Current LEE

Indoor Soccer

2011-06-24T21:38:00.004-05:00

We decided to participate in another round of soccer with Alex. This time, it's indoor soccer. It's so fun! The game is much more fast paced, because the ball stays in play the whole time...no kicking it out of bounds. The only time the game really stops is after a goal is scored. Alex seems to really enjoy himself at practice and the games. And I'm glad to still have him in a structured activity a couple times a week. He is playing with his same coach from spring, so that is fun as well!

This was his first game of the season...it was kinda tough to get a good picture. But the one above you can see his smile..he really likes playing, especially goalie!

End of School Party

2011-06-24T21:27:00.004-05:00

I guess the second time you do something, it becomes a tradition. Last year, we celebrated Cadence's last day of school at Chuck E Cheese. Cadence specifically asked for cupcakes for our "party." We decided to do it again this year with Alex and Cadence. It was fun to celebrate the end of the school year, and the beginning of summer vacation! Just look at all these happy faces!

And the good times begin!

First Day/Last Day

2011-06-24T21:18:00.004-05:00

First day of Kindergarten:

Last day of Kindergarten:

They grow up so fast!

Kindergarten Graduation

2011-06-20T22:38:00.003-05:00

Alex's last day of school was Friday, June 3rd. His class had a little graduation ceremony, where his teacher highlighted each student's accomplishments. The really fun part of the graduation was that she created individual awards for each student, and Alex's was the "Mini Sportscaster Award." She talked about how Alex came in nearly every day with a sports update...the score from the Stars game, how the Rangers were playing, news on the basketball games. Luckily, his teacher is also a pretty big sports fan, so she really enjoyed his daily sports updates. Here's a few pictures from his last day of kindergarten (sniff, sniff!!)Here is Alex and Mrs. Stapleton. I have so much love and respect for all kindergarten teachers, especially now after having one of my babies go through kindergarten. Mrs. Stapleton was fantastic! I don't think we could have hoped for a more perfect match for Alex. We had actually requested a different teacher for Alex at the beginning of the school year, but Alex was placed in Mrs. Stapleton's class instead. It's funny how things work out though. When I walked into Mrs. Stapleton's room, and saw all the baseball decorations in her room, I knew they would be two peas in a pod! And they were! Alex grew and learned so much! I'm so grateful to Mrs. Stapleton and all her hard work this past year. Now, we've got our eyes forward to 1st grade!

Book Parade

2011-06-20T22:18:00.003-05:00

The last week of school was a really busy, fun week for Alex at school. One thing he participated in was the annual book parade. This was really, really cute! Each class at his school picked a book to represent in the book parade. The classes made all kinds of "floats" that illustrated their books. Each class had six students that could march in the parade. The students were picked based on good citizenship. I was so proud when Alex's teacher let me know that Alex was picked to walk in the parade for his class! Such a proud moment to know that your child is a good citizen at school: makes you feel like you're doing something right as a parent!

And Alex was so, so excited to participate in the parade. He came home a couple weeks before the parade telling me all about it, the book they picked, how he was supposed to get dressed up. It was really sweet to see him so excited!

Um, could you tell he was excited!?! The book his class chose was Bingo, so all the kids were dressed up as farmers. Alex wore the whole nine yards: boots, Wranglers, shirt, hat, bandanna!

Here's his class on the "parade route," aka the drive thru lane at the front of the school.

Originally, Alex's teacher wanted him to walk her dog in the parade. Then she thought her dog might be too hyper for the parade, so she opted for a stuffed version of a dog. Too bad because Alex was stoked to walk her dog!
Here he is at the end of the parade route. I thought this was such a fun idea that the librarian started at Alex's school. She was a great lady, and retired this year. At the end of the parade, all the classes displayed signs saying, "We Love You Ms. Pike!" It was so sweet, and the librarian was really touched! Such a fun morning!

Take Me Out to the Ballgame!

2011-06-12T23:52:00.006-05:00

We have started a summer tradition of going to at least one Ranger's game with Alex. He looks forward to it every season! Once Alex starts hearing or seeing advertisements for the Rangers games, he starts asking Roger and me about going to one. This year, we bought tickets on Mansfield ISD night, with the tickets being nearly half price. It was such a deal! Unfortunately, Alex wasn't feeling great at the game, but I think he made the best of it and enjoyed himself.

Alex likes to eat his hotdog, then the bun.

There's no crying in baseball!

The kids also enjoyed playing some games while at the ballpark. It was a hot, but fun night. We left early in the ninth inning because the game was tied. The game ended up going way, way late into the night. So we were glad we left when we did. It was a fun night!

Out with the Old, In with the New

2011-06-12T16:38:00.005-05:00

I'm trying desperately to catch up on my blogging. I hate, hate when I get behind! May was so crazy busy. I think I say that about every month. In the midst of everything else we had going on (birthdays, Nana's visit, end of school craziness), Roger tore up our carpet and laid a wood floor in our living room. He's been wanting to get rid of that stupid, cheap, builder grade carpet for years. So we finally did! Here are a few pictures of the transformation.
Ah, the wood floor is so beautiful! Even better than I had imagined. And so far, we've only broken one glass, and had only a couple falls on the new floor. It's a little more slick than carpet! But well worth it!

Colored Bubbles or Jackson Pollock

2011-05-30T14:40:00.004-05:00

The kids and I went to a birthday party a couple weeks ago. We decided the buy the birthday boy some new art supplies for the summer. While we were in the art aisle at Target, the kids saw colored bubbles. I had read online some not so great reviews about the colored bubbles. But out of curiosity and weakness (Addison was begging me to buy them!), I caved and bought two bottles: a blue one and a pink one. We went outside Sunday afternoon to play with them. They were the biggest mess!!! The colored bubbles got all over everything! Hands, face, clothes, EVERYTHING!!! As you blew them, wherever the bubbles landed and popped, that spot would change colors as well. So my OCD self couldn't tolerate the colored bubbles very well. I guess it would be fine if the kids were in bathing suits and you could hose them down after they played with them. As annoying as I found them, the kids seemed to really enjoy playing with them. Look at these happy, messy faces! And hands!

So note to self: In the future, when a product receives bad reviews from other parents: HEED those warnings and bad reviews, and opt not to purchase the product. Or find a happy place, and tolerate the mess! Speaking of happy places, those bubbles have found a new happy, and well hidden home :)

Spring Field Trip at the Zoo

2011-05-30T14:17:00.003-05:00

May has been a busy, busy month for us! Addison's birthday kicked off the month, and we also had Nana here for a visit. We always enjoy having her visit, and one of our traditions is taking her to the zoo. So I was a little sad when she called me before she came to tell me that she didn't think she could walk the zoo this time. Nana has had some issues with her back, and it's affected her ability to walk for extended lengths of time. But we managed to get her to the zoo, with the help of a wheel chair! Alex had his spring field trip to the zoo, and Nana and Roger came along too.

By the time the buses parked, the kids de-bused, everyone got their tickets, and we got inside the zoo, it was nearly 10:30, which is the normal lunch time for the kindergartners. So Alex's teacher suggested to the kids that they go ahead and eat lunch, and then see the animals. This was such a genius idea, in my opinion. This ensured the kids were fueled and happy before we started trekking through the zoo. So our first stop was the picknic tables! Everyone ate lunch and took a potty break. Then we started working our way through the zoo. We really only had about 2 or 2 1/2 hours in the zoo. ALex's teacher did an amazing job of hearding the kids along and managed to get them from one end of the zoo to the other before they had to leave. It was exhausting though! I'm used to leisurely walking the zoo, and I was beat by the time we left! Everyone had fun though, and that's what counts. Roger did tell me that he passed the school buses on the way home. And they saw Alex asleep on the bus. I guess it was fun, but exhausting for everyone!

Sing-A-Long Stories

2011-05-30T13:52:00.006-05:00

On Addison's birthday, she had her spring program at her preschool. These programs are so stinkin' cute! The kids go up on the big stage by class, and sing two songs. This year, they did songs that incorporated movement and learning. Addison's class sang "If You're Happy and You Know It" and "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes." It was really cute, but the best part was having Nana here to see it. She's never been in town when the kids have had one of these little programs, so I was so happy that she could be there! I think Nana really enjoyed herself too! And I know it was really special for Addison.

Addison with her class, the Tiny Tigers. They are so sweet!

At the end of the program, all the classes went on stage and sang a finale. Addison was so happy to see a familiar face in the crowd!

Nana, Roger and Addison. This was the best shot with Addison...she wasn't too thrilled about taking pictures.

Addison was happy to take some pictures outside by the fountain.

And Many More!

2011-05-15T14:34:00.008-05:00

Wow, the month of May is flying by! But not without celebrating my sweet baby girl's third birthday! Many times during these first few years of Addison's life, I have wondered if we'd make it to the next birthday. And I'm not saying that in a moment of frustration or weakness. It has been a lot of work to get her to where she is today. So I'm happy to say that each birthday is truly a celebration! And celebrate we did!

Addison hasn't ever really had a birthday party with friends. In the past, we've always just done small parties with family. So I decided this year to have a party for her at Chuck E Cheese. We invited her best friends: her life-long friend, Lacey, and her cousin, Caitlin. Alex was there of course, and her other cousin Cadence. And then we had some family, and family friends there as well. It was a really fun time, and I think Addison really enjoyed herself!

When I asked Addison what kind of birthday cake she wanted, she told me Little Mermaid. So this is her cake. It turned out so darling! And tasted good too! I was so relieved after the debacle with Alex's birthday cake. Addison had a really fun time playing with her friends, eating pizza and enjoying her Little Mermaid cake. So far, 3 has been really fun! And here's to many, many more!

Easter 2011

2011-04-29T20:09:00.004-05:00

Alex told me this past Saturday that Easter is almost better than Christmas! Wow! That's pretty big! We had a really fun Easter this year. I think what made it extra special was having Grandma and Papa there this time. We also had Aunt Patty and Uncle Michael, who we haven't seen since Christmas. Truly, the more the merrier, especially in our family.

Easter Eve, Alex wanted to leave carrots and water out for the Easter Bunny. So we had that all ready for EB. Easter morning, Alex kinda squeled with excitement when he woke up and discovered that the EB had eaten the carrots! After the initial excitement wore off, we got ourselves ready for church. After church, we headed to Grandma and Papa's house for Easter lunch and of course, the EGG HUNT!!!!

The kids are all ready for the Easter Egg Hunt! So exciting. The Garden of Eden, what we affectionately call my mom and dad's yards, was covered in Easter eggs!

And she's off!

And she's eating!

Alex was super serious about his egg hunting!

Woa, the EB was generous this year!

We really enjoyed our Easter. After the egg hunt, we pigged out on a super yummy lunch before Grandma and Papa headed back to Chicago. What a great holiday we had!

Good Friday 2011

2011-04-27T21:32:00.004-05:00

Alex has been asking me for WEEKS to dye Easter eggs. He loves, loves, dying eggs. I kept telling him we'd do that on Good Friday, since he was out of school. He'd even asked me earlier in the week if he could do it, like on Tuesday or something, saying Friday was too far away. My sweet, patient red head! So I went ahead and bought two dozen eggs just to dye: one dozen for Alex and one dozen for Addison. And when Good Friday was finally here, Alex was good and ready!

I was so proud of Addison because I wasn't quite sure how she'd do with the dye. But she was a crafty trooper! She sat right down, grabbed a spoon and started dying the eggs. Caitlin didn't fair quite as well. She tried a couple times to drink the dye. Tamara was a little frazzled by the time we were done.

Alex with his finished eggs. He blew through all 12 of his eggs in no time flat!

Addison with her finished eggs. Note the color theme...PINK! I barely managed to talk her into doing a few eggs in other colors.

"Show me your hands!"

Sometimes, your hands just work out better! To my surpise, Addison did really well with the dye, and managed to keep herself fairly clean, with the exception of her hands. And the hard boiled eggs didn't all go to waste: Aunt Patty took a bunch and made a ton of deviled eggs. Yum!

More Birthday Fun

2011-04-24T20:44:00.009-05:00

This year for Alex's birthday, we decided to scale back a bit on the birthday party. Birthday's are a big deal in my book, so this was a little hard for me. But being in kindergarten, and not knowing a lot of his classmates very well, I think this was the right decision for our family this year. So instead of a big party, we took Alex out the the "race track" aka Putt Putt in Hurst. He LOVES going out there. And we took Cadence, so he had at least one friend there with him. He did all his favorite things...race cars, played minature golf, and also rode in the bumper boats. I think that was the highlight of the day for Alex and Cadence. They had a ball in the bumper boats!

One of these times, I'm going to get to ride in the race cars! This time, I was watching Addison.

Here the boys are playing golf. I think Alex just hit a hole in won..you can barely see that he's jumping up and down!

While we were waiting for the bumper boats, I tried to get a quick shot of Alex and Addison.

The bumper boats moved around in this pool, and you could also shoot water at the other people in the boats. The boys had a blast soaking each other!

After the bumper boats, showing off their wet shirts. Good thing we had really warm, beautiful weather!
When we were done at the race track, we headed back to my parents house for dinner. We cooked up some kabobs for dinner, and Great Grandma and Aunt Mary joined us for the party. Alex had a second round of presents, and a second round of cake. I think for not having a big party, he had a good day celebrating his birthday.

The Big 6

2011-04-22T21:03:00.007-05:00

Alex turned 6 last week! I can't believe how fast the years have gone...it seems like just yesterday I brought this tiny baby home from the hospital, scared to death and clueless! Six years later, he's grown into a smart, funny boy. The night before his birthday, we were having dinner and Alex was not too happy about going to school on his birthday. Roger and I laughed! We tried to make it a special day despite having to go to school. He was thrilled to wake up to some presents. We even let him open one before school. He is really into Sonic x/Sonic the Hedgehog. And he's been telling me for months that he wanted this Sonic Underground movie. I lucked into finding it at Target, and for only $5! Later that day, Roger and I went up to his school to have lunch with him. He was thrilled!
Alex eats lunch at 10:35 in the morning. So we can't really pick him up anything fun or special for lunch. So we brought him up a pizza that I cooked at home. We'd also picked him up some chocolates from Godiva. He was so happy! It was really fun! After school, Aunt Tamara, Cadence and Caitlin stopped by to wish Alex a happy birthday. They brought cupcakes, so we sang happy birthday, opened some gifts, and had an after school snack.

