Week of August 1

Geez... August already. I can't believe I already have to go back to school in a week, less actually. This past week was quite eventful. My little sister came for a long weekend visit. It was AWESOME to have her here. We packed as much as we could in the few days she was here, but I swear I did let her sleep in so she got some vacation in. OK, so as late as I kept her up it probably didn't even out to sleeping in, but at least the clock looked like she did to her!

We started the week by cleaning up the house. I didn't want to be too distracted by that while she was here so I took care of the big stuff early in the week. Jonathan and I played Uno and a Matching game one day while Jansen helped us play or napped. We went swimming at Laura's one day. And then... the day arrived for us to go pick Amy up at the airport. I won't go into detail on that aspect of the week since it's all illustrated below, but we did a bunch of stuff!

Our precious little baby also turned one. This was the "real" reason Ani Amy came to see us, but I'll pretend it was kind of about me too! It was her first time meeting Jansen and she helped IMMENSELY in getting his birthday party together. I also did very few dishes or laundry while she was here, but I swear I didn't ask her to, she volunteered! Vacationing at my house does not require manual labor for those of you who have yet to come!! And remember those of you who have been and ironed for me that you volunteered for that too!! :-)

Jansen did not fair well in the car to take Amy back to the airport. I think it has to do with several more teeth trying to pop through at the same time again, but she thinks he is just upset she was leaving. All I know is that my darling turned into McScreamy on that trip. He hollered the majority of the way to the airport, but every second in the car on the way back. The couple times we stopped briefly he'd cease screaming and grin at me as soon as I opened the back door. It was quite frustrating. I checked his car seat for stickers or burrs, other pokey objects, or even to see if the straps were too tight. There was nothing apparently wrong except his attitude! Ugh! He screamed so much and so loud that he was hoarse for 2 days! He's just now tonight starting to get his real voice back. I do see several bubbles on his gums so we'll see if those buggers break through or just sink back down. Teething is so hard on him. :-(

Richard is at a conference 4 hours away from us. He left the morning we had to take Amy to the airport and won't be back until Friday. We were going to go meet him and hang out with him while he was there, but McScreamy won't handle the ride right now and frankly, I don't think his mother would either without sound proof glass between the front and back seats either. OK, not really. I feel awful though when I can't figure out how to make him stop screaming and driving all that way without being able to sit in the back with McScreamy is a little too much right now, especially since I'm having to come to terms with the fact that I head back to work next week. I'm so not ready.

So, what have I been doing alone at home with the little guy these past few days? Not too much actually. He and I have trashed the house by clearing off the bookshelves at his level and scattering the contents around the floor, snuggled a lot, played a lot, had a game of crawl chase (he's quite fast, by the way, so I kept losing) and if you'll look at the time of this post you can tell I haven't been sleeping much. I have a hard time sleeping now when Richard isn't here so I wait until I drop to go to bed. The past 2 nights I worked on my on-line in-service class until 3 am, but I'm finished in 2 days rather than the 2 weeks they give you , which is good since I was a few days behind during my sister's visit! I mean... priorities, right? Who wants to work when your sister is here to play!?!? Now I'm updating the blog at 3am.

OK, Baby... it's time to come home before I make this a habit right before I go back to work! I am hoping that tomorrow I will be worn out enough that I'll fall asleep easier since we are going to swim at Laura's and see if Ann and Adalyn want to watch a movie with us in the evening.

G'Night Y'All! (In true Texas fashion!)

The Drop Off

I always seem to goof up with the camera. You have to make sure this sensitive little thingy isn't moved on it or the pics turn out blurry. Richard is really great about checking before every picture he takes. I get caught up in the moment and forget to look. Sheesh! One of these days I'll learn... otherwise if anyone wants to donate a user-friendlier camera to the Spacey Stacey organization I'd take it!

Jansen and I had to take Ani Amy to the airport. We were very sad to let her go, but we know that holding her hostage wouldn't have pleased her own family very much. We ended up letting her go, but not without a couple more snuggles first!


Jansen and his Ani before she had to go back home.


