I'm a sucker for....

 ...those signs with sentimental or clever quotes on them. You know those signs, right? The kind that describe words like "family" or "home." Yeah, so I will totally tear up when I read them, especially when they pack more of an emotional punch, like, for instance, describing the relationship between brothers.

So when perusing a Pottery Barn Kids, and seeing the below sign about "brothers" I couldn't help but snap a picture of it for some inspiration. My boys drive me crazy. They can be wild, sneaky, and downright mischievous. But I love that more often than not, that they get into trouble together. I hope they become great friends for life.

 Note how Conner is intensely watching his brothers wrestle, fascinated by their behavior. He is already trying to pull himself and crawl around, anxious to play with them.

 so cute, watching Despicable Me.

Projects

Do you ever feel like your life is just one big project after another? I feel this perfectly describes my life right now, after we've moved from one home to another. Our weekends are devoted to getting our house settled, and maybe a little fun if we can sneak it in.

 

I love our new house and it's much bigger than our last, so that is awesome for the kids (and me). But that also means I have more space to take care of, and decorating ideas are crowding my head, just begging to be implemented. So as always, my boys' rooms get the attention first. I seized the opportunity while Jack was away at his grandparents' house for a week to paint his and Jason's rooms.

 

Jack got a race track with Lightning McQueen-

 

I love Jack's room, and so does he. It was a total surprise to him when he came home from his grandparents'. His eyes were wide-eyed, like what happened in here? He likes to show people his room when they come over.

 

Jason got a jungle with monkeys-

 

If you know Jason at all, you know why I chose monkeys. His spirit animal is the monkey, the way he climbs and jumps over any and everything.

 

And Conner's room? He's a baby who doesn't care and his mom is tired of painting, so his room is on the backburner for now.

 

You know how it's impossible to find the "perfect" house when house hunting? Unless you have an unlimited budget, you just can't get EVERYthing you want in a home. Well, when we were considering this house, the backyard was a con on the list. It is small and quite literally a jungle. The previous owners loved trees. They loved them so much, that they planted them everywhere. EVERYwhere! Which is not so great when you want room for your testosterone-fueled boys to run, jump, and tackle each other. So the back yard was another project.

 

We brought our trampoline with us to the new house, and took for granted our last yard's open spaces. Jon had to dig out and clear out the ground space for the trampoline, getting rid of annoying small bushes and tiny trees. And if that wasn't enough work, we then had to clear out the air space. Yes, the air. We have a big tree that was in desperate need of trimming. One chainsaw session later, and the air space was cleared!

 

 The chainsaw's victims, set out for the brush pick up-

And finally, weeks after moving in, the trampoline was up!

We are happy to be in our new home and this side of Dallas. It's right where we need to be this time in our lives, with Jack starting Kindergarten in an amazing school district. We're so blessed and grateful!

Brothers

One night after bath time, I stumbled upon one of those rare occurrences when you actually get amazing pictures of your kids with the camera phone. Aren't they little heart breakers?

And while this shot was taken a couple of weeks later, I think it still deserved some attention.

Dallas Arboretum

We took the boys to the Dallas Arboretum about a month ago, and it was fun (and a little hot). They are doing an Alice in Wonderland exhibit, so there were some cool features to see.

The Mad Hatter's tea party-

playing croquet on the queen of heart's property-

Daddy- "no, Jason, you swing it this way. It's not a bat."

and this is why you don't swing the mallet like a bat, so you don't get it stuck in the fence!

Sliding down an ancient Aztec slide....

Falling down an ancient Aztec slide-

a rock wall- we must climb on it!

a view of White Rock Lake

the best part of it all- lunch at Red Robin's afterwards, yum!

Pool Time

 

We haven't been to the pool nearly as much as I'd have liked to this summer, with the new baby and move and all....but we still managed to squeeze in a few sessions.

 

Conner loved getting in the water, and just relaxed on his back for me-

 

Jack & Jason jumping in, I love the difference between their "approach" here-

 

Jack & Jason took swim lessons this year. Jack, who is a fish, did awesome. He's never had any fear of the water, jumps right in the deep end and swims across the pool. He even floats on his back without help, he just trusts the water. Here's a short clip of him swimming to his teacher. Unfortunately, I waited until he swam for 30 mins before thinking to take a video, so he's a little tired and silly in this clip.

