Thanksgiving, Santa and Gavin

We were at home for Thanksgiving this year. The weather was great and the food was even better...since I cooked it :) Brandon was out raking leaves in the front yard and the boys wanted to help. Kyle started walking about two weeks ago and now he thinks he can join the 'big boys'. This is what Brandon comes home to everyday. They love him.

Brad and Rachel made their first trip to Houston since Gavin was born. I got the boys matching Christmas pajamas (an idea I stole from Erin) and I can't wait to take a picture like this every year -- well, not exactly like this....maybe one day they will actually all look at the camera.

We took all the boys to see Santa. Kyle wasn't a fan. I felt bad making Santa hold a crying, screaming baby. But not bad enough to stop me from leaving him in his lap and takeing several pictures. Oh, and Matthew had a 103 fever by the time we got home, so Santa was probably also wondering why I decided to share our germs with him.

Enjoying the awesome weather.

First haircut!

7 Years

I met Brandon in the fall of 1997. We were friends for years....through physics, differential equations, my boyfriends, his girlfriends, his rude comments after he would beat me on a test, my smug looks after I beat him in a run. We started dating in the summer of 2000. We moved apart after graduation. After that time, I knew that I couldn't ever live apart from him again. And I never have. And I never will.

A very smart woman that I worked with once told me, "It takes one heck of a man to beat having no man at all". She is right and I'm so happy to have "one heck of a man".

11/2/02

Go Ags!

I love this picture. Let's hope we see more touchdowns this weekend!

Oink, Oink

The face of swine flu. And yes, he feels as bad as he looks.

He was so much happier last week.

Really Bad Liar

Me: Matthew, did you let your brother lick some of the cake batter off of the beater like I asked you NOT to? Matthew: No Mommy, I didn't let Kyle lick the beater.

Busted.

Me: OK, let's try this again. Did you give Kyle any cake batter?

Matthew: But I wanted to share!!!

And he made sure to give me his best"I have swine flu so I can't be in trouble" face. Becuase yes, he did have swine flu and yes, he did share his germs with his brother.

Spiders in China

After a recent conversation, I'm pretty sure that Matthew thinks that Mamaw and Papa live with pandas in China. Like really live with them.....just like Jack lives with us. Apparently spiders live there too.

It looks promising for Kyle to fufill his destiny of becoming an engineer. He already builds things with Legos. I think Brandon almost cried when he saw this picture :)

Just Like Daddy

More proof that I am no more than a cook and a fixer of "boo boos".

They both want to be like him. Matthew is just more adament about it these days. The proof is in the pictures.

Matthew DOES love to help me cook. But I think that is only because he thinks that all cooking leads to the licking of a beater full of cake batter...even if we weren't making a cake.

Animal Day

It was animal day at school. Matthew had to bring a stuffed animal, and in an attempt to be manly, he chose his sock money. In all honesty, that is his "favorite" (he loves using that word) at this time.

He came home dressed as a dog. He even barked when I asked him questions.

Fall!

My favorite season of the year is here and promises to bring all good things: cold fronts, football, smores, red wine, season premieres, chili, hot chocolate, running in the cold, iced gingerbread biscottis, Gavin, Thanksgiving, Christmas, lots of coffee and footed pajamas for the boys.

Updates from our household include: Kyle taking steps only for his Mother's Day Out teachers. We have yet to see them. Matthew continues to play soccer...still refusing to actually touch the ball, but runs alongside his teammates and pretends to be contributing. We'll consider that a small victory for now.

We had a first 'fire pit' last weekend. Kyle ate some of the burned wood and told me that it tasted nice. Much better than his real food that he refuses to eat.

I know this picture is blurry, but look how happy he is?!

Lots of 'firsts'

This week has been good, yet a few too many 'new' things all at once for my liking. And a warning, this might be a 'wordy' post as I'm feeling all setimental and stuff.

Kyle turned one on Tuesday. As much as I try to see the joy in every age, I can't help but feel very sentimental about our sweet baby....who is not much of a baby anymore. I cried on his birthday.....alot.

