We now have video!

Very soon my blog will be inundated with cute little video clips of the kids! I'm so excited. We finally got a camcorder! We don't have the cable to get the videos onto the computer, which is a bummer. We've had it for a week now, but I really forget we have it and I haven't used it much at all. Tonight I was testing to see if the sd card option would let me shoot short videos, but alas, it does not. Only stills. And my kids were very happy to oblige. :) You'll have to wait until we get the cable for the videos though. I have some sweet ones of Brayden talking to me about random things. It's fun to use it with Aaron, but there's only so much cute-baby-smiling-in-the-bouncy-seat that I can take.... and I'm his mom!

Two months old!

Can you believe it??

Happy baby. He smiles so much now. Cutie


Look at that big ol' belly!

Sticking out his tongue is his new thing. :) Especially when he smiles. It's adorable. Ok, everything he does is adorable. lol

It's like having twins!

What a day

In a good way, actually. So I started walking with my friend Aimee today.... AT 6 AM! And I started back watching Piper and her brother. All in the same day! Am I crazy? Not as much as you'd think.

Today has been a great day. I think it's from starting my day earlier. It's amazing how much smoother things go. I had a roast in the crockpot by 8, had kitchen cleaned from breakfast, the kids dressed and started school by 8:30, did two loads of laundry, caught a quick 5 on the couch while the littles were asleep (I went to bed at 1 last night!!), and made it to choir 5 minutes early! For having 2 extra kids, it's been a very good day. :)

I was tagged

This meme image isn't working. Oh well. Here's the link


What's on my fridge? - well we don't do stuff on the front so as not to scratch it, though I notice a rogue piece of art there... Taylor just completed it at elo so it's in the special spot for now. For awhile it was all contained on the side, but it's slowly migrated and overtaken my garage door as well. So, what exactly is up there?

Let's see..... lots of kid art,
christmas card from the Crowes,
scrapbook art (a present from Taylor's friend Hannah),
several chuck e. cheese pictures,
trash pickup schedule,
secret sister reminder list,
papa murphy's coupons,
various other fast food coupons,
soccer schedules,
2 realtor calendars (2007),
a UPS missed delivery slip,
sunday school and elo projects,
Taylor's to-do list (she's so much like Tom)

the magnets are a hodge podge of leap frog letter magnets, glass homemade magnets, a magnet with a picture of Lola, and various business magnets.

Tag you're it! - Stephanie, Connie, Jaime, Leigh, and Jenna

Big Boy

This guy weighs 12.2 lbs now! If doubling their birth weight by 6 months is on par, this dude's way ahead of the game. He's not even 2 months yet. After Brayden and all his weight issues, it's so different having one who's gaining like crazy and I don't have to worry whether he's getting enough or not.

He loves bathtime. He sat there all happy like this for about 15 min while I took pictures and talked to him.

Strategically placed bathtoy. lol

Just chillin'.

I love his rolls. I just want to pinch those cheeks all the time. I'm sure he gets tired of it. lol

Dog tired

We had a busy weekend. I'm still trying to catch up on sleep. Friday, my sisters Erika and Vanessa came into town around noon. The visited with us for a few hours before heading out with our church's college age group to the Passion conference in Dallas. That evening Tom and I went on our date. We were out late, had so much fun and almost had no kids! Aaron really doesn't count because he's so good while we're out. :) The highlight of the evening was dessert at Olive Garden - black tie mousse cake. Mmmmmm. That and Aimee's repeated gutter balls. LOL We're so starting our own "really bad bowlers league". Good times. :)

Saturday morning I rushed out to walmart to get passies - somehow we lost the one Aaron had while we were out and the other three could not be located to save our lives. This resulted in a restless night for Aaron, and prompting the need to rush out to get some replacements! Then I curled Taylor's hair for her fancy dress tea party with her friends. She had such a good time. She loves things like that. Her friend Haleigh was the hostess and her other friends Bronwyn, Hannah and Madison were there too. Tanya and I took advantage of the situation and went out for lunch together. :)





