Boot Scootin' Boogy with Gaines

Gaines has taken his singing performance to another level - he is writing his own songs now and has added a mustache. Please someone stop this child! His creativity and imagination is out of control. 

For your viewing pleasure this video is self-titled by Gaines 

"Gaines Rocking Out."

Gaines's favorite country song is "Highway Don't Care" by Tim McGraw featuring Taylor Swift. Gaines prefers Tayor's parts! Here is a video of Gaines's performance.

Country Lovin' Will

All of Garrick's family has a love for music and for Pop Culture in general and I think Will has that love as well. I thought he was going to be more of my Hip-Hop boy but he seems to LOVE Country music and prefers that to the children's music in the van. His favorite song on the radio right now is Wagon Wheel by Darius Rucker. His absolute favorite singer is Greg Hanna as in Mr. Greg -  Saylor and Hallee's dad. This is who we went to see in June at the Country Music Fest in Nashville. The Hanna's moved here from Canada where he is a Top 40 Country music singer and working on making it in the US. We have a copy of his new album in the van and Will listens to it non-stop - which means I listen to it non-stop. Don't get me wrong I really like it but cannot listen to it anymore! Now he has me pull up Mr. Greg's videos on You Tube. It is hysterical how much is loves him and his music. He will see someone with boots like "Mr. Greg" or the way he wears his hat. #1 Fan right here. 

Will performing "It Rained" by Greg Hanna:

Will performing "Wagon Wheel" by Darius Rucker:

Paci Fairy

Will has slept  4 times now without his paci or the collection of 5. He finally made the choice to send to the Paci Fairy in hopes that she would leave him a scooter. He was so excited when he woke up to a big red scooter. I am praying this goes well and he doesn't stop napping or sleeping as well without it. Yay Will and Yay Mommy and Daddy for finally doing it!!!

No more Paci...3 years old!

This week

This week has been LONG! Will was still pretty sick at the beginning of the week so I took the opportunity to break out art, puzzles, games, and some of our worksheets. After all of that I remembered why I like to "go" and do activities with my kids versus all of this! Gaines wakes up every morning and has to get ready to go to work. Sometimes he is a cowboy teaching cowboy school and sometimes he is a builder going to a construction site. You never know how we are starting the day off with him! Garrick had a conference in Nashville and a couple of work things so we have been solo a little more than usual this week. The weather has been unusually pleasant for late-July. Mom watched the boys on Saturday night so that helped get me through the week! We had a marathon Saturday morning but it was so much fun.

After 14 pieces of paper and 3 mediums only 40 minutes was taken up!

Will working on coloring his race car we put together.

Breaking out the learning games.
Gaines to Will: "Do you want me to tell you why I beat you? Because I'm good at it  and I love it.

Will feeling much better on Sunday night.

Trying to play Memory with the boys. They will not listen to the rules nor follow them.

I told the boys they only had an hour at Mimi and Papa's and it took Gaines a good 30 minutes to prepare for his and Papa's exploring. They had to make a checklist to remember everything they may need and a basket to carry it all.

Our first day to do something fun in a week! We went to Providence pool for the first time all summer. Boys had a blast!

Will made new friends and played. Gaines just did his own thing!

Gaines got hit in the face at the pool with a bucket by an older kid. Really hurts! Will not stop bleeding.

Play date with Ezra

The boys played for 2 hours. Gaines is going to miss being in class with Ezra, they have been together for 3 years!
Gaines had quite a few ideas on what and when they would play certain things. He was showing off like crazy and driving me nuts. He wore his Toy Story shirt for Ez because he likes Toy Story.

My  lunch dates on Friday. Gaines has been wanting some "glasses" so this is what we got.

Will took this picture for his big cousin Emma - she loves Firehouse Subs too.

My crazy boys on Friday.

Friday Night Dinner Picnic at Pool and Late Night Swim
Daddy needs to go out of town on weekends more often!

Finally after a summer of Little Slugger classes Will does not cry at all! He had such a good class. Last time he got upset because he did not get the red bat/tee and I told him he just had to be the quickest. Well when the Coach said go to a tee he took off like a bat out of hell for the red one. He does not miss a trick.

I was so proud of him! He never missed a ball.

