Thursday, October 4, 2012

Slacker Blogger

I feel like such a slacker with this blog lately! It is crazy how busy this time of year is. The kids are both doing great in their schools and are each signed up for 1 physical activity (dance & soccer).  Rylee has gotten a smiley sticker for good conduct each day so far and is reading and completing her daily homework with little to no help.  Parker has received compliments on his behavior also and is learning the sounds of the alphabet.  I am so proud of  their good behavior at school but wonder why it changes the second they get in my car ;)  I am sure I will leave some things out but here is what we have been up to in September.

We went to Comfort for Labor Day weekend.  This first picture is from Dad and Sherry's river lot.  It is beautiful!  We had fun floating and kayaking in the river but I think the kids still need a few years before they can really enjoy/appreciate it. 

Do I even need to comment on this??

The kids LOVE Poppy's tractor!



Parker has had 2 soccer games so far this season.  These photos were taken in the first 5 minutes of the first game so it LOOKS like he is enjoying it.  Looks can be deceiving though!  ha ha  He has pretty much cried the whole time through both games :(   I am talking middle of the field, hunched over, tears streaming.  ugh.  He does good at practice so I think he is just overwhelmed by it all.  I also think maybe he is a little on the young side to have been signed up however we will stick with it and try to find a way to help him have fun.  He has a double header this Saturday so we have been talking a lot about it and maybe a little bribing too! ha ha Whatever works at this point though right???

 




Such a funny little guy. He really is such an angel these days. He is my side kick as Adam would say. I feel so lucky to be blessed with such a sweet monkey!!!




The big news this month has been the visit Rylee received from the tooth fairy!  She has been asking over and over for the past 6 months when would she get a loose tooth.  Well once she did it only took about 2 weeks for it to look like this.


The next day Rylee and I were going downtown to see Beauty and the Beast at the Hobby Center.  She was going to be spending the night at Nonnie and Pop Pop's that night and I was all worried I would miss her losing her 1st tooth.  So that morning dad decided to try to pull it just one more time and.... out it popped!  Can you believe the tooth fairy pays $5 for a first tooth these days????  I think I got a quarter ;)


I LOVE this picture.  I will keep it forever!!!

Granna was our date at the "fancy" restaurant.

Thursday, August 30, 2012

Beach, Birthday and School

I will keep my blog entry short since I posted SO many pics!  For Parker's 3rd birthday we went to Galveston with our bff's The Rentfro's and The Knott's.  We had such a good time.  The kids all played so great together.  It has been quite a while since we have all hung out together. They made sand castles, played in the waves and hunted crabs.  This is our 3rd year to go to Galveston together as families.  The first time we went together the younger 3 kids didn't even exist ;) 
Rylee & Addi near Surf Side beach.
In Uncle Joe's kayak!
My sweet boy loved the beach!


He had NO fear!!!

Rylee preferred playing in the sand over the waves ;)

JP and dad flying a kite.

So much fun with The Rentfro's and The Knott's. 
We had a spiderman birthday party (his new obsession).  He even blew out his candle on queue!


Birthday boy.  Can't believe he is THREE already.


Parker loved all of his spiderman gifts.

Not sure what this face is but it is pretty funny.
Rylee started 1st grade Monday.  She was so excited!  She even convinced me to let her ride the bus home.  What a brave girl she has become.  She said "1st grade is so awesome.  I can do so much more than when I was in Kindergarten".
Rylee's first day of 1st grade.

Parker really wanted to go to Madeley Ranch also.

She did great the 1st two days on the bus but the 2nd two I had to yell at the bus driver to not drive off because SOMEBODY wasn't paying attention to her stop! ;)
Ready for the day.  Her teacher's name is Ms. Gary. 
JP's 1st day of Pre-school.



Tuesday, August 7, 2012

June/July

Well Summer has almost come and gone in the blink of an eye.  Hard to believe school will be starting in 3 weeks!  I am actually REALLY looking forward to it.  I am not going to lie, the kids have been sleeping in for the most part and it has been fantastic!!!  I definitely think we are ready to get back into a routine though. The kids need it and mommy needs it! 


