The Lone Star Low Down

Jack Valentine

2011-02-06T21:28:00.001-06:00

Winter Valentine Valentine's Day Card

Modern greeting cards and party invitations by Shutterfly.

View the entire collection of cards.

Snow Day!

2011-02-04T10:23:00.004-06:00

Let's just ignore the fact that I haven't posted since the beginning of November and get right on to the snow we are having in Austin today, shall we?

Rain boots make great snow boots in a pinch!

We don't actually own gloves so she kept her hands in her pockets as much as possible.
A light dusting is all it takes to close schools and businesses in Austin.

Avery wrote her name in the snow.

This kind of love and goodwill only lasts for so long on a snow day. I expect them to be mortal enemies by the time the sun sets.

While Waiting For Dinner

2010-11-06T21:47:00.004-05:00

Went went down to Auditorium Shores today for the Gypsy Picnic, which seemed like a good idea on paper. The event featured the food trailers that are all around town with special sample prices so we could try a lot of the different food types offered around town (in trailers). It was a beautiful day--sunny and in the 70s--so just about everyone in town thought it would be a good idea to go check it out. As a result, the lines were incredibly long. It looked like some lines stretched a quarter of a mile long. Several of the trailers sold out early in the day (I'm looking at you, Cutie Pies) and there wasn't a single trailer that didn't have a line at least 75 people long. Needless to say, we left after one lap around the park.

The kids enjoyed being pushed around in the stroller and the great weather but they weren't too happy that they didn't get anything to eat. Since we didn't feed them any lunch on the assumption that we would be eating lots of trailer food, we figured we better make up for it by going to Freddie's for dinner. The kids enjoyed playing on the playground while we waited for our dinner.

Avery started to lose her patience for dinner after we waited 30 minutes to get a table, only to be seated at the very table next to the playground that we had been hanging out on while watching the kids play. Ridiculous. But funny.

She perked up when she found out dinner was coming soon!

Sure, she's all smiles in the picture but in her mind she is plotting which one of us she is going to eat if she doesn't get food soon.

They really shouldn't bring silverware to the table until they bring the food. These things are easily turned into weapons when they need to be. Jack has the knife and fork in his hands and he is checking out the other kids on the playground. This could get ugly...

Thankfully the food came in time and no one got hurt!

Both the kids got tired from playing on the playground at the restaurant. Needless to say, we had no problem at all getting them to bed tonight!

Trick or Treat

2010-11-02T15:30:00.008-05:00

Avery chose her own costume again this year, even though I tried my hardest to get her to change her mind. She picked early and she never changed her mind: she was going to dress as a Texas cheerleader. I really loved the cupcake costume from Pottery Barn so I would ask her every week if she wanted to be a cupcake and every week she responded much like a teenager would, "Mooooommmm. I. Want. To. Be. A. Cheerleader." Then she would add, "I already told you that."

And so it continues. She has her own mind and there is really nothing I can do about it.

You may notice from this picture that she is wearing big girl classes now. No more rubber frames with the safety strap to keep on a baby's head. I guess I should at least be happy that she stuck with pink but it sort of breaks my heart to look at her in these new glasses because they instantly age her.

I taught her a cheer to perform upon requests and most of the time she got MORE candy after she cheered, "fire Greg Davis! fire Greg Davis!"

There she goes...off to deliver candy packages to the other kids in the neighborhood before trick-or-treating started. We handed out candy early on our street so we could go meet some friends in my parent's neighborhood for the main event.

My little man, Jack, is still very cooperative both with the clothes I pick out for him every day and with Halloween costumes. I didn't have to do much for him this year because Avery had a turtle costume from when she was 2 that I decided to use for Jack. I figure it will be the last time I will ever be able to recycle a costume of hers so I better take advantage. I was afraid he might have strong feelings on his costume like Avery did when she was 2 but he went right along with my suggestion.

This child will turn anything into drums and drumsticks. He loves to music so much and I really don't know where he gets it from. It's generally a lot of fun to watch (notice I didn't say listen to) but I think I can only say that because it is sunny here over 300 days a year. Not a lot of those rainy days where we are stuck inside listening to this lovely "music."

Once we were done in our neighborhood we headed to my parents house to meet some friends and trick-or-treat.

Oh, what a difference a year makes. Avery wasn't scared at all by Poppa's mask but Jack was definitely hesitant. He kept his distance until Poppa finally coaxed him into a hug.

Off we went! They stayed in the wagon in the beginning, which wasn't surprising to us. It took them a few houses to warm up.

But when we got to "Uncle Josh's" house they took off running. They know he always has the good stuff for them.

Rona answered the door dressed as Kat Von D and Jack said, "hey, where's the candy?" I wish I could have gotten that on video.

They were excited to see Uncle Josh but Jack did not mince words with the candy requests.

I kept waiting for Jack to puke on Josh but it never happened. He got lucky this time.
Avery was happy to pose with Rona, especially in return for her very own bucket of candy. That's right--bucket. Each kid was given their own bucket filled with treats from Uncle Josh.

What we have here is an actual photo of Avery sharing candy with Jack. I can't believe I caught this on film. This is definitely going in the baby book.

Little Jacob (in the skeleton outfit) was trick-or-treating with us. I love this picture because it looks like he is saying, "come on! Let's get moving so we can get more candy!"

He got his wish. Here is Jacob with his first lollipop. So cute! He loved it.

Jack's face is covered in candy in this picture. It's a miracle he made it through the night without puking.

Once the kids got the hang of things they were out of the wagon and into the streets getting candy for themselves. It is good to teach them they need to ask for their own candy rather than expecting people to come to them with candy. It's the building block for every other major life lesson if you ask me.

Derrin, Jolene, and Jacob were a lot of fun to hang out with while we were trick-or-treating.

This woman was giving out toothpaste to all the trick-or-treaters. I thought that was a really novel idea. I mean, they don't call it trick-or-treats for nothing. It can't all be candy and play-doh.

After we were done with the candy collection we went to a little festival in the neighborhood. Jacob loved eating the popcorn.

If you ever wondered what a turtle climbing a blow-up slide looks like, here you go.

Every wonder what a turtle throwing a football looks like? You're welcome.

Jacob and Jack on the slide. I think I took 5o pictures o

f Jacob coming down the slide and none of them showed his face coming down.

But I was able to get the perfect shot of him going down the slide...backwards! Of course.

At the end of the night we had a very tired turtle and a happy little cheerleader. No one cried. No one threw up. It was a great night.

Obligatory Pumpkin Patch Post 2010

2010-10-24T09:42:00.005-05:00

We made our annual trip to Sweet Berry Farms for some pumpkin patch action earlier in October. Our friends Stan, Melissa, and Beth joined us with their kids. Sweet Berry Farms always does such a great job setting up tons of neat photo ops and having lots of activities for the kids. It was definitely worth the long drive through the Texas hill country to get there.

Getting a picture of all 4 kids together was impossible. This was our best try.
Jack getting a piggy back ride from Grammy.
Avery getting a shoulder ride from Poppa. Do these kids ever actually walk?
Avery on a horse. That look on her face cracks me up because I know she is terrified to be on the horse but she is trying to make us think she is ok with it.
Ah. Back on solid ground. Survived the horse ride and is now daring to sit on hay.

Jack in a horse trailer.

Jack was doing the chicken dance on a picnic table.
Avery was playing "Simon Says" with Grammie and Poppa. She is very bossy when she leads games like this. I wonder where she gets that from...

Avery and Grammie on a hay ride.

Jack with Poppa on a hayride.

Holding hands. I love this one. Makes you forget all about the box of raisins they dump on the living room floor on a daily basis.

We also went to the pumpkin patch at our church earlier this month so we could buy some pumpkins for our front porch. Look, I'm not going to lie. Right now the kids don't realize that you can carve faces into pumpkins and light them up at night and I am ok with that. We buy the pumpkins, put them on the front porch, and look at them every time we go in or out of the front door. Period. There is no cutting, messy gutting of the pumpkin, or post Halloween decomposition of said pumpkin and I am perfectly fine with that. I realize the kids are going to catch on to pumpkin carving soon enough and I will happily comply when that time comes. For now, no pumpkins will be murdered on my watch.

Not pictured: Jack's shorts don't match his shirt AT ALL. He was wearing blue plaid shorts with a green stripped shirt thanks to us rushing out of the house without actually taking a look at what he was wearing.
This picture cracks me up because it sort of looks like she is trying to choke him.

She is very much into making silly faces for pictures.

Out of 7 tries, this is the best I could get of the three of them together. At least this one shows Jack's mis-matched outfit. On the plus side, it was better than Matt could do. He didn't get any of the three of us.

Last but not least, it isn't all three of us but Jack's shirt made it in the background of this one.

Apple Geek

2010-10-14T20:38:00.003-05:00

Matt is brain-washing her already. This could get expensive. sigh.

Hanna's Sip and See

2010-09-19T19:47:00.006-05:00

One of my good friends, Lauren, had her third baby girl in August. My friend Josh and I planned to take her to the spa rather than throw a baby shower since everyone knows that a woman with three kids needs a spa day more than just about anything else! We still plan to take her but when the opportunity to co-host a "sip and see" came up, we couldn't pass up the chance to participate in the fun. We told Lauren if she keeps having babies, we'll keep hosting showers!

Our theme for the party was "Wild about Hanna" and we decorated with animal prints all over the place. (aside: decorating Josh's house for parties is so much fun for me because he does not like it when I move his things around. He thinks we should leave everything exactly as he normally has it and try to work the party stuff around his normal arrangement. I never listen to that since I usually have a theme in mind so it is always fun to watch him grimace as I replace his things with party decorations.)

(because let's be honest, it wasn't a housewarming party for Josh, it was a baby shower for Hanna. That's two completely different looks.) (I hope.)

Here's what we came up with:
The banner was hung in 2 other places before we finally settled on this spot. Josh doesn't have a bare space on any of his walls so it was definitely a challenge finding a place to hang this. He watched me hang it and when I was all done he said, "well I guess we aren't opening those blinds at the party." grrr. (also, those stupid wooden animals held up all night and day before the party but once the party got started they kept falling down. The banner was taped to the blinds also so the words didn't fall but the stupid monkey on the left would not stay in place. I tried to re-tape it each time but I finally gave up.)

The dessert table. Yum! We had cake balls, chocolate dipped oreos, iced sugar cookies and macaroons.

Matt made the food labels for everything. Keeping with the theme, I made the chocolate dipped oreos with giraffe print on top.

The cake balls had animal print designs also. Some were giraffe print and some were zebra print. They were chocolate inside.

My Aunt Debbie and Mom helped make the table runner for the shower. We tried to go with some "animal" type food--or at least we forced the food into an animal theme. We had "Safari Sandwiches" (which are, of course, sliders from chili's), tropical fruit salsa (what? that works), chicken skewers (they skewer chicken on safari's, right?), trail mix (obviously), veggies, and fruit.

I didn't want to have a typical veggie tray so I put dip in little cups and then put some cut veggies on top of the dip. It was less messy than a regular veggie tray plus it worked well for the kids at the party.

We gave little cookies as the party favors.

Any good baby shower has a good bar. I didn't get a picture of the full bar but here are some of the mixed drinks we had for guests. We always like to serve alcohol at baby showers because we figure we are just increasing our chances at throwing another baby shower in about 9 months....

These are Hanna's sisters, Amanda and Olivia. The third girl on the right is her cousin, Reagan. They had a good time playing together (and sneaking food from the dessert table) during the party.

Hanna was passed around from person to person at the party. There was no shortage of love for her there. Plus, she is so cute that she makes it really easy to fall in love immediately.

Even Josh had a soft spot for little Hanna. (it helped that she didn't spit up on him or his furniture!)

And like all good parties at Josh's house, there was a girl with her pants down at the end. :-)

Elissa, Josh, and I all had a great time putting this together. I'm so glad Elissa suggested it because we really did enjoy getting to spend time with baby Hanna and her family.

(Of course, the spa day should be equally fun to plan. Looking forward to that time away from kids, too.)

Congratulations to Lauren and Adam on their beautiful new addition, Hanna!

Someone Misplaced August!

2010-09-14T22:24:00.002-05:00

That's weird. While I look for August (ahem)...and maybe figure out how to catch up on a month that was filled with class reunions, a great wedding, birthday parties and more...check out the latest from Jack.

Avery's 4th Birthday Party

2010-08-02T21:03:00.008-05:00

This year we were on vacation on Avery's birthday, which was so fun because she was able to celebrate with her cousins. She really did enjoy herself at the beach during the family celebration so it was a huge bonus to know that she still had a birthday party to attend after we returned from vacation. We combined her birthday party with her best friend, Kendel, since they were born just 7 days apart. We also figured one party for both kids would be easier on many of the guests because they are in the same class at daycare so they have many of the same friends.

Kendel and Avery both wanted to have a pool party so we combined that with an ice cream sundae theme, which worked out perfectly--messy kids could just jump in the pool! Kendel's favorite color is yellow and Avery's favorite is pink so we used those colors as the basis for everything we did with the decorations.

All-in-all I think it turned out great! We had to work around the dreaded "no hanging decorations" rule at the pool clubhouse so we couldn't decorate to the degree that I wanted to. I really hate that rule because I always have ideas of ways to really bring the theme to life but I am always held back by the threat of the loss of a deposit. "The man" gets me every time. Besides that, everything came together perfectly and all of our little guests had a great time.

A few pictures from the party (click to enlarge if you want more detail):

Avery loves to spin around in the pool when she is in a floatie. It's about as far as she goes in terms of risk taking. She won't even go down the water slide--something her brother does regularly even though he doesn't meet the height or age requirements for going down the slide yet. She has been telling us all summer that she would go down the slide at her birthday party. Turns out she meant her FIFTH birthday party, not her fourth. Tricker.

Someone gave Avery a pool gun, which is never a good idea. No one was safe from getting a face full of water when they least expected it.

After a little more than an hour we went inside the clubhouse to have ice cream sundaes. I took a few pictures while we were setting up but we didn't give ourselves much time for set-up or clean up in our rental agreement so I had to take them quickly. I always miss pictures when I do that, and this time was no exception. Hopefully I will remember this the next time I rent a place for a party and give myself plenty of time to set up. Somehow I doubt it, though.

We gave the guests little bags of chalk in the shape of ice cream cones to thank them for coming to our party.

We also made these little jars of ingredients that, when combined with ice, will make ice cream. This idea was inspired by a Christmas gift our friends Michelle and Joel gave us 2 years ago. It was a large plastic ball that you fill with a cream, sugar and vanilla and then roll around for 30 minutes. For the party, we did a variation of that with dry ingredients thanks to the great info given at The City Cradle.

Everything was covered in pink and yellow--including the chocolate and sugar coated ice cream cones.

This was the ice cream sundae bar that we set up (minus the ice cream, since it was 103 degrees and we didn't want it to melt in the 5 seconds that it took me to take the picture).

Matt made all of the labels for the ice cream bar, the stickers on our favors, the invitations and the labels on the water bottles. It's hard to see from the picture but there is a little wafer in the ice cream with a number 4 on it. He was so patient with every little detail and change I asked him to make. He really was able to take all of the images I had in my head and make them reality. I'm lucky to have him around for these kinds of things!

