The gag reflex & jack-o-lanterns

Drew seems to have inherited the Bullard family gag reflex. From what I'm told, Grandad Bullard couldn't even brush his teeth without gagging. Mom has it, I have it, Deachi has it, & Olech has it (although Deachi & I have gotten better since having kids). I can't believe with as little is Drew is that he already has it as well. The instant he glanced at the pumpkin guts he started gagging. No help digging out seeds from this little man!

The reason they are nudie/half nudie is that they had on new fall clothes & I didn't want them to get pumpkin guts all over them....little did I know that wouldn't be an issue for the Drew-man :)

Calyn's parties

Thought I would post some pictures from Calyn's family parties - I don't have any from Pump It Up. There's quite a few pictures because I just couldn't decide which were my favorites.

Corry dressed in Calyn's new Wicked Witch of the West dress up clothes

Drew wearing Mommy's Halloween mask.

Sweet little birthday princess, Calyn Grace

Max helping to celebrate his sister's birthday by munching on a mini-pumpkin

Drew taking a whack at the bat pinata

Austin Powers aka Daddy helping Ariel aka Corry beat the heck out of the pinata

A wicked Deachi helping birthday girl hit the pinata

Check out these floatation devices! Sorry Deachi, I couldn't resist!!!

Our beautiful blonde Little Mermaid

Drewski in his pirate gear - arrrrgh!

Drew blocking Daddy out of the Halloween costume modeling picture

Grandma Chebs & her two baby boys!

Calyn at Kobe Steakhouse being sung Happy Birthday to - it's beyond me why the people at Kobe felt it appropriate to have a 3 year old handle a sword for the photo op.
Sweet little birthday girl enjoying her dinner at Kobe

Grandma Chebs & her little maniac!

Mommy & Corry at Kobe

Hope everyone is having a good week so far. We're keeping our fingers crossed that everyone gets well and stays well for trick or treat Friday night!

Halloween Party at the Little Gym!

Corry & I didn't make it to the Halloween party - she woke up from her nap throwing up and I joined her a short time later. Matt was also home throwing up, so Jimmy & Deachi took Calyn & Drew to the party. And look who is wearing his pirate cosutme! Somehow they made it there without his pants, but he had on jeans, so it worked out okay.

Corry and I both feel 100% better today, so fortunately we won't miss out on Calyn's birthday parties. Below are some pictures of Calyn & Drew at the party last night. I asked Jimmy to take pictures and apparently he thought I wanted pictures of all the "hot" moms & gym teachers that were at the party. Good grief. There are a few of the kids.

The Halloween Costume Drama

I don't know what we're going to do about Halloween - Drew refuses to even try on his pirate costume because he desperately wants to wear the mermaid costume. I may try to see if he wants to wear Corry's frog costume from a few years ago. Our first test will be tomorrow evening at the kid's Halloween party. This video is a little dark, because he's sitting in the closet under the stairs where the costumes are hanging. For those of you who don't understand Drew language he's saying "wear mermaid, wear mermaid."Any suggestions on how to break this obession? There are also a few additional pics of the kids after the video clip.

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And here are a few other pictures of the kids from yesterday. They got new roller skates. They are much better and more confident roller skating on the carpet than on the tile :)



Drew thinking about sharing his snack with Carlie Beast.
Corry laying down with her new Dora Rollerskates and knee pads.

Drew eating some crackers and showing off his new Lightening McQueen rollerskates. He has knee pads too, but didn't wear them for too long.

At home with the kiddos today!

I went into work early today & came home around 9:30 so Jimmy could get to his meetings. Fortunately (I guess) Drew is completely back to normal, so it was a really short lived virus like the pediatrician said. Corry was super cranky from the time I got home until we ate lunch, and then she was a happy camper again. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that she doesn't end up sick, but if she's going to I want her to do it now so she doesn't have to miss out on any of the fun activities we have planned for the weekend.

The kids got a little carried away with their dipping sauce at lunch so we had an afternoon bath before naptime. Here are some pics & video clips.

Drewski in his goldfish towel. Isn't he a cute little fishie?

Corry giving her doll a bath in the bathtub. I had to load Corry's hair down with conditioner - she was working on a pretty serious set of dread locks, but its all smooth again now.
Our sweet little house guest, Carlie. She has been an excellent puppy dog while Mom & Dad are in Australia. I'm sure she's ready for Dad to get back though because she hasn't gotten to go on a walk since he's been gone. She has enjoyed running around in our backyard though! The only causualty has been a little stuffed cow & a weinie dog beenie baby (that was sort of a mess!) Otherwise a sweet little lady - or should I say BIG lady!

Corry making her doll's hair "beautiful"

Drew watching some Backyardigans in his fish towel

Stupid virus take two

Drew woke up covered in puke again. Grrrrrrrr. Poor guy was miserable all day. I stayed home in the morning & Jimmy stayed with them this afternoon & evening while I was at bunko. We're trying to keep Calyn from getting sick since its her big birthday party weekend. I'm sure Corry is doomed. I just hope if she gets it she does it early in the week so she'll be better for all the Halloween parties we have this weekend. She will be so disappointed if she doesn't get to go.

