Bryant Family

Christmas with the Brandons

2011-01-05T20:38:00.000-08:00

On New Year's Eve we celebrated with my family. My parents had been in College Station with my sister and then came up Friday morning. Alicia, Eric, (Jack and Elly) and Becky all got there around 7 and we had an appetizer New Year's Eve party. We rang in the New Year and Dad's birthday!

Heather made this beautiful tiered serving dish from Mimi's old china. It looked perfect with truffles made by Alicia.

Our spread...We then celebrated Christmas the next morning and had JuJu's famous cinnamon rolls. Everyone loved their gifts and we were all very thankful. We started opening presents around 10 I think and finished after noon. I am so glad it worked out that we could all be together.

The kids playing with their new toys. Star Wars General Grievous with Elizabeth American Girl and Rabbit Calico Critters all playing together. I love their imaginations.

It is a tradition for mom to make Bierocks (dough stuffed with meat, cabbage, onion-yum) for Dad's birthday. Caitlyn helped out. We had dinner that night and then played Settlers of Catan. Everyone left Sunday. It was so good to have everyone here.

Caitlyn got some new pajamas with a tutu so she was dancing with her daddy.

More great memories!

Christmas in Marshall

2011-01-05T19:50:00.001-08:00

We spent Christmas in Marshall this year. Jeff's brother and sister were both there and the kids got to see all of their cousins. We went to downtown Marshall one night to see the lights (it is famous for its lights) and we went through Santa's workshop. They have a cute set up where the kids can make a train and decorate a cookie.

Caitlyn got to ride the bikes at Nana's this year. Thanks Dad! I am so disappointed though because I did not get a picture of Brandon riding one. This was his first time to be able to ride one since he learned how to ride a two-wheel bike. He loved it!

Most of the girls.

This year Madi took the lead and directed the cousins in a Christmas pageant. They were adorable. I think next time they might go for costumes and everything.

Claire maintained this state of excitement through most of the holiday season. I love her spirit!

Love this pic...Papa was able to come over for Christmas day. He enjoyed playing with the littlest girls and watching them push the buttons on the musical Christmas toys. We were glad he could be there.
We had a great time in Marshall for Christmas and look forward to the next time!

Thanksgiving

2011-01-05T19:21:00.000-08:00

We spent Thanksgiving in Borger this year and Becky, Alicia, and Eric all were able to be there. We did a lot of baking and the kids helped JuJu with cinnamon rolls-her specialty!

The guys did a lot of hunting and Jeff got a deer this year. He and Eric have been trading off who (hopefully) gets the deer each year. The kids enjoyed watching the cleaning process.

While the guys did their hunting, the girls did crafts!

All the leaves seemed to drop the second night we were there. We raked piles and piles and piles. Yes-there are trees in Borger!

We also had the privilege of getting a wild hog from Dad's lease. The guys went out and got it and we roasted it over the open Mexican fire pit outside. It was so tasty.

The kids love to ride the tractor with Dab.

Another great year of memories!

Fall Fun

2010-11-01T19:15:00.001-07:00

I told you that it would probably be Halloween before another update. Oh well-so it goes. We did a few fun things this fall so I will just put them all together. We started out in October going to the State Fair. We saw several shows and did some rides and made it to the Ferris Wheel. The kids had a lot of fun. I was surprised to see how many pictures I actually got of all 3 of the kids.

The second weekend in October my parents came down to go to my cousin's wedding. These are just some shots of that. It was really a beautiful night in the park.

The kids went to the Pumpkin Patch with Ms. Cindy on a Tuesday while I was at work. I hated to miss them there but they got some good pictures. I am glad they got to go.

Halloween Day-we had church in the park that morning and this was when we got home.

Halloween night we went to a neighbor's house and had some chili. Then we took Caitlyn around our neighborhood. She could have and wanted to keep going but Jeff took her on home and I took the other two with neighbors to a few more streets. They had a great time.

Brandon's lightsaber was a hit-a built in flashlight for his costume.

Sweet little bunny

Her favorite princess of the day. She had several costumes that she could have chosen for Halloween from dress up clothes. She had first said Snow White and then she had decided to be Tinkerbell. When she woke up from her nap, I asked her what she wanted and she chose Snow White and never thought twice after that. I think she makes a good one.

So Fall has been fun. I love fall and the weather and the fun activities. I always say it is my favorite time of year and each fall it is confirmed again.

Noteworthy

2010-09-24T16:01:00.001-07:00

Our yard was selected as Yard-of-the-Month for the month of September. It was a nice surprise! We think it is kind of funny since we weren't really "trying" for it. But, we have to admit it does bring us some pride. Thanks for taking good care of our yard Jeff! The kids are pretty proud too.

Our Summer

2010-08-22T14:02:00.000-07:00

So obviously I have not kept up with blogging this summer. Here is a brief summary of our Summer 2010. Stay tuned for a Halloween post! (I hope I do better than that.)

It started with Jeff and I preparing for our hiking trip (second annual) to Colorado. We left the 11th of June and went to Borger. We went to a wedding there and then headed up to Colorado sans children. They attended camp Juju and Dab. Jeff and I had another fabulous trip. We summited 3 peaks and came back refreshed and excited for the next time we get to go. You can see that we encountered some serious snow along the way. I was hesitant to go in the snow but I really enjoyed it.

Mt. Sherman
How we camped:

Mt. Elbert:
Mt. Massive hike:

Creek behind our campground:
Mt. La Plata:
Back at my parent's house in Borger:
The kids enjoying Juju's apricot cobbler from apricots from their backyard orchard!
Our next event was the 4th of July. We went to a pool party in the afternoon and then went to view fireworks on the side of the road in Flower Mound.

On July 9th, her half birthday, Claire got her hair cut. She had a friend who inspired her to cut her hair for Locks of Love which is an non-profit organization supporting children with medical hair loss. She waiting a long time for her hair to grow but she got the 10 inches she needed. I can't believe how long it was.

We all love it! I think she grew up 4 years right after the cut.
On July 29th, Becky, Claire, Brandon, Caitlyn and I went to the circus. They had earned "free" tickets from the summer reading program. They really enjoyed it. I had not been to a circus in a while and I have to say I was impressed. I was entertained for sure. Did you know that cotton candy is $12? Thanks for braving the crowds Aunt Becky!!

Her face much of the time!
We just finished up our summer with a trip to the beach. We went with the Bryant family to Galveston, Pointe West. We usually go to the Panama City area but with the oil spill, the risk of tar balls was fairly high. They also had tropical storm weather the week we were to go so it all worked out great. The kids loved being with cousins, we enjoyed all kinds of activities, and we always eat really well with Nana around! We will treasure these memories for many years.

Wave rider.
Boys on a mission.
Loves the water!!! She spends more time under water than above. She even braved going under in the salt water. She is a little fish.
Sweet cousins.
Jeff's catches for the week. The men were successful this year. I did not get a good picture of Darren's shark. We all loved the taste of the shark.

Fun times!

What a great family and great vacation!

Joys of Life

2010-06-04T19:13:00.000-07:00

The last couple of months have been filled with some fun times. We finished the bulk of our school work the end of April so we have had a bit more time to play. We have also had some monumental occasions take place in our family-more to come on that.

In late April we took a couple of field trips. One was to California Pizza Kitchen for a tour and to make pizzas. The other was to a tour of a traveling exhibit at the Dallas Museum of Art. The DMA has some incredible programs and we really enjoyed it. We met some new friends and discovered some activities that we want to repeat. The kids have also realized that they like to roller skate especially when there is hardly anyone there.

California Pizza Kitchen
At the Dallas Museum of Art

One of the other joys of life lately has been to watch Caitlyn grow up. She has definitely been more "2" lately but she is just full of cuteness...

Another great joy in life is to see your children grow and change and mature. I think I have seen the maturing part more in Claire lately and that is surely due to her age. I see her trying to be better at things and work hard to be a good friend, a good sister, a good daughter. She has always been one that I can motivate if I find the right carrot. She has had some obstacles that she has overcome by persevering and reaching a goal. Well, she has done it again!

Since she was 4 months old, she has been sucking her fingers. We have tried to stop it several times but she never really wanted it before and I didn't want to fight a losing battle with a habit like that. I realized that it would take her deciding it was time to see things change. In the last few months, I have seen her wanting to stop more and we have had many conversations about it including why it might be a good idea for her to continue the habit if that is what made her feel good. She did not like that idea (whew! reverse psychology worked).

The dentist had told us that she would really need to stop sucking when her front teeth were coming in. Well, that was happening. We had a dental appointment on May 17th so on April 12th (she remembers the date) we talked again about it and I encouraged her to think of a prize that would help her to stop sucking her fingers by May 17th. She had talked about getting her ears pierced for some time and we both thought that would be a great choice. Every time she looked in the mirror, she could remember what she had accomplished. So, we made a chart (she loves sticker charts) and I told her that if she did not suck her fingers until May 17th, we would go right after the dentist appointment to get her ears pierced.

Well-she did it!! She was so determined and she stuck to it and did it! I am so proud of her and she has the proof of what she accomplished.

