Birthdays and black eyes, oh my!

Beautiful handsome Ethan turned the big ONE yesterday! I cannot begin to describe the fun it's been watching him grow and see our kids play together so much. He's an adorable, sweet little boy, and I can't wait to see what the coming year brings for him! He celebrated his birthday rockin' it out at Chuck E. Cheese, with the most gigantic cake you have ever seen in your life. Serene wanted to make sure everyone was fed chocolate cake for the next month with that bad boy.

Ethan is now fully stocked, as if he wasn't before, with plenty of toys. Loud toys. That make many different sounds. Congratulations! For the record, nothing I gave made any noise of any kind. But I'm pretty sure everyone else more than made up for it. :0)

It just wouldn't be a normal day in our lives without some kind of drama, and yesterday was certainly no different. We had been there, oh, I dunno, maaaybe 30 minutes when Megan slipped on a very simple step, and turned around with blood gushing in all directions off of her face. I couldn't even tell at first where the blood was coming from, and her hand was covered in blood as well. Ugh. Me being the bacteria/germ freak I am was immediately thinking of what awful diseases good ol' Chuck kept hanging around in his place.

The staff there was on us quicker than you could blink, wanted an "incident statement". Hold on peeps, let me stop the blood from gushing right quick, and I'll get right on that. In the meantime, do you think you could grab a bag of ice?

Alas, it was a tiny cut, that gushed a lot, and she is now a proud owner of her first black eye. This was yesterday...and this is today...thankfully she hasn't complained of it hurting her today. My sweet sweet brother Nick was quick to point out that it was karma for her shanking Dylan last week.... which might have been funny if he'd waited more than 10 minutes after it had happened to say it. But Nick has never quite been known for his timing....

In other news, here's a couple of creations, the first for Scrapfaith, and the second for the round robin the DT did at KMA...so cool to watch the transformation! Thanks so much to Joy for organizing it!

a couple of creations...

in case you're wondering, these creations are done when wonder child is sleeping. She does wear herself out with all that rifling, snipping and slathering, you know.

These were done for the fabulous KMA... the first is a little tribute to the wonderful Serene:

And these two, along with a card, were part of a challenge this week to STRIP!

Don't let the bows fool you...

Megan means business. There is no taming her. She is a true 2 1/2 year old, in every sense of the word. There was no prepping me for the job that lie ahead in raising this little determined bundle of joy, independant in every sense of the word. I've conquered her potty training, she counts, she knows her colors, most of her ABC's..... all the on paper facts of successfully raising a little person. It's the rest of her that I'm at loss for.

If there is a pen, she will write. On paper, on books, on her arms, her legs, and anyone else's body parts she comes in contact with.

There is nothing she cannot climb to reach. She will pull chairs and stools from other rooms in order to reach the prize she has her eye on.

There is no jungle gym, rock wall, and any other play apparatus too tall for her to scale.

Toothpaste tubes are a mission worth emptying for Megan. Actually, anything that can be squeezed, twisted or otherwise is worth emptying. We've gone through more sunscreen, lip gloss and toothpaste in the last year than I care to count.

And I must warn you, either leave your purse in the car, or put it somewhere secure when you get here. And when I say secure, I don't mean anything with a "child lock", because those are nothing for Miss Megs.

Why, you ask? Well, Stephanie can tell you all about the entire bottle of hand sanitizer that my daughter bathed herself in once she 'Found it" out of her bag. Or Brandy can tell you all about the time her Coach purse was completely lubed in lotion Megan retrieved out of it. Along with our couch. I won't even begin to name the number of purses Megan has rifled through, in search of something edible, writable, or squeezable.

She also wants to 'drive' every chance she gets. She can get in your car quicker than you ever dreamed of, and be ready to change the stations to her liking, just as soon as you give up your keys.

What prompts this tribute to little Miss Megs, you ask? Well, that would be today. The day that somewhere deep in the heart of Megan, she has a desire to be both a hairdresser and a seamstress, and wanted to get her practice in on Dylan:

yes, she cut his hair. and his shirt. multiple, multiple times. I am ashamed. I hang my head, wondering why, how... and where the heck was I? The answer to that is usually that I'm somewhere not far off, and right at the moment before blackness comes, I'm thinking "hmm... Megan has been quiet for a while... I should go check on her." The answer to that is that she's fast. And smart. And determined. And even for me, those pretty little blue eyes, and the cute bows just fool us all from time to time, forgetting what she's capable of.

I have no answer for successfully raising this kind of child, or at least, not without replacing a few purses along the way, and ordering Dylan new shirts....

Happy Easter!

