Sunday, September 28, 2008

My Love and I

Michael and I had our pictures done yesterday by Kelly Roth for our 1 year Anniversary (Oct. 13). We both actually really enjoyed ourselves. It wasn't like going to a portrait studio and having to be all serious, get in there and get out kind of thing. We laughed, we joked, acted silly and just plain enjoyed it. I am confident that Kelly did a good job as well. She got over 30 pictures, 7 of which she uploaded to her website so I was able to get a little preview of a few. All of the others will be put on a disc and mailed to me. I can't wait to see them!!!

Here are the ones I have so far:
We also finally got the garage cleaned out on Saturday. It desperately needed it! We got rid of stuff and dropped a few things off at Goodwill as well. Michael mowed the yard and did some edging.

My dad kept Ava while Michael and I got our pictures done and then we joined them for a yummy dinner.

I got Ava ready for bed when we got home and laid her down for the night. Amber stayed here with her while Michael and I met Andi and Larry up at breakers for a night out. We all had a great time and stayed till right before closing at 2am. I love Mommy and Daddy nights out :D

Hubby watched the Texans today. They lost 27-30. Of course.

Hubby left later than usual today so that was cool. He is coming home Tuesday night to so we can watch our T.V. show NCIS together and sleep next to each other, then heading back early Wednesday morning. He loves me, what can I say? :D

Photos from Breakers with Michael, Andi and Larry:

Andi and I
Andi and Larry

Michael and I

Larry and Michael
Silly girls...

Friday, September 26, 2008

Priceless.


No Captions Needed.


Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Productive.

I love getting things done.

Cleaned house today. Lots. Got the basics done. Kitchen, living room, playroom, sweeping mopping and so on. Mainly just have a little laundry to finish up, the bathrooms to clean and Elises room.

Got Fall decorations put out yesterday. :)

Bought shirts for Michael and I to wear for our Anniversary photos that a friend of a friend is taking for us on Saturday for a really good price. Don't think I like the shirt I picked for Michael, so will probably take that one back.

Finishing up cleaning tomorrow. It's pretty tough to get everything done in one day with 2 little ones crawling all over the place. Plus a messy teenage boy! :)

My Love came home tonight so he can sleep next to me and is heading back to Columbus early tomorrow morning. I am glad to have him home. It's nice when he can make it home on a Wednesday night so then I really only have to go a couple days without seeing him as opposed to 5.

When I put Ava in her pink infant bathtub tonight, she decided it was time to poop. AGAIN! UGH... My wonderful hubby cleaned it all up for me and ran her another bath while I wiped her down. Thanks Dear!

Not much else to blog about...
Going to crawl in bed next to My hubby for a great nights sleep.
Goodnight

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Monday, September 22, 2008

YUMMY!

Pappa J gave me a little taste of his Chocolate Icing. YUM!
Shhh... don't tell Mommy. :)
-Ava

Our Princess and Her Princess Puzzle


Elise was really excited about finishing her princess puzzle.

First Day of Fall

Welcome Fall!!!

Today is the first day of fall and boy am I excited! We actually got a little preview of the cooler weather right after the hurricane which worked out nice since many people were still without power. I am really looking forward to the nice, cool, breezy weather.


Sunday, September 21, 2008

Where does the time go?

I should be in bed already, seeing as it is getting close to midnight and I have to be up at 6am. But here I am, blogging. Go figure.

Between caring for the little one, spending time with the kiddos and the hubby, trying to get the house back in order and get back into our normal routines, I just have not been able to find the time to blog.

Picked Tyler up last Thursday and he is staying here until next Thursday morning. School is out for another week due to excessive damage from Hurricane Ike. Tyler is enjoying it. At least until he learned that he will, in fact, have to make these days up at some point. Bummer.

Picked Elise up from daycare on Friday around 5:30ish. Melanie told me that she takes Elise to Starbucks every Friday morning and gets her either a vanilla scone and chocolate milk or sometimes a donut depending on her mood. She was running late Friday morning and was not able to take her but promised to take her after daycare. So since I picked her up from daycare, I went ahead and took her by Starbucks which she was very excited about... Up until they told me that they were out of scones and donuts! (Many businesses are not yet up and running like normal yet, due to Hurricane Ike) AHH! Thankfully, McDonalds was right across the street and she settled for an ice cream cone and a chocolate milk.

