Ahhhh, Sunday afternoons.

27 Weeks...

13 more to go...

Ziggity Zoo Day

Tim's sister Amy and her family are in town.  We have been having so much fun with them and are very excited for them to be closer soon!  On Friday we headed to the Wildlife World Zoo with Martha, Amy, Colin, and Kristen.  We had tons of fun and the weather couldn't have been better for a day outdoors.  

Matthew and James got a kick out of this bird because it was eating... fruit!  They thought that was hilarious.  Matthew was telling me while I took this picture how funny that was.

James and I liked this bird.  You can't tell from the picture, but it was the most vibrant blue color under its white feathers.  James sat and pointed at it for a while.

One of Matthew's favorite parts was feeding the giraffe.  He had just dropped food on the giraffe's tongue and it licked his hand.  Giraffes have very slimy tongues and Matthew agrees...

Which resulted in my all-time favorite picture of him.

Took a ride on the fastest carousel ever.  Not only was it a short ride, but is spun super fast.  It took me a while to recover from it.

Shockingly, Matthew picked an animal to go on, instead of sitting on one of the benches.  

I could not get James to smile for the camera.  He just sat in the wagon and looked grumpy.

Until Grandma came over and cracked him up.

And what's a better way to end the day than a dip in the pool?  Maybe getting a non-coerced smile out of a super cute boy.

Thanks Martha for the fun day!

Graduation Night

Matthew graduated from preschool Wednesday night.  He was so excited for it.  

Matthew and his buddy, Cooper.

Receiving his diploma.

Curly

We're so proud!  He did great all school year and is ready to move onto kindergarten.

I don't wanna grow up...

Well, Matthew probably does want to grow up, but I don't want him to.  

Today was his last day of preschool!  I can't believe it.  He has grown so fast.  He'll be a kindergartner in less than 3 months.  Nothing makes time go faster than being a parent to little kids.  A time I would like to stretch out a little longer.  He was so excited because he got to wear his swimsuit to school for a water party.

James had to get in on the picture taking action.  

I love these two boys!  I'm excited to have a third one posing in there with his brothers.

Mother's Day Tea Party

Today at Matthew's school they had a Mother's Day Tea Party.  "But don't worry, Mom, it's lemonade instead of tea," he assured me this morning.  He's so cute.  They put on a fun little program for us.  The cute girl with the headband is Maggie, his girlfriend.  

James sat here during the whole program, which was only about 5-6 minutes.  It was 9:30 am and 96 degrees.  I know, get over it.  I live in Arizona.  It's hot.  But man, it is hot!  Anyway, when they were done with their songs, James clapped his hands and shouted, "You did it!"  

And then all the moms got a pretty pink rose.  I left mine at the school.  Matthew was pretty upset.  Maybe he can go out with his dad and get me some pretty purple tulips.  Hint, hint.

I love my job.

25 Weeks...

Okay, so this picture is really just for my mom and sister (because they're probably the only ones that care), but go ahead and look.  And I will only keep posting them until I start getting super swollen.  I mean seriously, I am SHOCKED that I still look this normal.  I honestly get so swollen all over that it's scary.  I would not let anyone take pictures of me during my other pregnancies.  I know it's probably very vain of me, but who wants to have awful pictures of them around?  I have two pictures of me pregnant with Matthew and I think three of me when I was pregnant with James, and those never see the light of day.  But I am so happy that I have not been getting swollen that I've had to document it.

Message in a Bottle

Yesterday we received a message in a bottle.  And it was shipped in just the bottle!  How fun is that?!  Inside were a bunch of puzzle pieces that appeared to have a message written on them.

So Matthew and I put our heads together and pieced the puzzle together to find a fun message from Linz and her family.

They sent James pirate themed birthday presents this year, that's why the message is in pirate-talk.  I'm sure Delaney's message is also in pirate.  

It's hot, hot, hot...

Today we headed to the zoo to get out of the house for a while.  After walking around in 98 degrees at 10 am, we decided to hit the water.

Good bye perfect weather.  We'll miss you for the next 5 months.  It's sad when you can't even beat the heat by 9 am.  

James

James had to go to the doctor's today for his well-visit.  Anyone with kids knows the drill, the doctor asks you lots of questions about their development (speech, playtime, eating, etc.).  Well, anyway during these questions it got me thinking about this little guy and all the fun things he does now.  One of my favorite things is that he is always telling me to pull up my shirt a bit to show him my tummy.  He then pokes my belly and says, "Booty."  I'm not sure why he calls stomachs this, but oh well.  Then he'll say, "Baby."  He'll start shaking my stomach so that he can get the baby to start moving.  Sometimes, and this is my favorite, he'll lift up his shirt and then belly bump me.  So funny, I have no idea where he learned this.  

Another thing he has started doing recently is shouting "I did it!" whenever he does something he thinks deserves praise.  He'll pump his fists in the air while he shouts this.  

His favorite bedtime lullaby?  "Up on the House-Top."  And yes, it's a Christmas song.  He'll say, "ho, ho, ho" when he wants it sung to him.    

He's so stinkin' cute!  We love having this boy in our family.