Better day?

Mama's pretties (belt buckle and cool necklace)

My day started of rotten yesterday. Scott was mad at me cause he couldn't find a file that he needed that I "moved"...., I searched for 45 minutes for Barrett's baby so we were running late for school, I never could find it..and then he walks into the bathroom holding it, saying, "I found it MAMA!!", NEW RULE: Baby isn't to leave the house anymore, Barrett picked out a NEW animal that will accompany him to school, "school bear"...., as I was looking for the baby, I found puke in the back of one of the boy's dump trucks, nasty!! Barrett is a big puker, if he runs after he chugs chocolate milk or jumps on the toy room couch he throws up..., so no worries that he was sick and I didn't know it., just not exactly what I wanted to see in the am while rushing around.....I still have Christmas crap ALL over the house and it's really bugging me. It was my turn to car pool...Barrett cried THE whole ride (approx. 30 min) to school, then I realized as I was unloading him that I had forgotten to feed him breakfast!!! Poor little guy with NOTHING in his tummy. I told his teachers that if he scarfs down his am snack that is why, at least I'm honest right?
Then I continued to buy more Christmas crap for the house, LOTs of it, so much in fact that each of the boys, including Will (our carpool buddy) had to ride home with something on their lap..more precisely, one Santa, one sleigh, and a bag of garland...I need a bigger car for sure or maybe one of those mini u-haul silver things....I've decided I don't really like doing the holiday decorating, it's just a lot of work. So much for my big idea to have a tree in every room THIS year. I set a budget for new stuff to fill the bigger home than I'm use to decorating... in past Christmases and after slightly (well maybe a lot) going over the budget, plus being sick of decorating, I've just plain decided..., is ALL this really worth it...my kids are only 2 and 3 AND they are boys!!! I've ALSO decided to simplify a little this year and only do the rooms that we will be celebrating in...I'll do the other rooms in the future, like in 2020....I'm almost finished with the hearth room/kitchen/staircases/Scott's trophy room/kid's desk area and that is IT this year!!!

As the day turned to night, it did get better. I went to a friends girls night out party where there were 3 different crafty people that made fun cool funky things...just what I needed to end the day, a great friend to accompany me, yummy food and something fun and unique for Mama to wear. After my day I thought I'd treat myself to something deserving!!

More organizing tips....

Business card holders that stick
Label each swag

I'm getting so many compliments on my organizing tips that I'll just continue to share them with ya'll...At Office Depot they have these business card holders that are really made to hold a business card, but you can stick them on your decoration bins and print off the computer what each bin contains, or just simplify it with Christmas, Halloween, Fall. You can just get clear bins too, but I like the idea of being able to label what is exactly in the bin.
Also, I just take scrap paper and write exactly where I put the deocoration or the swag and then just simply staple it on the swag or tape it on the bottom of the decoration. It's hard to remember from year to year exactly where you had placed them the year before and it just saves time instead of guessing and sorting....Hope this helps!!!

Goodbye Fall

Goodbye Fall
Hello Christmas

I'm super big into decorating for the holidays...surprise surprise, right? I really have enough Fall crap to open up my own store.....so it's no surprise that I have double the stuff for Christmas... Scott gives me so much trouble but I know secretly he likes it..as I was gettin' lots of ooohhh and awweess from both he and the boys last night while starting the first of many days of decorating....

Last year, I didn't decorate at all as we moved into the house 4 days before Christmas so I was more worried about find a fork at the time....I've had this big idea to put up 3 different trees this year, we'll see how that goes, I put up the first one yesterday, it takes twice as long with the help of a 2 and 3 yr old but this tree is in Daddy's trophy room with it's rustic theme...You gotta have a cowboy tree in Texas....I still need a tree skirt, I'm thinking a bandanna one with roping around it for trim and I need to find something cool for the top, maybe a lasso wrapped in lights????

Dragon in the cave

Grandpa Russell playing the 80th game of airplane for the evening...

Grandpa Russell is the Dad I grew up, he legally adopted me when I was in my mid teens...Not only is he the handiest man to ever live, but ever kid that has ever come in contact with him LOVES him, I think cause he's just a big kid himself. My Dad has a heart of gold and will do anything for anybody. He's very small town, but his heart is the size of the universe. We love for him to come and visit as the kids just eat him up, but we gets lots of projects done around the house. He is so talented at what he does (a carpenter by trade and home builder) it's amazing at how well he does even the littlest job as hang a picture, he measures, remeasures, pulls out the level,,, I've never seen anything like it...He and my Mom have been divorced since I was in college and neither one has remarried...
Beautiful......

