HAPPY Valentines Day?

Valentines Day for Austin & me consisted of me spending the day with Brady, and Austin staying late at school studying. I have no complaints of spending the day with Brady, but Austin seriously did not get home until about 10pm. Needless to say, we did not have anything planned. He has been somewhat "stressed" with Law School (Why, I do not know... seems like it would be pretty easy to me) and didn't have much time to do anything but study anyway....

The following day, however, I decided to surprise him.... not with anything sappy or romantic... but with beer, burgers, brats, and a cake. For those that know me, I hardly ever buy beer.... this is mostly because if I buy it, I hardly get any of it. So, me having a cold beer open for Austin when he walked in the door was a BIG DEAL... and having brats & burgers was even better. I was going for the "Wife of the Year" award.

However, things hardly ever go as planned....

You see, having a child, it makes it a bit tougher to grill burgers & brats and make sure he isn't getting into trouble inside the house (have I mentioned that Brady started walking on his 11 month birthday? It complicates these kinds of plans.) Well, to put it lightly, I burnt the hell outta all the burgers & brats. I was so disappointed thinking my "Wife of the Year Award" was going to get taken from me...

However, Austin was so excited to have not just BEER, but MEAT also... so he ate it all up & told me how much he loved it, and me. I was feeling rather grand. You would think having a burnt meal would be the worst part of Valentines Day, right? Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.

After dinner we went on to dessert. I made his FAVORITE kind of cake, German Chocolate, and even splurged & bought little candy letters to spell out "I love you." So cute. It was great....

Until about an hour later... When Austin started to get violently ill. Yep, you read it right folks... instead of giving my husband a "great, quick meal so he could hurry up & study", I gave him food poisoning. Apparently we waited a day or so too long to freeze the ground beef that I had bought the week before....

So, instead of my husband getting extra time to study, I have set him behind over a day while he recovers from my poisoning. Why didn't I get sick, you ask? I didn't eat it, it was too burnt!

I always do what I'm asked....

Some of the people who read this blog are my friend on Facebook. As you may recall, a couple weeks ago I posted a picture of my husband.... It looked like this:


My dear husband did NOT find this picture "entertaining". He was actually quite upset with me for posting it on Facebook for "all the world to see." AND.... he is in the middle of trying to get an internship for the summer and thinks this picture will affect him getting one. WHAT?!? If I were an employer I would think this would give someone an extra boost to get employed!! And... if you can't joke around, then who wants to be an attorney anyway?

Well, this reaction from Austin really made me sad... because I had so many other great pictures of him I still wanted to post on Facebook... GREAT pictures too... pictures like these:





It is also too bad because I had a GREAT idea for a Christmas picture for next year too... but I think if he wouldn't allow that picture on Facebook, he probably won't let us send this one to all our friends and family....

The Belated Christmas post....

So, I don't know why I waited to long to post anything about Christmas.... maybe because we were enjoying quality family time? Maybe because we were traveling to New Mexico to meet Ashley, Brady's cousin just a month older than he? Maybe because I was just too darn lazy? Yes, I think so.

So, since I have waited so long, I will just give you the basics, and then let you look at some pictures of the holiday.

We spent Christmas day in San Antonio at home, and then went to Grandma & Grandpa Mac's house so Brady could enjoy his first Christmas opening gifts with the extended family. Though it was neat to see Brady play with the wrapping paper (wasn't tooo interested in anything else yet...) my favorite part was the present we gave to my little sister, Bridget. She has been Brady's nanny since Austin started school, and we are VERY thankful for that.... though she loves hanging out with Brady, we know she wants a "real" job that she went to school for.... so we wanted to give her a big thank you present. If you know Bridget, she is obsessed with Taylor Swift.... Seriously.... it is kinda creepy... so we surprised her with tickets for Taylor's opening show (in the USA) in Omaha the end of May.... she was shocked. It was awesome.

Merry Christmas!!


Brady's new baseball toy from his cousin in England, Alexis! (He DID like this one!!)


My OTHER favorite part of the holiday was flying to New Mexico & surprising Austin's mom, AKA Nana. She was there spending the holiday with Austin's brother, Wes, and his family. He had a baby girl, Ashley, just 5 weeks before Brady was born. It was awesome to see the two together and see their similarities & differences.... I can't imagine Brady being as smart as Ashley in just 5 weeks.... but we will see!! :)

Ashley!


Cousins!!


More Cousins!


Quality Time with Aunt Jaime


Nana, Brady & Ashley


Nana with her boys & babies


Grandpa Bob with the kids


Wes with Ashley & Austin with Brady

Nanny to Daycare....

