Yoga Pose

 Mason frequently contorts his body into this unique pose...
and holds it, releases, and repeats.  

Multiple Times.  

Locust Pose

Daddy-Day

 We've been saying the days of the week with Olivia.  Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Daddy-Day.  Sunday has been the one day a week we get Tim home and we have been making the most of it.  

at the park (2 weeks ago)

swimming in a pool (today)

Is Daddy Home Yet???

we are all ready for school to be over

Foto Friday

sad

T-Ball

We went to the park the other day and meet up with our neighbor Jude.  Her son, Wiley, brought his T-Ball equipment to practice.  Olivia was very intrigued and when he took a break, she stepped in.  

Wiley noticed Olivia trying things out and came over to help her.  He fixed her helmet, showed her how to hold the bat, where to stand, where to put the ball, and helped her with a few practice swings.

loved every moment of this.

Flounder

Gotta love living with a toddler.

I went to take a sip of my water and this is what I found.

 

 Then I remembered earlier in the day Olivia saying, "Flouney" likes water.

lol

Mason 6 Month Well-Check

Doing great little man!  This well-check was by far the easiest.  I didn't have any questions (well, maybe just two...but that's basically none!), the dr looked you over and then we were out of there!  Oh, forgot to mention you did get some shots, but you tolerated them.

Stats:

height: 27 inches - 68%

head: 17.52 inches - 68%

weight: 16 lb 14 oz - 35%

Tim and I have been saying that you don't feel or look quite as chunky as you did a couple of months ago.

Starting in August...

...this little lady will be going to school on Tuesday and Thursday!!  Yes, we have already registered her and we are excited about our first born getting some much needed time with her peers!  This wonderful preschool is where Tiffini's girls went and where all our neighborhood kiddos go :)

Now we just have to decide which pink backpack she'll use :)

Self Portrait

love this moment.  

Olivia was pretending to take pictures of Mason using one of our old cell phones, 

when she decided to take her picture.

Cheeeeeeeeeeeeze.  

Solids

Mason has started solid foods!  His pediatrician recommended us avoiding rice cereal now and start with veggies to help with normal BM.  He has done a great job since we started and has found his favorite veggies, which included almost anything that is NOT green.  

Foto Friday

Then & Now

may i present...

Miss Olivia

August 2009

February 2011

Happy HALF Birthday!

Can't believe it's been a full SIX months!!

Some Tidbits

*arches back when ready to get out of any seat
*squeals before nursing

*if his face gets close to any of my skin, he immediately starts sucking
*introduced a sippy cup of water
*started solids (veggies twice a day)

*still nurses every three hours during the day (really working on pushing that to four hours) 
*sits up on his own
*rides in a shopping cart and can sit in a high chair

*loves to stand 
*will take a bottle ... usually he gets one right before bed, in addition to nursing
*takes three naps (one 60-90 minutes after he wakes up, one in the afternoon at the same time Olivia is napping, and a quick nap in the evening)
*still working out all the kinks with his night time sleeping (he is crying for periods in the middle of the night)
*sleeps on his belly (he rolls over and chooses that sleep position)
*moves all over in his crib at night
*will suck his thumb (but usually only at night) and still likes the pacifier
*wears mostly 9 month clothes
*enjoys holding onto and playing with toys
*Loooves Jerry...he smiles and follows that dog around EVERYWHERE
*is a super jumper when placed in his jumper
*Smiles a lot!  Sometimes he smiles so hard that he knocks himself over when sitting up :)

And, of course, we had a celebration honoring this special day!!  
We love you so much Mason.

Hula Hooping

Awhile ago Tim came home late.  Why???  He was hula hooping and doing really well.

Fast forward 6 months - we are in Toys-R-Us and I see hula hoops.  I wanted to see my husband and these incredible hula hooping skills.  Of course, for the first five minutes the hula hoop just fell on the floor...and then once the video was on, he pulled out his hula artistry.  My technique is not quite as refined, and Olivia was not given the proper sized equipment...but still managed to rock it!

February 14, 2011

12 Years Ago Today...

...we started dating.

love love love you.

Cookies

Today we made cookies and decorated them.  These were going to be our Valentines to pass out to our friends, but since Olivia is sick we decided not to share our cold with our friends.

 make the cookies

knead the dough - Mason watching from the pantry

make hearts

  ice cookies

 decorate with pretty sprinkles Aunt Erin sent us in a package

 Excited about eating them :)

Foto Friday

Three Things... From Tim

Okay everyone, you have probably noticed that I am not exactly what you would call a "regular contributor" on the website but I've been excited about my Three Things - electronics edition!

1) The NOOK : What a great 30th birthday present! I really enjoy my e-reader even though we have the ipad. The battery lasts forever and the screen is much easier to read. The Kindle seems pretty cool also but I am a little partial to the touchscreen on the NOOK. These are getting pretty cheap so if you like reading join the revolution!

2) Sonos : When we got Andrea an iPhone we were looking for a sweet dock so we could play music and we stumbled upon this option.... a little pricey I suppose, but I can vouch that Sonos+napster=love... if you don't believe me trust Gizmodo, they named it a "lifechanger"

3) Networked Color Laser Printer : We have the old version of the printer I linked to here, the thing is unstoppable and actually really affordable if you do a lot of printing. Our printer has churned out over 10,000 pages without a hitch and we've only replaced the toner 3 or 4 times. Having it connected to the network is an added bonus so you can print from the couch and grab later!

