Getting away with something big

 Uploading these photos makes me realize that I am getting worse and worse with both blogging and taking pictures of the babies.  Tsk.  Tsk.  Mostly I blame the pictures part on the camera, which is very near death.  Interesting: we passed the seven year mark (8 years in January!) and are still married (Praise the Lord!), but right around this time, it seems like all of our stuff is dying.  I'll spare the very lame story about the computer death, that we should have let die and replace instead of trying to get repaired.  I feel like we always choose the wrong answer when it comes to repairing or replacing something (the Jeep comes to mind....).

 Anyway, the big thang that I feel like we are getting away with is skipping winter.  For the second year in a row.  The first year we were here, it was pretty cold.   Milder than what we were used to but cold anyway.  Last year was mild everywhere, and this winter is sneaking by and it's been very warm.

 I'm thankful for that!  And especially thankful that it's February already.  The new baby has about three weeks to go, but if s/he doesn't wait that long, that's fine too.  It would be fine if the baby was born today.  (Theoretically, I mean, from the perspective that it would be cool to not be pregnant, but on the other hand, I have no idea how we're going to handle three of these kids.)

 Neither does Lexi.  She's scowling at me.....like always.  It's cute when she eats yogurt like this, and fine because I am so used to giant messes in the kitchen.  It was less charming when I went to the bathroom at work the other day, and as I was walking out noticed that I had yogurt on my shoulder/back.

 I have been thinking about getting Summer a short haircut.  She hates getting her hair combed - it's such a battle everyday, and she hates ponytails, etc., most of the time, and her hair gets so tangled.  Lexi's hair is slippery - not a problem (shorter too, of course).  (Summer = feeling very serious here)

 (Maybe I should think about taking down the Christmas stuff before the baby is born.....otherwise it might still be there this summer.)  Random fact:  around our house, I never use the word "summer" to describe the season because it confuses Summer.  We always just say "when it gets warm again"....which is also kinda confusing.

One of their favorite toys.  They usually call this tunnel their rainbow.  Today it was a slide (not so successful).

 This picture just happened a few minutes ago.  Scott was going to take Summer to bed, and then he came back and got me and said 'come here', and there was Summer, sound asleep on her bed.  Sweet little thing.  (Normally getting her to sleep is a long process.)

 She looks like such a sweet baby with that bottle.

Oh, one last thing, continuing with my same deal from last time.  One day recently Lexi was being crazy, and I said to Summer "Where did Lexi come from?"  Summer did not disappoint.  She said "Lexi came from Illinois."  This really cracked me up, what is that, some kind of Texas insult?  I have no idea.
Anyway, otherwise life is pretty normal.  Lexi has been saying a lot more words - which is cute, funny, and surprising to me.  Mostly because Summer didn't talk much until much later in life.  We've been spending our time lazing around (me) and going to the park and occasionally the library.  (These are quick trips, because Summer has proven that she can pull out dozens of books within seconds.)  Summer's finger is getting better.  I held her hands up next to each other, and it doesn't look like that finger will be shorter than the same finger on her other hand.  (Did I make it clear that the top part of her finger was hacked off?)  So anyway, it's really amazing at how it's healing.  Maybe I'll post an "after" picture someday or something.  For now, she is down to only band-aids on it, which is great, and especially great because she gets two pink Hello Kitty band-aids that make her so happy.  (I'm not sure she wants it to heal completely.)

Happy New Year! (a little late)

So I had an idea of updating once a week or so, but I guess I'm not keeping up with that.  (This is another prizewinning self-portrait by Summer.  I take great joy in posting these because they always amuse me.  Also note that the little lens cover things aren't opening all the way on the camera anymore most of the time because two babies with sticky fingers are always playing with the camera.)

So, let me think what's new around here.  I ordered some cordless shades that turned out not to be cordless.  I wasn't annoyed about that at all.  No, not hopping mad for several days.  I consoled myself by telling myself that the babies would probably ruin them anyway, and we'll have to get new ones in a few years anyway, but that was little consolation because by the time they ruin them, they'll probably be old enough that cords aren't such a concern as they are now with little ones.  Sigh, oh well.  It is nice to have shades.  Feel like we're getting settled in the house.

Spent last Saturday afternoon at the Urgent Care in town.  (Urgent Care = some type of oxymoron, we had to wait an hour.)  Summer had a very unfortunate finger/door incident.  Not really sure what happened.  Summer came running to me with much blood and I took one glance at her finger and screamed for Scott.  (This saved us all the drama of me fainting.)  She was coming in the front door.  We had the windows open since it was very nice out (although very windy).  I think the door slammed on her finger somehow.  It was bad.  Seems to be healing okay.  The damage happened at the tip of her finger.  My great hope is that her fingernail will grow back.

