Evidence...............

Do you know how to make sure cd/dvd's stick to the little windows on french doors?

Well, just ask my boys - because they figured it out. How did I not notice, sitting here in my study (which is guarded by the said french doors), reading updated blog posts and ignoring my ill-behaved children?! I don't know - I just didn't!!

How do you do it you ask?

Well - you go and get the soap from the hall closet and put a little bit (well maybe a TON) on the back of each of the said dvd/cd's.................................and VOILA.........they stick!!

And I hear from a really excited Jakey, "Dad's gonna be so excited we put these on here!!"

OH REALLY!!!!!

I'm off to get these boys in a bath and find my trusty Windex!!

Halloween 2008

For weeks and weeks before Halloween, the boys could be found in my closet, trying to find some way to get up to their costumes. They are officially OBSESSED with Power Rangers.

Jacob informed me that his "whole" name is "JMS Blue Power Ranger". And of course Matthew's is "MPS Red Power Ranger". Zachy is happy to take whatever Power Ranger is left over (what a good boy)!

FINALLY Halloween came - and my 3 boys turned into Power Rangers (keep in mind that I only had 2 Power Ranger costumes!)

A blue one for Jakey..................

And a red one for Matt..........

So when I went to put on Zachy's costume, here's what I got.........
We convinced everybody we were with to call him Black Power Ranger. Of course everytime people called him Batman, I cringed and waited for the drama!!! Thank goodness this kid can be easily distracted by a couple of suckers!!

The boys had a great time Trick-or-Treating and fell in love with one of the girls we were out with!! She was SO fun!! Matthew keeps on talking about her!!

Look at all of that candy..................their buckets were filled to the top!

And when the red and blue Power Rangers were distracted by all of their treats, our little Zachy took advantage!! FINALLY he got to be a Power Ranger!!

And of course, we all become our mom's right? The next day, I let them each pick 10 pieces of candy and got rid of the rest!!

What a great Halloween!!

Daddy's Week Off!!

Aside from Christmas, Daddy rarely gets time off!! So when he does, we try ti fit as much fun stuff in to one week as we possibly can!!

Well - this time, it didn't happen so much like that because on Daddy's first day off - he got STREP!!! We really only had a weekend once everybody felt better - but it was a great weekend!!

We went camping with some friends and the boys had a BLAST (as did mom and dad)!

Here's our brand new tent - which was apparently the "cool" tent on the block because that is where all of the kiddos played!!

Daddy cooking a YUMMY breakfast - his taquitos - along with Brian J's yummy secret recipe pancakes!!

Zachy enjoyed the rocks and the water faucet in the middle of the campground!! I guess it's smart to have water there - but honestly - trying to keep a 2 year old away from a water faucet...........

After we came home from camping - we took the kiddos to Austin Park!! It has EVERYTHING, bumper boats, race track, batting cages, arcade - all things little people can't take part in (but it's also free 3 and under - so I can't complain!!).

They did have teacups that Jake took over - the kid is AMAZING at spinning us!!

And then they rode on a little train which was cute.

The main reason for going was mini-golf!! The boys LOVE golfing with daddy - so we thought they might enjoy it. And they did really, really well - surprisingly!!

Look at Jakey's grip - he's born to golf!!

Matthew, after a hole in 1 (ok - maybe not, but almost)! (Daddy did get a hole in 1, by the way!)

Zachy needed just a little help from mommy!!


What a fun weekend it was!!!

And just for a little added bonus for the grandparents - here's family picture we had to take for the boy's classes!!

First Day of School

Matthew and Jacob started school last week!! They have been talking about it for months and months. And they've thanked Heavenly Father every night in their prayers (for the past 6 months) that they get to go to school.

They love their teacher, Miss Michelle, and have done all kinds of fun things already!

Here they are on their first day!! Handsome little guys, huh?! (Please ignore Matthew's black eye!!)


Mommy and Zachy are keeing busy with the boys being away. Every Tuesday, Zachy has music class with all of his little friends at our house (same as the boys last year). We have 14 kids total!! And on Thursdays, Zachy has his own little preschool with Rose, Claire and Scott. We take turns - so I teach every 4th week. He'll love it and I get a few hours to do who-knows-what!!!

