Christmas 2010

I know what you are thinking! Here it is in all it's glory, the really long, semi-boring post about how wonderful this holiday has been for our family and how much we wish a very, merry Christmas to you and yours. Right? That was what you were thinking wasn't it? Well, you're wrong. I have decided to do this one in condensed form. Here goes!!

1. Thanksgiving in The Woodlands
2. Black Friday
3. Decorating like crazy (Mason's first time on the roof!)
4. Caroling tiger cub style
5. Wreath making 101
6. Not 1, not 2, not 3, not 4, but 5 - count them 5, fun-filled Christmas parties
7. Natchitoches trip with family and friends
8. Gingerbread houses
9. Christmas portraits
10. Christmas with the cousins
11. Fun at Nanny's with paintballs
12. Wrapping, wrapping, wrapping
13. Marco, Henry, and Daisy - the newest elfin members of the Meisel clan
14. Tracking Santa on Google Earth - seriously? technology tracking magic - wow!
15. And, drum roll please, the most memorable moment of the holidays for me was listening to Mason say the prayer at lunch with Aunt Rachel and Uncle Jay and realizing they really are beginning to understand the true meaning for the season!!

And of course this list will be followed by adorable pictures of our beautiful children - would you expect any less of me? Have a great Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Things the Kids Said...

I am always telling people the funny things my children say only to be told, "You better write that down, you will want to remember that one day." I, of course, never do. So, I decided to share a few of the things the kiddos have said lately that I don't want to forget.

Mason received a cell phone for his 10th birthday, and 24 hours after opening the present, he is texting with a little girl in his class. He is sitting at the table working on homework and checking his phone every now and then to see if he's gotten a new text from her. Connor starts picking on him saying, "Mason's in love, Mason's in love!" Mason looks at him, rolls his eyes, and says, "It's not love, it's just texting!"

Connor has had the same little "girlfriend" for three or four years now. They went to daycare together and were in the same kindergarten class. It is actually really cute to hear him talk about her; however, the romance is over. He came home from school the other day and said he had broken up with her. When I asked why, he said, "I decided I was just too young to be tied down to one woman right now." This from the mind of a six year old.

Reagan is potty training. The first few times she used the potty at the house, the whole family piled into the restroom and cheered. We go on and on about how big she is and how proud we are of her. The other day Richard was in the restroom. Reagan knocked on the door until Richard finally said, "What do you need Reagan?" She, of course, said, "Whatcha doin Daddy?" When he said he was using the restroom, she came running into the kitchen screaming at the top of her lungs. I asked, "Reagan, what is it," to which she replied, "Daddy is a big girl! Daddy is a big girl!" She then tried to get us all to go to the restroom and clap for him.

Now you see why there is never a dull moment around our house, and why we wouldn't want it any other way!

Mom and Me Camping

This past weekend Connor and I went camping with his cub scout pack and we had a blast. We made a rocket and launched it, shot a huge slingshot, bb guns, and bow and arrows. We made each other bracelets (okay I did more of the making, but they are really cool), and slept in a tent, in the woods all night long. I really enjoyed spending some quality time with him and I am so proud of the young man he is becoming. I can't wait until we do something like this again, and I signed up to work at Dad and Lad when he and Richard go in March.

What is a real adult?

So Mason and Connor and I are riding in the car yesterday and this is what transpired:

Mason: Mom look at the huge bug on my window. It's HUGE!!
Me: (Looking at the bug on the outside of his window through the rear view mirror) WOW! That is huge!
Connor: Cool, huh?
Me: Very cool.
(At this point I begin to roll the window down and Mason starts screaming!)
Mason: What are you doing? It's going to get in!
Connor: Wow!
(At this point I am laughing so hysterically that I couldn't say anything if I tried. Finally, the window is all the way down and the bug flies away.)
Mason: Richard would never do something like that.
Connor: That's cause Richard is a REAL adult.

So my question is what exactly is a real adult, and it is wrong that I took this as a complement?

Supper Bowl 2010

Up to this point, I don't think I have written a post that wasn't, for the most part, about one or all of our children. This post is not like the others. This is all about Super Bowl 2010 - also known as Only One Will Get Out Alive. I know at this moment you are probably thinking, "Wow, Emily has lost it! The Super Bowl was in January!" Well, the boring Super Bowl was in January, but the more interesting, more exciting, more is on the line Super Bowl is taking place at this very moment in the Meisel house!

