Herding Cats

Matt always has this saying, "It's like herding cats..." whenever something is difficult. Well, I finally "get" that saying. I believe that it would be easier to herd cats than to take a picture of all three boys with them smiling and being adorable at the same time. It's a joke! What did people do before digital cameras? Spend thousands on film? Just not take any pictures of their kids? I guess that explains a lot of those "random" shots you see in peoples' wedding videos. I seriously don't know how photographers do it. These are my OWN kids, you would think that I could get a few pictures here and there, but not so much! Here are my best efforts to get pics of the boys in their matching pj's. Cannon is offically in a size 12 months so for a short time, I can buy all of their clothes in the same department. Though, Carson is just about into the "big boy" sizes. No more toddlers for him....he's too stinkin' tall now. Anywho...my stab at getting matching pics of them just didn't turn out as I had planned.

This was the best one in this set of jammies. (BTW, thanks Grammy! We love our spider jams!).

This one almost worked.
And we had to try for another shot in these jammies now that Cannon has a matching set too (samey, samey!!). Could Carson and Cade look any happier?

Is screaming the same as smiling? Apparently Cade things so.

Really, look at the enthusiasum on Cannon's face and the discontent on the other two!

They have obviously lost focus.

Who knows a good photographer that would like to come take our Christmas Card picture? I bet that they will be lined up out front!

In other news....Carson's new BFF, Hayden and his older brothers have tought him where the BIG ditch is in the neighborhood and it is GREAT fun to ride your two wheel bike down it. I had visions of Cara and I going down a blue/black when we were skiing in Breckenridge. Not pretty. He had a few wrecks, but has now mastered that trick and I'm just praying that he doesn't teach Cade how to do that anytime soon! Who am I? I was that mom running down the ditch and helping Carson master it so that he could keep up with the big kids. So unsafe, and SO not like me! I will probably never get a picture of that b/c there is no time and no spare hands available!

Cannon finally had his 6 month checkup. We had to reschedule b/c he turned 6 months during the hurricane. He weighs in now at 20lbs 2oz (90th%) and he is in the 50% for height! WHOO HOO!! He's so cute though and so sweet.

Cade is just, well Cade. He has a friend at school that apparently pees in his pants and I can't tell you how proud he is that it is this friend and "it's NOT ME! I didn't do it! I big now!". I don't know how preschool teachers do it. Mrs. King LOVES these kids too! There is a special place in heaven for her!

As for us, we're kind of trying to figure out if our house is going to sell. Right now, we're screwed it if sells, we're screwed if it doesn't! Either way isn't going to be easy. We know that God has a plan for us, we're just wishing that he'd let us in on what it is! ;-) I'm not a go with the flow kind of girl and I spent March - August in limbo, now I've got a plan and my ducks are in a row, and this hurricane hits and we get interested people in our house. What's that about?

Look, Mom! No training wheels!!

Well, the day has finally come where Carson was ready to ride his bike with two wheels. We have been talking about taking the training wheels off for a few weeks. Then, he saw his friend Hayden the other day without training wheels and that was that. He harassed me that entire evening to do it, so much so that I was tempted to go get the tools and do it myself! However, it turned out that Daddy came home early yesterday, so it was the perfect opportunity for the big take off. He did awesome!! He just took off right down the driveway and hasn't stopped yet! He's gotten pretty proud and confident too and will tell just about anyone who will listen about his big accomplishment! I've got to admit, I kind of teared up! I just can't believe that he's big enough to be riding around on a two wheeler! He's just like the big boys now!!

Here he goes for the 1st time!

And going down the street...

And looking so proud!!

As for the other two....Cade got a haircut today and enjoyed the big dryer. This kid is hysterical! A terror most of the time, but he really makes me laugh some days! And, it doesn't help that he's quite adorable.

Then, Cannon is finally cutting his first tooth! I can see the white poking through today on the bottom. All of my boys are just growing up WAY too fast!!

Hurricane Ike

Well, we hunkered down and got the crap scared out of us, but we are all okay! We truly feel blessed in all of this. Our house is okay, our kids are okay and we have power! God is good!

Those winds were the loudest and scariest that I have ever heard in my life! I can't even explain it to people that weren't here. Truly wild! It started howling here around 11:00 and did not let up AT ALL until 6am. We lost power around 6:30 Friday evening. When that happened so early, I knew that we were in for a long night. Matt and I were up listening to the radio about 3:00am when somebody from Shadowcreek called in and the weather guy said that we were in for another 3 hours. Not too long after that, one of the chains from our outside light fixture pulled out of the brick and started swinging into our entry glass. That's when I freaked! I was a big girl until then. Luckily, it never broke. All in all, we were so very lucky! Here are some pictures.

Notice, the gate was still standing. The boards from this fence were flying into the side of the house all night.

And here, a close call for the a/c unit. It is dented, but working.Here is a section of fence down on the other side.Around 7 am when the howling had stopped and the sun was coming up, I looked at Matt and said, "Do you think Starbucks is open?". The trees were still blowing sideways, but somehow, it just seemed like nothing then. Right after that, I got a text from our neighbors, the Blakes, saying, "We've got coffee!". They had a generator and we camped out over there for a couple of days. We got a generator on Sunday evening and then our power came on a few hours after that.

Here, you can see that Cade has spent a little too much times with the girls!

All of the kids eating dinner. They loved "camping". They even went swimming at the Browns the day after the storm.

Here is Cade playing in the generator box. They have found lots of entertainment from that.

We have had lots of visitors and company. Luckily, the Koza's house in Galveston fared just fine. I don't know how, but it did!! Here are Patrick and Cannon hanging out on Saturday.

