The Butler Chronicles

January: 12 for 12

2012-01-30T14:53:00.000-06:00

I'm starting a new project this year called "12 for 12". I wish I'd thought it up myself but, alas, I didn't. I read someone's blog where they took twelve pictures on the twelfth day of each of the twelve months to document their lives. The main purpose is to find the beauty in every day life instead of the really major things. For my project, I've decided to take twelve pictures throughout the month for twelve months to document my life (like I don't do that enough anyways). One of my goals is to find beauty in the every day things. However, I also need to practice my photography skills in capturing every day things in a way that relay its story or beauty. From the pictures you see below, I need a LOT of practice!

One thing you'll notice for January is that some of the pictures look different. I downloaded an iphone app called Instagram (free on iTunes) that lets you take the pictures you capture on your phone and change them into a different look. I chose the "1977" look because I LOVE old pictures. While I don't like taking pictures with my phone, I gave in for this month as a trial.

Annabelle's Dedication at Church

Annabelle got dedicated at church on Sunday, 1/21/12. Since she looked so beautiful in her dress that Uncle Dee and Aunt Kirsten bought her for Christmas, I took some pictures of her and Lane before the service which melted my heart. Why can't they be this happy with each other all the time?!

Below is a picture of us on stage with pastor Matt saying a special prayer over Annabelle. I didn't know what Lane (or Annabelle for that matter) was going to do up on stage. Annabelle didn't make a peep. Lane was pretty quiet until he saw pictures of Annabelle go up on the big screen and he said "Hey Mom! There's Annabelle!!".

Matt's prayer for Annabelle: "Lord, we lift up Annabelle to you. We ask that you bless her, and bless her indeed. We ask that You give her a greater understanding of who You are and what You are like. I ask that her sweetness would continue and that You protect her innocence as she gets older. I ask that she understand how to be a little sister and that she would teach her brother to enjoy sweet things. I ask that you help her older brother treat her like a little lady. Lord, I ask that you would protect her from evil and deliver her from temptation. Help her mom and dad understand any weaknesses in the way that you have designed her and raise her according to those weaknesses. Allow her to enjoy Your law and let her mind be turned towards that. We ask that You bless her, in Jesus' name. Amen."

Laundry

For the past month and a half or so, we have been without a washer and dryer due to the construction going on at our house. Therefore, I've had to make a couple of trips to the laundry mat (hence, the picture of the beautiful Speed Queen below). I have always taken the convenience of having a washer and dryer for granted...until now.

My trips to the laundry mat actually haven't been that bad. I've even learned a little during these excurions. I didn't know that they had single, double, and triple size washers. Which is awesome when you have 40 lbs of dark clothes alone. I also didn't realize the cost of a laundry mat. I know you probably don't care but its crazy to think it could cost $5/big load to wash and dry. And if you have more than that, which I did, it could cost up to $10 a trip to the laundry mat. Not that big of a deal, I know. But then consider the income of the majority of people that go there and how often they have to go...$10/trip could really add up. And then there are the people dynamics...all sorts of people came and went. But I noticed at my laundry mat, the majority were Hispanic families (yep, they all came and hung out which I thought was sweet) and single men (both young and old). One trip, there was a girl about my age who had a tattoo on her neck. We were drying our laundry beside each other and I was dying to ask her if that hurt! So I did, not knowing if she was going to punch me in the face or even talk to me. She was actually pretty nice and she started showing me all of her tattoos (all over her body) and telling me which ones hurt and which ones didn't. And for your curiosity, she said the neck one didn't hurt at all! Will probably have to take her word on that one.

House Addition

We are getting close! The exterior is almost done (we're just waiting on the brick in the front and some last touches) and the interior is coming along fast. They painted, installed the cabinets, tile, and countertops last week. On Friday, they had to tie the new plumbing to the main water line. This fun task required them to bring in a backhoe loader to dig two enormous trenches in our front and back yard. Lane pretty much thought he had died and gone to heaven. Before the backhoe loader got there, three men went in the backyard and started digging in one part of the lawn to check on something. Within the 3 seconds it took for the dogs to bark, Lane to look outside and see the men with their shovels, I heard frantic footsteps running down the hall and Lane shout out "Dad, I need my purple shovel!", the back door opened and slammed shut. I peeked out the window and Lane was out there with digging a hole in the ground alongside those men. He was talking up a storm without knowing (or caring) that two of them did not speak English. When I went outside to snap a picture of him in action, he had to show me the "correct" way to dig, which requires you to put the shovel in the ground and then stomp on the shovel with your foot to dig it deeper. Then the backhoe loader arrived. Let's just say Lane didn't take a nap that day and was outside until dark.

This is the new part of the house with the backhoe loader

Birthday Party Clown

Jason's cousin Lesley and Jeff had a birthday for their two kiddo's Addison and Jace. Silly Sparkles, the clown, was the main attraction and man, was it fun. Jason was hesitant when he heard a clown was going to be there because he is afraid of clowns. When asked about his fear, he replied, "Haven't you ever seen Stephen King's 'It'? And besides, there is something just not natural about a clown". Luckily for him, Silly Sparkles was super cute and the kids LOVED her. As did I. Which is why she's now coming to Lane's 3rd birthday party.

I was amazed at the way she could paint faces so artistically and quickly. I was more amazed that Annabelle sat perfectly still and let Silly Sparkles paint hers. I asked her how long it took her to get so good at it and she said that she's been doing this for years (she's really young, by the way) and that she just got back from a face painting conference in Dallas where she learned a lot of new cool painting tips. Did you know they had such things as face painting conferences? Yeah, me either. I'm wondering what other types of conferences there are out there that we would never guess.

Mirazozo

The Mirazozo art exhibit came to Austin for the first time and I took the kids to see it. Per the flyer they handed out, "Mirazozo luminarium is a sculpture people enter to be immersed in radiant light and color....It features winding passages of small domes inspired by repetitious forms found in the bazaars of Iran. The luminosity of light and color inside Mirazozo is created purely by the light shining through the colored plastic. All the pieces have been cut and glued together by hand in our workshop in Nottingham, England." They told us inside it took them four months to make it.

To all the kids who came to see it, it looked like a gigantic bouncy house. They were pretty strict about you keeping an eye on your kid, no running, and no sliding on the sides. Lane and Annabelle did pretty good considering the temptation and child chaos that ensued within this structure. It was like being inside a really colorful maze. Lane wanted to go in the blue room, now the red room, now the purple room. Annabelle wanted to go where ever she could. It was definitely cool to see, especially since someone made it by hand!

And Lane learned a new word...luminarium.

They have exhibitions all over. If you are interested in seeing the others, you can go to www.architects-of-air.com.

Girls Night in San Antonio

Jason, Shawn, Colin, and Dan got together and surprised all of their wives with a night out in San Antonio, including hotel accommodations. They didn't have to ask twice as we were already on our way. We went on a Friday afternoon and basically had a few margaritas and wine and just talked and talked and talked. Then we decided to go to Pat O'Briens for some good ole dancing as we were all pretty rusty on our moves.


Samantha, Miranda, Carrie, and Charlotte :)

Music Class

Annabelle and I started a music class at the Austin Lyric Opera House this month. We are doing it with my friend Claire and her daughter Charlie, who is 2 months younger than Annabelle. Honestly, I think she really likes it. And it gives us something fun to do and is great one on one time together...which is what I need the most! This picture is of Annabelle (left) and Charlie (right). The teacher had just dumped all the instruments on the floor for free play. It's hilarious how all the kids go for the drum sticks with the soft edges and immediately put them in their mouth. They look like suckers/lollipops! Annabelle was REALLY enjoying all three of hers :)

MOPs, Grouplink, Bible Study, and Fun

This month, my MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers), Bible Study, and Grouplink groups all started up again for the spring semester. The picture below definitely captures what I'm doing in my spare time these days. I'm reading one book for book club within MOPS, one book for our Grouplink study, the bible for our Bible Study, and I'm actually missing my kindle in this picture that contains the one book I'm reading "just for fun". And I'm sure it doesn't help that I just went out and bought a new book today on finding my creativity. Now, if I could just purchase some extra hours in the day to read all of these, everything will be A-ok.

My kiddos

January has brought some big changes to my kiddos too. First, Annabelle decided last week to walk instead of crawl. So, she is completely vertical these days, which seems to have helped some of her past frustrations. Secondly, Lane is doing awesome potty training. Well, let me say he's doing an awesome job pee peeing in the potty. He's pooped 3 times so far but isn't too big of a fan. We'll work on that next. One thing at a time. But as for the pee pee, he has even woken up during the night and during his naps to go pee instead of going in his pull up. I wanted to capture some of my inside opinions on potty training for those who have not gone through it yet...it is a big commitment from the parents. I mean, if you hear "Mommy, I have to pee pee", there is no finishing up what you are doing. You stop, drop and roll. This is all fine and dandy in the comfort of your own house. However, when you are out in a public place and your kid has to pee and there is no potty anywhere, your calmness will be tested. Lane is pretty easy in that he just wants to pee outside. But that is pretty hard to do in the middle of a huge, busy Barnes and Noble parking lot. Which is when you utter the famous words, "Can you hold it until we get home?". No wonder mothers get a lot of speeding tickets. They are frantically trying to get their kid home so they can pee in the potty! I was a disgrace to potty training mothers everywhere when we were in Home Depot the other day and Lane said he had to go pee pee. We were on the other side of the store and had a load of things in our cart, not to mention Annabelle was crying. I told him to just go in his pull ups. In hindsight, what was I thinking? These are the times when the word "commitment" really needs to be ingrained in my brain. Hopefully he's not too confused.

Annabelle is also through with all formula and bottles. I know this doesn't sound like a big deal to most people, but anyone whose ever had to clean bottles will know it is a glorious day when you can throw those suckers away!

This picture was taken when they were watching Classical Baby together. Lane said he wanted to hold Annabelle, so I put her on the chair next to him. She immediately put her head on his shoulder and they were entranced. This isn't typical behavior, hence the picture. But it was sweet for the 12 minutes it lasted. These two get along ok, but I find I'm playing referee a lot more than I want to. Lane has his moments when he is so sweet to Annabelle and will help her do or get anything. Then there are those times when he nonchalantly sticks out a foot while she's walking his way. Or he might be heading straight towards her and instead of going around her, he walks into her. Annabelle wants to do and play with everything Lane does. But instead of playing with him (because she doesn't know any better), she takes whatever it is she wants...which is usually what Lane has in his hands. Then he gets ticked and the battle ensues with screaming and crying. I'm not naive enough to think this will end anytime in the next two decades but a girl can dream can't she?

Compassion

I read this Ann Voskamp's blog about 3 months ago and she just returned from a trip to meet her Compassion sponsored kid in Ecuador. The stories she told about other children she met captured my heart and I've been wanting to sponsor a kid every since. We wanted to wait until January because of all the house expenses but I still got on the Compassion website every day looking for a kid. It was so hard to choose just one kid...I had to ask myself what I was looking for. And if I was honest with myself, I didn't know. I didn't want to pick a kid because I thought they were the cutest. And if money wasn't an issue, I would sponsor all of them. So how DO you choose? Well, I chose a country first. I chose Ecuador because one of my goals is to go to meet my sponsoree one day and I figured South America would be a good place as its not too far (and I've never been there). Then I filtered my list to all the kids that have been waiting for a sponsor the longest. A "long time" is defined as 6 months plus. On my initial search, there were a TON of kids who had been waiting for a while for a sponsor. I felt like I looked at all of them and the little information the website gives you about each child. And then one day, I stumbled across Stalyn. I still don't know why he stood out to me. He just did. So for over a month, I went to the website every day to see if he was still needing to be sponsored. While I wanted him to get a sponsor as soon as possible, I knew that if he was still needing someone by January 15, he was the one I wanted to "join" our family.

January 1 rolled around and I got on the website again. There were only TWO kids left in Ecuador that had been waiting longer than 6 months. A girl and Stalyn. Every day, I check and checked. Then January 15 rolled around and it was such a blessing to be able to sponsor this adorable 5 year old.

Just to give you an idea of how in need these children are...in Stalyn's town, which is 12km outside of Riobamba, the average monthly family income is $50. And the primary occupation is a street cart vendor. Luckily, Stalyn lives with both his parents. Both his parents are sometimes employed as a farmers.

With Compassion, we give $38/month and it goes directly to Stalyn and his family. Actually, it goes to the Compassion employees who work with these children and THEY are able to identify what specific items Stalyn and his family need, whether it be blankets, goats, chickens, clothing, etc. Their website says "Your $38 monthly sponsorship helps provide your child with life-changing benefits that include:

nutritious snacks or meals
educational opportunities
health and hygiene training
medical checkups
the caring embrace of a local church"

They also will send the parents to additional training to help them gain work skills and learn how to take care of their children's health.

That is all it is...$38/month. That is bringing your lunch instead of eating out three times a month. That is cutting out Starbucks 8 times a month. That is opting to cook dinner ONE time a month instead of going out to eat.

There are so many kids all over this world that need sponsors. The Compassion website has a lot of information, including FAQs, reviews, financial integrity information, etc.

I also wanted to share the blog post that I read that spoke to me. And hopefully, it will to you too.

Giving is too easy not to...

Stalyn, 5 years old, in kindergarten

90 Minutes

2012-01-26T13:13:00.000-06:00

It’s amazing how the last three years of my life have flown by. I mean, Annabelle is over one years old and Lane is about to be three. It feels like I just had Annabelle and Lane couldn’t even talk. The point is that I don’t understand how three YEARS can seem to fly by but a mere 90 minutes seems like eternity.

Let me paint a picture of how the first 90 minutes of my morning went.

6:25 - Annabelle wakes up
6:28 - 7:10 Annabelle goes back to sleep on me. I’m having a hard time keeping my eyes open for some reason this morning. I keep thinking about when I can make my coffee.
7:10 - Lane wakes up. I put Annabelle back in her crib, which immediately wakes her up. Lane asks me to change his pull up. I’m confused because it is a pull up and he can change it himself. But I haven’t had my coffee so I decide not to have that conversation/rationalization right now. While I’m in Lane’s room I smell poop. I asked him if he pooped and he said no and then politely suggested “Pedro might have tooted.”. Maybe.
7:15 - I pick Annabelle up out of her crib and immediately go to kitchen to make coffee. I smell poop again. Then it dawns on me that my nose hairs must be permanently singed with poop aroma. Why wouldn’t it be? I have been known to change 7 poopy diapers in one day. Between that and Pedro’s gas problem, it isn’t UNcommon to smell poop. I leave kitchen and head back to kids’ rooms.
7:20 - coffee is done brewing so I head back in there to get my little morning piece of heaven. But wait! I smell coffee with a mixture of poop! What in the heck?! I start thinking of a way to remove said nose hairs and that is when my eyes wandered over to the back door. There. It. Was. It looked like someone poured a pint of diarrhea all over our tile floor right by the back door. And what happens when you pour liquid on a hard service? That’s right, it splatters everywhere. Well, good morning to me!
7:20 - 7:45 - I ban the children from the kitchen and proceed to use up 75% of a new jumbo paper towel roll to wipe up the nastiness. And this is merely just wiping up the liquid grossness. Then I go through 5 of those Swiffer mop cleaners. Then I break out the clorox and get on my hands and knees and wipe off the backdoor and scrub the hardened residue. How long has it been sitting here?!
7:45 - 8:00 - I feel disgusting so I throw all my clothes in the laundry, ask Lane to watch over Annabelle and run to get in the shower. Ah, a hot shower and soap...and two peeping Toms. Lane and Annabelle are both observing my doings. Lane is inquiring about female body parts. Annabelle is crying because she can’t quite make it into the shower with me.

Did I mention that Jason is in Dallas for work? Or maybe I mentioned that my eye was throbbing because I think I have pink eye again? Moot points, I guess.

While I am pretending to take a relaxing shower my mind starts to wonder to the book that I’m reading (for the second time). It’s called One Thousand Gifts. And last night, I read the following “...how do I wake up to joy and grace and beauty and all that is the fullest life when I must stay numb to my losses and crushed dreams and all that empties me out...As long as thanks is possible, then joy is always possible. Joy is always possible. Whenever, meaning - now; wherever, meaning - here.”

My mind starts to rewire itself and I try to think of the joy, grace, and beauty of this situation...Thank you. Thank you that the dogs went on the tile rather than the carpet, couch, or my bedroom. Thank you that I have really bad allergies and, therefore, the wretched smell is masked a little to make it bearable to clean up without puking. Thank you for letting me have one sole remaining paper towel roll. Thank you for letting my kids obey me for once when I ask them not to come near the back door - though the smell probably assisted my command.

And then I laughed.

It’s 11 am and those 90 minutes now seem like a week ago. Here’s to hoping when I get home there is not a repeat offender. ICK!

Debut

2012-01-10T13:32:00.002-06:00

Last week, a friend who has her own kid's line was in desperate need for a kid to model some Halloween costumes that one of their clients wanted to see. They had two days to come up with the pictures so they called me and one of their friends with an SLR camera (not a professional). I told her not to expect much from Annabelle as she HATES things on her head. But despite all the costume changes and head gear, she did surprisingly well. She wasn't as "smiley" as she could have been on camera but I don't blame her...with all the whacked out "big people" (i.e. adults) making stupid noises and dancing around, bright lights in her face, and changing clothes every 3.26 minutes. Not necessarily a toddler's dream playdate. Despite all the obstacles, she looked freaking ADORABLE and I had to share her pics. The popcorn cracks me up!

Queen Bee - I could seriously kiss off her face. OH MY GOSH she's so cute!

Peacock

Popcorn

What are you putting on me?!

Flowerpot

Flowerpot part 2

Bat - hey we live in Austin, what do you expect :)

And this is why...

2012-01-06T15:30:00.001-06:00

I never wanted to get on the Pintrest website in the first place! After perusing through the FIRST PAGE for over an hour, I have added the following notes to my to-do list:

1. Hand make my kid's birthday invitations
2. Make a "salad in a jar"
3. Travel to Greece
4. Organize my jewelry (what little of it I have)
5. Take family pictures (now that I have fun picture ideas!)
6. Buy a whole new wardrobe
7. Create awesome Halloween costumes
8. Plant a garden
9. Make new spice jars with old Starbucks bottles
10. Utilize the "work out at home" routine I found
11. Practice new "easy" ways to do my hair
12. Make a "calm jar" for my kids - jar with colored water and glitter. When upset, shake it up and after all the glitter settles (i.e. you calm down), we can talk (GENIUS!)
13. Get a new tattoo

And it also made me laugh...check these out :)

Only women will enjoy this :)

Lane and God

2011-12-30T20:46:00.000-06:00

Driving home from Home Depot today, Jason was telling Lane what we were having for dinner....

Jason: It has carrots and parsnips in it. Do you like parsnips?
Lane: Yeah! I like parsnipees. I like aspara-agus and green beans too.
Melissa: What about broccoli? Did you eat your broccoli last night?
Jason: No, he didn't eat it. I ate most of his.
Lane: Sometimes I eat broccoli and sometimes I don't.
Melissa: Why don't you eat it all the time?
Lane: I don't know. That's just the way God made me.

Christmas 2011

2011-12-30T20:36:00.000-06:00

We had a wonderful Christmas here in Austin this year. Christmas week started off with a get together at the Bergers house. Dan wanted to make a new holiday drink for the parents and then let the kids build their own banana splits. Seeing that his holiday drink consisted of ice cream, egg nog, and alcohol, I had three. By the time dinner came around, I was stuffed! No kidding, I probably consumed a week's worth of calories in those three drinks.

Claire, Dan and Jason with their "Santa's Sleigh" drinks

Then Dan set out an amazing spread for the kids banana splits. Bananas, M&Ms, strawberries, pecans, blackberries, hot fudge and caramel. Two kids had bananas, but other than that, all they wanted was ice cream and M&Ms. Dan eventually convinced Jackson to try a little hot fudge. After this, I knew that something was NOT right with those kids.

Jackson enjoying his ice cream - he hates bananas.

On Thursday, my Dad came in town. We ended up going downtown to dinner one night, which is where this first picture is taken.

We went to Frank's, which is a, for lack of a better adjective, "gourmet hot dog" place. This is one of the places we tried on our food tour and had to come back to. And it was a place we thought my Dad might enjoy too. Especially when we introduced him to the chocolate covered bacon! (I realize that this picture looks like I'm holding up a piece of poop but try to get your mind out of the sewer)

Just a picture to let the world know I exist...and I love my little lovebug.

Since Dad stayed with Jess, we were over there a lot. Jess and Jerod let Lane open a present early, which turned out to be a gingerbread house. So Aunt Jessie and Lane built a gingerbread house together. Or rather, Jess built the house, my Dad ate the icing (i.e. house glue), and Lane ate the candy. Jess said this should be a yearly tradition as it was pretty fun. Telling Lane 500 times that he can't eat the house right then was not fun. But he eventually let up with the promise that he could eat it "tomorrow".

