what else??

a few hours ago I walked into the kitchen and stepped right into a half an inch of water. WHAT? The washing machine was leaking and had flooded the kitchen and laundry room. It took me a good 2, maybe more, hours to clean it up.
Earlier today Brian got a flat tire on the way home from work and had to change it in his suit. The jack wasn't working so he called me to bring him another and of course I didn't see he called. So he had a rough long day and then I get to deal with that.
AHHHH!!! I feel like it never stops!!

Last weekend for Memorial Day weekend we headed to Houston for a dental apt and to see some friends. More Pictures and details of that to come.
BUT While we were there something happened, obviously. With boots something always has to happen. Sunday we were just sitting down to a delish meal when boots started running around the house, like a crazy man. All of a sudden we see him run towards the door and SMASH....The window pane on the door breaks. My first reaction was anger and WHY?! Why are you running around so much?! This quickly changed as I discovered he was all cut up and bleeding all over. Brian rushed him over to the ER just to make sure there was no glass or that an artery wasn't busted or anything. He was all cleaned up and sent home bandaged up. BOOTS YOU KILL ME KIDDO!!

I love a sleeping baby. I also love a sleeping son, there just seems to be a lot more peace when Stephen is asleep. There is a part of me that gets sad when Courtney sleeps though. I get really excited when she wakes up, and yes, I spy on her all the time! Love this girl.

He can fall asleep anywhere. If 3pm hits and he is somewhere not running, he is asleep. Like today in the grocery cart. It was awesome. It made grocery shopping super easy without worrying about another little running around, but also made it very very crowded in the cart!

I have a lot of pictures and updates from the weekend but this is all I had in me tonight!! LOVE THESE 3 CRAZIES!

Girls Talk

Lets talk about the girls:

NATALIE - We went to Hobby Lobby today. She was sweet as usually checking everything out, touching everything, talking to everything, and so on... well at one point she had stopped following me and I turned around to see what had caught her attention this time. She has a big grin and it looks like she is brushing her teeth. haha cute right? NOT. I look a little closer and she really is brushing her teeth, with one of those disposable little brush up toothbrushes that was sitting right there on a shelf. SICK! Someone Else's toothbrush in my little girls mouth. She just laughed and said "what mom?!".

THEN...

Tonight after Telling a butterfly story and tucking Natalie in for bed, she came out really sad asking for me. Brian told her to go back to bed and she sadly and quickly went. I heard her whimpering, which isn't unusual. But I went in to talk to her. She was balled up at the bottom of her bed crying. I asked what was wrong and she proceeded to tell me that he MINI MOUSE boots were outside and the rain was going to ruin them. I promised her I would go out right then to get them. After she was content, I kissed her and said I love you. Her response was quiet but sweet. "Goodnight butterfly Queen!" haha so I said back "Goodnight Butterfly princess". I love the way that she loves her stories. Her face just lights up when I say certain things and I know she is pretending she is in the story!

She is getting really good at gymnastics. I am really proud of her and love to watch her. The pic above is her doing the limbo. Nice. 4 year olds trying this is hilarious!

COURTNEY- She is all over the place, not crawling but wants to and she can get around and reach ANYTHING she wants. And yes I know she is only 8 months old but she is now "saying" babababababa and dadadadadada. I swear dadadada is Daddy, and she knows it. ALSO I swear babababa is byebye and she waves her hand while she does it. I swear. haha She has started pulling herself up on things too, which mostly ends in face plants :(

MOMMA- Do you know what I hate? You buy a new shirt and it looks and feels like a normal Cotton shirt. You buy it at a non fancy place at your most favorite store. You wear it once and then you wash it. When you pull it out of the dryer, it looks really funny... and small. Then when you look at the label it says dry clean only! AHHHH I HATE THIS! There should be a warning and alert of shirts, especially tshirts that are dry clean only. So annoying. I loved it. Is there any hope for it? probably not. Unless you know some surefire way to fix a shirt?!

Then, I sat there tonight watching biggest loser with a bowl of popcorn on my lap. Smooth. I love to eat, and I am not strong. Brian made some and it smelt so good, I made him make me some too! I caved. But on the better note, I made this amazing weight watchers cake that I saw on my Cousin Gina's blog and it was awesome. Bad sad to this? I had 3, maybe 6 pieces of cake. It was so good. I am slightly, a lot, obsessed with food. The good, the bad and the ugly.

Our weekend was full of food, as always.

First we went to Taste of Addison. Lots of food, lots of fun. We went with Brians brothers and wives, and my cousin Heather and her hubs. It was rainy but fun and lots of good grub.

