Just like little adults...

Justin is now obsessed with youtube. He can't use the mouse yet but I know it's coming soon. He loves watching farm animals, wiggles and cute songs.

Tonight I was on the computer and Joey came running in with shaving cream on his face. Joe has asked him before if he wanted some and he always said no. Today he must have said yes and was so proud.

He wanted Joe's razor but it's a real razor (so that was out of the question). I remembered that Mario from his old school got him a shaving kit for his birthday. We pulled out the fake razor and Joey watched daddy and then decided he was going to shave himself. It was sooo adorable. I swear he's getting so big!

Joey with shaving cream like dad.

Both Joe and Joey shaving in the mirror.

A very serious task is at hand.

Photos of the house again...

Did I ever share the game room? Pretty plain right now but functional.

I love how Justin's room turned out. More photos of his room. We put blankets around his crib to help keep the light out.

His bookcase/toy containers. His name over the door.

Fun doesn't have to cost money...

Who isn't on a tight budget in this economy? If you're not, you're lucky. We are and so we try to find fun things to do with the kids that have little cost.

One of the things we do is take the kids to the library every Sunday. They LOVE their books in the evening before bed.

The other thing we like to do is rough house or play with the kids. In the photos below Joe was laying on the ground and Justin and Joey were running through the bathroom, through Justin's room and down the hallway and back into Joey's room (where we were) and running past daddy, who was trying to catch them as they ran by. They were laughing so hard and had a blast - and it didn't cost money! Gotta love that. We love doing simple things like this with the kids.

Justin's favorite book - Panda bear Panda Bear What do you see by Eric Carle.

Joe trying to catch the kids as they run by laughing.

Joey is dodging Joe. Joe almost got him!

Justin is casually walking by laughing!

More having fun...

Joey dodging by daddy. I think Joe is taking a break :)

Joey caught and being tossed around by dad! :)

Joe turning to get Justin!

Had to get a photo with my bud Justin!

Braxton Turns FIVE!

Joey's bud down the street from us, Braxton, had his birthday party at Eagle's Wings in Allen, Texas. It's a gymnastic gym. When we walked in the kids had orientation and then started climbing on the rock wall. Joey didn't want to do this so he just started to swing on the rope swing.

The kids had a lot of fun. It was an hour of climbing, running, jumping and more.

Here is Justin on the mat. The blocks underneath the mat was squishy and he would jump into them. Joey also loved it and would jump into them from the rope swing.

The cake was so good. It was from coldstone creamery and had chocolate mint ice cream in it. His theme was power rangers and the cake was bright red.

Joey in the block pit.

They asked Braxton to pick a friend to go up the rock wall with him. Braxton chose Joey first. Here is Joey getting suited up so he doesn't fall.

Joey told us he was NOT going high. He actually made it 1/2 way up the wall before he wanted to get down. He did great! I am so afraid of heights that I'm glad that it didn't affect him much.

A photo of Joe and Justin on the trampoline.

Braxton's birthday party

Joe and Justin bouncing on the trampoline.

This trampoline is for adults only. Joe was going super high on it. He said it was kinda scary how high he went.

Braxton, the birthday boy!

Did you know Desiree (my bud down the street) can do toe touches on the trampoline? Isn't this a sweet photo? She only had to do this about 10 times for me to finally get the photo of it. She said to me, 'Am I going to end up on your blog'. Haha - the answer is YES! How can a cool photo like this not get on the blog? :)

Storms are coming...The Storm is coming...

We were under a severe thunderstorm warning when I took these photos. The storm was to the west and had a pretty awesome lightening show. I TRIED so hard to get a photo of the lightening bolts but bummer - the timing just wasn't right.

The clouds looked so cool that I had to snap a few shots of them. I LOVE storms!!! I get so bummed that we haven't had much rain or storms here lately.

This storm didn't bring much rain, though we desperately needed it.

The storm to the west.

Another shot of the clouds.

From the front of the house.

New posts below...

Look all the way down the page for new posts. I had posted other things recently so the ones with photos are further down.

The light at the end of the (Potty training) tunnel

As if you may not know, my oldest, Joey is 4 1/2 and not potty trained. Well I guess he's partially potty trained. He will go if you ask him but not without

1. Whining
2. Crying
3. Kicking
4. Saying No
5. Or anything else that he can think of...

Oh I've tried everything from bribes, rewards, you name it. We even tried grounding him. Nothing worked. Not even promising him a new bike.

So this was our conversation this week right before he wanted to go down the street to his friend Braxton's house:

Me - Joey, please use the bathroom.

