Potty Time

There's been no formal "potty" training going on at our house. We've simply been putting the boys on the big potty in the morning and then again before they take a bath at night. All they usually do is make a "pee-pee" sound...you know....psssst. Then they flush the toilet. They HAVE to flush the toilet...both of them.

Their teachers have been telling us that Cade especially has been dry in the mornings on the days he's there. They think it's time to start potty training. I'm really not in a big hurry but I try to at least discuss it once a day.

Well, last night Cadie Poo surprised me to death!! I started up their bath water and he motioned that he wanted to sit on the potty. When I took his diaper off, I noticed that it was dry. So I was thinking that maybe he needed to go. The sound of the water helped I guess because my little guy concentrated so hard AND ....................... he went PEEPEE ON THE POTTY!

He was so curious as to what was going on, he even managed to put his hand down in the stream. OK, so I guess there's still some work to do on his technique but still....he did it! He was ecstatic! I was praising him and he was SO proud of himself.

I guess I need to purchase some "little people" potties now! We're no where close to being potty trained but it's definitely a start.

I was told that Jace went a little bit on the potty last week while my mother-in-law was watching them. Brittney was a witness to it too! BUT since I wasn't there, I don't classify it! ha ha.

After only having a girl, I'm not quite sure what's in store while potty training 2 boys. I'm sure it'll be interesting.

Cadie Poo

Cade is such a little stinker! His nicknames around our house are "turkey butt" and "Cadie Poo". Turkey Butt really fits him because he KNOWS he's being funny and he's just a little turkey.

He is my clingy child who would prefer to be cuddled and tickled. He gets very upset when it's his brother's turn to be cuddled or tickled. He would prefer to just hog me (or whoever is playing with him at the time) and keep all the attention focused on himself. I often wonder how spoiled he would be if he was an only child.

This was my little rocker the other morning. He definitely loves music and was actually rocking out more before I got the camera out (figures).


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He loves the movie Cars, but he doesn't rock out unless he hears Sheryl Crow's song.

He's one of my three little angels. He also loves his sleep and will actually come to me with a blanket and stuffed animal in hand, binky in his mouth and drag me to his bed so I can put him to sleep. He can hum his favorite songs perfectly. I love this! It just warms my heart to hear his little voice.

He's been very aggressive lately towards his brother. He used to be the passive one while Jace was the bully. I notice that they switch roles every so often. Usually just when we think we have them "labeled" correctly, they'll change. My mom and I think that since he can't verbally communicate things, he resorts to biting when he's frustrated or trying to tell us that his brother just swiped his truck.

He's starting to form more words as each day goes by. He (and Jace) know all of their colors. Once you say a color, they will go around the entire house pointing to everything that is that color. Now they're learning their shapes and are both getting very good at identifying those as well.

His little mind goes so fast! I can't believe he is getting so big. His little knock-knees are even going away. He's just not a baby anymore.........

It's a WRAP

I don't know if anyone out there watches the TV Show called Friday Night Lights. I have a couple of times. I usually end up feeling very dizzy from the way the camera shoots all of the scenes so I don't watch it a lot. It's VERY popular here in Texas and every single high school student I've mentioned it to is an avid fan!

Steve got a call last week from some fellow rugby players that they needed some extras in one of the scenes. If you don't watch it, they have a story line going about one of the high school students. He breaks his neck in a football game and becomes a quadriplegic. When he's in rehab, he gets exposed to the game of rugby. Well, this has my husband's name written all over it. It's all too familiar.

So, he didn't go into work on Tuesday so he could go and be famous!! He made the drive over to Austin, TX (where the show is usually shot). I told him that I should go just to tell the cameraman to hold the damn camera still for once! just kidding.

Here's his brush with fame........

He called on his way home and said "It's a wrap! We finished up the shoot!" Good lord, who does he think he is? I hope his head can fit through the door....ha ha.

He had a good time and will collect approximately $300 for his small part. Pretty good, huh? When we find out when it airs, I'll let you know! I can maybe hook you up with a few autographs too!

A Day of Cheering at the Kearley house........

Today was cheer-filled. Man, was it cheer-filled!! Their competition was today and it continues through tomorrow! This was our routine this morning in order to get ready and out the door by 10:45 a.m.

