My Three Sickos

Tis the season, I suppose, but it's still not fun. Harrison started with a cold, then gave it to Alex, who then gave it to Ian. Alex ended up with an ear infection, fever and massive amounts of congestion and coughing. Ian has been the hardest to have sick, but seems to be starting the uphill climb of getting better. To give you an idea of how my last few days have been, yesterday was a GOOD day when I only got puked on 3 times! I feel like a suicide bomber, throwing myself in the way of the vomit to avoid the carpeting and furniture from taking a hit.

Anyway, we're packing today, finishing up the wrapping and we head to Dallas tomorrow. Think of Kevin and Harrison on Friday as they travel to New Orleans to see Rice play in their historic bowl game appearance. You can probably catch it on tv, too!

A Merry Christmas to all!

Christmas shopping finished!

I picked up the last Christmas present today and boy it feels good. Now for the monumental task of wrapping everything. Thank goodness for online shopping! A good portion of our gifts were purchased online so I didn't have to ship them myself. Except for the disaster that is google checkout. I DON'T recommend buying through google checkout. I bought a couple of things from toysrus and wanted the $10 off they were offering if you went through google checkout. I totally trust google and wanted the $10 off so I went for it. Long story short, I paid $20 in shipping charges and still have to ship them from my house to the place they should have gone to begin with! UGH!

Anyway, it's so much fun to play Santa. Right now everything is hidden in the attic and it will be very interesting to get it all in the car and hidden without Harrison noticing. We'll see! We're leaving for Dallas on Thursday of next week.

Harrison and Kevin are flying first class to New Orleans to watch Rice play in their first bowl game in forever! Harrison could care less about football, but is very excited to stay in a hotel with only Daddy. Normally he gets the couch in the hotel, and this time he'll have his own bed! WOW! Can Daddy disguise him as a 20-something guy so he can go to the casinos???? Stay tuned!

Alex had his first haircut last week. I was so reluctant to cut it for fear of losing the curls. I'm happy to say his hair is still curly. Here are some shots of the big haircut. He was NOT amused!

Before

During

After

We also went to see Santa. Harrison had stage fright and couldn't remember many things on his list. Santa told us we could mail the list, so we'll do that tomorrow. Alex was not a fan and cried the whole time. I think it's the age. Why is Santa so scary to kids????

Do they sell plungers on Tatooine?

I have good news and bad news. The good news is that Harrison is now wiping his own buns. The bad news is that the plunger is getting a lot of really good use! Almost daily, in fact. The real problem is that Harrison uses all three toilets throughout the day and they've all been abused. Ever thought of how gross it is to actually transport a plunger??? I guess the upside of this is that now I can add a new title to my name...Anne, mom, former teacher, plumber!

Last night Kevin and I had a babysitter and went to his company Christmas party. It was really nice and we had a good time. They had Indian, Chinese, Italian and Cuban food, a henna artist, a photographer for each couple to get their pictures taken, a band, and lots to drink. The boys did great with the babysitter and slept in for us this morning!

Jedi in Training

So, only one guess on the kids??? Come on, take a crack at it!

I realized I never sent out any pictures of the Jedi Training Class that was held at our house for Harrison's birthday. Well, picture 15 little Jedi's beating the crap out of Darth Vader. That's how it went down. Apparently, Darth Vader isn't as invincible as everyone imagines him to be. Here are some pictures of the Jedi Training and battling Darth Vader himself.

Harrison also was channeling his inner Jedi with several lightsabers pre-party. "General Grievous has four lightsabers," Harrison reminded us. Yes, son, he does have four lightsabers. But, he also has 4 hands to hold them and doesn't "holster" them in his pants. This is what "genius" looks like, for those of you who don't know.

Name that baby!

We tend to make babies that look quite a bit alike, or so we have been told. So, I thought I'd have a little game with everyone to see if you can "Name that Baby!" All of these pictures were taken when each kid was around 1 month old.

Star Wars...it's now an addiction.

We ended up having quite a nice day. Kevin took the big boys to the Car show with our good friends the Mayo's. Mary and I took Ian and went shopping! The mall was WAY too crowded, but Ian hung in there and I'm almost through with my Christmas shopping.

According to Kevin, Harrison and his two buddies, Connor and Preston, had a really fun time at the car show. They climbed into every single car and annoyed several serious buyers but were totally oblivious to the stares of those they annoyed. A woman was in the front seat of a very expensive Land Rover when the three boys jumped into the back seat. Harrison leaned forward and said to the woman, "Take us to Cloud City!".

He also informed Kevin before bed that he is not originally from this planet. I don't know anything about that.

Another Day, More Butt Jokes and Christmas Decorating

Ahhh...the lovely words of a 5 year old. The English language apparently changes when kids turn 5 and there's a mandatory pre-fix of "butt" added to most words. Harrison thinks he is the funniest guy around and I'll admit I have to fight back laughter when he breaks out with a "bootyhead" unexpectedly. As fascinated as he seems to be with his "hiner" (mix of hinder and heine..thanks to Missy and Grant) he doesn't seem to be too interested in wiping it when he poops! We're trying to convince him that 5 year olds wipe their own butts, but so far he's skeptical.

Yesterday we finally finished up the Christmas decorating. Harrison and Alex enjoyed helping me and we even put lights outside for the first time in 5 or 6 years. They look very festive and colorful. Fletch hung outside with us while we were working on them. He decided to run away, which he hasn't done in a long time given his old age, and I just had to let him go. A few years ago I would have been in tears and chased after him, but with a baby inside sleeping and two little ones outside with me I didn't have a choice but to let him go. So down the street to the park he went. I guess he just wanted a ride down the slide because a few minutes later he came trotting down the sidewalk and walked right into the house. Guess the pursuit is more what he was looking for???

Alex made Lulu (my mom's) day yesterday when he said her name after looking at a picture of her. He has been asking "what's this" and "who's this" every 5 minutes for a few weeks and he finally repeated my answer! "Lulu" came out loud and clear!

Ian is sleeping really well. He had a few nights of 8 pm-5:30 this week which was great! He's SO close! He's very smiley and such a pleasant baby. I'll post pics once I figure out this whole blog thing.

I hope to use this as a way to keep everyone up to date on the kids. It took 3 kids but at least I've got my act together now! Well...sort of....