Friday, April 20, 2012

April 20 - On the Growth Chart!!

I am thrilled to announce that our little man, Master Luke, has made it onto the growth chart. Can I get a woo hoo?! His 18-month stats are:
*21lb 12oz; 5%
*30.5 inches; 8%
*48.5 cm; 71% 


In other news, Amelia's 7 year stats are not so good. Our furry baby is at her heaviest ever, and in fact she gained over 7lbs since her last vet visit. We know what the problem is (Luke feeds her all the time) we are cutting back on her dog food intake since we can control that (hopefully he will outgrow feeding her soon). She will go in for another weight check in 6-8 weeks and see how she is doing. She is also now considered a 'senior' dog but the vet said she looks great (other than the extra pounds) as she has barely any grey hair. 


In family news, we renewed our zoo membership last weekend and went to see the animals and have a fun picnic style lunch. The kids had a great time and this was the first time Luke really showed an interest in the animals. He also loved the carousal!  Julia's favorite still include the elephants so we made several trips to see them.


Enjoy these pictures of the zoo!! We all had a fab time!!



Playing the drums



Dancing in the huts




Carousal fun













Checking out the animals up close




Thursday, April 12, 2012

April 12 - More Outdoor Fun

Here are some more pictures of the kids. Enjoy!


Luke's first pony ride

Julia and Emma - backyard fun

Julia, Luke, Emma, Sarah and Amelia

Julia and Emma - on the little train

Sarah and Luke (notice Luke chillin' with his leg propped up!)

"Santa" explaining to Julia and Emma that he moonlights in the spring/summer managing a petting zoo (yes, they were very confused and kept asking "Where is your red suit?"


Monday, April 9, 2012

April 9 - Happy Birthday Daddy!

Hello faithful followers and happy belated Easter. Sorry for the lack of posts lately. I am so far behind on all of my blogs. I have about 15 books to review on the book blog, some house pictures to post on the home blog, and of course, pictures of our dimpled munchkins to post on this one. Work has been extremely busy lately (working until 11:30pm several nights over the last few weeks) and if I have free time in the evenings, I've been reading. I will post a lot of pictures in this post so enjoy!! 


There are 2 parks within walking distance to our house. Julia has dubbed them either 'the swing park' (which is our neighborhood park) or 'the slide park' (which is behind the elementary school). Our neighborhood recently tore out the swing park and installed brand new equipment. There is a big play structure for the bigger kids, a toddler area as well as swings. It is fabulous and the kids love it! We've also met a few neighbors with kids the same age which is fun too. We are taking advantage of the gorgeous weather here (it has been in the mid 80s, which is hot, but not grossly hot yet) and are spending a lot of time outdoors. 


We have also been having a lot of play dates recently, and this past weekend was no exception. On Friday, we went to my friend Jidi's house for an Easter egg hunt. There were 20-30 kids there and I'm not joking when I say they picked up all the eggs in about 2min flat. In fact-they were so fast that by the time my camera was out its case and turned on-it was over! Later that afternoon, the Root family came over for another egg hunt. Sarah and Caroline "hid" the plastic eggs for Julia and Emma and then we all dyed eggs together. The kids also played in the back yard for awhile (they ran several laps around the yard) and we had a great time. Saturday, after gymnastics, we went to a local church for an Easter festival where they had pony rides, a petting zoo, bouncy house, train ride, ball pit, bubble station and you guessed it-another egg hunt! Later that day we went to the Root's house for more playing fun and a delicious Easter Eve dinner of roast and homemade pizza. Yesterday, we spent our Easter morning at the park (the weather was beautiful), had new neighborhood friends over so the kids could play in the baby pool, then went to their house for a tasty ham dinner. It was a great, busy, weekend!


Here are some cute stories, enjoy!


"It was a beautiful day outside. I was eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and chasing a butterfly and when all of a sudden, a skunk stole my sandwich and sprayed me! My mom had to give me a tomato juice bath so I wasn't stinky. That's why I wasn't in school yesterday." -Julia. This is the story she told her classmates as to why she wasn't in class on Wednesday. In fact, she actually threw up Tuesday night, but the skunk story was much more interesting! Her teacher told me she really 'sold' the story. What an imagination that little girl has!


"Happy Easter! Go find your basket!" - Mommy and Daddy Easter morning
"Oh." - Julia looks at her Easter basket with obvious disappointment
"What's wrong?" - Mommy and Daddy
"Where's the bunny? I thought the Easter bunny would be here and I really wanted a picture with him in my house!" - Julia
"Well, he has to go to a lot of houses so he came in the middle of the night." - Mommy and Daddy, trying not to chuckle


Some adorable pics, enjoy!

New Neighborhood Park





Eating this waffle makes me tired



The boys






Backyard fun






Easter Eggs & Easter Basket




Cuties



And a very happy birthday to J.D. today!

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

March 13 - Pictures Galore

As promised, here are some recent pictures. Happy Tuesday everyone!


Space Center Houston




Playing at the park with Andrew & Tammy







Balloon fun


Bubbles



Our little diva in her p.j.'s 

Super Cool pic!

Monday, March 12, 2012

March 12 - Motivational m&m's

Happy Monday everyone! So, I have some exciting news. Julia wrote her name last week all by herself! She has been able to spell several (simple) words for awhile now and can even read a few, but she has had zero interest in actually writing anything. She has been making sticker pages for friends at school recently and we try to get her to write her name on the pages, but she'll usually do a letter or two and completely lose interest. Really, the girl just wants to run around the house and chase someone (or be chased herself). So...last week I tried a new motivation tool-good ole fashioned m&m's. And wouldn't you know-she immediately sat down, wrote her name and said "How many can I have?" I couldn't believe it! Looks like she might be turning into a sugar fiend like her daddy.

In other news, we had an absolutely amazing weekend. We were planning to go strawberry picking on Saturday at a local farm but rain kept us away. We ended up at Space Center Houston and the kids loved it. There was a huge indoor play structure and they played for several hours. We also saw a cool acrobat type show that Julia really loved. Yesterday, we went to the Houston Rodeo and Livestock show. After a 20min power walk/run in the pouring rain from the parking lot to the convention center (of course, we didn't bring umbrellas or rain gear..oops) we bought the kids new (dry) clothes and checked out the attractions. Jules went on the pony ride several times, both kids checked out the petting zoo, and several areas with cows, pigs, goats, eggs, and other various farm animals. After a delicious lunch of tacos, mac 'n cheese and pulled pork, we braved the weather again and power walked through the rain back to the car. Luckily it wasn't raining too hard on the way back. Even with the rain, it was a great day that we'll always remember!

I'm having trouble loading pictures to blogger so I will re-attempt tomorrow. Have a great day everyone!

Monday, March 5, 2012

March 5 - Go Texan Day

Hee haw! The Texas rodeo is in town and that means the kids get to dress up in their best cowboy/cowgirl outfits for school. The rodeo is such a big deal in Texas that public schools are actually closed in some cities (not Houston though). Here is our little cowgirl-beyond adorable!!






Luke didn't get dressed up, but here is a cute one of him: