Really Awesome Christmas!

This was such a great Christmas. What else could be better than everyone being healthy, snow on Christmas and seeing all of our family? This was the first year that we decided to drive. I was the one who actually considered it way before Eric. It is a 20 1/2 hour drive to my parent's house. We actually spent lots of money on maintenance on our van before we left so there was no cost savings by driving but it did afford us a lot more freedom to pack more.

Even though I cannot remember ever having a white Christmas, I had this premonition that it was going to snow so I packed all of our snow gear. It started snowing on Christmas evening and snowed for almost 48 hours straight. It was beautiful and one of my fondest memories of our trip was taking a long walk with Eric in the snow at night. It is so serene and peaceful. We were all bundled up and barely saw a soul during our hour walk through the foot deep snow. Everything was untouched by plows and there was fresh snow in the trees. It reminded me of my ski trip last year with my girlfriends.

We bundled the kids up and took them out to play the day after Christmas. Logan lasted 5-10 minutes and was then over it. Lucas did last a while longer as my Dad pulled him down the street on one of our old sleds. Eventually he got snow all over his face, up his shirt and down his mittens after crawling through the deep white stuff like a puppy. He was over it after that as well. Neither one of them wanted to go out to play the next day.

I was so bummed that all of the shops that I was hoping to find great deals at were closed the day after Christmas. We made up for it on the 27th by finding the deals of the year at a Lucy outlet store. I love this store and the clothes are cute and well made. The pants and shirts retail between 40-58 dollars each. I got 11 pairs of pants, capris, shorts, tennis skirt, reef flip flops, hat, and several more tank tops, blouse and long sleeve tops for around $100.00!!! What a fun shopping trip. The outlet is going to close and they will just keep their online and retail shops.

The kids were really great in the car considering they were stuck in their car seats for over 40 hours. Can you believe that is as long as most people's work week that we were stuck in a car. Lucas only had his meltdown during the last hour or two.

My family was great. Mom and Dad outdid themselves again and the boys loved their gifts. It was also nice to see Eric's family for Christmas this year as we typically don't.

I am so thankful for such amazing memories and a pretty good 2010. Eric enjoys his job, we are healthy, I have two very special little boys, I get to stay home to be with them and we have a very loving family. Life is good and bring on 2011.

Halloween activities

Halloween was lots of fun this year. We had a trunk or treat with our mom's group, Halloween party at the gym, scare in the square, two Halloween parties and of course trick or treating. The boys lasted for an hour around the neighborhood before they were ready to come home. Logan was excited about the loot. I am pretty excited that Halloween is over!

Star student

Logan has been looking forward to being a star student since the first week of school. He loves extra attention being paid to him. Logan had a great week. He worked on his star student poster over the weekend, got to bring home a stuffed puppy with a book for the week, bring in a show and tell item, read to the class, bring in an artwork project and get on stage at the Friday morning assembly.

Weekend without Daddy

Maybe it is the cooler temperatures but I have found renewed energy lately. I invited a new friend and her children over for dinner on Friday night since she was also husbandless for the weekend. We had a nice evening of dinner, drinks, Wii dancing, and dessert.

Then I worked on garage sale stuff. I got up at 5:30am and worked on putting stuff out in the driveway. My first customers were looking through my items while they were still in the garage at 6:30 am. I really wish E was around to help with the sale. I had some really great customers but some others that I found pretty insulting. I was asking $5 for a two wheeler bike and a man came by and asked me if I would take $1. Really?? If I found a bike for $5, I would be thrilled! Considering the kids were left unsupervised in the house for six hours, the house was still in pretty good shape. I did have two sweet friends that came by and helped me. I really appreciated it and was very busy with sales most of the time.

If that wasn't enough for the day, we had the opportunity to go camping that evening. I packed up and we headed off to the camp with friends. The boys loved every minute of it. They ran around like crazy little boys, ate hot dogs, made s'mores, tried to go fishing, wrestled, peed on trees and slept in a tent. I have to say it was the worst night sleep I have ever had but worth it for all of the smiles that were on my boy's faces.

Did I mention I was a planner?

I love to have vacations to look forward to! We always have our annual trip to the Outer Banks of North Carolina but I have a few more things to look forward to this year.

We will be going to Virginia for the holidays this year but......this year we will be driving! It is going to be a first but we are going to try it. There are so many black out dates to use frequent flyer miles around the holidays and I don't want to pay $2,000 to fly so we will be taking a road trip. I hope we don't run into any snow storms as that will slow down our already 21 hour drive.