5:00 a.m. - Steve had to get up because he is the high school academic decathlon teacher for his school who happened to make it to the Regional competition.
5:30 a.m. - I get up in order to take a bath and wash my hair.
5:45 a.m. - Steve is off for a FULL day of academic decathloning..........(his awards aren't until 7:30 tonight.)
6:00 a.m. - I hear Cade singing in his crib.
6:15 a.m. - I hear BOTH boys singing and pounding on the wall....just having a mornin' party!
6:30 a.m. - I go to get both boys out of their cribs and let the fun begin!!
6:45 a.m. - Cade goes into the naughty chair for biting his brother.
7:00 a.m. - We are sitting down to a breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon and toast. (I was hungry this morning).
7:30 a.m. - Got the boys dressed and blared some music in their room while we danced and acted silly.
7:35 a.m. - Brittney is up because of the blaring music....whoops!
8:00 a.m. - The Wiggles are repeat playing on DVR (we tape it every morning).
8:30 a.m. - We start attempting to put Brittney's contacts in (while the boys are eating funyuns in order to keep them out of our hair - yes, FUNYUNS at 8:30 a.m.!!)
8:45 a.m. - Contacts are in and I play referee to 2 little aggressive biting boys.
9:00 a.m. - We put hotrollers in Brittney's hair.
9:15 a.m. - Cade goes into the naughty chair for the 2nd time of the day for pushing his brother.
9:30 a.m. - We take the rollers out of Brittney's hair and start on her make-up.
10:00 a.m. - Brittney changes into her uniform and tries to locate her warm-up suit.
10:15 a.m. - Nana shows up to take control of the boys.......YEAH!!!
10:30 a.m. - Start packing a bag for the day....drinks, camera (with charged batteries and empty photo stick), snack for Brittney, magazines, etc. etc.
10:45 a.m. - WE ARE OUT THE DOOR!
11:45 a.m. - We meet up with her team. From this point on, I don't see her again until they perform at 2:15 p.m.

This is their performance......Brittney insists on including it!


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2:30 p.m. - The senior team performs. Half way through their routine the music stops. Everyone starts counting to try and help them finish, but the echo messes them up. They end up stopping the routine and told them they would get another chance.
2:45 p.m. - The senior team performs.
3:15 p.m. - We're in the van on the way home.
4:00 p.m. - We are finally HOME!
4:15 p.m. - Brittney's friend Cassie comes over..........
5:00 p.m. - Brittney's friend Kamryn comes over..........
6:30 p.m. - The boys don't stand a CHANCE. They were in heaven, take a look!



It's been a full day and we get to start all over again tomorrow. Is it Monday yet?

Edited to add: DropShot.com will only display a 2 minute video (b/c after that viewers get bored - a direct quote from their webhelp). So, sorry if I've bored you! The best part was just about to happen when it stopped. Sorry Brittney!

Cabin Fever

We've had some nasty cold weather here in Texas the past week. Monday was a holiday and the weather was getting cold and rainy. Tuesday the REAL cold weather came in and Wednesday morning was a semi-ice storm. It was enough for the weather report to take over the entire newscast for days....SO MUCH INFORMATION. All of the local school districts were closed because bridges and overpasses iced over. I was able to make it into work with no problems, of course I'm spoiled right now with only a 15 minute drive to work.

This was about all of the ice we got.


The kiddos have been cooped up and we are expecting dreary weather and no sunshine until late next week. Here's some of what we've been doing to keep busy. (Poor Nana, she's had to entertain indoors quite a bit this week.) It's tough to keep these boys inside when they LOVE playing outside. It's usually a quick fix to open the back door up and let them go run wild!



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They've also been little snapping turtles. We've had to play referee a LOT in the past week. Hopefully it's just because of their molars coming in........STILL. Jace used to be the aggressive one, but Cade has turned the tide this week. He's showing his stubborn side and standing up to Jace. It's about time!

Feeling Old........Part 3 ?? (i've lost count)

It's official! I've turned into my mother (no offense mom!).

Steve and I were off work yesterday so we made it an official "Kearley shopping day" (without 2 year old little twin boys...yeah!!) We had a bunch of gift certificates from Christmas to spend and they were truly burning a hole in Brittney's pocket!

Our first stop was Limited Too. This store has some cute stuff but it is SO overpriced. It was hilarious to watch Brittney go up to something she really liked and then look at the price tag and turn away. She sure doesn't do that when it's MY money she's spending. She only got one thing there...surprise, surprise.

THEN we head over to Abercrombie. I've only shopped online for this store. This is apparently one of THE stores for Brittney's age group now. Well, when we first walk in they have these shorts laid out on the table.

I mean...what are these things? Look how little material there is on them!! These came in sizes for my NINE YEAR OLD DAUGHTER. I don't think so.......Steve quickly said.......KEEP WALKING!

Then I find myself in the dressing room with Brittney.......the music is BLARING so loud I feel like I'm in the middle of dance floor or something. She's trying on these shirts that are SO long and SO thin. It's a good look for some one with a cute figure, not really such a good look for a woman who's had 3 kids. Then material is so thin that I can pretty much see through them and it costs $40 freakin' dollars! (See, I told you that I'm feeling old).

