the crisps

potty training update.

2012-01-27T10:07:00.001-06:00

{probably tmi for most}

the first couple of days at day care were a little rough for mister e. day one mister man had 3 accidents. day two he had 2 accidents but yesterday, it was only 1!!! go little man!!

we were so proud of mister e this morning! e woke up saying “mommy, i need to go teetee on potty” so we took him in the restroom and not only did he go to the bathroom, he also had a completely dry diaper which is HUGE!! this is the kid who couldn’t even wear a pull-up to bed because he would over-wet it and now it’s dry!! so exciting!! i’m not going to put too much weight on it but i was so proud of him this morning!

we’re still having issues with #2 but if we can at least get #1 taken care of , we can focus more on the other.

i can’t believe my baby boy is getting so big!! we’re so proud of him!

hopefully in the clear.

2012-01-26T10:18:00.001-06:00

sweet avery has been a wheezy mess since sunday night :( it started as a small cough but by the time we went to put her down, you could hear it more clearly than i could ever hear evan’s wheezing. thing was, she was perfectly happy, never ran a fever, etc. she refused to sleep by herself sunday night so we had a slumber party in her room and she spent the entire night fidgeting around – not a great night’s sleep for this mama!

the next day we took her to the dr to make sure it wasn’t anything serious and sure enough, it wasn’t. just a cold with some wheezing. a little liquid albuterol later and we were set. the baby was still happy and acting like nothing was wrong. she just sounded like a chain smoker but whatever:) that night, she did better sleeping but i still slept in her room with her for the short time she would actually stay in her crib. the rest of the night was spent on mummy.

she went to school on tuesday and did fine {except for the wheezing} and then refused to sleep in her crib again. one more restless night down.

when i picked her up from school on wednesday, i noticed that she wasn’t wheezing anymore – hallelujah! we got through playing, dinner, bath, and her night time sippy with still no wheezing. we put her down and besides one time of waking up and needing her daddy to settle her, she did great. she even woke up once a little later, whimpered a bit {probably couldn’t find a paci:)}, and then put herself back to sleep!! go girl! she slept ALL night long in her bed!!

i am so thankful for a few things…
first is that the wheezing is gone! while she didn’t act like anything was wrong, that couldn’t have been fun to deal with on her end and it scares her mummy and daddy to no end!
second is that i got to sleep in my bed for the first time in 3 nights last night without a leach :) and it was amazing!! i feel refreshed!
last is that she did so well sleeping all night. a lot of times sickness completely screws up the great sleeping habits we work so hard to develop so we have to let her cry it out, etc which breaks our heart. besides about 10 minutes last night, she did great!! here’s hoping it sticks!!

avery’s first haircut.

2012-01-25T13:30:00.001-06:00

we randomly decided to get avery’s hair cut for the first time yesterday. it was getting a little shaggy in the back and i just wanted the baby hairs trimmed off so that it was more even. evan & brian both needed a haircut as well so it was a family event :) we met up right after work so please excuse the phone pics…like i said, random decision meaning i didn’t bring the camera when we left the house. she did great and sat on my lap the whole time. she was a little curious but didn’t cry once. what a big girl!! she still looks mostly the same because the shaggy hair typically fell inside her shirt but i’m glad it’s cleaned up!

fuzzy pre-haircut pic…

“mummy, what is going on?”

first cut…

finished product…not much different really :)

they were nice enough to save some of the hair and put it in a special “1st haircut” keepsake! aj did a great job – such a big girl! now brother, that’s a whole different story… :)

painting.

2012-01-23T14:21:00.000-06:00

yesterday, in the midst of potty training, we decided to let the kiddos paint. both had been given “homework” at school which was to decorate a heart that their teachers would use for a bulletin board in their classrooms. evan had also picked out a big e awhile back to paint so we let him go to town on that. here’s the result…

FUN!!

potty training.

2012-01-22T12:52:00.000-06:00

we decided this weekend was time – yikes! e had been talking about big boy underwear for forever so we decided to jump on board and run with it! friday night, we made sure that we had plenty of pairs of big boy underwear ready to go, got the potty pressies unpacked and put in a bag to reward e for going on the potty, and even blew up balloons and put them in their bathroom so that he was excited to go saturday morning. quite the production really!! i hope he doesn’t expect a party every time he goes to the bathroom on the potty:)

this post will probably contain tmi for most so feel free to skip the details :) e woke up saturday morning and we immediately took him to the bathroom where we really talked up going on the potty! he was excited about the balloons and really got excited when he found out there were presents involved! like a good boy, he went teetee on the potty and received his first potty pressie. he also put on his first pair of big boy underwear picked out himself!

he will hate me one day for this…

our big boy underwear selection…

the results {i know, i know…tmi:)}

& the proud big boy with his thomas big boy undies…

& his first potty pressie…he picked a book out of all of the toys & candy…what a good boy!!!

our plan was to take him to the potty every 15 minutes during the morning and for the most part, we stuck to it. he did a great job getting used to it with only 3 or 4 accidents. while that sounds like a lot, we were very proud of him for doing so well right out of the gate!

during nap time and bed time, we are going to stick to pull-ups for awhile but we did notice that his pull-ups were considerably drier than they have been so maybe he’s learning a little control…maybe.

after nap, we watched the winnie the pooh movie while the kiddos woke up. we had to pause the movie a couple of times for potty breaks but he did amazingly well and only had 2 accidents that afternoon!!

the cheeseballs watching winnie the pooh…

that night, we were talking about how it went and brian asked what i thought. i told him that i honestly thought he had done a great job but that if i never saw the inside of their bathroom again, it would be too soon :) i’ve never spent so much time in a bathroom in my life!!

sunday morning we decided to skip church to continue the potty training adventure. we spent the day at home and we continued to ask evan if he needed to go potty but we didn’t ask as often and many times, he would tell us he needed to go. evan ended up only having one accident in the morning and one accident in the afternoon and did great!! the potty pressies might have helped motivate him a little!

the only issue we had was with #2. evan wouldn’t go on saturday and then on sunday, went to his certain place where he would sometimes go and take care of business in his diaper. i noticed he was there so i grabbed him and ran for the bathroom. he was able to finish up in the potty which was really good! he even got 2 potty pressies for going #2 – haha!! here’s hoping he catches on to both aspects of pottying quickly!!

i am so proud of our little guy and hope that he continues to be as excited about pottying as he has been! here’s hoping we are a “1 kid in diapers” household soon!!!

daddy & me.

2012-01-18T12:51:00.000-06:00

a little cartoon watching & motorcycle riding…

ps…the hubby might kill me for posting these but i can’t help it…they’re just so darn cute!!!

go texans.

2012-01-13T12:36:00.000-06:00

it’s “wear your texans shirt to school” day at the kiddos daycare today to support the texans playoff run!! i couldn’t find a shirt small enough for either munchkin so what is a mummy to do but make a couple :) i think they turned out really cute and especially love the way the boyish applique using old t-shirts as fabric worked on e’s shirt! here’s the texans crew before school – can you say cheeeeeesey?!?!

Go Texans!!!

random rainbow.

