New Washer!!!!!!!!!!!

Well Sears came through for us. The repair man came last thursday and fixed one problem on the washer and then the pump died right there in front of him. That put us over the limit for repairs in one year and qualified us for a new washer. Now I thought they might end up giving us some credit towards a new washer or something like that but they really stood up to thier word. We went to Sears yesterday and the manager called in for the authorization number he needed for our account. As he was doing this Brett and I looked around at all the washers and tried to guess which one they were going to say was comparible to the one we have. I found two I thought were good choices. Then the manager came and showed us the one he found that matches all the features ours has except it has a bigger capacity. It was $1100 and they gave it to us for free! We didn't have to pay a penny or even sign anything. And they would have delivered it for free as well but we didn't want to wait for that. We had them load it up into the back of Brett's truck and off we went with a brand spanking new state-of-the-art washing machine. I don't know how we ended up with such a great deal but i've got to give props to Sears for truly standing up to what they say. I would highly recommend the Sears maintainance plan to everyone. We had a five year plan and our washer was four and a half years old. Now we have a brand new fancy dancy washer and still have six months of our service plan left that they transfer to the new washer. It's so cool. It has what they call "canyon" capacity and it is super quiet. I think the coolest thing of all is that the lid is see through so you can watch it. That and it has a self-cleaning feature. So as much of a pain it was not having a reliable washer for the past two months, it all paid off in the end. I've been washing clothes all day (trying to catch up) and you just wouldn't believe how much stuff fits in there. Sears says it holds 23 towels. I'm not sure about that, maybe we have big towels, but it definitely holds a lot of stuff!

Christmas Cousins

Washer and Christmas Pics

Our washer broke again yesterday. That would make four times in about one month. Lucky for us we bought a service plan when we bought our washer. I'm pretty much on a first name basis with the repair guy now. I don't even have to escort him to the washer when he gets here. He knows right where to go. Between coming to check it out and having to order a part and coming back to install the part he has been here five times in the past month and has to come again this week. The good news with that is that as long as the repair man finds something wrong with it on thursday it will be considered a lemon and Sears is going to buy us a new washer. Well I can tell you there is definitely something wrong with it. I washed a load of clothes and they came out dry! It looks like I will be heading to the laundromat (did i spell that right?) once again. And it looks like we will be getting a new washer for Christmas, or shortly thereafter. What a pain in the behind though. Do you have any idea how much laundry accumulates around here in a week? Not to mention a month!?!? I went last weekend and did twelve loads. Seems everyone else likes to do laundry on sunday afternoon too so I was there for four hours. What fun.

I had this great idea that I was going to get out of planning a trip for Christmas pictures of the boys. Usually it requires a trip to Gainesville and very careful planning of time so that they are both in a cooperative mood ... not hungry, not tired, clean diaper, clean clothes, haven't been sleeping recently so their hair is a mess, etc. And after being strapped into the car for about 40 minutes Houston has to let off some energy before there will be any "sitting pretty" going on. After the last pictures where the photographer about lost her cool I thought I would try to do them myself this time. BAD IDEA!!! I tried today, after putting it off for a few weeks, and was not very successful. I couldn't find Houston a Christmas shirt or outfit or pj's or anything so I decided to do jeans and santa hats. Easy enough, or so I thought. I even got some big candy canes to use as props and put a bench in front of the Christmas tree so it could be our background. What a mess it turned out to be. My lighting was all wrong and I couldn't get them both looking at the camera and smiling at the same time. About five minutes into it all Houston decided he was done. Then I couldn't get Brody to look at me because he was too interested in Houston running through the house with this big candy cane. And since Brody has started crawling he longer wants to sit still. I did manage to get a couple of decent shots but nothing with both of them in it that's worth printing out an 8x10 of. I'll post some here for your enjoyment.

UPDATE ON THE BOYS

Brody had his six month check-up yesterday. He weighs 18 pounds 4 ounces and is 27-3/4 inches long. His doctor was very surprised at how well he is sitting up and moving around already. He is so close to crawling. I wouldn't be surprised if he was crawling by the end of the week. He already scoots around to get where he wants to go but he keeps trying to get all the way up on his knees.