First Bath

I gave Conner his first bath when he was about 3 weeks old, once his umbilical stump healed. And the verdict was...

 

He loved it!

 

 Bathing my 3rd child is a much more pleasurable experience than bathing my 1st, since I'm no longer terrified of dropping him or losing my grip in the slippery water. Conner just had his eyes wide open the whole time, taking in the warm water. He only got to have a few baths in this sink, before we moved :(

Here he is with Jon bathing him, in my parents' sink. (during our interim stay at their house during our move)

Now he is 2 months old! We just got back from the pediatrician's office and these are his stats:

-Height: 24.5 in (90th)
-Weight: 12 lbs (40th)
-Head circumference: can't remember the #, but it was the 50th%

I don't even know where to begin!

It's been crazy in our family this summer with so many changes happening simultaneously, that I don't know where to start with this post. I suppose I'll start at the beginning. Conner is the best baby, (thankfully- because we wouldn't have had the time or energy to handle a needy baby!) and is growing like a weed, sleeps thru the night already, smiles and coos to you, and is quite the handsome one.

He will be 2 months old this Saturday, and it feels like he should be 6 months old to me because life's been so busy lately. I wish life would slow down and I could enjoy my baby more! Thankfully, the slow down is now beginning, and life is returning to normal.

So why the craziness? We put our house on the market, sold it, searched for and bought a new house, and moved.....all while having a new baby. Literally, while having a baby. I was texting our realtor and signing a contract on our house while in labor in the hospital. She thought it was so funny that she snapped a picture of it and posted it on her Facebook page. So because Jon changed jobs from working in Fort Worth to now working in Dallas, we listed our house and thankfully got an offer within the first few days! Thank goodness, because trying to keep my house spotless and perfect with 2 boys running around is nigh unto impossible. So I was extremely relieved that our house was under contract as of the night before Conner was born (hence me signing papers in the hospital).

So I thought the hard part was behind us. Selling the house is the hard part, right? Wrong. It turns out, in this market, buying a house is the hard part since it's a seller's market right now. So later that day, the day Conner was born, Jon and I were searching for houses in the Dallas area. Turns out that out of the houses we found, about 90% were already under contract. So there was very limited inventory for us to shop from....meaning little choice and higher prices. So long story short, in a period of about 2 weeks, we furiously looked for our next house, trying to find a bigger house in the right neighborhood and school district. We put an offer on one house (sight unseen by me since I'd just had a baby 2 days earlier), the offer was accepted, and upon a scary home inspection, we dropped that house.....and then we found the one! It was everything we wanted- in the right school district, a beautiful neighborhood, and a good size for our growing family. It's a house we can make into ours over the years, and my head is spinning with all the ideas I have for this house. I can't wait to implement all of them!

So lest you think I'm a drama queen and think I'm whining about the above mentioned house hunt making life crazy.....here's the stressful part: 24 hours out from closing on the sale of our Fort Worth house, the title company calls me to say that the buyer's lender hasn't given them final loan approval yet and we have to push back the closing date. BAD NEWS. Now, we can't buy our next house, because that's conditional on us selling our house. Ugh. The worst part is, that the bank won't tell us when we can close on our house, dropping us in a black hole of waiting to close. In the meanwhile, I've switched utilities between the two houses, set up a U-haul truck, moving dates, and have money tied up in this! Looonnnggg story short, we ended up having our whole house on a U-haul truck for nearly two weeks, parked in front of my parents' house, WAITING for the bank to give our buyers the clear to close on our house. It was honestly one of the worst experiences of my life, worrying that the whole deal might fall thru and we'd have to re-list the house, and lose our new house. Thankfully though, the lender finally gave the okay to close and it worked out. We ended up having to rent our new house for a week before we officially closed on it. But, now our old house is sold, and our new house is bought. And that awful U-haul truck that I had to look at for 12 days is emptied and gone!

 

We're getting settled into our new house, unpacking and organizing, and the boys love it. They are thrilled with the extra space, their new rooms, and the back yard. And I love that we're on a great lot, in a cul-de-sac, where the boys can safely ride their bikes outside. We were very blessed in finding this house!

And now that we have working internet, and I just spent close to an hour uploading pictures and videos from both my and Jon's phones, expect to see more posts soon. I know you're on the edge of your seat.