Grandpa and AB

Poor Gibster was sick the whole week. You can't tell 100% from this picture but he was not a happy camper, with or without his antlers on. He ended up spending his first Christmas in the hospital hooked up to IVs for fluid and antibiotics. They also gave him Motrin, did chest x-rays, and conducted a breathing treatment. He felt better immediately, Jess said and has been good ever since.

Lane kept wanting to hold Gibson. He loves that baby so much.

Grandpa and all his grandkids on Christmas Day

Grandpa and AB bonding over snacks

On Christmas Day, Jason's brother's family from outside Houston and his parents drove up to Jason's other brother's house in Round Rock. So we got to spend Christmas Day with all of his family. I can't get over how much our niece and nephews have grown! And they were amazingly sweet to Lane. They included in him in all of their games and excursions. Lane told me time after time how much fun he was having.

From left to right: Ryan (holding AB), Paige, Blake, Ben, and Lane

Ben gave Lane some new books for Christmas and immediately started to read it to him. Lane was enthralled! Seriously, how many 13 year olds take the time to read to their 2.5 year old cousin?

Mimi and Grandpa with all of the grandkids

Early Christmas with Shoshie

2011-12-18T19:07:00.001-06:00

Mom came in town this week for a couple of reasons. One was to watch Gibson while Jess' nanny was on her honeymoon. The other was to celebrate Christmas with us. The kids and I got to spend time with Shoshie during the day when she would bring Gibster over to Crazytown. Mom actually watched all three kids for half a day while I went to work. She survived but I now understand where that empty wine bottle I found in the trash came from (just kidding!).

Cousins...if only Lane would be as sweet to AB as he is with Gibson


Gibson and Annabelle swapping some cousin love

One of Lane's favorite things to do with Shosh is bake cookies. So they made some chocolate chip cookies one day, wearing their matching aprons.

Putting in a little sugar :)

On Friday afternoon, we opened presents to and from Shoshie and had a nice family dinner. This was the first Christmas where Lane was completely into it. He helped deliver all the presents, including the heavy ones. And he was super happy to help people open their presents if they requested. Annabelle, well...she really liked the wrapping paper.

I think Shosh went a little overboard. These were 1/2 the presents as you can't see the ones beside me.

Gibson, on the other hand, enjoyed watching all the goings ons. He pulled a little wrapping paper. We'll just call this his practice run for this coming weekend.

Shosh and all her grandkids

I loved visiting with my Mom, as always. However, this year, she gave me the best presents ever. The first is a mirror that an artist she knows makes. Mom collected some of her, my grandmother's, my great-grandmother's, and my godmother's jewelry and the artist turned it into a frame. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this precious gift. This is generations of jewelry (nothing super valuable, mind you) and from all my loved ones. The picture below doesn't do it one iota worth of justice.

Her second gift was her own creation. She painted Santa Clause on two canvases and then she printed some pictures out of the kids and pasted them onto a canvas. In Annabelle's case, she painted over her outfit. But these are just too priceless. And she captured the kid's personalities so perfectly. With Lane, his look of "yikes!" seems to sum up how he feels about Santa. And Annabelle's picture of her blowing rasberries shows her "I'll do what I want" attitude. I am so excited to be able to pull these out every year. Again, the pictures don't do them justice because of the flash interference.

Glass Blowing

2011-12-18T06:46:00.000-06:00

Last Christmas, Jess and I gave Mom a glass blowing class with Jess' friend Morgan who owns a glass blowing shop here in Austin. Due to all of our schedules, this past Wednesday (i.e. almost a year from the day we gave it to her) was the first time we could all get together. And it was cool! We each got to make a paper weight, an ornament and a glass/vase. After doing this for 3 hours, you walk away with a new appreciation for all the hand crafted glass items you see or use on a daily basis. Morgan said an apprenticeship for a glass maker is usually about 8 years and then you can start helping them finish the glass. A doctor isn't in school that long before operating on human beings. And doctors surely make a lot more than glass blowers. How crazy is that? At the same time, you are truly gifted if you can turn some melted glass into a functional object or a piece of art AND you know you are doing it because you love it and not for the money - very admirable in my book. We found out first hand what goes on when creating something and 8 years sounds about right to get it down :)

Note: Being that this took place over 3 days ago, I've since forgotten (shocker!) all the technical terms we learned. So bear with my "thing", "stuff", etc. descriptions. The pictures show what I'm talking about :)

Below, Mom is getting some melted glass on her stick. The temperature of that thing was 2,132 degrees! Morgan said when you open the door, the first human body reaction is flight because of the extreme heat it emits. It was crazy hot. To the point where I don't know if it could be humanly possible to do this in Texas in the dead summer.

This is how we added color to our glass. The HOT melted glass is the orange thing on the end of the stick. We rolled the melted glass around in what looked like tiny shards of colored glass.

The "glory hole" is where your glass is reheated. It is used to melt the colors you added, reheat it so you can shape it, etc. That thing is super hot too.

To help shape your hot glass into a q-tip kind of shape, you use this wooden tool (forgot the technical name). You have to keep the wooden tool in a bucket of water at all times because the hot glass would catch it on fire. You can see from Mom's face and the smoke coming up from the wood that it was HOT.

While we were making the paper weights, you could add bubbles to the glass by poking it with some tweezers, which is what I was doing.

This is Morgan helping Jess...she helped all of us...a LOT. I totally admire her skills and her patience.

I'm sure after reading this you are wondering if the glass was hot or not...geez, Louise! Could I use the description "hot" any more times?

Getting to Know Annabelle

2011-12-17T21:21:00.001-06:00

Annabelle is a little more complicated because she's not talking yet so I can't fill out the "get to know you" questions like I did for Lane. However, she is growing up more and more each day. So much that I expect the words "Bug off!" to come flying out of her mouth any day now. What has Annabelle been doing? Let's see...

1. She's taken her first steps. She can walk across a small room (if she feels so inclined) but its much faster to crawl, so that is her preferred mode of transportation for the moment. She's efficient, what can I say?

2. Reading books has become a new favorite past time. She can usually make it through one or two small board books. However, then we have to change books half way through all the others. And I'm talking 8 books, maybe. There is no complaining here though! I'm just glad she likes looking at books!

3. Talking - she knows "book" because she points to them and screams "ook!" constantly when she doesn't want to go to sleep. "Dada" was her first word and is still her favorite. She only says "Momma" when she can't find me. Otherwise I'm nothing. Seriously...if you ask her where Jason is, she looks for him and lights up. When you ask her where Momma is, she does nothing. She doesn't even look at me! She understands a lot of words and commands, which is a huge improvement on our communication. She won't say my name but she'll say the dogs names (or maybe she's just saying "dog").

4. Attitude...I'm chalking this one up to the fact that she is a strong-willed child and therefore, will be able to take care of herself. If you tell her "no", remove her from something she's doing, or take something away from her, she dramatically throws herself on the ground, face on the floor, and cries. If you are playing a game with her and she hits your face, don't grab her hand and tell her no. She thinks its hilarious and then comes at you harder with both fists. I took her to the doctor today and she wanted to look in her ears. Annabelle, on the other hand, would have rather cut off both arms than have that doctor stick that thing in her ears. I had to hold Annabelle's body and then the doctor had to hold her head. Let's just say, it took us a couple of times to get it right. The doctor said, "She's really strong. I'm impressed." Lane better watch out...one day, he's going to stick that foot of his in her face like he does on a daily basis and she's going to knock it off.

"What you talkin' bout, Willis?" This is the look she gives you when you tell her "No". She's not a fan.

5. Music - she's loving the different types of music she hears on the radio or from her little singing toys. She will get a huge smile on her face and then start clapping her hands and dancing. This makes my heart smile. In January, I'm going to do a music class with her like I did with Lane when he was younger (Lane will be in preschool, bless his heart). I'm totally looking forward to this and can't wait to see how she takes it all in.

6. Kissing - I love Annabelle's kisses. They are the HUGE open mouth kisses with tongue and everything. And she is not discriminatory on who she gives them to, which is endearing to all on the receiving end. I kiss that child a hundred times a day. I can't get enough! She is so kissable!

7. Mimicking - Annabelle's most obvious mimic is using the telephone. She is constantly holding her hand up to her ear or pretending that the remote control is a telephone. When a phone rings, she puts her hand up to her head. When I'm on the phone, she puts her hand up to her head and starts saying "yeah, yeah, yeah". I wish she would mimic some other of my characteristics, like saying "please and thank you" or something along those lines. This just means I'm on my phone WAY too much. I know that. I'm working on it. Dang mommy guilt...UGH!

Getting to Know Lane

2011-12-17T20:55:00.001-06:00

This is Lane and his cousins Blake and Ryan taken over Thanksgiving

It has been a while since I've written about the kids and I thought I would take some time to write a couple of posts to help you get to know their "little" personalities :) We'll start with Lane. First, I was thinking about those emails that I've received in the past with a bunch of those "get to know your friend" questions. You know the ones where they say "reply back to everyone or you'll die in 7 days"? I was wondering what it would be like if Lane filled one out so I took the liberty of filling one out for him.

Full Name: Lane Matthew Butler
Nicknames: Lanester
Hometown: Austin
Vanilla or Chocolate? Vanilla
Do you make fun of people? Yes, but mommy said I don’t realize I’m making fun of people. Like the time this woman came in the child care center at the gym and she had a real afro. I thought it was a funny wig so I said really loudly, “LOOK AT THAT GIRL’S HAIR, MOMMA! That’s silly hair!”.
Have you ever been convicted of a crime?: Yes, pushing, stepping, and yelling at my sister
Pets: Pedro and Hudson
Favorite Type of Music: Country and “Rudolph” songs
Hobbies: Making dirt houses in the back yard, driving my tractor, playing with my toy cars and dump trucks, working in the yard and eating
Dream Car: a yellow pickup truck with red, green, and blue on it (I’m not kidding)
Type of Car you drive now: a green john deere tractor, max 5 mph with two gears and a reverse
Words or Phrases you overuse: “NO, Annabelle!”, “I’m just tired!”, “I don’t want to!”
Favorite Food: Pizza and hot dogs
Current Boyfriend/Girlfriend: Saelyn
Do you get along with your parents: Sometimes
What’s your bed time: 8 pm
Favorite DVD: Veggie Tales - The Ultimate Silly Songs
Favorite Song at the moment: Jingle Bells
Favorite Website: Youtube so mommy can pull up birds singing and we can watch hens lay eggs (I’m not kidding)
Favorite Sport to Watch: Soccer
Most humiliating moment: Pooping in my pants while everyone watched from inside the house as mom and dad cleaned me off. Then dad stepped in the poop!
Loudest person you know: Annabelle
Craziest person you know (or silliest): My daddy
Favorite Holiday: Christmas
Things I’ve learned from life: When you work in the backyard, your back hurts; Babies come from tummies; If I talk loud enough, eventually I will be heard; Sharing is not as fun as adults make it seem
Favorite color: Green
Greatest experience in your lifetime: Time spent with my grandmas and grandpas
Why are you here on earth?: Because God made me
Who means the most to you?: My mommy and daddy, Gibson, Evan and Jackson, and Keen
Favorite Quote: “Goodness gracious is right!”...Marcia Davis
Tell me something obvious about you. I work hard in the yard just like my daddy
Tell me something about you that many don't know. I put my shoes on all by myself and they were on the right feet!
What is your biggest fear? real life dinosaurs
Do you normally go the safe route or take the short cut? That’s a funny question - short cut. Why? Because its faster
Name one thing you want that you can't buy with money. Evan and Jackson to come over and play
What is your most treasured possession? Screech, Cuddle Bear, and Scoobie (my three stuffed animals)
What is the one thing you hate most about yourself that you do often? Poo poo in my diaper
What is your favorite lie to tell? I’m just tired (which is a common excuse when I do something bad)
Name something you've done once that you can't wait to do again. Drive Grandpa Bruce’s waverunner
Are you the jealous type? yeah, when others are playing with my toys
What is the one person, place or thing you can't say no to? Gibson
When was the last time you cried? Last night - I cry at least two times a day.
When was the last time you felt so good that nothing else mattered? Last night opening Christmas presents
Do you feel comfortable in public with no shirt on? Of course! Look who my dad is.

I also wrote down some conversations that my almost-3-year old and I have had over the last few weeks. I have to write these down so when I get overwhelmed with #42 above, I can have something to laugh at.

I LOVE when Thanksgiving rolls around because grocery stores start stocking eggnog! I LOVE ME SOME EGGNOG! In order to prevent me from drinking a quart in one day, I tell myself that I can only have it in my coffee (did I mention that starting in November, my coffee intake increases threefold?). I guess Lane realized that I've been putting something different in my coffee as nothing gets past that little guy. One morning he asked me if he could have "a sip of that stuff" of which I happily obliged thinking he would hate it like the other 75% of the population. Instead, I got an "MMMMM! That was yummy yummy for my tummy." So the next morning, he walks in the kitchen and opens the refrigerator and says "Mom, I have some Robin's Egg please?". Yep...for a couple of days, the kid thought it was called Robin's Egg :) I think the word "Nog" threw him off.

Santa..Oh Santa. A week before our picture with the beloved guy, we talked about him nonstop. On the day of, Lane was so excited. He knew exactly what he was going to ask Santa for..."5 pink basketballs and 4 golfballs". We had a great conversation the way to the mall. And when we walked in, Lane was practically skipping...up until he actually came within 5 feet of Santa. Gibson went first and took pictures like a champ. Then it was our turn....
M: Come on, Lane! Let's tell Santa what you want for Christmas! (words and emoticons cannot describe the excitement entangled in my words)
L: (slowly walking backwards) I don't want to
M: Come on, buddy. He's a really nice guy and he needs to know what you want for Christmas!
L: (halfway back to the car) No, I don't want to
Santa: Hey, little guy. Do you want some candy?
L: Yes!
Santa: Ok, come over here and sit on my knee and I'll give you a sucker
L: I don't want to
Santa: I'll give you two suckers
L: (contemplating the cost to benefit ratio) No
Repeat this entire conversation 10 more times. We end up getting a picture with Santa and Annabelle. Note, Lane would not take a picture with Annabelle OR me in it either! I went to purchase Annabelle's pictures and Lane saw the "rides" they had in the mall.
L: Mom, I want to go ride the horsey (i.e. the carousel)
Santa's helper: Do you want me to give you a $1 to go ride the carousel?
L: (wondering who this woman is and why she is talking to me...but she's offering me a free ride) Yes!
Santa's helper: Ok, all you have to do is go stand by Santa. You don't even have to touch him
L: (slowly walking backwards again) No, I don't want to
M: Lane, Santa isn't going to know what to bring you for Christmas if you don't tell him.
L: I don't want to. I just want to go buy it. Can we go home now?

There you have it...he is not the slightest interested in Santa and he "says" he's content with Santa not bringing him anything as he'd rather go buy it himself. On the way back to the car, he was in a great mood and said "Maybe next year I'll take a picture with him." However, if you ask him today what Santa is going to bring him for Christmas, his reply is "I don't want to take a picture with him next year. I just want to go buy it."

This last story is self-incriminating but I was stopped before anything dangerous really happened so relax. We were leaving a MOPS meeting one day and I got both kids in the car, hopped in and started to pull out of our parking spot. Lane started screaming "Mom! Mom! Momeeeee!" I was about to turn around and tell him to stop yelling at me when he said "YOU FORGOT TO BUCKLE ME IN!" Yes, I did in fact forget to buckle him in his car seat. I was mortified and Lane thought the whole thing was hilarious. Every time we got in the car after that day, Lane would say "Mom, you forgot me." And I'd have to go through the whole story of apologizing and telling him I made a mistake. Well, you would think I would have learned my lesson. And I did. Until 3 days ago. We were leaving World Market (where he picked out an ornament) and, dang it, Lane started screaming again "Mommmeee!! You forgot to buckle me in!" So I apologized and was trying to make light of the situation. However, every time we've gotten in the car since then, Lane says "Mom, you forgot me two times. One time leaving MOPS and one time leaving the ornament store. You forgot me." He thinks its hilarious. I feel about an inch tall. If I had a brain like Lane's I wouldn't have to worry about forgetting ANYTHING because the kid can remember every detail of his breakfast and breakfast conversation from 30 days ago. Toddlers' minds are incredible. My mind, on the other hand, is hanging on for dear life. It is so garbled with the 4,236 things I have to do and the 4 billion words I hear each day that I think it is in permanent malfunction mode. How sad is it that I'm going to have to put a post-it note on my dashboard with a checklist of items to make sure are taken care of BEFORE I start driving. One word...pathetic!

House Update

2011-11-30T21:16:00.000-06:00

Things are going super fast now...when we got back from Thanksgiving in Houston, the house was completely framed. I took these pictures on Monday and the house looks totally different today. They are going to be done framing this week. Then next week, the plumber and electrician will come.

It's definitely becoming more real, especially since we can see where all the rooms, windows, doors, etc. are. Today they poured the new driveway and sidewalk which looks great! Who would have thought I would have gotten so excited over cement?

And please note that we have no grass in our backyard right now. And our patio is full of crap since we don't have a garage to put things in.

This is the view from our backyard looking back towards the house. The left side is our bedroom and the right side is our bathroom.

Another view from the backyard - more from where our french doors in our bedroom will look out onto the patio. We are going to make the patio pleasing to the eye.

This is our garage - looking at it from the driveway

This is where the garage will come out to and where our new sidewalk is.

Happy Birthday, Lovebug

2011-11-16T21:08:00.001-06:00

Dearest Annabelle,
Today is your first birthday. I can not, for the life of me, believe that it has already been a year. Yet at the same time, it feels like I've known you for decades. It has been a long year for us and I don't mean that in a bad way. When you came into this world, Lane was 21 months old. This means two major things (1) we could communicate a little with him but it was limited and (2) I was his everyday partner in crime. After you were born, all of our lives changed forever. I am forever grateful to God for bringing you into our family. You were the missing piece that completed our family of four. You were beautiful. You were healthy. We couldn't ask for more.

The day after Annabelle was bo

Then we brought you home from the hospital. For the first two weeks, you slept all the time. However, right when we were starting to feel like we could handle two small children, your colic set in. Between 5 - 10 pm, almost every night, you were not a happy camper. The only way I could soothe you was to walk circles in our house (which isn't very big) and carry you in a certain way. And forget about letting anyone else take a turn...you only wanted me for the first three months of your life. I admit that it rocked my world. I'm not exaggerating when I tell you that we physically put an "x" every day on the calendar counting down until your 3 month birthday (as this is usually when colic goes away). Although I had already experienced the newborn phase before, I had no idea what I was doing. It was a really hard time for all of us. And our heart went out to you as well because you seemed so sad. I hope one day when you read this, you'll know that we did the best we could. You have been loved from the core of my and Daddy's beings from the day you were born. Looking back, I feel like you were God's way of re-teaching me that I'm not in control of anything for that matter. Not one iota. In a way, you were an angel that made me reach out to Him and seek his guidance and help because I knew I could not do this by myself. So thank you, Annabelle. Even the hard times can have good come out of them.

We were all a little worn out

Then the colic stopped and we all started to get to know each other. From the very beginning, you thought Lane hung the moon. He would always ask to hold you, which lasted about 20 seconds. That is when he would tell us to get you because you were too heavy :) He might have nicknamed you Annabull Cries, but after 3 months you became just Annabull. Listening to you giggle at him while we eat breakfast is music to my ears. Watching your face light up when first see Lane is priceless. Lane, on the other hand, has told us numerous times that he loves you. When he builds his dirt houses in the backyard and I ask him who is going to come live with him, he says Annabelle. Or when he tells me that he is going to buy a pick up truck and only you and I can take a "long ride" in it, I know his love is true. I can only pray that your love for him continues and deepens to overcome the sibling tribulations I know will someday come. You rocked Lane's worldwhen you came to live with us. However, over the last year, you have taught him valuable lessons in self control, patience, sharing, kindness, and family. His life is richer with you in it.

Over the past year, I've noticed a stubborn, independent, determination streak developing in you. Sometimes I see it when you don't get your way, but I know this is normal. The throwing your body on the ground, the kicking of the legs, and voluntary body convulsions, however, are not. I trust that you will take this next year to learn how to handle the word "no" :) But I also see your stubbornness, or maybe its your developing independence, when you want or don't want to do something. Bibs are a perfect example. You hated bibs from the very beginning. Once you learned how to pull one off, you've never kept one on for more than 2 minutes. I've since disposed of said bibs and invested all of our money in laundry detergent and stain removers. Another example is your determination to ride on anything and everything. I'm assuming this came from watching Lane on his tractor. Whatever it is, you assume that all trucks (even matchbox toys) are able to be ridden. When you are outside in the backyard, you will spend 20 minutes trying to get onto Lane's tractor. You won't stop until mission accomplished. I like that in you. I hope this means that you will have the confidence to try new things. I hope this means that you will have the drive to finish something once you've started it. I hope this means you will have the self esteem to stick up for things that you believe in.

