Why.....

....Because I was helping you momma

In case you can't tell what is in the washer here is a picture of the inside of the washer.  She took all the shoes off the little shelf in the laundry room and put them in the washer

....Because Emmett thought it was fun

Emmett thought it was so funny to be carried in the laundry basket

....Because its a Giant Candy Bar

Both of them walked up to the display and started acting like they were eating it.

....Because it looked like a fun place to put all the balls

I found all this inside of the sub speaker next to the tv cabinet.  Emmett had put all these balls in the tub that is on the front. 

painting time

Josiah and Elaina love to paint and I think Emmett is starting to like it.  Thankfully I forgot to put Emmett's helmet back on him after taking his shirt off to paint.

I think that he got more paint on him than he did on his picture.  I gave him the Crayola Beginnings paint and when he made a huge mess with those I gave him the marker ones.

He really made a mess with those.  So when I cleaned him up and put his helmet back on he got crayons.

Elaina wanted to paint a heart so I printed her a heart for her and she was happy.  She also wanted a circle so I traced around a plate and gave her a circle.

Josiah wanted an octagon, so I printed him one and he started painting.  Apparently it is cool to wear goggles on your head when you paint.  I will admit that the math teacher in me was happy that he wanted an octagon (and knew that it had 8 sides and looked like a stop sign). 

Dino Dig

Josiah got a buried dinosaur for his birthday.  He must have hid it in his closet because we all forgot about it.  He got it out a few weeks ago and wanted to do it.  Trey got him set up one evening and told him that he could dig at it for a little while before bed.  This little kit is AWESOME. 

Emmett watching in background

The red in the corner is Emmett trying to climb up the chair

What make is so awesome is that they kids all do it together.  And have fun and get along while they are trying to dig out the bones.  Josiah willingly shared not only with Emmett, but also Elaina.  They share the tools and brush and talk about where they should dig, hammer, and brush. 

Happy to be involved this time

Playing together

They have had several digging sessions and we still have several digs left.  The kids usually will dig at it for about 30-45 minutes without fussing.  I need to find a way to set it up on Emmett's highchair so I can get some things done while they are playing. 

Emmett's 14 Months stats

It is hard to believe that Emmett is 14 months old. 

• 24 lbs
• 32 inches
• size 3 diapers
• can wear some 12 months, 18 month and some 24 month clothes
• 1st molars on the top are coming in on both sides so you have 10 teeth
• talking up a storm
• mama and dada (or dad) and ball are old favorites and have added me, Laina, cat, mawmaw, papaw, dog, dink (drink), eat, dat (that), pa (paci), and pop pop (poptart)
• Sleeping great at night and taking an afternoon nap
• Gets stuck up in the corner of your bed at times and we have to go pull you back down
• If standing up asleep you don't like me to lay you down.  You fuss and cry if I do, but will go right back to sleep if Trey lays you down
• FINALLY will sleep with us in the morning.  You wake up around 6:30 and will get in be with us and go back to sleep.  You never would do that as an infant like your brother and sister would; you wanted back in your bed.
• Loves being outside and gets so mad when we come in
• will sit and play by yourself or play with Elaina and Josiah
• getting better at being dropped off at that nursery at church.  Only cries a few minutes not the whole time
• LOVES books; gets a book and climbs in one of the kid chairs and reads all the time.
• When you want on the couch you walk over and start hitting it and yelling me me me until we help you climb on the couch
• can open all the doors in the house (lever style handles are not good for toddlers) so I have to make sure the outside doors are locked.  You love to open the back door and run outside as fast as you can
• eats really good some favorites are: hamburgers, mac and cheese, green beans, bananas, pizza, oranges, poptarts, biscuts, pancakes, pretzel sticks, 
• has the best laugh ever.  You are a very happy baby
• Still wearing your helmet, but you seem to find ways to bruise your head even with it on.  You have crashed  forehead first into the wall and bruised you head with it on; you have fallen out of your rocking chair and hit the top of your head and got a bruise right on the top of you head with your helmet on.  When you have it off you have ran into walls and face planted so many times that I have lost count
• If you want to play with your ball pit and we have it put up (we store it under our bed) you will go into our room and start pulling on it and grabbing the balls.  When we walk in you will hold one of them up and say ball.  When we carry it into the living room you will run in after us and start throwing them around.

Typical day

I was uploading pictures from my camera and thought that they really show what our house looks like at any given minute.  Calm, Helpful, and Crazy are what I regularly see.  On this particular night Josiah was being the helpful one; helping Trey sand their bed.

Emmett was being the calm one sitting on the couch.  I think he was trying to get the remote.

And Elaina was the Crazy one; running around the house like a maniac.  And yes those are pencils in her hand, but at least they aren't sharpened. 

Splash Pad Fun

We recently meet some friends at the Rogers Splash pad.  I was nervous on taking all three kids, especially Elaina.  Last year we went she pouted the whole time wanting to go home.  She didn't like the water getting in her face. 

This time she had a blast.  She didn't really run through the middle of it, but she ran all around the edge laughing the whole time.  She also had fun running around with all her friends in the grass around the park. 

Josiah loved the water canons and playing basketball with the buckets that fill up and dump water.  Another kid had brought a ball and several kids were trying to throw it in the buckets.  He was having so much fun that he would only run over for a bite of his sandwich at a time; he would get a bite and run back to the water.

