The Birthday Party

First off, thank you for all those who came to the party: Grandma & Pop-pop, Grandma & Poppa Roaine, Billy, Tina, Taylor, Tyler, and Nat's friend Shelby. We loved having everyone of ya'll and dearly missed those who couldn't come :)

The few days leading up to the party were making we wonder if this thing would even get to happen. Brayden started having the crud the Monday before the party and it progressively got worse thru the week. We had to start him back on his breathing treatment since we started having occasional respiratory distress. I took him to the dr. on his b-day (Thursday) and told her about the swimming party. She actually thought that all that humidity in the indoor pool would help open him up. So that was encouraging. Then I get a call from the Natarorium telling me that someone have double booked the 1 party room they have and could we reschedule our party to another time. I was like "are you nuts?? With one day notice and I have family coming in from out of town??" She told me that the other party had purchased the more expensive package so they got priority. I told her I was budging and to make something work. She told me that she could set us up in the spectator area and take $75 off my party price...heck ya!

So after watching Matt's game (which ya'll GOT to start bugging Jim to get him to give ya'll the play by plays)...we all headed home for min or two and then were headed off to Denton. We get there and yup, we were in spectator area all right...not a frill in sight :) But it was fine...we were there to eat some cake and go play! We had one cake (with all the goods) for Nat and another on that I made and Mom and Tina helped me decorate. I must say that I'm very impressed with how this cake turned out!

Brayden had decided that he didn't want to have cake at the table and he wanted to go to the very far end of the stands (the seating in the spectator area) and eat his cake there. He had crawled up onto the seat and when he went to turn around and sit on his bottom his shoe got caught on his pants and he went face forward (no stopping with the hands) into the stands in front of him and his front 2 teeth went thru his bottom lip. LOT OF BLOOD! And it bled for a long time after also. which this didn't help with the coughing fits at all! Once we got him semi calm we had Nat open her presents so the big kids could go play. Brayden was up for anything but clinging on to me...for good reason. I headed down with him to the pools so that maybe he'd want to go in if he saw the other kids playing. I finally got him interested to go in and the lifeguard says "everyone out of the pool". So little kid had puked in the dadgum pool!!!!!!!!! UNBELIEVABLE! There is an Olympic sized pool, but it is chilly..we got in anyway cause Brayden was ready to play. We were feeling like Popsicles! And my Mom captured the look on my face that says it ALL!

The lifeguards told us that the warmer pool (the one with the slide and the b-ball goals) was closed for the rest of the day. Uh..NO! I asked who was in charge cause this was bs! Finally found "the man" and he said that the pool had to be shocked and we might get about 30 mins before the actual closing time of 6pm. And that's exactly what we got! Here's some more shots from the party...

If you haven't had a chance to see it, please check out the blog before this one about Brayden's b-day. I must say that is is very nice to know when someone reads my blog...especially when they take me as long as they do to post :) Hope you all have a great weekend and I'll have a post soon about Nat's birthday.

Brayden's 2nd Birthday!!!!

I know I'm behind on posting about b-days and such. But hopefully once I get these all posted and you read what's been going on...hopefully you'll understand :) I'll do a blog for Brayden's bday, then hopefully tomorrow one about the party, and then finally one for Nat's b-day.

Starting with last Thursday...BRAYDEN TURNED 2!!!!!!!!!!!!!















Thanks to my Mom's awesome collection of recepies, we were able to find one that I could maek that accomdated all of Brayden's allergies...and I must say, for my first time to do anything "from scratch"...it was quite yummy :)

Brayden though it was very NUMMY!

After having his favorite meal: sketties and cake...it was time to open prez (presents). And he became quite the master of tearing off the paper during Christmas :)










His main present wasn't wrapped, but he did NOT care! If I was worried about having holes in wall before...HA...NOW I need to worry :)


Grandma and Pop-pop gave Brayden a cool real wood farm and they ALL had a blast playing with it!











It was a great 2nd b-day and for Mom it was easier to deal with than b-day #1 :)

This was short and sweet, but stay tuned for further b-day postings :)

Week 5 Weigh in

Ok, Jim was very sweet and got the Excel program to work. But bear with me cause if you're familiar with spread sheet formats you can probably guess that they don't transfer into Blogger very well... AT ALL!

