When Jeff and I first got married we both thought we wanted six kids. I know. Sounds like a lot. But we both came from a family of six and we loved the constant party. Then Jeff spent a weekend babysitting my sister's kids when they only had six. After that, he said let's just have the dog and squirrels.
Obviously he's warmed up a little since then. Anyway, my sister and her husband had to leave for a few days for work. They flew Tristan and I in to make sure the house didn't burn down. We were barely successful. It was a pretty busy trip and most of the pictures I took came from my cell phone.
Tristan was a champ for the hour flight... he loved everyone on the airplane and they loved him right back since he didn't cry. What was up with this sign on the seat in front of me!? My only thought was that our flight attendant, Rowdy Martin, was going to have to fight me for the life if it came down to it. On that note, I totally love his name. Rowdy. If we named another kid that I could say, "Howdy, Rowdy!" and he'd love me forever for it.
Fortunately we never had to find out if I was going to have to fight Rowdy for the life vest. We made it to Houston. My friend braved the airport traffic and picked Tristan and I up.
I haven't seen traffic like this in months. I forgot what the daily commute in Houston is like. Jeff gets grumpy if there are ten cars on the road here at any time in Lubbock. "What is with this traffic!" I have to remind him there is no such thing as traffic in Lubbock. I also took this photo to send to my nephew, he was wondering where I was and when I was going to be there because he needed a ride to Scouts.
It was super fun to be at my sisters again. I forget what a daily party life is with seven kids. There is never a dull moment. Tristan was in hog heaven with all the kids carrying him around, although he didn't sleep well at all that first night. He kept waking up in the pack and play and screaming bloody murder. He has never slept with us, so I thought maybe I'd give it a shot and he'd be happier if he was right next to me. Um. No. It was awful. He couldn't get comfortable. He slept on my neck, stomach, chest, arm, and leg until I finally moved. Then it was time to get up, anyway and I'd only had about three hours of sleep. Ugh. But, I woke up and enjoyed riding bikes with one of the kids to school. It was soooo beautiful out!
Later that day Tiffany sent me to get my hair done. I think she was embarrassed to be seen with someone who had such bad roots. Then the hair dresser cut my hair and told me in her little accented voice that my dead ends were "unnecessary" so she was going to cut them all off. "Theez, theeez are unnecessary. I cut dem off." I love it though. Went with the full bang this time instead of side ones. I think I like it.
From there it wasn't too bad. I picked up the three littlest ones from preschool. We played for an hour and then went to pick up the three from elementary school. I met up with Heather at the park. When we got there I counted kids, and between the two of us we had eight. Seven of which "belonged" to me. Tristan met up with a friend he knew from way back when and she showed him how fun it was to eat mulch. Then we played on the slide until I shoved Olivia too hard and she nailed her head on the side.
She lost a tooth! And a fish. But we won't talk about that.
Miller lost a lot of blood. I don't know how, because this happened during the time when the microwave caught fire. I heard when it happened though, because I locked half the kids outside and said they couldn't come in until they picked up the driveway. Three minutes later they were screaming that Miller was bleeding everywhere. I thought it was a joke, but no.. he really was trying to bleed to death on the driveway. That picture doesn't even do it justice. That was me holding him still for two seconds to take a picture and that's how much he bled.
Thankfully, he eventually quit bleeding, I asked the oldest kid hose the driveway off and he yelled at a younger kid til she did it for him and we ate dinner. With all the windows open so we could try to breath through the smoke from the microwave incident. Then I left the little kids with the oldest kid so I could drop a couple other kids off at softball. When I came home the bigger baby had a pen and had drawn on herself and their brand new sofa. I couldn't get the pen to come off. Awesome. Microwave-broken. Dog-bleeding. Sofa-ruined.
Morning rolled around and it wasn't as rough as I thought it would be trying to get all seven kids to school. The oldest took care of himself, and the next five just needed a little help before they caught rides. Then I was just left with four little ones. They played so dang well together I almost didn't want to take them to preschool. Until one started crying and they all followed. I dropped them off at school a few minutes later. In between the few hours of no children I stopped by Jessica's house in time to see Janelle and her newest baby. Ah! So dang cute. And Janelle looks so amazing for just having had a baby. It's not even fair.
Tristan has a girlfriend. Well, maybe I should say she has a boyfriend and he's vaguely aware. They were both standing and holding the bathtub when Whitney inched closer, put both arms around him and gave him the biggest bear hug. Cutest thing I have ever seen. She just held him, rested her head on his shoulder and was so adorable I could have taken her home.
