Roberts on the Loose

1st day of 1st grade!

2009-08-18T09:07:00.003-05:00

I have almost forgotten how to update a blog, but I think I can remember! I have a new goal to post more often.

Here are pics of Mitchell on the first day of first grade! We had a rave review about his teacher, so I feel good about that. I think he will be so tired today after staying all day instead of half. He will be eating lunch in the lunch line! wow! And, he will ride the bus home!

Of course he chose to wear his newest StarWars shirt(of about7). He wanted to do a silly pose too! We said a little prayer for the first day after we took pics . I tried my hardest to keep my voice from cracking!

Getting silly waiting in line. The drop off line was terribly long! We got there at 8:20 and dropped off at 8:45. School started at 8:35!

Ah the last wave! Have a great day! See ya at 3:30!

Easter a few months late!

2009-05-16T17:21:00.007-05:00

Dying Easter eggs with the kiddos.

Making Empty Toomb cookies with the Williamson kids.

The cookies did not turn out very well. They were suposed to be hollow tombs!

spring break

2009-03-17T15:07:00.007-05:00

Here is what we did on days one and two of spring break. We don't have anything else interesting planned so this is probably all the action photos!

Day One : Park and Pond

Day Two : Zoo!

As you can see Megan has become quite adventurous! She really likes climbing and slides and today went down a spiral slide by herself! At the park she wanted to ride on the merry-go-round by herself and walk across it while it was spinning, but that is where mom drew the line. She screamed when I made her sit in my lap, so we had to get off!

2009-03-05T22:07:00.002-06:00

The boys were playing in the yard and Mark did a flip in the swing and hit his head. Then he said to Neil, "Daddy will you go get my bike helmet so don't hurt my head when I flip?" Smart kid! or pretty soon gonna be not so smart from all the head trauma! Here are the pics!

something new

2009-01-29T10:39:00.002-06:00

This is boring but at least it is not a post about bodily functions! This little bag picture thing is a holiday tradition from Mitchell's first Christmas. I could not find the bag at Christmas, but found it this week and took their pictures. Stupid huh?

Would anyone like some duck on ice? Mark just titled this one, "Duck gets cold"

radnom things happen here!

'09 begins in an explosion. . .

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

of diarahea.

Just incase you were wondering.

08 ends in an explosion. . .

2008-12-31T10:41:00.002-06:00

of vomit!

I went in to wake Megan up this morning to find that she had thrown up sometime during the night or morning and was crawling around in it! Why she did not cry to wake us up, I do not know. Or maybe she did and we didn't hear her! In either case, YUCK!

Now I am scrubbing green beans and peaches out of her bedding! I hope this is a low note so that we can begin 09 in a much better way!

christmas in pictures

2008-12-27T23:34:00.006-06:00

No Christmas is complete with out a Christmas tutu!

Gifts from mom-mom and grandad, the pink house from Aunt Melissa.

Dinner at the Roberts. Two fisted Christmas suckers in red and green of course!

Oh! We got a puppy!

Dinner at our house. Eating fake food.

Eating Santa's leftovers on Christmas morning! One of many funny memories Megan provided us with this year!

Santa brought Mark a bike and Mitchell a Star Wars Leapster.

Indy rescues Curious George.

The "Blue Gator"

Long story short: Mark asked Santa for the Green Gator John Deere Power Wheels for $300 after Santa had already purchased a bike for him. So in the spirit of Christmas magic, Santa scurried around and bought a slightly smaller blue option to add to the Christmas morning stash. On x-mas morning Mark made it clear that the surprise car in the backyard was not the green gator that was requested. Mrs. Santa was angry and a little (very) heart broken. It was hard for Mrs. Santa to keep her mouth shut. Sometime as the morning progressed, it was called the "blue gator" and we tried to push the name to give the blue F-150 some credibility. They do love to ride it and have tried several stunts running a jumping on the back and such. Ugh! Christmas!

Decorating the tree a few weeks ago. The second picture shows the part of the morning where I cried. Actually I was blinking back tears most of the morning. Decorating the tree always makes me cry! Seeing my kids delve into the box of family ornaments that my mom and Neil's mom gave to each of us on our first Christmas. Each year as a kid I loved opening each ornament with care and remembering who gave it to us or why it was collected. We did the same this year and remembered many family memories.

holiday projects

2008-12-13T22:48:00.004-06:00

Here are the curtains I have been working on for the past two weeks! I am so glad to finally have them done and hung! With the Christmas tree and the removal of toys from the living room it looks like a totally new room!

Oops! Here is what happens when the air conditioner comes on! I had to push the back from the vent! These are our Christmas trees! The fancy one, the one I call the "tree of love" with all of our hand made ornaments and ornaments collected from when Neil and I were kids. Mark

thought the card tree needed its picture taken too! I think some of you should post pics of your trees too so we can see the family traditions of how each family decorates!

The boys showed up in the kitchen yesterday dressed as Mary and Joseph holding a stuffed animal wrapped in a fire bandana for the hay of the manger and a frisbee as the manger. They were looking for someone to be the wisemen, shephards and angel. They talked me into being the angel! It was too adorable! Note the blue for the Mary costume; isn't she always in blue? And she had a bag too that had to be in just the right place. They were so attentive to detail! We took several self-timer pictures but Mark could not keep from looking at the camera when it beeped the warning to take the picture!

family pictures

2008-11-18T22:26:00.004-06:00

Words can not describe this experience. The pictures say it best. We were lucky to find only 4 poses even barely worth printing! Don't say it! Don't tell me where you went and took great family pictures with one of our friends! I know!

Mark's new activities

2008-11-12T22:41:00.002-06:00

Mark has been into reorganizing things lately.

Here he is with all of the clothes from his drawers laid out for a garage sale.

He was supposed to be getting dressed!

He is into tent making too!

He has used all of the blankets from the closet!

I really enjoyed refolding all of the blankets!

He did this several days in a row a few weeks ago. One day he said that I needed to lay down in the tent and take a nap. I was tired after Sonshine School, so I did! I actually fell asleep on the floor under the tent and slept for about an hour! I have no idea what he did while I was asleep! Probably just kept extending the tent. Mitchell was watching PBS kids - his afternoon ritual. (For those of you who need to know where all of them were, Megan was napping in her room!)

Halloween

2008-11-03T14:11:00.008-06:00

Finally! Here are our fall events and costumes!

Megan's Birthday

2008-10-12T21:34:00.003-05:00

Can it be that our sweet baby girl is One Year Old?

practicing

2008-09-26T00:41:00.007-05:00

Megan was pracitcing for her 1st birthday that is coming up on Sunday. I thought she might need a little practice with her tiara and tutu! She kept taking the tiara off! I was trying to keep her busy with toys to get a good pic. The night of the tutu pictures she was pretty tired! I just love pictures of crying babies. Disturbing, huh? Hopefully at the party she will be so distracted by the cake that she gets to eat all by herself, that she will leave the tiara on her head for some really cute pictures! You know I will post more b-day pics than you will ever want to see. Just keep your pants on!

I was practicing making the cake for her party! I made both of the boy's 1st b-day cakes so I had to keep up the tradition! I really want Megan's to be really cute, so it would probably be best if I purchased it, but I have to keep things fair! This one is for a cake walk at Mitchell's school sock hop Friday night! I just hope it is not the last cake chosen! I was hoping to win the heart of an elementary girl with the pink polka dot decorations! Megan's cake will have the marshmallo fondant icing as the base layer too, instead of this cake that just has regular icing with fondant decorations so Megan's hopefully won't look as lumpy! We will see!

Hamptons

2008-09-20T08:55:00.002-05:00

I made this slideshow the day after we got back from our trip and forgot that I did not actually put it on our blog! So here it is!

We had a great time. Hurricane Hanna hit the coast on Saturday so the wedding was moved from the lighthouse to the friend's home where the reception was. I only got one pic of the wedding before my camera battery ran out and the charger was in the hotel! It rained druing the reception. While all weahter reports were encouraging people to stay indoors, we were eating dinner outside under large white tents! The rain was blowing in the sides and the service staff was drenched by the end of the night.
Saturday before the wedding we had time to sightsee. We took what we thought was a small path to a scenic outlook of the lighthouse. It was really a long hike through dense brush to a swamp area with a rope swing and a capmfire area. I laughed the whole time! The parking lot where we started the hike was really the overlook area!
We drove to the lighthouse, but it was closed due to the weather so we walked out to the beach area and rocks and stood on the point of Long Island.
We went to Ditch Plains beach in the foggy weather on Saturday too and walked on the beach.
The only problem was we were not wearing bathing suits. Neil was wearing jeans and new leather sandals. We were surprised by a few large waves and ended up both getting pretty wet from the thighs down! Then lunch and the wedding.
Sunday the weather was much better. We loaded up, had breakfast with some friends, and headed back down the coast toward "the City". New York City that is. We stopped at Gibson Beach which was described as one of the most beautiful beaches in the country in a tour book. I think that the beaches on the Florida gulf coast at Fort Walton are the most beautiful so we had to compare. It was actually comprable to the beauty in Florida and we sat on the beach and enjoyed watching the huge waves that were a resutlt of the storms that had been coming through. The water on the East Coast is way too cold for swimming. Florida is better in that aspect.
The trip would not be complete without at least one thing going wrong, and it happened at the airport. We had booked the trip through Expedia. We flew into LaGuardia and had rented a car there too. We returned the car to LaGuardia and went to check in only to realize that we were flying out of JFK ariport instead! Not good! There were two flights that were leaving at the time we were there so a really nice check-in lady put us on standby and we did get a seat on the flight and were able to go home. The seats were not together though, so I spent the four hour flight staring at the back of Neil's head! Bummer!

"I don't want to get dead"

2008-09-11T23:07:00.002-05:00

The big discussion at our house is what to be for Halloween. Here is a rundown of the latest conversation.

"Mitchell, What do you want to be for Halloween?"
"I want to be Anakin from II"
"Mark, What do you want to be?"
"That little one that goes around"
"You want to be R2D2?"
"No, Mark you want to be Obi Wan."
"Mitchell, If Mark is Obi Wan and you are Anakin, Mark will be your teacher, and be in charge of you."
"Yeah, but he gets dead."
"But, I don't want to get dead"

Neil and I were crying we were laughing so hard!

Mark is having difficulty settling into a decision. We went to Party City to look at the costumes. He wanted to be everything he saw, including the scary clown from IT. Yikes! I told him he could be a clown, but not a scary clown! He also wants to be "Daniel and the Lion's Den" ? He handed me a purple felt fedora hat and told me, "You should be this" A purple hat? He is nuts!

one week from today

2008-08-30T13:18:00.003-05:00

One week from today Neil and I will be here. . .

