Fair=Fun, Lake=Not So Fun

This week is the Benton County Fair is this week, so us and our friends the Hamptons took our kids for some good ole fair fun!

On the way in I took this picture of Maddox because it was so cute...a little butterfly landed on his finger and would not fly away. He got to hold it for a long time..cuteness;) We bought our tickets and were off to ride some kiddie rides! Here is little Ashlynn:

Maddox on the Flintsone ride:

After a few rides we did what we really came to do...EAT. First up, corn dogs!!!

After that, time for a few more rides. Serenity and I took the babies on the Carousel. Cruz loved it!

Maddox was fearless on the rides, he wanted to do all of the roller coasters!!

Played a few games....what a quick way to loose $5!

Maddox BEGGED to go on this bounce house the whole time we were there. When we finally let him go he climbed in, went up the first hill, and froze. The carnie man was yelling at him to go down the slide and Maddox wouldn't budge. He said he was "too scary". Hahaha! He got right back out and went on a much smaller one!

Cruz got to do a bounce house too!

And there was a petting zoo:

I love the Fair!!

Today we decided to get up early and go out on the boat...just our family of four. We planned to go have lunch at the marina, swim, and then bring the kids home for a nap. Sounds like a perfect day.

However, with the insane heat wave and lack of rain.....the lake was waaaay down. When we got to the dock we tried to lower the boat down and it was just too shallow. So, we took a quick picture that the boys fought me on(see below) and left:(.

On the drive back up to the main road I noticed butterflies flying all over these purple flowers...I had David stop so I could take a picture. When I hoped out of the car I heard sticks crack, I looked up and a deer was running off! So neat!

I started snapping a few pics, trying to be arty with my fancy camera that I don't know how to really use.

As I was taking pictures I heard a loud snort behind me....(everyone was waiting on me in the car). I turned around and that deer was staring at me!! I tried to get a picture...you can kinda see him below. He is smack dab in the middle of the shot. The little brown spot:). We looked at each other for a long time and then he finally ran off. It was pretty amazing!!

So, our lake trip was a bit disappointing. We took the kids to the local Susie Q Malt Shop for burgers and shakes. That made it a little better of day!!

81 degrees is coooooold!!!

I took the babies to the pool today. It was overcast and not to hot. Perfect day since it has been absolutely sweltering.

They had fun for a while. Cruz was fearless and jumping in as fast as I could catch him. Then I noticed blue tinted lips and chattering teeth;)! I got Cruz out and wrapped him up. He kept saying "cooooooldddd"! I thought that was so crazy, we MUST be used to hot weather when we are that cold in 81 degrees!

Maddox swam a while longer and then he was ready to be wrapped up too!!










We went and had a nice little lunch at the club after swimming, just the three of us. It was pretty sweet. Kinda like a special "summers coming to an end" day!

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Slowly Making Changes...

...To this blog. The title you may notice is officially "My life with boys" instead of "David, Amy, Maddox, and Cruz".

I got my first preview of whats to come on the facelift today and I'm getting excited:). I decided to go with Jen Gets Fancy!

Second, my friend Katie Cole took some pictures of our family for the blog and I just can't wait to share two of my boys any longer...so here they are!!

Running Out of Things to Do

I'm over summer. I'm over the heat. We are running out of things to do. Its so hot we can only play outside early in the morning and then it is just too miserable. Today's high is 100 degrees. YUCK.

We've done the pool, sprinkler, water table, water hose, play dough, colors, movies, you name it. Now we are just bored. Being bored will drive you to think of some weird things to entertain your kids.

Today I decided to fill up a bucket with dish soap and water. I don't know why. They like bubbles, they like water, why not combine the two. Kept them entertained for a while and I could work on my plants before it got too hot. I managed to get some pics as well.

What started off as pretty good sharing and good fun eventually turned into a big mess and fighting. I seriously couldn't help but laugh and take pics. I mean, just scroll down and you will see what I mean.

Happy Friday!

Whats For Dinner??

That's on my mind right now....what am I going to make? Looks like its gonna be a taco night! Have ya'll tried those new Bush's Grilling Beans. They make a black bean fiesta that is good with tacos. I think we'll have that tonight!

There are two recipes of mine that I ALWAYS get asked for. I mean ALWAYS!! It totally doesn't bother me. I love to share. They are both chicken recipes and they are both crock pot recipes and they are both SUPER easy! I'm going to share them with ya'll today and maybe you can try it out next week. Let me know what you think!

First is Easy Barbeque Chicken:
In a crockpot put 6 frozen chicken breast, 2 cans of coke, and one bottle of barbeque sauce. Cook all day. It will be falling apart by dinner time. I serve it with mashed potatoes and baked beans. My family eats it UP!!!

Second is, well, I don't have a name for it. I'll call it Amy's Crockpot Chicken;):
In crockpot put 4 frozen chicken breasts, half a stick of butter, a packet of Italian Dressing seasoning, and a block of cream cheese. Cook all day. It is absolutely the best chicken.
Serve over rice! YUM! It's my hubby's fave.

Now I'm wishing I would have thought of this earlier and had one of these for dinner!! Hope you'll try one out and let me know what you think!

The Boys Lately

Oh, my sweet boys! I just love em to pieces! So lets do a little catch up on them! Santa brought the boys a table and chair set about two years ago. I've had it up in my game room and it has gotten zero use (unless you count Cruz using it to climb onto the pool table).