Then Sat we headed to six Flags for our friend Phils birthday. MORE FOOD? YES! Funnel cakes in Texas are amazing and this one had OREOS all over it, how can you pass that up? Seriously good. But I lost my voice and I am still recovering from screaming on every ride. I haven't been to an amuzement park kidless is a long long time, like before I had kids, and it was so much fun to ride the big ones and really let it all out. I can tell I am getting old though, because I was starting to get scared and claustrophobic!

I truly feel blessed to have such great family and friends all around me. Brian and I were talking about that the other day and we just feel so blessed. Not many people have the opportunity to love all of their family and get along great with them all, but also had not just one awesome couple and family to hang out with but MANY! It seems like every week we hang out with a different family and we so much fun with all of them!

Happy Pull your Hair out Day!

SO Mothers Day came and went and was wonderful. I miss my own Mom a lot this year and wished I could be with her. She is amazing and wonderful and deserves a meal made and cleaned up for her and some good girl time. Maybe one day!

The Day started off with me secretly hoping to have breakfast in bed, that didn't happen :( So I got up and had my yogurt and we headed off to church. Church was great and the best part came after when Stephen handed me the best gift ever. It was a little box and inside there was a little poem:

sometimes you get discouraged
because I am so small
and always leave my fingerprints
on furniture and walls.

But everyday Im growing-
Ill be grown some day
And all those tiny handprints
will surely fade away.

So here's a little handprint
just so you can recall
exactly how my fingers looked
when I was very small.

So I cried, and cried, and cried. pretty sure I am crying again. I loved this. It is just so exactly boots and then to look further into the box, the nursery leader had shrunk their hand prints onto some plastic, I have NO CLUE how they do that! But It is beautiful and wonderful. I love it so much.

Then we went to Brian's Mom's House and the boys cooked up some gourmet burgers and other treats. It was awesome. I love being served! It was a great day to think about Mothers and women in my life. I love them all. My Mother, Mother in law, sister, sisters in law, Grandma's, and every woman that is an example to me.

So the best gift came the next day, Monday. We had gone to a park and Natalie had found a sparkly rock. She had to come home and clean it up so she put the plug down in the sink and filled it with a little water. Off she went to go play. A little bit later she came back and ran into my bathroom to check on her rock. Time passed and I went into my room for something. The bathroom light was on and I faintly heard some water. I open the bathroom door to find water overflowing onto the floor and the floor was a half inch deep with water. It was leaking into the carpet in our room and was a terrible mess. AHHH! I was so frustrated but tried my very hardest to kindly explain to Natalie what happened, and why we cant do what she did.

Well the day got even better when we headed to walmart and as I am getting Courtney out of the car, I had the older 2 stand next to me. "MOM! LOOK!" She was really excited about whatever she was doing. I look over and she had picked up a rock on the ground and was literally drawing circles on this truck, scratching circles into this bright red truck. AHHH! Again, something awesome. I swear this girl is going to be an artist, or better be, with the way she colors on any and everything and has no guilt about it.

So that was great. I love my kids but sometimes I just want to pull out my hair, and then theirs. Yesterday was like that, and Today is another one of those days. I feel like I need a vacation. Its like when I need them to be quiet and sit and stay out of my way, they hear me say "please annoy me, please stand by me, please ask me for a million things, and please have excessive laugh attacks so loud you wake up Courtney". I came to the conclusion today that I need a bigger house ASAP.

Sweep

Growing up in Canada it was tough to get into pro sports like I have been able to here. Not that I was trying at all growing up, but now that it is in my face all the time, I have become a huge fan of the Dallas teams. This year The Mavs are in the playoffs and this round was with the Lakers. Brian surprised me last night with tickets and we were both soo excited to go see Kobe Live. So Yes we love our team but I also have a love of Kobe. I know you either Love him or hate him. He is good, real good. And lets be honest, hes kinda really good looking(again you either Love him or hate him). So to be able to see Kobe live was really cool for us!
The whole place was a "blue out" so they had blue shirts on every ones seat so everyone would be in the same royal blue. The mood and energy in there can only be described as ELECTRIC. It was soooo awesome. We left Hoarse and soo happy that we won game 3, which makes us one game away from advancing. I have a feeling it will be a SWEEP!!!

Before we went we went to a little place called La Duni for some South American food. IT WAS AMAZINGLY GOOD! This just hit the top of our list for good places to eat. That's another thing there is no shortage of here, especially when you compare to Calgary. But not only was the food excellent, service excellent, but there is a bakery that just won best of Dallas and the piece of cake we had was as Brian said "The best cake I have ever had in my life". So good.

Now for the pictures I was too lazy to get out earlier. My lovies. Since Mothers Day is tomorrow Brian went out with the kids this morning to let them get their Mothers Day gifts. They are so sweet to me! I just couldn't resist their cuddles this morning at 6am(normally I send them back to bed).

