Double Trouble

I found these cute little faces in the middle of the pillows on my bed this morning. It's one of Nathan and Jordan's new favorite hiding places.  They have just begun to work together in their mischievous shenanigans.  Two toddler boys means some serious double trouble.

This afternoon, we heard Jordan moaning from the living room saying "My hand hurts.  My hand hurts."  When Bryan went to check on Jordan, it turns out his hand was stuck in the wipes box because both boys had completely emptied the box, one wipe at a time. The picture below was during the clean-up time with Daddy supervising. 

There's never a dull moment in our house and it is fabulous. 

CARS 2

The Calvert Household has been waiting for today for several weeks.  Bryan has been showing Nathan and Jordan "Cars2" previews on the computer.  We have been making pit stops at the "Cars" aisle in Target.  We have been rewinding for Cars2 commercials.  (What did we do before TiVo?)  We have even been suckered into buying "Cars" Kleenex, "Cars" soup, "Cars" crackers, "Cars" pretzels, "Cars" cookies.  Yep.  We were just a little excited! This was Nathan and Jordan's first movie at the movie theater so I was a little nervous.  They were awesome.  Thank goodness.

Daddy took the boys for a walk and to burn a little energy while I saved our seats in the theater.

Uncle Jay and Vivi joined us!  Here they are waiting so patiently for the movie to start.

After the boys came home and crashed for a 3 hour nap, Bryan made the boys a picture scavenger hunt for a very special "Cars2" prize!

Getting started...

Found Card #2...

Found Card #3...

Found Card #4...

Found Card #5...

And that led the boys to their special prize!  New cars from the new movie! 

They were so tickled!!

Look who joined us at the supper table tonight.

Isn't it fun to spoil your babies rotten for a day?!  We had a blast making today special for Nater-Tot and Jordy.

Road Trip to Georgia

We had a wonderful visit with family in Georgia this week.  The boys were awesome little troopers on the long car ride.  Thanks to DVD players and Disney movies!!   We stayed with my Aunt Pam and Uncle Steve on this trip.  The boys loved their toy room.  It was full of boys' toys...race cars, motorcycles, boats, tools, books, transformers, and much more.  Nathan and Jordan felt right at home!  Thank you Aunt Pam and Uncle Steve for so graciously opening up your home to our little family this week.  We love you!

We spent lots of time outside...

  Playing catch with Grandad.

This is Vivi as "Rapunzel."  (She declared herself as Rapunzel because she was outside without shoes.  If a princess does it, it must be okay...right?)

Uncle Jon cooked the most delicious quesadillas one night.  We put all our "fixens" on inside and brought it out to him at the griddle and he cooked it up perfect for us.  Yumm!

Jordy loved to play in the big magnolia branches and pick up all the leaves.

More playing outside...

In my Memom Beam's front yard - Jenn and I grew up trotting along this black pipe as a balance beam every summer.  So, we had to introduce the balance beam to our own kids!  They loved it.  Jordan was not so interested in having help.  And, after walking the kids across it many times in the heat of the day, we wondered why that was always so much fun.  ?!??!?  :)

Memom Fuller, Nathan, Vivi, and Jordan are sitting on my Aunt Laura's front porch watching some cousins play a game of softball in the front yard.  I love this picture!  Please excuse N and J's messy hair.  They had just gotten out of the pool.  :)

Cousin Zachary's "yellow race car" was a big hit with Nater Tot and Jordy!  They were so excited to get their picture taken with the yellow race car.

Zachary even let them sit in the front seat!  What a special treat!

We took some Beam family pics while we were all together.  This is my grandparents with their two sons (Dad and Uncle Larry) and both daughter-in-laws. 

Cousins!

Bryan taught Vivi how to do the wheelbarrow.  This was after Vivi told us that she didn't want to do a forward roll because she didn't have on fancy panties.  HA!  She cracks me up!

We made a visit to the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta one day.  The boys, Vivi, and Baby Georgia loved it!

Waiting patiently for the dolphin show to start...

SHARKS!  Nathan and Jordan were so intrigued by the sharks.  They kept repeating Bruce-the-Shark's words from "Finding Nemo" - "Fish are friends.  Not food."  So fun to see one of the boys' favorite movies become so real to them.

Baby Georgia was such a trooper on that long day.  She was just as happy as she could be looking at all the big fish! 

Nathan and Jordan got super excited when they saw a real NEMO!! 

Nathan is looking at the crabs and he's saying "Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey," just like the crabs in "Nemo."  So funny!

Driving the boat...

This was one of the boys' favorite activities at the Aquarium...a WHALE SLIDE! 

Tunnels make fish-viewing extra fun!

We had such a fabulous time on our visit....can't wait to go back to Georgia again.  It's too bad that it's a 14 hour drive away.  The time is always too long in between visits.  Thank goodness we have a few Georgia folks coming to visit us this summer! 

Summer is in Full Swing!

Tomorrow will complete our first week of summer.  The boys had swim lessons this week.  We finish up swim lessons with 4 lessons next week.  It has not been the most pleasant experience!  The boys are NOT afraid of the water.  They will jump off the side of the pool to me and Bryan.  They will float on their back.  They blow bubbles.  But, NOT at swim lessons!  Day 1 was fabulous.  Day 2 and 3:  Nathan had fun, but Jordan cried and for 30 straight minutes.  Day 4 was finally successful.  Whew!  Both Nathan and Jordan actually looked like they were having fun.  Now let's just hope we don't digress before Monday. 

