The Smith Family

Basketball

2012-01-15T17:20:00.000-05:00

Brinley has been playing basketball with the YMCA for the last month. She came home from school one day in November asking me to play. We are not a basketball family. We don't watch it on TV, attend games (other than high school games my cousin's son plays in a few times) but a boy in her class plays so she wanted to give it a shot!

She has really enjoyed practicing and has shown more aggression than she did in soccer with rebounding and wanting the ball. She is definitely the fastest one on her team and is the first one down the court to be on defense! The first game was completely hilarious! With only 1 practice before the first game, the kids were traveling a lot, falling on the ground, and shooting at the wrong baskets! I wish I would have videoed it! 4 games in, the kids have improved tremendously and are actually passing to other teammates when they don't have a shot. It is amazing how quickly they can pick up a sport at this age! I think basketball is a sport we will be playing for a few years to come, especially once Clayton turns 5 and can play because he is anxious to get in on the action!!!!

Brinley dribbling down the court

She takes guarding her man very seriously!!!

Look at that form! Brinley making one of her 4 baskets of the game

New Years Eve

2012-01-03T19:42:00.000-05:00

I woke up Tuesday of last week a massive sore throat, fever and ears stuffy. After a day of rest and no improvement, I headed to the doctor to find out I had strep throat, sinus infection and double ear infection. I guess the craziness I have been living since we moved in finally caught up with me! I was put on enough medication to cure an elephant and finally felt better by New Years Eve.

We decided to stay at home and have a few friends and their kids over for a fantastic evening. The best part of the new house is having the playroom upstairs. All we have to do is send the kids upstairs to play and the adults can have conversations! It is great! We got fajitas from Pappasito's and everyone brought desert.

After the kids demolished the upstairs, we sent them outside to play and pop fireworks! The weather was nice so we ended up staying outside for the rest of the night. The kids played on the swing set, drove the Jeep and chased each other.

Clayton loved the fireworks!!!!

Brinley had fun as well

A few of the fireworks Jason was popping

The crew that helped us ring in the new year at midnight (actually 11, we celebrated East coast time)

Our kids made it to midnight without a problem, but they couldn't make it up the stairs to go to bed!!!

Christmas Festivites

2011-12-31T09:52:00.000-05:00

We had a wonderful month of December filled with family, friends, food and Christmas celebrations! I could easily do 5 or 6 posts on our adventures, but I will keep it short and sweet with a summary!

Since I am room mom for Brinley's class, I lived at her school the last week before Christmas break. They had a polar express day where they wore their pajamas, watched the movie, drank hot cocoa, ate cookies and took pictures with Santa. All of which I had to help coordinate and execute! Another day was party day where I had to get pizza, drinks, all the supplies for their craft (they made Christmas trees out of ice cream cones, green icing, and various candies to decorate) and wrap 22 "penny" presents for all her classmates. On this day, I was up at the school for 5 hours! I was one exhausted momma, but it was worth it when Brinley told me I was the best mom ever :-) After school that day, Brinley also her dance Christmas party. The girls got to watch the Nutcracker, sing Christmas songs, eat cupcakes, and had a visit with Santa! After the party, I dropped the kids off with the Smith's to see Marian's Christmas concert because I had a coaches meeting for Brinley's softball this spring (I got suckered in!) I don't think I have ever slept as hard as I did that night.
Brinley and Clayton with Santa at the dance studio

On Clayton's actual birthday, we met up with the Smith's to head down to Moody Gardens Festival of Lights. It was a perfect weather night, just cold enough to wear hats, but not so cold we were miserable. Clayton loved the lights and ran the entire walk screaming "Look" "oooooh" "WOW". People were laughing at his enthusiasm. The kids even got a chance to play in "snow" while we were there (aka-ice brought in).
My family in front of the big tree at Moody Gardens

Another night we made Gingerbread houses with the kids. Brinley was very meticulous with her house, making sure it looked just like the picture. Jason had to do most of Clayton's because he just wanted to eat it. As soon as Jason gave him the ok, he dug in!!!

A few days before Christmas, we made and decorated our cookies for Santa. We normally do sugar cookies because those are our Santa's favorite kind. At Brinley's school, they read a book that said Santa loves chocolate chip cookies, so that is what we had to make....our Santa was a little disappointed ;-)

Christmas Eve we packed up all our presents and headed over to my parents house for our celebration. Instead of doing the traditional Christmas dinner, we decided to do appetizers. We had chick fil a nuggets, tamales, cheese dip, ham/cream cheese roll ups and plenty of desserts! It was wonderful to just stand and pick all day instead of one huge meal! It may have to become a tradition!!! After snacking, the kids opened their presents from Mamaw and Pops, or Mamaw Claus as we call her. The room was filled and we came home with a car load of fun goodies to play with. Brinley's favorite, her American Girl bed for her doll. Clayton came home with a remote control Cars racetrack that takes up half his room!
The cousins- Reese, Brinley and Clayton

In the middle of the present opening chaos

Once we got home, we got in our Christmas pajamas, sprinkled reindeer food made at school on the lawn, and put out Santa's cookies and milk.

On Christmas morning, we had to wake the kids up to open presents. We were on a tight schedule because we had mass at 9:30 and then had to be at the Smith's by noon and I had to cook my dishes to take over there. The kids were so excited by all the presents left for them. Brinley was especially excited that he left her a note on her new paint easel! Clayton really enjoyed his bat cave too!

I love this picture! Both of their expressions of finding socks and underwear in their stockings! Santa had to be practical this year!!!

The aftermath of present opening

We went to mass and enjoyed a beautiful Christmas service. We were asked to bring the gifts down, at first we were hesitant, in fear of Clayton running down the aisle or something worse! But they gave the kids the collection basket to carry and Jason had a firm grip on the back of his collar ;-) and it all went great!

We headed over to Smith's for Christmas day lunch and more present opening. After stuffing ourselves, the kids got even more presents!!! Brinley loved her Tinkerbell fairies and Clayton got a huge Lego ship complete with a shark and cage!

"WHAT?? Cars pajamas?!?!?!?!" BTW- he is pant less due to a diaper malfunction

After presents, Hannah wanted to sing Christmas carols around the neighborhood. The girls made song list which consisted of:
We wish you a merry Christmas
Last Christmas by WHAM (Brinley absolute favorite Christmas song.....weird right?)
Jingle Bells
Feliz Navidad
We walked to 4 houses on their street and the kids belted out the songs. It was quite hilarious to watch. Everyone got quite a kick out of the kiddos, especially Clayton who was dancing and singing the last word of each line.

As you can tell, we had quite a busy month! Which is probably why I have been stuck on the couch for the past 3 days with strep throat, sinus infection and double ear infection! But it let me catch up on blogging!

Now that I am caught up, my new years resolution is to stay up to date!

Clayton's 3rd Birthday

2011-12-29T21:53:00.000-05:00

Clayton's actual birthday is on the 18th, but to save mommy's sanity from having to throw a party the week before Christmas, we have his party on the first weekend in December! This year's party was a shark theme. Ever since shark week on discovery channel, he has been obsessed with sharks (see his Halloween costume in the post below). Having a shark party was actually easier to throw than I thought it would be. Thanks to my new obsession, Pinterest, I found lots of great ideas to make the first birthday party at our new home successful!

Here is the shark cake I made

Since the Christmas decorations were already up, I wanted to make it look like a party for the little guy! Here is my "water" entryway into the cake room. Jason made use of the extra moving boxes and made shark bean bag toss game that turned out super cute!!!

Here are a bunch of the boys digging for treasures

Clayton blowing out his candles

The crew who helped us celebrate

The birthday loot....I didn't need to buy for Christmas did I?

Happy 3rd birthday Clayton! You are becoming such a little man! You are talking up a storm by using sentences. Your favorite one is "what you doing?" You are very inquisitive and want to know how everything works. You sleep with an entourage of stuffed animals in bed, you LOVE cars, snuggling with mom, pushing your sister's buttons, making everyone laugh,singing Christmas songs, wrestling with the dogs, Scooby Doo, dinosaurs, playing and watching football and soccer, and driving your jeep in the backyard! You are an amazing eater and most meals we wonder where you are putting all your food (you get that from your daddy) Unlike your sister, you LOVE anything sweet and would rather dessert than your meal. We are so blessed to have you in our lives and we love you very much!!!

PS- as i type this you finished your 3rd day of potty training with no accidents! Way to go and keep it up!

Catch up time---October

2011-12-29T11:53:00.000-05:00

Well, this move has really done a number on me! I feel like I have been running around with my head cut off since September 27!!!! We are finally somewhat settled in the new house and loving it! We breezed through October like it never happened. Although these posts will not be as detailed as I would like, I am going to try and catch up so I can start 2012 fresh.Jason and I headed to Arkansas for the Auburn game and to shower Wendi with great things and her little boy, River. We had a great time visiting with friends and cheering on the HOGS (who won!)

Me and my girls, Rachel, Wendi and Amanda tailgating

We also had a great visit with the cousins, Wyatt and Liam, from Switzerland. They had a blast playing with each other. It was as if they are together all the time! On a hot day, we took the kids to the Oil Ranch for some fall fun. The kids got to ride horses, feed cows, ride a train, play in tee pees and run wild!!!
Clayton, Liam, Wyatt and Brinley

This is the kind of picture you get when you wait until the end of a long, hot day to take a picture with the pumpkins!

Clayton feeding a cow

One night we had a Halloween party for the boys since they were going to be leaving before Halloween.

We also attended a Halloween party at our friends house that was tons of fun!!!

For Halloween, we carved pumpkins. Jason carved Clayton's but he had fun pulling out all the insides. Brinley drew the face our hers and I helped her cut it out

Of course for Halloween, we went trick or treating! Our new house is on a circle with about 20 houses. All but 2 were handing out candy, so it was a great way to get just enough candy and meet all the new neighbors! The kids had a blast and Clayton really loved getting all the candy!

My sleeping beauty and Shark getting ready to trick or treat

Soccer season has begun!

2011-09-12T13:14:00.000-04:00

This past Saturday, Brinley had her first soccer game of the season! We have the same coaches as last year (including Jason as assistant coach) and 4 players back from last years team.
It was a hot, humid morning, but the season kicked off to a great start. Brinley scored 1 goal. She was very excited and ran off the field to give me hug and five.

Brinley and her BFF's Addison and Halle

Brinley's first goal of the season

kicking the ball

Clayton enjoyed the game from the comforts of his own chair with water and soccer ball

The next two week are going to be crazy for us! We are in the process of packing to move to our new house! We are very excited and ready for more room to spread out!

Zoo date with my lil man

2011-08-31T18:30:00.000-04:00

On Monday, after dropping Brinley off at school, Clayton and I headed into the Houston Zoo for the morning. We got there right when it opened and left after lunch. We had the entire zoo to ourselves! We were able to watch the elephants get a bath and feed the giraffes. Clayton really enjoys not having to share mommy and we had a very hot, but very fun day!

yes, my son in having a conversation with the chimp

Riding the lion on the carousel. He was ROARing the entire time

Oh no, the lion is going to eat me!!

Feeding the giraffes was his favorite part of the zoo trip, at least that is what he told me!

First Day of Kindergarten

2011-08-29T14:30:00.000-04:00

Last Monday was Brinley's first of Kindergarten. She woke up super excited and pacing until we left to walk to school. Jason went in late to work, so he could walk with us.

Clayton had to get in on picture taking too!

My big girl walking to school

Sitting at her desk in her classroom

After we told Brinley goodbye, Clayton started crying and saying "I stay too". He thought he was starting school that day too and was heartbroken he was leaving. I finally bribed him into the library where they were having a "Boo Hoo Breakfast" for kindergarten parents. Donuts is the way to my lil man's heart!

Brinley had a great first week of school. She is making new friends and really enjoys going to PE, art and music. She loves her teacher and is exhausted when she gets home in the evenings. Clayton and I are enjoying our time together while she is at school. He does not miss her at all (I think he wishes he was an only child!)

Goodbye Summer

2011-08-20T14:19:00.000-04:00

This is our last weekend of summer and we are sad and excited to see it go! Brinley will be starting Kindergarten on Monday and she can hardly contain herself! We met her teacher and saw her room Thursday night. She was bouncing from excitement that not only was her class mostly girls (poor teacher) but she also has twins in her class.

Clayton will enjoy next week being an only child and then he will start his school the following week! This momma is excited for a break and being able to get things done without the kids "help".

Our summer was action packed and lots of time spent at the beach, swimming and friends. Our only activity, gymnastics, finished yesterday! Brinley ended the summer being able to do a handstand for 5 seconds, back roll, and jumping and turning around on the high balance beam. Her coach keeps trying to get me to put her on the competition team, but mommy and daddy are not ready for that yet ;-)

Clayton spend his last mommy and me class (woo hoo for him being on his own next summer) perfecting his front roll and being able to do a chin up on the bar. He can also walk on the balance beam alone depending on his mood. I am sure he will miss doing his belly flop into the pit of foam blocks (which drove his teacher crazy!)

Adios summer and please take your 100+ degree weather with you!!!!

5th Birthday

2011-07-28T13:59:00.000-04:00

Brinley's 5th birthday has been planned since the day after her 4th birthday party!! Not once has any detail changed (just for the record, she has already planned her 6-9th birthdays down to place and theme!)This years theme was Barbie. Here is the cake that she helped me design and I made. She picked the colors, wanted to add the dog on the float and picked out the rocks to line the pool. She was very involved and has added being a baker to her list of occupations!

Here is the birthday girl the day of her party at the Indoor Soccer place.

She had a blast running 100 miles a minute the entire time!!!