Family is another joy of life for sure and we have such wonderful family. Hallie had a birthday recently and we were able to spend time with them and celebrate. Happy Birthday Hallie!!!!

So what is the ultimate Joy in Life? I would have to say, after knowing Christ and next to seeing the birth of your children, is to see their second birth. Claire has been a believer for a while and we greatly rejoice in that but recently she decided it was time to be baptized. She understood completely why she was being baptized and was so excited to show people that she believes in Jesus for eternal life and wants to follow Him. We are so proud of her and so thankful. Jeff got to baptize her in our pastor's pool.

We have been wanting to go camping as a family for a while and we got to go on Sunday before Memorial Day. We have more stories to tell about it another time (we had some adventures) but here are some pictures from our time together.

Jeff and I trying our hand at photography. He captured the Hawk and I the sunset.
God is so good to give us these things to enjoy.

I know I talked a lot about Claire but not to forget Brandon. He is really growing up too. He is so kind and so thoughtful. He makes me smile.
We have decided this picture needs a caption. Any thoughts?

Easter and Caitlyn's Birthday

2010-04-08T07:41:00.000-07:00

We went to Marshall this year for Easter again and celebrated Caitlyn's birthday there. Jeff's whole family was there and my parents and Becky were able to come too. (We missed you Eric and Alicia!) We had so much fun all being together celebrating the joy of Easter in Christ and the life of our sweet baby girl. The kids decorated eggs the week before we went and Caitlyn ate the eggs.

This was taken Saturday morning. There was a thick dew on everything and the light was shining through in the Bryant's backyard making everything glisten. God is so good to give us such wonderful things to see.

The kids loved being together. We had Caitlyn's party Saturday afternoon followed by an Easter egg hunt. Everyone had fun. Caitlyn was not that interested in hunting eggs. She found about 4 and then went to play in the driveway.

She had a duck birthday this year. She loves ducks and baths and bubbles and it was perfect for a Spring theme. Nana did the cake and found those cute duck candles! Happy Birthday sweet girl!

Here we go a hunting...I would rather play here, thanks!
Oh but a dollar is nice.
Easter Day-Nana and GrandBob gave her that duck for her birthday and she was attached.

What a wonderful weekend. Thanks everyone!

SNOW!

2010-02-12T15:53:00.000-08:00

I have often said that I could live in the North because I love seasons! I know, I know, I would get tired of it but if every winter here was like this one, I would NOT complain. I love it! So, this week was so fun. It started snowing Thursday morning around 3 am and did not stop until midnight last night. I think the official was 12.5 in Flower Mound-not sure but it looked like it. This was out our front door this morning (Feb 12th).

We went out after lunch yesterday and held our own Winter Olympics. We had more events planned but our snowman building took all of our energy! You should have seen us putting it together. We were proud of our Frosty.

One of my favorite things we did when we were kids and had big snows would be to make snow ice cream. We didn't want to wait too late in the day today to make it for risk of all the good snow melting. So, we, of course, had it for our breakfast dessert.

We played more outside today. The snow was perfect for snowmen, snowballs, and snowslides. Caitlyn wanted to be out there and enjoyed it but seemed to have trouble moving her feet. She would move a little and then stand and whine and say "help." She was pretty brave for a one year old though!

Funny Claire!

Claire's Birthday

2010-02-12T15:36:00.000-08:00

From January...
Claire wanted an American Girl birthday party this year. Some friends and her cousin, Madi, got to come over and bring their American Girls. Claire wanted everything to match. She really wanted this set called "Chrissa's Party Treats" for Christmas and she had plans to use them at her party. Thankfully Nana got them for her and she opened it the night before her party. I told her we could be creative if she didn't end up getting the set. She was thrilled to open it and complete the party plans. We had a lot of fun. So, here are the matching elements.

For the big girls...For the American Girls...
Here are the girls and their girls. What a sweet group!

Were you wondering what Brandon was doing? Well, his cousin, Zach got to come over and they played and played Wii. Then Brandon went to his hotel with him and they got to swim. That was a good plan for everyone! Thanks Jena and Darren!

And Caitlyn settling down...
The American Girls and their S'mores...
The Big Girls and their S'mores...
We were so thankful Madi got to come to the party! She helped us decorate and make the cake. She was a big help and it made the party even more special. Good memories!

Christmas with the Bryants

2010-02-12T15:03:00.001-08:00

We had Christmas at our house on the 8th of January with Jeff's family. Jeff's parents always make Christmas so special for everyone. Sherry works so hard to make it perfect!

Her new back pack-she loved it.
Caitlyn's new blanket-I think she likes it!

Who needs baby toys when you can borrow your cousin's light saber?

Sweet girls!

Christmas

2010-01-02T13:09:00.000-08:00

We spent Christmas in Borger this year. We were there from the 20th until the 27th. We had a semi-White Christmas as it was still on the ground from a couple of days before. The kids had a great time with their aunts and uncle, Juju and Dab, Kokomo and Tux (cats), and Elly and Jack (Alicia and Eric's dogs). We got to do a lot of baking, cooking, prepping, eating, and relaxing. It was pretty cold outside the whole week but the kids still got outside. The men went hunting several times and this year, Eric got his long-awaited deer!

There are so many more pictures I could post but I had to stop.

This was Christmas Eve. We always go to a candle light service and Mom has made it a tradition to eat a nice meal together after we get home. Of course we needed pictures before everyone changed into sweats.

Here is Caitlyn with her famous smile.

We went to visit my Grandmother and Papa one day and the kids just do not leave him alone. All of the grandkids used to give Papa a hard time and wrestle and rough play with him. It has been passed to the next generation. I guess Papa just attracts it. The kids call him "Funny Papa".

Here is THE deer. His patience paid off.

That same day, Claire was able to make some snow angels. And, Caitlyn was bundled up. She loved being outside even in the freezing weather.

Here are more from Christmas Eve.

And Christmas morning...

Luke Skywalker now lives in our house.

My girls and their babies.
I had to add this one. They got matching jammies for Christmas and they wore them the first night we got back. Sweet sisters!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. It is always fun to be with family and make memories. We are blessed! And ready to start a new year with new memories.

Brandon's Birthday

2010-01-02T12:39:00.001-08:00

Brandon turned 5 on December 8th. It is hard to believe. I know every mother says that! He got to make cupcakes with Miss Cindy on his birthday. We then had a little family party when I got home from work.

It just so happened that he is very into Hot Wheels Battle Force 5. We couldn't resist doing a 5th birthday with the Battle Force 5 theme. He had to wait 10 more days after his real birthday until his Wii party with a few friends. He had such a fun time with his friends playing Wii games! We are so thankful for Brandon and that we have been able to enjoy him for 5 years.

Watching an episode of Battle Force 5.

Odds and Ends

2010-01-02T11:45:00.000-08:00

Every now and then on a Saturday we will walk down to the donut shop and bring the donuts home. We usually have donuts and hot chocolate or chocolate milk in the summer. Maybe this will be something they remember fondly when they are older.
Caitlyn loves to smile for the camera. It is so fun to see her start smiling as soon as she sees the camera. Even at this age, she runs to see the back of the camera after each picture!

During December we spent a lot of time at Claire's friend, Katie's, church. Claire is in choir there and she was part of their Christmas program. She had a lot of fun-she really does love to sing.

Caitlyn loves to play pretend and be a momma. She loves her babies and she loves to set up her things. She plays for long periods of time in Claire's room with her dollhouse. Claire is pretty patient with the mess she makes but probably only because she knows mom will help clean it up since another party was responsible. Caitlyn loves Elmo and her "Softie" too. One day I found her showing all the pieces of the nativity to her Softie one at a time.

Claire got to go to a Gingerbread decorating party at the Lockharts. She had fun and worked hard on her house. You can also see she lost her two front teeth. This happened over the month of November. She thought it was funny how most all adults would say something about it. She finally got comfortable with the inevitable fact that she would be hearing it over and over. "All I want for Christmas..." Back in November, Claire got to take a friend to the American Girl store. She had been earning this trip for several months and we were excited that she did it! It worked out where Abigail's mom, Emily, could go too. So, it was a Girls Day out all around. (Caitlyn too!) We ate lunch and shopped and the girls had enough "credit" to get their dolls' ears pierced-yes, I said get their dolls' ears pierced! Good memories!

Thanksgiving

2010-01-01T20:11:00.001-08:00

We spent Thanksgiving in Marshall with Jeff's family. It is always fun getting the cousins together. They all enjoy each other so much. We loved getting to be with beautiful baby Ella too.

Nana and GrandBob are good at collecting ways for the kids to have fun. They have built a zip line in the back yard and now they have these battery operated dirt bikes. Brandon couldn't ride them yet but the other three older cousins couldn't get enough! They had so much fun.

He tried...

Nana was entertaining the toddlers. Hallie and Caitlyn were so cute together. They are going to build lots of fun memories. I love watching them.

Saturday night we went to downtown Marshall. They have a skating rink, lights, and Santa's workshop. We got almost all of the kids in this one. Sweet Ella was in her stroller.

