kearleyzoo

So Long SUMMER

2008-07-08T12:27:00.034-05:00

This has been a very busy summer. I can't believe it's been 3 months since my last post. All I can say is my evenings have been full of normal household duties, yard work and the beginnings of painting the inside of our house. That has been very time consuming b/c it can only be done with the little angels are sleeping.

We managed to take a family picture before summer began. Everyone participated this time without much drama at all.

We got some great shots of everyone!

Our little K-9 addition that came along around Christmas time...she's outta here. It really makes me sad, but man did it have to be done. Annie was a wonderful, wonderful dog. She was soooo good with all of our kids. They could step on her, lay on her, play with her ears and mouth, take her food, it just didn't matter. They only drawback that she possessed was her hunger to RUN AWAY. She always looked so content when she was in the house or backyard with us, her loving family. But the minute, and I mean minute she saw a cracked door, she was GONE. She would not only get out at the most inconvenient times but she started to show aggressive behavior towards other dogs when she was out roaming around after her "escape". We tried to work with her, I bought a few books to try and train her, we even got a shock collar....all to no avail. We decided it was best to give her away. So I had Steve take her to the local SPCA....which is a no-kill center. They won't tell me what happened to her since we "signed a contract" when we dropped her off, but she didn't even make it to the internet the next day. I'm sure that since she was a purebred lab, they snatched her up from the shelter and found her a good home. That's how we got her in the first place. She was found RUNNING alongside the road and a lab rescue picked her up and my friend adopted her. Anyway, we all miss her but we don't miss the constant dog hair, dog poop and yelling at everyone to close the door already!

The first day of Brittney's summer vacation, I went on a girls only weekend to Las Vegas. My longtime friend Amy told me to buy an airline ticket and the rest would be taken care of thanks to her mom's love of gambling. Let me just tell you, it was a heavenly trip. We got to catch up on gossip, nap, eat, drink, gamble, enjoy a Kenny Chesney concert, see Wayne Brady live, eat a cheeseburger in paradise, drink a margarita in margaritaville and shop. No butts to wipe and no one else to worry about but ourselves. It was a great way to start the summer out!

We went on our second annual Bayhouse trip with friends....

This was our view every night. The boys loved to count as the sun disappeared into the water. I wish I was back there right now for this view alone.

We had a great time until day 4 of the 6 day trip. Jace ended up throwing a fit b/c his darling big sister was aggravating him and he threw his head forward hitting his gum on the wooden arm of a futon. This caused him to bend his tooth backwards. He was screaming so much and was in so much pain...I called my dentist. They told me to push it back into place and that's pretty much all they could do. When I "snapped" it back into place, he immediately felt better b/c all of the pressure was relieved. But after a few days, we noticed that it was extremely loose and becoming discolored.

...............This was right after it happened.

So we made an appointment at the pedidontist that I worked for in high school. He determined with an x-ray that Jace had indeed cracked his tooth up in the gum on one side. The other tooth was also broken in the gum but it was done before this trauma. He could tell this because it had already tried to heal itself. He told us that we needed to extract both of his front teeth (or else wait a couple of months for them to fall out on their own) and we had the choice of leaving him toothless or ordering him a kiddie partial. Well, figuring that he will not be getting any permanent teeth until he's around 7 or 8, I couldn't fathom the thought of him being toothless for 3 or 4 years. So he just received his "partial" last week and is adjusting nicely.

..................This is after the "extraction" which he THOROUGHLY enjoyed. (I'm sure now he will be scarred for life when he has to go to the dentist.)

Can you tell he wasn't really into posing for the camera with his teeth? We had to pull his lip up to get a good view.

The bayhouse turned into an expensive trip after all of that, but it was worth every penny. The boys went fishing for the first time (Jace went "shishing"). They caught a "shish"...ok, so maybe it was a fake fish (a lure to be exact). But they thought it was the greatest thing to cast the rod and reel and catch a fish. Brittney got to bond with her BFFs for the entire week and we went to the beach countless times. Jace is still not very fond of the beach...I'm not sure he ever will be.

Brittney went to her YMCA camp for the 3rd year in a row. This year her cousins, McKenna and Marshall went with her. They enjoyed having each other there.

My mom had foot surgery during the month of July so she was out for 4 weeks. During her absence Steve was Mr. Mom for a month. Wow, what a change it was having Steve enforce boot camp rules. I must admit though, some of the changes have been wonderful. For example, the boys used to snack whenever and wherever they wanted throughout our house. Steve enforced the rule of eating only at the table or bar countertop. He noticed that they snacked less and the mess wasn't as bad in the house at the end of the day. We were having to vacuum daily in order to clean up all of the crumbs. Also, he got them to play independently. I don't know if it's b/c they know their limits with different people in their lives or what, but he could tell them to go and watch a movie in their playroom instead of hogging up the TV in the living room ... and they would! They like for me to RIGHT there with them...all of the time.

We bought season passes to Splashtown for the summer. We've definitely gotten our money's worth out of these passes. Brittney has thoroughly enjoyed taking a friend along and having a little more independence while I was in the baby pool area with the boys. We have some friends who always like to join us!

As far as the painting goes....we've done the half bath, Brittney's room, a long hallway, rotunda and kitchen. There's LOT more to go.

Brittney even participated with her room. For some reason she had lots of energy to help when it was all about her. She hasn't volunteered so easily when I ask her lately to help in the living room and dining room.

We enjoyed 4th of July with friends in the neighborhood next to us. We watched fireworks over the lake. Jace and Cade were not too fond of them when we were so close. They insisted that they cover their ears and also that WE cover their ears.

But now it's back to school time. We finished up school clothes shopping today, met the teacher and confirmed who's in who's class. Monday is the big day around here. Brittney starts 5th grade and Jace and Cade will start a new preschool. It's an exciting day to look forward to.

Bye Summer!

More Memory Updates for ME

2008-05-25T15:15:00.007-05:00

Seeing as how my memory is truly fading with age (and children)...here are a few more important milestones for me to remember.

This past Easter, the Easter Bunny made his annual appearance at our house. Just as he did for my daughter Brittney (at 2 1/2 years of age), he managed to successfully take away Cade's binky. Cade has been addicted to this thing since he was two days old. The nurses at the hospital noticed that he tended to get a little fussy and restless in between feedings so they tried this binky on day two. I don't remember the hospital offering this for Brittney but I was at a different hospital with her.

Cade had gradually eased into only having his binky at night and if he was severely upset about something. He was known to even camp out in his bed for a little while longer just to get "a fix". He would usually have more than one also...one for his mouth and one for each hand. Jace never cared for one, but would feel left out at bedtime. So we usually gave him one to naw on. He would usually put holes in them, but Cade the binky detective would always find the holes and promptly throw them away. This led to me placing a desperate online order when we were down to only 2-3 binkies one time.

The timing was not good, but the Easter Bunny had to do his job. For Brittney, I explained to her that the Easter Bunny was taking her binkies to the babies that were crying. She liked the fact that she was going to help the babies (she was obsessed with babies). She was all for it and never again asked for it. Of course the huge basket that was left next to her bed filled with chocolate, other candy and toys didn't hurt the matter.

Cade on the other hand insisted that he didn't care about the crying babies, he needed his binkies. But we went through with it anyway... he cried for a couple of nights. I almost caved on the second night, but realized that it was more of a crutch for ME and not HIM. Ever since that night, he simply announces that he gave his binkies to the crying babies and he didn't need it, he was a BIG boy!

That he is! What happened to my baby in that picture!

Potty training is COMPLETE and has been for several months now. This feat just seemed to happen. We did not push the matter and just waited for them to show interest. School helped them realize that everybody pee pees and it's okay. We put pull-ups on them at night for a while but then realized that they were waking up dry and then peeing once they were up and moving. So, I nixed that a few months ago. We have BIG BOYS all the time now...always in underwear. They are quite regular too, let me tell you.

Jace ended up qualifing for speech therapy through the school district for next year. I'm excited that we are catching it early and also that my tax dollars are going to be put to good use. My medical insurance doesn't cover any speech therapy, so it would have cost me a lot of money to go through the private route. Now, I'm going to get Cade screened. He has a lot of issues too. He's clearer than Jace, but still hard for others to understand. Jace barely squeezed by with the school district's standards, so I wonder if Cade will qualify. Of course, since it's the end of the school year, it's too late and his screening will have to wait until August. Jace's therapy doesn't start until August...and will include a 30 minute session once a week at the elementary school that Brittney attends.

We've skipped the past few Sundays, but we've tried to get the kids back to Sunday School. Jace and Cade absolutely love it now. They are sooo cute when it's music time for all of the children. All of the classes get together and sing different bible songs. It just warms my heart to hear them catching on to the songs and singing them throughout the week. It's such an good influence.

But let me move back in time to the first trip to Sunday School. I was rushing everyone to get out the door. Cade didn't want to put his shoes on, or was it Jace? One of them was crying...then when we finally got in the car, the other was crying about something. Brittney had an attitude because it was early and she wouldn't know anyone in her sunday school class...at one point on the FIFTEEN minute trip to church ALL THREE of them were crying. I was wondering if it was worth it. I was about to lose it. BUT, now they talk about Sunday school all the time. So I guess the torture was worth it. I compromised with Brittney and let her be an assistant in the Kindergarten class. She always has funny stories about how prissy and bossy the little girls are in the class. I hate to tell her that she was one of them when she was that age too!

This is a random thought to end on...but the other night after a brief walk, it started to drizzle a little bit. After it finished, we walked into our backyard and saw a beautiful rainbow. Jace and Cade were so excited and could name almost every color. It's fun to see things through their eyes! This was their 2nd rainbow, but they were still ecstatic. Too cute!

ELMO

2008-05-13T12:05:00.010-05:00

This past weekend we (me, Cade and Jace) attended a birthday party for a coworker of mine. Her daughter, Peytan, was turning TWO. She is absolutely adorable - it was the first time I officially met her. Her chubby cheeks reminded me so much of Ms. Brittney when she was turning two. Brittney chose not to go to the party b/c she got a better offer to go swimming with her friend...imagine that?

Anyway, Natalie (my friend and coworker) decided against a moonwalk for the party, because Peytan does not like them. She instead got a train for an hour and an appearance by Elmo for an hour. Let me tell you, this is one birthday party that we made sure to be on-time to.

Once the train arrived, the boys could have cared less about anything else. Cade was mesmerized by the hum of the motor and leaning over the train car to see the ground move!

Toward the end of the train trip, Elmo showed up. He attempted to get in the train with the birthday girl...but it wasn't well received. They tried to get Elmo to sit in our train car, but that didn't go over too well either. So the train riding came to a end very suddenly. Jace and Cade were not very sure of him and neither was the birthday girl. (At the time that's all of the kids that were there.)

But once Elmo started to interact and play with the kids, he was a big hit for my boys. Jace especially would not LEAVE.ELMO.ALONE!

Imagine how fun it would be though if you were three and you got to play ring around the rosey with Elmo....

bounce around on balls with Elmo....

and pretty much have Elmo all to yourself...

It would be pretty much the best day ever!

We had a great time. I'm glad we were able to get Natalie's money worth. Although toward the very end, Peytan give in and sat on Elmo's lap.

I really need this BLOG!!!

2008-05-07T11:19:00.007-05:00

I have put this blog as my last priority in life right now. But it's recently come to my attention that I NEED THIS BLOG. I will have absolutely NO recollection of my children's lives with out it.

I've always thought my life was somewhat organized. I guess that would be BEFORE Cade and Jace were born. Once they came into the picture, my photo albums came to a screeching halt, my somewhat-clean house became a not-so-clean house, what was left of my sanity started to slowly disappear, and really the last three years are just a blur EXCEPT FOR WHAT IS ON MY BLOG!

I came to this realization when I had to fill out some paperwork regarding Jace's speech. We're concerned that his speech isn't advancing as well as Cade's. I hate to compare the two, but since they are twins and the differences are right in our faces, it's hard NOT to. Anyway, Jace got screened through the school district a couple of weeks ago and they decided he needs further testing because he didn't meet the minimum requirements. So, then the huge packet of paperwork came to me in the mail last week. Wow, this is going to be a thorough evaluation...as it should be. But I was actually embarrassed that I can not find information on his first year of life. I have the journals that my mom and I kept of every feeding, wet diaper and poopy diaper for the first 5-6 months, but other than that....I'm a horrible mother. I can not tell you when Jace spoke his first word, what it was, or who it was to. I guess I was relying on my memory. Ha Ha...big joke. That's not going to happen.

So, blogger...I'm at your mercy. Just to update myself on my children. Here's a small summary of my childern and what's going on in their lives.

BRITTNEY, BRITTNEY, BRITTNEY

You are definitely our first child. Every moment of your first 7 years is documented, photographed or videotaped. I have records of every word or sound that you muttered.

I can not explain how hard is it for me to watch you grow up. You've always been so mature for your age! I have always been so proud of your ability to associate with people - adult or children. I will never worry about your "social" life because I know you will always be surrounded by friends. You have very good taste in the people that you hang out with too. There have only been a few that I disapprove of and deep down I know that you agree with me.

But yes, I want you to slow down the growing up. One day you will regret that you didn't take the time to just be a kid. You've told me from the age of 3 that you couldn't wait to be a grown up. It broke my heart then and still breaks my heart today! I guess that since cheerleading is your "thing" you're surrounded by older girls and exposed to many things that I would prefer you NOT know yet.

I'm trying to get you to put down the cell phone, stop texting, stop emailing and spend time with your family. I know you are a busy little lady, but we all love you and still enjoy your company. Even though there's a bit of attitude and eye rolling coming out of you these days. You'll always be my baby girl and you hold a special place in my heart. I know you will be great at whatever it is you chose to do. You are wonderful with kids and they really take to you. Your brothers adore you (in spurts) and wouldn't know what to do without you. Your dad and I wouldn't know what to do without you. You are an absolutely beautiful girl both inside and out.

CADE, CADE, CADE

You are just like your Uncle Mike. You not only look just like him as a child, but you are just as fascinated by motors as he is. You love trucks and tractors and cars...pretty much anything with wheels and a loud motor. You love to "growl" like a motor and you HAVE to figure out how things work.

You are talking up a storm lately. You have cracked me up with some of the things that come out of your mouth. You told Nana the other day that she had "snake" bruises on her legs...talking about her vericose veins. You told me that Jesus made you so cute when I asked you. I promise to start writing more of these down now.

The world is so new to you and I love seeing it again through your eyes. Speaking of your eyes, oh how beautiful they are. They are such a clear blue and you have such an angelic look about you. Now sometimes you wake up and your hair has "horns" and clearly aren't an angel, but let's not talk about that little stubborn streak.

You can eat ice cream like it's going out of style. Actually diet-coke floats are your preference. You can snack til the cows come home if we let you too! You really like to eat...you actually outweigh your brother by a pound now. 36 pounds to be exact.

You are the shy one when you're at school or around a big group of people. But lordy when you're just around us, you are an active, talkative, non-stop little boy.

You can melt my heart with a simple..."I Wuv you mama!" Oh what a sweetie you are.

JACE, JACE, JACE

You have a tough front that you put up, but deep down inside you are the softest little teddy bear. You absolutely LOVE dogs, babies and your friends. You are the outgoing one who is always telling me to tell someone HI or look at the baby or the dog. You will actually grab my face and turn it to LOOK at it. You have such a tender heart. We were watching Garfield the movie the other day and there's a scene where Odie runs away. You were so sad for him, I actually saw tears well up in your eyes. It just melted my heart.

You have such a soft side, but you're the first to start wrestling with friends and at the same time gritting those little teeth. That's when we know you're hyper...the teeth gritting. I hope your teeth make it.

I don't cook much, but when I do you are the first to tell me that it's "yummy for your tummy". You enjoy food yourself. Thank goodness that you have your dad's metabolism and body-type. You are long waisted and long and lean.

Right now you are mesmerized by the TV. It's the only time you sit absolutely still. Little Einsteins is your favorite thing. You are obsessed with your rocket from the series. It's a bath toy but you take it everywhere...the car, the doctor, to bed and even on walks.

Your speech is understood about 75% of the time to us, but about 50% of the time to everyone else. I just don't want you to develop self confidence problems if people can't understand you. You tend to get shy if people ask you to repeat yourself. I know you will grow out of this though because I notice progress on a daily basis. Now we are encouraging proper speech and trying to not use your "baby/toddler" words. It's hard though, because it's just so darn cute! And so are you!!

We're Still Alive and Kicking!!!

2008-03-14T22:00:00.010-05:00

Oh my gosh! I can not believe that it's been SOOO long since I've posted anything. I've still been an avid blog reader (not such a good blog commenter though). Life has just been busy as usual.

We had a great Christmas with family and friends. Santa wasn't the boys favorite person...maybe next year...but the gifts were well received. Brittney had a bad experience with a scavenger hunt that Santa left for her. Note to Santa (and any other readers with 10 year old dramatic girls), just leave the goods out in the open. Don't wrap them, don't leave a note, and especially don't tell Santa to be creative and incorporate a scavenger hunt with clues...it won't be received well at ALL. Matter of fact, unless you want to almost ruin Christmas for your daughter with tears and all, don't participate in this event. Of course, if you'd like to get a good laugh and join the "bad parent club" like Steve and myself, go ahead and do it. I will spare you all of the details but it was some funny stuff.

New Year's was good. We celebrated at some friends house and EVERYONE attended and stayed up to long enough to count down to midnight. The boys had so much fun running around with a few kids their age, Brittney had a few friends her age, and we had great adult conversation. It was a wonderful way to bring in the New Year.

We endured a very LONG cheer season during our new house transition also. We traveled out of town to Dallas 3 times, San Antonio once and Galveston twice. At least there wasn't any out of state travel this year. Brittney had an outstanding time at this new cheer company. Her team placed first at all but 2 competitions. She finally won the coveted Cheer Power leather jacket. She couldn't wait to wear it to school...it didn't matter that we had a record high that week. Then at their end of year Spirit Rally, she won the Most Valuable Cheerleader for her entire team. It was such a big honor and she was ecstatic!!

Rugby is also in full swing for Steve. He's been a traveling fool. There were a couple of weekends that I was out of town with Brittney for cheer and Steve was in another town for rugby. Thankfully we had the grandparents lined up to watch the boys. Those cheer competitions are long and loud and not child-friendly at all.

Speaking of the boys, they are completely potty trained. They have been now for a couple months. Now we just need to work on their AIM. I'm spending more time cleaning bathrooms than I have EVER done so in my life.

It's so weird to be out somewhere and they tell me they need to go potty. We are frequent visitors to bathrooms everywhere. Once we were out to eat at one of our favorite places, Spanish Flower, and I took them to the bathroom SIX times. Thankfully this place has exquisite bathrooms and Brittney and Steve were there to "hold down" the table. I didn't mind taking them except for the hassle. After all of those visits, I took their drinks away from them and got us out of there as quickly as I could.

They still wear pull-ups at night. They have recently become lazy and wake up dry but don't feel like going pee-pee as soon as they feel it. So they are wetting in the mornings. Then they can't stand the feeling and change into underwear as soon as possible.

They are the best of friends at times, playing so nicely and politely. But then they are the worst of friends, biting, yelling and taking each other's toys. They are typical brothers.

Brittney has written a lot of stories this year as a fourth grader and always like to refer to her brothers as "cute but evil". That pretty much sums them up.

How can she say that about these adorable faces????

Hopefully my next update won't be SOOO long.

Let me Introduce our Newest Member.....

2007-12-22T07:47:00.000-06:00

ANNIE!!!!!! Our new 2-year old yellow lab!

My friend and coworker adopted Annie a month or so ago. About a week after getting Annie, my friend came down with pneumonia and was in and out of the hospital. She knew that Annie needed a better family environment as it is just her and her older son at home. After weeks of trying to arrange a "meeting" we finally had her son bring Annie over so we could meet her. Well, we decided to let her "spend the night" and after that we ALL decided that she wasn't going ANYWHERE!

She is so gentle and so loving with the kids. They absolutely LOVE her. I LOVE her, Steve LOVES her, she really seems to be happy! I love the fact that she is 2 years old and house trained. She goes potty everytime we let her outside and she sleeps ALL night. We totally missed the puppy stage! YEAH!!!

So far her only fault is that whenever she sees an open door or gate, she darts out! We've had to chase her a few times. BUT hopefully she will learn where "home" is and learn her boundaries soon.

