Hello Uncle!

Ok, so it has been a while to say the least...
But, if I get one more email from a certain someone, he might stop talking to me or rather, keep sending me sweet emails to UPDATE THIS BLOG!

In an attempt to make a certain someone happy, I am updating this here blog!!!

There is so much to write and to catch up on, and I am not sure where to start... It was a busy spring, full of happy times, stressful times, & hard times, but we are still here and maybe I will be better at updating this blog!

Love,
me

All in a day

All in a day... Things change.
Your life as you know it changes. I knew this would happen, but could not predict when or how. We have waited and been told many times that AJ would be hired by various companies, but then nothing happened... We would be called and told that the money they thought they had was not there and so they did not have enough money in the budget to hire him at this time, even though we had discussed salary and when he would start. This was a very hard time. So many broken promises. Many companies would go through the long interview process leading us on, and we would think - "This is it!", but it wasn't. Then in the end they were all of a sudden on "hiring freezes". We got used to this new economy we were in. We did what we had to do to get by, and some months I am not sure how we made it, but we did.
AJ continued to interview for jobs that would never pan out, and continue to apply and find new contacts. He worked everyday at finding a new job, it was his job.
Finally one seemingly normal Monday in January a call came in from someone at Texas A&M, could he interview that Thursday! Of course he said yes, and they told him like everyone else that he did good and they would be in touch. They called on the following Monday and said he was a finalist and could he fill out some scenario situations and email them back that day. He said yes. Wednesday came and one of his good friends called and said someone was calling about him, they were checking references. Then on Thursday he had an offer and could he start February 1st?
We decided months ago that when he had signed his contract we would celebrate, and so we did. We all decided that we would go to Chuy's (and use a gift card we had saved for this occasion) for lunch and then off to use some more gift cards we had received from Christmas to get AJ a few pairs of new dress slacks (and they were on sale, YEA! clearance even better.)
This was the day we relaxed just a little. It felt good, we discussed only happy things and did not think or worry about how all of this would play out in the coming months. We talked about the move briefly with the boys because they were smart enough to figure out that Dad was moving to College Station.
It was a nice beautiful day, the sun was bright and it was unusually warm. Such a nice day to celebrate.
We were blessed at the end of the day with an amazing sunset, wondering what the future would hold as we take this path into the next chapter of our lives.
(Can't figure out why the pictures are so fuzzy. Grrrrrrrrr.)

A Happy Christmas

Just loved this picture of Mr. Rodeo! He has wanted a fish tank F-O-R-E-V-E-R! and this year Santa brought him one. He couldn't have been more happy, excited and thankful. The boys all had a wonderful time this year with Christmas. Everyone was happy and pleasantly surprised by what was given.
They all had lots of fun with family and really got into the giving part this year. Mr. Rodeo was in charge of wrapping and HJ wrote many nice letters, CJ was happy to be given most jobs.
We hope everyone had a happy Christmas.

Jack's Birth Story

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Just had to post this as a quick preview, to see how it is working...
Hope you like it Uncle J and Aunt Nanna.

This was a very special day, one we will never forget. It is the day Jack came into our lives and we are all thrilled. He came by emergency c-section, something none of us expected. He is safe and so is Aunt Nanna.

All of these pictures were taken without a flash and in very little light, some people were constantly moving, so some photos might be a little soft.

We love you baby Jack.

Christmas is almost here!

Love this time of year.
I know I have not posted in forever and I know that I need to. This picture makes me laugh because CJ totally gets a kick out of getting really too close to the round glass ornaments because he says the guy staring back at him looks totally funny. And then I tell him "that is you" and he just giggles and says "ya, but he looks like a funny guy!"
Well I say, "you are a funny guy!" and he just giggles.

Hello We Are Still Here

Just thought that I needed to get back into the swing of things...
Hope all is well.
We had a busy summer...
Hot summer...
Eventful summer...

But it is almost fall and maybe I will be able to post a little more often then I have been.

Alpine Vacation

We hope that everyone had a great 4th of July!

The boys and I went on a little trip with Mawmaw last week to Alpine, TX. (Mawmaw was able to go to her math class that she has been wanting to go to for two years now.)
While she was in class the boys and I played. We drove all over the area to Fort Davis, up to the McDonald Observatory, Marfa, and Alpine and it's other surroundings.
The weather was wonderful, we left the 100 degrees behind in central TX.
I took lots of pictures and tried to get the boys together for one brothers pic. (They can't be serious when I ask them to have one picture of all three of them together.)
We started the trip off with a star party at the McDonald's Observatory, it was wonderful, and a little chilly. We were able to see Saturn, it's rings, Titan it's largest moon and four other moons - not quite as big. We were able to see the moon up close and look at it's terrain. (After looking in that telescope we were all blinded for a bit, because the moon was extremely bright that evening.) By 11:45 WC and CJ were tired and ready to go, so Mawmaw went and sat in the car with them and HJ and I stayed and learned about the different constellations. They taught us the tricks to finding them, what their main stars were called, past north stars, and future ones. We were able to see the stars so clearly, you felt as if you could almost reach out and touch them. HJ was really amazed at the amount of stars and WC thought it looked like a black tent with wholes punched through the top. The boys had a great time, even CJ. Every time he got up to a telescope and was given a turn to look through the eye piece he would say..."yep" or "bewtiful". We would ask if he saw anything because he would stick his eye on the piece and then leave in a split second and he always said "yes, I saw it!" and then hop off into the darkness.
At about 12:30, I told HJ we would have to cut it a bit short because I knew I was going to have to drive down the mountain, and I was already exhausted. Mawmaw and I both thought it was the longest trip. It felt like forever getting back to the hotel and we were both sooo tired, so we ate banana chips along the way and tried calling anyone who we thought would be awake - no luck, everyone we knew was tired and going to bed early (early is definitely before 1:00 for me, but for others in our family, that is nothing).

