It's getting Haught in here

Feast your jealous eyes on that shirt. Oh yeah! This weekend we ventured out to West Texas to a town that turned 100 years old this weekend. Hamlin, home of the Pied Pipers. We had the Haught family reunion there this weekend (that's 2 family reunions we've been to this year for those keeping count). Saturday morning we had our own float in the Centennial parade with a big Haught banner on top and our 85 year old grandma sitting on a chair on the back of the float that said, "Hottest Haught" on the back. The main drag of Hamlin is so short that we went all the way down, did a U-turn and came all the way back. We had a bag of candy for the kids to throw to the crowd and Jackson nearly killed this one unsuspecting girl standing on the sidewalk. It was fun. Here's a few more pics from the weekend.



And here is the beast of a project that nearly bested me but I came out victorious this very day. We had our friend Marcus call over his crew to scoop out the grass in a 30 x 13 area of our yard then I lined it with 4x4's with 2 foot spikes. Coincidentally that's the length of the hair on my chest now. Then dad came over and we went to Sam's a bought this mother:

We worked on it for about 3 hours Wednesday night then from 8am to 7pm on Thursday. I came home from work at lunch on Friday and worked til dark. Then we went to Hamlin and came back on Sunday at 4pm-ish and I worked til dark again and finished everything but the slide. I finished that up today, bought 550 lbs of sand for the sandbox (your welcome, neighborhood cats!) and just need to fill in the rest with mulch.

I've re-routed 4 sprinklers and capped one, recharged my drill battery 7 times and filled 4 shirts completely with sweat. My hands are raw, I look like I just returned from a 2 week vacation from the beach and received the worlds finest golfers tan. The only thing is that I can't get enough sleep to feel 100%. Saturday I took a 3 hour nap and was dead tired by 10:00. And after all that I somehow have lost no weight. Whatever.

Ellie is stubborn

First and update on the family then onto a story about how stubborn Ellie can be...

Kiley is reading some book about how to keep your baby on a schedule and I'm convinced that trying to do what they tell you is like trying to fix someone's computer over the phone. "Now just click the button that says, 'attach document' and you're all set. It's not there? It should be at the top of the page. Maybe it's a picture of a paperclip? It has to be there, keep looking. I KNOW IT"S THERE SOMEWHERE, STOP SAYING IT'S NOT THERE."

This afternoon she read that if the baby starts showing signs that it's tired, yawning for example, to lay them down for a nap. If baby cries, go in after a few minutes if they don't stop and pick them up and pat them then put them back down. I tried it. 4 times. Then I said, "it doesn't work, your book sucks." So the other day I was trying to show Ellie how to tell her right hand from her left hand. I told her that if she made a gun with her pointer finger and thumb and pointed them straight up, her left hand makes an L. She kept trying to tell me that her right hand was making the L. I kept telling her it wasn't. Once she says something she decides that it's right. (no comment on who she reminds me of, ZING!). Anyway, finally I told her to draw and L on a piece of paper and she drew the line straight down then looked at it for a second then drew the L backwards. I asked her if that's really how it went and with a squinched up face she gave me a short, "yes." Okay, the write your name. Do you draw your L's that way when you draw your name?

The above picture is a re-enactment of how that turned out. How do you argue with that? So spread the word - the letter L is now backwards. It'll be easier to change that then Ellie's mind.

Cooper's Memorial Day

Cooper made his first trip out of the metroplex this past weekend. The Haught family of 5 made their way to Possum Kingom Lake for the long weekend. Cooper does great traveling but didn't do the greatest once we arrived. He was very fussy all weekend so that made it not the greatest trip but we made the best of it....Jackson and Ellie had a blast! They swam (the lake was soooo cold), fished (they both learned how to cast with a rodnreel), rode the jet ski, watched humming birds, threw water balloons, etc! Cooper got to meet his great grand Papaw. I am not sure Papaw loves the chaos although he says he does and just giggles at them. Right before we headed back home, Cooper fell asleep and was out until we got home (and then some). He was back to normal once we arrived back...I guess he is not the biggest fan of leaving home (must be related to his dad ;-) ) .
Enjoy the new pics I took of Cooper today. He is getting to be a bit of a chunker for a 5 week old.

PS - Can you tell Kiley wrote this posting vs Chad...not as funny.

I killed a snake last night

While you were safe inside your cozy home last night eating milk and cookies, I was outside keeping the world safe from baby killing snakes. Next time you see a child playing at the park or kiss you kids at night say a little prayer thanking your lucky stars for Texas Chad, Snake Killer.