Our traditional family "sad face" pic whenever we must part again. Jansen will learn!

Me and my baby sister at the airport.

Our sad face pic. I was always so good at making this face, but now that the stroke makes my eye all goofy when I do it it's even more sad looking!

Thanks for coming to visit us Ani Amy. We love you and miss you!!

Texas Motor Speedway

We stopped off at Texas Motor Speedway on the way back to the airport. As one of the heads of a Nascar family it was a must on the to-do list or her boys would have been very disappointed! I am a rotten sister though... I didn't realize they gave tours so we missed getting one in for her. I PROMISE next time I'll be sure that is one of the things we absolutely do not miss. We did get to the gift shop and she got some good pics of the outside, signs, and cars in the water for her boys and her own blog though.

Jansen and his Ani outside the gift shop.

Random shots last week

The family.


Jansen and his Ani Amy.



Bathtime snuggles from Mommy.

Ani Amy and the boys!

Wine Tasting

Laura and I took Amy to a wine tasting at a local vineyard on Sunday when Richard had to take Jonathan home. I hadn't been sure if Amy had been to a tasting before or not so we took her to our little gem here. The lady kept looking at Amy funny and giving her "extra" lessons on wine and tasting. She looked a little hesitant serving her too. We found out why later when we were discussing children and families. When Amy told her she had 4 kids the lady's eyes bugged out and she told her she thought she was barely older than a teenager so she didn't believe she could have had 4 babies! It is a great thing to hear in your 30's!! I really thought the poor thing was going to have a heart attack when Amy said her oldest was going to be 10!! Precious moment!


Amy taking a sip of a blush... her preference!


Laura likes the dry reds so she took her sip on a different wine. Must have been good though... look at that smile!

Jansen prefers his grapes to be plastic right now!

Although the temptation to sip was definitely present...

Oh he got his turn to sip after all! (Before anyone calls Child Protective Services on us, it was water. He just had it in the wine glass since that's what they had there!!)

Ani Amy and Jansen in the gift shop.

Satisfied! Look at that grin. He LOVES his Ani!

The Stockyards

Ani Amy came to visit us!! We went to the Fort Worth Stockyards when we picked her up at the airport so that we could take her to Risky's BBQ for lunch. While we were there we toured the stockyards since I have been there a few times with those summer programs I was teaching these past few summers and I could tell them about everything, plus I thought it was somewhere our own cowboy (aka Jonathan) might enjoy since we were already so close.

Ani Amy meets Jansen! This is a sign at the stockyards that shows the parts of the cattle drive.

Me and the boys by the sign.

Amy and Jansen by the Bill Pickett Statue. The original bulldogger... Bill Pickett, not Amy or Jansen that is!

Amy and the boys in the original turnstiles down at the stockyards. These are the very turnstiles that the original driving cowboys used to get to view the herds!

Jansen checks out how far he reaches compared to a longhorn's spread!

Jonathan's turn... he's a little closer to meeting it!


Jansen and I check out the longhorn pen.

They run a real cattle drive right down the street twice a day! The streets are all original brick, by the way.

Jansen really liked the cattle drive. He started clapping for it all on his own when they passed, like a parade!

While we were there we also went to the Cowboy Hall of Fame and Wagon Museum. Jonathan recognized his idol cowboy George Strait and got his picture next to his kiosk

Both of the boys by the stagecoach. An interesting fact... I asked Jonathan how many peopl he thought could ride in one of these at one time (trick, since I had been before I already knew the answer). He guessed 9, which is more than anyone else had ever guessed in the times I had been there. It's actually 21. 9 rode inside (usually women and children) then 11 rode on the top and there was one driver. Crazy! Imagine the complaints the parents of those kids got while traveling, "He crossed over to my side." "She TOUCHED me!" Etc. We have it sooooo much better now even in little cars like mine with a rear-facing car seat!

More Birthday Party

There were a couple of pictures that my sister had on her camera to add to the others from the birthday party.


The whole family with the birthday boy!


Jansen and Adalyn playing with the table top toy at Jansen's birthday party.

