The Flying Klines

Cancun II

2009-11-22T16:06:00.003-06:00

Paulette mentioned that she won the second night of skittles Texas Hold 'em but she refused to post the picture so I am doing it for her.

Our life in pictures from 9/2-current day

2009-11-14T20:21:00.018-06:00

I know, I know...We are officially horrible bloggers, but I guess better late than never. Right?

We went on an awesome vacation to Cancun, compliments of the Kline family (not us). I would highly recommend it to anyone.

We arrived and quickly started taking advantage of the all inclusive aspect of the resort. Maybe a little too much?

We played skittles Texas Hold 'em; the first night Erin won and this is what she did to her winnings. The second night I won twice, but I think they let me win the second time because they were sick of playing.

We enjoyed several very nice dinners.

Did a little local shopping.

Enjoyed a lot of time at the beach.

Our brother-in-law Jared's sand dolphin. Very impressive, huh!

We also enjoyed the swim-up bar.

But alas, the time came for us to leave paradise and return to reality.

The two big boys both played soccer.

Dylan is really quite good and actually started to learn how to "play" the game. Hayden on the other hand was very fun to watch as he and his team chased the ball wherever it should roll.

Dylan turned 7!

We had him a little family party on his actual birthday.

Kolton enjoyed the cake so much he decided to help himself to some more when nobody was looking.

The boys had their "friends" birthday party at the local gymnastics place.

Everyone had a BLAST!

I went a little crazy making these cookies for the goodie bags.

I don't really want to see another cookie for a long time.

Hayden turned 4!

We had a little family party for Hayden too.

Have you ever wondered what happens when your 4 year old eats 3 cupcakes worth of red icing in less than 24 hours. Let's just say when mom sees that one in the toilet it scares her to death and she thinks a trip to the emergency room is immediately necessary until she remembers about the icing the night before.

On a more appropriate note, aren't these two of the most handsome boys you have ever seen?

Hayden's 1st primary program.

AND NOW HALLOWEEN!

The boys are dressed as Luchadores (Mexican wrestlers) with masks that we brought them from Cancun. Dylan was Dragon Rojo, Hayden was Hurricane Ramirez, and Kolton was (obviously) Nacho Libre (and a huge hit with everyone).

The two big boys were old pros at trick or treating, but Kolton wasn't very interested.

On Thursday Kolton got his first haircut, not that you can tell. He was developing a little mullet, but no more.

Today we went to the Renaissance Festival.

We all had a lot of fun watching shows, trying out some of the attractions, riding rides, eating food on a stick, meeting royalty, and many other strange creatures. The souvenier of choice was a set of horns for each of the boys.

We must have worn him out.

This is what happens when you lay all the childrens' clothes out and don't tell your 4 year old which clothes are his.

Sorry for the long post hopefully we will be able to keep up better from now on.

Still Alive

2009-09-10T20:36:00.007-05:00

I am not even going to attempt to catch up on all of the blogging that should have been done over the past two months. Just in case anyone cares what you've missed,

the kids win the 4th of July parade in the subdivision,

Kolton has his 1st birthday,

we spend a week on vacation in Utah,

and Dylan triumphantly returns to school and starts 1st grade.

Have you ever wondered what happens when you ask a 6 year old to put the dishes "up" by himself?

Grandpa Danny

2009-07-14T18:13:00.010-05:00

My dad stayed with us for a couple of days recently on a business/pleasure trip. The boys always look forward to grandpa HAVING to come down here for work. Who wouldn't have fun when you get to do this

OOOOOOOKLAHOMA!

2009-06-23T19:34:00.006-05:00

Over the first weekend in June, we went on a family vacation to Oklahoma for The Rickner Family Reunion (my paternal grandmother). I don't remember ever going to one, but, with the exception of the last four hours in the car, we all really enjoyed ourselves.

I left work early on Friday so we could begin our journey. The reunion was not until Sunday so we found a hotel in Dallas for Friday night so we would not be couped up in the car too long and the kids could swim and have fun. We drove from Dallas to Tulsa on Saturday and had a rather uneventful trip. We met up with my Grandma and my cousins Matthew and Mariana once we arrived in Tulsa; and, after a quick dip in the hotel pool, we were ready for dinner. My dad's cousin Troy and his family - whom I don't ever remember meeting - met us for dinner and we went to Logan's. The kids loved Logan's because they could crack their own peanuts and throw the shell on the ground, make a mess, and not get in trouble. After we got back to the hotel, we all sat and talked for a while and once I went back upstairs (Paulette had left and took the kids to get them in bed) Dylan said "Isn't it funny that man looked kind of like grandpa Danny?" He was talking about Troy, and yes, I saw the resemblence too.

On Sunday morning, we decided we had to get the kids out of the hotel room so we went across the street to the mall. Talk about the perfect time to be at the mall. The mall was closed, and wasn't going to open for a couple of hours, so it was completely empty and we let the kids run around the kids area for a while. Even Kolton had a blast. When we made it back to the hotel, grandma was antsy to get to the reunion and we ending getting there quite a while before everyone else. This is my theory, Grandma has pretty much been the only representative from her side of the family at the reunion for a long time, and was excited to have 3 out of 5 grandkids and 3 out 7 great-grandkids to introduce to everyone. Despite the fact that I did not inherit my dad's ability to strike up a conversation with nearly anyone, I had a really great time getting to meet family.

Great picture don't you think! It looks like Paulette was up to her old tricks by dressing everyone alike, but, believe-it-or-not, she only dressed my 3 kids similar so it would be easier to identify them.

We stayed Sunday night and went to a movie with Matthew and Mariana while the 3 little ones stayed behind for some quality time with Grandma. Dylan had been begging to go to Toys R Us ever since we told him that's were Grandma and Matthew were when we first arrived on Saturday. Monday he woke up and couldn't wait to knock on Matthews door and ask if he would go to Toys R Us with him, and to his delight, Matthew agreed. Dylan and Hayden each picked out a Transformer to play with on the way home. Just before leaving, Dylan was able to con $10 out of Matthew so he could jump on the trampoline that was inside the mall.

We decided we were brave enough to make the 8 hour trip in one shot on Monday. In retrospect, that may have been a mistake; the kids behaved just fine until Dallas, at which point all 3 of them became unbearable the rest of the way home.

All in all we had a really great time and would like to thank Grandma for everything!

It's About Time

2009-05-24T20:05:00.008-05:00

Dylan walked at 8 months.

Hayden walked at 9 months.

Kolton walked at ? months.

We finally decided today that we can officially answer that question. The answer is 10. He took "baby" steps at 9 months, but nothing that we were willing to classify as walking.

Here are some videos, we think they are funny because he kept swatting the camera as he walked up to Paulette.

Tons o Fun

2009-05-24T16:11:00.016-05:00

This past week has brought with it tons o fun.

