Wittenburgs--Our life

2011-10-28T20:16:00.003-05:00

Our nursery and preschool had an end of summer event at s small spray park near here. It's a great little area. They have a park and then a fenced in spray area. It's perfect for young kids. Earlier in the summer, Becca had a dentist appointment who sent her to an oral surgeon. He said he didn't know a lot about tongue clippings and thought Becca's might cause her problems as she got older. The oral surgeon said it wasn't an absolute necessity but would probably be beneficial. She has decent range of motion and no speech problems. She cannot stick her tongue out or up very far. The concern is it will be sore as she gets older. I hear it's a pretty easy surgery and they bounce back in a day or so. However, Darren's work just started offering dental insurance and the kids weren't covered. So, we decided against surgery and plan to get them on in February. Still don't know if we'll do the surgery but if it's as easy as they say, I don't see any reason not to. But surgery is always a little scary for kids and if it's not really needed than we shouldn't do it. There's just no way to know how it will feel as she gets older; it doesn't bother her now. So, who knows? Becca started first grade. Her teacher is a neighbor of ours we've known for several years. We are thrilled, and I'm doing a really good job, so far, of not being one of those annoying parents who take advantage of the fact her child's teacher is just down the street. Becca is just learning so quickly and I know it happens that way a lot. She's reading on a 3rd grade level and is in what they call a talent pool. They don't really do gifted/talented at the age but they identify some of the higher achieving kids and offer them extra opportunities throughout the year. I was concerned initially when they sent something home about whether I wanted to put her in gifted/talented. While I know she's doing well in school, she's still only first grade and she may start leveling out and/or the other kids may catch up. I'm sure she'll get good grades, but I hate labeling them at this age.

End of summer

2011-09-30T20:59:00.005-05:00

We had some children's events planned for our church kids this summer. Christian Way Farm is a great place around here that has great spring/summer program. Every year they show how farmers grow food and animals to help make food for the community. This year the theme was, "Who grew your hamburger and fries?" She interacts with the kids and lets them help her teach the lesson. Then they take a hay ride out to see the animals, feed the baby cow and chickens. Barrett wanted nothing to do with the animals. Becca was sick so she didn't get to go. Notice the ketchup next to the tomato plants Waiting to plant some corn Watering the corn

At the end of July, we went to the Jump Zone. We thought we needed an indoor activity so late in July. This was the most relaxing event for us because the kids just play. Becca had swimming lessons. She's really doing well and is as adventurous as always. I probably should learn to swim if I plan on keeping up with her. I never wanted to take both kids to the pool by myself so we didn't go as much as I thought we would this summer. I thought of a great idea by the end of the summer: to take a teenager with me to play with one of the kids so I could keep an eye on the other. Definitely going to remember that next year. Got family pictures taken this summer. We have yet to do a family pic since Barrett's been born. The kids were really good considering several outfit and scenery changes over a couple of hours. Becca did poses first and when it was Barrett's turn, he went over, laid down, propped his hands up, tilted his head, basically did things he saw Becca do, all without prompting. He did really good, a natural.

Summer

2011-08-05T22:23:00.004-05:00

Wow! Is summer really gone?? It has really flown by. When we got back from vacation, I watched my friend's baby while her babysitter was on vacation. You know how you always need a vacation after vacation? There's errands to run, house to clean, especially when your husband has been home by himself for more than a week. Becca also had t-ball 2 nights a week. I was also trying to get prepared for VBS the next week.

VBS was fun as always. Barrett really enjoys singing and had the moves to the songs down after the first couple of days. Darren's sister and family came down for the weekend. The kids came to play with Becca and Barrett while the rest of the family played golf. They actually stayed in Nashville so we caught up with them on Sunday night and enjoyed hanging out.

Becca's last t-ball game was the 27th and her coach treated them to Dairy Queen after the game. She really enjoys playing. This year, she was on the A's.

Practicing with daddy We planned several events for our church kids throughout the summer. The first one being on the 28th when we went to the Evansville zoo. They have a couple of cool features for kids. There are climbing nets, slides and a spray area. The kids can crawl through a tunnel and see otters swimming over them. I didn't get pictures of the otter but you can see the kids.

All of this, plus vacation was our June.

Vacation, part III

2011-06-17T15:30:00.010-05:00

Thursday might have been the best day...we went and toured the new Cowboy stadium. You really should see this place in person; pictures don't do it justice but I'll give you a little taste. Checking out the water show in the stadium Looking at Rangers ballpark from the stadium Running and playing on the field Looking up at the massive screen from the sideline My football players in the locker room

Not allowed to sit or stand on lockers in men's locker room, but you can in the cheerleaders

We had discussed going to a water park that afternoon but we spent a lot of time at the stadium, then in the pro shop that we really didn't have time. By the way, Darren was thrilled about all the Cowboy stuff we brought home...t-shirts for both the kids; Becca picked out a Cowboy potato head, mini football that talks for Barrett and I got a 3-set bowl of tuppwerware and a clear tumber with straw.

The mother of the boys I watch was so nice to bring summertime activities for me and both of the kids. They got some mini water guns and mini water balloons that I thought I'd bring along. So, that evening, we let the kids have fun; there weren't any whiners or injuries. Actually, the whole week went pretty smoothly. I guess the older ones are to the age where they can problem solve more easily and there was much less fighting this time. Kids playing nicely

Vacation, part II

2011-06-07T22:01:00.006-05:00

Tuesday, we attempted something semi ambitious...portraits of the whole family. Now, it was semi impromptu so we weren't going to attempt anything formal but we all needed to get up and get ready and out the door. Everything was going pretty smoothly but while the lady was trying to figure out where to put everyone, the kids were playing and one of them got her feelings hurt and from then on, it was downhill. We did finally get a good picture of the whole family at the end. Since my niece was happy and smiling, we attempted one more grandkid picture but by then the younger ones were all done. We have not had a picture of the whole family since everyone's been married; only Darren was in the last one. With all of us ordering just a little bit, we got the CD so we have all the pictures which is nice. If you have a Portrait Innovations in your area, you should check it out. Most of the girls, then went to Grapvine Mills mall. I found many good deals, mainly for myself but I got a few things for my kids. The boys were very good to watch the kids, fix dinner and everything. The boys decided to go see a late movie...Pirates at the IMAX in 3D.

My mom got a great deal on t-shirts at the Disney store so she got one for all the grandkids. Wednesday morning, before one of my brothers and family left, we got all the grandkids on the couch with their shirts. Unforunately, my camera was charging so I didn't get a picture but I will get a copy of two from my siblings. After lunch, most of the rest of us went to Six Flags. It was definitely hot that day but they had fans/misters all over the park, plus "mini waterfalls". It's a good thing my kids like powerade; we bought a cup that can be refilled for free so anytime we finished the drink or it got hot, we just got a refill. One thing however is the park closes at 7:00 but most of the drink/food places close at 6 or 6:30 so I thought that seemed ridiculous, especially on a hot day. Anyway, the kids rode some rides, the adults rode some rides and all of us rode some rides. Barrett was right at the line to be big enough to ride some rides but it depended on who was measuring; he wasn't allowed to ride the teacup ride but he was allowed to ride the log boat ride. At the end when the park was closing up, we let the kids play a few games and they got capes and tweetys. I was surprised that Barrett lasted as long as he did. He did fall asleep towards the end and slept the rest of the time. Barrett loves Curious George...that outfit was one of my good buys This was the ride Barrett wasn't allowed on..ha, really?

Vacation, part I

2011-06-07T20:35:00.007-05:00

We left for vacation on Wednesday and drove to Tulsa. It's a good thing I have my navigation system because one of the bridges in Missouri was out because of the flooding and I had to go a different route. Of course if I had gone online to plan my trip, I MIGHT have seen that it was closed. So, it took a little longer than planned and didn't get to see one of my friends that only had that evening free.

In restrospect, that might have been a good thing. Becca was exhausted on Thursday and I figured it was just from traveling but she just wanted to lay in the cart and fell asleep early. After she woke up from her nap, she had a high fever. She had been coughing but it can be difficult to differentiate between her normal allergy cough and when it turns into something. But with a high fever and us leaving for vacation where she would be around more kids, I figured it would be good to take her to an urgent care. It's a good thing I did, she had pneumonia in her left lung. She got some ibuprofen at the doctor's office and later on she said she wasn't sick anymore. She felt better and I think is just used to coughing, she didn't notice any difference. My mom was nice to watch her so I could go see some old friends. Barrett and I went to their house for dinner and playing.

Friday morning a good friend had planned to come over but was scared to bring her daughter over which I don't blame her. Then my mom watched Becca again so I could meet a friend for lunch. Her 2nd daughter is just 2 months younger than Becca and her youngest is 1 month older than Barrett. It was nice visiting with her and she was gracious enough to let me borrow a small stroller for Barrett to use while we're gone. While the kids napped, I went to see my brother's new house . We had planned to go to my nephew's game in Claremore that evening. Becca had been on antibiotics but was afraid of her being out in the heat...it had been in the 90s. One other thing we missed was going to visit my grandmother but again, didn't want to worry about passing along germs. However, we plan on seeing her on the way home either on her birthday or the day after, so that will be nice.

Mom drove with us to Dallas on Saturday. My sister has a friend that was nice enough to let us use her house; we paid them of course and will pay for her housekeeper to come clean when we leave. When we arrived, we grabbed some dinner and then several of us ladies went to the grocery store to buy the things we needed for the week.

Sunday, we got up and around a little late. That morning, we had a brief bible story and singing for the kids; although one of my brothers, his wife and son went to a local church. Half of our kids still take naps so that takes up half the day. Then after my sister made dinner, we drove to her new house so we could look around. We just took it easy most of the day and didn't do much.

Monday, we went to a play place for the kids. Online, this place looked much bigger. It was still worth the half price tickets my sister had but maybe not worth full price. The kids got to ride on robotic animals, ride on the train a couple of times, play a few holes of miniature golf and the majority of the time, they spent time in the ball pit and jumping. Riding a zebra We went to Wendy's for lunch and they had a dispenser for drinks where you could choose from over 100 different drinks. My brother tried a raspberry diet coke that he said was good...I just had water but it came in the same dispenser. Some of the girls went shopping while the rest of us took the kids home for a nap. The girls came back and took over with the kids while the rest of us went to see a Rangers game. We enjoyed the game but they lost. Becca was so tired, she actually fell asleep at the end of the game even with all the noise around us. My brother giving me the eye Most of the gang that went to the game

Good friends

2011-06-06T16:02:00.003-05:00

The last day of school was Thursday, the 26th. Friday, we had the kids friends over and then decided they should spend the night. This was Becca's first sleepover at our house and Barrett's first sleepover. The kids were really good; I was actually surprised because they had been together since 9:00 or so in the morning. Their parents picked them up the next morning, then we went to their house that evening for a cook-out with some other people. We then saw them one more time on Tuesday before we each went on our respective vacations. We had a good time at their house playing on a homemade slip n slide. Barrett finally decided he liked it. He played in the sprinkler for awhile before deciding to slide. This was the last time, unfortunately we will see them, at least in the foreseeable future as they are moving to Washington state. We are truly sad to see them go, not only because we had a great trade-off system with free babysitting once a week and monthly date nights, but also because they have become like family and our kids like siblings. Becca's first sleepover was at their house because I knew she was comfortable there and Barrett never had problems staying there or sleeping there. Every time Daniel and Barrett saw each other, they screamed, held out their arms, ran to each other and gave each other big hugs. We have been truly blessed by them and they will be truly missed.

End of school year

2011-05-29T22:31:00.005-05:00

Becca loves reading and has really taken off with it. She earned a free ticket to the Nashville Sounds baseball game so we all went to enjoy the game and asked some friends to come along. The kids rode to the game with our friends and back home...we really have good friends that were willing to tote our kids along.

Becca was really looking forward to the end of school. She did have a great year and learned a lot. It's amazing how quickly they learn at this age. She can now read on a 2nd to 3rd grade level, ride a bike without training wheels, add and subtract, and other things. She wrote something about first grade and said she looked forward to making new friends...something I couldn't imagine her saying just a couple of years ago because she seemed so shy. A week before school was out, I went with her class to the Nasvhille zoo. Because it takes about an hour to drive there and an hour to drive back, plus waiting on buses, etc. the kids only have about an hour an a half to see the zoo. I only had to keep up with Becca and one other little girl. It wasn't terribly hot and we had a good time.

Double billed bird? Looking in a meerkat habitat

Our church had an awards ceremony for Awana, children's choir and mission friends. This was really neat for the kids and for us parents. I didn't get to see a graduation, awards ceremony or anything for the end of the year for Becca. Awana usually runs during the school year (August through May); our church did not start until January however so we only had half a year. In Sparks, which is K-2, the kids typically do 1 book per year. There were only a few who finished their book, including Becca. We were very proud of her, she memorized many bible verses, books of the New Testament, and many other activities. She was also involved in choir who sung 3 songs and Mission Friends. Barrett was involved in Puggles in Awana and Mission Friends.

Becca is not shy in the right surroundings. The pastor asked a few kids to help sing the Awana songs and lead the pledges. Becca thought the microphone was for her so he had to move on down the line so she didn't "hog" it. Barrett has his moments but rarely is shy. The teachers asked if the parents wanted to bring their younger ones on stage. I started to get up and he just ran up on stage, looked around, waved and yelled "hi" at the audience.

Easter

2011-05-27T15:10:00.006-05:00

We had a big event planned at church the Saturday before Easter. Because I am the nursery coordinator, I am also in charge of many children's events too. My committee helped me plan a great event. The downside to being in charge is it's difficult to enjoy the actual event with your kids because you're making sure things are going smoothly. But, we had a great time. There are always ways to make things better but the kids had fun and that was the most important thing. Luckily, the rain held off so we could get the egg hunt done outside.

We had pictures with live bunnies, snacks, crafts, the Easter story, and the egg hunt. At our registration table, we had bags of different color jelly beans where each color coincided with an element of the salvation story. Our ministry team thought of that idea to give everyone who came one which I thought was great. Some of the pictures, you can't see the bunnies but some of them, the bunnies decided to poke their head out of the box. Some ladies made wonderful cookies and someone else tore up all the tissue paper for our craft. We borrowed a cattle ring and filled it with hay. Because it wasn't very big, we had to do the hunt in shifts but everyone had a good time. Some teenagers went in between shifts to re-fill the hay.

Photo area Listening to the story Craft area

After church on Easter, we went to the club for their annual lunch buffett and egg hunt. The food was delicious as always. However, the rain did not hold off for Sunday. So, instead of hunting eggs outside, the Easter bunny walked around with a huge bag of eggs for the kids to fill their buckets.

Then the kids got to pick out an Easter basket to take home. The rain let up enough so we could get some family pictures outside of the pro shop.

Our life...condensed

2011-05-08T15:32:00.005-05:00

The month of January and part of February, our house was full of sickness. My husband and Becca took turns being sick. Darren had the flu, Becca had scarletina, Darren had a nasty congestion and then Becca had a stomach bug that lasted for days. Luckily, Barrett not I got anything. How that happened, I'll never know. I just know I was very vigilant about washing everyone's hands and trying not to get terribly close to those highly contagious for fear of me getting it, or worse, Barrett.

We had quite a few snow days in January and February. It was so nice to sleep in and I was glad when they had a day off. However, I was afraid we were going to end up going to school into June, but they decided to tack on 30 minutes to the end of the school day and take away the rest of our half days but at least we get out before Memorial Day. We didn't get to do as much sledding as we'd like, partly because Becca or Darren was sick some of those days.

April brought about Spring Break and Darren's mom came out to visit. We were trying to get the last of the house straightened up and it's never easy getting the kids out of the house. We were running a little behind anyway and we had to drive an hour to get to the airport. My mother-in-law called to tell me the plane came in early and they got their baggage quickly; so I was no longer going to be 5-10 minutes but more like 30 minutes. I'm hurrying as quickly as possible and I was getting off the interstate into the airport ramp going about 40. Then, I saw it, a cop sitting there and as soon as I passed, she pulled right behind me. Great; I knew I was going fast because I was already late but I'm not sure if I knew exactly what the speed limit was which was 25. Becca from the back seat tells her that we're late to pick up grandma. After taking what seemed like forever, she comes back to the car and lets me know she's letting me off with a warning. My mother-in-law was waiting outside with her luggage and she was very nice. Barrett warmed up to her immediately but he ended up with a nasty cough as a result of his allergies. So, he wanted mommy a little more but we still had a great visit. We went to the park and the jump zone and just had a good time sleeping in and having fun.

And now, here we are, almost the end of school and the end of kindergarten. Time has really flown and I know time will never completely slow down but I hope it will slow down just slightly enough to be able to do a few things I want to do, including keeping up with this blog. We're pretty busy this summer so there will be a lot to report on so stay tuned....

December cont.

2011-02-10T11:43:00.004-06:00

For Barrett's birthday, we invited several of his little friends, plus our good friends who are like family. All of his friends have a sibling so we had a housefull but it was fun. Being that many of them were around 2, I didn't plan too many activities. I had a craft planned in case playing got boring, but they kept themselves pretty entertained. Birthday express had a cute 2-year-old farm theme and the cow and 2 balloons that came with them were pretty cute too. I love that I can just give our cake lady the invitation and she'll copy it. Darren grilled hot dogs and hamburgers and we had a good time.

Waiting for the guests to arrive Notice in the upper right hand corner, Barrett got his fingers in it Because we were leaving for OK the next day, we had our Christmas that night. I really debated whether or not to have birthday and Christmas in the same day. But, for one, I didn't know when else we could do it; two, I figured he won't remember doing them both in one day. I will definitely try and separate them most of the time, or maybe start doing a half birthday in the summer, we'll see.

December

2011-02-10T11:03:00.005-06:00

How many times have I said this, but time really does fly. There are not enough hours in the day or days in the week to accomplish everything you want or need. So, I'm just now getting around to birthdays and Christmas.

The first weekend of December, we had our first annual Breakfast in Bethlehem event at our church. I stole the idea from a church in OK and our kids and parents loved it. We had snowman donuts from Krispy Kreme, told the Christmas story, and made clay pot nativities. Not everything went smoothly from my standpoint (I forgot my bible and Christmas story, some of the craft didn't go as planned, etc), but from everyone else's viewpoint, things went great. The craft was so neat, I don't know if we can find as good a one for next year. I guess I have all year to find one. I could always steal another idea. :) We got them the day before so some were melting The next weekend was Becca's birthday. Her actual birthday was on a Friday so we let her pick 1 friend to something with. She chose her friend Dominic and to go to McDonalds. The next day, we had her party at the Roller Dome. In the back, they have a ball pit and things to climb on so it's a great place for all ages. She really like Fancy Nancy (it's a book series for kids) so a our cake lady made us a great cake.

Love the 3 dimension Trying to skate Some of the guests The next day we went to a friend's birthday party and it started snowing. They actually closed the place early; it was a little slick driving home. So, we got our first snow and sledding in early. We took Becca's best friend with us. By the time we got there, the place we normally sled was well worn by others so we went to another hill. This was also Barrett's first time sledding.

