Park Morning

Today was one of those perfect park days. Sunny and low 70's. Put the boys in the bike trailer and rode over to the duck pond/park. We met up with another stay at home mom and 2 kids who just moved here 2 weeks ago. We met each other online, long story, but today we met in person!! Anyways, we ended up staying for a couple of hours after our new friends left... The boys had a blast. Me too.

Who needs snow to make a snow angel??? Here the boys are making Texas Snow Angels!!

I thought this picture was funny because his piggy toe's hit my camera!

Grandpa Lucek

My Dad came in for a quick visit from the Chicago area. Even though he was here for just under 24 hours, I think he got a feel for the FM boys are all about!! He attended a bday party with Lincoln, played checkers, memory, game boy, computer games, monster, hide and seek, etc... with the boys. They wore him out I'm sure. Grandpa Lucek treated us to night out at Rainforest Cafe. The boys had a blast, here are a couple of pics from dinner:

Mr. Responsible

Lincoln, our 4 3/4 yr old is so incredibly responsible it's a little odd. Here are some examples:

1. Before we are leaving for somewhere, he says "go ahead Mom, you and Lawson go out to the car I will take of things". Then he proceeds to go through the entire house to turn off the lights, he shuts down the computer completely, puts Lucky in her kennel and gives her a snack and checks the locks. The little man of the house when Daddy is gone!!

2. On Tuesdays, he bring a paper bag with a letter on it home. He is supposed to find something that starts with that letter and bring it back on Thursday for show and tell.... Well usually Tuesday afternoon or evening, he just goes and gets his bag and goes and puts something in there and puts it back in his backpack. All w/o me even knowing.... So when I bring it up, he always tells me "I already did that mom"....

3. Lately his thing is... going into a room and saying "don't come in here, I'm going to surprise you"... of course at this point I know exactly what he is doing, but I play along.... He will totally clean up that room. He will close the door to his room and make his bed, pick up all the toys, etc... He also will close the door to my bedroom and make MY bed, or clean the living room or Lawson's room. All just to get my excited reaction!!!

4. He completely gives himself a bath. No help at all from me... Starting with filling the tub, shampooing his hair, washing his body, letting the water out, picking up anything in the bathtub, getting out and drying off, combing his own hair and putting on his PJ's. .... It's great. I give him a chore point for completely giving himself a bath... every chore point is worth 25 cents... Now we are working on getting Lawson to do most of his bath himself.

5. At Lawson's nap time, Lincoln will often put him to bed. He will read Lawson one book, sing him one song, one prayer, tuck him in, get him anything else he needs... and Lawson will go RIGHT to bed for him unlike for me.... It's great. I've tried to record this on video but have ruined the moment!!!

New York Nephews

This is just a big shout out to our New York nephews, Stephen and Tristan!!!

The Last Soccer Game

Last Saturday was Lincoln's last soccer game, and afterwards they went to the park and got their trophies, and more importantly cupcakes. Overall it was a great season. Their team won all games except for one, Lincoln made 2 goals, made some new friends who will all go to Kinder together at the same school, Lawson had a blast at the games often yelling "Go Mushrooms" instead of "Go Mustangs": he got a lot of laughs.... We decided to sign him up for next season, and the team should be able to stay together.

We missed being in Houston with our family last weekend for the get together, but we didn't want to miss this last game...

Last Nights Date...

Last night the boys had parents night out at Win Kids...from 6-10pm: That's FOUR hours of gymnastics folks.... They had a blast once again, and we went on a hot date to The Grotto.

These pictures were taken before we left by our budding photographer....

Lawson (2 3/4 years old)....

Save the Date

If you think you will be on the boy's birthday party invite list, save the date for:

Saturday January 3rd

12:45-2:15

It will be a DOUBLE party again, the boys 3rd and 5th birthday (WOW)

We will be doing it at Win Kids (again...), but this time it will be in the bigger gym...

I can't believe I'm already planning this again, where did this year go????

Just some thoughts...

I'm reading about all these snow and ice storms around the country. Here in Dallas, it's going to be 85 degree's today!

Looks like we will be in for a wild ride the next four years. I'm shocked, stunned, and a bit worried. But we will be praying for our country.

On a different note, My DAD, Grandpa Lucek to the boys, will be coming in for a quick trip next weekend. Looking forward to seeing him, he lives near Chicago so we don't see him much.