Long Island, NY (AKA the Hamptons)attending a wedding of Neil's friend from middle school. It is kind of a 10th anniversary trip too since we spent our anniversary in a hotel room with all 3 kids on the way home from or family vacation! I am sure I will have lots of pictures to share when we return!

breakfast gone wrong

2008-08-30T12:12:00.003-05:00

We usually cook breakfast on the rare Saturday mornings that Neil is not working. Neil just quit his weekend job this month so he was home with us. We set out to make breakfast. We tried to make it low key - biscuits with butter and jelly and bacon. I had to make the bisuits because we had no "can o' biscuits". Then Mark thought it would be fun to cut them into shapes instead of circles. Cool idea. We chose footballs and helmets to celebrate the opening of OU football and a car, dino, and duck. We decided to cook the bacon in the microwave to keep it low key clean up as well. This all sounds very fine and dandy doesn't it? Here are the things that went wrong. The first batch of dough only made 6 biscuits so we had to make a second batch. I did not follow the recipe the second time and made the dough too wet so I had to have Neil add extra flour about 3 times while I kneaded the sticky mess. I finally got the biscuits in the oven and went to get Megan out of bed who had been crying for 10 min. Neil was in charge of the bacon. About 15 minutes and 15 paper towels later, the bacon was still very pink looking. I refused to eat it raw looking, so Neil kept cooking it. The biscuits were done and came out of the oven looking about as thick and fluffy as sugar cookies-they were more like glorified crackers. Neil's family makes this yummy chocolate gravy to put over biscuits, so while he was crisping the bacon I set out to make the chocolate. It turned out bad. I guess I cooked it too long. It cooled too quickly on the biscuits and left these lumps of dark chocolate on our plates that looked like something I should not mention. We started cooking at 8:20 and at 10:00 we sat down to a breakfast of chewy bacon, cracker biscuits, and crusty chocolate gravy that dried like icing on the biscuits. We were barely able to split the biscuits open to butter them, and after the chocolate gravy congealed into an icing consistency, we were able to pick the biscuits up and eat them like cookies! Yuu-uum! Oh I almost forgot two other highlights! As soon as we sat down Mark shoved a full piece of bacon into his mouth and could not chew it up and started gagging. The chewed bacon (and other stuff) ended up back on his plate! He did this twice! Neil put a really thick layer of jelly on two halves of Mark's biscuit and Mark slammed both pieces together to make a drippy jelly biscuit sandwich mess. (Do all men put too much jelly on toast and sandwiches? Neil says to much jelly is subjective!) Here are the pics! Enjoy! We sure did!

last swim of the summer

2008-08-30T11:53:00.002-05:00

We took our last swim at Mrs. Lisa's pool this week. We invited Michael and Conor to swim and enjoy a quick picnic lunch before heading off to PM Kindergarten. It was a busy and fun day. We had a hard time getting the boys out of the pool to go to school!

The first day of the rest of your life

2008-08-21T16:35:00.006-05:00

Read that title with all the sarcasm and complaining tone you can! Mitchell started the big K this week! He seems to be doing fine. I don't get much info from him! Men children! He liked the story they read on the first day about Mrs. Tendergarden getting ready for Kindergarden. He sits at a desk with 3 other kids, two girls and a boy. He does not know their names. He gets to hang his bag on whatever hook he wants. They went outside and exercised, and then colored a picture of Mrs. Tendergarden. That's all the info I got! Here are the pictures! I wish I had 100 pictures, enough to match how important the event felt to me. I only have about 8.

Here is a neat little story. We went to McDonald's to eat lunch before the first day to take away some of the jitters and give us something fun to do, and because Mitchell is obsessed with Star Wars and they have Star Wars happy meals right now. Anyway! A kid and his mom arrived at the same time we did. He looked Mitchell's age and she was wearing a Chisholm shirt. Mitchell, Mark and the boy all huddled around the toy display, and I timidly asked the mom if they were starting school today. They were. Kindergarden in fact. They had the other teacher. We got our food. They sat right behind us. The kids talked during lunch. Noah ended up coming to our booth to sit and play for a while. The mom and I talked. I was so glad to have made a new friend. I felt like I was sending my kid out into this huge new place where he did not know a single person and God showed us a new friend just in the nick of time. God is so good. He knows just what we need exactly when we need it.

Here are some pictures of the last playgroup of the year at Bouncin'Craze.

telemarketer intervention

2008-08-19T13:27:00.004-05:00

I have decided there are not enough funny stories on our blog so here goes...

Mitchell has started answering our telephone. We have not really reviewed phone etiquite with him though. If a family member or friend happens to call things usually go fine. Last night and today I noticed he had replied "I think you have the wrong number," to a few calls. I asked him who they had asked for. He said "Jennifer?"

Random thoughts
(Maybe this can count for my tagging from Gina?)

-Will the rain ever stop?
-We are taking it easy for today and tomorrow morning to prepare for the start of Kindergarten.
-I cried this morning when I read Jessica H's blog about the start of school. I wondered if I have taught him enough to enter the school world.
-Today we had pigs in a blanket for lunch. (Hotdogs rolled up in biscuits.) We added pepperoni to spice it up a little! I made one with only pepperoni and stirng cheese. I thought it would be really cheesy and yummy. Nope! Really salty instead!
-Today I am trying not to yell or spank. Laura W. and I discussed how we feel that we yell at our kids too much over lunch yesterday (I mean lunch in the car, in the rain, outside of bouncin craze, with 3 kids crawling/eating in the back of the explorer. "Discussed over lunch" sounds so much more peaceful and sophisticated.
-Mark has been to time-out twice today, but has not been yelled at or spanked!
-Mark climbed up Megan's dresser and it fell over today. OK, yes I did yell then (I forgot). I had asked him to take some clothes to Megan's room and he was trying to put the clothes away in the right place. He started crying that he did not know the right place to put the clothes. I was angry and sad at the same time. He was fine. The dresser fell beside him not on him thank goodness. I was able to put the dresser back together which I was worried about since it was made of "really expensive pressed board and laminate".
-I watched the movie Atonement on Sunday afternoon and can't stop thinking about how depressing it was. Now I want to watch Definitely Maybe in hopes of cheering me up a little.
- I need to cut the boys' hair today so they don't look scraggly before school starts.
- I am starting a new job in September that I am both nervous and excited about. I am going to be the new music teacher at Sonshine School. Sada did such a good job and the kids loved her. I am not sure I can fill her shoes. I think as long as I have a little music note stamp to give them at the end of the class they will like me.
-My kids (Yes, all 3 of then) are playing amazingly well today without me! That is a first because Mark is ususlly glued to my side. That is how I have been able to post so much!
-Mark is wearing underwear today and has not had any accidents. Actually both boys are only wearing underwear today.
- I read the thing about pictures on Dustin's blog and watched the video and did not understand a single part of it! I feel kind of stupid.
- I told Mark something he did today was stupid and Mitchell heard me and repeated it!
- I got up early (before my kids dragged me out of bed) this morning and cleaned my closet (put away clean laundry, sorted out the dirty laundry, re-stacked some things, and sorted out donatable clothes) before they woke up.
- The cleaning led to laundry, which is in the dryer, that I was intending to watch closely and remove while it was still hot because it is all dress clothes and I did not want to iron it! I guess I will be ironing because it finished drying about 2 hours ago! Oops! I guess I will go now and get to that laundry!

Well, that is all the rambling I will do today! I feel so much lighter having unburdened myself to all of you out there in blog land! Thanks for listening Seattle.

-Update - Mark is currently in time-out for the third time now today! He and Mitchell were going to do stamps. I thought what a great idea you can continue playing well together without me! My first clue to remove myself from the computer was, "Mommy we can't find the ink pad". They got markers instead to color the stamps and then stamp them. A fine idea. The real sentence that made me get up from the computer, "Mommy, It is an emergency! (It is always an emergency.) Mark colored on himself and the couch!" Yes he did, and it won't come out! Ugh! All this while I was typing the bit about the laundry and signing off! Amazing how fast things change! I think he may have even just wet his pants in time-out! Cool!

room makeover

2008-08-18T08:22:00.002-05:00

We have been waiting for two years to tackle the huge job of painting the kitchen, dining room, and den! The day the boys left for TX, I went straight to the store and bought paint. Neil came home to see all the furniture pulled out and draped and some practice spots painted on the wall! His responce, "I guess we are painting tonight?" Yup, and for the next four days! We finally finished on Sunday evening.

Train Ride

2008-08-15T12:53:00.004-05:00

Last weekend the boys went to Texas to visit Neil's parents. They rode a train for the first time. Mom-mom had been staying with us the week before, and they all took the train back with her to spend the weekend and a few days. They had a blast riding the train. Mark said they had "pickles" for breakfast while on the train. Mitchell translated that for us to be bagles! Since there were three of them and the seats were in twos, the boys got to sit by themselves for a while. It think that was Mitchell's favorite part! While they were gone Neil and I got busy with a little painting project. I will post pics of that later.

Drama

2008-07-24T14:47:00.003-05:00

In July Mitchell attended drama camp at the Family Theater Warehouse. He had a blast! He attended camp with Merry and Joy and they put on the musical Rhinocerous Tap. Mark is already talking about how he will be able to go when he turns four!

celebrate

2008-07-03T14:02:00.003-05:00

I thought this showed off their true personalities!

Have a safe and happy Fourth of July!

Thanks to Picnik.com for the accessories!

When I showed this pic to Mark he wanted to know if we still had that hat,

I guess so he could wear it!

the slick-n-slide

2008-07-02T16:10:00.006-05:00

Mark said, "Ouch that hurts my body."

Funny how Mark always takes off at least one article of clothing!

How we spent our summer vacation

2008-06-15T23:05:00.004-05:00

We just got back from a trip out west! We traveled by mini-van for 8 days to see all the wonderful sights in the pictures. It was a long trip, hence the long slide show. Enjoy!

mother's day pics

2008-05-20T23:47:00.004-05:00

Ever look at a pic and wonder who those people are? I feel that way about this pic. Is that really me with those 3 kids? They are mine? Like, I am old and have three children and I am their sole care taker? Oh wow!

Like all the matching? I scored a new dress when we bought the kids Easter outfits and just wore it for the first time. I told Neil I would need it to match all the kids outfits when we take pictures. Neil was a very good sport the morning we took this pic. I got everyone dressed and then saw that Neil was wearing a red and navy plad shirt! I thought to myself, " That just won't work in the impromptu family pictures we will be taking today after church. How do I tell a grown man that he must change his shirt with out making him mad?" I don't remember what I said, but to his credit he was not too put out and made some very good clothing choices to match the family. What a great gift to give your wife on mother's day - patience and cooperation in a hair brained scheme to take a family picture when it is nap time.

new stuff

2008-05-14T22:46:00.005-05:00

"It's about time!" I know that is what you are all thinking as you finally see a new post! I will update you in pictures!

Mitchell

Playing T-ball. Enlarge the pic and you can see the ball mid-air. Cool photo skills huh? He still needs to work on his follow through. I walked past this on the floor a few times before I realized it was art and not just a pile of toys. "It's all the super hero stuff, Mom. You know, just in case!"

Mark

We are not sure what Mark will be when he grows up, but he will know how to dress the part, what ever the job! He showed up outside one day "goin comando", and wearing a knight costume that in the sun looked oddly like an evening gown! Second pic, "Crack Kills"! Nough said!

Megan

She sits! She eats! She goes to Bible class! She is about to crawl!

Watch out world!

Arts Festival

Gi Gi

"This is the way we roll, we roll! This is the way we roll! I'm rollin'!"

The nurses in the hallway thought we were so cute they insisted we take a picture! This is the day before GiGi was able to go home! Yeah!

Newest Projects

Birthday Party Extravaganza

2008-04-26T09:54:00.006-05:00

On April 5th we had a combined b-day party for Mitchell and Mark. Yes, a month ago and I am just now posting pics. Well, you see, Neil's Grandma came from Nashville to visit and be at the party, and the night before she was supposed to go home she fell and broke her hip. I did not think it was right to post pics of the fun day we had a the party while she was in pain awaiting surgery in the hospital so I waited. Then I got busy with a few projects and just did not have time! So here they are! Happy Birthday Sweet Boys!

Sandbox fun! Mark and Joy as Shrek and Donkey!

"Get the gummy bugs out of the swamp" game. 2nd pic -Just wanted you to see what it looked like to have two kids opening gifts at the same time with all their friends around! Chaos really!

Shrek pinata! Yes, we beat our pinatas. We don't go for the wimpy pull the string thing! It's more fun if there is the fear of sending someone to the emergency room for stitches! I did buy a foam covered bat though! 2nd pic - Mitchell and his first piece of artwork on the new easel!