Last Saturday, Dylan had his first official swim meet and a gymnastics "meet". He did very well at both of them. He was on the 6 and under free relay team which won first place, the 8 and under medley relay team (he swam the freestyle leg) which got disqualified (along with every other team), individual freestyle which he did not improve his time, and individual backstroke which he improved his time on a lot and won second place. Later that day, he had a gymnastics "meet" and had a really good time.

Pommel Horse

Rings

High Bar

Parallel Bars

Yesterday, Dylan had another swim meet at Raveneaux and did pretty well. His relay won 1st again and he improved his freestyle time a little from last week. I don't know how he placed on his individual events; I guess we'll find out when he goes back to practice.

Also yesterday, we went to a neighbors house for their "2nd Annual Coon@!# Crawfish Boil." We all had a lot of fun and ate a lot of GOOD food. I think the pictures below should explain it better than I can.

Dylan was jumping over the other kids as they came down the water slide.

Batch 1 of 3. This picture shows about half of the table. Each batch got progressively spicier (aka more awesome)

It took some convincing, but Dylan finally tried one and ended up liking them alot.
Hayden wasn't interested in the crawfish so he stuck with "normal" food.

I think Kolton ate his weight in Ritz crackers, but he obviously enjoyed them.

Needless to say we all had really good time and enjoyed all the food.

Paulette's highlight of the week though was that after a month and a half she was finally able to start working out at the YMCA again. Just to keep things interesting, though, she decided that since she had already hurt her upper body and her mid body that she just as well hurt her lower body so she went ahead and twisting her ankle while working out. Thankfully, each time she was hurt, the severity was less.

Time Flies

2009-05-15T21:13:00.011-05:00

It seems like a lot has happened since we found out that our son was willing to tattle on someone over 1500 miles away, and his own grandma none-the-less. Hopefully, I will be able to blog more about the kids than gross things, although I won't promise anything.

Dylan's swim season has started already. He had time trials last weekend and tomorrow is the first real meet of the season. Considering he has not done much swimming since the subdivision pool closed for the winter, he has really improved since last season. He's no Michael Phelps, but he is doing really well. For some reason, swimming is the only thing he does that he doesn't care if everyone else is better than him. We have had a couple conversations with him, asking if he knew it was a race to see who could get to the other side of the pool the fastest, and he does understand, but he still mossies along.
Dylan is still in gymnastics and is doing great. After this session is over, they are moving him up two levels; fortunately for me that means little since the classes are still the same length of time and the same weekly frequency. I know when my parents think of a gymnast moving up, they automatically cringe thinking about how it will affect their pocketbook. Thankfully, I am safe, for a little longer, from that problem.

Dylan has finally reached a milestone in a young boys life. He has lost both of his front teeth (not a pleasant experience, ask my dad) and now has that goofy, toothless, smile that all kids have at some point. Dylan is really weird, most kids pick at their scabs and try to pull their own teeth out; he picks, but what he picks is not a scab. I think a strong wind could have knocked his teeth out before Paulette finally pinned him down and got them out (they came out one week apart).

Enough about Dylan. Hayden is still the same fearless, rowdy, out-of-control Hayden that we all know and love. Just look at the picture, he's cute, but you can see the mischievousness in him. I have had some funny conversations with him lately, as he is beginning to think he is smarter than us. He developed an affection for puzzles recently, just ask my dad; he can spend hours building puzzles. Paulette and I have been studying his thought process for building them and we have some ideas, but are still not quite sure. The other day I took him to the office with me and on the way home he told me that my car was broken. "What do you mean, my car is broken?" I replied, to which he pointed at the large crack running down the right side of my windshield. "Mommy car not broken, your car broken. You need take you car to the car fixing store." This went on for a while, apparently he thought I could go to the car fixing store just as easily as we can run in to Wal-Mart. We had to stop at the grocery store on the way home that same day and after we left, the mini-van in the lane to the right of us on the feeder-road started passing us. He began to tell me how slow my car was and that mommy's car was fast. He told me that I had to push the fast button to go faster, to which I replied that if I pushed the fast button then we might go so fast that we would crash in to the car in front of us. This got him thinking and he asked if it would make us "to die." "Maybe" I told him and then he pointed out the air recirculation button on the dash and told me not to push it. Every time I reached down to push it, he would yell at me not to touch it. After that, we decided that the a/c button was the slow button and the rear defrost button was the stop button, so, for the rest of the drive home, I used the slow button when we were getting ready to stop, and then he would tell me when I had to push the stop button. When it was time to go, I pushed the fast button to make us speed up and then I would push it again so we didn't crash in to the car in front of us. As much as he stresses us out, he is a really funny kid who idolizes his big brother and loves to help with his little brother.

Kolton is growing up way too fast. In some ways he is developing faster than his big brothers and in others he is not. He is just over 10 months old now and can't really walk yet, which is much slower development than the others, but he has been climbing stairs and getting in to EVERYTHING much earlier than his brothers did.

Watch the trick he learned this morning.

Paulette found him on the floor after having put him in the walker and asked Hayden if he helped him out, but he insisted that he didn't so Paulette put Kolton back in to see it for herself. As much as Dylan and Hayden climbed, neither of them ever considered climbing out of the walker. We are not quite sure what to do now because we can't just dump him in the walker while we're busy doing something.

My dad came down this week for work and was able to make it an extended trip so he could spend some time with us. We all really enjoyed him being here, especially the boys, who couldn't wait to wake grandpa up every morning and play with him as much as possible. We feel extremely fortunate to live in a place that he is able to visit regularly for business and that he takes the time to share his time with us.

The only other news-worthy thing to blog about is that Paulette's arm is healing well and since she was doing so much better, she was blessed with a little gift. For those of you familiar with the TV series Friends, please refer to season 5, episode The One Hundredth. Kidney Stones! Saturday seemed like it was going to be like any other Saturday. We went to Dylan's swimming time trials, to the Art Fair at the high school, and to her mom's house for an early Mother's Day get together. We left our house at 2 pm for her mom's and she mentioned something about pressure in her back. By 3 pm, she was in so much pain that we had to come home and she literally cried from the pain all the way home. I told her I would take her to the ER but she refused because she didn't want to have someone tell her that she had gas. After we got home, I got on the Internet to research the symptoms of appendicitis and came across kidney stones, which she exhibited every symptom of. At that point she was the first one in the car ready to go to the 24 hour emergency clinic. The doctor gave her some pain medication and told her to visit a urologist on Monday. We went to the urologist and he suggested removing it rather than waiting for it to pass and she jumped on that idea because she couldn't stand the pain any longer. By 3 pm we were home, sans kidney stone, and mostly pain-free. I feel bad for Paulette because of all the pain she has been through; she has had two surgical procedures within one month. I hope we are done and get back to "normal."

