"Mama"

Lexie has finally been consistent with saying "Mama" this week. I'm loving it! She has also finally stopped the army crawl and is now doing the real thing. I'm excited, but also exhausted trying to keep her contained. She is definitely more independent than Caleb was at that age.

Today was my day off with the kids. We went with Greg to pick out the final plants with the guys doing our landscaping. We have our deck in, so the plants are the last part. I'm so excited to see the final product. Then we went to get Caleb's first big boy bike.

He had been talking about it since we visited his cousins and rode their bikes to the park Labor Day weekend. Then I took the kids to a bounce house place to get all remaining energy drained. Haha! I was surprised to find that Lexie enjoyed it just as much as Caleb. She climbed her way up the bounce house ladder behind Caleb by herself, then enjoyed sliding down the big slides with me. We even did some jumping with her in one bounce house. I was ready for a nap after our busy morning. I made Caleb a nice healthy meal later that he apparently did not want to eat. When I asked him to sit and finish his food he said, very seriously, "Oh Mom! I forgot, I'm allergic." I asked him if he knew what that meant and he said "that I can't eat that." What a toot! But nice try though.

Here are some pics from his friend Jonah's birthday party. His Mom let the kids make their own cupcakes. Caleb's was very original!!

Caleb's Soccer game

Caleb has his first soccer game with his new fall team.I love the red and black! Only 2 of the other kids on his team have played before, so Caleb had an advantage over the other kids. He played the entire game since a few kids didn't even want to get on the field. I was so proud of him, he did awesome. But I had to remind him a few times to let his teammates kick the ball too. He would get all shy after making a goal like it was nothing, but of course welcomed the cheers.

Lexie enjoyed watching the game with Daddy.

She was content getting to sit in the shade and people watch.

Flu shot/Family Pics

We have already had some positive flu tests at the office, so I wanted to get the kids vaccinated early. I took them up to my clinic to get their shots on my day off. Caleb is usually very brave about shots, but this time not so much. He volunteered Lexie to go first. Lex only cried for a second then gave poor nurse Cendy a nasty look. Caleb decided to try and move and struggle, so that became more difficult. And of course it wasn't as bad as he thought. (So not looking forward to his four year shots scheduled next month.) It made him all better when he was spoiled by everyone at the office with candy and stickers. I had promised we would go and look for a Halloween costume, so next we headed to Party City. He really wanted to be a scary bad guy, with a weapon of course. I would not allow a scary mask, so we finally agreed on the pirate costume. A "scary bad guy" with a weapon. He loved the eye patch and pirate hat. On the way home I asked Caleb what he thought we should dress Lex as, and he said " I want her to be my matey." So I guess my sweet baby girl will also be a scary pirate. I was so excited to get the pictures from our family photo shoot. They turned out great!

Now where to put all these pics!

Will you marry me?

Caleb cracked me up tonight with his usual funny comments. We were heading upstairs to get ready for bed and he was carrying his new play shotgun daddy bought him for his birthday. He turned and slammed it into the wall. I gasped and asked him to be careful. He replied "Sorry mommy. I just don't know why daddy bought me this gun. It's dangerous for me and it hits walls." I laughed and agreed with his statement, I sure wasn't in on buying a shotgun pretend or not. While Greg and I were tucking him in, he looked at me and asked "when I'm an adult like you, will you marry me?" Greg argued that he was already married to me, but Caleb thought he could override that. "We can get married at the wedding like when I danced with that girl." Referring to my cousins wedding where he danced all night long. I told him of course I would marry him. I love this age of sweet innocence. Caleb is definitely my sensitive child, who loves to snuggle and show affection. Lexie on the other hand does not enjoy cuddles or being rocked and held. She will fight me every night I try to rock and sing to her. Maybe its my singing! But she prefers to just be put in her crib and fall asleep sucking her thumb and holding a blanket to comfort her. My mom says I was just the same. I guess the curse holds true, "I hope you have a daughter who is just like you." Which means I am not looking forward to the teenage years.

