What is this world coming to?

Three posts to my blog in one day!? What in the world!? AND it's snowing in HOUSTON, TEXAS! What???

Here are picts for proof:

White dots on my hair and shoulder

This is an old couch cushion someone dumped in the empty lot next to Mom and Dad's house

White dots on the puppy

White flecks on Samantha's hair and jacket

And snow sitting on our gate

Christmas project

I have wanted an "Advent Calendar" for my kiddos as long as I've had them and this year I finally had the extra cash to buy one this year! I was looking through the Pottery Barn Kids catalog in November and decided that I would buy this. But being late to the party as usual, when I arrived on December 1st to the store to purchase the long awaited new family tradition, they were, of course, OUT...company wide out, no more to be made this year out. It was a MAJOR bummer, as I was already a day late of course.

So, I have decided to MAKE my own Countdown to Christmas Calendar. I am still not finished, but it has all the things I'm looking for: large pockets (other calendars I found had teeeeeeny-tiny pockets; HEEELLLOOOO! How can you fit any sort of gift in that thing, much less gifts for more than one kid??? Anyway...). And I can't wait to hang it on my wall. I'm getting closer, so I thought I'd post picts of my handy work. Enjoy!

It's in the shape of a snowman and each of the pockets have the numbers free-hand embroidered. Green pockets have white thread and white cording across the top. Red pockets have blue numbers and blue cording.

Once I get the pockets attached, I'll move on to his face. I'm invisioning blue button eyes, a carrot nose and maybe brown stick hands.

All's clear on the ECHO front

Jackie had his Echo on Monday morning. He was NONE too pleased about the process, although all it involved was laying on a bed watching TV for half and hour. He even agreed to a spanking rather than laying on the table...for a minute. :)

The doctor wasn't in on Monday to read the results to me, so he called last evening to tell me that everything was normal. No hole in his heart, no mitral valve prolapse...nothing. He would like to have him re-listened to in a couple of years.

Yeah!! We say thank you to God for walking with us down this potentially scary path! Thank you to all of you that prayed with us for Jack's heart...it seems to be perfect, just like our boy!

Hugs!

The Wilson Famole

Sweet Samantha drew this picture for us today. She's getting to be quite the artist. Please notice Daddy's red-square hair.

Back from the doctor

Well, he definitely has some noise going on (a squeak and a grind, I think). The doctor thinks he's fine as he sees this "probably once a month, weeeellll, I haven't seen it in a couple of months; so maybe more like couple times a year." After that commentary, I was encouraged that he offered to set up an Echocardiagram for Jack to see what's going on. Neither option (a hole in his heart, or Mitral Valve Prolapse) seems life threatening...obviously since we've gone several months since the initial diagnosis.

So, now I'm just talking myself out of being really worried. He'll be fine, as he's already fine. It's just worrisome.

The ECHO is set for December 8th at 9:40 a.m. Thanks for all your prayers and thoughts this morning! They were comforting.

Headed to the doctor

This summer Jack was diagnosed by a doctor in his pediatric group with a heart murmur...something that was a bit worrisome since that kid has been listened to I don't know HOW many times and nobody's ever mentioned it. But this summer it was loud and proud, and today we're finally being seen by someone in the "Murmur Clinic" of Texas Children's Hospital to see how/if we need to proceed this this issue. Our appointment is at 10 am today, so if you think of us today we'd appreciate a prayer.

I'll update this afternoon with our (hopefully good) news.

My sister in law tagged me for a fun photo meme.


It's easy, so if you wanna show us your random photo feel free (as I don't tag others...read the next post for why).


The rules:

1. Go to your pictures
2. Upload the 4th picture of the 4th folder
3. Post it
4. Tag 4 friends


Here's goes nothing:

That's my baby playing in the hay maze at the Oil Ranch Farm. Such a fun day, even though he stood in an ant pile whilst throwing a typical three year old fit. Thankfully I had very helpful fathers that helped me stripe him down and get all those nasty boogers off.

Thanks, AJ, for the great idea!

p.s. Michael, I'm tagging you. Fourth photo from your funny photo file.

I've been tagged

My sweet husband tagged me and here are the rules:

1. When I’m in a time crunch and my hair is greasy, I sprinkle powder at my roots to soak up the oil. I learned this trick in a mom’s magazine and LOVE it.


2. I’m taking a parenting class on Tuesday mornings at the 2nd Baptist church. The title is something about joyful parenting and I sooo love this class. The focus of the class is on influencing our children instead of controlling them. The point that has stuck with me the most is about not micro-managing my children’s mood, because God doesn’t do that to us. Just look at the psalms for proof that God listens (empathizes) no matter what we feel. If my home isn’t the safe place where Jack and Samantha can’t vent or process their emotions now, where can they do that when they are teenagers?


