Future consultant

Pryce helping Daddy work.

First day at new school

The boys started their new school yesterday. The morning "drop off" went incredibly well. I wasn't concerned about Pryce as he's yet to exhibit much separation anxiety. However, there were numerous mornings at E's previous school when he didn't want to go in and put up quite a fight and tears. So I was REALLY pleased when he ran into his class and even gave his new teacher, Miss Kristen, a hug. We spent about an hour visiting the school last Thursday and I think this really helped. We did have a few tears this morning when it was time for me to leave, but his teacher said that didn't last long. Both boys seem really content when I've gone to pick them up. Pryce has two teachers in his class - Miss Meagan and Miss Amy. He has a large area to crawl around and I think he's been getting lots of exercise. I was surprised to hear he ate chicken nuggets and mashed taters for lunch ... I think we'll give up on the baby food soon since it's much easier to give him finger food and let him feed himself (and less of a mess!). I was told he only napped for 15 minutes yesterday ... I guess he was too busy! Of course, he was sound asleep within minutes of getting into the car. Here's a couple pictures of my fellas from yesterday morning.

Pryce speaks!!

David and I had a "date night" on Friday. (Thanks Mom & Dad for babysitting!) Before leaving for a wonderful dinner, we told our boys goodbye. When we told Pryce goodbye, we were quite pleased when he responded ... with a shake of his arm (we interpreted it as a wave) and his first words! "Bah-Bah!" Ok, so maybe they don't sound quite like words, but it seemed he was clearly telling us "bye bye" and he did this twice in response to our farewell.

He has been quite the motor mouth lately. His first babblings were "mama mamma" but he also says "gaga" and every now and then we hear a "dada".

It's hard to keep up with this child. He's a go-getter and changing diapers lately has become a bit of a wrestling match ... with me often working up a sweat!

He's such a happy kid and incredibly resilient ... even to the roughness his big brother has been bestowing upon him lately. If I had a nickel for every time I've said "Everett, GET OFF YOUR BROTHER" the past couple weeks, I'd be a rich Mama!

I'll post some new pics of Pryce this week ... I realize Everett has been hogging the blog space lately.

The boys start their new school tomorrow. Fingers crossed all goes smoothly. It will be REALLY nice to have them at the same place ... ONE drop off and ONE pick up ... should save me lots of time and fuss!

Swimming Pool?

Who needs a swimming pool to cool off when really anything filled with water will do just fine!

Giddy up horsie

On Friday afternoon, Everett and I were looking at the Lone Star Park website to see if we might like to go there on Memorial Day. Everett got pretty excited about the horses. Later, Leslie called and we decided to meet her at Mariano's for dinner. However, since we'd just talked about going to see the horsies, E thought that was where we were going. I thought we might be in trouble since he seemed to have his mind set on seeing horsies ... luckily for us, there were a few horsies at Mariano's. After eating, big sis took him to ride the horsies. He really enjoyed himself and even shouted out a few "ye-hawwws".

He was quite disappointed when the ride came to an end.

But happy that sis had one more quarter!

Key lime pie

We discovered on Mother's Day that Everett REALLY likes key lime pie ... in fact, he even licked his bowl which left some whipped cream on his nose. He then asked for seconds ... and thirds!

Brotherly Love

Here's a demonstration of Everett trying to get Pryce to lay down and take a nap on the kitchen floor. Not sure why he thought this was important, but he was pretty upset when little brother wouldn't cooperate.

Visit at Lake

Here are some more pictures from our visit to the Rankins' Mother's day weekend.
Everett sure enjoyed fishing with Daddy. He especially liked the plastic worms they used for bait. (So much, in fact, that he took his nap with one Saturday afternoon!)

Notice E's worm!

Won't be long before Pryce is fishing too!

Messy Eater

For those of you who doubted me when I told you that Pryce is the messiest eating baby ever, here's the proof. He blows rasberries while you try to feed him which results in very little going in and quite a bit going out (and all over Mommy!) I sure hope he figures out the right way to eat soon. As a friend has already pointed out ... this could be a problem when he starts dating!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

We're Alive!

