Daddy is her jungle gym! (and some somersaults thrown in)

One of the best parts of our days, is after dinner and baths when kids are happy and we are just trying to wear them out for bed. Sometimes after their baths, they get a second wind and run and play and laugh until they wear out or until we wear out. On many nights, Vic gets the brunt of being played with and is used as the kids jungle gym. We have had to teach Atticus that he may be getting a little big to be bouncing on Daddy, but Grace can still climb all over him, pull his hair, use his ears as her handles, bounce, roll off, and giggle hysterically at herself. And then to top it off, a month ago, both kids started doing somersaults. Atticus can basically do his own, although he pushed over to the side sometimes. But, Grace just immediately gets into position, wait for us to push her over, laughs, stands up and motions "more" and bends over into position again to start the process over and over. These two are too much!

Little Moments: Prayers by Atticus & Grace

For as long as Atticus has had an evening schedule, we have said his bedtime prayers with him. At first they were simple and routine and then as he got older, we added in table prayers and then he would say prayers on his own instead of us saying them. Then, of course, because he is a toddler, he decides he doesn't want to say them anymore so we say them for him. Then, he proceeds to forget his prayer manners and not close his eyes or be still or pay attention to the prayer. So, a couple of weeks ago, I started making him repeat the prayer as I said it. This kept his attention. Well, here is the prayer from one of the first night he started doing prayers this way:

Me: "Okay, Atticus it is time for prayers. Repeat after me."
Atticus: "No, Mommy. You we-peat afta me. Dear God,"
Me: "Dear God,"
Atticus: "Thank you for this butiful day!" (I repeat.)
Atticus: "Thank you for my fwim yessons. I yuv my swim yessons!"
Atticus: "Hep us to be nice to Gwace." (I repeat.)
Atticus: "Hep us to not push Gwace." (I repeat.)
Atticus: "Amen". (I repeat).

Since then, he has had some other hilarious prayer moments including one time when he included, in the prayer, "Help Gwace not to hit; because Gwace is a baby; and babies hit." Sometimes, he gets off on tangents and even stops mid-prayer to clarify something. But, the best part is that at the beginning of  every prayer, as of late, he says "Dear God. Thank you for this Day." And then he continues on. It's just sweet and if nothing else, shouldn't we thank God for giving us another day, each and every day?

Grace, on the other hand, has folded her hands for a long time when saying prayers at the dinner table. She just started copying a few months back and many times, as soon as we all sit down, she immediately folds those sweet little fingers and hands together and grunts to tell us she is ready to say prayers. Also, while she is not really talking lately, she will say "Hmm Hmm" when we say Amen. She is basically our reminder, if we sit down hastily to eat, and haven't said our prayers yet.

Such funny kids!

Rice and Beans

I can't even tell you how much Grace loves rice and beans. We don't eat out much. However, Mexican food restaurants are the easiest place to go with both kids, and especially with Grace. Give that girls some tortilla chips ad then feed her rice and beans and she is happy. The floor is a disaster afterwards, no matter how hard we try to keep it clean. But, she is full and happy. And when we have Mexican food at home? Well the only bad part about that is that Vic and I have to clean the floor!

Grace

Here are just a couple cute pictures of Grace that I took in July. The first is Grace in the bathtub at Grandma and Pop's house. The second is one day when she carried both babies into the living room from her bed to play with. I look forward to the day she wants to play babies all the time. Right now, she just grabs them every once in awhile or plays with them in her bed.

 

Melbo and Grace

Anytime you go to Melbo's house, you get spoiled! This day was no exception for Grace. Back in July when we were in town for the 4th of July, Grace got special attention from Melbo when she ate a popsicle with her and then when she was done, fed it to Bubba, the cat, with Melbo. Melbo's house is always fun!

Our Sanger Fourth of July

The 4th of July was really fun this year! We went down Thursday night, so that Vic and Charley could work with Daddy on a couple of projects at the house. They put some bricks around Daddy's fruit trees and put lattice siding on the bottom of the back porch. While they did that, Atticus, Grace, and I met GG and Molly at the Denton Waterpark to swim.

