Random

Y'all.  I'm so behind on the blog that I'll never catch up if I don't just post all of the pictures here.  My brain is exhausted from lecture writing, so forgive me if this is completely incomprehensible.

On labor day, we went to the zoo where we thought we'd have fun, quality time together as a family of four...Hunter had other plans though.

He was actually ecstatic when we arrived...

and was in awe of the gorillas...

 as was his sister...

 He was even daring enough to taunt this crocodile!...

 He actually really liked those statues of the animals...more than the live ones I think!

We stopped to look at this HUGE tortoise, and Hunter was starting to lose his patience a little.  Charlotte seemed just as intrigued as we were, though.  She loved looking and pointing at all of the animals.

 By the time we got to the elephants, Hunter's tantrum was in full swing...

You can see how embarrassed Charlotte is from her screaming brother. Me?  The screaming didn't bother me nearly as much as the seizure-like body flailing. We forced H into the stroller because "when you act like a baby, you get treated like one" and he lost. it.  He was shaking the entire stroller, and hit is sister...twice.  So after a grand total of 1 hour at the Dallas zoo, we left.

H has redeemed himself many times since then, though. 

 Cousin Brooke came to visit and they were so sweet together...

And he's always really helpful with yard work...

He calls that water hose attachment his "mower" and insists on using it whenever James is mowing...and also when he's not.

(That's my 5th grade Luna Elementary tshirt and I think Hunter looks so cute in it!)

Hopefully I can keep up a little better with posting because H says so many cute things now that I know I'll never remember if I don't write them down!

Bowling

Last Thursday I came home from work a little early so we decided to go bowling.  H was so excited, and once Charlotte saw just how much she could actually get into, she was ecstatic as well.  As soon as we set her down, she headed straight for the lane.  James was exchanging shoes and I was busy with Hunter, so I didn't see her until she was half way down it and an employee was right behind me giving me the watch your kids better lady look.  I ran and grabbed her and .7 seconds later, I looked up and saw this...

I really don't see what the big deal was, considering we were the only family in the entire bowling section.  Literally...

We finally got all 3 people in the appropriate sized shoes and after much searching found a toddler friendly bowling ball.  Both kids were really intrigued...

  

It didn't take Hunter long to figure out the routine.  He was a champ at waiting for his ball, carrying it over, and rolling it down the alley.

And yes, you read that correctly.  H insisted on rolling the ball every time, so you can imagine how long we had to stand and wait...

 and wait...

 and wait...

 until the ball finally reached the pins (thanks to the bumpers).  Or until the nice Main Event man came to get the ball and bring it back for us on those turns when H decided to push it as lightly as humanly possible.

Charlotte had fun dancing to the music, crawling around the disgusting floor and sticking her teeny little fingers in the bowling ball holes...

But after a game and a half, she was hitting her breaking point...

 So we ordered some food and had some mommy-daughter cuddling...

We had so much fun!  Can't wait to go back!

Steps

Charlotte has been growing more and more daring over the past couple of weeks.  She's been standing alone and crusing for a while, and sometimes she'll trick us into thinking that she's going to take that first step...

but then she'll drop to the floor and quickly crawl to her destination.

Well last night Hunter was doing his usual kitchen swiffering, and Charlotte finally got the cleaning bug herself.  The next thing I knew, she was in the living room doing this...

I'm so proud of her!  Considering James found her standing on the ottoman yesterday, I'm sure we're really in for a few scares now.

Fishing and Fire Drills

We went up to Oklahoma last weekend to go to a family reunion for my mom's side of the family. We stayed at the hotel of the Choctaw Casino and had the actual reunion at my mom's cousin's land.  Y'all know both of those were a struggle for me.  My hatred for sweating is only suprassed by my hatred for casinos, specifically the stench of casinos...although gambling is definitely not on my favorite things list either.  But, believe it or not, we had a great time!

Hunter  had his second experience with fishing, but this time he got to hold the fishing pole!  And thanks to cousin Larry, we actually had a fish bite that mommy helped him reel in...

Correction:  Mommy attempted to help him reel it in.  Who knew you had to be so strong to go fishing?  Hey, those fish are heavy, and I never claimed to be an outdoorsy or sporty girl...physical strength is definitely not one of the things that people are drawn to in me.  Luckily, cousin Larry got another one and he was able to bring it all the way up with out losing it in the water:)

Hunter also loved getting to hang out with cousin Noah who turned 3 while we were there...

He especially loved Noah's birthday cake...so much in fact that when we were done singing and it was time to blow out the candles, he just ran up and shoved sweet Noah over so he could blow out those candles himself.  Clearly, I was too busy trying to overcome my horror and embarrassment to get any pictures of this. 

The only thing Hunter loved more than robbing the birthday boy of the pinnacle moment of his birthday celebration, was this wagon...

He'd fill it with dirt, empty, and repeat.

After all of that manual labor, he needed a rest, and Noah had the perfect sized chair for it...

Luckily, there was one for Charlotte too (she has to do EVERYTHING big brother does these days)...

Charlotte spent her time at the reunion playing with her toys while sweating out half of her body weight.  Her hair was drenched in sweat, but she was still a sweet little thing for us...

After a long, hot Saturday we were exhausted.  Lucky for us, some of the other hotel guests were up making popcorn at 2:15 (a.m.) and set off the fire alarm.  I know.  It's a casino...I should expect things like this to happen.  But it was ear piercingly loud y'all.  Charlotte jumped up in her pack n play and grunted at us with these sweet, wide, terrified eyes, and poor Hunter was shaking all the way until we got back into the room (we had to evacuate the building).  Here they are when we got back to the room...

As you can imagine, the next day was a little disastrous after no Saturday naps and then a 2:15 am wake up call.  We're finally back on schedule, though, and can't wait for our next reunion!

Already

Have I told y'all lately how awesome my husband is?  Well he is.  Hunter started preschool this week, which makes me really emotional because I can't believe that my firstborn is already old enough to have his own backpack...that he carries to his own school!  Anyway, I left work for part of the day on Tuesday so I could take H to the open house, but it was pouring rain and it was a little stressful going to work then leaving work then picking up H then knowing I had to drop him off and go back to work, so by the time I realized that I didn't have my camera, it was too late to go back and get it.  Y'all know this was tragic for me.  But my husband is wonderful and didn't even bat an eye when I asked him to be papparzzi daddy on Thursday, which was the actual first day of school. 

Hunter is soooo excited to go to school!

(See that sucker?  That's not an "it's your first day of school so you get a sucker" sucker.  It's a "you peed in the potty so you get a sucker!" sucker.  We're so proud!)

James got a backpack photo, which makes me love him even more... 

Here's H walking to class...

We were really nervous about drop off because when we went to visit the school before we enrolled Hunter, he was adamant that he did NOT want to be left alone there.  He even started crying when the director asked him if he wanted to come play.  So James and I scripted out what he was going to tell H at drop off, making sure to include that he was going to have so! much! fun! and that daddy was coming back to get him.  Turns out our sweet little guy didn't even need a pep talk though, he just smiled and waved when James left. 

He loves that car table, I'm sure he would've played with it all morning if they'd have let him!  After school, Hunter was really excited to see James and said he actually did have so much fun!  I can't wait to see what he learns!