The Traveling Duo

Summertime, and the livin's easy.

This past week, MM and PP were in town for a week and upon their return to SC, they were bringing P and J back with them on their first plane ride. There were a few reasons for this adventure, the main one was so they didn’t have to ride in the car for 12+ hours on the way up to NC/SC next week. We are headed to Mimi and Uncle Jack’s house for Bryan and Tiffany’s wedding weekend extravaganza and would like to get there in one day (so I don’t burn through that much vacation time). We traveled with Owen around this age (16 months) and it wasn’t too pretty, so we thought having MM and PP take them back to SC for a week would be awesome, plus we are getting some quality alone time with O.

The mornings have been really weird only having to get one little guy up, changed/potty time, and fed. We miss Parker and Jack but were able to chat with them last night via Skype so that was nice. I think Owen kinda missed all the usual excitement (noise) in the house. As soon as everyone was dropped off at the airport, Owen asked us in a super sad tone: "Where brothers going? Where brothers going?" I'm pretty sure Jen lost whatever she had left when he said that.

MM is doing a great job with texts and pictures letting us know what they are doing, who they are visiting, and what they are being fed. Somehow, we didn’t get a pic of Jack covered in Desitin (again) and having to call Poison Control (again)…hey, I guess it happens to everyone. It looks like they are having fun, and I am sure that MM and PP are getting exhausted. Check out MawMaw’s recent status update on Facebook – “Joanne Spachman Rivel wants to take a moment to salute my daughters-in-law and our wonderful sons - and all young parents who juggle kids and make it look easy. I'm taking a nap now.” I guess that sums it up…

We are definitely enjoying the alone time with Owen, but we miss our guys and can’t wait to see them in a few days.

Sidenote: How did parents leave their kids before there was technology to know what was going on every second of every day? Between picture messages, video chats, texts, and Facebook updates, it would seem really weird if we had to pick up the phone to know what our kids were doing. I know, I'm a nerd.

Juban’s

To celebrate our 4 year anniversary, Jen and I went to have dinner at Juban’s and had Dave wait on us. We haven’t been in a long time (for my 22nd or 23rd birthday I think) but it was fantastic and even better than I remembered. We got an oyster appetizer that was phenomenal, Jen ordered BBQ Crawfish and I got the Hallelujah Crab. I should have taken a picture of it because it just looks cool (update: pic on their website). It was an awesome meal, followed by Bananas Foster Cheesecake for dessert and a cup of coffee (can I go anywhere without getting a cup??).

A lot has changed in the past four years, but I am still married to my best friend who has brought me 3 (almost 4) beautiful children and a wonderful life. Our wedding day was one of the best times in my life and I would have never guessed that everything would have turned out this way so far, but I am so blessed that it has. I can’t thank Jen enough for being the best wife, mother and best friend that anyone could ever ask for. I love you Momma.

Finally!

After a long and treacherous journey, our little guys are FINALLY walking. They have been pulling up on furniture since about 9+ months, cruising at 10+ months and quite frankly, have been a bit too lazy to take those real steps on their own. Last month, they started to move back and forth between the coffee table and couch and were growing a bit braver as every day passed. Over the past two weeks, they have been venturing further and further and now both Parker and Jack have taken those first steps were they didn’t have a real end point they were trying to reach, they are just walking to walk.

You would think, with two of them, and having to fight each other to be picked up, they would have walked sooner than most. I guess that it just goes to show you that each child is different (even though they have reached milestones relatively close to one another). Owen was walking around 13 months, but I feel that we were a bit more encouraging and focused with one child, as opposed to 3 children when P/J came along, we were/are just trying to survive. Again, Parents of the Year...sorry guys!!

One thing that is very different with #2 and #3 is that you have to watch out for #1 trying to tackle/hug/trip/push #2 and #3. With only Owen, we were just worried about him losing his balance on his own and now we have to watch for a 2.5 year old that is constantly roaming the house running circles around his little brothers. I am just chalking this up to brotherly love and figure they will have to get used to the power struggle for attention in our house.

It is fun to see Parker and Jack growing up and I am sure that soon they will all be running around the house. I know it will be a little bit of an adjustment with 3 very mobile boys, but I can’t wait to be running around the backyard playing chase with all 3 of them.

One Year Photos

Ok, they were a little more than one year, but since Parker and Jack were sick for the two months around their birthdays, we made some adjustments and went at 14 months.

