Great Day

I am experiencing some technical difficulty so I will just post a few pics the old fashion way.

Today we had a great day. We stayed home all day, played outside and had a picnic.
At the end of the day Cayden pulled a front tooth that had been sticking almost straight out and Cutter made it all day without having an accident.

Last night I was totally frustrated with our failed attempts to get rid of diapers and did what any good mom would do. I surfed the web! I decided to take a new approach today and what do you know-it worked!
Last night I told Cutter that I was sorry that we have been frustrated with him for having accidents and that he would start wearing underwear and I would not say anything else to him about going to the bathroom. If he had an accident it was his job to clean himself up and change his underwear. First thing this morning I gave him a basket with four pair of underwear and the box of wipes and he didn't have to use either one! He didn't tell me when he needed to go to the bathroom, he just went. I know this sounds very mundane to most people out there but if you know my Cutter you know that this is HUGE!!! I never guessed it could be so difficult to potty train a kid. People say, "Every kid has their thing." I used to believe that until Cutter.

Woo hoo!!!

Right now all three kids are sound asleep in Cayden's little tent with a tooth in a zip-lock bag taped to the top waiting for the tooth fairy. Today was a great day! What a way to end 2008!

Easy Bake...

One of the gifts that Santa brought Cooper was an Easy Bake oven (still using the same "light bulb cooking technology"). She was very excited and couldn't wait to try it out. Here she is demonstrating her cake decorating skills.

Ok..How many of you had one of these growing up? Feel free to post your favorite Easy Bake recipe here.

Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

For those of you that did not receive a Christmas card this year, please don't take it personally. We had a bit of technical difficulty (by the name of Cooper or Cutter) and lost our address list.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Tradition #2

Sausage wraps, hamburgers, fried potato things that are like half french fry/half potato chip, horse drawn carriages, lots of local school kids, a live Nativity scene (which was not set-up the night we went), several Santas within a few hundred yards of each other (makes for interesting questions), a trip to Solas Gallery, look for Linda at Main Street Place, and kettle corn- all at the Salado Stroll!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Just wanted to spread some holiday cheer!

Happy Holidays to you and yours.

ROAD TRIP!

I filled up my dry as a bone Suburban today and it cost me $45.00!!!! (This summer the pumps at Sam's would cut off at $100 whether you were full or not. I experienced that many times.)

Traditions

We do not have many traditions around our house but one thing we have managed to do every year is attend the Salado Christmas Parade. It is about as small town as you can get. The entire parade takes about 15-20 minutes and in that short time you get candy and get to see horses, soldiers, firetrucks, police cars, the band, cheerleaders, and Santa. The kids love it and we are in and out, after a visit with Santa, in about 30-45 minutes! The past two years Cayden has brought a friend along with us. This year his good buddy from church joined us. I guess we'll have to get a bigger car for the twins to take a friend in the future!

Fall Soccer 2008

Cayden had a great soccer season this fall. We are both very proud of the way he played for a lot of reasons. He was very coachable and always tried to do exactly what the coach (or we) asked him to do. He always seemed to know where he was suppose to be on the field and where his teammates were suppose to be on the field. He assumed the role of a leader on the field and graciously helped his team get in position. He almost always gave 100% effort. (Every now and then he would get tired or distracted but he's six!)

We also both thought he looked adorable and very old in his real uniform. After looking at these pictures tonight it made me realize even more that I miss his long hair!
Every kid needs to know that you are proud of them and we are very proud of the young man Cayden is becoming. I know that at any time of any day he can complete this quote he hears so often, "Always do your. . . BEST- at everything you do." (it's usually finished up with in soccer, at school, as a brother, as a friend, as a son, etc. . . )

Grandma Turns 98

This past weekend we loaded the family and headed to Eliasville TX to celebrate my grandmother's 98th birthday. This has always been a special person in my life. I am glad the kids have had a chance to know her. Happy Birthday Mamma!

~Scott

RACE DAY!

Being silly before leaving for the race. This is when they still had some feeling in their hands!

Wasting energy heading to the start area.

The start of the 6/7 year-old race. Check out #173!

The kid behind Cayden is the one that got the 2nd place trophy. It was a good lesson to learn at such a young age. (I think it bothers his mom more than it does him!)

"participation medal"

Go # 174!! That's my girl!

They called the kids names and they would go up and get their trophy in the pavilion. Most of the little kids were carried by their parents. When it got close to Cooper's name to be called I walked toward the sidewalk to put her closer so it wouldn't waste much time and before we could get there she was squirming saying, "put me down!" She wanted to go up all by herself. I love that about her!
Cooper's first trophy.

(We are very glad that Cayden got one also because she wouldn't have let him live it down if he didn't)

The Meyers minus one. Cutter was the smart one in the car keeping warm and eating every one's animal cookies.

