Summertime Fun!

Graham tried out his baby pool for the 1st time today. When we first put him in it he screamed as if mortally injured. He did NOT like the cold water! Pretty soon, with the help of some inflatable friends, he started having fun & splashing around.

He was having a blast... and then he fell over... another thing Graham did NOT like!

Not one to let a little cold water in the face ruin his afternoon, he perked up with a little more coaxing from his inflatable friends & was all smiles again.

Mama's Little Monsters

The twins got these silly "monster" glasses at a party & they were having a blast playing with them when we got home.  I couldn't resist grabbing the camera & snapping some pictures.  The number of silly uninhibited moments seems to grow less & less as they get older & I want to hang on to every single one.  So here's a fabulous moment of my big boys forgetting for a little bit how badly they want to be grown up & just having some fun.

My beautiful boy

This is a picture of Graham at 7 months old.  I love, love, love this picture.  His expression is priceless.

Just A Cute Picture

I just thought I'd share this picture of me & Owen from the Mother's Day celebration at school.  I love this picture- Owen is so cute in it!   I can't get over how much alike we look in it.  Since he's a little clone of Greg I guess that means Greg & I look alike???  

Fun At The Little Gym!

Graham & I have attended Mommy & Me gymnastics at The Little Gym since he was 4 months old.  He really loves his weekly class & has lots of fun playing with the other babies & doing his "tricks".  He especially loves doing somersaults, rolling down the cheese wedge with Mommy, playing with the balls, & trying to grab the bubbles.  These are some pictures one of the other moms in the class took of us:

Happy Easter From The Nassif Family!

We wanted to wish everyone a Happy Easter & share the kids' pictures with the Easter Bunny.  These were taken at an Easter egg hunt that we attended last weekend.  The kids had a great time playing games & hunting eggs.  Rejoice, for He is risen!

Mommy Loves Me & I Love Squash!

This is Graham the 1st time that he tried baby food.  As you can see, he greatly enjoyed his butternut squash!

Goodbye To Our Friend Seymour

As most of you know, our pug, Seymour, was put to sleep a couple weeks ago.  He had Pug Dog Encephilitis & it caused horrible seizures in him.  After a week's stay in the ICU & days of successive seizures he went to be with God.  George especially has taken his passing very hard.  We created a scrapbook of his memories of Seymour over the weekend, buried his collar under an azalea that the twins picked out, & put a clay impression of his paw on their bookcase.  Tomorrow I am going to pick his ashes up from the vet & we will scatter them in the lake in our backyard that Seymour used to like to swim in.  It would make me so mad when he would crawl out of that lake covered in slime & stinking like lake water.  Now it's kinda nice to think of him out there always near the boys. While making the scrapbook I came across some pictures of Seymour I had forgotten about.  I thought I'd share them as a goodbye to our friend.

This is Seymour with each of the twins the day we brought him home.  They were 4.  He was 6 weeks old.  Look how little all 3 of them were.

This is the picture George took for Show & Tell on the 1st day of 1st grade.  He was so proud of his dog & thought that a picture of his best friend best described him to his new class.  The caption read "My dog, Seymour, is a Pug!"  Seymour was very popular at school & attended two Blessing of the Animal ceremonies & made a live appearance in Kindergarten for Show & Tell.

Seymour "The Pug" Nassif:  9/3/06 - 3/5/09 ~ Forever loved

Breakfast Is the Most Important Meal of the Day

Happy Mardi Gras!

We went to the Spanish Town Mardi Gras parade today & everyone has lots of fun!  We bought a parking spot in our church lot so we were really close to the parade & we got there early so we had a great spot in the very front.  Owen, George, & Greg really got into catching beads & I held Graham who, of course, slept!  He woke up towards the end but I was amazed by how much of the parade (& the noise) he slept through!  One of the highlights for the boys was me spraying their hair green with temporary dye.  I even sprayed Graham's hair! Happy Mardi Gras, everyone!!!  

Famous or Infamous?!?!

The twins' classes hosted Famous Americans Day on Feb. 20, 2009.  They each chose a famous American to dress up as & had to give a speech about that person.  George chose Lance Armstrong & Owen chose Barack Obama.  They did so great with their speeches & I was so proud of them!

George & his friend, Riley, a.k.a "Sitting Bull":

"The Champion" & "The Chief"

 

My Three Sons

Crafty!

I'm room mom in George's class this year, so I came up with a fun Valentine's Day craft to do with his class.  We are making these adorable Valentine card holders.  For each child I spray painted a paint stirrer then hot glued a loop of ribbon to the back & 14 clothes pins (one for each child in the class) to the front. The kids will paint the clothes pins & decorate the holders with foam decorations & jewels that I picked up at Hobby Lobby.  I can't wait to make them with the kids- they are gonna be so cute!  This is a picture of the demo I made.  I'm going to give it to George's teacher to put her cards from the kids on!

Beep, Beep, Vrooom!

Graham tried out his walker for the 1st time tonight & he seemed to really enjoy it.  He played in it for a good 10 minutes, which is a long time for him!  Of course, in those 10 minutes I took a million pictures, haha!  Here he is being adorable in his little red sports car!

Our Little Devil

I took Graham's Valentine's Day card picture today.  So deceptively sweet!  His shirt says "Daddy's Little Devil"- hhmmm, that last part says it all!