The boys are going through growth spurts, literally growing out of clothes overnight!! I had a few requests for sizes for Christmas, so here their new sizes are:
Lincoln: boys 6 in shirts and pants
Lawson: 4T shirts, 3T pants

I found a new favorite perfume!!! Possibilities at Ann Taylor. Jen you would like it, it kind of reminds me of that Ann Klien we used to wear. I mentioned to Ron that I liked the sample I got last time I shopped there.... Literally w/in the hour... He had snuck out, bought me a bottle, and hid it under my pillow!!! Thanks Ron!! Did I mention he also brought me home flowers last week????

Just finished reading James Pattersons Sunday at Tiffany's... A cute romance.... Very unrealistic but I really enjoyed the easy read!! Now I just have to finish the other 4 books that I am half way into!! I've been doing a Blog Book Club through my church. We just read the assigned book and discuss it on the blog... works great for me!!

Lawson hasn't adjusted to the time change. So, he has been getting a little bit before 6:00 am every morning. Did I mention that I'm not a morning person?? Hope he adjusts soon, I'd like to sleep to at least 7am, but I guess we can't always get what we ask for.

Today is a "stay at home day" with nothing planned. These are the days that we have to get really creative..... I love the boys ages, because when we are at home they will just play and play and play together for hours. They "make up" these games..... they call them: Monsters Inc, Fire, Tickle Monster, Dinosaurs, to name a few.
They are just so precious.... We are so blessed.


Pretty much all is good here....

Spidey

This Halloween Lawson went from Power Rangers to Mickey Mouse to Spider Man by Halloween. He settled for the ole stand by Spider Man outfit from Reaah, because it was the most comfy. It's hard enough getting him to wear his clothes... it was tough to keep his costume on!! Halloween morning we met Lawson's friend Lexi at Boomerangs for some bouncing fun....

Fun Time with Visitors

My sister, Sue and niece Lauren and nephew Matthew made a last minute surprise visit to Dallas from Houston to attend the Nascar races. They came in last night just in time for a ribeye dinner made by Ron, and cupcakes made by the boys... Then we got to visit for a bit today before they left for the races. It was a great last minute surprise for us. They will be back in just a couple of weeks for Thanksgiving.

Can October be over Already, we are done!!

I won't go into all the Fall festivals, trick or treating, Halloween parties, etc... that we have done this week. Let's just say, I am READY for October to be OVER!!!

I'm ready to start our focus on Thanksgiving!!

So Happy Halloween from our Monsters to Yours!!

(picture taken last night: our neighborhood did early trick or treating due to the football game tonight: long story!!!)

R.E.D. Red and a great Bow

Here is a little video clip the boys did as they were having their nite nite snack and drink.... A song Lincoln learned at school and taught Lawson. But you have to check out his Bow.... Ouch!!

Eeeeeeek

I found my 1st (2nd and 3rd too) gray hair!!!

Yikes!!

I knew this day was coming, but it's such a downer!!

Meeska Mouska Moooska

Today, while Lincoln was enjoying Firetruck Day at school, I took Lawson to the mall for Halloween event. He enjoyed it. And..... mommy only brought him the cute adorable soft Mickey mouse costume to put on!!! So much cuter than the Power Ranger!! He looked so cute, but didn't sit still enough for me to take many pictures....

Lincoln's GLASA Soccer Pictures

Lincoln's soccer season is just about over. He has done great, and has made soooo much progress since beginning. We are going to register him for the Spring semester.

This is his ind and team picture... Not sure why he has this silly expression on his face!! This coach hurt his knee midseason so his wife took over as coach with one of the boys Dad's assisting her... All 5 of these boys will all go to the same Kindergarten next year, so Lincoln may just know someone in his class!! They all get along great, and we hope to all be on the same team next season.

LOST, I Can Hardly Wait!!

Happy Bday Courtney

Happy Birthday TODAY to my SIL, Courtney (my brother's wife....). Hope you had a great day, and I'm looking forward to seeing the cake Bristol made for you!!

Saturday Fun Day

On Saturday, Lincoln had a soccer game in the morning.

Then we went to a soccer party that his league was throwing.

They had free cotton candy, popcorn, hotdogs etc, face painting, hair painting, balloon animals, bounce houses, cake walk.

So much fun....

Then after naps, we went to a local church's fall festival where the boys got to "trunk or treat", went on a hayride, petting zoo, and had a pony ride!!

Now that just seems like tooooo much fun for one day!!

School Shots

Lincoln has the best teachers for preschool this year. And NO I'm not just saying that because they check in on this blog once in awhile!! Hi Mrs. Kathy and Mrs. Caroline. Seriously, they are the best!! They even started a class blog and they post something after every class day.... How cool is that?? It's great for me, because I miss those precious hours I'm not with Lincoln so I feel very fortunate to get a glimpse of just what he is doing when he is not with me!! He is really learning a lot!!