Scott made a bench for the babies.  It's kinda funny because he made the bench kinda high so the babies could reach the table on it.  On the other side of the table, we have folding chairs (with hopes that he'll make chairs to match the table some day.)  Anyway, the table is a little taller than normal, so the folding chairs make you really short at the table.  So, if you have supper with us, you can sit on the bench side and be extra tall or on the folding chair side, and be really short.  Just last week, I decided to put their high chairs away, they were just in the way, and now that they have their bench, they're not going back in their high chairs again.

Had a little play date at our house - decorated some Christmas cookies.  (Lexi was a little upset that I left her there. Yep, she's a little clingy these days.  Hopefully, she settles down some after the new baby is born.....otherwise, we might have a real crisis.)

After I took this picture, I realized it was time for another little haircut for Lex.  She looks so hilarious in this picture.

Lexi will get wrinkles before her time....she's a very expressive kid.

And here's the new haircut.

Disclaimer, if you don't want to hear my shameless bragging, skip the next several picture.  This is our little craft project for the mom's group for the month of January.  I'm the "craft lady", so I plan/organize/get the supplies for our crafts.  (We do one craft a month.)  This month our theme was being healthy/meal planning, etc.  So this is a little meal planning thing to put on the fridge.  I made this sample one, and then I was going to send out a picture to the rest of the steering team to see if they approved.  Anyway, I was trying to be funny with my meals.  No one noticed or cared, unless everyone else eats peanut butter and jelly for supper.  It's probably not too far-fetched, I guess.  Anyway, if I was trying to be realistic, I would have put macaroni and cheese for at least four nights out of the week.

My first set of curtains.  Started by me....(that means, bought fabric and thought about them) and then bailed out by Mom when she came to visit.

Being a smart cookie, I just bought more fabric for the next time Mom comes back in a few weeks.  For curtains for Summer's room.  (Disclaimer:  I knew these particular shades weren't going to be cordless.)

Not sure what this expression was all about.  The girls got these dresses for Christmas, and I thought they were so cute.

Summer has a strange deal with always putting her finger in her mouth when she's smiling for a picture.  Seriously, I wonder if she's checking to see if her teeth are all there or something.

(The babies play on the kitchen table and on the counters all day long.  Can't wait until we're out of this stage.)

So anyway, probably the most interesting thing that has happened around here lately is that I was innocently sitting here (ver' late at night) doing stuff on the computer that I haven't been able to do for the last month....including listing some stuff on craigslist.  So anyway, it's late, and the whole house is very quiet, which I wasn't really aware of until about a minute ago when Scott's phone beeped and scared me half to death.  Wow....got a new text in the middle of the night.  Someone wants one of my things off craigslist.  (Since it's late and I'm tired, I'll go ahead and confess that since I'm half out of it, I had it in my head that the text must be from Lane, so as I was reading it, I kept thinking to myself....oh, how weird, how did he find our stuff on craigslist?...why does he want it???  Ba ha ha, clearly I need to go to bed.)

One more picture, I just had to show off that I have the one thing that so many people secretly want.  (Was taking pictures of the shades, but realized the money tree is more interesting.)  That's right, a money tree.  (In case you can't see it that well.)  Since it appears to be growing out of a hunk of wood, I'm not sure how to water/care for it.  Clearly, I want it to thrive.  If I take off one of these special dollars and plant it in the back yard, will it grow more money trees?  How will I explain to the girls that money doesn't grow on trees?
Oh, I almost completely forgot.  Long meeting one day at work, going over all kinds of junk.  At one point, one person said that a piece of our equipment is getting serviced by some company in Ames, Indiana.
"I think that's Ames, Iowa."
"Well, whatever....."
"They're all the same"
"It's not Texas, so who cares?"
"All those states are the same"
(Everyone was adding their input here.  Then the big boss piped up:  "One of the northern suburbs."  This seemed to satisfy everyone, so they all quieted down.  Except for me, who was laughing in the corner.  Where do they learn this stuff? Texas public schools?  Can we blame Rick Perry?  Is it something in the water?  One day Summer was being especially annoying, and I said to her, "Seriously, where did you come from?"  And without "missing a beat" as they say, she answered "Summer lives in Texas.")

Merry, Merry, Happy, Happy!

 (Lexi loves babies.)

 What I have to say about Christmas right now is a big bah humbug.  Mostly, that would be Christmas cards.  Just ordered another inferior card (at least last year I had a good excuse).  And then...(as if it isn't lame enough to have a lame picture), if I somehow kept record of this stuff, I'm sure I could confirm that the printer dies once a year at Christmas time when I'm trying to print out address labels.  I only use the printer approximately twice a year, and for the random times I print out recipes or whatever else I might use it for, I don't care if it works then, I would like it to work today.