Friday night we had friends over so I brought it down for the kids to eat on. Cruz LOVED it. You would have thought it was brand new. Both boys have eaten every meal at this table since. Guess it is permenantly downstairs! Why didn't I think of this before! Bye-bye high chair!!

So what else have we been up to?? Wellll, let me think:

Cruz: Cruz went to his LAST pulmonolgy appointment yesterday. He has totally outgrown all of his lung problems! No more inhalers! Praise God! He is still just a lil guy...only wieghing in at 21 pounds at 20 months. Where does he get this metabolism??? I'm serious...I want some!

He is talking up a storm. I'm not going to bother listing words he can say because he can say them all. If you say, "Cruz, say _____" he will repeat whatever word you tell him back to you. When something breaks, he says, "brote, six it" for "broke, fix it". I love when he does that.

He can say "Maddis" for Maddox. He loves his brother. Whatever Maddox does, Cruz is right behind him, which can be scary! Cruz has NO fear. If Maddox jumps off the deck, Cruz does. Whick looks crazy cause he is such a runt!

He can hold his own though. If Maddox ticks him off Cruz doesn't think twice to slap him in the face and grab a chunk of hair...something we are working on:). I'm a little nervous about starting him back to Mothers Day Out..hoping he's not a bully!

But the sweet side is he is still a Momma's boy who gives out kisses like there is no tomorrow. I love that too. He still needs his "bots", which is what he calls his blankie. He is a good sleeper and a sweet baby in the morning. He says, "hold you" when he wants to be held, and it melts my heart every time.

Maddox: Oh, my sweet sweet little terrible three year old!:) He is keeping Momma on her toes lately. I couldn't beging to catch up on most things this child does or gets into....

Here are some basics, we are potty training and it is going pretty well. Yesterday, no accidents! Today, not so great. But overall I can't complain.

Since we have changed his crib to a toddler bed all hell has broken loose. I don't know what set this child off but sleep has never been the same. It is a battle at night and at naps. And I don't mean a little crying. I mean we could be on an episode of the super nanny. He goes ballistic, cries, has ripped things off the wall, torn things up in his room (I'm embarrassed to even admit this stuff cause he sounds crazy!), even turned over furniture!! Anything to get us to come up there. Its aweful! He used to be a perfect sleeper. What happened, I thought he would love the toddler bed. He even has to sleep with EVERY light on...even hall lights. I know this is rediculous...I welcome any suggestions cause we are at our wits end!

Okay, I need to get off that subject.....deep breath....exhale........soooo, we start back to mothers day out next week and Maddox is very excited for "school". Not nearly as much as me! He is ready to see his little friends. We've been stuck in this house so much with the heat, I think school will be a nice change.

Random fact, Maddox is left handed. So wierd to me, I don't know why that's wierd, but it is!

He is a good big brother. He is getting to where I appreciate him "telling on" his brother when Cruz is doing something that could be dangerous. He is always looking out for him. Its cute! They play pretty good together MOST times. I catch Maddox sharing with him even when I didn't ask him to, and that makes me proud;).

Here are some photos from a few days ago. We filled up the baby pool and let them play with the water hose. They had a blast. Maddox loved squirting Cruz with the hose, and Cruz thought it was so funny!

Happy Tuesday!

PS! I'm getting a blog make over REAL soon!!!!!!

Trip to Fort Worth

Went to visit my bestie, Amber, in Fort Worth this week. Do you know we did not take one photo of the two of us while I was there!!?! What were we thinking. I'll recap on what we did though:)...using the Internet to fill in the pictures I DIDN'T take...we'll see how this turns out!

• First Day, First Stop: Love this place. We bought a TON of stuff for Ambers new house here. So much so that we barely fit it in the car. We had to move her kids to the third row, pile boxes in the second row (so high we couldn't see the kids), and had a chair in between us in the front row...hilarious!!

• Second day we took the kids here:
And Amber and I did this:


(and no, i didn't look even close to this glamorous, but a girl can dream...)





• That night Josh watched the kids and we went shopping and I picked up some great stuff from Sam Moon and a store called Upscale. Then we went to the Stockyards and had some yummy Mexican food. I just loved being with my best friend in the whole world! I sure do miss her!!!




• The next morning I had to head home:(. Once I got home I got my camera out and snapped some pics for the blog. So here are MY Ikea finds:

I texted Kirsten who is currently working on my Master Bedroom a picture of these two frames that I absolutely fell in love with. I asked her if they would look good in the room. She immediately knew where they were from (and had bought some for herself already, ha!). She instructed me to buy them and said we would paint them cream and put the boys silhouettes in them! yay, so excited, aaannndd, they were only $30 a piece!! Here they are, and they are pretty big!

I bought this random hanger for my scarves, it was like $5, something I never knew I needed!

Maddox is deathly afraid of the dark. I thought these night lights at Ikea were too cute. They have flowers, stars, moons, you name it. I got a bug:

Bought a ton of dresses at the store I was telling you about called Upscale. Don't let the name fool you....these babies were under $50!!!

I know David appreciates all this money I save him (insert sarcasm here, wink, wink). But seriously....I got some good deals on this trip!

Thanks Amber for a good time! Can't wait to come again!!!! Love you!!!!