Birthday Boy turns 6!

Jeter is 6 years old!!!  I can hardly believe it.  Time has gone by so fast.  He has been such a good kid from the day he was born.  We have felt so lucky to have him in our family.  He is smart, funny, athletic, a good example to all of us, and always tries to do what he should.  He is a little perfectionist, super smart with numbers, and can't wait to start kindergarten this fall.  He loves sports, and he loves his daddy. 

 WE LOVE OUR JETER BOY!

He wanted to invite a few friends over, and have a water fight birthday party.  There were water guns, squirt guns, and water balloons as ammo.  It was super easy to plan, and the kids had a lot of fun.  Me and Had stayed inside and watched from the windows, and any time I came out to take pics, I would get sprayed.  They were lovin life.

Jack

Jete and Jerz gettin after each other.

Jaden

Jerz put up a good fight with the boys

Steven

Jeter

(most of the time he would drop his ammo, and just run)

Opening presents

I forgot to take pictures of the cake.  But not really.  He didn't want a cake again this year.  Just donuts.  So we sang to him and ate donuts.  And I didn't get a picture of it.  Oh well.

And a friendly little family game of Horse, with Jete's "favorite birthday present ever".

(Don't worry, we have taught him the correct form to shoot after this)

For his birthday dinner, he wanted to go to a steak house.  But not just any steak house. 

Perry's.

The one that Grandma and Grandpa Pocock took us to when they came to visit.

The one that costs way too much that we would never go there ourselves. 

So we laughed it off, and told Grandma and Grandpa that they did a bad thing by taking us there.

They thought it was so funny that is where he wanted to go, and told us we better take him there. 

Yeah right.

We're not about to pay that much money for one meal.

Well, the day of his birthday, we got a call from Grandma saying we better be taking him to Perry's for his dinner, that she sent money for it, and we HAVE to take him.

As ridiculous as it was for her to do a thing like that, 

he sure was in heaven at dinner that night!

The boy LOVES him some good steak!

So does Jerzi.

They brought him out a special birthday dessert plate....

cheesecake, creme brulee, and a chocolate truffle.

I'm not gonna lie, I was pretty jealous, and wanted to try all of it.  Lucky for me, Jete tried the truffle, and thought it tasted weird (it was orange flavored), so he didn't want to eat the rest.  So naturally, I ate it.  Then he didn't want to try anything else.

So me, Jerz and Had ate the creme brulee (meaning they tried it, I ate the rest), and as for the cheesecake, Had hates cheesecake, so I ate that too.   :)

Jete got to eat at his favorite steak restaurant.

I got to eat 3 different desserts in one setting.

Win, Win!

It was a great day, and we had so much fun celebrating Jete.  

Best Night Ever

The night before the 4th of July, we had the kids help us decorate their bikes for our annual ward breakfast and bike parade for the primary kids.   The kids only lasted a few minutes helping us (probably cuz I only let them hold the roll of crepe paper, and sometimes the tape.  I was too nervous they were gonna wreck it.) Had gave up after an hour.  So after he went to bed, I put all the "finishing touches" on them.   Haha  

I just couldn't help it.  

The flag ceremony before we ate breakfast.

And the big bike parade. 

 For some reason they had them line up like it was a race.  HAHA  

Not so smart when you have a bunch of little kids and big kids together.

Jete loved it though, he told us he was pretending he was on the starting line of a motocross race.  

(He might be a little obsessed with motocross.)

There were only a few crashes.  Pretty good for the never-ending parade of bikes.  They circled around the cars, over and over again, trying to show us how fast they could go.

It was actually pretty cute to see how proud they all were of themselves.

We had one of Hadley's co-residents come eat dinner with us that just moved here and has no friends or family around.  Then we played corn hole, then took off to watch fireworks.

We waited a LONG time for them to start.  As we waited....

say cheese!

Ahh, nothing like laying on a hill, watching fireworks with your fam!

