AND IT IS.......

We went and found out today what is hanging out inside my belly......and turns out we'll be having.......

We are VERY excited to have another little man running around and to have a little partner in crime for Boston.

MY REACTION: Originally, I must say I had semi hoped for a little girl but then I started convincing myself of the possibilities of a little boy and I started to lean that way. Once the checked the heart and it was 140 I KNEW it was a boy. When they CONFIRMED boy, I was just as thrilled. Do I want a girl? Yes, ONE day but I'm PERFECTLY happy to have another sweet little boy to look up to his big brother!

BOSTON'S REACTION: We brought Boston to the appointment. He was VERY excited to hear the heartbeat and was very into looking at the "pictures" of the baby (seriously, it was adorable how excited he was). When the ultrasound tech said it was a boy, his reply was, "NO! It's GIRL!!!" My doctor popped his head in and Boston had a sad/mad face on the WHOLE time just powting. He was extremely disappointed. He stayed that way most of the afternoon until we started talking to him about how cool it would be to teach him how to play soccer, play trains, kick the ball, watch "Cars", etc. He started to light up and said he wanted to teach him his ABC's! I think he's starting to get a little more excited (thankfully).

KENT'S REACTION: "God has always given me everything I wanted....I wanted a boy this

time around, I got my boy!" WHATEVER!

CAN'T WAIT TO MEET THE LITTLE MAN!!!!!!!

p.s. that 2nd picture totally melted my heart and I'm SOOO in love with this little boy I can hardly wait to meet him!!

SPLISH SPLASH!!!

While we were in Louisiana, the kids spent most of their time in the pool (I spent most of mine sick....okay not all but definitely more than I wanted). They loved to just swim and probably could have done that ALL day EVERY day! What better way to spend your summer? The kids were in the pool RAIN or SHINE (the weather was SOO crazy that week).

After it down poured, Boston and Charlie thought it was HILARIOUS to pose for the camara....THEY DEFINITELY feed off each other.

Sophie took a shot at being brave enough to jump off the diving board....BUT I think she's still trying to build up the courage to do it like Rylee.

Krew survived the down pour and was happy as ever just eating his soggy graham crackers (his new found fav).

COUSINS minus Krew

Want a nose plug to go with those goggles?

After many days of swimming in cloudy turned sunny turned rainy turned sunny weather the kids FINALLY got a good day of SUNSHINE and SWIM!

LOVE that Sophie and Boston are holding hands...they are BFFs!

The girls trying to catch some rays.

Boston is brave enough to jump off the side of the pool now without anyone catching him. Usually he likes to wear his goggles but this time it was JUST his floaties.

Rylee showing us all how its done (she doesn't need the floaties....)!

Since it was SUCH a nice PERFECT day, what better way to celebrate then with snowballs by the pool????

Charlie downed his in 2.5 seconds....that kid is NO joke when it comes to snowballs!

Mimi pulled out a little EXTRA fun for the kids.

Then they got creative and thought it was more fun sliding IN the pool then from the SIDE of the pool into the water!

OH how I LOVE summer!!! I will DEFINITELY have a pool in my backyard someday. When we were kids in our 1st house with a pool we would wake up in the summer, throw on our suits and swim from 9 am-6 pm and NEVER got sick of it! A pool can entertain kids for HOURS! It is a MUST in our future!

A FIRST OF FIRSTS!

Boston has NEVER seen a movie on the "big screen" and when I heard Toy Story 3 was coming out I KNEW that'd be the one to take him to! We went the day it opened with Boston's friend, Kyler. He LOVED it. The boy sat and ate popcorn and stayed glued to the screen. When it was over he asked if he could watch it again. Poor boy doesn't understand the concept of how we have to PAY each time we watch it there!

SO you could understand JUST how excited Boston was when we went to see it AGAIN in Louisiana!! This time we saw it in 3D! I was a little skeptical on whether or not he'd leave the glasses on but he did. And once again, he sat, ate a whole bag of popcorn and asked to watch it again when it ended! Here are all the cousins after the movie....Charlie was NOT wanting to take a picture. He just wanted to RUN!

If you ask Boston his favorite movie he'll tell you Toy Story. If you ask him which one he says "TWO!" but he really means the THIRD one....for some reason he confuses the two. Just today he was talking all about the train in the beginning and then he wouldn't stop talking about the scary monkey that he seems to love so much.....very weird!