Houston is being a total two-year-old lately requiring a lot of patience from myself. I've been doing some Christmas shopping and leaving him with Brett which has been a much needed break for me. He is starting to pronounce his words a little better, which is nice. He is really in to Go, Diego Go and anything to do with animals.

Some Craft Fair Fun

I had about 20 offers to buy Brody last saturday at the Festival of Lights. I was getting close to putting a "not for sale" sign on him.

Here's Brody and Ashton modeling some of my tie-dye at the Festival of Lights last weekend.

Thanksgiving Day Fun

Some Thanksgiving fun.

The boys with their Uncle Tommy.

Here's Brody showing everyone how he can sit up all on his own. I propped him up in the corner of the couch and he pulled himself up into a sitting position. He is really on the move already. He isn't quite crawling yet but he is close. He is pushing up onto his knees already. He turns in circles and scoots himself backwards to get where he wants to go. I put him on the kitchen floor one night last week and before I knew it he was out in the living room by the front door! Those of you who have been to our house know how far that is.

Brody and Tiki

Love that toothless grin!

Procrastination

As I sat here working I thought i'd take a little break (note the title of this post) to share some funny things with you all.

Funny Story #1: I was making Houston a pb&j sandwich a few days ago. He has gotten in the habit of eating the sandwich from the middle out. Then he unfolds the bread and has a ring of crust with a hole in the middle. I decided that I would cut the crust off for him this time, which I have never done before. And do you know what he did? He stood there on his stool next to me (as he does every time i'm at the kitchen counter) and picked up each piece of crust as I cut it off and ate it right there! What's up with that?!?! He doesn't eat it when I give him the whole sandwich but he stands right there and eats it all by itself. Go figure. I found it humorous.

Funny Story #2: We awoke sometime in the middle of the night to a big "thud". Scared me a bit until I realized what it was and broke into laughter. Tiki fell right off the bed in her sleep. An 80 pound dog hitting a wood floor from that far up is pretty darn loud. Our bed is up on 6-inch risers and is a pillow top with an additional matress topper so it is really up there. I have to climb to get up on it. Not so easy when I was pregnant ... hence all the sleeping on the couch and recliner.

Okay, back to work I go. I don't know what my problem is with this project. I've been working on it for a week now. I just can't stay focused. It's a three-story 6,000 square foot home so it is a bit intimidating. I'm finally making some progress now though. I think I also have too much on my mind to really focus like I need to. My mind is racing about all the things I have to do in the next week. In my usual Celena-takes-on-too-much fashion I have scheduled myself silly. We are having our 3rd annual Day-Before-Turkey-Day party where I will be making chili for approximately 30 -40 people. How I am going to do this I have yet to figure out. Anyone have a really, reaLLY, reALLY, rEALLY, REALLY big pot I can borrow? Then we have a smaller group coming over again the next day for our actually Thanksgiving dinner. Frankie is frying a turkey for me this year so that helps A LOT. I'm really excited about that. Now I can focus on all of my casseroles. Then two days after that I have a craft booth at the Festival of Lights in downtown Lake City. Know how much I have left to do for that? Nevermind ... I don't want to talk about it. Okay ... back to work for real now.

Halloween 2006

Mmmm ... yummy spider cookies. Aren't they cute? I had a lot of fun making these. They have peanut butter "guts" in them too.

Brody & Russa ... the newest additions to the mom's group

Mom's Group

We are seriously outnumbered now that most of us have had a second baby. It's so much fun though. They all have such distinct little personalities. It's been such a great thing to be able to spend time with such wonderful women and their babies. I'm so glad that we have all managed to stick together this long. Most of us met when our babies were newborns. Houston was about 7 weeks old when I first went to the mom's group. It's been a lot of fun to watch them all grow these past two years and to see our friendships blossom as well. I don't know where i'd be right now if it weren't for this group of fabulous ladies!