2012-01-09T12:46:00.000-06:00

it has been raining here like crazy & we definitely need the rain!! i ran home before picking up the kids from school today and this is what greeted me as i walked back out to the car…

Gorgeous!! {and yes, I know I could’ve stitched it together but oh well:)}

zoo on our last day of christmas vacation.

2012-01-02T21:36:00.000-06:00

juliet and i were talking and this was the only day that really worked out to get the kiddos together so we decided a trip to the zoo was the way to go! daddy, nanny, and vanpa were also off of work so we all met up and spent the morning/early afternoon playing. most of the pics are of lunch because that was about the only time we were somewhat still – haha!!

           we like to stuff our faces…
rhinos right beside our table…

iPhone tutorials for mum…

the petting zoo…

we even ran into some of our friends there – great minds think alike!! we had a great time and evan didn’t stop talking about playing with jaxon the rest of the day! they are so sweet together!

avery stands and takes 3 steps.

2012-01-01T21:48:00.000-06:00

we were playing with the kids on the floor and i stood avery up, let go, and she just stood there laughing! normally she will fall to the floor the second she realizes what she’s done but not this time!! of course, once she started that, brian and i tried to get her to walk. she took 3 hesitant steps once but we missed it on camera. this is the best that we were able to capture…

undecorating.

2012-01-01T21:03:00.000-06:00

don’t you wish sometimes you could just leave your christmas decorations up all year? i’m sure they would lose some of their luster but they’re just so festive and when we take them down, i always feel like our house is so bare! it’s also a stinkin’ lot of work!! this year, i had some “help” :)

while we were putting christmas stuff in the attic, we decided to put the exersaucer and jumper in the attic as well since i’m fairly certain a particular someone is slightly over the weight limit :) this is what she had to say about that…

trains, trains, and more trains.

2011-12-30T21:20:00.000-06:00

what started out as a quick trip down to discovery green to ride a free train turned into an all day affair chasing trains throughout houston. this little boy absolutely loves trains so we jumped at the chance to go and ride one. we figured we’d ride the train, eat lunch, let the kiddos play on the playground and then head home for nap time. ha! i should know better than to plan anything! we rode the train {multiple times!}, ate lunch {at a new and fun food court we found just blocks from discovery green}, and then the kiddos played for awhile on the playground.

lunch time for the little stinkers…

playing at the park…




then evan said “mommy and daddy – another train please.” brian and i looked at each other and i mentioned the one in hermann park so off we went. we hadn’t been on the hermann park train in years and it was super fun!! the kiddos loved it! {we were now well into nap time!!}

when we got off the train, evan said “i want to go see animals. go to zoo.” mind you, we hadn’t mentioned the zoo or anything. impressive that he recognized where we were!! we figured that if he was game, we would try it {the advantages of having a zoo membership!!}

“i don’t wanna look at the camera!”

“evan, look at that dragon!!”

by the time we were done at the zoo, it was dinner time so we called nanny & vanpa and met them in the memorial area for a little italian. both babies fell asleep in the car on the way there but woke up just enough to eat a little dinner. what a fun, but exhausting day!! we weren’t really planning on being out that long but sometimes spur of the moment trips are more fun anyway :)

merry christmas.

2011-12-25T21:11:00.000-06:00

this christmas was a little different but still very fun! cc, aunt ashley, and mike were in italy and uncle james is deployed. instead of the normal small, family christmas followed by a big family christmas dinner, nanny and vanpa spent the night and we had a fairly chill day. the kids never got out of their christmas jammies {and we barely did:)}. of course, our morning started with the fun pressies santa brought…

the kitchen & tent…

opening santa stocking pressies…

avery insisted on sitting on every box she opened…goober!

apparently this pack n play is not just for dolls :)

i <3 a little, blue box!

checking my heart {and for the record, the only time he’s seen anyone do this is at the dr – i was impressed!} & then it was time for the outside present from nanny & vanpa…

taking sister for a ride {this thing has seatbelts and a radio!}

it took some convincing for evan to actually press the gas pedal himself…

sister even took a turn driving…

but once he did, they were off!

steering is a whole other issue though…

little bits needed a little power nap…

while big brother played…

please notice the “daddy” on the potty…

just hanging in the tent…

pressies with barbie, mike, marcie, and kelcie…

i wanted the kiddos pic in front of the tree in their christmas jammies…this is what i got…


i’m looking a little rough…a baby with a double ear infection at christmas does not lend itself to a whole lot of sleep :)

we had such a fun christmas and were beyond blessed!! here’s hoping that we have all of our family back in town next christmas – we definitely missed everyone who wasn’t here!!

merry christmas from our family!!

christmas eve.

2011-12-24T13:45:00.000-06:00

we woke up and headed up to katyland to spend the day with nanny & vanpa. after a yummy lunch of roadhouse, the kiddos took a nap while mum and i ran a couple of errands. when they got up, we got dressed and headed to the young children’s christmas eve service at st. peters. the children’s choirs did their christmas musical and it was way cute! unfortunately, it was also raining before and after so we got a little wet!

we took a few pics at my parent’s house before we headed down to league city for sugarcookie making {don’t forget, it was raining so might look a little soaked:)}…

we watched polar express while we made the drive from katy to league city and once here, we fed the troops and brian & evan make sugar cookies from scratch. what a fun christmas eve tradition {and they are super yummy to snack on!}! evan had a blast decorating the cookies with sprinkles – i hope santa likes his cookies extra sprinkly!!:) evan started getting really tired before the last batch was baked but seemed to have a blast while he lasted!!

after a quick bath {aj crashed and burned on us:)}, it was time to read “the night before christmas”…

we then put out milk & cookies for santa…

and went to bed!!

the week before christmas.

2011-12-23T22:51:00.000-06:00

i <3 being home with my babies!!!

random phone pics.

2011-12-23T22:14:00.000-06:00

watching mickey mouse with addie… “give me my burger!”

helping grocery shop…

i <3 chick-fil-a…

reading to the baby doll…

avery’s first birthday.

2011-12-20T22:30:00.000-06:00

we had a fairly low-key first birthday for miss thing! i am off for Christmas so we spent the day hanging out. that being said, we did get out a bit :) we got up and go around and then we met up with some of the bible study girls for lunch (and daddy came along:)). then it was back home for nap, some playtime, and a couple of present from mummy & daddy.

she apparently needed a little help opening her presents :)

we then loaded up the kiddos and headed to the christmas train in alvin with stacia and the girls. it was really fun and just the right length for our kiddos attention span! can’t wait to go back again next year!

an attempt at a group pic minus the little bitties…

haha!! makes me laugh!!

overall we had a busy but fun first birthday day for miss avery jo! we love her so much and can’t believe she is already one! we can’t wait to see what the next year brings!!

1 year.