Megan slept through the party or was held by grandad. Here she is hanging out on party day! Since Grandad held her most of the day she did not get to wear a bow! I think her head looks naked!

photo dump two

2008-04-26T09:43:00.003-05:00

Aparently I have a habit of finding odd things in the back of pictures and zooming in on them. I found this one floating around in my screen saver slide show from our family New Year's party in 2004. It is my grandma. Pretty funny don't you think? Even funnier if you know her!

BTW - I am pretty sure that is sparkling grape juice. We like to "act" fancy at our family gatherings. It is rare and akward if anyone pulls out the hard stuff, since very few in the family partake!

photo dump

2008-04-11T15:21:00.003-05:00

I liked Audrey's idea of posting pics you had forgotten about, or that didn't make the cut for a previous post. I had been tossing around a similar idea a few weeks ago. What about the random things you crop out of your pictures, or the funny or odd things in the backgrounds that you accidentally caught. Here are my findings from the Easter pictures I was recently working on.

Here are the boys playing with an Easter treat.

And. . .

Here is what I found in the background. . .

I know all of you perfect parents are out there thinking, "What kind of mom leaves her precious baby girl lying in the middle of the floor like that?" Come on, you know you have done it! Besides, she needs time to herself to explore and to learn to roll and crawl and all that stuff. Right!?

Here is the original picture. Mark hunting eggs.

I went to crop the picture to just him and realized the part I cropped out was kind of funny!

Here are the two resulting photos!

I am sorry if that is your booty that I accidentally took a picture of, zoomed in on, and am posting for all to gander at! Well, no I'm not really sorry. I think it is pretty funny!

Yikes

2008-04-04T01:24:00.005-05:00

Where has the time gone? I knew it was time to post someting when a friend had the date of my last post memorized from looking at so many times! Mandy, Thanks for the encouragement!

Here is my pretty girl on Easter.

Here is what happens when the big brothers baby sit. The room was clean when they started. I don't know what I was busy doing, or how long they were at it, but they sure had fun! To my credit, I was in the kitchen or at the dining table just a few feet away from the chaos and had no idea it was going on. Ok, Maybe that is not to my credit!

Neil's birthday. Yes, it is on St. Patty's day, hence the green accessories!

Mark's birthday. I think Mark is so confused about the birthday thing. We were out of town for his birthday, so they sang to him a few days early at Sonshine School. Then Rachelle gave him a special birthday breakfast cake on his actual birth day. Then Sunday in Bible hour they sang to him again. Sunday afternoon we let him open some presents that had come in the mail . We keep talking and planning his party, and I am sure he is wondering when in the world it will happen! Wednesday night at church he tried to open someone's baby gift and had a melt down! Finally he gets to have his party on Saturday! The only confusing part about that is that the boys are sharing a party, so I hope he really thinks it is his party and not just Mitchell's.

Some more pictures of my pretty girl! We got fancy one day, so we had to take a picture. The other one is from an impromptu photo shoot on the living room floor one day. The lighting was good, so I got out the camera and pretended I was a creative photographer!

Art project day!

Our kid table broke. One weekend when were were in Dallas, I talked Neil's mom into driving me by Ikea and sitting in the van with the kids while I ran into the store to grab a kids table. Ever been to Ikea? I was in and out in 20 minutes. No Kidding! But I was in such a hurry, I accidentally picked a table that was completely unfinished. Mitchell heard me talking about how I was going to have to paint it and he got really excited about painting his table. The idea was to let the boys paint their own chairs with watercolor paints and I would paint the table legs in a kid-like decorative fashion to match, and I would just leave the top plain with a nice thick coat of varnish. Well we got a little carried away. The boys were both working dilligently. There was no fighting. The sun was shining. The weather was warm. The boys both kept saying how much fun they were having and how cool this was. I was in mommy heaven. We were successfully making art! They were loving it! We were bonding! There was no fighting (did I already mention that?) So, when they asked to paint the table top, I quietly, but with much deliberation, gave up the idea of a table that would look good in our kitchen for a piece of art work that the boys eat breakfast on every day and are so proud of! Here is what the table looks like. It does not fit the coffee theme of the kitchen. It does not fit the color scheme of the den. It does not even really look that good or blend in with anything in our house. It belongs in a play room. But it stays in our kitchen where it is used every day by two boys who, I hope, remember the great day that they made something artistic of their very own with thier mom.

The last pic is just a cute pic of Marky drawing on the driveway! I can not believe he is three years old!

what made me laugh on the inside today

2008-02-29T13:48:00.002-06:00

I am feeding Megan. Mark is throwing a large inflatable ball in the room. The ball hits me in the head. I say, "Mark, you hit me in the head, what do you need to say?"
He just smiles this cheesy, I can get away with anything smile.
"Mark, what do you need to say to me? You hit me in the head and it hurt."
"Yes Mam?"
"No, Mark. You hurt me. What do you say?"
"Please Mommy, don't spank me?"

what made me smile today

2008-02-29T10:53:00.002-06:00

Today I smiled at my two precious boys as they ran around the living room in a big circle jumping over toys pretending to be Buzz Lightyear. The opening of Toy Story 2 was playing and each had Buzz Lightyear toy in hand. They were invincible! I love them!

Megan's first trip to the zoo

2008-02-26T16:25:00.004-06:00

So, my baby girl went to the zoo for the first time looking like this!

Her diaper leaked while I was at exercise class, so I had to take her clothes off and stop by home to get her new clothes on the way to the zoo. On the way home she fell asleep. I was not going to wake her up just to dress her and put her back in the carrier, so she made it to the zoo and into the stroler naked. BUT, She was wearing her BOW! I did get her dressed when we unloaded everything at the zoo to eat lunch.

the hair that broke the camel's back

2008-02-21T13:34:00.005-06:00

Mitchell just had to have a haricut! This pic marks the day I finally broke down and gave the boys haircuts! These are some of the before and afters.

Happy Birthday Mama Lou!

The boys knew it was my mom's birthday and they kept asking when her party was. I had seen these cupcakes on Martha Stewart the other day and was just waiting for the occasion to make them! To tell the truth, the cake was from a mix and just the frosting and frosting tecnique came from Martha. They were lemon cakes with strawberry lemonade frosting. Actually, Martha's cake and icing were strawberry. I only had a lemon cake mix. I skipped the strawberry puree in the icing, as suggested by Martha(who really has that on hand everyday?), and added coolaid powder to the frosting instead. So really, maybe just the idea of cupcakes came from Martha now that I think of it!

I woke up at 6:15

2008-02-19T12:33:00.003-06:00

Are you catching a theme here?

I woke up at 6:15 to feed the baby; at least she had slept through the night. This could not be said about her big brothers. One slept with us for a few hours untill I had been kicked a few too many times and took him back to his bed somewhere around 4 am. The other had come in at 6 for who knows what. Neil took him back to his bed and when he returned brought me the baby to feed. I snooze and feed Megan. Mitchell comes back to our room, again, I don't know why, but I tell him to get in our bed. Megan is done and is sleeping. Suddenly screams are tearing through the quiet early morning. Mark is screaming and heading to my room! Quick, get the baby in her bassinet while she is still sleeping, head Mark off in the hallway so he does wake up Mitchell too! Oh wait, Mitchell never really went back to sleep anyway. Mark is in our room. He stops screaming as soon as he gets in our bed. Ok! At least he stopped. Let's rest for just a few more minutes before we really have to get out of bed. "Mark, stop rolling on me!" "Do not talk to your brother! He is still sleeping!" "Mark, I don't like to be touched." With a hard squeeze on the arm, "Don't talk to him! Mark roll over let me sleep in the middle." Neil opens the bathroom door. My silent prayer, "Please don't come over here, we are 'sleeping.'" Kisses for everyone. "Bye bye Daddy." Neil is in the kitchen then he leaves through the laundry room. Mark jumps out of bed crying again, "I want to wave bye to daddy in the window!" It is 7:15. We are all out of bed now heading to the living room window to wave. Mitchell tries the laundry room door instead. I am deathly afraid of him jumping out the door and Neil not seeing him as he pulls out of the garage. "Mitchell, stop! Come here and wave! Close the door and come to the window!" Now Mitchell is in a melt down. "I want to tell daddy I love him". Neil has pulled out of the garage and is about to leave the driveway. I open the front door to stop him. We are all in our jammies and freezing. Mitchell is still sobbing. Mark is standing there in a daze. Neil gets out of the car. "You must stop crying to tell Daddy what you want to tell him or he can't understand you." "I can't stop crying. . . I. . . I can't!" Big daddy hug. "I love you Mitchell." "You better tell him too, since you are crying so much about it!" "I. . . love. . . you. . . (sob, sob)" Close the door. Still sobbing. Everybody to the living room. TV on. Praise God for PBS Kids! Sobbing stops. "Mark would you like to watch tv too?" I go to the kitchen to make sippy cups. Chocolate milk for Mark. One down, one to go. Then they will leave me alone! Apple juice for Mitchell. Pour the juice. Knock over the juice. The cup and the huge jug! Oh, Crap! The huge 64 ounce jug is glugging all over the cabinet! Grab everything upright! Holy Cow! Is this really happening? Sop up the counter. Re pour and deliver the cup, because it is only moments before Mitchell will be in here damanding his juice and probably crying again. Back to the kitchen to clean up the lake of juice on my floor and cabinets. It takes two kitchen towlels and a bath towel. Then I am mopping the floor! Yes! Mopping! Mark wanders into the kitchen. "Watch out! It is wet! Mark, go around!" Slip, fall, drop cup, cry. "Here is your cup. I told you to stop. Let's go watch tv with brother." Take the towels to the washer. It is full of wet clothes. Open the dryer. It is full too, at least they are dry. Laundry to couch. Laundry to dryer. Juice towels into the washer. Start washer. Oh yeah, the juice. It is still all over the cabinets, and inside the cabintes! Clean the cabinets. Oh man is it really inside the ice cream maker? Next cabinet. Pots and pans. Yes, it is in all of the pots! I am slumped on the still kind of sticky kitchen floor wiping shelves and pots. I still have to make lunches, get everyone dressed for school, feed the baby again before we leave at 9 . . . Oh, It is only 7:45! Plenty of time!

I went to bed at 10:30

2008-02-16T10:34:00.003-06:00

I went to bed at 10:30 - with a stuffy nose and head ache.
At 12:30 Megan woke up to eat.
By 1:30 She was back in her bed and I in mine.
Some time later, Mitchell at my side of the bed, "I am hot, I want to turn on the fan."
Lovingly(yeah right), "I am not getting out of bed. Get in your bed and don't pull up the covers."
Neil takes him to the kitchen, there is some rustling(I think a drink is involved), low talking, and some crying.
Mitchell is in his bed and Neil in ours.
3:30 Mark needs a drink too. I get it because I am really still awake from Mitchell's visit and Megan coughing (Is she waking up to eat again??).
Mark is in his bed and I am in mine.
4:30 Megan is awake. She poops or toots loudly. Minimal crying. I might as well feed her now and then I can be assured of 3 hours of peace! Lights on, diaper change courtesy of Neil, and Megan is in our bed eating.
5:00 Megan in her bed and I in mine.
5:20 Megan is still blowing raspberries and talking. Mark at the side of my bed, "Mommy I brought duck." "Get in my bed (shut up, lay still, and sleep because I am soooo tired)"
6:15 Mark kicks me, slaps his hand in my face, rolls over, etc. "Neil! What time are you getting up? (Hopefully it is at 6:30 so you can take Mark to bed and I can stay in mine, so much for the three hours of peace! What? Not until 7:00?! Ugh, Mark get up!)" "Is it wake up time Mommy?" Many responces come to mind, none of them nice or appropriate to say to your 2 year old.
6:30 Mark is in his bed and I am in mine, but probably only for 30 minutes until 7 when Neil's alarm goes off and wakes up Megan so she can eat - again!
7:00 comes and Neil wakes, Megan does not. Ah maybe 30 minutes of sleep until Neil wakes me up to say goodbye.
7:00 to 9:00 is a blur (maybe there was some sleeping). There was a snooze alarm that I had to turn off. Neil has gone to work, Megan tooted and went back to sleep, Mitchell has joined me in bed wanting to watch TV ("Not in here, you can sleep with me or go to the living room"), Mark has visited and asked to eat some valentines chocolate ("Not until after breakfast, get in bed or play quietly, Mommy is not getting up yet.")
9:00 It may be safe to wake up now. No, I mean it may be safe to get out of bed now. Is it really waking up if there was no sleeping? Boy do I feel rested!

