Oh ya

Remember that last post when I talked all about Laundry? It again has taken over my living room. It is thursday, and Monday are my laundry days. So with 7 loads to fold sitting on my floor... I tend to lose my kids sometimes. Ill will claim that I am taking the time to spend good quality time with my kids instead of folding. Ya that sounds good!

So we like to park, and we like to ride bikes, and we like to just play out side. I dont like the ice cream man, playing his little jigs so loud for the kids to hear. I wouldn't mind it so much if it wasn't 2.50 for a little popsicle. MAN! That is expensive for an ice cream! That is borderline, they wont even have that kind of money in their piggy banks! But it is hard to resist when they love it so much!

Rounding it up

Birthday week had to come to an end, sadly. No it was great and we had a lot of fun. We had cupcakes one night with some friends, then my girl friends took me out for bowling and dinner. It was so much fun. I really am so blessed to have a few different circles of friends here. Really they are all amazing and I know I am a lucky girl to have this many great friends. I know that they would all be there for me if I needed them and that they will always have my back. I love you Ladies! The best part about it all is that I have another group of girlfriends from another circle in my life that are equally as awesome as these ones. I really am so blessed, cause good girlfriends are hard to find.

The kids and I also made our way to fun day out at something called Grapefest. It really is a wine tasting event, but it was free and there was a huge kid area with face painting, petting zoo and the kids loved it! Natalie had also been learning the letter M is school that week and insisted on taking her mustache with us wherever we went.

It was a wonderful week, but this week is already almost half over and I feel so behind on life. I find that this happens every week. Laundry needs washing and folding and putting away. In our house that means like 7 loads of it. Ug, it is sitting on the chair of the living room waiting for me, calling my name.

We also all had the privilege of getting the flu last week (hence no posts) but lucky for us it is gone and we are all better. With this illness though comes MAJOR disinfecting of the house so we don't go through another round of it. EW. I hate puke, and I hate cleaning the toilets after other people are sick on them. woof. The only good thing was a little bit of sickness weight loss and really clean bathrooms!

I love this Day

I know it sounds lame, and maybe selfish, but I love my birthday. Love it. I look forward to it all year, and in the last few years I feel like I have been so busy with babies that I haven't been able to really LOVE it. Last year I was 3 days post baby and I was tired!

I decided that this year I wanted a party, but not your traditional birthday party. I decided that I needed to eat a lot, which is totally normal, and we needed to do something casual and fun. baseball!! We went to a Rangers game and invited a bunch of friends to come. We sat in the all you can eat seats, and we all had a blast. The highlight for me wasn't the hot dogs or the nachos, but when they all sang happy birthday and made me stand up. This normally embarrasses me, but this year I LOVED IT! Thanks to all who came, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!

So I am 28. I am not old, but I am. I don't feel old, but it sounds old. I still look at myself and at my life and think that I am so young. Last weekend was my High School 10 year reunion, that I obviously didn't attend being in a different COUNTRY and all. But it is crazy to think that I have been graduated that long and to think that I am 2 years away from being 30! I still think of myself as 17, and that I haven't aged at all. I cant believe I am married and have 3 kids. I cant believe that I live the life I live and I am only 28 years old! I also decided that I never ever want to be one of those scared and shy to tell how old they are. I will always embrace my age. 30, 40, 50, 60 I want to OWN it!! Loving life at 28!!

Birthday Week

HAPPY BIRTHDAY WEEK! I love September. The weather starts getting cooler in most of the Country... obviously not here, but everywhere else they seem to be enjoying fall. Hi 107 degrees still! Uck! So not only the fall perks, but it is My, Courtney, and many other birthdays!

Monday the baby girl turned 1! I cant believe that the year is gone and has flown by so fast. She is such a joy to have in our home. Always happy, always making us laugh, and always getting into everything. She really is the perfect child(other than her screaming fit yesterday, it's like she knows she is one and can start throwing tantrums). Anyway, the little one who started her life 9lbs4oz is still a healthy 22 lbs and LOVES to eat. She crawls everywhere and gets into all cupboards. When she See's my bedroom door open, she hawls in and gets right into the bathroom cupboard. She has 7, almost 8 teeth and can say mama, dada, hi, ohhhh, ahhhh, ewww, baba(whatever that is) and LOVES to talk. She can wave, blow kisses, clap, and Loves her blanky(I wouldn't expect anything else out of my kids). We love her and she is a perfect addition to the family.

We got to get together with our friend Matt and his little guy Cade the other day which was so fun to see Stephen and him together. Boots kept talking about his best friend Cade. I always just feel bad for boots cause Natalie has a lot of friends to talk about and Boots doesn't have a lot of boys his age around so he loved that! He is just so silly though. Natalie and I were working out(ya, she likes to do it with me) and boots ran in crazily in her gymnastics leotard. We were cracking up bad! He is hilarious. Its like he knows he funny too. BTW, Gymnastics, that's another story.

On Tuesday it was Garretts birthday. The big 22!! Love this guy. He has always had a special place in my heart as my little brother and I love him tons! Happy Birthday Gar!! We celebrated at Uncle Julio's with some great Mexican! No other way to celebrate really!

Soo, there will be more updates later but for now Happy Birthday WEEK!!

Hot Dates

This week has BLOWN By so fast! Seriously, I feel like I just blogged and here I am almost a week later. WOW! When you think of your life in regards to blog, you know you have a problem.