That night was also Alex's school play. It was called Bugz, and it was the cutest show ever! I mean, kindergartners are pretty funny and cute as it is. And this play really highlighted all their sweet, funny talents! Alex played an Army Ant, and during their song, he said "Two-Three-Four!"(think "hut two, three, four") He was so into his part! And it was so funny! He had participated in several little musical programs while in preschool. And he was never really into singing the songs and doing the hand motions. So you can imagine how surprised I was that he was so into his play. I was so proud of how well he "performed" his part!

I was so proud of Alex. He was truly one of the stars of the show! And phew! What a fun, busy birthday. I think he had a really special birthday. I mean, for it being a school day and all!

Who is Six Year Old Alex?

2011-04-18T23:00:00.007-05:00

Alex turned 6 last week! I'm still wrapping my brain around the fact that I have a six year old. I can hardly believe how much he's grown. The other night, Alex and I laughed as I told him all about going to the hospital to deliver him. It was fun to share those special memories with him. As I look at him today, I'm amazed at the kid he's growing into. I don't want to forget anything about him at this age, so here are some highlights:

*He still loves all sports. Hockey is still his number one favorite, with soccer and baseball tied for second. He started playing soccer this spring, and he is so naturally talented at it. He has played goalie, and does an amazing job!

*He's very interested in planets, space, and the world in general. It's fun to see his mind opening up to the knowledge of new places and different countries.

*Alex has been blessed with something we fondly call "The McNiel Gift of Gab." He enjoys talking, sometimes more than I enjoy listening. But it serves him well in making new friends. Anywhere he goes, he can find someone his size, play with them, and be their friend.

*Speaking of best friends, he still loves hanging out and playing with his cousin, Cadence. I know not far in the future the age difference between Alex and Cadence will catch up to them, but for now they are best buds!

*As we are nearly finished with the school year (just 6 weeks left!), we have really developed a morning routine. We still, however, have to set a timer in the morning to keep Alex on track while eating. Otherwise, he dilly-dallys away the entire morning. I don't know where he got that from!?! [Yes, me]

*He comes home every day with a green smiley face on his behavior log from school. I tend to think that his teacher is a little on the generous side, but also hope he really is being pretty good at school.

*Believe it or not, his favorite part of school is PE and recess. Surprise, surprise!

*Around spring break, I started reading chapter books with him at night. I remember my mom reading to me when my siblings and I were little. I think this really instilled in me a love for reading. I'm hoping it will do the same for Alex. We're working our way through the Junie B. Jones series. I think he really enjoys the stories and the time we spend together.

*He still loves everything Sonic (Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic X). He told me the other day his name was really Sonic, and Alex second. He also has a vivid imagination.

*He still has his favorite handful of foods. But he's added some new foods to his repertoire, such as chocolate milk. Yay! His favorite food though is still cheese pizza.

*Alex is still a very kind and compassionate boy. He also has surprised me with how passionate he is about doing the right thing. And it really upsets him to see others breaking the rules, or not playing fair. Wonder where he got that from!?! (Not me!)

*I still lay down with him in his bed for about 5 minutes every night. I remember when I was pregnant with Addison how much I dreaded lugging my big ol belly up on his bed, and then lugging my big ol' self back off. I kept saying, he's too old for this. But really, deep down, I love those few, quite moments we share talking every night before he drifts off to sleep!

Soccer!

2011-04-02T21:47:00.000-05:00

The spring is always a crazy, busy time around the Lee household. In addition to the Lee birthday season (Roger, Alex, Addison, in that order), it's also time for sports! Alex decided that he wanted to play soccer this spring. I think he really wanted to play because his cousin played last year, and is playing again this spring. Regardless of why, I was happy to get him into a sport. He is so naturally talented in sports, and I really want to help that talent flourish. And not to sound too much like a proud Mama, Alex is really good at soccer! His coaches really love the sport, and their passion is contagious! The kids work really hard and have played extremely well. They usually play Alex as the goalie. He is so good! When he's down in the goalie box, he is intense...watching the ball, moving with the ball, always staying in front of it. And stops nearly all the shots. So impressive! Who knew? Soccer. That's what's currently happening around here.

The Dallas Arboretum 2011

2011-03-18T20:05:00.007-05:00

On Wednesday of Spring Break, we journeyed out to the Dallas Arboretum. I was hoping that everyone in the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex would be in Fort Worth at the zoo, but as it turned out, plenty of people thought it would be a good day for the arboretum. After finally getting there, we had a fabulous day! The arboretum was beautiful! Tulips were blooming everywhere! We had a blast "oohing" and "ahhing" over all the pretty flowers. And the kids managed to have a great time too.

Some of our best smiles were early in the day :)

The arboretum had set up little displays throughout one half of the gardens illustrating various fairy tales. The first one we stopped at was the Little Mermaid. The kids are posed here in a mermaid chair. Some of the other fairy tales that had little houses were Jack And the Bean Stalk, Beauty and the Beast, Rapunzel, Aladdin, and the Princess and the Pea.

My sister and her kids posing by the "pea" from the Princess and the Pea. Cadence enjoyed following the map to each new house, as they were numbered 1 to 7. By the time we made it through all the houses, everyone was ready for a rest and some lunch!

My beautiful Grandmother and Aunt. We had the whole crew! It was fun!

Alex was getting a little grumpy here...he was ready for some lunch!

There was plenty of beautiful, green grass to run around and enjoy! After we had lunch, we spent the rest of the day exploring the other side of the arboretum, which has little play houses. The kids LOVED the houses. It was a really fun day.

We tried to snap a few shots here at the end of the day. Addison wouldn't even get in the pictures by this time. Alex was done taking pictures, and Caitlin was getting sleepy and wouldn't let go of that thumb! It was really a beautiful day though. The arboretum is a little slice of heaven, especially in the spring. So, so beautiful! A couple years ago, Alex, Addison, my Grandmother and Mary had all gone to the arboretum during spring break. I'm so glad we could do it again this year, with more family. This might have to become a spring break tradition!

Friends Forever

2011-03-17T21:27:00.005-05:00

My mom lives in Chicago these days...and despite the fact that she's been gone for a couple years now, I still miss her terribly. One of the only reasons I moved back to Texas four years ago was to live closer to my mom: for many, many different reasons. So I must confess that there aren't many people I would spend a day with instead of my mom while she's visiting for Spring Break. But for this lady, I did!

She has been my friend for a long, long time. Since we were kids. She has always been an inspiration to me, and an example. As adults, this has been even more true. When I moved back to Arlington, I unknowingly moved down the street from her. She has been a friend to me when I thought I had no one else in the world. She has loved my children as her own. She has cleaned up my children's poop! She is a kind, generous, humble and amazing person. For these reasons, and so many more, I happily gave up a day with my mom to see her and her sweet children. She now lives in Lufkin, and I miss her like I miss my mom. I love her dearly, and treasure the times I get to see her when she comes back for visits. I know a loving Father in Heaven has blessed me with friends such as her, friends I know that I'll have forever. I'm so, so grateful for this tender mercy.

Spring Break 2011

2011-03-17T21:07:00.004-05:00

I've said it before and I'll say it again: I LOVE Spring Break! I love that spring break signals that winter is nearly over (hopefully), and summer is just around the corner. This year, we were blessed to have my mom, Grandma, here for Spring Break. How great is that?!?! She flew in from Chicago on Sunday, and Monday we started off our break in our usual tradition of breakfast! Our tradition is donuts for the kids from Krispy Kreme, and breakfast for the adults at La Madeleine. It was a little chaotic, as usual, with our crew of hooligans. But still fun. Then Grandma took the kids to Toys R Us for a little spoiling, Grandma style.

Here are the kids at Toys R Us, after getting to pick out a new toy AND a book from Barnes and Noble. They were super spoiled this time around! It was a fun way to start our Spring Break.

Big Girl Bed

2011-02-09T21:50:00.002-06:00

You know that saying, don't mess with a good thing. Well...I messed with a good thing. Addison has always been my good sleeper. My 12 hour sleeper. My nearly always slept thru the night good sleeper. As she's getting close to her third birthday, I thought it would be a good idea to transition her to a "big girl" bed. I reasoned that I wanted her to be sleeping in a bed she could get in and out of before I potty trained her. I want her to have the freedom when she's potty trained to get out of bed and use the bathroom if she needs. So I converted her crib into a toddler bed. In Addison's mind, this is the greatest thing ever! Unfortunately for me, it has NOT been the greatest thing ever. The first few nights, she didn't stay in bed. Then she started staying in bed when we laid her down, but she got up early in the morning. I mean 5:30 early! Yikes! So my good sleeper is now a so-so sleeper. I'm hoping she'll start sleeping later after the newness of this new found freedom wears off. In the meantime, I'm tired! And Addison is no where near being potty trained.

Snow Days 2011

2011-02-01T21:33:00.005-06:00

The weather forecasters kept saying it was coming...bad weather. Alex even came home from school on Monday and told me that bad weather was coming. They must have discussed the weather at school. Amazingly, the forecasters were pretty accurate this time. Early this morning, I heard thunder and either sleet or hail. It was a strange combo. And sure enough, school was cancelled. We got a call from the school district around 6 a.m. saying that the schools were closed. Alex came into my room around 7, fully dressed. Roger and I told him that it was a snow day. He looked a little confused, so we further explained to him that he didn't have to go to school today. His face just lit up! It was precious. So today was his first ever snow day! He couldn't wait to get outside and play. I managed to stall him long enough to get some breakfast down him, and then we bundled up and headed out!

We were pretty cautious moving around because as we got outside, I realized it was more ice than snow.

The kids with their big chunks of ice! We also realized pretty quickly that we didn't get a real powdery snow...it was more like frozen pellets of water. So it didn't stick together, which wasn't as much fun because it didn't make for good snow balls or even a snow man. We also quickly realized that the wind was blowing 50 mph or more! So it was literally freezing outside! We didn't stay out too long. Once inside, we warmed up with hot chocolate!

I tried to keep Alex busy throughout the day to help the time go a little faster. He went outside again with Roger later in the morning. Then we stayed in for the rest of the day. It was just too cold to be outside. We also ended up making some cookies while Addison napped. Alex is a great helper!

So I think for his first snow day, it went pretty well. I think he also enjoyed just being home and playing! So we played in the snow, drank hot chocolate, played some more, made cookies...now what are we going to do tomorrow on our second snow day?!?!?

First Snow of 2011

2011-01-25T21:01:00.004-06:00

We had our first snow flurries back on the 9th of January. The kids thought it was the greatest thing ever! Addison enjoyed trying to catch the snowflakes in her mouth. Alex enjoyed just being outside in it. He was trying desperately to gather enough for a snowball. It started snowing around noon, right after we finished church. So we played outside for a few minutes before going in for lunch and Addison's nap. Alex asked me all afternoon if he could go outside and play in it. But the snow just didn't last very long, and it never accumulated. After a couple hours, it stopped snowing completely. Alex was just broken hearted that he didn't have any snow to play in. He was so disappointed! It was really sad. I tried my best to explain that we live in Texas and we just don't get that much snow. But he remembers last year, when we had that freak of a snow storm with a foot or so of snow. And then he kept asking me why we lived here and why we couldn't live where it does snow. I tried to be very diplomatic. But honestly, I hate snow and I'm quite glad that I don't have to mess with it! My gut says Alex might grow up to live someplace where it does snow. We'll see!

Super Hero, Super Day

2011-01-25T20:50:00.002-06:00

During the month of December, Alex's elementary school did a cereal drive, collecting boxes of cereal for those in need. The kids were to decorate their boxes of cereal like a super hero, and if they reached a certain goal, they would earn a day to dress like super heroes at school. Alex was so excited to dress like a super hero. Luckily, we have many options. He chose to dress up as Dan from Bakugans. That's his Bakugan "stand"

He also came home with this certificate from his teacher. This is his second one. His first one was for great behavior. He earned that one during December, and was certain he would earn an extra gift from Santa for having great behavior! I was so proud of him for being good at school! Way to go Alex!

January Disclosures

2011-01-25T20:37:00.003-06:00

Ugh, I'm such a slacker! I can't believe that January is almost over and I haven't blogged once. I think I'm still trying to wrap my brain around the fact that my first post of 2010 was about Craig Story, an Arlington Police officer killed in the line of duty. And earlier this month, another police officer was killed in the line of duty. It just brought up all those emotions from Officer Story's funeral, all the emotions associated with being the wife of a police officer. It was a weird dejavu (sp) to be starting this year off in nearly the same way as last year. And the month kind of went down hill from there with more bad news. A friend that I went to high school with lost her sister. My bestest, dearest, oldest friend found out her mother has breast cancer. Another good friend lost her mother suddenly. And it just keeps coming! Wow! So I think I've been avoiding blogging because I haven't been in a good place for a while. However, I don't want to miss some of the good things that have happened this month. So I'll start with Alex.

Christmas 2010

2010-12-27T22:08:00.005-06:00

We had a really great Christmas this year! Starting the Friday Alex finished school, it was a busy week of anticipation, counting down the days until Christmas. Thankfully, we had Grandma and Papa here to ease some of that anticipation, and we had plenty to keep us busy! When Christmas morning finally arrived, it was a great start to the day! Alex burst into my bathroom that morning, almost shocked that Santa came. It was too sweet! He was thrilled that Santa brought him the Minotaurus Lego game.

Addison was pretty fun Christmas morning too. I still don't think she really understands the whole Santa business. Regardless, she sure loved all her gifts. Her doll house was a huge hit! She loves it and all the accessories.

Addison was pretty funny opening her gifts too. I swear it took her 20 minutes to open each present. Once she got the wrapping paper off, she would ask to open the gift. So it took us what seemed like an eternity to open 4 presents.

We headed over to my parent's house next to open gifts with them. My mother told me that she was "scaling" back this Christmas. I thought this was fabulous news! They are so generous throughout the year. Almost too generous. My kids don't ever go without! So I was happy to hear that they wouldn't be too spoiled this Christmas. Addison got this princess dress from my parents, and she LOVES it! She wore it all Christmas day, and then put it on first thing the next morning. So cute!

