HAPPY BIRTHDAY JAMES AND JONAH!

They're one year old today. Whoo hoo! We don't have a big tadoo planned or anything. But we do have some family coming in from the Houston area. Ken's mom, sister and two nieces are coming. Ken got an ice cream cake, for the kids, and is (right now) getting a carrot cake for the adults. We'll probably order some pizza for lunch. Normally I would make the pizza myself, but I'm exhausted from lack of sleep last night and feel like going the easy way out. So we'll have a small little celebration with a few family members.
Hopefully I'll have some pictures soon.

Milestones: walking about 10 steps at a time. putting things in and out of containers. James loves passing things to other people...especially if you say "thank you". Jonah says -"dis" and "dat" which is obviously "this" and "that". pointing with one finger. learning to drink from a regular cup. "talking" on the phone to friends and family. That's all I can think of right now.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JAMES AND JONAH!

Where do I begin...?

Well, we'll start off with an "itchy" subject...

I dropped N/N off at school this morning to find that two of the boys (brothers) in their class have lice. Or, as the boys put it..."We have bugs in our hair." I have to scratch my head just thinking about it. Yuck! So, they were lining up all the kiddos, to be checked by the school nurse, on their way out to the playground. As the kids played, they were going to disinfect the classrooms. The two afore mentioned boys, were being sent home and were patiently waiting for their mother/father. This is my first experience with lice. I didn't know if I should bring the boys back home or what. The teacher said it wasn't neccessary. What a way to start the day.

After dropping the boys off, the little one's and I headed to Landa park for a morning walk. It was a nice morning and J/J were in a pretty good mood so we did two laps around the park. They boys did really well and loved seeing all the ducks, geese, squirrels and birds. Speaking of squirrels...the one's at Landa park are really bravel little suckers. They came running up to the stroller! And not just one at a time, sometimes there were four or five or six at a time. It was like an "attack of the squirrels" movie or something. The only thing I could figure was in their brain...stroller = kiddos = snacks that get dropped on the ground. Hence, stoller = food! As I walked, I wondered if I should bring some Cheerios or something next time. But then I thought, should I encourage this behavior? I mean, one of these squirrels got within about three inches of the stroller and I thought it was going to literally jump up in the thing with J/J. Now, I like squirrels. They're cute and fuzzy and all that. But in Texas you really have to worry about rabies and what not. So no squirrels allowed = no Cheerios allowed. Did I overthink this thing?

So we finished our walk and I was starving, so I totally blew my "workout" by going through the Whataburger drive through. LOL Yes! it was worth it. Whataburger rocks!

Well, a couple of weeks ago a little Hurricane named Ike rolled through the Texas coast. So, my sister, her husband and his mom came to stay with us for a while. We stayed up watching the news most of the night and for the next few days. They ended up staying for about a week. Then headed back to find that her mother in laws house had water and power but their house only had water. So they had been staying at her house up until yesterday when her power went out again. So they are now back home with a window unit and a couple of generators. I need to call them today to check on them. Fortunatelly, both of their houses faired well and they only lost a few trees/branches/fences and fish. Ken's mom and sister also live in the Houston area. His mom has been without electricity for going on two weeks now. His sister lost power for about a day, but then it came back on and his mom has been staying with her. Luckily, their houses faired well also. Except for the power thing. {update} I talked to my sister today and they have power again at her mother-in-laws house. So...whew. I think that my mother-in-law is still without power though.

Later.

September 11, 2008

I just had to blog a little post with today's date on it.
I don't have much to write or say except that the World will never forget what happened this day seven years ago.
The victims and their families are always in our thoughts and prayers.
G*d bless America!

Sand...surf...and a sea creature with a neon green snorkle...

<---Jonah enjoying a brewsky on the beach. (he found Grams' empty beer can) ...What do you do when the oldest two punks are at school and the youngest two punks are taking a nap; you're exhausted and not feeling well and you could not fold any more laundry if your life depended on it? You Blog! Like I said, the oldest two punks are in school. For the next hour anyway. So far they seem to enjoy going to pre-K. I love it when I pick them up, ask them how school was and did they learn anything new today, and they start telling me about their day. Usually at the same time, then we have to calm down and take turns. They usually have a new song that they are learning and they'll both start singing it. It's so cute! Nile is usually raring to go in the morning, but Noah tends to have a meltdown until he is actually in the classroom and realizes that he's not going back home. We pretty much have our new morning schedule down. It helps when you have most of their lunch/homework/school bag ready to go the night before. This past weekend we went to Corpus to spend some time at the Coast. It was really fun! And I wasn't as stressed out as I thought I would be. You know how it is when you travel with kiddos and they're out of their element. But James and Jonah did suprisingly well. They slept good and we, somehow, managed to pretty much keep them on their regular schedule. We stayed at the hotel that Ken has been staying at all summer and it was nice. We had a two room suite with a kitchen and fireplace (but we couldn't get it to work). Ken took Nile and Noah down to the pool, which they absolutely loved and wanted to spend every minute in. So, pretty much every free minute was spent at the pool. On Saturday afternoon, we headed down to the beach. Of course we took HoWhee and it was great! We drove down on surf side, found a nice little spot and parked it. Nile and Noah had a blast but were a little disappointed they couldn't find any portuguese man-o-wars. We did get to see a Coast Guard (dolphin) helicopter and jet fly right over us, and there were plenty of periwinkles and crabs and other little stuff to play with. Unfortunately, Noah lost his snorkle. We had just bought them a new mask and snorkle set the day before and he left it sitting on shore and the tide came a rollin' in and just sucked it out to sea. So somewhere out there, there is a sea creature with a neon green snorkle. LOL That was the only explanation that would calm him down. As for James and Jonah, they were content to just sit there and eat sand and seaweed. Does that count as their fiber for the day? We did get them in the water (which was surprisingly warm) for a while. Once the initial shock wore off, they seemed to like it. They kept trying to crawl into the surf. After about an hour and a half, everyone started getting hungry and cranky so we cleaned up and headed back to the hotel. I tell you what...it was so nice to have a shower in the van. We were able to get all of that sticky salt water off and rode home relatively comfortable. We had packed some snacks, so we started a movie and snacked our way home. And while the punks bathed, Ken made buffalo burgers on the outside grill. By the time everyone was clean, it was supper time. All in all, it was a great day. The kids had a blast... I kept my promise to Noah about getting him to the beach this year... And we're planning another trip in the next couple of weeks. Of course it all depends on huricane season too. Man it's been active this year! Gotta go...the little one's are waking up. We have pictures, but I used my SLR instead of the digital. So I have to get them on CD and download them for ya. Anyway, the weekend was great.