Friday night football...

Daddy can't hardly control himself....he finally has babies old enough to take to football games and explain the game to.  Well, almost.  They like to "play football" at home, but this mostly entails getting knocked over by daddy and laughing hysterically.  Bubby talks about his favorite players (Tim "Tebone" and "Lewliss" aka: Ray Lewis) but that's about as far as it goes.  Regardless, we took them to the Alamo Heights football game on Friday, hoping for the best.  (No crying)
We sat on the first row, and they got to hang over the railing and see everything.  Hayden kept asking where the "goat" went.  (The mascot is a mule.  Mule, goat....whatever.)  She wanted to shake the goat's hand and dance with her, which is really surprising since the Chick-fil-a cow sends her into spasms of fear.
Of all our kiddos, the baby was the most interested.  She clapped after the cheerleaders finished every cheer, and watched the game intently.  She danced during the national anthem, much to the delight of the people sitting around us.  The big babies lasted until halftime, and then they started whining and trying to lay on the bench next to random people.  It was time to go!  Hopefully we can stretch out our football endurance a little longer next time....

Momma needs a stiff drink....

It's a good thing that I love this kid and that he came from my own body.  If I didn't adore him like I do, I think I might have sold him on the black market today.  We have had a banner day, even by his standards.  We started the day with some covert pants pooping, which I thought we were WAY past at this point.....after we cleaned up THAT whole situation, I discovered about four hundred thousand tiny pieces of paper on the playroom floor.  I put my detective skills to work, and realized they were a: sticky and b: covered with tiny pink writing, that when pieced together read "Hubba Bubba".  I'm not even sure where he found it, since no one in this house chews hubba bubba, but it was clear from the volume of tiny paper slivers that it started out as a whole pack of gum.  Clearly, my detective skills aren't as good as his hiding skills, because it took me ten hours to actually figured out what happened to the gum.  (Each piece, carefully unwrapped and stuffed down into the post of his batting tee....and I still can't figure out how to get them out)  After cleaning up all the tiny pieces of paper (which were sticking to the carpet, necessitating them being picked up BY HAND instead of by vacuum)  the boy decided he was thirsty.  He got out a brand new gallon jug of apple juice, dropped it on the floor and watched as it cracked in half and became a veritable flood of refreshment that tidal waved under my refrigerator and washing machine.  Awesome.  Keep in mind this was all before ten a.m.
"Naptime" (in quotations since no actual sleeping occurs) consisted of taking every item of clothing out of his drawers and off the hangers in his closet.  When I asked why, he told me he "needed to make a leaf pile" and told me not to "be a bad guy".  After nap he liberated about six hundred peach puffs from their container, and their new home is EVERY crevice of the playroom.  Under the couch, in every toy basket, all over the carpet, in every piece of kitchen equipment belonging to the play kitchen.  After the kind of day we've had, the only thing that really surprises me is the amount of puffs that came out of that container.  Maybe those things are a good deal after all.  I used to think 3. 50 was a little overpriced, but seeing them all over the room made me double think that assumption.
Added to all that "fun", he also left the hot water running in the bathroom for who knows how long, got some of the puffs stuck to the bath mat (because we all know they start to dissolve when they get wet), and took all the bath toys out of the basket and loaded them in the bathroom sink.
We haven't even had dinner yet, so I am cautious about referring to this day in the past tense.....there are a few more hours left for him to wreak havoc.

In case you are wondering, this is NOT one of those days when I think I might want a fourth baby.

My babies....

Take us out to the ballgame....

