The Kearns Cafe

Beautiful Eyes...I Heart Faces Challenge

2011-08-15T08:45:00.000-07:00

So I just got a new camera and am learning how to use it. I always enjoy looking at the amazing pictures on I Heart Faces and thought I would join the fun. Fortunately, I have two of the best models ever in Mason and Reese. One tends to be a little more helpful than the other when the camera comes out. Although you can't tell in this picture, Reese has the most beautiful blue eyes and we are still amazed since the rest of us all have brown eyes. Thanks for checking in!

I Heart Faces.com

It's Been a While...

2011-08-15T08:43:00.000-07:00

Well, I have no excuse other than Facebook took over. I would like to add more stories to my photos though so I am making an effort to keep up my blog. So from here on out there should be more of us to see, for all of the 2 or 3 people that might check in on us :)

Be Blessed!

Poser

2010-08-20T04:40:00.001-07:00

So this time I only went 3 weeks between posts instead of 6 months...that's better already.

Just wanted to share some recent pictures and a video. Since the last post, Mason turned 5 and had a trash truck themed birthday party. Of course, I don't have any pictures to post from the party yet but I am working on it.

I have been training for a figure competition that is now 3 weeks away and Reese has apparently been watching closely. Check out her posing routine...her turns crack me up!

Reese has also been a little sick lately and this morning she was not a happy waker-upper...nor was her hair.

Evidently, I have fallen behind on capturing childhood moments because I don't have single new picture of Mason to post. I'll have to take care of that this weekend and update with some new ones soon.

Catching up...

2010-07-23T06:47:00.001-07:00

Okay, so it's been a while...I apologize. At the end of the day I just didn't seem to find the time to update but I am planning to return to my blog on a regular basis for those of you who don't follow facebook.

Here's a summary of the last 6 months:

Reese:

turned 2 years old

gave up her pacifier

sleeps in a sort of toddler bed

talks A LOT now

loves the color blue

can count some

says kisses are gross

still does everything her brother does

refuses to call Mason by his name, only "Bubba"

wears her frog boots everywhere and thinks she can jump higher in them

Mason:

is making huge strides in his speech

is trying to talk to adults more (and kids too)

learned to swim and loves going underwater

won't let me give him kisses anymore

loves to ride his bike and we even had to adjust it for height

likes to watch scary movies (as scary as an almost 5 year old can handle)

managed to increase his infatuation with trash trucks

colors in the lines

can write his alphabet

Gary:

is finishing up his fellowship program which has been 5 years in the making

got a new bar-b-que smoker and likes to experiment on the weekends

learned a really cool therapeutic technique called dry-needling that he uses a lot now on me

and his patients

Lyn:

just found that getting up early makes for a less stressful day

made some changes with work so that I could be there more for the kids when school starts in the fall

is venturing out and training for a figure competition in September (yikes!)

The kids and I went to the beach for the first time with a long road trip to Galveston to visit some friends. We also took a mini family vacation to Maryland and Washington D.C. to visit family and friends...boy was that hot!

The next few months have a lot in store for the entire family so I will definitely do a better job of keeping everyone posted.

Raindeer boots

2009-12-29T19:15:00.000-08:00

Sorry it's been a while since the last update. We have been busy, yet lazy at times, so I have a lot to catch you up on. We were able to go to my parents for an early Christmas weekend and were met with a lot of rain. Mom had warned us about the previous amount of rainfall and suggested we bring some rain boots. I had so much fun just shopping for Reese some rain boots. Mom picked some up for Mason, boys are so easy. Mason was a bit confused though and kept calling them "rain deer" boots.

So, if you give kids rain boots, they must use them to their maximum potential. My mom was thrilled to be able to get these city kids dirty, not just dirty, but wet and dirty. Love ya mom!

I did it!

2009-11-29T18:56:00.000-08:00

I did it! I walked my half-marathon over the Thanksgiving break. It was awesome! You wouldn't think that one would need to train for "just walking" 13.1 miles, but let me be the first to say it wasn't as easy as one would think. Miles 7 and 12 were the hardest, by far. My mom did the majority of it with me with a combination of running and walking (thanks mom!). She also acted as my gopher, refilling my water bottle and bringing me a phone every once in a while. Extremely helpful! Gary and the kids came for the last 2 miles or so to help encourage me. Mason ran the last 1/2 mile or so and kept telling me to slow down and walk. I would have to keep telling him I already WAS walking. It was hilarious when he first started running with me and said...while laughimg and sounding surprised, 'Mommy, I didn't know you could run!?!?"

