From Pull-Ups to Sister Wives

Well Trace has had quite the week. Big changes I tell ya.

First, he's started sleeping without a pull-up at night and is still trying to master staggering from the bedroom to the bathroom, aiming and firing into the potty, and then climbing back into bed, all without actually opening his eyes.

So far he's only had a few accidents, (which were really mommy's fault) when he chugged Jimmy's Diet Cherry Pepsi after running the bases repeatedly at the ball fields, and once when he consumed his weight in watermelon right before bedtime.

Talk about setting a kid up for failure.He has also started taking showers. He tries to act really big and says he likes them much better than baths, but I'm not convinced. He stands way far away from the stream and freezes the entire time.

My baby boy is growing up so fast.He is also trying to figure out if he's really left handed or not. At one point he colored a sheet at school with both hands simultaneously. Sigh...

To his credit, Ms. Jennifer said he did it perfectly and followed every direction she gave him. When I saw it, the term "chicken scratch" immediately came to mind, but that's the teacher in me talking.

He's just exploring his options I guess.

But the BIGGEST event of the week is that he got married.

Yes, married.

To four different girls... Cindy, Lauren, Cherish, and Mia.

This morning I got the following text from Ms. Jennifer...

"I was just informed by the girls that Trace is now married to all of them... lol :-)

Jimmy's response... "That's my boy!"
My response... "Oh Lord, I'm raising a preschool polygamist."

I secretly thought this was just my punishment for setting up a series recording of TLC's Sister Wives on my DVR. I'm not proud...I'm a little addicted. Those people fascinate me.

In other news, I cut 7 inches off of my hair in an attempt to combat the extreme heat. Granted, I should have done that 3 months ago when global warming sent the temperatures into 3 digits. With 2 little ones, I just didn't have time to mess with it in the morning and spent the entire summer yanking it back into a ponytail or twisting it up. It's still "growing" on me (pardon the pun).

In my haste to rid myself of the hassle of styling long hair, I cut it just short enough that it now will neither go in a ponytail or a clip therefore forcing me to "fix" it everyday.

Yes, my plan completely backfired.

I'd also like to add 2 inch extentions onto my bangs, but I understand that would be ridiculous. I just keep pulling on them, thinking that will make them grow faster. :)

Keatyn is on her first round of antibiotics (a.k.a. the bubble gum, pink medicine.) I took her in Saturday morning after spending a looonnnng night sleeping with her in my arms and Dr. May said she had a cold which caused an ear infection. Poor baby.

We started last week with a spur of the moment trip to Alabama to surprise Sisty and Mimmie. Sisty had gone to stay there while her sister was away, so Jimmy, Granddaddy, the kids, Ginger and I headed out Monday afternoon and drive down for the night. We sent Trace to the door to "surprise" them, but they came out the side door and found Jim and Jimmy instead.

Oh well, we tried.

Keatyn got some much needed Mimmie love...

Nelson and Trace became big buddies...

Baby Mallory is set to make her appearance any day now...

Nice babe. At one point he had on the goggles, ear plugs AND the nose plug. Not his best look. It's a good thing he's so cute the other 364 days of the year.
We've been playing a lot of basketball and baseball in the front yard. We are still trying to figure out what hand Trace is gonna throw with (and color with, and write with...) He's like his mama was... cornfuuused about what hand to throw and catch with. I spent many years throwing with the wrong hand ("like a girl" as my dad liked to call it.) Had we figured it out earlier, I might have gone places.
Ha! Not likely. Have you seen me run?

This post is like my Roomba

So, I've caved to the latest version of "The Lazy Housewives of Hixson" and bought a Roomba. It's the robot vacuum cleaner that zooms around cleaning my floors while I lounge around on the couch, eating bonbons and watching soaps.
Sounds magical doesn't it?

The last flip house we did killed my vacuum cleaner. I mean, new carpet fuzz in places I didn't even know vacuums had. So after talking to my friends, Amanda and Christy, who sang it's praises, I broke down and bought one.

I brought it home, named it Roxy, charged it up, and laid it in the middle of my floor while 2 extremely curious kids and a dog anxiously awaited her first performance.

