Video Killed the Radio Star

Remember the mid '80s when those first commercially distributed home video cameras hit the shelves? Hot diggity those were cool...14 pounds of camera and battery precariously balanced on your right shoulder and a 3-pack of VHS tapes each the size of the family bible in the bag on your left shoulder. Those were the days. Cameras are sooooooo much more convenient in the new millennium. Thank you Jesus. Just a month or so ago Matt came home toting a cute little Flip.



It's the size of a smart phone...think Samsung Blackjack. It's all kinds of digital, point and shoot, flip-out-the-USB arm-and-plug-it-in goodness. And so, we have officially become home video nightmare parents once again. In Jaden's early life we shot gadzoodles of hours of extraordinarily exciting and fast paced video. There were movies of him laying on his tummy kicking his feet, and on his back kicking his feet, and best of all, in the SWING kicking his feet!! I'm pretty sure we once captured a priceless shot of him spitting up. And kicking his feet.

But we have evolved people! We now shoot gadzoodles of hours of the kids running up and down the field chasing the soccer ball! And kicking their feet! Get it? Nevermind. The point of all this is to share a couple of videos with you because my boys are super cute and I think you should see them. But don't worry. New camera technology also means new video editing software thus sparing you, the innocent viewer, many hours of utter boredom. Roll tape!

First we have 2 vids of cute boys tearing up the soccer field and scoring goals...







And then we have a short vid of Matt's little bro Justin and the boys on the trampoline. Justin jumps for a living. Literally. He performs in a Cirque du Soleil show and Jaden thinks this is seriously cool so he asked Uncle Justin to come hang out while he was in town. He obliged and spent some time today coaching the boys and showing them a few things. The boys were in heaven and would've kept Uncle Justin here indefinitely if they could've!




Now, our backyard trampoline significantly limited Justin in what he could show the boys, so, if you have a few minutes, click here on Justin's Cool Job and see what he does for real! It's a clip from La Nouba, the show he's in, and is amazing to watch. This specific clip shows at least a couple of the roles he's had...check it out. It's worth it!

Trekking the RHC

I love the Ranching Heritage Center. Yes. I really do. And not so much for it's cultural and educational potential, which is vast and no doubt amazing, but rather for it's wide open outdoorsiness and relative emptiness at 10 a.m. on any given Wednesday. Can you think of better conditions for letting little boys be little boys?? My big kid doesn't need this so much anymore *sniff sniff* but the little one is still very much in that stage. Every once in a while it's so nice to just let him run free and not have to get on to him for every last thing he touches/stomps/kicks/climbs on/licks. Okay. So you'll still find me offering some correction. He is, after all, a 4-year old male..."No you can't go over the gate and touch all the stuff in there. Get down. Now!" and "Don't climb on the hills. The man at the front desk said the snakes will bite your toes." And yes, the man at the front desk really did say that....something about bulls snakes mistaking little feet for ground squirrels and such. It's so nice that the RHC employees put my family's safety first. Or perhaps he was just on to me.















Yep. That's one cute kid. The other one's pretty cute too, but he becomes quite elusive when the camera comes out. I may drag him off to the RHC sometime soon to see if I can catch him unawares...

In other news this week, the boys spent the night with Grandma and Grandpa and so, Matt and I were able to take in a movie! We don't do that very often anymore as it is very nearly financially devastating to buy 2 tickets on a Friday night. Jeez! And don't even THINK about buying popcorn and Cokes. You have to sign over your firstborn child for that luxury. But I digress. My point in bringing this up at all is simply to say that Star Trek ROCKS and you should go see it. And then you should mortgage your house for more tickets, sign over kid #2 for more popcorn, and go see it again!!

Live long and prosper my friends. Live long and prosper.

Handy Angie, Smilin' Boys, and Santoneyo (in no particular order)

Happy Mother's Day to all the mommies out there...especially my own amazing momma and momma-in-law. Love you both! I had a most lovely Mother's Day myself if you don't count the 22 minute Grant meltdown on the way to church this morning. I should've just let him wear his stupid boots with his cute little polo and plaid shorts but no. It was MY day and I wanted him to wear the cute little boat shoes. He was in such a tizzy by the time we reached church that it took 3 of us to get him into his Sunday school room. Just call me mom of the year. On a much happier note, however, part of my Mom's Day gift was a VERY rare framed photo of BOTH my boys. Smiling. I know! I can't believe it either.



And now for a random shift in topic....I fixed the garbage disposer all by myself yesterday ! Thank you. Thank you. A week or so ago I stuffed a couple of lemon peels down it but they never would grind up and go away. I assumed one of them was just stuck and that it would eventually dislodge and my life could go back to normal. But alas, the bumpity bumpity clunk clunk clunk continued and I was forced, FORCED, to stick my hand down there and remedy the situation. Ick uck yeck. But it worked. I managed to remove the offending object...and it was not a lemon peel. It was something akin to this.



How boring would my life be without little boys?!

A couple weeks ago we all loaded up and headed to Santoneyo (that's Grant-speak for San Antonio) to visit my cousin Amy and her family. They were gracious enough to let our circus crash at their house and we had a great time! We spent Saturday at Sea World....holy cow. It would take about 2 weeks to walk from one side of that place to the other. But the boys had a fabulous time.

Here's Jaden and Hunter at the waterpark...I really think they would've played in there all day if we'd have let them.






We took in all the shows. Jaden and Hunter sat as front row as they could get trying to get splashed. Grant was happy to sit well OUT of the splash zone.





Here's all of us...Hunter, Buck, Amy, Matt, Angie, Grant and Jaden



On Sunday, at Jaden's request, we headed downtown to the Alamo. And that afternoon my other cousin Stacy and her boys drove up to hang out and swim for a while. Her boys are the same ages as mine by a matter of days! I don't know how Stacy, Amy, and I managed to acquire all these little boys but they are adorable and they all got along famously.





Here's Simon and Stacy...



and Joel...



and Mr. Throw a Fit Over a Pair of Boots...