So you may remember my little sister, Bridget, has been Brady's nanny since Austin started school. We've been very fortunate to have her help us out.... not to mention she sends me regular updates on the little guy throughout the day... and if I think of a question about his day at 10pm I can call her up and ask her....

Well, she found a job.... One that does not consist of dirty diapers and breastmilk vomit.... she found a job in Marketing... which is actually what she majored in in college, so we had to "let her go" (really... she let US go... but, whatever). But, we could tell she was starting to get bored with her job because she would randomly send me pictures like these:









She even started to get more creative & send us pictures of Brady & Jack (Brady's identical cousin)


But when she started sending us pictures like this, we knew she needed to do something else with her day....

Snow What???

I knew the day would come.... I just didn't know when. Snow. Not here, but in Omaha. Every person's facebook status' are blowing up with the first snow storm of the year.... winds blowing so hard you can't see, drive, or even go outside.

It is 71 degrees here today.

I am not trying to rub this in any ones face..... not trying to be evil about the weather here... but it IS December, right?? It does not feel like Christmas is just a couple weeks away.... it still shocks me that Thanksgiving has already come & gone. The chilly weather has been absent, and its absence is noticed. I started explaining what snow was to Brady today. Do you know how difficult it is to explain snow?

"It is this frozen water that falls on the ground, stacks upon itself, and makes it impossible to drive."

"It is really cold, and if you try & hold it, it melts into water in your hand"

"Lightly frozen rain"

None of these descriptions does snow justice.... not for someone that has never seen or felt snow before. Last Christmas, Austin & I made some videos of the snow so it would remind us on WHY we moved to Texas... these might help him learn what snow is.... a little...



Well.... I was telling my sister, Molly, about how HARD it is to describe snow to Brady.... do you know WHAT she told me about one of her friends facebook status's? "Someone was explaining sleds to me and all the different kinds of sleds there are out there. I never knew that there were so many! It sounds like snow can be lots of fun! Can't wait to see it!" This AMAZES me people!! AMAZES!

Ava Kathleen McCartney

I miss Omaha. Yes, I'll now admit it. Don't get me wrong--- Texas is wonderful..... I love being close to my parents, my youngest sister, Bridget, and Molly & her family.... And the weather being so nice.... It is easy to pretend Texas is so much better than Omaha. Of course we miss our family & friends up North that we've moved away from.....

But.... Something happened in the past couple weeks that makes me miss Omaha like no other.... Something small.... Just 6 pounds 11 ounces and 19 inches.... But the most adorable little girl I've (*never*) met. Her name is Ava Kathleen McCartney.... And is the first granddaughter of the McCartney clan.

Isn't she beautiful?




Big brother Liam is a fan as well...

Karma

When I was a kid I hated my sister Molly. I do not mean the kind of hate kids have when they are mad at one another for stealing the last cookie.... I mean I had full hatred for her... And I am pretty sure I was the ringleader in the "I hate Molly" club amongst our siblings.

For example, when we were kids my mom had a rule that we had to flush the toilet when we were done going to the bathroom. The rule was if you didn't flush, you had to stare at the "contents" for an hour... Really... She even had a timer by the toilet for such occasions. Well, one time I was guilty of the above mentioned crime..... But convinced Molly to take the blame for it. I did this by being nice to Molly... And Molly was so happy that I was being nice to her that she agreed and told my mother that she did this awful deed.... I got to watch TV.... Molly had to face the consequences..... It wasn't until she realized the consequences that she told mom the truth..... And then I got into even MORE trouble....

I remember this hatred continued on into our older years.... I am not sure how old I was when we were at a family function and Molly was doing some very annoying that was irritating me (though now I cannot remember what it was). I was just sitting there watching Molly and then my mother looked at me, and said to me "Browyn, quit looking at her with that awful look like you are going to kill her.".

Basically what I am saying is that I was an awful child and sister to Molly...... I have apologized in our adult life... But I am not sure that makes up for years and years of torment and ridicule.

Why am I telling you this, you ask? As I sit here with my child, and his "identical cousin" (who belongs to Molly) I just got the worst fear of the future..... You see... Both the boys were standing up, looking out the window.... And then Jack (Brady's identical cousin) pushed Brady down and glared at him.... Yes, glared. It brought me right back to the moment when my mother told me not to look at Molly like I was going to kill her..... But Jack was me.... And Brady was Molly. It was awful. I would feel absolutely awful if Molly's son treated my son the way I treated her growing up..... So, I hope Jack is nothing like me one day.