I walked all 13.1 miles on a really nice wooded, hard sand packed 1 mile track near my hometown. It's one of those little jewels that you take for granted until you move away and realize how lucky you were to have it.

My goal was to finish in 3:30, but instead I finished in 3:13 averaging 14:44 minute miles. I know I may look funny walking fast sometimes, but I am just thankful that I can.

So, thanks to everyone that helped along the way and to Gary and my mom for watching the kids and keeping me going the day of the race.

My next adventure will be in March walking the half at the Dallas Rock-n-Roll half-marathon. I'd love to have some company!

A little laugh for your morning

2009-11-25T05:55:00.001-08:00

Mason has cracked me up lately with some of his sayings...

Whenever we playfully get onto the kids we sometimes say their full names in addition to adding "burger" to the end of Kearns. Grandpa started it. So we'll say "Mason Kearnsburger!" and they think it's funny. Well recently I have heard Mason get mad at Reese and would yell "Reese Kearnsburger" at her, which cracked me up because he was so serious. Apparently yesterday he was really mad at me and looked me straight in the face and yelled "Mommy Kearnsburger!". I know I was supposed to get onto him for yelling at me but I couldn't stop laughing instead. I will probably pay for that mistake later.

We put the Christmas tree up last night with just the lights for the kids. This morning Mason kept turning the lights off on the tree and I asked him why...he said he didn't want to waste power, in the most "duh" kind of tone. He did say his w's correctly though :)

Have a Blessed day!

Update a little late

2009-11-19T18:42:00.000-08:00

So it seems that I have fallen behind on updating the goings on around here. We went to the Heard Museum a few weeks back and as usual Mason loved it. Reese wasn't too sure about it and preferred to be held as we walked throughout the exhibit. Makes for a long walk, but I didn't mind the extra cuddling.Despite having been sick a couple of weeks in October and not having much of an appetite during that time, this little girl has managed to gain 8 ounces and grow 1.25 inches taller. That puts her in the 3rd percentile for weight and the 50th for height. That's right...the 50th! Her pants have turned into capris almost overnight it seems.
This week we decided to take a mini-vacation and go to the Great Wolf Lodge in Grapevine. The kids absolutely loved it. Mason probably went up and down the slides at least 50-60 times in the less than 24 hours that we were there. Reese enjoyed it too but she was shivering most of the time and a little scared of some of the water features, but when we tried to take her life jacket off and go back to the room she would throw a fit. The best part of the trip for me was seeing them sleep in the bunk beds in the kid den suite. Reese slept all night on the bottom bunk and she looked so tiny. I kept sneaking in just to watch her sleep because she looked so adorable. Mason loved the top bunk and was very proud of himself for being a big enough boy to climb up himself. Gary was absolutely exhausted and was asleep before 9. We will definitely be going back but maybe when Mason is tall enough to ride the big rides. My other favorite part of our stay was when the boys were at the water park and Reese and I were getting ready for bed. She loves all things girly related and wanted to blow dry her own hair. How cute is she???

Have a Blessed day!

Ladybugs and spiders

2009-11-05T18:21:00.000-08:00

This year was Reese's first trick-or-treating experience, which was helped by having a professional standing by in Mason. I have to say that Reese made the cutest little ladybug ever.

Mason and his little friends, Caden, Cohen and Zander.
Mason leading the way showing Reese how it's done.
What cracks me up is that Mason is usually very shy even around people he knows. But, if there is candy involved, he apparently knows no strangers. He was out ahead of everyone, the first at each door, the first to ring the doorbell and the usually the first to say "happy halloween!". He even went another hour after our group was finished trick-or-treating and he and Gary walked the majority of our neighborhood. Reese threw a fit when I took her ladybug outfit off. Poor little girl was tired after all that walking. Can't wait for next year!

My favorite walk

2009-11-01T19:22:00.001-08:00

I look forward to my long walks on the weekend because I usually follow the same route. Today was no exception as I did my 8 mile trek. A little more than a mile into the course (and again at mile 7.5 today), I round this one particular curve in the path and come across this...and every time I think what a beautiful place for pictures and I would imagine the kids running around under the canopy of the trees on the incredible green grass. Well, today I had Gary meet me with the kids at the end of my walk and we did just that.
And if I do say so myself, today's photos didn't disappoint. They turned out exactly like I pictured in my mind.
They didn't stay still for very long at all, but it was long enough to get this picture, which happens to be one of my new favorites.

