I got home tonight to some wonderful smells coming from the kitchen. Christine was cooking chicken, and it looked good.

As she cooked, I sat on the couch and recounted my day with the boys… and vice versa. Turns out Jack got to go in a paddle boat today, in a lake, that had only three alligators in it.

We sat down for dinner, and Christine said “I hope it’s good” with a pleading look on her face.

I said “something new?”

“Yes, I was trying to make Chicken curry, but I was missing one ingredient.”

I asked “what was that?”

“Curry” was the answer.

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HAVE YOU HEARD? The aspiring young psychiatrists were attending their first class on emotional extremes. “Just to establish some parameters, ” said the professor to the student from Baylor, “What is the opposite of joy?”

“Sadness, ” said the student.

“And the opposite of depression?” he asked of the young lady from Rice.

“Elation, ” said she.

“And you sir, ” he said to the young man from A&M, “how about the opposite of woe?”

The amused Aggie replied, “Sir, I believe that would be giddy-up.”

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This past weekend, Christine and I took the boys to the Circus. To the Circus!

Talk about a blast. We saw a huge elephant perform, tight rope walkers from Columbia, a jumping troupe from Russia, clowns, dogs, ponies, little elephants that people could ride on, the human cannonball, and more.

The boys had a blast. Jack was glued to his seat the whole time, watching and taking every thing in… with lots of “whoa” and “wow” thrown in for good measure. Grayson wanted to walk around and play with his monster truck that he brought with him, so we did that while Christine and Jack watched the show.

At intermission we went down on the circus floor and jumped on a big bouncy thing, and got close to the ponies and little elephants (they aren’t that little, btw).

Grayson and I left after intermission, while Jack and Christine stayed and finished the whole thing. Jack stayed up until 10:00 that night… way past his bed time, but boy did he have stories for me when he got home.

What a good family event. We had a blast.

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This morning, Christine called me at work to relay this story:

Christine went out to the car with the kids to take Jack to school, put the top down, strapped both kids in, and then couldn’t find the key to the car. Which she needed to put the top down, so she’d obviously had it with her…

She called me on my cell (I was almost at the office by the time she called) to see if I’d left my key to the car at home. I hadn’t. It was in my pocket. She hung up with me, and I could tell she was frustrated.

She got the kids out of the car, to look in their car seats. Backtracked her footsteps out of the house. Looked around the kitchen. Dug through the car. She was really frustrated, and was about to say “forget it, we’re not going to school.” Then she realized she’d thrown something away that morning in the big outside trashcan, and it being trash day, that meant she might have also had the key in her hand and absentmindedly thrown the key away too, so she walked down to check, and the key was on the ground next to the recycling bins. It had fallen out of her pants pocket.

She loaded the kids back up in the car, and took Jack to school.

On the way to school on Mopac, Christine realized then how frustrated she’d been, so she apologized to Jack and Grayson for throwing a fit, and tried to explain that she was sorry she’d been impatient, and that it was nothing they’d done, it was just her losing her temper, and that she was wrong and was sorry.

Jack sat there quietly for a few moments and finally asked “Mommy, why did you say ‘SHIT!’ this morning?”

Christine didn’t know what to say for a moment. She finally answered “Jack, Mommy used a bad word that she shouldn’t have use. Mommy is not supposed to say the word ‘shit’.”

She then asked Jack if he understood that he isn’t supposed to use that word either.

Jack responded, “Yes, mommy. Shit is a bad word and Mommy is not supposed to say ‘shit!’ and Jack is not supposed to say ‘shit!'”.

Christine just said “That’s right” and dropped it.

A few minutes later she dropped him off at pre-school at the church.”

This afternoon will be interesting when she picks him up from school. Hopefully he doesn’t say ‘shit’ at school today… but if he does… oh well…

Here’s to getting our first kid to three and three-quarters years old without cussing.

Welcome to the real world Jack! 😉

I wonder how long we can get Grayson without cussing?

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This year, my mom, threw a huge bash at her house for Easter. There must have been 50 people there, even though the weather was horrible, and we were all wet and cold 😉

Everyone that came (lots of family and friends) gathered inside where there was plenty of warmth, thanks to the gas fire place and heaters scattered about. And food, oh, boy, talk about food. It was a huge potluck… chicken, meat trays, veggies, pasta, and more…

And, then, to top off all of the good conversation, the Easter Bunny showed up and treated all of the kids to photos on his lap, and gifts from his basket:


There are lots more photos from Easter Saturday here.

