Anyone else ready for fall?

I know I am!! I usually don't even bother looking at the forecast in the summer. I mean, really, what's the point? But, for some reason last night I decided to take a look at the forecast on my phone. It is usually pretty accurate (actually, it always ends up being a few degrees warmer, but it's close.) So, I was a little bit shocked to see this........

Yeah, it gets hot here......and we do have 40-50+ days on end in the triple digits.....and we go weeks on end without any rain, but 107,108,109!! Come on now. I expected to see 100, 101, maybe 102. But this was a bit much. Oh well, guess we'll just wait till tomorrow......

That's right folks, 112 degrees. This was taken at 5:00 in the afternoon as the kids and I were leaving Hawaiian Falls. I figured it would drop a few degrees once we got on the road, but it never did. It was still 112 as we pulled in to Rockwall around 6:00. An hour and a half later when we left, it had dropped to 110. The boys wanted to go ride bikes so we went home, loaded up the bikes, and went over to the park and turned them loose. It was 106 when we got there shortly after 8:00 and by 9:00 it was a cool 102. It is days like today that make me crave winter, seriously crave it. There is nothing about this weather that appeals to me at all. (and yes, this was the entire meat of this post:)

Clean up, Clean up, Everybody Everywhere....

Now that you have that annoying song stuck in your head.......I often assign tasks to the kids., pick up all the shoes, take the toys back upstairs, get all your dirty clothes to the laundry room, and so on. So today, I asked the boys to get the downstairs picked up. No one moved. I asked again, no one moved. So I started to assign "jobs" as they call it. Then, I had a brilliant idea (they hate it when this happens:) I assigned them each an area of the house to get picked up. Chase got the office (mine, not Tony's...just to clarify) and the steps, Ethan got the downstairs and Blake the upstairs. Chase wasn't in there 2 minutes and he comes to tell me, "mom, it really isn't my responsibility to clean up your office you know." Really? Well, it is my responsibility to make sure you know how to clean up so your wife...he interupts me, "you mean Lola?"....yes Chase, whoever you marry...."well, Lola dosen't even care about cleaning up" .....well son, I do and she will so you are going to be responsible for cleaning the office (picking up crayons, coloring books, books, shoes, trash, toys, etc) and making sure there isn't anything on the stairs. He leaves and I notice Ethan isn't down here picking up. So I call him down. He said he is through picking up. Really? I still see toys, shoes, plates on the table..."oh, that's not mine those are Dad's shoes and Chasey was playing with those blocks, and.." Wait one minute, you are responsible for the downstairs, so anything down here is your responsibilty. He gets to picking up the others' messes. I go upstairs to check on Blake and find that the stiars are littered with dirty clothes, towels, etc and I call for Chase to get the stairs cleaned up. "But mom, I already did clean off the stairs." Well, there is more stuff on them. "Hey guys, who threw all this stuff on the stairs??" Of course he gets no answer so he gets to picking up all the dirty laundry and when he comes back there are more toys on the steps. He was livid. Blake is cleaning the upstiars and tossing down dirty laundry and Ethan is cleaning up the downstairs and putting toys and shoes on the stairs to go up. Finally Chase yells "HEY EVERYONE.....THE STAIRS ARE OFF LIMITS!!! NO ONE PUT ANYTHING ON THE STEPS ANYMORE!" I think we may be onto something here folks.........

