Happy Birthday Journey!!

Wow, I cannot believe my baby is one. She finally started walking more yesterday. The Early Intervention Childhood lady was here and I had told her that Journey had started taking a few steps. She puts Journey up against the couch to see if she will walk to her and wouldn't you know it, she turns her little self and walks right over to me. She did this twice. Little Stinker! The good news is that she has been gaining weight nicely and will probably be released from the program next month. Yay!! She is 14 lbs at a year.
We are so blessed to have little Nurney (as McKade calls her). She is my little cuddler. She is super easy going, and I can tell you that she did not inherit that from her father. She is different in every way from my other kids. The others all just adore her as the baby. McKinna and her friends love to take her in McKinna's room and babysit her. Bodin loves to play with her. McKade is super protective of her, he will chase down and tackle any kid that messes with her. We love you Journey and cannot imagine our lives without you.

McKades version of Journey puking.

McKade decided he was going to tell us the story of Journey puking on the way home from looking at lights. I think his story was better than the actual event!

Rule # 1, 547,698

"No, McKade you cannot ride that reindeer!" (As he has it straddled walking around saying ride, ride, ride, ride, etc. )

"OTay, Mom!"

He then proceeds to ride it saying, "Walk, Walk, Walk, Walk, Walk"

Rule # 1,547,699. We do not walk the reindeer either.

Flu season is here

BECAUSE IT'S ONE, TWO, THREE STRIKES YOU'RE OUT

Since we missed Soccor sign-ups we enrolled Bodin into coach pitch baseball. Having never played baseball, we went to the store and bought a bat, glove, helmet, and some youth baseballs to whip Bodin into tip top shape for baseball. Ok, ok, I was just hoping we could at least make it so he was not scared of the ball.

It started off pretty bad as Bodin would move out of the way everytime a ball came his way. So to overcome his fear of the ball I made an offer he couldn't refuse. I told him everytime he "dodged" the ball I was going to beam him with another (I had six balls all together). Bodin learned real quick that I wasn't lying.

Bodin did really good and got better with every pratice and every game. Bodin only struck out once and got a couple of people out while playing the field. Every time Bodin was up to bat his teammates would chant his name "BODIN, BODIN, BODIN", you should have seen the smile on his face. In the end they only lost one game. After the first pratice I became the pitcher for our team. I actually did pretty good, only hit a couple of kids but no harm no foul right? This picture is not of the whole team as not all showed up for that particular game. And yes, that kid is grabbing his weiner! Good job Bodin!

Standing

Yeah, Jouney is standing all by herself at 11 months. She could totally walk, as she pushes cars, and chairs all over the house, but she is too scared to let go and take off. That is okay, with her being the baby, I kind of like to carry her.

Hard day at work!

After a year of living here I finally got around to getting my fishing license in time for the last two weeks of the Flounder season. Saturday morning we got up early, packed up the Armada and headed for the place I work at to fish off the dock. A quick stop for bait and another for donuts then straight for the fishing hole. I set Bodin's pole up with a mullet minnow and dropped it into the water. Before I could get my pole set up Bodin started yelling that his line was tight. I feel his pole and sure enough, he had a fish on the line. We reel him in and I am thinking "We are going to catch a lot of fish today." WRONG!! In three hours that was the only fish we caught. Bodin actually caught another fish but I messed up and if got off the hook. We had plenty of bites but they are a little harder to catch that the normal fish especially with light weight line and a walmart "kids" pole. Oh well, the fish was good and so was the time with the family.

Pure Joy!

We went to a little pirate festival in Seabrook a few weeks ago. I love this pic. of McKade in the petting zoo. It is such a look of pure joy. It puts a smile on my face whenever I see it.

While we were there Bodin and Roman got to learn some fencing. They were pretty good.

Glasses

McKinna came home from school ecstatic a couple of weeks ago with a note from the school nurse that she failed her eye exam and her eyes were 20/50. Pretty clueless about what this means I immediately called my mom who told me that was pretty bad and I definitely needed to take her in. I took her in a few days later and the prognosis was worse than I thought it would be. Her eyes were actually 20/100 and 20/150. They explained to me that she REALLY needed glasses ASAP. Okay, with all the kids in tow we worked on picking out a pair. McKade must have tried on every pair in the store and left fingerprints there as well. It was hard to give McKinna the attention she needed to pick out the pair she would be happy with. We finally came to a decision and got a cute little pair. So far she has been wearing them faithfully and I hope this will continue when she returns to school next week.

