Birthday Season!!!!

We are working our was through Birthday season in our house...three down, one to go:) Poor Luke...he's going to start wondering why everyone he knows (including Aunt Kel and Aunt Key) get a birthday and he doesn't!

Craig was on March 7 and we had lots of fun celebrating for two weekends in a row. We went to dinner the weekend before with my parents and my Aunt Patty to Olive Garden and had good fun, great presents and a fantastic cake that turned our mouths really fun colors (as well as Luke's diapers for the next two days)!!! On his actual birthday weekend, we had dinner at the best BBQ restaurant in Texas(made famous on Food Network AND Travel Channel...The Salt Lick) on Saturday night with Kelly, Chris and Emma. Some of the people in our group made good use of the All you Can Eat BBQ:) Finally, on his actual birthday we had breakfast at Denny's (highly recommend on your birthday...FREE Grand Slam breakfast, FREE dessert AND they sing to you!!!) followed by dinner at Benihana with Craig's dad (and the boys LOVED it!!!).

Note...following Craig's multiple celebrations...we are in desperate need of some dieting!!!

Today was the dual celebration of me and my Moose:) We woke up nice and early (thanks Luke at 5:15) and Matt was super surprised to see the "biggest cupcake in the whole world" made just for him and served as his breakfast! The rest of us got to enjoy normal sized ones so we all had a yummy breakfast:) Breakfast was followed by presents and Matt got everything he dreamed of and then some! He was spoiled rotten by everyone he knows and is a very lucky boy! I also made out quite nicely...thanks to everyone for all of the wonderful gifts:) We went to lunch at Chuck E. Cheese with our close friends, The Licht Family, as well as Matt's good friend Trent from Preschool:) Two hours, four pizzas, way too many tokens, more cake (a giant Oreo at Matt's request), more presents and lots of fun later we had successfully celebrated Matt's big day:) We finished off our night at Olive Garden as a family and the kids were actually pretty well behaved which was one of the best gifts I got!

We now officially have 2 five year olds in our house for the next three weeks which is very exciting in the minds of those that are five and are almost done with this crazy Birthday season!!!

Texas Day...Part 2!!!

Today we had Brian's Texas Day at Kindergarten:) He was as cute of a cowboy as his brothers were and had SOOOOO much fun on his big day. They had a parade, danced in the gym, had a barrel racing contest, made a trail mix, went for wagon rides (the fifth graders pulled them all over the school) and even tried out roping a calf! One of my favorite pictures is the very last one...only in Texas:)

Click the picture to see more pics:)

Texas Day!

It's Matt's week for parent helpers at preschool since his birthday week is over Spring Break. Daddy went with him on Tuesday and they had so much fun having Matt's "SuperMoose (not Superman!!!) party" at snack time and spending the day together:) Today was Texas day which is a HUGE celebration at preschool...Matt had Uncle DJ there for this one:) Matt, Luke and Uncle DJ all dressed up like cowboys for a day of fun, pony rides, Texas crafts, digging for gold, a hot dog BBQ and even a popsicle party at the end:) Matt was also Star of the Week and shared his favorite things with his class, as well as read them a story all by himself!!! I had the opportunity to get SOOOO many cute pictures as the weather was beautiful...the only problem today was that Brian was at real school and had to miss all of the fun:( The good news is he gets his own Texas day tomorrow:)

Click on the picture to open in a new window and see more pics :)

Our new cousin...Emma:)

Aunt Kel and Uncle Chris had Emma on Feb. 2 and the boys have been able to spend a few days with her. We went to Houston and saw her the day she got home from the hospital (since the boys weren't allowed at the hospital...flu season rules!!!) and spent two days with her. Last weekend Aunt Kel & Uncle Chris brought her to Austin to spend the weekend watching the boys basketball game and celebrating Craig's birthday. I had my own fun when I painted her toenails for the first time:) Kelly was nice enough to let me have my fun since I live in testosterone land:) Lukey is in love with Emma, very concerned when she cries and is very much liking having a person closer to his own size around;)

Click on the picture to open in a new window and see more pics :)

Real Snow in Austin!!!