2011-12-20T10:41:00.000-06:00

what?!?!?

i am in serious denial about our little princess turning 1! it’s funny because i remember being really excited about evan turning 1 but i guess it’s because she’s the baby and that means she’s really growing up {and quickly!!}.

height: 31 inches
weight: 35.2 lbs

avery is:

trying to talk a little more. she’s got “dadadada” and “dank do” down pretty well and seems to use them when appropriate. she’ll also say “hi” if you ask her to.
very proud of herself when she does things like stand up, says “hi”, makes a mess, etc and gives you a cheese ball smile to show you she is proud:)
standing up by herself! she will take a step or two and then will fall down but for the most part, she doesn’t really care to walk.
learning what to do when the camera comes out :) she squints her eyes and gets this ridiculous, cheesy smile. it cracks me up!!
suffering through her first ear infection {which was a double} which has not been good for sleeping :(
/was sleeping soooo well! until the ear infection. she started taking a paci a couple of months ago because of her teeth and it has definitely become her way of self-soothing at night to put herself back to sleep. here’s hoping that once we kick the ear infections, our little girl will go back to her sleeping ways!
eating like a champ!! the kid LOVES her food!! we don’t do anything special for her anymore and she is actually less picky than her brother is {he’s in the middle of his 2 year old ornery stage:)}
STILL in a crazy “mama’s girl” stage. while i love, love snuggling my little sweetie and love how much she wants to be around me, it’s hard when i need to run out of the room for a second and it causes a complete meltdown complete with avery throwing herself on the floor.
enamored by her brother. she wants to do what he’s doing all the time! no one can get her to laugh quite like her brother can either. there are times that they will just look at each other and laugh back and forth! melts.my.heart!
also a daddy’s girl! her face lights up when he walks in the room. i <3 seeing her and her daddy snuggling during nap or before bed!
stubborn! i can’t imagine where on earth she might have gotten that from :)
a stinker! i could tell evan “no” and he would stop whatever he was doing, even if only for a few seconds. if you tell avery “no”, she looks at you, laughs, and keeps doing what she’s doing. T R O U B L E!! we’ll have to start working on this but for now, she seems to be getting away with it because of cuteness.

there is so much more that we watch every day but i can’t think of right now. avery jo is such a sweet baby & we love, love her to death!! we can’t wait to see what the next year will bring and look forward to seeing her and evan’s relationship grow in the next year :)

happy birthday sweet girl!!

arkansas christmas.

2011-12-18T13:57:00.000-06:00

we headed to arkansas on friday afternoon and it was quite the trip! miss avery did not think she needed to be in her carseat for that long! the trip included a stop for over an hour at the chick-fil-a playground in lufkin as well as an extended stop at a gas station south of texarkana. we were starting to wonder if we’d ever get there! what is usually a 6-6.5 hour drive turned into a 10.5 hour drive – ahhhhh…travelling with kids :)

the next day, we headed to ma mae’s (my great-grandma) to visit for awhile. evan and avery kept us all entertained but it must have been a little much for miss thing because she crashed on her vanpa towards the end of our visit.

after naps at grannie annie’s house, we headed outside for a little tractor riding:) avery got right on while we had to force evan to ride at first. 30 minutes later, he didnt want to get off:)

a little avery photo shoot…

some horse petting…

back to the tractor…

and going to see the horsies & cow once more…

after playing outside for awhile, we headed inside for a yummy dinner grannie annie made for us! love me some grannie annie food :)

we had a great time just hanging out and chatting and the kiddos got to open an early pressie from the arkansas millers – avery got a cabbage patch boy doll and a baby block puzzle game and evan got a remote controlled bulldozer (they are both in love!).

the next morning we headed to church, ate lunch, and then packed up and headed out. the drive home was MUCH better than the drive up and both kiddos did amazingly well – thank goodness!!

we are so glad we were finally able to make it up to visit and can’t wait to see the arkansas clan again soon!!

santa.

2011-12-15T18:59:00.000-06:00

today, i planned on taking the morning off and brian was going to take over at lunch time. when he checked his email before work, jsc had been closed due to a power failure and i had already put in for my morning off so we decided to head to the mall and take santa pics. i figured it would be interesting to say the least! avery and evan had taken pics with santa at school (but i didn’t get the memo so they weren’t dressed appropriately:)). neither one cried but evan was giving him the once over. it would probably have gone better if i hadn’t been there to hand avery to santa since she has such a mommy complex but i couldn’t miss it.

before…

and the real deal…

haha!! i think these real life pics are hilarious!! maybe next year :)

double ear infection.

2011-12-14T18:57:00.000-06:00

after two nights of terrible sleep due to screaming for mummy and avery, we headed to the doctor this morning to find out that she has her first (and second) ear infection:( poor baby!! she was out of school yesterday and again today and we found out it was for the best – of the 13 kids in her class, only 5 are in school today due to a stomach bug (and one teacher is out as well)!! we are going to try to keep her out of school the rest of the week because a stomach bug is not high on our list of things to deal with over the christmas break! here’s hoping the antibiotics kick this to the curb soon and our sweetie will be back to normal soon!!

daddy day care.

2011-12-11T18:50:00.000-06:00

we had a girl’s night out and brian watched sweet margot & natalee so us mommy’s could go out for a couple of hours. he successfully had a pizza picnic for the big kids in the living room and was in one piece when we got back! good job daddy :)

avery jo’s 1st birthday party.

2011-12-10T14:04:00.000-06:00

we had avery’s 1st birthday party a little early this year since cc, aunt ashley, and uncle mike will be in italy closer to the actual day – lucky them!!

miss thing had a pancakes & pajamas party and it was SO. MUCH. FUN!!!!

along with milk boxes of regular and chocolate milk, we had a pancake bar for the kiddos complete with regular and chocolate chip pancakes, sprinkles, strawberries, chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, and more…

as always, our jaclyn made the cupcakes and smash cake and they did not disappoint!! they were stinkin’ amazing!! thank you jaclyn!!

i wish we had gotten a better pic of the cupcakes…

and the adults had muffins and fruit on the island.

the kids had fun playing…

& then it was pancake time…
1st round of pancake eaters…

cake time…

& the fun pressies!

thank you to all of our amazing friends & family that were able to make it to the party!! avery is one lucky, little, one year old!

league city christmas parade.

2011-12-03T21:42:00.000-06:00

tonight was the annual league city christmas parade so we headed “downtown” a little early with dinner in hand to have a picnic and wait for the parade to start! cc & aunt barbie met us down there and joined in our little picnic…

waiting for the parade to start…

watching the floats go by…

evan and avery were excited to see their teachers and the owners of their daycare in their school’s float (we passed riding on it this year…). despite a quick downpour, the parade was really fun but this family had reached it’s limit after 2.5 hours – crazy!!! can’t wait for next year :)

evanisms.

2011-11-30T14:39:00.001-06:00

this sweet boy cracks us up all the time! he is a sponge and a parrot and we love, love, love the stage he is in – tantrums, stubbornness, and all :)

what our little man is up to…

i always call e my baby boy but he is very quick to say “no mommy, i not baby boy, i big boy!”
when he wakes up in the morning, he loves to snuggle and watch cartoons. i could do this forever!
he melts my heart when he says “mommy, i happy”
he will remember just about anything you tell him. many times, before nap, i will tell him what we’re doing after nap and invariably, he wakes up and the first words out of his mouth are what i told him we would do {“mommy, make brownies?”}
if you tell him “i love you,” he has started saying “i love you” back. sometimes he will say, “no, i love you!”
he will tell you to “stay right there. i be right back.” yes bossy britches.
he hates wearing a jacket and will throw a fit when you put it on him but when you get outside, he’ll say “mommy, i not cold. i have my jacket!” goober!
he was singing the war hymn the other day and busted out “sounds like hell!” haha!! he can get away with that :)
he loves making his sister laugh and once they’re going, you can’t stop them – goofy kiddos!!
“no mommy, i do it” is a common phrase in our house.
he has recently discovered what being tired means so we hear “daddy/mommy, i tired” all the time!
evan is constantly putting together bigger and bigger sentences and amazes us with what he knows!

i know there is a lot more that i am forgetting! we love this kid more than we could ever have imagined and can’t wait to see what he comes up with next!!

thanksgiving.

