Christmas Pictures

Not my Christmas pictures, my parent's Christmas pictures.

Give me a little slack, I just got done with a birthday party, I can't think about Christmas pictures yet.

JJ and Pop wanted to send out a Christmas picture to all their friends showing off their grandsons.



Well these little grandsons didn't get the memo that they were suppose to behave. They used up all their good behavior on Thanksgiving day. Don't get me wrong we knew that it was going to be difficult to get all of them to look at the camera at the same time while sitting still but we didn't think it would be as hard as it was.



I am not sure which picture my mom will pick out to send to everyone but I am pretty sure which ones she will not be sending out. Those are the ones that I want to share with you. If anything for a good laugh and just to make you feel better when you are having trouble to get your kids to behave for the camera.

First we had to make a plan of action. We were cooking dinner. Correction, mom was cooking dinner. We were supporting her by sitting in the kitchen and watching her. She was doing a great job on her own.

Why mess with perfection?

So we were trying to decide if we should take the pictures before or after dinner. Griffin had just been nursed so we decided that if we waited til after dinner he would be asleep. Plus all the boys were playing great and were all happy.

So we thought win-win. We'll go for it.

We ran upstairs to changed their clothes as quick as we could hopefully without realizing what we were doing.

Wild Man did fine.

SCORE! One down 3 more to go!

Griffin and Eli did great too.

Then I went after Romeo, it started going downhill.

First of all Romeo was watching Baby Einstein...my first mistake.

Romeo has also started this wonderful habit when I am changing his clothes or changing his diaper is like trying to tackle a slick alligator. He is a strong little bugger and he begins to continue to roll over and over and pull on anything possible to get out of my grip. By the time we got done my arms are so tired and Romeo is frustrated with me trying to channel Steve Irwin.

First goal achieved. They are all dressed.

Now positioning.

Mom wanted them in front of the fireplace that she decorated so cute. I had an idea to get them to hold onto some decorative Christmas balls. So they would have something in their hands hoping to keep them occupied.

We also had Andrew's fancy smancy camera that takes pictures fast as lightning.

First we got Wild Man, Romeo, and Griffin in position and as soon as Jenny set Eli down and he looked up and saw that there was a camera. He freaked. Eli is like me, he hates to get his picture taken. I totally understand his pain. But we had a goal before us that we were trying our best to achieve.






Then Wild Man realized that the other boys had colorful balls that looked more fun then his and he wanted them. Romeo of course was the easiest to steal from. When Romeo didn't have a distraction then he started throwing a fit.



And let me tell you, he is starting to throwing some big ones. He arches his back throws himself one the floor and even bangs his head on the ground. I don't know whether to be proud of his for being so dedicated and passionate about something, embarrassed that I apparently don't know how to keep my child happy or just worry about the future. I mean the boy just turned one what in the world will the twos be like?



Griffin was so sweet. He just waited patiently for everyone to calm down.



Hope you guys have a easier time then us to get Christmas pictures.

Boys Birthday Bash

We had Wild Man and Romeo's Birthday Party on Friday Nov. 28th.

We decided to have their birthday party together because we have been having Wild Man's on Christmas Eve and it was just too crazy and stressful. I felt like I couldn't enjoy the day celebrating his birthday. Plus we were bombarded with toys 2 days in a row that should last for a whole year. I wanted to try to break it up a little bit. So we thought when all the family was already in town we would try the day after Thanksgiving.

Also it would save us money with just having one party and we will try to take advantage of that as long as possible. Atleast until they realize not everyone celebrates their birthday with their brother.

Lightning McQueen was the theme due to watching that movie well over 1000 times this year. We actually need to get a new one pretty soon due to all the scratches that are all over the DVD from so much wear.

The boys waiting patiently to dig into their presents.




A small fraction of all the fun presents they got. Really... I enjoy them too. I love the cute clothes and all the toys. Some of the toys I was more excited then the boys to play with.




Aren't their shirts cute? Nana, Mr. Genius' mom, made them. I love them. I got the idea from a shop in etsy, which is my new addiction.



Wild Man opening his gift from Romeo, which Wild Man says is his favorite toy.It is Chick from the movie Cars. Note to self before I spend a ton of money on Christmas.



Clothes aren't as exciting to them, but I love them. Thanks JJ for the cute shirts.



Along with our family Wild Man's brother (Brian, he is in the black jacket) and sister (Ashley, she is in the black shirt, she is holding Griffin) came too. We haven't seen them in 2 years.






Romeo is overwhelmed by all the toys that they just opened.