If you are a kid like mine from Arizona or central Texas, snow is not something you see very often. Snow like we are seeing today is like a once in a lifetime event here in Texas...at noon we have 3 inches on the ground:) So what does a good Mom do...bust the kids out of school for a fun filled snow day!!!! I knew snow was in the forecast so I kept Matt home from preschool. It was my Tuesday to volunteer in Brian's class so I sent him to school knowing I would be there at nine and set him free when I was done! His teacher and i took his class outside to play in it and even had the class throw snowballs at the teacher:) By 10:30 we were home, changed into waterproof playclothes and headed outside for some fun! We threw snowballs, made a "Texas Snowman", made snow angels and even had a snowball fight with some of the neighbors! Luke was quick to drop and watched from the windows, (being a native Texan...he doesn't do cold well!!!) and once the rest of us were cold to the bone...we headed inside for some hot chocolate and to get dressed to meet Daddy for a Dr. appt.. you can bet once we get back there will be lots more fun to be had!!!!

Click the picture to see all of the fun that we had!!!

Where have we been?!?!?

Since my last lengthy post where have we been....sick! Craig had it last week, I got it this week and Brian completely fell apart! Poor guy, he was fine over the weekend and Sunday afternoon out of nowhere came a fever topping 106 degrees for four days and all of the fun associated with a fever that high!!! After ruling out a few possible causes, the best guess is he had viral meningitis, which has no treatment other than rest and stay hydrated which is exactly what he has been doing! Luckily Gaga came to my rescue and was here to help out since I was taken out as well :) We are all on the mend and Brian is FINALLY fever free today!!!! He is so excited to return to school tomorrow (I have a feeling this will change in a few years and he'll be milking his disease as long as he can) and I plan on spending the day with the windows open (I don't care how cold it is) and the Lysol free flowing!!!

On an exciting note...Luke is on his way to making my household FINALLY diaper free after 6 straight years of Huggies!!!! He "tries" all day long on the potty (he has caught on that sitting and trying gets rewarded with an M&M) and successfully goes about once a day:) He will NOT wear a diaper anymore without his Elmo undies over the top making him feel like a big boy! While we are not there yet...I finally see a light at the end of the $40/box diapers tunnel:)

A Lengthy Update

Click on the Individual Pics to see LOTS more!!!

So apparently someone has an issue (Kerry) with the fact that I have three small children, am back in school getting my Master's, spend two to three days each week at either preschool or kindergarten, have boys in sports two days/week, have a husband that has been at work by 5:30am and not returning until 8:30pm twice/week and have a house and family to upkeep and simply have not had the time to update my blog in the last 20 days!!! I do apologize so this will be a lengthy post since we have been SOOOOO stinkin busy for the last 20 days!!! (On a side note...right click the different pictures and click on "Open Link In New Tab" so you can easily return to my site to get to the next set of pics!!!)

We had a super fun time going bowling with the kids a few weeks ago:) Brian and Matt filled their charts for good behavior (FINALLY) and since it was raining we decided bowling was a good activity. All of them, including Luke, bowled an entire game and LOVED it! They had so much fun and all had a really great time watching Mommy try to bowl left-handed due to my shoulder. My total score bowling lefty was 38 so I gave them plenty to laugh about!!!

Brian's school had a fundraiser at the Roller Rink and we met Craig after work for some good old fashioned fun! Luke blew us away with his skills and put his brothers to shame!!! It was a total repeat of Ice Skating but he was even better:) We may have found Luke's calling!!!! He was by far the youngest and smallest one out on the rink...to see a two year old (the size of an 18 month old) on rollerblades going around completely on his own was awesome!!!

Basketball has been the reason our Saturday's no longer exist! Brian and Matt play on the same team named The Bulls this year and LOVE it!!! They are doing really well and having sooooo much fun! Daddy is their coach so I get to spend my time trying to keep Luke entertained on the bleachers:) They can both now regularly make baskets and their favorite thing to do is grab the rebounds! The pictures are from two different games...

Another activity the boys LOVE to do is go to the Lowe's workshops on Saturday mornings. These are totally FREE for the kids and they get to build something with real tools. The kids get aprons, goggles and a patch of completion every time they attend. This was Luke's first time getting to go. He really enjoyed playing with the hammer and tried his best to hit everything except for the wooden box he was making!!!