2011-11-27T14:04:00.000-06:00

was crazy!!! actually, it wasn’t that bad but we ended up having 2 thanksgivings – one on thursday and one on saturday. add the aTm/tu football game to the mix and that makes for one busy couple of days! thursday, we ended up having thanksgiving at our house and had such a great time! i cooked my first turkey {breast:)} and it wasn’t half bad. we all brought side dishes and it was so yummy!! we had quite the crowd too which meant the munchkins were having a ball with all of the attention!

before dinner…

food time…

post dinner…

we headed out after thanksgiving dinner to the aggie game where came up a little short – ugh!

on saturday, we had another thanksgiving when kelcie got in town {but aunt ashley was still out of town getting engaged to uncle mike:)}. it was another yummy meal and the kiddos had a blast running around like crazies!! unfortunately the camera never left the bag – dang it! we had a great thanksgiving break and can’t wait to catch up with the rest of our family soon!!!!

11 months.

2011-11-20T13:02:00.000-06:00

height & weight: we’ll find out at her 1 year appt

this month has been much better than the last! avery has turned into our little “drama mama” and wants to do everything her brother is doing {he’s not such a fan of this new development!}. i can tell she is absorbing so much and has been a blast to be around! she is finally sleeping through the night again like a pro! this mommy & daddy are beyond excited about this! here’s a little more of what our princess is up to…

avery is:

now using a paci. she discovered them shortly after she turned 10 months old and is a bit obsessed. i also think they are helping her sleep through the night so whatever! she will crawl in her room to get them out of her crib but we try to limit them to sleeping times and when she is really tired.
crawling everywhere! i forgot how hard this stage is because when we’re out, she wants to be down but i’m not necessarily a fan of her crawling on all of the icky floors. c’mon walking!
pulling up and cruising around everywhere. she walks behind her cars quite easily and is pretty fast! she’ll also walk with you holding her hands but will fall to the ground as soon as you drop either hand she wants to hold. i think she just needs to realize she can do it but we’ll see.
standing by herself occasionally but will fall to the floor as soon as she realizes she is doing it.
still wearing a size 4 diaper.
wearing 18 to 24 month clothes for the most part although she can still fit in some of her 9 month shirts and dresses and occasionally sports a 2T.
eating all table food and is a complete mess!! she loves it though so whatever.
getting formula twice a day {she was only doing once a day but her dr wanted her to get more so we added back the morning}. shortly after she turned 10 months, i got worried that she was taking too many bottles and basically eating all day and that would be a problem when we went to drop bottles at 1. we started by dropping a bottle at a time and it didn’t seem to phase her. before we knew it, she was just taking a bottle at night before bed {8oz}. we added the morning one back {6oz} when she wakes up but put it in a sippy cup.
napping once a day for about 1.5-2.5 hours. she usually goes down around 12 or 1. occasionally she will take 2 naps but that is very rare.
saying “dadadada” and “mamamama” as well as “uh uh oh” {uh oh}, “didi” and will blow you kisses but instead of the normal kissing noise, she clucks her tongue when she puts her hand to her mouth.
actually getting in her front 4 teeth. we thought it was only 2 but on closer inspection {you know, when you have her turned upside down playing:)}, there are 4 that are coming in. they are all the way through, just pushing out a bit more.
still a mommy’s girl in every sense! she’s fine as long as i am not in the room.
also a daddy’s girl! if she hears his voice or sees him walk in a room, she gets a huge grin on her face and goes crazy!
thinks her brother hung the moon! she wants to do what he’s doing always! it’s very sweet and we hope that one day, evan will think so too :)
all about her brother’s trains and he is not a fan!
a climber! i think she will try to escape her crib long before evan does. she climbs up on evan’s chair to then climb up on the couch. you have to watch her or she will be on the back of the couch before you know it.
in love with her dogs. she thinks they are hilarious! rylea puts up with more from her than she did with evan – grumpy puppy!
STUBBORN! her way or the highway!
a complete stinker – plain and simple!

we are loving this little girl so much! she keeps us laughing every day and is a complete mess!! we can’t wait to see what she’ll do next!

& the outtakes as always…

aTm v ku.

2011-11-19T12:49:00.000-06:00

because it was a gorgeous day and the game time was perfect, we decided to take e to another aggie football game. last time, he slept through the entire second half but this time, he made the entire game!! he only went below the stands twice – once to get something to eat and once to get his diaper changed! pretty impressive!

he was so excited for the game and didn’t stop talking about it from the minute we told him he was going {wednesday night – it was a long few days:)}. he really got into the war hymn, loved sawing varsity’s horns off, the aggie band, and singing “aggies” {aka spirit}.

aunt ashley & uncle mike also came along making it that much more fun! luckily, the aggies dominated so we were happy campers once the game was over.

watching cars…

the entire corps forming the block t…

e fell asleep in the stroller on the way to the car and slept through most of “lupper” – the kid was tired!!! it’s so fun getting to see him experience and understand so much more!

avery jo had a blast being the sole recipient of attention from her nanny & vanpa! she was so busy she had to take 2 naps to keep up!

dewberry farm.

2011-11-13T20:53:00.000-06:00

we finally made it out to dewberry farm this year and i have to say, i don’t think we’ll be heading out there any earlier again! the weather was GORGEOUS and there wasn’t a ridiculous number of people there. dewberry added a few “rides” this year – one of which was evan’s favorite!!

pre-dewberry nap…

& some dewberry fun…

the aftermath…at 530 in the afternoon…unheard of…

we had a blast!! thanks for coming with us nanny & vanpa!! can’t wait to go again next year!

fun at the zoo.

2011-11-11T20:38:00.001-06:00

bri had the day off of work for veteran’s day and played stay at home dad for the day – jealous!! when i got off of work, we decided to head to the zoo for a quick trip before dark. to get evan moving, we told him he had to hurry or the animals would be asleep. his answer to this was “eban wake the animals up mommy.” duh!! :) we heard about the sleeping animals all night!

fortunately, we didn’t run into too many sleeping animals! we hit the major exhibits before it got too dark – tigers, lions, elephants, giraffes, cheetahs, monkeys, and the komodo dragon. so fun!

after going to see the animals, we had worked up quite the appetite. there was a little cafe just o

outside the zoo on the edge of the water. they had a little outside seating area that had trees strung with lights. it was such a fun little place!! their food was pretty good too – custom grilled cheese – yes, please!!!

the view…

the crew…

melts my heart.

2011-11-07T13:47:00.000-06:00

i helped brian get the kiddos ready for school this morning and as i was putting e’s shoes on, he turned to me and said “ you make me happy mommy.” sweetest little boy ever!! love him!

birthdays and showers and fun, oh my.

