Past Week.

Don't have much to say today and while looking through photos found this. And well it pretty much sums up our week. We painted murals, went to a Farm and got pumpkins and I made some yummy apple bread. As you can see I still have apples left and will most likely make us a pie.

So when the evening comes and I'm unwinding from a busy weekend...I shall eat pie.

Yesterday.

Yesterday I took the day for myself. No running errands, no major housework, no school volunteering, not even homework! I watched some DVR'd television, only a few light loads of laundry, and I baked and finished up some of our murals.

I then picked up my boys, they played with Nie, had some fresh baked apple bread, Z relaxed and E and I painted.

I caught this picture of him that I just absolutely love. He loves expressing himself with paint brushes, crayons and markers, and I love that he loves it.

Green Meadows

Little E's first grade class went to Green Meadows farm. They had a great time, would I say a blast, I don't know but they enjoyed themselves that's for sure.

E petting a Turkey, I guess he's getting acquainted for next month.

At the park before heading out.

My E is such a gentleman, his little friend next to him had a pumpkin, horsey and a bottle of water she was trying to balance while walking to the bus.

E looks and asks if he can help. She says yes and there he went, I was so proud of him. He's a chip off the ol' block. His Pop's is the same exact way.

As the trip came to a close I felt overly exhausted. Came home helped the boys with homework and fell asleep at the end while Z was reading to me. He kept telling me to wake up!

I then crawled, yes crawled to my room and plopped on the bed. I felt sick.

I laid there until Nick called that he was on his way home. He arrived and let me nap, cooked the kids dinner, bathed them and suggested I skip class for the night. I did because I felt awful, please oh please don't be getting sick! I just don't have time for it.

Thank you Nick for being so sweet, your the best!



My little artist and Bologna loaf.

Is it possible to know the personality your child is going to have while they are in utero?
Or just by looking at a sonogram photo?
I'm starting to wonder.
Z was a SUPER calm baby in the belly, only movement I felt was constant hiccups. I used to cry and tell Nick "How can our poor baby rest when he has such horrible hiccups?" "He must be so annoyed  with it!" Yeah I was a bit hormonal.
And his first sonogram photo?
Child was kicking back in the womb and we swore it looked like he had a video game controller in his hands. Like father like son??

E? Oh that E. He moved this way and that way. Made waves out of my stomach. Kept me up at night I swore he was playing soccer or jamming with a band.
His Sonogram?
We don't know. He was moving everywhere! Looked like one of those Mexican jumping beans!

Then to now?
Let's see.
We watched Nightmare before Christmas and while the movie played we painted murals on our kitchen windows of Jack Skellington for Halloween.
Well....Little E and I did.
Then he insisted we run out to the front yard every few minutes to look at our creations from the outside.
Z?
He lounged around in his underwear with Nina alongside watching the movie claiming he was too tired to paint, and preferred to have a snack while laying around like a bologna loaf on the couch.

Yeah we had their personalities down with just one look. Just one single look at those sonograms and we knew.
Oh well I can't complain.
I love my active little artist and my bologna loaf, they're mine...all mine.

Musicology

This past weekend I spent relaxing watching music videos on youtube. And you know what I noticed? All the different effects some songs had on me. Some made me feel sad, some happy and sometimes the feelings didn't match the song. I guess because I could be so mad while a crazy happy song is playing. But that got me thinking of my favorite memory songs and I broke my favorites down to 5.