We're nearing the end...bear with me!!! The final and BIGGEST thing we have done in the last 20 days is have dinner with and watch The Globetrotters!!! Aunt Kel and Uncle Chris got us our tickets as a Christmas gift so we sent Luke to hang out with Gaga and Papa and Craig and I took the big boys off for an amazing evening!! We got to the UT basketball stadium at 5:00 and had dinner right off of the court. The menu was totally catered to kids...chicken tenders, pizza and tater tots:) During dinner the Globetrotters came in and talked to everyone. They signed autographs for everyone and then took pictures with everyone! It was so amazing to be one of the 100 people that were able to get to go to this once in a lifetime event and we had so much fun!!!! After dinner, we headed off to the game. We had great seats in the lower level and laughed the entire time! After the game, we headed down to the court to get the autographs of the players that didn't come into the dinner as well as Globie, the team mascot! Thanks Aunt Kel and Uncle Chris for an amazing night...we'd like a repeat next year!!!

So as you can see, I haven't been sitting around watching TV for the past three weeks!!! Hopefully this satisfies those of you who feel the need to complain:)

Brian's Awesome Day...

Part 1- So I'm writing this a little early, but will finish it up tomorrow:) Brian is going to have such a FUN Monday!!! It will start out with all of us in his class at 8am. He is Star of the Week this week and we all get to go to class with him in the morning to watch his movie that we made and watch him present his poster about himself:) He and I made the movie together...Brian chose the music and photos himself;) He also came up with all of the facts on his poster himself and then copied them onto a piece of poster board. He is SOOOO excited for Star of the Week as he gets to be the line leader all week as well as Mrs. Gunn's special helper. The next part of his super FUN Monday will be at 1:45 when my little smarty pants will receive an award the the second quarter awards assembly. He has no idea that he is getting one and will be SOOOO excited:) I'm not sure what award he is getting yet but I will update with pics and details later!!!

Part 2- We are so proud of our little man...he got the Tiger Pride Award:) One boy and one girl get it each quarter for good citizenship (overall great kid-nice friend, caring, kind, helpful, etc.). He is really excited as most of the other awards everyone will eventually get but this one is an extra special one!!! His star of the week presentation went really well:) He was so proud of his movie that he shared with the class and read all of his facts off of his poster to everyone:)

Such a fun break!!!

Well our two and a half weeks of lazy family time are coming to end and we have had SO much fun doing absolutely nothing!!! We stayed in our jammies for most of the days playing Wii and with the rest of our new toys. Uncle DJ came up for New Years to give the boys a lesson with their Heelys using his old ones (even Craig tried them out!!!), played outside a few times with our new trampoline basketball hoop and tether ball set, had a pizza party/movie night/sleepover in Mommy and Daddy's bed (an every few week tradition in our house!!!) and even managed to get showered and dressed to go out to dinner a few times:) I have to say though...my very favorite part of the whole two and a half weeks was having Craig home with us without having to be on the computer:) (okay...IBM did call one day but luckily that was it for the whole break!) I am putting a random assortment of pictures below ( I have had a great time playing with my new camera), most of which we are wearing the same jammies in even though they were taken on different days!!! (I am not joking when I say we didn't get out of our jammies for days...it was great!!!)

The following pictures are in honor of my sisters who I'm sure will get a huge laugh out of them...Craig and I were out front taking down the Christmas lights (for which our house won "best decorated" in our neighborhood...our hard work paid off!!!) and I looked over to see my boys playing Ice Cream Man with their big wheels!!! I have never told them of this "super fun" game that Kelly, Kerry and I used to play but obviously they are running with the same creative genes that we once had!!!! It brought back such fond memories to see my little guys having just as much fun as we once had (although my kids were outside on their own free will and not locked outside as I'm sure a few of us recall having been!!!)

Merry Christmas!!!

Click on the two different pics to see LOTS more!!!

