It's Just Hair...

Rylen has always had a head full of hair. When he was born, it was the first thing I noticed. Grandpa dubbed him "Elvis" cause he just had so much hair. He's had maybe 6 haircuts in his short little 21 months. It's time for another....that is if I can make up my mind. We've wanted to grow out Caden's hair before, but a few weeks in it looks terrible, and not any gel or spray that can make it look decent. So we chicken out and get it cut. Ry has needed a haircut for a couple of months now, and for some reason I just can't do it!! I love his hair. It doesn't always look nice and neat, and when he wakes up....bedhead is an understatement! I figure we've made it this long without cutting it, we may as well just let it grow some more. We'll see how long I let it go before changing my mind and just giving him a buzz myself.



There he is...with that crazy hair





Ry- the newborn with the hair-helmet

Brityn In Her Ballet Debut...

As soon as I became pregnant for the second time, I prayed it would be a little girl so that I could get to do this. God heard me and sent Little Miss Tippytoes...Brityn! So I enrolled her in a dance class. Yesterday was her first day and she loved it. She was beaming at the end of class, trying to hide her huge smile. She was so proud of herself, and I was too. I think she makes an adorable dancer!

Caden Goes To School...

We're the proud parents of a kindergartener. It was bittersweet to send him off, and not have him with me anymore. He's doing well though, and is making lots of friends too. His teacher is actually Bryan's old co-worker from his HEB days back in highschool so that was good to know. She's fabulous too! We're still adjusting to the school day schedule but we'd better get used to it cause there's lots more of this to come, like 13 years of it.
(sorry the first pic stinks, I screwed up my camera settings....guess I should read the manual)

A Huge Loss...

Ever since the very long ago "Back From The Beach" post I'd been meaning to post that my Grandfather had come home from his nursing home and was doing fantastically. He did, he really surprised us with his turnaround. He was in good spirits, laughing, eating, and gaining weight. He was doing out patient chemo and was almost done...one more treatment left. Then the worst happened, he fell ill again. He had an infection which had him in bed with fever, chills, nausea. After a few days of this, and a few doctor visits he finally was admitted to the hospital where they began giving him intervieneous antibiotics. He was so weak and tired once again and it was heartbreaking. He passed early Monday morning August 17. It's been devastating to our family. How can he be just fine, even the doctors saying that his cancer is being cleared, not in remission, but getting better? Then he falls ill with an infection, that almost anyone can get and that is what was so unkind to his already fragile body and compromised immune system and in the end took him from this earth.
It's been a long long month. There are so many changes, like my parents putting their life in their home aside so they can live with my Grandmother. My Grandma, she's held up well. It's her faith in God and knowing that he is at peace. Still though, she misses him so much, everyone does. Even Rylen, who cannot talk still, points to his picture every time we go to my Grandma's house, then he points at the chair he was always sitting in, then he shrugs his shoulders like he's asking "where is he". The older kids miss his yummy snow cones and they way he used to greet them with "hey dude".
This was part of his memorial which I was so proud to have written. I only wish I would have been more functional that day so I could have done a better job. It was very hard for me to do.

Jose, known to his family as “Papa” or “Pop”, was a strong man of faith, serving the Lord as a faithful Christian for 30 plus years and helping establish two churches during his lifetime. A hard working man, Jose worked at Acco Feeds for 22 years, a job he enjoyed. He was also a man of many hobbies. One of his passions was fishing the Guadalupe River or Lake McQueeney on the hunt for the biggest catfish he could find. He also enjoyed going out to his ranch with his sons to feed his animals, as well as rescuing stray animals, and also tending his vegetable garden. He will be remembered best by his grandchildren and great-grandchildren for making delicious snow cones in his snow cone stand. Jose was always willing to sit and chat about anything from the weather to his faith in God and will forever be missed by all those that knew and loved him.

If You Love My Kids You'll Think This Is Funny...

