Daddy and Bodie

so cute...these two...so alike in looks and temperament its often scary at times. especially the way BOTH of them can get me un-mad with a sweet smile...they know how to cool my redheaded temper...annoyingly...bryan and i get bodie alone a few days a week while bobby naps and bryson is at school. it is the most alone time we have ever had with him...that is the price of being a middle child...so its been fun to hang out and spend time with him. he is so different from his brothers. he loves to run errands and go to stores with me...he is fine riding his bike 8 miles - he is up for anything. he is a total sweet heart - this bodie owen.

A Video of Bobby Singing...and being Bobby

A Video of Bodie Singing...and being a three year old...

Turning a Corner

oh i am so going to jinx myself with this post...but it has been on my heart to journal this new season...so bravely...with trepidation...i move forward!

i have been reflecting a bit over the past month and the sense of something being "different"...i dont dare term it as "easier" i know much better now that there is no such thing with mothering...whenever new moms ask me if it gets easier...i tell them...it will get different...because i tend to think that is a truer statement.

where bobby doesn't wake continually through the night...he destroys the entire house in seconds. literally - like seconds...i could record all of his amazing destruction, but while i was taking the time to record something like that he would take that as an opportunity to move on to the next. anyway - this isnt the point. the point is that we are definitely entering a new season in our family. we recently got rid of the double strollers. bobby is even refusing the stroller most times. bodie can get in and out of the carseat himself. bodie can dress himself. bobby tried to go potty for the first time (by himself...all over the bathroom...but still he was trying). i had said before that the crib is pretty useless and i told myself by the end of october we need a bed...

anwyay -i feel as though since bobby was born i have been trying all i can to keep afloat - keep up with things...never mind getting ahead! just trying desperately not to fall too far behind. keep up with my part of the responsibility of our business...keep up with bryson's school work...keeping up with a never ending pile of laundry...keeping up with the messes that pop up continually everywhere...even to keep up with their oral hygiene - all of it is such a struggle and by the end of the day my personal resources are completely depleted. but...recently there has been this shift...the summer allowed us more time to focus on certain goals with the boys - goals in sports - goals in crafting - goals in adventuring. things are getting different.

it has made me rethink my time i have with the boys when i have them. since before kindergarten started our days were filled with playdates and finding new parks and exploring and one day a week would be my day to catch up around the house with laundry and cleaning and such. but now bryson is gone all day - way too long if you ask me. it seems like at the end of the day there is just no time left. he comes home around 3 - has about a half hour of homework (in first grade!!! so dumb) then it is time for me to make dinner and then its time to practice golf and then its time for bed.

so here i am staring at the boys' future. their future of school indoors for 6 hours a day. and i am trying to think about all the things i would love for him to experience and learn - scripture and poetry and music and art and sports and these are all extra-curricular things that really - when will he learn? so this little seed has been planted in my brain of going down the path of home-schooling. i am not sure what it would look like, other than it would have to involve bryan. i have not mentally been able to even explore that option until now - bodie and bobby's ages were all consuming to me...but its something i am praying about and starting to talk about and learn about to see if it would fit for us and if it would be best for bryson. he is all about not having to be indoors all day every day. but he is also doing real in school right now...mainly we are starting the process of thinking about it for second grade.

i am not romanticizing it all either...well...maybe a little i am...but i know and can foresee that bryson and i will butt heads...we are too similar not to. but i think if i can find a style that works for the both of us - if i have help from bryan (and maybe a charter school or something similar once a week would be a good idea)

this has been on my heart for the past couple of weeks...wanted to throw it out there for anyone to offer advice, encouragement or resources.

Our Summer Re-Cap - According to Instagram

we packed a lot in this summer! just looking back through photos - a lot more was done, but here is a nice little re-cap of some of the places we managed to visit on top of sports camp and a seasonal business and the general laziness of not having a schedule! I feel like each one of these deserves its own post, but also know that may never happen...hmmm...instagram is like blogging short hand in a lot of ways, so here you go - our instagram summer re-cap!

