Pump It Up!

Today we went to Pump it Up! in Arlington with Krista and Chelsea and Alisha and Shelly. This was a big sibling play date. Pump it Up has lots of bounce houses and air blown slides and obstacle courses. We jumped and played for about 2 hours.

Logan and Shelly racing!
Chelsea and Logan racing-he's cheating by getting a head start.

Chelsea, Shelly, and Logan.

After Pump it Up!, we went to McDonald's for lunch. It's Logan's favorite place to eat and the kids played some more.

Bath Time!

On Sunday night, Lucas had his first big boy bath with his brother. He was a little unsure at first, because he has been in the baby tub or I've held him in the tub. Once Logan sat still, he realized he was okay and enjoyed it.

He loves his little ducky!

Lucas at 10 Months

On June 12th, Lucas turned 10 months old. He's getting so big so fast! Lucas is now done with the swing, the jumper roo, the bouncer chair-pretty much anything that keeps him contained. He's very mobile. He's been crawling for a little of 2 months and he has mastered walking around by holding onto the furniture and walls. He's trying to take steps. He gets very mad when he falls on his face. Within the week and a half before he turned 10 months old (which was also my first week and a half of summer vacation), Lucas weaned himself from nursing and from the bottle. He takes his formula from the cup all by himself like a big boy! I'm glad he weaned himself, but I was hoping he would wait til sometime in July.

Here's Lucas in an outfit that was Logan. It's one of my favorites.
Here's big boy Luc drinking his formula from his cup!

Father's Day Weekend

On Friday night, Grandma and Papaw came and spent the night with the boys. On Saturday morning Grandma went and got donuts. Here's Lucas eating his first donut holes and strawberries-his favorite fruit!
For lunch, we went to Texas Roadhouse. Here's the Shaws.

Joshua and Justin

Logan loves eating there because of the music. Here's Logan dancing!

Then we went home and took a nap. Joshua set up the boys' splash pad. Lucas wasn't as thrilled about his first time as I had hoped he would be. Big brothers were really good about comforting him and trying to help him adjust.

Finally out and with his mommy. See that little smirk.

Logan and Justin decided to chase each other around the yard with the water hose.

Joshua took us to McDonald's for dinner and then to Dairy Queen for ice cream. Joshua loves McDonald's as much as the boys do. They would be happy if I fed them that for every meal!

The boys on the fire truck in the play area.

Splash Time!

Yesterday we went to California Lane Park in Arlington. They have a splash area and a playground. We took our friend Rachel with us and met some friends from church for some playtime and lunch. The kids had some much fun running in the water and filling up Chelsea's bucket and dumping it on each other.

Lucas mostly had fun crawling through the water, except for when one of the sprinklers turned to its highest setting and he was in the middle. He crawled out and laid down flat on the splash pad crying. It was very pitiful!

Chelsea and Melody

Olivia was too cute running through the water. It would hit her in the face and she'd smile and keep going.

After playing in the water, we sat down at the pavilion and ate a picnic lunch.

I don't know who loves our summer play dates more me or the kids. I loved catching up with Krista and getting to know Mandy better!

Rachel's Dance Recital

This past weekend, Logan, Grammie, and I went to see Rachel's dance recital. Logan was so excited to see Rachel dance. He did really well considering he's a hyper 3 year old boy. It was a big ballet production. Rachel danced to Hot Diggity Dog and was dressed as a Dalmatian. She was the best one in her class. She didn't miss a step. Rachel didn't dance until after intermission. During the first Act, Logan had to go the the restroom 3 times. After the third time, I told him they only allow you to use their restroom three times, so you can't go anymore. Logan goes that okay Mommy I just wanted to get out of my seat because Rachel wasn't dancing yet. He was pretty much done after he saw Rach. We stayed through one more group and then we came home. Logan was so excited to go to church the next morning and tell Rachel how good she did and how pretty she looked.

Before the recital:

Rachel's performance:

Swim Lessons

We are so blessed to have our friend, Miss Alisha give Logan and his friend Siah swim lessons. The boys love her and swimming together. It's been motivating for both boys. I love that 30 minutes I get to catch up with Heather. It's so hot though so I'm not sure how much Lucas and Grayson really like it. By end of it the baby brothers are definitely ready to go, but we've been very lucky that they haven't been fussy.

The boys listening to directions.

Practicing their kicks.

Practicing floating.

Grayson chilling in his stroller and eating some breakfast. Lucas stayed home with his Grammie because he was napping.