Alex was thrilled to get this spaceship from my parents. He just thought it was the greatest thing ever that he put this on his Christmas list, and Grandma bought it for him. He's really enjoyed playing with it too.

And I guess when my mom told me she was "scaling" back this year, that didn't apply to Roger and I. Yes, that's me with a new laptop. I couldn't believe it! I was teasing my dad about getting a new Mac, so I could have his old one. Never in a million years did I think he'd buy me a computer. I love it! I'm still trying to get used to working on a laptop, but it's so awesome! It's so fun to have access to a computer, not matter where I'm at in my house. AND all the letters work on the keyboard! So we were extremely spoiled and blessed this Christmas! More Christmas posts to come!

If There's A Stool. . .

2010-12-27T20:03:00.000-06:00

I think Addison's new motto in life is "if there's a stool, there's a way!" From very early on, she's learned to scoot my kitchen table chairs to get things such as scissors or pencils. Lately, she's branched out and started moving the stool in the bathroom to other rooms in the house. Or she'll use the stools at other houses, such as my parent's house.

And sometimes, Addison doesn't need a stool at all. She just needs her parents to be doing something, anything, other than keeping meticulous tabs on her. This time, she just reached up and grabbed my makeup down. Apparently, this is "dot dot, not a lot!" I laughed because it reminded me of a reindeer. Truly, she keeps me on my toes. But I love her, stool and all!

I Did It!

2010-12-16T10:07:00.003-06:00

I volunteered to be Addison's room mom this year at her preschool. I guess after Alex was there for three years, I felt confident enough to handle this little assignment. It's been really fun and easy so far. This week, my duties picked up a bit. Today Addison's class is having their Christmas party. And the kids get a goody bag today. So I had all the parents sign up to bring different goodies for their goody bags. The parents were so generous! I had so much stuff, I ended up running up to Kroger late last night to buy bigger bags! I think they turned out pretty cute, despite the last minute change of bags.

I also volunteered to make a special snack for Addison's class. I really wanted to make Christmas tree sugar cookies. So I stayed up into the wee hours of the night icing cookies. It was so fun! I really enjoyed myself...it was quiet, I could take my time, I could try to be creative and I had no distractions. I'm not a professional by any means, but I think they turned out pretty festive. And regardless, I know the kids will love and appreciate every little bite! The best part was Addison woke up this morning and said, "Mmmmm." Then she asked, "For me?" I told her yes, for her party at school. That made all the hard work so worth it!Finally, I put the teachers' gifts together. Addison has two teachers this year. So I collected money from all the parents in her class and bought them both a few things for Christmas. I also picked up a couple pans of homemade cinnamon rolls for them. I hope they enjoy the gifts.

So my first big job as room mom is done. I did it! I'm thankful I can be room mom this year for Addison's class. I may not be able to do something like this every year, so I'm glad I can do it this year! And with that, Addison begins her two week vacation for Christmas. We have some fun things still planned, so I'm excited for the Christmas break!

Polar Pajama Party

2010-12-13T20:31:00.005-06:00

As we've come into the holiday season, I really tried to find some fun, festive things we could do with Alex. I've said this before, but we used to do so much during the week. So as I was searching for a fun Saturday activity, I discovered at the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History something called "Saturday Polar Pajama Parties." The museum shows The Polar Express on Saturday mornings on the big Imax screen during December. And it's a pajama party, complete with free hot chocolate and other museum fun. So I jumped on the idea, and decided to coax my sister into coming too. Alex had never seen the Polar Express, so I thought he might really enjoy the movie. And enjoy the whole Imax experience. So I bought tickets for Alex and Cadence to watch the movie, and I volunteered to take Addison and Caitlin into the museum to play. I didn't think the girls were quite old enough to sit through the entire movie. And of course, we bought the crew all matching jammies! And in the end, Roger was able to come along too. It was a really fun morning!

Alex and Cadence with Dynamo. They all match :)

Enjoying some hot chocolate before the show. Neither one of them was real impressed with the hot chocolate, but at least they both tried it.

Posing for one of many photo opps!

So while Alex and Roger, and Cadence and Tamara went to see the Polar Express, the girls and I hung out. I started by feeding them a snack. Everything goes smoother on a full belly! Then we headed into the children's museum to play. It went really well! I'll admit, I was a little nervous about keeping track of the two of them. And Caitlin sometimes has separation anxiety when she's away from Tamara. But they both played really well together. We didn't have any incidents. I was able to keep track of both of them, and keep them entertained. I even managed to get a few pictures of them.

We were just running out of things to do, and Caitlin was just starting to really miss Tamara when the movie let out. Phew! We all enjoyed lunch together and played a while longer at the museum. It was a really fun morning together. I think everyone had a really good time. And Roger enjoyed the movie so much, we purchased a copy of it later that day. I think Polar Express is officially the newest holiday tradition in our family.

Gingerbread House Tradition

2010-12-12T20:11:00.005-06:00

Last year, I thought it would be fun to make a gingerbread house with Alex. I think I was looking for something to keep him busy while Addison napped. He LOVED it! He's been counting down the days until he could make one this year. And thus, a new Christmas tradition is started! So this year, I ended up buying two. That's how it goes with two small children. We really enjoyed creating the houses. Most of all, I loved seeing Alex's creativity!

Addison was really more interested in eating the candy than decorating with it. But I managed to convince her to do a little decorating!

The work in progress....

Each one wanted to take a picture with their finished houses. Not sure what's up with the props (the football and the barbie lotion?)

So, Addison pooped out on me pretty early. So "our" house is the one on the left..Alex's house is the one on the right. I love how decorated his house gets! It's so fun to see him be creative with all the candy and colors. Thanks to the gingerbread houses, our real house is beginning to look, and smell more and more like Christmas!

Addison's Christmas Program

2010-12-12T09:48:00.005-06:00

This has been such a fun week! We are really getting into the holiday season, and it started off with Addison's Christmas program at her preschool on Monday. It was so cute! They have a program for all the children who are 2 and 3. Each class gets up and sings a couple holiday songs. The two-year olds are super cute! They just stand up there, quiet as can be, staring out into the vast audience of parents. It must be truly overwhelming for them. As the kids get older, and especially the older three year olds, they really get into the songs. They sing, some sing extra loud, and they dance. It's fun, and really a sweet way to start off this crazy, busy month. Something so sweet and peaceful about the children singing. I love it!

This year Addison had her cousin and BFF, Caitlin, in the audience. I think Caitlin really enjoyed the program too! Afterwards, we took advantage of the beautifully decorated preschool for some holiday photo opps!

Addison loves her Aunt Tamara! This is one of my new favorite pictures of Addison. So sweet! Now if I just could have convinced her to take a picture with her Mommy!

Thanksgiving 2010

2010-11-25T09:35:00.000-06:00

We had a really great Thanksgiving. We celebrated at my Grandmother's house with all of our family. My brother and nephew went to the Cowboy's game, so that's why there are no pictures of them. It was a pretty low key day, centered around our big meal. We were blessed this year with great company, good health, delicous food, and happy memories!

Day Out with Grandma and Papa

2010-11-23T09:12:00.000-06:00

YAY! YAY! Time with Grandma and Papa!

The week of Thanksgiving, Alex and Addison were out of school for the whole week. AND my parents came in to town from Chicago for the whole week too! It was a really fun week. They came in on Saturday the 20th, and that night took Alex and Cadence to see a Stars game. The following Tuesday, I took advantage of the opportunity to spend the morning with my parents, and we all headed out to the Museum of Science and History. This was the year that my older brother was coming in for Thanksgiving. So I knew the rest of the week would be busy spending time with him and his family. So off we went and we had a really fun time!

We spent the majority of our time in the children's museum. The kids played in the grocery store, the hospital area and of course, outside. Papa doesn't always tag along on our outings, so we were really happy to have him with us too! As if you couldn't tell by that smile on Alex's face!

In the tinkering around area, there were hula hoops set out. So we all gave the hula hoops a whirl. The best part of the day was watching my mom hula hoop. If I hadn't been laughing so hard, I would have taken some pictures or video of it. We also got out and enjoyed the unseasonably warm temperatures that day in the dino dig. We had a really fun day, and I know my kids will remember the time we spent with them. I'm so thankful that we were able to spend the time with my parents!

Addison's Thanksgiving Feast

2010-11-16T20:48:00.000-06:00

Before the break for Thanksgiving, Addison celebrated her first Feast at St. John. It was so fun! She's a Tiny Tiger this year, and her class is really cute. All the parents were waiting in the classroom to celebrate the feast, and as the kids walked in, they were dressed in their Thanksgiving art projects. It was so cute!

This was Addison as she walked in -- all the kids were a little shocked to see all the parents waiting for them in the classroom. It was funny to see all of their faces. Feast consisted of pizza, fruit, crackers, and homemade butter that the kids made. It was really fun. I'm the room mom for Addison's class this year. This was my first job, and I think it went pretty well.

This is Addison with her placemat that she made.

I just love these kinds of projects! I have one from when Alex was a Tiny Tiger too. So fun!

These are Addison's teachers: Ms. Myra and Ms. Toni. They are wonderful and Addison loves them both very much. We are very thankful that she has such loving, kind teachers and that she's able to attend St. John this year.

This is it: Halloween 2010

2010-10-31T20:59:00.001-05:00

Ok, seriously, last post about Halloween. We did trick-or-treat, despite the holiday falling on Sunday. Aren't my little trick-or-treaters cute? I just loved this photo. We really went all out this year: we decorated our yard with Halloween lights, decorated our front window with Halloween stickers and hung ghosts in our tree. Alex just loves Halloween, and it's fun to feed that excitement all month! As I mentioned before, Roger was home this year to trick-or-treat with us. We all went out together down our street. As we made it back up, we decided to divide and conquer. So I volunteered to stay at the house to pass out candy while Roger took the kids around another street. Alex is so funny though. He isn't one to stay out, going to every last house to get candy. He likes to trick-or-treat for about an hour, and then he's ready to call it a night. I think he enjoys handing out candy almost as much as collecting the candy. But that's Alex -- he's very kind and generous. When the kids got home, they did their annual candy dive. Addison was much better this year...she didn't get into nearly as much candy as she did last year! Last year she was opening candy faster than I could take it away from her! But they had their splurge, and then we put them to bed. It was a school night, after all! And Halloween 2010 is over. Already looking forward to next year. Love this time of year!

Halloween Eve

2010-10-31T20:31:00.000-05:00

Halloween was really fun for us this year. As I was thinking back, we moved into our house in April of 2007. So we've celebrated 4 Halloweens in this house. I can't believe that! And this is the first Halloween in four years that Roger has been home celebrating with us. That was really nice. And to top it all off, Alex was healthy! That was a miracle. He is usually sick every Halloween. I don't know what it is with the end of October, but it doesn't usually agree with Alex. Saturday morning, we decided to carve pumpkins. Thankfully, Roger helped carve. Last year, I carved all the pumpkins and was so done by the time I got them all carved. Saturday night, we headed over to church for the annual Halloween party. It was really fun! The church was decorated, we ate, the kids hit pinatas. And then they "trick-or-treated" around the church. They went from classroom to classroom collecting candy from gracious members who were passing out the treats. For a lot of the kids, this was their only trick-or-treating, as Halloween fell on Sunday this year. We all had a really fun time and we're already looking forward to it next year!

My sister, niece and nephew came by the party and trick or treated. The kids really enjoyed doing that together. When we got home, we lit our pumpkins. Addison wasn't too crazy about the "scary pumpkins." But we managed to convince her to take a picture. But if you notice, she won't take her eyes off those glowing orange things. So funny!

Halloween Spooktacular

2010-10-30T09:29:00.000-05:00

I'm almost caught up on all our Halloween celebrations. Usually every year we make it out to a pumpkin patch. And we've been spoiled in the past with plenty of time during the week to do that. This year, with Alex being in school, we didn't get to a pumpkin patch as a family. Addison enjoyed Pumpkin Days at her preschool and Alex enjoyed Country Critters with his kindergarten class. And both came home with pumpkins. We did do a couple other things this year as a family to celebrate Halloween.

The Saturday before Halloween, we went up to our gym and had fun at the Spooktacular. We played some spooky games, jumped in a couple bounce houses, played in a maze, won some cupcakes from a cake walk. We also went through a haunted house. We've never taken the kids through a haunted house before, and I was a little nervous because I didn't know how scary it would really be. Alex LOVED it! He ended up going through four or five times. Addison...not so much. She kept saying, "haunted house scary" and wouldn't go back in again. It was a fun afternoon!

Pumpkin Day for Addison

2010-10-29T14:29:00.000-05:00

One of my all-time favorite events at St. John is Pumpkin Days! Alex enjoyed pumpkin day twice while at St. John. This year, Addison got to enjoy all the fun events and activities. Unfortunately, my camera battery died very early in our day. But here are a few pictures.
Our first stop was painting pumpkins. Addison really enjoyed this station.

Here she is with her finished pumpkin. Yay!

Our next stop was the playground. Addison enjoyed having Daddy give her a little help on the big trike.

Next was the petting zoo. Addison loves animals, always has. She really enjoyed this part of pumpkin days. She went around and around looking at the goats, bunnies, turkey, pig, donkey, and cow. Fun, fun! From here we enjoyed stretch and grow, a snack, stations, music, story time and pictures. I never remember Alex being so exhausted, but pumpkin days wore Addison out. Maybe it was an age difference though. By the time we were done, she was ready for lunch and a nap. I love pumpkin days and I'm already looking forward to it again next year!

Field Trip: Country Critters

2010-10-26T20:44:00.004-05:00

Alex had his first ever field trip today. It was so fun! We went out to Country Critters, a pumpkin patch. All the kids rode a school bus over there, which was a first for Alex. I can't remember how long he's been asking me, "when do I get to ride a bus?" Finally! He's ridden the bus. That's one for his bucket list. I have to say, I was very impressed with the field trip over all. It was very organized and well-run. We went from station to station, with about 10 minutes or so at each one. We had beautiful weather! Overall, it was a really fun day.

