Starkey Park

 We had fun with the boys at Starkey Park last night.  Tyler calls all the bouncy bridges "careful" bridges because he wants to be careful going across them. That means no one can move an inch when he's crossing. Brayden is the total opposite and loves when Guy bounces him really hard.  Tyler would yell out, "NOOO, STOP IT DAD" even if he was across the playground and nowhere near them. Silly boy! 

By the time they were done playing, both boys looked like they had jumped in a pool they were SO sweaty.  It cools down a bit in the evening but that humidity never seems to change.  We did finally get our a/c fixed yesterday so surviving this FL summer is once again doable!

I've been thinking a lot lately about how much life will change with another little boy running around soon.  It will definitely be a bit crazier, that's for sure.  I've felt kind of  nervous about if I can really handle three kids...I feel like dividing my time and energy between 2 is still hard sometimes. But I'm sure it will come naturally when the little guy is here and I will figure it out. I really am excited to add a new personality to our clan of boys.  Watching them at the park made me think, once again, how grateful I am to be their mom.  They make me happier then anything else in this world!

We're in Trouble!

Sooo, our air conditioning just stopped working!  Um, how do you survive in Florida in July without a/c??? Especially when you are nice and pregnant like me?  I mean it's only like a million degrees outside with a humidity of 99%!  Our landlady is out of the country right now so we're hoping she checks her email on vacation so we can get it fixed.  Until then, I am pretty sure we are going to all melt!

Saturday Fun

'Honey I shrunk the Kids' Playground

Perfect Size

 To carry around legos :)

We just have to search for it when we need to do the dishes!

Last Space Shuttle Launch

We knew back in May when the space shuttle Endeavor took off and Brayden chose to watch CNN all morning instead of his usual cartoons, that we had better take him to the next shuttle launch.  We were able to sort of see the smoke trail from our house in May, but that was about it.  So we realized that we only had one chance to take him since the launch of the shuttle Atlantis on July 8th would be the last one.  I was really sad to hear that there wouldn't be any more after this.  I can still remember seeing a launch when I was little with my family and I'm just grateful we were able to take our boys to see one as well.  

Here's a video of the boys before we left Thursday night

Since it was the last launch ever, it drew huge crowds.  They estimated about a million people would come to see it!  I have no clue how many did, but we wanted to make sure we had a good spot to watch. We really wanted to be able to see the shuttle take off and not just see it up in the sky.  You had to pay to watch it at the Kennedy Space Center, and I'm pretty sure that was sold out a long time ago, so we found a spot in the nearby town of Titusville at Spaceview Park. The weather forecast wasn't looking very good and they were only estimating a 30% chance that the shuttle would actually take off on the 8th.  Not very good odds, but we hated the idea of not going and then having it actually take off and missing it.  So we took a chance and luckily it worked out!

Originally we were going to just get up really early (like 4 a.m.) on Friday to drive there, but spontaneously on Thursday night, we decided to just head down there and sleep in our car. (Yes, we are CRAZY to do that with a 5 and 2 year old.) I'm still glad we did because we were able to set out our chairs and get an awesome spot, but oh man, it was a LONG night.  All 4 of us crammed in our Nissan Altima.... I think Guy and I both said "We NEED a bigger car" like 500 times that night! Tyler woke up at midnight and played until like 4:30 before he finally went back to sleep. Such a stubborn kid. So that meant that Brayden was the only one who really got a good night sleep since nothing wakes that kid up.  Lucky boy!

So around 5:30 we couldn't take being stuck in our car anymore and the rain had stopped, so we went over to our spot and slept on our blankets until about 9:30 or so.  The launch was scheduled to take off at 11:26 am so we went and walked around for a bit and Guy bought the boys little space shuttles to play with.  They were definitely excited about that!  

Finally at 11:29 am the shuttle blast off into space and it was just amazing. We were right across the river from the launch pad so we could see it all perfectly. It's just too bad it was such a cloudy day or we would have been able to watch it go up longer.  Once it hit the clouds, it was out of sight.  It really was pretty fun to be around so many people and have everyone count down and cheer as it went into the sky.  Brayden watched from Guy's shoulders and he was so excited. In fact, it's all we've heard about since!  And Tyler loved it too, but cried when it was gone because he wanted it to come back.  Brayden told us after that we need to hurry and go back to Texas now so we can watch it land.  If only it were that easy :)

Traffic leaving was kind of crazy at times, but not too bad.  We really thought it would be way worse.  But it did literally take us all weekend to recover (staying up all night is no longer something I can do.) I am just so glad we were able to take the boys and experience this as a family. It's definitely something we'll remember and I'm grateful we lived close enough that we could go see it.  It was amazing how many people traveled from far away (even other countries) to watch it take off! I'm really hoping we can find a coupon or deal somewhere so we can take the boys to the Kennedy Space Center once before we leave FL.  I know they would love it, especially after seeing this!