Yay ... We survived the nasty virus that knocked out most of my family for a full week and even pulled off a successful fundraiser for the Collin County Children's Advocacy Center at our home on May 3rd. Big sigh of relief! It's been over a week and we are still recovering. Hopefully by next week the garage will be back in order so I can park in there and maybe I'll even be caught up on the work and household tasks that had to be put on hold while we focused on the Mudbug Fest and getting our children well. (You'll notice I am blogging now instead of doing above said work and chores, but hey, I'm also having my lunch while I type so I am multi-tasking!)

We had almost 200 people show up this year for the event! The weather was perfect and everyone had a great time. Once again, Southern Drive, treated us to an acoustical jam for all to enjoy while eating the 350 lbs of crawfish David cooked! You can see all the pictures on our photo site. Thanks to everyone who helped us put on the event and came out to support such a worthy cause!

Here's a picture of me and David at our Mudbug Fest holding the Proclamation we received from Plano's mayor, Pat Evans, which recognized us and officially proclaimed May 3rd, 2008 as "Mudbug Fest" in Plano and encouraged everyone to join in the effort to bring awareness and assistance to our children who have experienced child abuse.

Gone Fishin'

Happy Mother's Day!
I'll have to catch up on blogging next week, but wanted to take just a minute to share a picture I took of two of my "boys" at the Rankins this weekend. How sweet is this? It's enough to make my heart melt! (click on the pic to enlarge and get a good look at the sweet expression on E's face ... priceless!)
More pictures and updates to follow soon ....

Stupid Stomach Virus

Oh stomach virus ... how I hate thee ... let me count the ways ....
1. You've been an uninvited guest in my home since last Thursday .. it's time to go!
2. My boys are just babies ... pick on someone else!
3. We are hosting our annual fundraiser at our home this Saturday ... we don't have time for you this week!!! Arrrrgggg ... you really, really need to go!

** A BIG thanks to Les and Kevin (on Sunday) and Molly and GiGi (on Monday) for your help with the kids while I tried to shuffle one or the other child to the doctor, do laundry, clean up nasty, sick-kid-stuff (I'll spare my blog readers of those details). Not sure I'd have ever managed without your help ... gracias, gracias, gracias!!!

Beautiful Saturday

After spending all of Friday couped up in the house, Everett was very happy to run around outside today. While Brayden was having his T-ball pictures taken at the sports fields, we tagged along (with GiGi & BaBa) and enjoyed the beautiful weather.

Mother's Words of Wisdom

My friend, Amy, was nice enough to mail me a few articles from May's Parenting Magazine, since she knows that I never get around to actually reading my copies but she thought I'd enjoy the articles.

One page she sent was from their "Mom Exchange - You Said It" and was titled "What words have come out of your mouth that, before becoming a mom, you never imagined saying? Some of the responses had me laughing hysterically, so I thought I'd share them here. The truth be known, I've actually said some of these phrases myself or can see myself saying them sometime in the near future!!!
Here goes:
- "We don't play with our poo, please."
- "This is not yelling, THIS IS YELLING!!!"
- "No more wetting your hair with spit, okay?"
- "Wow, vegetables, yum-yum-yum!"
- "Nobody touch anybody ever again!"
- "Get the plunger out of your mouth. Yucky."

When I shared this article with my sister today, she said, "As a matter of fact, just last night, I heard myself telling one of my kids:
- "Don't put Superman up your butt and then in your mouth!"
LOL ... ahhh ... those wonderful little nuggets of wisdom we never dreamed we'd be sharing with our kids ... priceless!

And here's a couple random pictures from today of my little guys. Everett was actually home from school today because his tummy was upset. It was nice to spend a whole day with the boys ... although I wish they had both felt better.

Potato Scrubbing 101

Everett is quite the "helper" these days. He LOVES to "help" cook, clean, do yard work, you name it. I'd say cooking is his favorite hobby at the moment.
Just a few tips for those of you who might also like to have your 2 year old help scrub potatoes:
1. Remove the dish soap from arms reach. (He'd "washed" about 3 potatoes before I realized he was using Joy to get them extra clean.)
2. Make sure he can't reach the sprayer on the faucet.
3. If he can reach the sprayer, cover the floor with towels before potato scrubbing begins.