It is hot, hot, hot and we are loving it. 🙂 I feel like the days are
flying past – how is it almost July?? And please, someone tell me how I
am old enough to have a boy who is going to be FOUR in just a very few
short weeks??! We went to look for party supplies for the Spider-Man
extravaganza he is planning and I couldn’t even bear to face the fact
that he’s growing up so fast so I just made excuses to put it off for
another day. 😉

This
little one LOVES these blankets of his. LOVES them. He was fussy one
night and I laid him on the bed, handed him a blanket just to try and
calm him down and went to go get his swaddle and when I came back, he
was out. Bless his heart. I’m paranoid, so he doesn’t get to sleep with
the blankets but he’ll snuggle in them when he’s awake.

Hugs for Daddy. 🙂

A brotherly chat one morning. This happens at least once a day.

Time for swim lessons! He’s still LOVING them and getting very good! That boy loves himself a pool.

Someone discovered the fun of a front facing camera… 😉

This
baby has the craziest monkey toes I’ve ever seen! I’ve never seen a
child with such long toes and he uses them like hands – SO awkward to
watch!! Anytime he is in the high chair, he just climbs his feet up and
down the plastic bar in the middle. Seriously. Monkey toes.

We walked in and found him like this one night. Ha!!

Someone adores his Uncle Caleb. He has to be just like him.

Auntie Cayce came home from a trip and brought some souvenirs. My boys were very much in love with them.

We’re
having kind of a rough week with Nathan. I’m not sure if it’s just
typical three-year-old issues or what, but he’s been quite the little
spitfire this week. So, when Jon offered for me to go to a local
coffeehouse by myself and write for a few hours, I think I was out the
door before the words were all the way out of his mouth. 😉 I adore
ADORE being home with my boys, but the occasional break is such a great
recharge and honestly, makes me a better mom.

Parker has been
sleeping amazingly good lately, so I’ve been staying up in the morning
after he nurses, usually around 5:45 or 6. He will eat and go back down
for at least two, if not three hours. I’ve always thought you morning
people were crazy, but it actually is really nice having the quiet house
to myself then. 😉

What have you been up to??

My newest e-novella, Return to Chocolate, is now available on Kindle and Kindle apps!

To find out more about it and download the app to your computer, click here.

I hope you enjoy it!!

Last weekend, Jon didn’t have quite as much homework as he has had (he is almost one class away from graduation with his Master’s!! I’m so proud of him!), so we packed up the kids and went for our very first, semi-spur-of-the-moment family vacation!

I had realized before Parker was born that we’d never gone on a trip that didn’t either include extended family or wasn’t on the way to see extended family, so going somewhere just the four of us was a very special treat. A month or two ago, I’d seen a brochure for the Dinosaur Train in Durango and thought that would be such a fun Father’s Day idea, but we didn’t know what Jon’s schoolwork would be like. So, when it didn’t look too bad, we made some quick reservations, put the boys in the car and drove the 3-ish hours to Durango when we got up on Saturday and drove back in time for dinner Sunday night.

SUCH a quick, wonderful trip! I think I took 800 pictures just in those two days, but here are some of my favorites:

Jon told him we might see some deer or elk on the drive, so Nathan started looking for them as soon as we left our neighborhood. We also spent the entire trip looking for his “letters of the day” – A and N. 😉

We’re in Durango!! We stopped for lunch at Serious Texas BBQ and ate on the patio so we could watch the rafters on the river. Such a beautiful day!!

Jon and I had our honeymoon in Durango at this little bed and breakfast. 🙂 I can’t imagine going through life without this man. Love him so.

Hiker boys. We drove out of town and found some little trails to explore. Nathan was so in his element. He ran and jumped and picked flowers for me and threw rocks and smashed bugs the entire afternoon. I’m pretty sure he would have gladly lived there forever. Jon and Nathan were both in outdoor heaven.

These two were best buds this trip. 🙂

Us plus one of our cuties. 🙂

Jon brought a slingshot he’d had from when he was a kid and taught Nathan how to use it. So cute to watch!