I made strawberry and lemon (to keep up with the yellow and pink color pattern) as well as chocolate (because it is always a party favorite) cake balls that we served in place of a large cake or cupcakes. At the 11 pm on the night before the party I decided to make the cake balls look like ice cream sundaes. I really love how cute they turned out even though it meant working on them until 2 am. Next time, I hope my "brilliant" ideas come to me at a more reasonable hour.

We covered water bottles with the same ice cream sundae design that was on all of the other labels and the birthday invitation. There was a "nutrition facts" design on the back that I failed to get a picture of. It gave looked like a nutrition label but gave birthday girl facts for both Kendel and Avery. I hate that I didn't get a picture of that since he added it for me a few days after I had promised that I was done making any changes to the labels...(did I mention he was super patient with me?!) ha.

Some of the cake balls had the number 4 on them while others had an A for Avery or K for Kendel. I put some pink and yellow roses in ice cream cones to add a little more color to the room--and to hopefully distract from the bare walls.

The kids absolutely loved going through the sundae bar and putting their own toppings on their ice cream. We had all of the ice cream scooped into large bowls before the party started so we could just pull them out of the freezer and hand them out quickly when it was time to make the sundaes. It was really helpful because it prevented the normal bottle-neck of kids waiting for ice cream to be scooped for them. There were no fits and nobody cried when they were making their ice cream. That's huge, people. HUGE.

Jack took advantage of the fact that I was busy during the party. I believe he ate 6 cake balls, which was evident later in the day when he was bouncing off the walls. He used anything possible as a drum to beat on while singing at the top of his lungs. It was cute for about 4 minutes.

Melissa and Denali shared a sundae. Not pictured: Stan who had just wiped ice cream off of Denali's chin. She clearly didn't appreciate that. I love the look she is giving her dad off camera.

Avery clearly had fun eating her sundae. I love that little smile on her face.

mmm. The cherry on top. Gotta love that part!

Kendel, on the other hand, ate only plain vanilla ice cream. No toppings at all. She's the birthday girl so she can do whatever she wants!

PRESENTS! I love how excited she is as she figures out exactly what this gift from Uncle Josh is. She loves books and now she gets to make her own. Aside: he also got her a volcano kit. I was sure that it would not be age appropriate because OMG 4 YEAR OLDS CANNOT MAKE VOLCANOES but Josh smiled as he pointed to the "4 years and up" message on the box. Gee, THAT isn't going to be messy at all! Sometimes I wonder if Josh really does like me as much as he claims he does...

Here are the birthday girls sneaking to open more presents even though I asked them to wait a few minutes. You can tell they are doing something wrong just by the look on Avery's face. I kind of love that.

This picture is a tradition for us. We have a picture of Avery with Olivia and Josh at every birthday since Avery turned one. I love that these girls are so willing to give us a cheesy smile for pictures all the time. I think we took 12 of this pose and this was the best of the group.

As you can see, Avery's sugar high lasted long after the party was over. We left the pool around 6:30 pm (and can I just give props to our sunblock?! We had been at the pool since 2:30 pm and neither kid was burned!) and I believe I took this picture around 7. Both of my kids were on such a sugar high that they didn't go to bed until well after their bedtime.

It was a ton of fun and super easy to put together. I am so glad we combined birthday parties for Kendel and Avery. We were happy to see so many friends at once and both girls were excited to share a party with her best friend.

HAPPY 4TH BIRTHDAY!

1044

2010-07-28T20:56:00.005-05:00

Oh man. We had a fantastic vacation. So many funny stories to document for future lawsuits, er, I mean reference. But when I plugged my camera in to download the pictures I saw that I took 1044 photos over the 8 days we were on vacation with my entire extended family.

That number kind of gives me a headache.

I'm not done sorting through all of the pictures yet but as I have been looking them over I started to notice a disturbing pattern. See for yourself...

Avery with Matt

Happy and cooperative

with me, not so much

And then there is my boy. My happy little boy...

laughing and having fun

with me, sucking his thumb and refusing to look at the camera

laughing and playing in the waves

thumb in mouth resting his head on my shoulder

Geesh. Darn kids!

So that's 6 pictures down, 1038 to go. I hope to have them all sorted out by the time the kids go away to college. Wish me luck!

Bedtime Stories

2010-07-05T21:17:00.004-05:00

When I walked around the corner to Avery's room and saw this I died. And then I came back to life and quickly grabbed my camera.

And then I died again.

Avery was telling Jack that this was her "Avery" book from when she was a baby.
Then she started "reading" to him from her book. She focused on the beach part since we are going to the beach in a few weeks.
Then she switched it up to a Princess book and even let him turn the pages. The next time I walked in the room they were "reading" the Mixed Up Chameleon while laying under the covers. I would have gotten pictures of that, too, but my heart had stopped beating and I wasn't able to move my legs. It appeared that they had read about 5 books from what I gathered by the pile on the floor.

I'm so happy Avery has a big girl bed now so the two of them can lay together and read when they want to. How lucky are we to have two kids that like to be around each other?

Very, very lucky.

A Conversation With Avery

2010-07-03T08:19:00.002-05:00

Our Anniversary Cake

2010-06-29T19:59:00.002-05:00

close up view of the 7 year itch protection.

We decided to mock the whole "7 year itch" idea with this Gold Bond cake. We got to have some fun with it and eat cake. Always a win in my book.

Seven

2010-06-28T22:00:00.003-05:00

Whenever the subject of weddings come up and someone asks me about our wedding, I always start by telling them that our wedding was a beautiful beach wedding. Our reception, however, was like the video from Guns N' Roses November Rain except that I didn't die. That usually draws crazy looks but I think that sums it up perfectly.

Fortunately we spent a beautiful week with our friends leading up to our wedding. The skies were blue and the sun was shining all week long. Close to 200 of our closest friends rented 15 beach houses on Folly Beach, SC and we had the best vacation all together. There were friends from Texas, Illinois, Kentucky, Ohio, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, and several states in between. It was fun to float from house to house and see different friends and family.

Then on our wedding day it was sunny and HOT (just ask the friends of mine who were roped in to setting up for the reception--without my knowledge). The pictures of our ceremony show blue skies and white fluffy clouds. Then the pictures after the wedding started to show more clouds than sun but I wasn't paying attention to that because I was headed from the wedding to the reception--also on the beach--to start the party that I had been planning for 9 months.

We went through the buffet that my Uncle David had set up with the most delicious food. Everyone was eating and enjoying each other's company and it was time for the toasts to begin. About half way through our best man's toast (mostly about how he was right and how he had predicted we would marry before we even started dating) the wind picked up and sand started flying everywhere. Pretty much sandblasting everything and everyone at the reception.

Mothers started pulling the table cloths off the tables to cover their children from the flying sand. The wedding cake, which had been made to look like it was surrounded by sand, got sand blasted as a few of our friends quickly moved it to the center of the tent. Rain started pouring down fast and furious. The thunder grew loud as lightening struck all around us while the men worked quickly to drop the walls of the tent so the guests would stop getting pummeled by sand. It wasn't fast enough for most people, though, and they took off running for their cars so fast that we didn't get to say goodbye. In fact, the whole scene is a little blurry in my mind because people were running in every direction. I have no idea what I was doing while all of this was happening.

By the time the walls of the tent came down and everything calmed down inside, we looked around and only about half of our guests--mostly the young ones without kids--were left. Our photographers took off in the middle of the mayhem. The videographer and bar tenders were nowhere to be found. Our DJs came over to tell us that they weren't going to risk damage to their equipment and had to leave immediately.

The hits. They just kept coming.

I was super lucky to have a great friend who played his guitar and sang during our wedding. He had a mic and an amp at the beach house so he just jumped in the car, grabbed his stuff and returned to play for us so we could dance the night away. Every time lightening struck he would get a little shocked by the mic. It was such an amazing gift that he was willing to entertain the crowd in the face of such a terrible storm.

Matt and I fed each other cake, with slightly more crunch than anticipated. We sang "happy birthday" to my oldest brother. Most importantly, we ended up having a great time with the friends and family that were left. I got to sing with my sorority sisters and dance with my dad. Technically, I got to do everything I had planned for.

Just, you know, with lots of lightening, thunder, rain, and a lot less pictures, video, or guests than I planned for.

The next morning we had a lot of food (especially sandblasted cake) at our brunch. The skies were BLUE and SUNNY once again, as if to mock me. The newspaper shared the news that the storm that hit suddenly turned out to be the tail end of a hurricane that had come up from Florida. Terrible timing, but an unforgettable night.

It wasn't what I planned for. And I REALLY hate that I didn't get to spend more time with the family and friends that were only there for the wedding ceremony (not the full beach week) that left the reception when the storm picked up. I absolutely understand why they left I just wish that things had turned out differently so I could have had the party that I envisioned rather than the one that ended up happening. I do, however, treasure the memories I have of all of us in the rain. And most importantly, after 7 great years together, I got the marriage that I envisioned. In the end, that's all that matters.

(Although I have often considered a "do over" for my reception.)

And when your fears subside

And shadows still remain

I know that you can love me

When there's no one left to blame

So never mind the darkness

We still can find a way

'Cause nothin' lasts forever

Even cold November rain

November Rain by Guns N' Roses

A Small Time Out

2010-06-15T10:36:00.002-05:00

Two of my nieces are in town for a quick visit. They brought their mama with them this time so I have been busy with the Fortner girls. Complete recap to come soon because they leave today. In the meantime, I think this picture says it all....

So many things wrong with this picture. Where do I start?

School Pictures

2010-06-05T22:51:00.003-05:00

Here are the pictures our school took this Spring. They went with a new photographer this year and I was so excited to see that they didn't actually do "Glamour Shots" with the kids like they have done in the past. Last year they dressed Avery in a jean jacket and jean hat with a huge flower on the front. Let's just say I didn't purchase any of those, thankyouverymuch.

I didn't know that they would be taking pictures of the kids together (which was a pleasant surprise) or I would have probably put them in something that went a little better together. I mean, stripes and polka dots look cute together on bedding, but I'm not sure that rule applies to school pictures. Either way, though, I am just happy there are no tears in the pictures of them together. I've never been able to do that so the photographer is a genius in my book.

Avery at 3 and a half. What amazes me most about this shot is that the photographer was able to take her picture without getting a glare from her glasses.
I hope this picture makes it obvious why Jack doesn't have an individual picture like Avery does. They totally messed up his hair. I think the photographer believes the 'Dumb and Dumber' look is also good for 2 year olds. He would be wrong. Why he would comb Jack's hair forward is beyond me.
Sadly this is the first time EVER that these two are both looking in the same general direction and smiling while a camera is within 15 feet of them. I was stunned when I saw not just one, but 2 pictures of them together. We were *this close* to really having a great picture of the two of them. The quest continues....

Where Did the Weekend Go?

2010-05-23T21:46:00.008-05:00

Somehow after an extremely busy week at work we managed to pack in a ridiculously busy weekend. One of these days I am going to just sit at the pool all weekend (lord knows I need a tan!) and relax. I just can't seem to find the time to do that. Here are some pictures of just a few of the things we did this weekend. I wish I could say this was all we did but it is only about half of it.

We started our weekend at a wedding for one of Matt's friends from work. They had a lovely ceremony at St. Austin's Catholic Church and then the reception was at the Zilker Park Clubhouse. It is on a hill overlooking the park and the city skyline. Had it not been 95 degrees and humid, it would have been really awesome.

Don't get me wrong, it turned out to be a great time, as the pictures will show, but those first few hours before the sun went down were definitely rough. Most of the reception was outside and the dinner was in an open building with no AC. Thankfully there was a pretty steady breeze and lots of booze.

Clint and Andrea right before their first dance. I believe she was also wearing Chuck Taylor shoes under her dress.
Not quite as pretty as the bride and groom but we loved the city skyline in the background so we couldn't resist taking a picture.
Here are some of the guys toasting the groom. The Mojitos were definitely flowing all night.

Clint was showing off his new ring to the group. He was saying that it felt odd to have a ring on that finger.

Marco (the guy you can barely see with his hand on Clint's shoulder) was asking Clint if his ring felt tight. Matt could see where this was going already.....
Then Marco laughed and told him that it was supposed to be tight; that's the way women like it so their husbands can't escape easily. Obviously Matt got a big kick out of that.
By the end of the night, the guys enjoyed plenty of drinks and started sharing the love. Matt was clearly taken by surprise when Marco grabbed his face and went in for a kiss.
And just when I thought the night was winding down, in came the mariachi band. You can absolutely never go wrong with a mariachi band. They were a lot of fun and guests at the wedding started salsa dancing, which was neat to watch.

On Saturday Avery went to a super hero birthday party for her friend Reagan. It was at a gymnastics place near our house. She had so much fun playing on everything....and so did the adults.

Here are Jay and Alex on the balance beams. Jay is the one who is airborne in this picture.
And here he is after his graceful landing. He was a good sport about the whole thing.
I'm not sure I could have expressed how much fun Avery had better than this picture can express.
Reagan and her HUGE birthday cake. I love the contrast between little tiny (6 year old) Reagan and this giant cake.
Micha made super hero capes for all the kids at the party. Avery was not excited about putting it on when she first got it but the minute we got home she demanded that I put it on her and then she refused to take it off. Even when we went to Target. Even when she was watering flowers. Even when she was eating dinner. Hilarious.

And here is her certificate indicating that she graduated from Super Hero Training.

I love this picture of Avery talking to Gary because of the big smiles on their faces and on little Aja's face in the background. When I told Gary that Avery is an official super hero now, she corrected me and said, "not quite yet, mom. All that 'tificate' means is that I completed the training course." When will I ever learn?

Little man Jack had a good weekend, too. He played around in the yard, terrorized the flowers that we planted a few weeks ago by giving them a little too much "love," and spent some time at the new bouncy place by our house. I don't think I have ever heard him laugh so hard.
I think this picture wraps up my feelings on the weekend. It was busy. It was hot. It was sweaty. And it was so much fun.

Balancing Act

2010-05-19T20:17:00.002-05:00

When Jack was born our pediatrician gave us some advice on parenting a newborn and a toddler at the same time. She said that when both children were crying at the same time we should tend to Avery first. She reasoned that a toddler was much more aware and observant than a newborn. So, Avery would know when we were choosing Jack over her but Jack wouldn't know if we chose Avery over him.

It was useful advice that came in handy many times in that first year.

And then I noticed that we sort of continued that trend in Jack's second year. When they both needed something at the same time, we tended to give Avery what she wanted first. Partly I think we were just used to that but also I think Jack was just more laid back than Avery so he could be patient while we tended to her. It did occur to me, though, that we would need to figure out how to break this pattern eventually. I didn't want Jack to think he was second best just because we always got Avery's need filled first. I also didn't want him to learn that the squeaky wheel got the oil, even though that was exactly what was happening around here.

The thing is, it's difficult to determine who should get first priority when they are equally in need of something. Some things are obvious, of course; like if one of them is dumping water all over the floor while the other one is pulling books off the shelf. The wet floor wins every time. But other situations, like when they both want to read a book (but not the same book), the choice isn't so clear.

I haven't quite figured out how to reason with a 2 and 3 year old. Logic escapes them. It's crazy. So situations like that always leave me wishing I had a possession arrow like in basketball games. That way I am not left to figure out who got their need filled first last time and whose turn it is to go first this time.

The arrow is on Jack so he gets to choose the book first. Nothing personal, I just have to go with what the arrow says.

