Catch Up, Camping and Other Adventures

Not surprisingly, I am behind again. I have lots and lots of photos below and many of them are just in the order I uploaded them! So, please bear with me because they are not in chronological order. The first set of photos is from Kristi's baby shower. Kristi, my lifelong friend, will be giving birth to Sydney Klodzinski in the first week of March! I am so excited for her! Alicia, our 3rd Muskateer was sick with the flu, but still provided a delicious punch recipe, a fruit tray with yummy fruit dip and the cutest little tutu and bow for Sydney! We missed her, but were all happy that she didn't share her flu germs with us. This was the first shower I have ever hosted, so I was a little nervous, but I think it turned out well. Heather was invaluable, she helped me pick out games and decorations, she helped clean the house and make the food. I am so happy I had so much help! This first picture is of Kristi and me. Kristi and her mom, Geneva Nicholas

Kristi and the cake (it was really good!)

Heather, my mom and me

Heather getting some punch

The next set of photos are from Caleb and Paul's camping trip! I am not sure exactly how to describe all the emotions this trip brings up for me. Caleb was so excited it was contagious. For weeks, he would ask us how much longer until he got to go camping, would talk about what he and Daddy were going to do when they got there, ask if they could "___" when they went. The night before they were going to leave, he was so excited that he asked if he could go to bed early so he could make it hurry and be morning. Seeing my little guy this excited made me excited for him! I am so happy that he got to spend a weekend with his Daddy and that he looked forward to it so much! As adults, it's hard to get too excited about anything. New purchases come with bills and new responsibilities, vacations mean lots of preparation, extra expenses, packing, unpacking, laundry, stresses of unfamiliar situations, etc. Adulthood just doesn't afford many opportunities to experience unbridled joy without any anxiety. Watching Caleb be so excited with his only worries being that Daddy would sleep in the tent with him and that he could take Yellow Puppy (his favorite stuffed animal) was all he needed to know to feel secure. Wouldn't it be wonderful to experience that kind of happiness again? His joy made me joyful, he has such an unbridled, unhibited zest for life. Every emotion that he feels, he feels to the utmost of his being. There are times when this is very stressful for Paul and me, when Caleb is angry or upset, his emotions are difficult to deal with. After years of not knowing what to do, I think we are finally realizing that we cannot control Caleb's actions or emotions, the best we can do is model anger control and try to calmly talk him through his not-so-pleasant emotional outbursts. I am starting to see myself as more of a guide than a law maker because there is no controlling him. He just fights back harder and I've started seeing him in a whole new way that just about breaks my heart. When he is in trouble and sitting on his bed, I just recently have started going up there to talk to him while he is still angry (I used to wait until he had time to calm down) and my little guy is so angry that he is shaking and crying. I used to think he was defiant and I needed to "break his will". Now I think this was the most horrible, awful approach to such a pure little spirit. When I am able to be calm and talk quietly, empathize with him and kindly explain a better course of action in the future, he just begs for hugs and kisses and tells me he is sorry. When I yell, reprimand and try to "make" him do something, he responds like a wounded animal, he just lashes out. As a parent, I want to teach by example, to be willing to love and forgive, to be approachable and not be so quick to condemn. I remember when we had the boys Dedicated at church, Pastor Sal told the parents that we were going to make mistakes as parents, but when we erred, to err on the side of grace. At the time, I just accepted that as that I was already being a kind parent because I don't dole out painful punishments. Now, I think that words and harsh actions can be just as harmful, if not more so, to a child. I went off on a long tangent here, but my Caleb has pushed me and taught me new lessons in life. I still struggle with how best to parent him, but for now, I think we are on the right track. I suspect that all 3 of my kids will teach me as much as I teach them. I hope that when they look back on their childhood they remember a mom who was quick to praise, hug and forgive and not a condeming woman with steam blowing out of her ears who ran around shouting orders and doling out punishments.

Back to Caleb and his uninhibited approach to life and his exceptional joy at a weekend camping trip with his Daddy; they had a very good time. The first day they put up the tent, ate lunch, played on the playground, went riding in paddle boats, fished, played some more on the playground, roasted marshmallows and hotdogs for dinner!