Annabelle trying to drive Lane's toy dump truck

And now...you are such a happy baby. The way you wave at every car and every person. The way you beam when your Daddy walks in the room. The way you wrap your arms around my neck and put your head on my shoulder just for a second...to let me know you love me. Your "crazy lady" move. Your dance moves. Your goldfish kisses. All brighten my day. I can't imagine what this next year is going to bring all of us. You'll start walking and talking. And from there, the sky is the limit. Happy 1st Birthday, Lulu B. You are loved inside and out.

Taken today, 11/16/2011

Parade

2011-11-15T08:03:00.000-06:00

Here is a 9 minute video of our 3 minute parade :) A big thanks to Jerod for recording it. Just a note to those who watch it, there are pieces that are a little shaky because it is hard to record, watch where you are walking, and watch the festivities all at the same time.

I Saw God Today

2011-11-13T21:19:00.001-06:00

Actually, it was yesterday. Yesterday we celebrated Annabelle's first birthday. We were going to have a small party at a park, however, only a few people could come so we decided to make it even lower key and have it at our house. And it was super low key until we decided to have a parade down our street. I knew it was going to be a small parade with the bigger kids riding their bikes with streamers, us pulling the babies in a wagon and making a little rukus. Little did I know that I was in for one of my most favorite birthday parties of all time. And where did God come in the picture? Let me explain.

I got up yesterday to a picture that my dear friend Claire texted me. It was a picture of a huge banner that said "Happy Birthday Annabelle". She and her two boys spent their entire morning making this huge banner for the parade. If that isn't love, loyalty, and kindness, I don't know what is.

It was cloudy in the morning, but by 10 am, the clouds broke and it ended up being the prettiest day of the year. It was in the high 70s with a breeze. You couldn't ask for a more perfect day weather wise.

Throughout the day, I went to my neighbors houses to tell them about the parade and invited them to come watch at 4:45 if they were going to be around. The major driver behind recruiting spectators was that Jackson, Claire's oldest son, was extremely excited to throw candy at people watching the parade. Regardless of why I knocked on everyone's door, it was nice to visit with my neighbors and to see Lane interact with them as well. He actually shook two of the men's hands, which he's never done before!

Everyone came over around 3:30 and it was a team effort to get ready. We put streamers on all the bikes and wagons. Claire and Katie painted all the kids faces and put colorful mustaches and one set of sideburns on all the men. Jess brought over balloons and all of the accumulated birthday hats for the mommas to wear. We were going all out for this little parade. I remember taking a look around me while my family and closest friends were working together and thought I could not be any luckier than to have all of these people in my family's life.

Being silly with a mullet

Lane and Dan are all business in the front and party in the back

Getting all the "floats" ready

Annabelle was trying to help

They were both concentrating on each other. Neither Katie nor Annabelle moved an inch

Gibson showed up with some flowers for his cousin

It took a little extra coordination but we were finally ready to start the parade. Katie and Shawn were the parade leaders. The fact that this couple carried a banner, wore bright red face paint and marched down the street for a one year old's birthday (when they don't even have kids...yet) is the epitome of selfless and humble. I can not begin to tell them how much that meant to me.

The parade leaders and "woo woo" truck

Next in line came Dan driving his work truck. Dan is a Fire Marshall which means his truck is all decked out with lights and sirens. Even though he was on call, he decorated his truck with streamers and participated in the parade. It was pretty cool to have that little extra noise and "bling" in the parade. One of the spectators asked me afterward if we rented that car specifically for the parade :) Dan is a wonderful, loyal friend who is dedicated to doing whatever he can to make his kids (which includes our kids) happy.

Then the rest of us went...Lane pulled Gibson in his tractor's trailer, but was more concerned with eating the candy than where he was steering. Evan and Jackson demonstrated their expertise when it comes to blowing party blow horns AND throwing candy to the spectators. In fact, Evan would pull up to a spectator, stop and then throw a piece of candy right at them. Jason pulled Annabelle and Andrew in the wagon. I looked over at one point and laughed at the expression on the two babies faces. It looked like they thought we had all lost our minds. All the women wore huge birthday hats and acted like the police do at city parades...walking along the side of the "floats" and making sure no one gets hurt. Jessie had the biggest smile on her face the whole time, which automatically made me smile. I just adore my sister.

Gibson: Lane, dude, watch where you are going!

Jackson stopping to throw some candy

Evan (aka Spiderman)

The lady of the hour and Andrew, her betrothed

The parade coming back down the street

I think one thing that wowed me the most was everyone who came out to watch. We had 14 people from our street come outside. I couldn't believe that all of these people (none of whom have kids) would take a few minutes out of their day to come watch some silly parade. But they did. And I am forever grateful. They even brought their lawn chairs and dogs! One guy thanked me for inviting him because he works at home and said he's become a hermit in his own house. Our 90 year old next door neighbor told me that he thanked God this neighborhood is finally coming back to life. If it wasn't for them, the parade wouldn't have been half as much fun. And to know that they truly enjoyed all 3 minutes of it makes me so happy about raising my kids in this neighborhood.

After the parade, we went in and had some chili, salad, and cornbread. We sang Happy Birthday and Annabelle had her first cupcake.

"What IS this deliciousness?"

"Mom, you HAVE to try this. It's better than goldfish!"

Bubbies and Lady Bady (which is what Lane calls AB)

That is not grease...it's icing...all...over

Jess, Gibson, and Jerod stayed a little bit after everyone left. Seriously, if Gibson isn't the best baby. He didn't make a peep once during the whole day. He didn't make a peep while Lane was on the border of flipping him out of the trailer. He didn't make a peep when he was hungry or tired. I was glad they stayed so I could love on Gibster for a little while. His face keeps getting fatter and fatter...he is so stinking cute, I just want to eat him!

Cousins! (Note: Those are bright purple sideburns that Jerod forgot to wash off :)

This is going to sound hokey to most of you...but when I got in bed last night, I felt like God was smiling down at me from Heaven. I felt like he had wrapped his arms around me for the entire day, which allowed me to enjoy every second. The love, kindness, patience, and selflessness of everyone here made Annabelle's party. I wish she was old enough to know how special they all made it. Hopefully one day she'll read his and know that she was loved unconditionally before she even knew what love was!

Austin Food Tour

2011-11-12T07:11:00.000-06:00

For Jason's birthday, we went on the Austin Food Tour...bicycle style. We are so glad that Dan and Claire took a chance and went with us. We had know idea what restaurants we were going to, how the weather was going to be, or what to expect. And it was a blast!

We hopped on our bikes with 6 other people and our tour guide. We got to bike through downtown, Barton Springs area and even into the east side. First of all, being on a bike makes me feel like a little kid. Secondly, you get to really enjoy your surroundings and take in all the noises, sights, and smells while on a bike. We went to Haddington's, Frank's, Cazamance food trailer, and Bess' Bistro. At each place we stopped, we got to try some samplers of what they offer in addition to a special house drink. We loved every place and can't wait to go back and have a full meal at each of them!

It may sound weird that this is the second "tour like" thing we've done in the city we live in. However, I really encourage all of you to do the same thing in your own town if one exists. You see your city in a different light, learn new things and it lets you experience things. Be a dork for a day and just do it. You will probably enjoy it way more than you'd ever expected :)

Frank's...um, one word. YUM!

Riding bikes...old school style

Enjoying champagne at Bess' Bistro. Their food was awesome and we LOVED the atmosphere of the restaurant and the patio

T-R-O-U-B-L-E

2011-11-02T15:21:00.000-05:00

Oh am I in for it now! Annabelle has recently shown an interest in Lane's tractor, probably because he's on it all the time and she wants to see what its all about. When we are playing in the backyard, she usually crawls immediately to the green tractor and tries to get on it. The other day, her mission was accomplished. She managed to climb up and sit on the seat.

I ran inside to get some water for the kids and when I came back out, Lane was sitting on it with her and they were cracking up. So like a dummy, I asked if he wanted to take her for a ride. And now, there is no going back. The girl likes her some John Deere tractor ridin'! And Lane likes to be the boss so he's into "driving" her. It's a win-win for everyone...until one of them cracks their head. It looks like the kids will be getting helmets for Christmas :)

Babe Ruth Jr.?

2011-11-02T15:09:00.000-05:00

Lane has taken a liking to his tee ball. We were outside playing the other day and he kept wacking it like crazy. So I decided to video the beginning of his future in baseball.

Note that for his first whack, he specifically says he wants to "whack the camra-a [camera]".

Halloween 2011

2011-11-02T07:23:00.000-05:00

This was kind of like our first Halloween because Lane, kind of, knew what was going on. He still didn't understand the whole dress up thing. And I don't think he really liked it, to be honest. However, he chose what he wanted to be - Thomas the Train.

I knew that neither kid would wear an elaborate costume. So I went with a cape for Annabelle and a slip over thing for Lane. Annabelle wore her cape for as long as it took for me to take this picture (i.e. 1/200 second). I must say, however, that the inventor of this ladybug costume is genius. It came with "mittens" so that it is almost impossible for the kid to pull off the cape when they have the mittens on. If it weren't for said mittens, these pictures would not be possible.

This picture cracks me up because it speaks 1000 words to what our every day life is like. Lane picks on Annabelle and Annabelle cries. He's not super mean to her but he doesn't want her to touch his things at ALL. Yet, he wants everything she plays with or that she has to eat. Because that is only fair, right? This new sibling relationship thing is completely new to me and I honestly don't know how any of us with siblings survived. Or I should say, I don't know how the sibling's parents survived.

We met up with Lane's BFF Keen, who lives close by us. And there were about 10 kids in his neighborhood that we went trick or treating with. Lane and Keen love each other. But there's another twist to this love story. Keen LOVES him some Annabelle. Keen's mom sent me an audio file the other day. She was rocking him to sleep and he kept repeating to himself "Annabelle Butler. Annabelle Butler. Annabelle Butler...". HAHA. He has a baby doll that he got a year ago. And guess what her name is? Kari, Keen's mom, said that he makes sure baby doll Annabelle is dressed and that she is always taken care of. Especially when he puts her to bed.

So the funny part of the evening came when we pulled up to Keen's house in our wagon. The purpose of the wagon was to pull Annabelle around so we didn't have to carry her and she could enjoy the festivities around her. After taking some pictures with Keen and his brother, we were on our way with the rest of the group to start our candy expedition when Keen said, "I want to get in the wagon with her". After much resistance, we put him in the wagon with Annabelle. Well, Lane got his nose out of joint and said, "I want to get in the wagon too". After some more resistance, we put Lane in the wagon. Which means, we ended up pulling Keen and Lane to all the houses and Annabelle was carried the whole night. It took us forever to get from house to house because of the getting in and out of the wagon that we ended up losing the rest of the group. But I think Keen and Lane had fun anyways. At the end of the night, they were singing songs together in the wagon. Then Lane looks up and says, "Momma, this is so fun!". Le sigh....

After we got home, Claire and Dan brought the boys over to say hi. This just topped Lane's night off. All of his best friends in one night!

That night, Lane put his candy out for the "candy fairy". She came that night, took his candy and left him some cool Thomas the Train puzzles. And the best thing is, he has not asked for one piece of candy since Halloween night! Kari's "candy fairy" is genius!

Lane and Keen

He serious about Annabelle

Jackson, Evan, and Lane (who is eating his first candy bar)

How Old Are We?

2011-11-02T06:57:00.000-05:00

Our dear friend Kerri turned 30 and a bunch of us went out last Friday night to celebrate. It started out innocently enough with a nice dinner and then we headed over to the Broken Spoke for some two step dance lessons. Let's just say that the $6.50 pitchers were our new best friends for the evening. Our friends are pretty conservative considering some of them have little kids and others because that is just their wonderful personality. But for some reason, conservative went out the door when all of the beer chugging contests and shots started. It was hilarious! Someone even overheard another table say that we must be tourists :) We hired two college kids to pick us up and drive us home and I can't imagine what they thought about everyone at the end of the night (though we were all completely coherent and seemingly dignified). Katie became extremely embarrassed and wouldn't talk to anyone. Claire brought back the "your momma" saying. Shawn gave me 345 high fives. Unfortunately, I have this anxiety ingrained in my brain about having to take care of the kids the next day. So the thought of not only going to bed late but feeling like crap the next day kept me from partaking in all of the fun extra-curricular drinking games. I definitely partook in the beer drinking but I think its funny how things have changed for me since pre-kids. The thought of doing a shot makes me throw up (instead of taking a shot and throwing up). This just made it all the more fun for me to see my friends in such a happy go lucky mood!

Dan and Jason

Katie, Kerri, Claire and me

Jason and I trying to two step

Dan, Jason, Shawn, and Colin

Your momma takes silly pictures

Tourists

Holy Buffalo!

2011-10-24T20:52:00.000-05:00

Annabelle and I flew to Kansas City a week and a half ago so we could visit my grandparents. Annabelle was pretty good on the plane, however, there is absolutely nothing stress-free about traveling with a small child. You are constantly waiting for that "mother of all mother" temper tantrums to burst out of their lungs. And if you are one of the lucky ones and your child falls asleep on the plane, you are still worried that if you move a single muscle, your child will wake up and proceed with said temper tantrum. It's a lose-lose situation for parents. But alas, we made it just fine. So long for my anxiety getting any better. Sheesh.

I had a short but very enjoyable visit with my grandparents. And they got to see Annabelle and see all her new bag of tricks. It's times like those when I want to pack up and move closer to my family, especially my grandparents. I just adore them so much!

Annabelle putting her charm on Poppy

Annabelle and Grandma Ginny getting along just dandy!

The day after we got to Kansas City, Mom, Annabelle, and I drove to Rogers to spend the week. On that same day, Jason and Lane left Austin to make the 9 hour trip to Rogers. We were all united that Friday afternoon in time for dinner.

The weather for the week was hot for a couple of days and cold for the others. Us Austinites were not prepared for the 50 degree weather (which feels like 32 degrees to us) so I had to run out and buy some new clothes for all of us. Pansies, I know. However, before it got cold, Shoshie had a great idea to take Lane to the Wild Wilderness Drive-Thru Safari in Gentry, AR. This place was awesome! Once you enter the establishment, you stay in your car and drive for miles and miles on this beautiful land where all of these different animals live and roam free. They used to let you feed them out of your cars, but after someone got bit, they put the cabash on that. The animals are still used to cars so they walk right up to you. We even got a little bit of buffalo tongue slobber on the car. We got to see camels, buffaloes, ostriches, emus, longhorns, antelopes, deer, prairie dogs, elk. They also had some cages along the road, which was kind of sad because they weren't zoo like cages. But in those cages they had monkeys, black bears, lions, tigers, an alligator. You get the picture. Lane liked it but I think his attention span ran out after about 20 minutes. Then he just enjoyed not being in his car seat and thought the car was his new playground. Annabelle on the other hand LOVED it. She was glued to the window the whole time. She even loved looking at the trees, which isn't all that surprising. Since she's still in her rear facing car seat, I'm sure anything is more interesting than staring at the back of a seat. She was a happy lady. I know no one cares about the animals we saw, but here are some pics. Humor me.

After you drive through the park, you can head to the barn where they have some other animals that they are either rehabilitating or babies. They happened to have two monkeys out that you could hold and play with. As we were walking up, one of the monkeys took one look at Annabelle in her stroller and jumped onto the stroller in the blink of an eye. Then he climbed up and started to lick her face. It happened so fast we didn't have time to react. Next, Lane said he'd try to hold the monkey. It was the sweetest thing. But don't let this picture fool you, that monkey was calm for about 15 seconds and then it started climbing all over him.

After the barn, you can head over to the petting zoo with pigs, goats, donkeys, all types of birds and kangaroos.

Lane did not want to participate in this photo op.

Other than the safari, we also took a few golf cart rides around the golf course. Lane drove some and other times he just liked to ride.

Dennis also took Lane fishing for the first time. That was quite an interesting event. He was into it for about 2 minutes. Then he started looking for turtles. Dennis caught a fish within 5 minutes and we thought then Lane would be all into it. But he didn't want to touch it and it quickly turned to old news. He just stood back and looked. So Jason and Dennis continued fishing and eventually Lane got to where he would "help" them throw the fish back in the lake. "Help" meaning Lane held their arm as they threw it back. Baby steps.

Male bonding time

Annabelle on the move

Shosh and Annabelle high fiving while the men fish

Someone finally got Lane to sit down with a pole. I'm glad I got this shot because it didn't last long.

First fish of the day (Lane was blocking the sun)

Fishing in 2011

After a while, Jason asked me if I wanted to fish as both he and Dennis had caught a ton of brim/perch already. I said sure. First cast out and I reel in a BASS! You would have thought I caught a 20 lb catfish, I was so stoked! I held up the fish for Jason to take my picture. It took him forever to get the camera and get it ready for the "perfect" shot. And wouldn't you know, right when he took it, that dang fish broke the line and fell to the ground. So this is the only picture of me with my bass.

Jason kept yelling at me to pick it up, of which there is no way. Again...pansie, I know. But there was no way. I finally got Jason to pick it up so I could get a picture of my prize fish before it died right before my eyes. Which would have been very emotional for me.

Oh, what was Annabelle doing while we spent all this time fishing?

One other afternoon, we took Lane outside to the green so Jason could teach him to golf. It looked more like croquet but he had a blast, nonetheless.

The rest of the time we just sat around and enjoyed each others company (the piano and a few cocktails).

I have to tell this one story about a babysitter. We got a babysitter one night so we could have an adult dinner out. This girl was 15 years old and this was her first babysitting experience. She was absolutely delightful and I could tell right away that Lane and her would get along just great. When we got home, we asked how everything went. She gave the usual "good" but after a few minutes said, "Oh yeah....". She proceeded to tell us a conversation she had with Lane that went something like this.

Kallie: Lane, do you know where the bathroom is?
Lane: Let me show thue.
- They walk to the bathroom and Lane goes in with her
Lane: This is where the toilet paper is (Lane points to the toilet paper). And this is where you flush the toilet (Lane points to the toilet handle). And it goes like this (Lane proceeds to flush the toilet).
Kallie: Thanks, Lane.
- Kallie starts to close the door
Lane: You have to leave the door open.
Kallie: No, I'm going to close it.
Lane: Why?
Kallie: Because I need to close the door when I go to the bathroom.
Lane: Ok, you can crack it just like this (Lane closes the door half way).
Kallie: No, I have to close it all the way.
Lane: Why?
Kallie: Because.
Lane: You don't need to close the door. Just crack it.

Poor girl! HAHAHAHAHA!

An Aging Revelation

2011-10-24T07:06:00.000-05:00

I was putting on eyeliner the other day and all of a sudden I froze. My heart rate started increasing, my hands were shaking, and sadness started enveloping my brain. Something happened that made me realize I have moved on to the next "phase" in my life. I am definitely aging...I'm no longer a young whippersnapper or what my mom calls, a flatbelly. I sat there for two minutes and grieved for my lost youth. And then I started to think about other clues that should have made me realize months ago that I was, in fact,...um....maturing. Maybe you can identify with one of them? If so...jump on the train, my friend :)

1. For those of you who don't know...when you put eyeliner on your eyelid, you have to pull your eyelid to get the skin to be wrinkle free so the eyeliner will go on smoothly and get as close to your eyelashes as possible. As I was applying eyeliner, I first noticed that when I "pulled" my eyelid, I could basically touch my eyelid to my ear. I didn't know my eyelid had that much skin on it! AND secondly, I noticed that after all the pulling, there were STILL wrinkles!

2. Do you remember when you would go to a makeup counter and ask them for makeup that "looks like I'm not wearing any makeup"? You wanted a little coverage but at the end of the day, no one could tell you were wearing anything. I caught myself the other day at the Bobbi Brown makeup counter telling the woman "I don't care how thick or dark it is. I want it to cover my age spots, the dark circles under my eyes, the unevenness of my skin tone, and all of my wrinkles." With this criteria, I should have just gone to Home Depot and bought a half gallon of skin tone wall paint. But I opted to spend three times as much on a 1 oz. bottle of foundation, concealer, corrector, and powder. Hey, you do what you have to do to face the world each day. And what is even more surprising, even if someone 20 yards away can tell I'm wearing makeup, I'm not self conscious anymore about wearing it!

3. Are you interested in genealogy? Yep, you are mature.

4. I was talking to two of my dear friends the other day about how I had drowned my iphone in my purse when my water bottle opened in it. Katie said "Yeah, I drowned my phone in college when I dropped it in the toilet". So I had to kindly point out that no one had cell phones when I was in college. No one had personal computers either, for that matter. I know this conversation happens a lot when an older person is talking to a young whippersnapper about "back in the day". Unfortunately, in my case, I was talking to my PEERS! So if you have lived long enough to tell stories about what your life was life before (insert a modern convenience you can't live without), then you are mature.