Fun at Layla's House

Catching a "cat nap" ... hee hee

Rails to Trails

We went to one of the "rails to trails" the weekend before last. It was so much fun. Brett rode his bike with Houston and I followed on roller blades pushing Brody in the jogging stroller.

fun at the pool

Bad Blogger

I haven't been very good about updating the blog lately. I've been a bit busy, as usual and I find the computer has a way of sucking away hours of time that I could be doing something productive. Speaking of which, I should be getting ready to head to Lowe's instead of sitting here typing. I'm planting an herb garden along a side of our fence today. I got some good info from a friend of mine last night about what herbs grow well here (Thanks Angie) and went and bought some herbs. So for a quick update on life before I head out ...
1. Pappy Tom and Grammy Lee's wedding was a lot of fun. It was so good to see family again. I got to see my aunt and uncles, grandma and cousins that I haven't seen in years. I get the warm fuzzies just thinking about it all. It's so nice to have a loving family. It's times like these when I feel lucky to have such a split up family. That side of my family took me in as their own when I was a little girl and after all that has happened I still feel like a real part of the family. That is something very special indeed. I really miss them all and wish I could see them more often.
2. Halloween was really fun this year. I dressed up as a witch. I think i'm going to start a tradition of dressing up as a witch each year to take the boys trick-or-treating. As an adult, you don't get many opportunities to play dress-up and I had forgotten how much fun it was. Houston was really into the trick-or-treating this year. We went with his cousins, Turner and Weston. Houston, as usual, followed Turner around all night and knocked on the doors and said "trick-or-treat" and then "thank you". It was cute.
3. We finally finished the bunk beds once and for all yesterday. The beds themselves have been finished for a while but we finally finished the storage drawers that go underneath. Then I organized all the little boy clothes we own (which is a lot) into the drawers. The sizes they are wearing now went in the dresser and the sizes they have grown out of and are yet to grow into went into the huge storage drawers. That's the best thing we've added to this house in a while. We are seriously lacking in the storage room department. All those clothes were previously stacked in bags in the closet in the boys room, leaving no room for other things.
4. Houston is talking more than ever although his pronunciation is not the best. We're working on it though. He has a really hard time with the "m" and "n" sounds. He calls me "ba ba" instead of "ma ma".
5. Brody is rolling around and scooting backwards around the living room floor. He lost some weight during his hand, foot and mouth illness so now he is back into 9 months size clothes but seems to be making up for it. He is eating a lot more than he used to.
6. As for Brett, he took the PE exam two fridays ago. We should get results in about 7 more weeks.
7. As for me, i'm still knitting like a fool when I can, working when I have to, and preparing for my upcoming craft show. Brett built me a stand for my dog treats yesterday. I'm going to paint it today. I finished my first pair of hand-knit socks. Very cool. Now i've started my second. I think i'm going to be addicted to sock knitting for a while now.
8. My friend Joy, who is 9 months pregnant, had a "Blessing Way" yesterday. I really, really enjoyed that. Lot's of good feminine, motherly, earthy energy and lots of great food. Joy is probably the best cook I know. She always makes really yummy stuff and she made lunch for us all yesterday. It was great to be there with some female friends without the little ones running around for a change. It gave us a chance to start a conversation and finish it without one of us having to get up to break up a toy dispute or nurse or change a diaper or .. you get the picture. It was really great to have some friend time. I've really been in need of some good friend energy like that lately. For my next pregnancy I would love to have a blessing way instead of a baby shower. And i'm going to need some good vibes sent my way next time after my birth with Brody. I'll probably have myself in a panic by the time that 40th week rolls around. What a nightmare! (Ignore that Joy ... your birth is going to be easy)

Alright ... i'm off to plant my herb garden.

Happy Halloween!!!

Some funny stuff: http://www.hemmy.net/2006/06/26/weird-funny-cute-dog-costumes/

I got out of the shower a few days ago to find Houston standing in front of the tv watching cartoons with the can of Ovaltine. He would like his fingers and stick them in the chocolate and then eat it off his fingers. He made such a mess. The scary part is how high up in the cabinets the Ovaltine was. He is such a monkey these days. He climbs on everything!

