Why oh why.......

do my children wake up every morning at 6:30 am. Each night when I go to bed I pray that tomorrow will be the morning that they decide to let me sleep in until 7:00...and if they really loved me 7:30. The past two Sundays they have actually slept in until almost 8:00am. You would think this would make me happy, but it doesn't. You see we have church at 9am, so all this does is make us late for church. The only day of the week when we actually need to be up early to get all ready for church they choose to sleep in. Why oh why!?!?!

By the way....I took three pictures with both kiddos in them and Bryce had his eyes closed in all of them! This was the best one.

Climbing the rock wall

We met some friends on Friday at Clubhouse for Kids in Plano. You know you're getting your money worth at places like this when you are there for a couple of hours and the only time to see your child is as they run past you having tons of fun. I swear I saw Maci like twice the whole time. She had so much fun.....especially on the rock wall. This video clip is of Maci's third attempt on the rock wall. Each time she climbed less and less because all she really wanted to do was jump down from the wall in the harness.

Sorry, I know I have posted alot of videos lately, but this one I have to post because Maci wants Uncle Wuby to see that she will soon be good enough to go rock climbing with him.

Fly, Fly Away......

Recently Grandma Robin sent Maci a kit that allowed her to see the transformation of caterpillar to butterfly. We started out with 5 caterpillars in a plastic cup. After 5 days or so they turned into cocoons. Then you move them into the net shown in this picture and then about 7 days later we had butterflies.

Maci was the first to notice that some of the butterflies had emerged from their cocoons. I had actually slept in that morning and Joey got up with the kids. When I came down the stairs she was jumping with joy and so excited to tell me the exciting news. I guess Joey had told her that she couldn't wake me up and would have to wait to tell me. (This picture is of her telling Grandma Robin about the butterflies)

In the end all the butterflies survived and we let them go...per Maci's wishes. And whenever we see a butterfly she thinks it is one of the one's we let go!

This video clip is when we let the first couple of them go.

Whose children are these?

We work really hard to teach our children skills that will help them later on in life. This first video is of Maci practicing a skill that Joey has been working on with her. We are so proud of her!





We also teach them to eat healthy foods and drink at least 8 glasses of water a day. Here Bryce is trying to finish that 8th glass of water for the day.

Oops................

There really is nothing to say about this except......"just watch the video!"

Flux Capacitor

I guess one of joys of parenting is trying to figure out exactly where kids pick things up. Take for example the picture above. Maci long ago became to big to sit in the jumping saucer (I don't know the official name). However, she has discovered that her head still fits in the seat, and she can use one of the leg wholes to peer out at the world upside down. I am pretty sure Maci gets this behavior from her mother. Steph has a nack for looking at things from a different angle.

Every once in while Maci will give us a glimpse into her future. Today she gave us a preview of her teenage years. We came home from church and informed Ms. Maci that she would not be watching any shows because we were going to be spending time together as family. Using her teenage logic Maci replied "I don't want a family!". I can't wait until she's 15.

The other day Maci showed us what life might be like when she makes it to the first grade. When we go shopping at Costco, Steph takes Bryce and I take Maci. I mainly just walk around looking at TV's, but last week I decided to buy a shirt. As I am looking through some shirts, I hear somthing from Maci that sounds a bit like a growling dog "rrrrrr!". Was she pretending to be a dog? No, three year old Maci pretends to be a dog. Six year old Maci toots and then anounces "I tooted!" That day at Costco, we had six year old Maci. Maci can be loud, and on this day it seemed like she was louder than 747 during take off. The worst part was that she kept tooting and then announced "Daddy, I can't stop tooting!". I looked around and noticed people walking away from us. I grabbed Maci's hand and took her to mother.

Six year old Maci was in a talkative mood. While we were eating at Costco, Maci noticed a man sitting a few seats away. That in itself of course is not too unusual. The Costco food court provides a great return on investment. A whole family can fill up for around $12.00. So, it makes sense that it is usually crowded. What was unusual, at least to Maci, was that the man sitting near us had a pony tail. This prompted Maci to say "Daddy, look at that man...he has a pony tail...that's so funny!" Of course six year old Maci talks like she is speaking to someone from the other side of a crowded football stadium. I am sure the man heard us, so I had to equal Maci's volume and explain that it is okay for men to have pony tails and it isn't always funny.

One thing is for sure, Maci keeps us entertained.

Up on the Rooftop....

A couple of months ago we had some pretty bad storms with winds of 85+mph. We were more fortunate than many people. A section of our fence in the back yard fell down and we lost a couple of shingles from the roof.
So, now 2 months later Joey was in our closet and noticed the ceiling had a bubble in it and decided to go up on the roof to take a look. Sure enough there are a couple of shingles missing and he immediately runs to Home Depot (his favorite place on earth right now) to get the proper items to fix the problem.

Here is Joey up on our roof. I'm still undecided if he is crazy to have gone up there. Roofs here in Texas are so tall and steep. I don't know maybe all roofs are steep and I just haven't noticed. What I do know is that I have yet to see one of our neighbors go up on their roofs. Joey tried to tell me it was no big deal and that he would just tie a rope around his waist and around something on the roof. Of course that made me feel much better.....yeah right!!

After the hastle of borrowing a 10ft ladder to get up onto our roof and a big bag of shingles it turns out Joey only had to change two shingles.

The Problem Area

Here is the reason why Joey had to go up to the roof. We are lucky we found that when we did because we have had rain almost everyday the past month and with our luck the whole ceiling would be caving in on us.

Sidewalk fun!!

May2007 013, originally uploaded by jzdoesit.

This picture is from May (notice Maci's long hair). I just found some pictures on my old camera that I had never uploaded to Flickr. I think Maci's a better artist than Uncle Wuby!! What do you think?

Haircut

I took Maci to get her haircut on Monday and left the place almost in tears. I had asked the lady to cut her hair just below her shoulders and put a few layers in the bottom. She got the length right, but she hacked so many layers in her hair I thought she was going to end up with.....well, I don't know what.....it just wasn't going to be cute. The next day I used my flat iron on her hair and styled it, and sure enough, it is soooooooooooooooooooo CUTE!

I guess you could say I overreacted, but I don't think it's possible to when your hair or a loved one's hair is on the line!!!

How can it be.....

that my little guy is already sitting up. I just know crawling is around the corner and there is so much baby proofing to do in this dang house its frightening. We should probably get started now and maybe we'll have half of it done by the time he crawls.....YIKES!!!

It is so much fun to see these two already acting like such good friends. Bryce can't get enough of Maci..all she has to do is walk by him and he will bust up laughing!!