Week of Firsts

This week was filled with lots of firsts in our family. Sunday, we gave Clayton his first taste of food! We started with rice cereal and he loved it! As you can tell from the video, he was grabbing, wanting to feed himself and so excited. Looks like I will have another good eater on my hands! Since we stared this, he is now grabbing for everything we are eating! Last night I was holding a hot dog while he was sitting on my lap and he dove for it with his mouth wide open! I took it away and he started crying! This happened several times until I had to hand him off to Jason so I could finish eating!

Monday, Brinley started gymnastics...or as she calls it "nastics". She is taking it 2 days a week this summer and she absolutely loves it! She asks every morning if she is going to "nastics", if I say yes then she grabs her leotard and starts to put it on. She does a very good job of listening to her coaches while they are explaining what to do and then does it correctly!

One of her favorite things to do, the rings!

On Friday, we met all of Brinley's friends at Discovery Green Park in Downtown Houston to watch a children's theatre production of Aladdin. Despite the heat index being 105 degrees, we had a good time. After watching the performance, we ate a picnic lunch and then let the girls play in the water fountains to cool off. We left after a few hours, hot, smelly and exhausted!


Saturday evening, we met some friends down in Galveston around 5pm. Since the summer heat and humidity have really hit this week, morning and evenings are our only times to get out and do things outside! The girls played in the ocean, built mountains of sand and decorated them with shells. We also grilled hot dogs and smores on the beach. It was a great relaxing evening that we all swear we will do twice a month now!
Brinley and Addison swimming in the ocean

Clayton's Baptism

Yesterday, we welcomed Clayton into our faith by baptizing him. The day was gorgeous and celebrated by lots of family, mexican food and cake at our house. Here is our day in pictures!



Clayton in his baptismal outfit....Jason fixed his hat to look like a welders cap instead of a bonnet



Brinley and Clayton

Clayton getting baptized

He didn't like it too much!

Clayton with is Godparents, Blake and Becky

Jason, me, Brinley and Clayton...so hard to get both to look at the same time these days!

Clayton with is cake...and drool (he is teething like crazy right now!)

Me and my little man....I can't believe he will be 6 month in a few weeks!

Happiest once everyone left....and daddy making him fly :)



Just for fun, here is Brinley with her Godmother, Allison February 2007

Summer fun

Summer is our favorite time of year! We spend as much time outside as we possibly can. This weekend was no exception! Friday evening I watered my new flowers, which are struggling to survive this May heat (I hate the tell them what it will feel like in August!). Brinley ran through my water accidentally, but then she realized how fun it was. So for the next hour, she was running through the hose and then grabbed it and started chasing Jason with it. Those two went at it for over an hour...Clayton and I watched and laughed!

If this isn't the face of summer, I don't know what is!!!

Saturday, Clayton showed us his new trick...sitting up all by himself. He is still building up his stamina to do it for long periods of time, but it is the only thing he wants to do right now!

Sunday, we went to Jason's soccer game. It was a gorgeous day with little humidity and a nice breeze. Brinley enjoyed playing with her grandpa and Hannah, while Clayton found a nice spot in Grandma's lap and smiled and laughed at the girls as they ran around screaming!

going for a ride on grandpa's shoulders

Beach bums

We got up this morning and decided to head down to the beach for memorial day. It was a gorgeous day. I guess we are going to become beach bums this summer since it is only a 20 minute drive and provides hours of free, tiring entertainment for Brinley! This time Jason brought his body board and taught Brinley how to ride the waves. She took to it really quickly and begged for more the entire time!

Clayton enjoyed the beach on his towel under the umbrella. He did fall asleep and take a 1.5 hour nap...I guess the sounds of the waves lulled him to sleep!

Weekend visitors

This past weekend my college roommates, Amanda and Wendi, came to visit us and meet Clayton. It was so much fun getting together with these girls. Every time we get together, no matter if it's been a month or a year, we pick up where we left off. We met our freshman year of college through our sorority and were roommates our sophomore and junior year. Just to make myself and them feel old, here is a picture from our sophomore year!

August 2000, me, Wendi and Amanda

Fast forward 9 years, 2 weddings, 2 kids, and lots of laughter!

