“I smell coffee”

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It’s official. All four of our lil monsters have managed to cram some random foreign object up their nose by the time they were four years old.

Budah pushed an ink pen spring up his nose that thankfully with the handy work of his maw-maw & I were able to get it out.

Aub saw her big brother smell a coffee bean so she decided to do it too. Only she pushed one so far up in her nose we had to bring her to the emergency room to get it out. The nurse was so nice he didn’t even sign us in and removed it for us for free. The best part was the entire ride to the hospital she kept telling us “I smell coffee!”.

Mad shoved a piece of paper towel up her little nose that I was thankfully able to easily get out before an ER visit.

And then full circle with lil miss Bitty tonight. She pushes a piece of baby wipe as far up her tiny nose as she could. Matt sent her my way saying I could help her with her nose problem since she had her finger all the way up it. Something told me to look up there (likely because of the track record of our other three monsters feeling the need to insert object in their nose) and sure enough there it was. Luckily I was able to quickly remove this one too while her daddy held her still for me.

Okay you lil monsters! No more shoving random things up your nose please! I can assure you this is not my favorite mama task.20140701-003347-2027617.jpg

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Happy 18th Budah!

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Eighteen years ago today I welcomed an itty bitty 4 lbs 2oz baby boy into the world. At only eighteen myself it was quite frightening to say the least. The doctors told us he would have to be in NICU for at least another six and a half weeks until my due date and possibly longer. Budah however decided otherwise. He proved in his very first days what an incredibly strong boy he was and is. After only ten (long) days I was able to take my baby home with me. And from that moment on life has always been kept interesting to say the least! Shortly after he turned two years old I became a single mom of a very active lil fella. While being born a lil New Orleans boy he quickly became a Texan when we moved here a month before his third birthday. This boy loves all things Texas, but mostly his skateboarding. I got him his first deck for his third birthday not realizing it would follow him all the way until he turned eighteen. With many falls, bumps, scrapes, bruises, and giving his mama many near heart attacks I’m still his biggest fan. I couldn’t even imagine the hours we’ve spent through his childhood in skateparks, skate shops, and ditches watching all of the tricks he’s learned along the way.

Budah has gone through many interesting phases. From that itty bitty baby that wore cabbage patch kid clothes until he was three months old to spaghetti bowls on his head, being my only child to now being a big brother of three crazy little girls, from dirt bike helmets while watching tv to mohawks, from jock shorts to girls skinny jeans, with long black emo-ish hair and then pink converse, how could I forget those big clanky too big Mötley Crüe boots, the cowboy boots, or the white shrimp boots (down da road reeboks), then there was a lil bald head and sambas, playing guitars & a giant tuba, soccer balls and footballs, endless tech decks and real decks, an earring to a nose ring, all the way up to the current 50’s hair cuts, dickies, & white tees. This fella has explored all of his options before becoming who he is today in those all too quick eighteen years. I’ve loved watching the free spirt he’s always been regardless of what others thought.

Budah is capable of being a smart mouth teen like well every other kid his age, but that’s not all that is to him. He is a strong willed fella, a hard worker with endless compliments from his boss of nearly two straight years, he has good manners and has never failed to hold a door open for any little old lady that has crossed his path, he’s the big brother that teaches his little sisters to fish and throws his baby sister a little higher in the air than I like to get a giggle out of her. He got his confirmation in Church. He has never been brought home by the police, been on drugs, or came home drunk. He has always known he can talk to me about anything, even if that anything has sometimes made me cringe. And now at the young age of eighteen he has a girlfriend with a precious baby boy that he adores and treats him as if he were his own. He’s a pretty amazing at this daddy role and Dom is lucky to have such a good role model. I may nag him and hound him, but only because I see his full potential and won’t let him be anything less than he deserves. I feel like I’ve grown up along side him, and in some ways I have. I had to grow up quickly when I had him and have never stopped doing anything I needed to to protect him and always be there for him. Though I do still question how I am only 29 with a now 18 year old son?

Happy 18th birthday Budah Booskie! In all my attempts to slow you down it looks like you’ve still managed to become a young man far before I think I was ready for.