Or you'll never want them to visit your house.
Last week we met with our Pastor Marcus and his wife Natalie for dinner at their house. A really beautiful house. Bryan was there to discuss future plans for the new building and to get some visuals drawn up, me- just there to kick back and chat with Natalie and her daughter Bianca.
Before we got there I was nervous to take the kids. They are kids after all and love to "explore"...code word for nosey. One of the first things she told me was "there was nothing that they couldn't touch, and don't be scared that they'll break something". A HUGE sigh of relief for me. She had a play room set up where her own grandchildren play so that was a big plus. At first I thought Ry and Brit would be a little scared, maybe a little more reserved because this was a new house to them. Wrong. They all walked around like they owned the place. Ry was not afraid to explore, or throw a tantrum. I'm guessing it was because Natalie is the kids' Sunday School teacher most of the time, so they knew her a little already.
After dinner the guys left to discuss and we just sat around talking. The kids were playing here and there. Then they wanted to go outside. So I let them giving them instructions to just stay in the front yard. I was peeking out the window and noticed they found some sidewalk chalk, and were writing their names on the walk way. I was a little nervous about that too, but they told me it was no problem. Then they discovered the door bell, and rang it each a couple of times....like they've never had a door bell before. Then they came inside right before we left.
The next day I get a message from Natalie thanking us for coming to dinner. She also said that the she forgot her phone when she was leaving that morning, and when she was walking back in the house she noticed that the kids had drawn CROSSES on the side of her house. She thought it was cute and was still laughing about it on Sunday morning....I, on the other hand, was mortified. So If you have us over to your house...please hide the sidewalk chalk.

Seriously...

I will start blogging again. It's been so busy over the summer. When I say it like that it makes it seem like the summer is coming to an end but the reality is that summer in Texas is like April to November, so we still have a few hot months left.
I'm busy getting Caden ready for his first day of Kindergarten, which is less than 2 weeks away. I'm so sad. He drives me up the wall some, well most, days but still I'll miss having him here with us. Ry will surely miss him, right now he likes to boss the big kids around. So I promise, more blogging to come.

Back From The Beach...

It's been crazy here. All the time surrounding our departure and return have just been busy.
We had a good ol' time at the beach. We like to go to the Gulf Shores are of Alabama. Like my sister in law said..."Alabama?!" yes that's where we go. We enjoy it there because of the super clean, white sand and the water is good too. It's also just a short drive away from the Florida panhandle beaches which are beautiful as well.

We drove too. The drive was not so bad. We left at about 3 am so we could be there by 3 p.m. Brityn rode with Grandma and Grandpa, Caden and Rylen were with us. It was all smooth until about 8 am or so when were were almost out of Texas and all the twist, turns, and bumps got the best of Caden. Luckily I had a towel within reach of me and well it wasn't fun. We pulled over to get him some air and I gave him some benadryl. He rode with his Grandparents the rest of the way. I think seeing out the window in their truck did him good. I felt bad because I didn't give him benadryl sooner. I knew better, I had done it when we drove to Disney last year and we had no carsickness. That wasn't my only battle with car sickness though. We got stuck in traffic around when were were just an hour away from our destination. Rylen had been an angel the whole trip and we were on the last leg of the journey. He was getting restless and whiny. I gave him a juice box and he chugged the whole thing...fast. Well you know what happened.

Our condo was on the beach and it was fantastically convenient. Last time we stayed across the street and while it's not a long walk it's long enough when you have kids, and I only had Caden that time.

The kids had so much fun. Rylen loved the sand but the water - not so much. He was scared of the waves. We would get in there with him though and he was ok. He loved the sand so much he was rolling in it, tasting it, and throwing it. When we came in for baths he had sand in many, many, many places. The sand on the beach was very nice. White and squeaky clean. Nothing like the sand that we see on the Texas beaches. In the sand there were lots and lots of pretty shells to be found. The girls, along with Gram, were on the hunt for the perfect shell.

When we weren't at the beach our condo had really nice pools, and plenty of them. Ry loved the kiddie pool. Caden, and Brityn enjoyed learning how to "swim" by themselves with the little arm floaty thingies. I was surprised cause Brit has been very scared of the water before. Once she realized the concept of floating she was all over the pool. Now my niece Lily...she's a natural swimmer. This kid is good. It helps that her neighbor is a swim teacher. Mom and Dad loved the hot tub of course. I swear we need one of these. I could do without a pool...but a hot tub...so relaxing.

We also did lots of good eating. Our favorite was Lambert's "home of the throwed rolls". This place is good but the portions are outrageous. No one person can eat that much in one sitting. We also had seafood of course. With all that eating I had to fit in a couple of workouts in the gym.

