Sleepless Christmas

The eve before Christmas Eve, my husband and I were given a priceless gift, an entire night to ourselves. Woohoo! The kids were sleeping over at their grandma’s. We gladly packed their Spiderman suitcase with more toys than clothes and sent them off.

With the kids safe and sound (and supposedly asleep), we decided to take full advantage of our short window of freedom. We called some friends and headed out to party like rock stars. Well, if you know us at all, you know we’re not that adventurous, but we did play Guitar Hero until well past one in the morning. And so, as we fell into bed around two, we were blissfully happy knowing we could sleep as late as we wanted without any middle of the night potty runs or water requests. That was the idea anyway.

The trouble started at 4 AM when my Mom called us to come get Luke. He was completely done with the sleepover and was coming home. So there I go, in my pajamas and slippers to rescue my five year old from the monsters that live at his grandma’s house.

He was so sweet standing there in his pajamas and coat, his eyes still red from crying. I couldn't be mad at him. So I grabbed him up and brought him home. Trying to salvage the night, I fell asleep thinking at least we only had one kid to deal with in the morning, no problem.

I realized I was wrong before dawn when Luke was wide-awake and very excited about Christmas Eve. In his mind, we had a lot to do to get ready for Santa. In my mind, I was desperate for sleep and couldn’t believe what was happening to our perfect night/day off.

Max joined us a little later but things weren’t quite right and they fought and fussed all day. It got so bad the “if you don’t behave I’m calling Santa” line was used more than once.

Finally, after they fell asleep during the Christmas Eve service, I called my mom and asked her when they went to bed the night before. “11:30” she said, as though that is the normal time for a 3 and 5 year old to go to bed. “What!” I screamed, my head spinning around about three times. “Why did they go to bed so late?” “We were just watching a movie,” my mom continued, confused that I was upset.

After five minutes of this, I gave up in defeat. I did, however, come to several conclusions.

1) No more sleepovers until Luke can drive himself home.
2) There’s no such thing as free babysitting.
3) I’m too old to stay out until two in the morning; I don’t care how much fun it is to play Guitar Hero.



How cool is this guy? I'm still smitten.

Christmas Standouts

When I think about the Christmases of my childhood, there are a handful of memories that always come to mind. Hanging the stocking with my name glued on in felt, putting silver icicles on the tree and setting up the manger scene with half a dozen sheep who only had three legs (it was ancient even when I was a kid). There was also the gigantic Santa we put on our front porch. No one else in the neighborhood had one, so of course, I thought we were pretty cool. Now it would be considered tacky, but I still have very fond memories of that Santa.


With my own children, it's interesting to see the parts of Christmas that stand out for them. For Luke, it has been the song Angels We Have Heard On High. He is obsessed with that song and sings it constantly. When he sleeps, we put his CD player on repeat so we don't have to go in there every three minutes and turn it back on.

Max has been obsessed with the Nativity. Merk and I collect Nativity scenes so we have about 15 of them set up this time of year. In early December, I put one in each of the boy's rooms. Max now has four in his room. He would have more, but I had to put them out of reach. It took me awhile to figure it out, but he was taking figures from different sets around the house and setting them up in his room.

This may explain his funny behavior at his preschool pagent this year. They made the mistake of putting Max on the end, right in front of the living Nativity (pre-k kids). He was overwhelmed. He spend the entire show with his back to the audience and staring at the "real life" Joseph, Mary and Baby Jesus.




We thought it was funny. I'm not sure the other parents felt the same way.

Luke was also very concerned this year that our tree wasn't up in time. He literally wore us down over Thanksgiving to get that tree up. These pictures were taken on Sunday when we finally gave in. Notice that there's no staging in our tree photos. Normally I would put them in Christmas pajamas and take a lot of pictures. Not this year. After Luke asked for the 100th time, we just put the thing up.

In hindsight, I'm glad we did it that weekend. They both love the tree and take turns every morning turning it on. The both have to do it, so one turns it on, then the other turns it off and then on again.




So now we're down to only a few days until Christmas. This has been a very sweet season for us and I pray that it is for you as well. Thanks for keeping up with us and we want to wish a very Merry Christmas to our dear family and friends.

Sleeping Issues

If you've read this blog at all, you know that Max has sleeping issues. We've been through 25 stuffed animals in the bed to sleeping on the floor and the ever present sleeping backwards on top of the covers. Now, he's into the flashlight. Won't sleep without it.



The fact that my child sleeps with a flashlight doesn't really bother me. If it makes nighttime easier I'll vote for it every time. Now if I could just remember to go in and turn the stinking thing off.

It's a small price to pay except have you bought a package of C batteries lately? Robbery.

Fall Fun

A few pics of our fall activities.

Here's Max as an Indian at his preschool Thanksgiving Feast.


The sandwich he's eating is as big as his head.


The kids had a blast with their cousins. In my opinion, you can't have too many cousins.


Especially if they have a drum set.


Even a pile of leaves can provide hours of fun.



Now we're ready for Christmas!

Christmas List

It's official. Luke has made his list for Santa. We gave him a toy catalog and let him mark the things he wants. As you can see, he's quite optomistic.


Apparently he didn't get the memo on the budget. How many motorized cars does one kid need?


He's also interested in a couple of kitchens.


Let's not forget that we need two bounce houses, a trampoline and a pink playhouse. The playhouse was promptly scratched off when I pointed out that it was pink. He was so focused on checking things off, I don't even think he noticed.

Halloween Fun

A little glimpse of our halloween fun.




The boys loved climbing this spider web.



We waited 30 minutes in line for Luke to have a turn on this slide. I don't know what we were thinking.



Their favorite part of the night...batteling.





