A little Bit of Heaven

Calyn has been talking about death lately. She learned the meaning of death when she pulled apart the little inch worm (Sherman the worman) and asked me to "fix" him about a year ago. That is when we had the death talk.
Now her questions are geared not so much toward death but toward Heaven. It all started when we were going through the list of who everyone's mommy and daddy were. For instance Calyn would say "Mommy, who is your mommy?" I would say Grandma Chebs. Then she would ask who my daddy was and I would say Papa Bob then she would say "Who is grandma Cheb's mommy?" etc... you get the idea. When she asked me who Grandma Cheb's daddy was I told her that was Great Grandad Bullard. She said "who is that?" I talked about him for a little while and she said "where is he?" I said he is in heaven. She said "Why?" and I told her about how Grandad got really sick and he died and got to go to heaven. We then proceeded to go throughout the list of everyone and their parents and where they are and if they were in heaven, the reason why the are in heaven.
On goes my story, on Saturday, Matt and I took Calyn to see Monsters vs. Aliens at the movie. As we were approaching the street that the movie theater was on, Calyn pointed up to this tall building and said "Mommy! I see heaven" I said you do where? She said right there and pointed again. I said that building? She said "yes do you see it?" I said yes I see it but I'm pretty sure that isn't heaven honey, that is mommy's work. It's not quite the same as heaven. :)

We are looking forward to seeing lots of family this weekend in Ponca for the fund raiser and then when we return Aunt Sandi will be waiting for us. We can't wait to see you all!!!

Me and My Man!

Here is something fun to read and you might learn a thing or two about me and Matt.

♥ What are your middle names? Lee and Allen
♥ How long have you been together? Together since 1996 Married since 2002
♥ How long did you know each other before you started dating? Pretty much since the 8th grade
♥ Who asked who out? Neither really. We reconnected at a friends wedding and started talking and hanging out more
♥ How old are each of you? Matt is 33 I am 31 (I will be 32 in about a month)
♥ Whose siblings do/ did you see the most? Mine since Matt doesn’t have any
♥ Do you have any children together? Calyn Grace (3) and Max Allen (11 months)
♥ Do you have any pets? Two mini Schnauzers Cozmo (12 almost 13) Lexi 10
♥ Which situation is the hardest on you as a couple? Probably the hardest was when we lived apart for the first 5 years of our relationship. It started with me in Stillwater and Matt in Edmond, then me in Houston & Matt in Edmond, then me in Ponca Matt in Edmond then Matt in Houston me in Ponca then finally 5 years later both of us in Houston. Now that is building trust!
♥ Did you go to the same school? Yes and no. Junior High and High school yes College No
♥ Are you from the same home town? Yep
♥ Who is the smartest? Duh…. Me! (just kidding) I think we are about the same. We each have our strengths and weaknesses
♥ Who is the most sensitive? Me! That came across as Matt being an insensitive bastard… he’s not I just tend to cry at the stupidest stuff. Sometimes Matt even calls me out at having a HUGE smile on my face during sappy parts of a TV show or Movie.
♥ Where do you eat out most as a couple? Potbelly’s, right Merrick? (usually at lunch)
♥ Where is the farthest you two have traveled together as a couple? Hawaii twice, once when we got married and the other a few years ago.
♥ Who has the craziest exes? Neither one of us really.
♥ Who has the worst temper? We are both pretty even tempered. We don’t usually blow up at each other or others but if I had to choose, probably me.
♥ Who does the cooking? Matt’s cooking is tuna right out of the can. Just kidding, Matt is a good cook but usually doesn’t have the time unless it’s a weekend. I do the cooking during the week
♥ Who is more social? We are both pretty social people.
♥ Who is the neat-freak? Both of us but you wouldn’t really be able to tell by the shape of our house sometimes. Clutter bothers us both and gets cleaned up pretty quick.
♥ Who is more stubborn? That is a tough one. I don’t think either one of us is really stubborn.
♥ Who hogs the bed? Again, if I have to choose, it would be Matt. I wake up sometimes to him sleeping on a diagonal. He doesn’t really hog it though. It’s a king size and we aren’t huge people so there’s plenty of room. The beauty of a king size bed, you can touch if you want but you don’t have to if you don’t want to.
♥ Who wakes up earlier? Me: about 4:47 a.m. during the week Matt: about 7:15. Weekends, me: 7:30ish sometimes 8:00 Matt, usually between 9 and 9:30
♥ Where was your first date? Sad I know, I don’t really remember. It’s been so long ago. We were both poor at the time though so we probably just hung out at his apartment or something.
♥ Who has the bigger family? I don’t know who has a bigger family but I have a closer one so mine seems bigger
♥ Do you get flowers often? Not in a while. I can think of a lot more things that I would spend the $$ on. Don’t get me wrong I love them and I don’t complain getting them, they just aren’t practical. Matt get’s off easy on that one
♥ How do you spend the holidays? With Family (the usual crowd is my family, my in-laws, Merrick’s in-laws and sometimes Olech’s in-laws) One huge happy family!
♥ Who is more jealous? Neither of us
♥ How long did it take to get serious? I would say about 4 months maybe a little longer
♥ Who eats more? I would like to think Matt does. Food isn’t really important to him though (refer back to the tuna out of a can comment earlier) so it might be me.
♥ Who does the laundry? Me for the most part
♥ Who’s better with the computer? Probably Matt but I’m not too bad myself.
♥Was it love at first sight? I am going to say no since we met many years before we actually starting dating. In fact I think way back in High School if someone had told us that one day we would be married, we would have laughed. Not because it was not realistic, we just never thought about an “us” back then.