At night we would go crabbing. Those little sand crabs are creepy little things. The kids loved trying to catch little fishies. Which they then put in a bucket with some water and kept as pets...until the next morning when they expired.

Anyway, we all had a good time. The kiddies loved having fun with their cousins Lily and Austen. The drive back home was not as eventful as the drive there. We did get stuck in THE. WORST. TRAFFIC. EVER! On a bridge, no less. I think we moved 5 miles in an hour. Who in the world thought it was a good idea to do construction on I-10, on a 2 lane bridge making it only one lane, on a Saturday, in the middle of summer?? Our whole mission when we left was to make it to Houston before 11 p.m so we could get a taste of our favorite sweet treat...Ritter's Frozen Custard. I'll give you the story in another post.

Well we had a good time . We love the beach, but we were also glad to be home. I dreaded that whole after vacation mess that I would have to tackle for days.

So here it is in photos.

I'm So Ready For A Vacation...

It's almost here. Just a few more weeks to go, three and a half to be exact, until we leave for our beach vacation 2009. We're going with the whole family, the Hofmanns, the Carrillos, and the Arces. We LOVE the beach. It's just one of those vacations in which you can actually relax. We went to Disney World last year at this time, and it was awesome. Kids had a blast, so did we, but that's not exactly relaxing. We'd get up at 7 am, get ready, go to breakfast at the resort, and take off to what ever park we were going to that day. Then we'd come back at about 10 or 11 p.m. and get the kids bathed and in bed, then repeat each day. Oh, and Rylen was only 5 months old at the time too so add diaper changes and nursing in there. It was funny, some day I can tell him he nursed through 3 rounds of the "It's a small world" ride. If you need to know what rides are breastfeeding friendly, I'm the person to ask.
Anyway, I'm ready to relax!! Ready to claim our place in the snow white sand and watch the kids play near the blue/green water. We're going to the Orange Beach, AL area. It's right near the FL border so we can enjoy all the beautiful beaches in the area. We've been going to this area for a few years now. Bryan and I first went right before we got married in 2002 and we've loved it ever since.
This will be Rylen's first beach visit! I can't wait to see how he reacts to everything.
These are pictures from Caden and Brityn's first beach visit.

Caden 13 months.


Brityn was 2


I can't wait !!!

Weekend Pics....

With my new camera! I've been playing around with my camera for a week now. First it turns out I got the model number wrong in my last post . I have a pentax k2000, and I think I like it. I was worried about it not having great color quality but it seems to do just fine at making the colors pop. Here's a few from yesterday at play time and from Caden's game. Ry just woke from his 3 hr nap so ignore the bed head. You can't see the small pictures well enough to do the camera any justice, so I may have to start posting ginormous pics.







T-Ball season is almost over, and I am happy. I love to see him play but it's hard to be his #1 fan when I'm stuck in the dugout getting the other boys ready to bat. Next season I want to enjoy watching my boy from my cozy chair.

He looks just like his Daddy in this one.

His batting face is hilarious!!

My Papa...

These past few months have been rough for my Grandpa. First it was a heart problem, he had 5 arteries bypassed. Then when things weren't getting any better, we get the news that he has cancer...Hodgkin's Lymphoma. It was just very very hard to see him. He was almost non responsive for a long time. No talking about fishing, the weather...just a scared looking stare coming from him. His Dr.s gave him chemotherapy as a choice of treatment, and one of his Dr.s didn't seem too positive about it but he chose to fight it. It's been about 2 months since the start of the chemo and he has made a HUGE turnaround!! He's not out of the woods yet, my Mom went to meet with his oncologist today so we'll see what they say. Either way him surviving thus far, even after he just had open heart surgery, is nothing short of a miracle. God is Good.
We went to see him yesterday. Caden had been asking to see him and this week he didn't have chemo so it was a good time to go. I am terrified of the kids passing something off to him so we put masks on them. It was like playing dress- up they loved it. He was glad to see them, and we were glad to see him talking and smiling. We can't wait till he gets his strength back so he can get back to his snow cone machine. Summer won't be the same without Papa's snow cones.

Mother's Day 09...

