Mini-Vacay

After working a crazy schedule for about 3 weeks straight at work, I was able to take off Thursday and Friday and head to Forney for a weekend getaway with my kiddos.

We got there on Thursday and just hung out and went swimming at the neighborhood pool.

Friday we took the kids to Shenanigans (not sure on the spelling). Then we went swimming in the afternoon.

Saturday we went to Legoland in Grapevine. It was a lot of fun. I'm definately glad we went early, because by the time we left there was a ridiculously long line to get in.

Saturday evening we just hung out at Ashley's house until my mom took Ryan, Noah and Nate back to the hotel to spend the night. I stayed at Ashley's with Ty, Eli and Brady. Brady went down early and Ty and Eli were the best playmates ever.

Some pics..

Brady's First Haircut

Sunday, June 5th, we went to get Brady's first haircut. We took Eli and Nate to T&L's, where Andy got his first haircut, but with the boys around, we were never able to get away on a Saturday to be able to take Brady to the same place...so Supercuts it was....

What do you do with a bunch of empty diaper and wipee boxes....

Make a transformer, of course!

World's worst blogger update...

I know, I'm a horrible blogger. Since I've last posted, I have been on my girl's trip to Florida...a much needed break from being a wife and mother. Thank you girls for a great retreat!

Other than that, I have been quite busy at work.

The boys have been staying with Leann, Andy's cousin, during the day. We are supplying her w/ some much needed funds, and she's supplying us w/ care and a break from Daycare for the kiddos. So far so good, but I question her sanity for taking on all 3 everyday.

Seems like so much funny stuff has happened since I've last blogged, but that's the faults with not blogging often, you forget them.

Here is, however, the latest from Nate...

So we were driving home the other day down our dirt road when a cat ran out in front of the car. Luckily we missed it (meaning luckily Andy didnt see it in time to swerve towards it). This event prompted me to ask the boys if they would like for us to get a kitty cat. To that Nate responded, "We gonna steal it from somebody?".

I know I should be concerned, but mainly, I'm just amused.

"That was weak"

Nate calling Eli out.

STAR WARS....those near and far wars!!!

The boys new obsession: Star Wars. They are still down with Transformers but they have added Star Wars to the mix. Eli often mixes them up - but Nate is quick to correct him. Here are some pics and videos of the boys in action.

Brady is officially a walker.

Brady started getting a little brave moving from item to item 2 weekends ago. Last weekend...he took off and hasn't stopped...

Cars parked on the side of the interstate

This morning on the way to drop the big boys off at daycare, Nate noticed that there was a car parked on the side of the interstate.

"Mom, why is that car there?" Nate asked.

Not really knowing, I came up with the best possible answer I could think of, "They probably ran out of gas."

Then when we exited the interstate there was an 18-Wheeler was parked on the side of the exit ramp.

"Did they run out of gas?" Nate asked.

Yes, I could have just said "Yes", but I like to try to give as truthful of answers as I can.

"No, they are probably just sleeping." I said.

Nate concerned said "You can't sleep and drive!".

I said "No, honey, they have beds in their trucks and they pull over to sleep".

Then I made a mistake...I got in over my head with a cartoon analogy.

"You know, like Optimus Prime, he has a bed in him." I said.

Nate quickly corrected me that this analogy makes absolutely no sense.

Nate said "Mom, there is no man in Prime. He just drives his-self."

I conceded.

Easter 2011

This year for Easter the boys were to participate in 3 Easter Egg Hunts each. The first was at their school, the 2nd at my mom's church (the church formerly known as mine), and finally at my Maw Maw's house.

Maundy Thursday:

The boys are in separate classes at one of their schools. (They go to 2 different schools for now because they only went 2 days a week at first, but our childcare situation changed and they needed to start going 5 days a week. We didn't want to be Pre-School drop-outs so they are going to complete their school year at the "old school" as they call it, then solely go to their "new school" post 5/19). Anywho, I went to their schools to watch their Egg Hunts.