What a wonderful Christmas week we have had! Craig has been off since the 19'th and won't go back until the 4'th so we are having some much deserved family fun time:) We spent Monday through Christmas Eve at my parents with the whole family. Aunt Key and Uncle Jeremy even drove out from Vegas with their dogs so the boys have had more playmates than usual:) Craig and I had so many free babysitters that we even managed to sneak out for a lunch and movie date one afternoon:) We took the boys ice skating one evening and Luke was the hit of the night...he LOVED ice skating!!! I have joked since he was born that he is so tiny he should be a figure skater...he is on his way to proving me right:) Let's just hope he goes the hockey route rather than the figure skating route:) He took about two laps to get the feel for it and then actually went around the rink on his own (holding an ice walker of course...but nonetheless without any adult touching him!!!) We celebrated Christmas with my family on Christmas Eve as Jeremy had a flight back to Vegas to report to work that evening. We were all way too spoiled and headed back to Austin to get home for Santa with the van piled to the ceiling!!! We woke up Christmas morning to find that Santa had in fact come and left our boys some very exciting presents...the highlights being a basketball hoop for the trampoline, real guitars (for those of you who have seen the "rock video" on this blog you understand how exciting this was) and Heeley's (wheel shoes)! Knowing my family history...I see an ER visit or two in our near future!!! The rest of Christmas day was spent with according to Brian..."a true Christmas miracle" when he lost his second tooth! (Does it get any better...Santa followed by the Tooth Fairy?!?!?), followed by a trip to the movies to see the Chipmunks movie and we topped off our perfect day with the best Christmas dinner ever (according to the boys)...campfire hotdogs in the backyard:) The rest of our time off together will be spent having endless Wii tournaments (Gaga & Papa spoiled us with 14 new games!!!), assembling all of these new toys while finding spots to put them and just enjoying being together with nothing to do!!! We hope all of you are as fortunate and blessed as we are and wish you all a Happy New Year!!!

Breakfast with Santa & Sledding!!!

Click on the two picture to see more photos

What a FUN Saturday we have had!!! We woke up, got the kids dressed and told them we were going out to breakfast...only breakfast was at the fire station WITH Santa!!! They were so surprised and had such a FUN time!!! We got to spend a good five minutes with Santa which is long compared to mall time, ate a yummy pancake and sausage breakfast made by the fireman and even got to watch the firetruck leave on an emergency call!!! What could be a better morning for three little boys?
The day got even more fun when we got home. Our neighborhood has an annual sledding day every year where they bring in snow on a hill by the golf course. There is sledding, a snow hill for snowball fights and even a coffee bar and hot chocolate stand for everyone! The kids LOVED sledding, especially Luke! He wanted to go again and again!!! Since it was not very cold out, the snow only lasted a few hours but we sure had a fun time while it was here:)

Santa!!!

Click to see more pics:)

We went and saw Santa this week much to the boys delight:) Luke obviously needs to learn "Stranger Danger" as he was terrified of Santa at the beginning and sobbing! Santa simply said the magic words "Lukey, do you want some candy?" and the tears INSTANTLY stopped!!! The pictures all show that once he got some candy, Santa was his best friend!!! We headed up to the food court for dinner where Brian managed to lock himself in the family bathroom and security had to be called to get him out...never a dull moment in my life!

Thanksgiving!!!

Click on picture to see more!!!

We had such a nice Thanksgiving at my parents house:) We left late Tuesday night and returned home late Friday night so we had a fun few days!!! Kelly and Chris were there along with us and my parents while DJ went to Vegas to spend Turkey Day with Kerry and Jeremy, so it was a small celebration compared to the usual chaos!!! I was bound and determined to get my people dressed nicely and take a new family picture this week:) The one above our fireplace currently has Luke at the age of six weeks so we are in dire need of a new one! Getting my clan to sit still at a studio isn't really realistic as we don't seem to grasp what public scenes are, let alone care so I went for the outside, casual plan! Go figure...the ones that turned out the best are the ones where we are up and moving! My three bozos just can't get the ants out of their pants when sitting so I guess we'll make do with what we got:)

Coming to you LIVE once they can go outside alone...

So apparently we are a family of all traits! My boys have various occupations these days ranging from superheroes protecting Mom, cops locking each other in jail to the loft rails, garbage men hauling "trash" all over the house in giant trucks, chefs "assisting" me in the kitchen, one man wrecking crews that can destroy a room in under 20 seconds to my new personal favorite...a rockband! I was in the kitchen this afternoon when I got called upstairs for "a concert" and was told to bring my camera! I couldn't resist this so I headed up for the big show:) What a show it was!!! I had to post a few minutes of it for everyone else's pleasure as this was just too good to keep to myself!!! Between Brian's voice to Matt's dancing feet...watch out Jonas Brothers!!!

Brian's Academic Awards and a Super Fun Saturday!!!

click the two images to see more pics!

