Well hello there.

Hey! It's me! Yep, I'm still alive. And I totally know you were worried that I wasn't so I'm glad I could clear that up for you. I've been meaning to update but I can't seem to stay caught up with life right now. It might also have something to do with the fact that we spent the entire month of August hacking up our lungs and Harper is carrying the torch into September. Sigh...my poor baby girl. She seriously needs an immunity bubble. Just like her mama. What is with all this summer sickness, anyway?? 

But as my best friend jokingly said earlier tonight, enough with the excuses.  She left me a bossy voicemail that I need to start blogging more than once every 12 years and trust me, my bossy best friend gets what my bossy best friend demands. Her "sassy assertiveness" is just one of the bajillion things I respect about her. Ha! Love ya, Tienna! :)

So here's some of what we've been up to over the last month:

The Hubster had a birthday. Would you just look at all those candles.

I feel compelled to point out that he is now closer to 40 than he is to 30. Oh, snap!

My boys (Little Miss was already in bed, because...wait for it...she was sick.)

Mom & Tim

Mmmmm, cake!

OH NO! I ate all of my frosting and it is THE END OF THE WORLD! Must throw a tantrum because I. AM. OUT. OF. FROSTING!!!!

Ohhh Yeeeaah! My grandma's a SUCKA!

The gift that Harrison picked out for his daddy all on his own. *chuckle*

 I have to stop here to add a little back story. For whatever reason, our son is fascinated with clocks. He talks about them constantly, points them out wherever we go, asks to listen to them tick-tock, and is generally obsessed. But like I've mentioned before, the little dude can't pronounce his "L"s. And because Rick and I apparently have the humor of 8th grade boys, we have never laughed so hard in all of our lives. It just doesn't get old hearing a sweet toddler innocently say things like Daddy, can I play with your clock? and I'm putting the clock on my ear! and Ooh! There's a big clock over there! I know. I KNOW. We are terrible. But until you hear it for yourself, please don't judge because I'm telling ya, it's freakin' hilarious! :)

A kid-less birthday dinner celebration with great friends

And I figured I'd try to give my aging hubby a heart attack with a nice practical joke. I told him that since I found out I was pregnant with Harrison on MY birthday he deserved a gift-wrapped pregnancy test on HIS birthday. Of course under the bow are three very important letters in front of the word "pregnant": N-O-T.

In other happenings, we took the kids to NASA. And now every five minutes we hear things like 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9 PAST OFF!!!!!! and I'm gonna take a trip to outer pace today!!! and May I pease ride on a rocket ship? and watch countless videos of shuttle launches on YouTube. :) Love it.

I always have good ideas to go places and run errands "real quick" and I think I'm just a complete idiot sometimes. Because at these ages my kids usually last a max of 5 minutes before I'm ready to run back to the car in tears. I'm really having to adjust to staying at the house and being more idle. I'm not very good at it. But I think I'd rather go insane at home than out in public. Ha!

Alright, Bubba. Let's cue the meltdowns in 3-2-1...

This particular shopping experience my daughter had The Silent Diaper Explosion of Epic Proportions and I was walking around the store completely unaware of the fact that I was covered in her poop for who knows how long. AWESOME! Of course I had packed her a change of clothes but not me. DOUBLE AWESOME!

We've watched Toy Story a minimum of 1,365,844 times and Harper made it her mission to destroy any sense of organization or tidiness approximately every 45 seconds.

We've played tractors and trucks every day and read endless library books on construction and farm equipment. Thanks to my curious toddler I now get excited when I see construction sites and can point out all of the technical names of the  pieces of equipment. I'm pretty sure I'm now qualified to be a construction worker of some sort..Just give me a hard hat and the keys to an excavator.

 We did venture out with friends for a couple of play dates. Kemah was a hit with the kids.

Harrison and Brody

Riding the choo-choo train

 Then there was the day I was fed up with Harrison's shaggy hair. He has the most stubborn cowlick ever and I got the sudden impulse to chop it all off.

Before

And so I did. 

After. Meet my BIG boy.

Another small little detail that went down this month? This girl got married!

Two of my favorite people

The wedding was in Port Aransas and the kids and I took a 6 day vacation for the festivities. Rick had to work but met us there the day before the wedding and stayed the weekend. Everything was beautiful, especially the bride!

view from the resort

Harrison was a "free-spirited" ring bearer and didn't feel like walking with the other 2.

But his daddy was able to reign him back in...for about 2 seconds.

This picture melts my heart. One day (too soon) he will be walking her down the isle at her own wedding.

Saying the I Do's

Woo hoo!

I met Ashley at a high school homecoming dance after-party. We initially didn't like each other because of typical high school drama rumors we'd heard about one another. And then we exchanged a couple of sentences and the rest was history. 14 years and LOTS of shared life experiences later, it was a privilege to stand by her side as her matron of honor...all dolled up in fancy dresses like the night we first met :)

 One of those that-would-be-SOOO-easy-and-inexpensive-to-make projects I made for one of her wedding gifts. $40 and 20 hours later and it was done. Ha!

Her new monogram

Speaking of best friends, Tienna had a birthday this month as well. She has joined me in the 29 club. We may be clinging to our twenties, but hey, we are still in our twenties. (Even though our bodies apparently didn't get the memo and we are both falling apart - ha) It totally sucks that we live so far away and I never get to spend her birthday with her. But we wished her happy birthday sentiments from afar and Harrison asked if he could make her a "concert video," so I obliged. I think a music career is most definitely in his future! Or not. Hey, at least he has the passion. :)




Did I mention that we've been playing? Like, a lot?

Sometimes we play nicely...

And sometimes, not so much...

But more often than not, being a fly on the wall is pretty darn priceless.