Addie in Buggy at School!

Here are some pictures of Miss Addison at school on her first buggy ride! I am so glad that they have this little adapter for younger children so she gets to go spend time outside during the day!

"My 2 Hours Everyday To Be Like An Only Child!"

From 7:30-9:30 every night at this age is going to be Addie's best chance at simulating having her mom and dad all to herself. We try to make the most out of this precious time when Carter is passed out in bed. Tonight the 3 of us just hung out in bed and toggled between the Democratic National Convention and Surviorman!

Trip to Grandpa and Lolli's House

On Sunday, we went to my dad's house for dinner. It was so much fun spending time with them. Danielle, my half-sister is 16 years old and the best basketball player in the city, as far as I am concerned. As a freshman she started on the Varsity basketball team at Smithson Valley. She is only a sophomore and has received over 35 letters from colleges interested in her! This summer she played all over the country including Vegas, North and South Carolina and just got asked to play in another tournament in New Jersey. OK... so I am done bragging on her for a while... but it makes sense when you see a picture of her signing a basketball hoop so I can sell it when she is famous playing for the WNBA! On top of all that.. she is super smart and makes straight A's in mostly honors and AP classes!

Aunt Danielle was so good with Carter - running all around with him. I think we found a natural babysitter (and she is getting her new car next month with her license) even better - a babysitter with a car!

Carter Caught on Video!

Carter's has the sweetest little voice. One of his newest and most used phrases is "I don't know." He uses it where appropriate like when we ask him "Where is Addie?" or "Where's a ball?" He says it right at the beginning here so you have to listen for it right away.

MeMe's Here, Cooking, First Swim, Teething and Date Nights...

... and this was a pretty relaxing weekend! Diane (Me-Me) came in on Friday and Blake and I got 2 whole nights on the town without kids! Friday called for a shorter Marble Slab evening where we then stopped in and hung out with Mike and Megan and watched Michael Phelps come from behind and win his 7th gold!

She still has her blue eyes... we will see how long they stay! So beautiful!




Saturday we went and saw Dark Knight, the first movie we had seen together in seriously.... we can't even remember how long ago! I slept through the first 20 minutes of the movie and then woke up for the rest!

Saturday we took Addie for her first swim although she has been to the pool several times to watch her brother swim. We had to borrow one of Ella's bathing suits since I haven't been able to find Addie one this late in the season! Thanks Ella... I am sure that won't be the first outfits we share in the future!

All weekend, Mr. Carter has been VERY VERY fussy while getting his (what we hope are his last) 2 teeth for a while! Poor guy... he got away with a ton of whining and Popsicle eating this weekend!

Then Sunday, Diane helped me continue on my massive cooking goal. 2 weeks ago I made 8 dinners to freeze so we could have quick tasty homemade meals when we get home after work... they were all Mexican food themed. Today we headed to Italy and made several trays of homemade lasagna and cheese and meat filled pasta shells! As Carter would imitate "Cookie Monster" and say, "Yum yum yum yum yum!" Thanks Diane for all the help cooking and the really fun part of cleaning up! The whole house still smells like Little Italy! Addie even helped out in the kitchen and kept us company!

Addison's First Few Days at Day Care

Well, I have to say Monday was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be dropping her off. I wasn't officially back at work until Tuesday but I decided I better go ahead and do a "practice run." I dropped her off with no problems, left and got all the way home and was fine. It wasn't until I sat down in the office and turned on the computer that I realized this was the first time in nearly 3 months I didn't have her with me or at least in the room next door. I didn't get teary eyed or emotional but rather sick... sick to my stomach. I couldn't eat anything all day until nearly 4PM when I was on my way to pick her up. When I got there, of course, the wonderful ladies said she had done fine. She had a hard time initially taking a bottle but after quite a while, she got the hang of it. All she wanted to do when she got home was sleep since she hadn't slept too well with all the normal noise she isn't used to. That is what I get for letting her learn to sleep with a loud air filter right by her bed! I was in a horrible mood the whole rest of the night and physically sick but Tuesday morning came and I had Blake take her so that I would pick her up instead and the day was much better for me.