Feeding nine people isn't as easy as it looks. For dinner I asked the kids what they wanted. Most of them said pancakes. We ended up with German pancakes. Three batches. And two pots of Cream of Wheat and a small batch of the best scrambled eggs I have ever made. All of this took three hours and one trip to the store. I asked if they could find brown sugar and syrup, and of course, they couldn't. So we went and bought some only to have another kid say, "Oh, wait, here it is!"
Saturday morning rolled around and was a balmy 37 degrees with a lovely wind. I took the four older girls to softball for three hours-I am so glad I left all the babies at home! It was miserably cold and all I wanted to do was hide in the truck. In between we went to HEB and caught the tail end of what they're hoping is the largest flash mob ever. Seventy six thousand employees singing at the same time at every HEB.
Then we went home and picked up the little guy for baseball. I am not sure he had a clue what was going on, neither did any of the other kids, but they sure were cute. I could've just died watching them. My little baseball star and some other kid kept calling each other eye balls and laughing. I had to separate them.
We made a quick stop to see the family I nannied forever. I can't believe how big her kids are-that little Owen was still incubating when I left! Now he's a big old baby. I'd like to thank the six year old photographer for this shot.
That night for dinner we decided to ride our bikes to McDonald's. Miller dog decided he was going to come with us. Then he changed his mind and ran home. Then he changed his mind and ran back. Then he changed his mind and tried to get hit by a car three separate times while I tried to catch him. Then I gave up and yelled at a kid.
Church on Sunday started at 8:30am. We got there at 9:30. I was tired. The fourteen year old was tired, too. But not too tired to scream "Hallooooo" out the window at every passing car.
Also.... this is him as he tried to take his hoody off. You can't tell, but instead of unzipping it like a normal person he tried to pull it over his head. He pulled off both shirts he was wearing and got stuck. I almost peed my pants laughing.
And that was the end of my stay. Sonia came and drove me to the airport-we had to convince Miller he wouldn't fit in my carry on and that yes, they would notice him.
Obviously he's warmed up a little since then. Anyway, my sister and her husband had to leave for a few days for work. They flew Tristan and I in to make sure the house didn't burn down. We were barely successful. It was a pretty busy trip and most of the pictures I took came from my cell phone.
Tristan was a champ for the hour flight... he loved everyone on the airplane and they loved him right back since he didn't cry. What was up with this sign on the seat in front of me!? My only thought was that our flight attendant, Rowdy Martin, was going to have to fight me for the life if it came down to it. On that note, I totally love his name. Rowdy. If we named another kid that I could say, "Howdy, Rowdy!" and he'd love me forever for it.
Fortunately we never had to find out if I was going to have to fight Rowdy for the life vest. We made it to Houston. My friend braved the airport traffic and picked Tristan and I up.
I haven't seen traffic like this in months. I forgot what the daily commute in Houston is like. Jeff gets grumpy if there are ten cars on the road here at any time in Lubbock. "What is with this traffic!" I have to remind him there is no such thing as traffic in Lubbock. I also took this photo to send to my nephew, he was wondering where I was and when I was going to be there because he needed a ride to Scouts.
It was super fun to be at my sisters again. I forget what a daily party life is with seven kids. There is never a dull moment. Tristan was in hog heaven with all the kids carrying him around, although he didn't sleep well at all that first night. He kept waking up in the pack and play and screaming bloody murder. He has never slept with us, so I thought maybe I'd give it a shot and he'd be happier if he was right next to me. Um. No. It was awful. He couldn't get comfortable. He slept on my neck, stomach, chest, arm, and leg until I finally moved. Then it was time to get up, anyway and I'd only had about three hours of sleep. Ugh. But, I woke up and enjoyed riding bikes with one of the kids to school. It was soooo beautiful out!
Later that day Tiffany sent me to get my hair done. I think she was embarrassed to be seen with someone who had such bad roots. Then the hair dresser cut my hair and told me in her little accented voice that my dead ends were "unnecessary" so she was going to cut them all off. "Theez, theeez are unnecessary. I cut dem off." I love it though. Went with the full bang this time instead of side ones. I think I like it.
From there it wasn't too bad. I picked up the three littlest ones from preschool. We played for an hour and then went to pick up the three from elementary school. I met up with Heather at the park. When we got there I counted kids, and between the two of us we had eight. Seven of which "belonged" to me. Tristan met up with a friend he knew from way back when and she showed him how fun it was to eat mulch. Then we played on the slide until I shoved Olivia too hard and she nailed her head on the side.
