Hurricane Ike----One year later

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

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

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

Where did summer go?

As we start our last week of summer, (well it is the last week before Brinley starts school) I can't believe 3 months ago I was wondering what I would do with 2 kids all day long with no break! Needless to say, the summer flew by and we had a blast! Brinley went to her last day of gymnastics today. She loved it and we will probably be doing it every summer. She can now walk on a balance beam, a front roll, a cartwheel, and can kinda do a handstand!

We also took a trip down to the beach yesterday with several families. It was so much fun and the kids had a blast! We roasted hot dogs, ate watermelon and then toasted smores. The kids ran, swam and dug until we drug them unwillingly into the cars to go home. This probably won't be our last trip to the beach, but it was a great way to end our official summer!

The gang---Owen, Raymond, Addison, Austin, Brinley, Clayton and Maddy
What everyone is looking and smiling???

Brinley and Maddy
mmmmm, sand tastes so good

Brinley and ClaytonJason's self portrait of him and Clay-man

This next week will busy with us getting back on a schedule (mommy can't wait!), shopping for school clothes, and putting the finishing touches on our master bathroom remodel which has been going on for the past month! I will post pictures when it is completely done!

3 year old stats

This is very late, but better late than never! Brinley is 38 inches tall and 33 pounds! I can say you are completely potty trained now! You absolutely love to play dress up complete with shoes, crown and purse on a daily basis! You love to turn the music on your little radio and dance all the time! You can't wait to start your dance class in the fall. You can swim without floaties, sing along to your favorite songs and do gymnastics moves you learned this summer. You love to play hungry hungry hippos and candyland over and over again.....more than mommy and daddy care to play!

Brinley you are a ball of fire and it makes me tired just watching you some days! You are such a sweet, polite girl with lots of thank yous and please without me telling you to say it! You love your bubba and give him tons of kisses every day.

Here are some pictures of your 3 year old photo shoot

Circus

On Brinley's actual birthday, my whole family went to the circus. First, we met and ate a yummy dinner at Pappasito's. After dinner, all the waiters came and sang happy birthday to Brinley. They put a sombrero on her head, gave her a bowl of ice cream with a candle on top, and sang and clapped very loudly! She was all for this celebration until they started singing and clapping, it was very loud and she was skeptical!

We got to the circus and had front row seats! Jason nor I have been to the circus since we were little and had never experienced it from the first row, it was quite magical! Brinley was absolutely entranced by everything! She laughed at the clowns and all their silly skits, she ate popcorn and told me her favorite part was the elephants!

No zoom needed, this was the view from our seats!

In the middle of the circus, they brought out these trams that looked like big motorcycles, being we were on the front row, they ushered us into them and drove us around the middle of the ring for about 15 minutes. So we were in the circus!! They stopped us at each corner and we got to watch all the action from pretty close up! The ringmaster came and patted Clayton on the head and gave Brinley and Reese high fives! It was quite an experience!
Me, Jason Clayton, Robin, Blake, My Dad, Reese, Brinley and My mom

This clown was sticking his tongue out at me but the light is shining right in the way!
Clayton enjoying the ride around the circus ring

After the circus was over we headed home with two completely exhausted kids! It was so much fun! Thanks mamaw and pops for such a wonderful night!

Brinley's 3rd Birthday

Whew, things have finally calmed down enough for me to blog about Brinley's birthday weekend! On Thursday evening, Rachel and Meredith flew down from Arkansas to visit with us for the weekend. The girls enjoyed playing together and Brinley had fun teaching Meredith all about dressing up with shoes and earrings....sorry Rachel :) We had a wonderful visit and can't wait to see them again!

Friday, we took them to the pool for some swimming and then to Kemah for some yummy seafood.
I also spent every free minute that day making Brinley's birthday cake!

Saturday morning, with the weather actually cooperating (no rain and not too hot), we had Brinley's ice cream themed birthday party at our house. We had cake, ice cream bar and big bounce house with slide. Brinley had a blast playing with all her friends and family! All the kiddos were dripping in sweat by cake time. She has been waiting for everyone to sing happy birthday to her for months, so she sat, listened and then blew out her candles! After cake/ice cream, Brinley opened her presents to receive tons of new dresses, shoes, purses, and crowns for dress up! Since Brinley practically lives in dress up clothes when we are home, she was really excited to have new options. She also got a make up vanity from my parents and kid touch digital camera from Jason's parents. She loves taking pictures and has taken over 100 with her new camera! Poor Clayton will be blind due to the flashes! We now also have a photo catalog of every toy she owns :)

Here are some pictures from her big party day!

On Sunday, we went to the circus, but that is another post in itself! Be on the lookout!