Welcome May!

Well, April is coming to an end and we are looking forward to the month of May - at least I am. We have a lot planned so that means a lot to look forward too. I thought I'd post some pics from this weekend.

okay, so this wasn't from this weekend...but I thought I'd post this blurry shot of Bryan's head wound from a few weeks ago. As you can (sort of) see it was really a hole in his head.Brennan and I did a little art project this weekend. We made caterpillars. He painted the thing all by himself ...This is our finished product. His had the yellow antennae, mine had the orange.Evan enjoyed some nice outside time on the deck. Look how big he's getting!And this is the project Bryan has been working on...the rocks and vegetable garden are meeting their end. He began to move the lava rock out and discovered that there was 4 inch pieces of concrete underneath that. So out that came - hopefully solving some of the drainage issues that corner of our yard experiences. This will eventually all be sodded and look lovely...maybe a swing set too. But it's supposed to rain the next few days - so this will become one big, giant mud pit.

Brennan has started making up words for things...For instance, he got out of the bath tub the other night and said he was all "gerkey". When I asked him what that meant he said, "you know, when you're all wet - you're gerkey." And when we were talking the other night he told me that the stars in the night sky were "endabendy". That meant when the stars were " really, really bright."

Sorry

I don't know what's going on but I post things and then you can't see them...so I think the site is having some difficulty or I'm having difficulty with the site. I just didn't want you to think I was crazy and posting the same thing over and over.

Sorry!

Congratulations

There is another new, little boy to enjoy! Sutton was born last Friday to Shannon and Rob. Big brother Simon is happy to have a new little brother born ON his 3rd birthday! Everyone is happy and healthy and doing well.

As a side note - I'm glad I'm past all that new baby stage. It seemed fun and easy for about a week or so and than Evan turned that evil corner...it was tough, exhausting and really trying for all of us. But I'd have to say that he is a much more enjoyable baby these days. His colic is gone and his eating has settled down. He is still stubborn as anything but we've learned to love it - just like his Daddy!

I posted a big long story the other day - but for some reason it didn't actually post - how frustrating is that! It had to do with me driving in tornadic activity from one end of Arlington to the other to pick up the kids...lockdown and their school and then making it home...you get the picture, right?

Last Friday night Bryan and I went to see Wicked in Dallas...what an excellent musical that was. Bryan's not too hip into most musicals but I think he actually, truly enjoyed this one. The music was incredible and so were the actors/singers! I couldn't imagine doing that kind of singing night after night. Thanks to the in-laws for the tickets (a Christmas present) - we enjoyed the evening out!

I'm excited that May is almost here - that means that school is closer to being out! Yippee! We all need a change of pace around here.

A new Baby is here

I don't want to put too much info (I haven't asked permission yet). But my friends, Shannon and Rob had their 2nd baby last Friday! Yippee! A new little boy to watch grow up. I'd love to post a picture of him...I think he looks just like his big brother.

Not much else exciting to report around here. It's been a good week so far!!! We had a bunch of rain yesterday so it was crazy. I had finished working at Corey Elementary around 2:15...the sky was looking very dark and scary. So I called Bryan to get the weather report from the news...he was home asleep (he was home that day with the stomach bug from hell). So he didn't really know what was going on. There had been a funnel cloud reported in Burleson - which isn't THAT far away and the storms were blowing this way. So I head up to Primrose to get the kids - clear across Arlington. As I pull in to the parking lot - the director of the school says - "get in here - we're in LOCKDOWN". Sure enough the halls were packed with kids and cribs with babies. It was crazy. Well - by 3pm all the storms had past and I was able to check my kids out of school and get home!