3. My hobbies include weight lifting, gardening and reading. None of which I’m really finding time for right now.


4. One of my self-improvement foci right now is on being prompt to my meetings and time commitments. I have a tendency to just do “one more thing” and make myself late, which annoys me.


5. I cried at every letter in P.S. I love you. I loved that sweet, sweet movie, except I thought it was kinda creepy at the end that she was going to start a relationship with her husband’s almost twin.


6. Drinking too many water bottles with the “Crystal Lite on the go” flavor packs gives me MAJOR tummy trouble.


7. I’m terrible at Wii Mario Kart.

I have to tell you, I'm going to break rule number 3. I'm my loser self and don't really know 7 people on the internet with blogs (other than Michael's friends) so...if you read mine and wanna play, feel free to go for it and post a comment so I can read yours!!

Have a super great week!!

Introducing myself again

Hiya! Sorry it's been so long...it's been a crazy time since...May, oh yeah. Hmmm. Guess I've been slacking a bit. Eeeek!

Here's some picts to make you all a bit happier--if you're still reading.

Halloween Pics: The Pit Crew and his Princess

Samantha's first Kindergarten field trip to Oil Ranch Farm
I wish you could know just how bad this baby felt on Friday, but she was dying to go so we made do and popped some Pepto. She must have gotten two short doses of the stomach bug. The rest of us got one harder dose. I'm not sure which I would have preferred her to get as it was a bit worryisome as to why she was "randomly" vomiting!? Anyway, I think we're all better, but look at these pale lips! Sweet baby!

Riding the horse

Jack having his turn to ride. He was only convinced that he should ride when he remembered that he'd already done it once at RoRo's house just last month.

The haymaze was a lot of fun, although Jack got in trouble for "bumping the hay" which was as much fun as anything else we did.The last thing we did was pick out a pumpkin; she looks pleased to me!

The following day, we attended three (holy smokes!) different halloween parties. This picture was taken at the first one. Bless her heart, you can see she's started the parade-o'parties tired. But beautiful all the same.

And finally, my latest baking prowess: two pumpkin pies for Samantha's class to taste tomorrow.


I TOLD you it's been busy!!! :)

Love you all!

May's adventures

So, two Thursdays ago (May 1st) Samantha's pre-school class took their final field trip together. Having a Mommy-panic-'cause-my-baby's-growing-up moment, I decided to give up one of the few Tuesday/Thursday Mommy times I have in May and go with her to the Aquarium.

We saw some pretty cool aquatic life. This octopus was really into showing off for us! All over the glass the whole time we were in the room. We also got to see a Moray Eel and a Large Mouthed Bass which are in Veggie Tale Music that we listen to constantly in the van. Now she has a good visual of what those animals are!

This "deep sea diver" suit was in a room where we got to touch tiger sharks (if you were fast enough) and sting rays. Isn't she a cutie!?

I am sooo glad that I went, because as much as I want her to grow up and be successful and brave and strong and confident, it was heart warming and reassuring that she still does need her mommy. The first request for Mommy, came on the train that takes you through the "property." There is a mechanical shark that "jumps" out of the water at you. Apparently he's supposed to be frightening, but mainly (and Samantha agreed) he's just annoying.

We got to ride the carousel TWICE! Wow! That was a big hit!
The MOST fun of the day was right before lunch: sprinkler time. They all got to play for about 30 minutes in a fountain area. As you can see by this smile she approved!

--------------------

My other cutie-patootie, reading before breakfast last week.

A quick potty update...he's pooped on the potty at least once each of the last three days!! Yeah, Jackie boy! I'm pretty sure he's doing some of his business, but not nearly "cleaning the pipes." That's ok though because we used to celebrate the three tinkles he'd do and now he's blowing out the porcelin...just like his daddy! :)

-----------------

Our ugly new additions.

Today I was on the phone and the person I was chatting with had asked me earlier if we had baby birds, yet. I said no and continued on with our conversation, walking around outside, doing my typical Mommy multi-tasking. So, I peep my head over the nest just to see the eggs and up pop these three yellow mouths! I screamed bloody murder! Scared me to death as I was totally expecting eggs still. After the inital shock, we hip-hip-hoorayed. The kids had to have at least three turns looking at them, blah, blah. My one lasting impression: Dude, baby birds are nasty looking!!! Eeew!

Houston additions...

Last year my dad put this old basket in our tree in hopes that we would get some feathered visitors. We mostly forgot about it although it was in plain view. On Saturday we were playing in the backyard and much to our suprise there was a nest in our little basket! We couldn't have been more happy! And then on Tuesday we got an even BIGGER suprise. Eggs! We'll be watching and let you know how this turns out. Anybody know how long mockingbird eggs incubate??



