2nd half Oct 2010 Pictures

Here are some pictures from 2nd half of October 2010

Kasey hanging out eating and watching some tv at the Turners - 10/10/10

Liam, Asher and Landon hanging out - 10/10/10

Kasey hanging out with her Grandmothers at Landon's soccer game - 10/16/10

NEXT FEW PICTURES ARE FROM LANDON'S FRIEND JACK'S BIRTHDAY PARTY - 10/17/10

Landon on the slide - 10/17

Kasey and Mommy on the big slide - 10/17/10

All 3 of us at the same time - 10/17/10

Kasey going by herself - 10/17/10

Daddy and Kasey on the big slide - 10/17/10

Our little soccer players - Raptors is his team - 10/19/10

Coach Greg helping out the Raptors - 10/23/10

Some of the Raptors team waiting to play in the game - 10/23/10

Kasey getting her hair cut - 10/23/10

The kids like playing their computer games at Grammy and Gramps house - 10/23/10

Landon after a Halloween cookie - 10/23/10

Landon and Grammy after Halloween cookies - 10/23/10

Kasey had a cookie as well - 10/23/10

This was a project for Landon's class - they had to make a Turkey feather and decorate it any way they wanted - 10/31/10

HERE ARE A FEW OF MY FAVORITE HALLOWEEN PICTURES FROM 10/31/10 - A FULL ALBUM IS LINKED BELOW WITH PICTURES OF THE PUMPKINS WE MADE.

took this picture before Landon helped Greg wash the car

Landon was a fireman and I was a witch

Kasey was a ladybug

My cute fireman

To see the full album - click here

November 2010

11/25 - Thanksgiving Day.

We had a great day. Wednesday night we told Landon kind of joking that we didn't want to see him in the morning until we came to get him. He sometimes comes down pretty early. Greg looked on the camera on his phone and Landon was out of bed with his light on. He was waiting upstairs for us to come up.

We had the turkey in the oven by 7:30. The kids and I started watching the Thanksgiving Day parade. The first thing was a bunch of dancers doing different types of dancing, some drill team like, some country dancing, etc. At the end Kasey was clapping. Landon was saying I don't like this. They both liked the the big balloons and the Sesame Street float. We watched that one in slow motion so we could see all of the characters.

Landon was watching the A&M basketball game on TV. He was really into the game. He yelled for the Aggies. Telling us score updates and we were working on various things. I try to teach him the terminology of the games, and he's pretty good at picking up.

We had Grammy, Gramps, Grandma, Pops, Nanny and Cindy over for Thanksgiving lunch. Every brought different things, and everything turned out great. Wednesday Landon went to Grandmas and they ended up making several pies for Thanksgiving - pecan, pecan with chocolate, pumpkin (2 made from real pumpkins - no can), and an apple pie - all from scratch. Needless to say for the 10 of us there was plenty of dessert!!

Right after lunch Greg and Doug left to drive to Austin for the A&M vs Texas game. Grandma and Pops took Kasey for the afternoon so that Landon and I could make cakes for Kasey's birthday. Landon is a big help. He really likes flattening out the ingredients in the cup measurements, he poors in the ingredients, he can stir (dry ingredients), he broke an egg and put it in (first one he did great, the 2nd on he dropped on the counter). I tried picking up the egg and getting it to the sink. I spilled. Landon thought that was funny. He also helps with the mixer. He really is a good helper!

Janice and Cindy brought Kasey back about 6:30. Both cakes were out of the oven (turned out well) and Lady hasn't gotten to them... Landon and I had started watching the Cowboys game and they started doing better, but didn't pull it off. Landon was also really into that game. Really excited when they would do something good. Yelling for the Cowboys.

Kasey, Landon and I started watching the A&M game, and Landon wanted to go watch in the bedroom. It was kind of chilly so we went in there. Kasey started getting into the game as well. She would say Touchdown, Mommy Touchdown. She'd also say go, go, go. She said Aggies and tried to say Gig'em. Looks like we've gotten through to Landon, every time they would show Texas fans doing hookem horns he would say something like ugh not that again. We had fun watching. I let the kids stay up til half time then got them to bed.

