Road Trip....Continued

A week in the country, A week away from the routine, A week with family-it's good for the soul. However , it's not so good for the plants back home. Most of them did not survive, the ones that are not in reach of the sprinklers anyway. 

We started off our visit with watching my nieces dance recital. I haven't seen one in years. Now she is 16 and on the competitive team. I have no pictures of that to share, but take my word on it...she rocks! What a way to begin a family affair.

We spent most of the weekend in my sister's pool. It was just about too hot to do much of anything else. Connor is becoming quite the little fish. I had to make a Target run for some goggles. Colton held his own with the big boys (Connor and my 11 year old nephew). Christian preferred to be held or just quietly sit in the boat float. 

 Pops loves to fly his planes, in the yard and on the computer. This is always a hit with the boys. I hope they always remember doing this something special with their pops.

 Pops always gives the boys a remote, you know a "remote" that belongs to something else. He is flying the plane but they sure think they are! And have a great time doing it.

 Colton was doing flying the plane one evening out front with Pops and it crashed in the driveway. But Colton was watching a real airplane in the sky and was telling Pops "it's too high".

We also did lots of....

4 wheel riding

And snoozing

And lego building

 And visiting with Granny

And playing

And just in case the boys weren't obsessed with IPhone games

Thomas got them hooked on Angry Birds

And the sprinkler and water guns were a big hit

Christian didn't think so

 Such boys-nothing feels as good as water on the rear

And during our entire week here, we only saw this guy once. I joke about this to my sister because she is quite the QVC shopper, my mom too. So UPS makes delivery quite often. Soon, they will be setting him a dinner plate.

Overall the visit was fantastic. We did not see any deer, but pops did kill 2 snakes. And you're welcome for NOT posting those pictures.  The drive home was not quite as good as the ride there. Everyone was overly tired and extra cranky! But we did it, we survived. Now we are home, celebrating father's day with Daddy. We have swim lessons and tennis lessons this week, and I have a very dirty house to clean! Good times at Casa de Lenz!!


Happy Father's Day to all the daddy's out there!

Road Trip

We are here. Been here all week in fact. Leaving tomorrow actually. My power cord for my Mac died and it was several days before I got that taken care of. And we've been busy. I still have not caught up on other postings or uploaded my photos. One day soon, I promise, my friends. I know ya'll are checking everyday to see if I have done it!!

The boys did so much better than I thought on the drive here. It was my first drive here ALONE with the 3 boys. If Mark wasn't coming he has either driven me to Little Rock and then caught a flight or my parents have met me half way. But with no nursing baby I braved the trip alone.  And it wasn't so bad. So I hope I am not jinxing myself for tomorrow's return trip. I did not hear a peep out of Connor the entire 8 hours except "movies over, put in _____ now". How I love head phones! Colton played video games, watched movies, and told me every single time he had to pee. He made the entire road trip without an accident. We did pee on the side of the road several times though! Christian is not such a fan of being strapped down, certainly for any length of time. I had a bag of toys by me. I would hand him one toy at a time. When he would toss that one down to the floor, I handed over the next toy. When I stopped for Colton to pee, I would collect all the crap from the floor and reload my bag. And fruit snacks helped too. We are going to try the same routine on the way home.

Once arrived it has been family time! Lots of swimming in my sis's pool and lots of 4 wheeling. Even Christian's hooked. "Ca" (car) he says. The only problem is it's freaking HOT! We took the annual grandkid pictures of the kiddos for moms. Granny has made lots of yummy treats for us.....corn bread, banana pudding, lemon pie, pound cake. Needless to say, I have gained 5 freaking pounds. Serious vegies starting Sunday folks!

Not sure what's on the agenda for our last day today.....

Hope your week is going equally well!

Halloween and Family Time

Better late than never

Right?

We were invited to our first birthday party here in OKC

It was the Friday before Halloween

Costume Party 

of course

For our neighbor Charlie

He obviously does not live in our cul-de-sac

since he is 3

not 83

I had talked to my dad that morning and already decided

to head home on Saturday

So I had a million things on my mind

But did not want to miss the bash

 It was a weekday, morning party

Never been to one with that kind of time

It was great

Made a mental note that it worked well

 The kiddos decorated cookies and had pizza for lunch

We left a bit early to get Connor off to school

Met a few mom's

Did not get numbers though

I say this every time

But man, I need a pick up line or something

to score the digits

Got Connor off to school

Got the little ones napping

Got some laundry going

and then....

the phone rang

It was that call we all dread

caller: Hi is this Mrs. Lenzer

me: Yes

caller: Hi, this is so and so from Connor's school

He's had a little accident on the playground

HEART POUNDING

a million visions flash before my eyes in 2 seconds

caller: His nose is bleeding out of both sides and he won't stop crying, can you come 

me: On the way

So I literally grab the 2 sleepers from their beds and run to the car

Luckily we just live a couple of minutes from the school

I get there and toss the little boys into the stroller and rush in

to find my big boy sitting there with red eyes and and ice  pack on his nose

And tissue on the nostrils
looking so tiny in the big kid school

Just a bump

Nothing broken

THANK YOU GOD!

