First visit to the pool this year - 5/31/10

This was at our neighborhood pool. This was really the first time Kasey was able to get into the pool and play around some. Last year we just held her. We tried to practice some of the stuff from swimming with Landon, but he just wanted to play.

Conroe Visit May 2010

We went down to Conroe for a family party. Nina was graduating from College and we were also celebrating Jim and Gary's birthdays.

It was good to have the family together. Several friends were also there. There was a DJ playing at the party, and then later a full Mariachi band came. One of my cousins Marisela and one of her daughters Ashlyn did a special dance for Gary (husband and dad) to the Mariachi music.

For pictures click here

Landon's 4th Birthday

Landon's 4th birthday

We had a couple celebrations for Landon.

Saturday May 15th we had Landon's friend birthday party. We had it at Pump it Up in Frisco which the kids really liked. Landon picked Cars (from the movie as his theme). I made a cake with a road in the shape of a 4. We put some of the cars characters like Mack, Lightning, Tow Mater, Chick Hicks and The King. We had about 18 kids at the party from his school class, the neighborhood and friends from TI moms.

Sunday we had the family birthday. We had everyone over to eat Freebirds (one of Landon's favorites). For cake we made cupcakes and put them in the shape of a 4. Landon wanted the icing to be green, blue, red and yellow. I made the icing and topped the cupcakes then Landon helped me top the icing with blue, red, green sprinkles or multi colored stars. We had fun decorating together. Then we put on Tow Mater and Lightning McQueen ring toppers. Landon also got to open presents from his friends and family at this party.

On Monday on his actual birthday he had school. We took in cupcakes with the Cars themed rings on them for his morning class. We had won a root beer float party for a class at the AppleCreek Auction so we had them do this at Stay and Play with his friends there. The kids seemed to enjoy it. Landon had one with rootbeer and without rootbeer because he wasn't sure he liked the rootbeer.

Landon went to the Dr on his birthday after school and stay and play. He weighed 39 lb - 74%, and was 41 1/4 in tall - 70%. He had to get 4 shorts which wasn't fun, but everything looked good. His ears were clear which we were happy about.

Below are some pictures. For more pictures click here

Landon's Cars cake for his friend party - 5/15/10

The friend party was at Pump It Up - Even to adults got to play

All of the kids at Landon's party

Landon's friends from his school class from left to right - Brooklyn, Landon, Justin, Miles, Jack, Mirabia, Dylan

Some of Landon's other friends - Mirabia, Alfonso, Landon, Devon, Eliana, Lauren, Sarah, Jack

Landon helped me decorate the cupcakes for his family party - 5/16/10

Here is the cars cupcake cake for Landon's family party

Landon and Kasey before the party

Landon got a basketball goal for his birthday from Grammy and Gramps. This was his expression when he saw it for the first time

The family out watching Landon and Kasey playing basketball

The family at the party, not sure about Kasey's expression

Grammy and Gramps with their grandkids

Grandma and Pops with their grandkids

Updates, Mother's Day, Kasey 17 Months

It's been pretty busy with my new job, some travel, and just busy weekends. Anyway, here are some updates. I'll have to get more pictures uploaded.

5/11 - Kasey turned 17 months on April 28th so I'm a little behind - who knew time would go so fast. Kasey is a strong willed sweet little girl. She can throw a fit, but she can also make you laugh with a smile. She scratches (sometimes I think to get attention), but she also cuddles. When I leave her room she will throw a fit and throw her blanket out of her bed, and then Greg will go in and she'll settle down first try. She understands just about anything we say. In May I started giving her options at night or nap that she could cuddle in my lap or go to bed. She will choose what she feels like and then decide when she's ready to go to bed. She's eating pretty good. She still loves most meat. The main vegetables she eats are cucumbers and avacados - sometimes peas and green beans. She likes fruit especially bananas, blueberries and cantaloupe. She's just getting breastmilk at night now, and drinking soy milk outside of that. It depends on the day how much soy milk she drinks - sometimes 16 oz and somedays I think more like 4oz. She'll eat yogurt as well. We've actually started giving her some cheese with cow's milk in it and it seems to be ok so far. We'll see how that goes. She has gotten sick a couple times, but other times she doesn't.