The kids where going stir crazy in the house as they are use to running wild outside in shorts every day, and I felt bad as Dad had been working his bootie off with my 2 page "to-do"list, that we needed to do something inside from the rain but "close". We have always seen signs for "The Cave without a name" but haven't really heard anything about it, so as it's just 5 minutes from us out the back gate, I thought...perfect, right up Dad's alley and the boys thought the idea of going to a cave was spectacular......As soon as I mentioned "cave", Barrett piped in and started talking about the dragon that lives in the cave...so the whole way there he kept "roaring" like a dragon and talking about the "big spooky dragon"....


Tourists...in our own backyard!!!
We were blown away at how beautiful the cave was..it was huge too!! It was well lit and the perfect temp all year around 66 degrees...it was amazing, we had no idea how cool it was!! We all loved it....We weren't suppose to touch anything but of course Brandt bent down and threw a rock into a pool of water, the guide gave us a dirty look, but what do you do with a 3 yr old that likes to skip rocks!!!

One little dragon and Grandpa Russell

The cute thing was that they boys kept talking about the dragons that lived in the cave but little did they know that THEY were the dragons!! I found these little dragon hats at the gap, they both love them (it's hard for a 2 and 3 yr old to keep a hat on)....with matching gloves of course.....

On the way to the dragon cave...

Well, since there were no dragons in the cave, they boys thought they should start looking for the bats instead.....so we quickly went from a dragon hunt to a bat hunt.....

Dragon slayer #2....

They both had a ball. If you're in the area, you should check it out, it's totally worth the $14 a person, it takes about an hour for the tour and perfect thing to do if it's raining outside or cold.....

Thankful for family.....

Fun with cousins.....

Brandt, Tyler, Barrett, Ryan, and Kyle

The Feast

This Thanksgiving was a special one for us. It was the first time we hosted a family holiday in the house. The first time we used the dining room and the first time we used the fireplace. AND the first time we had all my "Texas" family at our home.

I met my biological Father(Keith)(Happy, as the grand kids call him, was suppose to be Pappy but Brandt kept calling him Happy so it stuck) after Scott and I were married and was automatically given another wonderful Mother(Linda)(Omie) and 2 sisters (Kimber and Kelly)...I guess you could say that I'm lucky in a way that I have 2 sets of family and well, 3 by marriage(Scott's), it's been.....challenging as there is No book that you can read on how to suddenly be accepted into another family that has been functioning for years without you and on the other end, how to fit in without being a disruption...but I will say that Thanksgiving brought us some obstacles, but I think with a lot of love we are finally on the right track, and THAT I'm thankful for....My life has NEVER been simple or black and white, but it's who I am and as I grow older I'm learning to look at my differences (or so I thought growing up) as a blessings....

Barrett at the kid's table

I had to be crafty with the kid table. The kid's centerpiece turned out pretty darn cute, it's just 2 different sizes of brown paper bags stuffed with newspaper, lids from water bottles for the eyes with googly eyes glued on, yellow construction paper for the beak, a red balloon for the gobble and the funny thing is...a feather duster for the tail....Kelly helped me with the napkin rings/name placement cards which were empty toilet paper holders with feathers glued on them.....

Our own Macy day parade right in our own kitchen


The food tasters at work.....


Our first fire.....


It's been freezing down here in Texas, in the low 40's...Scott wanted to make a fire and I kind of fought him on it, as I thought about the kids running around, the smell, the mess....well, after our 7th fire this holiday weekend, it's been a complete hit. Scott could run up to the gas station and buy the wood, but no Mr. Outdoors man has spent hours and hours chopping the wood and hauling the wood to our hearth room....Thanks honey for all the warmth you've given us..Our house feels very lived in for some reason, maybe because our fireplace is now black from the soot and looks great with our old world charm decor?

The table....

I love purple, green,brown and gold together...our dining room sits off by itself, so I can get away with doing lots of purple in the room. It sure was fun searching for all my fun "stuff" like dishes, silverware, chargers, napkin rings, etc...that I haven't used in years while all our "stuff" was in storage....

Place settings.....

Instead of making name tags this year, I just attached a chipboard letter of our names to some pumpkins I already had, I was doing it to save time but I think they ended up really cute and simple....

