Avery's Birthday

I'm so behind...on the blog, in my scrapbooks, and in life in general. I just downloaded pictures off of my camera. There were 160. I realized, after downloading and beginning to edit, that I never acknowledged or posted pictures of Avery's birthday, which was on May 20th. Better late than never, I guess! Happy 7th, Baby Girl!

Her actual birthday was a Thursday. We invited a couple of friends over after school and we ordered pizza and played in the water. She said it was one of the best parties ever - and it didn't cost me a dime, except for the pizza!

Her "real" party was on Saturday, at Grammy's (in Oklahoma). We had planned to go to Great Wolf Lodge for the weekend, but somehow, Grammy's was mentioned. We gave Avery the option and she didn't hesitate before shouting, "GRAMMY'S!" She also said the only present she wanted for her birthday was to get to sleep with Grammy. I'm not going to expect this kind of low maintenance birthday forever, but I sure am happy about it for now!

Here are a few pics from the weekend in Oklahoma:

It was a pretty typical backyard birthday party...she had presents...

and cake....

and frog and turtle races...

(FYI-the frog won)!

They had a water balloon fight...

...and when the water balloons ran out, Aunt La La drenched them!

Spending her birthday with her cousins was exactly what she wanted. She had the best time! When we woke up on Sunday, she almost cried when she realized we had to go home. Her daddy told her we could stay later than usual, and Auntie Em and I decided to help the kids have a lemonade stand.

Here are the kids, waiting for the signs, which I was in charge of.

The big kids all had jobs. Avery and JD were in charge of pouring lemonade, Reese and Macy were in charge of the money. That left Big Tuna with no job. He was a little sad until Uncle Josh and Daddy came up with the idea to put him in a sandwich board and have him walk up and down the driveway, advertising the stand.

I made the lemon signs and Josh taped them to a Bud Light box (always classy!). We tied the lemons together with twine and voila!

How stinking cute is that?

Looking at this makes me want to have a lemonade stand in the front yard right now. Let me just go empty this Bud Light box real quick......

Why We Need Our Own Pool

I took Reese and Rhett to the neighborhood pool today since Avery is having a campout in the library at school. (I don't think Avery will think it was a fair comparison, but I do the best I can.)
Anyway, taking them to the pool isn't relaxing. They are doing better with their floaties this year, but we're not at the point where I am just lying by the pool, reading a magazine. I'm in the water with them, swimming, most of the time. Today, after letting them jump to me 432 times, I suggested that they swim with me so I could get some laps in. After letting Reese "ride" for a while, it was Rhett's turn. He hadn't been on 3 seconds, when he started screaming "A WHALE! I'M RIDING A WHALE!" He didn't say it once. Or twice. It was constant, the entire time he was on my back. I froze for a second, then tried to play it cool. I knew if I stopped, all the spectators would know that I thought I was a whale. Going along with it, I think, conveys the message that I'm completely comfortable with my body and am totally fine with my son screaming that I'm a whale. Still, I stayed under as long as I could before I had to come up for air. Luckily the pool wasn't as crowded as it normally is, but the walk of shame to my bag was still quite, well, shameful.
We need our own pool.

Times Have Changed

The Baby Doctor

What kid doesn't like to hear the story about the day they were born? Avery has always asked me questions about what it was like when she was a baby, but tonight was the first time Reese has asked about the day she was born. I started telling her how excited we were to finally meet her, but then how the doctor came in and said there was something wrong. I told her how he said we have to get her out NOW. I told her how a bunch of nurses came in and how they were all preparing me to have a baby with some sort of problem. And I told her that they sent in a bunch of baby doctors to take care of her as soon as she came out.
The minute I said "baby doctors," Reese got tickled. Avery wanted me to tell the rest of the story, but Reese kept interrupting, saying, "I can't believe they had baby doctors there!" I thought she was just fascinated that she was the center of such a big ordeal. At least that's what I thought until about 10 minutes ago, when she held up her hands to indicate a small sized person and said "Mom, were those doctors like this big?' She honestly thought I meant the doctors were babies. Not a doctor FOR babies, but that the baby doctors were actually babies who were doctors.
No wonder she was so tickled...who wouldn't laugh at that?
Thank you Reesie...from now on, when I remember the day you were born, instead of feeling panicked and seeing a gazillion health care professionals staring at me, waiting to deliver a sick child, I will always see that delivery room full of little tiny babies, standing around wearing scrubs and lab coats, as their stethoscopes drag the ground!

The Good, The Bad, and The Adorable

I'll start with the bad, just to get it out of the way. Luckily, there hasn't been much bad about the last 3 weeks. In fact, I've been busy having so much fun, I haven't had a chance to sit down and record it all...but I've got to keep up with this. This blog is my only chance at remembering our life, as my memory is pretty much worthless. So, here goes - I'll try to sum up the past three weeks as quickly and painlessly as possible.
So, on to the bad news: My mom came to visit on her birthday, May 5. That's not the bad news. In fact, we were so stinking excited for her to get here, I'm not sure any of us slept in the days preceding her visit. The bad news is this: The day she got here - HER BIRTHDAY - she parked in front of our house. We had just gotten home from picking Avery up from school, having a frozen yogurt in honor of GRAMMY'S BIRTHDAY and were home in the backyard. The kids were playing in the water and Grammy and I were preparing for a celebratory BIRTHDAY beer in the backyard. I ran inside to get something and heard a loud CRASH! My very first thought was "Oh no, not Mom's truck. Not Mom's truck." Guess what? It was Mom's truck. The lady in this car:

swerved over to the wrong side of the street and hit my mom's truck head on. She supposedly fell asleep, but considering she had to turn onto our street 2 blocks earlier, we suspect some texting/phoning could have been going on. Either way, she slammed Mom's truck and totaled her own car. Lucky for us, no one was in Mom's truck and it wasn't totaled. It is, however, in a shop here in Frisco as we speak. And Mom had to rent a car to drive back to Oklahoma. And it was a huge hassle on her first two days here. And did I mention she was here to celebrate her BIRTHDAY? Some celebration. But again, we are so thankful it wasn't any worse than it was and we were able to move on from this and have several great days while she was here.

I think that's all I have for the bad section of this post. Aren't we lucky? I had a minor scare at the dermatologist, when they sent me an email which led me to panic and think I had gotten bad results back from a mole biopsy, but it was a mistake and all is good.

Now, on to the Good section:
There are many, many things I could post here...probably the most fun we had while Mom was here was our shopping day on Friday. Retail therapy is an amazing thing, isn't it? We came home completely energized, excited and not at all thinking about Mom's wrecked truck out front. I wish I had thought to take pictures of the style show we had when we got home, but I was too excited about all the clothes and shoes my Mommy bought me to think of a camera. Let's just say hearing my mom say (several times, I may add), "Just get it...I'm buying" totally rocked. I haven't gone anywhere to wear any of my cute stuff, but that hasn't stopped me from trying it all on several times since she left!

I hate to say that I had more fun shopping than I had celebrating my sweet baby boy's 3rd birthday - they were equally special and fun. Let's just consider them the same on the Good list. I should probably include the fact that I didn't write Rhett a special birthday post on the bad list...but I promise, I will make it up to him somehow.

He didn't seem to notice - he got all he wanted and then some. I can't believe he's already 3. I think I'm putting it out of my mind so I don't have to think about the fact that I no longer have any babies and that they are growing up way too fast. Should this be in the bad section if I'm about to cry? Nah, I guess it's all good. Bittersweet, but mostly good.

Here's one of the best things on the Good list:
I always put up some decorations on the kids birthdays. I always do it the night before, so they wake up to decorations. Since we celebrated Rhett's birthday with Grammy on Friday, I told Aaron to remind me to decorate on Saturday night. But guess what (Bad section again)? I was so tired Saturday night, that I forgot to decorate.
Lucky for me, and especially for Rhett, I have a husband who takes care of things when I fall short. He woke up early on Sunday morning, and saw that I had forgotten to decorate. He knew that I would be upset if Rhett woke up without decorations, but as he put it, he was in a "Catch 22" because he didn't want to wake me up early on Mother's Day. So this is what happened.
I woke up to this sign on the inside of my bedroom door.


Aaron wrote the top part. Avery wrote "If you come out" and drew a fist. As if she would punch me if we came out. What a lovely sentiment to write for your mother on Mother's Day. I thought it was precious - and so her.

When they got back, we found out they had been out getting breakfast. And I was allowed to come out of my room. And I saw curly ribbon on the light and these:


Aaron wrote them and he is mortified that I took pictures of his handwriting. He said it looks like a 3rd grader wrote them. But let's be honest - how many grown men are good at bubble letters? He just tried to do what he thought I would have done. It was the sweetest, most romantic thing he's done for me in a long, long time and I'll never forget it. (Well, I probably will forget, but that's why I have it recorded here!)

Ok, clearly, we've had lots of good things happening. I will finish up with The Adorable:


Here is Reese, modeling an outfit that Grammy purchased for her. Yes, you are seeing this correctly. The baby doll's clothes are identical. On our shopping extravaganza we found an adorable marketplace that had a shop with adorable little girls' clothes and each outfit had a matching doll-sized outfit. The doll clothes are actually made for an American Girl sized doll, but thankfully, Reese hasn't caught on to the AG trend so we're just using it on our regular old baby doll. Frankly, she didn't care about the doll outfit, but my mom and I just had to have it. How could we not?

Ok, that's it for now...I'll try not to wait so long between posts so that you aren't forced to read a novel every 2-3 weeks. Happy Monday! :)

Next Top Model

When I ask to take Avery's picture, I have to force her to smile. I can't catch Rhett long enough to get a good one. But Reese? Ah, sweet Reesie...she loooooooves to have her picture taken. In fact, all I have to do is hold up a camera and say "Say Cheese!" and this is what I get:

Somebody call Tyra!

How Do I Keep a Straight Face?

Reese has a dentist appointment this morning. It's just for a regular check-up and cleaning, but the last time we were there, the dentist told her that, if she didn't stop sucking her fingers, we'd have to put a mouth guard in. We've tried everything: threats, bribes, wearing a glove on one hand, appealing to her vanity and explaining what it does to her teeth, etc. Nothing works. I'm afraid the mouth guard is inevitable. Probably not today, but I bet he suggests it today. Aaron and I discussed it last night, just wondering how much something like that costs. We thought we were talking privately, but apparently not.
I reminded Reese this morning that we had a dentist appointment and she started sobbing and sucking her fingers. I said "You love the dentist. Why are you crying?" She could barely get these words out: "I don't want a lifeguard in my mouth!"
How am I NOT supposed to laugh at that? I had to hug her and bit my lip to keep from laughing out loud.

Let's all cross our fingers that the "lifeguard" isn't necessary and if it is necessary, that it's not a gazillion dollars. Thanks!

Do NOT Trust This Face

Look very carefully at this face. Behind that sweet smile and those angelic blue eyes is a mischevious little monster. He is running me ragged lately and seems to take great pleasure in doing so. I had to run after him for a good 5 minutes, even getting his sisters involved in the chase to get this picture of him. This is what I kept getting:




You wanna know what finally got him to stop? I told him he could look at the camera and say "TOOTIE!"
Any potty words will stop him in his tracks. In fact, here is a conversation that proves everything I've said thus far:

Rhett: Mom, I wuff you.
Mom: I love you too, Baby.
Rhett: And I wuff Daddy. And Avery. And Reesie.
Mom: We all love you too.
Rhett: AND I WUFF POOP!

He risks this, knowing he will be in trouble and have to sit in time out for talking about poop when nobody is pooping, needs to poop or just pooped. Poop is an off limits topic in general conversation around here and he knows it. And he doesn't care. It's worth it to him. He'd sit in time out all day if he could yell about poop and tee-tee and booties and toots. Yep, he's running me ragged. And I love every minute of it!

Post 2

Our hot water tank broke last night. Even the valve that shuts off the hot water broke in Aaron's hand when he tried to turn it off. At one point, we had our garden hose running up to the attic (where the tank is) and out the back door to drain into the yard instead of into our closet vent, which was where it all began.
Besides the fact that we have no water at all this morning and I have a dentist appointment at 1:00, which means I go to the dentist wearing a ball cap because I can't shower, I've been pretty upbeat through the whole thing. This morning, I actually amazed myself with my own ingenuity - I had to go to the bathroom. I mean really go to the bathroom. I mean...well, you probably get it. And I have neighborhood friends, but I just don't know how to call them and ask if I can come over and USE their bathroom, if you know what I mean (I think we have established that you know what I mean). So, you know what I did? I went to our neighbor's and filled up a bucket with water from their hose. And used that bucket of water to flush the toilet. I considered filling it up again and again, heating it on the stove and filling the bathtub with water so I could at least be clean at the dentist today. But then I woke up from that daydream, realized I wasn't Laura Ingalls, and threw on the ballcap. The dentist can just smell me all afternoon...that's what he gets for charging me $1200 to torture me by grinding down my tooth and putting a new crown on!
Monday rocks!!!!

If I Were President...

I found this in Avery's notebook this weekend. In case you aren't well versed in first grade writing, I'll translate, based on how she explained them to me.





If I were president, I would "I want everyone well." (This is kind of a Miss America answer, don't you think? "I wish for world peace.")
I would also "Sleep with my mom every night." (Do you think President Obama ever wished for this when he was a kid?)
But I would not "forget about Mrs. Seddighi." (Her teacher)
One thing I would change would be "we could stay home." (That's my honor student!)
I would never want to change "Keep this playground." (Again with the academic avoidance.)

I love that her teacher wrote "You make me smile." That's exactly what I thought when I read it - especially since she's bald in her self-portrait. I guess even a 6-year-old recognizes the stress of the presidency!

And your name is?

Rhett found a friend at the playground today. As the little boy started to leave, Rhett chased after him. I had to go after him to make sure he didn't leave with his new friend. I said "Rhett, where do you think you are going?" He responded, "Wis my friend. I play wis my friend." I asked him what the little boy's name is and Rhett said, "He name is....he name is....he name is...Brown Boy."

Brown Boy. I've never met someone named Brown Boy, have you? This particular child was technically brown but I feel certain that's not what his parents call him. I also hope that Rhett doesn't walk up to other kids and say things like, "Hey Brown Boy! You play wis me?"

Goofballs!

I have no idea why, but the girls have taken to wearing Rhett's pajamas to bed. It's not really as noticeable on Reese and Rhett, but how Avery is able to sleep comfortably in them is beyond me.

The Easter Bunny

The jig is up...on the Easter Bunny, that is. Avery informed me two nights ago that the Easter Bunny isn't real. The conversation went something like this:

Me, responding to something she was begging for: Well, maybe the Easter Bunny will bring it to you. Easter is next weekend.

Avery: Mom, I know the Easter Bunny is you.

Me: What? Why would you say that?

Avery: Because I think it is. Isn't it?

Me: Did someone tell you that?

Avery: No. I figured it out myself. They don't make bunnies that big. It would have to be a guy in a big bunny suit. Plus, it doesn't even make sense. Santa comes down the chimney because he's magic. How is a bunny going to come down our chimney? Bunnies aren't magic. That doesn't make any sense at all. I just think it can't be real.

Me, totally relieved that she still believes in Santa: Uh, well, you are right. I think what happened is, people saw how much little kids like Santa Claus, so they wanted to do something else. And, since bunnies are around in the springtime and Easter is a springtime holiday, they just created a bunny to bring kids fun stuff and hide their eggs. But you're right. It's just Mom and Dad.

Avery: Yeah, that's why we get a whole bunch of stuff from Santa, but just a little bit from the Easter Bunny.

Me: Sure. It would be very hard to do what Santa does.

Avery: Yeah. Plus, Santa lives at the North Pole. Where does the Easter Bunny even live?

Me: Hmmm...good point.

Avery: See? Told you it didn't make any sense.

Me: You have to promise not to say anything to the little ones. They are still very excited about the bunny. But between you and me, Easter is really only about Jesus. The other stuff is just for little kids.

Avery: Well, at least Santa is real.

Me, sadly inside my head: Yeah. At least we still have Santa.

What Up, Dawg?

Yo! Have a good Monday! Fo Shizzle.

The Next Rachel Zoe?

Reese is well on her way to becoming the next Rachel Zoe, stylist to the stars. Especially with outfits like this one:

Yeah, those are tights. No, she is not wearing a skirt over the tights. In fact, I had to put the smack down in order to get her to put on a skirt when we went to pick Avery up from school. Oh, and for those who are wondering, the tank is a size 3T. She wears a 5.

Not sure what this move is all about....maybe she's channeling Flashdance?
Either way, the girl's got a bright future, as either a stylist, a dancer or, if all else fails, a bag lady.

Childhood

To me, this picture captures the very essence of childhood. The toothless grin, the unkempt hair, the candy around the mouth. I just love it. If I was a really good photographer and put my photos on display in a gallery somewhere, I would call it "Childhood." But, since I'm not, I'll just title it that here, for myself and my loyal readers (Hi Mom!).

Spring Break!!!

We just got back from what is, to date, the best vacation we've ever had. And it took place in little old Oklahoma! Beaver's Bend, to be precise. Maybe this ridiculously long post will make up for the fact that I haven't posted in a few weeks. (Thanks to those of you who noticed that I hadn't!)

The kids prepared for this trip for days. They knew we were going to be staying in a cabin in the woods, so they thought camo would be the best choice of attire. They had dress rehearsals several times in the days preceding our trip.

We arrived at the cabin Thursday afternoon. The kids were enthralled with all aspects of the cabin. Besides the fact that it's in the woods and we could do lots of exploring, it had a porch swing!

....and a hot tub!

Seriously, folks, if we never left the cabin, the kids would have been happy, as long as they could live in the hot tub. I think they would have slept in it if that wasn't extremely dangerous.

Aaron and I are considering putting one in the backyard, just so we don't have to hire babysitters anymore. I'm joking. Sort of.

We also did quite a bit of fishing.

I was surprised that Reese was our most avid fisherman. She couldn't get enough of it. Avery has been before, so I knew she liked it. Rhett was upset he didn't have his own fishing pole. In hindsight, we should have brought one for him, even though he can't cast, reel or stand still. His favorite part of fishing was throwing rocks into the water. I don't think any of the fishermen in the area appreciated it, but I couldn't keep him from doing it. Seriously, it was like an obsession with him. He couldn't walk two steps without picking up a rock, even when I said not to. It was like some force was compelling him to bend over, pick up a rock and throw it in the river. I must say, it was pretty cute when the rock would make a splash. He would make a fist and say "Yessss!"

Thursday night, we decided to cook hamburgers outside, over an open flame. Turns out, we are waaaay too "citified" to do something like that.

After much effort on the part of my sweet husband, he said "Mom, I think we're going to have to cook these indoors if you don't mind." I didn't mind. Neither did they:

Friday started off with more fishing, followed by a thrilling train ride. Ok, it wasn't thrilling for anyone except Rhett, but he's so enamored with trains right now, we just had to do it. It was totally worth it. He LOVED it. Almost as much as he loved throwing rocks into the water. Almost.

After lunch, we went for a canoe ride and then played minature golf. I don't have any pictures of the canoeing, because I didn't want to take my camera on the water. I have no excuse for not taking pictures of minature golf, except I was really concentrating on getting a good score.

Saturday started out rainy. But a little rain never hurt anyone, and we were determined to hike at least part of one of the trails. A little rain turned into a lot, but we still had a great time. In fact, this was my favorite part of the trip.

The weather continued to get worse - rain turned to sleet and 58 degrees turned to 32 in a matter of hours. We were stuck indoors for much of the afternoon. After putting together 2 puzzles and playing 78 games of Zingo, we started to get cabin fever. (Get it? Cabin fever? And we really were in a cabin? You can laugh later.)

We got out the yellow pages to see if there was any entertainment. There was a bowling alley in DeQueen, Arkansas, and a skating rink in Broken Bow, Oklahoma. Aaron and I, being children of the 70s and 80s, hesitated only a moment before choosing skating.

Reese liked it, but I wouldn't say she loved it.

Although she lasted longer than Rhett, who was sick of it after about 20 minutes. Actually, I'm not sure he ever really liked it. He just went along with it because everyone else was. Here he is, wishing someone would take the dadgum skates off, already!

Avery hugged the wall for about 15 minutes before she got the hang of it. But once she did, she never stopped skating the entire 2 hours we were there. She was a skating machine. At one point, she pulled over long enough to say "Mom, this is so fun. This is my favorite part of the trip!" Totally worth the $8 we spent on admission. (For our whole family. Gotta love small towns!)

Aaron looked as if 20 years hadn't passed since he spent his Saturdays at the roller rink in another small town in Oklahoma. I, however, looked like this the majority of the time:

Look at those little kids darting in front of me. I didn't hit them, but at some point, a chubby kid in front of me decided to change directions and slammed right into me. He fell, I fell and his friend, who I didn't even realized was there, fell. Please take a moment to enjoy that mental picture...chubby, close-to-40-year-old mother of three, dogpiling two chubby, approximately-11-year-old boys in the middle of a skating rink.

At any rate, we had a great time. We woke up yesterday morning to snow covering the trees. It was a beautiful view out the back window of the cabin. Needless to say, we'll be going back as soon as we can!

(Still thinking about the pile of chubbies rolling around on the skating rink floor? Me too.)