Joey - NOOOOOOOOOO NEVER!! I won't go!

Me - Joey, please just use the bathroom. You can't go to Braxton's until you use the potty.

Joey - Mommy, I hate going to the bathroom - it's soooooo boring.

Finally he tells me why he doesn't like going to the bathroom. Why was this so hard? So this whole time the issue is IT'S BORING?

Soooo I make it a race. I tell him peeing may be boring but it's fast. So I timed him. It took him about 40 seconds and that included washing his hands.

Joey beamed at me, and said 'Yeah mommy, it IS really fast'.

This week I also showed him where his shorts, shirts and underwear is. If he has an accident, he knows he has to go upstairs, change and put his clothes in the laundry. He does this without whining. I think we are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. He's being responsible now for his mistakes.

Today I told him he had to go #2. Again he tells me he hates to go because it's so boring, so I promised him a book in the potty that I would read to him every time he needed to do #2. Now he says potty time is fun. All this time and he finally tells us the process is boring. If I would have known that before, perhaps it would have saved us so much grief about this whole process!

Also, he's noticing his friends are also trained.

He tells me yesterday, 'Mom, did you know Braxton wears underwear to bed?'

Me, hoping secretly that we can finally get rid of the overnight pull-ups, says, "Yep and when you can be dry all night long, YOU can wear underwear to bed".

Oh how nice it would be to not have to worry about potty training anymore.

Sometimes I feel like others judge me because he's so old and not trained yet. Trust me, we've been trying. I'm now resorting to reading potty training books for self-help.

I think I have the only 4 1/2 old in the country that is NOT potty trained, or so it seems...

Special note - Joey just ran up to me and for the first time in a LONG time, he ran to the potty and made it there to pee before he had an accident. I'm so proud of my little guy! See - this story has a happy ending! Yippee!

DID YOU KNOW?

My MIL sent this to me and I wanted to share....

The Fruit Fly concoction really does work!
Grandma reported to me this week that peeling a banana from the bottom does really get rid of the stringy things!
I've also used the conditioner to shave and it works fine in a pinch!

Let me know if YOU try any of these and if they work!!

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DID YOU KNOW?

Peel a banana from the bottom and you won't have to pick the little 'stringy things' off of it. That's how the primates do it.

Take your bananas apart when you get home from the store. If you leave them connected at the stem, they ripen faster.

Store your opened chunks of cheese in aluminum foil. It will stay fresh much long er and not mold!

Peppers with 3 bumps on the bottom are sweeter and better for eating.
Peppers with 4 bumps on the bottom are firmer and better for cooking.

Add a teaspoon of water when frying ground beef. It will help pull the grease away from the meat while cooking.

To really make scrambled eggs or omelets rich add a couple of spoonfuls of sour cream, cream cheese, or heavy cream in and then beat them up.

For a cool brownie treat, make brownies as directed. Melt Andes mints in double broiler and pour over warm brownies. Let set for a wonderful minty frosting.

Add garlic immediately to a recipe if you want a light taste of garlic and at the end of the recipe if your want a stronger taste of garlic.

Leftover snickers bars from Halloween make a delicious dessert. Simply chop them up with the food chopper. Peel, core and slice a few apples. Place them in a baking dish and sprinkle the chopped candy bars over the apples. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes!!! Serve alone or with vanilla ice cream.

Reheat Pizza
Heat up leftover pizza in a nonstick skillet on top of the stove, set heat to med-low and heat till warm. This keeps the crust crispy. No soggy micro pizza. I saw this on the cooking channel and it really works.

Easy Deviled Eggs
Put cooked egg yolks in a zip lock bag. Seal, mash till they are all broken up. Add remainder of ingredients, reseal, keep mashing it up mixing thoroughly, cut the tip of the baggy, squeeze mixture into egg. Just throw bag away when done easy clean up.

Expanding Frosting
When you buy a container of cake frosting from the store, whip it with your mixer for a few minutes. You can double it in size. You get to frost more cake/cupcakes with the same amount. You also eat less sugar and calories per serving.

Reheating refrigerated bread
To warm biscuits, pancakes, or muffins that were refrigerated, place them in a microwave with a cup of water. The increased moisture will keep the food moist and help it reheat faster.

Newspaper weeds away
Start putting in your plants, work the nutrients in your soil. Wet newspapers put layers around the plants overlapping as you go cover with mulch and forget about weeds. Weeds will get through some gardening plastic they will not get through wet newspapers.

Broken Glass
Use a wet cotton ball or Q-tip to pick up the small shards of glass you can't see easily.

