Team Cross

Fun Visitors!

This morning Suzanne brought Knox and Katie over to play.  I am upset that I forgot to take pics, but Suzanne and I were having too much fun sampling more coffee and chatting while the kids played.  Austin and Cody were SO HAPPY to see Knox!  After naps today, Dinger stopped by to say hi!  The kiddos LOVE her, and she sat in the garage and filled me in on her stuff while the kids played and I went through the old attic collection of toys.  Then after that was done and my car was loaded for a trip to the Salvation Army, we headed inside for dinner, and the boys chased Dinger around and shot her several times.  She was very dramatic, which the boys LOVED, and CRACKED UP about...Cody could hardly stand up he was laughing so hard.  It allowed me to prepare and serve dinner, and Dinger left after bath time ended.  I always love seeing her.  For those of you who like to send good thoughts and prayers peoples' way, Dinger could use some.  A few years ago, her dad died suddenly of an aneurysm.  Not too long after that, her mom was diagnosed with cancer.  Things were looking up, and then took a turn for the worst, and in a nutshell, the doctor has given Dinger's mom 3 months to live.  Dinger has 2 sisters, and a 16-year-old brother.  They are super nice and wonderful people, and I have a special place in my heart and life for Dinger (by the way her real name is Erin Almendinger).  She was one of my favorite students when I taught, and is one of the gang of 'kids' (they are all 23 and up now, but still kids to me!) that I still keep in touch with.  If you have any extra time on your hands, send some love and prayers her way...she's a good kid, and needs some support.  Dinger, hope you don't mind that I spilled it on my blog about you, I just love you lots!

 

Tonight, Scott played #11 Michigan State.  It was on TV and on at 6pm, so the boys and I got to watch it, which so so cool for the kids...they LOVED seeing their daddy on TV!  UTA lost, but they played a GREAT GAME.  It wasn't until about the 6 minute mark that Michigan St. actually pulled away from us.  And Scott went up there with only 8 healthy players!  He has 3 starters injured right now!  I was proud of our team, and proud of Scott.  We could've gone and lost by 40 easily.  Scott gets home tomorrow, which is great because I miss him since he has been home so much this month!  Well, not technically HOME, but HERE!  HA!

PJ Day, MORE SNOW, and Take-out Bridesmaid Picnic

It was COLD this morning and I knew snow was in the forecast once again.  After busting my butt since Sunday, I was determined to have a day of NOTHING.  The only person who got out of their pjs today was Cody, and that was because he pooped in his pants.  The rest of us stayed in them ALL DAY LONG.  The boys played with all their toys, and I watched TV, played with them, and laid around.  The boys particularly enjoyed playing with the huge goody-box that Emily sent before Christmas.  She and her son Noah sent a Nintendo Gameboy, complete with games, rechargers and case!  Not only did the box contain that, but it had TONS of cool little toy figures, a kid camera, and a HUGE Transformer MP3 player toy that plays music, lights up, makes noises and moves around.  WOW!!!  Austin and Cody lined everything up on the counter at one point so that poor Tyler couldn't play with anything.  Speaking of Tyler, he made 3 trips to timeout today.  He has started to hit his brothers a lot, and will be going everytime! The third time around, he finally got upset about it, and stopped hitting Cody (he is the usual target).  It started snowing again in the afternoon, and it was pretty, but didn't stick at all because it just wasn't cold enough.  Still, the boys loved watching it come down!  And so did I!  After dinner and bath, I put the boys in some new, clean pjs, and they went to bed early.  I lit a fire, and soon after, the girls started showing up!  Rhonda is getting married in June, and since she was home for the holidays, wanted to try and get all the bridesmaids together.  The only one that wasn't here was Andrea, but Rhonda, Trisha, Jinni, Candy and Amy came over here, and we ordered Chinese takeout and had a picnic in front of the fire while talking about wedding plans.  IT WAS SO MUCH FUN.  There was also some wine, old stories, old photos, old videos and some dancing involved, which made it even more hilarious.  I am so lucky to have such fun, awesome girlfriends!

 

Trying to remember...

I am trying my best to remember what the heck we did Monday.  Bits and pieces come together.  I know I did more organizing, I know we went to Scott's practice that afternoon and then went to try and find a TV stand/entertainment center.  We went to Best Buy, Conn's and Rooms-to-Go Outlet and had no luck.  None of their selections met our requirements.  Scott got a new 40-inch, LCD flat screen Vizio television for FREE for playing the Drake Tournament.  Well, the dang thing was too big for our old entertainment center, which was fine because the side is falling off and we needed a new one anyway.  So, my main requirement is that the TV can be set high enough so that we don't have to use the gate around it anymore and the kids can't touch it.  ALL of the consoles we looked at were only about 20-24 inches high.  It was frustrating!  BUT, I finally found  one on Amazon.com that is 36 inches tall, and will be PERFECT for our TV!  Hopefully, it will ship out quick!  And last but not least, Scott got ALL of the Christmas stuff back up in the attic and I met Darcy for dinner at Joe T. Garcia's!  We had the best time catching up and talking.  I hadn't seen or talked to Darcy in WAY TOO LONG. 

