Devon is saved!

A few days ago, one of Bailey's little friends invited her to go swimming with her, and when she came downstairs in her bathing suit, the boys went crazy and starting searching for their bathing suits, too. They weren't invited to go with her, so after she left they got pretty upset. Ben and I decided to just put them in the golf cart and drive them over to the lake here and just let them swim for a bit and it wouldn't be a big deal. Ben and I found a really nice little clearing for them to swim that was nice and shady and away from everyone launching their boats so we parked the golf cart and sat and watched them. It really is a really nice little spot and the boys had a really fun time swimming around. Landon is a good bit taller than Devon and he goes out up to his chest, so I think that it looked a little bit deceiving to Devon. In any case, Devon ended up going out a bit too deep and found himself standing next to Landon, but with his face under the water! I looked at him and all that was visable were two wide eyes staring over the top of the water. I jumped up and said "Oh, no! Get him!" more to myself than to Ben, but as soon as Ben noticed him, he streaked past me and dove straight into the lake fully clothed to retrieve Devon. He grabbed him in a matter of seconds, and Devon just coughed a little bit, and was more scared than anything.

I got my phone out to take a picture of Ben "saving Devon's life" and I snapped this one just as he was realizing that his cell phone was in his pocket!

We went and got my sister's dry jar that she uses to get get water out of her hearing aid, and we took his battery out and left it in the dry jar over night. The next day, Ben called me from his cell from work! I really thought that lake water would be the death of a smart phone! So, Devon is safe, although not as relaxed around water as he used to be, but Ben realized about an hour later that he had hit his face on the bottom of the lake and his nose was sore for about a week. I pulled my phone out once the excitement was over so we could see the pictures, and we about died laughing when we saw this picture! Classic.

Six Flags and the log ride

It's been really hot and humid here but we got adventurous enough to try to to hit up Six Flags the other day. We were sweating by the time the tram dropped us off at the front of the park, so we went ahead and got right in line for the log ride. We were soaked with sweat by the time we got to the front! Devon got a little upset as we were getting on, and I figured he would have fun as we got going. He did calm down, but this was his face as we went over the waterfall.

He was completely fine after we got to the bottom, but it still made me feel bad. They have Wiggles dolls and toys at Six Flags there so we have to always stop and look (and buy more often than not), so when they saw these huge suckers they got really excited and wanted them. I knew they wouldn't really eat much of them so we got some just for fun. They look like the munchkins from the lolipop guild.


Landon had been wearing his yellow Wiggles shirt every day all summer so I was really excited when he picked this one out! We did end up having to leave around 11:00 because it got just unbearably hot. It was the first time we went out all together the whole summer because Bailey has been a travelor all summer long. We have just a few weeks left before the older kids go back to school so we keep trying to push through he heat and have fun! If we didn't have the golf cart we would probably go stir crazy! We definately are ready for it to start cooling down!

Bailey at Disney World

Bailey has had an eventful summer so far! She just got off the plane from Arizona, but before that, she and I had a weekend away at Disney World! My friend Crystal and her boyfriend Gerome, who works in the France section at Epcot, got us some amazing deals! Bailey and I drove down together, and even though we tried to keep each other company, we were really glad to see the sign for Florida!

We spent the first night with Crystal, and the next day we met Gerome at the gates of Epcot where he walked us in and got us free park hopper passes! We spent the morning at Epcot
and met Crystal and Gerome in the French section for lunch, where Gerome got us all French food and tried to get Bailey to try it. This is her trying to decide if she likes chocolate mousse.

It got really hot so Gerome got us a super discount at a Disney resort on the Disney property, so we rode the bus over to it and went for a swim until it cooled down later in the evening.
We went to the Disney World after that and watched the night parade and rode rides until the park closed. Bailey even got some light up wings like the fairies in the parade wore!

The next day was blistering hot but Bailey toughed it out so that she could watch the shows and the day parade.
We went back to the hotel to take naps after that because that night the park was staying open until 2:00am for guests of the Disney resorts! It was nice and cool then and the lines were extremely short, so Baily pushed through and stayed all the way until 1:30am.

The next day, Gerome told me how to get into the Wizarding World of Harry Potter before it had been opened to the public, so I had to at least stop and look at it! It looked so amazing!
We drove home after that and the drive was much harder after all that we did! We were exhausted, but it was an amazing time! It certainly makes your trip a lot nicer when you know a Disney cast member! Thanks Crystal and Gerome (aka Gui Gui)!

