Texas

After having lived in Houston for a few years now, I have gotten used to many things. Some things have grown on me, others not so much.

I love the fall and spring here. The weather is BEAUTIFUL. I love the summer thunderstorms that hit in the afternoon. There haven't been nearly enough of these this year though. I love all the magnolia trees, especially when they're in bloom, and I love how green it is here. There are a few other things. But lets now go to the things that I could definitely live without.

Snakes. Although I haven't seen a live one yet, in our 4 years here, just the thought of them gives me the creeps. Hurricanes. Okay, these aren't a given every year, but last years was bad enough to last for awhile. I do hope I won't have to go through another one. The month of August. It really isn't fun here in august, it's hot, the wasps are out, all the bugs are out actually, and there's no escape from them. Hence the whole reason for this post.

We were out a couple nights ago, visiting with some friends. The kids were all running around and it was dark out, and then Peyton started screaming. It was an awful, painful scream, and she was slapping at her legs. She had inadvertantly stepped into a pile of fire ants, and she was barefoot.

When I think of fireants, I think of big red ants, but these aren't. They're little ants, (they are red though), and they're MEAN! I can't believe how fast they got up her leg, they were all over inside her pants, (yes, she had pants on, it was after bedtime and she was wearing her pajamas.)

It took a good hour to calm her down, and get her feet feeling better before we could get her in bed that night. The next day, she had all these nasty bites on her foot, I counted and never got an exact count, but it was somewhere in the neighborhood of 36-40 bites!

Our poor little girl. Luckily a little benadryl and motrin helpes. Also, thank goodness she didn't have an allergy, her foot would have been the size if a balloon!

These pictures really don't do it justice, her foot looked awful, the other foot had a couple bites, but this one was much worse.

Yes, we love some things about Texas, but there are many things that I would much rather live without!

So, you know that cat that we let out of the bag?

I really wish we had kept it in there a little longer.

Tuesday we had our doctors appointment, and an ultrasound, our second one. We saw a heartbeat at the 7 week ultrasound, but this time there wasn't one to be found. This is all a little new to me, you know what everyone says, I really never thought it would ever happen to me. But, here we are. I'm going in tomorrow morning for a d&c.

After tomorrow we can begin to move forward, but after tomorrow I will no longer be pregnant. It will probably be a very long and draining day. We're doing alright, and have come to terms with this. I know that when we decide to have another baby it will, more likely than not, happen quickly and be another wonderful pregnancy.

Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers.

Look at her go!

I am just so impressed with our little Peyton. We started swim lessons last week, and after our first couple of lessons, I really wondered if this was a good idea or not. She didn't want to put her face in the water, and actually got to where she didn't want to get in the pool at all.

So, we bought her some pretty new goggles, took her to grandma's and showed her how, with goggles on, you can see in the water! Once she decided it wasn't too bad to get her face wet with goggles on, she just kinda took off.

Yesterday, she started swimming a little bit, and I am so proud of our little two year old! (okay, she's almost three, but hey, she's not there yet, and she can swim!) We still have to keep a close eye on her, especially because now she thinks she can swim, and she can't go too far just yet.

I love this little girl, and I love seeing her accomplish something and be so proud of herself!

I guess the cat's out of the bag

Well...because I let it out, but here it is anyway.

We're pregnant....again! Baby #4 will join our family sometime in mid-March. We're excited, but a little overwhelmed, and Kevin's convinced it's a boy. :) I guess we'll see soon enough!

My most amazing mother!

When we were in California last month, I took a few things with me so that I could enlist the help of my mom, who is very talented when it comes to sewing, or drawing, or cooking, or gardening, or basically anything really.

I had bought a pattern for this really cool fabric ring stacker for babies. I wanted to make it for Lexie's first birthday, but when reading the pattern, I could tell it was a little complicated. I also took some fabric that I wanted to use to make a skirt for Lexie to wear for her birthday party.

The thing about the skirt was, I didn't have a pattern. There are a few tutorials online for making a twirl skirt, but none of them were quite what I wanted. All I had was a picture of what I wanted, and so I showed my mom.

We took a couple of Lexie's skirts, and used them to size the pattern, and she drew a pattern for us to work from.

I could MAYBE do that, but it probably wouldn't end up fitting her once I was finished. This is why I wanted my mom to do it.

The pattern she made for the skirt

The pieces sewn together, and ready for the elastic

The finished product, isn't she amazing? It's really all in the details, and she's a perfectionist that always gets them just right.

another angle

I didn't take any pictures of the process of making these rings, but let me tell you, it took both of us at least 6 hrs together working on it to get it done. It would have taken me at least a week by myself. We were lucky and had my dad around to help out with the girls too. I LOVE the look of these and Lexie likes playing with them too....I just hope they'll last for a really long time. They look so cute stuffed too, even cuter than they look in this picture.

So, I just wanted to give a huge hug to my mom, and tell her that I think she's amazing, and utterly talented at so many things. Thanks for passing along your knowledge and hopefully when I grow up I can be as good at these things as you are, and pass it along to my daughters too.