No More Mosquitoes
Place a dryer sheet in your pocket. It will keep the mosquitoes away.

Squirrel Away!
To keep squirrels from eating your plants sprinkle your plants with cayenne pepper. The cayenne pepper doesn't hurt the plant and the squirrels won't come near it.

Flexible vacuum
To get something out of a heat register or under the fridge add an empty paper towel roll or empty gift wrap roll to your vacuum. It can be bent or flattened to get in narrow openings.

Reducing Static Cling
Pin a small safety pin to the seam of your slip and you will not have a clingy skirt or dress. Same thing works with slacks that cling when wearing panty hose. Place pin in seam of slacks and -- ta da! -- static is gone.

Measuring Cups
Before you pour sticky substances into a measuring cup, fill with hot water. Dump out the hot water, but don't dry cup. Next, add your
ingredient, such as peanut butter, and watch how easily it comes right out.

Foggy Windshield?
Hate foggy windshields? Buy a chalkboard eraser and keep it in the glove box of your car. When the windows fog, rub with the eraser! Works better than a cloth!

Reopening envelope
If you seal an envelope and then realize you forgot to include something inside, just place your sealed envelope in the freezer for an hour or two. Viola! It unseals easily.

Conditioner
Use your hair conditioner to shave your legs. It's cheaper than shaving cream and leaves your legs really smooth. It's also a great way to use up the conditioner you bought but didn't like when you tried it in your hair...

Goodbye Fruit Flies
To get rid of pesky fruit flies, take a small glass fill it 1/2' with Apple Cider Vinegar and 2 drops of dish washing liquid, mix well. You will find those flies drawn to the cup and gone forever!

Get Rid of Ants
Put small piles of cornmeal where you see ants. They eat it, take it 'home,' can't digest it so it kills them. It may take a week or so, especially if it rains, but it works & you don't have the worry about pets or small children being harmed!

INFO ABOUT CLOTHES DRYERS
The heating unit went out on my dryer! The gentleman that fixes things around the house for us told us that he wanted to show us something and he went over to the dryer and pulled out the lint filter. It was clean. (I always clean the lint from the filter after every load clothes.)
He told us that he wanted to show us something; he took the filter over to the sink, ran hot water over it. The lint filter is made of a mesh material - I'm sure you know what your dryer's lint filter looks like. well,...the hot water just sat on top of the mesh! It didn't go through it at all! He told us that dryer sheets cause a film over that mesh that's what burns out the heating unit. You can't SEE the film, but it's there. It's what is in the dryer sheets to make your clothes soft and static free -- that nice fragrance too, you know how they can feel waxy
when you take them out of the box, well this stuff builds up on your clothes and on your lint screen. This is also what causes dryer units to catch fire & potentially burn your house down with it! He said the best way to keep your dryer working for a very long time (& to keep your electric bill lower) is to take that filter out & wash it with hot soapy
water & an old toothbrush (or other brush) at least every six months. He said that makes the life of the dryer at least twice as long!
How about that!?! Learn something new everyday! I certainly didn't know dryer sheets would do that. So, I thought I'd share!

Note: I went to my dryer & tested my screen by running water on it. The water ran through a little bit but mostly collected all the water in the mesh screen. I washed it with warm soapy water & a nylon brush & I had it done in 30 seconds. Then when I rinsed it the water ran right Thru the screen! There wasn't any pudding at all! That repairman knew what he was talking about!

I think I found it...

Yes, I finally think I found the blog template I like best (for now). Knowing my neurotic self, I'll probably go nuts in a few months and change it up again.

I love birds (really I do - always have) so I thought this one was perfect - and it's extremely cutesy. I like the colors, I customized the header, so I think we are all set. Tell me you love it!

Stay tuned for more updates!

Blog in Flux...

I'm changing around the template. Got bored with the old one. You may see some changes here and there. I haven't decided on a final template yet. Stay tuned...

Joey's new matchbox car obsession

It's fun to watch your kids find new interests. First Joey was obsessed with trains (and still is) but he also loves matchbox cars and has found new ways to play with them.

You can buy these flat tracks (the orange ones here) at any store for about $2.00 a pack. We have quite a few packs now.

Joey loves to use it to do
1. Ramps off the stairs as shown below.
2. He likes me or Joe to hold one end with a car, he holds the other end with a car, and we both let go at the same time and the cars CRASH. He thinks this is just great.
3. He shoves the ramps under the couch and watches the cars race under the couch and to the other side.
4. Ramps into the kiddie pool we have and into the water.