The second week in July we headed to Houston to see our cousin Nick play some baseball.  This is his first year playing MLB at the highest level for the whole season, and we were glad they (The Cardinals) were coming to play the Astros in Houston.  The twins were SO excited...they see Nick on TV and know he plays baseball, but it has been awhile since we took them to a live game.  They LOVED it.  They were excited to see Nick, but let's be honest: they might have been a little more excited with the endless snack possibilities offered at the ball park.  By the time we'd left our family had consumed one order of giant ballpark nachos, one huge bucket of popcorn, and two GIGANTIC bowls of Bluebell ice cream served in the 12.95 commemorative plastic batting helmets.  (Okay, I'm guessing on the price, but I'm sure I'm not too far off)  I was excited to get to visit with Casey (my ACTUAL cousin...Nick is just by marriage)  We talked the whole game, and only stopped to pay attention when Nick was batting.  I think the Cardinals won (shows how little I was paying attention) but that is probably just a good guess since the Astros aren't that good.  Nick and Casey live in Magnolia during the off season, and since the allstar break started the day after we got there, they were going to be home for a few days.  After the game, we headed back to Casey's mom's for some relaxation. (It looked a little like this....)

The babies (mine, plus Kate, Casey's little girl) got to run around and play while we visited.  We left the next day so Shawn could get back to work, but it was a fun little two day trip! Here are some more highlights:

Running ahead of us on the way into the park....so excited!

As usual, climbing something and making me wonder where she went....

Longsuffering husband at the game.  In his defense, I think this is right after we polished off the nachos.  That would explain the grumpy look.

Coveting the guy's popcorn in front of her.

Petitioning Popee for ice cream.  Seriously, the kid is smart.  He knows which tree to bark up, and when.  Popee is always good for some ice cream.

It's Nick's turn!  We are all paying attention here!

This is totally unrelated to my family or baseball, but we saw this guy at the gas station on the way from the baseball game to Magnolia.  Hello?  Seriously?  You can see two rolls underneath his black, size 4T crop top.  When editing pictures, I was laughing at the image presets available....Should I edit this photo with "Soft and Dreamy"?  No, not quite appropos.  "Surreal Moment" is more like it.  In the end, I didn't edit it at all.  Nothing can be done to improve this image.  The blur in the foreground is my dash board....I was hunched down like a papparazi trying to get this shot without this dude seeing me.  Because clearly he's the kind of guy who might whup some ass if he saw you photographing him.  Then again, probably not. He didn't bother to pull up his own pants.  

Cale at cousin Brenda's.  So, SO excited about the plastic Barbie jewelry set he found inside.

Playing with cousin Kate.  Notice the blur in the photo....no sitting still for these three.  The situation looked a little like this:

"Hey guys?  Look over here!  Right here!  At my camera!  Now smile....no!  Don't go up the stairs!  Come back!  Sit down!  I mean it, cousin Brenda doesn't want you going upstairs...come back!"

Sweet baby Kate!  Love her!!  We were so excited to get to spend some time with her!!

The little party that wasn't...("little" that is!)

Saturday night was our "little" celebration for Livi.....which didn't feel so little considering the family alone filled up our house.....our house isn't tiny, but after hosting three different things here this month, I am ready to move!  There is no where for anyone to be!  The area where people like to stand around and talk (kitchen) is just too little.....what was this post about again?  The baby, that's right!  I'll lead you down my "new house" tangent at another time.
So baby was feeling less than healthy on Saturday....she didn't have a fever, but she did have a runny nose and was a little grumpy.  It wasn't her naptime, but I laid her down a few hours before her party because I knew she wasn't going to make it otherwise.  Besides her looking adorable and actually showing interest in her gifts, she didn't put on much of a show for her guests.  She didn't even want to touch her cupcake, and didn't feel well enough to eat any at all!  No smiling during the "Happy Birthday" song, but then again no screaming either so I guess I'll take the alternative.

Looking adorable in birthday outfit

With mommy and daddy...notice her focus is elsewhere.  She was very worried about how she was going to manage to eat some grass without us stopping her. 

Some pre-party guitar entertainment courtesy of Bub.

Unhappy birthday baby.  Not only did she refuse to try the cupcake, she flipped it over so that she didn't even have to look at it.

So maybe the presents perked her up a little bit.