New Orleans 2010

We had a wonderful time in New Orleans this past weekend. Heath enjoyed his 40th birthday on Bourbon Street, but it wasn't nearly as wild and crazy as trips past. The kiddos had a great time, but thankfully were oblivious to the majority of the craziness.

Jackson's recent obsession with coinage was unfortunate however. ANYTHING that's been on the actual street of Bourbon Street should not come into contact with human hands until it's been blow torched clean. Connie and I were working hard at not gagging!

We did have a fantastic trip and I managed to get some great photos of the boys for our Christmas card!

Merry Memories Chartreuse Christmas Card

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The Best Summer Yet

With every passing year, I feel like I say things along the lines of "this is the best (school year, Christmas, etc.) yet." As much as I hope the trend continues, this IS by far, the BEST summer yet. Both boys are at a terrific age. Jackson is 6 1/2 and Grant 4 1/2 (going on 6 1/2)! Thanks to the wonderful swim teachers at Houston Swim Club where Jack and Grant have attended since they were 2, they are fully capable swimmers and best of all, I don't necessarily have to be in the water with them! Finally I can sit on the side of the pool and watch their antics without being in fear of losing my bathing suit top from one of them clinging to me like baby monkeys.

And aside from Grant breaking his arm THE DAY after school was out for the summer, he's been relatively calm. One ER trip is not too shabby in comparison to the 4 we had two summers ago. He was able to get a waterproof cast and was not slowed down one bit. The weekend after school let out we took the boys to SeaWorld with our good friends Angie and Todd Drouin and their two little girls, Ava and Kate. Ava and Jack are the same age and Kate and Grant are too so both kids have perfect playmates. Jack and Grant LOVED SeaWorld, especially the killer whales. The killer whale trainer wore a necklace with a carved wooden whale tail (this was surely a gimmick to sell the same $20 necklace that was in all the shops to all the tourists). My sweet boy Jackson came home and immediately begin drawing whale tails on paper and cutting them out, punching holes in the top and then wearing them on a string around his neck.

Jackson's been able to do several camps this summer and has thoroughly enjoyed almost all of them. He's done a movie camp, a clay workshop camp, baseball camp and most recently an art camp. The baseball camp was a struggle, it was quite warm outside and it just wasn't really his thing. But he's been having a great time and it keeps him busy.

At the beginning of the summer Grant forgot, as I'm sure most little kids do, that he could swim. He kicked and screamed and was sure he would drown if he even stuck a toe in the water. He was supposedly on the neighborhood swim team the "Gators" but needless to say was asked politely to retire as he kicked the coach mercilessly when put in the water. After that, Heath went swimming with him one time and he remembered. Now it's all I can do to keep him from constantly doing flips off the side of the pool. He's a fish. The only bad thing about that is that this summer at the beach it was a little harder to keep up with him as the fear was gone.

In June we were invited to the Krhovjak's lake house on Lake McQueeney. This was only a week after the flood that nearly devastated the area and we were so pleased that their house suffered no harm. The boat house had water in it and the pontoon boat went over the dam, but the new ski boat had yet to be delivered and was thus spared. It was a wonderful trip, Keely and I succesfully took all four kids (she has two little girls) to SeaWorld to the waterpark and I'm thankful to report that there were no incidents.

In July we packed up the Suburban and the kiddos and drove the 13+ hours to Florida to visit my parents. We had a great time there and the boys loved the beach. The great thing about the east coast is that the water is nice and cold. Great for when the temp is in the upper 90s. The beach there is very big, meaning that from the dunes to the water, even at high tide, it's probably about 50 yards. The kids had a great time building sand castles and looking for the "perfect" shells too. They had a great time on the boogie boards and most of all "fighting" the waves, which they did by running head-on into the surf slashing the waves with their plastic swords. I'm sure my parents enjoyed their visit and we had a wonderful time too.

