Brian's Birthday!

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My biggest boy is 9! It's the last year before we hit the dreaded double digits and life will forever change :(   I cannot believe that my sweet firstborn is now 9! He has all of the wonderful things that make up a nine year old to go along with it...constant eye rolls, acting like I am completely retarded, arguing about everything, a reason for always being right, finding me completely embarassing and so much more! But on the other hand, when he wants to be he can be my most helpful, sweetest, most caring, most responsible and best of the bunch! He is suddenly concerned about his image, he has rules when I cut his hair and he has taken a notice in girls...ugh! I was actually informed by three Mom's in his class that he winks at the girls!The dreaded years are quickly approaching and I am so blessed to be the Mom of this little man!

Unfortunately to my guy playing hard and never thinking of the consequences, he is on his third concussion in a year! He fell on his head at recess this past week and has vision loss as well as pounding headaches. His birthday trip to Six Flags has been postponed as he is on a 10 day mandated period of doing absolutely nothing! No video games, schoolwork, any form of exercise or anything that strains his brain! Gaga & Papa came here instead and we took Brian to Animal World & Snake Farm, a place we pass all the time on our way to San Antonio and watched on Dirty Jobs!  What a fun place! The boys all held snakes, we walked around the coolest animal sanctuary and hand fed baby goats! After a lunch at Longhorn Steakhouse we returned home to a Lego cake! A pretty low key birthday for our usual daredevil but nonetheless...
super fun!!!

Easter...

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The day I have been dreading since I had kids is upon me...Brian figured out the truth. I have had a hunch it was coming, he has been complaining about Easter and what a dumb holiday it is all week. I even told Craig I think it's coming and we decided to play dumb, ignore it and hopefully it would go away. We were literally minutes from leaving the house to go see the Easter Bunny when Brian came into my room, locked the door and said "I've got a question". My stomach was in knots as the next question came..."are you and Dad the Easter bunny?" It literally took everything in me to not start crying. I sat him down and we proceeded to have a long discussion about both Santa and the Easter Bunny. He seemed delighted with his newfound news and not sad in the least. I on the other hand was a basket case just waiting for him to leave my room so I could cry. All said in done, I am proud that he is smart enough to figure it out, that he was gracious enough to lock the door so his brothers couldn't hear and happy that he is growing up...but I am just sad about the whole thing. On the plus, he didn't ask and I didn't tell about the tooth fairy so maybe there is some hope!

We still went and saw the bunny. Luke and Matt were still as excited as ever while Brian kept shooting me these "what he thought were not obvious" glances and eyes. He did take that knife and stab it deeper however when he got a picture hugging the bunny. It was like a final farewell for my broken heart.

Easter weekend was spent at Gaga & Papa's. Gaga thought there wouldn't be enough candy so she literally stuffed a full sized piñata as well! The kids had a ball beating the tar out of the 'never going to break piñata'! The hook came off, we tried various methods and finally Craig & DJ just tore it open! Seriously...longest piñata breaking I have ever witnessed! Family Birthday party was up next for all the March & April Birthdays! Kerry & Mackenzie even joined us via Skype! Brian and Matt were overjoyed with their loot, especially Uncle Johnny's original Super Nintendo that Kerry managed to re-gift from herself!  Egg dying is my annual least favorite activity and fortunately there was enough adults on hand that I did not have to partake in this god-awful tradition! Luke was on a serious Easter high and at 6:30pm announces to everyone "That's it, enough fun! Everyone, it is time to get to bed so the bunny can come!"

The next morning we woke up to find that the bunny did in fact come and leave us super fun baskets, along with money filled eggs hidden all over the house! Craig and I did partake in a new tradition...hiding Brian's basket as hard as we could. Since he knows it us, there can be no meltdowns as to "maybe the bunny forgot me". He obviously now knows we put it somewhere and now each year he is up for the challenge!

Matt's Party!