Had an event filled Easter here with family and friends, stuffed ourselves silly, and planted many many eggs around our yard amidst all the dirt and construction from the landscaping! The kids had such a fun day with their family and friends here!

Here's my two cutelins- unphotoshopped, since I can't get my program to load with Vista- grr! Still cute though, in my totally non biased opinion!

Been a fun filled Spring Break- back to the grind of everyday life! Hope everyone

had a great Easter!

Burfdays....

Happy Birthday Joseph! My youngest brother is not so little anymore- his birthday was Friday! Love you!

the kiddos and I had a whirlwind the last few days...went and got Em Saturday and she stayed with us for a couple of days... Monday was Adrienne's birthday, our St. Patty's day baby!so we headed down there to do dinner with the family...the madness of Galveston seemed appealing for spring break.... we thought it would be fun to walk into as many restuarants as we could down there to see what the wait would be for a party of 12... finally found Saltgrass willing to feed us before midnight. My children were amazingly wellbehaved considering they ate dinner well past the stage of their normal REM. Oh, and did I mention that the wind was blowing 50 miles an hour down there? And poor baby J- just got her shots that afternoon, so she wasn't feeling too happy. Still absolutely adorable though! And apparently Ethan's Uncle Brent has been teaching him moves when we weren't looking...he kept dancing for us with the one arm behind the head.... We missed the cake at the house afterwards, because my children were about to slip into a coma, so we headed to Shelley's to stay the night, because Tuesday was Kurstee's birthday.... arriving on the farm at 10:30 at night, getting blown away by the wind while trying to open the gates... finally got in, ready to head to bed, and had one of the most amusing moments of my life...

did you know that cats can get stuck in bathtubs? as in, inside them?? Apparently so, so much so that Shelley has made a special panel that unscrews on the side of the tub so that she can get them out. They climb up from under the house, then get stuck.

That kind of stuff just doesn't happen in the 'burbs.

Spent yesterday doing what most girls who turned 17 want to do....shop! then met up with shelley and brent after they both got off of work for dinner....

all in all, good times.... headed home last night, exhausted, and crawled into bed. Spring break is half over already... tomorrow I think we're heading to the zoo, and Easter is this weekend! Where is the time going??

field trips, rain, and m&ms....

I have an addiction the last few months with M&Ms. Just a handful here and there. No harm right? ugh. gotta stop. for some reason I like them even more when they're in theme with whatever recent holiday. right now, the pretty pastel ones. yum.

cam had his first official field trip on monday. it poured. really poured. we were soaked to our drawers, and it was a long ride home from the rodeo. But Cam was excited to ride the bus for the first time. Got to watch some pig races, pet some animals, and watch some chickens hatch.

and he was excited to wear his daddy's cowboy hat. :) It was brent's from when he was a kid- his grandfather had given it to him. it was a little worse for the wear after all that rain though.

went to kemah last weekend with the family, while brent was busy cleaning out his parents attic of what I'm pretty sure was every single toy that he had throughout his childhood that HE saved. insane. and now, there is a good majority of it now at our house.

anyways, haven't gotten any fab pics of the bling, but here's one from kemah with em, and you can (barely- you have to squint) see my little sparkle...

and this is what happens when I ask susan to help cameron put some temporary tattoos on... who the heck would put one in the middle of the forehead??? Especially one that says "naked brothers band"... something just not right about that....

Jorja's growing like a weed, and completely adorable. she slept through kemah...

And so is Ethan, almost one! this is from a couple of weeks ago at the park....and a few creations... these are with the new Scenic Route Grafton, which I LOVE... awesome colors!

and these two are for scrapbooks.com this month. our suburbia s'mores, and my little ladies man... that's about it for the update for now... Easter shenanigans galore over the next few days... although my kids have been having easter egg hunts around the house for weeks now! they're pros :)

my little hero...

love him.

Randomness

hmm... Aimee tagged me, and it's been a while, so what the heck....


1. I have nose bling. Did it on Friday. :)

2. I'm a geek. For the first time ever yesterday, I voted. On American Idol.

3. When I was a kid, I thought all the lucky kids got casts. Always wanted one for everyone to sign.

4. I cannot stand stuffed animals. They're gross. They collect dust, drool, bacteria and whatever else they come in contact with, then say "wipe clean with damp cloth." pish. any animal that has made it past the doorway in this house gets thrown in the washing machine on hot.

5. I very rarely watch movies, and when I do, I have to be doing something else while watching it. I just can't sit still that long to watch one.

6. My hip continuously pops. When I was delivering Cameron, the nurse dislocated it, and ever since, it pops randomly all the time.

7. I love to change my hair... cut it, color it, whatever. Just change it.