I love you!
-Mama20140627-105818-39498959.jpg20140627-105837-39517337.jpg

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Be all there

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Kinda miss my blogging, but have been intentionally taking a lil break and enjoying all this last week has had to offer! Had a fab weekend celebrating Father’s Day with the three most important fellas in my life. We’ve loved having my dad here for the last several days and today my B-Boo also arrived to join us for some of our many June celebrations! These lil monsters of ours have been on cloud nine. Each has had a special outing with their Paw-Paw to go wherever they wanted. And Matt and I went for a nice Father’s Day dinner with my dad at the Tower of Americas on Monday night. Never thought they’d get me up there in the fifteen years I’ve lived in Texas, but it was a little easier to go 601 feet up after the whole glass box 1,353 feet up in the Sears Tower. I have to admit once I got past the nervousness of the heights it was a beautiful view of this city I have come to love so much. There have been so many laughs shared and memories made over the last week. I simply cherish these times with the ones we miss and love so much stinkin’ much!

Will get back to my nightly blogging before long, but for the moment I’d rather take a break and be in the now.20140619-002545-1545328.jpg

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Nine in Nine!

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Nine whole days until our oldest lil lady will be NINE! With three of our four lil monsters having June birthdays it’s always an insanely busy time for our lil bunch. But it’s also a month of blessings. Lots of extra time with our family and friends who’s calendars we quickly fill up. And almost always guarantees a visit or two from our NOLA fam! Kiddos really do grow right before our eyes and I count my blessings daily for ours. Goodness knows this household gets chaotic with four lil monsters and four larger than life personalities. But we love them more than anything! Eventually they will be grown and there will be no more big parties for our lil ones in this house. I have no doubt I’m going to miss it like crazy, but not near as much as I’ll miss them. Until then we’ll just continue building all of the memories we can.20140612-235438-86078822.jpg

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Eighteen in eighteen!

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I’m really not sure how eighteen years ago I was lying in a hospital bed on bed rest for what would be a total of three and a half weeks before my doctor induced me six and a half weeks early. He was the most perfect 4 lbs 2 oz and 16 1/2″ long baby boy. He’s grown an awful lot since that day. Somehow in eighteen days our boy will be eighteen years old. He’s a healthy, strong willed, hard working young man now. He has the ability to drive me crazy like no other and I’m sure his three little sisters will too when they hit those interesting teen years. But one thing is for sure, I couldn’t possibly be prouder of the man he is becoming and I love him to pieces. Before I got pregnant for him I had been told I would never be a mom. Budah changed that for me and while never claiming to be the best or a perfect mama him and his three little sisters that have come along since are and always have been my reason for being and all the motivation I have ever needed to do whatever I put my mind to. I’m not really sure how these eighteen years have flown by so quickly. I’m certain I will never be prepared for him to grow up. But I’m so thankful he has always given me something to be proud of and like it our not, he will forever be my baby.20140609-231629-83789027.jpg

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Aub’s 9th “Grease” birthday party!

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Another birthday pulled off without a hitch just six days after the last one. Of course once again I had a whole lot of help from my hubster and my mom in making and preparing for these two back to back parties. Somehow this became the year of movie themed birthday parties for our three lil ladies. Bitty’s 2nd was Wizard of Oz, Mad’s 5th was Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, and Aub’s 9th was Grease! Her birthday isn’t actually for another two weeks. But we discovered that by planning the party closer to when school lets out she is able to have several of her school friends attend as well. And this lil doll face had a really good turn out yesterday! It was fun planning for a party themed off of a movie that is a fave of both our oldest daughter and myself. We had mini turkey burgers that her daddy made, bags of chips, popcorn, cookies, moon pies, lots of pink candy, dipped pink pretzels, pink ladies’ lemonade, & root beer, coke, & sprite floats. I made her cupcakes look like shakes complete with a little red candy for a cherry and a pink and white spiral straw. I was able to find lots of fun 50’s decorations and printed out some grease pictures too. Probably my fave was the vintage looking pictures that look like the dancing hot dog and bun from the drive in scene. For the games they played “pin the kiss on Danny” and “freeze dance” to music from Grease. They also got tickets when they came in for a prize drawing towards the end of the party to be sure everyone won something. Their take homes were cat eye glasses, polka dot scarves, & a cute cd that looks like a vinyl that her daddy made full of fun 50’s music. He also made Aub, Bitty, and our Goddaughter, Aryie, Pink Ladies tees and Mad a T-Birds tee.

It was an incredibly fun theme for a 9 year old’s party. With at least fifteen squealing little girls, all of our local family, and several of our good friends here to share her fun celebration. We appreciate the time so many people set aside for our three of our four lil monsters that have June birthdays. We know all too well how busy this month can be for everyone especially as school lets out and with Father’s Day. Thank you all for reminding them how much they are loved!