Mason took the time to teach Reese how to blow on a dandelion, but doesn't quite understand about the making a wish part first.
So now when I walk past this particular spot I won't have to imagine the kids running around under the trees anymore.

It was such a beautiful day!

Kleenex alert

2009-10-23T16:56:00.000-07:00

I don't know this lady, but as a mother, I couldn't help but want to share her story. Warning: you'll need some Kleenex.

Random updates

2009-10-22T18:49:00.000-07:00

Ignore the fact that he colored a Hello Kitty page (Reese's girly stuff of course), just look at how well Mason stayed in the lines. Seriously, he went from coloring all over the page last week to all of a sudden coloring in the lines with different colors.
Halloween preview: Spiderman
Ladybug (the cutest ladybug ever I might add)
This was Mason's first ever drawing. It's a picture of me, can't you tell?
They love Candyland right now. Reese got it all out by herself.

So they tried to play it together, but they didn't get too far by themselves.

As of today, Mason, Reese and I all have strep throat so we are just hanging around the house trying not to go stir crazy. It's only day one so I think it may get worse before it gets better. Like I keep saying, it could be much worse. We are so thankful!

Full fat yogurt

2009-10-21T13:04:00.000-07:00

So most of you know we have been trying to add some calories (good calories, not empty calories) to Reese's diet to help with some weight gain. I recently found some awesome yogurt for her, Liberte Mediterranee, that has 250 calories in each 6 ounce serving. We previously used Yobaby Yogurt, but it only had 110 calories in each 4 ounce serving. I was excited when I found it because there is no high fructose corn syrup or artificial flavoring added at all. I will have to say that it is not the cheapest thing out there, but it's manageable at $1.19 each, especially when I usually give it to her every other day. This girl loves all thing dairy and would live off of yogurt ("ya-ya" as she says) and string cheese if she could.

Warning: do not eat what she doesn't eat, afterall it's full fat yogurt.

These two...

2009-10-20T18:38:00.000-07:00

...are loving playing together now. Their current favorites are hide and seek, reading books, and making tents. I came home today to find that Gary had rearranged our couches just to make an amazing tent for the kiddos. They love picnics in the living room, helping me clean anything they can reach with wipes, and putting stickers on the floor.

He...has mastered some new speech sounds. He can say 'w', 'f', and 'l' sounds now which has made a huge difference with his intelligibility. Unfortunately, we had to stop his speech therapy after learning our insurance didn't cover it, but we seem to be making great strides even after stopping therapy. He has alsolearned how to manipulate us (mainly daddy and grandma & grandpa because it doesn't work on me) by using Reese. A typical conversation may look like this:

Mason: "Let's play duck, duck, goose!"

Us: "No, not right now bud, maybe later."

Mason: "Reese, do you want to play duck, duck, goose?"

Reese: head nod here with "eh uh"

Mason: "Reese, you do? Yeah!"

Mason to us: "Reese wants to play duck, duck goose".

She...has gained a pound. Yeah! We have been fattening her up with lots of butter, cheese, and some Kid Essential Boost to her milk. Her shoe fascination has grown to include my heels. Surprisingly enough, she can actually walk in them. Too cute! She is scared of the play-do spaghetti maker. For some reason, it freaks her out when Mason pushes the play-do through it.

Celina pumpkin farm pictures (warning: picture overload)

2009-10-16T20:25:00.000-07:00

Wow, it was a beautiful day! We took the opportunity to get out and head to the pumpkin patch in Celina. Mason had been to one 2 years ago, but this was Reese's first time. She loved it! They both loved it! Even when the hayride we were on got stuck in the close to 2 feet deep mud ruts and it took about 15 minutes for us to be rescued by another tractor. Even when the hayride had to be cut short after getting unstuck when one of the tires came off. Even when the lady next to us threw a temper tantrum about her kids getting yelled at so she in turn yelled at the pumpkin patch owners. We had a great time!

Hope everyone had a wonderful day too!

