1234miles

On Wednesday morning Jon called and his mother passed away in her sleep. She had been fighing breast cancer and it had moved to both of her lungs. Jon flew out on Sunday so he was with her. It has been very hard but she is now with her Maker. She was a great mother, an excellent Grandmother and a Joy of a friend. She will be missed more than words can say.

I packed up the kiddos and my mom and drove. Thank goodness the Tahoe was done so we had the dvd player in the car. I think I would have gone beserk with out it. At about hour 5 Sam said the funniest thing - "We should have taken an airplane!" and two hour later "I dont want to go to Texas anymore, lets turn around and go home." The things that come out of her mouth! I have to say there is nothing in West Texas! My goal for the first day of driving was to go at least half way-so at 600 miles I said the next hotel we will stop at. well the next one wasnt until 677 miles! It was midnight and the kids had been asleep for about 3 hours so when we got into the hotel they were awake but still tired. I have to say it was the worst night I have ever experience in my life. Sam finally fell asleep but I ended up taking the twins into the car becasue they were so LOUD, screaming and crying. I felt so bad for the neighbors. I got them in the car abot 2 am and Sydney promptly fell asleep. As did I. Courtney was quite but wide eyed the whole time. At about 4 I tried to take them back into the room becasue I just needed to get some 'real' sleep. My mom ended up rocking Courtney to sleep- took her about 30 minutes and I ended up taking Sydney back out to the car. At 4:30 I said that was it she was going to have to sleep in the bed. I just yelled really loud and held her until she finally fell asleep. Sam slept through it all (lucky kid) and woke us all up at 8:30! Thursday was a long day but since there really isnt anything in west Texas the speed limit is 80! We made excellent time. We found the most amazing rest area about 150 miles outside of Houston. We could have spent a couple hours there. I think if it was near where i lived I would even go there. It had a great play structure and a nice little trail through the trees. and the building where the bathrooms were was really nice and had lots to look at in there. Pretty fancy for a rest stop. We finally got to our destination 8 last night. Jon had to go pick up people at the airport so I had to get these kids to sleep again. They were wired once again but Sam fell asleep while the twins bounced all over the place. I turned the lights off at 10 so it was dark and quiet but the twins were into everything. Sydney ended up snuggling up to me but Court didnt want anything to do with the bed. I even called Jon and told him to go buy some benedryl. I have never 'drugged' my kid to go to sleep but I was desperate. Jon ended up getting stuck in traffic so by the time he got back I had gotten them to sleep so no benedryl required!

Sam at rest stop in NM. Cool views.

this is from the fancy one near Houston


Here are a couple videos of the rest stop taken from the camera phone.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0XfS6TxrWk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vrdd9txSqX4

We stopped at a tasty Mexican restaurant. The kids didnt eat any of there food. Just chips. They were terrible eaters in restaurants but they ate in the car. I think they were jsut happy to be out of the car seats that the last thing they wanted to do was sit and eat. They wanted to RUN and PLAY!

Barley

sure is looking distinguished in his old age of 13!

naps

Sydney has been hit or miss with the naps lately. She didnt nap at all on Friday or Saturday...and it looked like Sunday was going to be another no nap day. Since she just turned two there was no way I was going to let this no nap thing happen now. I went in her room to try and lay down with her but she was not happy at all. She wouldnt lay there at all. So I gave in and took her down stairs and turned the tv on and sure enough around 4 oclock she fell asleep on me.

After a good hour and a half nap she ate a great dinner...speghetti...the girls favorite!


Today we were out and about for most of the day so the girls both napped in their carseats for a little over an hour. I hate it when they do that because that means tonight could be hell...

Barracuda football

After t ball we went and watched Jack Laguardia play football. Sam got to be a cheerleader for the day. Too cute!

Courtney even got into the spirit!

t ball

Today at Y sports we played t ball. Sydney wanted nothing to do with it. She only ran around the bases because I held her hand the whole way. Courtney and Sam really liked it though. Here's a video of Sam throwing, its from the phone so the quality is pretty bad, sorry.

Open Gym

We headed up to the Oasis gym this morning for some open gym time. I am so happy I found this place. Today was pretty crazy there were way more kids then usual and some 'older' kids to so I had to keep my eyes on them a little more then usual today.(not that I dont usually keep my eyes on them but the big kids were everywhere and they didnt look where they were running & jumping)

Sam went all the way across the tall balance beam all by herself!