DOWN ON THE BAYOU

One of the first things we did when getting to Louisiana was to head down to the bayou for a swamp tour!

Before we saw any gators, we saw these MASSIVE grasshopper looking things. They were EVERYWHERE and they didn't really jump (they are probably too big for that). You'd just see swarms of them in the grass!

We got prepped and ready for the tour....

Can you tell by this cheesy smile that Boston is READY to see some alligators??

Before we left, one of the cats that roams around and a gator had a face off....who won??? THE CAT!! The alligator was making a hissing noise and then slowly backed back into the water.

This is a little house we came by on the bayou...no worries, no one really lives there!

We stopped a few times to let our guide feed the alligators.

This guy was the "king"....if I remember he was 12 ft....or 16 ft? I can't remember.

Apparently he's a fighter and if any other gators come near when its his turn, he fights them off. There were 3 alligators in the distance just sitting and waiting not daring to come close!

Then, we each got a chance to hold this little guy. He's 3 years old and surprisingly softer then you'd think!

I can hear Kari saying, "Awww...you wanna come home and play with my kitties?!?"

Even Rylee was brave enough to hold the alligator!

Its always fun to listen to a real "cajun boy" talk about the bayou. It's even more fun just hearing his accent!! Living in Texas, I'm not used to that any more! One fact he mentioned that I found quite sad is that Louisiana has 7 of the biggest oyster distributing companies in the USA. Before the oil spill, 250,000 oysters were shipped out from EACH company EVERYDAY! That's a TON! Now that the oil has come, they're not shipping out a single one!

I'm sad Kent didn't get to come with since he wasn't in Louisiana yet. He says we always do all the fun stuff without him....if only he didn't have to work so much maybe he wouldn't be left out of all the fun! ;)

INDEPENDENCE DAY!

We headed to Baton Rouge for our annual 4th of July celebration this year. We were lucky and got to celebrate it twice--once on Saturday with my family and once on Sunday with Kent's family. I LOVE the 4th! Family+Swimming+BBQ+Fireworks+Red, White, Blue=GREAT HOLIDAY!

One of the best parts of the trip was getting to see this little man after 6 months! I can't believe he's already a year!!

Kristin always has cute, creative ideas for every festivity and decided to hit this one up this year. I thought it looked too complicated but suprisingly it was simple & took NO time! Bonus is that Sophie had a blast doing it!

Combe Family

A little cousin pic that only took about 9502458467 shots to try and get a perfect one. This is the best we got....I can't imagine our chances of getting a good picture as this family gets BIGGER!

Withers Family (minus Chad & Kristin....one day we'll FORCE you in the pictures)

Hooper Family (thanks Chad for the red shirt since Kent was TOTALLY not thinking RED, WHITE, BLUE when he packed for this trip...)!

The Throckmortons came over to celebrate Saturday. Myron and Ethan are such sweet little boys (who 3 days later got another new little brother..CONGRATS Leanne)!

Of course we had the annual pool basketball game. I don't think this year they were are rough on each other...maybe they're getting too old and a little rusty...

Once it got dark enough we headed out front for some FIREWORKS!

We started with a little GIANT sparkler action.

Surprisingly, Boston AND Charlie both ended up being scared for their life this year (VERY different from 4ths and New Years in the past) soooo we ended up inside watching from the window while everyone else played and enjoyed it outside.

See how much happier they were inside??

On Sunday we headed over to Kelly's house to spend the afternoon/evening of the 4th with Kent's family. The kids LOVED playing in the backyard. Boston loved this car and spent most of his time in it even though it wasn't running that day...

There was a fun swing set for the kids and Boston took over from Grandma and pushed Allan Michael.

Like I said, the car wasn't running so Sid took the initiative and pushed the kids around in it!

There was plenty of time spent jumping on the tramp

Then we headed out front for some MORE fireworks. We started out with those little poppers. All the kids LOVED them. A few were left unpopped and Melia and Sidney ended up surprised and in pain when they stepped on them.

Sparklers are always a must. Even though Kamryn looks semi-frightened here, she really wasn't.

Kent trying to console Boston and convince him not to be afraid of the fireworks.

Little Riley in awe of the show

Brothers and their boys

Boston got scared and ended up spending the rest of the time inside while we lit off fireworks and found Toy Story more exciting. All the other kids LOVED the show and were even lighting off some fireworks themselves!

We had a GREAT weekend for the 4th!!!

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!!!