He's obsessed with crashes - train crashes, matchbox car crashes, anything that crashes. He loves youtube and watches matchbox cars and trains on there multiple times a day and gets ideas from there.

He also loves the matchbox car playsets with ramps, etc.

The kids were playing rather nicely this day when I took the photo. The things holding the ramp up are actually risers for his train tracks! He figured out how to stack them and used them to make a suspended ramp!

Test 1.

Setting up for test 2.

Crash! The ramp falls over (look at Joey's expression!).

It ain't easy being orange....

Really, is there anything else cuter than a little toddler wearing food all over themselves?

Justin decided that Spaghetti-O's are really great. So great in fact that he used it as a shampoo in his hair and as soap for his face - never mind the fact that it's bright orange and made him match his sippy cup top. Talk about color coordinating at such a young age!

They are so cute until it's time to wash them up. This particular time he was NOT happy about being washed up. There was sauce in the hair, on the face, in between the fingers and on the clothes.

The wet washcloth attacked and he was upset and cried. Poor kiddo!

Adorable with spaghetti-O sauce!

He has the tongue out of the mouth concentration going - just like Joey does.

Right before he was cleaned up...!

Fish Tank Fiasco...

Monday this week I noticed that the canister filter for our fish tank was making a grinding noise. I'm assuming it had issues with either being clogged or just didn't get enough water. Either case, I unplugged it.

I told Joe about it and that we would need to take care of it later that evening.

Joe had baseball that evening at 8pm and left to play.

When he came back I had plans to go running with Desiree. Her and I went on a late run. She then invited me in for a smoothie (which I did NOT decline - they are sooo yummy) and by the time I made it home, it was nearly 11pm.

Joe told me that he was going to bed when I walked in the door.

I forgot about the fish tank.

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The next morning I get up, look at the fish tank and notice the water line is about 3-4 inches away from the top of the tank.

Panic sets in as I run to the tank.

My deepest fear is true...it leaked overnight and there is about 6 gallons of water in the carpet UNDER the tank. Normally this wouldn't be a huge deal but our tank is a 75 GALLON tank! It's NOT SMALL!!!

There is no leak in the tank. The only think I can figure is that we didn't shut off the valves that go from the fish tank into the filter and that is how it leaked slowly.

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Joe and I email each other all day about this. I have our wet vac out and am vacuuming like crazy trying to pull the water OUT of the carpet.

When Joe gets home from work we eat dinner. He says he should have left work early to help with this as he didn't think it was as bad as it was (the carpet was saturated).

I promised Desiree I would go to Bible Study at her house that night and was there until 8:30 as I pulled myself away in the middle of the session. I told Joe I'd be home at 8pm and thought study would be done by now as it started at 7pm but we really didn't start until quarter to 8!

I run home quickly and we start on the tank. Justin was already sleeping due to the surgery and still being tired. We decide to get out those large rubbermaid containers and drain all the water into those. We would also catch the fish and put them in those as we emptied the tank.

We had about 5 containers of water, one container of rocks, and one container of all the other misc items like filter hoses, fish tank decorations and plants. The rest of the water we were about to clean and dump outside.

This process actually went fast. I thought it was going to be a nightmare. At one point our pacu jumped the bucket and Joe had to catch it with his hands and toss it back in. They are about 4 inches tall now so they are not small fish.

We finally get the tank drained and moved. The bottom of the stand is soaking wet so we put fans on it and then I get out the hair dryer and start drying the bottom of the fish tank stand. I'm sure I looked silly! Luckily it dried fast. In about 30 minutes it was dry.

We decided to move the tank into the main entryway and OFF the carpet. Desiree said she liked it better there and we do too. It's in a better place where you can appreciate it more than off in the corner of our formal living room.

The fans were put to work drying the carpet for 3 days straight. Friday evening I cleaned the carpet and got out some stains and smell and you'd never know there was an issue with flooding there now. Whew!!!

The fish are happy in their new home. It worked out perfect because we were able to save almost ALL of the water in the tank so we didn't have to worry about cycling a new fish tank and losing fish.

I don't have a photo yet of it setup in the new location but I promise to take one this weekend!

One of the buckets with some of the fish.

Joe emptying out the remainder of the gravel and dirty water.

All of our buckets, fans, carpet cleaner, and tank.

Justin's surgery...

Poor Justin. He's been so sick lately.

He's especially been congested. You know those wet cough's, draining nose, etc. We had him on antibiotic twice and it kept coming back so we got a referral to Joey's ENT doctor. The doctor decided it was best to put in tubes because of all the fluid behind his ear drums and take his adenoids out because they were draining all the time and it was making him snore.