Then she wants a jacket that's on clearance. I thought they were kind of ugly until I noticed that EVERY person walking into the store had the very SAME jacket and they started to grow on me. Add to the fact that they were marked down from $99 to $39. I figure that's a deal. So, I covered her on a few items in the store. She was SO excited to wear it that she put it on right then and there. I used to do that with shoes, not coats but what the heck do I know?

When we're checking out, the girl behind the counter couldn't have been more than 16. Her pants were the lowest of low risers that I've ever seen. She was extremely tanned and her stomach was super flat!! .... Again the feeling of age set in. Especially when she called me ma'am.

I'm learning that I don't know ANYthing more. How in the world have I been able to function in life for 35 years without my brilliant daughter to guide me? Steve too! I mean, we didn't realize we were so UNcool until recently and it's hit us really hard!

Don't get me wrong, Brittney is a great kid and a wonderful helper and big sister. BUT she is just a normal tween (that's what they call it these days if you didn't know).

After dinner.......mint??

Yesterday we had a full day......our gym "graduation" day, naps and then off to a cousin's college graduation party. On our way home from the party, I stopped and got the kids some Chic-Fil-A. (We LOVE that place!).

Everyone chowed down on some nuggets and I needed to change the boys' diapers. (Cade hadn't been changed since we left for the party about 4 hours earlier.) So, I take off both of their jeans and diapers right by the table. Jace is in absolute heaven (as usual) to be "free" and to have his "toy" to play with. He follows me into the living room and lays down for me to change him. I figure since he's cooperating for once I'll go ahead and put his diaper on.

No big deal......put the diaper on we cuddle and play a little bit....then we realize it's really quiet! It's super quiet! Brittney goes into the kitchen and I say "I bet Cade is peeing on the kitchen floor". All I hear is hysterical laughter from her in the kitchen. She is yelling and laughing at the same time......poop, poop!! I round the corner and see that Cade is standing almost in the exact spot I left him to be "free". He pooped ON THE KITCHEN FLOOR and then had stepped in it. Once he stepped in it, he realized that it was gross (he doesn't like for his hands or feet to be dirty) so he was frozen in place. He was telling me (in his own little way) what had happened, over and over!

Brittney was just beside herself and could hardly stop laughing. It reminded me of cleaning up after our dogs!

This morning they went over to the exact spot that it happened and point and jibber jabber trying to tell me what happened again! Too funny!

(Sorry I don't have a picture to show you, I think that that would have crossed the blogging line.)

The Little Gym

I've mentioned before that we go to the Little Gym. We've been enrolled in classes since last March and rarely miss our Saturday morning class. It's a mommy-and-me class, so Brittney usually attends with me to be the other "mommy".

We've had a great time watching the boys' confidence level grow. The first month or two of classes, Cade was very clingy and Jace was very leery. They gradually became more comfortable with their surroundings and learned to let loose. We just kept on coming so we could establish a routine and get them accustomed to it.

Today was our "show" day to finish off the Spring semester. It was so cute. They did their normal group activities but asked the parents to step back and see how much the "Big Beasts" could do themselves. (Big Beasts is the name of the age group their in right now....it's just not me calling them big beasts, even though it's fitting at times). We were all impressed at how far our babies have come.
They played the Olympic music as they had 4 kids at a time come up and accept their ribbons. (Cade refused to stand up). Then they blew bubbles and they all felt so special. I wish they had adult classes so we could ALL feel that good about ourselves.

Needlesstosay, we've made friends with a lot of the other children and their parents. So since some kids won't be back and others will move onto a different age group, we'll miss this class. We're still going to attend, but we'll have different kids in the class now.

There's been lots of benefits to them attending........such as better coordination, balance and social interaction. In the beginning neither one of the boys would do the balance beam. Now Jace gets mad if I try to help!



They were among the first in their class to learn how to jump, gallop, flip and do monkey-jump cartwheels.

I mean, look how they've applied their newfound skills in everyday life.........


I paid a lot of money for them to learn how to do this!!

Delurking Week

Apparently it's National Delurking Week out in the Blogging World. I know I don't have a huge reader base, but I KNOW there's people reading out there that don't leave a comment.

I know that some people can't figure out the whole comment thing, but it's really not that difficult. Just be anonymous if you don't have a blogger account....it's OK...really!

I'm going to join the ranks along with onegirltwoboys and make you tell me one thing (weird or not) about yourself that I don't know about you in your comment.

Happy Delurking Week!!!!!!!!!!

14 YEARS.........

Today is our 14th wedding anniversary. January 9th, 1993 was the magical day for us! (We look like little KIDS! Steve didn't have any gray hair yet either!!)

It seems like just yesterday but then again it seems like forever ago!

I can remember that the wedding went very smoothly. Nothing major went wrong. It was a very, very rainy day though. Guests told us after the church ceremony that during our vows, they heard thunder and lightning crashing down. I guess we were oblivious to it.