This is them before they left the house

Caleb standing in front of the tent

Caleb eating lunch, I am sure you will notice his a bottle of his beloved root beer next to him.
Playing at the playground

In this picture, Caleb is swinging. I was actually talking to Paul while he was pushing Caleb on the swings. Paul pushed him much higher than I usually push him and at first Caleb was screaming in fear. Paul consoled him a bit and Caleb started sounding a little happier but hestitant. When he decided that it was safe and he wasn't going to fall out, he started screaming again but this time just out of happiness and enjoying the moment.

The paddle boats


Before they left, Caleb was watching a show on TV where a boy was climbing a tree and he looked at me and said "Mommy, you never let me climb trees". I was not sure where that came from because there are no trees around us that lend themselves to climbing. He seems to be enjoying climbing this tree anyway!

Roasting hot dogs for dinner (of course, since I bought their supplies, this is an Organic Turkey hot dog with no nitrates or nitrites! HA HA)

Saturday morning, Caleb woke up ready to go fishing! So, they headed out with poles and tackle.
This picture is so sad, it makes me want to cry just looking at it. Apparently Caleb was hopping on the rocks, slipped and got soaked. Paul said he was upset because he thought it meant they couldn't fish anymore.

They got him some dry pants and shoes and went back out fishing again. My little guy caught 3 fish! This is the first one
the second one

and if you look to the left above his head, you will see the third one.


Paul said he made him touch them before throwing them back but Caleb wasn't very excited about touching "gross" fish. Paul said the only thing that got him to touch them was that Paul said he could tell me about it and that I would think it was yucky. I do think it was yucky and I don't know why he had to touch them but I am just going to accept it as a guy thing. That night they roasted hot dogs and marshmallows again and got up early the next morning. They were home about 10:30 AM and after unloading and showering, we all had a nice lunch at Jason's Deli. I was very happy to see my guys!

What was I doing while they were gone? Getting henna tattoos, of course! Zachary spent some time with Becky (Paul's mom) while I had some friends over. We had lots of yummy snacks (including the delicious brownies I made below), chatted and my friend, Amy, gave us all beautiful henna tattoos. Henna is a made from crushed up leaves and scented oils and it makes this deep reddish brown temporary stain on your skin. It's perfectly safe and it lasts 1-3 weeks. I have one on my hand and my foot.

On my birthday, the kids and I went to the Olive Garden. We had a nice time and the kids were pretty good.

Caleb smiling at me
Who needs forks when your hands work better?

Zachary playing "peek-a-boo" by putting his napkin on his head

Caleb and me

Heather and Zachy

The boys and I made German Chocolate cupcakes for my birthday. They are so good! They may not be beautiful, but they are super tasty.

On Tuesday, I went to lunch with my friend Jessica and her new baby, JT. He is 7 weeks old in this picture but he was born 6 weeks early, so he should be 1 week old. Jessica looks awesome and is really enjoying motherhood. Little JT is 8 pounds and adorable!

A few weekends ago, April & James came into town to visit Becky & Doug and they invited us to eat out with them. We went to Kenny & Ziggy's. It was really expensive but the portions were massive. Zachary spent most of the meal trying to ruin Becky's food & drinks. He thought her drink needed whole sugar packets dipped in it, his fingers were required to increase the flavor of everything she had and was especially fascinated with her au jus sauce. Caleb is learning to write in school and I was lucky enough to get a picture of him working on his letters. He is doing so well!

Zachary has become fascinated with the toaster lately and keeps sticking items in there when we aren't looking. The night before this picture was taken, I had cleaned many miscellaneous items out of the toaster. The next morning I was making the kids some frozen waffles and didn't think to look in there because I had just emptied it and didn't think Zachary had time to put anything new in there. Below is a picture of what happens to a pen when you "toast" it.

The weekend Zachary and I were alone (Paul & Caleb were camping) we went to the park and
Zachary had such a wonderful time swinging.

On Valentine's Day my mom took the boys and me out to eat breakfast at Denny's and then we went back to her house to play. The boys had a great time visiting with Grammy and especially loved the Sprite she gave them.

Lately, the boys have been fighting NON-STOP! They are pushing, shoving, hitting, kicking, taking toys away from one another and just being mean. Below was one of the rare moments where they are being loving and sweet.