Some friends of ours had a Halloween party last night. I was a witch and Brett was a warlock. Houston was Blue from Blue's Clues but he fell asleep on the way there and slept through the whole party. He was tired from spending the day bird hunting with Daddy. Brody was a little halloween baby.

Thank you Rachel, for the reminder ... where would I be without you?

The Serenity Prayer

God, grant me the Serenity
To accept the things I cannot change...
Courage to change the things I can,
And Wisdom to know the difference.

You have got to be kidding me!

Apparently I now have the hand, foot and mouth crud as well. I felt a little feverish yesterday but thought I was just feeling drained due to lack of sleep. I noticed my tongue felt a little funny last night too. Well now I have a sore on my tongue and let me tell you ... that is not a fun thing! My whole mouth feels kind of achy. It's a strange feeling. I feel like i've been chewing on my tongue.

I think last night with the boys was definitely the worst so far. I forgot to give Brody his reflux medicine yesterday so I spent most of the night holding him in an upright position to keep the acid from coming up and burning the sores in his mouth. Sounds fun huh? Everytime I would doze off and he would start to move he would start screaming again. It took me about three hours of this to realize what I had done in forgetting his medicine. I went ahead and gave it to him and we finally got some sleep about an hour later. Houston only woke up a couple of times but of course it was during the time when I was getting a little cat nap. The three of us camped out in the living room last night and I kept moving from couch to recliner to loveseat depending on who I was comforting at the time.

I had to cancel my accupuncture appointment and my tutoring session for today. Apparently i'm not going to get to go to the gym either. I figure i'll be the good samaritan that I am and not go spread this crud around the gym. Well I hear Houston crying over his mouth pain again so I better go for now. That definitely seems to be the worst part of it. The rash doesn't seem to bother either of them much.

What a weekend!

Well it's 4pm on sunday already and I don't have anywhere near the amount of work done that I wanted to. I have not had much sleep lately due to the hand, foot and mouth crud we have. Houston was up the first half of the night with a fever so I suppose he'll have the rash and mouth sores by tomorrow if not sooner. Then Brody was up the second half of the night crying and being uncomfortable. He seems to be doing better as the day rolls on though so maybe he's finally turning around. I am in serious need of some sleep though, let me tell you! I've been staring at the same engineering project for about three hours and i'm not even halfway done. These jobs usually take me a couple of hours. I'm definitely moving in slow motion. Speaking of which, I think i'll go get another cup of coffee before I get back to it. I have three jobs to finish today. The first one was a no-go because I found out the plans were drawn wrong and they are missing a critical page so i'm down to two for the day. I should have been done by now. I'm sitting here looking at the clock on the computer and I just don't feel it should be this time already. I guess waking up every hour or so for the last three nights in a row is beginning to wear on me. And my left eye has been twitching since friday afternoon. What is up with that? Super, super aggrivating. Well enough complaining and procrastinating for now. I better get back to work. I really hope this hand, foot and mouth thing goes away soon. Not only because I want some sleep but because Houston and Brody's Pappy Tom and Grammy Lee are getting married on saturday and I really don't want to bring this crud with us to the wedding ... and i'm sure they don't want us to either! If Houston does get a rash by tomorrow and it runs its three day course then he should be not contagious two days after that. If all that works out then he should be good by friday when we leave ... just in the nick of time!

What a day so far!

