Interesting ride home...

From the mouths of babes...

I never really took this phase to mean much. But I get it now. ESPECIALLY with my children. Today Matt informed me that he is the 3rd boss. My response..."HUH?!?" It appears that my child is in the 2nd grade mofia of some sort. He's the 3rd boss of this. Apparently if the 2 other bosses get bumped off (or change schools, get sick, ect...) he is 1st boss. ..ok... Then he tells me that people give him their quarters and he gets them cookies. At first I was afraid that he was taking the quarters by force (mafia style) and keeping the cookies for himself. Then he tells me "no" he gets the money and gets the cookies for them. I asked why he does this and he said that he's their server. I asked why he would want to do this, cause to me it sounds like he's getting used. He said he liked to to this and it gives him exercise...and it's like a massage for his feet....??? Okey dokey.

Then Nat get's in and we are headed home. Matt then starts a new topic...do criminals get fed...even if they are sentanced to death? Well Nat takes on this answer and tells him that if you didn't feed them that would be like committing murder and then the guards/police are no different than the criminals. Then Matt looks to me to verify that she's not B.S.ing him and I say that this is true. He asks "why, if they are really bad, and sentanced to die anyway, should we waste food on them?" Hummm... good point. I thought about trying to explain that prisoners have the same (and sometimes more) rights than we do and we can't treat them with cruel and unusual punishment....but I didn't, and we changed subjects again.

Matt now asks if Hurricane Rita's gone. I say yes. We talk about how they are calling Rita the "little sister" of Katrina. Then he asks if a hurricane can pull you up in it. I say (with my limited knowledge) that a hurricanes wind will blow you down and tornados pull things into it. Nat then jumps in with her explaination (now keep in mind she says the following with complete innocence)..she tells Matt "Hurricanes blow and tornandos suck.." as tears well up in my eyes and I try so hard not to laugh...I say "that's true baby...so true!"

Good Looking Kids

Here's my favorite picture from our little photo shoot at Bobby and Chanda's on Sunday. I must say...those are some GOOD LOOKING kiddos :)


Here's a family portrait Matthew style :)


If you will recall a few blogs ago I posted a picture of Matthew doing this exact same thing. What's funny is we had no clue that Bailey was a monkey also!! I was just scrolling thru some of their old pictures and came across this one and just started laughing! Yes, I realize that these are not the 1st kids to ever do this...but it's funny that we both had pictures of our kids doing this. I thought Matt was the only monkey in the family :)

As far as "news" goes...I got a delightful call from Carrie (mentioned in last post and on all of Beth's posts...look at her blog sometime. The link is on the right side of my blog). Her and her family are moving to the Dallas area within the next 2 weeks. Her hubby will work in either the Plano or Galleria store. She'll work the Dallas area. We are just so happy to have them coming our way!

The latest hurricane has effected (or affected, I need a grammer lesson) another one of my family members. My sister Karen is just now getting to take her summer vacation at Port Aransas. She and Mark headed down this past Saturday and had to evacuate yesterday. She did at least get to have a few days down there...but she's a lot like me...she could stay there a month and still want more :) I tried to get her "reasonable" tickets to Vegas (for the remained of her days off), but that's not gonna happen on such short notice. She hopes that they'll maybe get to go in October. And, Chanda's Aunt and cousins that live in Galveston were all evacuating yesterday also. She said some of them might come her way...and let me tell you...you are SAFE from a hurricane in Midland, TX!!

Kids are all still just doing great! Nat had a rough night last night. She had to write 100 (2 line!!) sentances cause some boys in her class acted up in the library. Now I'm not one of those Mom's that thinks my kid is a total angel, but Nat is a good kid and is equally great at school! AND she was testing on the computer while this whole thing happened. She cried quite a bit and I was torn. I really wanted to go tell the librarian to stick it...and I still might. But I know that crap like this happens to all of our kids and it happened to me in shcool too. The bad thing was that she had to finish a project for Social Studies and still do her nightly 30 mins of reading. She didn't finish writing the sentences till 7:30 (and that was with only a 30 min supper break). I felt bad for her so I let her listen to Harry Potter on CD while she soaked in my tub. How do you explain or justify such an unfair thing to a kid...when you think the teacher/librarian was totally wrong?? HELP!

