Joys of a "snow" day, Texas style

Boys so excited for snow! Just three days ago it was 80 degrees! Good times. Today we get to enjoy the annual "snow" day, no school, no stores open, no city services, hot chocolate and daddy even gets to stay home from work! Hooray for snow!

Technically it was the ice that covered the streets that kept us all home. Hooray for ice!

Owen contemplating life and Lily in the background super ticked about being left out and all.

Probably also upset by the fact that she was necked.
Dark picture, if you look closely you will see me still in my pj's and long underware cooking away. Making my favorite beef stew recipe. It is so good that it can change your life. It's Barefoot Contessa's recipe called "Parker's Beef Stew", go online to foodtv.com get it, make it, follow every tiny direction and you too will have this delicious meal that will leave your husband worshipping you and all your tender goodness. It's true.

Hair not done, no makeup, very all natural but doing things I love, looking after my children (especially love it when their playing happily together in the next room and all I can hear is the faint noise of their cute conversations), and cooking with the music up loud and getting down next to my stove.

Half way done, now into the oven for a couple of hours. Just enough time to curl my hair and put a ribbon in it, (figure I'm halfway there why not step it up a notch)?

Owen trying to look at the camera but can't bear to take his eyes of daddy's guitars (which mother so graciously not only allowed to be hung in bedroom but also hung them up herself, man what a girl), if I do say so myself.

Hooray! Mother dressed me.

Later in the day Lily cozying up to her favorites, Lucy and her baby doll.

Dear Lily, It's not that I don't love you...

It's because your the third child that we ran out of diapers. It is really as simple as that. With Owen I would never be caught without a diaper on hand. I even had a diaper bag that I carried with me everywhere I went. Luke, well I technically had a diaper bag that I could or could not have just depending upon how prepared I was. With you, my precious daughter well all that was not essential went straight out the window. But Monday was, I admit an all time low. Not even a diaper in the entire house, or the car. So sorry. But never fear! We had a old burp cloth that we used as our retro diaper while daddy rushed out to Costco (still can't imagine how disgusting life would have been without disposable diapers).

But just think of all the great things you've got that your older brothers didn't whenever you feel bad about being a wee bit white trash. Like them showing you how to be naughtier younger, getting to eat food off the kitchen/garage/patio floor or someone to push you down our steep driveway in a toy car that wasn't made for toddlers until you went crashing into the neighbors curb, and what about that time your brothers "helped" you into the dryer...you wouldn't have been able to do that by yourself. So, there you go, you've gotten a lot more excitement that they will never be able to experience at such a young young age.

One day when your older, you'll marvel at how your blessed mother kept you alive (hopefully face free from scars). Love you baby girl.

Had to put in this totally cute picture of Luke coming home from school the other day. He wears his big red hat just about everywhere he goes...

Got a baller on our hands

Luke at Owen's practice. He was more interested in flirting with the teenage girls. Uh-oh.
Owen in action. Loves to take shots while giggling uncontrollably.

Yup, this is our baller to be. Miss Lillian. Anything that is round she takes and it becomes part of her body. At home it is not an unusual sight to see a soccer ball in her doll stroller.

Which could be good times, because at the doctors office a few weeks ago she estimated Lily would grow to be 6'2"! Thanks dad!!

Gotta get this off my chest

(Missing oldest brother in this pic, and aren't my earrings great!)

Okay now most of you know that I was born prisoner to a family (meaning God sent me to a family that had only boys). I have five brothers and I'm second oldest. Well, many people upon hearing about this will remark that it must have been great to be a princess. Ha, farthest thing from it. I mean I can recall moving pipe with my brothers out in the fields, so I was hardly being waited on hand and foot. But now I think it's great because princesses after all do not have very good lives after they leave the comforts of their parents nest. I mean, what are they saying about themselves anyways..."I am incapable of taking care of myself or anybody else for that." Yeah! That'ed be a great person to be saddled with.



Anyho, I digress. I've got some pretty naughty stories that I could share about my brothers but I'll let them do their own confessing. So, this ones about me and my guilty conscience. Well, when I was about sixteen everyone in my family but me went out of town somewhere (oh, memory where have you gone to?). So I was alone in the house, almost. My little brother Jay had this horrible pet hamster. It drove me insane. It somehow managed to escape daily and would promptly come into my room to poop on my floor. Agghhh. One day it became to much and opportunity showed it's ugly little face and I...took it. I loaded the thing up in it's little ball. Then I opened the door to it's ball and chucked it out into the wild (the field behind our house). I felt such immense joy and absolutely no guilt. It deserved to be hunted by the wild animals that inhabited those parts. Nobody and I mean nobody poops in my room and gets away with it.



I even helped Jay look for the darn thing for days after he returned. So so sad. This was supposed to be some sort of coming clean/repentance post. But as I wrote down the story I again felt justified for my actions, so yup I did it and I'd do it again.