Annie was an early Christmas present for our family and one that we'll have for a long time.

Speaking of Christmas. Good lord, I can't believe it's right around the corner. My shopping is almost complete, the Christmas tree has been up for a while, we've made cookies but it just doesn't FEEL like Christmas. It will, of course, on Christmas day but it just doesn't feel like the Christmas season with the warm weather we've been having. It just can't make up it's mind.

Today our new neighbors are having a Christmas party with an appearance being made by none other than Santa Claus himself. I'm sure I'll have some hilarous screaming pictures of the boys with Santa. We haven't attempted to take pictures with him yet because of the crazy lines at the mall.

More to follow soon...

We're IN!

2007-12-11T21:26:00.000-06:00

We've officially made the move to the new house. Actually, the move took place the day after Thanksgiving. It seems like an eternity ago! In that time I have packed and unpacked so much crap that I've decided to become a minimalist. It's been really hard deciding what to get the kids because I've seen all the crap first hand that they haven't been playing with.

But back to the house...it's SO wonderful and it's SO roomy. I actually have empty drawers, cabinets and closets. Can you imagine? I've NEVER had that before. My laundry room can actually hold the washer, dryer, spare refrigerator plus a storage cabinet and we STILL have room to move freely. It may be my favorite room in the whole house.

All of the kids have adjusted very well. Brittney didn't have to change schools at all, since it is a block from our old house. So, she's in heaven. The boys just took right to it. Their room still has all of their familiar stuff so there was no adjustment there. They are further away from me now, so I have to keep the monitor turned on just in case. The first week or so they would wake up and wouldn't come out of the room. They would cry until I came to get them. But now, they're fine.

All of the rooms were bigger than I had imagined after we moved the furniture in. I went back to the old house to grab a few remaining items and was amazed at how small it looked. Of course everything was out and it always looks different without any furniture, but still...I was amazed. We sold our old house for a second time (we're keeping our fingers crossed) and should close on Monday the 17th. I truly can NOT believe we found another buyer in less than 10 days. Especially with the current market conditions.

This was our second moving day to get all of the "little" stuff that the movers didn't get on their 7 hour run. I caught Cade taking a donut break...he's all about the food.

Jace looks so upset about the move, doesn't he? They have been obsessed with the movies Shrek and Daddy Day Care for the past month. I'm sure that's what he's engrossed in in this picture. They can quote the movie line for line almost. (So can I.)

Jace was "helping" me wash dishes.

Cade was enjoying his tractor in the new backyard. That's about the only thing at the new house that isn't as big. It's about the same size as our previous house, but there's less cement because our old house had a detached garage. They were used to having a long driveway attached to the back patio and garage. Now, we have a small slab right outside the door and no covering over the porch. We'll eventually do something back there, but they sure don't seem to mind yet.

And here's the kiddos in front of our little Christmas tree (with non-breakable ornaments).

Jace loves the shower in the new house. He insists on taking a shower every night. Cade prefers to stick to the bathtub. UNLESS the jacuzzi jet button gets pushed. I've never seen 2 little boys go from happy to screaming at the top of their lungs in 1.2 seconds!!! It was hilarious!

We're really into the potty training mode these days. The boys LOVE to pee-pee in the backyard. I know it sounds hillbilly-ish, but they are obsessed with it. They will go on the potty too. But tomorrow my mom has decided to take them to preschool in big boy underpants. It's a big day in the Kearley household for this. We'll see how that goes.

Let's see, what else. Oh... Brittney is getting phase I done of her $4800 orthodontic treatment (ouch!). She is getting 4 braces on the top teeth and is OH so excited about it. I had braces on for 4 years and have been trying to warn her of the pain involved. BUT she's oblivious to my advice. She loves our new office set-up where she has her own desk space!

Then the boys have their first dental appointment on Thursday. I've told them if they don't "wa-wa" they can pick out a truck at the store. SO, we'll see how the bribery works. I'm sure it will not go well and there will be lots of screaming involved.

We're all looking forward to the upcoming holidays. All of the major essential stuff has been unpacked and put away, now I'm down to the nitty gritty stuff that needs to be ORGANIZED. Yuck, that's not the fun stuff to do.

Box by Box, we're getting closer to settling in. Happy Holidays everyone!

Thankful!

2007-11-19T23:01:00.000-06:00

We're still above water over here...barely! In all our "moving" excitement, the sale on our current home totally fell through last week on the VERY day we were supposed to close. We were devastated, in disbelief and just so mad we didn't know what in the world to do!

We were, as many people do, depending on the equity in this house to get us into our new home. With no lump sum, we thought it was a lost cause and all of the money we've given to the builder would be gone. But, we were able to manipulate all the numbers to go forward with the new house and we were going to just take our chance on selling our old house. It's such a leap of faith for us. We don't want to go from owning 2 homes to living under a bridge!

As I pondered how silly all of this housing drama sounds, several things made me jump back into reality!

I wanted to jott down a few thoughts I've had in the last few weeks:

It poured the other night and the thunder and lightning kept waking the boys up, so I went and slept in Jace's bed with him. They were instantly calmed by my presence. Jace even snuggled up to me so that we were forehead to forehead. He gave me the sweetest smile and I winked at him....he did his version of a wink back to me. Then he drifted back to sleep! MELT, MELT!!!
Cade hurt his foot by jumping off the bed Friday night(I know, it sounds like a song we sing around here). He bruised it so much he couldn't put weight on it for 2 days. Suddenly my independent toddler was transformed into a dependent toddler. He either crawled around pretending to be a doggy or else I had to hold him. It was so pathetic to see him WANT to go outside to play but he knew it would hurt his knees if he crawled. By the end of Saturday, my back and arms were killing me. It really made me realize how extremely lucky we are to have healthy children with no disabilities or hindrances of any kind in their daily lifes. SO SO THANKFUL! (Luckily by Sunday afternoon he started to stand and take steps on it. He has a pretty good bruise on his foot so I know it's still VERY sore. Today he was walking with just a slight limp).
Jace thinks it's so funny to get a kiss from someone and then WIPE it off. He will wipe my kisses off all day and just laugh and laugh. But when it's night night time and I tuck him in, he gives me the best kiss that his big juicy lips can pucker up and he announces "I not wipe kiss off now". AGAIN...MELT, MELT.
As grown up and independent as Brittney Marie can be these days, she still likes to have her mom around. She actually BEGS me to come and meet her for lunch. I need to take advantage of this time b/c she still wants me around...in a few years I'm sure this will all change! For now, she and Cade are still my little ducklings that follow me everywhere!

I am extremely thankful for my family! We are so blessed to have each other and also to have our health! I've been able to put my life into a little better perspective over all of this. I truly believe that things happen for a reason...we may not know or understand what the reason is at the time. So after finding peace with our real estate decision, today we got a contract on our house to lease it for a year with intent to buy it after that! So, keep your fingers crossed for us!

Happy "Durf" Day

2007-10-28T23:44:00.000-05:00

My babies are now officially THREE!

You should have heard them. "Today my durfday, can I have candy?" "I want ice cream, it's my durfday!" Funyuns for breakfast..."sure, it's your durfday"!!

Since their birthday was on Friday and we had Brittney's school carnival that night, we had a small celebration Saturday evening. However, they got to celebrate at school with birthday cookies and birthday crowns (that they refused to put on at school).

We all agreed that in an effort to minimize all of the boys' toys (and so that we have less CRAP to pack and move in the next few weeks) that we would ALL go in together on a couple of big presents. So, both grandma's and grandpa's contributed to the John Deere tractor fund.

It was a BIG, no it was a HUGE hit!! We have been absolutely cracking up at how fast they like to go. But we've also been quite impressed at how GOOD they maneuver these things. I remember that Brittney got a Barbie Jeep when she was 3 and she couldn't even turn the steering wheel on it. I guess yet another difference between girls and boys!

They LOVE them. In the two days they've had them though, the pin to hold the trailer to the tractor has been broken and one of them doesn't go in reverse. I guess I'll be on the phone this week to try and get that fixed. It's crazy what little quality goes into things like this.

Happy Birthday boys! We love you and hope that you had a great birthday. Now that you're 3, could you please potty train yourselves already??

Blogging is My LAST concern

2007-10-13T13:12:00.000-05:00

GOOD NEWS!! We have sold our house!!! We will close on November 5th and lease it back for a couple of weeks until our new house is ready. They are saying we'll be in by Thanksgiving. At the rate things are going in our lives, that will be here before we know it.

Brittney turned TEN!! She had a skating party with 10 of her closest friends. (I wish I had that many close friends). They had a great time. The whole Kearley crew attended. I even put on a pair of skates and took Jace and Cade for a spin around the rink. Then the skating police came over and said that it wasn't allowed....fun haters!!

The boys LOVE all the development behind our new house. The water district is putting in new walking paths, bridges and waterfalls around the lakes. They LOVE tractors (that's what they call every piece of construction equipment they see.)

I think I've decided to hang up my blogging hat. I just don't have the time or energy to donate to this site anymore. It seems to consume my evening time whenever I dopost, and I just have so many other things that need to get done. I will check back on my "blogging" friends from time to time. Once things settle down around here maybe I will be able to pick up where I left off.

See ya!

Happy Birthday Daddy!

2007-09-17T23:19:00.000-05:00

Today starts our week long birthday stretch.

Today is Steve's birthday, tomorrow is Steve's mom's birthday, and Sunday is Brittney's birthday. Needlesstosay September is a pretty expensive month around here.

The boys were so excited to sing to him when he finally got home. Daddy had a rough birthday...he is sick with a cold, but still had to go to work, then had open house at school, THEN he had to go and pick Brittney from cheer practice.

The boys were fresh out of the bath when Steve got home..... (please excuse Jace's nude nose picking, he's a boy what can I say?)

Happy Birthday Honey....now you're just as old as me!! We're 36 years YOUNG.

TAG - 8 random facts!!

2007-09-13T23:21:00.000-05:00

Casey has tagged me and since she's my new blogging friend I must participate. 'Cause that's what blogging friends do.........

1. I am a DVR fanatic. I record Regis and Kelly, Oprah, Ellen and The View EVERY day. After all the kids go to bed, I like to spend "my" time laughing and watching as much as I can while NO ONE is bothering me...including Steve (sorry honey). There are some nights that I fall asleep in the chair (which was originally purchased for Steve to lounge in). Now granted I don't have time to watch ALL of them, but I still like to know that I have it recorded.

2. For my 20th birthday present from my parents, they paid for me to get a breast reduction. I was already around a 36 DD (and outgrowing out of that). So I went down to a small 34C and just loved the difference. But now after having 3 kids and gaining and losing weight, I wish I would have gone smaller and gotten a little more LIFT.

3. Speaking of boobs, I didn't breastfeed any of my kids. I never ever had the desire and the thought of it actually grossed me out. I've only met 3 other people who agree with me on this matter. I know that it's natural and healthy and ALL the good statistics about breastmilk, but I always chose the formula route.

4. I am still friends with my BFF from Junior High School, Amy. She now lives down the street from my mother...which is about 10 minutes away. She is one of the people that agree with me on the breastfeeding issue.

5. I was named Teresa because it was my mother's chosen name in the CONVENT. Yes my mother was a nun...obviously before I was born. Plus it was my grandmother's name, Theresa. Can you imagine the guilt trips that I've endured during my life time? My mom was a pro at them.

6. I worked for a children's dentist in high school. I could never understand why the moms (or the kids) freaked out when we tried to take the child into the back by themselves. That was their policy because they believed the kids behaved better without the parent there. NOW I can't imagine having my child taken back without me. Weird how your priorities change when you're a parent.

7. When it comes to food, I'm a highly sensitive TEXTURE person. I don't like beans (except green beans) because of the texture. The list goes on and on. BUT my hubby is pickier than I am. My daughter is the pickiest of them all. Jace and Cade will eat almost anything, thank God.

8. I have NO tattoos. Even though I've sat through Steve getting 2 of his 3, I can't think of anything that means enough to me that I should have it permanently tattooed onto my body...except my family and thankfully I get to see them everyday and I have a lot of pictures. Who needs a tattoo?

There, I'm done. Sorry it took me so long Casey.

Maybe the end is near????

2007-09-07T22:52:00.001-05:00

I knew I shouldn't have jinxed Brittney in my last post by saying...."luckily Brittney was able to avoid the bug". She came home from school Wednesday with a horrible stomach ache. By the end of the evening she had the virus full blast....both ends going (sorry Brittney). She made a miraculous recovery in 24 hours though and was back to school today.

We are entering day 7 of virus fest for Jace. Everyone else has gotten the virus and is pretty much done with it. (Our family is still VERY gasey, but otherwise doing ok.)

Jace seems to be in the 3rd phase....the first was fever, the second was throwing up and now the third is diarrhea. I feel so bad for him. He finally asked Nana to go poo poo on the potty after the 6th diaper blow out this evening.

I feel bad too b/c we went ahead and sent them to their new school today too. It started Wednesday but they obviously weren't up to going then. I apologize to all of these mothers if they happen to catch this virus. It's deadly but he was totally fine yesterday ALL day. Another reason that I thought Jace was fully recovered ...see exhibit "a" below.

He was being awfully quiet Thursday night. Cade was in the living room with me and Brittney. We just assumed that Jace was in the front room watching Barney. When I went in to check on him, he was walking out of Brittney's room. Apparently he was jealous of her beautifully painted toenails and took matters into his own hands. Yes, this is RED nail polish that he painted in her room over our NEW beige carpet.

I had to laugh and snap the picture. I mean look at the detail....he got in between all of the toes also. That takes talent.

I was very surprised that more polish didn't make it onto the carpet. He only got a small amount and we were able to get most of it out...we moved the rug to cover the spots that hung around. (Isn't that nice of me to do to the new owners of our house?)

Steve comes back home tomorrow. Thank God! It's been the week from hell around here.

Yesterday when I was at home with ALL THREE kids sick, about 10:30 a.m. the phone rang. I was washing my hair and Brittney didn't pick it up. I went to see who it was a few minutes later and listened to a recording telling me that they were showing our house between 11 a.m. and 12.

I was in TOTAL freak out mode!!! The house was a pig-stye!! None of the beds were made, there were dishes everywhere, toys everywhere, puke everywhere!!

I was thankful Brittney was home. She ran to clean her room and the front part of the house while I threw dishes and clutter into cabinets and random places such as the oven and dishwasher. We were mad cleaners for 20 minutes straight. We managed to dress everyone and grab a few necessities and hit the door at exactly 11 a.m. I was literally dripping sweat when I got into the car. Talk about lighting a fire under someone's butt.... But the house looked great, I couldn't believe we did it.

Now, I've been tagged by Casey

I must come up with 8 random facts about myself....

Virus Fest of 2007

2007-09-05T13:40:00.000-05:00

Whew-ho, what a party we have been having around here.

Let me re-cap some exciting things that have happened:

Jace started running a fever last Thursday evening.
I started alternating Tylenol and Motrin every 3 hours (sleeping AND awake hours)
He would only throw-up if his fever got over 101 degrees.
UNTIL Monday....when the pukefest began. I believe the total for the day was 8 times.
THEN Cade got it too Sunday morning. He, on the other hand, just threw up one time and has been incredibly whiney and clingy.

This virus didn't want to exclude me for some reason, it's nice like that. I started getting an upset stomach on Saturday morning and was incredibly tired and achy Sunday and Monday. I just got to feeling up to par.

But Nana came down with it today...so I'm home with the boys. Thankfully Brittney spent the entire weekend with friend so she's been able to dodge this horrible bug so far. Steve has been out of town since Saturday and won't return until this Saturday...I'm sure he's so upset that he's missed such a happenin' time here.

Jace and Cade were supposed to have Meet the Teacher at their new Mother's Day Out yesterday and they were supposed to start their classes today. I just knew they weren't 100% when Jace decided to throw up one more time before bedtime last night AND they were begging to go to bed last night at 7:30 p.m.... that's just unheard of around here. PLUS they slept until 7:30 this morning. Their little bodies are still trying to catch up from this nasty, nasty bug.

If I have to watch Barney ONE.MORE.TIME....somebody please come and take me out of my misery!! AND also Kid Songs....the boys LOVE these cheesey videos.
Look what we've learned to do........(it's their newest thing)....they think it's just hilarious. (I wonder where in the world they learned this from?
I sure hope they get to feeling better soon. When all they want to do is lay around, it's just not normal behavior. I guess I'll regret saying this, but I miss my crazy (healthy!) boys!

Wiggles & The Kick off of a New School Year

2007-08-28T23:14:00.000-05:00

The Wiggles were really, really GOOD! It's the one kid show that I actually enjoy. When I get their songs in my head, I can't stop singing throughout the entire day.

We had mentioned the upcoming concert with the boys earlier in the week. We kept telling them that the Big Red Ca (that's car, but ca has more of the Australian accent) was going to be there. Then Jace would start getting so excited - jumping up and down...we had to tell them that the Wiggles were still on an airplane coming to see them. So, the Wiggles had a very long airline flight that lasted the entire week, up until Sunday afternoon. They seemed to accept that without any problems.

We got there just before the lines to buy CRAP got crazy long. I had told myself that I was only buying ONE thing. Nana thought the same thing. SO, the boys got two crap items each, but they LOVED them. Believe it or not, Brittney did not want anything Wiggles....imagine that?

Of course, you have to have a light-up item during the concert. So, here's what a $15 light-up Wiggles stick with a Big Red Ca on the top of it looks like......(along with a stuffed Dorothy the Dinosaur).
All of the Wiggles (including the NEW yellow Wiggle, Sam) were there along with their friends, Henry the Octopus, Wags the Dog and of course Dorothy. I think the boys got more of a kick out of the friends rather than the Wiggles themselves.

When the show first started, Jace did a little freak-out and his "heart went beep-beep" and the lip came out. Thank God I didn't purchase tickets on the floor that would have been towards the stage. I opted for tickets on the 17th row on the side of the stage. They were pretty good.

Cade, on the other hand, clapped and laughed and smiled almost the entire time.

Then toward the end, THE BIG RED CA finally came out. Jace is STILL talking about it. Matter of fact, they are both still talking about the whole show.

Then the next day SCHOOL STARTED!

These are our annual pictures we take on the first day of school. She's getting SO tall!!! (Or maybe I'm just getting shorter!)

She had a great day and absolutely LOVES her teacher. She also doesn't have any of her "problem" friends or the obsessed ex-boyfriend in her class. I was very thankful about that.
So, hopefully we are on to the beginning of a great year!!!

It's Official......We're for Sale

2007-08-26T13:22:00.000-05:00

Our current house is "on the market".

We have been so busy cleaning it up over the past week. We found a really cheap painter who changed our plum master bedroom to a more neutral beige color, we got new carpet (which sounds so easy until you prepare for new carpet to go in), I personally borrowed a co-worker's floor buffer and cleaned the grout in my kitchen. The difference is unbelievable. It looks like a new floor.

Now we wait...the market has definitely slowed in our area, so the realtor wanted to hurry up and list it in order to get some exposure. So, all of us get to practice cleaning up after ourselves. It's actually been kind of refreshing to see the house so clean and clutter-free. If we happen to NOT sell it (which we hope will not happen of course), we'd be fine staying here and learning to live in the close quarters. But we are optimistic and we have a little bit of time yet!

On our new house, it's definitely coming along. We have our "pre-sheetrock" meeting next week. After that happens, all the exciting stuff starts to fall into place. We get to see all the neat stuff we picked out at the design studio a couple of months ago.

Other items on the homefront include:

Brittney's first day of school is tomorrow....that would be FOURTH grade. Oh my goodness. We had meet the teacher on Friday and she has a 2nd year teacher. She is young and full of energy. She seems energetic and ready to go. Brittney remembers her from last year and wanted to be in her class.
Tonight we are going to the WIGGLES LIVE. I managed to get the boys down for a nap just now, so hopefully they will rest up for the big show! We've been telling them all week that we're going, but it won't sink in until we actually get there.
Jace and Cade are going to a new mother's day out school starting September 5th. We have their meet the teacher on September 4th. It will be an adjustment for them, but I think it will be much better for them. So, we'll see. But this week is open and nana has them all week without any school or Brittney. She will be ready for them to go back to school on the 5th.
Steve is back to work as a teacher tomorrow also. He went on several interviews for assistant principal positions to no avail. It seems that these school districts just post the jobs as a formality and already have someone in mind for it. PLUS you have to know someone to get your foot in the door. So, he's going to teach again and have some extra conference time for administrative training. He's fine with that.

