Rub a Dub Dub

My boys LOVE bath time. It is one of my high times of the night. Bathtub not only gives me a full 20 minutes of sitting peacefully on the bath seat waiting for them but it also begins the bedtime routine.

WARNING: This post may contain photos of children in the bathtub. Although no parts are shown, some "sensitive" individuals may find this offensive. (I guess I should have posted this at the beginning) LOL

What's new

Where have I been?? Trapped inside for the third day of continuous rain storms. New Jersey hasn't seen rain almost all summer and now we are making up for it. The rain just keeps falling and falling and falling..........

School starts next Monday and even bigger than that is the arrival of the "Outlaws" also known as the Borowski's (Jade's parents) on Friday. We have a fun trip to the Pocono mountains planned and Jade has planned a boys night out to the Philly's game.

I am so excited that my dear friends have finally welcomed their son Benson Ross Powell this past weekend. If I didn't have this rotten cold, I would run down to the hospital and just smoother him with love. (imagine his luck) Connor is still baffled and asks us about a hundred times a day how a baby could come out of Nikki's tummy. (Thank goodness the outlaws are coming, I will let them answer that question)

My question for the day.........How many times a day does Spongebob actually come on TV? Or, I should say, does Spongebob ever not play on TV?

Butterflies

As a child I remember finding butterflies everyday. I remember laying in the grass and watching them fly over me and catching them in jars to take a closer look at the patterns drawn across their wings. As I got older I didn't find as many butterflies as I did in my youth. I remember a period of time in my teen years when I actually believed that the butterfly population was becoming extinct. I took my boys on a walk yesterday and while we watched all the butterflies I pondered why they suddenly returned to my life. I realized that the butterflies never disappeared but that I had just stopped taking the time to look for them. Another wonderful blessing of motherhood. I love the fact that having children makes me return to a childs level and stop to see the world as they see it. I realize that as an adult I get so busy sometimes that I forget to stop and really appreciate all the beautiful things around me.

Jaxson

Lately I have been looking at Jaxson in a new light. I tend to look at him and notice only his "dark" side but I have spent some time really examining him. Yes, he has a "spicy" temper but he is also a very loving boy. He is not a pleaser as he dances to the beat of his own drum and NO one elses. I have really grown to love and appreciate all of his facial expressions. He definitely lets you know if you have done something to make him upset by the look on his face.

I cherish our mornings together when he wakes me up before my eyes are physically able to open completely and we lay together on the couch watching Spongebob (which was his first word). He has set his own routine and insists on having waffles for breakfast every morning after a good 30 minutes of Spongebob.

I will be the first to admit that I was a little disappointed that I did not get my girl but I would NEVER trade Jaxson for anything. The biggest joy in my life is watching my two boys wrestle on the floor and then love each other. Before they go to bed every night, they wrap their little arms around each other and give each other a big kiss. Jaxson adds spice to this family with his "spirited" personality and I shutter to think what his teenage years hold but I love him all the more for fierce personality he possesses.

Swimming

My kids love swimming. (well, Connor is finally learning to love swimming) I really should rephrase that statement and say that Jaxson loves swimming. The kid is a fish. He would jump off the side of a pool and nearly drown and still come back for more. I admire his fearlessness and cherish his unknowing innocence. Connor sees pools as the dangerous traps they are. They look beautiful from the surface but underneath all that beauty is a big hole filled with tons of water that is just waiting to cover your whole body with it's endless weight. Jaxson tends to see swimming pools in a different sort of light. He views all swimming pools as giant bathtubs with endless possibilities. I thought that I would teach him a lesson a few weeks ago, and instead of rushing over to save him when he jumped off the side into my friends deep pool, I let him go under for just a second. I expected to see some sort of fear in his eyes when I pulled him to the surface but instead, I saw a look of exhilaration. And that put fear into my eyes. We went swimming today with our friends and I snapped this great picture of Connor finally being brave enough to play in the water. It was only when I got home and downloaded the picture on my computer that I noticed the faint sight of something or I should say someone in the background. Take a wild guess who the someone is....................

(for those who couldn't see the someone, it is Jaxson the fish with his face almost completely submerged while his older brother wouldn't even get his chin in the water)

BBQ

We spent Saturday at the annual ward BBQ. It was good food, friends, and HOT HOT sunshine. As previously promised, here is best picture I am willing to offer of my cropped hair. No, my face is not normally that shiny, it was only 100+ degrees outside and I just had to wear makeup. I wouldn't want to scare the ward members!

Philadelphia Zoo

We had a busy weekend. We spent Friday at the zoo with some friends. It was REALLY hot but most of the animals were active (no, I am not referring to the children, although they were active also). We met some friends at the enterance as close to opening time as mormonly possible and spent the next 3 hours walking through the zoo. We got some beautiful pictures of the elephants. The elephants will be leaving the zoo soon so it was wonderful to see them one more time before they leave.

We had a total of 5 boys and two little girls. The boys had a blast and as you can tell from the "serious" faces in this picture, they were exhausted at the end. Connor has really taken an interest in photography and insisted on bring his camera to the zoo. After being in possession of his camera for a mere 5 minutes I was alarmed to find that he had taken 66 pictures!!!! Since we had only been to the elephants and the hippos I decided that it would be best for me to carry the camera for him.

The Simpsons

What we would look like if we were Simpson characters. I designed them on a website from pictures we had on our computer!! LOL

Karma

I am a believer in Karma. What goes around, comes around. In high school I was such a strong believer in Karma that I lived my life in such a way that I would do unto others as I would have done unto me, because of fear. Fear of what would come back around to me. As I became older, my views relaxed and I realized that Karma was just something that mother's made up to instill fear into the hearts of naive children. Or is it??? Recently I switched blog sites because someone was leaving anonymous nasty comments on my blog site at msn. (I knew who it was) Tired of deleting them, I just switched my blog site. Imagine my surprise when the "suspected" person called me yesterday begging for help. Apparently, the suspects computer had crashed and they had been left with no Internet access. Luck? Revenge? I say "NO!!!" That is a true example of Karma. I bet Earl Hickey would agree with me. (Earl Hickey is the man in the picture above for those of you that do not watch the TV show What About Earl)

P.S. I did in fact help this person with their computer problem because I would hate for bad luck to come my way from refusing help. I guess I am asking for trouble by blogging about my secret happiness at their "misfortune" SHOOT! Bad Luck will be coming my way.