Day in the Life... July

Here's what we've been up to in July...

Tatum refuses to sit in her high chair/booster chair any longer. She wants to sit in a big chair like everyone else. *sigh

Our Bible study one day was the Tower of Babel, so we made a tower of Babel out of Ritz crackers and almond butter. The kids loved it. We have been using the Jesus Storybook Bible which all of us love. The pictures are nice and ultimately, EACH story ends pointing to Jesus in a clear way for the kids (and, I won't lie, sometimes I need the application to be made for myself as well). 

Here's Levi. He is such a funny kid. He's always trying to make us laugh. Lately he's been very interested in coloring and drawing and learning to write letters (completely different from Colt who cries at the mention of trying to learn a new letter). Levi has been our biggest challenge of late as he has been quite the bully lately. He has been hitting and sometimes kicking everyone, including the dog. In fact, he threw a rock at a baby at the park the other day!! 

I know its hard to imagine this sweet face doing something like that. Anyway, we are praying hard for this kid and trying to do EVERYTHING to change this kid's heart so he will be sweet again :) Then we can move on to whatever new issue will pop up! It's always something isn't it? 

 Colt has been talking for quite some time in a thick southern drawl. We have no clue where this came from as no one in our family talks like this. For example, when he says black it sounds like blay-ac. He also loves to say "I love you" randomly and often. He says funny things like, "I don't like (the song) Row, Row, Row your Boat because it says butt in it." And he calls his ear an earball. Funny kid.

Sweet brothers

Tatum is getting so big! It amazes me daily.

She loves pointing out different bugs and using her many words. 

And, she loves to copy anything her brothers are doing... including climbing fences and jumping off the couch!

Tatum's #1 favorite activity is to "wing" or swing. This is the first thing she asks Daddy to do each day after he gets home from work. 

The rest of these pictures are downloaded off my phone... here goes!

We watched fireworks at the Round Rock Express game on the 3rd, then at some friends house on the 4th (who have an amazing hill country view. We could see several shows from all over Austin!)

Our neighborhood had a parade and carnival. The boys enjoyed the dunking booth.

Colt is so strong! (Notice his prized balloon sword and sheath)

Spiderman

Aunt Amy came to town and we took her to Jim-Jim's to get natural snow cones. Yum!

The Austin Symphony provides a show each week during the summer for the kids. They have instruments the kids can listen to and touch, art projects, storytimes, and different entertainment each week. We love Children's Art Park!

Another favorite summer stop is Juice Land. I think the boys are drinking Carrot-Apple-Ginger juice and Tatum and I split something with lots of green veggies in it (and pineapple to sweeten it!). 

Someone likes to sit on the potty (though going in it is more of the exception to the rule).

And a lady always washes her hands afterwards!

We had a church outing to the Children's Museum and were glad to get to play with Cousin Eliza for a bit. 

My family hasn't all gotten together since Christmas since my parents were in Germany for the spring, so we gathered together at Lake LBJ. The boys enjoyed fishing (even Levi, who had no hook on his line, lest he snag someone with it). 

Abbey and Ashley are all smiles.

Alethea taking a picture of me as I take one of her.

Colt found this outfit that is size 12months. Pretty sure he even wore it to bed that night!

Colt and I went to the Zilker Park Summer Musical, The Sound of Music. He really enjoyed the show and was overly concerned about making sure the VonTrapp family made it to the mountains safely. Even a week later he asked, "Mom, did that family ever cross the mountain?" It took me a while to put his random question into context, but just played along and told him yes, since he was having trouble grasping the pretend nature of a musical. Ty likes to sing some of the songs from this musical to the kids at night, so it was fitting for this to be Colt's first summer musical. 

My Dad and Jennifer have had a total of 3 surgeries in the past 2 weeks, so Colt and I headed to Abilene to take care of them as the recover. We got out of the house one day to check out the Abilene zoo.

We showed up at the Reptile House at feeding time. I thought this was the coolest part!

Colt loves taking pictures with the phone :) 

And he likes to pick his nose. 

Which makes us both laugh :)

The highlight of the zoo was riding on the train. It was kinda cool cause the guide spouted off lots of interesting tidbits while taking us on a tour of the zoo.