Fun times at the children's museum

Last summer I bought a family membership to our local children's museum. It was the best money I spent!! Our boys love it there and they always find something new to explore and play with. Jackson and Joshua have been there numerous times, but this was the first time that Jonathan could also be a part of the fun!

Joshua and the giant abacus

Joshua driving the car--he kept looking for "passengers"

Jonathan sitting up and checking out the young explorers section

The fun pyramid mirror

Jonathan thought playing with his socks was also pretty entertaining

Jackson and Joshua loved the giant marble run!!

The ball pit was a fun spot to play

Jackson really enjoyed playing in the water section--we were the only ones there!!

Brothers rocking out on the xylophones!

Making bubbles in the water section

Not me!!

It's Monday again!! Time to come clean about all the things we've done (or not done)! :)

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

I did not take the boys to the drive-thru for Happy Meals last week so they could have their milk for lunch without me having to take all three into a store to buy just a gallon of milk! I would never do that! And I certainly did not order a milkshake for myself while we were there and then I did not complain about how many calories were in it!


I did not set up Jackson and Joshua with a snack downstairs (muffins and milk) and then head upstairs with Jonathan to feed him. I did not check FB while upstairs and get sucked in for a few minutes. Nope that wasn't me! I also did not go downstairs to find that there were lots of nibbles in the muffins that were still on the counter. And I certainly did not take a picture of those muffins and have a good laugh about it.

I did not get totally frustrated with Jackson because had a night-time accident (in our bed--he was there because he had a bad dream). This wasn't just one day after I did not get really mad at him for having a day-time accident. I did not immediately feel completely guilty about the way I reacted! (If anyone has ideas or suggestions with this potty training business, send them this way. Our almost 4-year-old has been potty-trained for about a year, but there are occasional accidents because he won't stop playing in time to get to the bathroom.)

Sunday Fun

We had a great Sunday! Church this morning, then brunch with AW's sister's family, then a walk to the ice cream store, and then home for time with just our family, which means playing, laughing, and, of course, wrestling!

Five cousins enjoying pancakes with lots of syrup and whipped cream!

Jonathan just being super cute!

AW and Jonathan during brunch

Jackson loves driving the Jeep in the backyard

Jackson's driving his cousin Elizabeth around

My three very sweet boys!!

Joshua loves his ice cream treat!

Watching the trains go by--there were three freight trains and one passenger train that went by as we were enjoying our ice cream! Our boys loved them!!

Gammy and her SEVEN grandkids--ages 7 (almost 8) and younger!!

Memorial Day 2009

We are so blessed to be living in a free country such as ours! We know our freedom didn't come free--and we are so grateful for all the men and women who have fought for our freedom and especially grateful for those families whose loved ones died battle. These men and women paid a great price. However, I know that Jesus paid the ultimate price for all of us when he died on the cross! That is a true blessing and the ultimate salvation!!

We spent the day as a family and had a great time, despite the cool weather and occasional drizzle.

Mommy and Jackson made a flag cake with blueberries and strawberries! YUM!

Daddy manned the grill---steak, corn and portabellas! So good!! There was quite a spread!

Jonathan was caught sporting Daddy's Astros hat! So cute!!

Jonathan is now sitting up and he's doing a great job! :)

Sweet Jonathan

Does it get any cuter than this happy little guy?? Nope! Didn't think so!! Jonathan is a cutie!!

fun afternoon project

While Joshua and Jonathan took their afternoon naps, Jackson and I made buttercream frosting---so yummy! (I never really liked buttercream frosting, but that's because it wasn't homemade---how come everything tastes so much better when homemade?!) We then had fun decorating cupcakes, and of course enjoying them for dessert! We had a fun afternoon!!

Jackson's decorated cupcake---pretty good!! :)
Hmmm! Delicious cupcake! Joshua loves the frosting!
How many bites will it take me to finish this cupcake? Yummy!!

Not Me Monday!

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

This is my first Not Me Monday post! Enjoy reading about all the things I did not do this past week!

I did not pretend to be asleep when Jonathan cried in the middle of the night, forcing my husband to have to get up instead. And then I most certainly did not feel guilty about it when he had to leave for work only a few hours later.

I did not set up Jackson and Joshua with the Wall-E movie while Jonathan took his afternoon nap last week, just so I could have a few quiet minutes to myself and maybe even lay down for a bit. Nope, not me! I would never use the TV as a babysitter!

I did not crop myself out of all our vacation pictures just so no one would see me in a bathing suit. Nope, not me! I would never be that self-conscious!

I did not just finish the last if the ice cream (creme brulee ice cream!! yum!!) and announce to the boys we needed to make a grocery run after naptime, just so I could get some more! Nope, that wasn't me!

What have you not done this week?? Do share!!

Jonathan's First Cereal

Jonathan had his first rice cereal this evening! It's such an exciting step!! (When I found out we were pregnant with our third baby, I was worried that I wouldn't be able to love them all the same or be able to go through all the stages with as much excitement, but that is so not the case!!) Jonathan (like his brothers before him) did great with the rice cereal, even making the same funny faces and gagging motions! We're so glad he is joining us at the table and eating with us! (We need a bigger table, btw!!)

Not sure he knows what's coming!


Happy guy!!!


Perhaps my fingers taste better than the rice cereal!


Look at that face!


A look back.....

This is Jackson with his first rice cereal!



This is Joshua the first time he had rice cereal!



Jackson wanted to be the first to feed Jonathan! YUM!! Rice cereal! :)

More Dells pics

Click here to see more pictures from trip to the Dells!

First Family Vacation!!

Hooray for family vacations!! We have sadly realized that we don't take vacations...very often at all. We went to Africa for our honeymoon (thank you, Allen & Janelle) but since then every other trip we have taken was to be with family, which is great, but not the same as a vacation. So, this week we took our first family vacation!! We went to Wisconsin Dells for two nights and had a really good time! We stayed at the Wilderness, which had two indoor parks, and we enjoyed them very much! The boys loved the water (most of the time) and it was nice to just be together and not worry about housework or bills or errands or other daily life stuff.

Hanging out on our deck--it was a chilly morning, but the boys loved being out there!

Jonathan looking super cute doing tummy time on the bed.

We checked in Monday and headed straight to the pool (the boys were sooooo excited)! They couldn't get to the pool fast enough!!

We spent most of our time at the pool, with Daddy and the boys in the lazy river.

I hung out with Jonathan the whole time and we didn't go in the water much (he didn't seem to like it much, but did get used to it toward the end).

The only bad part of the trip was that AW got sick Tuesday morning from his migraine headache and he spent the first 5 hours of the day in the bathroom and sleeping in bed. After the medicine kicked in, we were good to go and ready to spend the day in the water!

Jackson and Joshua were so tired at the end of the day! Swimming wore them out!!

After three days, we were ready to head home---the boys were certainly ready to be home! We had a great time and hopefully we'll make famil vacations a yearly thing, if not more often!! :)

The Avery Five at the Wilderness Resort---we'll be back!!