Now I'm writing this instead of making icing for Kasey's cakes...

11/24 - Landon updates
Landon is in school at AppleCreek Preschool in a PreK program. He is in what they call mobile Prek where the class moves around to different rooms for their activities. Landon really likes it. He has a great teacher Ms Nancy, and only 7 kids in his class so the kids are pretty close to each other. Landon has a class social every month. I try to go to them if I can which is fun to see the kids and the parents.

Landon is going to be playing indoor soccer this winter. He keeps asking about playing football and tball so we'll have to work on that for the spring.

He's also still in soccer tots once a week.

Landon has gone with us to almost all of the home A&M football games. He really likes A&M and the Cowboys. He doesn't like Texas (he calls it that other school).

Most of the time Landon is really good. He's very curious about things. He wants to learn how to spell words and read some words. He loves rhymes and asked about things that rhyme all the time.

Most of the time he's good with Kasey and will help her with things. Sometimes he gets very competitive and upset if she gets to do something and he doesn't. He's pretty emotional. He also has his moments where he pushes the limits with not listening, jumping, throwing, etc. He is a 4 year old boy after all.

We try to get him to make decisions on what he wants to do or eat. Sometimes he has trouble with this, but does ok. Lately he's become scared of sleeping. Not really sure if it's bad dreams or just a reason to stay up later. We'll have to see how it goes.

11/19-21 - Greg went to College Station with Doug on Friday so it was just me and the kids. Friday we had dinner with Grammy and Gramps, and of course the kids fell asleep on the way home. they both woke up when we got home though and weren't sure about going back to sleep. I was able to get everything packed up that night. Saturday morning I had both kids dressed, the car completely packed to go out of town and leaving the house at 8:04am. I was able to work out, shower and get ready at the gym then we were meeting Grammy at Lowe's for Landon's social. We got there and checked in (the Lowe's activity was for Landon's social with his school friends), but we didn't see any of his friend. We sat down and I looked up the email to determine we were at the wrong Lowe's. So we went to the car, got all of Kasey's stuff transferred to Grammy's car and Landon and I went to the correct Lowe's. The activity was fun. They gave him a work apron with goggles and he got a little hammer to make a snowman. I would line up the little nails and Landon would hammer things in. He actually did really well and enjoyed it. When you took hammer back they kids got a badge.

After Lowe's Landon and headed down Central to find a sonic to grab a sandwich and some ice then headed out of town to College station for the A&M vs Nebraska game.

At the tailgate in College station, Landon was playing and rough housing with a little boy that was 6. He came over a little later with his nose bleeding and crying. this was his first bloody nose and I think he was more scared than anything. the other little boys Mimi asked if a brownie would make it better and Landon thought it would.

The game was really good and A&M beat 8th ranked Nebraska which was good. It was a late game starting at 7pm. At 10pm Landon was out even though the Stadium was very noisy. They even made comments on TV that they thought Kyle Field was the loudest stadium.

Kasey was staying with Grammy/Mimi and Gramps. Saturday Grammy and Kasey were at the mall and she was changing her diaper and she told her I love you. This is the first time she said this. When I called later she said it to Landon and I as well. Very cute and sweet.

Kasey is really being more verbal. Susan from the gym commented on it this weekend but we are noticing as well. When Landon says things she starts saying the same thing and repeats it several times. There is good and bad to this.

11/17 - We went to the pet store tonight to get lady some treats and see the animals. Kasey told us frog and snake. When we went by the mice, and guinea pigs - she'd say momma mouse or pig. She's started calling me mommy some instead of just momma.

11/14 - Kasey said first 3 syllable word - bumblebee. She said it and turned to Greg and said Daddy bumblebee. She was very proud of herself.

11/3 - Landon woke up in the middle of the night last night with really bad cough. He isn't feeling 100% and has some fever as of this evening.

2nd half October 2010

10/31 - Kasey was a ladybug and Landon was a Fire Fighter. Grammy had found the firefighter costume and a Snow White one for Kasey. Both kids tried on several costumes from the dress up clothes we have upstairs and at least for Kasey it was to the end for trying to get her to put something on.