Drew is getting his 2 year molars (the edges are just pushing through) so part of me is hoping that's what is causing his woes, but neither of them have ever gotten sick with teething before, so who knows.

I can't imagine what it would be like if they were in daycare - I guess their immune systems would get stronger after awhile and maybe they wouldn't get sick everytime someone sneezed in their general vicinity. Oh well, I guess this is life with kids, huh?

Bryce's birthday party

The kids had lots of fun at Bryce's 3rd birthday party. He had a bouncy house, got a new playground for his backyard, & they did landscaping and had a waterfall installed so the kids loved checking it out. Drew desperately wanted to go swimming in their pool, but we were able to convince him that it was too cold to go swimming. I thought for sure one of us would be going in after him at some point! Here are some pictures from the party.

Daddy, Corry & Drew checking out the waterfall in Scott & Tammi's backyard.
Drew wishing like crazy that he could go for a swim. Dangling his feet in the water was as close as he got today.
Corry swinging on Bryce's new playground. I really did fix her hair before we went to the party....I know you can't tell from the pictures.
Drew & Tammi intently watching Bryce open his birthday presents.
Happy little 3 year old Birthday Boy, Bryce!

Red Crocs

Last spring I bought Corry fake pink Crocs from Wal-mart for $5. Drew loved the pink Crocs and wanted to wear them all the time. So I bought him some fake red crocs....oh how I regret it. He wants to wear them with EVERYTHING. Anytime I would get out any of his other shoes he'd shout "too small!" In his defense his other shoes were getting too small, so yesterday I bought him a new pair of sketchers tennis shoes. As soon as I showed them to him he responded with "too small!" I got them on him and he threw a huge fit. I can't wait for the red crocs to fall apart so I can throw them away. I'm just afraid he'll go barefoot and never wear shoes again. I supposed it was a $5 well spent. With as much as he loves the fake ones he may just get a pair of real ones for Christmas - there's a lot bigger variety of colors in the real ones than the Wal-Mart ones!

Corry & Drew had gymnastics today and had lots of fun as usual. Corry and Calyn both did really well in their class this morning, but Corry hasn't talked much about what all they did. I was in Drew's class with him. At the beginning of his class they asked every child to say what their name is. When they got to Drew, she said "What's your name?" and he shouted - "DREWSKI!!!" I think she was a little confused since she only knows him as Drew.

They are resting now and later we will be going to Kingwood for Bryce's 3rd birthday party. Corry's looking forward to seeing Bryce & Kyla.

I'll try to remember my camera & get some pics of the kids at the party.

Swallowing Bugs

I had to come home early from work today because I started throwing up. I really think it was because of the killer migraine I had, but 2 other people were out sick at work today, so it could have been a bug (I feel tons better after a long nap & some dinner). Anyway - as I was putting Corry to bed a few minutes ago she asked me if I was sick because someone gave me a bug. I told her I wasn't sure, but it was possible. She responded with "Did you swallow the bug when someone gave it to you?" Funny stuff! I guess when you're 3 you take things pretty literally, and I'm sure she was wondering why on earth I would want to swallow a bug.

Drew's new thing is to poop after he's all clean from his bath. He's still in diapers, so you can always tell when he's doing it. He really doesn't want anyone around when he does it, so he'll usually go upstairs into the playroom to do his business. If you happen to walk in on him while he's in the process he'll say "Go away, Mommy."

Jimmy will be home with all 4 kids tomorrow & Friday since Mom and Dad are in Australia. This will be his first shot at 4 under the age of 3. Hopefully his newborn care skills will come back to him since he'll have 6 month old Baby Max. I think that will probably be the most challenging part since Max is still very dependent. Usually when you're preoccupied with Max is when Drew will decide to get into mischief.

Hope everyone's having a great week!

"Make a Mess"

Corry & Drew's bedrooms are upstairs and ours is downstairs. Since they've been born we've kept all their clothes, jammies, undies, etc in our bedroom closet & dressers since that made my life a little easier when it came to doing laundry & getting ready in the morning...everything was all in one spot. However, that all ended this weekend when Corry wanted to know why Calyn has her clothes in her bedroom and she didn't get to have her clothes in her bedroom. I decided it was okay to make the segregation, but if I was going to move their stuff upstairs I wasn't just going to do her - might as well do Drew's too.

Corry is so proud of her closet & has everything organized. She even changed clothes on her own today - she came downstairs in her "Grandma T-shirt" (the matching shirts we all have from Grandma's 80th birthday celebration). I did laundry all day and everytime more of her clothes were ready to go upstairs she was so excited to take them up and put them where they belong. I know this is too good to last, but might as well enjoy it while she isn't putting up a fight.

Since we now have a lot more space in our closet I decided to organize everything and clean it really well. I spent all day organizing their closets & ours, finding things to throw out, give to good will, or put in boxes for Calyn & Max. I was all finished and got out the vacuum cleaner to sweep the carpet in there. Drew was watching me intently and even pushed the vacuum a few times. I went to put the vacuum away and when I walked into the bedroom Drew was coming out of the closet with a HUGE smile on his face. He announced "Make a mess!" I dreaded going into the closet to see what he had done. The little turkey had taken 35 articles of my clothing off the hangers and strewn them all over the closet floor....all that in a matter of 30 seconds.

I don't know why I even bother trying to be organized. He can undo things 80x faster than I can clean them up. Oh well.....

Dewberry Farms

The kids had gymnastics this morning & then we made our annual trip to the pumpkin patch this evening. Its a long haul but the kids had a blast. They were completely worn out as proven by the meltdowns each one had when we got home. They were totally wiped out. Here are some of my favorite pictures from the day and a few video clips as well.

Drewsky started off the day with a new haircut. Since giving this little maniac a haircut is such a major fiasco I decided to go ahead and get our money's worth today, so he got a buz cut. My mom hates it - she thinks it makes him look even meaner than he already is. I think it just enhances his spirited personality :)
Corry in the bed of Daddy's truck all ready for gymnastics in the new gymnastic suit Grandma Chebs bought her.
Precious Corry at the bouncy thing at Dewberry Farms. She loves her Halloween kitty cat shirt.
Calyn enjoying the dinner of her choice at Dewberry Farms - a Tiger's Blood snowcone, some kettle corn, and an unknown something else.
Mr. Blue Eyes making a funny face but looking quite handsome in his OSU gear.
Mommy & her precious babies going for a "train ride" in barrels painted like corn.
Corry having fun in the big haystack.
Happy little Drew cracking up at the goats trying to eat stuff out of his hands.
The 4 cousins posing on the pig.
The Dautrich Family - I wonder if we'll ever be able to get a family picture with us all looking at the camera and smiling at the same time? Wishful thinking.
Drew in search of the perfect pumpkin.
Corry holding a pumpkin.
Daddy & Drew posing with our pumpkin.
Corry playing with her flashy jack-o-lantern necklace Grandma Chebs gave her.
Drew zonked out after a few minutes of screaming his head off because he didn't want to leave Dewberry Farm.

The jumping maniac

Drew laughing at the Goats

Corry Feeding the Goats

Halloween Costumes

When I got home from work yesterday Corry announced that she was going to be a mermaid for Halloween. I knew they had an Ariel costume at the Disney store so we decided to go check them out. All along she kept saying she wanted Drew to be a pirate and they had Pirates of the Carribbean cosutmes as well (a skeleton in pirate clothes). Corry is so proud of her mermaid costume & matching shoes and Drew looks absolutely adorable in his pirate costume. However, even more than his own costume he REALLY loves Corry's costume. It was a knock down drag out trying to get him out of it. I can't wait to see what kind of an uproar there is come Halloween when he has to wear the pirate costume instead of the mermaid outfit. I'll try to get a picture of him as a pirate sometime in the next couple days.

Bubble Blowing Fun

I thought this little clip of the kids blowing bubbles was funny - hope you enjoy!

Anyone want a 2 year old little punk?

This morning started out great - Corry was in a fantastic mood because I finally did laundry so her Eskimo Joe's T-shirt was clean, & even better that Drew's was as well. They were being really sweet to each other - giving hugs & kisses & working puzzles together. I decided to make them blueberry muffins for breakfast & they love to help (pictures below). Too bad things didn't stay so calm. Fast forward a few hours. Jimmy had left to go play golf & I finally decided to jump in the shower and thought I may take the kids to go look for halloween costumes. Generally the instant I turn on the shower water they are both in there wanting to get in the shower with me. Corry was right on schedule, but Drew was intent on working his puzzles in the living room, so I left him in there thinking he'd be joining us any minute. I was starting to get concerned when I was almost finished with my shower & he still hadn't come into the bathroom. I was imagining all kinds of horrible scenarios, so I quickly got out of the shower, put on my robe, and went to see what he was up to. I heard a toilet flush, and then what sounded like running bath water. I thought he had gone upstairs & gotten into a bathtub. I started to head upstairs when I realized the rushing water sound was coming from downstairs, not upstairs.

I found Drew splashing around in our half bathroom in about a half inch of water. I'm not sure what he flushed down the toilet, but it was good & clogged and water was rushing out from under the toilet seat. Fortunately it only made it a few feet outside the bathroom door. I did stick my hand down the toilet (gross, I know) to see what he'd flushed & I couldn't find anything. So, I don't know if he just put a lot of toilet paper in there or what. I had to get out the shop vac to soak up all the water.

This coupled with the fact that I feel like absolute crap has not made for a very fun day. 2 crummy weekends in a row really stinks. Hopefully we'll have a nice calm week & next weekend we can enjoy a nice relaxing weekend. I'm afraid if Drew's any part of the week or weekend, it won't end up being very relaxing. Oh well......here are some pictures of our blueberry muffin preparation this morning.

Fighting over the batter bowl. I think they actually like licking the bowl more than they like eating the blueberry muffins.
A cheesey smile from Corry & a near cry for Drew (he was upset that she wouldn't let him have the bowl)
Daddy getting ready to go play golf, but taking a few minutes to get a picture with his kiddos.
Spikey-haired Drew.
Silly Corry with a spoon in her mouth.
Hope everyone had a good weekend!