Today was a nice day! We were at Grandpa Buddy's swimming when Ben and Charlie saw Buddy's office supplies and were curious. Buddy is as sweet as pie and taught them how to use the stapler. He just smiled while Ben stapled shut the news paper as well as stapling all of his mail together.



While I was watching this it reminded me of when I was little and I loved to do the same. I started telling Ben about how when I was his age my Grandma Barbara had a store and she would let me run around with her. She was not an ordinary grandma, she taught me so much! I told him about how she let me count all the money in the cash register at the end of the day and even how to make change for someone. She let me go to the office she kept upstairs above the store and while she did the books she let me type and staple and paper clip things together. She had a desk and I had a desk right behind her. I really did want to be just like her! I loved the calculator just because I saw her using it all the time and wanted to do it too. Maybe this is why I love to drink coke so much too, oh and eat popcorn. I remember she always had a coke and that we at microwave popcorn and peanut butter crackers in the back of the store all the time. I don't ever remember her getting mad at me or being short with me, she just let me be with her.
I really love my Grandma Barbara! No one has ever been so proud of me and because of that, I have confidence. I really should thank her more. Everyone always says how beautiful she is but that is not really what impresses me about her, it is how smart she is. She is the smartest person I know and I know a lot of people who think they are smart. She has read so many books, in fact, this is one of the pictures of her I have in my head......My grandma in the bathtub reading....for hours!!! She really always knows what to say to me to make me feel better about anything and that is because I trust her opinion so much. I LOVE YOU GRANDMA!

P.S. I am so frustrated that I cannot find a picture of her and me ( or is it her and I, have to make sure I get that right because she is the grammar nazi) to put up. I will keep looking and post it.

And on that sentimental note, another sweet Grandma story about Gigi...I have to say that I often feel unworthy to have so many wonderful people in my life. I try not to feel guilty about it but to just be grateful instead. Scott is on a 5 day fishing trip with his dad and brother. He just left last night and already I have had my mother offer to keep the boys on Saturday day, Elizabeth offer to keep them on Friday night, Kari offer to keep them on Saturday night, and Gigi offer to have us just stay with her for all 5 days. Gigi even came over at dinner time and picked up the boys. She wanted to keep them tonight. I promise I kept asking her if she was sure she wanted to and that we were fine it was not necessary, etc. You see she just had a procedure today at the doctor and she really wasn't suppose to be doing much. Well, she took the boys and I really can't believe how generous she is. Here she is feeling like crap and she is worried about me being alone! I love you GIGI! Really, why am I so blessed! If I had taken everyone up on their offers I could have been on a 5 day vacation myself. I really have to stop myself now because I could go on and on and on about how much I love my friends and family so......Good Night!

The week started off with a bang after Dad got a DVD player installed in the new car! Like any good mother, I insisted we do this ASAP! Here we are giving it a test run in the driveway while Scott cleaned out the BMW to have it detailed. I guess the sticky juice stains and old french fries bother him, what a priss! We are watching Madagascar and the air conditioning is blowing on high cause it is soooooo dang hot this summer.



Now we skip to Wednesday where Chars is ready to go to school in his "cowboy" attire.

Of course when we got to school we both realize he was the only one dressed up. Naturally "cowboy day" is next week, which is too bad because he was really excited. I figure he should just deal with the disappointment now of having a mother that never knows exactly what is going on. This will seem like small fries compared to when I miss his wedding! At least he won't be surprised after a lifetime of confusion!


Later that day after I picked up the gang we went to GIGI's to swim with Carter. Maggie decided to leave Carter behind for a few days with Gigi. I tried to warn her but she didn't listen and by the time I got to gigi's Carter was already spoiled! I will say that Carter is pretty much hilarious! I put a video at the end of the blog of her running in place. Maggie calls this "dancing", which maybe it is, who am I to judge? No matter what it is, I love it. I seriously was laughing so hard at her that I kept forgetting to push the record button on my phone and missed the best part of her running in place really hard. Gigi was singing "she's a maniac, maniac on the floor and she's dancing like she's never danced before"!