Day 1 of Swim Lessons:

Just a few things I don't want to forget at 28 months:

Jordan is quite stubborn.  He loves routine and he knows what he likes.  Tonight, I tried to put alligator pjs on him and he said, "no like that."  He picked Superman pjs instead.  Yesterday, he had to go to time-out during breakfast because I gave him a red (strawberry) yogurt smoothie instead of green (strawberry kiwi) yogurt smoothie .  He likes red yogurt so I never thought it would be an issue.  It was.  I won.  He ate the red yogurt.  :)

Every night at bed time, the boys take a bath, we read about four stories and then the routine begins...Nathan and Jordan each get two sips of water from my leftover ice water at supper.  Then, Jordan needs his airplane blanket folded like a pillow.  Make sure he has his Ellie (elephant).  Cover him with his teddy bear blanket.  Lastly, he says, "Jesus Loves Me.  Close door.  Rub back."  He wants me to close his bedroom door, sing "Jesus Loves Me" and rub his back.  Then, he reminds me that it's "Tot's turn."  So, I have to sing the second verse to "Jesus Loves Me" and rub Nater-Tot's back.  Every night is exactly the same.  It cracks me up!  Toddlers are little creatures of habit at this age.  

Today at lunch we folded our hands and closed our eyes for the blessing.  Jordan surprised us by saying the prayer and jibber-jabbered a bit and then he said, "Tenk -u - God - wat-eh-melon."  He closed with a great charismatic "AMEN." So sweet! 

Jordan loves: kisses, Spiderman, Superman, Batman, Tow-Mater, Lightning McQueen, Mack, Matchbox cars, Crayons, puzzles, watermelon, cookies, cereal, peanut butter, playing with his Daddy, swimming, and singing.  He has quite a great rendition of "Life is a highway" and the "Spiderman Theme Song."

Nathan is always surprising us!  He is so laid back and easy going.  He still loves Buzz and his blue "banket."  Nathan likes for us to tuck Buzz in his bed every night too.  

He thinks "Tow-Mater's Tall Tales" is the greatest movie ever.  Nater-Tot loves tractors and he loves to reinact the tractor-tipping scene from "Cars."  It's hilarious!  He takes his Matchbox tractor and tow truck and says "gonna getcha! gonna getcha!  Fraaaaaaaannnnnnkkk!"  and he turns that tractor up on its back.  Then he drives the tow-truck away really fast.   

Nater-Tot loves swimming and jumping off the side of the pool.  He just laughs and laughs his fun hearty laugh the whole time he's in the pool. 

Nathan loves puzzles, throwing and catching a beach ball, Tow-Mater, Lightning McQueen, Crayons, books, fire trucks, Mack, Buzz Lightyear, swimming, ice cream, Spiderman, Batman, Superman, playing hide and see with Daddy, and stickers.

Okay, now I have to sign off and watch the 4th Quarter of this Mavericks game.  It's game 5 of the Finals and I know that if I don't pay attention to the end of the game, Bryan will just sit me down to watch it on TiVo tomorrow.  :)

A Little Taste of Summer And an EASY Peanut Butter Cookie Recipe

I love Memorial Day Weekend.  I love it because it is a great time to get together with family and remember the people that made our country's freedom a reality.  My Grandaddy Beam and Grandaddy Fuller both fought in WWII.  What an honor it is to be their granddaughter.  Grandaddy Fuller is with the Lord now so I have quite a tender heart on days like this.  I am so glad that we have Veterans' Day and Memorial Day to stop everything and remember.

Memorial Day also gives us a little taste of summer every year...swimming, watermelon, and hamburgers cooked on the grill.   We have 3 more days of school with kiddos and Friday is a workday.  I think I can.  I think I can.  I think I can!  Summers are just such a treasure at our house.  We live such a hectic life from August to May.  It is a complete blessing for us to have 8 full weeks of family time. 

We started off the weekend with a visit to "Tractors, Trucks, and Heavy Equipment Day" at the Farm in town.  It was awesome!  I have never seen so many little boys in one place in all my life.  Nathan and Jordan loved all the trucks!  It was a little boy's dream!

The Antique Fire Truck!

The John Deere Tractor!

The Dump Truck!

And FRRAAAANNNNKKK!  (just like in the movie, "Cars.")

Little toy tractors!

And the best for last....the FIRE TRUCK!

Then, we celebrated Brayden and Bryce's 4th Birthday at Chuck E. Cheese.  So fun!

The Birthday boys!

The Ticket Blower! 

Today: a cookout at Gram and PaPa's for lunch. 

Tonight:  a cookout at MiMi and Grandad's for supper!  Bryan's birthday is on Wednesday so we were able to celebrate him today. It's always special to celebrate the one you love. He requested peanut butter cookies for his birthday treat. So, I have to share the fabulous Paula Deen recipe...

1 cup peanut butter
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg
Mix it all together and form into balls the size of walnuts. Bake them at 350 degrees for about 12 minutes. Sprinkle them with sugar while they are still hot. They were delicious and so easy!!
Remember the dress-up clothes MiMi gave the grand kids for Christmas?  They have provided lots of fun over at MiMi and Grandad's house!

Nathan was a football player today.  Isn't that helmet hilarious?  He was playing catch with Aunt Jenn.

Jordy thought he would be Santa Claus in May.  He does request Santa Claus stories for bedtime quite a bit!  HA! 

"I sing for joy at the works of Your hands!"  Psalm 92:4

Weekends like this make my heart just overflow with praise.