I See You!

So what did he do after he was "caught" trying to get wet? Try to butter up his Mama by bringing me a bottle of water. Can't you see the look in his eyes? "I just know this is gonna work! She's gonna forget all about getting on to me for getting too close to the pool without my floaties (or swimsuit) on!"

1st Haircut

Today was the big day. We finally made time to give Barrett his first haircut! His hair wasn't that bad, but it was starting to get long over his ears and on the nape of his neck. Here's the before picture. (Yes, I know he has a bruise in the middle of his forehead. Somehow he fell in the kitchen and landed forehead first. Ouch!)

He didn't even flinch as Mike came at him with the scissors. He stood pretty still and let Mike cut away.

The best picture I got of the finished product. Same boy...just a little less hair!

Now look at Brody's hair. I think it is very obvious that he was in need of a trim!

Even with bedhead...he's such a cutie!

Goggle Boy

The other day Barrett found Brody's goggles in a pile of pool toys. He decided that he should try them out. So he politely asked me, "Mama? Will you please put these goggles on my head?" Actually, I think it was more like, "Uhhhh uhhhh uhhh!" while he showed me the goggles and held them up to his face. Once he got them on, he was ready to go swimming!

Just like his big brother, Barrett has no fear of the water. He'll crawl right into the pool and push off of the step (notice there's not anyone else in the pool). For this reason, I put his floaties on him as soon as we step out the back door.

I think I let him wear the goggles a little too long. The evidence was left on his face! (You may have to click on the picture to get the full effect).

I'm glad that I have two little water babies. It makes having a pool in our backyard so much fun!

Cowboys Stadium

Tonight was the Silver and Blue Debut at the Cowboys Stadium. They had an open practice where fans could come watch (and check out the new stadium) for FREE!!! You better believe we were there!

Brody was really excited to get to go inside Cowboys Stadium. He asks us to drive by it all the time. He loves looking at the building from the outside and telling us about how the Cowboys will play football there...so you can imagine his excitement when I told him we were going to go watch the Cowboys play football INSIDE Cowboys Stadium!

Barrett likes putting Brody's football helmet on...and then taking it off...and repeating the process 1000 times.

They aren't lying when they say that the jumbo tron is HUGE!

When you walk in the doors of the stadium, you're immediately in the middle of the stadium. You see the stands all around you and the football field directly in front of you. It was pretty cool!

Daddy Steve and Brody took turns using the binoculars to watch the football players practice.

There was a guy sitting in front of us that had a Cowboys jersey on. Brody asked, "Why isn't he down there playing?" I told him that the man was just a fan there to watch the practice and that he bought the jersey at a store. He said, "What about his helmet? Did he buy it at a store too?" I said, "You mean his hat? Yes, he bought that at a store." Brody said, "Why is he wearing it like that? (He had it on backwards) Is it because Tony Romo wears his hat like that?" lol. I told him that was probably why. He also asked me why Daddy wasn't down there playing. He assured me that Daddy has football shoes and can catch the football really good! When I asked Brody if he wanted to put his helmet on he replied, "Nah, I need to wait until the Cowboys put their helmets on too." (They were warming up without helmets at the time.)

We were glad we were at a free event as Barrett would never have lasted an entire game. Daddy Steve walked around with him for a little while and then we decided to head home.

Outside there was a line to get an autograph from Jay Novacek. We didn't have the patience to wait in the line, but we did get a picture of him. He was roommates with Mike's uncle, L.H., in college!

Of course, Brody and Mike had to spend a little time throwing the football around. Some girls were handing out free toy footballs. See the green football that Brody dodged instead of catching?!

We were glad we left when we did. We looked back to see dark clouds converging on the stadium. I bet a lot of people got wet heading to their cars after the practice!

We had a lot of fun at Cowboys Stadium. Brody was probably the most visibly excited person in our group. There was a football game on TV when we got home and he was exclaiming at the top of his voice, "Look Daddy! It's Cowboys Stadium!!! I've been inside there!!!" (It wasn't Cowboys Stadium on TV...but it didn't really matter.)

Step by Step Cooking with Namaw and Staci

Have you noticed the new trend in online recipes? No longer do people just post a recipe with a picture of the finished product. Now they post step by step pictures! It's pretty neat to get to watch the delicious food come together...especially since I know my chances of recreating in real life the recipes that I see online are very slim.

In honor of our friend, Paula...aka Romaine, coming over for lunch today, Mom and I decided to do a little step-by-step recipe of our own. These were live shots of us making lunch for Brody on Monday.

Turkey Cheeto Rollups
Ingredients:
Deli Turkey
Cheetos
Kitchen Table (although any surface will do. It would be best to wipe down the surface before you start, however, I'm not sure that we did...so it's up to you.)

First you take a slice of turkey out of the package and spread it out on the table.