Head start on Halloween

2009-10-09T06:24:00.000-07:00

Looking back over the last several posts, Mason seems to have been neglected. We really do take pictures of him too. For instance, he has gotten an early start on some Halloween antics. Got to love it!

new page & old purse

2009-10-07T19:30:00.000-07:00

The kids and I are just getting over some colds and an ear infection. Somehow, Gary managed to miss out on all the fun this time around. Reese ended up with a bad ear infection so we had one miserable night where she couldn't sleep. Only later did I find out that there are numbing drops the doctor can prescribe for a bad ear infection. Would have been nice.

I've said it before, Reese is quite the girly girl. Her love for shoes, dresses and purses cracks us up. Although, she also likes to put on Mason's underwear too. She can actually put them on by herself and pulls them up to her knees.

I haven't been up to much lately, but I did finish a page today while Mason managed to put stickers all over my closet door. We did practice his sounds and letters while I was scrapbooking though. In my defense, he asked if we could go to my scrapbooking closet to watch trash trucks on the computer. Of course I said yes, but at least made it educational and did letters and sounds instead of trash trucks on the computer.

Hope you have a Blessed day too!

Reese's 18 month check up

2009-09-30T13:36:00.000-07:00

First of all, I can't believe she is already 18 months old. Nothing could have prepared us for life with a little girl in the house. It's amazing to me how early some of the girly things start, like her love for shoes, purses and dresses. I am fairly certain it's nature and not nurture in that area. Her love for all things trash related though definitely comes for nurture since Mason was the original trash lover in our house. She had her 18 month check-up today and her were her stats for anyone interested...

Height: 31 inches (27th %ile)

Head: 18.75 inches (78th %ile)

Weight: 19 lbs, 7.9 ounces (1st %ile)

At her 15 month check-up she weighed 20 lbs, 2.1 ounces. So she is still on her downward trend of losing a few ounces here and there instead of gaining weight. Right now honestly we don't know what to do. Allergy testing has been put on the back burner since she doesn't really show any other signs of food sensitivity (vomiting). The pediatrician suggested sending her to an endocrinologist if she continued with this trend even though the previous two thyroid blood panels have come back normal. So for now, I am re-referring her to ECI for another dietician evaluation to see if we can up her calorie take anywhere and will weigh her again in 2 months. If she continues with this trend then it's on to the endocrinologist unless our team comes up with another suggestion.

I have to keep reminding myself that she looks healthy, she's happy, and so much fun. But still my instinct tells me this is more than her just being petite.

On a side note, Mason apparently decided he needed to read books at 3 am this morning. Gary thought he heard something so went to check on him and found him sitting in his bed with his lamp on reading books. So we were surprised again when he came downstairs into our room at 5 am. This time he told us there was a spider behind his door in his room and it scared him. So we let him get in bed with us and asked him how he saw it if his light was off and he would just say " I don't know, but it's there". We asked if it was big or little and he said "little", and of course we just humored him and said he could sleep with us. Daddy even told him he killed it earlier but that didn't work. So later that morning, Mason, Reese and I went upstairs to get everyone dressed and what did I find? A little spider on the baseboard behind the door in his room. I totally had to laugh out loud. He was telling the truth.

What a beautiful day!

2009-09-29T17:56:00.000-07:00

I haven't done this in a while, but a friend reminded me that I needed to do it again. A while back I did a post on things that I love...so here's some of my new loves.

I love this picture. I love that Reese and Mason both love to play outside and a simple bottle of bubbles makes their day.

I love that my mom came all the way up to Dallas just because I said I wanted my mom and she didn't even think twice about it.

I love that Mason says thank you to things that don't even require a thank you, but I'm not going to tell him otherwise.

I love Braum's chocolate mix with Reese's Peanut Butter cups, the new Reese's dark chocolate peanut butter cups, and Kashi's raspberry chocolate granola bars. I should probably stop there in my favorite food lists because I could go on and on, and on....

I love the Watters Creek commons area with the bronze ducks and buffalo statues. The kids are so excited just to go there and run around to play tag and sit on the buffalo. Did I mention it's free?

I love that Mason has a sticker collection on the inside of his passenger window in my car. It's a great conversation starter and I will never mistake someone else's car for mine (yes, that has happened before prior to the stickers).

I've said it before...I love our quesadilla maker. It makes the best grilled cheese sandwiches and it's so much faster and easier than the old fashioned stove top way. Exciting information, I know.

I love Mason's imagination and the ease at which he can entertain himself sometimes, I said sometimes, not all the time...

