One more month of summer in the bag (almost)

To say that this summer in Texas has been brutal would be an understatement. We didn't break the 100+ days in a row record, we missed it by 2 days, 40 instead of 42. And right now we are flirting with the most 100+ days in the summer, the record is 69 and today we are on day 62. We should break that record by quite a few days. Anyway, it has been hot, and we are ready for it to be over.

August has been a BIG month for the McNeelys. We started the month off by putting an offer on a new house!!! WE ARE MOVING!!! We thought we were going to wait until Lyla came home, but lots of things fell into place to make this move possible, so here we go. We are so excited! More bedrooms and more space for our growing family. We close September 29th!

The next thing in August was a fun one for this Mama. For the first time since bringing Macey home from the hospital I had a kid-free night! The ladies from our group at church stayed the night in a nice hotel, about 45 min away, and shopped and ate and played games and laid by the pool. It was a fun relaxing time for me and a good test of what is to come for the kids when Mama goes to China. Kevin took the kids to the fish store (aka Bass Pro Shops) at Macey's request, and they came home with some new friends.

So, since we have a contract on a new house that meant we had get our rears in gear and get our house on the market. Let me tell you, even though we didn't have anything major to do it has been tough. We've painted, repaired doors, repaired walls, cleaned, cleaned and cleaned. The hardest part is keeping our house "show ready" with two toddlers. We're doing pretty good, and have already had 3 showings (1 more tonight and 1 cancelled, so we are hoping for a reschedule), the more interest the better our chances.

Macey and Xander helping the realtor put the sign in the yard

Well, a few months ago Kevin and I decided that we were going to participate the in same triathlons that we did last year. Kevin's was August 21st and mine was today, August 28th. We signed up and paid...that was well before we decided to buy a new house and try to sell ours. Training for these events was certainly not the priority, but we paid for them so we were going to complete them. Our encouragement to each other was this "Either win, or don't die." Isn't that sweet? Well, we didn't die, so it worked! Last year we had pictures of Kevin at his tri and none of me, and this year we have one of me and none of him. We'll get it right one of these years.

Since attending the rodeo in July our kids cannot stop talking about it. And Xander wears his hat and his boots almost every day, no joke, wherever we are going his is most likely in his boots and hat. We took them again (but of course I did not bring the camera) so they got one more look at the rodeo before the season was over, they loved it again!

A little Ring Around the Rosey

Our hardworkin' Chinese cowboy

And now I'm just going to brag on my kids, afterall, it's my blog, so I get to say what I want, and I'm their mom so it's my job. More than one time people have commented on how well Macey and Xander get along. People from church, people from my gym, even friends who have watched them for us. It makes me so happy to know that when they are in someone else's care they behave well. The question I get the most is, "Do they get along this well all the time?" The best part of that question for me is that I can say yes, they get along MOST of the time. Now that doesn't mean that we don't have knock down, drag out fights, and yelling and screaming, but they get along wonderfully. I guess you just don't know what to expect when you throw two almost 2 year olds together. From day 1 they have amazed us and they continue to do so. This is one of my favorite pictures of them (messy faces and all) because they were sitting like this on the couch just because they wanted to. Kevin quick, grabbed the camera and asked them to say cheese, and here is what he got. Two perfect kids!!!!