The gang.... Omie's xmas card this year....

Well, I will say our holiday gatherings are very ....crazy in the least. With 5 children from ages

1 1/2 to 3 1/2....and 4 boys and 1 girl..it's a little...WILD..it was amazing we got a fairly decent picture..Brandt was having a heart attack as he didn't want to wear the cream sweater, I don't blame him as it was 99 degrees by the fireplace...and to even get 2 little kids to look at the camera let alone 5, we'll take what we can get these days....


Sweet Ryan.....


The only girl in the family. She's going to be the one who tries to keep all the boys out of trouble (if that's possible)..We all can imagine our family trips when the boys sneak out at night, Ryan will be the one to tell us what they are up to....She's so sweet and it's so fun to have some girl things floating around the house when she comes to visit...She and Brandt look more like siblings than cousins...WAY to cute..... Thank you family for making our Thanksgiving memorable and meaningful.....

My little pilgrim

Happy Turkey Eve...We hope you all have a blessed and safe Thanksgiving with your family and friends...Love, Scott, Angelia, Brandt and Barrett

Always celebrating....

My BFF, Tami, the bday girls, Mendy and Angie

We had a great Girls Night out-slash-double bday party for Mendy and Angie.... Tami introduced them to me when Tami and I first started hangin' out...(she's known them since high school!!) and I immediately felt like we had been friends forever with both of them just like Tami.....They are both wonderful beautiful girls, inside and out...and SO much fun to be around...I'm looking forward to many birthday celebrations as we try to keep up with the other Spring Chickens!!!

Aunt Ninny (Jen) and Kendra, showing her new toothless smile

A big kiss for the bday girl, Lexi

Once again, a sugar high....

Blondies all in a row (all kids at the party where blonde except one!)

It seems like we always have several activities to partake in during the weekends. I'm a little scarred wondering what it's going to be like when Brandt and Barrett are in sports? This weekend we had an open house, dinner club (which we missed), birthday parties, and Mommy had a girls night out-slash-double friends bday party....What ever happen to a relaxing weekend. I told Scott which I told him last year as well, but it didn't work out, that we'd pick one weekend a month and not schedule anything...just relax, do stuff around the house and play with the boys....I wonder if it will really happen in 2008....I'm very thankful for all our friends that keep us so busy..it's a month of reflecting on what we have to be thankful for and we have been blessed with some beautiful friendships, I can't complain about the business that comes with the blessing.....

sleepin' in

Yesterday Brandt actually slept in until 6:30 am!! Hallelujah..... Usually he's up any where from 5:45 to 6am, everyday of the year, no matter if Mama had to much wine the night before or if we were out late at a movie...this kid is ALWAYS up with the roosters...He comes into my room and says:

B: "Mommy I slept really good, like Daddy does..."

A: "Oh really honey, why do you say that"..

B: "Cuz I just slept for 500 hundred years".....

Obviously the kid has an A+ in perception, Daddy is always sleepin' in or nappin' on the couch, I guess Daddy has quite the reputation around here....

A huntin' he will go.......

Nothing like stocking up the freezer for winter

My husband is a hunter. He normally hunts pheasants, occasionally duck and deer but this summer when he asked my "permission" if it would be ok if he went on an alligator hunt...yep, that's right not a duck or deer but an alligator. Florida is part of his territory and I guess it's the cool guy thing to do when in the swamp area. Not only was he asking if it was ok, as it was going to add another night to his traveling schedule but it can be quite dangerous...that's my husband, always on the edge of a little danger...

The guide came to pick him up at dust, as I guess the alligators come out at night. They go out into the swamps on an air boat. He said it was a deluxe, upscale plush boat with swivel seats...only the best for my husband, ya know...The guide had drinks and snacks and to drown out the noise of the fan on the boat, they had earphones and microphones. When they weren't talking country music played. It's completely pitch dark out in the swamp with only the guide wearing a huge spot light on his head (kind of like what a coal miner wears), the guide would be on the look out for the alligator's beady little eyes....Once they spotted the gator, Scott would throw a spear that would hook into the gator's skin, it was attached to a rope with balls that where full of air, the gator would then fight against the robe and balls, wear him out and then they would beat it with a bang stick....Scott said it was his "best" guy night he's ever had, so it pretty much made a lasting impression on him..... hhhuuugggg, no thanks....