2011-11-06T14:37:00.000-06:00

it was another busy weekend for us. Friday night, we headed to the Galleria to the Cheesecake Factory to celebrate my 30th birthday {when did that happen?!?!} with nanny & vanpa. we also wanted to keep the kiddos up a little later to help adjust to daylight savings time the next night. after a yummy dinner, we went to the lego store and played around and then watched the zamboni at the ice skating rink. fun night!!

the next day, we had trace’s first birthday party at the park. brian had soccer at the same time so it was just me and the kiddos. evan had a blast playing and avery was busy getting into everything! unfortunately i didn’t get my camera out for any of it – mainly because i was busy chasing them both around :) that afternoon, brian had another soccer game so we just hung out at home playing…

today, we went to church, came home, had lunch, and while the babies were napping, i headed to our friend, terra’s baby shower with jaclyn. it was adorable and we can’t wait to meet baby ella!

we left the shower a little early to get back for sweet sam’s second birthday party. it was at jump n jungle and was an absolute blast!! evan was a sweaty mess by the time it was over and avery had fun
“bouncing” and sliding with daddy…

{phone pics}

love my little blurs :) after the party, we headed home. cc came over and played until bedtime…we were pooped!!! what a weekend!

halloween.

2011-10-31T11:47:00.000-05:00

we had so much fun!!!

the day started at school. in the morning, evan’s class got to go trunk or treating so i took the morning off of work to decorate our trunk and hand out candy :) a certain someone wouldn’t put on his costume {even though we had to hide it from him at home so that he wouldn’t want to wear it everywhere – 2 year olds!!}

once i had handed out candy to all of the kiddos, i headed inside to watch the magic show with e’s class but first, i kidnapped avery from her class and she came with me :) little mister didn’t sit very still for the magic show but in his defense, it was a bit slow moving.

i was also in charge of goody bags for both evan & avery’s classes so i made s’mores bags to go…

after dropping both munchkins back off in their classes, this mommy headed to work.

for the last few years, we have made some kind of soup or chili, had brian’s family over, trick or treated, and handed out candy. this year did not disappoint!

we made stew that we ate before the festivities began. we also had cupcakes that the kiddos loved!

evan then put on his elephant costume and we put avery in her giraffe costume. we attempted some pre trick or treating pictures…

and we’re off!

avery made the first few houses and then we headed back with cc so we could hand out candy to the other kiddos in the neighborhood. we thought evan would be about done as well…haha! after going around the entire neighborhood, our little elephant was done. apparently, he would knock, say trick or treat, get his candy, say thank you, and then ask to go to “next house” or “across street”. silly boy!! i’m glad he had so much fun!

our “punkin”

e’s stash…

happy halloween!

punkin carving.

2011-10-30T12:54:00.000-05:00

sunday afternoon, we did a little punkin carving…

the only pumpkin guts he touched:)

aunt ashley & brutus

a little bike riding…

working on avery’s first homework assignment! she started her big girl class and they handed me a turkey feather that we had to decorate and bring back. this little girl had fun!!

and dinner time…

fun day!!!

from the mouth of a 2 year old.

2011-10-30T11:45:00.000-05:00

we had our first almost embarrassing moment with our 2 year old. we were checking out at walmart and the lady in front of us was wearing a compression sleeve on her very obviously swollen leg. we were playing around in line when evan said something i couldn’t understand. i asked him to repeat it and it went something along the lines of “mommy what wrong with her foot?” awesome! luckily, he said it somewhat quietly and it was enough 2 year old babble that i don’t think she heard him. out of the mouth of babes:)

game day with nanny & vanpa.

2011-10-29T11:46:00.000-05:00

we have aggie season tickets and are so thankful that nanny & vanpa are amazing and watch all 4 of our kiddos {yes, the 4 legged versions count :)} for us while we head to college station.

these are the pictures we got while we were at the game…

it’s rough being at nanny & vanpa’s house :)

pumpkin patch.

2011-10-26T10:55:00.000-05:00

we decided to take the munchkins out to our church’s pumpkin patch this afternoon. i wasn’t sure how long we would make it since the mosquitos have been so bad but it actually wasn’t terrible and we were able to pick out some “punkins” :)

first stop was the photo op but our two weren’t having it!

then we picked out two “baby punkins” and one big “punkin” for our house. evan carried his pumpkin around the entire time and was amazed that he got to take it home with him! sweet boy!

dinner these days.

2011-10-25T21:22:00.001-05:00

so who knows a good contractor that can install a drain and water hose hookup in our breakfast room :)

10 months.

2011-10-20T12:23:00.000-05:00

height: no idea
weight: i don’t know for sure but she definitely feels heavier!

it’s been a rough month. aj got sick for the first time and it has completely thrown off her eating and sleeping schedule. unfortunately, she also broke through her top, front teeth so she’s been in some pain. hopefully we will be able to work on the sleep soon as this mommy is really wanting her to get consistent at sleeping through the night again!

avery is:

a crawling fool! she will chase anyone and everyone anywhere. dog in the way? no problem! she’ll just go over:)
pulling up on everything quite easily. she thinks she is big stuff and has no problem pulling up on just about anything {including dog ears – catching a trend here??:)}
doesn’t seem to be close to walking but is gaining more and more confidence each day so we’ll see. considering it took her brother 16 months to walk, we aren’t holding our breath but she wants to keep up with evan so maybe she’ll be advanced {or normal:)} and start soon!
wearing a size 4 diaper. they are a bit big but not too bad.
wearing 18 to 24 month clothes for the most part although she can still fit in some of her 9 month shirts and dresses. girl clothes are so different from boys!
eating all table food and is a complete mess!! she loves it though so whatever.
still on the same bottle schedule…one when she wakes up, one around 930ish, one around 130ish, one at 5ish, and one at bedtime. for the most part, she eats between 4 and 6 oz each time. i am trying to figure out how to adjust her schedule so she gets more on a 3 meal a day with a snack schedule so we may be tweaking things soon.
napping twice a day when she isn’t completely distracted by what’s going on around her. sometimes it’s only once but she is absolutely exhausted by bedtime.
moved into the next class at school. normally they don’t do this until they reach 1 year but to adjust for the babies they have, they have moved the starting age of the older infants room to 10 months. miss thing thinks she’s so big sitting in the big kid table and i’m sure she is loving all of the new toys! this momma is not ready to see her baby not in the baby room :( slow down avery jo!
still making funny noises. her newest “word” comes when she is crawling down the hall toward the game room. she will stop, turn, and wave while saying “didi” which i guess is her version of byebye. sweet girl! it cracks us up.
has broken through her two top, front teeth. they seem to be hurting her:( so ready for them to be in!
has regressed a bit in the mommy’s girl side of things. the sickness thing really throws everything off and this was no exception. little baby just wants her mama when i’m around but i catch her crawling over to her daddy every once in a while to give him googoo eyes. rotten!
started wearing shoes to school. it is getting to be slightly colder and will be going outside in her big girl class so shoes it is. she has done really well with them for the most part!
is really starting to try to communicate and i love it!

she is such a sweet girl! here’s hoping we are done with sickness for awhile! i can’t believe we will be throwing her 1 year birthday party in less than 2 months!!! we love this girl more than we could ever have imagined and can’t wait to see how she grows and develops in the next few months!