Happy 33rd Birthday to Me!

Well, I turned 33 today.  Whatever.  I feel like I am 25 and that is all that matters.  The boys went out and got us a breakfast of kolaches and donuts this morning, and even put a candle in a special chocolate donut and sang me happy birthday!  It was great!  After breakfast I got to go to Walmart and Target BY MYSELF.  You other moms know how nice this is.  I got a TON of great things to organize our messy house, and when I got back Scott had started putting Christmas stuff away.  He had asked me what I wanted to do for my birthday and I told him that I wanted to get all the Christmas decorations down and organize the toys!  I cannot relax in a mess.  Period.  Whether it was my birthday or not, we needed and WANTED to get it done.  We worked our tails off, and while Scott was at practice, I finished putting up all the decorations and had the boxes lined up in the garage for Scott to put up in the attic.  I spent the next 2 hours going through toys, tossing, donating and organizing...it now looks AWESOME!  When Scott got home he had a present for me from him and the boys...it was a Keurig Coffee Maker!  AH!  Awesomeness!  I was totally surprised and excited!  We put the kids to bed early and sat around.  Scott picked up wings from Wingstop and we watched the Cowboy game and then went to bed!

 

PLAYROOM BEFORE:

 

PLAYROOM AFTER:

 

PICTURES ADDED!

The pictures from my mom's camera for the December 21st post are added!  CLICK HERE to get straight to that post and view the pics!

Can't say I am too upset...

...about the holidays being over!  In fact, I will give a little "YEE HAW!" in celebration.  Scott had practice today.  I spent the day cleaning up the house in preparation for the massive amount of organization and Christmas clean-up that needs to happen.  The boys had a good time swimming in toys today and were, for the most part, extremely content, and happy to be home.  This afternoon, we got a surprise visit from the Gramlings!  They had spent Christmas up here, and called and asked to stop by!  The boys and I were so happy to see them!  Aunt Nat and Jon dropped Chris and Matt off and saw a movie while the boys played and played and played.  Needless to say, they were all asleep in less than 10 minutes tonight!

My Christmas card display...it has grown by about 7 more cards since the 26th!

 

Christmas Morning!

Santa came and did it big this year!  The top Austinisms were:

"THIS IS THE BEST CHRISTMAS EVER!"---"HOLY MOLY!"---"THIS IS THE BEST PRESENT EVER!"---"TOTALLY AWESOME!"---"TOTALLY COOL!"

All Cody kept saying was, "WOW! WOW!"  Tyler could care less what he got after he opened his vacuum cleaner.  We have been through a total of 4 kid vacuums, and all have kicked the bucket.  I was glad Santa brought him this one because it lasted the longest!  Now, maybe he will stop using mine in the kitchen!

After opening all the presents we got ready and headed to Scott's parent's house.  We left a little earlier for 2 reasons: the boys got up really early this year, and the second was because we didn't know how the roads would be.  They were fine...only the bridges were affected, but we still went about 45 miles the whole way and it took well over an hour to get there.  Scott took the pics at his parent's house and never opened the flash...every single one turned out blurry.  The most decent is the last one...at least it had all 3 boys in it.  Austin and Cody never took a nap, and all the boys were in bed by 7 after all the stimulation and excitement!

A TEXAS BLIZZARD ON CHRISTMAS EVE!!

I left The Woodlands at 9:30am on Christmas Eve to drive back home.  We had a GREAT DRIVE back.  My mom had packed a lunch for all of us, and all I had to do was hand the kids food.  We didn't stop at all and drove straight through!  When we were about 20 minutes away from home, it started raining.  Then, white stuff started to hit my windshield.  I could not believe it!  IT WAS SNOW!  By the time we pulled into our driveway, snow was coming down sideways!  I have NEVER seen anything like it (here) in my whole life!  It was swirling around and blowing everywhere, and it was showing NO signs of slowing down.  After I unloaded the car, I looked in the backyard to see it sticking to the ground!  It might snow a little here every now and then, but it doesn't snow for long, and it certainly doesn't stick!  The boys were going nuts, and while Tyler napped, Scott, Austin and Cody went outside and played in it (I took pics fro the window).  They built a snowman and threw snowballs! And since the boys don't own a pair of gloves, I put socks on their hands, and when Austin's got too wet, I put my pink gloves on him and he could care less!  We went to the candlelight service at church at 5, and when we came out our car was covered!  People were sliding around on the roads on our way to get something to eat and look at Christmas lights, so we decided to turn around and order pizza at the pizza joint next to our house and take it home.  We put the kids to bed at 8, lit a fire and poured a glass of wine while it was still coming down like crazy outside.  It snowed HARD until around 9pm!  I couldn't ask for a better, more unique, more peaceful Christmas Eve than that!  How cool and rare!  AND, a box from Gammie and Pappy came for Austin...he got his own desk for his room!!!  This way he can do his speech homework, and once he starts school next year, regular homework, IN PEACE!  He was so happy, and begged Scott to put it together for him RIGHT AWAY!

