Knock on wood

** Beware: Poop talk ahead! **

I always hate to write these posts because I'm so scared that it will change as soon as I put it into writing. Kind of like when I posted Us and then a couple of hours later I had to post Beat Up Betty. Things change so quickly. But here's my story, I'll let you decide if you think we've jumped a final hurdle.
For three days Z has been wearing his Mickey Mouse and Dino tighties, even at night! They have all stayed clean and dry. In addition, the last two days he even made a bee-line for the potty when he had to go have a "serious poop."

On a completely unrelated note - here's a video clip I took of Z yesterday, he caught a bug.

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Montage... as promised

When you spend two weeks on the road with four children many things happen:
you get very little sleep
you miss your husband terribly (and remember why God made Mommy's & Daddy's)
forget lots of stuff
eat yummy food
forget about diets and working out
your battery on your car might die (which ours did)
you swim
play at parks
trim trees
see beautiful scenery
meet interesting people
go to fun places
learn a little
laugh a little
probably even cry a little
but mostly you end up with really, really long montages! Enjoy when you have time.

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

P.S. Jason doesn't think anyone will actually watch this 12 minute montage... except maybe the grandma's!

1st Day of School 2008

This morning we took the "big" kids to school. Here they are before we took off. Don't you love B's new haircut?

Show Me MO Part II

We got to Springfield (actually Ozark, but I'm so used to saying Springfield you will have bear with me) on Monday, August 11th in the afternoon.

Tuesday was a day that the kids and I were really looking forward to. We went to my friend Rae Ann's house and spent the day playing with her kids.

Rae Ann and I have been friend's since the first day of our freshman year of high school - when I look back at those days I can't believe now the amazing friend that I've been blessed with, she's absolutely wonderful and I especially love how we can talk to each other about anything and it never seems like it has been a year since we saw each other. In addition, only God knows how we ended up with matching kids so that when we do get together we have built in playmates for our kids - so incredible! Rae Ann has a 9 year old son, 7, 3 and 1 year old daughters - they match up almost perfectly with my kids and it's like having cousins to play with - so much fun!

Wednesday I had the privilege of taking my kids to Steal Your Dollar City (better known as Silver Dollar City), this was the place that I LOVED to go to when I was a young girl. I thought the Great American Plunge was absolutely terrifying! BK and I were able to go, just the three of us, and I felt comfortable in knowing that ZA were being well loved and taken care of with my mom and dad. BK and I had a great time - we went on the train ride, watched the saloon show and then took the plunge. Literally, we went on the Great American Plunge then proceeded to check out as many rides as we could: Wildfire, Fire In The Hole, Giant Swing, Powder Keg, The Lost River, Waterboggin (I skipped this one - the kids got soaked by themselves) and finally the Mighty Galleon (I just about tossed my funnel cake). I had two great moments on this day #1 spending time with my big kids and remembering how really wonderful they are and loving every minute of our time together. #2 was a moment to laugh at myself. When went on the Powder Keg I thought it was just like any other roller coaster - you know you chug along to get to the top then whoosh you are off careening around neck breaking turns and going up and down at speeds that no vertebrae is strong enough to withstand (I know 'cuz I did several of these crazy rides). Sadly I couldn't see the ride from where we were standing in line so it took me a couple of moments once we got on the ride to realize exactly what was going to happen. There was no chugging slowly up the hill... it was more of a whoosh you just got shot out of a cannon! Can anyone say whiplash?! That moment of realization for me was hilarious - I love a good laugh even though this one was slightly painful.

Thursday we went to see my grandfather and then proceeded to the zoo - it has changed a lot since I lived there and is a great little zoo to take the kids to. For dinner we ate Lucy's Chinese and although most people would think that was not a big deal - it is to me. I grew up disliking Chinese food when I finally figured out that I liked it I moved to St. Louis, then Texas and the Chinese food was different - so every time I go "home" I have to eat my Springfield Chinese food - yum! Silly I know.

Friday my mom and dad took us to Dixie Stampede. This was a lot fun - it is a dinner show in Branson, MO. There are long horns, horses, comedy and a competition between the north and the south. My mom and dad got a kick out of Z's face when they served him his dinner, they put a whole chicken on his plate and he just stared, wide eyed! I guess he couldn't believe that he got that much food all to himself! Funny!

