Chillin'

I have never had complaints about living in Texas. I love everything about it (well..ok...I wasn't real jazzed with two hurricanes in 5 years but from my glass-half-full vantage point, if it weren't hurricanes it could be wildfires or tornadoes or snow storms).

But when you can catch your kids chillin in the pool on a Sunday evening late in September, it doesn't get much better than this....

Missing my little people....

Everyone knows I'm a neat freak....every morning no matter how chaotic the morning is, I always manage to pick up everything before I walk out the door to take the kids to school. Well this morning was a tad different and I honestly didn't even realize that everything was not put up until I walked back in the door from dropping the kids off at school and this is what I saw....perfectly placed in the middle of the living room were Kate's dinosaur and Wesley's little blue car that they had been rolling around playing with just minutes before.
It was at that moment that my heart felt empty...like I needed them there to finish playing with their toys.
Then I snapped out of it and my OCP kicked in and I quickly picked up the toys and put them in their proper place.

A girl and her horse.....

I had to follow up Wesley's blog re: A boy and his dog with a blog posting just for my special Kate. And the timing was perfect. We spent Sunday at MiMi and PaPa's in Beeville and had great weather to spend the day outside. The entire family was there so the kids got to play with all their cousins which is always tons of fun! Of course Kate had to ride Teva. Teva did a great job letting the kids take turns riding on her. Bless her heart!

A boy and his dog.....

Someday maybe we'll have big burly dogs that we take to the lake and they will retrieve our fish before we can reel them in or maybe we'll have a big Labrador retriever that Justin and Wesley can take dove hunting and he'll retrieve the doves that they shoot or maybe we'll have a big hound dog that sits in the back yard and howls at the coyotes as they pass through our land....but right now we have Jake and Rex and they don't do any of the above.
Our dainty little poodle and Maltese want nothing more than to lay beneath my feet while I work (Rex) and perch on the back of the recliner to keep an eye on the world (Jake).
But I wouldn't trade them for anything in the entire world. And evidentally neither would Wesley....this morning as I was getting ready the kids jumped in our bed to watch Curious George. Wesley wanted a pillow and opted for (not one of the 6 we already have on our bed) but for Rex.

Just pictures (with small captions)

I realized I took a lot of pictures over the past week but neglected to post them but here are some of my favorites...

Kate is just gorgeous...so sweet...amazing little girl...this is her running towards me at Port A on Labor Day Kate and Wesley playing at the beach on Labor Day

The Peters crew...Mom Peters, Dad Peters and Justin (or as the kids reference them: MiMi, PaPa and Daddy)

Kate with her favorite man (or Justin with his favorite girl..either way works!) at a Labor Day birthday party in Beeville Kate and Justin

It's rained A LOT in Victoria over the past week..enough to make puddles..since the kids couldn't really play in the pool I let them play in the puddles (but then off to take a bath immediately!)

Wesley kept trying to get Kate's lunch so when he decided to crawl on her chair she gave him a nice big kiss....see if he tries to do that again in the future?!?

She did end up sharing her lunch and it made his day!

Midweek Visit from Grandma

Its always nice to break up the monotony of the week by having a visit from Grandma. The kids were so happy to see her. My grandma has such a great energy and smile that I would have loved to take some pictures of her playing with the kids but she had had a rough day before getting to our house. She dropped Roscoe off at the groomer and her battery died. She had to wait an hour for the guy to come meet her to get her a new one installed. Then she had a doctors appointment with blood work so she couldn't eat all morning. Needless to say when she got to our house in the afternoon it was pouring rain outside and all she wanted was a cup of coffee!
So I spared her from the normal photo session.
Kate and Wesley pulled out all their toys they wanted to show her and she gabbed it up with them. She is just amazed at how much Wesley talks. And when he gets his dimples going she just melts.
It was a nice quick visit and made the kids feel so special that she spent some time with them!

Isn't it ironic?!?!

Ok...so I was totally an Alanis Morrisette fan when she came out with this song a very long time ago but this post is NOT about music. It's more about kids...and how you just can't figure them out. Wesley NEVER sleeps past 6:15am. NEVER. Even if he parties like a rockstar the night before and we let him stay up until he just can't hang any longer. Still up asking for his Diego cup with cold milk at 6:15 in the morning. But today..on Tuesday morning...not Saturday or Sunday or even Monday (since it was a holiday and we could all sleep in)....no..not any of those days. Why that would be too nice. Tuesday he and Kate sleep until WE FINALLY WOKE THEM UP AT 7:30 so they could get to school on time. Oh well....since I'm a glass half full kind of gal I look at it this way - at least I know he has it in him! Yes...there is a part of my super spunky little man that CAN sleep past 6:15! Woo Hoo!
And on a side note..little Noah in Kate's class was walking in with his older sister and dad this morning and all I kept hearing him say was 'But I'm tired, Daddy...' But I'm tired'.....guess the long weekend is catching up with everyone!

Midweek Random Pictures - Thoughts!?!?

Just had to post this cute picture of my main man Jake.....I keep a floor fan near my computer desk during the day so I don't' have to keep the A/C freezing all day long (since I work from home)....today I happened to turn around and saw Jake enjoying the breeze and I thought it looked just like a Cindy Crawford model pose with the simulated breeze! Isn't he such a stud muffin...too bad we took away his ability to have little Jake's...he has such great genes! And what is so exciting about this picture....well that's the joy of the picture. I worked really hard so that you can't tell what makes this picture special. See the story goes....yesterday my dear Kate was coloring in her coloring book with a purple crayon (you probably are getting a good idea of where this is going) and I was chatting on the phone for a short 5 minutes (hence the reason I HATE talking on the phone). Kate kept asking me to color with her..I told her to wait until I was off the phone...she didn't wait and the next thing I know Wesley is pulling on my leg telling me to 'Come see what Kate drew!'. So I did....I saw a HUGE PURPLE drawing on our white walls....it was about 2 ft by 2ft. So (after much scolding) I grabbed the Magic Eraser and Erased and Erased and Erased. Had to follow up with a call to dad to bring home more Magic Erasers..and he did. 4 of them. And after a lot of scrubbing you can't even tell what she did. Which unfortunately defeats a lot of the scolding I did. I basically had to tell her that Santa may not visit b/c she did something very bad and now Mommy and Daddy would have to pay the people we rent the house from and we may not have money for gifts. So what was the final verdict: 'Well look Mommy...you can't tell I drew on the wall so we won't have to pay the people any money.' End of discussion. I didn't have a rebuttal.