I apologize for the time you just spent reading this lengthy blog; we will try to blog more often to keep the length down.

TIME FLIES WHEN YOU'RE HAVING FUN!

Bad Grandma

2009-04-30T21:56:00.003-05:00

Hayden has a tendency to blame someone else when he is doing something he shouldn't be doing. For example, if I want him to get out of the car through Kolton's door, and he wants to get out the drivers door, he will simply tell me that Daddy told him to get out that door, especially when Daddy isn't with us. So, last night, when we were trying to put the boys to bed, Hayden started jumping off of the ladder onto the bean bag. This is how the conversation went:

Mom: Hayden don't you dare!!!

Hayden: But Grandma told me to

Mom: Grandma told you to do what?

Hayden: Jump off the ladder

Mom: Grandma who?

Hayden: Grandmaaaaaa....Koren

ohhhh BUSTED!!!

Toilet Humor

2009-04-24T16:48:00.005-05:00

I am not sure what our family's fascination with gross things is, but here is another gross story to be added to the archives.

We all know Hayden is one apple that fell way, way, way away from the tree. I am assuming that, for the most part, all human beings are similar. Hayden is probably the reason that you have to say "for the most part." This afternoon he was playing, and being Hayden, when, all of a sudden, he started freaking out and ran to the bathroom; he ran to the half bath in the entry. Paulette and I just laughed because it's Hayden and went on with whatever we were doing. A few minutes later, we hear Hayden freaking out because of something to do with "poop." Apparently, he had finished his business in the entry bath and had moved on to the toilet in our bathroom. When I arrived, Hayden told me, in a very distraught tone, there was poop on his underwear. Of course I'm looking around to find the underwear so I don't get entangled in it myself, but can not find it. Finally, I ask him where his underwear was and he told me it was in the toilet. Through some miracle, there wasn't actually anything on the underwear because, while it was very wet, the company that had joined it in the toilet was high and dry. Without asking any more questions I went bowl fishing and went on my way. This is when I began to develop the mental video of how everything happened. I figure that he finished in the entry bath, and then realized that the kids hadn't been dropped off at the pool yet so, to mix things up, ran to the other bathroom. (All of my kids only think there are two bathrooms in this house, unless it's the middle of the night, then there's only one bathroom and it's mine.) It was there that he must have begun his Michael Jackson Thriller routine. Put your imagination to work and picture a three year old doing the dance because they just can't hold it any longer, and then, with one swift Thriller kick, launches his underwear straight into the toilet. When he finally told me that he was finished, I went back in and inquired as to why the bathroom smelled so BAD. I believe this is how the conversation went:

Me: Why does this bathroom smell so bad, what in the world have you been eating?
Hayden: I eat breakfast hot pockets.
Me: Really, breakfast hot pockets make you smell this bad.
Hayden: I no eat poop!

I'm sure you had to be there for it to be as funny as it was for me, but I couldn't stay any longer (for two reasons, I was laughing, and the smell.)

That's Disgusting!!

2009-04-10T17:21:00.009-05:00

A week or so ago Paulette noticed a bump near her right underarm and assumed it was an ingrown hair. She tried popping it and she even had me try popping it. I know that sounds pretty disgusting but keep reading it gets worse. Get your mental camera's ready and picture me with a small mag light in my mouth, tweezers in my right hand, and my left pointer finger and thumb intently playing with this lump under Paulette's raised right arm. Pretty picture right? She insisted that there had to be an ingrown hair in there somewhere and I insisted that there was not

Everyday she kept complaining that the pain was becoming worse and worse. By Monday she could barely use her right arm because it hurt so badly. Tuesday she was crying and could barely sleep because of the pain but still did not want to see a doctor because "it costs money." I think the intense pain and my insistence finally convinced her to see a doctor on Wednesday. She called her mom to see if one of the doctors at her office would look at it and he said he didn't dare mess with it due to its proximity to the breast and the sensitive womanly stuff associated with it. Kolton had his 9 month visit that day so Paulette asked Kolton's doctor to at least look at it and he confirmed that she definitely needed to go see someone soon. Paulette found a doctor that could see her after lunch that same day and rather than leaving with relief, all she left with was a prescription for antibiotics. Frustrated, she talked to her mom who said the doctor at her office would look at it for her and as soon as he saw it he got on the phone and called a surgeon that he knew and they were able to squeeze Paulette in yesterday afternoon. I started working from home yesterday afternoon because we are having some remodeling done at the office (you can't convince me this was just chance) and I got home just in time to run over near the hospital, on the other side of town that Dylan and Hayden were both born at, and pick up Kolton and Hayden. I got back to the house in just enough time to get Dylan off the bus. Sometime around 6:00 she finally saw the surgeon who looked at it and immediately sent her to the hospital to get prepped for surgery. By 8:00 she was already out of the operating room and her mom got her home by 10:30pm. Her mom stayed the night since I couldn't get out of going to work this morning because my boss is out of town and the remodeling started this morning. Fortunately I am working from home for the next couple of weeks until the office is remodeled and that should be just enough time for her to recover. We have never been told exactly what is was, but from the little bit that Paulette has overheard from the second doctor and the surgeon we think it was either an infected node or infected gland. What caused it, why it spread all the way to her elbow, we may never know

Here are the gruesome details. Basically she has a giant hole in her right armpit. Literally, a GIANT hole! She has gauze jammed in the hole which has to be changed daily by a nurse. The hospital could not find any home nursing companies that worked for them that serviced our side of town so since we have a friend who is a nurse the hospital told us that she could come over and change the gauze. Here are some pictures so you can see what I am talking about.

This is the hole right after she got out of the shower prior to having it repacked with gauze. Gross right? I know what some of you are thinking, get your minds out of the gutter. This is a picture of her armpit not a different part of her anatomy. Sickos! Also in this picture you can see how red the underside of her arm is. The redness (infection) goes all the way down below her elbow.

This is the 1/2" wide gauze that Paulette pulled out of the hole while she was in the shower. I laid it on toilet paper on the tile in the kitchen to put its length in perspective. Each tile is 16"x16" so it is about 55" long. I think that is taller than Emily. Only about 3' of fresh gauze went back in the hole but she said she would rather give birth than go through that again. Unfortunately for her she has to go through it everyday until the wound is healed, at which time it may be stitched closed. She is a very pain tolerant person but this seems to be more than she can tolerate and I don't blame her.

Spicy Hot Cheetos

2009-02-23T21:19:00.004-06:00

Our favorite conversation of the weekend went like this:

Dylan: "Did you know that spicy hot Cheetos are good for you?"
Dustin: "Really, how's that?"
Dylan: "Because there are jalapenos in them."
Dustin: "So, because there are jalapenos in them that makes them good for you?"
Dylan: "Yep, we have jalapenos in the clubhouse and they're in the vegetable bin."