Matt's doing better towards the end of the week. He got a yellow at school on Monday...which it not that big of a deal, but he lied and said he got green and then erased..or tried to erase the teachers note. So, a week grounded from TV and video games. But he's been working really hard, cleaned his room (which was a MAJOR chore), and being respectful...so early release for good behavior.

Brayden's just doing something new everyday. Yesterday I found another bottom tooth. He's pulling up and anything he can and he's started to do a semi-bear crawl. VERY FUNNY to watch him hike that little bootie up in the air! And I've added a new daily chore for my self...find the hidden spit up in the floor!! Not such and easy chore when you have spit-up colored carpet :) I just stay barefoot and hope that it's only me that steps in it.

Well that's my updates for now. Hope you all are having a good week!

Another Great Family Weekend

Well we wrapped up another great family weekend. We went to Midland to celebrate Delaynee Mae's birthday. It is actually on the 3rd (same as Matt) but Bobby and Chanda were just getting moved in and getting everything painted that weekend, so they postponed it to give themselves a chance to finish up. They have a beautiful home!

We left out on Friday (later that usual...go figure) and along the way Jim got a delightful call from Carrie (his cousin that has been made "homeless" due to Hurricane Katrina). She told Jim that her and her family will be moving to the Metroplex. We are so excited. This will really be great. She'll also end up being a little bit closer to her Mom and Sister AND this will get her away from any coastline!! The next day me, Nat, and Brayden got to go to Bailey and Chloe's soccer games. Both girls did just great. Bailey is really an incredible player...and VERY aggressive! Chloe was very fun to watch...very entertaining! I encourage anyone who can to go watch these girls play, to do it:) That evening we went to Delaynee's birthday party at good ole Chukie Cheese's. It was a fun party for the kids and the adults had a nice time visiting. When it was time for cake Chloe was sitting next to me. When it's cake time Chuckie comes out..this was NOT cool with Chloe...or several of the kids. Chloe starts leaning really close to me and whispers "Chuckie's kinda scary"...this was so cute, but she was SERIOUS! So I told her that it was ok and that we'd keep that rat on the far end of the table!! When I look up again I notice that all the kids (pretty much 5 and under) were slowly moving towards the opposite end of the table as Chukie. Just why'd they had to bring that rat out!!?? Then Chuckie went away and all was good again!

That evening we watched Napolean (sp?) Dynomite. OH MY!?! There are parts in that movie that will make you laugh so hard you cry and other parts that leave yuo saying ..."What the.." Everyone should watch it at some point. It's "SWEET" :) Oh man... The sleeping arrangment that night was Me, Jim, and Brayden in the guest room. Nat and Bailey in Bailey/Chloe's room, and Bobby, Chanda, Delaynee, Chloe, and Matt in Bobby and Chanda's ginormous room!! The next morning Bobby and Chanda said the woke to Matt telling Chloe some TALL tales. Like the time he was bit by a rattlesnake...but only with one fang and that's how he's alive today!! There were many others, but we just don't have that kinda time. If you know Matt, you get the jist.

Before heading home the kids and Jim went to visit James and they got to ride in his jeep and make braclets. We ran and got a bite to eat and then did a quick photo shoot of the kids. When I get the pics from Bobby and Chanda I'll share some.

We finally got home about 8:30. We showered and headed to bed. We were drained, but it was a fun weekend!