Lawson wants to go to school so badly every day we drop off Lincoln. His teachers are soooo nice that sometimes they send "homework" home for Lawson, give him a little treat or sticker, and they even sent home ingredients last week for Lawson to make a candy corn pizza at home. When Lawson goes to MOPS, one of Lincoln's teachers is Lawson's teacher so he thinks that is so cool.

One of his teachers takes great pictures, and I took these off the class blog:

In this picture, he is doing the GQ pose that him and a couple of friends were doing...

And in here he is feeling all the pumpkin goop after they carved a pumpkin.

No. More. Sippy. Cups. Hooray!

I'm happy happy happy to announce that we are

now a Sippy Cup Free home.

Did I mention that I am Happy?

Life just keeps getting better!

Butterfly's

Remember all these caterpillars that were over taking our garden???

Well, now we are enjoying the beautiful butterfly's!!

Pumpkin Day

Today, we met our MOPS group out at the Flower Mound Pumpkin Patch (one of our favorite places here). The boys and I stayed for 4 hours of packed fun including 2 hayrides, hay mazes, bounce houses, picnic lunch, playing with friends, plenty of pictures (which didn't come out too well bc it was soooo sunny...) Hope to get back before the 31st so I can get some better shots of the boys...

Below: This is Lawson on the way out. He's like can we go home already?? No more pictures!

Below: On the Hayride.

State Fair Today

This is the 3rd year we have been able to enjoy the Texas State Fair.

Who can't have ton's of fun at the State Fair?

Highlights of our experience were the Ferris Wheel (Lawson's 1st time on one), cotton candy, the kids rides, corn dogs, the petting zoo (they even had a kangaroo, zebra, and a giraffe that they fed...), Big Tex, and looking at the horses

and other livestock.

See you next year Big Tex!!

OK these were the low lights: I have to vent about this. It cost us $24.00 for our family of 4 to ride the Ferris Wheel. That's just so wrong to charge that much, b/c you have to go on it... they charged everyone 12 tickets (at 50 cents) per person with NO discount for the kiddo's. That's just wrong.... We did it anyway but it's hard to enjoy it when you know it's costing so much. Sorry, Ron, don't get mad I'm writing this..... He's like don't worry about it!!

Also, the whole parking/exiting situation was a joke. But I won't go there. We learning our parking at the State Fair lesson today.

If you are reading this, you are TAGGED

Here's a new tag that is actually pretty simple to do.

Open your pictures folder

Go to the SIXTH folder

Go to the SIXTH picture

Publish it to a NEW POST and tell the story of the photo

This is a picture of Lincoln when we still lived in Katy. I'm guessing he was about 15 m or so....

Wow, he has really changed: I think he looks a LOT different now!!

TAG YOUR IT!!

The Bridge

Jesus gave up his only son, for us!!

http://www.maximumreferrals.com/videos/bridge/bridge.html

TGIF Have a Great Weekend

Happy Weekend to ALL

We are looking forward to enjoying some family time in this beautiful weather. Lincoln has a soccer game on Saturday, and also a Soccer Party. On Sunday we are going to the State Fair.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!!

For My Fellow Coffee Lovers!!

If you click here, you can print off a coupon (or several) for a free Starbucks cappucino, latte,hot tea, etc...

at Barnes and Nobles.

Coupon expires on 10/31. Print SOON before it goes off the website. (sometimes these coupons just stay on for the day)

Enjoy!! I'm on my way to Barnes and Nobles!!

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/email/nav.asp?r=1&PID=24816&r=1

Is it Thursday already???

It's surprisingly chilly out today, about 60 degree's. It was nice to finally dress in fall outfits. And since it's cold I had the urge to bake some homemade bread... I'm hoping it turns out:so far it doesn't really look right... it's such a bummer to make bread that doesn't turn out. I've discovered that baking bread is actually therapeutic for some of us women.

It's allergy time over here for us. I've been up throughout the night coughing: finally went to the doc yesterday after I lost enough sleep. She gave me a shot you know where. So I'm hoping by tonight I can sleep. Even if it's just a little bit. Ron also has the allergy bug, and completely lost his voice yesterday at work. Not sure if he has it back today or not since I haven't talked to him. Yet.

Swimming at the CAC, gymnastics class, choir, soccer practice, preschool, is what we have been up to the past 2 days. Here is a cute pic I took of the boys yesterday morning before all &%#$ broke loose here yesterday. I won't go there though, you don't want me to go there, trust me!

We may be going to the State Fair this weekend. And we have an upcoming Houston trip planned to go see the Fam.

Wooden Pumpkins

The boys both got to individually go make wooden pumpkins with Daddy out in his wood shop. How fun is that? They love them, Lawson is quited attached to his and is so proud of making it.. he even took it to Lincoln's soccer game.... The past 3 days have been fun filled with soccer games, birthday parties, date night to Houlihans, boys at Win Kids camp, having friends over, dr appointments, shopping, MOPS.... It's been quite busy. I'm suffering from my seasonal allergies which includes sleepless coughing nights and Lincoln has had this mysterious stomach ache for 8 days (went to dr, not sure what it is...).... Today Lincoln's friend Case (Coach Canidice's from Win Kids son) was able to come over for playtime and dinner.

Knock Knock

Knock Knock
Who's There
Monster
Monster Who?
Monster-ella (mozzerella ha ha ha)

Lincoln came up with joke from who knows where and taught it to Lawson. So now Lawson tells us this joke probably 25 time a day. And every time it cracks him up.....

Sleeping Beauty

Today my neighbor and I put all 4 boys in her mommymobile and we drove to Fort Worth (about an hours drive). We went to a theatre called Casa Manana, and saw a modern version of Sleeping Beauty. Lawson even sat there for 2 hours!! Good Times. Now I'm trying to get my beauties to sleep (w/o much luck...)

Lincoln Carson

Lincoln's Pre-K School Picture:

Our little 2 yr old

Lawsons activity of choice these days has been the card game of Memory. And he is good for a 2 yr old! He even wins when we don't "let" him. He can eat a whole large avocado at one sitting, and besides avocado, broccoli and edamame (soy bean) are his favorites!! He loves to play games on the Internet, he likes to sing and dance to music, playing outside, digging. Destroying anything is a favorite pastime. He has started doing chores, and loves it. When he has one done he comes back and asks, "what's next".... Some morning I run out of chores and have to make things up, but this is always a good time to get him to wash some doors. He is definitely in his terrible two's, but I'll be nice and not go into that. Lets just say he is a "strong willed child", and has been spending a lot of time in time out. But he is catching on to this discipline thing. He loves his swimming on Mondays, his Gymnastics on Thursdays, and everything we in between. He loves to go jogging around the block. Boy that kid has a lot of energy. But he still needs his 2-3 hr nap daily.

The Parachute

Lincoln's preschool class on the parachute.... Found this on the class blog.

Lincoln is up top in the blue striped shirt waving.

His teachers actually started a class blog where we can go and see pictures and see what they are doing

(sorry Roxanne....)

Glitter (??)

Well maybe I can get some spray glitter too to put on The Hulk. Just maybe.

The HULK

So, I was over at my SIL's blog reading about my niece being this cute sparkly cheerleader for Halloween and now I have to vent!! Gone is the day I'll have a little one dressed as a cuddly green frog, gone is the day they want to be ELMO, gone is the day where Mommy gets to decide how cute and adorable they will be for Halloween.


First Lincoln wanted to be a ghost and Lawson wanted to be a monster. Well, I had to remind them that they were deathly afraid of ghosts and monsters at this point... Soooo.... Lincoln gets this idea he wants to be The Incredible Hulk. How he even knows who the Hulk is is beyond me... But he had this stuck in his head for 2 weeks w/o budging. Of course I'm giving him all these other CUTE idea's... But don't you want to be Peter Pan? Don't you want to be a soft cute cuddly little chicken? Nope, Incredible Hulk. So, I show him online how UGLY the costume is... and of course this excites him to the point he can't stop talking about it.... So, giving up all other hope, and realizing at his age he needs to be able to have a choice, I ordered him his HULK costume. Since we got it about 2 weeks ago, he has worn it at least once or twice a day, always puts it on when visitors come... I'm kind of hoping by the 31st he has changed his mind....

As of now, Lawson wants to be the red Power Ranger. I may be able to work on him....

There is a 1st Time for Everything

Today during TV time, I look over and THIS is what I see!! This has NEVER happened before. They were just laying there watching TV like this. I was shocked, I was stunned. Not only that Lawson was cuddled up to him, but also that Lincoln was allowing it. I guess they really do LOVE each other!! (they have had a haaard week)

A house for $1.75???

I'm usually pretty good at finding deals on ebay, but this women won a house today on ebay for $1.75. Now, she is good.
Well, I wouldn't have wanted that house anyways....

By the way, Ron is staying home from work tomorrow so that I can go to the National MOPS convention right here at the Gaylord Texan. Looking forward to it.