On Sunday, we all went to church, and when we got home, we took some family portraits in the front yard (the weather was perfect for family photos on Sunday)

I also took some random photos of Grayson and other things. Those photos are here.

And how can you not fall in love with this photo of Grayson in pure amazement at the wind blowing on his face:

Wonderment

Hopefully next year the weather will cooperate, and the other 50 people that didn’t make it (the weather was that bad folks) can make it too!

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This is too funny not to post:

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Tuesday was a crazy snowy wintery weather kind of day. I don’t think it got above 32° here at the house.

I stayed home and worked from the home office, instead of trying to drive into work, although, I bet I could have driven to work in the morning, but by mid-afternoon, there was no way I was going anywhere.

Jack and Christine played outside a little in the snow (it’ll never snow when he’s two years old again) and had fun. It was crunchy and slippery on the icy grass and concrete.

Here’s a quick movie Christine shot of the front yard when it was really snowing:

And here are some photos I took in between phone calls (you should have seen me outside in my sandals and shorts trying to take photos without shaking… stupid, stupid, stupid). Yes, Jack is eating an icicle in one of them… ha!

And yes, this is one of my favorite songs of all time! Baby It’s Cold Outside, by Dinah Shore from back when music was real music, and people could really sing. If it’s cold outside, it’s a great pick-me up song.

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So, I’ve postd a video every day this week, and I figured I should treat you all to something really special today.

Here are five photo galleries I haven’t linked to yet:

  • Jack Playing – photos from this week, of Jack and his mom playing (they were “camping” in Jack’s room in a home-made fort, and then Jack was “taking photos” with his camera, and then playing with cars).
  • Furniture by Stan – Cyndi’s uncle refinished some antique furniture that my mom gave us a while ago. The furniture looks awesome now, and all the drawers work perfectly now mom! Now our guests (and the new baby) will have a place to put their clothes when they come visit.
  • Aggie Jack – the photos from our weekend Aggieland trip.
  • Jack by Erin – Erin took some photos of Jack with her mom, sister, Chrstine and I after church on 8/27. Too fun!
  • In the Sandbox – just some photos of Jack in the sandbox one afternoon.
  • Ben and Jack at Serranos – After church one day, we met Murphy and Amanda at Serranos by accident. We ate inside while Murphy and Amanda (and their guests) watched Jack and Ben, then we came outside and watched the boys while they ate. The boys had sooo much fun playing together.
  • Levy Party – Lori and Herbert threw a party for the kids one weekend afternoon. Lots of water splashing and playing outside.
  • Lakehouse Swimming – We went to visit Debbie and Raymond on August 19th, and I took these photos outside around the pool. Jack just loved swimming this summer!

And, here’s the double whammy… another video for today:

Have a good weekend folks! (We’ll be nesting!)

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Look at the forecast for this week:

It’s not even July yet.

updated on 6/13: It got up to 104 today. This is rediculous:

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For those of you expecting, or that have small babies, you’ll get a kick out of this video:

Josh’s mom emailed that to me, and Christine and I died laughing watching it over and over. Enjoy.

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My mom hosted the family Easter get together this year in Bellville. We decorated the yard and the house with decorations to get into the spirit of the holiday (and so the kids would have something fun to play with).

It was a fun weekend for us for sure. The weather was perfect, it was probably 80 degrees, sunny, and the breeze never died.

Frank, Mary, and Michael drove down from Dallas. Christine, Jack and I drove in from Austin. And lots and lots of other family members and friends were there… must have been 40 or 50 people in the house and yard throughout the day on Saturday.

I took a few photos throughout the day: Roland and Cheri having a conversation. Roland telling a story. Rodney posing for me. Helen on the swing. Two ladies on the deck. Mother and Son. Roland and the girls. Laura and Clay. Jacob hunting eggs. Christine on the deck. Where did it go? Jessie Otis Boyte. Nicky and her pearly whites. Nicky’s Jack. Clay, Laura, Drew and Cannon and the second shot. Jack after his nap. A rusty rooster. Doughboy. And a great laugh.

The kids did what kids do when they’re outside… the played and played and played and got dirty and then played some more:

The adults chatted inside and outside and outside and inside.

