Heading home from the zoo

Tyson: I don't want to go home. I want to stay at the zoo with my friends.
Me: I know buddy but we have to go home.
Tyson: But mooooooom! I want to stay with them for FOREVER!
Me: Well I'm glad that you like your friends so much.
Tyson: Can they come over tomorrow for a sleep over?
Me: Sleep over? When did you learn about sleep overs? And no. They can't come over tomorrow. (Although I'm sure all their mommies would love a night alone)
Tyson: How 'bout the next night?
Me: I'm sorry Tyson.
Tucker: I want a babies in your tummy.
Me: {total shock}

Sometimes, you want to play dress up

And sometimes, it involves my shoes and my son.

This and That

I have so many pictures from different things that we have been doing but I'll save those for later. :)

My fantastical, cutie-patutie friend JW had her oh, so precious baby boy Friday night. I get to meet him and squeeze him tomorrow. SO.EXCITED.

We went to another friend's house yesterday to celebrate her son's 6th birthday. Tyson and Tucker came home wanted to get a pet snake. That's right, the party included The Reptile Man complete with 12 or so snakes (including his 12 foot, 100 pound albino Burmese python) and a few lizards. I spent most of his show-and-tell time hunkered behinde Stuart lest a snake get loose and slither over to me. EEEEEKKKKKK!

My friend Amy from HS posted a link about twins sisters that we went to high school with (and I also went to middle school with)
 http://www.mysanantonio.com/default/article/Twins-now-a-partof-dinosaur-history-1020430.php

Too cool!

Rachael posted a really awesome note about Luke's progress. It was a speech she recently did and it explains what happened in the beginning, the trials thus far, how far Luke has come and what the future is looking like.

We are moving and grooving on the house front. More on that later.

I'm almost finished with Her Mother's Hope and this might be my favorite France Rivers book ever. Seriously. Go read it.

I am currently in love with this blog. Oh and this one too. But oh my! There is no way all that white would survive in my care!

Just to show you

I really am OCD.
Justsoyouknow.

I always put the dishes in the dishwasher the same way. And I will change them if someone else has started loading them incorrectly before me.
I always lay the clothes out in the same order on the bed when I fold them.
I always clean the bathroom in the same order: toilet, sink, mirror, shower, remove trash.
I always color code clothes.
I always rearrange the sugar packets at a restaurant.
I always make lists.
I always eat my Skittles (or anything that's colored/flavored) in order from least liked to most.
I always place books of the same author on the shelf by order of release date.
I always check the toilet paper roll to make sure it's facing the right way.
I always make sure my money (when I actually have some) is facing the same way and in order of least amount to most.
I always shop the same "route" in the grocery store.
I always park next to a cart return.
I usually park on the left side.
I always stress about being late.
I always have a little panic attack if my routine is messed up.

:)

It's a hard life

when you get to sleep on the job.

photo take today at 12:21 pm

Babcock and Prue

George

My youngest sister is lovingly referred to as George. Her real name is Jordana but when her birth was announced at church, several people thought it was Georgeanna. And she has forever since then been George.

Here is a sweet video of Tyson from 2007 calling for his aunt. Priceless.



Untitled from Clarissa Doss on Vimeo.

The BOY

I am so giddy with excitement y'all! One of my fav blogs is celebrating boys and devoting an entire month to them! Seriously, could this be any more up my ally? (Well, I guess it could if I would learn how to sew really, really well and had a plethora of adorable fabric and oh, a craft room. But those are just some things.)

Check it out here and celebrate the boy!

While you're at it, also grab a button!

I Don't Heart

Happy overly-commercialized-made-up-for-no-good-reason-other-than-to-make-singles-feel-more-single-and-couples-do-something-over-the-top-to-express-their-"love".

Bitter? You ask.
Nope.
I just don't get it. Why do we have this "holiday" in the first place? Do I really need to have this day to tell the ones that I love just how much I love them? Do I really need this day to emphasize just how many people out there have not found their soul mate? Do I really need more chocolate? (The answer to that last question is most definitely YES. Just in case you were wondering.)

Reasons why I DON'T love Valentine's Day:

• It's a made up holiday.
• It accentuates the loneliness that lots of people feel
• Every day should be about love
• Stupid cards and balloons and flowers with cheesy messages
• The notion that if I don't do something for those that I love, I don't, in fact love them
• The MILLIONS of commercials 
• The seasonal aisle being so crowded that I can't get thru the store to get to the pharmacy

Reasons why I DO love Valentine's Day (see, I'm not ALL negative)

• It is a good reminder to let the loved ones in your life know that you do love them
• Stupid cards and balloons and flowers with cheesy messages (I AM a girl 'ya know)
• Chocolate covered strawberries
• The color red, it's one of my favs
• Making heart shaped pancakes 
• 11 years ago the man I thought I was going to spend my life with (God knew better) broke up with me (on Valentine's Day) which allowed me to start dating (and then marrying) the real love of my life
• You can start eating Cadburry Cream Eggs (you can never have enough chocolate)

So, Happy Valentine's Day! 

To my boys: Without you this world would not be complete. You are my alls. 

To my husband: I could not have asked for a better man to marry. You make every day sweeter than the previous one. You are truly my knight in shining armor. Thank you for walking beside me thru the ups and downs. For your companionship, I am grateful. For your love, I am undeserving. For you, I love.