Thanks everyone, maybe I'll try to jump on the blog a little more often to share some other tips!

Olivia's Hair

Olivia your hair is crAAAAAAAzy! It's all nappy and frizzy and like a bird's nest. It's thin and fine and wispy and curly. AND it's NOT GROWING!

You've got a mullet and a rattail. In fact, when I ask you what you have in your hair, you say, "Rattail". It's a mullet with a rattail extension. It's awful. The link I've provided for rattail does say that they are gaining popularity again (wiki is looking for clarification on that)...so maybe it's actually stylish???

I've started trying some products. We've been using a spray on detangler in addition to kid shampoo/conditioner versus just using the johnson and johnson lovely lavendar shampoo. We experimented with some hairspray and styling glaze to try and help out this mess.

The issue is your hair is not growing at the rate I would love. So I have been really putting off going to get your hair cut because that's only going to remove hair and we need MORE hair. However, after playing with your rattail (it is a curly rattail...think of a pig's tail), I decided we need to chop this off.

I was tempted to just grab the scissors and chop it myself, but since this was going to be your first haircut, I though we would make it official with a certificate and a baggie to keep the "treasured?" rattail.

Before: 

During:

(Olivia did a great job.  It helped that Toy Story 3 was playing on the TV.  She held still the whole time, until the very friendly lady walked in front of the movie.   The hair drying process wasn't her favorite, I think probably because it was so loud and she couldn't hear what Buzz was saying.  When it was time to get down from the chair, she threw a fit...yup, wanted to stay and "watch")

  

After:

UGH, yes, the rattail is gone.  But this child has some funky hair!!!  I'm still not happy with it...not that I thought she would walk out of the salon with Ariel flowing long locks.  It needs to grow.  A LOT.  

Sick of Sickness

This time it's both kiddos :(  

Olivia started first on Sunday and Mason (his first cold) got it on Monday.  Both have yucky noses and Olivia has another bad cough.  I took her into the dr on Monday to make sure it wasn't an ear infection, she has been playing with her left ear, but her ears were clear.  

We literally had four days of being healthy between this cold and the last one.  Oh well, I think this goes along with having young children.  

Still pretty cute, even if they have colds :)

Bottom Lip

Mason frequently looks like this

Can you tell which picture was taken in January?  

The rest were taken within the past week.  

Super Bowl

Today was the super bowl and presentation of trophies for our fantasy football league.  This was the third year of the fantasy league and first year Tim did NOT win
(he came in second).  

(picture notes)

love Tiff and Justin taking care of our kiddos :)

Tim presenting the trophy and toddlers watching a movie

a group shot watching the game

Tim saying bye to Jerome who is leaving the league

And Mike giving his victory speech ... Congrats Mike!

2010 Super Bowl

2009 Super Bowl

Date Night

OMG...the last time we had a date night was before Mason was born.  Seriously too long.  

If there is one piece of "baby" advice that has resonated with me is the importance of my relationship with Tim.  I knew it was part of the puzzle, but I didn't know how crucial it was.  This wise friend stated that part of our job as parents is to raise our children to eventually leave us, and that the most important relationship in the house in is the one between your spouse and you. Prior to hearing that I thought that the most important relationship would be the ones with our children...yes, it's important, but it's not the foundation.

It was a great night.  Planned to go to Rockfish, but they went out of business :(  Boo...guess we'll have to go to PF Changs :)  We had adult drinks, enjoyed a leisurely meal, chatted and even did a little shopping.  

May I present our new coffee mugs :)

i love you

Foto Friday - SNOW Edition

Thursday Night from local weather person - EXPECT up to 4 inches of snow!!!

So I would have loved to wake up Friday morning and it look like this outside

or this

or this

(this is outside my sisters house in CT and granted they are sick of snow but we haven't had any. It would be soooo much fun for everyone to have some measurable snow. Snowmen, snowballs, igloos, sledding..I know the perfect sledding hill).

INSTEAD...it looks like this!?!?!

Do you see the snow? I guess there is black ice out there, so good thing they've closed and canceled all of South-Eastern Texas. No work, no schools, no businesses, NO SNOW.

Seriously? Seriously.

The past couple of days it's been all about the four P's - pipes, plants, pets, and people.  The area looks like a massive bed with blankets and quilts and sheets covering any weed or potential poisonous plant.  If I was given a dime for every time I've heard to wrap our precious pipes...

Oh, did I mention that you should protect your pipes?  

lol

It's a Snow Day in Houston.
Olivia and Mason are definitely getting the wrong idea of what a "snow day" looks like.

Three Things

dropbox - it's a cloud.  Great to use with ipad.  It can store documents, photos, etc. and I can access it anywhere I have the web.  It's Free.

evernote - it's a organization system that I can access on my phone, ipad or desktop.  If I see something I like or want to remember, I can take a picture of it or open the notepad and jot a note.  Later I can easily search for the item.  There is an app for it and it's also free.

typeracer - serious dork.  loooove to test and improve my typing speed.  90 wpm...what's your best?

Swim

We took a short break from swimming over the holidays and are thankful to start back up. This little girl never ceases to amaze me while in the pool.

On a side note: we stopped lessons right before Thanksgiving and Olivia was barely talking to Mrs. Gail...now, she's a little chatterbox. LOVE IT! Can't believe how much has changed in 6 weeks.

Sisterly Love

A couple of days ago we were taking pictures.  I attempted to get a picture with both kiddos.  And this is what happened...