Looking in mirror after Hailey made him "handsome".

We spent most of the day packing. The kids woke up early around 7:30. They watched Curious George and Clifford while Bruce started cleaning the house and I fed Jack. Hailey's teacher is coming for a home visit tomorrow morning and then we will leave shortly after that to go camping. Hailey is so excited to meet her teacher. She has been playing the message on our answering machine over and over to hear her voice. She even knows her teacher's name already. Yesterday and today she has been cleaning up her toys alot throughout the day, and she even gets Max to help her clean up his cars whenever he's done playing with them. She says "The house gotta be clean for when my teacher comes. So we gotta clean up our mess." After the kids were done eating their breakfast, Bruce took them to the store with him and I stayed home and packed. While I was packing, I layed Jack down on the playmat. He started cooing a little bit and reaching for the toys hanging above him. It was so sweet to hear him "talking". He was so smiley when I picked him back up. And he cooed some more as I talked to him. After lunch, Hailey played outside while Daddy packed the camper. I put Max down for his nap. He was really tired and was happy to go lay down. He slept for three hours. After we ate dinner, we played hide and seek. Then I gave the kids baths before getting them ready for bed. Max loves to play with all his little boats. He tries to get them all lined up in the water. Hailey likes to wash her dolls and play with the squirt bottles. She also loves to "fix" Max's hair when it's wet. She'll say "Want me to make you look handsome?" And he always answers "Wah" (his way of saying yeah or yes). Then she makes it stand up straight and says "There, you look so handsome now!" It's so cute the way she says it. I got Max in bed by 7:30 and Hailey in bed by 8:00. We are trying to get them used to going to bed earlier since Hailey will have to be getting up early for school soon. I dusted the house and finished packing once the kids were in bed.

Hailey brought me a pony tail holder this morning and asked me to put it in her hair. Then she ran to her bedroom. She was in their for quite awhile, and when I went in to see what she was doing, she had picked out her clothes to wear today and was dressed. She also was putting clips and barrets in her hair. She was very proud of herself and said "I'm making myself look pretty."

Hailey put a bunch of toys around Jack and said "Look, I'm making him happy."


Can you find Jack in that pile of toys?

I had a doctors appointment this morning, so Bruce stayed home with the kids. He said Jack got a little fussy and didn't want to take the bottle. After fussing a bit, he ended up falling asleep after drinking only a half an ounce from the bottle. The kids and I played doctor. We all took turns being the doctor. Hailey liked it when I made her a sling for her "broken arm" with a knee pad and a ribbon. After we ate lunch, I put Max down for his nap. Hailey got out her cash register and we played store while Max and Jack were sleeping. Then Hailey continued to play by herself while I did laundry and worked on cleaning the house some. I also started making a list for our camping trip this coming weekend. When Max woke up, he wanted to play store too, so we all played together. I was the "cashier" and they were the "customers". They each carried a basket around the house gathering things they wanted to "buy". We went outside to play after dinner. A little boy was visiting next door. When Hailey and Max saw him, they yelled "hi". Then Hailey asked him how old he was and if he wanted to play. He was about the same age as Max. After talking at the fence for a little while, they all started running along the fence with each other. They were giggling as they were running back and forth. It was so cute. When we came in, we sat at the table and made birthday cards for both grandpa's. We worked on them until bedtime.

These videos are from a couple months ago. I was going through all my files the other day and came across these videos. I don't think I put them on yet. I thought they were cute of him singing while playing with his cars. In the first video, he stopped singing when he noticed the camera. I love how he smiled when he looked up and saw me videoing him. And he is acting a little silly at first in the second video but then starts singing like he was before he saw the camera.

Our church had a Bible reading program for the kids this summer. They had to fill out a chart to show how much they were reading and got prizes along the way. The kids who comleted the whole ten hours of reading got T-shirts and they were invited to a Sundae Party, which they had today. Hailey was so excited about going. They got to make iceream sundaes with tons of toppings to choose from and then played some fun games. Hailey and Kenzie are wearing their T-shirts in the pictures above. They both had lots of fun at the party. Hailey told us all about her fun time when we were tucking her in bed tonight. She said "We could have as much icecream as we want! But I only had one bowl, with chocolate syrup, the hot kind, and chocolate sprinkles! And we played some games, even a balancing game, but not on a beam board (balance beam). We had to balance a cotton ball on a spoon and walk with it."

Max said "Lay Jack down by me. Can you Mommy? Because he want to play cars with me." When I layed Jack on the blanket, Max put the motorcycle by him and said "You want to play with dis Jack? You do?"






