Future Artists

Does anyone else dread this? I left my girls in the kitchen to do "art work." Yeah, what that means is: open every package, mix it all together and spread it EVERYWHERE. Thank you Jacy for Meg's box of goodies. She LOVED it. Look at that look on her face. I think she was worried mamma wouldn't like what I saw...





These were taken the morning of Meg's birthday.

Happy Birthday to Dan and my Meggie Moo

This last Friday was Dan's birthday and Mamo had the girls. All NIGHT! It was nice but about 5 minutes after our dinner, Dan was pacing the house. He actually did not know what to do with himself with no kids in the house. It was pretty funny. It was a good night. Dan decided he wanted to stay at home and cook for us. He cooked the best steak ever and seriously - I don't even like steak. We opened a nice bottle of Cabernet and had a really quite evening. Shortly after dinner, he proceeded to fall asleep on the couch.

The next day was Meg's birthday party. It was lots of fun but a lot of work done at the house. We had 17 kids and Baby Baylee came. I think it was good for Jacy to bring Baylee so she could see what lies ahead for her. I'm so thankful she was able to take pictures for me. She's so good at that - Thank you Jacy. We decorated socks with puff paint, played games and had the upstairs turned into a movie theatre with a popcorn machine. A big THANK YOU to my mom, Gustie & Carl, Jason and Danielle for helping. They probably think I'm weird because I had a schedule printed out with who was in charge with what and at what time. Ok - so I'm a bit organized.... I don't think it's to the obsessive compulsive just yet but it is getting worse with age.

Monday was Meg's actual birthday and we woke up and had our cake and sprite tradition in bed for breakfast. Although I had to work on Monday, I gave Meg her special moments. She got to pick out stuff and go first for most of the day. And for dinner daddy brought home cupcakes from RJ Goodies. Yum - lots of sugar...

Updates from the Callaway Household:
* Claire can ride her bike! She had one of her friends Abbey come over a couple weeks ago and Abbey jumped on her bike and showed her that she could ride without training wheels. For the next 2 days Claire would not get off the bike (she's a bit competitive). She caught on quickly and we've all been taking bike/scooter rides down the street. Big Huge Accomplishment. Daddy told her she was the Bomb Diggidy and she's now been screaming: "I'm the Diggidy Bomb!" You go girl.

* We switched Gymnastics places. We weren't all that thrilled with the new instructor at the Little Gym so we decided to try out Cypress Academy. They love it and I love their instructors. They are mostly males and it's constant high fives and positive reinforcement. Emm is even going now. After our initial Mommy and Me class at Cypress Academy they decided she was good enough to start in the beginner class. Either she was actually good enough or the instructors felt sorry for me since Emm nearly knocked out my front tooth during our mommy and me class. It's still moves a little but I'm hoping it won't turn black and fall out. The girls are very happy while they are there and I feel blessed to be able to keep them in something they love.

* Emm's little personality is really coming out. She says "Hey, get out of here Mister" and "You silly goose." She says the cutest sayings. I think she is getting them from Spongebob but hey they are still cute. I wonder when they will get sick of Spongebob? It has been nonstop for the past year. Emm's teachers tell me she is always the last to go to sleep at nap time because she is so concerned with all the other kids. She wants to make sure they all go to the bathroom and she wants to know if they went tee tee or the other one. I guess she is just facinated with how that all works. She is such a mamma's girl and unlike the other 2, she still cries when I drop her off. She just wants her mamma which makes me feel so good.

Taylor Swift (a step up from the Disney Princess cd, Hanna Montana, Jonas Brothers and Camp Rock) has been non-stop in the mini van for the last month. Even I can't quit listening to it. I love it. And when Emm sings it is just so cute. Claire really gets into her music. She has these deep facial expressions and she really listens to and knows every word from all her songs. Claire told me the other day "Mommy, you know the reason why my emotions came out in that song is because I was thinking of Ian." OMG! Ian is a boy from her school from last year. The song was about missing someone. I think she is wondering where he went because he is not there this year. Either way - this disturbs me!

So, I wake up every morning to Emm and Meg kissing my face. It is so soft and sweet and I hear "I love you mommy.... wake up..." It's these moments I treasure. Thanksgiving is in a few days and I'm really just so thankful for my hubby, my family, my kids and my friends. Mom, you are such a great friend to me. Alway listening and never judging. I hope I can be as good of a friend to you as you are to me.

The slideshows are from the HP Fall Festival held at the Oil Ranch and the other of Meg's 4th birthday party. There were just too many cute pictures to choose from.

Congrats Paul & Leah

Thursday I visited my friends Paul & Leah who just had their new baby Samantha. She was so precious and sweet. Just wanted to say a big Congrats and I can't wait to watch all 3 of you grow together as 1 sweet family.