Love this picture!And this one. Jeff was helping Caitlyn build her little train. Everyone who went through the workshop got to write a letter to Santa, build a train and color it, and visit with Santa. They all had a good time.
Coloring their trains...

She wasn't so sure about it but she gave it a try.

Thanksgiving was a good time. We were especially thankful to get to be with Mimi and Papa. Mimi had been ill off and on since the summer. The Tuesday after we got back from Thanksgiving, we got the call that Mimi had passed away. We all knew it would be soon but it is always hard when it actually happens. I was so thankful to get this last picture of her. This sweet smile is what I will always remember about her. Her memorial service was on the 4th of December and it was so beautiful. She was a gracious, kind, loving, and encouraging woman who has left a legacy of love in the Bryant family. We will all miss her so and will look forward to seeing her in heaven.

Fossil Rim

2009-11-21T21:47:00.000-08:00

So it has been almost two months since I have posted anything. Don't let the date fool you. I started this post in November! I am going to attempt to catch up.

Back in November, we took a trip to Fossil Rim Wildlife Center. We had been studying Africa so we thought we would go try to see some African animals. We had fun but Claire had an experience she will likely never forget. The pictures give a hint of how it happened.

Here is Claire, my map reader, in the front seat helping me identify animals and see what was next. The first animal we saw was an Ostrich. I was busy trying to get my camera ready and situate the bag of feed. We had our windows rolled down and the Ostrich started approaching rather quickly.

As you can see here, Claire was not really aware that the Ostrich was quite so close. She was trying to get some feed and throw it out the window. I should have put the camera down at this point and thrown feed out the window and drove on. But...

I didn't think fast enough (and I wanted a good picture) and before we knew it, the Ostrich was in our car! As you can see, Claire had leaned as far over as she could. She had some feed in her hand and the Ostrich reached all the way over to her hand and bit her!! So, I was screaming, Claire was screaming and we were trying to throw feed out and roll up the windows. We got settled and I was helping Claire with her hand (it was red and hurting and I didn't like the thought of the germs she had contracted) and before I knew it, she was screaming again. The Ostrich had made its way around to my side of the car and was about to reach in my window. I managed to get my window rolled up avoiding choking the aggressive beast. I think Claire handled the whole thing better than I did. We laughed after it was all over and still laugh about it.

The rest of the day was rather uneventful and peaceful. We were all disappointed though that we only saw one giraffe and he was 100+ yards away. It was a good adventure.

Halloween

2009-11-05T18:47:00.000-08:00

We have had the tradition in the past few years for my parents to come down for Halloween and my birthday. It is really fun for them to be here to see the kids dress up. Mom and Dad really got into the spirit this year-wait and see. I was impressed! The weather was perfect and the moon was almost full. We had a great weekend with Juju and Dab.

Caitlyn was doing her part to get some attention. I think she did a good job. This was earlier in the day on Halloween. My mom made Gumbo that evening before we went trick or treating. I wonder if I could convince her to make that a tradition as well.

So here we have the crew. Bumblebee Transformer, Glinda the Good Witch, and Dorothy. We had trouble keeping the crown on Caitlyn (surprise, surprise). I really thought she was going to do it but it lasted only long enough for a couple of pictures.

Caitlyn really acted like she knew what she was doing. She would trot up to the door with the big kids, hold out her hands, and trot back down holding tightly to what she just got. Every now and then she would sneak a bite of it if she could get through the wrapper. We got her a shirt that says, "I am just here for the candy" and that is the truth!

Last but not least-the "peace dudes" as the kids ended up calling them. You can't really see them but Dad had matching pants with his vest. He kept them on for the rest of the evening cause they were pretty comfy. I could not take him seriously for the rest of the night!

Hope you had a fun Halloween. Now what to do with the candy...

Light the Night

2009-10-26T16:11:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we participated in Light the Night in honor of Levi Rowland. It was exciting being there and being a part something that has made a difference in someone's life that we really care about. I didn't get many good pictures but I thought these were so cute. It was a fun night.

State Fair

2009-10-26T16:03:00.000-07:00

We went to the State Fair a couple of weeks ago. The kids had a great time and were really good. Claire's favorite part of the Fair was when they went to "Little Hands on the Farm." (A hands on activity that takes kids through the chores of farming and end up earning money to buy a treat. It was really cute.) Brandon's favorite part was when he rode the monster trucks. Caitlyn's favorite part was anytime she got to get out of the stroller.

We watched a cow milking. Can you find Claire and Brandon?

My Lego loving kids. See the intense concentration in Brandon. This was also one of their favorite activities.

Happy Fall!!

Cheeeeese!

2009-10-26T15:58:00.000-07:00

Notice a common theme here? She loves to smile for the camera. Of course we try to capture it as often as we can...

What we found

2009-10-10T12:55:00.000-07:00

Enough said!

Our Amazing Colorado Trip

2009-09-16T20:35:00.001-07:00

Jeff and I were able to go on our first get away trip ever post-children this past week. We had plans to do a 10 year anniversary trip but then I think we were about to have a baby or something. So, it never happened. A few months ago Jeff asked if I would be interested in going to Colorado to hike. Interested? Are you kidding? That is my kind of trip. We started kind of planning something but were pretty laissez faire about it until this summer. We got excited about the idea of a vacation that both challenged us and relaxed us and it all came together. My parents kept the kids and let us borrow a ton of stuff- a big thanks Mom and Dad!

We hiked 3 days and reached three 14000+ foot summits. We hiked over 25 miles, slept in the back of a truck, ate backpackers food, and even got up at 4 in the morning one day to start hiking. I would say we were challenged and it felt great!! The relaxation came easy cause we were so tired at the end of the day. It also helped that we could see every star in the sky at night.

I posted these pics in reverse chronological order but you will get the idea. There were lots more that I liked but I might try to post them to Facebook.

Arboretum

2009-08-30T12:04:00.000-07:00

A few of my favorite pictures from our outing to the Arboretum.
Did you know it is only $1 per person in August?

Marshall Visit

2009-08-05T14:51:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago we went to Marshall to spend some time with Nana and GrandBob and Jena, Darren, Madi, and Zach. Mimi was in the hospital during that time so the visit was a little different than first expected. However, the cousins had great fun and I was so glad we could see everyone. I am so thankful for such wonderful family.

Just imagine Hallie in there too!

The kids with Papa in their new place.

Some July events and pics

2009-08-05T14:34:00.000-07:00

Caitlyn in her beloved books. She loves to pull them out of the shelf and look through them over and over.

I love her sweet smile.

Looking fancy!

Claire and Brandon watching fireworks. They thought getting on top of my car was just great.

Claire singing her solo for FBC Lewisville Week of Worship program. She was so sweet and I was so proud! And, posing with Aunt Becky.

Big Cedar

2009-07-08T12:52:00.001-07:00

A couple of weeks ago we went to Big Cedar Lodge outside of Branson. We went with my family and everyone got to go. My parent's 40th Anniversary was the 27th of June so this was a great opportunity to share time with them and celebrate them. We had such a great time. There was fishing, swimming, canoeing, lazy rivering (a new word), eating, firefly hunting, playing and relaxing. We also had a photo session for my parents with a professional photographer. The week turned out to be everything we had hoped for and more. We are so thankful. And, so thankful for my parents who have shown us a beautiful example of love. Happy Anniversary!

Outdoor World

2009-06-13T05:42:00.001-07:00

A couple of weeks ago we went to Bass Pro Shop and attended their "Summer Camp". The kids got to learn about camping, hiking, fishing, archery, bird watching, and shooting. Of course, we ended the day with S'mores. They had such a fun time and did really well. I am glad we went.

"Ffshhh!"

Caitlyn at least got a Graham cracker!

These are just a couple of pictures that I liked.

Vacation pictures will be coming soon. At the rate I am going that means another month!! Hopefully sooner.

Get some popcorn and a drink...

2009-05-24T09:33:00.001-07:00

...cause this will be a bit lengthy since I haven't posted anything in over a month! Caitlyn is growing up too fast. She just wants to be doing anything that brother and sister are doing. She is walking full force now so it is a bit easier to keep up with them. She has been walking for a little while but really started using it as her preferred method a little over a week ago. Here are my computer kids.

Claire has been asking to learn to sew for a while. She is ALWAYS making and creating stuff. She loves to figure out ways to make things. I think I have shared with you her love for tape. She got about 16 roles for Christmas (yes Christmas) and she has used them all. She makes clothes for her stuffed animals out of paper and tape, she makes swings and zip lines for her dolls out of string and tape, and she makes her bed into a castle by taping on a draw bridge. So, I figured she would be natural at sewing. At first, she did not like the details of it but once she got the swing of it, she really liked the idea that she could make something. She did a great job making a dress for her Barbie, a pillow, and a sleeping bag.

In the Spring, we usually have a dove make a nest in the back yard on the arbor. But this year, they chose to make it right on top of our front door. We loved watching her build it and then sit there and wait. All of the sudden one day we saw two babies up there. The next day we saw them sitting in our front yard and attempting their first flight. It was really neat to see the whole process.