Clayton enjoyed himself too, at least that is what the sweat drenched little man told me

As the RSVP's rolled in, I knew we were in for a big party. I guess it was a weekend with nothing going on, because I only got a few declines. None the less, we all had a great time!!!

My little family with the birthday girl.

Brinley's actual birthday was on a Tuesday. For her dinner she wanted to go to the sand place (Lupe Tortillas). It actually rained for the first time in forever that day, so the back up plan for Chuck E Cheese. Both sets of Grandparents joined us for the dinner and Brinley enjoyed having Chuck E Cheese bring her cake out to her!

Chicago

2011-07-18T15:13:00.000-04:00

This last weekend, Jason and I headed to Chicago to visit Melody without the kids. We had so much fun! On Friday, we ate lunch at Harry Carey's and then did a 7 hour walking tour of the city! I was amazed at how beautiful and clean the city is! The weather was wonderful break from the Houston humidity and we walked without barely breaking a sweat.

The breathe taking view of Michigan Lake from Melody's apartment

Me and Jason on the top of Melody's building downtown

We also took a architecture boat ride around the city. It was really neat to hear all the stories about the rebuild of Chicago after the great fire!

Me on the boat tour

Me and Jason with the Sears tower in the back (black one)

Melody and I at the Bean with Skyline in the background

The best view of the city was in the women's restroom at the Hancock tower

We were so tired from our walking tour, we got some famous deep dish pizza to go and watched The Dark Knight (filmed in Chicago) at Melody's place that evening!

On Saturday, we headed to a cubs game at Wrigley's field. The atmosphere was like anything I have ever experienced! Those Chicagoans love their cubs! Even though the lost 11-4, they were partying like crazy afterwards! We had lots of fun walking to each bar and soaking up the atmosphere!

On Sunday, we ate a great breakfast at a little cafe and then rode the subway to the airport. It was an amazing weekend!

4th of July

2011-07-05T15:25:00.000-04:00

We headed into Baytown for the 4th of July celebration this year. 4th of July is always a big deal and Baytown goes all out. I remember going every year when I was growing up and it was tons of fun! They had lots of good food, rides and games for the kids and lots of booths with handcrafted items.

Brinley and Clayton dressed and ready to celebrate the 4th of July

Although the festivities start that morning, we opted to head in after nap and dinner since it was 100 degrees outside! We got there around 6, found our spot on the lawn (in the shade) for our chairs and blankets and took in all the fun! The kids had a blast sliding on the big slide, riding the swings, playing carnival games, and begging my mom to buy them everything under the sun ;-)

She loved her patriotic, glittery tattoo!!

Entertainment for the evening included Django Walker (jerry jeff walker's son) and Pat Green! Both guys put on a great show and had my kids dancing all night! Luckily, once the sun went down, we had a cool breeze and enjoyed the fireworks to end the evening.

Clayton cheesing with a mustache made from his flashing necklace

Bubble gun fight!

We had a wonderful July 4th and celebrated america's birthday with all the favorites: funnel cakes, lemonade, baseball (clayton won a baseball and bat), country music and fireworks!!!

newest addition to our family

2011-06-20T14:40:00.005-04:00

We have a new puppy in our house and her name is Pixie!! She is a catahoula/great dane mix (at least that is what our vet thinks). We rescued her from a friend who had found her wandering around but couldn't keep her. Jason has been wanting another dog for a year now, but I have been turning him down becuase I didn't want to potty train, crate train, and deal with a new puppy!!!! Once I saw her cute face, I knew I had to have her. Once I talked to my friend, I knew I COULD have her! She is about 5 months old, crate trained, house trained (with the occasional accident when I not paying attention to her knock at the door) and so sweet and calm!!!

The kids absolutely LOVE her and she is so tolerant of their grabbing, tackling, and chasing!

Rylee has even enjoyed playign tug of war with her and chasing her aournd the house. Of course, due to her old age (almost 8) she gives the occasional growl to let Pixie know that she is done playing ;-)

San Antonio Zoo and Childrens Museum

2011-06-12T19:30:00.001-04:00

Saturday morning, we woke up bright and early and went to the San Antonio zoo. I have heard from several people how great the zoo was and it didn't disappoint! We wanted to see the zoo in the morning before the heat set in. One of my favorite exhibits was the bird habitat. We bought a few small cups of nectar, and the birds will land on you to drink them! Brinley was very cautious at first and clung to my side, while Clayton jumped in with gusto feeding the birds! By the end of the exhibit, she was feeding the birds on her own.Both Jason and myself had birds land on us (my picture wasn't flattering because the bird was nibbling on my ear at the time!)

We left the zoo at lunchtime, when 4 hot and hungry kids were done looking at animals. After we filled our bellies, we headed to the children's museum for some indoor entertainment during the hottest part of the day. The kids were able to play in airplanes, trees, grocery store, boats, and a big fenced in area where you can shoot balls everywhere.

Brinley testing out a career as a grocery store checker with Russ emptying the cart he filled

Clayton wanted to stay in the trolley the entire time! He cried when we took him out!
After the museum, we ate dinner on the river walk and headed back to the hotel for more swimming! The kids had a blast with the Lipsey's and we enjoyed seeing them!

Sunday, we stopped in Gruene, TX to eat at my favorite restaurant, the Gristmill. The food was yummy and filled our bellies for the drive home. The kids slept for 3 of the 4 hour drive!

Clayton was so exhausted and wanted nothing to do with this picture by the river!

Sea World

2011-06-08T14:54:00.011-04:00

We got up Friday morning and headed to Sea World for the day. It was sooooo HOT! The temperature hit 100 for the day and the black asphalt made it even hotter. Luckily, we found shade whenever we needed it, drank tons of water and hit the water park during the hottest part of the day.

Meredith, Brinley, Clayton and Russ---All looking and smiling!!!

The kids had a blast at sea world! Clayton really enjoyed watching and feeding the dolphins, while Brinley loved the Shamu show. The park was not crowded at all. I guess with schools getting out that week, people weren't ready to go on vacation yet. We didn't have to wait in line for any rides and the kids could run wild without bumping into anyone.

Waiting for the Shamu show to start

Brinley was fascinated with Shamu and Clayton is still walking around saying"Shamu jump"The newest part of Sea world to open is the Sesame Street section. Here we were able to see all our favorite characters and take our pictures with them. The fave at our house is Cookie monster. I have no clue why, but Clayton walks around the house saying, "COOKIE!!!!"Brinley and Meredith riding the Shamu express. Since there were no lines, they rode it 5 or 6 times!We stayed until the park closed. Our hotel has a shuttle that drove us there, we were the only ones on the shuttle, so we tipped our driver to stop by McDonald's to grab dinner to take back to the hotel. We were not about to test 4 exhausted kids sitting in a restaurant! Another evening in the pool to rinse off one layer of sweat/sunscreen and we slept like babies that night!

On our way out the door, we ran into Shamu and then Shark interrupted our picture to get in! This picture is funny because Brinley had picked a Shamu out of the gift shop and Clayton a shark!

San Antonio Riverwalk

2011-06-08T14:40:00.007-04:00

We drove to San Antonio Thursday to meet up with my dear friend from college, Rachel, and her family. Our kids are all the same age, so it makes it fun to meet up and let the kids play and adults catch up on much needed adult conversation!

We got there after lunch, so we checked into the hotel and then headed to the pool for an hour. After unpacking and resting, we headed down the River walk for dinner. We ate a yummy Italian restaurant and then walked around the river walk.

We also saw the Alamo (it was closed, but we took a picture in front)

We also took a boat tour of the river walk and found out all kinds of neat information about the buildings, where movies had been filmed, and we saw a wedding taking place! Clayton really loved riding the boat too!

We headed back to the hotel for dessert! The hotel has fire pits and smore kits you can buy. The kids really had fun listening to music (there was a DJ on the patio) and toasting marsh mellows as the sun went down!!!

Ballet Recital

2011-05-24T10:15:00.011-04:00

Saturday afternoon was Brinley's 2nd ballet recital. The theme was Peter pan and Brinley's class was Tinkerbell. It was so cute to watch how far her class has come from last year. They were doing some difficult moves and remembered the dance so well. Brinley did really great and after the dance, we were eating dinner and some older girls in the recital came up to us and told that they were watching Brinley perform and she was the best Tinkerbell :-) She certainly has a talent for dance and I think we will be doing this for years to come!!!

Their tinkerbell costumes glowed when they first came onstage

our little ballerina with her perfect form

how she manages to jump so high with little effort amazes me!!!!

my family with our little ballerina

Our ballerina had quite and audience cheering her on this year: my parents, jason's mom, marian, lizzy, blake, robin and reese! Thanks to everyone who came. Brinley was thrilled to have all those eyes watching her!!!

the cousins eating dinner afterwards and my new favorite picture of them!

We are now officially done with everything and are on summer time! Tball and dance ended last week and school for the kids ended yesterday. We are now on the countdown to our vacation to Sea World!

Preschool Graduation

2011-05-05T11:17:00.004-04:00

Tuesday night was Brinley's preschool program and graduation. It is so hard to believe my baby will be in Kindergarten next year! These past 5 years have FLOWN by!!!!!

We have been very fortunate for Brinley to attend the same preschool the past two years and have the same teachers. She has learned so much and made many good friends. She can write her name, recognize the letter and sounds of almost all the letters, count to 20+, create patterns, and pretty much everything I taught the first semester of kindergarten 5 years ago!! Man has the educational expectations changed!!!

Both sets of grandparents came out to watch our little girl sing ocean themed songs, play the bells, and get her diploma :-)

She learned the musical notes to twinkle twinkle little star by using color coded bells. Each child had their own bell and read the notes off a poster board to know when it was their turn...pretty impressive!

Getting her diploma from her teachers, we will miss them next year!

Easter 2011

2011-04-26T21:07:00.011-04:00

What a wonderful Easter week we had! The weather was amazing, the company was great and the food was fantastic!

we missed the bluebonnets this year, (thanks to the lack of rain, they didn't stick around long) so we had to settle for the pink weeds in our neighbors yard

We started our Easter celebrations last Saturday with our neighborhood egg hunt. It is held at our park, which is divided by age group. It was nice to get out and mingle with the neighbors and the kids had a blast hunting the eggs.

They were surveying the grounds and plotting the best route to get the most eggs...

Wednesday was Brinley and Clayton's Easter party at school. I forgot to take pictures of them, but trust me, they were very festive in their Bunny attire for their egg hunt at school :-)

Saturday, we met up with Melody at the San Luis hotel in Galveston. It was great seeing her and laying by the pool the entire day! The kiddos had fun swimming and eating PB&J's poolside! We all came home a little pink, but considering it was our first "exposure" to sun, it wasn't that bad!

That evening, we dyed our eggs for the Easter bunny. I had seen on my friends Facebook post about dying eggs using kool aid and water. It looked interesting and I am all for getting rid of the vinegar smell, so we tried it and it turned out great!

Sunday morning, we woke up and saw what the bunny left us in our baskets. Brinley came running to our room in the morning and said "I think the bunny came, I heard him!" We then went outside to hunt the eggs the bunny hid.

Clayton going through his loot from the Easter bunny

Brinley was in the zone while hunting eggs the bunny hid

After church, we headed to my parent's house for our Easter celebration. Good food, another egg hunt, confetti eggs and lots of playing just about sums up our afternoon!

My beautiful babies (and my new favorite picture) in their Easter best....

The cousins after the egg hunt

Clayton cracking a confetti egg on mamaw's head

That evening, we headed to Jason's grandparent's house for dinner. The weather was cool, so the kids played outside the entire time! More great food, ANOTHER egg hunt, bocci ball and power wheel driving sums up our night!

this little man was determined to get those eggs!

Brinley gave up on carrying the basket, it was slowing her down!
Clayton enjoying his hard earned candy....LOVE this picture!

It was a long week, but we had so much fun! Now, the next month of craziness begins! We have preschool graduation, dance recital, swim lessons and tball games to finish up. I am ready for the lazy days of summer!

Toy Story 3 on Ice

2011-04-20T17:56:00.006-04:00

This past Sunday, we went to Toy Story 3 on ice with my mom, Robin and Reese. First off was Pappasitos for lunch, which for the first time ever, we had horrible service! The plates were dirty, it took forever to get refills, our food and it wasn't even busy! Oh well, that bad apple will not influence my love for the place :-)

Once we got there, we made a souvenir stop. Brinley picked out a Jessie doll and Clayton got a Buzz Lightyear. Let me tell you that those toys have been played with non-stop and slept with ever since we got them!

Clayton, Brinley and Reese sitting right in front of our seats!

We had first row seats, so it was really neat to see everything up close. Brinley and I went to Princesses on ice in the fall, so this was Clayton's first time and he LOVED IT!!! He sat still for the entire 2 hours, clutching his Buzz, eating popcorn and not taking his eyes off the show!

Woody and Bullseye

Buzz Lightyear and Woody

Brinley's favorite part was Barbie and Slinky! Luckily, they sat down right by us!

Clayton's favorite part was the dump truck! The boy is OBSESSED with trucks!

This week has been all about Easter! We have already done two egg hunts and it is only Wednesday!

A visit with the Easter Bunny

2011-04-14T14:01:00.002-04:00

We made our annual trip to visit the Easter Bunny at the mall. For the first time, there were no hesitations or tears! Both kids hopped up into the bunny's lap and smiled. Clayton even told the bunny "bye" and gave him a hug! We are getting ready for the week of Easter festivities with egg hunts, school parties, and the visit from the bunny to our house.

Swimming season has begun!!!