Unfortunately we don't have anything like that. In its absence, I try to make good behavior the deciding factor. The kid who isn't whining (or is whining least, as is most often the case) gets the reward. The other kid will get what they want, given that they don't throw a fit, but they have to learn to wait.

We haven't figured out the perfect balance yet. I still think Avery gets attention first more times than Jack does. I am always very conscious of this, even as I am helping her before I help him. I just hope he isn't keeping score of this in his head.

And if he is keeping score, I hope he knows that I only do it to get back at him for making diaper changes a full contact sport. Paybacks are hell, kid. Paybacks are hell.

Mother's Day

2010-05-11T11:46:00.011-05:00

We had great weather for being outside this weekend. It was 95 on Friday but got back down into the low 80s on Saturday so I was able to get some planting done in our front yard. We have 'the little yard that could', which is tough since we live next to a professional landscaper. I can never really seem to get it looking as good as their yard but we at least try and keep it looking decent.

We're never going to win "Yard of the Month" for our neighborhood. That's for sure.

When I was little my grandparent's neighbors used to have wooden cutouts in their front yard of an old man and an old woman bending over in the garden. This picture reminds me of that.
Avery and Jack were my very special helpers. They helped put the dirt in the flower bed, handed me tools, played in the dirt, and killed innocent flowers with their abilities to love too much.
We got these flowers at our local farmer's market on Saturday morning. Jack picked them out himself so he was very excited to help plant them.
It was a mad race to see which child could bring me the most flowers. Hilarious how they operate like that.
Avery did a great job digging the dirt but she could never quite figure out how to get the flowers in before the hole she made collapsed in on itself. It was funny to watch.
Jack had given up helping at this point and had just starting bringing out all of his toys to play with in the yard.
But once he saw the hose he was all about the flowers once again. This turned out to be a bit messy. He was totally soaked by the time we were done.

On Mother's Day Matt made a great breakfast and the kids gave me the gifts they had made at school. I also got tickets to a Carrie Underwood concert.

My Mother's Day breakfast: french toast with homemade strawberry butter and grits. Two of my favorites!
Most of the time we have to trick him into taking pictures. He didn't realize Matt had picked up the camera so he was happy to talk to me like normal.
Missing from this picture: Jack. He is on the floor right by my feet throwing a fit because he didn't want to be in the picture. Avery is smiling so big just to show him up.
By the end of the day Jack was pretty wiped out. It was a nice and relaxing day for me thanks to Matt and the kids!

Oh Lord. She's Going To Be 13 One Day

2010-05-04T20:55:00.003-05:00

Both kids are sick. Again.

Jack has a sinus infection, no surprise given the allergy season we are having. Avery has a mystery illness that we can't seem to figure out. She gets sick every month for 5 days. Her only symptoms are fairly high fever and really bad attitude. Both get better with Tylenol or Motrin but as soon as that wears off she is back to being a little terror again.

And I'm not the only one who notices.

Tonight my neighbor told me that when Avery got home yesterday two of the neighbor boys were outside playing and when Avery got out of the car she huffed and puffed and went right to our front door. Matt had to apologize for her and let them know that she wasn't feeling well. Later when her husband asked what's wrong with Avery, the 4 year old said, "she's rude!"

I laughed so hard when I heard that because even though he is just 4 he nailed it. Her little attitude is plain to see, even to pre-schoolers.

After I told Matt about it he filled me in that she was mad at him, not them, because he told her in the car that she couldn't go play with them...since she was sick. She didn't like that at all so she huffed inside rather than just telling the boys she couldn't play.

This is what I am dealing with these days. Sassy mouth, sassy tone, sassy faces. She knows it, too. She purposefully tries to push our buttons. She looks hard to see our reactions and she apologizes quickly when we take away privileges. We pick our battles but we are firm when we need to be. Just like a couple of weeks ago when we were at Baskin Robbins with the kids. We were almost done when Avery started to throw a fit over something incredibly dumb. We told her to settle down and stop being a sass or we would leave. A few minutes later she SCREAMED at Matt as loud as she could. Matt told her that was enough and he threw away the rest of her ice cream (it wasn't much) and we left immediately. She screamed the whole way out and the rest of the way to the car. She cried the whole drive home, which thank goodness is only about 2 miles. Jack kept saying, "Avery's in trouble" which didn't help matters (but was really cute). We explained what happened when we got home and she seemed to understand.

But she definitely has her slip-ups because she is still quite the sass when she wants to be. And lately she wants to be all the time...

I'm not sure what I can't stand more: her tone, her facial expressions, the way she tilts her head when she sasses us. Maybe all of it.

No, it's definitely her tone.

Hopefully we can figure out what is wrong with her soon so we can move past these fevers, and hopefully an attitude adjustment will come along with it. That will be just what the doctor ordered.

Sea World

2010-04-28T20:43:00.003-05:00

We took the kids to Sea World on Saturday because our friend, Morgan, was in a dance competition there. She's 10 so I was expecting ballet or tap or jazz dancing. When we got there at 9am (before the park opened, which was cool), we sat down to watch the performances before hers just to see what she was up against. The first thing we noticed was the really loud bass we could hear from at least 50 yards away. I wondered if my kids would be bothered by the volume but they didn't complain at all. I think they were both enthralled by the dancers.

The group that went right before Morgan's team started dancing to a 50 Cent song. Then they started grinding. Then their outfits turned into nothing more than very short shorts and a sports braw. With sparkles, of course. I had a hard time picking my jaw up from the floor when two 8 year old girls started grinding each other. All I was thinking was, "Oh Goodness! What are we here to support?!?!" But just as I was nudging Matt and giving him the OMG look, Morgan's mom quickly turned and told us that Morgan's team is a Christian dance group and they are all fully clothed with cute songs. Whew.

I mean, I'm not naive to the fact that dance teams can be provocative. I just didn't realize it started with 5 year olds. But I saw it with my own eyes. There were several groups from around Texas, including my home town, with teams of 5 year olds competing wearing just slightly more than a bikini. I just can't imagine what those Saturday morning classes look like. Does the teacher stand in front of these pre-schoolers and show them how to thrust their hips while putting their arms behind their heads? I guess so because that is exactly what they were doing.

It was wild, to say the least. Here are some pictures of the more innocent parts of the day.

Jenna carrying Avery while we were waiting for the trophy ceremony. Morgan's team won Grand Champion and Morgan got 1st Place for a dance duet she performed. I figure they won not just because they were good at their dances but also because you didn't feel like you needed a shower after watching.
Jack LOVED LOVED LOVED the animal shows. He kept saying, "wow!" and "awesome!"
Jenna was so great with both kids. She is Morgan's little sister and since she isn't on the dance team, she was happy to play with Avery and Jack all day. I loved that she didn't mind being with the little ones even though she is so much older than they are. Here she was climbing up the rope (like a crab net) and then sliding down a big slide.
We were able to feed the dolphins in between dance routines. It was neat to touch their heads and get them to swim by us over and over.
Even Little Miss Scaredy enjoyed the dolphins. You can't really tell from the look on her face but she really did love it. She even touched one (accidently, I think) as it swam by.
She also loved the dancers. She remembered Morgan's friends names even though she just met them on Friday night. She thought they were all celebrities. They loved her right back, too. They held her and ran over to her a lot. They even sat with her while they were watching the other teams dance. It was so cute to see that.
Here's Jack asking Morgan what all that stuff was on her face after she was done with her duet dance. He was confused by the shiny make up. Morgan looked so cute (and fully dressed) all day. She was really impressive.
Jack also enjoyed stuffing his face with popcorn. He had Jason (Morgan's brother) cracking up because he kept putting popcorn in his mouth with two hands. Then he would laugh and they would all fall out. Pretty gross but boys obviously love that kind of thing.
Jack clapped and laughed at all the shows. It was neat to see how much he enjoyed himself. He would randomly just shout out, "HAPPY!" throughout the day.
Here we are at the end of a VERY long day. The weather was beautiful and we all managed to avoid sunburns. We went back to the hotel afterwards and made s'mores at the campfire. I wish I had taken pictures of that because we all really enjoyed it. Somehow I managed to forget to take my camera out to the fire both nights.

We had two very long days that ended way past the kids bedtime but they were both really great. Even without naps they managed to stay in great moods. Morgan, Jenna and Jason were great companions for the kids. We heard lots of giggles out of all of them during the weekend. I'm glad it was such a good experience and we look forward to going again sometime soon.

Lazy Post

2010-04-20T11:36:00.009-05:00

I feel like I am living on a treadmill lately--constantly moving but getting nowhere. I've been busy but when I try and think of what has kept me so busy, I come up blank. I have some posts that I want to write--like about Jack's 1 year stats that I didn't post last month, and about how raising a toddler and pre schooler is so different than when he was a baby. But for now I will just post some pictures of wild flowers. Because there is nothing better than springtime in Texas.

I laugh at you while I mock you for trying to take a good picture.
Jack saw Avery taking pictures with her chin resting on her hands so he copied her. He just didn't keep the pose very long so I couldn't get a good picture.

I never managed to get him looking at the camera, but I do like that this picture shows his crazy hair. He needs a haircut; I just have issues with those kinds of things. The last time he got his picture taken he went from looking like a baby to looking like a boy. I'm afraid to do that again.

The kids didn't cooperate for any pictures of them together. Again. Thanks to the continuous shoot mode on my camera, however, I was able to get these shots of them hugging each other.

Priceless.

There really is nothing better than seeing all of the wildflowers in Texas in the Spring. I wish my pictures could do them justice.

Didn't They Make A Bad Movie With This Same Premise in the 80s?

2010-04-08T20:55:00.005-05:00

Our doctor's appointment today was free. Not because of the new health care law. It doesn't actually work that way. :-) We had to take Avery for a follow up appointment with her eye doctor. If you've been reading my blog for a while, you know that I've written extensively about these appointments in the past. They are a necessary evil--with lots of emphasis on the evil.

It takes 2 months to get an appointment with our doctor; much longer if you want an early morning appointment. We were told to come back in April for a follow up but the soonest we could get a morning appointment was June. We settled for an afternoon appointment so that we could stick to the regular cadence for her exams.

I had a meeting at work that was scheduled to go until 4 so Matt drove Avery to the appointment and I met them there. I knew it wouldn't be a problem if I was 20 minutes late because we have never been called back that quickly in the 2+ years we have been going to this doctor. So I wasn't surprised at all when I got there at about 4:25 and they were still in the waiting room.

We remained in the waiting room until 5:10 when the nurse called us back to the exam room. We laughed when she apologized for the long wait since it was perfectly normal for the scheduling team at that office to be completely inept. Frustrating, yes. Unusual, no.

The nurse did the sight test and told us that Avery's sight had improved since our last visit, which was exciting news to us! Then she told us that the doctor would be in to see us in a few minutes. That was at 5:25 pm.

At 6:10--more than 2 hours after our appointment time--I thought Matt's head was going to pop right off of his neck because of all the steam coming out of his ears. I figured it might be a good idea to go to the reception station and find out how much longer we should expect to wait for the doctor. When I went out there I saw the doctor standing at the desk with his back to me. At the same time, Avery called out to me from the room asking when the doctor was coming in. When he heard that, he turned around with an obviously shocked look on his face.

And that's when he said that he had no idea we were in the exam room. Everyone else in the office had gone home. HE HAD HIS JACKET ON and was also getting ready to leave.

Since I could tell from the look on Matt's (now very red) face that he wasn't going to say anything nice, I quickly responded to the doctor before Matt had a chance to. I told him that we had been waiting for more than 2 hours and that it was 1 hour past our 3 year old's normal dinner time. I couldn't believe that the nurse (and everyone else in the damn office) had left without letting him know we were in there.

He responded that 3 year olds are quick to get "ants in their pants" so he was sorry to leave us waiting for so long. "ANTS IN THEIR PANTS?" Really? I think we passed the "ants in their pants" stage at about 4:30, thankyouverymuch. I don't think you get to act so blasé about something like that WHEN YOU HAVE YOUR JACKET ON to go home. The man was leaving the office. If I hadn't gone out there to ask how much longer it was going to be, we might have been locked in the office.

I couldn't believe this had happened. I was so angry that I just wanted to leave but we had been there over 2 hours and there was no way I was leaving without finding out what was going on with Avery's eyes and what the next steps in her treatment plan were going to be. Of course, I was also wondering if I should even be listening to a man who didn't even realize that we were in that room the whole time. Luckily Matt just sat quietly because I knew what was running through his mind and it was nothing I wanted Avery to hear him say.

The doctor did her eye exam and told us that we can begin weaning her off the patch each month so that by June she won't need to wear one anymore. He wants to have her vision checked again in 4 months. I can't imagine going through this again in 4 months. I certainly don't think I can be nice about the way that office is run anymore. There have just been too many bad experiences with his staff and this is most definitely the icing on the cake.

When he finished he told us that we will not be charged our co-pay for the visit. I guess picking up the $30 tab was his way of apologizing for his staff's mistake. I laughed and shook my head, "thanks, I think." I mean, there was no one there to take the money and the computers were all shut down. I don't think we could have paid even if he wanted us to.

I guess I should just be glad that we weren't locked in the office. I'm still shaking my head over the experience. This wasn't exactly the way we wanted the whole "free health care" thing to play out.

Springtime in Texas

2010-04-07T20:52:00.007-05:00

One of the most beautiful gifts nature could ever give starts to pop up all over the sides of roads and in fields throughout Texas about this time every year. Some years are better than others based on the rainfall and temperatures we have in the winter. This year is one of the most exceptional wildflower seasons we have had in a long time. I wish everyone could visit Texas for the next few weeks because flowers are everywhere and you can't help but smile when you see them.

As is tradition in Texas, we took the kids for the annual pictures in bluebonnets. And as is tradition in my family, at least one of my children did not cooperate for pictures at all. This is how it normally goes:

1. I get high hopes that THIS IS OUR YEAR and maintain an unrealistic level of optimism.

2. We get to the flower field and the kids start running around and screaming.

3. One of them sticks their thumb in their mouth when I try and get them to look at the camera.

4. Matt doesn't take direction very well.

5. One kid will get in pictures with Matt while the other one runs around wildly.

6. Matt keeps sunglasses on, which only works if you are Usher. Then rolls eyes when I tell him to take them off.

7. We attempt to get a family picture and one kid is throwing a fit or crying. Said kid thinks it is funny to ruin pictures.

8. We try and take pictures of the children together and one or both end up in tears. Generally our pictures are of them running away from the spot that we tried to put them so we could take a quick shot.

9. I start to get sweaty from all the frustration. And the running around.

10. I question why we even came at all and Matt says something about how he "told me so."

11. We go home and I look through approximately 200 pictures to find only 3 that are any good at all. sigh.

See if you can tell which kid wasn't cooperating this year....

Avery: look how perfect I am acting, mom. Cheeese!
At least we got three of us in the same frame. The thing is, I'm not sure I like the look on Jack's face. He is definitely up to something.

My suspicions were correct. That little guy is stronger than he looks. He tackled us both before I could even do anything to stop it.
Avery: look mom! I'm still doing great. Need me to smile standing up? I can do that.
Sadly, the only time he was this smiley was when he was laughing at our pain and frustration.
Jack: I will not look at your silly camera no matter what you try and bribe me with. I cannot be bought, woman!
Jack: ok, picking me up will make me laugh but as soon as you put me down I will go from happy to whiny in 1.2 seconds. Don't underestimate me, people.
Jack: You might think you can contain me with your arms but I will still refuse to look at the camera. And then I will escape and run around killing innocent flowers. You wouldn't want any flowers harmed, would you?