I will continue later on our wonderful stories from vacation, but for now it is late and I need to go to bed!

Cousins are here!

We love it when our cousins come to visit from far away!
The boys always get so excited when they find out their cousins are coming. They wait for it all year. They have spent some time at the lake and played at Oma's and Opa's. I have taken lots of pictures and the boys have had a lot of fun.



It is so hot right now, we have had record breakers 102F to 105F. Can't you just feel the hot air blowing in the pic of WC. It feels like a constant hair drier! He is sooo hot and I'm not sure he could walk any slower, maybe crawl, but then his hands and knees would be on the hot pavement. He was not real happy to be so far behind everyone else. He rode home with us... everyone went to Oma's so we stopped off to get half price slushes...Yummy, lemon berry slushes- one of our new favorites.

Water, oh how we love it.

HJ is having a wonderful swim season! He shocked us all with an amazing race in the butterfly when he won his heat and came in second overall! He looked amazing, his stroke was beautiful and powerful. A huge change from what it looked like last year.


And now he is diving too. No more fear. He is improving in so many areas, we are so proud of him and are excited for the rest of the swim season.



After the swim meet we met some friends at this great sprinkler park. The boys love this place. WC loves to do his action shots, so we had to do some running ones. He is so much fun to be with.



This guy is crazy! He was running all over the place and having a great time. I was happy I caught this moment... He had been waiting and waiting for this fountain to slowly spring up and nothing happened, so he lost interest and left and then in a split second he turned around to look one more time and it shot him straight in the face. He laughed and laughed and so did we.



This explains the day, or at least the evening I think. Can't you just feel it, the happiness, the joy, the no worries, the hot Texas evening beating down on your skin, the screams of joy and laughter, and the water as it is shot up out of the ground. I love it when I catch these moments in time and freeze them, so that I won't ever forget all the fun we have and the joy that can be felt from remembering moments like these.

Summer is Here

Summer is here! The boys are finished with school and are ready for two and a half our swim practice every morning, playing board games, reading books, watching some movies, playing outside, finding critters, camping, having friends over, and having play dates with their grandmothers. I am sure I am missing something as they rattle off all of the things they want to do this summer. I know we will have a good time.
I have so much journaling to catch up on... this last month went by so fast and I barely got an entry in.




The boys both did a great job in school- they both were on the honor roll all year long. Way to go HJ and WC on a successful and fun school year. They worked really hard and had a great year of learning.
On the last day of school one of Daddy's long time friends (they have been friends since high school~ I think?) called him up to see if we would like to go out on the lake that evening. Can you imagine that we would turn down a boat ride which included skiing, or tubing? As you can see we had a great time.
All of the boys enjoyed themselves except WC. He was not real happy with the tubing because he bumped his nose and he thought a giant squid might reach out from the depths of the lake and eat him.? WHAT?!? I am sure that I looked really shocked when he said this. But I kept a straight face and explained that there were no giant squids in Lake Georgetown. Period, no discussion.
He did have a great time riding in the boat and swimming with dad and the other two, just unsure of the whole tubing and was upset about bumping his nose and blood going everywhere.
On a side note all of WC fears seem to be coming from what I thought was his favorite show, Monster Quest which comes on the History channel. It is a show that makes an attempt to prove or disprove legends or myths about different creatures from around the globe. We now don't watch Monster Quest for the time being because he gets it in his head that some of the creatures are real. I guess the giant squid that eats little boys in Lake Georgetown is now REAL? -Great, just what I wanted.
He can't even walk into a dark room in our home without thinking that Big Foot is in there and will snatch him up. I ask him what will he do if he gets you and he says "I don't know, but we won't talk about it." We try to explain that Big Foot is not going to come into our home and hide in a dark corner, but the logic is not there. He still thinks that some how, some way Big Foot will come in and hide in a dark corner and AJ and I won't see him and WC will be long gone living with a Big Foot family and we won't be able to find him... I know it is all my fault for letting them watch a show, that did not seem particularly scary to me. I know he will grow out of it, but for now we don't joke or tease about Big Foot and now I guess about Giant Squid.

On the other hand, HJ and CJ had a ball. They loved the boat, swimming and riding on the tube. CJ thought he was a big man. When his turn was finished on the tube, he said: "I did not fall off the tube, but daddy did." CJ loved sitting in front and feeling the breeze flow through his hair. He also really liked the big waves, and didn't mind if the water splashed up on him. He had a favorite day!
After we pulled in CJ, Daddy was given permission to drive the boat. He was bound and determined that he would get HJ to wipe out (big time!!) We went round and round in circles and would go over big wave after big wave but HJ held on for dear life. He had some really good jumps, but held on. Then he finally said those fateful words to his father..."Is that all you've got? Bring it on Daddio!" Well we all know what happened next, daddy was gonna give it all he had and in some way give HJ a ride he would not forget. Finally after his arms nearly fell off from being so tired of the hard ride the tube flipped and HJ was history. He came up all smiles and said "you win, can I go again?" We had a great time and are thankful we were asked to go again.