On Thursday, the boys both started MDO/Preschool. They both loved it and did well. Matthew walked in like it was no big deal, which is a big deal because he is our shy, cautious child. He has quite a few friends from last year and saw them often this summer, so I think that made it easier for him. Kyle, our not-so-shy child, pretty much jumped out of my arms to the teacher. Here is my attempt at a picture of the two of them.

The last 'first' of this week was U4 soccer. Not quite sure why Brandon and I ever thought this was a good idea, because I'm pretty sure that it wasn't. First, Matthew is one of the youngest on the team and most definately the most reserved. He is very polite and refuses to steal the ball from anyone and prefers to run beside them and encourage them. He will stand next to the ball, plan his shot and then look totally bewildered when another kid kicks the ball first.....because, after all, that's not nice. And how exactly do we explain to him that while sharing, saying 'sorry' if you knock someone down, 'thank you' if someone gives you something, and putting 'other people's needs first' is required everywhere but the soccer field. And when on the field, all bets are off....you can push, throw elbows, take the ball from people, not help them up if they fall, and if you happen to nail an old lady on the sidelines with one of your powerful kicks...well, she shouldn't have been standing there anyway.

Oh, and it's totally OK to trip a kid if the ref isn't looking.

Fall 2009

Fall means birthdays, football and cold fronts. Doesn't get much better than that! And it occurred to me the other day that Brandon and I met the first week of September in 1997....and it was in the back row of our physics class. He wormed his way into my study group. The rest is history!

First Aggie game of 2009.

My Baby is 1

I still remember his birthday so vividly....so how could it have already been a year?! Now my sweet baby boy is one year old and it is sad and wonderful, all at the same time. I remember Brandon leaving the hospital to take Matthew home as a visit, so it was just Kyle and myself in the hospital room. And I just held him and loved on my sweet, huge, baby boy! It was so different from Matthew...because to be totally honest....I was scared of Matthew. But I knew what I was doing with Kyle and it made those first couple of days so sweet.

Now Kyle is one and here is what he is up to:

• wears 18-24 month clothes
• LOVES his mama
• carries a lego around everywhere he goes
• no walking, just crawling
• becoming a picky eater, although has transferred to 'real' food pretty well
• loves to fall asleep in my arms at night
• tries to play rough with Matthew and Brandon....usually ends up in crying
• LOVES water and playing in water
• my running partner and he never cries in the jog stroller
• has 8 teeth and working on 4 more
• he is a 'dog wisperer'....and Jack seems to understand him

Sept 8, 2008

Sept 8, 2009

Conversations with Matthew

Halloween

Me: "Matthew, do you want to be Superman, Spiderman or Batman for Halloween"
Matthew: "Superman"
Me: "Do you even know who Superman is?"
Matthew: "Yes. He lives in China.....with the Panda Bears"
Me: "Oh."

Seriously, what do you say to that?

Baby

As I am carrying Matthew to bed...
Matthew: "Mommy, you're a girl"
Me: "Yes, and you're my baby"
Matthew: "No, I'm not a baby....I'm a boy!"
Me: "You will always be my baby"
Matthew: "NOOOOOOO....I'm NOT a baby"
Me: "For the rest of my life, you will be my baby"
Matthew: sensing defeat, he just sighs and somehow understands that he will never, ever win this battle.

Praying and Bo

Matthew has grown up so much lately. Physically and mentally. I'm loving it and hating it all at the same time. But twice in the last 2 days, he has made Brandon and I laugh hysterically and I thought I'd share:

(1) The teachers at Mother's Day Out taught Matthew and his class how to say "God is great. God is good. Let us thank Him for our food. Amen." I only found that out because I heard him saying it over the monitor one day! Every night, before dinner, Brandon and I take turns praying. And since Matthew now knows a prayer, we included him. Last night was 'his night' to pray. So he said his prayer and we began to eat....until he insisted that he needed to say the prayer again for the chicken (God is Great, God is good, Let us thank Him for our chicken), and macaroni and cheese, and the milk, etc. Kinda felt bad telling my child that he didn't need to pray that much.