Here is a little recap of what we have been up to this summer...

-Rylee has attended 2 VBS camps and had a blast at both.
-We have attended tons of birthday parties in July!  I swear we went to at least 7 between family and friends.
-JP is fully potty trained!!!  Even has been sleeping in underwear this past week! YEAH.
-Both kids have been swimming like crazy.  Parker is still in a floaty however I am convinced he would be able to swim on his own if we actually put in the effort. Rylee's swimming skills have improved and she is even jumping in off the edge and trying to dive which used to be unheard of.  JP has no fear and will jump in over and over if you let him.
-We have gone to Galveston, Kemah, San Marcos, Austin, Bastrop and are about to go to Galveston again and will be celebrating JP's THIRD birthday!!!



Kids having fun at the Astros game.

Aquarium at Moody Gardens

They love Casey dog.


Rylee at Wunderworld in San Marcos.


Being silly!


The Simmons Fam at the Lost Pines Hyatt Resort to celebrate John's 60th bday.





JP refused to be in this picture.

Smores and movie on the lawn.



Bubble gun that Nonnie bought.  He was obsessed!






Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Summer Summer Summer Time....

Summer is in full effect and has been flying by so far.  We started it out with our Memorial Day weekend in Dallas.  We went to visit The Rentfro's and did absolutely NOTHING but relax,  and swim.  It was perfect!  We miss them terribly!
JP being silly with Mommy
We went to visit Nanny and Poppy in Comfort the weekend before going to Dallas to take Tucker home.  We had a great visit with him but I think he was happy to be back in Comfort! 

The kids had so much fun riding the 4 wheeler with their Poppy.
Rylee did so good at her Kindergarten graduation program.  They sang 4 songs and one was "Unwritten" by Natasha Bedingfield.  Not sure if you know the song but the words were perfect for the occasion and I was so touched by their sweet little voices singing.  It is hard to believe that Rylee will be in 1st grade in less than 3 months!  AH
I got teary eyed watching my baby sing.
The BIG event so far has been Rylee's 3rd dance recital.  It was a very longggg weekend with the Friday night rehearsal lasting until 11pm and the Saturday recital until 10pm however it was worth it to see my little dancer shine like a star.  I will never stop being impressed with how brave and confident my shy girl becomes when she gets on stage.  My smile could not have been any wider watching her dance.  :)  Her ballet number was to "Then Came You" and her tap was to "Shake Your Tail Feather" from the Blues Brothers.  The tap number was also the Daddy/Daughter dance.  It was great!  Adam seemed a TINY bit nervous but he did really good and I know it meant the world to Rylee.  And yes, I do have it on video ;)


Dress Rehearsal

GiGi got to come to the recital.
JP having fun at dress rehearsal

Recital night
Last but not least we are in full blown potty training mode!  FUN FUN FUN ;)  JP is doing pretty good with #1...#2, not so much.  He is very motivated by money (change) and marshmallows.  He expects one of the 2 each time he goes in the potty. :)   His personality is really coming out and I just love my little man so much.  He makes me laugh out loud at least 3 times a day.   He is speaking so well that we have complete conversations.  Hard to believe he is still only 2.

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Rylee is 6 and a bunch of other stuff...



This is a long one so be prepared!

Well miss Rylee is now 6 years old.  It is hard to believe!  I want to go back and watch home videos with her from when she was a baby.  I feel like I am having a hard time remembering those days even though it was only 6 years ago.  This makes me want to cry :(

We had Princess Rylee's party at a place called Sweet & Sassy in The Woodlands.  It is the cutest place and SUPER girly.  They do the girls hair, make-up, nails, etc and let them dress up and dance down a cat walk to the latest (age appropriate) pop music.  The girls even got to make a music video for us to take home on dvd.   She told me that it was the best birthday party ever!  Worth every penny ;)









Parker was very confused about it being Rylee's birthday.  He thought it was his birthday too.  According to Parker HE is 65 years old. At least that is what he says when you ask him his age ;) 

