Football, Gas Gages, and Mystery Appearances

I haven’t written a blog in a while so for your entertainment and pleasure, you get a different perspective of how things really run around here. 

Football

The boys went to their first football game this past Friday night and there’s no better way to start your football career than to see your dad’s high school football team, the Iraan Braves, put a whoopin’ on their opponents (my apologies to any Forsan fans out there).  It was a blow out.  I got to show off the boys to some of my old friends back home and Eli & Landon got a little taste of West Texas culture and how high school football should be played.  Maybe someday we can go back to Amy’s home town and they can see… well we just won’t go there.

Pa-Pa going over the wishbone formation with Landon

 

Nana asking Eli what just happened

 

This may seem uneventful to some but it is a proud moment for me.

 

Eli in the hands of the Braves Head Manager after the game.  

Easy Lance that's not a water bottle your squeezing!

Gas Gages

A few weeks ago we were going to my old roommate and friend’s wedding in Bowie, Texas.  As we passed through Roby, the first town on the way, the low fuel warning signal came on and gave us how many miles until we were empty.  I did some quick calculations and came to the conclusion that we were safe to keep driving on to Anson, where I was sure gas would be a few cents cheaper, so I could save a total of at least 20 cents when I filled up.  Besides the gas gage was still showing a quarter of a tank so the computer had to be mis-calculating.

Amy wasn’t happy with my decision to keep going and her unhappiness came to a high when our car rolled to a stop seven miles outside of Anson for lack of the liquid fuel.  We sat in that spot for the next two hours calling everyone that you could call.  Many cars passed by, none willing to stop, one of which was a police officer.  Finally we received aid from the Anson police department and were able to get on the road.  Now the bad thing about this situation is that Amy was able to add a mark on her “You’re stupid and you should have listened to me” account and could use this against me when making any kind of simple decision.  It is a long account, and this one is worth at least 100 points.

But don’t worry, since the occasion Amy has ran out of gas twice and she even knew about the problem.  At least I can claim ignorance.  Luckily our car is still under warranty and so Amy took the car into Midland Friday to get it fixed, boys in tow.  Nana (my mom) met her there and they spent the day in Midland.  They went to the park, I’m sure they went shopping, and they actually went to a movie.  So Friday was a busy day for the boys… football, park, and first movie at the theater.   Too bad it was a chick flick, and from what I hear it was a bad one at that.  Better luck next time boys.

 Eli and Landon at the park... or a park

Mystery Appearances

Some mornings I wake up and beside me, or really right up against me, will be a warm, little body.  When he got there I don’t know.  How he got there I do know or at least I thought I did.  For the past week the boys I have been kind of under the weather and have been waking up and staying awake at night, coughing and crying, especially Eli.  For this reason the boys have been ending up in bed with us.  Needless to say, Amy and I did not get much sleep this week and so by Saturday night we were both exhausted to say the least.  So when I woke this morning there was the little warm body next to me and I don’t remember when he got there.  So I asked Amy “When did you get Eli?”  “I didn’t,” she replied.  I responded “Oh, that’s amazing.  Last night He learned to crawl out of his crib, find his way through the dark, and crawled into our bed which he can’t reach the top of.”  “ That can’t be right,” she said, “if he crawled from his room to ours he would have stopped in the bathroom and unrolled all the toilet paper.”

That left me with only one other option.  Amy slept walked and got Eli and put him in bed with us.  Then I began to wonder how many times has this happened and if there was any reason for them to be in bed with us at all?  What if she was dreaming that one of them was crying and got up and brought them back to our bed in her sleep when they were actually sleeping soundly and most important quietly? Some of you may think that this might sound a little crazy but anyone who knows Amy well might just go along with it.

Well I guess there could be one other option.  I could have been so tired that I don’t remember getting up and getting the little guy myself but I don’t think that is likely.  So how Eli got in bed with us is still not known and so goes under the TM file… Twin Mystery file.

Here are some extra random pictures. The weather here has been beautiful and the boys love to be outside.

