Wireless internet... the next best thing to slice bread

What a difference a faster connection makes!!! Out here in the "country" we have had to use a dial up connection for internet access.... up until today. I think back to the days when just being able to pull up an internet page at home was exciting, now waiting for more than 3 seconds to see a page is excruciating. So I'll be able to blog sooner and quicker...


Here's a pic of our little big guy.... 7 months old. He's crawling everywhere! We are still trying to figure out who he looks like. Everyone says Avery looks like me and Austin looks like Wes, but very rarely do we have anyone pinpoint who they think he looks like. I guess he just looks like Caleb!

93 and counting....

Caleb and Grandpa Keen

The big catch of the day!

Brother and sister fishing together... they were actually fighting over the pole.

This weekend we got to spend a little time with family. Saturday we took the kids to my grandparents farm in Rockdale, my mom's home town, to go fishing. The fish were biting... ok, so we cheated a little. My grandpa threw out fish food to the catfish and they came swimming up to eat. At the same time, we threw out the fishing rods and the catfish had their choice of fish food or our minnows. Fortunetely some chose the minnows and Austin and Avery were able to reel in the fish, with some assistance of course. It was interesting to see that Avery and I share the same perspective on fishing - it's ok for a little bit... when the fish are biting... otherwise we'd rather just sit in the truck :-) Austin was in it for the long haul and enjoyed throwing out the rod and reeling it right back in. He thought the minnow counted as a fish caught and would say "Austin catch little fish." He actually did catch a big fish on his little spider man rod and he thought he was big stuff!
One of the best parts of this day for me was watching my 93 year old grandpa "hang out" with Caleb. While we did our best at keeping A & A's rods baited and hooks from flying, my grandpa sat in his lawn chair and held Caleb and kept him entertained. Caleb never fussed... just laughed as Grandpa Keen made faces at him. These are the memories I wish babies were able to keep with them. He's an amazing man.
On Sunday, we celebrated Wes's grandmother's birthday. She is 93 and still sharp as a whip. I am amazed by her memory. She doesn't forget a thing. At the rate I"m going, I'll be lucky to be able to remember my last name at that age. I just hope that I make it to 93 and even more important I hope I am still kickin' as good as Granny G and Grandpa Keen when I get there.

I'll post fishing pics soon....

Happy Birthday Uncle Jason

Today is Uncle Jason's Birthday and this was my best attempt to tell him via the blog. A&A sang "Happy Birthday" to him at least 6 times on the way to school today. Avery gets her mind set on a song and then she is like a broken record... over and over again. When I try to jump in and sing along she says "No no mama, Avery do it." Actually she says that a lot these days. When I figure out how to post video, I'll be sure to include one of her seranades. Not much else going on this week.

Hook 'Em Horns

Saturday we loaded up the crew and headed for Austin to tailgate for the UT/Rice football game. The game started at 6pm and that worked out just right for us. It took pretty much the entire morning to pack, plan and get everyone dressed for the day. We loaded everyone in the car after lunch and the kids snoozed on the drive up to Austin. That put us at the tailgate for about 3 hours before the game started. We have some friends who have a GREAT tailgate setup and always make us feel welcome. It was a little warmer than we had hoped, but not too bad. Wes and I spent many a Saturday tailgating when we lived in Austin and we hope to be able to do it more as the kids get older. It just isn't the same with 3 little ones, though it actually went much smoother than I thought it would. It will ultimately be the kids decisions as to where they attend college, but they will definitely be encouraged to go to UT.
As the crowds started filing into the stadium, we headed back to the car. We were brave enough to tailgate with 3 kids, but we weren't crazy enough to go into the game with them. Last year we did take A&A into the stadium for a quarter and it was not something I was ready to do again... exhausting. Instead we drove to Uncle Jason's and were able to watch the game in the AC. The kids loved getting to see Uncle Jason and we enjoyed getting the homecooked meal. We had a great visit and the kids got to run around and be silly for a while. We made it back to Brenham a little before midnight... a very long day, but it was well worth it.

A day at the fair....

