Been away awhile....

from blogging that is. :) It's been busy, busy around here. I have managed to get quite a bit done in the past few weeks. I had a yard sale and made a few bucks, Keith took some vacation time, we visited the great State Fair of Texas and are enjoying the cool fall weather!

I bugged and bugged him and finally Keith took a week off work to see how the boys and I endure the long weeks without him here. ;) It had been nearly a year since he last took a vacation so I decided to take it easy on him and held off on the mile long "honey-do" list I had planned in my head. He had a wonderful time sharing in the kid toting to/from school, therapist appts. and my usual routine of errands I do each week. I think he was nice and ready to go back to work when he realized that sleeping till 10:30a.m. would not be an option for his "vacation".

We visited the Great State Fair of Texas as we do each year. We had a great time and the boys had a blast going around and seeing all the livestock. We even caught the "milking" demonstration which the boys found fascinating. They now each ask for their glass of "cow's milk" each morning. LOL! Unfortunately they are both tall enough to be able to ride many of the midway rides. They both love to ride said rides which cost from $4-$6 a pop. You can only imagine how much $$ we spent. I think from now on they are going to have their own money for this once a year trip or we'll be getting into their college fund to pay for our Fair trips. LOL!!!

The boys are both doing well in school, Keith is not too stressed at work and I pretty much just pick-up after kids and animals. The weather has been beautiful so we've finally been able to open some windows and enjoy some cool breezes throughout the house. (Plus, it saves from having to run the AC or heater. ;) )

Looking forward to a Halloween party tomorrow night and of course trick-or-treating on Halloween night. I know we'll have pictures to come from those 2 events!

5 5 5 5 5 5!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

5 years ago today we got to meet this tiny little guy that would change our lives forever. Whew! What a scary scary time for two people who were pretty apprehensive about becoming something as important as "parents". From Keith putting on his (Keith's and Parker's) first diaper to me a couple days after coming home looking at Keith with tears welling up in my eyes and saying "I just love him sooooooooo much!" I think we've done a pretty good job. We may have had a few ER visits but we have been able to keep him all in one piece (pretty much). ;)

So, to my 5 year old, Happy Birthday Baby!!!!

(Does this mean I'm 5 years older? ACCCKKKKK!!!!)

Time to get Ed-ju-ma-ca-ted!!!!!!

Yipee!!!! School is back in session and we're off to a great start! Parker started last week and has done really well. He's at a new elementary school this year with a new teacher so I had my doubts but he's handled things great. He describes most days as "Super!" He's riding the bus again and has some of the neatest and nicest people for drivers. He's also started outpatient Speech therapy once a week and we are waiting to hear if he'll start going to outpatient Occupational therapy too.

Alex didn't get to start until this week but is doing very well. Yesterday was his first day at preschool and I'm sure I ended up looking like the worst mom in the world when I dropped him off in the carpool line. ((Running and hiding right now)) I think I was the ONLY parent that did not walk their child in to their class on the first day of school. You should have seen some of the looks I got from the other parents when I pulled up and they came out to get Alex out of the truck. LOL!!! In my defense I did ask Alex if he wanted Mommy to walk him into his class or if he wanted Miss Shelly (the asst. director of the school) to come out and get him out of the truck. He said, "I want Miss Selly get me!" So it was really his idea.......right? ;)

Alex also started a speech class through the school district this morning. It lasts for about 2 hours 2 days a week and he'll get help with a lot of articulation issues, etc.

So far so good with the only issue being me constantly driving from here to there to drop off or pick up for all these things. Good thing I don't "work" or else these boys wouldn't have a chauffeur to tote them around. Right Keith?????? LOL!

Birthdays!!!!

Oh My!!! Birthday parties DONE!!! Whew! We had the boys party last Sunday and even though it started out with a few glitches I'm calling it a huge success. Our Dallas friends were nice enough to take the road trip up to Prosper (about a 45 minutes drive for them) and celebrate. We also has some of our new freinds from Alex's class join us for the fun. Lots of bouncing, dancing, arcade game playing, rock wall climbing and even a spirited game of laser tag for a handful of the dads.

We went with the spongebob cake from Wal-Mart because we couldn't agree on a theme that both boys would be happy with. LOL! Not the best decorating job but the cake was yummy and that's all that matters. ;)

We also went to the circus on Friday night. Definitely not as great as the last time we went but always entertaining none-the-less. We ate overpriced food and even bought the uber expensive toys so we did our part in that aspect. The only downfall was that Alex decided that the star of the show "Belo" the clown was the most terrifying thing he'd ever seen and repeatedly asked "Mama, we go home". When the clown made his way right in front of us for a skit Alex decided that was the last straw. Luckily, Keith's office was not far away so he took Alex to hang out there until the show was over. All was not lost and Alex ended up a very happy boy since they got to ride "the train" (DART rail) over to his building from the American Airlines Center. Parker had a great time and intently watched everything.

Diapers bite the dust!

