God Bless Him

(This one is for Elaine - a reader of my blog and I of her's - we are both lucky girls!)

Today I HAD to go to the grocery store - Bryan was out - and I needed to go before he got home because I had to get started on making a bunch of stuff but I needed the ingredients...that meant to the store with the boys. It can be done - it's done everyday by millions of Moms...but it was not particularly the chore I wanted to do today. Anyways, I'm at Tom Thumb with both boys strapped into the germ-infested plastic car that's attached to the front part of the shopping buggy. So I look like an idiot trying to drive this "vehicle" around Tom Thumb while encourarging my children to "play" by saying "vroom vroom" and "here we go" and "errrr" and screech noises. I have 2 shopping lists - one from the grocery game, one with my ingredients and a whole stack of coupons for crap we need but the coupons expire tomorrow. So, I'm going up and down every aisle with my 2 darlings beeping the plastic horn and waving at every stranger that comes down the aisle like they are going to run them over. And then, like a knight in shining armor, Bryan appeared at the end of the aisle with a gingerbread Starbucks in hand for me and the willingness to push this beast of a cart up and down each aisle. Could life be any better - could I have a better husband? He was a life saver and I do love him! Thanks for saving my morning, Bryan!

Holiday in the Park

We took the boys to Holiday in the Park at Six Flags this week. It was a day of many new experiences! Brennan rode his first full size roller coaster. And here is his reaction:

Evan rode a bunch of new rides too. Here he is on the Caddo Lake Barge. We couldn't tell if he was about to hurl or actually having a good time.

The day started out pretty chilly - but it got even colder pretty quickly. Evan let us know that he was done with his new experiences and we were out of there.

Thanks to Nan and Grandy for another year of Six Flags fun!

Christmas Eve Performance

Merry Christmas Everyone - this is my gift to you! It's a little video of my supposedly shy son absolutely hamming it up at the Christmas Eve Mass during the Children's song. Stick in until the end - it is priceless!

Christmas photos

Well, THESE aren't actually the Christmas photos - they are their 1 year and 4 year portraits. But I just had them done a few weeks ago...oops! Anyways, they turned out great and I am super pleased so I thought I'd share.

North Pole Express

We rode the North Pole Express (Grapevine Vintage Railroad) today. It was so much fun!!! We sang songs, danced in the aisle, saw Santa and had an all around fun time. Brennan has been slightly obsessed with the Polar Express movie and soundtrack these past 2 Christmases. He had a great time. Evan was pretty pooped after it was all over....and it was freezing cold today. We didn't realize it was going to be that cold so quick. Bryan got me a cool new toy for Christmas. It's called a Flip Video. It's a little video camera about the size of a cell phone. It takes about 1 hour of video that you can than just plug the thing right into a USB port and download it to your computer. So, lucky for you - you can see more videos of our everyday happenings because it is so much easier. Enjoy the clip below of Brennan on the Polar Express right after he saw Santa and then his silly faces.

Ridiculous Santa

Okay, I don't know how I stumbled upon this on the internet....but I found a video clip of a hacked Santa. Some guy bought the giant talking, moving, Santa at Walmart - and hacked into it electrical components and made it say it's own things. Some people have too much time on their hands - but the idea was funny.
http://members.cox.net/zaxxon111/santa5.asf

Christmas Time is Here.....

Oh, the Christmas fun that has begun. The McKerring family had their annual Christmas Cookie Decorating on Friday. Okay, so it technically wasn't December yet - but close enough. Here are some samples of the lovely work done that night. John did most of these except for the "jalapeno" light bulb Bryan did.

I did Santa and Bryan did the yellow snowman....he was sad because he was made of yellow snow. Okay, so the decorating gets a little silly - but it's still fun.

Evan loves cookies! Then we all took part in the Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock. This is Colleen jamming to some Pat Benetar.This is my Mom playing with some fierce intensity...I can't remember what song she was rockin' out to but I did warn her I was posting this shot. We all had a fabulous time!

Conference #11

Last week was national AMTA (American Music Therapy Conference) in Louisville, KY. It was a great hotel and the conference itself seemed very well run and put together. Having done a regional conference as a commmittee chair - I can not imagine the work that is put into a national conference. I learned a lot - but now I need to remember what I learned so I can apply it soon before I really forget - boy, that didn't make any sense!

Well, of course, there is some down time in the evenings and we were fortunate to be within walking distance of an area in downtown that had some restaurants and shops, etc.