Coincidentally Aub and I also got the same gift for our 9th birthday. My 9th was my Golden birthday and also one of my fave childhood memories. It was a cold rainy day. I went to spend the evening with my mom and maw-maw. They had spend all day putting a bike together for me and realized they hadn’t had time to make me a cake. I was completely fine with it and suggested we use a moon pie for a cake instead. So they put a candle in one and sang happy birthday to me in my maw-maw’s kitchen. I happily cut it up for all of us to get a piece including our pup Strawberry. My maw-maw also made me a dress in my favorite color, purple, that had darker purple jelly beans all over it. Oddly enough Aub’s fave color these days is purple too! Afterwards they took me to Zack’s for an ice cream. That evening my mom chased me up Marietta St as I learned how to ride my bike in the rain. Maybe it wouldn’t sound like a perfect birthday to anyone else, but that one is rather high up on my fave birthdays ever. I’ve shared that story with Aub many times over the years. So you can imagine how happy it made me when she asked to have moon pies at her party! So in addition to her new bike (that we thankfully didn’t have to put together) and the Grease 2 DVD (so she now have both movies), we gave her a box of moon pies too! She beamed when she opened them, even though no one else understood the inside joke shared between us at that exact moment.

Some pics from her special day…

20140608-190703-68823484.jpg20140608-191024-69024410.jpg20140608-191024-69024612.jpg20140608-191027-69027704.jpg20140608-191241-69161184.jpg20140608-191246-69166429.jpg20140608-191237-69157620.jpg20140608-191545-69345019.jpg20140608-191549-69349088.jpg20140608-191652-69412874.jpg20140608-191657-69417018.jpg20140608-191815-69495487.jpg20140608-191843-69523045.jpg20140608-191910-69550236.jpg20140608-191944-69584967.jpg20140608-192015-69615773.jpg20140608-192237-69757149.jpg20140608-192309-69789225.jpg20140608-192339-69819244.jpg20140608-192407-69847733.jpg20140608-192433-69873460.jpg20140608-192545-69945258.jpg20140608-192630-69990602.jpg20140608-192727-70047943.jpg20140608-192808-70088729.jpg20140608-192840-70120667.jpg20140608-192937-70177505.jpgLast and certainly not least the invitations her daddy made! (Of course he removed all of our personal info off of it for me to share.)20140608-194227-70947736.jpg

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Blue willow and our son the florist

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Sent Budah in a store for pink carnations and he came out with pink roses instead. Then he decides he should be a florist after high school. As he further tries to tell me what an amazing florist he would be he smells the flowers and says “these smell like blue willow”. I stare blankly at him briefly and he says “oh wait, those are dishes, huh?” Yep, he’s going to make a fantastic florist someday this boy of ours!

-Budah, 17 years old20140606-135033-49833173.jpg

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Alice

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Pretty much all day long I’ve had Alice Cooper’s “Schools out for summer” stuck in my head. Today was our lil monsters last day of preschool and third grade. I’m looking forward to a summer of full days with them. We’re going to make a summer bucket list next week and see how much fun can be had over the next 86 days before they start kindergarten and fourth grade! But first things first, tomorrow we’re going to turn off alarm clocks and see who sleeps in the longest? My guess is it’ll still be Bitty!20140605-214433-78273837.jpg

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Almost done

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The last week or so has been a rather busy one. Aub had her much anticipated 3rd grade wax museum. She was Judy Garland. These kiddos worked so hard to prepare for their big day and all did a fabulous job. Mad had her pre-k graduation. Afterwards all of the parents went to their class to see the work they had done all year. This was the first time all year that she asked to leave with us after a school event. She normally she looks forward to riding the bus home with Miss J. So we happily let her check out of school for her first time. We had a vendor day planned that day and she got to go work with us. She was so well behaved and loved helping and talking to our customers. Afterwards as promised she got to go down the “big slide” at daddy’s work FIVE times from the second floor down to the first since she would be turning five just a few days later. Then two days later our lil one celebrated her fifth birthday with a houseful of all of our local family and tons of friends. This week we began planning for Aub’s birthday. She can hardly wait! We do her party a few weeks early so that we can invite her classmates before school let’s out. I can hardly believe she will be turning NINE! Today was her 3rd grade award ceremony. She got awards for excellent behavior, academic achievement, hoops for hearts participant, & choir member. All three of our school aged monsters has worked hard over this last year. Budah plans to continue working on his home school through the summer. He’s maintained a 3.5 and above GPA all year while holding down the same job. Before we know it he will be graduating! Tomorrow will be the girls last day of pre-k and 3rd grade. Gifts are made for their teachers. “Last day of school” papers are printed for their end of school pictures. Doesn’t seem like it’s been that long since their first day of school. Not quite sure Mad gets the fact that she won’t be going back to this school after tomorrow. At least next year she’ll be going to school with her big sister. Until then this mama is anxious for a fun summer with our lil monsters!20140604-231941-83981616.jpg

