Trip to Grandmama's

The boys and I traveled to Orange, Texas on Tuesday. We were taking Dalton to stay part of the week. Xander and I came home the next day. While we were there we went to a real neat water park at Port Neches. It has a bunch of water spraying items and is free! That is the best part. You can just walk in, stay a little while and leave whenever without feeling like you wasted money. The boys loved it. It took Xander awhile to get used to it, which surprised me after his playing in the rain episode a few days before that. He get splattered a little and come running back to bury his face in my legs. Pretty soon, though, he found a coconut tree that he liked. There were coconuts that would fill with water and dump. He really avoided those for the most part, but did get surprised on occasion. At one point, the water stopped on one side of the park. Xander was not happy and began to scream. It started again and he got over it.


He did haunt some of the people at the park though. It seems that if he sees someone with food, he thinks if he hangs around, smacks his lips saying num, num, they will feed him. It actually worked a few times even with me running interference.

Mom called me today saying she and Dalton went back to the water park and to tell me that Dalton got it with a big bucket. It seems that this bucket fills with water. Once it starts getting full, little signs like weep holes and the water guns start shooting. Dalton was playing with a water gun and ended up getting dumped on. Mom was watching of course and wasn't about to give him any warning as to ruin her fun. He came running over to her saying "I got wet!" My statement would have been, well no duh, your running around in water! He avoided that area with the surprise showers from then on.
Here is Xander being surprised by some sudden showers. Sorry for the side view. I keep forgetting to put the camera right.




After Grandad got off work, we stopped by a place to let Dalton pick out his bday gift from them. The place was closed, but Xander didn't min. He noticed the riding lawnmowers and 4 wheelers and went nuts! He squeals with excitement at things and it is hilarious. I even have video of that, but will save that for later. I'm already addicted enough to showing off the kids with this blog thing.

Dalton bowling like Daddy

Here is the video I promised with Dalton bowling like his dad. I think they both are addicted to the Wii.

Happy Birthday Dalton!

Well, 5 years ago today, my oldest rug rat was born. He has been saying he will be "5 in June" for about 6 months now and this evening after cake, he told Kerry he was almost 6! Wow...they do grow up fast don't they. :)



We had a little party for him with just us tonight. The plan is to have some of his friends over for something later, but we wanted to do something on his actual birthday. We noticed that he was born on a Monday the day after Father's Day exactly 5 years ago, so that was neat. This is his first "repeat" according to Kerry.

Kerry bought him an ice cream cake (Dalton's choice) and we munched down on that tonight. He then opened a few presents and spent the rest of the evening playing trains, begging for his new Lightening McQueen clock, and playing Wii with Daddy. He is hilarious playing Wii. He tries to imitate Kerry and actually does a pretty good job b/c Kerry does get pretty animated playing the game. I'll have to add some video later of that. It is quite amusing. As you can see, Dalton enjoyed his ice cream cake very much. Xander was not too disappointed either.



One of his gifts was some bday money from Miss BJ. She always remembers the boys and he was so excited to get birthday mail. He wanted to put the money in his pocket, but I made him put in a little wallet so he wouldn't lose it. He carried the card and the money around all day.



His Aunt Rolie sent him a Lightening McQueen clock. He loves clocks and CARS, so he was in heaven. We had to put it up almost immediately and now he wants to hold it. He is not quite getting the concept of it hanging on the wall even though he begged us to do it so quickly. Now that it is there, he can't play with it. We were in the den playing trains and I could not see our clock, so I asked Dalton what time it was. Instead of just stepping over a few inches to view the den clock, he told me, "I have to go look on my Lightening McQueen clock. Off he went to his room. I just had Kerry tell me because I knew he'd have to watch it for awhile. It ticks! That evidently is very cool.

We got him some new track for his wooden train set. Some unique pieces were added so he could do different tracks. He will get a few more things later, but he was already going nuts to play so I'll hold off on the other until his friends are here.

I must say that even though the night was fun and Dalton enjoyed it, I was most proud that quite awhile after it was over, Dalton leaned over to Kerry and thanked him for the cake and presents. Not many 5 year olds would do that..unprompted! I could not help but smile and feel warm all over. That's my "big"boy!

The Lord has blessed me so much with my kids. Even on the days when Xander is screaming his head off...at least he is here to scream. On the days when Dalton is following me around repeating the same thing over, and over....and over, at least he is talking now! Thank you God for my children. Help me to teach them to be caring, giving, strong young "men" and to guide them to you. AMEN!

Father's Day with two future astronauts!

We had a relaxing Father's Day. We went to early service b/c Kerry had to sit console for a few hours today. He came home and the boys gave him their cards and gifts. Dalton wrote his name by himself for the first time on Kerry's card. It took up most of the card, but it was neat. He forgot the O, so he had to "write it down there". It was on the lower part of the card below the N and about twice the size. I was tickled b/c he did not want me to hold his hand and help at all.

After the boys had a nap, Xander and I stayed home in the cool AC while Kerry and Dalton went to Ellington field. Dalton was thrilled that they got to park on the grass for some reason.

The Astronauts from STS 124 flew the shuttle home safely from the space station on Saturday and arrived back in Houston today.


