Nevermind.

Please disregard everything that I said about feeling like we were making forward progress with potty training. Thank you.

Potty training, pumping and other pictures.

This is going to be a really random post, so in an attempt to keep your interest I will open with an adorable picture of my babies.
Carter inherited a cowboys jersey with a recent batch of hand me downs and loves it. He insisted on wearing his cowboy hat with the jersey because it said cowboys. Pretty cute.

Here are my three favorite people in the world. Carter is holding his wallet with his pretend credit cards and one dollar in it. He thinks he is pretty big stuff and offers to buy me things all the time. Have I mentioned how much I love this kid?

Muscle men. . .

Mike is crazy about this little girl. I love watching the two of them together.

We went to the coolest event on Saturday. Our Ranching Heritage Center hosted a "ranch day." They had tons of activities for kids- grinding corn, brushing wool, horseback riding, shooting bows and arrows, making stick horses and corn husk dolls, you name it. The whole thing was so well done and we had a blast. We went with Danny and Courtney and the kids and really enjoyed the morning. Here are a few pictures from the day.

This is one of my students at Evans that I absolutely adore. He was so great with Carter and we had a great time checking out his teepee! It is so encouraging to me to know that there are teenagers out there that are so kind and good. Thanks, Alex!

You know that your three year old has seen too much when he begs for a turn to use your breastpump. And, yes, I know that he will kill me for this one day.

And, in the world of potty training, there is much to report! Carter actually went poop in the potty at school today, which is HUGE! He has had two succesful attempts at home too. We have had one accident, but even then he promptly asked me to clean him up, so at least he is aware of being dirty now. I feel like there is hope for us after all. Now if I can only get him to ask to go instead of watching him like a hawk. . . We'll get there!

This morning he insisted that his stick horse needed to poop in the potty and needed some privacy. This is what we found.

And last but not least, how precious is this girl? She brings us so much joy!

I warned you that this would be random! I am more than halfway through TAKS week and feel like I have an enormous weight off my shoulders! Come on Saturday!!!

Oh happy day.

Carter accomplished a level 2 event in the potty today. There are no words for the joy and relief that I feel right now. I am optimistically holding my breath after an entire day of staying clean and dry in undies. This just might be the first day of the rest of my life.

Stranger than Fiction.

Mike does not have a blog, but if he did this is definitely a story he would post! So, because I am an excellent wife I felt compelled to share it on his behalf!

Sweet little Mikey was doing some yardwork this afternoon. He had a full trash can of grass clippings and whatnot and headed for the dumpster. We have an odd German neighbor, who we frequently see through our back window at night standing in room with a strange red light and we think she is naked, but that is neither here nor there. She walks her dog daily and she usually fills the dumpster with empty liquor bottles, again neither here nor there. After our recent hail storm, she is having her roof replaced. Back to the story.

So, Mike heads for the dumpster and notices that one of the lids is open on the dumpster as he approaches. It is his custom to open the side that was still closed, so he boldly threw the lid open only to see a flash of movement. Upon closer inspection, which took approximately a tenth of a second, he realized that much to his chagrin it was not a cat or animal, but one of the roofers with his pants down squatting in the dumpster and leaving a deposit. He apparently spoke very little English. He simply smiled from ear to ear and said "HE-EY!"

This left Mike in an awkward spot and feeling mildly confused and uncomfortable. Not knowing whether he should dump the trash and leave yet feeling like he owed the man the courtesy of allowing him some privacy, he left the trash can next to the dumpster and walked back to our fence where he attempted to act nonchalant. Easier said than done. A few minutes later, he saw the man emerge, and went and emptied the trash can.

I laugh every time I imagine the whole scene in my mind. This stuff is too good to make up.

The moral of the story is that if you have a neighbor getting a new roof and need to take out your trash, you should probably knock on the dumpster first. Now you can't say that you were not warned.

Half a Year!

Evyn will be 6 months old tomorrow! The time has flown by. I have had the gift of getting to spend the whole day with the kids today because my mom is out of town. We went this morning for her 6 month pictures, and I was too excited to wait to post them! These kids completely fill my heart. Thank you, God, for entrusting these two precious babies to me.

Pigtails!

OK, so this is really fun!

Evyn's First. . .

PONYTAIL!

My one huge insecurity when I found out that I was pregnant with a girl was fixing hair. It intimidates me and just makes me nervous. Everyone assured me that it would be several years before she would have enough hair to worry about, and then I gave birth to the hairiest anglo child that I have ever seen! I absolutely love her hair and would not trade it for anything, but I am having to get out my squirt bottle and rubber bands sooner than I anticipated!