So, I had a free Saturday without Cross Country and what did we do? I signed the kids up for a kids race! Actually it was the week of the state CC meet and I thought I would be gone but sadly enough this is the first year since I have been in Salado that we did not take a team to state. We did have 2 girls qualify as individuals. One of them was playing in the Regional Volleyball Tournament in San Antonio and they scheduled both events at the same time so only one girl was going to run today and I had to stay home with the kids because Scott had a funeral. (This girl, who is a GREAT Christian kid, woke up at 5:30 am since the beginning of August and then when she makes it to state has to give up her place because she physically can't be in two places at one time. Feel free to let UIL know how horrible that is because we are going to.)

The kids were really excited about the race. Last night Cooper asked me, "Mom, who is going to be our coach?" Then, when she was brushing her teeth I said, "Now, Cooper, if a kid is in front of you what do you do?" She quickly responded, "Beat 'em!" The answer I was looking for was more like, "run fast and pass them," but I'm ashamed to admit that, "beat 'em" will do for me!

Cutter was really pumped up about running- until race day. Last night I said I was afraid he would back out. He's that kid that doesn't walk- he runs everywhere. He could have easily won his division but he was freezing and tired and about 1/2 way through the other races he decided he didn't want to do it.

Yesterday was beautiful until early evening when the winds picked up. This morning it was cold and extremely windy. I felt like I was back in Abilene again. We got to the park about 20 minutes before race time and stood around and froze. Then, they didn't start the races until about 15 minutes late. They ran the biggest kids first and worked their way down to the little ones. Cayden ran with the 6 & 7 year-olds and did a great job. He started out too fast and got a little tired on last half but was able to finish second. (They had a chute that was about 5 feet wide and some kid finished after Cayden and ran past him in the chute. The untrained people in the chute took his tag first so they gave Cayden the 3rd place trophy. Scott saw this happen and we were able to warn him not to complain or argue and we were very proud of the way he graciously accepted his 3rd place trophy.)

By the 5 year-old race Cutter decided he was too cold and was not going to run. Cooper was fired up. When it was time for the twins to get on the starting line I was holding Cutter as he cried and Cooper was standing at my feet ready to go. As I was bribing Cutter with anything I could think of I heard a whistle and realized they started the race. I looked down to tell Cooper to go and she had already taken off!!! She was well out in front but I missed most of her race dealing with her brother. Scott caught up to her at about the 1/2 way mark and he said she just lost interest. (She's more of a sprinter!) She was able to finish and ended up 3rd. Only one boy beat her and it was right at the end. As I was telling Cooper great job and hugging on her Scott had Cutter finishing the race. Cooper, Cayden and I ran down the road to meet him and finish the race with him. He was crying the whole way. He finished the race holding our hands while everyone cheered for him. I looked at Scott and said, "Now I know what it's like to be the mom of that kid that everyone is cheering for just because they were able to finish the race!" Oh well, we know that Cutter could probably beat Cooper so that would have made him first or second place easy. There's always next year but the fact that his brother and sister both brought home a trophy really didn't phase him. He was quite content with his participation medal and free animal crackers!

Trick Or Treat '08

Halloween 2008 has come and gone. All those hours of diligently working to get three costumes ready seem almost like wasted time. But, that night when I was kissing them goodnight, Cayden said to me, "Mom, I think we had the three best costumes out of everybody." It was all worth it. For those of you that can't tell, Cayden made a pretty good Luke Skywalker with his long shaggy hair. As for the twins, they are characters from a PBS cartoon called Super Why. Cutter is the main character, Super Why, and Cooper is another character, Princess Presto. It is a really cute and educational show and seemed more fitted to their age than Darth Vader, like Cutter originally wanted!(The twins characters are the two on the far right in the picture below.)First of all we stopped by the Neighbor's house before dropping Cayden off at a birthday party. Isn't their house just beautiful??After we dropped off Cayden we went to the Venegoni's house and Scott got a tour and the kids got lots of candy. We were even able to score some sour Skittles that are pretty good.We made a quick detour by Bush's Chicken for some sweet tea and chicken for the kids and then we headed out to Troy. Our first stop in Troy was the Matthew's where the kids got their baskets just about full- with the help of the Penlands in Houston. Figure that one out??????

Our next Troy stop was by the Kelley's. Ms. Donna is the twins teacher and I think Cutter loves her more than me! I also think Cooper has a secret crush on David! Cayden was so upset about missing the two Troy stops he asked me to please take his basket to the front door and get him some candy also. I did not but EVERYBODY made sure that he had a goody bag ready to go when we arrived.
Later that evening we caught up with the birthday party gang and hit a few more houses around our neighborhood just to say we did. I think the old fashioned traditional way of trick-or-treating is practically a think of the past. We were very pleased with our way of loading up the Suburban and hitting a few houses of church folks. (Speaking of the Suburban, we filled it up for under $60 yesterday- and it was EMPTY!)
(This picture should be at the beginning because this is how we started our day but it just seems like a great picture to end a Halloween post.)

