On Thursday we headed to the blackberry patch with Aunt Jo and the girls. We had a great time picking blackberries. Zeke was very serious, as he was last year and Max ‘got tired’, needed to rest, needed water, etc. We picked up pizza for lunch and headed to the pool. That is when YaYa discovered the tick! Yuck! YaYa got it out with tweezers and all seems to be OK now. On Friday we swam with friends and I got Max all packed for the beach. Zeke and I took Jamie to the airport on Saturday morning and away they went for a good time in the sun and sand. Zeke was pretty disappointed that he did not get to go, so I stopped and got him a donut with sprinkles. This seemed to smooth everything over at the time, but this morning he informed me he wanted to go to the beach, he did not want a donut! Zeke had one of his biggest fits last night. Let’s just say I am really glad that the phone did not hit Jamie’s TV when he threw it across the room…twice. Please pray for Zeke’s temper! Today we went to church with my parents to show off Lulabelle and then spent another afternoon with them. My cousin and his wife and their four kiddos are in town so we get to play with them this week! And, Max is having a fabulous time at the beach.

Max is 5 1/2 today. And, he is SO excited. We have literally been counting down to this day. He really wanted to have a big party…with balloons…and cake, but I just couldn’t get that started. So, he got to pick where we ate dinner (McDonald’s…ugh…I was hoping for Red Rock or something). And, we swam with cousins, Shannon and JJ. Our sweet friend Aimee sent him an e-card that he absolutely loved! Jamie picked up a banana split (that he shared with all of us) and I think he had a good day. I don’t know why it was such a big deal for him to turn 5 1/2, but the day is finally here and I can’t believe we have a 5 1/2 year old!

Blake loves her brothers. As soon as she can hear them she just starts smiling and moving her head around to try to see them. Maybe more so with Max than Zeke. She is still a little cautious around Zeke…with good reason! Blake also managed to sleep through the night once this week. It hasn’t happened again, but 8:00 PM - 5:00 AM is a pretty long stretch!

We’ve had a good week and a nice weekend. Lots of pool time with cousins and friends. Today was a typical Sunday… church (Blake went to the nursery for the first time), lunch and rest. We skipped the pool since it was so cloudy. Today is also my parent’s 35th wedding anniversary, so Happy Anniversary mom and dad! We love you!

And, some more great news…we found out this week that we are getting a girl cousin! Chris and Shelly are excited and so are we. It’s going to be fun!

We had a wonderful 4th of July weekend. On Friday the boys went to a parade with YaYa and Papa. They had a GREAT time. They came home with pocketfuls and bags of candy. That afternoon we swam and then went out to Edmond for dinner. We left MeMe’s and went to Pops to get a soda. The boys and I ended up watching some fireworks with YaYa and Papa. The boys were not real interested, but had a lot of fun! Saturday and Sunday were filled with more swimming and food. The boys had so much fun swimming with Jamie. He takes them under water and throws them around. It is so fun to watch. We also purchased a big fort/playhouse thing with slide, swings, etc. That is Jamie’s end of summer project. It will be perfect for this Fall!

Zeke is ’special’. You can ask him, he’ll tell you he is special. If you ask him ‘Who’s special?’ He will reply, ‘Me!’. And, last night when Jamie asked him to please take his trains to the other room he loudly told us, ‘I am special!’. I guess he thinks that means he can do anything. Sunday we swam at my parent’s. Jamie, Max and Zeke got out of the pool. The boys had their ‘end of swim’ popsicles, Jamie fell asleep in the lounge chair and I was talking to our friends Aimee and Ben while Ben held Blake. The next thing you know, Zeke gets a raft, puts it in the pool and jumps on it. That’s when Aimee looked at me and calmly said, ‘He doesn’t have his floaties on’. So, I say ‘Zeke, you don’t have your floaties on’. Within seconds he jumps off the raft and attempts to swim towards the side. Now, he was doing great and he was almost in arms reach, but my sweet friend Aimee jumped in to save him. He didn’t even come up sputtering. He got out of the pool, put his floaties on and got back in the pool. WOW! He is so brave. He said he ‘wanted to swim like Max’. I am thankful for Aimee since his own mother wouldn’t even jump in to save him!

