I've been tagged

Apparently I'm a bigger slacker than I thought. My sister Sarah tagged me on her blog in October...So here we go:

3 Last Favorite Purchases?
- LSU hats for the boys
- Several books for myself
- Groceries (I know it sounds lame, but our fridge was getting pretty empty b/c we both hate to grocery shop)

3 Favorite Movies?
- Finding Forrester
- Moll Flanders
- Notting Hill

3 Things I haven't done yet?
- Sky Dive
- Get my Master's degree (yes, I want to someday)
- Go on a cruise

3 Things I can't live without?
- My husband
- My kids
- Friends & extended family

3 Favorite Dishes?
- Chicken Scampi from Olive Garden
- Spicy shrimp and chicken from Carino's
- Sausage Roll...yeah, I make that one. I don't eat out all the time!

3 Favorite TV shows?
- Extreme Makeover, Home Edition
- Law & Order
- College Football

3 Last Places I've Traveled?
- Baton Rouge, Louisiana
- Tyler, Texas
- Medina, Texas

3 Things I would buy if Money wasn't and Issue?
- Pay off my house and car
- New clothes (and pay a personal shopper to pick them out)
- Lifetime membership to a gym and a personal trainer so I can fit into some new clothes!

3 Wishes?
- I wish my kids would ALWAYS get along
- I wish my house would clean itself
- I wish we lived closer to family

3 People I tag....
- Amy
- Lindsay
- Amber

Happy Thanksgiving & Merry Christmas!

HAPPY BELATED THANKSGIVING EVERYONE! And I'd figure I'd go ahead and wish everybody a Merry Christmas since I don't get this updated often enough. So MERRY CHRISTMAS!
We went to Baton Rouge the week before Thanksgiving so that we could see my sister Booka (her real name is Rebecca) and her new daughter Marianna. That's my sister in the picture above with Marianna eating a twizzler...yeah she's a little young, but she liked it! She is 5 1/2 months old and smiles for everybody.
While we were in Baton Rouge we went to the zoo, rode a school bus, went to the LSU campus to see Mike the Tiger, and Clark & Taylor had a great time chasing Papa in the yard. We always try to take a trip to the zoo in Baton Rouge. It's the perfect size zoo...not too big, not too small. At least perfect size for 2 year olds. The boys love to see the animals. Clark and Taylor love school buses. They always run to the window when they go by our house. Well, Ms. Jerry offered to take them for a ride on her school bus and they were so excited. All day on Friday they asked about the school bus and as soon as they heard it outside they took off down the driveway. Even though they are very bashful around people they don't know well, they had no hesitation about getting on that bus with Ms. Jerry. Hopefully they will still have the same feelings about riding school buses when they start school. We went to see Mike the Tiger on Monday. It had rained on the way to see him, but luckily stopped when we got there. Mike was out and about pacing back and forth. He even growled some while we were there. All three boys loved watching him and seeing a Tiger that close. We brought Clark & Taylor's battery powered four wheelers with us and they had a great time chasing Papa around. They also had a great time picking and eating Satsumas with Papa.
Mom did a big Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday for the five of us that were home. It was good, and crazy with 10 of the grandkids running around. Thanksgiving back at home was quiet and uneventful. I worked the night before and Thanksgiving night, so it was really just another day for us. And all three boys were sick!
We are all looking forward to Christmas. We put our Christmas tree up on Saturday. Clark and Taylor are at a great age. They are so excited about Christmas and loved putting up the tree. They put all the non-breakable ornaments on....all in the same spots. And we got them their own Cars ornaments to put on the tree. Logan enjoys taking down the ornaments whenever we're not looking. We're hoping to get pictures with Santa Claus this year. We will be going to Tyler in a couple weeks to spend the holiday with Bryan's family. His parents are coming home from Jordan, and Travis will be on his 2 weeks R&R from Iraq. We are looking forward to spending the time relaxing and enjoying being with family.

