Brotherly Love

I am a mom of boys. I see a lot of rough playing, choking, hitting, fighting, and screaming. Owen and Will do love each other and every day when I drop Will off to school little brother says, "Where Will?" Sometimes, you would never know they love each other. Other times you can catch them in the act of being sweet to each other and as a momma to boys it melts your heart. They love to snuggle and give each other kisses in the morning. Will will attempt to comfort his brother if he is ever scared or misses me. Once Will explains where I am or tells Owen that it's okay, Owen gets better. That's true love and I realize this phase will not last very long. Sooooo, when I find them doing something like this, it makes my heart happy:)

Will's First School Experience

The day has come. My little one has started PreK. I didn't know how I would feel about this day, but now that it is here I am mostly happy and excited for him, and not sad. I am a slight bit sad though because it is a daily reminder as I pack his backpack what a big boy he is turning into. It also makes me feel old. I have a child in Elementary School. Yikes!

Tuesday night was Meet Your Teacher night. Will's teacher is Mrs. Snow (or as Will says "Mrs. No"). He loved the classroom right away with all the cool puzzles, pictures to draw, play kitchen, and a computer. You would think he didn't even care if I left him right then! The boy hates pictures though, as evidence in this picture with his best buddy Mason. They are in the same class this year. Yeah!

Thursday morning was the big day. Wake up early, get all dressed up, eat a breakfast (he ate 1/2 a granola bar!), and go to school. Since there is no snack time at school I wanted him to eat more but he wanted to keep his gut flat for the ladies:) No tears for Will. He walked right in, started playing, and barely said bye to me. That's how I wanted it though. No crying, no fear, and no missing me! Hopefully the rest of the 9 months will go the same way! Here are the run of the mill first day of school snapshots!


Notice Owen chowing down on his morning granola bar in the background. Just fyi...he DID NOT leave one bite!

The Last Zoo Day of the Summer

Today was my last chance to take the boys to the Tulsa Zoo for this summer season. I took advantage of their coupons they earned for the summer reading program and we set off!

What a perfect day for the zoo. The temperatures were around 85 and no sun in the sky at all. The humidity was a different story and even though it wasn't sunny I was still sweating my fair share. To cool off and feel a nice breeze you have to ride the train at the zoo. Doesn't everyone? Not today! We pretty much had the whole of the zoo to ourselves today. It was so nice that a lot of area kids have already started school. I hadn't thought about that before going but I am sure glad we got to pick the cream of the crop of seats on the train. Here is Owen's take on the train situation:)

Of course, there are 5 million animals to watch and see at the zoo. What do my boys want to spend their time observing though???....that would be the construction at the new sea lion home. Bulldozers, check. Backhoes, check. Tractors, check. Loud beeping sounds and drills, check. I had to tear them away from watching just so we could do something else. Such boys....


Another thing no zoo trip is complete without is a trip to the petting zoo. A.K.A...stinky, smelly, poop filled, area with goats and sheep. What kid doesn't love that? Owen just ran around yelling and barking at the goats while Will patiently stood beside them and calmly gave the little stinky animal a hair style. The difference between my two boys is amazing!


Anyone that knows Will knows also that his favorite color is blue. Blue everything. He talks about blue cars, blue birds, blue toys, blue skies, blue markers, blue crayons, blue clothes, blue shoes, blue trains, blue golfballs, blue chairs...I think you are getting the picture. He spotted a blue bird and had to remember the occasion. You can hardly see the bird in the picture. He was a tiny little thing. He was bright blue though, and that is ALL Will cared about. Just look over Will's left shoulder and you will see the bird on a branch. You have to look closely:) Sorry the picture is dark. We were inside an exibit and the lighting in there was terrible. But hey, Will got the picture with his blue bird. That's all that mattered!

A Weekend with the Girls

Hello trip! Hello weekend away! I have been waiting for you since my last weekend trip away with just the girls. Let's see...that was at least 5 years ago and maybe longer. Too long. Too long, my friend. I set out bright and early on Friday morning, flew to Dallas, and my long time friend picked me up to start our weekend together. We have been friends for more than half my life. That makes me feel old, and I am sure her too:) We are only 32 but have been friends for over 20 years. That is crazy for a friendship in this day and age. It's not always been easy, it's been long distance for at least half of those 20 years, we have 4 kids between us, 2 hubbies, and 2 jobs PLUS full time Mom's! You work at the things that are important to you, and Andrea is important to me dearly!

Friday night started out with a bang or a flame (hehe) since we went to Hoshi. Hibaji style Japanese food??? Yes please! Seriously though, the flame got a little too close for my liking when Mr. Miagy decided to do his joke about fire. Not funny dude. Not funny. The food was delicious though and I could not beat the company, so no more complaining. Here we are on our first night out:
32? I think not! Let's try 22. Yes, we only look about 22, right? That makes me feel better to think that way. We crammed shopping at the Galleria, a movie, lunches without screaming kids, and relaxation all in the first 24 hour time frame. It was bliss!