Later that night -- much much later! - my sisters returned with all sorts of stories of the awesome worship and the great messages... and also of the antics of the people they met. We were up until almost 4 talking. :-P

After church sunday, we went to lunch with the millers and Brie Allison. Then cell group (where I fell asleep while Ted was talking!)... then chatting with the girls to all hours again. So I started the week with a huge sleep deficit. Yesterday the girls went home around noon and then choir was at 1 and the CHEC business fair in the evening. I went with the intention of just dropping off some papers, but you just know that didn't happen. But hey, I had a good time. :)

Today is housework day. It's practically the only day that I stay home all day. :-P I'm so dog tired though, I keep sitting down between chores to just space out. I need sleep! :)

Smiles

I caught a few smiles today. He has so many expressions! He does the big wide open mouth smiles like my sister Hannah used to do as a baby. :) The t-shirt is for Pam. :)

My Sweet Valentine

Yesterday we had a low key Valentines day since Tom and I are celebrating it tonight. We did take Tom a little plant (with sparkly hearts in it. hehe) and a big balloon. He was thrilled. I say that my voice dripping with sarcasm because my hubby don't like a fuss. It embarrasses him. (not that we embarrass him, but that he's so modest he doesn't like to made much of) lol And much to his chagrin, I balance him out perfectly! I like fusses. I love to have everyone in his office know exactly how MUCH we love our guy. I go for the biggest balloon in the place and troop in with all the kids for them all to say HAPPY VALENTINES DAY, DADDY! at the top of their little voices. I really think he secretly does enjoy it though. :)

The evening was spent with chinese take out with the kids and later sipping champagne and munching on strawberries while watching Lost. A perfect evening. No dishes, no kids and cuddling with my sweetie. Oh and no champagne flutes? Double Dave's kids cups do in a pinch! We're classy like that.

Tonight we're going with our friends Laura and Steve on a double date and then joining a few other couples for bowling! Fun. I'm looking forward to it.

Ugh this new keyboard is giving me fits! Tom built a new computer... and while it's wonderful, the end, home, and delete keys are in slightly different places. Frustrating.

Classy

ELO

Today at ELO the kids did Valentines day stuff - had special cupcakes, decorated bags for valentines, etc and so on. They enjoyed it. It was fun for me too, getting to see them relish the treats and friend time. It's funny, the most boring things suddenly become super exciting as a mom when you're watching your children do it. :)



Chandler and his "new" friend, Abigail. We've known Abby for awhile, but she just deemed Chandler worthy to be called her friend. :-D I think it's hilarious. But it really really bothered Chandler that someone didn't want to be his friend. He took it very personally. All he talked about was that Abby didn't want to play with him... "I just want to be her friend!" he'd say. My social little son. :)


Last night was so fun. I almost cancelled because I had been up all night with a tootheache. I was so incredibly tired, I didn't feel like doing anything, let alone get ready for company and prepare for ELO all in the same day. But I managed, and really I'm glad I didn't cancel. It's great getting to know the Akins and Hills. They came and Stephanie dropped in too and hung out with us. It was a fun night. And the show was good too! :)

It's finally a frog!

Cross off animal science for the year off the school list! :) At the beginnging of the school year we aquired some tiny tadpoles from a mom at ELO, who apparently has a several mommy frogs living in her rain barrel. :) All year we've been feeding them and watching these suckers ever so slowly grow and I mean S-L-O-W-L-Y. It's supposed to take 6-8 weeks? Try 5 months! :) I knew that one had some tiny back legs for the past few weeks, then yesterday I was telling the kids they needed to change the tadpole water and looked down to see not a tadpole, but a frog! It's tail was gone and itsy bitsy front legs had appeared. We were all so excited.... I say we, and it sounds so silly, but I've fed this little guy since he was no bigger than a grain of rice. It's so amazing. Creation is pretty darn awesome. :)

Busy day

Today was quite a busy day. First we went to Pump it Up, a playplace consisting entirely of huge inflatable play equipment. (field trip! ;) j/k) We actually packed up school to do on the go. The kids had tons of fun. I played too and I'm going to feel it tomorrow. There are tons more pics, but I'm too tired to upload them all. I'll have to post them as an album tomorrow. I know Grandmas enjoy things like that. :)

Then I spent 45 min vacuuming, shampooing and washing the van at the car wash place while the kids worked on school. It's so great to have a nice clean vehicle! Next we ran home to have a late lunch, let the dog outside and me to nurse the baby.