Next, take a Cheeto and lay it on the slice of turkey at one end. You may have to cut the Cheeto to length (aka bite off one end) so that it doesn't stick out past the edges of the slice of turkey.

Now carefully roll the slice of turkey around the Cheeto

Now for the best part...hand it to your 3 year old!

He smiles as he realizes that you didn't just hand him a slice of turkey...you hid a surprise inside!

He takes a timid bite...

SUCCESS!!!! You have now discovered a way to get your child to eat something besides a peanut butter sandwich for lunch! Sure the Cheetos may not be the most healthy...but you can get 6 slices of turkey down him by using 6 little Cheetos!

Tune in next time for more recipes with Namaw and Staci...

The Start of a New Era

As you might conclude (if you look at the links on my blog), many of my family members have joined the blogging community. One of the holdouts has been my youngest brother, Tyler, and his wife Ann. They stay extremely busy and tell me that they don't have time for another social network. Blogging is my favorite online communique because not only do I let all those who care about me know what's going on in my life, I'm also able to journal, scrapbook, and make a photo album at the same time (I just make my blog into a book every year).

For the past few years I keep trying to pressure Tyler and Ann into starting a blog. I even check http://www.tylerandann.blogspot.com/ every once in awhile just to see if they've started a blog and didn't tell me. When we had them over for Brody's birthday party, I told Tyler how I randomly check that web address to see if he's started a blog and am always disappointed that he hasn't.

Tonight I fell out of my chair, and then was crying on the floor I was laughing so hard when I went to http://www.tylerandann.blogspot.com/

Want to know why? Go visit http://www.tylerandann.blogspot.com/ and find out! Then leave them a comment and let them know you'd like to really see them blogging! They have such a fun life together and I know you'd all love to read about it. Of course, you're probably their friends on Facebook and already know all about their life...for some reason I can't seem to get into Facebook. Maybe it's because "I don't have time for another social network". lol

(Just in case you're wondering...I'm still laughing about http://www.tylerandann.blogspot.com/ ! No one was here to laugh with me. The boys are asleep and Mike's at the gym...so I thought I'd share with you)

*EDIT* Tyler made the blog private...but that wasn't the joke. The blog header said, "Hey Staci" and there was only one post which was titled (and the content of the post simply said), "Hey Staci". It was dated August 18th. He said he thought it'd be a month or so before I found it. He underestimated me!

Busy Sidewalks

For the past few months I've been jogging with the boys in the mornings. I usually leave the house between 8 and 8:30 am (depending on when Barrett wakes up). Some mornings the boys eat their breakfast in the stroller and other days I feed them before we leave. This morning both boys were up early, so we were hittin' the pavement by 8 am.

Brody wanted to run by the policeman's house (there are several cops in our neighborhood and there's usually one cop car home during the day), so we headed that direction first. Then we headed up to the school where for the past few weeks I've been doing fartleks (although I've been pronouncing them "far-licks" and when I googled it to check the spelling realized it's actually "fartleks"...Swedish for speed play) which for me has consisted of running sprints on Brody's timetable (whenever he says go). He doesn't like to give me much rest...so it wears me out! Then we run around the school and back towards our neighborhood. Usually the neighboring HOA has the sprinklers running on the grass along the sidewalk and we're able to cool off as we finish the run.

Today as we rounded the corner and looked up the hill that is one street over from the school, we saw that cars were parked down the street for over a block. Suddenly I was hit with a stark realization. "It's the first day of school!" I thought we could still run up to the school and just run along the front on the sidewalk. As I topped the hill and looked towards the school I realized that I had no clue how many people would be dropping off kids! The sidewalks were packed curb to curb with couples walking their kids to the elementary school and excited little ones with their new backpacks. Amid the chaos I tried to turn my double jogging stroller around and make a quick escape back to the quite neighborhood. We passed some of our neighbors (my cousin, Jon, invited us to a party at our neighbors house this past Friday...our neighbor is one of Jon's high school friends), said "Hi", and then escaped the crowd.

When I do fartleks at the school, I park the stroller on the sidewalk and they watch (and Brody yells "On your mark, get set, go!"). I didn't want to park them in the street...but I'd already told Brody we were going to do them (and he wouldn't let me get away with just jogging! lol) So I decided to sprint while pushing the double jogger. The boys thought it was fun to go so fast! It was a HARD workout for me (especially since the stroller doesn't have a brake!) and I was really sucking air by the time we were done.

As we were jogging back home I told the boys, "I gonna die!" Brody looked at me and then laughed and said, "No you're not!" I realized that I shouldn't use that term flippantly. The other day I got on to Brody for running across the street without looking both ways. I told him that if a car had hit him he would've died! If I want that to remain a serious consequence in his mind...I shouldn't joke about it at the end of a run. So I told him, "You're right. I'm not gonna die...but I might throw up!" Again he laughed. We made it safely back to the house and the boys busied themselves playing Connect Four (by their own rules) while I cleaned up and got ready for work.

