Finally...a new post! I've missed this. It's really enjoyable---you should try it :)
Well, it's been close to two weeks since I last posted anything, so I'm sure this will be quite lengthy. I guess I'll start where I left off. The baby...
Jayden was a big baby! He was 21 inches long and a little over 8 1/2 pounds. He's too cute! I think I could've just held him forever. I know that he'll never be spoiled by the people in our family!!!
Speaking of babies...Ramba is growing fast. She's getting into that mean, bite-you-for-no-reason stage. She's still precious though. Look at her. How can you resist that?!?!?!
Father's Day went pretty well. The kids and I surprised Curtis with breakfast. We decided that it needed a little twist, so we decorated with a luau theme. I'm sure Curtis thought we were crazy, but he just laughed and went along with it anyway. 
Kobe and Hannah helped cook. We had pigs in a blanket, which they were in charge of (Up until the oven part at least. I took over then.) I think Hannah must've gotten her hands on my camera during the cooking. I took a few pictures that seemed a little blurry and finally realized that there was a finger print on the lense.
Later that afternoon, the kids and I went to see my parents. We made homemade ice cream. I haven't had that in a couple of years, so that was a nice treat. Grandmama came over there for a little while too. Kobe did some fishing down at the creek with my dad and brother while the girls sat around and talked. I showed the kids how to do back flips off of the couch too. Probably not the best thing to teach them, but we had fun!
I worked Monday, but was home the rest of the week. I did a lot of cleaning and spent a couple of days with the kids. Friday was my day though---all to myself! (A big thanks to everyone who made that possible!) I worked a few hours of overtime then went to the library to get the kids some books. After that, I went shopping for about 6-7 hours. I got a purse, shirt, pair of shoes, and some decorations for the house. It was great!!! I ended my evening by painting one of the bathrooms (and adding new decor from my shopping excursion!). It took a while, but I was so excited about it that I didn't mind at all. Besides, I had some good company. Max never left my side. He even got a little paint on his whiskers!
Here's the boring before picture...
And the after...
(The color in the second picture is closer to what it actually looks like.)
(Notice how I left the shelf out of the first one, kinda like they do in those hair style magazines where they make the person pose without makeup, jewelry, etc. for the before shot. Of course it's gonna look better afterwards. A haircut doesn't work miracles, but it's amazing what a little makeup can do!)
The kids were with Nana and Pops Saturday night, so Curtis and I had a quiet evening at home. I was so tired from my painting adventure that I fell asleep on the couch around 6:00. I woke up long enough to eat a little and finish reading the last 25 pages of my book. So much for that dinner we were going to cook and that movie we were going to watch---oops! He was very understanding, but I felt kinda bad about it. My bathroom is pretty now though!
Today is Hannah's 3rd birthday. She had a Putt-Putt party. It rained some while the kids were playing golf, but other than that, things went well. She even got a hole-in-one!!!
She had such a good time. She constantly stuck her fingers in the cake icing and giggled the entire time she was opening gifts. At first, she would open a present and then walk over and give it to someone. After this happened a few times, I finally realized that she was a little confused----I was telling her who each gift was from, and she apparently thought that I was telling her to give it to that person. She was giving all of the gifts back to the people that brought them! 
Here are a few more pictures from her party...
After we got home, we had to open every gift, and she had a lot of them! Hannah rode her scooter and then she wanted to color one of the giant coloring pages that she got. She did pretty well on the first two sections, then she started scribbling, and then she abandoned it all together. I was a big girl and colored my entire picture! I even put it on the refrigerator :)
Kobe's birthday is in about two weeks. We'll be having a sleepover. Wish us luck!!!
There hasn't been too much excitement over the last few days. Sunday was fun, but the rest of the week has just been pretty routine.
We went out to lunch on Sunday. After debating over several places, we ended up at Santa Fe, one place that never even came up in conversation. I guess it was meant to be!
The kids had a great time there. They were very amused by the fact that you can throw peanut shells on the floor :) Hannah decided to show us her singing and dancing skills while waiting on our meal, and Kobe just made his usual silly faces. So much laughter and energy!
After lunch we went to a few stores and returned some library books. Curtis wasn't feeling too well, so he went home to rest while the kids and I had a few more adventures!
Our first stop was the lake. We fed the ducks...all ten million of them (or so it seemed).
There were some big tree stumps that had been put beside the lake. The kids were able to stand on top of those, which worked out really well because it put a little distance between them and the ducks. Kobe got bit by a duck when he was about 2 years old, and he hasn't forgotten about it yet!
After feeding the ducks, we went to visit Grammy and Grandad. Hannah decided that she needed to take a ride on her horse, Lucky. (She doesn't have a real horse, so I was fortunate enough to be Lucky the Horse for the day!) She likes to yell, "Go Lucky, go!" the entire time. Grammy seems to enjoy grabbing my camera while I'm busy acting like a kid myself, so I was caught in the act! (And speaking of lucky, I found a 4-leaf clover this evening. Maybe tomorrow will be my lucky day!)