The Men's room

I have gotten so busy with summer that I haven't blogged at all! I have some awesome pictures of Bailey from when she and I went down to Orlando for the weekend, and I'll get them uploaded and posted in the near future. There have been tons of things that I had intended to blog about, and I even took pictures to make sure that I could have visuals to go along with the story, but things just fall through the cracks. I have so far been successful with my summer classes and keeping the kids entertained at the same time, and that probably has a lot to do with why my bogging is lacking. I'm just stretched kinda thin.


So let me get to the story. This did involve Landon, but for once, it wasn't his fault. I took Landon and Devon up to Whole Foods with me (Bailey is still in Arizona/California), and I had only grabbed a few things when Landon said he had to use the bathroom. I left my cart and followed after him back to the bathrooms and found that he had already run into the men's room. He prefers the men's room because he loves to use the urinal. I stood there outside the door listening for him and I heard him say he was going to wash his hands, and I asked through the door if he was okay. The lady that was cleaning the bathrooms said to me "You can go on in with him. There's no one in there." I looked inside and saw that it was indeed empty so I went in to help Landon wash his hands and try to hurry him up. I had just said to him "We need to hurry up before someone else comes in here." when I noticed that there was already some man standing at the urinal right next to me going to the bathroom! I guess I didn't hear him come in, but I was mortified that a stranger was standing at the urinal using it right next to me, so I ran right out of the bathroom! Landon and Devon didn't follow me so I stood outside yelling at them (admittedly too crazily) to get out of the bathroom! I was so embarrassed that I just paid for the groceries that I had in my cart and ran out of the store. I got to thinking about it, and I just want to know what the heck that guy was thinking! When he walked in and saw a woman helping her kids wash their hands, why did he go ahead and just start using the urinal right next to that woman? He was wearing a suit, so he wasn't some random bum off the street. I thought "Maybe he just really had to go, and I was in the men's room after all" but he could have used the toilet! The whole situation was just too weird. I'm going to have to start making Landon go to the women's room just so that I can help him and not get walked in on again. Jeez. Using public bathrooms is so stressful!

Ben's Birthday

I finally got the videos uploaded to YouTube so I thought I would go ahead and post them! Ben's actual birthday was a quiet affair, which is the way he wanted it. He didn't even tell his co-workers that it was his birthday. He and I just watched a movie at home together and didn't make too big of a big deal about it. That weekend, though, Ben took his birthday money and got himself an adult sized razor scooter! It's a lot like Landon's but it has bigger wheels and goes faster. He spent hours riding down crazy fast hills with Landon, and Landon was excited to have someone brave enough to hang with him! This is a video of the two of them riding down the golf cart path right behind our house together. It has a pretty good hill and there aren't any cars to worry about so it was their favorite "run" of the day.


Bailey was in Charleston at the beach so don't feel bad that she isn't included in the scootering. The boys had a great time together, and it made me think about how nice it must be to be a kid with such a fun dad! I wonder if the kids even know how much fun he is, or if they just take it for granted? I just wanted to include some other videos that have been taken recently that show what fun and silly things the kids get to do because Ben is such a silly boy!
This is a new swing trick that Ben came up with at the park the other day. Landon was the only one brave (and trusting) enough to actually do it.



This video was taken by Ben himself as he was driving the golf cart with the kids. This is their new "thing" and the kids get mad at me when I won't do it. This is in the parking lot of Bailey's school, and the kids start asking for it every time we drive by. I'm too embarrassed to do it when Ben isn't with me, so they only get to do it when he is around. (You might want to turn down your speakers for this one because it gets a bit loud when the kids are all screaming)



This is the last one, I promise! I took this the other day because I was downstairs while Ben was upstairs bathing kids and I kept hearing the kids howling with laughter. I grabbed the camera and went to investigate, and this is what I saw. Ben didn't even know I was behind him.


The kids are constantly slamming the bathroom door into their heads now, but it was funny initially! Its true that we both have to buckle down and study a lot these days, but its nice to take a break now and then and watch Ben come up with some new form of entertainment! Happy Birthday Ben!