2011-04-08T12:16:00.005-04:00

The temperature is in the 80's, the humidity is creeping in, so that means it is swimming time! Last night was my niece's 8th birthday, so we headed over to my brothers house for Pappasitos, cookie cake and swimming! My two little water bugs were extremely excited to get into the pool. Clayton is showing no fear of the water, as he runs to the pool and does a belly flop in. The puddle jumper is a life saver since he does not want mommy around him, he wants to do it on his own! The kids spent the entire afternoon/evening swimming barely taking time to eat dinner. They were so exhausted when we got home! I already know we will be living at the pool this summer (mostly for mommy's sanity to wear them out!)

Last week, Brinley and Clayton both started swim lessons. Brinley was a little rusty and needs to build up her endurance on swimming underwater. Since Clayton is so fearless, he needs to learn how to swim as well! Clayton went first and LOVED it! He did not cry when she dunked his head under water, and even grabbed rings from under water with his eyes open. I was very shocked at how well he listened to his teachers (terrible twos these days). Maybe he will be my little fish (he already has the webbed toes to help his swimming). At this weeks lesson, his teacher (already in the water) told him to come to her and he ran and jumped in without hesitation....even she was shocked!

Clayton during his swim lessons (I didn't get one of Brinley because I chasing Clayton around!)

Spring fun- strawberries and tball

2011-03-28T15:49:00.013-04:00

Spring is in full gear at our house! On Friday, we headed to Froberg's fruit and vegetable farm to pick strawberries. We have been going for the past three years and it is so much fun. While Brinely has become a pro at picking the biggest and sweetest strawberries, this was Clayton's first time picking. Last year, he just ate every strawberry in site! It took him some time to get used to picking them without squeezing them to death. So 1/4 of his bucket got tossed when we got home! We came home with nearly 10 lbs of strawberries! We have been enjoying eating them whenever we get the chance!

strawberry stained hands from the excessive squeezing while picking

Saturday morning was Brinley's first tball game. It was so cute to watch 10 kids chasing one ball no matter where it went on the field! Brinley had a great time, but she was mad that the ball wasn't hit to her every time (my competitive child)! I think her favorite part was hitting and running the bases.

warming up with daddy

Put me in coach, I am ready to play!!!!

Brinley's first hit of the tball season

This child never stands still!!!!!!!!!!!

waving to daddy as she got on third

Spring Break

2011-03-21T16:33:00.006-04:00

We had a wonderful spring break this year. The Monday was rainy which was a perfect excuse to stay in our pajamas all day long and relax!!!

Tuesday, we headed down to Crystal Beach to stay with a friend at her beach house for the night. We had 3 adults, 5 four year olds and 2 two year olds. There was lots of playing, crying and squealing. The weather didn't cooperate as much as we'd hope. We spent an hour at the beach before the kids got too cold, so we spent the rest of the time letting them run wild! Even though the weather wasn't too pretty, it was nice to feel the sand between our toes and hear the waves crash!
the boys spent most of their time hanging in the hammock

Thursday was Brinley's first tball practice. I didn't get any pictures, but she had fun seeing her friends. It was really cute seeing 9 kids pile on top of each other to get the ball that was hit! Her first game is this weekend, so we shall see how it goes.

Friday, we met up with some friends at the zoo. The weather was GORGEOUS and I guess everyone else had the same idea because it was packed!!! We got there when it opened and left after our picnic lunch. Brinley loved seeing the giraffes (they were in the process of being moved the last time we went) and Clayton enjoyed the train ride. He waved to everyone we passed and screamed "choo choo!"!!!

Brinley and Leo watching the prairie dogs from inside their habitat

Saturday, we had a birthday party in the afternoon and then our first Dynamo soccer game that evening. We upgraded our season ticket seats and now we are much closer to the action. Both kids did great during the game, but we did have to take them to run up and down the ramps during half time! The Dynamo lost 1-0, but they had a spectacular fireworks show after the game.

Whew! It was a busy week and we are glad to be back on schedule this week! The weather has been amazing and we have been outside any chance we can get!!!

More Rodeo

2011-03-17T11:20:00.004-04:00

Last weekend, my college roomate and her hubby came in town to go to the rodeo! Going to the rodeo with adults is so much more relaxing than with the kids :-)

It was their first time, so we took in all the sights! Food, shopping, animals and rides! It was a ton of fun and we look forward to them coming back next year!

Amanda and I decided to ride the swing ride. The fear kicked in quickly as we realized how high and fast we would be going!!!

It wouldn't be the rodeo if you didn't eat an insane amount of meat!!!!!!!!!!!!

Jason's hidden talent---winning carnival games. The kids were very happy he won them this scooby since they watch it every saturday morning with him!

Rodeo time

2011-03-08T13:51:00.004-05:00

We made our annual trip to the Houston Rodeo last Thursday. Jason took half a day off and we headed in after lunch. It was a gorgeous spring day and we had the place to ourselves since it was during the week and all the field trip kids had left to go back to school!

Clayton really enjoyed the rodeo this year. He was a little hesitant about the ponies, longhorns and other animals, but after an hour he was running up to them wanting to pet them! He especially enjoyed the carnival rides! My little daredevil rode every ride he could get on. He even guilted the carnival workers into letting him ride ones he wasn't tall enough for by crying the biggest crocodile tears you have ever seen! He has really learned to manipulate and makes a momma want to pull their hair out :-)

Brinley had a blast on the rides too. She was tall enough this year to ride them by herself and she wouldn't let us get on with her! She was grinning from ear to ear the entire day.

this is my favorite picture from the day! The looks on their faces is priceless!!!!

After 7 hours of animals, BBQ, and carnival rides, we drug ourselves home and passed out! On the way to the car, Brinley said, "this was the best day I have ever had!"......and that statement made it all worth it.

my cowboy and cowgirl have been wearing their new hats non stop since we got them!

Putt Putt and Dinosaurs

2011-02-25T13:43:00.006-05:00

Last Saturday, we headed down to Galveston for dinner, putt putt and ice cream! The weather was perfect at our house. It was sunny and warm. Little did we know that 20 miles down the road, as soon as we hit the Galveston bridge, it was dark, foggy and gloomy! The fog was scary movie thick! We ate dinner at our fave Mexican restaurant and decided to go ahead and play putt putt. We had the course to ourselves, which was great considering this was both of the kids first time playing putt putt! Brinley did really well and can actually putt the ball in from a pretty far distance. Clayton enjoyed running around holding his club and ball and running on all the beach themed obstacles! It was wet, but we had a great time! Brinley has already asked several times this week to go play again!

this is how all the pictures turned out later in the evening. No that is not rain, its the FOG!

Monday was presidents day and Jason only had to work 1/2 a day. So, we picked the kids up from school and headed to the Science museum. Brinley has been studying dinosaurs at school and she is obsessed with them! She can name almost everyone! Jason thought she would enjoy seeing the dinosaurs. We first went into the butterfly house. Thousands of butterflies everywhere! Clayton thought it was hilarious when a butterfly would land on him and he would squeal with delight! Brinley was a little scared as they swarmed her (she had on bright colors so I think they thought she was a flower!) but after a while she was fine and liked picking out the prettiest butterflies.

After that, we headed to see the dinosaurs. Brinley named every one and Clayton "roared" at each one!

After the museum, we walked over to Hermann park to let the kids run and play. The weather was absolutely gorgeous! After being trapped in the house for the past month due to rain and freezing weather, we are welcoming spring with open arms! My kids love being outside and we try whenever we have the chance!

Happy Valentines Day!

2011-02-14T11:41:00.003-05:00

We have had a wonderful Valentines day this year! We celebrated ours on Saturday, so Brinley stayed the night with my parents (because Reese was over there too) and Clayton fell in love with being an only child at Jason's folks. After I dropped the kids off, Jason surprised me with a day at the spa. I got a much needed massage and facial. I felt like melted butter after the massage. We then went to dinner at a new restaurant Jason found overlooking the water down by Kemah. It was very intimate (only 50 people could fit inside) and the food was amazing! It is definitely going to be added to our date night fave spots to eat! After stuffing ourselves, we headed over to Kemah to walk around the boardwalk. It wasn't too crowded by the time we got down there, so we had the place to ourselves. We played some boardgames and Jason won me a stuffed penguin! It was a wonderful night!

Sunday, I spent the day getting ready to host Bunco at my house for that evening, so Jason hung out at his folks house and let the kids play, eat and wear themselves out. Today is going to pretty low key for us. The kids have their valentines party at school so I am sure they will come home nice and sugared up for me :-)

Trying to keep warm

2011-02-09T16:01:00.003-05:00

Last Friday, we had promises of waking up to a winter wonderland. Schools and businesses closed the day before in preparation of at least 2 inches of snow (that is what the weathermen promised)!!!

At 5am, I was awoken by an automated phone call from our city letting us know of freeway closures due to ice. I looked outside and saw........NOTHING!!! Not even one drop of snow. Instead we had tons of ice. Icicles hanging off the house, Jason's car was coated in 1 inch of ice and the freeways of Houston became paralyzed due to ice. After watching the news all morning, Jason braved the roads around 10am to head into work for a few hours to get things squared away so he could work from home.

The kids and I stayed in our pajamas and watched tv all day long! It was so nice. Jason got home early because the roads were supposed to refreeze when the sun went down. We ate dinner, lit a fire in the fireplace, made smores and watched Beauty in the Beast. It was a wonderful family evening!

Jason toasting the marsh mellows and Clayton eating the graham crackers first!

Brinley enjoying her smore with Rylee hoping she drops it!

Laying on the floor enjoying "Beauty and the Beast"

Love his smiles!!!!!!!!
It has been a long time since we have stayed in our pajamas all day. Brinley did question why they had to put new pajamas on to go to bed that night, but I just thought fresh pj's were needed to get a good night's sleep! When all was said and done, the news reported over 800 wrecks in Houston during a 12 hour period due to ice! As I look out the window right now, it is raining and the temperature has dropped from 46 degrees to 33 degrees in two hours.....we will see if there is a repeat! HURRY UP SPRING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

January is already over????

2011-01-31T16:24:00.002-05:00

It has been a long time since I have blogged! I can't believe tomorrow is February 1st!!!! We have had a much needed, boring month. We haven't had much to do on weekends, so basically we have been going to the gym, school, dance and being LAZY!!! I only took 6 pictures this month and 4 of those were last night!!! I guess since I took over 1500 pictures in December, due to Disney, Clayton's birthday and Christmas, I didn't want to pick up the camera.

Brinley and Clayton did have their pictures taken at their school this month and they turned out really great! I am excited because now I don't have to take Clayton to have his 2 year old pictures taken (I know, bad mommy).

Brinley- 4 1/2 years old
Clayton- 2 years old

Christmas 2010

2010-12-29T18:09:00.010-05:00

We had a wonderful Christmas this year. Brinley absolutely loved every part of Christmas! Baking cookies, decorating the gingerbread house, helping wrap presents, changing our advent calendar daily, etc. Clayton was really aware of what was going on and really enjoyed participating in all the merriment too! Of course, both my kids are big eaters, so all the indulging was like heaven to them! I have been having to break Clayton of begging for cookies after every meal :-)

On the 23rd, we baked our sugar cookies for Santa and decorated a gingerbread house when Jason got home. I had to take a picture quickly because they were ready to devour it! After all the icing and candy, they ran circles in our living room for an hour! On Christmas Eve, we headed over my parent's house for Christmas with my family.

Since Disney was our Christmas this year, it was just supposed to be for dinner, but of course my mom had to buy presents for the kids! It was on a much lower scale than her normal "mamaw claus" and I must admit it was nice not having to stuff it all in my car afterwards!

On Christmas morning, the kids actually slept in until 8:15!! Once they were up, they ran into to the living room to see what Santa had brought them. They both loved their "big" Santa gift, which was a power wheel. Clayton sat inside it for the first 10 minutes wanting to ride it, we had to coax him out with presents to open! After opening presents and breakfast, we took it outside in the cold and let them ride! Clayton was not too happy to be the passenger at first and he had the pout face on until Brinley finally let him drive! Since Christmas the weather has been rainy and cold, but we can't wait to put more use out of it!

Clayton's response to opening all his presents was "oooooohhhhhh"

Brinley was serious and wouldn't look up to smile for us!

After the afternoon of playing with all their new goodies, we got dressed in our Christmas attire and headed over to the Smith's for Christmas dinner. There was lots of good food and lots of presents!
We had a great Christmas and have enjoyed not much on our calendar since then! Today, I tackled the playroom and the kids room and spent 3 hours "cleaning" and making room for the new toys. It no longer looks like a Toys R Us threw up in my house!

Clayton's 2nd Birthday

2010-12-26T16:48:00.001-05:00

On December 18, my little man turned 2 years old! It is so hard to believe!!! Clayton, you are all boy! Your favorite toys to play with are cars. You drive you them all over everything (walls, tables, coffee tables, TV, and floors)! You are very rowdy and wrestling and rough play give you so much joy! You are talking up a storm and repeat anything we say. You are very observant and are quick to find ways to sneak things past mom! You love to mimic things your sister does and you think you are just as big as her and her friends! You are a great sleeper and eater and have we discovered that you LOVE anything sweet and can eat 3 whole pieces of pizza in one setting! We love you very much and you bring so much joy, laughter, and stress to mommy and daddy's life :-)

2 year old stats

height: 34 1/4 inches

weight: 27 lbs 6oz

We had his birthday party at an Indoor Soccer place. They have a little soccer field for kids and 4 bounce houses! It was an ideal place to have a party! We did a Pluto theme since he has slept with carried a Pluto around with him since he was 1! I found out that doing just a Pluto party was impossible since he is always with Mickey and never alone, so this momma had to get creative!

playing soccer with Brinley and Paw paw!

