Cornelius Chronicles

Summer swimming season has officially commenced for the Cornelius crew. We visited the pool a few times this week and plan to ratchet up our walks to the neighborhood pool as the temperatures increase. It truly is the only way to survive the Texas heat. It's quite the production to get us ready to go. Getting swimming suites on three wiggly, excited children and two tired parents, spraying everyone down with a protective layer of sun screen, and gathering all the various flotation devises needed to keep said children and parents afloat is no small task. Happily, the kids enjoy the production and are willing to cooperate for the most part. Finally, we are able to walk to the pool. Once we get to the pool everyone jumps into the refreshing water. Loyd prefers the shallow kiddie pool, but for purposes of the picture we did manage to convince him to try the big pool out for a little bit. In fact, he was feeling so brave this week he even tried to swim without me holding onto hi...

Have you ever had something you loved so much you thought about it every day? Well, Loyd does. Every day since Christmas, my life has been plagued by one question, "Where the stockings go?" Loyd absolutely loves the Christmas stockings Grandma P made for us. Since I took them down after the Christmas season, Loyd has asked me at least once a day, "Where the stockings go, Momma?" Just posting this picture of them on the blog has nearly put him into a frenzy. He loves seeing the stockings and feels the house is missing something important without them. So, to all those who think Christmas should last all year long, Loyd understands. In other Loyd news, here is a shot of our little hooligan spending some quality time with his little brother. Loyd loves getting into the crib with Xavier and pretends to be a baby or just jumps around for a bit. I think he may be part little monkey. :) Rebekah and I have had a nice quiet week together working on her alphabe...

The heavens opened up in Southeast Texas this weekend. We got a ton of rain Friday night and Saturday morning. As you can see from Loyd's picture, we had our own swimming pool in the backyard for a while. It's all good though. The kids got incredibly wet playing in the rain and the puddles, the plants finally got a good watering, and our house didn't flood. So overall, I would say it was a win, win situation. Xavier is still trying to figure out how to crawl. He is totally awesome at rolling over, pivoting in a circle and pushing himself backwards. Now, if only he could move forward he would be all set to explore the big wide world under his own steam. He is anxious to be playing with his big brother and sister and loves to discover new things. He's a very happy explorer and scientist. Until then, he will simply have to make do with going backwards and convincing grown ups to carry him around.

Happy Mother's day! We had a fun week. Rebekah turned 4 years old. We are so happy to have such a sweet and loving daughter. I can hardly believe four years have passed since we brought our beautiful baby girl home. Rebekah, I want you to know that you are a very loved little girl. You have parents and siblings and grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins who think you are special and love you with all of our hearts. Most importantly of all, you are a beloved daughter of Heavenly Father. He loves you beyond imagining. We wish you another wonderful year of growth and learning and adventure! It's a wonderful world in which we live. We had a small family party on Friday and a swimming party with friends on Saturday. Rebekah was very lucky to have such a nice birthday. I think her favorite present was from Grandma C. Bekah has been asking for the Playmobile Animal Clinic play set for months now. Her eyes nearly popped out of her head when she actually opened ...

Xavier has had a big week. He learned to sit up for short periods of time (less than a minute, but more than 10 seconds) all by himself. He learned to make kissing sounds (it's super adorable). And for the last big lesson.... ...Xavier learned that there are two kinds of food in this world, ice cream and not ice cream. He prefers ice cream. ;) Loyd has been keeping us on our toes. We are now using the promise of buying him a basketball to motivate him with potty training. Cross your fingers that it works! And, as you can see from the picture above, Rebekah has been working on her civil engineering skills. That's one awesome train track! Chew Chew!