My childhood best friend should be coming to visit with her adorable twin girls in March which will be lots of fun. The whole family is planning a trip to go and visit them in Alaska in June. What an opportunity! I am so excited about being one with nature and experiencing the great outdoors.

In July, my best friends from college and I will be having a fun and relaxing girls weekend in Myrtle Beach. After our snow storm adventure last year, we decided to try the summertime next go round. We are staying in a condo and will be enjoying time together for a long weekend!

Then we will be going on our annual trip to the beach with my family which is always wonderful. Hopefully this time we won't have the jellyfish and freezing cold water issues.

Now if I can only talk my husband into a Caribbean/tropical island trip for our 10 year wedding anniversary in the fall.... He is a world traveler...why can't I be one too?

July 4th pic

This sums up the day! The boys had a busy day, swimming then a really fun party and fireworks. The drive home from the fireworks is about a mile away and they could not stay awake. When I opened the car door...this is what I found.

(My boys have a thing for white lambies and Lucas fell asleep on one of them)

Fun times at Chick-fil-A!

I know we are so crazy but it is so much fun to go to Chick-fil-A with all of the other crazy people to get free combo meals. We did not go for breakfast, lunch and dinner like some do...only dinner this year!

Beautiful butterflies

I purchased a live butterfly garden for $5.00 (75% off) at Target last year and decided to order the live caterpillars recently for an extra $3.00 (for shipping and handling with coupon code). Five caterpillars in a vented cup showed up and grew very quickly. The kids loved to look at them and watched them pupate.

Around seven days later the painted lady butterflies hatched one by one. We released them after a few hours of observation. The last one did not seem like it wanted to go. We opened the netting several times and it would not fly away. I think it was smart and realized it had it good with flowers, sugar water and oranges to feed on.

This was fun learning experience for all.

Logan's success

I am so proud of my little smartie pants! A while back I bought the Hooked on Phonics set for K-1st grade and also the second grade set. Logan finished the kindergarten set in a day and so we quickly moved onto the 1st grade program. We did a couple of the lessons and he just didn't seem that into it.

Yesterday I decided we were starting summer break by trying the 1st grade Hooked on Phonics set. Logan saw it sitting on the kitchen table and was all excited to go through the program. He read book after book. Today all he wanted to do all day was read books to me. He did so great! He is such a good reader and was able to read all of the books with no problem. I swear I was not pushing him. He really enjoys the achievement chart where you can put a sticker on each book title as you complete each item. I gave him lots of praise and by the afternoon he had finished the 1st grade program!!!

Now we are moving onto the second grade program and I am hoping that this one will be a little more challenging and will last longer than two days. Logan has his difficult behavior problems like any 5 year old but he has a definite love of learning. He is self-motivated and has a long attention span. He is a quick learner and is always enthusiastic. Logan really enjoys reading and learning about the English language. He is a great speller and loves to do math problems. He does not enjoy coloring or crafts. He will participate in a group setting but my large supply of craft projects goes largely unused.

Logan is so sociable and will speak to any child or adult. He frequently has conversations with any stranger we run into at the grocery store or employees. Logan will tell whoever is around all about our family....all of our names, ages, birth dates, address, phone number etc. I am not sure what to do about his friendliness but it is a nice personality trait to have. He is a special boy and we are so thankful to have him in our lives.

Final tally for Trip to Florida

One close call
One cracked windshield
One butterfly mortality
Hundreds of killed love bugs stuck the the front of our car
Over 2,600 miles driven
35 hours in the car for travel time
A couple meltdowns
Four different Hotels
Eight fire ant bites
Seven gas fill-ups (at least)
One broken DVD player
Spilled cereal and popcorn
and too much fast food

It was all worth it for a cheap family vacation and lots of new experiences for all. Poor E had to take a class while we were swimming in the pool, going to the beach, zoo, and parks. Thank you E for letting your family tag along on your work trip!

Logan's graduation and Florida pictures

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The zoo and Honeymoon island beach

The last two days have been busy on our "vacation". We went to the Lowery Park Tampa Zoo and spend the whole day there. It was a hot day but had a great time at the very deserted zoo. It was nice that school is still in session and field trips don't usually happen so close to the end of school. We got to feed the giraffes crackers, saw an elephant spraying itself with water then walking down and immersing itself under the water and using its trunk as a snorkel. We saw my favorite creatures of all...manatees! They were adorable swimming, hugging each other and eating romaine lettuce for lunch.