This is how it all began

The very first T & C

And look at that baby bump! 

Scout

This is my dog.

This is how she sleeps every night.

In my bed; under the covers.

We need a bigger bed.

In which I show you more graphs

I know, I know. The graphs! Do I really make graphs of useless information? Yes, yes I do. Because they are neat and clean and show you just how OCD I am.

First a glimpse of my blogging. I began in August of 2008 and have been quite steady with approximately 20 posts per month. (Well, kinda)

And next, pictures taken by year and month. Now this graph is slightly incorrect. Do this bother me? Yes it does. When Tucker was born, I decided to organize my pictures into 3 categories: a) Tyson, b) Tucker and c) Both boys. But after a few months it just got too laborious to go thru all the pictures every month and divide them up. So this graph is not entirely accurate. Also to note, in August of 2009, Stuart got a new laptop and bequeathed his "old" laptop to me. While this was a sweet gesture on his part, it was not so sweet when he accidentally erased all the pictures on my hard drive while simultaneously backing them up to an external hard drive. If not for Shutterfly and the back-up disk we have made a few months prior, I would have cried a lot more than I did.

And last but certainly not least, the ever so popular: Weight Graph. Yup. The boys are still leaps and bounds heavier than the average boy. And Tucker is in fact going to be King Kong one day.

Things that I love about today

1. We actually got to go outside and play
2. Bible class!
3. Having steak for dinner (mmm)
4. Tyson requesting to give our sweet, elderly neighbor the heart shaped cookie he made in Bible class and then actually getting to do it. (I think it made her day)
5. How cool is the goggle home page?

It's the one time of year he does this

My husband does not watch sports.
None of them.
Really.
(Not even the Spurs, except for when I worked for one of them and we got tickets to the first game in the new SBC center in his box but that's an entirely different matter.)
But, BUT my adorable, fix-it husband watches the Super Bowl.
Don't ask me why.
He does and he looks so cute trying to figure out what's going on.
And since my charming, technologically advanced husband also fancies a good movie, I thought this was prefect for his one time of the year when he dons a helmet and pretends to play with the big kids.

Stop the Presses

For real.
The city has literally shut down.
Due to this:

Snow.
Or rather, a dusting of snow.
And I am so not kidding when I say the city has shut down. Major highways, roadways, schools, all closed because of the white stuff.
Even Stuart came home at 8:30 am because he couldn't drive down to Catulla since 410 was closed. He did however get a free dinner and some cash for helping a woman get her car "unstuck" and then driving her home.
When the boys woke up and saw the snow, they asked where their presents were. 'Ya know, because the last time they saw snow was Christmas Eve of 2009 when we had a blizzard and more than a foot of snow in Wichita Falls. Sorry boys, no Santa in February.

Ugh

Tuesday was Tucker's birthday

While most would have celebrated,

we had to cancel the celebrations.

We're ALL sick.

I mean, really, really

sick.

It started on Saturday when Tyson spiked a fever.

That lead into Sunday.

Tylenol and Motrin were given generously,

as well as hugs, kisses, and movie time.

Monday brought on a tickle in 

my throat.

Not good.

When I lived in San Antonio before,

my allergies got so bad that I had to get

shots.

Twice a week.

It was not fun.

And now that I'm back?

It seems like we may be heading down that same path

again.

Tuesday morning Tucker woke up with 

101.7 fever.

GREAT.

Tylenol and Motrin began flowing thru his body.

We waited till after nap time, 

but his fever went up to 102.3.

Alright, no birthday party.

Both boys were coughing but Tucker's began to sound

croup-y.

Yuck.

Plus the snot coming out of Tucker's nose was/is thick

and green (TMI?).

Wednesday morning I headed to my (new) dr.

And was diagnosed with a(nother) sinus infection.

No surprise there.

Then I quickly called Uncle, Dr. J's office (my BIL)

to try and get an appt for Tuck.

9:50 am.

Awesome.

Uncle, Dr. J quickly assessed that he needed to do a flu test on Tucker.

15 minutes later,

positive.

Influenza A.

Fantastic.

Plus the beginnings of an ear infection (the right one)

and the beginnings of croup (if it gets into his lungs like last year right after he turned 3).

So what does this all mean?

We are sick, sick people.

And this city is not good for sick, sick mommies who passes on her sick, sick allergies to her sick, sick babies.

Februaries

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

Happy Birthday Tucker!

Oh my Tuck Tuck,

Could it possibly be that you are turning 4 today?! Is it really true that you were born FOUR years ago?! I think not. There is no way that my baby boy is now longer a baby.

I can not even begin to tell you have you have blessed our family. You are a fire-cracker and afraid of doing nothing. You love your big brother and want nothing more than to follow him and do what he does. Sometimes that ends in complete meltdown but most of the time you and Tyson play together magnificently. 

You are the apple of my eye. Not only do you look like me but you have my hot temper. Your daddy is your hero and I hope he always is.

You desperately want a baby sibling (sorry, NOT gonna happen) and love to dote on your younger cousins or any other baby for that matter.

Cars, tools and legos dominate you life right now as well as running around in your skivvies.

You are finally potty-trained and love to show us the fruits of your labor. 

What a magical 4 years it has been. Our family would not be complete without you.

We love you more everyday!

Happy 4th birthday Tucker!