I Thought Connor Was The King?

As you all know , Connor's last name is King. Well , move over Connor, Owen has assumed the throne! He has been following me to the bathroom for weeks now saying" pee pee" and pulling at his diaper. So, I decided that we might just try and see if he would go on the little potty. Success! He has gone "pee pee" three times and I am just waiting to see " the look" to rush him to the potty. I am SO tired of poo! Not to mention , I hate to scare all you parents-to-be , but I spent $86 on diapers for both little boys this month. Let us all focus positive thoughts toward Owie and the " throne"!

New Pictures Of The Boys

Connor got his new Nike T-shirt and says" Do I look like Michael Jordan?"


Owen and his " I NEVER doanything wrong" Look!

Noah can sit up in the Bumbo seat now! What are we going to do if he gets any cuter?!

Falling Down On The Job

I know that I have been falling down on the blogging job this week. My last post on the " Blues" has more than a little affected my will to blog or do just about anything else.Thankfully , I seem to have kicked the desire to cry at the drop of a hat ! Lets all join my family and friends( Kelly!) in a big Hallelujah!!!

Connor FINALLY came home yesterday! I thought the long weekend would never end, but he did have a good time with his Granny and Pa-paw. They went to the beach and the parks ,Brandon said they really did have wonderful time. I am thankful they were able to come ! After i picked him up we went to see Brent at the town home project he and my parents were working at. Mom was in her personal heaven , digging in the dirt and weeding plant beds. I missed that gene COMPLETELY! We are so thankful she and Daddy have been able to help us on this project, it was so out of control. Brent walks up to me when we got there and said" Man, your Mom is worth her weight in gold as far as those plant beds go! I don't know what I would have done if they couldn't both be helping us today". Connor looking very confused says " Grandmommy isn't gold! She isn't black either , but I really like people that have dark skin ! She is brown like me, not gold, but God says that we should like dark skinned people right?" OYE VEY!! " Yes , we like people with dark skin Connor and no Grandmommy is not gold , Daddy was just talking about something else. Do you know anyone with Gold skin?" Shouldn't have asked !!! ( Daniel is you are offended I'm sorry in advance!) " Yes Mama , Daniel has gold skin , its really pretty , but Aunt Bekah is kind of... white . Are they getting married? Can I be in their wedding? " If I'm lying I'm dying !!!

Today, I am at Mom and Dad's house spending some time with Aunt Devrun while she is still out of school. Connor is going on a date with Gran Gran later to see " Space Chimps" , so we have decided to watch " Pride and Prejudice" the A&E version. (SIGH) I love this movie, it is the greatest book ever written turned into one of the greatest movies of all time. I have to wait for Aunt Dev to be out of school to watch it because everyone else acts like they are having bamboo shoots shoved up their fingernails. So, we are happily drinking coffee and dreaming of the great wonders that live in Elizabeth Bennett and Mr. Darcy. ( bigger sigh) After the movie I plan on knocking Owen out and sleeping for as long as possible. Noah , has decided that he doesn't want to sleep all night right now. For the past two night I have ended up giving in after hours of trying to get him back to sleep and letting him on the bed with me. Last night, however, Brent got up at about 3 am and said " I'm awake Baby, you go to sleep and I take him in the living room with me for a while". It is possible that I have the BEST hubbie ever, and the cutest! Which brings me to my next funny! ( This is all starting to run together! Sorry for the lack of structure in this blog) Mom told me last night that Brent as a following at the job they were at yesterday! Two little girls that live there are totally smitten with him. How CUTE!!! I mean , I think that he is a hottie , but now he's that cool older guy that little teenie boppers are swooning over! Mom said she laughed all day, everytime he would walk by the pool they would say " Hiiiiiii". She said he wold just duck his head and throw his hand up in the air , how humiliating ! For some stange reason I feel unbelievably proud :-)

Ham Anyone ?

Am I Blue?

Do you ever wake up in the morning and just want to cry? Connor went to his Dad's house last night and will be gone till Monday. His Granny and Pa Paw came to see him for a few days , he was SO excited. Yesterday morning he says" Um , Mom I don't want to be getting in a lot of trouble today. Granny will save me". Ahh , the old trying to play one parent against the other trick! When do you think he might realize that doesn't work?I just want to cry for some reason. Maybe it's because no matter how well you get along with your Ex it's hard to let your child go. So , I have cried this morning , Owen has been looking at me like I'm completely crazy.