The cake I made using a Pluto we bought at Disney and Reese Puffs cereal which looks just like dog food!

sliding down the big slide!

Happy birthday to Clayton! He blew out his candles before we were done singing and clapped for himself!

Mommy and Daddy got him a brand new trike! He LOVES it!

Grilling on his new BBQ pit that mamaw and pops got him

Disney World- Day 3 Mickey's Christmas Party

2010-12-24T11:00:00.000-05:00

Sunday evening, after a nice nap and dinner at the hotel, we headed back to Magic Kingdom for Mickey's Christmas Party. This is a special event after the park closes and only a number of tickets are sold. So basically we had the entire park to ourselves with no wait times on any of the rides!

The castle looked AMAZING with Christmas lights!

The Christmas spirit was definitely in the air with Christmas music playing, hot chocolate with sugar cookies, all the characters were dressed in their Christmas attire, fire works and a Christmas parade!

We got a fantastic professional shot of our family right in front of the castle without me wearing a silly hat, but we haven't gotten our CD yet!

These two girls were so happy and running from ride to ride, eating popcorn, and having a blast!

My favorite part of the evening was the Christmas parade. We attended the later one at 10:30pm since we were too busy riding rides to watch the 8:30pm one. My brother (having been to Disney several times before) knew where the parade started, so we got amazing seats and watched the parade and had the back part of the park to ourselves as the rest of the people watched the parade! It was very cold, so we bundled up and watched all the Christmas fun!

These guys were too cute!

My favorite part of the parade were these toy soldiers!!!

Here was Brinley's favorite part! Cinderella in her coach! It was beautiful!

Mickey and Minnie starting the parade off!

The main man who ended the parade!

I was so impressed with how well the kids held up and lasted until the park closed at midnight! They were cold, but still going strong!! Their bodies were running on pure "magic"!!!! As we were leaving the park, we noticed Santa had ended the parade and sat down at the end of main street! I figured we better give it a try and see if the kids would sit on his lap (that way I wouldn't have to take them to the mall!!) My favorite picture is at the top of the blog, but here is another one! Not too shabby considering it was taken at midnight!!!!
We got back to the hotel around 1am and everyone passed out!!! We were slow moving the next morning so we ate breakfast in our room while the kids watched classic Disney cartoons (the ones Jason and I grew up on!) and I attempted to pack! I don't know how I did it, but I managed to make 2 big suitcases full of clothes and make them fit into one. The other suitcase turned into the souvenir suitcase! It is a good thing we flew Elite status and had a 70lb bag limit because both bags weighed 65 lbs!!!

The flight home was less than desirable! Clayton screamed bloody murder for 2 hours (he finally fell asleep the last 30 minutes). He was DONE!!! We were all in bed by 8 pm that night!!! It was great to be back in our own beds and off our feet!

Since then we have been trying to catch up on rest, but that has been hard! We have had Christmas parties, Clayton's birthday and getting ready for Christmas! I am ready for January 1st!!!

Thank you mamaw and pops for such an AMAZING trip!!! It was wonderful to see the magic in my kids eyes! It was hard not to feel magical myself, Disney really knows how to do it!

Disney World Day 3- Animal Kingdom

2010-12-21T17:39:00.013-05:00

Animal Kingdom is the smallest park, so we got there early and planned to spend 1/2 a day there. The kids needed to take a nap in the afternoon, because we had the Mickey Christmas party from 7pm to midnight!

Brinley and Reese in front of the Animal Kingdom Christmas tree

The first thing we did was ride the safari ride. Since we were one of the first to ride, they were feeding the animals and they were all very active! We saw rhinos, giraffes, elephants, fl amigos, lions, and birds. Brinley was very excited to see the giraffes since the last time we went to the zoo, they were being moved and we didn't see them. We even saw a baby giraffe that came right up to the safari bus and it was so cute!
A giraffe eating off the safari bus

After the ride you could walk around and see lots of fish, birds, monkeys and meercats! There were so many fish in this tank, it looked like they were swimming in gel because they were moving so slowly!

They had a child area that was dinosaur themed with a few rides for little kids. Clayton loved all the dinosaurs!
Animal Kingdom also has it set up where you can visit certain characters under their huts. We saw Mickey, Minnie, and Goofy all dressed up in their Christmas attire. It was really cute!

After we ate some yummy BBQ (which we were thrilled to find since we had been living on waffles, chicken nuggets and fries!!!) we headed back to the hotel for a much needed nap for everyone!

Disney World Day 2- Hollywood Studios

2010-12-21T17:08:00.007-05:00

We spent our Saturday at Hollywood Studios (formerly known at MGM).

This park was the best place to see all the characters and get their autographs! When we walked in, there were 8 different characters in the same area! So we divided the adults up to stand in line and had the kids run from line to line. It worked out perfectly and we got pictures and autographs of all 8 in under 20 minutes!!!

Another Pluto sighting...this lil man was in heaven!

While there, we took a behind the scenes tour. It was really interesting to see where they make the costumes, design the animation, and see old artifacts from all the Disney movies (including Herbie!) Here is me and my happy little man who loved riding on the tram!!!

We also got to see a car stunt show. Jason and Brinley really enjoyed watching all the cars and it was amazing to see how some can drive with such control! This car looks photo shopped in, but I swear it was jumping from one truck to another!!!

We also got to watch the Block Party which featured all the character from Toy Story, Monsters vs Aliens, and lots of dancers! It was a perfect time to sit down and rest and the kids had a fabulous time watching it!
On our way to the light show, we stumbled onto these guys. For the record, my kids LOVE the movie Cars. They would watch it everyday if I let them. To say they were excited to see them would be an understatement! Clayton could barely stand still!

We ended our evening with the Osborne Family light show. Let me just say WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The entire main street was covered from top to bottom with lights and synchronized to music! It was really breathtaking to watch. I tried to talk Jason into decorating our house like this next year, but he didn't go for it ;-)

We headed home when the park closed and got to bed by 10! Another long day in the books, but no time to slow down because tomorrow was our last day!!!

Disney World Day 1- Magic Kingdom

2010-12-21T14:27:00.009-05:00

I am really behind on blogging, mostly because we have been soooo busy and this is the first time I have had time to sit down to recap our wonderful and exhausting trip to Disney world! As a Christmas present to the grandkids, my parents took us to Disney World the first weekend in December. It was the perfect time to go! The weather was in the low 70's, the parks weren't too crowded and it was decorated for Christmas!

Brinley and Reese all ready to go with their first of many mouse ears!
Friday morning, we got up bright and early and headed to Magic Kingdom. Brinley was really excited to see Cinderella's castle. I was very skeptical on how Clayton would react to all the characters, since he threw a fit when I tried to get him close to Santa before we left! As luck would have it, Pluto was standing at the entrance! Clayton is obsessed with Pluto and lugs one around wherever we go and sleeps with him every night! Clayton immediately ran up to him and gave him big hugs! That was the end of character fear for the little man!!
Clayton absolutely loved the Tea cups and cried when we took him off! He kept asking to ride cups! We couldn't spin him fast enough, he loved it! Brinley also loved riding the teacups with Reese because they went REALLY fast. All the pictures we took were blurry because they went so fast! I got sick just watching them!
Another favorite ride was the Dumbo ride! We were lucky that we only had to wait 20 minutes (when crowded, it can be a 2 hour wait)!!!

My family in front of Cinderella's Castle

Brinley's favorite princess is Cinderella! She was in complete aww when she met all the princesses! When they would ask her questions, she would be tongue tied! I equate it to what would happen if I met Brad Pitt. She was star struck! It was so cute to see her eyes shine whenever she got around one of the princesses!

Of course, it is all about the Mouse! We were fortunate to meet both Mickey and Minnie at the same time! Clayton really took a liking to Minnie and climbed right in her lap and gazed at her as she gave him kisses! Here is our big family shot!
Friday evening, we ate dinner at Cinderella's castle! While you ate dinner, all the princess walked around to visit, take pictures and sign autographs. The girls were given wands and the boys a sword (great a weapon for Clayton!) The food was yummy and it was nice to sit down for more than 10 minutes!!!!
After dinner, we took a bus to Downtown Disney. This an area that had restaurants, bars and lots of shopping! They had a HUGE Christmas store where we stocked up on ornaments and also the biggest princess store where we also did some damage! After picking up some deserts at Goofy's candy store, the kids got to play in the snow (shaved ice) while Christmas music was playing! It definitely got us into the Christmas spirit!

Once we got back to the room around 10pm, we discovered that Mickey and Minnie had visited our room and left us stuffed animals, hats with their names on them, autograph book, blanket, balloons and snowflakes! It was quite a surprise and Brinley was so happy that Mickey visited our room...(wink, wink)
Day one was fast and furious with lots of sights to see and walking done! Both kids held up much better than I thought they would. I even got Clayton to take an hour nap in his stroller. I think both of them were running on adrenaline! We fell asleep as soon as our heads hit the pillows! We had to get up early to start day 2!!!

Thanksgiving Week

2010-11-29T16:00:00.006-05:00

We have had a wonderful and busy Thanksgiving week. We started out the weekend by celebrating Jason's birthday. We went to his parent's house for some lasagna and cookie cake! Brinley and Clayton were more than happy to help Daddy blow out his candles.

Monday and Tuesday were spent sleeping in, since we had nothing on our calendar! We also met up with friends for play dates on these days!

Wednesday, I spent the entire day in the kitchen baking for my contribution to two thanksgiving dinners. I made 2 cherry pies, 2 pumpkin bread loaves, cranberry/apple jello salad and a cheese ball!

We woke up Thursday, watched some of the parade before heading to my parent's house for thanksgiving lunch. Then we waddled over to Jason's parents for Thanksgiving dinner. Needless to say we were stuffed turkeys before the day was done!

Friday was spent being lazy and putting up Christmas decorations!

Saturday, we headed down to Moody Gardens Festival of Lights in Galveston. We had a great time bundled up and viewing the Christmas lights and ice skating. It was the perfect way to get into the holiday spirit!

Birthdays, Beach and Princesses!

2010-11-18T19:04:00.003-05:00

We have had a very busy first of November! The first weekend I was able to get away with several of my dear friends to celebrate Patty and my birthdays! Since hers is around Thanksgiving and mine is before Christmas, this was the only time we could squeeze them in! Luckily, she owns a beach house and we headed down to Crystal beach for a weekend full of laughter, eating, drinking and taking silly pictures! It was a much needed, kid free, girl time! This is the only one I know the three women wouldn't kill me for putting on here.....

Last weekend, we went out to dinner at the Taste of Texas to celebrate my dad and Jason's birthday (only a week apart!) The steak was yummy and the restaurant was already decorated for Christmas, which kinda put me in the festive mood!

On Sunday, Brinley and I headed out for our girls day to see Disney's Princesses on Ice. We went with her BFF's and their mom's. The girls were really excited about wearing their princess dresses and realized once we got there that was the thing to do! Everyone was in costume! We first went to lunch at Pappasito's and then enjoyed the show! Brinley was in a trance the entire time and hardly said a word, even at intermission! Once the show was over, she would not shut up about the Tinkerbell (her new princess obsession) and all the other aspects of the show!

We are now gearing up for a very busy month! We have thanksgiving, Disney world with my family, Clayton's 2nd birthday, my birthday, Christmas and our 7th wedding anniversary. I think I need to sleep for a few days just to get ready for all the chaos! It will be a blast...there I put in writing to remind myself when I am smack dab in the middle of it :-)

Halloween Happenings

2010-11-01T22:24:00.008-04:00

Our Halloween festivities started last Sunday with Trick or Treat at the park. We have attended this for the past 3 years with Brinley's BFF's and a good time is had by all. Clayton really enjoyed it this year and after a few booths, realized he would get candy if he walked up and said "pwwweeeeze". It was so cute! He also got the "thank you" part down really well.

My little sock monkey

Brinley the "bat-arrina"

photo opt at the park

Wednesday was the Halloween carnival at Brinley's school. She got to wear her costume and play all sorts of fun games. I sadly did not take any pictures, but believe me, she had a great time ;-)

Friday, we spent the evening eating king ranch chicken, watching "The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown" and carving pumpkins. Clayton did not like touching the innards so he used a scoop. Brinley on the other hand, went elbow deep and had a ball pulling the pumpkin brains out!

The finished products (l to r: Brinley, Jason and Clayton)

Jason also dressed up for work on Friday as Count Dracula

Sunday, Brinley had a costume birthday party to attend in the afternoon and then we headed over to the Mulsow's for the 2nd annual Halloween bash. The live on a cul-de-sac, so it is an ideal place to party and trick and treat! Every one brings food, lawn chairs and the kids run WILD!

The crew all ready to trick or treat
Clayton taking out the pinata
She was going full speed to get to each house for trick or treating

Clayton really got into the trick or treating this year too!

Taking a break to eat some candy

I am glad October is over because it was soooo busy! But with November here, I will be planning a 2 year old bday party, getting ready for Disney in December and I have already started Christmas shopping! I am ready for January already :-)

Oil Ranch Pumpkin Patch

2010-10-14T21:08:00.006-04:00

Last week, we took advantage of yet another beautiful fall day and headed all the way out to Hockley, Tx to The Oil Ranch. Thursdays are our day with nothing on the calendar, so I am trying to enjoy the last of these weekly outings before Brinley starts Kindergarten next year and we have to join the masses on weekends!