Half-way back to Texas we stopped in WaterColor on Santa Rosa Beach on the "Emerald Coast" portion of the Gulf. Some good friends of ours rented a house their last year and we were so in love with the place that we decided to rent a house there for a week this year. Heath's parents stayed with us and we had a wonderful trip. It's like going back in time for me, it is so similiar to Cape Cod except of course for the heat. Where Destin, 40 miles away, is high rises and neon signs and tourist shops, WaterColor and it's sister Seaside are bungalow houses with wraparound porches, quaint street lights and bicyclists. WaterColor boasts at least 5 different pools that I know of all of which are quite appealing to the kids. Waking up and drinking my coffee on the porch before setting out on our bikes for a ride to either the beach or the pool was heaven.

We were so blessed this summer with so many wonderful vacations. I have always half dreaded the summer with thoughts of "what am I going to do with the kiddos?" This summer was amazing and now I'm so happy with the thought that it's only two more weeks long:)

Mutton Bustin' 2010

So Saturday was our annual pilgrimage to the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo with the kiddos. This was Jackson's second time to compete in the Mutton Bustin' event (inside the stadium) and he was all fired up to ride. The day started out great with Jackson and Grant and their friends Ava and her sister Kate going to the carnival. Jack, Ava and Kate rode a ton of rides, Grant watched from the sidelines, not quite brave enough. I'm not sure what his thing is, I think it's a control issue. Grant is the biggest daredevil on HIS terms, ie, jumping from great heights, riding a bike at top speed, etc. When it comes to riding carnival rides he's the biggest chicken on the block. In the picture to the left he's cheering his brother on from the safety of Grandpa Mike's lap.




Jackson got all suited up and then had a change of heart. He wasn't so sure that he really wanted to get on that sheep after standing behind the chutes and seeing how unhappy those sheep were to be standing there. To a 39 lb 6 year old I think it was a bit like looking at the bulls he just saw the bullriders on. Daddy gave him a big pep talk, and it didn't hurt that we mentioned the belt buckle he was going to get. He decided to give it a go.

My friend Angie took this picture and I just love it. It's a picture of the jumbotron over the arena and the only bad thing about this picture is that my baby is upside down under a sheep! But it was so exciting to see his name and picture up there on the big screen!
This is Jackson on the way home from the rodeo. Both my little cowboys were wiped out!

February Catch-Up

February...I'm glad to see it end! By February every year I'm exhausted. Most people can settle down from the stresses of Christmas sometime in January, but for me, the stress goes on until the end of February. I'm planning Jackson's January birthday party before Christmas and since the boys' birthdays are only 4 weeks apart, the minute Jackson's ends, I'm planning Grant's! Couple that with a husband who is very active in the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo (HLSR) and you have a very busy family!
As you can see, Grant's birthday was a hit. We had it at the gymnastics center and all the kiddos had a great time playing on all the equipment. I'm sure all the moms loved going home with their worn-out little guys. Lots of red faces!

Also this month we were blessed to be invited by our neighbors to go sailing with them down in the bay. The boys had a great time, Jackson was more impressed with the cabin than the deck! Grant loved sitting on the back seat with the wind blowing...and boy did it blow! This trip was especially nice since Heath was out of town and the boys were getting antsy around the house.

Heath was able to take part this year in the Salt Grass Trail Ride. This is a 50 year old HLSR tradition and it is enormous! About 2000 people participate and ride horse or mule drawn covered wagons and horseback from Catsprings, TX to downtown Houston over the period of about a week. I think it's about 90 miles or so. Heath and his dad have done a few of the preliminary rides and this year joined Wagon 6 for the first few days. I'm sure he would love to do the whole ride in the future with one or both boys! The next weekend was the HLSR Barbeque Cookoff and that's a pretty big deal in our family. From set up on Tuesday to clean up on Sunday it's a whirlwind party. The best way it can be described is "Cowboy Mardi Gras." We have a wonderful time with all of our family and friends and about a week later my house stops smelling like a campfire!

So, with the end of February comes of course the beginning of March and that's just a whole new set of activities! The rodeo gets in full swing tomorrow, March 2nd and Heath will begin work on his "Horspitality" committee this weekend. Jackson will be participating again this year in the Mutton Bustin' competition on March 13th and we'll have Heath's cousin and her two boys in town as well. My sister, neice and my parents will be in at the end of March and the boys are so excited to see their cousin Lucy Goosey!

