Corpus Christi

We took advantage of the cooler weather and a weeekend off and went to Corpus Christi. We have lived here in San Antonio for almost six years and have never made it down there. It would have been nice to stay longer, but now we have more information to make the next trip better.

Me being the procrastinator that I am forgot to make reservations day after day. We were going to stay at the Navy lodge, but they were booked by the time we called. That was okay, we decided to rough it and go camping on sites that they have on the Naval Air Station. Lots of lessons learned here: #1 Bring tons of bug repellent! After the rain we've finally had in the last couple weeks, the mosquitos have flourished. Louisiana is supposed to be the mosquito capital of the world....not anymore! I have never seen swarms of mosquitos like this. As soon as we pulled up to the campsite and opened the doors they were EVERYWHERE! Poor Logan faired the worst. They seemed to like him the most, even though we sprayed him down. Maybe he's super sweet...he even has some bites on his head:( #2 Bring a pack-n-play for the 20 month old or a tent just for him. We figured: it's just one night, he'll do fine right?? Nope. Logan, went to sleep decently because he was exhausted, but when Bryan and I went to bed later he woke up and was awake for a while. I'm sure the entire campsite loved his crying at midnight/0100/0200. I even put him in the van and drove around the base hoping he'd fall back asleep...didn't work. Eventually he got too exhausted to fight it and sacked out. And because he was so tired, he wasn't the friendliest boy today. Today at the beach he fell asleep while I was holding him in the water and then slept all the way home (3 hours) and went to bed without any complaint. #3 Go to the beaches in Padre Island instead of Corpus....they are much nicer. But now we know for next time. We went to the beach on Padre Island on Friday night because the boys were begging to go to the beach and that's where we were closest to. But Saturday we went to the aquarium in the morning and didn't feel like driving back to Padre Island to go to the beach. So we just went to the one right by the aquarium...not nearly as nice.

The Texas State Aquarium was pretty nice. The boys really enjoyed looking at all the different fish and they really enjoyed the dolphin show and exhibit. The coolest exhibit was this massive aquarium with all kinds of huge fish, sharks, and even a sea turtle. I could sit and look at it all day. You can kind of see it in the background of the picture where Logan is swinging on the guardrail above. I was trying to get a shark in the background...but it wouldn't cooperate. This was the first trip to the beach for all three boys and they did pretty good. Clark and Taylor were a little hesitant around the water at first. But they warmed up to it eventually. Taylor especially decided he liked the beach. When it was time to leave he kept going back in. And of course, they both loved playing in the sand with their buckets and shovels. Logan enjoyed sitting right at the edge of the water and throwing sand. Nobody wanted to be sitting too close to him.

Overall a good trip and hopefully we'll get back sooner than another six years!

Summer's Over

So it's only been 2 months and some change since I updated this. O.K. closer to three months. Whatever happened to once a month? I'm laughing at the thought that I once had the goal of updating this weekly. I hope there's some followers out there still. And if there are...thanks for being patient.

I've actually been trying to get Bryan to update this for me because he's been spending lots of quality time with the boys....and we know that this blog is really all about them. He was a stay-at-home dad for the summer and was counting down the days until school started back. Which was today for anybody wondering. Although he loves his boys, he knows that it is a much harder job staying home with them than being at work/school. He definately has a great appreciation for stay-at-home moms. So he is back to school and this semester is his OB/Gyn and Pediatrics rotation. I don't think he's very thrilled about it. But he is looking forward to the end when he has a canoeing trip planned to the Everglades with my brother Jeremy and his brother Travis.

I don't really have any news about me. I'm just working and taking care of boys on my days off. I'm still working nights and still counting down the days until Bryan finishes school. I'm considering applying for grad school since I have a nice new GI Bill that will pay 100% for my school and then pay housing allowances along with it. The GRE scares me though...we'll see what happens.