Becca's first school program

2010-11-15T15:12:00.006-06:00

You know, going to your child's school programs really is fun. You get to ooh and aah and truly marvel at how great your child is...or maybe sometimes how embarrassing your child can be at times. In kindergarten, they are supposed to learn so many nursery rhymes so they've been learning and doing art projects as well. A few weeks ago, they had the kindergarten classes (all 4) sing the songs and a few children act each out. Becca was a horse in Humpty Dumpty. There were probably 12-14 songs and the kids did a great job. My child is very comfortable at church because she is there all the time and knows a lot of people. So, when she's in front of the church, she doesn't mind raising her hand and talking or doing anything else. I guess she hasn't reached that level of comfort at school just yet. I think she's pretty comfortable in her classroom but with all the classes, in front of a lot of parents she doesn't know I guess was intimidating to her. At the end of the program, all the kids took turns walking by the microphone and saying their names. There are about 100-125 kids and only 3 or 4 didn't say their name...my child being one of them. She walked up close, paused and then kept walking with her finger in her mouth. You never really know what she's going to do; I guess she's more shy than I realized.

Becca has had a loose tooth but I never felt it was ready to pull. Last week, she came home with something around her neck; I thought a dentist had come visit her school. She then gave me a great big smile and showed me her tooth was missing! She told her teacher her tooth was really loose and she pulled it. Becca said it didn't even hurt. It's funny how excited I get for little milestones. I think I was almost as excited as she was and wanted to tell everyone. Darren and I were discussing the whole tooth fairy thing and trying to decide if we should give her $5 since it was her first tooth. However, he felt like she would expect that with every tooth and I agreed, so she got $2.

Rest of October

2010-11-05T14:18:00.003-05:00

Darren's parents came the week after fall break. Becca was in school all day but that gave grandma a chance to spend some time with just Barrett. Unlike Becca who took a little time to warm up, Barrett warmed up instantly to them. He went right into grandma's arms without hesitation and spent to rest of the week getting her attention...of which he loves to be the center of. We had a nice visit; it was nice having another set of hands around the house and Darren's dad helped us do a few small projects that needed to be done around the house: light fixture in living room, Becca's toybox, kids bathroom sink all needed fixing...I think there were a few more but I don't remember. They finished the week at Becca's school at her fall festival. I had to work at Becca's class at the lollipop tree the first half hour but they enjoyed walking around playing games, etc. The guys went home after a little bit to do the cooking and we continued to play games. Barrett was getting fussy so we decided to go get them a bite to eat. They were supposed to have hot dogs and chili but when we got there...about an hour to hour and a half into it, they were out of hot dogs. After some convincing, Barrett decided the chili wasn't half bad.

The next week was final preparation for trunk or treat at our church. I was mainly in charge of putting it together. I spent the week running around gathering items, getting help, etc. Our pastor was making calls trying to generate more trunks as well. A couple of sweet ladies offered to come and help on Friday morning. They were helping me separate candy into buckets, make welcome bags for visitors, etc. My friend called me about an hour after I dropped Barrett off to tell me he had thrown up. Now tell me, why do kids get sick in the middle of the night or at the most inopportune times?? My husband was the only one at work so he couldn't leave. My wonderful, wonderful, friend called back and said in case it was one of those fluke things, she'd throw his clothes in the wash, give him one her son's shirts to wear and let me know if it happened again. Okay, that was on thing off my mind for the moment. Luckily, Barrett didn't throw up again who know why but I'm glad my friend was willing to keep him. I started around 9 or 9:30 and didn't stop until 7:30 that evening, except to go home, get Becca off the bus, get all the kids costumes, the brownies I made and everything else I needed to get things prepped. On the way to pick up Barrett, I remembered I hadn't put down numbers for the cake walk, so I stopped by Dollar General on my way and picked up some masking tape. I had a little over an hour to get the rest of the games set up and ready; we were working right up to the time people were standing around waiting for us but we did it. We had ours on Friday night to coincide with the downtown businesses who pass out candy on Halloween or the last business day before Halloweeen, so we catch a lot of foot traffic. There were some things that went smoothly and some things we could have done differently but the kids had fun and didn't really know the difference so I saw all in all it was a success.

Saturday, it was nice to sleep in, relax and not do much. Our town did Halloween on Saturday, so we invited some friends over to come and trick or treat with us. I didn't realize I didn't have a picture with just Becca and Barrett...maybe I should have them get dressed up again to take their pictures. I got Barrett's costume at the kids consignment sale. It was homemade and the tail really made the costume...there were several strangers who asked if they could take a picture and people were commenting on it all night. It was pretty cute with the tail dragging on the ground. I definitely got my $7 worth, plus it was warm which was a bonus. Becca was Jessie from Toy Story. I had already gotten Barrett's costume by the time Becca figured out what she was going to be. Next year, I need to find out what Becca wants and try and coordinate Barrett's costume. Lightning's Pit Crew, Mario, Jessie and my little stinker I know it's a little blurry but you get the effect

October

2010-11-05T13:43:00.004-05:00

October went fast! We celebrated my husband's 40th birthday a week late as he was out of town on his actual birthday. I had planned an event with our nursery kids at Christian Way Farm that morning but figured I would have all afternoon to finish prepping and cleaning for the party that evening. The farm was fun as usual; I really enjoyed the lady's pumpkin presentation of the gospel. Wandering through the corn maze Which pumpkin should I pick? We brought a sack lunch to enjoy and Becca was tired of waiting for Barrett and I to catch up so I handed her the keys...mind you I could see her so I wasn't sending my 5-year-old off by herself. We got all our stuff out and locked up the car. We enjoyed our lunch and visiting with friends when I decided it was time to go home, get the kids naps and finish up for the party. I can't find my keys...I'm beginning to remember giving Becca the keys and not getting them back. Sure enough, she had laid them in the back seat when she got her lunch. I spent awhile trying to figure out what to do. A sweet friend packed our 4 kids in her minivan illegally as her oldest and my oldest didn't have car seats and drove the 25-30 minutes back into town to get the keys from my husband, go to Sonic to get shakes for the kids and the most delicious cherry limeade chiller (I'm trying to lose weight but I thought this was a well-deserved treat after the day I was having), driving back 25-30 minutes to the farm and then 25-30 minutes back home.

I got the kids down and I'm rushing around trying to finish cleaning, finish the game we were playing, etc, etc. Luckily, we were grilling burgers and brats so I didn't have to cook too. All I had to do in the kitchen was make the frosting for the cake I had made the day before...turtle cake as always. The guests started arriving before my husband did and I was trying to finish things. Even though I felt very harried, we had a good time. Because it was his 40th, I had to do something different and found a game online. You make posters of various events that happened over the last 40 years and have people guess what year it happened. I had things like when Pac-Man was created, when Disneyland opened, when ESPN first aired, Columbine, Michael Jackson's hair catching fire, end of Vietnam War -- some serious, some fun. I would have been horrible at this game but I was running it so I didn't have to guess. It was fun to walk down memory lane. I had pictures cut out of whatever they were supposed to guess and write down the year. At the end, whoever had the most right won a prize of some of Darren's favorite things: Milk Duds, Fruit Loops, Caddyshack (now I can't even remember everything that was in it). The best thing was, we only had about a quarter of the cake left so it didn't ruin my diet too much.

It's a good thing fall break was the following week. We stayed fairly busy with doctor appointments and playdates with friends but we had fun. We ended the week with a day trip to Nashville to spend the day with my dear friend and her 2 boys.

Kids

2010-10-07T14:13:00.003-05:00

Time keeps going faster and faster. Having time to sit down on the computer to do anything more than quickly check e-mail is a luxury nowadays. I wish I had time to sit and do catch-up work or just play for a little. Mondays are typically work days when Barrett goes to a friend's house, Tuesday and Wednesday is usually when I keep baby Griffen (born in February) and Fridays I keep Daniel for my friend who keeps Barrett so she can get stuff done. (her husband is overseas right now)

My husband takes a golf trip every year to Tunica with some members. It falls during his birthday (October 1st) most years. This year he happened to turn 40 which we're celebrating on Saturday. But, he left on Thursday in the early morning. Becca had woken up in the early morning screaming about her throat hurting. I had heard strep was going around so I figured that's what it was. I started thinking about everything I needed to do the next day so I couldn't fall back asleep. I was doing some things on the computer when Becca all the sudden sat up and said she needed to throw up, which she did. She continued to do it several times over the next few hours. Luckily, I got her into the doctor early the next morning. They said, no sooner had they put the throat swab on, it showed strep. Her great dr actually held Becca's hair and helped me hold the bag as she threw up in his office...we really like Dr. Toms. He gave us antibiotics and some anti nausea medication. Becca kept getting sick and the medicine did not help her. My sweet, sweet friend went to the grocery store for me and got some of the things I needed. I also didn't make it to the early sale of the kids consignment sale, but I got to go the next night and got a few things at least. Friday or Saturday, Becca had a rash on her thighs and a light rash on her chest and face. I thought she was developing an allergy to amoxicillin like Barrett, but the dr said it's because of the strep. So, basically any symptom that can happen with strep, did. I didn't know throwing up could be a symptom; I thought I knew all about strep being that I had it about once a year as a kid. If Becca hadn't woken up an hour or two earlier screaming about her throat, I would have chalked it up to a stomach bug and wouldn't have gotten it checked out as quickly. So, if you're child is throwing up and a high fever, check their throat too...just in case. Someone told me they always knew their child had strep because they'd start throwing up first. She was pretty much back to normal within a couple of days.

Becca is doing well in school. She always has a super star in her daily behavior chart. She's reading more and more and now she has reached another first... a loose tooth. She truly is a joy and a handful at the same time...especially in the morning...not a morning person.

Barrett is wanting to learn more and more. He points to things and wants to know what it is, he loves reading, and doing puzzles. He's getting pretty good and throwing and sometimes catching a ball. He's definitely all boy; he likes to hit balls with anything...a bat, golf club, stick, really anything. He's got a few more words in his vocabulary as well. I can't believe he's almost 2!

Kids at the park Barrett loves balls!

Fun times

2010-09-17T15:34:00.005-05:00

There is a great little invention we have really enjoyed: magnetic cabinet locks. Instead of the old timey plastic things you put in the cabinets where you can still get your hand in the door or pinched, they have these locks where you cannot open the door unless you have the magnet. Years ago, I was somewhat concerned that we would lose the magnet, but we have yet to lose either one of ours. We keep one on our refrigerator for our kitchen locks and one in the kids bathroom for that lock. They really do work well and we have truly enjoyed them....

However...

Becca has had a cough for several days, so I had her stay home so we could get it checked out today. She and Barrett were coloring and playing so nicely like they usually do. I'm getting ready and doing a few other things around the house. I'm about to go check on them because it sounds like they're playing in the bathroom. Becca runs past me into my bathroom and I asked her if she left Barrett in the bathtub. She said, "No, he's locked under the sink." Well, that can't be because we have magnets to get him out. Becca says, "I put both of the magnets under the sink too. I thought you had one in your bathroom." I go into their bathroom and sure enough it's locked; there are no visible hinges to take off either. I start to panic a little. I found, I'm not the best under pressure; my mind doesn't focus and it starts going in so many different areas that I can't think straight. I call Darren and he says he'll come home and try to get it open. He's alone at work so I'm not sure if he had someone watch the shop or just locked it up. Becca's crying and telling Barrett to push the button, which is the "latch" that would unlock the door from the inside. Here is Becca's conversation as she's bawling and talking in a high pitched voice, "Barrett, push the button.....He doesn't understand.....I can't get him out....I wish I was locked in there with him" I couldn't just sit there and watch her, so I looked in the garage and found a long screwdriver to stick down in there to try and push the lock. Luckily Darren came in not too long after and found the prybar and pried it open pretty easily; he didn't even break the lock. Barrett was fine throughout this whole ordeal. Now, when he got out, he did want to just be held and so did Becca, so we sat down and got some good snuggling in. Alls well that ends well and no one's worse for wear, but that's at least one thing I don't have to keep telling Becca not to do.

Our dog Molly is getting older. Several weeks ago, she started acting differently and not eating. She had a bladder infection but the doctor was unsure if there was anything else going on...tumor, arthritis, etc. She said if the antiobiotics don't help her to bring her back in for tests. The antibiotics did help some but she still wasn't completely back to normal; she sometimes yelp getting up or if I touched her back end. So we took her back, luckily no tumors but she does have arthritis. I think she is about 10 and she's a bigger dog so I'm not surprised. She has some good days and some bad days. I need to check to see if I should still walk her or not; I'm not the best walker but when I do get out, I like to take her with me.

2010-08-11T08:19:00.005-05:00

Last Sunday night, I was putting my shoes away when I stepped in something wet. I thought maybe Molly peed but it didn't smell like it. We had a babysitter so I thought maybe the kids were in there and spilled something. Monday morning we woke up to visibly soaking wet carpet all in the closet. Come to find out, the hose on our washing machine was leaking and our laundry room backs up to our closet. Darren had to go to work, so I spent an hour dragging everything off the floor of the closet into our bedroom. We have a walk-in closet and we could still walk in there so I don't know how we had so much stuff. Darren bowls with a carpet guy, so he came Thursday to install carpet. It's a little different than our current carpet but whenever we sell this house or whenever we get money, we plan on replacing this carpet anyway...too many stains and an iron burn from Becca. It's pretty thin pad too and just doesn't look great anymore. Instead of just putting everything back, I decided to really organize, clean out, etc. With everything else, I haven't had time to do everything, so I've been sleeping with Becca and Darren's been sleeping on the couch until I got things cleared off the bed. Luckily, all we had to do was replace the hose which we happened to have one from our old washer so that part didn't cost us anything. Now our room is almost back to normal and things are getting organized; now how long will it stay that way?

Becca occasionally gets bloody noses. She has allergies and I figure it's the cold, dry air that causes them. They're never too bad and they're not pouring out either. Sunday, we were on our way from church to lunch. As I was turning left to get to Sonic, she says, "Mom, my nose is bleeding." Being the wonderful mother I am, I was trying to get parked so I could help her with her nose, plus I wasn't in any hurry knowing it wasn't too bad. When I parked at Sonic and reached back to hand her a kleenex, I noticed blood all over her dress. This time, she had a real bleeder. I guess I kinda gasped because she said, "I'm sorry mommy" I told her it was okay and that I was sorry I didn't get a kleenex faster. I thought that was a little odd but figured one bloody nose isn't too strange. In the middle of the night last night, I heard Becca moving and say, "Mommy, my nose is bleeding." It wasn't quite as bad but still coming out pretty fast. Not only is it unusual to have it pouring out, but it's unusual to have them this often. If she has another one soon, I may have to see if there's something we can do.

Barrett is becoming a real talker. He just talks all the time. He'll tap you, point to something and jibber jabber. Then he wants you to tell him what he's pointing to. He's really wanting to know what everything is. He now says, 'mama', 'dada', 'ball'(kinda sounds like bowl with his mouth in a perfect circle), and 'sissy'(kinda sounds like sis). He also does the sounds for monkey, lion, dog and elephant. It's amazing how quick they pick things up. Before I know it, he'll start talking. I love this age because they are truly a joy to be around. He's learning new things and he just enjoys life.

End of summer

2010-08-10T07:41:00.006-05:00

My wonderful friend and I have had a free babysitting swap going on for awhile. During the summer, we decided we needed to keep it going so I typically dropped the kids at her house on Mondays and they came to our house on Thursdays. Becca has spent a lot of time at their house on those days and other events as well. A couple of weeks ago, the mom called me while I was working at the church to tell me Becca's eye was all swollen and wondered if she had pink eye. We had just gotten back from the lake so I figured anything is possible. It was either that or the cat. So, I went to pick the kids up and it did look pretty bad. It was red, puffy, swollen, watery, etc...just in one eye. After we were home a little bit, it was getting better, so we gave her some benadryl and soon it was gone. So it seems, Becca is taking after her daddy and is allergic to cats. It was verified a few days later when she went to their house and Becca got ahold of the cat again and the same thing happened. I heard they could develop allergies but it's so weird because she's been at their house so much and had no problems. But, I know she has allergies, I'm just not yet sure what she's allergic to...if she takes after her daddy, it will be everything outside....I wonder when they get the allergy test...

Another of her friends she talks about all the time was a boy I used to watch half days when he was around 2. They were also in the same preschool class last year. Becca has wanted to play with him all summer and I finally called his mom who told me he's been talking about her all summer too. So, they finally got together last Friday to hang out for a little while. The day before Becca told me, "I need to tell him that I'm going to marry him." When I told his mom, she said he says the same thing. At least they're in aggreement about it and one's not chasing the other. She also told me before they came over that he said, "Mom, I've just begun living today." She asked him why. He said, "Because I get to see Becca today." Is that not the cutest thing? They had fun playing together. These are some pictures of them when he was playing the Wii. Becca's first day of kindergarten was today. I was definitely having mixed emotions about it. The fact that she is getting older is difficult, however, having time to do a few more things and not have to worry about keeping her entertained is appealing too. She gets on the bus about 6:45, which, since I'm up, will make me go for a walk. Then she gets off the bus around 2:30 or 2:45; better than last year when I had to be done with errands by 11:15 to get her off the bus. She had told me she wanted me to take her on the first day. So, I got up around 5:45 to make her favorite muffins and get a shower before I woke her up at 6:15. She is not a morning person, so I need to give her a little more time to wake up. We were ready to go around 6:50 and as we were walking out the door, I heard the school bus down the street. She said she still wanted me to take her; then she said she wanted to ride the bus. As she was walking down to the end of the driveway (they pick her up and drop her off in front of the house) she said, "I'm not sure what I want to do." I told her since the bus was here, she should go ahead and get on but I would still take her if she really wanted me to. She got on the bus and I don't think she even looked back to wave. I'm not sure what time they'll normally get home, but because it was the first day and because the bus drivers routes were all mixed up, Becca didn't get home until 3:45 and she gets out of school at 2:15...I know last year, the bus was in our neighborhood at 2:30. So, we'll see what happens tomorrow. Becca had a good day. She said she went to art, had flower cookies from the teacher that said, 'yes', 'no', and 'maybe', and played outside. I guess those were her highlights. She said she only knew 1 kid in her class but I'm sure she'll be making new friends soon. She came home with a big poster for us to fill out about her interests, favorite things, family, etc...homework the first day, but it's fun.

Lake of the Ozarks, part II

2010-07-31T09:01:00.011-05:00

Here's a picture of where we stayed. We had everything on the left. The right side where the towels are was rented out by someone else. Starting Wednesday morning, several people started getting up around 6:00 to get on the boat before too many other boats were out. I was not one of them. Barrett is a good sleeper and he'll sleep until 7 or 8:00 so I got up when he did. Later in the day, they took the tube out. They had a good time on it. Darren said the tube was so big, you couldn't really fall off of it. He got some pretty elbow burns. Here Darren is goofing off

We had not gotten Barrett in the water so I figured why get a swim diaper and swimsuit when we're on the boat. Well, it was a pretty warm day and they decided to take a dip in the lake. Needless to say, when I changed him once I got back, his diaper probably weighed 10 pounds. But, he loved the water! There were so many flies so the kids loved helping swat flies. That evening, we decided to take the boat out after dark. Some decided to get in the water, I opted not to. I'm not really sure why, it sounded like a good idea when I got in the boat...it was dark, it was the lake, I don't know how to swim. I would get in the lake when I was younger where I could touch, if I couldn't touch, I'd use a life jacket. So why in my older age would it freak me out? Who knows, maybe next time.

Thursday was our 15th wedding anniversary! I know, it's really hard to believe. We didn't do anything specifically for our anniversary but maybe we'll get a date night soon. Darren took Becca to the indoor pool and I went to the laundromat. The indoor pool had a bridge that separated the 3 foot from the 5 foot, which then went to 9 foot. So, Becca loved jumping off the bridge into the shallow end. She did it over and over and over, but she also practiced swimming. Later, we went down to a pier where you could jump off from various heights. Becca, who is not afraid of much, was jumping off everything. She was also talking or screaming every time so she would swallow a little lake water from time to time.

