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?

8th grade prom ... wow look at that hair!

Potty Training

Any other potty training moms out there reading this ... I could use some input. Houston is what I call "naked potty trained". If he is naked he comes and gets me every time he has to go and says either "pee" or "poo". He holds it until we get to the potty and then he goes. He has been doing this for at least a month now. I'm glad it's summer because if we are home then he is naked. And I do realize that he is really young to be potty trained this far being that he just turned two last week and he is a boy. I'm not sure why boys supposively potty train later than girls but that's what the statistics say and who am I to argue with numbers?! So here is my problem ... if he has a diaper or underwear on he just goes ahead and pees in them most of the time and doesn't tell me he has to go until he has already gone. He will still tell us he has to "poo" so as far as that goes he is basically potty trained. How do I get him to tell me he has to pee when he has clothes on? My thinking so far is that if I can keep him naked as much as possible then every time he pees on the potty it is being reinforced that it is good to pee on the potty. I explain to him when we try underwear on that he still has to tell me when he has to pee. So far this is not working so well. And hey ... i'm all about a little naked boy running around the house so "naked potty trained" works for me for now but I do want to leave the house once in a while. Any suggestions moms?

I just love this picture of Brody and Stephanie. She looks like a natural. Maybe one of these days they will finally decide to make some babies too!

Stephanie and I cooling off in the river

Andre and Brett chillin' on the river

Houston and Stephanie

Brody chillin' on the boat

Our friends Andre and Stephanie came to visit us this past weekend. We went out on the boat and spent the night at Miss Nancy's river place. It was a lot of fun. This picture of Andre and Houston turned out really nice.

Houston has a phone call for Brody

Some of my latest tie-dye attempts. I really like the shirt on the right.

Houston working on some tie-dye

Houston loves his little brother.

tummy napping

More bath time fun.

Houston enjoying a birthday bath.

Houston enjoying a birthday bath.

Wrenda and Gavin