(2) Bo, our cat, had a rather unfortunate accident a couple of months ago. I ran over him. I can only talk about it now because it has been a while. Matthew will ask where Bo is and I tell him that he went to Kitty Heaven. Matthew nods in agreement and we go about our business. Today, Matthew decided to tell Brandon that Bo was "in the oven". "Heaven" = "Oven". Hmmm...I was really hoping that by telling him about Heaven that it would be a learning experience for him.....but nope....he thinks the cat is in the oven.

Playing with friends

Kyle is going to be 1 yr old in a month. I can't believe that it has already been a year. He has started pulling up on things, tries his best to rough-house with Matthew and Brandon and he still loves his mama :) He really enjoys water in his sippy cup and he says Mama and Dada. Oh...and he quit sleeping through the night. I didn't know that could happen at 11 months, but it did. And as much as those late night wakeups are killing me...I do love holding him when it's dark and quiet.

He also loves the pool and he is going to be our daredevil. Here is a picture of him with Aidan. Aidan is Silas and Kasi's son. I grew up with Silas and it is cool to think that our kids will know each other!

And last, but not least:

Matthew and Kendall. Is it possible to arrange marriages these days?

Playing 'Catch'

Brandon and Matthew play "catch", in the house, without a ball. It is the funniest thing I have ever seen...and Kyle agrees. So this is how it goes, everyday:

Brandon steps one foot inside the door after work and Matthew immediately runs to get two baseball gloves. Matthew places the glove on his right hand, so that he can throw with his left. Daddy, who doesn't want his child to be plagued by left-handed mitts, golf clubs, etc., reminds him to switch hands....and he does. Then the throw an imaginary ball for quite a while...Brandon pretends to dive for an imaginary wild throw. Kyle sits there watching the "ball" and has such a great time. They will throw the "ball" to me. I have to pretend to catch it and throw it back. Totally hilarious and another reminder that I am completely outnumbered in this house and that I have years of imaginary "catch" and real "catch" ahead of me.

On another note, Kyle is 10 months...which means he is almost 1. And I'm not even close to OK with that. But for now, he's still a mama's boy :)

Lovin' the beach

We took a weekend trip to Galveston and had a great time, with great people. Here are the highlights:
Matthew being tired and grouchy. He was not in the mood for pictures. But can you tell that he had a mowhak?

Much better mood the following day:

Matthew and Jackson....

We left Kyle at home with my parents. Figured that was alot easier for everyone involved...although Kyle would have loved the opportunity to play in the water and eat as much sand as possible. Seriously, that kid will eat anything. Brandon has been repairing some ceiling sheetrock and I have to race Kyle for the little pieces that fall to the ground. He either (1) thinks it tastes good or (2) thinks it's funny to have me chase him.

Telluride

We took a family trip to Colorado last week. The weather temperature was wonderful....highs in the 60's and lows in the 40's. But it rained almost every afternoon. Since it was naptime, it didn't really alter our plans. Brandon did alot of biking and we both did some trail running. Matthew fished for the first time. Kyle ate some Colorado-grown grass (he eats anything he can get his hands on) and just hung out. We visited "Baked In Telluride" several times for homemade bread and donuts, played at the huge town park, saw old mining buildings, and dreamed about a day that we could make weekly trips to Colorado an annual thing. Matthew was obsessed with throwing rocks into streams and rivers. It entertained him way longer than it should have. He would store rocks in his pockets until we got to the next bridge or next stream. The dog to person ratio in Telluride is probably 1:1. The dogs are everywhere. Every store has a dog bowl outside and a place to tie your leash. Matthew and Kyle were in heaven with all of the dogs! We saw a "Newfoundland" dog while on a hiking trail and Matthew yelled...."brown bear!". So funny....even the owner laughed as the dog started licking Matthew.
It was a great trip and so good to get away for a while.

Bathtub

Love, love, love these pictures.