It all started about 4 am. Brody woke up crying and I couldn't calm him down for anything. I did notice that he started crying worse every time he peed. Well finally about the fifth diaper change at about 8 am I decided to put my glasses on and was quite surprised at what I saw. Poor little guy had a really bad rash all over his thighs, diaper area, chest, chin and even on his lips! So I called the pediatrician and we got ready and headed to Gainesville. On the way there I realized that I started taking grapefruit seed extract on wednesday and started to worry that I may be responsible for the mess on my child. So I called my friend Angela, a lactation consultant, to ask her about it all. She couldn't find any info to point to anything i'm taking so I felt a little better about things before I got there. (read the post below about the whole tooth infection thing) She made a good point about not telling the doc right away about the supplements so that I didn't steer her towards an easy answer and away from investigating things further. Didn't take her long though once she looked at him. Turns out he has hand, foot and mouth disease which sounds horrible but is almost like chicken pox. It's just a virus that has to run its course. The bad thing is that it is painful. He has sores all in his mouth and that's why he keeps refusing to nurse. The doc said to give tylenol for the pain and keep him hydrated. I've been giving him water with a straw and he seems to really like it. He sucks it down. The tylenol seems to have helped him some too. I went to Target on my way out of town to get him some tylenol and some disposable diapers (to keep the wetness off the rash, we usually use cloth) and some disinfecting supplies since the doc gave me the wonderful news of how contagious it is and that we will be lucky if we all don't end up with it. So looks like we will be spending the weekend alone, in hopes of not spreading this any further. We were just at the doctor on monday for Brody's 4-month check-up so that is probably where we got it from. They said it's been going around and they have seen several cases recently. That's the second time in two months we've picked up some sort of crud from the pediatricians office. So much for "well baby" check-ups huh? They should call them "hope your baby is still well after this" check-ups.

Oh and my favorite thing of the day besides the constantly crying baby and lack of sleep and hearing about the possibility of us all getting the crud? After I drove away from Target and was about to get on the interstate I reached for my phone to call Brett and guess what? I didn't have my purse anymore! I turned around and high-tailed it back to the Target parking lot and found my purse in the buggy in the parking lot!!! Holy cow man, what a day. At least I didn't leave a kid in there! Luckily I parked way out in timbucktwo in the parking lot so as not to get a dent in the pretty new car i'm driving around so my purse was out there by itself. Well that and the thing is pretty big and i've realized i'm not that good at parking it yet. I've come out of some places to get back in the car and looked at where I was between the lines and thought "now who in the heck parked that thing?". The extra walk is good for me too since my body seems to be resisting losing the baby weight this time around. I've been going to the gym three times a week and watching what I eat and I can't seem to lose a pound. Okay well that's not completely true. I've lost about two pounds in two months. That's pretty ridiculous. I never even went to the gym after Houston was born and I lost almost all my baby weight by this point. I still have 15 pounds to go. Everyone keeps telling me it will come and I guess I just have to go with that. I'm really getting tired of wearing the same four outfits I have that fit me though. Something has to change. That milkshake I decided to get as stress relief on the drive home after the Target fiasco probably isn't going to help me any but it sure was good. I got one of those Smores Halloween Milkshakes from Steak 'n Shake ... yummy. It actually has marshmellows and graham crackers in it that are small enough to fit in the straw. What an invention!

Okay ... that's enough rambling for now. I have a killer headache. I think i'll go take some tylenol myself and try to rest my eyes for a bit. Yeah ... like that's gonna happen.

One other thing i've been meaning to share with you all ... if you ever have pee, dog, kid or otherwise on your carpet and can't seem to get rid of the smell I found a wonderful solution. Wet the carpet and pour some Borax on it. Work the Borax into the carpet with a broom and let it air dry. When the carpet dries vacuum it up and the smell will be gone. We had some dog pee in the boys room (don't ask, long story) that I was sure I was going to smell until we ripped up the carpet. I had a box of Borax for flea control (natural flea killer/repellant also) and I noticed something on the box about using it to get urine odors out of matresses. I thought i'd try it on the carpet and I am amazed. I can actually put my nose IN the carpet and take a big whiff and I don't smell any pee anymore. YAY!!!

Brody & Ashton

Mister Blue Eyes

Houston ... with a little less hair

Some Ramblings..

Brody had his 4 month checkup yesterday. He weighs 17 pounds (90th percentile) and is 26 inches long (85th percentile). He is still a big boy, obviously, but he has leveled off a little bit. This is the first time he has fit on their growth charts. He's been in the greater than 95th percentile in everything up until now. He is wearing 12 month and some 9 month clothes. He's gotten really good at grabbing for things. Houston and I were eating lunch at the park last friday and Brody grabbed a potato wedge right out of my hand and stuck it in his mouth! He is definitely ready to eat but his doc says to wait until he is 6 months old. It's funny how things change so quickly. When Houston was a baby the American Acadamy of Pediatrics (AAP) suggested starting solids at 4 months. Now they say wait until 6 months because they will be less likely to be obese later in life. Houston never showed interest in food until he was about 6 months old. Brody has been showing interest since he was about 3 months old.

