Water Fun

We have had lots of water fun lately. Usually the weather is so hot that we have to go to water-filled places to actually be outdoors! Thankfully, we got some rain last week and things have cooled off a bit. By "cooled off" I mean we went from 105 degrees at the highest to now enjoying the low nineties, but it has made a nice difference.

A couple of weeks ago we met our friends the Bufkins at Hawaiian Falls water park in Mansfield. Our boys had a blast and Meredith and I had times for good conversation.

Noah and Sawyer are all sunscreened-up in this picture and are ready for splashing and sliding.
It's hard to get 3 little squirmy boys to cooperate in a picture, so this is the best we could do :)

I don't think there is any doubt that Noah had a great time. He plays so hard. I enjoy bringing him places like this where he can run around, play hard, and not get in trouble. He has so much energy!!

Jude enjoyed the wave pool and sliding down the slides a little. But mostly he enjoyed being strolled around. He's at that awkward "can't walk but wants to" stage. He really enjoyed his picnic lunch!

Our dry boys leaving the park and heading home for naps!

We also went to a Splash Pad in Crowley with our friend, Rachel, her son, Luke, and Rachel's sister, Ruthie. The Splash Pad is completely free! We brought a picnic lunch, so the results were a very frugal and fun day!

Noah enjoyed pumping these water guns and spraying friends.

Jude was a little clingy at first, but then he crawled around the soft padding and got a little braver with the water.

Again, Noah plays so hard. He's always exhausted and naps well after days like these!

These are our friends, Rachel, Luke and Ruthie. Our budding photographer, Noah, actually took this shot. Amateur's luck, I guess.

Here's sweet Luke. He and Jude's birthdays are only a few days apart so they are good buddies.

4th of July (a little late :)

We celebrated the 4th of July with the Sanks family this year. We enjoyed a good meal together at our house and then some fun at Fort Worth's Fourth.

the festive flag cake

The men and boys provided great entertainment by sliding down this massive hill on cardboard political signs. The best part was that it was completely free!

Clay even ventured sliding down with both boys!

Clay and Noah, on the left, and Michael and Naomi, on the right, preparing to take off!

Even though the signs were as big as Noah, he insisted on carrying his sign up the hill by himself...

...and sliding down the hill by himself.

Didn't Naomi match the occasion well? Her talented mommy, Meg, made this cute dress for her to wear!

This is one of Noah and Jude's favorite friends. Isn't she the cutest?

Outside Fun

When it hasn't been 107 degrees outside (really, several days have been lately) we've ventured outside. Some friends gave us a sand turtle and the boys have been having a blast. They will go from the sand into the water. It's like their own little beach!

Noah giving Jude a ride in his car
We enjoy having this car outside because Jude can sit in it while we're playing. He's still isn't walking, so outside time can by tricky. This solution works great! The other day Clay had the boys outside playing baseball. Noah would hit a ball and then Clay would push Jude in the car while they went to retrieve the ball.

Sand fun

Jude waving at his daddy

Noah apparently losing his pants!

a jude update

Our sweet Jude turned 13 months old on Saturday. He is doing new things everyday. He usually just tags along with big brother doing whatever he's doing. But he also likes to play on his own. He's really good at filling containers up and then emptying them. He loves to play with trucks and make a razzing sound as he pushes them on the floor. He's learning to pretend because Noah is such a good teacher. Jude loves to sing little songs. We can't understand the words of course, but they are songs nonetheless. He likes to lay on a pillow on the floor so we'll all say "night, night Jude". He still enjoys clapping and waving. He says "mama", "dada", "bye-bye" (which kind of comes out like dada too :), and recently he has added "thank you" to his vocabulary. He is such a sweet child. He is a blessing from the Lord and huge joy to our family.

Here are a few pictures of Jude:

These last two pictures are from a month ago or more, but they are too cute not to share :)

Jude's First Birthday Donuts

I found these pictures from Jude's birthday and wanted to include them. He has not been permitted to eat birthday donuts yet for any of our birthdays over the past year. (You can read more about this Iles tradition here.) However, we decided to make an exception since it was his birthday and all. (And we really like birthday donuts and only get to have them four times a year :)

Here are a few pictures of our breakfast together:

Notice Noah's card to Jude. It was a baseball game where A-Rod hit it over the fence!

Jude "reading" mine and Clay's card to him ;)

the yummy pile of birthday dounts!