Easter 2008

Well, it's a little late in the week, I know, but this is honestly the first time that I have actually had a moment to write about our wonderful Easter weekend.

The kids and I headed down to Mom & Dad's on Friday and Jared followed on Saturday. Upon our arrival, I took the Babies by the bank to see Pawpaw. He enjoyed the visit and it was good to see some special faces that I hadn't seen in quite a while. Later on in the evening, Mom and I took the kids shopping in San Marcos, which was eventful to say the least! Mommies, you can all probably relate to this little story; So I am in the dressing room trying on a shirt. Hayden is with me like usual. Nothing new. We go back out into the store, I turn to look at him and he is proceding to take his shirt off. After several attempts to redress him and to explain to him the "No shirt, no service" policy, I gave up. Needless to say, we shopped with a half naked two year old. Friday afternoon, tired from the drive, who wants to fight it? A few odd looks, who cares. He's two and I'm picking my battles.

On to the next store. As Mom and I are trying to shop, Hayden has become restless, to say the least. Once again, I simply let him go. Now, I have a strict rule that my child, or any child with me for that matter does not walk. They must ride in the cart at all times (because we've all heard it, "it only takes one second.") So, no carts. Within thirty minutes, Hayden had either entered every dressing room available, occupied or not, or had peeked under every door. He had the store literally rearranged, items tucked away in new departments. He had, by this time, dropped his random loot of a womans handbag, a stuffed bunny and I think a box of earrings, and was laying on the aisle floor licking the tile. Being the germaphobe that I am, once again, I simply let it go (and I am still waiting for some strange rash to appear on Hayden.) The entire time this drama is unfolding, my Mother is smiling as if to say,"HaHa, and by the way, I did it with four of you!" She just kept reminding me about the shopping trip where my siblings and I managed to pull the tags off of EVERY item of clothing in the shop. She was in the dressing room and we were so proud of our handfuls of tags.....

Oh well. On to Easter. We had a fabulous time with about seventy of our dearest friends and family. The weather was perfect, the food was plentiful, and as always, the conversation was great! The children enjoyed coloring Easter eggs, a water balloon fight, riding Pawpaw's tractor, and an Easter egg hunt. It was awesome to see the smiles on everybody's faces, young and old alike.

For the rest of this entry, I will let the pictures tell the story. (Stanley, I decided against posting the "messy" photo of you!) I pray that everyone has a safe weekend.

We're Famous!

So, apparently, Hayden thinks that Jared and I hold celebrity status.....

Everytime he sees either one of these faces anywhere, he says, "Mamma" or "Daddy."

No kidding.

Hope you all have a wonderful Easter.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

For Boston, For Boston, and Pink Slips

After the babies were safe in the arms of Grandma & Pawpaw, Jared and I set off for a weekend away. We don't do this often at all ( by choice,) but it was definalety needed and enjoyed. We had planned several events over the last few months and they all just so happened to be on the same weekend. How convienient!

On Friday night we went to Stubbs to see The Dropkick Murphy's. Undoubtedly the best concert I have ever been to (other than New Kids On The Block in 6th grade.) For those of you not into Irish Punk, try it, you'll like it! Imagine a bunch of loud mouthed Irish Bostonians with bagpipes, banjos, accordians, whistles etc. playing for a couple thousand rowdy Austinites. UNBELIEVABLE!

I am by no means a photographer (wish I was,) but I thought these pictures turned out sort of neat. They definately captured the movement of the crowd.

This is a picture that I took on Friday of my beautiful niece. It was "western day" at school, and she adorned herself with the cutest boots and a pink cowgirl hat! I heard she was one of the prettiest Cowgirls in kindergarten.

OH, SATURDAY! What a day! After staying the night in Greune, we met our dear friends Adam, Jeff & Kimberly (we missed you, Cory.....) at the San Antonio Speedway! For those PINKS All Out fans, WOW! For those of you who don't watch Pinks, it is a show about car racing for pink slips. The motto of the show is, "Lose the race, lose your ride." A group of guys go around the country holding these races and airing them on the SPEED channel. Please do not confuse this with Nascar. Two totally different events.

The races began at 9AM and when we left at 9PM, they were still running strong. You talk about an ALL DAY AFFAIR! 22,000 people, the mullets deluxe, the dust, the ringing in your ears, the fumes, it was awesome! The crowd was rowdy, but that made it fun. I hate to admit it, but Kimberly and I almost got ourselves into a tiff with a guy who thought he was a photographer and thought that he built every car that raced that day. Our argument was that we paid to see races, not him.) Neither one of us are haters, but we don't like to be messed with either. That's what I love about our friendship, we take really good care of each other.

When security is lacking and people have free run of the place. It all breaks loose.

This was actually a guy that I grew up with who now lives in Beaumont. He races his dad's car. Small world.....