I finally cut Houstons long hair yesterday. I was trying to keep the curls in the back without him having a mullet. I finally gave it up and cut it all short. He looks so cute. I think it makes him look older. I'll post a picture once I find the camera. Let me tell you though ... cutting a two-year-olds hair is quite the challenge. I ended up sitting him in front of some cartoons and feeding him chocolate to get him to stay still enough. I still ended up chasing him around the house several times. What an ordeal! It turned out pretty good all things considered. It's hard enought to cut hair when you're not a hair dresser and then when your subject is moving all over the place it is really a challenge!

So that's what's up with the boys. As for me, i'm fighting some infections in my teeth. No cavaties but my teeth are killing me. I had a root canal last thursday and now another tooth needs one. I'm trying to cure it homeopathically right now. I'm sitting here wondering why I paid a dentist $1800 (ouch!) to do a root canal on a tooth with no cavaty. Why didn't we try antibiotics first if it's just infected from the inside? I was caught off guard by the no cavaty thing. I was sure I had a bad cavaty that needed a root canal. The whole left side of my face was throbbing. Thing is, $1800 later and a temporary crown and the left side of my face is still throbbing. It hurts to touch my cheek. Now it's the tooth in front of the one with the crown. Ugh! Anyone now of any natural things to try? I found some homeopathy websites that listed some remedies to try. I'm trying the first one now but I think it's time to move on to the next one on the list. I'm also trying some natural antibiotics: colloidal silver, garlic and grapefruit seed extract. I'm really hoping I can cure this naturally and not have to take any antibiotics since i'm nursing and tend to be allergic to most antibiotics. Fun stuff!

Pathfinder

Isn't she pretty? :-)

Our New Car

We went to Gainesville to buy our new car tonight. I feel so spoiled. I've never had a car this nice or this new. It's a 2006 Nissan Pathfinder and it only has 16k miles on it. Still under factory warranty. Leather interior, Bose sound system, 6-disc cd changer, power sun roof, 3rd row seat. SWEET!

I'll get a better picture tomorrow when it's light out.

Car Shopping

Too many decisions! Well we went to Jacksonville last night and test drove an '04 Honda Pilot. Then we went to Gainesville tonight and drove an '06 Nissan Pathfinder. We have decided on the Pathfinder. We both like it better and you can get a newer one with less miles (with remaining factory warranty) for the same price as an older Pilot with more miles. The Pathfinder is truck based and the Pilot is car based which is probably why we both like the Pathfinder better. I also like the overall look of the Pathfinder better. And the Pathfinder comes standard with more of those fancy things like a Bose sound system, 6 disc cd changer, power sun roof(love it), etc. Sweet vehicle and more my style than the Pilot.

Now we just have to find the right Pathfinder. I really like the one we drove tonight (http://www.southeastcaragency.com/detail.aspx?iid=1168316&anchor=/2006/Nissan/Pathfinder/SE/SUV. I've contacted several dealers and we are waiting to hear back from them with thier best price offer. Hopefully we will have a new(er) car by saturday.

Diggin' his toys

Brody in the Jumparoo

Napping

He is so big. He is mostly wearing size 12 month clothes.

Funny Stuff

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hee hee ... that was Houston typing.
here is a picture of Houston doing some funny stuff. he kept making this thing stick to his nose and then he would laugh and it would fall off. i was laughing so hard i was crying. i guess you had to be there. i still laugh when i look at this picture.