As I look around our little house this morning all I see is stuff . Last night we went and cleaned out our storage room, and wow do we have a lot of junk! It will take me days to go through it all and decide what stays and what goes. I feel the tears coming on again !!! I can't quit , I have cried over everything this morning. On to the next box of goodness knows what that I'm sure we can live without because it's already been stored for two years. Baby clothes to go through and share with Kelly . Ok , that is actually kind of fun , but look how little and cute ! ( TEARS!!!)

Did I mention that I tripped over the trailer hitch hooked up to our truck last night and I can barely but my right foot down? Oh yeah, there was that too . So, if I move it just right , you guessed it , tears ! What is wrong with me ?! Ewww I hope I'm not pregnant .

My Name Is Fred...Baby

You all may know that my sister-in-law Jamie was my friend first, but did you know that my name is Fred?

Jamie , this is for you!

When I was younger I had a really hard time making friends and really connecting with them. I was different, I liked to read and watch old TV shows. I just can't imagine why I wasn't the center of every one's universe ( note the dripping disdain!) . Then one day there was a new family attending Oak Hill PBC in Austin , right down the way from good ole San Antonio where I am from. Good news , they have 4 girls and they aren't allowed to act like total rejects either. YEAH!!! As best I can remember , I met Jamie in the summer and that was the end of it. We were friends. She didn't have quite the hard time meeting people and making friends as I did and I really have NO idea why we hit it off so well, but we did. We both were home schooled and loved to read and she introduced me to something that I will forever be grateful for. Old movies , I had watched a few before and liked them for the clothes and the dialogue , and P.S. nothing gets blown up in old movies! Anyway , she turned me on to the late , great Audrey Hepburn. My first Audrey movie was " Breakfast At Tiffany's" Aaahhhhh. Sure it's about a New York call girl and a philandering writer, but come on it's a classic!!! Then is started ,I always called her "James" and she always called me " Fred" . In Breakfast at Tiffany's , Audrey's character calls George Peppard's character whose name is " Paul Var Jak" , Fred , after her brother. OK , too much info , but you needed to know there was a reason for the Fred thing. Anyway, we were friends and she was the first real girlfriend I ever had. We wrote letters ( pre-email days , OMG we are old!!) and made a few phone calls. When we got old enough to drive we would visit back and forth as much as we could and watched old movies for hours on end.

It was early on in our friendship that I realized she was oodles more talented then I . I mean , HELLO , she plays the harp. Enough said , right? Wrong, she can do all kinds of other things too.

She MADE This outfit!!! I can't do that, or just about anything else she can do for that matter. Anyway , this went on all through high school , and I still don't know why she liked me so much, but I made out like a bandit! I had a very cool friend , that didn't make me feel like I should be something else . She has been with me through everything in my life that has meant anything. I don't know what I would do without her and I'm so glad that she is really my sister. Even though we don't get to see each other very much and don't talk as much as I would like... James Darling, you are my hero! I still don't know why you picked the dork that everyone made fun of for your friend , but I'm awfully thankful you did. " One Fine Day" we will stand in front of Tiffany's drinking coffee , eating danish , while singing " Moon River".

Love and adoring kisses always , Fred Baby

Bad Boys, Bad Boys, Whatcha Gonna Do...