The boys are doing great. We are still having a lot of sibling rivalry...which means Clark and Taylor team up against Logan most times. Logan holds his own though. He's turning into quite a bully. He'll just randomly go up to one of the twins and start hitting them. And he's learned how to bite. He's becoming familiar with the time out stool. We started a reward chart for Clark and Taylor. It is a space chart and they are spacemen that have to get to the top. There are ten spaces and they move their rocket-man up if they are kind to their brothers and have to move him down when they hit/kick/push etc. When they get to the halfway point they get a small treat and when they get to 10 they get to go out and get ice cream with mommy or daddy. It took forever, but they both finally made it to the top. Taylor finished first and went with daddy, and Clark finished about a week later and went with mommy. They both picked out birthday cake ice cream with sprinkles and M&M's. Now the rocket-man is back at the bottom and we're going to try and work our way back up again. Clark and Taylor are still into their trains. We were at the Container Store today and they were running around like trains whistling and everything. Good thing the sales people thought it was cute! All three of them have had a good summer. They have had many expeditions to the park and the zoo. And for a month during the summer we had a membership to an indoor playground. They loved this place. They had a couple bouncy castles, a tricycle race track (with an adult tricycle too), and lots of other toys as well. It was perfect because it's been too hot to spend too much time outside. They could go there and run around and play and use some of that energy without getting heat stroke. They have also gone to the pool quite a bit with Christine and are getting pretty comfortable with the water. They even went down the water slide at the base pool last week...with help and life jackets of course.

The heat here has been really bad this summer. Way too many days off 100+ temperatures, and we've only had rain maybe twice. Our yard (and most everyone else's) is really sad looking because we have water restrictions. You can water anytime if you hand water with the hose (not using any kind of sprinkler). But that takes too long and I'm not interested in paying that high of a water bill. The grass crunches when you walk on it because it's so fried. Pray for Rain!!!

Happy Birthday Clark & Taylor!!!

As usual this is really late getting posted. But HAPPY BIRTHDAY to CLARK and TAYLOR.
My big boys turned 3 on May 13th. They had a great day. They spent the night before with Abuela. So Bryan and I were able to put together their birthday present without any peeping. Their new thing is trains so they got a train table with accessories...see picture below.
When Bryan and I arrived to pick them up from Abuela's she had already spoiled them...just the way a Grandma should! :) She had taken them to breakfast at McDonald's and let them play on the playground for a while. She then took them to Party City to pick out balloons. They picked out the biggest Thomas balloons...we couldn't see out the back window on the drive home! Abuela also got them some party hats and some Thomas plates. So we picked them up and took them to a local mall here that has remote control cars/race tracks. They raced Lightening McQueen and Chick Hicks a few rounds before coming home. They had no idea about their train and were surprised when they walked in the door. They immediately started driving trains and whistling. Lucky for them it was Logan's nap time so they got a couple hours of uninterrupted play (Logan likes to play Godzilla with the train table...huge baby walking and tearing up the whole city!). After Logan got up we had dinner...Hot dogs at their request and cake and then they opened their presents. They got really cool Lightening McQueen blankets from Abuela that they use for nap time and quilts from Grandma Parker that they use on their beds. But their favorite present? The card that Grandma Parker put on her present. I don't remember what it said, but you open it up and it plays the 'chicken dance' song! They loved them and kept opening and closing them and reopening them just to hear the song. You can see in one of the pictures below I was teaching them the chicken dance with the card...only Clark would participate though. Taylor was a bit self-conscience with an audience present! All in all they had a great day and went to bed exhausted!

Long Time, No Write

It's really been forever since I've posted this time! It's hard to find time normally, but the last couple months have been very busy. I've had a couple procedures and we've had a lot of family in town. I finally had surgery on my sinus to correct a deviated septum and widen narrow passages to my sinus'. I've had a very bad cold and a sinus infection since then. So when I'm done with the antibiotics, I'll let you know if the surgery actually worked! Work is same old story for me...I keep having to go! At least I enjoy the work I do since I have to work. My mom was here for the month of March with my dad coming and going. And then my brother Jeremy and his wife Jennifer and their family came for the first week of April. The boys really enjoyed having Grandma around and loved chasing Papa Ruben when he was here. They also really enjoyed having their cousins here and doing lots of fun things with them. Last week we went up to Tyler to see Grandma Chris before she left to go back to Jordan.

Bryan just finished his second semester of nursing school. Two down, two to go. That's right...he's at the halfway point. Only one year left. He is off for the summer except an online ethics class that he'll start at the end of June. He gets to spend lots of quality time with the boys. Plus I'm trying to make my schedule so I have 5, 6, or 7 days off at a time so we can go out of town or just spend time together as a family. That's one advantage of 12 hour shifts.

It's hard to believe, but Clark and Taylor will be turning 3 in a couple weeks. They remind us almost daily that their birthday is coming up. They are still obsessed with trains right now and that's their request for birthday presents. Their language skills are improving daily. It's amazing the amount they seem to learn. They both speak in full sentences now and are learning new words everyday. Clark talks with his hands a lot now and it is so cute and funny. They have learned the words and the hand motions to 'Book of Mormon Stories' and is very cute to watch them singing. They'll just randomly start singing, but if you catch them they'll get bashful and hide their faces.