First of all I guess anything spicy must have jalapenos in it, or at least according to Dylan. And secondly, just for you all who don't know what the clubhouse is, it is the little room Danny and Dustin built under the stairs for the kids. They have a little kitchen set in the "clubhouse".

Yep, there they are, so it must be true.

This is going to be good to show to his girlfriend when he is 16!

Apparently he likes to sing when he is doing his business.

Catching Up

2009-02-14T18:29:00.015-06:00

I know, we're hipocrites. We keep harrassing people to update their blogs and yet we fail to keep our own updated. Paulette is a "blog stalker" and checks everyone's blogs several times a day. Even when we are not home she will check them on her phone since she has a fancy phone with the internet. So...

The day after we got home from our Christmas vacation, Dylan remembered that he had rollerblades waiting for him and he couldn't wait to try them out.

As most of you are aware, my kids seem to pick things up rather quickly, especially if it doesn't involve books or vegetables. After just a couple days of practice and a couple of bruises on his rear, Dylan has mastered (as well as a 6 year old can master) the art of the rollerblade. For a 3 year old, Hayden is no slouch either. We acquired some kids rollerblades from our neighbors garage sale that are adjustable. When we got them they were setup like a tricycle, one wheel in the front and two in the back. Hayden skated like that for several months until he was just playing around one day and put on Dylans which are true rollerblades and it almost seemed like he was skating better by having the wheels inline so we adjusted his skates and he is doing pretty well at keeping up with Dylan.

Not long after we got home, Paulette finally took the plunge and joined the family up at the YMCA. She has been working out almost every morning. She drops Hayden and Kolton off in the kid watch area and then goes and does her thing. She started by just going into the women's center and doing miscellaneous cardio and strength excercises. Recently she has discovered the classes and looks forward to attending her step, kickboxing, abs and all other sort of classes. She keeps trying to get us to go as a family in the evenings because I have yet to go but something keeps coming up preventing us from going. Part of it is me dragging my feet because it is something I have never done before and never pictured myself doing. I am sure that once I go one time I will probably keep going, especially since it is on the way to work and I could just work out and shower there before going to the office. Anyways, now that we have joined the YMCA, Hayden has been taking swimming lessons and Dylan has recently started soccer. Both of them love their activities, plus it keeps them active. Dylan doesn't have too much of a problem with that since Wednesday is our crazy day. I have to be home from work "on time" so Paulette can make it to the school in time to pick up Dylan only to rush him to gymnastics which is 20 minutes away and starts 20 minutes after he gets out of school. She has to get him out of gymnastics 5 minutes early so she can rush him to the YMCA so that he won't be too late for soccer practice. During this time I am fortunate enough to be at home with the other two boys while I try to double up on my school work so I can be more edjumacated.

We celebrated Grandpa Carroll's birthday at our house and had a lot of fun. It was the big 65 that he had been looking forward to for some time because it means that he can finally retire, except I think that he forgot to actually retire because he still gets up every morning to head to work.

Somewhere along the way, Kolton discovered that he can have more fun if he learns to move around. He hasn't mastered crawling yet but he is really good at his version of the army crawl. Leave him alone, so what if he is behind when his brothers learned to do things.

Grandpa Danny and Grandma Koren came to visit just for the heck of it and we had a great time. After they arrived we were discussing some things that we could do during their trip and somehow Galveston came up and at first we kind of laughed it off because it is not as close as some people may think and because it hasn't quite finished recovering from Hurrican Ike. That second reason not to go soon became the primary reason to go. It was quite interesting to see how much work there is still left to do down there. My sisters will remember going down and going into the shops that are on stilts over the water and looking at all of the nic-nacs that people are selling. GONE!! Many of the nice homes along the beach. GONE!!

We had a lot of fun though, the kids got to play in the sand a little and pick up seashells.

Paulette was paranoid about the kids falling in the water.

From Galveston there is a ferry you can take to get over to the Bolivar Penninsula that we always enjoyed riding on as kids. Paulette had never been on one before so it was a new experience for her and the kids. She did mention though that if this were the ferry that we would have had to ride she would have stayed on dry land.

Even Kolton got to have fun at the beach.

Do you like our new boat? We found this boat in someone's front yard in the town of Crystal Beach. Something tells me this is not where it was supposed to be. For more pictures of our Galveston trip go to my mom's blog at http://klinelife.blogspot.com/2009/02/our-warm-getaway.html

Our soccer star!

He is quite the agressive fielder and a great goalie too. Today he scored a goal (sorry no video of that) and blocked two shots on goal.

As much fun as soccer is, there is no better time that the treats when it is over.

Bodie (Lesley Zentz' (Haines)) son had a birthday party at the place they keep their horses.

The boys both had fun and Kolton waited patiently for his turn on the horse, but for some reason was never allowed to ride.

Alas, we come to Valentine's Day. Our Valentine's festivities started yesterday at Dylan's school when they had their Valentine's party. As usual, the kids bring little things to pass out to the rest of the kids in the class so Paulette stayed up all night Thursday preparing the treat (a small candy and a crazy straw) for Dylan to give to his friends. Here is a picture of him with his teacher Mrs. Harl.

While Paulette was at the school she was suprised to find out that Dylan is quite the little artist. His teacher told her that the art teacher chose some sort of fan Dylan made to put in the fine arts festival. (I think he was the only one from his class) Mrs. Harl showed it to Paulette and she was very impressed. I guess we will have to post some pictures of that when it comes back from the fesitval.

We started off our Valentine's Day today bright and early with an 8:15 soccer game. That's me standing next to the goal. I don't know if I am actually supposed to do that but everyone else stood next to the goal when their child tended so; monkey see monkey do.

What Valentine's would be complete without Paulette taking pictures of us matching.

The remainder of our Valentine's has consisted of Papasito's lunch, car repairs, hair cuts and Wii. We bought the Wii Fit a couple of weeks ago and today I got "Skate It" from Paulette so we got to skate board in the house for a while and then Dylan, Hayden and I played Spiderman. Hayden just uses the "classic controller" that is not hooked up to anything and is certain that he is playing along with us.

Speaking of the Wii Fit, I think that may have been one of the highlights of my parents visit. We played several times during their visit and had fun checking our Wii Fit Age. I won't spoil it for anyone so I will let mom and dad tell you their age. I wish we had a picture of my parents doing yoga, running in place and, most of all, ski jumping. You know in the Olympics when the people go down the really steep, really long hill and then see how far they can jump? That was everyone's favorite game and you don't know what they are doing then they look pretty silly doing it. First you squat down kind of like you are visiting the porcelain palace, then you stand up really quickly, lean forward, stick your chest out and "fly" with your arms behind you.

Sorry we don't have any interesting news, like a potential volcano, but at least now you are caught up on our lives since Christmas.

THE END!