Huge jump!

after gym time we went to Namy and Papas for lunch...namy was gone getting her hair done but Papa was there...he took them for a ride in the golf cart

no luck

At least she's trying...

sleep

Sam had a sleep over last night at Namy and Papas. It was really cute (and sad) at the same time. It was cute because sam was so adament about sleeping there. She went upstairs and packed her backpack full of clothes, jammies and her toothbrush. The little ones saw that she had her back pack on so they ran and put theirs on too. We all walked her out to the car. She climbed right on in and (the sad part) Sydney and Courtney wanted to too. As they were driving off the twins were crying, Syd came in and threw her back on the ground and ran off crying. (it was a very funny to watch--I can see something like that when she gets older, coming home from school all mad and throwing the back pack on the ground and running upstairs) It was a fun evening with me and the twins. Jons in SF but he'll be back late tonight. I swear I read at least 15 books to them. I just love those Sandra Boynton books. "a cow says moo, a sheep says baa, three singing pigs say 'la la la....' Its amazing how 2 seems pretty manangable but 3 makes life a little more hectic! Hectic or not I sure do love my amazing girls. oh yeah and the best thing is the girls slept in til 8:12 this morning!

fun times

in the backyard!

Live with Regis and Kelly

I took a bunch of pictures of the twins this afternoon trying to get a good one to post on Live with Regis and Kellys website. They are having a beautiful baby contest (winner gets $125,000 towards their college education) I had taken a great one of Sam a couple weeks ago.

These are the three I choose:

I think they are winners!

Courtney jumps

Namy Reads

Update on the big screen

Last Monday I blogged about how the girls cleaned the big screen ...well I am happy to report that the tv is drying out and it's pretty much all gone without any major damage! I am hoping by Superbowl Sunday there wont be any signs of the incident. I thought it was going to be a costly fix too!! YAY!!

new dressers

We bought Samantha and Courtney new dressers last weekend. Its exactly like Sydneys from Ikea. The armoir thing that Sam had was just to hard for Sam to get her clothes out of. She would climb up it to get to the top drawrs and just throw her all clothes onto the ground. Drove me crazy. Courtneys dresser is a changing table that matches the armoir so I am hoping to sell them together on Craigslist. Well we got Sams all put together and she put a bunch of stuff on top of it (dollys, stuffed animals, fake flowers etc..) so the twins figured they could climb up it and get the stuff. Of course the dresser practically fell on top of them. Scary. Then at nap time I put syd down in her room and jumped in the shower. Jon and Samantha were gone and I heard a crash. I jumped out of the shower and heard Sydney crying and she was laying on the floor with her leg stuck between the top two drawers and the whole dresser is on its side. FREAKED ME OUT. So now after naps Jon will be nailing the dressers to the walls!

soccer practice

This morning soccer came pretty early for the Howe household. The twins woke up around 7:50 so there wasnt any 'wake up' time. Had to get them dressed quickly. Once again Syd didnt want anything to do with her Jersey and Courtney wanted to wear a princess dress so there was some screaming and crying. We got a nutri grain bars in them and strapped them in their carseats drove out of the garage and realized the back tire is totally flat. Thankfully we went and picked up the Tahoe from the autobody shop last night (still dont have a stereo/nav system in it, ugh) We transfered everybody and off we went. Jon brought one water bottle for the three of them and boy that was a mistake. Courtney was obbsessed with it and Sydney wanted it too so they pretty much spent the whole time chasing eachother for it. Sam on the other had a great time. She was the coaches helper again this week. She got a little tired at times and sat down but all in all she seemed to really enjoy the practice...next week we switch to T ball!

its pretty cute, they do these exercises at the beginning of class. Here they are jumping like kangaroos!


Then they do a quick little lap around the field.

the infamous water bottle!

Syd and Court spent the last half of class sitting in the baseball cage.

stollin'

After dinner tonight we went for a walk around the block. The girls all brought their strollers and picked out a dolly to take...well in Sams case she picked out a horse while Syd brought a naked barbie. Courtney was the only one to bring a 'real' dolly.

Daddy and his girly girls!

at one point during the walk Sam made take her picture while she sat on this rock.

When we got back to the house I tried to get a picture of all three of them. This was the best I got!

sitting on the pot!