Our friend's Tommy and April had this wonderful idea to make a couples league for fantasy football. They asked us and Tommy's brother Chris and his wife Christina to join, and the LFC Couple's League was born. The guys swore we would never last. They said we would be bored in three weeks. They said we didn't know anything about football. We said they were wrong. We said we knew as much as they did because we were forced to watch it while they were every Sunday; we just didn't scratch while we did it. You see where this is going, right? Before too long, it was on! At the time of this post, if one of the guys happens to win the league, they get to take our money, leave the kids with us, and go to Shreveport for some male bonding. I really don't know why I even put that part of the wager in here since it's so not going to happen.

When one of the gals wins (definitely going to happen), we get to leave the kids with the guys all day and take their money to do lunch, spa, shopping, and dinner. I am so looking forward to a girl's day!

Back to the Super Bowl - this week, my team, the CHICKS with Balls, is playing Richard's team, the NO MAAMs. Yes, he seriously named his team in rememberance of Al Bundy. I will tell you one thing, only one person can survive this week and if it's not me, it will not be pleasant around here.

On a different note, I just watched Dez make the first touchdown of his NFL career and I am soooooo proud!!!!!!

That's the Good Stuff

I recently realized that I only seem to post when something "monumental" happens for our family - first Saturday of soccer seasons, first day of school, family vacations, etc. While I am certain that those are moments I want to remember, there are just as monumental of moments occuring on an almost daily basis in this family, so I decided a recap of a "normal" day might be a nice change and would definitely be something I would enjoy looking back on in a few years. Today was definitely a normal day for our family, but there is nothing truly normal when my children are involved.

This afternoon Mason and his friend Clayton decided to get off the school bus at my school instead of the high school like they usually do. The story kept changing but from what I can figure out they had a substitute bus driver who came to my school instead of the high school first but they were so busy talking they were afraid they had just missed the stop at the high school and they were afraid if they didn't get off at my school, they might end up somewhere else with no idea how they were going to get home. After calling Clay's mom and telling her I had him, I loaded Mason, Clay and Connor into the car and took Clay to his mom at the high school. We then headed home where I had exactly one hour to do as much homework as possible, get a bag of snacks and water bottles together for soccer practice, and text all the parents on our team to remind them we were having practice early tonight. Mason and I are in the middle of spelling words and Connor and I are drawing dots for number patterns, when Richard and Reagan arrived home with Reagan, as usual, right in the middle of a princess fit.

We proceeded to get the boy's dressed, load the car and head out the door with three minutes to spare before being late to practice. This is probably a good time to mention Reagan's diaper bag was neatly packed on the kitchen cabinet with an emphasis on the words KITCHEN CABINET. After arriving to the soccer field, I spent the next hour watching practice on two field by strategically placing my cute, pink, "I'm a soccer mom", lawn chair in the middle of the two. Reagan sat in her cute, pink, "I'm a soccer sister", Dora lawn chair right beside me eating all the snacks and asking for more. Somewhere in the middle of his practice, Connor slid across the field hurting his stomach and swearing he had twisted his - get this - pinkie! If you haven't seen a dripping sweat, dirt covered six year old in his hard core, "KICK THIS", soccer t-shirt holding his pinkie in the air screaming, you haven't been living. I'm just saying. After diverting the tragedy by promising he could play Angry Birds on my phone after practice if he would just go finish, I was feeling especially smug. You know what I mean right - I am hearing the Rocky theme song in my head and thinking, "I am Super Mom."

About this time, Reagan starts saying, "I dirty mommy - I dirty!" At this moment I realize that the diaper bag is, you guessed it, on the KITCHEN CABINET. I take her to the car, strip her of her diaper, use the one wipe I can find in the car, and put her shorts back on with no diaper. By this point, the running theme song in my head has changed from Rocky to "It's Five o'clock Somewhere." My smug demeanor had changed to silent prayers about this being a great time for her potty training reflexes to kick in. Have I mentioned that we love to talk about potty but hate actually going?

I head back to the fields still praying for a dry spell and watch the rest of Mason's practice. Five minutes before practice is over, I call in pizza and think, "Dinner is done!" We head home with pizza in hand, Richard does bath time while I am studying Mason's lines with him because he is trying out for the role of the Genie in his school play, Aladdin (I personally think he would make the best genie ever!!!) Then we divide and conquer bedtime and reading time only to realize that by the time we are finally sitting down together, it is 9:15.

There you have it! I am a soccer mom who forgets the diaper bag, knows the lines of Aladdin by heart, can spell sauntered and amble in my sleep, know that at this moment in Mason's library book Hank is feeling jealous of the bird-dog, Plato, and realize that one of the cutest things ever is a soccer player with his pinkie in the air.

That's the good stuff!!!!

Soccer Has Started!!!