My little Meggie

She is the cutest thing I have ever seen. Seriously, I love that girl so much. Tonight after I was drying her off after bathtime I told her to go get dressed and to come back to the bathroom so I could trim her fingernails and toenails. Her response... "No Mamma, you don't need to do that - I've already eaten them all!"

They are so sweet and honest. One other little Meggie story... we were standing in line to vote on Thursday evening of last week. Me and the girls ended up sitting on the floor while Dan worked the line (it took us 2 hours by the way). The girls were not on their best behavior. Anyway - I turned my head one direction and when I turned it back I saw this lady laughing hysterically. Some strange lady... she then caught her breath to tell me that Meggie was digging so hard in her nose and right in front of the whole line of people. I guess Meggie got what she was looking for because then she ate her booger in front of everyone!

Please, please... if anyone can help me help my kids with this whole booger eating thing, please let me know!

Here's a pic from Halloween. Notice Meggie - she can't resist the funny faces. Love that girl.

Claire's 1st Fish

Claire caught her first fish this weekend at Bob's ranch. And Dan caught a pretty nice sized Bass. Claire was so excited but a little scared and not wanting anything to do with actually taking the fish off the hook. It was super cute and we all had a good time. Daddy and Charlotte ran around catching grasshoppers to use as bait. Those suckers are hard to catch. I couldn't catch any! Megan really wanted to throw the fish back in the water but every time she went to grab it she got grossed out and couldn't do it. We had so much fun.

Eliza's Party & our yearly trip to the Pumpkin Patch

This last Saturday we had so much fun at our dear friend Eliza's Halloween party. My friend Lisa (Eliza's mom) is so creative and her house was decorated like nothing I had ever seen. The girls got such a kick out of all the spooky Halloween stuff - everywhere. I'm so utterly impressed with my friends who can decorate their homes for each season. I'm the type who tries really hard, but never quite get it right. I certainly make it to the stores for the after season clearance, but the stuff never makes it to my walls. Arrrrgggghhhh... My kids had their first slushies ever and boy did they like them. I think they each had about 3 before the night was over. There was face painting and they even played the movie "Nightmare before Christmas" outside. The kids loved it!

On Sunday, we went to the Pumpkin Patch. A little too crowded for my taste but it is a yearly tradition and the kids are always excited about it. We were only there for about 30 minutes and squeezed in a Hay ride with Nana.

My smallest kitten Emma



My middle kitten Megan who is actually allergic to kittens



Queen kitten Claire - her costume was a big hit


Halloween is such a fun time for us so this month you will be seeing lots of pictures from us! We love all the photo opps!

Quick Update...

Goodness, we've been so busy. I started my contract position and now any free time I have is spent working! Big bummer. My days of dropping the kids off at school and running the roads to all my favorite stores are GONE! G-O-N-E! It's going pretty well and I have a lady that I've known for a very long time come to my home on Mondays to watch the kids. I'm so impressed that the girls don't bother me at all. They don't even try to come into the office. Occasionally they pass by and wave, but they turn around quickly and run away. For a 2, 3 and barely 5 year old I think that is pretty darn good!

We had Claire's party at Oogles N Googles last weekend and it went really good. She had a great time and I did absolutely squat so that's my kind of party. They did the invites, cake, goody bags, papergoods, etc. I ordered pizza and that was about it. I can't believe she is 5. While I'm on the subject of Claire, we had an incident at school that made me so sad. It was Tuesday of this week and I was packing Claire's lunch the morning of school. Just a little history... I still feed them baby food for 2 reasons. One, they never stopped eating it and have always liked it. Secondly, it is the most convenient thing in the world for me. Not to mention they are getting nutrious food... Anyway - I was packing Claire's lunch and I told her I was giving her some squash with her sandwich which she usually loves but this morning I looked at her and saw tears rolling down her face. I went to her and asked what was wrong and she got all choked up and didn't want to tell me. When she finally did she said "mamma, all the kids at school were making fun of my baby food last week. They were all laughing at me." I can't believe 5 year olds are making fun of each other already! She was so upset and I started crying and I told her I would never send food that wasn't cool anymore. What in the world was I supposed to say? I get so protective and I was so upset. We both cried and hugged. I guess this is just a little taste of what I will be getting down the road. Hmmmm....

So, this year for Halloween I am going to be an 80's Rock Star (Claire picked out the Rock Star and I picked out the 80's part of it). The girls love, love, love to tell everyone that daddy is going to be mommy's "White Trash Loser Boyfriend." I bought Dan a Mullet and he is going to look so fine. Seriously, I have never seen him go shopping for himself, but he called me a couple days ago on his lunch break and he was headed shopping at Salvation Army and Buffalo Exchange for his 80's attire. I couldn't believe my ears. We have a dress up party this weekend and I am just so proud of him. Dan is what I call "Not a Planner." We use that phrase in our house a lot. I couldn't believe he took the initiative to go out and get an outfit. His jeans are hilarious!