Fast forward to Monday the 23rd. We have an appointment to meet at the hospital at 6:50 and surgery is at 7:50.

Justin before Surgery.

Justin before Surgery.

We arrive in the waiting room. I fill out the wonderful paperwork. Justin gets a 'special' bracelet on his ankle and I get one on my wrist. Joey is very upset that he can't get a bracelet but the woman tells him that they may mistake HIM as the patient. Though he wants the bracelet, I'm positive he doesn't want the surgery part. :)

They actually call us back promptly. There are little doggies sitting on every bed. He picks one out but it's actually not stitched really tight so they give us another. It looks like Joey's dog he got from his surgery that he named 'Andy'. So Joe suggests we name this one 'Randy'. And so the dog gets his name as 'Randy' and for some reason, Joey has the hardest time remembering the name and asks me again and again.

The nurse comes back with this solution that they give to Justin. She tells me that she has flavored it but it probably tastes bad. She gets Justin to take it somehow but he's not happy about it at all. She told us to not let him walk or get out of bed because the medicine will make him drunk like and very unsteady.

About 10 minutes later we see the medicine start to kick in. He just lays in bed and his eyes roll. A few times we think he's going to go to sleep (praying he does). He's really listless. He doesn't go to sleep and starts to get angry.

He tries to sit up and can't.

He tries to crawl and can't.

He tries to get up and can't.

The screaming begins!

He cries and screams and just starts to lose it.

We try to pick him up, and he pushes us away.

A nurse comes and try to pick him up. He's actually calm for about 2 minutes and then he freaks out again and starts to cry. She hands him off to another nurse who can't calm him down. They then pass him off to me and Joe.

The 6 month old next to us is calmer than our kid.

It reaches surgery time and I'm wondering if the doctors are here yet and if they could please take my son back because he's out of control and I don't know what to do for him.

The doctor comes in and the anesthesiologist comes in. They introduce themselves to us and then go to the next curtain and introduce themselves to the 6 month old parents in the curtain next to us.

Justin is getting LOUDER. Because Justin is so loud and upset, they take him back first, even though they were going to take back the 6 month old first. I'm so relieved. I'm sure the other parent's were not happy about that. Oh well.

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I don't remember much about them taking Justin back except that I was so relieved because the screaming had stopped. We were directed to the waiting room.

Not even 15 minutes later, our Dr. comes out and tells us that he's done and everything went well. His ears were borderline infected. Lots of fluid behind his ears which has drained. The adenoids were draining as he took them out so those obviously have been a problem. He says all went well and asked if we had any questions, in which I asked him a few.

About 5 minutes later they came and got us to help console Justin. He woke up and was a bit 'off'. He was terribly angry about his IV and was flipping over in circles trying to get it off. The nurse wanted to keep it in but just decided to remove it because he was so upset about it.

We tried to get him to take his bottle (yes, he still takes a bottle he calls 'bubba') but he didn't want it. Joe finally got him to calm down and stood with him and got him to go back to sleep. Not to long after he woke back up screaming. Joe finally got him to calm down and sat with him this time and they both started to snooze.

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Joey was getting a bit listless so him and I went back to the waiting room to play. I quizzed Joey on his letters that were on the blocks and he got most of them right like G and K which I didn't think he knew yet. He had trouble with T.

Finally the nurse came back to get Joey and I and we were told Justin was fine to take home. Once we got him out of the gown and into his clothes, he calmed right down and was fine all the way home.

When we got him home the meds must have worn off because he started to go back to his normal self. He was running around and playing with Joey.

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In the days after his surgery we've noticed quite a difference in Justin's vocabulary. He always spoke words but now he seems to pick them up more quickly and says them more clearly.

He still snores. I'm assuming once the adenoid surgery site heals and the swelling goes down, he will stop snoring.

Also the nurse told me it will be normal for Justin to have bad breath because of the healing in the back of his mouth from the adenoids being taken out. I thought she was crazy but remembered it just in case. Let me tell you - the kid has bad breath and it's bad. I'm assuming that will go away in a week or two but in the meantime it's awful. The nurse was right, the healing site really does cause bad breath.

I kept Justin home Tuesday because he was still on pain meds. I kept him home Wednesday just to make sure he was totally fine and then he went back to school Thursday and Friday and had good days both day.

Surgery was a success!

Justin and I right as we get into the area before surgery.

This is what he looked like after he got the drugs. Sickly!

Justin's Surgery...