Here are my conference roomies outside Hard Rock. We got to eat lunch their on Sunday.And here is Shannon, Laura and Gina at the odd bar/restaurant we ended up at on Friday night - Tengo sed Cantina (I think). All we wanted was some appetizers and margaritas - and well, let's just say that we got a whole lot more. We were clearly not dressed "the right way" for this place and happening on the "1/2 way to Cinco de Mayo" party was more than we bargained for. It was fun and what happens at conference stays at conference is what we all agreed.While in Louisville, I realized (by means of eavesdropping on the elevator) that I was pretty close to Indianapolis where my sweet cousin Betsie and her husband Chris live. They were great enough to decide to come down on Saturday afternoon to hang with me and my roomies. We had a blast driving around Louisville - okay, maybe it wasn't a blast for Chris - but he was nice enough to offer to do it. And we ended up at this nutty place for dinner that was recommend by the locals. As Rachael Ray recommends - "ask the locals where they eat". It was Lynn's Paradise Cafe. Good food - I had the Fried Green Tomato Sandwich with Sweet Potato Fries and a Mint Julep (it was not anything I would order again - the drink, I mean, but, hey it's Kentucky). We took some interesting pictures out front.That's Shannon, Laura, Gina and me gettin' "crazy"!Thanks Chris and Betsie for coming to see me - I had so much fun!

Happy Thanksgiving

First off, I want to say how thankful I am for my wonderful family. I am truly blessed to have two beautiful children and a loving husband.

Having said those touching words let me describe for you the last 24hours: Bryan has been sick. I mean sick, for over a week. With stomach cramps that have been painful and cause him to want to sleep and not do much of anything else. I have felt bad for him, truly. But how long can you have stomach cramps? So, he finally got into the doctor on Tuesday....he didn't know what it was but gave him some medicine to help with the cramps. Well, it didn't really help....so yesterday I'm practically begging him to go to the hospital so they could determine what in the ding dong was wrong with him. Anyways, the on-call doctor called in a scrip for him for antibiotics....which don't most of the time the #1 side effect for antibiotics are stomach cramps and diarrhea??? Just didn't seem logical but hey, I didn't go to medical school.

Okay, so having given the background of the past couple days with Bryan's situation: yesterday I baked and cooked. I baked pies - and well, several more than I had planned because I burned some not paying attention. I cooked - well, pre-cooked meals to freeze so that I didn't have to cook during the week when I work. I went out to dinner since then I didn't feel like cooking at dinner time - kind of defeats the purpose - but so what. Bryan stayed home - the cramps. I noticed at Bennigan's that Evan wasn't looking so good. I get home with the kids and Evan has a fever - 103.6 to be exact. Once I get Brennan plugged in to a movie, Evan a bottle and a prescription picked up from Walgreens, I start on the last attempt at the pie. Well, needless to say, Evan starts crying at 10:30 once the Tylenol wears off - I guess stomach cramps impairs your hearing too. So, Evan and I spent the night on Brennan's bottom bunk - and Brennan got moved to the top bunk. This morning things were improving and we were on our way to starting out to a great Thanksgiving. The children desperately needed baths - well, Brennan slams his thumb in the toilet seat before he got in the tub. It was bleeding but you'd have thought he had lost his digit by the way he was acting - screaming, yelling, crying, caring on like nobody's business. Get him out of the tub and we are trying to deal with him - Evan is out of the tub but walking around naked at this point - we go back in the bathroom and there is Evan standing in a pile of poop on the bathroom rug that he had deposited there. So back in the tub for him - with more screaming. But at least this distracted Brennan from his overreaction to his problem. The parade is now on....hopefully this means that things will start going the right way today.

May God Bless you and yours on this Thanksgiving Day!

Baptism Day

Little Reid Kimble Bewley was baptized on Sunday. He did a perfect job and it was a nice day for everyone. Lots of good family and friends surrounded him on his special day.

This is Reid with his most special Godparents - his Uncle Joel and Aunt JenThe whole family looking happy as can be.This is a shot of the cake I made for those of you that like to keep up with my cake creations.

Congratulations Reid - May God Walk with you Always!

Are we losers?

We have become only slightly addicted...to something that shouldn't interest us and shouldn't even be something we do. Guitar Hero. Yes, I said it. Bryan and I have been playing this game and we love it. Somehow we got our hands on a guitar controller and we rented Guitar Hero: Rock the 80s from Blockbuster. This game is so much fun! I can totally see why everyone in the 12-18 age range wants to play it. I about made a kid pass out at Steak and Shake the other night. He was sitting in the booth next to us - I was talking (and joking) about needing to get home so I could play me some Guitar Hero. I could see out of the corner of my eye this kid look at me with his jaw on the floor and then he was giggling. I said "I bet you didn't expect me to say that, huh?" He said something about how he's never heard someone who was a parent (aka "old") talk about playing that game. So, there you have it - we are teetering on the verge of Loserville. But I don't care....if it gives me a few moments of joy and the feeling of accomplishment to play this game - then I will. Oh, wait....we don't own it yet.

