Happy Anniversary, Dove

Ah. Our anniversary. 7 years. Baby - You are beautiful. You are wonderful. You are such a neat person and I am so glad you are my wife and the mother of my children. I love going through each day by your side. I hope the coming year is better than the last (it's a tall order because last year was a pretty good year for us.) I love you.

A defining weekend

2 defining things came out of this weekend:

1. Gracie was turned on to The Wizard of Oz. For anyone who knows Steph, this is the moment she's been waiting for all her life - to share this story with her daughter. Kyle gave Gracie a sing-along book for her birthday and she found out this weekend that we have a movie. So, her and mommy watched it 3 times in 2 days.

2. Stephanie had a baby shower (Brandy - I hear you got lots of neat stuff. I can't wait to see the Noah's Arc art) on Saturday afternoon. That's not the defining thing here. I had all 3 kids to myself for about 4 hours. I hear that the neighborhood moms were making bets on whether or not I could effectively take care of 3 kids by myself. Um, I'm here to say that I did. And it was no problem. So, doubt no more.

The weekend update

Cleaning a 50-gallon fish tank is no easy task. Neither is stenciling, 2-images-at-a-time, an entire bedroom. Neither is coordinating a 3-year old's birthday party, even if it isn't at your house. Cue violin here, right?

The point is, there's no longer the idea of 'we're going to do X' without it being a production. On our way to the boy's 4-month doctor appointment this morning, en route to drop Gracie off at Grammie's, we stopped at a pre-school to get some information. That one little stop resulted in taking the boys out of the van, putting the stroller up, plopping them in the stroller, Gracie in tow, all going into the school, talking to the people and then reversing that whole process. Whew.

So, that being said, you can imagine what kind of pressure we felt with Gracie's birthday party, all sorts of family and friends coming into town. We loved having everyone here and the festivities, all weekend long, were awesome. Just takes a lot of work now. Such is life with 3 kids. Every experience that comes our way we are realizing more and more the effort that goes into everything.

Well, we do have a clean fish tank. And a bedroom with nice stencils. And a clean house. All of which pale in comparison to two healthy, growing boys (Max = 12.5 lbs, Nick = 10.5 lbs.)

We're done

Gracie's party was great. We're pooped.

Happy Birthday, Gracie

Biscuit-

You are a precious gift from God. We are humbled by you. These first three years have gone by like warp speed. We pray that we are everything that you need us to be. We are doing our best to show you what is right in this crazy world that you are oblivious to. We hope to continue to shape you into the wonderful human being that you have already become. We love your independence and your strong will. Your compassion and joy. Your kindness. Your dancing and singing. Each day you are becoming less of that little baby girl and more and more of this big girl. Your fits need work, but all princesses have a bit of fit in them. We will work through all of that together. We love you dearly and unconditionally, Gracie. May you experience things in this next year that open your eyes to how wonderful life can be. Even at three.

Love,
Mommy and Daddy

Surprise, surprise

Steph always has something up her sleeve this time of year. And today when she was doing everything she could to get me out of the house, I knew something was up. But this is way too soon before my birthday that anything could happen, right? Um, no, not with Mrs. Sneaky Pants.

I knew something was up when I heard a few private conversations today, all of them accompanied with lame, ambiguous cover-ups from Steph.

So around 4:30, I leave to go get margarita mix and tequila before embarking on our dinner plans (out to eat at Pappasitos). Apparently, Miker and Roxy were circling our neighborhood waiting for me to leave.

When I get back, I see Gracie holding this poor baby in her arms and I immediately think she's got one of the twins and right when I was about to say something, I see Roxy. I did a double take. Then, I look back and see Miker.

"What's going on," I said.

"Nothing," all of them said, laughing.

"Come on, what's going on."

"Nothing," still laughing.

Doorbell rings.

"I wonder who that is," they all say.

"What's going on?"

"Oh, look who's at the door. It's Grammie and Granddad," says Mrs. Sneaky Pants. "And look what's in the back of the truck."

A super-nice grill. Something I've been asking for for over 2 years.

"I knew you were doing something," I said to Mrs. Sneaky Pants.

The grill is awesome. We all grilled burgers and had birthday cake (3 weeks early).

My wife is wonderful. So are my friends and family. Thank you baby. Dad, mom. Alanna. Miker, Roxy, Chloe. Gracie, Max, Nick.

More pictures from the vacation

Pictures from the vacation

Good night

Goodness Gracious. What a freaking week.