Cayden reminded me on Thursday night that we had not yet carved our pumpkin. I told him we would do it as soon as he got home from school. He drew the face on the pumpkin, I tried to cut my thumb off, and in the end we had a jack-o-lantern and roasted pumpkin seeds. Luckily our neighbor was here when I tried to amputate my thumb and she took over for a few minutes while I tried to stop the bleeding!

Cutterisms and Caydenese

Yesterday, Cutter took a bite of something and said, "Mmmm, that's better than steak!"
I laughed a little to myself and didn't think much of it other than, "How does he know what steak tastes like?"
Later that evening he put bath water in his mouth and said, "Mmmm, that's better than steak!" This time I had to ask where he heard this or who taught him that. He answered, "Madagascar."
Well, if you have a 3 year old you know that in the movie the lion is starving and his friends are what he would normally eat in the wild. He has nothing to eat so at the end of the movie the penguins get him some sushi. He takes one bite and says, "Mmmm, that's better than steak!" They also drink ocean water at their little hut by the beach and spray it out of their mouths- both twins do that at bath time.

Tonight I had a "Meet the Teacher" night at school. All three kids went with me and when I arrived at the school, running a little late, I couldn't find my school keys. I borrowed someone's to get in the room but assumed they were in Scott's car. Later that evening I found them sitting by my computer in my classroom. I have Cross Country practice at 6:00 am and am the first one at school so I HAVE to have those keys to open up the locker rooms. I said how glad I was that I found them and Cayden responded, "Miracles still happen every day."

slow going with the posting

We have some great pictures of Cayden playing soccer. We also have some really fun pictures of the family at the lake with the Leavelle's over Labor Day Weekend. There are random shots here and there of the kids that we'd love to share, however. . . like every other piece of technology in our house, our two destructive three-year-olds have destroyed our card reader. so, the pictures are on the card but we have no way of getting them to the computer. It's kind of like how we can't get our TV on channel 3 any more since Cutter threw the remote over his head randomly one day.
Hope to have something to post soon but that's about it for now.

Deep Thoughts

Today Cooper asked me:
"Mom, why do panties get stuck in your hiney?" (as she tugged at her panties)
I told her to get used to it because she has a bootie!

Then, a few minutes later Cutter was watching Madagascar and in the movie one of the characters says, "Blah, blah, blah. . . "
Cutter then asked:
"Mom, what does 'Blah, blah, blah' mean?"

Definitely GT, outside of the box material!
Hope your Sunday was half as interesting and educational.

Oh Tooth Fairy

Today at school Cayden lost his first tooth. He was grinning from ear to ear when I arrived at school to pick him up. He has been hoping to lose a tooth for a really long time now. Some mean first graders called him a baby last year because he only had baby teeth. I refrained from beating them up and just told him that he would eventually lose them.

When he left the house this morning the tooth was loose but not loose. He told his teacher it was loose and she told him to get a tissue and pull it. She told him to twist it and he did and it didn't come. She then told him to snap it and he did and out it came. She was a sweetheart and put it in an envelope with the time and date and that he had done it all by himself.

Now, we officially start saving for braces!

No More Green

Cooper had her first real haircut today. We just wanted to get the summer chlorine cut out and make it look healthy again. We wanted it to be the same "style" (that is just how it has grown out) but just shaped up. She didn't love the haircut part but didn't mind it too much either. The picture looks like she hated every second of it!

I think she is going to be a very expensive little girl!

First Day of School & Watermelon

Cayden looking less than enthusiastic on the first day of first grade. He actually has a little cold right now and wasn't feeling 100%. His goal again this year is perfect attendance so unless his temp is more than 103 he's going. (just joking)
Tonight we cut up our watermelon that we grew in our garden. Cayden picked out watermelon to plant and I was very skeptical. We had tons of watermelons that Brenham, our dog, played with like balls. We got several that looked and smelled and tasted like watermelon but this one was the best one by far. It was huge and the kids enjoyed eating something we grew.
The twinkies getting a bite!
Our shy one posing for a watermelon shot.
Cooper and Cutter also started school today. They are in Ms Donna's class and couldn't be happier. For some strange reason they asked Scott to take their picture with their fireman hats on. So, there you have it.

Although it's sad to see summer go it will be nice to get in some form of a routine again. We are very unstructured people by nature so actually having a bed time and something to do in the morning other than swim will be nice for a change.