If you've never seen one, it starts off in a spiraling motion where ever it is first placed. Think the munchkins on the yellow brick road in the Wizard of Oz. After about 5 spirals it starts scooting around the room in no particular path bouncing from object to object. It may miss a piece of dirt 2 inches from where it just passed and may not return for another 15 minutes.

It's hard on one's OCD.

You want to yell, "NO, NO, WAIT... COME BACK, YOU MISSED A SPOT!" But the manual says you have to let it do it's thing and it will eventually get there. When I found myself screaming at a machine named Roxy in front of my children over a piece of goldfish left on the carpet, I began to regret my purchase and figured it best just to walk away.

But it hit me while watching Roxy that my life right now is like a Roomba. I feel like I'm constantly on the "spiral" or "wall to wall" mode bouncing from one task to another and never actually get anything finished. I mean, I can pick up those toys, rattles, baby clothes and puzzles laying in the floor, but in 5 minutes they are just going to be back there again.

Like my Roomba, I'm random in the things I complete and a lot of the times miss doing the things that are directly in front of me because I get distracted or called away by something else.

Right now, there are sheets laying in the hallway in front of the linen closet, but they aren't actually folded and put in it. There's an empty crockpot from dinner still sitting on my countertop waiting to be put away and dirty dishes in the sink. There is a load of laundry in the washer, the dryer, and one sitting on top needing to be folded.

Yet, here I sit typing...

Again, I have started all of these tasks, but have not finished one. It's ADD at it's finest.

Just call me Roxy.

So in Roomba random fashion, here's what's been going on around here...

First of all, I lost 70 pictures from my camera and am still in mourning about it. They were ones from Trace's first rope swing into the lake, our cousin Brady's 1st birthday party and celebrating Jimmy's 41st at Longhorn with our family. :( But I changed my memory card and hopefully the problem is fixed.

Trace started Pre K last week at Hixson Pres. This is his new teacher Ms. Jennifer and she's wonderful. He is already learning Spanish and sign language and is loving school and his new friends!
(We're in this awkward stage of smiling for pictures... can you tell?)

On Friday, Trinity and I took the kids to the Splash Pad at Warner Park. I hate that we waited till the very end of the summer to go because the kids loved it and we actually got to sit and have an adult conversation!



Puppy love...
Maybe we'll just hold hands...

Keatyn is loving the water and gets so excited when it's bath time that she doesn't want to lay back on the sling anymore. So this week we tried her in the "seat" so she could kick her legs and splash in the water. She loved it.
"Ah guys, aren't I too little to be doing this?"
She is army crawling everywhere and can get anywhere she wants to go. Trace's favorite pastime is to lure her to his toys only to take them and move them 5 feet further away. He has been so sweet to her, I just hope it continues once she's in all of his stuff!

Last weekend, we took the boat out and went up to Ari's on the water to eat.
The girls get together about once a month, but we rarely invite the boys :)

We were getting some pictures before everyone got there when we got a call from Misty (the single one of the bunch) that she was in the parking lot but was running a little behind because she was jumping someone's truck off. We laughed and said it must be some cute, single guy and she'll probably invite him to join us for dinner. She got there about 10 minutes later and said, "Sorry guys, I had to help him, he was an old man and I thought I might could sell him a policy!" (She just started her own business... Medicare Solutions) ha!

Boy, how times have changed... are we old or what???

Party People

Technically, children's birthday parties are supposed to be for, well... the children. But the 2 we went to last weekend were as much fun for the grownups as it was for the kids. Don't you just love it when that happens!

Jack turned 4 and celebrated with a party in his new backyard pool. Leslie told me he will have every birthday party from now till college in that pool to ensure it was money well spent. ha! So... we will be forced to suffer through a backyard bar-b-que pool party every summer instead of a fun filled afternoon chasing kids through Chuck E. Cheese while trying to choke down a piece of pizza. Somehow, I'm OK with that.

Another reason not to have babies in February.

I may catch some flack from the girls about this bath suit shot!
The Motley crew...
They even had a balloon guy...
AND a bouncy house and blow up waterslide...
Can't you just see Trace's wheels turning... "I'M GONNA TRY THAT NEXT!" Fearless.

The next day, we went back to dad's marina for Abram's 6th birthday party. Keith and Carrie asked him where he wanted his party this year and he immediately said, "On Uncle Gary's boat." That thrilled my dad to death!

Abram blessing the food before we ate. I have more pictures of this kid praying, he's destine for the pulpit.
We all tried out the paddle boards that were left from a yoga class. I had Trace and Natalie hitching a ride, so I don't know that I got the full effect, but it was a lot of fun and quite a workout.


A shot from the fly bridge...


You can't tell from this picture but Gigi's soaked, down to the undies. She paddle boarded fully clothed and did great until she tried to "park" it and ran head first into the dock.

John Lennon lives...
Party pooper...
It was a wonderful weekend. I love raising babies with great friends and cousins, and making memories together. We are truly blessed!

6 months- A Day in the Life

My baby girl is 6 months old today... sniff sniff

I still don't know how that happened so fast.

To commemorate her 6th month, I thought I'd do "A Day in the Life" to help me remember 15 years from now when she's a moody teenager, with a hormone filled body and a sassy mouth, just how precious she was today.
Your day usually begins anywhere between 7 and 8:30. Since I never know what time you're getting up, a "schedule" is hard to come by. Hopefully once Trace's school starts back we will be on more of a regular routine. But you are sleeping from roughly 8-8 with a feeding around 5 a.m. That's not to say you don't wake up to say hello from time to time in the middle of the night, but hopefully that won't last forever. :) You wake up with the sweetest smile and enjoy your quiet time in your bed (allowing mommy an extra 15 minutes of shut eye) while listening to you talk and coo.

You're eating rice cereal/oatmeal and a fruit for breakfast. Today was peaches and you loved them. Then you nurse again and go down for a morning nap about 2 hours after you wake up. You've got this nap down pretty good... the afternoon nap, not so much. In fact, you should be napping right now, but instead are sitting here in the beanbag staring at me while I type this.

I try to put you down for your afternoon nap about 3 hours after you wake up from your morning nap but you sometimes fight it. If you happen to fall asleep in the car before we get home, you can forget it. It's a work in progress.

For dinner, you're eating cereal and a vegetable. Then you nurse about 7:30 and go to bed about 8. We are still working on the "sleep training" Dr. Coffman talks about. Putting you down awake but drowsy and letting you learn to fall asleep on your own.
You are such a smiley, happy baby. You LOVE attention (oh boy) and your big brother is by far your favorite person in the world and your greatest entertainment. When you're in the car, you sit cocky-eyed to the side of your car seat so you can see Trace at all times and you laugh that deep, hearty laugh at him when he dances and sings.

You have the biggest, most beautiful blue eyes (your Sisty and Nana like to take credit for those) and reddish hair. Although the new hair growing in is blonde, so who knows. Papaw and Uncle Andy's passwords at work are both REDHEAD2411 and they expire in a few weeks... so they are anxiously awaiting results of your next hair color! Papaw still calls you Lucy.
You are off the charts in height for your age and I've already bought and washed 9 month sleepers because you are busting through the bottoms of your 6 months. I think you're gonna be long and lanky like your brother. You wear a size 2 diaper and 3-6 or 6-9 month clothes. At your 6 month appointment for shots you weighed 15 lbs. 13 oz. (50%) and had dropped to the 75% in length at 26 inches. You weren't too happy about getting your shots, but Trace stood right there with us and tried to comfort you while you cried.

You have started sleeping with your "lovey" and love to lay it over your face and paci then roll over on your side to sleep. You are still sleeping in a sleep sack at night but you're no longer swaddled.

You have started sitting up for a few seconds on your own, but usually get so excited that you knock yourself over bouncing and flipping your arms. Just this week, you were able to reach down into your car seat while we were riding and find your paci and put it in yourself!

You still love your toes and never miss an opportunity to take a nibble. I don't know what you'll do when it gets cold and you have to start wearing shoes and socks.

You will pretty much go to anybody but have pulled the big pucker on a few men. (good girl!) You have your daddy completely wrapped around your little finger. He asks me all the time if he kisses you too much.

I am already envisioning all the special things we will do together as mother and daughter. You have completed our little family in the most perfect way and are a blessing to us everyday. If it's possible, I love you even more today than the day you were born!