Vacations

We had our budget chat last week and have decided on three vacations this year.

March-
We are headed to Alabama! We will leave the Friday before Matthew's spring break and spend three days in Tuscaloosa and B'ham before heading home to enjoy the rest of the break. Matthew has perfect attendance so far, so we will leave as soon as attendance is taken! ;) Trips to Alabama were a huge part of my growing up experience. We moved away when I was a first grader and made the trip at least once a year to visit my grandmother. I haven't been back since college, so I am anxious to show my family the two cities that meant so much to me growing up.

July-
My in laws have surprised us with a family trip to Disney World! We will be there 5 days, stay in a great hotel, and do lots of fun things while we are there. ME is VERY excited to eat lunch with Cinderella and won't stop talking about the "Printhethethes".

This summer-
This one is still a little sketchy, but we are planning a trip to San Antonio before the boys start back at school. We want to do something special especially in celebration of Thomas's kindergarten year. We think we will go to Sea World and Fiesta Texas. Last year, we had a great time at Schlitterbahn, so maybe we will do that instead?

We also want to take a trip to Fredericksburg in June/July when the peaches are at their best. This trip, we are calling our Tour of Texas!

I love travelling and now that our kids are getting a little older, I am looking forward to it even more!

Memory Lane

I have been working on my "Pottery Barn wall" this week. I have been going through my pictures of the kids as babies, making them black and white, matting them in white, and framing them in black.

This process has been bittersweet for me. I am so glad that the kids are a little older, but I really miss them as babies. Their faces are thinning out, their hands, not so dimpled. Sweet coos have been replaced by, "MOM!"

I have enjoyed the trip down memory lane.


 
 
 
  

Just another conversation on the way home.

Matthew is always asking questions. We have lots of interesting conversations. Today, on the way home from piano, was no exception. I just walked in the door and wanted to write this down before I fogot it.

"Mommy, what is a will?"

"A will is a piece of paper that tells where you want your worldly posessions to go when you die. Sometimes, it tells where you want your kids to live when you die if they are still living at home."

"So, if you and Daddy die, we could sell your cars and get, like, $50 for them?"

"Ummmm, yes."

"So does this mean I could start sleeping in your bed?"

(I am thinking Matthew is putting A LOT of thought into this)

"You wouldn't want to live with another family if we die?"

"NO WAY! I could take care of Thomas and ME."

"How would you do that?"

"I would be nice to them and buy them food and toys."

"How would you get the the store?"

"I would walk or take the bus. Is the bus stop close to here?"

"What about church?"

"I would walk to Nana and Deedah's and they would take us."

"What would you do if ME started throwing up?"

"I would ask Aunt Lauren to take her to the doctor. I would then clean up the mess and put her head by the toilet, but I am stopping if poop comes out of her bottom. Ohhhh, this is going to be hard!"

pause

"I will take them to the mall if they need new shoes. I would do a good job taking care of my house."

My house? He really is a man with a plan. Talk about Party of 3!

Then Thomas chimes in:

"HEY! If you and Daddy die, Buddy and me are in charge OK?"

"Nuh uh!"

"Uh huh!"

Proof positive that given the opportunity, the boys could fight over anything.

"CONVERSATION OVER! Mommy and Daddy plan to be here for a LONG time!"

Little Miss Independant gets herself ready for school....

Leopard sweats....check!
Black velvet cape....check!
Thomas's underwear....check!
flower purse.....check!
Pink Barbie light up boots....check!

  

This weekend

I am sitting here taking a break from football wondering where the weekend went! It has been a good one.

First, I was shocked Friday night that a dear friend from elementary school found my blog! Melanie moved to Abilene at the end of 4th grade. She lived on our little street and was in the same class as me in 5th grade. I remember being close to inseparable that year and was sad when she moved back to Lubbock after 5th grade. I love cyberspace and the ability to connect with people who meant so much in the past!

Friday night, we watched The Devil Wears Prada which was great. I also started reading a wonderful book which I HIGHLY recommend. My aunt sent along Up And Running in a recent package. It is the story of a boy who goes to her church, who developed bacterial meningitis and as a result, lost his legs. I picked it up on Friday night and finished the 300 page book today! It will make you want to kiss your kids an extra time each night.