Logan is 15 months old now and is growing so fast. He still wants to be doing whatever big brothers are doing and is happiest when he's allowed to join in their fun. He's working on four teeth right now, so he's not always happy, but when he's laughing and smiling, you can't help but join in. He has the cutest smile and the best belly laugh. He's finally ready for his first haircut. He's actually got a mullet right now. It's fashionable on a one year old right?!?

We've finally been getting some rain here in San Antonio and last week I took the boys out for a walk around the neighborhood....that quickly turned into a puddle jumping expedition. Here's a quick video of it. They had a lot of fun.

It's a Girl!

Nope, not what you're thinking! We did add a new memeber to our family, but she has four legs...and as you can guess by the title, she's a girl. We adopted her from the city pound a little over a month ago. She is a golden retriever and bordie collie mix and has a very sweet personality. She lack in some manners still, but we signed her up for obedience classes and she's working on that. We think she's about 1 to 1 1/2 years old. She has red hair...almost the same color as the twins. We named her Ginger in honor of the South Park episode 'Ginger Kids' http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ginger_Kids

It's an episode where Cartman (and others) discriminate against red-heads. We usually don't watch South Park, but this episode is pretty funny. We definately suffer from Gingervitis in our household!

Funny Story

After Bryan got home from school we all went to the zoo last Friday. We had a great time seeing the animals and the boys fed the lorakeets. And of course we had to ride the train. But the best memory of all happened as we were getting ready to go home:
Even though Clark and Taylor are potty trained, they often think they are too busy to go to the bathroom and won't always tell us they have to go. Instead they hold themselves. On the way to the car I noticed that Clark was doing this and asked him if he needed to go potty. Of course the answer is yes and the nearest bathroom is across the street. I had already put him and Taylor in the van, but neither was buckled in yet. So I took Clark out and set him down by the driver's side door and turned to get Taylor out of the van. When I turned back around Clark was standing with his pants down peeing on the ground!!! In full view of a family that was walking by looking at us like we were crazy. What can you do?!?...we just started laughing. And before you know it Taylor is pulling his pants down saying "I go pee-pee on the ground too". We stood around him to give him a little more privacy. We fully intended to go to the bathroom....but Clark and Taylor had other ideas!!!

Okay, so I don't know if anybody still checks in on this, since I haven't updated it in forever. I've been a bit lazy, and a bit busy, and way exhausted lately. I haven't been sleeping well during the day (I work nights), so I've been building a pretty impressive sleep debt. Kim suggested to try some drugs...I think I might actually try that route....legal ones of course!:)
I usually like to post pictures, but something has gone haywire with the SD card that my pics are on. So when we get that figured out, I'll update some pics.
I know it's a little delayed saying so, but we are glad to be home. We went to Tyler for Christmas to spend time with Bryan's family. And although we had a good time and it was good to see family...."there's no place like home". Bryan has started back to school, and I'm back to work and the routine goes on. We have had a plan to put all three boys in the same bedroom for a while, but never had the time to get it accomplished. Until Now! We finally got all the rooms moved around, everything organized and put away....and we find out that Clark & Taylor's cribs have been recalled. So we had to take them apart to send in specific pieces to get a voucher to replace them. So now we have spare crib parts lying around and they are both sleeping on their mattress' on the floor! Hopefully not for too much longer.
Logan turned 1 year old on the 14th of January. UNBELIEVABLE!!! It seems like just yesterday that I had him and that my parents were here and then Rosemary was coming over every day to help with Clark and Taylor. He is walking proficiently and still into everything. He has a couple of "words". They are more like sounds that he makes for cat and dog....and they are different sounds that he makes for each. He also growls. But it is more of a whisper growl and he growls when he sees animals that growl....or just randomly for no apparent reason. We turned his car seat around and he thinks that he is such a big boy now....although he still hates to get buckled in because that requires him to sit still.
Clark and Taylor are definitely in the middle of the terrible two's. And I know it doesn't get better at 3...no end in sight. We have meltdowns about everything....X 2. It's good fun. They are very active and I'm always trying to find fun things to do with them. Today we went to a model train show and they loved it. That's their new obsession...trains. They are already asking for trains and a train cake for their birthday. They have decided to team up against Logan. If they are playing and Logan comes anywhere near them they try their best to get rid of him...kicking, pushing, hitting....we're working on that. The Time-Out corner gets used a lot lately.
I think that's all the updates for now. As soon as I can the pics working I'll post them.