Water Fun

As a part of our very busy day on Tuesday, Garrett went to play water balloon Tball with his playgroup friends--he had a blast! My son, the natural athlete.




And speaking of water, I never posted pictures from our awesome boat trip over valentines day weekend with the Shumans. They treated us to a nice morning out on their sweet new boat, "Details." We went out to Elliot Key so the kids could play on the beach and we could grill. The kids all had a blast together, and it was SO nice to finally spend some time with Chris and Jess again! Thanks Jess for the pictures.

IRL Spring Training 2009

This week, the Indy Racing League is holding their spring training at the Homestead Miami Speedway. I took Garrett for his first experience of race cars on a real track. He LOVED it, even though the cars were basically just doing laps. At one point he said "But Mom, they aren't going accidents!" Silly boy.

On the way out, he spotted a checkered flag at the gift shop. He's obsessed with checkered flags, mostly because Lightening McQueen says "The checkered flag is mine!" He was so excited about it, I couldn't resist the urge! He

Nana and Pawpaws Visit - Part 1

We had a great four days with Brad's grandparents, Nana and Pawpaw. Summer loved visiting with them, so long as I was not in the room. Garrett had a blast racing cars with them and reading books. I didn't take as many pictures as I would have liked to . . . we didn't do much of anything beyond sit around the house and visit. On Sunday, we did go to "Classics By the Bay," which was a classic car show at Homestead Bayfront Park . . . I don't have the pictures of that since we used Nana's camera. That will be "Part 2" :-) We were very sorry to see them go today, we had such a wonderful visit!

Miss Summer is 5 Months!

Can you believe it? Nana and Pawpaw are here for a visit, I haven't broken out the camera since they got here but will try to get some pictures this weekend. Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

Mommy and Me @ The Seaquarium--Fishies

Today we went to Mommy and Me at the Seaquarium. The subject of the month was fish, but Garrett was WAY more excited about the "scubie divers" feeding the fish than the fish themselves. He loved the part where he got to feed the fish though!!

Scubie divers!!

Gotta love the facial expressions

What IS this?

Throwing the dead fish to the hungry fish

Fishies eating the dead fish :-)

Coloring fun

Sleepy sissy

Checking out the aquarium
(Garrett's on the right, I have no clue who the other 2 kids are)
Cool iguana Sylvie befriended :-)
Garrett and Kianna Gator wrestling, lol!
Garrett and Tommy (friend from our other former playgrou)
Notice Garrett is pulling him toward a puddle :-)

My Garrett

I haven't written in a while about Garrett . . . he's crazy and wild, yet sweet and thoughtful. He's definitely his own person these days, and its hard not to love him to pieces!

He loves to sing. No matter where you are or what you are doing. He sings at the beach, at the dinner table, and in bed. He loves to hear his songs in the car and sing to them. He'll say "I want my songs, not your songs!" His favorite songs are "Life is a Highway" from Cars, "Treasure" from a pirate episode of Backyardigans, and "Down By the Station"--which he calls "Pufferbillies".

If he can hear "Go Parts"-- that's Go Karts to the rest of us (they race almost every weekend next to the speedway)--he is begging to go see them. He'll sit forever just watching them race. I can't wait for Brad to take him to the NASCAR race in November at the Speedway, he'll love that.

He's getting better at expressing his feelings. The other day he told me he was "mad" that I wouldn't let him watch anymore TV. He has told me "Mom, you hurt my feelings" and "I fruster-rated with you, Mom!". This is a pretty big milestone in my book.

He's polite--he says please and thank you 90% of the time. He is sweet, especially when it comes to his daddy. "I miss my daddy!! He'll be home from work soon." He'll ask to call Brad to tell him just that much.

He's learning to trace--he can do basic circles now, and the rest probably isn't far behind. He can do colors, shapes, and some letters. Santa brought him magnetic letters for Christmas, and he loves to play with those and ask what every letter is. He can match them.

So that's a little bit of a Garrett update--pictures of him are hard to come by. He'll actually tell me "No pictures!" when I get the camera out. Gee, I wonder who he gets THAT from. (Hint: NOT ME!)

Happy Valentines Day!!

Happy Valentines Day
From our house to yours!!
(Notice little miss can ALMOST sit up on her own)

Wednesday Wrap Up

Since I've been stinking at getting the blog updated lately, I figured I would do a "Wrap Up" post of all the going-ons in our household over the past week and a half or so. Pardon the craptastic Cell Phone pictures for the first few--as I've mentioned, lugged the SLR is just not high on my to-do list lately.