I have two cute Thomas stories from this weekend that really highlight his personality. On Saturday night, we were eating dinner. Matthew views food as fuel. He always eats really well, but it is hard for him to take that much time out of his busy schedule! Thomas lives for meal time. Anyway, on Saturday night, Matthew finished his food first and started begging Thomas to hurry up so they could play a game. This happened several times when all of the sudden, Thomas looked up, used a very uncharacteristic booming voice, and said, "DON'T RUSH ME, BUDDY!" No sir, nothing comes between my Thomas and his dinner! ;)

This morning, I was sitting up front watching my boys collect member and visitor cards on the aisle. I always love watching them do that! As I was watching Thomas go up the far aisle, I noticed a bunch of people laughing and wiping their eyes from laughing so hard. It was all I could do to wait until the end of service to find out what Thomas had done. It turns out, as he was coming up the aisle, one of our elders handed him a card. He froze. Our very literal Thomas was told to pick up the cards on the end of the aisle, not out of people's hands! He told him, "No, you need to put it on the aisle." and then proceeded to grab his arm to guide him! This is why I don't have to worry about Thomas getting in trouble much. YOU DON'T BREAK THE RULES! Thank you so much to Erica's mother, Mary, for calling to tell me that story too. She knows as a mother and grandmother, the importance of relaying fun stories about the kids!

Looking forward to a normal, LONG week. Have a great one, everybody!

Back home again!

Well, after one day of 3 inch boot wearing, makeup applying, and non pony tailing, we are back to elastic waistbands and granola! No school today! Today marks the 5th day of freezing weather with sleet and/or snow. As much as I love this weather, it has stuck around just long enough to make me ready for it to move on! We haven't had a week of regular school since early December, so next week is going to be very LONG. We are loving having Matthew and Bryon with us again today!

Bundle up and stay warm! Tonight, I am making chicken and dumplings. Last night was corn chowder, one of my favorite meals from childhood:

5-6 slices of cooked bacon
1 medium onion
2 C cooked corn (frozen is always best)
1 C cooked, diced potato
1 can mushroom soup
2 1/2 C milk (the closer to whole, the better)
1 t. salt
pepper, garlic salt, and parsley to taste

I add a few shakes of tabasco on mine as well!
Garnish with crumbled bacon

Venturing out

Matthew went to school two hours late today. I had to walk him down to his carpool because there was so much ice on our steps and it was sleeting like crazy. Man, I wish they had canceled school! Mother's Day Out starts in an hour. This will be the first time I have left the perimeter of my house and yard since Friday afternoon.

Will I remember how to put on makeup?
Will I remember how to brush my hair?
Will I remember how to drive?
Can I still wear pants without an elastic waistband?

Stay tuned....

Winter beauty

Lots of cute stories from this morning. Thought I would start off with some pretty pictures taken in my yard on this freezing cold day!

 
 
 
  

Snowed in!

OK, maybe not snowed in. Just a little icy, but I'll take it! I may as well be snowed in. I must have some record going on here. I came home from picking up Matthew from school on Friday afternoon and haven't walked past any of my doors since then!

What have I been doing?
*Watching a National Geographic special on sharks. Fascinating....
 
















*Taking care of my sick daughter. Just fever, congestion, and general lethargy. Under any other circumstances, she would have NEVER fallen asleep on our couch. I've heard of low rise jeans, but THAT is ridiculous! ;)

 













*Watching Seven Brides for Seven Brothers with the family. All three kids loved it! Love family movie nights!

*Organizing our play room. This room is one of the big reasons we bought the house. Now, it is being used as the big toy depository. We took down the train table that has been up since Matthew's 2nd birthday, and replaced it with their fuse ball table. Much roomier!

  












*Having a fire going the entire weekend. Scared of that gas bill....

*Watching the Seattle Seahawks lose in overtime. It hurt my heart seeing Thomas so devastated. Finally, every team we care about is out of contention. No more tears in our house!

*Made breakfast for dinner tonight. My favorite dinner! I made a new recipe for Gingerbread pancakes. Delish!

*Watching the weather channel. Friday night, there was a tornado in our little suburb. Saturday was flash floods. Today, ice falling from the sky! Some kind of weird weather.

*Playing Matthew's electronic Yahtzee. I am addicted.

*Reading a new Rebus book. Love that series!

*Missed Matthew's basketball game to take care of under the weather little siblings.
 
*Never got out of my pjs.

*A fun and interesting weekend! I always love an excuse to hunker down in my house.

Thursday and Thomas

Thank goodness it is Thursday afternoon! Although it has been a short week, it feels like it has drug on longer than it should. It is hard getting the wheels in motion again! I stayed home with Thomas today as he has been pretty congested. Of course I waited over an hour just to get into our doctor and she informed me that he was just a little congested. Why am I relieved and frustrated at the same time?

Here is what Thomas is up to these days:
*He is totally excited that the Seahawks won this week. We are amused at how passionate Thomas is about the things he loves. Whether it is Nascar, the Seahawks, or the color red, he can hardly contain his excitement when speaking about them!

*He has a knack for numbers and seems to grasp addition and subtraction really well. He also likes making things even. I gave him 4 pieces of pizza and gave ME two. He gave her one so they could both have three! Sometimes I will walk by his room and he is quietly counting to one hundred. Last week at church, I noticed him looking on the screen to see what number song we were singing. Then he would turn to the number in the book without help!