Me and the little.

This guy was SO tired by dinner time. He just zoned out through the last half of it. And he had his first experience with shelled peanuts – I looked over and he had bitten off the top of the peanut, shell and all. Ha! The highlight of the night was getting to throw his peanut shells on the floor.

When we got back to the hotel, we did a little late-night swimming just to make it the best day ever in Nathan’s book. Especially since we were staying in a hotel – he was SO excited about staying in a hotel that he couldn’t go to sleep until after 10 and he was up at 5:30am.

Oy.

Early, early morning. Road trips are just too much fun to sleep. 😉

Happy Father’s Day!! We went and got the hotel’s continental breakfast, which was another HUGE DEAL (I’m pretty sure Nathan had one of everything they had to offer) and then we told Nathan we had a little surprise for him.

It was the Dinosaur Train based off one of Nathan’s favorite TV shows also called Dinosaur Train!! I LOVE his reaction when he walked up and saw it!!

Ha!! Such a goose!!

Such a weird, crazy, kid. I just love him.

We got all checked in for our great train adventure! The kids got little bags with goodies in them.

Waiting to board!!

When we checked in, all the paying passengers had to have pink bracelets on and Nathan asked the ticketing guy what they were for. He said, “It’s so you are allowed to get on the train.” The three of us got our bracelets and then Nathan said, “WAIT!! What about Parker??!” The man said he didn’t really need one and Nathan said, “But you just said you needed a bracelet to get on the train!! He has to get on the train!! We can’t leave him here!” Parker ended up with a bracelet. 😉 Ha!

We weren’t excited at all.

Not one bit. 😉

Buddy the dinosaur came by and danced for everyone on the train. Nathan thought it was hilarious.

The train basically just went through town, stopped and went back the other way. They played music from the TV show, they had roaring contests, they encouraged everyone to wave at all the people they saw outside the train and then they had fruit snacks and Capri Suns for the kids. Basically, it was like the best day ever for a certain three year old. 😉

One of my favorite pictures of all time.

After the train ride, they took us to a little side yard and we got to meet Buddy. Nathan had four different activities he had to do to become an official member of Buddy’s Nature Tracker club, so he dove right in so he could get his ticket stamped and then get his membership card. 😉

He found a “fossil” (also known as a shark’s tooth). He had to dig for other fossils as well and he got to jump in a bounce house.

Then he got to feed a gigantic tortoise.

He got a Buddy tattoo. And he has been SO careful with that tattoo that he STILL has the remnants of it on his arm a week later. 😉

And my favorite part…

Yes. That is a LIVE baby alligator. Nathan walked right up to the man and asked to hold it. He ended up holding it three different times.

Just disgusting. Notice the look of absolute joy on their faces. Blegh.

At one point, Nathan was holding the alligator and he shoved it toward Jon, face first and was like, “Ha! Rawr, Dad!”

This is the same kid who is scared to the point of hysterics over a fly or a moth or a cricket.

He’s an “officinary” member of the Nature Trackers Club!!

He was SO PROUD.

Afterward, we ate a picnic lunch by the river and then did a little bit of walking through town. We stopped by the fun candy store in town and everyone got a small bag of sweet treats to help keep some of us awake on the way home. 😉

This little sugar did SO good! I was so proud of him!

We finally headed back home about three in the afternoon. I took a sleepy Parker out of the carrier and set him on the seat to take the carrier off and he immediately fell back asleep right on the pile of stuff. Ha!

And this little one didn’t even make it out of the city limits before he was fast asleep. We wore those boys out!

Such a fantastically fun trip!! I am so excited to do it again someday soon!!

Time MUST slow down now. It MUST. I mean, I was going to read more and blog more this summer and I feel like I’ve barely sat down all month! 😉

Our precious Parker Bear turned three months old yesterday!!

He is wearing 0-3 month clothes (and of course, I would NEVER stretch them out and stuff him into them so that he would stay in smaller clothes longer. NEVER), and size one diapers. He weighs a little over 13.5 pounds.

