Baby Doll!

When Ella was born and as her personality developed I got more and more anxious the older she got at the amount of emotion and "girliness" that was wrapped up in her cute little body. She and I are very different. She cries at anything sweet or sad....even at the movie " The Lorax" yesterday she was crying silently at the few sad parts...I will admit... I was a little uncomfortable as those aren't emotions I can relate to! I love Ella and am excited to see her grow, but nervous about how to relate to what she is feeling as she gets older. So....when cute little Channing was born I thought....ok maybe she can be my little tomboy! Well....so far she is following right in her sisters footsteps. She is OBSESSED with her baby doll! Typically just one, but she loves them all. She just lights up when she sees her and just hugs her and hugs her and rocks side to side with a huge grin. It is so sweet to watch. I have never seen a little girl more in love with her doll.



On the flip side, when she is not holding her baby doll...I often find her in her brothers underwear drawer. Not sure why....but she also loves his underwear...doesn't care for Ella's just his??!! Maybe she is trying to keep me guessing about what kind of little girl we will get the joy of watching grow!

Houston Rodeo 2012

Being a TeXaN the majority of my life, we look forward to the rodeo coming around each year. The kids were getting all geared up and getting ready for the rodeo season. Grandma brought over hats that the kids enjoyed using to get into the spirit of the season :)

Channing was not too excited about keeping it on!

Much happier just hanging on mom!


Cavin didn't mind! He tried on them both!

On Monday afternoon I took Ella out of school early and we headed over to the "kids country" portion of the rodeo. We went over with my mom, sisters Natalie and Marisa, and Marisa's son Liam. We started on a few rides at the carnival!

Cavin laughed his guts out on this one!

Then we went over to "Fun on the Farm" where kids got to pretend they were real farmers.

They got a bucket...

Then planted a seed of the vegetable of choice



Then they milked the cows!

And when they were finished they earned a pretend dollar to spend on a treat. It was (I think) the kids' favorite activity.


After that we headed over to the "pig races" The kids got to watch cute little piggies run in a little circle. It entertained them for a few minutes.


Cute Liam and Marisa

The weather was great and it was fun to hang out with my mom and sisters. We had a good time...besides the kids whining from having to walk and lack of sleep ;) And this is how Channing felt about it....She is such a sweet baby!

The next night I went with a group of friends to the concert portion and much to my dismay we saw Enrique Iglesias. I was not too excited about seeing him, but it ended up being an entertaining concert and it was just fun to have a night out and hang with the girls. The one disappointment was how short the concert was...he sang for like 50 minutes. That was all. Oh well. It was still fun!

The Woodlands Half Marathon 2012!

Everyone knows that I love running. It has been an "aquired interest" since I was about 11. I do however know that it is not everyones passion. My friends Brittany Raiford and Emily Miller were kind enough to humor me and run in The Woodlands Half Marathon with me! (Emily says she was "peer pressured" into running, but I knew she could do it!) They are both athletes and so I knew they could try something new and do great. Saturday came and we were ready to run. I was so excited to have running partners. It is so hard to find someone that is your pace and that can push you along. All of us are pretty competitive girls, so we did good at encouraging each other along throughout our training and our race day. The race was not my favorite out of all the ones I have done, but this was one of the hardest I have run. I finished in 1 hour and 43 minutes. I can honestly say I felt good til the last mile and 1/2 and the very last 1/2 mile I almost threw up a few times! I was horrified reaching the finish line thinking ok...who is the lucky one of these fans who gets my puke! Thankfully I just slowed down a bit and made it without having to throw up! It was an interesting feeling because throughout all these years of running, I have never had to throw up during a race. Anyway, I was really excited about how we all ran and so grateful that they helped me accomplish my goal. Thanks girls!

Brittany, Emily and I...we made silly shirts that said "The faster you run...the faster you're done!"

Here is the end of the race! I think I have about 100 photos of the exact same face after a race!

I finished!!! My cheering section..minus Ragnar and Channing


Here is our after race shot...we are still managing to smile!

Thanks to Brittany's inlaws for letting us stay the night before and for my family for coming to support me! Especially thanks to Brittany and Emily for running with me! I had so much fun!

A Visit from the Toothfairy!

This week was a first for our family. We had a visit from the toothfairy! Ella went to the dentist and she had a tooth growing behind the other one. Unfortunately the tooth in front was not at all wiggly, so the dentist had to pull the front two bottom teeth. I have to admit...I was sad. I didn't want her first tooth gone to be pulled, and I don't want her to grow up and lose the cute baby teeth and hit the goofy teeth stage! Regardless, here is her new smile, even though it looks like only one tooth is missing! :)

Here is one of her teeth...I know you were dying to see it!

Here is her toothfairy treasure box...she got $2! Obviously since it is so small just the teeth were in the box...not the money!

And how can I include a post without the other two munchkins!

Here are the cuties before bed!

I am sure lucky to have these three kiddos!

Monster Truck Rally!

Saturday night Ragnar took Cavin on a father/son date. Cavin had been anticipating this date for 3 weeks and was so excited to go to see the Monster trucks! Every morning he would wake up and tell me how many more days until he got to go on his fun date! I was a little skeptical with how much fun he would have because he is pretty young and it would be loud and long. Ragnar said however that he did awesome. He said he had so much fun and they had a great time together!

In the car about to head out....Cavin was so happy!

They went down with a group of people and Cavin was excited to have some boys to go with! They had pit passes, so they got to go see all the cars before the show.

Here are a few of the kids!

It couldn't be an event in Texas without a cowboy!


Cavin told me that Grave Digger was his favorite truck! (Kind of a scary choice if you ask me!)

They got to eat dinner and Cavin was loving life!

One truck tipped over but Cavin told me not to worry because he was ok!

Thank heaven for the ear plugs!

Cavin is still talking about the Monster Trucks today...they had a great time together....only problem is the couldn't find the car afterward, so they got home at 11! Cavin was a little zombie-like at church!

100 Days!

I am excited to say that Ella has made through 100 days of school! Today the kindergarteners celebrated their first 100 days! Each child had to make a shirt with 100 objects on it. Naturally Ella chose beads and jewels! Here is the shirt we made for her! She sure does love school!


Let me tell you how much I loved hot gluing each piece :)

She came home and announced she had the best day ever! She got popcorn and 100 snacks in a bag, she made a 100 hat, they went to each kindergarten class and as she stated...they didn't even learn today...they just had fun! Aren't we sure glad we send them to school! haha!