So, How did you sleep last night?

3 month pictures of our little sweetheart

2008-02-15T14:03:00.002-06:00

So, she is now four and a half months old and I am just getting around to sharing these threee month photos in blog world! Just be so glad that you get to see them even if they are late! We did at least take them just a few weeks after she was 3 months old. A photo shoot near Dec 28 was hard to come by so we settled for the first week in January. Isn't she soo cute!

Close ups of our cutie!

Look at those big feet!

Ah how sweet! Her big brothers adore her!

tagged

2008-02-01T10:39:00.000-06:00

It has taken me a few days to do this. I can't decide which list to do. It is pretty sad, but I could not think of many things that I did not expect myslef to be by 25. I think most people know my wierd and odd facts (I probably share way too many oddities about myself in daily conversation). Soooo. . . here goes with the list of. . .

5 places I want to see

1. Rome - the Coliseum and ruins, maybe a little Biblical tour too. I caught the Rome fever when I taught Julius Caesar, and then there is the movie Gladiator too. I think the tunnels and underground hiding places of Christians would be cool to see.
2. Pompeii - the Roman city destroyed my Mt Vesevius. I read about it in a Weekly Reader issue in 1st grade and have wanted to go there ever since. How cool to see 1st hand how an ancient civilation lived, and sad to see the tragic and unexpected mumified bodies and ash shadows on the walls.
3. The Palace of Versailles (again) - especially the gardens. I have been there twice already once with my Let's Start Talking team and then again the next summer with Neil. I would go again with Neil and I would like to spend a few days there taking guided tours of the royal apartments and wandering the gardens.
4. The Hamptons - I don't know why, I think it is because that is where the rich and famous party. Neil and I were actually planning our 10th anniversary trip for this summer there but then we realized that it is kind of cold and not really as tropical feeling as we would like so we nixed the idea.
5. Disney Land - the original in California. I have also been there twice. Once in college, and once with Neil, Neil's sis Mellissa, and husband Ben, Mitchell and Mark about 2 years ago. Yes, Mark was only 9 months old. I would like to take Mark now that he is older, but now we will probably wait until Megan is old enough to enjoy it too. Have you seen the commercial about Walt Disney's personal suite? That's where I want to stay!! I also saw a video once about all the characters and how each entrance and exit is exactly timed so you never see two Mickey's running around. There is an underground "city" under Disney Land to create the "Magic" with huge wardrobe and make up areas, laundry rooms and kitchens, and secret entrances. They showed a room with hundreds of Snow White costumes hanging in it. It was amazing. I would love to see the video again too!

I color coded the places with the color that each place makes me think of. Well, now you have wired facts and my list of 5 places!

I tag - Jessica H, Aubrey K, Laura W, Andrea N, and Jenny V.

I was tagged by Cindy and Leane. I hope it counts for both because I am not going to do it twice!

The Rules: Link to the person that tagged you and post the rules on your blog. Share 5 random and/or weird facts about yourself on your blog. or Share the 5 top places on your “want to see or want to see again” list. or Share 5 things you never pictured being in your future when your were 25 years old. Tag a minimum of 5, maximum of 10 random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs. Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog. The tagees have a choice of which they want to do.

thumb sucker!

2008-01-29T11:45:00.000-06:00

Here is Megan's new trick! Now she sleeps pretty well, when she remembers how to get that thumb into her mouth. Don't think that I have not tried to help her find it a few times! You have to be tricky, though. She gets mad when you grab her hand and try to make her put it in her mouth.

A little update on our sweet girl. She is now 4 months old. She weighs 14 lbs. She was sleeping through the night until she got another cough and now she wakes up about twice a night coughing and choking, so I feed her to give her something to wash down the flegm. Pretty gross huh? She loves to laugh and smile. She grabs at toys and trys to hold them in her fists. She likes to hold her silky blankets and chew on them a little. She is able to, and actually prefers to, fall asleep alone on her bed(bassinet). She sucks a paci for a few minutes until she replaces it with her thumb while she listens to a little musical stuffed lamb, then she falls asleep. I am so proud of her! (Incidentally, after spending the first 3 months of her life in the baby swing, she now hates it and screams when we put her in it! I think she wised up to our baby care tricks!)

monday night at the roberts

2008-01-21T20:09:00.000-06:00

Have you ever had one of these nights!

Neil and I are both working on projects and kind of trying to share the kid responsibilities today. We both feel like the other gets more "work" time. To take a break, I get on the computer to blog stalk. Neil is holding Megan and the boys are playing with a bookshelf. You see, Mark likes to rearrange our furniture. Neither adult is paying attention. Mark starts saying, "It's a bath tub. It's a bath tub. It is time to take a bath." I look over and the book shelf is on its side and Mark is climbing in to sit between the shelves - buck naked! Yes folks, totally in the nude! Somehow two adults missed this kid stripping down to absolutely nothing! He thinks the shelf is a tub and is sitting in the middle of the floor pretending to bathe. I am sitting here typing as he is playing beside me on the floor, still naked! Neil said he is glad the house is warm enough for him to be naked! He also said he should not sit on the carpet too much or his butt will start itching! Mark has gone through several "costume" changes. He went and got a king robe from the dress up box and came running in flashing us! Next he got a superman cape and, well, you can picture that too! I really wish I could take some pictures or video but I know that would just be so wrong! Neil and I were about to cry from laughing so much! Well, now I must go and try to talk him into getting dressed again!

late chirstmas pics

2008-01-14T16:48:00.001-06:00

Megan smiling at my grandma on Christmas day.

A week before Chirstmas the boys went to Neil's parents house to give us some time to get ready for the holidays. The boys made gingerbread houses again this year with Mom Mom. Neil and I were both shocked to see the chimney on Mitchell's house! It looks a little like. . .

We went downtown this year again. The boat rides are free, and the botanical gardens are free, and there is ice skating. We went with both of our families. With Neil's family we ended up ice skating. Mark was so excited! As soon as we looked into the rink he said, "I want to go in there." He could hardly wait in the line to get his skates on. Neil and I had so much fun pulling him around on the ice! It was a parent moment I will never forget - letting your kid try something that is a little challenging and fun and seeing them laugh and feel so proud that they were out there! It was so great! Mitchell decided not to try it this year. He watched and helped Grandad take pictures and watch Megan and all of our shoes. Doesn't Megan look so cute in her new hat from Aunt Melissa!

Megan and Grandad at Christmas dinner. We also decorated Chirstmas cookies. They were pretty interesting cookies! I pulled out all of the candy we had in the cabinet to decorate them with. The good ones had sprinkles, marshmallows and chocolate chips. Some had smarties on them; others had sprees, skittles, and m&m's. It was hard to tell between some of the skittles and m&m's - what a surprise that bite was!

Santa brought Mark a motorcycle which he is riding in the house until the weather gets warmer. Mitchell got a castle which he plays with for several hours each day!

I think it was Mitchell's second Chirstmas where we discovered this bag that was as big as he was. We put him in it and took a picture. And we have every year since. If you are interested, I am pretty sure I put pics of him it last year on the blog, and maybe even the year before that! The first year's pic was not digital, so I can not show it to you. What did we do before digital cameras and blogs! We had to print and send pictures by mail?! Yikes!!

a new parable

2008-01-09T21:14:00.000-06:00

Yes, folks it is true, at least acording to Mitchell's Bible class tonight! I am not sure what exactly the parable of the SEWER is about, but I bet it is overflowing with the good news!

If this one exists, then maybe Dustin, you should write the story of Job and his trip to Oz with his 3 friends.

to let you know we are still alive

2007-12-12T14:35:00.000-06:00

Since Halloween was my last post, I will just put some random pics of us from the last almost two months!

The boys were in a wedding the week before Thanksgiving so we took advantage of the fancy clothes and took some pics! Mitchell thought he was the kid from the Bruce Willis movie The Kid. He and Mark did some fancy dancing at the recption. I could barely keep the video camera still I was doubled over laughing so hard!

GiGi Lucile meets Megan Lucile for the first time!

Isn't she soo cute!? The pic on the right is of her first smile!
She is now 2 1/2 months old and weighs over 12 lbs!

The boys love their sis, even when she is crying!

Mark always says, "Megan crying much. Mommy you feed Megan."

I love seeing the ridiculous things your kids can get adults to do!

That is Neil's parents being airplanes. I would love to get the second one passed around Dave's work!

We decorated the tree a few weeks ago. The boys have very different styles of holliday decorating. Mark likes to put as many ornaments on one branch as possible. He re-arranges the ornaments daily - especially if I spread them out after he goes to bed. Mitchell has a more patterned appraoch to decorating as you can see in the centerpiece he created for the table.

halloween

2007-11-04T14:40:00.000-06:00

"Help! That bird is about to eat me!"

Here are our halloween events.

1st the boys "carved" a pirate potato head pumpkin with my mom.
Mitchell likes to "decorate" and pose pictures. He arranged what you see in the second pic.

Next we went to the church halloween carnival. Mark trick or treated until he got a sucker, he unwrapped it immediately and started eating it, and then tried to do everything else with his sucker in hand!

A pirate, a mermaid and. . . a biker? Aparently, Snow white is scared of pirates and bikers!

Our next two halloween events were trick or treating at the OC dorms with Luke and Landon Peaden, and going to the Story book forrest with the Sawyers! Both were very fun evenings. Mark did the same thing with the suckers.

Here are the boys with my grandma. Megan is a pirate too!

The first time Megan's bow fell over her eyes Mitchell started saying, "She is blind! She's blind! She's blind with her bow tie!" It took us a while to figure out what he was talking about!

watch her grow

2007-11-03T17:19:00.000-05:00

Here are the last few weeks of pics of Megan. I am trying to take a picture every week to show her growth and development. You always hear how there are no pictures of the later kids in the family, so I am trying to make sure we have pics of our third. I think since she is a girl it will be more fun to take pictures of her! She is getting fat! Well, relatively. The boys were both very skiny and had to work hard for every ounce they gained. Megan seems to be a very well fed baby! So far she has gained a pound every week and weighed in at near 9 lbs on her 1 month check up! She came home from the hospital at a little over 5 lbs.

3 weeks

4 weeks

5 weeks

two weeks

2007-10-15T22:26:00.000-05:00

Here are some new pics of Megan. She is now two weeks and 3 days old.

Today's pic

1st trip to the library.
1st trip to church
Sleeping like a baby!

On the bili lights during her first week.
1st bath at home.
Brotherly love.

Our little sportsman.

This has nothing to do with Megan of course, but the other big thing in our house right now is T ball, so I thought I owed it to Mitchell to put a cute pic of him on the blog since I ripped on him in the last entry.

scary!

2007-10-10T22:21:00.000-05:00

Here is a look at what our family looks like now! We feel it is a pretty telling picture of our future! And we are a little worried!

I would put some new pics of how Megan has grown in the last two weeks, but, wouldn't you know, my camera cord won't upload any pictures!

Here are some things about her:

She is really cute!

She likes to eat!

