Real Time

Its been a crazy week! We've got sicknesses coming and going and just cant seem to get everyone well at once! But before I forgot, i wanted to make note of a couple of cute things my kiddos have said/done recently!

On the way to taking Rhyan to school today, I asked "Rhyan, are you hot or cold?" and then "Jackson" (we carpool some so this is the little boy who rides with us!) "are you hot or cold". One was cold, one was "fine" so i said that i'd turn the heat up just a bit.
We kept driving and maybe a minute later i hear "hey mommy" from mack. "What baby?" I reply. And this next part made me want to pull over and just kiss his little face... so cute! He said "what about me?! i cold too!"

OH sweet boy! Thank you for reminding me that, little as you may be, you count! :-)

Rhyan has a new term that I'm unsure of where she got it from. Its not "bad" but not preferable. But its also cracking me up. I'll use it in context for you.
Jeff did/said something silly and Rhyan responded with "Daddy, you're such a goober!"
HUH!?!

Lorddy... these kids keep us laughing. Or crying. Or laughing till we cry!

VACATION!!! Day 1

Each year, we enjoy taking family vacation with Jeffs parents. I get weird looks about that all the time, like "ooo... that nice of you". But really, my in-laws are great. And SO easy and great to vacation with! So we always look forward to spending time together and best of all, I treasure the fact that Rhyan and Mack are making so many good memories that they will cherish for a lifetime! Grandparents are so special!

We went back to Amelia Island this year. Its about a 6 hour drive. We got as packed as we could and were out the door around 15 min later than we planned. We always try to plan long driving trips this way: leave before breakfast and just go through a drive through on the way, let the kids eat in their carseats, keep the tv OFF for at least the first hour, hopefully we can make it two hours and after that we cross fingers that they will tolerate the car ride till lunch time. We take snacks and a toy bag (this year i got some great cheap stuff out of the dollar bins at target! slinky's were the biggest hit but they also loved the books i brought, coloring books, travel magnadoodles, etc). Honestly, the kids drove us a little batty on the drive. They are at the age where they do things to annoy each other. I'm told thats normal? Maybe so, but its annoying, too :-). Even with the tv ON they were yelling!

There is a gas station/petting zoo (odd combo, you think? hmmm... i thought so!) that we always try to make a pit stop at. Its at about the 3 hour mark so its a nice time to stretch the legs. It was pretty rainy/drizzly the entire time and guess who was a diva and didnt want to go pet/feed the animals? Rhyan!

Mack didnt let any rain bother him... but Rhyan had to be carried by her daddy... as they shared a princess umbrella. Can we say spoiled?! He's such a sweet daddy, yall. Precious!

Rhyan and Mack both seemed to enjoy the animals to some extent, but not the way they did last year! :-( I think that they were just all around cranky!

We got back in the car and planned to head a few minutes up the road and meet up with Jeffs parents for lunch at the crackle barrel! Well, about 2 minutes into the car ride, this is what I saw. REALLY! Great! ha!

We had to wake him up for lunch, which was sad b/c it was about the only nap he took that day and was only 20 minutes! He was a crank pot in the restaurant, too! We had to take him out a couple of times and just in general he didnt seem pleased that we woke him. Poor thing ;-)

After lunch, we have a little over 2 hours to go typically. The kids did ok the rest of the way... and before they knew it, we were HERE!

We went straight to the ocean to check it out before even goign to our condo! The kids were already in love so we knew this would be a good vacation!

Getting unpacked and settled is a big part of me feeling relaxed for the vacation, so we headed back to the condo to do a little work. And decided to go ahead and take advantage of the pool and see how the kids did! Mack put on his froggie swimmer and immediately went to paddling all over that pool! It was SO exciting, considering that a week earlier he was a different kid in the water! He loved it!

And Rhyan really surprised me! We brought her swimmie as well, but she said she didnt need it and she could swim.... and she jumpted in and DID! We had to have lots of talks about when you can jump in and when its NOT ok... and about 29 heart attacks later, she got the hang of it :-)

Jason and Liz came this year as well with Baby Avery!!! We were so excited! They got there a little after 6, i think?! We were all sitting down to eat dinner (ordered in i think) when they arrived... perfect timing!

We were off to a great start!! LOVE spending time with our family!!

Random through July

Some random pics before we get into our BEACH VACA POSTS!!! Woohoo!
Our kids are always obsessed with birds nests and so each spring/summer we keep our eyes out and frequently check on any nests we may find. This year, this little lady was found in a bush in our neighbors yard. She had 3 babies and my babies SO enjoyed watching them go from eggs, to babies, to GONE!

Little Rhyan agreed to a hair cut! Her hair always looks so much healthier when its trimmed up a bit, but its hard to convince a little girl who wants "hair like rapunzel" to get said trim. I was relieved. And she was quite pleased with the results! Its always so much curlier after a trim too!

