Monday, November 21, 2016

Fall

My favorite time of year has come and is going WAY.TO.FAST. I LOVE FALL! There just seems to be a lot of fun things going on! 

A little round up! 
Davis and Davin got a treat when their buddy Ryan joined them for lunch one day!

 I had a good time going with Davis to his school's open house. I got to see some of the work he is doing and he showed off his desk (messy, messy) and all the fun stations in his classroom.



 We continued to really enjoy our time with our dinner club. The kids always have a total ball and the grown ups enjoy some time of our kids all being entertained!

 I surprised Davis one lunch hour and joined him for lunch. He always gets to pick a buddy to sit with and Jude seems to always be his pick! I think it's because Jude is an even bigger class clown than Davis so he always cracks Davis up!
 Davis started music lessons this fall. He is in class with his two buds and he seems to be really loving it.
I pulled out these towels one night and they were a huge hit. They are now the most requested item after bath--of course they both fight over the shark towel. 
 We got to baby-sit baby Jack so that Aunt Lo and Uncle Bub could go to a football game. This is Carter's very favorite past time. Between baby Jack and baby Mallory, Carter is in baby heaven. She follows Jack around and wants to either hold him or hug him.

 Davis got to go with Uncle Bubbi to the game and thought it was so cool that he could go on the field.
 We headed out to Houston Oaks County Club with a few other families to enjoy the first weekend of "Fall" weather. It was AMAZING. It is such a beautiful club and the amenities were top notch. They have a huge lake for paddle boarding and canoeing. They had a great pool and a treehouse with a/c and a working restroom!
 The best part of the day was heading out to this beautiful setting to hear songwriters play George Strait, Brad Paisley, etc. These songwriters are the ones that actually wrote the hits so it was a great experience to be able to hear the back stories and inspiration behind some of country music's biggest hits. We could have sat out there all night listening to some of the most talented individuals I have ever heard...
 We enjoyed celebrating RyRy's third birthday! He had a super cute Dallas Cowboy's themed birthday party--so Carter of course had to wear her cheer uniform!


 Davis and his buddy Palmer enjoyed a U of H game on a (WARM) Saturday afternoon...
 Grandad joined us for dinner at one of the school spirit nights!
 We had a total ball at the school's auction! This year's theme was not my favorite (finding nautical wear in October was a little difficult) but it ended up being really cute and of course the company was a blast!

 Davis had fun dressing up for book character day (what a pain). Dragons Love Tacos! When I become president of the world I am going to ban character dress up days. Especially because Davis despises it--he wants to be in his under armor and having to don a costume messes with his routine!
 Fall festival was a little earlier this year but we were lucky that baby Jack was able to join us!


Sunday, November 20, 2016

Davis and Carter

 I know I have said it a million times, but I seriously want to pinch myself sometimes. I look at my two kids and can't believe how much God has blessed me with the best two kids on the planet. Each of them is unique and has their own personality.


Davis:

Davis is my sensitive rule follower. It hurst his heart to be in trouble. He loves his friends and just wants to play. He can sit for a movie but he also loves to do anything with his imagination.  One of my favorite things about him is his amazing imagination. I will stand back and just watch him play--he can entertain himself with power rangers, cars, or a football. He is all boy-he comes home everyday filthy! He loves to play outside and is constantly checking the front yard to see what neighborhood boys are outside to play with! He is a total cuddler and wants to be next to you all the time (as I type he has fallen asleep next to Jason with his arm wrapped around Jason's arm)!
 Within the past few months he has really gotten into Legos. He is very good about sitting down and walking through the book step by step.
 Davis LOVES his friends and he has been blessed with great ones.


 He loves to come to work with me--recently he had a dentist appointment and I gave him the option to go back to school (where he had a special after school activity planned) or to finish the day with me at my office. He picked my office! We ate lunch together and he had fun drawing on my wipe board and building a lego we had brought.
 He is learning to write stories in school. He asked if he could write one on my board. It says "There was a little boy who loves his mom so much" so unfortunately, I can never erase my board again!

 Davis loves his sister. He is protective and loving as long as she is not banging on his keyboard.


Carter: 

Carter is my wild child! Whereas Davis hates to be in trouble-I think she enjoys it! She doesn't walk the line-she jumps over it and then looks back just to see what you are going to do about it. She goes 100 miles an hour from the moment she wakes up (lately around 5am) until she falls asleep (usually not until 9).  We would love for school to drop her nap because we think it just gives her entirely too much energy to torment us in the evenings!!!!

She is a worker bee. I can't tell you how many times a day I hear "I do it" She is fiercely independent and wants do to whatever we are doing by herself. 