She is a better nurser than both of her brothers. (The nurses told me that boys in general were bad at nursing, but I never believed it until now.)

Eating gives her gas and hic-cups -- almost every time!

She still sleeps most, ok, all, of the day.

She is really cute!

She still weighs under 6 lbs.

She hates to have her diaper changed.

She likes to sleep with mommy.

She has been to church once.

She has been to the library once. (We had to get out of the house, and I needed to spend time with the boys.)

She is loved very much by her brothers! (Unfortunately, usually the only time they get to see her awake is when she is eating. Kind of ackward for mom!)

She smiles in her sleep, and it is so cute!

Did I mention she is really cute?!

I just know she is going to love hair bows.

She does not have a nursery theme or crib bedding. (But don't forget the cute bassinet she has!)

She is really cute!

On a funny and unrelated note, I thought I would share the team photo that Mitchell's coach e-mailed out to all of the parents! Notice Mitchell's macho position! Please spread the word not to print this picture! I am afraid of Mitchell being forever known as, "You know, that kid in the t-ball picture scratching himself!" What is worse, since I can not upload pictures, I can not send out a better one! OH man!

***Well, aparently I was so embarassed that I have already deleted the e-mail and the picture! I will leave the story, since it is funny! *****

It's a GIRL!

2007-09-30T19:59:00.001-05:00

Welcome Megan Lucile!

6 lbs 2 oz 18 1/2 in

I won't bore you with descriptions. The boys love her, as you can see! The grandmas are estatic! And we can't believe there is actually a girl in the family now!

practicing for photo shoot

2007-09-22T16:50:00.000-05:00

We are scheduled to go to Kerri's and have some pregnant pics taken with the boys on Monday. Last night I was having some contractions in the middle of the night and got a little antsy about missing our photo shoot, which we did when Mark was born. I dececided to have my sister help us with a "practice" photo shoot, just in case we don't make it until Monday! You know, now that I have "covered my bases" there will be no need to have, and we will make it past Monday and beyond. I know Kerri will do a great job, and can't wait to go visit!

Tulsa Trip

2007-09-22T16:20:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago we went on a small family vacation to Tulsa. We could not go too far from home, and Neil had scheduled a week of vacation to take before the new baby came. Here are some of the highlights of the hotel pool, zoo, and aquarium!

Shoulder rides to the deep end with dad.

Elephant show and pic w/ penguins for Mama Lou.

Giraffe in the background and spider boys!

In front of the shark tank at the aquarium.

baby news

2007-09-18T14:12:00.000-05:00

Here are some belly pics, that I am not really too proud of, but will post for the sake of the out-of-towners. I have to say that with baby 3 have only taken 3 belly pics. (With Mitchell I took a pic after every Dr apt. So there are considerably more!) This may be the last pic we take. We will induce on Oct 3! Oh I can't believe it! It is a hard question to answer: do you want the baby to stay in and you continue being uncomfortable, but have more spare time, or do you want the baby out and then be totally consumed with the sleepless life of newborn care? Huh! Toughie!

24 weeks, 32 weeks, and today at 36 1/2 weeks!

With the baby comming in 2 weeks I am glad to say that I have finished my first baby project! It is about time! I made a bassinet cover to blend in with our room! Next up is the crib bedding!

Mark is eagerly awaiting the arrival of the baby and fills the bassinet with the same essentials every day! Doesn't every baby need pacis, a necklace (in case you go to mardi gras) and a credit card?

quick catch up

2007-09-09T08:30:00.000-05:00

Happy Birthday Gi Gi

Over Labor Day weekend we drove, against my Dr's orders, to Nashville to celebrate Neil's Grandma's 80th birthday. It was lots of fun. Don't ask how Mitchell knows so much about tiarras!

1st day of School
We came back into town just in time for the 1st day of Sonshine School! The boys did great! Mark did not cry like he did almost everyday of last year, and Mitchell is learning to write his name! How exciting!

T-Ball
Are we crazy? Starting a 6 week t-ball season with a baby due in 4 weeks? Yes! But we are going to have so much fun! If we can remember it all! These are pics from the 1st game! I think Mitchell did well. He got two hits and got on base two times! He even got to play pitcher and catcher and got to throw the ball a few times and run after it many times! Mark clung to the fence clutching his glove and ball and begged , "Out there? Please, out there?" with big tears in his eyes! It was so sad! My heart aches for all the little siblings out there!

Sam Noble Museum of Natural Hisory

2007-08-07T22:59:00.000-05:00

In July we took a little day trip down to Norman to see some dinosaur bones! We thought the boys would be totally impressed! They were most impressed with throwing the rocks in the flower beds out side of the snack bar! Well, at least the pictures look like they had fun! It was not as bad as I am making it sound! We saw several live reptiles and watched a feeding time in the hands-on part of the museum. If the boys were a little older they would have really enjoyed the dinosaurs! I don't think they really related the bones to real dinos! We thought they were really cool!

Neil was showing off his creative side when he took the top two pics!

Digging for bones in the "kid" part of the museum. Mark was cracking us up with his "safety gear"!

The boys liked "riding" on the dog!

"Do you see it?" " Don't make me beat you with this! You know I will!"

zoo trip with daddy

2007-07-26T19:55:00.000-05:00

Last satruday night we took a family trip to the zoo! We had never been to the zoo with daddy. We had also never been to the zoo in the evening. I highly recomend it. We were the only ones there and after about 7:00 the temperature was almost nice! We took advantage of being the few at the zoo and took lots of pics on the statues!

In the top pic, Neil wanted Mitchell to sit on the fence (over the pond and waterfall) while he picked up Mark. Mitchell was a little nervous about it and I have to admit so was I. I wanted to crop myslef out of the bottom pic, but left it so you out of towners could see any belly progress.

Thanks to all of you who put in your two cents on our poll.

I am sad that not more of you agreed with me. The major concensus was that it was feminine. Which is not what I wanted to hear!

I still don't know what I will do!

reader poll

2007-07-20T21:57:00.001-05:00

I have a question for all of you out there. I am trying to get some things prepared for our new child and am thinking of making unisex bedding. I have found my favorite, but Neil thinks that it is too feminine to be male bedding if that is what such offspring should be. He suggested that I take a swatch and ask at least 3 men from our church class to see what they think. Well, I am not that brave to ask our male friends sewing and decorating questions! So I will put it out there for all of you to see. I expect mostly female responses, but men, I know some of you are dedicated bloggers, so this is your non-confrontational way to express your opinion! We would love your input on our debate.

Here is the fabric. It would be paired with a matching stripe fabric. The walls would be a matching tan color. To make the room masculine we would play up the tan and blue and add a darker brown to the room's decor. To make it feminine we would play up the blue and white and go with a "shabby chic" type theme. Let me know what you think!

the fourth

2007-07-10T09:09:00.000-05:00

Here are some pics of our celebration! We watched the parade in Edmond, then went to my mom's for some food, family, fun and fireworks! I think our family pic turned out better this year! You will have to go back to the archives to check it out! Thanks Phylliese for taking a good picture for us this year!

Mark's favorites from the parade were the horses, especially the tiny pony, and the police motorcycles that rode around in a circle. He kept saying, "sirc, vwoom" and waving his hand in a circle. Mitchell's faves were the mystery machine and the boy dancing on the bank float.

This is most of our new family. They had us duped on the fireworks. Don acted so humble and said that he wanted us to go with him to pick out fireworks because he did not know what to get for the kids. Neil and I know nothing about fireworks, but Neil went along to offer some type of help. It turns out that Don and his family ran a fireworks stand for several summers! He was asking for specific fireworks by name and they were going to the back to get them! Meanwhile, back at home, Celestia was telling me about all the fun things they would do with their left over fireworks! We felt pretty stupid! Mark liked shooting Roman Candles (with adult help) . He said, "Pop, Pop!" and would cry for them when it was not his turn! We did some after dark fireworks too, but the pics are mostly dark as you would guess! My mom gave the kids glow bracelets and necklaces and they turned out to be pretty helpful in the dark. We knew where they were at all times! I guess we exausted our host! Sleep tight Don!

new old post

2007-07-03T08:35:00.000-05:00

Neil requested that I put some new pics up on the blog. I don't even know how often Neil looks at our blog, so I know that all of you in blogger land are probably thinking the same thing.

We are having some techinical difficulties with uploading new pictures. I have lots of new pictrues that are trapped in my camera! So here are some pictures of Mother's day that I never got around to posting! Enjoy having something new to look at; sorry it was in May!

sawyers gone wild west

2007-06-11T21:50:00.000-05:00

We went to the Edmond Historic Society Children's Museum a few weeks ago with Raiden, Mary and Joy. Raiden assured me he would be bored when we got there! I will leave it to you to decide! I loved all the shorts, boots, and vests with fringe looks, and my favorite pic is of Joy riding the "horse"!

my project this week

2007-06-01T16:07:00.000-05:00

Neil's mom offered to let the boys stay at their house this week. Of course we said, "yes!" Then I said to Neil, "What project can we get done this week?" Neil let out a sigh, and said "How about nothing." Which I interpreted as, "It does not really matter what I say, does it?" "WE" decided we would redecorate Mark's room and it would become the boys room! We have to do some pre-baby shifting, you know! Here are the results!

It is a camping/outdoor activity theme. I even made a tent to go in the room too, but it turned out way too big to fit in the room with all the furniture! I am working on a plan B for a tent, maybe a window treatment type tent or one over each bunk bed. The bummer is I have one already made that I can't use! So sad! Well, I think it turned out really great! The boys come home tomorrow and I can't wait for them to see it! The boys have been practicing sleeping in the same room while at mom-mom's. The only difference is that we took down Mark's crib so it will be his first night in a big bed! Wish us luck!

My last project before that was a bag for Kim. It is like no bag I have ever made. I think it turned out pretty cool too! (If you live near us, you have probably seen it, or will see it soon when baby Oliver makes his debut at church. The pic is for you out of towners, I guess!)

what's new

2007-06-01T15:43:00.000-05:00

Sometime last week we had two very minor firsts in the Roberts' house. I must emphasize minor!

The first first was that Mark started lining things up. Mitchell has always been into lining things up: cars, crayons, small figurines. Mark works on a little bit larger scale! I personally like the larger to smaller concept all the way down to the pillows! Notice the line even runs through two rooms!

Mitchell decided to make his own sandwich one day. I think he was inspired by something on Sesame Street, because during an episode he came in and asked if he could make his very own sandwich all by himself. I will do anything that pulls him away from the TV, so I said sure! We went to the fridge, and he decided on all the ingredients. Did he eat the sandwich? Yes, about half of it! I think all the mayo got to him and he called it quits!

I looked outside one day and saw this: Super Mitchell with his cape flying to the rescue on his motorcycle! It was so cute! Definitely picture worthy!

the beach

2007-05-14T08:48:00.000-05:00

a stranger took the 1st pic and Mitchell took the second!

The day following Mitchell's party, we headed out on a two week vacation! The best part was the beach, so here are a few pictures of how much fun in the sun we had! I think I could live there! Neil would rather be in Colorado! He also likes cats and I like dogs! Go figure! Somehow we still get along!

Neil and Mitchell played and Mark and I lounged. Well, Mark did more aranging of the chairs than lounging!

Mitchell loved the pool! He felt like he was a big boy! He cired when we made him leave to go down to the beach!

Mark said, "Wet!" and wanted out of the pool! Mark enjoyed arranging the chairs and spinning around a hand rail! Oh and he fell down seven concrete steps too!

The view of the pool from our condo. We could also see the ocean! The boys posing for a picture!

We loved splashing in a tidal pool and built several sand castles that Mark stepped on!

Oh! Me and my baby boys!

Thanks for viewing! Hope you enjoyed our vacation as much as we did!

