Hockey and Pirates

I'm pretty sure that the only things Matthew thinks about these days are hockey and pirates. The Hockey is a given - how can you not love hockey when your Daddy is Kurt. The pirates are a revisit from the past. He has several pirate figures, but Aunt Kim gave him a gift certificate to a toy store and he picked out this huge pirate ship - that floats and everything!!!! Here are some pictures of his favorite things to do lately.

Updates

So much has gone on since my last post....

Matthew's 5th birthday party. We had it a Inflatable Wonderland at Lakeline Mall. He had a great time. The only thing that went wrong was the cake. The place I ALWAYS go couldn't do it because they had too many weddings. So off I went to find a bakery that could do a kid's cake. Well, I had the hardest time. I didn't want to go to Lucy's because I've heard such bad things lately. All In One Bakery referred me to Russell's, who couldn't do it either because of weddings - what the hell - who knew October was a popular month for weddings. I finally found 620 Cafe & Bakery. Well the cake was crappy. First it looked like a 12 year old decorated it. Then when we cut into it, it didn't have a filling. I am so upset about the whole ordeal, I'm SERIOUSLY considering taking some cake decorating courses and learning how to make cakes for myself and anyone else who is upset about the bakery situation in Austin. Nevertheless, Matthew didn't realize anything was wrong - he had a great time.



Sam had his first school field trip to a pumpkin patch.

The boys found another use of corn dogs sticks, once the corn dog has been consumed.


Matthew got to skate at an Ice Bats game during the period. He was so cute. Can you say hockey players are cute? Well, he was. They skated for about 5 minutes and during that time he was able to break away to skate along the boards to wave at the crowd. Always the performer. This was the only picture I got because my batteries went dead. I did get video, which is way more important.


And of course, Halloween. First we carved pumpkins. That is way overrated. I had to dig everything out myself. The boys didn't want to touch any of the yucky stuff. But they loved helping me cut them out. Matthew had to have a scary face and Sam wanted a happy face.


Then, we had a Halloween parade and singing performance at school.



And Trick or Treating and hanging out with the neighbor's for our Annual Halloween Party. Our neighborhood is so hilly, everyone in the cul-de-sac and next door comes over to our house to pass out candy, drink, eat, and have fun hanging out. The boys had so much fun trick or treating. Sam figured out real quick what was going on and raced to each house, saying trick or treat as soon as we got to the driveway, then saying thank you all the way back to the street after he was given candy.




Ok, I'm up to date as much as I can at this point. I already have some more pictures in my camera, so hopefully, I'll get those out asap and get back to blogger on a more frequent basis. Since this post took me about an hour, I WILL post more often.

Busy, Busy, Busy

I am just running around like a crazy person, getting everything ready for Matthew's birthday. Mostly because I'm trying to get everything done when one or both of them are in school. Then on Tuesday, they don't have school - Teacher Work day! Well, I got almost everything done today and also met Kurt for lunch - at Costco!!! Hey, don't knock their $1.50 hot dog deal until you try it. I was actually at Costco picking up some pictures when Kurt called me. Wow what a hot date - can't get much past him.

Now, I've just finished cleaning the house for the weekend, so hopefully, the boys (all of them) won't mess it up too much before the weekend. I also have a girlfriend and her two boys visiting from Katy on Friday. This is a very special friend because her two boys are from Russia also. In fact, we were in Moscow at the same time for our 2nd sons. So I'm doing nothing but playing on Friday. I also cleaned tonight so that I can go to lunch with Kurt - alone - on a weekday - what a concept, have I moved to another planet?

I'm also trying to get ready for Halloween without running around like crazy. I made up these cards for the boys classmates. I'm going to punch holes in them and stick a lollipop in them.


Last, you wonder what I've done with my children when I'm running around like a mad woman at home. Well, Matthew's new favorite thing is to play the games on nickjr. And Sam will color for what seems like hours. This is a time when they can be so sweet!!!