All of the kids are keeping us hopping. The boys are either fighting like cats and dogs or loving all over each other while giggling nonstop. It's a toss-up. Brittney has been very bored this past month. The summer was extended this year and she really felt it. She's very ready to go back to school.

Here's Cade helping Jace put his "fi-flops" on. It's funny how Cade can do this independently but Jace can't.

Here they are practicing for their future band...

AND they are SUCH helpers in the morning for daddy. They're going to miss Daddy now that he's going back to work. They're going to also miss Sissy. She is just SO good with them.

Here's Brittney's pick for the first day of school outfit. It's a HUGE decision to make...I mean after all we are KEARLEYs for goodness sake, we MUST be stylish. (I hope the skirt pulls down more). She can already wear a woman's size 5 1/2 shoe! I am just in disbelief.

Wish us luck in keeping this casa CLEAN. It's going to take a miracle!

Beach Anyone?

2007-08-16T22:27:00.000-05:00

We took advantage of my boss being out of town this past weekend and borrowed his new beach house in Galveston, TX. He gave us full permission to use all of his "toys"...margarita machine, industrial belgian waffle maker, golf cart, etc. etc. I have to say that the HIT of the entire weekend was the golf cart.

When we first got there, we unloaded, got dressed for the beach, packed up the golf cart and headed down the street to the beach. Let me paint the picture for you in a little more detail. We headed toward the beach around 2:30 p.m.....in Texas....in August...with a heat index of 110.....with NO wind whatsoever! We brought the boys shoes, they weren't wearing them. The minute their feet hit the hot sand, they were screaming. I was trying to get their shoes on and at the same time I was trying to get their feet in the water to cool them off. Well, Jace does not particularly like the beach...we learned this from our trip to the bayhouse a few weeks ago. I learned that he STILL does not like the beach.

We were at the "private" beach for this neighborhood and with no wind blowing whatsoever, it was very peaceful UNTIL we showed up.

Within 5 minutes of us being there, I was sweating profusely, the boys hadn't stopped crying, Brittney and her friend didn't want to get in the nasty water, but DANG IT...we were going to the beach and we were going to have fun!!

I said that we needed to go back and get the big umbrella. So we all loaded back up for the 1 minute ride back to the house...Brittney and her friend informed me that they didn't want to go back to the beach, they just wanted to hang out and ride in the golf cart. I looked down at Jace and Cade with their beet red little cheeks, I was soaked and miserable, and I gave them both a HIGH FIVE!!!

I love it when Brittney and her friends are sensible. So we played on the golf cart all afternoon. I let ALL of the kids take turns driving. Brittney drives like a maniac...heavy on the gas, that's for sure. I don't know if I'm going to be able to teach her how to drive, it may be a job for dad! Her friend, Morgan, was a little grandma driving.

Brittney and her friend kept telling me how much fun they were having and that this was the best part of the trip.

When the sun went down, we made it back to the beach. We only stayed for a few minutes so I could snap some pictures to prove we actually went!

Then we made virgin pina coladas in the restaurant style margarita machine. They were PERFECT!

Then we decided to have breakfast for dinner...bacon and WAFFLES! That machine was so easy and the waffles came out perfect. We decided to have them again for breakfast the next day!

We had to head out kind of early Sunday morning because Brittney had a birthday party at 3. But we managed to have time to eat lunch at the Rainforest Cafe. I was anxious to see how the boys reacted to all the stimulation. We had been trying to explain to Jace and Cade what was going to happen at the restaurant. I kept telling them that I would be right there and it was going to be OK.

Well, a few minutes into our dining experience the "rain" and "thunder" started. Cade immediately clung to me and covered his ears at the same time. Jace kept saying "my heart go beep beep"... "my heart go beep beep". The MINUTE it was over, they were totally fine.

This is a picture of what a $13 dessert looks like...it's called a VOLCANO! They shout it out when it comes out of the kitchen. That place is banking, I must have heard it shouted 20 times in the 45 minutes or so that we were there.

We couldn't even take Brittney there when she was little. We had to get our food to go one time.

It was an exhausting weekend, but we had so much fun!

We are definitely ready for school to start in almost a week!

More on the Home front

2007-08-10T16:44:00.000-05:00

Well the house has come a LONG way in the past week!

From this ..........

to this ...........
The boys (and Brittney) have had so much fun playing in the dirt that's in our front yard. We've walked over every night this week to check in on all the action.

Last weekend we had SO much fun on our getaway WITHOUT kids.

Day #1 consisted of waking up....eating a peaceful breakfast with Steve and our friends...the boys departed to go play a little rugby for the day...the girls went to "market day" in town to browse/shop for whatever we wanted...lunch at a quaint little restaurant called the Leaning Pear....a quick change of clothes and then we were off to kayak down the river for about 3 hours (which provided the BEST arm workout I've ever had)...then we went home and cooked out a glorious meal with WAY too much food.

That was a picture of us "slumming" it at our friend's house. Her house is right off of the river...it is just picture perfect. This is her view EVERY day from the back porch. I think I could handle it.

The second day was a short one, but we managed to pack a lot in. I was taken on an hour horse back ride. I had a back experience horseback riding as a teenager. I got thrown off of a "very nice" horse while riding with one of my brother's friends. SO, I was a bit hesitant. Wendy was a GREAT tour guide and gave me Pedro the horse. Pedro was a true follower and very gentle. He didn't throw me off the whole trip. I have never been around horses that much and their size just frightens me. Add to that the fact that I got thrown off, needlesstosay I was a bit anxious about this adventure. But I overcame my fears and really enjoyed myself.

This trip provided an upper body workout the first day and a lower body workout the second. I was ready to come back home. My butt has never hurt quite like that!!

The weather was warm but nice for the weekend. I was a little worried when our outdoorsy host had all the windows open and the air conditioner wasn't turned on. The first night we slept with ceiling fans full blast. It wasn't too bad, it just felt like we were camping. I'm not a huge camping person so I just felt sticky. The second night we asked her if she minded turning on the a/c. So, the second night was heavenly...it was actually a bit chilly that night.

Back on the home front, the boys have had lots of potty action. There is nothing consistent with their potty use, it's purely for entertainment. However, Jace has really been telling us when he has to go pee-pee. That's actually progress for him! Cade still has no interest. He'll just sit on the potty because he saw his brother do it.

But there is NO privacy at our house. Here's a scene from the potty action tonight.

Man they love their big sister.

Isn't it great to have an older sister to wipe butts??? That's true love.

This weekend Steve is out of town, so I'm headed to the beach with the boys and Brittney and her friend Morgan. Hopefully I'll have lots of good pictures, stories and memories to share. We're going to stay at my boss' beach house. I think Brittney is more excited about riding in his golf cart than actually going to the beach!

Updates

2007-08-03T16:53:00.000-05:00

A few Kearley updates:

The big boy beds are a BIG hit! They have taken a nap every single day (knock on wood) since we've had the beds. EXCEPT for the very first day when Jace escaped the bed and his clothes to pee on the rug, but let's not relive that experience.

Right now they still stay in their beds when they wake up. I usually hear "mommy...I OUT!". But today was the first day that Jace just walked right out and said "Hi Mommy!"

We have all been under the weather, but are now on the mend. I didn't know if Jace would survive last weekend. He had been wheezy and so congested that the doctor put him on liquid steroids. He was such a little TERROR! Within an hour of him waking up last Saturday morning, he had already gotten in a week's worth of normal trouble. I had to call nana for reinforcements so me and daddy could get a moment's worth of peace and go out to dinner. Luckily we're over that medication and I've made a mental note to NEVER EVER allow the doctor to prescribe that one again!

Notice in this picture from that fatal day that Jace is literally screaming at the top of his lungs? Cade kept saying all day that "Jace is MEAN!"

Today they poured the foundation for our new home! WHEW HO!! The weather has stalled it about a week. Hopefully drier weather will prevail in the next few weeks so they can frame it and put a roof on. Then the weather won't matter!

This picture shows the view directly behind our new house.......

This is our back yard view to the left.....

and this is our back yard view to the right.......

the kids will have so much room to RUN around and burn energy off!

Me and the hubby are off on a weekend WITHOUT the kids! Brittney is at Cheer Camp and the boys are staying with grandmas! We'll all be refreshed and ready to go for next week!

Love of DOGS!

2007-07-24T23:24:00.000-05:00

Our next door neighbors are very unique. They are sweet as can be! We love them dearly, but I'm afraid the boys love them even more. It's not even because of them, it's because of their little yorkshire terrior dog named Becky Sue. She is the queen of the house over there! The boys say her name as "bebby sue".

Whenever the boys are out in the front yard and Becky Sue can see them through the window of her house, she goes NUTS (apparently the love is mutual)!! She usually has to come over and play with them for a little bit! We usually just return her when the boys have gotten their "fix" (or else I'm tired of refereeing over who gets to walk her or hold her or feed her).

Well, our neighbor had to go into the hospital and asked Brittney to walk Becky Sue during the day when she was gone. The boys went CRAZY over her being in our house. EVERYthing she did was hilarious to them. A simple sneeze, her going to the bathroom, her eating...just nonstop entertainment.

When it was time for her to go home, Jace (who is the biggest dog lover of the two) would always throw a fit. One time, I had had enough of him whining and crying. I told him that Becky Sue had to go night-night and if he said Becky Sue one more time, he was going to the naughty chair.

Well, he said it again and off to the chair he went. I have to say that I could not even look at him during this "time-out" session without cracking up. He was yelling at the top of his lungs "BEBBY SUE....BEBBY SUE"!!! It was like I was torturing him or something.

After his 2 or 3 minutes, I went over to him in the chair. I usually get on his level and make him say sorry and give me a love. When I bent down to him, he said "bebby sue go nigh-nigh", hugged me and he was FINE!

He truly LOVES animals. I'm sure we'll have to eventually get another dog. We are such dog people! I'm just not ready to commit myself to such an attachment and another responsibility right now.

Here's the boys with our old dog, Roscoe, who lives with our friends now.

It's nice to visit Roscoe, but it's really nice to leave our friends house without him sometimes!

Big Boy Beds are HERE!

2007-07-21T22:31:00.000-05:00

The baby beds have moved out and the big boy beds have moved in!

We had been playing up the idea of "big boy beds" since yesterday. I don't think they had any idea of what was actually going to take place until it happened though.

Although they were thoroughly entertained by watching the man disassemble their cribs, Cade's lip started quivering when he realized that HIS BED WAS GOING BYE-BYE! He could barely talk when he asked me "bed go bye-bye?" I assured him that he was going to get a BIG BOY bed and it was OK. He was fine.

...Until it was naptime!

There was a LOT of noise and jumping and giggling going on in their room. They never came out of the room, but still there was a lot of noise.

I had to go in there after about 30 minutes. Cade was a bit distraught so I had to lay down with him and rub his back. I knew he was exhausted. Then I laid with Jace for a minute. I really didn't want to get into this new habit of laying down with them. (I used to do this with Brittney and I was usually OUT like a dog. I would stumble out of her room at all hours of the night.)

So I exited the room. I, of course, peeked into the room after about 20 more minutes (because it was terribly quiet). This is what I saw from Cade on the left side of the room ....

What I saw from Jace on the right side of the room was terribly different. The minute that I opened the door, I heard the sound of water hitting the carpet. I thought for a second that Jace was maybe pouring out the water from their humidifier. NOPE! He had removed his shorts and diaper and was peeing on the football rug in the middle of their room. I snatched him up so fast that I scared him. I just didn't want him to wake his slumbering brother and have me stuck with TWO cranky toddlers.

So we went outside to play while Cade slept for 2 hours in his big boy bed! Yeah Cade!!

Tonight they were so exhausted, they hardly made a peep! We peeked in several times and Jace was just laying there staring at the ceiling. Cade was already out.

Here's my sleeping big boys.

Oh, they're growing up too fast!

Brittney was such a big helper today! We've been cleaning out closets and getting things together to donate. We don't need crib sheets or crib mattress covers anymore...those are for babies!!

We got rid of so many outgrown clothes and so much other crap, it was unbelievable. The idea of packing and moving is starting to sink in, so I'm doing as much as I can ahead of time!

Crazy or NOT?

2007-07-19T22:48:00.000-05:00

We're at a small crossroads in our house.

The boys have definitely outgrown their cribs. Whenever I tell people that my twin boys who will be THREE in almost 3 months are still in their cribs, they simply cannot believe it! What they REALLY can't believe is that they haven't ONCE climbed out of them. One person even exclaimed "What kind of boys are you raising?"

I have to say that I'm truly amazed too! All the horrible thoughts of crazy boys acting like crazy monkeys went through my mind early on, but it just never happened. We've always told them that they will fall and hit their heads and get a BOW-BOW and it will hurt. DONE. Here lately they've been getting their steps and they'll climb in and out if the side rail is down. But if it's not down, forget it!

Now granted, they like to do some gymnastics-arm-push-up-thing on the side rail that makes it look like they are going to topple over, but that's it.

Brittney was in a big girl bed before she was even 2! Why? I don't really remember. I DO remember being a bit more anal about things when it was just her!

I remember that the Easter Bunny took her binkies away when she was 2 1/2. (Ahem, Cade still takes his binky at night...) I remember being nervous that she wasn't quite potty trained at the age of 2 (oh my!). She wasn't fully trained until she was 2 1/2! (Ahem, the boys could really care less about being potty trained - it's all on their terms.) Food would have NEVER been eaten food off of the floor or she would have NEVER run around in a wet or dirty diaper. GEEZ...both of these things happen on a daily basis now!

Anyway, I've decided that the cribs are truly about to fall apart. The boys may not be climbers, but they are definitely JUMPERS!! Cade is in Brittney's old bed and Jace is in my niece's old bed. That makes each bed approximately 10 years old! All of the screws have been tightened to the point that they are stripped. These beds rattle like no one's business when they get going!

So, I've decided to go and purchase BIG boy beds tomorrow. We're going to go for twin beds that will eventually make bunk beds. I'm not brave enough to put one of them UP in a bunk bed yet...but later they will enjoy it and they will have more room.

Wish me luck! By Saturday afternoon we should be taking our first UNCONFINED nap in big boy beds!

This is really more of a test for me. I've become accustomed to the fact that when they're asleep, it's the ONE place they can't roam free. I do remember that when Brittney was first in her big girl bed, she would still lay in bed and yell for me to come and get her. I just don't see the boys doing that. I am picturing them poking me in the eyes to wake me up in the morning.

I have a feeling that naps are about to become nonexistent...especially for Jace. Cade still loves to curl up for a good nap!

Wish us luck!

Good and Bad Things About a Birthday

2007-07-12T21:06:00.000-05:00

Today is my 36th Birthday.

My morning began as I was awakened at 7 o'clock to the sound of giggling little boys in the room next to me. Once my eyes focused on the alarm clock, I realized that I had forgotten to set the alarm and I WAS LATE!! I'm usually ready by this time and getting the boys out of bed if they're awake. My mom arrives at 7:20 and I'm usually gone by 7:30.

Boy did I kick in into gear. Luckily I could just throw my hair in a clip, wash my face, throw some make-up on and throw on a reliable outfit. I was actually out the door at my usual time. I even had enough time to eat the bagel that Steve prepared for me and had happy birthday sung to me by the boys before I left.

I was greeted by some lovely traffic on the way to work....how nice!!

But once I got there, I had a small bake sale going on at my desk. There were 2 dozen donuts, a better-than-sex cake and a cookie/brownie cake that was absolutely OUT of this world.

THEN as if that wasn't enough to make me gain back the 9 pounds I've recently lost by doing Weight Watchers, they insisted on taking me out for lunch.

I LOVE the people I work with, they are GREAT and they are like my second family. They even sung Happy Birthday to me at the table...not the waiters from the restaurant, it was my co-workers who sang to me! It was a riot!

Here's me being FORCED to eat a piece of coconut birthday cake....

My best birthday present was a new camera from my family...which I desperately needed. My other one has seen better days. Plus an hour massage from my parents, which INCLUDES babysitting services!

But the absolute best present was to hear that tomorrow could be the official start of building on our new house.

We can't wait for the building to start. It gets exciting when you see all the good stuff you picked out in the design center actually going into YOUR house. But then the reality of moving and packing sinks in.... oh so much to get ready for!!

This birthday was much better than last year when my present included trading in my GMC Envoy for a mini-van!! That was tough!

Birthdays aren't a bad thing at all....I have a lot of special people in my life and I'm very thankful!

Signs of Growing UP!

2007-07-08T15:01:00.000-05:00

We've haven't officially started potty training yet. But summertime is a great time for the kids to run around in the backyard without ... ahem... any restraints!

When we fill the inflatable pool up, I always stress that there's NO PEE PEE or NO POO POO in the pool. It's absolutely amazing how the boys can get out in the nick of time to pee in the grass EVERYtime! But when we're inside, they could care less!

We've had quite a few successes on the potty. It's just that nothing has been consistent. This morning they had big boy underwear on and they both went peepee in them. But then later, Jace announced at the table that he had to pee pee and he actually made it to the bathroom to successfully complete the task. Then we all did the pee-pee dance around the house! He was so proud of himself.

Then last night, Brittney decided that she was going to fix breakfast this morning for all of us. So I woke her up when the troops were up this morning. She proceeded to mix up the pancake batter and whipped us up some "homemade" pancakes.

The pancakes were a big hit and they were actually VERY good! Of course, it's always better when someone else cooks for you. I think I can handle this part of growing up!

Life as a 9 year old!!

2007-07-05T20:55:00.000-05:00

As I've written before on the blog, my daughter is a very social little girl! I don't ever worry about her making friends or not having plans. She always has something in the works and can usually arrangement just about anything within reason.

Her cheer team mom called the other night to let us know about a team party they were planning at a new indoor game/pizza/rides-type place called ITZ. She went on to say that this place had its' own stretch Hummer limo and we could rent it for dollars a child if everyone went in on it! Brittney has been DYING to ride in a limo, so I immediately agreed to chip in!

Look at this awesome, BRIGHT, limo ride they took!

She was in heaven. She said they got to jam out to tween music while they watched the flat screen TV and had a ceiling that twinkled different color sparkles.

The rest of our crew went to hang out and pick Brittney up. I didn't think the evening would go that great because Jace decided to NOT take a nap that day. It was a chance, but we took it. It was pretty overwhelming for the boys, but they liked it. They played skee-ball, rode the horses and even agreed to ride the train. Jace was dying to ride it a second time but we couldn't convince Cade to endure the ride twice. Jace, however, ended up crying during his second turn...I think he got a little scared and his heart went beep beep (that's what they say when they get scared!)

(I had to chase a skee ball or two that made it's way off of the game.)

They watched Sissy ride a disko. It was an indoor roller coaster thing that went up higher and higher and turned around at the same time. It was kind of loud and this is what the boys looked like while watching...

They kept saying "it's Yowd"....that's 2 year old speech for "it's Loud"!

We had to pay for a buffet in order to get into this place, so we make our way down to the food and tried to get our money's worth. I think we succeeded!

Once Jace had officially had enough and thrown himself down on the floor for the third time or so, we scooped everyone up and left.

On to more examples of how "socially advanced" my daughter is....

When we get home, there are NINE messages on our answering machine. On a good day there may be 3 or 4 messages with ONE of them actually being for us. But NINE was definitely out of the ordinary. I kind of started to get worried and checked my cell phone to make sure there wasn't a family emergency of some sort. But there was nothing.

As we listened to the messages, they all seemed to be from Brittney's "boyfriend" Blake...and he was using his cell phone. I use the term boyfriend very loosely. They have simply liked each other since Kindergarten. BUT this boy has started to call the house on occasion. Steve has had a COW over this...I don't care all that much because I figure it's pretty innocent.

Each message he left, he got louder and demanded that Brittney "answer her darn phone". EXCUSE ME??? Is this a NINE year old boy talking to MY daughter like that? Steve and I are officially pissed off when we finish listening to the messages. Not only have you talked to my daughter like that, but you have done it on my home number that affects mommy and daddy now!

This boy is not very smart though. He continued to call back after we were home. When Steve answered and told him to put his mother on the phone, Blake HUNG UP ON HIM! A few more calls were made to our house, but he hung up even before we could say hello! There was approximately 15 calls from him on our caller ID that evening...with the last one being at 10:07 PM!!!!....and we were never able to get in touch with his parents. Steve and I went to bed with a little unease.

