Water fun and Pony rides

Here's our little wild man! I think it looks like time for a hair cut!

Here's cool daddy in Dada's sunglasses!

This weekend we went to Jake's birthday party. Jake and Austen are the best of friends. We get together with them quite often for playdates. He turned 3 this weekend and had a great party with a pony. They had the pony for an hour for 9 kids to take turns and share. It worked out well, except for the fact that we could not get Austen to pet or ride the pony. He thought it was the coolest thing, but only from a distance. He loves animals so this was a shock for Adam and I. We kept asking him if he wanted to ride and he kept telling us no, but my friend Stacey asked him and he told her yes and walked to the pony with her and let her put him on. As soon as I got the camera out and ready he was reaching for her to get off the pony. I was really hoping he would ride, but he did not. Jaksen took his turn at riding the pony and absolutely loved it. He rode for about 10 minutes with not one fuss. He smiled the entire time. Austen's favorite part of the party was actually the cake. That boys heart belongs to cake. If there is cake in the area, he will find it and devour it. He ate two huge pieces of cake. He did not care about the ice cream that was offered, he just stood there watching and waiting for the cake to be cut and passed out. He is just like his Grandy (Nene) when it comes to cake! He loves him some cake!!


This little pony, "NO PROBLEM!"



This is all I could get of Austen on the pony. It was a quick entrance and exit!



Yesterday, I took both boys to the pool/splashpad that just opened last weekend. The splash pad is new and was pretty cool. We tried it out, but it did not go over to well with the boys. It was kind of overcast which made the water kind of cold to be in. I got Jaksen in it more than Austen. Of course Austen loved the pool though. He has really become a great swimmer. He is able to paddle and kick around with the help of some awesome floaties instead of Mom or Dad. We are going to get both boys in the second session of swimming lessons at Adam's work. It starts in July. Overall, the boys had a great time yesterday, but maybe it will be better when we go on a warmer day.

"Hmmmm, what do I have here that I can put in my mouth!?"




"Come over here and I'll get you with my big water gun!"



Come on brother, come with me please!


I'll just watch you from over here Jaksen!

Crazy Week

This week has been kind of crazy in many ways to say the least. The big news of the week is that I am going back to teaching but only part time. I am going back to St. John School where I taught middle school Math before but only half day. They have worked with me so well on trying to make schedules work that I could not pass it up! I think it is going to be a great thing for our family. Both boys will go to a mother's day out program which is from 9:15-2:45 everyday. I will get to drop them off, go to school and teach for about 4 hours and go get them on time. How cool is that!!! I am very excited and the extra money. It will be nice. Adam got good news as well this week. He is finally going to get the raises that he was supposed to get when he got his promotion a few months ago. I am very happy for him and our family for that. He deserves it for the great work he does.

Both boys have found themselves in some funny sleeping predicaments this week. I guess they are just worn out from all the going we have done. Jaksen was laying on the floor and I started patting him and before I knew it he was asleep. He slept on the livingroom floor for about 30 minutes. Austen did not take a nap the other day and he did not want to eat his dinner, so we made him sit at the table. Adam and I went in the other room for about 10 minutes and came back to find him like this! I thought they made for some cute and funny pictures!!




Austen and I had the pleasure of having a date night last night. Austen's friend Jake, invited us to go to the musical Annie with him for his birthday. It was great, and Austen really loved all of the dancing and singing. He is my little music bug!! Just like the other Pollard men in our family! We had a great time, but I have never had Austen out so late. It started at 7:30 and did not end until 10:15. I don't think he minded staying up although I asked him if he was sleepy and wanted to go to bed and he actually told me yes. Needless to say, that pretty much never happens!! We snapped a few pictures together before we left! Isn't it cute!




While we were gone Jaksen and Daddy had some fun of their own. When I got home Adam showed me the fun with the following pictures!! Need I say more! All I could say was, "I can't believe you bathed my baby in the sink." And Adam just kept saying how much Jaksen loved it and how much fun he had with the squirter. Go figure that he would like that more than a normal bathtub. I must admit, he looks pretty cute in that sink though.




We are not going to work any this weekend like we did last weekend. We are going to relax and enjoy ourselves. We have a birthday party to go to and Bartlesville has their community festival this weekend. We are mainly going for the awesome food, plus this out of this world barbecue sauce that we bought there last year. Have a great weekend everyone and I will hopefully keep the posts coming!
By the way, thanks for the corn Nana and Grandy (Nene), I really enjoyed it!

Summer is here!!!

This weekend was work for Mom and Dad, but fun for the boys. We were putting flower beds in the backyard, FINALLY, and so that meant a lot of outside play time for the boys. We filled up their little swimming pool and let them have at it whlle we planted the flower beds. They played in their sand box quite a bit as well. They also enjoyed playing DJ for Mom and Dad with the radio we had outside. Austen and Jaksen would get tired of the other play things and go and sit at the radio and dance and sing into the antenna. Needless to say we no longer have an antenna on our radio, because they had a little too much fun!






