The Middle

Carter Reinhardt, 5 1/3 years old, Pre-K

The Eldest

Caleb Aubrey, 7 1/2 years old, 2nd grade

Precious

Photos taken at my home by my friend, Eileen.

Brenner Video

Here's a little clip I took of Brenner. I know the family will enjoy seeing it. He has been rolling over, and it appears he was wanting too. But since the camera was on him he seemed to not want to do it.

Free Cookie and Cocoa!!

Here's a B&N coupon for all my friends and family. One per customer, but I'm guessing each person that shows up is a customer. This is only good on Saturday, the 24th! Gotta love free!

Watching for His Ride

Why do little boys prefer to stand outside in the rain?

Time to Exhale

U2 Concert, TX/OU weekend, lots of umpiring... for him

and a much-needed acknowledgement that I am an amazing wife... for me.

Dressed for Fall

Here's his first time wearing jeans and a sweater. I usually opt for the sweet one piece outfits- mostly because I've already raised 2 boys that now only wear clothes like this. But, he does look so cute. Since he can't sit up he looks so chunky with fat face. He is always smiling and I love it!

3 Months

Newborn
1 Month

2 Months

3 Months

Well, I don't see much size change this month. But, for the record he is now in a 3-6M outfit this time instead of tightly squeezed into a 0-3M for his 2month photo.

School Project

Caleb is studying all about communities in school. Each student had to pick a business in Highland Village and make a model of it. We drove around our shops and Caleb decided to make the Nestle Toll House store. We gathered our supplies and put it together this weekend. Steve did the spray painting and I did the hot gluing. Caleb did everything else. I think it turned out great. And it actually looks a lot like our Nestle Toll House store. (and yes, I chose this photo b/c of the crazy face Carter is making in the background)

U2

The neighbors all went to U2 last Monday. I stayed back with the boys, but jumped in the photo just for fun.
Inside the limo. It was more fun to get a limo for the night instead of driving separately and paying all that money to park at JerryWorld. Left to Right: Russ & Melanie Seay, Tammy & Brian Reed, and Melaina & Todd Raburn

Here's Steve with Tim &Diana Meeks. Yep, Steve was the only one going stag.

Here's Brenner chilling outside as we take photos of everyone outside the limo.

Off to rock out to U2!

Pei Wei Contest- Update

It's been an exciting few days! I've been in contact with my new Pei Wei friend, Jason. He works at their headquarters and is my planning guy. He's emailed me multiple times in the past few days to get this event scheduled. I had to send him several dates in the next few weeks that would work for me. He then had to take those dates and coordinate the HV Pei Wei and his head chef's schedules. When it was all put together they decided my dinner would be held on Tuesday, November 3 at 6:30pm at the Pei Wei in Highland Village. I stopped in and talked to the assistant manager there today and the guy just about jumped out of his pants with excitement. He told me he was secretly hoping someone local would win so they could host the event. He was also thrilled that the big daddy of chefs would be flying in to cook at his restaurant. So fun! The last words Jason left me with today were, "Good luck picking only 9 people to come with!"

Yes, that will be the hard part. There are a few spots already secured by virtue of family and a promise to a friend who rallied me tons of votes at the last minute. But that leaves me with a few more open seats. And you know I have lots of people I would love to have there. So, it seems most fair to just draw names from those who voted and would like to come. With it being in Highland Village on November 3 probably knocks out half of the voters. And, if you got me additional votes (like your husband voted) then I'll put your name in the drawing an additional time. I have a running list of those who did vote, so now I just need to know who of those people are interested in joining me for the dinner. I'm hosting bunko on Monday night, so I think I'll draw for the dinner that night. I will have many witnesses. ;-) So, if you read this blog and you voted and you're interested in being in the drawing for the Ultimate Ramen Experience then drop me a line here. Don't forget to tell me how many votes you got me. I think this will just be the fairest, most stress-free way to decide. And you know if I had it my way, I'd have a dinner for 100! Thanks again to ALL of you who took the time to vote. This has been such a fun week for me!

Pei Wei Contest

On September 17 I got an email from Pei Wei (I've ordered online so I got on their distribution list) about a recipe contest through Facebook. I looked at the rules and realized I could totally enter this contest. Their newest dish is made with Ramen noodles. So, they were looking for other recipes that used Ramen noodles. In my old Baylor Homecoming Cookbook there is a recipe for an Asian salad that uses Ramen noodles. It's Donnell Teaff's recipe and I've made it for teacher luncheons before. Many of you have made a variation of this same salad.

So, I posted my entry and started soliciting votes. In all honesty I thought I had a good shot. 1. It's an obscure contest- you must be on Facebook and be a fan of Pei Wei. 2. It's a good recipe. 3. Many of the other recipes submitted looked like they were submitted by poor college kids who have zero cooking experience.

So, I had to be in the top 10 of vote getters by last Sunday. The competition got fierce and on Saturday I noticed I had dropped to 11th place. I begged and made lots of phone calls. Steve was so ready for this contest to be over because I was becoming a bit obsessed with it all. But in truth, I KNEW I could win if I just had the votes. At the time the voting ended I jumped to first place. I had some really great friends who went after lots of votes for me. Thanks, Eliz!!!

Then it was time to wait. The top 10 recipes get made by the chefs at the Pei Wei headquarters in Phoenix. They would pick the 3 best and award them the Ultimate Ramen Experience at their nearest Pei Wei.

Yesterday I got a note on FB from Jason who works at headquarters. He told me I was a finalist and they needed to verify where my local Pei Wei is. I was so excited, but didn't' want to say anything until I heard back from him.

