Costume Building And Why You Shouldn't Listen To Your Mother

Last week Bryan built Parker his POLAR EXPRESS costume. He did an awesome job and I am so thankful that I have a husband who is excited to do stuff like this for our children.

I tried sooooooo hard to get Parker to be something else other than The Polar Express. (Ya know, since he was a train last year and since The Polar Express is for CHRISTMAS and not Halloween.)

Here are our conversations:

Me: Parker, what do you want to be for Halloween?

Parker: How about......A MONSTER TRUCK?

Me: Okay! That sounds cool!

Parker: OR......I could be....THE POLAR EXPRESS!

Me: Well, but The Polar Express is for Christmas. How about you be something else?

Parker: Okay! How about....A FIRETRUCK?

Me: Yes! That's an awesome idea.

Parker: OR.....I could be....THE POLAR EXPRESS!

(Repeat with various methods of transportation about 23 more times.)

We gave in.

Also, THIS IS WHAT I DEAL WITH ON A DAILY BASIS.

100% Bryan's idea. This is the G-Rated version.

Hayes did nothing else but toot and laugh today. I mean it. I don't remember a single other thing that he did.

Good thing I have this little lady.

But back to THE POLAR EXPRESS (I always think of it in a yell because that's how Parker says it. He says it a lot, too.)

Parker wore his costume all weekend and got so many compliments. I will try and do another post on trick-or-treating for my two other children who were incredibly adorable BUT I must write this first: Parker was videoed while we were trick-or-treating and after we got home we were de-lighted to see him in the Halloween segment on the news. I laughed so hard. (Link right here.)We were so shocked and even more shocked to wake up today with the news station searching for the "mystery train conductor" on Facebook! Well, they found him thanks to a few of my friends and now they will be doing a story on Parker and his love for the Polar Express! I am totally not kidding, either. 

The local Polar Express that runs at Christmastime is letting him be a honorary conductor one night on the train, but SHHHHH! It's a surprise to Parker!

I still can't believe it. This is why you should never listen to your mother when she tells you, "Just be something else for Halloween."

(And I'm out of time....see how good I'm doing!?)

Saturday Portrait: October 2016

Saturdays in the fall are the best. Today we lounged around, watched football, burned candles that smelled like cinnamon and pumpkin, and did a really good job at messing up the house. I interested Parker for a brief bit with Halloween decor....but lost out quickly to "train crashes" (This is what he calls anything he watches on YouTube. It is rarely ever actual "train crashes"...which are, in fact, TOY train crashes. We aren't bad parents or anything! Usually.)

Anyways, I like how his sweet little room came out. Thank you, Target for your usual awesomeness. And all for only $7. 

 I've been wanting to start a family game night on Saturdays. Parker is old enough now that he understands board games so we chose Candyland Junior for our first game and tonight as our first game night. It was good, it was fun, and Hayes is not yet ready for board games. :) We were at the doctors office (for the SIXTH time in the last 3 weeks) and Parker reminded me that the torn sterile paper on the exam table was a result of "all the Crazy from The Haysie". Yes, Parker you hit the nail on the head.

Hayes likes tiny hats and watching football. Parker likes hats but not football.

Bryan: "Parker, what sport do you want to play?"

Parker: "Trains!"

Me: "But Parker, that isn't a sport. What do you want to play when you grow up?"

Parker: "Trains!"

**If you know Parker, then you know that this is not surprising at all.**

We can't bring ourselves to tell him that he needs to start liking a sport quick because that's pretty much how we plan for him to pay for college. 

(I'm kind of kidding.)

Lillie Mae is busy stealing the hearts of the three men in our home. She's pretty good at it. Bryan, hold on to your hat! (and remaining hair!) I think your daughter will give you a run for your money.

I have so much more to say about sister....I love her. But I'm trying this new thing of limiting my blog writing to 30 minutes SO THAT I ACTUALLY PUBLISH A BLOG POST. Adios!

I'm Blogging!

