Yee-haw

Jax is now officially a full blown toddler who just celebrated his 2nd birthday with a "Wild West" party. We had a great time with family and friends. This birthday was the year of transportation. Jax rolled in with a bike, a scooter, and a Cozy Coupe car. It was rounded out some really cool cowboy boots, a Spike Jr. to match Bubbie's Spike, some Yo Gabba Gabba toys, a cute Doctor's Kit, a farm set, a Tonka truck set, and the much needed helmet with matching knee and elbow pads.

I made the invitation to resemble a "Wanted" poster. It is difficult to read, but it says, Wanted! Your presence at the the 2nd birthday party for Jackson "Sticky Fingers" Lewis. I put his eye and hair color and his height and weight around his picture. At the bottom I put the details. Round up your posse for (the date) We'll saddle up at the Lewis Homestead Vittles served at (time)
Holler at Ma or Pa with a Yee-haw or a Dang-nabit
On Friday, during lunch, Calen asked what kind of games there would be to play. I told him I wasn't planning on doing games because Jax wouldn't care. "What?! No games? What's a party with games. You have to have games at a birthday party. It's not a party without games. It's a party! You need games!" Calen proclaimed. "Okay, okay. I'll do some games," I said. So here are some of the games.

A "Shoot Out."

Lasso the Bronco

Ring the Cactus

And what's a birthday without cake?

I added little "buttons" with a "J" and a "2" to the cowboy hat cake. I also hid them among the patches on the bottom tier.

Next birthday, Riley, the big 1, October. About 8 weeks to figure it out. I'm behind.


Calen just finished his first week of first grade. We are off to a great start. The week went very smoothly and very quickly given what a hectic week it was. The longest assignment of the week was copywork. It took 20 minutes to copy 4 sentences. It was an average of 1 minute per word. One of the easiest things to do... One day he'll wish he could just copy the sentences, just like he will eventually miss those naps. Will they ever learn?


Riley is now 10 months old. She's a whopping 16 lbs. Saturday I put away her 3-6 month clothes. In the past week she has taken to eating some more textured type foods, and has even eaten a little table food. She also LOVES the water... dog dish, bath, toilet- she's not picky as long as it's wet.

In a Year's Time

How long is a year? 12 months. 52 weeks. 365 days. ~8765 hours. ~525, 948 minutes. ~31,556,925 seconds. Last night we measured the past year in inches. Inches? Yup. And here's how we did it.

This week is The Greene County Fair, and we took the kids last night to have a couple hours fun. What was immediately apparent was that last year Jackson was only a little older than Riley. He was sitting in the stroller taking a bottle and eating two jars of baby food. This year it was Riley in the stroller, and Jax was in and out because he was walking around and riding some of the kiddie rides.

As for Calen, last summer he was riding all the kiddie rides. He was barely tall enough to ridessome of the big rides with Danny. Okay, he wasn't tall enough-exactly... He would stand really straight to gain those last few fractions of an inch. It was really crowded, and the workers were strict.

This year was a completely different story. He was too big for most of the kiddie rides, but the workers let him ride with Jax. Wow, Jax needed an adult, and Calen was able to ride with him. As for the big rides, Calen could officially ride ALL the adult rides- BY HIMSELF! No mom or dad, aunt or uncle, just him, all alone.

We measured the last year in at ~5 1/2 inches. I had no idea he had grown that much. If he grows just 4 more inches- then next year he can ride most roller coasters by himself. Next year, Riley will be running around riding those kiddie rides. Jax will looking to ride some of those bigger rides in upcoming years. Just him and his brother. The two of them. No mom or dad.

Summer Break?

It's hard to believe that summer is drawing to a close and school is almost ready to start back. The local PS (public schools) are going back as early as this week. Calen and I have three more weeks of vacay, although our awesome new curriculum is ready to go. It will be interesting to see how those first few weeks go with another mobile baby cruising the room.

We've had an incredibly busy summer. I'm not sure who decided to refer to this time as summer break, but there hasn't really been any breaks in this household. Part of me is looking forward to the start of school so that life can slow down a bit. Yeah, I know it's a pipe dream.

We've had a calender filled summer filled with cookouts, VBS (three), visits with grandparents (three weeks), and swimming lessons (twice a week). Those three VBSs could have been FIVE, but two didn't work out. Whew!

Jax has also had a very busy past couple weeks-potty training. He is doing extremely well and doesn't have very many accidents at home. He can even stay dry on trips from home, but he wears a diaper and can tell the difference, so he may not tell us if he needs to go. He still hasn't done a poopy on the potty yet, but he will come find me quickly to change him. If we can just catch him on the potty once, I think he'll be good to go. He'll get two M&Ms for that! He is also using his new skill as an excuse to get out of bed during naptime and bedtime. Sneaky, sneaky.


Riley is cruising right along. She is getting so big, even though big is a relative term here. She is about the size the boys were at six months. She can pretty much go where ever she wants. She has yet to get her first tooth, but no surprise there. She loves "playing" with the boys Hot Wheels cars. Last month we made a trip to Wal-mart so Calen could spend some allowance money. Jax picked out a car, and Riley got a little butterfly that rolls across the floor. Jax just loves that butterfly, and Riley loves that car!

Hunter is growing like mad. He rarely has an accident in the house, but if he does our little potty monitor, Jax, will let anyone within earshot know about it. He loves to chew on the kids' toys, with his preference being the wooden ones. I've lost count of the destroyed puzzle pieces at this point. Right now he is curled up asleep on his pillow, and Jax is wallowing him, and Riley is trying to chew on his ear.