CFA does a dress like a cow and get a free meal day each year. This year, i printed off the little printable cow kit off their website and we dressed up and headed out. The kids looked SO cute and it was a LOT of fun. Mack cracked us up the whole time with his constant (and LOUD!) "i wanna go see cow!". At one point i heard him yelling and saw him running across the restaurant say "i wuz you cow!"
 He was supposed to be in the play area but escaped ;-)

Mack has also become quite the daredevil... climbing onto and jumping off of EVERYTHING! We are constantly correcting him, but part of me thinks that geez... he's a boy... its normal. ;-)

TYPICAL! Totally kidding... this man is SUCH  a hard worker... love him!

A little people wedding :-) My baby girls imagination (a girly one at that) amuses me! Of course, all of the animals were lined up to be the witnesses! HA!

Coming up next: BEACH VACA! Wow!

Swim Lessons!

At our family swim party in June at Shlaine and Steve's house, we decided that swim lessons BEFORE vacation were a MUST! :-) Mack wanted independence but fussed if you werent holding him. Rhyan had no fear and jumped in the water with NO floaties on and no adult near by. Whew. Mini heart attack.

So we decided to go back to Swim Atlanta here in Dacula. I'd love to do survival swim classes sometime with both kids but we have 2 deterrents. 1. Cost (its over $300 a kid!) and 2. Time (the classes are 5 days a week for 10-15 min each... the drive alone is 30 min for us for that particular class! And we both work.) One summer we will hopefully do it, but seeing as how we dont have a pool in our own back yard, I dont worry much. If that dream ever becomes a reality, you bet we'll be investing in the classes for sure!

Rhyan was SO excited to go back to classes. We did her first round right after Mack was born and it was great! She gained a good bit of independence and had a great time! That was a mommy and me class and so this year was a bit different... not only were we not in the water with her, we werent even allowed to be in viewing distance! Behind the mirrored glass... Which is why I have almost no pics. Each time I'd try to sneak out and take some, Rhyan would see me, be distracted and her teacher would shoo me away! ha!

The kids classes were back to back. Mack would go first and then Rhyan. It worked out great because we would just let Rhyan take some toys or her little leap pad explorer and she would sit in the waiting room (directly next to the pool we were in with mack) and play while we did his lesson! Such a big girl!

Honestly, I was pretty worried about how Mack would do. He's a very vocal child and if he disapproves of anything, everyone knows it.  But his teacher assured me that it didnt bother her and not to worry. So we pressed in! The new environment must have made a big difference, though, because for the most part he was really well behaved. EXCEPT... he hit his teacher once. In the face. And told her "no! stop it!". And she promptly took his bootie out of the pool and told him we do not hit and he needed to say "i'm sorry". It took him a minute to be willing to apologize and she just waited. He gave in and she gave him hugs and said "lets go have fun! but NO hitting". I about died, i was so embarrassed. But I was also grateful that she didnt look to me to get in the middle of it. Dont get me wrong, i KNOW its OUR responsibility to discipline Mack... but she was in authority in this class and he KNEW it and i knew it would be nipped in the bud much quicker if she handled it. She was a pro!

We talked about the hitting incident at home, obviously, and the next morning (withOUT being prompted at all!) he walked right up to his teacher and said "MACK NO HIT!" and smiled and gave her a hug. LOL!

He loved "humpty dumpty" and falling in, but didnt want me to pull him in... he wanted to fall in on his own and then let me pull him up. Such a dare devil!

He also did GREAT going under water! We would have him "zoom" from his teacher to me and back all under water and for the most part, he would come up smiling! The other thing that cracked us up is that his teacher would tell us to lay his head on our shoulder (having him look up) and assist him in floating, all while encouraging him to "look! what do you see?!" (use your imagination as to what you see on a pool warehouse ceiling). But Mack joined right in.. "LOOK MOMMY! A TRAIN!" or "LOOK! ITS BRUCE!" or "NEMO!!!". What a nut... with a great imagination!

Here was Mack as he "graduated" with his little friend. They were so cute and gave hugs every day!

Honetsly, I cant even tell you what all they worked on with Rhyan cause, duh, I couldnt be there! But I do know that coming out of the class she could jump in the water and swim at least 5 feet under water unassisted. Could swim from person to person 5-8 feet apart unassisted. Was working on floating. And literally had NO fear of the water. Love that girl and her love for water!

And she cracked me up... the first day of class she was the only kid w/o goggles. So of course we ran out and bought a pair... She wore those jokers ALL THE TIME! Loved them! Quite the look, right?!

The swim lessons were a HUGE benefit to the kiddos and, as you'll hopefully read in the next week, a huge help for while we were at the beach!  Idk that we'll do lessons every year, but periodically for sure. They enjoy it so much and its really great to see all they are learning and the love it has given them both for the water. Even our trips to Lanier World for the rest of the summer were much improved!