A quiet Sunday night

It's Sunday evening and there is a rare sense of peace in our house. Our princess chose not to take a nap today and a 7pm episode of Dora put her down for the count. When she is MIA, things seem to be a bit more relaxed in the house. Got to love her, but Avery knows how to stir things up. Austin has learned to just go the other way. When she tries to instigate something, he goes into the other room and plays by himself. Caleb is still learing and when the two of them are together, someone winds up in time out. She and I seem to not see eye-to-eye about a variety of things these last few days including her constant request for candy. She's having a hard time understanding that she doesn't get everything she asks for, but we're working on it.
We had a good weekend - Friday night Mexican food w/ all the grandparents, a beautiful Saturday of playing outside, a fun bday party at the park - with the carousel, Sunday morning church, and Sunday afternoon at Toppe's house.
Another note to mention would be my Saturday moring trip to HEB with Avery & Caleb. I almost made it out the door with only Avery, but Caleb insisted on coming along and I just couldn't say no. Austin was content knowing that if he stayed behind he'd get to do some tractor work with his daddy, so I loaded up my high maintenance children and hoped for the best. It started off great, Caleb sitting in the front, Avery walking by me and helping get items off the shelf when she could reach - it was almost too easy. Well, that was until Caleb decided he needed to be down on the ground helping take items off the shelf. This resulted in 2 boxes of Ritz - regular and wheat, 10 packages of Ramen noodles (one of Avery's favorites), generic & "Raisin Girl" raisins, and 2 huge tubs of butter. Of course this was in addition to the little "extras" that weren't on my list, but Avery thought we needed - drinkable yogurt & cheesy chex mix. By the final aisle, I was able to secretly take most of the extras out of the basket, but I obviously missed a few because as I was unloading the basket I discovered 2 cans of Vienna sauages (never bought those in my life) and corn tortillas. As I told the checker that I didn't want these items, she looked at Avery & Caleb and smiled. I think I will leave my grocery store trips to my week day lunch breaks.

Snow!!!

Never would I have guessed that the day after blogging about playing in the dirt barefoot on a warm Sunday afternoon, I would be blogging and posting pics of the kids playing in a couple inches of snow. What a treat for our Texas blood! Wes picked up the kids early and when they got home they headed straight out to the snow. Hands and feet got cold a bit too quick so everyone came in to warm up. About an hour later, we were all back out in the blanket of white. Wes assisted with the construction of a snow many while I clicked away with the camera. You never know when or if we'll see snow like that again!

Dirt....

Just a Sunday afternoon in the country.....

New addition to our fleet...

In addition to a John Deere Gator and Pink Barbie Jeep, we now have a Kawaski four-wheeler in our garage. By the look on Caleb's face in this first picture, you'd think he was really excited about it, but truth is he wouldn't even get on it until 2 days after we gave it to him. I'm sure it will get plenty of use in the future, if not by Caleb, by his brother and sister.

Happy Birthday, Caleb!

Two years ago today, our family went from four to five. Caleb Wesley entered the world and forever changed our lives for the better. He keeps us on our toes, but mostly keeps us laughing. He is our comic relief and enjoys making others laugh. His smile is contagious and those baby blues can make any heart melt. Happy Birthday, Caleb!!!! We love you.

At the age of 2, CALEB:

thinks he is 3 like his brother & sister; sleeps sound all night long in his bed; is not a fan of being barefoot and prefers to wear "rocs" - Crocs... even sleeps in them sometimes; is often times opinionated about what he wears to school (not quite as bad as his sister); prefers for his daddy to put him to bed with their nightly routine of a cookie, milk & Brown Bear, Brown Bear; has shown signs of potty training, but we will tackle that challenge this year; is a Tumbling Turtle at St. Paul's and really enjoy going there; loves holding mommy or daddy's cell phone and punching buttons - yes, random phone calls have been made; eats pretty much anything; has an infectious laugh; loves riding on the tractor with his daddy; has the Toy Story doll "Woody" and everytime he says his names, we laugh out loud; doesn't really have a favorite toy, but bounces around from one thing to the next; has already spent his share of time in timeout; has brought so much joy to our lives.... with many more to come.

Caleb's 2nd Brithday

We had a few friends and family over for Caleb's 2nd birthday.

Mimi made the cake. It looked great and tasted HEAVENLY!

Caleb loved the balloons.

Mmmmm.... cheese dip! Thanks, Toppe.

Blowing out candles. Avery had to help him out!
Checking out the cookies Uncle Jason made.

Avery & Aunt Candice

Hey, Bryce, you're cool,but don't get too close.

It really meant a lot to us for Grandpa Pete to come from Rockdale. He turned 96 last week!

Caleb & Mimi














Opening presents was a group effort.

Avery enjoyed getting to play mama and help feed Addison.

My personal chef came to whip up homeade spaghetti sauce for 40. My kitchen smelled amazing and I didn't even have to open a can! Thanks so much, Jason.

Where O Where....

has my camera been??? You may ask this because I haven't posted pics in ages. I've been giving my shutterbug a bit of rest after the busy holiday season before spring starts up. We've been laying low around the house and thanks to this cold damp weather we've had, we can't seem to get out of the house to play for more than 30 minutes at a time. I did pull out my camera this morning in anticipation for by baby boy's 2nd birthday this weekend and as I was trying to clear off some pics, I ran across these and thought they'd be worth sharing.