Work Day

Woke up this morning to the phone ringing. Sam's teacher had a sick child at home and needed me to sub. It was my first time to sub all day. It was actually fun, but there is no way I would want to have 12 - 2 year olds with me at home. Unfortunately, Sam was the worse one of them all. I spoke to his teacher after class and asked if he is always that wild. She said no, he was wilder than usually. I hope she is telling me the truth. I don't want to have THAT kid. Sam is a wild one, I just hope what I do teach him at home shines when he is with others.

The boys did have their first sleep over this weekend. We had some friends/neighbors that we traded off babysitting. It was funny, we were both going to the same place The Belmont, (a great restaurant/bar in the warehouse district that a good friend of ours just opened) they went on Friday, us on Saturday. So it worked out great, neither of us had to pay $70. just for a babysitter.

The only scrapbooking I've done lately is Matthew's birthday invite. I've gotten some really good feedback on it and of course, Kurt thinks I should do them for hire. But honestly I don't know where to start. I think I might make up some Christmas cards and send them to friends/family and see if they would like for me to do there cards. Any feedback from anyone?

Well, here is Matthew's invite.....

Pics

Here are the pictures I promised of what has been going on in the Wild Wagner house....

You make a mess, you clean it up yourself....
Sam decided to empty all his goldfish out of the bowl and smash them with his hand. Do you think it is child labor if you make a 2 year old use the vacuum cleaner?

Found a new piece of ice to play with the hockey guys!!!
A beautiful rainbow outside after there was NO rain that fell at our house.
New books from Nannie & Pa. One of our favorite things to do, read in bed!!!!
That's about it. Even the camera has taken a break lately.

Bad, Bad Blogger

Ok. Yes, I'm still here. I just haven't taken the time to write anything down. Not that we have been exceptionally busy. I've just been exceptionally busy with things. I have a ton to do and don't want to do any of them. About the only thing I have been doing is running. Or I should say trying to run! I am training to do a 5K in our neighborhood at the end of October. Kurt and I are going to run it. Well, Kurt is going to run the entire thing. I'm training using a guide called 9 weeks from the couch to 5K. I've been training for 2 weeks and I won't be finished with the 9 weeks before the race, so Kurt is either going to have to kick my ass into gear on race day, or I'm going to have to walk. I really DON'T want to walk. I want to be able to run, but we shall see.

Other than that not much else has happened. I have nearly a dozen projects I want to do, but can't motivate myself to get going.
1. Paint and set up Sam's old room to Guest room with new linens.
2. Paint boys bathroom and set up with new towels, shower curtain, and decorative items.
3. Plant some Fall flowers in pots for front stoop since the temperature has reached below 100 degrees everyday.
4. Sell some stuff on Craig's list
5. PAY BILLS
6. Get carpets and window cleaned
7. Do some weeding in the backyard.
8. Make Matthew's birthday invites and get everything together for the party.
9. Work on the preschool Gala.
10. Oh, crap. I'm stopping now you get it I want to do a ton of stuff in the little time I have to myself.

I have done some things that I am proud of lately. I was a substitute teacher at the preschool twice, I have lost 5 pounds, actually took time to PLAY with the boys, going to church, and had a date night!!! Oh, let me throw in I've also been reading some books. My girlfriend, Sarah, has got me stuck on Nora Roberts. So when I read, I am soooooo slow. So nothing gets done!!!!! Just finished one tonight, Blue Smoke. It was really good. So I guess I gotta hit my to do list hard this weekend. Maybe I could pawn some of them onto Kurt's Honey Do!!!!

I do have a ton of pictures in my camera, I'll try to get those off the camera, into my computer, and onto the blog. Well, hang in there with me. I'll keep you posted with my life once I get back to it!!!

So much going on....

Where do I start? So much has gone on in the past few days, let's start with the most uneventful - a new scrapbook page. Another contest I didn't win, but again I think it's awesome. I'm beginning to think I'm the only one who thinks my pages are good.