#1. Courtney - Sweet

#2. Boots - Curious (and classy, he likes to go commando when no one notices)

#3. Natalie - SASSY, although this picture just shows her sweetness.

Theyre cool

I just got a call from Brian just to tell me he was on his way home from whatever he was doing tonight. These kind of phone calls happen all the time with us. We are very much in touch with eachother through out the day, and I am sure this drives him crazy. I just like to know where he is so I know when he will be home... so I know when to worry when he isn't home. You never know what could happen and I like to be informed. Anyway, not the point I am making here but on my way to it. So we talk all the time in a day, just short conversations. They can be anything from what do you want for dinner, when will you be home, Did the Mavs win the game last night, or a funny story I want to tell him about the kids. Well I am so happy to say that EVERY SINGLE phone call we have with eachother ends with I love you. We just had one like this:

Hello?
Hi. Im on my way home.
Ok. See you soon.
Love you. Bye.
Bye.

Isn't that awesome? I had never thought about it before but really I love that we do that. Just a little ditbit that noone else cares about but me!

So I think that the nickname BOOTS is slowly going to be phased out. Dont tell Brian because I think he would be so sad, but Stephen tells everyone he meets that his name is Steve. haha The other day at gymnastics he had a new coach and I thought he would be too shy to even tell her his name and as they were all leaving she came up and gave him a high five and said "See you late Steve! You did awesome today dude!" He loves it and just gives big smiles. He LOVES to find out about other people named Steve. When he realized that Grandad, my dad, was named that he was pumped. Then a family member moved to town who's name is Steve, awesome! And anyone he hears "Steve" He gets so excited. I do not have the guts to call him Steve as that is an adult name, but you never know, maybe it will grow on me like Stephen Did. But I do love Boots. That will be a hard one to say goodbye to!
We went to the pool today for the first time this year and it was sooo nice to just sit and relax, as much as you can with 3 crazies, and be in the sun. My kids are terrified of water going up past their knees but at least that makes them more cautious around it right?! haha easier for me! But today as we were out I was putting some sun screen on Stephen and I noticed something on his nose... on closer inspection he has FRECKLES! I was so excited to see these adorable little marks coming through on his cute nose!

This post is mainly just for me to feel better about not blogging in forever. I have been so busy that I havn't had time, but things are always happening that I think are blog worthy! For example, we went Laser Tagging this last weekend and it was so much fun. I have never been before and I seriously can't remember the last time I had that much fun, and we have a lot of fun! Also after 2 weeks of really not cooking once, I have been cooking all week and just want to put it out there that everything I have cooked has been awesome. That is rare for me.

Now Just a snippet on the girls. I love having them in my life. Natalie is a riot and she cracks me up all the time with her playing and singing and exaggerated everything. She is so theatrical in everything she does! But her hair is totally growing. I need to take a good picture of it but her bangs totally come over her eyes, and a few strands (maybe just one) touch the end of her nose! ahhhh! This is huge! I love that she sleeps with either a hat or a headband on every night. She will brush her hair for about 10 minutes before she goes to bed to make sure it is perfect.
Courtney is almost 8 months and I am amazed by that. She is still so little, yet not at all! She is moving around a lot, not crawling, but getting to everything around her. She is so happy and really truly never cries. She is just a joy to have with me all the time. She has started to say "BA BA" and Loves to eat. She is picky though and likes to stick to carrots, sweet potatoes, and cereal. not much of a fruit girl. She is messy and loves every bite of what she can get her little sticky hands on though!

So no pictures this post. I havn't had my camera out at all. But I will, and I will blog more. This is lame but, I miss my own blog!

be sure to put some flowers in your hair!

Brian and I celebrated our 6 year Anniversary this last week. It was really back in March but since we go on a trip to a new place every year, we have decided that April is a little better to travel. (not spring break, a little warmer, and baseball season has begun) So off we went to SAN FRANCISCO. Mom came down to take care of the kids which makes her the best person alive. Seriously, best.NANA.ever. Thank you so so much mom for that, we couldn't have gone without you!
THIS IS LONG....So before you STOP reading this at least read this first VERY funny story... We usually keep the destination a secret, and this year was no different until about a week ago when Brian guessed our destination and I have no poker face. So he knew and we were able to catch a few mishaps in my planning. So Wednesday morning we drive at the airport. On the way, I called the airline to check out gate. HMMM, that's odd, the time is a little different but I don't remember getting any emails informing me of this change. Strange, but whatever. So we get dropped off and cant check in at the machines. ODD. So I go up to the desk and after some strange questions and looking at our itinerary, the airline agent passes it back to me and says "Oh these flights are booked for March" My response, "NO. I booked them for today. April." He then shows me the date of my tickets and low and behold they indeed are in March. We were a whole month late for the tickets I had bought. NON refundable tickets I will add. So we searched on line for the next best thing which didn't go out for another 10 hours that night. We took it and although we didn't lose out on anything that day on our trip, we were out a lot of money just buying tickets last minute like that. UGH! I felt so stupid. I immediately started to cry and I was just waiting for Brian to reem me out for doing this. He is always getting on me about my memory and doing things a little wonky... well I was ready to hear it. Instead, he amazed me and was the man I thought I married. He laughed, and laughed...and laughed. And I cried and cried and cried. These things happen right? It will never ever happen again to us, but it happened and that is what makes our trips so memorable!