Happy Birthday Mitchell!

2007-05-11T15:57:00.000-05:00

Mitchell turned 4 a few weeks ago! OK, it was acutally almost a month ago, but with a two week long vacation, and a school program after that I got a little behind!

The party was an Incredibles theme party, so all the kids made superhero masks. Mitchell would like you to know that the real incredibles only had black masks; they did not have stickers on them! We played Twister to practice being Elast-i-girl, had a dash to practice being Dash, and ran a relay to practice being Mr. Incredible! They even saved a puppy at the end of the relay!

Happy Birthday Mark!

2007-04-11T08:31:00.000-05:00

Here are some pics of the big day! We had a dino dig, ate dino cupcakes, and opened presents! The entire party lasted 1 hour and 45 minutes! It was Din-o-mite! Mark was so sweet and shy while we sang to him. He blew out his candle on the first try! Check out the way he ate his cake! He must have thought you had to eat like a dino too!

practicing

2007-03-29T20:43:00.000-05:00

We are practicing holding our new baby that will be coming in October!
Love, Mitchell and Mark

Well, this is the way I wanted to break the news, but Neil decided I needed prayers and decided to make our announcement last night at church! So, thanks for praying! I got to see the baby again today. It is almost 12 weeks old and was moving all over the place! I could see fingers and feet, and it looked liked it waved at me as it put its hands near it's face. The nurse had a good idea about the pain I was having and I feel good about her explanation. So things are good.

basketball

2007-02-23T14:53:00.000-06:00

Here is one advantage to Neil's height! Neil and the boys played basketball one afternoon. Mark loved Neil lifting him up to shoot the basket! Mitchell was a little hesitant! I think it looks like lots of fun!

new curtains

2007-02-14T10:38:00.000-06:00

This has nothing to do with Valentine's Day, but I have been meaning to put the pics of the latest decorating project that has been completed in the Roberts home, and I finally have time today.

This is our master bedroom. I feel kind of creepy putting pics of our personal space for all to see, but, I designed and made the curtains myself to match the bedspread, which I purchased, so I am pretty proud of them. I had a post this summer about a rude fabric guy who explained that manufactured products will never match the current fabric selections due to the fact that manufacturing takes a year or two to get the product out to market so the fabric used is "old". So, I had quite an interesting time finding fabric to match the "old" bedspread that I had just purchased! Here are the results!

Below is the bedroom when we purchased the house.
Tarheel blue is what we called it!

Snow sledding?

2007-02-09T08:32:00.000-06:00

These are from the ice storm a few weeks ago. Neil took the boys out for a ride in the recycle bin. They had a great time until their last trip up the driveway. They took a sharp turn under the b-ball goal and tumbled out! I had the camera ready, and almost took a pic of the mis-hap, but thought I might be voted as worst mom of the year for exploiting my sons' accidents! Mitchell ended up with some "road rash" on his face, but we were stuck inside for so long, it cleared up before he could show it off to any of his friends!

The bottom left pic is just seconds before the wipeout, and in the one on the right, if you look really close, you can see Mitchell's mark of bravery on his upper cheek!

happenings

2007-02-07T09:29:00.000-06:00

Mitchell, with the help of his daddy, stuck a band-aid on his head one night and refused to take it off! It hurt when we tried to pull it off so he would make up some excuse to wear the band-aid longer, "I want Avery and Camdyn to see it", " I want to show it to my friends at church", "I like the band-aid there". Finally, after a few days of teasing and coaxing, I finally just stuck my finger under the padding and started ripping! Not a very nice thing to do, but it did the trick with just a little crying. He has not stuck anything to his head since!

I got a waffle maker and this is a pic of my first waffle! Looks tasty, huh? I was a little disappointed at first, but I have figured out the settings and now can make a tasty waffle (that comes out in one piece)!

During all of the snowy days we set up Mitchell's tent and tunnel to play with. Mark convinced Neil to crawl through the tunnel! Well, we will call it crawling! Neil's quote, "Take a picture of this because you won't see it again!"

Joy came to play last week, and we bundled up and went outside! The boys got new trikes for Chirstmas! Mitchell's new trick is pulling the wagon behind his tryke. His first method of towing was to sit on the handle of the wagon while sitting on the tryke seat to pull the wagon. I can not imagine what this felt like, but he did it a few times! He did not ask for help, but out of pitty and to save the seat from more sctatches, I found some rope and tied the wagon to the tryke! I think it works better! Aren't they cute all lined up there watching a movie!

Plastic Santa Love

2007-01-05T16:28:00.000-06:00

My realtives will love these pictures. My sis and cousins grew up with these guys and took millions of pictures loving on them. Here are the latest kids to mug on the holiday statues!

30

2007-01-04T21:41:00.000-06:00

So, I turned thirty in December. I have not had time to think much less blog so here it is! It was quite eventful in the non-eventful way! It had been a busy week. I have "birthday being near to Christmas" issues as it is, and I felt like my big day was being overlooked. We met Neil's parents in Ardmore the day after my birthday so we could have a birthday dinner and then they were going to take the boys with them so Neil and I could go to his work's Christmas party, and I would have time to make Mitchell's christmas present, and make a wedding gift for my mom, and then go back to get the boys Monday, before Tuesday's big last day of Sonshine school before the break Chirstmas party! The weekend with no kids seemed more work oriented than celebration oriented. So the week before my big day, I was stressed, emotional, and feeling very sad! My own mom had not even called to make plans for my birthday! Instead of feeling bad about it, I called her to invite her over to my house, on my birthday, to celebrate. After saying she could, she suddenly remembered she couldn't! She had two work parties to go to that night! I was crying by this point, so I couldn't respond! She decided she would skip the parties and come over! An hour later I get a call from her co-worker saying that my mom must attend the party because it is really a surprise wedding shower for her. Just another reminder that everyone was too busy to celebrate my birthday! So I have to try to tell my mom not to come over and not tell her why! Yeah right! It is just too suspicious now! So my mom figures out about the shower and decides to come over after the party. So the actual day of my birthday, I am teaching at Sonshine school, and feeling on the verge of tears at every moment. In walks Lisa the church secretary with a birthday flower arrangement! I immedeately break into tears, and run to the hallway to cry! My students were a little confused as to why I was holding beautiful flowers and crying. One sweet boy gave me a hug, just because he felt so ackward about seeing his teacher cry! The flowers were from my sister! What a great gal!! We got home from school and I had gotten a present in the mail from Neil's sister, so things were looking up!

During dinner, Neil also told me that he had booked a hotel room for us to go to after we were dressed up for the Christmas party! Later that evening my mom brought me icecream to celebrate! The boys were already in bed so just her and I and Neil sat on the couch and celebrated! My mom also tried to call me 30 times to sing happy birthday during the day. She only made it to about 7! She tried though! I felt really grateful that she drove 30 minutes to town, at 9:00 at night, after a long day of work and a wedding shower, just to bring me icecream! All in all, it turned out to be a good birthday! So eventful in the non-eventful way would best describe it!

We tried to take a family picture at the restraunt and this picture just really sums up how the week felt! I love pictures when people look stupid, and usually don't post them if I am the one looking stupid, but this just totally fits the theme of my 30th birthday so I had to post it! Mark has food on his face, Mitchell's shirt is backwards, and Neil and I just look like morons! It reminds me of our family picture from the fourth of July! Go back to see it. It is hilarious too!

Thanks for reading this long sob story! I really didn't intend to write it all out, I really just wanted to post the picture! Thanks for humoring me!

snow day pictures

2006-12-11T02:44:00.000-06:00

We had a good time playing in the snow! As you can see, Mitchell and I made snow angels, Mark rode the tricycle through the snow like a three wheeler, and Neil made the snow people. Mitchell named the little one Potato Head, and Neil named the large one Pat. I tried to play a snow-chase game that we always played with my dad called "Fox and Geese" with Mitchell, but he did not quite understand how to stay on the path and the game was ruined.

what a difference

2006-12-06T10:16:00.000-06:00

We went to Opryland Hotel last year and this year after Thanksgiving.

THE tree

2006-11-27T21:53:00.000-06:00

We decorated the tree on Sunday afternoon! I think it looks really nice this year! The pic is a little disappointing since you can't see the twinkling white glow from the lights! One of my favorite things about it is that we have a great window in the front of the house so you can see it from the street! So here are my sweethearts in front of the tree!

no. of days tree has been decorated: 2

no. of ornaments broken: 2

I will keep you posted as we progress through the holiday season with Mark Destructo! He loves the ball ornaments, and they slip off their hangers so easily that he steals them and carries them around the house. He really likes bears, so I pointed out all the ornaments that were bears. Bad idea! Today I found him making a ceramic bear ornament "dance" on the tile floor! Poor little bear lost his tail and half of his back. I have to commend the bear for making it through about ten or so bangs/dance steps before I could rush in to see what the banging glass noise was! The second casualty was a glass football ornament; he threw it, again, onto the tile!

We also lost one of the wise men from our nativity set! I think Mark had something to do with that too! Good news! He has been found and returned to his rightful place of eternally guarding baby Jesus! What would we have done with only 2 shephards?!! I shudder at the blasphemy!

Thankful

2006-11-27T16:48:00.000-06:00

Not much going on here! We are glad to have made it through "turkey fest 2006". We had 6 meals of turkey, dressing, cranberry, pie, and what ever else goes with Thanksgiving dinner! It was yummy, but I can safely say that I don't really care to have any more turkey and dressing until next year!

This pic is not of Thanksgiving, but it is something that I am thankful for every day!

Come on Batman! We've got work to do!

2006-11-09T01:13:00.000-06:00

As soon as we let the boys into their costumes, Mitchell yelled, "Come on Batman! We've got work to do!" I don't know where he got it, but it was pretty funny! Mark's favorite part about his costume was the wings on his arms. He would run around and flap them. Mitchell loved his cape. We bought the costume in September, and I let him wear only the cape before Halloween (so he could practice flying)! Enjoy the pics, and thank Andrea for encouraging me to post them!

My sister and I got into the "Trick or Treat" decorating and drew halloween scenes all over the drive way. (That is our drive way Neil and the boys are walking up.) I could not find my CD of scary sounds to play as the kids walked up to the door. I did, however, find a CD with "Thriller" and played that on repeat for the entire evening! When Mark heard it he started crying; when I heard it I started dancing!! I am sure the neighbors loved it too!

fall happenings

2006-10-23T16:22:00.000-05:00

Pumpkin Patch in Aubrey, TX with Mom-mom
Mark was very intent on picking up his own pumpkin but never succeeded!
It was about 90 degrees that day, which makes for a very hot pumpkin field!

Angry pumpkin and Sleeping pumpkin! He really is asleep! Poor Kid!

Little Elm Fire Department Open House
Mark's feet did not reach the ground, he was dangling inside the boots!
We got to watch a helicopter land and got tweedle-dee and tweedle-dum hats!

Family Fun Night at Sonshine School
Ring toss, or in Mark's case ring place, and pumpkin bowling.

What cute cowboys!

Get ready to Wiggle!

2006-10-12T00:25:00.000-05:00

I found out that there is a Wiggles play center in Frisco, so when we went to visit Neil's parents we/I just had to check it out! It is the only one in the US! It turned out to be a large "McDonalds" like play room thing with Wiggles pictures all over it! The highlight was the moon bounce and slide, and the loud Wiggles music that Mitchell (and I, embarassingly admit) jammed to! Of course the room would not have been complete without the "Big Red Cars" to ride around in! The kids had a great time! The grown ups just got to watch, but I guess that is fun too!
The majority of Mitchell's photos turned out to be video of him sliding on the huge inflatable slide!

Labor Day camp out

2006-09-19T23:12:00.000-05:00

Well, I know Labor Day was weeks ago, but I am tired of looking at this same post and I am sure you are too. Life has been busy here and not anything really fun to write about, so I am writing a post, post!