Hello!

It's been many months since my eyes have seen this little blogger screen. So much has happened, a lot of it being very, very good, and some of it not so good, but for the the most part we have enjoyed a fun and busy spring and summer with our two little boys and are now anxiously awaiting the arrival of baby sister any minute now. I mean, I wish. Probably more like any week, now. I am nice and large and have taken permanent nighttime residence on the couch in order to get in some precious zzzz's before we add a third kiddo to this crazy mix. Hayes is a big boy in pre-school now and didn't even say goodbye to his mother on his first day, but that's Benjamin Hayes for you. He plays hide and seek, tries to count with his brother, still takes a bottle and snuggles before bed, and sings the tune to the Universal Studios theme song at all times (buuumm-BUM). Parker is riding a bike without training wheels and swimming without floaties and writing letters and telling me stories and saying things like, "Mom, why do keep talking to me all the single time", and constantly reminding me that these years are so short! (Although many of the days are so loooooong!)

I closed my booth, Bryan switched jobs, we bought a mini-van, put our lot on the market (but are now seriously considering keeping it to build on like the original plan).... we've been on a zillion trips and worked on a zillion projects, spent a lot of time with our good friends and our sweet family....and now I'm here, typing. At 12:50 AM. :)

There is something about being huge pregnant that makes me want to blog in a family journal kind of way. I ordered little miss's baby book today and for whatever reason it led me to think about a blog post that the future Katy could be thankful for when she doesn't remember all the crazy and sweet things that are happening right now in our family's little life.

A few thoughts accompanied with phone photos.

1. This child and his big boys ways...(with a paci)

We took what I'm guessing will be our last swim of the season this past Sunday while Bryan's grandmother was in town. Al and Judy had to heat the pool and football was on and my favorite fall candle was burning inside (I got Judy hooked on Country Morning, too). It's a confusing time of the year, but I like it. Parker likes to play "The Color Game", which me and my sisters also played growing up, except for Bryan launches him across the pool instead of just flipping him when the correct color is guessed. Hayes just really wants to be big and jumps in on the side by himself. :)

2.  MOPS started last week and I actually have a picture on my phone! We have such a big group and I am so excited for another great year (and breakfast pizza, HA!) I'm doing crafts again this year but with my friend Alli, who I'm sorry to say has been on her own for 100% of this first craft as I have been scrambling to get everything baby-ready and selling everything in my booth. Thank you, Alli! I love you!

We have been so blessed in the last year with so many new friendships that I'm a bit overwhelmed. I find us going and going and going all the time, which is kind of exhausting for two introverts such as ourselves (I am the type who will be very much "on" at social events but then comes home with the goal of sleeping for a million years or at the very least becoming a hermit for a few weeks), BUT I am so incredibly thankful as this is such an answered prayer. Lubbock has always been very dear to our hearts and very hard to ever consider leaving because of all the relationships we made in college, but now this feeling has expanded tremendously and it makes me so happy that we are surrounded by such a good "family" to raise our children with.

That was a long side-note. It's been on my mind.


3.  Sister has a crib skirt, and still no name. We call her baby sister pretty exclusively right now.

There isn't a sheet on the mattress yet either...working on that. Also, my MIL suggested that I velcro the skirt to the frame and it worked like a charm! We are crossing our fingers that this makes shortening the skirt a lot easier when the time comes to lower the mattress (I'm pretty positive it will).

I hemmed the fabric at 3:00am a few night ago and my mother-in-law ruffled it for me (not at 3:00am as she leads a normal, productive daytime life). I attached it all today while the boys were playing "quietly" in the playroom, and by "quietly" I mean that I heard no less than four crashes from either toys or bodies and a lot of "Raaaaaaaaaawwwwwr!"'s coming from a certain almost 2-year-old. We call Hayes The Destroyer for good reason.

This room is PINK, by the way. I'm not a pink person, but I can't help myself. The more Hayes breaks things and Parker toots and laughs, the girly-er the nursery gets.