To my friends with Blogs I hope you do this too. It is fun to do and I enjoy reading them!

Golfing with Daddy

Matt has been talking for a few weeks about taking Calyn golfing. She has been so excited to go ride in the golf cart!! He decided today is the day. So this morning while Calyn was in gymnastics Matt ran to the golf store and purchased Calyn a putter and a 9 iron and a hat and surprised her with them after lunch. He told her that if she took a good nap, when she woke up they would get to go golfing. She took a great nap and now they are off to play (or ride) 9 holes of golf. Of course you don't think I would let them leave the house without snapping a few pictures first, do you?

My three year old teenager....

Before I get into my Calyn story I thought I would tell you that Mr. Max now has 4 teeth!!!! His other top tooth popped out yesterday. He seemed pretty miserable yesterday because of it. Nothing a little Tylenol and baby orajel can't fix...

On Tuesday Calyn Max and I go to Merrick and Jimmy's for dinner because Matt is working out and Jimmy works late that night. Tuesday night Calyn did not eat that great of a dinner so on our way home I explained that if she needed a snack that night it was going to have to be an apple or orange. A little later I heard her asking her daddy if she could have something (I was in the hall so I couldn't see what it was) and he said no junk food tonight Calyn. So she then comes to me with a whole package of Hershey's candy bars (that we had bought for s'mores a few weeks ago) and said can I have one of these? I said what did daddy say. She said he said no but I really want one. I reminded her that her snack was going to have to be either an apple or an orange. She stomped her little feet into her bedroom and slammed her door :0 I thought to myself did that just happen? I walked in her room and told her we do not slam doors and asked her if she wanted to talk about it and she said no and got up and stomped her way into the play room this time not slamming the door but just closing it. Matt and I sat at the door and listened as we heard her say "I don't like mommy she doesn't let me have junk food."
Now pause a moment.....In my defense this child is not deprived of junk food. In fact most of the time I think she eats way too much of it. And by the way, didn't daddy tell you no first? Why did I get tagged as the bad guy here? I digress.....
Shortly after her conversation with herself in the play room she came out and I said Calyn did you say you don't like mommy? She said yes but I want a candy bar and you said no to me. I explained that when she says things like that it makes me sad and hurts my feelings. Her response to that... "I'm sorry. Mommy will you please get me an apple?" Awe there's my sweet little polite girl.