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It's time again for the coming of passage in our house...the 8 year old sleepover/campout! Unfortunately for Matt, the weather called for 40 mph winds overnight, as well as a 45 degree drop in temperatures so the campout became a movie party indoors instead! Matt had 7 boys over so including our own we had a house of 10 boys! The noise level was by neighbors all around :) The boys had a blast at the big playground, having weapon wars all over the yard, roasting s'mores and hotdogs, and enjoyed a super fun, kid friendly breakfast! Matt's magic candles were quite the hit (how do kids nowadays not know about these things?!?!?!) and minus the weather change the party was a HUGE success!!!

The final stop...Monster Truckin in Desert!

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This crazy roadtrip is finally coming to an end! But first we had one more stop...while driving from California to New Mexico we passed the Ostrich Farm again. This time the monster truck rides through the desert was open much to the kids delight! Of course we had to stop!!! We took a 45 minute ride through the desert on a monster bus and had a blast flying off of our seats and eating dirt! The kids voted this to be the perfect ending to a perfect trip!

All said and done, we covered 3900 miles in 12 days! This crazy roadtrip that didn't even exist three weeks ago will go down as one of my favorite family vacations thus far. Going with the flow and just stopping along the way added to the fun and I cannot wait until we do this again!

Legoland!

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After a late night arrival with again very little sleep (seems to be the theme of this trip!) we have arrived in Carlsbad, CA...home of Legoland! The kids were over the moon excited to be here! It is a place Brian has always wanted to come and the one in Dallas just didn't live up to his standards!!! We were literally the 7'th car in the parking lot (seriously..."we are driving 12 hours and have one day and dammit...we are gonna get our money's worth!") and in the park as they were opening the turnstiles.

I am so grateful we came. I have heard from so many people it is a place you can quickly get too big for and they were right. Brian was just pushing that age but fortunately not quite there yet! This was definetely worth every hour we spent driving and dollar we spent coming! We finished off our day taking the kids to the Pacific Ocean...we literally went as far west as we could on this spontaneous trip we seem to be on! We make the giant trek home tomorrow...New Mexico here we come!

Tucson & Phoenix...

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We have arrived in Tucson...I can say it has not changed much from when we left 6 years ago. There still is not much to do with kids and Brian and Matt have zero recall of ever living here. That being said, I made it my personal mission to show them the sights as well as the few fun things the desert has to offer :)

Monday we met my old friend Ashley for lunch at Eegee's. The kids were super excited for this as they have heard from all of their O'Brien relatives how yummy it is! They were NOT disappointed!!! As I write this I can say we managed to eat at Eegee's everyday that we were in Tucson!!! After lunch we took the drive over Gate's Pass to the Desert Museum. The drive was great...the kids LOVED seeing us nearly drive off the top of a mountain straight into Saguaro National Park. The Desert Museum...BIG letdown! What once was fun when I was young has been remodeled to more of a nature conservatory than a desert museum. Fortunately the cave was still there as we had most of our fun in it!  We successfully completed Monday night when Craig & I took the boys to Pinnacle Peak for a live cowboy show, a train ride, an old western town and a steak dinner.

Tuesday we got up and took a tour of homes past! The boys saw all of the homes Gaga & Papa had in Arizona, as well as the two homes they lived in with us. I stopped and showed them where we were married, as well as where we both went to high school. We shopped for UA gear for Daddy & Brian and met my friend Trisha for lunch (guess where!) and then proceeded to the park where Craig & I met lifeguarding.The kids had a ball...Trisha now has five kids, four of which are boys and three of which are the exact ages of my guys! The kids all played like long lost friends for a good three hours and were sad when time was up! Dinner was at the Krasinski's house. They are probably our oldest family friends in Tucson. Katie & Alexis were our flower girls, Katie was in my first Kindergarten class and Dr. Krasinski is who saved Craig when his stomach blew up! Seeing the kids all grown up was a sad fact of reality that we are getting older. Katie was Luke's age when she was in my class and now she is a junior in high school!

