Backyard Pool

Since the neighborhood pool opened up, we haven't done much swimming in the backyard, but yesterday the kids were eager to get into their swimming pool. Here are a few pictures....

Owen loves to squirt Ellie with the hose whenever he gets the chance, I can't really blame him the way she always abuses him, but she gets so mad!
Ellie seeking revenge for above hosing.

Have to include a picture of Maggie. She is REALLY chunking up. She also has bad baby acne-- still cute though.

Trip to the ER

It must be some sort of right of passage for parents and kids or something... "Must take a trip to the ER before the age of 3". Last night, we were swimming at Dan's parents house and Owen walked into the house and his foot was bleeding. Owen doesn't really cry out in pain very often so we were surprised when we washed it off and realized it was a large/deep cut on the bottom of his big toe. We don't know how he did it or what it was cut on, but it wouldn't stop bleeding and was big and deep so Daniel and I rushed Owen to the emergency room.

Since I had my camera with me, I thought I would document the occasion. I did take a close up of his foot, but it is a little graphic so I won't include it... you get the idea.

Thank goodness we went to a hospital that had TVs in the emergency patient rooms. It saved us. We put on cartoon network and that distracted Owen most of the time. His toe in this picture has some ointment that is numbing his toe in preparation for stitches.
We had snacks, milk and cartoons so he was pretty distracted. Mostly he just wanted to rip off whatever bandages were on his foot and when the numbing medicine really started to work he wanted to get down and walk around.
Here is mom and Owen waiting for the nurse to come in and give Owen his 3 stitches!
After the cartoons no longer distracted Owen, Dad was there to distract by hiding behind the curtain. Daniel was pretty funny while they were giving Owen his stitches. Watching needles and what not doesn't phase me in the least, but all of a sudden the nurse says, "Dad, are you
alright?" and I look over and Daniel's face is just white. Poor guy, he doesn't do well with needles. The hospital isn't that far from Daniel's parents house (by the way Dan's mom was watching Ellie and Mags during all of this) but Owen still fell fast asleep... poor kid. And that bandage on his foot lasted only a couple hours... he is now sporting a band aid which we have to keep him from pulling on. So fun. The worst part is that he can't go swimming until the stitches are out. Total bummer since we go to the pool almost every day.

Sweet Children

Here are a few pictures of the kids being sweet... don't let the pictures fool you.

Elise and Owen reading books. They do this at home all the time, I love it. Elise has recently memorized several books (Owen's favorites) and now "reads" to Owen. It is pretty cute.
Mags squirming on the bed.
Sisters lounging in bed together.
Magdalyn: Chubby and Zitty. That's right, she eats like a cow and has baby acne. Poor thing. She will look cuter in a few weeks... and I will keep feeding her even though she is looking awfully chubs these days.

Swimming at Grandma's

This summer the kids have been spending a lot of time visiting Grandma Weber's house and lucky for them, she has a pool! The kids have really enjoyed swimming and Carolee (Grandma Weber) sent me some of the pictures I took with her camera of them swimming, so here they are!

Owen giving mom a little "cheese"!
Look at Owen swim!! I got him this other floatation device and it really allows him to swim on his own... he is SO good, especially for a 19 month old!
Grandma and Ellie.
Owen climbing out of the pool. Maggie was usually on the sidelines basking in the sun. Here she is trying to tan her chicken legs.
Lindsay and Spencer were there during one of our swimming days, too!

Dad spinning Owen... he loves to be spun and thrown around; such a boy.
Elise Louise- looks like she had something to say.
Ellie and her swimmies. She does really well with these arm floats. She now will jump in and go down the waterslide and get fully submersed and it doesn't even phase her!
Grandma, Owen and Elise.
Poor Owen, he was ready to get out in this picture!

It's a good thing there is still a month and half left of our summer here in Houston because the kids sure do love their swimming and it is a lot easier to take them somewhere when I have help or let them go swimming in Grandma's backyard. Aren't my kids getting gigantic?

Playing in the Water

Wednesday night we went to Mission Burrito and visited the sprinklers there in the shopping plaza... this is really becoming an every other week thing for us, but this time we went with Grandma, Lindsay and Spencer so it was especially fun.

Owen spent most of his time pushing around Spencer's stroller. Made me wonder why we don't pull out a stroller to occupy him. He kept trying to push it into the sprinklers and he eventually did.
Gotta have a shot of Magdalyn.
Dirty hands!
Spencer crawling around the water.

Owen leaning in to give Maggie a kiss... he is really kind of a sweet big brother. He will often go over to her and kiss her or hold her hand just because.
Owen about to get shot in the face by that sprinkler. Spencer getting a shot right in the face! Poor Spencer, but he wasn't even phased by it!

Sweet Mags

We love this little girl.

Houston Children's Museum

This week we have been lucky enough to get to spend time with Daniel's sister Lindsay and her son Spencer who are visiting from Boston. One of the fun things we have done together was to go to the Houston Children's Museum. We have been to both the Austin and San Antonio Children's Museum but never to the one in Houston so this was a fun experience for us!

Their toddler area was great and well worth the $4 or $5 it cost to get in (we only had to pay for Elise).

Spencer.
I really love taking the kids places where they can be independent and discover things on their own. Owen especially seems to really enjoy that type of environment since he doesn't care too much for people telling him what to do.

There were little movies playing inside these tree trunks. Grandma is helping Owen out. She is also wearing Mags, but I'm not sure if you can tell.

Some of us didn't make it all the way through the day. Poor Spencer was in need of a morning nap! We only saw one area besides the toddler area, but I am sure that Elise and Grandma will be visiting again before the summer is out. Our children (and their parents) have about a 3 hour limit going just about anywhere. If any activity is more than 3 hours someone will start melting down. We had so much fun at the museum though and are glad to have the opportunity to go!

One last picture... here is the van pretty much filled to capacity. I CRAMMED in a 3rd car seat in the back row and you can see Maggie hanging out in the mirror, she is in the captain's chair. I guess it is good to know that more car seats do fit!