Last night we all took Aunt Joyce out for her B-day. It has become the custom in our ladies group to take each other out for dinner on our b-days. Plus it gives some of us a night to say " Only the baby can go , girls only, can you watch the kids tonight?" YEAH!! A whole meal that I won't have to share with anyone if I don't want to! Anyway, we always get started telling all of our stories that have happened since the last b-day. Unfortunately , Aunt Devrun always seems to be completely humiliated by the time we leave, or so she would have us think! My Mother is always the one leading the charge to see how red we can get Aunt Dev to turn. It is the litmus test of how much fun we had! ( Love and Kisses Aunt Dev!)
One of the ladies is our group has two kids about as close together as my two youngest. So, we always have a lot to talk about, and her mother still has a nine year old boy at home too. We always get to giggling about what our kids have said or done , it truly is comforting to know you aren't the only one out there !
All this to say I forgot to post a very important happening that I remembered last night as I was sharing it with the " girls".
One morning I had put Noah down on the bed in my room so I could blow dry my hair and keep an eye on him and what was going on in the boys room at the same time. Everyone knows how slippery Owen is ... He went in my room , OK no big deal, he is probably just looking at what I've got on the TV right? Wrong, he ran in the room and shut the door and LOCKED it. UGH!!!! I ran around the house for it seemed like hours , trying to find the little key thing that will unlock the door. I couldn't find it anywhere , and was starting to get a little panicked. Connor was totally panicked by this time because I try really hard not to let them see me get to worried about anything , but I was nearing tears pretty quick and he knew it. OK , I can't find the key thingy, what else can I use? A bobby pin? Nah , that didn't work. A knife? Nope! The whole thing didn't last very long , but it felt like hours and all I could think was Owen was in there alone with baby and he can climb up on the bed with him ! Well, finally just as I was about to call Brent and see what he thought I should do, Noah started screaming. I went , cold , then hot , then cold again. I had to get in the room , what if Owen was about to pull him off the bed or was covering him up with the blanket?! So here is where the title comes it ... I felt like one of those officers on "COPS" with the theme music running in my head. I put both hands on either side of the door jam, reared back and kicked as hard as I could. The door went flying open , along with the kick plate and door jam on the inside of the room. OH MY GOSH! Are you kidding me ? I just kicked my bedroom door in! There stood Owen at the end of the bed with his fat little hand around Noah's ankle getting ready to pull... I was totally sick to my stomach ,but laughed when I looked at Connor. He looked like he was going to pass out he was so shocked! " Moooom , look what you did!! You broke the whole thing! ".
That's right , don't mess with me ! I'm all about kicking down doors and taking numbers! I'm Super Mom

The Sock Monster

Why is it that no matter what I seem to do I NEVER have all of the socks at the end of laundry day?! I am convinced that there is a monster that lives in the closet that lives to steal my socks. Maybe Mom read " Boris and The Monsters" to us too much when we were kids but in my mind I see all those monsters sneaking out trying to find all of the " buddies" to my unpaired socks. One of theses days I'm going to search the closet just to make sure!

Lissa and Brent plus 3 ?

There are some days that I feel totally defeated as a parent. Brent works six days a week and doesn't get home till after bed time most of the time because of job number 2. Yuck! I am NOT complaining , well I'm trying not to complain. I am thankful for all of the WONDERFUL help that my hubbie gives when he is around. How is that , better? OK, moving on.
One day while I was feeling particularly sorry for myself and my semi-single parent existence I was flipping through the channels and came across " Jon and Kate Plus 8". Shame and Disgrace for even thinking I have a hard time with my three boys. Have you ever seen that show? Jon and Kate have twin girls first then try for "one more" and get 6. Three boys and three more girls. This is not a fictional series, it is reality TV, again I say SHAME on me ! If you are a parent struggling with the In's and out's of everyday parenting I suggest you go to TLC.com and watch one episode of this show. If is doesn't make you feel better about your situation, then you must have experience potty training 6 three year old's at one time! May I just say " OYE"!

Where Is Owen Part Duex...

Have you ever seen Whinnie The Pooh and The Honey Tree ? Pooh eats too much honey at rabbit's house and gets stuck in the rabbit hole trying to get out . Today I was washing the dishes and heard Owen calling my name. As you know I get extremely nervous when I can't readily find him. Well, he kicked his ball under the bed in his room and went in to try to get it and there you go, Pooh in the rabbit hole ! All I could see was his chubby little feet sticking out , kicking like crazy trying to get loose. Hehehe I know it probably makes me a bad mother but I couldn't help myself .

How do I Love Thee? No, Really I forgot!

Ahhh romance! Wait a minute, what is that? The romance in our life right now consists of passing in the hallway every morning " Love you Babe." He says " Love you too, see you tonight."

" Wait , don't forget to take out the garbage! Oh, and don't forget to pay the phone bill!"

Does this sound familiar to anyone else? Any good suggestions on how to pep it up a little while raising three kids and owning your own business would be greatly appreciated!

( Note to self: Stop getting pregnant every year and maybe you could go out alone every once in a while ! Duly noted . )

