Mike will think it's awful that his son is wearing a Yankees hat in these pictures but I thought he looked awfully cute.

 

 

 

 

 

Last night I was washing Gracie's hair. James jumped in the tub to join the fun. Gracie turned around and gave him a big smile with her hair all white with lathered shampoo. James said, "It's Grandpa!"

Gracie recently has enjoyed saying "hi" along with waving. She also loves clapping. She can't get enough of watching the boys jump up and down.

James and Jonathan like running around the house playing super heroes fighting bad guys with light sabers. They have given Gracie a pretend light saber just her size.

4th

 

 

 

Pictures from the 4th

 

 

 

We had a nice 4th of July get-together at Grandpa and Grandma Neyens' house. I’ll post pictures once I can figure out where Mike saved them on the computer. Grandpa Neyens put a huge flag over his garage that the boys enjoyed looking for. The kids enjoyed playing in the backyard with some cousins and we had a delicious dinner. They have me hooked on the black bean burgers from Costco. To top the evening off they made homemade ice-cream topped with strawberries, and Mike set up our projector. We enjoy the projector immensely. Don’t ask why we have it as it is a rather long and uninteresting story. We watched Beethoven, this being one of the only movies we figured all ages would at least somewhat enjoy. Gracie even let Grandpa and Grandma hold her. She’s such a clingy one compared to the boys, which I secretly actually like in a way though I'd never say it. Jonathan is and has always been the exact opposite. He stayed over at Grandpa and Grandma's and told me he “forgot all about me”. He’s always been like that. Before we left I said a prayer with him. It consisted of, “Please help Mom not miss me. Please help Mom not be too sad without me. Please help Mom be okay.” What else to write about? He entertained everyone with the projector by doing little hand motions that looked like a dinosaur eating him as “prey” and rocking out during the credits of the movie. I hope at least one of our boys ends up having a good, entertaining sense of humor to keep a smile on my face here in twenty years or so. If I ever need to know about tanks I can now go to Jonathan as he is now the tank expert at our house. He enjoyed watching a news clip of Grandpa in a tank and learned a lot of facts from the real tank expert.

James is enjoying Gracie’s new walker. He rides it around as a car all the time. If nothing else she is getting faster at crawling by chasing him around. He still is working on certain aspects of the English language. He likes to say, “underoos” instead of underwear. It is just too cute to correct so I suppose he may still be calling underwear, “underoos” when he’s twenty-five. I hope he’ll marry a nice girl that won’t hold it against me.

The boys had their dental cleanings today. No cavities. I know anyone who actually reads this blog will notice that I always seem to have to mention when my kids go to the dentist and don’t have cavities. There are only so many successes I have as a mother and so if bragging about a good dental check up is one of them, so be it. The dentist warned me that James will need braces if he still sucks his thumb when his adult teeth come in. I figure our kids will need braces either way, but I suppose I should start to stop him from sucking his thumb sooner rather than later. He only does it when he’s tired and he is quite adorable so I guess that’s why I put it off. I’ll at least wait until he stops napping as it is quite convenient for getting him to sleep. Gracie also sucks her left thumb. I think it’s because I swaddled them the same way and their left hand could get out first… OK, enough of this, now I’m just rambling, back to the important facts. The dentist wants me to take Gracie in next month despite the fact that she only has two teeth. I figure there is only so much they can do with two teeth, so she won't be seeing the dentist for a while.