"If Your Gonna Play in Texas" (you've gotta have a fiddle and a band)

Mom and Sisters came to visit.  I was so FREAKING excited for them to come.  We have the best times together.  Usually, when Christy is not sick, we sit around and laugh our heads off at nothing.  Poor Christy did get sick - which was a huge damper on the vacation - but we still managed to have some good laughs.  Here are some of the things we did.

This is a gift shop.  A very elaborate one and I love it.  I stop here almost every time we go to the beach on Padre Island.

 I finally had quarters in my purse so I let the kids ride these inside the gift shop.

 We went to my favorite beach

 built sand castles

 burried Kelsey

 this is a good one of the kids.  The cute redhead is my sister Christy's little boy.  I am glad my kids got to bond with him for the first time.

 I forgot Juliet's sun hat so I put a diaper on her head to protect her from the sun.

 She is going to love me for preserving this memory, haha.

 We swam a lot at their hotel swimming pool.  We didn't need swim suits.  We just dove right in.

 Jessica ROCKED band hero

 We all laughed hysterically at Carter's AWESOME dance moves

 We went to see this movie.

On our way there we were traumatized by viewing a rollover accident when the car right in front of us drove up a freeway wall and then rolled about 3 times.  The driver was ok, angels must have padded that boy because he walked away with only cuts and bruises.  I thought for sure he would be dead! I swear, Texans are the worst drivers ever!!!  He wasn't even drunk.  I can't even imagine what was going on in his head.  Anyway, he sure gave us a scare - and a story to talk about for many years to come, I'm sure.

We ate a lot of good food, talked a lot, played with babies a lot, laughed a lot.  I can't wait for next time.

Candy Corn, Crafts, and Halloween Cartoons

I realized my kids are  so lucky.  Here is what they did one day last week.

Ate candy corn while coloring in BRAND NEW COLORING BOOKS

 Crafted these cute Vampire and Bat decorations

 And watched Halloween cartoons on Netflix instant stream thing.  Here is their current favorite:  "Double, Double, Toil and Trouble" with Mary Kate and Ashley.

Halloween is one of my favorite hollidays so I was kind of surprised to open uup my halloween box to find only three or four halloween decorations. 

So I had to add a few extra things this year.  I think that if I add one or two things each year then in about ten years I will be able to make one spooky house.

Here is what I added this year:

The candy corn candy dishes

 Gel Ghosts and Pumpkis from Wal-Mart (the kids love rearranging these on my oven)

 And this Big Monster is inspired by a scary clown that is in someone's yard that we drive past every day when I take Kelsey to preschool.  Ethan loved the scary clown so much that I took him to Wal-Mart and let him pick out any mask he wanted so we could create our own creepy halloween guy.  The funny thing about this decoration is that when my sisters came to visit they were not sure if they were at the right house becuase it was dark outside and they thought that it was a black man sitting on the porch!

We added a big spider and web and the kids just LOVE it!

My Man

It is hard to pick just one thing this week that Matt did for me to brag about because he is so amazing and does so much for me.  But I am going to say that the thing that was most appreciated was when Ethan was sick saturday night (and puking every 20-30 minutes for several hours) Matt stayed up and took care of everything so that I could sleep.  This meant that I didn't have to help with any of the clean-up, laundry, or sad crying child.  Matt did it all.  And good thing too because I have felt like a zombie from lack of sleep due to my scheduling overload last week.  How many of you have a man that would do that? ???

Ethan

Ethan is a darn stubborn individual.  Matt says, "of course he is, he is just like you!"  This may be true.  He refuses to submit if he believes he is being controlled.  I have found two things useful in dealing with him.  First, reverse psychology. 
"Ethan, please do not eat your dinner." 
"But Mom, I am a little bit hungry"
"Ok, fine but only have a little bit"

or

"Ethan, I want you to stand here and scream as loud as you can for as long as you can."

Second, I always try to give him some kind of choice.
Instead of, "Ethan, it is quiet time you need to be in your room for one hour."  I say, "Would you rather read books or play cars for quiet time."

Yesterday when he was being particularly stubborn it occured to me how just how much he values agency.  I imagined to myself what kind of great warrior he was in the pre-existance for the cause of Christ.  There was NO WAY he was even close to siding with Satan and his plan to take away our agency.  This idea made me happy and proud of my son.  I imagined that perhaps he and I (and our stubborn natures) fought alongside each other to persuade our brothers and sisters how important it is to have our agency and to be able to choose for ourselves.
What a good boy I have!!!

 

My favorite part of having a baby

I love when Juliet falls asleep in the afternoon so I take her into my room to lie down.  After softly resting her in my bed she turns her head from side to side to find a position that is most comfortable and it is so cute that I can't resist the temptation to kiss her, even though it risks waking her up.  So I bend over and as softly as humanly possible I plant a kiss on the chubbiest part of her round pink cheeks.  Then I get into bed with her and slide next to her and she turns her head towards me and I smile as I close my eyes and doze off.  I call this our "snooze and snuggle".

My Man Mondays

I have such an extraordinary husband and he hardly ever gets the credit he deserves for it.  So I decided that I will do a post every monday to brag about something awesome or thoughtful or fun or cool or something that he did that week.
Lately I have been feeling a great NEED to exercize and try to work off this baby weight.  I think it has something to do with me only being able to wear sweats and maternity pants still. I can't even fit into my FAT pants yet.  I almost fit in them.  I tried some on and they fit really well and I was so excited and jumped around singing and so happy that they actually buttoned up.  But something bad happened.  Something bad called Chocolate No Bake Cookies and they are too tight again.
So Matt has been so good to watch the kids every night after he gets off of work so that I can go running.  This is a big sacrifice for him because I know he is tired when he comes home and wants to relax.  But he does this for me because he knows how much better I feel when I am in shape. 
So, Thanks Honey.  You're the best!