5. 2 am. We all used to stay out until 2 am and could still muster up enough energy to go "late night" at someone's house or a 24-hour restaurant. Nowadays, if I'm up at 2 am, there is an emergency. There is no other reason why I would voluntarily be up at that hour. The thought of staying up all day until 2 am (ok, who am I kidding, 12 am) makes me want to cry. Besides, I couldn't stay up until 2 am if I wanted to. No amount of coffee, Red Bull, or 5-hour Energy drink could make that happen.

As I'm writing this, I'm wondering if this is how mid-life crises start?

Toddler Moment

2011-10-10T13:11:00.000-05:00

We are walking through Walgreens today when I heard "Mom, look!". I walked back to the aisle that so deeply captured his attention. He was staring at a Walgreen's flyer promoting their flu shots. On this flyer was a beautiful black woman with beautiful black curly hair. She was flexing her arm to show her band-aid or something. Anyways, Lane looked at me and said "Mom, she looks a lot like you!"

Should I Be Worried?

2011-10-09T20:22:00.000-05:00

Midriff shirt...check
Flo rida playing on a dancing stuffed turtle...check
Lulu shakin' her groove thang at 11 months old...priceless!

P.S. I just realized that the "artist" Flo rida (pronounced flow-ride-a) actually spells Florida if you put it together. Am I the only one on the planet that just got that?

Progress

2011-10-04T07:43:00.000-05:00

Here are some pictures of the house since the remodel started...of course, I took these a few days ago and now it looks completely different. I think they are ready to pour the concrete for the room and the garage. But from these pictures, you can see where the garage will come out to and where the room will come out to in the backyard.

You can see where our new patio area. We will have french doors coming from our bedroom out onto the patio.

They will take down the doors in the future but left them up for the dogs.


You can see where the new garage will come out to. They are going to have to remove that one tree when they start building the frame.

On to the kids...
There are times when I feel like everything I say to Lane goes in one ear and out the other, unless if involves any type of food, friends, or a park. Then he's all ears. I am especially discouraged when I try to teach him a new important lesson. We got a Veggie Tale's video that is about telling a lie and telling the truth. I tried to explain what a lie and what the truth is, but he started laughing, saying that he tells lies. Ugh! However, yesterday, the little guy proved that he just acts like he's not listening.

We were driving to school and this is the conversation.
L: Mom! There is Home Depot.
M: Yep
L: Why is Home Depot there?
M: Because that is where they decided to build it.
[30 seconds pass]
L (in all seriousness): Mom, thank you for telling me the truf [truth].

I didn't realize it was such a serious "why" question. He asks me "why" about everything. And when I answer, another "why" ensues. It's kind of funny to come up with logical explanations for the littlest things (like why is Home Depot where it is).

I should know better than to get discouraged. He has definitely proven that he not only listens, but he listens to every word, including the inflection of how the words are said. We were eating breakfast last Saturday morning and I went over to move one of his plates out of the way.

L: No, Mom! I'm not done yet.
M: Ok, sorry!
L (in the most serious tone): Come on, dude.

Jason was trying to explain to Lane what Halloween was so Lane could tell us what he wanted to be. Lane has no idea what Jason was talking about. So Jason started telling him that he could dress up as anything he wanted to be. Again, blanks from Lane.

J: Do you want to be an Indian? a Cowboy?
(note, Lane doesn't know what either of those things are)
[quietness from Lane]
M: Do you want to be Thomas the Train?
L: Yes! I want to be Thomas, Charlie, AND James
M and J: You can only be one thing
L: Why?
[Long conversation of "why"]
L: Ok, I want to be Thomas the Train
M: What do you want Annabelle to be?
L: A ladybug
M: Awesome! What do you want me to be?
L: My lovebug
[My heart melts]
M: Perfect! I would love to be your lovebug. What do you want daddy to be?
[Lane sits a minute to think]
L: I want daddy to be...a.....EGG!

HAHA! That was random and freaking awesome! Of course Jason talked him out of being an egg. So now Lane wants all of us, sans Annabelle, to be Thomas, Charlie, and I'm supposed to be Rosie. Thanks a lot, Jason!

He's such a big boy now...saying such big boy things!

Just a pic of Annabelle on the move

Life Lessons (Part 1)

2011-09-30T17:53:00.000-05:00

Dear Lane and Annabelle,
I was feeding Annabelle at 5 am this morning and with the quietness of the early morning, my mind started cranking. I kept thinking about what I could teach her so she turns out to be a thoughtful, self-less, loving person. And also, what could I teach her so she doesn't make as many mistakes as I did growing up.   The wheels started spinning and wouldn't you know, a list of things came to mind.

Which leads me to writing this. Before I start, however, I need include some disclaimers. First of all, some of these things you will have to work at for the rest of your life. It's not something that you do once and you don't have to think of it again. Realize which ones those are and work on them...every day. Secondly, I don't want you to think that I never do the wrong thing. I struggle like you because I'm human. I'm not, in any way, trying to preach ti you about these things...after all, who am I to say what is right and what is wrong. All I know is I've made a million mistakes in my life, and sometimes, I've had to learn these things the hard way. I know you will make mistakes too and will probably have to learn the hard way as well. That is human nature. I can only hope that you learn from your mistakes and they make you a stronger and better person.

So let me begin...I'm sure there will be a Part 2 later on down the road. But for now, please take the time to read what I say and really understand how important it is. I pray that I'm around for you to ask questions and talk about these things when you are ready and interested. But if not, I'm telling you this because I love you and I want you to be the best person I know you can be.

Also, these are in no order of importance.

1. When someone gives you a gift or does something extremely nice for you (like help you out when you were sick, throw you a party, etc.), always write them a handwritten thank you. It doesn't have to be a novel...just a simple handwritten note really shows your appreciation.

2. Always RSVP to invitations. Not to is disrespectful. The host has a lot of planning to do, especially around how much food and drinks. Knowing (vs. guessing) who is coming and who isn't reduces their stress tenfold. They took the time to invite you. Please take the time to respond back.

3. When invited to a party or dinner, bring a gift or token of appreciation. If it is a kid's birthday, bring a toy. If it is an adult's birthday, bring a bottle of wine or other little gift. If it is a dinner invitation, always ask what you can contribute. If they say nothing, a good bottle of wine, beer, or flowers is always a safe bet to bring with you.

4. Hold the door open for others. Everyone seems to be in their own world these days and I've had many doors shut in my face. Hold the door open for someone else and smile at them. You never know what kind of day they are having that a little act of kindness couldn't help.

5. Save your money. It is important to always save a little of what you make for an emergency or long term goal. Build up a nest egg to buy a house or take the trip you've always wanted. And when you graduate from college, immediately start saving for your retirement. It will continue to compound each year and you will be surprised at what you will have by the time you retire.   At the same time, don't hoard your money. Hoarding will only stress you out. Believe me, you can never save enough money, so hoarding it will not do you any good. And who knows when you will leave this world. So enjoy the money you've worked hard for. But having a savings account will help reduce financial stress when something big or little does come up.

6. Live within your means. This is easier said than done. There are always going to be things in this world that you want. A new car. A new house. New clothes. Fun trips. However, if you can't afford it, don't do it. And when I say "can't afford", I mean that the purchase will put you in debt or use all of your savings. Don't use credit cards except when you have to. If you do use them, pay them off every month. Racking up debt is a huge way to ruin your life, including relationships. It adds tremendous stress to everyone involved. It is really easy to get in over your head with debt to where you think you'll never get out. Don't let it get there. Be smart. There is no material object in this world worthy enough for you to stress out about every day of your life.

7. Have a "glass is half full" attitude. Think positive. Nip "woe is me" in the bud. Not only will you be happier but people will want to be around you. I'm sure there are physical advantages as well when it comes to your stress level being reduced.

8. Give people the benefit of the doubt. You will have better relationships, believe me. Just because you experience something and interpret it one way doesn't mean that is the true story. Don't believe a lie. There is always another side to the story. Take the time to listen to the other person's story.

9.   Travel the world (if you can afford it): Mark Twain once said "Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime." I, fully, 100%, agree with this statement. Seeing the world gives you a whole new perception and appreciation for other cultures and the differences in this world. It also forces you to acknowledge that there are a lot of other people in this world to take into consideration while making choices, especially political ones. Don't just think about your own "backyard". Think about the whole world.

10. Be kind to everyone: There is no excuse for being rude, sarcastic, or condescending to others. Treat others the way YOU would want to be treated. If you wouldn't want someone to say or do something to you, then don't say or do it to someone else. From a benefit standpoint, you'll have more friends and maybe even soften the mean-spirited hearts of your enemies. At the same time, little acts of kindness can go a long way. Make a loaf of bread for a neighbor. Offer to help out a friend who is going through a tough time. Offer to help your friend move into a house/apartment. Get to know the people who provide services for you (i.e. hair stylist, house cleaner, construction crew) so you can refer to them by name and talk about their families.

11. Remember that experiences are what you will remember, not gifts. With that being said, spend as much time with those that you love, as you will always remember the time spent together. You won't remember a gift that was given to you for a birthday party, however, you will remember that the person was or was not there. Or you won't remember the wedding present that was given to you by your cousin that you see only once every 3 years. But you will remember the time you spent with that cousin when you did get together. Experiences are what make memories, not material things.

12. Thank our soldiers. You would not have the freedom you have now if they didn't risk their physical and mental lives for you.   These soldiers see things that no human should see and do things that no human should have to do. They are stripped away from their loved ones to be put in danger for long periods of time. Please show your gratitude in one way or another as they need the encouragement more than you know.

13. Understand that you are not entitled to anything. I took a class one time that said "entitlement is a contentment killer", of which I couldn't agree more. The following statements pretty much sum this up "Entitlement is an issue of pride that sneaks in through the back door of a virtuous walk. It makes claim on what Life never promised. It elevates self over others. It stakes claim on something it does not possess. Once entitlement has spread into the soul, it erects barriers of rationalization to protect itself. It cries ‘Me first!’ all the way to its death."

14. By yourself. This is extremely hard, but its especially during your teenage years when you crave acceptance. But I can tell you after the horrible mistakes I made when I was younger, that you need to be yourself and stick up for what you believe in. Even if the majority of your friends and family disagree, your heart will be burden-free if you do what your heart says is right. There are people out there who will accept you for exactly who you are. If your friends don't, maybe its time you found a new set of friends.

15. Be part of a community. This might not make sense until you are older and have a family, but hopefully, you will live this point out sooner rather than later. It is so important to surround yourself with people who have the same morals and values as you do. They help with your need of acceptance and keep you in check when it comes to your beliefs. This could be a group of friends, church, dinner group, book club, anything really. But joining a community where you can be yourself and have others reinforce your belief system is extremely important to keep you on the right track for what you want in your life.

16. Exercise and eat right. You have complete control over what you do with your body and what you put in your body. If you incorporate exercise into your life when you are younger, it is easier to make it a priority within your daily/weekly routine for the rest of your life. I don't mean that you have to join a gym. But doing some type of physical activity like a walking group, soccer club, running team, etc. will help you, not only stay in shape, but help you mentally as well. And when grabbing for the candy, chips, sodas, and other easy-to-make processed foods. Remember the old adage "You are what you eat".

17. Remember the elderly. The elderly have so much to teach us about life and our history. Take the time to listen. We wouldn't be here today if it weren't for them. And they have, more than likely, lived through things that you will never live through in your lifetime. They may not be up-to-date on pop culture, but I think you will find you have more in common with them than you think. They are still people; they still have feelings, needs, and emotions. They need their friends and family now, just as much as they did when they did when they were younger.   They might move around slower, but take note and slow down when you are with them. It might be just what your soul needs.

18. Nourish your spiritual life. We all have souls. And I truly believe our souls need spiritual nourishment. We need to know that there is something bigger than ourselves out there to prevent us from thinking "world revolves around me". We need our spiritual life to give us the strength to go on when we think we can't go on. We need it to build compassion towards others. We need it to feed our spiritual vitality that God gave us. My biggest prayer for you both is that you will develop a good relationship with Jesus. It is amazing how my relationship with Jesus changed my life and my outlook on life, people, obstacles and death.

19. Always say "please" and "thank you". Period.

20. Never hesitate to admit when you are wrong.   No one likes a "know it all". And when needed, say you are sorry. You will be surprised on how much respect others will have for you when you can say you are sorry.

21. Don't make rash decisions. Pray about it. Talk to others about it. Chances are, you might change your mind after pondering on it for a while.   And if you take time to think about it, the chances of regret for that decision are slimmer.

22. Communicate face-to-face. With technology advancing like it is today, it is too easy to talk to people virtually. However, as a consequence, it is easy to misread someone's tone or attitude when you don't see their face and body expressions. Face-to-face is always better. I, personally, think it is rude to deliver bad news through technology instead of face-to-face. Before sending something to someone, ask if you would want that same piece of information delivered to you in the same way. If not, do the right thing and go talk to them in person.

23. Show everyone respect. People of` all ages, races, cultures, and backgrounds deserve it. We are no better than anyone else. So display that to others by always showing them the respect they deserve.

Lane and his Veggies (Video)

2011-09-26T21:07:00.001-05:00

Here is a video I took of Lane at the Children's Museum this past week. It was in the grocery store and I wanted to capture him describing all the wonderful things in his basket. I, personally, adore it because it captures Lanese perfectly. I just watched it and was cracking up - and I was there the first time.

Please note this video is over 4 minutes and the really good stuff comes when he's at the checkout counter.

Also, at the bottom of the player, if you see 240p, click on it and select 480p. The quality will be way better.

Worlds of Fun

2011-09-26T15:02:00.000-05:00

Disclaimer: This post is going to sound a lot like a travel review, which it is but only a review to help my children's memory. However, if you have little kids and are in Houston, I would highly recommend ALL of these things!

Watching the Bats

A week ago, Phil, a friend that I work with, came to Austin from the UK for work. His lovely wife Michelle got to come with him so we took them to see the bats and then had a great dinner downtown.

Ready or Not, Here We Come!

Last Friday, Lane, Annabelle and I drove to Houston. Jason was out of town with his guy friends, and I decided to come to Grandma and Grandpa's for reinforcement.

Then, we coordinated the beginning of the garage demolition to start last Monday, so I decided to stay the whole week so the kids wouldn't have to hear the jackhammers all day. Like I told Mrs. B, ready or not, here we come! It was such a wonderful, excursion packed week. The first few days we hung around the house. On Saturday, the Butlers were so nice to let me go antique shopping in Tomball...by...myself! It was the most wonderful 5 hours I've had in a long time. I wasn't on a schedule, I didn't have to worry about time, I could buy what I wanted. I was completely in my element.

Throughout the week, Lane impressed us all by constantly entertaining himself. He jumped on the trampoline, rode his tractor and tricycle, "helped Ganpa move big, heavy things", "worked on Ganpa's toolbox", took wagon rides, read books, or played inside with his cars. He truly loves it here. To put icing on the cake, Mimi (i.e. Grandma) tends to stock her house with juice boxes, candy, and cookies when we come. Unfortunately, Lane finally figured out what candy was and asked for it constantly.

One of my favorite Lane quotes from this past week was when he discovered Mimi's lotion. He had to put it on himself day and night. Then he started putting it on others. He was rubbing it on Mimi's leg one night and was in a serious "work" mode, which I didn't realize :) I was watching him and I said "Lane, do you know how much I love you?". Crickets. Again, "Lane, buddy...do you know how much I love you?". Crickets. "Buddy, I'm asking you a question. Remember, I told you its polite to answer when someone asks you a question.". To which he replied, "I'm really busy right now." End of conversation.

Annabelle is learning how to drink out of a sippy cup all by herself (or you could say that I'm pressuring her to learn because all baby bottles will be in the trash come Nov. 16). I was watching her the other day and couldn't resist the picture opportunity of how cute she looked. From a development standpoint, she is crawling a lot and popped up two new teeth (6 total now).

I can't tell you how much it melts my heart to see Mr. B and Annabelle together. Every time he picks her up, he tells her how much he loves her...every...time. Through the week, he took her on at least 147 wagon rides, being that is her favorite activity. He holds her, talks to her, and loves on her every opportunity he has. And, in return, she is smitten.

Don't you just want to kiss those lips!

In between sips, she decided to show off her raspberry blowing skills


Lulu B and her Grandpa

The first night we got in town, our nephews Blake and Ryan came to spend the night. Lane had a blast playing with them, though Blake was on the phone with his girlfriend most of the time. Um..he's in 6th grade. Oh...my...goodness...I am NOT looking forward to that! They all wanted to sleep with Mimi, an offer she couldn't turn down. I snuck in the next morning to peek at how the sleeping situation panned out, and this is what I saw. I'm sure Mimi got a good night's rest :)

McDonald's Farm

On Monday, we drove 20 minutes to McDonald’s Farm, which can only be described as a huge piece of land with lots of farm animals (think cows, horses, donkeys, sheep, goats, rabbits, pot-bellied pigs, llamas, emus, ducks, etc.), huge playscapes, a 10 ft. + sand pile (with Tonka trucks to boot!), a train, and a swimming pool. It isn’t the most beautiful place I’ve ever seen but it has everything a kid could want to do. In other words, its definitely worth the $8/person. Anyways, the website said it was open daily through Oct. 31st at 10 am. We got there at 10:45 and there was only one truck. It was the first time to visit this particular establishment for all of us, so I took this as a sign in that we were either lucky to beat the crowds or this place sucked. It turned out to be neither. It was closed! We walked around looking for someone thinking an employee overslept. We finally spotted a man way in the back of the farm feeding the animals. We started jumping and waving but either he ignored us or didn’t see us. Lane was begging to go in as all the animals were wandering around and he saw the playground and train. He leaned up against a fence and it started to open! Mrs. B wanted to go in and do what we came to do, but Mr. B told her no way as “there was a reason it was locked up”. So I said I would go ask the man why it was closed. I walked back there and he didn’t yell at me, thankfully. He said it was closed because all the kids were in school now and the attendance was low BUT we could walk around if we wanted. Seriously?! He didn't realize that he just prevented a parking lot temper tantrum from a 2 year old. He was my favorite person of the day. WE were so grateful and hoped that a $20 would show our appreciation. Then HE was grateful and gave us 2 bags of animal feed. Off we went...feeding deer, cows, goats. I'm sure Lane is going to be confused on why he can't pet or feed all the deer in our front yard.

Then we came across a baby goat. Oh..my..goodness. It was the cutest little thing. It wasn't afraid and walked right up to us. In fact, all the animals did. I won’t deny the fact that it was just because we smelled like their food. But it was sweet, nonetheless. For a minute, I felt like Snow White :) Anyways, Lane was interested in the animals for a bit. But he had his eye on the playground and started to get distracted. Annabelle did great riding in the stroller, checking everything out. I wish you could have seen the moment that Annabelle and the baby goat met. It was in slow motion...she put her hands on the little goats face. The goat moved in closer, closer, closer...Annabelle opened her mouth for a big wet kiss...and bam, that goat sealed the deal.

Children's Museum

Tuesday, Lane and I went to the Children's Museum. It was so, so totally awesome...not to sound like a surfer, but that is the only way to describe it. We could have easily stayed there for 8 hours, but seeing that I only paid for 1.75 hours of parking (hey, it was my first time, I didn't know!), we had to condense our trip. However, we WILL be going back the next time we are in Houston for the week. Lane got to build race cars out of legos, there was a huge water exploration park outside, there was a little "city" where kids could dress up and work in a vet's office, grocery store, bank, ambulance, diner...you name it. They had an exercise level for kids to go through obstacle courses and climb rock walls. There were so many things we didn't get to do. I have to say Lane's favorite was the grocery store. If he didn't fill up his basket with every grocery item 100 times and then go through them one by one at the checkout counter. He was having a ball being a grown up (little does he know, right?!). The Children's Museum in Austin is nice but it is about 1/16 in size of the Houston one and doesn't have any of the cool "dress up and play" stuff that this one does.

Getting all his veggies (that he doesn't eat in real life)

Lane stomping on a water gun

Aquarium

On Thursday, we went to the Aquarium. I was completely impressed with how nice it was and the variety of fish, snakes, frogs, alligators, and even tigers they had. I was particularly amazed at the size of the different groupers they had. Yowza! I might prefer a nurse shark over those suckers.

