Corry & Calyn's first sleep over

Calyn spent the night last night & the girls did great! When they came down this morning Calyn said "Aunt Meme, that was a good rest!" We went to Whataburger this morning & brought back some breakfast, so everyone is eating now. I think Deachi is getting ready to come over & pick up the princess so we can all get ready for gymnastics this morning.

The rest of the day I will most likley do some birthday shopping since I have to leave tomorrow for a conference in Florida & won't be back until the night before my big girl's birthday! We will have her family party next Saturday. She wanted the same bouncy house that she had for last year's party so we got that all ordered.

Here are a few pictures from last night & this morning.

Our poor neglected 1st born

Last night I hosted bunko at our house which meant the kids went to Grandpa Jack & Grandma Connie's house for the evening. The kids wanted Maddie & Meghan to go over there as well, so Grandma Connie came by & got them which I thought was a great thing since we'd be having people over and not everyone is as fond of dogs as we are. Jimmy came home with the kids, all their things, & the dogs around 9:15 (Andrew went to hang out at the Payne house and got home about the same time).

As always, there was a lot of commotion getting everyone & all their belongings into the house, especially since the kids had talked Grandma Connie into taking the tricycle & the ride on Lightening McQueen over to her house.

This morning Drew woke up at the crack of dawn (6:00ish) yelling "MOMMY!" over & over. I went up to his room to see what was wrong & with his eyebrows all furrowed he said "There's going to be monsters in here." I told him there weren't going to be any monsters & why was he yelling for me. He said he couldn't find his trains. So we searched for his backpack with all his trains. I couldn't find them anywhere so I asked Jimmy if he knew where they were. He said he was sure he had brought them in the night before, but went out to his truck to make sure.

Bottom line - trains were not in the truck, but Maddie was. In the hustle & bustle to get the kids & all their things inside Maddie managed to get shut in the truck & spent the night in there in the garage. How horrible for this poor little dog who used to be the center of our universe. She came in, drank a ton of water & went outside to go potty. It kills me that the dogs have taken such a backseat that our first born spent an entire night in the truck & we never even noticed she was MIA. At least it didn't happen in the middle of the day when it could have gotten really hot in there. Poor, poor, Meemers.

Oh - & the trains were located in the kitchen so Drew was able to go back to sleep until around 8:00. Hopefully Maddie has rested up today, but I feel quite certain that she will not be too anxious to go for any car rides for quite some time.

Dance Preformance

Corry & Calyn had their dance recital this morning. They preformed to "Do You Love Me" and "Friend Like Me" They were so cute in their little leotards & tights. Unfortunately we didn't get any video or pictures of Calyn - it was difficult to see because the room is so small, but here are a few pictures & a video of Corry. I know Deachi got more pictures with her good camera.

Daddy & Drew getting ready to watch the dancing.

Drew playing with trains before the dance recital

Corry getting ready to dance

Our little dancer

Memorial Day Celebration!

This evening we celebrated Aunt Lindsay's birthday (which is actually on Thursday) at her mom's house. The kids had a BLAST swimming in the pool. Neither one wanted to take any time out to sit down & eat dinner. We were all dried off & getting ready to go inside to sing happy birthday, open presents, & eat cake when Drew decided he wasn't ready to go inside yet. He made a dash for the pool and as we were all yelling "Noooooooooo" he dove in - no floaties or anything. Fortunately Jimmy was standing right there & managed to snag him in mid air. Drew was none too pleased about his plans being spoiled, but he got over it pretty quickly when he realized there would be cake to eat.

We all sang happy birthday to Aunt Lindsay & then before she had the opportunity, Drew took it upon himself to blow out her birthday candles. Nothing like stealing a little thunder.

I didn't remember my camera, so no pictures from me, but I know Deachi took a lot, so hopefully she'll have the chance to upload them to her blog soon. All the kids just loved being in the water this evening, especially my two & baby Max. Drew is amazing - he loves jumping in from the side & also loves swimming face down in the water. He's becoming quite the little fishy. Swimming lessons are definitely in our plans for this summer.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend!

Softball Night!

Tonight we went to Jimmy, Olech, & Andrew's softball game. They won & Andrew didn't even throw any balls over the dugout this time. The kids had a blast - they played with another little girl named Hannah. Corry & Hannah were the princesses, Calyn was the handsome prince (since she was wearing pants) and Drew was the monster. Drew spent the evening chasing the prince & princesses & Max ate dirt. Enjoy the pics

Drew, the monster, sitting on the bleachers at the game

The prince & princess trying to escape the wrath of "the monster"

Ah, Halloween in May. I can't get Corry to give up this t-shirt for anything...what better combination than an orange shirt with a kitty cat on it? Never mind that it says Happy Halloween

Precious little blue eyed mini-Papa Charlie

Drew sharing a Cherry Limeaid with Grandpa Bob

Max having a little rock snack mixed with some dirt.

And just for fun - here's what the girls had Andrew doing Tuesday night. They love having a new body to boss around.

Hope everyone has a good Memorial Day weekend!

My mother's day gift

For mother's day the kids gave me a gift certificate to the spa. I've been meaning to scan this in so everyone can see what a talented artist we have in our family. Corry handed me this envelope and told me it was a gift for me for mother's day. She drew a special picture of me on the envelope.

Apparently she doesn't think I smile much & for some reason my legs are growing out of the top of my head. Pretty attractive aren't I?

New Eyes

This morning while I was getting ready for work Drew strolled in and told me his eye is not working and that he needs a new one. I'm not sure if he had something in it, or if he poked himself in the eye or what. I told him that Uncle Gary would be here tomorrow so we would have him look at it and make it all better. Drew then told me that he needs new eyes and this time he wants blue ones. Hopefully Uncle Gary can pull that one out of his bag of tricks.

We're excited to see Mantie Mem, Uncle Gary, & Andrew tomorrow. I was working on getting Andrew's room set up last night & Drew informed us that he would be sleeping with Andrew once he gets here. We'll do our best to keep the little man in his room :)

Updated Dautrich & Payne pictures

I haven't had too many pictures of the kids out here lately, so I got out the camera this evening & snapped a few cute ones. There's also a video clip of Corry showing me how she "shakes her bootie"


Maddie snoozing

Corry giving Mr. Drew a big hug & flashing an enormous cheese for the camera
Corry is getting very excited for her 4th birthday coming up in just a few more weeks!

Corry posing with Meghan

Mr. Max Payne with his beloved paci - you can catch a glimpse of his sweet little blonde curls.

Drew & Calyn watching some Max & Ruby together while Aunt Deachi & Corry went to pick us up some dinner. I either got a great shot of Calyn & a not so great shot of Drew, or vice versa. Wish I had Photoshop so I could splice some of these together :)

Beautiful little Calyn Grace Payne

Calyn giving me the evil eye because I was blocking the TV

Miss Corry shaking her bootie.....what do you think? Are the junior jammer dance classes paying off yet?

Oh - & for those wondering about our cat, Mick, the grandmas said he was around for a couple of days after we left for the cruise, but then they didn't see him again. I haven't seen him since we've been back :( So, looks like we still don't have a cat. Maybe one day.....

We're looking forward to having Andrew down here for the summer. Jimmy started moving all the exercise equipment out of the room - I need to tackle the closet so he'll have a place to hang his clothes. Hope he enjoys the internship! I think the guys are excited to have him on their softball team.

Cruise Pictures

We got back from the cruise today - we were all so ready to see our babies! They were happy to see us, but I think they were too busy while we were gone to even notice we weren't there for a week! Here are a few pictures from our trip.

Jimmy & me at the grill by the pool the day we boarded the ship. I don't think we had left Galveston Bay yet.

Every night they turn down the covers on the bed and make a creature out of towels. When Jimmy saw this one he asked if we got to keep the sunglasses. I told him I hoped so, especially since they are my sunglasses.

Our first port was Montego Bay, Jamaica. Since Jimmy & I had been to Jamaica already (on our honeymoon 10 years ago) we had done a lot of the different touristy things that were offered. We decided on the Canopy Tour which is where they bus you up into a jungle in the mountains, get you into harnesses & you zip line from tree to tree. It was a blast & I highly recommend it if you ever have the opportunity to zip line. Our tour guides were very fun & entertaining native Jamaicans, so that added to the experience as well.

Jimmy & me getting ready to go zip lining through the Jamaican jungle

Deachi, me & part of Matt's face listening to our instructions on how to zip line.

Me zipping through the jungle.

Jimmy, Matt, Deachi, & Me - aka Tarzans & Janes.

Carnival has photographers all over the ship to take pictures in front of cheesy fake backgrounds. We weren't going to have any pictures made, but we walked by and saw a family getting theirs done with the Dad on bottom, Mom on Dad's back, & the two little boys stacked on top of each other & Mom & Dad. It was a cute pose, so we decided it was a must for us as well :)

Our next port stop was Grand Cayman. Jimmy & I had been there before as well for a wedding several years ago, so we had done several of the excursions that were offered there as well. Deachi & I had talked about doing one of the beach excursions while the guys golfed, but we were both still pretty sunburned (even though we had loaded up with sunscreen) so we decided to just go along with the guys. We road around in the carts while they played. Pretty boring, but oh well. Afterwards we stopped at a few shops to pick up souveniers for the kids, then got back on the ship.

There were these huge lizards all over the golf courses in Grand Cayman. By far the highlight of the golfing excursion for me.

A shot of Jimmy on the golf course in Grand Cayman

Our cruise ship, the Carnival Ecstacy. In Grand Cayman the cruise ships can't dock, so they anchor down & tender you into the shore on little boats. When we got to Grand Cayman there were 5 other cruise ships there since everyone had to reroute their cruises from Mexico to other places.

All in all it was a good trip, and while we were excited to get an extra 2 days added to the cruise, I think I would have been fine with the 5 day cruise. A whole week is a long time to go without seeing the kiddos. I really am glad we had the opportunity to take this trip kid free though - we were able to have a nice relaxing time and it sounds like the kids treated the grandparents really well, so that was a relief. Now we have to get back to reality, work through the mound of laundry & head back to work on Monday :(

Update on Mick

We never saw Mick all day Friday, so I figured she/he had returned home. Well, this morning bright & early Mick has returned & the kids are thrilled. Not great timing since we are getting ready to leave in a couple of hours for our cruise, but the grandparents will be here, so we will ask them to leave some food out in case she/he returns.

We're excited for our trip, but I already know I'm going to miss my babies terribly. We'll have lots of pictures to post when we return!