Eventful Days = Jacuzzi Nights

This day required the therapy of jacuzzi bath by the end of the day, but lets start at the beginning. Saturday is normally Craig's day to sleep in, but Linc had other plans this morning. He has had a slight stomach bug so we think that may be why his sleep was so bad last night. He woke up this morning at 4 am. Normally (b/c of the sleep training) we turn off the monitor (b/c you can still hear him cry with it off) and let him go back to sleep. Well 40 minutes later he was still going at it and I guess Craig wanted to see if he could help him back to sleep. Linc had other plans and decided he was just ready to be up for the day. I stayed in bed thinking a least one of us should get some sleep (remember it is 4:40 am by this time).

I am a pretty light sleepers so with all the racket he was making I finally got out of bed around 6:30 am. I then told Craig to head back to bed and I would take over from here. I sure did appreciate him letting me sleep so I wanted to return the favor. While Daddy slept, Linc and I went out for a morning run. I wanted the exercise and I thought it might induce a nap out of our little monkey. Forty minutes later he was still awake so I decide to take it back in and see if I could get a quick shower before Linc's first class. Of course Linc wanted to play in the car and on the wagon before heading in.

I finally got a shower with just enough time to wake Craig back up and tell him to get dressed before we had to head to the Little Gym at 9:15. We made it just on time for Linc's first class and I realized I had forgot my camera, dang! I really wanted to take pictures, especially since he had such a great time today. He was doing something he has not done before and that is telling anyone who was on an object he wanted to be on "No!" We tried to quickly correct that by telling him to say "Hi" instead to the other kids. I guess maybe he has picked that up from school or from us telling Molli no when she is after his stuff.

After Little Gym we headed over to Craig's parents. They were taking Linc for the day. We knew he was tired so we figured it would be a petty easy sit for them if he took a nap. Craig and I headed over to the Home and Garden show at the Fort Worth Convention center. It was a nice outing for just the two of us. We got lots of cards for potential landscapers. That is one of the project we want to start in the fall and have been looking for some reasonable prices since we have a big area to cover.

We finally got some lunch and a black forest cake before heading over to get Linc. Sidenote: I am obsessed with black forest cake! We got a great report from Craig's parents and then we were off to my parents house. Craig was going to the Cowboys game with my dad, brother, nephew and my brother's brother in law. I stayed at my moms for a while. We both soon realized that Linc was in search of the most dangerous thing in the house and decide we should take him to he park. He had a blast and I again forgot my camera. He loved the swing so much this time, I got some of the biggest grins out of him. He even did the slide by himself a few times.

After I dropped my mom off, I headed home to put Linc to bed. He decided he really wanted some black forest cake first. That cake is so messy that he got it everywhere. After he was down (which was quick b/c his day was long too) I had a lot of spaces to clean. It is amazing the places you will find food that toddlers eat. It was in one of my picture frames, how did it get there?

Once I cleaned and since I was sans Craig, I tried to think about what I wanted to do for the night. Nothing sounded better than a jacuzzi bath and a good book. Oh and it was great. I put the jets on and had bubbles to my eyes. It was so relaxing that I contemplated just going to bed afterwards. Instead I wrote this blog, haha! I guess I just can't stay away.

Man it's good to be home...

Boy am I glad to be home. I know I was only gone for one night, but it seemed like so much more when I didn't have my boys with me. I saw Lincoln Monday morning and then not again until Wednesday morning because my flight got in after his bedtime on Tuesday. That is the longest I have ever gone without seeing him, I don't want to do that again anytime soon.

Besides missing my boys, there were several other reasons I wanted to come home...

First off I was headed to McAllen, TX and I had never been there before. Our flight got delayed, which was not so bad since I wanted to catch up on some reading. It didn't start to get annoying until I was trying to get my rental car. I waited about 45 mins to get my car, I was literally the last person in the airport when I got it. I hate PT cruisers, and guess what I got an "Electric Blue" PT Cruiser! Awesome, right? Wrong, haha, I stuck out like a sore thumb. Now don't get me wrong, electric blue is a great color, just not on cars in my opinion.