Now that I have percentages working I will congratulate the person with the largest percentage of weigh loss each week :)

Week 5

name....weight...lbs lost...week %...lbs lost...total %

Jim.........232.......-1...........-0.43............5........2.11
Beth.......189.........1.............0.53............2........1.05
Angie......170.......-3...........-1.80............5........2.86
Reagan...138.......-3...........-2.22..........-1.......-0.73
Barbara..177.......-5...........-2.91...........-3.......-1.72
Billy........245........1.............0.41.............9.........3.54
Tina........166........0............0.00.............5.........2.92
Bill...........213......-10........-4.93...........-10.......4.93

And this weeks BIGGEST LOSER is: BETH :) with BILLY running a close 2nd!

Hang in there everyone, next week will be better!

Stay tuned...I shall post about the baby and Natalie's b-days today...I hope.

Weigh In #4

Hope everyone has made it thru all the crappy weather from last week. I know that the kids were hoping for it to just keep getting worse so that we could get some more snow and snow/ice days...but I am ready for the 50's again! Especially since I have a new found love for running! I didn't get to run at all last week. I guess if I was a true die hard nothing would have stopped me...but, I just was not up for slipping on the ice or turing into a popcicle :)

Welcome to week #4 of the weigh ins. So far so good everyone!!!!!!!! I apologize, but I couldn't get the Excel program to figure the weight loss percentages...so it's just lbs lost only again. But everyone did so good, I didn't figure most of you would mind :)

Week #4

Beth - 190 > no gain :)
Billy - 246 > 8 lb loss... WOO HOO :)
Tina - 171 > 5 lb loss... Another big WOO HOO :)
Dad - 203 > vacation :)
Mom - 172 > vacation and HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
Angie - 167 > 2 lb loss
Jim - 231 > 2 lb loss
Reagan - 135 > no gain :)

Again, the invitation is still open to anyone who'd like to join in! Good luck to everyone and hope every has a killer weight loss week :)

Weigh In #3

Looks like everyone had a really good week...way to go. Now that I've gotten everyone start weights, I will do the percentages after I get next Mondays weights.

Week 3

Beth - 190 > 1 lb loss
Billy - 254 > start weight
Tina - 171 > start weight
Dad - 203 > gearing up for vacation :)
Mom - 172 > Vacation mode :)
Angie - 169 > 2 lb loss
Jim - 233 > 1 lb loss
Regan - 135 > 2 lb loss

Good luck this week! I know that the 1st and 2nd week are the HARDEST! But if you can make it thru to week 3, it starts to seem bearable :) Hang in there!!!!!

Weigh in #2

We have several people that have decided to join in to our version of the Biggest Loser (part 2). Some are weighing in for the first time this week and some will start next week. We will start to figure percentage of weight loss hopefully next week. For now I'll just post straight weight loss.

Good luck to everyone and remember, any one who reads this is welcome to join in at ANY time! Just email me your weights on Monday mornings (or as close to it as you can).

Week #2

Jim - 234 > 3lb loss
Angie - 171 > 4lb loss
Mom - 171 > 3lb loss
Dad - 202 > start weight
Reagan - 137 > start weight
Beth - 191 > after baby start weight :)
Billy and Tina - (will start next Monday)

It's ON!

First off...Happy New Year to everyone!! And with the New Year comes another round of resolutions. At this very time last year Jim and I (along with several others) began our version of The Biggest Loser. So to continue our new "tradition", we are now starting up The Biggest Loser season 2!

As with the "rules" of last year, ANY one of you may join in at any time. I will post the start weights this week. Then next week I'll post weight and percentage of weight lost (with the help of my husbands excel sheet :) ) We will weigh in every Monday and will attempt to post the info every Monday (just depends on when I get every one's info).

For any of you new to this, it was VERY successful last year for a large number of us. Not to say that when the holidays hit that me and Jim didn't fall off the wagon :) But when we were serious, and posting every week...it worked.

So I extend the invite to all of those who want to join in. At this time I won't be doing a "competition". But if there are those of you who think this might work better for you if we do this in competition mode, just let me know and we can accommodate :)

Week 1

Jim - 237
Angie - 175

Good luck to all of you that join or go it alone. You CAN do this!!!!!!!!

