Beach House - Big Slide!

Almost every day at the beach house centered around something and Big Slide day is the most exciting one! The last time, my boys weren’t terribly excited about the big slide and I had high hopes for this year being better…!

But the big slide doesn’t open until late in the morning. Since it definitely isn’t toddler friendly (or at least my toddler), Jenny once again offered to watch Natalie for a little bit when we headed out. But I felt like I was missing out on some mommy-daughter time and asked if anyone minded keeping an eye on the boys so the two of us could go to the beach. (They are much easier to hand off than she is!)

So we had breakfast and headed over to the beach for some splash time. She ran straight for the water as soon as we got there! I love her pink beach outfit the best. :)

She apparently got some golf cart riding in yesterday, so we went for a cruise to see if we could make it to the Big Store without getting on the highway. You can legally cross the highway (at an intersection) in a golf cart, but you can’t ride along the highway. The first attempt was a bust, but on the second try, I found a way through the subdivisions to make it there. Success!!

She was pretty happy with the ride no matter where it ended up. :)

Off to the slide! We call it the big slide, but it’s not that big. There is a bigger one on Bolivar, but it looks a little scary for the little kids. And while this one is pretty tame, they still think it is exciting! This year, I decided to let the boys go on their own and not buy a wristband for myself. It was a great way to save money, because they didn’t need me at all!

These chairs are at the bottom of the slide where the slides meet the very shallow wading pool. So we can watch them walk up the hill, then come out at the bottom. Perfect placement!

Thomas wasn’t having any trouble at all with the slide. This kid was a sliding champ. Seems crazy to me that last time we were here he wanted nothing to do with it!

Henry had just as much enthusiasm for the ride!

But possibly a little less skill on the landings…

Oh well…

He was unfazed no matter how many times he dunked himself! :)

Once they felt they had mastered coming down on their own, the boys joined in the fun of riding down with their friends. Definitely a bit more shrieking on the Meredith/Henry combination than the Anna/Thomas combo.

What a champ! Also you can see the clouds finally burned off a little and they were getting some sunshine along with the water - a perfect vacation day! :)

The rest of the crew met us up there for lunch. Natalie got to eat some french fries with her lunch. I packed her a cheese stick, but she wasn’t the least bit interested once there were fries as an option! I also lost most of my lemonade to the boys. I bought them Kool-Aid Bursts thinking they would love the pure sugar water and they both wouldn’t drink them! What the heck, kids??

I asked them if they wanted to keep sliding or go back with me and their sister. Yeah right… They were more than happy to keep going and Jenny swapped out with me on the pool watching. From what I heard later - they outlasted the Larson kids - a true feat indeed!

After nap, this girl was up and ready to party. Or at least to steal cookies! She kept conning people into giving her cookies even though she had zero intention of eating them. What a scam artist!

Apparently the boys got a little too much sun today! Guess I should have lathered them up again before I left them at the slide. Thankfully it was just a little pink and they didn’t seem to mind it. Live & learn!

After Natalie was off to bed for the night, I took a few of the kids out for an evening golf cart ride on the beach. It was so nice out because there was a good breeze coming off of the water - as you might be able to tell from Henry’s hair!

The rest of the golf cart crew! I think this is the first year we have rented a golf cart and it was totally worth it. We had a blast being able to go on adventures and it was well worth it’s pack-horse status on beach days. The only thing we should do differently next year is get the bigger one - by the time we asked about rentals, they only had the four-seater left. Next year - we plan ahead! :)

Beach House - Crabbing!

Last year, they adding in crabbing to the activities at the beach house. I was soooo bummed I missed out on learning how to crab. Theresa’s mom, Ann, has been promising to show me for years. Luckily Theresa has it down now and we bought enough nets for all of the kids to try it out!

It took Theresa and I awhile to get all of the nets set up for crabbing, but the kids with nets were catching crabs in no time! Henry was so excited he caught one, that he hauled it up and threw it on the dock. Which is when the (very smart!) crab made a run back to the water. I thought I had missed him completely in the photo…

But I managed to just catch him right before he went over the edge. I would say he’s a lucky crab, but it is quite possible that we caught him another 5 times. The ones that were too small keep coming back to nibble on some tasty chicken necks.

