The ocean

The last time we went to the ocean, Jude was only 5-6 weeks old. So this was a new experience for him. It was so neat to see him take it in. He loves water, so he thought it was great until he discovered the power of waves and undertow!


"This is great mom, the water runs over my feet."


"What is happening? The water is trying to pull me in!"

"ACK! It is attacking me!"


Jude finally realized that if he held someone's hand, he would not get swept away and could enjoy the waves.

Looking back at Bapa, giving him an ornery grin!

Vacation!

Vacation this year was a little crazy, with having to evacuate because hurricane Irene made landfall RIGHT WHERE WE WERE STAYING! I will be back later with all the fun details, but for now, here is a family picture of us at the beach.

My baby is TWO!

My baby boy turned TWO on Sunday!! He is getting so grown up! We had a party for him at Jerry and Debbie's house.


Jude is really into "choo-choo's" right now, so we had a train-themed party!



He was not too sure about the hats though....


Great-Grandpa Carl wore one though.


Jude loves hanging out with Carl.


Jude's present from us. An electric powered Jeep! (My neighbor was selling their's super cheap and it looked almost new. I got a GREAT deal on it)


Julia is showing him how it works.


Of course Jude got a train cake. I had fun making it. It took me the longest to mix up all the colors of frosting.



Singing "Happy Birthday" and blowing out the candles.



The reason we had the party at Jerrod's parent's.... The POOL!!



We took a break from swimming to open presents.


Jude had a wonderful time. I have a hard time believing that my baby is already two.

More fair pictures

The Shelby County fair is still going on and the kids have been having a blast going.

Julia is all ready to show her pig.


Jude decided he had to wear is cowboy boots too since Julia was. He is just too cute!


Trying to get a picture of them together. Jude is such a ham!


Jude waiting on Julia to show her pig sitting with Mimi, Bapa and Great-grandpa Carl.


Julia is all done and now they are getting a snack watching their cousins show. Jude is such a flirt!


My dad and I have birthdays only 2 days apart, so we celebrated them together at the fair.


I don't let the kids ride the rides at the fair, so I let them have a pony ride yesterday. This was Jude's first time on a horse. It took him a minute or two to warm up to it and not be scared, but then he LOVED it.

Showing her pig

Julia showed her pig at the fair last night and had a BLAST!!

Unfortunately, the pig she was supposed to show got sick and could not go, so grandpa (my dad), had to pull one out of the back-ups which he was not sure was going to make weight. The pig ended up not making weight, but showed in the lightweight class. (Basically, you get to show it, but are not considered in the judging) Julia ended up having the only lightweight pig there, so she showed in a class all by herself! Once she realized the entire audience was watching her, she really hammed it up and showed off! She had a great time and is already asking when she can do it again.


Here she is at the wash-racks, waiting on the show to start and her pig to be called.


Showing her pig and strutting her stuff!


The judge commented on how he loved her red boots!


She is so grown up! Especially once I french braided her hair back.



All done showing and back in the pen


Helping the pig eat his food. This pig weighs around 220 pounds and she shows no fear!! My, my, she sure has blossomed from my super-shy little girl!

What we did this weekend

Guess what we did this weekend?

This was a common scene at our house over the weekend......


Yep, I potty-trained Jude this weekend. He has done GREAT!!!! The first two days were a bit rough, but I remember that from Julia too. Once Jude figured out he has to hold it until on the potty, he did great. Not a single pee accident from him yesterday!! I even took him to the fair in underwear yesterday and he stayed dry and used the restrooms there!!!

I am so proud of my big boy. I was worried that it was going to be much harder to potty-train Jude since I have always heard boys are harder than girls to train. Add to that fact that Jude will not even be two until Sunday, I am AMAZED how fast and relativity easy he was.

I will be so glad to be done with diapers. (He is still wearing one at night.)

Purple Hair!!

Julia has been begging for purple hair for months now. We decided that since it was summer, we would indulge her. Bought some semi-permanent hair color and last weekend I made the front of her hair purple!! Julia LOVED it!!



I did not leave it in as long as instructed and with all the swimming Julia does, it is already pretty faded, but that was the point. We might just color it again one more time this summer.

Hello

Have has been really busy. No time to blog, sorry. I will try to do better.

Here are two pictures from last night!

New princess dress

Julia has worn her Princess Fiona dress almost everyday since Halloween. It has seen better days. I really want to get her the purple dress Rapunzel wears in Tangled, but they are all sold out of her size. In the time being, I found this princess dress kit that I sewed up one afternoon.

She wears it several times a week, so I'd say it is a hit!

Everyday sight

It has been raining a lot here, but in between the rainstorms the kids are outside as much as possible.

This is a typical day outside.






Jude likes to see just how muddy he can get!