Paco the Straw Goat riding Gnome & the noodle wielding midget

I'm sure that you are thinking this is a Matthew story, but it's Natalie's :)

Natalie's grade has been studying Christmas Around the World. And her class is representing Sweden. She told us last night over supper that in Sweden, Santa Clause is called Paco (possibly she is mistaken... :)~ ) and he's a gnome that lives in the floor boards until Christmas Day. And instead of riding in a sleigh...he is transported on a goat made of straw. Now if that story does make a beverage fly out you nose...this next story might.

Tonight at supper we went to Olive Garden. Brayden has become really fond of noodles...especially spaghetti. Lucky for him Olive Garden has whole wheat spaghetti and he can have all he wants. Well I guess whole wheat texture wasn't what he was used to so he started shaking his hands. I didn't pay much attention to this at first cause I was scarfing down my food. Then it dawned on me that his hands that were shaking were covered in spaghetti!! Yes, the spaghetti was flying. Unfortunate for the man sitting behind me... the spaghetti was bouncing off him and his nice leather jacket. Oopsie... don't think he notice and I didn't see any in his hair..so we left shortly afterwards :)

Matt didn't have any wild stories to share or funny events due to the major sugar rush he was on early in the day at his school party. And I witnessed it ALL. I became temporary room Mom for the party. It was fun but I was surprised that my son was VERY "Matthew" today and I thought that since I was gonna be there that he'd be a little more mellow...HA! But he had fun and was mellow all afternoon. Kinda figure he won't be asking to stay up late tonight.

If I don't write before the 25th.... I hope you ALL have a WONDERFUL Christmas!

Feeling like Christmas

Well it's definitely feeling like Christmas, but not due to the temperature lately. Now last week, we really got the Christmas bug here. Not only cause we celebrated Christmas with Jim's Mom's family...but cause we had all the decorations in place. The big kids got to go up on the roof and "help" Dad. They were pumped, Dad was a bundle of nerves! Brayden really enjoyed the show and occasionally cheered them on :)

After the outdoor decorating and frozen Popsicle children...and Dad.... we decorated the tree. This year was Nat's year to put the angel on top.

...Not sure where bloggers gonna put this text, still not sure how to maneuver in this new version so bear with me...

And the final touches to get us in the holiday spirit are: We have all but 5-6 gifts to purchase. All the others are wrapped and under the tree. And, Brayden and the kids got to witness the first snow of the season (see picture below...or where ever it ends up). Finally, we got to go to Nat's Christmas band concert. The first concert she's played in and they sounded great. I wish I had be able to get more pictures, but I couldn't get int he right position in the auditorium to get around the music stands AND my stinking batteries were ALL shot and the camera kept going dead. And I took 4 SETS of batteries to keep this form happening. But I did get one shot of her walking on stage..

Hope you are all getting into the holiday spirit :) It'll be here and gone before you know it, so savor this time while you can. It's such a great time of year :) (sappy enough for ya?)

One down, 4 to go :)

Our Christmas travels have officially began. We started off with a bang this year by turning our Christmas with the Davidsons (Jim's mom's side of the family) into a mini vacation. We decided to fly to Lubbock instead of drive all the way to Whiteface (45 mins west of Lubbock). We got some really killer deals on Priceline. We saved $117 PER TICKET on the flight, we got the Holiday Inn Towers for $45 a night, and the rental car for $17 a day. We stayed the night near the airport so we could leave the truck there and take a shuttle and not have to pay for parking. We got up at 6 am and made it to the shuttle by 7:20am. the shuttle was late and we were stressed. We were to fly out on Friday at 9am (part of the draw back of doing Priceline "name your own price", good price...but you don't get to choose your flight time) and they say to be there 90mins early. Well little did we know that this would be the least of our worries. We get to the airport and we are missing one of the bags...and it's one of the ones with presents in it. STRESS! So we get all corralled and stripped of your shoes, jackets, and baby out of stroller at security and then head to our gate to check in. Then try to determine what happened to our missing bag. It took several phone calls but Jim found out that the bag got picked up by the shuttle right before the one we took. He'd gone down to the lobby earlier than the rest of us and that was one of the bags he took. The hotel called and told him that they'd found it. "Lucky" for us we'd had a 90 mins (+/-) delay and Jim was able to go back thru security and get the back and make it back thru with still 30 mins or so to spare!

