Kael in a Nutshell....

This is Kael in a nutshell......

He drinks more than any other baby I have EVER met! He drinks it all...milk, water, apple juice, vitamin water....and the poison of choice...Diet Coke. I know, I know I probably won't be winning the mother of the year award anytime soon, but somehow he always finds MY drink....and he LOVES it! As soon as he hears the refreshing sound of a can of Diet Coke opening, he comes running. If he sees a cup with a straw he puts both hands out and screams until you give it to him! After he gets it, he puts the death grip on it {we're talking nail digging grip}. Nobody better touch his drink...mostly Peyton! He literally screams bloody murder until the drink is back in his hands. It is hilarious, yet annoying at times. Especially when Peyton knows this and is mysteriously "thirsty" just to make his brother crazy!
Kael also eats and eats! He will eat two whole bananas a day. He insists on his own cup of yogurt, and his corndog on a stick {not cut up}. Sometimes I look at the kid and wonder how he is so small {and by that I mean not chubby} :) He is so tall and his waist is so tiny...it kills me!

Just a heads up...if you see Kael with a beverage in his hand...just let it be....trust me!
:)

Our Joy School Graduate......

Today was Joy School graduation!

Peyton LOVED joy school! He would always ask me, "Are our joy school friends coming over today?" Although, lately he has been crying when I would drop him off. But he was just fine after a couple of minutes!

All 4 of the joy school friends have birthdays within a month of each other. They also all have little siblings, who all have birthdays within a couple months of each other! I guess I wasn't the only crazy one to have children two years apart! {charisse, one of the moms is pregnant again! bless her heart! she is a super-mom though!} This is a picture of Kael and William playing during the graduation!

Peyton's buddy Broc getting his diploma!

Miss Charisse giving Peyton his joy school diploma. Charisse did such a great job organizing joy school throughout the year and putting this graduation on for the kids!
She even put a little video together!

Peyton with his cap and diploma.

Peyton and mom!
{and cute little Bric :) }
Peyton was so funny when Bryan was taking his finals...he would ask him, "Dad, how are you finals going?" Bryan would reply, "Good dude. How are your finals?" Peyton would then say, "Good. I am doing joy school finals."

The kids got to decorate picture frames for each other!

What is it about little kids loving markers? They would love to use markers at joy school!

Charisse made cute little graduation caps out of Reese's Buttercups, Hershey bars, and sour straws. So cute!

Peyton, Carson, Avery, and Broc eating their graduation cap chocolate.
{and kael wishing he could have a bite}

It was such a fun Joy School graduation. Thanks so much to my friends and joy school moms, Charisse, Nicole, and Lynsey! They all have such cute kids...Carson, Broc, and Avery. {and cute babies...William, Bric, and Jocelyn}

GRADUATION DINNER

Thanks to Chick-Fil-A and their "Kids eat free Tuesdays" Peyton was able to enjoy some nice chicken nuggets for dinner.

I think he was a little over me taking so many pictures of him today.
He did enjoy the 3.5 chicken nuggets I made him eat before he could go play.

Kael enjoyed his chicken nuggets.

Dad and the little graduate {ha ha...sorry i keep saying graduate.}
I promise that my husband is not a grump. He is the funniest person that I have personally met but for some reason he always looks "less that stoked" {if you will} in pictures.

We're so sad that joy school is over. Especially because Peyton's friend Carson is moving to Boston. :( Hopefully we will be able to have some play dates before they leave!

Proud...

A couple of weeks ago we had our last joy school at our house. I was shocked when I saw that Peyton could write his name. The other mom's said that he did it at their house but he would never do it when joy school was at our house. It is the craziest thing for me to watch my children grow up. Everyday we do just about the same thing at the same time. Sometimes I feel like we just live our day to get to lunch time and then to nap time and the best part of the day...when dad gets home.
{mostly because i am exhausted of them crying and climbing all over me...it's his turn. :) }

But then there are moments when you stop and realize how big your children are getting...how far they have come. There are moments when I am proud, when I can see Peyton listening and following directions...and tracing his name! There are also moments when I am not so proud, such as the time he yelled profanities at me while we were playing at the indoor playground at the local baptist church. But this is all part of parenthood right? I love to watch Peyton learn and grow. It is fun to watch Kael watch everything that Peyton does and try to mimic everything that Peyton does {i.e. brush his teeth, put his socks on, drinking out of a big boy cup}

I LOVE these boys!

I am so proud to be their mom!

Sea World San Antonio...

Our hotel in San Antonio was such a great sight after our drive. Especially after we broke the bad news to Peyton that we were not going to be able to Sea World that day...major waterworks on that one. We were able to stay right next to our friends, which Peyton and Broc thought was really fun. They always wanted to go visit each other at their new "houses". We told Peyton that Sea World was right out our window, it was actually Six Flags but he will never know, right? Plus we had already had a melt down about not going to Sea World, I couldn't take another one!