Nate's class went first. The eggs were simply all just laid out in a huge sand box / volleyball court. The teacher said "one, two, three, go!" and they were off. Each kid brought 10 eggs each, and there are 10 kids in each class - so 100 eggs. Nate got 30! YES, 30! He wasn't rude or anything, but just very efficient. The other kids were concerned with getting sand in their shoes, or just lolly-gagging in general. Nate was an egg collecting machine! (The eggs were later divided equally between all of the kids).

Then it was time for Eli's class to go. Their's was in a different area. Not a very big area, but a playground. Same situation...100 eggs / 10 kids. The teacher opened the gate and unleashed the animals. Eli walked up to his first egg which was slightly opened. This could not be happening! An open egg! Eli had to get that egg closed before he could go on. I finally had to take the egg from him and make him go get other eggs. I look up and the eggs are looking scarce. I encourage Eli to get moving. He meanders over to another egg, comments on the color, shows it to me proudly before putting it in his basket. Luckily, there was another egg directly at his feet. He picked it up. Then we looked up - NO MORE EGGS. Evidently, there were some "Nate-like" egg picker uppers. So Eli had 3 eggs, yes 3! Saddest part was, on his way back in the door, some kid talked him out of 2 of them. So, he ultimately made it back to the classroom with one egg.

How can brothers who shared a womb be so different!?

Good Friday:

Andy and I had to work and the boys had to go to daycare. After we got out, we made the long drive to Shreveport. The length of the trip is made worse with the amount of words Nate is capable of saying in a minute - my guess, no less than 250 words per minute. Then further made more difficult because Eli evidently was beginning to get sick. He was sporting a fever and cried uncontrollably about every 15 minutes. It was AWESOME!

Holy Saturday:

The boys woke up. Eli VERY sick! Never took his temperature, but he was on fire. He complained that his cheek hurt - which could have been an ear or a tooth...not sure. He hardly moved and did not feel up to the Easter Egg Hunt at the church. Andy stayed home with him and me, mom, dad, Nate and Brady met Ashley, Rob, Ryan, Ty, Lisa and Noah there.

All of the boys had a great time! There were tons of eggs. High light for me is there were 8 "golden" prize eggs. 2 in each age group. And guess who found one - NATE! I'm telling you - this kid can find some Easter Eggs.

Due to the fact that all of the kids spanned every age group, it was hard to participate in all, so we just let Brady pick up some eggs in Ty's age group.

The remainder of the day was spent in my parent's back yard with a mean washer's tournament. My mom, who is a washers freak of nature, never lost. We think that since she "Quitired" she's just been in the back yard practicing for this tournament.

Easter Sunday:

Eli woke up feeling a lot better. I'd say 90%. So we went ahead and went to church. Service was good. The boys stayed in the nursery. When we went to get them, Eli was back to feeling bad again. By the time we go to my Maw Maw's house, he was inconsolable. I felt really bad for him. He fell asleep on the couch. Nate played outside with the rest of the cousins in a big refridgerater box.

The Easter Eggs were hidden. We woke Eli up to see if he wanted to go outside and find eggs, he decided he absolutely wanted to. I was glad he didnt miss out again. All of the kids did very well finding eggs. Brady did a great job picking up the eggs, but his aim in his basket - not so good!

My sister brought "money" eggs. I believe there were 14 of them. My father, who has never been known to really care about much, was one of the hiders. He not so thoughtfully hid all of the money eggs down one fence line all in a row. Well, that just happened to be the route that Nate took. He found 11 of the 14 eggs. Nate poops gold...it's ridiculous.

It was an awesome weekend....but a late night getting back home to be back at work Monday morning.

The Monkey House

This morning I heard a commotion in Brady's room at 6:30 am. This is what I walked into:

Please note that the big boys do not have diapers, underwear or any type of pants on. Evidently, they both had to poop when they got up. And, they did so all by themselves. Yes, this is good, and an improvement, but there is one thing the boys have not mastered. WIPING!! I'm not sure Nate even attempted to wipe. Eli attempted but he must have become frustrated w/ the process because he very quickly let me know that he had thrown the WHOLE roll of toilet paper in the potty. Sure enough, there was an entire roll drenched and ruined that I had to fish out. Great way to start your Saturday morning.