Well, today I got an email from him verifying that I am one of the winners. I now have to give him dates that will work for me. He will then coordinate with his chefs and the HV Pei Wei to set up my winning meal. Apparently they are flying in chefs and himself to be a part of this evening!!! I'm cracking up!!! I WON!!

I'll update more once I know when this is all taking place and who all gets to be a part of it.

Thanks to everyone who voted!!

Steve and Brenner

New Carpet

New floors... ahhh, sounds like such a nice project. And in reality the END result is wonderful. The before, during, and after is quite an ordeal. There were moments I thought I'd lose my sanity. Getting new floors is basically the same thing as completely moving out and back into your house. We had help with the big furniture, but any electronics, breakables, any thing on the floor that we could move was left up to us. And when you have a house filled with Legos from 3 different guys it just triples the workload. Thankfully we broke this project into 2 stages. Steve had suggested 3 (doing the upstairs at a different time) but I just wanted to get it all over with at the same time. Monday/Tuesday was wood in the piano and dining room- already posted about that. Then we had a few days to get ready for the BIG project- new carpet.

I did not get many "before shots" just because I forgot. But above you can see where the new carpet is in the hall and the old carpet is in the family room. We went with a darker carpet- it's a mix of deep brown, tan, and cream threads that blends really well. Our old carpet was builder-grade cream- super hard to keep clean, looks matted, and had virtually no carpet pad.
Here's a glance into my family room during the install. The couch behind Brenner was the ONLY place I could sit for 2 days. Let's just say I've learned to nurse a baby in many interesting places. And, yes, you can see Brenner sitting in his seat amongst the chaos.

It's done!! Bedroom is put back together. And, yes, that's a mobile on our bed. That's where we had it with Carter as well. Works out great because I can shower while he visits with the little guys spinning above his head.

Here's a glance at it all. The tile is the same. There's the new wood and the new carpet going up the stairs. We had looked into wood on the stairs with a carpet runner. Ummmm.... very expensive. So, carpet works great.

Here's the playroom. It's still untouched to this day. I'm getting everything else in order first. We had 1800 square feet of carpet installed, so that's a lot of clean-up on my end: books on shelves, things back in the closets, etc. So where is all the game room stuff???

It's crammed in the extra bathroom. Yep, all in the shower and everything. It's like a scene out of "Clean House" except I can say without a doubt that it's ALL toys... no food or dog feces like on the show. So, since we have so many toys, we made a deal with the boys that it's time to donate some things in order for Santa to bring them anything new. I'll tackle this room this weekend when my boys are in Oklahoma.

Here's Carter/Brenner's room. Carter will eventually make the permanent move to Caleb's room, but until his name is moved over he doesn't think he has moved rooms. But, 90% of the time he is sleeping in Caleb's room. I love the carpet. It's just so much more kid friendly and "black" dog friendly.

And the big boy room. Their Legos currently on on the train table, but Vicki and I have future plans of changing the playroom into a Lego room... which means Steve will have his Lego room and C&C will have their Lego room.

The carpet was such an ordeal, but SO worth the effort. It's like our home is brand new again. We are no longer walking on rocks! Now if I can just get that playroom bathroom cleaned out I'll have just about everything finished!

Trend Setter

I have my fall leggings. Do you have yours?

The World According to Caleb: How to Eat a Pizza

This is how our anal-retentive first born eats a pizza.

Go Lightning!

This is Carter's 3 season playing soccer. 4 of these boys have been together the entire time. The other 2 are new this fall. Carter and one other boy are in the same pre-k class. The other boys are in K at Heritage (Carter's school next year)

Carter is playing better this season. He's still a bit timid on the field and doesn't really like to get into the thick of things. He would much rather be a defender or playing goalie. But at this age it's 3 on 3 so everyone goes after the ball all the time.

Uncle Stew came out for Carter's game. Such a good guy!

Caleb was there to cheer on his brother as well (notice part of his baseball uniform?- that's another post)

And Steve and Brenner were there as well! Brenner is all wrapped in his Miracle Blanket! He was awake and content the entire time.

Here's Carter kicking the ball.

Hayden, Carter, Hunter, Bryson, Nathan (Kaleb was missing)

12 Weeks

Here's Brenner Oz- 12 weeks old today! The time has just flown by. I'm starting to panic and kinda want to just take the remote out and press "pause". If I could stunt his growth, I probably would. I don't dare let him try to roll over because I know that will happen soon enough. He is pure JOY. He loves life- really he does. He smiles, coos, and is starting to giggle. He's only fussy when he wants me to put him in his bed and leave him alone. I think I won the lottery. His older brothers are completely unfazed by his permanence in the family. They are helpful in every way possible. We do have concerns he may have reflux. We're seeing similar things that we saw in Caleb. I know I need to take him to the pediatrician to have him checked out, but with all these flu-sick kids there I just hesitate to get him anywhere near that place! Even if there's a "well-room" to wait in, I don't want to be breathing their air. Here are some things Brenner is doing:

*Coos, Smiles, and Giggles at any of us.

*Grasps onto my shirt at all times

*Tries to eat his entire fist.

*Starting to drool- man, I don't want to start wearing bibs all the time!

*Sleeps 7-9 hours at night (I have to get him up b/c we take Caleb to school)

*Pooped up the back the other day- time to move up diaper sizes

*Loves the swing, bouncy seat, playmat- but all for limited amounts of time

*Wants to be wrapped tight in the car

*Mostly breastfeeds, but gets maybe 2 oz of formula a day right now

*Started blowing spit bubbles at me

*Hums when I sing to him

*Goes with the flow- poor guy gets no set schedule. Learned to just nap in the carseat

*Loves to see Daddy when he comes home from his new job

We are so blessed with our little man!