Not exactly a picture we can frame and put on the mantel. sigh.

Uh-oh. Jack's kryptonite. He loooves his Poppa. He can't help but be happy around him. But even Poppa couldn't get Jack to smile and look at the camera at the same time.

After Jack gives kisses he shakes his head and says, "I got all your sugar!" which makes me smile every single time.

And here they go...running from the perfect spot I sat them in so they don't have to actually take a picture together. You would never know from pictures but these two really do get along well.

And finally, Avery with Grammie. I need to say here that these pictures were planned and Grammie was told well in advance. She knew there would be a camera and she knew Avery would want a picture with her. I can't be held responsible for posting these pictures of her without make-up. I gave her all the information and she chose to show up au natural. Not that there is anything wrong with that. Just sayin'...I don't want to see any complaints in the comments, that's all.

So there you have it. Our attempt at bluebonnets in 2010. Whew. I'm glad that's over.

Next year, though. NEXT YEAR IS OUR YEAR.

Easter 2010

2010-04-04T21:49:00.003-05:00

We had a busy Easter weekend around here. The weather was absolutely beautiful on Saturday but Sunday wasn't as great. It was in the 80s but it was soooo humid and cloudy. Kind of made it miserable to be outside, which was unfortunate for us because we planned to have brunch at an outdoor restaurant. Of course, the weather turned out to be the least of our worries because Jack + sitting still = not happening. Here's how the day played out.

The Easter bunny came to see the kids but they had spent the night at Grammie's house so we headed over there with plenty of time before church so the kids could check out their loot. They found swim suits, Princess/Handy Manny cups, Szu Szu pets, My Little Pony and a little candy in their baskets.

After we got the kids ready for church I wanted to take a few pictures because I knew they would have themselves totally messed up in a matter of minutes. Jack decided he didn't want to participate in pictures at Easter this year

(note to Jack: if you are reading this in 20 years and wondering why you aren't in any of these pictures, it is because you were being a pain in the ass and I decided it wasn't worth the fight.)

(note to CPS: saying that he is being a pain in the ass is the nicest way I could think of to describe this phase of his life.)

Moving on.

Avery was willing to take pictures but I mistakenly allowed her to chew gum while she was getting dressed. That turned out to be a bad idea when I started looking at the pictures. You can tell from her hair that it is super humid outside because we could not control the curls.
She was a really good sport to take so many pictures with us. It's nice that we will have pictures of at least one of our children from Easter. *ahem*
We just weren't able to get it together for a group shot. We all sort of look strange in every picture. This one is a good example. Something is very odd about my arm, Avery's smile is painful and Matt looks like he was out drinking too late last night.

I would like to state for the record that Avery went to Sunday School all by herself today and there were no tears. That's the first time she has ever done that. Hopefully this is the start of a new drama-free phase with her.

After church we went to the Oasis for brunch. This seemed like a good idea when we planned it--when the weather was gorgeous. It was really humid, hazy, hot and sort of rainy today, though, so it wasn't at all worth it. One thing I always forget about the Oasis is that the food is pretty bad. We keep going there for the drinks and the view, neither of which we were able to enjoy today. Plus, Jack hates high chairs so he was no fun to be around during lunch. I was pretty much ready to leave about 4 minutes after we got there. At least we had good company and some good laughs.
I love this picture because it really sums up the misery of the lunch. Our hair is ridiculous thanks to the drizzle, Jack is acting like a fool, my mom is wondering why we are even taking a picture given the way Jack is acting, and I am just hoping Jack blocks the wind from blowing my dress up.
Jack did seem to respond well to Josh, though. I just call Josh the Baby Whisperer sometimes because he always seems to get my kids to calm down.
Josh walked Jack around so he would stop being such a fussy boy. It worked.

Avery obviously loves him, too!

Jack was asleep before we made it to the main road back home. I guess running around and ruining other people's lunch is exhausting.

After the kids woke up from their nap we had an Easter Egg hunt. Avery was much more into it than Jack was. They had very different ideas of what these eggs were for...
Avery's thinking, "YES! I am totally going to win! I will definitely find more than Jack will find."

Jack is thinking, "Hmmm, how can I destroy these eggs?"

Step 1: put the egg on the baseball tee.

Step 2: look around to see if anyone is going to stop him from hitting the egg off the tee.
Step 3: knock the egg off the tee and laugh hysterically. Rinse and Repeat.

His whole attitude changed once he knocked a plastic egg open and noticed there was candy inside. By then Avery had found almost all the eggs so he just stole some from her basket. There was screaming and crying and tons of whining, which is when we knew that our day was complete.

Happy Easter, everyone!

Yo! Jack's Birthday Party Was Awesommme

2010-03-21T20:33:00.016-05:00

I had SUCH a fun time planning Jack's birthday party. It was his first party with friends and I think he had a great time. Matt and I agreed that he probably didn't realize that the party was for him but he certainly had a good time being there.

Of course there are many things I would have done differently in hindsight, but I will just take them as lessons learned for next time. I thought I had all my bases covered because I did so much ahead of time but there were still last minute issues that caused me to still be setting up for the party when guests arrived. I think it was 5 minutes after the party started before I was done and I definitely didn't have things looking exactly as I had envisioned. The DVD player that we brought didn't work with the equipment at the site so my mom had to run to Target at the last minute to get another DVD player. That left me frazzled and with a "man down" on the set-up team. Without that extra set of hands, I just couldn't get everything done. Next time I plan to give myself an extra half hour to set up just in case we have technical difficulties like we did on Saturday.

Here are a ton of pictures from Saturday. I hope when Jack looks at these pictures when he is older he understands how much love was put into this party. We know he won't remember the event, most likely, but we hope he remembers the feeling he had when he was there.

Our theme was Yo Gabba Gabba since that is Jack's favorite show. But...I didn't want to go overboard with YGG stuff everywhere so I focused on the main colors from the show and then threw in the characters as accents. We sent each child a t-shirt with their invitation and they all wore them to the party. It was so fun to see all the little characters walking around.

My friend, Aaron, cut out all of the characters for us and my dad painted them and built stands for both inside and outside. I really appreciate all the work they put into these decorations. They really brought the party to life and the kids had a great time playing with them.

Here are the characters that were outside for everyone to see when they came into the party. This is Jack seeing them for the first time. We managed to hide everything from him for weeks while they were being built and painted. I think it is safe to say he loved them!

Here he is discovering his favorite character and running toward him at full speed.
...And tackling him, of course, like any boy in love tends to do.

My banner...that Matt hung for me...which is not at all how I envisioned it looking. I think we can safely say that his "man card" is totally safe because it is very clear that a man did this. I did appreciate his help, though, and luckily he doesn't read my blog so he won't even know that I the (ahem) great job he did. *cough*

The drink table. I didn't get pictures of it before people arrived so this is after a few kids picked their cups. We did the 6 colors of YGG for everything--the table cloths, the cups, the napkins, the plates, the favor bags and the balloons.

The view of the gift table as guests begin to arrive. We put the banner Aunt Debbie made on that table.

I didn't get a good picture of the food table but we carried the color theme with the food, too. The veggies were 5 of the 6 colors (no blue veggies) and the fruit was all 6 colors of YGG. We also had cheese, tortilla roll-ups and applesauce for the really little ones. The plates and napkins were multicolored to match the rest of the room. This table was really the most neglected due to the loss of one of my helpers. I had a better set up planned, with more decoration and a more interesting layout, but just didn't get to it before the party started.

Here is a view of most of the tables all together. One of the major drawbacks of the location was that we couldn't decorate the walls at all. I was disappointed that we couldn't do more with banners or painted scenes because it does look sort of bare, but the actual space of the room turned out to be perfect. It was just big enough for all of us and the kids could run around with no worries that they would hurt themselves or break anything in the room.

The other thing I wasn't able to do before guests arrived was place the candied marshmallows in coordinating color dishes as I had planned. I had m&ms that matched each color of the marshmallows that I intended to set up on the favor table but since I ran out of time, I just put them all in two dishes. The only way to see them is to click on the picture and look at the favor table. The good news is that they still tasted great and were a favorite treat for many of the kids--Jack included.

Speaking of favor bags...here are some of the things that were in them...

One of the segments of YGG has a story of gum balls. They sing the "Goodbye" song, which is about not throwing a fit when it is time to say goodbye because we will see our friends again soon. (love that lesson!) So we had color coordinated gum ball machines in the gift bags.

Here is the complete set of items in the gift bags. Matt made CDs with all the Gabba songs for the kids. We also had bags for the kids under 1 with more appropriate toys (read: less fun) for that age group.

Here are the cupcakes that I made on Friday. They are chocolate with a cream filling and a buttercream frosting (like a ding dong on crack). I'm always a fan of sweets so I am not a good judge of how they tasted. Matt, however, almost never eats sweets but he ate two of these cupcakes. I take that as a sign that they were yummy.
These are sugar cookies made to look like the Gabba characters. I LOVE the way they turned out. They are almost too cute to eat. Almost.
One of the other reasons I loved this location when we were planning the party was because it had a built in projection system that allowed us to play the YGG DVD for the kids. The music played on the speaker system and the kids watched the show and danced along to the music during the party.

I love this picture for several reasons. First, you see the girls sitting and watching the show while the boys run around in circles (which is why the picture is slightly blurry when you click on the enlarged version). Also, you see Addy in jeans and a sweater while her husband is wearing shorts and short sleeves. But best of all is the look on Barry's face as he watches Jack and Conrad chase each other around. I think he wishes that these boys could just sit every once in a while.

Here is Skyler hanging out with Brobie and Toodie. She looks so cute with her Plex t-shirt and black leggings.

This is Denali, Jack's future girlfriend. She is going to be 1 in 4 months, so clearly he is attracted to younger women. She is so adorable, so I don't blame him for being in love.

Jack and his DJ Lance Rock hat. He was dancing around the room--which might have something to do with the candy he was eating...we pretty much failed to keep an eye on how many sweets he was eating. Parenting Fail.

And now on to some of the inside decorations that my dad made for the room. Aaron also cut these characters out of wood for us. This time, he cut holes in the space where the faces were so the kids could stick there faces through. They loved doing that and I was able to get quite a few pictures of kids trying out the different characters.

Olivia as Foofa.

Annabelle as Muno

Alston, Conrad and Jack playing with the characters.

Conrad as Muno.

Kendel as Toodie

Avery obviously didn't have any fun at all. *wink*

Skyler got in on the fun, too.

Jack as Plex

And then as Brobie.

Avery as Foofa.

Even some of the adults got in the spirit. Liz and Kelly are always up for a good time!

Next up, we got a visit from a very special guest. DJ Lance Rock showed up to the party!!

Actually, it was more like DJ Poppa Rock, but we'll take it. My dad dressed in an orange spandex suit with nerd glasses and a fuzzy hat to entertain the kids. But more than that, he also led the group in a few Dancey Dances! It was so funny to watch.

Here he is doing the "Crazy Daisy" and you can see some of the kids dancing along.

It was so much fun to watch. Avery loved it and Jack's BFF, Conrad, was having a blast. Jack, however, was in total shock and didn't think it was very fun at all. He was scared to death and just wanted me to hold him the whole time.

I just couldn't keep holding him when it was time to do the "Puppet Master" dance. It's my favorite. :-)
My mom did a great job taking pictures for most of the party. Thanks for being the camera woman, mom!!

After DJ Poppa Rock led some dances he got everyone to sing Happy Birthday to Jack. My Big Brave Boy was still too scared to let me put him down. And when everyone was done singing Happy Birthday he thanked the group by giving them all the big stink eye. I wish we had a picture of that because it was so funny.

Of course, as soon as my dad was gone Jack started asking, "Where's Gabba? Where did Gabba go? What happened to Gabba?" And they say girls are finicky!

Next we had a game for the adults to play. I had scratch off lotto tickets (which I failed to get a picture of) that the adults scratched to see if they were the winner. Our winner, Marc, had to lead the group in a Dancey Dance. I have this picture of all of us doing his Dancey Dance but I don't have a picture of Marc leading us in it. bummer. Marc was a good sport for playing along.

Then it was time to eat some cupcakes!!

Conrad liked his cupcake so much that he put some in his nose for later. I love this messy face!

Avery posed with Kendel and Olivia, two of her favorite friends in the whole wide world.

And since we had all the kids in Gabba shirts, I thought it would be cute to get a group shot of everyone. Easier said than done when you are dealing with mostly 2 year olds (and younger!) so I thought I would share a few of the attempts to get the perfect picture.

The left side of the group was ready to go rather quickly so I thought I would take a picture of at least one side just in case...

...And then the right side started to come together a little more...except for Jack, who is nowhere to be found...
...and then we managed to throw Jack on Avery's lap at the last second, which served only to block Kendel from the picture. Also, there are kids on the other side of Emmie and Josalyn (far right) that I just couldn't get in because they couldn't scoot over close enough...
....and finally we start to lose them as kids start turning around and crawling out of the picture. We didn't get anything "perfect" but the shots we got make me laugh and I think they really capture the essence of the group. Bonus points for having criers! lol.

Matt had Avery cracking up while they were taking this picture. She thought it was funny that he would get behind a character since he was so much bigger than Muno.

We took a family picture just before it was time to leave.

Jack's facial expressions crack me up.

Here is a great shot of mom and dad. I appreciate all of their help before, during and after the party!

I have always said that mom and Aunt Debbie are a couple of characters.

My attempt at a family picture wearing our Gabba shirts because I know I will never get Matt to wear his again. Jack refused to be in the picture because he wanted to be reading a new Gabba book he got. Matt looks drunk but it's just an unfortunately timed blink.

This is what Jack was doing while we were trying to take a quick family picture before the UK game started. Of course, what we didn't realize at the time was that the UK game would not be on TV here because a Big 12 team was playing so our station broadcast that game instead. Matt had some choice words for our CBS station.

Jack didn't care which teams were playing because he was enjoying his new book. He was "reading" to himself in the chair.

Thanks to everyone who came to the party and a special thanks to those of you who helped pull this off. My friend Michelle made the shirts, Aaron made the wood cut outs, my dad painted 3 sets of Gabba characters (1 set outside and 2 for inside) and provided our entertainment, my Aunt helped make bean bags for the favors and she helped set up, and my mom helped set up the party and took most of the pictures.

Jack had a great time and I think our friends did, too. In my next post I plan to write about the gifts Jack received at the party. We have been playing playing playing with all the brand! new! toys! all day.

A Year in Review

2010-03-17T22:17:00.013-05:00

13 months

14 months

15 months

16 months

17 months

18 months

19 months

20 months

21 months

22 months

23 months

2 years old.

Happy Birthday to my little man!

Birthday Week

2010-03-16T22:15:00.002-05:00

I asked my Aunt Debbie to help make this table runner for us to have on our dining room table during Jack's birthday week. (And by "help" I mean that I came up with the idea, picked out the fabric and design and Aunt Debbie did everything else.) She is also making one for Avery's birthday week. I love how great Jack's table runner turned out and I really appreciate all the work she put into it.