My mom (or mamaw) joined us for lots of horse rides, animal feeding, and pumpkin picking! We also had Brinley's BFF and her brother (clayton's age) join in on the fun. The weather was perfect and we are exhuasted from a day of fresh air and farm life!

Clayton's favorite part was feeding the geese. They really hurt as they pecked at your hand, but he thought it was funny and kept going back for more food!

Little man was all smiles on the swings

Brinley's favorite part was the horse rides. She did it twice and I had to talk her out of more times than that!!!

The crew sat still long enough for a group shot!

We took a hayride out to the cow pasture where they walk right up and expect you to feed them! Some even nibble at your shoe laces when you run out of food!
Clayton also got a big kick out of feeding the cows!

Houston Zoo

2010-10-07T20:38:00.004-04:00

We took a spontaneous trip to the zoo this morning. The weather has been GORGEOUS for the past week. It is actually feeling like fall around here. Needless to say, we have been spending every chance we get outside, enjoying cool, humidity-free, sweat-free fresh air!!!

Grandma and Pa-pa (Jason's parents) decided to join us for a day of lions, tigers and bears. We had a great time chasing two kids who wanted to go separate directions the entire time! Brinley is the type of zoo goer who looks at each animal for a brief second and is eagerly waiting to move on to the next animal. Clayton likes to study each animal and observe them in their habitats. Therefore, I will never be able to take them to the zoo by myself!!

We were able to see the new baby elephant who was born this week!

Brinley and Clayton hanging out inside the fish tank!

Brinley already has him pushing her around while she relaxes!!!

A must have photo opt at the Houston zoo!

Clayton really enjoyed brushing and chasing the goats around

"He is the daddy because he has a long beard", she cracks me up!

Another photo opt!

Arkansas vs Alabama football game

2010-09-28T14:10:00.003-04:00

Jason and I dropped the kids off at my parents and headed to Arkansas for the weekend! We flew into Little Rock Friday night and got to visit with Wendi and her hubby!

Saturday morning, we drove up to Fayetteville for the Hogs/Alabama football game with the Lipsey's. Once we got to Fayetteville, we stopped by the tail gate party my sorority was putting on. It was great to see some girls I haven't seen in years! The weather was perfect (75 degrees) and the game was fantastic (until the last 6 minutes, when Alabama came back to win!) It felt really great to be back in Razorback Stadium calling those hogs!

A sad sea of red leaving Razorback stadium
After the game, we walked to a Mexican food restaurant to eat while we waited for the traffic to clear (nothing like 76,000 people trying to leave at the same time!)

Rachel and I with our Razorback Margaritas

Saturday night, we spent the night with the Ferguson's and then got up Sunday morning to meet Shannon and her hubby for brunch before heading back to Little Rock to catch our flight home. Did I mention it was 56 degrees Sunday morning! I got to order a hot chocolate :-)

I guess some of that cool weather followed us home because a cool front came in Sunday and the past two days has been GORGEOUS weather! We have been playing outside all day (and not sweating to death!).

Blah

2010-09-21T11:57:00.004-04:00

This past week has been very blah! It has rained pretty much every day and we have just been going through our schedule with nothing really exciting happening.

We did get to visit with some friends at their new house Saturday night. The kids had a great time playing with their their Wii yoga mat (mostly with Daddy pulling them very fast on it) and playing with their 120 lb dog, Max. Clayton had a blast chasing Max around and squealing with delight as he got knocked down by the dog that was at least a foot taller than him!

We are getting excited about our trip to Fayetteville to watch the Hogs play Alabama this weekend! So hopefully that will bring us out of the rainy funk we have been in!

Sports Mania

2010-09-13T15:25:00.009-04:00

This past week has been very sports oriented for us! Despite the fact that we have been watching college and pro football non-stop since opening weekend, we also have added soccer (professional and amateur) to the mix!

We attended the Houston Dynamo soccer game last Sunday. We have season tickets and have really enjoyed watching them. I am not a huge soccer fan, even though my husband is a fanatic and still plays every Sunday. Going to the Dynamo games have turned me into a fan! Seeing the professionals play up close in person is very exciting! Brinley really enjoys the games too! She can follow them and even yells GOAL, when they score. Clayton just enjoys the games for the popcorn :-)

On Tuesday, Brinley started her 2nd year of dance. She was soooo ready to get back after having the summer off. It was funny to watch the girls jump back in like they haven't missed a beat! They even remembered all the names of the moves! Their studio teaches them the french words, so with learning Spanish at school, she is becoming quite bilingual.

Saturday morning (bright and early), was Brinley's first soccer game. It was very humid outside and even though Clayton and I sat in chairs and watched, we were soaking wet as if we had played. Jason is the assistance coach for the team, so he was running the entire time. Needless to say, we all needed a bath after the game! Brinley did so good. She scored the first goal for their team and stayed focused pretty well. She had one breakdown towards the end of the game because they kids on the other team "weren't sharing the ball" so I guess we will have to work on stealing it away from them!

Clayton enjoyed the game from his chair with Ted the bear who spent the weekend with us from Brinley's class at school!

Saturday night, we celebrated Jason's mother's birthday. It was a great night filled with lots of family, food and fun. The kids ran themselves ragged and needed another bath that night!

Sunday, Jason and I went to the Houston Texan football game against the Colts with my parents. I will say that this was the BEST game I have ever been to in the 9 years they been in Houston. We won, but we also dominated the Colts! We also got to see Clay Walker sing the national anthem and then he walked right past our seats as he was leaving!
Peyton Manning after the first sack by Mario Williams....I love Peyton, but enjoyed watching him get sacked :-)
Clay Walker...it would have been a great shot had the guy in front not moved in front of me at the last minute!!!!

Back to School

2010-09-03T16:35:00.004-04:00

On Monday, Brinley started preschool and Clayton started back to Mothers Day out! I can hardly believe that this time next year Brinley will be in Kindergarten! Where does the time go!

Brinley was very excited to get back school (she has been asking every morning for a month if she was going)! She has the same teachers from last year and most of her friends are still in her class. She ran right in with no problems and had a great day!

Clayton also went in with no problems! He doesn't have the same teachers as last year, but he is in the room next door and had recess with those teachers. He ran right in the room (yelling "bye") as he found the cars and racetrack to play with! He had a great day and even told a friend to "sit down" when he wasn't cooperating to get in the stroller for a walk! Ha Ha Ha!!!!

I love this backpack shot! Clayton was so excited to wear his back pack, he cried when I took it off him to put him in the car!!!

Brinley- 4 years old and Clayton- 20 months, August 2010

What did I do on my glorious five hours off? I went and worked out, grocery shopped, took a bath and ate lunch without saying SINGLE word!!! I now treasure not having to say "no, stop, quit fighting, etc. I do plan to start volunteering at the elementary school by my house to get some dust off, but right now I am going to enjoy the silence :-)

On Fridays, Brinley only goes to school until 12, so Clayton and I are taking a mommy and me gymnastics class. He really loves being able to run, jump, swing on trapeze, and fall into the foam shape pit! It is the perfect place for him to get his "boy-ness" out!

I did not take this picture today, it is from the summer class, but I love how happy he looks while walking the balance beam!

Good Bye Summer

2010-08-29T11:03:00.011-04:00

Today is our last official day of summer. Brinley starts preschool and Clayton starts back to MDO tomorrow! We have been very busy the past 3 weeks, sending summer off in style!

We closed out our YMCA family pool season on a Saturday. We normally go during the week after I exercise and isn't as crowded. Luckily, everyone must have been getting ready to go back to school, so we had the pool to ourselves! It was also a treat that Jason got to come with us. It was very nice to have him with me to chase the kids around!!!

On Sunday, Jason took Brinley with his family to the Astros game. Since Clayton would be no fun to keep up with at a game, he and I took my brother out to lunch for his birthday with my family!

Brinley at minute maid park watching the Astros

Brinley and Aunt Marian

Clayton enjoying his new helmet Daddy got him

On Monday, we went with my mom to the new waterpark in Baytown, Pirates Bay. It is really nice and the kids had a great time sliding, riding in the lazy river and splashing around!

The rest of the week was filled with all kinds of fun activities with Bill, Vickie and the kids who were visiting from Switzerland for the week. First, we headed to the Moody Gardens Aquarium in Galveston. Brinley has been several times, but this was Clayton's first time (that he would remember) and boy did he LOVE it! He was fascinated with the sea lions and penguins. He would stand there and watch them for 30 minutes without moving!

Grandpa with his grandkids

This picture pretty much sums up how wild and crazy Brinley and Wyatt are when they are together!!!!!!!!!

We also celebrated Marian's 15th birthday (how crazy is it that Jason and I started dating when she was 3 years old!!!!!!!!)

Hannah, Marian, Brinley, Lizzy, Wyatt and Max

We also went to Marian's High School band preview concert. The kids really enjoyed listening and dancing to the music! Afterwards, Grandma treated the kids to ice cream cones....at 8:30pm! Needless to say this was a long night :-)

This is how Clayton prefers to eat his ice cream cone!

Poor Liam was sick almost the entire trip, so this was the only picture I got of him on the last night when he was feeling a little better!

In the midst of all the craziness, the kids finished their summer gymnastics class.

We also attended Brinley's BFF, Addison's birthday party at the skating rink.

This last week has been uneventful since we have been trying to get back onto a schedule and get ready for school tomorrow! We did spend yesterday at the beach. Some friends of our got a beach house and had their daughter's birthday party there. It was wonderful and made me really want to get a beach house.....Jason's reply "get a job". Maybe someday!

This boy really LOVES cake

my little beach babies

riding the ferry was the highlight of her day!

Daddy teaching her how to boogie board

a boy and his wagon

PHEWWWWW! I am now tired just writing about all this! I am soo ready to be back on a schedule. The ease of summer schedules are great, but more tiring on me. We had a great time and can't wait for next summer!

a little trip to paradise

2010-08-10T15:29:00.005-04:00

Jason came home from work last week and let me know he had booked a long weekend trip to Mexico. I was shocked at first, because we hadn't even discussed going to Mexico this year with our trip to Switzerland in April and our upcoming trip to Disney in December. He had a few days of downtime at work (a first in months) and the rest of the year looks to be very busy for him as well.

So my mom came over to stay with the kids and we took off to the Riviera Maya, Mexico for 4 days! We went to the same all inclusive, adults only resort we had gone to in 2007. Jason had looked at several other resorts, but when it came down to it, we were too spoiled at the El Dorado Royale :-)

When we got the airport, another surprise awaited me, Jason had upgraded us to first class with a private car picking us up at the airport to take us to the resort. It was my first time in first class and I must admit, I like having all the extra space! We got the resort and it was as breathtaking as I remember it. For the next 3 days, our schedule consisted of:

sleep late

eat breakfast

lay on beach/sit in ocean/read or sleep on beach

eat lunch

hang out in pool with bartender and drink

go back to beach

eat dinner

go to main bar for nightly entertainment

sleep

It was wonderful to have absolutely no responsibilities, eat a meal without getting interrupted, clean, cook, etc. By the way, my mom said the dog missed us more than the kids did! I got to read 2 novels, work on my tan (a little too much the last day!) and relax! It was a great way to unwind and have some couple time!

We had an infinity pool on our balcony!
This is the view we had for lunch one day

cheers to starting our vacation

Us at the candlelit dinner on the beach

Jason sleeping at our cabana on the beach

me and the beautiful ocean

the view from our balcony...not too shabby

Brinley's 4th birthday weekend

2010-07-26T14:12:00.007-04:00

Last weekend was Brinley's birthday. Monday was actually her birthday, but we had her party on Saturday. For the last 6 months, she has been telling me that she wanted her party at Jump N Jungle and had to have a mermaid cake. Not once did she waiver on these two ideas! Here are pictures from her big day!

The mermaid cake she picked out and I made

Sliding down the slide at Jump N Jungle

Here is the crew that came to the party...notice Clayton crying and running out of the picture!

Time to blow out the candles

Present time. This is the lap board I made for her to color/draw on

Clayton enjoying the party (after lots of cake and ice cream!!!)

**on a side note, I need to say how NICE it was to have a party not at my house!!! No cleaning before/after and no food preparation (besides cake). It was the most relaxing birthday party day ever! I think this has ended our home party era.....famous last words :-)

On Sunday, we headed down to Galveston to eat at Brinley's favorite restaurant, The Rainforest Cafe. The entire restaurant looks like a rainforest with moving animated animals and rain storms that happen every 15 minutes! Lots of fun, even Clayton enjoyed it. After eating, we headed to the beach for the last few hours of daylight. It is really the best time to go because it is not hot and you don't get sunburned!

Brinley and the frog at the Rainforest Cafe

This girl is absolutely a beach girl! She loves to be in the ocean!

They did this for at least 30 minutes! She filled up the wagon, he pulled it out to the ocean.

splashing around

Monday, on Brinley's actual birthday, we met her friends at Chick fil a for lunch. The girls played and then we had cupcakes and sang happy birthday to her.

That evening, we gave Brinley our present to her, a big girl bike. She asked Santa for one last Christmas, but we decided to wait for her birthday when she could get more use of it with better weather. She was thrilled to see her new purple (fav color) bike! She loved the bell on the handle bars too! She rides around ringing the bell and saying "mail lady". Clayton is also happy because he now can ride her big wheels without her getting mad!

I love her face! She was sooo happy

The first of many rides together, although we need to get him a more manly ride!

Brinley, you are such a sweet and happy little girl. You are 41.5 inches tall and weigh 37 lbs. You love life and always have a smile on your face. Your imagination has really kicked in and you can play with your barbies or princesses for hours. It is hard to believe you will be starting kindergarten, this time next year!!! You love being a big sister and teaching Clayton new things and you can't wait to show him how to potty like a big boy. Dancing and dressing up is your favorite thing to do! You also love to help me around the house by feeding the animals every night and putting your clean clothes away. We are blessed to have you in our lives!!!