JRDF walk

We packed up the family and walked downtown Houston for the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation Walk. We took our time on the walk and had a great time with the kids. Their favorite thing was rolling down the hills. McKade got rolled over many of times by some big kids, but he did not care. He would just get up and roll again. Bodin decided at one point to protect him so they held onto each other and rolled over each other. Too cute!

The Door

I must say one thing I secretely enjoy is coming up with the punishment that fits the crime. I get a feeling of satisfaction when I can. With that said....

I hear the bus coming and McKade, Journey and I book it outside to welcome the kids home. Bodin comes running up hugging us and telling us all about his day. Then here comes moody McKinna. She is instantly laying into me. Mom, you did not do this and that. Okay, McKinna sorry, but seriously we just came to welcome you home. She settles down and we walk inside. She starts up again. Mom, blah blah blah. (She is just looking for reasons to yell at me.) McKinna you better stop! Continues. Get to your room!

She goes off but the complaining continues. She is kicking her door now yelling in this super whiny voice. "I do not care about this door, I do not care about anything in this house. The only thing I care about is me. I do not need this door." On and on this goes so I calmly open the door and say, "You do not care about this door?"
"Yes I do"
"Really, because I heard you say you don't."
"No, I don't"
"And you don't care about anyone in this family?"
She smugly looks at me like she has succeeded in hurting my feelings.
I do not say anything, but just leave. I come back with my handy dandy screwdriver and start unscrewing from the hinges.
McKinna frantically, "Mom, what are you doing?"
"Well, you do not care about this door so I just thought that I would take it off."
Oh the begging and pleading begins and I must admit it felt great to calmly remove srew by screw and relocate that door to the hallway where it is a constant reminder of one thing that can happen to you in this house if you make bad choices.

13 years.......... Where has the time gone?

It has been 13 years since Shani and I got married, and I couldn't imagine it with anyone else! We have lived many places and have done lots of things trying to live the American Dream. Through the good and the bad we have stuck together, but honestly is has been good 98% of the time! We get along like peas and carrots and she lets me be me which is asking a lot! Shani, I still love you today as I did the day we said "I DO". Here is to another good year in yet another location on our adventure around the globe!

Love ya!!

Finally

I can finally post Journey is officially crawling. No more of the army crawling business, she is up and off! Unfortunately she quickly discovered to make that messes as she goes. Her and her partner in crime are quite great pals now.

Yes, all the clothes and objects all over the floor are done by Journey:).

Bad Day

I feel like everyone always posts the best days on their blog (me included). I read other peoples blogs and feel like a failure, but I have to keep the perspective the the good days are usually the ones being shared so this one is in light of keeping it "real".
McKade has been perfectly potty trained for about a month. He decided for whatever reason, that he did not want to be potty trained anymore. He started peeing his pants constantly. I finally started to spank him, it did not even phase him. I put him in his room, he hated it, but it did not work either. I put him on my lap to talk to him about it only to feel a warm sensation on my lap as I talked to him, back to your room. I have found that he is a child that craves the positive attention given to him, if he does not get cheered on as he runs to the bathroom and applauded afterwards, then he will go for negative attention. So we are back to being his cheer squad and he is doing much better again. That was a frustrating couple of days.

We were driving under a bridge by the ocean here the other day when Bodin says that he wants to go fishing here with all these people. Ben tells him that they will go fishing in our neighborhood because here under the bridge is where the homeless people live. I point out the shopping carts full of their clothes and other belongings and explain that they do not have jobs or homes so they are homeless. Bodin says that they just do not have jobs because it is a Saturday. Okay, no they do not have jobs any day of the week. McKinna ponders this for a while and comes to the conclusion that we are homeless because we do not "own" our home. Alright, I give-up!

I get a call from a family at church that has been trying to sell their house. They let me know they have just lowered the price on their home and McKinna has told them that we will have to be moving (remember we are homeless). I embarassingly let them know that we will not be moving nor have the credit to buy a home right now. Thanks McKinna!

Water Fun!

I was trying to get some stuff done around the house and needed McKade to stay away for a minute. To accomplish this I put some bubbles in the sink to let him put his hands in and play. Apparently he had bigger and better ideas. I turn around to see this......

And he planned it out because as I got closer I see he thought he better keep his undies dry.

Really your undies, but not your shirt. Silly Boy!

Family Fun Day

We went to a bed and breakfast in Cat Springs for a family fun day. There was a lot to do. First we went and saw the kangaroo.

Then we saw this pig AKA Taylor:)

Ben and Bodin spent some time fishing while McKinna took their pictures.