Wednesday the kids and I got up and headed to Phoenix to see Andrea & her kids. Andrea & I have been friends for over 25 years! We still see each other regularly and her son Lance is my godchild. We have not been able to get all of the kids together since Madison was a baby so we were way overdue! On the way to Phoenix we made a pitstop at Rooster Cogburns Ostrich farm. This has always been a side of the freeway, hole in the wall attraction but I thought the kids might enjoy it. Umm...that is an understatement!!! They have made some serious changes since I was last there in college and it was the coolest petting zoo ever! The kids got to hand feed donkeys, deer, goats, ostrich, prairie dogs, ducks and rainbow larakeets! The pens were also themed so each feeding was a unique experience! Our $5/person managed to give us over an hour of fun! Next stop, Phoenix Childrens Museum. Andrea & the kids met us there and we had a ball exploring the museum all afternoon, followed by a fun "linner" in the nearby mall foodcourt!

Thursday was supposed to be our day of rest and recovery but instead turned into another whirlwind of events all trying to be crammed into a few hours. We celebrated Matt's birthday a few days early with lunch at Little Anthony's. This 50's diner has been the birthday spot for pretty much everyone in my family and now Matt has experienced it as well, including the song and kiss! We also squeezed in mini golf and bumper boats at Golf & Stuff, as well as an up close tour of UA. Brian got to go into McKale and see where his beloved Wildcats play basketball. I took all my guys to see the pool where Kelly and I used to dive. They even got to go up on the platforms and see firsthand where I used to dive off of! They were all confident on the 5 & 7 meter but downright nervous on the 10 meter. Seeing my own kids up in the exact spot I used to go as a kid was one of the highlights of Tucson for me. We ended our fun with a quick swim in the pool, followed by a full pack up of the hotel...why you might ask?!?! Because Craig and I decided last minute to keep this roadtrip going and head further west! Legoland in CA is a place I have always wanted to take my boys. We have been to so many other theme parks with them but have always managed to skip this one. With Brian and Matt getting older and fearing they would get too big for it, we used the theory of "it's only six hours away" and added it to the agenda! We just met Craig after work, hopped in the car (and of course grabbed some Eegee's for the road) and are currently making the six hour trek to Carlsbad, CA for one last day of fun!

Flagstaff & Grand Canyon

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We finally made it to Flagstaff and the magical snow!  After leaving Gallup in the early am, we made a quick pit stop to see Meteor Crater...the largest, most preserved meteor site on Earth! The meteor actually hit 50,000 years ago and is pretty much just a giant hole.  I am the only one who has been there before so I was outvoted on the trip :) The kids actually enjoyed the museum and seeing the big hole, as well as touching a 1400 lb. piece of actual meteor straight from outer space!

Next stop...Flagstaff! The kids truly could not believe their eyes as to how much snow had actually fallen! It came up to my knees and Luke's waist! They were super anxious to get out of the car and just play so we drove through the NAU campus where Craig & I both graduated from, checked in to the hotel and quickly changed into play clothes. We headed back to campus to one of our old spots for snow playing....the football practice field! It has a giant, flat space, as well as great hills for sledding. We had so much fun playing, sledding, building a snow fort and having a giant snowball fight! Poor Luke...the snow was so deep he literally could not walk! He would try and take a giant step and fall down, getting stuck like a turtle! Needless to say, he spent most of the time being carried around like a sack of potatoes :)

We spent the evening at dinner with our friend Martin and his wife Ivy. I have known Martin since 7'th grade and Craig since high school. He went to college with us and he and Craig were in each others weddings. Sunday was Grand Canyon day! A day late thanks to the weather but still on the agenda! The kids loved it!!! They were all about climbing the rocks and now want to be big enough to raft the river...hmm....another adventure trip is formulating in my brain!!! Next stop...Tucson!

Adventure #2...Snow Tubing!!!

 

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Well these warm weathered Texas kids sure had a change of pace today...snow tubing! The place Mrs. Rinn sent us to was a BIG hit with my guys!!! They had seven hills, all with different jumps, steepness, curves, etc and a lift up to the top. The bummer was once you got to the bottom, you had a good 1/2 mile trek back to the lift! Our "early" spring break helped yet again...there were less than 30 people at the entire park the whole time we were there!!! We never once had to wait for tubes, in line, etc! We spent a solid 3 hours completely exhausting ourselves having a ball! Once again, I proved to have the daredevils for kids...my guys were going on the biggest runs primarily with adults...and headfirst!!! Little man was going solo whereas most kids his size were in doubles with parents! UGH...their teenage years are gonna kill me if at 5, 7 & 8 this is how they act!