Sunday Morning Circus

Every Sunday morning I feel like that clown with the horn you see at the circus that just runs around blowing his horn looking like he has no idea what he is doing. If you have more than one child you know what I'm talking about. Unless , of course you are one of these parents that actually gets it all planned out the night before. May I just say, nobody really likes a perfectionist:-) Anyway, here I am running around with my horn ... Iron the kids clothes, OK check. Iron Daddy's clothes, OK, check. "Has everyone had breakfast?" I ask innocently. Connor comes running down the hallway " mommy, I don't think daddy knows what he is doing , he is just standing in kitchen looking around." OK go help daddy get breakfast. In his defense, Brent works six days a week and doesn't have to deal with all three of them at the same time very often. It can be a little overwhelming! Connor ..." Daddy , daddy , daddy I think I want some frosted flakes !" . See earlier post about frosted flakes, we can't do without a supply that would feed Paton's army. Owen..." Da, Da, Da , nana, nana , nana". Owen-speak for banana.Last but not least Noah ... screaming at the top of his lungs because he doesn't see any reason why he should EVER have to be put down. Ahhhh what a way to try to start off trying to spiritual for church.OK! we have them all fed , now on to bath time . Oh joy , more spiritual preparation. Note to all reading this post: Don't pray for patience unless you really want to be tested in EVERY part of your life. OK, the little guy gets his bath first so he doesn't get drowned by the other two. Now onto the big boys, we are running out of time so they get the quick once over and out they go . Underwear for one and diaper for the other and we are in business. Mommy gets her five minutes of peace in the shower , Yeah ! To be immediately followed by ten minutes of a game I like to call " Keep Owen out of my makeup bag while trying to a least look like I care enough to put some on". During all of this Brent is kindly getting the other two dressed and ready to walk out the door so we can grab them and go. I get Owen ready because it really is easier to keep him where I can see him. As you might have guessed from earlier posts. Blow dry my hair and thank God for a good haircut. OK if you aren't tired by just reading this you must not have kids yet. For those of you who do have kids you totally get the clown blowing the horn thing!

A Desperate Plea

All of us use our blogs to document our family lives and the cute things that our kids do and say, but lets take a serious turn for a moment. Most of us who read each others blogs are PB and have known each other for years. It is time for us to start asking ourselves and each other what we as the church in this country and age are doing. When did we all become cannibals? Instead of us focusing on what we should be doing or shall I say fighting who we should be fighting.We are so focused on each other and what we think the other might be doing or saying. I have been guilty of this in the past and hope that you and God will forgive me for it. We are forgetting that " all judgement is given to the Son" . It's not our job to be dissecting each other's lives and or more particularly each other's "sin". When did we get the idea that one person's sin is worse than our own? I know that people will read this article and think that I am defending myself against some of the outrageous rumors that are going on about me and my family. I urge you to look past that. I say again I am guilty of judging other to harshly without all of the information and I know that I am simply reaping what I've sown. On this note, if I have ever done anything in my life that has hurt you in anyway I beg your forgiveness now . Back to what I was saying... when did we get the idea that one person's sin was worse than our own? Do we honestly believe that it took anymore blood to cover certain sins than others? What happened to Romans 3:12 " They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one." ? For some reason we have forgotten that it took the same blood to cover what we may consider to be our "minor" sins that it did all the "major" ones. I'm not saying lets all go out and sin , we're going to heaven anyway. No, but can we quit trying to run each other's lives and focus on the fact that we are in an all out war with Satan. Do we realize that one by one Satan is winning the victory over our ministry? Look around you , there is an epidemic of preachers either leaving the pb's or dying or even worse. We are not on the offensive anymore. Not toward what we should be focused on.Matthew 16:18 " And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." Do we really have our foundations on Christ? Why are the gates of hell prevailing so heavily against us? Are these questions we should all be asking ourselves. Please I beg you all to join me in stopping the war we have against each other and get the focus back where it should be . Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. If we don't stop now a realize what we are doing to each other, and ourselves, there won't be a church for our children to go to. I'm afraid that my kids won't want to be in church if this is how they grow up seeing us act. We can't afford to lose another generation to the world because they were tired of the fighting in the church's. Lets train up our children to be lovers of God in a peaceful church environment.

When Brother Is Away...

My boys are generally required to share all of their toys with a few exceptions. I think everyone should have at least one or two things that are " Just for me" to play with. The problem with that is I spend my days as a referee trying to keep them out of each other's things. So, most of the time everyone is required to share everything. That being said... Aunt Devrun who is a absolute staple of our everyday life, went to Disney a few weeks ago and totally fulfilled all of Connor's deepest dreams with a full Captain Hook costume. This is immediately established as one of our
" Just for me " toys. Owen , of course, wants it worse than anything else in the whole world . So, it stays either on Connor , or put up where little hands can't get it.
This picture was taken last weekend while Connor was at his Dad's house. Mommy forgot to put it up where Owen couldn't get to it! What would one time hurt? As you can see , Owen had the most wonderful time . He totally knew that he was getting to do something that he was normally allowed to do while Connor was home. No harm done right? Wrong! Connor comes home that Monday and sees this picture and bursts into tears sobbing " Aunt Devrun is going to have to get me a new Captain Hook suit, Owen has made is not special anymore!". Oh Brother! Just remember everyone, if you have more than one kid just go ahead and start buying more than one of everything. It makes life so much easier!

