Happy Holidays! It's been a whirlwind past 2 weeks, as I am sure it has been for everyone! First of all, I want to brag about my WONDERFUL husband who arranged a fabulous surprise party for y birthday with all my friends! It's was so nice to be out with the girls and to have such a great evening and good margaritas with the most awesome friends anyone could ask for! Thank you so much to all my friends who took the time out of their busy holiday schedules to come out and help me have a great birthday! Having a birthday the same week as Christmas aways made parties difficult because most of my friends were never around. When I was in elementary school, those were the days when we got out for Christmas break around the 15th, so by the 20th, everyone had already left for Grandma's! This surprise meant more to me than you'll ever know, thank you so much!
We've been at my parents the last week. We didn't intend to stay as long as we did but some stuff came up with the house and we had to make an impromptu trip to Austin (and mom & dad watched the kids!) I will give a housing update in the next or 2 (this has been one crazy, umm, I guess you could say adventure?)
So, to sum up Christmas, Santa came, the reindeer tracked a whole bunch of straw in the house and made a huge mess, cat ate the mess while were sleeping, cat was sick for 3 days, Santa way overextended himself- again, kids are already excited for Santa to come again next year......

Merry Christmas!

Wesley, Wesley Jr & Wesley III

Every time I take my kids out in public somewhere, I get comments on how much they look alike. Really, it's quite bizarre. Looking at Brannon and Tierney is like looking at Wes when he was younger. When I take close up pictures of their faces, it's really hard to tell which child it is in the picture. I am going to have to get really good at labeling so I can tell them apart when we are old and gray! So, for fun, here it a picture of all of them in the tub. They have the same face and they all make the same facial expressions, it's hilarious!



On a separate note, Happy Birthday to my fellow AXO sistas!

Lezlee! I know I missed it on the 15th - I'm a bad friend. I was thinking of you throughout the day and I could never stop juggling the kids to get to the phone! After celebrating our birthdays together since 19- can you believe we're now on 32!!! We'll have to have a heck of a party next year! I love you! And, you have a beautiful Christmas card!

Holly- tomorrow's your day girl! I wish you tons of shopping, presents without Christmas paper, and an endless supply of hugs from that little boy! We'll have to go out soon and have our own tea party!

Remember girls, calories on your birthday do not count! Live it up!

Dear Santa....

My kids are so excited! I love the excitement they have this time of year, but it's also a little hard to channel all that energy into good! We do keep trying to hit on the point that Christmas is not just about getting presents. I think Wes internalizes that point for all of 10 minutes and then he's back to talking about some Nerf dart tag game. I guess I should be glad for those 10 minutes, it's probably 7 minutes longer than most 7-year olds!

Brannon has now figured out that elves aren't going to eat him (thank to the movie Polar Express he kinda likes them now!) All he wants are dinosaurs, but "real ones" he says. Ok, I am sure SAnta will get right on that!

Here's a picture of Wes giving Santa his Christmas list, and explaining the finer points of that list to him, just in case Santa needed to know. (Santa was nice enough to stop by our neighborhood with one of his reindeer on Sunday. Brannon about passed out!)

Happy Birthday Aunt Gail! Our birthdays are exactly a week apart. Next year when we are living in the same city, we will have to have a big 'ol celebration together! Have a beautiful day!

It's that time of year....

