Houston Rodeo 2012

We made our annual trip to the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo this past Thursday. It was a warm, sunny day and we had a blast! This year was much more fun since Brinley was tall enough to ride the bigger carnival rides and Clayton was tall enough to ride the kid carnival rides by himself.  Both of my kids are fearless and will get on any ride and get off screaming "MORE!" In fact, they were both in tears when we told them they weren't tall enough for the big roller coasters.

We started by checking out the animals.  Since it is the first week, only the cows were being shown and judged.  The kids did get to pet rabbits, dig for worms, see piglets being born in the birthing center, and chicks hatching from eggs.  I love how educational the rodeo is and geared for kids to learn so much about farm life!

                  Yee Haw! My lil cowboy and cowgirl on a longhorn

         Clayton feeding a goat that followed him around the entire feeding area begging for food!

     The slides were the biggest hit with my kids! They would spend all their tickets there if we let them

 Mommy and Clayton (with Brinley behind us) riding the paragliding ride.  He kept saying "I'm flying like a bird"!!!!

                                Roller Coaster fun with Reese and her friend

 We met up with my brother, sister in law, and niece for some rides and BBQ dinner.  Brinley, Reese and Clayton smiling for the camera.

 My munchkins hamming it up for the camera after a very long day!!

 One last ride before we headed home, the ferris wheel with Daddy!

We love the rodeo and look forward to it every year! The kids came home exhausted and are still talking about it 2 days later.  Brinley will get another rodeo visit since we are going there with her kindergarten class for a field trip this week!

Softball Opening Day

This weekend were the opening ceremonies and first game for Brinley's first softball season. We have been practicing for a month (and I do mean we, I was talked into coaching the team!).  The day was cold and rainy, but the girls were very excited and won the spirit award for our age group by screaming the loudest.  They had moonwalks, sno-cones, popcorn, hot dogs and prizes for the kids. 

My little softball player

My team, the Pink Panthers

Our first game was pretty miserable! It started to rain 5 minutes in and continued throughout the entire game! The girls were cold, wet and having a hard time hitting the ball.  We lost the game 4-1

 :-(

Brinley getting the first hit of the game (she was also the first and only run scored!)

Listening to me on third base (I wish she was this attentive at home!)

Clayton and Austin enjoying free treats at the ballpark

We had a good day and look forward to our next game (tonight), where hopefully we will hit like we have been hitting in practice!!!

Family outing to the zoo

In honor of President's day, the kids were out of school and Jason had the day off work! The weather was going to be sunny (it has rained everyday the last 7 days) so we headed to the zoo.  Clayton and I have been to the zoo several times this year, but Brinley and Jason have not made it due to school and work, so both were excited to join in on the fun!While, we didn't have the zoo to ourselves like we do on non-holidays, it wasn't too crowded and we had a fantastic time!!!
Brinley with her favorite animals at the zoo

this monkey was having a nap

Brinley has been very jealous that Clayton has been able to feed the giraffes. She was more than excited that she was able to FINALLY do it herself

We took a quick break for a family picture

My two little monkeys with a monkey

We jumped on the train for a ride around Hermann Park

My two favorite men on the carousel

Stitches and Valentines Day

Our week has been a little crazy, starting off with me getting a phone call from school saying Brinley had been cut and I needed to take her to get looked at by a doctor.  I was in the process of painting Clayton's room, so I left everything out and headed to school covered head to toe in paint! When I got there, Brinley was crying and her finger was bandaged.  The nurse told me she had trouble getting her to stop bleeding and she would probably need stitches.  On the way to urgent care, Brinley told me a  little girl in her class took her scissors and as she was reaching to get them back, the girl closed the scissors and cut her thumb. Once we were at urgent care, they took off the blood soaked bandage (we now know our little girl is a bleeder!) and I saw the cut for the first time......

YIKES!!! I could not believe how bad it was! Everyone was asking "What kind of scissors are they using in Kindergarten?" My little trooper did great and watched more than I did when they put the 3 stitches in! The urgent care gave her a bear to hold on during the process and let her take it home (she has been sleeping with it every night!)

She has been doing fine ever since! She is annoyed that she cannot play in PE until the stitches come out ("But mom...we are playing red light, green light, I don't use my hands!!")


ON TO VALENTINES DAY.......
I woke up early Valentines Day and made my love bugs homemade, heart shaped donuts!

We then got dressed in our best Valentine attire and posed for some pictures before heading to school

I am the room mom for Brinley's class and we had a ice cream sundae Valentine party for the kids. They were able to pick all their trimmings. My non sweet eater picked chocolate ice cream, m&m's and chocolate syrup! Needless to say this picture says it all!!!

After eating the ice cream, the kids tore into their valentines from all their classmates

After school, the kids came home to see their Valentine goodies that mommy and daddy got them.  The biggest hit were the monkeys that sing and dance to MC Hammer's "Can't touch this"

We ended our Valentine Day with dinner and softball practice, which was a great way to have both kids run all the sugar out of the their systems!!!

My little fireman

This past weekend, Clayton and I went to birthday party for one of his friend's in his MDO.  It was a rainy and cold day, but a visit from a firetruck made tolerable to be wet and cold! Clayton was super excited to see the firetruck and started jumping up and down when it came around the corner with its siren and lights on.  The firemen were so nice and let the kids play inside the truck, push the siren button, wear all their gear, took them for a ride around the block and even let them spray water out of their hose! Needless to say, this little man was over the moon and talked about it all weekend!!!

The kids thought it was hilarious they could talk and hear each other through the headphones while riding in the truck

Could he be any cuter?

 The best part of the day! Spraying the water.  He went back and asked to do it again, maybe we have a future fireman in our house!

 My little fireman standing in front of the truck

Basketball

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

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!!!