Cara and the boys have been in and out all week since we are blessed to have power! Such a luxury!! Parker was trying to evacuate here.Doug and Trish came back from Austin on Tuesday after we gave them the good news about our power and groceries. The boys love having Ryan here! Luckily, their house in Seabrook is totally fine too and now they have power as well. We have been struggling to keep everyone entertained. I heard that the zoo was open on Wednesday, so we headed over there. That was fun and the weather was awesome. Avery went with us too.

Then, when taking Auntie Nilza home the other day, I noticed a ton of baby ducks over in the Silverlake pond. The boys had a blast feeding the ducks. I don't know how these little bitty ducks made it through that storm, but they did!Carson is more into feeding the giant catfish that were taking the bread right out of his hand.Now, we have weathered the storm and everyone is sick. Cannon has a double ear infection and a nasty cough. Both boys have snot gallore and Cade's allergies are off the chart due to everything in the air and the down trees everywhere. The great news: School Opens MONDAY!! Praise God!! They are going to stay home this weekend and get better b/c we will be there when the doors open! Carson has asked every morning if he could go to school.

All in all, we feel so very fortunate! Our land line phone even started working last night, so I can actually communicate other than text messages now. We are truly living in luxury here! My Dad and Cyndi don't even have water, much less power, so we a very appreciative.

We hope that everyone else sustained minor damage as well! I don't know about y'all, but I just sat through my last hurricane! Lesson learned there.....if this thing was only a category 2 or 3, I surely don't want to be here for the big one!

XOXO

Hunker down!

Well, here comes Ike! We are riding this one out here. Hopefully, that will turn out to be a wise decision! I'll admit it though, I'm a little nervous. Okay, or Matt would probably say that I am totally freaked out. I hate hurricanes! One more reason to move north... Anyway, we have boarded up the downstairs windows and are just doing a lot of praying now. Here are some pics of the boys helping Matt and my Dad cut the boards and hang them last night. BTW - thanks Dad! That was a huge help and has really helped me feel a little bit more "okay" with all of this. Almost all of our neighbors are here as well, which also makes me feel a lot better. We are so lucky to have such great friends living all around us!

Cade helping Paw-paw.

Carson playing the sawdust. They were so excited about all of the tools and craziness.

We tried to burn off as much energy as possible this morning! We went swimming at our neighbors' house, played with our friends and the boys rode their bikes for a bit. I'm afraid that Hurricane Carson and Hurricane Cade will be demolishing the inside of our house all during Ike!

We will be praying for everyone's safety and hoping that our dear friends that live on and near the water will have minimal damage to their homes. Stay safe, everyone!!

We're ready for some football!

Okay, and some baseball too since Carson is all fired up about fall baseball, but whatever! We have been busy adjusting to school and figuring out our fall schedule. You know, life in our house revolves around College Football and Fantasy Football this time a year, or for Matt anyway. It looks like the boys will be following in that tradition. Here are some pictures of our warped kiddos.

Does he look like a future quarterback, or what? I know, two years ago, you all thought he'd be a linebacker...

I think that he looks like a superstar! He always reminds us to "step and throw!" before every toss.Carson is being silly here.Then, they tried to take out the Mommy! That's the hard part about being a girlie girl with a house full of boys...sometimes, they take you down.

Cannon watching the action and looking cute.

Cannon falling over...

And Cannon looking cuter than EVER! I LOVE this picture of my little chunky man! (Go ahead..insert linebacker comment here...).

And, here is Cannon ready from some serious action on Saturday!

He had fun watching with his Daddy.

Two out of three boys looking at the camera isn't bad?

And a few shots of them in their other sport...racing. Or as they call it, Hot Car Drivers. Whatever. Notice Cade in the bike helmet here...it was on backwards for half of the time. They also find great fun in pit stops (which basically means, "get out of your car and I will run you down") and wrecks, which they always pretend were "just a little accident"!. Good times.

As for the rest of the week, we're just praying that Ike isn't coming here! We had already planned on going to Dallas this weekend, we just didn't plan on sitting on 45 with the rest of Houston. One more reason that I will be happy when we move north!

Happy Labor Day!

We have had a wonderful weekend, full of family time and just having fun with the five of us! We went and rode bumper boats and had an awesome time on Saturday playing at Pitch Putt & Play. Carson had his first experience in the batting cage and got hit by the first pitch out (which was going 35 - 40 mph!). He was tough about it though and kept on hitting. He's ready for fall ball to start!

Here is Cannon watching all of the fun from his stoller. He is such a trooper!

Matt and the boys shooting each other in the bumper boats. This was a huge attraction for the boys!

Cade was not too happy about not being tall enough to man the boat himself just yet, but as long as I let him do the steering and shooting of the water, he was good with it.
Mostly, they enjoyed trying to soak me and any innocent bystanders!
We also went to the Astro's game yesterday. It was Cannon's first game and he had a great time! Cade was pretty much exhausted the entire time and just reminded us how much he is NOT ready to give up naps just yet. Matt and I were ready to run away from home yesterday evening.

Cannon was pretty content just to hang out in our laps and watch the action going on around him. He looked pretty cute too, if I do say so myself! Look at those beautiful blue eyes!

And a big 'ole smile!

The big boys got restless pretty quick and we had to go shop and check out the Squeeze Play, which by the way was terrifying for the parents! Matt and I each took an entrance and exit so that we at least had that part covered, other than that, the boys were on their own. I didn't so much enjoy that part!

And here is a cute picture of Carson and Daddy. Carson insisted on wearing his t-ball jersey and hat..I think that Matt might have had enough family time with all of us! He took off to play golf this morning.