She lost a tooth! And a fish. But we won't talk about that.
Miller lost a lot of blood. I don't know how, because this happened during the time when the microwave caught fire. I heard when it happened though, because I locked half the kids outside and said they couldn't come in until they picked up the driveway. Three minutes later they were screaming that Miller was bleeding everywhere. I thought it was a joke, but no.. he really was trying to bleed to death on the driveway. That picture doesn't even do it justice. That was me holding him still for two seconds to take a picture and that's how much he bled.
Thankfully, he eventually quit bleeding, I asked the oldest kid hose the driveway off and he yelled at a younger kid til she did it for him and we ate dinner. With all the windows open so we could try to breath through the smoke from the microwave incident. Then I left the little kids with the oldest kid so I could drop a couple other kids off at softball. When I came home the bigger baby had a pen and had drawn on herself and their brand new sofa. I couldn't get the pen to come off. Awesome. Microwave-broken. Dog-bleeding. Sofa-ruined.
Morning rolled around and it wasn't as rough as I thought it would be trying to get all seven kids to school. The oldest took care of himself, and the next five just needed a little help before they caught rides. Then I was just left with four little ones. They played so dang well together I almost didn't want to take them to preschool. Until one started crying and they all followed. I dropped them off at school a few minutes later. In between the few hours of no children I stopped by Jessica's house in time to see Janelle and her newest baby. Ah! So dang cute. And Janelle looks so amazing for just having had a baby. It's not even fair.
Tristan has a girlfriend. Well, maybe I should say she has a boyfriend and he's vaguely aware. They were both standing and holding the bathtub when Whitney inched closer, put both arms around him and gave him the biggest bear hug. Cutest thing I have ever seen. She just held him, rested her head on his shoulder and was so adorable I could have taken her home.
Feeding nine people isn't as easy as it looks. For dinner I asked the kids what they wanted. Most of them said pancakes. We ended up with German pancakes. Three batches. And two pots of Cream of Wheat and a small batch of the best scrambled eggs I have ever made. All of this took three hours and one trip to the store. I asked if they could find brown sugar and syrup, and of course, they couldn't. So we went and bought some only to have another kid say, "Oh, wait, here it is!"
Saturday morning rolled around and was a balmy 37 degrees with a lovely wind. I took the four older girls to softball for three hours-I am so glad I left all the babies at home! It was miserably cold and all I wanted to do was hide in the truck. In between we went to HEB and caught the tail end of what they're hoping is the largest flash mob ever. Seventy six thousand employees singing at the same time at every HEB.
Then we went home and picked up the little guy for baseball. I am not sure he had a clue what was going on, neither did any of the other kids, but they sure were cute. I could've just died watching them. My little baseball star and some other kid kept calling each other eye balls and laughing. I had to separate them.
We made a quick stop to see the family I nannied forever. I can't believe how big her kids are-that little Owen was still incubating when I left! Now he's a big old baby. I'd like to thank the six year old photographer for this shot.
That night for dinner we decided to ride our bikes to McDonald's. Miller dog decided he was going to come with us. Then he changed his mind and ran home. Then he changed his mind and ran back. Then he changed his mind and tried to get hit by a car three separate times while I tried to catch him. Then I gave up and yelled at a kid.
Church on Sunday started at 8:30am. We got there at 9:30. I was tired. The fourteen year old was tired, too. But not too tired to scream "Hallooooo" out the window at every passing car.
Also.... this is him as he tried to take his hoody off. You can't tell, but instead of unzipping it like a normal person he tried to pull it over his head. He pulled off both shirts he was wearing and got stuck. I almost peed my pants laughing.
And that was the end of my stay. Sonia came and drove me to the airport-we had to convince Miller he wouldn't fit in my carry on and that yes, they would notice him.I feel bad the house was trashed when I left-but at least the kids were alive when their parents got home. That has to count for something right? I think that is pretty good, since three of them were taking turns throwing knives at each other when I left.
Overall, it was a fun trip. I super missed Jeff and was glad to see him when I got home, but I'll miss those kids. We had some fun moments... we laughed a lot and I loved getting to hold my little nieces and nephews and hang out with the older ones. They're a good bunch of kids and practically take care of themselves. We'll see if my sister let's me come back in a few weeks or if she'll accidentally "lose" my flight information and hire a decent sitter.
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