*He loves to read and is getting better every day. He runs out every morning to get the paper and finds the sports page to read. He loves stating the "rules" of reading and just this morning was telling me that Waco should really have an "e" at the end of it because the "e" makes the "a" say it's name and you say "a" in Waco!

*The above mentioned conversation is an example of how literal he is. He prefers if we don't say "a hundred" because it is acually "one hundred". He looks at me funny when I use figures of speech.

*He can't stand for anyone to be in trouble. The other day Bryon told Matthew that he would have to get a spanking. Thomas begged Bryon to give him the spanking instead because he hates to see his Buddy get in trouble! He is a much sweeter sibling than I ever thought to be! ;)

*He is big and strong! He weighs just under 50 pounds and is only 3 inches shorter than Matthew. He can easily tackle Matthew now during their daily football game. I imagine that much of this is due to his love of food. Lauren says that during lunch at school, the kids will talk and play at the table and Thomas is in his own little world enjoying every last bite of his lunch! He usually asks for seconds for every meal and prefers vegetables to sweets.

*He talks a great deal about going to kindergarten and "catching up with Buddy". Can't think about that now!

We love our "Sweet T"!

Wednesday and Matthew

Today is a little bit of heaven. No where to go, nothing to do for a few short hours until I pick up Matthew. Poor guy, he is having a hard time getting back into school. He adores school, but is missing being home too. I am putting a movie on for the kids after school so Matthew and I can have some special time. He came into our room several times in the night wanting to sleep with us. This was fine when he was a 20 something pound 2 year old. Not so fine as a 60 pound over 4 feet 7 year old! I enjoyed spending quality time with Matthew over the break. Here is what he is up to these days:

*One word to describe Matthew is INTENSE! I don't think a better word applies. He does everything passionately. You always know when he is in a room. We have come close to banning him from watching football games as he gets so upset when his team loses (much more often than they win) that he cries and is miserable for the rest of the day! Intensity isn't all good or all bad. He loves us intensely and is definitely a Momma's boy. We are always praying that we can channel that intensity into good works as he gets older!

*One of my favorite things about Matthew is his creativity. He loves to write and illustrate books. He also works on "science experiments" and inventions. He is reading a book by Noah McCollough who is a 10 year old. Matthew asks me lots of questions about how a 10 year old could write a book with a nice cover! Maybe he will do the same? ;)

*He loves to learn. He asked Santa Claus for encyclopedias and geography books for Christmas! He likes to challenge himself and I have had to stop him checking out 5th grade books because he is drawn to the challenge of reading them.

*He takes his big brother job very seriously. Although battling his need to annoy Thomas is a daily task for me, for the most part, he is a loving, caring, teaching best friend to Thomas. He likes to correct his grammar and teach Thomas all the things he is learning in school. It isn't unusual to see them walking hand in hand always talking. Not a day goes by where they aren't playing sports together.

There is no competition with ME. He just loves her and carries her all over the place. She adores her big big brother.

*A funny development with Matthew is his need to be Mr. Cool now. Most of his baby traits are gone and he uses popular words and phrases that he didn't learn from me.

*As "cool" as he is, I know he loves when I baby him and tell him all about "when he was a baby".

Just a glimpse into the life of my Matthew. Just like all my children, I couldn't imagine life without him!

Back to life...back to reality!

Our long, wonderful break is over. I always love Christmas break. Spring Break is too short, summer is a little too long. I was sad waking up this morning and watching Matthew walk out the door for his first day back. I got the other two ready and off to Mother's Day Out. I enjoyed working today and knowing the kids were enjoying where they were. The last few weeks, I have seen patients either on the weekend and Super Aunt Lauren has watched them if I needed to see some during the week. I don't know what I would have done without Lauren or/and Bryon!!

The weeks have gone by fast. The kids are changing so much. I want to write a little about each child and I will probably write about a different child each day as I don't have the patience to write it all down tonight!

Mary Elizabeth at 2 1/2
I look at her every day and feel so blessed that she is mine. I couldn't imagine life without her. Here is what she is up to these days:

*It doesn't matter if we are in the grocery store, a restaurant, the bank, etc. Everyone she sees gets a cheerful, "HI!" She has never met a stranger. She loves asking people what their names are. I can't remember a time when she was upset when I left her at church or at Mother's Day Out. Baby Girl needs her social outlet!

*Move over Beyonce', a new Independent Woman is in town. If I hear "ME DO IT!" once, I hear it a thousand times a day. She wants to dress herself, she wants to get herself on and off the potty and wipe herself, she wants to give herself her nightly medicine, she wants to get into her carseat by herself, put her bow it, etc. Everything is BY HERSELF thank you very much! I can't argue with her too much because she can do most everything by herself!