That's my story and I'm stickin to it........

I can not believe that I forgot this from my post yesterday about our trip to the park, Grandma thanks for using this line in your comment from yesterday! Grandma Ois and Papa Charlie were on their way back from Emory (visiting Lois' mom) and they decided to stop by last night. While Matt grilled our pork chops for dinner, Lois Calyn Max and I went to the park. On the way there Calyn was telling us a lengthy story. In a nut shell the story was about how earlier when her dad took her to the park she had a sticker but she had dropped it on the ground and they looked and looked and was so sad when they couldn't find it. She ended her story with "And that's my story and I'm stickin to it!" I thought grandma Ois was going to come unglued. It was so funny! OK I can't say she just learned that phrase on her own or anything. Matt has told her a few times that's how you end a story. But I can say, it was the first time I had actually heard her use it and coming out of a little 3 year old's mouth and in good context, it was hilarious!

A Fairwell to Tuck and more...

Yesterday we decided it was time that Tuck go back to his mommy and daddy. We loaded him up in the Expedition and took him to the pond by mom and dad's house. Calyn was so good! She carried him to the edge of the water and let him walk into the water. She just knew that Tuck was going to be so happy to see his mommy and daddy.

We didn't do too much this weekend but we did manage to make several trips to the park. Yesterday Calyn rode her bike all the way there and all the way back. Although, if you ask Matt I imagine his story would be he pushed her all the way there and all the way back and she moved her legs every once and a while. To give Calyn credit she really is doing better. If you know Calyn she talks non stop and peddling and steering just get in the way of talking.

Today when we went to the park I decided to take my camera. Here are a few cute shots I took of the kids.

Happy Max swinging
Calyn going down the slide
Max climbing his way up the slide

Calyn making her way up the slide.

Dorothy's Boo Boo

Mom has two ceramic Dorothy's (from the Wizard of Oz) that the girls normally got to play with at Grandma Cheb's house on special occasions. Because these Dorothy's had suffered some trauma by this mom decided that it was time to pass the figures to Calyn and Corry to have. Calyn was so excited to have Dorothy come to our house! Dorothy followed her everywhere when we got home. Dorothy watched TV with her, Dorothy watched her eat dinner and Dorothy watched her play with Max on the floor with her Homies. That is when tragedy struck! Calyn was devastated yesterday when Dorothy had her accident. As I said, she and Max were on the floor playing with her Homie figures and Dorothy was sitting next to Calyn “watching them play”. I am not sure exactly how the catastrophe happened but I heard a thud against the kitchen tile and when I looked back at the kids Max was holding Dorothy’s legs and butt, her torso was laying by Calyn’s knee and her head had rolled over by my foot. At least she broke in three clean places. Luckily I had the super glue handy. Dorothy is now healing on my kitchen cabinet. Dorothy had to “rest” for the remainder of the evening because "she had a headache".

I do have a correction to my post from yesterday. It seems that Max has pushed through a third tooth and we didn't even know it. I had been feeling in his mouth latelythinking it was time for another tooth but hadn't felt anything so I was surprised when I felt those little ridges poking through yesterday. The whole bottom part of his tooth was there!
Hope you guys have a great Thursday!