I think we are finished with the cold weather, but we enjoyed it while it lasted. This next picture was taken on an especially cold day before the boys went to Pre-school. They are too cute in their hats and gloves.
One night when it was especially cold outside, we decided to make s'mores in the fireplace. Heather didn't think it was "safe" but I'm not sure how it's different from a campfire other than there are less exposed side of the fire, making it easier to keep little kids from falling in. The boys liked to burn the marshmallows and enjoyed it when they lit up with fire. However, they did not want to eat those blackened little pieces of hard sugar. We had a good time.

Parenting A Teenager

Well, we have had our first major drama issue this weekend and I hope we did OK. Our little Heather's heart was broken by Jacob, her boyfriend of 2 1/2 months. (This is Heather's 3rd boyfriend, but this was the first boy she ever talked to outside of school -- they did not go on dates or see one another outside of school but were on the phone & Facebook pretty often). Until this happened, we did not understand parents who got too involved in their kids' lives and we really, really did not understand parents involved in cyber-bullying. We may have crossed the line into being too involved, but we did try to make this a good time to talk about cyber-bullying.

The story unfolded as follows, Heather and Jacob were dating happily, no signs of problems as far as Heather knew until Friday morning. (This was the ice storm day when school was cancelled). Heather gets a text from Jacob that morning that says he doesn't think it's working out anymore. We think he is a little punk for breaking up with her by text message and for doing it at the start of a 3 day weekend because he won't have to talk to her or explain anything for 3 days. Heather is at her mom's that weekend so Paul and I can mainly communicate with her via text messaging and FaceBook. Her wall on FaceBook is full of the kind of stuff you would expect from a slightly dramatic girl experiencing her first heartbreak. Paul and I were quite worried about her all weekend and more often than not, she was our topic of conversation. Paul sent her a text jokingly offering to arrest the boy for breaking her heart and we "liked" a comment on FaceBook by her older brother that also jokingly said he was going to "beat Jacob's butt". Just to be on the safe side (or the dorky side, whichever) I sent Heather a FaceBook message saying that while I am not supportive of violence, I did think Kevin's (Heather's older brother) post was funny and it was awesome that he was feeling protective of his little sister.

The next morning, Jacob apparently called her, apologized and asked her to go out with him again. Heather told him to wait until Sunday night and then she would let him know. She says that she blocked him from viewing all of her very sad posts from FaceBook; hopefully she did. All day Saturday and Sunday she wrestled with decision. Some of her friends were picking on her a lot for even considering it but she was sad and wanted things to be how they were. Paul talked to her and told her it was her decision but to remember that if she was too easy on him, he would do it again. Sunday night, she told Jacob that she would go out with him again. A few of her friends made fun of her on her wall. I was a bit worried for her on Monday, I was afraid she was going to have a rough day.

Monday she came home from school and barely made it through the door before she was in tears. Jacob ignored her all day at school. We tried to make her feel better, we talked about how learning to date is hard for everyone and gave her our suggestions for how to deal with these things next time. She was trying to decide if she was going to break up with him while she did her homework and chores and by the time she made the decision that it was best to let the relationship go, she got ANOTHER text from this boy saying that he was in love with some other girl. We took advantage of this opportunity to talk about healthy relationships. We told her that relationships come and go and we would never be upset with anyone for simply breaking up with her. If your feelings change, you have to upfront and honest with people. We also told her that if she ever wanted to break up with someone, that was OK too. However, we told her that the right way to do it, is to talk about it in person and do it nicely and respectfully. We did not approve of Jacob taking the cowardly way out and that was why we were upset with him. Obviously, Heather was hurt and started to write "loser" on his wall, but we encouraged her not to, saying that while we don't like the boy for how he treated her, it's not nice to name call. We strongly suggested she "unfriend" him on FaceBook which she did not seem to want to do but when she finally decided to, she seemed instantly happier. She was still pretty upset, so to make her feel better, Paul found a picture of a horse's behind and told her she could post that on her wall and just ask who that could be. She did not name any names and she could not tag him in the photo because she wasn't his friend anymore. She lit up after that and was in a great mood the rest of the evening. I hope that we made her feel a little empowered and helped her to know that she didn't just have to take other people's crap. At some point, one of her friends who is also friends with Jacob, tagged him in the photo and I guess Jacob untagged himself. Heather put on FaceBook that they should tag him again and Paul asked her to take that comment off. He reminded her that he was a person with feelings and if he didn't want it on his wall, he shouldn't have to have it there. She quickly deleted her comment.

