The oysters were my husbands. I like them, but not nearly as much as he does. This plate lasted about two minutes.
The beaches were overcast and windy, but the kids did not seem to care. Toes were buried and dipped in the cold Gulf waters. Waves were chased, as well as birds.
This photo is NOT an indication of our Christmas holiday. It is funny and very uncharacteristic of Aidan. Erika and Ainslee were all smiles the twenty minutes we waited in line and then once they sat in Santa's lap they wouldn't smile. Not a grin. Ugh. The best part was caught on video after the photo was taken. I had Aidan (she was then happy and smiling and pointing at Santa) and E & A were still on his lap chatting away. He was good at asking questions and listening and not rushing onto the next kiddo. So, we had a great visit in Florida, Christmas and the surrounding days were a whirl and a blur in the best way, and now we are back in TX. We have one more week until pre-k starts back up. I have some time (a whole free week's worth) with the girls and no place I/ we need to be. It will be nice. My husband and I are also on a cleaning rampage. All of sudden he has gotten the urge to purge and is going through closets & drawers. It is so unlike him, but I LOVE it. He can be a pack rat for sure, so I will enjoy it as long as it lasts. Christmas is being packed up, the Goodwill stack is waiting to be delivered, and I am feeling good about all the tidy closets & drawers. What a way to say "bye, bye '08".
Tree, baking, cards - all finished. I can get wrapped up in the excitement (stress) of holidays with the best of them. This is much better, although I do have a little voice "Am I forgetting something?". The downside to having time on my hands? Too many bad Lifetime Movie Network movies. Why isn't there anything good on during the day? It is nice having some quiet time mid-day. I have been knitting a little and catching up on magazines too. Such lazy decadence.
These photos were from our trip to Colorado. We wanted snow and did we get it! All seven kiddos had a great time in the white stuff. The adults managed to get in almost as much sledding as the tots.
Ms. Aidan is the big 1 now. She started walking last Saturday and turned 1 on Wednesday. It was a big week for her!
and Erika. 
Have a great weekend!!
I hope your Friday was filled with lots of hits too!
This was at our door during a very brief stay in New Orleans. We stayed there one night and got our post-hurricane game plan together.
The people we talked to at the hotel in New Orleans were very nice. This man in particular spent quite a bit of time entertaining the girls and talking with us. This was a Koi pond that all three of the girls were captivated by:
Erika & Ainslee thought the waves were fun too:
Today AT&T restored our phone connection & Internet service this afternoon. Now that I have it back I have a lot of catching up to do. You would think I would have finished a knitting project (nope), caught up the baby books (nope) or at least cleaned out a closet or two (nope, nope). Well, it is good to be back and I can't wait to see what all of my fave bloggers have been up to.
Now, to the addiction part. There was a time when I was addicted to reading blogs. I would spend hours or whatever time I had to browse. Now I have kind of settled into my favorites and I will read them every few days to see what great ideas or funny stories they are sharing. Leave it to me to find a new addiction, one that my husband got sucked into and I originally snubbed as a "waste of time". Well, it is and it isn't. It is FACEBOOK! AGH. I can't get enough. For those who may not know it is a website/ resource to find people you know/knew in high school and even college, from old jobs, whatever. I am finding all these old names & familiar faces from high school, chatting with them to see where they are and what is going on. Meanwhile my three children are doing ????? because I have my eyes glued to the computer screen. Seriously, I should know better. I didn't go to my 10 year reunion by choice, and I probably won't go to the 20 year, so why am I so captivated by this site? I don't have an answer other than plain curiosity. You may want to check it out - if you have an hour or two to spare!
School started this morning, so after getting home last night, unpacking and getting organized for this morning, I was prepared to help them get ready for their first day. Once again, they didn't blink back a tear or ask me to stay. They found their back pack cubby and waved me off.
Enjoy the first September weekend.
Place the marshmallow in the middle of the crescent roll. Fold marshmallow into the dough by wrapping corners of crescent roll and pinching together. Try to get it tight and wrap marshmallow completely. Dip wrapped crescent roll in butter and then in the sugar/cinnamon mix. Placed the coated roll in a muffin time lined with a baking cup. Bake at 375 for 10-15 mins until rolls are done and no longer doughy.