Here is one of the babies ready to try to fly. You could hear the mom cooing in the distance.

As I said, Caitlyn is walking! She is so cute. She concentrates and gets right back up when she falls. I love watching her toddle around.

This is the Wii remote-I don't know-she thought it helped her I guess.

Notice the common theme in the next couple of pictures...

One of her first words was DORA!

Here is one of my favorite pictures.
Happy Mother's Day! Very late.

A beautiful weekend

2009-04-16T12:54:00.000-07:00

Caitlyn turned One on April 9th! It seems like yesterday that I was going to the hospital. Yes, it does go faster with the third. The above picture I took in March and sent it for her birthday invitations. I have always wanted a Spring baby and it has been so fun having her birthday along with Easter. Here she is at a little playgroup party looking so big.

My parents came in on Thursday, the 9th, and then traveled with us to Jeff's parents for the weekend. My dad was reading to Caitlyn and she was listening intently. Is that what he wanted me to do when he was explaining something to me? Good girl-you make Dab proud!

Mom was reading Dr. Suess's Happy Birthday Baby book to Caitlyn (and the other kids of course!). Mom and Dad got that for her for her birthday.

So Friday we headed to Marshall to Jeff's parents and on Saturday we celebrated Caitlyn's birthday and had an Easter Egg Hunt. The guys stayed busy putting in a zip line in Nana's backyard! That was quite entertaining. Nana's house is a fun place to be!!! My parents, my sisters and brother-in-law, Jeff's sister and brother and their families, and Jeff's grandparents were all able to be together. The weather was so nice on Saturday. It was such a wonderful day. It was one of those days where you are just feel the love of God through His blessings. I am so thankful for this time with all of my beautiful family especially on my Caitlyn's First Birthday and the celebration of
new life on Easter!

the cousins

sweet Hallie
and now the cake series...My Dad took a lot of these pictures-the good ones are his so I cannot take all the credit.

All Done! Notice the piece of cake flying down beside the tray?

the Paparazzi

the boys-they caught a lizard

the girls-they matched
and getting ready for the hunt

the golden egg!

My sweet girl with her sweet grandmothers...

And the kids with their grandparents. What a blessing!

Happy First Birthday Caitlyn! You are a joy to all of us and we are so thankful for you. We cannot wait to see you grow and see what God has in store for you.
Happy Easter! How great is our God!

More Spring!

2009-04-06T20:11:00.000-07:00

Each year in the Spring I like to get the kids' pictures in the Bluebonnets. I guess this is a tradition now. I make a point to do it because I didn't grow up where there were any so I want the kids to remember that they lived where they had these beautiful flowers. So, if we live here until they are out of our house, we will have a lot of Bluebonnet pictures! I really didn't just want to drag them to take pictures so we scheduled a "Fun Day." Hopefully this can become the tradition! We went to the bluebonnet field and then had a picnic at the Grapevine Arboretum and then went to get ice cream. They had fun even though the weather was not quite what we had hoped it would be.

Fun with Hampers

2009-04-06T20:05:00.001-07:00

Who knew a clothes hamper could be so much fun?!

Spring!

2009-03-28T21:02:00.001-07:00

Spring is always a fun time. I love seeing the flowers bloom and tulips emerge. This year it is even more fun since Caitlyn is almost one. She is at such a fun age. She loves getting in this chair and standing up (we encourage more sitting than standing). She just gets so proud.

We borrowed a jumper from Ruth and Caitlyn has loved it so much. She hangs out it in while I cook dinner. She figured out how to push the button on the fridge toy to make it play music and then she dances.

She recently figured out how to open the bottom drawer of our storage unit in the play room. I was dreading the day. She pulled out enough stuff to make a nice little place for her to sit. She actually played very nicely in there while the other kids and I did school. Hopefully she will forget that she can do this!

Another favorite part of Spring is our beautiful Wisteria blooming. I look forward to it every year and it never disappoints. I had to share the beauty of it.

Jeff's Birthday is also the First Day of Spring. Claire thought this was just great. She loves birthdays, parties, presents, etc. She is my party girl. So, she wrapped up about 4-5 things for Jeff. They were actually very thoughtful things that she shared with him. Claire also has a love for tape. She uses it in the most creative and resourceful ways. I even gave her several roles of it for Christmas and she has used almost all of it. So, she loved wrapping presents for Daddy!

I needed a picture of Brandon.

Claire's story

2009-03-09T08:50:00.000-07:00

Claire recently wrote a story. I am so proud of her. It is definitely cuter to see it in her handwriting but this is what she wrote with punctuation and capitalization and all:

Once upon a time there was a Little Girl Who Love Eating apples and one Day her tooth came out. She showed her Mom and her mom said Poot it under you'er pillow so she did and the most umasing thing hapend wen she wok up. She got a doller. the-End

11 Months Old

2009-03-09T07:59:00.000-07:00

11 Months old
This photo session was a lot like last month. No more sitting still. She is so full of life.

You can kind of see her top right tooth in this picture. Her other top one is coming too.

Good pose Caitlyn!

Caitlyn is doing lots of fun things. She is clapping-she puts her whole arms into it. She has the cutest little laugh. She is getting really stable on her feet and is cruising everywhere. I won't try to predict when she will walk cause you just never know what they will do. I thought Claire would walk early since she was cruising at 7 months but she didn't walk until 13 months. Caitlyn is understanding so much. She knows what "no" means but she will smile and keep on doing it. Oh boy!! She loves playing with the kids. If she hears them laughing, she will start her cute little laugh. She is still eating and sleeping really well. She sleeps 12 hours at night and then a 2-3 hour nap in the afternoon. It is early to be dropping her morning nap but I like the long nap in the afternoon. Hopefully she will continue that for a while. She is in to everything. We are learning to close doors around here. She is such a little blessing.

As I am typing this, this is what Caitlyn is accomplishing...

She is being nice to help put them all back in though. Well, maybe not all. Thanks Caitlyn!

Assorted Fun Times

2009-03-06T08:56:00.000-08:00

When Eric and Alicia came, they brought their dog, Jack. Brandon loves Jack! He loves Eric too but he had a lot of fun with Jack. It really made me think how much he needs a dog. Maybe not now but someday-especially if he has no brother.

Can you see Jack? Caitlyn actually got a little scared of him. "Let's keep this door between us." I guess that is understandable!

Relaxing with Daddy.

Fun times with Daddy. She loves her Daddy! She has gotten to where she will yell "Da Da" if we leave him and go in another room.

Caitlyn loves outside! She joined us working in the yard last weekend in the breezy cold. She didn't seem to mind it.

Valentine Weekend

2009-02-22T08:54:00.000-08:00

My parents came last weekend. We hadn't seen them since the beginning of December so we were all overdue for a visit. The kids started out the weekend with a Wii tournament. Claire is quite the bowler-she gave my mom some good competition.

Becky and Dad had book duty simultaneously-that was interesting!

Knowing about his new found interest in boxing, Mom and Dad brought Brandon some Sponge Bob boxing gloves. They were a "hit"!

Cutie Patootie and she knows it!

I'm a big kid too!

On Sunday night we decided to go to Rain Forest Cafe'. The last time we went there, Claire was 3 and Brandon was 1. Claire cried almost the whole time because of the thunder and loud animals. When we talked about going again, she said she was ready and would be brave. She was! Brandon said,"I wish we had not come here" when we first set down but then he had a blast.

All Done!

We got the infamous VOLCANOOOO! which is a brownie sundae with a sparkler sticking out of it. They make a huge production of it when you order one. It was fun. The kids were impressed.

It was a really fun weekend. Becky came up too. Alicia and Eric couldn't make it but we got to see them Friday night of this week and they should be back this week.
We also made a trip to Marshall a couple of weekends ago to celebrate Sherry's 60th Birthday!! We went to the boardwalk in Shreveport and had a late lunch/early dinner with everyone. But, I left my camera in the car so I had no pictures of the weekend to post. I was so glad we could be together with everyone!
So, I am thankful that we have been able to spend time with family. Such a blessing!

Boxing Brandon

2009-02-11T08:31:00.000-08:00

Brandon has been really into boxing lately. He has been playing it on the Wii and is actually really good at it. He has some mittens that are really puffy and black so he has been wearing those around and boxing everything. I finally had to make a rule that he had to say "may I box you Mom?" so I could at least have some warning. He asked me if he could take a boxing class. For a while, "I'll box it!" was his answer to everything.

10 months old

2009-02-11T07:35:00.001-08:00

10 months old
This month's picture was a bit more challenging than the past.
Sitting still-what is that? Here is how it went...

Let's try again...

Ok-we'll try a book.
Oh good-sitting still but please look at me. Oh well-that is cute too!

Caitlyn is growing in to quite an active and curious little girl. She has always been very laid back and continues to be in many ways but I am starting to understand the thought dichotomy of her activity in the womb relative to her relaxed ways. Her current state is matching quite nicely with that very active state in the womb. I look forward to seeing her continue to bloom and grow. She is content, resiliant (I cannot count how many times she gets hurt in a day with minimal crying!), spirited, and fun-loving.
She is pulling up and has been attempting to push her push-toy around. She is eating really well-lots of table food. She is saying "mamama" now and sometimes I think she is saying it to me but it is probably wishful thinking. She loves music and loves her Leap Frog Tad toy that sings. She is a joy and a blessing to all of us!