Catching up

Well it's time to catch up again. Not a whole lot has happened, but I figure some cute pictures will make up for it :)


Natalie's been doing GREAT. Her math teacher told her she's doing the best out of ALL the 5th graders. She's now getting to decorate her fish that she's made at art school. We are very ready to get to see it. She's been in TOTAL control anytime she's had any "break thru" episodes...she's really a remarkable kid. And she's just as beautiful as ever!! The photo shown above was taken by the very talented Kim Halfmann..thanks Kim :) (Sorry it's so small...don't know why...)


Matt is now 8. He had a great time at his party and it was hard to get him and Nat to want to leave. He had a good turn out of friends and that was fun for him...especially since his kindergarten girlfriend (who still lives in Justin) came. Hanna is still the "apple of his eye". His face was priceless when he heard her mom on the anwering machine saying that she could come. He said "REALLY?? She came come?" Then he got to talk to her when I returned her Mom's call and they were both on cloud 9! Here's a picture of him performing his new talent....


Brayden can now pull up, as you can see here. He's very pleased with himself. He's also been saying Da-da for about a week now. This really make Jim's day:) He also says "yeah-yeah" which I think might be his way of saying "Na-na". I told Nat to just keep saying Na-na and I bet that's what it turns into. He's just as funny as ever and is getting more curious by the day. I've found that my house (my floor) is no where near as clean as I thought it was. Sweeping and vaccuming (sp?) are now becoming daily chores instead of weekly or bi-weekly.


I'll end with this picture. Kim also took this one and it's just precious!!

Hope you are all having a good week - Angie

Well Matthew said...

"Well Matthew said..." - This comes from a convestation that my sister Cheryl had with my Dad. Can't remember the topic, but Matthew had convinced my sister Cheryl (of something a little far fetched) and when my Dad questioned her, she replied with "well Matthew said..."

Anyone who knows Matthew, knows that he is one good story teller. A good majority of the time these stories can quickly become TALL tales. Especially if you show real interest and act as if you truely believe that YES he did indeed encounter wild panthers on his last 4-wheeler outing with his Dad. Lucky for him Dad had up-ed the speed of his 4-wheeler so that he was able to escape near death!!!

And as we are nearing his 8th birthday (Sept. 3rd) he is learning to refine his stories a little better each day and he's getting more and more heartfelt! In the short ride in between his and Nat's school he tells me in his "whispering" voice (not much softer than his normal voice...due to Brayden sleeping) that it is just TERRIBLE what happened to Daddy's cousin (Carrie, her husband Guy, and baby Olivia...mentioned on Jim and Beth's blog). He says that he definately wants to become a billionaire and not a police man now. (I mentioned this conversation many blogs ago) He basically told me that is a true testament as to way he should be a billionaire. He said that when people like Carrie had bad things happen to them, he's just gonna give then a million dollars to help them get their stuff back. And if they wanted to they could all come live with him in his mansion (in London). And he wants me to help him build it so that there's enough room for all his family! Does this kid have a heart or what!!!

Now as sweet as that topic was, we obviously needed to move on and he wanted to know if his friend was right about the number: 1,000million. I tried to explain that that's not exactly a number. Matt has a thing about trying to come up with the biggest number imaginable. It can be quite mind rattleing trying to explain "infinity" to him....so I typically turn this over to Jim.

The last topic he needed address before we got to Nat's school was about my speedometer. He asked "where is it ok to do 120?" I said "Not really anywhere". Matt says "well why is there 120 on there if you aren't supposed to do that?". Uhhh...anyone whant to help me here??? All I say is "I'm not sure buddy." He says that they need to just stop speedometers at 90 or what ever the fastest speed is that you can go on the autobaughn. Wes, Kim, Gary...what would that speed be?

Well that was it for our daily chat since he promptly must run out ot Nat's playground and look for his friend that he plays with till Nat comes to the car. I didn't talk about my other 2 sweet babaies this time cause this was dedicated just to Matt in honor of his birthday. If any of you have any funny/bizarre stories about my Matt, I'd love to hear them...heck we all would.