Mother's Day

I'm extremely frustrated because I have been trying to post about Ben's birthday for about a week, but my blog or computer isn't letting me upload videos anymore. The problem is that I have nothing but videos that I wanted to post so that you could see what Ben has been doing, so without them I have no visual aids. It is most frustrating! I even tried to upload them to YouTube and then attach the links, but even YouTube shut me down. It has got to be my computer. Anyway, the very next day after I posted about Landon's birthday and how normal it all was, I had to take Landon for his five year well child visit, and we had a severe relapse into craziness. They needed to check his ears and eyes so that he would have an updated eye, ear, and dental form to start kindergarten. He was really good at the eye part, and covered each eye one at a time and told the nurse the different shapes and pictures he saw, but when we got to the ear part, he turned into Mr. Hyde! They just wanted to put little ear pieces into his ears to test his hearing and he just wasn't having it! We did manage to fight him until that was done, but when the doctor came in and tried to have a look in his ears to see if he still had his tubes, he was just DONE having people mess with his ears! He flat said "All done ears!" and wouldn't let us near him. When I tried to hold his head still for her he got angrier and then when we both tried to hold him down he panicked and lashed out with all his strength! He was kicking the doctor, chairs were literally flying across the room, he was screaming, hitting, kicking and acting like he was fighting for his little life. You could tell from looking at the raw panic on his face that he was gone and couldn't be reasoned with. Needless to say, we don't know if he still has his tubes in his ears or not. I was shaky and beyond embarrassed because that was our very first time going to that doctor, and Landon had a meltdown and kicked her! Once he realized that we weren't going to mess with him anymore, he was completely normal and hopping around and playing with his spider man stickers. As we were leaving, we saw one of Landon's teachers in the waiting room with her own son and Landon went skipping over and said "Hi, Miss Pauline!" I sat down by her with my hands shaking and told her how bad he just was and I started to break down in front of her! He is just so emotionally draining sometimes! The funny part is that he is normally so so mellow and sweet! He will be calm and sweet and laid back, and then something will just make him snap! I just wanted to show a picture of what his teachers sent me for Mother's Day because I think it's funny and a little ironic.

Yes, such an angel!

Landon's Birthday

I am taking a short break from studying for my exams tonight so that I can go ahead and post about Landon's birthday. We didn't have a party or make a big deal about it, but we hung out together and had a pretty good time! He also understood the concept much better this year and I let him help me pick out his Mickey Mouse birthday plates for his class the day before. He kept saying "Landon birthday party at school tomorrow?" and I would say yes, and he would jump around and get excited. He is normally a little hard to get moving in the mornings because he wants to get on the computer instead of getting ready for school, but the morning of his birthday was much easier! He kept talking about his birthday party at school and he was excited to go! I took him over his gluten free cake with a rainbow on top to his classroom because that's what they were studying at school, and all the kids ate it without making any faces or anything. When everyone got home from school, I tried to come up with ideas to make it a more exciting day than usual, so we grabbed our swim suits and rode over to the lake on the golf cart. We chose the lake instead of the pool for obvious reasons. It was a gorgeous day and the lake was calming and fun. The water was a bit cool but they all three played around for a long time and acted like it didn't bother them.
It could be because they were jumping around so much.













After swimming, they requested that we go eat at McDonald's, a suggestion that made me hesitate because it makes my tummy feel unhappy, but I figured that it wasn't an unreasonable birthday request. So they put their clothes back on while giving anyone driving or walking by a strip show, and we headed over on the beautiful cart paths by the lake. On the way, we passed a group of high school kids that had tied a rope to a tree and were swinging into the water, so we had to stop and watch because Landon was beside himself with laughter every time one of them jumped in.
Here's a short video of that.


At McDonald's, the kids played more than they ate, which is typical, but they all played together and were nice which is not typical.





It was starting to get close to bath and bed time so we got back on the golf cart and started the journey back to the house. The kids decided that they were too wound up to just sit on the golf cart and ride home, so they all three got off and started running down the path next to the golf cart. There wasn't anyone around so I let them do it for a few minutes just to make sure they were all tired out when we got home, because they had certainly already worn me out.
Here they are running down the path next to the golf cart:

All in all, it was a fairly regular day. No big party or craziness, but we packed the day full of time together and we had a good time! Poor Ben didn't get home until really late, but Landon stayed up to see him and show him how he can ride his new bike. So little Landon is five now and will be starting kindergarten in the fall! It's so crazy but I really feel like he's been around much longer than that! Sorry there wasn't any big crazy story this time, but I'm certainly not! Our days have been fairly normal since the pool incident, and I really have needed the beak! Well, I have two finals tonight and one tomorrow so back to work! Thanks for checking in!