& the progression of pictures…

love you sweet aj!

videos lately.

2011-10-19T14:51:00.000-05:00

after church pics.

2011-10-16T21:15:00.000-05:00

& after an outfit change…

apparently we wear our yogurt…good thing we ditched the clothes before!

best vanpa ever.

2011-10-15T21:10:00.000-05:00

i don’t have any pics yet but we left vanpa in charge of the munchkins while we headed to college station for the football game. nanny is in england so vanpa was all by himself. the kiddos had a blast and were exhausted {i think vanpa was too :)}! thank you vanpa for being so amazing and for watching our babies so we could go watch our aggie btho tech!

2 new teeth.

2011-10-11T14:45:00.000-05:00

in the midst of all of the sickness around here, our poor little girl is also breaking through two teeth in the top, front. as if everything else isn’t enough. she has been a trooper and just keeps going with a fist in her mouth:) i would love to post a pic but she doesn’t stay still long enough. steak, here she comes!!!

recovered. finally.

2011-10-10T21:03:00.000-05:00

brian had today off of work so he stayed home with the munchkins. aj hasn’t had fever since friday night {and that was only a slight fever – not 101 or 102}. she has thrown up a couple of times but the dr thinks that she is eating too much before she goes to bed so we have been limiting what she is eating and are hoping that solves the problem tonight. if so, she will be headed back to school tomorrow after over a week at home! the only problem with limiting food is that someone now thinks she needs to eat during the night – ugh! she will wake up around 12 or 1 and take a 5 or 6 oz bottle and then will wake up between 3 and 5 for another! this momma is not used to this anymore and is ready for things to get completely back to normal so that we can sleep again :) i am just so thankful that she seems to be doing better and that the antibiotics are doing their job {even if they’re tearing up her little belly a bit:(}. crossing our fingers we are back to “normal” tomorrow!

sick baby.

2011-10-07T21:01:00.000-05:00

this past week has been rough to say the least. evan had been on antibiotics since monday but has had no issues with his ears after the first night. avery is another story. she acted fairly normally all day monday so we thought she might be over the tummy bug. that night, she threw up after her bedtime bottle so no school tuesday. on tuesday, she and e stayed home with daddy. she was fine all day and didn’t throw up after her bedtime bottle so we figured we were in the clear. she went to school on wednesday but wednesday night, she threw up and also developed a 101-102 fever. ibuprofen kept it under control but she stayed home from school with mummy on thursday. because of the fever, i sent e to school. that night, she threw up again at bedtime and had the fever during the night so she stayed home again today – i took the morning shift and brian took the afternoon (and e stayed with us :)). when i got home from work, i asked brian if her diapers had been very wet. she was drinking fine but i had noticed her diapers being more dry than normal. when he said they hadn’t been very wet, i headed straight to the dr. poor baby had blood drawn (which she didn’t cry for – tough cookie!) to see if it was bacterial. that test came back positive so she was catheterized to see if it was urinary and she was also given an antibiotic booster shot – poor, sweet girl! it was a rough afternoon but they don’t think it is urinary and the antibiotics already seem to be helping. here’s hoping everything kicks in quickly and we have our happy, go lucky, baby girl back soon. i hate seeing her feeling so miserable :(

tim & brittany’s wedding in dallas.

2011-10-03T07:36:00.000-05:00

this weekend, we headed to dallas for tim & brittany’s wedding at fairy tale manor. daddy went up early for all of the pre-wedding festivities and evan, avery, and i flew up saturday morning.

flying with both munchkins alone wasn’t bad at all. the hardest part was getting through security but everyone was so nice that it wasn’t a problem! as soon as we were through security, we headed to the pizza place to get some lunch. we had a little picnic at the gate.

this was evan’s first flight with a seat to himself and he did great! miss avery sat on my lap and kept herself entertained with the sweet grandpa sitting next to us. unfortunately, my hands were fairly full so i didn’t get any pics on the plane.

daddy met us at the airport and we headed to the hotel for naptime and to finish watching the aTm v arkansas game (we shouldn’t have bothered:)). after naps, we ventured out to find a park for for the kiddoes to play on. we hit the jackpot in a neighborhood near our hotel so we spent awhile swinging, sliding, and climbing!

after a yummy dinner at rudy’s, we visited the harpers at their hotel and then crashed out for the night. this was the first time we have traveled with both munchkins and only had one room. they did great besides avery waking e up at 615 the next morning :)

after a late breakfast, we just hung out in the room and played until it was lunchtime. we found the fun frisco town center area so we ate there and then headed to a cupcake store we saw - dimples. evan got a super chocolate cake pop while i got a cookies n cream cupcake and brian got a carrot cake cupcake. it was really fun & yummy! our friend, jaclyn, always reviews cupcake places so we took the mandatory cupcake cut in half pictures but that’s about as good as it gets from me :) all i know was that they were good!

we headed back to the hotel to see if the kiddos would nap and avery did for a little while but e wanted no part of it.

soon enough, it was wedding time! brian had to be there a little early so we just took our nice clothes with us and changed there. the ceremony was gorgeous and the kids were fairly well behaved through it all :)

this momma was excited about the reception because e and aj could be as loud as they liked and it wouldn’t matter! about 30 minutes in, i could tell evan was getting tired. he sat on my lap and within minutes, was out like a light…poor baby! we brought the stroller in and let him sleep (amidst the blaring music – sweet baby was tired!). aj also snuck in a little nap (still waiting on my turn:))

the reception was also gorgeous and we had a great time!! it was so fun catching up with friends we hadn’t seen in forever!

the plan was to leave around bedtime so we would change the kiddos into jammies, load them in the car, and head out. everything was going well until we hit traffic 10 minutes after leaving. we sat in the traffic for about 45 minutes during which, avery took her bedtime bottle and crashed. about 10 minutes later, she coughed and then threw up all over herself and her car seat – poor thing :( that didn’t wake her up though! i’m fairly sure she would have slept the whole way home in it if we had let her. luckily, she went right back to sleep after getting changed and cleaned up!

mister e stayed awake WAY past his bedtime watching movies but finally fell asleep about an hour and half from home. 30 minutes from home, he woke up screaming and crying and was completely inconsolable. in turn, he woke up avery who was also crying so we spent the last 30 minutes of the trip with two very upset babies:(

after getting home, avery went right to bed and we didn’t hear anything from her until the next morning but e was a different story. he slept for maybe an hour before waking up screaming and crying. this was, by far, our roughest night with both of them. neither of us got any sleep and ended up taking the next day off of work. after a trip to the doctor, mister e has an ear infection and aj has a tummy bug – fun times in the crisp house!!

day home with mommy.

2011-09-26T21:07:00.001-05:00

aj has been a little off lately. last week, she screamed for a few hours one night and we were afraid it was an ear infection. after a trip to the dr, no ear infection, but there was fluid in her ear. we also think she is teething. fast forward to friday and avery’s teachers told me she had been pulling on her ears during the day. on the way home, she started screaming so i immediately called the dr because i didn’t want to be stuck all weekend with a baby in pain and no way to see the dr. he called in a prescription for us just in case. yesterday, she was still acting a bit funny so we started the antibiotics. everything had been fine until this morning. she woke up early and wanted a bottle {345am!}. then when she woke up for the day {6ish!}, she was just fussy and i could tell she didn’t feel great so i decided to stay home with her {and evan of course:)}. after her morning nap, she was in a much better mood and seemed to chipper up so we had a fun day at home!

yes, they are little cheeseballs!! love them!!

aggie football game.