It was a perfect size for a kid Lane's age because he could walk through it in about 30 minutes (if you take the time to look at the fish), which is a pretty good attention span for him. THEN, they have all sorts of rides (think "shark" train, Ferris wheel, carousel, etc.) outside. The train took you through a tunnel, which was a shark tank all the way around you. So you got to sit there for a couple of minutes looking and learning about the sharks. Lane kept saying "I want to go!". I wasn't sure if he was scared or thought it was boring. This was Lane and Annabelle's first Ferris wheel ride. Lane really liked it. Annabelle would tense up when we started the descent from the top but tolerated it. I'm sure if she had a say in the matter, she wouldn't have done it more than once. Same thing with the carousel. She sat on it and had the most serious look on her face as it was going up and down. But when it stopped, she let us all know she wanted off! If Lane had a preference, he would have ridden the train 30 times in a row.

On the ferris wheel

Houston Zoo

Jason decided he missed us too much and came to Houston on Thursday evening. Which means, he was able to go to the zoo with us on Friday. This was my first time at the Houston zoo, and it was really nice. Especially compared to the Austin zoo (which I appreciate the charity-based function of the Austin zoo) which doesn't have that much to look at or do. I couldn't gauge how much Lane liked it. He looked at all the animals but then was off to the next one. Too much concentration, maybe. Two of my favorite things were the elephant and giraffe exhibits. There were 2 baby elephants which are the cutest things on the planet. You could get really close to the elephant house and watch the zookeepers feed and bathe them. The giraffe exhibit was, not to be cliche, breath-taking. They had about 7 giraffes and the habitat was beautiful. The giraffes were running around and/or eating. They are truly beautiful and amazing looking animals. However, when they run, it makes my neck hurt just thinking about carrying all that neck weight around on that little body. Yikes! Or maybe my neck hurts because I'm getting old? Ok, we won't go there...We happened to come to the giraffe exhibit at the right time because they were allowing patrons to feed the giraffes. For $5, you got 3 big lettuce leaves. You walked up on this platform and the giraffes would come up to you and take the lettuce from your hand. If you were a little nervous about it, like Mr. Lane, and didn't hold the lettuce out far enough, the giraffe would stick out his/her enormously long tongue and gently retrieve it from your hand.

My favorite quote from this excursion was when we were looking at the orangutans. There was a moat filled with water surrounding their habitat. In the water, were a lot of those really bright orange koi-looking fish. We went to look at the orangutans and Lane said "Mommy! Look at all those carrots!" He thought all the orange fish were carrots floating around in the water. HAHA!

McDonald's Farm made the zoo's petting zoo look like chopped liver!

Lane did not want his picture taken...so look at that cute baby elephant!

Lane became a prairie dog for 1 minute :)

Yep, that snake looking thing is the giraffe's tongue. Whoa!

The kids faces are priceless...you would think we went to the zoo for our own entertainment :)

Hot as Haides!

2011-09-06T21:56:00.000-05:00

It has been over 100 degrees for what seems like eternity. And rain is as scarce as a flying pig. I never thought I would be so sick of sunshine. Instead of dreaming of a nice, relaxing beach vacation, I'm dreaming of a cold, dreary, snowy cottage with LOTs of rain.

It has been so hot, Lane has even said he doesn't want to go outside. No joke. So instead, he wants to sit inside and watch Veggie Tales (the new obsession). Every once in a while, I manage to get him to venture out in the desert-like backyard conditions. Within 5 minutes, we're both ready to come back in.

The other day, I was desperate to get him outside so I told him he could water the plants. One thing led to another and his clothes came off and he started watering himself. It took all I had not to strip down with him and jump in! But alas, we were in the front yard and I really don't think my neighbors should be subjected to such debauchery.

He had to try getting water into EVERY nook and cranny

Swimming has become almost a daily activity at the Butler casa. In fact, Annabelle and I had a little swim playdate with my friend Molly and her son Finn the other day. After the pool, we went back to their house so the kids could explore. Annabelle was checking out some of Finn's toys and he decided now was the time to make a move :)

"Act cool, Finn, our moms are watching!"

Annabelle, on the other hand, is progressing quite nicely. Remember when I told you that at her 9 month appointment they suggested me talking to a physical therapist? Well, Little Lulu basically told them to go fly a kite. She can sit up on her own, pull up, wave, and crawl!! All within 2 weeks of her last doctor appointment. However, I don't think she likes to be bothered by the crawling business. But she tolerates it to get what she wants. I foresee a really happy kid the day she is free from the ground and my arms. The girls wants to move!

I've started letting her try the push toys to see if she can slowly walk behind them. She can do it a tad...but we'll keep practicing. Sha...therapy, shmerapy!

Sleeping has been going pretty well in our house until recently. Lane wakes up crying at least 3 times a week now in the middle of the night. Jason usually rocks him and he immediately goes back to sleep. But there have been a couple of times when he's gotten up and I've had to go in there. The difference is when I'm on call, he tells me he's ready to get up and eat cereal. Um...no. After telling him he needs to go back to sleep because everyone in the universe is sleeping, he starts crying and telling me he doesn't like his bed and he wants to go into my bed. For the record, I've only given in to this manipulative request twice. However, I can see why parents give in all the time. You are usually in a sleeping stupor and will do anything to get back into bed - EVEN if that means creating horrible habits. I, on the other hand, get up at 5:30 am to have my coffee in peace and quiet. I do little "me" things and relish in the calm before the storm called "my day". Therefore, when little man gets up that early, he has no idea he's infringing on some ridiculously sought after time and there is no way I'm letting him out of that bed. I do feel bad for him because I think he's having nightmares sometimes. And I can't complain because I do get to sleep. Does that make me sound any nicer?

Here's a little picture of what I found one morning when I got out of the shower. Everyone was asleep when I got in the shower at 6 am. When I got out at 6:20 am, I was greeted by a lot of wiggle worms in my bed :)

Shiner Picnic

2011-09-06T21:05:00.000-05:00

We had an eventful Labor Day weekend. On Friday, we packed up everything in our garage and attic into a U-haul and took it to a storage unit as they are breaking ground for our new addition in two weeks. That evening, Annabelle got sick and started throwing up. The next day I hung around the house all day because of Annabelle but that evening, the Bergers ended up coming over for dinner and the Dads got to watch football. Then Sunday morning, we got ready bright and early and went to Shiner for their Labor Day Picnic that benefits the Catholic Church and school. The Bergers went with us and we met Jason's parents there. On the ride up there, Lane rode in the car with the two Dads, Jackson, and Evan. Claire and I drove the two babies.

It's only an hour and a half drive, however, for Jackson and Evan, it was the longest 90 minutes of their lives. Apparently when traveling, the two older Berger boys like to watch their movies in silence. Little did they know, Lane had a different plan. That plan involved talking for 88.5 minutes...straight....about tractors, cows, chickens - you name it. Dan told us Jackson kept giving him the "PLEASE MAKE HIM BE QUIET!" eyes in the rear view mirror. Poor Lane. He takes after his Mom, who used to get a tick mark on EVERY report card next to Needs Improvement: Excessive Talking.

The boys got to ride Grandpa's tractor, see chickens, explore barns, play ring toss, ride a tractor-pulled train, jump in a moonwalk and dig for "treasure" in the dirt. Andrew and Annabelle were just along for the ride. Honestly, the look of joy on their faces is more than I could ever ask for. Seeing my kids so happy is truly a highlight in my life.

On our way out of the picnic...10 seconds before each kid had a major meltdown!

The next day, Jason got really sick and couldn't get out of bed. So Jason's parents and I took Lane to the city park and then to Aunt Gina and Uncle Donnie's house, where he got to get on another tractor and see a lot of cows. When he got out of the car at their house, he said "Oh holy holy cow!". Then he ran over to the fence where they were eating and said "Moo, cow. Moo." The kid was in heaven.

Jason is feeling better today, however, I just got a call from Claire that she, Dan, Andrew, and Evan are all sick! Oh man, do I feel horrible! Unfortunately, poor Annabelle is deemed the culprit on this party foul...

Got Nap?

2011-08-27T13:36:00.001-05:00

This is a what happens when you drink too much!

This is what happens when you sit up in your crib and scream for 20 minutes because you are so tired but you won't go to sleep!

The child was bent over in two with her forehead on the bed and was snoring so loud!

This is how you celebrate a 2nd birthday party. You need food, birthday cake, toys, diapers and some sort of entertainment.

This is how you celebrate a 33 year old's birthday. You need alcohol, Depends and Mac's photobooth! I guess some things never change :)

America's (NOT SO) Funny Home Video?

2011-08-23T07:27:00.000-05:00

Am I the only person who has ever wondered if my life is a movie that others are watching (basically, like the movie The Truman Show)? In the last couple of days, I feel like someone is playing a horrible trick on me while using a hidden camera to capture it for all the rest of the masses to laugh at. Maybe its a new reality show of America's Funniest Home Video - Hidden Camera Edition?

What is going on? My kids have gone from manageable to unmanageable in a span of a week. The phrase "Are you SERIOUS?!" goes through my head about 100 times a day. This is basically how I've looked for the past week. Especially this morning...after Annabelle decided to get up from 3:30 - 4:45 and then Lane got up at 5:30 and told me he didn't like his bed anymore. ARE YOU SERIOUS? ARGH!!!!

Yesterday I took Annabelle to get some routine blood drawn. We're in a professional doctor's office and both kids are in a great mood. It gets a little stressful when your 9 month old decides to practice soprano while people are working and others are waiting to get pricked by a couple of needles. It was so loud, one kid turned to his mom and said "That scared the crap out of me!". Lane on the other hand is playing musical chairs and putting his shoes all over the waiting room area. In walks a man with a long, chest length, gray beard and long hair in a ponytail. Lane is dead quiet and stares at the man. Then he looks over and says "That man has a LOT of hair, Mom!" Which makes the two ladies sitting next to me burst out laughing. That poor man! We then go in to get the blood drawn and Lane is telling me he wants to sit in the chair we are sitting in and it is a big debacle. And of course, after they stuck her with a needle and kept it there for a minute, AB is screaming at the top of her lungs. I kept thinking to myself, this is a complete joke!

Or let's talk about how Annabelle does not understand the concept of a NAP! The child does not sleep. One day, she woke up at 6:30 am, took one 45 minute nap during the day, and went to bed at 7 pm. My brain stopped working around 2 pm!! I can't entertain a 9 month old for 12 hours! And to add to the chaos, her new found drive to join the opera has started waking Lane up from his nap. Again...ARE YOU SERIOUS?! The whole no nap thing is an ongoing knife in my brain but lately, it has gotten worse. Since she has now learned how to sit up by herself, she sits up in her crib and cries. Wow! I'm so glad my pediatrician convinced with me to work with her on developing new mobility skills :/I

I know these are growing pains. I know it will get better. I know I love my kids more than life itself. But can a woman catch a flippin' break? Poor Jason is probably wondering why he chose to marry a two headed crazy lady!

I'm off to get ready to go to work. I'm sure my diet today will consist of coffee, coffee, iced tea, and coffee.

Note to my kiddos: When you get around to reading this one day, I'm sure you'll have kids of your own and can totally appreciate what I'm going through. You'll know that these obstacles (HUGE obstacles, but obstacles, nonetheless) are part of parenting and don't make you love your kids any less.

It Is What It Is

2011-08-21T12:24:00.000-05:00

What a week (or two)! I don't know how to even start this craziness so I'll just number all the "fun" things that have happened over a few short time period.

1. Do you remember in Adventures in Babysitting when the girl is in the bus stop and she loses her glasses and can't see real well. Then she sees a "kitty" and picks it up. While she's petting it, the janitors come over and tell her its a sewer rat? And she freaks. Well...I was going to get in the shower the other day before I put my contacts in. I saw a "hair ball" and went to pick it up only realizing after it was IN MY FINGERS that it was a roach. I. Picked. Up. A. Roach. I'm terrified of roaches! And it had to have been a really dumb roach because what baffles me is that they always run away before you can smush it with a shoe. So how did this roach just sit all nice and quietly while I reached down and picked it up?!

2. The next morning, I was in the kitchen and just happened to look over at my shoulder and saw a TICK on me. Of course, the first thing I think of, being my mother's child, is lyme disease. So I looked up some common symptoms: tiredness, lack of stamina, fever, vague discomfort, irritability, nervousness or anxiety, and weight loss or gain. HAHAHA, if that is so, I think I was born with lyme disease!

3. A day later, I see this rash on my upper thigh. I thought it might have been because I was laying in the grass taking pictures of Annabelle. The next day, that "rash" had spread down my leg. It's poison ivy. Awesome.

4. We were going somewhere the other day and Lane had to get the car ready. This is a favorite past-time of his that entails crawling over the front passenger seat and sticking the car keys in the ignition, turning it to where the radio and a/c works and then finding "the music" that he likes best. Then he crawls in the back and gets in his car seat. (One reason why we will never buy a brand new car). This whole process takes about 15 minutes (exaggerating by about 12 minutes...but you get the point that it FEELS like 15 minutes when you need to be somewhere AND its 107 degrees outside). I was encouraging Lane to get in his car seat but he wanted to now play with the air conditioning vents. I picked him up and put him in his car seat and the kid said to me "Mom, quit bothering me" in a nice and whiny tone. WHERE did he get that from? I can't blame Jason or I for that one because we never say that to each other or the kids. Oooh, unless Lane is a mind reader :) Moms...we get nothing but love, eh?

5. We went out to eat the other night and had Jess' new nanny over to watch the kids. Her name is Gaby and she is a wonderful woman from Mexico. She told us when we got home that Lane is hilarious. She said that she thanked him for doing something by saying "Thank you, my love." She said he stopped and looked at her, kind of sideways, and hesitatingly said "Your welcome....my love". No smile on his face, completely serious and curious. Later on she said "Thank you, angel". He looked at her, kind of sideways, and hesitatingly said "Your welcome....angel". No smile on his face, completely serious and curious all at the same time.

6. Matraca's (our nanny and basically my wingman!) last day came and it was a sad, sad day for me. We've been trying to explain to Lane that Matraca is going to another state to go to college. But he still hasn't grasped the concept that she's not coming back for a long, long time. When I ask him, "Guess who's coming over today", his first response is always "Traca?". I'm going to miss her so, so much!

7. Jason and I went to another couple's golf scramble Friday night. Again, I just drove the cart and putted. It was 80's theme and we pulled out everything that we could find to dress up. And our dear friend Claire gave us some great accessories, including an ANCIENT car phone that her mom got when she first bought her Lexus in the 90s. That was the best! Not many people dressed up (which kind of makes a person who did feel like a complete idiot), but we did win the "best dressed" contest. The prize was 2 hats from the pro shop. Jason got a super nice white, cool looking hat. I got a really "nice" blue sear sucker ball cap. What happened to the gift cards and booze that they gave away last time? We got hosed.

If you think I'm sexy and you want my body....

8. Annabelle had her 9 month checkup. She looked great, weighing 19.9 lbs (65 percentile) and (I think) she was 28.5" long (80 percentile). When you go into the checkups, the doctors ask you questions about milestones and things they "might" be doing. In this case, it was can she pass a toy between two hands, can she sit up unsupported, etc. However, then came the final questions. Can she get from laying down to sitting up? No. Can she crawl? No, she pushes herself backwards. But she gets up on her hands and knees, right? No. How do you feel about maybe taking her to physical therapy? (In my mind, WHAT?!). So it turns out that our doctor just thinks she's a tiny bit behind developmentally and she thinks that AnnaB just needs a little push to accomplish these things. She said she's strong but she just needs a little something. As her mother, my immediate thought is I have failed her. All those times (i.e. every day) I felt guilty because I don't spend enough one on one time with her or doing things with her because I'm chasing Lane around were confirmed. Well, this conversation kicked my butt in gear. I got home and called a few physical therapy places. While I was waiting for them to call me back, I took AB in her room to practice a few moves (Lane was sleeping). I'm not kidding, after 10 minutes, the girl was able to go from her stomach to sitting up on her own! This was 5 days ago. Yesterday, she pulled herself completely up while holding on to the bathtub. She is getting on her knees a little. So I don't think we are doing the therapy thing yet. I'm going to wait a little while and see if this extra attention and encouragement help her get to where she needs to be. And I've learned some valuable lessons...(a) Lane can wait (b) when Lane is sleeping, that is not quiet time for me. That is prime time AB time. Mom told me yesterday that I never crawled. I got up at 10 months and started walking. Maybe AB will be like me. Maybe not.

9. We finally made the decision (after 2.5 years) to add a master bedroom suite to our house. We chose a builder this past week and they are starting on Oct. 1. I'm super excited and surprisingly, not too stressed out yet. I guess that will come after I have to disconnect my WASHER AND DRYER! Luckily, the construction is on one side of the house and won't affect our living area too much. I can't believe it is going to happen! And since we went with a builder who doesn't have an internal interior decorator, that job has been given to yours truly. Which means perusing lots of websites and magazines for ideas and trying to keep within our budget. I really pray that my mental sanity can withhold this additional gigantic task. If not, I might just ask Jason to forget about paint colors and make sure our bedroom walls are padded :)

Go With the Flow

2011-08-08T14:24:00.001-05:00

They say that the second child is usually laid back and more prone to go with the flow. To prove this point, let me paint a picture of Crazytown, USA the other day.

My dad asked me to take a picture of a piece of art at this outside mall a few miles from my house. The timing seemed good one mid-morning, so I loaded up both kids and took off. Lane decides he's going to walk and Annabelle is riding in the stroller. It's 107 degrees outside. I'm pushing a stroller, crossing streets with an independent 2 year old who doesn't like to hold hands, carrying a huge camera around my neck, and my purse is dragging on the ground. Obstacle #1, Lane sees a little fountain in the ground and walks over to observe it. Little did he know, he was standing right over it and, after a brief pause, it shot up. He might as well have won the lottery because he thought that was the coolest thing ever...I did not. He was dripping wet! After prying him away, we looked for the piece of art I was supposed to take a picture of. Obstacle #2, It was not where my dad said it was. So I walk and walk...all the while trying to prevent Lane from going in the street, not to jump on the planter ledges, not to walk in the water, not to run into people, not to fall while running like a crazy man. AND I'M SWEATING MY $%# OFF!

I find the management office and ask where this piece of art is. To pass time, Lane decides to deadbolt the office door. The lady said she doesn't know of said art and looks at me like I'm crazy.

My dad said it was here.
I don't know what you are talking about.
He said it was in front of Z Gallerie.
I don't know what you are talking about.
Fine, I'll call my dad (secretly hoping she was right and it was no longer on display).

Lane, unlock the door.
No!
Lane, unlock the door, please!
No!

A swat later, we venture back into the heat and I call my dad. He says he knows its there and is thinking I'm crazy. Um, hell yeah I'm crazy - its hot as haides out here, the management office said this art doesn't exist and I'm trying to keep up with the energizer bunny! I'm trying to tell him exactly where I've been while Lane is running back in the fountains. I hang up and start my mission...again. I suddenly hear this crying behind me, "My booty hurts, Mommy! My BOOOOOOTY HURTS! Carry me!".

Now I'm pushing a stroller, carrying a child the size of a 40 lb. bag of dog food with the awkwardly big camera hanging on my neck. For a brief second, I wonder if my company wants me back full time.

We find the art! I start wiping the sweat off my forehead so it won't run into my eyes while taking the pictures. Lane is crying about his booty but climbing on the art at the same time. People are looking at me like I'm nuts. Its then that I realize I haven't checked on Annabelle since I put her in the stroller and she hasn't made a peep! Is she still there?! I look over and this is what I see:

What is up, my woman?

On Sunday, we decided to go to brunch with my family. Jason had a soccer game and couldn't join us. I'm getting the kids ready to go and Lane comes running down the hall with this little square pillow (see in the picture) hanging in the crook of his elbow. He said "I need to take my purse". Jason wasn't here to throw a fit, so I let him. No harm done. Besides, he'll leave it in the car when we go in the restaurant. We get to the restaurant and Lane says he needs to bring his purse. HAHA, um, ok. So he brings it in the restaurant. We were packing up to come home and Lane finds Annabelle's sunglasses in the diaper bag, which are too small for him. He puts them on anyways and walks through the restaurant and out to the car carrying his purse and wearing ladies sunglasses. This picture really was to get a rise out of Jason. Though I have to mention that he did tell everyone he had a ball, a snake and a lizard in his purse. That counteracts the girliness, right?

Disclaimer: The story below has some body parts mentioned. If you are not ready to go there yet with your young kiddo, you might not want to let them read.

Lane has been copying every little thing Jason does these days. It is actually pretty stinking cute to have someone admire you so. For example, when Lane wears a hat, he has to wear it "backsards" like daddy. When you put on Lane's socks, he wants to pull them up as high as they go because daddy does that when he puts his soccer socks on. And my favorite one of all, while in the midst of doing something (like riding the tractor) or walking down the driveway...Lane stops and spits, just like daddy!

Well, this morning, he told me about another way that he was just like daddy. After Lane and Annabelle's bath, I was drying off Annabelle, and Lane said "Annabelle have a heinie and a bottom". And the following dialogue ensued:

M: Those are the same thing. You have a heinie too.
L: Daddy and me have a heinie, a bottom, AND a penis. Daddy have a BIIIIGGG penis and me.
M: What do you mean "and me"?
L: Daddy have a big penis and me have a big penis just like daddy!