I took Rylee to get caught up on all of her check ups.  First was the dentist.  She did amazing and received 98% on her brushing. No cavities! Her biggest concern was if the dentist felt any loose teeth!  She really wants one :)  The hygienist told her she did not have one yet however her 6 year molars were coming in and usually that causes the teeth to shift and loosen. 
Next was her 6 year check up.  She did great on her vision and hearing test.  Both of her tubes are still in her ears which concerns me because last time we had to have one surgically removed because it didn't fall out when it should have.  Hopefully these will fall out soon because  I do not want to have to put her under again just for that!  Her height and weight are both in the 64th percentile which the doctor found rare for her to be at the same exact number on both.  She told us Rylee is perfectly symmetrical :)  When the doctor was listening to Rylee's heart she asked me about her heart murmur.  This was news to me as Rylee has never had one before.  After trying to reassure me that heart murmurs are usually nothing to worry about and that they can sometimes come on during growth spurts and then go away, she did request that Rylee get a chest x-ray and EKG to be safe.  I took her to the lab the next day and we should know something by mid week.  The EKG had to be sent off to a pediatric cardiologist to be read then sent back to our pediatrician.  I am really trying not to think about it and tell myself that Rylee is just fine but I can't help but have a pit in my stomach at the mere thought of anything being wrong.  I will keep everyone posted when I find out.

On a lighter, funnier note.....Adam got pulled over the other day and when the cop walked up to the window Parker started screaming "GUN GUN look Dad A GUN".  So Adam opened up his window and JP asked the officer if that was his gun and could he shoot it?  Of course the officer didn't seem very amused.  The officer told JP politely that no, he could not shoot it and let Adam go with only a warning.  After they drove off Rylee said "well that was awkward" :)

Rylee has been very scared of swimming so far this year.  Actually always. She has been crying about it and complaining that she doesn't want to get her head under water.  It is a battle that has been on going for quite some time to be totally honest. When we were at John and Lisa's swimming last weekend Adam had to give her a little push to get her to try to swim to me and you would have thought she was being chased by a monster she was so scared.  Then, out of nowhere, she goes "mom watch".  She just started swimming back and forth underwater.  After I scooped my jaw off the floor in disbelief I gave her a big hug and encouraged her to keep doing it.  She probably swam for 2 hours after that with Adam and was even doing cannon balls into the water!!!  If you have ever been swimming with Rylee you know how unimaginable this is.  I was so proud and relieved.  I was really starting to get pretty upset about her not swimming.  Mostly for safety reasons but also because I wanted her to have fun.  Hopefully she gained the confidence to keep it up and get even better. 

A few funny things that Parker is doing lately: 
He has started pretend playing with Rylee and often he will call her Rapunzel.
He likes to be the puppy and will bark and crawl on the floor like a dog. 
When JP sees a pic of a fish, crawfish or shrimp he wants to eat it.  When he saw his aunt Kay Kay's baby turtles he said "I want to eat them". 
He handed me a piece of poop out of his diaper.  (PS still not feeling the whole potty training thing.  He goes sometimes but when I ask him if he wants to go in the potty like a big boy he tells me that he is a baby and wants to go in his diaper). SIGH


We have been talking about finding a Church to go to for quite some time.  We finally decided to try First United Methodist of Montgomery.  It is a cute white traditional looking church but not so big that they need tv screens and all that.  We were nervous about Rylee going to the children's church but luckily there were 3 kids not only from her school but in her actual Kindergarten class that were there.  She went right on up to join them and even did her very first communion!  I was so proud of how brave she was.  As soon as we got in the car she said she wanted to go again.  That made me very happy :) 

Rylee is getting ready for her big dance recital in June.  Adam has to go to class with her the whole month of May to learn his part of the routine for their daddy daughter dance.  TOO CUTE!!!  She loves getting to dance with him :)

Last but not least.  We have a house guest for the next 2 weeks!  TUCKER is here!!!  My dad and Sherry went on a trip and the boarding facility wouldn't take him because he was not up to date on one of his shots.  I felt bad that they had to bring him all the way to Montgomery the day before they left on their trip but we are happy to have the little guy.  He has actually been pretty good...SO FAR ;)  We will take him back home when we go to Comfort for a visit in a few weeks.