4 wheeling fun and, of course, other stuff

Lots of pictures and very little to say this time (grandparents will be happy).

First, we finally broke down and bought Jacob his own 4 wheeler so he doesn't have to ride the pink one at M and Pa's house. Of course, we get home to find out it needs to charge for at least 18 hours, so we didn't get to ride it that day. The next day, when Randy got home from work, we took him out front to ride it. Unfortunately, when Jacob is in the front yard, he really only wants to run in the street. So, although it looks like he is having fun here, he really wanted to run! And, by the way, it was not really THAT dark outside, these pictures just look that way!
























He also did a few of his usual tricks for us, like dancing in the street.



Riding with his feet up...



And walking on the side while pushing the button to make it go!



The next day, I tried it in the back yard but it doesn't work as well on grass!









He has no concept of steering and ran into his water table.



And loved to get in the middle of the yard and scream for me.



He was thrilled when he found the storage compartment on the front. He still loves to open and close things.






And, as promised, I finally got the pictures from Jennifer of our playdate last week. Here we are in the pool...



One attempt at getting a picture of all 3 toddlers.



Eating at the kids table.



And, my favorite, the 3 of them in the hammock.



Since I blogged last, we have been playing with out blocks A LOT. He is finally building with them (with my help) as opposed to just dumping them or throwing them around the room.



Randy bought me some beautiful flowers for Mother's Day.



And we went to our first arena football game. Randy and I have never been to one, and the Houston (or Katy...can't remember) Stallions play about 10 minutes from our house in the Merrell Center. Jacob was pretty well behaved and loved the clapping, Skittles and Diet Coke.












And, although we only stayed for the first half, Jacob got very tired and almost fell asleep like this...




~ Nancy

PlayDATES and other randomness

We have had a few playdates in the past week, and Jacob is taking the DATE part seriously. Last Friday, we met Jennifer and Jacqueline at the park and then headed to McDonalds for a nutritious lunch (HA!). The funny part of this whole story is that morning, Jennifer's husband told Jacqueline to have fun at her playdate but to remember that it was NOT a kissing date. You can only guess what Jacob did. :o)

It all started with Jacqueline wanting me to pick her up. And she is SO light compared to Jacob (she is also 3 months younger). So, I told Jennifer she needed to pick up Jacob to see the difference. She did, and Jacob grabbed the sides of her face and planted one on her. That was kiss #1.

Before the next kissing session, Jacqueline decided that she didn't want to eat her nuggets but would feed them to Jacob. Jennifer snapped a few pics so I'm using hers (I wasn't quick enough with the camera)...



Right before we left, Jacob and Jacqueline were standing there looking at each other. I was saying to Jacob to tell Jacqueline bye bye, when he leaned over towards her. I thought he was going to hug her so I told him to. Well, he had other plans and planted one on her too. Jennifer and I thought it was so funny that we made them do it a number of times, and even put them in a booth to snap a picture before we left. I love Jacqueline's face in the second one...






So much for a playdate NOT a kissing date with my kiddo around!

This past weekend, we headed to the lake/river with some friends and M and Pa kept Jacob at Laura and Scott's house. Apparently Jacob thought it was funny to kiss Makinley when we left. Makinley didn't think it was as funny! Unfortunately, none of us got pictures of that one.

But, on the ride home, he was exhausted and passed out. Keeping up with Makinley (who is 4) is hard work!




Monday morning, we stared back into our swim lessons at the Houston Swim Club. We have a new teacher and they always give high fives and hugs at the end of class. Jacob planted one on her too!! (That's 4 in 4 days if you are counting...and those don't include me, Randy, M and Pa).

Today, we had another playdate at Jennifer and Jacqueline's house with Robyn (another mom) and her daughter Dallas. Jacob was in heaven and got to kiss both of them! I didn't get the cute pictures of them kissing but, I think, Jennifer did. I'll share them when she sends them to me.

Jacob did actually wear some sunglasses for more than a second. We have bought him a pair, but he won't keep them on for longer than 2 seconds. However, he loved Jennifer's glasses...



I know it's a dark picture, but we were under their patio. Still cute!

I also got a picture of Jacqueline, who loves hats...



And, Dallas, who is just being silly...



So, all in all, I think that is 5 different girls in 5 different days. Maybe we need to find some little boys to hang out with. Then again, maybe not!

~ Nancy

How I blog

Disclaimer: This blog is not going to be interesting to my family. There are no cute pictures of Jacob...sorry.

When I took over blogging duties, back in December or so, I did about 2 blogs before I wanted to give up. If you remember, I even complained about it on one of my posts. Blogging through blogspot on internet explorer with lots of pictures is NOT fun. I began to realize why Randy complained about blogging when we nagged him. See, if you have never done it, when you insert a picture, it always puts it at the top. And randomly adds spaces to the text you have typed. Then, pulling the picture down where you want it is not as easy as you would think. And, adding more than one picture becomes a huge hassle and sometimes does not let you put the second picture after the first...argh! So, I wanted to give up and complained.

However, some of my friends have noticed that my blogs do have lots of pictures and have asked me how I do it. No, I don't spend hours doing it...I don't have that kind of patience! So, here are some of the things I have found to make blogging MUCH easier. Granted, we are a gadget family (or, I should say, my husband loves gadgets and I benefit from it) so that makes it easier.

