Summer days of June

I'm feeling a bit disconnected from the world. Since moving we decided not to get cable or Internet during the summer (Jeff's not here and I can live without it). However I'm finding it a little harder to live without the internet. And I enjoy turning the TV on in the middle of the night to drown out any sounds of the house and outside that I tend to exaggerate in my head when Jeff is out of town. We did get basic network channels up until a month ago, then they did the big switch to digital tv and now we have to get a digital converter box to get anything but snow. I ordered some coupons for the converter boxes and they finally came in the mail however all the stores around here are out of the boxes...But like I said I can live without tv...however I'm finding it hard to live without So You Think You Can Dance my all time favorite tv show. To explain to you how much I love this show would probably bore you, my sister laughs and my love for the show...but those of you who are fellow followers like me, then you can understand my delima of not being able to watch it. Seriously it is that good, I'm been watching it since season one.
However, I've found a little spot in a our new house that will pick up wireless Internet. The connection is better in the morning and evening verses during the day...my thinking is that the heat waves interfere with the connection during the day. It is hot here!! The other day the temperature gauge on my car read 107 degrees. Temperatures like that make it hard to even move when you are outside. With a newborn we haven't been hitting up the pools and so I'm not fully embracing the experience of a Texas summer and enjoying it like I usually do. The nice thing about our house is that there is a covered patio and some trees that offer shade in the backyard. We have the sprinkler going a lot and I bought a "family size" blow up pool for the kids to splash around in (except I found a dead bird in it the other day...and now I'm going to throw the whole thing away...I just can't clean it enough to not be grossed out). Since we're out a pool, I used the tarp we bought to cover it...(it was not covered when the bird took a dive and died)...I made a homemade slip and slide out out of the tarp and I couldn't help but to fondly think of my days at camp growing up and the huge slip and slide tarps we had there. I was watching Christina's kids on tarp turned slip and slide day and Levi and Ty ate it up...they loved it! It was better then a regular slip and slide because they didn't have to wait their turn, everyone could go at once and they even did some slippery wrestling on it. It was definitely a hit. Other then getting wet in the water to beat the summer heat, we eat lots of Popsicles and make special refreshing drinks. We have a lime tree in our backyard which Ty (and myself) think is the greatest thing! He picked a bunch off of the tree yesterday and we are going to attempt to make strawberry limeade...I'm sure it will be better then Sonics. Another trick to beat the heat is to go indoors and play which is apparently the same idea everyone else had when a friend and I took our older kids to the children museum last week. The place was so jammed packed that we winded up escaping outside to play in the water exhibit. When going indoors I learned you can beat the heat but you can't beat the crowds.
I can't believe the summer is going by so fast. I really want to freeze time...I love this time of my life. All my kids are in different stages and I love every stage each of them are in. Ty is a fun adventurous 5 year old, Ava is definitely in the terrible 2's (a stage that is frustrating but very much a right of passage), and sweet Ali is 6 weeks and loves to held and cuddled, since I'm VERY AWARE of how fast they grow up I'm more then happy to cuddle and hold her all day. A good friend told me (when Ava was a baby) that I hold my baby more then anyone she's known. I took no offense to the comment because I love holding my babies. Granted that could be why Ava still always wants to be held....but I love to love on them. And so I love this time/phase/stage of our lives. We are living up the summer days and I'm not even thinking about the fact that Ty will start school next month, and forever be that much more grown up.
I'm excited about tomorrow being the 4th of July...it's one of my favorite holidays. Although since it hasn't rained and it is blazing hot here there is a burn ban in effect...bummer. However I'm going to get some sparklers and some popper fireworks for the kids because the 4th wouldn't be complete without it. Jeff will be away from us on 4th once again this year. He was gone for 3 weeks, came home last week and then left again for another 2 weeks in the UK. He has plans to be in Paris over the
4th of July...can you believe it? He's going to MY PARIS without me. I've never gone to Paris and it's one of the 3 places I want to travel to before I die (Paris, Las Vegas, and New York City).

Happy 4th of July to you all!!!

These videos are intented for Jeff (however you can watch them as well)...we couldn't get the video chat to work this week so here are the kiddos in action.



This one has alot less action. But for those of you who could sit and watch a baby all day here is Ali this morning on her 6 week birthday.