More October pics

A few Fridays ago I picked up Brennan and Evan and we went on a mystery trip to a Pumpkin Patch. They had a lot of fun walking around and seeing all the different things. Brennan wanted his picture here with Evan. They loved the hay house and played in there for a while.That Saturday we went on another mystery trip to the Air Show. It was super windy and hot that day. But there sure was a lot to see. The boys got to sit in a helicopter from Vietnam and aim the big machine gun. And see all the different types of aircraft they had on display.


Last Saturday we went to Mainstay Farms with the Kowalski's. This was a great day trip. There was so much to do there and the weather was perfect. I love all the fall pictures we got. Nice shades, Brennan.
Reid was a trooper and let Brennan hold him in this wagon of pumpkins! Okay, he didn't really have a choice, but he still was a trooper about it.
I think in Bryan's second life he'd like to comeback as a real cowboy - he only pretends to be one now.
Gramps took Brennan on these crazy pedal cars. It was fun but they were hard to manuever with a kid in your lap.
They had an incredible tree house. The boys loved climbing and sliding down the slide. And I love this picture of Evan looking right at the camera. He really is a sweet boy! He loved the hay and the goats at the farm.

They had a great maze to play in. Uncle John took Evan. I was on the lookout post helping them to find their way out.
So, the farm had this giant Super Chute slide. It was only for ages 5 and up so the boys couldn't do it - but the big boys did. This is Rob making his exit from the slide. It seemed intense.

This is a cake I did for Jocelyn's baby shower. I tried to make it look like the invitation - I thought it turned out cute.Tuesday night we carved our pumpkin from the pumpkin patch. Brennan really was not sure about sticking his hand in there to get out the goop - I don't blame him - I hate that part too. Evan kept wanting a turn to help. Brennan was so proud of our work that he wanted to put it out front so people that came to visit could see it. Well, since we weren't having any visitors that night - we put it in the window on the back porch so we could see it while watching "It's a Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown."
The boys had their costume parade at Primrose last Wednesday. Evan did a good job walking with his classroom. Brennan and Audrey Bea looked too cute with their class.Whew! I'm glad October is over with....there are too many fun activities and photo moments - but we're exhausted!

Happy Halloween

I have so many pictures to post -- AAHHH!!! This is us at Trunk or Treat at church last night. We had a lot of compliments on our costumes. The kids got lots of "booty" and we had a blast hanging out, passing out candy and visiting with everyone. We were pooped little pirates by the end of the night.

Evan was handsome and so was Brennan.I think they tried to pose like they were scary but they just look more silly than anything.Reid was even there - he was a cow earlier but got too hot and made a costume change.Grandy was at his old tricks again. He sat very still with that bowl of candy. And every once in awhile he'd jump and scare those greedy buggers. Serves them right for trying to take a whole handful. Brennan and Evan knew better - they weren't scared of Grandy and his tricks.

After Dark in the Park

On October 13th we went to After Dark in the Park at River Legacy Park. It's a great event sponsored by the city's Park and Rec department. They had a cute little pumpkin patch and then craft items to decorate your pumpkin with.
Evan got his face painted. It looks like he's really enjoying this experience, right? The poor highschool girl volunteer really wanted to put something authentic on there....but we said just draw a quick snake. Brennan wanted to be a tiger - I think that threw her for a loop so she just drew a yellow nose and whiskers on him - like that shows up when you are in a park... after dark.
They had a bunch of craft projects for the kids to do - here is Brennan and Kaden displaying their owl puppets.
It was a perfect evening to enjoy this event. We will definitely attend this one again.

Fright Fest

On Friday the 12th we met the Paladini's at Six Flags for Fright Fest. We had such a good time. Hopefully we can find another night before it's over to go back again. Brennan drove us around on the antique car ride. Kaden and Brennan loved the train ride around the park - screaming "All Aboard" and "choo choo"! at the top of their lungs.
Evan rode his first ride all by himself on the kiddie swings. He did great and seemed to really like it. He got to ride a bunch of rides with us that night. I just can't believe how big he's getting.
Evan was fascinated by Pirate Daffy.

State Fair Day

So, I'm a little behind on my blogging of our October adventures. I'm catching up. On October 8th, we went to the State Fair of Texas. We had a lot of fun even though it was 1000 degrees and 110%humidity. Below we are taking a lunch break.
Brennan wanted his picture by this Brahma Bull. I like how Evan is pointing at Brennan like he wanted his picture with him.
Brennan got to ride 2 rides...even though they scare the crap out of me. He rode this car ride they jammed packed with kids - so I don't know the 3 other munchkins in the car with him - but HE seemed to have a fun time!
This was the giant pig that we saw...I can't remember his name - I was too distracted by how big he was and by watching him eat.

We saw the car show, the Marine Corps band, ate corn dogs and walked and walked. It was a lot of fun!