Guess who's wearing big boy underwear?????? We worked very hard this past week on the huge task of potty training Alex. We figured since he's recently started expressing himself regularly (i.e. he never shuts up ;) ) he was ready to move on to "big boy" status.

Let me tell ya, this was no easy task. After how easy it was training Parker I went into this with a lot more confidence (only to be beat down and nearly defeated). He fought me for 2 days.....and would even sit on the potty and say "NO WAY MOM, No Potty!" I knew once he went on the potty once it would smooth sailing. When he finally did I made a big deal over it. I think whhat really sealed it was the fact that he got a lollipop and stickers when he went on the potty. I'm finding bribery works well on this child. ;)

So, he's doing great and we're really proud of him! Now, if anyone has any tips on how to get him to do #2 on the potty I'd be mighty greatful....... :P

My Baby is 3??!!!!!??!!

WHAAAAAAA!!!!! My baby isn't a baby anymore!! We celebrated Alex's birthday this past Sunday with a day full of friends and water. Always a good mix when the temperatures are high here in Texas. We started out with lunch at McDonald's thanks to Grandma Lewis and then met our friends at Hawaiian Falls (a waterpark). We ended the evening with some chocolate chip muffins complete with Diego decoration. No big gifts since his birthday party is on Aug. 10.

Happy Borthday Big Boy!!!!

Good Times...good times

I'm baaaaccckkkk!!! Whew, a whole week without my laptop was pretty rough. I'm having some"powering up" issues and apparently I'm not high priority on my techie husband's to-do list so I've been without my internet mobility. I forgot how much I hated sitting at a desk to surf the net. LOL!!!

Parker had art camp this past week and loved it. He brought home a myriad of masterpieces....from Picasso to Van Gogh all very Parker-esque of course. ;) While Parker was busy expressing his creative side Alex helped me with a bunch of errands and cleaning around the house. He stpped momentarily one day to take Sammy on a stroll through the house (see above photo) LOL!!!!

I know I don't mention Keith very much but he's doing fine. He's been very busy at work and we have to endure tons of middle-of-the-night phone calls. Luckily he's appreciated for the extra time he's put in and was recently nominated for a "Greyhound Great" award. A pretty big deal at Greyhound I guess. He attended a lunch with the COO of the company and recd. a few other gifts. Yea Keith!!!!!!!

Say Hello to SAMMY!!!!

Obviously I must have been delirious without knowing I was sick yet but Keith drug us out to the "good" pet store on Saturday and I saw this little lady and fell in love. Yes, I know I complain all the time about what a pain Panda is but something told me I needed to bring her home. I agve Keith the chance to veto and he wouldn't say anything either way so here we are with another dog.

Her name is Samantha (aka Sammy) and she's a Pembroke Corgi just like Panda. She'll be red and white (that would be a blondish brown red and white to most people). She's got a bit of dark coloring around her nose but as much as I hope it stays I'm sure it will go away. To anyone that has seen the movie "The Queen", Sammy will look like the Corgi's she has.

So far Panda is handling the new addition well. She has bowed to him so he has the upper hand (at least for now......she is a girl after all ;) ) and he's doing well putting up with her wanting to play all the time. Alex runs around screaming "SAAAMMMMEEEEEEEE!! SAAAAAMMMEEEEEE!!" and all animals and children under age 3 are getting lots of exercise chasing each other through the house. The cats simply looked up at Keith and I and I'm sure if they had fingers we would have seen them extend their middle one right up at us. LOL!

We're working on the housebreaking thing. Not easy right now with me being sick but she'll get it, she's a smart girl.

It's been awhile...

**Sigh**.....after seeing these pics you can understnd why things have been a little messed up around here. Seems we've ended up with a future tatoo art show participant as a son. Makes a mom proud......NOT! ;) At least with the first one he had an explanation....he was a zebra. LOL! The second was a lapse in judgement by leaving out a set of UN-washable markers!!!!! After 2 days his legs are STILL pink!

The weekend was nice and we had a lot of activities to keep us busy. Unfortunately, I ended up getting some kind of stomach virus that has kept me very clse to the bathroom for the last 3 days. Nothing like being sick in the middle of summer. I'm trying to stay far far away from the boys if at all possible. Passing this one through the family would just be really really bad. :(

The King IS alive!

We made it through another fun filled weekend. Sat. we went to a surprise party for one of my girlfriends. There were lots of kids, lots of food, lots of drinks and a ton of laughs. The highlight of the evening was an appearance by The King himself who serenaded the guest of honor with a slew of his hits. The kids loved Elvis and they were all up dancing with their moms. My kids had nothing to do with me as they already know they are show all on their own. LOL!

Sunday we headed to The Stockyards over in Ft. Worth. Alex's friend Roman wanted to ride a "choo-choo" for his birthday and requested that Alex be his riding buddy. When those 2 little boys saw that train coming into the depot you would have thought the best thing in the world was coming right for them. They loved the ride and talked/sang/commented the whole time. The adults didn't fare so well.....riding a train just isn't for everyone.

We've got a short week with the 4th coming up. Looking forward to having some good friends over on Friday for some swimming/food/drinks and fun.