3 in a Row

Can you believe it? A new blog post for the THIRD day in a row. That must be some kinda record.

This weekend was loads of fun, so it deserves a post.

Saturday, Kyle planned a surprise party for my 30th birthday. I was quite shocked! It was great to see some friends we haven't seen in a while.

On Sunday, we took Kason and Emily to the Children's Museum. Kason LOVED the 'Tot Spot' and they even have a section for little babies with Bumbos and everything. We bought a membership and I plan to take the kiddos at least once a week for the summer. It is a great way to beat the heat and have some fun.









Kason LOVED this car and the truck next to it. He even asked for them when we got home.


Play area for babies. There are mirrors for tummy time, toys, and even Bumbo chairs. In case you didn't know it, though, the thought of the germs freaked me out. Not to worry, though, nothing went in the mouth.





We ended the evening with fun with friends and neighbors down the street and Kason & Emmy's first bath together.

Kason thought he could fit at the same time.


First bath together. Emily didn't enjoy it too much. Kason kept splashing her and she was sooo sleepy, but after a long day, they both needed baths.



We will also be joining the local YMCA in the coming weeks to take advantage of their amazing pool and splash pad for the summer. If all goes as planned, I will also take full advantage of their babysitting services and get some much needed working out in.

In case you don't hear from us before then, Happy 4th of July!!

Blog Overhaul

Bored and feeling crafty, even though I had very little to do with the craftiness of this new layout thanks to blogcrowds.com, shabbyblogs.com, and scrapblog.com. I think I changed the layout about 500 times trying to find just what I wanted. I'm happy with it. What do you think?

My Babies are Growing Up

Emily is peacefully sleeping in her bed DESWADDLED for the 4th night. Aside from one rough patch in which I fed and rocked her for an hour and a half around 11:30 on night 1, she has done great.

And, while Emily is sleeping in her room, Kason is in his, sleeping peacefully on his mattress on the floor. For the past 2 days, he has decided he wanted to nap on the floor, so I thought why not give it a try. So, whadayaknow, he LOVES sleeping on the floor. Tonight it is mattress on the floor...tomorrow, toddler bed.

We are also going to start potty training Kason in about 2 weeks. We are going to try the 3-day potty training method (www.3daypottytraining.com). I have been working with him to get him used to the idea and I really think he's coming around. In just the past few days, he has been a dream to change, as opposed to running from all diaper changes. He actually wants his wet and poopy diapers off now and that is some serious progress! This morning, he was in his play room yelling, "Mommy, I wanna go potty" over and over. Really, all he wanted was for me to play in his play room with him, but hey, he got my attention.

Where did my newborn and my still itty-bitty toddler go? Kason will be 2 in a month and Emily will be 6 months in less than a month. Time sure is flying!

Cuteness Overload + 5 Months Old Today

Consider the title a warning. Back out of this post now if you can't handle all the cuteness that awaits you.

What is he doing, mommy?




Just chillin' in our diapers.


Fun with Play-Doh...he doesn't quite get the concept. He does squish it a little in his hands, though. For right now, he is mostly content just opening the lids, taking the play-doh out and putting it back in. It has been very helpful in finally mastering his colors, too!





And, a picture of Mommy & Emmy after church.


That pretty little girl you see above is 5 months old today. I cannot believe it has been 5 months already. She is growing so fast!

She can now roll in both directions and, but is often just content looking around checking things out. She does go crazy over Kason's cups, though. If there is one in sight, she will roll and even attempt to crawl to get it. She can also sit for 10-15 seconds...sometimes, more...on her own now.

Her new favorite thing is to play chase with Kason. She cracks up when she catches him (mommy & daddy hold her for this game) or sneaks up on him around a corner. They laugh and laugh and laugh at each other. We have the cutest videos, but of course, blogger is not cooperating. Soon, hopefully.

She is still a little thing, but gaining (around 14.5 pounds now)...and, without the use of cereal or formula. Yippee! The Zantac has seemed to help her settle and eat more. She is still spitting up, but it is much less frequent. We have gone several days in the past week only needing one outfit/day. That's major progress around here!

So Annoyed...

So, I have been working on this post for weeks...literally. We desperately need a faster internet connection so I keep getting a bad request error every time I post. So, here it is...the unfinished picture post.

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Some of the goings on around here from April/May/June.


Emily meeting her Uncle Sean for the first time. We are so excited for Sean, Tina, Cody, & Allison to move to the area this summer!


Kason hunting Easter eggs...


Earlier on during our Easter celebration, Kason had a meltdown b/c of a lack of sleep and this racecar. He absolutely refused to get out of it!


He was later comforted with his favorite purple dinosaur and friends (thanks Aunt Frankie & Uncle Larry).


Holding Emmy in what will someday be her carseat.


Trying on one of Daddy's shirts.


Emmy enjoying/eating her lovey.


...and her seahorse.


Big Brother/Little Sister


Kason swinging "higher higher". He also likes to push Emmy "higher higher" in her swing.


Kason sleeping (2 months old) Emmy sleeping (3 months old)


Checking out the turtle on our way to feed the ducks in S.A.

Feeding the ducks

Eating lunch after our attempt at going to church

Daddy's Little Princess

Mommy's Little Man

Silly Boy

Happy Girl

Did I mention she was a happy girl?

Tummy Time...she can now roll in both directions, but is a true master at back to tummy.

So Pretty

Cheese!

Talking to daddy on the phone

Surprise!