I know I haven't posted in a week or so- and I love that people are bugging me about it cause it actually means someone is reading this! ;) Actually we've had a very busy past week, we just got back from Austin where we did more house stuff. This move is so stressful and the current market conditions aren't helping matters. I will feel a lot better when our house has sold! Ben got back in town on Thursday after being in Wisconsin for 2 weeks. He came home and definately had to thaw (it was so cold up there!) The kids were excited to see him and I am glad he's been here to provide me with a little break!
So my funny story of the week: This past Tuesday night, I was putting the boys to bed (after a very long day) and we were reading a Christmas book. The book mentioned the song "O Holy Night." After we got don Wes asked me what that song was and I explained it was a song about Jesus being born. He aske me to sing it for him so I was rocking Brannon on the edge of Wes' bed, lights were off, Wes was tucked in, and I sang the song for them. This whole time Brannon had his head on my shoulder- head facing away from me so I couldn't see his face. When I finished, Wes asked me to sing it again. So, I did and this whole time the room is dark and Brannon was so still I thought he was asleep. After I got finished with the song a second time Wes replies "Mom I need to remember that Christmas isn't about getting presents, it's really about Jesus' birthday." So I am sitting on the edge of his bed, in the dark and we have about a 5 minute conversatoin on all the things Jesus taught us while he was here on Earth. This whole time Brannon is so still I am convinced he's asleep. I then get up and place Brannon in his crib, again, Brannon looks asleep, and I go over annd give Wes a kiss and hug (the boys share a room.) As I am walking out the door I hear, "MOOOOMMMM!" This is from Brannon. I go over to his crib, "Yes, Bran?" He replies, "Mom, Jesus loves me so much he wants me to have a velociraptor!" So, my sweet little 2-year old, this whole time pretending to be asleep, was thinking about how to twist that converstion to still get himself a present! And by the way, you should have heard how he pronounced velociraptor- one of the cutest things ever!

And, Happy Birthday to Karen K on the 6th! We were thinking of you and hope you had a great day and many many more ahead of you!

To Aunt Wendy:

Happy Birthday Aunt Wendy! I hope Uncle Kevin takes you out for a fabulous dinner and you have a great day... You deserve to be Queen of the Day! I love you!

I love my Dyson!

So, I bought a Dyson a few months ago because woot.com had one for half off. Best purchase I ever made!! It's really gross when you vacuum and you see how much stuff comes into that canister, but then you're glad it's in there and not in the carpet anymore. (I don't have a dirty house- in fact I am kinda a germ-a-phobe. I just have 3 kids, 2 cats and a dog whose sole purpose in life is to see how big of a mess they can make in the waking hours.) No, I am not getting paid for this little advertisement, I am just passing on the joy of my life which sadly, includes vacuum cleaners. I so need to get a life!

Happy Birthday Aunt Paula! You have a beautiful, kind soul and I wish for you the best year yet!

My baby is 1!

I was sitting here looking at pictures of Tierney from her first birthday and I just can't believe how fast this year has gone by! It's fun watching my children grow but I will always miss holding that little newborn! So here's my girl enjoying her very first piece of cake....she liked it!

Ad in the spirit of birthdays, HAPPY BIRTHDAY DANNY! You should eat your cake just like Tierney did!

Hot Hot Hot, Hot Chocolate!

After watching The Polar Express last night, the boys woke up this morning (it is 37 degrees and rainy) wanting hot chocolate. I made them mint hot chocolate and they drank it in their special Christmas Starbucks cups that Aunt Sheila gave them last year!

My Poor Baby

It's been a long few days. Poor Brannon was very very sick. On Wednesday, our pediatrician had us take him to the hospital. After using the full body straight jacket (more painful for me I think than him) he had an IV for about 5 hours. He had some anti-nausea meds and 2 bags of fluids. 2 bags of fluids and he still didn't have a wet diaper! He has lost so much weight - all his bones are sticking out! Today is Sunday and this the first morning he woke up and we had our Brannon back!!! After 9 days of severe gastroenteritis, he finally ate some breakfast (a piece of french toast with homemade berry syrup!) I am going to try to plump him up again, hopefully it won't take long!

On a better note, Gig 'Em Aggies! That was an awesome game and a great win over the longhorns!

I hate vomit!

My poor babies! Brannon and Tierney have a had a stomach virus now for the past 10 days. Actually, Bran had it first and it lasted about 5 days. Then, Tierney got it and it lasted about 5 days. Bran was over his for about 5 days and now he has another one! This one is worse. He threw up 2 nights ago in his sleep, only Ben and I never knew it. We found him the next morning covered in it. I will spare you the disgusting details, the key word being disgusting! For 2 days now he has run about 102-103 fever and something in constantly coming out of some orifice- at least once an hour. As a mom, this is just heartbreaking! Tierney and Wes are fine, for now but it is quite a challenge keeping them away from Brannon. (Of course Ben had since left again!) I just went to check on Brannon tonight and he had a 103.5 degree fever. I woke him, gave him some Motrin and then rocked him as he whimpered himself back to sleep. I am now killing time on the computer cause I want to go check on him again in about 20 minutes to make sure the Motrin is going to stay down. The pediatrician said to just make sure and keep him hydrated. How does a person stay hydrated when they can't stop throwing up? I hate it when my babies are sick. I feel so helpless to make him better. I just have to wait for his little body to figure out how to kick some serious virus butt. And then hope the other 2 (and myself) don't get sick!