Adventures of Logan & Rachel

Last Tuesday, Logan was so excited because one of his best friends Rachel came to play while her mommy was at work. In their own words they like to go on adventures together (hence the name of the post). The majority of their adventures include them getting into things they aren't suppose too. Their first adventure consisted of them locking themselves in the front bathroom and hiding in the dark. Logan was under the sink and Rachel was in the bathtub with the shower curtain closed. Then they went outside to play and ended up soaking each other with the water hose. They sat on the trampoline and played with her Little People. They did silly dances to make Lucas laugh and watched Toy Story. I think my favorite was when they took turns walking around the house in Joshua's snowboarding boots. They are two of my very favorite 3 year olds, but I'm so thankful I only have 1 child that age. After being with the two of them from about 7:45am til about 7:00pm, I know there is NO way I could ever teach children younger than kindergarten. I'd end up in jail!

Eating their M&Ms they got because they were good for my mom while I was at the grocery store.
They wore Lucas out. He fell asleep eating his lunch!

On the trampoline with the Little People.

Eating popcorn and watching Toy Story. (I wish you could hear the way Rachel says it! It's sooo cute!)

Rach in Josh's boots and Logan jumping over the couch.

First Day of Summer

Today was my first official day off for summer break. The kids and I had a very busy day. A friend of ours Alisha is giving Logan and Siah swimming lessons at her apartment pool. After that we went to Chick Fil A for the new spicy chicken sandwich and to see the fire truck. Rikki and Rachel joined us. Silly me didn't take any pics of the swimming lesson today or of Logan, Siah, and Rachel. Here's big boy Lucas at Chick Fil A.

Here's Heather and baby Grayson (Siah's mommy and little brother).

After Chick Fil A, we went home for quiet time. Lucas decided he would climb up in his toy basket and sit on his toys. This also made it easier for him to get the wood chips from the plant sitting on that end of the fireplace.

After quiet time, Logan and I made ice cream in a bag using whole milk, vanilla, sugar, ice, and salt.

Then Logan and I had school time. We counted and graphed the number of letters in our family's names. We read The Secret Birthday Message by Eric Carle and talked about the shapes and colors in the book. Then Logan decorated his name using macaroni.

After dinner, we ate the ice cream we made. Logan loved it and was so proud of himself for making it.

Let's Do This!

I've been slow about joining the blogging bandwagon (like I was about myspace and facebook)! However, I've had so much fun blogging about my kindergarten class that I finally decided I could make time to blog about my favorite thing-my family.

A little bit about me: I am married to Joshua Shaw and we have three boys: Logan, Lucas, and Justin who lives with his mom. Joshua and I met at Pumpkin Patch at Inglewood Baptist Church in Grand Prairie, TX on Halloween night 2003. We dated for 3 years before we got married. Joshua's sister Hollie (who went home to be with the Lord almost 3 years ago) introduced us. Joshua is a store manager of a Walgreens in North Richland Hills. I teach kindergarten in Grand Prairie ISD and just finished my 5th year of teaching.

Justin was only 2 when Joshua and I met. Justin is now 8 and will be in 4th grade in August. He's very smart and I'm proud to say Justin earned commended scores on his reading TAKS (Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills) test!

Logan Elijah is 3 and too smart for his own good most of the time. He loves Thomas the Train and Scooby Doo. He has a very active imagination and loves his Jesus (praise and worship) music. He loves to sing and get into things he's not suppose to. Most of all Logan loves being a big brother!

Lucas Elisha will be 10 months old on June 12th. He is the complete opposite of Logan very laid back and chill. He's really beginning to develop his own personality. He loves his big brother Logan and crawls after him everywhere he goes. Lo and Luc are already conspiring together. Logan "breaks him out of" the den so they can get into things together. My prayer while I was pregnant with Lucas was that the children would be close and love each other. God has faithfully been answering that prayer. Logan is quick to stand up for Lucas when he doesn't like what is said or done to his brother.

Joshua and I are very fortunate to have my mom live with us and help us raise the boys. Every other weekend she visits her sister in Haltom City and the boys can't wait for her to come home and she can't wait to be back with them.

Our family attends Inglewood Baptist Church in Grand Prairie, TX. IBC has been my church home for the past 7 years and Joshua's since he was in middle school. We were blessed to have Joshua's former student minister and our former small group minister Doug Hixson perform our wedding. Joshua and I both help with Extended Teaching Care during the worship service about every 5 weeks. I work with students on Wednesday night during Breakthru. My small group is middle school girls (7th and 8th grade) and I love it. My girls are so special to me. Wednesdays is usually my long day because during the school year we have staff meeting after school. I always look forward to ending my day with my girls in worship! We are also lucky to have a group of friends who have children close to the same age as ours.

We are grateful for the blessings God has and continues to give us.