Some other photos from waiting for Justin's surgery

He's learned the wonderful art of being silly to the camera. He thought this was hilarious!

That medicine made Justin so loopy (almost drunk like) that he couldn't stand or sit up. So he kept trying to crawl off the bed. He didn't want to be held, or helped to sit up or sit on anyone's lap. He wanted to do it himself and couldn't and got extremely angry.

Waiting for surgery. Trying to keep his mind off how loopy he feels. He plays hide and seek with us.

Joey must have felt left out and he wanted a picture of him. I told him I would not take a photo unless he smiled at the camera and got this shot.

Random Ramblings...

I used to write a lot more. Those were back in the days when we would spend an hour and a half drive driving up to grandma's house. I would whip out the laptop and write to my heart's content.

Not anymore...

Since we are in Texas we just don't drive. This is the first time ever, let me say that again EVER - that we have actually met the DATE on the oil change before the mileage. It's amazing. We never thought it would happen. It's quite nice actually to have a vehicle we aren't driving into the ground in a few years.

The boys are getting so big. Joey's in between nap stages now. Some days he takes them (by our request of course) and some days he just goes and goes and turns into a monster at night. For instance, tonight he would NOT touch his dinner. This has been going on for quite some time actually. I think he must be part cow because he grazes all day on snack food like a cow would graze on grass.

Tonight we didn't even have a funky dinner! I made Mexican Casserole. We made it with beef instead of chicken and with pinto beans instead of black (I didn't have black!). Now I can understand why he wouldn't eat this, but it just looked like nacho supreme. Then we had green beans, sweet corn and 1/2 a piece of garlic bread. He would not touch any of it. I don't understand. He likes green beans, likes corn and the bread. He would not TOUCH anything tonight. We finally got him to eat his corn, and he said it was yucky. Gagged on the beans and spit out the casserole. It was awful. We fought and fought with him. We sent home a friend that came over for his failure to eat dinner. We told him no desserts, no snacks, nothing. Finally after he tried the beans and the casserole, we gave him a PB&J. Ridiculous! Actually he eats quite well. He will eat beef most of the time, loves steak, eats chicken and fish but I guess this was too far out for him. It wasn't like the veggies were hairy or anything like that though.

I think the reason he was acting like that was LACK OF SLEEP. The guy didn't nap today. Boy does he ever need naps. What a stinker.

Well tomorrow Justin is going into surgery to get tubes put in both ears and his adenoids out. I asked the doctor, "Isn't it a little young to take adenoids out of a child who less than two years old?"

Doctor: "Nope, I've taken them out of babies who were 6 months old and could hardly breathe."

So there you have it. Justin actually SNORES. Pretty good for an almost 22 month old! He is also constantly sick so the doctor thought that taking the adenoids out would help with that. So we'll see.

I'm a bit nervous though I've been through this surgery thing with my kids more times than I'd like to count. The thought of them taking my baby away and making him sleep and all just bothers me. I know it's quick but he's my little darling. I guess we'll see how it all goes.

Funny things the boys have been doing and saying:

Justin and Joey are sitting in the car eating a snack. Joey hands Justin the cracker. Justin eats it.

Justin: 'EEAHHHH.'

Mom (Me) - 'Justin, use your words. Say MORE PLEASE'.

Justin - 'Mooooo Peas.' Translation - more please.

Joey quickly says - 'Justin, that was just the words I was waiting for'.

Joe and I snicker in the front seat. That is what we tell Joey when he doesn't say please. We wait and don't do anything, and then we he says please, we tell him, "Thanks Joey - that was just the word we were waiting for.' It cracks me up that he's using the SAME line on Justin.

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Joe has taught Joey how to add. He's doing pretty good and sometimes we work with his math skills on car rides here and there.

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This week Joey was singing the Wiggles song D O R O T H Y - she's my favorite dinosaur. Except he couldn't spell Dorothy correctly. He kept starting out 'DR.'

Joey tried singing it over and over and kept getting it wrong, even after our repeated attempts to correct him.

Finally Joe yells, 'Joey, stop, stop now. You are driving me crazy'.

Joey - 'D O R T'

I finally get up, grab a piece of paper and pen and write out on the paper D O R O T H Y.

I give the paper to Joey.

Me - "Joey, this is how you spell Dorothy - D O R O T H Y".

Joey then looked at the paper, tried it a few times quickly and then finally got it when he went slower. He starts looking at the letters and spells it over and over again, proud of his new found skill of recognizing letters.

Then I write on the paper: B R I A N A.