July 4th

2010-07-05T12:10:00.005-04:00

We spent the 4th of July at my brother's house swimming, eating and popping fireworks! Thanks to hurricane Alex, it rained the entire week here. I think we got 10 inches of rain on Friday!!! God knew how to pick up our cabin fevered, water logged spirits by creating a beautifully sunny (and HOT) 4th of July.

We spent the entire day in the pool. Brinley enjoyed hanging out with the older kids (Reese and her cousins), while Clayton enjoyed splashing, throwing balls and diving sticks into the pool.

We also ATE the entire time we were there. To say we had a ton of food would be an understatement! Hamburgers, hot dogs, sausage, boudan balls, bacon tomato tartlettes, chips, queso, salsa, watermelon, ham and turkey roll ups, and grilled jalapenos stuffed with cream cheese. The desert counter (oh yea, I said counter!) included : oreo balls, individual cherry pies, Texas white sheet cake, chocolate chip cookies, pretzels dipped in icing, and homemade ice cream!!!!!!!! Lets just say I am still full this morning :-)

Once it got dark and we coaxed our sun burnt, pruned bodied kids out of the pool, we started the fireworks show. Normally, Blake's neighborhood puts on a fabulous fireworks show, but thanks to the rain, everything was waterlogged and rescheduled until Labor day. So Blake and Jason went the fireworks stand and like kids in a candy store, bought a large amount of pyrotechnics for our viewing pleasure!

I was worried how Clayton would take firework action since he hadn't had a nap, swam all day and eaten himself into a coma, but in true man form, he LOVED IT!

We got home around 11pm and now we are spending the day being lazy. It was a great way to spend the 4th of July!

18 months old

2010-06-22T14:25:00.003-04:00

It is hard to believe that my little man is 18 months old! He is 33 inches tall (66th %) and weighs 24 lbs (25th %), so he is tall and skinny like his daddy!

Clayton you have really turned into a little boy this past month. You are fully understanding everything we say and can answer our questions with a shake of head for yes or no! We also get a "yeah" to answer yes sometimes! You are talking up a storm, while most of it is still jibber jabber, you are saying 12-13 words very clearly! Your favorites are "uh-oh" "bye" "dadda" "momma" "ruff ruff" (dogs) and "B-B" (which is what you call Brinley and she is THRILLED you are calling her name now). You love to help mom by going and getting your shoes, putting your dirty cup in the sink, putting your laundry in the hamper and then putting your clean clothes in the drawer.

You are fearless and love jumping off the fireplace to land on the little couch, doing rolls that you learned in gymnastics and climbing onto anything that you can! You are also eating anything that we put on your plate (except melons) and love to sleep! You are such a sweet little boy and I love your laugh and hugs!

Little Rock, Arkansas

2010-06-14T15:10:00.010-04:00

This past weekend, we packed up the car and drove to Little Rock, Arkansas for Wendi's wedding reception. We decided to leave after dinner Thursday night so the kids would spend the majority of the 7 hour drive sleeping. They did really well and didn't make a fuss in the car coming or going! We hit a torrential downpour that made up drive 30mph on the freeway for 2 hours!!! Once we woke up in the morning, we saw on the news that a flash flood from that rain had killed many people camping right as we drove by :-(

After we grabbed a quick bite to eat Friday morning, we met my dear friend, Rachel, and her kids (which are the same age as mine) to tour downtown Little Rock. First we headed to the Peabody Hotel to watch the famous duck march. It is the cutest thing ever! They bring the ducks from their conservatory riding the elevator, then they walk the red carpet to get to the pond in the center of the hotel which has their food!!! All the kids got a real kick out of watching the ducks ride the glass plated elevator.

After that, we headed over to the Little Rock nature center. The kids enjoyed watching all the fish swim around and looking at snakes, birds, and turtles.

After a quick lunch, we headed back to the hotel for a much needed nap! After the nap, we headed to the Lipsey house for some hot dogs, rock band and visiting with the bride!

Saturday morning, we headed over to the Discovery museum to let the kids burn off some energy. Brinley and Clayton got to pet a lizard, ferret and porcupine, while we were there!

After lunch, Jason headed off to a pub to watch the USA vs England soccer game, while Rachel and I took the kids back to our hotel for some swimming! That evening, we headed to Wendi's Hawaiian themed wedding reception (they got married in Hawaii a few weeks ago). A good time was had by all. It was great catching up with old college friends and watching one of dearest friends celebrate her happiness with her husband.

Brinley also had a great time dancing! Her and Mindi (Wendi's sister) had a dance off in which everyone was gathered around watching! I tried to upload the video but it wouldn't let me :-(

On Sunday, we packed up and headed home. The kids slept or watched movies most of the way. They were worn out from their action packed weekend.

Memorial day at the beach

2010-05-31T15:13:00.002-04:00

We spent our Sunday at the beach to celebrate Memorial day. What says memorial weekend better than the beach, hot dogs and smores??? It has been very hot and humid (even for us this time of year) so the water was nice and warm and the kids could enjoy themselves.

Brinley, of course, lived in the water and had so much fun splashing in the waves. Clayton spent most of his time playing in the sand and wading in the water too. He didn't like the waves splashing his face, but he did like running through the water.

The crew taking a break for some drinks and Cheetos!
Brinley and Clayton taking a Cheetos break!

Playing in the sand

He spent the entire time filling this wagon with sand and dragging it around!

Dance Recital

2010-05-23T14:07:00.004-04:00

Yesterday was Brinley's first dance recital. She has been taking dance since September and loving every minute of it! She was ready to jump out of her skin due to excitement the entire day! She strutted her stuff once we curled her hair, put her makeup and costume on. There were no jitters going into at all!

Brinley did a great job of doing her dance! She barely had to look at the teachers and knew the dance very well. She was grinning from ear to ear once she stepped off the stage and watched in amazement the rest of the recital. When one of the jazz teams performed, she looked at me and said "I want to do that mom!"

I think the leaps were her favorite part!

I think dance will be something we will be doing for many years to come! Especially now that she knows that you get flowers and everyone tells you how pretty you are...Ha ha ha!!

Take me out to the ball game

2010-05-16T14:57:00.005-04:00

Brinley spent this spring taking a tball class at the YMCA. They met once a week for 8 weeks and practiced hitting, throwing, catching and (Brinley's favorite) running the bases. It was a lot of fun and she loved it, so it looks like we will be signing up with the city next spring!

Clayton also enjoyed the tball practices! When they were batting, he was throwing the ball and chasing it. When they were playing catch he spent the entire time putting the ball on the tee and hitting it off. Looks like we will have a baseball player on our hands, because he made contact more than Brinley did...Ha ha ha!

At the end of the class, she got a trophy for her participation. She immediately put it in her room and loves looking at :-)

Evian, France

2010-04-28T14:36:00.007-04:00

***this is the last post from our Europe trip, scroll down to see all the fun we had*******

Wednesday, we officially had been on all modes of transportation by jumping on the boat that crossed Lake Geneva into Evian, France.....that is where the bottled water comes from :-) It was a nice 35 minute ride that let us finally see the French alps since we broke through the clouds!

see how cloudy it was???

We finally broke through the clouds and it was gorgeous!!!

Once we got there, we realized the town must take an afternoon siesta from 12-2, because the only things open were restaurants! We got there at 12 and our boat back left at 2:45, so we were able to get some window shopping in and then quickly buy what we wanted in the 45 minutes we had left. The town of Evian, is very small and quaint! It was 10 degrees warmer so we were able to shed our coats for the first time and enjoy the sunshine. It was very quiet and not very busy so we were able to enjoy the tranquility of the french town!

Sarah and I eating our crepes in France

Brinley loved all the tulips, I wish we could grow them in Houston...too hot :-(

That evening when we got back to Lausanne, we had a first birthday party for Liam. He (along with Brinley, Clayton, and Wyatt) really enjoyed their chocolate cupcakes.

We finally got all four cousins still long enough to get a picture!!!

After we put the kids to bed, we feasted on the traditional Swiss fondue and lots of wine! It was very yummy and we stayed up way too late considering we had to catch the train to the airport at 4:30am!!!

The plane rides back were pretty relaxed until the last three hours. Clayton was done! He was sooo tired, but he was tired of napping on me, so he just cried off and on. It is a good thing he spent the first 7 hours flirting and charming everyone around us, because they weren't annoyed by his crying. We finally had to take turns walking up and down the aisle while holding him.

Clayton coloring on the plane

We sat right behind the bulkhead, which Brinley loved because she could lay on the floor. She spent most of the flight home playing her new Leapster!

Once we got into our car, Clayton started shrieking and didn't stop until we got home. I think he was excited to see something he recognized. We went to bed at 7pm that night and didn't wake up until 7am! It had taken us over a week to get back on Texas time (with a few nights of the kids waking up at 3am ready to go!) We had soooo much fun, but we are glad to be back in our beds and on our routines again.

Sight seeing in Lausanne, Switzerland

2010-04-26T14:44:00.006-04:00

We were pretty worn out from our Milan trip, so we spent Tuesday sight seeing in Lausanne. It is a very beautiful town located on Lake Geneva with lots of old buildings and great sights. Bill took Brinley and Wyatt for the day and took them to the park, so we could tour and buy souvenirs without them bugging us! By souvenirs I mean chocolate, lots and lots of chocolate!!!! We seriously came home with a suitcase filled with wonderfully delicious Swiss chocolate!!!

The building across the street from Bill and Vickie....I love it!

Lausanne building right after it rained for about 5 minutes

Jason and me in front the Cathedral de Lausanne

Lausanne's famous shopping street

the cobblestone streets put him to sleep every time!!!

more shopping!

Brinley and Clayton playing down by the lake

Brinley loved these swings and asked everyday to play on them!

Two tired kids after Uncle Bill took them the park

Clayton and Liam getting some play time outside their strollers!

Milan- Day 2

2010-04-26T14:13:00.007-04:00

We woke up Monday morning and had a wonderful breakfast at our hotel. I found myself wondering how everyone in Europe is so thin with all the breads and pastries they eat at every single meal....must be all the walking!!!

We headed to a local castle in Milan. Unfortunately, the inside was closed, but we were able to tour the grounds and let the kids run wild. Brinley was a little upset when she did not get to find the princess that lived in the castle, so we told her that she moved on to a bigger and better castle :-) We were also found a great souvenir shop right outside where we picked up all our usual trinkets (magnets, shirts, postcards).

After the castle, we rode the metro (aka- subway) to the Milan Square where the Cathedral and shopping plaza was. Brinley really enjoyed riding the metro, she kept asking if each stop was ours, so Jason taught her how to look at the map and count how many stops until ours.

After grabbing a delicious pizza for lunch, we headed to see the inside of the Duomo Cathedral. On a side note, Clayton fell asleep mid-chew during lunch he was soooo exhausted! I had to pry his mouth open and fish out what food he had in there! The inside of the Duomo was just a gorgeous as the outside. The stained glass windows were breathe taking. Brinley asked to get married in this church.....we may have to work on that one sweetie!

We then walked across the square to the main shopping plaza for Milan. It was very upscale stores like Prada, Gucci, Louis Vuitton and about double the price that we pay for them here! We didn't do any shopping but it was nice to walk around and look at the gorgeous building.

As we headed back to the train station, we saw a Cannoli vendor and had to try them. They were pretty good and filled our task of trying all the authentic Italian food we could!

The train ride that evening was very quiet, as everyone was worn out! We got home just in time to put the kids to bed and eat some surprisingly good Chinese take out from across the street of Bill and Vickie's building. It was either really good or we were starving and dirt would have tasted good :-)

Milan, Italy- Day 1

2010-04-25T15:08:00.006-04:00

We hopped on a train at 6am on Sunday to head to Milan, Italy for 2 days. It was a gorgeous ride with amazing scenery. Brinley and Clayton loved the train ride. We don't know how they didn't get motion sickness from staring out the window so much!

Once we got to Milan, the boys headed off to a soccer match (which I think was Jason's favorite part of the trip), while the girls and kids shopped at a little flea market outside the train station. I found some really cute Italian made shoes for a great price :-) It started to rain on us, so we grabbed McDonald's (the only type of fast food in Europe) and took it back to hotel. The kids took a much needed nap until the rain stopped!

Jason at the AC Milan soccer stadium

Milan train station (the yellow tents is where we shopped)

We met the boys in the Milan square that evening. We ate an Italian restaurant. It was delicious!!! Brinley and Clayton chowed down on their spaghetti. After eating we walked over to the Cathedral del Duomo. This church was absolutely AMAZING! I cannot believe the detail that was put into this church. Every little nook and cranny had some sculpture or design. It was hard to believe they were capable of this kind of architecture such a long time ago! The inside of the church was closed, but we were able to ride the elevator to the top of the church (300+ feet tall) and see the whole city.

Brinley and Wyatt at a park in Milan

Us in front of the Cathedral del Duomo

Wyatt and Clayton running outside the restaurant

the group on top of the Duomo

Jason has such a great eye for taking pictures!

The Milan Square at night

We finished our long day with Gelato......when in Italy, eat as the Italians...LOL!

Day 2

2010-04-25T14:35:00.005-04:00

****scroll down for the first post of our trip******

On the next day, everyone was still pretty tired, so Vickie and I took the kids to the park. It was a gorgeous park with plenty of space to run around!