So, on your mark, get set....MARCH!

February Catch-Up

I haven't updated this site in so long, I doubt anyone even bothers to look at it anymore. On the off chance that one of you, my friends and family, does decide to stop and look us up I thought I'd try again.

Blogging reminds me so much of my pre-teen diary days. I still have those diaries and I always get a giggle when I see so many skipped dates. Especially when there are entries like "sorry, so busy!" I mean what could I have possible been so busy with at 14? And even more questionable, why did I bother to write an apology to a piece of paper? Maybe that apology was really to my future self. The 36 year old me fondly looking back in time trying to see what that younger me was all about. "Sorry, 14 year old me is to busy to remind 37 year old me what I was doing in 1987." I digress.

What HAS kept me so busy lately is the care and keeping of two little boys. Little boys that before my eyes have more in common every day with big boys. Out with Thomas the Train, in with Star Wars and Bakugan. Quiet play is out and battles and brawls are in. You'd think that it wouldn't be in one fell swoop like this. You'd think that with a four year old still around we'd still be in sort of a babyland. but alas, no one told me that the second is a baby for even a shorter period than the first. While at four Jackson was still a sweet little baby who loved Thomas the Tank engine and sitting in my lap he's moved on to wilder things like light-saber battles and Bakugan brawls. Grant, instead of staying behind has moved right along with him. It's bye-bye PBS and Disney and hello Nickleodeon and Cartoon Network.

You can regularly find the boys locked in a wrestling position on the floor or swinging light sabers while shouting "come on Captain Rex let's go shoot the bad guys!" My personal favorite is the other day when while playing Star Wars, Grant yelled "come on Anakin we've got to save Obi-Wan...he's got a boo-boo."

So here I am, the product of parents who raised two sweet docile little girls, with two hell raising little boys. Well, one really. Jackson is a romper room doobie, but Grant'll give the devil a run for his money. I called a friend recently who has 3 boys for advice, she at least assured me that they're not abnormal. My mother has a saying that unless you have more than one child you do not have "children" ie, you know "who did it" etc. My own personal philosophy has expanded that now to be that unless you have more than one boy, you don't have boys.

Anyway, for recent updates...

Jackson is doing great in kindergarten this year. He loves school and his teacher and his friends in his class. Apparently he is some little girl's "boyfriend." I say it this way because he announced at dinner last night that Ashlyn broke up with him. I was a little taken aback because it seemed so odd coming out of my 6 year old's mouth. I asked him if he was okay with that and he said "yeah, I didn't even know we were together anyway" and "she told me I was her boyfriend again later at recess." Young love. I suppose I shouldn't worry though because he did tell Ashlyn that she was only one of his girlfriends, his nana and his mommy were the other two. What a juxtaposition!

Grant is happily bouncing along through pre-k three's this year. It dawned on me recently that by this age Jack was writing his name as well as knew the entire alphabet, so we've been working on that a lot recently. I'm proud to report that now he can write all the letters in his name, although not always in the correct order and he knows every letter but U and V. Oh, and at his parent teacher conference we were a bit worried when Mrs. Edwards told us he only knew 5 of 8 shapes, that is until we found out the shapes that had him stumped were octagon, hexagon and rhombus. Neither Heath nor I are worried anymore.

Both boys are enjoying playing soccer right now, we have our first game on Saturday. It should be a riot as they've only had one practice and neither has any idea how to play the game. Jackson told us the rules, no hands and kick toward the goal. He now knows as much as we do about soccer. Grant is a true little athlete and is just great to watch. He is as strong and focused as he can be and it's so fun to see him really doing something he loves. The same goes for gymnastics. Against my original hesitations, I enrolled both boys in gymnastics. Grant's been taking for about a year and is loving it. Jackson's been taking a few months and likes it too, but mainly he likes just goofing off with the other boys in his class. Mommy likes it because I get to watch Olympian silver medalist Jonathan Horton work out. It's amazing. Well, hopefully I've caught up a bit, no way to do 6 months in one blog, I guess we'll just go from here!