I mean, not the guys that were this small - they probably slipped right through the net. There were tiny crabs everywhere! It wasn’t hard to catch crabs, but it was challenging to catch the big ones.

They scouted out this location last year (after a few fails!) and it really was a great spot. The barges going by were super fun to watch! Though the boys and I didn’t realize that the water would rise up so high whenever they went by and were scrambling to get out of the way! The dock stays dry, but that’s about it. ;)

Anytime someone caught a crab in the first hour, they immediately had a crowd of kids trying to see the crab. It was a lot of excitement!

My two thought it was a super fun way to spend the morning.

Wallace was trying out all kinds of locations to catch crabs besides just the dock and he was doing pretty awesome. He made sure to call me over so I could document his catches as well! :)

The crabs were not as excited about getting their photo taken… Pretty sure he is threatening me with that claw!

Also, the claws were terribly hard to get off of the nets sometimes! They would get themselves so wrapped up and even if we were trying to free them to put them back in the water, they were not cooperative. Amazingly, no one got pinched!

One of the houses nearby had a dog that wandered over to say hi. She must have kids in the family because she was incredibly calm around all of them. She clearly just wanted all the head scratches the kids would give her. She didn’t have any tags, so we didn’t know her name - so Meredith just decided to call her Mandy. :)

Mandy was having a blast hanging with all of her new friends. I don’t know if she secretly wanted the chicken necks, but she didn’t try to eat all of them off the nets.

I managed to catch a few crabs, but I really excelled at catching hermit crabs! I think I was more excited about the hermit crabs than anyone else. What can I say - I had so many as a kid that they have happy memories associated with them!

We went earlier in the morning to try to avoid the heat of the day, but it didn’t last too long. It finally got hot enough that no one was excited about crabbing anymore. Thomas went and found the only shade to hang out while he drank his cold gatorade. So we called it quits for the morning and headed back to the house.

I mentioned the jewelry making and here’s the full kit all spread out on the table. I think I might be the only female that didn’t make something. But I did convince my eldest to make me a necklace (with a lot of help from Jenny!). Speaking of my eldest - I let him play minecraft occasionally since it was his vacation and he loved showing all of the other kids how to play. Though he insisted we start a new world so no one messed his up and it was aptly named The Beach House.

I also got to hang out with this girl! I was worried that I wouldn’t have any help with the youngest this year since my mom wasn’t there, but Jenny stepped in to help! Possibly because she is just that awesome or possibly she was missing her grand-baby? But either way, she was up for the challenge of learning how to tube feed her and keep an eye on her while we were doing non-toddler friendly activities. And there was only a slight miscommunication about how to feed her that was corrected once I realized what I said wrong!

Jenny even brought bubbles with her, so she was pretty much Natalie’s favorite person anyhow. :)

Though as you can probably tell from Thomas in the background - even the big kids love bubbles!

Once it got later in the fay, we headed back to try and catch more crabs. We need enough to make stuffed crab, so we were a little bit short… Everyone is well rested and ready to catch some more!

Thomas was pretty excited once he realized the beach chair provided some shade and was up for grabs! I don’t blame him - what’s more fun than crabbing in comfort??

Henry was struggling toward the end. This photo is mid-sentence of him saying “Crabbing is hard…” He did awesome though! :)

We finally caught enough to make stuffed crabs and headed back to the house. This was the least fun part - cooking them… :(

Jenny went and hid because she didn’t want to be a part of it. Theresa and I are not seasoned pros and there may have been a lot of shrieking involved when the crabs held on to the tongs we were trying to move them with. It’s stressful to be a murderer!

But the final stuffed crabs were totally worth it! Don’t they look delicious??

The kids pretty much all refused to try them, so more for the adults. :)

Beach House - Beach Day!

We have been sooooo excited for this week to come and it is finally here! Beach House week with Theresa’s family!! Though we’re honorary family members at this point - 16 years in. ;)

We missed out on it last year, but the boys still remembered all the fun they had when we went in 2017.

We all got there late in the afternoon on Monday, but managed to have time to walk on the beach before it got dark. It was a gorgeous evening with a beautiful sunset!