Most of all, I love that I have so much to be thankful for. Have a Blessed day!

Good news!

2009-09-22T19:39:00.000-07:00

Good news! Reese's endoscopy and biopsy results came back normal. So the big things have been ruled out and we have a plan in place for the next couple of months. Next week she has her 18 month check-up and we will get some allergy testing done to see if it may be some simple food allergies keeping her from growing.

Mason is doing awesome with his speech therapy and we are starting to see some carryover at home. They love doing flashcards every night either in the bath tub or sitting on the floor in their pj's. And by they, I mean Reese too. She plops down right next to him and points to the cards or makes some sounds for each one. Cracks me up!

We have some new games around the house now. Some favorites are duck, duck, goose; Candy land; hide and seek; and ring around the rosies. I have to admit, Gary does much better with just playing with the kids than I do and he's a professional at these by now. I just constantly think about what needs to be done around the house instead of just sitting down and playing. So I am working on that.

Some ring around the tree action.

Reese even sounds like she's singing something when she does it.

There's not much more entertaining in our house than an empty box. You may remember the man cave days.

Mason has been really into painting lately and he took some time to teach Reese some basic art techniques.

We have a climber here. She has found she can climb the outside of the stairs and Mason makes sure to tell me if she does.

As always...monkey see monkey do, all the way down to matching bowls.

Have a Blessed day!

Catching up

2009-09-13T10:35:00.000-07:00

Sorry it's been a while since I posted anything of much importance. Here's the latest:

Reese goes in early Wednesday morning for an endoscopy to take a biopsy of her intestines and to check for any other signs of something going on in her GI system. Most of you know, I have been saying since she was 7 months old that I really think something is going on in her tiny little body. Maybe now we will get some answers with this procedure. What really spurred it on recently was the fact that she hasn't gained any weight in the last 3 months. In fact, she saw the GI doctor on June 15 and weighed 20 lbs, 2 ounces and when we went on Friday (a few days shy of 3 months since our last visit) she actually weighed less, 19 lbs 8 ounces. She has not been sick and she actually eats a lot of regular food and drinks a lot of whole milk. She has managed to grow about half an inch taller, but that certainly wouldn't account for a growth spurt. So please keep her in your prayers on Wednesday, and me too so that I don't lose it if there aren't any answers.

On a much brighter note, it's college football time. And that means there is a lot of red and black around our house. Reese is working on her "guns up" and Mason finally has his down.

Scrapbooking retreat

2009-08-23T20:04:00.000-07:00

A couple of weekends ago, I was able to get away for a night and enjoy some scrapbooking with friends. We stayed at the Sisters Hideaway about 30 minutes from my house. So, for those of you interested, here are the layouts I did that weekend. Please ignore the fact that some of the pictures are crooked or blurry...I haven't quite figured out the perfect way to take pictures of my layouts.

what's going on here?

2009-08-21T06:36:00.001-07:00

Not much really, that's why there haven't been many posts lately. Here's a rundown though:

Mason - just turned 4. We didn't have much of a party but we did take him to Chuck E. Cheese and then had some cake at home. He is such an easy kid to please these days. He started speech therapy this week for problems with articulation. He starts Mother's Day Out Sept. 1st and he is actually excited about going back to school. (It's just two days a week)

Reese - this little girl is something else alright. She has somewhat of a temper at times, but then will turn right around and love all over me. She is definitely a mama's girl! We are still in the process of trying to figure out what's going on with her. She hasn't gained much weight lately, in fact, she lost a little less than a pound in the last 6 weeks when obviously she should be getting bigger. We will most likely do more bloodwork next week to check her iron levels again to see if maybe that endoscopy to check for celiac disease is warranted. For now though, she is happy and healthy looking, just small.

Gary - has been busy with continuing education. He has about 1 year left of a 5 year long certification and fellowship program that will make him highly specialized in orthopedic manual therapy. I forget all the letters that will go behind him name, but if you ask him, that's not the important part of it anyway (the letters that is). He just wants to be able to treat his patients to the best of his ability. Gary has also been involved in a lot of fellowship at church and is about to embark on a leadership project at church too. He's a busy guy, but spends every extra minute he can playing with the kiddos and making us happy.