We finally got to Lubbock and headed on the rental car shuttle to get the car. We got a Buick LaCross...nice car, lots of bells and whistles. But as nice as it was, it wasn't the suburban. Jim packed the trunk and there was no room for the stroller, so I carried it in my lap and half in Jim's face :) We got to the hotel and it was as nice as I'd hoped. We unloaded our stuff and headed to the hotel restaurant (since kids eat free, had to try it out). Had a surprisingly nice buffet and wonderful waitress. We headed back to the room and decided the kids and us needed to unwind and decompress! So off to the pool we went. We swam, boiled in the hot tub, and Jim ans kids sweated it out in the sauna. Afterwards back to the room to clean up and head out for ....whatever....we had no plans and we like it that way...sometimes :) We drove around, looked at lights, and just cruised to let Brayden try to get a nap in. All this commotion and change of schedule was not setting well with him. We met up with Tanner and Jennifer at Cagle's for steaks. It was a bit of a rocky start cause Brayden went into melt down mode. After we finally got some turkey in his belly our sweet baby returned and we had a nice supper and visit.

The next day we headed to Levelland to visit with Angie (Jim's Aunt), Larry (Jim's Mom's brother), and Kendra (Jim's cousin) before we were to head out to Ricky (Jim's Mom's other brother) and Cindy's (Jim's Aunt). We had a really nice visit and ate some fresh out of the oven sugar cookies. They were GREAT! Thanks Kendra, you're one heck of a cook :) Chanda (Jim's brother's wife) and the girls showed up not too long after we got there and the kids (and adults) had a great visit! We had a huge supper (with lots of snacking before hand) and AWESOME desserts. Then we had a special visitor....SANTA!!! Matthew was literally beside himself, but then realized that other might be noticing just how excited he was and tried so hard to play it cool. Even went as far as to say that he wouldn't be sitting in Santa's lap. in the mean time, Brayden was checking him out. He wasn't scared of him AT ALL! It was great. He just loved Santa. he gave him "5's", said hi and bye and few times, then when it was his turn he gladly hopped into his lap. He gave Santa a good tug on the bread too. It was great. Nat was a trooper and was the first big kid to to sit with Santa....she did it to encourage the others... ;)~~~ It worked, and Matt went up there. he was just busting at the seams. Oh man, I wish I'd once again had the video camera! After Santa left the kids opened their gifts and were just tickled pink! Then the adults had the traditional "Oriental" Christmas. Jim and I ended up with what we brought and that's just how we hoped it play out. It was a great time for everyone and THANK YOU Ricky and Cindy for having us all :)

We weren't supposed to fly out till 7:05pm tonight (again, due to the "name your own price" option). But as we drove home last night at 11pm, I told Jim that maybe we could try to get on an earlier flight if there was one. We got back to the hotel and found out there were several. We got up, packed, ate and it was 10:30am so we thought we'd at least try to get on stand by for the 12pm flight. We got there and she said the flight was full, but I found out the full doesn't mean "full". Since 2 of our passengers were kids and one of us didn't mind sitting apart from the others...we made the flight. It was awesome. We went thru security, grabbed some waters and they were having us board. WAY better experience than at DFW!!! An hour later we were HOME!!!

It was so nice to go and see all the family that we hadn't seen since August. We really had a nice visit with everyone. But it it also very nice to get home :) And really nice to be sitting here writing this blog in my pjs when we were originally supposed to just be getting home :)

Brace Face

Here's the braces before and after shots. The one with braces was just after she woke up so her eyes aren't awake yet :)

More firsts...and catching up

Ok guys, this new version of Blogger I loaded is a bit tricky for me to figure out. So it'll be short, sweet, and to the point.




Here's some picture of Brayden's first haircut. It was bangs only and I hope to keep it that way for just a bit longer :)










































He wasn't to happy with this hair cutting idea...and staying still. So yes, I let him chew on my toothbrush to keep him happy.















































Here's Brayden's first time to feed himself pudding. (Yes, this picture's kinda old cause we can no longer have pre-made pudding...due to the dairy products)












































(Those with weak stomachs...look away...)

As mentioned in a previous blog, we went Matt's Thanksgiving program last Monday. It was great. He was above and beyond the most animate and entertaining kid in the program. And it's not just me saying that. We were hearing everyone around us saying "...look at that boy getting after it..." and others just roaring out with laughter. It was great. They were supposed to be doing the Turkey Boogie. The other kids stood like statues and Matt literally boogied down!!
