4. We have done no less than 50 house projects in the last month, but my favorite is that we had new carpet installed!! Guys. I cannot tell you how much more this makes me enjoy our house. I vacuum at least one room a day now because I cannot help myself and...I LOVE the vacuum lines. Let's be real here.

5.  Another addition to our house is a rocking chair in the living room. It's pretty basic and maybe not very stylish....but very traditional which is what I'm going for anyways so I love it. All 3 children have been rocked numerous times since its arrival. ;)

6. I am so thankful that my parents had me in Mississippi because my mother had no shortage of smocked dresses to outfit me and my sisters in when we were babies....and now she has passed them to my baby girl. I cannot wait! I love all of the trendy moccasins and leggings that little girls are wearing now, but I am still such a sucker for a classic dress or bubble with lots of smocking, scallops, and ruffles. 

Since this little one will be born just in time for the holidays I couldn't help but get her a few festive outfits. (These are the only items her closet lacks right now--she has about 30 other dresses from my mom that can be worn anytime!)

I got her this one for Thanksgiving....

And this one for Christmas (I love a good bubble!)

It has the nativity on it. I mean, COME ON.

7. Now I just need to get something to match for these little hooligans...

I feel like I have so much more to say but I am so tired. I got hair extensions and Bryan is looking at buying rental houses. I'll leave it at that. 

Okay! I'll be back soon! (Hopefully!)

April Evenings

(I wrote this blog last night but and am just now getting around to posting it. Story of my life.)

I was thinking that I should post some photos.

After my last post I started to look through my photos and realized I have ZERO good pictures of the kids in recent months. Agh. The main reason for this is that my precious Rebel clicked its last a few months ago and I don't have the funds to replace it. Thankfully, my super mother-in-law lent me hers (it has turned into an extended borrow...) and I just ordered some new memory cards (all of mine were full and I have an extreme fear of losing photos so I can't ever bring myself to delete them from those pesky little cards) so now I feel I can finally document a bit of our lives.

Does anyone else have anxiety about that?

Anyways, my kids are a mess but I love spring evenings! We have been outside most nights and the weather is absolutely perfect and the roses are blooming and the Haysie just loves to get dirty. It's all good.

I am getting so excited for summer and popsicles and kiddie pool weather. I mean, I'm excited in the aspect that I will like it until I'm too huge and hot to enjoy it anymore, but I digress.

Parker has recently taking to "cleaning" the windows outside, which involves taking the nasty outdoor broom, wetting it down (with the hose that someone taught him to turn on by himself), and wiping it on the windows. Tonight Bryan got him to actually clean them with Windex and I felt like I was receiving an early birthday present.

Bryan is giving the boys baths right now and a very naked Haysie just scampered out and peed on the floor. I haven't moved because Bryan seems to be handling it really well. ;)


-Haysie's words so far:

Uff (Dog)
Ow (Cat)
Hi
Bye
Da-ddy
Maaaaaaa (Or just crying. That is for Mom. Aren't I special.)
Bubba
Up (for "Down")
Dow ("Up". We are working on this.)
Baboo (Bottle...his favorite word)
Ball
Dadoo (Paci)
Day-doo (Thank You)
Uh-Oh
Hot (always with a blow to whatever is "Hot")
Ight (Light)
Outs (Outside)
Bee (that is a grandpa name)
Pops (that is also a grandpa name)

That's all I can think of right now. He still hasn't learned "No", thank goodness, because I feel that he will be a big user of it once he does. He will shake his head "No" though all the time and also does the "uh-uh" no sound and it is hilarious.

-Bryan and I have been watching the 60's documentary on Netflix and it is SO good if you like that kind of thing.

-I made a 90's country music playlist last week after I got sad while watching the ACM's. Who are these people? (Except for Miranda---my girl! I am also on that Chris Stapleton train.) Anyways, I highly recommend a 90's country playlist. It will make you so happy.