Yesterday we drove over to Honeymoon Island State Park. It was a beautiful park with nature trails, nature center, and beaches with facilities. We chose to forgo the nature trails since they said there was a danger of rattlesnakes. I really enjoyed snorkeling around in the clear gulf waters looking for shells. Many beautiful shells I found had conch and hermit crabs in them still so I left them where they were. Logan was snorkeling around all by himself like a professional. He figured out that he floated in the salt water and snorkeled all over the place.

We celebrated Logan's birthday at Chuck E Cheese last night. He was thrilled that he got 100 tokens so he completely forgot about the fact that none of his friends were there to celebrate with him. We partied for 3 1/2 hours and finally coerced the kids out by the goodies that you purchase with your accumulated tickets. Logan and Lucas got a Zhu Zhu pet each from their grandparents. They are both in love with their new pets!

We are swimming in the Gulf!

E has a class to take in Tampa and we decided to come with him. My parents flew down to spend time with me and the kids while E was stuck in class for 6 days.


We arrived in St. Petersburg, Fl yesterday after a two day drive. The drive took forever but actually wasn't so bad. The kids were pretty good and it helped that we brought two DVD players, bags with new toys to hand out every couple of hours and snacks. Lucas did not sleep for one minute during the 12 hour drive we had yesterday.

When we arrived my parents were already checked into our Treasure Island beach Residence Inn. It was so nice!!! The room had a claw footed tub, huge balcony and modern decor. It was right on the water with a huge wide white-sand beach. Within minutes of arriving we had our bathing suits on and had headed out to the beach. The Gulf was clear and like bath water. There were beautiful shells everywhere. We watched the sun set over the water then headed back to the hotel for some night pool time. We ordered pizza and the kids finally went to bed around 10:30.

Today we went to Fort De Soto Park and explored. We spent the day on the beach. It was a great day! We are having lots of fun and are looking forward to what the rest of the week brings!

Lucas needs ear surgery as well

Lucas has been seeing the ENT since he was a newborn. First it was failing the newborn hearing screening test, then repeat ear infections and needing tubes in his ears. Now he has a pearly keratin growth on his eardrum possibly a cholesteatoma. We have gone back to the doctor since finding out about his ear for another check up. We had hoped that it would be getting smaller or would be gone. The fear is that the growth will get larger and affect his hearing eventually breaking the bones of the middle ear as it grows.

The ENT said that we can wait two more months and will know for sure when surgery will be required. For logistical reasons I would prefer to wait until the fall so that we can get through this year's swimming season. The surgery requires removal of the affected part of the ear drum and then patching it with harvested tissue from behind his ear. This means that he could not get that ear wet at all. He would have to wear a custom fit earplug to even get a bath. If there has been growth when we go back for a recheck then the surgery will be sooner than later.

Poor kid! Two surgeries in the same year. He is doing well after his last surgery but wants to wear diapers still. He still uses the potty for all of his business but seems to see the diaper as a "band aide" to make him feel better. I think we met his out of pocket max for the last surgery so I guess it won't cost much.

Upcoming trip to Tampa

I love going on trips. I love researching, planning and thinking about going to a new place. E is going to South America this month, Ireland in April and Tampa, Florida in May. He mentioned that maybe we could go with him. I jumped right on it and started planning.



We are going to drive there. It only takes 17 1/2 hours!?! We will break the trip up and spend the night somewhere along the way. We always fly and have only taken one road trip since we have moved to Texas. I am excited to be able to load the car up with as much stuff as we would like to bring instead of our one suitcase per person usual.



I have asked my parents to fly and meet us there but they are not sure yet if they are going to. I want to go to Fort De Soto beach in St. Petersburg and Busch Gardens in Tampa. I would like to try the zoo and aquarium. The hotel will have a pool so I am sure we will spend some time there. E will be busy the whole week with the class he will be taking but I am sure I can keep the kids busy with all kinds of activities. It is going to be so fun and I love to have something to look forward to.

Yellow Fever Anyone?

E is traveling to Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay and seemed really uninterested in preparing for his trip. I decided to search online for "travel tips to Brazil" and what did I come up with? The Center for Disease Control highly recommends that all travelers be vaccinated for Yellow Fever before traveling to Brazil and Argentina...specifically the cities that he will be visiting. Not only is this freaking me out, so is the fact that this is summer for Brazil and also the rainy season. Apparently the mosquitoes are out in full force between the months of January and March and that is how the virus is spread....through mosquitoes.

He also should be vaccinated against Hepatitis and Tetanus. I asked E last night when he was last vaccinated for Tetanus and he said "Probably when I was 10." Great! That is only about 25 years too long ago! E leaves tomorrow so it doesn't leave much time to work on getting him vaccinated.