Connor David 4
Owen Spencer 18 Months
Noah Riley 2 Months

Where is Owen ?

As you have read before our son Owen is the trouble maker. He's not bad , he is just your typical 18 month old BOY. He's slippery! He can get away from you faster than ... well I don't know what but you get the point.
So, here I sit feeding the baby again. Owen has picked up on this being the best time to commit mayhem. OK call out the search party, and lets get find him. Always start in the bathroom, it is his favorite room in the house. Good motivation to keep the toilet clean! Anyway, there he is sitting in the middle of the bathroom floor with Brent's $20 jar of hair gel. What a way to find our he can unscrew lids. The biggest smile on his face and a bright blue head. The stuff is bright blue before you rub it in and you are only supposed to use a tiny bit . Not Owen, he used the whole jar, and was happily rubbing it all over his head saying " Piddy!!!". Owen speak for "pretty".
It took 5 shampoos before the water stopped beading up and rolling off. Yuck! Needless to say we will buy the bargain shelf gel from now on.

My name is Mom

Have any of your kids called you by name yet? We have a special situation in our family. I was married before and Connor has a Dad and a Step-dad. He calls both Dad most of the time , but if he calls Brent by name we never make a big deal about it. So imagine my surprise when he looks at me yesterday and says " Melissa, I think it's time I grow up and get my own apartment. God told me that I needed to have my own rules now. So, I'm getting a job like Daddy". What?!! I very calmly look at him and say " My name is Mom , let me know when you find a job.". To which he replies " Maybe I'll ask my Dad for a new Mom at his house... I love you but your rules are too hard". If this is him at 4 years old I shiver to think of where we will be in another 4 years. Suddenly I feel the need for a stronger prayer life.

Frosted Flakes, a bath and debit cards!

What do all of these things have in common? Owen, or as we call him " Thing 2"!

I don't know why any mother with three little boys would think for a minute that they could do something silly like go to the bathroom by themselves.You can't ! Thursday morning I hear feet running down the hallway... " Mommy, you better come here and see what Owen did!" says Connor( Thing 1 ). Oh boy, here we go! I get myself together quickly and run down the hallway to find Owen covered in frosted flakes. Just in case you didn't know , toddlers have superpowers. It took him less than a minute to realize that I wasn't watching , pull a chair into the kitchen , climb tha pantry shelves and dump a brand new box of frosted flakes onto the floor. Thank goodness I cleaned the day before! I found him happily sitting in the middle of a huge pile of cereal, cramming it down as fast as he could. It was only a matter of time before the evil monster Mommy would catch him and removed his sugar filled mountain... Better get as much down as possible. I round the corner and he looks up at me with the sweetest look on his face and says" Uh Oh Mama".

The next day after Things 1 and 2 are fed breakfast ( frosted flakes always keep a back up box!) I was sitting drinking a cup of coffee while feeding the baby waiting to go to town for the day. Things are going great ! I am up , dressed and so are ally three boys. I will be on time for sure , but is that running water I hear ? No, it's raining outside you are hearing things... wait! Where is Thing 2 ? He is playing in his room with Connor. Ok you can relax, after all , Connor is a huge tattle tale . Ok, don't ever trust your snitching 4 year old to tattle when you need him to.

Yes, it is running water! Oh no , here comes the sinking sick feeling . Where is Owen?

Ok, pause for a sec. In my defense Connor was NEVER a climber.

I'll tell you where he is ! Fully clothed , shoes on in the bath tub water running everywhere having the time of his life.I have a headache.

Tuesday morning things are going pretty well. Uneventful, nothing major so far, just laundry and school work. Wait, I thought I put my debit card on the dryer. Why is it when things go missing you always think of one kid?

"Mooooooooooooom ,Owen did something bad again !" says Connor in his very important " THANK GOD he is in trouble , not me!" voice .Ok, not too bad , the dvd player is open but nothing like the usual crime scene. Maybe not! Why won't the thing close ?!! Maybe if I turn it off and then on again. Hmmm that didn't work, lets see if something is caught inside. Bingo, found my debit card. Caught sideways right behind the sliding door thingy.