Monthly Archives: July 2009

Kinsley…

Posted on July 30, 2009 by LaShawn

The main reason we were in Lubbock this last weekend was because Jason’s brother, Brian and his family were in town. They live in Minnesota and we try to make sure we get to see them whenever they are in the same state as us. It also happened to be their daughter’s first birthday. It is hard to believe that it was a year ago that she was born.

She really is a doll. She is a spunky little thing too. She also has beautiful eyes.

Being that she was out of her element and they had just gotten in from MN the day before, she was a little grumpy at her party.

But of course…it was her day she could do whatever she wanted.

Happy Birthday Miss Kinsley!!!

And Bugsie is His Name…

Posted on July 28, 2009 by LaShawn

We have a new family member. For as long as Jason and I have been together we have planned on getting a small house dog. We already have our big dogs, but we wanted one that could travel with me and the kids. We have had our eye on getting a Boston Terrier for quite some time. This past weekend one fell into our laps. Internet, meet Bugsie.

We were in Lubbock this past weekend and some friends of my in laws had one more of their puppies that didn’t have a home. Well, Jason and I reluctantly went over to see the puppies. We really weren’t sure about it. We thought we were going to see pug puppies. Then we realized they were BOSTONS! We couldn’t say no. I literally couldn’t form the word.

The next day we drove over to get Bugsie with the older two boys.

Jason and I decided that we wouldn’t tell Chase about him. Chase is an animal freak and we wanted to surprise him. When Daddy rounded the corner this is the face Chase made. Priceless!

Chase has told us many times over that Bugsie is his best friend.

All of the boys are in love with him. He is only six weeks old and still in the sleepy puppy stage most of the time. But, don’t let the cuteness fool you. He is a Killer.

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I ♥ Feet…

Posted on July 20, 2009 by LaShawn

So I recently discovered an AWESOME photography blog:

This weeks contest is I ♥ Feet. As soon as I heard that I immediately thought of one of my fav pics ever that I took a while back.

This is how Chase is pretty much CONSTANTLY. Love it!

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Small Tragedy…

Posted on July 20, 2009 by LaShawn

A small tragedy occured on Sunday, July 19, 2009 at 2:46 pm. Santa Clause and the Tooth Fairy were both killed in the minds of Austin and Brodie. While this is a part of growing up it came a little too soon for me.

I was one of those kids that believed in Santa Clause a little too long. I can’t remember the exact age I was when I stopped believing, but I do know I was the last of my friends to figure it out. I loved Santa and to this day swear I saw him leaving my grandparents’ house one cold Christmas morning. I wanted to hold on to the magic of Santa as long as I could. As a parent I transferred that onto my kids.

Yesterday Austin and Brodie came downstairs while the babies were napping and asked the following, dreaded, questions.

“Is Santa Clause real? Or do you and Daddy leave the presents for us?”

*insert sound of my heart breaking*

I contemplated my answer. Do I lie to them? Do I dance around it? I decided to be honest, but not spill the beans.

“Do you think he is real? That is the only thing that matters.”

Austin piped up, “Well, we have been talking and we have our suspicions. I mean, we doubt it. Reindeer can’t fly and I really doubt one has a red nose.”

The time came when I finally said, “Santa is a fun tradition to believe in. It’s been fun thinking there was a jolly fat man that brought you presents, right? But, no Santa is just a fun thing we do with kids. He is not real.”

I braced myself for the onslaught of disappoinment and hurt the boys might feel. I mean, Brodie is just shy of 7 years old. On the young side to find out Santa is a fraud. But it never came. In fact, they both started laughing their heads off.

“You mean you and Daddy actually bought us the Wii? THAT IS SO COOL!!”

Who knew that the debunking of Santa would work out so well in my favor? They then brought up the Tooth Fairy and I just spilled that indeed there was no flying pixie that came into the house to take our teeth and leave us money.

I later thought about the consequences of this conversation. Austin and Brodie after all have to small baby brothers and we don’t want the fun spoiled for them. So I did ask the boys if they would now be the Santa helpers of the house. Their job is to protect our secret about Santa and the Tooth Fairy.

Hopefully Chase and Evan will believe for a long time to come. I am not sure I am ready to handle the death of Santa completely.

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Posted in Crazy Woman with ALLLLL those kids, Kids, life ramblings. Bookmark the permalink.

What the heck’s a Tweetup?

Posted on July 18, 2009 by LaShawn

I attended my first Tweetup on Thursday evening. What’s a Tweetup, you say? It is a meeting of people that follow each other on Twitter. This one was organized by Branden (@brandenwilliams) and included people from the surrounding area. Branden assures me that he does indeed smile, though I have no photographic proof.

Some of us have connections through other Internet based ways. Take Shauna (@blahblahblogger). I knew of Shauna from Burb Mom (that she co-founded) and she is also the talented lady responsible for my updated blog design. This was my first time meeting her in person. We all got the pleasure of hearing the “taco story” in person.

Then there is Holly (@texasholly). She is Shauna’s partner at Burb Mom. She is also hilarious…her blog regularly makes me laugh.

There was also Ruth (@lewisvillego). I have had lots of conversations with Ruth via email and Twitter. She is the person who invited me over to Neighborsgo and has since printed several of my submissions in our local Neighborsgo section of the Dallas Morning News. Which makes me feel like a rock star!