TGIF

What a rude awakening work was yesterday. And is today. I walked right back into fires, just like I suspected I would. All I can say is I'm glad it's Friday. The weekend couldn't have come at a better time :)

Everyone is slowly adjusting back to home life. Gracie, the slowest.

My back is one big knot.

Vacation, day 6

We're beat. A vacation for a family of five is no joke.

As predicted, we left Austin this morning at 5. Arrived at the Cearley house a little before 9. No one has really slept since. We're hoping the night will be a very restful one for everyone in the house.

It was a great vacation. Talk about re-energizing. All in all, I do feel rejuvinated.

Now, if the boys would just sleep through the night.

Vacation, day 5

We left our cozy little house right across the street from Schlitterbaun this morning. It was a production and a half getting out of the house, but so is the case with 5 adults and 3 kids under 3. En route back to my mom and Kyle's house in Austin, the Cearleys stopped by Michelle's new school in San Marcos. The new San Marcos high school looks like a community college campus. Unlike the SMHS that I graduated from, it's huge and actually looks nice. Michelle has her own dance studio and office. She's already done so much work there and school is 1.5 months away from starting. I'm so proud of her. She's going to do an awesome job.

Back in Austin, we stopped by Rudy's for some of its famous BBQ. Ugh. Our bellies are full, full, full. Just like any vacation, we feel like we've eaten enough for a year.

We'll do laundry and rest this afternoon. Tonight is all about chillin. Tomorrow, I'm betting that we leave Austin by 5:30 AM given how the last couple of mornings have gone.

We are looking forward to home.

Vacation, day 4 cont...

Bless you Mother Nature. Thanks to you, Gracie had one of the funnest days of her life. She didn't even know what to do with the waterpark. All the slides and pools were overload. But in a good way. She did so many things. She even rode a big slide. The Cearleys hopped in a big innertube and slid down a big yellow slide. Now, we are all beat. Max is bawling. This long day is about to come to a close.

Vacation, day 4

There is a strong possibility of showers and storms today. All day. Mother Nature, if you could just help us out for this one day, we would gladly accept and tolerate the unbearably hot summer weather or thunderstorms (on another day) or the ice or whatever else you have in store for Dallas. But this one day, this day we have been looking forward to for over a month, this day that we have built up in Gracie's mind - it would be devastating to this little girl for the rains to come on THIS day. So please, for all that's good, can you help us out?

PS - Clear Springs was awesome last night!

Vacation, day 3

We slept until 8:30 this morning, leisurely got going and then went for breakfast at Kirby Lane. We have both decided that we don't like what Austin is becoming. It is way too commercialized, congested and it doesn't seem to be filled with the mix of funky people anymore. There were 2 Porsches in the parking lot of Kirby Lane. I have never even seen a luxury car in that parking lot, much less 2 Porsches. The downtown is now a city, complete with high rises and fancy buildings. It's just not the Austin we loved. It makes us rethink our plan of getting here.

The best part about all this is that our vacation has really just begun. We have lots of stuff to still do. Schlitterbaun is waiting for us tomorrow. Gracie won't know what hit her.

Michelle just arrived. Mark, too. Kyle gets home around 2 PM, then it will be off to New Braunsfels.

Vacation, day 2

There are things that come along every once in awhile that re-energize you, especially when you've reached parenthood. Last night was one of those 'things.' It was our first night without any kids which allowed us get a full night of uninterrupted sleep. That, in and of itself, was enough to re-energize us. But the reason we were sans kids was because of Josh Smith's wedding. We both go way back with Josh (Stephanie longer than me) - from our film production days in Austin. All of our film production friends were in town, too. Amy Raymond, Amy Carr, Tom Copeland and of course, the Stovalls. Stephanie and Roxy danced the night away while I laughed like crazy in the back of the room with Miker. I hit the wall at 10 PM, but no one wanted to retire yet so I stuck it out until 12:30 AM. The last time I was up at 12:30 AM was when Stephanie was in the hospital and we thought we were having babies. Miker and Roxy were still up at 1:30 with the notion of going out on the town. I don't know whether or not that happened.

Vacation, day 1

Vacation is on.

Day 1 - left the Cearley house at 6:15 AM. Arrived at the Key house at 10:15 AM. Just chillin ever since.

The July 4 celebration tonight includes steaks and stuff on the grill. Mark is going to come by. The fireworks scared Gracie last year so I don't know how much or even if we'll see fireworks tonight.

It really doesn't matter. The mantra = relax.