Craig and I are SO proud of how well Brian is doing in Kindergarten:) He is now reading...(and by this I mean actually reading Dr. Suess books to his brothers!!!), loves math (he counted to 1000 by tens the other day with Aunt Key!!!) and overall really enjoys school:) Brian was awarded at the school awards assembly for his accomplishments (he has achieved end of kindergarten performance level) in math and reading this past week and we couldn't be prouder! His school gives the kids "dogtags" rather than paper certificates so the kids have something they can proudly wear and show-off!

We also had a super fun family day today hiking with the kids at Georgetown Lake and letting the dogs go for a swim. It was 75 degrees and beautiful outside which made it all the more fun! The boys were in all their glory throwing rocks and sticks, as well as the balls for the dogs:) We topped off our fun in the backyard for a good few hours bathing the dogs, goofing around with Daddy and having fun on the swings:)

Happy Halloween!!!

What a FUN Halloween we have had! Matt had his Fall Festival at preschool on Thursday...him and Luke had a blast! Matt was LOVING all of the attention he got for his "super awesome" costume during the Halloween parade:) The best part was when he told people "Mommy gave me the black eye!" We then spent the rest of the day having parties, craft and game rotations and some yummy Halloween snacks!!!

Click on the two pictures to see full albums from our fun!!!

Halloween Day was even more fun (especially because Brian was a part of it!!!) Craig wore a Batman shirt in honor of Brian and Luke's costumes and had a black eye and bloody lip in honor of Matt's costume (and no, I didn't actually punch him to make it more realistic!!) We started out our evening at the block party for some "Halloweenie" fun and enjoyed grilled weenies, snacks and a neighborhood costume parade before heading out to trick-or-treat:) We came back home for quick potty breaks and all of the boys headed out while I parked myself in the driveway with the treats! Luke had a blast!!! His first house was the one across the street where he proceeded to dig in shouting "can-ee, can-ee" and quickly caught on to the the fun he was about to have!!! He made it about 25 houses and was brought back home so the big boys could have their "real fun"! Well Luke is obviously no dummy because the first thing he did was run right back across the street and hang out in the driveway with the neighbors, eating from their bowl of candy while they were passing it out:) He literally hung out with them for a good 40 minutes, shouting "Hi Mommy" across the street a few times!!! Everyone is now tucked away for the night, dreaming of all of the fun they had with full bellies of candy to keep them content!

All of this for...$4.09 (NO JOKE!!!)

I was a woman on a mission today after reading a coupon blog and I gave coupons at Target a try. I got everything you see in the picture for $4.09!!! I actually spent $6.09 if you look at my receipt but two things I bought were dollar bin items that I had no coupon for and didn't put in the picture as they are going away for Christmas stockings and they don't really count towards my coupon savings! So there you have it...with a little time on the computer and a list of items to purchase, you can leave Target with 2 boxes of Huggies wipes for $0.49 each ($2.49 each with a $2.00 coupon for each), a Connect Four game for FREE (currently on sale for $9.00, two coupons, one for $5 off and one for $4 off), a Glade scented oil candle holder and one pack of Glade scented oil refills for $1.50 ( $3.49 for holder and $2.99 for refills with a coupon for $2.00 of any scented candle holder and a coupon for a FREE pack of refills with any holder purchase), 1 package of Target Bakery Brownie bites for FREE ($0.99 with a coupon for $0.99 off any bakery item) and 3 packages of Keebler Chips Deluxe cookies for $1.50 (Target has them on sale for two packages for $4.00 with a buy two get one free promotion and I had two coupons, one for $1.50 off two packages and the other for $1.00 off two packages). So there you have it...I spent $4.09 and walked away saving $35.05...not too shabby if I do say so myself:)

The Race & Sea World's Halloween Festival!!!

**click the pics to see more photos from the fun**

Another busy, fun weekend in our house!!! We started with the boys running in the 1 mile at Brian's school early Saturday morning! Papa and Daddy ran with them and they had a good time:) After that, we loaded up the car and headed down to Sea World, making a "quick" pit-stop along the way!!! The UT Co-op is an amazing store full of Bevo apparel and we had to get some Bevo Halloween shirts! (You can't live in Austin and NOT have a wardrobe full of Bevo apparel!!!) My Mom and I "ran in" for some "quick" shopping which was put to an end when my Dad and Craig decided to bust in on the shopping (it had only been 20 minutes)and order us to the car where everyone was waiting...oh well..we'll go another day without them:) We arrived at Sea World to see the park covered in pumpkins and skeletons!!! The kids got to trick-or-treat through the shark exhibit, we saw some fun Halloween shows, went through Jacks Frightmare Forest...in the daylight of course so no scary guys with chainsaws chasing us, just lots of creepy decorations!!! Luke LOVED it while my Mom was terrified!!!