Hanging out on the pier By the time Barrett and I got down there, Darren was getting tired since he had been skiing, swimming, etc. For Barrett, he got back in the water. But when Darren was really tired, he handed Barrett to me who screamed. Well, that was our cue to leave; he would not have stayed on the pier without trying to jump in. All this sun and swimming and skiing caused Becca to fall asleep later on the boat as we were out seeing the sights. That evening, we got several anniversary cards and since it was the last night for Darren's brother and family, we had a nice steak dinner.

Earlier in the day, someone had found a little beach/restaurant. So, in the early evening, we took the boat out and let the kids play. They played in the sand some, but mostly played in the water. Coming home, the water was pretty rough so we didn't do much sightseeing before we turned the boat towards "home". Becca's cousin and first cousin once removed

Saturday morning, they took the boat out for one last time. We packed the car up and after lunch, headed home. The rest of the family didn't leave until Sunday morning. We were considering stopping about 15-20 minutes away where there was a strip of souvenir shops, but we were only 5 minutes away when both of the kids were asleep. Did I mention how nice it is to travel with Darren? I'm so used to traveling without him and driving the whole way, I forgot how nice and relaxing it can be. I read my book all the way home, with breaks for conversation or dinner, etc. I had it almost read by the time we arrived home. I had to finish it that night because it was such a good book. If you haven't read it, The Wednesday Letters is a great book. Because I wasn't driving all day, I had a little energy and unpacked all the kids stuff, suitcases, bags, etc. Our suitcase sat for a few days but it eventually got put away too. I could definitely enjoy a family vacation, especially with Darren along, every year. Thank you to Darren's parents for taking us on vacation with the whole family.

As an aside note. I found out this week that the doctor did not get all of the splinter out. There was a little left which got infected. They could not put stitches back in because it needed to drain. At least this is a vacation he'll never forget.

Lake of the Ozarks, part I

2010-07-28T15:09:00.010-05:00

Sunday, the 18th, we left for Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri to spend a week with Darren's family. There were 17 of us and we were only missing 1 nephew who just got a new job. It is so much nicer traveling when Darren is with us; I didn't drive at all. Sunday was just spent relaxing, getting settled, going to the grocery store, etc. Before the trip, we were told to be thinking about something to make. We would each be responsible for 1 night; which meant only 1 night to cook and 1 night to clean up and have the other nights to just enjoy.

The place we stayed was nice. They had playgrounds, an indoor and outdoor pool, laundromat, tennis and volleyball courts (which we didn't use) and a game room with pool, ping pong etc (again, which we didn't use). The cabin was fairly nice. There was a nice deck and we climbed the stairs outside to get to "the under 50" cabin upstairs. We borrowed skiis, a wakeboard and a huge tube and then rented a boat. The boats were nice and convenient; just had to walk down the stairs from our deck and be on the water. We didn't get a huge boat so we had to take turns using it. Monday was spent on the lake, relaxing on the deck and playing on the playground. Monday was also Becca's first time skiing. Darren said she loved it and didn't want to quit. I took some pictures and video from our deck and got as close as possible. I took this video from our deck. The squeaking is from the boats parked at the dock

Tuesday started off good. We were relaxing and boating as usual when Becca's cousin's husband got hurt. He was walking on the deck without shoes and got something in his foot. Not thinking much about it, he sat down to get a closer look and realized there was a piece of wood wedged a good several inches into his foot. They considered trying to pull it out but he was sweating and it was bleeding and it was decided it would be best if he went to the ER. The doctors tried pulling it out and it broke off twice. After a few cuts and 5 stitches, it was out. He had to hobble around the rest of the vacation but he was a trooper. Tuesday was Barrett's first time on the boat and he really enjoyed it.

Grandma & Barrett Barrett thought he'd try and drive

Random musings

2010-07-28T14:43:00.005-05:00

My daughter loves to find rhyming words. She'll say, "let's rhyme silly things" and come up with "have you ever seen a dog wearing a pog?" Sometimes they're not real words, sometimes they are. Well, one day Becca went with her daddy to get some gas. After getting buckled, she said, "Hey daddy, F#$@!* buckle". Darren was trying to decide whether to comment or let it slide. He just told her that was not a very nice word. To which she replied, "what the "f" word?"

Barrett's hair was getting long again. My mom had trimmed his bangs some so they wouldn't be in his eyes but it was time for the rest of the hair to be trimmed as well. People comment on his beautiful hair all the time; I think he has beautiful hair and hated to do it, but he is a boy so it should be done more often, I suppose. Here is a picture of him before his haircut. Darren took him to a barber shop and he came home looking like this. Now,he still is handsome and I do like the haircut, especially once I got a chance to get used to it. That being said, I was upset/sad when I first saw him walk in the door. I don't know if was the drastic change (on Sunday, people just passing by, didn't recognize him at first) or the fact that it made him look more like a big boy, but I got choked up and didn't know what to say. I'm not generally an emotional person but for some reason, seeing him brought tears to my eyes. I somehow expected him to act differently, like Darren brought someone else's child home. It was an odd, surreal feeling when he still acted the same and I "realized" he's still my sweet little boy. Gosh, how will I do when he starts school?

Summer

2010-07-09T16:46:00.009-05:00

Summer really is flying by. I leave for vacation in a little over a week and when we come back, there is only 2 weeks until school starts. So, what have we been doing with our time? Well, you already seen some of the fun things we've done so far. After we got back from OK, it was time to jump into VBS. This is always a fun but exhausting week. The previous 2 years, I have helped with crafts but this year, being that I'm a paid nursery coordinator, I naturally was in charge of the nursery. We only had 7 or 8 on a good day that ranged in age from 9 months to almost 3 years old. (The nursery was only open to VBS workers) I know all the kids but I'm rarely in a room with them or teaching them; I had so much fun. We smashed apples, painted with kitchen utensils, "walked on water", used paper "rocks" and a sheet and played the parachute game(where you shake it until all the rocks fell out), made mud, and many other things. The kids favorite thing was probably the parachute game, even our most shy kid loved it, it was the first day I heard him say more than 2 words. The theme was Saddle Ridge Ranch so the last day, some church members brought their horses out for the kids to see. Let me say this before you try and watch the following videos (if they will ever upload). One, my camera is so old so the quality is not great. Secondly, I had my nursery kids with me (and some others were helping me too) but I was trying to keep an eye on them and wasn't paying attention to the fact that I kept moving around. So, you may not want to watch the video much but if you look in the middle of the group in the dark purple shirt is Becca. She got chosen to go up on the last day to help lead the singing.

The next week we were doing something every day. I had kids at my house a couple of times, went to see a free movie at the theater, had t-ball 2 nights, got some work done at church and Becca and I got haircuts.

Fourth of July was fun. Every year we're invited to some friend's house who has a big family/friend gathering. There's tons of food, homemade ice cream (chocolate, vanilla, strawberry and banana) I love chocolate ice cream but as far as homemade goes, banana is the best and strawberry is a close second. There were some kids there that Becca could play with. Becca is at that great age that I don't have to keep an eye on at all times. She was running around outside and inside with the kids her age and older; Darren or I would check on her once in awhile, but we knew she would be close. Barrett didn't stray much from me but he had fun. The fireworks were getting ready to begin and the kids were on a blanket and Barrett was standing in front of them watching them with his back to the fireworks. Now, I had given him his blanket knowing they were going to start in case he needed a little security. The look on his face was priceless. There were a couple of booms and he stopped, looked around, then turned around, saw the fireworks and heard the noise and his face changed, dropped his blanket and came towards us fussing. Darren scooped him up and he enjoyed the rest of the fireworks from the comfort of daddy's arms. The other day, Becca wanted a little alone time so she went in her room and shut the door. Barrett followed her and sat down by her door. He follows her around and it is so cute.

OK

2010-07-03T09:13:00.009-05:00

I love being able to go back home and visit. I wish I didn't live so far away that I can only visit once or twice a year, so we try to enjoy as much as possible. The drive down was better this time; we bought a dual screen DVD player so Barrett could watch too and that seemed to keep him from fussing so much...yeah for technology! We left on a Wednesday. I was feeling fine but I had no voice; that made the trip a little trickier because I couldn't talk to the kids very well, Becca had to lean up to hear me. But despite that, the trip was going great; the kids were behaving, we hadn't stopped too many times until we were about 1-2 hours out, Becca needed to potty. I figured I would fill up, potty, get something to drink, etc. We come out and I'm ready to drive off and the car won't start..great. I go inside and ask the ladies if they have jumper cables, no they don't. A man inside said he just took his out; I ask another lady outside, no. People don't seem to be too concerned or helpful. So, what am I to do in a strange town with my kids? My brain starts to do all kinds of things so I call Darren. I had forgotten that there is a loose wire on the battery that I should be able to jiggle and it will start. I finally get the hood open, jiggle it...nothing. Okay, don't panic, just try again. Second time, it starts, thank goodness. I got all turned around after that trying to find the highway, I went the wrong way, but thank goodness for technology again because my GPS pointed me in the right direction.

Barrett did well in the car but he still doesn't sleep much so Thursday, we took it easy and let him get his naps in. We actually took it easy for a few days. We spent some time at my brother's house while mom was at work. Cade and Becca are only 3 months apart so they have a big time playing together.

My sister drove up with her daughter for the weekend. Saturday morning, we had to hit Krispy Kreme where the balloon making clown is there for the kids. I wish I had taken a picture of all 3 of the kids with their balloons. Cade got a bow & arrow, Becca asked for a crown (remembering hers from last time) and Stacy asked for a cat. We then went to Siegi's (where else do you get meat?) and headed to my other brother's house for a cook-out and swimming. Phil was a little under the weather but he grilled for us anyway. I guess Bennett wasn't a big fan of the pool before but after seeing the cousins playing, he decided it wasn't a bad place to be. There was a smaller baby pool that I tried to put Barrett in and he just held on tight and fussed. I don't know what it is about a little pool, but he didn't want anything to do with it. So he just played around the pool. We had a great time hanging out with the entire fam minus my and my sister's husband. This is a picture of the cousins, minus the 2 little ones, Barrett and Pax. Sunday, we all drove to Claremore to see my oldest brother preach at a church. He was going in view of a call so it was neat to be there. It's a small church but great people. After church, they had a huge luncheon, everyone had brought food and a table full of desserts. I am trying to lose this baby weight but couldn't resist a few small pieces. He got the job and will start this weekend, July 4th and move there next week. It's only a 30-45 minute drive, so still not too far away.

Sunday evening, my friend came by to hang out for awhile. Monday, we went to lunch, in the pouring rain, to Mazzios with my sister-in-law, her 2 boys and an old friend and her soon to be adopted girl. We adults did not get much talking in with the kids needing things at different times. But it was still nice to hang out Tuesday, my mom was nice enough to watch the kids in the evening while I went to dinner with my sister-in-law and another old friend. We figured we would have more fun and actually have some conversation without the kids. It really was nice. Wednesday, we went to a place that I now can't remember the name of, with my brother and his family. It really was neat, they have places where you can pretend you're a doctor, a stylist, in a grocery store, cafe, on stage etc. They also have a play area and rock wall. Becca got a cart, went shopping to get what she wanted and took it to the counter Pretending to be a doctor At the cafe I couldn't get a good picture of it, but as soon as Barrett walks in the cafe, he "takes a bite" out of a hamburger chair. Now, he's trying an apple My fearless child didn't have too many problems climbing Barrett loved the microphone There were chairs set up so you could watch the stage, complete with costumes and a curtain. Becca was up there talking or singing or something. Barrett was sitting in the chair watching and as soon as she was done, he gets the biggest smile on his face and starts clapping; it was so cute!

We then got free pizza Thursday, we went to a Tulsa Drillers game with my brothers. My mom kept Barrett. Phil's family left a little early since they had both boys. Becca enjoyed watching the game on the grass but then kept begging to play in the children's area, so I finally agreed toward the end. Steve, Becca and I then walked around; it's a new stadium and it really is a nice place. Becca played a little more in the play area and then we went home. Friday, I met another friend for lunch. I don't always see her every time she comes in town so it was nice to catch up with her. We took Barrett home for a nap and Becca and I went to see Shrek at the movies with Court and her girl. It's the first time Becca saw a movie in 3-D and she liked it. That evening, the family came over for dinner; minus Steve's famiiy who was visiting their family and Phil who was sick. The cousins enjoyed spending a little more time together; Bennett warmed up a little to me, although now next time I come, he'll forget again.

Here is one of the favorite toys at my mom's house We drove home Saturday and got off to a late start because I was picking up a prescription for Barrett, so we stopped a lot more than normal and ended up at home at 8:00. I love spending time in OK but never seem to have enough time to see everyone I want to see or go everywhere I want to go. I don't want to be constantly on the go, mainly for my kids sake and mainly for Barrett's sake...he really needs his naps. I look forward to my next trek there and some more fun being a "tourist".

2010-06-09T08:46:00.005-05:00

There is a great place here called Christian Way Farm. I heard about it a few years ago when a friend invited us out there in the fall where they could see animals, grind corn, go through a corn maze, play on a hay "playground" or in the back of an old pick up truck filled with corn kernels, and pick a pumpkin to take home. It's a huge thing and we do it every fall; Becca's school went this year too. Well, I just discovered that they do this a program for the spring and summer as well. I liked it just as much if not more. They do a different program every year; this year is was, "Who grew your breakfast?" She had the kids help her make pancakes. She had the kids go pick some wheat, then she had them grind it up to make the flour. She had the ingredients "hidden" around the farm: the milk was by the cows, etc. They then made the pancakes. She then told them that they were taking the pancakes to feed to the pigs. Barrett had a good time climbing around during the presentation. Before we went to see the animals, she had the kids plant corn. Covering up the seeds And then of course watering. Even Barrett wanted to help. We then got on the back of the tractor and headed out to feed the animals. This is the part of the farm that we don't see during the fall; maybe there is too much to do during the fall. But they fed the calf his bottle. They fed the pig the pancakes, they fed the chickens bread, and they even got to pick up eggs from underneath the chicken who didn't want to get off the eggs. We then headed back and they were able to plant sunflower seeds to take home. We had a picnic and then the kid's favorite part: playing in the corn kernel truck. The kids had a great time and we will definitely make this an annual event. Here they are on the way home. Not long after this picture, Becca was out too.

Sick

2010-06-03T14:19:00.004-05:00

It's no fun when your kids are sick; it's really no fun when you don't know what's wrong with them. When they're not old enough to tell you if anything hurts, I get more concerned about what's going on in their bodies. Barrett started with over 103 fever on Sunday but it seemed to stay down with tylenol. Monday morning he wakes up with around 101, still not too bad. But then, he wakes up and the ear thermometer says 104.7 and the temperal one said 105.2 I have NEVER seen a reading this high on either one of my kids and it worried me, especially because, as I said, he can't tell me what' wrong. Because it was Memorial Day, the doctor wasn't open so we decided to take him to convenient care, which doesn't take kids under 2, so we had to go to the ER. I might have tried waiting it out a little if I knew this but we were already there so we just waited. They couldn't find anything really wrong, even with a chest x-ray so they almost sent us home saying it was viral. They came in for 1 last temperature reading and after having tylenol 3 hours before and ibuprofen 1 hour before, his rectal reading was still 102.3. So, they came back and said since his fever was still up, they figured it was probably bacterial so they prescribed amoxicillin.

Tuesday afternoon Barrett wakes up from his first nap with small red dots just on his upper chest...I wasn't sure if it was a rash or an impression from his blanket/bed. I figured it wasn't a rash and give him more medicine. He wakes up from his second nap and it's a little worse so I decide not to give him more medicine. As the evening progresses, it spreads to his face and back and just gets red and splotchy. So, we call the after hours number and find we can give him just a little children's benadryl. I sleep with him in the chair, very restlessly as he is a squirmer, until 2 a.m. and realize he's not getting worse and it's not effecting his breathing so I put him to bed so we both can get good sleep. So, now we now he's allergic to amoxicillin, I'm allergic to ampicillin and Darren's allergic to pencillin; Becca's the only one that doesn't seem to be allergic to any medication, how funny is that?

These pictures don't show you how red and spotchy it was, but you can see a little bit.

Kindergartener

2010-05-29T11:38:00.005-05:00

My first baby is no longer a preschooler! I can't believe she'll be going to kindergarten next year. The last day of school, they combined both the preschool classes and had a fun day outside. There were 3 different "stations" set up and the kids rotated: kiddie pools, playground and a bouncer. They went inside to get lunch from the school because of state regulations but then came outside and had pizza and juice. Becca had a lot of fun playing with her friends but we were ready to come home because it was HOT and Barrett missed his morning nap.

The little boy in blue in the pool is one of her best friends; they fight and get along like brother and sister. I hope they're in the same class next year but for the teacher's sake, maybe that's not a good idea.

Her other best friend graduated kindergarten and had a sleepover at her house last night since it was the last day of school for them. Becca has never done a sleepover but I wasn't too concerned for 2 reasons: first, she's pretty self assured and second, this is a friend that we hang out with A LOT. (we trade date nights with them so they're at each others houses several times a month; as a matter of fact, this summer we have a great deal worked out, she'll have my kids one day and I'll have her kids one day so we can do things we need to do or want to do without them.) I love friends like this. They had such fun with games and fun little crafts to do. They went to bed at midnight and got up around 7:00, so I'm thinking a nap will be in order. Just like I suspected, she didn't have any problems. Darren, Barrett and I went to a late dinner and then Wal-Mart and didn't get home until 9:00, so we hardly knew Becca was gone. The only thing that hit me was after Darren and I went to bed, I went back in the kitchen to get my phone and the light was on; (we leave it on in case Becca gets up since she doesn't like the dark) Darren had forgotten that Becca wasn't home so he left the light on for her.

Barrett is beginning to catch on to things, still no real words but we communicate. He's learned to shake his head and let me know he doesn't want something. He will, at times, throw himself on the floor and scream when he's not getting his way. He goes to get the kid stool and put it wherever he needs to reach something he can't. He loves to sit in my lap and get book after book, pointing at things; I must admit I like that part as well. He has been a pretty picky eater, rarely eating fruits or vegetables but I try to put 1 or 2 on his tray so he can get used to them; they say it takes 12-15 introductions for kids to like something. We may have had a small breakthrough. Becca wanted carrots, so I put 2 on his tray thinking he'd just smash them like always, which he did. But then, he picked one up and didn't spit it back out. He finished them and did the sign for "more", so I put 5-6 more down and he ate them all. Now another day, he may not have anything to do with them but we had a small victory at least.

Getting older

2010-05-01T13:54:00.005-05:00

There are several things that make me realize that my daughter is getting bigger. This both saddens me and makes me proud. It's simple things but it has really stuck out to me lately.

One day we were coloring a picture of someone who was holding something in one hand and had his arm around something else...I know, I have a very detailed memory. I just remember being impressed that she realized the partial hand you saw on the other side of the page was the same hand and to color it the same color. She's also doing really well staying in the lines and does a good job using different colors.

Another thing she can do now is when she hears the clock start to chime the hour, she can count to see what time it is. If it's 9:00, she'll count the roman numerals until she gets to 9 and tell me what time it is. Now, she has no idea what the roman numerals symbolize, she's just counting.

