Be Careful How You Mix Things

Christmas time was filled with a few firsts for our family. One of the most notable was Kim's first experience with a gun. Crazy enough her first shot was from a 12 gauge shotgun, but Kim couldn't have had it any other way. I wish I would have gotten more of her face and the gun, but I was for some odd reason unwilling to stand in front of her for the pics. Hope you enjoy this as much as I did.

All things redneck

So I must say first that the title is just that, a title. I have absolutly nothing against country folk. Moving on.

So we made it to Texas and I obviously did not die on the plane ride (which aside from the fact that we were not sure if we would make our flight since we were waiting for roads closed by snow to open so we could get to LA, was fabulous thanks to a smooth flight and a little pill called Xanax).

So my kids have been loving it here and have been going, going, going since Friday morning thanks to uncle Eric. Ethan and Landon have been knee deep in mud since then and loving every minute of it. Eric informed me that Ethan gravitates towards anything that might be considered "white trashy" and thinks it is awesome. Eric showed them where to catch crawfish which Ethan and Gunnar (eric's nephew) proceeded to maul to death. Although ethan did try to feed it a tiny lizard whose head he pulled off. Is this really my son? Landon wasn't so sure about it and the picture shows how close he would get. Later that day landon had decided that he had reached his limit and put himself down for a nap. So Eric took Ethan and Gunnar fishing in the pond on his land.

So this is where Teresa and I were laughing so hard and just decided that the whole thing looked very redneck.

Ethan and Gunnar fishing

Ethan catching his first fish

Ethan making his way to shore with his paddle. A broken 2x4.

Showing off his first fish.

I even had to buy myself some rubber boots so I would get everything I brought with me muddy. (thank you teresa for the nice shot from behind)

The next activity according to ethan and landon will be burning trash. Including the mattresses which have got the boys most excited. Eric told me that is the nice thing about living on this much land with no one near you. You never have to worry about how you are going to get rid of stuff. You just burn it.

We are having a great time and the boys are having an even better time being boys and getting dirty, riding the four wheeler, catching bugs and fish, and setting things on fire.

In One Minute.....

Lots of things can happen in a minute. Here are some fun and amazing things that happen in one minute courtesy of the book "Every Minute On Earth"

2,000 thunderstorms occur. 45 million gallons of water go over Niagara Falls. 2,271 working satellites orbit Earth. A hair grows 0.00027 inch. 954 camera phones are sold. 15,000 gallons of air are inhaled by a blue whale. 21,000 pizzas are baked. 180 Barbies are sold. 115 soccer balls are made -- and 61 of them are in Pakistan.

Then there are the not so fun and interesting things that can happen in one minute and since I have crazy children they are usually behind these "amazing things". Sometimes I wonder if I should call the world record keepers since I am almost positive that they can break a record for the "least amount of time it takes to deface property or persons." This is what my sister and I found tanner and landon doing about one minute after we left the room.

They had colored all over my granite (gasp) but since we caught them while that was still wet it came off. Hopefully it will come off the mirror and we can at least paint the wall. Now I hope it comes off Landon and Tanner's skin. Landon informed me later that he was trying to make his face look like the bulldog on the Tom and Jerry cartoons......Nice.

Global Warming at work!

I got this picture sent to me early this morning. Well early my time. This is my in-laws house. They live east of Houston near Beaumont. They are not to far from Louisiana. Needless to say snow is never seen during the winter months. Well, thanks to global warming (ha ha) this is what they woke up to this morning. To bad it didn't happen after we got there. My kids would have loved to wake up to this. Maybe it will decide to snow again next week. Anyone have Al Gore's email address? I would like to send him this picture.

Catching up

The month of November was a busy one for us. We did lots of stuff and I am now realizing as I sit here awake way too late listening to my poor fat boy baby cough away that I never made any posts about it. So here is a recap of November's happenings.

We went to see Carrie Underwood in concert. It was great. We went with my parents and my sister lindsay and her husband marc and some friends of theirs Zach and Nicole. We had a great time. We had great seats and although we had horrible service at the restaurant we ate at before the concert, it was still a very fun night. Jared I don't think was really sure if he would like the show that much but at the end of the concert she sang a

guns-n-roses song and I think it made it all better for him.

My sister, mom and me

Mackenzie and Chloe had their first sleepover. We had fun since both of them love to have fingers and toes painted and hair curled and all of the girly stuff. We only ran into problems when they needed to go to sleep. That was not happening. Even after I seperated them into different rooms to go to sleep my niece Chloe continued to talk to the dolls and to herself, then at one point she was singing all of us to sleep. It was extremely entertaining since she cracks me up.

