A Perfect January Day

Yesterday was a gorgeous, shorts-and-t-shirts kind of day in Houston. It was the perfect day to run down the street to the park.

It was the perfect day to play with your brother.

It was the perfect day to pretend to be the Kratt brothers going on an adventure.

It was the perfect day to climb.

It was even the perfect day to get a little dizzy!A beautiful, spring-like day in the middle of winter? Perfect!

Dancing Brothers

On Sunday night, Gene was making pizza, Christmas music was blasting from the stereo, and the boys were dancing up a storm. The bowHugs for the performersSweet boys!

A New Camera and Some Backyard Fun

We got a new camera! Okay, it's actually not that exciting because it's just a little point-and-shoot to replace our seven-year-old one that puts lovely colored lines through the middle of all our photos. I still have my nice big Rebel, but sometimes a girl needs a pocket-sized camera that takes better photos than a smartphone!

So, a tiny little Canon Elph (in red!) arrived on our doorstep this week, and once we got a new memory card for it, I had to try it out.

Fortunately, the boys were running around with water guns yesterday, so I had an opportunity to take plenty of photos. The very first photo on the my new camera! Henry is very serious about his water guns. I sent Gene out to water my herbs. Then the boys chased him. Gene ran with that silly watering can for quite awhile before he realized he could put it down! Happy boy!Cornered!Henry ran right at me, at full speed.Posing for Mommy. Henry had trouble pointing his water gun the right way.A little better...

Finally got it right! Yep, I've got two cool, water-gun-yielding boys and a super cool tiny new camera! Whee!!!

No Henry

I guess this was bound to happen eventually.
You teach a kid to read and write and he's eventually going to use that knowledge to ban his little brother from his room. I don't blame Will at all, though, since he kept building castles and Henry kept knocking them down. The only problem, of course, is that Will assumed that a) Henry could read his sign and b) Henry would abide by his rule! At least Will was kind enough to help Henry read the words. Henry wasn't too perturbed by Will's sign, but he did retaliate by asking me how to spell "No Will" and then placing those letters, very carefully, on the floor outside his room. Brothers!

The Crazies Step Out

The little boys and I had another jam-packed day yesterday. You would think that things might slow down now that we're officially enjoying summer vacation, but we were on the go all day yesterday with a morning playdate and lunch with friends, a visit with Nana and Pop, cooking, and picking up our CSA veggies. Busy!!

My basil is exploding in the backyard, so the boys helped me pick two cups of the leaves to make pesto for our dinner.
Yummy pesto pasta with chicken and homegrown tomatoes from one of Gene's coworkers. Delish!
Henry insisted on a picture with Baby. Why not?
And then the crazies decided to put their pants on their heads and run around the house for a bit yelling, "Mr. Pants Head!" Seriously, this is what passes for fun at our house at times!
And here's one more crazy outfit. Henry insisted on wearing long-sleeved snowman jammies last night. Never mind that it is 97 degrees outside. Maybe he's just hoping to dream about cooler temps!
I wonder what adventures the crazies will go on today??

Sweet

This morning, the boys and I visited Gene at work. We waited outside for a few minutes. What a gorgeous morning! The boys love visiting Daddy's office downtown, partly because there is a big candy dish full of jellybeans on his desk!This afternoon, Will and I had a special date for ice cream while Henry enjoyed some one-on-one time with Grampa at home.

Sweet!

Wild and Crazy

If you have boys, you know that they can be wild and crazy! My boys are absolutely no exception. They literally run in circles in my house and have insane amounts of energy. They are hard to keep up with, they get hurt all the time, and they exhaust me and drive me crazy on a daily basis, but they are two of the sweetest boys ever and I wouldn't have it any other way!

My mother-in-law took these pictures of the boys before Christmas. They were wrestling in Nana and Pop's backyard, using up some of that endless energy (where do they get it??), and having a blast.

These next two pictures perfectly capture the boys' abundant energy. Here I am getting a sweet hug from my niece while Gene is trying to corral my crazy boys in the background. Typical!

But it's not wild and crazy all the time. We have our peaceful moments too, like when we're reading books, which we do a lot. I just took this picture yesterday. Will was eating some of his conversation hearts from Valentine's Day and asked me to take his picture. Sweet boy. Wild and crazy, sweet and loving. That's my life with these two beautiful, energetic, amazing little boys.

Introducing the Yeah-buts

Do you have some yeah-buts living at your house? We have two little yeah-buts around here. They're pretty cute and we're planning on keeping them. You probably have them too, if your kids are old enough to speak in sentences. Gene's dad coined the name after hearing "yeah, but" one too many times. I know you've been there before too. You ask your child if he's ready to go and the response, is "Yeah, but I don't have my coat!" Gene's dad calls the boys "yeah-buts" because of this and they love it. Now whenever someone says "yeah, but" the boys are so attuned to it that they ask, "Did I just hear a yeah-but?" Yeah, um, yes, you probably did! I guess I'm a yeah-but too!

The Boys

I captured some great pictures of the boys in my life recently and wanted to share them. I love these two pictures of Will! What a happy boy!Last week, Gene's folks came up for dinner and we decided to crack open a bottle of Fall Creek wine that Gene had held on to for years. Now it's not a super special wine (it was made in Texas after all!) but it had significance to Gene because his dad gave it to him at a partners' retreat back in 1997. We decided to open it to celebrate one of our last family dinners in Fall Creek, and I'm glad we did.

And here are a couple of shots with Gene and his big boys.

These guys are the best!

Inside Games

Can you guess what game the boys are playing here? Peek-a-boo?

Nope, not peek-a-boo! They're playing hide-and-seek. Henry is really good at counting to 10 and shouting out "Ready or not, here I come!" He's just not so good at staying in his hiding spot. Will counts, Henry hides, Will gets to 10 and Henry comes running out! Then Will tells him to go stay in his hiding spot. When Will hides, Henry doesn't really look for him. He just runs around shouting, "Where's Will?" So Will helps him by saying, "Here I am, Henry!"

It's pretty cute to watch them play.

Happy boys!