An Update on Us

Published on December 13th, 2008 - 1:47 pm - by Josh | 3 Comments »

It’s been pretty crazy around here lately.  After the loss of lappy, I was pretty much forced to take a break from most computer activity, so I started playing Xbox 360 a bit more frequently at night. (And by a bit, he means every single night.)  Since the desk and 360 was (”were” Joshua. You’re talking about two items there.) located in the bedroom about 2 feet from Megan’s head, this started cutting into her sleep, and of course resulted in me getting swiftly reprimanded.  :)  So, one morning while getting ready for work and trying to think of a remedy that allowed Megan to sleep and me to not, I noticed just how much room there really is in our closet.  I mean, there really wasn’t any room at the time because it was full of junk just sitting there not being used, but with a bit of cleaning and organizing I decided the desk would definitely fit.

So I ran it by Megan, she made fun of me a lot, and I’m now typing this post from the closet, my new little man-cave. :)  (Let me interject something here… About two years ago, right after we found out I was pregnant with Ali, and it became painfully obvious to Josh that he would have to forfeit his office to our darling daughter, I suggested that we turn the closet into an office. Of course my suggestion was met with comments like, “The desk won’t fit, ” “that’s a stupid idea,” and [my favoirte] “I don’t want to.”  So yes, of course I got a little frustruated, and first made Josh admit that I’d been right all along.  And yes, it is endlessly funny to me now that his “man room” is merely a closet at the back of our house.) During the process of making the move though, we nearly lost our only remaing computer, Megan’s desktop.  I unhooked it all like I’ve done countless times in the past, hooked it all back up, and all I got was a ticking power supply (it literally sounded just like a bomb).  Thankfully that was all that was wrong, and 14 bucks later we’re back up and running with at least one computer.

We’ve also been getting ready for our voyage back to the homeland.  We’re planning on driving this time, and in order to get our Jeep in good condition to make the trip we just got done with about 2 weeks of ridiculous repeat trips to transmission shops and service garages.  Ask me about it some time, I’ve ranted about it too much to bother typing it.  :) (Or me. I’m the one who was in Southlake when her hubby called to inform me that, “Oh yeah… Be careful. The Jeep is leaking someting.”)

All of our technical problems aside, things with the kids couldn’t be better.  They are so much fun.  Some things Xavier likes to do now: play with staplers, cut paper with scissors, open doors, and lock doors.  No joking here, he literally takes a piece of construction paper, staples it like 100 times, and then cuts it into pieces (and leaves them all over the floor for his mommy to pick up).  It’ll entertain him for at least 30 minutes, easily.  And as far as opening doors goes, I swear, I think we are going to have to remove our door knobs.  Locking them barely slows him down, he’s already learned how to take a small thin object and turn the little slot on the outside of the knob. (Fun, when you’re the only one up in the morning, and all of a sudden a little hand touches your leg or your arm…)  Just the other day I was literally locked out of the house three times in one evening.  Xavier managed to listen to me the first time and unlocked the front door so I could get back in (after about five minutes of incessant pleading).  The second and third times they (yes Ali does this too) locked me out in the garage, but Megan was home and after about 5 minutes of me knocking on the door she had finally managed to quit laughing long enough to let me in.  Oh, and the early morning wake-ups with a little 2 1/2 year old face about 2 inches from yours have started since he can now stroll out of his room and into ours whenever he wants.  Did I mention how fun they are!?

Ali is just barely a step behind him, she follows him everywhere, doing pretty much doing every single thing he does.  They are quite the little (terrible :) ) twosome.  She has some of her own interests too though, she’s becoming more and more obsessed with shoes and little purses.  Meg made the mistake of giving her a purse to hold while we were grocery shopping, and there was no way Ali was leaving it behind. We wound up having to buy the thing and hid it away until Christmas.  She also loves anything sparkly, glittery or messy.  Meg’s jewelry is always fair game, as is her makeup and her shoes.  It’s a tough call–Ali definitely has a wild, rough and tough side that makes me think she’s gonna be the athletic-type of kid. But then there’s that girly nonsense too… and it just makes me pray she doesn’t have her mommy’s taste in jewelry and clothes. ;)

What else about Ali girl? She’s a huge flirt, she’s growing like a weed and she’s quite the talker. She’ll repeat just about anything you say to her, and I think she really drives Xavier to talk more. (No way is he letting his litter sister do something, anything, better than him! :) )

Soon enough, we’ll be home and you can see them for yourselves. There’s no denying how crazy things get around here, but I don’t think either of us would have it any other way. We love our crazy little kiddos and the chaos that they create.

Merry (early)  Christmas!

H:08

Published on October 31st, 2008 - 10:30 pm - by Megan | 1 Comment »

Pebbles and Bam-Bam
MONSTERS!!!

Pebbles and Bam-Bam… Monsters from “Monsters, Inc.”

This year, Halloween included costume changes for the kiddos.  For their school parties (and parade) on Friday, I made them little Pebbles and Bam-Bam costumes to wear. Josh and I decided that their monster costumes would not only be too hot to wear all day, but if you’ve seen Ali try to walk in hers–with it’s big padded belly–you’d understand that it would have been a disasterous day at preschool. :)

That said, this year we got some awesome pictures of our kiddos, in their various costumes. They must’ve looked pretty cute, because each came home with their pumpkin buckets overflowing with candy. (Really, I have no idea what we’re going to do with all of it!!)  I know for a fact that I never got that much candy when I was trick-or-treating, but apparently it’s hard to say “No” to the two cutest little monsters ever.  (Prepare yourself for a tangent here…)Ali even milked her way into more candy. At one of the first houses we went to, the family had a little bitty dog (I mean, teeeeeeeeeeeeeeny), and it stood by its owners legs as she opened the door to dole out the goods to Xavier and Ali.  Ali took one look at the little ”cat” as Xavier called it and burst into tears and cried so hard that her little body violently shook. The lady who owned the dog felt so bad that she dropped like 10 pieces of candy into Ali’s bucket, and then a whole handful more just to make her smile.  Then she did the same thing for Xavier, because “They’re just so darn cute.”

Later, Ali fell (her belly threw her balance off) and practically landed on the feet of this sweet old lady. The poor old lady also felt bad and loaded Ali up with candy. Josh and I kind of joked that this would just be Ali’s system and she left with her bucket almot half full from that woman’s house.l

Not to be outdone, Xavier would walk up to people’s door, and act really shy. Then they’d lean over, drop a couple pieces of candy into his bowl.  Then he’d turn on the charm, and finally look at them, and go “Mooooore peeeeeeeeeeeeez.” …And of course, no one could resist. My little con-arist (who is not in the least bit shy in real life) would then practically yell thank you to whomever he had just suckered into giving him way more candy than they shouldv’e, turn as fast as he could, and with a big grin on his face say, “More houses-more candy Mommy!”

Haha. It was a fun, fun night.  Pictures in the gallery.

September 2008 Photos

Published on September 23rd, 2008 - 9:54 pm - by Josh | 2 Comments »

New photos!  We got a chance to take a trip to the zoo this past weekend, so there are lots of good pictures from that as well as some random ones of us around the house.  There are also some adorable pictures of the kids’ first experience with a little baby.  We babysat Craig and Carrie’s daughter Amelia, and Xavier and Ali were just fascinated with her.  Enjoy!

September 2008 album