This is another layout I got done late Monday night.
Now to the more important stuff......The first day of school. It was Sam's first day of preschool and he did great. Just a little sadness when I left. And of course, he was super excited to see me when I picked him up. Matthew of course was great, he barely said goodbye to me. I'm happy that he doesn't have any trouble with staying anywhere without me, but he could be a little sad sometimes to make me feel better. I guess that is just the beginning of them becoming independent. Here are a few shots. We didn't get to take any outside - it was raining!




And this is why Kurt thinks I'm too anal about things...ok...the kids needed to have their name on their lunchboxes, I didn't just want to write them with a marker, so behold a custom, laminated name tag. Hey, at least I didn't stamp some cute thing on it!!!! But the colors do match each backpack - sorry.
And last, the most important thing - Sam's Gotcha Day. I can't believe it has been a year since he was given to us. A year since I cried so hard I thought I would die because we didn't know if we were going to bring him home or not. A year ago we sat in Russia praying that Hurricane Katrina would not hit my parent's house where all of my family is and where Matthew was staying. A year ago that everything did work out and we were granted the second greatest things that has ever happened in our lives. I guess it has been a long year, but I can't believe what a wonderful boy he is turning into. He is really coming along. He is a great helper and cares so much when someone isn't feeling well. I knew that I would love him, but as with Matthew I really can't believe how much I love them, and can't even believe that they are not out of my own body. Kurt says that Sam is just like me, which I find so amazing. It just further proves the point of nature vs. nurture. So here is to you Sam, we love you and are so unbelievably happy that you are part of our family....forever!!!!

We celebrated by having dinner, opening Sam's presents, and a cake. We didn't make it to the cake because we went outside to test out his new scooter and ended up hanging out with the neighbors. Flash to an hour later, 8pm, 2 skinned knees and a bloody toe, we came inside, cleaned up the scraps and straight to bed. We will dive into the cake tomorrow, maybe he can have some for breakfast!!!


I think that is it for now. A few other cute things occurred in the Wagner house, but I'm let you know later, I'm too tired and need to go to bed.....Good Night!

Wasted Weekend

What do you do on a great 3 day weekend? Well, in the Wagner household we did NOTHING. Not really on purpose, it just turned out that way. Kurt caught what Sam had last week and it was 10x worse. He was laid out in bed, then didn't fell well enough to do anything else. So, basically I scraped all weekend. I was working on one last page, but my computer puked out while I was trying to save a page in progress and lost what I had, so that was it.

I was semi-productive today. We are back in school mode. The boys start preschool tomorrow. I think I am WAY more excited than they are. I know I will only have 8 hours a week to myself and most of that time will be spent on things for everyone else. I have to think that if I want to get a pedicure or sit in Starbuck's staring at the walls I CAN!!!!! It is 8pm here, the boys are watching one show before bed, the house is clean, lunches made, clothes set out for tomorrow, and I am relaxing and posting. Ahhhhh, I love schooltime.

I have to start some other projects around the house so I don't know how much scrapping I'll get done. I have to work on Sam's Christmas stocking and a few room painting projects. Hope everyone else had more of a productive weekend that us!

Devil to Angel

Just when I think my boys are the devil, they turn around and surprise me by being perfect angels. Yesterday was the day from hell. We had crying and whining ALL DAY LONG. Got told I was hated and I was stupid. Privileges taken away. And time out. Nothing seemed to work. The only quite I got was from a 2 hour nap by both of them Once Daddy got home, I escaped to Target for a break.

Flash to today. Had to take Sam back to the Dr. to check him out. He is fine. Then I took the kids to Central Market for some lunch, playtime, and shopping. They were great! Granted I did threaten them within an inch of their lives, but whatever, it worked. Now as Matthew plays quietly with his train and Sam is asleep, it seems order is restored to the Wagner household. Shhhhhh, I shouldn't say that too loud. Now the only thing that would make my day perfect is for hubby to NOT have to work late as previously expected and for me to make it to Preshool Mom's Night Out.