Then it was time for choir. I'm really going to enjoy this hour of downtime visiting with other CHEC moms I don't normally get to hang out with! It was very refreshing today - letting the younger kids play at the church park while we talked -- and the weather was just gorgeous! Then we ran a few bill pay errands (fun!) and then a mad dash to the store before Tom got home. Had the kids finish up school, made taco salad for dinner. When we finally kissed the kids goodnight and got them to bed, I collapsed on the couch, unable to move. :-P I'm tired.

Tomorrow is an at home day, which would normally mean a nice, laid back, relaxing day, but I'll be making chili, doing school with the kids, and doing a once over on the house to prepare for the house full of people coming over for the Jericho season premiere party we're hosting. Fun fun! I'm looking forward to it. (Anyone who watches Jericho is welcome to come!!! 6:00, bring kids, food and a good sense of humor!) I love entertaining. I need to do it more often, but life just happens so fast and everyone is so busy and schedules are hard to coordinate these days! JEN!! ;)

Oh and to top off the day tomorrow, I have to prepare for ELO also - this includes buying/making 20 some odd valentines for the boys classes, making a dessert for Taylor's class, making sure botany homework was completed, packing snacks, locating art supplies and filling out Taylor's reading log for the Six flags reading program! Oh my gosh my head is spinning. People say homeschooling sounds daunting - I say this class setting thing is much worse. I would NOT do well with the kids in school where this type of thing was the norm! Once a week is stressful enough!

Well I'm going to bed.

NOT happy

Someone is squeezing a bit too tight. lol

We have 4 kids now!

The thought still catches me by surprise. :) Here are my 4 sweet kids. Tom and I are tremendously blessed!

Fish and pizza

I so need to be in bed right now. But I had to get the pictures of the weekend in because tomorrow is going to hold many more pictures, I'm sure! :)

Yesterday we went to the small lake, er, pond at a park here in Longview. The city was having a fishing day. They had rods for the first 100 kids to arrive, they gave away lots of prizes and had special ones for the kids who caught golden fish and served refreshments too. It was a neat event - it was very well attended too! The Forringers and Hubers came to fish with us. The kids really enjoyed it, though it was a little tedious for us, watching that lines didn't get tangled and that hooks went safely into the water each of the MANY times they were cast! Brayden and Taylor both won a door prize - Brayden picked a water gun set and Taylor got the Pirates fishing kit.

Our kids didn't catch anything, but Jo caught one! It was just as we were about to leave. It was very exciting for him. Afterwards, we all met up at Double Dave's for pizza. All that fishing sure worked up our appetites!

Argh, the pictures aren't showing up... or are they? It gave me an error, yet I see them. Oh well, I'll mess with it tomorrow. Night!

Blogger hates me

First it wouldn't let me post pictures of Aaron. Then I entered a text only post, which it promptly erased when it gave me an error. Nice.

Daily dose of cuteness

Finally, blogger let me post pictures. :-P

Two milestones to report! Wednesday night he slept all the way through the night! 7 hours straight. I thought it was a fluke, but then he did it again last night! He'd had a hard few days, Monday and Tuesday - I think he has reflux - so it was very refreshing to get some solid sleep these past two nights. I was very thankful. Again, God knows exactly what I need! :)

Then today he smiled his first wide awake smile! The kids and I were talking to him and stroking his chin and he just lit up. It was so fun! He smiled several more times but wouldn't you know it, the memory card wasn't in the camera! :-P He's 6 weeks old today!

Enjoying his new bouncy seat.

Special moment with Daddy

My little chubby monkey. He's not having any trouble gaining weight! Look at those rolls. :)

He's got the Fry frown like the other boys, my brothers, my dad, and my Grandpa Bud.