30 minutes later, I was getting dressed and Lane, oblivious to privacy, barges in my room and looks at me. After circling me, he says "Me like those boobies. That a boobie bra?"

Oh My Goodness!

I've Got All My Sisters and Me!

2011-08-08T13:39:00.000-05:00

Last weekend, Aunt Mary Kay, Aunt Linda, Aunt Jeanne, cousin Katie, and my mom came to Austin for a little girls weekend. I had a wonderful time visiting with them! They are hilarious, caring, and so loving! Lane had quite a taking to Aunt Linda...he asked her to go everywhere with him. He called Mary Kay "the other girl" so she spent a lot of time trying to get to "Aunt Mary" level. Katie brought her 3 month old, Charlie with her - and not only was he adorable, but he was so well behaved! So there were 4 kids all weekend, 3 of them being 8 months, 3 months, and 7 weeks. Chaos, of course! But we rolled with it. We even went out to brunch with all of them and they didn't kick us out!

On Saturday, the husbands agreed to watch the babies and we got to shop on South Congress, eat lunch, and take a tour of Whole Foods. I haven't done that in years! Other than that, I felt like we just ate all weekend :)

I heard or someone told me a while back that the women are the ones who really keep the extended family together. I don't think that could be any truer (in majority of cases). These ladies took time out of their busy lives to come and visit us in Austin. We didn't have an agenda...it was mainly to just visit with each other. I am so blessed not only to have such a wonderful group of women as my family and to look up to, but that their love is reciprocated unconditionally. There were lots of laughs and talking about the past. Its these conversations that help stories pass down generation to generation. Without them, our stories would all be lost.

Eating homemade whip cream off their noses!!

What Lane really wanted to tell me for making him take this picture!

With 4 kids, there were a LOT of poppy diapers!

Aunt Linda's masterpiece of AB

Sassy Frass

2011-07-26T20:48:00.002-05:00

Man o Man...Lane has really been pulling out the big guns these days. Two weeks ago, he got on a huge kick of saying "Oh my goodness!" and "Oh my gosh!". If you want to put a smile on your face, just listen to a little 2 year old say "Oh my goodness!" in the correct context. He's also used "Holy cow!" a few times, but it surprised me when he dropped his cup and yelled "OH MY COW!"

But his sassiness has definitely kicked into high gear. I realize its a lack of language skills in knowing how to say something the correct way. Nonetheless, he still amazes me in what comes out of his mouth.

Jason and Lane were fixing a sprinkler head this evening. After I put Annabelle to sleep, I took the garbage can out to the street and thought I would walk over to see how things were going. I was greeted with "Don't touch me, Mommy. I'm busy!". Endearing, huh? Oh, and when I brought him inside to change his diaper, he kept saying "What the heck!" I eyeballed Jason who said "What's wrong with that?". Oh nothing...our two year old just sounds like a 30 year old adult with a speech impediment. But nothing is wrong.

Today, on the way to school, he was pointing to a car with a tractor trailer pulling some kind of machinery on the back. I said "I think that is a skid steer" and Lane said "Actually not a skid steer, Mom. It's a (uninterpretable)". Actually not? Are you serious? He's 2!

And by far, my most favorite story of Kids Say the Darnedest Things...I cooked one night (shocking to all of you, I know...but it did happen) and my recipe called for chicken stock. Jason poured me a cup and put it back in the refrigerator. As I was pouring in the stock, I was thinking about how I'd seen that chicken stock in the back of the refrigerator for months now. So I said a little prayer that we wouldn't die of food poisoning and made a pact with myself to throw it away after dinner. Of which, I did. Of which, was unbeknown to Jason.

Fast forward to the next night. I'm feeding the kids and Jason is in the middle of cooking paella. He asked me where the chicken stock was in a really uptight manor. I politely told him that I threw it out because it had been in the refrigerator for months. The response I got was "I JUST OPENED THAT CHICKEN STOCK YESTERDAY YOU FOOD NAZI!!!". He was SO frustrated at me (there is a long story behind the food Nazi connotation but I'll save that for another time). He starts pacing looking for some sort of substitute and luckily finds one. I'm cracking up because he is so mad at me.

Then comes the 2 year old commentary...
Lane: I know what you did Mommy? (he forgets the "don't" in his sentences)
Me: Daddy's mad at Mommy
Lane: Daddy no mad at Mommy
Me: Yes, he really is (as I'm laughing - not a good role model, I realize, but I can't help myself)
So Lane and I proceed to talk about something else for one minute and then...
Lane: I want to talk about that again, Mommy
Me: Talk about what?
Lane: Daddy being mad you thue (thue = you)
Me: Daddy is mad at me because I threw something out of the refrigerator without asking him first
Lane: Daddy being a little turd
Me: (choking back my tears) What did you just say?
Lane: Daddy being a little turd
Me: MWWHHAAAAAAAAAAA! Jason did you hear that? MWWHAAAAAAA

I laughed so hard. Which of course, provoked Lane to start calling anything and everything a "turd". Jason told him that it wasn't nice to say that word. I call B.S. on that one, honey! If it was the reverse situation, you'd be high fiving Lane!! It was one of those moments you would have paid good money to have on video.

His bossiness is coming out too. He likes to tell Annabelle that she can't have his toys but miraculously, all her toys seem to be his as well. He's really sweet to her but he's become overly grossed out with her putting things in her mouth. Which is pretty much all she does. About a week ago, he said he wanted Annabelle to take a bath with him. So we tried it for the first time (of course, I got pictures). The kids were actually really good. I think Lane just wanted someone in the bath tub to squirt and dump water on...so there was major Mommy intervention going on. But they both seemed to enjoy each others company.

Annabelle is saying "I don't think so, Homeboy!"

Picture of Annabelle at 8 months and cousin Gibson at 5 weeks. Their heads might be the same size. Geez Louise!

Lane likes to love on Hudson, probably because he can boss him around.

Port Aransas

2011-07-25T15:06:00.001-05:00

Last Wednesday, we met Jason's parents and his brother Jon's family in Port Aransas for a little family vacation. We rented a house close to the beach and all 10 of us bunked up for the next 5 days. Lane had a blast with his cousins Blake and Ryan (or as Lane calls them "Bake and Rynan") and loved the ocean. We also found out that Annabelle is just like her father and LOVES the water. She was so content on the beach, especially when she was able to get a fist full of sand in her mouth. For some reason, she loved eating her some sand. And she loved the heated pool too! I guess she got that "part plant" gene that Jason has where he requires water and sun to survive.

Port Aransas was about 4.5 hours from Austin, which isn't to bad of a drive with the 2 little ones. About an hour from the coast, cotton fields popped up everywhere. On the way home, we stopped to show Lane what most of our clothes are made out of. He just wanted to pick it and throw it :) And he particularly didn't like the seeds in the soft "cot" (i.e. cotton) as he called it.

I would title this one "Stealing a cloud out of the sky"

Also, we had to drive our car on a ferry to get across to our house, which was pretty fun for a little boy. I, on the other hand, started having visions of what we would do if the ferry started to sink. Would we be able to get the kids out of their car seats fast enough? Would we panic to where we wouldn't be efficient in rescuing our family? Therapy....I know :)

A local told us where to get the freshest shrimp...he said a shrimp boat docks at the marina around 9 am every morning after fishing all night. Jason, being the chef that he is, had to get there in order to try some out. The first day we went, all the jumbo shrimp were gone so we got normal shrimp. The next day, he was at the marina by 8:45 and got himself some jumbo shrimp. As you can see in the picture, the shrimp were about as big as a freaking banana! AND it was $5/lb. You got to love that! Oh, and that little fish you see in the picture, that was in our bag of shrimp that we got. Just a little more proof that it was as fresh as it was going to get.

The shrimp boat

A banana, fish "garnish", two jumbo shrimp, and a peach

This is one of my favorite pictures - Annabelle and cousin Blake

Ryan and Blake humoring me :)

I had to put this in here to prove I WAS on this trip!

Ryan

Grandpa and Annabelle catching some waves

Lane and Aunt Cherie building a sand castle

Butler Family 2011 Port Aransas trip

GOOOOOOD MORNING!

2011-07-15T06:40:00.000-05:00

I never thought this day would come...but here it is. Let me explain before you start to judge!

Last weekend while in Houston, I took Lane to Barnes and Noble to play with the train table. Before we got to play with the train, we had to stop by the cafe for a little coffee treat for me :) While in line, I saw a coffee mug for sale in the shape of a bluebird. At first I thought it was an owl and thought it was the cutest thing in the world. Then I realized it was a bluebird, still thought it was super cute, but after thinking about paying $10 for a coffee mug, I decided against it.

Well. Since last Saturday, all I could think about was that darn coffee mug. I really, really wanted it! So I started trying to find it online to no avail. Then I started looking for other coffee mugs online that were bird or owl shaped...to no avail. So yesterday, after spending 20 precious minutes looking up freaking coffee mugs, I called the Barnes and Noble in Houston. A lady said they didn't have any more and from looking in their computer, it didn't look like the warehouse had any more. I was crushed!

Well. Jess ended up calling me to come pick her up yesterday because she locked her keys in the trunk. And it was right next to a Barnes and Noble. So I decided, what the hay! She waited in the car while I ran in. No bluebird mug on the coffee mug shelves for sale. I was crushed. But decided I would ask the ladies behind the counter before I left. Right when I started talking to her, I looked down and THERE THEY WERE! Two of them...a bluebird AND a ROBIN! I was geeking out and could see the look of pity in the girl's eyes. Who cares! I found my coffee mug! I decided to buy the Robin one. I was checking out and she just handed me my change when I got really crazy and said "OK! I'm going to buy the bluebird too!" I just had to! I would have bought the whole slew of birds if there had been more, which Jason is eternally grateful there were NOT.

All this to say that I LOVE my new coffee mugs. Coffee is a huge part of my life these days and what better way to start the day than to look at these cute little mugs? How can you have a bad day when drinking out of one of these?

As you have probably concluded that I've lost my mind, I have not. I'm just getting older and enjoying smaller things in life, like coffee mugs :) I never thought I would be a person who would get excited about (or collect) coffee mugs. And, for the record, I don't want to collect coffee mugs (UNLESS they looked just like these and were different types of birds OR if I came across a cool owl one). Ok, this is too long of a post for a coffee mug. I'm going to start my day with Mr. Bluebird and a nice, warm cup of joe :)

A 70th Birthday Bash!

2011-07-15T06:24:00.000-05:00

Last weekend, we took the kids to Houston to see their grandparents but to also attend a really good Butler family friend's 70th birthday party. The party was at a complete hole-in-the-wall, smokey beer joint, complete with a DJ, steak dinner, and lots of adult beverages. And it was a blast! I would reckon to say that I haven't had a birthday party that fun and this was Joe's 70th!!

One person that really stood out to me was Nyla, the birthday boy's mother-in-law. Nyla is 83 years old and, I kid you not, was on the dance floor more than anyone else there, beer in hand. She had a smile on her face and would dance with anyone who wanted to. I've met her before and was drawn to her passion for life. She loves to travel and not too long ago, she and her sister took a long road trip! I told her last weekend she is my hero and what I long to be at her age. I don't know her well enough, but I'm guessing from her example that a lot of it comes from her attitude and positive thinking. I'm just storing this away in my brain for the next 50 years as I can only hope to be as fun and happy as she is.

Nyla (or I also call her Margarita Grandma!)

This party was the first time Mr. B and I danced with each other since our wedding 5 years ago! I so adore my father-in-law. He's not super mushy gushy so after a few beers, I decided to invade his personal space just to show him how much I love him.

You know how after you have a few drinks, you feel freer to talk about things that you might not normally? Well, in this case, Mrs. B, Jason, Jonathan, and I were sitting talking and something about sex came up. Someone used the word "sex" and "the Butlers" in the same sentence and Jonathan couldn't take it!

Lessons from Toddlers

2011-07-11T07:56:00.000-05:00

As adults, we always think that we need to teach toddlers everything we know in order to make them successful in this world. If you slow down to think about it, though, there are a lot of things we'd like to change about ourselves if we could. For example, the United States is known world wide regarding how much its people work. We don't take time off of work, which in turn, prevents us from fully taking care of ourselves and enjoying the life that was given to us. In Europe, Australia, and some other countries, some people take a month off. Or the close down for the whole summer. Or they take 2-3 hour siestas in the middle of the day. All I'm saying, is there are a few things that we don't necessarily need to be passing on to our kids, in a perfect world mind you. So I was thinking about this the other day and it occurred to me that maybe our toddlers could teach us a few things.

Don't sweat the small stuff. You know when your toddler cries because they can't go outside and play in the mud? Or they cry because someone took the toy that they weren't even playing with in the first place? It is ridiculous, right?! We tell them (in a very PC way of course) that there is no need to get emotionally upset over something so minor, i.e. don't sweat the small stuff, kiddo! Now, let's look at ourselves. We may be beyond the toy drama, but there are other every day things that we tend to react the same way our toddlers do. We just don't have someone standing around telling us that we are being irrational (because, that would be too honest ;). You know you do it! If you didn't, there wouldn't be sayings like "Don't cry over spilled milk". Remember when you were running out the door for an appointment and your kid had an explosion that ranked a 7 on the Richter scale, which obviously caused you to be late? Or remember the time that your husband didn't bathe, diaper, or soothe your child the way YOU would have. These are all minuscule issues in the whole scheme of things. And the first step to combating this would be to acknowledge we jump the gun with our emotions regarding things that really don't matter. Then, you can remember that I told you you are acting like a 2 year old and laugh about it :)
If something ain't broke, don't fix it. Kids are notorious for doing the same thing over and over and over again. Watching the same movie 899 times, listening to the Itsy Bitsy spider 20 times in a row, reading Go Dog Go every night for a year. Well, the other day, I scheduled a playdate with a friend and her two boys. I had taken Lane to a particular indoor bouncing playground a couple of times in the past and we both liked it. For this playdate, however, I decided to try out a different one. I got there first, hauled Lane and Annabelle out of the car and walked up to the door to find it closed. It is only for parties! Lane was disappointed; I had my friend hauling her two kids down to this place...and it was closed. I finally got in touch with her and we decided to go to the good ole faithful one we had been to before. I was a typical adult, in that we find something we like...for example a favorite indoor playground, or a specific brand of shoes, or a tv. Whatever it is, we find it, we enjoy it and then we start the quest for the next best thing. We don't like to "settle" for one option when there are a million more potentially better options out there. Where that could hurt us is us when we end up disappointed in our new choice, we waste our money buying a newer version of something we already have, or we waste time in transitioning to the new object. It seems we are always searching for something better. I've read that kids like the repetition because they feel like they have some control by knowing what is going to happen next. And it is also comforting to know exactly what you are going to get. What would happen if we acted like our toddlers and just kept going to the same indoor playground, kept buying the same type of shoe, or continued to use the same flat screen tv? I, for one, would love to feel constantly in control and content :)
Nothing ventured, nothing gained. How many times have we NOT asked someone something because we were afraid of what the answer was going to be? Did you ever stop to think that they might answer in your favor? I've noticed in kids that they have no fear in asking for anything. When I ask Lane what he wants for breakfast, he tilts his head down, raises one eyebrow, forms a to-die-for smile and in the sweetest little voice you ever heard, he says "cookie?" He knows I won't give him a cookie for breakfast as I never have. But he doesn't have anything to lose by asking. And when I say no, he immediately says "cereal". But every day, its the same "cookie" answer. Because who knows, one day Mommy might still have a little alcohol in her system early in the morning and just say YES! What if we had no fear in asking for the things we really want in life? That may be cookies for some of us. But for others, it may be the key to helping your relationship stay glued together. Or it may be the one question that brings you closer to the other person as they've been dying to ask you the same thing but was too scared. Before you decide to keep your thoughts to yourself, ask yourself what you have to lose.
Child's play. Every year that goes by, I think of how old I'm getting. Not in a depressing way, but just the reality that I'm not Spring chicken anymore. And I've demonstrated my "oldness" when Lane has asked me to do something with him and I say no, because let's be serious - no one wants to see a 33 year old woman doing that! However, I started to think a little differently while at my Dad's lake house over the 4th of July. Our 9 and 11 year old nephews were with us and they kept asking us if we'd ride the Waverunner with them since they couldn't ride by themselves. For the first time in a long time, I decided to do it. I mean, they asked so how could I say no. Well, I had a blast. And not only did I have a blast but they did to. After our ride was over, they ran over to their parents and were telling them what a crazy driver Aunt Melissa was. And the two boys were arguing over who went faster with me. AND I LOVED ALL OF THAT! The thought going through my head was "YES! Girl, you still got it in you! You could actually be cool!". So I believe playing with kids can actually make you feel young again! Kids don't care what they look like doing something silly. They don't care if they get wet or dirty doing it, either. What if we took that same approach? Not only do I think we would have a blast, but I think that our attitude would be contagious to other adults watching.
No detail is too small. From the backseat, Lane will point out every garbage truck, fire engine, crane, dump truck, excavator, railroad track, bus, balloon, airplane...you get the point...for the entire duration of the 1 mile ride. I admit I usually end up tuning him out while turning on my automated and generic "You are right, Buddy! I see it!" response. However, the other day I started to wonder about what all I could be missing while driving along my desensitized tunnel of vision? It doesn't have to be just driving. It could be the little things at home that I'm missing because I needed to check my email or finish that load of laundry. It could be something that my husband did for me that I was too busy to notice because I just had 4 poopy diapers in a matter of 1 hour. Or it could be a friend who tried to reach out because they needed someone but I was too busy with my own life to notice the call for help. Whatever it is, I really think we are missing out on some incredible experiences. How many times have you seen a fire engine or a train? A bazillion, right? Well, how many times have you actually been on one? How many times have you been outside and heard the birds singing? I challenge you to wake up one morning and open your window to hear the birds' wake up songs - it is such a wonderful and happy sound. I would venture to guess a lot of people have never heard it. There are little things all around us that we take for granted. Let's learn from our kids that there is always something going on around us at all times. If we take time to listen and notice, you never know what you may find!
How we comfort those who are sick. If you have a child, you know there is nothing worse than seeing them lethargic from a high fever. Or maybe they aren't eating because it hurts too bad to swallow. It doesn't matter if the kid scraped her knee or if she broke her arm, we are immediately there to comfort them. We kiss them, we hug them, we bring them whatever they need at any time of the day. And never once do we begrudge them for being needy or for waking you up. What if I asked you if you did the same for your spouse when he/she was sick? I am the first to admit that when Jason gets sick, I want to help but I know he can take care of himself. And I also admit (though I hope I don't regret it) that there have been times when I've been frustrated because he was confined to the bed and I had to take care of him and both kids. Not necessarily frustrated at him, but at the situation - which is completely selfish, I know - I'm working on it! But what if I would treat Jason the same way I would treat Annabelle or Lane when they were sick? Or let's change the scenario...how AWESOME would it be if when I was sick, Jason gave me a hug, told me it was going to be ok, and then ordered me to rest (while meaning every word of it!) because he had everything else under some sort of control. Seriously?! I challenge each and every one of you (and myself) to try it the next time he/she feels under the weather.
Me, Me, Me! Everyone who has a toddler knows the phrases "Mine!" or "Me no want to do it!" or "No!". It's all about them! Well, wouldn't it be nice if we just took a little bit of this selfishness from them and turned it into our own? Like I mentioned before, our culture is all work, no play. According to Reuters.com, more than half of Americans do not take all their vacation days, and nearly a third of workers who do take a break check in with work every other day and some keep in touch hourly. Sound familiar? I know Jason constantly checks his Blackberry at home in the evening or while driving. And he feels the need and urgency to respond immediately. I know, I've been there too. What would happen if we became selfish with our time every once in a while like our toddlers do? Do you think you would lose your job? Do you think your friend would stop talking to you because you didn't immediately text her back? Doubtful...

Keeping up with the Butlers

2011-07-10T16:36:00.000-05:00

I just needed to get these in!

One of my favorite all time pictures of Annabelle

Enjoying her vegetable stew!

My lovebug

Annabelle and her friend, Sloane

Breakfast Conversation

2011-07-07T13:04:00.002-05:00

Lane, Annabelle, and I were eating breakfast yesterday and here is the conversation that ensued...