Glycerine by Bush:

Nick met this pixie blond while doing this modeling type thing and told me all about her, mind you we were only buds at the time. Nick said while Pixie blond did the run way "walk" thing Glycerine played. I told him now every time he heard that song played he'd think of the Pixie blond. He said now when hears the song he thinks of us having that conversation in the kitchen of my old apartment, how funny.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z66yp3cMwkw&ob=av2n

Where is the love by Black Eyed Peas:

When I was discharged from the hospital after having Z I couldn't bring him home. I had to leave my little Z behind in the NICU. As the nurse wheeled me out I started to sob, hard. She told me not to worry that God was good and he would send my baby home to me soon.
I thanked her for her kindness then Nick sat me in the car and buckled me in. Then we drove away.
He then turned on the radio and this song was playing, I don't know why but hearing it made me sob again.
Now everytime I hear it I feel a pinch of sadness then reach over and give my Z a squeeze.
Well the nurse was right, God did send my Z home to me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpYeekQkAdc&ob=av2e

The Reason by Hoobastank:

My baby sister married young, 17 to be exact.

Her marriage was far from easy and at 19 1/2 she had her first baby.
Fred my brother in law was quite lost and well we didn't care for him much.
We would of wanted nothing more than for my little sister to cut her losses and move on.
Then he found God.
He changed and is one of the best men a woman could ask for.
He is the reason I KNOW people CAN change.
I don't think I would thought this way if I hadn't seen this person turn into the man he is today.
She told me he heard this song and said it was like it was made for them.
Nick and I still get a bit choked up when we hear it.
Thanks Fred for making me see..... People can change.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fV4DiAyExN0&ob=av2e

I've had the time of my life by Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes:

Nick and I have this understanding, he can't die before me...he just can't!
I know morbid of me to be thinking of things like that but I'm a girl who goes by a schedule and well this is how I want it to go down.
With this "Fact" I want this song played at my funeral and dedicated to Nick, because it couldn't be further from the truth.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpmILPAcRQo

Farther Down by Matthew Sweet:

My last favorite song!!
My wedding was one of the most stressful events of my life! I planned the whole thing alone and I thought I was going to die! When it came down to music and which song Nick and I would dance to he didn't miss a beat he said we were to dance to "Farther Down."
I was a bit confused by this choice and asked why?
Or more like "WHY?!"
He said that's how he felt when he began to have more than just best friend feelings towards me but thought I could never feel the same for him.... little did he know I already did.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpmILPAcRQo

Oh there are so many more songs that I'm crazy about but I swear I'd be here all day and I have work to do! A LOT of work to do!

Fall and Football!

We finally got these caramel apples made! Ethan just loves making them, Zenon saw what they were and said "I don't like caramel apples." then walked out of the kitchen. Oh well I can't win them all.

Little E is just loving his football!

Snapping the ball to his quarterback.

In this photo I was taking random shots well, right after this particular shot he grabbed his first game flag! He got two this game which he happily reminded me that I owe him 2 dollars. If I had only waited a few more seconds I could of caught the moment! Oh an incentive to save for a my Canon dream camera right?
                                                         (E's number 10 below)

Our weekend was fantastic, though exhausting we had a blast! And I've become one of "those" mom's. Jumping, screaming and cheering my sons name as the game plays. I don't care who hears or sees me because I'll tell you what I don't stand alone, almost all us mom's are out there yelling our boys' names and ready to give hugs at the end.

Spoooooooky!

Photo from MyRecipes.com

With the talk of Turkey Day yesterday got me thinking?
Hey! What about Halloween?!
Last year the boys and I made some homemade caramel apples...YUM!
This year I decided to make some apples again but different.
I have ALL the ingredients in the house, of course apples, I have Halloween sprinkles,
White and Chocolate bark and of course what crafting mom doesn't have sticks?
So we are set! Now the thing is, WHEN do we have time to make them????
Oh! I'll make time.
The boys will have a blast!

P.s Yesterday I made Cranberry Banana bread and it made my house smell EXTRA Holiday-ish.
I LOVE the smell of the holidays!

Almost here...it's been way too long.

