Videos Posted

I've added videos to the blog post below...you'll have to scroll down to see all of them! The Christmas ones are STILL hillarious to me, and I've seen them about 5 times! :) Enjoy!

Extreme Makeover Home Edition

As some of you know, Extreme Makeover Home Edition came to our little suburb. After Ike, we had some extreme devastation. Fortunately, majority of our area had insurance, floor insurance, and some cushion to bounce back. But others were not so fortunate...and some had their homes completely wiped out. Here is part of there story from the Blu Shield Extreme.com website:

In 23 years of marriage, Larry, 40 and Melissa, 40; have fostered over 85 children that other adoption agencies were not able to place. They have four biological children and nine adopted children. They include Chris (23,), Michael (21), Jose (20), Mikala (18), Paul (14), Faith (13), Hope (9), Justin (8), Jacob (4), Grace (4), Jeremiah (23 months), Mercy (22 months) and Cody (19) currently serving in the Marine Corps in Afghanistan. During the last 12 years, they have fostered approximately 85 children, but decided to start adopting after seeing that so many were not being placed in homes.

Due to water damage from Hurricane Ike, the Beach family home is unlivable and they are residing in a travel trailer on their property. Therefore, they have been unable to adopt additional children. But all that is about to change!! www.blushieldextreme.com

They deserved a home. A LARGE home!!

Some of my friends had mentioned that they saw Ty at the gym! Some people saw the cast out and about eating/working etc. Many of our close friends volunteered (a few of nearly 4000 volunteers over the past week!) and worked 'round the clock!

Adam delivered all the vehicles to the cast/crew! That was pretty cool! And the night that everyone got into town, we saw the bus driving down South Shore Blvd! Jackson was super excited! And he kept asking if we were going to see them "Move that bus!"

Reveal day was on Thursday. Like any other television show, they film segments and then splice them together in post-production. I was told that reveal would be around 2pm-4pm. Then I heard 4pm. Then I heard 6pm. I didn't hear any of the later times til we were ALREADY OUT THERE! IN THE RAIN!

I let Jackson stay home from school that day so that I would have time to get him dressed and Everson dropped off (for what I thought would be about 2 hours and one reserve of milk--wrong!) because it was just too cold to have him outside. Jackson and I grabbed some Chick-fil-A on our way down there (hmmm....milkshakes!) and headed to Kemah to park. Even though we live only a mile, we still have to ride the spectator bus to and from there. Jackson was super excited to ride on a school bus. I don't think he's ever been on one! I can't remember...hmmm...either way, he was sooooo happy!! We got there and there was already a mob of folks--seriously, like a million people. It wasn't raining at that point, and it wasn't even really cold. I thought it might get that way, so Jackson had on long-johns, a long sleeved shirt, a sweat, and his Jackson....oh, and hat and mittens! And I brought an umbrella just in case! Thank goodness I did! We ended up getting pushed back and moved around and finally, we found a spot (not in camera view) under a tree. At the time, I thought, "great, this tree is going to drive me nuts standing here for 2 hours." But then in started to sprinkle....then RAIN....and I had my umbrella up in the tree branches and we were warm and dry!! WOO HOO!! At one point, Jackson had to pee--the lady next to us said, "just let him pee on the tree! It's fine!" and a guy on the other side turned his back to block the view of others--and yes, my child peed on the "set" of Extreme Home Makeover! HA!!




















We saw some friends from school--Jackson and Mimi are in the same class! So we jumped the fence and ran over to hang out with them for the moving of the bus! As we're moving, here comes a white. Out jumps a pretty girl and she walks off. THEN, AFTER she's past us, I realize it's Jessica Alba! I was about 10 feet from her, camera in hand, and had no clue! DAMN IT!! We were too far away to see anyone else from the crew :( BOO!

But when it was time, we were READY!! "BUS DRIVER!!! MOVE THAT BUS!! MOVE THAT BUS!! MOVE THAT BUS!!!" ......and there it went....and then in stopped....backed up....and got ready to do it all over again! HA! Jackson was confused. So was the crowd. The family was not there. It was all staged. Again, filming in segments! As soon as that bus took off the first time, we ran for OUR bus to take us back to the car. Remember the rain? Oh, the MUD!! We tramped through the mud and Jackson had a BLAST!! Who knew he loved mud?! I've never let him play in it, but hey, it was a special day and Mommy was in heels. There was no getting around it--she we just ran and sloshed....we were a mess!! :)





The house is beautiful. It's very beachy! Very appropriate! I have video of the bus moving...I'll post that tomorrow! I'm heading to bed!