Emmett acted like he wanted to go play in the water until he got near it.  When we got near the water he started reaching up to me and grunting for me to pick him up.  So we went back to our spot in the shade and hung out with the mommies and the kiddos that were eating.  Maybe that is why he liked the shade; that's were the food was.  He ended up taking a nap in his stroller for most of the time.

We all had a great time and really enjoyed our day.    

Blackberries

Since the weather was so wonderful today we decided to go walk one of the trails near our house.  The trail was near the Botanical Garden were we planted pumpkins a few weeks ago.  We planned on walking the paved trail, but soon we started off towards the pumpkins and ended up on one of the dirt trails.

The kids took buckets to gather some treasure as we walked.  They started off picking up a rock here and a flower there, but soon the buckets severed another purpose.  We found blackberries as we were walking.  Josiah thought that picking blackberries was the coolest thing ever.

The cranky kid that was mad that we were walking the trail was the happiest when we were done.  I was really shocked that Josiah loved them as much as he did.  I have no clue how many he munched on as we were walking.

Elaina did not act like she liked them while we were walking, but when we got home she was gobbling them up.  She was fighting with Josiah to get them from him.

Emmett had fun stomping them after he spit them out.  He seemed to kind of smush it in his mouth to get the juice out of it then spit it out.  He wouldn't chew them at all.

We really enjoyed our evening walk and the blackberries were a pleasant surprise.  Josiah is already asking if we can go back and get more blackberries.   

busy summer

We have been so busy this summer.  We have done a lot of little things that keep us on the move constantly.  We go to the library story time and the special weekly kids events.  The kids love the story time (I like it better during the school year though, less moms talking loud during program) and we have seen 2 magicians and a lady that had a couple of owls and a hawk during the special events.  Josiah even got to be the magicians assistant for a trick once.  He loved that!!!

Josiah being the magicians assistant

We have continued going to Little Sprouts at the Botanical Gardens.  The kids have gotten to plant carrots and pumpkins, go a scavenger hunts, and explore the garden.  They really love it now that the butterflies are back.  They love watching the butterflies fly around the house, but their favorite thing is to look for the caterpillars and eggs.

Planting pumpkin seeds

Emmett would rather nap than plant pumpkins

We have went to a couple of Naturals games.  The kids love to play in the kids zone and it wears them out so they will sit and watch the game after that.  The Naturals have only won one of the games that we have watched, but we have enjoy all of them.  We have tried to select games that have fire works after them, because Josiah loves them.  Elaina not so much; Emmett has slept through them once and screamed through them another so who knows what he thinks.  We were able to get ticket packs with 4 tickets and 2 kid zone bands for $20 from living social earlier in the year, so we have been able to go to a bunch of games.  Emmett doesn't need a ticket (Elaina either but the extra seat is nice) and he is to short to do most of the kid zone stuff so it has worked out great. 

We have also went to the park, played with friends, went swimming, and visited the grandparents.  Trey and the big 2 camped out in the back yard one night.  I stayed in the house with Emmett.  Surprisingly they made it through the night in the tent.  I really expected them to wake up and want to come in at some point during the night, but they didn't.

Camping out in the tent

We have had a lot of fun and still have a ton more to do this summer. 

Josiah can almost ride everything

We went to Silver Dollar City and Josiah has moved up to the yellow wrist band, and that means he can ride everything except Wildfire.  He was so excited and (PROUD) when the guy at the measuring station told him he was 48.5 inches tall and gave him the yellow bracelet. 

He wanted to ride everything.  Elaina was not real happy that Josiah was getting to do all that and insisted that She hated half the stuff that he could now ride. Josiah couldn't wait to ride Outlaw Run and Powder Keg.  He wanted to go straight over to them.  We had to plan our rides out a little bit because we wanted the kids to see the Magic Show and the Flying Aces (olympic snow boarders and skiers doing trick on trampolines). We also knew that Elaina and Emmett had to get their turns at riding too. 

Josiah and Trey rode Outlaw run and Elaina wasn't too happy waiting but I assured her that she and Emmett would get to ride the butterflies and she got happier (after I gave her a snack).  Josiah LOVED Outlaw Run.  He got off the ride telling me how awesome it was. 

Elaina and Josiah both loved the Magic Show and Emmett slept during it.  Josiah wanted to wait and get his picture made with Brad Ross, the magician. 

They both liked the Flying Aces as well.  Emmett wasn't as fired up about it and didn't really want to sit still for it.  Trey had to walk him around during part of it.  Josiah wanted his picture made with these guys as well, especially when they told him one of them had competed in American Ninja Warrior. 

As we were walking around the park Elaina saw the show at the Saloon was about to start and said that she wanted to go watch it.  So I took her and Emmett in there and Trey and Josiah headed for Powder Keg.  Elaina loved the show; even when I had to stand up at the wall with Emmett to get him to stop fussing, she stayed glued to her chair watching the show.  She didn't care that I walked about 5-6 feet from her to stand up.  She wanted to stay in her chair instead of standing by me. 

Trey and Josiah rode the Barn swing and Josiah told me that I couldn't ride it because I would be scared.  He said that he wasn't, but I would be because it looks like your feet will crash into the ground.  They were next in line for Powder Keg when they shut it down to move a car off the track.  One seat in it was not latching properly so they shut it down to get the car off.  It was late in the day so we knew that they probably wouldn't re open.  He was a little disappointed about not getting to ride it, but the excitement of riding everything else kept him from being upset.

The kids had a great trip and we were able to meet some friend with their children a few weeks later.  Not only did Josiah get to ride Powder Keg, he also got to ride it (and everything else) with friends.  He thought it was AWESOME too!