Brinley and Wyatt- scooters are the way for the kids to get around

Some beautiful flowers in the park

Loved the roots of this tree!

After lunch and naps, we headed down by Lake Geneva to eat pizza for dinner and see the sights. It was too cloudy to see the mountains, but the views were still pretty amazing!

Clayton and Liam chilling in their strollers

Down by Lake Geneva- I loved these knobby trees!

Lake Geneva with French Alps in background

Brinley and Jason by the lake

Switzerland

2010-04-25T14:11:00.005-04:00

Now that things have settled down and we are FINALLY back on Texas time, I can write about and upload pictures from our Europe trip! Since we took over 600 pictures, I will do this in several posts over the next few days....hopefully :-)

We left Thursday afternoon. Our first flight was 10 hours into Amsterdam. The kids did really well (much to my surprise!) Clayton slept the first 2 hours since he missed his nap and Brinley was occupied by looking out the window of the plane. After a delicious dinner (plane food has really come a long way!), the kids were entertained by the portable DVD player and new toys I had packed their backpacks with. Around 10pm our time and four hours into the flight, we finally got them to go to sleep for about 5 hours. Of course Clayton slept on me the entire time which made it very hard for me to comfortable and I did not get any sleep :-(

We woke the kids up in time to get off the plane. We had about an hour before our flight to Geneva, Switzerland left, so we grabbed some breakfast and boarded for the the 1.5 hour flight. It was pretty uneventful. Jason and Clayton slept while Brinley and I played her new Leapster video game. We arrived at the airport at Noon and took the 1 hour train ride to Lausanne where Bill and Vickie live. By this time I had not slept in over 24 hours, I was EXHAUSTED!!

View from Bill and Vickie's balcony....normally you can see the mountains but it was too cloudy the whole time we were there :-(

After a quick nap, we took the kids to the park to burn off some energy.

We all went to bed early that night and caught up on some much needed sleep!

Easter 2010

2010-04-05T15:03:00.007-04:00

We had a wonderful Easter this year. On Saturday, we spent the entire day at home playing outside, dying eggs and watching movies and eating chicken spaghetti!

Easter morning, we all slept in until 9am!! This is normally a great thing, but we had to leave to be at my brothers house for lunch at 11am!!!! So we got up, the kids went through their baskets, we hunted the eggs the Easter bunny hid and then ate breakfast, cleaned up and dressed. We were only 10 minutes late getting out the door, so pretty good.

Clayton really loved egg hunting. He was real excited for the first 3 or 4 eggs he got, then he was done! He spent the rest of the time running around throwing the eggs. Brinley was more than happy to pick up whatever eggs he left behind :-)

look how excited his face is...precious

look how many eggs I have

all dressed up in their Easter clothes (not Clayton, it was too warm for his long sleeve and sweater vest)

We headed to my brothers house to lunch. Ham, sweet potatoes, baked beans, deviled eggs and tea were on the menu. I may or may not have eaten my weight in deviled eggs, but those little suckers are soooo good and we only get them at Easter! After lunch, the kids had another egg hunt.

Brinley, Clayton and Reese
I am getting really good at this!!!

After all the fun at my brothers, we packed up and headed to Jason's aunt's house for Easter dinner. We did not make the mistake of leaving the candy in the car this year (last year we left it in the car and the Houston heat made it into mush). It was hard tearing Brinley and Clayton away from the trampoline to eat, but I finally got them to nibble here and there. Candy and sweets definitely ruled the day! We spent the entire, breezy evening outside while the kids jumped, swung and sweated! Then they had another egg hunt. Yes that is 3 egg hunts in one day! We came home with 2 gallon size zip lock bags of candy! One of those bags got sent to work with Jason for his coworkers to enjoy.

Brinley, Clayton and Hannah

He had the biggest smile the entire time on the trampoline

Brinley and Hannah's favorite game

Our Easter was filled with great food, family and lots of fun. We are recovering today and getting ready to take our trip to Switzerland on Wednesday to visit Jason's brother and his family. I will have lots to post in two weeks!

Houston Rodeo

2010-03-21T21:29:00.005-04:00

We have spent quite a bit of our last two weeks at the rodeo. I had a girls night out to see Tim McGraw.

Then we took the kids one Friday to see the animals and ride the carnival rides. We spent 6 hours roaming the grounds and were very surprised the kids lasted that long! Brinley absolutely fell in love with riding the rides and we were shocked how much of a dare devil she was! She loved the roller coasters and rides that spun you around really fast. She was an inch short of the "adult rides" and was devastated when she couldn't ride them. Next year kiddo!

bumper cars with Daddy

I can't believe she loved this one, it went sooooo fast!

Roller coasters were definitely a favorite...she rode it 2 or 3 times!

"we're flying mommy!"

Clayton enjoyed his rodeo experience. He spent most of it people watching from his stroller and eating! He did love the pony rides. As soon as Jason put him on, he grabbed the reigns and started shaking them. He threw a fit when the ride was over and he had to get off! He also really enjoyed all the loud music at the carnival and was dancing so much!

Brinley holding the elephant her daddy won her and her new cowgirl hat she picked out!

We also went this past Thursday to see the Black Eyed Peas with friends. It was by far the best concert I have seen at the rodeo in the 15+ years I have been going!

Another rodeo season in the books, can't wait for next year!

awwwww.....spring

2010-03-10T15:11:00.003-05:00

After what has been an unusually cold and wet winter, spring has been teasing us this past week with warmer temperatures and sunshine! I am so ready for green to enter our lives again because I am tired of looking at all the dead grass, trees and bushes!

This past Saturday was my mom's birthday and we took her out to eat at PF Changs...YUM! We drank some delicious Asian Pear mojitos and feasted on wayyyy to much fried rice, lettuce wraps, and fortune cookies!

After eating, we headed back to my brother's house so the girls could get some play time in. Dressing up is always a favorite for Brinley and she even talked Reese into doing it (since, according to her, she is now in 1st grade and it is no longer cool to be into princess stuff!)
Sunday, after Jason mowed the yard and trimmed our tree, we spent the afternoon outside enjoying the weather!
Please ignore the rain boots, which have become Brinley's favorite shoes and wears them every chance she can get!

Monday night I went to the Houston Livestock Show and rodeo with some friends to see Tim McGraw. I had to take a picture of the most delicious treat ever!!! Cheesecake, dipped in chocolate on a stick.....PERFECTION!!!!
We hope to take the kids to the rodeo sometime in the next week, but will have to coordinate weather, sick little boy and Jason's work schedule first!!

A gorgeous day at the zoo

2010-03-01T12:22:00.005-05:00

We woke up Saturday morning to a gorgeous sunny day! It has been so gloomy around here lately, we were elated to see sun! Also, Jason has been working a lot this past month, so we decided to get out for some vitamin D and head to the zoo. This was Clayton's first time to the zoo and he really enjoyed it. We took the wagon but he quickly realized that he liked to see the animals from our level, so Jason ended up carrying him for most of the day! We took our lunch and had a great picnic while watching the life light helicopters take off and land from the roof of Memorial Herman Hospital. This happened about every 5 minutes! Poor zoo animals have to listen to that 24/7!

Brinley and Clayton on the seal at the entrance of the zoo
My little Eagle babies in their nest
Jason, Brinley and Clayton with Mr. Elephant
Brinley's favorite animal from the visit
This water fountain has been there 25 years! I have my picture with it when I was 5 years old!

Clayton's favorite place was the reptile building....such a boy!!

Hanging out watching the fish
Clayton loved his first time on the carousel
We got a laugh out of watching the lions play with each other!
Me and the kids by the elephants

After seeing all of the zoo, we rode the newly renovated train that takes you all around Herman Park. It was really neat to see the entire medical center and museums in one fail swoop. Brinley of course really wanted to play at the park but Clayton was ready for his nap and we had enough sun for the day. The kids passed out on the way home and took long naps that day!

It was a great family day!

Bowling

2010-02-24T14:45:00.004-05:00

This past weekend we attended a birthday party for Hannah at the bowling alley. It was Brinley's first time bowling and she really got into it! She thought it was fun waiting for her ball to roll down the lane (which took forever) and then counting how many pins she knocked down. She scored a 50 for her first game (with bumper rails), so not too shabby!

Clayton also LOVED bowling! His paw paw would sit him up by the lane with the ball and let him push it. Clayton would squeal with delight every time he did it (for 2 hours!) and every time he wasn't "bowling" he was crawling to be up there and crying when we stopped him.

I guess we are going to have to make a bowling night a ritual at our house!

Happy Valentines day!!!!

2010-02-14T11:03:00.001-05:00

Clayton's first steps

2010-02-09T16:54:00.003-05:00

I have learned that if I blog about my kids not doing something, they will quickly prove me wrong. On January 28th, Clayton took his first steps! He has only done it a few more times since then, but he is getting more interested in walking. He will now hold your hand and walk in front of you and LOVES walking behind his push toys. In fact, he uses his push toys, trash cans, dog food bin, chairs to get where ever he wants to go, just like a walker! It seems easier to me for him to learn to walk than to do this, but this little man is doing things on his own terms!

Here is a video of his first steps

Clayton has also become a master climber. He can climb stairs like a pro and onto any little chair and sit there like a big boy. His new favorite feat is to climb on the fire place, crawl to the end by the couch and then almost leap over to get on the couch. It gives mom a heart attack every time he does it, but he thinks it is the most fun in the world....little boys!

Taking it easy

2010-01-25T15:04:00.003-05:00

I was waiting to see if we did anything exciting to blog about but we haven't.....can I mention how WONDERFUL that has been????

The only thing new around here is Clayton stared MDO this month. They had an opening and I jumped on it! Clayton has become quite the momma's boy so we needed some time apart :-) He cried the first two weeks I dropped him off, but only for a 2-3 minutes, then he was fine. The first day after I picked him up he jabbered the whole way home (like he was telling what he did that day). He is the only one not walking in his class so I hope this motivates him. My little man is very satisfied to crawl around and put no energy into walking! We try to practice with him and he drops to his knees and cries. The doctor says it is a power play....GREAT!!!!

Clayton all ready to go for his first day of school!

Other than that we have done nothing and the lonely 31 pictures on my camera for the month of January proves it (we usually average 100 pictures a month).
The kids playing in their favorite new spot...the dog kennel
A play date at our house turned into a princess parade

New Years and Clayton's first haircut

2010-01-06T20:29:00.005-05:00

Ok, I am going to catch everyone up on our holidays in several posts, so keep scrolling down to see our wonderful Christmas fun!

New years eve was nice and low key! We went to eat at Pappasitos (a tradition) and then our friends, Brad and Erika (with Brinley's BFF) Maddy came over. We watched football and played Mexican train while the girls destroyed the house! Clayton was out by 9pm, but the girls held strong, thanks to cupcakes, until 1am! At midnight, we went outside to watch the fireworks all the neighbors were shooting off. It was a cold night, so we had to bundle up!

They were very cold!!!

It was a great night filled with lots of laughs...from the adults and kids!

Saturday we took Clayton to get his first haircut. He is going to have Jason's thick hair so many haircuts will be in his future. He wasn't quite sure what to think of the lady making him sit and touching his head, so he went through bouts of crying or just sitting there staring into space! Overall, he did a good job of just sitting there and letting her cut it.

My very shaggy boy

not happy about being in this chair

what a handsome boy!

Now my little baby looks like a little boy and I don't think he is happy about it :)

Christmas Day

2010-01-06T20:15:00.004-05:00

We had a great Christmas morning! The kids slept in until 7:30 and were very excited to see what Santa brought them!

Brinley got the Cinderella Castle she has been asking about since October that Santa had to special order because you can only buy them AT Disney world. It is really neat because it lights up, plays songs and came with all the Disney princess figurines. I didn't realize until the presents were out that every present she got was princess related...oh well, I guess it was one of those years!

Clayton got a race car riding toy that makes all the race car sounds and he loves pushing it around. He hasn't mastered getting off it yet so we still have to help.

We spent the day watching the Disney Christmas parade, in which she had to wear her new snow white dress to watch it! It was neat seeing all that at Christmas because we will be there next December for the kids' first trip to Disney!

That evening we headed over to Jason's parent's house for another Christmas dinner and MORE presents! Brinley's favorite present came from Jason's uncle who gave her a Tinkle bell that flies (think hummingbird). I think the entire family had fun watching this toy fly all over the house for a good 30 minutes!

It was a relaxing evening,that ended with dancing in the kitchen to the "nutcracker suite" music.

Christmas Eve

2010-01-06T19:56:00.004-05:00

We started Christmas eve day by baking cookies for Santa! Brinley really enjoyed helping roll out the dough, using the cookie cutters and then putting the sprinkles on! She was very proud of her final product...especially when it was time to eat the leftover sprinkles :)

I took this picture before we left to head to my parents house

That afternoon, we headed over to my parents house for Christmas dinner and present opening. We joking call my mom "mamaw claus" due to the large amount of presents she gets her grandkids....this year was no different. We enjoyed a yummy turkey dinner and then the craziness began! Brinley's favorite present was the Snow White dress up costume Reese got her from Disney world. Clayton's favorite toy was the sports center from mamaw and pops. He is playing with it right now as I type this!

Brinley, Clayton & Reese----I guess we should have tried this picture before we announced it was time to open presents!

Lets open some presents!!!!

Too much food and presents for these guys!

The big 3-0!!!

2009-12-22T13:49:00.004-05:00

Sunday was my 30th birthday. For some strange reason this birthday has really hit me and I now realize I am getting old :( In order to cheer me up, Jason threw me a birthday party in which he completely planned and did such an awesome job! We started the evening at Guadalajara Mexican Restaurant downtown for some yummy food. Several of my family and friends came to help me ring in the new year.