Peyton liked to sit and watch "Sea World".

The toilet in the hotel made me laugh!
:)

Peyton finally made it to Sea World. He is chewing me out in this picture. I told him to smile and he said, "No! I am not smiling. Dad already took my picture!" Such a sweet one he is! ;)

Our first stop was the crocodiles!

Of course we had to see Shamu! It was nice because the theater was covered! It wasn't too hot though, only about 80 degrees. This year Peyton actually watched the Shamu show. Last year we took him to Sea Word San Diego and all he did was people watch!

We got to feed the dolphins. We bought a tray of fish for only $6.00! Ha ha I thought it was a little steep for 4 sardines, but it was an amusement park! It was so fun though! I would totally do it again! This little dolphin is smiling at Kael. Perhaps it was because he was scheming...about two seconds later he swam by and splashed us! It made Kael cry {sounds a little reminiscent of last year with Peyotn!}

Kael was a intrigued by all the swimming going on!

I loved that you could actually feed the dolphins without paying a high price {except for the high price of the fish} . I think in San Diego you have to pay extra to feed the dolphins!

This was Peyton's favorite part of the park. Bryan temporarily lost Peyton. He thought he was in the splash pad, but no...he had snuck off to the climbing nets. I guess Bryan learned that keeping track of two little ones is pretty tough!

Peyton had lots of fun in the splash park when he wasn't trying to escape to the nets!

Peyton and Broc splashing around.

Kael LOVED the water! He then found the mud, which he LOVED more!

Peyton actually smiling for the camera, a rare moment. It must be captured!

We had a ton of fun at Sea World! They had really great roller coasters! We took turns with the Austin's watching each other's kids. The park closed at 5, which was really great because that is about the time our kids timed out! They all slept the whole way home and then some. Needless to say, they were not ready to go to bed at bed time. So we decided to go downtown and see the Alamo and the riverwalk. It was really pretty.

We found ourselves in a place that only had stairs. So Jason decided to take the kids 4-wheeling in the stroller! That is Peyton in the front! It was hilarious! It might not have been the wisest thing to do to walk the riverwalk with children since it was Cinco De Mayo. A lot of drinking games going on, if you know what I mean. We didn't spend too much time there!

San Antonio was so fun! We were so glad that we went! It was so nice to get away!

P.S. I LIKED this Sea World much better than the San Diego Sea World! AND it has a Pottery Barn, William and Sanoma, Crate and Barrell, and a Restoration Hardware nearby. Definitely points for the Sea World San Antonio! { he he :) }

San Antonio Bound....

So on a whim and a little convincing from our friends, the Austin's, we decided to go to San Antonio! We decided that we needed a "break" from our break before Bryan started school back up again. For the past three weeks we have worked so hard to get moved and all that entails! A few chiropractic school families were going to Sea World in San Antonio and the Austin's invited us to go along! We were so glad they invited us, we had so much fun!

Peyton...

...and Kael fell asleep just outside downtown Dallas. Really I wish that they would have waited for nap time to take place a little later in the journey, but who can be picky? The silence was great {and anyone that has taken a road trip with young children, know what i'm talking about}! We live about five hours from San Antonio. It is not a bad drive at all. Literally, the prettiest scenery I have ever seen lies between Dallas and Waco! I LOVE it! Waco is only about an hour and a half from Dallas. We stopped and ate lunch there next to the Brazos River. We caravanned with the Austin's and ate a picnic lunch at a park. The boys played by the river {don't worry, they were supervised :) i put that in there for my mother's sake. :) } Peyton threw one of his friend Broc's toys in the river. Problem was, is that this particular toy horse was Broc's world. He fed it and slept with it. The boys didn't really understand that when you throw it in, you don't get it back. Needless to say we had to stop by a Target and get Broc another horse. As soon as I gave Broc his new horse Peyton said, " Hey Broc! You got your horse out of the riber." {love that he still says "riber" for the word "river"!} I quickly piped in, "No! Mom had to buy Broc a new horse because you threw the horse in the riber! We don't throw toys in the riber!" Peyton then let me know, "No mom! Broc got his horse back from the riber!" Whatever. When we left Waco it was only about another hour and a half until Austin and then San Antonio is an hour and a half between that. There were enough "big" cities along the way to make the trip go by so fast!