The next night Scott and I got home from work to find Charlie cleaning the furniture with wipes. I have a feeling he picked this up from Carter as she has a sort of "cleaning" obsession!!

It was Ben's last day of Aquatic camp and he made a very tasteful seashell necklace. I was so excited and made such a big deal about how talented he was and everything only to have him stop me and say that it was for his DAD! Really this has never happened before and I was a little sad that I wasn't his favorite that day! I got over it fairly quickly when I saw Scott wearing it....seriously could not get enough of how good he looked in it!

.....and......meanwhile.....totally oblivious....STILL cleaning, Charlie!!

We had a good start to the night. The kids went to sleep and we watched "The Lincoln Lawyer" with Chris and Gena. We had all listened to the book on tape when we went to San Antonio and finally got together to watch it. After the movie, and I am happy he waited until it was over, Charlie started crying from his bed upstairs. Scott went up and then hollered for me to "hurry up". Chars was really sick with stomach something because he threw up lots! I mean LOTS!!! Here he is after we cleaned him up and put him in our bed.

He kept telling me a funny story that night about how he and pops and C.W. (uncle chris) were going to visit the moon in 30 minutes (everything is 30 minutes with him right now). He said they were taking red balloons to the moon but Ben wasn't coming because he was an attitude. "I'm not an attitude mom but Ben is an attitude".

Poor Charlie, he threw up all night every 15 minutes! Finally at 5 am he fell asleep on our floor and made it until 7:30 before he threw up again! This picture is after I washed his hair for the 100th time in the sink!

Fortunately for everyone he made a swift recovery and was all better by Friday night! I am happy to say that no one else has gotten sick....Well, I take that back Pops got it!!

Saturday morning was great. Ellodie and I got up and went down for coffee. I was on the ipad and she was playing with her computer.

Ben joined us shortly and for whatever reason decided to peruse the "Birds of Oklahoma" book that Scott had left out the night before. He LOVES looking at this book and tries to grill me on the type of bird he is pointing to. Of course my Dad is grinning from ear to ear about this! My Dad would have gone on and on with Ben telling him everything about all those birds and he even would have whistled the call for him. I on the other hand am not my father and have no earthly idea what bird he is pointing to. I felt it was too early for this intensity and just needed to finish at least one cup of coffee!

Ellie continued peacefully on her computer while I discussed birds with Ben.

Ben now getting frustrated with my lack of enthusiasm makes one final attempt to get me excited about the European Warbler, when he tries to turn the book around to show me the picture he looses his place in the book and gets upset!

Ellie gives me a big kiss at the end of breakfast!

Later that day it was quite time. They decided to watch the "avengers" cartoon. Ben insisted on laying across the couch cushion which was turned up on it's side. Somehow he got balanced up there and stayed perfectly still so he wouldn't fall off. At least I knew he was going to have to be still for an hour!

Later that afternoon we went up to gigi's to swim. I am really proud of the boys. Ben is seriously swimming like a fish. He is so amazing to go from floaties to swimming all by himself in an hour! He dives to the bottom to get things and jumps off the diving board by himself. Chars is not far behind him either! He is practicing with out floaties and nearly has it! On the way up to the grands I was lecturing the boys about something, like I usually do. I was not paying attention to what they were doing in the back but I was going on and on about not doing this or that or we would just go home instead of swim, blah, blah, blah. I finally stopped and turned around to look at them and Charlie was making the funniest face I have ever seen. I tried to get it in a picture but it was hard. It was like he was trying so hard to look really mad at me. It was sooooo over exaggerated and was a face you would nor could never make naturally. I knew he was working really hard at it!

You probably had to be there for that story but I tell you I will never forget that look!

Ben had eggs for lunch today and somehow he launched the plate off the table by pushing down on the opposite side of the place mat which was hanging just off the table, like a catapult! Here is the aftermath. Man, Sophie was thrilled!

Here is Carter doing her thang!