 So I'm starting another post in an irate mood.  Maybe I should quit while I'm ahead.

(Pretty thrilled with their new stickers.) 

Or should I tell about how my new sewing machine quit working, so I unthreaded it all (including the bobbin), packed it all up, took it to Jo-Ann's, they plugged it in, rethreaded it all, and it worked perfectly.  That also would have been lame enough except the lady proceeded to go on about "user error" and "usually threading problems".  (Lady, I just did the exact thing you did six times at home.)

 So the babysitter couldn't come one day, and they were kinda slow at Scott's work, so he took the day off and stayed home with the babies went on great adventures with the babies.

 They went out to Brummitt's to watch the pecan harvest.

(If I had used this for a Christmas picture, it would have been a lot more realistic, and probably even cuter, especially with Lexi scowling like that.)

 When I got home from work, Summer met me at the door.  "Dabid...Dabid....Dabid...(she was very excited) Dabid shake the tree!!!"  (Summer doesn't say "v's")

 Watching pecan harvest is pretty cool.  I went out to watch a year or so ago.  They have this tree-shaker machine that you hook up to a tractor, attach to the tree, shake the tree, then drive around under the tree with the pecan-picker-upper, and all the able bodied people around help rake the stray pecans toward the picker-upper, and then do it all over again under the next tree. 

 Sitting in a pile of pecans.

(Packed away some of Summer's clothes to save for Lexi, together the babies got my boxes out, and Lexi piece by piece threw everything downstairs.  Thought it was kinda funny that it all got caught on top of the door there.)



Speaking of the babysitter, somehow she braided Summer's hair.  Usually just to comb Summer's hair is a huge accomplishment. 

 

Lexi has a great fascination with shoes.  On the one hand, she always tried to put shoes on people whenever anyone is walking around barefoot, but she also knows to use shoes to get bugs/spiders/etc., so anyway on this day, she brought me a shoe to get a bug that was in the kitchen.  (Please note - I made that sound really mild ("a bug in the kitchen".)    I've made a new goal to not talk about evil scorpions, spiders, snakes, etc, so I'm saving all the following stories inside my head:  oh, hi there snake on the front sidewalk trying covertly to hide in the hose, I wouldn't have noticed you except that you're 2 feet from me, and your evil head is standing up - unlike a hose, that kind of gave you away.  And then there was the snake that the neighbor just killed that was long enough that I could have made a belt for Scott, Summer, Lexi, and giantly pregnant me with it.  Ahm, I thought snake season was over, and I wasn't supposed to be worrying about them lately.  (I'm sparing the details on these stories.  Gold star for me.)

In other wildlife and such stories...there was a dead coyote on the road the other day.  When I drove by, there was a buck standing victoriously beside it.  (Get over it, Buck, I know you didn't kill the coyote, clearly hit by a car.)  Also saw the biggest buck I've ever seen in my life while driving one day.  This is news because most deer around here are dog-sized.  (They're not white tails.  Have no idea what they are, but it's not an exaggeration to say that they are the size of dogs.)

Ah, there's the 98.  Drove the Honda to work on the day that Scott stayed home.  My main goal was to park next to Tim's Lexus.  (Random fact:  Tim's car still has "that new car smell" even though he occasionally drives his poodle to the park in it.)  Alas, hopes were dashed - he wasn't there, and ironically, there was another rather unfortunate car that I parked next to.  So my hopes also were dashed that someone might look out the window and say "Who's driving that dreadful car?  Someone give that woman a raise!"

Neighbor's longhorns.  Recently found out these guys are famous.  Neighbor raises them to be props in movies.  I'm not making this up.  Heard that they were in the latest remake of "True Grit".  Was feeling famous by association, but then I got suspicious.  Are there any cows in True Grit?  I mean, isn't the plot of the story that the girl is chasing down her dad's killer?  (That sounds harsh....  Confirmed: we read too many Westerns around here.)  Scott assured me that all Westerns have some cows hanging around in the background.  (Come on, I wanted these guys to be in a movie where the main theme is a cattle drive, or maybe, at least, a family moving west on the Oregon trail with plenty of zooming in on the cows as they're travelling slowly along.)  

I keep thinking that every nice day we get is going to be the last nice day of the year.  The babies were playing in the rain the other night.  It was warm enough.  On Thanksgiving Day, we were at Rassi's and there were kids swimming in their pool.  (Not our kids.)  Today and yesterday were really nice too - in the 80's.  Air conditioner still running.

 (Lexi = loves to climb.  This door hasn't flung open on her yet, but one of these days it will.  Does this on the oven too.)

 More of the pecan harvest.  Not sure how these got out of order.