Princesses and Poop

A few weeks ago, Mia and I were looking at a Playmobil catalog that had a beautiful princess castle in it. We were looking at all the accessories and I commented on the *royal bathroom* that you could get. Mia immediately looked at me and said "Oh, you wouldn't need that because Princesses don't poop." She mentioned this a few more times over the last few weeks, and regardless of how many times Kyle or I told her that "everyone poops!!", she insisted that princesses were an exception to the rule. Well, last night we were talking about it again and she finally said "Fine! Princesses DO poop....but only on shiny potties!" I'm glad we got that cleared up!!!

And here is a picture of our little princess who, for the record, DOES poop!! :)

Weekend fun!

We had a busy weekend....well, at least the boys did. Kyle spent time with Colton and Alex this weekend, doing all kinds of fun things. They went to Austin Park and Pizza (where they spent the day playing miniature golf, riding go-carts, bumper boats, playing lazer tag, climbing rock walls, playing endless arcade games, and eating pizza!!!). They had a blast!! He also took them to a local river to see some dinosaur footprints and then to Bull Creek (in Austin) where they hiked around and played in the water. They had so much fun and came back tired, wet...and a little stinky! :) I don't have any pictures - Kyle didn't take the camera. So, instead, I will just post this cute picture of my little boys.

I can't believe that Mason is 9 months old!! Gosh, before you know it, we will be celebrating his first birthday (sniff, sniff).

Alex is flying out tomorrow. We have had a great time with him! I am so glad that his parents decided to send him out for a visit. It was so good for the cousins to spend time together. We are all going to be sad to see him go...but I know his family has missed him!

Fun Friday!!!

We had another fun filled day! We went bowling - and I was really impressed with the bowling alley. It was the nicest bowling alley I have been in. Erica (our fabulous babysitter) came with us and was such a huge help. While I was pacing with Mason, she helped the little ones bowl and cheered the big kids on!! Everyone had a great time! Some thing we learned:
*we bowl much better on the nintendo wii
*buying food at the bowling alley is equivalent to the cost of buying treats at the movies
*it's a good idea not to let go of the ball while your arm is swinging back! (hehe - Colton)
*it's also a good idea to be standing close to the line when you let go of the ball (hehe - Alex)
*no matter how many pins we knock down, bowling is FUN!!!!
All the kids were such good sports - even when there were several frames in a row filled with gutter balls!! We all had a good time and can't wait to go back again! Of course, there's a chance they may not allow us to come back. Right at the end of our game (while I was busy nursing Mason and Erica was helping Mia bowl), Caden decided to just drop his pants!!! Yep, including his underwear!! I'm not sure what prompted that, but he thought it was funny. Needless to say, we were quick to pack up and head out! :)












Notice who had the high score.....MIA!!! Of course, it helps when you get to use those ramps!!

Bowling is pretty exhausting!!

As if a fun filled day of bowling isn't enough, Kyle took the kids to see Wall-E after we went out to eat some Mexican food!! Mason and I didn't go to the movies, so I stayed home and enjoyed a quiet house. :) They LOVED the movie and got cute little Wall-E watches when they bought their tickets. Caden has been walking around all day saying "Waaaaaallll-eeeeee" (I guess that's from a scene in the movie).

Extreme Fun!

What a fun day!! We went to Extreme Fun and the kids had a blast! The kids favorite was the big slides and the pit full of foam blocks.

Once Caden discovered the slide, he probably went down it at least 30 times!! He loved it!!

They had so much fun in the foam pit. Alex built some neat castles and forts with the blocks. But I think their favorite part was jumping into the pit!

They had a little toddler area that Mason loved! He crawled all around it- with the biggest smile on his face. Oh, and while we were there, Alex lost a tooth!! He came out of the bathroom and said "Do you notice anything different about me?" He was so excited! Then he said, "I wonder how much a molar costs, because I'm gonna put this under my pillow tonight!!!!" Ummm...I think I need to consult the tooth fairy in Utah and see what the going rate for a tooth is! :)

The kids really had a great time and it was nice to get out of the heat - although they were all red-faced and sweaty when we left! Afterwards, we went to Sonic and got ice cream. And Alex informed me that I was the *coolest Aunt in the world*!! (sorry, Janette!!) :)

Fun in the hot Texas sun!!!

After a relaxing morning of legos and jumping on the trampoline, we headed to the pool in our babysitter's neighborhood. We have the best babysitter in the world!! She and her mom offered to go swimming with the big kids so I could go home and give Caden and Mason a much needed nap. Colton, Alex, and Mia had a blast!!! They were there all afternoon and didn't want to come home!