We went to the zoo with our good friend Miss Allison and her kids, Hazel and Jakob
Hazel and Garrett like holding hands.

Brad had to serve Jury Duty all day last Monday, so Garrett made him this.
"I made this for Daddy. Its a boat house!"
Mr. No pants playing with his flashlight

And one of his sticker books
(The scratch on his nose was from a face-plant during the zoo trip!)

Aspen love Summer, he's always by her side.
I arranged his ear, Summer was not sure what to think!

Daddy told Garrett he was bringing him a "Special Surprise" one day when he came home from work. Silly Garrett talked about it all day.
He really enjoyed his special cookie!

Summer's favorite thing is her Jump-a-roo, on loan from the Largents.


Riding in the backpack is her new favorite evening activity.
Its been nice to cook dinner with no one screaming :-)

These are from today--this outfit is one Allison gave us, and one of my favorites!

Last, but not least, Brad and I went rock climbing last night at Xtreme Rock Climbing . . . it was a BLAST. We're going to try and go again tomorrow, it is absolutely the best way to spend a date night :-) What better way to say "I love you" than trusting your spouse to NOT drop you as you scale a 30' wall.

5K

Brad and I ran in our first 5K this past Saturday here in Homestead, benefiting South Dade Weed and Seed and Project SOS (2 efforts to revitalize the area, help with at risk youth, etc. etc). We had a blast!! Brad finished somewhere close to 27 minutes, and my time was just under 40. I've been feeling under the weather and boot camp involved a ton of running the day before, so I was pretty happy with it. We had our midpoint boot camp weigh in, I've lost 8lbs since the 2nd week in January. But seriously, I think I'm in the best shape I've ever been in. :-) I'm looking forward to increasing my distances running, I'm really starting to enjoy it. Not bad, considering little princess is not yet 5 months old.

Boot camp girls. Whoorah!

Tomorrow Brad and I are going on a date--Rock climbing. Should be fun :-)
Week in review post to come with updates on what the kiddos have been up to this week.

Tagged!

Allison tagged me to do 10 things about myself . . . thanks a lot girlie!

1. I love to cook . . . its hard to find the time to do it, but I love it. Lately I'm really enjoying trying new dishes and finding creative ways to get my family to eat heatlhy.

2. I am a HORRIBLE housekeeper. I find it impossible to choose to clean when I could be playing with my kids, my dogs, playing outside, doing something active, etc. etc. etc. I just am not good at it!!

3. Given the choice of a ritzy hotel or a tent in the boonies, I would pick a tent every time

4. St. John, USVI is my favorite vacation spot--everywhere else I've been dulls in comparision!

5. I used to hate to run, and now I love it

6. Even though they drive me up the wall sometimes, my kids are the best things in my world

7. My hubby is the greatest--he's been awesome with my busy workout (and work) schedule this year.

8. I miss my best friend from HS--we used to talk daily and now its getting harder and harder to keep in touch!!

9. I couldn't live without books on tape--they make my days in the lab go SO much faster!!

10. I really couldn't live somewhere it is cold--the thought of being stuck indoors with 2 kids makes me quake in my boots!!

Leanne, your it!!!

Monday Madness

I hate Mondays--they are always crazy. Brad is serving Jury Duty today, joy of joys. My neighbor's daughter came to watch the kids so I could still do boot camp (Brad had to leave super early to drive to North Miami) . . . then it was off to the grocery, which seems like a half day affair these days. I'm spending the rest of the day repairing the house from the damage done while I worked all weekend--cleaning, laundry, the usual. I did sign Brad and I up to do a 5K on saturday. I can't even believe I am saying that--I could hardly run half a mile at the beginning of the year, and now I'm going to do 3.1 :-) Seriously, if you think you "can't" run, no one is ever good at it starting out. Its okay to hate it, it will grow on you and it gets easier :-) I did 4 on Saturday!

The weather here is miserable, it can't make up its mind what it wants to do. It rained today, so no nice afternoon walk for us. And now, without further ado, the part you really care about: The cuties!

Aspen is still upset Garrett got the futon. Garrett does not like to SHARE the futon, so Aspen will sneak in at night when Garrett is sound asleep

Goofy grin on my goofy boy

My pretty girl.
This picture is horrible because I need to clean the mirror, but it shows how LONG Summer's hair is and how big she's looking these days.
(I keep forgetting to have Daddy take a picture of us when he's home!)