After tubing the plan was to make the 7 hour drive to Flagstaff. Fortunately we are "go with the flow" people cause plans changed! About 3 hours out of Flagstaff we hit the motherload of snowstorms! Flagstaff apparently has received 18+ inches today! We drove a good 27 miles in complete whiteout with maybe 5 feet of visibility! The kids were troopers being silent so we could focus on driving!! Fortunately we had a few blips of random cell service and were able to get ahold of Kerry and my parents to quickly change our hotel plans and find us a new one in the next closest town on the freeway! And it's a good thing we did...by time we finally made it off the freeway, the hotels were jam packed!!! Needless to say we are spending the night cozy and warm in Gallup, NM. Tomorrow we will make the rest of the drive where the kids will be utterly shocked to see what 18+ inches of snow looks like!!!

11 Day Road Trip...

 

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 Craig learned a few weeks ago he had to be in Tucson for work over Spring Break...my wheels started turning and I quickly discovered we could all tag along at very little cost to us and have a super fun road trip! The plans were put in motion and the kids are over the moon that we are off to White Sands, NM, Ruidoso, NM Flagstaff, AZ, The Grand Canyon, Tucson, AZ and Phoenix AZ!

Stop #1 was White Sands, NM...oh what a fun "dumpy town" this is!!! Not much to look at but we hit the jackpot on activities! We left last (Wednesday) night around 8pm and drove through the night in order to be able to have as much time here as possible. I was literally at breakfast at 10am with two friends on Wednesday when Melissa informed me that there is an additional awesome activity only 40 miles from our hotel...you will see it in stop #2! (They are doing just the NM part of our trip  a few days after us so she did a much better job researching the area!) I literally packed a family of 5 in less than 4 hours to be able to leave at night rather than this morning!!!

We arrived at 4:30 am (the kids actually slept most of the drive which was great!), threw everyone into beds and our rested children woke us before 8...we were off for a LONG day of fun! Let's not forget Craig's 35'th Birthday is also today!!! Poor guy...drive through the night, get no sleep and now put on a Birthday smile to enjoy the day of fun! Our first destination was the New Mexico Museum of Space (nerd fest if you ask me!) The boys and Craig all really enjoyed seeing the rockets, missiles, pods, etc and it ended up being a very fun hour poking through the museum!

Next stop...White Sands Sledding Park! Oh what a hidden gem this is!!! 300 square miles of white sand dunes plunked right in the middle of this mountain desert area...it literally looks like someone just dropped sand from the sky! Being that it is the middle of the week and Spring Break isn't actually until next week...it was empty! We literally saw less than 25 cars on the 16 mile path through the place!!! Armed with our sleds from the Lichts (who were here last year and got "robbed" on the sleds and graciously let us borrow!) we found our own private "cul-de-sac" to spend three hours sledding! It is literally white sand hills that looks like fresh snow for as far as you can see. Climbing the hills over and over again is the hardest part!!! Towards the end, an older couple stopped to watch the boys sledding and the lady actually ended up borrowing a sled to give it a try as well!

After quick showers for our sand filled kids, we were surprised with a bday cake delivered to the hotel by my parents and had a fun dinner celebrating Craig's big day! Dinner was followed by swimming to clean all the nooks and crannies filled with sand that the boys didn't get out in the shower!

It is now 8pm and we are all in bed, exhausted, a little burnt and anxiously waiting for tomorrow's adventure...snow tube sledding!!!!

Happy Valentine's Day!

I am the luckiest girl in the whole world...I have not one but four Valentine's every year! Being the only girl does have some advantages on this Holiday!!! I get flowers from four handsome men, I get kisses from four awesome guys, I get to sit back and watch these four guys clean the kitchen from the yummy steak dinner I made them while I sip my favorite wine and I am told more times than I can count how much I am appreciated by these four guys! Seriously, not having to share this day makes it extra fun for me!!!

