The oldest...Jen

Well, we've made it to the end of the siblings! They are all so special and unique and bring something important to the mix.

I've saved the best and oldest for last! Ha. Jennifer is 6 years older than me so by the time I was 10 she was driving! I had the coolest sister around. She would drive me and my friends to the beach or anywhere. She had makeup and cool clothes and I often snuck into her room and used all her stuff to her dismay. She was a wonderful older sister, and I really loved the times that I got to go stay with her when she was in college at A&M.

She is now the mother to 3 boys! She definitely has her hands full. I look up to her as a mother in many ways and I am definitely starting to see a lot of my mother in her which is a good thing! She has created a very loving, fun, and homey place for her kids to be. Just like our house growing up, hers seems to be the fun house in the neighborhood. She's always baking for them and doing fun crafts and activities. I am somewhat eager to have the loudness and craziness in my own home. I think it's fun! Many times in my own house I have to turn on the tv or the radio just for the noise because it's just too quiet! Lexie loves to be at Jen's house which makes me feel so good. Why wouldn't she...it's full of boys and boyish things to do! Although she has her hands full she is ALWAYS offering to help. She has watched Lexie on many occasions for me, made dips or desserts for my parties and seems to always be helping someone. Even when she is stressed or busy she's willing to help. I am so blessed to have her so close by to help and even just to visit with. I must admit we don't hang out as much as we should mostly because our kids are in such different stages.

She is also a wonderful friend to me and I always look forward to chatting with her. She often has great advice to give and is a great listening ear. We are all so blessed to have such a great big sis. I know I have learned a lot from her and always count on her to know the answers to things as she is much wiser and more experienced than myself! Love you!

Madness!

My biggest struggle right now is getting out to run errands with both of them. I took them both to Katy Mills Mall the other day, and this is how it went... Lexie was doing so well in the stroller for 5 minutes straight towards the end of our trip that I decided to stop and let her ride on one of the little choo choo carousel things in the middle of the mall. She was loving it! We played for probably 10 minutes. Well, it was time to go so I warned her that we would be leaving in 2 more minutes. Can you guess what happened next?...You bet!!...after the 2 minutes she was not happy with me to make her leave. She was thrashing about, laying on the floor, arching her back, and screaming. Well...I was trying to grab her and pick her up BUT the baby was in the bjorn carrier facing outwards on me so I pick her up and he gets bonked in the head and starts screaming. So I am dragging her by her arm with only my one free hand as I am trying to hold on to the baby to keep him secure so he doesn't fall out with my other hand, and trying to lift her high enough to make it in the stroller. I got her in there and she was refusing to sit. She was doing the arching her back thing and trying to stand up and screaming. In all of this somehow she almost does a nose dive out the side and I had to catch her in mid air by her sweater. It could have been bad. I actually screamed "Oh my God" in the mall so i did have an audience by this time! I think that scared her so she finally sat down and let me strap her in. I didn't even look around to see if anyone was looking at me....I couldn't muster up the courage to look at the faces of anyone watching. Oh yea...so the baby did stop screaming during this (thank God) but it was time for him to eat so I just raced out to my car and fed him there. VERY VERY VERY BIG SIGH. Too bad I don't have any pictures or videos of the whole thing. It makes me tired just writing it. This was only a fraction of our mall trip. The beginning of it wasn't by any means great as she gets very irritated if I stop for too long. Of course, I didn't get much done, but I did get one Christmas present! Gotta look at the positive, right? After I got them all secure in their car seats I laid my head back and took a deep breath for a few minutes to enjoy some peace and get my blood pressure down to normal.

Burrr!!

Well, just thought I would share some shots of my little Lexie girl all bundled up during our recent blizzard. She still wanted to play outside even though it was super chilly. However, when her hat fell off she quickly brought it to me to put it back on. She kept saying "cold" over and over. I kept telling her we couldn't go outside because it was too cold. Now she always goes to the back door and says "cold." She cracks me up and I love watching the way she thinks and interacts with the things around her.

