Octoberfest!

Every year we go to Octoberfest in the Southlake Town Center. This was the first year to bring the kiddos. There were bouncy houses, train rides, face painting, food, and lots of stuff to buy. We went with Colton so Ethan had a blast with his buddy. All they wanted to do was the bouncy houses. I need to invest in one of those!

This was the train ride...it was attached to a tractor.

Enjoying some french fries and lemonade.

The usual picture of Caleb eating fruit puffs. I swear that's not all I feed him! He snacked on some french fries too...and a hot dog.

They loved the ferris wheel.

Ethan is always so silly when Colton is around. This was the best picture I could get of them.

Fair Day!

We were looking forward to the fair all year. So what did we do?....pick the one day out of 13 days that it rained! We did see the forecast for rain but it was Mondo's only day off from work. We thought it would just lightly rain off and on. It was ok for the first hour we were there. Then once it started, it didn't stop! At first we laughed and we shuffled the kids in and out of buildings while all trying to stay dry under Mondo's big golf umbrella. But it quickly became too much to handle with the kids. One of us would hold Ethan while the other pushed the stroller trying to keep everyone dry. Each time we went from one building to the next we were more soaked. Then the wind started picking up so we got cold. We stayed for a few hours and did have an ok time (tried the fried bacon...aweful!!!) but it would have been MUCH more enjoyable if it wasn't raining. As you might imagine, I didn't get many pictures. Here are the few that I got:

This was right when we got there. Ahh, nice and dry.

They look thrilled...maybe they could see the future!

In line getting a corny dog...they're so cute.

This will be here before I know it!

We spent most of our time in the car show area staying nice and dry.

Ethan was obsessed with climbing in all the cars.

This was right when it started raining. We made it to a car tent just in time for it to downpour.

They did get to ride the carousel right before we left. Mondo was a good daddy and rode with them. It makes me sick...and it was spinning really fast for a children's ride!

10 Reasons Why 30 is Old

Well...it's here...the big 3-0. Yep, I'm 30 years old today. I know some of you out there are rolling your eyes and wishing you could be 30 again. But to me, it just sounds old. Here are my reasons why:

1. It takes me longer than it should to get out of bed and walk to the bathroom.

2. I have wrinkles that I used to call laugh lines. Oh yes, botox is in my future!

3. I'm totally exhausted. (Wait, maybe that's because I have two young kids.)

4. I thought Ethan's lifeguard for swim class was 15 year old....she was in college.

5. I was embarrassed to wear my shorts this summer because I thought they were too short.

6. My nightly skin care regime almost takes longer than my shower.

7. I can only play chase for a few minutes before I have to take a break due to joint pain.

8. I have to dye my hair every 4 weeks to cover the white ones.

9. I own a minivan. I love it, but let's face it...at 21 I wouldn't be caught dead in one.

10. If my phone rings after 10pm I get mad.

At least I have accomplished my goals I set for myself for turning 30. I am happily married, I have a house I plan to live in forever, I have my two kids, I have a job that I love, and I have my health...well, most of it.

And, last but not least, thank you Mondo for the spa package. It is much needed and will be much enjoyed. And thanks for putting up with me for 13 of my 30 years.

Party Like It's 1978

Mondo put together a suprise birthday party for me on Friday (my b-day is actually next Wednesday). Unfortunately, the crowd was smaller than expected but we had an awesome time. We ate at N9ne Steakhouse in Dallas (my favorite place) then went across to the "Living Room" at the W Hotel. I had the best time...thanks Mike and Traci for helping me ease into the big 3-0. I'm old and feeling it...but that's another post.

The beginning of the evening checking out the menu...like we have to.

The party crowd. Notice how we coordinated without even trying...yeah, we're cool like that.

My other honey, Mike.

My favorite dessert...smores cooked at the table! Thanks for a great dinner Mondie. :-)

My BFF Traci. Thanks for ditching your kids for me...like you had to think about it...screaming 2 month old and 3 year old or fun night with the Hernandez's...wise choice, Traci.

Me and Mondo outside at the Living Room. What a cool, happening place.

Poor Traci was cold...but the birthday girl wasn't giving up the sweater.

What the...that's not his wife!

Happy Halloween!

This is kind of a double post. It starts with "Halloween Nights." I think it might have been new this year. It was out at the Air Hog's stadium and had games, balloon animals, food, and lots of light displays. We left Caleb with my parents since it was going to be late and cold. We met up with Ethan's friend Will. They had a great time running around and getting candy. The light displays were neat. It was a fun thing to do for Halloween since there is usually too much scary stuff that you can't take kids to.

Ethan and Will checking out the displays.

Ethan's balloon animal. It was supposed to be a horse.

Ahh, no pic with Caleb. It made me a little sad that he wasn't there.

Daddy and Ethan playing basketball.

I love this picture. Ethan looks so safe and secure in Daddy's arms.

Shooting webs from the top of a rock he just climbed.

Ethan, Mondo, Will, and Eric.

Ethan loved climbing this "web".

Playing soccer for candy.

Of course they wouldn't look at the same time.

This was at the end. Ethan loved running through the webs with giant spiders. He was shooting his own webs at them.