Then they wandered around and climbed trees.


They played around in some covered wagons.



They paraded around in bike helmets waiting for their turn to ride the horse.

They finally got their turn. Bodin was a bit leary of this, but did great. McKinna and McKade were all over it!



We also got to ride in some paddle boats. While doing this we saw many turtles in the water. The kids also got to brand a piece of wood with Ben's work logo on it. It was a fun day and a place I would definitely go to again!

Crazzzy Hairday

Halloween 2010

Journey the bumblebee. Her first Halloween!!

McKade the caterpillar.

McKinna was a witch. She should have been standing for her picture. She looked really cute!

Bodin was actually a red power ranger for Halloween, but when I asked him to put on his Halloween costume for a picture he put this on. I did not even realize it. Little Stinker!
We had a great Halloween. On Friday we went to our church Trunk or Treat. Then, on Sunday, we did the neighborhood. McKade really got into knocking on the doors and getting his candy. He did not like the scary people and would tell us they were scary. If a scary person opened a door, he would not want to trick or treat anymore and we would have to go with him and coax him back into it. Journey fell asleep as soon as we went trick or treating and slept until we got back home.
Bodin and McKinna were off and had a wonderful time. They would have gone all night if we let them.

The bike

Bodin got a new bike from Grandma and Grandpa Cobb for Christmas last year and he absolutely loves his bike. Look at the smile on his face when he received it.
He rode it down the street to play the other day and left it laying in someones driveway. Well, the kids decided that they wanted to play basketball and asked the dad to move the car so they could play in the driveway. I am sure you can tell where this story is going....


The pictures do not do the devastation of the bike justice. It is much worse than it looks. The bike got completely run over. Ben went to get Bodin to tell him it was time for dinner and that is when Bodin discovered the bike was smashed. Ben had Bodin drag it home (the wheels won't even turn) with Bodin in tears the entire time. You see, we would have more sympathy, but we constantly tell the kids not to park in the driveway. Do they listen? NO! And this was not the first time his bike has been run over, Ben ran it over before, but luckily that was just the rim and it was still driveable after a little bit of bending the metal back in place. This time there is no way to fix it.
We let him cry for a while to teach him a lesson and then I told him we would probably go to Wal-Mart for a cheap bike (it gets smashed anyway) in about a week. Well, he came home from school yesterday with this...

Unless the child decides to wait until Chritmas and prays for Santa to give him some sympathy on top of a good sale, I am not seeing a Tony Hawk bike coming his way.

To finish the story, we went and got Bodin a bike at Wal-Mart. He was so excited, we came home, hooked up the babies in the bike trailer and decided to go for a ride. We got to the other end of the neighborhood when Bodin starts yelling. I look back to see his pedal has fallen off. Ben picks it up and screws it back on. It falls off again. This goes on for the next 10 minutes with Journey screaming wildy in the bike trailer. The decision is made that the bike will have to be pushed home. The screws on the pedal are totally stripped. We had to pack it up and take it back to Wal-Mart for another new bike. All is now well.

Happy Birthday McKade

McKade, how fast these two years have gone, and how much we enjoy having you as part of our family! You are the cutest little guy ever. You always have a mischievous look about you. You are a climber and are always found on counters, the top of the couches, and moving chairs all about the house to get into anything and everything. You have a mind of your own, and you decide when and how you want to do things. When you have made up your mind, that is it! You have decided that you like to fall asleep on the couch with your favorite red pillow every night and that is what you do. You have your favorite helicopter book that you like to read, and we read it many times a day, but you also read anything I will read to you. You love storytime. You are 22 pounds now and still in the less than fifth percentile for weight (that is how the doctors put it). Your height is in the 16th percentile and your head is in the fortieth percentile. You are talking very well and you mimic everything. One of our favorites is when you sit at the dinner table and say.... Red Robin....Yum! And then laugh as McKinna and Bodin laugh with you.


For your birthday we had your cake with two candles. The first candle went out rather quickly but the second one would not go out no matter how hard you tried. You blew and blew (by looking at the pictures you can tell it was kind of spit and spit), but that candle would not go out. We were all cracking up. After a while of this we let McKinna and Bodin help you, I think you were relieved as you welcomed the help. You loved opening all of your gifts, even though I think that Bodin enjoyed it more than you did. I found out in the morning that he had snuck your Transformer car into bed with him and slept with it. You are doing very well riding your new scooter, you insist on bringing it into the house most days to practice. This house is set up pretty well for that. We love you McKade!