The highlight of the day had to be when my Dad and Craig decided to take Brian and Matt into the bird cage to feed the birds. It went something like this...you pay $4 for 1 T. of nectar in a tiny cup. You hold it in your hands and when you walk in the birds will land on you and feed from your hands:) I wanted no part of this as I am beyond terrified of birds as I saw the movie "The Birds" as a child and have hated them ever since!!! I opted to stay out of the cage with Luke and my Mom thought she would head in (what was she thinking!?!?!?) to try as well. They no more enter the cage when birds start flocking to my Mom...she gets scared, throws her $4 cup of nectar and a bird bites her finger, actually drawing blood!!! You can imagine the laughter that went on as a direct result of this incident!!! She is fine...a little more terrified of birds, but fine and gave us a great memory of the day:)

Paint Eating + Chicken Dancing = SUCH A FUN DAY!!!

Craig's Dad is in town so we spent the day yesterday at Six Flags! The entire park transforms for Halloween and has so many fun activities for the kids!!! We started off visiting Scooby Doo and Trick or Treating for a candy bag:) We then headed to where else?!?!? Wiggle World!!! Luke rode his ides, saw "his people" and even got a picture with the whole gang for fun!!! After a few big boy rides, we headed over to Pumpkinville and let the kids each choose a pumpkin and a cookie, both of which they got to decorate:) Three kids and three adults "seemed" like the perfect amount of supervision but Luke decided to prove us wrong:) The boys were eagerly painting their pumpkins when Luke just couldn't resist the urge to taste the bright green acrylic paint! After a good amount of spitting, a mouth cleaning with a baby wipe and a quick call to poison control (thank goodness for the Internet on my phone which quickly gave us the number!!!) Luke was deemed fine! A little green teeth, cheeks and tongue never killed anyone and Luke was DONE with the pumpkin painting. We thought it might be a little safer if he moved onto cookie decorating where at least he could safely eat the decorations!!!

We headed off for some more rides and ended our day with the Looney Tunes Halloween Dance Party! What a GREAT way to end the day! As you all know...Luke has serious people issues (although they are getting better recently!) but Luke does NOT have giant chicken issues!!! Foghorn Leghorn (that really is his name...thanks Ker) was a 6.5 foot tall rooster that Luke LOVED!!! He danced four songs with him and proceeded to chase him around the dance floor when he started to move away:) Brian, Matt, Luke and Craig had a ball dancing at the dance party and even joined in on the conga line!!! I had the most fun watching my four guys dance without a care in the world:) So my tip for all of you still trying to win over Luke...get a Foghorn Leghorn costume and come dance with him...he'll be your best friend for life!!!!

(click on photo to see pics and click above to see dancing video!!!)

The Boys Cruise with Gaga and Papa!!!

The boys are back and we couldn't be happier!!! Within twenty minutes of getting in the car for our journey back to Austin there were tears, fighting, yelling and two very tired little guys!!! (Life was back to normal!!) They had such a great time in Jamaica, Grand Cayman and Cozumel with Gaga and Papa. They went to the beach in Jamaica where they played in the ocean and jumped on water trampolines, went on a pirate ship in Grand Cayman...(complete with cleaning the decks and walking the plank!), and spent the day at a beach resort in Cozumel learning to snorkel with Papa!!! Brian's favorite part of the trip was not only walking the plank but diving off of the top rails on the pirate ship in to the clear teal waters of Grand Cayman, the jump was at least 12-15 feet high and he LOVED it! Matt's favorite part was the mini golf and unlimited ice cream on the boat...Matt is our junk food lover and in "true cruiser form" returned home three pounds heavier than when he left:) They are SO fortunate to have such amazing Grandparents that take them on these incredible vacations!!! Click the photo above to see all of the cruise pictures on my Mom's Shutterfly site:)