Holiday in Pictures

2009-01-04T13:20:00.015-06:00

If a picture is worth 1000 words then here is a long novel.

This last one is because Damon may never update his blog.

Turkey Day

2008-12-01T20:38:00.007-06:00

Hopefully everyone had as enjoyable a Thanksgiving Holiday as we did. We spent the day in Livingston (not quite a 2 hour drive to the north and east of our house) in the "country" at Paulette's parents house. They have about 10 acres out nearly in the middle of nowhere so it is nice to go up, hang out and be away from the hustle and bustle. Right behind the house they have a small pond that they claim to have fish in but that we have never been able to substantiate, until Dylan caught a fish after only three or four attempts.

If you talk to him about it, the most important part about him catching a fish was that he was the first one to do it since I managed to catch one (a bigger one) a while later.

Much to Dylan's dismay we had a traditional Thanksgiving feast because Paulette told him that if we caught any fish we would get to eat them. We practice catch and release in this house though since none of us are huge fish fanatics (maybe it's just that we wouldn't know what to do with a flapping fish to prepare it to eat).

Hayden was there too but didn't make it in to the big action story because he is not allowed to fish with an actual hook on the end of his line. He is quite proficient at casting though so someday he may prove to be a real angler.

Paulette went Black Friday shopping with her mom again this year. It seems as though they have made this their new tradition. When she left I was never able to go back to sleep since Kolton wanted to eat plus I was skipping my monthly audit at work so I had that on my mind. After both of us having been up since the whee hours of the morning Hayden decided to spill his guts out all over his bed late that night right after Paulette and I both fell asleep. I tried to clean up as much as possible to Paulette wouldn't have to get up, but apparantly I didn't do good enough because she got up after I went back to bed and cleaned up some more. To add fuel to the fire, Hayden has decided that he is afraid of the dark so it has been a fight nearly every night to get him to bed. We have done really well about not letting him sleep in our room at all but every time he woke up that night we had to fight with him to go back to bed. I am sure everyone knows what it is like to fight with a scared, sick, tired 3 year old.

Kolton is still alive too and he is growing up extremely quick. We just finished teaching him to walk so naturally bike riding is the next step. Kidding of course, he is starting to really laugh rather than just squeel and we are having a lot of fun trying to make him laugh.

Friendly Feast

2008-11-25T21:32:00.007-06:00

Dylan had his Thanksgiving celebration today at school. They called it their "Friendly Feast." The children were all assigned something to contribute to the feast. The parent volunteers then dished up a little bit of everything, which in all actuality was more than he will eat at his real thanksgiving dinner. Much to my surprise the first thing he put in his mouth was a green bean, which was quickly followed by drinking his entire Caprisun. Needless to say he didn't eat any more green beans. He tried a little bit of everything but overall didn't eat very much of anything. I mean he had already eaten a large lunch. We were assigned to bring the pumpkin pie, and Dylan was very excited to tell everyone that they were eating HIS pumpkin pie. Before the feasting actually began the music teacher had them sing a couple of songs for the parents and now you all get to enjoy them too.

Dylan was an Indian at the feast

Green bean in and juice to wash it down with.
Dylan and his little pilgrim "girlfriend". She lives around the corner from us and they like to go and see each other as often as the parents will allow.
Dylan and his teacher

And Hayden spent the feast strapped to the stroller.

(The only way I could be guaranteed of his location.)

Third Wheel

2008-11-20T09:28:00.004-06:00

I took the day off work today so Paulette could go to a dentist appointment. I never thought staying home from work would feel so awkward. I woke up this morning to Paulette's alarm clock rather than mine, then Dylan and Hayden bounded downstairs and into the bedroom and immediately began getting dressed by themselves. Paulette is in the shower and Dylan proceeds to the kitchen to prepare breakfast for him and Hayden all the while I am still in bed. I felt like I was better off staying there because I felt out of place in my own house since everyone has a routine and they do it really well. I finally get up in time to be ready to see Dylan off to school which I haven't done before and have been trying to find something to do before Paulette leaves. Hayden is still here of course but he is occupied because Teddy (of Elijah and Teddy) is over while his mom goes to her doctor appointment. This is about as productive as I have been so far today with the exception of a few emails that I shot off for work while still laying in bed.
After Paulette leaves I will attempt to work on my Statistics class but that is about as exciting as things may get today.

Gymnastics

2008-11-14T21:48:00.003-06:00

Dylan had his first gymnastics "competition" today. It wasn't actually as much a competition as it was an exhibition. Nevertheless he did have a little "routine" on each event and he was so excited to get to do them. Of course he started off with a little stretching. (for some reason all the pictures were either blurry or dark, but try to enjoy anyway, sorry)

Floor Exercise

Pommel Horse

Rings

High Bar
The instructor that was in charge of high bar was not Dylan's regular coach so he didn't realize that Dylan could do the entire routine by himself. Dylan told him before he got on the bar, but he still insisted on "helping" him. I think you can pretty much tell that he did it all by himself.

Parallel bars

Vault

Dylan is in an advanced kindergarten gymnastics class and when we signed up for the competition they put all (all 4 of them) of the advanced kindergartner's in the group with the advanced older kids. So, when they did the second vault they did a vault that he had never done before. In his class they usually do a dive roll instead of a handstand so you get to see his first attempt.

He got a gold medal, 3 red and 3 blue ribbons and as you can see he is very excited to pose with his awards.

(P.S. Yes we know that form is not his strong point, but he is strong and brave. And he really seems to enjoy it even if it looks...well, not pretty.)

The musical stylings of Hayden Kline

2008-11-10T15:05:00.005-06:00

I proudly present the musical stylings of Hayden Kline!

Please contact his agent today to book him for your holiday party.

Kids at play! and DIBS

2008-11-06T22:51:00.005-06:00

Hayden, Dustin and myself playing house in the clubhouse!

And two dirty dogs.

P.S. To all whom this may affect.

DIBS, We call dibs on the good room at christmas.

Happy Halloween

2008-10-31T22:24:00.004-05:00

I hope everyone had a happy and safe Halloween. I know that we sure did. We started off the evening by going to the church for a "Trunk or Treat" and the kids loaded up on candy and goodies. We then went home and trick or treated for 2 hours and the kids still weren't ready to come home when we made them. They got more candy then should be legally allowed. It is out of control. When we were a couple of houses into our trip we were tracked down by a little girl in Dylan's class. It was really cute, they stayed together for the rest of the night. A friend of ours who was helping with the kids said that they were making plans to hang out at one of their houses after trick or treating was over. Sadly for them, we made them go their separate ways at about 8:30. The kids had fun and then Dustin and I had fun after the kids went to bed and we got to pick out all the good stuff for us.

If you can't tell the boys were firefighters and a dalmatian

My 1st Halloween!

I even turned the stroller into a firetruck complete with head lights and lights on the top, but with the flash you couldn't see that the red things on the top were lit up.