The week was right between Theresa' and her sister, Jenny’s birthday, so we decided to throw them a surprise party. We put up birthday decorations, bought leis and made them a beach themed cake. The boys had so much fun helping me pick out how to decorate the cake and buy all the candy. :)

(Hopefully our beach isn’t as crowded as the cake beach!)

It’s even fun on the inside! I wasn’t sure how good the oven would be in the rental house, so I made it that morning and then did all the decorating there. All of the kids loved the cake, but Thomas was the only one who waited for me to take a picture before eating…

See??

Everyone had a strong opinion on if they wanted to eat beach or ocean, so we ended up with a very oddly cut cake. Thankfully there were enough candies on top that every piece could easily get one. Whew!

The bathroom sinks were a little high for the kids, but that didn’t stop Henry from getting up there to wash his hands. Theresa then helpfully pointed out we could open the door and stand on the cabinet ledge inside. Well that might be a little easier… ;)

First day at the beach! It was hot! But the boys had a blast playing in the sand, in the water, in the tubes, etc. They don’t mind the heat nearly as much as their mom does…

I got this cool surfer toy because I kept seeing articles about how much fun it is for kids at the beach - especially kids that may not want to go in the water much. So I mostly bought it for Natalie to play with it, but all of the kids loved it. It doesn’t matter how you throw it in the water, the waves will make it surf back to you. So fun!

Theresa’s sister brought all kinds of fun stuff to make jewelry and Natalie claimed one of the necklaces Jenny made as her very own. This girl loves her bling!

(She also loved the beach, but I didn’t get many photos of her since I was chasing her everywhere!)

July Random (Before the Beach House!)

July was bracketed by two big events with friends, but the rest of the month was just full of randomness and moving into a new house! So here’s the highlights. :)

Thomas got this awesome care package from his best friend in Alaska, James. We’ve been trying to get Thomas to write a letter to James all summer, but he keeps half-finishing them and wanted to start a new one. So James definitely beat us to the punch in a big way - what a great Alaska themed package he sent. We owe him something fun in return!

In the chaos of moving, we’ve been ordering in food quite a bit more. Also, there are so many options with the meal delivery apps and millions of restaurants nearby! We ordered from this chinese restaurant for the second time and they sent us the wrong order. Instead of a meal to share, we got 6 people’s meals. When we called to see if we could get our actual meal, they just refunded our money and told us to keep the food. (I guess that’s more efficient than sending another driver back?)

Anyhow, I have always wondered what Egg Foo Young tasted like and now I know. I really liked it! Ate it for breakfast too. And still had more - you can see we were a bit overwhelmed by all the food!

I thought the chicken and broccoli would make a good tube meal for Natalie once it was all blended up. And it did!

Except I got a little careless with my syringe pushing and made quite the mess…

We now have a pool, so now we get to do pool maintenance. Yay…?

Matt has gotten overly excited about doing it on his own and made me send him photos of the chemical tests while he was out of town so he could keep track.

This moron (whom I love) was following me around in the back yard one night and straight up fell into the deep end of the pool. Thankfully she remembered that she could swim and made it back to the edge so I could pull her out. That would not have been a pretty rescue effort…!

And again with the knee! What the heck, kiddo??

I’m not the only one making messes at meal time! She managed to drop a raspberry and smush it all down her leg. Of course when I reached down to grab the other end of her feeding extension, I about had a heart attack thinking she was hurt. We make quite the pair!

Someone took advantage of the fact I was distracted on my computer to use her yogurt for a moisturizer and shampoo. I would prefer you eat the food, little one! Though can’t be mad when she is looking so adorable. ;)

I may have gone a little bit crazy stocking up on food once I realized it was coming up on hurricane season. This is in addition to all of the food I bought at Costco the other day, but want to have more than a few days worth of food.

Turns out Matt was also prepping for storms - even though we didn’t mention our plans to each other.

Different ideas, but both very useful! He was so excited about his inflatable boat that him and the boys had to test it out in the pool! We saw enough of the madness that happened in Houston with Hurricane Harvey that we decided it was better to be a little over-prepared…

Natalie’s Nanny started taking her for more exciting outings and this one included a trip to the playground at the mall. (My only request was to clean the heck out of her hands once they were done!) She had a blast and I got quite the assortment of fun photos while they were there. :)

The kids are also enjoying the ordering in and they are even branching out in what they are willing to try. Thomas approved of the Lo Mein noodles!