The next day he started all over again. He left 2 messages apologizing for his previous day's messages. But alas in the evening...after the 10th call or so for this new day...I answered and he actually asked for Brittney. I immediately started lecturing him on how this was not acceptable behavior and I needed to speak to his parent. He gave me her number and I repeated it. I told him he could talk to Brittney for a minute, but I was about to call his mother. Turns out he handed the phone over to his friend who was spending the night and he "broke-up" with her for Blake.

THEN the number that the little sh*t gave me wasn't his mother's at all, it was his older brother's cell phone! I was BOILING mad!

Then we started receiving more calls from his brother's number resulting in them hanging up on us.

Since these people were unlisted in every form and fashion, I put my detective nature into use. I went into our county's appraisal district website and pulled up where this little brat lived. I printed out a map on google's website and made a little trip over to his house at 10:15 PM.

You know he was pooping in his pants when I rang his doorbell at this time of the evening.

His dad ended up answering and was absolutely oblivious to the fact that all of the calls had been made. I showed him a record that I kept of all the calls and also the times. I told him I didn't appreciate the fact that his son was rude and disrespectful to my daughter, myself and my husband. He totally agreed and even made Blake come out there so I could scold him myself. My heart was absolutely pounding, but I didn't care. I wanted to show him that he needs to treat adults with respect and he didn't have the upper-hand on me.

WHEW!!! It was an exhausting evening, but I'm glad we stopped it before it got too crazy!! If all of this is happening and my daughter is only NINE...what in the world do we have to look forward to?

Happy 4th of July!!

2007-07-04T21:44:00.000-05:00

It was so nice to have a day off from work today! We got an early start this morning and headed over to the Children's Museum. The weather has been so rainy and wet and humid...I figured that we needed an indoor activity. It seems like the mornings get long and the kiddos get whiny if we don't start early.

ALL of the kiddos enjoyed themselves....heck, I did too! They have crafts to complete all throughout the museum. I ended up making all of them for the kids. Steve kept making fun of me because I seemed to be having all of the fun. We went over to the "tot" section...how cool!!!

We drove cars.....

Brittney even played along....

milked cows.....

went grocery shopping......

even did some face painting!

We stopped on our way home to eat at one of our favorite mexican restaurants. It's amazing how much easier it's getting to go out and about. All we have to do is order chips and queso and the boys are SET! Cade didn't even touch anything else and was still the last one eating!

Then we all came home and took a NAP!! It was just heavenly...I couldn't have asked for a better day.

Sitting on the Dock of the BAY!!!!

2007-06-24T15:05:00.000-05:00

We took our second official family vacation last week. Our wonderful friends, Marsha and Alan, rented a bayhouse for the week and invited us down. Brittney was there ALL week and the rest of us went down later in the week for 3 nights. (We figured we would start slow to see how the boys did away from home.) They have actually never been away from home for the night except for our trip to SeaWorld San Antonio last year and I'm still tired from that trip!

Everyone did just wonderfully. The place they rented had an elevator for Steve and everyone else that needed it. The boys had SOOO much room to run around and play. I packed their tricycles, trucks and swim diapers...they were good to go. They loved to see first hand any of crabs and fish that were caught.

We learned that Cade likes the beach and Jace doesn't. This is very interesting because Jace is more of a daredevil than Cade usually. Jace did NOT like when the waves would come up to his feet and he couldn't run away from it. He would start screaming in this little girl voice and becomed panicked! It was kind of funny, but MeMe (Marsha) finally had to take him back to the house early because he was just freaking out. He was content to kick back and swim in the baby pool.

My little girl started the week off as a girly girl who didn't want to get dirty. By the time we left, she was first in line to bait Steve's fishing hook, check the crab traps and couldn't wait to get dirty in the beach water. She even rode a little motorcycle on the beach and made smores for the first time. She had SO much fun hanging out with all of her friends. Here they are with fancy umbrellas in their virgin strawberry diaquiries.

We had so much fun and hated to come back to reality. All we did was hang out (and EAT too!). I can't remember the last time I've been able to slow down and just enjoy myself.

Summer time!

2007-06-14T05:40:00.000-05:00

On Sunday we made the hour and a half trip north to drop Ms. Brittney off for camp. She was very anxious, excited, nervous. She is a very social child, as I've said before. We still can't get over the fact that even last year as an 8 year old, she went to this YMCA camp by herself, for the first time, without knowing ANYone. Their only form of communication with us is through letters. She ended up having such a good time that it was on the top of her list to do this summer.

Here we are at Sonic in the BIG town where her camp is. (you know it's a small town when your choices to eat are either Dairy Queen or Sonic). This was her last meal with us before checking in. This is my nephew Justin, he was staying with us for the weekend. So I made him join me in case we had any toddler meltdowns.

So from the one letter I've received, she is having a wonderful time.

The part about Christina is hilarious. I'm glad that she classifies her best friends on a daily basis. But other than that, camp must be GOOD and GREAT (as she so eloquently puts it).

But life goes on without BritBrat at the Kearley household.... yesterday was paw-paw's birthday. (my dad) . So, we went to eat at Gringo's. It was sooo good. Cade was in heaven. All you have to do is get that boy some queso and chips and you won't hear a peep out of him the entire time. Jace ended up having 3 ice cream cones. These boys are not shy when it comes to eating.

I think my dad had a good 63rd birthday. He's still a young man and just 2 years away from retirement....He can't wait!

Jace is starting this awkward smile thing. He's saying cheese and closing his eyes. It's so cute! I remember when Brittney used to do this when she was little. She was such a camera hog though...still is, come to think of it.

See what I mean?

Brittney comes home on Saturday. We miss you Sissy! Hurry home!!

Been WAY too long!

2007-06-09T23:26:00.000-05:00

I can't believe I haven't updated my blog since MOTHER'S DAY!!!! Oh my goodness.

So much has gone on....So much to share.

First starters, we've decided to take the plunge and build a bigger house! We've been discussing the idea of moving into a bigger house since the boys came along. Our little 2300 square feet, 3 bedroom home was perfect when we had a family of 3, but now we are busting out at the seams around here. We could never settle on a location though. We found a HUGE one story plan years ago that we LOVED, but it wasn't being built anywhere around us. Then, last year they started clearing out the area behind our house. It took them forever. Matter of fact it's been a year to date and they have finally starting building homes. It's a lovely gated community that will definitely keep our property values high! AND, cue the singing angels.........they are building the exact 3100 square foot floorplan that we spotted years ago!! It's just a sign to me that it's meant to be.

The thought of the actual process of packing and moving makes me sick to my stomach. BUT it's just a small price to pay. The lot we bought is literally a 2 minute walk away. An added bonus is that Brittney will go to the same schools. Now, we just need to find a money tree somewhere, sell our house, and magically snap our fingers to have the moving process DONE.

Moving onto the kiddos. We've had BIG developments the past couple of days. I received a call at work the other day from JACE, yes my 2 1/2 year old son JACE, to tell me that he went poo poo on the potty. He was so proud. Apparently they were playing in their pool outside (in their birthday suits) and Jace was a little tooty. My mom asked him if he needed to go poo poo and he quickly answered YES. So they all headed into the bathroom to watch him poop. Well, being the typical man that he is...he ordered everyone out so he could have some privacy. Nana listened to him grunt from the other side of the door and heard his progress "plop" into the toilet. The reason I say she heard it is because as soon as Cade entered the bathroom to view his brother's accomplishment he said "yucky poo-poo" and flushed it away! No one actually saw it, but there was evidence it existed.

The SAME situation happened this evening. This time we got to witness it and we let HIM flush it after doing the obligatory "poo-poo" dance. I don't know if this is the beginning of potty training or what. I had actually thought the boys may start kindergarten in diapers still. They just have NO interest whatsoever until this popped up.

All I can say is "COOL........."

Ms. Brittney is off tomorrow to a YMCA camp for an entire week! She went last year and absolutely loved it. I won't be able to talk to her AT ALL except by letters. No phones, no email, no computers, no electronic games. Wow, what an eye opener for her. But they take a ton of pictures throughout the day and download them every night to their website for the parents to view. As long as I can see her having a good time, I'm alright.

I can't believe that I've been blogging for almost a year now. This is my 96th entry. That's a pretty pathetic rate of publication. I just can't seem to squeeze it in at the end of the day anymore. I think the days have gotten shorter. Surely I'm not getting older or anything!

A few more important items. Steve finally graduated with his masters in Administration. He's in the process of looking for a position as an Assistant Principal. His current school has a few openings and he hopes to get hired on there. We'll see.

We had a huge graduation party for him last weekend. It was soooo much fun! Boy was it hot though. What else should kids do when they're at a graduation party and they're hot? Well, get on the trampoline with the hose. That makes it good and slippery. But why stop there? Ask your mom for some dishwashing soap to lather it up and make it REALLY slippery!

I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw this going on in my backyard. They had a blast though. Later that night several of the kids broke out with a rash. Maybe an entire bottle of Palmolive will do that to you.

We went to see Stevie Nicks after Steve's graduation party. When we got home to relieve Steve's mom of her babysitting duties, we found a house that was 82 degrees and not budging. Needlesstosay after a very LONG night where the temperature never went below 82 degrees, we had to call someone out to fix our air conditioner. Keep in mind it was Sunday morning and I was scared to see how much someone could charge us for that. BUT we were willing to pay ANY amount to stop the pain. I didn't realize how spoiled we are when our air conditioning is functioning correctly. So, a mere $360 later we had air. OH...lovely air.

Isn't the timing kind of strange that the day before we put money down on our new lot, our air conditioning goes on the blink. We decided to ignore it and move on. All systems are still GO!

Happy Mother's Day!

2007-05-13T22:37:00.000-05:00

I must first pay honor to my mother. She does SO much for me...always has and still continues to do so. She is a very strong, loving, and nurturing woman. She has given me and my family so much love and attention. I hope that I can one day repay her. I just like to say that I have an ongoing bill that will never be closed.

My mother's day was actually celebrated on Wednesday. My wonderful hubby went out of town for the weekend for rugby training. It really wasn't that big of a deal for me. I mean he did get me a wonderful new purse from the kids.

I spent the morning with my parents. We headed over to Market Square in the Woodlands and ate at Potbelly's. The boys really liked it because they had a guy playing a guitar. Jace kept telling us over and over that there was a guitar, like we didn't know or something.

It was a beautiful day so headed over to the water fountains and let the kids play. I was surprised that my boys were very hesitant at playing in the water. Cade was actually the first to head over to them and Jace couldn't resist after a while. Cade may turn into a future soccer player. He insisted on kicking all of the water shooting out.

Then we went for ice cream and called it a day. It was a little toasty outside and the boys were pooped.

We headed home for them to take a nap. When they woke up, we immediately packed up and headed over to my mother-in-law's house. She was nice enough to get me an hour massage for Mother's Day AND volunteered to watch the kids. So I jumped at the chance! It was absolutely wonderful. I think it was undoubtedly the best massage I've ever had too!

I think this is my the best Mother's Day to date for me! How couldn't it have been? Check out these little faces.

(In the one picture, I told the boys to get closer together. I suggested that they touch their heads together. They thought it was absolutely hilarious.)

I'm SOOO thankful for my Mother. I also SOOO thankful for my wonderful family. I have the opportunity to raise 3 amazing children. I think they are already pretty amazing. They are all such unique little people and I can't wait for the next chapters of their childhood to unfold.

The Art of Manipulation

2007-05-11T22:09:00.000-05:00

The boys are at a new phase in their 2 1/2 years of life. They recently have learned the art of manipulation.

Bedtime is not their favorite time of day anymore (it's still mine!). They like to prolong it as long as they can.

We have a routine...we start with a bath. (They usually enjoy this and have begun to want to stay in longer). Then for some reason their bath causes them to be rejuvenated! So by the time I chase them down to put on a diaper and dress them in their pjs (which Jace insists on wearing his Lightning McQueen ones for the 3rd day in a row now...of course Nana has been nice enough to wash each time) I'm usually sweating.

Then we take our nighttime medicine (Singulair) and they usually insist on one last snack. WHICH by the way Jace can now open the childproofed pantry doorknob (I'm screwed now).

At our house we are constantly saying "One more, then NO more". They usually do very good once they are told this is the last time. It seems to make it clear in their little minds that there is no more after this one!

Then we head back into the bathroom to brush their teeth while they enjoy turning the water on FULL blast. Jace is pretty good at doing it himself, but Cade likes for me to "help" him PLUS he likes to drink the water out of my "cupped" hand.

Once we're finished with all of THAT, we start saying our goodnights. We must tell Daddy good night and give 2 kisses and 2 hugs....(b/c of one more, then no more)....then we go down to Sissy's room and give 2 kisses and 2 hugs. Now they insist on Brittney coming into their room to say their nighttime prayers with them.

We all must kneel down and say "now I lay me down to sleep" 2 times. (one more, then no more). Then I put Jace in his crib first - where I must cover him the correct way and receive a hug and kiss. Next is Cade...same thing. Before I walk out I usually have to give one more hug and kiss but then it's ONE MORE, NO MORE!

If anything is out of order, I don't hear the end of it. One night I was so tired b/c the nighttime ritual was going so slow I skipped brushing their teeth. As I was leaving their room Jace was yelling "teeth, teeth". I ended up raising my voice saying "no teeth tonight, I love you, go nigh-nigh". Am I the mother of the year or what? Here is my 2 year old lecturing me on oral hygiene. I was just exhausted though.

Sometimes I feel manipulated, but who can resist one more hug and one more kiss from such adorable little ones.

When Steve is out of town, it is hard because telling him goodnight is part of the routine. How dare him make life harder for me!

Ashlea's Birthday Party

2007-05-01T22:27:00.000-05:00

My niece turned 6 and had her birthday party this past Saturday. Luckily my sister-in-law also has Trae, an almost 2 year old, and planned to have Ashlea's party at 6:00 p.m. It allowed the boys to get a good nap in and be refreshed before the party began.

It was at an indoor gym that holds classes for all ages and also home to a competitive cheer team. I mean that covered ALL of our bases. The boys were THOROUGHLY entertained and so was Brittney.

They had a huge "mountain" of stairs covered with plush carpet. Jace and Cade were in heaven climbing all around. They had slides, rope swings and a "foam" pit. Jace absolutely LOVED for me to toss him up as high as I could into the pit. They also had trampolines all over the place that were ground level. So that translates into...Jace and Cade wouldn't go flying off of any trampolines. They jumped and jumped and jumped.

At one point in the party, all of my kids were huffing and puffing. They had so much room to run around, do back hand-springs, and just burn off all kinds of energy. Cade, of course, made time to eat in between all of the playing. He is definitely my child. Then Jace also proved to be my child. He was covered from head to toe in icing and ice cream at the end of the party. Cade wanted nothing to do with it. Strange, I know.

My camera batteries were practically dead, so all of the pictures turned out kind of weird.

What a great time we all had. Daddy even made it to the party. He's been out of town for Ashlea's last few parties. We both enjoyed seeing all of the kids have such a good time.

First Trip to the Beach

2007-04-21T21:50:00.000-05:00

Today was the first trip to the beach for the boys. We packed up the van and headed out to Galveston to visit my boss and his family at their new beachhouse. Steve was out of town for a rugby tournament. Their beachhouse is 3 stories and the beach really isn't very wheelchair friendly, so we opted to make the trip without him.

My boss and his wife had their 3rd child, Emma, 6 weeks before I had the boys. We haven't really had a chance to get the kiddos together. Emma is such a doll and with 2 older brothers is such a tomboy but still sweet and caring as a little girl should be. How cute are they? I wonder which one of the boys will want to have Emma as their girlfriend down the road.

The boys got a new toy yesterday that has kept them extremely busy. I hope that these Tonka trucks hold up with all the wear and tear that they're going to receive. I'm glad that I decided to bring them along.

Cade wasn't crazy about the water, but he let me hold him and at least touch his feet in the oncoming waves. Jace just ran from me screaming "no, no!" He was quite content to push his truck and the wagon all around the beach. It was so secluded and the boys just ran and ran and ran all afternoon.

Some of my favorite shots of the day are when the boys decided to go up and down the bridge leading to the beach. We did that over and over and over again. If they were happy, I was happy.
Brittney had fun occupying Emma. She has NO fear when it comes to the water. She absolutely loves it. Here she is receiving her "mud-wrap" spa treatment. (The boys kept saying, YUCK...poo poo. Isn't it a little reversed that my BOYS were saying this to a little GIRL?)

We had such a good time, the weather was PERFECT and their house (and their company) was so nice. I hope we'll be back this summer!

Individuality

2007-04-14T21:40:00.000-05:00

I'd like to take a minute and document some of the things each of my children are doing right now, so I will always remember what life was like at this time in our lives.

Let's start with the youngest....Jace. Little Jacey Poo.
Jace is the outgoing twin. He will tell you "HI" all day long. Even if he goes into another room, when he returns he always greets me with a big smile and a "HI"! We had some dirt put underneath our trampoline because it was yucky and mildewy from rain over the past year. The poor guy who had to unload each and every wheelbarrow full of dirt got greeted by Jace EVERY time he passed. AND it wasn't just once, it was at least 3 hi's at once...multiply that by each trip, I would've wanted to strangle Jace by that point. The gentleman just smiled and told him "hi" back each time.

Jace is so easy to read. If he's grumpy you can tell by his facial expressions. He's just started to pout his lip and hide his face if he's upset. He is VERY vocal now. He can repeat just about anything you tell him to. Somethings he repeats even if you don't want him to. He still gives the sweetest hugs (with a pat on the back) and will cry at nighttime if he doesn't get his last hug and kiss from me, Steve AND Brittney. He's such a little lover.

With all of that being said though, he also has the hottest temper. He can throw a fit like no one's business. He has a harder time than Cade with transition. He doesn't want anything that's fun to EVER end. He has a contagious giggle that you can not help but laugh at. He likes to tickle all of us and he actually thinks it is funnier than we do.

We play a game where we say "Jace is so sad.......now he's happy!". Jace can't even do the sad face (Cade definitely can) because he's always smiling!

Now on to Cade....

Cade is a momma's boy. He doesn't care what we do as long as we are together. He enjoys just sitting in my lap, snuggling with me, just ANY kind of physical contact with me. Don't get me wrong, he loves his daddy and grandparents too, but it's all about mama.

He isn't as outgoing as Jace, but he's coming along - thanks to school. When he gets upset and/or tired, he loves to get his binky. It's very comforting to him and I'm not ready to take it away from him.

Cade is the more mature twin. He may not talk as much as his brother, but he can definitely get his point across. He also understands when you explain things to him. I can tell him that we can't go outside until we put his shoes on and brush his teeth. He will then go into the bathroom to brush his teeth and bring me his shoes.

Now granted he is not a perfect child. He can also throw a good fit. Let's take today for example. He wanted to go bye-bye but we weren't going bye-bye until Daddy got home. He must have told me 100 times in an hour that he wanted to go bye-bye. I kept telling him not until daddy gets home, but he is a very strong headed child. VERY STRONG HEADED CHILD. He laid down on his stomach, kicking his feet and wailing on 2 different occasions. He even went into the naughty chair and when it was time to get out the first thing he said to me was "go bye-bye".

He is very picky about his food though. He needs to have his food either in the right bowl or in the wrapper just so. He loves to eat. Matter of fact, it's the one word that he says clear as day so there's never any confusion as to what he wants. He's an eater and can snack all day plus eat when it's mealtime.

He gives some sweet hugs and kisses too. His little overbite smile just melts my heart (and it constantly reminds me how much I'm going to have to fork over for orthodontic work down the road). He is a very facial little boy. He can do hilarious eyebrow looks, sad eyes and also happy faces. We have deemed any "attitude" looks as a "Cade look".

Then let's move onto my growing "little" girl Brittney. She is truly an adult trapped in a nine year old's body and always has been. I love that I can already spend quality "girl time" with her when the boys are asleep or special time on the weekends. She's more like Cade in the fact that she's a momma's girl. She loves to act silly and just be close to me. Whenever Steve is out of town, she's always right next to me in my bed.