Michael made it home shortly after we did.I cooked dinner and we all ate together. Elise and Ava took a bath together. Elise doesn't like to take a bath without her baby sister now that Ava has a bath seat to sit it. It actually makes the bathing process much faster if you ask me.Shortly after bath time, we did our bedtime routine with Ava and Elise and went to bed ourselves not long after. Saturday, Ava and I picked Andi and Chloe up and headed to the mall (my 3rd time *trying* to go since the Hurricane) which still was not fully up and running either. Some parts of the mall was, but JcPenny was not. I bought Michael 2 pairs of jeans and I need to exchange one of them. They are supposed to be open tomorrow, so we shall see. We headed over to Target to get a few things and them headed home. While I was gone, Michael pulled the weeds in the front flower beds while Elise played with Morgan and Madison. I bought Elise a princess puzzle from Target, so we put that together. She also painted while I cleaned out some of the junk drawers.

We have SO many drawers in the kitchen, that half of them weren't being used. Somehow we have now made use of those drawers and had 7 junk drawers! 7!!! Really!? How we managed to accumulate 7 junk drawers is beyond me. So while Elise painted, I cleaned out the junk drawers and we now only have 3. Still seems like quite a few, but technically not all of it is junk per say. One drawer has light bulbs and picture hanging stuff, another has batteries and the other has junk. I feel much better about our junk drawers.

Moving on...

While cleaning out the previously mentioned junk drawers, Elise happened to see the tape and decided that she wanted to "tape stuff". So I folded a piece of computer paper in half and drew the outline of half a heart. She cut it out, unfolded it and used about 5 large pieces of tape to put it on the refrigerator. Beautiful. :)

We all went together (including Tyler!) to take Elise home. After dropping her off, we drove by the house that Michael grew up in (his Dad built it) to see if it made it through the hurricane. No damage to that house, but LOTS of trees and limbs down in the area. We drove around and observed while Mike told us childhood memories. That was a nice family moment. :)

Went to church this morning. Michael watched the Texans (they sucked). Tracy and Bob came by to use our dryer (theirs broke). Michael left for work and Ava, Tyler and I went to my Dad's for dinner. Pot Roast, YUM!

Ava is getting really close to crawling. We video taped her at my Dad's house tonight. I enjoyed visiting with them. Ava was exhausted when we got home. I didn't even rock her tonight like I do every night. I just laid her in bed and she was out within seconds.

She says Ma-Ma now, as of yesterday, but that's another post for another day. It is now midnight, and I really need to get to bed.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Hurricane Ike









Hurricane Ike was expected to hit late Friday night (09/12/08) or early Sunday morning (09/13/08) so after much thought I decided I wanted to leave on Wednesday night. I was told that I was "panicking" and that there was no need to risk leaving late at night by myself with the baby but I was determined to get out of here before everyone else decided to leave. I was afraid that we would have the same evacuation problems that we had for Rita (took us 16 hours for a drive that normally takes 2!) and there was NO WAY I was going to take the chance of being stuck in traffic for that long with Ava.

By the time I got everything together, stopped by the store and stocked up on baby food, water...etc and took Amber and the cat to my moms, it was about midnight. So Ava and I slept at moms from about 1am to 3:30am and I was on the road by 4am on Thursday morning. We evacuated to my Mother-In-Laws place about 3 1/2 hours away.

My mom, step-dad and the kids stayed behind as well as my husband. Michael ended up heading over to us Friday afternoon. I was extremely worried about my family that stayed behind to ride out the storm, but am thankful to say that they are all ok. Our family was very blessed to have minimal, if any, damage to our homes. Electricity was out everywhere and still is in lots of places. We got our power back on Sunday night, thankfully.

I feel horrible for the many people that have lost their homes. I drove around the other day offering food, water and ice to those who were still without electricity. I have tried to help out others as much as I possibly can. We actually met a few of our neighbors that we hadn't met before. One of these neighbors cooked a bunch of steaks, chicken and hot dogs and invited everyone on our block to come eat. It's great how everyone pulls together to help each other out in a time like this.