Our first station was the hay ride, except minus the hay. So I guess it was really just a tractor ride. And honestly, I wasn't too sad about the lack of hay because hay+Alex+asthma=no fun. Our next stop was the first bounce house. When I asked Alex what his favorite part of the day was, he said the bounce houses. He loved them! After the bounce house we had sack races, then wooden horse races. Both were really fun activities for a group of 5 year-olds. After that, we headed into the pumpkin patch where the kids picked out a small pumpkin. And we took advantage of the photo opps!

After everyone picked a pumpkin, the kids went to a station to decorate them. Then it was time for lunch! We had a really nice picnic lunch. After lunch, we went on to a maze, which the kids had a blast running through. And what a perfect post lunch activity! And they also spent some time "roping" some cows.

Impressive, huh? Who knew my husband was so handy with a rope? Next we headed over to story time, where a sweet older lady read a story to the kids, while the kiddos enjoyed a cookie and some juice. From there we went to another bounce house, more pictures, a bean bag toss, a petting zoo, a playground area and finally another ride in a "train." I am really grateful that Roger and I were able to be with Alex today for his first field trip. I'm grateful that both my kids were healthy today. Addison was healthy and went to preschool, so Roger and I were both able to go on the field trip. And Alex was healthy, so he could go and enjoy his first field trip. I'm grateful that Roger could also be there to share this fun day with Alex, even though he only had a few hours of sleep. I'm grateful the weather was so beautiful. I'm grateful that Roger and I could spend a day with Alex again. It's probably the thing I miss the most -- these week days when we were all together as a family. Just having fun together! So first ever field trip: SUCCESS! Looking forward to the next one in the spring!

A FAIRly Great Day!

2010-10-12T17:47:00.010-05:00

I love, love the month of October! It runs a pretty close second to Christmas time. One of the reasons I love this month is the great, State Fair of Texas! Roger and I have turned our annual trips to the state fair into a Lee family tradition. This year, unlike last year, we had fabulous weather...the best weather in 4 years! And Roger and I think that the kids had the best time this year of all the years we've gone in the past. We enjoyed all the sights, food and just spending time together as a family. It was just all around a great day! Our first stop was at the Chevrolet tent, where they had an area set up for the kids to test drive race cars, hummers or princess corvettes. Alex has been talking about this for weeks! We didn't get to do this last year because the track was wet from the rain. So he was thrilled to drive Lightening around this year!

Our next stop was the "Little Hands on the Farm." The kids donned their aprons, grabbed their baskets and went through for a full day's "work" on the farm. Their work included harvesting peaches, feeding the hens and collecting eggs, feeding the cows and then milking them, planting and harvesting some crops, feeding the sheep and collecting some wool, and then heading to the market to sell all their "goods." At the end, they use their "money" that they earned to buy something at the store. It's a fun part of the fair and a good reminder of where our food and clothing comes from.

Next we stopped in to see a fun dog show. The kids enjoyed watching the dogs race, jump and swim. After that, Alex told us he was hungry and ready to see the cars. So we heading for the best part of the fair: Fletcher's Corny Dogs!

Alex eats his corny dogs in parts.

Addison wasn't real impressed with her corny dog.

But Roger and I loved every last bite of ours! Mmmm! Then we headed over to the cars. The kids loved climbing in and out of all the cars.

Finally our last fun stop was the petting zoo. By this time it was getting late and warm!
We started working our way back out of the fair after the petting zoo. We did make one last stop back at the track so Alex could race Lightening a final time. We really enjoyed spending the day together as a family, and getting our fair fix. It was so fun and I'm already looking forward to doing it again next year!

Museum Fun

2010-10-10T15:12:00.006-05:00

Could anything be more exciting than spending a morning with one of your favorite people? My mom has been in town this week from Chicago, and we've had the opportunity to spend a little extra time with her. On Wednesday, we took Grandma to the children's museum. Addison enjoyed every minute she spent playing with Grandma! They started out in the pretend grocery store. Then they moved on to the pretend hospital area. They are playing in the pretend ambulance.

She also ran her poor Grandmother ragged! Addison and Caitlin loved playing chase with her.

Addison also really enjoyed this spinning thing, demonstrating centrifical (sp?) force (I think). I tried it out once and almost lost my breakfast. I'm too old to be spinning in circles at high rates of speed!

And even the big kids had fun playing at the museum! Grandma got a kick out of the giraffe guessing her height, and Roger was very intently spraying these water guns trying to make it all move and spin! We really enjoyed our time at the museum, and we're so thankful that Grandma could spend the day with us.

Where A Kid Can Be A Kid

2010-09-26T21:31:00.004-05:00

Alex has had such a great month at school -- he's been working so hard and earning his green smiley faces on his behavior chart. I thought that it would be fun this weekend to treat him to something special on Saturday. He decided that he wanted to go to Chuck E. Cheese because it's where "a kid can be a kid." He tells me this tag line nearly every day. Ingenious marketing on Chuck E. Cheese's part. Anyways, we were lucky to also have Roger home on Saturday. So we braved Chuck E. Cheese Saturday morning. To my surprise, it wasn't too crowded!

Alex had this hat from his birthday and some left over tokens from the last time we ventured out. I'm not sure what's up with Princess Thunder Cloud here.

Alex loves all the sports games. He played football first, then basketball a couple times and skeet ball. He loves them all!

This is Addison's favorite ride. She loves driving Mr. Cheese.

We even splurged on lunch. Alex's favorite: cheese pizza!

By the end of the morning, Addison's mood had greatly improved. It actually worked out to be a great outing for a rainy, Saturday morning!

Rockin' Out!

2010-09-19T20:02:00.004-05:00

Two kids means twice the fun, right? Most days, I'd say this is true. There are those days when you feel like all you do is referee, separate, tell one "no," tell the other "no"...you get my point. So on those occasions when they do play well together, you get excited and grab your camera! Must document these days too! They were really sweet. One of those, "Aww, my kids do love each other!" moments.

Wonder what they were discussing here!?!

Currently with Addison

2010-09-16T14:01:00.003-05:00

I haven't said much lately about Addison. So I thought I would give her a little face time today. There's some good news, and some bad news. Let's start with all the good news!

Neurology: Back towards the end of August, Addison saw her neurologist. She has had two brain MRIs. The first one showed some abnormalities. The second one showed no changes. This was a good thing, because it showed that her brain stayed the same and didn't get worse. So this past visit, the doctor just wanted to follow up with her one last time. Her brain will eventually grow and complete its maturation like other "normal" brains. And the doctor said she looked, acted, walked, talked, and behaved like a normal two year old. He said he didn't need to see her again unless something changed in the future. I was so happy! Nothing personal to the doctor, but I never want Addison to see the neurologist again! One less doctor in Addison's little army!

Physical Therapy: Last week we saw Addison's physical therapist. We had stopped seeing her on a bi-weekly basis, and were just going in for check ups every few months. So this visit, the therapist wanted to see how she was doing. Addison has low tone, which has slowed her down a little in her physical development. Her therapist thought she looked really good and said she didn't feel like she needed to be in her care any more. Yay! Another member discharged out of Addison's little army!

Gastroenterology/Pediatrician: Over the summer, Addison's weight had plateaued somewhat. We had seen the GI towards the end of July, with the recommendations that she begin her medicine again that stimulates her appetite. She is also taking some calorie supplements. The good news is she had gained almost 2 pounds! This put her on the growth charts again. Yay for Addison!

Feeding Clinic/Speech Therapy: We started speech therapy with Addison in August. She is doing really well and we can already see improvements in her vocabulary and speech! She is communicating more and more with us and using new phrases, like "what are you doing?" Every time she asks me that, I smile because she sounds so grown up! We also are attending a feeding clinic every Friday. Several therapist work with us on getting Addison to try and eat different foods. They are showing me a lot of tricks and teaching me a lot about why she has such a difficult time eating. Hopefully we can work on incorporating more textures into her diet and more foods, which will mean more nutrition and calories!

Well, now for the not so good news...

Preschool: We enrolled Addison in a preschool for many reasons. We were advised that her being around her peers would help with her physical development and her speech development. She goes twice a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Well, she missed the first week of school because she came down with a cold, which flared up her asthma. Then she went the second week and really seemed to enjoy it! She was happy when I picked her up, the teachers said she did really well and was very well behaved. But now she's missed the third week of school because she's sick...again!

Asthma: And Monday we went to the ER because Addison's asthma flared up so badly we couldn't get it under control with her normal medications. We hadn't really needed her on a daily asthma maintenance medication. But with our recent trip to the ER, it looks like she will be starting daily medicine to help keep her asthma under control. We also had to take chest X-rays to rule out pneumonia. Her pediatrician said that it wasn't bacterial pneumonia. But that she did want to do a light course of antibiotics, just in case her symptoms were masked and it is pneumonia. Her weight was back down, which is so devastating and disappointing. Her pediatrician said not to panic about this, that it's just because she's sick. We work so hard to get her gaining weight, it's hard not to be discouraged when she loses. Currently, we're in a holding pattern of rest, breathing treatments, oral steroids, antibiotics and more rest until her body heals and recovers from this asthma attack. My hope and prayer is that we can manage her asthma so she can stay healthy and happy. And no more trips to the ER!

I tried both mornings last week to capture her "first" day of school. Each time she just was NOT in the mood for pictures. But here's a couple shots. I tried!

Me Stew

2010-09-09T20:18:00.003-05:00

Alex is doing really well in kindergarten! I'm so proud of him. Right now, his

theme in class is "All About Me/Families." So we had our first homework project of making a picture of Alex. We went to the craft store and picked up a few supplies. When I asked him how he wanted to decorate his shirt, he wanted it to look like a Dallas Stars jersey, of course! And we tried to make the mini Alex a pair of Sketcher Super Z Straps...his school shoes which he absolutely loves! He was proud of his little mini me. Then Wednesday when I picked him up from school, he walked out carrying this big, black, plastic cauldron. His little arms barely reached all the around this thing! It was funny! I asked him what that was about and he was so excited. He told me, "Me Stew!" Sure enough, we made Me Stew in his cauldron and filled it up with things that told about Alex. He chose to put in a Dallas Cowboys football, some cars, a couple airplanes, a bakugan, his teddy bear that he sleeps with, a Dallas Stars jersey, and a few pictures (one of him and daddy, him and Cadence, and him and Grandma). We also threw in Addison's cheese pizza play food, since that is his favorite food. He was thrilled to do this little project. Today I got this email from his teacher:

"I really had to write to tell you how cute Alex was this morning while he presented his Me Stew.
The kids get to ask him questions at the end and one child asked him what his favorite song was.
He answer was priceless……Rain Makes Corn! I love that song! LOL
Just wasn’t really expecting him to say that!
I started to sing some of the words….but he looked at me and said….actually they sing it faster on The Wolf."

I laughed when I read his teacher's email. I wasn't sure if I should be embarrassed about his song, or not. But he really does love that song. We listen to it all the time, and dance and sing to it. So I'm just really proud of his work. And his behavior log has had good notes all week, so that's a bonus too!

Truth about Mascara

2010-08-31T21:14:00.003-05:00

I was in the kitchen doing dishes a couple days ago and I heard a funny noise. My first thought was, "uh, oh. What is Addison up to?" Sure enough, she was up to no good! She's smart too. She always manages to get into things when she knows I'll be otherwise occupied. This time she got a hold of my mascara. I thought it was out of her reach. Clearly, it was not. After I caught her putting my mascara on, she ran away from me. She fell as she was running away from me, that's why she's crying in the pictures. I couldn't help but laugh. We did have our first girl-to-girl talk about why you can't cry and wear mascara. It's just not pretty! Funny on a two year old, but still not pretty!

First Day of Kindergarten!

2010-08-28T21:55:00.005-05:00

When I was a kid, my mother always (I mean ALWAYS) took my picture on the first day of school. As a young child, I'm sure I thought this was great. As a teenager, I remember thinking it was dumb. As an adult, I love looking back at my first day of school pictures, which I now have in an album. As a mother, I'm excited to be continuing this tradition. Here's Alex on his first day of kindergarten:

And this is what he was wearing when we picked him up that afternoon. It says, "I loved my first day of kindergarten." It made me laugh when I saw him after school, which immediately helped my anxiety. He had a great first day of school and was happy to return to kindergarten the rest of the week!

Our Last Summer Outing

2010-08-21T21:48:00.006-05:00

For our final outing of the summer, we visited the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History. I've been a few times with the kids, but this was the first time that Roger was able to join us. We really enjoyed our visit, as always. We started in the children's museum part. Roger and Alex went straight to the building section...building tents, building blocks, building railroad tracks. Addison went straight for the shopping! Then we made a pit stop in the gift shop. Oddly enough, there is a little slide in there and the kids loved that! We also visited the planetarium for the first time. We saw a really cute show called Big Bird's One World, One Sky. It was a little movie about the stars and the moon, and it was specifically geared towards young children. It was really entertaining and informative! We finished out our visit in the tinkering around area and the art area of the museum. Roger and I were both really sad to see our last outing of the summer end, as we both realized that we won't have these occasions very often anymore. With Alex starting kindergarten and Roger's schedule, we just won't have the time together that we used to have. That was part of the reason we made family time this past week top priority.

Pool Fun

2010-08-21T14:50:00.004-05:00

On our second day of "end of summer fun" we decided to swim at the Howard Moore Pool. It's a public swimming pool and the whole pool is only 18 inches deep. It's perfect for the smaller crowd. We went one other time with my sister and her kids, and Alex LOVED it! He couldn't wait to go again with Roger. Most days it's only open in the afternoons, so we had to go on Wednesday morning when it was open. We didn't have great weather. But we made the best of it and had a fun time!

Because of the weather, we were kicked out of the pool a couple times. The first time someone thought they either saw lightening or heard thunder. So we had a snack and waited it out.

The next time we got out of the pool for the weather we actually thought it might rain. But false alarm..again! This time, we took advantage of the break to eat lunch.

It was a fun morning, despite the clouds. And really, I would much rather be asked to get out of the pool because of possible rain, than have to get out because someone pooped in the pool. That happened last time we were there. Always the optimist, right?