Our family is getting so big!! They're not kidding when they say that "kids grow up so fast" and "treasure every moment!" I know they're all only gone a few hours a week, but I'm SO excited when I get to go pick them up!!

I love my boys!

SEAWORLD!

On Labor Day, we decided to take the boys down to Seaworld in San Antonio. I have the best memories of going to Seaworld in San Diego with my family when I was growing up. So I wanted to take advantage of living so close to one and take the boys!! We had a BLAST!!!

A few favorite moments of the day...........................

1 - Seeing the amazement in the boy's eyes as they watched the Shamu show - it was absolutely stunning! And they still can't stop talking about how the lady rode on Shamu's nose!!

2 - Watching Matt and Jake in the 4D Pirate show - every time something would pop out of the screen, they'd lift their glasses up off their eyes (a few times, on and off, on and off, on and off) just to make sure it wasn't real!!

3 - The wave pool - the entire family LOVED it! How smart are they to put a water park in the middle of Seaworld in Texas!!

Here are a few pictures!

Dolphins!

Mommy and the boys at the Shamu show!

SHAMU!!

All of the boys getting splashed by the Journey to Atlantis ride!

if you can't find any other reason.................

I don't often post opinion blogs, because frankly, I have VERY strong opinions and I don't really want to put anybody off. I usually try to post cute pictures of my boys for the grandmas and leave the opinion blogs to others.

But something happened to me today that I can't pass up!! Seriously - what has happened to the medical profession. Now, don't write me off just yet. I know there are great surgeons and Dr's out there. My father-in-law is a surgeon, we have trusted every specialist we've seen, I LOVE my OB and we LOVE our pediatrician. But we don't have a family Dr that we love.

So last week when I was dealing with a wierd taste/dryness in my mouth, I went to a Dr at a local clinic that people have referred us to (the clinic, not this particular Dr - but he had a last minute opening). This was a BIG mistake.

The Dr walks in, asks me what's going on. I tell him I have a metal taste in my mouth and dryness and he looks at me and asks, in all seriousness (I thought he must be joking, but he wasn't) "Do you know of anybody who might be trying to slowly poison you with lead?" I laughed, but he didn't even crack a smile. So I quickly wiped the smile off my face and said, "um, no."

As if I wasn't already to just run out the door, then he pulls out his handy little palm pilot thing (I know they have a new name, but I'm still caught in the early 2000's technology-wise) and types in dry mouth and metal taste to some symptom checker, turns around so I can see the results (as if I should be impressed that he is SO technologically savvy) and says - do any of these other symptoms fit?

NO, I told you that these were my ONLY symptoms!! Then, after a short, LAME physical that would produce NOTHING, he says, "Well, we can do some blood work labs and see what we find and then I'll see you back here in 2 weeks." I say "Ok" partly because I'm completely dumbfounded that he thinks what he has just doe is OK and partly because I just want to get out of there.

SERIOUSLY!! Is this what the profession has come to? Have they not heard of the internet? Do they not know that before I walked into their office, I had already visited the Symptom Checker on WebMd as well as every holistic medicine site out there? I was going to him for his "medical expertise", to find out something I couldn't find online and he pulls out his handy, dandy palm pilot!!

Jump to 1 week later, I'm feeling a lot better. After a rough last week, symptoms are almost gone and I think they'll go away on their own completely.

So I call to cancel all appointments, and they won't let me without talking to a nurse and the Dr. Whatever - that's not going to change my decision. The nurse called me back this morning because of course the Dr isn't in on Mondays, and here's the kicker..............................

"We'd like you to come back in for some depression and anxiety tests."

Oh No You Didn't!! Since I'm a WOMAN and you can't figure out what's wrong with me - it must be depression or anxiety, right?!

Needless to say, I told them very nicely where to put their tests and hung up the phone!! End of story. Thoughts?!

Disclaimer: I have many friends and family who deal with depression/anxiety/etc and I believe it can be a very real thing and is a big trial in their lives. I have my own issues (can anybody say OCD), just not depression. And when a Dr uses depression as a general diagnoses, it's not fair to those with the disease and those without it!!