Kasey can climb up into the car by herself. She also can take her own shirt off. She tries to put on any clothes or shoes that are around the house (everyone's except her own)

She's in 5 diapers although last night we were noticing that they really don't fit her very well. She's wearing 24months and 2T clothes. Her top half is long with shorter legs, and she still has a belly. She tried to say avocado the other day. She says things like bye bye, teeth, ma ma (a lot), da, and she tries to say several things like all done, Landon, other family member names, and things we repeat a lot

She loves to play. And loves to take Landon's toys. She likes books, she loves to draw, and will pull everything apart. Anything that has several items in it she will remove them all and put them all over the floor. We wonder why our house is a mess all the time.

Landon is recovering from being sick. He went at least a day and a half without eating, and now we sometimes think he'll eat us out of house and home. He's hungry all the time.

He's playing tball, and only has a few weeks of school left.

Landon is also getting some attitude. He'll tell us he can't do things, or do things that we've told him not to do. We're trying to negotiate that when he turns 4 at least his blanket in the car goes away. We'll see how that goes. There are days that he throws a complete fit for not having it. This past weekend he picked riding with his blanket over riding with both of the grandparents and me. He seems to be doing well in school and wants to learn how to spell things which is good.

5/9 - My mother's day

Landon came home from school Friday with some fun Mother's day gifts. He had made a plate with some flowers on it that had a little card that said Happy Mother's Day, and he wrote Love, Landon. They had planted sunflower seeds and they were starting to grow with a little card and poem attached that Landon signed. The teachers had filled out a little sheet that said:

My mommy is 14 years old

Her favorite foods are lettuce, blueberries and raspberries

She likes to fly on trips

while I'm at school Mommy does art at work

Mommy's favorite thing to do with me is: draw pictures

I think this was priceless!

Saturday night Greg and Landon went to the FC Dallas soccer game. Greg came home and his eyes were very red, hurt and he couldn't breathe very well. Needless to say he didn't sleep very well. The kids got up at normal time so I let Greg sleep in. Landon, Kasey and I made muffins together. They helped me poor things in and mix them up. Landon helped me figure out which ones needed more batter. The three of us had breakfast, and then Landon said he was tired (he had been up late the night before). Landon went and laid down with Greg in the bedroom and they slept until 10:30-11am. After everyone was awake Greg had the kids bring me my presents. They each had a bag from James Avery, and they helped me open them. One had a beautiful bracelet in it that I had told Greg I liked, and the other one had matching earings. Greg still wasn't feeling well, but the kids and I went and met Janice, Cindy and Nanny for brunch at Mama Emilias. It was a little crazy. We had reservations, but still had to wait 30 minutes for a table. Landon was telling me he was hungry and starving every 30 seconds :) After brunch we went back to the house for a little bit so Grandma could open her mother's day presents. I got some pretty flowers from Cindy and a few nice cards. We hung out for a little while and finally got the kids down for a nap about 4:30pm. I then went and took a nap. I thought Greg was going to as well, but I don't think he did. We had to wake the kids up to go to dinner at Terra with Grammy and Gramps. We had a great dinner, and then they came back to the house for a little bit for Grammy to open her gifts. I got another nice card and some Mother's Day money. Grammy helped me get the kids a bath and read them a book. It was fun to get to do that with my mom on Mother's Day

5/2 - This was the first day that I stopped breastfeeding or pumping in the mornings. I'm now down to breastfeeding Kasey once a day. She's doing pretty well. She will ask for it sometimes, but is doing better drinking soy milk instead. I try to give her lots of hugs and lap time when I'm home.

5/1 - Landon had his first Jr Tball game of the season. This is his second season with the Cubs, but Greg is the head coach this time.

4/27 - I had to go out of town to California this week. The kids did well. Greg had his first tball practice on 5/28 as the head coach for the Cubs Jr Tball team. Landon is on the team with friends Justin, Asher, Alfonso, Ian, Jack and Miles. This is Greg's first time to be head coach and is doing a great job.

Week of 4/19 - Kasey said ear. She says eat a lot, bye bye and tries to say a few other things.

Last time Landon went to that Little Gym for a party he got the Swine Flu. This time he got a bad virus. Monday night he had a low fever of 99 but was fine otherwise. He didn't go to swim Tuesday because he had a higher fever. He seemed fine otherwise. Wednesday he still had fever and wasn't doing as well. Wednesday night he came downstairs and slept with us. He woke up about 2am and started throwing up. He said, that wasn't very fun. He got to point where he didn't want to eat and was sleeping a lot. Greg took him to the dr and they said it's a virus going around. Thursday afternoon we thought his fever broke, and then he woke up Friday morning with a 103 temp. Finally by Saturday afternoon his fever went away and he got a rash which is normal.