Just a baby for a cute pic.....
I was a little freaked out for awhile. I told Scott to call me before he left for the hunt and when he was finished....after a few hours I hadn't heard so I tried calling and of course Sprint phones don't exactly work in the swamp area! I kept thinking about Steve Irwin, how the stingray just quickly and accidentally took his life, I kept having visions of a huge alligator with a million teeth jumping up in the boat and getting Scott, and swallowing him but coughing up his wedding ring for me to wear around my neck!!!......

The catch


So, now that we have the 30 lbs of alligator meat that is overpopulating our freezer, we are excitingly awaiting the actual mounting of the alligator. Scott was deciding if he wanted to do a coffee table, make a purse or shoes (which of course I voted for) but he's decided to "1/2" mount the alligator and it will actually be his first "trophy" to be displayed in his "guy's trophy room"..kind of a WOW first trophy, not sure what he'll come up with to keep up with that!!! Right now, Scott's "trophy" room (as it states on our blueprints) is actually our family-slash-boy's "train" room, they have all 1 million train tracks and trains spread out like a toy store display...I think the dynamics of the room will change once Mr. Alligator is mounted up on the wall. Two things can happen, 1: the kids will think the alligator is THE coolest thing and show it to every friend that comes over or 2: the kids will never play trains in Daddy's room again...

Crocodile Dundee......

Oh, did you notice the blue tapered slicker sweat pants...You can wear them everyday to the office, to cut down cedars in the yard, AND to hunt alligators....such a versatile wardrobe piece..impressive..NOT!!!

We actually gave some of the meat to Scott's assistant and we are taking some to our neighbor's house today at an open house they are having..."hi, thanks for having us, here's some alligator meat!!"...Actually Amy K. picked up the meat for me as it just so happens the meat was delivered on her car pool day and I refused to drive into town for it...thanks Amy for the favor...Anyway, Amy is from the south and we've decided to have an Alligator cook off. She has some recipes that actually call for Alligator...yep, that's a TRUE southern woman for you...so she will cook a couple of things and I will too and we will have a alligator party...so please let us know if you're interested in attending OR if you'd like some alligator meat, we only have about 25 lbs left to spare....

Being Thankful....

Gosh, the weather here is just perfectamendo!! THIS is why we moved to Texas!! I like to use the whole month of Novemeber as a reflection of why we are Thankful instead of designating one day (Thanksgiving). It seems like their is so much in our lives to be thankful for that one day just doesn't seem enough...Saturday we attended the Fall Festival in our neighborhood. We are so thankful and blessed to live in such a beautiful place.

In the above picture with the boys holding hands, I about fell over when it happened as I always have the boys grab hands when we are in a parking lot or any other place where there are tons of cars and well, it never quite happens. Barrett has other plans, which upsets Brandt that he won't grab his hand, I end up picking up my 28 lb. Barrett onto my hip along with my suitcase sized purse and mini diaper bag...and occasionally green dragon...No wonder my back and neck hurts all the time...

He's such a poser!!

Dragging brother along....I'm very thankful for my boys and all the joy they bring me...

This was taken right before Barrett started eating rocks!!!

We were invited over to Omie and Happy's house for dinner. This is my biological Father and his wife (another soap opera blog at some point). We are thankful for family and Linda being the best cook ever!!! We hadn't been over to their house since April so the kids were just way to excited plus no naps, they were WILD...it was embarrassing...they were both OUT on the way home before we hit the end of the driveway..My kids have this blow off period right before bed, where it's like they turn up their volume full blast, like if they were speakers they would be blown....they are really in high gear and then they CRASH...it's kind of like they have to get all the energy out so they can sleep good, and that they do...

The sun was very bright and Daddy offered his sunglasses to a complaining 2 year old, not only did he have them on upside down, one of his eyeballs were hangin' out...it was way to cute...he just sat there with a grin wondering why we were all laughing at him...I'm thankful for family moments like that.....

My smokin' Firefighters.....

Happy Halloween

Love, Brandt Barrett and Mama

Hangin' out with all the BIG boys

This Halloween was the first time that either of the boys really got into it. I must admit I was a little disappointed when Brandt picked out his costume on line. I wanted him to be a gladiator..come on,...Daddy's favorite movie, of course , he had no idea what a gladiator was, so I ordered with reluctance, but was pleasantly surprised when the costumes arrived. They were very realistic with chunky buckles and all. The neat thing is that Barrett's room is a Firehouse theme, so I neatly hung the costumes on hooks and now they double as a decoration for his room.....

