Maifest!

I know I am a little behind on my posts, but better late than never I guess. The maifest is an annual tradition in this town, and it has been for many years. I always enjoyed watching the parades as a kid, and I wanted my boys to be apart of it as well. We headed downtown to watch the junior maifest parade that Friday. We met up with Aunt Stacy, Jenna, Leah and Luke. It was quite warm outside that day, but we still had fun watching the parade.

Oh, Holy Poop!

OK, I understand completely that part of my job as "Mommy" is that I am on "clean-up duty" most of the time. I can handle spit up on my shirt, wiping my kid's snotty noses, mud all over the floor because the boys didn't take their shoes off before coming in the house after splashing around in mud puddles outside, chocolate pudding from head to toe (wondering how much actually made it in their mouths), even a whole pitcher of full of red Kool-aid that Brady managed to knock down from the top shelf of the fridge and it ended up covering the entire kitchen floor and staining most of the fridge red, but the line must be drawn somewhere.
Yesterday, Dane and I took the boys to pick dewberries. We have a bunch out in our back pasture, and they have been begging us to go. As you can imagine most of the berries the boys picked ended up in their mouths rather than the bucket. I warned them many times to quit eating so many berries because they were going to get sick. Well, they learned last night that Mommy knows best, and they should heed my warnings. Brady came into the living room last night complaining to me that his tummy hurt. No sooner did he tell me that brown dewberry seeded diarrhea comes running out of his pants, all down his legs, and all over my area rug in the living room; and it just kept coming all the way down the hallway, into the bathroom until we finally made it to the bathtub. OMG!! Are you kidding me? It was the worst, most disgusting, stinky thing I have ever had to clean up. I literally had to hold my breath to keep from... well you know what. I managed to get his clothes in the washer and get the bathroom tile and hardwood floor cleaned, but the area rug was a whole different story. It's not like I could just throw it in the washing machine, so I rolled it up, and Dane helped me drape it over the wash line outside where I proceeded to hose it down and scrub it with a bucket of water and washing detergent. Kade had the same tummy ache, but thankfully made it to the toilet before any accidents occured. The lesson learned today is make sure you kiddos don't dip too far into the dewberry bucket.

1 Month Old!

Nate turned one month old last week. He is growing so fast. I don't know why, but I thought my third and final child would be laid back, sleep most of the night, and have just a little bit of patience. Boy did I ever miscalculate that one. Nate is needy with not an ounce of patience and wants to be held all the time. If you put him down, he is ok for about 10 minutes, if you're lucky, and then the next thing you know he is screaming and crying (you would think he is in horrible pain.) As soon as you pick him up though, it shuts off like a light switch, and he is happy and looking around. He loves to eat. He isn't one for much of an eating schedule; he is more of just a snacker. Our sleep schedule at night... well, come to think of it we really don't have one of those either. Some nights he wakes up twice, and other nights it is three or four times. You just never know. Hopefully that will get better. In this first month, he has developed baby acne all over his face. Apparently, this is more than normal for a four to five week old baby. This is the time when their oil glands start producing oil, and their faces break out. We are hoping that clears up soon as well. To sum up the first month, Nate loves to cry when not being held, snacks all day (his rolls show it), no nightly sleep schedule (yet), and is already dealing with pimples. In Mommy's eyes though, he is a precious little guy who is loved more than words could ever express.

Big Brother Brady!

As the time got closer for Nate to arrive, Dane and I became a little worried about how Brady was going to adjust to having a baby in the house. He had been the baby for so long and wasn't ready to give up the attention just yet. He told Dane one night "The baby just needs to stay in Mommy's tummy and not come out." Dane would ask him if he was going to love his new baby brother and he would say "NO." When asked what he was going to do with his brother he stated "hit him." We prepared ourselves that we were going to have to keep a close eye on him once we brought Nate home. A few days after bringing Nate home, Brady told Nana Rau she should take Nate home and keep him. However, after about a week of adjusting to our new family addition Brady came around and is nothing but sweet with "Baby Nate." He is going to be a wonderful big brother.

I Love Ice Cream!

We went downtown this year to Brenham's Annual Ice Cream Festival. Our intentions were to go watch Jenna and Leah dance, but needless to say we were a little late getting there and missed the show. We did enjoy the ice cream though. We all picked our favorite flavors and sat on the square to eat our cold treat. After we finished our ice cream we walked around and let the boys play a couple of games, and then we called it a morning and headed home for some lunch and much needed naps.

Happy Birthday Nana Rau!

Nana Rau celebrated her birthday back on April 2oth. Papa, the Hardy's, and we took her out to eat at JW's Steakhouse in Carmine. We were able to get the private party room, and boy was it worth it with the six little ones that tagged along with us. After we ate, we went back to Nana and Papa's house to give her her presents. We got her a gift certificate so she could go pick her out a new DVD player and some butterfly plants to plant in her butterfly garden. Happy Birthday Nana Rau! We all look forward to celebrating many more birthdays with you.

Happy Birthday Brady!

Brady turned 3 years old back on April 9th. Because we had just come home from the hospital with Nate two days before, we had to hold off on having a party for a few weeks. We did have the immediate family over to our house for dinner on Brady's actual birthday. We got him a cookie cake, sang happy birthday, and had some presents for him to open. We wanted to make it his day and make sure all the attention was focused on him especially with the new baby just coming home. Mission accomplished!!
We still wanted to make sure he had an actual birthday party that he could invite all his little friends to. He made it clear to us that he wanted a bucking bull party at the park, and that is what he got. Well, on the bull riding end of things, we had a bull riding cake, decorations, and party favors. On Friday, April 30th we had a party at the park. Brady had a great turn out. Almost all of his friends from his "Frisky Frog" class came as well as many close family friends. Brady was all smiles from ear to ear. There was no erasing that smile off his face that day, except when he got mad and refused to blow out his candles (minor setback). All in all he had a great time at this party. We look forward to many many more birthdays with Brady.

Make a wish

Gotta love colored icing


Bull rider Brady


Look, I'm just like Jason Aldean


My bull rider birthday cake


I'm having a party at the park


Playing at the park


Happy Birthday dear Brady! Happy Birthday to you!