Coach said Gaines did better listening but he is so not interested.

Ava's Splash Pad opened today at Charlie Daniel's Park. It was awesome! 

The boys had a blast! What a great way to honor Ava Bright's short and precious life.

Thrilled to have this in MJ

Gaines did the dunking booth and they both did some of the water slides at Water Day.

We ended our marathon of a Saturday morning with the Farmer's Market.

Bath and beards at Nonni's house

Will is looking in a mirror that Poppy is holding for him to make his beard. My children are spoiled.

The text I received from Mom when I asked how the boys were doing:

We watched a few shows, packed up your car with bikes and everything they owned, without paci.  McDonald's for supper, got you gas. Ate, made our puppets, had two shows. After making theatre.  Took police car outside and rode that .  Gaines fell walking he's ok, but would have thought differently.  Bubble baths, held mirror up in the bathtub so they could see their beards.  Put medicine on cuts and band aids.  Got a mat out of wills eyes.  Played ball outside and heard fireworks. Crickets and frogs.  Made our beds, poppy is reading to them now.  It's popcorn and movie time and no they are not in bed.

This is the ribeye that Garrick and Dan split - 36 ounces!

Dinner at The Husk with the Applegates

We stopped by The Stage to see Uncle Grant work his magic.

Croup

Will started running a fever on Thursday night and had no appetite but I thought at first it may just be a fever virus. Then by Friday morning he had started a croup cough. Every time he would sneeze or cough it would sound like a seal bark (because everyone knows what that sounds like..right?) or a sound that made you turn around and say, "What in the world was that?!?!" I took him to the doctor on Friday morning and he confirmed it was Croup. I remember Gaines had croup but I do not remember it being as bad as this. 

He has been so lethargic with no appetite. When he has a croup fit, it is so scary because he is just grasping for air and then panics because he can't breathe. Basically all you can do for it is keep him calm, a hot steamy shower, and a humidifier. 

Friday night was miserable. Garrick and I both were up every hour almost. I slept in Will's room and when he would wake up with a coughing/breathing fit Garrick would start the shower in the bathroom and I would bring him in as we tried to keep him calm to catch his breath. 

Saturday morning around 9am he got a little energy but still running fever his fits were less severe during the day. Saturday night, we were not doing the shower thing as much but more trying to keep him from gagging and throwing up. 

Sunday, still running a fever and screaming when even water went down his throat. This is miserable! 

Monday seemed to be better. He even ate and had energy and then totally crashed after nap. He threw up everything he ate. He still has not eaten much. I weighed him and he has lost 2 pounds in 4 days. 

Today, we headed back to doc and everything seemed to check out ok. Dr. Mukundan seemed to think the croup has just affected everything but he was super concerned about the weight loss. Hoping we can get him to eat something soon. For my baby boy to deny sweets means he is really sick. We are going on Day 6 of not doing anything besides hang at home. We are going stir crazy!

At the doc on Friday

On Saturday morning I finally got him to get off the couch for about 2 hours.

Sunday Night - pitiful

Low-Key Week until The Croup got us!

This was our first week of just a normal summer week and Gaines really just wanted to "stay home" and I just really wanted to go to the Y so that is pretty much what we did all week.

Wednesday, we did head to Pump-It-Up after the Y. The boys ran and jumped for about an hour. That is all they ever want to stay at that place but it is nice to burn off some energy!

We did officially decide to sign the boys up for Fall soccer which is despite my better judgment so we will see how many games, etc we end up missing with the traveling we do in the fall. This season Will will be old enough to play and the way the birthday falls, Gaines and him can be on the same team. We have not broken the news to Gaines yet, he is going to be ticked. I'm not sure if being a soccer stud is on his Top 10 List.

Thursday, we went to the library and checked out books. Gaines wanted construction vehicle books for research on his puppet show "Builder Heros." and Will wanted sports and Batman. He cam home with a book on the Hulk, skateboard, baseball, and some kind of X-games book.

Then we headed to the dentist. We have not been since last summer and Gaines did great then, Will not so much. I was a little nervous doing this solo but it ended up working out great. Gaines didn't flinch and hopped right in the chair. You could tell Will was nervous but he did it without any tears. They picked prizes from these prize machines at the dentist office. Will got a bouncy ball and Gaines a mustache. It is hysterical and just adds to his character.