Everyone ate around 2:00 (and some of us kept eating… there was a lot of food, and some yummy deserts – thanks to everyone that brought something).

After food and drink aplenty, we all took turns taking photos in the bunny cutouts my mom had made:

Then we had an egg hunt. Jack and Ella were both taking naps, so all the other kids hunted eggs, and around 6 p.m. after everyone had left, Jack and Ella got up and hunted for their eggs… Frank forgot to bring his shotgun with him, so we had to let the big one get away.

Then on Saturday night, Michael, Evan and I headed out to Rose and Rodney’s house to play poker with them… I lost a little, Evan lost a little, and Michael won a little… but we all had fun getting caught up on what our cousins have been up to for the past few years. Good times!

Happy Easter everyone.

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So, in case you guys didn’t realize it… Josh and Elise should have a baby in about a week…

I came across a website today that I think Josh needs to make a few orders from:

PottyMouthShop.com.

They make onesies… but not the cute little onesies that everyone else has… great “alternative” ones that make me think: “This onesie would get Josh to say the word ‘onesie'”.

Josh, aren’t you going to order a few?

It’d be too cool for him to get a few of these in the mail from his friends… lol. I’d love to see that kid wearing this one (warning this one’s pretty explicit).

Found that site here: BabyRoadies.com.

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A few weeks ago, I spotted a Rocking Duck on sale from Playsam in Skandanavia (oh the wonders of the internet). I ordered one on impulse, because it was so damned cute. It arrived today, so I put it together tonight, and Jack gets to try it out tomorrow:

Cool, huh?

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This year, for Valentine’s Day, Christine and I got up early (ok, Christine got up really early, and I got up at my normal 8:00) and gave Jack his Valentine’s present. It was an Elmo is sick doll. Ok, it’s really called a “Check up on Elmo” doll, but it’s the same thing.

We got this little doll for Jack because he’s been sick lately, and every time we take him to the doctor’s office, he hates it more and more. Hopefully playing with this Elmo will teach Jack that it’s okay to take your temperature, how to blow your nose, and that bandaids are fun!

Hopefully. Because if it doesn’t, I’m going to ring Elmo’s annoying little neck. Elmo has to be the cutest, yet most annoying doll we’ve had… mainly because of that little lispy voice he has… thankfully I don’t have to spend much time with Elmo. Poor Christine has to spend all day with him 😉

Then I went to work.

I knocked off around 4:00, and we headed to Central Park. Jack and I played on the playground, while Christine went to the store. She couldn’t find what she was looking for, so she came and got us. We went to the Bookstop and found my Valentine’s present: The Complete Photography Manual. Too cool.

I gave Christine her Valentine’s day gift at home. It was from Jack and I, so we opened it while Jack ate dinner.

She got a set of flip-flops, a stick of lip-balm, some Aloe Vera lotion, and a card from each of us.

We decided to keep the gifts pretty reasonable this year, because:

We’re going on a 6-day Carnival cruise next week to Progreso and Cozumel! That was our real gift to each other, and we are soooo looking forward to it.

Hope you had a good Valentine’s Day.

update: Photos from the park are here.

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Jack’s getting bigger, and older, and smarter every day.

One of the toys Jack got for his 1st birthday is a collection of 5 or 6 animals, all on a neat little playscape, and these animals all sit on little buttons that make the noise of that animal when pushed down.

There’s a little birdy (sings a chirpy little bird song), and a lion (Rarrr!) and a monkey (hoo hoo hoo hoo), and a seal (hmmm, can’t remember that sound, I think it’s water splashing) and a polar bear (Roar!!!), and an elephant (brbrbbrrbr!).

In the course of playing with that toy, Christine taugh Jack that elephants trumpet by holding their trunk up and away from their body. Jack also has a few Baby Einstein DVDs that have elephants in them, and he loves watching the elephants…

One day, while I was at work, Christine asked Jack a question:

“What sound does an elephant make?”

To which, Jack responded by raising his arm in the air (like he’d seen Christine do) and trumpeting, in his best imitation of an elephant.

We were tickled pink.

Since that day, we’ve been trying to capture it on video, and we finally did the other night.

Here’s the answer to the question “what sound does an elephant make?”

movie: what sound does an elephant make

Just in case you were wondering 😉

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