This morning we were up and out the door by 7:30 on our way to the soccer fields. I ran by the bank to get money to pay the referees (the joys of being the board treasurer) while Richard headed to the field to meet the boys and their dad to get them ready to play. We were all present, dressed, and ready to go with Gatorades in hand (I think this is the first time we remembered them for the first game ever), only to find out the other team didn't get the schedule change and they weren't showing up until 9:30. Seriously, the one time in my soccer mom career that everyone was on time, and we didn't have to be. The other team did arrive and Mason's team played their game one hour late on the only empty field at the park - the big field. They did awesome. I seriously teared up a few times watching my baby play on the big field and realizing in only a few more years that will be where he is playing. Somewhere in the past few months, he has seriously grown up and I am not sure I like it.

Because that game started late, Richard was still coaching Mason's team when it was time for Connor's team to warm up for their 10:30 game so super mom (also known as me) went to tackle the job of warming up 6, count them 6, six year-old for their first game that wasn't co-ed. And might I add, I did marvelously. They even told Richard I was better than him at soccer because I could kick the ball in flip-flops (only one little boy said that was because a guy would never wear flip flops to the soccer field).

Both boys did an awesome job - Mason had five assist and Connor scored a goal.

The miracle of miracles is that Reagan spent almost five hours at the soccer fields and was an angel. I mean a real angel. She didn't cry or go missing. She sat in her Dora chair and watched the games and played with the boy's other sister, Kim, and never gave me any trouble at all. I would say that it really helps that I have downloaded Dora the Explorer to my iPod on my phone, but that would mean that I have to admit that I use technological devices to help watch my children and I am not one of those parents (no chance of lightning today, right?)

I am almost scared to say this out loud, but I think we might be over the toddler hump.

Summer Stuff

Wow - twice in one night! That's not going to happen very often! Here are some pics and video from our awesome summer - can you tell we are three weeks into school and I am starting to miss the summertime?

Where did the summer go...

I would begin this blog with something lame like, I can't believe it's been so long since I posted on here, but...been there, done that, bought the t-shirt, and didn't learn my lesson. So, instead I will say this might be long since I have been saving up so many things to tell! (Much more positive!)

The Meisel gang had a completely awesome summer. Richard and I both worked summer school which meant more money. We remodeled our den and finally got rid of the awful white carpet and the wood paneling. Seriously, what were we thinking buying a house with white carpet when we had two boys and a dog. Add a baby a few years later and those carpets never stood a chance. With the extra money we took the kids on a wonderful trip to the beach which seems to be an accidental family tradition. They love the "big water" so much that we seem to be drawn there anytime we try to think of a fun, relaxing family vacation to take with three children under the age of 10. Our children, being the entertaining, spontaneous beings that they are, kept us thoroughly entertained. I am not sure that I could possibly tell all the funny, fun moments we had; however, I probably could have a few months ago right after they happened (lesson learned...maybe!) I will tell you that Mason is noticing bikinis, Connor is swimming much better, and Reagan thinks the Hurricane Memorial is called "Barbie and the Baby".

After our wonderful, relaxing family vacation, Richard and I were off for our wonderful, totally not relaxing because we were running every minute, trip to Vegas. I would give a long detailed description of everything that we did, but WHAT HAPPENS IN VEGAS, STAYS IN VEGAS! I will say we are definitely going again soon!

To wrap up the wonderful summer, Dave and Pat came to visit for a week from Baltimore. We had a blast doing not much of anything but spending quality time with Grandma and Granddad - my kids are truly blessed to have so many wonder grandparents in their lives. Reagan especially enjoyed putting silly bands all over Granddad's arms. They were really cute until they starting cutting off the circulation.

School is back in full swing, the boys' soccer season has started, and Connor has decided to try cub scouts. To realize how excited I am about another Mom and me camping trip, see previous post from October 2008. Yippee, I can't wait.

I would love to say I will post again soon, but since I am too busy living life to spend a great deal of time blogging about it, I will just say - see you when I see you!

My Bottom...

Oh my goodness - if you are reading this and you need to use the restroom, I suggest taking a second to go to the restroom first because this is so funny it might make you have an accident.

Now that I have the "Readers be Ware" warning out of the way, let me tell you what happened today. I should probably start by telling you that Reagan is teething, which makes her bodily functions acidy, which makes her diaper rash flair up. So, when she uses her diaper, it immediately burns her little tush.

So, today was rainy and we were tired of being cooped up in the house, so we decided to take the kids to the mall for Chick-fil-A and to let them play on the indoor playground. Everything was going great until Reagan used her diaper and it started burning her hiney. At this point, we realize we left the diaper bag in the car, so Richard decides to take Reagan to the car, grab the bag, and stop by the family restroom at the door and change her diaper. Great plan, but one problem. When Reagan has these flair ups of diaper rash, she screams every time you touch her behind anywhere or anyway. And, since she really didn't want to leave the play yard to go to the restroom with Richard, he had to pick her up to carry her with him. By the time they reach the door to the mall and the parking lot, where his arm is holding her under her behind is hurting, so she starts screaming, "You are hurting my bottom." That probably wouldn't be so bad, if her two-year old word for "bottom" didn't sound exactly like "body". Yep - that's right, picture it. My adorable husband, leaving the mall holding our precious little blonde baby trying to leave the mall with her screaming, "My body! You hurting my body! Leave my body alone! My body, oh my body!"