11 Months Old!!!

How is it that my little man is 11 months old? Has this past 11 months flown for anyone else? I thought I would take a moment today to tell you some of the things that Max has accomplished and some of his interests in the recent months.
He still has just two teeth but that doesn't stop him from eating anything. He greatly prefers grown up food to his baby food. Some of his favorite grown up flavors are chicken (cooked any way) strawberries, peaches, pineapple, dog food (we try and stop this one when we see it coming) corn, green beans, spaghetti (or any noodles for that matter) papa Bob's chicken and noodles and of course some unhealthy things like cookies, french fries and pizza!
Max babbles a lot saying mama, dada, baba (we are pretty sure that is bottle). Some of the things I swear I have heard him say (but he probably hasn't) are diadee (what we call a diaper) I got it and thank you. Who knows maybe he did say those things but chances are slim.
He crawls everywhere! He has mastered Merrick and Jimmy's stairs and the midsection of our coffee table. He pulls up and cruises and has even been seen transitioning (while standing) from one piece of furniture to the next (without moving his feet). He can stand unsupported for several seconds at a time.
Max knows where the on off button is on the TV and although he doesn't appreciate it's capability as much as Calyn did... yet, he still gets a kick out of it from time to time. He enjoys pulling on Lexi's eyebrows and beard (another thing I try and stop before he does it)
He hates diadee changes (in the words of Jack Dautrich "its like trying to dress a cat") but enjoys playing with his toys, wagon rides and dancing. He also loves to offer up his paci by cramming it in your mouth. He then he takes it back and giggles when you say "hey you took my paci"
He loves is monkey and his bear that he goes nite nite with every night and he LOVES his big sister.

Meet up with the Tiarks Family

Good morning everyone! I hope you all had a great weekend. Sorry I am just now getting on here to post. My intention was to get on here on Sunday and update the blog with pictures from our meet up with the Tiarks family but Sunday was spent playing with the kids, cleaning out the play room, grocery shopping and picking up the house for cleaning lady day. I felt like I was going non stop all day. Yesterday was no excuse for my laziness except a early morning start at 4:47, exercise, work, dinner, a walk to the park on a beautiful day with four beautiful kids, a husband, a sister and a brother in law, bath, books and bed.... at least I got to it today right?
So here it goes.

Leslie and I have been great friends for many years. I am almost afraid to say how many because it might date us a bit... ok what the heck, we have been friends since the 8th grade (that would be 19 years!!!) She and her family live in Katy (about 45 minutes from us) so we try and get together as often as possible for some dinner, laughs and fun with the kids. Madeline their oldest is about 2 months older than Calyn and Lauren their youngest is about a month and a half younger than Max. We had a great time with them as always! Here are some pictures from our meet up

Leslie Max Lauren and Deachi (Doesn't it look like Max is plotting his next move?)

Madeline and Calyn hugging

Matt and Lauren

And finally... Mr Max eating a yummy cookie

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Tuck LIVES!

Ok you guys are going to think I have gone insane. Tuck LIVES. He was in his cage this morning. Matt had moved it into the garage last night around 9:00.
I can tell you this much There is NO WAY POSSIBLE that turtle was in its cage when he went missing (that's my story and I'm sticking too it). I took out the rocks, the log, the pond and moved around the wood chips so much (4 different times) and he was no where in that cage. Matt even checked it when he got home as well and didn't find him.
I am guessing that either someone got caught with a little turtle and returned it some time between the time Matt got home and asked the smoker about it and the time Matt put the cage in the garage.

OK maybe he was in there the whole time and we just didn't see him and I have accused this poor innocent little 6 year old of theft but I am having a really hard time believing that with all our search efforts neither one of us saw or felt him in there. It is near impossible!!!!
Anyway we now have 3 very excited (and very confused) little kids. They are excited their friend is back but completely confused as to why he is back. :)
Good grief! Does the drama ever end!

Tuck is GONE!!!

Not dead gone, not missing....taken! Tucks habitat was a glass aquarium with a lid. Yesterday Merrick, Corry, Drew Calyn, Max and I were sitting outside discussing where to go eat dinner. When the little boy that lives in the house behind us said what's that you have? Calyn said it's my turtle. The little boy said what's a turtle? We told him it was a reptile. When we left to go eat we left Tuck outside so he could have some indirect sunlight. When we came back from dinner. Calyn asked if she could go see him and he was gone but the lid was on the aquarium.

Normally I would not be so quick to judge a little 6 year old boy but this little guy has had a history of jumping our fence, he was so curious about the turtle, and I am pretty sure the 60(ish) year old couple that live to the left of us and the 30 year old girl (with no kids) to the right of us could give two hoots about a baby turtle.