Ok to be fair, I think one of them is more willing to experiment than the other… ;

Natalie was hanging out in the boy’s room while I was putting stuff away in their closet. Well she wanted to help with the hangers and found a perfect spot for them! She was ridiculously quite doing it too - I didn’t notice what she was doing until she had every spot covered!

Thomas has been in several different coding camps this summer and has been asking to play with the coding programs while I make dinner. I love that they have kid friendly computer coding these days and even more love that he is excited about them. I even get to help him out some times with what I remember from writing code back in high school. (I’m sure he will be past my knowledge sooner than I can imagine!)

Natalie and I took Eliza to the vet for a check-up and the parrot in the lobby was so excited! She was making all kinds of noise and saying “Hello!” to try and get Natalie to come see her. The vet told me that he always knows when there is a child in the waiting room because she doesn’t bother with adults. :)

I took the kids over to the green-space park that is a short walk from the house. Thomas is doing so awesome on his bike and it’s got trails that aren’t right on the road for him to explore.

It’s also got some tiny hills for Henry to practice on the balance bike. Though it was after I took this picture that I decided this bike is waaaay too small for him. We may just have to make the jump to a real bike before he is fully ready for it… “/

No biking for Natalie, but she did get to run around chasing her brothers for awhile. You can probably tell how hot it is by how red & sweaty the kid’s faces are. Maybe we will be better adjusted for the heat next summer…?

Henry lost his awesome watch very shortly after he got it. We looked everywhere for it the past few months with no luck. Well he randomly was playing with the solar system set that his Aunt Heather bought them for their room (that I still need to hang up) and it turns out he had hidden the watch inside of Jupiter and forgotten about it. Thankfully it is found, but who hides things in Jupiter??

Turns out I shouldn’t have complained about the watch being in Jupiter, because I then discovered Chick-fil-A caramel sauce hidden in Natalie’s toy bin. Why do we even have this? I didn’t buy it! Thankfully it wasn’t open, but I still have questions about how it ended up in the toys upstairs.

The take-away for the month is that kids are weird and will hide anything.

Celebrating The Fourth @ The Larsons

After a fun-filled time at the beach, we dropped by the house for a night and then headed out again to San Antonio! Matt stayed behind this time to work on unpacking boxes (someone has to do it!) while the rest of us continued the fun!

Even though we stopped for play time at the children’s museum in San Antonio, this girl was still ready to run once we got to the Larson’s house. She just loves to run these days and she had the space to do it!

The boys were much more excited about riding around in the golf cart than running. I can’t blame them - it is a much faster mode of transportation. And Theresa’s oldest niece was there to be a pretty reliable driver. ;)

Natalie apparently liked the golf cart rides as well - she was very insistent that Henry continue carrying her around inside the house!

She was also a little bit obsessed with staring through the see -through part of her dress! Apparently she likes the world to be more rosy colored! And thankfully she had shorts on underneath so she wasn’t showing her diaper to everyone. ;)

The only downside to fourth of July celebrations is that they are in the hottest part of the year for Texas! Luckily, the Larson’s have a pool! While the boys are doing better at swimming, they still aren’t trustworthy to not have eyes on them. And since I was outnumbered, they also got the extra security of life jackets! (Thankfully Theresa still had some of their old ones that would still fit on the boys!)

Natalie and I even got some hang-out time in the pool. She’s not terribly sure about this whole “swimming” in a pool thing. She much prefers the beach where the water is ankle depth…!

Brittney & Rachael also joined in the fun with their kids - which was when we realized that between all of us, we have a lot of kids. 10 to be exact! Though Anna is missing because she was still off at summer camp. She was bummed to miss out on the fun, but having a blast anyhow!

Pinata time! It’s pretty much a tradition at any kind of party with kids these days… :)

Youngest goes first! Natalie is actually the second youngest, but Charlie didn’t seem interested in taking a turn. And while you might think I did all of the work, Natalie was actually quite keen on whacking the pinata with the bat. She’s developing quite the arm!

Henry obviously knows what to do with the bat and went to town on trying to get some candy out!

By the time it was Thomas’ turn, we were getting worried if the pinata would ever break! It was making a weird metal sound when you hit it and was not giving much ground. So once all the kids had a turn, one of the adults went to town and finally got it broken apart.

