one

While our favorite Nevadans were here, this little hunk celebrated his first birthday. 

He is quick to smile and quick to make trouble. It is not the best combination. Jeffery can crawl at the speed of light and is only interested in unrolling toilet paper, chewing on power cords, splashing in toilet water, and poking power sockets. I wish I were kidding. He has just recently started walking more and I think the new vantage point is helping to expand his horizons. He will spend limited time playing with other things these days. 

We celebrated his birthday with chocolate cake and a world cup game. 

We have been working on signing for months. Like his brother before him, Jeffery show zero interest in making physical efforts to communicate. He is very vocal though. And recently, he has become very kissy.

I like the chocolate-ice-cream-faced kisses the most.

We knew that he would be moving quickly once he was up on his feet. He loved playing in his walker and would pretty much run loops around the main floor. Now that he has his balance, he high steps to and fro. I cannot get him to keep a pair of shoes on for anything. His feet are so chubby that by the time a shoe fits the bridge of his foot, it is a little long. He fights and screams when I put them on, and quickly wriggles out of them. Lucky for him, we will still happily carry him around. 

Nevada Visitors

My Dad had a business conference in Dallas in the middle of June and he, my mom, and my grandma seized the opportunity to stretch out his trip and visit us. We were so excited to have them come. The Monday before they arrived, I had a phone call with my mom wherein I lamented that the house projects were not going to be further along upon their arrival. We hadn't finalized the contract for the painting of the interior of the house. And though we had signed the contract for our backyard project, the plans for the pool were being held up at the HOA office.  That next morning everything fell into place and, incredibly, before their arrival, the house painting was completed and the pool had been dug, rebar had been laid, and the gunite (concrete shell) had been poured. It made for a crazy week. Some of us didn't mind the upheaval one little bit.

We had a fantastic visit with them. My Grandmother lived in Houston and Galveston when she was growing up. We spent a day touring and eating in Galveston. We took a land and sea tour that ended up being just perfect. Our little bus driver/tour guide was born in Galveston and had lived there everyday of her life. She was so knowledgable and hilarious. My Grandma was able to ask her about stores and schools where she had spent time in her childhood, and our guide was able to give full reports. As part of the tour, we took a little boat ride out into the bay to chase the dolphins. The kiddos loved this part of the tour. It was interesting learning about the little strip of land that is Galveston. It is incredible how many times the town has been buried in water and rebuilt. 

We made another day outing to the Johnson Space Center. It was a hot, muggy day to be out on the trams. But it was a fascinating place to visit. (The fate of the NASA program is so saddening!)

So hot!

After the tram tour, we spent the rest of the afternoon in the exhibits. We also lost Eden for about 10 terrifying minutes. That girl just does what she wants to do. Oye!

We made a little trip up to Lake Conroe to visit Sonny and Rose. These are names that I have heard my entire life. I met them once when I was very small. They have been friends with my Grandma Bettie (and Mama Jo, when she was with us) for 67 years. Miss Rose is very hard of hearing and Uncle Sonny is completely blind. This made for an endearingly cute lunch. Grandma and Mom spent a couple of hours visiting while I took the kids to drive around the lake a little.

We were so happy to spend Father's Day with Papa Jeff. It has been a long time since we have been able to celebrate the day with him in person. Grandma requested a couple of pictures. She did not request the silly one, though she was a sport and went along with it!

We made some surf and turf for dinner. It was our first time preparing lobster. It was (if I may say so) the bomb.

Dad was with us for a couple more days and then he was off to his conference. Grandma and Mom stayed with us for another week. (Complete HEAVEN for me!) We spent our time doing kid things. Grace was in a summer music camp. We were still in the throws of daily swim team practice. I was busy preparing for our trip to Utah. Mom took me shopping for some new running gear - which I appreciated so much. And otherwise, we spent our days playing games, watching movies in the media room, and kissing on our baby boy.

swim team

As soon as we knew we would be moving to this area, I started researching extra curriculars for everybody. Our community is tagged onto the top of a very large master planned community. Though we don't have free access to the pools and facilities, we are invited to participate in sports leagues and activities. It is the best of both worlds for us to be out on a bigger lot while still having access to stuff for the children. Just a week after we moved in, Grace and Grant attended a swim clinic to brush up on their skills and try out for the swim team. We were especially proud of Grant. He had just barely started learning strokes at the end of last summer and had a lot of ground to make up. But he did it! Grant made the team, and Grace was put in the intermediate class of her age group.

During the school year, swim practice was every afternoon/evening, Tues-Friday. We were at the pool from 4:30-6:30. I finally just started packing a pick nick dinner which felt like a hassle at first. But it was actually quite nice making dinner early in the afternoon and having the kitchen cleaned up. When we came home from practice my work was all done! Once school was out, practice started at 8AM.

We really felt like our lives had been taken over once the meets started. Every Saturday was spent out in the muggy heat cheering, waiting, volunteering, and keeping littles happy.  Grace and Grant loved the meets though. They both improved a lot over the course of the season. Neither of them brought home a lot of ribbons, but our rule has always been that they are only competing with one person: their self. The ribbons they did bring home were signs of complete success in this regard. At the last meet, Grant got a personal best in both his events (free and back), and Grace got a personal best (free) and an 8th place ribbon (fly). She would have gotten something for the breast stroke too, except that she was dq'd for an illegal scissor kick under the water right after diving in. Whoops! She was especially thrilled about the 8th place performance. This league is meticulous with tracking times, and the kids compete in heats according to seed and dual race times. The last heat of each event features the fastest swimmers of the age group. She started the season in the second heat and worked her way up. At that last meet, she was finally in the last heat for butterfly. Even though she came in last, she was so proud to have made it to race with that group. 

{just doing a little dance before taking the blocks... this guy kills me}