We had Owen’s newborn and 1 year pics, and the twin’s newborn pics done with Kimberly Meng Photography so we ventured back to Denham Springs to get some more pics done. Kim is awesome and we love how these turned out. Originally, I was caught off guard when Jen asked to go to her for the first set of pics and I saw her prices. I am all about paying for quality and I really understand that there is a lot that goes into taking pictures, but the thought of spending that much money with no guarantee of how a newborn/one year old is going to act, it is a lot to commit to. I have to look at it as an investment in capturing my children’s childhood, but maybe that is just me rationalizing again...

Needless to say, we have loved ALL of Kim’s pictures and we cherish being able to have these pictures of our guys at such a young age. I have recommended Kim’s work to everyone here in BR and I hope that they are as happy with her as we have been. She has scored a small fortune off of our clan and we plan to go back to her in August with Quatro. Kim has even put up pics of the twins in the front window of her studio!!

To view all of the pictures, log on to http://www.kimberlymengphotography.com/ and click on clients and enter the password connison.

Since I don’t want to leave out my friend Kristy, if you are in the Slidell.NOLA area, check her out her photography skills at http://www.kristysilbernagel.com/. She was just too busy (and far) to fit us in, but her pics are great as well!!

Too many monkeys jumping in the bed

Recently, we have been putting all the guys down for bed around the same time ~ 7:00p, so we will read to all of them at the same time. They are way too mobile to sit in our laps or lay on the floor to read books so we put Parker and Jack into Jack's bed and read them their books. They get so excited at certain parts of each book and they giggle and jump up and down while holding onto the railing. Owen wants to get in on the fun so we will put him in there too and he laughs just as much jumping around. We have only had a few slight knocks of chins and heads, but it is really cute especially when they lay down and crawl all over each other. I know we should probably start splitting them up before someone gets hurt but they seem to have so much fun before they go down for the night.

Why you called me for?

Look at this angel face...

This phrase has been in Owen's vocabulary for a couple of weeks now and we can't seem to break him of it yet. We have been really working on manners lately with "please" and "thank you" and he has started to use "can I may please have some _____." He is just getting the hang of it...

Owen will run in from another room after we call him and responds with "Why you called me for" as if he was annoyed because we interrupted his playtime with his brothers. This usually occurs after a series of yells from Parker or Jack. It isn't the most polite phrase, but it is funny because he knows we are calling him.

Kelly's Kids Warehouse Sale

Since clothing 3 (almost 4) children isn’t necessarily the cheapest thing in the world, Jen has become a master at finding a deal on the boys clothes. It “only makes sense” to spend $X.XX amount of dollars if she got a good deal. Sure it does Jen, sure it does…

This past weekend, Jen had the opportunity to attend a "pre-sale sale" for Kellys’ Kids. What the heck is that? Well, Jen’s cousin Katie, has a cousin whose husband bought a business from his mom and sister named Kelly…confused yet? I am and I know what I’m talking about. Anyway, this business is called Kelly’s Kids and they sell kids clothes. Twice a year, they have a warehouse sale where they allow a bunch of crazed women (and men I guess) into their warehouse to ravage their shelves for all things $5.99. So Jen was put “on the list” and somehow conned Emily to go with her (and all the kiddos) to Natchez, MS to get into there before the general public. A 2 hour drive and 20+ items later, Jen emerged successful from her conquest. Seriously, she wanted me to call in sick to work so she could go, but she was able to somehow bribe Emily into accompanying her. The clothes are real quality and of course Jen is an expert outfit-picker-outer so the dudes will be dressed to the nines.

Antoinette was busy with her last day of school on Friday so she was unable to make it to the pre-sale sale. The Melerines came up to BR and the ladies hopped back in the car and went back to Natchez to join the general public while Vincent and I stayed home to watch the kids. A few hours later, both Antoinette and Jen arrived back home each with 20+ items (for those of you that are counting, that is over 40 items and about 8 hours in the car for Connisonville). They came back with stories of crazed shoppers that were tossing clothes from here to there and pulling and arguing over shirts, etc. They actually were in line on Saturday morning complete with tailgate tents and coolers to wait for the doors to open at nine. Those people are crazy, it’s as simple as that.

Jen was diligent in making sure that she was buying stuff that Owen could wear today, and Parker and Jack would be able to wear next summer. Depending on what pops out on August 20th, this might have been a super successful trip to Natchez. With 40 items purchased at $5.99, it is still a lot of money, but the retail value of all of these things is worth approximately $30-50 a piece, meaning….We won’t be buying anything from Kelly’s kids at retail price when we can go to the sale!!!

Needless to say, in 6 months, Daddy has been instructed to take off of work that day so Jen can “save money.” I just have to love that woman and her ability to rationalize bargain shop.