This morning before she went to school, I reminded her that the only reason we were OK with the picture is because he was pretty mean to her. I reminded her again, that she is not to call him names on FaceBook or at school because that could be considered bullying. She seemed to get it and I am hoping that she refrains from being ugly to him at school today. It is so tempting when someone has hurt you to be cruel, but she is such a smart kid that I think she'll do the right thing.

I don't think that we will get as involved in her future relationships but it is hard to know where the line is. We want to use these opportunities to teach her and if we aren't involved, we won't be able to. We want her to know that we love and support her no matter what she does, but that we do want the best for her. So, how does a parent know how much to be involved? I don't know. I do hope this boy Jacob has learned to treat girls with a little more respect and I hope Heather has learned that she isn't a doormat and doesn't have to just take whatever is dished out to her. I'm sure he is a nice kid or else Heather wouldn't have liked him in the first place.

The Boys

We have A LOT of birthdays in February, so we are working on writing "Happy Birthday" I was working with Caleb while Zachary colored and pulled all the paper off the crayons. I am pretty sure Zachary even ate a bit of one of the crayons because part of it was missing.





Caleb's funny smile.



We went to the playground today and right after I took this picture, Zachary went off the side of the slide! He has never done that, I'm not sure if I distracted him or what but thankfully he was just fine.

The boys climbing a rock at the playground.


Caleb climbing on the equipment

After we came home, the ice cream truck came by. This is the first time I've let the boys get an ice cream from the truck but they seemed to really enjoy it.

While I still remember the cute way that Zachary talks, I am going to try and write down some of the things he says. I am sure that tomorrow I will think of 10 things I forgot to write down, but at least it's a start! When I sat down to write all this out, I was amazed at how many words I came up with. He knows a lot more words than I thought he did, it's just that he isn't very clear yet. These are not in any particular order other than how they popped in my head! :)

Water: wa*war

Going to bed & sleeping: ni*nide (he is trying to say night night but he drops the first t altogether and the second one comes out like a d)

hot: haaaw (again he drops the t sound and he elongates the a)

yellow: lel*low (changes the y to an l, but otherwise it's right on)

brother: buh*boo (there is almost a hint of an r but its not really there, I'm not sure how to write out an almost r sound)

sister: di*der (rhymes with sister)

baby: baay beee (the sounds are right he just draws them out a little longer)

juice: jew

ball: baw

candy: nyan*nye (nye rhymes with knee but has a y sound)

turkey: key

cheese: ee (always says it twice, ee ee when he wants cheese)

Olivia (the tv show): ee*uh

Barney: nyar*nye

girl: dull

butterfly: fuh*foo*fwy (he says it really fast, so it's hard to get it exactly right)

mommy: mom*mee

daddy: dad*dee

get down: det down

sit down: dit down

dog: dawg*gee

cat: me*ow

fish: fi*fee (rhymes with fifty. He used to say vee which rhymes with key but now he says fifee)

bird: burr

sky: dye (rhymes with hi)

sun: shun

grandma: mee maw

poppy: pop*pee (all men over 40 are poppy!)

banana: na*nuh (just like we say banana, minus the first syllable)

cow: ca*ow, moo (he draws it out to 2 syllables and then always follows it with moo!)

egg: ay (rhymes with hay)

no: nuh*oh (he draws this out to 2 syllables too. he loves to say this one!)

mine: mine

please: me

sorry: zja*shee (he always puts his ear to his shoulder when he says it too, it's so cute)

apple: bap*ple

lunchbox: bun*ba (this is another one he has to say twice, bunba! bunba! when I pick him up from pre-school he often smiles at me then runs to point to his lunchbox. I don't get a hug until we grab his lunchbox)

bottle: ba ba (by the way, he is totally off the bottle since January 21st!!)

owie: ow*wee (when he gets hurt)

bubbles & balloon (yes, they sound the same): bu boo

light: lie

mouth: maow (rhymes with now)

nose: no

eye: eye

hair & ear (they sound the same): year

poop: poop*ee (poopie)

thank you: dyan*doo

shoe: you or zjoo

sock: yok

play: pway

french fry: fwen*fwy

OK, that is all I can think of tonight!