This has really opened my eyes to all the many things that I have taken for granted. Like running to the grocery store and getting everything I need! Many stores and restaurants and so forth have not yet opened. Some places are opening during the day but only running off generators. I was able to get a gallon of milk at Wal-mart today, but still have not been able to buy any meats or other dairy products. (thankfully, I have enough for a little while) I am really looking forward to getting back into the swing of things.

Here are a few photos that a friend uploaded on Myspace. I took a few myself but have not uploaded them yet.

**I am not able to upload any photos to blogger at this time, but will soon.**

Sunday, September 7, 2008

Her 1st Cold =[

My little munchkin has her first real cold. It started today and she is just miserable. It breaks my heart, poor baby. If she is worse tomorrow, I think I am going to go ahead and take her to the doctor. She just got off of her anti-biotics a few days ago so I am pretty sure there isn't really anything they can do for a cold, but I think I will just take her for my own piece of mind. I feel terrible for her.

Saturday after picking Elise up, we all headed to Home Depot to pick up a few supplies. Michael added 2 more poles in the closet to make more hanging space in there. I LOVE IT! Ava doesn't have her own closet so it's nice to have more room in there to hang her clothes as well.

Now to the bad part about Saturday...

Ava rolled off of the couch and onto the floor! I was sitting on the couch with her, changing her diaper and Elise was asking me where Mike was. I turned to her to tell her that he was out front with the neighbors and when I turned back to Ava, she was rolling off. She landed on her side, curled up in a ball... And screamed bloody murder! I immediately picked her up and held her close. I told Elise to go get Daddy and she just stood there looking at me. She was terrified. And so was I. I felt like my heart had been torn out of my chest. By the time I made it to the front door and called for Mike, she had stopped screaming but was still crying a little. We checked her out and felt all over for any sensitive spots but she was fine. I think it scared her more than anything. I felt HORRIBLE!!! I called my mom and cried. It makes me sad just thinking about it. My poor little girl...

Today Elise and I ran to HEB for some groceries and steaks, potatoes and shuck corn for dinner tonight. When we got home, Elise played with the girls for a little while before Michael took her home. Eric threw the steaks on the grill this evening. Raina cooked the corn and I made the baked potatoes. It was a YUMMY dinner.

Amber bought the 1st season of Gossip Girl, so we have been watching that tonight, but I think it's time for bed here pretty shortly. 5:45 is gonna come really fast in the morning. :)

Goodnight all.

Thanks Andi!

Andi brought over the excersaucer that her mother had at her house. Andi has one just like it at home for Chloe, so she brought this one over for the girls to use. I think Ava likes this one better than hers!

Daddy's Girl

Daddy and Ava rooting for the Texans! (She is even wearing a Texans shirt!)
(too bad the game sucked today!)

Martin and Crystals Wedding

Saturday evening, Michael, Elise, Ava and I went to our friends' wedding at Chabuca's. It was SO pretty! Ava slept up until right before the ceremony started and was a little fussy after that so we didnt stay for the reception. But I was glad we were at least able to be there for the ceremony.
Crystal and Martin
Michael and Elise waiting for the ceremony
Ava
Ava, Elise and I
Elise took this picture...

"I love to feed my sissy because that's why I love her" -Elise


Thursday, September 4, 2008

Playroom!!!

I finished the playroom. Well for now at least. As Ava gets older and the toys start to accumulate, I would like to get some cute storage bins and so forth but for now, I am happy with the way it turned out. And the only money I spent was on the rug! WOO HOO!

I moved Ava's changing table into the playroom because I never use it in her room. I figured it would get used more in there because I store Chloe's diapers and wipes and stuff in there as well.


Raina gave me a little table and chairs as well as another excersaucer that she was getting rid of. And Andi gave me the toy in the bottom left hand corner (Thanks Andi). I think the girls have a pretty nice little play area if you ask me. :)


Monday, September 1, 2008

Playing in her new playroom

I love this picture! She looks like a little doll.
Playing in her playroom. I love her little bandanna
Mommy's happy baby girl
She's so pretty
And now she's yelling at the camera. LOL
Beautiful Baby