Fun with Lex

Today was our first day back to a regular routine after a busy weekend. I was super busy at work, so was looking forward to picking up the kids and getting some sweet hugs and kisses. Caleb was so excited to inform me how good he was today and that he "didn't do anything wrong ." And I was to inform daddy of his success and his smiley face on his report. I was very proud of his good choices. Lex was getting sleepy when I picked her up, but became playful on the way home with Caleb entertaining her. He was teaching her how to clap. "You clap like this baby Lexie." Then she actually would clap and giggle. It was soo cute! She continued to giggle and clap at Caleb's insistence . He commented "she's getting to be a big baby mommy. Soon she will walk. But I'll have to teach her how." When we got home daddy already had dinner cooking before he left us to go to a meeting. So I was able to focus on getting Lex fed and bathed. She escaped me and headed for the bathroom when she heard the water running. She got to the tub and pulled herself up trying to lift her leg over the side. She really loves her baths. She gets mad when its time to get out and throws herself backward when it's time to get out. During dinner with Caleb he informed me that Katie bug drew a picture for him and that she and Kinlee were his "boyfriend". Scary to think about already! Then he said Katie bug wants to marry him. When I asked if I could attend the wedding he said "its not at the wedding its at school silly, and you have to work." So funny, I wish I could be a fly on the wall during Caleb's conversations with his friends at school.

Caleb was wanting to run an errand with me in his boots and batman mask. I had to take a picture. I am so using this in his high school yearbook!!!

Labor Day Weekend in Lubbock

We decided to spend the Labor Day Weekend at my older sister's, Steph, house in Lubbock. We took off Friday so we could get an early start on the long trip. Fortunately we got to take a break in Abilene while we visited with our good friends Joby and Shae. Caleb got to play with their son Dakota for a couple of hours while we ate lunch and visited. Then we got back on the road to Lubbock, getting there about the same time as my younger sister Dani and her hubby, Rhett did. We hadn't all been together in a while, so it was nice to catch up.

Saturday morning we took the kids to the park to enjoy the nice cooler morning. Caleb enjoyed riding bikes to the park and hanging out with his cousins and their neighbor friends.

They played constantly all weekend with little to no rest except when they passed out each night!Lexie loved Steph's pantry, constantly taking things out and then putting them back in. Why do we spend so much money on toys? My niece Maegan and her friend came in to visit as well, so us girls headed off to shop and get a pedicure that afternoon.

We had some crazy toenails.

Then we enjoyed being lazy with the kids while the guys cooked out. Sunday we headed to my Alma Mater to do some tailgating before Greg and I went to the game. Thankfully Dani and Rhett, silly Longhorn fans, were willing to keep Lex while we headed to the game. But we didn't leave her without getting her ready for game time!

Lexie loved having so much attention from everyone.Caleb got to enjoy the pre-game festivities with us.

I explained how I had gone to school there and so far have successfully brainwashed him into attending Tech as well. "I want to go to school here when I'm older too mommy."

We got a picture with the Masked Rider and bought a few more souvenirs before sending him home with Mike and Steph.

It was a hot day, but thankfully the shade came down over our seats pretty quickly. It was nice to see a Tech game in person again, it had been way too long.

After the game we all met up to eat out and avoid having to clean up after so many people.

As you can see Caleb was also trying to be manipulated by my silly Longhorn relatives. But I'll keep working on him.

Lex got to eat her first spaghetti dinner.Then we celebrated Dani's birthday with some yummy cake and cookies.

The rest of the weekend we just enjoyed being with our family before having to make the long journey back to Ft Worth

Caleb's Letter from School

We have been having some problems with Caleb playing and not listening during mat time at school according to his daily comments sheet. They have a folder to check each day for projects to take home and occasional comments from the teacher. His folder has had frowny faces for the first 2 days this week. Then yesterday we actually got a parent /teacher communication letter to inform me of first how "excited" they are to have him in the class, but that they have had trouble with him trying to solve "problems" on his own, and not listening the first time asked. So we talked to Caleb about the letter and how we should act in class. The next day I reminded him about our talk before I took him to school and he said "but it's so hard to be good." I almost laughed out loud at that one. Fortunately when I picked him up from school he had a smiley face on his folder. He was so cute waiting for me to read the folder and then informed me "I didn't do any bad things today." Lets just hope we can keep that up. Greg has been out of town for the last few days Dove Hunting, so it's just been the kiddos and I at home. Though I miss having Greg home, it was fun having one on one time with the kids. Caleb slept with me every night, so we could get up extra early each morning for school. And he was a big helper for me with baby Lex.