SuperBowl FunDay and My Little Mess

2009-02-09T13:12:00.000-08:00

Yes-this is much delayed...

Last weekend on SuperBowl Sunday, Aunt Becky took the kids to see a movie, Hotel for Dogs. They had so much fun going by themselves and getting a kids snack pack. They loved the movie and came home deciding how to make all of the cool gadgets they saw in the movie. What good memories for them!

Claire put together this outfit. I thought it was so cute. Can you say Punky Brewster?

The kids got to have a little picnic in the living room for the Super Bowl. Claire loves football so they both actually enjoyed watching it. They were so excited that their dinner consisted of chips, salsa, and cheese puffs. (I had to add a banana and carrots in there at least!)

Caitlyn is my little eater! She loves to eat and has liked everything I put in front of her. Here she is enjoying raspberries. The other night she ate a whole sweet potato, 5 spears of broccoli, and about a 1inch piece of salmon!!

She is also my little explorer. She reached her goal of getting on top of the dishwasher the other night.

She is 10 months old today. I'll try to get a picture posted soon.

9 Months Old

2009-01-15T20:40:00.001-08:00

9 Month Picture

Claire jumped into the photo session this time. Claire has come up with a nick name for Caitlyn and I don't know where it came from but it has stuck. Jeff and I are even starting to say it, reluctantly however. Not sure of the spelling but just imagine Claire running up to Caitlyn and yelling, "Cuchanabee." Pronounced (Coo chah nuh bee)

She is pulling up on everything now. She pulls up and just stands there for a very long time. She is still a bit nervous to get down but she is content to stand and stand.

I love this picture.

She has been sick this past week so she hasn't been quite herself but still not very fussy. We went to the doctor on Monday for her well check and she is in the 90% for height-I am really surprised about that. She is 18 lbs 1.5 oz and in the 25-50% for weight. Again-I am surprised-she has the fattest little legs. She does seem to be slimming up a bit now that she is standing so much. She is eating well and is feeding herself quite a bit of finger food. She is babbling a lot more all of the sudden and saying "Dadada" all the time. When is "mama" coming? I will even take "mamama". She is a sweety. She continues to make us think that she is a patient and content person. Will that continue? Maybe until she realizes that she can manipulate different responses from those around her. :) I'll cherish it while it lasts if that is the case.

6 Years Old

2009-01-11T12:14:00.000-08:00

We had Claire's 6 year old birthday party Friday night. We had seven girls here total and we had so much fun! It was "Island Princess" theme and the girls helped get ready for the "royal ball". They loved blowing up balloons, decorating with streamers, and decorating the cake. The cake was perfect! We then got all the girls dressed up and did make up and hair. Aunt Becky came to help, thankfully. After they were all fancied up, they set down to tomato basil soup, sandwiches, and fruit and were adorable. I was brave enough to get out the china and why not? They did great and used good manners. We had the cake, did a pinata, and opened presents. I loved having these girls here. I feel so blessed that Claire has such special girl friends. Nana and GrandBob were able to come too. I think Claire had a memorable 6 year old party experience.

The beautiful cake!

Sittin' pretty at dinner

Claire with the homemade pinata.

My 6 year old!

Happy New Year!!

2009-01-03T10:51:00.001-08:00

On New Year's Eve, Jeff and I stayed in and he made the most delicious dinner. He planned the menu, got the recipes he wanted, went to the store, and prepared the meal. He also got a cocktail shaker for Christmas so we tried it out. He spoiled me. I am thankful for this man that I have been married to for 11 years today!!

Here he is boiling the lobster tail.

And grilling...oh and he had already grilled a lemon for the Grilled Lemon Mayonnaise for dipping the artichokes. Yes-he made Mayonnaise from scratch!!

The menu:
Shrimp Cocktail
(with homemade cocktail sauce and the shrimp boiled in a lemon-pepper brine)
Grilled Lobster Tail
Grilled Artichokes with Grilled Lemon Mayonnaise and Goat Cheese
T-Bone steak
Cocktails

Let me know if you want any of the recipes.

Christmas in Marshall

2009-01-01T19:02:00.000-08:00

Here are some pictures of our time in Marshall with Jeff's family. We had a great time being with everyone. The kids had so much fun with the cousins! I asked Claire what her favorite thing was that she got for Christmas and she said "my cousins!" On Christmas Eve, Sherry read the Christmas story using a special book where you open up boxes and the last box is a mirror-"what God wants for Christmas is you." The kids have fun doing this. We then start opeing presents and keep opening. Sherry amazes me at how she finds everything on our wish lists and more. She works so hard for us! Before we open presents we have an appetizer dinner with shrimp and ribs and dips and all kinds of yummy stuff. I love this tradition.

I love this picture of the girls.

Mimi and Papa were able to be there. Papa was dressed to the Hilt.

Sweet Cousin Hallie!

The kids made this for Jeff for Christmas. They were so proud. Claire gets so excited to see what other people open. I really hope she keeps that spirit.

This year we got pictures of all of the cousins together for Bob and Sherry. We did it back in October and we actually kept it a secret until Christmas Eve. Good job Madi and Zach and Claire and Brandon! Sherry was trying to plan to get a good picture of the all of the kids on Christmas Eve day and she couldn't understand why Heather and Jena and I were all so relaxed about getting that picture. We were so glad it worked out for us to do this for them.

Hallie and Heather

The babies and their toys from the Busbys. They loved them!

All of the kids were sooo good with the babies all weekend.

GrandBob's Bunch

The Kiddie Table

Listening to Madi's new MP3 player.

Caitlyn and Hallie with their new dollies.
I regret that I did not get a better picture of the 2 of them. I love that they are so close in age.

Stocking time! Sherry always stuffs our stockings full of fun things. Yes-the adults too. We all look forward to what will be in our stockings.

The kids made a Gingerbread Santa and Sleigh with Aunt Jena. She is so good with kids. I am continually inspired and impressed by her. We also made a gingerbread house. That was a little messy but it turned out cute. Brandon could not stop licking everything. He has trouble with controlling himself in times like these. It was really fun seeing the kids being creative.

Madi got a cupcake maker for Christmas so we had to try it out. The cupcakes came out pretty good but it was a lot of effort for 2 cupcakes! ;)

The cousins had a slumber party at Nana's. They had on matching jammies and all.
We are so thankful for our good memories made once again with Nana and GrandBob!

Christmas in College Station

2008-12-24T07:13:00.000-08:00

Here are some pictures of our fun time in College Station for Alicia's graduation and Christmas with my family. We have a tradition of decorating Christmas cookies. It was fun being in Alicia's kitchen with the kids and my mom. We are so thankful for our wonderful families!

8 months old

2008-12-16T19:22:00.000-08:00

Yes-she is already 8 months old!! You would think that I would be used to it going so quickly by now but I am not. She changes so much everyday. She is crawling everywhere and is so expressive. She is pulling up to her knees on everything. We have had some boo-boos but that comes with the territory.

She gets so excited when she sees familiar faces-she kicks and smiles and squeals. It makes me feel so loved. She is waving now and she seems to be saying hi sometimes. She is a social little girl. She is starting to realize that she does not want to be alone. She loves her brother and sister so much and they love her. She just lights up when they come in the room. Claire wants nothing but the best for her and just loves her so much. Brandon loves her so much that he has trouble controlling himself. I can see his restraint but sometimes he just can't resist and just hits her. I truly believe it is all in love. I remember feeling that way about Alicia when she was little-I just wanted to bite her!!

Christmas is going to be so fun with her. Of course, she just loves to eat the bows and paper. I was concerned about having the Christmas decorations out but she has done well with it. We had Christmas with my family this past weekend at Alicia and Eric's house. Alicia graduated on Friday so we went for that and then stayed the weekend. We had a great time being together. I will try to post some pictures soon.

Christmas Advent

2008-12-04T21:44:00.000-08:00

Christmas Advent, December 1st, on a Monday, a perfect way to start the Christmas holidays, right? Well, my plans to finish decorating and unpacking and work with the kids doing something related to the holiday beginnings, etc., etc., etc., did not go as planned. We got home from Borger Sunday evening and everything seemed fine. Claire woke up at 2:30 and said her stomach hurt so I gave her some TUMS and she went back to bed. She woke up again at 4:30 saying that she was hurting. She had a similar pain back in May after we had traveled to Borger and we took her into the ER and she ended up having really bad gas and constipation but we thought for sure it was appendicitis. So, trying to avoid an ER visit, I gave her some gas relief drops and some M-o-M. About 10 minutes later I heard her throwing up. Hmmm-that was different than before.

She fell back asleep after that though and slept til about 8:00. She said she was still hurting (she rated her pain at a 5) and didn't look too good. She was running a low grade fever. She ate some fruit and drank some water and I thought she was doing better. I called the doctor because I wanted to check to see if I should give her more M-o-M or what direction I should take with her. I talked to the nurse at about 10:30 and she said they should probably see her for the symptoms that I named.

