Ringling Brothers Circus 2012

  Scenes from the Greatest Show on Earth!

I just learned how to make collages for my blog so I thought I would share some our of pictures from our trip to the Circus in July!  Thanks to Mee Mee it has become a tradition, to take the kids to the Circus when it comes to town each July. She has been buying them tickets to the Circus each year since Kaitlyn was about 2 years old but this year was the first year both of the kids were really old enough to appreciate the show.

Here are a few pictures of activities and sights we saw at the Circus! My favorite pictures are of Kaitlyn trying on the Circus costumes and Collin picking out his own souvenir. Enjoy!

Our little Chef

Thanks to Girl Scouts Kaitlyn has been able to experience several field trips this year. Her latest field trip was to the Young Chef Academy in Sugarland, http://www.youngchefsacademy.com/

I volunteered to drive and I ended up with the 3 amigos in my car, Kaitlyn, Reagan, and Isabela.

The girls each got to make their own cheesy breadstick and fruit smoothies! The highlight was watching the girls when the lady sprinkled flour on their table so that they could knead their dough and roll it out. She told them not to play in the flour...how long do you think that lasted? Before she could even get to them with their dough half of them had their flour all over them!

They girls had a great time and really enjoyed their breadsticks and smoothies and appreciated them that much more since they did it theirselves.

3 amigos-Reagan, Kaitlyn, Isabela

Practicing measuring flour

Kaitlyn's turn to add flour to the bowl

Note her face as she pours it in

Rolling the dough for her breadstick

Cutting berries for the smoothie, look how serious she is!

Our little chef

The graduates

Silly

Sillier

Silliest!

The Barrys picking Berries!

We took the kids to pick berries last weekend at Froberg Farms in Alvin.

Kaitlyn and Collin enjoyed it. Collin especially...the whole time we were picking he kept saying "My berries, my berries". Collin could hardly wait to eat them...in fact he tried to sneak a few in his mouth before I could stop him, but luckily I caught him just in time because the berries were rather dirty and really needed to be washed first.

Here are a few pictures of our berry picking adventure!

Kaitlyn and Collin in the patch

Little man and his bucket of berries



Mommy and Collin picking berries



Kaitlyn picking berries



Daddy helping Collin-he did not want help with his bucket



Buckets full of berries



Our little berries!

Whose says you can't ride and Armadillo?

Is this thing moving?

Easter 2012

It's that time again...Time for me to finally update the blog!

We had a great Easter weekend. I took the kids to visit the Easter Bunny at the Mall in Lake Jackson on Good Friday. Saturday we had Kaitlyn's first game and then a BBQ and Easter Egg hunt at church. Sunday we went to church and spent time together at home.

So here are some of my favorite moments from Easter of 2012!



Collin wearing his Easter Hat for the KRK Easter Hat Parade



Easter Egg Hunt at St. Andrews

Collin decided he was done hunting eggs and would rather play

Kaitlyn sprinting to the playground where the eggs were hidden

Collin made a seat for himself in the kitchen to enjoy his milk
by turning the stool upside down
and adding a few dish rags for padding

Kaitlyn planting a kiss on Collin Easter morning



Our sweet little man



"All done" he proclaims, even though Mommy
 was not all done taking pictures

Our angel girl

And last but not least...my attempt to get one good picture of them together at church. It looks more like outakes from a photo shoot!

Take 1

Take 2

Take 3-This is as good as it gets!

And then, our attempt to get a family picture went kindof the same...so here's 3 out of 4 happy faces

Stationery card

Candy Cane Love Holiday Card

Create personalized holiday cards online at Shutterfly.com.

View the entire collection of cards.

Family Game Night

We had our first ever family game night tonight. After Collin went to bed Chris, Kaitlyn and I played several games of Hi Ho Cherry O and SORRY!

Remember this game?

And this one?

Hi Ho Cherry O was a little basic but Kaitlyn had told us she liked it so we decided to try it.

After 3 rounds of Hi Ho Cherry O, which took all of about 15 minutes, we played 1 game of SORRY! which took longer than all 3 games of Hi Ho Cherry O and was a little more challenging for Kaitlyn.