Austen is now quite the little talker. He has really improved so much over the last month. It is amazing how they change so fast. He is getting really good with carrying on a conversation with you even on the telephone. He has also shown interest in baseball which makes Dada really happy. Our little lefty has been hitting the ball really well off the tee. He is very proud of himself when the ball goes a long way. Now we just have to work on catching and throwing the ball.


Jaksen is quite the dare devil. He thinks that he can pull up on whatever he wants. This has led to a lot of crashes and bumps on the head. His current teeth total is up to 5 and counting! He is such a Mama's boy too. He always wants me to carry him around and when I leave a room we are in, he chases after me. We are trying to decide if we want to get his hair cut. It is getting really long in the front and getting in his eyes, but we are afraid of getting rid of the curls. What do you think we should do??



I must brag on Adam and I for a minute. We actually grew a successful garden. Our first one ever. We should be harvesting some vegetables soon. We are very excited. We planted squash, cilantro, onions, tomatoes, jalepenos, and green beans. Here are some pictures of the prize garden!! Grandy, we might give you a run for your money one day! I guess this year we will have to mail you the tomatoes!

Texas,Graduation, and Vacation

I knew I was not going to be a good blogger when I started this and I was right. How sad is it for me that is has been almost 2 months since the last post. I have got to get better at this. Anyway, we have had a big last two weeks with the boys. We set out for TEXAS (which I miss dearly), to attend Uncle Ryan's graduation from Texas State, and to take our annual beach trip with the Pollard family.The trip down was pretty good. We were able to break the trip up a bit, thanks to Aunt Kelly for letting us stop in Dallas to spend the night. Then we made our way to San Marcos the next day. Congratulations to Uncle Ryan, we are very proud of you and really enjoyed getting to see you. While we were in San Marcos we also got to see Mimi, Pawpaw, Aunt Erin, Aunt Cara, and PawPaw's side of the family from Dallas. It was great to see everyone since it had been a while since the last visit.



I will say though, it is sooo tough to stay in a hotel room with little ones. It gets cramped and everyone hears everything, especially Jaksen!! Needless to say he was up a lot during our trip at night. We also got to go and hang out with Ryan at his graduation party on Friday night. Thanks to Mimi, Adam and I got to be without kids and have some time to ourselves for a little while. Thanks Mimi!!!! Have any of you out there ever heard of beer pong??? I had not either until Uncle Ryan introduced Adam and I to it. It is a great game and loads of fun!! By the way, Aunt Erin and I beat Adam and his dad at it the first time we played. It is always great fun to beat Adam at something!
Here are some pictures of the boys with Adam's family! Jaksen had fallen asleep on the table at the Ihop. It was pretty funny and he was just a little tired to fall asleep like this!!






We left out of San Marcos on Saturday headed to Nana and Grandy's for the annual beach trip. We got to see their new house which is very nice. I am glad for them that they have a nice house and that Grandy is now closer to his golf! Justin, Kelly and the girls came in on Sunday. Lucy and Austen hit it off immediately. They played well together while we were there. Austen and Lucy got to go ride tractors with Grandy and go pick vegetables from the garden. They had a blast to say the least.







We headed to the beach on Monday. It is a lot of work to get a big group of people all packed and rounded up! We got there and immediately headed to the pool and to the beach for swimming. Austen and Jaksen just love the water. Austen can actually swim on his own with floaties! He is such a big boy. Both boys loved the beach. Austen loved chasing and feeding the seagulls. Jaksen loved the sand, and did not mind the mouthfuls he got either. The breeze and sound of the water was quite relaxing to Jaksen because it seemed like every time we were by the water he fell asleep. Austen was just running after seagulls the majority of the time. We really enjoyed spending time with my brothers family and Nana and Grandy. My niece Annie is the cutest, happiest little thing ever. She always had a smile on her face. Lucy was our little destroyer at the beach. Every time Nana and I would build a few parts to a sand castle, it was all she could do to refrain from destroying it until we told her it was ok. She would have it gone in seconds! While we were there we had Kelly (sister in law) to take some family pictures of us on the beach. Needless to say they turned out AWESOME! She did a great job! Thanks Aunt Kelly. Here is a link to go and view the pictures: http://lala-photography.blogspot.com I have to say that the domino games got a little nasty while at the beach. It was me and Kelly vs. Adam and Justin. We beat them the first night, but were defeated after that. Husbands vs. Wives has become a tradition as well with the beach trip. It is a lot of fun! Overall the beach trip was fun but of course it went by to quick. We got back to Nana and Grandy's on Thursday for a few days of down time and then we set out to make our long trip back to Oklahoma on Saturday. We stopped in Bremond on our way back to visit Adam's grandparents and Mimi and Cara one more time. We left there and drove to Sherman and got a room for the night and then finished our trip up on Sunday. I must say that the boys did sooooo awesome on the trip. We only had one meltdown in the car and one at Nana and Grandy's. They were great travelers but I must say that we were all glad to be home and in our own beds. The trip was great because we got to see so much family that we do not get to see often enough. For all we went through, it was well worth it.