We went to a party down the street at the Cracknells and we all ate dinner together, the kids played and then we all walked around trick or treating together. The kids had a lot of fun. It was kind of warm that night. We got back to the house and let the kids eat 2 pieces of candy. They were excited.

10/29 - The kids wore their jackets on our walk last night. They were both pretty excited about wearing jackets. This morning Landon put his on for school and Kasey wanted to put hers on as well.

When I got home from work today both kids asked if we could go for a walk. Neither of them wanted to go eat but wanted to go on a walk. We have fun on our walks. Landon rides his bike and I push Kasey in the stroller and hold onto Lady. We look for pumpkins at all of the houses as we go by.

Tonight Landon was a mess, not listening, saying no for everything we asked him to do. So I thought I would try a different tact than threatening to take things away. I told Landon what I wanted him to do - be a nice boy, listen to what we ask him to do the first time. It was like his brain changed and he started listening and trying to be nice. Then he kept saying he was being a nice boy. We'll see how far that goes.

We've tried on several halloween costumes the past couple days. We have a snow white costume Grammy bought this year and a few fairy/princess ones we've had for a while, but of course she wanted nothing to do with those. She liked the dinosaurs, ladybug an Elmo. Landon really likes his Fire fighter costume, dinosaur and Elmo as well. We'll see what they end up wearing for halloween.

10/25 - I got to go to Landon's school social today. We went to pumpkin patch in Richardson. We had lunch, petted and fed goats, went on a hay ride, Landon went on a barrel ride, the kids got to run around and pick out pumpkins

We tried on some halloween costumes tonight. Trying to get the kids to choose what they want to be. To many choices I think. We'll see what we end up with. Landon has a really cute Fireman costume that Grammy got and a dinosaur from a few years ago that still fits. Both kids tried on Elmo. Kasey also liked one of the dinosaur costumed and seemed to like it. We tried on dresses for princesses, fairies and snow whie, and then she wanted to put her Team Liam shirt back on.

10/23 - Kasey went pee pee in MiMi's potty. She kept saying she needed to go then she actually did. The next day she asked to go pee pee in the potty. She sat in the restaurant, but didn't go. She's very independent and even on big potties she won't let you hold her to make sure she doesn't fall in.

Also that Saturday we learned that Grammy and Gramps new stopper in their tub didn't work very well. It ended up leaking water through their closet into the living room. Luckily Greg's flight got delayed to much and he came over with the carpet cleaner in his car. It looks like that was able to get most of the water up so that they don't have to replace it.

Kasey has started singing songs more. She will sing some of I Hear Thunder and she knows the end of the ABC song. It's cute hearing her say more.

10/21 - Kasey had a cold (runny nose but not much fever), but Thursday she woke up and couldn't keep breakfast down so Greg took her in. She had an ear infection which I had thought was the case on Tuesday night. She likes the medicine though. We put the medicine syringe in her mouth and she just sucks in the medicine.

10/16/10 - We stayed home this weekend and didn't go to the A&M game. Landon's soccer game and A&M game were at the same time so we stayed here. We had soccer game, watched A&M lose on TV and then after very short rest time the kids, Grammy and I headed to the craft fair in Plano where we always get in trouble. Grammy bought kasey a too too. she tried it on and wouldn't take it off until we go the car.

Kasey is really starting to say more words. If we come home in the evening and it's dark we go to the driveway to see the moon. Kasey won't let us forget. Last night she said Goodnight Moon. In the car today Landon was asking Kasey to say several words like colors and other stuff. She was able to say most of them.

Landon can now open most car doors by himself and he buckles himself in. Landon can sing most of the A&M War Hymn. He can also sing a lot of the A&M Spirit song. Especially the yelling part at the end. He gets really into it. Landon is saying prayers every night and he asks me to sing Hush Little Baby to him.

Landon is making competition of things like who gets their seat belt on. He will figure out which one he'll be between the 4 of us and say that he wins. Example - Kasey has her seat belt on and he's getting his on, but Greg and I aren't in the car. He'll say that the 2nd one to buckle in the winner.

