The Crandalls: updates!

First off....

Yeah.. this heat is horrible. I want summer to end immediately. Or at least by the end of August.

A few weeks ago, we took a little road trip down to Austin to check it out. We've heard amazing things about this city but weren't "wowed" til we got to this specific area called Steiner Ranch. Beautiful homes, tons of green trees, and super cool restaurants with a view.

Didn't quite catch the story behind this space shuttle thing... but the boys thought it was cool =)

This lake was SO cool. This was the view from the balcony of the seafood restaurant we ate at. Amazing

And we happened to be there right at sunset. Sooo pretty

This sunset was one night back in Webster where we live. While I am so sick of the summer out here, I shouldn't complain when things look this pretty.

A while back, I bought some art supplies to see how Carter would do with that. Had to put a towel down on the floor, and around Carter's whole surroundings but he did pretty good! His artwork is now adorning our walls ;)

Ahhh so many reasons I love this little boy. A big one is this smile!

Sparking some creativity again. I found this random activity on pinterest, where they can string cheerios onto spaghetti noodles, being held up in a mound of play-doh. He had more fun breaking the noodles into little pieces, and jabbing them deep into the play-doh, thus ruining it. Boys.

We went to Sports Authority for the heck of it one day. We walked in and Carter stopped and was totally amused by something up by the ceiling....

Oh it was just himself, on camera. But of course he thought that was so cool!

Aaaaaand the killer- potty training. I've been dreading it and putting it off, but friends convinced me that it's worth a shot, and I did agree about that. So we bought treats and underwear and a potty seat, and I set aside 3 days where we'd obsess about it- every 30 min. 95% accidents, and 5% success... which is something, I know. BUT by the third day, he was whining and pitching a fit every time I tried to set him on the toilet. We were digressing. So I threw in the towel- after washing about 20 pairs of peed-on underpants, and we are back in diapers. Sigh.... Maybe in a few more months we'll try again.

Still a picky eater beyond all reason, so don't even get me started on that. But someone's got to lick the brownie batter bowl...

Carter has gotten really attached to Aaron. I think he misses him not being around, although I've felt like Aaron's had a lot more free time lately. Carter cries every time Aaron has to go to work, and throughout the day, he asks if Daddy is coming home soon (breaks my heart!) so at night, he likes to sit on the balcony and look for Daddy's car. It's the best part of our day when daddy finally gets home =)

Kids' imaginations amaze me. Carter has a fire station with furniture in it, including this little wooden bunk bed. Well, his smart little brain decided that he could fit that bunk bed onto the end of his bat and make A SWORD! He's been talking about swords a lot these days- and pirates =)

Took another trip to NASA

I bet this cone outside could have entertained him for 2 hours

Snow cone. Shaved ice. Whatever you call it.

So there is this wildlife safari park about 20 min from our house I've been thinking about checking out. It's expensive so I was hesitant, but me and Carter finally went today. Besides the fact that it was blazing HOT, it was soooo fun! The animals live in the "wild," or at least in a more natural habitat without being locked up like in a zoo. But you can feed them and pet them, and most are very friendly.

Here's a random fact from these Texas longhorn bulls... those horns are HUGE but they are hollow. They have bloodflow through them, and they keep the animal cool. But if part of the horn were to break off, it could bleed to death. Kinda crazy, I had no idea!