2011-09-24T20:37:00.000-05:00

the aggie game against osu was set to kick off at 230 so we thought it might be a good game to take evan to {he went to one when he was 4 months old but hasn’t been to one since}. unfortunately this game was sold out and the cheapest tickets we could find online were $120. we thought we were out of luck until a friend called while we were eating dinner friday night and asked if we were still looking for a ticket. some of her family who sit with her weren’t going to use one of their tickets so she wanted to know if we wanted it for $50…ummmm, heck yeah!!! so we dropped avery and the puppies with nanny and vanpa for the day and headed to aggieland with our little aggie!

he was such a trooper! he climbed some of the ramps on the way up to the top of the zone…

the game started during what normally would be his nap time but he was still going strong! i think he was trying to figure out what on earth was going on…

the guy behind us offered to take a picture. this is what we got :)

and the aggie band…

the aggies played a great first half! unfortunately, that’s the only half they decided to play. shortly after half time, evan fell asleep and stayed asleep the entire 2nd half and even a few minutes after the game was over!! lucky him :)

after awhile, i took him down to the elevator lobby where it’s air conditioned and in the shade and stayed down there until cc came and took over for the last part of the 4th quarter.

after the game, we headed down to the field to play around. it took e a little while to snap out of his post nap haze but once he did, he had a blast running around on the field!

e man did great and seemed to enjoy himself!! so glad that it worked out and evan got to see “aggies pay fooball” :) {even if only for a half!}

chunky babies.

2011-09-21T20:32:00.000-05:00

we were bathing the kiddos and thought our little chunky babies were sweet…so we took some pictures :)

9 months.

2011-09-20T14:39:00.000-05:00

height: 28 inches
weight: 22.4 lbs

avery is:

CRAWLING!!! she just started recently and is already picking up speed. her brother is not so much a fan of this new found talent because she can now get to him and his toys much easier! let the fun begin :)
still wearing a size 3 but i’m debating moving her up.
mainly wearing 12 or 18 month clothes.
eating mostly table food. she has had only half a can of baby food in the last week! love it!
still on the same bottle schedule…one when she wakes up, one around 930ish, one around 130ish, one at 5ish, and one at bedtime. for the most part, she eats between 4 and 6 oz each time.
napping twice a day when she isn’t completely distracted by what’s going on around her. sometimes it’s only once but she is absolutely exhausted by bedtime.
making all kinds of noises…mamamama, dadadada, blowing raspberries, clucking her tongue, snorting…
a performer! she will starting clapping her hands when you say “yay avery”
still only sporting her two bottom teeth but it’s not slowing her down.
pulling up on things. her favorite at home right now is pulling up on evan’s train table – yikes! at school, she likes to pull up on the foam play area and try to dive over the top – awesome!
doing so much better about not throwing a fit when i leave the room. it still happens but not nearly as much!
keeping everyone at her school entertained. apparently they will come in during meal times to hear avery snort…awesome :)
such a happy baby! if she fusses, you know something is not quite right {or her mommy has left the room:)}. for the most part, she just smiles and goes with the flow…love her!

we love this little girl so much and can’t wait to watch her personality develop over the next few months!! we think her big brother is pretty awesome too! we are so blessed with our little angels and are so thankful that we get to be their parents!

& the outtakes {evan is only in a diaper because we had spaghetti for dinner and it’s just easier for him to eat with no clothes :)}

schlitterbahn.

2011-09-18T14:22:00.000-05:00

aunt barbie had some free tickets to schlitterbahn so on sunday (despite the rain…yes, the first rain we’ve had in months but whatever!), we headed down to schlitterbahn galveston with aunt barbie and cc! waterparks and cameras don’t mix and when you throw rain in, the camera never left the camera bag. bummer!

the kids had a blast and were pooped by the time we left! evan even asked to ride dragon blaster which is one of the big slides with the family size tubes. he wasn’t so much a fan once he was on it but never cried!

a couple funny stories…

the first isn’t even from that day. i had told brian about the schlitterbahn tickets and said that i thought it would be fun to go. as usual, he just went with it. on friday, we were talking about plans for the weekend and i don’t remember how it came up, but brian said, “because of ____________, i think we should probably go to the schlitterbahn in galveston instead.” what?!?!? apparently, he thought i was planning on packing up our 2 year old and 8 month old and heading out to new braunfels the morning after getting home from an aggie game at midnight…crazy!!! that’s how awesome my hubs is! he must have thought i was nuts and still went along with it :) love that man!

while we were waiting in line for dragon blaster, we were playing around with evan and i asked him where his belly was. he lifted up his rash guard and showed me. then he said, “where’s mommy’s belly?” and proceeded to grab my bikini top and try to show me what was under there. luckily, i grabbed it fairly quickly and was able to avert a little show :) crazy kid!!!

we had such a good time at schlitterbahn galveston and they had so many fun things for little people to do! we will definitely be going back!!

thanks for thinking of us aunt barbie!

nanny plays kickball.

2011-09-17T10:07:00.000-05:00

nanny’s hospital company had a kickball tournament this morning between all of the houston area hospitals. the kids and i headed out there while brian played in his soccer game. mum’s hospital ended up winning the championship and mum got on base quite a bit!! evan helped nanny play in the field when he was taking a break from playing on the playground :)

miss avery had such a blast playing with vanpa, she had to take a little nap!

great job katy kickers (& even better job nanny!!!) !

we’re proud of you!!

crawling.

2011-09-14T09:47:00.000-05:00

aj started crawling tonight! it was small but i’m sure she will get quite speedy fairly quickly. poor big brother has no idea what he’s in for!

storytime.

2011-09-13T21:48:00.001-05:00

when brian takes the kids to school in the morning, he always opens the door to evan’s room for him and lets him go in while he drops off avery. then he comes back and drops off e’s backpack and gives him a kiss goodbye. yesterday, when he went to give e a kiss, evan was sitting at a table with 4 books. he handed one to brian and said “read please.” how can you resist that?? so brian plopped himself down in one of the mini chairs and started reading e the book. by page 2, he had quite the audience of 2 year olds! apparently he ended up reading the story to the entire class :) how sweet!! it might also be a new tradition. story number 2 was read this morning after a sweet request from mister evan!

enough to melt your heart!

first corn on the cob.

2011-09-11T21:44:00.000-05:00

deja vu! like brother, like sister :)

september 11.

2011-09-11T21:29:00.000-05:00

we met the williams’ at the league city fire training grounds (i’m sure it has a proper name but i don’t have a clue what it is:)) to watch firefighters (including mr. troy) from the area participate in a stair climb in honor of the victims of 9-11. unfortunately, by the time we got there (getting around in the morning takes a bit longer with 2), the stair climb was over. we were able to take some pictures of the firetrucks and firefighters and evan and jaxon had fun playing around together.

the rest of the day, we spent together as a family. we have been so busy lately, it was nice to just be at home relaxing (and enjoying a little football :)).

after naptime, we took the kids for their first sno cone. i’m not sure that evan loved it but it was definitely refreshing on such a warm day!!

the aftermath

a grumpy evan

it was a great way to spend such a heavy day.

we will never forget <3 9-11-01

simming.

