Vance-isms

Vance is unfortunately the one who always gets kicked out of his room when visitors come. When my parents moved in they took his room, and we switched him into Sutton's room. Well when Aunt Amy came to visit he got kicked out of his new room and on to the air mattress in our room. Luckily he's easy going and doesn't really mind but one day he said, "I've already been kicked out of two beds. If someone needs the air mattress I don't know what I'll do!"

Vance is getting so funny lately! Not in the little-kid-accidentally-funny but in an actual adult-funny. He is so sarcastic (occasionally inappropriately so) and usually nails the timing. One example is the other day we were all sitting down for dinner.  My mom had cooked and was telling us (perhaps more than once or twice) how delicious dinner was. Vance kinda leaned in to me and said, "Look at her just promotin' her own food so much..." It was so true I couldn't help but laugh! I love the stage we are in with Vance right now!

After football one night Vance randomly declared, "Hot sink water is a bad idea for football." Apparently he had filled his water jug up with hot water from the sink. Yeah honey...probably a bad idea.

Vance is a bundle of nerves and anxiety. He puts so much pressure on himself sometimes. I have to remind him to take a deep breath and chill out a little.  As he has gotten older I can see him reminding himself to do that.  He'll be upset with his brothers or working on homework and I can see him close his eyes and take a breath.  It's cute and kinda funny but also a little sad. I hope that as he matures he will realize no one expects him to be perfect.

This isn't funny but definitely a moment I want to document. Sometimes Vance and I really battle over piano. I realized that maybe it was because he didn't see me playing enough. So I bought a few songs and have been playing them.  They are songs that you sing along to like Ed Sheeran and Sam Smith. One afternoon I was working on them and Vance sat down and asked if he could sing with me.  Then we continued to sing together while I played for almost an hour.  My heart was so full I thought it was going to burst. I have so, so, SO many memories of playing/singing around the piano with my mom and sisters. This first memory of doing that with my own child is so special for me!!!

Vance told me a girl in his class asked him to be her Valentine. He told her no initially but apparently went back and said yes but then she said no. When I asked him what he thought about that he rolled his eyes and said, "Whatever..."

Randomly Vance told me, "Tall girls don't want to date shorter guys." I was nodding my head in agreement because that tends to be true but then his explanation made me laugh. He reasoned, "Because they are lazy and don't want to bend down." Haha!

This & That

Sutton has decided he doesn't like to sleep in bed. Every night he convinces either Keller or Vance to let him sleep with them. It's kind of adorable :) After them sleeping together I finally asked if they wanted me to tear down the bunk beds into two separate beds. In turned into quite the project but they love it and so do I.  

Here is the before-

 After -

They still sleep together in one twin bed tho. Haha!

 Spring weather is insane in Texas. You never know from one day to the next what the weather is going to be. One Friday it was 80 degrees.  The very next day the high was 41 degrees. Of course we had soccer games and with the wind chill in the morning it felt like 23!!! We brought our portable heater and let the boys warm up when they weren't playing. Have I ever said how much I never want to live in the snow?

 We had lots of hardboiled eggs we needed to use after Easter. Vance helped me make a couple different types of deviled eggs. He really is turning into quite the cook and I can't wait for him to get to the point where he can do it himself!

We have been playing SOOOOO much Catan lately. Vance is getting really good and it is so much fun!

The grass is really greening up and making me excited for some backyard volleyball!

Chad and I were trying really hard to keep to a budget one week. We knew we were challenging ourselves and when we had one day left I told him we weren't going to make it because I had a coffee date with a girlfriend and we had spent all the money we had allotted for the week. He gave me a little crap so just to prove to him that I could do it I scrounged around the house and dug up enough change to pay with quarters. I snapped a quick pic of the lady putting all the change in the cash register and sent it to Chad with a sarcastic comment.  Haha! We did end up meeting our goal for the week.

The boys love to help me cook. I usually don't cook typical "kid food" but to encourage them to help cook I let them pick their recipe.  Keller choose cheese dogs wrapped in pizza dough and served with chili. The kids LOVED putting the cheese on and wrapping them up. I've found that when they cook they also eat with less complaining. Win win!

Jennie and I took my mom out for her birthday. We tried a delicious new restaurant and went to Sprinkles for dessert. It was so nice! I contemplated getting a sitter for Sutton but he was a little angel. It is so nice as he is getting older because he is so much more mellow!

Keller had friends over and it cracked me up how they cuddled right next to each other on our big couch to watch a show.

Vance played his first game as pitcher! He did pretty good and looked so handsome!

We surprise Nerf attacked my mom when she got home from church. I was so proud of the boys for hiding so well and it was hilarious once she closed the door and we all popped out to shoot her!

I love toddler fashion -

Date Night

One of our good friends had a birthday so we celebrated like kids. It was such a fun night with some of my favorite people!

We went out to dinner and then headed to Shenaniganz. We started with laser tag -

Then we tried some four-person air hockey. It was brutal and lots of hand injuries. We were maybe a tad intense...

Julie snapped this picture of Chad's air hockey stance. Haha!

I just love these ladies so, SO much!

And it doesn't get better than this group of fellas!

Happy Birthday Becca!

Sunshine Flu

Every year the boys get two days to stay home from school.  The first semester they get to have an at home, mellow day.  Near the end of the second semester they get a "sunshine flu" day. It's a fun one-on-one day with Mom. The boys look forward to it all year and so do I.

First up was Keller's day. Of course we start the day off with a selfie to document the day.

Then he requested a gas station stop to grab a donut at 7-11.

Because he didn't want to do anything that cost very much money I offered to take him to Walmart to get a new monster truck.  He found one that came with a diesel truck and has loved it!

The big fun for the day was Chuck E Cheese. We had the place to ourselves and he was in heaven.

He killed me in skee ball. Like he got over 30,000 and I was like 12,000.

Our last stop was lunch and he wanted Raising Canes. 

Once Keller got his day, Vance was anxious for his.  We started his day cuddling on the couch and watching a show.

Once we got ready we took our car selfie and headed out!

First stop was to the Perot Museum. We both love the reflex exhibit and get pretty competitive about it.  We both set new records and were pretty proud of ourselves.

He wanted to build the tallest tower at the block exhibit so that's just what we did!

Then we went to Klyde Warren Park. It's this awesome park in downtown Dallas where they have food trucks and you can rent books, magazines, board games, etc. Plus it's all free!  It is so fun. He wanted to go and play board games. After he killed me in chess a few times, I challenged him to a game I could win...Hungry Hippos. Haha! 

Vance loves trying new restaurants and new foods so I came up with the perfect lunch stop.  He told me he wanted to eat tacos so I did a little research and found a highly recommended street taco joint that offered a few more adventurous tacos.  We tried one of every taco, including beef head, intestines, and tongue. 

I have had tongue tacos before but these ones were a little more gross visually because they didn't chop up the tongue. Vance thought it was great and liked all of them except the intestines. He said that was too crunchy.

For dessert we went to my favorite popsicle joint - Steel City Pops. They are seriously the best!

Our last stop was to Toys R Us. Vance has been saving up money and wanted to buy a few Nerf guns that were on sale. He was thrilled with his purchase!

One-on-one time is the best and I hope the boys will always cherish Sunshine Flu days. I know I do!

Preschool Fun

Years ago Amy gave me some of her old preschool stuff.  I haven't gotten it out in awhile and decided it was time to pull it out.  Sutton loved all of it.  He rotated from seat to seat and had so much fun.  Thanks Amy!