The White House: More June Fun, Some Random Thoughts....OH and we're buying our house!

We decided to be daring and sign Ruby up for swimming lessons. I figured, like potty training, it could go either way. Luckily for us, she was ALL about it! She LOVED being in the water, and mostly listens to her teachers... She's much more compliant with strangers than she is with me. I'm not sure how I feel about that!

Ross and Ruby's teachers, Mckensie, Zach, and Chelsie are all really great with them!

The kids have also been enjoying a little pool we got out back - along with some goggles they are still a bit too scared to try out.

Mom take a picture of me sliding!

Mom take another picture!

Ready for swimming lessons!

We have still been enjoying a few thunderstorms, but the weather has seemed to settle in to HOT...as in - right now at 11 o'clock at night it is STILL 88 degrees outside. Blah.

Crazy rainbow clouds coming in...

Today at church I had a sweet little girl call me Sister Snow White. Haha.

The other day our treadmill was left unfolded and the kids convinced Steve to let them go on it. Ross got the brilliant idea to get his cars and let them have a ride. He ran out by me and my mountain of laundry I was folding to get his cars, and he said to himself, "This is going to be Grrrreat!!" I love how excited Ross gets about doing things.

Ruby has found a new selection of songs to sing all the time including, "Why Should I Worry" from Oliver and Company, "I Need a Hero" from Shrek 2, Happy Birthday, "A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes" from Cinderella, and a whole bunch of songs from a CASSETTE tape (yes - people, I may have kept my old CD/cassette tape player AND inherited a bunch of cassettes from my mom as she was cleaning things out) that I actually remember listening to when I was like 4 years old. It's called "Sounds like Fun" by Barbara Milne. I can't BELIEVE how many songs Ruby sings by heart. She knows all the letter sounds by song, months of the year, counting, and some other sweet nursery rhymes that I LOVED when I was a little girl. We turn it on when the kids are going to bed (it helps with Ruby's lack of desire to go to bed which usually would result in tantrums...I'm DREADING getting her out of her crib). Ruby prefers the "Muffin Man" side of the cassette to the "Mittens" (Three little kittens) side. Sometimes she tries to trick me by saying she wants the other side...so I push REWIND (that's right people) and wait for a couple minutes for it to finish...only to have her change her mind. Unfortunately for her, mom doesn't give in to this.

Potty training is going fairly well...there are times Ruby is fully engaged in something and knows how to stop, come tell me, and make it to the bathroom without any accidents, and then randomly have times where she forgets/doesn't care/wants the attention/I have no idea really - and has like two accidents in a row. MOSTLY I don't worry about it, but we're going to try to get out of the pull-ups during nap time soon.

Ross is doing well with swimming lessons - this is his second round and he's MUCH better at putting his face in the water. We were confused a bit, because when we went as a family - he was jumping in the water to us - getting FULLY dunked and was nothing but laughs and smiles. He's a funny kid. :)

Ross also is good at emptying and loading the dishwasher, cleaning the bathroom (cleaning the toilet with the brush is his favorite), dusting as well as helping to water our plants. We're working on chores and teaching him the ways of the world - sweeping has been the next - which is a bit frustrating for him, but we'll keep at it.

Stephen is excited to start teaching Ross catch and a baseball and mitt which will be fun. Ross and Steve have been working a lot out in our yard trying to help the grass get growing and making plans for where we want to put flowerbeds, more grass, gardens, etc. BECAUSE...

We're buying our house! After a ridiculous amount of run around - looking at a LOT of different houses and fretting over it all, as this house we've been renting is up for sale, we've decided this house is our best bet for the priorities we have. It's not our favorite thing being newbies in this department - there are A LOT things to consider, etc. BUT we're doing it. It's CRAZY!

On the upswing - we've probably spend about $50,000 in our heads of all the things we'd like to do to the house. Also - I'm SO excited to actually decorate our house finally instead of being in rental mode...although - I have NO idea on how to decorate - I'm going to need some serious help in that department. :) It will be fun though. :)

My house warming gift to myself :) It makes me happy EVERY time I look out the window - gorgeous!

Everyone likes snuggling with Rowland - he's too cute. :)

Ross's pretend "bed night" as he calls it - with Rowland. :)

Rowland loves working on his grabbing skills. He's starting to get more and more frustrated when he either can't pull a toy to his mouth - or fit his mouth all the way around it. It's extremely aggravating for him!

Love this happy face :)

Ruby loves babying Rowland - good thing he's a baby, because otherwise he'd be totally over that kind of thing. ;)

So this video of Ross "reading" to Rowland completely melted my heart. :)

Robot kids - best toy made out of a box - I could command them to do anything I wanted for a while...until they started to turn on me to take over the world! ;)