Day 1. Travel to San Fran, hop in a cab with a TRICKY cab driver, check in and go to sleep.

Day2. Wake up early for Alcatraz. This was awesome. This prison island was crazy and so interesting to learn about. I would never last in prison.

The Island is a preserved state park of California for the extensive flowers and nesting birds all around the island. It was beautiful!

We were trying to take some pics of the view to the city and there was a man KINDA in our way. Brian had already taken a pic and it was gross so I was making him retake and so we had to wait a minute. I didn't know this is actually what face I make when I am irritated. Yes, it looks like I was posing to be annoyed, turns out I have a naturally stink face. SWEET.

Check out where they got to have their activities. Brian would have rocked this place. It was creepy.

LUNCH at Boudin. The famous Sour Dough bread bakery. YUM! We had sour dough french toast and soup in bread bowls. It was divine. If I liked seafood, I am sure I would have liked the clam chowder as much as Brian did.

Golden Gate Bridge was huge and fun to go and see. There were tons of people out there and the weather that day was gorg! We are really into the history of things, so this was fun to read all about it. I feel silly saying this but it was here that I "clicked" to why they call it the GOLDEN GATE bridge. Am I retarded or are there others out there who dont know?!

This is one of the big cords that holds up the bridge, it is full of tiny cords inside a large one. Then there are more tint ones wrapped up around it.

China Town. Fun. Bought cheap presents for the kids and were SUPER silly!

Day 3. We rented a car and headed out to Oakland to go to the Temple. Best smelling temple ever! The landscaping was awesome and seriously smelt like spring! The temple itself was of course gorgeous and simple. You can tell it was built in the 60's!!

He didn't want to be in any pictures because he didn't pack his white shirt. I finally convinced him it didn't matter.

The cable cars were fun to ride on. HUGE LINES were not worth the wait but the few times we hopped on, it was cool to see the steep hills they could climb, and we were not going to climb those on foot!

We had some DELISH food. Italian in Little Italy, with some gelato. We had Steaks one night, sushi, Mexican, crepes, and so much more I cant ever think of it.

That night we went to the baseball game, the Giants. We tried many many times to catch the bus over there but kept missing it, getting in long lines, or just didn't want to wait 15 min for the next one so we ended up walking 4 miles to the ballpark.

We were tired. It was totally worth it though. The ballpark is right by the Bay Bridge and it is right on the water. People actually sit out there in canoes waiting for home run balls to come out to the water! Also home of the original garlic fry. It was GOOOD! But made my breathe super smelly!

Silly Seals out of the pier. They were barking and there was something so interesting about watching them that I couldn't stop! I turned to find Brian just standing there staring at me, as in "Whenever you are done you crazy lady! They are just seals!"

The Crooked road was fun to walk and see. The roads in this city were nuts. Steep!!

And remember FULL HOUSE? I loved and love that show. We had to go check these out. The funny thing about this picture is that I think the people around the park thought we were serious about the poses we were doing. We really have to not care what other people think of us in order to get our usual silly pictures. This whole walk we were singing the full house theme song.

"What ever happened to predictability?

The milk man the paper boy, evening TV.

You miss your old familar friends,

But waiting just around the bend.

everywhere you look everwhere,

theres a heart, theres a heart,

a hand to hold on to.

Everywhere you look everywhere

theres a face, theres a face

of somebody who needs you.

When youre lost out there,

and your all alone.

A light is waiting to carry you home,

everywhere you look.

ah ah ah ah ah!"

Last Day we did most of the touristy stuff and sights. We weren't leaving until 10 that night so we had the day to relax and enjoy. Ghirardelli square was fun, although we didn't get all around the square. We got in and ordered the classic fudge sundae, waiting almost an hour for them to come and jumped into the best ice cream sundae of my life. YUM!!

So basically it doesn't matter where we go, we have so much fun together. I am so lucky to be married to the most amazing man ever. He overlooks my faults and loves me for them. He is more incredable today than he was when we first met. We always talk about when we met and how fast everything happened and we feel so blessed that we were able to find eachother. He lifts me up and truly makes me a better person. He makes me laugh all the time, if you know Brian, you know that there is never a dull moment and he USUALLY crosses the line and goes too far. I love you babe! Thanks for another amazing year and another awesome trip!