Happy birthday to me

What a horrible picture! But it's the best I could do - and Bud insisted on taking it. Ugh! I went to the doctor on Monday, Sept 21st because I didn't feel well. The doc thought I might have the flu, did a flu test and sent it to the lab, put me on Tamiflu and told me to stay home from work for 2 days. So I did....doctor's orders. I took the Tamiflu and never started feeling better, actually started to feel worse and running a fever. Each day I called the doctor for the flu test results, but they weren't back yet.

Wednesday was my birthday and I felt pretty bad. I was really sad too because I hadn't held either of the boys in two days and I missed them. I cried off and on all day long. :( But the boys tried to cheer me up. When they got home, they had brought me a cake, flowers and a gift. That was very nice. I made dinner, then opened my gift (gift card to Hobby Lobby - my favorite store, and a bottle of perfume), and had some cake. Again, Bud insisted on taking this photo...pajamas, messy hair, no makeup. Nice. Real nice.

Well I got my results on Thursday and it was negative! Great! I didn't have the flu. The downside? I'd been taking medicine for 3 days to treat something I didn't have. By then I had developed a pretty nasty cough, so he put me on an antibiotic because they figured I had an upper respiratory infection or something and needed to prevent bronchitis and pneumonia. That would be a great birthday present! LOL.

So on Saturday, Bud really compensated. We left the kids with Jane and Chester for the night and went to an early movie. We saw Love Happens which was pretty good, then he caved and took me to a really nice dinner at The Melting Pot. I say he "caved" because he did not want to go there - he was afraid he wouldn't get enough to eat. (That's always his biggest fear when trying somewhere new.) Kelli and Stacie had gotten to him -- telling him that I really wanted to go there, and finally convincing him. He decided that if that's where I wanted to go for my birthday, then that's where we should go. Yay! The Melting Pot was awesome. We had so much fun. We really enjoyed each other's company, and the food was excellent. It was the first time Bud has ever tried lobster....and....he loved it. He said it was his favorite thing on the plate - over steak, chicken and sausage. So proud of Bud for trying something new.

So it turned out to be a really nice, relaxing dinner. And as much as we love our kids, it was nice to not have to worry about eating as fast as we could, before food started flying across the table, or Ryan tried crawling out of his high chair. Haha! Our crazy little life.

This is what LIFE is all about

Sometimes I get so stressed out and bogged down in the daily grind that it's easy to forget about why I'm here, my purpose in life. It's moments like these that I stop and remember. I'm here for them...my boys. This is what God put me here for. He created me to be the best mom I can be for my two little guys.

Life with a 3 1/2 year old and a 15 month old can be rough at times. They're so full of energy, into everything, and they never stop. Luckily they both sleep well at night so I get those few hours to rest. Haha! Sometimes I just feel so drained and start to run low on patience, and at times, I feel like it can be too much. But then we have really great, simple but perfect moments like this, and everything fades into the background, and all I can do is smile. They make me smile.

It's a..........BOY!

Finally! After almost 9 months of waiting, Stacie and Beau had their baby. And it's a boy! They named him Brooks Anderson and he's so adorable. He has a perfectly round little head full of dark blonde hair, a cute little nose that's slightly turned up like Stacie's, and full pouty little lips. He's so pretty that he's already been mistaken for a baby girl.



Stacie had been having trouble with high blood pressure over the last couple of months and when she went in for her doctor's appt on 9/29, he admitted her to Labor & Delivery. He said if she hadn't eaten breakfast that day, he would have done the c-section right then and there. Instead, he kept her overnight and scheduled the c-section for 7:30am the following day, September 30th. Little Brooks wasn't due until my dad's birthday, which is October 18th, so at 2 1/2 weeks early, we were all a bit nervous. No need though...he was born a strong and healthy 7 lbs 12 oz, and 19 inches long. Adorable.

The morning he was born, we rushed to the hospital. We left the house around 6:40am because we wanted to be there by about 7:15 so we wouldn't take any chances on missing the big announcement (Beau and Stacie didn't know what sex the baby was). Well, Bud and I had a little miscommunication (that's too long and pointless to include here) and ended up taking a long and traffic-congested route to the hospital. Very bad decision. That was one of the most stressful hour-long drives ever. We finally made it into the parking lot at about 7:50. We were so scared that we were going to be too late.