Last weekend we went to a pumpkin patch and here are a couple of pictures from there.

Cute pictures

2008-10-27T22:31:00.005-05:00

This is a summary of the three times we have had the boys pictures taken in the past month. Dylan's 6 year old pictures, Kolton's 3 month old pictures, Hayden's 3 year old pictures and Halloween pictures. Enjoy!!

Happy Birthday Hayden!!

2008-10-18T21:10:00.018-05:00

If you thought we through a big party for the boys two weeks ago when we had a horse and all of their friends over you should see the celebration we had today. There was a bounce house, a giant slide, a giant carnival swing, face painting, karaoke, a dunking booth, cake walk and a ton of other activities. Actually it was the annual "Carnival at the Creek" hosted by the PTO at his school, Willow Creek Elementary, as a fundraiser (beats selling stuff right Erin). Since it just happened to fall on Hayden's 3rd birthday we told the kids we were doing something special for his birthday by going to it when we would have gone no matter what weekend it was on.

We really dragged the celebrating out a lot longer than just going to the carnival. We woke up early this morning for day two of the biannual subdivision garage sale. Originally Paulette was not going to participate today since we had other plans but since it so horribly yesterday we decided to give it a go for another two hours this morning. Yet another bust! We had our stuff and a ton of stuff (junk?) from Paulette's mom and I think that total between the two days there were no more than 30 people stop by, not counting the ones that drove on by, which brought in a whopping $45 to be split between us and her mom.

We did have one thought during the garage sale this morning though, is there something that magically changes in a kid once they turn 3?

Erin are you sure we didn't accidentally switch kids that one summer we all went to Lagoon together? This kid looks like he might have some Boehme blood in him. Both boys are blonde and cute, it could have happened, right?

Hayden makes garage sales seem a lot more fun than they actually are.

Never mind Erin about the whole switched child issue. Based on his "awesome" sense of rhythm I am relatively certain he belongs to us.

We had to cut the garage sale short to go get pictures taken for Hayden's birthday. I don't know, it's some sort of weird fetish that Paulette has about getting the kids' picture's taken ON their birthday, no sooner no later. I'm surprised she doesn't tell the photographer to wait to snap the picture until the exact minute. We went specifically for Hayden but she always tries to get all the kids together too, just in case something good comes out of it, which is rare. Today we got really lucky though because we got some REALLY good pictures. I am sure Paulette will post them or at least email the link to see them, they really are incredible pictures.

After pictures we went to Shogun, basically it is exactly the same thing as Kobe for those of you familiar with our celebratory eating habits. Dylan insisted that we go to Kobe for his birthday too, but we told Hayden that it was too far since we were staring at Shogun from the JC Penny parking lot. One thing I can say about taking the kids to these type of restaurants is that none of the food gets wasted, really, though devour it.

After lunch we went to the carnival where we thought we would just redeem some of our tickets for some cheap food which didn't happen since some friends asked us if we wanted to go to dinner afterwards since they were certain that the food would be no good. We ended up going to eat at Willie's Icehouse. We rarely go there for the same reason the family that we went with usually goes there, the sandbox for the kids. At least their kids ate, my kids didn't hardly eat anything until Paulette finally forced some food down Hayden and Dylan decided to eat right as we were getting ready to leave. My kids don't usually like sand boxes but I guess since their friends were there they decided to pretend like they were boys who like to be boys.

Now for the funny part. Anytime Hayden was asked "how old are you?" his response was "I be 5, I go cool" which in English means "When I am 5 I get to go to school." Of course it's funnier when you see it in person.

PS: We saw gas for $2.49 today!

PPS: Cute pictures

Every time we saw his horns off he's sweet for a little while.

What's not to like about this picture?

Hello! Baby smiling, can't leave it out.

YES!! and TADA!!

2008-10-09T22:32:00.001-05:00

YES!!

TADA!!

I've been tagged

2008-10-09T15:49:00.005-05:00

Dustin wants me to say that I was on base so you can't tag me.

Okay, so I am going to answer everything twice. One for when we first met as teenagers and one for when we met again as adults.

1. Where did you first meet your husband?

Culhane's Gymnastics...He came to pick me up at my house.

2. What was the first thing you said to your husband?

Ummm. Probably, "Hey". I mean what else do two 15 year olds say to each other....Ummm. Probably, "Hey". I mean what else do two people say to each other who haven't seen each other in 4ish years.

3. Where was your first date?

Wellll, the first date was illegal (Dustin was only 15), we told our parents that we had to work at a gymnastics meet and then we met at the gym and went to see Ace Ventura and ate at Fudrucker's, with a group of gym friends. The first date that Koren knew about was when I asked Dustin to go to a school dance, Lady's Night. He graciously accepted much to his mothers dismay.
The second first date was prearranged before he even got home from his mission. He picked me up and we went to Astroworld for some roller coaster fun.

4. Where was your first kiss?

I would have to say probably in my car while parked in his drive way. The second first kiss, we went to Klein High School one night after a date and walked around the outside and talked then we sat down by the ag building and talked for a while and then somehow we kissed.

5. Did you have a long or short engagement/courtship?

We started "going out" in the 10th grade (1994). We broke up in the 12th grade. We started dating again when we were 21 (October 1999). We got officially engaged in Feb. of 2000 and married in May of 2000. So, you be the judge of long or short.

6. Where did you get engaged?

In December of 1999 we went to visit his Uncle Jack and picked out a ring, but did not buy it then. I think it was probably a little overwhelming for my mother-in-law to be. I went back home to Houston and Dustin stayed up at BYU. I came up to visit him around Valentines day. When he picked me up from the airport I was so happy to see him all I wanted to do was talk to him, and all he wanted me to do was get in the center console and "pick out a cd for us to listen to". Finally I reluctantly opened the console and saw the ring box. I got the box out and he said, "So do you want to?" Obviously I said yes. So, I guess to answer the question is that we got engaged in the old blue Honda my father-in-law now drives while driving down I-15.

7. Where did you get married?

Bountiful, Utah temple May 27, 2000

8. How did the reception go?

We had two. One in Utah right after the wedding that was very small, and was pretty easy. The second was about a month later in Houston and was a little larger and little more stressful, but all in all not too bad.

9. How was the Honeymoon?

For a honeymoon we took a road trip and moved Dustin back to Houston permanently. We took about a week and drove from Utah to Texas and tried to earn as many pennies as we could along the way. (wink wink) The goal was to earn 100 pennies on that road trip, but we didn't make it and are still working on it.

Birthday Party MAYHEM!