Landon is playing pretty well on the soccer team. We played a really tough team today and Landon scored a goal. He played pretty well.

Kasey's naps seem to be getting shorter. Some days she will still take a good couple hour nap, but most days it seems to be 30-45 minutes.

Pictures First Half of October

At the bottom are a couple links for more pictures. Here are some of my favorites

We went to Odessa to visit Grandpa. We got reserved seating where he is living at Lincoln Towers. - 10/20/10

Headed out for lunch - 10/3/10

Kasey chillin in Grandpa's apartment - 10/3/10

We helped get Grandpa a new chair - I think he likes it - 10/3/10

We had a very short visit, but enjoyed seeing Grandpa and helping him get a new chair. - 10/3/10

First time kids were wearing long pants and sleeves. They look more grown up - 10/4/10

Handsome boy in him jeans - 10/4/10

Getting ready for block party we had on National Night out 10/5/10

Kasey trying to be such a big girl eating hot dog at the block party - 10/5/10

Landon and William on their bikes at the block party - 10/5/10

Landon in his soccer uniform - 10/6/10

Raptors soccer team - 10/6/10
This is one of Landon's class projects to make a collage of him. Picture of him from A&M game, tball, soccer, the family at Sea World, and his best friends Liam and Justin. He also put on some Cars and A&M stickers. - 10/7/10

Silly Kasey - loves this car at Mimmie's - 10/9/10

Kasey at Landon's soccer game - 10/9/10

At Jerry World for A&M vs Arkansas game - 10/9/10

Picture with Grammy at half time of A&M vs Arkansas game - 10/9/10

Grandparents are very good at attending Landon's soccer games. He has lots of support. - 10/9/10

Kasey with Mimmie and Grandma - 10/16/10

Here are a few more pictures from our trip to Odessa - 10/2/10 - click here

Here are more pictures from our block party on National Night out - 10/5/10 - click here

September 2010 + a little more

I feel like I'm getting worse and worse on updating the blog. I am trying to keep up though. Here are entries I have done over the past month or so. I will work on getting some pictures uploaded as well in the next few weeks.

10/10/10 - Greg and Landon went to see Dave and Doug play each other in soccer. Kasey and I went on a nice walk in the neighborhood. We looked for pumpkins at peoples houses. Everytime we would see some she would say more. So we would keep looking.

She also say a two word phrase for the first time (I think). She said bye bye dog. There was one in the window of a house barking at us and she said that as we walked away.

Kasey and Landon are starting to become competitive with each other. They fight over who gets to open the door from the utility room into the kitchen when we get home. Landon gets out and runs to the door. If we try to close the door so Kasey can open it as well he holds it open and throws a fit. They also compete over who gets to get out of the bath first. Of course they compete for attention.

10/9 - We had a busy day. Landon had soccer at 11 & A&M played Arkansas at Jerry World. I took the kids to mom and dads to leave my car there and they drove us to Landon's soccer game. After the game (or almost after) Landon, Grammy & Gramps and I drove to Jerry world to see the game. It didn't take us long to get out there, but it took a while once we got in traffic. Kasey left the game with Grandma and wasn't to happy. She's started getting clingy at the games because we usually leave after them for the football games.

We finally got in the parking lot and found Dave/Tracy, Doug and Greg. We grabbed a bite to eat and headed to the game. Unfortunately we didn't win, but it's still an amazing stadium and it was fun to share that with Grammy and Gramps as well. You can't beat the atmosphere at an A&M football game.

10/6 - I started a weight program through work. I do great with weight when I'm pregnant and breastfeeding, but when I stop breastfeeding I just put on the pounds. We'll see how it goes. It's a 10 week program.

Weekend of Oct 2nd

We flew to Odessa to see Greg's Grandfather. Mid Sept he was diagnosed with stage 4 melanoma in his lungs so we want to get to see him as much as we can. While there for a very short time we were able to get him a new chair which he spends a lot of time in. The kids enjoyed hanging out although they have a putt putt thing where his apartment is but there weren't any balls. Landon and Kasey were sad.