Today it is quite cold outside, so playing outside is just really not an option, so I decided to take them to a place called The Monkey House. It's in Fort Smith. It is a big building w/ about 7-8 huge blow up jumpy/bouncy/sliding things. The boys absolutely love it. They are out like a light right now too. It requires lots of energy, which is awesome for nap time.

The not so sweet picture via text

Last Saturday night, Amber and Daniel came over to watch our children so Andy and I could have a much needed "date night". Basically, just go out to eat w/out screaming children. Never thought just running to Cheddars for a quick dinner and back home could be so enjoyable. While out to eat, I received a text message from my sister-in-law, Amber. The text was a picture of just Eli, or so I thought. I have a small phone w/ not a very big screen on it, so I was only able to see the top part when it first came to me. After scrolling down, check out what I saw.... I laughed so much! I absolutely loved it. Thank you Amber and Daniel for allowing us to get away - and keeping the kids safe! I foresee a senior yearbook ad picture!!

Transformers

Eli and Nate are completely eaten up with all things Transformers. They know more about Transformers than I know about...well, I dont really know alot about anything...anywho...you smell what I'm steppin' in. They know every Transformer's name, who built them or where they came from, and most importantly, if they are good or bad. Everyone and everything is categorized in one of 2 ways these days. You are either good or bad. There is no grey area with them. Here is a video to prove their obsession...Note: They are talking about Energon Cubes...for those of you not so Transformer savvy, that is a Transformer's energy source and most all episodes are evolved around getting more of them.

New work trailer / toy

Due to the size of our property, we decided we needed some sort of trailer to hook up to the four wheeler to do yard work and various chores. Turns out its a pretty good toy for all. Including the dogs....

Some pics....

Long time no post...

Yeah, I admit, I'm not the greatest blogger. With 3 kids 3 and under, a full time job (that involves being on the computer all day), it is hard to find the time and the will to get on the computer when I get home. I do however need to be better at it. I have basically not documented anything of my sweet, sweet Brady's first year of life. I kind of feel a little guilty for getting on to my mother for not having much footage of me and my life compared to my sister, but it is true...it is just different w/ the 2nd or in my case 3rd child.

Well, Brady turned one on March 16th. We had a small birthday party for him at our house. We did all the usuals of opening presents and letting him have at his own birthday cake. Which - surprisingly, and I say surprisingly because of the chubbage that is my child, he didnt really dig in at all. We had to basically put his hand in the cake to make him eat any of it.

This year has been quite busy. It has been pretty difficult balancing everything. But it has also been a lot of fun. The hardest part is having 2 kids on one level and another at a totally different one. Brady is still not walking - so playing outside really isnt an option yet. The boys would rather be outside than anything else. (Although, it is just now getting warm enough outside to do this.)

Another thing I have been trying to balance is getting myself back into shape. It is unanimously decided that there will not be any more children, so there is no reason not to lose the weight I had gained through all the baby having. I have to this day now lost 67.5 lbs. My initial goal is 80 lbs. Once I hit that, I may decide I need to lose more. But that's what I'm going for right now.

The best way to probably sum up the past year would probably be through pictures. So...

Santa at my work. Brady did not dig Santa.

Nate.

Eli.

This was the pic on our Christmas card.

Nate broke his foot jumping off our bed.

Brady's first Christmas. He had fun.

The big boys helped me make Christmas cookies.

Our annual Christmas pic at Joyce's house.

Sweet Brady bear.

The boys are obsessed w/ Transformers. These are guns on his arms if you cant tell.

One nite this winter me and the big boys stayed a nite in a hotel w/ a pool.

Eli and Nate - pretty good snow this year.

Annual family snow pic.

Randy from the Christmas story.

Nate's new big boy bed for his birthday.

Eli's new big boy bed for his birthday.

Nate hamming it up at his birthday party.

Eli turns 3!