One fantastic thing is that Ella Perkins (Addie's best friend) is in the same class with Addie so it's great because when Megan or I pick up/drop off, we can text or call each other and let each other know what the other baby is doing and reassure each other that they are doing well. I realized this afternoon at 4PM how great that is when I received a text from Megan saying Addie was getting her diaper changed and she got to talk to her, etc... The little things that make us working mom's feel good inside! Thanks Megan (Perkins)!

Here are a couple of pictures of Addison's first day at "school."

This is our sweet Miss Connie that is so wonderful with Carter and now with our sweet daughter Addie! They are lucky to have her and all the great ladies at day care.

Can Weekends Get Any Better?!?!

The fun started with our first trip to this huge indoor play place for kids called Dynomoze! It was a great place for Carter to play while it was 101 degrees outside!




Addie got some good "Smiling" fun in as she watched her brother run around!

Saturday morning as we were packing up for a last minute trip to the lake, I found Carter sitting in the middle of the living room reading his Bible. It was so sweet!

We will always remember where Carter was and how old he was during his first Olympic Opening Ceremonies... he loved the fireworks!

Then it was off to a fun time at the lake, sometimes the most last minute impromptu trips are the most fun and relaxing! Addison and Carter both sleep so well there. I had to wake Addie up this morning after more than 10 hours of sleep. Carter's favorite thing to do at the lake is to stand on the balcony and wave at boats and sea doos as they go by. He yells "more" when it has been more than 20 seconds with out a boat!

I taught Carter a new trick, I ask him, "How old are you?" and he yells "ONE!" while holding up one finger... so smart!

This is a picture of the water at the lake at 6AM.... like glass... just beautiful! You don't see that much until you have kids!


As soon as we got home Sunday we had Emily and Clint, Megan, Mike and Ella Pearl over for a fun Sunday night dinner, so we got some updated pics of the kiddos together! Tomorrow is Addie's first day of daycare and I go back to work after nearly 4 months of being off!

Finding Some Fun This Weekend In This Texas Heat!

What a great weekend we had. The kids were in GREAT moods and so we got to go out and have lots of fun all weekend! What we consider fun has definitely changed over the years! For instance. we headed to Sears to let Carter explore and look at the riding lawn mowers. He also found the storage buildings and was able to squeeze in between them and laugh when we couldn't! We had lunch at County Line and Carter had his first 'big-stage' experience showing off what he does new this week - jumping and playing chase! Since Ya-Ya is off to New York for the week, we had dinner with her at the Club and Carter had a ball swimming and playing golf with daddy! I think Blake had more fun than Carter did. All Blake kept talking about is how soon they are going to be playing a whole round of 18 holes.... I don't know about that in the immediate future, but Carter may continue to amaze us as he does EVERY DAY!





Carter swimming with the kick board!

Ya Ya and Addie talking and laughing together after dinner! Love the Smiles!

Addie in her 'seductive' off-the-shoulder summer outfit!

Alli's Pregnant!!

My closest college friend came in from Houston to meet Addie and spend the morning with us. It was early in the morning and I had just gotten home from the gym and I saw her pull up and ran to my room to get something and when I came back down the hall... she was standing there wearing this...

I screamed and Blake was escorting me down the hall away from Addie's room since he had already seen the shirt and he had just put Addie down for a nap!

Blake and I are so excited her her and Michael and can't wait to meet "Baby Casey" in late March. We are so excited that ours will be so close in age with theirs'!

Alli-thank you for coming and visiting us. We miss you so much and we have to do that Spa Weekend very soon now that you are "with child!"

Daddy Time and Car Wash!

Last night Addie and Carter got some good "daddy" time in.
Playing outside is a sure way to keep Carter happy and burn off some of his boundless energy! It was time to wash daddy's car and play some kickball. He is getting pretty good at kicking it back and forth several times with me!