Building Blocks

A Bad Day

So Brody and I went to Gainesville to run some errands on saturday. Something we do often so shouldn't be a big deal right? Wrong! The jimmy broke down on me on the interstate right outside of Gainesville on our way home. I was driving and it just turned off and wouldn't start again. Bad thing was that I couldn't get in touch with anyone to come get me. It took me half and hour to find someone that was home that could come get me. I had just talked to Brett too about five minutes before the car died. Apparently his phone was on vibrate and he didn't hear me calling back. NOT a good place to be stuck with a baby let me tell you! I was so scared some creepy person was going to stop that I tried to make it look like nobody was in the car. I didn't want anyone I didn't know to stop. All I could think of was the girl who was recently murdered when her car ran out of gas on the interstate. In the end it all turned out okay. We were rescued and Brett and his dad and brother took a trailer down there and got the Jimmy. It is 12 years old and has 160k miles on it so i'm not exactly surprised. And now we're looking at getting the Jimmy fixed and selling it and the car and getting a new vehicle. We looked around on the internet last night and we both really like the Honda Pilot. It has a folding third row seat so it can seat up to 8 people or you can have cargo room. Pretty cool. It also won a bunch of awards and was named the best car for a family for several years. Anyone have any good or bad stories about this vehicle? We're also considering the Toyota Highlander. It also has the folding third row seat thing.

A nice day

It was so nice out today. That crisp feeling in the air that says fall is coming. I don't know about you but i'm ready for some cooler weather. Being pregnant and then toting around a twelve pound newborn while it's 98 degrees outside with 95% humidity is just not fun. It was so nice today I decided to take Houston to the park. He has been so funny lately. Everything is a game. I wish we could all slow down once in a while and look at life through the eyes of a toddler. Today at the park he was on this big hanging bridge thing and about halfway across stopped, looked down and said "ant" and then took his sandal off and began smashing the ants with it. I don't know why but it was so cute. Definitely something he's seen us do when there's a bug in the house. It was nice to be outside getting some fresh air without sweating the whole time. And I think Brody enjoyed watching Houston run around. He loves to watch his big brother. Speaking of Brody, he is just the most content little man ever. I leave him with Brett several times a week now and I don't think he misses me or the boob. He just chills with daddy. I started tutoring a high school student in precalculus today and Brody just hung out the whole time, laying on the living room floor. Both of the boys were very good. This is the first time i've tutored since Brody was born and I wasn't sure how it was going to go. There's no way I could have done that when Houston was three months old because he was permanently attached to my boob, or so it seemed to me.
I'm pretty sure Brody is teething. He keeps chewing on his fingers, playing with his ears and has been drooling like an open faucet for the past several days. I've noticed that he watches me eat now too. That's supposed to be a sign that they are ready for solid food. I think he may start a bit earlier than Houston did. We'll see. I'm not ready to cross that bridge yet and he is only three months old anyway. He is so big though. I know I say it all the time but I just can't get over it. His 9 month size clothes are getting snug. Craziness! Oh yeah, and he laughed for the first time today. That was the cutest darn thing i've ever seen him do. It just melted my heart right there. I hope I can get it on video soon.
We finished the bunk beds tonight. They now have two coats of polyurethane on them and I have a headache. Man that stuff stinks! Frankie is buying us matresses tomorrow so by tomorrow night the bunk beds will be in business!

Brody is on the move!

Brody rolled over for the first time this morning. He's been trying for a while. Actually since he was about a month old which is kind of crazy. I think he's going to be up and moving much earlier than Houston was.

Late night ramblings...