He is such a happy one year old.



Wild Man would rather be playing with his new toys then eat cake.



Daddy had to help blow out the candles, because I am an idiot. I know...shocker.

People, please learn from my mistake.

I bought trick candles... accidentally. I almost burnt my nose. When I was licking the bottom of Romeo's candle my nose suddenly felt really hot. I quickly pulled the candle out of my mouth and noticed it was still on fire! I know that I blew it out so I looked at the box and yes they were trick candles. Oh well, worse things could have happened.







Here's another lesson for you all. Try to stick with white icing... I think I will be picking out red stuff out of his ears and under his nails for weeks. Totally didn't think about that.







Happy Birthday Boys! We love you so much!

Thanksgiving

Mr. Genius and I alternate our Thanksgiving's each year between our families.

This year was my families turn. Two years ago when we had Thanksgiving with my family Wild Man was the only baby.

This year we have four cute little boys. Along with my 2 brothers and their wives, my parents, 4 cousins, 2 uncles, 2 aunts, and one grandmother that started the whole family. Who knows how much bigger our fun family will be in 2010! We know for sure with on cousin getting married in April of one person being added and he is coming all the way from South Africa! It will be fun to see how many more people we can cram into the Barkley's home.

We had such a great time laughing and telling stories and seeing Uncle Rick in his red spandex shirt. I totally vote on that ensemble being worn as he walks his daughter down the aisle.

The best part of the whole day was that there was some type of spell that fell over all the little boys while we were there. There were all GREAT! No whining, crying, or fighting! We could not of asked for better behavior. I think it really helped that my cousin, Becca had her cute little dog Boo there. The boys LOVED that dog. Poor Boo unfortunately doesn't really care for kids especially ones that chase him around the house and don't understand that throwing fetch means to throw the ball away from him not directly at him.

My brother Andrew brought his fancy smancy camera. With his camera it has this amazing concept that when you click the button to take the picture it actually takes the picture right then! Not 20 seconds later when the kids have already run away and all you get in the picture is an empty room.

Well Andrew took some really good pictures of Wild Man and one with Mr. Genius and Romeo too.

My mischievous little boy.



A dog came by and Wild Man was telling him to go home. Apparently he wasn't welcome at our little shin dig.



My absolute favorite picture of Wild Man this year.



All my sweet boys.



Thanks Andrew for the great photos of my boys.

In less then 2 minutes...

Before I had kids, less then two minutes didn't mean much to me.

There just wasn't much that could have been done in that time.

Since the boys have come into our lives...well... I have learned to do a lot in that time frame.

I can take a shower AND get dressed,
I can make the bed AND pick up the clothes on the floor AND dust,
I can pick up the toys AND vacuum,
I can whip up a quick snack with drink, arrange it just to their liking and have the back up snack ready when they change their minds,
I can pack up a diaper bag put the boys coats on, have them in their cars seats, and be pulling out of the garage,
I can eat a full meal,
I can also clean up the entire kitchen after a meal.

Which brings me to the point of this blog. This morning after breakfast, Wild Man wanted me to play puzzles with him. I told him I first needed to clean up the kitchen and in less then 2 minutes I would be able to play puzzles with him.

Wild Man then asked where Romeo was and went to go looking for him.

Then all was quiet in the house.

Why is it when everything is quiet in the house it isn't my first clue to immediately stop what I am doing and go look for the boys?

I need to work on that.

So in less then 2 minutes, this is what I found in Mr. Genius' and my closet.

And for the record, less then 2 minutes prior to this picture there was only 2 pair of shoes on the floor.

*the first picture is a little dark, the flash was acting weird*



Did I mention that due to this crazy weather of being 65 degrees one day and the 30 the next that they both have runny noses?



I should also mention that they were both laughing hysterically at each other and burying their snotty little faces in all the clothes.


The happy sidekick.


This is what is left hanging on Mr. Genius' side of the closet.




If anyone needs me I will be doing laundry and organized a closet for the rest of the week.

Say What?!

Wild Man is really at that age where you just don't know what he is going to do or say next. It is really fun!

But this also means you can't always believe what he says! Please remember that when he tells you that mom only feeds him sugar for breakfast. (Yes, he said that to his teachers at school today).

With that said, Wild Man and I had an interesting conversation on the way to Mother's Day Out this morning.

First let me give you a little background info.

Because I am a complete freak, I have been S-L-O-W-L-Y getting our Christmas stuff out. So of course we have been talking about Santa Claus and Jesus' Birthday and to make things more confusing the day after Thanksgiving I am having the boys birthday party together.

So while I was driving Wild Man out of the blue asked if he will be getting presents for Christmas. I told him if he is good cuz Santa calls me every night to ask if he has been good that day. (I know I am cruel) Then I told him that he would get presents at his birthday party.

That made him excited so he started asking who would be at his party. I began list all the family that will be there and then he asked the craziest thing. He asked if Barak Obama could come to his party.

SAY WHAT?!

I then asked him why would he want Barak Obama to come to his birthday party. His answer was "I don't know."

I think that it is time to turn off the news. He is soaking in all types of information.

Which also made me think that I was so glad that I didn't bring him with me when I voted. Due to him also recognizing Obama's name, he would have most definitely pushed the wrong button... Not that it would have mattered anyway.

A speck of Hope

Like I mentioned in Romeo's Birthday letter Wild Man has been a little (I am being nice here) aggressive towards Romeo. I have been praying that Wild Man would begin to soften his heart toward Romeo and learn to be gentle with him. Well on Wednesday we went to the park and I saw a little glimmer of hope!

Romeo is now at the age where he doesn't want to just sit in the stroller anymore if we are standing still and especially if he sees Wild Man playing and climbing on things. So I got Romeo out on the playground to crawl all in the big playset...jungle gym...or whatever you call the thing that has slides and bridges.

Just didn't want him crawling all over the ground.

Anyways, back to the story.

When we got to the park there were two kids (a brother and sister ) who were very sweet. Apparently they LOVE little babies. So when Romeo started crawling around they immediately ran over to watch and started saying "Look mommy a cute baby!" "Hi cute baby!".

Wild Man was just running around climbing around not paying much attention and then they apparently went too far.

Insert Du...du... dummm. Music hear.


The little girl started calling Romeo... "lil' buddy"!

Well that has always been Wild Man's name for Romeo (which shows me that somewhere deep in inside he loves his little brother).

When he heard that he immediately came running over from the other end of the little park. Screaming "NO...Romeo IS MY LITTLE BUDDY!"

He ran over to Romeo then proceeded to pick him up (the correct way, I may add, and not by the neck) while still saying, "MY LITTLE BUDDY!"

Well once he realized that Romeo is too heavy to carry up stairs he just tried to make the kids leave Romeo alone by enticing them to a "really cool slide" that they need to slide down with him.

So the kids moved on to the slide.

And my heart swelled up a little bit thinking that maybe there is hope that they will actually like each other one day.


******

On a completely different train of thought. I am apparently having trouble with blogger. For some strange reason blogger has stopped emailing me when you guys leave comments. What is up with that? I checked my settings and my email address is still there. I added another one just in case. But it still hasn't emailed me with a comment I left myself. Then for some strange reason it posted Romeo's Birthday letter twice. I did start that letter a couple of days before because I wanted to post it on his Birthday and I knew that it was going to be a busy day.

All that said, I wanted to say that I am sorry that I haven't responded to some comments and I am sorry that the letter got posted twice. But with what Lori said it is probably because he is my second and he just needed the extra attention.

One word

TYPE ONLY 1 WORD. IT'S HARDER THEN YOU THINK!!! I totally feel like I need to write an explanation with each answer.

1. Where is your cell phone? couch
2. Your significant other? computer
3. Your hair? ponytail
4. Your mother? creative
5. Your father? funny
6. Your favorite thing? naptime
7. Your dream last night? scary
8. Your favorite drink? water
9. Your dream/goal? bikini
10. You're in? comatose
11. Your fear? wreck
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? soccermom
13. Where were you last night? attic
14. What you're not? choreless
15. Muffins? nope
16. One of your wish list items? maid
17. Where you grew up ? Knoxville
18. The last thing you did? bath
19. What are you wearing ? snot
20. Your TV? on
21. Your pet? gone
22. Your computer? Apple
23. Your life? neverending
24. Missing someone? Paw-Paw
25. Your car? dirty
26. Something you're not wearing? socks
27. Favorite Store? Pottery (Barn, no fair the answer is two words)
28. Your summer? fun
29. Your favorite color? red
30. When is the last time you laughed? today
31. Last time you cried? Oprah

Now it's 4 answers

32. FOUR PEOPLE WHO E-MAIL ME? Spam, Kurtis, Matt, Lisa
33. FOUR OF MY FAVORITE FOODS: Mashed potatoes, salad, ice cream, PB & J
34. FOUR PLACES I WOULD RATHER BE RIGHT NOW? Disney, shopping, cruise, Italy
35. FOUR PEOPLE I THINK WILL RESPOND: Beth, Katie (by the way love the leg warmers) , Lori, Lindsey (Thank you so much for the potty training advice)

Happy Birthday Lil' Buddy

Romeo today you turn one years old!