Highlight of MY trip!
That's right....the store says Pottery Barn OUTLET!
On the way back I INSISTED that we stop by the outlets in San Marcos, TX. It is a little town located about halfway between Austin and San Antonio. Recently I had read on a blog that Pottery Barn had outlet stores. Immediately I searched online to find the nearest one! My search came up with 4 hours being the closest one! Still far...but still good news! I had been trying to come up with a way to get to this outlet! Luckily it was on the way to San Antonio! Bryan said that we could stop on the way back to Dallas! Lets just say I was more excited to hit up the PB Outlet than I was to go to Sea World! :) It was the best. day. ever! So many things! I got cute blackout drapes for the boys' room for $12.97, a duvet cover for Peyton's bed-$4.97, and two quilted pillow shams for $9.97! Now, if I would have had a truck and a little bit of money, I would have bought me a sofa, love seat, and an overstuffed chair! They had great prices on those! I am telling you...google it...see how close one of these stores is to you! Totally worth the drive! Don't you worry, I WILL be back {and maybe this time armed with a U-HAUL!}

The boys didn't last too long at the outlets and were screaming as we left. The type of screaming when you ask yourself, "Is this really happening to me? Is this what my life has come to?" I know some of you know what I mean! :) Luckily the screaming fit of rage ended up with two children sleeping in the backseat..all the way to Austin...and through an hour of Austin's lovely rush-hour traffic....and woke up just outside Waco...it was almost 3 hours of silence people! I think that it was the least they could have done after their screaming "war". {this is a game that peyton and kael LOVE to play in the car. screaming at one another to see who can scream the loudest. so competitive those two!} After they woke up they thought they were hungry. I couldn't really blame them, it was 7 o'clock...I was a little hungry too! Especially when we saw the Up in Smoke BBQ sign!

This little restaurant is literally just off of the freeway, in the middle of nowhere {between Waco and Dallas}. It was authentic... including a "real" farmer dressed up in overalls and a cowboy hat...so cute! The food was really yummy! I know, the pictures are so bad. Our children WILL NOT hold still for a picture!

And they also threaten to cut the camera! Such a joy this one is!

A drive that I was TERRIFIED of didn't end up to be so bad after all. I had a moment of panic before we left...we don't have one of "those" cars...the ones that have the DVD players coming out of the ceiling of the car! How are our children going to make it? Lets just say that we sang a lot of "Popcorn Popping", "Old McDonald", and "The Wheels on the Bus". Phew! I think I could do another one...especially if we are passing through San Marcos!

Texas-sized hail.....

A few weeks ago we were lucky enough to experience a Texas hail storm. They interrupt all the stations here for any type of severe weather. We knew that this storm was coming because we saw the red blob heading right towards our city on the Doppler maps. We lived in our apartment at the time and our cars were not covered. The weatherman told us that there could be quarter-sized hail, we knew we wanted to get our cars under a carport. {one of our neighbors cars has been through some pretty mean hail storms, his car has dents all over it. we didn't want our car to be all dented.} Luckily Mamau and Jana were in town and they stayed with the kids while we ran to cover both cars. We found two unoccupied spaces {our complex made you pay extra for a covered spot...stupid} and as we were running back to our apartment the rain started. As soon as we opened the door a big clap of thunder hit and the hail started. We had made just in the nick of time. We watched from our boys bedroom window as HUGE hail smashed on the ground below. Some people went out and tried to move their cars to an empty carport but the hail and rain was falling so hard and fast they couldn't even see through their windshields. The hail storm was so loud, it freaked Peyton right out. He pointed straight at the roof and said with all the anger and emotion in his little body, "You better stop you idiot thunder! You're damn-it!" It was so hard not to laugh because he was so scared and that is all he could think to say to help him feel better. But, the mother inside of me had to step in and kindly remind him that we do not speak that way. After about 15 minutes the hail stopped. I have never experienced anything like this. I literally thought that it was going to shatter my windows. It was hitting SO hard. It was CRAZY! When it was all over, we went downstairs to see all of the hail. It looked like it had just snowed. Some pieces were small and some were HUGE. We took a picture of one of the big pieces that we found.

That is a quarter next to the piece of hail. Golf ball-sized hail I believe!
Luckily no windows were broken and our cars were untouched. Some of the people that had left their cars out had little dents on their cars. I am so glad that we moved our cars! That would have annoyed me!
Later that week we had baseball sized hail hit the house that we moved into. It actually cracked two of the windows. There is some crazy weather down here in Texas!

She is Free...

I'm Free
(Author Unknown)

Don't grieve for me, for now I'm free,
I'm following the path God laid for me.
I took His hand when I heard him call,
I turned my back and left it all.

I could not stay another day
To laugh, to love, to work or play.
Tasks left undone must stay that way,
I found that place at the close of day.

If my parting has left a void,
Then fill it with remembered joy.
A friendship shared, a laugh, a kiss,
Ah yes, these things I too will miss.

Be not burdened with times of sorrow,
I wish you the sunshine of tomorrow.
My life's been full, I savored much,
Good friends, good times, a loved one's touch.