The House & Memories

Starting last weekend, our mission has been to fix a lot of this little problem areas in our home that we ignore. The nursery was changed into a normal bedroom; no more Winnie the Pooh wallborder, no more blue ceiling and no more baby green walls! Now the ceiling is white and the walls are the pale yellow of the rest of the upstairs. It was a little difficult to change it all out, I remember picking out the paint colors and the wallpaper so clearly! I remember how excited I was and that we picked it all out while I was still in my first trimester! Being pregnant is always exciting but the first time is just so full of anticipation and joy for a whole new chapter in life.

OLD NURSERY

NOW:

We also finally hung Heather's new curtains and the pictures she got at Christmas in her room. Her room really is cute. We even found purple plate switches at Target that match her curtains!

We also pulled the baby gate supports out of the walls, patched up the holes and painted them. We've done a lot of touch up painting and are almost done except that we are having a hard time finding the paint for the trim pieces. We have also ordered slipcovers for the couches. I still have some more junk to go through but I have gone through some of it and even taken an old computer to a recycling place.

We also bought the XBOX Kinect and everyone loves it! Caleb has been having a ball playing Kinectimals and Heather got a dancing game that I really enjoy and Paul got a sports game. The only one who doesn't like is Zachary because he gets in everyone's way.

Heather went to a beading glass with Becky today and made a beautiful bracelet. We paid for Heather & Becky to go as a birthday present for Becky but Heather really enjoyed it too. Here is a picture of her bracelet that she made.

She is also going to have some friends spend the night tonight. Last night, Becky & Mr. Doug came over for dinner because we were celebrating Becky's birthday. I made Fettuccine Alfredo from scratch and it was awesome!

We are planning on joining the YMCA soon and are looking forward to being able to exercise regardless of the weather. I am still honoring my commitment to be a healthier me but sometimes have difficulty when it is too cold or wet outside. Last summer we were members of the YMCA and all the kids really enjoyed it. We are looking forward to doing this again.

Wednesday, January 26th, was the 10th anniversary of the day Paul and I met! TEN YEARS!! AMAZING! Friday, January 28th, was the 10th anniversary of the day I met Heather. It seems so long ago, she was so little back then. This picture was taken a few months after I met her, but it is one of the earliest ones I can find from after I met her. This was when we went to San Antonio for her 4th birthday and she was learning to skate. Such a little doll! Caleb is now 4, seems hard to believe.

Here is a picture of Heather and me in August of 2001. She and I both look so much younger! This was taken at the same Chuck E Cheese I now take the boys to!

One last picture for old time's sake, this was taken in February 2001, not too long after Paul and I met.

The Kids

HEATHER
Heather is my "little momma", she loves to be in charge and is a wonderful helper! There are days when I am not sure how I would make it without her. She is always willing to jump in and help with very little complaining. I know I was not so good-natured as a child, I remember whining quite a bit when I was asked to help. She just seems to have been born with the knowledge that families have to work together to make things run smoothly. I am so thankful for her!
Heather has been struggling this year in school, especially in French, but has really been putting her nose to the grind stone to get her grades up. We are so proud of the young lady she is becoming! Through her hard work and diligence, she managed to bring her grades up so that her semester grades were all A's & B's.
She seems really happy lately, we think she is really enjoying having a boyfriend. Though we STILL have not met him, he seems to be a nice young man. Heather really crack us up with how embarrassed she gets about Jacob. Paul and I were picking on her just a little about not wanting us to meet him and she started to cry and ran upstairs. Of course we both apologized for upsetting her, told her we would not talk about it if it bothered her and reminded her how much much fun she was having just a second ago making fun of both Paul and me! It is easier to dish it out than to take it, but really, our teasing was quite mild. Paul teases more than me, and if I am doing it, I try to be very sensitive (though not sensitive enough this time, I guess!) The Middle School years really are hard, everything is so much drama. We have tried to tell her that it is fine that she has a boyfriend. We expect her to be interested in people romantically and not only is it normal, but we have had boyfriends/girlfriends and even gone beyond that and gotten married and had kids! We understand that she likes this boy and it's OK. Yet, she persists in being embarrassed whenever we mention him. I don't remember too much about the Middle School years, I think blocked them because they were so traumatic. At least Heather is almost out of this super emotional time, though who knows what High School will bring! She is a smart, beautiful and well grounded kid, so I'm not too worried about her. I know the drama will continue (she is a girl) but I think she will be just fine! I suspect the embarrassment about boys will lighten as time goes on. She really is a much better Middle Schooler than I was. Most of the time, she is comfortable in her skin and pretty sure of herself. That is a big thing at her age! I have often felt that is mature beyond her years.

CALEB
Ah, my Caleb, our family comedian. The other night at dinner, Heather was angry about something that seemed insignificant to Paul and me and Caleb was asking why Heather was angry. We told her that it's because she is a teenager and teenager's are just emotional. Later that evening, we were all in the living room and Caleb announces "Heather is always angry because she is a teenager." This kind of made us smirk because that conversation had been a while ago, but we humored him and asked why he was angry sometimes. He responded "Well, I'm just a 4 year old teenager." He is right, he really is. When he gets angry he rolls his eyes and slams doors and has to have the last word. I am not sure my sanity can survive 2 teenagers!

This morning, we were getting ready to go to pre-school and Zachary was getting into my stuff and I told him that that belonged to Mommy and he needed to play with his toys and leave Mommy's stuff alone. Caleb immediately adds "Zachary, you need to play with your toys and not mine! And, mommy is my toy!"

Last week, we were all sitting at dinner and Caleb got tickled at something and just started belly laughing. He has the best laugh and it is so contagious! Before I knew it, we were all sitting there cracking up and none of us were quite sure why! He is constantly entertaining us with the silly things he says and does. If I am sad or upset, I can count on him to cheer me up. He is starting to show signs of becoming a little helper, too. Occasionally, he will offer to help me clean up. He knows that I don't like the house to be dirty and when he wants some mommy praise, he knows how to get it. Yesterday morning, Zachary was being a bear (see below) and Caleb grabbed a bag of trash I had tied up and just took it out to the garage for me without even being asked! He sometimes picks up his toys spontaneously and most of the time, doesn't mind pitching in when asked. He does have days where he thinks it is horribly unfair, but I try to explain to him that being part of a family means you have to help out (and I usually offer him chocolate chips) so he's generally pretty agreeable about doing his share.

ZACHARY
It is a good thing God made Zachary so stinkin' cute! He gets into EVERYTHING and charms his way out of trouble. Caleb may have the best laugh, but Zachary has the best smile. When he has done something he shouldn't, he gives me this little look that is usually accompanied by a little dance and it is almost impossible not to laugh at him. He knows how to work Mommy, that is for sure. Though, yesterday morning, he was in a mood and driving me crazy! He woke up grumpy and had a really bad morning. He started off by getting into my make-up brushes and my lotion and "painting" the bathroom sink! He would not leave his brother alone and was constantly scratching him, hitting him, sitting on him, and being very mean to Caleb. As soon as I handed him his breakfast, he was pelting us with food and he got it taken away. The kid has a great arm, he can throw things far and with pretty good accuracy. At the grocery store, he wiggled out of the seatbelt, turned around and grabbed a carton of eggs from the basket and threw them on the floor! I wanted to leave there so badly! Luckily, another mom was on the aisle and went for help and very nicely came and told me that someone was coming to clean it up. She was very kind and I'm glad because I might have gone off on anyone who had anything negative to say at that moment. To make things worse, Zachary kept reaching into the cart to get things and I was already furious with him. It was not a good day at the store! On, the same day, he also managed to get into the diaper pail and get some poopy diapers out and make quite a mess! I don't really understand how he did that because it's sealed and difficult to get to the diapers. The little doll also loves to climb our book shelves and grab books and throw them on the floor; he's even torn up a few. He climbs on everything, even bicycle helmets, to get to the things he wants. He is constantly in the sink, on the counters, in the trash, etc. I do recognize that he is curious and determined -- those traits will serve him well if I can get him through toddlerhood! He wants to know about everything and will not give up! Every night I am thankful that we have made it another day without a trip to the E/R. I know it's coming, I just want to delay it as long as possible.
He is my cuddle bug too, he loves to be held and petted. He constantly asks me to sit on the couch with him and just hold him. It is so precious and almost impossible to say no. Caleb likes affection, but he can't be still long enough to just sit and cuddle.

I am blessed to have 3 wonderful kids, whom I dearly love! I will try to do a post next time with pictures, but this time I really wanted to write out some of the funny things the kids do while I still remember!

A NEW YEAR!!!