Saturday night we went out to dinner with another great friend from the past. I can't believe we forgot to take a snapshot of the occasion. We each had cameras/phones/video cameras and still EACH one of us didn't get a picture to mark the occasion! Shame on all of us. To hang out and just remember and talk about the past, present, and future with Ashly and Andrea was heaven. I wish I could do it every weekend, so when it does get to happen it just makes that time all the more important. You can't have an important night without a killer hairstyle though! Since I have been working so hard on growing my hair out over the last decade (that's an exageration, but not by much) I had Andrea work some of her magic on it. This was the finished product for our night out.....
Besides seeing 2 great friends there was a point to actually meeting in Dallas. Andrea has begun her own kids clothing line over the past year. I couldn't be more proud of her and her accomplishments. Never would she have thought she would be doing something like this, but here she is designing/creating/selling/marketing her own children's clothing line! Amazing! She had a room this year at the Dallas Fashion Market. We stopped in on Saturday to see how her line was doing. Of course, it was selling great guns! Take a look at her website and check it out if you haven't already. We had a great time. The boys had a wonderful time with Daddy at Nana and Poppa's house. It was like a mini vacation for them. I think that means we should do it again more often (like before another 5-7 years!)

Date Night

Thank you, Mom, for watching the boys for us so we could have a much needed date night. I think our last one was 2 months ago when we got to go out for our anniversary. I am not complaining...I am sure there are plenty of married couples out there that even get out less than that! We love the opportunity to get out and enjoy each others company without the presence of kids once in awhile though! I got my hair did today too. That added to my enjoyment because I didn't need to fix my hair for my date. That part was already done for me today earlier when Steven watched the boys for me. I had a great day all around I guess:)

We saw a movie, ate dinner out, and ran some errands. All fun times! I remember when errands were NEVER a part of date night. Let's get realistic though...once kids come into the picture you try to cram as much as humanly possible into a date night because running errands with just 2 people is ALWAYS easier than doing the same activity but with 2 boys!!!

One boy just sat on the couch and played Daddy's phone games the second we walked in the door. This boy shall remain nameless. The other boy was very excited to see both his Momma and Daddy! I will enjoy this while I still can. It is already beginning to fade away with our firstborn:(Thanks again to Nini who came and fed, watched, bathed, and played with the boys. We enjoyed our few hours together. I enjoyed eating in peace and Steven enjoyed not having to share his phone with Will:) It's the little things....

Happy Birthday to Owen!

Happy birthday to my "little man" Owen. He turned 2 a couple of weeks ago and yesterday we were finally able to celebrate his big day with all of his friends and family.

I threw a jungle/safari themed birthday party for him. He loves animals over all things (other than playing ball). We hired Safari Joe to come out and give an animal presentation, let the kids see and touch the animals, and scare the adults to high heaven. It was awesome! Some of the adults, who shall remain nameless, actually went and hide in the pantry when the spiders or snakes came out. The only time I didn't actually like the animal was when the hissing cockroaches came out. My only fear was one wouldn't make it back into his cage and I would be searching for it all night only to find it on my pillow. Urgghh!


The giant tortoise received lots of ahhh's and ohhh's when it came out. The kids enjoyed touching him and petting his shell. Of course, another big hit was the snakes. I don't like snacks. I won't lie. They gross me out. The slither and stick out that nasty tongue all the time. Yuck. The kids loved them though. Or let me clarify, the boys loved them (and Sophie Roberts). The boys and Sophie were pretty much not afraid of anything. Let me prove my point...my boy who doesn't even like bugs and gets freaked out by wasps...here he is:

And the man who will scream like a girl and run in terror when he sees a spider...here he is:

I love how Owen is just casually pointing to this weird "thing" around Daddy's neck. Owen didn't really want to be a part of the snake experience, but was more than willing to be held and look closely when Daddy volunteered. He didn't care too much about the snakes until this bad boy came out. Once this python snake entered the room Owen wigged out and was not the same the whole night. Can you blame the poor boy?

All in all it was a fantastic night. 110 degrees outside, 35 people in my house, the AC cranked down to 68 but the house only running at 77 because it couldn't keep up....a sweaty mom, a destroyed house, toys and paper everywhere, and crying kids. It's all worth it in the end though. Owen and every other child had a great time and I think it will be a party to remember:) Happy birthday to my Owen Michael Kueny! Momma loves you!

Camping Weekend

This last weekend Steven and I took Will, his cousin Nathan, and my cousin Kasey to Marval Resort in Gore, OK to go camping. This is my version, and only version, of camping. It was enough for me to go on the hottest weekend of the entire year:) Cabin, AC, mini kitchen, mini bathroom, mini sized...but STILL better than a tent. Will loves it and Nathan did too this year. Next year, I think we are going to be brave and even bring along our newly turned 3 year old (at that time).

One of Will's favorite activities for the weekend was throwing rocks in the river. The river is so extremely cold you can barely even stand in it. He would stand right at the edge and "skip" the rocks as far as his little arms would throw them! The river is the very bottom of the water that is released every day from Lake Tenkiller (this is why it is so cold). Steven, Will, and Nathan loved to skip rocks and look for critters along the shoreline.

Will and Nathan had so much fun together this weekend. They never fought one time and kept each other entertained the whole time. We all had a lot of fun and look forward to going again next year:)