Here is Eli. He is starting smile.

This is Ian. He is getting bigger.

This is Drew, the greatest big brother.

Here is Coral. She smiles alot, just not for the pictures.

Singing in the Rain

They say you live your dreams through your children. I have always wanted to just go play in the rain. I convinced Drew to do it. He was a little hesitant just because he doesn't like to get dirty. On the side of our house we get a great big puddle that consumed the whole side yard that day. Out went Drew with a trash bag, umbrella, holey pants and flip flops. (We couldn't find the rain poncho.) He had a great time. He was singing and jumping. I think I had as much fun watching as he did playing. Next time I know there won't be any convincing when it comes to play time in the rain.

The Happy Trio

Here we have the happy trio. Starting with Ian, Coral then Eli. We are so blessed that they are doing well. They are also starting to show their personalities and smiles, when we are lucky.

Our Caterpillars

We woke up to an exciting morning with our new found pets. The chrysalis or pupa was a beautiful butterfly. Drew was so excited he wanted to keep the butterfly for a long time. Once it started to fly around we decided that it needed food. After a little coaxing, Drew decided the butterfly could be let go. It was amazing to see this butterfly, named Buttery, fly against the blue sky. There were some tears and a hug. Drew realized that we had more caterpillars. One of the caterpillars had climbed to the top and connected it's self to the house. We expected to have chrysalis in the morning. It was still hanging there. I thought it was dead. We proceeded to make breakfast. By the time breakfast was made it was in a cocoon or chrysalis.

Curiosity got the best of me and I found out the caterpillars names. They are a gulf fritilary. Apparently people plant the passion vine for the butterflies. I didn't know this when I planted it. I just like the beautiful flowers. Maybe some day I will have a passion vine that isn't a hybrid that will produce fruit. I love the yummy exotic fruit. I first tasted one in Hawaii on a hike. It was a wild vine.

We are having a great time with two other chrysalis that we found today and two new big caterpillars.

The Caterpillars

This is a passion flower. It grows on a vine that gets eaten by caterpillars every year. So I have given up the fight with the caterpillars. They won. They eat all of my leaves off my vine every year. Fortunately they grow back. This year it has had a difficult time so there isn't many vines.

A few Sunday's ago we were driving by a house that had a caterpillar house for free. So we stopped and picked it up. Today when I got bored of the computer and watching TV I decided that it would be fun to take Drew out back and find a few caterpillars. We found big ones so we didn't have to feed them my passion vine for a long time.

I didn't know that this was going to be a big event at our house. Drew has us looking at the caterpillars every time one of them gets to the top of their new home. He takes them in every room with him. They have also went on a bike ride to Nanny's house to find their baby. He wanted the caterpillars to be a family. One of them is already starting to go into a cocoon or chrysalis. I didn't realize that Drew needed a pet so bad. He calls them all Catty because they are all caterpillars. It has been fun and cute watching him "take care of them". I don't know how long they are going to last. If we get a butterfly out of this them we will post a picture. They are pretty orange, black and white butterflies.

Surfin' Safari

Today Keith took the day off. I am so proud of him. He hardly ever takes a break from work. Drew and Keith went to the beach. Keith took Drew out on the boogie board to catch some waves. Drew did pretty good. He road a few waves before he swallowed some water and threw up. That didn't stop him. He was back out there with his dad. He road a few more Drew size waves and then got rolled by a wave and went all the way under the water. I thought that he would be done with the wave riding but he headed back out to the water and road a few more. Here is a short video of him riding some waves. I was very proud of him that he didn't give up.

OUCH!!!

On Memorial Day Keith took Drew to the beach while I rested. I was reading a book when I heard a screaming child. I thought that sounds like Drew. Then I heard it again only this time it was closer. Drew was screaming owie, owie. I looked out the window and Keith and Drew were coming across the street. People must have felt sorry for Keith because they actually stopped for them to cross the street. I knew right away that Drew had been stung by a bee which is common on our beach. I went and retrieved the Lightning McQueen ice pack and went outside. To my surprise Keith was striping him down to the bare. Drew had sat on a bee at the beach. Poor little guy. His bum had a nice sting on it. We put baking soda and clay on it and it is all better now. There haven't been any allergic results so far. I am glad that he is okay and can sit down.

While we were letting the mixture dry Drew said, "Mommy bees are nice, too, because they make honey for us. Then he asked, "Why do they sting me?". He understands now that they were just protecting themselves and the bee didn't mean to hurt Drew. He is always amazing me with his great attitude. He didn't state that he hated bees, he looked at the positive that they still make him honey. I love my little guy.