Despite the Heat

2010-08-17T21:06:00.006-05:00

Roger has just finished up a two week stretch of working. By that I mean, two weeks of working straight with no days off. This happens every month because of his military commitment. Luckily, he now has a week off and it is also Alex's last week of summer. I really wanted us to enjoy these last few days together as a family before we got wrapped up in the hustle and bustle of school. Roger and I, with Alex's help, planned some fun activities together to celebrate our last days of summer. First on our agenda: the zoo! We are really going to miss taking Alex to the zoo. We've always enjoyed going during the quiet off days, such as Thursdays. And we haven't been all summer. So it was really fun to go, despite the 100 degree heat! We strategically planned how we would maneuver the zoo so we wouldn't die of heat exhaustion. You think I'm exaggerating. I'm not! So we decided to see some of the animals that were outside during the early hours of the morning, when the temperatures were only in the nineties. The first animal we saw were the elephants. Not this is how to stay cool when the temperatures are up!

This is one of the reasons why I love the zoo. No matter how many times we've been, we always experience something new. I've only seen the elephants playing in this pool one other time and I think it was when Alex was about two. The kids thought this was the greatest thing ever: the elephant taking a bath! And it was so amazing to see that trunk in action! We even went up to the windows and saw the elephant up close and personal.

We then managed to work our way through the zoo, seeing a lot of the animals along the way, before we started to melt. Then we popped into an air conditioned exhibit right as we were starting to really get warm. I've said this before, for Alex, he loves going to the zoo to eat! His special treat is the cheese pizza. He's been eating cheese pizza at the zoo for three years now. He's always happy about that.

From here, we managed to hop from one air conditioned spot to the next. We ended on a "cool" note by seeing the penguins on the way out and cooling off with some ice cream. Addison picked out a wild colors ice cream -- it was a vanilla flavored ice cream in these crazy colors of neon yellow, bright blue and red! All I can say is: KISS, You've got nothin' on my Addison!

Casting 101

2010-08-05T18:07:00.004-05:00

The other night as Roger and I were looking over our calender, we sadly realized that summer is nearly over. Roger mentioned how he and Alex didn't get to go camping. So we found a free day and scheduled a camping trip. Then he called me today and asked me if I thought Alex would like fishing and how I felt about him renting a fishing boat. Then he called me a couple hours later and said he bought some fishing poles. I'm not sure who is more excited about this camping trip. So tonight, Roger took Alex out in the backyard to practice casting his line. He did pretty good.
Of course, Addison couldn't be left out. So she cast a few lines as well. And Daddy promised to buy her a fishing pole too! Promptly after this, Alex started packing. Have I mentioned the camping trip isn't for another week?

As a side note, Alex was talking to me this morning about the camping trip. He told me after he camped with Daddy, he wanted us to go on a camping trip. I hated to give him the bad news that Mommy wasn't really a camper girl. He looked a little confused, so I clarified by saying that I don't go camping without Daddy. I didn't want to go in the whole, long explanation of camper girl vs. shopper girl. Because deep down, I'm a shopper girl and would really be out of my element camping solo with my son. Luckily, he didn't press me any further. I'm thinking a family camping trip might be in our near future though!

Big Fun in Cow Town

2010-08-02T13:38:00.010-05:00

The Fort Worth Museum of Science and History underwent a huge renovation and was closed for a long time. When it finally re-opened, I couldn't wait to go back. I've been visiting this museum since I was a kid. And we have always had so much fun there. I've also been dying to buy a membership. So I finally did! Yay! My sister and I took the kids a couple weeks ago. They have such a good time there. It's so fun to just watch their imaginations run wild!

In the actual children's museum, the boys built a tent. This was really fun, but it took me a while to figure out how to stabilize the thing.

Then the boys starting building with some wooden blocks. It was so fun to see Alex build something from start to finish. Like his Dad, he is very talented in this area.

Addison loved these! It was in the "tinkering" around part, which I didn't realize would change every 6 months or so. Alex was sad to see that the sand table wasn't there anymore. But loved the wind tunnel that made a funnel cloud!
We had a really fun time. Most importantly, I'm happy that we were able to take Cadence again. Last time we went, it was during spring break and the museum was obnoxiously crowded. Hopefully we can squeeze one more trip in before school starts!

July 4th, Part 2

2010-08-01T20:41:00.003-05:00

Wow, I can't believe it's August! And I'm still trying to catch up on my blogging from July. The summer is flying by at crazy, warp super speed! These are some cute pictures from the 4th of July. Since my Dad was in Hawaii for Father's Day, we took the opportunity to celebrate with him while he was here in July. What do you get a dad who has everything? Seriously, the man has everything. And if there is something that he doesn't have and wants it, he goes and buys it for himself. Part of me is happy he can do this because he spent many years sacrificing and putting the needs of me and my siblings before his own. The other part of me finds this habit incredibly frustrating. Because of this little habit of his, I really had nothing to give him for Father's Day except a small piece of my time and talent. And my daughter's talent!

Addison and I made him a chocolate cake for Father's Day. Addison is "helping" me make his cake. I think she's getting the sweeter end of this deal!

Then we showered him with a few cards and gifts. It was fun to celebrate with him and to let him know how much we love him. I think by the smiles on these faces, you can see how much they love each other!

July 4th

2010-07-04T13:52:00.000-05:00

July 4th was on a Sunday this year. We celebrated a little before and a little after. I really wanted to go see fireworks this year, but decided against keeping the kids out late. And I would have been flying solo. Enough said. I try to remember that we have a lot of years of taking the kids to see fireworks. And that it will be more enjoyable all around if I wait until they are a little older, and when Roger can join us. Still, it just doesn't feel like the 4th of July without some kind of celebration, like a parade and fireworks. Oh, and I missed the parade this year. I thought it would be raining so I decided against it too. The best I have to say for celebrating the actual day is that I tried to dress the kids in red, white and blue.

In case you're curious, Alex is wearing his Bakugan gloves and holding one of his Bakugans. He's really into playing with them lately.

Grandbaby Heaven

2010-07-03T13:34:00.000-05:00

My parents recently moved to Chicago for a minimum two year work assignment for my dad's job. So we've had to make a little adjustment from seeing them every other weekend, to now just once a month. So they came in for a visit over the 4th of July. It's always a treat to have them visiting, for the kids and for the grown-ups! Our latest Saturday tradition is a run to Krispy Kreme for the kiddos, and breakfast at La Madeleine's for the adults. I don't think there is much that makes my mom smile like this, except for her grandbabies! I know she misses her other "grandbabies" that live out East (except there not really babies anymore). We actually had my mom here for the whole week before the 4th. It was really fun to spend several evenings with her.

End of Vacation

2010-06-30T21:23:00.000-05:00

What's a vacation without a stop at Krispy Kreme? Turns out our hotel was literally walking distance from a Krispy Kreme. In my humble opinion, I think there is nothing more fun than taking your kids out for donuts. It's such a treat for me. Maybe it's because I have fond memories of my parents taking me and my siblings to Krispy Kreme on vacation in North Carolina when I was a kid. Alas, Roger and I were good though! While we wanted to eat there every morning, we resisted and only ate there the last morning we were in San Antonio. Thank goodness, because vacations are terrible on the diet, and your waste line!

Our last stop on our way out of San Antonio was to visit the San Antonio Temple. It is beautiful! It's up in the Stone Oaks area of the city, way up on a hill. It also has a little distribution center, which was fun to visit and shop in. We picked up a few things in there. And then we headed home. So sad our little vacation was over!

San Antonio: Close to My Heart

2010-06-30T14:52:00.000-05:00

San Antonio is close to my heart, for many reasons. When I was younger, my parents would take long weekends and drive down to San Antonio. Often, I tagged along with them. It was fun to spend the time with my parents, we ate well, and often, shopped! These days, I still love San Antonio for all of those reasons, and because it's also the home of my dear friend whom I've known since I was in junior high. When we decided to go to Sea World, I also wanted to take the kids down to the river walk. It's beautiful, and I've always loved the hustle and bustle of it...the shops you could walk through, the people watching, the food! And I wanted my kids to experience this as well. So we ventured down there and decided to take a tour of the river walk on one of the boats. I loved it! It was a little long to keep the kids attention for the entire time, but I enjoyed hearing about the history of the city, the river walk, the architecture and famous buildings along the way. And then we ate some Mexican food on the river: YUM! It was a really fun morning. After that, we visited my long-time friend, Jill, and her family. Jill always welcomes us into her home, feeds us, entertains us...it's a lot of fun. And Alex is convinced that her son is his cousin. Maybe not by blood, but in a way, he is most definitely family! So fun to see them and to catch up. Oh, and we were too busy chatting to take any pictures. Maybe next year. But here are a few pictures from on the river walk.

Sea World!

2010-06-29T20:41:00.000-05:00

Sea World was fun, but hot! Neither Roger nor I had ever been, so we didn't really know what to expect. We managed to maneuver through the huge park and catch a few things here and there. The first thing we saw was a 3-D movie about pirates. It was the scary kind of 3-D, with things flying at you and your seat moving. Addison wasn't too impressed, but I think Roger and Alex enjoyed the show. Then we headed off to see SHAMU!The kids loved, loved the Shamu show! We sat in the auditorium for about 15 or 20 minutes before the show started. Luckily, we could watch the great whites swimming around. It was one of those shows that made you feel all warm and tingly all over. Really loved that. Then we braved the heat, ate lunch, and saw a few more exhibits. By that point, Alex was begging us to go swimming. So we went into one of the water areas that had a huge lazy river. Alex LOVED the lazy river...he was just tall enough that he could touch the bottom while keeping his head above water. By the time we finished swimming, it was 5 o'clock, and Roger and I were worn out! But I wouldn't leave without seeing the dolphins. And as luck would have it, we made it just in time to feed them! It was so fun to see the dolphins up close and personal. I really wanted to touch one, but I was too busy taking pictures. Next time, next time!

Like any thing in life, after your first time you learn what you'll do different the next time. And hopefully better! We're looking forward to going back again next year. Just maybe not in the middle of June! All in all, it was a really fun time.

Take Two

2010-06-28T20:25:00.002-05:00

Last year, Roger and I wanted to take the kids down to Sea World San Antonio because he could get free tickets through the military. So we planned the trip, booked the hotel, read up on Sea World. Then, at the last minute, I decided to check to see the hours and guess what? Sea World was CLOSED the days we would be in San Antonio! I couldn't believe my luck! At the time, we were going down during the week, and Sea World was only open on the weekends. We made the best of our trip that time, but decided we'd try going to Sea World again this year. So Roger had some time off and we decided to give ol' Sea World another try.

We left on Father's Day Sunday. Roger loves breakfast at Cracker Barrel. And these days, he's not usually awake during breakfast time. So on our way out of town, we stopped and had Father's Day breakfast there. Then we hit the road to San Antonio. The drive was great. We stopped once for lunch in Round Rock and then cruised into San Antonio around 3 p.m. I was really quite pleasantly surprised at how uneventful the drive was...which I credit to the portable DVD player we hooked up for the kids. How did people survive road trips with children before portable DVD players? I mean, really, what did my parents do with four kids on road trips from Boston to Dallas, and back? Thank goodness for modern technology!

Toy Story 3 Premier

2010-06-27T22:47:00.004-05:00

A couple weeks ago, we had the opportunity to see a private premier of Toy Story 3 a week before it was released. It was at an event for Snowball Express, a charity organization for the children of our fallen heroes. They do fun, happy events to help create new memories for these kids. Roger volunteered to help work the event because it was a pretty big event! It was very special to see these families coming together to see the movie. The families walked up a red carpet into the movie theater. I couldn't help but get a little emotional watching these families walk in, knowing every one have suffered an unimaginable loss. Every woman that walked in was a widow and a single mom. It really made me grateful to all the men and women who serve in our military.

On a lighter note, can I just say how much I love Pixar! I mean, I loved them before for making these incredible movies, like the Toy Story movies. But to allow a sneak preview for these families of what is probably going to be the highest grossing animated film this year...makes me love them even more! Fortunately because Roger volunteered at the event, he was allowed to bring myself and Alex and Addison to see the movie too. We had a fabulous time! It was so fun! Of course, we loved the movie too! More on that in another post.

Thanks to Pixar, Cinemark, and all the volunteers who made that event so special!

Itty Bitty Rabbits

2010-06-27T22:34:00.003-05:00

Roger was in the back yard a couple weeks ago getting the grill fired up for hamburgers when he noticed this baby rabbit. Isn't it little! We've seen the adult rabbits for weeks. That night we noticed the babies, and then we found a nest under our pecan tree. So what do you do with baby rabbits in your back yard? Why feed them of course! We fed them carrots, lettuce, strawberries...everything a growing bunny would need. Unfortunately, we haven't seen hide nor hare of them in the last week or so. We either drove them off with all generous donations of food, or with Addison's constant attention. She was constantly out there looking at them, talking to them, poking in their nest. Whatever the reasons, hope they are happy and well. We enjoyed them while they were here.

Swim Lessons

2010-06-27T22:15:00.005-05:00

Time is flying by! The end of June is nearly here...I can't believe it! It's been a fun, busy month. Kinda on a whim, I decided to enroll Alex in swim lessons at our gym. Roger and I had been talking about starting him in swim lessons, and lamenting a little that we hadn't taught him to swim already. So I looked into it and signed him up. I was so pleased with his lessons. His teacher was great...Alex really took to him. His class was small, two boys and two girls. It was Monday through Thursday for two weeks. So for those two weeks, we spent a lot of time at the gym and in the pools. Alex was nervous about taking swim lessons. He even prayed the night before he started that he wouldn't drown. I'm pleased to report that he indeed did NOT drown. And even really enjoyed the lessons. He's not swimming on his own yet. And we're starting another two weeks of lessons on July 5th. Hopefully, after this next round of lessons, he might be swimming solo.

One skill they worked on was the simple motion of using your arms. They told the kids to make big ice cream scoops in the water. Worked like a champ for my little ice cream eater!

Another skill they practiced was kicking. Here one of the teachers is splashing water up on the kids. This was to help them get used to having the water in their faces.

Alex is practicing floating on his back. He's still nervous in the water, but loves it. I'm hoping that nervousness will turn into confidence and he'll take off like a fish!