Disgusting story

Okay...so if you don't like grossness or if it's too early for you...don't read the following story:




Last night Evan would NOT go to sleep. He was crying and crying. We tried bottles, we tried Tylenol, we tried bananas (his favorite) at 9:30 at night. Everything. We would put him to sleep and he would scream and scream. As soon as you'd go into his room he'd stop and there would be no tears...so now the kid has learned how to fake cry. nice. Anyways, he did go to the Dr. yesterday because he ran a fever the night before. It seems that he either still has the ear infection or a new one has started to brew. So he started with a 14 day round of Omnicef antibiotics. So we thought he was in some serious pain with the way he was carrying on last night. Everytime we'd get him out of his room he would be soooo happy to sit and play. Okay, so at 10:00 last night I was laying in bed and Evan was sitting next to me. Bryan came in and we had a cute little family moment of playing with Evan and making him smile. And then...it happened....he grunted - it was a moment of pooping. Well, things carried on as normal, he was still smiling and playing. After a few minutes of this happiness and delight, Bryan decides to pick him up, change his diaper and send him to bed - one last time! As soon as he picked him up...I yelled "OH MY GOD! Poop!" And sure enough you could see poop seeping out his cozy, white pajamas on his back. We both go racing to the bedroom - assuming this is a two person job. Bryan got the pajamas off so we could see what we were dealing with. As I'm inspecting it - trying to figure out what in the hell he ate that would have turned into that...Bryan is saying, "Jennifer, JENNIFER!!!...help!" oh yeah...clean up. So he holds Evan in mid air while I'm trying to clean his back off so we can lay him on the changing pad. Once the new diaper is on, pajamas are on, I see Bryan using wipes to try and clean the poop out of the pajamas so I guess they could go in the washing machine (?). Oh no...let's just throw those things away. They were a poop blow out sacrifice. It needed to happen...I don't think any amount of stain remover or soaking were going to save those precious jammies. Evan was much better after that - apparently the 1 dose of antibiotics already did that to him - so I'm guessing the next 13 days are going to be really great! ugh!

More pictures

This is Brennan helping his Dad in the backyard on yet another project. He insists on wearing those boots outside. He was helping to scoop the rocks into the bucket and put them in another pile. He was gung ho on this project for about 10 minutes before he had enough. Brennan and I planted wildflower seeds in the wheelbarrow. They are starting to sprout - yea!
The other night I plopped a few spoonfuls of green beans and carrots onto Evan's tray so he would entertain himself while I finished cleaning up the kitchen after dinner. It worked and bought me some time....I think he LOVED the mess!
That's his sleeve afterwards...yuck! He, of course, went straight into the bath after this event. And what's up with the way my hand looks in this picture...eww..
Many of you know that I have a love/hate relationship with our dog Nelly. Basically, Bryan loves her and I hate her...jk...but seriously, she is a real pain in the ____ most of the time. Her old dog bed got gross and disgusting. So I tried to wash it and the washing machine about choked on it. So it got thrown out. We went to PetSmart and bought her a lovely new $30 bed. But apparently it wasn't cushiony enough for her highness and she never used it (anyone want a dog bed pad?). So she took to sleeping on the couch or our bed - which we were not happy about. No amount of yelling or pushing her off seemed to work. So...Bryan got her a $10 bed at BigLots. As you can see she LOVES it and slept in it all night - although it's slightly too small for her girth. She did compromise and utilized the step as a pillow for her head.