Bud literally threw the truck into park, he grabbed JD and I grabbed Ryan, and we ran to the waiting area. We arrived, breathless and frustrated, but we at least we didn't miss anything. We sat there for about 1/2 an hour before we got the....phone call?! Phone call?! Yep, that's right, Beau called in the birth. We couldn't believe it. As many births as he's attended, he should know you don't call it in. But he did. He called Bud and told him that they were in the recovery room and everyone was fine. There was no nurse with them, Stacie was shaking too bad (from the meds) to hold the baby, and there was nowhere to put the baby. So we had to wait. We still didn't know if it was a boy or a girl. But the feeling in the room was pretty strong that it was a girl. Why? Because we found out that the night before a nurse was checking on Stacie and said "so what are you going to name your little girl?" She said "we don't know if we're having a little girl" and the nurse said "oh, I must have confused you with the woman next door." At the point, Stacie thought that the nurse had blown it for them....9 months of waiting to find out, then the nurse slipped the night before. Ugh! So everyone was sure it was a girl.

Anyway, so Beau said he'd be out as soon as he could. About 5 minutes later, the door unlocked, so I quickly turned my camera on, then the door opened and out walked a man in scrubs, and...."Click!" I took the first picture of the new daddy....only it wasn't our daddy. It was the daddy of the baby girl that the nurse had been referring to. He walked by, held his arms out to side, and said "do you want another picture?" and laughed as he walked over to tell his family it was a baby girl.

This is the guy I thought was Beau.




A few minutes later, out came Beau. I got a picture of him too. He came out and we all just stared, but he still didn't say anything. Everyone was asking him to spill the beans. Instead, he asked JD to help him out. JD walked over to him and Beau said "so what do you think we're having - a boy or girl?" JD said "a girl!" and Beau said "well, you're wrong." The whole place came alive, everyone started screaming, and JD ran off crying. It scared him to death. Poor little guy.

So excited that we've got another little boy. Surprised too because we really thought that nurse had let the cat out of the bag. Either way, we would have been so happy. But now that he's here, I couldn't be happier. JD, Ryan and Brooks are gonna have so much fun together.

So after all the initial excitement, two by two, we went back to meet little Baby Brooks and congratulate Stacie. He's just precious.

Baby Shower

On Sunday, Sept 13th, I threw a baby shower for my sister-in-law, Stacie. She is due October 18th and we're not sure if she's having a boy or girl...so exciting! I think it's a boy....today. I keep going back and forth. They'll probably end up having a really easy-going, laid back little girl. Haha. Then they'll really think that our kids are crazy.

Anyway, the baby shower turned out very nice. I did it at Apple Annie's Tea Room - it was perfect for a baby shower. About 20 or so of her friends came and she got lots of nice stuff from everyone. We played a fun question game where the guests had to try to figure out the answers that Beau and Stacie gave to several different questions. I asked them the questions a couple weeks ahead of time - they didn't know how the other person had answered either, so it was a lot of fun revealing those answers...especially revealing Beau's answers to Stacie.

On a last-minute whim, I decided to play the toilet paper game where you have to guess how much toilet paper it would take to go around Stacie's belly. Since I hadn't planned to play that game, I didn't have toilet paper. Kelli and Amber are such good sports -- they went to the bathroom and swiped a couple of rolls. (It's great having little sisters! Haha!) Stacie's friend Aly got the closest - she was off by about 1 inch!

Then we played Baby Bingo. I printed bingo cards and as Stacie opened her gifts, the guests would cross off the items she received. We played that game until we ran out of prizes. Everyone really enjoyed that game and even continued to play after the prizes were gone. It was great too, because everyone really paid close attention to what gifts Stacie was opening.




I also hand made this book and titled it "A Mother's Advice." I wrote a poem and put it on the inside cover, then passed it around as guests were arriving and had them write a small note of advice for the mother-to-be. I really like how it turned out. I hope she liked it too. She didn't have time to look at it closely during the shower, so I hope she took some time to look through it after she got home.

Anyway....the baby shower was a success!

The Circus

This weekend we went to the circus...yes, a different circus than the one that's at my house everyday. We went to the Shriner Circus. Chester, Bud's dad (aka: Bada), is a Shriner so he gets us tickets every year. We sat on the 2nd row from the floor...great seats. Last year we actually sat in the front row and Bud and Beau became part of the circus. Yep, they were selected by one of the clowns to participate in his act. They had to try to throw the clown's hat across the arena to make it land on his head. The clown really teased Beau about not having enough muscle to make it all the way across. It was really funny! Bud always wanted to join the circus, so I guess he got his 5 minutes of circus fame!

So this year was JD's 3rd circus and Ryan's 1st one. They both really seemed to enjoy it, but I'm not sure what Ryan liked more -- the circus acts or the popcorn!!! Man that kid can put the popcorn away. Just like his big brother.