These boots are the best! I just put them on over her footed sleeper. She loved them!

She kept it all on inside too!

Our "snow" accumulation

Grandma's work brought in snow!

Dan the Man

What can I say about Dan? He has been deemed the "European." He's got the style and look of one. He's the biggest traveler in the family. He has been to some wonderful places around the world as well as lived in a few other countries. He loves to be immersed in different cultures. He's married to a Russian for goodness sake! His travels may start to be limited from now on with his new addition....baby Zander. Dan was recently married to his wonderful wife, Elena, and they just had a son in October. I think travels will be on hold for a while. I never could have imagined Dan not traveling much, but as I type this I haven't even heard him mention it in many months. Perhaps his priorities are a little different now? I have thoroughly enjoyed watching my brother become a dad. It is so wonderful to see him so in love with his baby. He is so calm and cool about things. I'm sure he gets stressed, but he hides it pretty well! It's funny because growing up he always had such a temper, but not anymore! He's a great father and I am so proud of him!

Dan with Tripp

Dan is my favorite person to have deep conversation with. He is the kind of guy that loves to dig deep. Most guys aren't like that, so I am so thankful for that quality in him. I love when I read the same book as him (hardly ever happens anymore). In fact, he's the one who got me to really enjoy reading with what else than....The Notebook. He also connected me with my other favorite book, Redeeming Love. His nickname for me is B. I've forgotten the story behind it. In his latest email to me he called me Beesis Christ. He's really funny and loves to laugh at his own jokes. Last night we were celebrating Nick's birthday and he showed up and was cracking up and he couldn't stop. He went on to explain that he had the best card for Nick, so we all couldn't wait to read it. Come to find out he didn't have time to get Nick a Bday card so he happened to be opening his mail and there was a Christmas card sent to the previous owners of Dan's house. Somehow he got the bright idea to scratch out the other people's names and sign it with his name. It said "to a great niece" and he changed it to brother. Where the people signed their name he scratched it out and signed his. He is so corny. Talk about re-gifting! It was pretty hilarious! I think it will have to be one of those cards that we pass on to each other from now on.

He's also a big wine person. He knows his wines. He's got quite a collection! He's the much needed computer nerd in the family. He always knows what to do to fix our computers. Thank God!

Dan is very open minded and more free spirited. He tends not to judge others and usually sees the best in people. I love his calm demeanor. He can usually calm people down just with his voice. I am so glad that Dan has settled down here in Sugar Land, however, you never know how long he will be in one place! He gets bored easily! A child does change everything though!!

Thanks Dan for being the most open minded person in the family and helping us see things/people differently from our narrow minded perspectives...and for always making us laugh!

Katherine Michele

I am falling a bit behind on the family series... I was hoping to have them all done before Christmas so we'll see. I wish I was a better writer and had a better vocabulary because I don't feel like I can do any of them justice!

Do you have someone in your family that brings some enthusiasm and excitement....you know the one that is usually pretty positive and fun!? Well, that would be Kathy in our family. She is gorgeous and has the best body around! Strangely, I don't feel jealous of her body only because I know she works hard for that body. She's a certified personal trainer and has spent a lot of time learning how to work her body out. The only thing I have to be jealous of is her motivation to actually do it! She's given me some great tips and always gets me excited about working out again.

Check out those muscles!

She's a teacher like me which makes it so fun to listen to her stories. I know she's a great teacher because she wins the heart of her students and parents, and that right there is the most important part of teaching. She's the fashion expert in the family and we call her closet "Kathy's Boutique." It's got everything designer and cute and fun, with every piece of jewelry and shoes to go with it. I even borrowed a dress from her when I was 8 months pregnant for a wedding! Yes...she's got a maternity line in her boutique as well! Haha. I love talking with her about life and analyzing things. We can talk for an hour and analyze why we are the way we are as well as others! She's my spiritual friend as well. I love being able to talk with her about my spiritual life...which is what matters most. We weren't always very close. I was really mean to her back in High School. I think I was threatened by her fun spirit because I was so conservative and a goody goody. She was a little more wild than me which I think I was jealous of. She's about to get married in 6 months and I couldn't be happier for her and the new life she is going to be starting. I can't help but also feel a little sad that she won't be living in SL anymore and probably never will again. However, I know that it will make all of our get togethers even more special. I am looking forward to visiting her all over the world!

