Crawling update and other stuff

This picture has nothing to do with this post. I just thought it was cute.

Piglet made it up on to all fours today. I looked at him and I couldn't believe my eyes. He started laughing at himself. It was so funny! He did this several times through out the day. Yeah piglet!

On other note, we had a speech screen scheduled for Crash tomorrow. The therapist called tonight and she is sick so we will have to postpone for a week. I was bummed. I had been looking forward to this. We have been concerned that he might have a speech delay. Oh well- one more week is no big deal. I just have to get my mind around that. (I don't like my schedule to change. Do you see where the test pilot gets it from?)

Isn't he cute!

Our little Piglet turned 9 months old last week. He's such a cutie. He is rolling all over the place. Last week I briefly "lost" him as he had rolled under my king size bed. He has started trying to push himself up to crawl. It won't be too long now.

He has become quite chatty. He makes lots of raspberry sounds and other noises. Here's just a little sample for your enjoyment. Sorry about the ending. The "thud" sounds worse than it is. That's life with a big noggin.

The results are in

The test pilot's hearing is just fine. Thanks for every one's prayers. The test was smooth and the audiologist said there were no discernible problems. We are very thankful for that.

I have to say I am becoming pretty skeptical about all these "screenings" for our children. I know intellectually why they have them, but it's starting to cost me a lot of money when there is no problem at all. For now, I will just be grateful that we continually come out on the false positive side of the tests.

Punkin Patch

Our playgroup went to our local pumpkin patch the other day. Crash was so excited to go. He likes running around plus there is a petting zoo which he loves.

I was able to get Crash to hold Piglet long enough to take this picture. I can't believe it turned out so good given the circumstances. It's fun getting to see the younger two get a chance to bond on their own.



Here's Crash with one of our buddies running in the hay maze.




We had beautiful weather that day. I love fall!

On your mark, get set, go!

My boys love race cars. They love watching NASCAR on Sundays. I found these costumes for them to play dress up with them.


The Test pilot is Dale Earnhardt, Jr (whom we just call Junior) and Crash is Tony Stewart. The Test pilot declared that they needed to wear their outfits while watching on Sunday afternoon. This usually consists of the TV on and them running around the living room in circles yelling, "Go Junior!"

They love this because well they just love cars and cars that go fast. And then there are the crashes. They go so excited when the cars crash. I am not sure if I should be disturbed by this.

I foresee a trip to the Texas Motor Speedway in my future.

My boys

Usually, when I dress my boys up and try to take a picture you generally get something like this. Crash hates cameras. He usually runs away or throws himself on the floor and starts throwing a HUGE fit. This is a picture from Easter.




Much to my pleasant surprise, this is what I got this morning. Aren't they sweet! Crash didn't throw a fit and he looked so adorable. My grandmother purchased this shirt for Crash's birthday and I was able to find matching ones for Piglet and the Test pilot.

More hearing tests...

just a different kid.

Last Wednesday, I received a call from the Test pilot's school nurse. Apparently, he had failed two hearing tests several weeks apart. I was shocked. We have never had any concerns about his hearing.

If you didn't know or forgot- Piglet had two failed hearing tests when he was a newborn, but extensive testing showed that he was a false positive. Basically, his hearing is perfect.

Back to the topic at hand. We saw the pediatrician who said his ears look great. The next step is to go to an audiologist. After much arm wrestling with the insurance company, I am able to take him to the gentleman locally instead of an hour drive away.

His appointment his next Wednesday at 8:30am. Please pray that he will be able to fully cooperate with the test, that we will get accurate results, and that he will not have a hearing loss.

Good old CJ

We've had CJ for about 10 years. The Captain found him in a mock-up of his company's airplane one winter. He came home to live with the Captain and his 2 roommates who were also his co-workers. They gave him the name CJ short for "Century Jet" which is the name of the company.

CJ has been looking his age lately. We think he has arthritis. We bought him some doggy treats with glucosamine that seem to help. He just wasn't moving too good especially when it's cold and early in the morning.

However, since the move he is like a new dog. He stays outside all the time. He doesn't ask to come in. He is running and moving around a lot more. (There are a few stray cats that he has to make sure that they know who is the boss around here.)

I guess the move was good for the dog.

He's such a good dog especially considering the lack of formal training and the fact that he was raised by 3 bachelors in his formative years. I inherited CJ when we married.

He's great with the boys and he tolerates their forms of love.

I've been tagged

1. I am a Jane Austen fanatic. I have read all of her books and seen many movie adaptions of her novels (which I tend to watch over and over).


2. My husband is taller than I am, however; I have a longer inseam than he does. It is very difficult for me to buy pants.



3. I have Degenerative Disc Disease (DDD). This basically means that the discs in my spine are deteriorating way too fast for someone my age. A neurosurgeon told me in college that one of my discs looked like it belonged to an 80 year old woman. Not good. I currently am asymptomatic.



4. When decorating my home, one of the driving factors for me is to determine how difficult it will be to clean that item or that room. Therefore, I don't want knick-knacks around that I have to move to dust. I don't like bevelled edges because gunk gets stuck in there and you have to really work to get it out. I don't like rough hewn wood because fibers get trapped on the rough edges.



5. I get very cranky if I don't eat regularly and get enough sleep. I am just as bad as the kids although sometimes worse. I can't hardly function or process anything during this time.



6. I exercise at home using DVDs from a company called The Firm. I have been using them for over 5 years. I love them. I really do like to exercise.


7. I grew up backpacking in the mountains of New Mexico. The Captain and I took lots of day hiking trips. In fact, he proposed while hiking the La Luz Trail. I really miss hiking and yearn for the mountains.

Happy Birthday Andie!