*Perhaps I passed down my bossy gene to her? I was accused of being the bossy older sister. Somehow, the bossy child ended up being last in our house! She delights in telling her brothers what to do and repeats every command I give them. Our conversation last Friday:

me: "Thomas, please get out of Mommy's purse."
Mary Beth: "Honey, please get out of my Mommy's purse!"

Poor Thomas gets it coming and going.


Nana: "Matthew get ready for bed. Mary Elizabeth are you going to bed too?"
Mary Beth (pointing her bossy finger at Matthew): "No. He's going to bed."


*She is very affectionate and loves to give us hugs and kisses unsolicited. Thomas is much the same way, and they spend a good deal of each day hugging all over each other.

*Can I say it? I think she is beautiful and I love staring at her big blue eyes and chubby cheeks.

*She is very observant and notices when people or objects aren't in the right place. She was very concerned today that Matthew wasn't with us like he has been for over 2 weeks.

*She is singing lots of songs and saying her numbers and letters. When did she get to be so big?

*She still requires her Bibi when she is tired or hurt. Heaven help us if Bibi were ever lost!

Just a few things that make our little ME Lou Who our special little girl. What a blessing she is to us.

Pictures tell the story!

Well, Thomas's prayer was answered! (See last post) You have never seen a more excited 5 year old. We let him stay up for the special playoff event. I guess this Cowboy house has turned blue and green for the rest of the season. Go Seahawks!
 
 
  

Cowboys vs. Seahawks

We have quite the feud brewing in our household! We are huge Cowboy fans, but the biggest Seahawk fan east of the Rockies resides in our house. Yes, Thomas has been trying rather successfully to convince his brother and sister to "vote" for the Seahawks! Mary Beth came running in our room this morning squealing "Go Seahawks!" "Go Shaun Alexander!" Bryon and I don't want to see Thomas disappointed, but who can "vote" against America's team?!

Matthew played his first Upwards Basketball game today. At the end of the game, Bryon asked for a volunteer to lead the closing prayer. Thomas jumped up and down begging to pray. Here is what my little 5 year old prayed:


"Dear God, Thank you that everyone played well today. Thank you for everything in the whole wide wrild. And please help the Cowboys lose tonight."

Oh dear. Since Thomas seems most of the time more angel than little boy, I am afraid God will answer this prayer!

For the record, Thomas did say that he would be happy for the Cowboys if they win. We'll see....

It's a new day, it's a new start!

I love January. I love it more every year.

I love taking down the Christmas decorations (that I loved putting up!).
I love going through old clothes and toys and getting rid of clutter.
I love the cold dark atmosphere.
I love reflecting on the old year.
I love planning for the new year.
I love having Matthew home for a few more days.
I love looking at myself--seeing the good and seeing the things I would like to change.

This year, I will:
Start making breakfast more and stop relying on cereal and breakfast bars!
Take better care of my skin!
Lay out clothes on Saturday night for Sunday morning!
Find the good in everyone I come into contact with!

Just a few of the surface things I would like to change this year. The desire to be a better person is always there and doesn't seem heightened this time of year.

Happy 2007 everyone! I can't wait to see what is in store this year.

I am so proud...

Bryon and Josh grew out facial hair for their ski trip. When Bryon came home from the trip, I was eager to see him and even more eager to have my freshly shaven face back! Instead of shaving it all off, the boys decided to have a little fun with facial hair. Lauren and I agreed to 24 hours of this only! ;)

Josh looks like a blacksmith from the Wild West. The jury is still out on Bryon. A few images come to mind:

1. A 1970s porn star.
2. Lester the molester.
3. The lost member of the Village People.
4. A very white Latino man.
5. Inspector Cleseau.

What are your thoughts?

 
  

Christmas photo blog #1

Here are a few pics (more to come) of our family's Christmas. We had a great, fun filled, action packed 4 days and are now enjoying a few down days!
 
 
 
  

In the nick of time!

Bryon, Josh, my brother, and some friends went skiing in Colorado last weekend. They flew home from Denver Tuesday afternoon. The next day, a huge blizzard hit and the Denver airport is shut down. They say it is the biggest snow storm there in years! I am so thankful that they didn't ski one more day. Otherwise, we might have been celebrating Christmas without Bryon! I hope everyone stranded there gets out in time for Christmas.

The Christmas tree of a mother of boys

And for the second pic of the day:

The Cowboys won their game Sunday night. To commemorate the victory, Thomas ripped the headline out of the newspaper and put it on our tree. Who needs crystal ornaments when there is newspaper abundant?


  

"I am the princess..."

"And since I am the princess, I have decided that I don't need to wait until Christmas like everyone else to open presents".

Now, how do you think she figured out which present was hers? That was the only one under the tree so far for her!