Just Another Day at the Park

I know this blog is very neglected, but I am very busy. I have considered deleting it, but it's days like today that I am thankful it is still up and running. Rena' and I decided to take the 8 kids to Hawaiin Falls. I corralled my 4 in a confined area until Rena' and the girls arrived. As soon as they got there, Brooke wanted to go to the Pineapple Express. So off they went, Brooke,Tara, Ethan, Blake and Lizzie. Fifteen minutes later Blake comes running back with Tara, Brooke, and Lizzie close behind, "Mom, Can you come get Ethan?"
"Where is he?"
"He fell down getting off the Pineapple Express."
"He fell down? And you left him there? Is he OK?"
"No, I mean yeah......you just need to go...."
As Rena and I are trying to figure out what is going on, we notice a lifeguard headed our way. "Ethan fell and hurt his chin, he was trying to run to get you but my manager scooped him up and took him to the First Aid center." As we are making our way over there she explains further, "The guard at the slide said he fell off his mat and hit his chin. When he got up, he said he was fine and just grabbed his chin. The guard saw that he was bleeding and got on the radio. Our manager was right there and said that when Ethan saw that he was bleeding and that everyone was looking at him he got sort of angry and started running." That's my Finn, for years all we heard was "I don't want anyone looking at me." I get to the First Aid station to find Ethan and a crowd of management. "I think he's going to need some stitches, Mom," the friendly EMT said. He pulls back the gauze and it was only the second time I have ever seen blood that dark, click here to read about the first. His chin was split wide open. They held gauze on it and surprisingly the bleeding stopped. I called Tony, did my best to explain what was going on, and we decided that if the bleeding was stopping that he didn't have to go get stitched up. The EMT said that he could try steri-strips if we weren't going to get stitches. It was obviously going to need something to keep it closed. They laid Ethan down, tilted his head back and started applying the "glue" that holds the steri strips in place. Then, they closed his gash up and put some neosporin on but said he was going to need to keep it dry. Seriously? Ethan took it like a champ but was so bummed. Then I remembered that I had some waterproof band-aids in my bag. Darien got him all sealed up and we were off. E had to stay completely dry for an hour (a big thanks to Aunt Rena for letting him play Angry Birds) and then he was free to play as long as he didn't put his chin in the water. The first place he went was over to the wave pool to see Amy, his little DJ friend that gives him a free shaved ice coupon every time he dances the Macarena. She had seen him getting carried to the First Aid shack and told him she would do the Macarena in 5 minutes for him. So he gets his coupon (and so did Cami.....she stole the show) gets himself his free snow cone. While he is waiting, he tells me he'll be right back. He runs over to the First Aid station and gives the EMT a big hug and tells him "thank you for getting my chin all bandaged up without stitches." Sweet boy.
After the cold treats, E and the girls wanted to go on th big blue and green slides. So, we start putting shoes on and.....Chase steps on a bee. I don't think I have ever heard him screm like that. People were staring at him...and at me as I am running him to the First Aid station. I don't know what in the world they put on his foot but he stopped crying and was even laughing within seconds. (Maybe I will have my head on straight next week and I can ask what it was, it definitely worked fast.) Hopefully next week will be a little less exciting. On a positive note, Ethan's chin is not oozing or bleeding and I did not pass out this time.

Sorry there are not pics to accompany this "fun" post. I will try and get the pic I took with Renas phone as E was getting bandaged up.

Would you like fries with that??

So, usually when someone says "would you like fries with that?" it's just a way of saying "hey, I am not here to give you whatever you want. But, when it comes to Cami and Papa this is not the case. Papa loves his "Camarooski" and she loves her Papa. Don't get me wrong, he loves the boys too but he and Cami have a very special bond. It is a bit nausiating at times the way they carry on, especially when I remember this same man being, well....not so giddy. My dad is a tough guy, he's always been that way. He dosen't (well, didn't) talk baby talk. He dosen't coddle or pamper. What you see is what you get. All of that goes by the wayside when he is with my daughter. He is a completely different person...baby talk, coddling, all of it. He can not tell her "no." He has tried, and failed. She has him wrapped around her little finger. So when I mentioned in casual conversation that Cami really likes cows, I should have seen it coming.

Papa (to Cami)- You want Papa to buy you a cow, baby?
Cami- Ye-ah
Papa- Well what kind of cow do you want? Do you want a boy cow or a girl cow?
Cami- Boy cow.
Papa- Do you want a brown cow or a black cow?
Cami-Hmmmmm......black cow.
Papa- Ok, you want Papa to buy you a black boy cow. Papa will get you a black boy cow. Do you want a goat or a donkey to go with your little black boy cow?
Cami- Ummm, ye-ah. Me want a "gonkey."