I put it on our dining room table last night and it will stay there all week in honor of his birthday this Thursday. He still really doesn't get it that it is his birthday. We keep asking him how old he is and he (correctly, technically) says "ONE!" We try and coax him into saying "two" but he just laughs at us and shows us the number 1 with his pointer finger. (I thought it was important to identify the exact finger he uses to show us his age just in case you thought my toddler might be street savvy enough to actually give us "the finger" in response to our repeated questions. He's good...but he isn't that good.)

I've asked him if he wants me to bring cupcakes to school this week and he nods his head and says yes, but I don't think he would refuse food under any circumstance so that isn't really a sign that he understands that Thursday is a Special Day. We've told him that we are going to have a birthday party for him and his friends will come and we'll sing "Happy Birthday To You" but he usually stops us there with a hearty "No HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU" and makes the cutest frowny face you have ever seen. It's clear that he has learned from the best and his "terrible two's" will resemble Avery's terrible 3's.

Go figure.

Here's a closer look at the table runner (you can usually click on the pictures to enlarge, also). I look forward to using this every year. Now I just need to find a good spot to store it so that I remember where it is next year. That is much harder for me than it sounds, unfortunately.

What Has Been Keeping Me Busy

2010-03-14T21:21:00.007-05:00

Jack will be 2 this week. TWO. I'm not even going to write about how bittersweet that is. At least not tonight. Tonight I just want to give a sneak peak at what I have been working on for Jack's birthday party next weekend. He's a big fan of Yo Gabba Gabba so we're going with that theme for his party.

We sent each child a Yo Gabba t-shirt along with their invitation. My friend, Michelle, helped me with the shirts (and by help I mean that I bought all the shirts and fabric, sent her a picture of each character, and then she made every single one of them.) Brobie is missing from this picture because Jack will be the only one wearing a Brobie shirt. I didn't want him to see it before Saturday so I haven't had it anywhere in sight.

Matt helped me make the invitation (and by help I mean that I picked out the theme, the wording and the font style and Matt did everything else). See a pattern here?

Ignore the background because I have this banner hanging on my "catch all" bookcase. I made this happy birthday banner featuring all of the Gabba colors because I was trying not to go overboard with the character theme so I am playing off the colors more than anything.
I made these for the cupcakes. I found some super cute ideas for a big cake but I really just think cupcakes are better for this age group because they are easier to handle. Plus, most 2 year olds I know enjoy eating with their hands so this gives them the perfect excuse.

It's been a real team effort to get everything ready. Besides the help I got from Matt and my friend Michelle, my dad made some amazing decorations for the party that we have managed to keep hidden from the kids for the last month. My aunt made the bean bags for one of the games. My friend, Aaron, did some wood work for us. I'm looking forward to seeing Jack's face when he sees it all. This is Jack's first birthday party with friends so hopefully it all goes well. I hope it ends up being as fun to be a guest as it has been being the party planner.

Good Luck, Aunt Tina

2010-03-12T08:04:00.002-06:00

Tina's Dance Team is going to the Illinois State finals this weekend so Avery is wearing her Fieldcrest Dance shirt to show her support.

Good luck, girls! We're cheering for you from Texas!!

Baby's First Pedicure

2010-03-07T21:21:00.005-06:00

One of the hard parts about having such a cautious child is that you really never know how she is going to react to new experiences. Something as simple as going to the movies can turn into a nightmare as she covers her ears and proclaims that it is too loud. Jumping in a bouncy castle at a birthday party is normally the highlight for kids. Not for my kid. She would stand outside and watch the other kids squeal with delight as they bounced all over the place. But she would scream and cry with a terrified look on her face if we ever put her near the entrance of one. It wasn't until well after she was 3 years old that she shocked us all by going in one at a festival. She loved it, of course, which made us all want to say something along the lines of, "SEE! WE TOLD YOU SO! ALL THAT CRYING FOR NOTHING."

But I digress.

The point is, I am slow to introduce her to new things because I never know which kid I am going to get. Will she scream and cry and throw a huge fit or will she think it is totally great and just relax and enjoy the experience? Sometimes it just isn't worth finding out.

I was feeling brave today, though, and decided to take Avery along with me when I met my mom for a pedicure. I talked to Avery about what it was going to be like so she would know what to expect but I have done that plenty of times before with no good results so I had a back up plan in my head just in case. I also drove separately from my mom so she could still enjoy herself if I had to take a screaming child home.

Turns out, Avery surprised the heck out of me. She loved it! She couldn't have been happier or more pleasant to be around. She was friendly with the staff and (probably overly) talkative with the guy who did her nails. THE GUY, which was something I did not think to prepare her for. Plus, she was in the kid's seat at the front of the salon while my mom and I were seated in the two furthest seats from her. She wasn't phased by that at all. My heart sort of burst with pride in the way she was behaving, which sounds silly because we are talking about a PEDICURE (and a manicure that she charmed herself into) but when you have a child who is always so tentative about every little experience, you celebrate your victories whenever you can. I really thought that she would either scream and cry or that she would sit there totally silent and slightly frightened while someone removed her nail polish, cut her nails (oh the agony!) and painted them a new color. I truly never expected her to enjoy it as much as she did.

Here's Avery introducing herself to the woman filling the water in her tub. She started by saying, "my name is Avery," and she shared with the woman that I told her to wear flip flops. The woman said absolutely nothing back to her but it didn't seem to bother Avery at all.
She sat right down in the chair and began soaking her feet after she picked out the "blue sparkly nail polish."
I attempted to play a video for her but the machine wasn't really working well. It didn't matter, though, because she was totally happy to just chat with this poor man. I couldn't always hear what she was saying but she talked the entire time. One time I did hear her tell him that her Grammie paints her nails red when she spends the night on the weekend.
She looked like such a big girl as she sat down at the other end of the shop and got her nails done as if she had done this 1000 times before. She's a natural at this whole pampering thing. I believe we have just opened up a whole new can of worms.
After she was done, she came over to where we were sitting to chat up the ladies and point out all the different colors in the shop. She was so excited she could hardly stop herself from jumping up and down. She danced around the room. Within a few minutes she had to go potty and when she came out of the restroom she expressed concern that washing her hands might ruin her paint job.

Oh yes. We have probably just uncovered the diva in her.

It was worth it, though, because seeing her take on that new experience so fearlessly gives me hope that we will see more and more of that behavior as she gets older. Today: The Pedicure. Tomorrow: perhaps she will be able to go to Sunday School without me there.

A mother can always dream.

A Post About Nothing

2010-03-03T23:02:00.004-06:00

Oh man. Things have been so busy. I just can't seem to pack everything into a 24 hour period. Everything I am doing is very positive but it has kept me away from updating here, which is one of my favorite things to do. My room is the other victim of my hectic schedule these days. The teenager in me comes out in full force when I am busy and my room begins to look like it belongs on an episode of Hoarders. Thankfully Matt is almost the same way so he doesn't seem to get too irritated with me that we have piles of stuff all over the place.

I've been making cake balls a lot lately which is very exciting. It's nowhere near enough to quit my job or anything but it has been fun to be able to bake every week. I am making 6 dozen tonight, in fact. During the week it takes me two nights to get them done so that really creates a scheduling challenge but I get almost everything done.

I've also been getting ready for Jack's birthday. He turns two later this month and I wanted to get everything done for our celebration by the first of the month. That's because Matt's friend, Jason, is coming to visit next week so I know I won't have Matt around to help with anything then. I know that because I told him to go stay at our friend Josh's house while Jason is visiting so they can have a good time without worrying about waking the kids at night. Not sure what I was thinking when I told him that he could go on a "staycation" while I take care of the house and kids but it was totally my idea.

Must be a result of lack of sleep. Or a brain tumor. One of those.

Anyway, here are some pictures for the family to enjoy. I should have time to post something more substantial by the weekend. I hope.

Avery on Saturday before we went to a birthday party. It's so strange to know that she is standing in the same spot where she played in the snow just 4 days earlier. It was close to 70 and sunny over the weekend.
Avery is so cautious even though the dog is clearly outside and the doggy door is locked so there is no way he will get inside. She'll probably grow up to be some kind of adventurist but for now she is the most cautious child in the world.

playing at the park

Jack and I went to the park today to get his 2 year pictures taken. He let me take a couple of pictures after his session. He was pretty obnoxious during the whole photo shoot. All he wanted to do was play and go on the swing set. It was difficult to get many good shots of him. I just can't understand why he would prefer to slide and swing rather than pose for pictures.

Some people are just so difficult to work with.

He is definitely going to be a rough-and-tumble 2 year old. He is so strong and the worst part of that is that he doesn't know his own strength so we are often the victims of being loved TOO much when he rams into us to give us hugs. We'll take it, though, because I know there will come a day when he won't want to hug us as much as he does now. I just think maybe we need some padding so we aren't black and blue all the time.

Snowmageddon

2010-02-23T21:38:00.007-06:00

When we told Avery that it was snowing outside this morning the first thing she asked was, "Is it Christmas?!?"

It was really wild to go from 70 degrees and sunny on Sunday to snow all day today. I tried to take some pictures to show the accumulation as the day went on.

Here's Avery just ready to burst with excitement on the way to school this morning. She was so happy to see snow on the ground in Texas. I think she figured that it only snowed in Illinois since that is the only place she has ever seen snow.
She started trying to catch the snowflakes with her tongue. Quite a big difference from when we got off the plane in Illinois for Christmas. She wouldn't have anything to do with the snow then. I guess all that playing in the snow with her cousins washed away any fears she had.
Jack isn't ever fearful of anything so the challenge we had with him was making sure he didn't run out of the house and slip on any slush. Matt was holding on to Jack for dear life so he wouldn't try and jump out of his arms and dive in the little bit of snow that was starting to cover the ground.

Off to school they went...
....and the snow continued to come down fast. The snowflakes were huge!

Our neighbors made a cute little snowman.

Our poor little flowers were almost totally covered by 10 am.
It stopped snowing briefly around 11:30 but picked up again in the afternoon. Avery and Jack's school closed at 3pm which made working from home for the last few hours of the day a big challenge. Unfortunately the work didn't go away just because it snowed so Matt and I had to juggle the kids and our meetings. We took turns locking ourselves in our bedroom so we didn't have kids laughing in the background on our conference calls.

When I came out of our room for a few minutes between calls, I found Avery dressed up as a princess holding flowers that she was pretending to be balloons. So strange. And she wanted to go outside and play in the snow but didn't want to put on a coat because it would cover her dress. I decided to let her learn on her own and allowed her to go outside.
I figured it would take 30 seconds for her to start complaining and want to go back inside. She definitely proved me wrong. She loved it outside, especially because she could stomp around in her boots.And then out comes little brother to play, too! He put his boots on by himself and showed up in the yard while I was too busy taking pictures to notice. That's just the kind of good parent I am. He enjoyed playing in the snow and refused to let me get a good picture of him.
We don't own snow pants, obviously, because WE LIVE IN TEXAS. I only let him stay out for a couple of minutes and then I picked him up and took both kids back inside. You know, right after I took a few pictures. Since toddlers in wet pants tend to cry a lot (and I was trying to avoid that on account of the whole WORKING thing), I didn't let Jack run around as much as he wanted to.

After I was done with my conference calls and we finished eating dinner, Avery and I went outside for a snowball fight. It wasn't as dark outside as these pictures make it seem just in case my friend Joel is reading this and wants to call CPS. Here she goes... She is gearing up to throw a snowball at me and she is very impressed with herself.
Nice release and ends up hitting me in the right in the lens of my camera. I backed up a little after that because LESSON LEARNED.
Another good shot. She was throwing them at me with both hands. She is most definitely a lefty but she tends to switch it up every once in a while just to keep us guessing.Our neighbor Jordan came over and showed Avery the snowman he made earlier in the day. The two of them spent a few minutes throwing snowballs at Matt's car before Jordan headed home to warm up.
I convinced Avery that clearing off my car was so! much! fun! and she ended up doing almost the whole thing. Sucker.

So there you have it. Our big snow day in Austin. Global warming at it's finest. I just hope the roads are clear tomorrow so we don't have to juggle the kids and work at the same time again. *dearLordplease*

Jack and His Facial Expressions

2010-02-22T21:58:00.005-06:00

Serious: Clearly he is thinking about Tiger Wood's apology and whether or not it was sincere.

Caution: Do not attempt to steal my cupcake. I might actually bite your fingers off. Don't test me on this one or you will regret it.

Exuberant: YAY! Someone finally gave me words on my clothes since I can't really speak for myself yet.

Sophisticated: This look tells the ladies that I am mature and playful at the same time. Notice how I look off into space as if I am pondering the questions of life. I am deep.

Meticulous: Not only am I smart enough to write my name is perfect penmanship before the age of 2, but I am also detail-oriented. I want to make sure to get the shadow color perfect so I take my time and concentrate.
Contemplative: During "toddler movement class" he avoided following any form of instruction. Instead he considered the future of dance and the movements associated with "I'm a Little Teapot" in the post modern era.

Evasive: Rather than looking at the camera and allowing you to take my picture so we can just get this over with, I am going to look in every other possible direction. But I won't run away, because that would clue you in that I am definitely never going to cooperate. Instead I will sit in one spot and give you the impression that I will allow you to take a decent picture....even though I never will.
Silly: Dressing up as DJ Jack Rock and dancing around the house. Get your sillies out, friends. Get your sillies out.

Well...We Tried

2010-02-22T07:38:00.008-06:00

He had that paper torn up the SECOND I put it in his hand. I felt defeated....

Luckily I had Avery take some pictures holding the sign on her own so we could get something usable. It is official: I am smarter than a (almost) 2 year old.

So we hope you have a very great day, Aunt Julie. Even if we aren't capable of getting anything in the mail on time. (We mailed it, though! It's on the way! Just....you know....late.)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, AUNT JULIE! We love you!

For Their Valentines

2010-02-14T21:53:00.002-06:00

Avery signed her own cards with the letter A. She was very proud of herself when she was done. I was, too, so I took a picture to put in her baby book. Earlier in the week she had written "AVY" on a card she made. She is great at spelling her name but not quite there when it comes to writing it. She isn't sure how to make the E or R yet so she just leaves it out. Makes sense to me.
Avery and Jack have the greatest teachers/caregivers. We are so lucky to have them--they make a real difference in my kids' lives. And it makes life so much easier for me and Matt to know that our kids are being loved and cared for while we are at work every day. I can't imagine having it any other way.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Dance Fever

2010-02-13T22:09:00.006-06:00

You'll have to forgive the picture heavy posts this week. My mom is out of town on a business trip so I am trying to keep her posted on what the kids are up to. I think she would prefer that nothing happen at all while she is away, something I completely understand. BUT, if we had to keep the kids inside with no new activities I think I might go crazy--especially since we don't get our normal Saturday night break from the kids while she is away. Our mission this weekend is to keep them as busy as possible. Since there is no cooking class this week for Avery, we enrolled both of the kids in dance classes at our city Rec Center this morning. The schedule won't work for Avery because it is at the same time as her cooking classes are but she has been asking to go to dance class for almost a year now and so we finally decided to give her a second chance and see if she would actually participate this time.

For Jack, this is the first time we have enrolled him in ANY class or activity. He gets a lot of interaction with Avery at home and his friends at daycare so we didn't feel like we needed to enroll him in Gymboree like we did with Avery. But now that he is almost 2, he really does need some kind of activity on the weekend to get his energy out and build his motor skills. Jack's friend Conrad is in the class and his mom really likes it so we decided to give it a try. Here are the pictures from Kindertots and Kinderdance today.