I took several pictures, but this was definately one of those time that I should have brought the video camera. It was so stinking funny!!

















Nat was even entertained by the program, but she'd NEVER admit it :)





















I hope that you all had great Thanksgivings. We started our off with a bang. We had 19 of Jim's side of the family over at our house on Thursday. Everyone seemed to have a good time and we loved having everyone at our house. May not end up being a tradition, but I hope to get to host again :) We also got to have Bill, Lisa, and kids stay with us that night and Jim and Bill had a great time catching up and so did Lisa and I.

We headed to my Mom and Dad's on Friday afternoon to have Thanksgiving with all 23 of my family. It was also a great time and we all had a nice visit with each other. It really makes you miss home and having loved ones so close. The kids all get along so great and each time they are together they make a home movie. This year there was a bit of "gore" in the movie, but still fun to watch.

We headed to Jim's Mom's for a Cajun style Thanksgiving on Sunday morning. We had a great visit with her, James, Linda, and Jacob. And we eat WAY too much yummy food!! The kids had a great time and so did we!!

In other news, Dad had hernia surgury on Monday and DROVE HIMSELF HOME on Monday after noon!!! I talked to him today and he sounds very good. Just discouraged with all the things he can't do. But he does realize that he MUST take it slow. But anyone who knows him knows what a bus body he is :)

Beth had Jaxon on Tues. 5lbs 15 oz and all kinds of cute. She and Martha have sent some pics and he's so sweet! Her blog link is at the side of blog and I bet she'll post some pics soon, once they get everything back to "normal" :)

First lolly pop and other news

I wanted to post these pictures with the Halloween post, but Blogger said I already had too many on that post.

Here are some cute pics of Brayden's first lolly pop...aka NUMMIES!!!



















Catching up...

Natalie got her top braces yesterday and she got to have her expander out. She loves getting to feel the top of her mouth again. But is now hating the pain the braces make. Thanks goodness for Rincinol! (I'll post a pic of her with her braces soon.) She's still doing art. She's currently working on a landscape scene. She also made the UIL spelling team and we are very proud of her!!!! The 6th grade band should soon be having their holiday concert, she hasn't told me the date...but she is very excited for us to get to hear them all.

Matthew has started his own comic book: Mega Man. I have the first edition and I know it'll be worth big bucks one day :) He said he's going to make another one for their classes Trade Days. Everyone in class will make something and they all get to trade for what they want that someone created. Matthew's class will be having a spelling bee on Monday. If he makes it he said that they get to challenge Natalie's class in a spelling bee. So you KNOW he's wanting to get to make the team!! He will be having a thanksgiving program Monday night...these are always fun!

Brayden's been doing really good since we've gotten his diet on track. His new words are cup and fun! He's also found 2 new favorite shows: Little Bear (which was one of Nat's favorites) and WaWa Woobzie...don't ask... It's so cute to watch him actually understand the "plots" in the shows now. Like today WaWa Woobzie broke something and Brayden kept saying "oh no" and he was so into the show he didn't even notice that I'd come into the room! Maybe I'm making a couch potato out of him, but it IS educational TV.

Jim is super busy with his new job...and today I'm sure he's super chilly! He doesn't have any help yet, but with as much business as he keeps picking up I'm sure that'll soon change. Him and Matt will be getting to take their last dunes trip this Friday night/Saturday. I know they'll both have a blast!!

I have recently taking up jogging. It kicks my butt, but I really have been enjoying it. I like to do things on my time frame and I like getting to have the kids come and play around at the track. Matt runs with me for some of the laps and Nat plays mother hen to Brayden :) Jim put together my jogger stroller last night, so I will probably try to in a neighborhood today since they don't allow strollers on the track...??? I hope to be running in my first 5k in December...with the holidays permitting.

Shew...what a week!

Well first off, I hope you all had a chance to swing by Jim's blog and tell him "hi". He needs the encouragement to keep blogging :) We all do from time to time.