That's all I've got for now! Here's to actually having photos to put in my children's graduation slideshows.

Etsy Pillow Options For A Boys Room

Hello! Hope everyone had a good weekend. We have bacon on the stove, lots of family coming into town for the big wedding this weekend, and shopping to do today, so I am happy girl.

We finished Parker's big boy room last September and have absolutely loved it, BUT there were a few things I never completely finished due to me being very pregnant and overwhelmed with other "nesting" duties. Since we are back to a normal routine now, I thought it would be good to tackle these last few items in the big boy room.

The first priority is adding a cute decorative pillow to each bed.

Part of me is still on the fence about doing this since it's for a 3-year-old boy's room and there are already two pillows on the bed…but the impractical give-me-the-pretty-things part of me is calling for something cute to top everything off.

1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 

Here are my favorites that I found on Etsy. I had originally found another ABC pillow when I was planning his room, but now the shop that is was from is closed. Bummer, man. I obviously want them to be on both beds, although they don't necessarily have to be the exact same. The other bed will eventually belong to Hayes so I was thinking of monogramming or adding their names to something as well.

Thoughts? Suggestions? I love them all, it is so hard to choose!

We have a lot of color in the room with the book wall and PB quilts, so I can really go with anything on the pillows. 

There are also several airplane themed items (the frames from Bryan's grandpa and the curtains) so I don't know if I should stay in that direction or do something completely different. I'm kind of thinking of doing something different since I don't want to be too theme-y. Yes?

So there you go. Hopefully I will get this narrowed down in the next few weeks. (It's only taken me 9 months…)

Have a great Monday!

It's Going Fast. And Halloween (Yep!)

Hello! I am trying to come to terms with the fact that it is already the end of January. Wait. What.

Time flies after you have kids. If you want to stay young and have lots of time and energy, don't have kids. BUT if you want to have so much fun and be so exhausted and have no time but have SO much fun, then have kids. They are fun.

Alrighty….let's go right back to Halloween. If you make it through this post you are obviously a member of my family.

Parker is doing new things and being quite hilarious each and every day, but unfortunately I forget most of it. I do know though, that he is funny. He is SO TWO. Like, he is 100% two, and he tests us multiple times a day, in many ways. Sometimes he is adamant on being completely independent…actually most of the time he is adamant about that, but sometimes we still get to see the sweet little babe that he was. I love it all but am SO tired. But happy.

And this little mister…well he doesn't look like this anymore. Not in the slightest! Good grief, it makes me sad how fast they change.

Those wrinkles just kill me. Hayes has completely filled out and is quite the chunky monkey now. Still has a sweet temperament though. He is a terrible napper, but a good snuggler, and has just started laughing.

I'm trying to remember the details of Halloween but it seems like a century ago and I was extremely sleep deprived at the time so I'm not surprised that I've forgotten a lot. I do know that Parker was completely uninterested in carving pumpkins, with the exception of the minion pumpkin that I managed to freehand (He has a thing for minions--talks like them all the time…"dee doh dee doh", and all of that. I know that I am truly a mom since I think it's pretty hilarious.) We managed to venture out to school to watch his costume parade and to see that he was, quite literally, the ONLY kid (baby or big), to parade around with his paci and blankie in tow. I am quite proud to say that we nipped that thing in the bud this week though! We spent months hyping it up too much, I'm now sure. I was tired of that dang paci last week, so we just took it. No warnings, no "paci parties", or "paci fairies", or saying "we lost it"…we just stopped giving it to him. And it worked!

Now to potty train. We have tried. And tried. But he is not interested yet. One day! (Hopefully before he is 18 3.)

Let's see…we had a mishap with Hayes' costume, meaning that I had it shipped to our old address and didn't figure this out until the night before Halloween. So that was fun. Thankfully my good, good husband made two trips to our old neighborhood, thoroughly freaking out the new owner during the first trip, and then eventually talking to our old next door neighbor who was able to assure the little old lady that now lives there that Bryan was not a burglar, just a guy with a dingy wife who needed a Halloween costume.