We went in at 11:15 and Claire was probably at her worst when we got there. She wouldn't move the bowl away from her because she was so nauseated. The doctor checked her urine and when Claire was walking to the bathroom, she was barely shuffling her feet. The doctor asked if that is how she had been moving all day. I said it was and he said, "that is very worrisome." After he said her urine was clear, I knew we would be heading to the hospital. He did an exam on her and then said he was going to call a surgeon that he really likes (he would take his own daughter to him) at Cook Children's and we needed to head over. So, I scooped up Claire, went home and got a few things (not anything to stay overnight cause I thought it would work out for Jeff to come up later) and we headed for Fort Worth. Claire slept the whole way.

We got there and they were expecting us and we went right back. But, we waited a very long time for an Ultrasound room to open up. When we finally did get the ultrasound, things moved quickly. The radiologist saw an area on Claire's sono that looked problematic. The surgeon said they thought there might be a mass somewhere near the ovaries and they needed to do laparscopic exploratory surgery. They said the appendix looked fine. So they began prepping her for surgery. The nurses were so great with her and she did not even whimper when they did the IV. Later I asked her if she didn't cry cause she couldn't feel it for the numbing cream and she said, "no, I could feel it but I was being brave."

We then went up to surgery and she went in at about 6:00 and they called me at 6:30 that they were starting. By the way, Jeff was at home with the other kids. He decided to work from home because I had not felt good the night before and then Claire had been sick. I was thankful for how it worked out. So, Claire was in there until about 8:00. They said it was going to be an hour so you can imagine how I felt when 7:30 rolled around and no call. I was calling Jeff every 30 minutes to update him. My cell phone had died during all of this so I was hovering around the hospital phones. The surgeon came out around 8:00 and showed me pictures of her abdomen. It was fascinating. I could see the inflammation and the infection. I really want to get a copy of those pictures. He explained that there wasn't any mass-praise the LORD-but there was peritonits, an infection of the peritoneum. He said he thought that it was primary peritonitis meaning that it was not caused by anything else like a perforated colon, etc. He said it was either viral or bacterial peritonitis and they would begin treatment with antibiotics and culture the fluid that they harvested. If the culture did not grow anything then they would discontinue the antibiotics. I thought he was going to say he would keep her overnight and then send her home in the morning. But, he said he wanted to keep her 2 more days! Jeff told me later after his research that bacterial peritonitis is very serious. The 2-day stay made more sense after that. They also went ahead and removed the appendix because it was inflammed. It was not the cause of any of this but now we won't ever have to wonder again.

A little while later they called and said I could meet Claire in the hall. I was so happy to see her. Her face was puffy and flushed and her mouth looked to be in a permanent frown. She kept saying she was so sleepy. We got settled in her room and she fell right to sleep. She woke up a couple of hours later and stayed up until 1:00 am. She loved watching movies all day and fell asleep watching another one. I stayed the night and Jeff would come the next day to stay with her a while so I could go home and get a few things. Jeff's parents came to visit and help with the other kids too. The hospital staff was really great and she continued to progress very well. She really worked hard to do things by herself. I enjoyed watching her challenge herself to do things on her own. She wanted to get out of the bed by herself and try to go to the bathroom alone. She also refused pain med the second day. She is a strong little girl!

But, I could tell she was feeling better when she started crying about things. She had not cried at all when she was feeling badly but when she had the energy to want her way, she made it known. I do wonder all of the thoughts that went through her head. It was probably hard for her to understand what she was going through and hard for her to understand why she was getting so much attention. I was talking to Becky on the phone and said "she loves watching movies and eating popsicles," and Claire said,"and getting presents!" We were showered with so much love and support. Her gifts in the hospital really did cheer her up-it actually works! She had a good experience there and was able to do some neat things. So, we stayed in the hospital Tuesday and Wednesday and after the doctor saw her on Wednesday, he said she could go home-no bacteria grew and we could stop the antibiotics. She went home on no medication.

We got home Wednesday night and she has improved steadily. She is eating better each meal and seems to have good energy. She still favors her stomach and is really sensitive to people touching her. But overall she is very good! So, my plans for Christmas Advent fell through and I am so glad they did. I am thankful that I had this turn in the road of normal life. These times always cause us to stop and think about who we love and who loves us. I will never know why this happened but one theory I have is that God just wanted to show us His love. He protected our daughter and reminded us of all the blessings in our life. We experienced the power of prayer and community. I was able to learn more about my daughter. I was reminded of what is important yet again. We are so thankful for all of the prayers, calls, emails, gifts, and love and support from all of our friends and family. We love you all. We know the network of prayer extended wide. God is good and He showed us His goodness this Christmas Advent in an unlikely way.

Such a Sweet Face

2008-11-20T15:24:00.000-08:00

Storage Unit by David

2008-11-19T19:24:00.000-08:00

Here is the assembly and final product of the storage unit that my wonderful dad has worked many long hours building for me. They brought the rest of it Halloween weekend. The plans for this started about 18 months ago or more before Caitlyn was even conceived. I had been looking around at furniture stores for something for the playroom/schoolroom that could accommodate crafts, school stuff, sewing stuff, etc. since most of that was in the guest room closet which would be transformed to Claire's room when a 3rd child came. I like everything in one place too. So, I looked at many furniture stores and nothing was fitting my desires. Yes, you can call me picky. So, I asked Dad if he would/could build something for me. And he graciously and lovingly said he would. He asked me to draw up the plans and he would begin work when he could. He can give a better time line of how it all went but I told him when and if I got pregnant, that would give him nine months to a deadline. So, I believe he started it around when we told him I was pregnant with Caitlyn. Now, in the meantime, Alicia got engaged and announced to my parents that she wanted to have the wedding at their house. So begins Dad's balancing of "equal time projects" between his daughters. Becky is still wondering where her equal time project is. :) But, as always, my dad managed to do an incredible job on both projects and both daughters are very pleased. I am so thankful for the many long hours he put into this. He researched new techniques, bought new tools (I don't think he was too upset about that), sanded and stained, and dreamed about it all many nights I am sure. I also am thankful for my mom's work on it-she is always such a good helper to dad. This unit fits my needs perfectly and has made organization much easier. I love it, love it, love it and look forward to using it for the rest of my life!

Six Flags Fun

2008-11-19T19:01:00.001-08:00

We went to Six Flags on Sunday and Becky went with us. This summer Claire earned going by reading a certain amount of books. We didn't end up going this summer cause time just got a way from us and really it was too hot and Caitlyn was still so little. So, we kept putting it off. I started thinking how nice it would be to go when it was cooler. Becky had 3 free tickets that she got from her school and they expired December 31st so our goal was to go before then. A few weeks ago we decided to go on November 16th and set the date with Becky. Then, the next week, Citigroup announced that they were having employee appreciation day at Six Flags and the park would be closed to the public and tickets would be at a discounted rate on November 16th!! What a deal! It worked out perfectly and the weather was beautiful. The kids got to ride a lot of rides cause the lines were not that long. Brandon and Claire were interested in finding all "6 flags." Brandon rode the Mine Train-not just the Mini Mine Train, the Mine Train. He was not so sure about that when he got off but he wanted to do it. Jeff rode the Titan and he said he was just glad I didn't ride it. My favorite coaster used to be the Judge Roy Scream and I would ride it over and over. Jeff and I went on it and "what was I thinking?" My head hurt so bad after that. Anyway-it was a fun day and we are glad we went, but free and discounted tickets are the way to go!

Yay Caitlyn!

Oh yes and Caitlyn is officially crawling! Here she is so proud that she made it to her toy basket.

Halloween continued

2008-11-12T14:00:00.001-08:00

Here are some additional Halloween pictures that my Dad took...It is always an accomplishment to get the whole family in a picture.

I cannot promise that this is the last of the Halloween posts. I haven't seen the whole CD of pics from my Dad yet :)

7 months old

2008-11-12T12:45:00.000-08:00

Here is sweet Caitlyn at 7 months old already. She is crawling in very short distances but enough to get to things that she shouldn't have. Before I was a mom, I thought that one day kids just got up and crawled and then they just got up and walked. I have not found that to be the case with my kids, thankfully. All of them have given me warning that a new day is coming. Caitlyn has given me the longest warning periods however. Is that God's grace with 3 kids and a busy schedule? Or is it Caitlyn? Probably both and I am thankful for both. So, I need to get on the ball and get things better baby-proofed and vacuumed and swept thoroughly. I know, I know-I cannot keep it clean all the time but I guess I can do an initial cleaning. You just start to realize all the little things that they find and put in their mouths. She is also eating cereal 2 times a day and having all kinds of veggies. I am trying something a little different with her and plan to wait on the fruits a little while longer just to see if it helps her to like veggies a bit more. She is also going from crawling position to sitting position and vice versa-she was so proud the first time she did that. She is still having about 4 bottles a day. Three that are 7 ounces and one that is about 4 ounces. I am still pumping but not as much as before. My goal was to make it to 6 months and I am so thankful that we made it. I plan to keep going as long as I can. That is one thing I am going to have to figure out with her added mobility. She loves the pump-she always goes for it and pulls on all the cords. I guess I will have to elevate it until she starts pulling up! She is such a blessing. We have been forever trying to get a nick name for her. With the other two, Jeff just started calling them these names and they stuck but we haven't found one for Caitlyn until this past week. I call her "Fancy" every now and then and Jeff heard me and he liked it. So we have been calling her that a lot lately. I don't have any idea where it came from but it might be "the one".