At first Jack stood around with his thumb in his mouth. He stood up when the teacher told everyone to and he sat when everyone sat (always on the little mat he chose at the start of class, which I thought was cute--and also a sign that he has been programmed to always sit in his "spot") but he didn't really participate much at first.
The teacher gave him these scarves to use as part of a dance. As you can see from the look on his face, he isn't quite sure about this.
But then he realized that he got to run around the room with the scarves and he perked right up. Poppa was there to watch and I think Jack considered Poppa to be "base" because he would almost always run over to Poppa after any activity. Run around the room and wave scarves. Run to Poppa. Jump on little mats like a frog. Run to Poppa. Sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. Run to Poppa. Hopefully he'll catch on that you don't actually have to tell Poppa what you just did every time because HE CAN SEE YOU from where he is sitting.
He really did start to enjoy class and the various movements they were making as a group. Large elephant steps and then baby mouse steps. Running on tip toes and then walking very slowly and quietly. Jumping up and down and jumping side to side. When he was catching on to what he was suppose to do, he was quite happy with the experience.

"Look! I'm jumping! Like a frog!"

This was a song about being a big apple, I think. It was toward the end of class so he had figured out that he could just watch the teacher and know what kinds of motions he needed to make to go along with the song.
He really liked being able to jump around in circles and raise his hands over his head. I think that's because of all of the Yo Gabba Gabba shows he watches. Dancing like a fool is not foreign to this kid.
But this! THIS was the best part of class by far for Jack. He perked right up when the teacher told the class that it was time to play catch. Jack would watch the others get a turn and after each one he would say, "My turn! My turn!" with such a cute smile on his face.

He was thrilled when it was his turn and he got to catch the ball and then roll it back to the teacher. He clapped for himself every time.

Oh Lucky day! He got to STAND and CATCH, too! And he did. The teacher threw the ball and he caught it with no problem. Whenever a child missed Jack would run after the ball and say, "My do it! My do it!" (which is Jack's way of saying he'll get the ball).
I was worried that once he got the ball he would choose to keep it and run around the room like a fool while everyone chased after him to get the ball. I was pleasantly surprised when he threw the ball right back to the teacher after he caught it.
He jumped up and down when he realized that he got to catch and throw the ball MORE THAN ONE TIME! OMGTHEBESTDAYEVER!

We're definitely going to sign him up for the weekly classes. He liked the songs, being with his friend Conrad and running around the room like a crazy man. Plus, the nap he took this afternoon was fantastic. :-)

Next was Avery's class. I'll start this story by reminding you of our former President, George W. Bush, and a famous saying that he shared with the world one time: "There's an old saying in Tennessee — I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again." I think what he meant to say is, "fool me twice, shame on ME" which is exactly how Matt and I felt after Avery's ballet class today.

After months of requests from Avery to go to ballet class again, we finally agreed to take her. As I said earlier, today was the perfect day. Luckily this was just a "try and see class" so we didn't have to pay anything.

Things started out very promising. She went right over to the teacher and participated in the exercises with no tears at all. She even turned around and yelled over to me several times to see if I had noticed that she was "listening to the teacher." She was doing so well, in fact, that I felt comfortable leaving the room to let Jack run around on the track. After about 20 minutes I came back in the room to get Matt to take over with Jack so I could watch Avery. Once she saw me come in the room she turned around and gave me a really pitiful look. I was afraid it was one of those "I have to go to the restroom and I have tights and a leotard on" looks so I motioned her over. She whined that she was ready to go home and she didn't want to do ballet anymore. The teacher told her that some fun dances were coming up along with tap and gymnastics but Avery was firm in her decision to leave. sigh.

I told her that we weren't going to come back again if we left as she started to put her pants and shoes on. She clearly didn't care.

So that's it. We tried twice and we failed twice. The kid likes the idea of ballet class but not the act of participating in the class. We won't be fooled again.

Probably.
The only ballet picture of her that we have from this time. Definitely an improvement from the tearful photo we have from her last attempt when she was 2. Same outcome, though. Same outcome.

Jack's First Haircut

2010-02-11T20:49:00.004-06:00

OHDEARLORD. I succumbed to the pressure Matt was putting on me. I caved. I gave in.

I am a fool.

So. Today was the day. We got Jack's first haircut and I knew it was a mistake before we even did it. I loved his little blond curls in the back and now they are gone.

Forever.

(Sure, maybe I am being a little dramatic. But take a look for yourself. Jack went from being a baby to being a little boy in only 15 minutes!)

Waiting with Poppa for his turn in the chair of doom. Poor kid doesn't even know what's about to happen to him. Life is so cruel.

Here is the last picture of his sweet little curls before they met an untimely death. I saved them, of course, but having them in an envelope in his baby book is not the same as on his sweet head.
Here he is as Vilma was making her first cuts. He wasn't really sure what in the world was happening to him. I was starting to feel sick to my stomach.
Here he is looking at her as if to say, "Please make sure I am still cute after this!"

And there they go. My delicious little curls. I was feeling like I could actually vomit. I was trying to figure out how I let Matt talk me into this. What in the world was I thinking? I blame global warming.

I think he was contemplating how much his life will be different now that he looks older. Could he get more chicks? Get into a PG movie? Get on carnival rides? Oh...the possibilities.
He was so sweet during the whole experience. He never cried or jerked around. He just sat patiently and quietly while Vilma did her thing.

And when it was all said and done....

...this is what he looked like. Not a sweet baby boy anymore.
Here's the back. No sweet curls. No floppy top. Just plain ol' short and straight hair.

Just like a big boy.

I think I will keep him in footie pajamas until he leaves for college.

My Little Valentines

2010-02-10T23:20:00.005-06:00

Is it too much to ask that they take ONE PICTURE where they are both looking at the camera and smiling at the same time? :-)

ahem...Mom, you can click on the picture to make it bigger.

SUPER Party

2010-02-08T21:23:00.007-06:00

So if you were like us, you were one of the 106 million Americans to watch the Super Bowl last night. We hosted a Super Bowl party with Josh. It was such a good time because we had lots of kids there, which was a first for a party at Josh's house. Generally we are there to celebrate an upcoming wedding or baby so it was neat to be in the house where we have had baby showers for so many of the kids that were playing in the living room. Of course, the kids did pose an interesting challenge when it came to WATCHING THE GAME, but it was totally worth it.

By half time it was almost every child's bedtime so most of the crowd cleared out and only about 6 of us were left to watch the second half of the game. The neat thing about that was that 2 of them were huge New Orleans fans and the rest of us were pulling for the Saints so when they won it was a lot of fun to bask in the celebration they were showing on TV.

Josh wasn't too interested in watching the celebration though, and he definitely isn't a fan of big messes so he started the vacuum cleaner the MINUTE the game was over. In fact, we had to tell him to shut it off during the trophy ceremony because we couldn't hear. It sort of reminded me of a time that I was on a really great date and we were having so much fun talking and laughing at a restaurant that we didn't realize what time it was until we heard the waiter vacuuming the floors. We got the hint and left...I hope that isn't what Josh was trying to tell us last night because we definitely stayed around to watch the whole ceremony.

Anyway, it was a great crowd and we had a good mix of old friends and new there so I am glad we were able to all get together--even if some of us enjoyed each other's company rather than getting to watch the game.

Josh hates it when the kids play with this tea set but he didn't put it away so the kids took over and played with it all night. Baby Denali enjoyed watching the older kids play with all the nice toys. (we had a shower for baby Denali last May. Hard to believe she is 7 months old now.)
This is Annabelle and she is definitely her mother's daughter. Every time I took her picture she would ask to see the camera and then tell me if she thought it was a good picture or not. That cracks me up. Her mom is my little sister in our sorority and one of the girls we threw a shower for in this house when she was expecting Annabelle.
I had a hard time getting Jack to stop eating long enough for me to take this picture. But I do think it was a big victory that I managed to keep Jack away from the brownies, burgers, chicken wings, etc. He was totally satisfied with Chex Mix. VICTORY! Anyway, this is Annabelle, Jack and Conrad. Would you believe that Jack is the youngest in this picture? Conrad lives on our street and goes to the same school as Jack does so they get along very well with each other. I didn't have my camera in my hands the whole time (shut up. I didn't), which is too bad because I missed Jack and Conrad sharing Chex Mix with each other. For such rowdy boys they can certainly be super sweet.
This is Reagan. She will be 6 in May and as you can see, Avery is taller than she is. Jack probably weighs more than she does. Was it something in the water when I was pregnant? Perhaps all of those baked potatoes I ate caused me to spawn huge children? Or is it that Micha (Reagan's mom) just doesn't feed her that often and puts her in a bed that restricts her growth like some kind of ancient African tribe might do? Which scenario seems more likely?
Reagan was telling Avery some knock-knock jokes. Avery laughed every time even though sometimes it was clear that she had no idea what Reagan was talking about. Then Reagan asked Avery why the chicken crossed the road and Avery's response was, "KNOCK KNOCK!" I pray to baby Jesus that she will not end up with her Grammie's sense of humor.

This is Maddie and she clearly didn't want me to take her picture. I tried and tried to get her to look at the camera or stand with Avery but she just absolutely refused. She is such a little sweetie and she is usually very happy to let me take her picture but she got to the house after the party was already in full swing and I think she was a little overwhelmed by all of the activity in Josh's living room. I had to take her picture anyway because that is the cutest outfit! Check out her sparkly zebra stripe shoes.
Look how engaged Avery and Reagan are in the big game! They are total sports fans! I couldn't be more proud!! (um, really they were watching Beauty and the Beast. But a mother can dream, can't she?!)
Thank goodness for baby gates because Jack just couldn't seem to stay away from the stairs. And we all know how coordinated this boy is.
This is my former co-worker's son, Sawyer. He is 4 years old but I still remember the last time we were together at Josh's house for a party. He was learning to walk then and it was my baby shower when I was expecting Avery.

Time!

It flies!

Anyway, he is teaching Jack all about making silly faces during pictures. This isn't exactly a trick I was hoping Jack would pick up. It's hard enough to get him to stop eating long enough to take a picture and now I have to worry about him making silly faces every time. I might never get a real picture of my boy at this rate. Needless to say, the next few pictures in my camera are of Jack and Sawyer making funny faces together. sigh.

Then the wrestling began. Having boys is completely different than having girls. Poor Reagan is NOT participating in the wrestling match. She is trying to get up from her comfortable spot on the floor watching a movie. The boys totally took over.
Uh-Oh. Here comes trouble. Just when I had Jack changed into his PJs and ready to go home to go to bed he discovered his undying love for Maddie. I think I have 5 pictures of Jack just staring at her. Sometimes he was on this side of her and sometimes he moved to the other side but he never took his eyes off of her. Maddie, on the other hand, didn't have the time of day for him. She was very busy arranging magnets and could not be bothered by this baby who was falling in love. She is going to be 4, after all, so why would she want to be seen with a boy who isn't even 2 yet? She probably has to deal with this sort of thing all the time. A girl with shoes as cute as the ones Maddie wears has plenty of options.
He couldn't help himself and had to get closer to her. They arranged magnets together for a few minutes before she got bored with him and walked away. A sassy fashionista like her does not need to humor a baby like Jack. I mean, he was wearing footie pajamas, for Heaven's sake! I'm afraid he is in love, though. The look on his little face when she walked away was priceless.

But wait a minute....

Just like a typical man! Jack moved on quickly to a new girl after Maddie gave him the cold shoulder. Annabelle had her PJs on, too, and was more than willing to snuggle up with him. Jack was more than willing to let her. Girls are such suckers for boys with broken hearts. And Jack is a sucker for a cute girl. Somehow I think I am going to need to keep a very close eye on this boy.

I'm so glad we had such a good turnout to the party and the kids all played together so well. There were no meltdowns and no blood was shed, which I consider to be a major victory every time!

There's No Place Like Home

2010-02-05T11:13:00.004-06:00

Whew. That was a long time to go without blogging. And there were so many times I wanted to comment on some of my observations (like how no one washed their hands after using the restroom)...but I was on a business trip in Asia and I didn't want to blog on my work computer. (see: Dooce File under: Lessons Learned)

I am so happy to be back home and with the kiddos again. They met me at the airport and the little smiles on their faces were priceless. Of course, we were only 20 minutes into the ride home when Jack started pulling Avery's hair. She just screamed and then there was lots of hitting and crying and I started wondering if maybe I could get back on the airplane.

I kid! My poor tailbone was way too sore from the 24 hours of travel back home to get back on a plane. I pretty much only wanted to stand or lay. In fact, I felt like maybe I would never sit again. Plus, I had been awake for almost 48 hours because of the time differences and the long flights home so I didn't have enough energy to really let the kids get to me.

I had a great time with the people I work with in Manila. I'm really glad that I had the chance to spend a lot of time with them because my last trip there was right when they had a terrible flood and most people were at home cleaning up what was left of their homes so I didn't get to see them much. This trip was much more pleasant for everyone and we had lots of good laughs. We even got a little work done while I was there.

I have so many things to get caught up on so I am going to post this picture of Jack and promise more posts very soon.

This is Jack's new trick. Whenever I get the camera out--even if it is to take Avery's picture--he makes this face. I was lucky to catch it before he quickly turned back to a smile. I think he has the cutest little facial expressions. And the best part about it is that he can't maintain this look for long and he usually cracks himself up just trying to look sad.

Perfecting the pout at an early age.

And here he is 30 seconds later. Dancing around the house "getting his sillies out" with the Yo Gabba Gabba gang. He really gets into the dances and always claps for himself when he is done.

so good to be home!

P-A-R-T-Y

2010-01-19T22:21:00.006-06:00

Our friends Reagan and Amanda had a joint birthday party over the weekend. Amanda turned one and Reagan turned two so they had a clown themed party to celebrate. It was fun for the 1-2 year olds and the 3-4 year olds, which is a pretty tall task if you have ever had to throw a party.

Amanda's little cupcake. The hardest part about taking this picture was getting Amanda to wait before she attacked that cupcake.

Reagan's cupcake. She was much more patient than Amanda was.

The clown that painted faces and made balloon animals at the party. The kids had so much fun playing games with her. I was surprised that Avery wasn't scared of the clown since she is generally scared of everything else. Of course, neither of my kids would sit to get their faces painted.

One of the birthday girls!

Jack decided to hang out by the beer kegs. Matt was so proud.

Jack peeking through the circle balloon that the clown made for him.

The two big sisters enjoying themselves at the party. They posed for this picture and I think I took 12 different versions in my attempt to get them both looking and smiling at the same time.

Matt is getting Jack's love of video games started early. I am afraid for our future.

Avery is such a priss. She was eating her cupcake with a fork!

Jack wasn't afraid to just dig right in.

Nom Nom Nom

But Jack had nothing on Reagan. She attacked her cupcake! It was so cute to watch her eat every crumb.

Even though it was her birthday, Amanda made everyone else look like they were the rookies!
But in the end, the baby showed them all up! Amanda ate all of her cupcake and icing and then licked the plate clean. She was hilarious!

It was such a good time for the kids. Great party, Lauren and Elissa!

