"APPOHTIZED"

Well, I finally have a free minute to post something! This week Thomas has been talking about when Aimee got "appohtized!" I guess it made a lasting impression on him. I think it's cute how he says baptized. Another cute word mix-up for the week: "Jason's Penney's." Last night, Aimee and I went to JC Penney's to get my Valentine's Day watch sized. So tonight at dinner, Aimee was talking about the cute clothes and dresses she saw at Jason's Penney's that she hoped I'd buy for her. She said that she thought I'd said Jason's Penney's instead of JC Penney's. Then she remembered Jason's Deli was where Jason's is from. Cute kids!

Updates on the rest of us: Edd is super busy at work again! He might, if ExxonMobil will let him, get to go to Japan for business. We'll see if that happens though, I'm not counting on it.

Anne is learning to share the computer again, which means it's back to late night computer sessions.

Bethany survived her region orchestra experience. She just turned in her course selection card for HIGH SCHOOL last week! Wow!!!

Andrew is loving the nice weather and plays football with the neighbor kids. He is also preparing for the TAKS test.

Aimee is a big helper at home, she likes to take care of Thomas! :) She is also enjoys occasional playdates and just started her Spring soccer season.

Mattie is sick right now, I think it's the flu. She was so sad to miss her first soccer game of the new season. Mattie is excited to ride her bike again! She had a bad fall last April and hasn't been on a bike until just a few weeks ago. She was at her friend's house and they were playing outside when I came to pick them up. I was surprised to see Mattie riding a bike!!! Peer pressure at it's best!!! :)

Thomas, or better known as "T REX," loves to play dinosaurs. He loves to watch all of Andrew's old dinosaur DVD's. He loves to look at all the dinosaur books he can find around the house. Dinosaur by day, but "just Thomas" by night. When he gets tired and is fussy, we ask him if he's T Rex and go through the list of creatures that he likes, he will answer, "NO!!!" When he's done, he will say he's "Just Thomas." With the new year, a new Thomas has evolved...one who likes to attend Nursery!!! AMAZING!!! :)

I'm having some technical difficulties with my camera right now. So I don't have many great pictures from Valentine's Day, but I'll try and get something new posted! Until then I'll have to borrow a picture of Aimee from Edd. Hope he doesn't mind! :)

SURPRISE!

The other day, while we were in the van waiting to pick up Bethany, Thursday the 13th, we got quite the surprise!

We were all doing whatever to entertain us while we waited for Bethany to get out of school and walk to the van. All of the sudden, Mattie came up from the back of the van saying something about needing to look into the mirror because she had something inbetween her teeth!

When I turned to look at her, WOW, what a surprise that something between her teeth, was a BIG HOLE!!! She was missing a tooth!!! Mattie couldn't believe it~she knew she was bleeding and had a kleenex/napkin in her mouth.

She looked in the mirror and was so excited!!! This was her first lost tooth!!! The funny thing is that she had 5 barely, wiggly teeth, but none of them were close to coming out!!!

Being the good mom that I am, I asked her what happened. Mattie then told me that she was trying to open a small white container (my bike first aid kit) and couldn't do it. So she tried to open it with her teeth! That's when her tooth popped out! We looked in the first aid kit and all over the van for her little tooth, but never found it.

Luckily, the Tooth Fairy was on the ball and Mattie woke up with a big surprise under her pillow Friday morning! Mattie was so excited to see Tooth Fairy money, without a tooth or a note!!!

Halloween 2008

Our Halloween celebration started on Wed, the 29th. We went to a carnival put on at the church. I had a sewing marathon earlier that day to get Thomas' costume put together. Unfortunately, Thomas fell asleep on the way to the church. So no one really saw how cute he looked. Edd held him while I took the other kids around. When we got home, we put Thomas on the bed and that's where he stayed until morning! Guess he was tired!!!

Bethany had her own sewing marathon. She was making an Alice in Wonderland costume for herself. We finished it Thurs night. Bethany also carved her pumpkin Thurs night. Bethany's friend, Amanda, had invited Bethany to come over on Friday after school to help set up for the Halloween party they were having with all of their friends.

Friday morning, Thomas and I went over to the elementary school to watch the costume parade for K-2nd grade. The kids were really cute! Thomas was excited to see Aimee and Mattie!

After the kids got home from school, we carved the other pumpkins. Then we got ready for trick or treating! Andrew went with our neighbor, Parker, and his friends. Aimee stayed with Edd to hand out candy. Aimee has decided that handing out candy is more fun that trick or treating for candy. I took Mattie and Thomas around the neighborhood. Mattie and Thomas loved trick or treating! After each street we'd finish, I asked if they were ready to go home. Finally after four streets, they were finally ready to call it quits!!

Andrew ended up with the most candy. He weighed it today. He had 3 pounds! He probably had close to four, but has been eating it and sharing it since he got home Friday night. Bethany came home with 2 pounds. She said she left the half she didn't like at Amanda's.