This car was driven (and won it's heat) by Jared's coworker, and the uncle of my old friend. Even smaller world.....

Can't remember, (possibly a '92 Camaro) with a jet engine. They ran it twice. It made the track in 6 seconds. Talk about power.

It was an awesome and eventful weekend, but very crowded. As much fun as we had, I was glad to finally see my Babies and to get home.

My Week In A Playpen

Hello Friends! It's been a while. Busy, busy, busy. It's sad that midnight seems, lately, to be the best time to write, but that's alright (as long as it doesn't become a habit.)

We enjoyed a wonderful and relaxing weekend with Jared's parents recently as they came down for a few days. They were kind enough to bear with us while our house was practically empty. We have been in the process of some renovations around the house, so it was nice to take a break and just visit for a few days (even if that meant without appliances and furniture.) The kids enjoyed seeing them, as it had been a while due to schedule conflicts and sickness. They are both doing really well and seemed to enjoy a weekend with the Babies.

On Saturday afternoon, we loaded up and headed out to Georgetown to San Gabriel Park. What a peaceful place. It had been some time since we had been out there, but it was still just as serene and beautiful. Hayden was all about trying new things on the playscapes and enjoyed seeing how fast he could run to get away from us! He ran, and ran, and ran. I wonder where he got inspiration to do such a thing.....

While we were there, the sun was just starting to think about setting, so I thought it would be an opportune time to do a little photography. The mellow light through the trees cast some amazing shadows, so I TRIED to capture some different things. I didn't get to many dirty looks, and I tried to be discrete about it, but I just began shooting at any subject that got in my merry way. Here is one that I really liked a lot. As we passed by this gigantic tree right on the river bank, I noticed a lady sitting at its base covered in an Indian blanket. As we passed, she flashed us a sweet smile and went about her thinking as she turned back to gaze at the river. All I could think about and wonder was what she was pondering, and what was it that made her choose that spot to relax and daydream. She looked so comfortable. I wish I could have gotten more of her in the picture, but I didn't want to be "all up in the business."

OK, on to the title of this entry. After several years of putting it on the back burner,we finally gave in and decided to redo our floors. After five years of dogs, 2.5 years of children and much adored company every weekend, our carpet finally had had enough (and frankly, we had to.) Do we keep calling the carpet cleaners? Do we buy large rugs to hide it? How about just taking care of it once and for all (I know, mob mentality.) I wanted to do some before and after pictures, but the floors were just so embarrassing that I didn't even want to look at the pictures while posting.

We decided to go with laminate wood floors in the hallway, the living and dining rooms, and tile in the bathrooms, entry and kitchen. It looks like brand new house! Jared did such a wonderful job picking out the colors! He is quite the decorator!

I have found out a ot about myself the last few days.....

The installers were supposed to be here on Monday, but due to inclement weather (for an inside job?,) they came on Tuesday. I thought I would be prepared to contain the kiddos, but I failed. Movies and snacks only go so far. The installers trapped us in one room while they tore up each corner room all at one time and worked their way towards us. There was literally NO WAY OUT! Now, I love spending time with my children more than anything in this world, but WOW! I felt like I was in a playpen with other children, covered up to my neck with toys, everybody needing to go potty all at once, and slobber with no rag to clean it up! I believe that at one point, every toy that the kids own was off the shelf and on the floor. We had watched every single movie that we own, read almost every book on the shelf, and made up silly songs about everything we could think of. Have you ever been totally and completely OUT OF IDEAS? Go outside, you say; there was no way to the door! Since the fridge was on the back porch (white trash, I know,) no way to get drinks (which we ran out of fairly early,) I just kept saying , "five more minutes, guys!" I know this will come back to haunt me later!

On Tuesday, Hayden's good buddy, Cade, came to play! This actually helped a ton because it occupied Hayden immensely. Cade seemed excited not to have to pick up when it was time to go home. I know he was probably wondering what he had gotten himself into by coming to Hayden's house to play. THANK GOD FOR CADE! We love you, Good Buddy!

I am by no means complaining. I truly enjoyed every minute of being in my "playpen." It just confirms for me that I

A: Don't do well in small spaces

B: Don't do well with any two kids crying at once

C: Can truly look back and laugh at almost any situation

D: Can always find somthing to use as a cleanup rag

E: Will do ANYTHING, and I mean ANYTHNG, to keep my Babies happy and contented

Tonight, as we were trapped, Jared made his way through with dinner! How sweet! As we all sat in Hayden's trashed room eating take out and watching Elmo for the sixty-fifth time today, Jared began to complain about being squashed. I just gave him the "Don't even start" glare. As we sat there on top of each other, I just looked at the three of them and thought how if I was ever confined to that "playpen" again, they were definately the three I would want to be confined with.

Good Night.