Build A Bear

We had a variety of things on our "social" calendar this weekend. No way we were going to ever get it all done, especially when all of our sitters had their own busy agendas. We kept Avery's first sleepover invitation w/ cousin Kennedy Friday night, which turned out to be GREAT. She loved getting her toes done and playing dress up and made it all night w/out tears (that we know of). The boys and I enjoyed the evening in The Woodlands w/ Steven & Candice and then we met up w/ Avery Saturday midmorning to enjoy a Christmas present - Build A Bear gift certificates. I have always heard about Build A Bear and I now understand why every child should do it at least once in their life. It really is so personal... everything the child wants in their own teddy bear. My only regret is that we went on a Saturday. It was pretty crowded which made keeping up with 3 curious toddlers more difficult than normal, but we made it through. Wes has determined he is no longer made for malls, especially crazy jam packed ones, but at least Uncle Steve came along so that we had one adult per child.
As for the Build A bears, Austin chose the Camo bear and dressed him in a fishing outfit and mini Timberlands. His name is Shocker. Avery chose an adorable bear w/ a red
sequins dress, bloomers, sparkly shoes and a sequins purse. Her name is Allie. Caleb chose (somewhat) the longhorn. His name is Roookie and he's decked out for his first game.

Valentines Boxes

All for a peanut butter cup.....

Before reading this post, I must warn all those non parents or parents who have not experienced the joy of potty training that you may find this a bit disturbing. Those of you who have had to change wet bed sheets in the middle of the night will understand.
As mentioned in Avery's previous post, Wes and I are putting an end to the kids crawling into bed with us halfway through the night. Every once in a while is ok, but if it happens every night it could create some major issues in the future. I can just imagine Avery at her first sleep over, crawling into bed with the parents half way through the night - uh oh. So we have had some heart to heart discussions with Austin and Avery and told them they need to be big boys and girls and stay in their own bed all night long. Not too much to ask, right? After one of these discussions, Avery randomly told Wes she wanted a peanut butter cup from his candy stash in the outside fridge. His response "You can have one tomorrow if you stay in your bed all night long."
Fast forward to the next morning when I go to wake the kids, who stayed in their bed all night long! I first see jammies wadded up in the middle of the floor and notice it is the gown that Avery had put on the night before. My eyes immediately dart to the wet ring in Avery's bed. On top of that ring is Avery, sound asleep in a new set of jammies. Poor thing had an accident during the night and was determined to stay in her bed so she changed jammies on her own and got back in bed. She must have really wanted that peanut butter cup!!!!
Of course the next heart to heart discussion we had was the importance of waking up mommy and daddy if there was an accident so we change bed sheets and clean up before going back to sleep in our own beds. Oh the joys of parenthood!!!

Mom is a slacker...

I am here to apologize to all of you who follow my mom's blog for her lack of posts over the last few days. Not sure why she has avoided updating. Everyone knows that my brothers and I give her plenty to blog about. I'm really surprised she hasn't posted about our routine morning arguments about what I am supposed to wear to school. She pulls out these patterened pants with matching tops - says they are comfortable for school - when she knows that all I really want to wear are dresses and tights. Jeans work too and don't forget the sparkly shoes. I want to look cute and I remind her of that every morning. Last time we went shopping I picked out the most adorable Hello Kitty dress you have ever seen in your life and I begged her enough that she let me get it. Well it is so cute that I want to wear it EVERY day and she won't let me. She tells me it's dirty and I go get it out of the hamper. I don't see any spots on it so I put it right back on again. One time she even hid it from me!!!
Mom has been a little tired lately. She says that she hasn't been getting a solid nights sleep. Not sure why. They have the most comfortable bed ever and that is why I have been getting up in the middle of the night lately and crawling into bed next to her. I love to put my face right next to hers. My brothers have started coming in to join us too. In fact last Friday morning when I woke up all 5 of us were in bed. Mom and dad said this has got to stop. I don't understand why they don't just let us sleep in there. I even told them I'd give my bed to Caleb if they let me sleep in their bed all the time. They weren't crazy about that idea.
I will be sure to tell mom that she needs to update the blog a bit more often. I help her out a lot by telling my brothers what to do so she doesn't have to. Daddy sometimes calls me bossy, but I am just trying to take some of the burden off of mom. I have to keep the boys in line and make sure they do what I want them to do and play games that I want to play. That's how it works, right?
Love,
Avery Grace - 3 yrs old

Eight and counting...

Eight years ago (2-2-02), I woke up Jamie Kemper and went to bed Jamie Maurer. Really, eight years ago??? At times it seems like decades ago and then other times it feels like just yesterday that we said "I do". There are bits and pieces of the big day that I remember vividly and others that I remember mainly through pictures. Avery loves to look through picture albums, especially the ones of "mommy in her pretty white dress". I love to relive the memories yet at the same time kick myself for some of the decisions I made. My bridesmaid dresses, really.... what was I thinking? Did I really have to make my bridemaids wrap all those trees in lights? Was the 2 ton water fountain really worth it? The clean up crew would say "NO!" One thing I don't question is the man I married. I got a good one!

Yes, Wes and I are a match made in heaven. Ummmmm, that may be stretching it a bit. Truth is there are many ways that we are so different. Maybe there is something to the whole saying "opposites attract." There have been times where I question how we ever managed to get to this point in our lives then there are others where I know that we were made for each other. We have managed to make it through some challenging times including 4 1/2 years of long distance college dating, living apart a few days at a time when we were transitioning from our move back from Austin, building a house and of course having 3 children in less than 2 years. These days there are days that go by where I feel like we don't "talk" to each other. Yes, we "talk" - " what do you want for supper? Can you pick the kids up? We got another birthday invitation. Tuition is due next week - Ramen noodles this week. What do you need from the store?" Then it's days like our anniversary where we step back, focus on just the two of us and realize what a good thing we've got going.

So, to my husband of EIGHT years. Happy Anniversay. I love you.