Snips and Snails

I am not sure if there are many things in this world that compare to the pure, true love from a little boy.  Just yesterday we were standing around waiting for Shelby’s game when I felt Cole kiss my leg.  He often just turns his head and kisses whatever part of me is there- my leg, my arm, my face.  I said, “Oh what a sweet boy you are!” and a woman said, “Oh that won’t last long!!!”  Besides thinking that was a little rude to say in front of the sweet boy, I just smiled and told her that I will enjoy it while I can (and not-so-secretly hope that it DOES last a long long time!) Many times a day, he randomly says, “Mommy?  I wuv you.”  Heart.Melt.

Often he wakes up early in the morning around the time Daddy or I are getting in the shower and he loves to hop in with us.  He just stands there silently under the hot water for the whole time.  Usually he doesn’t say a word, just enjoys it.  Last time he did this I picked him up and he just melted into me and put his arms around my neck and his head on my should and we just stood there under the water for a long time.  What a way to start my day, lovin’ my boy!

This boy looks up to his sister like you wouldn’t believe, and does everything that she does.  He loves to be with her and to play with her, and they make each other laugh.  She explains things to him with this sweet mommy voice and he responds to her in such a trusting and loving way.

Coleman has been having a little bit of a tough time with me leaving him in the mornings.  He always wants me to stay and play with him, or show me things in his class.  And he always runs out of his classroom to find me for one more hug and kiss before I leave.  He is so sweet and so brave.  He loves being a boy and doing boy things like playing rough with trucks outside and going on bike rides with Daddy, and always choosing to ride with his daddy when we have separate cars.  I can’t say that he’s a Daddy’s boy or a Mommy’s boy or a Sissy’s boy- he’s just OUR boy who loves us all and we wouldn’t have him ANY other way!

A little paint…

...can go a long way!
We did a little laundry room transformation last weekend and it is AWESOME.  Seriously, our laudry, which is usually drawn out for WEEKS before we finally hang it all (the worst!) and put it all away, was done and completed in 2 days this week.
The little folding shelf and hanging rack makes such a huge difference, and everything is done before it even leaves the laundry room.  Thanks to my handy honey!!!
Unfortunately I got the "before" pictures after we had ripped off most of the butterfly wallpaper border.  As you can see, the room USED to be blue.
 

Not any huge work or anything, but I love it now- I have a little somethin' to put on the wall in there and it will be all done :)
The red matches our backspash tiles in the kitchen, and you can see this room from the kitchen and it all fits together pretty well finally!

Wordless Wednesday: Summer is here!!!

Sugar and Spice

Having a daughter is so great.

Shelby is such a delight in my life.  She is a happy place when I can't find one anywhere else. 
She loves her mommy.  She likes to dress like me and wear her hair like me.  She loves to cuddle up on me and she fits perfectly into the curve of my body when we lay on the couch together.  She loves to hug me and kiss me and she loves to be tickled by me.  She does things that I do, even silly things like walking around the house with a kleenex stuffed up a nostril to combat a drippy nose!  She likes to pretend she's MY mommy and she takes great care of me.  She says she can't wait to be a mommy and she wants to be just like me.
When we have 2 cars somewhere she won't ride with Daddy if Coleman is, because she says, "I don't want you to be alone Mommy."
Her love is overwhelming and true.
I love my daughter.

I Heart Faces: Yellow!

The sweet soft yellow of a baby duck.

Come on summer! Here we go!!!

In 13 days, I will be 30.  We will be having an awesome swim party courtesy of the Mr. and Mrs. Matthews.
In 20 days, I will be on the beach in Florida.  It will be the first time my kids have ever seen the beach (and my first time in Florida!)  I haven't taken more than 2 days of vacation since our honeymoon (and maternity leave which we all know is NOT vacation.)  It will be 7 glorious days!!!
In 1 month, I will be on our first floating/camping trip with friends and sisters and brother and NO kids.
Exciting times ahead :)

PB&J

I walked in on this.

I think

it’s the first time

she’s made her own sandwich

from start

to finish.

It was yummy!

ColemanIsms

I was in Cole's room helping him pick up a puzzle.  He said, "This is WEE DICK WEE OUS!"

Not 5 minutes later I was getting them both in the shower.
S: "Oooh I see you penis!  "
C: "That's my family jewels.  My fam'ly jewels is my penis!"

On the brightest note, I am now relaxing as I listen to them play in the shower together.  These are the joys of raising 2 semi-self-sufficient children to the ages of 3 and 5! :) 

Camping for Mother’s Day

We don’t need no spa day!  haha.