I did get on layout done yesterday during naptime. It was a monochromatic for a chat at Two Peas in a Bucket - I didn't win, but I thought it was pretty good!!!

Kit: DigiArtchick, Rock Star
Font: DaFont, Junko's typewriter
Effect: Atomic Cupcake, chipboard

Loooong day

Well, I'm happy to say it is 9:30pm and I am about to go to sleep. Sam has not been feeling well for almost a week now - fever, diarrhea, diaper rash, and the a huge fall in the tub last night. We were getting ready to get into the tub and he just t-boned the edge with his stomach. He immediately complained of pain and stopped soon after. Well, he then began complaining about every 3 hours, EVERY 3 HOURS. And when I say complaining, I mean crying uncontrollably. At about 2 am, we were almost ready to take him to the emergency room. But opted not to since he was calming down. After waking up from my night time naps, I made the biggest mistake. I tried to look in the internet to figure out what was going on. BIG MISTAKE. I totally freaked out at what I found - everything from constipation to intestinal blockage. Needless to say I took him to the Dr. - everything is fine - he has a viral infection!!! Where as I'm glad it was nothing, I just hate it when the Dr. tells us that. "OK, give me your co-pay and take your son home and let him suffer for 7-10 days!!!!" As for his stomach, it could be gas from the viral infection or pain from his fall, which ever it is, he is ok from his fall.

Well, I can't even believe that I got two layouts done today but I didn't fell like doing too much but sitting around. The kit used is from Atomic Cupcake, Fries with That.

This kit is from Two Peas in a Bucket, annelangpap.

Scrapin' the night away

I've been at the monthly Steiner scrap night and these are the fruit of my labor....

Lazy Summer Days

We actually had a great day yesterday, or I should say I did. We did NOTHING. Well, the boys did nothing, I washed 4 loads of laundry, ironed, cleaned 3 bathrooms, got to exercise without interrupting, and stained a mirror I've been wanted to stain forever. The mirror was Kurt's grandmother's as well as the table I have below it. The mirror was a lighter color, I want to always keep these pieces together, so they HAD to match. What 'cha think?

Then I was able to fill out some paperwork for activities and school for the boys. I even listed several pairs of shoes the boys have outgrown on Craig's list. Have I told you Kurt and I are obsessed with Craig's list.

Side note: You have heard that we are all separated by anyone by six degrees? I was talking to a girlfriend and she has a friend that actually knows Craig!! Cool! And that is only 4 degrees.

Anyway, now I bet you are wondering how I did it all? My mom and dad's guess is that the boys were locked in a closet! Nope. Sam actually wasn't feeling very well, he had a slight fever, 100.8 and just laid around all day and Matthew would be happy watching TV and playing all day. Then Sam went down for a 4, yes FOUR, hour nap. During that 4 hours, Matthew fell asleep for 1 1/2 hours - I was in heaven. Amazing what I get so giddy about!!! Well there you go. That was our day!!

It's been too long

I can't believe it has been so long since I blogged, but wee have had a crazy 3 weeks.

First we went to Sea World with Nannie & Paw (my parents), Vicki, Jerry, Darian, Jordan, and Nicki. Kurt and Marty had to stay at home to work :(



From San Antonio, we went to Jones Creek for 2 weeks, playing and having fun with the cousins and grandparents. We swam, played at McDonald's, a playscape at the Mall, & a soccer arena. We also got to celebrate Paw's birthday!

Then we got home - 3 days later we had our roof replaced, from damage from a hail storm. Then the same day our A/C goes out. The hottest week of the year and now A/C. So we packed our bags again and headed for Grandma's. We were there for a week and come to find out the roofers put a hole in one of our A/C lines. Well, we finally get back home and we had to hit the lake!!!!

Matthew's new game of smack the booty!

Sam, trying to copy Matthew.
Muscle Beach....
Exhausted at the end of the day.....Yep, they are asleep!!

And last, but not least, the only scrapbooking I have done in the past 3 weeks was Jordan's birthday card.