We were going to go camping at Lake Arcadia, but started planning late so it all fell through. Neil had set up the tent in the backyard to air it out before we took it to the lake. Well, since the tent was up I suggested we just have a camp out in the backyard. We were a little unsure what the boys would do sleeping in a tent, and if things went too crazy, we could just go inside and sleep in our cozy beds! Mark usually only sleeps by himself in his own bed. We have tired to get him to sleep with us on occasion and it has not worked out. It did not work out for the camp out either. We got the beds ready and got all of our books to read and our sleeping toys and flashlights etc. We played in the tent for a while. Mitchell and Mark had a great time. Mitchell "read" us a few books, and Mark loved rolling off of the air mattress.

After attempting to settle down and get everyone to sleep, we finally just took Mark to his own bed at 10:30. He had that hysterical/tired/crying/laughing thing going on and was not going to be falling asleep any time soon! We figured he had had his family camping experience and was not going to care, or know the difference, if he slept in the tent or his bed. The three of us finally settled in to sleep, and then came the rain! And then came the leaks in the tent! Did we go inside? No! Neil got a tarp and covered the tent and we continued the camp out! Mitchell's best quote of the night, "It's our first sleep over! This is so great! It's our first camp out!" He just kept saying it over and over. My most frequent thought of the night was, "My bed is inside, there is no rain inside, my bed is just inside that door, and I am out side attempting to sleep on an air mattress. This is stupid. My son and husband are having a great time and I can't just leave, even though I want too!" Neil and Mitchell went for a second go-round of camping on Sunday night as well, but I decided to let that be a father-son outing and slept cozily in my bed!

smarter than he looks!

2006-08-29T22:46:00.000-05:00

To follow up the entry about the lack of good, funny, and random things that have happened in the Roberts house, I found this pic of Mark and though it would bring some humor to your day! It really needs no explanation. If you can see, he has placed a People magazine in the toilet! Aparently, he knows trash when he sees it and is helping his mommy learn where not to store her reading materials! (Was that too much information?) I mean, helping his mommy eliminate waste! (Oh, the puns could go on forever!) We have some interesting toilet stories thanks to our two sons. Mitchell usually returns from the bathroom sans clothing on the bottom half of his body. This even happens sometimes at family dinners at our house or at relatives homes. One afternoon post-potty, he was running around and I was trying to convince him to go get his underwear and put them back on. He finally went in to get them and started screaming, "My underwear! My underwear! Oh!" I rushed in to see what had happened. Aparently Mark had wandered into the bathroom while Mitchell was out "running free" and had deposited Mitchell's underwear into the toilet! Ah, ya gotta love having sons! I think it is hilarious - most days!

2006-08-26T21:46:00.000-05:00

Update- Sebastian is home! They went home Wed night, and are very glad to be there! He still has some tests and things to go, but being home so good! Thank you for praying for him!

Yeah, Sebastian!

2006-08-23T14:52:00.000-05:00

Our little buddy is doing so much better! Today he is eating some real food, and has his IV unhooked and can walk around a little. He has even let his Grandmom hold him and read to him instead of his mom. This is good because it gives Sara a small break from being the only one who can comfort Sebastian. The best news of all is that his platelets are rising on their own! The platelet issue is the most concerning because of the long term illness it could present. They were told at the beginning of the week that they may get to go home on Friday, but now the doctors think it may be as early as this evening or tomorrow, Thursday! They are so excited that this seems to be nearing its end! Sebastian had a CT scan this afternoon to see how the clot and bleeds in his head are doing. They are waiting for the report. Pray that the clot is smaller and that there are fewer bleeds. There were some small bleeds in his head because of the pressure and stress caused by the clot. Things are sounding good! Keep praying that the cause of this can be determined and prevented in the future! Thank all of you so much for praying for Sebastian and for Brian and Sara. God is good even in the middle of turmoil! Thank you for being concerned with us!
Jeny

museum

2006-08-20T23:12:00.000-05:00

Last week, while keeping busy to avoid sock puppet requests, we went to the Edmond Historical Museum with Quinn and Kerri. The museum is free! There is a small hands-on kids area with a little prarie house with dress up clothes and food and kitchen things. There is a history of phones part where you pick up antique phones and they play a message. Mark liked the phones. Kerri got better pictures than I did so if you have not seen them check out her blog. These were the only pics I got of the day. That is the edge of Mitchell wearing a fringed leather vest (You can't see the cowboy boots)! Cool Kid!

sock puppets

2006-08-19T12:38:00.000-05:00

Last week Mitchell came up with the idea to make sock puppets. We had just read If You Give a Moose a Muffin where the moose makes sock puppets. I thought it would be more fun to make puppets with a friend, so I invited Molly and Kim over. We read the book on Tuesday, but did not get together with Molly until Friday. It was a long week trying to fend off frequent daily requests for sock puppets. We had to go somewhere everyday last week to keep Mitchell's mind off them. Finally it was Friday and Molly and Kim came over. It was their first time to play together so they were more interested in playing than sitting down for a craft! Kim and I had to strongly suggest (force) them to come inside to make the puppets. They did well at first, but quickly moved on to playing something else or watching TV, I don't know what. Never trust the attention span of 3 year olds! Kim and I ended up finishing them and they looked pretty good! The pictures don't really show our artistic talent. Again, I think it has to do with being three and never sitting still!

update on Sebastian

2006-08-18T23:00:00.000-05:00

The MRI today turned up that it is only a blood clot. Sebastian woke up today and after a little vomit spell, that was thank goodness not followed by a seizure, he said, "Done" he smiled a little smile, and said "Daddy". One of the Doctors for the first time sounded confident and positive and said, "I know what this is, and we will get to work on fixing it!" Brian and Sara are very relieved and are feeling much better. Thank you for the prayers! I told Sara today that I had sent the mass e-mail request and that we had been praying specifically for Sebasitan to wake up and act like himself. It is such a great testimony to the power of prayer! Thank you so much! There are still questions to answer, like what caused the blood clot and his low platelet level, so be praying about that too. Thank you for praying!
Jeny

Pray

2006-08-18T14:47:00.000-05:00

Dear friends,
This is Sebastian. He is 12 months old and his parents are Brian and Sara. He is in the PICU at children's in Oklahoma City. He has been sick for two weeks and entered the hospital Thursday afternoon. He is now having seizures. They are doing an MRI today, Friday, at 3:00 to get a closer look at a bleed, or blood clot in his brain. Please pray hard for him today and for his parents and doctors. Sebastian is so young and is Brian and Sara's only child; they are very worried. Many of you know what it is like to have kids in the hospital. Please pray for them intensely. Pray that his seizures will stop, that they can diagnose the clot that is in his brain and treat it, and that he will be awake more and be able to return to acting normal quickly. Pray for his parents to have peace and patience and rest. Mitchell has been praying that they will be brave. Please join us in continuous prayer for them. Sara has been my friend since the 5th grade and our hearts hurt with them. Many of you have prayed with us for many things and we know that prayer is powerful! Thank you so much.

boring?

2006-08-16T02:47:00.000-05:00

I realized last night that I have not had any random, "can you believe it?" stories to tell lately! I am sad! Has my life changed? Are we getting boring? Do I need to get out more? As I layed in bed last night I thought of a list of a few random/ridiculous things that had happened lately, but now I remember none of them! Well, I remember one: I dropped a brand new bottle of salsa on the floor and it shattered all over! We were having fajitas that night and salsa is a pretty important item to fajitas, and we had none! Sad! - Not a really funny story is it?

In the last few weeks, I have met some interesting/rude people who own fabric stores. One Chinese lady store owner told me that if I painted my walls grey, like I told her I was planning on, and did not pick a red and grey paisley fabric that she thought matched my tan/gold/sliver/brownish paisley fabric that my room would be, "sad, it you room, but it be sad!" Another guy who was young, and foreign, and a "designer-type" (you know what I mean?) was just odd and rude throughout my fabric selection process. He was helping me but acting snotty and like he would rather be doing something else, giving really short answers. There is a really nice woman who works there that I have talked to before and she was being really kind and helpful. After about 30 minutes of talking and selecting, I was making my purchases. He had talked me into buying 16 yards when I only needed 12 and into buying $12 fringe to match my 40% off $9.99 fabric. He was getting my money and was still not being nice. I asked the guy, "I can't tell if you don't like me, or if you are just like this?" There was no real reply. The nice lady said, "He is foreign like me." Foreign yes, but like you, no. Another highlight came shortly after when I was asking about where to purchase curtain rods. I was asking about sizes and finials for the ends and cost. He gave some suggestions. He snottily said, "I can order you one, but it takes a while and it cost a lot." I pointed to a rod and asked its size and cost just to get an idea. $300! To my shocked reaction, he continued, "People don't understand about hand made. . ." I said, "Yes I do, I make things by hand. (He already knew I was planning on making the curtains myself.) My dad was a trim carpenter, I know about. . ." "Why don't you have your dad make them then?" "He died three years ago!" Not a blink or a cringe or a "sorry" - nothing! Wow! Well, believe it or not, I still really like the stores and the fabric selections at both stores and plan on going back when I need to. I think that we just have some cultural differences, and I am not really good keeping my mouth shut. If they can give their opinion bluntly, you better bet I will give mine too! Not to be mean, but to prevent being walked on! Well that was a long story! Thanks for reading if you stuck through to the end! I will try to think of some more of the random stories I had in mind to share later!

Check out Dustin Risley's latest post and the video of the treadmill routine! It is cool!

I should be cleaning or sleeping! Neil's entire family - really the whole family - is coming into town this weekend. They start trickling in tomorrow. We pick up GiGi, Neil's mom's mom, Wed afternoon at the airport. Thursday evening, Ben and Melissa (Neil's sister) and parents get here. Some time Friday Neil's dad's parents will be joining us! I am excited to see everyone! Really excited! Now I must go change sheets and fold laundry! It is 2:30 AM! I know that what ever cleaning I do, it will be negated in just a few short minutes by my sweet kids, so I am not too worried about it. Especially since I have spent the last hour or so wasting time on the computer. Bye now! I am going to bed, with dirty dishes in the sink (its too noisy to do them now) and laundry on the couch (I am just too tired and lazy, they are in a hamper/bag/thingy so I can move them and no one will know!). I think I will at least put the sheets in the dryer so they will not smell moldy for the guests.
Wanna know something else cool? I invited some friends (Hi Cindy and Kim) to the mall for tomorrow morning thinking I wanted to keep the kids out of my clean house until the company came. Only problem - no clean house! Lots of work to do still! I will call them in the morning! Ok, really! Bye!

Spaghetti night

2006-08-08T23:25:00.000-05:00

This was actually last week and I am just now blogging it, but Mark was so cute, I just had to share it! We ate spaghetti on the patio and Mark just dug in. Mitchell did not get so messy, but his sweet little face just looked so angelic! I enlarged both for you!

Mark's face actually kind of looks like this right now. He has roseola and the rash is all over his little cheeks as well as his whole body. It does not seem to hurt him, but it looks pretty rough! Hopefully we are near the end of it!

Oh, Mitchell's facial expression. His favorite thing to say right now is, "no it isn't". So, you decide. Is this the sassy face or the sweet face?

This is my latest sewing project. It is a John Deere blanket for Sebastian's 1st birthday. As you can see it fit the theme of the party and the huge mural his mom painted on his wall! I forgot to take a picture of the blanket all layed out, so you get to see the action shot of them opening it! Can you feel the excitement?

watcha been doin lately?