Anyways, we got it, and Hayes was able to be the cutest little football there ever was :). Also, my hair looks really good there. I am sorry to say that postpartum hair loss has officially begun this week. I was hoping it wouldn't get me this time, but is definitely has. Bummer man! I like all that hair.

Hayes was also the only one who would pose with the pumpkins. (Two has not been the most photo-ready year for Parker…they have class pictures at school next week…Lord help them.)

Oh gosh, Parker also completely crashed right before we left for Trunk or Treat. We couldn't resist laying Mr. Hayes right next to him to get a few brother photos.

After that I believe we woke the poor child up, took him to the church where he refused to do any trunk-or-treating whatsoever, gave a few adults blank stares when they told him how cute he was, and cried while riding the Halloween train. He perked up though when we went out for pizza and gave him some diet coke. ;) I'll go ahead and consider it a success since it ended in smiles and since it was Hayes' first Halloween which made it a very sweet day in many ways. Did I mention my parents and Laura were there? So it was great. We had fun! Now on to Thanksgiving.

Snapshots.

Hello and Happy Thanksgiving!! I am currently sitting in my PJ's, not watching football. My three boys are seated around me, sleeping and/or screaming. We are at my parents house, and Parker has certainly gotten a kick out of Thanksgiving festivities already with the help of the Macy's parade and an unlimited supply of marshmallows and chocolate pie filling (courtesy of his Nonnie). Here is a hint: He (for obvious reasons) is the one doing most of the screaming. ;)

I'm not going to attempt to catch up on too much of our lives, mostly just show pictures for the sake of my family's need of them. You are welcome, Nanny! These have been sitting in a draft post for the last month….

My mom's side of the family came to meet Hayes when he was a week and a half old. We had so much fun sitting in the backyard, eating at Rosa's, and monitoring Papaw's volume level on the tv. ;) 

Nanny got in some good snuggles with a very tiny and wrinkly Hayes. So squishy and little! I cannot think about how much he has already changed. 

Hayes was also given his first Rangers baseball cap courtesy of Aunt Cindy. I have yet to get a photo of him in it, mostly because it still swallows his head, but we are excited about it! I always remember thinking that my Aunt Cindy was SO cool when I was kid because she always wanted to play with us and it was evident that Parker feels the same way--he became a bit obsessive about her and Aunt Kathy (who I've also referred to as Mom #2). My boys were also blessed with some beautiful quilts from Nanny, one with trains on it which Parker seriously freaked out about. (Trains are our thing.) I love my family and am so happy to see them love my kids. 

That weekend we headed to the Corn Maize which Parker thoroughly enjoyed, although the rest of us could have done without the flies. It was such a cute place though! We looked at the animals, ran in the mini hay maize, went on a hay ride to pick a pumpkin (which P was thoroughly uninterested in), and ate WAY too much kettle corn. But it was good. Too good. And Hayes slept the whole time.

We also got in our fill of Halloween activites. We made our second trip to the LCU trick or treat in the girls dorms, which Parker, for the second time, was overwhelmed by. Maybe next year. And Hayes slept the whole time. ;)

Here is a not great picture of one of the halls. In my day (because I'm so old) we just decorated our doors but now they do whole themes and you can't see more than 10 feet in front of you. It's fun! Parker (and Bryan) also didn't care when I told them this as we walked past my old room.

And there's the face he gives when asked to smile. 

--------------------------------

Alright. It is now Sunday. This is why I never blog--I run out of time! We have had a great time in CO this weekend and are about to head back to LBK. Bryan is looking at me like I need to get off the computer so I will. I do have a ton of pictures from Halloween, the month of November, and now Thanksgiving break (including a picture of Hayes and Santa!), but that will have to wait. Parker wanted nothing to do with Santa, just FYI. He walked up, looked at him, said, "Nope.", and walked away. ;) So fun.

Wish us luck on our looooong trip back. Adios!