Busy Weekend

It started off last night with a basketball game. We took some friends to see the Spurs vs. Cleveland - or rather - LeBron. He did not disappoint. Unfortunately the Spurs did. They were lacking two of their Big 3 and lost miserably. We also saw a presumably fake marriage proposal and some guy make an improbable shot into a barrel winning himself a big screen TV and Whataburger taquitos for the entire arena. Post-game we saw a 70s cover band called Le Freak! (http://www.lefreakband.com/our_story.html). And yes, they were super freaky, yeow! Here's Mark and Donny getting some love from the Bud Light girls.

This morning, Jacob attended a 3.5-hour Faith Formation class with Mark while his basketball team (that only won one game during the regular season) continued their tournament success and played two games today. Jacob missed everything but the last quarter of game two. Ultimately they lost a very close game to end their season. There were lots of tears. But they perked right up when reminded of their party at Incredible Pizza tomorrow.

I'm off to prepare for a bridal shower, get a coach's gift, take Jacob to a playdate and make paella!

Husker Du!

We only have borrowed allegiance to the University of Nebraska through friends and hand-me-downs. This one goes out to the Kubicek family and Jon Chappell! And thanks to Valerie for the shirt!

Train Show

Mark took the three oldest kids to a train show on Saturday. Lots of trains of all sizes and some Thomas things they could actually play with! Even a whole setting made of Legos! See the Statue of Liberty in photo #2? Legos!

I'm Baa-aack!

Seriously, has it been FOUR DAYS since I've posted? Good grief! I blame Edward Cullen, my secret vampire crush and books three and four in the Twilight series. I haven't looked up since Thursday night!

Except to see this...

Lucas has a shoe fetish. He tries on everyone's shoes. Gets them out of the kids' bin in the hall closet or even my bedroom closet and wears them all around. His preference is for slip-ons - the bigger, the better - so he can slide his little feet right in. Sarah's cowgirl boots are great for that!

As predicted, I was not exactly SuperMom while immersed in these books. Luckily Mark has almost always been in charge of bathtime anyway, so the kids' hygiene didn't suffer. This was taken as they were all laughing at a monsterous belch from THE BABY! In his defense, it was right after dinner.

So, nose to the grindstone for me. I've got 9,200+ Box Tops for Education to get clipped, counted and mailed by Friday. That's $920 for Jacob's school! And if you aren't saving Box Tops for anyone, I'd be honored if you would send them to me! Check out the program at www.boxtops4education.com
Thanks!

An Old Addiction - Top Chef

After almost five seasons, I still love this show! (http://www.bravotv.com/top-chef.html). Maybe it stems from my love of cookbooks, or because the challenges are so interesting. Maybe it's the myriad of guest judges, or because of the snappy one-liners this show has generated. Who could forget "I'm not your bitch, bitch!" or "I have a culinary boner!"?? I have rooted for winners and losers and the show keeps surprising me. As for season five, I am a fan of Jamie, Carla and Fabio (Finally! A new TV persona to go with that name!) and now Carla is my only hope. And I can't wait to go to Perilla in NYC (www.perillanyc.com)...owned by Season 1 winner, Harold. Anyone care to join me?

A New Addiction

I'd heard so much about the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer, (http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/twilightseries.html) I couldn't wait for my flight to Chicago so I could really sink my teeth into it! I had Mark pick up the first book, Twilight, at the grocery store, the night before my flight. I knew if I had it in my hands any earlier, I would have forgotten about everything else, packed flip-flops and garlic to visit the frozen north, and probably missed the flight altogether.

Whenever I set the book down in Chicago - to shower, or help with the Johnny Depp puzzle - Connie would steal it and read too! I finished it on the second day. Luckily, I had borrowed book 2, New Moon, from a friend and brought it along too. The second night, both of us laid in bed and read like crazy, devouring the pages as quickly as a vampire could devour his prey. I was so engrossed in the story during the flight home I nearly had a heart attack when the wheels touched down in San Antonio - I didn't even realize we were close to the ground! Or maybe I was a little jumpy from all the vampire/werewolf action. I pulled into the driveway at 11:30 p.m. and the house was quiet. Everyone sleeping. And I debated a long time whether or not to stay up half the night to finish the last several chapters. I decided I wanted to save it for today, to literally postpone the disappointment I knew I'd feel when it was over.

Anyway, I finished it this morning while Lucas napped and I'm dying to run to the store for books 3 & 4. I'm sure I will be useless as a wife and mother until the series is complete. It's the same feeling I had when a Harry Potter book would come out. At least there were seven of those! And while Twilight probably won't be regarded as a literary masterpiece, it is a good story with engaging characters and yes, I have a mad crush on Edward!

The non-Twilight portions of my trip were also lots of fun. We don't party like we used to, but we sure talked and ate a lot. Got some new quotes to add to the quote book we started in what, 1998? Saw Slumdog Millionaire. Caught up with Dr. Fufu La Doo (aka Julie) in NH and laughed at old photos. Wish we were closer so it could happen more than once every year or two.

Back to reality. Sarah just jumped off a coffee table on the second floor causing the light fixture cover in the kitchen to crash to the floor. Can't believe it didn't break! The ugly things never do.

The Girlie Girls

Here we are at Connie's stateside wedding reception in 2007. Connie and I are both very pregnant - about six months or so. This weekend, we'll be catching up at Lori's house in Aurora, IL, and I can't wait!

