Hug Point

It's the name of a beach about an hour and a half from our house. Last Monday in honor of A.Deb's 24th birthday and also because we hadn't been to the beach in a long time we ( three sisters, kids and Grandma Jo) piled into the van and went there.

The drive went well, as you can see the kids arm wrestled to pass the time.

We had just pulled up and were getting every one out of the van when there was a roar and we looked up in time to see the Blue Angels fly by in their Delta triangle formation. It was quite a welcome! They are getting ready for the air show the weekend of Aug.9 th at the Hillsboro airport.

It was a bit chilly at first but once we got down on the beach in the sun it felt great!

Phi was not sure about the sand and had to get used to it, probably didn't help that he got woke up from his very short nap as we got there.

Miss Kate didn't mind it at all.. well may be!

We dug Leroy a little hole in the sand and he was happy!

So was Miss Kate to have him down were she could reach him.

" Let me help you with your jacket Leroy!"

The kids played in the sand...

until Miss Kate decided it was lunch time...

"Yumm! just what I was looking for"

"It would sure taste better with out the plastic!"

"Umm! " Enjoying the yummy sandwiches Gramma Jo brought.

Leroy enjoying his sippy.

After lunch Miss Kate and Leroy took naps in the double stroller while Phi and A. Deb made sand castle volcanoes.

Then we decided to stroll down and check out the ocean.

Rocks! well, pebbles, they taste almost as good!

There were some cool scum bubbles after the waves came that were great fun to pop!

Also the Tonka dump truck was great on the wet packed sand for cruising.

We headed down to this very cool, fresh water fall at the edge of the beach.

Going to check it out.

Phi was entertained by it for sometime.

Until Miss Kate and Leroy woke up.

"Hmm it might be more fun if this moved."

"Or NOT!!"

Leroy enjoying the sand on his toes.

"This is fun guys!"

Our little beach bum.

Phi started off the day unsure of this stuff and ended the day rolling in it.

...And dumping buckets of it over his head. It was a great day with beautiful weather enticing us to go back again soon.

Kate's mommy contributed some of these photos of the day.

Verse for the day:
The Lord on high is mightier than the noise of many waters, yea, than the mighty waves of the sea. Psalm 93:4

Blog Give Away!!

ONE LARGE RACCOON!
(Just let me know when you want him)

I'm just joking, sorry...he is kinda cute. See after I posted that last post the other night saying we hadn't seen him in a while maybe he was gone....while we're just about ready to go to bed when My Luv says, " I hear something in the pool I think HE's out there!" We run for the big spot light, quietly slide the back door open and sure enough,

"HE"
is standing at the edge of the pool having just completed his 10th lap. He quickly ran up the nearest tree all disgusted with us for interrupting his exercise program. This morning he was at it again only I woke up at five (since we sleep with our window open) to him playing with something right there on the ground, I peered out to see what he was doing and he promptly stood on his hind legs and peered back to see what I was doing. He then ran to the pool and proceeded to wash something and by the time I got the camera had scampered back across the yard and disappeared. HE is sort of funny to watch, maybe I should just name him and pretend he's the pet dog I 'd like to have but My Luv doesn't.

Swimming Pool Days

Kate and her Mommy joined us for a day in the pool last week since we've been having such great weather! The pool is only half full currently and that makes it the perfect depth for the kiddos when they're floating in the lady bug. Phi thinks it's so cool that his feet touch bottom and he can walk around, Kate just enjoyed floating . We had it filled to the top but we're pretty sure a crazy raccoon we have pulled on the side and dumped part of it out. That sounds off the wall but he's been coming in our yard at night and playing with Phi's toys if we leave them out. He chews millions of little teeth holes in every thing like he's teething or something. When we shined a flash light on him the other night he looked full grown and was having a blast tossing a foam sandal of Phi's in the air and they chewing on it.. like a cat would play with a mouse. So strange! We haven't seen him much since then.. maybe he was embarrassed at having been caught. Anyway afew pic.s of the day.

"Huh! I don't know about this stuff mom."

Hee! check this out, more water!

"Each unto their own."

"Hey Grandma look what I can do!"

"Peekaboo!"

"Ha! they say these are unbreakable!"

Stylin'

Sharing a cheerio snack, they were feeding each other cheerios too, but of course I didn't catch that .

"Come back again soon!"

Time marches on...