We ended our afternoon out by going to Bruster's for ice cream---YUM! Actually, I didn't really like the flavor I got. The kids enjoyed theirs though. Kobe had to eat his with the small spoons they use for ice cream samples, and Hannah had to have hers in a cone. Toddlers and cones don't mix!
Once we got back home, we just relaxed and played a little. Kobe decided to take Hannah's picture while she was sleeping. He said it was his way of paying her back for the picture she got of him sleeping Saturday morning.
Our night ended with flying. I held Hannah up in the air with my legs while she pretended to fly. Kobe had to have a turn too---it's a miracle that I can still walk! He's heavy! The kids decided that Max needed a turn also, but based on his reaction, I don't think cats get too excited over flying :)
Our niece, Jamison, had her baby today. We'll be going to visit them at the hospital tomorrow, so I'm sure I'll have some more pictures to post. Babies are so precious!
Saturday....I finally got some sleep this morning! Thank goodness :) This has been an exhausting week.
VBS went well, but by mid-week, the kids no longer cared about Bible stories and things like that. They just wanted to RUN, RUN, RUN!!! We definitely got our exercise for the week! You can see what Hannah thought she needed to do during music time. That doesn't look like the motions to "This Little Light of Mine", now does it?
I ended up having to leave early on Wednesday because Hannah was sick. She didn't go to VBS that night due to the fact that she was very fussy and running a fever. Then she decided to give the grandparents a treat by returning all of the food that she had eaten during the day---YUCK! She screamed for her Mama, so of course I had to take her home and pamper her. She ended up falling asleep on the couch. She was so pitiful and it broke my heart, but I think the picture is really cute! Is that wrong of me!?!?!?
I went back to pick Kobe up that night and he had some great news. He said (you'd have to hear him say it...too cute!) that he is getting "bab-ta-tized". I tried telling him how it's actually pronounced, but he didn't seem to catch on, or either he didn't really care. I get a kick out of hearing him say it, so I haven't tried to correct him anymore. As he gets older, there is less that he says in that cute, incorrect way, so I'm trying to hold on to this one!
I was finally able to get a couple of pictures of him this week. Not as many as I had hoped, but I'm sure I'll survive!
Now for a very random thought...(imagine that!)
Sully didn't have his picture on the blog yet, so I figured we needed to take care of that. As you can tell, he thinks he's supposed to shake hands even when getting his picture made. What a sweetheart!
As I said earlier, I actually got some sleep this morning. Curtis and Hannah went and got breakfast, and as much as I love to eat, that didn't even budge me. I slept until mine was cold. Oops!
After breakfast, I did a few things around the house and then we got ready to run some errands. Hannah decided to swipe my camera during that time. She snapped a picture of Kobe asleep again after breakfast. That one actually turned out pretty good, unlike most of the others. She tried though :)
We started out our errands by going to wash the truck. Hannah still isn't quite sure about it. She has to hold Kobe's hand the entire way through. I think he enjoys being the hero for those couple of minutes! Next, we went to Sam's. The kids are thrilled when we go there because they get to eat the food samples. I can't say too much because I liked to do the same thing at that age! We ended our outing by going grocery shopping. That's really dangerous when we all go together because we come home with way more than we need.
After I put up the groceries, the kids and I went to my parents' house. Kobe and Hannah each took Grammy a get well gift. Kobe gave her a craft that he had made at Bible School and Hannah gave her a toy necklace from her room. Grammy looked beautiful in it!
I, of course, had to play with Ramba. She is so cute! She's probably sick of me, but I love her!
The kids decided that Grammy's walker and shower chair were for them. They each had to take turns trying to use the walker, and then they used the shower chair as a place to sit and watch TV. 
Hannah found my camera again at my parents' house. She took the picture of Grammy's foot and the picture of me. I've been playing with the photo editing program again, so that's why the picture has a frame around it.
Look at the other things I can do with that program... (OK, so maybe you could care less, but amuse me and look anyway!)
This is the before shot of Hannah. I love that dress, so I had to have a picture of her in it. When I asked her to smile, she said, "No, I want a grumpy picture!". Anyway, back to the before and after...
You can make pictures look like paintings, charcoal drawings, color pencil drawings, all kinds of things. Too much fun! Tell me this isn't precious!!! (I thought I had removed the oval around her, but apparently I'm lacking in photo editing skills.)
I also changed a picture of one of the flowers on a tree in the front yard. It's got the effect of looking like it's on fabric, and of course the color is different.
Before...
After...
Alright, enough of that! One last thing that I forgot---Friday night we went outside after VBS and caught lightning bugs (fire flies, whatever you want to call them). The kids had a great time. They even had the 75-year-old neighbor out there catching them! I think they enjoyed releasing them just as much as catching them. They put the bugs on their arms (and the neighbor's arm) so that they could feel them tickle! I enjoyed catching them too (SHHHH!) ;)