Richard says he has never felt like such a villian in his life, and I say the expression on his face was PRICELESS!!

Time Flys When We're Having Fun

I can not believe it's been three months since I updated this blog. I guess we have been so busy living life that I forgot to write about it. Or it could be that I have been working on my other blog - www.mommasgettinskinny.blogspot.com. Yes, that is what you think it is, a weight loss blog. I have offically lost ten and a half pounds in about three weeks and I feel great. I could go on and on, but that's what the other blog is for. You are obviously here because you want to know about us and our wonderful children, so where to begin.

Baseball season is officially here. We are knee deep in three or four practices a week and two or three games. When I get really tired, I just remind myself that this only lasts for so long so I need to take a moment to breathe it all in and make those memories that last a lifetime because this phase of my boy's life doesn't. Mason is the luckiest player ever - he seems to always be drafted to a team that is stacked. This season his team has only lost one game and that was in a tournament, not the season. He got his first hit the other night and I truly think I yelled louder than I ever have in my life. I have seen him hit a ball off a tee, I have seen him hit a ball pitched by a coach, but there is nothing like seeing him hit a live arm ball - definitely one of those moments I filed away in my memory. Connor's team, on the other hand, is the cutest version of the Bad News Bears I have ever seen. We won our first game on Saturday and you seriously would have thought they had won the World Series in a sweep. I am not really sure baseball is his forte, but as long as he is having fun, we are enjoying every minute.

Reagan turned two last week. Seriously, she's two. It seems like only last month I was a sleep-deprived mother of a newborn. She loves to play ball as much as her brothers do, and honestly I think she is going to be a little athlete; however, I am still enjoying torturing Richard with the idea of dance classes instead of team practices.

We are all doing really great and loving every minute of our lives. I would like to take a moment to mention that one of my dear friends and co-workers, my former fifth-grade teacher, Kay Pearson, lost her battle with cancer and has moved on to be with the Lord. She and my mother were very close friends and her daughter Kristy and I have been good friends since grade school. Please take a moment to throw a little prayer to heaven for her family and loved ones who know she's in a better place but miss her dearly here.

Adventures in Motherhood

Last night Richard had an out of town game in Tyler so the kids and I were on our own. Mason went to spend the night with Nanny and I had grand plans to put Connor and Reagan to bed early and then do some photography editing I was behind on. Around 6:30 I put them in the bath together and let them play a little. Then I got Reagan out and let Connor stay in longer because he likes to "soak" as he puts it. I took Reagan in her room, lotioned her up, put on a diaper and her fleece pajamas because the temperature was going to drop. Then she, her baby doll, and I all sat down to read a few books. After book time, I went to get her medicine and a bottle. All of a sudden I hear, "Mommmm, come quick, you're not going to believe this!!" Connor was yelling at the top of his lungs. I took off running to the bathroom and find Reagan, her baby, her book, and her pajamas in the bathtub with Connor. Connor says, "Mama, she diveded right in. It was sawsome!!" So I had to get Reagan out of the tub and redo the entire process but this time she was screaming because she couldn't have her book - the entire time I was drying her off she was yelling, "My book, my book" at the top of her lungs.
I finally got both of them settled down and in the bed by 8:00 and sat down to work on some editing. Around 10:30, Cera started growling in the kitchen. I also heard a low rumble that sounded like thunder. I assumed this was just another case of Cera getting upset by the weather because she is terrified of thunder or any other loud noise. Fireworks send her over the edge to the point that we have started giving her Bendadryl for several hours before dark on July 4th and New Year's Eve. I walked into the kitchen to calm her down when I hear another growl that I know isn't coming from Cera because I am looking at her. I begin to feel a small panic in my stomach, but then I think maybe Cera let another dog in with her to last time I opened the door for her. As I take a few steps closer to her door, I hear the low growl again, look down, and there right at my feet under the baker's rack in my kitchen is the ugliest animal I have ever seen. It is white with huge red eyes and sharp pointy fangs that are dripping saliva. I run, I scream, I jump on my bed, I call Mark. Mark is my first cousin and my life saver. While I am waiting for him to get here, I call my mom to talk me off the ledge. And, do you know what she had to nerve to ask me. "Is it a mouse?"