It was me!

And there are no photos to show how much fun I was having or what a good job I did. Boo! :(

We didn’t have any treat bags, so Theresa went to scrounge something up for collecting candy. But before she got back, Henry came up with the brilliant idea to use the cones from the pinata to store candy. He’s a creative one!

Finally it was time to blow some stuff up! Josh had mowed us a launch pad and pathway in the front yard for us to shoot fireworks from. More importantly though - it got rid of the grass burrs in the area. While I have strong memories of them as a kid growing up in Texas, my children are completely unaware of the danger that lurks in the lawn. They would have been easy prey. ;)

We also hauled down a bunch of chairs so everyone could relax and enjoy the show. Though the people without kids definitely had a more relaxing show…

I had a chair for Natalie, but decided my life would be easier if I corralled her into the stroller so I knew where she was at all times. She didn’t seem to mind - she was entertained enough by watching. And you can see she scraped her knee in the same spot again. At least she’s consistent…?

Like any good parents, we had the kids covered for hearing protection! I can’t even remember if I had my own ears protected, but none of the kids were getting hearing damaged tonight! Even Natalie had a pair that she kept on during the big fireworks!

But in addition to the big firecrackers, Justin brought a ton of smaller fireworks for the kids to play with. I only got a few photos while trying to manage multiple small children around gunpowder, but this one was by far my favorite! A fireworks sword and Henry so proud of himself for using it. Love it!

It was great time of celebration with friends and kids! We all agreed to try and make a tradition of it, so we’ll see how big the show gets next year! :)

The Beach Condo

We decided to split up the 4th of July week into two different get-aways. The first one was back to our favorite spot - Galveston! We talked about renting an RV, but in the end we decided to stay in a rental. I realized that the place my parents always used to take us has listings on VRBO and wanted to go back - I remember it being a fun place to stay!

Plus it is right across the street from a good public beach. Just cross the road at the light, climb down the stairs and there’s the beach! We bought a new wagon to help carry the gear, so we were able to pack more stuff this time. I brought both of the boys beach chairs and they both deemed them to be too small now. But Natalie was excited about them!

But her favorite chair of all is sitting on her dad!

Selfie with my Thomas! He was having such a blast even though it was a pretty overcast day. I also just realized that his shirt is backwards - I can totally see the printed tag through the shirt. He is terrible at putting shirts on the right way if there is no print on the front.. ;)

Henry was busy digging a hole in the sand!

Since the beach was right there, we went for an evening walk on the beach that night as well. Natalie had so much fun running everywhere now that there were no people to avoid. Also, still cheating at peek-a-boo!

We also went over to Seawolf Park to check out the ships. I needed to feed Natalie, so the boys got some play time in the attached playground before we went exploring.

Natalie was alllllll over the place inside the submarine, so I didn’t get any pictures of her as I was trying to avoid her getting hurt. But she did pose for a photo outside of the submarine. Of course, a super aggressive bird dive-bombed us several times, so the outside is apparently not much safer! That thing was out for blood…!

The battleship wasn’t much better. She pretty much got held the entire time because of all the very steep staircases. The last visit to Seawolf Park when she was still on the inside was much easier! ;)

The condo had a Galveston version of Monopoly and the boys had a blast playing it with me. You can tell from this smile who the winner was…!

The condo had two pools - one that was much more kid-friendly than the other. I definitely don’t remember the pool having a beach entry or this cool mushroom fountain when I was a kid! The boys loved being able to get in the water so easily and practicing their new swimming skills.

Natalie was in and out and in and out… you get the picture. I finally got her to chill with me on a chair for a bit by giving her some crackers to eat. And look how long her hair is getting!

Back to the beach! She’s getting braver about walking into the water! Still not very deep, but this girl is definitely a beach babe. :)

Matt convinced the boys to climb into the cart for a ride down the beach. They seemed a little worried once he started walking them into the ocean though. ;)

Such a beautiful morning at the beach! The boys played in the sand forever, but Natalie did not. She was running all over the place. I chased her around forever and then told Matt it was his turn.

“Tag, you’re it!”