Some face time

Luke deserves some face time on the old blog (without mentioning all of the naughty things he does on a regular basis). Nope not this post. This post we're going back to Luke's first year of life. Here he is at our old house in Dallas, bouncing away in his Johnny Jump up. Luke was not a terribly happy baby (had kind a rough start, poor guy). But he makes up for it now with all his funny comments. He's always saying funny things that crack us up. He takes many of his lines from Spongebob, but he has some originals. Like the other day when Mrs. Hogan (school nurse) commented that he was a good helper. Luke thought she said good father and Luke responded (in an outraged tone), "I'm too young to be a father!"

At least he's got that straight!

Uh-oh (Lily's favorite word)

Okay, so something possibly terrifying happened today. I was in the shower and Lily was not happy about it. Usually when she is upset she will just kind of wander around crying for a bit. No. Not today. Today she came up to the glass shower door and literally shouted at me while pounding her hands on the glass door. Not crying, but shouting! Holy cow. I was in shock and I hope this doesn't foreshadow anything to come. Please please tell me she will stay my sweet perfect daughter who will never shout or do a thing in anger (just like her mother).

Which reminds me of something funny Miss Lily does do. Sometimes after she's hurt herself and is crying about it she will hold her breath. She done it about a dozen times now and I have to blow in her face to get her to start breathing again. Typing these two things out has me a wee bit scared. I guess I can appreciate that she didn't break anything of mine today (can't say that for child number one).

You're fat

Have I ever posted that when Luke is mad at anybody he will say "you're fat" as his witty one liner. Brilliant.

Bunky

Lily with her Bunky. Can you tell she is teething?

CHING!@!

I would go everyday to the NICU and just hang out with O. We'd even go on walks around the NICU to visit friends. But now for a story, when Owie was a baby we'd walk into a room and as soon as we'd see him we'd say CHING in a really happy/loud/cheery voice. He'd smile so big and get all excited and wiggle his arms and legs.

FYI, I am a baby thief. When Owen was released from the hospital he was supposed to stay at the hospital hotel with me for one night. But I just brought him home. I couldn't stand to stay there one more minute. Chad was pretty surprised when we walked through the door.

Which reminds me of something funny (now). July of 2003 we were in Dallas, Chad had graduated from Law School and he was rigorously studying for the bar. We were living in a little apartment that we found online. I didn't really like the place so one day while Chad was away studying I moved. I know what your thinking, but I did leave him a note at our old apartment with directions to our new apartment. Yup, everything was out of the apartment except for a phone (for him to call and complain to me about me moving without asking or notifying him) and directions to the new place. Ha! My friend Jamie Peterson and I moved absolutely everything else to the new apartment during the day. Ha Ha!

NEVER!

It's a dark picture but that is Luke on his bigwheel. It was taken right after he took a stand. We were driving home and as I pulled onto our street I encountered his bigwheel down the street (a common event). I pulled the car over, told him to get out and bring his bigwheel home. He looked me straight in the eyes and shouted with great conviction, "NEVER!"

I wish words could accurately describe how he said it though, he said it like how Oprah introduces celebrities (you know voice going up and holding onto the last letter). The ball was back in my court, what to do. I glowered over at him, and said (in my lowest meanest voice possible) "get out of this car." He did, but heaven help me.
He's only four and he's already putting his foot down. Lord help me in twelve years.

Maybe the best line uttered, ever.

It's because I like you that I don't want to be with you...it's a complicated emotion.

The cutest thing on earth...(lily)

Lily's dimpled chubby hands. I could just die a happy woman for getting to hold them.

One thing. and then photo documentation

As last year was coming to a close I found myself thinking about my goals, as I am a list lover and checker off-er. All the usual suspects came to mind, get in shape, be more spiritual, etc. But the one characteristic that I most want to develop is patience. Patience and I aren't very close, I want things done now and my way. In the picture above as you can probably see I am irritated, I'm thinking stop playing with the friggin camera and help me. I've got a crying baby and Luke is running all over the place, agghhh. My own mother reports that I have never been patient. When I was a child I'd get frustrated and would shout out "Give me some impatience!" So as you can tell this has been a life long struggle in development. Children complicate the issue too; as they are a never ending pit of patience users. But I guess that is the point to it all too. Either they make you better, more kind, loving...patient. Or alternatively you go totally mad, which some days quite honestly doesn't seem altogether too bad of a proposition.

The most important thing to me is creating a welcoming, loving environment where people want to be. I hate feeling tense and irritated. I want to speak more kindly and still be using my indoor voice at bedtime. My list of goals for 2009 have shrunk. Hopefully this time next year I will be able to report that I have become mellow-yellow.
Here I am after my Christmas eve dinner, already trying to not let all the dishes get to me.

Oh, and this was just too funny not to post. A few weeks ago, Luke was home sick from school and he and Lily were being very quiet. Trouble. I found them like this, Luke was talking to her in his doggie voice saying, "come on girl, come on lets go."
And the funny part was Lily thought it was funny and was totally cooperating with his little game.
Notice that Lily only has on one shoe.