Jake knew just what the bubbles were and we had to give them a try...