For Mother’s day weekend we headed out with the Kerrs and the Davises (we now refer to ourselves as DA PECKERRS…get it?) to Eisenhower State Park on Lake Texoma (Denison, TX)

Since Jeff and I had to work all day Friday, Jason and the Kerrs headed out early on Friday, pulling our camper and SETTING EVERYTHING UP before we got there.  What a treat!!! :)

We headed into the weekend hoping for lots of relaxation and playing kids running wild.

Jason even cooked breakfast on Saturday- doesn’t he look thrilled?

Daddy and his kiddos cuddled

and Ryan LOVED on his mommy :)

On Saturday afternoon Jeff & Trever took all of their kids on a long bike ride and we ladies settled into our chairs with our swimsuits on for some rays.

Then we had an accident- involving little Joe and this:

The fire was out from the morning but of course the embers were still extremely burning hot, and Joey backed up and tripped into them.  Luckily his daddy was right there to grab him out fast, but little man got pretty badly burned on his elbow and hand. 

This of course affected us all so much and gave us such a huge scare!  We have had so many close calls around fire pits just like this, and it just reinforced and reminded us our our need to BE RIGHT THERE (and to also in the future completely put the ashes out with water!)  This could happen to anyone, so quickly.  We are so lucky that Joe wasn’t hurt any worse than he was and that his daddy was very close by.  When we took him into the ER, they told Jess that he was the 2nd baby that morning that this had happened to, and the other 3 yr old little girl was much worse and had to be care-flighted out.  We saw that helicopter flying low over our campground right before this happened to Joe!  So scary and we have prayed for that little girl that we don’t know, that she is ok and will heal properly …

The hospital treated him and gave him some good pain meds---

---see, they even got him smiling again!  So the Davises had to head home early to take care of that baby boy and get him some rest and more treatment.  :(

The rest of Saturday was spent with the kids acting like dogs.

 

They were at the pet store and we had to buy them…Fun times!

Sunday morning came a discovery of a huge area of rolly-polies which kept the kids’ attention for a good hour or so while we packed up.

We spent the morning packing up and the kids continued to run and play together.

Once we were all packed up we had to make good on our promise to take the kids fishing, so we walked down to the lake with a Disney princess fishing pole, a CARS fishing pole, a Dora fishing pole, and a Finding Nemo fishing pole- ready to catch some fish! (Yeah right.)

It was Mother’s Day, so we mommies sat on a log and didn’t move…we watched!

 

The kiddos fished, threw rocks, and collected shells.

This is what Ashlyn collected her shells in.  We were really roughin’ it!

And this picture just makes me so proud… haha!

They all got dirty and they loved it.

Later, as if we hadn’t had enough fun, we headed down to the beach cove.

Once again, Susan and I sat on our booties while the kids played in the sand

and explored on the rocks with their daddies

We headed home a couple hours later.

Sunday night we got to see Joe and his mommy and daddy, and he was all smiles.  With the help of a little PT and pain meds, they think he is going to heal just fine, thank goodness!

My son- look how happy he was to be home! 

Little goofball:

Ducklings.

As we left Nonnie’s yesterday, she mentioned that there were 15 baby ducks at the park across the street.  Of course, we had to check it out! 

We got there and there are WAY MORE than 15 ducklings!  They are so cute and very tolerant along with their mamas of the humans wanting to get our hands on them.  Since there were other adults and kids there holding them, I let Shelby have free reign to pick them up and cuddle them- she is so gentle and she ADORED them.

 

Buddy, on the other hand, was not allowed to hold them.  I was way too afraid of those stronger-than-he-knows destructive little 3 year old hands squeezing them too hard.  He did plenty of petting though!

By the time we left Shelby had probably held each of them, and was crying to take Daddy back to see them RIGHT NOW.  Leaving the ducks turned into an hour of major drama for the Peck family and our passionate little girl…So continues the story of our little animal lover…

Dirt…

DIVAS!!!

What a group of girls!

Babysitting Baby Aiyla

When Aiyla’s mommy asked if we could watch her for a few hours one Sunday, I was so excited!  I love baby time- it’s a good fix for me :) and I knew Shelby would love it.

They wouldn’t be there until 1pm but Shelby asked about Aiyla every 10 minutes all morning from the moment she got up.  She just couldn’t wait to see her!

First of all, Aiyla is the happiest baby I’ve ever met!

We put out a blanket in the shade of the front oak tree.

The kids supplied Aiyla with some of their own toys for her entertainment.  Cole just smothered her with hugs and kisses as much as I would let him! Haha 

And he picked her a flower.

Sweet boy!!! 

And happy girl!

I guess I don’t have any pictures of Shelby with Aiyla because Shelby loved HOLDING her and so I was right there helping instead of taking pictures, haha.

But Shelby put this flower in her ear.

 

Then, a little head bury into my chest and a thumb suck, and the sweet girl just laid right down and fell asleep. 

Christal and Eric, thanks for sharing your sweetie with us- we will do it again anytime!