Water Fights, Rockets, and Fun

Peter, Rigby, and I were able to fly to Utah last Thursday night. Thanks to a wonderful invention called a portable DVD player, Peter was well-behaved for most of the flight. Rigby was golden as usual. On the way to pick up my luggage, I had Rigby strapped to my front in a baby carrier, a back pack on my back, a roller bag in one hand, and an umbrella stroller containing Peter in the other hand. I must have been quite the sight because a couple of TSA workers began laughing as they saw me pass.

We have had a lot of fun. Peter and Isabelle either get along fabulously or fight fabulously as only 2 year olds can. Here are way too many pictures of all of our fun so far.

WATER FIGHTS

Here are Peter and Aunt Marissa getting soaked.

Grandma running while carrying both kidos as they chase after Grandpa.
This is almost 60 pounds of toddlers!

Sadie (the dog) got a little jealous and thought she should be carried as well.

Peter with one of his favorite toys--the hose.

Here is my sister Sara who is 29 weeks pregnant and only weighs 5 pounds more than my current weight (and I am at my goal weight). Ridiculous!

Here are Rigby and I enjoying our time outside.

ROCKETS

My dad has a compressor that he uses to launch paper rockets. Peter and Isabelle went crazy over it. Peter loved to stick the rocket onto the launcher and press the button. Isabelle loved to run and retrieve the rockets. This is really typical of their personalities: Peter the mechanical guru and Isabelle the Energizer Bunny.

I love Peter's expression as he presses the button. My Dad had to cover the button, so Peter could not press it too soon or on Isabelle's turn. His life would be complete if he could press one of those giant red buttons that you always see in the movies.

Grandpa with his little rocket monsters.

Isabelle and Peter are both entrenched in the mine phase of life, so they had a little fight during all of this rocket fun. I think Peter might have been teasing Isabelle by trying to grab her rocket, so she decided to sit on him and push his face into the grass. Silly kids. Both of them threw trantrums when we said it was time to go home.

FUN

Here is Peter enjoying his bubble gun.

I love this cute picture of Isabelle. Those eyes are just filled with mischief!

The hoodlums taking a SHORT break from their mischievous activities.

Here are the kids helping Grandpa open his Father's Day gift.

I love these two pictures of Rigby with my parents:

And Mom, I think you look great in this picture no matter what you say.

By the way, Scottie, we miss you and wish you could be here. He is currently staying home to work and has volunteered to paint our ridiculously large entry way while we are gone. Isn't he great. Love you, my boy! (I know, really mushy, but I miss him.)

Sand Castle Competition

This last weekend we went to a sand castle competition in Galveston. The competitors start early in the morning and then are judged in the afternoon. Here are some of the best ones.

"Alice in WonderSand"

There were a few that had cracked like this.
Peter had just woken up from a nap. He is such a great kid, but waking up is his downfall. I cringe when this time of the day comes.
Here is a guy for scale. Some were even a little taller.
We forgot a hat for Rigby, so he looked a bit dorky with the burp cloth.
Yes, I am carrying both children, and I did for about 10 minutes! They are HEAVY. Peter would not walk (because of his waking up issues) and Scott needed to get the sand out of the camera.

Memorial Day Weekend

Memorial Day weekend was busy! First of all, we were able to have Kristine (Scott's mom) visit. She drives for various companies, transferring cars/trucks between different dealerships, and she was finally able to find a job in Houston. We picked her up from the airport on Wednesday and she did not have to drive back home until Monday evening. Here are the little boys enjoying their grandma time:

Rigby really was enjoying grandma, he just often has that concerned look on his face.

We were able to visit the Alligator Park with her. Here is Kristine, Peter, Rachel, and Rigby in the stroller. Scottie is so good at taking pictures that I forgot to take some of him. So, sorry no pictures of my handsome hubby in this post.

I know we have put up pictures of the alligators before, but Scott got the coolest sequence of pictures this time.

Here Mr. Alligator casually swimming along; . . .

. . . then he jumps up to catch a fish, . . .

. . . comes down with a splash, . . .

. . . chews, and then swallows his meal.

I thought this bird was really neat looking too.

The timing was great for her visit because she watched to kids while we did some sealings at the temple and gave talks in sacrament meeting. We were wondering how we would juggle that because this is how it would have worked: I play the organ, then I talk while Scott does the count and sits with the kids, I play the intermediate hymn, Scott talks while I sit with the kids, and then I play the closing and transition hymn while Scott sits with the kids. That was definitely NOT going to work, so we are VERY thankful that Kristine was here! I think Peter would have been upset to sit with someone he did not know very well while he saw Scott and I up on the stand.

Lastly, we enjoyed some wonderful smoked brisket and fried chicken with barbeque sauce at a ward party. Wow, Texas people really know how to cook good meat.

For Sara

This is an amendment to the end of my last post. My sister Sara said that I needed to put a similar picture of Rigby next to Peter's so here they are:

Rigby - 4 months

Peter - 5 months

Peter and Rigby

My cute little boys:

Hopefully one of them will be wearing potty pants in the next picture.

They love taking baths together. Peter is always a little upset when Rigby pees in the tub. Funny thing is that I am pretty sure Peter often does it as well.

Rigby absolutely adores Peter. Peter can make him laugh and smile better than anyone. When he is upset, as soon as he sees Peter, he is happy again. Rigby is anxious to sit up, so he has been a little discontent laying down lately. Although, he is in absolutely no hurry to roll over.

Peter is really into Buzz Lightyear right now. Also, he has discovered how to pick his nose and scabs too. Oh, boys. He has been watching me take care of Rigby and often does the same thing with his Curious George stuffed animal. He will pretend to nurse and burp "G" (as he calls him), as well as put him in the swing and place him under Rigby's toy. He has also begun saying prayers with our help (really cute!).

Just for fun, here is a picture of Peter at about Rigby's age right now:

Yard Improvements

I think both Scott and I are ready to be done with yard improvements for a long while. Here is the yard just after we moved in last summer:


After A LOT of weeding, digging up of half dead bushes, planting new bushes, pruning, more weeding, edging the lawn, watering the grass, and did I mention weeding :(, here is the finished product:
It is not as perfect as I would like it, but it will do for now.

Our grass was so overgrown that our electric edger could not cut through the grass. So, yesterday I went out with the kidos to edge it manually with one of those half-moon edgers. Progress was slow because I had to keep shoving the bink in Rigby's mouth. Also, I had to keep Peter from stomping on and dismantling our neighbor's sprinkler heads and keep him from getting run over by cars in the street. I guess the landscaping guys doing our other neighbor's yard felt sorry for me, so one of them offered to edge our lawn for free. THANK YOU! It made me wish that ALL of our unfinished projects around the house would resolve themselves so easily. Oh well, that is life I suppose.