Friday night, we went to Kemah to enjoy the breeze of the ocean and seafood. We sat outside and listened to music, rode the carousel, train and roller coaster...well Jason and Amanda did. Wendi and I HAD to stay back and watch the kids ;)

Daddy and his girl eating dinner in Kemah

Attempt at a family picture...3 out of 4 looking is great!

We woke up Saturday morning and headed to Galveston for a day at the beach. It was a gorgeous day and we soaked up the sun, some more than others! Brinley kept Jason busy running up and down the beach and in and out of the water, while Clayton enjoyed the breeze sitting in his stroller or on the towel under an umbrella.

our cool little dude enjoying the beach

our little waterbug

We came home after lunch exhausted and relaxed! After a few hours of laying around and reminiscing, Jason watched the kids while we went to dinner. After dinner we looked through all my pictures from college and laughed at our hairstyles and wardrobe choices!

It was a great visit and I was so glad to see them! I can't wait for our next one (which is tentatively set for October in Dallas for the Arkansas and ATM football game) unless we sneak one in before then!

Not so great mother's day gift

Mother's day started out great for me! Jason made us waffles and sausage, I got to lay around while he entertained the kids, he picked up lunch and then grilled dinner. So it was nice not having to prepare one meal the entire day!


Around 7pm, Clayton got really fussy. He had been running a fever since Saturday but I just attributed it to teething because he had no other symptoms. I felt him and he was burning up. I took his temperature and it was 102.7 (which is too high for a 4 month old). I also realized he hadn't pooped since Thursday, so I felt his belly and it was rock hard! So off to the emergency room we go. It wasn't crowded, but all the patients were kids so it took us 2 hours to see a doctor. Once we saw the doctor Clayton had become inconsolable. He would only let me hold him with him looking over my shoulder and if you attempted to lay him down or touch his belly, he would scream bloody murder! They did an x-ray, but it was not clear. So they took blood, used a Cathe to get a urine sample and put an IV in to give him antibiotics. Needless to say Jason stayed with him during the 15 minute torture fest....the screams I heard in the hall were enough to get me sobbing! Then the doctor came in and told us he was transferring us to Texas Children's hospital because he thought Clayton had a bowel blockage or his intestines were twisted and may need surgery. Talk about scaring the crap out of us!

The only humor we got was he used his arm board as a weapon, he realized he could hit things hard and it would "POP". Hitting my leg was his favorite thing to do. Here is our little man with his IV and playing with it!


So at 2 am, we were loaded on an ambulance and taken to Texas children's hospital. They did an ultrasound and determined it was not a blockage or twistage. It was just a bacterial infection that was plugging him up, so go home and wait it out. We got home at 7am emotionally and physically exhausted!

Check out his little hospital gown.....oh yeah, look at the clock 3:15 AM!!!

I took him to the doctor Tuesday and everything is looking better (and he is pooping!) He is still running a low grade fever but the doctor said he is just getting the virus out. He did apologize for the ER doctor overreacting, scaring us and sending us to Texas Children's when it wasn't necessary! But I guess it is better safe than sorry with a 4 month old.

Today, he is feeling better. He is still real sensitive to you putting pressure on his stomach but other than that he is smiling and laughing again!

a swimming we will go

Summer has officially arrived! All those gorgeous spring days quickly faded and now the heat and humidity has taken over! The only advantage is we get to start swimming the first week in May!

We spent Saturday at my brother's house celebrating Mothers day a little early. We did BBQ on the grill while the girls swam. Brinley is currently taking swim lessons, so I wanted to try the arm floaties on her this summer. I was very surprised how well she was doing with them on! We didn't even have to be in the pool with her, she was swimming like a champ. She has only done 3 of her 10 lessons, so maybe we won't need them by the end of the summer :)

Clayton got his first taste of the swimming pool. I think this picture explains it all.....

We are going to wait until it gets hotter for him to take a dip with us again.

Sunday we had a birthday party at the YMCA for the twins in Brinley's MDO class. The YMCA has a great pool that only gets 3 ft deep with lots of slides and a spray park. We spent a lot of our summer there last year, and plan to do the same again this summer.

Brinley also had her MDO program on Tuesday. They were dressed like Nemo (it was an ocean theme) and sang their ABC's, Row Row Row your boat, I see the Moon, and counted to 1o in english and spanish. It was very cute and Brinley was not distracted at all by the audience, she sang and did her hand motions with no problem!