I also met a lot of new people, who I am now following on Twitter. We laughed, we chatted, we ate chips and salsa. I got asked by a neighboring table what we were all getting together for and when I explained it I am not quite sure she understood. Apparently not everyone speaks Twitter.

But, for those of us that do, it was a GREAT time.

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Posted in Blog Business, Internet Addiction, My crazy habits, Photography. Bookmark the permalink.

Who is this kid?

Posted on July 16, 2009 by LaShawn

Ever looked at your child and not recognized them? I have found that as my older two boys get older I do this a lot. I will glance back in the rear view mirror at Austin and it will come in a wave of emotion that he is so big. I know that sounds so silly and cliche, but it is true. Some days it just dawns on you that your child is a….a….TWEEN. I read somewhere that the tween years start at 9. This sent me into a 10 minute long babbling session. But seriously, he is getting so big and old.

And it never helps when they are in those teeth losing years. One day your child looks like this.

And then he looks like this two days later.

Seriously, who is this kid?

Rite of Passage…

Posted on July 9, 2009 by LaShawn

Learning to ride a bike without training wheels is one of those childhood milestones most of us remember. I don’t remember when I started riding on two wheels, but I do remember watching my brother learn. Strange memory I have.

Austin learned to ride a two wheel bike when he was 6 1/2 years old. We tried the whole push him and let go thing, but all that did was freak him out that he was going to fall going full speed. So we finally decided to just let him do it on his own. And a few days later he did.

We have always said Brodie was going to learn sooner. He has always had a better sense of balance than Austin. In most things he is pretty willing to try most everything and worry about consequences later. For some reason this hasn’t been the case when it comes to the bike. For the last year he has barely touched his bicycle. He rides the scooter everywhere. I kept mentioning that we should take off the training wheels and give it a go, but he refused. On things like this my parenting philosophy is just let them be and eventually they will be ready.

This week it was time. Brodie asked Daddy to take off the training wheels, which Jason was more than happy to do. Brodie will be 7 next month and I think he wanted to be able to say he was 6 when he learned.

Austin was glad to help as well. Since Austin taught himself to ride we thought that Brodie could probably do the same.

He fiddled and adjusted his seat and everything just right.

Then he started pushing off and trying to peddle.

Determined to master it…he was off.

Austin watched on as Brodie kept going.

And going.

Within five minutes he was circling our cul-de-sac without stops. He was a natural. He then told me he wishes he would have let us take off the training wheels sooner.

I hate to say it….I TOLD YOU SO, BRODIE!

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Posted in Crazy Woman with ALLLLL those kids, Family, Kids, Photography. Bookmark the permalink.

Moving…

Posted on July 7, 2009 by LaShawn

I mentioned a few days ago that we are going to move this fall. Well, I didn’t go into detail then becuase we were working out some details and getting things finalized. But now….WE ARE MOVING HERE!

Looks like an empty lot you say?

To you maybe, but to me it looks like home already. Obviously, the house isn’t actually THERE yet. But isn’t it a beautiful lot? See that big tree back there?

Back behind that is a greenbelt. I have visions of my boys scaling the fence and climbing that tree and making it a fort.

We are one of the first people to build on the block.

We agonized over what the right decision for our family was house wise. We have rented for the last several years waiting for the right time to buy and waiting to figure out WHERE to buy. Tricky. We finally decided we needed to do it this year. It was the right time.

We started looking everywhere near us. All my communities within 15 miles of us. We were looking for a LARGE one story which is basically impossible living in the areas we wanted to be in. So then, we gave up on that idea and just started looking. We had a pretty good price range to work with and were looking on the higher side of that just to get in a good area.

Then one day we came upon this development being built IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE, very close to our #1 town pick (in fact should the boys go back to public school they will be in one of the best districts in the metroplex). We started looking and due to a slow economy they had SLASHED the prices of these houses. We hadn’t really thought about buying a new construction, but went in and talked to them and toured a few houses. SOLD! The amount of stuff we are getting for our money is amazing. Plus, this house is WAY below our budget. A huge bonus for someone like me that is completely against having a house payment where I can’t afford to do all the other fun things in life.

The biggest decsion we had to make was between two floorplans. One was bigger and one was still big (100 sq ft bigger than our current house which is plenty big), but had a better layout for my personally. The bigger one was a two story, the smaller one was a one and half story. In the end we went with the smaller one and we are very happy we made that choice. It is plenty of house for us, won’t waste energy like the two story, is much more manageable for me cleaning wise, has a GREAT layout, and has TONS of storage the bigger one did not have. All in all I am happy.

Soon Jason and I will be going to the design center to pick out all of our features (flooring, cabinets, counters, etc.). VERY exciting!!!!

Stay tuned over the next several months of work in progress pictures!!!

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Baker Kiddos…

Posted on July 6, 2009 by LaShawn

My friend, Shana, was out of town for a few days and my partner in crime, Brad and I took some pics of him and the kids together as a surprise for her birthday. I was informed today by her that he finally let the cat out of the bag, so now I can post pictures of her darling kids. Behold…the Bakers make cute kiddos!!

Ohhh I tell ya they are cute ones:

And we figured Shana might like a picture of Brad alone:

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Don’t say you are bored…

Posted on July 2, 2009 by LaShawn

I decided we are going to start “school” some time after the 4th holiday. We will be moving some time this fall (coming in another post) so we will need to take a short break around that time. Since we are starting soon I have tried to give the older boys a pretty easy time lately.

But they said they were bored ONE too many times and I snapped: