Tennyson's Football Draft First Birthday

Saturday, we drove up to Austin for Tennyson's 1st birthday party!  What a shindig it was!!!  Marne did a super job pulling the theme together (football draft party) and the kids had a ball (haha - had to do it)!

Her dessert table and food spread were masterpieces!  That's astroturf on the table serving as the tablecloth and her dad put piping together to make a goalpost!  Not to mention, Marne used my scallop punch to go crazy!  LOVE IT!

Tennyson was his normal cheerful self!  The invitation asked the kids to wear their favorite football team colors!

Carleigh was in an extra-affectionate mood.  Her and Carter were hugging and kissing on the couch and she was giving hugs to Daddy, too!  Awe!

Although there were tons of toys to play with inside, after going outside for a group photo, Carleigh couldn't take her eyes of the gigantic lab next door!  We laughed and said he was the pony for the party :)  Carter couldn't get over the excitement of Marne's Dad's Longhorn golfcart!  Vroom, Vroom!  T has such cool things at his grandparents' house!

The 3 Musketeers!  Look at that lake backdrop!

The Mommy/Kiddo group photo!  Look at C's face!!!  I wouldn't let her run to the lab 50 feet in front of her.  Hilarious!!! None of the kids were really into the idea of picture time, though. Figures.

THE BIRTHDAY BOY!  Enjoying his cake and the attention!  Awesome birthday, T!

An Apple A Day

With her mouth full of teeth, Carleigh loves chomping on apples, pink ladies in particular, skin and all!

What better way to refuel after running through the sprinklers on a nice JANUARY day?!?!

She loves to hear the crunch!!!

Perhaps, eating one a day will keep the doctor away!

Responsibility

There comes a time in every kid's life when they crave some sort of responsibility. That happened yesterday when we went on our daily dog walk.  She said "Maddie" repeatedly, which we discovered was her way of asking to hold Maddie's leash. Once she had the leash, she held on tightly and was very pleased with herself!

I suppose she needed something to hold onto since acorns are out of season ....

She did great even turning as the leash got twisted around Maddie's foot!  Maddie wasn't so sure about it though.  Our little birddog, whom Carleigh affectionately calls "guh-gur" (for good girl), was happy to be home!

First Pee-Pee in the Potty!

I'm a little behind on posting, but a few days shy of Carleigh's 18 month birthday, she went pee-pee in the potty all by herself!  A girlfriend of mine with older kids mentioned to me that when Carleigh started telling me that she was doing pee-pee and poo-poo in her diaper, it would be a good time to introduce the potty to her, eventually segwaying into pottytraining.  Well, Carleigh has been telling us about her potty habits probably for the last couple weeks so we thought it was a good time to get her a potty. 

Meet Lucky- the potty who gets her poo-poo and pee-pee!  What a lucky duck!

The process to get to the potty - no diaper - is a fun one!

This may take a while Mom.  Let's hydrate, to help the process along!

Potty Victory!  The funniest thing ... she loves the hand sanitizer/soap more than the music/praise for going potty.  She just can't wait to wash her hands!!!

As of right now, we leave the potty out in the open and when she tells us poo-poo or pee-pee, we steer her towards the potty and see if she can make it in time. So far we've only had two successful pee-pees, one accident, and lots of telling me in the car that she's done one or the other.

Play-Doh!

We discovered a new way to keep Carleigh's attention and a great creativity outlet - PLAY-DOH!

Our first play time wtih it, she didn't try to eat it, nor did she take it all over the house!  She sat at the kitchen table in her booster seat and did really well!  We'll see if that continues...

She enjoyed seeing what would happen when her fingers went into it and had fun putting it in and out of the containers.  I had to show her how to make the animals out of the shapes.  She's still a bit young for that.
Rolling a ball though?  She got the hang of that really fast!  And what did she make with her little ball creations?

The piece-de-resistance ... Minnie Mouse!

Mouseka--Crazy!

This is the scene at our house these days (though stuffed Minnie and the plate/bowl/silverware set are missing from the picture).  The obsession began after seeing a Mickey balloon a few months ago at HEB and has progressed.

True love!

Dancing and Singing Mickey is a special treat that stays at Gigi's but comes over for visits on occasion!

Hot Dog, hot dog, hot diggity-dog, Ty-Ty!

That's all for now.  We've got ears, say "cheers!"

why doors need to be closed

Look, Mom! No mess!

Carleigh's spoon skills are improving day by day!!!

              

She doesn't waste a drop of ice cream!  That's my girl.

Sleepover at Bubba and Gigi's

Sleepovers at Bubba and Gigi's are so much fun for everyone - Gigi, Bubba, me and Mommy and Daddy!

Here's my new trick.  Point to something so Bubba get's out of his chair and gets it for me ...

... and then steal his chair!!!  Such a fun game!

They let me do so much fun stuff!!! (that's his autographed Houston Rockets Basketball that I'm playing on).  No biggie.  Everything I do is okay by them!  So different than Mommy and Daddy.  Gotta love grandparents!

Awe, Bubba - you're the best!

Next weekend I'll have to go to Mimi's and Papaw's.  I'm sure there's lots of spoiling to be had by them!!!

Full Ponytail!

We hit what I like to think of as a major milestone this week ... full ponytail status!  You'd think that would be post-worthy enough, but on the same day that I took pony pictures, we had a bit of a meltdown that had to be blogged about.  This is a memory we can't forget!

Here's the scenerio.  We're about to go to the gym.  Carleigh always has two choices for clothing.  She chooses one.  I normally don't give her a choice for bows.  Well on this day, I grabbed a pink bow of of her bow holder as we walked out of the room and as I did, she said "tur-tle," a new word of hers.  I didn't think much of it, until she walked back into her room and pointed at her bow holder.  She wanted her turtle bow.  Whatever, I thought.  She proceeded with a mini-tantrum, so I grabbed the pink turtle bow and we went downstairs.

My hope was that she would forget the turtle bow and let me keep the pink solid bow in her hair since the turtle bow didn't match her outfit.  No such luck.  She cried when I still had the turtle bow in my hand.

 

I asked her, "Do you really want the turtle bow?"  She responded like this.

The turtle bow won.  It wasn't worth the fight and at least it was pink.  She actually got a lot of compliments on the bow at the gym.  This bow is quite heavy though and pulled her ponytail down.

But to see that smile and to stop the tears, I wouldn've let her wear anything

The Twins' First Birthday!

This past Saturday we celebrated Stella and Caroline's 1st birthday!  The theme was Winter Onederland and Cousin Courtney did an amazing job with the party!!!

No detail was missed and everyone had a fabulous time!  The twins will look back and be very proud of their Mommy's hard work!

The kids' played indoors and out.  There was an inflatable bounce pit, a slide, a big rocking horse and tons of toys inside!

Carleigh was in her element with all her cousins, including Nuria, visiting from Guadalajara!!!

The proud mom and dad with the birthday girls!

Cake time!

Mmmm.... they couldn't get enough!  Sharing with Daddy ... um ok.

Big sister Aubrey was having a ball.

Trinity was just staying out of everyone's way.  Thanks for a great party, Seth and Courtney!  Happy Birthday Stella and Caroline!