i find myself at the end of yet another weekend. another week gone by and still my list of things to do is long. i never get as much done in a day as i plan too. of course watching football on tv and sleeping late is not helping me any. i always have so many things i want to do ... if only i had time for it all. i really wish i had more time to knit. i have so many ideas spinning through my head every day of things i want to make. a few of them i get to but many just get written down as a project for another day. maybe i can pull them out when the boys are in school and i find myself looking for something to occupy my time .... yeah, like that will ever happen. i always say "someone who is able to get bored needs a hobby". hobbies i have ... and many, many at that. i've really been into working out latley. i've gone through periods in my life where i have been a bit of a gym rat and then i've gone through periods where i haven't walked into a gym for close to a year. after i had houston the weight just melted right off without me doing a thing. this time, however, i am not so lucky. i noticed my weight hit a certain point and then just stayed there for the last couple of months. so now i am doing something about it. i started going to the gym again about three weeks ago. my yoga class starts back up this week too. i'm really looking forward to that. i love yoga. i've revived my interest in bellydance this week too. hearing about a good friend of mine who has gotten into it has made me miss it even more. i may not be able to take lessons or be in shows like i used to but there is nothing to stop me from putting on some tunes and getting those hips moving again like they used too. and Houston loves to dance too. and then there are the videos ... have you seen my collection? they can definitely keep me busy. now if i could only find the time ...
i just finished polyurethaning the bunk beds tonight. one more coat (hopefully tomorrow) and they will be done ... finally! they do look good though. definitely worth the work. and i also finally did some modifying of the stuff i painted on the boys bedroom walls. when i "thought" i was having a girl, i painted the walls with trees, clouds, a sun, some animals and some bugs flying around. i made most of it pretty neutral "just in case" but i painted the bugs (butterfly, dragonfly, bee, ladybug) in pinks and purples. now, over two years later, i finally modified the bugs. we now have blue, green and yellow bugs and even a dragonfly with camoflauge wings.
well now that it is 1 am, i better get to bed. there goes another day of not crossing enough things off my list. better get some sleep so i have energy to start all over again tomorrow. monday is a gym day for me so i've got to have my energy up. i really appreciate my time at the gym much more now that i can't just go whenever i want to. and having to schedule it in advance like this also makes is easier for me to stick with it. i can't put it off because i won't get to go until another one of our scheduled days. makes me realize how much i took it for granted that i could just get up and go to the gym whenever i wanted to for so many years. a few more months and brody will be old enough to stay in the nursery and hopefully houston will be old enough to be okay with it by then. the last time i tried to leave him in the nursery (probably about eight months ago) he got so upset they had to page me to go get him! i'm hoping he will be more comfortable being in there with his brother. we'll see ... for now i will enjoy my monday and wednesday evenings at the gym after brett gets home from work. it's been good for us all around. i get some gym time and get to leave the house without little boys and diaper bags attached and brett gets some good quality bonding time with the boys. i enjoyed it so much this week that i went on saturday as well and left the boys watching some college football with brett. hopefully i stay this motivated!

Sleeping boys ...

Houston loves to hold his brother. He tells me he wants to hold him by sitting up on the couch, holding out his arms and saying "hold ... hold ... hold ..." until I put Brody in his lap. Brody is a really good sport about it too.

Brody & Houston

Brody was three months old saturday. Where does the time go? He's such a little sweetie pie. And so talkative already! He likes when people talk to him and he almost always "talks" back. So fun! He is growing so fast. He's wearing 9 month size clothes right now but I don't think they are going to fit for long. Some of them are already a little too small. He just grew out of his 6 month clothes a week or two ago. If he keeps going at this rate he is going to be bigger than his older brother in no time. Speaking of his older brother, they are so cute together. Houston is absolutely in love with his little brother. He kisses him all the time, lays with him, hugs him, asks to hold him every day. It is so precious. He hasn't shown the slightest bit of jealousy.

Brody had his first little accident on friday. Houston accidently pushed him off the couch. I wasn't looking but I think he may have been trying to pick him up. I was in the hallway and heard a thud. Then I heard both boys start crying. I went to the living room and Brody was now laying face down on the floor and Houston was standing next to him having an absolute fit. He was so freaked out. I picked Brody up and we all sat on the couch. Brody was fine and stopped crying almost immediately. It took me several minutes to get Houston calmed down though and he didn't even get hurt. I think he thought he hurt his brother and he started to panic. He had tears running down his face and was crying in a way that I don't think i've ever heard before.

My Boys

Houston is totally in love with his little brother.

the famous "pink snake dance"

Are we having fun yet?

Sandy & Erika - 10 years old

my 10th birthday party

my latest tie-dye creation. i'm getting good at this spiral thing! maybe i'll make some of these to sell at the festival of lights with my dog treats.

more 8th grade prom fun

9th grade science class

are we having fun yet?