She's reading more and more of her sight words and doing a great job. The sheet has 57 words on it and she can read almost half. Her teacher said if she can read all those words before kindergarten, she'll be on top of things.

Barrett has a funny way of standing. My family said he'll either be a general or a butler....you decide. I think he might lean towards the general because he also likes to stomp his foot and talk loudly while waving his arms.

Catching up

2010-04-16T17:40:00.004-05:00

We went to Oklahoma after Easter as it was Spring Break for Becca. Barrett is not as good a traveller as Becca was/is but he's not too horrible. I got a lot of relaxing in because when you're not at home, you don't have chores to do so it was nice. Becca knew we were going, so one day she was talking to Darren before we left and asked if he was going with us. He said he couldn't because he had to stay here and work. She had a simple solution, she said, "Well, there's work in Oklahoma." She seemed to solve his problem, but for some reason, he just couldn't go. We made the drive on Monday and left the following Sunday morning. That seems like a long time but I didn't really feel like I had time for much. As a matter of fact, I didn't even see friends while I was there because I was giving time for Barrett to have some normal naps because he didn't nap much in the car and we're used to 2 hour and a half to three-hour naps every day. Mom took off 2 half-days and was off Friday. We had fun relaxing, seeing family, etc. Tuesday, I didn't want to do anything because like I said, I figured Barrett needed a break from the car. Wednesday, we went out to lunch to Abuelos, a very good Mexican restaurant (ours around here are more tex-mexy) when mom got off work. Later that evening, we went tried to find Cade's t-ball game but couldn't find it and decided to go home, plus it was actually cool and windy...I forgot how windy OK could be. Thursday, we went to Incredible Pizza when mom got off work. It's a pizza buffet, but also has other foods like meatloaf, soup, and other various things; it really is huge. They have various rooms to sit in: a gymnasium with a big screen tv, a retro diner and a family style 'restaurant' with tvs. Afterwards, we took the kids to play games. Actually, my mom took Becca to play games and I followed Barrett around the place. For those who live there, Incredible Pizza is doing a deak on Thursdays right now: they will double the amount of money you put on your card, so we picked the perfect day. Friday, we took a tour of the Blue Bell factory, it's one of only 3 plants in the country. For those of you who don't have them in your area, they are known for their ice cream. We then got a pretty good size scoop of ice cream at the end. Cade, Becca's cousin had a t-ball game while we were there. Becca enjoyed watching him; she had to wear her t-ball jersey from last year to his game. Saturday morning, we went to Krispy Kreme and there was a clown who does balloon art for the kids. He was pretty good. He asked Becca if she wanted to be a princess; he made her a crown and a sceptor. He then asked if everyone was ready for the coronation. It was free but he likes donations. So, any of you who live near there, check out the on on 71st and Mingo on Saturdays.

My favorite part of the weekend however was Saturday night when the whole family minus my sister's family, came over to mom's house and we had dinner and hung out. I miss my family and miss seeing my nephews (and niece in Texas who wasn't there) grow up.

Last week, I was getting Barrett ready for bed. I was changing his diaper on his changing table and getting his pajamas. I was standing up, he was laughing and smiling at me, when without warning, he threw up everywhere. I think this was the first time my head was thrown up on. This was of course Darren's bowling night so I was on my own. Becca's getting out of bed to see what's going on, Barrett's crying, I'm trying to get both our clothes off, get ourselves cleaned off, get the carpet cleaned up, get Becca back to bed. I changed clothes 3 times over the next hour or so. I slept with him in the chair overnight so I could "catch" anything. Luckily, he only threw up a few times and what was in his belly. I figured it was something he ate since he didn't continue to try and throw up. The next day he was feeling better and Becca went in Barrett's room after his nap. They were being kind of quiet, which any of you with kids know that's not always a good sign, so I peeked in on them and this is what I found.

I told Becca she was not allowed to come out until she cleaned up a lot of the mess. To give her credit, she did really well with the wipes I gave her. I did the vacuuming and cleaning the stuffed animals. Her tent was full of baby powder. I'm still not sure who made most of the mess but I know Becca got the baby powder down, who played with it more, I don't know, but I wasn't too happy.

Thursday, Becca said she wasn't feeling good, figuring she was hungry because she didn't really eat dinner the night before, I sent her to school being the good mom I am. When she got off the bus, they told me she threw up on the bus. So, I guess it wasn't something Barrett ate. This is the first time they've shared anything so I guess we've been lucky. At least this was a quicky virus. So, Saturday, she was back to normal. We had game night scheduled at our house and a babysitter lined up at a friend's house. Saturday night, Becca had a really nasty cough. Sunday, she had a fever. Yesterday at the doctor, he said she has a little bit of pneumonia in one lung and her oxygen level was at 92%...anything in the 80s is a hospital visit. She's doing some better today but I think we're all ready for everyone to be well so we can get back to normal. We haven't been out of the house much for a week. You would think I would have gotten a lot done but with both kids home and taking turns being sick, I probably got less done than normal. Looking forward to a better week.

2010-04-16T17:38:00.003-05:00

I'm so mad about my spacing. I don't know how to fix it. It looks perfect in preview mode but messes up when it publishes. So, just try to make sense of it until I can figure out how to fix it. I don't remember having these problems when I fist started the blog.

Pics

2010-04-16T17:17:00.003-05:00

Here are the pictures from the previous post. Becca's new car and Barrett's little rocking horse.

Easter

2010-04-05T07:50:00.006-05:00

The Saturday before Easter, our church had a little Easter Egg hunt. They heard the Easter story through the Resurrection eggs, they then went out looking for eggs, then came back in for snacks and check for prize eggs...there were 10 total. That also made sure we got the plastic eggs back so we can do it again next year. I unfortunately didn't get pics of Becca hunting eggs since I had to stay with Barrett...they were broken down into age groups. But, I'm hoping to get pictures from other people.

Here early, waiting for it to begin.

Listening to the presenation of the eggs

She got to paint hard boiled eggs. Daddy was happy because since he's on the Atkins diet, he can eat those all he wants. That also helps differentiate between the hard-boiled eggs and the non hard-boiled eggs. Sunday, we of course went to church. Then went straight to the country club for a great lunch. Darren always plays the Easter Bunny and Becca knows it. We told her not to tell any kids. Well, she told several adults, "My daddy's the Easter Bunny, but don't tell any of the kids, just the adults." She didn't let it slip to any kids, even when she saw him so she did good. She was just making sure the adults wouldn't tell either. Last year, she woulndn't go near the Easter bunny but Barrett sat there nicely. This year, it was the opposite.

They then went to hunt eggs and then got a basket from the Easter bunny. This time I got a couple of pictures but was again too busy chasing after Barrett.

Growing

2010-03-22T16:42:00.003-05:00

The kids just keep growing. No matter how much I want the time to slow down, it just doesn't cooperate. Don't you remember as a kid how Slooowww time went and Spring Break or summer or Christmas would NEVER get here? Now, you blink you're eye and it's another month or another year! Even though time flies, you don't always notice how tall your kids are getting until you see a friend you haven't seen since summer who comments how big your daughter is getting. Yes, she in size 6's and she's only just turned 5 years old. She's starting to read some words and can usually tell me when I haven't read something exactly as it's written. For example, if I say it says, "phone" but the word written is "telephone", she'll say, but there's a T in it. She may not know too many words yet but she knows what letters are in it so I have to say things verbatim.

She also can be a little dramatic at times. She was going over to some friends house while I went to book club. She asked if Barrett was going too. I told her he was. In a whiny crying voice, she said something like, "I'm glad because we don't want to leave cute babies behind and he is so cute..." I can't remember everything she said, but then, mind you, she wasn't actually crying nor had tears, but she took her finger and "flicked" a tear off her cheek. Wow! Where did she see that, it was hilarious!

Barrett it doing some more sign language. He'll "say" milk, please, more, bed and sometimes eat. His babbling is starting to have the same intonations as certain words like "thank you" when I give him something or "Becca". He's also become a screamer and a grunter when someone is either not paying attention to him or when he gets frustrated. He loves to go back and forth giving hugs and pats. His new favorite toy is a small rocking horse I scored at the kids consignment sale for $5. It didn't take him long to master getting on and off by himself...even with his short little legs.

Winter

2010-02-15T21:27:00.008-06:00

This winter has been so odd. We've had 2 snowfalls with around 6 inches. Last week, Becca was only in school Monday because of the snow. There was actually a 2-hour delay on Thursday so the afternoon preschool went but Becca goes in the morning so she missed out yet again. This was the view from our deck last week...really beautiful.

Becca is outgoing and not afraid of too many things. At church, we usually sing a couple of songs, then they have a children's sermon where the kids go to the front of the church and then they leave for children's church. Becca usually raises her hand and I'm never sure what she'll say, although she rarely embarrasses me. The question was something to the effect, "What do you give for Valentine's Day?" She said she likes the good chocolates, not the bad chocolates. I'm going to have to teach her there's no such thing as a bad chocolate.

Darren was gone overnight to a bowling tournament on Friday night. so, he was able to do shopping while he was away. I must say he did really well. Before church, i received a Valentine's card from each kid and one from Darren. The kids got me a candle and a couple of Godiva bars. Darren got me Ralph Lauren's 'Romance' perfume and chocolates. The chocolates were almost too pretty to eat...I said, Almost. My favorite chocolates lately have been the Lindor truffles...they really melt in your mouth, but now these are a close second.

Today for my birthday, it got even better. I had showed Darren some coats I had been wanting and the good sales I had found online. I have a leather coat but it's only waist length and wanted something longer and warmer for the really cold winter days. So, this morning, he gave me a great coat. He had to go into many stores, so he really had to shop. He was thinking he made a mistake not getting it online. But he finally found one...many stores didn't have long coats. I was hoping he found a good price and I was proud of him...he got it for almost 70% off. It's a Kenneth Cole coat and it is super warm. Sorry about the picture, it's really bad...just concentrate on the coat. It also has a fur-trimmed hood.

I put on my coat and we went to Olive Garden for lunch. I would highly recommend the four cheese stuffed pansotti with chicken; it was deelish!

I had also put a bug in Darren's ear about the cake I wanted. I saw it in the paper and had to have it. The cake has 2 layers of red velvet cake layered with 2 layers of chocolate-dipped strawberry ice cream topped with chocolate fudge ganache and chocolate shavings. The cake part wasn't as good as a fresh red velvet cake but everything all together was pretty good. I know, you're jealous huh? Okay, now that I've had another piece, it's much better if you eat it right out of the freezer rather than leaving it out to soften.

Since it was my birthday, I decided I would take it easy and not do much. Well, you definitely pay for it the next day. It's amazing how much piles up when you just take 1 day off. Oh well, it was worth it.

Winter

2010-02-01T21:09:00.005-06:00

Near the beginning of the month we had a little over an inch of snow. It didn't get above 30 for a week or more, plus it snowed very, very lightly over a couple of days so the snow didn't melt. There was enough snow on the golf course to go sledding. Barrett had a nasty cough and didn't get to go but Darren took Becca and met some friends up there. They were out for 2-3 hours sledding, playing and roasting marshmallows. The second day, there wasn't as much snow on the bigger hill so they went to another hill. The hill sloped down to the right so Darren wasn't concerned about the pond. Well, Becca and her friend went down the hill and instead of turning with the slope they headed right towards the pond. Darren is yelling at them to fall off while they're happily careening towards the pond. Darren is running after them and they slide right onto the pond...frozen! It didn't crack but Darren was still nervous what would happen if he got on it. Luckily, it had been so cold for long enough and it was a small enough pond that it didn't break. Needless to say, they didn't try that hill again. Darren got some pictures on his phone, however, he dropped it in coke so I'm not sure if we'll ever recover those pictures.

We have a group of friends who get together once a month for game night. It varies from 4 to 8 couples. Sometimes we combine the kids together, get a couple of babysitters and have them at one house and we go to another. Well, we picked the weekend of Disciple Now weekend for the teenagers here, so, we decided just to have the kids here while we were here. Luckily we decided to do that because about an hour after the kids arrived, the girls came running in saying Becca is throwing up. I didn't think she was really sick (see my Christmas post about the airplane ride); I thought we were having deja vu. I put her in my room and we commenced our evening. I checked on her every once in awhile and she did end up having a stomach bug. I felt so bad for her. Eventually, she was up every 20 minutes for hours..until 3:00 in the morning. I felt horrible and so wanted to do anything to make her stop. We were both miserable...I was so glad when it was over.

We sometimes have schizophrenic weather around here, but I had not seen anything like this before. Check out this video. 5 minutes or so later in was lightly raining. 10-15 minutes later, it was doing this.

Well, it snowed again this last weekend and Darren got a couple of pictures. This time, we took Barrett outside in our front yard. We got 4-6 inches (I've heard different reports) so Barrett wasn't really sure he liked it.

This video is at the golf course, Becca and her friend are the second sled coming down.

As a side note, I follow several couponing blogs that help me save money, show me where some of the best deals are, let me know when something is on a huge sale and give away things. I've signed up for giveaways that interest me and I finally won! I never win anything I enter so I was ecstatic! I got my stuff in today. It doesn't take much to make me happy. I love "school supplies", so I was excited to get this. The only thing is I was hoping the notebook would have been a little bigger. I was wanting to use a really cute book for my preschool/nursery job, but I will put it to good use. I got this from the blog www.frugalcouponliving.com

Growing boy

2010-01-16T16:34:00.006-06:00

Barret is growing so fast. I really wish he would slow down. He is so sweet and enjoyable but now I'm having to really watch him. He wants to climb on everything. Becca has a little table and chairs and Barrett likes to climb on the chairs, stand on them and then climb on the table. So, we keep the chairs lying down on the floor because he hasn't figured out how to put them up so that solves that climbing problem. Next is the bathtub. He loves baths and water. When it's bathtime, he like to lean over and touch the water coming out of the faucet and he loves it when I wash his hands. It started when Becca would take a bath and he would try to reach down and touch the water. Then he got a little better and would hang over the tub like this:

Well, this week it happened; he went in. Luckily he went in slowly and there was no water. He justs likes doing it now even with no water. So now, he's not allowed in the bathroom unless mommy or daddy are able to watch his every move. Next is the beds. The other night he wandered into Becca's room but the lights were off so I figured he'd come out. Well, I went in there and he was smack dab in the middle of her bed. She has a headboard with shelves so luckily he hadn't climbed on there yet. With hard work and commitment, he can climb on our bed or Becca's bed. He puts his little foot on the railing and grabs ahold of the sheets and pulls himself up, I think he may put his foot between the mattresses for one last push. I've seen him turn himself around and go down feet first but not always, so now Becca's door has to be shut. So, every door in our house is shut...(laundry room too because he wants to play in the dog bowls), except his door which is the only room other than the kitchen and living room he can't get in trouble in.

Doesn't he look like he could be trouble?

And for you watching enjoyment, this is my daughter trying to keep up with Glee's version of "Put a Ring on It". Pardon the videography, I was doing it with my camera but couldn't back up far enough to get her whole body so ended up doing it sideways...forgot you couldn't turn it around like you can pictures. Hope you don't end up with a crick in your neck.

Christmas, part 2

2010-01-08T17:51:00.010-06:00

Arizona was nice...a little cooler for them in the 50s but nice for us. We just had a good time relaxing and hanging out with the family. As you can tell from how often I blog, I don't always get much time on the computer. So, it was nice to be able to catch up and clean up on e-mails; I didn't feel guilty that I wasn't doing housework or laundry or anything else, plus Becca would just as soon play with grandma than me anyway. I got my e-mail inbox down from 6 or 7 pages to 3. Becca and grandma walked almost every day, if Barrett was awake, we all got a walk in as well. Darren was able to play golf several days which he hadn't done in months. The first night there, Darren's brother came over for cards. One thing we like to do is play cards; when it's just the 4 of us, we play hearts of which I rarely win but it's still fun to play. Darren's family plays schafkopf (shofscup is how they pronounce it)...it's like sheepshead if anyone knows that. I have no idea how to play; when we got married 14 1/2 years ago, I was told it takes a long time to learn and figured I'd stick to hearts. It looks fun however and they have fun.

We went to a place close by where they have skydiving and a wind tunnel. We watched the skydivers for a little bit, then went into the wind tunnel area. Militaries from all over including ours use this facility to train. Darren was going to go in but they were booked for the next several days. We watched the others and it looked fun. We only watched for a little bit because there were some military people there and we are not allowed to be in there while they're training. Check out their website: http://www.skyventureaz.com/default.aspx

Christmas day we hung out with the family. We had great food, then Becca handed out presents. It was actually a little warm that day, almost too warm for long sleeve so we sat on the back patio for a little bit. It was a nice relaxing day. Darren's sister-in-law, Becca, and I went to see Alvin & The Chipmunks 2 at the movies. It was really cute and it was fun going to the movies with Becca.

Becca being goofy--those are sleeves tied around her neck

Becca helping

Some friends we knew from Nashville had moved out there several years ago and we try to meet up with them while we're there. They have a daughter that's 4 and a son who's almost 2. We hung out at their house and surprisingly there were not any fights amongst the kids; they really got along well.

My child does not mind being in front of a large group of people and is fairly fearless, she'll try almost anything. Darren's brother has a 2-seater airplane and Becca went flying with him all by herself. She had a good time.

The last night, we hung out at his brother's house. They grilled out and we watched some football. Rhea was so sweet to make a birthday cake for Becca & Barrett; she put 5 candles for Becca and 1 candle for Barrett. Becca doesn't have problems being the center of attention and getting a little cake to boot.

Becca liked their dog because it actually played with her...unlike our dog

The flight home, I made sure we had plenty of snacks but still thought we'd have time to get something quick at DFW. But do you think things could go completely smoothly? When they announced we were coming in to gate A22 (or something close) and our connecting flight left from A29, we thought we were doing pretty good. Well, there was a plane at the gate so we were being rerouted to A16 and we had to wait a little to get there. We're off the plane and going fast to the gate so we might have a little time when I asked Darren what time it was. That's when he realized he left his phone on the plane. He dumps his stuff on the floor and hightails it back to the plane. Now I'm here with 2 kids, tons of stuff in the middle of the walkway at DFW. Finally, I slowly move our stuff over to the side. There was definitley no moving anywhere without help. Finally Darren comes back and we're going as fast as we can and of course Becca's tired; we finally get to the gate and they're making the last call...no one is sitting waiting on the flight..just us. Again, missed lunch but thanks to grandma, we had plenty of things to eat. At least there was no throwing up on this trip. Darren dropped us off at home then headed to the bowling alley...it was his league night.

Barrett's birthday and Christmas part 1

2010-01-08T17:04:00.005-06:00

Barrett's first birthday was really low key. I know it's a big deal but it's also one he won't remember. With the hectic December schedule and having just done Becca's party the weekend before, we decided to do something small. We invited a couple of babies and their families over to play. Because kids schedules are never completely set, the party started a little later which worked out fine. One of the babies couldn't make it but his mom and 3-year-old brother came. Another baby and his 2-year-old brother came with their parents. The kids played a little, then we blew out candles and had cake. That was the exciting day of Barrett's party. Because we weren't doing a big party, I decided I could at least make a cool cake. It wasn't terribly hard, just a little time consuming. I was very proud of it though...so cute. It was a barn with chick, sheep and pig cupcakes. Barrett was so cute opening presents. He did get the hang of it but he preferred ripping the paper and then covering the present back up.