Saturday night we had dinner with Grandpa and Nadene at Lincoln Towers (where he lives). They had tables reserved for us and brought us all of our food and even special cupcakes for dessert. It was neat to see the people that work there excited to see Grandpa and to see his family.

9/30 - I said prayers with Landon tonight.

9/28 - Talked to Landon on the phone and he told me he had a very good day at school. He got to be line leader and the line leader chooses which playground they play on. He chose the one with the bikes because he really likes the bikes.

9/25 - Today we walked with Team Liam in the JDRF walk. Our family raised $1065 for the cause which I thought was pretty good. It was raining pretty good as we drove over to the walk. Once we got there and got checked in th rain slowed down. The weather actually stayed ok through most of the race. We started out with Kasey and Peyton in the double stroller we had borrowed. The boys kept taking turns in the wagon. Liam and Landon didn't end up walking to much, but they made it the whole 5k. At one point some of our group was pretty much at the end of the walk. 4 of the boys kept wanting to to push and pull the wagon. After a while I challenged the boys to run and catch another part of the group and that I would pull the wagon. This seemed to work. As we were getting close to the finish line it started raining pretty good. We had a good walk and enjoyed being there with Liam. Someone took a picture of us coming over the finish line with Liam raising his arm like Yea I did it. Everyone else around was focused on him and smiling and cheering. Good times :)

Mid Sept - Kasey has started to want having a blanket put over in bed.

9/18 - This was our 3rd weekend to try to College Station for football game. Luckily this year Doug has gotten us room so we don't have to drive home til 2am, but it's still tiring. Landon of course likes staying in the hotel room and having breakfast the next morning.

9/17 - we took the kids to Oktoberfest in Addison. Landon has gone every year since he's been born. We had some good food. Walked around some. Landon got to ride some rides, and then Kasey Landon and I went through the fun house they had (Like in Grease). It was a little much for Kasey. Quite interesting walking through a moving cylinder while holding a 21 month old. Landon ended up going through it 3 times.

9/9 - Landon seems to be learning more this year than in the past. Maybe he's absorbing more or just talking about more. He started drawing faces (9/2) - he said he was drawing himself and drew a few characters. He's learning more new songs. Today he started writing words that he had learned in phonics but had not written before - cat, hat, can he also wrote love. They do workbooks in school now which he seems to like. This week they worked on letter C. They are learning a song with the months of the year. They will bring home a list of books to read based on what they are learning. I'm really excited to do that.

Landon has been without his blanket since 8/28 so tonight we let him have his first of 2 prizes - He got the Kings pit crew which he has wanted for a while. If he makes it 2 more weeks without the blanket he gets Emily the train. It's sitting on top of the entertainment unit waiting for him. We don't want to give him his blanket back, but want to make it be partially his choice that he's ok without it.

Kasey is doing more and more all the time. She now gets upset if the driver of a car doesn't buckle their seat belt. She say Buck, Buck. She's starting to be more particular about what she wears. Today she threw a fit when Greg got her dressed because she didn't want to wear what I picked out. She did the same thing to Grammy over the weekend. She started saying Dude today which is what we call Landon a lot. Yesterday she wouldn't put her shoes up so I told her she was going to lose her blanket. She said no (which she does often now a days). I told her she had a choice put her shoes up or no blanket. She actually put her shoes up. I really think she understands everything we say.

9/3 -9/6 We decided to take the kids to College Station and then went to Conroe. This was Kasey's first time in College Station. Friday we left about 3pm to drive down. The kids did pretty good. Kasey slept over an hour, but Landon didn't want to sleep. We told him if he took a nap he could go to Midnight yell. We got down and checked into the hotel. The kids of course like to help push the cart with all of our luggage. We never used the luggage cart before we had kids. :) Then we went to Ninfas for mexican food. We had Ninfa Ritas and some good food. Yum!!

Then we went back to the room. Greg and Doug went out and the kids were watching Aladdin. We turned it off near the end about 9:45pm to "Take a Nap" so we could go to Yell practice. About 11 I tried to wake Landon up to go, but he wasn't going anywhere. Both kids were sound asleep. The kids were in their clothes, no bath or teeth brushing.

