Friends

I was just looking through some pics on my phone and I just love seeing so many pics with Jackson and his friends. He is so blessed to have so many wonderful buddies in his life!

Love this picture of Jackson and Lauren downtown. Sweet sweet Lauren. She's going to be my daughter-in-law someday if I have any say in it. :)



Precious CJ Heskett! We love this big 3 year old to pieces! Always full of life and full of laughs.


Love these pics of Jackson and Lilly......just cruisin in her backyard in her Escalade. No Big Deal.


Uh oh....they are up to SOMETHING!


And love these Soccer Buddies! Love that they get to play soccer together and learn about teamwork together!


We have been to a lot of birthday parties lately....here is the Walkman at the Science Museum!


And afterwards at another birthday party at Fuzzy's downtown. Cuties!


Also discovered while looking through my phone were a couple of videos that Jackson had taken of himself. Oh. My. Goodness. He's whispering, but I *think* he says, "I'm going to give a concert and sing and invite my whole family."



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Thank You Jackson!

Thank you Jackson for being such a big help with your baby brother.


Thank you for holding Walker. Thank you for loving Walker. Thank you for your friends who love Walker.


Thank you for making him laugh. Thank you for knowing what he needs.


Thank you for smelling a poopy diaper before even I do. Thank you for running for the hills when said poopy diaper is confirmed.


Thank you for your patience. Thank you for your strength!


But most of all...thank you for being you!!!! We all love and adore you sweet boy!

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Annoyed.

I'm annoyed. And I shouldn't be. But I am.

We are on Day 11 of another round of sickness for the Walk Man. A long bout of ear infections that wouldn't clear up last week led us to making an appointment for a consult with an ENT for little man for tomorrow. Looks like we are on our way to tubes.

Tomorrow can't come soon enough.

There is nothing worse as a parent than having a sick kiddo and there isn't much you can do to help them. Which is why I'm annoyed. I want to help him feel better PRONTO. NOW. IMMEDIATELY.

I joked with the receptionist at the ENT office that I wish they had a drive thru service for tubes. I would so be on that.

All of my other kiddos have had to get tubes at a young age and it has helped them TREMENDOUSLY.

Hoping for the same for my sweet little guy.

But look at him. He's still just so stinking cute for being sick!

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Some things I never want to forget..

As I was putting my kiddos to bed tonight it struck me that there are a few random things I never want to forget about this time in my life. So, without further adieu...here are my random thoughts in no order whatsoever accompanied by some recent pics of my loves!



I don't care how big Jackson gets, I will forever carry him to his room after he falls asleep. He has always loved being in our bed to read a story at night and he usually falls asleep before the story is over. As I was carrying him to his room tonight I realized how tall he had gotten and how his legs dangled past MY knees while holding him! As I laid him down in his bed he sat up, grabbed my neck and gave me a huge hug and said, "thank you mommy. I love you." I'll carry him forever.



Walker is a face toucher. When you are feeding him a bottle or if he is just simply sitting in your lap, he turns to face you and lays his hand on your cheek. His eyes look deep into yours and its as if he is studying your face as you study his. It takes my breath away sometimes.



Walker's favorite thing is when Jackson and I whisper in his ear, "stinky cheese." It's random, I know. One day we were walking through Whole Foods and we walked past the cheese section. It smelled really bad and I must have whispered stinky cheese loud enough for Walker and Jackson to hear. Both started hysterically laughing at the same time so now we say "stinky cheese" all of the time and we all laugh.



I am so glad I am a boy mommy. Everytime I go to mistletoe market or some other kids boutique it totally stresses me out seeing all of the accessories and outfit choices for girls. I am so thankful that in the morning when getting everyone ready to go all I have to do is grab pants and a shirt or jersey of some sort and everyone is happy. Bows make me break out in hives.



I love Jackson's love for books. He can't wait for us to read to him at night and it since I am a book nerd and could be happy reading all day, it literally makes my heart sing when he begs for one more chapter at the end of the night...and it's not because he doesn't want to go to bed....it's because he can't bear to have to wait until tomorrow to find out what happens in the book we are reading.



At the end of each prayer we say as a family we always say, " and God bless Isaiah." Somehow, along the way, someone started fist bumping their chest and then pointing a peace sign at the sky after saying Isaiah's name in the prayer. It's totally ghetto and I love that we all do it. I hope we never stop.



Jackson tattled on me today to Renzi because I said, "sh**." To my credit, Walker had been crying all afternoon (he has another ear infection) and as I went to feed him his dinner tonight he threw his hand up right as I got the spoon near his mouth and his food flew all over my face. You would have said "sh**" too.



Walker smiles and flirts with any woman that comes in his path. It's hilarious. Quite the ladies man.



Jackson still say "Otay" for "Okay," and he says "Barely" instead of "seriously." For example, "Mom I ate my lunch. Barely." Or, "I am so barely good at basketball." I could correct him but I don't want to. Not just yet.



I love it when the boys do something precious and Renzi and my eyes meet over their heads and we share that special smile. That smile says more than words could even say.

Just some things I had on my mind today that I never want to forget!!!
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Paris Highlights

Well, when I said I would post about France tomorrow, what I really meant to say was I would post about France in 8 days. Oops.

All in all we had a fabulous trip to Paris. We ate, drank, shopped, walked, went to museums, saw the sites, ate some more and repeat. I have come to the realization that I have a love/hate relationship with Paris. I love it, but I hate it. For all the reasons I love it, I also don't care for it. It's a fabulous city and I encourage everyone to go if they get a chance to sometime in their lives. I'm glad we did but it's an interesting thing to learn about yourself and the relationship you have with a city.