My little boy LOVES to eat
Part of the crew that came to celebrate with me

Me and my girl

After eating dinner and cupcakes, my parents took the kids to their house and the adults headed upstairs to Lucky Strikes bowling. This is not your ordinary bowling alley. It is very classy with a dress code, full kitchen, bar, big screen TVs at the end of each lane and great music! It was so much bowling, drinking and eating with everyone.

The boys- Bruce, Jason, Chris, Craig and Rob
The girls- Tara, Callie, me, Melody, and Becky

Time to bowl!

Me and Melody-no clue what we were doing

It was a great night and I had so much fun! Thanks sweetheart for planning such a great evening and helping me start my 30s with a bang :)

Clayton is 1!!!!

2009-12-19T15:03:00.004-05:00

Yesterday was my little man's birthday party! It is hard to believe that he is already a year old. I thought time was flying fast with Brinley, but with Clayton it is happening at warp speed! We don't go to the doctor until Tuesday for the official stats, but 2 weeks ago he weighed 21 lbs. Clayton, you are such a lovable little guy. You are crawling all over the place, pulling up to stand and cruising like crazy. You can't stand by yourself, nor do you have any interest in walking because you arch your back every time we try to make you practice. You love to eat and growl at us when we don't get the food in your month in a timely fashion! No more baby food for you because you love table food....especially blueberries, grilled cheese, bananas, and crackers. You have 8 teeth with plenty more trying to work their way in. You love chasing your sister and laughing at everything. You are so sweet and we are glad to have you in our lives!

We had his party last weekend to try and avoid the Christmas rush! I never realized how crazy it would be to try and plan a bday party and get ready for Christmas. I have already vowed that next year his party will be totally planned and supplies bought before thanksgiving! Overall it turned out to be a beautiful day and a good time was had by all! Clayton LOVED his smash cake and devoured it! It was quite a sight to see. Here are some pictures from his big day.

his monkey cake I made

let the Christmas festivities begin

2009-12-06T14:42:00.005-05:00

We kicked off the holiday season, Thursday, with a trip to the mall to have our picture taken with Santa. Brinley had no problems going to sit on the big guys lap and she was sooo anxious to tell him she wanted a Cinderella castle and bike for Christmas. Clayton sat on his lap and let us get one picture before he realized he did not want to be there. I calmed him down several times and tried again, but he would get hysterical. So here is our Santa picture for 2009

Friday was a cold and snowy day. Yes it snowed in Houston and yes it snowed at our house ALL day long, but it did not stick. Other parts of Houston (including a friend who lives 10 miles west of us) got 2-3 inches of snow on the ground. Brinley was very upset that she couldn't build a snowman. We were able to scrape together enough ice off the sheets covering our plants to build two golf ball sized snow balls. Brinley threw her snowball at Daddy and Clayton decided to try and eat his.

Clayton eating his snowball
Brinley holding her snowball
Here is all snow that stuck

If you enlarge this one you can see all the snow falling

We also had Wyatt at our house on Friday, since it was not a fun filled day of playing in the snow, we made a gingerbread house instead. The hardest part was keeping them from eating all the candy before they put it on the house. They were also very rough in putting on the candies so it made the ceiling collapse. We pieced it back together with tooth picks so they could finish decorating it and we could take a picture.

Saturday evening, we bundled up and met some friends at the League City Christmas Parade. They had lots of crafts booths, amusement rides and yummy food before the parade. Brinley loved the parade (especially the dance teams, drill teams from high schools and cheerleaders). We braved the cold all evening but had to call it a night after 2 hours into the parade and still no end in sight. With pockets full of candy, frozen fingers and toes, we headed home for hot chocolate and bed.

Brinley with the blue Santa

Brinley had the best view of the parade

Me and my little man all bundled up

Brinley and Maddy ready to ride some rides

This week will be crazy with Clayton's first birthday party, Jason's company Christmas party and Christmas with Jason's family. I am tired just thinking about it :)

Happy 30th Birthday!

2009-11-25T15:30:00.004-05:00

Last Thursday was Jason's 30th birthday! I think it is a very big deal to be leaving your twenties (although he doesn't) and I am certainly not looking forward to mine in a month!!!! It just seems so old....anyways!

We started the day by making daddy his favorite kind of cake...cookie cake. Brinley helped in decorating this year. I only had to show how to use the piping bag on three squirts and then she went at! I think I have a natural little cake decorator here!

Brinley filling in the "30" with chocolate icing

She was very proud of her cake decorating skills.....me too :)

Grandma and Paw-paw came over with cousin, Wyatt (who is visiting from Switzerland) to babysit while Jason and I went to dinner at this yummy Brazilian steakhouse. The basic concept is they come around with meat on skewers and cut you a slab to taste. They have 30 meats ranging from steak, pork, chicken, duck, frog and alligator. It is Jason's idea of heaven! I ate so much meat that my fingers started to swell and I had a hard time getting my rings off! We came back for ice cream and cake. It was a great day and we love daddy so much!

Brinley and Wyatt eating cake and ice cream

They were jumping so hard they knocked over the bounce house

Disney on Ice

2009-11-16T14:54:00.004-05:00

My dad wanted to celebrate his birthday by taking all the grand kids to see Disney on Ice this weekend. Our seats were in the 2nd row, so we got to see all the characters up close and personal (and get hit with ice shavings from their skates too!) Brinley was absolutely in awe of the entire night. She is very much into the princess thing right now and has to dress up, role play and watch any show with Belle, Cinderella, Sleeping beauty and Snow white. She had stars in her eyes watching all the princess in person skating around. She even didn't eat her popcorn she was so entranced!

Brinley and Reese with their Minnie mouse ears

Clayton enjoyed the first 45 mintues, then he was ready to crawl around!

The whole gang from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse (another exciting moment for her)
Nemo, Dori and the shark

Snow white with Ariel and Belle in the background

After the show, we headed to Buca Di Beppo for some yummy Italian food. We left very tired and stuffed. Happy birthday pops!

Halloween

2009-11-03T15:23:00.003-05:00

Our Halloween week started on Sunday with trick or treat at the park. We got everyone all dressed up and headed to practice trick or treating with Brinley and her friends.

Brinley (Ariel) and Clayton (Sebastian). Brinley chose his costume and we figured this was the only year we could get away with it.

Thursday night, we carved our pumpkin. Clayton really enjoyed pulling out all the gooey stuff. He even tried to teethe on the opening of the pumpkin.

Friday, we co-hosted a Halloween party with friends. We had lots of delicious dips, deserts, chili and yummy treats. There was a bouce house with a slide, hay ride for the kids, pumpkin carving contest, games and lots of socializing. The weather was perfect with just enough nip in the air to make it feel like fall. Brinley spent the entire night on the hay ride...she loved it!

Us (Jason was Popeye for Halloween)

Saturday we headed over to my brothers for another halloween party and trick or treating. Brinley had so much fun trick or treating with Reese and her friends. She kept up with them really well, but we ended up leaving before they finished because she was exhausted!!!

Sunday was spent recovering from our halloween activities!

Pumpkin Patch and 10 months old

2009-10-19T12:32:00.008-04:00

Ok, so I have decided to skip the Dallas post in order to stay caught up with this crazy month that is October! We spent Saturday at the Oil Ranch in Hockley, Tx....a good hour from our house in the middle of no where. It was a gorgeous fall day with plenty of sunshine and temperatures at 74!

The first thing we did was take pictures in the pumpkin patch. It was very hard to get Clayton to look or smile for any pictures since he was in observation mode taking everything in. We tried the wagon out for the first time with both kids and they loved it. While at the ranch, we got to ride horses, play in a haybarn, feed cows, ride a train around the property, climb, swing and all sorts of fun. Brinley had a blast and so did Clayton. We were exhausted after all the running and sunshine.

Clayton turned 10 months on Sunday. He weighs 20 lbs and is 28 inches long! He is still army crawling but moves so quickly! He is pulling himself up to a stand and cruising along furniture. He LOVES table food and can pretty much eat anything we give him. He has 5 teeth, can wave hi and bye, play peek a boo and is started to dance. He is such a sweet boy and loves to play with his big sister. It is so hard to believe I need to start planning your first birthday!

this video explains it all

2009-10-09T11:56:00.003-04:00

It has been a very busy couple of weeks and I am too tired to write about it now :) We spent a great, kid-free, weekend in Dallas for the Hogs vs. Aggie game. This week I started boot camp at 5am every morning (which has made me exhausted since i was used to getting up at 7:30 or 8) and Brinley has been sick.

So I will leave you with a video of my kids' favorite new game, which they do for at least 30 minutes at a time!

I will update on the Dallas weekend later on!

what a week!

2009-09-21T11:33:00.009-04:00

To say this last week has been busy would be an understatement! It all started Wednesday when Brinley attended her first day of dance. She started ballet and tap and absolutely loves it. She has been twirling and shuffle/ball/change around the house all week!

Thursday, Brinley also started soccer at the YMCA. It is more of a class where they learn the skills and then play a game at the end of the 8 weeks. Although Jason was ready to put her in soccer with the city, I was not ready to give up 1 day a week of practice and then Saturday games just yet :) She was really good at ball control, but I guess she should be since Jason has had her kicking a ball since she was 11 months old!!!! She was one of the few kids who could kick the ball into the goal with just one kick! She even got the celebration down....too much soccer watching with daddy!

Friday, my mom and us drove to Katy to meet the newest cousin of our family, Will. His mommy, Allison, is my cousin and we are only 1 month apart in age so it will be fun to watch Will and Clayton grow up together.

Brinley, Clayton and Will

Saturday was pure and utter chaos! We had 3 birthday parties to attend! Two of them were at the same place, Jump N Jungle! Needless to say we were completely exhausted by the end of the evening. With no nap and 4 hours of jumping, by the end of the third party Brinley said no to cake and wanted to go home and go to bed!

Maddy, Brinley and Addison after party number 1
Sliding during party number 2

no pictures from party number 3......to worn out :)

Sunday, we headed to Jason's parents house to visit with his brother, Bill, who was in town one night from Switzerland. His parents had planned a birthday party in his honor and rented a.........you guessed it moonwalk!!! Although I think the big boys enjoyed it more than Brinley and Hannah!

The Smith family--Andy, Erich, Cindy, Jason, Marian and Bill
Jason's superman fly off the roof of the house into the moonwalk

Needless to say we are being completely lazy today with no plans whatsoever! I think we will need to a week to recover from our week!

Hurricane Ike----One year later

2009-09-10T18:40:00.003-04:00

Since the news is talking about nothing but the anniversary of Hurricane Ike, I figured I would join in too! It is hard to believe it was a year ago when Brinley, Clayton (in belly) and me evacuated to Arkansas for Kylie's wedding, while Jason stayed here to "hunker" down!

One year later, you can still see signs of the hurricane's destruction. Most trees are sadly leaning, boats are still abandoned along the shoreline in Galveston, and blue tarps are on roof tops! In fact, we just got our insurance check to fix our roof two months ago! It's a good thing Jason and his Dad did a quick fix to hold us over! Kemah Boardwalk is now open and fully functional after a long road of repair work to every restaurant and replacing every single ride due to flooding! We would drive by every week and see the sign to see what restaurants were opening up!

My parents neighborhood was very badly damaged. I was driving through last weekend and took these pictures of houses that are still destroyed. While most are rebuilding, a handful are abandoned or maybe insurance hasn't given them their checks yet either :)
We have been very thankful for a quiet hurricane season so far. Of course, we still have until November!

Nothing significant has been going on at our household....just very busy! Brinley does start her ballet/tap class and soccer next week, so I will have lots of post about then.

preschool

2009-09-01T16:26:00.003-04:00

Brinley started preschool on Thursday. She was so excited to start school that she had a hard time going to bed the night before. I thought she would be apprehensive about going in because instead of walking her into her class, I would be dropping her off in the car line. But no, she jumped right out of the car and said, "Bye mom!" Clayton and I enjoyed the day to ourselves by going to the gym and hanging out at home. I noticed he was a lot more vocal while she wasn't around but I guess he can't ever get a coo in around miss motormouth! Speaking of motormouth, Brinley also started her speech class last week. I had noticed her speech was not up to snuff (leaving off ending sounds, not be able to blend sounds, or even make some sounds at all), so I took her to be evaluated and she does qualify for speech lessons. We are going twice a week right now with a private speech therapist, but she is set to be evaluated with the school district next week to see if she will qualify to take speech through our home campus!

got to get a backpack picture!

Right now, Brinley is obsessed with dressing up! She does it everyday at least 3 or 4 times. I swear she feels better in heals and crowns than she does in pajamas! Here is one of her favorite dresses right now (I think only because it is a hand me down from Reese)....don't you love how she hams it up for the camera???

8 months old

2009-08-25T14:47:00.004-04:00

Clayton you were 8 months old last week! You are getting so big, you now weigh almost 18 lbs! You had a busy week last week by learning how to army crawl and getting your first 2 teeth! You also love to jump in your jumper, play peek a boo with a burp cloth (you pull it over your face and pull it away all by yourself) and LOVE to eat! You are eating all kinds of foods but you really love your banana and blueberries because you can feed them to yourself. Most times, mommy cannot shovel the food in quick enough before you start grunting at me. You are so sweet and love to watch and laugh at your big sister. You are sleeping 11-12 hours a night and take 2 naps during the day. I can't believe we will be celebrating your first birthday in 4 months.....where does the time go?

army crawling (by the way, Brinley cheers for you every time you get what you are going for)

Clayton's first tooth