Bolsa Chica Wetlands

Lots of Beach Time

Riding the Aqualink

Long Beach Aquarium 

Anniversary Scavenger Hunt

This baby girl entered our lives - Riley Kajsa Guinta

OC Fair

OC Fair

What Bobby won at the fair

San Diego Zoo

Lots of Swimming

Camping at Cachuma

Camping fireside cuddles

Chief Bryson

El Dorado Nature Park

Beautiful Sea Slug

Palos Verdes Botanical Garden

Costa Mesa Skate Park

The most adventurous of all - dinner with all 3 kiddos!

lots of this...in the backyard

lots of this too!

The Barnes Boys - An Update

Brotherly Love-ish

Bryson chipping at his second tournament

Bryson - 5th Place at his third tournament

First Grader!

Bryson started First Grade last week. He has an amazing teacher and we are so excited...in fact, at back to school night she was getting me so pumped up i signed up to volunteer for like a hundred things because i wanted to be in her class so bad...then i came home to my piles of work/laundry/dishes/ etc and was like, "what was i thinking?" but i do want to make volunteering in the classroom a priority because i know how much it would mean to him (and seriously...i want to be in her class...for reals).

Bryson LOVES school. i am so grateful. but, he does have a problem with homework...and practicing golf. turns out he would rather play than do either of those things, what? crazy kid, huh? i know...i am trying to find our rhythm now of longer school hours and homework and balancing play and practice...and cooking dinner. that cooking dinner part is seriously the most challenging part of my day. my options are to throw them all outside and listen for screams and fights to ensue, or put a show on and listen for screams and fights to ensue. or do nothing and let them crawl all over me and try to steal knives i leave on the counter. so much fun! it works best when both bryan and i are here together, but that is not always the norm! i havent figured it out yet...maybe the week before school ends i will finally find my rhythm like last year.

Bryson is still doing golf tournaments. His next one coming up will be his 5th one. He is also doing the Heartwell progam (fun fact - Tiger Woods did this same program at Heartwell when he was a wee one too!) and we are very excited for him to play with other kids his age in a non-competitive way. He apparently loves golf - i make sure to ask him all the time, because it makes no sense to me...but i am grateful he is clinging to a sport that won't wind him up in the ER...it just will only bankrupt us...just kidding...kind of...not really, but it really is not a cheap sport...

This is his serious face

This is his cheese face

Bobby! I mean, look at that face - what a CHEESE BALL! he is so goofy...i feel like i just updated you all when i wrote about his second birthday, so maybe i can just update how he interacts with his brothers. With Bryson - he just adores bryson - the other day i locked him in the kitchen with me because bryson was practicing golf and he took a chair - scooted it all the way over to the door leading out of the kitchen to the backyard and climbed up and just screamed "FY-SHEN, FY-SHEN" for like, 5 minutes. It was both simultaneously hilarious and annoying. With Bodie, they are still trying to figure out how to interact without meltdowns on both ends. Bodie does not understand the art of distraction and manipulation like Bryson has mastered - "Here Bobby - take this car - its plain black, but soooo much cooler than that hot rod car you have!" so Bodie resorts to just grabbing whatever from Bobby...which Bobby is not okay with...at all. My day with them when Bryson is at school is teaching them how to not kill each other. which is absolutely fine as long as i have absolutely nothing else to do at all. which is the case for me for probably an hour a day. But I can see improvement and everyone keeps telling me how great this short age distance will be in a little bit...just have to get through this part. i have hope, friends! 

Bodie is a cheese as well

My boy!

Bodie is really starting to come out of his shell. He is starting to talk a lot more and it is always entertaining to know what has been going on in that curly head of his...he tells me about a lot of inventions that he could make. He tells me about all kinds of different skateboard ramps we could make - he makes up songs - he tells me made up stories. It is so fun to see his little imagination coming to life. For the first time on their own doing, bryson and him played an imaginary game Pirates for like an hour. it was brilliant and not mama-inspired at all! Bodie is still such a sweet heart and his placement in the family couldn't have been more perfect...imagine if i had bryson and bobby back to back! oh dear...there might not have ever been a third ;)

Big brother of the year!