Even today - 4/29 - he slept 3 hours for a nap. He's started to get his appetite back, but not fully recovered and not eating like he used to yet. Hopefully he can get some rest and fully recover soon.

4/19 - Kasey is trying to say things like elephant and cookie, not quite there but she tries.

4/18 - I think Kasey is drinking breastmilk or breastfeeding twice a day now.

Landon got to go to Little Gym for birthday party for some friends from school

4/17 - Today Kasey is taking her shirt off because she can do it in the middle of the day!

4/16 - Kasey said bye bye today for the first time. She's been eating cheese a little bit, but the one day she had a whole stick of cheese she threw up. She's not drinking a lot of soy milk during the day. I'm still breastfeeding some. In the mornings I either feed her or pump if I have to go into work early. Then I feed her in the evenings before bed.

We went to the park by our house today and Kasey went on all of the big slides by herself. That was the first time. She's growing up to fast. Landon is such a big help to make sure she's ok or to help her to something.

Kasey took her shirt off by herself. Greg says she's done this before, but I haven't seen her do it.

4/12 - I guess I've been busy celebrating my birthday and doing stuff for my new job that I started on 4/5.

Greg said yesterday that he thinks Kasey says eat. She still signs it too.

Blog updates - Mid March to April 1st

4/1 - We took the kids to Fort Worth Zoo, and then headed back for soccer tots. Kasey was out before we got to the car, and Landon was out not long after we left the parking lot. We had fun seeing the animals. They both really like the elephants. We were trying to sign a lot of the animals to Kasey and even Landon would help out with that. We got to pet a cow and a chicken. Greg and Landon got to have some fudge, but it was made with real butter and cream so Kasey and I didn't get any.

I think Kasey has at least 1 eye tooth on the top coming in.

3/31 - I took the day off. I got to go volunteer at Landon's school during art time which was fun. I also got to sit in the class for a few minutes while they were teaching about the letter I.

3/30/10 - This was the first day that I didn't pump at work. Sort of sad. I'm still breastfeeding, but we're giving Kasey only soy milk during the day so I don't need to pump. We'll see how it goes.

3/28 - I had bought Landon, Grammy and I tickets to Disney on Ice. We all 3 enjoyed it a lot. I loved all of the characters, the music and the diversity of things they showed. They did several numbers with songs from movies, and then in the second half Micky and Minnie were pretending to look for each other while ended up in foreign countries for an adventure. They went to Japan, China and then New Orleans. It was put together really well. Landon doesn't know all of the characters (which is fine), but he knew several and really liked seeing some like Aladdin. Grammy really enjoyed it as well. We had great seats in the lower bowl of the AA Center.

we went to the Pump it Up where Landon is going to have his birthday party in May. He had a blast and so did I. I got to jump in the bounce houses and slide on the slides as well. Landon decided I had picked a good place for his birthday.

3/27 - Landon has a little bit of crust coming out of his ear. I assumed that his ear drum had burst so Greg called the Dr and took him in that morning. His ear infection was not getting better even though he had been on antibiotics for 10 days. Because of this they wanted to give him a stronger antibiotic, and he had to get 2 shots for it. Poor thing. I think they hurt pretty bad, and we probably let him milk it for a while. He said he was sore, couldn't walk very well. We got home, gave him some motrin, put ice on his legs, and before long he was running around the house with daddy. We had told his soccer team he probably wouldn't be at the game, but he got dressed and went. Probably the best thing to move his legs around.

Luckily this worked out ok. After the soccer game we had lunch at our house and then Grammy, the kids and I went to a craft fair at the Plano Center. We found some really cute things, but by the end Landon was a bit worn out and saying he didn't want to go down any more rows of the craft fair.

Sat night we grabbed a quick dinner at Tin Star, and then Landon and I went to the Circus under the big top in Allen. It worked out pretty well. I had not gotten tickets because I wasn't sure Landon would make it. We had to wait in line for tickets - it was actually cold with the wind. Landon had my jacket on. I got reserved seats so that we didn't have to rush to our seats. After getting tickets to the show I got some coupons for rides. Landon rode a train, and then we decided to go into the main area. This was pretty good timing as the line was starting to move pretty good. Once we got in most people were getting to their general admission seats so the camel and elephant rides were pretty empty. Landon and I rode both with very short lines. Then we got some popcorn and went inside to our seats to watch the show. We enjoyed it quite a bit.

