a little bit of everything

We have had a busy week at our house! It started Wednesday with a trip to the Astros game. It was an afternoon game, so Jason took off work and we went with his parents, uncle and his family. The Astros won, which is always a good thing, it was Clayton's first game and we were chosen as the Whataburger lucky row of the game! We were given free t-shirts, coupons to Whataburger and they put us on the big screen at the game! It was quite exciting!
Marian, Clayton and me on the big screen

Friday, I spent the day making a cake for my cousin, Allison's, baby shower the next day. She is decorating her nursery in the farm theme, so I made this cake. It turned out really cute!

Saturday morning, Clayton and I woke up bright and early to head to Katy for the shower. It was so nice and great to see lots of family. Clayton enjoyed playing with two little girls at the shower which were right at his age! Although his shrieks of delight kept scaring one of them!

After leaving the shower, we headed to Austin's first birthday party, which Jason and Brinley were already at! I missed all the fun stuff, but Brinley told me Austin was a mess eating his cake and got it all over his face and nose!

Brinley and her BFF's

Sunday evening we headed to the beach with Jason's family, Aunt and family and grandparents. We grilled hot dogs on the beach and make smores! It was a great evening! Jason's cousin is almost 4 years old, so she and Brinley had a great time running to and from the water with buckets to fill the drench built by another cousin. We got home at 10 last night and are exhausted today!

Brinley and Clara at the end of the night

Brinley and Clayton enjoying their dinner

No time to rest because now we are in preparation mode for Brinley's 3rd birthday party this weekend!!!

Our 4th of July

We spent the 4th of July over at my brother's house. Technically, we were in his pool the entire day! Considering it was 100 degrees with a feels like temperature of 110, I think that was the only place to spend the holiday without dying of heat exhaustion!

Here is a video of our little fish swimming all by herself...she really took to swimming very easily!

We enjoyed a great seafood cookout including fried shrimp, oysters, hush puppies, and catfish! We also had homemade ice cream and cherry pie. It was delicious and we were stuffed! We climbed out of the pool, all pruney, around 8pm to get ready for the fireworks! We shot some poppers before we left, which Brinley loved! She really loved the fireworks, rolling down the hill and running on the green (we watched the fireworks from the golf course).

Sammie helping Brinley pop her poppers

Sammie, Brady, Brinley and Reese waiting on the fireworks to start!

Brinley and Reese watching the fireworks


After all was said and done, we were all exhausted! Brinley had no nap and been in the pool all day, Clayton decided he didn't want to miss the party and only took 1 hour nap and was up from 8am-10pm. Considering those circumstances, both kids were troopers with no melt downs and passed out in the car on the way home! It was a great way to celebrate our nation's birthday!

Clay-man enjoying his first 4th of July celebration!

Happy 4th of July!!!!

6 months old

Clayton you are 6 months old! You weigh 15 lb 10 oz and are 25.5 inches tall! You are sitting up all by yourself and love eating foods! You have only had cereal and sweet potatoes so far, but you talk to me in between each bite because I can't shovel it in fast enough! You have discovered a love of the pool by splashing and squealing the whole time we are in there! You love to smile an laugh, especially at your sister! You are sleeping 9 hours at night before you wake up to eat and then back to bed for 3 more hours! You don't have any teeth yet, but you are chewing on anything you can get your hands on, so maybe one day soon!

At your doctors appointment, you were very upset after getting your shots. Your sister yelled at the nurse, "you hurt my bubba" and then she started to cry with you! She is so protective over you!

Here is some pictures from his 6 month photoshoot! It was hard to pick just one! The store also asked to hang his pictures in their store because he is so darn cute!!!

one fish, two fish....

Jason took Brinley to get fish this weekend. He has been talking about this for a few months now. Since I have never had a fish, I didn't see the excitement of watching fish swim around in circle for hours on end with no interaction! She absolutely LOVES them! She picked everything out (fish, gravel, accessories for inside the tank). They are the first thing she wants to see when she wakes up, gets home from wherever we have been, and goes to bed each night! She talks to them non-stop ("hi fish, do you like your home? and my favorite "glub glub glub") She also would feed them all day long if we let her! It is too cute! Who knew fish would be such a big hit! I did tell Jason that he is on tank duty since I have no clue how to take care of it!(plus I take care of Brinley, Clayton, a dog and cat :)

So excited to get her fish in the tank already!
She will sit and watch them forever!
Here are the 3 fish, plus algae eater (she is still thinking of names for them!)

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