The 18th

2010-01-18T22:43:00.002-06:00

And today he is exactly 2 months away from being 2 years old. I think we can all see where this is going, can't we...

Ronald McDonald House

2010-01-17T13:37:00.008-06:00

This weekend Avery and I went to the RMH of Austin to drop off some of the books that she received for her birthday. (click on the word "birthday" for the entry on her party) We had planned to give them all to SafePlace Austin but I wanted Avery to be a part of the process and we weren't able to arrange that with SafePlace. So when Kelly over at Kelly's Korner suggested that people donate items to RMH in honor of her daughter Harper's first birthday, we decided that it would be a great chance for Avery to participate in the donation.

We took half of the books from her party to the Ronald McDonald House and the other half will go to SafePlace (which I will have to do alone). We also took some items off of the Wish List posted on the RMH of Austin website. Here are some pictures from when we took the books and toiletries this weekend. I think you can click on them to make them bigger.

Here she is holding some of the books that we brought to donate. She told me to "carefully" hand her some--but not all--of the books because she didn't want them to be too heavy. She also told me to "pick some good ones" for her to hold. Little Miss Sassy for sure.
Speaking of Sassy, I love this picture because of the way she is standing. I don't know what she had going on in her head when she decided to stand that way but it is hilarious to me.
Here she is giving Miss Sandra, an employee at the RMH, some of the books that we brought. She told everyone her name (her full name--first, middle, last--so fast that no one could understand her) and also told them that she is 3 and these are books from her birthday party. She was quite the talker, which surprised me since she is usually a little shy at first.
Miss Sandra was very kind to Avery and did a great job answering all of her questions. When Avery asked where the books go, she showed her the game room and even let her put the books on the shelf.

Avery was showing Miss Sandra that the book was about a Princess. We are in full Princess LOVE mode around here these days. Not much we can do to stop the obsession, I'm afraid.

I love this picture because you can see just how uncomfortable Avery is sitting next to this large plastic man. She talked to him and patted his leg. She even asked for a picture with him. She just, you know, didn't want to actually sit next to him.
These large blocks were in the back of the Ronald McDonald house, which is the first thing we saw when we drove over from the hospital. She begged for me to take her picture by the blocks, which I was hesitant to do because it meant that we had to park in the street to get out of the car. There were 2 lanes going the same way, so we didn't block traffic, but it was still an actively used road next to Dell Children's hospital, so I wasn't very comfortable with it. I decided to do it, though, since we were right next to the hospital if anything bad happened. :-) She was goofing around the whole time I was taking her picture. If I hadn't been nervous about our car getting hit, I would have tried harder to get a good shot.
Last and certainly least, my attempt at a picture of the two of us. Since it was just us, I had to try and hold the camera out and get a picture of us 1. with us both in it 2. both looking at the camera 3. without glare from her glasses. It's not great, but I would say this one is as close to perfect as I would have ever come.

If you would like to know more about the RMH or the Wish List for the Austin RMH, please click on THIS link.

Ah, the Joys of Santa

2010-01-10T21:34:00.006-06:00

Luckily Santa is smart enough to know when people are out of town. Santa brought an orange scooter (perfect for a boy and a girl), pillows for school, a princess ballerina outfit, trucks, a See-and-Say and a Longhorn jersey to my parent's house in Illinois. Jack was hesitant when he first came downstairs but Avery knew EXACTLY what was going on and she was thrilled! She had trouble sleeping on Christmas Eve, which was so cute. She kept yelling downstairs to find out if Santa had come. It was pretty fun for me to watch, especially since Mom was the one sleeping with Avery so my sleep wasn't really bothered by it. :-)

Santa did an excellent job laying everything out for the kids. Meanwhile, Matt slept on the couch because he was a little under the weather on Christmas Eve. Good thing he didn't get into Santa's way.
Here's Jack as he came downstairs to see what Santa had brought for him. Notice the cookie that he has in his hand, which was left for Santa. (ahem, see above caption where I mention that Matt wasn't feeling well. Santa should have still taken a bite of the cookies, is all I'm saying.) (I mean, what kind of Santa doesn't eat the cookies?)
Avery checks out her new magic wand, the very first thing she asked Santa for every time she saw him.
Jack just loved his toys. He spent lots of time playing with each thing. He was so fun to watch.
Ah, more things that make loud noises. That's wonderful. And the mallets are just a bonus! I mean, not only can they be used to make *beautiful* music on the xylophone, they can also be used to hit unsuspecting parents on the head. That's especially fun when they get you from behind and you have no idea that it is coming. Fun for the whole family!
Here's Avery going through her stocking. Santa brought her some "lipstick" which was definitely her favorite. You know what my favorite is? It's cleaning up the "lipstick" that has been smeared all over the back passenger window of my car. That's just the gift that keeps on giving.
Jack got a lot of Yo Gabba Gabba toys and a basketball. He is such a big fan of "Gabba" so he was very excited to see what else was in his stocking. He got a Brobie, Foofa, Plex and Muno. Apparently Tootie isn't as popular because they don't make a plush Tootie. No love for the random dinosaur-ish characters.
It was a good thing that Santa left a ball because he turns anything slightly resembling a sphere into a ball. It could be a paperweight or a polka dot ornament (sorry Aunt Tina) and that boy will throw it. Hard. Which usually ends in some kind of breaking or crying. Luckily this nice, soft UT basketball was perfect for him. And the rest of us appreciated that he had something soft to throw at us. (**SPEAKING OF UT BASKETBALL, DID YOU KNOW WE ARE RANKED #1 IN THE COUNTRY?! Hook 'Em!!)
Avery playing with a whistle that was in her stocking. Santa really shouldn't have.
She couldn't wait to put on her new princess ballerina outfit. She wore it for most of the rest of the day. It was 20 degrees outside but this was all she would wear. Nothing says Christmas Cheer like trying to get your pre-schooler to put on some pants.
Here's Jack opening presents later on Christmas morning. He was a little confused about it at first but once we took it out and put the basketball goal together, he loved it. He kept saying "again! again!" when Matt would make a basket.

After Avery was done opening her own presents, she went around the room "helping" everyone else open theirs. She pretty much opened every present in the room. Which, you know, is fine for some people. I prefer to open my own presents, but whatever. I mean, Christmas is for the children, right? At least that is what Matt kept telling me when I was playing tug-o-war with Avery over my gifts so that I could open them MYSELF thankyouverymuch.
Jack got a peg toy with a hammer. We've lost those pegs approximately 17 times since Christmas. If you ever want to have a really good time, come on over to our house and help us find these things. We have to do it all the time so we can definitely work around your schedule.

After we checked out what Santa left and opened some presents, we went back over to my brother's house so that mom and I could start making our Christmas dinner. It was definitely hectic there, with all the kids playing with their toys from Santa. That is a story all on its own; and that is what I will write about next time. :-)

Hook 'Em Horns!

2010-01-06T23:13:00.002-06:00

National Championship Cake Balls.

This is why other countries hate us

2010-01-04T20:20:00.006-06:00

As I predicted, there was just so much. This is what the tree looked like on Christmas Eve before we left for church. You would have thought that we were storing gifts for the whole town by the sight of the tree.

This picture doesn't even show all of the gifts. I couldn't actually get a shot of all of the presents because there were just too many of them. (Notice that Tina has a Santa hat on the top of her tree rather than an Angel or a star. She is going to have some explaining to do, is all I'm saying. I pray for her soul.)

This was just Savannah's pile, which is really surprising considering her rank in that house. Poor thing. Natalie teased that they had to overcompensate with presents because Savannah takes so much crap from them all year.

This is what a room looks like after 6 kids rip through their gifts. People can get lost, especially little ones. It is a dangerous world. And pets? Pets don't stand a chance.
Especially little rat dogs like this one. Poor little Lucky was scared to death. I don't think he quit shaking for 4 days.

The kids had so much fun opening gifts. Annabelle was probably the cutest because she loved EVERYTHING she opened. It was all her FAVORITE and she would thank us before she even finished opening the gifts. She would feverishly rip through the paper, hug the gift and thank us so much and jump up and down (sometimes there was screaming!). And then just as fast as she did that she would throw the gift down and grab another one and open it with just as much gusto as the one before. I believe she enjoyed the act of unwrapping just as much as she loved each gift.

Bella with her Zhu Zhu pet.

Natalie, a teenager now, showed much more decorum when she was opening her gifts. She sort of sat off in her own corner, perched high enough to see everyone else but outside of the circle that the rest of the group was in, and quietly opened her things by herself. This is a sparkly scarf I found on Etsy. Emma got a black one just like it.

Here we have Avery showing off her new doll with 209 pieces. I think I have stepped on the hard plastic outfits for this doll 5 times now. Every time I step on something I wonder why my sister in law hates me so much. Then I remember that she is probably just getting me back for blogging about her.
Jack can't get enough of Yo Gabba Gabba. They don't have Nick Jr. on the cable system in my brother's area so Jack had to go without watching the show for 8 days. Every day he would look up at me with sad eyes and say, "Gabba?" in the sweetest little voice. And every day I had to tell him that there was no Gabba in Illinois. (I know they make DVDs of Yo Gabba Gabba but they are surprisingly hard to find in the stores.)

In the end, the greatest gift was seeing the smiles on the kid's faces. They had so much fun unwrapping presents and "helping" the adults open gifts. Avery and Bella were at a really fun age for Christmas this year.

So other countries can hate us all they want for having too many Christmas gifts. It is always an embarrassment of riches and I'm sure a lot of these toys will make their way to the bottom of the toy box by the end of the year. But on this night, watching everyone with smiles glued on their faces makes it all worth it.

Besides, with quality gifts like this one, how could anyone deny us the joy of overspending?

Fun Times with Cousins

2010-01-03T22:19:00.005-06:00

I took approximately 984 pictures over the 8 days that we visited my brother's family in Illinois so you'll have to forgive the huge picture post. I used discipline to narrow this entry's photo count down to 14. I'll have more to say about Christmas Eve and Christmas Day when I get the chance, but for now, here are some of the pictures of the kids hanging out with their cousins. They had a blast and they can't wait to go back again very soon (Avery says we are going back "tomorrow" which is going to make going back to daycare a bitter pill to swallow). Life is hard when you are 3.

Avery and Natalie after coming in from the snow. It took Avery about 5 days before she decided that she wanted to play in the snow and once she did, she loved it. She was always the last one to come inside because she was having a great time.
Making cookies with Savannah. We made cake balls, cookies, brownies, more cake balls, banana bread...the list goes on and on. I'm pretty sure the oven is still on because it was used so much.
Clowning around with Annabelle. They played together pretty well. There was one day when Bella decided that Avery was being too whiny to play with and she left to go play with someone else. And by "left" I mean that she went to a completely different house. I don't blame her; there are days that I do the same thing!
Singing the Wii sing-a-long game with Natalie, Emma, McKenzie, Lauren and Bella. It was so fun to hear the girls all singing and having fun. The house was always full of friends so there was never a dull moment.
Larry isn't capable of taking a picture that we could actually use in a photo album.
Jack kept lifting his shirt and showing his belly so Larry decided to show him up and give him a view of a real belly. Jack is still having nightmares.
Jack got tons of attention from the girls. They were all so good with my kids.
Sweet Emma played with Jack even though he thought everything was a ball and would turn innocent objects into lethal weapons.
You can't tell by the looks on their face in this stellar picture, but these girls were singing "Jingle Bells" for us before we opened presents on Christmas Eve. It was a cute little performance.

SNOOOOOW!

Jack was so mad that we made him take a second out of his time in the snow to take a picture. He paid us back by making a terrible face. Score 1 for Jack.
I got him back, though, by making him wear a hat and gloves outside. The thing about being the only boy is that all the winter clothes they had for us to borrow were totally girly. Safety first, though, kids. Gotta wear warm clothes if you are going to play in the snow--even if those clothes make you look like a girl.
More fun in the snow with Savannah, Bella, Elise and Braden. This time it was just Avery because I think it was 15 degrees outside and Jack wasn't good about leaving his hat and gloves on. Braden led the group over to the school to slide down a ramp covered in snow which was both fun to watch and terrifying because it just looked like a broken leg waiting to happen. Thankfully they all made it back to the house with no injuries.
Clearly Avery was thrilled to be there hanging out with her cousins. She really didn't want to leave. I can't say I blame her.

Oh Holy Night

2009-12-27T14:29:00.004-06:00

My Christmas visit at my brother's house continues and they have provided me with so much blog material that I think I will have to go through the events of Christmas Eve and Christmas day in several posts. I'll start with our experience getting to church service on Chirstmas Eve.

In most families, going to church on Christmas Eve is a given. The time may be up for debate if there are multiple services at the church, but going is never in question. In our family...let's just say there was a lot of discussion about going or not; even questioning friends to find out if they are going so we could base our level of guilt on how many of our peers would also be absent from the service. (For the sake of my relationship with my SIL, I should say that several of her friends were at the movies and McDonald's rather than church.) I didn't want to create any stress in the household by insisting we go...but I really didn't feel right about missing out on church...you know, because JESUS IS THE REASON FOR THE SEASON. So about 20 minutes before we would absolutely have to leave in order to get to church on time, three of us decided to go. The rest of the group could fend for themselves on judgment day. Matt got a free pass because he was sick but the rest of the group is going to have some explaining to do.

The church service was in the next town over and we made the mistake of letting mom drive. Even though the roads weren't icy and it wasn't snowing hard, she drove tentatively and kept questioning us about road conditions. Needless to say, we were 3 minutes late to church. And that 3 minutes made all the difference....

When we walked in to the church building we could hear the congregation singing so we thought we were home free to sneak in. For some reason, though, they don't stand when they sing at this church. (can I just pause here and say WHO DOES THAT?! I have been Methodist my whole life and this is the first time I have ever seen a church where they don't stand when they sing. Someone should tell them that you sound a lot better when you stand. And trust me, this group needed all the help they could get. Just sayin...) (if you are reading this and you were one of the people at church that night, I am not talking about YOU here. I am talking about the "others" that were singing. Not you.)

It was at this point that my sister in law told us that we were not going in. My mom and I looked at her like she was crazy because we had just driven 20 minutes in the snow to get there and we were definitely going in for the service. But she insisted. It was easy for us to just walk in 3 minutes late because no one knew us. She knew everyone so she wasn't having any part of that. So we compromised and sat in this back room that was 1. not lit 2. not heated 3. didn't have chairs and 4. had a frosted window that allowed us to only see shadows of people inside the church, not actual faces. On the plus side, it had an intercom so we could hear the service perfectly fine.

We followed along with the readings, recited the Lord's Prayer and sang the verses of the songs we knew (without hymnals, of course). According to the Christmas program, we had "Special Music" next. Apparently the two people that were supposed to sing the music walked up to the front of the church--we could tell because we saw the shadowy figures move from the pews to the stage. Then they turned on a.....boom box....as their backup music. Except that the system they used had the background mic turned up way too high so we couldn't hear the singers at all. Not even a little bit. I figured we just couldn't hear because we were in the back room that is not meant for viewing the service.