     

The snowman's face was constructed using cereal for his eyes, a broken part of our patio shade that got mutilated from the high winds as his nose, and a frito chip for his mouth...all topped off with a UT hat of course.

Wednesday in The Woodlands

Our goal first thing Wednesday morning was to get to the mall to see Santa.  He was set to show up at 10am, and we wanted to get there early...obviously, 9:30am was not early enough.  By the time we got there, there was already an hour wait, and Santa wasn't even showing up for 30 minutes.  So, I convinced Austin that we would come back when Cody and Tyler were napping, and wait in line as long as we needed to.  Instead, we headed to Soma, where my mom and dad paid for my second birthday gift: 2 bras!  HA!  Hey, they asked me what I wanted and I said shoes and bras!  HA!  I needed them both!  I feel much better now that my feet are comfy and my boobs are supported.  My dad was wheeling the boys around in the stroller staying as far away as possible from THAT business, and after that was done, we all headed to Barnes and Noble.  The boys LOVE playing with the train set there...a little too much...pulling them away when it is time to leave isn't pretty.  We headed home for lunch and naps, and then Austin and I went to stand in line for Santa!  We stood in line for an hour, and finally saw the jolly fat man himself!  Austin informed Santa that he wanted "a fire gun that transforms into a car", took his pic with him, then we were off!  By the way, Austin is referring to the contraption that is in the one of the Home Alone movies...I believe it is a blow torch attached to a remote control car.  Not happening.  Santa does not provide toys that blow fire.  After the boys napped, we ran to the grocery store for dinner stuff, and then for my birthday, my mom and dad let me get whatever I wanted form The Cheesecake Factory, YUM!, and then we did some birthday candles in cheesecake!  Austin was very tired at this point, and was having trouble grasping the fact that we were celebrating MY birthday, so he was a little bit difficult.  After putting the kids to bed, I packed as much as I could and went to bed.

Here are the pics I took with my cell when Austin was talking to Santa...I need to scan the real one, which turned out GREAT!

Christmas in The Woodlands is pretty.

This morning, Cody woke up at 3am asking for food.  I gave him some almond milk and put him back to bed, but he pretty much woke up like a bazillion more times before Tyler got up at 7am.  Cody also complained that his tummy still hurt, even after seeming to have his appetite back this morning.  Once again, he had the worst runs, and was pretty down all morning.  Austin went straight up to my parent's for breakfast and to hang out.  I got Cody and Tyler dressed and we got in the car to check out the Spring Christmas Festival.  We got there and the little main street of the town was adorable, but the festival was over.  It ended on the 20th!  Boo!  So, we turned the car around and went back home since Cody and Tyler had fallen asleep and it was almost lunch time.  We went for a little walk on the canal...it is really pretty.  They have little waterfalls too.  We even walked to the little kid's maze again.  It is a garden maze complete with story books to read every few turns.  Austin and Cody ran through it a few times. 

   

                                                                                    Gammie and Pappy's "house" from the other side of the canal!

After running around for a bit, we went up to my parent's and my mom made everyone lunch.  That is one thing I just love about being with my parents...I get fed!  Instead of me making everyone everything, I actually get something prepared for me! It is a nice break!  After eating, I took Cody and Tyler back for a nap.  They slept great, and for the first time in FOREVER, I took a nap.  It was awesome.  Cody slept really long; he didn't wake up until almost 4pm.  He really needed it, and when he got up, I could tell he was ready to rock and roll, and that whatever had gotten into his system had run it's course!  We decided to go to the mall and see Santa.  When we got there, again, Santa was on BREAK.  We have made 2 attempts, and both have resulted in Santa being on break.  So, we walked around the mall, and my mom and dad bought me my birthday present: new shoes!  I had bought a really cool pair of New Balance from a website that Emily sent me, but needed a larger size, only to find out that they didn't have a larger size available, so I kept them because I love them so much...and because  they are PINK!  Anyway, I just got really thin socks to wear with them, and even though they are great for just kickin' around in, after yesterday's walk around the canal, my toes were sore.  I have had my eye on these certain pair of Nike Air Max for a month.  I LOVE Air Max.  When I coached, I had a million pairs of shoes that I would coordinate with all my coaching clothes, and the Air Max were my favorite.  I hadn't owned a pair in years.  I tried them on and they were SO COMFY..and they look sweet!  Thanks mom and dad!

After getting the shoes, we went to see if Santa was back and of course, he wasn't.  So, we decided to show up first thing tomorrow morning when he is on duty at 10am.  By golly we are going to see Santa!  On the way home, we parked the car right by my dad's office to check out the fountains and lights.  These fountains were built by the same people who built the ones at the Bellagio, and they change colors, and right now, are coordinated with Christmas music that plays every half hour!  We got there right in time!  It was beautiful and the boys loved it.  They also had an enormous tree!

 

My dad's office in the the building behind the fountain on the bottom right.