She has a great group of friends, she's never had any problems making friends. I can't believe how much drama is involved with 9 year old little girls though. She has a friend or two that are the typical "Eddie Haskel" types. I can tell them from a mile away and unfortunately she has been dealing with one of them in particular since first grade. It's hard for me to see her upset by them. I know she'll have to deal with people just like this in life, but it just seems SO early! I just hope she's learned from our examples of what is the right and wrong way to treat people.

I can't wait to see all 3 of them grow up into confident, loving and independent adults. I think we have a good start.

So Much to Catch up on......

2007-04-08T22:53:00.000-05:00

Sorry for my lack of posts...it's definitely NOT because of the lack of things to post about that's for sure. It's due purely to the lack of time. I vow to at least post once a week, but last weekend Mother Nature didn't participate. We woke up last Saturday morning to a horrible thunderstorm and NO lights. Let me repeat that. Steve was out out of town, Brittney was at a friend's house and I was alone with 2-2 1/2 year olds and there were NO LIGHTS.

(This is them watching the rain fall, playing with flashlights and listening to a battery-powered radio...fun, fun).

Can you imagine how many times that 2 and a half year olds ask for the lights ("YIGHTS") to be turned on? and can you possible imagine how many times they ask for the Wiggles to be turned on? It's not even possible to count. The first 2 hours were ok. It wasn't hot, I was able to cook breakfast and we pretended to be camping with our flashlights. After that, I lost interest and so did the boys. I called Brittney at her friends house who was a mere 5 minutes away and they were fine with electricity. Then I called my mom, a mere 15 minutes away and they were fine. What's the luck? So we packed up and headed to Nana's.

Once we made a complete mess of Nana's house, I called the house and heard the answering machine pick up (I'm smart like that) and knew that we had electricity. We were out for about 7 hours. Good lord, what did they do in the "old days"?

Needlesstosay, we didn't get internet connection up and going for another couple of days and I got sucked back into day-to-day exhausting life.

Within this two week span of no-postings, Brittney's cheer gym has closed and she attended try-outs at a new, bigger, WAY more expensive but oh-so-much better place. This gym doesn't mess around and they are HUGE.

Brittney came down sick with an ear infection and sinusitis on Monday. Guess who got sick on Thursday..little Cadey Poo! Jace started his antics on Friday and I started feeling like crap yesterday. So Steve is destined to be the next one. We just can't catch a break. But going from 80 degree weather to 40 degree weather in a couple of days doesn't help us out much.

As I type this at 11:00 p.m., I can still hear the sounds of little boys awake in their cribs. I don't know how they haven't learned to climb out or WHY they haven't done so. I read so many horror stories about kids doing this! But they've been awake in their cribs for going on 3 hours now. I've gone in there 3 times. The first 2 were sweet...they wanted kisses and hugs and to be covered up again. The 3rd time Cade had absolutely SHREDDED a book in his crib and onto the floor.

I guess it's due to all the chocolate and excitement we had in the house today. We hosted Easter dinner this year. ALL of the kiddos were wound UP today.

There's excitement on Easter....

you have Chocolate for breakfast, lunch and dinner in our house...

you have lots of Easter eggs to hunt with your cousins..... (By the way, this is the first year Brittney wanted to HIDE the eggs instead of HUNT them.) She's just growing up so fast.

More to come...when time permits.

Birthday Party!

2007-03-25T06:51:00.000-05:00

My friend's little boy just turned 3! Little Sammy is definitely growing up. We got invited to his CARS themed birthday party. Since I haven't been able to catch up with Jennifer lately and the boys all-time favorite movie is CARS, we decided we HAD to go. Steve was out of town so I took the trio myself.

It was so nice! Jennifer had rented a CARS moon walk, had CARS stuff all over the place, and there was food galore. They have such a great set-up. She and her husband just sold their house and are living in her parent's garage apartment until their house is built. To tell you the truth, I wouldn't mind living there AT ALL either! It's on an acre of land and it is SO well kept. There's SO much room for the kids (and adults) to move around.

Here's a few snapshots from yesterday......

This is the birthday boy Sammy. I just can't tell you have well-behaved this little boy is. He speaks like an 8 year old....plain as day and at 90 mph. He is just adorable.

We ended up staying all afternoon. Cade and Jace were in heaven. You should've see all of the fun "boy" stuff that Sammy had. I kept asking them if they were ready to go and they would emphatically reply "NO, NO" and start shaking their heads. So I figured what's the difference in playing at someone else's house versus going home and playing there. BONUS that I got to have adult conversations with my friends!!

Brittney even met up with some kids her age and joined in the chorus for "NO, NO...I don't want to leave."All of the kiddos were exhausted after the long day we had. So my mission was accomplished!

Nightime Ritual

2007-03-23T20:30:00.000-05:00

We have started a nightime ritual here at the Kearley household. Since we haven't really attended church on a regular basis, I decided about a month ago that the boys needed to start saying a nighttime prayer.

So after the boys' bath, we always get dressed...have one more drink before bedtime...brush our teeth...then we head off to their bedroom. They kneel down onto their football rug and put their precious little hands together to say "Now I lay Me Down to Sleep". They usually jibber jabber the words in the same rythmic way that I say it and repeat "AMEN " at the end.

Oh how it melts my heart!

Then they ask for "MO, MO"... so I say "one more time, then NO more" and we have to say it all over. Then kisses are blown all over the room to their baptismal crosses hanging on the wall and the crucifix hanging above their door...and they tell Jesus nigh-nigh.

Once I put Jace into his bed, then Cade....I hear from Jace "I lub you" ... "bye-bye". Cade gives me a big boy kiss (a kiss without his binky) and says "lo you". I have to wait for him to lay on his tummy so I can cover him up with his blanket and briefly rub his back. He loves it!

I can still hear them yelling these things out over and over as I'm leaving the room. I can't help but smile when I walk out the door.

I can remember when Brittney was their age. I had to tuck her in tight-as-a-bug-in-a-rug and ALWAYS rub her back.

Look at the picture I found while I was decorating for Easter this year. My how time has flown. It's hard to remember when it was just me, Steve and little Brittney.

How our life has changed! I can't imagine our family any other way now!

s th

Toddler Outings

2007-03-20T22:32:00.000-05:00

Now that I'm working downtown, I don't have all my "normal" places to go and run errands during my lunchtime. So, I've become like every other mother in America and I've started to take the kids out in public more on the weekends.

Doesn't that sound weird? I mean for God's sake, they are 2 1/2 years old. They have been so sheltered in that time span. I've never been one to load up everyone in order to get things accomplished...that's kind of an oxymoron in our family. I've always had other options and could always arrange to go places without them just because it's such a hassle. But, I'm realizing that they are at an age where they can listen and understand. I have to give them a little pep talk in the van before we go into a store. It usually goes something like "now when we get into the store, there will be no wah-wah, ok?" I wait until I get a collective "no wah-wah" and then we're off. (They seem to understand this for some reason.)

This weekend, we went to gymnastics class (as usual), to the park and to The Home Depot. We were in the clear as far as tantrums go until we got to Home Depot. The shopping carts were right next to the riding lawnmowers. Jace had a cow because he wanted so badly to get on and "drive" them. I didn't really have the time to start something that could have gone on for hours so I refused to let him sit on them. He whined on and off throughout the whole shopping trip but it soon stopped when I bribed him with some lemonade at the check-out counter.

Here's some pictures of the boys enjoying the park. Cade loved the slide.

Jace has a new talent. He knows that Nana drives a Toyota Sequoia and he can spot those things like no one's business. But now, he can spot just the Toyota emblem on ANY kind of vehicle. He's constantly saying "there's Nana". I was really quite impressed that he paid that much attention to small details. Here he is spotting Toyota's in the park's parking lot. (don't you love the hand on the hip?)

I have one picture to leave with ... this is the best $1.97 x 2 that I've ever spent. The bubble tumbler entertained them all weekend and is still continuing to do so.

We're still ALIVE...barely!

2007-03-15T21:23:00.000-05:00

Well, I survived my first two weeks of working downtown. Of course in my first week there, I had to leave in order to take the boys to the dr. They were sooo sick.

They BOTH had double ear infections, bronchitis, and some sort of parasite (their diapers were just disgusting...worse than the usual). They got a steroid shot, steroids to put into their breathing treatments twice a day, antibiotics, decongestants and cough medicines. I feel like they are being pumped up with so much medicine, but they are SOOO much better. We could tell a difference within a day.

Now, he wants us to go see the ENT about getting a 2nd set of tubes. I'm pretty bummed about this because I wanted to put them in swimming lessons. But what can you do??? I'll put that on the ever growing list of things to do.

Spring Break is this week also. My daughter is just a busy little bee. She planned herself a fun-filled week...spending the night with different friends and then with Granny, plus going to movies and inside entertainment places (skating and Main Event) because the weather has been horrible. Today was much better and absolutely beautiful. Maybe I'll actually be able to see her soon. She just comes and goes and I seem to keep missing her.

I have decided to have our family's Easter celebration at my house. So that will keep me busy getting the house and yard in order. I wanted to have it here so we only have one place to go that day. It gets exhausting going to each side of the family in one day PLUS having to allow time for a small nap. My kids are absolute bears without a nap. Speaking of naps, they have been sleeping for an average of 3 hours in the afternoon. Today it was almost 4. THEN they are still tired when it's time for bed. I'm not complaining by any means, I'm just saying. They must be going through a growth spurt.

Speaking of growing, Cade officially outweighs his brother by one pound. They weighed them at the doctor last week. Cade has been the lighter of the two since birth. I totally believe it too. Cade is the pig of the family and is always wanting a snack. He is cursed with my genes and has a shorter, stockier build to his body. Jace takes after Steve and has a longer torso. He just looks so much taller and leaner than Cade these days.

They are truly growing up.

My camera is ready, I just need to go and pick it up! So, no pictures for this post. It's just one more thing to do..........

Allergies Stink!

2007-03-08T21:15:00.000-06:00

The weather in Houston right now is unpredictable. I will turn the air conditioner on before we go to bed b/c it's a little stifling inside. Then when I wake up in the morning and flip the switch over to the heater.

It's no wonder that we've all been a bit under the weather. Plus all of the flowers and trees are confused as to what season it is. They're already starting to bloom and thus the allergies start for me.

Cade had a sinus infection 2 weeks ago and Jace had yet another ear infection along with croup. They just finished one round of antibiotics (which is always lovely to their stomach and their poor little rear ends) and now they need another one. Cade could barely breath tonight because he could not stop coughing.

I honestly could open a pharmacy at my house. I have so many prescriptions for decongestants, albuterol, xeponex, cough medicine....you name it. I always call my doctor to inform him of the self-medicating I'm doing. He usually agrees with everything and I only have to take the kids in if it's beyond my medical capability such as an infection.

It's pretty sad that now the boys will sit totally by themselves to do a nebulizer treatment. They've been doing them on and off since they were 4 months old. (We actually own 3 breathing machines...sad, I know). I really think we need to test them for asthma.

Hopefully we'll get better soon. Next week is Spring Break! At least Brittney and Steve have Spring Break, I only wish I did.

This past weekend, we attended the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo to see Hannah Montana and the Cheetah Girls. There was a new record crowd there....something along the lines of 73,000 people. Can you imagine the lines we had to wait in? It was insane!!!! They sold out of t-shirts....every single shirt they had in the arena was SOLD! We were lucky enough to at least get a Cheetah Girl shirt (even though they wanted Hannah Montana the most). I took Brittney and 2 of her friends, Lexi and Cassie. They had a GREAT time eating all kinds of junk, riding carnival rides and listening to their 2 favorite singing groups. The park and ride bus that we took in order to AVOID traffic had an hour and a half wait after the concert. We didn't get home until 11:45 p.m. Sunday night. Monday morning came along too quickly! But at least we enjoyed it.

I wish I had some pictures, but on the way to the rodeo my camera was acting up. I stopped by Best Buy and they had to send it in for repair. So, I didn't take a single picture.

I just love their little PJs. I wish I could wear them and look as cute!

Where have I been?

2007-02-24T21:59:00.000-06:00

I can't believe it's been so long since I last posted. AND I don't see any changes in the near future.

The small company I work for has been acquired by a much larger one. We have been issued new laptops and new blackberries. This would normally be great...but now my internet viewing is non-existent. There are so many rules and regulations that we're not accustomed to, but boy are we learning quickly. There's a "web-marshall" and several "web-deputies". I thought they were just names, but these people really exist...I met them. They are not well-liked in the company.

So not to bore you with all the details, but our on-going "transition" has been pure hell. Everything about this change is great....salary, benefits, people, future advancement. There's only ONE little thing that we are not crazy about. We have to drive into downtown Houston now. I used to have a measly 15 minute commute to work, now that has been replaced by a minimum of 45 minutes. I'm just glad my boss now will still be my immediate supervisor and is totally cool with my homelife responsibilities.

Anyway, I need to work and I'd be STUPID to pass up this incredible opportunity that's been handed to me. I'm just going to have to deal with it.

So you'll be seeing much less from me on the blog.

But SO much has happened. We've been SO busy! Brittney has been involved in a lot of activities, the boys are getting cuter and cuter and also more difficult to deal with on a daily basis.

As far as dealing with 2 year olds goes, I feel I'm capable to handle quite a bit. But something has overcome my sweet innocent little angel boys....it's a certain word known as MINE. This word is very powerful to me. I can not STAND to hear them fighting and yelling MINE. My fuse is so short and I immediately start yelling myself. I hate that it affects me in such a negative way and I'm TRYING to deal with it, but Lord give me strength........SERENITY NOW!!!

Onto the adult-life at the Kearley household. Last weekend we had so much fun! We had some friends in from out of town. She had just been accepted for an intership in Alaska and Steve had just finished taking his comprehensive final for his college courses....we had a lot to celebrate. So we hired a babysitter Saturday night and we all went to a tattoo place. Yes, that's right....a tattoo place. Steve and our friend Leah had BIG plans to get tattoos. (He's been wanting another one for awhile now. She had too!)

I just realized I don't have a finished version of his to show you, but here's one DURING the procedure.
Here's HER finished product.

There was some GOOD people watching to do at this tattoo place. This was the customer service manager of the store. (Her husband was the owner - who is doing Steve's tattoo). She was actually really nice and really cute. She has been been a featured model in several tattoo magazines.
I'm SO out of this world, but it was neat to "visit" for one night. I got lots of peer pressure to get a tattoo, but I just don't know what I would get. I don't like anything enough to permanently tattoo it to my body.

Then we headed over to a karaoke bar to meet up with more friends. I was doubtful when we first walked in this place. But after a few drinks, we warmed up to the place and ended up having SO much fun. We closed it down at 2 a.m. I can't remember the last time I've done that.

Anyway, here's a picture of my boyfriend that I met at the karaoke bar. (Steve was SO jealous....ha ha!)

He performed "Home Sweet Home" by Motley Crue (Steve's favorite song, by the way). Before he went on stage, he asked ME (see, I told you he was my boyfriend) if he could hand out lighters to our table to hold up while he sang. We were honored.

Let me just tell you, he could really sing....but BOY did he take his karaoke seriously! He not only brought his own microphone and microphone stand complete with material tied to it like Aerosmith, he also had FIREWORKS on his belt that he pulled out at a certain part of the song. We thought that maybe our lighters were malfunctioning when he did his firework thing. It was so weird.

As awesome as he was at karaoke, it was sad to see that he was such a LOSER. I'm sure he attends every weekend. The guys running the karaoke machine seemed to know him.

Well, here's a few pictures of my boys this evening playing in the MUD. They were happy as could be. I just figured that they were going straight to the bathtub anyway.

I must go, this weekend is our LAST cheer competition and we have to be there at 6:45 a.m. YES, that's right. This will require me to get up by 4 a.m. in order to get ourselves ready.

Happy Valentine's Day

2007-02-14T10:12:00.000-06:00

I just want to wish everyone a Happy Valentine's Day. Here is my whole little family, of which I am SO proud.

(ok...so maybe this was a Christmas picture we took, but it also fits the Valentine requirements....RED!)

Have a great day!

Ready for the Sun!

2007-02-12T10:03:00.000-06:00

I am ready for Spring and Summer to come. Please come and rescue us from this nasty dreary weather we have been having. It's been cold and damp for the past 5 days or so. The sun was out in the beginning of last week but hasn't made a reappearance since.

I've mentioned before that my boys LOVE OUTSIDE. They are tired (and I am tired...and Nana is tired) of keeping them cooped up indoors. Plus we have a stomach virus epidemic going around Brittney's school and the surrounding areas. I'm not too keen on getting the boys out to go and catch new germs. No thank you. Right now, knock on wood, we're all okay.

So, this weekend was pretty boring. Although we deserve a boring weekend after all the travel and excitement of last weekend. I needed to just chill.

Jace and Cade, however, did not get that memo. They decided to get up at an ungodly time yesterday morning. I think I heard Cade freaking out around 5 or 5:15. I went to rescue him from waking up Jace and brought him in bed with us. This is always a mistake...he thinks we're having a party in there. He never went back to sleep.

Jace woke up on his own at 5:45. They were BOTH so cranky and so was I. By 7 o'clock Cade had so many breakdowns that we decided to put him back into his bed. He apparently just needed a little "me" time (I know the feeling). He was in a much better mood after about 15 minutes of quiet time.

But the morning was L-O-N-G..........

Brittney entertained the boys in her room for a little while. They came out looking like this.......

We have way too many of these blackmail pictures now. I can't believe Cade participated. Normally he sits back and watches his brother act like a fool.

The movie Cars is my new HERO! They are totally fascinated with this movie and can literally sit in their chairs (with a snack and a drink) for about 20-30 minutes. That's enough time for me to take a bath and get myself dressed. It's Wonderful and saved me yesterday. (I actually LOVE this movie too...it's so cute!)

They ended up sleeping for4 hours in the afternoon. I, of course, didn't get to enjoy the quiet time at home. I had a hair appointment and Brittney and Steve were the designated babysitters. BUT, the boys never knew I was even gone...they slept for so long.

I can guarantee you that if I was home, they would've only taken an hour nap or so.

They got to go outside for a little bit last night, but still......WE'RE READY FOR THE SUN!

2007-02-09T22:38:00.000-06:00

As promised, here's a fuzzy but yet video clip of our parent team hard work!

I'm the first one out of the shoot...after that I move all over the place. (We're totally mocking the facial expressions that our girls make out there on the floor. We know we're not all that!)

Jacey Poo

2007-02-08T09:12:00.000-06:00

I talked about just Cade in an earlier post, so now I'm moving on to Jace.

Jace is a little Steve. He looks just like him, he acts just like him and he's going to be trouble just like him! He is definitely the more outgoing one.

Jace is like a switch....he's either ON or OFF. Such is true about his voice volume...it's either ON or OFF. As hard as we've tried to work to work on his "inside" voice, we've had no luck. I know the MINUTE Jace is awake in his crib. I can always hear him through my wall.

Jace's belly laugh can make anyone smile....his mother-day-out teachers have even said it. He always like to make the other kids in their class laugh by being silly at lunchtime.

He has the biggest, juiciest lips that you can NOT resist trying to smooch on. When he lays a kiss on you....oh, it's just too much. It just melts my heart. PLUS when he gives out hugs, he pats your back. It's so sweet.

He's been developing his speech in the last few weeks. When we returned home from our weekend trip, Steve showed me how he liked to sing "Mr. Sun" with him.

This video showcases his little voice in addition to showing off their new teeter totter. Which I might mention Jace LOVED, but he loved it so much and went so high that Cade got scared and hasn't gotten his courage back up to try it with Jace again.

I don't know what I'd do without my little Jacey Poo. He can definitely brighten my day just by looking at me or just by saying his infamous little "hi". (He says this non-stop throughout the day. It doesn't matter how many times you see him, he will always say HI!)

We Survived!!!

2007-02-06T15:44:00.000-06:00

The anticipation is over with .... for me, at least. Our parent team performance went off with only a few flaws.

All I can say is that I have a newfound respect for Brittney and her teammates when it comes to cheerleading. Now granted, I have 26 years on her and things are easier for her to do. But still, it is a LOT of hard work. I seriously thought I was going to pee in my pants when we were waiting to come out on the floor. They had all of the lights down and spotlights were EVERYwhere. This thing was even televised...or at least it WILL be televised in March sometime. Cheer Power puts on a huge production for this competition and they hand out the coveted leather jackets for first place teams.