People were able to go to watch the presentation at the airfield. Dalton was excited to see the astronauts he had watched on TV all the previous week. We watched the launch, some of the footage of an astronaut named Garrett eat, brush his teeth, and exercise. All while floating of course. We then watched the landing on Saturday. Dalton was excited about the outing and told me this morning that he wants to be an astronaut and float in space. I had not had a chance to tell Kerry about it, but on he way to the field, Dalton told Kerry that he wanted to fly in the shuttle, to go to space and float. That of course made Kerry very proud. Not only does he get the concept of how you get there and how it is, but he wants to be one...just like his Daddy! Maybe they will be the first father/son astronaut team. As you can see below, Dalton is already training for pilot!

Playing in the rain

Thursday night, we all went to a friend's house for a get together. The hostess, Tamra, previously worked with Kerry and had invited the entire family to come celebrate the recent flights that took place. Tamra was advicer and mentor to several groups of college students that developed experiments to be conducted in zero gravity. The experiments took place on the C9. That is the plane that takes sudden dives and lets everyone float around in a temporary zero gravity type state. (I knew it as the vomit comet, but know I feel much more in the know.) Kerry, while he did not get to go on the flight, is hoping to help develop some experiments for students that will be accepted to fly in the future.
Anyway, while we were there, it started to rain. All the adults stayed under the patio while the boys decided to find alternative entertainment. They had a blast, especially Xander. He spent the entire time walking along the edge of the patio where the water was really dripping on him. Dalton kept sneaking off to help wash Tamra's truck since it was in the "car wash". She was much nicer than I would have been about kid smears on my vehicle.
We had a nice time even though I am sure all those people were waaaaaaaaay smarter than I could ever dreamed to be. You know..those smart, science types that make my little 5th science experiments look like pouring a glass of milk. One of the younger brilliant ones called me ma'am! I don't think my 5th graders even called me that. I almost laughed out loud until I thought...Oh great...I am a ma'am now! lol



Wednesday night, right before we were putting Dalton to bed, Kerry saw that we had a visitor out the window. I thought it was a rat! Upon closer look, it was possum. I was able to snap a quick video of it after he had munched on a bug. Dalton was thrilled. He came back to visit a few more times that night and entertained the cats for awhile, but this was the best I could get. He didn't seem to like me moving toward the window too much and would take off to fast. The video is dark and short, but you can hear Dalton say something about eating bugs as the thing runs away.

Lost friends

I have found myself involved with several networking sites. One is Facebook and the other is myspace. I enjoy certain things about both and have issues as well, but I like being able to check out how friends and family are doing. It seems that technology is the only way many people stay in contact. I also like that my family and friends can hop on and check out how the boys are doing. I will always enjoy showing off my kiddos.
What is sad though is that I cannot find some past friends. I have actually been searching for one in particular for years with no luck. I hate that I have lost touch with these people, but also wondering why it is so hard to find them. I am not giving up, but it is disappointing.
Today we pretty much cleaned and played. I spent over an hour sorting greeting cards we inherited while the boys chased each other around the house. Other than that, we are avoiding too many outings with the price of fuel and hunkering down in the house due to the heat that we are already facing. It might be a loooong summer!

Too hot!

Well, we spent this weekend just hanging out in the house, playing wii, and taking naps. Rough life I know, but it is just so hot already.
Dalton and Kerry are really enjoying the Wii. We just got a 2nd remote which is nice with Dalton. It's sensory was messed up for awhile. One game has cows that race and run over scarecrows.( I did not create it so, whatever) anyway, the cow can jump if up when you move the remote up fast, except for the new remote just kept making the cow jump over and over. Believe it or not, the fix was to smack the thing. Whola...no more cow on speed (as the support person said) She was quite funny actually when I called. I was smacking the remote and she said, "Harder Honey, like the baby is getting into something he isn't suppose to." This was after she double checked what I said after hearing..."The cow just keeps jumping."
We are hoping to get some bids on the kitchen, and if heart attacks don't follow, finally get started sometime this summer on the thing. I feel like I live in a construction zone/storage unit right now.
Hope all is well. Have a great week!

Dalton graduates..sort of

Today was Dalton's preschool graduation from Ross. He spent the last 5 weeks attending a special class to work on some social skills and speech. He only went on M,W,F b/c of I did not want him to be taken out of The Vine class he was in.
His first day at the school was a field trip in which he got to ride the bus. When I picked him up, he kept telling me to go home b/c he was supposed to ride the bus. Anyway, even though he was there a short time, he was given the privilege to graduate. Kerry, Xander, and I all attended. It was very simple with a small reception afterwards, but Dalton loved it. He is not quite understanding the aspect of summer and keeps asking when he gets to go back to preschool. He is still asking about the brown preschool, which is the school he will attend next year.
After I picked him up from school, we spent the day with our neighbor Janice and her grandsons. They had a blast in her backyard and playroom. Xander found a slide he could maneuver well so he went over and over hollering "Weee" each time. I left my camera at the house, so I missed out on the pictures. I forgot about my phone. While we were there, Dalton ended up locked in the dog kennel somehow and could not get out. I think he had some help from his friend Ethan. It was pretty funny. I snapped a few pics with my phone, but haven't figured out how to deal with those yet.

Good Morning

We are up and running as usual. Dalton is our early bird, so he was up before 6. This is a daily thing. We are trying to train him to leave his room without poking Xander, go potty, then go play "quietly" in the den. He is getting better, but still has to be reminded that sneaking up on mommy is not a good thing.
Xander is trying to rearrange our cd's and screaming when he thinks Dalton is going to touch him. One minute they are playing and I hear laughter. The next minute, I am releasing my nails from the ceiling after a blood curdling scream. Xander will be my fit thrower...oh what fun!
Have a great day!