Kelli and Timothy went with us. Jason and Ashton couldn't make it because Ashton had his first Select Baseball practice during the same time. We all had a really good time, except one fun-killing moment...during intermission Bud took JD and Timothy to go jump in the moon bounce. Of course, we should have known that it would be a screaming nightmare when it came time to get out. And it was! Luckily, I wasn't on duty for that (I was in the bathroom). Daddy got that job....he was not in a very good mood afterwards, that's all I will say.

From what I could tell, Ryan's favorite part of the circus was the trapeze act -- people swinging and flying through the air right in front of us. JD's favorite part is when they shoot the guy out of the cannon at the end. He waits the entire 3 hours for that part... and it only lasts about .7 seconds. I tried to get a picture, but it didn't turn out.

After the circus and went to eat at the Little Red Barn. It didn't take long for the Blair family to return to our own personal family circus! LOL!

Car Reaction

"Car Reaction"...that's what JD calls it. On Wed, August 26th (Ryan's 14 month birthday), we were involved in a car accident. I had the two boys in the car with me and I was heading to town to drop the kids off with Jane so I could go to work. A car turned left in front of me as I was entering the intersection, so I had no time to react or even hit the brakes. I ended up t-boning the passenger side of his Cavalier.

I was driving my Tahoe -- thank God! It protected us just like it should. The kids are fine - I had them checked out at a clinic, and other than JD complaining of a sore chest, they were fine. I have a couple of bumps and bruises, and definitely a sore neck, but I'm fine too. Especially considering the impact -- I hit him going about 45 miles per hour.

The scariest part of the accident, besides seeing a car dart out from traffic and head across my lane, was when we came to a stop. The front cab of the Tahoe was filled with smoke, smelled like something was burning, and my legs were wet from the knee down. I immediately thought something had ruptured and was on fire, so I tried to get out, but my drivers side door was jammed. The passenger door was jammed too. I crawled into the back seat and tried Ryan's door - and thankfully, it opened! I unbuckled both kids as fast as I possibly could and got them out of the car. I was standing there barefoot (I guess I kicked off my shoes since they were wet) surrounded by glass, holding Ryan, hugging JD, and trying to wrap my arms around what just happened.

The other guy was standing by his car holding his ribs. He didn't even come over and ask us if we were okay. I was really mad about that...and got more upset as time went on. Then when we found out he had been drinking (and had another DUI ticket sitting on the seat of his car from a previous incident), I became even more upset. Bud, as you can imagine, was enraged! He kept saying "My whole family was in that car!"

We were there for 2 hours after the accident. Jane and Chester came up to help us out and Jane took the kids back with her so we could go get things sorted out. We got a rental car -- Sweet Minivan! -- and started the ball rolling with claims.

Well, it's more than a week later and the collision center totaled my Tahoe, so we're car shopping now. Looking for another Tahoe (after how it held up in the accident, I would never drive anything smaller). Here's what really stinks though...I haven't had a car payment in over 2 years, and all because some guy decided to drink and drive, I will now have one. Ugh!

We're still waiting on the police report to come back to find out whether or not he has insurance. Praying that he does. But all in all, we're very lucky that none of us were really injured. God was certainly watching over us that day - and sent his guardian angels to protect us.

Oh, and in case you're wondering -- the smoke and burning smell was from the airbag I think, and my legs were wet from the coffee that spilled on me. LOL!

Well, we decided this week that we were gonna try to go on at least one formal family outing per month. I mean, we do stuff with the kids all the time, but not necessarily "kid stuff." I've always suggested doing this kind of stuff anyway, but Bud never really wanted to because it didn't sound like fun to him. But he finally decided that it's important for us to do this kind of thing - for the kids, and for the family. Yay!!!

So here we are at our first "Monthly Family Outing" -- we went to the Children's Museum and we really had a great time. Here are some pictures of what we did while we were there.

JD and Ryan were pilots in the airplane. After he was the pilot, JD said, "OK Mom, you drive the plane and I'll be a sitter" and he sat in the airplane as a passenger. A "sitter"....so cute!


Here's Ryan in the town's General Store -- JD worked the register and Ryan stocked the shelves. Isn't the mini apron so adorable???


Here's JD milking the cow while Ryan watches. Did you know that it takes 12 pounds of milk to make 1 gallon of ice cream!?


Here's JD shopping in the HEB exhibit. It was so cute. All the kids knew exactly what to do in the store, pushing their carts around and picking groceries off the shelves. They even paid at the little registers and helped put their groceries back after they were done. That was our favorite exhibit.


Here's JD in his favorite exhibit - the powerball room. He was a green ball hog....it's his favorite color.