Last night we left to take the kids to the park and this snake was crawling across the alley into our neighbors yard so I *grabbed it with my bare hands and bit it’s head off. The neighbor thinks it was a rat snake. They must call T-Rex’s armadillos where he comes from, b/c I’m pretty sure it’s an anaconda.

Check out the gruesome pictures. I think I still have blood on my teeth.

*ran with my arms waving like a girl to the garage to get a shovel, closed my eyes and threw it at the back of the snake’s head.

Sweet Music

Our house was broken into a few years back right before Christmas. It was the middle of the night and our dog, Lucas went crazy. When I finally woke up and got out of bed we found Kiley's laptop, phone and wallet missing. Lucas heard them when they went for the Christmas presents under the tree. They grabbed 3 of them but dropped them in the alley behind our house. The only joy I get out of it is imagining I'm breaking into someone's house when suddenly the ferocious barking of a large dog starts running towards me. I imagine they peed in their pants a little bit that night while still in my house.

Ever since then I hear every noise made in our house. The ice maker dropping ice then refilling, the water sprinkler starting in the middle of the night, Ellie sneaking into our bedroom trying to get into our bed...etc.

So Cooper has been sleeping in a cradle next to our bed. His bedroom is upstairs but until he sleeps through the night, he'll sleep in our room so Kiley can wake up in the middle of the night and feed him while I pretend to sleep soundly on my side of the bed [wink].

In the middle of the night I'll hear Cooper making noises and they have to be the most adorable sounds I've ever heard come out of a human. It's not the kind of noise that you hear and think, "Oh no, I'll never be able to sleep with that in the background." It's the kind of noise that you hear and smile and drift right back into a cozy slumber. The only way to describe it is like someone blowing very softly into a harmonica. It's a barely audible and very short sigh almost. He'll do it over and over again. Adorable.

Other nights I'll awaken to the sound of Lucas licking himself or Jackson screaming b/c he's somehow gotten his arm to go into the collar of his shirt and all the way out of the bottom without taking it out of the sleeve.

Amazing.

No pictures this week. I'll get Kiley to email me some cute ones so I can post them.

Family Reunion

Look at that handsome kid. I only say that b/c someone told me he looked like my twin this weekend. Here's what you need to know about this past week:

We went to Kiley's family reunion where I was soundly defeated at horseshoes. Actually me and my teammate were defeated. He's since been removed from the family (if you catch my drift). Cooper slept the whole time. Everyone else wished the could have... ZING! Am I right, people? I kid, I kid - the casserole was delicious, Aunt Janan.

Jackson had another "teeball" game. Score was once again not kept and every kid went home a winner! There's bound to be a future president in that bunch!

Mother's day was spent over at my parents (Honey and PawPaw) where the kids swam in the frigid waters of their pool, caught butterflies and worked out on the rowing machine. I wish I had gotten a picture of that.

Today, Ellie got her other front tooth pulled. If you didn't catch the story there, about a year and a half ago I was awoken from a nap with blood-curling screams (always exciting!) and I got up and ran to the kitchen to find Ellie bleeding from the mouth. She was trying to get into the cabinet and feel, hitting her two front teeth on the stone counter-top. (pause for effect) Within a week one of her front teeth started turning grey so the dentist fixed the chip and recolored them but warned it would have to be pulled eventually. It was about 9 months ago and today they pulled the other one b/c it was discoloring. No worries - they should grow back in a few years!

I'll post a picture of her toothless mug soon.

Have a good week!

Tee Ball Lite

Today was eventful. This morning Jackson had his first "Blast Ball" game. It's like teeball, only they use foam bats and balls and only run to first base. No points are awarded and nobody loses in blast ball. You just spend the rest of the day explaining to you kids that you don't actually live in Narnia and can't have a unicorn for a pet. Needless to say, we're ready for next year when actual tee ball is played and kids cry when they don't win.

Ellie wanted to be the cheerleader so she put on her outfit and took her pompoms to the game. She managed to cheer both teams into submissive mediocrity. Everybody wins!

Kiley took Cooper to the doctor on Friday. When we were still at the hospital he told us that he just wanted him to be at his birth weight but he had gained a full pound. So he's a monster now. Everything has gone great, he loves to sleep still and when he's awake it's only for a few hours at a time. He just looks around and goes to town on his pacifier.

Here's a picture of Cooper and Kiley. Note how skinny Kiley already looks :)