Slice of Summer

2010-06-07T20:14:00.005-05:00

Wow! It's been crazy busy around here! Memorial Day came and went. My parents came and went. They moved this past Tuesday to Chicago. So we spent most of Memorial Day weekend visiting with them. It was fun to have a four day weekend with them before they made their way to the Midwest. Alex played his last t-ball game and had his t-ball end-of-season party. We had a bar-b-que with family. On Sunday, we enjoyed a nice family dinner after church. And Monday, ahhh Monday. My mom treated my sister and I to a pedicure. So fun and relaxing! While we were being pampered, my dad and brother graciously took all the kids bowling.

We met up with my brother and dad at the bowling alley. I found all of them playing this game...I thought this was a funny picture...all of them concentrating.

And my dad and my brother also had the chance to have a little fun despite being with all the kids!

One of Alex's prizes from the bowling alley was a blue ring pop. It turned his mouth blue, and then he proceeded to chase Addison around the house pretending to be a monster.

Wednesday, my sister offered to come over and watch Addison so Alex and I could go on a date. It was so fun! I very rarely get to do things outside of the house with just Alex. We had a great time at the dollar movie! We saw Kung Fu Panda, which neither one of us had seen before. And I couldn't help but get a little emotional while I was at the movie with him because he's growing up so fast.

This is Alex with his treat and his movie ticket. He was so excited because he's been asking me for months to go see a movie!

Thursday was Cadence's last day of school and he wanted to have an end of year party at Chuck E Cheese. So of course, we were all on board. My kids LOVE Chuck E Cheese. We had so much fun! We played games and ate pizza. Cadence also wanted to have cupcakes to celebrate the occasion, so Alex and I made cupcakes earlier in the day. It was also really fun to have Roger there with us all.
And the fun kept coming! We played at the mall on Friday...it's getting so hot here already! It was nice to have a morning indoors in the air conditioning. That night, we celebrated another end of year/birthday at a local park. Alex ran and played...so fun! Saturday, I took the kids to the pool for the first time. Alex was so excited to go swimming! He was jumping up and down, nearly squealing with delight. I wasn't sure how Addison was going to do in the water this year, but she loved it too. And Alex kept saying to me, "Thanks for taking me swimming, Mom!" It was so sweet! I'm hoping to get some pictures tomorrow of the kids swimming. The happiness on their faces is priceless! So summer is in full swing around here. And we're loving every minute of it!

Play Date and Birthday Fun

2010-05-25T20:06:00.004-05:00

We had such a fun play group today. We celebrated our little friend Ella's fifth birthday. Ella is Alex's favorite friend from play group. He talks about her all the time and truth be told, he might have a little crush on her. To celebrate her birthday, we all went to the park and had an art party. So the kids painted, colored with markers, and wrote on the sidewalks with chalk. Then we all had lunch followed by birthday cake. It was just a lot of fun, and all the kids seemed to be having a really good time. I think one of the best things about the party was the simplicity of it. It wasn't anything too fancy or too over the top. Just a good ol' fashioned birthday party. It was a good reminder for me, again, that sometimes the simpler things are the most fun. So far, Alex's summer vacation is getting off to a great start!

This was the first time I let Addison paint..I was a little nervous. Notice I gave her the yellow paint. It made me a little less OCD about her getting paint all over herself!

Alex, he painted with blue of course!

Addison and Lacey eating their lunch

Addison and Lacey being silly with each other. Funny girls!

Second Child Syndrome

2010-05-21T20:54:00.006-05:00

Addison suffers terribly from second child syndrome. If you're a mom with more than one kiddo, you know this ailment. Your second child has a fraction of the professional pictures that your first one has, your second child has little written in their baby book while your first one actually has a completed baby book, and your second child doesn't get the birthday parties like your first one. And this is the case with Addison. I haven't really had a birthday party for her yet. And this year her birthday fell on Mother's Day, so I figured we could all celebrate her birthday while we were celebrating Mother's Day. Honestly though, is she going to know the difference? When you look at these pictures, she is surrounded by those who love her and celebrated her special day with her. That's all that really matters! Or at least that's what I tell myself!

These two have always had a special bond!

And her name sake, Tamara Kathleen with Addison Kathleen

She loves her cousin, Cadence!

I did buy her a birthday cake! She loves Elmo!

Her cake with the candles lit...

Addison didn't want anything to do with blowing out the candles.

Luckily, she has a brother and cousin who helped her out!

Opening her gifts...a new baby doll!

And a new stroller...she loves pushing her babies in the stroller

And her first lap top! She LOVES it!

And finally, what's a girl's birthday without a new bag? This is actually the second bag...her cousin Caitlin saw the first one and couldn't live without it! Happy second birthday, Addison!

Two Years Ago

2010-05-16T00:15:00.005-05:00

Two years ago, this little one came into my life!

Except she's not so little any more! When did that happen? Addison celebrated her second birthday last Sunday, which also happened to be Mother's Day. I guess every few years or so her birthday and Mother's Day will fall on the same day. Which I don't mind really. Celebrating her birthday is in a way celebrating motherhood for me.

When I think back over the past year, so much has happened with Addison. A year ago at her one year "well" check, her pediatrician diagnosed her "failure to thrive" because she just wasn't growing or gaining weight. And she had missed some major growth milestones. Since then, she has had two MRIs of her brain, an impedance Ph probe, upper GI scope, and tubes put in her ears. She has seen an ENT, GI, neurologist, allergist, and physical therapist. She started walking, eating better, gaining weight, reaching her milestones and turned into a pretty typical two year old!

I wouldn't say life with Addison is 100 percent better yet. Recently her weight gain has slowed down. I still struggle with getting her to eat well. But she doesn't see her physical therapist anymore. And at her last appointment with her GI, he wanted to start weaning her off some of her medications. I have a feeling we might have to go back on them if her weight doesn't improve within the next few weeks. But we'll cross that bridge when we get there!

As far as Addison's personality goes, she is extremely playful. She loves to be the center of my attention! She loves to listen to songs with her daddy and loves to dance. She even enjoys playing with Alex more and more each day. She also loves to terrorize him, but what younger sibling doesn't love to pick on their older sibling? She loves to play with her baby dolls and currently has about three that she plays with consistently. She enjoys her Baby Einstein videos and often asks us for "blah," which is Baby Mozart. She loves animals, especially dogs. For her birthday, she even picked out a little stuffed dog that came with its own little carrying case.

I'm so happy that Addison is part of our family. She makes us laugh daily. And it's a joy to watch her grow and learn every day. I'm looking forward to the next year with hopefully less doctors and more continued growth!

T-Ball!

2010-05-09T21:48:00.003-05:00

One thing keeping us busy this spring is T-Ball. We enrolled Alex to play t-ball this spring with the YMCA. So he has practice every Thursday night and a game every Saturday for the month of May. He is so naturally talented in sports, and he loves to hit and throw balls in the back yard. I thought this might be the perfect sport for him. He seems to enjoy it, but I don't think he's developed a love for it. I keep waiting for an Ah Ha! moment with Alex and sports...one of these days I'm going to see him thrilled to be doing some sport...I just haven't seen it yet. But maybe it will come in due time. In the meantime, t-ball has been a good exercise in learning the basics of baseball, learning some teamwork, and what it means to commit to playing a season of sports. For Roger and I, we've enjoyed seeing Alex participate in an extracurricular activity and make some new friends. And his games are pretty entertaining too!

The dynamic duo: Cadence and Alex at Alex's first t-ball game

Cadence, Roger and Alex practicing running the bases.

Alex's first time at bat..and getting a few pointers from the coach.

Alex coming home and a high-five from Coach Eric.

The Michelan Man

2010-05-09T21:15:00.003-05:00

Alex has a thing for the Michelin Man...you know, the tire guy? One day he saw a commercial for Michelin Tires. You might have seen it. It's the Michelin Man, saving a town from the evil gas pump, by throwing "fuel efficient" tires on the cars. Thanks to technology, we actually have a copy of this commercial recorded on our DVR. So he often asks to watch the Michelin Man. Then he told me he wanted a Michelin Man cake for his birthday. And I feel like I can usually hold my own in the kitchen. But the request for a Michelin Man cake was a little out of my league. So my sweet friend Lindsey referred me to her friend who makes cakes. Wouldn't you know it? She came through with a fabulous Michelin Man cake for Alex's birthday! It was really an amazing cake. He loved it! And one of the even more amazing things is that Amy, who made the cake, just does cakes on the side. She's not even a full-time cake boss or ace of cakes! You would never have known it though. What we won't do as parents to make every dream a reality for our children!

Part E with Chuck E

2010-05-09T19:03:00.006-05:00

It's pretty sad when I haven't finished blogging about one birthday before another one is here! It's been a busy past few weeks! But I did want to share a few photos from Alex's party at Chuck E Cheese. I decided to have his party on a Thursday afternoon for several reasons...I didn't want to have it on the weekend when Chuck E Cheese would be crazy busy, I didn't want to have it on a day when Alex goes to school because I knew he'd be too tired, and I wanted to have it on a day when Roger could attend. So that left Thursday as the day. It was WONDERFUL! The place was nearly vacant that afternoon, which allowed Alex and all his friends to pretty much have the place to themselves. I think they all had a great time! I thought the party at Chuck E Cheese was pretty easy, though I wasn't crazy about the service we had. Despite our poor service, I would definitely do it again and I'm sure I will for Addison...she loves the place too!

All in all, I would say it was a success. Just a side note, the other day I was looking through an album that has pictures from many of my past birthdays. I had my 5th birthday at Chuck E Cheese too. I laughed when I saw those pictures! Maybe it's a right of passage...you're 5th birthday at Chuck E Cheese. Alex is already talking about his 6th birthday and where he wants to have it. At least that gives me plenty of time to plan!

The Big 5

2010-04-16T21:50:00.004-05:00

Alex turned 5 this past Wednesday! The Big 5! Such a monumental birthday. Being 5 (In Alex's world) means you can go to kindergarten, ride the school bus and climb the rock wall at the gym. I'm sad to see 4 go, because he's been really fun this past year! I'm sure 5 will be just as much fun, if not more. Alex started his birthday out by helping me make cupcakes for his preschool class. In the three years that he's been attending preschool, this is the first time that his birthday has fallen on a school day. Alex told me that he wanted Spiderman and butterfly cupcakes. When I couldn't find any butterfly decorations, he agreed that Princess cupcakes would work out just fine.

After school, Alex came home to a couple presents. I also stopped by Godiva to pick him up a couple truffles. He loves chocolate! The little one there is the present from Roger, Addison and me. The big Cars bag behind it is the gift from my sweet friend. Her father passed away on Monday. In the midst of all of the chaos and grief in her world, she found time to buy Alex a gift and bring it by to him. So kind and thoughtful of her. That's another post for another day.

After a fun afternoon of playing with our new, wet, carwash...I told Alex I would pick him up a cheese pizza from Pizza Hut for dinner, his favorite! Despite it being a school day and Roger not being here to celebrate the BIG 5, I think Alex had a pretty good day.

Now who couldn't love this face? This is his cheese pizza face. When he eats a cheese pizza, he gets the pizza from one side of his face to the other. Nearly ear to ear! Some day I will really miss that face!

Turbo at the Racetrack

2010-04-16T21:19:00.004-05:00

Are you wondering which one is Turbo? My family has affectionately nicknamed Alex "Turbo." And he lived up to his name this past weekend. Alex has been begging me to take him to the racetrack (Putt-Putt), so he can drive race cars (go-karts) for months. This Putt-Putt is up in Hurst and you can see it from the freeway as you drive through Hurst. So every time we drive up there (I like the mall up there), he asks me if we can go. So I finally told him we'd go for his birthday. And then I roped my parents into going with me because it's not something I could do on my own without help with Addison. Alex was in turbo heaven! He rode with my mom the first time around. And I think he was a little nervous. When he got off, he told my mom it was a little scary. That didn't stop him from going again though! Honestly, I'm not sure who had more fun, my mom or Alex. Such a fun time to make his birthday wish come true!The second time around, he wanted to ride with Grandma again. I think my Dad was afraid Alex hurt my feelings by not wanting to ride with me. I wasn't hurt at all! I'm just so happy that Alex loves his Grandma and wants to spend time with her. My parents are moving to Chicago soon and I'm happy that he's had this time to spend with them. I can go to the race track with him any time!

I think Alex loved the racetrack. He's already asking me when he can go back again. And this just kicked off a week of celebrating Alex's 5th birthday. More to come soon!

Just Because

2010-03-28T15:44:00.004-05:00

I took these pictures last Sunday for no particular reason. Just because.

Just because Addison is getting so big...I'm still trying to wrap my brain around the fact that she is almost two!

Just because Alex is almost 5. The time goes so fast! Kindergarten, Really!!??!!

Just because they grow and change daily!

Just because Roger might be leaving in September for a deployment.

Just because you never know what the future has in store for you.

Just because I never want to forget these little expressions and smiles.

Just because some times I feel the need to take random pictures of my babies.

Rainforest Cafe

2010-03-28T15:24:00.004-05:00

On Friday, our last day of spring break, we drove up to Grapevine to the Grapevine Mills Mall. Cadence had received a certificate for a free lunch at Rainforest Cafe from school, so we thought it would be fun to take the kids to eat there. We walked around the mall for a little while then settled in to eat. I think Cadence loved all the animals coming to life...we sat right next to the elephants and we could see the gorillas. So every 15 or 20 minutes the elephants would "wake up"...which entailed some roaring, ears waving back and forth, trunks moving up and down. Addison wasn't so crazy about all the action...she preferred to sit in my lap the whole time. All the animals were pretty vivid! And we managed to beat the crowds, so it wasn't too bad with all the kids. I just hate that when Cadence is out of school, so are all the other school kids. So it's tough to do anything fun because it is so busy and crowded everywhere we go. I think I have my sister convinced to let Cadence play hooky from school one day so we can do some fun things with him, minus the crowds! So excited for that! Despite the crowds, we had fun spending time together during spring break. My sister moves around a lot with her kids because of her husband's job. I never know too far in advance how long my niece and nephew will be around. So when they are here, I try to seize every opportunity to spend time with them. So happy that we spent the time and effort being together this past week!