The day before I had printed all the directions off to all the places I had to visit from Google Maps. Generally they are pretty reliable, but not this time. Every single map I printed out was wrong in some way. First when I tried to find the hotel I ended up in Hildalgo! I figured out it told me to go the opposite way I was suppose to go. I finally found it and the hotel was pretty nice. I had dinner there, because I didn't want to go find something in a strange town at 8pm. It was not the best food, but it was food and then I was off to read and bed.

I was determined to make the next day go by quick, so I woke early and headed to the gym for a run. The gym was nice, it had TVs on the machines and I got to watch Saved By The Bell! The hotel had a great breakfast, so after my omelet, I was off to my first stop. Good thing I ate well because it would be my last meal until I boarded the plane later that night.

My first stop was in La Feria, which is about 35 miles outside of where I was staying. The directions I had said to go west and I needed to go east, needless to say I was in La Joya before I knew I was going the wrong way. "Momquest" as I like to call her now, saved the day for me. She told me were to go and stayed on the phone with me until I got there, 15 minutes late, booo.

This inspection ran over so I had to leave to go to the next site without lunch. I know a lot of people skip meals, but not me, I turn to a green monster! So I started off heading the right way to my next site, but the directions told me to exit an exit that did not exist, I'm not making this up. You are probably saying that I should have ditched them by now, but it was all I had to go on. I finally found that place and we did that inspection in hour and 30 minutes!

I did scrap the directions to get back to the airport, I got there fine by memory. I finally got a bag of gargettos and downed the whole thing, mmm! I got home last night about 8:30 and was ready for bed! Boy was that a long day. I was so looking forward to seeing my little Linc in the morning. I even took him to school and picked him up.

When we got home I was planning to make dinner and thought it would be a good idea for him to help. We have this stool that reaches to the counter and I got out some pots and cups for him to pretend to be like me. It was funny because he wanted to do everything I did. He got out spices and added water and stirred it all together. Maybe we have a future chef on our hands, that would be great!

Also at school that taught him to say "cheese" when they are taking a picture. This is him showing me his new skill!

Yes he is wearing an apron, he wanted to put it on since I had one on. I only have girly ones, but he didn't seem to mind.

Time to add the water.

Stir it up.

Now I got to test it to see if it is right, just like the real chefs.

It might need a little extra mustard seed.

Would you like to try?

I know this picture is blurry, but it is cute and he was trying to take the camera from me.

Success, he got the camera and actually took this picture by himself!

Daddy took it back, we don't want to break another one.

He still wants to get the camera back and won't give me a hug.

After dinner he wanted to clean up.

Cheese!

What Has Monkey Been Up To?

What has my monkey been up to this past week???

Well he certainly had his does of daily bananas. We had to photograph just how much he loves them. Look at that satisfied face!

That is one good banana!

He wouldn't be a monkey if he didn't like them. This is the cool bottle that Paula bought Linc. He loves it because it has a straw!

Get after that banana monkey.

This week has been pretty busy for us all. Linc got a bad fever and runny eyes and nose and we had to go to the doctor. They said he just had a virus, so he took some meds and headed back to school on Wednesday. He got to spend all day with Yong (Craig's mom) on Tuesday and they had a blast.

My mom had a Elementary School Cafeteria Themed Luncheon on Wednesday and I got to help her make the cheese sandwiches. I had to wear a hair net, it was so funny. I almost walked around work for the rest of the day in it, haha!

Thursday was my first work trip where I flew in and flew out in the same day. I had to go to Victoria which is two hours outside of Houston. I had to fly into Houston and then drive and do the same coming back, needless to say I got home very late (11:30). I didn't want to stay over because I have to do that tomorrow again for work and I didn't want to have to leave to boys so much. Plus Friday was my off day and we had tons of things planned.

Friday started off with us going to a trial Little Gym class. I figured our little monkey would enjoy swinging on the bars and boy was I right. He really loved the class, but does not listen to directions so well so he was all over the place. He was very brave and was getting on everything. We decided to sign him up for the semester and see if he continues to like it, we start next weekend.