He fell on the playground

No ones really knows what happened

However he had a really nasty knot on the back of his head as well

As we were leaving the school office

His eyes welled up with tears again

He looked so frightened that I almost started to cry too

He was upset

Not about his nose or fall

But because he did not get to show his spider man for 

show and tell

So me

being the rock star mom that I am

Walked him directly to his classroom

for show and tell

Then I took my baby home for some TLC

We headed to Mississippi the next morning

Mark drove us, then flew home Sunday morning

The boys were concerned about missing trick or treat 

So I

still being the rock star mom that I am

promised to take them

Why not?

My parents live in the country now

but it's just a few miles from Collierville, TN

where I grew up

I can make this work right?

Connor did not want to be a Ninja Turtle though

I think he was having buyers remorse over his costume

He decided to wear his Buzz Lightyear pj's

Which meant Colton wanted to wear his Woody pj's

Hey...

those are easier to pack

We met up with my Tony and Shea
and their clan
Tony and Shea are my BIL's borther and SIL
I couldn't get my 2 to stand still long enough for a photo
And this was before the sugar high began

Their youngest
 Lola
 fell asleep while trick or treating
Literally
Went up to a door, got some candy
Came back to the wagon
And
was out
like a light
for the night

This house was the cutest
They had the outside all done up
Fog
Music
Spider webs and such
Plus these ghosts and a spider man
Made to look like trick or treaters
LOVED IT

Trick or treating was fun
Now I wish the candy would go
AWAY!!!!
GGRRRRRR

So I spent Saturday and Sunday with my mawmaw at the nursing home
On Monday my sister and I went in shifts
One being with mawmaw while the other stayed with our kids
On Thursday morning she passed away
We had a grave side service for her on Saturday
It was the hardest week of my life
wondering why
cherishing memories
But the family being together made it a little less painful
(if that is really possible)
Mark's support and strength helped more than he knows
(He flew back in on Friday night and then drove us home Sunday)
And all of your thoughts and prayers got me through

To Do List

We made it home from Mississippi last night

Safely

2 kids were already asleep

1 did not even get into pajamas

I managed to go through the catalogs and junk mail

and

Watch Brothers and Sisters

Before passing out

Today....back to work

The To Do List

Short term for today

-get off the computer

-make Colton's lunch

-take Colton to school

-return books to library

-take Connor to swim lessons

-try and work out while at the Y

-come home for lunch and reading time

-take Connor to school

-get Christian down for nap

-get laundry going

-take down the spiders and bats

-replace with turkeys

-pick Colton up from school

-pick Connor up from school

-work on laundry

-go to Connor's parent/teacher meeting

-go to grocery store

Long Term To Do List

-plan Thanksgiving

-plan Christian 1st birthday (just a family thing)....any ideas?

-plan Colton's 3rd birthday party, praying we have enough friends to invite

-get my Christmas act together

I would just like to say many thanks to everyone for their kind words, prayers, phone calls,& comments

It has been a very hard week with the loss of my mawmaw

And a hard holiday season lies ahead

I really am grateful for such good friends

Now....I am off to get started on that list

CHECK

MOTY

OR

Someone please call CPS

You be the judge

I mean look at those smiles

This can't be wrong

Right?

At least Connor has on a helmet

Safety first my friends

My dad has a hand on the back of this 4 wheeler

This one is my nephew's so it is a bit smaller

These (above) pictures were from last visit to my folks

 This one was pretend driving

It was so hot this past week, not much riding took place

But the rest of the visit was great

My parents met us half way on Sunday and took the big boys

Then Christian and I flew in Wednesday night

Mark met us half way again on the following Sunday to pick us up

And truth be told

we could have stayed another week

But my niece and nephew had to start school this week 

so home we went

Enjoy these photos from our visit....

Christian's first plane ride

He did great

He is always happy at moms and pops house

Moms and the big boys made several special treats

 in the kitchen

Had some sprinkler time

And did it country style too

Connor had put his clothes back on

but got back into the sprinkler

And Colton of course

took his off

It was so hot 

that when I would go outside

my camera lens would fog up

Pops and the big boys

(including my nephew Thomas)

would fly the airplane

Pops gave Connor an un-operable "bamote" control

Con had a blast flying

They ran themselves out after dinner as long as

a grownup could stand the heat

They all slept well every night

Moms and Colton did mani-pedis

I totally make him take off the polish before we headed back to OKC

Mark would not have found it so cute

Moms and Pops got lots of 2 on 1 time with Colton

Connor spent the night with Aunt Sissy most evenings

He is certainly not one of those kids that gets homesick

or misses his mamma 

(and yes it's mamma, that's what he calls me lately)

Granny and Christian

Me and Tommy

The best BIL EVER

All the grand kids