Kathy and Patrick

I love you little sis! You are such a needed part of the family because you help bring out the fun and adventurous side of everyone! Thank you!

Such a bad mom....

Here's what a really tired mom who was up multiple times with a 3 month old does in the morning with her toddler who is up and ready to play at 6:30am..... turn on a Baby Einstein movie and get her all set up, and leave to go back to bed... (I took the picture after the movie was over). She thought it was so fun she wanted me to put it on again. I almost couldn't resist her request so that I could go back to bed a little longer, but I felt too guilty! Ha.

Babysitting

My sister and I both stay home with our kids so it has been great to know that we have each other to babysit when needed. She has 3 kids and although I haven't babysat all 5 at the same time, I have babysat 3 at a time...my two and her 1 year old. Today was a cinch...it made me really confident that I can handle having 3 kids of my own. What you don't know is that I only babysat for maybe 45 minutes! Ha! Here's a few pics of us today. Lexie doesn't want Colin playing with her toys. She takes everything away from him that he grabs...she's such a bully!

Cute little Collie

Can you find 3 kids among all the junk?

Here she tries to hand him a ball because I kept telling her to share the blocks with him. I guess she thought maybe he would leave her alone then.

And my little Trippy

Family...Part 1

One of the main reasons we chose to move back to Texas and leave Randall's former company was to be close to our family. Around the holidays you can't help but be more sentimental, and I start to appreciate how unique our family is... I am going to try to highlight each person in our immediate family and tell you how great they are! Family is very special to me and I just want you all to know them a little better. These are the people I cherish dearly and can let loose and completely be myself. We all live close by, and I feel fortunate to be able to spend as much time as I want with them!! Who better to start with than... Nick, my youngest brother. He is definitely the wild one in the family but still very much a homebody like most of us. We all love being "home" meaning at my parent's house. He's the tallest one and the one who tells a lot of dirty jokes...yes, we all hate to admit it, but we love to hear them! I think he likes me the best out of everyone! Haha. I love giving him fashion advice...he often comes out asking what we think about his outfit... He is very much an outdoorsy guy. He loves to hunt so him and Randall definitely have that in common. He makes Lexie laugh like no one else can... she loves Nick, and she has the biggest smile when she sees him. He has a very good heart, and I love hanging out with him and getting to talk with him one-on-one. He's a softy when it comes to 2 things...Lexie, and his cat, Keeters. (the cat's name changes all the time so I'm not even sure that's his name). He's going to college and is doing really well right now! He's had to deal with some hard times and is starting to move forward. I am so proud of him! Our family definitely wouldn't be the same without him... Love you Nicky and as much as you hate being the "baby" you're stuck with it...so use it to your advantage!!

Nick and Keeters 2006

Fun dates...

Randall and I are pretty good about going out on dates together whether it be by ourselves or with other couples. My definition of date has definitely changed since having kids. Pretty much any outing that I get to dress in normal clothes vs "mom" clothes, fix my hair where I can wear it down vs in a ponytail, no kids, I get to use a normal purse instead of a diaper bag, and I get to listen to MY music in the car, and ofcourse being with Randall. Any of those things define a date to me. We only get to go on these dates because of the wonderful parents we have. Lexie loves staying at her grandma's house so that of course has been GREAT for us! I will have to do another post just on babysitters...

The last 2 dates we have been on are the Carrie Underwood Concert 3 weeks ago and the Rockets game last Wednesday night. They both were awesome! We had a blast going out to eat beforehand, drinking a margarita, and just getting to enjoy spending some time together to talk about the greatest thing in the world right now...Our kids!! Ha Ha. No, we do talk about other things... I just can't think of them right now. :)

Carrie Underwood

Yao