We took pizza over to Mimi and Papa's and played and had homemade ice cream. Finally got home around 3pm and the boys rested on the couch. Will woke up at 4:30p on fire...which is when it all went downhill!

After Gaines's cleaning he was sitting in my lap watching Will and he said, "Mommy, we should brush our teeth twice a day and floss!" Thank you Gaines for sharing our lack good dental habits with hygienist!

Will's first real cleaning.

This guy has worn his "stash" for two days straight. I can barely look at him with this on! He is VERY serious about his new addition to his work uniform.

Offer Group Pool Party

Our Offer Group with church got together tonight for a cook-out and pool party. We had around 30+ and it was crazy but super fun. We were worried that it was going to rain but the rain held off for the entire party. I think we finally left at 8pm.

The pool did not really have a place for the kids to touch so they played in the hot tub. This was fine until about 3 hours in to the fun Will smashed his eye on the side which is now almost black and then an hour later 2 of the kids collided and Will cracked the back of his head into the side!

Some of the kiddos eating dinner.

The food!

Will and Phoebe
Double Trouble 

Me, Our hostess Holly, and Steffi

The guys tried to sneak off for a volleyball game. It quickly turned into a FAMILY game. Some talent and very RAW talent was revealed.

Gaines hung for a while and then decided to "ref"

Will was SO into the game. One time the ball came right over the net to him and he instinctually hit it! Now if he would do this at baseball camp!

All the big kids were dancing to Thriller and here comes Gaines Reginald with his dance moves. No shame!

Frustrated

Will has been in underwear except at nap and night time since beginning of May. He has done excellent with peeing but #2 is about to send me into an early grave. It is miserable. He goes to the bathroom just enough to have to change his underwear at least 5 times a day and he will sit on the potty but will not go. Then it hurts because he has held it in. It is truly miserable and he will finally just poop all in his underwear. I don't know what to do. He would be totally content with wearing pull-ups but I can't go backwards. Rewards or threats are not working either. We took away paci (yeah great parenting since he is 3 years old) and said if he pooped in potty he could have back. Not working so instead he just screams for it and poops on himself! I know this too will pass but I'm hoping it does soon!

GBC Preschool Camp

Best Week Ever in my personal opinion! Gladeville has a PreSchool camp for a week from 9am-3pm and on Friday 9a-12p for $45 a child. Worth every penny! Will was old enough this year to go and i was really worried because of his whole pooping situation. i wasn't sure if I should send him in a pull-up or not. I decided to chance it and thankfully Ms. Jennifer was his teacher and I was at ease. She has loved my boys for the past 3 years and was Gaines's first teacher at Gladeville. That is the other great thing about camp is that many of the PreSchool teachers come back to do the camp so the boys know most of the teachers there even though it is a church ministry. Will ended up not having any accidents all week (he would wait until after school and then poop in his pants!). Will had his friend Hallee in his class and Gaines really only knew one person in his class but still had a great time. I had all these big plans to work out and clean out all week. Instead I did work out everyday but I ended up running errands and throwing in some fun stuff as well. We also spent 3 afternoons at Mimi and Papa's house playing so the boys were truly worn out every night.

Ms. Jennifer would send me pics throughout the day.

So excited for bike day! Will was a little hesitant but Ms. Jennifer said he did great.

Love this pic of Gaines. Love his serious look. My friend Meghan pointed out that all the other kids have their helmets on except mine! Ha! I am just thankful they don't realize yet.

Gaines's class having a picnic lunch

Lily and Will riding bikes. Will having a blast playing with the parachute.

My boy

After camp we went to Chic-fil-a to play with Will's bestie from camp. They love each other so much! Chase kept saying I love him, he is my brother! They better sleep well tonight.

Our crew
Saylor, Hallee, Gaines, & Will

Cell phone pics from Ms. Jennifer

Our ice cream social at Mimi's house today after camp.

Saylor was sick this morning so Will got to ride with Hallee to camp. We have taken so many pics of these kids that they just know what to do!

Will's class

Gaines's Class

Will has never done this before, he actually fell asleep sitting up he was so exhausted!