Now, we are counting down till Christmas!!! Can't wait!!!

Following my brother's footsteps

Thomas is at that very fun, but very impressionable stage in life. He adores his big brother and copies nearly everything Andrew does. Thomas has a nack for picking out the funny phrases from the conversation that go on here at home. He especially likes to copy what Andrew says! If it is a funny phrase, then when Thomas repeats it, he will laugh afterwards, which makes it even more funny!!!

A few times, lately, Thomas has gotten himself stuck! Andrew would get himself stuck quite often when he was around Thomas' age. Luckily, Thomas hasn't gotten very stuck, YET!!!

Thomas looks a lot like Andrew when he was 2! The other day, Thomas and I were looking at Aimee's scrapbook from when she was a baby. On one page, Thomas pointed to Andrew in a pictue and said, "That's me!" I told him that it was Andrew. (This isn't the picture, I don't remember which one it was, but this is how Andrew looked back then! circa 10.01)

Thomas 10.08

Thomas' new love is dinosaurs! He loves to watch Disney's "DINOSAUR" movie and can be found playing "carnator"! Just this morning, Thomas came stomping through the kitchen, with his hands in dino position, growling, "carnator, carnator, carnator!" Thomas loves playing with Andrew's old dinosaurs and loves for me to read about them too! The other day, Thomas insisted that he wear his dino shaped camo pj's all day long!!! Yesterday, he'd only wear his t-rex shirt, until it got dirty, the the pteradon shirt was the only other one he'd wear.

Yesterday, we had a great adventure to the bayou. Andrew was home from school, he wasn't feeling well and had a slight fever, but he wanted to come on walk with us. We'd planned to feed the turtles. Plans changed, I'd forgotten that it had rained the night before and it was MUDDY!!! Well, my boys are mud magnets!!! They had a blast playing in the mud!!! (So it's been a few days since I started this! We went to the bayou on Thurs. Thomas has so much fun that Friday morning he wanted to go back!!!

It is so much fun to watch these two boys of mine enjoy each other so much! Andrew is such a good big brother!!! When Andrew's friends are over, they let Thomas join in. Andrew will play with Thomas and is very patient with him. The other day, Thomas was in 7th Heaven because Andrew built him a BIG ZOO!!! Now, this is one of Thomas' all time favorite things to do, but loves it more when Andrew will help him make a zoo!

Thomas loves animals! His favorites are hippos, rhinos, cows, elephants and now carnators! Everywhere we go, he has to bring some of his animals along! He will usually pack up my diaper bag, or my "little diaper bag" (my purse) with some of his favorites. Other times, I'll have him pack up his backpack with his animals, which he did this Saturday when we went to the soccer games! This is a picture of Thomas playing with the carnator which he found in our big bucket of dinosaurs. He was so excited when he found it!!! I'd forgotten that we had a carnator. We got it in a Happy Meal, way back when the movie came out, how long ago was that???

Every time we are at the soccer fields, Thomas wants to take a walk to the bridge where we look for "agagors" (alligators)! Occasionally there will be a few lurking in the water, but they look like sticks! One day there were two out in the water, but I thought they were just a couple of sticks poking out. The next time I was at the soccer fields, crossing the bridge, I looked to see if the "sticks" were still there and they were gone. So I'm guessing it really was two alligators. It kindof looked like the nostrils and eyes poking up! I would've just thought it was sticks, but I've seen too many Croc Hunter episodes with Andrew. (For those who are wondering about this, there have been alligators documented in the water by the soccer fields!)

Both Thomas and Andrew are very sweet boys and are such a joy to our family! I'm glad that I've got my boys!!! :)

The Sweet Sound of Silence

FINALLY!!! At 6:50, Monday, September 22nd, we got power again!!! Just an hour and twenty six minutes shy of being 10 days without power.

We were so excited to hear the beep from our alarm as the lights came on, like someone had flipped the switch, YEAH!!! AIR CONDITIONING!!!

What was even better though, was the silence we heard. No more generators roaring outside. There was an occasional rumble as an airplane flew over, but that is a welcome sound that all is well, at least in the weather department!

It was so weird the day the hurricane was coming, I went outside and it was eerily quiet because there were no airplanes flying and there didn't seem to be any people outside either.

I was so glad to have power again so I could dry the two loads of laundry I'd washed using the generator we were borrowing. I was so glad not to need it anymore because it was so loud!!! I had scattered the laundry around so it would dry, but it was so humid that it wasn't drying very quickly.

We are so glad to be getting things back to normal! Edd went back to office yesterday. The kids go back to school on Thursday.

Hopefully all the mosquitos will dye soon. They are SO BAD!!! You can see them flyig all around and they get into the house too! Poor Edd got a mosquito bite on his forehead after he got home! Bethany got 2 bites while she played the piano. So we are on partrol in the house too. Hopefully the mosquitos won't feast on us tonight!

Life is such an adventure!