A big shout out to my wonderful husband who is letting me leave on Valentine's Day for a three-day girls weekend, staying home with four kids, has three basketball games and a dance class and no school on Monday...AND he still got me an awesome gift. Early, too!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

P.S. to Mark: I love you, honey.

In a Nutshell

Not only is this another wonderful example of how a photo session goes in our house, it's a little snapshot of each of their personalities.

Ethan has that weird smile again with the lower teeth outside the upper teeth. There's probably a technical term for that - reverse overbite or something. Or maybe underbite? Whatever. I hope he grows out of it soon. This is also the shirt he chose to wear for the Valentine's Day party at school. Green. "Wouldn't you like to wear something with red on it for Valentine's Day?"
"No. I want this one." he said.
He has never worn this shirt before in his life. We just got it as a hand-me-down from a friend. Nor has he ever really picked out his clothes. Why today, I'm not sure. Maybe he's like me starting this blog...debating internally with himself for months trying to decide if he should start picking out his own shirt, when one day he decides just to go for it!

Sarah dressed way up! Red velvet dress with rhinestone buckle. Always ready for a picture.

And Lucas, completely ignoring me and climbing the stair balusters like a monkey!

What Would Martha Do?

Martha would have baked the Valentine cookies ages ago, froze them, and thawed them out in time to frost them, then wrapped them in darling bags with fancy ribbons and stenciled name tags...Martha I am not.

So realizing this morning that the kids were supposed to turn in their Valentines TODAY, not tomorrow at the Valentines party, I did not have enough time to bake the cute cookies I had in mind. So we got the kids up and at 'em early enough to go to Walgreens before school and pick out their (insert favorite character here) box of cards, dropped the kids off at school and then I went home and made all Sarah and Ethan's Valentines by myself, bagged up some candy and had it all back at school by 10. Phew! Good thing I noticed Jacob's are due tomorrow, not Friday, the day of his Valentines party!

Cheese, please! Pretty please??

We went to a portrait studio yesterday to get pictures of the kids and the professionals couldn't get a good shot of the four of them either! Jacob and Ethan do this weird thing with their mouth and stick their bottom teeth outside their top teeth before they smile. Neither one can stay in the pose requested by the photographer for more than 2 seconds. Lucas threw a huge fit and half the shots were of him crying or with big crocodile tears forming in his eyes. Sarah is used to taking pictures with her girlfriends, so all she wanted to do was lean in real close and tilt her head sideways.

Lucas wouldn't sit without Daddy, so even though I have no make-up on and we do not color-coordinate with the children, the end result is a picture that includes Mark and me. You'll all be receiving a copy in your Valentine's cards this week. Enjoy!

Victory is Ours!

Victory is mine because we got one shot of all four kids sitting together. A rare thing, let me tell you. Jacob isn't looking at the camera but the rest have Lucas sliding on to the floor. Beggars can't be choosers.

Victory is also Jacob's! His team won their game today after three consecutive losses. Maybe his new aerodynamic haircut made him faster and able to jump higher?

The Best of Both Worlds

Mild-mannered preschooler by day...

Rock star by night!

Sarah could be the next Hannah Montana. Or Ashley Tisdale. Or Kelly Clarkson. Her favorite song is Since You've Been Gone and she belts out lyrics like she's trying out for American Idol. But yesterday I caught her singing Beyonce's All the Single Ladies! I think that was the only line she knew. Better that than something from the Pussycat Dolls.

More from the Exotic Zoo

Exotic Zoo

These pics are from the Exotic Zoo in Johnson City, TX. You ride around in an open trailer with your buckets of feed. All these animals come right up to the trailer and eat out of your hands! Camels, bison, antelope, ostriches, zebras...it's pretty amazing. It takes about an hour to go around the resort. You can even spend the night on the grounds in a variety of cabins. Check it out at http://www.zooexotics.com/.

Rodeo Day!

Yee hah! Today was Rodeo Day at Sarah and Ethan's preschool. They started with a Cowboy Breakfast (just like the real rodeo), got to ride on a pony and had a visit from Cowboy Kevin. When I went to pick up the kids, the first parent I run into says "Did you hear what Ethan said to Cowboy Kevin?"

Me: "No. Why?"

Parent: (knowing smile)

Me: "Oh boy. Is it going to make me laugh or cry?"

Parent: "Yes."

Me: "Great."

Apparently, just when Cowboy Kevin was showing the kids some cool moves with a lasso, Ethan decided to say really loudly "Lasso your wiener!" All the teachers and Cowboy Kevin were somewhat shocked and giggled to themselves, but they kept right on going so as not to make a big deal out of it in front of the kids. But by pick-up time, EVERYONE knew what happened and was having a good laugh. I apologized my way out of the building telling anyone who would listen "I'm sorry my kid taught yours how to say WIENER!"

I'm not sure where it came from but Ethan has been saying wiener a lot lately. I assume it has something to do with potty training because we're ALWAYS talking about going potty. Or maybe he said it once and Jacob laughed and that was all the encouragement he needed.

In the beginning...

Today seemed like any other day. Some crazy stuff happens, I think "I need a blog to tell people about this" and then I talk myself out of it. Well, not any more. Not that my current stories are urgent or earth-shattering. I just feel like following thru today. So, welcome to the Nault Vault. I hope it will be a place that our family and friends can check out photos and read about our life in Texas...the good, bad and ugly.