It is a fun little project and goes quickly if everything is prepared assembly-line style. The finished product is a sweet, sticky poof. This is a grandma's-house-only treat for my girls, or has been, but it would make a fun anytime baking project for little hands. Enjoy and keep wipes handy!
We all had a good time in the hotel room, a little mini-vaca. I don't have huge concerns regarding our things back home, but hurricanes are predictable so we are hoping for the best. With no return date back to Beaumont, I am sitting back and enjoying the company. With any luck I will get a big chunk of my current project completed. So far, so good, but boy is it time consuming. Hope all those LA, TX evacuees are finding a safe spot to stay for a few days.
Who doesn't love hopping along stones and walking on creaky, wooden bridges? My MIL broke into her perfect troll voice while walking on the bridge.
The weather was so mild and cool compared to our sweltering Texas summer weather. I could have stayed longer.
But we are back, and happy to be back. Sorry for all the grumpy talk previously. I do have a legitimate excuse: mono. Apparently we all have/ had it and no one realized it until about four weeks into the virus when some blood work was drawn. Hmm. I wasn't expecting that one. So, a few weeks remain for everyone to rest, relax and wind down the summer before preschool starts up. We also added soccer to E & A's schedules so that will help to keep us busy. Their little shin guards are pretty cute - can't wait to seem them in action. 
The birthday party was a hit. Erika and Ainlsee had fun and there was a good turnout of other children to make it a noisy affair. I feel like all we did all day was eat and open presents.
It was fun to help them celebrate and to share in their excitement.
Two four-year olds and a soon-to-be one year old. It makes my mind reel in a very full and appreciative way. So, the house is quiet for the next couple of hours and I have some knitting that needs attention and an attitude to adjust! Better get busy.
This morning while drinking my coffee they all decided to meet up under the table. It seemed especially sweet for some reason. I am leaving on Friday, alone, and knowing the fun that awaits for me this weekend makes family life seem much sweeter at times and more frustrating at other times. I find myself irritated by tiny things much quicker and simultaneously counting down the days to lift off. I also know that I will miss the little hands and feet while I am off without the rest of my family. Sure the flight will be nice & quiet, but who is going to make funny comments about mundane things and how can I be the judge of ugly face contests hundreds of miles away?
I had everything except for the overall buckle and set to putting it all together when I received the bag in the mail last week. I am happy with the results, but I am not sure how much use it will get. Right now it is hanging beside my aprons and I like all the various shades of reds together. The sewing practice was needed and I feel good that I did something somewhat creative.
This weekend also included a trip to the beach (why was I thinking it would be fun? Aidan ate sand the whole time!) and coming up with new combinations for salads. That is about all I can manage to prepare for dinner lately. Summer laziness has hit me hard! Hope you all had a good weekend.
With mid-summer here I am taking stock of what I have done and have not done. There are some things I had wanted to accomplish that I have not started so I guess it is now or never. I am really enjoying the summer days with all three girls and am surprised, pleasantly, at how smooth the days have been. There have been tantrums and tears, but it would be strange if those didn't work themselves into our daily happenings now and again - right?
Prompted a little reading of this:
Warning - a hammer, a rolling object and two four year old children can be a little scary! No injuries were sustained, the coconut meat was not an instant favorite, but they loved the coconut milk. All in all a successful first for this gang.
Baby Aidan's just started. Right now it is a runny nose and the occasional sad face accompanied by tears. I hope this is the worse for her. We don't see many pouts or tears from this one, so we know she isn't feeling great.
Tomorrow starts a full and crazy three week stretch. I have been going over my schedule and making lists for this & that. It is all fun stuff (VBS, family trip) but all of it is time consuming on the planning side. I am ready to stop dosing out Tylenol and dive in to the fun stuff. 
I realize I am walking a fine line in blog-land. I am not doing much to blog about but I continue to post entries on my blog. I am sorry for the lack of activity that is going on, but I can't seem to make myself do anything creative. In celebration of father's day we did spend a lot of time together and had a lot of fun, but still nothing crafty. We did go blueberry picking on Saturday morning and it got hot fast. We picked for a little under an hour and then played on the farm.