Although 4th of July was on Friday, the fireworks show at the marina down from mom and dad's house, was held on Saturday. So, Daddy and Mom had the family over to the house on Saturday evening. First, that morning, Vic, Daddy & I went to Lewisville to help Ana and Charley move to a 2 bedroom apartment in their same complex. Thankfully, they had 11 people total helping on this move because we moved stuff down from the 3rd floor of one building and back up to the 2nd floor of a different building. My legs were sore for a few days, but I know I burned a lot of calories! That afternoon, we went back to the house where Daddy tried out his new smoker for the first time. He and Vic got some chickens ready and put them on.

For the rest of the afternoon, the kids played and food was prepared and Melbo, GG, Pa and Charley all came over. Ana had other plans and Molly had to work and we missed them! But, the kids looked adorable and the food was delicious and we ended the night with watching fireworks from Mom and Daddy's back porch. It was cool weather when the sun went down and it was nice to not get stuck in 1 hour traffic coming down our road when people left the marina after the show.

Grace actually kept her pigtails in for the night! And, Atticus decided to wear his socks on his hands for awhile outside. I am sure he was hot, but he was playing so I'm sure it made sense to him. He also carried Marshall, his new Paw Patrol puppy toy that GG gave him, everywhere.

Sometimes, the most fun things to do are exploring. The kids liked playing on the flatbed trailer, hitting grasshoppers with a flyswatter off of the fences, looking through binoculars at the goats, and playing with the goats. Country living!

 

And we have a few candid's above as well.

I wonder how many years of celebrations we will go with our kids not posing the same in any picture? One Grace smiles and one Atticus smiles, but out of about 20 pictures I tried, neither smiled together!

Grace loves to be tickled and she loves her Daddy!

Dinner turned out delicious! Dad's first smoker cookout was a success! The chicken that was not stuffed was preferred vs. the stuffed chicken, but both were great! We had baked beans, smoked corn on the cob, pimiento cheese and celery, potato salad, and delicious mini cherry cheesecakes and fruit trifle for dessert and of course some watermelon! After we were stuffed, we sat on the porch to watch the fireworks. They lasted about 30 or 40 minutes and were spectacular! Grace didn't love them, but Atticus did. The cutest thing he said, when they began was "Yook Mawshall! Yook at the fiah-wooks!" It was a really fun 4th of July!

5 things about Atticus

And now for an Atticus update:

1. He loves animals. That is not a new theme, but right after being at Grandma and Pop's house, he talked about Snip and Yodel a lot. But, this week the theme seems to be towards puppies. He loves puppy dogs. He still gets scared of some in person, but mostly he loves them. We have some friends who have a little dog named Bella. Sometimes when they come over, they will bring Bella and Atticus loves to play with her! He also has many stuffed puppy dogs. The other day, we had lots of "sick" puppies who either had thorns in their feet, ate too much dog food, had coughs or cooties, or who had been bitten by turtles (not sure where that came from). So, we had to doctor them with our vet kit many times to make them better. He just LOVES his puppies. We travel too much to have a pet puppy, but if this continues, I'm doing a puppy birthday party next year!

2. Atticus has lots of thoughts lately and when he is talking about something important or giving you his honest opinion, he will crinkle up his face while he talks but being completely serious. It's just funny to see the emotion when he is talking!

3. A few phrases he uses a lot:
"If I eat too much _____ (usually a vegetable), I will get a tummyache." when he doesn't want to eat, and even if he hasn't eaten too much.
"I just being cwazy siwwy!" (He tells me he is being crazy silly when he has actually been a little too rough and I ask him to calm down.)
"How bout you yay wif me for just a yittle bit?" in response to every single time I put him to bed. Do you know how hard it is to tell him no all the time to that sweet little voice?
"Does Jesus yike it when _____?" He usually will ask me this after I've told him I am happy with him for doing something nice. Although one night when Vic had already turned on a lamp that Atticus likes to turn on himself, he told me that "Jesus didn't yike it when Daddy didn't yet me turn on that yight!"

4. He has started to like wearing hats. He has a fishing hat, a cap and a cowboy hat.

5. He has started to be that silly boy that comes out of his room in only his underwear and maybe a VBS necklace around his neck and playing his dog guitar while setting up his tiny animals at the table and requesting that I sit and play Go Fish with him. There are moments when he has so much going on in his mind that he gets distracted with something but instead of leaving it, just adds it to his activity.

He's just so funny!