The parent teams weren't judged, it was just for fun. Of course we were ranking everyone that we saw. We weren't the best, but we definitely weren't the worst either. Most of our competition was coming from huges gyms with tons of coaches. Our gym only has 2 teams and 4 coaches. So we did good with what we had to work with.

Anyway, I bought a copy of the performance from a company selling DVDs at the competition. BUT, I can not figure out how to upload it because of the type of file it's saved as. I have my company's IT guy working on it and I promise to post it as soon as it's available.

On to Brittney's team......they had 21 teams in their division. It was really ridiculous to have this many teams. The competition was phenomenal! I won't admit to what place they got, but it wasn't last and it wasn't first. It was somewhere in between. They were pretty bummed but still had a wonderful time.

I asked Brittney what her favorite part of the entire trip was and she said it was when we played a scavenger hunt game in the hotel one evening. One of the moms was smart enough to think up a game and it was a BIG hit with the girls. Then her favorite part was when she won her team's "jump-off" during one of their practices. She won the best toe-touch award.

I'm really glad the girls have such fun, but they really want to win too. I don't know why their team always gets such lousy results from the judges. The world of cheerleading is a world of its own and I don't understand all of their point systems and levels of degrees of difficulties. All I know is that the performance they gave in San Antonio wasn't bad at ALL. It wasn't their best either, but they had no major mistakes at all. Then when you have 20 other teams in the same boat, the scores get really close.

I'm a horrible mom because I barely took any pictures (the Alamodome wouldn't allow cameras). Then when we went to the Riverwalk after our performance, I still didn't have my camera. Hopefully one of the parents will send some pictures my way.

When we came home, it was SUCH a sweet greeting that we got from the boys. I swear in the 2 days I was gone they grew a foot and can actually say more words. Jace is non-stop with talking. Cade isn't too far behind him. Then after about 10 minutes of being home, reality was back! Never fails......

An Update of sorts.......

2007-02-01T23:33:00.000-06:00

The potty training thing.........it was a one time wonder. Now, Cade refuses to even sit on the potty. He prefers to get into the bathtub as the bath water is running and THEN go pee-pee. I knew it was too good to be true. He DOES continue to be dry throughout the day and absolutely HATES to have poo-poo in his diaper. So eventually we'll try again!
We've been busy re-decorating Brittney's room. Her room is pastel pink and her furniture is white-washed. We have officially redone her room in her cheer team colors........pink, black and white. We're simply adding black accents throughout the room. I surprised her last weekend by having her room rearranged and TOTALLY cleaned up and organized when she got back from staying the night with Granny. She's made her bed almost everyday this week b/c it's so organized now........
This coming weekend is the BIG cheer competition in San Antonio, TX. This is the weekend that the infamous "parent" team is performing.........that would be ME!! This competition is the BIGGEST one of the year and is held in the Alamodome. That place holds a LOT of people and I will be performing!!!!!!!! I used to be on drill team in high school and perform all the time, but that was 20 years ago!!!!!!!!!
Also, one more thing about this competition. I'm in the front for the beginning of our routine, so when we line up to come onto the floor....guess who's the first in line? That's right. ME!!! It really is like drill team all over again. I'm just older, about 20 pounds heavier and a LOT more out of shape!
We finally completed our TWO AND A HALF MINUTE routine this past weekend. That's all it is and it's taken us THREE MONTHS to learn it. And I'm not kidding when I tell you that after we do the entire routine ALL out, we are ALL sucking some serious wind. On our Sunday practice last weekend, we did the entire thing 5 times and I swear I could barely walk on Monday.
It will be a LOT of fun this weekend. It's just going to be me and Brittney and we're going to have nothing but "girl" time together. I'm looking forward to getting away. The grandmas are going to work a split shift this weekend to watch the boys. Steve will be busy with school work and rugby practice.
I'm getting Brittney out of school at 11:30 tomorrow and then we're off to lunch and then to get pedicures. Like I said........girl time this weekend.
Think about and pray for me around 11:32 a.m. on Saturday morning. That's when our parent group goes on to perform. There are 10 parent teams and we are the FIRST ones!!!! No pressure or anything........wish me luck!!!

Potty Time

2007-01-29T11:18:00.000-06:00

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

2007-01-26T13:12:00.000-06:00

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

2007-01-25T14:08:00.000-06:00

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........

2007-01-20T21:36:00.000-06:00

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

2007-01-19T22:28:00.000-06:00

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)

2007-01-16T09:21:00.000-06:00

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??

2007-01-14T12:36:00.000-06:00

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

2007-01-13T20:20:00.000-06:00

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

2007-01-11T15:36:00.000-06:00

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.........

2007-01-09T22:00:00.000-06:00

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!

2007-01-05T21:54:00.000-06:00

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!

2007-01-02T21:44:00.000-06:00

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!!

Reminiscencing..........

2006-12-28T22:50:00.000-06:00

This past weekend I was able to visit one of my old girlfriends, Melissa. We met our freshman year of high school and were the best of friends by our sophomore year. She was my partner in crime during high school... man that girl got me in some trouble.

I like to say that I was very innocent coming to 9th grade from junior high. Heck, I was in the band in middle school, I took homemaking classes and I was on the freakin history team. (by the way....I hate history courses!) I had never drank or smoked and I had only kissed one boy, my true love...Jeff.

My freshman year I got exposed to all new people from different middle schools and they were crazy partiers!! I ended up quitting the band and joining the drill team full time, me and Jeff broke up, and I was a crazy party girl right along with Melissa and all of her friends. We had so much fun. I loved spending time with all of them. My parents couldn't get over how "social" I was and all the friends that came and went in our house. (My brother was more subdued and had just a few close CALM friends.) In their eyes I was their "wild" child.

Anyway, Melissa met Robert our sophomore year and they were inseparable (he was 2 grades ahead of us). Once he graduated, he joined the Marine corp and they continued to date. It was hard for them, but they were really serious.

Fast forward to the future......Melissa and Robert have been married for 15 years in September. Steve and I will be married for 14 on January 9th. Weird how we ended up BOTH marrying our high school sweethearts and we're still going strong.

We had such a good time visiting with them and their kids this past weekend. We've kept in touch via email throughout the years, but I hope we start doing more visits. They only live an hour and a half away!

Here's what 15 years will do to ya........(Melissa...I picked the picture that you were NOT chewing in).

Love you Missy! We had SUCH a good time visiting with all of you!

A GREAT Christmas

2006-12-26T09:40:00.000-06:00

This year Christmas was very eventful. The boys kind of got what was going on. Brittney was the most excited that I've EVER seen her get about Christmas. Maybe because she REALLY wanted a Nintendo DS and Santa was able to deliver it to her.

Her friends are trying to tell her that Santa isn't real, but I told her that if she doesn't believe then she doesn't receive!! Heck, I still believe in Santa. It's just a magical time of year.

One of my favorite Christmas memories this year was playing Christmas songs in the living room and just dancing and acting silly with the kids. Cade is such a musical kid, I love to watch him move his head back and forth. He can easily pick up on the tunes. His favorite Christmas songs were Away In A Manger and Jingle Bells.

Jace loves music too! But his favorite thing to do this Christmas was to turn the tree lights on and off. He found the one button that controls the lights underneath the treeskirt about a week after we put it up. Since then, whenever they go down for a nap or to sleep for the night he has had to turn them off. Cade, of course, learned this from his brother.

I have too many pictures to post all of them so here's my slideshow.......... Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas! We were truly blessed this year! We didn't even need to exchange presents this year because we feel like we already have everything!

Christmas Cookie Time

2006-12-18T10:37:00.000-06:00

The boys "helped" me make cookies this past weekend. Brittney was off having fun with her friend, Kaylee. They went to see Santa Claus 3, went to eat ice cream and then went shopping at Limited Too. Sounds like too much fun for her.

The boys liked rolling out the dough and using the star cookie cutter. Cade kept humming "Twinkle Twinkle Little Start" while he was cutting. It was pretty cute. Jace is definitely my child.......he was eating the dough right along with me. Cade wasn't crazy about it.

They REALLY liked decorating the cookies. Who wouldn't when there's icing and sprinkles to eat!!!???

Then Brittney and Kaylee came back from all their fun and helped us decorate the cookies. Granny stopped by too to babysit for a little while.

My little angel of a son Jace seems to have a problem with transition. I mean this to say that he can be totally fine one minute but when it's time to leave somewhere, change something, stop doing something ... whatever it is, he can't handle the change. After they had dumped the ENTIRE contents of the sprinkle containers on their cookies, I said that it was time to put the stuff away. I had let them go after it with everything, it wasn't like I was restricting what they wanted to put on the cookies. Jace ended up in the naughty chair (as usual) b/c he wasn't ready to stop.

Brittney never experienced the "terrible twos", she went insane at the age of 3. Temper tantrums, attitude, she even told me off in her own little way lots of times. We still laugh at the time that she was SO frustrated and she was stumbling for her words. All she could come up with to call me was a "um, um,.....you're a FREAKY CAT!" It was SO hard not to laugh at her as she was sent to her room for that one.

I think I'm getting a big taste of terrible two's right now. I know there's an end in sight though because I made it through being a freaky cat!! Whew....barely.

Thanks alot Lady!

2006-12-17T14:22:00.000-06:00

Yesterday Santa was in our neighborhood! We had been told tales of hot cocoa and cookies with Santa. Also that they had a "sleigh" ride for the kids to ride down the street and throw candy to surrounding houses. Then you could get your picture with Santa!

So with only 15 minutes notice.....we headed out. We had JUST finished dinner so I didn't think it would be necessary to pack a full diaper bag. I figured the cookies they were going to have with Santa would pacify them so I brought along the staples........diapers, wipes and only one sippy cup (it's all I could find at the time of leaving).

When we arrived there, all we saw was a line to take pictures with Santa. So, we got in line. The line didn't really move that fast at all. We saw our friends and chatted a bit. They were in line ahead of us and had somewhere else to be and weren't going to step back in line to wait with us. I can't say I blame them (especially since his wife is 38 weeks pregnant).

They had run out of cookies and only had cheesecake bites and brownies with the hot cocoa. But at this point, I didn't care. We were there and we were going to get a better picture of our kids with Santa.

Well, Santa was a really good Santa. BUT Santa was a very chatty Santa!!! I think it's GREAT that he was spending such quality time with each child, but try waiting in that line for an hour and see how happy the Kearley boys are to meet this man. Brittney told him her wish of getting a Nintendo DS and he gave her a test to see if she was ready for a game like that. It was cute, but come on already....there's lots of screaming back here (and it wasn't just our kids). Here's Brittney chatting it up with Santa.

So, when we finally got into the gazebo where Santa was Jace was getting VERY impatient. So the nice lady assisting Santa came over to talk to him and handed him a candy cane. My boys have never had a candy cane so I thought why not give it a try. Jace loves candy and boy did he love that candy cane. Well, the nice lady picked a blue candy cane out of ALL the candy canes she had in her lovely little basket. Cade decided that he wanted to try it too.

With all of that introduction, I give you another Kearley Christmas picture............

What treasured memories we have of Santa this year. I really appreciate the lady who was handing out candy canes. I could hear other parents behind us saying "what's with all the blue stuff?" Steve politely said (b/c the lady was within ear shot) that we had been handed a candy cane BEFORE seeing Santa. You could hear a collective sigh and giggles. I'm sure we had the BEST picture of anyone there!

We had to come home and throw Mr. Cade into the bath to scrub off all of the blue.

So now we have 2 pictures with Santa - one of Jace screaming and one of Cade screaming. When I pointed that out to Brittney, she said "I am the only little angel in the family for BOTH pictures." I think that I have to agree this year. Gotta love her.

We're ready for Christmas

2006-12-14T21:50:00.000-06:00

Today was Gingerbread House Day at Mother's Day Out! Everyone brought a candy to help decorate. I think they had a lot of fun!

By the way, I signed up to bring striped gum. You know the gum.....with the Zebra....the fruit striped gum?! Well, I sure do remember it as a kid, but apparently it's no where to be found around my house. I went to FOUR stores looking for it. I decided that the gingerbread houses would be just fine without it and opted to NOT make myself crazy!! We brought M&Ms and candy cane lollipops instead. Watch though, now that I'm NOT looking for it, I'll find it everywhere I go now.

I know Jace loved his. He has the sweet tooth of the boys. Cade wouldn't touch his.

Now when you ask Jace what Santa Claus says, he says this ..........

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Notice that Cade is still walking around with his binky. At least it keeps him quiet for now!

Almost there........

2006-12-14T08:35:00.000-06:00

Two-thirds of the trio are feeling good. Jace sounds so much better. But now poor Cade just is not himself. This was the scene last night when I got home.......

I know he doesn't feel good because they NEVER fall asleep anywhere but their beds. Plus he was whiney and just wanted his binky all day. He napped for about an hour earlier in the day then fell asleep from 4:30 to 6:30.....THEN he was ready for bed at 8:00. He's from my school of thought ....When you're sick, sleep it OFF!

Then Brittney snapped some cute pictures of Steve and Jacey Poo. They love to wrestle and cuddle on the couch!

I was reading 1girland2boys and she was saying how hard it is to get this age group to pose for a decent picture. I have to agree with her. Mine are going through an awkward smile age and they're hands are always in their mouth b/c of their molars coming in, I guess.

Here's a few rejects of our Christmas card poses.........

Oops!....Jace is on the move.

Here they are actually eating the M&Ms that I was bribing them with for the picture.

Here's our final product. The next night I dressed everyone and headed outside.

I was happy with it because everyone was smiling......no one had their hands in their mouth and no one had their hands down their pants (ahem...Jace).

Merry Christmas from the Kearleys everyone!

On the Mend........I think

2006-12-12T09:44:00.000-06:00

I think the boys are feeling a little bit better. They still aren't eating like they normally do, so I know that's a sign of not being 100% yet.

I snapped this picture Sunday morning.......they were chowing down on some cereal and each had their OWN box. They were very happy!

I forgot to mention about my new little songbird in the house. Brittney has been in choir this year at school. Her school was invited to sing out at Old Towne Spring which is a neat little shopping area by our house. It's made up of old little homes that have been converted into shops and around Christmas time it's very festive. They had a train ride with Santa, festive decorations and the choir filled the little town with sounds of Christmas. It was really neat and boy was it really COLD!!

Here's Brittney posing before the performance. She HATES the outfit. It's SO NOT her. She hates to tuck things in and she hates to wear a belt. BUT, I think it's adorable and she actually looks more her age in something like that. She's so grown-up in her fashion these days.

This is one of her choir friends Danielle.

Nana volunteered to stay at home with the boys since they were under the weather and Jace was still in the middle of his "pooping" marathon. But Granny (Steve's mom) and our cousin Ashlea, who is 5, made it out to the festivities. They went on the "train" ride and got stuck riding all over the shopping center. When we drove up to find them, we cracked up when we saw that Granny was actually IN the train with Ashlea.

The driver of the train said they couldn't get off until they made it to Santa Land and just kept feeding them popcorn. I guess to just shut them up. Brittney thought it was hilarious!

It was a nice getaway this weekend! I could've stayed and shopped all day, but I had to go back to reality!

Sickies and Santa

2006-12-10T22:21:00.000-06:00

Well, we've been under the weather the last few days. I was waiting for the boys to get sick to tell you the truth. They typically have a 6 week cycle of sickness/wellness. We had made it approximately 3 months with nothing but feeling good and being relatively well behaved.

Thursday morning around 2:30, Jace woke up "barking" and just burning up! When I say burning up, I mean BURNING up. My ear thermometer gave me 3 readings of over 105!!!!!!! 105.2, 105.4 and 105.1. Then I went to the under-the-arm one and it said 102.5 (I know to add 1 degree to that). So, realistically it was somewhere around 103ish. That is still very HIGH. Me and Steve kind of panicked......ok, mainly I did. We immediately gave him some motrin and it started to drop within the next 30 minutes. (By the way, I purchased the new and improved temperal reading thermometer. It's wonderful and gives very accurate readings.)

So that morning I sent Cade to Mother's Day Out since he wasn't sick and I headed to the dr. with Jace. I just want to say also that Cade did wonderfully without his brother at school and Jace did extraordinarily good at the dr. without his brother.......interesting. I was kind of worried that Cade would have a meltdown at school, but actually he could have cared LESS.

Jace ended up having croup and a horrible ear infection (wonder if that explains some of his behavior at Brittney's cheer competition last weekend). So we've been managing the fever all weekend and now we're dealing with the severe diaper rash he has from the antibiotic messing up his stomach. Poor baby! He had ELEVEN dirty diapers Saturday morning. His butt was literally on fire and he would just SCREAM every time he went. The doctor told me to start giving him immodium 3 times a day and that stopped it for the rest of the day thankfully.

I'm REALLY tight with my doctor. I even have his home number. He's totally AWESOME! Plus, he was the dr. on call this past weekend. So, I spoke to his office each day since this ordeal started.

Despite all the sickness though, he had planned WEEKS ago to take a picture of Steve's side of the family for a present for his mom. She's been wanting one of all her grandkids for a while now. That day was yesterday. The boys took a GREAT nap before so everyone was absolutely wonderful for the picture. I was so thankful. I'll post a picture when we get them.

On our way out of the mall at 6:55 p.m. yesterday, we passed up Santa's village. There was NO ONE in line. Well, I'm all about no lines for Santa. So, we tossed the kids on Santa's lap and snapped this treasured photo.........

I'm actually surprised that it was Jace crying in the photo. I would have bet money that Cade would have been screaming. Just when we think we've figured out their little personalities, they go and change it up on us.

Just an update too.....as I was trying to post this last night, Cade woke up crying with 102.2 fever. Will it ever end around here???????

My Two Handfuls.........

2006-12-03T22:40:00.000-06:00

We have determined for sure that the terrible two's have officially started in the Kearley household. I know........news flash!! But it has really hit us hard in the last few days.

For example, Brittney had a choir performance last Thursday night. Steve couldn't attend because he had class so I was going to videotape the performance for him. I knew that I couldn't watch both boys AND videotape so when Nana said she was going, I thought we were in the clear. We thought the boys would be fine because they absolutely LOVE music and they had the strings, chimes and then the choir perform.

Well, the school cafeteria is small. We could barely HEAR the kids let alone SEE the kids in the strings and chimes. So much for entertaining my boys. Jace decided that he wanted people to KNOW he was there. He just can . not . sit . still!!! He was starting to get ancy and we got a few "looks" as he was just being his LOUD self. Nana decided to take him out into the hall. I am NOT kidding you that I could hear him throughout the cafeteria during all 3 performances. I knew exactly when he spotted Steve's mom and step-dad too! I could tell by the inflection in his voice (outside in the hall!).

Anyway, lesson learned. No more indoor choir performances for 2 year old twins.

Apparently we did not learn our lesson too well though. We had already decided that we were ALL going to attend Brittney's cheer competition on Saturday. It was probably the best venue to take the boys to out of all the competitions she's got going on this year. So off we went into downtown Houston - right about the time of the boys' usual naptime. Luckily Cade took a "cat-nap" on the way. Here he is during our waiting time until the awards ceremony.

He was fascinated with the construction going on outside of the convention center. All he wanted to do was look at the big trucks and cranes.

Then there was Jace..............

He did NOT take a catnap on the way. Hmmmm....I wonder what in the world he is trying to communicate to me here in this picture? It was hard to even concentrate with the ear piercing noises that were coming out of that child.

After about the 20th time he threw himself on the floor...maybe it was the 25th, who was counting....we decided we really might need to go whether it was time for the awards or not. What in the WORLD were we thinking?? My mom wanted to see Brittney's team perform, but she's always babysitting the boys for us. That was one of the reasons that we all wanted to go. By the end of the day with all of the loud music, glitter, and chaos, she volunteered to stay home from now on so we won't have to endure such torture for the boys AND for ourselves. People were probably wondering why I was sitting there taking pictures of my poor child throwing a fit. I guess I've just become accustomed to it!

They sure did look cute in their "Cheer Brothers" t-shirts in Brittney's team colors. But whew...were they a handful.

I almost forgot the best part though. When we had JUST arrived at the competition. We settled into some front row seats on the side of the floor where the girls perform. When we "released" them from the stroller, Jace proceeded to climb the stairs all the way up to the top of the seats. They were not steep, the steps were really wide and it wasn't crowded in this area so we thought it would be okay for him to run off some energy. Well, Jace is famous for finding the one little piece of railing missing. He started to head to the very top corner where it looked as if there was NOT any railing. I haven't seen Nana move that fast to catch Mr. Jace in years!! I had a perfectly behaved little boy named Cade on my lap, so she took off for Mr. Active - Jace. All I could imagine was him falling down the one story drop off. It was very scary for a minute.