Fancy and her brother. Brandon wanted to jump in the picture too. He is such a sweet brother.
This one was taken the other night when they had on matching jammies.

Halloween finally

2008-11-10T20:29:00.001-08:00

My Little Ladybug

Here are some Halloween pictures. My Dad took some more so I will probably be posting more in the future (if there are some really good ones I cannot resist!)

This is the best one I got of Batman and Poodle. Claire loved her costume. She helped me make it-it was a lot of fun. Her friend Katie was a cat so you can imagine the fun they had with that.
The troops!

Yes-JuJu and Caitlyn. I was impressed JuJu put this together very last minute. While we were getting ready, Brandon came into my bathroom and said "JuJu finally decided what she was going to be." And, I came out and there she was. Claire had trouble with the blacked-out tooth thing.

Prom Queen, Alicia, and Gas Station Attendant, Dad. Jeff wore that shirt when he worked at Texaco in High School. It said "Aggie" on it so it was the spirit of the moment that got University of Texas Dad to wear it. He wore an Aggie cap too! And that is my senior prom dress!

A perfect match. It was so fun having Uncle Eric and Aunt Al here for Halloween this year. I didn't get a picture of Jeff but he dressed as Indiana Jones. We had this big bag of costumes in the attic and we just all dug around in it for something to wear. We were supposed to meet at 7:00 to go trick-or treating and we were sorting through costumes at 6:30! It was a fun night. We missed Becky though-she had to be at a football game.

What a Thoughtful Girl!

2008-11-08T09:58:00.000-08:00

That is one word that definitely describes Claire. She really is thoughtful. She has always been very observant and notices details and remembers them. (A lot like Becky) One way she shows her thoughtfulness is by picking out books that the bedtime reader (aka JuJu, Becky, Alicia or Eric, Dad, Nana) would enjoy. One of Becky's favorites to read is the Cat and the Hat so Claire usually picks that one when Becky is over. Another way her thoughtfulness has been revealed is with Halloween candy. She has been giving everyone their favorites. Her friend Avery told her that she liked Hersheys so every Hersheys that Claire found, she would set aside and take it to Avery next door. She asked Jeff his favorite. So, every Kit Kat she finds goes straight to Dad. And, I get all her Snickers! She just brought me another. It is really sweet and she loves to see how happy it makes the recipient. Send me a list of your favorites and maybe she'll save you one. :) Oooh-that is a good way to get rid of all this candy.

Halloween Pics coming soon...

2008-11-07T17:23:00.002-08:00

I know I need to post pictures of my Caitlyn's first Halloween. There are 2 setbacks. First, I haven't downloaded my pictures yet and then our hard drive crashed on our main computer that holds pictures. No-thankfully we did not lose any pictures. That has happened before and we learned our lesson and back up frequently now. However, Jeff is working on our computer so I cannot store any pictures on there. Secondly, my Dad is my trusty photographer when he is here and I forgot to get pictures from his camera. So, stay tuned to see the Poodle, Batman, and Ladybug. My parents were here and the kids had a great time trick-or-treating. We also went with our neighbors and Claire had so much fun with her friends Katie and Avery. She thought is was quite a treat to be with them on Halloween. The dads took the troops to 2! neighborhoods. We feel so blessed to live where we do and have such great neighbors!

My parents also brought the rest of my storage unit. Those pics are coming soon too. I LOVE it!! It is amazing and so well done. My Dad rocks, is the bomb, is the best, is awesome whatever you want to say to describe him. He did such a great job and I am eternally thankful.

Pumpkin Patch

2008-10-22T19:28:00.000-07:00

We went to the Pumpkin Patch today with our playgroup friends. The Farlins were in town so we got together there. I (and the kids) always love it. We had some adventures- Brandon got stung by a bee. That was a first. I told him that that doesn't happen to everyone so he should feel special. He screamed and cried when it happened but then we put a wet wipe on it and he was fine. And, Claire hurt her back in the bounce house doing a somersault. She was really hurting for a while but she wasn't hurting bad enough to go to the ER. :) She finally perked up and starting playing again. Caitlyn didn't get hurt today. Yay!
We got a couple of good pictures. I am glad Caitlyn is sitting up better now. She still was leaning a bit and loved the hay. She always wanted to get the hay!

The Chipmunk Adventure!!
I had trouble getting all 3 in a picture today-oh well-they had fun!

I can snap and whistle and ride my bike...

2008-10-22T19:14:00.000-07:00

We were at our friend's house on Monday and Caden, who is 5, had learned to ride his "2 wheel bike". Claire was watching him and couldn't believe it. She asked Caden if she could try his bike and she started working and working at it. I was talking to Jenny and all of the sudden she said, "look at Claire." She was riding Caden's bike without training wheels! When she sets her mind to something...Wow! It was really neat to see her succeed and be so proud. We had taken her bike over to Caden's that day so then decided it was time to take her training wheels off (the ones that she had put on by herself). So we took them off and she continued to practice and do great. She has been so excited to ride ever since. Dad was especially proud and certainly surprised.

Mother of the Year

2008-10-20T08:29:00.000-07:00

On Friday, we were in the kitchen and I was holding Caitlyn. I had the crock pot going and I was helping the kids with some cupcakes. I didn't realize that Caitlyn's hand was resting on the outside of the hot crockpot! Yes-she did get burned and she cried like I had never heard her cry before. I put ice on it and thought that was all I needed to do and I would go get some Tylenol and burn ointment at the pharmacy. Well, when I went to the pharmacy, they said-"no, you need to call your doctor about this." So, I called the doctor and they said, "no, you need to come in." So, I took her in and they gave me some Silvadene and some dressing/wrapping materials. I didn't think about how they would do it but they had to wrap up her entire hand. I put a sock on it when I got home so she has a little club hand. It took some getting used to for her and she still hits it repetitively on things to check it out I guess. I feel terrible for her because I know she is in pain. She has cried more the last couple of days than in the last couple of months it seems. She is also teething and has some allergies so she is miserable. But despite all of this, she is still as sweet as can be. I felt awful when it happened and continued to feel so irresponsible and careless. I know these things happen but it makes me realize how quickly accidents can happen. I am thankful that this was not something worse. I get over my guilt until I unwrap her club and see the burn again. Poor sweet thing! So, that is why I get Mother of the Year award!

You can see her little club hand-she can't hold her bottle by herself for very long. She tries though. Aunt Becky was helping her.

She got to enjoy the nice weather in the swing. Claire was making her smile as usual.

Alicia and Eric came for a visit this weekend. Alicia had not really had a chance to bond with Caitlyn since the last couple of times she has seen her Alicia has had some big things on her mind (the wedding and after her wreck). They had fun together and got some good bonding time. It was great to have Alicia and Eric in our home. Becky got to come over for a while too. I am so thankful for my incredible family.
Here is Caitlyn's trick. She is so close to crawling but she just can't get her arms going.

6 months old

2008-10-13T12:57:00.000-07:00

Here is her 6 month picture. Caitlyn continues to be our laid back, sweet, compliant child. I love seeing the differences in my children and wouldn't trade any of their traits for anything! Some days I think I want to but when I really think about it-there is no way. And yes, I am thinking about Claire, but her drive is amazing and is going to take her some place very special one day and has already. I just pray that I can encourage her in the right direction. Now back to Caitlyn. She sleeps well (12 hours at night) and is content most of the time. She has started fussing when she loses a toy or if someone takes one away for some reason (who would do that?) She has been getting up on her knees and really wants to move but she cannot get those arms going. Her trick is to get on her knees and then extend to her toes. I need to take a picture of it-it is pretty cute. Claire always says, "I cannot believe a 5 month old can do that!" She weighs 15 lbs 9 ozs and is 26 1/2 inches long. She is in less than 50% for weight and 75% for height.

My sweet little girl! Claire begged me to put Caitlyn in her stroller. I decided it wouldn't hurt. Isn't it every little girl's dream to have a real, live baby doll? I remember doing this with my cats when I was that age. I remember putting Alicia in my doll crib too! They went for a little walk around the house and had fun. Caitlyn seemed to enjoy it.

We started cereal last week. As you can see, it was not her favorite thing. Most of it ended up out of her mouth. We'll keep practicing. We will probably start some green beans or peas this week too. Can't wait!

When I grow up...

2008-10-06T09:53:00.000-07:00

We have been talking about community and community workers for school. Today we talked about what the kids could be when they grow up. I love what they said.
Claire:
When I grow up I could be a doctor. I could help people who are sick. I would like being a doctor because I could give shots, listen to your heart, and take your blood pressure. It might be hard to be a doctor because I would have to work, but this would be a good job because I could take care of people.