Hailey showing me the clothes she picked out to wear today and how she had fixed her hair by herself too.






Inside their tent.

This morning, Bruce got up with the kids and let me sleep in. When I woke up, he had them all dressed and ready to go on a bike ride. He hooked up the bike trailer and decided to take them for a bike ride to the park. I got all caught up on laundry while they were gone. I also enjoyed sitting on the couch holding Jack and talking to him. He gave me a bunch of big smiles. He is just starting to try to make some cooing noises. He moves his mouth like he wants to talk, and every once in awhile, a little sound will come out. It sounds so sweet. When daddy and the kids got back, Max came in with a bag and handed it to me. They had stopped at the "cookie store" and brought me back a brownie. On their way to the park, they also rode past Hailey's school and showed her the new playground that they are building. She is really getting excited about going now. I took the kids outside to play for a little while after we ate lunch. They quickly headed for the pool to stick their feet in. Hailey slipped and fell and got her clothes all wet. So I told them to go ahead and get their clothes wet even though we were about to leave to go to a few stores. Since I had just told them not to get their clothes wet, when Max heard me say he could, he excitedly said "I chen(can)? I chen, mommy?" And they got soaked! Max was even sticking his head under the water. As soon as Bruce was ready to leave, I changed the kids into dry clothes and we got them in the van. When we got back from the stores, I got them in their swimsuits and let them swim some more. It was very humid so I got very hot sitting out on the porch swing. I turned on the hose and sprayed my head. Max and Hailey thought that was funny and laughed at me. Around 4:00, I put Max down for a late nap. He was very tired and fell asleep very quickly. Hailey and I played dollhouse while both boys slept. I had to wake Max up at 6:00 so he could eat dinner with us. He didn't want to wake up at first. I asked him if he wanted to come out and watch the lightning, and he hurried and came out to look out the window with Hailey. It stormed the rest of the evening. The kids made a tent out of blankets. They asked if Jack could come in the tent with them, so I layed him on the boppy in the tent for a few minutes and they loved it. Then Max asked me to come in too. I squeezed in by him and he said "Do you fit?... You do?" They played in their tent until it was time to get ready for bed.

I had a dentist appointment this morning, but had to cancel it because I woke up feeling terrible. I spent most of the morning laying on the couch. Bruce took Hailey to the store with him. Jack slept the whole time they were gone and Max played quietly on the floors with his cars. I enjoyed watching him play with his cars while I rested on the couch. He's got such a good imagination and I also love all the sound effects he makes. Bruce and Hailey got home just on time for lunch. We made sandwiches and then Bruce took the kids outside to play. Around 2:00 I put Max down for his nap. Jack fell asleep again too so I took a short nap. I felt a little better when I woke up. I woke Max up at 5:00 so we could eat dinner and leave to go to grandpa's. We decided to pack their bikes in the van and take the kids to the church first so they could ride their bikes in the parking lot. They loved being able to ride all around in a wide open space with no cars to worry about. I sat in the back of the van with Jack and watched. Max would ride his motorcycle up to me and say "I gotta go to work. Bye Bye. Give me a kiss first." He would get off his motorcycle and come up puckering to give me a kiss. Then he would get back on his motorcycle and wave saying bye as he rode off. He would ride around the van and then come back saying "I back now" and start all over again asking me for another kiss. There was professional BMX freestyle artist there practicing in the parking lot. The kids really liked watching him doing tricks on his bike. Hailey would say "Come on Max. Let's go watch the show." Then they would ride their bikes up closer to where he was practicing and stand there watching him. Max even clapped for him a few times. Max was very interested and was really watching him carefully like he was trying to learn some things. He's already trying to do different "tricks" with his motorcycle and cars. Daddy got the Frisbee out and played that with Hailey. Then we went over to the playground. They had fun going down the slides. After they played for awhile, we walked back to the van and they rode their bikes around again while I sat and fed Jack. Then we headed over to grandpa's house. The kids got their bikes out and rode up and down grandpa's driveway. Bruce found a toad in the garden and the kids had fun playing with it. They sat down and put their feet together to try to keep the toad from hopping away. Max had his knees bent a little bit so it was able to escape a few times which had them laughing so hard every time. They liked putting it in Hailey's bike basket and riding around with it. They also liked putting it in the Frisbee and carrying it around in that. When the toad finally made it under the van so the kids couldn't reach it anymore, we went inside and visited with grandpa. We stopped at the store on the way home to get a few things that Bruce forgot to get earlier. After getting the kids in bed, Bruce and I had icecream while we watched some of the Olympics that we had recorded.