This conversation has been repeated with the same results every time. She wants a black boy cow and a gonkey. She asks him almost daily about the status of her black boy cow (and sometimes the donkey.) In a later conversation, Papa asked her where she was going to keep it and when and how she was going to feed it. Her reply? Papa feed my black boy cow me. Of course Papa said "Ok baby, Papa will feed your baby cow for you." I don't know what we are going to do with these two. I do know this, they can never go to the livestock auction unattended!! Papa came by last week and brought a magazine he picked up at the feed store. He sat down with Cami and let her pick out exactly which blak cow she wanted.

Musical Beds

Most days I can not figure out why we moved to a bigger house. Don't get me wrong, I think it is sweet that my babies all want to sleep together. I know that if they had no choice but to sleep together they wouldn't want to. Cami has her own room and so does Blake and then Chase and Ethan have bunk beds. When school started back in August, we unbunked the bunk beds so I could get Ethan up for school without disturbing Chase. That started the bed sharing frenzy. Chase and Ethan started sleeping on the same twin size bed (they put their heads at opposite ends of the bed.) Then Blake decided he didn't want to be all alone so he slept on the other bunk bed. Now that Cami is out of her crib, she wants Chase to sleep with her in her room. Ethan and Blake moved into Blake's room to have a bigger bed. Some mornings we go to get boys up for school and have to search to find where they are (they have been known to bed hop after we get them all tucked it at night.) One nice thing is that it keeps them upstairs. Occasionally we'll get Cami or Chase in bed with us but that's prefectly fine with me. I love my little cuddle buddies.

Let's try this again.....

Several people have asked me why I don't blog anymore. There is one reason and one reason only......well, maybe two....Cami and Facebook. Cami is not like the boys in the sense that she is always right where I am (unless of course she ventures off to make a little mess for mommy to find later.) She does not go upstairs and play like the boys did at her age. If I sit down at the computer, she climbs up in the chair behind me or sits in my lap. Do you have any idea how hard it is to type with a two year old in your lap or on your back? That is where Facebook comes in. If I can sneak to the computer undetected for a minute I can drop a quick sentence and get out before she finds me! The only bad thing is that I am not keeping any written record of all the funny things the kids say and do on a daily basis and let's face it, my memory isn't getting any better. Tony and I are constantly asking each other "which one of the kids was it that said that or used to do that, etc." I don't journal or scrapbook, heck I don't even update the baby books! So I have decided to try to get this blog up and going again. And just for the record, I am not going to try and back track over the past 13 months because I know me and I know that I can't remember what happened last month much less last year.

Record Snow in Texas!!

So everyone who knows me knows how much I LOVE snow. It is so beautiful. My biggest complaint about Texas (well, other than the fact that it is hotter than heck from May-October) is that we rarely see any snow, well I guess you can say this was the best Texas weather I have ever experienced. I am really proud of the local schools for staying open, very un-Texas like!! Usually if anyone in a 10 minle radius has seen a flake, all of the schools shut down. The snow was unbelievable!! The kids were super excited, it was also Valentine Party Day. It was a bit disappointing that it didn't really stick around. It all melted so fast. But, we enjoyed it while it lasted.

Top: Thursday morning, about 9:00, before the boys went to school.

Bottom: Ethan and Allie at their party.

Top: Cami was SO excited to be a part of E's party.
Bottom: E took a picture of Momy and "The Wamster"

Ethan and Chase ready to play in the snow. This was around 5:00 Thursday afternoon. The snow was starting to cover the driveways and really accumulate on the grassy areas.

Top: View from Blake's bedroom window Friday morning....over a foot of snow!!
Bottom: Front of the house Friday morning, it had already started melting:(

It's hard to tell in this pic, but we had 12.5 inches.

Chase was so excited to go play. He ran out the front door and got stuck, turned around and fell down. Poor little guy couldn't stay vertical!!

Tony hooked up the 4wheeler and make a redneck sled out of an old table, some scrap wood, a chain and a Rubbermaid lid. It was awesome, Blake had a blast riding on it. I will try to post some of those pics soon!!