Monday, August 9, 2010

Vacation Part I: The Wedding

We're back! We had a wonderful vacation. The kids did great considering our journey. We flew from Houston to Tampa on a 7am flight, which meant we got up around 4am. We were worried about the kids being cranky by Haley was bright eyed and made Jackson smile too. The plane ride was uneventful, which is always nice and both kids passed out on the hour long car ride to where the wedding was held. The kids enjoyed the beach and playing with all the other kiddos.

Jackson liked chilling in the chair

Haley wasn't too sure of the waves

They were ok as long as they both sat on my lap or were held by Daddy

The evening prior to the wedding there was a nice BBQ on the beach. The weather was beautiful that night and Haley really enjoyed the sand.
Daddy and Haley helping Jackson walk

Haley off to explore

She found a seashell

Jackson getting a big squeeze from Mommy

Beautiful sunset

Haley made some new friends and had a great time with Daddy building sand castles

The weather was HOT! Jackson and Daddy took a snooze on a hammock
All dressed up for the wedding

Smile!

Princess Haley

Our best attempt at a family photo prior to the ceremony. Getting both kids to smile at the same time is a challenge.

The kids managed to make it through the wedding ceremony without any embarrassing fits. Jackson almost had a breakdown so Matt took him for a walk away from the ceremony. Haley ended up following so Matt had command of both kids. Haley was quite the dancer and Jackson ended up falling asleep in the stroller. We had a wonderful time at the wedding. Thanks to Jeff and Ryan for inviting us and Congratulations!!!!

The morning after the wedding we headed to Orlando and a trip to Disneyworld! More to come tomorrow on Part II: Disneyworld.....

Monday, July 26, 2010

Weeks full of laughs

We have been doing a lot of laughing at our house these past few weeks. Haley is quite the talker and can come up with some of the funniest things that just keep Matt and I laughing and laughing. Here's a few random stories from the past weeks:
I meet my mom half way to drop the kids off in the morning at a Kroger's. Now Haley thinks that is where I work but I try to correct that. Well, the other day we took Jackson to the dr (more below on the dr. trip). My mom came to Walgreen's to meet us since I was so late for work. We were in the parking lot waiting and I explained to Haley Grandma was going to meet us here. Her response, "How eber (ever) will Grandma find us?"

On the way home one day she tells me she wants to go swimming. It was looking like it was going to storm so I said, maybe we could go as it looks like it's going to rain. Hopefully it will hold off. Her response, "There's always hope". I asked her where she got that from and she told me her new Barbie movie in Grandma's car. I smiled and said she is right!

We went to church last Saturday night and were in the family viewing area. Haley said she had to go potty. So I take her and she does her business. As we are ready to leave she says in a very loud voice, "Mommy, you have a hairy butt!". What?? THIS IS NOT TRUE! I tried not to overreact or she would repeat it so I simply said, no, that is silly and went on. Good thing the bathroom was not full or I would have been mortified!!!

Bedtime is always fun. She picks out books before bedtime and one of her favorites is, "It's hard to be 5". It's about a boy turning 5. Don't worry, she knows she's only 2 "and I'll be 3 on my birthday. My birthday is in October. I'm having my party at Chuck E Cheese (or so she thinks...)". She also says her bedtime prayers and what she is thankful for. It's usually a long list and you never know what's going to pop out, like apple juice, my carpet, Mommy and Daddy's carpet, Grandma's hurt toe, etc. She is fascinated with our carpet since Buster had his accident. She likes to tell him every morning to "be good Buster and not poop on my carpet".

Potty training is going pretty good. She is trained as far as pee pee goes but sometimes has accidents still at nap time. Poopies is still a challenge to say the least. She asks to put on a diaper to go poopies. I'm trying to get her comfortable with going on the potty chair so the other day I told her ok but she had to sit on the potty with her diaper on to go poopies. She said ok and ran upstairs to use her bathroom. I asked if she needed help and she said no. Finally she calls us up for help. She was sitting on the potty alright, with the lid closed and on her knees playing with stuff on the counter :) The training continues.

Jackson is pretty funny himself. He is starting to babble and can say da da. Matt usually gets him in the morning and feeds him a bottle. The other morning Jackson was up and started yelling da da da da as if to call Matt to come get him. Too cute! Jackson also is a pro at climbing the stairs, which he knows he shouldn't. The minute he starts he looks at you to see if you are watching. One morning I was taking Haley to the potty and Jackson was with Matt, or so I thought. I came out of the bedroom and asked Matt where Jackson was. Quickly we learned neither one of us had him. We called his name then I looked upstairs. He had a huge grin on his face as we crawled around the corner! Silly boy.

We took Jackson to the dr to have his ears checked out. He had sores on the back of them for awhile and started pulling on them making them bleed. I began to worry about an ear infection and wanted to have it checked out since we will be flying at the end of this week. Turns out his ears look perfect and he has eczema. The dr. warned it was going to be hard to treat in that spot but he already looks much better. Whew. We did get weighed and he's now 20.2 lbs. Even though we call him chubbs, he's only in the 50% percentile.

A few pics from our weeks...

Jackson laughing when when Daddy is wrestling


Haley in on the action too. Again Daddy...



Trying to get both of them together. This was two seconds before Haley went behind Jackson and put her shirt over his head, which then made him cry. He was already tired and that put him over the top.


While Haley likes to read books, Jackson likes to eat them. Best part is this was Haley's Hot Dog book. Guess he picked an appropriate one to eat!

Yum Yum Yum that was good.


The kids had a very special play date last week. Our old neighbors and good friends The Kirkham's were in town from Australia. The kids had a great time and it was great to see Laura again. I hope they move back soon. I've been scoping out a house on our street for them to move into. We miss you guys!! Haley especially liked the cookies Ben and Alex brought over and is still talking about them.