Pumpkin Patch # 2

Pumpkin Patch round 2 went much, much, much better. We went to Tyler last weekend to see Paul and Aundrea and visited this pumpkin patch on Saturday. It was a much better pumpkin patch and the boys were in much better moods. There was so much more to do at this pumpkin patch. They had a barrel train ride, a playground, a hayride, a sandbox, tire swings, a fish pond with fish to feed, and of course the pumpkin patch. Clark and Taylor had a lot of fun doing everything. Logan had fun on his first swing and wasn't so sure about sitting in the grass. For lunch we spread a blanket under a tree and had a picnic. After lunch we took a hayride out to the pumpkin patch and all the boys all picked out a pumpkin to take home. All of us had a great time and were definitely worn out by the end of the day.
After the boys woke up from naps we took them outside and let them paint their pumpkins. Logan made a huge mess, I think he had more paint on himself than the pumpkin. Clark and Taylor aren't fond of having their hands dirty, so they kept it pretty clean.
All in all it was a great weekend (especially since LSU won too....Geaux Tigers!!!) that went by way too fast!!!

Pumpkin Patch # 1

So we thought it would be a good idea and fun to take the boys to a pumpkin patch. It was a good idea it just didn't turn out so good. Clark and Taylor must have woken up on the wrong side of the crib. They were grouchy the entire day. It was one terrible two tantrum after another. They had a few calm moments and enjoyed holding a baby chick, petting the horses, riding on the hay ride. Logan seemed to have a good time and as usual had his smiles and laughs for everyone. We were very relieved when they all fell asleep within 10 minutes of leaving and slept the whole way home.

A few of the calm moments

Couldn't get them to look at the camera or take their fingers out of their noses!!

Clark didn't stop this tantrum until he fell asleep in the car!

This is Logan's camera face...he makes it almost everytime he sees a camera!

Long Awaited Update

So I've been slacking...Again! I haven't posted in almost a month and even worse, I haven't even taken a lot of pictures lately. The pictures above and the one bath one below are a few favorites from a recent bath. Logan is a ham when the camera comes out and smiles on demand for anybody! Here's some updates on us.

Clark and Taylor have started potty training and are doing great. Rosemary started working with them last week and Clark is already making the initiative to go on his own. I haven't had to prompt him at all in the last two days. He even made "rocks" (you'll love that one Amy) in the potty and was so proud of himself. He called daddy and Abuela to tell them and made sure the visiting teacher who was here knew all about it too! I have been so nervous about potty training two at a time. But it seems the competition and the ability to compare to someone else has made it a little easier. One of them will go potty and the other refuse to go until they see the one who went get their treat for going. It's a real motivator when you see your brother getting M&M's and you can't have any. The 'Play by Play' is also great. For example: Clark will be sitting on the potty and Taylor will lean all the way over so he can see and say "Mommy, Clark potty, Mommy Clark go potty." They love wearing their 'big boy pants'. I start off the day telling them that they need to keep whatever character (Lightening McQueen, Nemo, Elmo) dry all day. Yesterday and today we even had family outings with no accidents!!! The diaper savings are going to be great!!

Enough about potty training. Logan isn't even close to that milestone. He is growing so fast. His lip and mouth are all healed and now he is cutting his top teeth. He is crawling faster than ever and chases his brothers and the cats whenever he can. He's started cruising some, but prefers to get down from whatever he's pulled up on and crawl to where he wants to go and get back up. It's much faster that way, and the faster he can get to his target the happier he is. The poor cats have been caught a couple of times.

Bryan is doing well in school. He is still enjoying it, so that's a good sign. As always his upbeat and outgoing personality has him being well known by everybody....which isn't a bad thing. He apparently gets called on a lot by the instructors. He is still working at Home Depot and recently (today) got moved to the appliance department. He is hoping that after he finishes his first semester he can work as a nurse extern at one of the Baptist hospitals.

I'm still working nights. I'll be staying on nights indefinitely for now. The night crew I work with is a lot more flexible and is letting me have a set schedule which will make it a lot easier to manage work, school, and babysitting schedules. I am definitely enjoying being back with oncology patients. I recently finished cross-stitching a blanket for Logan...I'll have to take a picture of it and post it. I try to play the piano somewhat regularly, but with two extra set of hands helping out make it difficult. And since I don't like to play when the boys are asleep, there isn't much time left. You can see from the picture below....I think the tiny hands and the bears get more playing time.

All About Logan Sequel

I got to make our first trip to the emergency room Friday night! I knew we would be making that trip at some point or another. I didn't expect Logan to be the reason for the first trip. As you can see from the pics he busted his lip. The inside actually looks worse than the outside...hence the reason to the ER. He was standing on the stairs and as I went to get him off the stairs he reached for me and let go. He broke his fall with his mouth on the corner of the wood on the stairs. Blood everywhere, a fat lip, and a big gash to his gums and off we go to the ER. They didn't do anything for him, which I suspected would the be case, but it looked pretty bad and I wasn't comfortable without another set of eyes seeing his mouth. The doc did recommend that we rinse his mouth with water after every feeding...which is difficult, but I'd rather do that than deal with an infection later.

The pics below is Taylor snuggling with Logan and daddy while watching LSU Tigers. I taught them to say "Go Tigers" when I asked them what to tell Papa. But they actually respond to a lot of questions with the appropriate answer of "Go Tigers". For example: Q:"What are we going to watch on TV today?" A: "Tigers, Go Tigers". It's really, really cute.

P.S. For all of you South Carolina fans that are reading this. Yeah, I kinda teach them about the gamecocks...sometimes. You know they are only two and I don't want them to get confused. After all, Tigers can and do eat Chickens. :)

Catching Up

Okay, so my original intention was to update this weekly. But that's obviously not happening! It was a good intention, but there never seems to be enough time.
I finally got all three boys to sit in the same place for a picture. Clark especially doesn't want to be involved with group pictures. We've tried several times to get a picture of all three and he usually is the uncooperative one. Rosemary got one when Logan was 4 months old...so over 3 months ago. Of course I bribed Clark and Taylor with 'treats' if they would sit still and take a picture for mommy. I think Clark still ended up in time-out before it was all said and done. But we got a picture, and they got their treat. The two pictures above are just a couple of my favorites from our little photo shoot.
It finally rained here a few weeks ago. We have barely seen a drop of rain all summer. I was joking with Bryan one day that Logan has never seen rain (he was six months old at the time) and how sad that was. I really miss rain, and I really miss thunderstorms. Of course, the day it rained we had plans to go to the water park at SeaWorld. Since we couldn't go to SeaWorld (it was thundering and lightening too) we went and played in the rain. Since then we've actually had quite a bit of rain...enough that for once this summer we're actually having a hard time keeping up with the grass cutting.
Last week the Backyardigans came to SeaWorld. So Abuela (Rosemary) and I took the boys to see them. We got there late for the first showing so we waited for round two. I was expecting an actual Backyardigans show where the characters sing and dance. But the three characters that were there (Uniqua, Tyrone, & Pablo) came out and sang one song and then they showed an episode on the big screen in the theater and then the characters came out again and waved to everyone. They did hand out free pictures of them on the way out and Clark and Taylor loved that. Logan was asleep at that point. He had been flirting with everybody and just wore himself out. After we watched the Backyardigans, Abuela spoiled Clark & Taylor with an ice cream sundae...which of course they loved!
Bryan started nursing school this past week. So life has gotten busier than we ever thought it could. I joke with Bryan that we are single parents with really good custody agreements!:) None of it would be possible without Abuela. Thank-you Rosemary, you are the best!!! We covet the family time we do have and try to have dinner together on nights that I work. Bryan is enjoying nursing school so far. The instructors seem supportive and helpful. So far that's much better than my nursing school experience. I tell most people that I would go back to Iraq before I would go back to nursing school. I hope his experience continues to be positive.

All About Logan

Logan definitely seems to get left out. He just doesn't get to do the things the big boys are doing yet. I have no doubt that he will catch up all too soon though!
He had a very busy week a couple weeks ago (yep, I've been slacking again). He starting sitting up on his own, crawling and broke his first tooth through all in one week. And to celebrate it all, on his 7 month birthday, he got 5 immunizations in one day! He wasn't very happy about that part. His older brothers aren't very happy that he's crawling. He can get into 'their' stuff now. Taylor is especially upset about this since he is so possessive of everything. He doesn't like anybody touching his stuff. Logan is getting pretty fast on all fours. Yesterday he was chasing one of the cats and did a good job at keeping up with her. He definitely is growing up fast and wants to be doing whatever his brothers are doing. He is already pulling up to a standing position on things. He also gets up on all fours...with his feet flat on the floor and tries to let go with his hands. As I said before....he is growing up fast!

I'm a Slacker!

                                      

It's been almost a month since I posted any blogs. My goal was to update it once a week...what a slacker I am! 

We've been really busy. There's just not a lot of free time between working, taking care of three boys, and making sure the house is still standing and there's at least some food in it. 

