Yeah! Jack and Max got a mural in their room (on Max's side). Our good family friend and amazing artist Marty Hildreth came down for the day with my folks. She took a bunch of ideas I gave her and just ran with it. Within 4 hours, she was done. We couldn't be happier with the results. As Curtis said, it's perfect.

Jack thought it was pretty cool to have someone drawing on the walls. He had to get out his paper and crayons to draw pictures too. Maybe one day his train and castle drawings will be this good!

THANK YOU MARTY!

Phew! I am exhausted - we have had a houseful of kids. Mikelle came Tuesday and will be here until tomorrow. Plus yesterday, we had Graham, Chloe, Brendan, Owen, and Big Jack over to swim in the pool. Graham and Chloe stayed overnight. It was a lot of fun having all the kids here, but I'm glad they are at their own homes tonight!!

Tonight Jack provided us with some great entertainment:

And Alex: Jack has been asking where you are the last two mornings. I guess it's time for you to visit again :)

Trystin's friend Graham came over this afternoon. The boys had a great time playing in the pool and rough-housing. Jack thought it was pretty cool to hang out with the big boys. He had to have his boat floatie - absolutely would not ride in the dolphin floatie. Unfortunately, Jack only got a 20 minute nap today (usual nap is 2.5-3 hours). So during supper he kept falling asleep in between bites of french fry.

We're going to have to change our name to Honeyham. Well, okay, maybe not just yet. But that's what Cunningham sounds like when Jack says it. Curtis was trying to teach him our last name yesterday, and Jack kept saying "Jack Honeyham!" I'm so impressed with his language skills overall. He will repeat pretty much anything you say. He can say "hippopotamus" and "rhinoceros" with relative ease for a 2 year old. The other day as I was getting supper ready (hamburgers), Jack was not happy I set the mustard in front of him. He told me, "I don't want mustard. I just want ketchup!" I know those are both easy sentences, but I was just amazed at how clearly he spoke, how well his sentences were completed, and how important ketchup really is to him.

Jack has been asking for a haircut. And Curtis & I have been debating on how short to go. We love his curls, but he sweats SOOOOOO much. And when Jack sweats, his hair STINKS! So I took him to Great Clips today (Sorry Jen, I tried calling and you were booked solid). Jack cried during the whole haircut. He was really happy with his sucker afterwards though. When I asked him if I could take a picture of his new haircut, he posed by showing me the top of his head.

Max has really been developing his vocabulary as well. I was counting his words the other day and came up with 11: Mom, Dad, Trystin, Jack, Grandpa, Grandma, hi, bye, up, down, and all done. Sometimes you have to listen really well to hear the words, but if you pay attention to him, you can't miss them. Yesterday he became really interested in walking. He would consistently take 3-6 steps any time I stood him up. Today he actually let go of the coffee table to walk to me (usually if anything is around he won't let go).

Trystin completed 2 weeks of swim lessons. He met a new buddy (Brock) and can't wait for Brock to visit again so they can swim in our pool. Trystin has been doing pretty well in summer school. His teacher has started reading to him from the 5th grade level. He still won't read it himself, but when his teacher reads to him, he scores 80% on the comprehension!! We've all been talking to him about going to class next year. We keep reminding him that if he goes to class, he can be with his friends.

I can't believe it's been so long since my last post! This summer is already flying by. I will try to get more up later as well, but wanted to show off my little boy walking. Although he only does 4 steps in the video, he has now done as many as 10 consecutive steps. Can't believe he'll be ONE in just a couple weeks!

And here are the boys cleaning the pool last night....

The pool was still dirty from all the mud last year, so we put an inch or two in the bottom and let the boys play in it with brushes and brooms. They had a ball! I had to bribe them with cookies and cupcakes to get them to come back inside for the night. Hopefully we'll get it cleaned the rest of the way today and can have it filled by the weekend. Come on over if you want to swim - BYOT (bring your own towel) :)