The Osteology Museum

This weekend was Aunt Maggie's baby shower for Grey. They came in to town on Friday and the we all went up to swim and eat dinner on Saturday night. As usual, Gena and Chris were at a wedding. Actually they were both in this wedding. We all laugh because they are literally always either in/at a wedding or preparing for a baby and/or wedding shower at their house. No matter how funny it is, the truth is they are just great friends to everyone and it really is no surprise that they are "the couple" to have at your event! I over heard someone in target just the other day saying "well, did you get Chris and Gena Waugh for your wedding?". In fact, I am officially booking them for Ben's high school graduation now because I know that will be a busy hosting weekend for them! OK, enough teasing the most popular couple in town.

Because I only had one shower to attend this weekend, I had time to let the boys help with some of the decorating....Not really, I was painting something for the shower and so I let them paint on some paper. Non-the-less, I got busy and forgot to pay attention to them. When I did finally look up, Charlie had been eating is water color paint and chasing it down with the water cup he cleaned his paint brush in. Here he is, HONESTLY!



As I was showering and getting beautiful for the party, Scott made the boys "webs" out of rope to throw at each other.

Oops, this is kind of out of order! This is Gigi at her house on Saturday night with Grey and Ellodie. Grey is growing like a weed!

Here Miss Ellodie is getting ready for the baby shower in her new headband that Wendy and I got at our market extravaganza.

While Ellie and I were hosting the party, the boys went to the Museum of Osteology. This is a fancy way of saying a Museum full of every kind of animal skeleton ever! Scott said they had over 300 different kinds of animal skeletons there. Obviously this was right up the boy's alley and they LOVED it.

Our new wheels!

It has been an exciting week here at the Waugh's! We are excited to introduce the newest member of our family, our new car! We have fought it for awhile now but finally succumbed and bought a bus! I tell you, there have been several "clues" that we needed to get a bigger ride but I realized this weekend after aunt Gena had to literally sit in one of the boys car seats rather than a seat, that this was no longer working! We have been looking for awhile and have been test driving a number of cars before deciding. Here I am with the minivan we considered.



I did love driving that thing but every time I got out and looked at it I got ill! Not to meantion that my friendship with Anthony hung in the balance, like a true friend he kept telling me "your better than that, your too good for a minivan"! SOOOO, we decided to keep looking. At one point we considered just going crazy all the way and getting a van with a cool mural on the side. Then we thought about this strange mouse looking van.


I don't know what finally made us decide on the yukon xl, maybe it was how awesome and studly Scott's dad looks driving his or maybe it was because it is literally large enough to double as a guest room when friends stay over but at any rate.....Here it is!

I know this looks familiar....It is pretty much the same car as Pop's only even BIGGER!

Now for some other exciting news! Ellodie continues to be her cheerful, smiley, lady-like self! She is reaching for things, grabbing them, and putting them in her mouth. She is giving those open mouth drool kisses that we all love! She is also doing some giggling from time to time when I tickle her under her arms. She made her first shopping trip last week. Wendy and I took her with us to Dallas for a market trip. She was a champ. I can tell you that I will be limiting her time with Wendy after seeing the damage that woman can do in 5 minutes with a credit card.

Ben has recently been spending his time obsessing over video games. It all started when Jimpa and my Grandma Barbara got him a spider-man video game for his birthday. He now asks me literally every 90 seconds when he can play it again. What is so amazing to me is how good he is at it already. He understands all the buttons, levels, and the goal of the game all on his own. God knows I didn't teach him anything about it, I just plug it in! He is not that in to dinosaurs or dragons right now, just super-heros and Ben 10. He is doing exactly what he did with dinosaurs last year and memorizing everything about every super heros he can. I love watching his brain work! I am finding out that he literally listens to everything I say and remembers it for later. I only think he is playing or watching tv, even if he is, he hears everything. Scott and I talk shop a lot at home. In the car friday Ben told me he was going to tell me the story of how the dinosaurs died (ok, he is not completely over the dinos yet). He starts by telling me that a meteor hit the earth and when it did it made soooo much dust it blocked the sun and the plants died. This made the herbivores die and then because they died the carnivores blood sugar got too low and they died too. This made me smile that he talks about blood sugars. He asks me before he eats something, Mom, is this good for my blood sugar? He also has been listening to the cd of Scott singing at our wedding. This is really the greatest thing ever to him. He thinks Dad is wonderful and just today in the car he decided he would sing a song to his wife at their wedding too. He told me he wished that he could call his wife's mother on the phone and tell her to name his wife Catherine because he loves that name and thinks that should be his wife's name. He also decided he would sing Justin Bieber's "Baby" to her but he would change the words so it went like this...." Baby, baby, baby,oooo, I'm like baby, baby, baby everything you do, you have to take me with you so I will never miss you, I love you so much, baby, baby, baby" It went on but that is the only verse I remembered. Hmmmm, the only other thing I can think of about Ben this week is that he finally learned to swim, which is sooooo exciting!