Luck With Chuck

2010-03-28T15:06:00.005-05:00

After our visit to the Fort Worth Science Museum, Tamara and I decided to try our hand at taking the kids to Chuck E Cheese. Since it was Wednesday, I was hoping that everyone living in Tarrant County would be in Fort Worth at the zoo for half price day. As luck would have it, we ventured over to the nearest Chuck E Cheese and had a delightful morning! The boys played every game, the girls enjoyed some of the games, we won tickets, pigged out on pizza and claimed some cheap prizes. The kids had a ball, and Tamara and I enjoyed ourselves too. It's nearly impossible not to enjoy yourself with Chuck. And we had good ol' Irish luck on our side too. It was a fun morning for all!

Fort Worth Science Museum

2010-03-20T22:47:00.008-05:00

The first "official" day of spring break, my sister and I decided to brave the Fort Worth Science Museum with our four kids in tow. We were hoping that it might not be quite as crowded on Monday (the first day of spring break)...and we were wrong! It was insanely busy! So busy that we waited in line for nearly 30 minutes just to buy tickets to get into the museum. But those of you with kids know that once you're there, you're committed. So we waited for tickets, waited to see the exhibits and made the best of it. Despite the stress the crowds caused my sister and I, I think the kids had a good time.

Even Auntie Tamara enjoyed an exhibit here and there. Hopefully we can all go back again some time when it isn't quite so busy. Despite the crowds, it was still a fun place to go and a great way to kick off our spring break!

Spring Break 2010!

2010-03-16T14:19:00.004-05:00

I've said this before, but I just love spring break. Even today, with the colder, rainy weather, I still love spring break. I've been trying to figure out why I enjoy spring break so much, and I think it comes down to the promise of longer, warmer, sunnier days! And soon! In the meantime, we kicked off our spring break with a trip to the Star's Game. The season ticket holding fans in my family were rewarded for their loyalty with the opportunity to take a family picture on the Stars bench after the game this past Friday. So although we were extremely tired, we enjoyed going down on the ice and taking a few pictures. Here's a couple of the better ones.

Zoo Fun

2010-02-21T22:05:00.004-06:00

When we first moved back to Texas from Utah, Alex wasn't quite 2. I needed something fun to do with him during the day and decided to buy a membership to the Fort Worth Zoo. Three years later, the zoo is one of our favorite family outings. And this picture says it all...it's why I love taking him. Every time we go we have a really fun time and the memories are priceless! Our first trip to the zoo in 2010 was just as fun and memorable.

Addison loved the birds...as long as they weren't too close!

One of Alex's favorite treats at the zoo: Cheese Pizza!

And another favorite: Riding the train.

One area of the zoo has a barn where the kids can play. This time, Alex loved the machine that made cow "manure." You dropped balls in the chute, turned the handle and the cow would "poop" the balls. You can see why a four-year-old boy would think this was the funniest thing ever!
And no trip is complete without a stop for ice cream. Bottoms up!

Ta Da! Addison loved her ice cream. I know, shocker.

Alex with his "yellow" ice cream. It's also known as Homemade Vanilla. We also enjoyed seeing all the animals, with the birds being the highlight of this trip (see next post). We can't wait for the new MOLA exhibit to open: Museum of Living Art. As with all the exhibits at the Fort Worth Zoo, it should be worth the wait!

Bird Man

2010-02-21T21:27:00.004-06:00

This past Thursday we took advantage of the sunshine and warmer temperatures (hard to believe a week ago we had 12.5 inches of snow on the ground!). We headed to one of our favorite family spots: the Fort Worth Zoo. Alex told us he wanted to see the penguins, birds and bats. After a disappointing stop at the penguin exhibit...it was under construction and closed, we headed on to see the birds. It was so fun! The zoo has an area where you can go inside and feed the birds. Sometimes the birds aren't hungry and you just wander around in there trying to entice a bird with your feed stick. But this past Thursday, the birds were all over our little seed sticks! We had barely walked in and a bird flew and landed on Addison's feed stick. She wasn't so sure about that bird being so close, and after a couple minutes laid the stick down on the ground.

Alex loves holding the birds on the feed sticks, he just sometimes gets a little too giggly and the birds take off.

And the birds LOVED Roger! He was never without at least three birds trying to eat one little seed stick.

Or four! Four birds. This was right before the bird up on his shoulder started to nibble on his collar. Promptly after that all the birds were shaken off!
Birdy love!?! I affectionately called him Bird Man the rest of the day.

Two Times the Love!

2010-02-20T22:45:00.000-06:00

Valentine's Day was so fun this year! It was on Sunday, and we celebrated with my sister and her kids, as well as with my parents. Addison and Caitlin were dressed for the occasion of course. Caitlin was loving on Addison.

Now Addison is loving on Caitlin...Well, it's Addison's version of a hug anyways. It's also very similar to a lean.

Aren't they cute together? Why do my sister and I enjoy this so much..dressing Addison and Caitlin in matching clothes? I mean really, I love it! Good thing I don't have twins. We also exchanged Valentines and enjoyed some yummy treats. Such a great excuse to eat chocolate!

The Tale of Two Bouquets

2010-02-14T15:44:00.003-06:00

Happy Valentine's Day! This past Wednesday I was at my parents house when the doorbell rang. There was an elderly lady at the door, so I opened it. She asked, "Nancy McNiel?" And I answered, "No, that's my mother." And she replied, "Oh, well I have some flowers for her if you can sign for them." So of course, I accepted her delivery of flowers. As the woman handed me the box that contained my mother's bouquet of flowers, I noticed that it actually contained two bouquets of flowers, one for my mother and one for my sister. I knew that the flowers were from my dad for Valentine's Day. I teased my sister a little that Dad sent her flowers. But secretly, deep down, I was hoping that I might also get a bouquet of flowers delivered to me from my dad. Well, about Friday, I gave up that hope that I was getting flowers too. And, in true McNiel fashion, went on to give my dad an extremely hard time about buying flowers for my sister and not any for me. I mean really, what the ??? I know it was childish to tease my dad about how unfair that was...I mean really, haven't I out grown that? Apparently not. Deep down, it did hurt my feelings that he bought her flowers and didn't include me in that gesture of love. So today after church, I had flowers waiting for me. I'm not sure if my teasing got the better of my dad, or if my sensible mother felt sorry for me and insisted that he buy me some flowers too. Either way, it was nice to be included. I'm still working on getting over my hurt feelings. I'm sure there are some deep rooted, childhood issues that are being brought up to the surface here...Some days, I really believe I need a psychiatrist. Ha, ha! And on that note, love to all on this Valentine's Day.

12.5

2010-02-12T22:19:00.004-06:00

Officially, it snowed 12.5 inches yesterday at the Dallas/Fort Worth airport. And we saw every inch of that snow here at our home in Arlington. I have never seen that much snow in Arlington, and I've lived here in Texas for pretty much my whole life. We had a ball playing in it all day! Before 7:30 a.m. yesterday, Roger and Alex had a snowman built. And they went out and played in it several more times through out the day. Alex loved the snow so much. I think he would go out and play until he was too cold to stand it one second longer, come inside so I could dry all his clothes, and then he'd go out again! Today, we also enjoyed our first official snow day, or day home from school. Grandma McNiel took us all out to lunch and to the mall, where she promptly spoiled Alex rotten at the Disney Store and Build-A-Bear. Can I be honest though? After two days, I'm ready for the snow to melt. I'm a Texas girl at heart and I'm ready for warmer, sunnier days!

Picture early in the morning when we thought we were in for just a "dusting" of snow. Little did we know it would snow for about 24 hours straight!

Alex being silly in front of his snow man.

Addison trying to catch a snow flake :)

A little later in the day. Note the snow shovel. Believe it or not, we actually had to shovel our drive way!

So we didn't have a sled, but we do own a snow board. Roger pulled Alex around on the snow board like it was a sled. His little bottom fit just perfectly on that snow board! Roger and Alex both really enjoyed playing in the snow.

Our snow man later in the day. His hat is almost covered in snow. What a snow storm!

Kids First Program

2010-02-08T21:37:00.002-06:00

Someone told us about a program offered in conjunction with the Dallas Stars called the Kids First program -- it's a program that teaches kids how to ice skate and play hockey. It's supposed to be a really basic class...just to introduce kids to the ice and the game of hockey. It's five weeks long and everything is issued to you...a hockey stick, elbow pads, knee pads, hockey pants, gloves, leg warmer things, ice skates, helmet...the whole nine yards. Oh, and it's FREE!

So Roger and I decided to enroll Alex because he loves, loves hockey right now. And we figured if he hated it, we weren't out hundreds of dollars worth of hockey gear. So the first Saturday, the coaches just issued us all the equipment and told us what to expect the next few weeks. The following Saturday was the first class that the kids actually got on the ice. It was so funny! Kids just everywhere! Alex was so excited! I was so nervous for Alex...I didn't want him to hate it and not want to do it. When he got on the ice though, he did so good! He stayed up on his skates and just scooted along...just very slowly! I was so happy for him and so relieved that I actually teared up a little bit. I was such a proud mama!

Getting dressed...

Ready for the ice...he looks like a real hockey player!

And he did spend his fair amount of time on his bottom :)
And this is how he spent the remainder of his afternoon! Haha! It's hard work being a future Dallas Star!

29 Again

2010-02-05T22:58:00.000-06:00

Yes, that's right. I celebrated my 29th birthday again this week. On my actual birthday, Roger was working during the day from 8-5, when on his normal schedule he would have been home. So I made the best of it and planned a play date with a couple of girl friends and their kiddos. We had a really fun time at the museum in Fort Worth. Then the following Saturday, my mom hosted a family party at her house. They ordered in fajitas for dinner. Yum! And my sister graciously baked my favorite cake: Italian cream! It was fabulous, even if she had to make it twice :) And of course, we opened presents afterwards. I think I was the last person on the planet to not own an iPod. Thanks to my parents, I'm the proud owner of an iPod nano. I also scored a new robe and a couple iTune gift cards. It was a really fun birthday. I'm thankful for my mom who always insists that we celebrate every birthday. All my life, she has always made sure it was a special day. And 29 or so years later, she's still making sure my birthdays are special. She is a sweet, special lady. I love her so much!

Birthday Fun at the Museum

2010-02-04T14:56:00.004-06:00

Wow, I can't believe it's been a week already since my birthday. Like every year, 2010 is flying by! On my actual birthday, I took the kids to the Fort Worth Science Museum. My friend Jamie is a member, so she graciously got me and the kids in for free. And Lindsey came too. So everyone had friends at the museum: Alex had Ella, Addison had Lacey and Lola, and I had Jamie and Lindsey. It was just a really fun day. The kids LOVED the museum...so much so that we had tears as we were leaving! I'm so thankful for the other mommies in my life. They even make getting older more fun and bearable!

Addison and Lacey in the actual children's museum part of the science museum.

Lacey shopping in the little grocery store. It was so cute! Addison kept trying to steal everything from Lacey.. her shopping cart, her groceries. They really are almost sisters!

There was a little pretend hospital. Addison wanted to lay down in the beds for the newborns.

The kids loved these wind tunnels! They had a ball watching all their little creations float up and out of the wind tunnel. And I'm so thankful for Lindsey who took all of these pictures and put them on her blog, which I have copied to my blog. So I have a few pictures from our trip to the museum. Love ya Lindsey! We can't wait to go again to the museum. If you're in Fort Worth, I'd highly recommend it!

The Wife of A Cop

2010-01-13T20:13:00.002-06:00

I have been asked what seems like a thousand times, "What's it like being married to a cop?" "Do you worry all the time about your husband?" "Is it scary being married to a cop?" And honestly, I've never lived in fear or worry or anxiety over Roger's job. I've always trusted in his training, his skills and his instincts. And as a wife of a cop, you just can't live that way...always wondering if today is the day your husband won't come home. If you let yourself think that way, you would drive yourself insane.

Today, an Arlington Police Officer died on duty. He was a motorcycle cop and he collided with a school bus. Obviously, between a man on a motorcycle and a school bus, the school bus is going to win. Sadly, he died at the scene.

This loss of an Arlington Police Officer has just devastated me. The officer was young, with a wife and a 2-year old son. All I can think about is this woman, who must have been just going about her normal day, and then in an instant, her world as she knew it is gone. Her son is so young, he will never really know his father. She is now a single mother. And a widow. And it was all just a tragic accident. An accident that could happen to anyone.

For me, it's been a dose of reality. A day like today makes me think that no job is worth losing a husband or a father to. I'm so sad for this woman who I don't even know because I know her worst fear came true today. A fear that she probably never let herself dwell on, like I never let myself dwell on. I think my coping mechanism is to live in a bubble that my husband is always going to come home, that he is always going to be safe, that he's never going to be that one. The reality is that any day, he could be that one. So today, it's hard to be the wife of a cop. Today, the reality of his job really hit home. I know that tomorrow, it won't be so fresh, and my emotions so raw. And in a few days, I'll be back to my delusion, normal self. But today, I'm real and it's been heart breaking.

Normal!

2010-01-10T22:06:00.003-06:00

Wow, I can't believe we're already through one full week of 2010. I have to admit, it was very nice getting back to normal things...like grocery shopping on Monday, the gym, preschool, normal bed times, normal naps, normal schedules, normal EATING! The holidays were crazy so I'm especially enjoying the normalcy of my little world. One thing not normal this week was Roger's schedule. It was all crazy. But we did enjoy having him home several nights this week. Wednesday night as I was cooking dinner, I couldn't help but wish this was my life every night. Roger home, playing with Addison and Alex while I cooked dinner. Not just for the fact that cooking was actually enjoyable without one or both of my kids crying at my feet as I try to piece dinner together. But having that normal schedule of Dad being home for dinner and the evening routine. And then having time to spend with Roger in the evening, like watching tv together, like normal couples do.

Sometimes, I just can't help but wish that was my normal life. And it's hard when I get spoiled with a few days of that "normalcy" ...it makes it harder to go back to our unconventional routines. But as I enjoyed having Roger around, I also noticed how I get caught up in the destination (getting my kids to bed) and I don't enjoy the journey (our time together before bed). So many nights, I'm just this worker bee checking off the tasks instead of a mother enjoying the evening with my children. So one of my resolutions this year is to try to remember to put some fun back into our nightly routines. After all, I'm not going to have small children to bathe and put to bed forever. They are going to grow up.And really, it's the journey, not the destination. I believe that.