Tuesday morning the 22nd, we woke Becca up at 5:30 to get ready to go to AZ to visit Darren's parents aka Grandma and Grandpa as well as Darren's brother and family. We left the house at 6:00 a.m. to drive a little over an hour to the airport, park the car in long-term parking and get to our gate in time. Becca doesn't always like to eat first thing in the morning but figured we'd get something in the airport or at least on the plane. Well, we got to the gate in time to hear early boarding. So, we just decided to wait to eat until we got on the plane. Well, with all the cutbacks, not all flights offer food. We got something to drink but luckily I brought some fruit snacks and some cheerios so Becca and Barrett got something to eat. Okay, so we can still get something to eat at DFW if there's enough time. But, not if you have to go from terminal A to C. They were already boarding by the time we got there and Darren didn't figure we'd have time to grab something quick and I've got a 5-year-old complaining that she's hungry. Well, I found some puppy chow someone had given us so she ate that. Luckily, this flight offered food...for a cost but it was worth it. Becca wanted milk and we got some cheese, crackers, raisins and nuts. Barrett fell asleep and Darren was holding him. We had just gotten our food and I was putting everything on my tray because there wasn't enough room with Darren holding Barrett and I didn't want Becca to spill anything. You know how small those airline seats are and the trays are pretty much against your body. Well, I look over at Becca and she has thrown up all over her shirt. Great! How am I going to do this? We got the flight attendants to get us paper towels and a trash sack. I did my best to clean her up with that. Luckily again, I had a change of clothes. I had to transfer all this food and drink we'd already opened and poured onto Becca's tray so I could reach my bag and get her clothes, then transfer everything back to my tray so I could change her. When I had Becca stand up, she started freaking out because it was on her pants and all over her seat. Anyway, I got her all cleaned up with new clothes, the flight attendants gave us a blanket to put in her seat so she wouldn't sit on the wet seat and we were doing okay. It was a little like a comedy however with me moving the food and drinks several times to reach things to get her all settled. Well, I made sure she promised to let me know if she wasn't feeling well and I had the airline bag all ready just in case. I also know what you're thinking but it didn't smell, thank goodness. That would just be the icing on the cake in such a small space. We made the rest of the flight just fine. The crew got another seat to switch out after we got off the plane.

Luckily, Darren's mom had made sandwiches for us to eat on the way home. We flew into Phoenix but had to drive about an hour to their house. I was nervous all the way there because I just knew Becca was going to throw up in their car; I still had the airline bag ready and asked her several times how she was feeling. She never got sick again. I think it was lack of sleep, food, the excitment and the flight just worked against her. Next time, I bring PLENTY of snacks.

Becca's birthday

2010-01-04T11:48:00.005-06:00

On Becca's actual birthday, the 10th, I brought cupcakes to her school, mostly because it was her birthday and we weren't inviting most kids to her party (only because we can't invite everyone), but we also had a church staff party that night. We were having her party on Saturday so didn't feel too bad leaving her because we were still going to let her open presents from us and some others that were sent. But, running, just a little behind as always, Darren came home later than hoped, I was finishing up cooking and getting myself ready, we weren't going to have time for presents. Becca of course remembered I said we could do presents. So, I let her open 1 before and promised we would open the rest when we got home. She was satisfied with that, thank goodness. That helped alleviate some of my guilt. We had a good time at the pastor's house. Everyone brought some really good food. I had a dessert sample because I couldn't choose, then we did a dirty santa gift exchange. Someone had a cute snowman glitter 'lava lamp' nightlite I thought Becca would like. When I took it, I told everyone it was Becca's birthday. A couple of people thought about taking the nighlite but thought they wouldn't hear the end of it if they took something from a child. So, Becca was excited when we got home. As promised she opened the rest of her presents and then had to go to bed to get up for school since it was already late.

We braved Chuck E Cheese this year for Becca's party. It wasn't as bad as some Saturdays we've been there. We had a mishap free birthday this year. She chose Scooby Doo for her theme. I'll hand it to Chuck E Cheese, they really do a lot for the kids. Becca got extra tokens, parade around the tables, dance with her friends & Chuck E Cheese, a chance to go in the ticket machine, etc. She had a great time with her friends.

The next day, on Sunday, our church had an evening of praise where all the different choirs sang, individuals sang or played an intstrument, etc. You know how there's always 'one of those' in every group...I got her. I'm trying to round up a better video, but for now, just watch her after the first song. She give a big thumbs up, big waves, and a loud whisper to her teacher, "that's my mom!"

She also had her preschool program at school. She was not as animated there, maybe because it was a much bigger group. They actually combined both preschool groups for the program. I really enjoy this age where you can see them perform; I enjoyed both.

Becca & Barrett both had their checkups that week as well. Becca is in the 97th percentile in height and weight and Barrett is in the 50th for height and 25th for weight. It's funny, Becca has always been tall for her age and so far, Barrett has always been average. I think it would be funny if they ended up at about the same height, although may feel a little bad for Barrett.

Trip to OK

2009-12-30T16:55:00.010-06:00

At the beginning of December, I decided to head to Oklahoma. I wasn't going to be able to spend Christmas with my family so it gave me an excuse to head down there and save everyone on shipping their gifts as well. We left on Thursday and came back Monday so we had several days there. It's the first time I had taken both kids on a long car ride by myself. I'm happy to report they did great! So far, I have really good travelers...I hope it stays that way. Except soon, I'll have to deal with fighting in the backseat, but for now, they're really good. It worked out to where I stopped for lunch when Barrett woke up, then when he woke up again, I stopped for gas and let them out of their seats for a bit then back on the road. I was in T-town by dinnertime...I know, impressive huh?

The main reason I go to Tulsa is of course for q-time with my family,however, some of the other reasons I enjoy visiting are no longer there...Tippins (who had the best french silk pie ever!) and Egg Roll Express who had the best Chinese food. However, I did get to enjoy Mazzio's, Braum's, some good Mexican food (I'm sorry, but it's a little bland and tex-mexy around here), and some frozen custard. Why frozen custard has not made it out this way, I'll never know; anyone want to invest in one? There were a few other places I didn't make it to, but that's for another time when I'm there longer.

I did a little shopping while there because I didn't have all my shopping done. Before heading home for the kids' naps, we decided to run into Toys R Us because I had coupons. It was cold and I was in a hurry and Barrett took his socks off again. So, I put everything down, put his socks on, bundled him up and ran into the store. We're getting in the long line at check-out and I realize I don't have my purse. Okay, I'm in Oklahoma and the only other person who has keys is in KY. We had to call my brother to come get us and drive us illegally (without car seats) to mom's house and wait for the locksmith to tell us he's on his way. Then we drove back, illegally again, to get the car which took only seconds to 'break into'. That was a day completely wasted.

Saturday, my brother's church had something called 'Breakfast in Bethlehem'. The kids came and had snowman donuts from Krispy Kreme. They then went to different rooms to do a super cute craft...it gave me ideas for next year at our church. (I later heard another good idea...a book called the 'Advent Jessee Tree' 25 ornaments to tell the Christmas story with devotions for the kids for each ornament) So, the lady showed the kids what they were making...clay pot nativity. They could pick out the color they wanted to paint each pot and the color for their headdress. Becca and Cade were doing pretty good and then came time to draw the eyes. Becca saw the example and decided Joseph's eyes needed to be big. They didn't look too bad but I told her she might want to make Mary's eyes a little smaller. Being the good listener that she is, she made them bigger...almost the size of her head. But, hey, this is a kid's craft and that's what makes it cute. They then went to the gym to run off steam and then headed back to the chapel for 'A Charlie Brown Christmas' while waiting for the rest of the kids. The preschool director then told the kids the Christmas story. It was really a neat thing and Becca thoroughly enjoyed it.

Here is an example of the craft

Here is Becca's rendition of the nativity

Sunday, we headed to my brother's house to watch their kids while they went to a Christmas party. The kids really had fun playing together. Becca was very cute with her cousin. This is when Barrett really decided to start walking. He had taken a step or two but there was a toy he really liked there and took 7 or 8 steps at a time. Wow, he really is getting big.

This is a carboard "house" my mom has but had folded up and put in the corner for the time being, Becca and her cousin decided to go through the door anyway. Notice the pair of feet sticking out...a la "Wizard of Oz"

November

2009-11-29T22:38:00.004-06:00

It's been a busy month...surprise, surprise. The only thing is, I can't tell you exactly what we did all month. Darren was on jury duty for the whole month. But he only had to go in a few times and was never chosen to serve on a jury.

Becca's school did something cool for the kids called Pizza & Pages. They did a reading night where they gave tips and ideas for helping your child read. Then you went to your classroom while the teacher gave you a few specifics. Everyone went to the cafeteria to get a piece of pizza and a free book for their age. We all enjoyed it.

Thanksgiving was fun this year. Most years, we have spent Thanksgiving with the 3 of us.(of course now there is 4 of us) Darren always works Thanksgiving morning so we never travel. One of our families has sometimes come to us or we have been invited to friends houses occasionally. This year, our friends, the Morgans, decided to invite the game night group (who meet monthly) and a few others to their house. There were 17 adults, 5 teenagers, and 8 kids. It was a lot of fun. We had 3 turkeys: oven-baked, fried and smoked. We got there around 1:00 and everyone left at different times. Some of us stayed until almost 10:00. We ate, played some games, watched some football, ate some more, played some more, ate some more, etc. We're talking about doing it again for New Years Eve.

One sad thing is Barrett got his first haircut. He had such beautiful blond hair. It was a little long but I was hoping for just a trim up around the ears and neck. Darren didn't like the fact that many people called him a girl. It never bothered me because he's a baby but, I still agreed it needed to be trimmed. He took him to the barber and came back with short hair all over. At first, I was sad but I like it and he's still as cute as ever. Someone said that before he still looked like a baby and his cut made him look like a big boy. Maybe that's why I was so sad...he's getting big; 1 year old in 19 days!

Before with his beautiful blond locks

After, with his cute big boy cut

October

2009-11-02T22:27:00.003-06:00

Having a part-time job really is time-consuming. I'll catch you up on some of what's happened in the last month.

I had my eye surgery again. My mother-in-law came and helped out again and she was a big help...again. My eye didn't swell as much but it hurt a little more. It was a little harder to follow the rules this time around now that Barrett is bigger and more mobile. I wasn't able to bend over and had to have ice on my eyes most of the first 48 hours. I then wasn't allowed to lift more than 10 pounds for a week. It was difficult not to pick up Barrett at times. But Donna did put him in my lap some so we could get some cuddle time. Luckily, I have a happy-go-lucky kid who goes with the flow quite a bit; He was great for his grandma.

Most of the month was consumed with getting ready for trunk or treat at church. I was so consumed with the big details, the little details stressed me out in the end. Even though we had to move it inside because of the rain, we had a good time. The bad thing was, Darren and I were both stuck running different games so I didn't get any pictures. The next night which was actually Halloween, we had some friends over, I made much too spicy chili, went around our neighborhood and got WAY too much candy.

One of Becca's favorite friends is Thomas. I used to watch him at my house and now they're in school together. Normally, they're waving to each other as she gets off the bus to get in one last goodbye. The other day when getting off the bus, she's saying something to Thomas and the bus driver is as well. Thomas is waving out the window as usual to which Becca just flips her head and walks inside. She told me he was calling her, "Rebecca Rodriguez" or something like that and she didn't like it. About 10 minutes later, I get a phone call from his mom saying that Thomas told her he needed to call Becca to apologize...he wouldn't let it go, so she called. I tried to listen to the conversation because I thought it would be funny to hear two 4-year-olds talk.

Becca: So, what did you want to say?

Thoams: (something about Rebecca Rodriguez)

Becca: (with a sigh)I know, but I just don't like that name

Thomas: I won't say it again

Becca: What's the next word? (????)

Thoams: I'm sorry

Becca: What else did you want to say?

Thomas: (obviously done with the conversation he says something about talking to his mom and says bye)

Kids really do crack me up. The next day, her class had a Halloween party and they were sitting at the table. Some of the kids started calling a little girl, "Rylea Banana". Now, who knows where kids come up with these names..nobody was dressed as a banana, nobody was eating a banana...Anyway, I watched Becca to see if she would join in the name calling thinking I could use it as a teachable moment later on. She looked around at the kids saying it and said, "Stop it, stop it, don't call her that, she doesn't like it." Needless to say, I was very proud for her standing up for her friend. Now, I'm sure I can't expect the same all the time, but she did the right thing at least once. I will say, I don't worry about anybody pushing Becca around. This has been a long post so I will end with some pictures of my cuties.

Aren't they so cute?

Eyeing that cupcake

Catch-up

2009-09-28T23:57:00.006-05:00

Wow, time never slows down! I can't even begin to remember everything that's happened in the last month. I started my new part-time job as the preschool/nursery coordinator at church. Basically, I'm in charge of scheduling volunteers, workers, activities, etc for all our kids younger than kindergarten age. It has kept me pretty busy lately. I'm also beginning to work on the trunk or treat for our church...wow, is it only 4 weeks away?

Becca is loving preschool but it's hard to find out what she does for the 3 hours she's in school. Normally she tells me they played outside. Although she did tell me that they worked on the letter "D". I'm glad to tell you, I passed the background check in order to volunteer in her classroom. (I know some of you were worried about that) I hope to be able to go on field trips and help in other ways too. Unfortunately, the first field trip to Christian Way Farms is 5 days after my eye surgery so not sure I'm going to be up for that one. As a librarian, books are one of my weaknesses. Becca will be bringing home book orders once a month and I am going to have to budget myself. It's so hard not to support her school. (at least that's what I told myself when I bought books this last time)

Right now Becca has the flu and an ear infection. We waited in Convenient Care on Saturday for 5 hours. Luckily, Barrett is an easy baby and he didn't fuss much at all. She's run a fever off and on since Thursday and has a bad cough and stuffy nose. The hardest part is to try to keep her from coughing and sneezing all over the place and keep her hands off too many things. The last thing I want is any of us to get sick but am most concerned about Barrett. His little body wouldn't handle it as well.

Barrett is really getting so sweet and his little personality is showing through. He truly is a joy. Below is a video of him discovering a new toy and cracking up. Also, there are some pictures of him with a little girl I was watching a few times this last month. It was really cute to see them together.

First day

2009-08-19T22:06:00.004-05:00

Today, my big girl, went to her first day of preschool. Darren and I took her up there and thought I would get her settled and leave. Darren did have to leave pretty quickly to get to work, but many parents were hanging around so I did too. We took her to her room and met her interim teacher: there still is no permanent teacher. The assistants from the previous year(s) are there so that is good. Every morning, they will go to the cafeteria for breakfast first. I stayed with her while she ate. Her friend, Thomas, who I used to watch in the afternoons is in her class. That is both good and bad. Good because she warmed up quicker and didn't have problems with me leaving. Bad because if she's too comfortable or knows someone, she may not listen as well or make friends as well.

She wanted to ride the bus home so she did. The preschool bus is strictly for preschoolers. There is the bus rider, plus another adult to help them. It is also a hand to hand transfer: they will not let your child off the bus unless you're there to get them off. So, I felt pretty good about letting her try it. With her friend on the bus too, she liked it. Tomorrow, she will start riding the bus to and from school. This also gives me a little extra time to get a few things done.

I tried to find out what she did today but when I asked her, she said, "We played outside." I felt a little better when another friend whose daughter goes to another school, told her the same thing. So, I'm not sure exactly what she did but I know she had fun. I also told her to have fun playing with Thomas but to make some other friends too. Like I said earlier, if she has a friend she's playing with, she doesn't always want to try to make new ones. I'm sure she will in time. As for me, I did pretty good. I went home to feed Barrett and the house was SOOO quiet. I got out, went to Target, and got back in time for the bus.

As for Barrett, he's still as happy as can be. He's finally got his second tooth which came in 3-4 weeks after his first. They're coming in slowly and he doesn't seem to be too cranky about it. He started crawling just a little last week. He's got it pretty perfected now. He doesn't crawl fast but he can get to just about anywhere he wants to go. Wow, one in preschool and one crawling. They really do grow too fast!!

Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life - A

2009-08-10T16:33:00.006-05:00

I saw this on a friend's blog and thought it was a cute idea.

African violets - My mom had many, many of these little flowers. She had a lighted stand in her bedroom that was filled with these pretty plants. She knew all the names and I remember her going shopping for new ones and getting excited showing us.

Aquarium - Everyone is always fascinated by an aquarium full of fish...big or small. My dad always wanted one. To get a nice one is not cheap so us kids discussed giving that to him as a gift one year. He never had space for it however so he would enjoy "visiting" when he went to his mom's house. It really is peaceful to sit and watch them.

Alligator - In high school, our youth group went on a mission trip to Cut Off, Louisiana. I had never seen rivers with boats in the median of the roads or "swamps" on the side of the roads. There was a guy in the church we called 'Alligator Jimmy'; in my small rememberances, he wrestled, caught, did something with alligators. We went to an alligator farm and got to hold some if we wanted...I chose not to. We also had a big shrimp boil with all you could eat shrimp, corn, potatoes, etc. They served cajun nuggets which we were later told was alligator meat. It was good, don't remember exactly what they tasted like...maybe chicken???

Amy - It's funny how names go in cycles. My mom didn't know a single Amy when she named me; she had only heard of 1 other. It became a pretty popular name in the 70s; I was one of 3 in my second grade class. Now, I haven't heard of anyone naming their babies Amy in awhile. It went from #2 in the 70s and droped through the decades to now being #116 in the 2000s.

New nephew

2009-07-28T23:24:00.007-05:00

I made a last minute trip to OK. Darren was going to be really busy (even more than usual), plus I had a nephew due on July 4th. I had played with the idea of going to OK but wasn't sure I was brave enough to drive it with the 2 kids. Becca's always been a great traveler but was still a little unsure about both of them. So, I finally decided a few days before I left that I might as well try it now. We left at 8:00 and got to OK at 6:00; I'd say that's pretty good. I did have to stop a little earlier than expected twice with Barrett screaming in the back but all in all they really did well.

We ran around with my mom and saw my brothers and their families. My nephew still hadn't arrived but they induced her on Sunday, 8 days after the due date. I was able to be at the hospital when he was born. I've never been on the other side of the birthing room for anyone so it was cool. The kids did really well and I wanted to see him as soon as I could so we waited.

My brother and his boys

I was home for probably 10 days and still didn't go everywhere I wanted or see everyone I wanted, although I came pretty close. Becca enjoyed hanging out with her extended family and didn't really want to go home. My sister came up to meet our new nephew as well. Our last night in town, Phil and Katie braved coming over to my mom's house so we could get pictures of all the grandkids. Next time we'll all be together, the smallest cousins will probably be big enough to really enjoy each other. I just hope they'll be close and we'll continue to get together every year because we and they have a blast when we do. Here are a few pics.

I hope someone got a better picture than this but here's all of us!

This was their entertainment one evening

Barrett likes to try and eat hair

Barrett is now sitting up in his bathtub and doing a new funny expression.

Summer catch up

2009-07-02T19:32:00.006-05:00

We have been so busy this summer. Darren has junior golf clinic every year and this year Becca participated. She got her own set of golf clubs for Christmas. We originally have her a pink bag but then realized they couldn't be passed down to Barrett. We convinced her, thankfully, to trade for the red set instead, since both pink and red are her favorite colors. It's a kids set with a driver, iron and putter...all she really needs. I wish I would have gotten pictures but I was usually rushing around the house right before we left. I'll try to take pictures of her golfing with daddy sometime this summer.