2008-10-05T20:54:00.016-05:00

***POV CHANGE - DUSTIN IS WRITING THIS ONE

Yesterday we had a joint birthday party for Dylan and Hayden (Erin, in case you are curious, we did NOT have our first snow yet, the weather was awesome, JEALOUS!) If any of you have ever attended a birthday party that Paulette throws for one of our kids you know that it is a well thought out, orchestrated event that is envied by other mothers everywhere. This year was no different except Paulette only had 50 weeks to plan instead of the neccessary 52 due to having it two weeks before Haydens actual birthday, not to mention the disturbance of pushing out a 9 lb baby. The birthday invitation was just as elaborate as any other year (think of the pirate party Dylan had with the really cool invitation in the bottle) and the party was bigger than ever thanks in part to more people moving in on our street. We all know you can't leave the kids on your own street off the invite list to the party of the year so that alone was 11 kids (not including our own), cousins add another 5 and contrary to popular believe we are not total hermits so we do have some friends with kids so there is another 5. Paulette's parties all require adult interaction so we had a mad house yesterday, the good part about it though is that we only have to do it once since we had one party for two kids.

The theme of the party was western so Paulette wanted to do something cowboyish. Leslie (Haines) and Gordon have some horses so we asked if they thought we could have the party at the place that they keep the horses but the lady who owns the property shuddered at the thought of having that many kids running wild on her property so we did the next best thing.

That's right, when you can't take the kids to the horse you bring the horse to the kids, even if it means having a full grown horse graze in your backyard for 5 hours. The kids absolutelly loved it though, I mean, why wouldn't they. How many times have you showed up to a birthday party at one of your friends houses and got to go on a horseback ride? There are now about 20 kids that don't have to answer "Never" to that question. In addition to horse back riding we had cattle roping (sorry, no real cows), stick horse races (Paulette found stick horses at the dollar store to give to each kid), a shooting gallery (we had to drink a lot of Root Beer to have the bottles for the kids to shoot) and bull riding.

These videos are too funny not to post. Enjoy!

We both thought things were going pretty well until we finally got to open presents which we tried to do like Christmas morning with everyone taking turns. That worked until they had each opened one and then Hayden proceeded to dig right in to all the rest of the presents while Dylan was too busy concentrating on what he had already opened. Paulette's mom was trying to keep track of who gave each kid what but we ended up asking each parent that was still here what they gave and the rest we asked tonight when the kids were all out playing.

Needless to say, everyone had a good time and Dylan and Hayden got more toys than they could have asked for.

Funny side story, we were going to Paulette's parents' house today for Kendra's birthday party (her real birthday was the day Ike hit). Hayden was pointing out to Dylan an airplane that he saw and said "Dylan, Dylan, see that airplane?" to which Dylan replied that he did. Hayden asked him if he knew where it was going and Dylan said that he didn't know. That was immediately followed up by Hayden telling Dylan "I know, it's going to WalMart."

Yes, we do still have a third child

Oh wait, that's not him! We found this bug in the grass in the front yard. Here's a picture of Kolton, sorry no videos, he's not that interesting yet. He sure is good looking though, he must take after his DAD. Obviously he is the only one besides me that is aware of this fact as you can see by his shirt.

More funny and/or cute pictures.

Hopeless was getting a bath and Mattie couldn't wait to have her turn. When it was her turn she wasn't so excited anymore.

Hayden being Hayden. He is standing on the counter top in the kitchen with his head in the void created where the two sets of cabinets meet. One day I just know he is going to figure out how to shimmy his way up through this hole and get onto the very top of the cabinets because that is where we put stuff when they are in trouble and we know they can't get to anything up there.

Sensitive side

2008-09-19T15:16:00.003-05:00

Yesterday Dylan showed me his sensitive side. The movie Air Bud was on The Disney Channel and for all of you who haven't seen the movie here is a short recap of what happens. A boy finds a dog and the dog's mean owner comes and takes him back. The boy goes and steals the dog back. He then forces the dog to be free so that the bad man can't come and take him back. Well, when that happened Dylan got up off the couch and drooped his head and started for the stairs. I said, "Dylan what's wrong?" He responded by running up to his bed and covering himself with a blanket. When I got up to him he was bawling his eyes out. I asked him if he wanted to come and watch the rest of the movie he said, "NO!! I don't like that movie!" I reassured him that the dog would probably come back and find the boy, but he wasn't hearing it. So, I gave him big reassuring hug and went down stairs to wait for the dog to come back to the boy. In the meantime, Dylan was sobbing loudly and very emotionally. I called him to come down when it was a happier part of the movie, and he did so reluctantly. Fortunately it was a happy ending and the boy got to keep the dog. It was all I could do not to giggle at him, but it was sooo sweet. Who knew my big boy was such a softy.

Plastic Plate

2008-09-16T22:01:00.004-05:00

This is what 375 degrees does to a plastic plate!! Just in case you were wondering. Before

After

(oops my bad)

Ike Day 4

2008-09-16T16:59:00.010-05:00

Well, we went home and had no electricity. Fortunately for us a cold front was coming through and so we decided that we would stay the night at home. We gave the boys a nice romantic snack and bath by flashlight,

and went to bed with the windows open just waiting for the cold front. We didn't know how hot or cold it would be so we dressed Kolton in cool jammies as opposed to the night before when it was sooo hot he had to sleep in only a diaper. It actually cooled off so much that I had to get up and close most of the windows. The weather men were saying that this is the most important cold front Houston has ever had; seeing as how 2.5 million people are without power.

We were praying that when we woke up there would be power, but no such luck. We did however wake to a beautiful day with quite a chill in the air (at least by Texas standards). Dustin got a call from some friends to come and help them remove the tree from their backyard. So, we headed over to the Zentz's house. When we arrived luckily for Dustin the tree was already done so we just hung out and enjoyed their company. Our kids love to go over there because they have 4 ginormous dogs.

Later we decided to go back to Dustin's work and the boys found ways to entertain themselves for several hours.

Later that day we went on a tour of our side of town to survey the damage. Come to find out the main road outside our neighborhood had major damage and power lines down; which would explain why we had no power.

We thought for sure that we would not be getting power for weeks, but then much to our surprise the lights came on Monday night at about 8 pm. We are very happy to have electricity.

Now life is pretty much back to normal for us, but they have canceled school for Dylan for the rest of the week. Which he is pretty bummed out about.

Hurricane Ike Day 2 & 3

2008-09-14T14:58:00.013-05:00

Well, we put the boys to bet about 9:30 on Friday night and we had not a lick of rain, but that would not last for long. The eye of the Hurricane came a shore at midnight and that was when we started to get the outer bands (1 1/2 hours a way) . We continued to get pound with sustained winds of 60-80 mph and wind gusts of up 116 mph and of course all the rain you could handle until 10 am on Saturday morning. The eye of the storm passed a few miles east of us so we stayed in the eye wall for a very long time and never got a break. Needless to say I didn't get very much sleep that night, but the boys (Dustin included) all slept just fine. The power went out at 3 am and has been out since. When the winds died down and we could look around a little we were quite pleased with what little damage our street had recieved.