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Mad’s 5th “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” birthday party!

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Sunday was Mad’s 5th birthday! After her baby sister’s 2nd Wizard of Oz themed birthday party back in January she decided she wanted a Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory themed birthday party. She loves the original movie. Normally I plan for weeks if not months ahead of time for one of our lil monster’s special day. Somehow after having family in from out of town and then going out of town the weekend before, this one snuck up on me. In total I basically had two days to plan for a party that I couldn’t run to party city and just buy decorations for. I had some work cut out for me but had a lot of help from my hubster, my mom, & then a good friend on the day of. Somehow we pulled it off without a hitch! Mad had a HUGE turn out for her party, with over two dozen children in attendance. That was a whole lot of mostly four and five year olds to keep happy, ha ha. There was more candy at this party probably than we have ever had in this house. How could you not have a ton of candy for a Wonka party? They had an ice cream sundae station. Chicken nuggets, mac & cheese, & peanut butter graham sandwiches. And a slew of other goodies along with the s’mores she requested. To drink we of course had to do “fizzy lifting drinks”, only these had a surprise color when the drink was poured. Chocolate, on chocolate, on chocolate cupcakes. And no Wonka party would be complete without “lickable wall paper”. We also played a “good egg/bad egg” game where all of the little Oompa Loompas had to pop their golden balloons any way they saw fit to see if their egg had a good surprise or not. Of course they all did, but it was priceless watching two dozen kiddos stomping on, bouncing on, and trying to squeeze them between their legs to pop them. Then as each Oompa Loompa left their party favors were giant pixie sticks, swirled lolly pops, & candy watches. It was an incredibly fun day celebrating this little wild child of ours with all of our local family and a ton of friends! After her guest was gone she watched Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory sitting on her new bike. What a special day!

A peek inside her day…

The invitation we used for her computer savvy daddy to recreate. Only instead of it saying “Willy Wonka’s Golden Ticket” we used her name.20140603-110606-39966858.jpgSome of the candy20140603-110658-40018060.jpgGetting ready to make the “Golden eggs” for the game20140603-110754-40074336.jpgMad’s grown a lot in the last year!20140603-110951-40191146.jpg20140603-132248-48168727.jpg20140603-132338-48218489.jpg20140603-132343-48223666.jpg“Mad is five!”20140603-132643-48403717.jpga “candy” balloon I made (thanks Pinterest!)20140603-132915-48555128.jpgparty favors…as if these lil Oompa Loopmas needed any more sugar!20140603-133020-48620752.jpgMad, Aub, & Bitty’s Oompa loopma t-shirts daddy made20140603-133337-48817609.jpg
We love Wonka quotes!20140603-133946-49186036.jpg20140603-134034-49234403.jpg20140603-134106-49266708.jpg20140603-134138-49298179.jpgThe sundae station20140603-134832-49712106.jpg“fizzy lifting drinks”20140603-135040-49840506.jpg…and some of the fun colors they turned!20140603-135131-49891737.jpglots & lots of goodies!20140603-140104-50464752.jpgchicken nuggets & mac & cheese for all of the lil Oompa Loompas20140603-140441-50681846.jpgdonut kabobs, peanut butter grahams, oreo pops, homemade chocolate cups with marshmallows and blueberries20140603-140932-50972550.jpgchocolate & sprinkle dipped cookies, pretzels & icing dip, and chocolate, white chocolate, & butterscotch candy spoons with mini m&m’s and reeses pieces20140603-141131-51091608.jpgs’mores cups, animal crackers, & lots of candy20140603-141237-51157605.jpgchocolate and sprinkle dipped pretzels and a lil more candy20140603-141446-51286663.jpgblueberries (for Violet) & a lollipop tree20140603-141604-51364443.jpg“lickable wallpaper”20140603-141921-51561010.jpg

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