The same week as the golf lessons was VBS. I was helping with the craft area and Becca went to the 4-year-old class while Barrett was in the nursery with some lovely ladies that loved on him all week. I always enjoy helping and Becca really enjoys it as well. We actually got there early on Friday morning and one of the teenagers picked Becca to go up on stage and sing the main song with them. Again, I didn't have my camera so my lovely friend took some for me. I'm just sad I didn't get it on video. She knew the motions and didn't mind getting up in front of everybody...it was so cute. The theme this year was "Boomerang Express". Now that I'm blogging about it, that song will probably be in my head for the next day or so...it's kinda catchy.

Last week was Barrett's 6-month checkup; where does the time go? He's growing so fast. The day after the appointment, Barrett decided to start sitting up. He still won't roll from his back to his belly, but he'll sit by himself.

What a big boy!

This week, Becca has been taking swimming lessons. Everyone should know how to swim, plus she doesn't have any fear of anything, including water. There is a lady who is really good with the kids and Becca has had so much fun. Today, she asked if she could go off the board. She also decided to let go of the edge of the pool. She thinks she's so big...we're going to watch her. Luckily, she listens fairly well in the pool, but we may be spending a lot of time in the baby pool if I'm by myself with Barrett.

Cute $5 Old Navy suits

I think our summer activities are going to really slow down. T-ball is over so there are no more planned activities, we're just going to go with the flow which will be nice, especially since it will just be getting hotter.

Final St. Louis post

2009-06-29T15:31:00.008-05:00

We're on our final day in St. Louis. We went to Grant's Farm which was one of my favorite places. The first place you see is the clydesdale barn and fields. I didn't realize they were so much bigger than any horse I'd ever been up close to. We hopped on a "tram" and saw so many different animals while the guide told us what to look for and a little history of the place. We even got to see a baby horse that was just born and was taking standing up for the first time. When they drop you off, you can buy milk bottles to feed to the goats which the kids really enjoyed. There were so many different animals, it was like a very, very small zoo. We missed the elephant show but saw a bird show with various birds, owls, and birds of prey.

Here are some random pics from the vacation

One of the many dinners we cooked

Hanging out

Family photo on deck

Driving my brother around Brothers goofing off

Pics of the house..the last one being a screened in porch the kids enjoyed playing on

Kids chillin spot watching a movie

It was great fun being with almost the whole family, minus a couple of working spouses and one teenager cousin. It was almost too quiet when we came back home. This town isn't big enough to go do too much. We walked everywhere which is getting me motivated to walk for exercise. We were able to do a lot of fun things and then spend some quality time with the family. Great trip, I'd recommed St. Louis to any family!

St. Louis, part 2

2009-06-29T09:16:00.011-05:00

Okay, I'm trying to update my blog. This summer has been pretty busy so far. Day 3 was rainy, so we hit the mall. By the time we got there, we decided to eat lunch. We walked around a little then went to a mini arcade that also has a few racetracks. The larger one outside was closed because of rain. But the kids had fun and so did the 2 big kids.

Yeah...another carousel in the food court!

Driving the cars...those cars really whipped around the corner

Boys go karting

Day 4 of St. Louis was the Arch and a Cardinals game. There is a mini museum underground which was very interesting. If you've never been, it is interesting. There are these small "pods" you get in to go to the top. Only 5 people fit in and you can't even sit up straight. Once you get up to the top, there it's a smallish space to look out both sides of the arch. But, it is pretty cool! The fewer hours of sleep and being together constantly finally made Becca snap because this is the day she had her biggest meltdown. We were getting ready to leave and I asked Becca if she wanted to get on the stroller, to which she replied, "no". So I asked Cade if he wanted a ride and he said, "yes". Well, Becca did not like that. I think she wanted to play with Cade, plus she didn't want him riding in "her" stroller. She refused to leave as long as he was in the sroller. I tried walking off and she proceeded to sit on her bottom and throw a fit. My mom had to push the stroller while I dealt with my child who was doing the whole screaming, arms and legs flailing bit while everyone in the place was watching my child. I had to carry her out halfway, which was no easy task until she decided to walk. She fussed for quite awhile, probably halfway to the car until she finally decided it was getting her nowhere. Here are pictures of the trip before the meltdown.

The pods to go to the top

Downtown St. Louis from the arch

Looking out

My mom and Barrett in the arch

A cute cowboy and 2 cute cowgirls

After a nice afternoon nap, we went to the Cardinals game. We had decent seats we bought that morning online. We were sitting in right field near the foul pole about 18 rows up. The game was a very short one with the Cards winning...3-1 I think? Steve and Cade got up to get a snack and souvenir after the 1st inning and didn't come back until the 3rd. Becca and I did the same when they got back and we didn't come back until the 5th inning. The whole game was not more than 2 hours long.

Enjoying the game

View from seats

After the game

T-ball

2009-06-09T14:40:00.004-05:00

Becca is in T-ball this summer. She has never played any organized sport so we thought we'd try this out to see how she likes it. She is on the Cardinals which is funny since we had planned our St. Louis trip back in the winter before we signed up for t-ball. The first few practices were just to tell the kids where the bases were, how to run them, how to catch the ball and how to bat. She missed her first game because we were in St. Louis but last night was HER first game. It was so cute to see the kids out there. Each team got to bat twice and field twice so the kids got to eventually run all the way home. Becca grasped the concept fairly well. Some kids when in the field would catch the ball and either hold it or throw it to a coach insted of first base. Some kids while batting would either run to the wrong base or go chase after their own ball.

Becca's first position was 3rd base. There really isn't much to do there so she pretty much stood there. The second time, she was in the middle of the field and was able to catch the ball a few times and did a good job throwing in to first base. Her first time up to bat, she hit it and ran to first. The second time, you can see in the video below. I think she wasn't sure if she should run if the other team already had the ball...I'm not sure what she was thinking but it was funny. We have games on Mondays and Thursdays and we're having fun.

St. Louis, part 1

2009-06-08T09:51:00.007-05:00

Our family vacation was really fun this year. There was so much to do, I didn't even get to do everything I wanted. The house was beautiful and the winding two lane tree-lined roads were beautiful as well. The view from the deck would be great in the fall with all the fall colors. The first thing we had to do was grocery shop for the week. Then we just kicked back as the family trickled in.

Monday we decided to go to the zoo. We wanted to have good weather for that, so we went early. It was very hot that day and found out later, it would have been better to do it later in the week when it was cooler. But, we packed a lunch, ate it in the park across from the zoo. I borrowed an infant/toddler stroller which was SO great to have. The zoo was so big and the weather was so hot, we didn't even get to see it all. The kids had a lot of fun.

The kids started off liking each other

After the zoo, we dropped off those who were going to rest before dinner and some of us went out flying with my cousin. It was pretty cool. I didn't go up with Becca because she wanted to go with her cousin Cade but my brother said they had fun. We learned the Missouri river isn't far from the Mississippi River...anyone know that? After flying, we went to dinner with my cousin's family. They were very busy that week with their 25th wedding anniversary, one son's graduation that weekend, and planning another son's wedding for later in the summer. We appreciate them taking their time to spend a little time with us.

Tuesday was Six Flags. The weather was a little better, still a little hot however. We rode the ferris wheel first, then spent some time riding all the kiddie rides. All 3 older cousins had fun riding together. We then went on some bigger rides. Cade and Becca were tall enough to ride with the adults and they actually enjoyed the roller coasters and water rides. There were a few they actually wanted to ride on again. After a few hours, we went to the parking lot to eat. We were there maybe 20 minutes when a huge storm hit. Blowing rain and hail! So we closed up the kids in the back of the SUV and we sat in the front and had a picnic. My sister took her daughter home to rest and we went back after the rain stopped.

Becca playing a game and winning a pink beaver

Other than a little whiny here and there, the kids got along. They definitely got on each others nerves after being together all day. Cade and Becca are similar in personality and only 3 months apart in age, so there was a lot of jockeying for poisition. At the end of the day, we had to separate them or at least tell them there was no talking in the car on the way home.

More memories

2009-05-18T21:14:00.003-05:00

We are getting ready for a family vacation to St. Louis. I am truly looking forward to it. Darren actually plans to come for a couple of days too. Just planning and thinking of everything that needed to be done made me think of when I was a kid. On our car rides, dad would make up games, puzzles, etc for us to do in the car. He put them in individual folders for each of us with our own clear covers and dry erase markers. I looked forward to this and enjoyed going through them on our drives. Nowadays, there's DVD players, but my dad got creative and we really did have fun.

I also remember when dad would go away on work trips without us. He would have those large brown paper grocery bags for each of us with our names on them. Inside, he would have a present for every day he was gone. They were all individually wrapped, usually in brown paper. We looked forward to it every day and helped us countdown the days. He put thought into these items; something we would enjoy and were somtimes they were specific to us. Other times, they were some that were the same to avoid the fighting over something. Ahh, the good old days.

Savings and sayings

2009-05-14T15:14:00.002-05:00

My friends turned me on to being a coupon cutter. There are many blogs out there who do the legwork for you. All you have to do is sign up for free on their websites and have it sent to your e-mail to read the updates. Since I try to check e-mail everyday, this is very simple for me. It will tell me what's on sale at some of my favorite stores like Target or Kroger and then give me a coupon for even more savings. Last week I saved $17 at Target and $45 at Kroger!! I have also signed up for free samples, I've gotten free cards, free sandwiches, etc. I am a true believer now. I have listed on the right some sites that are my favorites. I hope you enjoy.

Becca has been heard saying these things lately:

Beeca was tossing a ball back and forth when I heard her say, “Stop it hands. You need to share” She went on to give them a small lecture on why they should share, while apparently they were disagreeing with her.

Tonight, I was reading a book to her that we’ve read many times. She stopped me and said, “Stop mom, I’ve got it from here.”

She acutally quoted this line from 'Meet the Robinsons' to me, Mom, "I'm always right. Even when I'm wrong, I'm right".

Big boy

2009-04-29T08:20:00.004-05:00

My baby turned 4 months old on the 18th. His doctor said he was just over 14 pounds and 24 1/2 inches long. He also said to start cereal and foods if we wanted. So, Barrett tried his first cereal last week. The first day or two, he really wasn't so sure about it.

But after a little bit, he decided it wasn't too bad. Monday, we started trying squash for dinner. That was a definite, "What is that?" look.

Now that he's used to eating something, it didn't take him as long to decide he liked it. As a matter of fact, the next day, he was opening his mouth and I couldn't feed it to him fast enough. We're still working on the swallowing part. He still sticks his tongue out quite a bit, so we usually eat with just a diaper on. Then, we're cleaning his face, belly, hands, legs, and seat. We're trying carrots today. I can't wait until we're on a more regular routine.

10 random memories from childhood

2009-04-23T13:27:00.003-05:00

I was reading a friend's blog where she had written 10 random memories from childhood. She said if we're reading it, then we're tagged because she likes to read these types of things about her friends as it helps her get to know them better. Well, I didn't think I had a lot of vivid memories, but I thought I'd give it a try. When I sat down, it wasn't hard to do. So, here are just a few I thought of.

1. When we visited Mom and Pop (my dad’s parents), Pop would always give us a dollar which we thought made us rich. Sometimes we saved it, sometimes we bought something on the way home. When all the grandkids turned a certain age (6 or 7, I don’t remember) they gave us a bicycle. I’ll always remember the stockings that were filled with fruit, nuts, candy canes and maybe a couple of other things.

2. Grandma and Pa lived on a farm. When we would visit, Pa would always wake us up with his not yet shaven face rubbing on our cheeks. Grandma would make a nice breakfast and we would read “Open Windows” (a daily devotional guide) and they would let one of us read the names of the missionaries to pray for on that day.

3. My dad took every Thursday off and work on Saturdays in order to get more done. I remember getting to go with dad sometimes to work (at church) with him some Saturdays. My sister and I would watch movies; I definitely remember watching the Care Bear movie a lot, we’d type on the electric typewriter which I thought was pretty cool, we’d make up stories, color pictures, and dad would let us walk across the street to Texaco to get a coke and a candy bar, my favorite was 3 Musketeers and a Dr. Pepper.

4. We did not believe in Santa Claus but mom and dad still made it fun. I remember waiting until my parents got up to go downstairs in case they hadn’t filled the stockings yet. Stockings would be the first thing we’d open…they’re still one of my favorite things. Mom always made a big breakfast which we’d eat, then turn on Christmas music on an old record player, one of those big boxey ones that sit on the ground. We’d put on several records because it took a long time for us to open presents. They were 6 total and we’d go around in a circle, each opening one present from youngest to oldest and we’d keep going around until they were all open. Several days or weeks before Christmas, mom would start taking requests for Christmas treats. We all got to choose something for her to make, sometimes we would help. My choice was always fudge. She still likes to do this, of course in smaller quantities now.

5. I remember sitting next to dad in church snuggled up to him. He always carried pieces of yellow legal pad papers. He’d pull out a piece of paper and a pen/pencil (usually one of those silver dual pen/pencils) from his suit coat pocket and hand it to us. I also remember him sometimes tapping me on the shoulder; when I’d turn to look, he’d have a peppermint hard candy in his hand. He carried those in his pocket for us. Later, when I thought I was too cool to sit with him, I remember hearing his voice from across the church singing, his speaking and singing voice seemed to carry through the church. He never used a hymnal and he knew most of the words to most of the songs.

6. My dad's job was much more flexible than mom's, so when we were sick, dad would drop mom off at work, and come home with 7-up, crackers and magazines, stuffed animal, and/or those crossword variety type magazines. I didn't love getting sick, but I loved getting this stuff to help us pass the time.

7. My mom worked at a place called the “Lion’s Den”. I don’t remember what kind of shop it was but from what I remember, it was a gift type shop. I remember going with dad to pick her up and loving to look at the huge bigger than life sized nutcrackers. There was also a candy shop downstairs we enjoyed salivating over and sometimes we would bring home different types of fudge and candies.

8. My mom didn’t drive, so my dad took her everywhere. I just remember how sweet it was when dad dropped off and give my mom a kiss. If she went shopping, he’d sit out in the car many times, no matter how long she’d be and read. He was usually had more than one book to read in the car at all times, along with highlighters and pens so he could write and mark in the books.

9. I remember at Mom and Pop’s place in East Texas, they had a lot of land with a pond in the “back” I remember fishing and always trying to catch that one big elusive fish, which I believe someone finally caught but put it back where it belonged. We would sit on the porch shelling beans and I remember the big daddy long legs that would normally be around.

10. On birthdays, we didn’t have big parties but had family time. My mom would make whatever dinner or bring something home from our favorite place and whatever cake we wanted. Sometimes we went out to eat but usually we ate at home. We would go around saying something nice about the birthday person…which wasn’t always easy growing up when you’re mad at your sibling.

Easter

2009-04-12T18:30:00.004-05:00

Saturday, we headed out to a friend's house to enjoy an Easter Egg Hunt. There were so many eggs, we had to empty her basket a couple of times. In some of the eggs were candy, some had dimes or nickels, some had little toys, some had balloons, some had bubbles and others had tickets. They got to turn in the tickets for little toys. Becca picked out 5 of her favorite. They served cute little treats and had a "roller coaster" and slide that kept the kids pretty busy. She did not want to leave.

Sunday, we went to church and then to the golf course for lunch and an egg hunt. Darren ate lunch with us and then headed off to be the Easter Bunny. Becca, as always, didn't want anything to do with the Easter Bunny. (she's the same way when he's Santa) She grabbed some eggs but of course didn't think she had enough. A nice older girl have her a few of hers. She got to pick out an Easter basket filled with goodies the club buys. I got pictures of Barrett with the Easter Bunny but couldn't convince Becca to get close enough to get a picture. After the Easter Bunny headed in the next room to go home, Becca asked me where he went. I told her he had to go home. I was holding Barrett and Becca decided to peek through the mail slot in the door and then asked, "Why is my daddy the Easter Bunny?" I was then trying to keep her from saying it too loudly and confusing the other kids, luckily there weren't too many standing around by then. She asked daddy when he came out and he told her he was helping the Easter Bunny. She didn't care for this answer too much and asked him several times. Maybe it's time they get a new Easter Bunny and Santa Claus. I've asked Darren to see if they can find someone else but I don't think he's willing as he feels an obligation. Maybe we'll have to stop going because Becca is going to out him to all the kids.

It was cute, there was a little girl who was very concerend about the Easter Bunny. Apparently, she didn't want to get close but always wanted to know where he was. So her mom brought her into the lobby where the Easter Bunny was sitting so they could see him. She sat there for a little while just looking at him. It was very cute. It's also funny, knowing who the Easter Bunny is, and seeing the reactions from kids, especially your own. Some kids, just looking at him brought out screaming and of course my daughter hiding behind me is just too funny.

On another note, I had a hard time finding dress clothes for Barrett. It's probably because we're in a small town, but I looked in 5 or 6 different stores and found nothing for his size. I finally found some at Kohls but really wanted a sweater vest. I haven't given up totally and have found some cute stuff online; maybe I'll get to Nashville soon. I miss shopping in Nashville.

2009-04-03T13:23:00.004-05:00

Barrett is 3 1/2 months and has been able to roll from his belly to his back for at least a month now. For awhile, we didn't see him actually do it. Early on, I think while lying on his belly, he'd lift his head up so far, the weight would just roll him over. Now, he's learned to tuck his legs under his body and roll. Maybe he'll walk early like his big sister too.

Last night, we went to a Chinese restaurant and the waiters and waitresses couldn't get enough of Barrett. Our waitress came and talked to him, even wiping his drool with a cloth. He just smiled, laughed and talked to her. He really loves anyone sitting and talking to him, especially his sister. It really is cute to see his reaction when he sees Becca. Here is a picture I took as soon as he saw her:

Here is a cute picture of my BMW. I have a friend whose sister makes all kinds of things like this: clothes, bags, nightlights, lunchbags, etc. I figured he needed a littel onesie like this.

2009-04-03T12:38:00.003-05:00

Check out how my baby soothes himself to sleep. I thought it was so cute so I got him on video.

Kids are Cute!

2009-03-11T14:08:00.004-05:00

Here are just a few of the things Becca has or is saying recently: One night, Darren and I were discussing something. We really weren't arguing and we definitely weren't doing it loudly. But Becca came in from the other room and said, "You two stop it!" After we told her we wouldn't argue, before she left the room, she said, "Now, don't make me come back in here!"

She uses the word "of" in funny ways. For example, I like the purple of that kangaroo.

When daddy leaves for work, she has to give him a monologue that goes something like this, "I love you, don't get lost, are you taking the jeep or the car, I'll miss you, I love you, etc."

I think Becca was thirsty one night when she asked Darren if he wanted something to drink. So, she went and got something for him. She grabbed a coke and said, "We only have 3. When this is gone, we'll have 2 left. When that's gone, we'll have 1 left. When that's gone.......(gesturing with her hands)we're fresh out!"

My husband

2009-03-09T20:30:00.003-05:00

My husband is such a great daddy. I could hardly ask for better. He never complains about the kids. Darren bowls in 2 different leagues, 2 night a week. I asked him to take a break from one of them once Barrett was born so we could adjust to our growing family. He didn't hesitate to step down. He keeps the kids when I have bunco, book club or something else; he even encourages me to get out sometimes. Becca really is becoming a daddy's girl which makes me happy for a couple of reasons. One, it gives me a chance to get a few things done or take care of Barrett when Darren's around. Two, I was a daddy's girl and hope she can have that same special relationship. He's even good about getting up if Barrett doesn't want to go to bed at night or wakes up in the middle of the night. He'll put his pacifier back in or tries to rock him a little. He knows, I'm the only one who can feed him so he helps out as much as possible. There was even one night I was gone, he had Barrett in bed, Becca in pajamas and the dishes all done. I really don't know what I'd do without him, he is truly a gift to me and the kids.

