Summer fun.

It's hard to believe that summer is in full swing here. You lose track of time when it has been hot and humid for the last four months. But we're starting to get the afternoon storms which signal that we are into our infamous hurricane season. I am praying that this is a slow season!

Things have been pretty busy though. I don't have any pictures because I'm a slacker mom lately. But here's what we've been up to:

• NEIGHBORS! We had two new families move in across that street. They go to our church and even better have kids for the boys to play with. (One mom told me that Vance and Joel have been nicknamed "The Boys Upstairs".) One family has a little girl and the other family have two little boys (well they both have babies but Vance and Joel don't play with the babies much although Vance is very interested in them). It's been so fun to have other moms close by to chat with while our kids play, other kids to ride bikes with on the street and just all the fun things that come with having fun neighbors. Of course this means that we'll probably move (that's just my luck) but I'm enjoying it while it lasts!
• SWIMMING! So as I mentioned before it is HOT and HUMID here. We are loving that Nama and Pa have a swimming pool and that our Friday playdates are usually scheduled for pools or at least around water. The boys are getting to be pretty good swimmers. Nama has talked about getting them swim lessons which I think they'd both love. So hopefully by the end of the summer at least Joel will be a free swimming fish. They of course have been loving to go over and swim at Pa's house recently because Pa has been home the last couple of weeks. That is always so much fun! And then of course when Pa is home they cap off the day with a little "Man From Snowy River".
  
• POTTY TRAINING! Right now it's the bane of my existence. It is the ultimate necessary evil. I know this sounds dramatic but this week was our first week of underwear only for Joel. It has not been going well. **shakes her head** But alas I keep trudging on. Today I had a stroke of genius (okay everyone else probably had already figured this out but it was a new idea for me). Joel had had several accidents in his underwear today. So I thought I'll buy him plain white underwear and if he can keep those clean and dry then we'll break out the fun Thomas and Bob The Builder Ones again. It's hasn't been going ALL that great after that but tomorrow is a new day.
  
• MISSING NAMA! So the boys are missing their Nama. She had gone back to Idaho for a wedding and then stayed to visit family for a few weeks. She got home and they had a really fun sleepover last Friday night but then she left for church camp on Tuesday. Vance asks for her every time we see Pa. Joel misses her too but disguises it as annoyance. (I guess during the sleep over he told her "I'm mad with you because you left me for a long time." Or something like that.) We'll all be glad when she comes back from camping. (Maybe her most of all!)
• FUNNY THINGS KIDS SAY! The boys continually crack us up with the things they say. The other night we were trying to teach them the art of the knock knock joke. We started with the ole "Boo" joke. (Knock knock- who's there? Boo- Boo who? You don't have to cry about it.) Vance totally 'got' it. The punch line was the best though. His take on it: "Stop cryin'!" He continually amazes me with the sentences that come out of his mouth. He LOVES books though. He loves to read and he loves to be read too. Today at the gym there was an older girl (maybe around 10 or so) who had a book (I think it was one of the "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" books) and he wanted her to read to him so she was reading out loud to him. I don't know how long it lasted but it was so cute. Joel is getting so big. He makes me laugh with the way he reasons through things. My babies are getting so big! His favorite thing is when we're driving somewhere he'll call over to Vance "Hey Vance- you sleeping?!" Sometimes Vance will say yes and sometimes he'll keep calling even though he doesn't get a response. Joel LOVES singing. It makes me so happy to hear him sing. Tonight we went and got ice cream with Pa and it was starting to storm and Joel started singing the "Raining pouring" song. It was so funny- he didn't know all the words so he'd rush through the parts he didn't know and kind of mumble something until he got to the part he did know. The other night we were driving to the beach and we had the radio on. The song "Never say Never" by The Fray came on and it repeats the line "Don't let me go" over and over and Joel started singing along. It was so sweet.
  

Anyhow. That's us. Nothing more to see- move along.