Saturday night, putting the boys to bed a little later than normal, I decided it would be a good idea to change their clock and move it forward 2 hours to see if that would keep them in bed a little later. They normally won't come down until 7am on the dot. They sit and watch the clock. I've heard them in there talking about it. So, I figured they will either just sit and talk for two hours or come down when their clock says 5 anyway because they are used to getting up at that time everyday.

Daddy also discussed with Parker before bed how he needs to start listening better and being sweeter to mommy. One thing that would make mommy happy is if he cleaned his room everyday. In fact, he said, if you happen to get up early in the morning, you can try to do that for her. Parker said he would probably forget by then.

So, at 6:45, of course I'm up because the kids are asleep. Like clockwork, right at 7 I hear the boys coming down. :( But this particular morning, Parker stops on the stairs and says, "I decided we needed to wake up at 5 this morning because our room is really messy and it's gonna take us a while to get it clean. We just can't reach the fan light so can you help us turn it on and we will get started. I know it's not time to get up yet, we just can't see what we are doing." Awww. Now I feel bad. But I went and turned the light on and shut the door. Garrett didn't last long but Parker stayed up there for almost an hour. I finally went and checked on him and his room was spotless! I had a mix of happy/guilty emotions and I gave him a big hug for being so sweet. Somedays I wonder if he loves me with the smart mouth that he has recently acquired but now I know he does. :)

I Mustache You a ???

Funny story. Parker is in love with mustaches so we decided to incorporate them into our Christmas pictures. I had seen some really cute pictures done with balloons so I thought the whimsy of balloons with the goofiness of mustaches would be perfect. But, having the boys pose with balloons would be way too easy. They needed to be flying!

We chose a venue, downtown McKinney, a fun historical area that my mom discovered through some friends. We chose the date, Thanksgiving weekend, because we would be in Dallas anyway. But how to make them fly? My plan was simple. Screw a hook or two into the side of one of the buildings and hook the boys pant loops on it. Eveyone seemed to think that was vandilism. Whatever! A tiny little screw hole in a 100 year old building. Surely no one would notice. My family didn't go for it. So I had to keep thinking.

Bass Pro shop happened to be open on Thanksgiving day so Kevin and I made a trip for 50 lb fishing wire and mountain climbing clips. The employee there was curious about what we were using it for. I just really didn't feel right saying it was to hang my kids over a tree with.
Back at the house, after rigging up a simple pulley system, we took the kids to the front yard. After several attempts, we had lift off! One curious neighbor came out and just said "Happy Thanksgiving" and went back inside, my mom was quite sure she left to call CPS. (Looking back I can see how it had to have been difficult to fully understand what we were doing without the balloons. Now that I think of it, not so whimsical at all without the balloons.) So we had a few beers and the boys were screaming about the up-to-their-armpit wedgies but it's not like they were 30 feet in the air. They were 3 inches off the ground for a few seconds. Although, if I could have gotten them a couple feet, that would have rocked.

Anywho, day of pictures, we got so many cute shots that everyone started chickening out on the flying shot. I was not having it. The area was completely empty. No one would catch us. We found the perfect tree and reluctanly, everyone helped get set up. After 10 or so pictures, I thought we would have to give up and then...snap! The perfect picture. I don't know how we all pulled it off. Kevin and I off to the side smooching, 3 year old grumpy Garrett with his hands gasped in awe over his mouth like he couldn't believe Parker was flying, Parkers legs just right in the air with a look of utter amazement, my dad perfectly holding him up where the string was undetected. It was a Christmas miracle! And just the day before everyone thought I was crazy. One of these days they will realize I'm brilliant!