We ventured outside just to get some relief from the stale air of the house.

We also went to a friends house to check on them. Leslie Zents (Haines).

The tree missed their master bedroom by about one foot, which they were alseep in. I guess the good Lord was looking out for them. Come to find out the rest of our neighborhood did not fair so well either. We decided that night that we should start to eat some of our food from the freezer so we ate a good meal (seriously) and took a walk to see what was going on.

That's a trampoline in the lake!

Dylan told us that night "This subdivision was such a perfect place...until the hurricane." We had a good laugh and tried to explain to him that things will start to look better soon but I am not sure how much he understood. When we got home we had another camp out in our bedroom. Dylan laid down and watched a movie on the Ipod, Dustin and I watch a movie on the portable DVD player (or atleast until the battery ran out), Hayden and Kolton fell fast asleep. We had a hot and muggy night.

Day 3

I awoke in the middle of the night to a big thunder storm and had to close the windows in our room because we were getting rained on. The house got hotter, but don't worry all the boys still slept just fine. When morning came we still had no electricity, and decided that we should eat as much breakfast as possible before it spoiled. We invited over some friends and ate like kings. We had a dozen eggs, a dozen and half pancakes, a pound of bacon, a couple containers of yogurt and a half a gallon of milk. We were soo full. We then found out that Dustin's work had power and we decided that we would take our food up there and store it. When we got there Dustin's boss had already beat us to it, but they have a comercial ice maker and we put our food in there. Now we are just sitting at his office allowing the kids to play, watching TV and surfing the web. Oh and most importantly enjoying the A/C. Perhaps the hightlight of our time at the office was Hayden having the mother of all accidents in his pants, which didn't stay there very long because we are trying to keep him in underwear as much as possible. I had to use the outside water house and spray him down, needless to say he is not in underwear (or pants) at the moment. He looks pretty funny running around in a diaper and a tshirt.

Obviously Kolton is enjoying himself too.

I supose in a couple of hours we will head home and pray we have electricity.

Hurricane Ike - Day 1

2008-09-12T20:40:00.007-05:00

So, how has our hurricane been so far? Today we wake up to bright blue skys and beautiful sunshine. We decided that we should clear out the backyard which was just fine with the boys, because that ment that the seesaw came INSIDE.

Then they went outside and rode bikes for a while.

We thought that it was best to save the food at our house in case we need it later (any excuse to eat out). So, we went out too lunch at our favorite pizza joint (Cici's) with some friends and ate ourselves into a stupor.

Then we thought it was best to let the boys get some energy out. So, we went to the neighborhood park and played for quite some time.

Hayden had a great time even though he pooped his pull-up and then sat in the swing for 20ish minutes proceeding to squish the poop up and out the back of his pants into the swing and onto the ground. Needless to say that made a big mess of him and put an end to our trip to the park. So, we went home and promptly gave Hayden a bath. The boys then proceeded to play outside for another 4 hours. Our block basically turned today into a hurricane block party!! It was a little cloudy, a little windy (which felt pretty nice), but not a lick of rain. YET. We did have a flicker of the power a few moments ago, though. We are expected to get 90 mph winds but we should just barely be on the clean side of the storm, which is good news for us. The boys are actually quite enjoying the whole thing. I mean what's not to like; no work for Daddy, playing with friends, out to lunch, more playing with friends, staying up late, watching movies movies movies (as long as we have power)and to top it all off a camp out on Mommy and Daddy's floor!!

yIKEs

2008-09-11T15:41:00.004-05:00

It looks like I spoke too soon yesterday and things have changed drastically. We are now in the direct path of Hurricane Ike, which is expected to make landfall late Friday night/early Saturday morning at a 3 or a 4 in strength. It is so crazy here many gas stations are out of gas, the stores are out of water, the shelves are bare and the lines still seem to be miles long. Schools are closed and so is Dustin's work. At least none of us will have to be out on the streets fighting the madness. So, please keep us in your prayers and we'll keep praying too.

What's up

2008-09-10T13:44:00.007-05:00

So, what have we been up to since the last blog? Well, Dylan has now been in school for 2 1/2 weeks, but I have a good story about the first day he took the bus to school. We waited outside for the bus and when it came Dylan hugged us all and happily got on the bus. The bus went down the street and all was not well. Hayden ran after the bus, chased it down the street and around the corner for quite a ways so I had to chase him down. When I finally got him to stop he just collapsed on the curb, cried his eyes out and refused to come back home. I had to carry him the whole way back. The neighbors who were outside got quite a kick out of it. Hayden proceeded to cry at home for another 30 minutes, all in all it was a pretty sad moment for me. Hayden has since learned to deal with the fact that Dylan is going to school, but he is so very excited to him when the bus comes in the afternoon.

I am sure that everyone who came to visit in August is wondering how "the hole" is coming? Well, Dustin is very proud of himself (I've never heard him brag so much). It is done, with NO outside intervention other than the neighbor routing the corners of the bottom board. The boys love it and everyone who comes over thinks it is the coolest thing ever.

It is now affectionately known as "the clubhouse".

So, what's going on nowadays in our lives... We are just praying that we get bypassed by all of the hurricanes that keep coming into the gulf. Which it looks like we will have another near miss this weekend. WHEW! Dylan is loving school and starting to become a little obsessed with gymnastics, Hayden is making great strides in the potty training area (3 days no accidents), and Kolton is growing bigger and smiling tons. Dustin is just trying to recover from all of the manual labor he did in the club house and I have just begun the obsessive process of planning the boys' birthday party and Halloween costumes. I know it is like a month away, but you know that it just has to be perfect.

Dylan's Big Day

2008-08-25T20:58:00.003-05:00

Well, Dylan started Kindergarten today and he was VERY excited. He was a little upset with me though, for taking him and not letting him ride the bus. In my defense I didn't have much choice, seeing as how I had to take all of his school supplies into his class since we didn't take them to meet the teacher day. He quickly got over that and was happy to get to ride the bus home. I left Hayden and Kolton at the neighbors house while I took Dylan to school and when I returned Hayden immediately asked me where Dylan was. I told him he was at school to which he quickly replied, "You HAVE to go pick Dylan up." I said, " No, he will come home later on the bus" so then Hayden proceeded to go and unlock the front door and TOLD me, "GO PICK DYLAN UP!" Well, he got over that shortly and was very excited to see Dylan when he arrived home later that afternoon on the bus.

And in other "BIG NEWS" Dylan's pet walking sticks have had babies! As of now the count is up to 14... no make that 18!! We will need to find a good home for most of them. Congratulations to Grandma and Grandpa Kline and Vanskike for becoming Great-Grandparents!

When it was all said and done we had 34 babies!!!

2 of the babies and the proud Papa?!