The Bros

My favorite pictures are ones of the boys together. Here I snagged a couple this weekend.'


Jonathan (our Sooner Fan extrordinaire) is reading his birthday gift to Jansen, who is rapt with attention! Notice Jonathan is even wearing his Sooners shirt!


Brother snuggles are the best of all!

THE Party!!!

With the giant milestone of turning one absolutely required us to throw a little birthday bash. We grilled Kebobs, had Carmel Apple Salad, Potato Salad, Fresh Grapes, and those delightful cheese balls from Sam's club in the giant barrel! Yum!! I also decided the night before on a theme. I went with Rubber Ducky theme since the kiddos that were going to be there were so varied in age (9 months and up!) and everyone loves a rubber ducky! They each got to take a couple home for party favors! I made a bathtub cake with the duckies on top. I think it turned out really cute! I also made Richard go out and get the ice cream that morning for the party and then forgot to serve it with the cake! Ugh! All in all things went fabulously, though Kebobs take a long time to grill. Richard was still finishing them at 10:00 last night, but then I made so many that we will be eating Kebobs the rest of this week! Good thing they were tasty!



Now for what you are all REALLY waiting for... the pics!

Jansen is practicing his proposals to the girls already at ONE!! Here Adalyn is giving him pointers on style and delivery. Addy: "Don't scream at me if you want me to be yours. Girls don't like that! Your technique needs work, Bub! But the knee thing is kinda cool even if it's cliche'!"

Balloon Fun! These things are tricky to grab and keep!

Opening one of the first presents!

It's a Big-Belly Dragon Bank to go with his bedroom theme! How cool! When you put the coin in the dragon's mouth it snakes down his throat to his belly and you can see it the whole time! All the kids (including the 21 year old Olga) had to play with the bank! Mommy thinks she should get one for her classroom so that the students can "feed it," since they find it so fun. Maybe we'd have Jansen's 200 college units that we want secured by the time he's 5 covered by the time the school year ended that way!

The Rubber Ducky Themed table.

Side view of the cake. The "water" in the tub is whipped up jello jigglers.

Jonathan wanted to peek out from behind the cake when I was taking a closer shot!

Jansen (and Jonathan) with the cake!

I even made the cake itself blue! Here is the cut cake after we served it!

Jansen eating his first birthday cake!

Messy face and fingers. The jello part had him distracted on his fingers!

Here is Jansen eating his first cake. I thought you all that couldn't be here would like to see!

I had to put this on for those of you who weren't here to see it. I don't think it reads too well, but cute all the same. Jansen would crawl around and headbutt the balloon since he couldn't grab and hold it with his hands! It was hilarious until he got distracted by the dog bowl!

Prep for the Party

While Auntie Amy and Mommy prepped for the birthday party, Jansen hung out with Daddy.


Playing on the floor with Daddy. The cords are so tempting, but Daddy is quick to distract from them with the camera! Smile Sugar!!


One and already so intense in choosing his reading material!

One Year

August 7th, 2009 Our precious little baby turned one. He arrived one year ago not much bigger than a mite and though still a little guy, he has grown so healthy and handsomely! We are so very blessed. HAPPY BIRTHDAY Son!


Jansen the day he arrived home from the hospital a year ago.


On his birthday one year later. Frank (his dragon) has nothing on him now!



With his advanced age comes an adventurous side! Here he has just discovered that the bouncy seat that was so entertaining as a newborn, turned into a puller-upper thingy, and now has transformed into a step stool! I guess it's time for Mommy to put this one away. He is definitely a climber now!

Mini Golf

We went Mini-Golfing on Monday evening. After playing the Tiger Woods PGA PS3 game so much, Jonathan was able to label our shots. He had so many names for all the shots I did that I'm sure I must have won even though we didn't keep score. I had eagles, birdies, and a bogie here and there according to our own golf master. Win or not, it was a fun night!


Jonathan a.k.a. Golf Master, club in hand.


Coach Jansen giving pointers.



This is what happens when you don't listen to the coach. He desperately tries to get you to take back that last play!