Halloween

I was lucky to be able to go trick-or-treating with the kids. (Thanks for working for me, Beverly!) We went around the block with the other super heros from the neighborhood then went back to our house to hand out candy. Ethan loves to pass out candy and see the other kids. We had to close down by 8:15pm because the kids were crashing. Lucky for me we had some candy left over. :-)

Spiderman and the giraffe had a little jam session on the piano.

Here's a side shot. Look at the tail...so cute!

Lexi fighting off the giraffe.

There's a smile!

Spiderman looking oh so happy.

Our trick-or-treating group: Ethan, Caleb, Tyler, Maddie, Will, and Maggie.

Caleb's Halloween treats...fruit puffs.

All of the super heros flexing their muscles.

No one is looking except for Caleb but I thought his face was cute. Wow, check out those awesome begonias in the background. :-)

Here are our pumpkins. The kids could've care less about carving them. I thought Ethan would be into it but he just kept holding his nose saying "they're stinky!"

Crossing the Line

I drove Ethan to school this morning and appalled by what I saw. Standing on the corner of the elementary school by our house was a kid probably the age of 10 holding a giant poster of a bloody, mangled baby and the caption reads "Obama supports live abortion, don't for Obama!" As I passed the school I saw several more children holding these posters with real photos of butchered babies that were aborted probably around 20-30 weeks gestation. This post is not about abortion and whether it is right or wrong. It's not about Obama vs. McCain. It's about incredibly stupid parents who thought it was an awesome idea to let their small children carry around posters at an elementary school with gruesome pictures of aborted babies. Maybe it outraged me more because I am a parent and would never for one second even think that it would be a good idea to do that. I don't know, I just had to vent about it and now try to go get those images out of my head.....

Little Ethan-isms

This blog is all about Ethan. These pictures are just random ones in no particular order.

Ahh, this face is priceless.

His lips are blue from eating a sucker. That is a medicine syringe on his fingers.

He told me not to bother him because he was sleeping...with my mask on.

That's deviled eggs all over his face. He still smells everything before he eats it so I have no idea why he eats eggs because they sure don't smell good.

He was making snow cones at Nana and Papa's house.

He loves to get on riding lawn mowers. We don't own one but everytime we're at Home Depot I spend half my time trying to get him off of them. He has to try each one out.

Everything Ethan

1. He is constantly coming up to me and asking me to find something for him. When I ask him where he thinks it might be he says, "I don't know. It's probably somewhere."

2. The other day he declared that we would be going to "Old McDonald's" the next morning for pancakes and hashbrowns. I looked at him and said, "Who do you think you are?" And very seriously he said, "I'm Superman."

3. One of his favorite songs right now is "Everybody is Kung Fu Fighting" (from Kung Fu Panda). Anytime he hears it he says "It's my song!" and starts singing "everybody is kung tu fighting" complete with dance moves...I have yet to get that on video but I'm working on it.

4. He likes to change to words to songs and make up new verses...he gets that from his Daddy. They are especially good at it in the car.

5. He can hear a song once, then weeks later he'll say "Mommy, I want to hear that song, you know the one that goes...." and then he'll start singing it. Amazing.

6. He is still very into the drums. Anything can be a drum stick: straws, pens, stuffed animals, french fries, kitchen utensils, the list can go on and on...

7. Each night before bed, we have to give him a hug, kiss, high five, knuckles, and then wiggle our fingers together and say "coo-kie" (that word is from Wow Wow Wubbzy for you non Noggin watchers). I think the list of things we have to do before bed keeps growing as a stalling tactic.

8. He has an imaginary friend/foe named Puppet. He lives in my shower. We are undecided if he is nice or not. Most of the time he says he's mean and he looks scary "like a dinosaur or a lion or something". He brings him up every few days. One day he walked by my bathroom, looked into the doorway and just froze. I asked him what was wrong. He said "Puppet is in there" (behind the shower curtain.) He has never seen a scary puppet so I really don't know where this is coming from. Although, I did have an imaginary friend named Suguna...but she was nice. :-)

9. He is weird about food just like me. He doesn't like onions and won't eat anything with onions in it...except for onion rings. He sucks out the onion like a piece of spaghetti and eats it. I'm not telling him what it is. He won't eat a sandwich or garlic toast with the crust on the bread. But if he eats a plain piece of bread...he eats the crust. He still drinks "chama-milk" (chocolate milk). Mondo tried to wean him off of it...more like take him off cold turkey. He was giving him plain milk for a while and telling him it was chama-milk. Well, Mommy is a softie and still gave him the good stuff. He figured it out and now says, "I want chama-milk with chocolate. Mommy make it, not Daddy."

10. He still sleeps with the "Aunt Lou" blankets that she and my mom made when he was a baby. Now there are a few "tickle blankets". There are some edges that are worn from him pulling on the yarn so they stick up. He runs the tickle part under his nose and around his ear...it's comforting to him.

11. He is now into composing his own songs. He made one up the other day called "Rocket Song." He played the drums on the recliner and kept perfect rhythm. He sang it three times in a row, and now sings it on a daily basis and every time it sounds the same. Most of the words are slurred together so I don't know what he's singing about. He also made up another song called "Shut Up." I'll let you guess how those lyrics go.