There was a lady (not the one that lives there) on the little boy's back deck that was smoking and Matt just said have you seen a baby turtle? She said "No I haven't"

I think it's the principle of the matter. I don't know that he took the turtle home with him or if the turtle wiggled his way out of the little boys hand and he couldn't find him to put him back or just what happened to Tuck. I am 99% sure the little boy behind us had something to do with his disappearance. The other 1% thinks Tuck was really smart strung together some of his wood pieces and climbed out of his aquarium on his own making sure to put back the lid and cover his tracks. (please note the sarcasm....)
Calyn was pretty upset at first. She seems to be back to her old self now bringing Tuck up from time to time. She doesn't know the little boy took him. She thinks Tucks parents found him and took him back home to live with them because they missed him.

Life will go on. I just wish I knew what had really happened to him.

Lenny TUCK and Ming Ming too.....

For those with young children you will now have the Wonder Pets theme song stuck in your head.. I am sorry for that but there is a reason for the title of my post. I will get to that in a sec... For those who have no idea who Lenny(a Guinea pig) Tuck (a turtle) and Ming Ming (a baby duckling) are, they are a singing trio that use creative ways to save a new baby animal in each episode. Now that we all know who they are, meet our new Tuck
Papa Bob found this "Tuck" in his driveway. Since the kids were at our house today he brought him over to show the kids. So guess who's house he stayed at? That's right, ours. We had the intention of releasing Tuck back to his parents but I am pretty sure that would have devastated a sweet little 3 year old girl that has fallen in LOVE with this little guy. Now it will be hard to return him I am sure. We will see how he does. If it looks like he is not eating and struggling he will return to the pond at mom and dad's but if he looks like he's doing ok he might stick around for a little while anyway.

On Top of Spaghetti All Covered with Cheese.......

Max is so over baby food. He LOVES big people food!! His new favorite Spaghetti! He thoroughly enjoyed it! I didn't start taking pictures of him eating it until he was pretty much done so most of the shots I got were of him crying but don't let the pictures fool you. He enjoyed every bite! He ate with so much gusto!!!!!

Calyn is pretty clean when she eats anything so the pictures of her look pretty good.... Max on the other hand has not mastered clean eating.
Enjoy!

Ms. Calyn after eating her yummy Spaghetti. She loves to suck it in really fast. :)

Another one of the cute little princess

Max enjoying his spaghetti

Almost done with the whole spaghetti thing

Put down the camera and get me out of this high chair.... I need a bath!!!

A Little Bit of Cuteness

Last night we all (with the exception of Matt he was still working out) went to dinner at Willies. The weather was beautiful so we sat outside on the patio by the sand box (kiddie litter) as Whitney called it.
I fed Max before we went but knew he would want some snacks so I brought some cookies along. The first one I pulled out and started to hand it to him and he started bobbing his head up and down like he was saying yes. So the next time, before pulling the cookie out I said Max do you want a cookie? and again he nodded. He did it for the rest of the evening. Anytime I would ask if he wanted something fries, bottle, cookie anything he would nod. It was simply precious!

I tried and tried to get him to do it again for Matt when we got home but I guess he wasn't in the mood anymore.

Next time he gets on a roll I will try and video it so you can see for yourselves just how cute it was.
I hope you all have a great Friday!
TGIF!

An Impromptu Get Together

The day yesterday was beautiful! Knowing that it was going to get cooler after the sun set we decided to invite everyone over for an impromptu weenie and marshmallow roast over the fire pit.
We watched the OSU game (GO POKES) and took turns going outside to roast our hot dogs and marshmallows. mmmm it was yummy!
Here are some pictures of the kids enjoying their hot dogs

Mr. Drew enjoying a weenie

Corry enjoying a hot dog
Calyn and her hot dog

All three kiddos getting warm and toasty by the fireSince Mr. Max did not partake in the roasting of weenies, here is just a cute picture of him from last night.