Not only am I worried about the things that can be prevented by vaccinations, I am also worried about all of the parasites that you can catch in South America. I studied parasitology in college and recently watched the show on TLC called "Monsters inside me" which is all about parasites. I don't think he is worried about the risks as much as I am so I will have to send him a sheet of rules to keep in his pocket. I am the worrier in our relationship and a little pissed that he didn't think of this stuff a little sooner.

3rd and biggest snow of the year!

Lucas just had surgery so he wasn't in the mood to play in the snow.

Logan and I played in the snow for a while. I over dressed and started sweating. I had to lay in the snow for a while to cool off. Making a snow man is hard work!

Snow much fun!

Here are some pictures of our girl's weekend at a ski resort in Virginia.


Our view off of our balcony.

We spent two nights for dinner and live music at the Lodge which was within walking distance.

See the men above us behind the railing? They were checking us out. Apparently 21 men approached our table for one reason or another throughout this night. I had too many drinks to notice!

The three of us went skiing together. We all had a great time. They called me "Speedy Gonzales" since I would zip down the mountain. I didn't mean to...just didn't seem to be able to figure out how to slow down.

This was our lunch break the day that we skied. What is the point of makeup when you are being pelted with snow the whole day?

All five of us arrived at the resort at the same time. We checked in and had two rooms. We decided that one room would be our closet and the other would be our sleeping room since we all wanted to sleep together. We went out for margaritas and Mexican food for dinner and it was like old times again.

The resort was already covered in snow from a previous snow but on Friday it started snowing. It snowed all day on Friday, Friday night, and all day Saturday. We had planned to leave on Saturday but the roads were impassable so we stayed another night. Fortunately I had not planned to fly home until Sunday but I had to ditch the plans to visit with my parents. It snowed like crazy all over Virginia.

The snow was so beautiful and it was awesome to ski in the powder. There were no injuries, no frostbite, no hangovers....just a few sore bodies the next day.

Lucas is doing well

Lucas is doing as good as can be expected after surgery. The surgery went perfect and he was doing well today. I thought with 4 different medications (including narcotic pain meds) to take he would sleep the day away but he has not taken any naps. He is not happy about having a catheter in but I am trying to distract him with snacks and movies.

I am trying to keep track of his every 4 hour, three times a day and as needed meds without over medicating him. E was able to go with me today since he took the day off and has been a great help in running errands for us all day.

I am going to be having lots of snuggle time with my baby this week.

Lucas is having surgery

No parent wants their child to go through surgery no matter how minor. Without going into many details since it is of a personal matter, we recently found out about a congenital birth defect Lucas has and he will be having it fixed. I am very anxious about it, especially the recovery. He is at an age where he communicates very well but doesn't reason very well yet. I think this will be a challenge in the recovery period. Anyways, if you don't mind keeping Lucas in your thoughts on February 8th, we would appreciate it.

One week until girls weekend!

In college I met a few girls that I really clicked with. We met while living in the freshman dorm together, rushed sororities together, had classes together and decided to live together for the next three years.

I enjoyed college so much because of the tight friendships I made. We all had completely different majors, different sororities and lived together like family. I have kept in touch with all of them. We have been a part of each other's weddings. We have been there through the good times and bad. I love each of them.

We have not been able to coordinate a time to get together since my baby shower for Logan almost 5 years ago. It seems like one of us was breast feeding, pregnant or just not willing or able to leave our kids during the 5 years. Between the 5 of us we have 12 kids and one on the way!

A week from today, I will be flying to Virginia to spend two nights with my best friends. We will all be able to visit and spend time together at a ski resort. I am so excited to see them I packed weeks ago. It is going to be great to be together without interruptions from children and reminisce about our college days. We have lots of stories, a few I would rather not be repeated.

Thanks to Cathy for organizing and letting us use your time share days!

2nd Snow of the year

I hope that snow wasn't too dirty. He couldn't resist tasting the snow every chance he got.

Christmas loot and exhaustion

This picture cracks me up. We had a small Holiday party the day after Christmas and Lucas laid down on the floor, his eyes rolled back in his head and he fell asleep. Kids were running around inches away from him screeching like banshees, several adults were talking and he laid down in the living room and fell asleep. He must have been exhausted and I never would have guessed he could ever fall asleep with such activity all around him.

Here is all the Santa stuff. The kids thought everything was great and had fun playing for hours. It is kind of funny that they have always been the type that opens a gift and then wants to play with it for a long time. They forget that there are many more presents to open. It is so fun celebrating Christmas through the eyes of children.