2006-07-27T16:50:00.000-05:00

VBS - Melissa Smith and I taught one of the 3-5yr old story tents with the help of Leanne Paris and my mom. If you look closely, Mitchell is in the orange shirt in the tent and then coloring a project in the next picture. Mark is helping us stuff and sew pillows for one of the crafts. He looks helpful doesn't he?

Dinner with the Pearmans - Josh Pearman and I have been firends since birth, and Neil and Josh became friends in High School. Josh married Sara who we are friends with too! So Josh, Sara, Troy, and Travis came over for dinner and some outdoor activities!

Baseball with the Sawyers - Phylliese called one night and invited us to the game that same night, so we packed up and went to watch the Redhawks! I am not sure if we really got to see any baseball, but Joy and Mitchell loved tapdancing on the steps (it was Mitchell's idea I am sad to say)! I really enjoyed the Dippin Dots that Tom bought for Mitchell! Thanks for the fun night yall!

Gettin Dirty and Clean with Sebastian - Sebastian is the son of my best friend from Middle School, Sara's son. They came over today and played and bathed! It was great fun and the boys are going to be great friends like we are!

sew. . . what did you do while your kids were gone?

2006-07-15T15:36:00.000-05:00

I completed my first home decoration project while the boys were gone! I will show you the before and afters!

Ahh, the pink room! This is the previous owners decor scheme. Pretty, but very floral!

This is my take on the room!

Not so floral! Personally, I like it better!

The roman shade actually works - raises and lowers! I am pretty sure the pillows work too! They weren't as hard to construct!

Visit to Grandparents

2006-07-11T19:19:00.000-05:00

The boys spent their first few days away from home this week! They have been at Mom mom and Grandad's house from Sunday afternoon to Wednesday afternoon! I have been sewing and shopping and enjoying some free time! The boys have had fun going to a birthday party and playing outside. We were all there 2 weeks ago and they boys got to play in the sprinklers with their cousins. They had a blast!

the fourth

2006-07-05T23:22:00.000-05:00

Our family fourth of July picture!

I was taking a picture of Neil and the boys at the parade and a lady near us asked us if she could take the picture so we could have a picture of the whole family! I gladly responded, "yes! I never get to be in any of the pictures. I would love that!" After much fussing with trying to get just the right shot, she took the picture. I didn't check it. Later that evening Neil asked me if I looked at the pic. I said no, because it was so awkward I did not want her to have to take another; just one picture of all of us on the 4th would be fine. We were on the way home at 10:30 after the fireworks and I was checking the pictures and this is what I found! It is a really great picture of our family. I am glad I am in it!

the other parade picture! Swimming with the boys at the Dacus party

Mitchell's first sparkler! Once it was lit he quickly handed it to me and in near panic exclaimed, "Its fire!" He would not have any part of it! That is as close as he got!

We watched the fireworks at the church parking lot with the Burkett family. I stayed too long at my family party and we missed the Saywers viewing party! ("So that's where you were") Mark had been crying and coughing and very miserable, so when he fell asleep in the car we did not want to wake him. Neil was upset about missing the Sawyers party because he likes to play volleyball! I nicely asked if we could drive somewhere and watch the fireworks from the car while Mark slept. We ended up at church and were chatting with the Burketts when the show began. Neil woke up Mark so he would not be scared in the car. Mark really likes fireworks. It is one of the few times he would sit still in our laps. Mitchell joined in the family tradition of yelling, "That's my favorite!" at the fireworks! He was a natural! We had a good time despite the change of plans! Sorry, Tom, that we missed your party!

welcome back to myself

2006-06-12T23:10:00.000-05:00

I would just like to say a big welcome back to the blog world to. . . myself! I have missed being able to ramble about life to all of you who are just bored, or just nosy enough to read my writings! We are now at home in OK and are half way unpacking! I actually started a sewing project tonight to decorate the pink striped bedroom! We still have sevaral boxes of random decorations and pictures piled in the formal dining room and I am still searching for half of my clothes in boxes and suitcases! Sounds like a great time to start a sewing project huh? Until I find the USB cord to my camera I will not be able to share any pictures with you, so there are just words, words, words! OK, not totally true! I just got this pic from my mom so I will share it with you! We took it last weekend in Virginia. We all flew there for my cousin's wedding! Aren't we cute!

where are you staying now?

2006-05-19T14:27:00.000-05:00

This seems to be the question of the month! This week we are honorary Castlemans. We joined a family with 3 girls this time, ages 14, 12, and 9. We are having a good time. This week we went to an 8th grade show choir preformance as part of their family.

Tonight some friends from church are throwing us a party! Sunday is our last time at church and to meet with our small group Bible study (I am forseeeing many tears!) Monday is the big driving day- from AL to TX! Thusrday travel to OK. Friday is closing, and Satruday is moving day again! I can not wait for this process to be over! We have been waiting for God to put it on our hearts to be ready to leave our friends here. I expected a big event that would make us sick of Birmingham and long for home! I guess instead God has prepared us for OK with a very long moving process! I just want to go "home" to a house we have never lived in yet, but it must be home! I do have to say that we have had only good experiences living with our friends in Birmingham and are very appreciative of their hospitality!

itinerant life

2006-05-09T21:23:00.000-05:00

Well, we are in stage 1 of 3 in our moving process. We moved out of our house on Thursday. Surprisingly, there were no tears! Neil then drove to Oklahoma and loaded our stuff into storage. Thanks to the Edmond crew who helped! He then flew here to B'ham. The boys and I moved into the basement of our friend's house. We have 2 bedrooms, a living room with a big screen TV that rolls down out of the ceiling (that we have not used yet), a full bath, and a toy closet! We essentially have a home of our own under theirs. It is a great place to stay. We are very grateful to be able to stay with them. They have 2 little girls ages 7 and 4 that adore Mitchell and Mark. It makes it a little hard to have nap time, and there are many tears over who gets to sit by Mark at the dinner table, but other than that we are doing very well! Mitchell has not asked once about our old house. Praise God! He has asked who we are going to live with next before the Oklahoma house. He seems to understand and is not upset about it at all! God is walking us through this very gently and I am very appreciative! We started calling a few friends to have our last outings with them! Neil's schedule is pretty tight. We had 3 open days to do something and 3 families that were special to us on our "priority" list! So far it is working out that we all have just the right times to get together. I was pretty mad at Neil for scheduling so many work shifts and making it harder to see people, but God is working that out too!

Ok! Question of the evening! Who did you vote for? My vote is always for Chris! I really don't vote, but if I did, that is who I would vote for! I also thought Katherine did a good job tonight, but I just don't like her personality or something. I like Taylor - he is from Birmingham, did you know. I really don't like Elliot! Although he did a good job on his last song, he just does not need to be there. He is not "Idol" quality. We were watching Idol a few weeks ago and Mitchell said, "I hate her outfit!" I guess I have been stating my opinions a litle too loudly! Yikes!

last few days

2006-05-02T22:59:00.000-05:00

We are counting the days (2 days to be exact) untill we move from our house! There is abundant stress in the air! And some sadness too, at least from me. It is interesting to see how your feelings about places change as the situation changes. Neil chose the house we are about to leave and moved into it before I even saw it! We have always viewed it as a temporary residence and were actually really ready to sell it! Now as we remove our things and go through all of the "last time to's" in the house, I am getting kind of sad! Tonight was the last bath for the boys in the house. Stupid to be sad about I know, but for some reason it was! On a funny/ironic note, I had saved some of Mitchell's bath color-fizzy things for the tub and was going to let him use them all up tonight. Well, he got in trouble for disobeying while in the bath and we had to get out with out playing tonight! I had to fight the urge to rub it in and tell him about the bath coloring and how this is our last bath in the house etc. He was already crying so I just left him to his own saddness! I think I feel sad because it is the 1st house that we began raising our family in! It is small, it leaks, it has bugs, it is by a noisy street, almost every inch of the floors squeak, it smells musty when it rains, the back yard is just a large hill good for good looks only, but for some reason I am sad about leaving it today!
It has also been challenging telling a 3 year old about moving. It sounds pretty terrible to say we are putting all of our stuff in a big yellow truck and daddy is driving it to Oklahoma! Mitchell had a few break downs when we started packing his toys a few weeks ago. He said, "But I don't want my toys to go to Oklahoma. I want them to stay here in our Alabama house!" Then I had to say, "But we are not going to stay in the Alabama house anymore." Oh, there is no telling what he was thinking. To add to the drama, Mark has been sick for over a week. 1st he had a stomach virus and I was cleaning out leaky diapers and clothes. Then he got a fever virus. He actually acts better with the fever, but he is still pretty high maintenence. The doctor says it should run about 3 days, putting us at the end of it on Thrusday which is moving day! Huh! So after we move, we begin a series of residences, 4 but who's counting, over the next 3 weeks. The part I am most worried about is driving by myself with the boys the 11 hours from Alabama to Texas. The longest I have driven by myself and one child is 3 1/2 hours. Mitchell was under one year old and I drove to Keri Tindle's in Atlanta! Driving almost 3 times that with two children will be an adventure! The next big adventure after the move is living in OK with Neil in AL for a month! OH- what is God doing to us? Speaking of God, a cool thing happened with the Gees and us. Kaden's heart surgeon is moving to Birmingham. If they go to AL for his next surgery next summer we will be able to get them in touch with our "extended family" here to take care of them! It feels really good to see good things comming from our moving! We keep wondering what God wants to do with us in Edmond, and it is really encouraging to already see ways we can bless others! Pray for us as we pack and move and live as gypsies for the next 3 weeks. Pray for God to bless the loving families who have opened their homes to us!

Egg Hunt

2006-04-27T02:10:00.000-05:00

We had the egg hunt at church the week before Easter. Here are some pics. Mark fell asleep during the fellowship lunch in the loud crowded gym and slept on my shoulder during his first egg hunt! He did get to wear his daddy's outfit from when Neil was a baby that Mitchell wore on his second easter also! I say second Easter for both of the boys because Mitchell was born five days before Easter and Mark was born on Easter Sunday, so they were both a little too young to hunt eggs and wear the cute outfit on their first Easter.

Check out how differently each one examines their basket! It is hard to believe they have the same genes!

mitchell's thrid birthday

2006-04-27T01:00:00.000-05:00

Mitchell's Birthday was the Saturday before Easter. We had the party at a park. It was a great day and a great party, except the minor blunder of the park pavilion being reserved for a church egg hunt at the same time. (Yes, I did call ahead to the parks and rec office, and there are apparently two parks with the same name. The other one apparently was not reserved!) They kindly let us stay in the pavilion for 30 minutes so we could make ice cream sundays and sing "Happy Birthday". Then each kid grabbed their bowl of ice cream and headed off to finish the party "picnic style" on blankets that my sis luckily had in her car! Surprisingly, it was a really good party! Just telling the story makes my stomach hurt though! It was slightly traumatic! I am learning the hard way to be flexible! The day before the party our air conditioner in our house broke and we were going to be gone, for the party, during the time they could come and fix it, and we were having Neil's grandma and friend stay with us, and we were hosting an Easter lunch on Sunday! (Did I mention we are selling the house in two weeks? Couldn't this have waited for the new owners and the home warranty we purchased for them?) The repair man had pity on me and pulled another guy off a job so we could have the repair done the same day and save 400 dollars since it would not be done on a Saturday! Praise God for working that out! So the party locale switch was just water under bridge! One really great thing about this party is that all four members of our family were in attendance, unlike Mark's 1st birthday that Neil and Mitchell missed since Mitchell was in the hospital! The party was a Wiggles theme, which Mitchell chose himself. The only fun event I could think of to go with the Wiggles was to buy a Wiggles CD and let the kids listen to it during the party! Woo-Hoo! We did have fruit salad, though (before one of the kids knocked it over and spilled it on the ground!) Mitchell and Charlie were the only two who broke out did the Captain Feathersword dance! It was really cute!