Perhaps my time seemed all too brief,
Don't lengthen it now with undue grief.
Lift up your heart and share with me.
God wanted me now, He set me free.

"You be careful", Love Grandma Barber

My Grandma Helen passed away 3 years ago today. I can't believe that it has been that long. I think of her often. I know she is with me always. She was such an important person in my life and the lives of all of my family members. She was the matriarch of a very close family. She knew that her death would be hard on all of us. She was not a woman that would share her feelings or emotion very much but she wanted her family to know that she loved them and that she was alright even after death. My aunts were going through my grandmother's will papers after she passed and they found 2 of the same newspaper clipping. It was a poem about death and being set free. We all knew that this was my grandma trying to help us deal with her passing. Even though her death was hard for me, this poem made my heart happy in many ways. First, I was not surprised that she had clipped this poem out of a newspaper because she read 2 of them a day. Second, she would use a newspaper poem to express her feelings...the woman loved the newspaper! Third, I am so glad that her "darned old leg", back, lungs, and heart aren't making her hurt or tired anymore. Finally, I am so glad that we are an eternal family. Even though I miss her every day of my life, I know that she is truly happy and that I will see her again someday.
I love you grandma.

Getting Tubes......

Kael has had his fair share of ear infections. He has basically had a constant ear infection since the end of January. It is a little hard to get rid of the infection when you are allergic to such an important antibiotic! After his 6th ear infection in 4 months, his doctor decided yesterday that he needed tubes. He actually wanted to do it the next day. I was so happy that he wanted to do it so soon because Bryan is still on his break and could help me! This morning we went to the surgery center for the procedure. Kael was actually really good during the check-in process. I was afraid that he would be nervous because of his hospital incident a few months back. He has been sheepish around doctors ever since. I think he has forgot about that little vacation in the hospital. :) When the nurse came and got him to take him back to the operating room, he went right to her and had no problem going around the corner with her. It was about 10 minutes and "Mr. Personality" aka Kael's ear nose throat doctor came and told me that the procedure was complete. He showed as much interest and enthusiasm as a rock would have. I hate doctors like that. So irritating. It wouldn't kill them to act like they cared about your child, rather than it being another day, another procedure, another dollar. Whatever. Sorry about my little rant, I will get off my soap box. Kael was NOT a happy camper when I got to recovery. I could hear his screams from far away. Finally when I got to him and held him, he calmed down and was finally able to drink a bottle. Bryan had to run Peyton to joy school and came back to pick us up. When Bryan asked the nurse where Kael's recovery room was, Kael heard his voice and sat straight up frantically looking for his dad. As soon as he saw him he started crying and reaching for him. Shortly after Bryan came, we were able to go home. It was the easiest surgery EVER! Kael was not very happy when we put him in his carseat. He had drank his entire bottle and threw his binky on the floor of the car. He was still upset. So I grabbed the only thing I could find...a piece of a donut. He immediately happy! He just sat in his carseat chowing down on a donut. I was shocked that less than a half an hour earlier, he was in surgery! Now he is sound asleep.

Kael was so hungry before his procedure.

He was so bugged by the gown. He tried everything he could think of to get it off.

Planning his escape...from the room and the dress.

I am so happy that this is over with. Now lets hope that we are DONE with ear infections and now Kael can sleep through the night! Kael needs this, I need this, WE ALL NEED THIS!
:)

Moving.....

I have been out of the world wide web for count em....10 DAYS! You never know how much you rely/need something until it is gone!

We have moved! I will have a post on that soon. It has only taken us 3 weeks to do it! But we had the help from our amazing family and friends...which we couldn't have done without! Bryan's sister Jana and his mom came down about 3 weeks ago for a visit. We were just packing the small things while they were here and moving things over in small loads. Bryan's mom washed out all of our cupboards and put down contact paper for us! So awesome! Jana was a saint, she entertained the children while we were busy moving. When we were ready to move the big stuff, my family came down to help! My parents, Corey, Blake, and Tyler came to the rescue! We couldn't have done it without our family! We love and appreciate them SO much!

The process of finding a house was a little interesting! We talked about it all the time! So much, that Peyton picked up on our topics. We were at dinner at our friends house one Sunday and he had a funny conversation with my friend Nicole.

Peyton: So, how did you rent this house?

Nicole: What?

Peyton: How much do you pay for this house?

Nicole: Oh my, Jodie...what are you teaching this kid!

:)

I am telling you....he is 3 going on 23!

When Mamau and Jana came to visit we took a trip to Sam's Club. When we were walking towards the register Peyton looked at Mamau and said, "So Mamau. Have you seen the house I am trying to get?" He then pointed to this.........

His little cedar mini house....so glad he dreams big! ;)

He was as serious as can be!

Hilarious!