The kids also got a special treat from Grandma Vara this week. Grandma sent over money for them to pick out some new clothes. Haley picked out a few outfits but her favorite by far was her new boots. She saw them at the store and jumped out of the stroller to get them. She has yet to take them off!
Thanks Grandma!

Sunday, July 11, 2010

Weekend trip

Oops, so I haven't been too good with my New Year's resolution, which was to take more pictures and update the blog more. I cannot believe how busy we are these days with two kids. I'm still trying to figure how our workload expanded 10 times when Jackson arrived?

The kids are doing great. Haley is quite the talker these days and she amazes Matt and I with what she come up with sometimes. The other day she was playing "the princess game" on my phone and I was being silly singing. She told me, "Calm down Mommy. I'm playing." Matt and I laughed and her matter of fact approach. And yesterday when I told her at nighttime, "I love you," her response was "I love you too, dear." Then asked what that dear meant. She cracks us up.

Jackson is keeping us busy, to say the least. He is quite the crawler these days, and boy that little boy can move fast. The other day I was emptying the dishwasher and he crawled inside it, sat up and looked at me with a huge smile on his face. It was too cute. Then I tried to let him figure out how to get down but he would have tumbled on the tile so I caught him. He has also found the stairs. Today I was watching him and wanted to see how high he would go. He kept going up and looking back at me with belly laughs. He is going to be a trouble maker!!! Guess it's finally time to invest in a baby gate?

Jackson is really growing too. I don't know his official weight yet but he feels about as heavy as Haley! And no wonder why, he eats everything, and lots of it....
like penguins...

and whistles...

and the alphabet blocks!

Everything goes into the mouth. Still no teeth but I seriously think any day.
Haley, on the other hand, is shrinking. Look at how small she is getting....

She was having fun in the rain with Daddy's big umbrella. The other day she was splashing in a puddle having a good ole time and Jackson was watching her laughing up a storm. So I let him get in it too. Those are the best moments!

This weekend we made a trip up to Ft. Worth for our good friend's little girl's birthday. Kourtney turned 3 and her and Haley have so much fun playing together. Kourtney had a bouncy house and a beautiful cake. Haley was so excited and had a great time this weekend.
Jackson was enjoying the attention as well

The girls checking out the bouncy before the party officially began

Let's do it again...

Ok, wheeeeeee!!!!!

I had to capture this look. I have a feeling I will see this again during the teenage years :)

Sack of potatoes with Daddy

Haley and Jackson

Jackson wanting in on the action with all the boys jumping

Jackson telling his stories with the guys

Haley was taking a little snoozer, recharging

You can always tell how humid it is by Haley's hair. As you can see, this day was REAL humid.

After a long day the girls had a snack and watched Dora before bed


Thanks Kourtney for the invite! We had a great time.

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Happy Father's Day

Haley and Jackson would like to wish their Daddy and big Happy Father's Day! They are so lucky to have such a hands on dad who does everything from diaper changes to bath time to playing horsey. We love you Daddy!!!

Last weekend we finally hung up some pictures of the kids on the wall and noticed they were all of Haley. So off to JC Penney's we went this weekend to get some pictures of the kids. I was very pleased with how they turned out. Jackson was a ham and gave huge smiles. Haley was a little scared at first but warmed up quickly. We were very proud of both.

Jackson


Handsome boy

My favorite picture of the two of them. Right before this Jackson crawled right off the box. It was very challenging to get them both to pose and smile but it turned out GREAT!
Haley was asked to share her flag with her brother. Jackson was thrilled but Haley was not

Sweet love

Princess Haley waving her flags. I love this picture of her

Such a sweet girl


After pictures we came back to the house and had a play date for Haley. The Clements clan came over from League City. Anna and her girls, Kara and Lauren, are back from China for the summer. Haley was so excited to have some fun with the girls.

Kara hanging on to the hippo and playing with her Uncle Stephen

Lauren hanging on to her Grandpa Larry

Stephen, Kara, Jackson, Haley and Me having fun

After fun in the pool and a delicious lunch, the girls went upstairs and played with all the toys. I think they tried on every pair of Haley's shoes and had a blast. Lauren and Haley playing on the horses


Haley can't wait for her friends to come back. Hopefully they will move back from China soon and we can see them more often!!
For Father's Day today we decided to take the kids to the 3D version of Toy Story. Well, it was an adventure. Jackson was restless from the beginning so I took him down to the bottom where he fell asleep. That left Haley and Matt back in our seats at the top. Quickly Haley decided she didn't like the glasses and threw them off. Half way through she asked to go home. I guess Woody and Buzz isn't her speed yet. Matt and I didn't mind because we both commented we had a headache from watching the 3D. It was a cute movie, what we saw of it, but we'll wait for it to come out on Blu Ray and rent it then :)
After the movies we came back home, had some lunch and Haley was off for a nap. Jackson wasn't ready yet so I let him crawl around in the living room. As you can see, he is going to be a trouble maker...
Crawling through the tunnel...Hi Mom!


What a huge smile. Still toothless but I'm sure they are coming in any day.














Ah, my favorite thing. Playing with cords.















Even when Mommy hides them, I can find them...















Yes, I like to crawl in between the couch and the wall to find my cords

Busted!

Jackson started pulling up to a stand this week. This little guy wants to be on the move so bad.


And finally, Haley has kicked potty training into a new gear. All week she wore big girl panties. She only had 2 accidents and 1 was during nap time. We are so proud of her! She even told us at the mall and during the movie she had to go potty. Now saying that, she has only gone poo poo once on the potty. She is having a complex over that so we are still working on that one. She has been waiting until we put on a diaper for night time before doing her business or just holding it and holding it. Poor thing. But we'll get there soon!