And, then there was yesterday. Max goes into the bathroom and shuts the door and pulls out the drawer. This is his way of insuring Zeke does not bust in on him. Max was outfitted in his Superman costume and batman cape and was checking himself out in the mirror. I was feeding Blake. I’m not really sure exactly how it happened, but Zeke managed to get his middle and ring finger stuck between the door and door frame. When I say stuck, I mean stuck. They would not budge. Everytime Max tried to shut the drawer, it put more pressure on the fingers. Zeke was screaming hysterically. So, I called Auntie (another Amy to the rescue). She and Christian came down and were a great help. Christian held Blake (who was not so happy to have her eating stopped) and Auntie held Zeke (so that he would stop trying to pull his hand out) and I put all my weight against the bathroom door. Thankfully it gave enough to get his hand out. I’m sure his hand was stuck in there for less than 5 minutes, but it seemed like forever. He was obviously in a lot of pain. At one time through tears he said, ‘My hand is broken’. After some ice, Motrin and a nap, he seemed to recover. His fingers swelled up at first, but they look so good today. I had called the doctor’s office and they warned me they would probably look worse today, but he seems absolutely fine.

That’s our Zeker. He is one tough little boy!! And, he used the potty chair twice tonight…his idea. Pray this is the start of something good!

Max had his LAST appointment with his ENT doc today. His tube has officially fallen out, he passed his hearing test and all looks great. So, his doctor released him. Just like that…no more 3 month check ups.

We officially moved Blake Lulabelle into size 1 diapers. The newborn diapers were finally just too tight around her thighs. She has also officially outgrown an outfit. She may be able to wear the pants with something else, but the sweet, little smocked top will just not go around her upper arms again. Just like that…things are too little for our baby.

Zeke…well…I’m sure he is growing in some way.

We are blessed!

Jamie hates flies. He HATES them. For some reason lately, we have had some flies enter our home. Jamie keeps the fly swatter close by and uses it. He is also teaching our children to hate flies. So, tonight, Zeke was sitting at the table having his bedtime snack of strawberries and whipped cream. All of a sudden he started yelling at a fly and hitting his food with his spoon. Then, the tears came. He was so upset that there was a fly in his food! Sure enough, he had killed that fly. And there it lay, dead in his whipped cream. Jamie fixed it all by getting him a new bowl, new strawberries and new whipped cream, but obviously Zeke is going to be just like his dad when it comes to flies!

I am way past due on an update! We have been busy. Swimming, Bible school, family reunion, birthday parties…wow! Needless to say, we are all doing fine. Blake is spending more time awake, so we are adjusting again. She is still doing great at night. The boys had a fabulous time playing with cousins this past weekend at our family reunion and we got to see Chris and Shelly again. I know I am forgetting a lot of great stories and I will try to be more faithful to write. I can’t believe it has been over a week! Unacceptable! I promise to post pictures of all we have been doing. Jamie’s birthday is tomorrow…happy birthday, Jamie!

Happy Father’s Day Jamie! You are the best dad and we are so thankful for you. Our children are blessed to have you as a dad and example. We love you!

On Friday night my parents kept the boys. So, we only had Blake. We laughed talking about what a treat it was to only have one. I still remember when we just had Max and it was such a big deal! I don’t know if having a girl is easier or it is just that we finally feel like we know what we are doing. She was really good. We picked up Cheesecake Factory and then ran a couple of errands. Blake had her first trip to Target! She liked it. We’ve had a nice weekend. We celebrated with all the dads and had some time to just hang out and rest.

Max asked the other night if I was old enough to have another baby. I told him ‘yes’. He informed us that he would like us to have another one and when I asked where we would put another baby, he offered up his room. He said he would sleep on the couch. That is so sweet…but, not going to happen. He then told us he would like us to have 7 more babies! Wow! REALLY not going to happen. It was nice though to know that he loves having his baby sister around.

Yesterday was my grandmother’s 98th birthday. So, late yesterday afternoon, we loaded up in my parent’s minivan and headed to Pauls Valley with them. Although my grandmother cannot see or hear, I think she found a lot of joy in us all being there and holding her newest great granddaughter. I have some sweet pics that I will get up soon. Carder had given Max a dollar earlier in the week, so my mom took him to the Dollar Tree to spend it. He picked out a Ninja action figure and YaYa gave him another dollar to get one for Zeke. I also have a lot of pictures of the actions figures! I’ll post those in the ‘Taken by Max’ section of the photo gallery. I don’t know…he may have a budding talent in photography. We think Zeke is feeling better. He still has bouts of grumpiness, but unfortunately that is just his personality…whether he feels good or not! Today we are getting together with Aunt Steph and Hannah. We’ll have lunch and swim with them and MeMe and Auntie, Carder and Christian (Jospeh is at camp). It should be another fun summer day!