Another fun addition to our family: an official reader. Samantha is quite the reader. She concentrates very hard and this is the result:



As she reading the page, she's absent mindedly curling the right page's corner. We can always tell whether she's been to that page or not! :)

I got to go to the Aquarium today with her class...I'll post pics of that this evening!

Samantha's latest feat...

It's actually related to her feet: she tied both of her shoes today all by herself!! I was getting ready in my room this morning and she comes flying in with both shoes double knotted and as proud of herself as she can be!! I can't vouch for the perfectness of her knot, but I will say that they stayed tied through the entire outing (a birthday party) so that gives her an A in my book!

We called Michael at work so she could tell him and I heard her say, "It makes me feel all grown up!" What a big day for her! Mommy was as proud as she was!!

The birthday boy's mommy took a picture of her when we got there and I am hoping she'll send it to me so I can post it here!

Houston happenings...

Sorry it's been such a long time since my last post (Uncle Bob!), but things have been a bit crazy.

I've been to Portland, OR to meet my brother's first baby girl. She's absolutely adorable and has the funniest, busiest legs you've ever seen on a baby! This was my first "Mommy by herself" trip that I've ever taken. It didn't start out so well (lost my keys...which I still haven't found, misplaced my purse, cried when I left the kids, etc, etc) but it improved very quickly once I got on the plane. Craig and Renata are hopelessly in love and are spoiling her rotten which is to be expected and encouraged!

The following weekend the kids and I left Daddy at home to travel to Michael's nephew's birthday party in Springdale, AR. We had a really fast but great trip. The kids were like angels on the drive, and endured beautifully not being able to watch videos. The video players we'd previously purchased weren't the highest quality and have pretty much pooped out, despite PawPaw's best efforts.

I am not sure how Adam's birthday has become such a to-do, but Matt and AJ are SPECTACULAR hosts and we had an enormously fun time connecting with Michael's extended family. This maybe our last time to be able to make this trip as Miss Samantha starts Kindergarten this fall.

I am pretty sure Samantha's favorite part of this trip was Great calling her "Catfish" and finding her under the coffee table. And Jack's favorite was Adam's Thomas Tunnel. That kid just couldn't get enough!

After visiting a gymnastics facility for Adam's party, Samantha put on the full court press for taking classes at the Little Gym. No longer able to put her off, especially since we drive past it at least three times a week when we go to the YMCA, I called and signed them up for classes. They are BOTH loving it more than I thought possible. And it's a skill set and body work that we haven't done with them so it's good for them to be exposed to something new.

And don't you worry; we haven't given up swimming twice a week. They're both doing really well. Samantha's working pretty hard on the breast-stroke which takes a TON of coordination. And Jackie-boy has just passed his float tests. I wasn't totally sure that he was ready, but his teacher seemed to think it was fine, and she was right. He did AWESOME! I was a bit nervous the first two times but did manage to remember the camera for test #2 and #3. They are the videos you see below.






For those that don't remember or don't know the float test is laid out like this: they do it three times with progressively heavier clothing, to mimic summer clothes, fall clothing and winter clothing. They can pass by either floating to the side of the pool or floating for 5 minutes.

[\end Mommy's bragging]

Tomorrow is cowboy day at school so there will be biscuits and gravy for breakfast, a small petting zoo, a horse/pony/donkey/some pack animal to ride, and tons of Texas cowboy crafts. It should be lots of fun and hopefully we'll get lots of good pics for me to share before Samantha turns six! :)

"Mommy, it's snow much fun!"

Jackie quotes Toy Story

Getting myself outta trouble...

Several people have requested that I get a new post so here you go. Hopefully the first of many in the new year. :)

Mostly I am going to go with pictures until I get you all caught up.

This is when we took the kids and my mom and dad to Galveston for the Festival of Lights at Moody Gardens.

Samantha's Birthday

A "member morning" in December at our awesome zoo:

Samantha's ears are plugged because the elephants were trumpeting in protest of the construction equipement that is building the extention on their exhibit.

Breakfast with Santa at school:

The only reason why Jack even considered sitting was the lollipop. Thankfully, it was enough!

These are just some random pics.

This is Christmas with my mom and dad before we all left for the far corners of the earth.

Samantha had the "frow ups" and was VERY weak, so she layed around and opened gifts. By the end, Daddy had to carry her back to our house and she was in bed before Jack and I even got there. Poor baby.

This is the funnest part of Christmas: Playing in the snow at RoRo and PawPaw's house:

Christmas morning chaos:

I think Samantha's favorite was her "Baby Sarah" doll, and Jack adored his scooter AND Adam's bouncing ball.

I'm going to call these last two, "You know you had a good Christmas when..."