2011-09-10T21:26:00.000-05:00

as evan would say. we went over to cc’s saturday evening for a little swim time. the kiddos loved it and had a blast seeing everyone!! evan might have worn everyone out jumping to them from the step but he didn’t seem too worried about it :) miss thing sat in her floatie for forever just kicking and relaxing! we have 2 water babies!

such a fun night!!! & two pooped kiddos :)

meeting miss reveille.

2011-09-10T21:06:00.000-05:00

nasa decided to surprise mike fossum, an aggie astronaut onboard the station, with a visit from miss reveille. at the last minute (to keep the secret), they invited some of the aggies that work at nasa to come and take a group pic with rev to send to mike. along with that came an opportunity to take some individual pics with her. this was during nap time so the pics could have been better but we’ll take what we can get (we had also spent the morning at brian’s soccer game so forgive the sweaty look :))

not the greatest pictures ever but still fun for the kiddos to meet reveille. e kept talking about meeting her all day and would run around saying “gig em aggies” with his pointer finger up. he insisted that was the way to do it. guess we need to work on that part but whatever!

daddy’s first ponytail.

2011-09-08T09:21:00.000-05:00

brian normally takes the kids to school in the morning so he had to learn how to put avery’s hair in a ponytail. sweet girl has a decent amount of hair considering she’s only 8 months old and if you don’t pull it back, it hangs in her eyes! last night, we held pony tail training on my hair and it went decently well. this pic was texted to me this morning…

not too bad for the first time around!!

monster chips.

2011-09-07T12:16:00.001-05:00

everyone knows what monster chips are, right?? :)

last night, we were eating dinner and brian opened the pantry to get something out. evan had basically finished his dinner so were kind of sitting around the table. he started saying something that sounded like monster chips but we couldn’t figure out what he was talking about. we asked if he was talking about animal crackers and he said no. then we asked if he was talking about the tortilla chips brian had just put away and he said no. our curiousity got the best of us and brian picked him up to see what he was talking about…

monster chips…duh!!!
guess he does kinda look like a monster :)

another crazy weekend.

2011-09-06T13:49:00.001-05:00

saturday morning, we got up, packed, and loaded up to head to nanny & vanpa’s house for the weekend. it’s fun trying to fit 2 adults, 2 kids, and 2 four legged kids plus all of our stuff into the car :) we definitely felt the love!

that night, we headed to the wedding of a friend from church. this was the first time we had taken both kiddos to a wedding together and we weren’t sure how they would do. i’m happy to report that aside from avery trying to sing and evan going cookie monster style on his goldfish, they were very well behaved!

once at the reception, my children were golden – mainly because there was food and we all know my kids love everything food related but also because they could be as loud as they wanted and it didn’t matter!

unfortunately we had to leave before too much dancing was underway…

avery & evan enjoyed their first chocolate fountain…

avery’s amazed by the camera in a box…

sunday, after church, cindy came and picked brian and i up and we headed to college station for the first aggie football game of the season while nanny & vanpa babysat our 4 kiddos :) the aggies won quite handedly which was a nice start to the season while i think the kiddos had a great time playing!!

monday, we were super lazy {since brian and i didn’t get back to katy until LATE}. we skyped and facetimed with uncle james while he was in port in malaysia. e was able to put on quite the performance! he gave “unc james” fist bumps, high fives, and kisses through the computer screen. he also thought he needed to put mummy in time out for not listening. bossy much?? think he’s heard this a few times?? {please ignore the jammies/diaper – told you we were lazy!}

we headed home after nap yesterday and the kiddos slept until 730 this morning!! guess they were tired :) thanks for the fun weekend!!

park time.

2011-09-02T13:19:00.000-05:00

“i push abry”

{sorry, cell phone pic}

lost pines.

2011-08-28T22:08:00.000-05:00

this weekend, cc took us to lost pines outside of bastrop. we had heard great things about it and had been wanting to go but it just hadn’t worked out until now. it didn’t disappoint!! there were so many amazing things to do and there will only be more as the kiddos get older…

we had an amazing time and probably didn’t get to do half of what was offered! i would recommend it to anyone with or without kids – it was that fun!!

we headed out friday afternoon right after work and got there just in time for dinner. they had a great buffet set up in one of their restaurants so we ate there. there was even a kid’s size buffet at evan’s height. i wish we would’ve gotten a picture of it!

after dinner, we headed outside to see the movie on the lawn but didn’t last long. we had some tired kiddos on our hands.

the next morning, we got around and headed down for breakfast {another yummy buffet} followed by a horse drawn buggy ride. e wasn’t really sure what to think of it but talked about the horsies the rest of the day so i guess he liked it :)

then we headed down to the pool and swam & played until….evan managed to clear the entire pool for about half an hour because he threw up in the pool after swallowing too much pool water. yes, he was that kid! lovely!

we went back up to our room for naps {and to try to camouflage ourselves so no one would recognize us :) only kidding…kind of!}. aj refused to sleep until the last part of e’s nap so daddy & cc took e out exploring while sister napped on mummy.

when sister bear woke up, we went back out to the pool for the rest of the afternoon. we tried to go to one of the restaurants for dinner but mister e was exhausted {so much so that he made me carry him and laid his head down on my shoulder the entire time – not like him at all!!}. instead, i took e to the little cafe and got him a grilled cheese to take up to the room and he had a little picnic while cc, daddy, and avery ordered some food to go from one of the restaurants. it was super yummy!!

we had told e earlier in the day that we could watch monsters {monsters inc} that night on the lawn but i sort of thought he would be too tired. wrong!! his food must have given him a second wind. the whole time he was eating, he kept saying “watch monsters?” so when he was finished, we took the kiddos downstairs to watch monsters {with a quick stop off at the s’mores station of course:)}. aj was getting a little fussy so i went ahead and took her back upstairs for bath and bed and about 20 minutes after we got to the room, cc, daddy, and e came in. apparently the little man had been falling asleep sitting up and would kind of fall over but still refuse to give in to sleep. goofball! he also refused to let anyone take the s’more out of his hand so he was a mess. after a quick bath, both munchkins went down for the night without a sound.

the next morning, evan slept until 830 and probably would have gone later! aj took a bottle around 6ish and then went back to sleep until 7ish too! good thing cause we were pooped!! first thing the next morning, we went downstairs to see the horse and longhorn they had brought out. e was a little apprehensive about it but avery was all about it. i think she thought they were giant doggies :)

then we headed to breakfast where we had to wait for a little while. no worries though! they have little tables with coloring pages and crayons for the munchkins so mister e was happy! meanwhile, sister sang to everyone in the lobby at the top of her lungs – she thinks she’s so funny :)

the aftermath of chocolate chip waffles and pancakes for breakfast…

and then it was back to the pool for this crew!

& dancing to the music…

and daddy carrying our stuff :)

thank you for taking us cc!! we had a great time!!!!