Week of 3/22 - I bought Kasey some new cute shoes online. She got them in and likes wearing them. She came over and stuck her foot out to show me her new shoes. She was excited, and still is really excited to wear them.

Kasey is getting shorter and shorter on naps. She'll take 30 minutes to an hour, but is less and less sleeping a long time. She doesn't take 2 naps as often either.

Landon is pretty close to being done with naps. When he's really tired he'll take one, but most days he won't.

3/18 - Landon started drawing people today. Stick people but people. Usually he draws maps or just scribbles. He drew our family of 4.

3/16. I think Kasey said eye and Landon. She's trying to say more words

She knows where eyes nose ears tummy and toes are. Shell also do head shoulders knees and toes

She's really started climbing more. Yesterday she stepped on Greg's foot and climbed into his lap on her own. She can also get onto Landon's bed by herself and thinks it's fun.

She also figured out how to open Landon's closet door (from being fully closed) - which is where we keep the ride in car that the kids fight over. She actually tries to open several doors. She wants to go outside and tried to open those doors. Yesterday she tried getting to the backyard through the doggy door. Luckily she wasn't successful.

3/15. Kasey has 2 new teeth on the top. Not for sure if they are eye teeth or small molars. Also last of the bottom front four teeth has come in on the right

March Pictures and activities

There seem to be many birthday parties going on this time of year. This one is Alfonso's - 3/28/10. Landon is going to have his friend birthday party at the same place - Frisco Pump it up. Luckily Landon agreed with my choice of location for the party.

At Alfonso's party - from left to right - Asher, Landon, Alfonso, Sebastien, & Andres

Grammy and I took Landon to see Disney on Ice at AA Center - 3/28/10. The show was great. The first half had several songs from Disney movies and such, and the second half had a couple cultural acts from Japan, China and New Orleans, and then they had a Christmas number. We all thought the show was great. Landon doesn't know all of the characters but he still had fun. I knew all of them except one which I thought was pretty good. To See more pictures from Disney on Ice - click here

This is a birthday party

Landon and I at Disney on Ice

Landon, Grammy and I at Disney on Ice

One of Landon's favorites - Aladdin and Jasmine

Grammy and Landon getting his green snow cone

3/27/10 - Landon and I had a date to go to a small circus that comes to town each year. It's the Carson and Barnes circus. The elephants are one of our favorites. The show was very good. Landon tried cotton candy for the first time. He wasn't to impressed. We also had some popcorn and ended up buying a balloon on the way back to the car.

Landon and I got to ride an elephant before the show.

We also go to ride a camel. Landon pointed out that the camel ride is much rougher than the elephant ride.

Grammy and Gramps helping to watch the kids at Landon's soccer game - 3/27/10

Gramps and Kasey taking a walk at Landon's soccer game - 3/27/10

We started putting Kasey in the booster seat and Landon in a regular seat - 3/24/10

Landon made a bunny cookie house with Grammy - I think he did a good job decorating - 3/23/10

Grandpa has been staying in Dallas for a while as he recovered from his hip surgery. He's not gone back to Odessa and I think the kids will miss seeing him when they go to Grandma and Pops house.

We celebrated Granpa's birthday early before he went back to Odessa - 3/21/10

Playing Zingo - bingo like game we got Pops for his Birthday

3/21/10 - We had some crazy snow. One day it was 70 degree, and the next day it was raining and then snowed about 5-6 inches at our house overnight. The snow stuck probably because the rain had cooled everything down during the day. Anyway, we went to the Turners and the boys played outside for a while.

Landon all decked out to play in the snow

Kasey got out as well, but didn't last to long.

3/20/10 - This was at Evan Parks first birthday party at Planet Pizza. Grammy came with me to help with the kids. Everyone had a good time.

Landon and Kasey pretending to race each other.

Grammy and her grandkids

playing in the ball pit

Landon trying to guide Kasey

3/14/10 - We celebrated Nanny's Birthday at Grandma and Pops house. It was getting a little dark, but the kids had a good time playing outside.

Doesn't get much cuter than this - at Nanny's BDay

Landon is the ultimate card and gift helper at any birthday :)

At soccer game - 3/13/10

Landon and Justin hanging out

fun Landon action shot in soccer game.