Christmas!

2009-12-28T21:37:00.000-06:00

We had a very fun, very busy, WHITE Christmas. This was the year that all my siblings and their families were here for Christmas. As an added bonus, we also had Roger's mother here, Virginia (or better known as Nana!).

Christmas Eve it started snowing. Fun for the kids, bad for Nana trying to fly in from Salt Lake. Roger left for the airport and braved the icy roads because by 10 p.m., it was finally clear enough for Nana's flight to come into DFW. She landed around midnight and made it to our house finally around 1:30 Christmas morning.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I got the kids ready for bed. Alex and I got the cookies baked for Santa and placed on the kitchen table. Then he took off to bed and I waited for Santa to arrive.

Christmas Day was a busy day! We started off at home, opening our gifts, stockings and presents from Santa.

Addison really enjoyed opening her gifts! It was fun to see her tearing into all that wrapping paper!

Next we headed over to Grandma and Papa McNiel's house for Christmas with them. It was fun, and Alex got everything he'd been wanting...including his football helmet and football jersey.

From there, we headed to my Grandmother's house where we exchanged another round of gifts, ate our traditional Christmas lunch, and had our traditional white elephant gift exchange. For some reason, my pictures stopped about here. I don't know if it was just the sheer business of the day, or if I was just plain exhausted. Either way, we had a fun Christmas.

It's always special to share Christmas with my niece and nephew, Paige and Chandler, who we don't see very often. It was special to have Nana here with us this year too! The white elephant gift exchange was a riot. And we made memories that we'll laugh about and cherish for years to come. Now that it's over, it's on to celebrating a new year. But am I crazy because I already miss Christmas and I'm looking forward to Christmas 2010? What can I say, I love this time of year!

Snow Balls

2009-12-24T13:43:00.000-06:00

Yes, you read that right. Snow balls. In Texas. It's hard to believe, but some things you just have to believe around this time of year. Alex hasn't been around snow that much in his life, so he lived it up while he could. Luckily, he had his cousin Chandler here to help teach him about snow and making snow balls.

Alex and his cousin Chandler. Chandler helped Alex make this snow ball. It think it's his first snow ball!

Alex running in with an itty, bitty snow ball in his hand. He put it in our freezer to save...for when, I'm not sure. Look how happy he is to be running in the snow!

Before all the snow fell, we gathered the snow that had collected off the fence. Little did we know that it would continue snowing for hours and we'd have plenty to gather for snow balls! It only snows once in a blue moon around these parts, so you have to enjoy it while you can! And we did!

A White Christmas...In Texas Ya'll!

2009-12-24T13:27:00.000-06:00

This is a picture of my house on Christmas Eve, probably around 3 in the afternoon. Yes, that white stuff on my lawn is snow! Yes, snow! In Texas! On Christmas! I still find it hard to believe that we had a white Christmas. It started snowing after lunch on Christmas Eve, and it snowed the rest of the day and into the evening. I heard that it's been 80 years since it's snowed on Christmas in Texas. I think God blessed us with a white Christmas for my niece and nephew visiting from Delaware. I think He didn't want them missing out on a white Christmas. The only down side to getting snow on Christmas Eve was that Roger's mother was flying in from Salt Lake. So after several delays, she finally made it to Texas.. on Christmas morning if you want to get technical about it. But she made it. And we enjoyed the beautiful, peaceful, white snow.

Looking out our front door on Christmas morning.

Our back yard Christmas morning.

Cousins Again

2009-12-22T13:06:00.000-06:00

I've blogged before about how much my sister and I enjoy dressing our daughters alike. And how we have to enjoy it while we can...before one or both of them puts a stop to it. So we were at it again with their Christmas dresses. And Grandma is even getting into the spirit of like dressing...she bought these cute Christmas dresses for Addison and Caitlin. Too bad we couldn't get a single picture of either one of them smiling. But we laughed and had fun trying! They were pretty funny through the whole thing.

We even tried for a group shot. And this is what we got! So much for trying to capture the moment. All the kids were adorable in their church clothes, so at least we captured that much. Not to worry...we took some professional pictures again this year of the whole McNiel clan and I can't wait to post those. They turned out adorable!

Combo Birthday Party

2009-12-21T12:40:00.000-06:00

Really, in my family, we'll take any excuse to get together and celebrate. And eat. This month, my sister and her family moved back from St. Kitts. And since we didn't have the opportunity to celebrate her and Caitlin's birthdays back in October, we decided to do it a couple weeks ago. It was really fun!

My sweet niece, Caitlin, one year old.

Tamara and Caitlin blowing out their candles.

Caitlin opening up a gift.

Tamara with her gift from me: a paddle brush. I have this paddle brush that I've had for years and years. Tamara has always loved it, so I bought her one finally. It made me laugh that she immediately started brushing her hair. It reminded me of Ariel in the Little Mermaid with her fork that she thought was a brush. How she beamed as she brushed her hair with that fork! I think Tamara beamed as well! Most of all, I love that a simple gift such as a hair brush will make her laugh out loud with delight! So fun! Happy first birthday Caitlin and Happy #$!*#$ Birthday Tamara!

Kicking Off The Holiday Break

2009-12-20T21:44:00.004-06:00

Sometimes I forget how much fun we've had this month until I start going back through all my pictures on my camera. Our holiday break officially kicked off, or skated off, with a Stars game with the family. We really had a fun time with Grandma, Grandpa, Cadence, Tamara and Caitlin at the game. Alex loves going to stars game, and I think the addition of his cousin, Cadence, made it even better!

Cadence and Alex...Alex picked up the foamy number one at the gift shop...thanks to Grandma.

Tamara and sweet Caitlin.

My parents and Addison. She's there cuddled in my mom's lap. So much fun!

Santa Picture

2009-12-20T21:44:00.003-06:00

We took the kids last week to get their annual picture with Santa. It went about as I expected. The picture speaks for itself. We couldn't help but laugh! And this was the best one. The shots got progressively worse. Oh well. Better luck next year! Merry Christmas!

Naughty or Nice?

2009-12-14T21:54:00.004-06:00

Wow, I can't believe it's December 14th already! Not surprisingly, the month is flying by! Only about a week and a half until Christmas. Which leads me to wonder, is my little 18-month old naughty or nice?

Based on this picture, the answer would be: NAUGHTY! While I wasn't looking, Addison got a hold of my cinnamon colored lip liner and attempted to apply it. Her other favorite activities right now include coloring on the walls, pushing chairs up to the counter to snack on our gingerbread house, tossing cups of water that she can reach on the kitchen table, or the ever popular sport of eating ornaments off my Christmas tree. The reality is though she is just your typical 18-month old. She's keeping me on my toes (and reminding my daily that she can NOT be left unattended...not even for a bathroom break!) But really, how can you not love a face like that? Well, I can't! And I know Santa will be forgiving and keep her on his nice list.

Feast

2009-11-29T00:11:00.004-06:00

Why am I not sleeping...I really don't know! I just downloaded a ton of pictures off my digital camera, and guess I felt the need to blog. I really wish I was more timely in my blogging, so I could better capture my memories. I think that will be a resolution for 2010! In the meantime, Alex had his annual Feast at his preschool last week. In thinking about his feast, I realized that this is his third Feast at St. John. Wow! Third, and last. Sad! What makes this feast special is that as 4-year olds or Pre-K, they have their feast at the back of the old sanctuary, instead of in the classroom. So all the classes ate together at big long tables. It was very nice to not be squished in the classroom...all the parents and all the children squeezed around a table designed for little kids: not so comfy! I love feast because they make all the cute Thanksgiving crafts...hats, clothes, placemats, macaroni necklaces, treats. Love it all! And it's the one day during the year that we get to eat with Alex at school. So fun. Also, we sat with his teacher, Ms. Sarah, so that was a treat as well.

When we arrived at the school, Alex was all dressed up and waiting patiently for us.

Alex and Roger as we waited for our turn to get some food.

Addison and I as we waited to eat.

Alex and his teacher, Ms. Sarah. He really loves his teacher this year. They seem to get along really well, and Ms. Sarah tells me how sweet Alex is at school. So thankful that he is sweet at school!

Thanks for Thanksgiving

2009-11-28T21:34:00.005-06:00

Wow, I can't believe Thanksgiving is over! We had a really nice, small Thanksgiving celebration this year. I spent the morning cooking, and then we met my parents at my Grandmother's house. We ate a late lunch, enjoyed the Cowboys game and ate some more. I love that at Thanksgiving, and for the whole month of November, Alex and I have been talking about what we are thankful for...each other, our home, Grandma, Papa, Nana, school, the park, and of course, Daddy. And here's a few reasons why:

Naps with Daddy

Playing bubbles with Daddy

Having Daddy at special days at school, like Alex's Feast

And even getting to celebrate a holiday with Daddy every once in a while!

Now that Thanksgiving is officially over, bring on Christmas! December is already shaping up to be a crazy, fun month. We have my sister moving back from St. Kitts, my brother and his kids coming in for Christmas, and Nana visiting for Christmas too! Can't wait!

Ode To Adam

2009-11-16T23:20:00.005-06:00

Roger is a huge fan of the television show, Man v Food. In case you're not familiar with it, the show is on the travel channel and the host is Adam Richman. Adam travels around to different cities to eat crazy, wild food...a lot of the time it involves crazy, spicy foods! Anyways, it's pretty entertaining and Roger enjoys watching it. Adam did a show featuring San Antonio and Austin. So, thanks to Adam, we hit some pretty fun restaurants on our little family trip down to San Antonio.

Our first stop was the Salt Lick in Austin. It was a bar-b-cue restaurant and it was FABULOUS! Oh, so good! We really enjoyed it. Thanks Adam!

On our way out of Austin, we hit Round Rock Donuts. And honestly, I haven't met a donut that I didn't like. They were yummy! The best part of that was watching Addison put away some donut holes! Wow!

Our next dining adventure, thanks again to Adam, was Big Lou's Pizza. Big Lou's is famous for HUGE pizzas. Check out these pizzas!

Our wasn't that big! But it was delicious! We went to another place on the way out of San Antonio, but we had already eaten breakfast, so we didn't go in. All in all, we had a really fun time being together as a family. We haven't ever done any vacations like this before. Hopefully next year we can do something again and for longer than just a few days. And seriously, we are going to Sea World one of these days. Sea World or Bust! Maybe in the spring.

Pumpkin Patch

2009-11-14T22:40:00.001-06:00

Before Roger left for Alabama for three weeks for the military, we decided to take a little trip as a family down to San Antonio with the intent to visit Sea World. Well, that didn't quite work out. So we made a plan B, thanks to Jill, to visit Medina, Texas, home of the Lovecreek Orchard and Pumpkin Patch. Can I just say how beautiful this little drive was and how much fun this pumpkin patch was! We just had such a great time! Below are a bunch of pictures. Again, sometimes it's not the destination in life, but the journey. So while we didn't get to visit Sea World (yet!), we enjoyed a few days together as a family with nothing to do, but have fun together. It was great!

Hats Off To the Military Wives Out There

2009-11-13T21:39:00.004-06:00

I really don't know how military wives do it. How do they juggle everything while their husbands are deployed? I struggled keeping it all together these last three weeks. I can't imagine doing this for 3 or 6 months!

Roger comes home tomorrow night. Originally, he was supposed to work Sunday night from 5 p.m. until midnight, and then 8-5 for the next five days with next Saturday and Sunday off. Well, he told me tonight that his training class was canceled next week, so he wouldn't be working 8-5 next week after all. So now, he has to drive all day tomorrow from Alabama (11 hours) and stay up all night Saturday night so he can get back on his 5 p.m.-3 a.m. schedule that he works with the police department. So our one day with him home has now been reduced to a mere few hours because he'll be sleeping during part of the day on Sunday, and then leaving for work.

I'm so disappointed. I was so looking forward to having him home all day on Sunday so we could have one full day together as a family before we got back to the grind. And I was so looking forward to having him home every night this week. And I was also so excited to have a weekend with him.

I'll get over all my disappointment. But it really made me wonder how military wives survive these long separations. I try to think positively that these last two trips for the air force are easing me into the reality of a pending deployment. But then I just go back to wondering, honestly, how do these military wives do it? My hat is off to them! Big Time!

18 Months and Back On The Charts!

2009-11-11T23:08:00.000-06:00

More good news about Addison! She had her 18-month check-up at her pediatrician's office on Wednesday. She has gained a solid 2 pounds! This may not seem like much of a weight gain, but this is huge for Addison! She's grown in height and her head has grown too. What a relief! Here's a run down on her stats:

2 weeks: 8 lbs 14 oz

2 months: 11 lbs 10 oz

4 months: 14 lbs

6 months: 15 lbs 11.5 oz

9 months: 16 lbs 14.5 oz

12 months: 16 lbs 9.5 oz

15 months: 17 lbs 8 oz

18 months: 19 lbs 12 oz

You can see that from her 4-6 month appointments and on that she really struggled to gain weight, and at her 12 month appointment, she had actually lost weight. This earned her the diagnosis of Failure to Thrive. And that set in motion the visits to her small army of doctors. At her last appointments with her pediatrician and her GI, they both threatened tube feeding Addison if she didn't get some meat on her bones. So you can imagine my relief and elation that her appetite has picked up and/or her calorie supplements are working.

So her weight is actually plotting on the growth charts again. That's right: Back on the charts again! Hallelujah! Honestly, I cried at her pediatricians office when I saw her growth. As a mother, you can't help but feel ultimately responsible, good or bad, for your children's growth and development. It has been a long, hard past two months: constant worrying, constant and vigilant research, constant prayers, constant stress. And though we are not completely out of the woods yet, we are definitely over a hump. Hopefully, her next appointment with her GI will go well, and hopefully her next MRI will bring us some good news too! In the meantime, here are some recent pictures of my sweet Addison. She's silly, funny, playful, fiesty, and generally a real joy to have around. She's my little gem. Enjoy!