Me: Lane, I think we should tell each other and God what we are thankful for.
Lane: Yeah
Me: I'll go first. I'm thankful for you, Annabelle, and Daddy
Lane: I'm thinkful (his pronunciation) for....Andrew (note: this is the Berger's youngest boy who is closest to Annabelle's age)
Me: Ok, I'm thankful for our house
Lane: I'm thinkful for...Jackson (note: this is the Berger's oldest boy)
Me: I'm thankful for Daddy's job
Lane: I'm thinkful for...Evan (note: this is the Berger's middle boy)
Me: I'm thankful for being able to spend this special time with you
Lane: I'm thinkful for..........Pedro (note: our dog!)
Me: I'm thankful for...the nice weather so we can play outside
Lane: I'm thinkful for...Hudson (note: our other dog!)
Me: I'm thankful for all of our wonderful friends and family
Lane: I'm thankful for....Jessie!
Me: I'm glad you said that to remind me that I'm very thankful for baby Gibson
Lane: (with a big puffed out chest) YOU NOT THINKFUL FOR GIBSON! I'M THINKFUL FOR GIBSON. You thinkful for....Roscoe (note: Jess' dog)

These are the conversations that make you want to tackle your kids and kiss them until they can't take anymore.

4th of July 2011

2011-07-06T07:04:00.000-05:00

We made it! I was very skeptical knowing we were going to have to drive 8 hours each way to Hot Springs. I was worried we might not be the same mentally or emotionally after such a long, intimate drive. But, like always, it wasn't near as bad as I thought. The kids were great - Lane watched movies or talked the whole time. AB was happy as long as she could see Lane, have some toys handy, or had Mommy in the backseat to entertain her. We only stopped twice and made it in 8 hours! Just goes to show you - what do I know??!!

We had quite the crew again at Dad's house for the weekend. Jason's parents and his brother Jon's family met us there. Randy and Elizabeth were with us the whole weekend. And then on Sunday, Deana, Roy, Grandma Jonnell, Mitchell, Brooke, and Cash came up for the day. However, for some reason, this was the best trip I can remember in Hot Springs. Maybe it was because Lane was able to do a lot of new things. Or because everyone helped me out with AB so I could have a break and play with the big kids. But most of all, I think that it was all the love that I felt with everyone all around. Adults, big kids, little kids, friends, and family. It was the exact definition of good wholesome family fun. No appointments. No cell phones. No TV. No video games. No work. Just quality time with the ones you love.

Lane got to ride a waverunner for the first time. Surprisingly enough, he got right on it. He was a little hesitant. But after a few rides, he wanted to go faster and faster! Surprising, right ;) ? He also swam in the lake. I was sure he wasn't going to get in the lake to swim. But he put his life jacket on and got in for a good little bit. Again, what do I know?!

Cousins - Cash giving AnnaB some loving

Nothing like bathing in the kitchen sink!

AB got up one morning at 5 am. So I took her outside to have a pre-dawn photoshoot.

AB and Grandpa Bruce at a hot spring in downtown. The water was 130 degrees!

Jon, Cherie, Blake, and Ryan at our croquet tournament

I love this picture!! Randy wrote this with his power washer on their sidewalk over a year ago! E squared is Elizabeth Elrod, his lovely bride :) It's little, teeny things like this that make my heart melt.

Is that Justin Bieber? Nope...just Blake Butler next to his Ferrari :)

Coming down the big water slide - his face says it all!

My whole world

AB learning that love is a wonderful thing!

Cousins til the end!

Addiction

2011-06-28T14:46:00.002-05:00

Hi. I'm Melissa and I'm addicted to technology. Specifically smartphones and computers. Anything where I can communicate with other people. In serious times of desperation, I've even been known to use a land line! And to make matters worse, I even bought a bluetooth to make my habit more convenient.

Why is this a problem? Because I realized a couple of months ago that I am either on my phone or checking my phone or computer at least once every 10-15 minutes. It is an obsession and is weighing heavily on my conscience. Why again? Because it is taking away the time I spend with my family, specifically my munchkins that I'm with during the day. And my husband after the kids go to bed.

After acknowledging I have an issue, I've been more aware of how often I need a "hit". And I've also slowed down to notice how my kids have been affected. When my phone rings, Lane stops what he's doing and runs to get it for Mommy - even if its across the house. And when I tell him to ignore it, he tells me to wait there and he's going to get it. And I was trying to multi-task the other day by playing with Annabelle and talking to a friend about a homework assignment. Annabelle couldn't stop staring at my bluetooth! I thought I could be tricky and talk to my friend all the while hoping Annabelle would think I was talking to her since I wasn't holding a phone. Nope..she knew.

After pondering on this craziness, I realize I check my email and phone so often because I crave adult conversation and being a part of a community. A community, meaning playdates, church groups, women's groups, classes, work, friends or in my case, all of the above :) I'm an extroverted, social being. I love talking to people. But I've also realized that this is taking away my attention from my kids. I'm definitely not saying that I need to play and give them attention all day, every day. If that was the case, I would have already committed myself to an insane asylum (kiddos, it is nothing personal). What I'm saying is that my kids deserve to have some quality "Mom time" a couple of times throughout the day, without me interrupting them to answer a call, text or email. How hard is that to do? Right now, it is really hard! But I'm working on it - kind of like a Mid-Year Resolution :) I mean, if you were playing a puzzle designed for a 2 year old (and you have put it together over 100 times) and your best friend called you in the middle of it to see if you wanted to meet up at the park with the kiddos, wouldn't you answer your phone? Of course! But this happens all the time for me, whether it is text, email, or phone. It's not once a day. It's all day.

What is my habit teaching them anyways? I know I want my kids to listen to ME when I talk to them, so I should be able to give them the same common courtesy. But when I am playing a puzzle with Lane and then I jump up to check my email, what is that saying to him? Or when I give Annabelle undivided attention for a full 10 minutes and then I need a mental break so I check my email on my phone. Really? Is that what I've become? It is an addiction. And my kids are going to learn habits from watching me. I can see it now...both kids texting at the kitchen table or jumping up to answer their phone in the middle of some great bonding time. That absolutely breaks my heart. I see this scenario in other people's homes and I mentally make a note of how I don't want my kids to be. Yet, I'm doing exactly what I don't want them to do. I guess that is where the ridiculous saying "Do as I say and not as I do" comes in. However, studies have shown that kids don't ever do as you say. They only do as you do. I have even realized after the fact that I regularly answer my phone while sitting down at the kitchen table with the kids. I have become extremely angry at adults who text or talk on the phone while eating with us or at a restaurant. Yet, I'm doing the same things to my kids.

The only thing I can attribute this to, is that when I receive an email/text/call from someone, some feel good endorphin must go off in my body, similar to a drug. It's not a feeling like after drinking a glass of wine. But I feel needed and important. I feel like someone took time out of their day to send me an email or call. And not because they had to, but because they wanted to. Before you start thinking I have some major self esteem issues or I'm really lacking something at home...I really don't think that is the case. I think we all want to feel needed and wanted..but sometimes in a non-wifely or non-motherly way. Friends (which I will include my husband and family in that term because we ARE friends after all) have a way of making your heart smile. And who doesn't want to feel that way all the time?!

I have talked about this to Jason and we both vowed to turn our phones off when he gets home until the kids go to bed (just a couple of hours). If we don't hear it ringing, we are less likely to be tempted to jump up and answer it. Also, I have vowed to make a conscience effort not to check my email but a handful of times throughout the day. Then I can answer them after the kids go to bed or are napping. I am determined to change my kids perception on what technology means to us in this world. I don't want them to be dependent on it. I want them to enjoy doing things together as a family or with friends. And I want them to extend the same technology courtesy to their friends and family as I expect them to. But it all starts with me...

So if I don't call you back immediately or text you within 15 minutes, don't take it personal. I'll get back at you :)

And I just found this article if you are interested: http://www.phdinparenting.com/2010/06/17/oh-those-technology-obsessed-neglectful-parents/

Gibson Lane Waggoner

2011-06-28T11:16:00.000-05:00

My handsome nephew Gibson was born on Monday, June 20, 2011

Perfect bundle of love!

He is so perfect and beautiful (and smart :) and I still can't believe I was able to be there during his birth. Jess asked me to be in the room with she and Jerod and my mom, of which I am eternally grateful.

If we are being honest, I was really trying to get some of the epidural to rub off on me :)

Even though I went through 2 births myself, I never actually saw anything - by choice, mind you. So this was a completely different perspective and I was amazed. I don't understand how anyone can question if God exists when it comes giving birth. It is truly a miracle and the most wonderful blessing for the parents and rest of the family. [let me step off my soap box, 1 sec..]

Ah yes, Gibster...he was 7.7 lbs and a 21 1/2 inches (i.e. he's already prepping for basketball camp!) And that kid had a TON of DARK BROWN hair. I'm not talking the normal newborn furry head thing. I'm talking full head of beautiful dark brown hair! He has an adorable cowlick in the front of his hairline and I'm already imagining all the fun hair styles he'll be able to rock. And then reality sits in and I realize he's not really mine - ugh! How ironic is it that both of my children have blond hair and blue eyes. Yet Jess and Jerod's kid has dark eyes and dark brown hair?

The birth process itself looked super easy. Jess was a champ laborer as she pushed twice and he was outta there. This picture 15 minutes post birth says it all.

What a supermodel looks like after giving birth. For real?!

Could we all look that hot right after giving birth?! I had the honor of designated party pic gal, which was kind of hard to do with 8 people in a huddle over my subjects, while at the same time trying to keep the pictures "clean" if you know what I mean. Nonetheless, I was desperately trying to capture the moment for Jess and Jerod to remember. It was so beautiful to watch both Jerod and Jess' faces throughout the whole process. I am so happy for them!! They have now entered the "parent" club of which there is no way to get out :)

I wanted to let Gibson know that Jason and I plan to be the best Aunt and Uncle there ever was. We have a hard act to follow with Jess and Jerod but we'll try our darndest. With that, I wanted to write a little love letter to my first biological (is that right?) nephew.

Gibster,
Sorry, Mister Gibster, but that is the first nickname that popped in my head. I'll call you that until you can tell me otherwise, deal? I wanted to let you know that your mommy has been waiting for you for a long time! For years and years, she's wanted a little baby. And now, she not only has one but she has you! As your favorite aunt, I promise to spoil you like your mom and dad spoil your cousins. I promise to give you cookies whenever you ask. Breakfast, sure! After you brush your teeth at night, no problem! I promise to buy you loud, fun toys. I promise to take care of and get as many stains out of Lane's clothes so you will continue to look like the little stud muffin that you already are. I promise you lots of sleep overs and fun trips. I promise to be a good listener when you want to vent about how uncool your mom and dad are. I promise to try to teach your mom how not to sweat the small stuff :) I promise to let you get as crazy and dirty as you want at our house. I promise to love you unconditionally. I promise to love you as you were my own. I promise to do everything in my power so that you, Lane, Annabelle and any of your future siblings grow up to be one big close-knit, obnoxious family. I promise you there are going to be times when you think our family is crazy and ruining your life. But I can also promise you that we will all do the best we can to raise you to be the wonderful, strong, independent, successful man that I know you will be. Welcome to Earth, Gibster! The world is a better place just because you are in it.

Love,
Aunt Sissy

Here comes baby #1

Elated Grandma and Dad!

First family picture!!

Starting Gibson off with Aunt Sissy's famous bear hugs. Sorry little guy! The look on his face is priceless.."GET OFF OF ME, WOMAN!"

Life is Good!

2011-06-08T07:26:00.000-05:00

Sunday night of Memorial Day weekend, my favorite sister in the whole and her awesome husband kept our two kiddos so Jason and I could enjoy a post-anniversary "get-away". So we decided on a staycation here in Austin. We got a hotel downtown and tried to do some Austiny things that we never get to do. We were very relieved to know that we could still have a lot of fun with each other :)

We started off by walking Town Lake (yes, it was 100 degrees outside). After showering, we stopped by a local sushi restaurant for happy hour. Some calamari, two rolls, and a few saki bombs later, we headed off to Whole Foods. There, we sat at Bar Lamar and ordered some wine flights and cheese plate.

That is absolutely the coolest store! If you've never been to one, come to the headquarter store here in Austin and prepare to be amazed. When Jason walked by the seafood restaurant where they cook fresh seafood for you and you can eat it right there, he was speechless and shook his head in amazement. After filling up on wine and cheese, we went to South Congress St. Unfortunately it was 6:05 so all the stores had closed. But Jason was craving a funnel cake so we stopped at the Fry Baby trailer and had a good ole fashioned funnel cake.

We then walked to Docs where we had our first Micheladas (is a Mexican cerveza preparada made with beer, tomato juice (or Clamato), lime juice, and assorted sauces, spices, and peppers. It is served in a chilled, salt-rimmed glass).

It was delicious! We headed back to the trailers to try the Hudson on the Bend trailer who had a brownie in a cone. But wouldn't you know, it was 9:05 and had just closed!   The next day, we had a great breakfast and then worked out and ran errands before picking up the kiddos. It was a wonderful 26 hours of being kids free. But we missed them too :) They were having too much fun at Aunt Jessie and Waggs house to care about us, on the other hand.

Other than that, we've been running around like crazy people since June started. Since it is already 100 degrees outside, its been hard coming up with things to do every day. Being in the house all day is my last resort option...so I've turned into the "Butler playdate agent" putting together get togethers here and there.   I can't complain, our playdates make everyone happy!

Lane has still been talking a mile a minute. And the things that come out of his mouth are just too funny! He will have Jason and I cracking up and he doesn't even mean to.

One funny habit is that when we sit down to eat dinner, we hold hands and pray. It doesn't matter what Lane is doing (for example, he could be already in mid-bite, talking, or twiddling his thumbs), when we go to hold hands, Lane says "Hold on, I need one sip". He stops what he's doing and he takes a drink of milk. Then he puts his cup down and says "That was a LOT of sips!". He then grabs our hands and we pray. EVERY day he does this. It is such a funny "ritual" for him and he doesn't even know it.

The other day, I was going to read to him before bed, which Jason usually does. So Lane grabbed his Underwater Alphabet book that his Aunt Deana gave him. This is not some little kid book. It goes into technical information about the different kinds of exotic fish that live in the ocean. So I open it up and I begin "A is for" and before I could finish he says "Angelfish". So we went to B and he said "Basslet" and to "C" and he said "Cowfish". He knew almost ALL of those darn fish in the book. I guess he and Jason have gone over it so much that he's learned all of them. Their memory is amazing! I'm desperately want to get him reading that book on video as it is too cute how he says all the names and pronounces them.

He's starting to learn about fear and fear things. Even things that he's done a million times. I took him to Central Market's playground the other day. He was afraid to walk along the platform to go down the slide (which he's done a million times) and when he started to crawl up the monkey-bar-like-ladder, he stopped after two rungs and said "This is a big boy ladder" and got down. The last time we were there, that is the only thing he played on! He has woken up a few times crying that an alligator is in his bed. And sometimes he won't go into his room because he said a dinosaur is going to get him. I guess this is just a time when they start to realize there are bad things in this world but it has been an experience watching him go from care free to a little (and I use "little" lightly) cautious.

Another thing he likes to do...if Jason, Lane, and I are sitting together, Jason can start talking to Lane about something and Lane will repeat every single thing Jason said to him, to me. Like I'm not sitting right there in the conversation.

Jason: Lane, do you want to go swimming tomorrow when Daddy gets home from work?
Lane: Th-eah! Mom, when Daddy gets home from work, me's go SIM!!"
Jason: Lane, are you going to jump to me and put your face in the water?
Lane: Th-eah! Mom, Mom! Me's put my face in the WATER!!"

And he is so excited he is basically screaming it to me! Very rarely does the child talk in a normal voice. It is usually REALLY loud. Anyways, repeating everything he hears and internalizing the things we say is craziness. About two days ago, I heard Jason in the other room and he said "sh^%!".   Two seconds later "Thit!" Great! On a less extreme case, he tends to say "Oh my goodness!" a lot and in the correct context. He likes to say "Wait a minute, Mom", "No, Mom, I do it!", and "I do it, two more times!" a lot.

After the pool yesterday, he said "No touch my hair, Mom!" and jerked his head away. Really?! We are already there?! Then we got home and I couldn't take off his clothes because he wanted to do it. And I couldn't put on his pajamas because he wanted to do it. While this independence is great, it teaches us parents the true definition of patience because it makes the process take FOREVER! I've done better than I thought with it, but sometimes, I need a reminder that this is a good thing :)

Talking about patience, our new "going to the car" process goes like this. I'm carrying Annabelle in a car seat (which probably weighs about 40 lbs.), the diaper bag, and all the other things needed for where ever we are going. Plus, its 100 degrees outside. We get to the car and I have to unlock the passenger side. Lane has to crawl in the front passenger seat, put my keys in the ignition, wait for me to turn it on, then crawl to the back and into his carseat so I can buckle him in. He says he needs to "help get the car ready". He's going to learn how to drive that thing by the age of 4, I'm sure! I am trying to focus on how much he does want to help me though. He's a great team player. I was outside with Annabelle and my friends baby one day and AB pooped. So I asked Lane to go in and get me a new diaper and the wipes from her room. And he did!

Needless to say, Lane is changing like crazy and I'm loving every minute of the toddler-isms. This is such a fun age.

Annabelle got her second tooth on the bottom. She's been doing really well and napping a little better these days. Thankfully, watching kids play, especially Lane, is full entertainment for her. She usually just goes with the flow (or really, she has no other choice!) and is content. She is rolling both ways right now and is starting to try to bring her knees up one at a time to crawl. But no movement forward yet...just in a circle. She's changing so much! She'll be 7 months on June 16th...can't believe it! She just LOVES her brother and will go into belly laughs at him doing something silly. He in turn, loving the attention, continues and so both kids will be laughing. There could not be a happier or better sound in this entire world than that. Lane always wants her to watch him do something and will turn her head if she doesn't "hear" him. He wants to hold her all the time and likes to lay down next to her, put his arm around her and take pretend naps. It is so freaking cute...for a minute, it makes me want to have another one.   HAHAHAHAHAH!

I just started a beginners photography class on Monday. It's just for 4 Mondays but I was geeking out walking to class on UT's campus. I could have skipped I was so excited! For one, I didn't have any responsibility for 3 hours. Secondly, I was doing something solely for me (selfish, I know). And thirdly, learning something new is so exciting for me. I've also started a movie club with my girlfriends. It's an excuse to watch a movie once a month and to get together and talk about it. However, we have yet to talk about any movie outside of walking out of the movie theater. Usually, we just get together and do what girls do best. It is a great break for all of us!

Before you say "poor Jason", he's still playing soccer twice a week. So he gets a break from us too :)

Tonight, we are taking Lane to Blues on the Green which is a free music concert series that Austin puts on at Zilker Park in the summer. This will be his first concert and we're looking forward to it. AB is staying home with a babysitter as I don't think she'd get as much enjoyment out it as the rest of us - especially since it starts right at her bedtime. Pray for us that we don't melt away outside this evening!

This is Lane's buddy, Keen, who LOVES him some Annabelle.

Buddies til the end

What you talkin' bout Willis?!

Car Ride

2011-05-20T06:50:00.000-05:00

Here is a little story about my car ride yesterday while taking Lane to school...

Both kids were miraculously ready to go by 9 am and Annabelle was getting ready to go down for a nap. Since I had to leave by 9:40 to take Lane to school, I decided to kill two birds with one stone and leave early so Annabelle could nap for a long time in the car, I could drop off some clothes for Goodwill and stuff for the Habitat for Humanity store that has been sitting in my trunk for a month, and then take Lane to school on the way home. I was so excited with the efficiency of this plan, you would have thought I just won the lottery..but that is neither here no there.

We get in the car and head towards the Habitat for Humanity store. I was noticing how it looked like the bottom of the sky was about to drop (which we have been praying for because we need water!) and it was starting to sprinkle. Out of no where...

Lane: It is nice and pretty outside, Mom
Me: Well, it really isn't so nice (Lane cut me off)
Lane: Mommy is pretty

My heart melted right there, all over the car and I decided my day couldn't get any better. Tap...tap...tap...the little turd bird sitting on my shoulder said "Hey Doofus! He just said it was nice and pretty outside and it's about to pour! Either he doesn't know what 'pretty' means, he wants something, or he thinks you look like you're about to lose it." "Shush up, turd bird!"

We finally arrive to where the Habitat store USED to be. Um, throwing a wrench in my super efficient plan, Habitat! So I thought, "Ok, I still have the Goodwill clothes so I'll drop them off on the way to Lane's school which seems like 20 miles away." I figured there HAD to be a Goodwill store between here and there. So we start driving and I stop at a stop light. A homeless man walks in front of my car and stops to oncoming traffic before crossing the street.

Lane: Don't hit that man, Mommy!
Me: I won't hit that man. He's just crossing the street.
Lane: Be weally, weally careful, Mommy!
Me: I will, Lane. I'm stopped and won't go until he crosses the street
Lane: Mommy will have to go to time out!
Me: That's right. If I hit that man, I'll have to go to time out.
Lane: Mommy will get a BIIIIGGGGG spankin!
Me: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH...that's right, Mommy will get more than a big spankin if I hit that man.