Saturday we went to see my grandfather again and then had a relaxing day with my parents. A wasn't sure what to think of my dad and they made up a little game where he'd ask if she wanted to come see him and she'd shake her head and smile or giggle. Sunday I went to the movies with Rae Ann and then we headed out Monday after seeing my grandfather one more time.
The last leg of our journey took us to Northern Arkansas and to my Debbie's house. We went swimming and spent Tuesday at the arcade playing and relaxing before our trip back to Texas.

Now we are back home! We had a wonderful trip, lots of fun all over Missouri and Arkansas but it is good to be back in our own home and with Jason.
To all our our hosts - Thank you! BKZA and I are very blessed to have you all in our lives and to be so generously loved by you all.

Show Me MO Part I

**It's long - but hey there isn't any poop talk.**

We arrived in MO on Monday, August 4th after 12 hours of driving. We made two "big" stops one in Texas for lunch and one in Oklahoma to stretch our legs at the park (it turned out to be too hot to do much playing). We had several stops on the way to make use of our own personal port-a-potty, in my attempt to not lose any ground on our potty training we brought Z's little potty. We stayed at my Mom & Dad's house on this night, only to get up the next day and make our way to St. Louis to stay with Jason's folks.
Tuesday before we left for St. Louie we went to see my grandfather, very quickly. Once in St. Louis we went to my VERY favorite restaurant - Stefanina's. Um yummy!
Wednesday we slept in for a little while and when G'pa John got home from work we headed for our first adventure, the St. Louis Science Center. Z was initially afraid of the big dinosaurs but once we assured him that they were only robots he got over it quickly and was ready to jump out of his stroller and go exploring with his brother, sister and grandpa. The four of them - G'pa and BKZ all went to watch a dinosaur omnimax movie and A and I took off for some of the fun, kid friendly exhibits - she really enjoyed learning about gears, I beams and checking out the cars zooming under her feet on the bridge.
Thursday, August 7th was a little more eventful - we went to spend a day at the pool with a family friend (Vicki - she's the Mom of The Martin blog on the side of this blog). We were all loaded in the car and I distractedly started the car, or at least I thought I did. When I turned and realized that the car wasn't running I tried again - NOTHING! Not good. I opened the hood (after some searching in the owner's manual) and realized that the only thing I was qualified to do under there was add some windshield washer fluid, hmm speaking of which I could use some of that.... wait a minute distracted much Sherry? I gathered my composure, convinced myself it was probably the battery and that my all-knowing father-in-law would be able to figure it out when he got home from work. We borrowed my favorite mother-in-law's car and headed to Vicki's for some really fun swimming in their way cool pool. Thank you Vicki for the fun pool date, thank you Bonnie for allowing me to use your car (and bring it back with hardly any gas - since I took a wrong turn and ended up in St. Louis instead of St. Charles) and thank you John for replacing my battery - even though it was pouring down rain.
August 8 was the initiation of my little Z to the cool pool, Wapelhorst - which I've already shared. Z had so much fun that we decided to go back on Saturday evening and take A this time too. Here's the shocking news - A went down the yellow slide! She actually went down twice but the battery on my camera had died so we have no pictorial evidence, you will just have to believe me. I am looking forward to taking all four kids there next year - they'll all love it! When we got home Saturday night as we sat down for dinner I asked Z to go look at the TV to see what was happening, he came back and told me - their swimming... the butterfly. I had to go check it out for myself - he was right! Think there's much swim talk happening at our house?
We stayed an extra night in St. Louis, originally we were going to leave after church on Sunday but we ended up staying and going to the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial (aka Arch. This was a lot of fun because it was the first time that Z actually understood what was happening. It was a really great time and I was so proud of how well behaved he was. In all it took us 2 hours to get from the end of the line, to the top of the Arch and then back to G'ma and A. When John and I realized that he said, "Wow, Z did good. If you had told me that we would have to keep Z in line for that long I would have said, here's a stick poke me in the eye now!" Thanks John! Poor Z - he gets such a bad rap!
Well - that is all they wrote in St. Louis! If you made it through all of this then just wait, I still have to tell you about Springfield! Oh and we must NOT forget the trip in pictures - montage to come when I get home and download 400ish pictures!

Beat Up Betty

Earlier I posted a blog saying how we were all happy and healthy. Seriously we are all both of those things, however this evening we had a minor catastrophe when Z ran into A and she did a face plant on the concrete. Ouch! As you can see in this picture she was smiling and happy after some Mommy loving.

Notice the right side by her eye and the bloody spot under the nose.

Poor baby girl.

Us

Here we are at church on Sunday. As you can see we are all happy & healthy.

