Soccer Practice

Today was Nathan's first day of soccer (football) practice. His practice is at 5:30PM so it is a quick turnaround from getting home from school, doing homework, getting some food in his stomach and out the door to practice. Nathan was excited about going and looked forward to it. While there he followed the coaches instructions and seemed to have a good time. It was a little chilly, but we all survived and I think Nathan will enjoy playing soccer. Two of the boys on the team live in our neighborhood, so maybe he will make some new friends that live close by.

Trees!!

I knew it would happen, Kayla just came in crying, she ran into one of the trees!! She is fine a little shook up, but no real damage!!

Emily

Where to start with this little girl, just a few minutes ago she brought me a toilet paper roll, an empty one. The first thought that came to my mind was which toilet is going to be stopped up now, thinking she took all of the toilet paper off of the roll and put it in the toilet. Then I realised she could not get the empty roll off of the holder, so she she must have gotten the roll out of the trash. This was the case, but she also pulled the paper off of the roll in one of the bathrooms and filled the toilet with that as well. Result 2 empty toilet paper rolls!!

For Christmas Kayla was given a camera. She has played with it some, but Emily has really enjoyed it. I guess she has been watching me and maybe I take too many pictures of them, because this is what she was doing the other day...

~Step 1: pose your subject

Step 2: make noises, in this case click at the subject to get their attention

Step 3: Get your camera ready and take the picture

Step 4: share the picture with the subject, everyone likes to look at their picture

Step 5: move onto the next victim, I mean subject!!

Being a photographer is hard work, You have to concentrate very hard...

...and sometimes, to get that perfect shot, it helps to stick your tongue out.

Emily has discovered the joy of taking her own clothes off!! She was able to put her pants on all by herself the other day and ever since then she is more than happy to take her pants and diaper off every time she pees. I guess it is time to start potty training. It is kind of funny to look up and expect to see a little girl fully dressed and instead you see this half dressed girl walking around as though that is perfectly normal.

Donuts with Daddy...

Today was a special day at the kids school, this is Catholic Schools week and they had a special morning this morning, they called it Donuts with Dad and Muffins with Mom. The parents were invited to the school to have breakfast with their children. It was an assortment of muffins and glazed donuts, juice, water, milk (plain or chocolate), and coffee. I do not know if the teachers were too happy about the kids having donuts and muffins before entering the class, but the kids sure were glad to have donuts for breakfast. I know Paul was glad to have that time with the kids.

Fishing with Daddy

This past weekend Paul took Nathan fishing. They went about 3 hours North of here to a friends lake house to fish and do manly things. They left Saturday morning and got back on Sunday afternoon. I have been told it was a good time, they chopped wood, swung in a tire swing, and of course FISHED!! Nathan was asked to help drive the boat, which he accepted. He caught the second biggest fish (according to Nathan, but at the weigh in his fish and the other fish were tied for weight and length). He had a really good time and took a picture of his fish to school on Monday to show all of his friends. The story goes, he wanted to get his fish mounted, but Paul told him that it was not going to happen and they only way to calm his sadness, was that he took a picture of Nathan with his fish that Paul promised to give him a copy of.

The BIG One

While the boys were gone we girls went shopping for clothes and new shoes for Kayla, which are pink, and just played at the house. We went to PetsMart to look at the cats they had for adoption. There were no kittens only adult cats and they were all the orange tabby cats or they were black and white. Not a very big variety. It was nice to have just the girls and I am sure Paul would say the same for his time spent with just he and Nathan.

19+7=26

Yes, that is right we now have 26 trees in our back yard, There were 19 tall pine trees and we have added 7 more to that, 1 Live Oak, 1 Sycamore, 2 Pecan, and 3 Red Maples. Our back yard looks like a forest, which would be fine except for the reason that we bought a house with a big back yard was so that the kids would have room to run and play. They still have room to run as long as they dodge trees while they run. It looks nice and will look even better in about 10-15 years when the trees have grown. I look forward to the Spring when the trees start to get their leaves. Anyway, pleases feel free to come to our back yard park. We even have a swing set!!