Family Fun With The Harlem Globetrotters!

Last night we went to see The Harlem Globetrotters.  We all had a blast!  Owen & George laughed & danced all night while Graham enjoyed an evening of sleeping in Mommy's arms- yep, he slept through the whole thing!  Owen & george both got Harlem Globetrotter basketballs that we got signed after the game & they have been bouncing them upstairs ever since.  It sounds like a herd of elephants is going to fall through my ceiling, haha!  Greg was excited about bringing the boys because he went with his dad as a child, but I was a little unsure about going.  It turned out to be a lot of fun & a great family night out.  

A Boy & His Dog

I took pictures of the twins today for their photo Valentine's Day cards.  They wanted pictures with the dogs on them.  The top picture is Owen & Ivan & the bottom picture is George & Seymour.

You Could Hear a Pin Drop

It's been a few days since I've posted anything. It's been crazy as usual around the Nassif house. I took Graham to the doctor & he has the beginnings of a sinus infection & fluid in his right ear so the doctor wrote us a script for an antibiotic & a steroid. The antibiotics have really been upsetting his stomach. He had 2 diaper blowouts yesterday & has been very gassy & throwing up a little. I feel so bad for my poor baby. They must be working though because even though he's still very congested he's perked up a lot & isn't just clinging limply to me. The biggest news about Graham lately is that he slept through the night for the 1st time Wednesday night! I put him down at 10:00 & he slept all the way until 7:30- 9 1/2 hours! When I woke up I had to go check on him to make sure he was still breathing, haha! He did pretty good last night, too, & didn't wake up until early this morning. I hope he does the same thing tonight. He's sleeping over at Gran's house so I hope it doesn't disrupt his new pattern. The house is so quiet right now you could hear a pin drop. It's strange being alone in the middle of the day & everything being so quiet. Graham has been gone 15 minutes & I miss him already. I wanted to chase the car down the drive way when he was leaving. I forgot how much I hate it when he leaves.

I spent the morning painting handprint tiles at the twins' school for Grandparents' Day. Owen's class did theirs today so I got to help him make his. I was there helping on on Monday when George's class did theirs, so I helped his class, too. It was a little messy but a lot of fun. It's always interesting to see them at school & how they interact with the other kids. George was running around the playground chasing another kid & screaming at the top of his lungs & Owen was climbing the "spiderweb" quietly. I think that pretty accurately reflects their personalities.

Greg & I are going to tour Bocage Racket Club this afternoon. It's a social club here that is popular & we are thinking about joining. We have a lot of friends who are members & we both want to start playing tennis again so this might be a good fit for us. They have frequent social events as well that I think we'd enjoy.

I think later today Greg & I might go see a movie together. I'm somewhat unsure what to do with myself without the kids. I hope we can find something to so tonight so that I don't just sit on the couch missing them. WIth Graham sleeping all night the idea of a good night's sleep isn't even enough of a temptation to distract me from the silence. It reminds me of a quote I saw once "Silence so loud it hurts your ears". I'd much rather my noisy rambunctious boys...

I Have A Follower!

Ok, it's my husband, but that's not the point!  What's important is that someone is following the blog.  I feel a strong sense of accomplishment over this.  In fact, I'm doing the happy dance.  It helps kill the time while I wait for the baby to cry himself into his nap!  Speaking of which, he had been bellowing for 45 minutes now.  Every time he drifts off he startles himself awake.  We were doing so good with Ferber-izing him, but then he got a cold & that went out the window.  Today it's back on the proverbial horse.  

Graham is going to the doctor today for the cold that ruined our sleep training.  It doesn't seem to be getting any better & I'm worried it's becoming a sinus infection.  This is his 1st cold so I'm a little apprehensive about just waiting to see what happens.  His pediatrician, Dr. Wood, is booked today so he's going to see the twins' doctor, Dr. Ronnie.  I saw both of them when I was a child so it's nice to see them at appointments.  It would be nicer if seeing them didn't mean someone is sick:(.  I'll update things once we hear what the doctor has to say.  

I'll close with a cheerful HELLO FOLLOWER!!!

Dreaming of Summer

I started trying to plan our summer vacation today.  Right now it looks like we are California bound- 4 nights at Disneyland & 2 nights at Sequoia National Park.  I'm really excited about this idea!  I've always wanted to see the giant redwoods & it will be fun to bring the kids to Disneyland.  Surprisingly, it's not as expensive as I would have thought, either.  It seems really early to be thinking of summer vacation ideas.  I feel like we just got back from last summer's vacation!   But I know that once it gets closer to Easter & things start getting really busy that I will be really glad that I took care of all of this now.

The twins were 5 when we went to Disney World so I think this time will be a more interactive trip for them & they'll remember more.  Graham will be 8 months old when we go, so it will be his first Disney experience.  None of us have been to california before so if we go this summer there will be a lot of first time fun for everyone.  

My First Post!

This is my very first attempt at blogging.  I'm not sure how much time I will have to commit to updates, but I thought this would be a great way to update all of our family & friends that live out of town.  Life is a little crazy, but a lot of fun with 3 boys running around so I'm sure to come up with some "interesting" topics.  Welcome to my family blog everyone!