Saturday we a lot of fun, but I will have to post about that later. So that brings us to Sunday. Linc and I started off with a run in the running stroller while daddy mowed. We tried to find things indoors to keep Linc happy all day because it was super hot out today. We finally decided that maybe we should take him to the mall's inside play area. He loved it last time so it seemed like a good idea. Well I forgot that this was tax free weekend and the play area was packed. We were not sure what to do so we rode around and found the pay toys.

We started him off on Clifford the dog. He was not sure about it moving, but seemed to have fun.

Then we tried the horse.

But he liked the ice cream truck the most, should have known! Duh, sweets, haha!

Oh and his other favorite thing, the steering wheel.

"What flavor would you like?" Maybe this will be Linc's future summer job!

He eventually got bored of this area and traveled over to the NM side of the mall. He found a water fountain and wanted to get to it!

He was not sure what to think of this mannequin. He came back to it several time, I think he was wondering why it was starring at him.

I love my little boy!

Tomorrow I am off to Edinburg, TX. This will be my first night without both of my boys, I bet I won't sleep very good. I am going to miss this so much.

Weekend Whirlwind

My week and weekend were full of multitasking activities! Both of my two best grade school friends where in town and we had lots of catching up to do. I had not seen either of them in so long, so a lot of my week was spent finding time where I could see them. This continued into the weekend and thus today I was one tired girl.

Paula came by to visit and play with baby Linc. They had a good time having snacks and laughing together.

Teeth! Linc's vocab in the past few weeks has grown a lot. A lot of things that we say now he will repeat and we are so surprised to hear him say it. It is such a huge difference.

Now that is a smile!

Mmm, cookies!

Craig went to the Ranger's game Friday night, so I went to hang out with Jenny. We took the kids to Chick'fila and the kids played on the playground. We had a good time catching up and the boys had fun playing together.

Saturday morning Paula and I went for a run at the Benbrook Trail. I was trying to squeeze in as much face time with each of them as I could. After our run I ran home to change and head out to Niki's grandparents lake house with Craig and Linc. As soon as we got there we all changed into our suits and headed down to the water. Linc enjoyed the cool water and floating in his float. He also really wanted to see Avery. The were on opposite nap schedules, so they didn't get to hang too much.

Here they kids are walking up to Niki.

It was super hot out, so Avery decided to take a break and have some water.

Linc wanted that water, haha!

Philip and Craig throwing the ball around. Later we all tried to throw it around but Niki and I decided that softball was not our sport, haha!

Levi with his buds Caden and Parker in the hot tub. They were having a blast (b/c it was really a cool tub).

Getting a sun tan with Mom.

Launching Levi!

Later in the afternoon I headed back to my house to get ready for Jenny's brother's wedding reception. I swung by to pick up Paula and we headed over to the Strain's for the reception. It was so great to see Jenny and Paula one more time before the both headed back home (New Mexico and Iraq). It will be a while before I get to see them again.

Here is Jenny! The reception was for her brother Wyatt. I am hoping to see Jenny again soon, maybe in January when she has her baby!

Jack, Jenny's dad and the person the married Craig and I. He is an artist and such a great person.

This is Wells, Jenny's youngest boy. He is super shy, but so cute!

Some of the yummy cakes at the reception. They also had 3 black forest cakes which is now my new favorite cake!

Here is the happy new couple, Wyatt and Jourdan. This is their second reception, the first one was in California. Isn't it great that she got to use her dress twice!

Yummy fruit bouquet

This was the coolest drink fountain I have ever seen!

This is Niki's dad and he was helping keep the party rolling. We all ended up helping make the party great in some way. Niki helped replenish the food and wash dishes. Paula and I were in charge of making some of the entrees and washing dishes. It ended up being a lot of fun because I got to talk to a lot of the guests at the party!

I miss you already Paula, I hope you are safe when you get back to Iraq.

Niki and I look like lobsters. We got fried during the day, it still hurts. I hate having fair skin.

After the reception, I headed back to Niki's grandparents lake house to meet back up with everyone. We had a fun night of games and hanging out in the hot tub (this time it was really hot). We stayed up pretty late (at least by my standards) and we were pretty much tired all day today. Talking about maxing out your weekend, we sure did that! It was all worth it though and I can't wait to do it again!