Pecan

Red Maple Sycamore and Live Oak

New Quilt

For Christmas Madeline was given a blanket. It is super cute and soft. She enjoys laying on it and trying to lick/suck on all of the pretty colors. Here she is enjoying her new quilt!!

Emily wanted in on the photo shoot so she helped to accessorize Madeline with a necklace for a headband.

Mmmm Shoes!!

All of the kids have chewed on a shoe at one point in their infancy, so why would Maddie be different, she loves to chew on shoe laces, NO I do not encourage this, but sometimes she is able to get her hands on them. This afternoon she got a hold of my shoes and chewed on the strings as well as licked the bottoms. Pretty gross I will admit!!

Sitting Pretty

Madeline is so close to sitting all by herself. She will sit for a while by herself, then she gets wobbly, side to side, then down she goes. She is pretty gracefull with her side to side fall and it is a gentle fall, but occasionally she will fall straight back and bang her head. That she does not like, but with some love she soon forgets why she is crying.

Humidity Indicator

This is how I am able to tell if it is humid or dry outside...

Humid

Dry

Humid

Who is the parent??

The other night at dinner Emily wanted a piece of celery with peanut butter on it, she was told that she needed to eat more of her spaghetti before she could have a celery stick with peanut butter. Kayla, with her arms folded across her chest looked at Paul and I and said, "She is my baby and if she can have whatever she wants, you do not tell her what to do." (They have been pretending that Emily is Kayla's baby and I think Kayla is taking it a little too seriously.) Paul and I just looked at each other, she was told that is not how she should talk to her parents and then Paul and I just smiled at weach other. It was just too funny!!

Win A New Truck

Paul was looking for some advertising space, so I cut him a good deal for using my blog.... The Dad's Club at Nathan and Kayla's school, St. Anne's, is conducting their annual raffle to help raise money for the school. Every year they sell 500 (ONLY) raffle tickets for a chance to win a new truck. This year it's a 2008 Chevy truck (valued at $31,879). The price is $100 a ticket (or 4 for $300), but with only a maximum of 500 tickets to be sold your chances aren't too bad and second prize is $1,000. The link below shows the flyer with more details and a picture of the truck.

http://www.stanne-tomball.org/school/documents/gala_2009_truckflyer.pdf

We are tyring to sell all the tickets by 31 Jan (Raffle to be held 14 Feb at the school Gala).

If you are interested please contact me.

Ponytails

On Sunday Emily brought me a handful of ponytail holders (about 30) and asked me to put them in her hair, so I willingly put 6 of them in her hair. When Kayla saw Emily's hair she came to me with a hand full of ponytail holders and asked if I would put them in her hair like I did for Emily. So, I put 8 ponytails in her hair. I am sure these pictures will be used to blackmail them in the future!!

The Archer

Sunday afternoon Paul took his bow out into the field behind our house to try it out and see if it was in working order (it has been a long time since he has used it). Here are some shots of him testing it out...

Loading the bow...

aiming...

FIRE!! gone

Almost a bulls eye!!

Now to get the ones that missed the target!!

Mirror, Miror

Madeline loves to look at herself in the mirror, but yesterday after I took one picture of her, she just wanted to look at the camera and pose for pictures, I was able to get a few cute ones. She is such a happy little girl . We have started her on solid foods, so far just rice, but this week will be full of various firsts. She is doing well and will eat an entire bowl with no issues. Yesterday she started to roll ALL over the place until she came to a wall, chair, or other obstacle (she can only roll to the right) then she would cry for someone to move her away from whatever it was that was hindering her forward progression. She is getting soo close to sitting by herself, another week or two...

So excited to see herself... Whoa, where did you come from??

Hey, I know you!

Giving kisses to herself, yes, she did lick the mirror.