 She loves to help in the kitchen. She and Jason have a standing date every Saturday morning-the two of them go to the grocery store just the two of them. She helps him bag the produce and then push the buttons to get the price. She is a major creature of habit. For over a year for breakfast she wanted nothing but waffles but that has now switched to pancakes. She has to push the button on the microwave and then once the timer goes off, she requires you to hand her the plate. She then places the plate on the kitchen floor so that she can go get the syrup out of the cabinet. She then pours her own syrup and then carries her plate to the table. Don't mess with this routine--if you offer to carry the plate or pour the syrup you will be in big trouble!

 She is very silly. A few weeks ago we noticed she had gone and crawled in our bed. She did have her knees up and she was flipping through a magazine talking to herself--when we went to investigate we saw she was reading one of Jason's golf magazines. Jason told her he had never loved her more :)

Her big love (besides her baby, Evelyn) is Grace. One night I went to grab this sweet baby (a gift picked out by big brother when she was still in my tummy) when I asked Carter what the bunny's name was--out of nowhere she stated "Grace." I have no idea where she got the name because all of her other babies are named after friends in her class. But Grace has stuck and now at night she will yell from her bed "mommy! where is Grace?! I need Grace!"
 She is officially potty trained and so now she knows she gets to sign up for dance. When I was in NYC recently I went to the ballet and brought her back this shirt. It has quickly become her favorite shirt and she would wear it 24/7 if I would let her.
 Carter LOVES babies. She especially loves the babies in her life. Recently we had a weekend where we baby-sat cousin Jack and then the next day went to visit baby Mallory-Carter was in baby heaven! She loves to hold them and when you put a baby in her lap she gets the most serious look on her face.
A few cute/funny stories:

Walking into school recently Carter turned to me and said "Mommy, I want to do the tumble bus." I had no idea what she was talking about so I had to ask her teacher what the heck a tumble bus was--turns out its a gymnastic studio on wheels. I love that she asked if she could participate in something new with no hesitation-so of course I signed her up!

Carter is so hard to get to sleep--you can hear her in room gathering all her toys into her bed, playing with her babies, talking and singing. Usually, I will go up and lay with her until she falls asleep. She will say "Mommy, lets cuddle!" so of course I will pull her close to me and snuggle--but then she will promptly follow it up with "let's talk!" It cracks me up every time. SO I always ask what she wants to talk about and I never know what I am going to get.

Neon Ninjas (Fall Soccer)

Davis played soccer again this year and he was a pleasure to watch. He has such a great attitude about soccer, he is a lot less competetive than Jason and I! He really could cared a less whether they won or lost, he really just wanted to be out there with his buddies.  He started off the season timid and not that into playing. However, with about three games left he really got into it! All of a sudden he was aggressive and running after the ball. It was really amazing to watch how much he improved as the season progressed. 

 He had great friends on the team again this season.
 His elementary school had so many boys sign up that they ended up making four separate teams. They got to play the other teams throughout the season which was fun for the boys.
Jason coached and made one fabulous coach. I am really proud of how he coaches-he is very laid back and really brought out the best in each kid. He was really patient with the boys, which was not always easy with a bunch of six and seven year olds.





 We got knocked out early in the play-offs but I was so proud of how each kid on the team really improved. By the end of the season we were a really good team and I was actually surprised when we got knocked out as quickly as we did.

Nana and Papa were amazing fans. They made every game they were in town for and cheered like crazy for our favorite player. I know it means a lot to Davis that they always make a huge effort to be present and supportive.
Now on to basketball!

Sunday, October 2, 2016

Ryder Cup

We ventured out last weekend to Minneapolis, Minnesota for the practice round of the Ryder Cup. Carter and Davis had been looking forward to this trip for months so it didn't surprise me that on the morning that we flew out they were both up at 5:30am ready to go! 


 We got to meet baby Blair and Baby Hank! They are so small but doing great.
 We took advantage of the nicer weather. It was in the 60s the first day we arrived. We played at a playground near the lake. The kids loved being able to play outside without feeling like they were going to have a heat stroke. As chilly as it was, there were still people swimming in the lake!
 Sunday morning we headed into downtown Minneapolis. Our intent was to have brunch and then go to a Twins game. It was so chilly that day, and we were not appropriately dressed for the weather so we decided instead to skip the game.
 Tuesday morning we were up bright and early for the Ryder Cup. Davis had a good time getting the autographs of the Europeans.
 Carter and I were FREEZING. It was cold! Minneapolis fall and Houston fall are slightly different.




I am looking forward to the cup coming back to the States in four years. We appreciated the hospitality of Jason's cousin and really enjoyed getting to experience the Ryder Cup and Minneapolis.