Ben and his video game.

Now for Chars. He started "school" last week and is loving it. He was always so sad when Ben went to school and kept saying he wanted to go too! In fact, I finally decided to sign him up after he kept making up stories and names of friends he had. He told me one story about a boy named Jacob who invited him to his birthday party. He told me he was his best friend. He made the whole thing up! He kept this "fake friend" thing up so he now goes to school and is making some real friends! As usual he continues with the singing! Just this morning he and Ben were in the shower alone while Scott and I were getting dressed. I heard him singing so I stuck my head closer so I could hear what he was saying. He was singing Happy Birthday to your Bottom, happy birthday to Ben's bottom! I was cracking up! He was singing happy birthday to B's bottom, ridiculous!

Everyone who eats with the Waugh's knows they sing a prayer before eating rather than say a prayer. Charlie really loves this and a few weeks ago he grabbed my hand before lunch and started singing "thank you for the muffin man, the muffin man, the muffin man, thank you for the muffin man, we are thanful to you lord" TOO cute, he made up his own prayer!

Charlie's favorite things right now are playing with super-heros, swimming, music, and Shaun the Sheep (a cartoon). He is very observant and loves to sit back and watch what is going on for a little bit before jumping in and getting involved with whatever is going on.

Chars at his first day at school.

The 4th of July 2011

We had a great weekend at the lake! For those who know me this is something new, me saying I love the lake buuuut, I had fun OK!!! As usual there were too many people for the trailer, but we made it work! You gotta love Chris, Gena, and the rest of the Harper's! When they showed up at the lake this weekend, they were prepared for "family time"! It didn't bother them in the least that they all had to sleep in a 10 x 10 foot bedroom.

Here they are in their room...Chris, Gena, Amy, and Doug on the floor. Tara was brushing her teeth but soon joined them. Doug eventually had to move to the bed because Rooney needed the floor space.



We got out on the lake early for us, 11am, on Sunday. We went to the beach and set up camp for the day. It was so nice out. The water was calm and so clear you could see your feet. The boys love the sand.

Ben and Chars loved the wave-runners.

Here is Chars asleep on the beach. He actually fell asleep on the wave runner with Pops and we just carried him up on the beach for a nap.

After we got back from the beach at 6:30 we started decorating the golf-cart for the parade.

Here are the Harper's and Waugh's getting ready to watch us in the parade.

Pops made an impulsive buy at the local Wal-mart and got the guys all matching shirts for the 4th! I know Chris was especially excited and kept making me take more pictures!

Here is the golf cart at the start of the parade. Notice, I am on the back with Ellodie. This is important because as the parade went on.....and on and on and on......literally through the entire soldier creek neighborhood the golf-cart got very tired. Finally just 5 yards from the finish line it completely stopped. Scott then made me get off and push while holding Ellodie. It finally started back up and he made me run to get back on the back seat...while moving mind you and I kid you not that stupid thing stopped again as soon as I set down. I will skip ahead to the part when after repeating the pushing, jumping on, and stalling out 2 more times, I finally just walked the 3 blocks home with the baby!

We ate homemade strawberry ice cream that night, which I felt I deserved after pushing all 3 of my guys in the golf-cart up the hill while holding the baby. The next morning the boys went fishing with Pops and Scott.

Yes, I know they are sunburned! It broke my heart! This is Ben's first time to get burned and I felt awful. Oh well, other than that it was a great trip!