Iowa

2009-03-09T20:12:00.003-05:00

We went for our first long car ride with both kids. Becca was and is so good in the car. She just sits in the back being so goo, only having to stop once or twice. We took Becca to OK when she was 8 or 9 days old and she was either sleeping or eating. We didn't get her in the car until she was just over a year, we used to fly with her all the time. I was hoping Barrett would be good because he is so good natured.

My husband is so funny. We had such a short weekend, Darren wanted to get off to an early start. What you may not know about my husband is that he is truly not a morning person; he pushes snooze for an hour many times. So, I told him, he could take care of the kids while I went to bed early since I figured I'd be driving first thing. He agreed, I got ready and woke Barrett up at 5:30 to eat. We got out the door around 6:30 and got to Iowa at 4:45. Barrett slept the first part of the trip. We stopped for lunch, he ate but awhile after getting back on the road, he began to cry. He'd fall asleep for short bursts and cry some more. There wasn't much to appease him.

We enjoyed our time in Iowa relaxing and spending time with Darren's sister, her husband, his 2 nieces, their husbands and his great-niece. Becca enjoyed having attention paid to her as well. The trip back was much better. I decided to get back in the back with the kids, okay, more accurately, I squeezed myself between their seats. My baby boy enjoys being entertained so our trip back was much better. He just wanted someone to talk to and put his pacifier back in when he would startle after the car would bump a little too much. We're sad to be back. We don't get to see his family too many days at a time.

Kids are funny

2009-02-16T22:53:00.003-06:00

My birthday was pretty good. Valentine's Day, Darren came home with a card from him, a card from Becca, flowers and some Lindor's truffles. (my favorite) Sunday, some wonderful friends of ours watched both of the kids so we could go out. We planned to go to a sit down restaurant, but Barrett wanted to eat so we left a little later than intended. The day after Valentine's is not usually busy, but forgetting that the next day was a holiday, we thought we'd have time for dinner. We went a couple of different places and all were half hour waits and we only had an hour before the movie, so we went to Fazoli's. It was good but not quite the dinner I wanted so we agreed to go out sometime soon to get that dinner. Anyway, we went to see "Taken" which we both really enjoyed. We got there late too however and sat in the second row. It was really nice to get out without the kids; I can't remember the last time we went on a date; we might have to make a habit of it. When we got back home, Darren brought in a birthday card from him, a birthday card from Becca, and a scrapbook tote to put some of my stuff in. Becca asked her dad, "Now, that's from both of us right?" That's my girl!

Becca did not get a nap because we were busy cleaning, etc. We had a friend of hers come over to play and I hung out with his mom because her husband is out of town. After they left, she went to the bathroom. Now, for some reason, she always wants us in there with her when we're at home; out in public, she wants to go in the stall by herself. Anyway, I was rocking Barrett, trying to get him to go to sleep so I told her I couldn't help her yet. I was waiting for her to come out so she could watch one show of hers. A few minutes go by and I hear a noise coming from the bathroom. I go in there, and she is folded over, still sitting on the potty fast asleep and snoring. I was holding Barrett and I almost didn't get her awake. If I had been in my right mind, I would have gotten the camera out to take a picture, it was hilarious.

Parenting

2009-02-13T23:47:00.004-06:00

I heard someone say, maybe even a comedian, that you're not truly a parent until you have more than one. I can say amen to that. My wonderful first born is a terrific child, behaves well and all that jazz. But when you take away attention from her and need to help someone else, it's not always smooth sailing. Not to say she didn't have these moments before Barrett was born but we're having more of them now. She's beginning to want to do and see daddy more which is okay with me for more than one reason: it takes some of the stress off me, and I was a daddy's girl and I'd like her to be one too. However, she still hasn't let daddy do the nighttime routine of pajamas, brushing teeth and book reading, but that's time I enjoy with her.

Becca is great with Barrett. She picks out his clothes, gets his pacifier when he needs it, wants to hold him quite a bit, etc. It's just me she has issues with at times. I try not to promise to play a game with her, because just as soon as I do, it's time to feed Barrett and then she really has issues. We're still learning to adjust. I do feel for her at times and would love to figure out a routine where we can have time to do things together and do things separately, while still getting a few things done around the house. If anyone has mastered this, advice would be greatly appreciated. If I run errands in the morning, my whole day is gone and don't have time to do much the rest of the day. I think one day, things will get slightly better...maybe when they're both a little more independent???

Barrett, luckily, is a great baby. I was so worried since Becca was so good, but I got lucky twice. He's a good eater, a good sleeper, and has a good demeanor. He has already slept through the night (8-9 hours) twice. If he doesn't sleep all night, he usually only gets up once and goes right back to sleep. He's not a big crier, if he throws a fit, it lasts only minutes and it's usually because he's gassy or needs attention. The only thing is he can spit up quite a bit at times. All in all, I'm pretty lucky with my kids.

My two men

Yeah! Steelers!

2009-02-07T22:50:00.005-06:00

My husband has always been a Steelers fan and I've always been a Dallas Cowboys fan. Early in the marriage we had a much stronger rivalry, however, we've come to root for each others teams; okay maybe I have more than he. But, Becca did have a Steelers onesie when she was little and it was passed down to Barrett. Darren's parents were here to help with my eye surgery and stayed for the super bowl. Here are some pictures of the Steelers fans. Darren's mom cheered for Arizona as they live in Arizona and Kurt Warner lived near the town they grew up in.

This is Becca when she was 7 days old.

Steelers fans with Darren's footbal signed by Terry Bradshaw

On another note, Barrett slept through the night Thursday. I put him down around 11:00 and he woke up at 8:00. Of course I didn't sleep all night; I got up to check on him twice. Even though he doesn't usually sleep all night, he typically only gets up once at night so it's really been nice. He truly has been so much fun. He and Becca so far have been very similar: good eaters, good sleepers and good temperments.

Becca and I went to Chuck E Cheese Friday with a friend while Darren kept Barrett. We had a lot of fun and she was still ready to play when we got home. We're still adjusting to not having all the attention. I have to be careful not to tell her I will play something with her because that will be the time Barrett will wake up and need to eat. Then she fusses and tells me not to feed him, throws a fit, the whole bit. I try to spend as much time as possible with her, so we're trying to find a balance. My house shows that I'm spending most of the time with the kids. My goal is to 1 thing a day: 1 load of laundry or clean off 1 dresser or clean 1 bathroom, etc. I feel good to get something done. Eventually it will all be done. But, for now, I'm trying to enjoy the kids and get some rest when I can.

Post surgery

2009-01-28T11:03:00.007-06:00

My surgery was in Nashville at 3:30 and I was home (an hour away) by 5:30 or 6:00. I had something called ptosis; it's basically a drooping eyelid when the eyelid has slipped out of the carlidge holding it in place. The surgeon said my muscle looked good so fixing it wouldn't be a problem. He cut the middle of my eyelid, reattached then tendon and muscle with dissolvable stictches, then stitched up my eyelid; those stiches I'll have out in a week to 10 days. I was told I'd be out for part of the surgery but awake for some. If I was out, it was fairly brief. I do remember them having me open my eyes, look up, then close it several times. I heard him say it's a little high a couple of times. I guess they were matching the eyelids to look fairly symmetrical. Also during surgery, I felt a prick a couple of times on my eyelid. The surgeon, Dr. Wesley, had to give me a little more anesthesia. He said I probably metabolize it faster than others...if that's true, why my metabolism doesn't work on food seems a cruel joke.

That night, I didn't have too many problems. It was the next morning when it was quite a bit swollen and red. I had a little problems with tearing. And because my eye was so swollen, my eyelashes were stuck together the next morning. I didn't have too much pain associated with it, however. The salve they gave me to put on my eyelid made my vision a little blurry. But, all in all it wasn't too bad. It never got black and blue. The real pain was just being careful not to bend over or lift anything.

A couple of hours after surgery

24 hours after surgery

Surgery

2009-01-22T13:00:00.004-06:00

Monday, I'm having eye surgery to fix my drooping eyelid. I have a list of things I can't do before surgery and a list of restrictions after surgery. The first 48 hours after surgery is the most restrictive: I can't bend over, I need to put ice cold cloths on my eye for 15 minutes of every hour, sleep in a recliner, no lifting over 10 pounds for 1 week. I am lucky to have my in-laws coming in to help with the kids, me, and everything else. I wanted to have my eye fixed but wasn't expecting a C-section, so I wasn't considering 2 surgeries so close together. But, I'm pretty well recovered from the first just in time for the second. At least this doesn't have as much recovery time. Here is a picture of the before:

Routine??

2009-01-21T13:57:00.006-06:00

Wow! How time really flies by when you have a newborn. With one, you can sleep when they sleep or get a few things done around the house. With a preschooler, you need to give attention to them in between feedings and whatever cleaning you get around to doing. We still have rest time here, so while Becca is watching a movie, I try to get a few zzz's in either before or after Barrett eats. We have been letting Becca stay up until we go to bed...this helps us in the morning because she will sleep in until 8 or 9:00, which helps me get a few extra zzz's hopefully. There have been a few nights he's gone 4-5 hours between feedings. The only problem we're really having is he's a little gassy and he doesn't burp well. So, lying him down doesn't work for too long. The swing helps some, but he still gags a little and when I get him up, he typically gives me a big burp. So, today during the day, I'm trying him in his bed on his belly. I know, it's a big no-no, but I'm seeing how well he does with his head; I really think it will help with his belly. He sleeps really well when he's sleeping on my or Darren's belly. I know, he's only 4 1/2 weeks old but it would be nice to be able to lay him down and get some sound sleep.

At his 2 week checkup a couple of weeks ago, he was already 9 pounds 12 ounces and 22 1/2 inches long. That's 2 1/2 inches and a pound and a half in 2 weeks! He is really growing and eats really well and will occasionally sleep well in the right position.

His first bath

Big sister loves to help

Daddy and his kids in Barrett's favorite position

Coming home

2009-01-02T10:39:00.003-06:00

The first several days after we came home flew by. One of my brothers and family as well as my sister and niece drove here to meet Barrett and spend a little time for Christmas. It was a lot of fun and wish they could have stayed longer. It was nice to have someone closer to Becca's age for her to play with. They were all a huge help with the kids as well as the cooking. Of course, my mom was a huge help with cleaning, cooking, and the kids. I don't know why people wouldn't have their mom there to help out...she really is great!

When he was 4 days old, we went to the doctor for a checkup. He was only 2 ounces shy of his birth weight. We also started noticing he was developing a yellowish tint. Our pediatrician sent us to the lab for bloodwork. His bilirubin levels were over 19...25 is the danger level that leaves permanent damage. So, they called a company who comes to your house with the bilirubin belt and someone to show you how to use it. He was on it as much as possible, even overnight. It wrapped all the way around his middle, luckily, it didn't bother him and he still slept quite a bit. Christmas Eve, we went back in for bloodwork and he'd only dropped 1 point. We went back in Christmas Day and he'd dropped all the way to 15 so we were able to stop using the belt.

The good, the bad, and the ugly

2009-01-01T13:12:00.002-06:00

Okay, you may want to skip this posting. I will put some things you may not want to read...I'm not getting really detailed, just a few details you may not want to read about my C-section.

I remember being so out of it after the C-section, not immediately but at some point rolling me down the hall into a recovery room and eventually into my room. I was vaguely aware of nurses in there sitting with me, talking and then my mom coming in the room telling me goodbye. I remember Darren coming back but am unsure when I was completely aware of what was going on around me. That was the first downside to a C-section because I couldn't spend time with Barrett right away.

That night, the nurse came in every few hours and made me breathe in and out of a tube and then cough. The second downside to a C-section is being afraid to cough, sneeze or laugh. The next morning I had to be on a liquid diet and I wasn't really that hungry anyway.

When the nurse came in and told me I needed to get out of bed and walk around. and I had to do a lot of it on my own was rough. I remember looking at my legs being so swollen from the iv and surgery...that was a beautiful sight, let me tell you. I had to get up and walk 4-6 times a day. The third downside to a C-section was getting out of bed trying not to hurt my incision.

My mom brought Becca up later in the day and she did great! She was there for about 6 hours and wasn't a problem at all....of course we brought her DVD player to help keep her occupied. The fourth downside to a C-section is your child not being able to run up and give you a big hug and having to tell them to be easy when they're snuggling with you.

Friday night, I started feeling pretty badly and walked in the middle of the night to try and relieve some of the pressure. By Saturday morning, they gave me the option of an enema and I took them up on it right away. I have never been so happy to have this lovely medical procedure done. After all was done, I felt like a brand new woman. The fifth downside to a C-section is all the gas buildup.

I was ready to go home and given the thumbs up Saturday afternoon but had to wait on Barrett's blood work to come back since he had a fever after he was born. But everything was fine and we were on our way home to greet family that had come in from Oklahoma and Texas.

The upside to a C-section is no squirt bottles! and actually feeling a little more normal quicker since the stitches are in a less sensitive area.

D-Day

2008-12-27T19:23:00.005-06:00

Last week was a semi blur. It seemed there was so much to do before the baby arrived. I had something going on every night. Wednesday, I wanted to do something special with Becca before her life changed so I took her to have her nails done. She loved it! We then went down to Nashville to meet with my eye surgeon to have a test done before they could send it off to insurance for approval. We then had time to kill before my mom's plane came in, so we went to Opry Mills Mall. I was fine at first and then it got more difficult to walk so we took a break and I had a julius...love those things. I thought I was feeling better but hadn't walked far and needed to rest again. Darren took Becca to look for pajamas and a coat for me. We then went to pick up mom, went to dinner, then went to the grocery store. At midnight, we checked into the hospital. I was already dilated to a 6 so they didn't give me any medication. But a lady down the hall was progressing quickly so they called the anesthesiologist for her; while he was there, they decided to go ahead and give me an epidural as well because they thought that once my water broke, I would go quickly. My doctor came in around 7 and broke my water. I progressed slowly from there. The baby was not coming down far enough, which is exactly what happened with Becca. By 2:00, I was feeling a lot of pressure and pain. By 3 or 4, I was asking for more drugs, thinking in the back of my head, that if labor was going to be like this next time, I was done having kids...which is exactly what my husband was thinking at the time too. Even with the pain, I thought if I could just manage, he'd come soon but I still did not want a C-section. Around 5, the doctor said he was coming out forehead first and they were going to try to turn him and use the vacuum some. Unfortunately, that didn't work. So, they decided to do a C-section. I won't lie, I was upset and didn't really want one, but understood that it was best for both of us. When the doctor went in, he also found that the baby had his head turned at an angle, so when he was coming down, he got stuck. So at 6:06 p.m. Barrett Max came into this world. He weighed in at 8 pounds 6 ounces and was 20 inches long. We were happy to have a healthy baby. Big sister and Barrett

Becca dentist and birthday party

2008-12-07T16:40:00.004-06:00

Becca went to a pediatric dentist for the first time this last week. He said everything looks good...her spacing, cheekbones, etc. However, the thing that connects your tongue to your mouth is too close to the teeth and will probably cause problems later. She will probably have that clipped in the next year. I didn't take her so I didn't get all the details about why or what would happen if we didn't clip it. I'll probably do a little research but surely our dentist, whom my husband knows, wouldn't suggest something that wasn't needed...I hope. Becca's birthday party was yesterday. It started off shaky but ended well. I stepped out of the shower, mind you I'm 9 months pregnant, and almost did the splits. Needless to say, I was a little sore the rest of the day and some still today. My husband had to work that morning but was picking up the pizzas and meeting us at the bowling alley. I was trying to get myself and my daughter ready which is not easy task at her age. I also realized I had no balloons so needed to make a stop on our way. Becca was so excited about her birthday cake. There is a lady here who is very talented. You can give her a picture of anything and she'll make it for you. Plus, she puts almond extract in the icing and it is the best cake you'll eat. Anyway, she did a great job with the Cinderella cake and Becca wanted to look at it yet again. I told her we needed to comb her hair and finish getting ready first. Well, I went to her room to get her stuff and she, having her own little mind, decided to go check out the cake herself. I heard a crash and ran in the kitchen. The cake was upside down, still in the box however, and she was bawling. Luckily, the cake wasn't horribly damaged but it just made me more frazzled. By the time we cleaned it up and got the balloons, we were 10 minutes late to her birthday party. The rest of the day went great! It was a little chaotic at first, but the kids really had fun bowling. We had 11 kids on 2 lanes but once we got going, it actually went smoothly. A good time was had by all, we bowled, we ate pizza and cake and ice cream, had presents, etc. I love kids this age, every present is so exciting and the best thing they have ever seen. When we got home, it took me an hour to get all the presents out of the boxes because they really "tie" them in there. Cinderella stayed in tact, just the writing and the border were damaged They loved bowling!

More random occurences

2008-12-02T17:24:00.002-06:00

Thanksgiving was another nice, quiet holiday. Darren's parents had planned on coming out, but with the baby coming soon, they decided to wait. So Darren smoked the turkey and I made a few things. Darren worked that morning and got home with just an hour to spare before the turkey was done. Then I watched my Cowboys defeat the Seahawks, so all in all it was a good day. Later in the weekend, we painted the entire living room. Darren did the hard work...going up and down the ladder to reach the ceiling and then do the trim around the baseboards too. I just had the middle part with a roller. Of course, we had all our furniture in the middle of the floor and there were some pieces I of course couldn't get back into place. Sunday afternoon while Darren was at work, I came around a corner too quickly (where the couch should be) and kicked the wall. The toe next to my pinky toe got the brunt of it. I couldn't get a towel wrapped around my toe very well with my belly in the way. Later in the evening I was showing it to Darren and it had turned pretty colors. I either broke or sprained it but it doesn't hurt too badly as long as no one steps on it (thank you kids and dogs). Becca went to a pediatric dentist today for the first time so he just looked in her mouth. He said everything looks good, the spacing, the jaws, etc. However, the thing underneath your tongue that connects to your mouth is a little too close to her teeth. She can't stick her tongue out very far and when she does, it folds a little at the end. He said he'd check her in about a year and we may need to get it clipped because it can cause problems later. She got a balloon and a toothbrush and she enjoyed the dentist. I wonder how long that lasts??

Random pregnancy musings

2008-11-15T16:00:00.003-06:00

Why is it if I wake up after 4:00 to go to the bathroom, I cannot go back to sleep? If I wake up before then, and I almost always do, I don't have any problems. 4:00 is the magical time. I was up for almost 3 hours this morning and finally fell asleep for a quick 1 hour nap. Oh well, at least I got a short nap this afternoon. My last doctor's appointment, the doctor asked me how big Becca was when she was born. He said I've consistently measured big and said he didn't think I would ever have a small baby. That wasn't the most comforting thing, however, he is inducing me at 38 1/2 weeks so this should be a normal sized baby...hopefully.

7 1/2 months

2008-11-02T19:56:00.004-06:00

I have several requests for new pictures. I'm not sure why I can't remember to take pictures of me pregnant but I finally got one. I can't believe I have less than 7 weeks left until this baby is here. He doesn't have a name or a room yet. As a matter of fact, his room is a mess with extra furniture that we need to move out and then paint. It's amazing how quickly time flies. Darren's schedule is slowng down thanks to daylight savings time. We'll be able to work hard on the room and the garage...completely unrelated to the baby I know, but something that needs to be done while my husband has more time on his hands. My eye always looks worse when I'm tired...I'll be glad to get it fixed soon.