He is nursing every three hours – though sometimes he will nurse every two. He is a terrible napper and takes four maybe 30 minute naps a day. BUT he has become a fantastic sleeper at night and usually sleeps 8-9 hours straight, nurses and goes right back down for another 3-ish hours. So, I am not going to complain about sleep during the day! 😉

He is smiling ALL the time now! He is the happiest, sweetest, cutest little baby I know. 😉 He loves to talk and squeal and he started laughing this month which is just my most favorite thing ever. We even caught the first time on video:

Laughing from Erynn Mangum on Vimeo.

I just love it!!

Parker LOVES to be held, loves to be carried around, hates to be set down and hates tummy time. He adores his big brother more than anyone else in the world – I’ve never seen two kids who love each other as much as these two boys love each other!! It is just the sweetest thing in the world to this mama’s heart.

He loves bath time, LOVES having a blanket to snuggle with and is becoming pretty attached to his pacifier.

He is just the joy of our hearts!!

I saw this on another blog I follow and I just thought it was the best idea! This summer, I really, REALLY want to be intentional about the time. Last summer, I was so intent on soaking in the time with Nathan and we had a total blast. Now, the days just go by so fast with the two boys that I spend a lot of evenings trying to even remember what we did that day.

So, these next two months, I want to be sure and spend some quality time with my boys so I’m not looking back on the summer come September and wondering what on earth we did. 😉

#1 – Swim!! And I don’t want to just “swim” in the sense of hanging around the pool with family and friends. I want to be the mom who jumps in the pool and plays with her kids, regardless of whether or not she actually styled her hair that morning. 😉

#2 – Do the summer program at the library again. We LOVED this last year and I know that Nathan will love it again this year because my boy loves to read. I want to keep fostering that!

#3 – Work on letters with Nathan. I keep meaning to do this every day and somehow, it gets forgotten in the midst of everything else. But this summer, I want Nathan to really start to work on his letters.

#4 – Read for me. I spend 98% of my reading time reading books to the boys. And as much as I LOVE that and treasure those moments, I want to take the time this summer to read some books for me as well.

#5 – Get organized. I have approximately 3,698 things I need to get done on any given day and typically, I only get one or two accomplished. I want to become more organized in all areas of my life – including our closets. 😉

#6 – Go on a few dates. Yes. 🙂

#7 – Blog more. This blog has been suffering since our precious Parker Bear joined our lives but I don’t want to miss out on remembering the early days with two boys. This is honestly the only way I remember anything about Nathan’s babyhood so I want to do the same for Parker!

#8 – Do one fun thing every day. I really want to soak in the summer and instead of rushing around everywhere, I want to focus on doing at least one fun thing with my boys every day – even if that’s just something as simple as popsicles in the backyard. 🙂

And in our lives lately…

Some brotherly love. These two adore each other. I LOVE that.

Sweet little buddy just loves it when we are all home and in the same room together. He’s never more smiley than when that is happening. 🙂

We spent the majority of the last week with a sick boy – Nathan started running a fever on Tuesday and it didn’t let up until Saturday. Oy. LONG week. Thankfully (and not thankfully), it was Jon’s week off so he was there to help. We just didn’t get to do our week of fun like we had planned. 😉 And it about kills Nathan to have to stay away from Parker when he’s sick.

Finally starting to feel better!! Jon gave him this old headset and he always has to wear it while watching The Incredibles so he can yell “Mayday! Mayday!” along with Mrs. Incredible. 😉

Big boy picking his head up. 🙂

He only smiles this adoring smile when he’s looking at Nathan.

Parker’s first time in the pool! He was a little unsure at first but then he absolutely loved it.

He kicked his little legs like a little frog the rest of the time. SO cute!!

Our friend Kaitlin just left from a visit here and she was going to be in New York City for a few days so Nathan excitedly asked her to watch for Spider-Man and tell him that he said hi. Guess who she actually saw?? 😉 Ha!! Nathan was OVER THE MOON about this picture she sent us. 😉

Sweet days at the zoo with sweet friends. Love the Beechem girls!!

What are you hoping to accomplish or do this summer??