We continue driving and driving. We've now been driving for 30 minutes and have not passed a Goodwill - or one that I saw, at least. Annabelle has been asleep in the back. We get to Lane's school and there is 15 minutes before I can check him in. So I decide to keep looking for a Goodwill and pass up his school. I'm wondering if Lane is getting frustrated being in the car for so long (he doesn't act like it but my anxiety bird keeps telling me he could any minute). We're at a stop light and I decide to explain to him that I'm looking for a Goodwill store so I can drop off these clothes for needy people, yadda, yadda, yadda.

Lane: There's one right dare (that is how he says "there")
Me: That isn't a Goodwill store, that is a shopping center. But we'll keep looking, don't worry.

The light turns green. I start to accelerate and I look to my right at the "shopping center" and I'm not kidding, THERE IS A GOODWILL STORE!

Me: LANE, LANE, HAHAHAH, YOU ARE RIGHT BUDDY! There IS a Goodwill store in that shopping center. Thank you, buddy.

Lane just looks at me like "What is all the fuss about? I told you there was one right dare".

Anyways, that car ride was by far the funniest car ride I've had in a long time. I can't wait to see what comes out of little Annabelle's mouth one day.

AB is 1/2 a Year Old!

2011-05-19T21:44:00.000-05:00

My, my..where does the time go?! On Monday, May 16, Annabelle turned 6 months old. It seems like she was born yesterday and now, we're half way until her 1st birthday! I took her to get her checkup today...she weighed 15 lbs 10 oz (50%) and was 27.5 inches (75%) tall. AND she just cut her first tooth! She has been rolling over from back to front and rolls, every once in a while, from front to back. She drools like a water faucet. She laughs hysterically at Lane doing anything and everything. Personally, I think he loves the attention. He loves on her all the time (which is SO SO SO CUTE), however, it only last 45 seconds or so until he's off on a new mission. AND I have noticed that he looks around to make sure we are watching him loving on her :) She likes to practice her death grip on anything she can get her hands on, such as my hair, my food, my glass...anything in her reach. Lane is to the point where if she touches him or grabs his shirt, he says "OW! Attabull pinches me!". Yeah, I can hear it now..."Mom, she touched me!" "Mom, he looked at me!".

Well, here is my 6 month ode to my beautiful daughter....

Dear AB,
This has been a challenging 6 months. I never thought I would have a daughter...and when they told me I was having a little girl, I cried with happiness. I couldn't imagine what or who you were going to look like and I longed to get to know your little personality to see how much alike or different you were than me. Then you were born and I loved you from the get go. At the same time, I can't lie and say I knew how to integrate a new baby into our lives. You would think it would have been a piece of cake, having had a baby before. But it is different on so many levels...

I've never experienced colic before so the first 3 months were a shock, a blur, and not so much fun. I felt bad for you, yet there was no way for me to console you. I walked circles in our house trying to get you to calm down and go to sleep for hours every night. You would only let me hold you...seriously, O-N-L-Y me. It was tough, however, I honestly can't say I remember just how hard it was. Which is a glorious thing :)

Being the second child, you have really just gone where ever I go. And I usually go where ever Lane goes. I don't get the luxury of spending as much quiet, quality time with you like I did with Lane. I regret and feel guilty about that, yet, I don't know how to change it. I try to tell myself that you are going to grow up and hopefully develop a "go with the flow" kind of attitude. And you are so observant. From the very beginning, you liked to be carried facing outwards so you could see what is going on, to which you still like today. I'm hoping that you are learning a lot from everything you see and yet, I also hope you are developing a sense of security and love from being in my arms all the time. Unfortunately for you, Lane gets a lot of attention because (1) he demands it and (2) he can talk. I know you will have your time in 2 years from now. But I just want you to know that even though I talk a lot about Lane, its because of the stage of his life....NOT because I love him more.

One day, I pray that you will have children so you can experience all the craziness that a child brings into your life. It is the most wonderful gift and your biggest life's challenge all wrapped up into one beautiful package. I'm watching you get older and more beautiful every day. I watch all the smiles you give me, especially when I wake you up in the morning. I listen to all the babbling you do and can't wait until you say the words "Mommy, I love you". I watch the way you adore your brother and can't wait for that bond to strengthen as the years go by. I watch your little hands play with your bottle, and I wonder what those hands will be doing 30 years from now. My heart grows with you every day. You are my little girl. My "mini-me". My "lovebug". You are my life and I love you more than words can say. We will still encounter tough times in the future...but just like the past, those too shall pass to make way for new personal growth, happiness, and laughs.

AB snuggling up on her Daddy!

What you talkin' bout, Willis?!

O-sin! Thishes! Crabbies!

2011-05-16T21:09:00.000-05:00

Our first family vacation!

Last week, Lane, Annabelle, Jason, myself, Jessie, Jerod, Mom, Dennis, Rainey and Amy all met up in Destin for a week at the beach. The beach was soft, the water was crystal clear, the temperature was perfect, and there weren't a lot of people - it was amazing! What a way to spend Mother's Day :)

Mother's Day 2011 - could I ask for anything more?!

Before we left, I was concerned on how Lane was going to be on the airplane and in a multi-million dollar home with minimal toys. And at the end of the day, I couldn't have asked for a better behaved kid. He loved the airplane...other than when it had to go fast to get off the ground - he kept saying "Daddy, no go thast!". And then he would grab his hand.

The day we got there, we decided to take a walk to check out the beach. I didn't know if Lane was going to like the beach or ocean (or as he calls it, the o-sin) as some kids get freaked out. Let's just say that people sitting on the beach probably thought we gave the kid a pan of brownies and a red bull. He was all over the place and the look of joy on his face melted my heart. He kept running into the ocean to chase the waves...to the point where he was soaked and I was planning on how I was going to get a life jacket before the next morning. He had no fear.

Lane, Rainey, and Jason jumping waves

Lane and Shoshie


Me and my Bubbies

Lane and Daddy playing in the pool

Lane loving on Rainey!

Best Buds...

The funny thing is that I didn't really worry about Annabelle beforehand, yet she was the one who had a harder time than the rest of us. She was pretty good for the most part. I'd take her to the beach and sit under the umbrella for 15-20 minutes and then the crying would begin. Which means back up to the house for us. Thankfully, my mom REALLY helped me out with watching her throughout the week so I could go play with Lane and Jason. I'm not sure what the deal was with her. I am really struggling because I'm so used to being able to talk and communicate with Lane...and then when she cries, I get so frustrated because I don't know what she needs. It's not her fault, which makes me feel like a horrible mother. I know babies cry as their only means of communicating, but sometimes I let it get the best of me. I need to figure out a way to kick myself when I start getting frustrated. On a positive note, she slept really well at night and she looked SO cute in her swimsuits. And again, she really was pretty good - she deserves some credit :)

Me and my pink flamingo!

Could she be ANY cuter? My little watermelon :)

Annabelle and I on Mother's Day

Annabelle and Shoshie spending quality time together

Rainey also helped out with entertaining AB

We really just hung out at the house and on the beach for most of the week. Lane was definitely into jumping the waves with Jason and building sand castles...sometimes he was in the "sand castle zone" and we wouldn't hear from him for a while. Which then made me wonder if it would be possible to turn our entire backyard into a gigantic sandbox :)

On Wednesday, Amy, Rainey, Dennis, Mom, Jason, and I went to Panama City to swim with a dolphin at Gulf World. I've always wanted to do it and now, I can say I have! Indy was our dolphin and she was so beautiful. They are wonderful animals and I can only imagine what it would be like to work with one on a daily basis.

Dennis and Mom cooked yummy meals every night and we enjoyed our clam diggers, beer, and wine during the day and evenings.


Annabelle helping Pappa D grill some tuna

A couple of evenings after dinner, we went out to find sand crabs (or what Lane calls "crabbies"). Jason was the "Crab Master" in snagging the little pinchers. They all looked the same...except for one in particular. When Jason flipped the net over to let him out, he landed on the sand with a thunk and all these little silver fish came out of his mouth. It was crazy!

Jessie is due in 6 weeks!!

BFFs

A big thank you to Mom and Dennis for inviting all of us to share their vacation with them! It was a blast!!

Happy Easter!

2011-05-01T14:54:00.000-05:00

Easter was a pretty non event for us this year. Lane had two egg hunts (one at school and one at home) and the Easter bunny came to see him and Annabelle, along with some gifts from Mimi and Mrs. Boots next door. Other than that, it was pretty low key. These pictures were taken at church. Finn is my friend Molly's son who is exactly one month older than Annabelle and is in the same class for church and MOPS. So we had to get pictures in their Sunday best. Then we realized that Annabelle couldn't sit up by herself (oops!) and so we had to coax Lane to get in there. As you can tell, he wasn't very thrilled to be sitting down. He wanted to climb the tree so bad!

Things have been going pretty well here at the Butler casa. We are going to Florida in a week (with both kids) and I'm completely looking forward to a change of scenery and vacation! I can't believe summer is already here!

We've decided to go ahead and add on a master bedroom suite to our house (YIKES!). The architect is working on the final plans and then we'll start bidding it out. I am very excited and at peace with this decision, as most of you know its been an idea for a long, long time. However, this project will probably take 4-6 months and that just means utter chaos at the house. I can only imagine what type of trouble Lane can get it with all the construction going on.

On a side note, I'm not sure how many of you read this blog. At the same time, I don't of those people how many are book readers. But I read this book called Heaven Is for Real by Todd Burpo. It is a true story about a 4 year old boy (Todd's son) who died, went to heaven, and came back telling his parents what he experienced. It is an AMAZING book to say the least. I would recommend everyone reading it as it is very uplifting when it comes to what happens after we die. And it shows you that no one is immune to hard times, not even pastors and priests. But that if we have faith, we can make it through.

Sorry for the last few blah posts...but we've just been living. Nothing exciting yet very enjoyable for me and I hope for Jason and the kids. I'm working on my grandparents book (slowly, but surely) and just signed up for photography classes in June, which I'm totally looking forward to. Life is good!

2 Going on 18

2011-04-21T21:19:00.001-05:00

We've had a time trying to get Lane back in the routine of having rules and eating non-sweets after staying with his grandparents for a week. He had a ball and did not like coming back home to rules :( Parents are so mean, I know. After a week, he's finally getting back to old Lane. And Annabelle is being as sweet as she can be! She turned 5 months old on Saturday - unbelievable. Lane on the other hand turned 18 in the last week. He is too smart for me for my little white "lies" and that kind of puts a mom in a bind.

Today, we were in Walgreens standing in a super long line to get an Easter basket for his school's Easter egg hunt. We were late and I didn't have time to dilly dally with all the toys on the shelves, etc. We're standing in line and he runs over to a display that had balloons tied on top. He said "Mom, I want hold balloons." To divert a temper tantrum, I told him that they were too high and I couldn't reach them. To which my 2 year old replied "Go get a ladder, Mom". Um...ok.

Last night, we were talking at the dinner table. Out of no where, Lane says "Rock and roll, Dad". Jason choked on his chicken (literally) and started laughing. I said "Lane, do you know what that means?". And he said "Yeah, go bye bye". "Rock and roll" is what Jason tells Lane when they are ready to go do something, like go to Home Depot or the gym. (A) I can't believe he made that connection (B) I didn't even know he knew what "do you know what that means" means and (C) what was going on in that big head of his that made him say that.

A couple of days ago, he comes walking in the room with a blackberry on one ear and cell phone on the other. This is what the kids of their generation are going to be like...technology coming out of their ears :) I remember when my mom and dad used to tell me that I had a phone growing out of my ear when I was younger because I was on the phone all the time. Well, let's just say that I wasn't 2 years old and I only had one phone in my ear. I've corrupted my kid!!

Last weekend, I switched out Annabelle's 3 month old wardrobe with her 6 month wardrobe. SHE HAS THE CUTEST DRESSES! I'm so glad its warm enough to put her in all of them. Oh, this is going to be so fun! Anyways, I decided to put on a little bow band (is that what they are called?) that matched her outfit. No more Olivia Newton John...just cute, cute, cute! The bow on the band makes all the difference. She wore it all day (which I couldn't believe it stayed on!) because I thought that is what you did with bow bands. I never thought that you put a little hair decor on your child for a limited amount of time. Well, let me tell you, I took it off before she went to bed and she had this HUGE red spot where the bow was. That was Sunday. It is Thursday and it is still there. It now looks like a big mosquito bite but its still red nonetheless. Is this normal?!

Today, Lane had an Easter egg hunt at school. Afterwards, I invited some of my friends and their kiddos over to have another one at our house. Kerri and Colin are officially Austinites again (yeah, yeah, yeah!!). But this time, they came with a new family addition, baby Sloane. So Kerri came to her first playdate with Sloane (who is now 6 weeks old), Claire came over with her 3 boys, Mandy came with her 20 month old Colin and baby bump, and Jamie came over with Chloe who is Lane's age. The kids had a great time playing in the backyard which gave us mommies lots of time to sit and chat. Even the little ones gave us a break.

I caught Sloane smiling!!

Earlier this week, I took Lane to Zilker park again to ride the train. This time, Jessica and Liam and Jamie and Chloe came with us. Annabelle was such a trooper. She didn't make a peep the entire time we were gone - to where I honestly forgot I had her a couple of times! I'm not sure how impressed she was with the ride...she fell asleep ;)

Family...

2011-04-11T22:03:00.002-05:00

Last Thursday, I drove to Houston with both kids. We spent the night there and Friday, Annabelle and I took off to Kansas City so I could throw Jessie a baby shower. Lane got to stay with Mimi and Pa in Houston. Jason was in Austin until Monday and then he was flying to Vegas for work for the week (or that's what he says ;)!

This was Annabelle's first airplane ride. You should have seen me as I got to the airport and got out of the car (thankfully Mr. B dropped me off). I had Annabelle, a stroller, a very large suitcase, a carseat, a backpack, and a diaper bag. No joke! So I paid a porter to take my suitcase and carseat. Then I went through the security line where I had to put 2 bags, 2 bins, and a stroller through the xray machine all while holding Annabelle. Yeah, I couldn't do it. So I asked a perfectly nice stranger to hold my child while I folded the stroller. I then had to ask another perfectly nice stranger at the gate to hold her as I folded the stroller again. She cried a little on the plane but mostly slept, which was nice. When we got to KC, I was so ready to relax I just picked up my stroller and carried it in one hand and Annabelle in the other.

The shower was really nice, thanks to my Mom and Aunt Jeanne! There were about 12 of us there and it was really intimate. I had so much fun visiting with my Mom, Aunt Jeanne, Aunt Linda, and cousin Natalie. And Jess got some really cute stuff too!

Later that night, we celebrated Layla's 5th birthday with the whole family. Being that she's the only great granddaughter in this family, she was very excited to meet Annabelle! And Annabelle loved playing with her.

Grandma and Grandpa came over, as did cousin Katie and Dan. Katie is due any minute with a little boy! So we had to take some pictures of she and Jess with their bellies. Natalie has a 7 week old and I had Annabelle so we jumped in with them.

This is also the first time Annabelle got to meet her great Grandma and Grandpa Goos. I decided to stay through Wednesday so I could interview my grandparents and one day, write their lives down in a book. And I can't tell you how interesting our conversations have been! There are so many things I don't know much about historically that I also plan on researching - like WWI, WWII, the depression, polio, etc. - with the thought that if I don't know about these things, chances are, my kids won't either when they read the book one day.

Annbelle has been such a good baby and, I think, has really loved all the attention.

Tonight, after our interviews, Poppy cooked me some of his infamous french toast for dinner! I love his french toast and never eat it so I basically gorged myself. We had french toast, some sausage thing that looked like a hot dog, some fruit, and wine. HAHAHAHAHA! It was awesome!

Lane, apparently, has been having a ball during his vacation. One day, they played outside for a total of 8 hours! And his grandparents took him to the zoo today. He doesn't have too much to say when I call. However, today, I got 5 "Me see rhinos" and 3 "Me ride BIG choo choo". I know when I see him he's going to have grown so much.

I must say that through visiting with everyone this weekend, I can not tell you how thankful I am for my family. Without family, what do we do? They are our history. They are our future. They are our support. They are our friends. They know our secrets. They teach us life lessons. They love us unconditionally. It's not always easy to maintain a family relationship - in fact, it is hard work. But just like a marriage, it totally pays off. I have so many happy memories that involve my family that I can only hope my kids have the same one day. At the end of the day, family is all you have. So a big THANK YOU for a wonderful weekend and lots of memories.

Bubbies and Sissy

2011-04-05T19:59:00.000-05:00

Annabelle ADORES Lane...and you know Lane loves the attention. For a brief second, this makes me want to have more kids (years from now!). Then the feeling passed :)

Trucking Along

2011-04-04T20:35:00.000-05:00

We are trucking along here at the Butler house fairly well these days. Annabelle's crying has basically ceased unless she's tired or hungry. Lane is turning into a little boy and saying the funniest stuff. And we have three vacations coming up so I'm especially happy! This Thursday, I'm driving to Houston to drop Lane off at Mimi and Pa's house. Then Annabelle and I are going to Kansas City for Jess' baby shower. I'm going to spend a few extra days in Kansas City to visit with my grandparents so I'll be gone for a week. Jason is flying to Vegas next Monday for 4 days of work...working the casinos and IBM expenses, I'm sure :)

For some recent pics of the kiddos...Annabelle tried her first solids on Saturday. I have been procrastinating giving her cereal because it requires you to mix it with formula - that is just one extra step that I just couldn't figure out where to fit within a 24 hour period. Then someone told me they went straight to fruits and veggies and nixed the cereal. So I fed her some of Andrew's left over carrots and she LOVED them, to say the least. Her legs were kicking 90 miles an hour, she was grasping for the spoon, and she was sucking down those carrots like nobody's business.

That same night, the Bergers were over with all their kids to eat and then the Dads were going to watch the basketball game. The little boys played in the sandbox, rode the tractor, played trains, dug in the dirt, and transported dirt in all the dump trucks. Lane WAS FILTHY! I think the dirt on his face and hands was glued on from the BBQ sauce left over from dinner.

All the boys being silly with their dump trucks and the lawnmower.

We decided to put them all in the bath before infecting their car on the way home. I wish you could have seen how blackish yellow the water was :) BUT they had fun and were tired out! Mission accomplished!

By the end of the weekend, Jason and I were pooped. Apparently so was Annabelle :) So I was able to get this picture of them sleeping.

Today, Lane was riding his lawnmower (see previous post) and I asked him if he wanted to put his blue ball in the trailer and take it for a ride. And he said no, he wanted to put the basketball in. So he got off the tractor, put the basketball in the trailer and got back on. He proceeded to tell me "I go shopping, Mom. Me go Home Depot and ride two lawnmowers. One geen one and one lellow one. I come back, Mom. Bye, Mom". And he pushed the gas and took off. I stood there doubled over in hysterics. Where does he come up with this?!

Lane's New Diggs...

2011-04-04T17:57:00.000-05:00

5 Years!

2011-04-02T07:47:00.000-05:00

That is how long I have been married to my best friend as of March 25, 2011. I can't believe it has been 5 years! Part of me thinks that doesn't sound very long which then conflicts with the other part of me that feels like I've known Jason my entire life.

Even though there is no such thing as perfect, I have to say that Jason brings a happiness and peace to my life that I never knew existed. He is the epitome of unconditional love, patience, and kindness. He is an amazing father, a caring husband, and a wonderful friend. He's my sunshine when I'm dark. He's my hope in my despair. He's my "Hail Mary" when I know I've been defeated! I am honored that Jason chose me to spend his life with and I look forward to spending the rest of my life and eternity with him by my side.

Enough, you say? So what did we do? Jason had this great surprise plan that didn't quite pan out as he expected but was perfect in my eyes. He drove to the Botanical Gardens where he proposed and was planning on re-proposing but it was closed to the public on that day due to an event they were having the next day. So to improvise, he decided he'd go to the Umlauf Gardens instead...only to find out it was closed for the same event! So we ended up going to Auditorium Shores on Lady Bird Lake and sharing a bottle of champagne while talking about our life (I know you are all gagging because of the shmoopiness but hey, it was romantic). Jason made me a book with pictures from the last 5 years of our life. It was actually funny because I kept noticing pictures in our picture frames were one by one being removed throughout the house...tee hee hee. And then I wrote him a letter and started a journal for him that I vowed to write letters to him throughout the next year or so. I know that isn't the best gift for a man. However, I couldn't think of something to buy him that he didn't have or that he wanted. I mean, seriously..."Happy Anniversary! Here is a new wheelbarrow that I know you've been wanting!". I took the more sentimental route. Yet, I wrote an entry in it yesterday and he was just chomping at the bits wanting to read it. I guess it wasn't the worst thing on earth to give him ;)

Then we went and had sushi and some saki. Um..Yum!