In all seriousness, I actually do just love Valentine's Day. I love being a stay at home Mom that gets to be at the school for parties. The boys all had parties from 2-3...yikes! Fortunately their classrooms are literally next to each other so I just went from room to room enjoying spending the afternoon with each of them :)

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The little things...

Being a Mom is hard. There are days where I truly want to "forget" I have kids just for a few minutes. Don't get me wrong, I love my guys with every ounce of myself, but the constant chaos of daily life, the fighting, the not listening, the arguing, the mess, the laundry, the not even having time to pee without being interrupted, the spills, the laundry, the endless cooking, cleaning, homework, sports, the laundry :), the falling into bed exhausted  and that damn alarm going off right as I just closed my eyes, the public scenes we cause just about everywhere...all reasons you just want one of those "Calgon take me away moments" now and then. And just when you finally get one of those few, precious minutes to yourself, you walk out to check why the house is so eerily quiet and find this....and all of those reasons listed above just sort of vanish as you stand there smiling taking as many pictures of this precious moment as you can so that you never, ever forget it.

My little stars...

Basketball season is in full swing! All three boys are on different teams with Craig coaching each of them :) You can imagine how my Saturday's are spent!!! (and I wouldn't trade it for anything!!!) I got a new long range lens for Christmas since I am the Momma of boys and it is designed for action/sports pictures which is my next 15 years :) Here are a few of my favorites of my three all-stars!

Raptors vs. Spurs

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I have three very LUCKY little boys that will not even appreciate it until they are older! Aaron was back in Texas so we took the boys to watch him play in San Antonio. This game completes our tour of Texas Professional Basketball Stadiums ;) We have now seen Aaron play at all three stadiums...Houston, Dallas & San Antonio much to the delight of my people!!! This was by far the best though because they were all sporting custom made, signed, official NBA jerseys from the BIG man (7 ft. tall Aaron) himself! Seriously...how many kids can say that they get to go to these NBA games, score amazing seats, get VIP passes to wait after the game by the locker room AND wear custom Jerseys that a player had made specifically for you?!?!? I cannot wait until they are old enough for it to actually hit them :) Once again, "Mr. Aaron" is the coolest person my kids could ever have as a 'best friend' and truly the nicest guy in the NBA!!!

Christmas Part 2...

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Hooray...we woke up to discover that Santa came! The boys were giddy to discover their WiiU was not under the tree but rather in the fireplace! It must've fell out of the bag! We had a super exciting morning with more gifts than we can ever play with!!! I am personally a fan of the voice changing Transformers helmets!!! Santa did leave some rather questionable gifts :) Bow & arrows and inflatable boxing gloves can only end one way in this house...click to see :)

Christmas Part 1...

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We had the most wonderful Christmas with getting to celebrate two times! We let the boys open their brother gifts on Thursday night, had their class parties (and my last day of teaching!) on Friday then immediately got in the car and headed to my parents :) Kerry, Jeremy & the girls were flying in the next morning so we wanted to make sure we were there! Kelly, Chris & the girls, as well as DJ & Christy all came over as well and we all got to spend time with 7 cousins (Brian, Matt, Luke, Emma, Abby, Molly & Mackenzie) running around and playing together! We literally spent the whole weekend together just hanging out and it was absolutely perfect!!! The highlight was attempting to get all of them to sit together for a picture and all smile at the same time!!! With four girls 2 & under, plus 3 rowdy boys...you can imagine how this went :) Christmas Eve was the official present opening much to the delight of everyone except Molly...she literally slept through the whole four hours! We were all spoiled beyond belief and actually had to attach my Dad's trailer to the back of my car to get everything home! The night ended with a "hairy contest" with even Kerry & Abby joining in! DJ took the grand prize but the boys were runners up with their mustaches from Aunt Key!!! Their coveted trophy now sits in a place of honor on our bookcase :)

Not too big...YET!

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So my sweet 8 year old still is a true believer. Whether or not he has doubts, I am unsure. I am certainly not going to ask and he is too smart to question things aloud right before Christmas! I fear the questions may start rolling in right after the loot arrives, but for now I am enjoying my pictures of my three believers!! Enjoy...