Halloween

2008-11-01T09:56:00.002-05:00

Halloween night, we went to our church's trunk or treat. The parking lot was full of games, face painting, popcorn, and a band called "Mission Six" www.missionsix.com who warmed up during the trunk or treat and performed a mini concert afterwards. Becca enjoyed playing and getting candy. They had some cute games like musical chairs and putt-putt which Becca almost won. Her ball went right around the edge of the hole...I thought they should have given in to her being 3-years-old...but then again, I am her mom. She did good at the football toss but didn't quite get a ring around a 2-liter. It was a great evening with beautiful weather. Because it started a 5:00 and the sun was still up, Becca didn't even have to wear a coat. Of course, I think Becca is the cutest thing, however, I was surprised how many strangers pointed her out and commented on her outift and especially the shoes...which were pretty cute. We did walk around the neighborhood some, however when we got to one friend's house near the end of the evening they just wanted to play. So, we stopped trick or treating there and then went home.

Halloween party

2008-10-28T08:23:00.004-05:00

There is a family here that goes all out for Halloween. They invite a ton of kids and have all kinds of games, activities, and food for everyone to eat. They always have great costumes too. Last year they were Frankenstein and the bride of Frankenstein; this year they were Fred and Wilma Flinstone. Becca was so excited to go. This is the first year she had an opinion, or maybe the first year I asked her, on what she was going to be for Halloween. She has been watching Aladdin a lot and decided she wanted to be Princess Jasmine. I couldn't find one her size at the store so I went to Disney online and found a cute costume and shoes. She was so excited, she said, "I can't wait until everyone sees my Jasmine costume." I just love when she gets so excited about things. They played a game called musical tombs. They gave everyone a tombstone drawn on a piece of paper with funny names on them (sorry I can't think of one now) and played "musical chairs". Well, my daughter has never played that game and doesn't really understand the concept. Most of the kids there were a little older. When she didn't land on a tombstone and another kid told her she was out, she wagged her finger at him and said, "No, I'm not out" and I'm sure a few other things. The lady running the game told me later (because I couldn't hear what was going on) that she cracked up at her gestures and mannerisms. They played all sorts of games and just played in the backyard, went on a "hayride" and then all went inside for a feast. They do know how to throw a party and Becca enjoyed every minute of it. They had to eat the cookie off the string without touching it Yum! Making slime! Just some of the cute, delicious food

Pumpkin patch

2008-10-25T09:26:00.005-05:00

Last weekend Becca and I had fun with some friends at a local pumpkin patch called Christian Way Farms. They had so many fun things to do, including playing in corn, going through mazes, climbing up hay bales, petting animals, picking out pumpkins, eating delicious foods, etc. Becca was sick the night before put seemed to be much better by the morning so we braved it and she did very well. Until that night, as exhausted as I was, I wasn't the most attentive mommy. I curled up on the couch with some chili and she went to grab a spoon as she so often does when I'm eating something. Before I knew it, she had eaten 2 bites. Needless to say, she got sick just a little bit that evening. It was just the chili and not a recurring event of the virus at least, but you know this mommy felt badly. Here are some pictures of our fun time at the farm.

Consignment sales

2008-10-06T17:22:00.003-05:00

I love consignment sales! In the spring and fall, a local church has a kids consignment sale where you can sell and buy all types of things for your children. I was one of the first 40 people to put their items in the sale so I got to get in at 5:00. I had every intention of getting there a little before 5 but ended up being 5-10 minutes late which was just enough to miss out on a cradle swing. I was so irked by it and still am somewhat. I know what you're thinking, but it would have been nice to get one at a much cheaper price. Little things upset me but little things also excite me. I bought the cutest boppy and it just made me happy. I found clothes for both the kiddos, some toys, a travel swing and shoes for Becca. I won't know how much I made until the end of October but I'm pretty sure I at least broke even. Isn't this too cute? On another note. I went to my friend's baby shower yesterday. They have been home for about 5 weeks with their adopted baby from Guatemala who turned a year old not long before they picked him up. They waited so long for him and are thrilled he's home. He hasn't seem to had much trauma and seems to be adjusted quite well. He is adorable and just started walking. The foster family, especially the father, had a hard time giving him over since they had him so long. They talked to the foster familiy recently who had to give up their last foster child. Guatemala is no longer doing foster care and going strictly to orphanges...how sad!

Aging and pregnancy

2008-09-24T16:47:00.003-05:00

Okay, so I'm not too old but am definitely old enough for some things to not go quite right. Twice, since I've been big-bellied, I've done the splits. Now, I would never do this on purpose. Once was at the grocery store and I was pushing the cart down the aisle when I hit a slick spot and one foot went sliding. The other time was at Lowes when Becca and I were looking at colors for the baby's room. She was standing on the "shelf: helping me look and I was right beside her. She stepped back and I went to grab her; the floors at Lowes are slick with my flip flops and we both "sat" on the floor. It was like slow motion and neither of us were hurt, except I did the splits again and you really shouldn't do that when you're largely pregnant and over 30. Things were popping that shouldn't be and let's just say I was sore for a day or so after. The other thing that makes me think I'm getting a little older is my eye issue. It hasn't affected my vision, but my left eyelid looks half closed. I went to an ophthamalogist who said the muscle that opens/closes the eyelid, slipped out of the cartiladge that holds it in place. The only way to fix it is through surgery which I will do after the baby is born. When I came home and looked online at several sites, it told me ptosis occurs primarily in those over 30 and increases with age. Well, there you go, I'm over 30 and am falling apart....I'm hoping to pull myself together in the near future.

New park

2008-09-19T15:38:00.004-05:00

I am so excited about the new park here in town. I have heard so much about it and it lived up to the hype. It was finished in the spring but we hadn't made it out. Because it's a new park, there isn't any shade yet and the heat that comes off the tire shreds lining the park make it even hotter. So, we waited for the cooler weather. The leadership council who was in charge of this went to elementary school students and found out what they would want in a park and tried to incorporate what they could. They have a "big" area and an area for toddlers. The only thing I would change, that my friend and I discovered who has and 18-month old, was to put a gate at the toddler section to keep them corralled. If you contributed a certain amount, you could have something put on a picket, so Becca has her name on a picket there. Here are some pictures of our fun morning.

Pics...finally

2008-09-15T17:10:00.002-05:00

I am 25 weeks pregnant and am finally getting a picture of me pregnant. The second child just doesn't get the same amount of pictures. I had almost every month from 4 months on with Becca. I keep thinking about getting a picture taken but then it slips my mind. That's definitely another thing worse this time around...my memory! I can now empathize with my friends who have gone through this before. I am still a little tired but in my nesting mode. I am so ready to get both rooms done. I have finished painting Becca's bed...which was the guest bed...and put it in her room. She's so excited about her new big bed, which is a full-size, that she told me she needed to take a nap in her bed yesterday. She has pretty much stopped taking naps most days so this was a great surprise. We'll see how long this novelty lasts. My next step is to find paint for the boy's room and get it painted. Until that happens, both rooms are cramped and messy. So, if you come see me in the next month or two, you'll just have to look away.

I passed!

2008-09-02T13:45:00.002-05:00

I got to chug my sunkist for my glucose test today. I'm not a big drinker so drinking a whole can in 5 minutes was pretty hard. But my blood sugar levels were normal and so were my iron levels. Last time with Becca, my iron was a little low. I didn't have to go on pills but my doctor told me to eat more steaks and hamburgers...now that's a diet I can follow! It's funny how different doctors are. There are 4 doctors in my practice and I've seen 2 different ones the last 2 weeks. My due date is December 30th. The first one said if everything was going well, he would induce me any time after Christmas. The doctor I saw today who is older and said he has seen more and doesn't understand why people wait so long...I had an 8 pound 4 oz baby and almost a 4th degree tear which he said was probably due to the fact I was 2 days over. Anyway, whatever his reasoning, he said if everything was going well and I was ready, he'd induce anytime after the 16th. Now that sounds much better to me. Plus I'd have the full benefit of my mom who will be here for 2 weeks starting the week of Christmas. I don't know what my regular doctor prefers...probably not the 2 weeks early but I can only hope.

Becca's room

2008-08-26T17:47:00.003-05:00

I finished painting Becca's room yesterday...it's not too pink. I picked out what looked like it had only a touch of pink...it's called ceramic pink. Now, we will sand and paint the footboard of the guest bed...which will be Becca's "new" bed. We have already repainted the old dresser that was in here that used to be Darren's as a bachelor. We painted it white and she picked out pink knobs. We already have her bedding she picked out from JC Penny online. It's pink stripe with pink hearts on the other side. Imagine a little girl liking pink. Once her room is done, we get to concentrate on the boys room. Then maybe I'll think about names...any ideas?

Guess what we're having??

2008-08-16T09:43:00.003-05:00

We are so excited to find out we're having a boy...especially my husband. I honestly didn't have a preference. The problem now is names; I think boy names are much harder because you can't get cutsie or girlie with boys which narrows the field down. We want something a little different, although I will probably use my dad's middle name for his middle name which is Max. That also narrows down the choices as we will have to find something that goes with Max. My doctor told me if I don't go into labor on my own, we can induce anytime after Christmas. I don't want too close to Christmas but I don't want to go into the new year either. If he would come on his own two weeks early and be healthy, that would be great. Most of my family are coming into town for the holidays which will be nice. Just thought I should share our great news!

Great news!

2008-07-02T11:10:00.002-05:00

I am pregnant!! Yeah! It hasn't been the easiest road to get here and ideally we would have gotten pregnant earlier or waited a few months because the timing isn't great...Becca will be 4 December 10th and this baby is due December 30th. Can you imagine 2 babies and Christmas all in the same month? I can't. We really are excited; I've passed my first trimester and am finally feeling like it's real. I haven't really been sick, just a little more pressure/slight pain with this won and of course exhausted every day. I'm lucky I can take a nap most afternoons wth Becca. Just wanted to share my awesome news. We'll find out what we're having, probably the first of August. I'll keep you posted.

Long time no blog

2008-07-02T11:06:00.003-05:00

Wow! I can't believe how time has flown. This is my first week of having nothing to do and I'm so happy about it. Becca and I went to Iowa for my husband's niece's wedding. We then drove to Oklahoma for my grandma's 90th birthday celebration. We were gone for a total of 2 and a half weeks. When I got back I had so much to catch up on, it wasn't funny. The next week was Vacation Bible School which I helped with. The end of the week I went away for Southern Living at Home convention. Then I had something several nights last week after getting back and am so glad my summer is winding down. My neighbor started a dinner and book club and we had our first meeting last week. I've got this month so I'll be having people here and cooking something. I'm really excited about this. So many women have been really enthusiastic about it.

Stir crazy

2008-05-17T19:13:00.003-05:00

I haven't been watching a couple of the kids I normally watch because their dad's company has been on strike. They came back Monday and then the youngest ended up with hand foot mouth. I sterilized the toys in hopes Becca would not get it. She ended up with a fever the next day and complaining of her mouth hurting. Evidently, HFM is something you have to ride out..it's a virus. So I didn't think much of taking her to the doctor until today. She still said her mouth hurt but she didn't have any rashes or mouth ulcers. She actually had strep which I'm now sorry I let it go a few days but at least we figured out the problem and she's got antibiotics. I've already been staying in to keep from spreading HFM and now Darren went out of town last night and won't be back until Monday night. I am stuck in the house with no interaction and going a little crazy. I told Darren he would probably get sick of me pretty quickly when he got back because I'm going to be needing to get out. I am leaving for out of town for 2-3 weeks next Friday so if Becca had to get sick, I suppose this was the best weekend for it. I'm going driving to Iowa with Becca for Darren's niece's wedding; he can't go because it's a holiday weekend. Then, Becca and I are driving to OK to spend time with my family, meet my new nephew and celebrate my grandmother's 90th birthday! I'll have all the getting out of the house I can stand by then.

Ticks

2008-03-31T16:46:00.004-05:00

Wow...am I glad today is almost over. Anything that could throw our schedule off, happened. It started last Wednesday when my daughter and some friends were playing outside in our front yard. Becca fell several times and rolled around in our grass. No big deal, she's done that a million times. That night, while giving her a bath, I noticed a tick. Darren got it out...I yanked and yanked and that booger was not coming out. Well, being the typical 3-year-old, she likes to do things on her own with minimal help from me. I didn't think twice about the tick until I was giving her a bath Saturday night and noticed a pimple-looking thing with a red ring where the tick had been. We looked online and it said it could take a week to a month for any symptoms of lyme disease to show up. Since she wasn't feeling bad, we waited until today to take her to the doctor. He said it probably was and gave her antiobiotics to take so she probably will never feel any effects from the disease. She had a blood test done which they said will probably show up negative. She'll go back in a month and see if there are any antibodies. All the scheduling conflicts that happened today, between my husband working, me watching kids and not being able to get away or get ahold of anyone to help me, and having to be at a school to do a SLAH party, as well as finish my resume and cover letter to apply for a job with the deadline being today. Kids were running around driving me nuts while I was trying to get ready for my stuff as well as find out how to get my daughter to the doctor. Let me just say I'm glad today is over and realize I don't always perform well under pressure.

Easter

2008-03-24T09:25:00.002-05:00

We were pretty busy this weekend. Our church had an Eggstravaganza event Saturday morning with the story of Easter, crafts, games, snacks and an egg hunt. Then after lunch, we went to a friend's parents house that does a big thing for the kids every year. She painted, played, hunted eggs and ate. Sunday, we of course went to church. We ate lunch at the club and then had an egg hunt with dad as the Easter bunny. The club also gave Easter baskets to all the kids. We got a quick nap and then went to another friend's parent's house for an egg hunt, crafts and snack. The kids got to go to the table of prizes several times to pick out cool things. Becca enjoyed every minute of the weekend.

Cupcakes

2008-03-21T14:29:00.004-05:00

I found the cutest cupcakes in Parents magazine a couple of years ago. I go through magazines and tear out cute craft and food ideas to do with the kids and Becca is finally getting to the age to be able to do them. We invited some friends over and had a good time.

Rain

2008-03-06T08:01:00.004-06:00

If you look in the right hand side towards the middle, you can see the brightly colored toddler slide way down river. We had quite a bit of rain Monday into Tuesday. It stopped raining Tuesday morning but the "little river" behind our house continued to rise all day. I never thought about it getting as high as it did so I didn't move Becca's play equipment. The swingset stayed put put the frog sandbox, teeter totter and toddler slide went floating down the river. Yesterday, Darren found the toddler slide and the top of the sandbox but nothing else. Maybe we'll still found them, but at least we bought them from a neighbor last year used so we didn't pay too much for them. I'm most sad about the sandbox which still didn't have sand in it but was looking forward to using it this summer. We just may have to get another one.

Mother of the year

2008-03-05T12:18:00.003-06:00

I must be running for mother of the year. My daughter was playing in my room with the door closed which she knows she is not supposed to do. She heard me when I started to open the door so she came running to the door to try and shut it. She either tripped and fell face first into the door or while I was opening it, she was running too fast to stop and ran into the door. She had a beautiful bloody lower lip and fat upper lip. She looked like Elvis. I really did feel bad but after she got over being upset and was talking "normally", I couldn't help laugh at how she was talking with that lip. My friends jokingly told me to not take her to the E.R. because 2 incidences in a short amount of time but be cause for alarm. Speaking of ERs, wow that bill was expensive.

Scrappin and sleddin

2008-02-27T16:40:00.003-06:00

This weekend I was able to go on a scrapbooking weekend with some friends. I didn't stay all weekend because Darren had an out of town bowling tournament so we took turns. I stayed away Friday night and he stayed away Saturday night. So, I got away and finally got some things accomplished with my scrapbooking which I haven't been able to touch in awhile. I'm working on Becca's book between ages 1 and 2, our family vacation, and a scrapbook about dad. I felt good about what I got accomplished. Last night and today it snowed! Although it melted quicker than we expected because we had a pretty good ground cover and it snowed (lightly, sometimes heavier) until 11ish. But once the sun came out, it started melting quickly; it was almost half melted by 11:30. We still got out and did some sledding before it all went away. It was Becca's first time and she thoroughly enjoyed it. Dad pulled her down the hill and I took pictures. She had so much fun, she wanted dad to do everything for her the rest of the morning...sit with him at lunch, take her to the bathroom, etc.

My dad

2008-02-20T12:15:00.002-06:00

Today would have been my dad's 63rd birthday. It's been 2 years since we lost him and I still think about him quite a bit. Sometimes it makes me happy to think about him and a certain memory; sometimes it makes me sad that I can no longer hear his voice or call him when I want to share some exciting news or get his advice on a problem I'm having...which I did quite often. Darren and I celebrated my birthday at the Melting Pot; they gave us a sheet of questions to get us talking and see how much we knew about each other. One of them was who do you admire most? Dad was the only person that came to mind and Darren knew instantly how to answer that question. I hear people all the time talk about tension in their family and how they're not close and I'm glad that my parents made such a wonderful home for us. My dad's mom called me on my birthday and said how much I remind her of him which made my day. I'm going on a scrapbooking weekend this weekend and hope to make a huge dent in the scrapbook I'm making about my dad, not only for my memories, but so Becca will know who her Daddy Max was.

Christmas and beyond

2008-01-13T15:16:00.000-06:00

Wow! It was fun but I'm still catching up. December is crazy with Becca's birthday, parties, and getting things ready to go. We're never at home for Christmas since we never travel for Thanksgiving. This year, we drove to Oklahoma to spend a few days with my family. We left at 10:30 one evening and Darren and I took shifts in the driver's seat. A lot of the driving was spent in fog. Christmas Eve, we flew to Arizona and spent time with his parents and brother's family. Darren actually got to play golf every day so he was happy. Then we flew back to OK and a couple of days later drove back home. I am still having a hard time getting my routine going again but hope to soon. Becca loved spending time with her Gram, Grandma & Grandpa and all her aunts, uncles, and cousins...especially her cousin Cade. Here are a few pictures of our family gatherings.

Becca's birthday

2007-12-09T14:39:00.000-06:00

Sigh...Becca is 3! I can't believe how fast time flies. We celebrated her birthday with her friends on Saturday. We had twelve, 2, 3, 4 and one 6-year-old. I had "stations" set up so they could make gingerbread men, foam door hangers with these cool Christmas peel off foam shapes and letters (thank you WalMart) and Christmas necklaces. We ate pizza and a backyardigans cake made by an acquaintance. She can freehand just about anything as long as you give her a picture and also puts almond flavoring in the icing which makes the cake not only smell great, but also taste great. I have a friend who doesn't like cake that well but had 2 pieces of this cake because it's so delicious. After her nap, we went downtown where there were many merchants and churches open with various activities and model trains, free horse carriage rides and train rides, as well as a reading of the Polar Express which they were then given a hardback copy of the book as well as a little silver bell. We also stayed for the lighting of the Christmas tree which was turned on by a little boy in our community who has luekemia. We had a busy but a good day. Today she got her gifts from us and we went to Toys R Us to use the grandparents money to buy an easel. Then we picked up lunch (her choice hamburgers). She just got back from a friend's Christmas party where they made crafts, played games and ate goodies. I wish my birthday would last an entire weekend! Hmmm...that's a great thought!