another week

Well, another week is done and in the calendar history books. It was busy. It started out pretty good...I was on top of things and Monday and Tuesday went fairly smoothly. I even got dinner made one of those days. Well, then came Wednesday....I got a call at 4pm from Bryan that he was in the clinic at Nichols Jr. High and needed me to pick him up to take him to get stitches in his head. He was playing basketball - faculty v. student game when he took an elbow right to his right eyebrow. It hit so hard that it just split the skin. So off we go to CareNow....they took 2 looks at it and kind of suggested that we head to the ER to have someone more experienced stitch it up since it would be an obvious scar if they did...hey, at least they were honest. So we got to enjoy the ER experience from 5pm to 10:30pm. He got a CT scan to make sure his brain was okay - I suppose it was and the doctor stitched him up - 8 stitches...I watched the whole thing...it looked like a hole in his eyebrow - it was gross so good thing I'm not too squimish about those things. He is better now but it is still sore and swollen and now his eyelid is starting to bruise. The Grandma's were awesome and helped get Brennan to swim, Evan home and did dinner and bath and bed for both of them. Gramps got dinner for the Grandma's so that was helpful too!
So Thursday was soccer practice. I, of course, didn't get any dinner figured out so we headed to Jason's Deli after. And Friday was crazy with Brennan at Mom's, Evan at school, I worked, went out to lunch, Brennan took a LONG nap, tons of laundry - like, still stuff from the camp out (yuck!), and rearranged the garage for the twister on Friday the 13th.
So I ran to get the mail real quick and our friendly, neighbor Ivan comes out to talk to me. The winds are swirling around, clouds are forming weird shapes, lightening and Brennan is running around the front yard. After my 3rd attempt to hint that I needed to go in and make sure we were safe, Bryan pulls up and wants to get his truck (windshield, at least) into the garage from the 3 inch hail they were predicting. Earlier I had rearranged the garage to get my van in (all the way :) ). So we are moving stuff like crazy and then the rains start and then the sirens are going off. We head inside, I grab Evan from his sound sleep in his crib and parked us in the bathroom. The sirens stopped 4 minutes later and that was it. NO hail, no damaging winds, no flooding...it was over. It did rain a little but we didn't get anything serious. We were lucky....other places were hit pretty hard and it just happened to skip over us.
This morning Brennan scored a goal for team Raptors! He was so excited....but it was cold - no snow, but still cold. I thought Spring soccer would be warm. Poor Evan was freezing but handled it well for a 6 month old.
Bryan has his big test today - think of him and wish him luck! It would be great to pass it the 1st time and not worry about it anymore. At the moment, Evan is sleeping, Bryan is napping, and Brennan is watching Toy Story. Hopefully the rest of the afternoon we'll be in chill mode here and can enjoy our house and roof over our heads!

pictures, pictures, pictures

Here are a BUNCH of pictures.
This first one is Brennan with his 1st ice cream truck experience. This truck was driving around our neighborhood and Bryan and Brennan went out to get their $2.50 ice cream!
The next few are of the Stein family camping experience sans Jennifer and Evan.
Here is Brennan with his cousins in a field of bluebonnets.

From looking through the pictures there apparently was a lot of tree climbing that was done.
Roasting or burning of things...
And peeing in the woods....sorry the picture is sideways.

Brennan the egg dyeing extraordinaireBrennan and his sweetheart, Audrey, at the Primrose Preschool egg hunt.The Easter Bunny left his footprint trail throughout the house for Brennan to find his easter eggs and basket. Too fun! He was really worried about why he was leaving bits of his cottontail behind too.

Evan got a new swim hat for the summer. I love his facial expression. He is just learning to sit up so his arms are always at his side to balance. This is the egg hunt at church. Not really an egg hunt but more of a clean up the egg type thing. It was nice of the family group to put this on...but I don't think it was THAT cold that we couldn't be outside, ya know.
Here is me with my darling family on Easter Sunday morning. Everyone looked so cute. As soon as this pic was taken we all changed into more comfy clothes, except Brennan. He liked his outfit and didn't want to change.
If you don't know already...I do cakes. I don't do as many as I think I'd like to. But that is because of lack of time and energy at this point. But it is fun when I get the chance. This is the Easter/Birthday cake I did for Sunday. It was also Bryan's Aunt Bridget's birthday.
Two men in a tub...aren't they cute!

Happy Easter

So here are the boys' Easter pictures. Brennan 3 1/2 and Evan 6 months. I think they turned out pretty cute. Too bad it was freezing cold on Easter and the egg hunt at church was inside. That was really lame. It was more like a bunch of eggs thrown on the floor in one of the classrooms. Brennan cleaned house - but the kid doesn't eat candy. I know...who would have guessed that MY kid wouldn't like candy. Oh well...