I am so proud of you and the little boy are becoming.

I knew that this first year would go fast but i honestly think that with being my second blessing it has gone even faster.

When Dr. Presley first put you in my arms, I cried tears of joy because I was so thankful that God has placed you in my life.



Those first couple of weeks, I rarely put you down because I wanted to savor every second of you being my newborn child.



But even as a newborn you were a Mommy's boy. The day you were born if I wasn't holding you, you would be looking for me. Even though your eyes could only see a few inches in front of you, you would constantly be looking at me across the room.

I do hope that means that we will always be close.



This year you have survived many things.

My mistakes...
which unfortunately are many. I just hope I didn't do permanent damage.



Your big brother...



Where do I start.

This has been the most challenging part of your first year of life. That became apparent the first day home from the hospital when Wild Man got my water bottle and completely soaked you with it. But you took it with stride and didn't even wake up from your nap.

I know that it doesn't seem like it. But Wild Man does love you. My desire, like most moms, is that you two will be close friends. Hopefully this next year with your independence growing you will be able to play with Wild Man more rather then just watch from the sidelines. At least that is my prayer everyday.


Sunday School...

Oh boy. This part has not just been hard on you and me but also half of the preschool department at New Vision Baptist Church. There is even a sweet man that wears tennis shoes to church every week just for you. He's job is to walk you in a stroller through out the whole church and when it is warm you get walked outside for this is the only thing that distracts you enough to calm you down the 3 hours you are there. His wife is happy because this is the only exercise he gets all week.

Ever since the bottle incident when you were 5 months old, you have never been the same since. I will always wonder what was in that milk for you to go from the easiest baby in the nursery to the one that only wanted his momma and no one else would do.

Every week I remind myself that there will be a day that I will not be the one that you want to be with and I will look be at this time and miss it dearly.


Which brings me to the next thing, is that you are a determined and strong little boy.



Once you have set your mind to something it is hard to distract you from anything else.

At 4 months old, your arms were not strong enough to hold your weight but that didn't stop you to get what you wanted.

You would push yourself with your big toes, with all of your might to whatever destination you wanted to go to. I think you started doing this partly to get closer to me and partly to get away from Wild Man.

Eating...



This wasn't so much of a challenge but trial and error. Once I realized that you eat more than any child your age or even my age sometimes. You were a very happy boy.

An example of your lunch consisted of 2 to 3 jars of baby food a small can of carrots and then a bowl of sliced grapes. Yes, that was just one meal.

You are one of the best eaters a mom could ask for. You generally eat whatever I put in front of you. You love green beans, peas, zucchini, and squash. But your favorite is blueberries, apples (sliced with the skin!), cantaloupe, and banana. But that doesn't mean you don't each chili, or lasagna, or even spaghetti squash. I hope you never grow out of this. It is always fun to see what you will eat next.

One funny thing that you do, is that you like to throw some of your food down on the floor and if I take you out of your highchair before I sweep all of that food up you will immediately crawl to under your chair to each your after meal snack.

Which brings me to the next challenge that we had this year.

Reflux...

Ugh. This was not a fun challenge for me at all. You didn't even seem to notice that you would spit up 10+ times a day.

When you were first born you had to sleep in your car seat so that you wouldn't choke while you slept. Which is also the reason you slept in mom and dad's room until you were 3 months old.

This reflux caused you and me to change clothes 3 to 4 times a day and endless cycles of laundry. When you started eating food it caused for investing in lots and lots of stain remover.

But because of all the blueberry and carrot spit up I got hardwood floors!



So thank you Romeo. I will be forever grateful for you and your reflux.

Your favorite toy right now is a ball. Any type of ball is fine but the best are the ones that are squishy. You can be entertain for hours with a squishy ball.



You like to put the ball in your mouth and act like you are a dog and shake your head. You will then throw the ball in front of you and then you chase it, catch it, then throw it again. This usually last for about 30 minutes or until Wild Man takes the ball away. Which ever comes first.



Romeo as the year moved on you have developed the sweetest personality. As long as you have food to eat and you know that I am not going to leave you, you are such a happy baby.



You bring the biggest smile to my face every morning when I get you out of bed. I can not wait to see what this next year brings us.

I Love you,

Mom