Since we couldn't hear anyway, I just started jotting down some notes to help jog my memory about the night for when I finally got a chance to write about it. This made my mother and SIL very nervous. There were attempts to steal the pen from me. My mom kept whisper yelling at me to stop writing. My SIL kept threatening to not talk to me again if I shared everything that was going on. I ignored both of them and muttered something about freedom of speech. Besides, taking notes was pretty unnecessary because there was no way I was forgetting about this ridiculousness. (for the record, my notes were stolen and thrown away after church)

After the special music someone from the congregation went to the pulpit to read a passage from the Bible related to the Christmas story. Before he began to read he asked everyone to stand. I thought oh sure, NOW you stand. We were 30 minutes into the service at that point. So we stood. In the dark (and cold) back room. All by ourselves. I could just see Jesus looking down on us and shaking his head.

The next "Special Music" was presented by a girl that my SIL knows so she was excited to hear her sing. We moved up closer to the frosted window to make an attempt to see the girl while she sang. As the background music started again it was clear that we weren't going to be able to hear a thing. It was odd, too, because the church was very small and there was maybe 20 feet between where we were standing and where the girl singing was positioned. I thought for sure we would be able to hear better if we were in the chapel so I snuck around to a side door and opened it slightly to stick my head in. No luck. The music was also loud inside the church. No one could actually hear her, which was too bad because apparently the girl that was singing is really great. Listening to the background music alone wasn't very inspiring. Or Christmasy, for that matter. It was just sort of awkward because here you have a whole church of people staring at a girl who was putting her heart and soul into a song and no one could hear a thing. But we did see the earnest on her face and her hand movements were lovely. Guess that counts for something.

As soon as that song was over my SIL was ready to leave. In fact, she started walking out. I objected saying that we still had a reading and Silent Night to go before it was over. And it was only 6:40 so it wasn't like the service was taking forever. But she kept going saying something about "sometimes just making an effort is all that matters!" And then she said that we could do the reading and sing Silent Night in the car while we drove home. Somehow I didn't think that was the point of going to the service. But that's exactly what we did. As she was pulling out of our parking spot to head home, she grabbed her program and read the "leader" part of the reading. Mom and I responded with the "congregation" part as we recited the words printed in the bulletin.

In the car while we were driving home.

Like it was perfectly normal.

When the reading was over we all simultaneously broke into Silent Night. There wasn't a pause or any hesitation. No one looked at anyone else to confirm that we were actually going to sing--the reading was over and then we all just started to sing. I was thinking it was the weirdest thing I had ever been a part of.

We couldn't remember all the words to the second verse so mom grabbed her phone and googled it. While she was doing that Tina turned on the radio and the station happened to be playing Silent Night at that exact moment. My SIL called it a "Christmas Miracle" and said that it justified the whole evening at church. She said it was God's way of telling us that we were ok.

Somehow I think our souls might have been better off if we had gone to the movies or McDonald's.

A List

2009-12-21T22:01:00.005-06:00

It's the end of the year and the media seems to be full of lists so I am jumping on the "laziest way to write" bandwagon. Why should I try being any better than CNN? Who do I think I am, anyway? This is for the best.

Jack got his stitches out on Thursday. According to Matt, he didn't even flinch when they tugged on them to get them out. Tough guy. I wouldn't know because I wasn't there. No way. That is definitely a "dad" kind of task.
My friend Blake finally showed his face after being away at Grad School for the last 4 months. Don't feel bad for him. It wasn't like he was so totally engrossed in his studies that he just couldn't make the hour and a half drive to Austin. He went to almost every A&M football game, including the away games. He also went to Disney World. DISNEY WORLD. In case you didn't know, Florida isn't an hour and a half away from Austin. Yet he seemed to be able to make it to Orlando and not to Austin. In FOUR months. He clearly missed us dearly. We gave him a hard time about it when we went out for happy hour. It was great fun and I felt like we picked up right where we left off.
Blake totally made up for being MIA by letting us park our car at his parent's house so we wouldn't have to pay for airport parking. Not only did that save us a wad of cash, but it also allowed us to be dropped off at the door rather than having to drag 2 kids, 2 strollers, 3 suitcases and 2 carry on bags through the parking lot and on a shuttle to the airport. Just getting the kids from the curb to the check-in desk caused us to sweat profusely, so we are grateful for the lift from Blake.
And by "us" I mean me and my mom. Matt is still at home so don't try and rob my house because you think we aren't home. I'm smart enough to know not to blog about not being home while I am actually gone and just leave my tiny house with nothing valuable inside open to crooks and robbers. I care too much about our laminate floors and stained counter tops to do that. Besides, one look at my master shower and you would mistake our house for a frat house and leave immediately for fear that someone might slip something into your drink.
By the way, the whole reason we were even at the airport is because we are in Illinois visiting my brother's family. Maybe you recall me talking about them before. This is Jack's first visit up north and his first time seeing snow. It was snowing when we got off the airplane and he loved sticking his tongue out to catch snowflakes. He ran around in the snow as if it wasn't slippery at all and caused me a minor heart attack because I think we can all agree that he is accident prone (see: just about every post dedicated to Jack).
Christmas at my brother's house can only be described as overwhelming. In fact, I think if an alien who had never experienced Christmas before were to be sent to this house to get an understanding of what the holiday was like, the report back to the mother ship would probably just be a picture of him curled up in the fetal position. First of all, there are a lot of kids here. Between my brother's four, my two, and all the kids in town that are friends with my nieces, this house is never quiet. Not at midnight, not at 6am. NOT. EVER. Secondly, because of the large number of people, there are a large number of presents under the tree. Almost an entire room full of presents. It is an embarrassment of riches. Each kid has 3 sets of grandparents, a great grandmother, God parents, best friends, cousins, gifts from friends, neighbors and so on. Even Annabelle's gymnastics teacher gave her a gift tonight. It is crazy.
But even crazier is what happens on Christmas Eve after church when they open presents. It is hard to describe the scene at this house when 4-6 kids start to rip through the wrapping paper to check out their gifts. You can't expect little ones to sit patiently while each person opens one gift at a time. I mean, you definitely won't find a bunch of people calmly sitting around in Christmas sweaters sipping hot cocoa while they go around in a circle opening a gift and showing the group while everyone ooohs and ahhs. Not in a million years. Instead, it is a total free-for-all. You are lucky if they stop to look at who the gift is to before they rip through the paper. And you better not dare give a gift card at a time like this or it will get thrown away for sure. It doesn't stand a chance. By the time it is all over, the room is filled halfway to the ceiling with used wrapping paper and at least one kid is buried somewhere in the pile. Generally everyone survives, but it is touch-and-go for a while. I will make it a point to keep an eye on little Jack so he doesn't get trampled or lost in the chaos. It is the funnest thing you have ever experienced but if you are one of those people that likes things to be orderly (ahem, dad), you might need to take a Xanax.
I will be sure to document with pictures because I know there are some of you out there that don't believe me. Some people are thinking that I am taking some creative license in this story. Those people would be wrong, but you don't have to take my word for it. I'll have evidence when I return home from our visit.
In other news, I continued a family tradition by going to the 2 little girls' classes today at school to read some Christmas stories. I did this with the older 2 when they were in pre-school and grade school so I was excited to have the chance to read in the younger ones classes. There had to be some good reason why the school district would make these kids come to school during the week of Christmas. RIDICULOUS.
Anyway, things were great in Annabelle's class. All the pre-schoolers loved good ole' Aunt Amy. They couldn't get enough of me. Savannah's class was a little more reserved. No one tried to kiss me or anything. I guess first graders are much more suave than pre-schoolers. I thought everything had gone well with the first graders, too. After school when I asked Savannah if she liked my visit, she said yes and that the only weird thing was when a girl next to her wondered out loud if I was fat or not. I responded that she should have seen me 4 months ago; there wouldn't have been a question. The girl is 6 so I really shouldn't be bothered by this but I can't seem to shake the feeling that all I want to do tomorrow is go back up to school and sit on that kid. Jerk.

Baby's First Stitches

2009-12-15T22:39:00.004-06:00

But this isn't a post about that.

Instead, this is a post about what a jerk I am.

On Saturday night, Matt, Josh and I were just getting in the car to go to my favorite Christmas party of the year when my aunt and mom started yelling out to me to come back in the house because Jack was hurt. Mom had managed to carry him to the front door by the time I got there and all I could see was blood all over his face. I had no idea where it was coming from. His mouth was covered in blood, his cheeks, his chin and nose. It wasn't until mom moved her hand that I saw the gash in his forehead and blood started pouring out. As I grabbed Jack from her, I pushed her out of my way and said, "why does this always happen at your house?"

I regretted it instantly. It just...came out...in my panic over his injury. I saw a flashback to the time I was called over to their house after Avery fell in her walker and had blood coming out of her head. I had a sick feeling in my stomach and his screaming was making my heart hurt. My brain ceased to operate correctly and failed to prevent me from saying a really insensitive thing to the woman who loves my babies as much as I do.

At that point it was hard to tell what I felt worse about: Jack's injury or my mom's.

As Matt and I drove to Urgent Care with Jack whimpering in the back seat, I talked to him about how awful I was for saying that. He kept telling me that this was a freak accident and could have happened anywhere. He reminded me that Jack is a boy and this won't be our last trip to Urgent Care. He talked about how scars add character (and he may have said something along the lines of, "chicks dig scars" but I tried to block that out of my head). All that is to say that he didn't make me feel better about my comment to my mom.

But how could he make me feel better? There was no defense to what I said. When the going got tough, I turned into a huge jerk.

I apologized to her profusely. She clearly loves my children and takes great care of them when we aren't around. This was a freak accident. Jack had tripped over a pillow from the couch that fell on the floor and ended up hitting his head on the corner of the end table in the living room. What are the chances that he would hit in that exact spot? Of course there wasn't anything that she could have done to stop it as it was happening. We had only been out of the house for 60 seconds so it wasn't like she was letting him run around and party while she napped in her room. I know all of this. I knew it then, too. I just don't know what got into me to say such a stupid thing.

Jack is feeling fine now and will get his stitches out on Thursday. The other good news is that my mom understood that I was out of my mind when I said that to her. She was big enough to tell me not to sweat it. She even kept the kids for us again while we went out with the people from my office for our Christmas party tonight.

They just don't make them any better than my mom.

(edited to add: I won't mention that Avery accidentally shut Jack's fingers in the car door while we were at the Christmas party tonight. I mean, how much abuse can the woman take?) *wink*

Avery's First Haircut

2009-12-09T22:05:00.005-06:00

Sure, she might be close to 3 and a half, but she hasn't been fond of the idea of a haircut so we just haven't ever tried. But lately her hair was starting to get stringy so I started talking up the idea with her. I may have actually said that princesses get their hair cut. *cough*

(Just uttering that sentence made me question my own ethics. I mean, how far am I willing to go to manipulate my child into doing something I want her to do? A Princess reference? Really? It's like I don't even know myself anymore).

The problem with getting her hair cut was that I told her the story of "Frizzy Lizzy" to get her to let me brush her hair. My friend Lauren told me about this tactic after it worked with her daughter. So every night before bed I would tell Avery all about "Frizzy Lizzy" and how she would never let her mom brush or blow dry her hair. Finally, Lizzy's hair got so ratty that she had to have it all cut off and she looked like a BOY! (when you say "boy" by the way, you have to really emphasize the word. You know, like BOY is the worst thing you could ever be).

It solved my daily hair brushing issue but it created a phobia of hair cuts. She was so afraid that she would end up looking like a boy that she wouldn't go anywhere near a pair of shears.

So, I started talking to her about what it is like to get a hair cut. Then I took her with me when I got my hair cut so she could see what it was like at the salon. Then there was the whole princess reference...and she finally agreed to allow us to get her hair trimmed.

And this is where I bring up the second reason why it has taken so long to get her hair cut:

I didn't want to do it.

She has these curls that I am totally in love with. They are little ringlets that make it look like we curled her hair but didn't brush the curls out. And I was afraid that cutting her hair would get rid of the curls. I held out as long as I could but I started to realize that we had to blow dry her hair a lot more lately because it was getting stringy when we just let it dry. That meant that you couldn't really see her curls anyway.

So off to the salon we went...

The BEFORE picture. Just in case cutting her hair turned out to be the worst decision ever and her hair is ruined for life. It can happen. It happened to me in 3rd grade when my mom got my hair permed and cut like an old lady. TRUE STORY. I was never the same after that.
A shot of the back. It had been straightened that morning so I didn't even get one last shot of her curls.
Here she is at the salon with my hair stylist, Vilma. We knew better than to take her to a kid's place. Too much noise and distraction for our little scaredy cat.
She did a great job sitting still.
She even managed a smile every once in a while.
And the curls still seemed to be there, even as she was cutting.
Oh, and also, I asked her to only cut about 1 inch off her hair. I mean, let's not go crazy or anything.

I love this picture because you can see that she is looking at herself in the mirror.
And there you have it. She was all done and we all survived. Curls and everything.
And then later we went to a parade and she totally managed to avoid looking at the camera the entire time.

All was right with the world.

Up To My Eyes In Cake Balls, That's What

2009-12-04T00:53:00.004-06:00

Oh, man. I am so far behind. Let's see...what have I been doing that has kept me from posting about Thanksgiving, the Turkey Trot or Avery's first haircut?

I know! I got caught cheating on my wife and she chased me down the lawn with a golf club. Now I am spending all my time trying to make things right and stay out of the media spotlight.

oh wait. That was someone else.

No! No! I was busy explaining how I ended up at the White House State Dinner last week. I got some vague emails saying something about possibly attending a ceremony that had nothing to do with the dinner and those gave me the impression that I was a welcomed guest for the main event.

no, that was someone else also.

Oh, I remember! I was busy escalating troop levels in Afghanistan. You know, right before I pick up my Nobel Peace Prize next week.

nope. Still not me.

Well there had to be some reason why I didn't post for 10 days but I just can't put my finger on it right now. Regardless, I will be back this weekend with a recap of our Thanksgiving holiday and my fun night at the Pioneer Woman's book signing. For now, since it is approaching 1 am and I just finished making almost 150 cake balls for the week, I'm just going to hit the sack.

WHEW!

Another Post I am Documenting for Future Therapy Sessions

2009-11-23T21:17:00.004-06:00

Avery has it in her mind that you don't wear underwear with a leotard. Up until tonight I really didn't care either way. But tonight she wore a new long sleeve pink leotard to gymnastics and when she put it on I realized I could see her little tush right through it.

Asking her to take it off and put on panties was like asking Ohio State fans to stop being jerks. That is to say, it was met with much resistance.

Oh, man. She whined. She fussed. I think there was a foot stomp. Thankfully Matt came home at about that time and offered her ice cream after gymnastics if she would just put on panties. (If you need "parenting skills" mentors, we are available.)

She agreed to the ice cream and quickly took off her leotard and put panties on. As soon as they walked into class, Avery went up to one of her friends and Matt heard her say this:

"I'm wearing panties so I can get ice cream!"

I doubt we'll be invited to a play date with that family anytime soon.

The Greatest Surprise We Ever Survived

2009-11-18T21:19:00.009-06:00

Jack is 20 months old today. That is the exact age Avery was when he was born. Just thinking about that makes my head spin a little.

I can't imagine having a newborn right now. Even if Jack was our only child, I can't imagine bringing home another baby because he is still very much a baby himself. Sure, he walks and talks to some degree (mostly just 2 word phrases and a lot of hand gestures mixed in with some sign language) but he still depends on us for almost everything. In fact, most of the time he still wants to be held--much to the displeasure of my back. When I look at him I realize just how much of a baby Avery was when he was born and it kind of blows my mind.