(Except next time, we won't really watch them on a hill.  Our blankets kept sliding down, our shorts kept hiking up, and Jerzi tried to run down it as fast as Jeter, and tripped, flipped and ate dirt.)

This year, I took the kids to a little firework stand and got a bunch of cheap fireworks for us to light that night.  They were so excited they could hardly contain themselves.  

Even Had got in on a little sparkler action.

Every firework we lit, both kids would freak out with excitement.  They were yelling, cheering, and running around like crazy heads.  So much fun!!!

Just about the time we got done with our little fireworks, our neighbors came home to light theirs.  Their little twin boys Jete's age were not very enthused about fireworks at all, and were pretty scared of the noises they made, so the parents told Jete and Jerzi they could light all theirs.  

They loved the Roman Candles!

Jeter was seriously on cloud nine.  He kept clapping and cheesing it and yelling,

"This is the best night ever!!!"

It was the best night.  

Happy Birthday America!

Swimming Lessons

Last month we put Jeter and Jerzi in swimming lessons for their first time ever.  It was definitely time for them to learn.  I was recommended to the Houston Swim Club by a couple different people.  It is way overpriced, but we (meaning I) thought it was worth it.  Mainly just cuz I want them to learn not only how to swim, but to swim correctly, and good.  I never had swimming lessons and didn't really have tons of opportunities to go swimming.  

I always wished I would have.  

Like on the day our 6th grade class went to Porter Park to swim for our end of the school year party.  All my friends were jumping off the diving boards, having swimming races across the pool, or having diving contests and I just had to hang onto the edge in the deep end and watch while they played. 

Or all the times I've actually been seriously afraid for my life in the water. 

And right now I want to do a triathlon so bad, but I'm a terrible swimmer and know that I couldn't make the swimming portion of it. :(

So with all of my fears and insecurities about water, I went ahead and paid the ridiculous price they asked, and for the most part have been pretty happy with the results. They both started in a beginner level and got moved up after 2 weeks. 

The last day of their beginner classes.

I LOVE to go and watch them learn and see how good they're doing!  I texted Had all throughout their lessons play by play to let him know how awesome they were doing too. I know I'm a little biased, but both kids were such little studs, with no fear.  Both their teachers told me that they are ahead of the other kids in their classes by far and are both going to be awesome swimmers.  And Jerzi actually talked to her teacher!  I was a little afraid of how that was going to go down, since she won't ever talk to other people, but whenever she was asked a question, she would answer.  YAY!!! 

(That's big improvement for her.)

Jerzi is pretty lucky.

 She got good hair, good skin, and she looks cute with her gut poking out.

Quick story.

One of the kids in Jete's class is named Sy.  Well one day his teacher was asking them if they've ever watched Duck Dynasty cuz "Uncle Sy" is on that show.  All the other kids looked at the teacher like "huh?"  Jete was all excited his teacher knew that show and told him "Oh yeah, I love Duck Dynasty!"  Then Jete pipes up..."Do you ever watch Larry the Cable Guy?" 

(Of course he doesn't mention its Larry the Cable Guy's "Only in America" show.)

His teacher laughed, and as Jete swam, asked Jete what other kinds of shows he watches.  Awesome!  Luckily, he answered Looney Toons and Tom and Jerry.

 Proud parent moment....oh wait, not so much.

So normally the parents would sit on the other side of those 2-way windows.  The kids couldn't see us, but we could see them.  But on the last day, we got to come in and watch and take pictures.

Each class only has 4 kids in it.  This is Jete's class.  The black guy was his teacher.  

Jete's the one that is already at the wall.  In Jete's class they taught him how to kick, glide, how to use his arms, how to swim by himself using proper technique, and side breathing.

Jerzi's class was to mainly teach them safety.  Like if they fell in, how to roll to their backs and float, how to move themselves along the edge to the steps, breath control, feel comfortable with their faces in the water.  Jerz got the floating thing down!  We love to watch her do this.

So proud!

The bad thing now...they're both way too confident for the skills they have.  So on to more swimming lessons.