I just wanted to spend all of the time at the condo sitting on the patio. When I was a kid, we rarely got a patio that you could see the ocean without leaning out to the side, but this one was a great view and I was loving it! I even gave Natalie a few meal times out there. :)

Best part of the trip might have been the morning snuggles though! We are usually in a rush to get up and do things in the morning and on vacation we can just chillax and hang out in bed for a little while. :)

One last stop for ice cream before heading home! Wouldn’t be a trip to Galveston without it! ;)

After the ridiculous amount of ice cream we had last time, we got smart and got fewer milkshakes and more glasses to split them. No one had a stomachache from trying to eat too much ice cream this time. Learnings! ;)

June Random

What a fun (albeit hot) month! The boys are having a great summer and I am surviving thanks to air conditioning. ;)

The one coding came I signed Thomas up for didn’t have enough students to make a class. And he needed the class to take another one later in the summer. So I signed up Henry and Neema’s son to meet the minimum requirement. It was literally just the three of them, but they had a blast!

Doesn’t he look so proud of his coding certificate? I love that there are so many summer camp options for him in Texas. I have a spreadsheet keeping tabs on where he is going every week because I couldn’t just pick one option!

Henry also did awesome! Though you can see he did a number on his knee the last day. They would take a break to go run around the dog park nearby to blow off steam and Henry totally bit it hard. The instructor was super apologetic, but I wasn’t upset - Henry’s just a little bit clumsy when he’s running…

Finally got Eliza a summer hairstyle! Also her oral tumor is still hanging out. All the articles I read about oral tumors said they generally were fatal and usually quite fast. Eliza apparently did not get that memo!

Neema is trying again with the art time and Natalie is still not in love with it. Here she is doing a sign for “All done” - she’s been learning baby sign language, but sometimes she just wants to make up her own (case in point here). As long as she can communicate, we aren’t sticklers. ;)

My friend Jenny recommended the game Qwirkle a while ago, but we hadn’t ever gotten it. Finally bought it and the boys liked it - though one of them more than the other…! We didn’t actually keep score, so I have no idea who won, but Thomas is convinced it was him. All I know is that it wasn’t me.

One of the mornings Matt was travelling, I decided to load up all of the kids and take them to get donuts. A lady very politely came up and asked me if that was my minivan in the parking lot. I thought one of the boys had left the door open, but she wanted to ask me how I liked it. So I grabbed Natalie and walked out to show it to her (the boys were happy to stay and eat donuts, but I don’t trust the youngest!).

Can’t imagine how she knew it was me that owned the minivan… ;)

We ventured up north to the Woodland’s Children’s Museum to go have some fun. I took the boys there years ago and they both loved it, so I figured Natalie would as well. Boy did she! The girl was alllll over the place having a blast. I kept trying to contain her in the toddler area, but she was not having that!

I couldn’t remember how we built the big foam train last time, so we ended up building a chair this time instead. Thomas seems to enjoy chilling!

Why do my kids look cuter in my sunglasses than I do??? Maybe I just need to get giant ones so they are proportionally the same size?

Thomas hasn’t played with his Lego Boost in forever because I may or may not have forgotten to update the ipad app for it. I finally got it working again and he decided to build a new robot that has a conveyor belt. It was so fun - it will even pick up a block and move it. Learning some coding while having fun with Legos!

An invention from his STEM camp - a very cool catapult and basket. They showed them how moving it front/back or side-to-side would change where the balls ends up. He loved it!

They have both been asking to do some coding type games on the computer since they got to try them at coding camp. I am more than happy to oblige and even Natalie was impressed with some of the animations Thomas made. :)

This girl has taken to cheating when you try to get her to cover her eyes. Every time we play peek-a-boo, she always has a peeking spot around her hands. This is one of her more subtle cheating moves, half the time she just blatantly stares between her fingers . :)

Natalie’s first selfie?? She’s very artistic - she even managed to turn it black & white without my help! So impressive. :)

A New House!!

We didn’t really plan on buying a house until next year, but we thought we would look around to see what the different options were in this general area that we like. And of course when you are “looking” around, sometimes you find something you really want!

And today was closing day on our new house!! We were all so excited to go hang out in the new house that I grabbed the kids and told Matt I would meet him there. Except…

They gave us the wrong key! We couldn’t get into our new house!!