Anyway, we've had a couple of life lessons this past week! I guess we're going to be hermits for a little while longer until we can learn to deal with Jace in public.

Chitter Chatter

2006-11-29T06:38:00.000-06:00

Jace is definitely my VOCAL child. You can hear him from ANY room in the house. If you can't, then he's up to something or else he's pooping. (That boy is at LEAST three times a day). He's been such a chatter box lately. They learned boy and girl at school and he's starting saying "bye-bye gurl" all the time. He's already got a southern drawl..... He is attempting to say SO many words. Red is "wed" and thank you is "than thu". They are both so polite because they say thank you after you give them ANYthing. I'm glad they're learning manners already.

Cade attempts more words lately, but he's definitely my musical kid. He can "sing" Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star and also "Mr. Sun" (from Barney). Granted there aren't any official words, but he gets every single note down.

I'm really enjoying getting to hear their little voices come out now. They point to color and insist that we say what they are. AND you can NOT make fun of them. Jace gets very upset if you make jibber jabber back to him. He wants you to talk to him normally.

We've been brave enough to put up all of the Christmas decorations. The boys are doing SO good. They just point to their ornaments and they know not to tear them down. You should have seen and heard them the morning when they woke up after we had decorated. Jace came out and said "WHOA!!!". They are both fascinated with the nutcracker that is the same size as they are. We'll see how it goes.

Swinging Fun!!!!

2006-11-25T20:27:00.000-06:00

Nana bought the boys some new swings for the backyard. They are long enough for them to sit down and "swing" all by themselves. They both think they are just the biggest boys EVER! It's too cute!

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Happy Thanksgiving!

2006-11-23T20:35:00.000-06:00

I like short work weeks like this week. Of course on Monday morning I will be swamped, but I'm going to enjoy it while I'm off.

I took off early yesterday and took Brittney and her friend, Kaylee, ice skating. It was a lot of fun and NONE of us fell. It was Kaylee's first time to ice skate too! I was impressed with all of us!

We had a jam packed day for Thanksgiving. We started out at my mom's house for lunch. All of our "normal" family members were there. I made sure to take pictures of everyone as they were leaving so we could satisfy my mom's favorite line...."we never get together and we never take pictures".

Well, we ALL got together and we ALL took pictures whether you wanted to or not!

Nana with her "babies".

Justin and MY baby
"Little" Regina, as we call her, and her husband Tim.

The Kearley Crew

My brother and his crew.............

After the boys took a short nap, we headed over to Steve's mom. Unfortunately my father-in-law was in a minor car accident yesterday and wasn't up for cooking his masterful dressing and turkey. But we stopped by to bring them some leftovers...........

We're going to celebrate Thanksgiving with his side of the family in a couple of weeks when everyone is up to par.

All in all, it was a VERY good Thanksgiving. Our lives are truly blessed. We have SOOO much to be thankful for.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!!!!!!!

Exercising........at least SOMEONE is using it

2006-11-16T22:10:00.000-06:00

Besides being a great clothes hanger........it's entertainment too!

In the 3 years that I've had this elliptical machine, I've probably used it a total of 20 times. Take into consideration that I got pregnant almost 2 months after we purchased it. Then take into consideration that I was crazy out of mind with twin newborns who then grew into active toddlers. Then take into consideration that I'm just lazy after a long day and would rather blog or even clean toilets than actually do it "in my spare time". (I have a lot of excuses, don't I?)

Anyway, my kids ALL love it. Brittney gets a good workout on it and Jace likes to "ride" on it.

Maybe I should sell it on ebay..........

2 year check up!

2006-11-16T09:55:00.000-06:00

I can still remember that even though the boys were born at "healthy" weights, Jace 6.6 and Cade 5.13, our doctor wanted to see them every week from the time we left the hospital to make sure they would gain weight. I think he realized after the 3rd week that the boys had a lot of MY genes and were not going to have any problems gaining weight!

Jace has always outweighed his brother by a few ounces. Yesterday Cade finally broke the cycle and officially outweighs his brother. Jace is 29.5 pounds and Cade is an even 30. That boy can EAT! He's always the last one at the table and he's always asking for "mo..mo" which is "more, more". Jace is half an inch taller than Cade (35" versus 34 1/2") but that's always been the story.

I decided to look further back into Brittney's baby book to see what she weighed at their age because she was a porker growing up. I was apparently a bad mom b/c I stopped recording her age in her book at 18 months of age (surprising b/c she was my only child back then). But she weighed 30.9 pounds at 18 MONTHS!!!!!!! Go girl.

Anyway, the doctor was very pleased with their development and wasn't worried about their lack of speech. They understand everything we tell them, they just have their own language to communicate with each other and feel that "normal" speech isn't necessary right now. However, Jace has been a chatter box lately and loves to tell EVERYthing bye-bye. It's bye-bye bubba...bye-bye sissy...bye-bye bubbles...bye-bye dude...and sometimes he throws stuff in that we can't recognize.

And now let the terrible two's begin............

Silly Gooses....or is it Geese?

2006-11-11T21:45:00.000-06:00

All 3 of our kids are now official photo HAMS. I used to have a hard time trying to "pose" everyone together. But NOW all I have to say is "say cheese and let momma take a picture" and there they go. Here are a few snapshots of the pictures we got today!

They played SO hard today. It was a gorgeous day and we just HAD to get out in it. When the boys went down tonight there wasn't a PEEP to be heard. You know that's the official test to determine how tired they are.

Yard of the Month

2006-11-09T09:07:00.000-06:00

We've had such a hectic week. Work, work and more work, cheer, school, Steve's school, Brittney coming home from school yesterday with a fever and a headache, Brittney staying home again today b/c she's achy....etc. etc. etc.

So, it's kind of hard to believe that our neighborhood representative for Yard of The Month knocked on our door yesterday. She presented the sign for the yard and a $50 gift certificate to Outback Steakhouse.

I must say that I don't cut our yard anymore. I used to do ALL of the yard work before the boys came along. And we're not rookies at this Yard of the Month thing either.....when I was doing all of the yard work at our old house, we also received it one month. Now, I just don't have the time to do much of anything except maintain the flower beds and trim the unruly bushes. So congratulations to Gomez Landscaping too.

Just thought I'd share. Not too much going on this week to post about.

Cheer, Cheer and more Cheer

2006-11-04T21:02:00.000-06:00

Today was very exciting for the females in the Kearley household. Brittney had her first cheerleading competition of the year!! It's always exciting for her when she gets to dress up in her uniform AND put on tons of hideous makeup AND get her hair done with crazy hairbows. She's SUCH a girly girl!!!

On the downside is the fact that we had to be totally dressed and ready at 8 a.m. this morning. (and the convention center we competed at was about 45 minutes away!) So, I got up at 5 a.m. this morning because it was literally going to take me an hour to get her ready. I don't even get up that early during the week, but for my daughter...I'll do it with no hesitation.

Thankfully I didn't have to drag the boys out to the sea of glitter and loud music....they wouldn't have made it all day. (Thanks Nana for watching them...........)

I'm happy to say that their team did SOOO good, especially for their first showing of the year. They are, however, in the most competitive and the most popular division....small Jr. Prep team. So, the teams are usually REALLY good. They ended up placing 4th out of 5 teams. But they were really excited about it...there weren't any tears or any drama about that. They just know they need to work harder now. If there was a division for "cutest uniform", they would have won HANDS DOWN!!! Our girls looked GREAT out there.

Here's Ms. Brittney with one of her BFF......... Lexi.

The parents were all there to support the girls but not looking forward to OUR upcoming practice this week. Steve couldn't make it b/c of other obligations but will attend the other TWO we have for the month .... when it rains it pours!!!

Halloween Love

2006-11-02T06:30:00.000-06:00

Love is being stuck going trick or treating with your 2 year old brothers, but still making the best of it. That's my sweet girl..................Jace and Cade don't know how lucky they are to have such a great big sister, but I do!

Happy Halloween!

2006-11-01T22:31:00.000-06:00

Halloween this year was much different than it was last year! Last year a cold front was in the middle of coming through. It was rainy and cold and not ANY fun to take the kids out in. I think the boys went to our neighbor's house just so we could say they officially went "trick or treating". My dad took Brittney to a couple of other houses just so she could get some candy and then she was DONE.

This year, it was warm and humid and the mosquitos were SWARMING everywhere! I'm surprised you can't see them in my pictures because we just couldn't get away from them.

Our day started with Nana........who's birthday was also on Halloween (HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!).... coming down with some sort of stomach bug. I wasn't feeling 100%, nothing like what nana had, but my stomach still wasn't quite right. So, I decided to not go into work. The boys were going to have costume day at school and I thought it would be cute to snap a few pictures since I would actually get to take them.

Here's before we left for school .... the boys are starting to "pose" for me now. I just have to say hold your brother's hand and say cheese........ This is the face I'm starting to get from Jace.

I think I've mentioned before that my kids are creatures of habit and if you do ANYthing out of the ordinary, they usually don't adapt very quickly. Well, Jace was apparently tagged as "it" because he was the emotional one when I dropped them off.

This picture is priceless....I love it that "Batman" can't even stand up he's so emotional and "Robin" is over there trying to be such a big boy but he can't control that lip from sticking out. Call me a bad mom, but I think it's funny. I only think that b/c I know for a FACT that he was just fine when I officially left the building.

Our evening concluded with trick or treating on 2 streets....our cul-de-sac and the one behind us. I'd say we went to 10 houses between the 2 small streets and it took us ONE HOUR!! We had a few stops b/c neighbors insisted that we come in to show off the kiddos. BUT we walked instead of taking a stroller or wagon. Batman took the lead the entire night while Robin just strolled along and took his own sweet time.

I don't know what they enjoyed more....the candy or just being able to walk in the street and carry a flashlight! (which by the way is great entertainment for ANY day)

Brittney was a 50's girl and was a HUGE help...as usual. I think she would've had more fun going with a friend to trick or treat, but she's never been a big fan of the holiday. She's my extremely skiddish little girl and always will be (I guess she takes after her mother).

For example, here's a skeleton pirate that my neighbor had out. It was REALLY cool. It played cool music and the skeleton just stood there jamming out. It wasn't scary....although its eyes were red when the music came on.....it just shook its booty and danced away. I think Jace and Cade could have stayed there all night and watched that thing. They were cracking up at it and dancing along. If I would have had Brittney in front of that thing at the age of 2, there would have been LOTS of screaming.

We had a great time. I think next year I would like to attend a church festival or something. Our neighborhood doesn't have a lot of participation during Halloween. I was dissappointed that there weren't more trick-or-treaters. Now I'm left with a crap load of candy. Steve's students will be happy at school tomorrow!!!!!!!!

The longest weekend EVER

2006-10-29T22:15:00.000-06:00

This has been an exhausting weekend. We had a fall festival at Britt's school Friday night, the boys' birthday party on Saturday, then a Halloween party on Sunday.

First of all, I love how people always say...Hey we get an extra hour of sleep this weekend! Who are these people and could they teach my kids that?? For us, it was more like let's get up an hour earlier and then stay up an hour later b/c I can't adjust my bedtime due to my evening TV shows (PLUS let's only take an hour nap b/c my little angels always like to mess with me!)

Anyway....we had the boys birthday party this Saturday at the Little Gym. It was SOOO awesome. They do everything for you...I just brought a cake, goodie bags, fruit tray and a chick-fil-a nugget platter (hey it's not just about the kids!).

They did all of the organization, they knew when to move on to the next activity, they cut and served the cake, and they organized the gift opening and recorded each present. (Brittney had her 3rd AND 4th birthday party there so I knew it would be awesome.) PLUS everyone had a great time...kids and parents.

I don't have a lot of pictures yet b/c Ms. Judy snapped some throughout the event for me...she's awesome! Here's a few I managed to take. (I promise they had a GREAT time...it doesn't look like it from the picture below.)

THEN we had my niece stay the night and when we woke up at the crack of dawn, we headed over to the playground at Brittney's elementary school. The boys act like they OWN that place. They are little monkeys climbing up sliding down. They love the swings there....forget the fact that we have all of that in our backyard. Oh well.

THEN after a much needed nap, we went to the Little Gym (AGAIN) for their Halloween party! It was absolutely adorable. My camera started acting up there so I only got a few pics. That place was PACKED! My boys are so comfortable there now it's like a second home. They did so good even though I don't think they understood why everyone was dressed up. Cade only got scared once when an older kid came in dressed as SpiderMan. He had his entire face covered with a mask and Cade just clung to me as he was staring this kid down and trying to figure him out.It was an absolutely exhausting weekend, but so much fun! Bring on Halloween...........

Happy 2nd Birthday to My Babies!!

2006-10-26T01:20:00.000-05:00

I can't believe that I'm the mother of twin 2 year old boys now. They're growing up so fast. It's been a wild ride but one that I wouldn't trade for anything.

Here's a little video I've put together in memory of their birthday. Enjoy this for Love Thursday..........

Update of Sorts

2006-10-25T13:28:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was the boys' school day and the teacher sent home a cute little letter about their progress. I thought it was funny and wanted to share a few of the statements:

Cade loves to play with the cars, especially the cars that make noise. He also loves working on crafts in class but most of all he seems to love to sing. Cade sits on the carpet with all the other children and also tries to name the objects on the object cards. When we go outside Cade loves to play in the cars. He always looks for his grandmother at lunchtime.

Then there's Jace...

Jace loves to play with whatever his brother Cade is playing with. (I loved that one) Jace is good at peeling the backs off of foam stickers; he is also good at coloring a coloring sheet. Jace loves to sing and blow bubbles. Jace also sits on the carpet with all the other children and tries to name the objects on the object cards. He also looks for grandmother at lunch.

I think that's just adorable.

One more update....remember how I volunteered to be on the parent team for my daughter's cheer team a few weeks ago? Well, we had our first practice last night. Let me tell you...I am moving a little slower today. I didn't realize how out of shape I am. In high school I was on drill team and could practice a kick routine for hours at a time. But last night after kicking each leg ten times in order to "warm-up" our legs before we did JUMPS, I swear I was going to get a muscle cramp in my side. I wasn't the worse one though....there are a lot of big mamas out there. I felt sorry for one of the moms because while she was doing a front kick, her leg that was still on the ground gave out or else moved forward and she went flat out on her back. It was hilarious and everyone couldn't help but laugh...thankfully she was a good sport.

I did backbends, toe touches, cartwheels, roundoffs and forward flips. If we keep this up, I may actually get in shape!!! It's only once a week though, so it's not going to do that much for me.

Last update...........my babies turn TWO tomorrow. I just can't believe it. I've been working on a picture video to post tomorrow and it's brought me all sorts of emotions.

We're so blessed with our Grandparents!!!

2006-10-23T23:41:00.000-05:00

We are very lucky to have my mom watching the boys during the day. Every once in awhile my dad stops by for dinner. These are some pictures of the boys enjoying the back of PawPaw's truck. They really liked it. It was a little scary at times when they wanted to tumble over the side, but nonetheless they liked it.

Then Grandpa Iser's birthday is TODAY and they came over for a visit on Sunday. I think Granny AND Grandpa enjoyed seeing the boys in full action mode. It was SO nice outside ... we actually had to put jackets on the boys. Brittney and her friend were busy doing flips on the swings.

We are SO lucky and SO thankful to have our parents nearby and we wouldn't have it ANY other way.

Nine Weird Things About ME ... meme

2006-10-20T21:05:00.000-05:00

I started this blog to share stories about my family. I know I have some family and friends that sign on, but the majority of the people I've "met" through this blog are perfect strangers. It's strange that we all have SO much in common but yet lead such different lives in very different geographic locations.

So, I've been "tagged" to do this meme by 1girl2boys so my new friends, my new "peeps" can learn more about me! It's my first time! I'm honored!

Here goes:

1. I can NOT go to sleep before 11 p.m. It is RARE that this ever happens. I only require 6 hours of sleep (my dad and I just had a conversation about this tonight b/c he's a nightowl too)....(by the way my husband requires at least 8 hours of sleep.)

2. I'm also a morning person. I can't stand to sleep in....I feel like my day is wasted. Even though it's annoying that the boys get me up early, I like to get the day started. (my husband is again, the TOTAL opposite...loves to sleep in)

3. I do NOT like coffee or anything that has a coffee flavor at ALL. I don't even like to TRY fancy Starbuck drinks if it's going to leave a "coffee" taste in my mouth.

4. I LOVE to pick at zits, scabs and generally gross things. (i know....yuck!) When my kids have dried up crusty noses, watch out! I'm always picking! (again...yuck, I know!)

5. Even though I like to pick at gross things, I pass out when I see blood. (hey, you said "nine weird things about me")

6. On Friday evenings, I LOVE to read my People magazine. If it doesn't show up until Saturday afternoon I get MAD and start wondering if I'm up-to-date with my payments. (I know my life sounds SO exciting).

7. I DVR "Live with Regis and Kelly" EVERY day. I just like to watch the first 20 minutes when they have "coffee talk".

8. When I eat pancakes or waffles, I do not like the syrup on top of them. I prefer the "dipping' method so they don't get mushy. I'm a BIG texture person....

9. I miss the feeling of being pregnant. I know that I definitely don't want any more kids, but I absolutely LOVED being able to feel my kids kicking, moving and hiccupping when they were in utero. (don't worry honey, I don't WANT to be pregnant again, I just miss the 2nd trimester feeling).

So there you have it. I'm sure there's a LOT more things I've missed, but that's me in a nutshell.

I'm going to tag Jen@amazingtrips
, Laura @ thegrubbtriplets and Stephanie @ theguinntriplets. (What IS it with me and triplet blogs?) Now go and tag some other people.

Pictures of my BIG Boys

2006-10-20T17:03:00.000-05:00

I have to show off my big boys....who will be TWO next Thursday the 26th. Oh my GOD!!

They had a photographer come out to the boys' school. So, we thought we'd try our luck in getting them to participate. Jace was screaming bloody murder just 10 seconds before these pictures were taken. I was even wiping tears away from his eyes right before she snapped them.

All in all, I think they turned out very good.
I would have some school portraits of Brittney if they hadn't LOST her pictures. They were quick to cash my check, but I don't have any pictures to show for it. Now she has to wait for retakes in November. That's just not good for someone like Ms. Thang...Brittney.

Love Thursday....Giving Daddy Kisses

2006-10-18T21:54:00.000-05:00

Daddy went out of town this past weekend for rugby. We were up REALLY early anyway (I don't know what's up with these boys lately) so we were able to see daddy off with lots and lots of kisses.

It was really CUTE!

Don't Drink and Drive

2006-10-17T20:09:00.000-05:00

I guess we need to lecture the boys a little bit more about the effects of drinking and driving.

Today, I finally witnessed Jace helping his brother out. Cade is not a very good driver. He runs into things constantly with his new car. They are just getting the hang of pushing the button and realizing that they have control. The steering is another issue. Jace is a little more coordinated in the driving department. Whenever Cade gets stuck, he starts yelling and Jace gets off of his car to come to his brother's rescue! What brotherly love!

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Pumpkin Patch - Revised

2006-10-16T13:56:00.000-05:00

Whew....that fancy picture display jacked up my whole site. Here's an updated version of the same post:

We visited our local pumpkin patch today! The kids had a good time. It was definitely a LOT to take in. Jace normally doesn't do well when there's TOO much stimulation. So, he was a crazy man. He would NOT sit still for any pictures. All he wanted to do was push our wagon. Then he would get frustrated and start freaking out. He is going to be my handful. He's got a stubborn streak in him that could have NEVER come from me...it's got to be from Steve. ha ha.

Nana met us there...I'm glad she showed up because even though I had Brittney and her friend, Kamryn, the boys were a lot to keep up with.

Our train ride.....believe it or not. Everyone did GREAT while on it!

Again, they are fascinated with GOATS!!

It's Raining, It's Pouring

2006-10-12T21:47:00.000-05:00

Tonight was wet and rainy. Whenever it rains, the boys immediately start swaying their heads side to side. Then they start bomping their heads with their hands. If you don't have an almost 2 year old in your house, you probably don't realize that this means you MUST sing the raining song. "It's raining, it's pouring, the old man is snoring....he went to bed and he bumped his head (see how intelligent my kids are....ha ha) and he couldn't get up in the morning. "

(Cheetos leave the BEST fingerprints around the house)

Since we couldn't go outside when the rain started, we moved to our "indoor" trampoline.