Not much went on. I woke up and Bryan had the kids eating their breakfast already....one less thing for Mommy to do that morning. Then they gave me my presents. I got an 8 GB memory card my camera and a new bag with plenty of room for the lenses, I also got new sunglasses. We hurried up and got dressed and went to service at my Grandma's church, which is bilingual...and the kids do not enjoy that. I hope they want to learn just a little bit of spainsh some day, but for now they tell my parents that they don't speak spanish whenever they speak that to them. I myself know just a little bit, I understand it all just can't speak it, good enough for me though. I opted to take french in highschool for some reason. Even with them whining that they didn't want to go to "spanish church" I felt that I should probably be with my Mom, my Sister and Grandma on that day so we drove the long drive there. After all I spent all my nights that week making Mother's Day coursages for the all the moms there, and I wanted to see them wearing them. They looked cute. Little calla lillies with some ivy and a feather-y looking thing.
After church we went to eat lunch, and exchanged presents. I got my Mom and Grandma a large Vera Bradley tote, and my sister got a Vera Bradley makeup bag. I also got my mother in law a small handbag.
Then it was home to change and off to visit Bryan's Momma and Grandma. The kids ran around with the oodles of chihuahuas there. Ry loves them but I'm so scared one of them might just nip him. By the time we got done there it was 7 pm so we came home and just chillaxed for the rest of the evening.

Who's Getting A New Camera....

I am that's who! I've only owned 2 digital cameras they've both been a decent and have taken me from Caden's birth to now. The one I own currently is a point and shoot 9mp Fuji which I HATE. I curse that thing every time I miss a shot. It especially sucks when I'm trying to take pictures of my busy body kids. They don't sit still and then I end up yelling at them cause I'm dying to get a decent shot. So I got myself a DSLR camera. It's a Pentax 200d. It's a entry level DSLR which is what I wanted since I've never owned one. It's a set that comes with 2 lenses, and I love that I can use any old Pentax lens on it so I'm hoping to get some great deals on lenses. It was about $100 less expensive than the Rebel and that was also a plus, I just hope the picture and color quality is similar. It just seemed like a good starter SLR camera for me. I'm guessing it's my mother's day present to myself too. I can't wait to get some good pics of the kids at the beach in June!!

Some New Things...

For Easter I made Brityn this cute little apron peasant dress. I had never done a peasant dress before and I love the simplicity and oh-so-girlishness of it. The apron on it was just a cute addition. I think it would awesome if it had some little hand embroidery on it. I have tried that but with the carpel tunnel it was painful after just a little while of stitching. I'll have to give it a try again. We had to layer it over jeans cause it was cool and rainy that day.






Then I made some cute little I-Spy bags for the kids' Easter baskets. They're just little bean bags filled with poly-beads and trinkets. Then you sew a fabric label on the back asking little eyes to look for the items hidden in the beads through a window. They came out ok, I don't think I'll use fleece next time cause it's so thick, it's what the directions asked for but I didn't like it at all. I can make it look cleaner if it was sewn inside out with a topstitch which was not happening with the fleece. Well I got the directions and trinkets from Etsy and it didn't take any time at all. I learned though, that you cannot sew sticky vinyl without paper on top.
I added some cute patterned stitches that I rarely use to border the vinyl window. I also added some ribbon handles on Brityn's so that she could carry like a purse.

What we've been up to...

Hmm, well since I have neglecting my poor little blog this is what has been taking up my time...


We went to the park. Ry was not afraid to approach the ducks and geese. They were ok with him, but Caden got bit by a duck while he was feeding it.


Catching a minnow made his day


Miss Brit loved swirling her feet in the cold water






Then one rainy evening we decided to paint

Mom painted Brit's face, see how happy she was once she looked in the mirror

Dad did this to Caden


Then we're going to see Daddy play softball for our Crossroads Church team, that's always fun cause Caden and Brityn get to see our cousins Mikey and Breyana there and play with their friends from Sunday School



We also went to the Children's Museum...you'll see more of that


We've been kinda busy, and I'm sure it's just the begining cause summer is near !

Children's Museum...

Last week my sister and I loaded up all the kids and took them to the Children's Museum. It was pretty much empty so the kids had free reign which was awesome for mom cause trying to keep tabs on a one year old in a crowd is overwhelming. They had a blast and the most important part is that they were pretty tired that night!!


Caden & Lily banking


Brityn loves babies


The grocery store was cute



Ry liked being the check out guy


Caden is space bound in his NASA suit


Brityn is blasting off


Ry just wanted the hat off








The outdoor water play area was pretty neat too, Rylen got soaked!