A fabulous 4th of July

We had a very fun, and very full fourth of July this year. After being home last year with a newborn, it's kinda nice to get out and enjoy this wonderful holiday. There was swimming,
bbq-ing, shopping, (just a little), more bbq-ing, and tons of fireworks....this isn't even to mention all the great friends and family we got to hang out with all day.

To start off the day I, of course, had to dress the girls in their matching patriotic outfits. I really never thought I'd be this bad....but hey, three girls'll do that to ya I guess, and I seem to be getting more and more into it with each kids. But, they looked adorable in their matching ensembles if I do say so myself.

Then, it was off to Grandma & Grandpa's for the annual swim party. We were absent a few family members as a some of them went out of town, and others were home with their newborns (I SO know how that goes, we missed you Jamie!). But all the cousins were still there, and the kids all had a blast swimming and as you can see in the following photo, shooting their waterguns at each other...I think Kevin got into it more than anyone else.

Yeah, he's my big tough hubby who thinks he should be an action hero!!:)

Of course, with all that shooting, someone among those 9 kids that are 5 and under, is going to start crying....who knew it would be the 5 year old! Dang dad just wouldn't stop!:)

Peyton had fun doing what she always does. I've noticed that she can be a little bit of a loner when it comes to group things, but hey, as long as she's content, I'm fine with it!

This is their cousin, Kylie, looking adorable, and having a blast.

Lexie just loves the water bubbles and would hang out here all day if I let her.

Later that day, we headed over to the Monson's for another yummy bbq, this time fajitas, lots of desserts and some loud fireworks.

Can I just say, Isabelle is one lucky girl if her brothers are going to be this protective of her when she gets older. These two were literally fighting over Lexie. You can tell their excited to have a baby sister, and can't wait till she' s bigger.

Lexie fully enjoyed the fireworks...well, eating them and playing with them. They're totally safe to eat, right?

Lexie LOVES doing whatever the big kids are doing, so she loved standing up in the back of the truck, and braden was a little amused by her.

Oh, wait, not done playing with the fireworks yet.

All the kiddos in the back of Seans truck, they had seen a few of the fireworks, and were patiently putting up with moms trying to take more pictures.

After doing our own fireworks display, we headed up to good ol' Tomball for the "big" show. We met up with the Allens, minus lisa who we missed, and we had a great time enjoying the show. Lexie sat in her little car and was mesmerized for the most part by all the fireworks.

We had a fantastic day, and feel so blessed to be able to celebrate our freedom because of so many who have fought for it. Our prayers go out to them and their families, and may they always know how grateful we are!

Our Little Cupcake

Last week our baby turned one, and we didn't celebrate on her birthday...well, Aunt Brittany thought that wasn't right, so we gave her a hostess cupcake, but that was pretty much it. We were saving all the excitement for her cupcake party that weekend.

Was it ever a cupcake party, there were cupcakes everywhere, and it was tons o' fun! She looked adorable in her new birthday outfit, (more on that later), and she was overwhelmed by the huge cupcake we put on her highchair. She loved the game we played and loved opening the presents, well, until she had a toy, and then she was done, but aren't all kids like that?

Be warned, there are quite a few pictures ahead, but hey, your baby only turns one once, right?

The birthday girl, looking adorable in her new outfit, sucking her thumb as always.

The fun decor for the party, I loved all the bright colors, made it all very happy!

Lexie with her grandpa, I love this photo of them.

I made a fun "pin the candle on the cupcake" game that most of the kids played at the party. Some were a little shy, and others were just too busy playing, but Lexie sure had fun giving it a try!

Braden did great too, he knew just where he wanted that candle to go.

Lexie putting her candle up. They didn't stay too well, but the kids didn't seem to care.

Little Lexie Lou looking sweet while playing with some of her new toys.

This little cat from grandma Williams was one of her favorite gifts. She loves it! I don't know if it's cause it looks like one of our cats, but it was a definite hit.

Seriously, look at the size of this cupcake, She had fun trying to eat it, even if it was bigger than her head.

This is when we first gave it to her, she seemed a little overwhelmed.

I love this picture, Halli was laughing HYSTERICALLY, because she put her hands on her head, so Lexie, whose hands were covered in frosting, did too.

Our beautiful birthday girl, covered in frosting.

Some of the yummy cupcake pops me & my sister made for the party, they're delish! Go to bakerella.blogspot.com to find out how to make them.

Even the big kids need to eat a cupcake or two

Katelyn digging in to her cupcake pop.

Peyton, our little sugar baby, was in heaven.

I just loved this photo of Blake, he was totally happy here and not trying to freak me out. :) He had been eating his cupcake and could tell the frosting was all over his face, and then he looked up and saw me taking pictures of him, so this was the look I got, silly boy!

We had a great party and had tons of fun hanging out with our friends and family. There was too much sugar, and too many gifts for a little girl who doesn't need anything, but I'd trade it all to get a few of these last months back. It's going by WAY too fast now, and I know I'm gonna miss these baby days in no time at all.