Sledding!!!

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Five years later my kids still look forward to our neighborhood's annual sledding day! They bring in tons of snow, provide sleds, cookies &  hot chocolate and let the kids go at it!!! This year we had our friend's the Rinn Family join us. They have three kids...Riley is in Brian's class, Bryce is in Matt's class and their little guy Ryan is two. The kids all love hanging out together and had such a fun day sledding! It was 74 degrees, our a/c is actually on and the only reason they had on pants/long sleeves was for the muddy, mucky mess!!! Sledding in Texas....you never know what you're gonna get!

Lego Discovery Center & Six Flags!

 

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This past weekend we took the boys to Dallas for a weekend catered to them! Friday night we used our passes to go to Six Flags Over Texas. My guys LOVE this one as it has 3x the coasters as the one in San Antonio and some really HUGE ones! What a GREAT night we had...Brian reached yet another magical height and was finally able to ride Superman Power Tower, launching him and Daddy 32 stories into the sky with a smile on his face the whole time!!! Much to his dismay...Luke was just shy of the next magical height. He is so discouraged always being the short one left behind so him and I have a deal...if he can't ride, Mommy can't ride. While I do enjoy the rides with my big guys, my littlest guy loves having the knowledge that he's not always the one left behind with whoever is willing to stay with him :) Fortunately for us, the two teenagers working the old wooden coaster were paying zero attention so as Craig and the boys were pulling into the station they looked over to see me and Luke heading up the hill! Getting to be the one to experience all of these thrills with Luke for his first time is the most rewarding thing as a Mommy. Him squeezing my hand going up the hill and screaming "we made it Mommy" makes my heart skip a beat!

Saturday we surprised the kids and our resident elf "Zippy" had tickets waiting at the Lego Discovery Center and Aquarium for us ;) What a dream for my three boys! Matt's dream is to be a marine biologist and obsessed with anything ocean, particularly sharks. We have seen a lot of America's aquariums but had not been here yet so the aquarium was right up his alley! Brian is our Lego freak in the house and was beyond excited to spend the day among his favorite toy! Luke was just thrilled to spend the day with "his boys" being nice to him :) By far the funniest part of the day came when we walked under the blacklights! We have been battling the pink-eye plague since Thanksgiving along with Kelly's family...UGH! The boys and I have been on Vigamox pretty steadily as we keep sharing our disease. Check out the pictures of what Vigamox in your eyes smeared on your face looks like in blacklight!!!

After a fun few hours, we returned to Six Flags for FUN, Round 2! My kids are theme park junkies making the yearly gift of renewing our season passes by my parents the PERFECT gift for our family! And in keeping with Christmas...our kids solidly believe our elf is the coolest!

Raptors vs. Mavericks

 

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"Mr. Aaron" was back in Texas last night playing the Dallas Mavericks. Craig and I decided to make the roundtrip trek (thanks to teaching 3'rd grade!) to Dallas in order to take the boys to the game! Talk about boys dreams coming true...Aaron scored us floor level seats and was texting the boys from the locker room before the game. He was waving at them and giving "air fives" from the court, they made it on the jumbortron a few times, ate nachos, cotton candy and popcorn, and then the best part...had VIP passes to stay after the game and hang out with Aaron. Luke was so excited when he saw him that he literally went running and flung himself into his arms!!! It was seriously a good thing Aaron caught him, as Luke would've fallen on his head :) The boys so LOVE Aaron Gray and we are thankful for his friendship and the way he just loves on our boys! Seriously...what little kid can say they have a best friend in the NBA?!?!?!

Halloween!!!

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Another Halloween has come and gone! My guys all decided to be "hereos" of various forms of a ninja, a ninja turtle and a an army guy! This was the first year they all had independent thoughts on costumes and all picked out their own (Luke's was recycled but he still loved it!) Much to the delight of my boys, we had family friends join us for trick-or-treating! Craig and Russ took the kids begging for candy while Melissa and I sat with sangria and candy in the driveway! I'd say it was a pretty perfect night!