And it is not a cool day. The realtor found the correct key and drove it over, but the kids were so hot and sweaty in the meantime. We moved to the back patio where we would at least be in the shade and under the fan. And Matt brought the boys drinks and I have stuff to keep Natalie hydrated. But they were not impressed… ;)

Finally in! We ordered pizza to our new house and had a fun dinner in the mostly empty house. The previous owners actually left us quite a bit of furniture - they sent a message via the realtors that they thought some of it could be a blessing and to let them know. It totally is a blessing, this house is a bit bigger than the last one! The boys even had stools to sit on for the first dinner thanks to the generosity. :)

Natalie decided that she liked the house enough to “mark” it as her own and puked on the counter… So we had a baby with no clothes. What an evening…

Side note - look at those teeth she’s growing!

Matt waited until the boys weren’t paying much attention, then ran and jumped into the pool with all of his clothes on. They thought it was hysterical and also wanted to cool off in the pool. Unlike their dad, they did not have extra clothes, so I told them they had to swim in their undies. No complaints there and soon everyone but momma was in the pool! I can already tell that the pool is going to be the favorite part of the new house!

The Nerf Wars

The boys and their dad have had so much fun with the Nerf guns that we decided to buy their dad his own Nerf gun for Father’s Day!

I texted his hunting buddy for help on which style of ridiculously large Nerf gun would be best and he voted for the same one I was leaning towards. It has a shoulder stock that telescopes out and looks like an actual “battle” gun - seemed fitting for Matt.

Of course, the boys are getting a little tired of being hit in the Nerf gun fights, so they decided to make their dad some targets to shoot at instead. Thanks to Pinterest, we found some cute ideas for homemade targets. My favorite addition was Thomas’ “Do not shoot the kids. Shoot at the target.”

We even converted the built-in bookshelf to a full on shooting gallery. We made targets with different values and competed to see who could score the most.

Clearly this kid’s aim is getting pretty good with all the target practice!

While her brother’s are running away from their dad and trying to hide all the extra darts, Natalie is trying to reload the clip for his gun. Clearly she is on her dad’s side in this battle - a daddy’s girl, for sure! ;)

A Sleep Study

As part of Natalie’s Aerodigestive clinic earlier this year, the pulmonologist recommended that we have a sleep study done for her. I honestly wasn’t sure what they were worried about (I am sure he told us, but I clearly forgot), but it seemed like an easy enough test for her. You just have to sleep! ;)

There is a sleep center at the TCH campus closest to us, but they wanted her to be at the Med Center location given her other medical issues. Not a fun drive from home with a 6pm arrival time…

We got into the room and while it is a hospital room, it is a bit cozier than the usual sterile rooms. I actually had a moment the night before when I was packing our overnight bag about how long it had been since I was packing up for a hospital visit. She’s just doing so awesome these days!

They had a giant hospital bed in the room for her and the tech decided that I could sleep with her or she could bring her a crib instead. I opted for the crib because I figured the test would be more accurate if she was alone? On the bright side, they pushed the big bed in the corner for me so I didn’t have to sleep on the couch!

It was already past her bedtime once they started the bedtime “prep”. They had to stick these electrode sensors all over her head. She didn’t seem to mind though!

The tech got them all on and then put this very stylish head wrap over them. I sent her dad a photo and he said she looked like a Teletubbie. I was so proud of how well she was handling all of the wires!

Until they put the pulse oximeter wrap on her toe. That’s when she lost it. Super weird since she lived with one on her foot or toe for months! She did eventually settle down thankfully…

Overall, it was not the best night’s sleep. It’s hard for a toddler to sleep restfully with all these wires all over the place. She honestly did better than I thought, but I was pretty exhausted!

Sensor free! They use a grease pen to mark all of the sensor spots and then use this weird sugar-based paste to get them to stick. So she clearly needed a shower when she got home. I needed a nap… Thankfully I could hand her off to Nonni and Neema so I could get a few hours of sleep before going to work.

When we got the results back, it showed she has some pretty minor sleep apnea. There’s definitely some moments where she stopped breathing, but she recovered all on her own quickly. (It sounds much scarier before the pulmonologist calmly explains what it means!) So it sounds like she will probably be having follow up sleep studies, but nothing too much to worry about at the moment.