HELP! I've fallen and I can't get up!!

What could I be talking about here? I literally haven't fallen (lately anyway)...nor am I talking about my toddler.... nor I am I talking about the temps here in Texas. Hormones people, hormones! Since Tierney turned one, I quit nursing last week. For the first time in 3 1/2 years, I am not nursing or pregnant. Which means the estrogen is on the free fall! It's been so long, they don't even know what bottom is. So, as you can imagine, I am quite the pleasant person now. Mostly though, it's the migraines. I have gotten an ocular migraine (where I lose my vision for 30 minutes) every day since last Saturday. With Ben gone, I am single mommy during the week (with having to keep the house in sales mode at all times- ugh stress!) It's quite scary to go blind with the little ones running around. But, the good news my neurologist says, is when my hormones bottom out and level off, this should stop. Again, it's been so long, they're just in a free fall! And where they'll stop, nobody knows......

Who knew.....

....Santa's elves are so scary! So the other night the kids were being ornery so I pulled the tried and true trick my parents always used on us as kids: "Oh, look there's an elf in the window!" Now, this simple little one liner can snap the brattiest of kids in line (just ask my brother!) No child wants Santa hear from a scouter elf that little boys and girls are not being their best. So, of course this immediately causes Wes to cease fighting over the toy with Brannon and become the model 7 year old. Brannon on the other hand starts crying- hysterically..for 30 minutes! (Of course this picture was not taken during this time, but I just wanted you to see "the cry face.") Now, if you only could have heard the chaos at this point...Wes saying as sternly as possible for Brannon to stop crying because he might scare the elves away, Tierney is now fake crying (she cries whenever the other 2 cry) and Brannon sobbing, sniffling, screaming. Oh, and the dog is barking because Wes ran to the back windows and is telling her elves are in the back yard. When I get Brannon calmed down, I learn that his primary worry is that the elf is going to eat him!!! Hmmmm.... note to self, elf trick doesn't work on Brannon.

Yeah, I finally did it!

Ok, I have been meaning to start blogging for months now. I could just never seem to find the time to get the page started. It was easier than I thought and I can now see how it would become quite addicting. Ben is traveling so much now with his new job (Healthcare Services Account Manger with GE Healthcare) that now, after the kids are in the bed in the evenings, I have some "me" time. Which means I finally have time to run this little blog site! I gave the site this title because I do feel most days like I live in a zoo, and it's sort of a take-off of one of my favorite children's books: Where the Wild Things Are. For the most part, I will be the one making most entries because I am the one with the time to do it! But, if Ben ever posts a blog, he'll be sure to sign his name so you'll always know the author. Over the next couple of days I will figure out how to add pictures. Please check back often, I am so excited to be able to update our family and friends on what is going on with us on a daily basis! Please add your comments too- I would love to know your thoughts as well and to see who is checking in.

Everyone is asking when we are moving. Here is our latest news: Ben started with GE about 4 weeks ago (and LOVES it.) He is trainging until Christmas which basically means he is traveling all over God's green earth every weekday until Christmas. Somehow, we have managed to find time to go house hunting and we decided to build a house in the Crystal Falls neighborhood of Cedar Park (nothwest suburb of Austin.) We are so excited to get the house we want (and a kitchen I LOVE) yet it's going to be June before our house is done. Which, with the current housing market, will probably be ok since it may take that long for our current house to sell! If our current house sells before our new house is ready, well...we will cross that bridge if/when we get there. If you want to peruse the Crystal Falls website (link at sidebar) then we are building with Drees and it's the Essex floorplan, elevation B (but we've changed a lot of it so it doesn't exactly look like the one shown.)

Ok, that's all for tonight. I need to work on how to post pictures and video.