It's that time of year again... time to put on your Wranglers, grab your cowboy hat, and mozy on down to the Washington County Fair. OK, so no one in our house owns Wranglers or a cowboy hat, but we do know how to mozy. We took the kids down to the fair last night for what proved to be an exhausting evening. We really talked the fair up to the kids this past week... the cows, pigs and horsies... the fast rides... buckin' bulls at the rodeo... and of course the funnel cake. Well though we love to sing Old McDonald E-I-E-I-OOOOOO, Austin and Avery would prefer to sing about the animals rather than be around them up close. We were up at the pig barn and all it took was a loud squeal from one of the pigs. They both clung tight to us the rest of the night whenever we got anywhere near an animal (except the rabbits).
Avery loved the rides... couldn't wait to get on the hobby horses. She would have stayed down there all night. Austin wasn't a fan of the hobby horses (cried the whole time) or kiddie roller coaster, but he was ok with the cars and motorcycles. The rodeo was the opposite, Austin loved it... Avery didn't. Austin's eyes would get big as the buckin' bull came out of the shoot. Avery would turn her eyes and bury her face into my chest. At least they both agreed on the funnel cake - loved it. Grease + sugar = simple goodness. Caleb came down later in the evening, but is still way too young to enjoy the sights and sounds. He got a kick out of watching Avery putting her finger through the cage wire to touch the bunnies and then jumping back when she touched one. We may try to go again on Friday... if we're feeling like
Here's a few pics I got in the middle of shuffling kids to and fro. If we attempt to go again on Friday I hope to get a few more...

A long weekend...

Hurricane Ike has come and gone. We were so fortunate that the storm stayed to the east and all we experienced were heavy winds and rains. We never even lost power. Our thoughts and prayers go out to those Houstonians who are in recovery mode. Hopefully power will be restored soon and everyone can pick up and move forward. For my husbands sake, hopefully the nonstop news coverage will soon end so that he can watch football again.... We stayed in a great beach house this past summer down on Crystal Beach and met a few owners of some of the homes around there. It's hard to imagine that all of that has been destroyed.

So, Saturday proved to be a long day... inside with the kids. We made a few lego castles, built a tent, read books, attempeted to watch Finding Nemo, and consumed way too much junk food. Thank goodness we were able to get outside in the sunshine on Sunday. I don't know what we are going to do this winter when we have to stay inside more. One highlight of the weekend is that it is safe to say that Caleb is officially crawling. Avery and Austin like to get down on the floor with him and crawl around. Of course that usually results in someone getting too rough and someone crying... Oh the joys!

Here's a pic of Avery on Saturday. She was prepared for whatever Ike was bringing her way...

A few random pics

Always smiling....


Posing...

Ready for school... and yes, his shoes are on the wrong feet. We don't sweat the small stuff when it comes to getting out the door in the mornings :-)


Caleb playing around.

Quick catch up

If you are reading this you found out that I am attempting to broaden my computer knowledge and join the world of blogging. Don't expect too much, but I'm going to do my best to keep track of what is going on with us. (On top of that, I'm going to try and do it without too many typos.) I figure if you are intersted, you'll check it out and if you're not, you won't. :-)

So a quick catch up.... Austin, Avery, and Caleb are doing great. Austin and Avery turned 2 the 21st of August and Caleb is 6 1/2 months old. As you can imagine there is never a dull moment in our house. Austin and Avery go to "school" 2 days a week. They got their 1st progress report sent home yesterday... all "S"s - Satisfactory. Yeah! They love their teachers and when I pick them up in the afternoons they jabber all the way home. Caleb is growing like a weed. He's sitting up and doing what I call an ungraceful crawl. He enjoys being a part of the action and isn't a fan of being put down... ever.

Not much is new with Wes and I. Most of our time is consumed taking care of kids... We've still got plenty of projects that we'd like to get done around our new home, but that will have to come with time.

Until next time......


This is a pic from A&A's 2nd bday party with all of their friends.

Hurricane Ike

This is still a practice blog entry.... just trying to learn how everything works. Everyone is getting prepared for Ike. This morning I was getting the kids ready for school and I was telling them that Hurricane Ike was coming. They looked at me and shook their heads like they knew what I was talking about. Later, we were getting in the car and Austin looked at my with the most serious face and said "Urricane Ike comin mama". Another priceless moment.

Of course had anyone looked at my living room when we left the house, they would have thought the hurricane already hit.


This was taken a while back....

Just getting started.....

I've loved keeping up with friends through thier blog pages so I thought I'd give it a try.... in my spare time. Ha ha. As the kids grow older, they are doing so many cute things that I think you'd get a kick out of so when I get the chance I will be sure to share. Here's to happy blogging.....