Back in the day, women were still dying their shoes to match their outfits. By the end of the rainy night, we had a lot of tie-dye looking shoes at the reception. My mom is still mad that her deep forest green velvet dress got ruined in the rain along with her shoes. It didn't just rain while we were trying to get from the church to the reception, it POURED!

I've been told that rain on your wedding day means that you will be happily married. Maybe since it POURED on ours, we've been showered with an extremely happy marriage. I think I have to agree. Steve has remained my BEST friend since the day I met him. I honestly can not imagine a day without him in it. Sure we live busy and hectic lives, but this is our day to reflect on how far we've come. I think it's the best decision I've ever made.

I love you Steve....Happy Anniversary!

What Joys!

I've come to the conclusion that raising 3 kids is difficult. I know it's not really a news flash by now, but in a way it is. At the same time of it being the most difficult job I've ever done in my entire life, it is definitely the most rewarding! I don't think I've EVER been as challenged as I have been in the past year NOR have I ever been as happy! (This is me trying to cook breakfast in the morning.......just a little more challenging as in the past).

For example, whenever I am feeling down or exhausted a simple hug from Jace can instantly cure me. He has a way of hugging you with his entire body.....oh how it melts my heart. Then to top it off, he always adds the pat on the back during the hug......just to seal the hug. The woman who gets him as a husband is a lucky one.

Cade can bring a smile to my face so quickly when I hear his deep little belly laugh. He LOVES to be tickled. He's so darn ticklish, it's hilarious. Whenever he is able to come up for air, he's always asking for "mo, mo". The woman who gets him as husband will be very loved and cared for.

Brittney can challenge me to no end! She is either all over me for attention or way too cool and wants to spend time with her friends. She can melt my heart by saying "love you mom" or "you look nice mom" or just "thanks mom, I appreciate you".

Brittney was a very clingy child up until the boys were born. She has really grown up a lot in the past few years, even though she was always mature for her age. I could not even leave the room without announcing where I was going. If I didn't, I could tell you almost down to the second when she would come into my room to start looking for me. She was and still is my little duckling that follows me around. I think the last time I went to the bathroom alone at home was the night I went into labor with her 9 years ago. (Actually that's not true because before Brittney, we had animal "children" who would do the same thing.) But she is a mini ME...everyone says that. She mimicks my speech and tells a story in the exact same way I would. I'm very proud to see the nurturing and caring young lady that she's become. The years ahead of raising a teenage daughter really scare me, but at the same time excite me. She has so much going for her and so much to look forward to.

Steve is my rock and always has been. He keeps me grounded and helps me realize how important our relationship is also. We try to make time for ourselves without the kids too. Just last week we were able to spend an afternoon together going out to lunch and to a movie. It was so nice because I can't remember the last time we were able to do that. We realize that the kids definitely come first, but we also realize that our marriage needs to stay strong also.

I guess I'm just feeling thankful tonight because I looked into the boys room tonight and saw this:

What's not to be thankful for when you see that!!!!!! Just thought I'd share.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone! It's the start of a brand new year that I'm hoping is filled with memorable events and new milestones.

Of course one of my New Years resolutions is to be healthier...blah, blah, blah...not to really lose weight or diet, just to be healthier. I have decided to let my mom take my elliptical exercise machine because I have not used it in so long. (That's really a step in the right direction as far as "healthier" goes, right?) But it helps me along with my second resolution and that is organization.

I have the best intentions when it comes to this resolution, I just have several forces fighting against me in the battle. In fact, there are 4 forces to be exact. I wonder what those would be?

I know that we really need a bigger house. I know that we really need to stay where we're at though because I don't want to pay any more a month for a bigger house. I figure that if we just start reducing all of our crap in the house, it'll appear to be the perfect size house for us.

So far, I've boxed up 3 boxes out of my kitchen cabinets for my co-worker's son who's in the Navy. I've compiled at least 5 HUGE (39 gallon) HEAVY DUTY trash bags of crap from my kitchen, pantry and laundry room. (I'm sure the trash men love me). I've moved onto our playroom and gotten a BUNCH of outgrown toys ready to take to my friend who has a 4 month old baby. I'm doing it slowly because all of the Christmas clean-up has been slowing me down. It's my favorite time of the year, but I'm usually ready to take it down after looking at it for a month and a half.

So far, the new year has just been like any other day around here. I'm back to work full-time tomorrow after using up a lot of "flex-time" over the past few weeks.

We were able to get away for a day and head up to Dallas for a hotel party with some friends. We've always wanted to do this, and since our last 5 or so New Year's have been very uneventful we jumped on the opportunity. It was so nice to get away and also nice to get all dressed up (with NO kids)!

Here's us with our friends........

By the way........I forgot to mention that our New Year's package included all the liquor you could drink. Maybe that will explain a few pictures......

Do they look better here...........?

or here????.................


Happy New Year!!