Playing pirates together.

Bodie's First Day of Pre-School!

Bryson started school as well last Wednesday, but he has the picture on his phone :) Bodie is back at the same pre-school as last year - which he loves and we love and bryson loved! he was soooo excited to start and all week last week would cry when we took bryson to school and ask me when he gets to start! i am so glad he likes it because we have found a lot of positive changes since he started going. I think they are going to be shocked at how much Bodie is talking now! I think I will be shocked every time that our house is quiet during the day and I can actually get work done! yipppeee!

Bobby's 2nd Birthday Party

Lets be real...this was a total excuse to throw a big party - good thing his birthday is at the end of Summer because it really felt like we needed a celebration! owning a pool business makes you want to do cartwheels when summer is over!

Bobby's face in the last picture is so great, because that was his face all day. Suspicious. He was like, why are people paying attention to me all of the sudden? he wasnt having it! But he loved it...i know this because since his party he keeps taking my phone pretending to call people and saying "me...buhday" so, pretty much means i killed it!

i feel like bryan and i are pretty used to throwing a party or two...we have it down pretty much, but our crowd size is usually around 20 people...i think there were like 50 people coming and going at this party...which i didnt really stress about, but the day of i was like, wow...this is a lot of people. but it worked out and the bounce house was a lifesaver! i wish we had one all the time...that didnt take up room and wasnt so ugly - but my children would live in there!

it was so nice and my friends helped stay and clean up even! i ended the night counting my blessings for sure - a lot of love was spread. and love is the kind of thing that keeps building - its pretty infectious. Thank you to everyone who came and for helping with food and celebrating a very two year old boy!

Bobby is 2!!!

(I am going to do a separate post about his party - here i just wanted to talk about Bobby being 2)

so 2 years ago being past my due date for the first time...i remember being so nervous about a third child. Bodie was only 20 months...barely started talking and a lot of work...my zoodies were about to get really busy and we were just the two of us still doing our pool business. i did not know how it would all work. i was in "survival mode" for a year straight i think...because i really have a hard time remembering bobby as a baby! the littlest of babies at that! I think that the fact he is a third baby also might account for some of my memory loss. I am grateful for this blog, as it has become his baby book, since i dont think i wrote a single thing down in his baby book, but i did record each month here. I think back and so much has changed - i now have inventory in my shop, we have help with our pool business - and now that everyone is sleeping through the night (for the most part) and in the same room things are much more manageable.

So Bobby - Dear Bobby - or Bob as your brother Bodie sometimes calls you - Sweet Bobby - you are the littlest, but by far the biggest presence in this house. Your energy, your laughs, your NO!!!, your running, your playfulness - you fill up our lives with so much joy! At 2 you are mainly into anything your big brothers are into, which at this particular snapshot in time is skateboards....and scooters. You can ride a Razor scooter, even though they are meant for kids 5 and older. You can ride a skateboard pretty darn well too! You love golfing (duh) and have started doing froggy foot now. You make contact with the ball most times. You love dogs - every time we see a doggie on the street you freak out (which there are a lot of doggies in long beach! so you freak out a lot)

You are speaking more and more every day. It is so amazing to watch your little language explosion! You get very frustrated when someone doesnt understand you, but i like to think i do pretty well. You are happiest when you are outside and running around. You are still my best sleeper - you still sleep with "baby" (your blanket) and "paci" your pacifier. I have thought about taking it away, but i dont think you are quite ready for that battle yet...and not sure i am either...man you are stubborn and strong...i tried to take a squirt bottle from you today and i almost couldnt! you did not like that very much. you did not see why i was taking away your fun of squirting bodie straight in the face...by the way - to get that squirt bottle you got a kitchen chair and pushed it clear across the kitchen and used it as a stool to get the bottle that was on top of a shelf. little stinker!

i love my little stinker though! i love your little personality and i can't wait to see the little man you will become! Happy Birthday Bobby Rhys!

Love,
Mom