First, I ALWAYS blog from my iPad. But I found a wonderful app that makes it easy to blog. When you input a picture, it puts it right where you want it...no random spaces either. I'm sure there are more out there, but this is the one I use. I think it was $4.99 but am not sure.



And before you say it or think it, yes, typing on an iPad is hard. So, I also bought a wireless keyboard. This also makes it easier to answer emails from the iPad. I bought the "official" one to go with an iPad from Apple, but I have since seen that there are much cheaper ones on the market. Some attach to the iPad and some (like mine) connect through bluetooth. Here is my set up.



And here is the keyboard by itself.



Next, I pretty much take most of my pictures with my phone. When I'm ready to blog, I email them to myself, check it on the iPad and save them to the iPad. This is so easy because you can mail yourself 5 (I think) pictures at a time and save all 5 at once.

For the rare times that I use our "big" camera (any other digital camera besides a phone), you can also save to a computer and email them to yourself. However, Randy bought a handy dandy gadget that does it instantly. You just take the memory card out of the camera, plug it in to this thing and then plug both of those in to the iPad. Pick the ones you want and you import them. Easy peasy. I have no idea how much this costs but I think it was around $20.



And, with this BlogPress app, you can also blog from an iPhone. It is harder to type, but you get to skip the step of emailing yourself pictures. I'm pretty sure the keyboard would work with the phone too, but I've never tried it. If I'm going to do a quick blog, I'll do it from my phone. But, I think I've only done that once or twice.

Last, just like on blogspot, you can start a post and save it but not post it. So, sometimes I blog one day, proof read/try to make it funny the next day and post the 2nd day. Or, I can start the blog on my phone while getting a pedicure, and finish up later. :o)

That's it...those are my blogging secrets. And, if you're wondering, this blog took me exactly 7 minutes to write and post. For those of you that blog, am I missing anything? Do you have a blogging secret?

~ Nancy

Water table fun

I finally broke down and bought Jacob a water table. I wanted to get him one last year (when he still loved water) but never did. After the swimming drama, I decided to go cheap this year to see if he likes it. He'll probably get an upgrade next year since he loves it! He has been out to play with it every day since we bought it, and usually makes a huge mess. So, the other day, he went diaper only to go play.



I'm pretty sure that smile means he likes it! Here are a few other pictures of the fun...










Daddy even taught him how to scoop up water and pour it in the tower thingy...he tries real hard.












However, he really likes to scoop up water and pour it on the patio. And, every time, say Uh Oh.






And, sometimes, he likes to try and drink the water.



Here he is posing...you know the move...trying to suck in your belly so you don't look fat. If you can't suck it in, just push it in...



And, for laughs, I almost deleted this picture (since I already had 10 or 20 that looked just like it) but something caught my eye. See anything funny?


~ Nancy

Weekends with the Wiltshires

A couple of weekends ago, we tried swimming with Jacob. We did a lot of swim lessons last year, and he loved the water. However, he seems to have forgotten his love of water. But, he definitely looks cute in his swim gear!

Here is his new swimsuit...



And wearing his puddle jumper...



He was also not a fan of the puddle jumper! Oh well. First thing, Monday morning, I signed us up for swim lessons again, so we start next Monday.

Here are just some other cute pictures from our weekend. Jacob loves him some ice cream, but specifically the cone.



And, he also likes to sit naked and eat cookies. Don't worry, I cropped the original picture...but he was buck naked eating his cookie.



This past weekend, we were headed to College Station. On Friday, I drove Jacob and Shelby up to my parents house then headed back to wait for Randy to get off work. Then, we headed up to College Station to meet Jeff. We went to see the Spring Game, Maroon vs. White, of course (White won, if you care) because Randy gets 'almost' as excited for Spring Game as a regular football weekend. I posted on Facebook that we were headed to College Station to act like college students again. On Friday, we got to College Station around 9pm, ate a late dinner and were all in bed, asleep, by 11pm. That was similar to a lot of my college experience (I've always gone to bed early) but I'm pretty sure Randy and Jeff's college experience did not consist of them being asleep by 11pm on a Friday night.

Saturday, for the game, it was a beautiful day and we had a great time.
We met up with some other friends who brought their 3 year old and 14 month old boys to the game. It really made me miss Jacob, but also made me understand why he is too young to go. The 3 year old did really well, but the mom didn't get to see much of the game because she was keeping the younger one out of the sun. Maybe when Jacob is 10 we will allow him to attend a game!

While we were gone, Jacob got spoiled by Grandma and Grandpa. Here is a photo view of what he did (snapped by Grandma, and Jacob was rarely smiling but she assured me he was having fun).

Grandpa read him books...



And they chilled on the stairs. I'm pretty sure Jacob is just plotting to get a hold of his beer...



They went to Lowe's...



And ate ice cream...



Debra and Craig (my cousin and her husband) bought him a froggy lawn chair that he LOVES.



And, he tried to wear Grandpa's shoes...



They watched tv...



And, finally, smiled for the camera. Hmmm...their living room floor looks very familiar to me...it's a mess!



This upcoming weekend, we are headed to the lake with some friends to celebrate some birthdays. We will be taking Jacob to Austin where M and Pa will watch him (along with Makinley and Molly) at Laura and Scott's house. It seems they are going to have their hands full, but they have assured us that they want to do this! I'll let you know how it goes...

~ Nancy