Updated

Hi All
I finally got the picture of BK, Jason & I from the Family Tri. If you want to see the montage it is updated.

Previous Splish & Splash Fun

The year - 2007

This was the year of Erin's baby shower, A's baptism and John & Bonnie's anniversary party. BK&Z went with their daddy, great-uncle, grandpa and uncle - it was a boys weekend.

B&K underwater

BK&Z with Daddy (who took this picture?)

The year - 2006

That's me - about to wipe out!

B on the crazy slide.

I was mistaken Z went before,
but obviously before he really got the fun of the place.



Go figure B under water

B&K underwater

B underwater

BKZ playing at the pool.

The year - 2005

Cutie K underwater

B the shark

The year - 2004

B sliding on the yellow slide

K on the yellow slide

B&K underwater

5th Annual Splish Splash in St. Charles

Yesterday, 8-8-08 may have marked the opening ceremonies to the Beijing Olympics but for Jason's Clan it marked the annual celebration of water and slides at Wapelhorst Park in St. Charles MO. We initiated Z into the fold yesterday and he had a blast at the "cool" pool. This "little" pool has four slides, three for the big kids and one for the little squirts. Z loved his yellow slide and I have a feeling he'll be waiting impatiently as his big brother and big sister waited for the other three slides. I've included some pictures after these highlights. K went down the "straight down" slide for the first time, although she was tall enough last year, it was closed for repairs when they went (what a disappointment). Z loved the slide but wasn't sure about the bucket that would dump water on people periodically. He informed me later that he didn't want that to dump on his head and he'd let us know when he did. Lastly, I went down the big slide for the first time, I've always been scared of heights but I decided to fight that fear and brave the terrifying heights. Thanks BK&Z for encouraging me and thanks G'pa John for taking us for such a great trip!!

A highlight - Z's first time on the big yellow slide.

BKZ and I (A was at home bonding with G'ma Bonnie)

G'pa John with BKZ

I've always said that you can't get a picture of this kid, because he's ALWAYS under water - ha gotcha!

K & G'pa underwater

See those two little specks on the slide - those are my babies B&K.

Safe & Sound

Hi All we are at my favorite outlaws house safe and sound!

Home again only to leave again

*Warning*
For my loyal blog readers - I will be out and about for a couple of weeks so this is probably the last you will see for a little while. Check back periodically but don't freak out if you don't see anything until mid-August.

This weekend was B's final Long Course meet, it was the Junior Olympics in Corpus Christi. We decided that it would be a mini vacation for our family. (I only have a couple of pictures that my friend Belle took)
Here's the scoop:
We left Friday evening after Jason got off work. We arrived in time to unload, eat some snacks and set up in the room (A didn't go to sleep until well after 10:30 - she has a nasty cold). B got up early Saturday and went with Ms. Belle and her boys while we got to sleep *gasp* until 8am! We went down for our "free" breakfast - Jason spilled syrup on himself so he had to go take another shower and change clothes, the battery on my phone died and then B's first event was scratched. We were attempting to recreate a scene from a Series of Unfortunate Events.... we got to the meet only to find out we were a good hour and a half away from B's next event and A was already tired. So we went to the van, turned it on and watched Veggie Tales and put the seats in the back down so A had a mini play yard. We played awhile and then went back in to watch B swim his 50 freestyle. After that one event we took the babies back to the hotel to take naps in the hopes that we could go to the ocean later. Jason stayed with them and I went back to watch B swim some more. I arrived just in time to see him jump in the pool to do a 100 butterfly (it was incredible!) and then I watched a very tired 10 year old swim a 200 freestyle. After all that we went back, got the babies and headed to the Gulf for some sand, wave jumping and a good time. We ate on the beach, played in the water and sand - it was a good time.
This morning we went out for breakfast, since we had such a bad experience on Saturday. Sadly it was a huge disappointment for me - my pancakes were slightly crunchy and they weren't nearly as good as the ones that Jason makes. Oh well - I ate some of Jason's grits and had chocolate milk and anyone how knows me really well knows that those things make me happy.
We arrived at the meet in time to watch B come in second in his 50 butterfly and he worked really hard on his 100 freestyle.
Now I am procrastinating my packing - I have to go finish that! We (the kids and I) leave tomorrow for Missouri - please pray for safe travel. I'm sure I will have tons of pictures and stories when I get back. Until then much love to you all & if Belle sends me pictures via email I'll post those for you to see our beach visit - loads of fun.
Here's a picture to prove how busy we were this weekend - poor little Z couldn't stay awake any longer.