Joey proceeds to spell my name out loud but has a really hard time with the A and kept calling it an E. He finally gets it correct.

Then we try J O E - so he understands the difference between what an E looks like an A.

Then we do J U S T I N. Most of the words he's seen before so this one wasn't too hard. He has a really really difficult time with N. He wants to call it an M or some other word and can't remember it. He finally gets it after we repeat N N N N N N N a few times over and over.

Then I show him easy words. N O. Y E S.

Then we do S N A K E S. I show him the S is like a snake. He looks at the S and says 'Mommy, that looks like a FIVE!' Yes, we are on a roll.

I'm so proud of my little man. He's getting his letters!!!

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Another funny thing Joey does:
Mom - Joey, you have to do pick up 5 toys.
Joey - How about six.

Mom - Joey you have to wait 5 minutes until we go to Braxton's house.
Joey - How about 6 minutes.

No matter what we ask him to do, he'll add a few more minutes to it. This also applies to number of objects. It's so funny. We ask him to do something, we are nice and give him a low number and he thinks he's a wise guy and will add one more to it. Silly boy. Usually it's in our favor so we don't correct him. Isn't that awful?

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Other notes:
Last weekend our A/C went out AGAIN, except this time it was out UPSTAIRS. I mean, come on. It was no less than 2 weeks after we got the main unit fixed.

Another claim was made to the home warranty company on Monday. The same company said they would be out Tuesday. We are very thankful we splurged and got the home warranty when we bought the house. It's already paid for itself and then some.

It's wayyy to hot upstairs for the kids to sleep, so they get to sleep in the guest room. We put Joey in the guest bed and Justin in the portacrib. Both kids think it's the coolest thing in the world that they are sleeping in the guest room. Both sleep very well but wake each other up in the morning. Joey had so much fun he asked to do it again a few nights ago. Silly boys.

Tuesday we got the A/C fixed. It was the capacitor which he told me powers up the compressor. It was bad and actually caused a short which flipped our fuse in the fuse box. He fixed it and it's been working great ever since.

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Last week we took Joey to Chick-fil-a for using the potty so many days without accidents. There was a very good example of a mother there who never wanted to disappoint her daughter. She did not discipline her child and this child walked all over the mom. In fact, the little girl was awful. She pushed kids in the play area and one more actually walked up to this woman. We will call this mom 'Ignorant mom' and the daughter 'naughty daughter'.

Woman 1 (some other child's mom) says to Ignorant mom - "Your daughter is pushing my daughter around".
Ignorant mom "How do you know it's my daughter?"
Woman 1 - "Because I saw your daughter walk up to you a few minutes ago".
Ignorant mom walks in behind woman1 to tell her daughter to stop.

Ignorant mom is sitting in the table in front of us. Joey comes out and points at her daughter and says loudly, 'Mom, that girl in there is MEAN'.

As if I didn't hear him, 'Mom, That girl in there is really MEAN'.

Joe and I - "OK Joey".

Joey later told us when this girl pushed him, he pushed her back. Good for Joey.

The sad part about it is this little girl has no structure and will probably be all messed up in life because of it. It's so sad to see parent's give kids anything they want because they 1. Don't want to cause a scene, 2. Don't want to upset their kids. 3. Don't want to deal with it OR finally 4. Don't want to discipline their children.

It's sad and upsetting. Ignorant mom's older son had an ice cream. The little girl started to fuss and the ignorant mom says frantically 'Oh my gosh, just give it to naughty daughter'.

This little girl was eating an ice cream in the play area and the ignorant mom told her older son to go tell naughty daughter to bring it out of the play area. Ignorant mom didn't want to be the one to upset naughty daughter. It's so fricking sick! Come on lady!!! Have a backbone! I wanted to slap her with a wet noodle. Doesn't she realize she's doing her daughter more injustice by giving into her every whim? Sad, it's just sad! The sad part is that there are a lot of people like this anymore!

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Am I the only one that goes to the public library and gets giddy with joy? Maybe it's my fond thoughts of going with my own mother every Saturday growing up. Books have always brought me such knowledge and escape that I want to share my love of reading with my kids. So far - so good.

Joey LOVES any books right before bedtime. He used to only like truck and train books. Now I can get anything. I love this. I can go to the library, pick out any old random book and read it and he is easy going like that. We've found such good books this way. I let him pick out a few and I pick out a few. Today Joe even picked out a few for Joey.

Justin has always loved books, but mostly those with animals. He has a few books he loves and would allow me to read these 100x if I would (but I couldn't - I would go crazy before that could happen). His favorite right now are

1. Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What do you see? by Eric Carle. He would let me read this 100x if I could.
   