This was a rough Christmas for us, my Papa was in the hospital for 5 1/2 weeks (November 29 - January 6) and during that time he had 5 heart attacks and 1 mini-stroke. He got to go home for a week and had a massive stroke with brain hemorraging on January 12th. Right now, we don't know what his brain function is going to be like. For several days he was on life support but now he is able to breathe on his own but he has not talked or done much yet. It is a very sad and emotional time for our family. I have found myself with very little patience and am not being the mommy I want to be, but I am trying to hold it together. Other than my grandfather's struggles, we had a nice Christmas. We got to see our family and the time in the car went really well. The boys were very well behaved and we are so glad! Heather is always good in the car and she has her ipod and cell phone to play with if she doesn't like the movie the boys are watching! We did come home in time for Christmas so Santa found us at home and we had a very nice Christmas Day! The order of my pictures is going to be fairly random because I have stopped and started this post so many times, I'm not really sure anymore how I inteded to do it originally! How sad is that?!?!



The two pictures were taken in San Antonio. The first is Paul's dad's backyard, their pool has a crack in it and is empty. The kids had a great time going in there and throwing acorns at one another. I did not approve of this game, but Paul encouraged it. In the picture, Heather is pretending to be overwhelmed by her little brother's acorn throwing abilities. The second picture is Caleb with April & James wearing his UT football gear. Go Longhorns! (Better luck next year!)

The next three are of the kids coming down the stairs Christmas morning. That was really a fun day!


These three pictures were taken in Alexandria, La. In the first picture they are playing football at my Nanny & Papa's house. In the second picture Zachary is trying to hide in his suitcase and in the third we are at Steve & Sonia's house playing with their new puppy.

To ring in the new year, Paul and I went to Austin to see April and James while the boys stayed with Paul's mom. Apparently, their cute smiles and repeated requests to go to Itz won over Mr. Doug. After that, the boys, Becky & Mr. Doug shot a few fireworks and played with Sparklers and had a very fun night! We went to an Indian restaurant in Austin and then played some games and chatted. It was a nice break for us and I always enjoy hanging out with my sister-in-law.

Surprisingly, we all slipped on our fitness and healthy eating routine over the holidays (SHOCKING!) and have been back to healthy eating and a lot of exercise. We are trying some new foods and are all a little apprehensive. I made a vegetable curry that was actually very good, though it took hours to make. Tonight we are having a lentil & spinach dish that no one is too excited about. The weather has made exercising difficult, but we go when we can and we are definitely eating better.

Heather and the boys started back to school last week; Heather was less than thrilled and the boys were ecstatic. Isn't it funny how a few years makes such a difference! Some of the kids in Caleb's class were clingy to their mom's on the first day, but not Caleb. He hugged Ms. Mercedes and ran off to play, I had to chase him down for a goodbye hug! Zachary was a little unsure, but once Ms. Vera picked him, he was ready to go with her. One of Heather's friends took a very cute picture of her with her boyfriend, Jacob. Heather looks so happy! She and this boy, Jacob, have been together since November 15 and they are sickenly cute. "I miss you so much" "No, I miss you more" -- ah, puppy love!

I am working hard to get the house back in order and I am going to try to really organize some things that I've been putting off in the next few weeks. I'm tired of all the junk everywhere! Isn't it funny how you get so used to your accumulations of random stuff that you don't even see it anymore? I am hoping to change that.

Here is the boys picture with Santa this year. Zachary didn't cry, but he doesn't look thrilled either. This year, Caleb was really excited to see Santa and couldn't wait!

Fun Stuff

On Friday, Heather had her Winter Dance at school. She was super excited and looked gorgeous! She took some pictures with her phone at the dance and then we took some at our house. Her boyfriend, Jacob, did not get to go; she was a little disappointed about that. She still had a good time hanging out with her friends.

Heather and Sarah Langhoff

Heather and Erika Erwin

Sarah Mary and Erika Erwin

Heather and Paul

Heather :)

Sunday night we drove the kids out to Prestonwood Forest to see the lights. Zachary loved it! He continuously yelled "LIGHTS, LIGHTS, LIGHTS!" for about the first 30 minutes. He also yelled "FROTHY!" anytime he saw a snowman (for Frosty) and "SANTA" whenever he saw a Santa yard decoration. I think we all had a nice time seeing all the decorations. I took pictures of some of the really neat ones. Zachary didn't make it all the way home, he fell asleep in the car from all the excitement.