I think Andie had a great party. Her mama did a great job planning and organizing everything. There was everything that started with a "p" that she loved. She likes puppies, ponies, princesses, the colors pink and purple. She also loves farm animals. So it was a hit!

My sister made this horse cake out of cupcakes and then decorated the tops to form the horses' head. I was impressed! I wouldn't have thought to do that.

The best birthday party ever!

We travelled this past weekend to be with my sister and her family for my niece's 4th birthday party. As far as my kids were concerned, this was the best birthday party ever! It was on a farm just outside of town. It was this amazing petting zoo plus more!

Here's Crash feeding some goats. The owner had all the animals tied up so the kids could just wander around petting and feeding them all. She had goats, sheep, beefalo (cross between a cow and a buffalo), a tortoise, chickens, rabbits, and more. Crash was delighted. The animals had to be very full by the end of the day.




She also had a very gentle horse named Cotton that the kids all got turns to ride. I was surprised that Crash wanted to ride. Afterwards he tried to ride all the animals- the donkey, the goats, the tortoise. (It was an exotic petting zoo.)

They got to take turns taking the donkey for a walk. Of course, it was a little hard to get her started but they sure had fun getting her running.

Even Piglet got in on the action. He just loved watching everybody run around.

The test pilot had lots of fun playing with his cousin Evan at the party. It was so much fun!

You haven't lived until...

You have spoken to a sheriff about your 3 year old son.

Last night I was at AWANA doing my job. It was coming in time which means I check in kids and talk to parents while the other leaders do a craft with the kids until they all arrive. Well, Crash has a hard time sitting still for these craft projects. He generally spends this time under the table or hanging out with me.

Last night, policeman Jeff (who goes to our church) and a bunch of other people come racing down the hallway asking who called 911. I just sort of ignored them because I had no idea. Then it dawned on me that while Crash was hanging out with me he had been playing with a phone in the corner of the room.

He must have dialed 911 while playing so now a Sheriff sat in the very full parking lot of our church waiting to talk to this delinquent child and his parent. I can't tell you how mortified I was. Anyhow, nothing big happened except for the Sheriff taking all my vital information and a stern lecture.

Of course Crash was totally oblivious to what happened. God has been really working on my pride issues lately (there are so many) and so this was just another humbling moment to realize that I don't have it all together and I don't think I ever will.

Tribute to my husband

I have to say that I have the best husband in the world. He's so smart, handsome, a Believer, and a very handy guy. I grew up with a handy father and assumed that all men were made this way. I discovered they were not.

As our house project moves along I am constantly amazed at his abilities in this area. He's been steadily working on the house, but as we have moved in other things have broken or just aren't working correctly. He has fixed our phone line. I learned about daisy chains that day. And he saved us the $75/hr the phone company was going to charge.

Then the washing machine started to act up. It worked fine before the move but afterwards it stopped agitating. It fills with water and that's about it. Last night he took the whole thing apart, researched it on the internet, and ordered the new part. Who knows what the Maytag man would have cost? Anyhow, he is amazing.

And, he is an amazing father. He is passing his love of home repair/construction on to his boys. They want to work with him. He is so patient to teach them and let them mess it up which occasionally happens. He never gets upset when the messes happen.



Do you see the grins?

Now if mom said it's time to paint the hallway- there would have been groaning and complaining. Only dad could make this so cool!

This is awesome!

Crash discovered that our back door has a pet door. This was great excitement for him. First, he went throught it several times.

Then he ran and grabbed a ton of toys that proceeded to go through the pet door. More accurately, they crashed and flew through the pet door.

You got to love this kid!

The living room

Just thought some of you would like some new pictures of the house. Here is the fireplace in the living room before. Don't forget to visualize the smokey, dingey smell to get the full effect. Love that carpet.








Now, this is the fireplace in the living room.

The popcorn ceiling, the wood paneling, the awful floor to ceiling built in unit, and the carpet are all GONE. It smells very fresh in the living room now. We are enjoying the pergo floor. Especially, since our baby spits up a lot and frequently. Our next project is the install the recessed lighting in the living room. We plan to put in crown moulding but I think that we will wait for awhile. There are other projects that need tackling first.

So many blessings!

We are finally all moved in. (I am just now posting because we had trouble with our DSL for a week. Man, I missed the internet.) Last Saturday, we moved into our new house. During that weekend we experienced so many blessings. Here are a few in no particular order.

Blessing #1: About 9 men from our wonderful church came and assisted us in moving. They brought trailers and blessed us with their time and man power to move all of our earthly possessions. We were all moved in with beds set up by 3pm. That was amazing. We were shocked how quickly it all happened.

Blessing #2: We had 3 wonderful friends that kept each of our children. This was a double blessing because everyone except the test pilot had a pretty bad cold. They were very generous putting up with all of our drainage. Luckily, one of my friends had sick kids that day so she didn't mind one more.

Blessing #3: One of the men from church mowed and edged our front and back lawns on move in day. They had been neglected with all the house renovation so they looked a little shabby. Our street has some very nice yards so ours really didn't look good. What a nice surprise!

Blessing #4: One of the families that helped us move also invited us over for dinner that night. That was a blessing in itself because we were all tired and did not have food in the house. They were even kind enough to say that we could just come and eat and then go straight home. They knew we were exhausted and sick. They took care of our physical needs but didn't want us to feel obligated to stay and chat for too long. What generosity.

Blessing #5: When we came home from dinner, another friend dropped off a wonderful meal. On Sunday, 2 more meals appeared on our door step. I didn't have to cook all week. I can't tell you how grateful I was for the break plus we were able to eat some really good food. Yum!

God was so good to us that whole weekend.