Today the ponytail made its first debut. I promise to work on technique and symmetry and all of that good stuff, but for now I was just tickled to get the rubber band in without making her cry! She was adorable- she kept looking at herself in the mirror and smiling. What is not to love about this face?

When it rains. . .

It hails? Well, maybe only in Lubbock! I was just about to come home from work when an enormous thunderstorm hit! We had to call all of the kids and teachers that were still in the building to come into the office. My sweet friend, Monica, is perhaps the biggest tornado-phobe that I know and she was nervous as a cat! I felt bad but it made me giggle to watch her! She said that she dreams about tornoadoes at least three times a week. I love this about her because she is one of those people that seems to be really sane and rational.

Anyway, I got some work done and watched the storm from my office. I waited for a break in the storm, took of my shoes, and ran for my car! In the two miles home, I saw two ambulances, one firetruck, and three accidents! The roads were seriously flooded. Then there was a car floating in the intersection by our house. Oops. Here are some pictures that Mike snapped.

The view off our porch.

The rapids on 60th and Gary!

Carter playing in the "snow" after the worst of the storm was over.

On a completely unrelated note, how precious is this outfit on Evyn? Thank you, Bonky's mommy! This girl melts my heart!

The thunderstorm is still going. I love it. I love the smell and the sound of the thunder. Unfortunately, I do not love the leak in our playroom. I am fairly certain that at least one child will end up in my bed tonight and part of me loves that! I love spring time in West Texas!

Birds and the Bees- sorta.

This morning while I was dressing Carter, I was telling him how very glad that I was that God gave me a little boy to love. He told me "I know, mommy. You love me from the top of my head to the tippy of my toes." Somehow from there we moved on to where he came from. Because of Evyn, he knows that babies grow in mommy's tummy and then doctors help take them out. Today he said "Mommy, did God put me together and then Jesus threw me in your tummy?" I thought that was more age appropriate than launching into the whole "special hug" talk, so we left it at that! He is already keeping me on my toes!

There are days that I just step back and smile thinking about how blessed I am to be the mommy to two precious little monkeys. I snapped some fun pictures this morning and thought I would share!

This is how Evyn's hair looks after she wakes up! She is a wild child for sure!


I bought Carter a pencil sharpener in the dollar section of Target and it is his new favorite item. He has sharpened every pencil in the house and is actually pretty good at it. Here he is proudly displaying his freshly sharpened #2.

Daddy and his girl. Check out those curls on Evyn! Her hair is getting soooo long!

I was trying to get Carter to smile for the camera. He looked at me and said "I will look at you but I will not smile." This is what I got. At least we made eye contact, huh?

Her future is so bright that she had to wear shades. And nothing else!

BEAK reunion!

There are some friendships that are simply timeless. God blessed me with three girlfriends in college that were a tremendously important part of my life. Our initials spelled BEAK (Brigitte, Elisabeth, Amy, Kristen) and because we were dorky like that we normally sat in that order for pictures. These girls have shared life with me in so many ways and I have so many fabulous memories of my BEAK girls. We have stayed connected since graduation but had not been all together since graduation- until this weekend!

My heart was so full on Friday when we were all together. We giggled just like the good old days, and our kids were fast friends! The time went by far too quickly, but it was an absolutely amazing weekend! Bill and Eli came all the way from Houston, Amy and Steve came in from Clovis, and Brig and Kevin are here from China! I found that I just walked around smiling because I was so happy to be back together!

We colored eggs and had tons of fun together, and there will be more pictures coming. But for now, here are some classic BEAK pictures for your viewing pleasure.

Old school BEAK- this was taken outside of our dorm freshman year! I believe that this picture was Spring 1996.

This was taken at Brigitte's personal shower. We were sophomores here and I think this was Spring 1997. Note how adorable we are with our heads tilted and legs crossed together.

I have no idea who took this picture but I remember having a ton of fun that night. I have some other pictures of BEAK doing dramatic mime, but I don't know that the blogging public is ready for that yet!

Fast forward to Friday! It was so amazing to feel like we all just picked up right where we left off. I am so thankful for these girls.

Imagine us on the cover of an album. We were trying to be dramatic and artistic, but Eli could not stop smiling and the rest of us just look confused.

Even our feet were happy to see each other. We giggled because we realized that we were all smiling for the camera in this picture!

The men of BEAK (Kevin, Bill, Steve, and Mike). They were such good sports!!!

Our only group picture. Accomplishing this was very much like herding cats!

I am on such a natural high from the weekend. I loved every minute that I got to spend with these precious friends, and I find myself being so very thankful that some things in life never change. Even though there are 8 kids between us all now, and God has taken us all in very different directions geographically and with careers, there was still a bind that tied us all together! I can't wait to do this again. I hope that it won't be ten more years! Thank you, BEAK, for a memory that I will cherish for a long time!