Here are some of our favorite phrases Kaitlyn said tonight in her frustration during the game:

"Oh Tarter Sauce!" which she got from Sponge Bob

"Oh the Horror!" only she pronounces it "Hoyer" which made it all the more funny

Then when she was trying to talk smack she tells us "I am going to squeeze you out of business!" so then of course we had to ask her where she got that phrase from and she told us Good Luck Charlie, which is a show on the Disney channel.

And last but least, at one point Chris was trying to explain something to her and she exclaims "Well I guess I am just sticking my nose in other people's business."

Chris and I were rolling. She is one funny girl!

Our little man is 18 months old today!

18 months

22.6 lbs, 32 inches

Says Ma Ma, Da Da, Ba Ba or Be Be

7 teeth, molars are coming in now

Loves...

to play in water, even if only for a minute while washing his hands

to throw things-a ball, sippy cup, a fit

slides and swings

banging things

Fruit, especially watermelon (see picture) and fresh mango
Hates...
being taken out of the bathtub, this causes a meltdown every time

Kaitlyn lost her 1st tooth!

Here's the proof! Of course, it was very dramatic. Mee Mee was driving Kaitlyn to her Soccer game on Saturday and Kaitlyn was in the back seat of her car. She was trying to open her Happy Meal toy with her teeth and out came the tooth! It flew underneath the seat and blood is gushing out and Kaitlyn is crying and saying "Something's not right" to Mee Mee. Mee Mee had to pull over and locate the tooth and stop the bleeding and rinse Kaitlyn's mouth out. The tooth fairy came and brought Kaitlyn $10 for her first tooth!

So much to catch up on, so little time!

So it's been 4 months since I updated the blog, bad I know, but I haven't had a spare minute to get/stay caught up. In fact, I should be sleeping now as I have my field trainer riding with me tomorrow, but my guilt finally got to me. So here is a brief and I mean brief update! Kaitlyn started playing Soccer this year. Her team is the Sharks and their colors are lime green and navy blue. You can't miss them on the field that is for sure! These are some of her new teammates. She prefers hugging them to actually playing Soccer.

Collin is getting 3 new teeth right now so it is fun around here! Pictures of this to come later.

We have been to 2 weddings already this year and have 2 more coming up. I have still got to upload pictures from Katrina and Chad's wedding. I was the Maid of Honor; however, I was upstaged by my dancing queen daughter at the reception!

And last but not least, I just got back from spending the weekend with my friend Lindsey in Littleton, CO. Lindsey now owns a Gigi's Cupcakes and I got to visit her store and even got put to work! She had a delivery for a wedding on Sunday so we went to the store for a few hours before to get things ready.

It was not all work though...we did do some relaxing!!! We went to eat lunch at Cheesecake Factory (YUM) and then went to get massages at Tall Grass, a spa up in the mountains. The scenary was so beautiful. It makes me want to move to Colorado!

Then we went back to Cheesecake Factory for round 2 (Drinks and Appetizers) before catching a movie. I even got to see Mason on Sunday and play baseball with him in the backyard. He has quite a swing!

I will post more pictures later as I find time...Hopefully that will be before I retire!

Meet Bailey

Meet our new puppy Bailey!

We adopted Bailey from Pup Squad http://www.pupsquad.org/

She is a 9 week old Beagle Mix. Her Mom was dropped off at the shelter when she was pregnant and so the puppies were born in foster care. Pup Squad specializes in pregnant dogs and puppies and fosters them in individual homes so that they don't become sick, since the puppies are too young to be immune to the diseases they can contract in shelters. We found Bailey on their website and fell in love with her precious little face. She and her 3 sisters were all being fostered together. They were named after the Golden Girls (see pictures of her sisters below) and Bailey was originally named "Blanche" but we decided to change her name when we brought her home.

After we adopted her we took her to Petsmart for the first time because we had to get a few supplies. Kaitlyn picked out a sweater for her, but she pronounces it "sweather" (like it rhymes with weather) it's hysterical. Bailey took a bath in when we got home and got all dressed up in her sweater.

Bailey and Kaitlyn her first night with us

Bailey in her sweater Kaitlyn picked out for her

Bailey's Sisters

Dorrie

Rose

Sophia

We are enjoying spending time with Bailey and getting to know her. She is quite fond of our Christmas tree and so we are frequently having to pull her out from underneath it. I don't know what she will do when there are actually presents underneath!