New Year's Day

After staying in our jammies and having, really, an awful week with everyone being sick, we needed to get out! Mom and Dad called in the morning and asked if we wanted to go bowling and then maybe an early dinner. Of course, we said yes! We hadn't seen them, or anyone, for 5 days....I was tired of staring at walls!!

Jackson had a blast, obviously. This kid loves bowling. He loves bowling, golfing, t-ball, and Wii.

We bowled. Nothing more than that. One game. Then we ate at Cheddar's (one of my fav places for some reason!) and then Adam and Dad wanted to watch Transformers and GI Joe, so we stopped at Red Box on the way home and grabbed some movies....that's all!

I want a 'mote control boat and a gator....

...and that's what Santa brought him!! :) I have a video to post, too, of him on Christmas morning coming down the stairs, and one of him riding through the front yard! But he was ONE EXCITED little boy! Soo happy that Santa thought he was good this year! As soon as we had come down and he had seen all of his toys, he was READY to get out and play in the yard! But first, Jackson had to see what Everson got. And being the sweet little boy that he is, he made sure that Ev saw each and every gift and got to play with them too! All before running upstairs to change into his "john deer clothes". He opened his stocking, too, to find batteries. Lots and lots of batteries and some bath tub paints. When I asked him later, what his fav gift from Santa was, he said "I just love those paints, Momma." Really?!!?! Are you freaking kidding me?! That gator cost a bundle and you lloooovvveee the bath paints that cost Santa $2.99? Then he remembered the gator and said, "oh, yeah....my gator is the best!" Damn right it is!!!

Each of the boys got 3 toys. Why?

1) because the wise men brought 3 gifts to baby Jesus.
2) Jackson asked for really expensive stuff this year
3) We knew that the boys would get tons of stuff from everyone else who loves them!!

Memaw, Papaw, Aunt Stacey and GG came over for breakfast--they brought sausage burritos--and played while Adam and I finished packing the car for Dallas. It was a fun morning!!

Sick Day...Boo

The week before Christmas was a nightmare. It was so bad, that we really were not in the Christmas spirit. At all. Jackson was sick with a terrible cold....hard breathing, stuffy/runny nose, fever, cough...the works. That was Sunday and Monday before Christmas. For a few days straight, I gave him Tylenol meds and coated his body with Vicks and put the humidifier in his room, and it seemed to help. I wanted him to get lots of rest, so I told him that he couldn't get out of bed and had to drink LOTS and LOTS of water (Roaring Water Capri Suns were doing the trick!) On one of the days, Jackson wants to color, but again, he wasn't allowed out of bed, and also my room, b/c that's where the warm mist machine was full of Vicks meds! You MUST NOT LEAVE THIS ROOM!!

So I set up a "desk" on my bed, with a vinyl table cloth to cover my bedspread. We spent the ENTIRE day sitting and watching iCarly, Phineas and Ferb, and Wizards of Waverly Place while coloring and talking to Everson (who was on the other side of the room, away from his brother--unfortunately, we live under the same roof, so of course, he got sick too.)

So happy! Little did we know that he would be SUPER sick in about 26 hours...

The next day, after being stuck IN the house sick, and with no idea that Christmas was in 2 days, we needed to get OUT, so I called my family and we took the boys out to see Christmas lights and then get ice cream. That was about all the Christmas we were having that week.


On Christmas Eve day, we took the boys to see Dr. Perona, b/c Jackson was not getting any better, and Everson woke up that morning with a stuffy nose and a horrible cough. She told us it was just viral and to let it run it's course. She also said to watch the baby closely, and if he developed a fever or got worse, to call or take him to the emergency room. Apparently, the ER the night before had seen 83 cases of RSV. Great.

Christmas morning, Jackson slept. He didn't even wake up excited to see what Santa brought, because he was feeling so bad. Mommy and Daddy were EXHAUSTED too. We were up ALL NIGHT with Everson. He developed a fever over night....uhhhg. He was so uncomfortable, he couldn't breath through his nose, he was FULL of gas....oh! It was so sad. He had NEVER cried before this, we'd NEVER seen him cry real tears...it was heartbreaking. Mommy cried a few times that night too. He wouldn't nurse because he was so miserable. We called Dr. Perona first thing that morning, and she said to give him Tylenol and watch him through the rest of the day, and if after 2 rounds of Tylenol/Motrin, the fever didn't break, take him in. Fortunately, his fever broke, and he calmed down and became more comfortable around 8:30am...good Lord we were tired, though!

Mommy just really hates sick babies with fevers. I'll say it again: I can handle vomiting and coughs and diarrhea, but I HATE fevers!!