More good times with my fellas!

Our fun outside time has been a little limited lately with the mosquitoes swarming the place. Seems like we always get a couple weeks in the summer when they are just EVERYWHERE!

It's not a fun time to be stuck inside when these little dudes are very much used to spending most of their days running and playing outside. But we do get out in little spurts and try to make the most of it when we can :)

This is Joss' little moves for the hopscotch :) He was having fun going back and forth doing his "Jossy Shuffle".

Emit's thing lately has been "EMIT DO" and/or "EMIT TOO". If I'm giving Joss something and it is something that Emit wants too he'll start saying, "Emit too, Emit too!" or If I ask them something like, "Do you guys wanna go to the beach?" Common Response, "Emit do, Emit do!" I've got to get it on video if I haven't already because it is really cute to hear.

Joss has really hit a whole new level of energy lately. He's napping really well most days because from the moment he gets up until he goes to bed for naps or bedtime he is just GOING non-stop. If I'm trying to get him dressed he's got one leg shaking and one arm flailing, while he's making a crazy sound with his mouth and shaking his head all over the place :) If he's watching one of his tv shows, he's standing on his head on the couch and kicking his legs all over the place.

There is no denying that he is 100% boy. And a very active one at that... and Emit is following right along with him. It's tiring for their 'old mom' but I try to keep up as best as I can!

The boys love playing some new little games. We got Candyland for Joss' b-day and they love 'playing' that, but their favorite little game right now is Let's Go Fishing. It's the game where the little fish spin around and around and their mouths open and close and you have a little fishing pole that you use to try to catch them. It can be kind of tricky, but they have such good patience and determination to catch that little boogers. Joss will always act as our cheerleader, "It's okay daddy, you just gotta keep tryin!". He always pets our faces when he says that too...probably because that how I try to soothe him when he gets frustrated, but it is really sweet when he does it to us.

He is just growing too fast!!!

These boys love to play with their kitty cats. Joss asked me to take his picture of him and Snarf the other day. He's actually asking me to take a lot of pictures of him, which mommy has no problem doing :)

Emit loves to chase the kitties around too. It's most fun when they come inside to play because they can't get away so easily. Emit will go grab and pull and play with Joy while she's laying on a chair under the dining table. But it never fails, a few minutes after 'playing' with Joy he's come running to me saying, "Hit me, Joy! Hit me, oweee!" No worries, they don't have their front claws, but it think it is funny that he's telling on Joy just like he does Joss :)

Most days my little dudes are quite the chatter boxes. As you've heard me say before...it is fun and entertaining, but exhausting when I am constantly having to respond and react to their conversations throughout the day. Especially when I have a sore throat and can't hardly speak to begin with. We haven't mastered the understanding of "shhh" yet because whenever I tell Emit "shhhh", his response is always "Mommmmmmeeeeee!" in a much higher volume that it was before. Hmmmm, little stinker??? I think so!

Emit thinks all colors are "yea-whoa!" (yellow) and he gets very excited whenever he says it. He knows the difference between blue and green most of the time, but "yea-whoa" always seems to be the preferred color to say.

My mom brought them a dvd when they came that is about "Chuck, the Truck and Friends". Anyone know Chuck out there?? Well, it has a couple really cute and fun songs that Joss and Emit both get really excited when they come on. The other day we were in our little convenient store/small grocery store called Smitty's. Yes, it is as small as it sounds...but it's also pretty well stocked to be so tiny. Anyway, the ladies that work in there always get excited when the boys come in with us and they show them their toys and tell them all about whatever they are having fun doing that day. Well, Joss was carrying his little toy Chuck truck in their the other day. The girl asked him who it was he had with him today and Joss' response was, "This is Chuck. The truck. Whoa.....whoa.....if theirs a friend in need, you move at top speed..." (which is the start of one of the songs). He sang and danced and put on a nice little show :)

As you can see from these, we had fun finger-painting the other day :) I get so proud of these little guys whenever we do something like this or coloring with markers or playing play dough (you know, the fun and messy games). We always have a designated space that we're playing in/on and they are always sooo good to stay within those boundaries. It gets messy of course, but that is part of the fun :)

LOL, their bodies were not really part of the designated area, but I knew it would come off and wouldn't hurt them, so when they asked if it was okay to get messy, we just went with it!

I just love a couple of these expressions from Emit below... such serious looks, but so sweet!

I don't think I've mentioned our little outing in the thunderstorm on here yet. Well, man...Dallas needed a few more supplies while he was out on this last kayak trip he went on. The weather had been super calm all week, so I wanted to run the stuff out to him via boat instead of driving in the truck and him having to paddle in and us driving back in the truck. I thought, "This would be a fun and easy out for us to get away from the bugs and out of the water without just using gas...but would be working and serving a purpose at the same time!" HA!!

It was a very nice outing....EXCEPT for the thunder and lightning storm that was on top of us for at least 20 minutes. Joss was so sweet when we were driving in the boat. I had them both sitting up next to me on the captain's seat and Emit was in the middle. I look over at one point when it started raining and Joss had put his arm around Emit and said, "It's okay mom, I'll keep Emit safe!" I wanted to grab them both and just sit there and cry because I was so proud of them, but always because I was so terrified that I had made a huge mistake by going out at all. The storm was lingering as we were heading out, but it looked as if it was going away from us, so I thought we'd be able to go around it...not the case.

Joss definitely learned his fear of thunder during the storm and decided he did not like it at all. We were all snuggled up close together trying to sing songs and think of ways to distract us as we tried to outrun the storm in the boat (just the 3 of us). The boat ride was about an hour, so luckily it was only with us for about 20 minutes of that, but it was still pretty scary for a bit. Every time it would thunder, Joss would get upset and hunker down even more and Emit would say, "Funder. Scary. Joss." Emit seemed to be totally fine in all of it, so I'm hoping he felt nice and safe and didn't really understand what the problem was, but poor Joss was not happy for a bit. At least when we saw Daddy he perked up and got all excited about telling him about the "scary funder". But now, when the storms come through at night or in the day, Joss gets a little nervous and he never did before. :( Thank you Lord for keeping us safe!!!

Emit has learned the "what does a shark say?" response just like Joss, but his comes out in a really cute way. We do the JAWS thing with the "doot, doot, doot, doot" and Emit's comes out more like, "doooootle, doot, doooootle doot". The other day he was just running around saying it all day and had me laughing really hard.

This one below is another picture Joss asked me to take. He wanted all of his toys in a photo. LOL, I just love their expressions!!

I give these guys many squeezes a day, just like any good momma does. Most of the time when I squeeze Emit he'll say, "Quishin' me momma!" But he also says it when we're all three cuddled up in our reading chair for stories or sitting too closely on the couch or any time he feels like he's getting "quished". He even throws in a "Jossy quishin me!" if it happens to be Joss' fault. I'll squish him sometimes just to hear it. :)

The boys love talking to their "CC's" on the phone. They are always trying to show her their toys (like below) or show her something they are doing. They are getting really good though and even little Emit can hold his own in a conversation these days :) Most of the time he just says, "CC's.........CC's.......talk a CC's...." or something along those lines, but once CC gets a few hints she is good to go too :)

Dallas' brother, Jeremy, and his family, Heather & Mason, are down here for a couple weeks visiting, so we'll be posting lots of fun new stuff on here soon. Joss' first time skiing, the three cousins, swimming with the turtles....and that's just a few things to look forward to :) Stay tuned!!!