A pre trick or treat cookout with friends.







Ready to go.



And they're off. They had a great time. Max really got into it this year. Now if I could just stay away from all that candy.

Fall Pictures

Here are a few pictures from the last few weeks.

A trip to the pumpkin patch.







Max exploring his individuality.





Luke and Merk's T-Ball team.

All Our Redneck Glory

Growing up in the South, there's a soft spot in my heart for for rednecks. Merk, however, has never fully embraced my less than cultured upbringing ... until last night.

Here's what happened:

Late in the afternoon I got out Luke's old clothes to see what I could pass down to Max. One box had Luke's favorite pajamas, so he spent the better part of an hour trying them on. It didn't matter to him that they were almost uncomfortably small, he was just happy to be in his old Spidy pj's again.

When Merk came home the kids were still in the old pajamas. So imagine my surprise when he said he was taking them to see an old Jeff Gordon car, pajamas and all.

So yes, at 7 pm on a weeknight, my husband took our kids out in public in their pajamas to see a NASCAR. If that's not a redneck move, then I just don't know what is.

Here are the pictures to commemorate the event.

I knew I was behind on my posting when I had to look up my Blogger password, but I didn't realize it had been six weeks until I logged on and saw that kindergarten picture. Wow. A lot has happened since then. Let me try and catch you up.

It all starts with Kindergarten. I can honestly say I wasn't prepared. For starters, coming off a lazy summer did not prepare me for getting a sleepy five year old up at 6:30 every day. And getting that same five year old into the bed and asleep an hour earlier, well that has been almost impossible.

But the real trouble has been with kindergarten itself. To say it wasn't what we expected is an understatement. I'm not going to go into the details, but let's just say it put me into a state of shock that lasted almost a month.

To add to that, Luke took a long time to make the adjustment. He cried every day for four weeks. Every morning he would beg not to go and usually made up an illness to make his point. In fact, this became so common that one morning when he said his stomach hurt, I didn't believe him. It was only when he started throwing up that I realized that he really was sick.

Where we live, you can't transfer a child until December so we've been forced to wait it out. I'm glad we did because he turned a corner a couple of weeks ago and is doing better now. Honestly, we were very close to becoming a homeschool family. Can you imagine that? It's amazing the things you will do when pushed against the wall.

So as soon as we passed all that, I turned 39. When did that happen? I still think I'm somewhere around 32 and am genuinely shocked when I see a new laugh line or wrinkle.

Adding to all this, there have been men in my house for the past month. The shower remodel that was supposed to take two weeks ended up taking three months and required a parade of big mac loving plumbers, tile guys, painters and a varied assortment of odd and end guys to get the job done. I stopped even trying to learn their names and just called them all Johnny since over half of them were named that.

So I've been preoccupied and getting through the day seemed like a big enough accomplishment. But realized that I would lose a lot if I stopped. How else will I remember that Max fell on the sidewalk and had a huge scab on his nose for his school pictures. Well, there may be proof of that one, but not how Luke almost broke his arm trying to kick a ball with both feet at the same time. Or how Luke got three Yankees out in one inning of his t-ball game and how Max wore snow boots to school on a 95 degree day.

So I'm back. And to welcome myself back, here are a few photos from the past six weeks.


I can't believe how big he's getting.


First day of preschool.


Look Ma, no tee.


One awesome birthday cake.


Snow boots in September.

Big Day

We made it through Luke's first day of Kindergarten. I've said it a hundred times today, but I can't believe we reached this day so quickly. He's growing up so fast and I miss him already.



Slow down Luke. I know you are already so big and strong, but you are still the infant I held in my arms just yesterday. I know you are excited to learn, but I'm not done teaching you yet. You are racing towards the day when your friends will be more interesting to you, but I'm not willing to stop cuddling you.

There's so much about you that is ready to bloom. I can't wait to see the person you will become. But you have to forgive me, because as proud as I am of who you are growing into, it's the little boy with the blue eyes that I will hold in my heart forever.

Oval vs. Circle

Luke, Max and I were lying in bed this morning, snuggling and enjoying one of our last lazy mornings together before kindergarten.

For no reason, Luke starts studying the space between the bed and my nightstand. Then he proclaims to Max, "Hey Max, your head can fit in here because your head's an oval. Mine won't because it's a circle."

What? Where did that come from and why is he thinking of fitting anyone's head into such a small space?

What do you want to be?

The other day, I asked Luke what he wants to be when he grows up. He replied policeman.

Then I asked Max. "What do you want to be when you grow up?"
Max's reply... "a grownup."

Middle of Summer

It's the middle of summer and we're just hanging out. The kids are at day camp this week and though it's been nice to have some time to myself, I'm reminded that there's one month left until Luke goes to kindergarden.

Quite frankly, I keep asking myself if am enjoying Luke enough during what's left of the time that he's still my sweet preschooler. I think so because we are having a great summer.

Lots of swimming, two or three sunburns, playing with friends, board games, ice cream, very little clothing and a lot of goofing around. That pretty much sums everything up.

Here are a few of the latest pics. As you can see, it's go big or go home with these guys. They're either naked down to their skivvies or they're dressed head to toe in costume.



I'll never understand them but I sure do love them.

Double Longs

For the life of me I can't figure this out.

It's summertime in Texas and my oldest son refuses to sleep in anything but long sleeved pajamas. There's no room for compromise here. He flat out will not wear the short ones. Even if I put them on him, he will sneak into his room and put long ones on again. It's a battle I've decided not to fight.

So here's to the tall, skinny (and apparently cold) kids out there who love their long p.j.s.



I threw this in just for fun. Wrestling is a daily occurrence around here.