Ethan had his last soccer game and party. Boy am I glad the season is over. He is now wanting to do basketball so I will have to gear myself up for more practices and games. At least I got a little break from it all. Jared and I were the team parents this year. It wasn't too bad but at the end of season party I kept thinking to myself..."note to self do not let yourself or jared volunteer for anything like this again." Then I also thought...."I need to remeber where I put all my notes to self since I am pretty sure there is one somewhere on this very topic."
We celebrated the boys birthdays. Their birthday's are only a few days apart so for right now they will be having birthday's together. This year we did not have a party, just family over for cake and ice cream. What a relief that was. As a mom I think birthday parties are overrated, and as a mom I am sure I will do one next year to make my kids happy. Oh well, I have got almost a whole year to not think about it.
This year I also decided to make the one of the boys birthday gifts. Now we all know what that means for me. Stress. Since my day never goes as planned, I never get anything done when I think I will. The boys did love their new magnet boards and are very excited to put things on them. That made staying up til 3 am the night before to finish them worth it ( well for the most part, I would have liked to have been asleep but things gots to gets done around here) now if I can get them hung on the wall we will be in business.

Lastly, Thanksgiving. This is my least favorite holiday. This might be the reason I have no pictures of the actual holiday. I only took pictures of Landon's Kindergarten Feast which was very cute and didn't involve any husbands watching football, me having to bake anything, or any clean up by me. I am telling anyone who would like to join us next year we will be eating Thanksgiving out somewhere and I will be ever so thankful to those people who will prepare my meal and serve it to me.

When will it end.....

For the past day and a half I have had to keep telling myself just let it go. Don't take it personally. Although that is an extremely hard thing for me to do (those that know me well I am sure are nodding their heads in agreement). It is all starting to get to me though and since all really want to do is vent and probably say things I shouldn't and be just as mean as everyone else, I will make a post about why it upsets me instead.

I love my blog and I love reading other blogs. I have been able to get back in touch with so many people who now live all over the place but at one point lived so close to me. It allows me to keep our families up to date with what we have been doing with out having to spend too much time on the phone since those of us with kids at home know how impossible it is to have a real conversation without being interrupted by screaming and fighting. I am also guilty of blog hopping/stalking. There are some seriously creative and crafty people out there that know a friend of a friend of a friend of mine. There is also tons of information on so many topics by so many people who have been there done that. Blogs have become a great resource for me which is why I have kept my blog public when so many I know have decided to go private.

I have also used my blog to vent. Vent about the things or kids that are driving me crazy. It is somewhat of a stress reliever for me and it also helps me feel better about myself when I see that others struggle with the same problems I do. Sometimes reading about someone else's bad day makes me realize that maybe mine is not so bad after all and I should stop complaining. I would hope that those reading my blog would realize that I am venting about personal experiences. Things that have happened to me and my family. Nothing I vent about attacks anyone I know in a personal way.

So yes, I was extremely hurt, mad and frustrated when yesterday I realized that one of my experiences was being used as a social commentary platform. I was then also used as a springboard for everyones frustration with people who do the same things I do. I was very hurt that people who didn't know me or my situation would pass such harsh judgement. By the time Jared got home last night I was on the verge of tears. I honestly thought that I would go to bed and everyone would move on from the day and that it would be somewhat forgotten. To my surprise that is not the case. Jared reminded me that blogging sometimes lets people feel anonymous and so they say things they wouldn't normally say about someone. Also that when you write something you cannot predict how the person reading it will interpret your tone. So with that reminder I am going to chalk this whole thing up to personal experience and move on.

One last thing I realized in the last 24 hours. It only takes one. One person to send the bandwagon rolling down the hill. One person to keep it rolling right towards someone with the intent of knocking them down. Although we should all beware that one day the bandwagon we were once on, might just be headed for us.

That is my two cents about my blog. Take it or leave it but please don't take it personally.

Kids say the........

funniest things. Mackenzie has a bad habit of coming into our room and climbing in bed with us every night. So in my attempt to not get smacked in the head with the books she likes to bring into bed with her I had the following conversation.

Me: mackenzie if you will try really hard and stay asleep in your own bed for the whole night tonight, tomorrow I will get you a strawberry milkshake. (while I was saying this I was scratching her back)

Mackenzie: if i stay in bed all night?
Me: yes all night.
mackenzie: okay and mom if you stay here and scratch my back I will let you get a diet coke tomorrow too.

yes even my 3 year old knows my love for diet coke.