Another month old for both of our little men. Phi is 18 months and getting toward the two end of things, we have had some rough days with battles of the will. I keep thinking his eye teeth are coming in as there are lumps now on the upper ones but still nothing has appeared. He is as busy as ever and can now reach door handles. He still can't open most of them thankfully, but at Grandpa D and Grandma Jo 's the handle is a long flat one that you twist down and he has it figured out. But Ferguson the Golden Retriever is a great deterrent on the outside as Phi has a strong aversion to the dog. Ferg likes to watch him when Phi goes out to play in the sand box and they will stand and regard each other from a slight distance on good days. On the bad days Ferg likes to steal licks from Phi's face while Phi screams in terror for some one to save him, therefore for the most part Phi considers the dog a threat to be avoid unless a grown up is around.

Phi loves water still and when ever the kitchen sink is on is desperate to get there. The other day he grabbed the short step stool and attempted to reach but that wasn't quite tall enough so with a quick shove he ran for the nearest bar stool and pushed it across the kitchen. With that in line he clambered up and gleefully accomplished his mission.
He still likes to be a helper most of the time, bring things we ask for and putting things away, his favorite is helping put groceries on the belt when we go grocery shopping. He stands in the front of the cart and loads them on watching in fascination as they move away from him down the belt.
We struggle a lot with the word "come" and seem to have quite a strong will to do whatever is uppermost on his mind. He is still a great sleeper and generally sleeps in till 9:30 at least. If I get up with My Luv by 7:00 am I can get a bit of cleaning done while both little men sleep. I thought the other day, "My man gets up and goes to his job by then, I should get up and do mine" .... some days it happens. :P I certainly feel better when I get a head start on things before the boys get up. So time goes on and we welcome some changes and others we struggle with but are thankful to have a (mostly) happy, healthy little man.

Leroy is now 5 months as of the 21st and loves his big brother. He sits and watches whatever Phi is up to and loves it when Phi plays with him. Phi will bring him toys and Leroy is getting more coordinated at taking them. Some times they'll just sit and laugh at each other, it's been fun to watch the interaction. Of course Phi also takes toys away (something we're trying to work on) but Leroy doesn't complain yet. He is getting a little harder to work with as he wants attention and is not so content to just sit some where for as long.
He had his first taste of baby cereal yesterday, he was so funny as he didn't know how to open his mouth for the bites but wanted to suck off the spoon. (Is'nt that how you eat?? It's worked pretty well so far.) This was a switch from big brother who was ready and willing for bites at around 4 months. I've kind of been enjoying the baby stage lasting longer this time, especially the breast feeding as it's made a great weight loss program. I didn't start loosing from it though until he hit about 4.5 months and then I think the demand was high enough to compensate and it started helping. We didn't get a chance for that with Phi as Leroy was on the way by the time he reached 4 months so this has been great!
He still doesn't go through the night but 5-6 hours is good enough for me for now. He does happen to like to wake up around 8 am and stay up for at least an hour before going back to sleep. That sort of thwarts any plans for sleeping in past then if I'm feeling lazy.
He is a very smiley and mostly out going little man. Occasionally he'll get sad about something and it takes some doing to get him to forget about whatever it is and calm down again. That's only happened twice so far, and the majority of the time he's happy. He talks a lot and has a complaining little jabber he uses when he feels he's been ignored too long. He loves to snuggle most of the time and likes to fall asleep with his little nose buried in the blankets.
We have a well baby check up at the beginning of next month for both boys and it will be fun to see how much he actually weighs!

A picnic with Daddy!

We've had beautiful sunny days lately, on one of them we were out running errands when lunch time happened upon us. Daddy usually comes home for lunch but this day we took lunch to Daddy and had a fun little picnic on the lawn at work.

Yum! a bite of Frosty.

Phi came and went while enjoying his chicken nuggets and mango slices from Wendy's. They have a great 99 cent menu here, you can get a junior cheese burger deluxe which has everything a $2.50 1/4 lb.er has only it's smaller for 99 cents. That way the burger is more the serving size you should actually eat too. Any way so we were enjoying our picnic until the lawn care guy came along and needed to mow the grass we were sitting on. We sure have trouble picking good picnic spots! :D
Looks like Leroy might be attempting to snitch some of Daddy's Frosty while he's distracted.
As you can see the grass really needed to be mowed. :)

"That lawn mower is too loud"

Playing with daddy after lunch.

Leroy is learning to sit up and does better every day. Currently he still topples at random.
Phi coming in for a fill up.

He figured out he could drink and not pick up the cup if he squatted.
These guys, anything to make life easier. :)

Bite anyone?

Verse for the day:
For HE satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness. Psalm 107:9