11 Months

I am going to go ahead and apologize now becuase I am totally suffering from complete nostalgia these days as we approach the big first birthday. I'll try to keep the emotionally loaded posts to a minimum, but I make no promises. 

Each month, I like to go back to the previous year's pictures to see what we were up to a year ago. Here's what I found...

Now excuse me while I break for a moment of silence and say a prayer of thanksgiving that I'm not in that state right now.

Okay...moving on. We've been busy (do you ever get sick of hearing that?) We've been out of town a lot on the weekends, I've been getting ready for Eli and Landon's first birthday party, we've been teaching Bible classes, and as if we weren't busy enough...I decided to have a garage sale last weekend. It was my first garage sale ever, so I of course had the camera out to document the blessed event.

We kicked off the day with a big box of doughnuts. Matt and Dustin ran a "Daddy Day-Care" inside (which ended up outside most of the morning) while Eva, Sabra, and I did our best to rid ourselves of a LOT of junk. We talked, laughed, people-watched, and begged people to buy something. It was actually a lot of fun and we made a few dollars in the midst of it. Not bad. I'm already searching the house for more junk to sell at the next one.

It was fun while it lasted, but I sure was glad when it was over.

If you keep track of things like this...you might have noticed that my babies are now in their 11th month. Here are a few things for the record book.

Eli

*Eli has become quite the snuggler lately. He will just burrow himself deep into your neck/shoulder and tuck his arms underneath himself. It's enough to make me sigh with great contentment.

*Until...he bites my shoulder. That is his other latest and greatest trick. I have convinced myself that he means it with the utmost love. He thinks he's giving me a kiss. But it's not a kiss. It's a full-fledged bite, complete with redness, swelling, and teeth marks afterwards. He doesn't do it to anyone else - that's why I'm certain it's meant as a communication of love just for me. And that's why I'm having a hard time breaking this new habit :)

* Eli has a temper. He and Landon are now discovering the joys of sharing and Eli is NOT a fan. When Landon takes a toy away from Eli, he immediately turns bright red and spirals downward into a fit of anger. It's not amusing. Especially when it's in public. Ugh.

*Eli has learned to blow kisses and I think it.is.absolutely.precious.

*Eli is standing on his own, taking about 5-6 steps at a time, and has mastered the sit to squat to stand move. He just seems too little for all of this. His biggest problem with walking is that he would rather run and he's in too big of a hurry most of the time.

*This happened several weeks ago, but just for the record...Eli ate a scorpian tail. He survived.

Landon

*Landon is just a little more vocal than Eli and he really seems to be trying to make words. We work on "thank-you" a lot and I really think I hear him trying to say it. He says "dad, mom, bye, hi, and uh-oh" on a regular basis, but I've also heard him say boot and thank-you.


*Landon is a little better at sharing...or at least he doesn't get quite as upset about it. He might fight for a toy for a few minutes, but he is usually content to just move onto something else. He's such a sweetie.

*Landon is also taking about 5-6 steps at a time, standing up on his own, and doing the whole squat/stand thing. He's a little more steady on his feet than Eli mostly because he's a little more patient.

*Landon has also gotten a little more lovey and clingy, which I LOVE. I was beginning to think that they could just take me or leave me most of the time, but they are giving a lot more hugs and even kisses sometimes too.

Both Eli and Landon love bath time, eat like champs, give high-fives, have a lot of fun in Bible class, would rather sleep in our bed than their own, and bring a tremendous amount of joy to me and Dustin.

Happy Birthday Grammy!

We were able to go to Dallas for the long weekend to help Grammy celebrate her 50th birthday. We spent all day Saturday hanging out, watching movies, and cooking. Saturday night we had a small family party for mom, ate a big meal, played dominoes, had cake and homemade ice cream, and just enjoyed being together.







The rest of the weekend was just laid back and really enjoyable! We had such a good time.

He Growls

Eli has growled from very early on.

Now...he does it on command.