The next morning we had breakfast in the hotel and decided to go to the bookstore on campus. Of course all the kids wanted to do was run around.

Then we went over to the Chicken to hang out and have lunch. We got a table, some drinks and some dominoes. Starting the kids early :) We had lunch there, and Grammy was coming down to take Kasey to Uncle Jim and Aunt Marys. Kasey did ok leaving with Grammy. She had some toys, a CD that says her name in the songs and Grammy. Grammy said she asked about us, but they had a good time with everyone. Kasey was pretending to take pictures of everyone with Grammy's camera. She also started calling Grammy MeeMee. We'll have to figure that one out.

Greg,Landon, Doug and I went over to the tailgate area to hang out. Landon got to play bing bag toss with some other kids. Greg and Doug got to watch some College Football. We were glad to be back in football season.

Doug had hurt his foot in soccer and Greg is still having problems with his foot so they took the elevator at the stadium. Landon and I walked up - not sure Landon will choose to walk again :)

Aggies won!! Yea. Landon did pretty good, but it was good that we had some extra space around him to move around.

After the game we went back to the tail gate to let traffic die down. Then we went back to the hotel. Sunday morning we drove to Conroe.

We had a fun family party with good food, company and some silliness. Marisela, Haley and Ashlyn did some dancing and Kasey and Landon had fun joining in. We got to hear Ashlyn sing several song - beautiful!

Sunday we drove home. We were all pretty tired, but had a fun time.

8/30 - Landon has lost his blanket for 3 nights now because he would not listen to us. He has one more night to go, and it might be gone for good. We will see. Landon stopped using his blanket on 8/28.

September Pictures

At the bottom of this post are several links to albums from September. Here are a few of my favorites.

Kasey's first time in College Station - At Kyle field - 9/4/10

Grammy came to pick up Kasey at the Chicken on the way to Conroe. The rest of us went to A&M game - 9/4/10

The first of many to come pictures of our kids at the Dixie Chicken - 9/4/10

Sunday we had family celebration in Conroe - Kasey and Landon with their cousins Haley and Ashlyn - 9/5/10

We celebrated Marisela's birthday - 9/5/10

9/5/10 - Cousins Haley and Ashlyn

Doug came to Landon's game because we were leaving for College Station right after Landon's game - 9/11/10

Kasey dragged Grammy and Gramps to play football with her at Landon's soccer game - 9/11/10

We celebrated Cindy's Birthday at Spring Creek BBQ - 9/12/10

Here's Kasey's 2nd Oktoberfest Sept 17 2010

This was Landon's 3rd Oktoberfest Sept 2008

We promise neither or them had any of the beer :)

The gang at Oktoberfest - 9/17/10

Landon and I went to kids yell practice and watched the team walk into the stadium - 9/18/10

After 3 weekends of staying up late for Aggie Football, Landon was pretty tired - 9/18/10

Our little soccer playing playing on the Raptors team this fall - 9/22/10

One of Landon's good friends who lives down the street (Liam) has type 1 diabetes. We walked with team Liam in the JDRF walk - 9/25/10

All of the Team Liam kids that walked or rode with us - 9/25/10

Daddy reading Kasey a book - 9/25/10

The family before Greg and I went out on date to the Greek festival - 9/25/10

They were planting seeds at Noah's birthday party at Heritage farms - 9/26/10

Noah's party - Heritage Farms - Old time school house where they were reading the kids a book. - 9/26/10


THESE ARE LINKS TO MORE PICTURES

Here are pictures from first 3 home football games and Arkansas game at Jerry World - click here

Here are more pictures from our trip to Conroe to visit family and celebrate Marisela's birthday on Labor Day weekend - 9/5/10 - click here

Here are more pictures from Aunt Cindy's Birthday Celebration - 9/12/10 - click here

Here are more pictures from this year Oktoberfest - 9/17/10 - click here

Here are more pictures from our JDRF walk 9/25/10 - Go Team Liam - Thank you to everyone who contributed for our family in the walk. Our family was able to raise over $1000 for Team Liam. - click here

Here are more pictures from Noah's Birthday party at Heritage Farm - 9/26/10 - click here