For the last couple of days Zeke has been saying ‘I don’t feel good’. I have to admit that I thought it was a way for him to get a little extra special attention. But, last night he started running a temperature and holding his ear. Although, he would never say his ear hurt. He couldn’t really tell us what was bothering him. So…when the nurse called this morning to remind me of Blake’s appointment tomorrow, I told her what was going on with Zeke. Thankfully we were able to move Blake’s appointment and get both of them in this morning. Zeke has strep throat. Poor little guy! But, my pediatrician was very ‘excited’ that it was not the virus that is going around right now. Zeke should be feeling much better tomorrow after 24 hours of antibiotics and babies don’t get strep throat. Thank goodness!

Blake did great at her appointment. She is so smart and checked out just perfectly. She measured 20 1/2 inches long and weighed in at 8 pounds, 10 ounces. WOW! This beats both her brothers at their 2 week check ups. She went to church for the first time yesterday and slept through the whole service. She is a good littl girl!

Not much to report here. Life just seems to be happening and going on as normal. Blake is still sleeping A LOT. Right now it seems like a rare occurance if we see her eyes. We are enjoying it while it lasts. Max went to the library today with Auntie and Carder. He had such a fun time playing on the computer and checking out a couple of books. We planned to read them tonight, but he fell asleep at 7:45 on the couch! It should be interesting to see what time he gets up in the morning. Zeke’s latest oddity is requesting ‘hot water’ before he goes to bed. Of course, we don’t give it to him too hot, but he prefers it to be warm and he drinks it down. Interesting little guy.

Well, apparently Zeke is not allergic to bee stings. After an afternoon at the pool, Zeke got stung by a bee. Thankfully Jamie was there. Poor little guy. He seems to be doing well now. Every once in a while he will say ‘it’s itching’ or ‘it’s stinging’. He is so brave!

And, happy birthday to Miss Blake! One week old today. We just sit and look at her and know that she is bigger than she was last week. Sigh.

Jamie officially went back to work today. It was hard getting up, but once I survived that…all went pretty well. Zeke got up at 5:45 and Jamie got him settled on the couch. Jamie hopped in the shower at 6:00 and about 5 minutes later Zeke started yelling for me. I got out of bed and he wanted me to lay down with him. It was really hard for me to tell him no, but I knew Blake would be waking up shortly. Blake woke up around 6:30 and I fed her and got her settled in the back room so that I could then lay down with Zeke. It was hard to keep my eyes open, but I knew that falling asleep would be a bad idea. By 8:30 we all had breakfast and were up and moving…somewhat. It still took another 3 hours to get us all dressed and out of the house.

My bff from elementary/intermediate called this morning. I haven’t talked to her in years. She is now practicing criminal and family law. Today was the only day she did not have in court this week and she said she looked at the calendar and realized it was my birthday. It was so fun to hear from her. She was absolutely shocked when I told her I was holding a new baby! The boys got pretty rowdy while I was on the phone, but for the most part they played well together and let me chat.

My mom picked up birthday lunch and the boys spent the afternoon at the pool while Blake slept inside the cool house. Amy made a yummy dinner and brought it over and then my parents and Jamie’s parents came over for fun birthday dessert and presents! It’s not so bad turning 33. Thank you to all my sweet friends and family for all the birthday wishes! I am so blessed and have realized that so much lately. God is good!

Last night we celebrated my birthday a little early since Chris and Shelly were in town. We had dinner, opened presents and made s’mores outside. However, the highlight of the evening was when Chris and Shelly announced that Max, Zeke and Blake will have a cousin in Glen Rose, TX! Their baby is due December 3rd (my mom’s birthday). Shelly is over the not so fun part of her pregnancy and all is going well. So exciting! Just wish they were here.

Things are still going well at home. It is amazing how much faster life turns back to ‘normal’ with baby #3. Blake got to meet her Uncle Deak and Aunt Steph today. They, of course, agree with us that she is so beautiful and so nice. Blake spent a little more time awake today. It is nice to see her eyes! The boys are still doing well with her. If anything, she is a perfect distraction from each other. Max would rather be holding his baby sister than provoking Zeke (most of the time). Zeke still doesn’t pay a whole lot of attention to her. He did make several running laps around the house today and each time he passed her he would scream at the top of his lungs. I asked him to stop and he did, but with a sly grin he just said, ‘I screaming at her’.