Brandt's favorite person in the world, Cole
Before trick or treating started, we headed over to Paul and Pam's house (from dinner club) and let the kids play, hung out, and had pizza and beer. It was a great time. Pam has promised to make it a yearly tradition....Our neighborhood has a trunk or treating since the houses are so spread out, but we wanted our first trick or treating to be a little more traditional...Thanks Pamela K for such a fun night...

Firefighter 1

Firefighter 2
Barrett was so dang cute. He acted like he trick or treats every day of his life. He'd lead the way with his brother following..and just go right up on the sidewalk leading to the front door with all of us trailing behind. In the car on the way to Pam's house I asked the kids to practice what you would say when the people opened the front door, Brandt yelled out..."trick or treat", and Barrett said when it was his turn..."open the door!!". Brandt couldn't figure out why we couldn't just go inside and "play toys"...and at one point, Barrett started dumping all the candy in his bag back into the Halloween bowl that was put out in front of him. I guess he got a little mixed up with all the sugar in his system...

We only ended up going to only 6 or so houses, and that was plenty as Brandt was asking if it was "almost over".....Brandt came down with a bad tummy ache...gee wonder why...and Barrett had sucker all over in his hair when I was putting his jammies on at bedtime...it was a fun night and so glad to have such great friends and fun little guys to share it with...oh, and a great Daddy too...I always remember before I had kids and all the cute kids came to our house...I just couldn't wait for my turn someday when I would be blessed with cute little ones to dress up...it's so much better than I ever imagined...next year, Brandt wants to be a pirate, so he says...what about a gladiator....

My Sweet baby boy....Bubba
I find myself calling Barrett my Bubba. It's my little nickname for him....He's got those Bubba little cheeks that I can't stop kissin'

My sweet angel
I've always called Brandt my angel..cause he is.....

Pearly Whites.....

Barrett and Baby..practicing brushing techniques...

This week was Barrett's first dentist appointment. It went very well. We have found a denitst that is not only cute...!! (always a bonus!!) they all do a fantastic job in there. Kendall Woods Dental. Both the boys do amazingly well. They seem like such young men, it makes me so sad but very proud. They do exactly what they are told and no wiggles or wimpers......

Our cute dentist and Barrett being so good....

Open wide...real wide.... Such cute teeth too!!

"Baby" and Barrett

The green dragon in case you haven't noticed before is Barrett's sidekick....It's been peed on, puked on, ate on, even dropped in the toliet a few times....it's just down right nasty, even after it's washed it still looks like it's 100 years old...but it's his favorite thing....I've spent hours and hours and hours (every night!!) looking for the damn thing!!...once it was lost for 3 days and then we found it in our storage room that has all of our electrical boxes in it, Barrett had followed a "worker man" into the room (with Daddy of course) dropped the green animal (unnoticed), Daddy shut the door and he just plain forgot for 3 days that he'd been in that room......luckily, or not so luckily when we first moved into the house we had lots of electrical problems (bugs to work out) so we were in and out of the room frequently and low and behold we found baby after I spent days on ebay and other websites for a replacement..that is impossible, he is THE ONE and ONLY

..Recently baby had his first sleep over.. in Walmart....Barrett insisted on bringing him into the store, so it was easier to agree than listen to him cry for him...After shopping, Barrett asked for him while I was loading up groceries ...No green animal in site..., I had to leave the milk,fresh fruit, etc in the hot car ...I retraced our steps, fuming, with both boys thrown in a cart... back into Walmart for 45 minutes looking for the damn thing, I looked all under the shelves thinking maybe he "hid" him.....still no baby, I left word with our #, name and a plead that it would be a rough night if it wasn't found... thinking who would want this nasty matted down thing...sure enough we got a call from the Walmart manager around bedtime that he had been found and that he was looking a little sad...best phone call we got all week...we decided to teach Barrett a lesson and let baby have his first sleep over, in Walmart...lesson learned baby only goes to school and back, no more dentist offices or any other field trips.....for awhile anyway....

Ready...Big Brother has a turn too......

Brandt's finished shiny pearly whites!!!!

They didn't do this on the kids of course, but as an adult they clean your teeth 3 different ways, they scrape all the ick off, then do a pro-V wash (like a baking soda water wash) over the teeth and then polish with the little round tool like a sander thingy...it's the best....You can't even stand to look in the mirror for a few days they are just so shiny!!!