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This video is kind of dark because I'm doing it with my camera. It doesn't flash or anything so I guess it's just the natural light.

Let me just tell you that propping the pillows up like this is a fabulous way for my little guys to burn off some energy. It keeps them very entertained!!!

Cade ALWAYS sits up on the top of the cushions and does a COMPLETE back flip. He would NOT participate tonight at all. (Of course he wouldn't because I had a camera out). Jace attempted one in the video but he can't do it quite as well as Cade.

Love Thursday Part 3

2006-10-12T14:01:00.000-05:00

This is my big girl Brittney stealing a kiss from Cadie Poo a.k.a. Turkey Butt #1.

I'm going to brag on her again. She's SUCH a good helper and a WONDERFUL big sister. I don't know what I'd do without her.

Growing UP

2006-10-11T22:37:00.000-05:00

It's surreal to realize that these are my last babies. Steve and I only wanted one more child after Brittney. But after years of trying (thinking WE were in control), God gave us one more (and a little bonus).

I have made "mental" notes along the way to try and remember things that they were doing at certain ages. I have those traditional first year calendars with the stickers that read "sat up by myself" or "first tooth". Nothing compares to this blogging thing though. I mean I kept a small journal with Brittney and I totally treasure it, but I can track EVERYTHING now! I love it!

I remember when the boys took their last bottle and I thought to myself..."I never have to make another bottle in my life...NEVER". But on the other hand I remember thinking..."I never have to make another bottle in my life....my babies are growing up.....AAHHH". It's all so bittersweet!

For example, when Jace and Cade started going to mother's day out in May they were miserable. They cried/screamed for the better part of the morning. I remember the first day that my mom and I took them. They were ALL smiles strolling over to the school but the minute they realized that we were leaving, it hit the fan. I left and went directly to work and my mom went to run a few errands but was going to stay close to the house. By the time I got to my office (a mere 15 minutes from the house) I had already received a call from the school saying that Cade was screaming and was inconsolable. We had opted NOT to include their "binkies" or "loveys" for fear of other kids' germs on them. Boy did I wish we hadn't done that. They were so desperate, they were going to send someone over to my house (right down the street) to get a binky.

This is the BEFORE going to school picture. (Unfortunately I don' t have an AFTER)

Needlesstosay, when my mom picked them up after a couple of hours Jace had fallen asleep in the corner of the room on a mat. Cade was laying down with his head on Jace...half asleep too! She said they looked ROUGH and absolutely pathetic. They started crying the MINUTE they saw her with the whole pouty lips and big crocodile tear thing.

Let's fast forward to the present now.............. a mere 5 months later.........

My BIG boys get excited when you mention school and their teacher's names. They actually have FUN and rarely have tears when Nana drops them off (unless they're having a bad day in general). They get to do crafts, they have music time and they learn a letter and color every week. I've even noticed that Cade will start singing the melodies to certain nursery rhymes and they will even do motions to the words! What a nice change of pace. They're officially on their way to growing up. I like it, but then again I don't!!!!!! I can't believe they'll be 2 on the 26th................

Busy Week, Busy Weekend.....

2006-10-08T22:18:00.000-05:00

Time just moves so fast these days. I'm finding more and more that I try to maximize every minute there is in the day. There are days that I look back on what I've done and realize that if I didn't have kids it wouldn't have been NEAR that much. That can be a good thing but also a bad thing. It's actually exhausting and I decided to take a mental break from it all this past week.

Friday night Steve and I went out like real married adult people! We got tickets to see John Mayer and Sheryl Crow. Some friends of ours (which we met on our Christmas family cruise last year) were coming into town also for the show. These friends were on their honeymoon when we met them. I'm not really sure WHY they hung around us and WHY they still want to keep in touch with us. I mean they are newly married, no kids, and Krista just turned 25 and Shane just turned 27!!!! Steve and I are both 35 and have been married for almost 14 years!!!!!!!! They are REALLY REALLY neat people and continue to contact us even though they're in another city. I guess we're just more awesome than we realize ourselves........ha ha!

Seriously though, I had to gag at one point in the evening. During the concert we had a different seating area than our friends. So Shane came over to chat during a song change. After a few minutes he said that he had to get back to his wife because she likes for him to "snuggle" her during the John Mayer songs. Steve and I looked at each other and just immediately started sticking our fingers down our throats. I mean, we show affection and everything but it's just not the same as "newlywed" affection I guess. As much as I'm making fun, they are really cute together!!!

Anyway, we had a great time with them and their friends that came along too. It was weird for Steve and I to think of where we were at the age of 25. We had just purchased our first home and were struggling to make ends meet with Steve trying to finish up his bachelor's degree. He was only substitute teaching on the days he didn't have any classes. I really wouldn't want to go back. We've come so far and learned so much.

I mean, back then we didn't have the same dining entertainment we have now.......

(Why is it so wrong that I think this is hilarious? Why is it so wrong that I showed my child HOW to do this to a tortilla?.... I guess motherhood makes you a bit insane.)

Steve wouldn't have the best football watching buddy EVER........

Dinners at NaNa's house wouldn't be as entertaining...............

and shopping wouldn't be as fun!!!!!!! NOT!

I don't know what I'd do without all of my little blessings!

Peek-A-Boo

2006-10-03T22:42:00.000-05:00

Well, we're all feeling better around here. (knock on wood!!)

This evening after the boys bath, Jace and Cade found a new hiding spot in the bathroom....the linen closet (or whatever it's called).

Where did Jace go?

There he is!!!

I didn't think they would like actually being closed up in there, but Jace didn't mind. However, Cade just wanted to be the one to FIND his brother. I just knew there was going to be a finger smashing incident, but I stopped the action before it got ugly.

I've noticed that they are starting to REALLY play together. They will tackle on the trampoline, chase each other around the kitchen island and hide in the clothes in OUR closet.

You know, I think there is a lot going on with these little boys in my house at this age. BUT, I'm starting to get worried about what the chaos is going to be like when they get older.

I've mentioned before that Brittney is in competitive cheerleading. Tonight she comes home from practice with a sign-up sheet for a Parent Team that will perform in February at their National Competition. Of course I'll be attending the event anyway and of COURSE Brittney is DYING for me participate (probably just to get a good laugh). So I say, what the heck...SURE, I can do a cartwheel and a round-off still. SIGN ME UP!!! (I'm going to have to start training for this thing!)

THEN, every week Brittney brings home a "Tuesday" folder. So as I'm going through it this evening, there's a form to fill out to volunteer for their fall festival later in the month. I think...no big deal, I'll sign up and work a shift at the class booth. Then Steve tells me that I had a message from the night before to call her room mother (I ended up deleting it before I even listened to it b/c I thought it was another message). So, I return the call and end up volunteering to cook a main dish for the "teacher's appreciation" lunch on Thursday AND volunteering to bring a cake for the cake walk at the fall festival. Don't get me wrong, I would LOVE to spend my days helping out Brittney's school and class room but I work full-time (and end up bringing work home), I hardly EVER cook for my own family and my life is highly chaotic. I know I sound like a horrible person, but it's just the plain truth.

Somehow, in just a few short hours this evening my schedule got really booked up!!! What in the world will it be like when I have THREE kids doing THREE different activities???? Oh my, I need to lay down.

One on One Time

2006-10-01T22:30:00.000-05:00

We've all been sick around here. OK...maybe just me, Jace and Cade. It all started innocently enough. Jace got a runny nose 2 weeks ago. I, of course, tried to deny that he had it. I started giving him over the counter meds but no luck there. Cade got the same nose stuff a few days later.

I don't know what it is about ALL of my kids. They NEVER just get a runny nose. It ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS turns into something else....either an ear infection, bronchitits, or sinusitis. We ALWAYS end up at the doctor. It never fails. AND it seems that we go through this cycle every 6 to 8 weeks. I don't think they've been well for more than 3 months at a time since they were born. All I can say about this is that Brittney did the same thing the first 2 years of her life and now she's NOT like this. Hopefully they're getting it all out of their little systems now and building up their resistance for later in life. I don't know....I'm just trying to find something positive out of it.

ANYway....since the boys have been sick, their schedules have been a bit off. Today Jace took a really early nap and Cade wasn't ready to go to sleep yet. So, Cade and I took a bath together. I've NEVER taken a bath with just Cade. Matter of fact, I've only taken a bath with the boys one time EVER. Sad isn't it? It was really neat to see how special he thought he was with my undivided attention and all. So when I was ready to get out, he wasn't. So I got dressed while he played in the bathtub all by himself. Except for when he was a newborn and we bathed them separately, Cade's NEVER taken a bath by himself. Weird, huh?

Then it was Cade's turn to take a nap. I had to run to the store for just a few things and I decided what a great time to spend a little time with Jace. So, we went into our Target shopping center and I saw the Petco. I couldn't resist. You should have seen his little face. He walked in like such a big boy. He LOVED being able to walk around and look at all the hamsters (YUCK!), birds and bunnies. Oh how he loved the bunnies! When he saw the hamsters sleeping he even said "nigh nigh". Too cute!!! Then we made our way to Target. He was so cute there too. Whenever anyone would make eye contact with him he would say "HI!". I've never seen him so social.

It was really neat to see how different they were when they were separated from the other. It reminded me of what little individuals they actually are. They did, however, have a hard time passing up the room when they KNEW the other was in there sleeping. We had a few close calls of waking up the other.

Good news is that we're all on the road to recovery now.

Role Model......

2006-09-27T22:53:00.000-05:00

There's all kinds of advantages to having an older child to help out around the house. Brittney is a wonderful helper to me as long as it's on "her" terms. Don't get me wrong, she's a GREAT kid. She's very caring, considerate and polite. However, her favorite thing to do is aggravate her brothers. I can't tell you on a daily basis how many times I say "DON'T AGGRAVATE YOUR BROTHERS!!!!!" or "JUST LEAVE THEM ALONE".

One other thing Brittney doesn't realize is that her brothers are watching EVERYthing she does ALL the time. If she is doing handstands on the couch, Jace and Cade are attempting to do handstands......on their heads!! If she's eating candy, they BEG for her candy. I could go on and on.

The good thing is that they don't always see the BAD stuff, they see the GOOD stuff too. They see how loving we are to each other. In the past few weeks, I have seen the sweetest displays of affection between ALL of them. Jace has started to give BIG hugs (complete with the patting of his hands when they're around your back....oh how it melts our hearts!). They will both give hugs and kisses on demand unless they're totally grumpy.

Here they are HOLDING HANDS!! This is HUGE for my boys. In the past when they would so much as touch each other, there would be lots of squealing and grunting as if to say "DON'T LAY A HAND ON ME BUDDY!!" (yes that is a purse Cade insisted on carrying around....sorry Cade. I'll pay for your therapy bills later in life)

What we didn't realize until today is that Brittney has taught the boys how to tackle each other...YES....to TACKLE each other. Nana noticed this the other day. The first time they did it, it was funny. The second time wasn't so funny. By the third and fourth time, Cade was getting pretty pissed off. I guess because Jace is the aggressive one and Cade was always the one to BE tackled. Here's a few shots of them on the trampoline tonight. They finally teamed up on Brittney and got her back.

She can handle it though!!!!!

Let's see if this works........

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****edited to add.....please turn your sound down. My voice is SOOO annoying in this clip. I apologize in advance and will be quiet in my next videos. It was my first time to do this and I just wanted to see if it actually WORKED****

LOTS of Celebrating

2006-09-24T22:44:00.000-05:00

We had a little get together for Brittney's birthday on Saturday. We decided that she could have over just a few classmates. (We've done a LOT of different types of parties in the past....huge family ones at our house, we've had them at different places such as The Little Gym, Club Libby Lu, and last year we let her have a sleepover. That was NOT going to be the case this year.) Brittney wanted a small gathering and she took that and ran...........she planned her own party this year - from start to finish. She's an absolute mess. She saw some American Idol decorations in a BirthdayExpress.com magazine and just HAD to have them.

First on her agenda was presents.........(imagine that?)

Then we moved onto the real party.....the American Idol contest.....She moved her karoake machine into the living room, she brought out all of her CDs and we helped her move the furniture back. She set up a "make-up" area so the girls could GLAM IT UP before they went onto stage. It was hilarious. Everyone that came participated and had a GREAT time. Sometimes there are kids that are shy and will sit back, but not at this party. It was really nice that we didn't have to worry if everyone was having a good time or not. We all sang and danced and clapped as they attempted to sing. Steve and myself even participated in the fun (no singing though!!!!)

I think this was her best birthday party ever.

Today we had a birthday celebration with Steve's family since his birthday was last Sunday and his mom's (Granny) was Monday and then Brittney's was the 23rd....we've had a lot of birthday celebrating and birthday eating going on. Too much for me (who's been trying to exercise and eat better....with NO luck!) I actually did NOT have my camera with me so I'm waiting on the pictures to be emailed to me. We got the boys together with their 15 month old cousin, Trae. It was funny to see them interact.

Now I must go do some laundry........none of the normal things got done this weekend with all of the preparation and then clean up. It sucks to be the grown up!!!!!!!

Happy Birthday to my BABY!!!!!! AAAGGGHHH!!!

2006-09-22T22:53:00.000-05:00

Nine years ago.....September 23, 1997.......Our lives were changed forever! Brittney was born at 10:39 p.m. (keeping me in labor ALL day) weighing in at 8 lbs 3 1/2 ounces and 20 1/2 inches long.

I will NOT post her newborn hospital picture because it is very, very, very bad. The sad thing is that we thought she looked SOOO beautiful when they took it and ordered a ton of them plus an 11x13. When they came in the mail a few weeks later, we were SHOCKED at how in the world we could have thought our baby was so beautiful. Isn't that how all parents view their children though?

This is my baby at 6 months, 1 week old. She was an official PORKER and resembled the Michelin man! I had to wash in between all of her rolls. She's always had the chubbiest cheeks that you just couldn't resist squeezing. She was always talking, singing and playing with her babies. Funny thing is that she had SO many baby dolls, when she would get a doll she already had as a present she wouldn't want to take it back. No way, she now had twins!! She was obsessed with twins and had 2 double strollers to push her babies around in. Little did she know what was in store for her a few years down the road.

Now, she is catching up to my whopping 5' 3 1/2" self. She's officially outgrown her rolls and replaced them with nothing but pure muscle. She's so powerful when she tumbles because of all that muscle. She's really growing up in front of our eyes. Although she never wanted to be "little"....she crawled early (6 months old), walked early (9 months old) and talked from the very beginning. I really can NOT remember a time when she wasn't talking!!!!

Oh Brittney, we love you so much! You've changed our lives for the better and brought us so much happiness. Your dad, brothers and I think you're just the greatest!!

Happy 9th Birthday! Now stop all that growing up!!!!!!

Love Thursday!!!!! (Part 2)

2006-09-21T08:10:00.000-05:00

This is a picture of my "little" nephew, Justin, playing with my son, Cade. Let me give you a little history on Justin. He is my brother's first born son who was like a son to ME. I was still living at home when he was born. My mother babysat him a lot when he was a baby so I was around him a LOT. I took him to Astroworld, Chuck E Cheese, shopping...you name it. He was my "baby fix" before I knew I wanted a baby. But this October 17th Justin will be 16!!! Yes, that's right...my "baby" nephew will be old enough to drive.

Here's a picture of him playing with Cadey-Poo just like I used to play with him!!!! (And for the record, Justin is the first and only baby that I ever held like this and he threw up IN MY MOUTH!!) I'm sure Justin LOVES it when I tell that story over and over.

Remind me to follow my instincts.........

2006-09-18T21:25:00.000-05:00

We had another wedding to attend this past weekend. It was a 3rd cousin of mine, Tommy, who was marrying his wonderful girlfriend Sara and it was going to be a huge family event. (Brittney LOVES Sara because she taught her to play the piano one summer.)

I kind of thought about having my mother-in-law watch the boys but figured that I'd be surrounded by lots of family and lots of helpers. Right? Well, kind of right.

It started off kinda bad. We arrived at the church with plenty of time before the ceremony started. It was almost TOO much time because the boys started to feel right at home. It was a small little church that Steve said "smelled like a funeral home". When Brittney opened up the door, Jace just ran all the way down the aisle and would have climbed up on the altar if I hadn't snatched him up. So when I carried him out of the church, he was throwing the first official fit of the evening. THE KEARLEYS HAVE ARRIVED!!! My boys haven't seen the inside of a church, unfortunately, since they were baptized at 3 months old. The other times we've attempted to go back to church we tried to leave them in the nursery (notice I said "tried").

Speaking of nurseries, my mom heard from someone else at the wedding that the bride's mother had booked the nursery for young children attending the wedding. I thought this was a GREAT idea seeing as how Jace ONLY wanted to stay outside now and the humidity was at 100%. So we located the nursery and the boys had a great time playing with all the neat toys. Then it came time for us, the adults, to leave. I don't know if I've mentioned the fact that Jace and Cade take a LONG time to warm up to strange people or strange places, but they do. They do not take kindly to change. Once we were out of the room, I waited around the corner b/c the room had a 1/2 door and listened for about 5 minutes. Their cries were slowly dying down. I sent another mom in to tell the nursery worker to just give them food or their drinks. You can usually win them over with food, that's for sure. I swear I didn't hear a peep after that, so I headed into the church.

The wedding ceremony lasted 18 minutes (thanks to Steve's "interest" in weddings. He likes to rank weddings ONLY on the basis of which one is the shortest. The record holder so far is my friend Janna's which clocked in under 10 minutes....Steve was in heaven). So after the wedding party had exited, we made our way to the nursery to pick up two puffy faced, red eyed little boys who had been crying the ENTIRE time they were in there. Of course within minutes of being back in our arms, they were FINE! It just broke my heart!

So, off we go to the reception. Oh my..... let me just show you a picture of what the reception looked like............. (by the way, this is one of the 3 whole pictures I had time to snap.)

Does this look like a place you should let 2 toddlers run loose? Cakes were nearby within reaching height, an ice sculpture was looming around, and tableclothes were EVERYWHERE!! (I'm kind of surprised to say that all of the tablecloths remained in tact throughout the evening). I was on guard immediately. It started off ok. Jace must have put away around 30 strawberries from the serving line. He just wouldn't.stop.eating.them!!! After his belly was full though, he got ancy!!! Cade was pretty content with my mom for the time being....that's why my story is more focused on Mr. Jace.

I decide that Jace needs a place to run around and burn off some energy. So, we head off to where the smokers (and their children) are outside. I do a quick scan of the patio area. It's all closed in and there's railing all the way around....whew! They ran around a little bit and interacted with some of their cousins that they barely know. Then I really don't remember which one of them it was, but whoever it was found a piece of loose railing and kicked it down to the ground one story below. This deck was HUGE and my boys found the ONLY PIECE OF LOOSE RAILING???? I don't know if this a sign of intelligence or what, but if it is ... my boys are GENIUSES!!! Thank God there wasn't water down below us, it was just a one story drop off onto grass. But still.......not so safe to be around.

Of course, now THIS is the place to be! All of the kids are coming over to check it out. So know I'm stuck outside trying to stop any of the kids from falling over, while also trying to find chairs, trash cans, anything to block this area off. Let me remind you too that I'm dressed nicely and AGAIN the humidity was 100%. I am now resembling a wet mop and really ready to get the hell out of here. I then look from the outside into the beautiful reception and see all of my family members, my "helpers", just visiting, laughing and having a good old time. (By the way, they all claim innocence...that they didn't know I was out there dying.) I gathered up my boys, who didn't want to go in yet and start screaming, and enter stage left . THE KEARLEYS ARE HERE!!!!!!!

Our table hadn't even been "released" to the serving line yet, but it was 8 o'clock...their bedtime....and I wasn't even the slightest bit hungry. I hadn't stopped sweating since we left the house that afternoon and I was just exhausted. Brittney, of course, stayed until the wee hours of the morning with my parents and had a GREAT time. It really was a beautiful wedding, I just did not get the privilege of enjoying it.

So, needlesstosay, JACE and CADE...you have attended your last wedding until you're in your teenage years at least! I just don't have the energy to deal with it!