Good Things Come in 3's!

This is what we sent to our parents to announce what we are having :)

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Now despite what you might think, due to the fact that we already have 2 boys, we are actually REALLY excited! We're a little partial to boys around here!! It was so comforting to see that he looked healthy and strong and right on track for his due date. That's always a relief (especially with my thyroid this time around.) 

The boys came to the ultrasound with us and Brayden left saying, "Ummm, that did not really look like a baby!" Haha, I don't think he knew what to expect when we told him we were going to "see" the baby. But they are both very excited about having another brother (Not sure Ty really understands quite yet, but I know he'll love it.) As they like to say, "Boys Rule" and yes, in our house they really do!

I had to laugh when I saw this at Disney. This will be me soon!

Playing in Water

Yep, walked into this lovely mess the other day. I knew when I heard uncontrollable giggling that they were up to something.  And how did I know it would somehow include water? The boys love washing their animals, snakes, cars (anything really) in the sink almost daily.  I'm so glad the step stool we bought for brushing teeth and washing hands in their bathroom gives them access to get into trouble everywhere. Usually soap is not involved but this time it apparently was needed (extra dirty snakes.) Literally that soap from bath and body was brand new so that means half of it went to creating this bubble overload.  But I do have to say on a positive note, that the bathroom did smell really good the rest of the day!

I'd say that snake is pretty clean!! 

And this was the bathroom floor after.  I could have given them a bath in that puddle. Messes like these are pretty much constant with boys...they sure know how to be mischievous together!

Playing on the front porch in the rain.  Summers in FL bring an afternoon shower almost every day, just for a little bit and then the sun usually comes back out. We all love it when it rains.  There's nothing better then splashing in puddles in warm summer rain!

Tyler's new $3 clearance boots from Target. Definitely a new favorite of his,   He sure has fun wearing them around the house and in a few rainy puddles on our sidewalk.  He thinks it's cool that he can put them on all by himself and we just think it's funny how he walks in them.

Tyler talking on his lego phone

*I promise Tyler really does wear clothes sometimes.  He usually just wants all his clothes off once we get home and who can blame him. Florida is HOT! Hey, less laundry for me :)

4th of JULY

 We had a great 4th of July this year.  We started out introducing the boys to sparklers for the first time.  I thought for sure Tyler would be scared, but he loved them and had no fear.

 Brayden on the other hand was a little unsure at first, but he got the hang of it!

Sadly on their last sparklers of the night, they both somehow burned a finger. It's because they were getting too close to each other and trying to sword fight with them. BOYS! Literally Brayden started crying and within seconds Tyler did too.  Guy and I couldn't help laughing (just a little) as we carried them both screaming inside.  It's just how most things end in our house.  But they recovered quickly when popsicles were mentioned so it was all good.

 On the 4th we took the boys to a parade in the morning.  It was not the most exciting of parades, but the kids didn't seem to care.  We played some cards before and I endured the long game of War with Brayden while Guy and Tyler made up their own game and went on a few walks.

 Not wanting Guy to take a picture of him.  He spilled red slushie all over his shirt right before this.  Yes, we were SO ready for the parade to start at this point.

 Brayden with all the goodies he scored.  I've never been to a parade where they threw out so many beads.  Brayden was about to fall over with all that weight around his neck!

 We came home and took naps and swam in the afternoon and then headed to Clearwater for their firework show.  They shoot the fireworks off from the bridge that takes you to the beach so we lucked out and found a pier out on the water where we watched them. It was right in front of the bridge so it was an awesome view.  The only thing better would have been to be on a boat out in the water.  Wouldn't that be the best way to see fireworks?!

 These are a few pictures Guy took. Tyler and I didn't actually get to see the firework show this year because he all of a sudden has decided that he is afraid of fireworks.  Not sure where this came from (we see them at disney all the time), but he flipped out big time.  He kept screaming over and over, "I need to go to sleep in my bed" once they started.  Haha, we have NEVER heard those words come out of his mouth!  So Tyler and I took a little walk during the show and let the big boys enjoy it.  Maybe next year??