Curly?

Megan commented about my hair not being straight in one of my earlier posts, so here's a whole post about it.

I've discovered something new...my hair has body! I've always blow dried my hair straight so it doesn't friz out on me, however, lately I've been noticing that it's kinda wavy when I get out of the shower. I'm guessing this is something that came with the kids? My hair is still as straight as a board if I blow dry it, but the other day I decided to buy some mousse and see what happened. I used mousse and a diffuser and got this.

It's not spiral curls, but it definitely has some body to it! Give me your honest opinion. What do you think of the curly Staci? My only issues are the little frizzies on the top of my head when I wear it like this. Anyone know how to calm those down?

Townhall

Last night Caleb, Audria, and I went to a townhall meeting held by Congressman Joe Barton (Ranking Member of the Committee on Energy and Commerce). Caleb and Audria took their cameras (of course). Here are some of the exerpts from the meeting of approx 1000 consitutents.

Go comment on his videos if you agree or disagree with what's said...and PLEASE attend townhall meetings held by Congressmen and Senators in your district/state. We have to make our voices heard!

How old where you when you TP'd someone the first time?

Barrett was almost 14 months old.

Keeping Our Word

A month or more ago we promised Brody that we'd take him to Cabela's for his birthday and let him pick out one toy. After his birthday party we realized that he didn't need one more toy...but a promise is a promise! He's been talking about a blow gun that he wanted from Cabela's for several weeks. Wouldn't ya know that they didn't have any when we got there? He settled on a bow and arrow than he "can pull back all by myself". I forgot to take his picture with the reason for our trip...but I did get a few other pictures while we were there.

Grammy went with us. It was her first trip to Cabela's and she was impressed. We were there for 2 hrs before it closed...but I think Mike and Brody would've liked to have spent another 8 hrs looking around!

Daddy Steve's Birthday

Today was Daddy Steve's birthday. After church, we took him to lunch at Spring Creek BBQ.

Later in the afternoon, Tyler, Caleb, Mike, and a few other guys met Daddy Steve at the football fields for a game. It was a HOT afternoon to play...but they had fun!

We gave Daddy Steve his birthday present at Brody's birthday party. We all went in to get him tickets to the Paul McCartney concert at Cowboys Stadium this coming Wednesday night! He was so excited (proof in his face below...I think he was saying, 'Cool!" He said that he'd already resigned himself to the fact that he'd never get to see Paul McCartney in person. The Beatles were one of the first groups that he really liked...so he has a lot of memories with Paul McCartney songs.

Happy Birthday Daddy Steve! I'm glad we got to spend the day with you today!

The Party

We had a Mexican Fiesta (food wise) for Brody's birthday. It was delicious...however, the birthday boy couldn't eat. He was so excited about all the presents by the fireplace that he said he wanted to wait to eat until after he opened presents. So...he (not so patiently) waited for all 17 adults, 4 kids, and 2 babies to finish eating. We decided to do the cake after presents (it was Brody's birthday after all...and he wanted to do presents first!) One thing that struck us as funny was watching him try to open presents wrapped in wrapping paper. We didn't realize how used to gift bags kids are. We actually had to show him how to rip into it!

When the presents were finally all opened, we gathered around the cake to sing Happy Birthday.

Then it was time to head outside. Brody and Collin convinced Audria to go on a hunt for bugs with them so that they could use Brody's new bug vacuum. According to Audria, they had more fun sucking up the grass clippings.

GG and Barrett had fun playing with the bug vacuum too.

Most of the party, however, was spent in the swimming pool. The kids started swimming before lunch, got out long enough to eat and open presents, and then were back in the pool until it was time to leave. Mark, Caleb, Tyler, and Daddy Steve swam with the kids.
Daddy Steve and Lauren had a contest to see who could stay on Wally the Walrus the longest. Lauren won hands down!

Katelyn showed Barrett how to fish with a "fishing pole" (a piece of iron with beads and string attached).

Back in the house Audria officiated the debate between Caleb and Mike about which toy guns on the cake were rifles and which were shot guns.

After Jayden and Barrett got out of the pool, they had fun playing together on Brody's new camo couch.

I think everyone had a lot of fun hanging out together and Brody really enjoyed having his cousins over to play. He was sad to see Collin go home, but we plan getting the boys together for a sleep over before school starts...so he'll see him again soon.

The other good thing about the party is the leftovers. We have enough leftovers that I won't have to cook this week. Woo hoo!!!

The Cake

I thought Brody's birthday cake deserved it's own post. Audria and I worked on it until 11:30 last night and we were really proud of the results! Brody wanted a camouflage cake so we used some of his action figures and came up with this...