Here are the boys giving each other bunny ears and jumping off the side of the pool.

Colton and Alex were like fish in the water!!

Mia just adores Erica and had a great time swimming with her.

After swimming, we decided to head over to one of our favorite restaurants....RUDY'S!!! You can't come to Texas without eating BBQ from Rudy's! Alex was so excited to go and don't worry Cristy, we will be sending him home with a big bottle of their sauce. :)

All the kids in front of Rudy's

Everyone enjoying sausage, brisket, corn and beans.....followed by yummy oreo pudding!!

I went to Rudy's and I all I got was a plastic spoon!!

Happy kids ready to go home! With Alex here, we have a full minivan of kiddos!! :)

You know you've had a LONG night.....

....when your baby goes down for his morning before all the other kids even wake up!!

Yesterday

We had a fun day yesterday! Colton and Alex spent most of the morning building legos, playing Bionicles, destroying cities (that they built with wooden blocks) with Transformer's, and bulding more legos!! Then they all went outside and jumped on the trampoline - with the sprinkler underneath. That's one of my kids favorite things to do! After lunch, we went to the library to see the Critterman. And yes, he had all sorts of critters with him - not the cute kind, but the kind that make you squirm!! The kids loved it! Their favorite was the black scorpion and the python (which they got to touch!!). Afterwards, we went to Sonic and got slushes!! And, of course, more lego building for the boys when we got home. :) We had a relaxing evening filled with Star Wars, spaghetti, and (according to Alex) the *best* brownies in the world!!

Here are some pictures from the day. I forgot my camera when we went to see Critterman!! My friend, Christina, may have gotten a picture - if so, I'll post it later!!

Playing legos!! Alex was real sweet and offered to help Caden build his lego zoo.

Having fun with legos!! I could just eat him up!!!

Enjoying Sonic slushes!!!

Trying to scare me with his *growl*!

Cousin Alex!

We are so excited! My nephew, Alex, flew in from Utah last night to spend a week with us. I promised my brother that I would post daily updates and pictures. I know they are going to miss him, but I am so glad they sent him! Thanks so much, Mike and Cristy!

Picking him up from the airport turned out to be quite the drama! When kids fly alone, one person is designated to go meet them at the gate. Well, my brother designated me. All I had to do was check in with Delta, show them my photo ID, and get a pass that would allow me to go back and meet Alex at the gate. Since only one person could go back to meet him, I went to the airport alone and Kyle waited at home with all the kids. Well, I got over half way to the airport (which is 45 minutes away) and realized that I didn't have my wallet!!!!!!!!! I was in quite a panic!! I knew they wouldn't be able to release Alex to me without my photo ID. I called Kyle and told him he needed to throw the kids in the van and high tail it to the airport!!! Of course, first he had to locate my wallet, which took several, several minutes. (I finally remembered where it was - I had gone to a scrapbook night on Saturday and left my wallet in my big scrap case.) So, Kyle drove down to the airport to bring me my wallet (thank you so much, honey!!!). THEN, I went inside and couldn't find a single Delta employee!!! Their ticket counter had closed at 7pm (and it was 8:30pm) and there wasn't anyone in their baggage claim office. I talked to some employees from other airlines and was pretty much told that there was nothing they could do to help me. I had to get a pass from a Delta employee. They couldn't even call back to the gate to let them know that I was there ( I guess one airline can't call another airlines gates?). I was directed to a pager phone, where I had a Delta employee paged - but noone ever came!! I finally just called a Delta number with my cell phone and they told me they would just escort Alex down to meet me at baggage claim. Luckily, his plane was a few minutes late so all of this took place before he even landed. He arrived safely and was escorted down to meet me.

When we got home, Alex went straight back to Colton's room and they immediately started playing legos!!! I brought them some snacks and they ate while they played. They were up pretty late last night and then woke up at 7:45am this morning. I have a feeling we're going to have some tired kiddos later today!!

Here they are last night building bionicles!

Sweet boy!

Just had to post some pictures of my sweet baby boy. I can't believe he's almost 9 months old! He is getting so big and is so much fun - despite the fact that he is back on a newborn sleep schedule at night. He has been waking up to nurse every 1 1/2 to 2 hours! I know he doesn't really need to eat that often (I mean, look at him - he doesn't miss a meal during the day!!). If we get a 3 hour sleep stretch from him, we consider ourselves VERY lucky!! Thank goodness I have an amazing hubby who very willingly gets up with him during the night and always lets me sleep in on the weekends.

How could anyone resist that sweet face? :)