We had a soccer game on Saturday. Yes, it snowed! Not just a little snow, but a good snow flurry kind of snow. I didn't bring my camera because I thought it was just going to be cold so the pictures wouldn't look that cute anyways...little did I know it was going to snow. Brennan had a blast - he didn't really seem to mind the snow or cold. I'll get busy tonight posting more pictures.

A Day in the Life

So, okay, yesterday was a DAY to be had. It starts off pretty typical and nothing extraordinary. Brennan had spent the night at Mom's so she would have him on Wednesday and Bryan took Evan to Primrose as usual. When I finished work I headed to Primrose to get Evan. The teachers in his room are hysterical - Evan, apparently, is the most stubborn baby they have ever seen. great. But they aren't really telling me anything I didn't already know, right?

So I head to Mom's to get Brennan and wait a few minutes before we needed to leave for Evan's 6 month check up. I had put a bottle in Mom's fridge to keep cold and, of course, forgot it when it was time for us to leave. The Dr. gets us in relatively quickly as usual. Evan is 27in and 17 lbs 3 oz. So he is growing good! Once the doctor comes in she is really concerned about Evan's breathing - she thinks it's really labored...but it was typical for how he normally is. Turns out the kid as an ear infection in his right ear (either the same one from last month or a new one). AND he is wheezing so she wanted to try a breathing treatment at the office to see if that would help him. Okay, fine...but it is 4:45 and Brennan has swim at 5:45...I can do this, right? Of course the office was busy at the end of the day and the nurses were scrambling around not knowing what to do. We do the treatment after 3 different nurses came in to get his respiratory rate...apparently that was really hard. Then the doctor had to hear his lungs THEN another nurse came in to do his shots! Poor kid was beyond himself. Bryan was calling my phone wondering where I was, and Brennan had used up his good kid behavior a long time ago. He played with every germy toy in the toy bin...I'm squirting him with hand sanitizer hoping to ward off the well check up sickies. Once we finally get out of there it's 5:30...Bryan had called Mom to come get Brennan to take him to swim and bring the bottle I had left there (heated up). She arrives in the parking lot - poor thing, I think she left dinner on the stove so she could come help me out. We drive to swim and she handles changing Brennan while I try to start a bottle with Evan - which, of course, he didn't want - after all that!

After swim we headed to Campo Verde for dinner since there was no way I could have anything prepared and on the table at that point. My nerves were shot and MY ear was hurting and so has my shoulder (another long story).

I went to bed with no bottles made, towels in the dryer, dishwasher full, dishes on the counter, bottles soaking in the sink, towels and bibs unfolded on the kitchen table. I had nothing ready for the next day and I knew it would be morning soon.

Brennan comes in our room at 3 am - "I don't feel good" - he was super congested - great! Those germs sure do work fast!

So it's another day today - hopefully it will go smoother for all of us. But chances are it will be another Day in the Life episode!

Bryan's Birthday

This weekend was the big Stein Family Campout. I did not partake in the festivities...I used Evan as my excuse not to go. I think they had fun Saturday and I'll be sure to post some of the pictures once I see them.

Yesterday was Bryan's birthday. The kids and I took him to Nagoya for dinner. It was a fun Hibachi dinner that Brennan loved to watch - and he ate a lot of the food too (surprise!). We then went to Target and got a couple flavors of ice cream and came home to eat that. It was a good night. I'm going to try and get tickets to the Harry Connick, Jr concert in May.

Our next major event is going to be getting through Easter weekend and all it has in store for us. I need to finish up the Easter bunny shopping - good thing Brennan really doesn't like candy - less to have around here. At this point, Evan's basket is looking a little scarce...what could he possibly need in his happy little 6 month year old life?

Oh, my gosh - it's almost 11:00pm - I better get my pooped self to bed!