So....here's what happened on our trip to Paris....

We got off the plane after the red eye and hopped in a car and drove to Normandy.

The GPS led us to this.



Then, it led us to this.

We thought we had found what we were looking for because we were looking for the American Cemetery in Omaha Beach. When we got to this cemetery we were surprised to find no one else there. It was rainy, so we thought maybe people just weren't out. As we walked around for a while we suddenly realized where we were. We were at the German Nazi cemetery!!!! Oops.

We finally figured out where we were going and we FINALLY made it to Omaha Beach where the D-Day Invasion took place.


Here is a picture of the American Cemetery. Breathtakingly beautiful.



The next few days were filled with lots and lots of fun things. Renzi had his meetings so I wandered around The Louvre one day (and I figured out the Paris Metro System...what an accomplishment on my part...figuring out the metro in a foreign country! Major props to me. Seriously. So proud of myself.)

We went to Mu see D'Orsay and got our fill of the Impressionists. Monet and Renoir are among my favs. I wish I had pics of these things but as I mentioned in my last post, I lost my phone somewhere between France and Denver and all of my pics from these days were on that phone. Tear. :(

These last pics are from Renzi's phone...

On our last day we stumbled upon this street near Monmarte....and I found the most amazing vintage shops. I found some great steals and then found the TRUE vintage shops you hear about and read about. This one shop had a white Chanel purse that was to DIE for. And a Vivienne Westwood jacket that literally had me drooling. Pretty awesome.

We rode a river boat down the Seine the last day as well and it was really great. Here is my love and I in front of the Eiffel Tower.



Yoga posing (I realize I do not do this correctly. I have no balance and I am the least flexible person on the planet. Serious.) around the world! If you want to know what I am talking about go immediately to We Go Round The World    and read about my bestie's adventures around the world. Not kidding. Click on the link and go right this minute!

Hubs does the yoga pose better than I....hee hee.



Beautiful Eiffel....



This pic is for you Allison and AJ! Smooth and FRUIT! This was taken when we stumbled upon my mecca, The Four Season George V....love love love that place. We had after dinner drinks there one night and the people watching here was beyond incredible. Paris Fashion Week had just wrapped up so the bar area was full of models and their friends. I really felt bad for some of them because I am pretty sure they have never had chedder bites with ranch from Sonic. Like Ever. So so sad. :)


Here we are on this awesome bridge full of locks. The story is that you go to this bridge and write your names on a lock, lock it to the bridge and then it means your love will last forever.

Paris was a great time, but what I enjoyed most was walking hand in hand in the city of love with my love (Mushy I know), sitting in cafes people watching, and soaking in and learning about the culture of a different country. This is why we travel as much as we do and why we try to take our kids with us whenever we can. We want them to know more than just what their daily lives entail and to be aware that there are so many different ways you can choose to live their lives. We want to inspire them to be different and to live the life they choose while learning and evolving with the world around us.

Au revoir!
LAS

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We're back!

After a 9 hour plane ride from France to D.C., a cancelled flight home, re-routed to Denver, a lost phone in Denver (GRRRRR....yup, MY phone), an after midnight arrival into OKC with a 7 month old, we are officially back from Paris.

Jet lag has set in. I literally feel like there is a haze surrounding my eyes. I've been to Starbucks twice today.

But still I must press on......

Until 8:30 p.m. at the LATEST.

A blog post about the rest of our trip shall come tomorrow.

In the meantime, my boys and I will be snuggled up on the couch. Well, for as long as they will let me. :)

 Oh how I missed them!!!!

Love,

Lee Anne

Magical place.

After a quick stop in D.C. where we dropped the Walk man off with Aunt Ginny and Uncle Dave, the hubs and I hopped on a plane to Paris!

I heart business class.


I heart the big seats, but sadly we did not sleep in our overnight flight. We arrived in Paris at 6 a.m. and caffeined up and pressed on. We rented a car and drove to Normandy to see the D-Day museum and Omaha beach.


It truly is so amazing to think of the sacrifice these soldiers made. The thousands and thousands who made the journey and the thousands and thousands who lost their lives here. A simple thank you to those men and women just isn't enough!


It rained and rained this day so we made a stop in Reoun at the halfway point to wait the rain out. We had some wine and shopped around.


As I mentioned earlier my sweet sis and brother in law are watching Walker for us while we are gone. (Jackson is at home with my mom for a few days an our wonderful sitter Kayla for a few days. He has school, soccer, and birthday parties he didn't want to miss!) My bedtime Jackie (in the pic below) got to meet Walker last night when she went to see him at Ginny and Dave's. I love that they got to meet and I think it is so funny how long and still Walker looks in this pic!


Oh I miss this cutie!!!


Cousins plying together! I get so excited when Ginny and Dave send me a picture!


This one cracks me up. These two are going to be buddies for life! Walker does look a bit concerned with his driver.a


Today while Renzi was at his meetings I spent a lot of time at one of my most favorite places in the world. The Louvre.


The details in this building are amazing. This is a pic of one of the ceilings!


The Mona Lisa. Hard to believe it is this small huh?


This painting was one of my favorites of the day.


They had a new Islamic exhibit so I strolled through for a while.


And I have spent the rest of my afternoon wandering around, shopping, reading, listening to music, and buying some wine and cheese to munch on later. This place is magical.

Oh, and here is the pic I got from Ginny this morning! Le sigh....


Au revoir!

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