I'm really enjoying being back at my job at Wilford Hall. I never thought I would say such things, but I enjoy working with the people there. And I especially enjoy being back in my specialty of oncology. Plus it's really nice being a civilian instead of military. It's a lot better. I'm not getting called into work at the last minute! I'm working nights right now, which I'm actually enjoying...another thing I never thought I would say. But I get to see the boys more on days when I work. I get up from sleeping and pick them up from Rosemary's and have a couple hours to spend with them/eat dinner with them before I go to work. Plus I have some free time at work (there's nothing to do between midnight and 4 am) to finish a quilt that I am cross-stitching for Logan.

We went to Baton Rouge a few weeks ago for a family reunion. It was really nice to see Papa and Grandma Carol and spend time with family. The family reunion went well and Taylor gained the nickname of 'cookie monster'. He made his way to the food table and stole a cookie while we were fixing plates. He threw a fit when we took it away and refused to eat anything. When Bryan let him go to the table he ran straight back to the cookies to get another one. We finally did convince him to eat. Both him and Clark would only eat Uncle Carl's Jambalaya though...which is okay by me! We went to the zoo. Clark and Taylor love Giraffe's right now. They got to feed the fish. Well, they were supposed to feed the fish, but I think the turtles have taken over the fish feeding area. You can see in the picture below all the turtles. Clark thought it might be a good idea to sit down and reach his hand through the fence to pet one. Luckily we caught him in time. The turtle closest to him was a snapping turtle. That would've hurt! We also rode the train before leaving the zoo. You can see all of us (Logan stayed home with Grandma) in the picture below. Aunt Karen, Cydney, and Jace. Saturday night we went swimming at my brother's house. At first neither one of them wanted to leave the steps, but we got them out and eventually Taylor wouldn't get out of the pool. He had another temper tantrum when Bryan made him get out. The 'terrible two's' are going very smoothly in our household!:)

Logan enjoyed the pool as well, but didn't last very long before he got cold. He is happy-go-lucky as usual. He is starting to learn to crawl. He gets up on his hands and knees and rocks back and forth. He's figured out how to move his knees and hands, but not in any coordination to help him get anywhere. He has mastered getting to a sitting position on his own and enjoys watching his brothers from  his  new vantage point. The only problem is that he thinks he needs to practice both of these things...even in his crib when he should be sleeping!

The last picture is Clark and Taylor snuggling with daddy while they finish their milk before going 'night-night'. It was just a cute moment to catch!

  

P.S. yes we know...we need more pictures of Logan! We're working on that!

"Mommy, Up High!"

We went to SeaWorld last week. Clark and Taylor were so good and Logan slept through most of the day. As soon as we got there they had Shamu and the dolphin above sitting out for everyone to take pictures with. I was very surprised that both Clark and Taylor went right up to them and sat next to them to take a picture. They are usually so bashful around anybody. They even shook their hands. I guess since they weren't really people that was okay. Who know what they think. We also went to Dolphin Cove where they have a bunch of dolphins that swim around. The dolphins were really active while we were there, jumping out of the water and splashing people. Clark and Taylor loved it. Logan got a little upset when he got splashed on. We also saw the Shamu show and the Viva show...which is the best show there. After we ate lunch I took Clark and Taylor on the mini ferris wheel. They got a little restless in line, but once we got to the front they were ready to go. I was really worried about taking them on this ride. Especially Clark...he has not liked any rides and refuses to even consider going on any. Big surprise again...he got in and didn't look back. They both kept saying "Mommy, up high!", "Mommy, up high!" over and over. I was very proud of them. They had a great day and I had to keep them awake on the way home so they would take a nap.

Congratulations Bryan!

Bryan was accepted into nursing school!!! He was accepted into a diploma program here in San Antonio that is affiliated with one of the local hospitals. He starts classes in August with an expected graduation date of May 2010. We are all very excited!

Horse-back Riding!

So we had the missionaries over for dinner tonight. It's a shame they can't babysit...the boys had a blast! After dinner Elder McWhorter and Elder Dutson turned into horses. They rode around and around and around. Every time they stopped they were reprimanded by their rider! Both of the elders at some point also got body slammed, stepped on, danced on, and jumped on. Beware if you are ever on the floor at our house!!! There is no doubt...they are 100% boys and I'm postive that Logan is learning very quickly.