Anyway, tonight we decided to do girls and boys nights out. Both kids fell asleep on the way to their dates! Natalie and I went for fondue. Yum to me, EH for Natalie. Don't worry, I licked her cheese clean. I love cheese fondue. Next we headed to Kung Foo Panda 2. It was real cute. I mean, I cried, i laughed, I smiled, I was a little scared. It was really good. The best was spending the night with my girl. Love ya Nanners.


Boots and Daddy went to cheesecake factory were they shared nachos and fries, then onto see Winnie the Pooh. Boots had a lot of fun, so Brian said. Love those kiddos.

So another hot date was the night before. WE live in the coolest, most interesting place ever. There is so much to do, and so many different things to do. So we went with Justin and Andrea(and New York life- who they work for) to TOP GOLF for the evening. Top Golf if straight out of a movie. It was so much fun. It is like a mix of bowling and darts, but with golf. So each golf ball has a sensor, and you hit the ball out and try to get it in the target nets out on the range. It was so much fun! I would for sure do it again!

One of Courtney's favorite places to play is my least favorite place in the whole house. The tupperware cupboard. UG! I have no idea what to do in here. I know... I will buy a new house. seriously, I hate this cupboard. So tomorrow is packed with first soccer games, Brian's throwing a work party, and Stake youth act ivies...I am so tired just thinking about waking up in the morning. Looking forward to Monday when we can celebrate sweet Courtney's first birthday!

uh-huh!

Let me introduce you to Super Sleeper. He's the goofy one on the left.
Lets go back a few hours to church today. Courtney was a pill. She woke up poopy and on the wrong side of the bed. So church was really.... well lets just say I should have stayed home because I would have gotten more edification out of that. I was roaming the halls with a crying pouting, snotty, fussy, puking baby for 3 hours. YEAH! I'm not complaining, cause that is motherhood, but still, it stunk. So when we got home Brian was so sweet to me "Jeni, why don't you just lay down and have a nap!"
I never ever ever nap, so this was strange. But I decided to give it a shot and quickly fell sleep. I woke up suddenly a little while later to Natalie and Boots crawling up on me with sticky fingers, juice, and a laugh attack. As I woke up I hear Courtney crying in the back coming from her room. I wait... it continues... I wait "BRIAN?!" nothing. "Natalie where is daddy?" She goes on to tell me that he is laying down having a nap. THIS is why I don't nap people. Because even though Brian is a fabulous father, and I would trust him with my kids and 10 more of other peoples, when he wants a nap he doesn't wake up to anything. UG!! I was really annoyed! Why can't a girl just take a nap once in a while without the house falling into shambles?

So this last week was full of action around here. The kids both started up soccer, and they both LOVE it. They had a lot of fun at their 105 degree practices and although Brian doesn't think either of them are naturals (after a 3 and 4 year olds practice) I think they will do great and have so much fun.
Before Natalie's practice, we tried something totally new with her hair and it worked! We were both giddy about it. FRENCH BRAIDS! Crazy that it is long enough for it, but doesn't it look sweet?

Yesterday we had all sorts of Cousins and friends over to the pool. Brian and his brothers, and their buddies from high school days, are all still really close and we all got together at our pool for the afternoon. The kids had a blast together, as always, and they all got worn out so we could all go out SANS kids that night.

So this week is just another week of craziness for me. Just the usual mommy, house, kid stuff.. but then I feel like I have a million things to do for my calling and then there are another million birthdays coming up (including mine!!! I love my birthday!) so I just am feeling overwhelmed. I don't know what I am going to do when there is actual school and after school and homework involved in our life!

Sock thief

It wont cool down. I am running out of ideas of things to do that keep us cool. I also have been putting off riding bikes till it was at least under 100 degrees, but that isn't happening any time soon. So I finally decided to take the kids down the street to the elementary school parking lot to ride their bikes the other day. It was 105 outside but I brought a cool treat, hoping that would keep them happy. WRONG. This "riding" (walking and whining) lasted 30 seconds and they were onto their snack and the park. They got their bikes a few months ago but haven't had any time to practice riding them because of the heat!


When I first moved here, I thought it was impossible to not wear shorts in the summer here. Now I wear jeans all summer long. I feel crazy putting on hot jeans in this weather, but seriously, I get so bored of summer clothes! I cant wait for fall to come and I can wear boots and jackets and long sleeves! Really, I shouldn't complain though. I love Texas and I do love that it is so warm most of the time. It makes the pool more fun and it makes winter so enjoyable! This summer is just brutal.

I have been trying to be a better hands on mom lately too. I didn't want to waste away the days with laundry and cleaning and doing things that don't allow me any time with the kids. So we have been crafting A LOT lately. I have a hard time finding new and exciting crafts though, any ideas?
SPEAKING of laundry... Mondays are my cleaning day and laundry day. I get most everything done and then take another day or so to get the folding done. I never ever get out the ironing though, just add to the pile. I also throw all of the unmatched socks into the same basket. It has been probably about a year since I took the socks out and ironed. But last night I got in the mood. I did all the ironing and realized that Brian has a lot of nice shirts and Natalie and Courtney have a ton of church dresses. I just forget all about them when they sit in the ironing pile. So I dump the socks out and I seriously folded like 40 pairs of socks. What really confuses me is the unmatched socks. I swear that the washer or dryer eats them. I don't really see any other reason why there should be THIS many socks without a mate. The worst is when they are really cute socks and you only washed them once and then BAM, there is only one coming out of the wash. I will solve that mystery one day.