Cuddling with PaPa

Kason, Kolby, and Brooklyn at Blake & Jen's wedding

We have had a fun and busy couple of months, with more to come!

Inspired...

Inspired by a friend's blog (thanks, Tina)...I decided it was time to freshen up the blog for summer. Maximize your screen to see the entire background.

We plan to spend a lot of time on the beach this summer!

Finally have a moment to spare...

Both kids are napping and I am taking a break from cleaning to write a quick update.

Emily had her 4 month appointment last week. She is our little string bean, weighing in at 13lb 11.5 oz (39%) and 25.5 in (81%). She is a healthy little girl, but our weight concerns are back. We bought a baby scale about a month and a half ago and at first, it was great. She was doing really well and gaining appropriately. In the past few weeks, though, her spitting up has been out of control. In the week and a half surrounding her appointment she actually lost a few ounces, so we have some things that we are going to try to get her to eat more and keep it down.

1. Zantac - This will not help her spit up, but will make the burning stop if the acid is bothering her. Since she doesn't cry or arch her back when she spits up and she sleeps well, we're really not sure if this will help and have been really hesitant to try her on it. She eats so little, though, we are wondering if it is because of the burning caused by the reflux. So, we have decided to give it a go for a few weeks. If it helps, great. If not, we will stop.

2. Rice cereal - Again, not sure about this. I wanted to wait until she was 6 months, or at least, very close to 6 months, but if that is what she needs to keep her food down and gain weight, we will try it. She is a very gassy and constipated little girl, though, so we're hoping it doesn't make it worse.

3. Supplementing - This is what I wanted to do the very least, but I'm getting concerned that her lack of weight gain is my fault. Her not wanting to eat very much at a time or very often has caused my supply to take a nose-dive. I have tried everything I can think of to produce more and I'm not seeing a lot of results. Starting today, I am going to supplement her early afternoon feeding with a few ounces of hypoallergenic formula (Yikes! This stuff is EXPENSIVE!). She needs the hypoallergenic kind, though, since she is sensitive to cow's milk protein. I'm hoping the supplementing is short-lived and I can get my supply back up with extra pumping sessions.

So, that's the plan. Please pray that our little girl remains healthy and starts putting on some weight. I should add that she is such a happy girl. She smiles, laughs, and coos all.day.long. We often go days without hearing a cry from her.

Kason continues to love on his little Emmy everyday. He is so protective of her, not wanting strangers to hold, or even talk to her. He loves to share his toys with her and for her to "play trucks" with him. It is amazing to watch them light up when they see the other. Emmy beams at her big brother when he walks into a room and Kason lights up when his little sister flashes that grin in his direction. We are in awe of their capacity to love at such a young age. We hope they are always best buddies and can only imagine the kinds of trouble they will get into together as Emily becomes more mobile.

Aside from that, we are looking forward to a fun-filled summer, to be kicked off with a fun-filled Memorial Day weekend with my brother and his family. I will update again soon with pics and videos...hopefully, tonight, if I can catch a break.

More Pics from the Past 2 Weeks

Just a picture post...Emily's baptism, Aggie baseball, and Easter weekend...more to come later.

Choo Choos, Ponies, & Busted Faces

Today was a special day for Kason. No real reason, just because. We began the day with what was supposed to be an Easter egg hunt with the neighbors. Unfortunately, Kason missed out on that, but he did get to play with his neighborhood buddies for a while this morning.

After play time, we hopped into the car and headed to the Bayou Wildlife Reserve. On the way there, we stopped for Kason's favorite lunch...nuggets, fries, and fruit from Chick-fil-A. Once we arrived at the reserve, there were tons of animals - ostriches, buffalo, deer, horses, camels, giraffes, alligators, zebras, zonkeys, javelinas, etc, etc. You name it, they had it. We started out at the petting zoo. There were baby goats everywhere! Kason was more than happy to go in there with them, but didn't want much to do with them as far as touching. He did pet some deer, though, at the picnic tables. Later, we got on the tram, which Kason lovingly referred to as a choo choo train and off we went. It was well past Kason's nap time, though, so while he enjoyed looking at the animals, he got a little upset when Kyle went to feed one of them from our bucket of food. Kason got down to get daddy and SMACK! He fell across into another bench and whacked his cheek. He has a pretty good bruise, knot, and scrape on his cheek, but he only cried for a few seconds before he was 'all better'. The driver commented on what a tough guy he was. She was sure he would cry the rest of the way after the fall he took.

Once we got back to the picnic table and petting zoo area, we took some pics with the Bayou Wildlife sign and headed to the car. Near the parking was a childrens' barn with free horse rides. Kason said he wanted to ride the pony, but we didn't really believe him. Since he was so tired, we thought he was sure to freak out and have a complete melt down if we put him on a horse. So, instead, we took him to see the other animals in the childrens' barn area. Afterwards, he was still saying he wanted to ride the pony, so we decided we would give it a try. He loved it! He took a full loop with the pony and said he wanted "more ride the pony". So cute! We still can't believe what a big boy he was.

After the reserve, we came home to put Kason down for a nap while I went to get him a shirt to go with his shorts for Easter. In the evening, we went to Kemah for dinner and to see the choo choo that runs around the boardwalk. Kason loved the choo choo and loved seeing the boats come in and out of the harbor. Emily spent the day snoozing happily away or just riding in the carseat/stroller watching all the people go by...her usual happy, smiling self.

It was a great day!