Brandon:
When I grow up I could be a race car driver. I could help drive. I would like being a race car driver because I could love to drive, choose which car I want, and have a car with a lot of buttons that could transform and a button that puts out a sword to fight mean guys and mean robots. It might be hard to be a race car driver because I might crash, but this would be a good job because I could drive around in the race.

I can snap and whistle

2008-10-05T11:58:00.000-07:00

Claire has been trying to learn to snap and whistle since this summer. Her cousin Madi worked with her a long time on vacation on snapping and she got it. She has been a snapper ever since. However, whistling has been more of a challenge and she has had several tutorials with several people. Uncle Eric gave her her most progressive lesson this summer and she has been practicing but just couldn't quite get it. With her competitive personality this has bothered her. But today-we had success! She did it several times and the whistle sounded like a whistle. She was so proud that she can now SNAP and WHISTLE!!

Another story of her determination...
She was asking to remove her training wheels and learn to ride her bike. A couple of weekends ago, Jeff helped her take them off and helped her ride without them for a while. She does not like the feeling of being out of control so she decided (she was adament) she wanted to put the training wheels back on. Jeff said he would not do it but she could do it if she wanted. Well, she did. She got out a wrench and put the wheels back on all by herself!

My Favorite Things

2008-09-24T11:15:00.000-07:00

I love to hear what my kids' favorite things are. I wanted to record them and hope to do this periodically.

Favorite Toy:
Claire: Lambie and her new ribbon twirler
Brandon: Brown Doggie

Favorite Color:
Claire: "Rainbow"
Brandon: Black and Red

Favorite Number:
Claire: 100
Brandon: 3 (see that Alicia?)

Favorite Letter:
Claire: C
Brandon: R

Favorite Restaurant:
Claire: Olive Garden
Brandon: McDonalds with the tree in it

Favorite Food:
Claire: spaghetti
Brandon: tortilla with melted cheese (Pepper Jack cheese)

Favorite Character:
Claire: EVE
Brandon: WALL-E

Favorite Place to go:
Claire: Grapefest and the Beach
Brandon: Grapefest

Favorite activity from school:
Claire: make crafts from the animal habitat book
Brandon: get a prize

Favorite Song:
Claire: Read Your Bible, Pray Every Day (we have a jazzed up version of it)
Brandon: opening theme song from Cars "ta di di da da di di..." Real Gone and Route 66

Favorite Bible Verse:
Claire: Be strong and courageous, the LORD your God is with you, he will not leave you or forsake you." Deut 31:6
Brandon: same

Favorite show:
Claire: Moonlight Diego
Brandon: Moonlight Diego

Favorite flavor of ice cream:
Claire: Caramel Sunday Crunch (oh yeah!) and Rainbow Sherbet
Brandon: Rainbow Sherbet

Favorite Book:
Claire: WALL-E book she got from the tooth fairy
Brandon: Frogs

I lost my first tooth!

2008-09-14T13:57:00.001-07:00

On Friday Claire was brushing her teeth and out came her first tooth! She was a little concerned about the hole that was left but she got used to it.

She wrote a note to the tooth fairy that said, "Dear Tooth Fairy, I want a book about WALL-E. Thank you, Claire." The tooth fairy obliged. I wonder if the tooth fairy will do that again or just bring money next time. I guess we will see.
Here are the kids the morning after the tooth fairy came.

School Pics

2008-09-14T13:50:00.000-07:00

Here is Claire with her Salamander habitat. We learned all about habitats and environments the first 2 weeks of school. She made a nice home for a salamander. Yes-there is no lid. That is because the salamander was made of playdough. "Playdough" did say "clay" but as I was typing, Claire came in and corrected me over my shoulder! She is growing up too fast.
Brandon works so hard on writing his name. He knew he had a prize waiting for him if he finished the page.

5 Months Old

2008-09-14T13:43:00.001-07:00

5th Month Picture-Every girl looks beautiful with a flower in her hair!

Here I am sitting up. Just kidding...that is my sister at 8 months old. This is me working on sitting up. I am almost there.

Mover and Shaker

2008-09-05T17:52:00.000-07:00

I was going to wait until Caitlyn was 5 months old to report on all of her new developments but she is just doing too many new things to wait. She is becoming a master with her hands, she is rolling, she is actually scooting around and getting to things (not very far but the mobility is a preview of things to come), she explores everything with her hands and now mouth, she might be teething cause she is drooling like crazy, she is holding her bottle, playing with her toys, pulling up on her knees (not hands and knees yet) and she does this high-pitched squeal like singing that is precious. I won't go on. I'll just show you some of her favorite things.

Her cute way she sleeps!

Not sure what this is but she does it all the time.

I had to add this. I guess Batman is better at the games than just plain Brandon.

Busy Bees

2008-09-05T14:10:00.001-07:00

We have been busy lately but who hasn't? School started for most last week and we started homeschooling last Monday. It has gone really well. I have not taken pictures of Claire and Brandon in action but I will do more of that as we go on. I know some people who document all of their homeschooling activities and I have no idea how they do it. We are doing a curriculum that one of my friends from high school, Kim Robbins Howe, wrote. I looked into several curricula to do this year and I am so glad we chose this one. It is perfect for Claire! The website is www.movingbeyondthepage.com I am so impressed with what she and her husband Keith have done. They actually were in Dallas a couple of weeks ago and came to see us. Here is a picture of our kids when Claire was 11 months old and one now. I love watching our friends' kids grow up! I am just so proud of Claire and all she is doing and who she is becoming.

We also started Adventure School this week. That is our co-op with our other Kindergarten friends-Rosemary, Rozalind, and Caden. We had our first one on Wednesday and I would have to call it a success!

My parents came last weekend and brought us the first installment of the new cabinet that will be my primary storage unit in the play room/school room. They will be bringing the rest of it in a few weeks. It is going to be so valuable to have to organize my things (and my life). And of course it is valuable because my dad has spent hours!!! making this for me. My sister and I were talking about how do you ever thank your parents enough? What can I begin to do to thank them? So, I will definitely be showing off the cabinets when they come! We had fun going to the pool on Saturday. My parents had not yet seen what fish Claire and Brandon had become. We had a relaxing time dining out. My mom and Becky and the kids and I went shopping on Sunday. We stumbled upon a sale at Harry and David. They weren't very busy so this lady gave us samples of about 20 different things-we left stuffed but pleased! Anyway, we had fun. Mom and Dad had fun getting to know Caitlyn a little more too. Becky had to get her bonding time too-Caitlyn was giving her kisses.

It was a good Labor Day weekend and a successful first 2 weeks of school.

4 months old

2008-08-14T11:53:00.000-07:00

I forgot to post Caitlyn's 4 month picture. She is such a sweet, smily girl. She is 13 lbs 15 ounces and 25 1/4 inches. So surprisingly to me, she weighs less than Claire did at this age but she is longer! I guess I don't remember as well as I thought. She is a blessing!

Photo Session

2008-08-14T11:26:00.000-07:00

We took some pictures on the beach one evening. We ended up getting some good shots. Jena got some great ones of her family too. Nana and Jena helped us out and Jeff was a good sport and photographer! We were laughing at how stressed we as moms get when we are trying to get pictures of the kids. You just have so much hope that you will get that perfect shot. You never know how the kids are going to act. We had some moments but they ended up doing great! It is always a refining time for me. I have to say I am pleased with these and I will cherish them.

Fun in the Sun

2008-08-14T10:53:00.000-07:00

We just got back from a very relaxing vacation at Panama City Beach, Florida. We went with Jeff's parents and his sister's family. We all stayed in a condo on the beach for the week. We have done this every year for the past several years and we really enjoy it. One of these years, hopefully, the whole family can make it. Nana always makes the best meals and we just enjoy hanging out. The kids got to be with their cousins all week even sleeping in the same room some nights. They had so much fun with each other. They learned this year that clear jelly fish don't sting and they were picking them up and holding them like a blob of jello. They loved the pools-little fish Brandon always wanted to go to "these side pools" and he called the ocean the "big pool in the middle". Zach played hard at the beach with Nana and Madi and Claire went snorkeling in the ocean. Claire has come a long way with her water skills as last year she was wearing floaties and wouldn't go near the ocean without us holding her hand. It was so fun to watch. Madi was a natural at her role as oldest cousin. Caitlyn got lots of attention and loved it. She did great except she thought it would be fun to wake up at 4:30 almost every morning. Thankfully she (and I) went back to sleep after she ate. She went down to the beach a few times and put her toes in the water. It was so fun being with so many people who love her. We got some good belly laughs out of her too. Nana seems to get her smiling and laughing every time. My beach outfit from Uncle Jamey and Aunt Heather.

The water was rough the first few days because of Eduoard. They had 2 red flags until Tuesday or Wednesday which means no one in the water. But by the end of the week, the water was beautifully clear and great for playing. We are so thankful to be able to have this vacation with family. Time flies and I cannot believe it is almost time to start school. It has been a wonderful summer!