2. Around the House board book. He loves the words but especially the 'lamp'. He always looks around for the lamp in the house and points to it, proud to put 2 and 2 together!
3. Mighty Movers Farm
4. The last book I can't find but it's a book about Farmer Brown and his animals on his farm. He feeds them their favorite foods on his birthday and they talk about what they can do for HIM on his birthday. He LOVES the book - the book used to be Joe's!
5. Usborne Trains
6. 1001 Things to spot on the farm - by Usborne. He LOVES this book too.

Wow, a date night!

Wow, we can't believe we actually got a date night! Joe's work was asking if anyone wanted to go to a Frisco RoughRider's game. Of course we said yes since the stadium is like 10 minutes away.

When Joe got home we took the kids to the drop in daycare S. S. Noah. They love it there. They didn't even wave goodbye to us as we left.

As giddy as two kids, we drove off to the stadium, kidless - which never happens!

We found parking, walked to the stadium and found the group. I mostly chatted but watched a little bit of the game. I met a few new people Joe works with. They are like family really - we've known them for so long now.

Food was good stadium food! :) I got a cheeseburger and some fries but didn't eat them all. Then I begged Joe to get me some dippin 'dots' ice cream. It was soooooooo good. If you don't know what dots are, it's ice cream balls that are frozen, and when you eat them, it melts into ice cream. Most stadiums have it and some malls. It's about $5.00 for a small bowl but it's sooooo yummy.

We tried to stay until the end of the game. The game started at 7 and at 10:30 they were tied 7 - 7 and I believe they were now in the 11th inning. There were supposed to be fireworks after the game. We finally left at 10:30 to get the kids and missed the fireworks. I have no clue how late the game went on.

When we got to the SS Noah I thought perhaps Justin would be sleeping. It was 11pm when we arrived. We drove by the window and Justin is up eating a snack and Joey is walking around kinda watching their big screen tv. Oh boy - both kids up at 11pm and Joey with no nap? Wowsers...

We stopped at Sonic on the way home as everyone wanted something to drink.

When we got home Justin was already sleeping. Joey went down as we got home.

The best part about that - they slept until 10:30 Saturday morning! Oh yeah baby!!!!! That is the latest they have ever slept and it was wonderful to sleep in!!!!

Joe and I at the Frisco Roughriders Game

Cupcakes and crashing into trees....doh!

I never used to bake but suddenly now I bake AND cook. I am careful when I bake because if I'm not careful, I will overeat what I make.

Today I decided to make the kids cupcakes. They LOVE cupcakes so you can see they demolished the ones we had. Justin likes to eat the frosting and then take the rest and squish it in his hands. Silly boy!

Justin's cupcake.

Joey and his cupcake and his arm almost in it!

Desiree, and her two kids Camille and Braxton, myself, Joey and Justin and the neighbor Christopher all took our bikes and went on a bike ride to the park through the trails nearby.

Joey was going as fast as his legs would take him, down a hill and around a curve and didn't quite make the curve. He has a habit of looking at his feet instead of ahead and smashed right into the tree.

This is NOT the first time it's happened - and not the first time with Desiree. The first time he went HEAD first into the tree. DOH! Thank goodness for his bike helmet! He was fine that time and got up and walked off like nothing.

This time he went shoulder first into the tree. Maybe we should teach him that the tree will ALWAYS win.

I didn't see it as I was still coming around the corner but Desiree saw it happen and was glad I didn't see it. She said he was going full force and stopped at the tree.

When I first saw him I thought he had broken his arm or wrist.

But then he seemed ok. He was crying, and was a little scraped up. We were not far from home so I asked him if he wanted to go home and he said, 'no' he wanted to go to the park.

So he hopped back on his bike and went off to the park as I'm examining his arm to make sure it looks ok from in back.

When we got to the park everyone was fussing over his arm. Making sure he could do full rotations with it, could move it up and down - and he could. Joe got there and looked at it. We all decided to just let him be. He was probably wondering why we kept fussing over him. He would not play on the playground like he always does so we thought he must still be hurting.

Not too long after we decided to go home and get in the shower to wash it off and bandage it up.

This is what it looked like that evening. He woke up the next day and has never said a word about it since. Tough little guy!

Joey's shoulder!

View from the back!

By the way - Justin was sick for 6 days. Finally today (Thursday) he was finally better and could go back to school Friday. He was sick with diarrhea every day from Saturday all the way until Thursday! Poor kiddo! No diaper rash thankfully!