I am WELL aware of the fact that there are zillions out there that have things truly "rough". With that being said, we all still have what we consider rough days, weeks, months...etc. Last week was one rough week! Brayden has had (as of this past Tues) 4 weeks of diarrhea. And we couldn't figure out the source. After the first 2 weeks I took him to our regular pediatrician and she just said he'd had a virus and it really tore up his stomach and intestines and that it'll take a while to get back on track. She said to give Lactinex (like a powered yogurt) and put him back on his Zantac? I asked her if she thought it could be that he'd formed another food allergy. Cause he was kinda acting like he did before we found out he was allergic to eggs. She wouldn't listen to me and told me it was a virus. Frustrating, but I did what she said for a week anyway. ...no change. I decided to get another opinion and went to another pediatrician. I gave her the run down and a dirty diaper for a poo sample. She was concerned but told me that there was such a thing called Toddlers diarrhea that can last up to 8 weeks. But she wanted to rule everything out. She said to stay on the Lactinex, get off the Zantac, and try Mylanta to soothe his tummy so he'd eat better (maybe). ...another week, no change..but he was eating a little better. And then this past Monday he went to pieces...crying, clingy, wouldn't eat or sleep (at nap). So I called and told them this was nuts. She agreed and said to come back in. She did another exam on him and we drew blood for a CBC. And I asked to please run a RAST test (allergy test) so that I could please put my mind at rest and know whether or not I'm giving him something everyday that's causing this to happen. She asked if I was sure and I said that as selfish as it may sound...yes, I have to know.

She called with the results on Wed and everything came back normal....except the RAST test!!! (Thank goodness I was pushy) He's now not only allergic to eggs...add soy (which he drinks Soy milk everyday cause it "seemed" easier on his tummy) and dairy! I just fired back "well what the heck is he supposed to drink?" Brayden now drinks goat milk. He likes it most days. And I have now become a frequent (already) patron of our local health food store. It's been very stressful and mind numbing trying to learn to read the labels on all food correctly. Cause milk isn't always just listed as MILK it's got other forms (I don't know how to spell them all so I won't attempt to provide examples). And soy is sometimes SOYA, soy letchin, etc... It was/is overwhelming, but with each day I get over it a little more. I still just wanna say "no fair" and suck my thumb (or his thumb since this all impacts him). But I have to get over it and just do what we have to do.

It really helped this weekend when we finally found out about this store called Whole Foods (they are actually all over the US and international). This is where our health food store gets a lot of their stuff. The closest one was in Arlington, but it was worth the drive to see that there are stores made for people with allergies. You pay the price, but they ARE out there. And that was one of my biggest worries once we found out about all this...that I wouldn't be able to find selections. Cause our dinky little Walmart is NOT geared for Allergy Free shopping. Jim suggested that after Whole Food we try Central Market (by HEB) and see what they have. They had almost all the stuff we needed (some at better prices) except the dairy free mac and cheese (which I think I can find online). Goat cheese was one the things I was trying to find for Brayden that Whole Foods didn't have...well Central Market has at least 10+ to choose from. So again, it put my mind at ease to know the selections are out there...we just need to drive a bit and pay a bit more. But it's worth it for him! ......now to try and prepare him something for Thanksgiving...hum...

Thanks for those who stuck it out and read this whole rant/pity party. I'll back it all up with pics later this week. And Brayden seems to be doing much better now that we have his diet on track.

Jim's Blog

I have a lot that I'd like to blog about, but I've been swamped at work. So if you have time, please go check out Jim's last 2 blogs. He's got some pictures of Matt's games posted.

Will blog again soon........

Halloween was a hit!

I wanted these pictures posted last night, but if you can believe it...I've been trying since last night to get them to load on Blogger...Grrr...anyway, they are worth it!

It was technically not Brayden's 1st Halloween, but it was his first Trick-or-Treat! And he loved it. Everyone (including his immediate family) went ga-ga when they saw him. It's by far the cutest Halloween outfit I've seen since Nat and Matt wore the "tumble bear" outfit.

He wasn't too crazy about dressing up in it at first. This first round of pictures were taken at the house before we left.

Here he is not being totally pleased with this dressing up business. But dang he's cute!



















He getting alittle more into "character" now. We're practicing "rrraarrr".




















His G.Q. pose (with gugga)...




















Does this even need a caption???




















This was the outfit HE wanted to wear...and it's dang cute too :)




















Here he (and we) are at the first Trick-or-Treat stop. Brayden didn't want to leave
















I'll end with some other pictures from last night...