Sunset in The Rio Grande Valley, South Texas

Though October has just started I am anxious for November. This Turkey Day I get to go see my family. Though I saw them a lot this summer this Thanksgiving has a lot of significance for me, Nick gets to come with us. This November will be two years since he's had a vacation, two years since the big "Lay Off".  When he goes down there I get the sense that he just unwinds and gets to relax. He's super good friends with my brother in law, Fred. My sister and I are already know Nick will most likely not come out of her house (she lives right next door) so our master plan is if it gets too late he can stay and she'll stay with me at mom's we'll do our own thing....sleep! Not to mention we'll hope the kids will stay over there too...hee hee.

We can relax with a glass of wine, a mixed drink, a shot okay just anything alcoholic period and enjoy the silence.

Oh Valley Thanksgiving, I can hardly wait! In the mean time I will mentally prepare for all the emotional, physical and yummy goodness we four will encounter while there. Did I mention mom and dad live in the country? There are so many stars to see, critters to hear, beautiful evening walks through a crisp breeze and that mom makes everything from SCRATCH for Turkey Day?  Soooo yummy sooo good wish it was already Turkey time.

History repeats itself.

If you look at Z it's like your looking at me 27 years ago. I was thin with straight dark hair only exceptions were I wasn't as tall and I was darker.
And at his age I HATED eating breakfast. This of course stressed mom out. She gave me breakfast money that I hid or gave away then told her I'd paid for breakfast at school (don't know why I didn't use the money to buy snacks, sheesh I wasn't bright!). Well she finally busted me on that so what did she do?
She started pumping me with vitamins. I hated those Flinstone vitamins more than anything in the world! They were too vitaminy.
So I'd take my two vitamins put them in my pocket and chunk then in a bush at the end of the road where the bus picked me up.
One day on mom's Friday off she walks me to the bus pick up and what does she see in the bush? A mountain of Flinstone vitamins!
Needless to say I was from then on sat on the counter and watched as I chewed the nasty little things up.

Well let it be known I have become my mother and I give my boys vitamins every morning as they head off to school.
All in all they don't mind, they take their vitamins happily since they are in chewable gummy form only one that gives them trouble is their dinosaur vitamin. Z just down right hates it!
But it's full of vitamin C, rose hips and so much more goodies to help with immunity.
Well the other day Nick was messing around in back of the van and tells me to come take a look.
In the cup holder by Z's car seat is a mountain of dinosaur vitamins hiding under paper.
Sigh.
Like I said, History repeats itself.

Here's the culprit in mention.
Maybe it's the dinosaur theme that gets us?
Immuno Raptor...Flinstones.
Who knows, all I know is Z is definitely his mommas son!

Big Tex, we love you but you exhaust me!

We made it to the Fair and the boys had a blast, next time I'm taking a wheel chair for myself!

But the weather was fantastic, food was way yummy and we again took a pic w/ Big Tex.

Little E had his first State Fair Corn dog! He loved it! He didn't like corn dogs last year and this year...his fave!

Ocean Spray had this thing set up, so they played with some wet cranberries.They also gave out a lot of juice samples...I liked the blueberry pomegranate..very nice.

Can't really see but that's Z and Nick on a ride. Z is quite the daredevil!

( Z is the little blue sleeve, Nick's the one in red.)

And this weekend I took Little E's football pics. Pop's had him put on his Grrrrr face!

He loves him some football that's for sure!

Doesn't he just look a bit too grown up? Makes my heart...sigh, so very sad.

Time

I was looking for past State Fair photos and found these video's. I sat and my eyes suddenly became moist. They've grown so much, time has gone by way too fast.

That is why I let them crawl into bed with me and I kiss them every chance I get. I let them tear around the house and I join them many a times, chasing, screaming, tickling, playing. I baby them til the cows come home and when the sun goes down and they are fast asleep, I just stand there and watch them...soaking them in. Because one day you wake up and they are no longer little itty bitty babies, they are little boys, then teenagers, then young men, then they are gone. But I won't think about that I will worry about that later, at this moment we are happy just enjoying the now. 

Z teasing Daddy.

Little E jamming to Michael Jackson's "PYT"

(This was little E's favorite song!)