Me - I am 5 weeks into my training to walk the half-marathon sometime in October. I really enjoy the long walks by myself, but sometimes would love to have a walking partner. I have a 6 mile walk ahead of me this weekend. Gary and I did manage to get away this past weekend and head down to Austin without the kiddos. We stayed at Barton Creek and it was soooo nice! Of course, that internal alarm clock went off at 7:30 so we didn't even get to sleep in. Our main objective was to eat some really good, off the beaten path, authentic Austin food, and we were successful. We ate some delicious burgers at Hut's Burgers on 6th street with a friend of mine, Jamie and her husband, that I have known for 27 years (sorry Jamie if that makes you feel old). Then we ate some good bbq at The County Line and then some awesome tacos at Torchy's Tacos.

Other than that, there's really not that much going on here. We have a couple of exciting weekends planned ahead with cousin Austin coming to visit and then the kiddos and I are going to make the trip to my parents soon. We need our southeast Texas fix soon.

Have a blessed day!

Charlie Brown

2009-08-18T20:10:00.000-07:00

I can't remember if I ever posted this before, but this has to be one of my most favorite pictures of Mason to date. Just his expression cracks me up, then his stance, then of course his Charlie Brown shirt.

Popsicle rookie

2009-08-18T19:54:00.000-07:00

Let me apologize in advance for the layout of this post. After getting the pictures on here, I didn't feel like spending another 30 minutes reformatting it. Sorry.

I have said in the past that Reese has to do whatever Mason is doing, and now that goes for eating whatever he is eating. That includes popsicles. This is Reese's first time eating a popsicle by herself. It's funny to see how her expression changes after a few licks. I think she only ate about 1/4 of it before leaving it on the TV stand at the base of the TV, which I did not find until later and by that time it had melted everywhere. Sometime before then, she must have saw something she liked on TV because there was also dried green popsicle juice on the TV at about her height. Mason was giving her instructions on how to hold her popsicle and lick it correctly. Hilarious!

The queso gene

2009-08-12T09:34:00.000-07:00

Apparently, both of my children inherited the love of queso gene. We had dinner at Tin Star last night, which was actually Mason's request because he wanted chips and queso, and she kept pointing to the queso. So we gave her a chip with a tiny taste of queso on it and she LOVED it So we gave her some on her plate and her own chip and she knew exactly what to do. Not to mention, Tin Star does have some awesome queso.

Workout buddies

2009-08-02T18:52:00.000-07:00

Gary and I have two little workout buddies. They love to try everything we do and tonight it was pull-ups. We couldn't believe that little Reese was able to hang there by herself. Mason cracked us up showing off doing one handed pull-ups. I'll have to get some video of them on the Bosu ball because it might be crazier than the pull-ups.

Poor baby

2009-07-29T19:08:00.000-07:00

This girl is something else...Thank goodness we had decided to stop at 2. I'm not sure a third would have fared so well with Reese around. She may look cute, adorable, and innocent...but boy does she have a much different side to her at times. She cracks us up!

A new adventure

2009-07-24T10:22:00.000-07:00

This is what I've been up to lately. Check it out and if you're interested, please join me! The more the merrier!

not much new here

2009-07-17T19:59:00.000-07:00

I don't have much new or interesting information to share today, so instead, I thought I would share my 2 latest scrapbook pages completed. Sorry if it bores you, but I happen to love this hobby!I always feel it necessary to one for each of them each time as to not show any favoritism. Although, after 3 years of doing all boy pages, it was so nice to get to use girly stuff.

Backyard Beach Party

2009-07-10T19:45:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine came over today and we had a little backyard beach party. If you are familiar with Phineus and Ferb then you are probably singing the Backyard Beach party song in your head now. We are very familiar with it at this point. Anyway, we broke out the whale pool, slip-n-slide, bubbles, water guns, sandbox, and sprinklers. That's a lot for only 4 kids under the age of 5. Mason has improved his slip-n-slide skills since last summer and can now do it by himself, although, he still prefers for us to throw him down the slip-n-slide. This was Reese's first experience with it and at first she didn't like it at all, but towards the end she was fearless.

The boys definitely enjoyed our homemade popsicles (fresh blueberries, strawberries, bananas, and apple juice blended and frozen).

They also managed to figure out a way that both boys (age almost 4 and 5) could ride a toddler tricycle at the same time.

Monitor no more

2009-07-02T17:17:00.000-07:00

So I just found out today that we have not had Mason's baby monitor on at all for the last 3 nights. I know he's almost 4, so technically he's not a baby, but to not have a monitor anymore seems so grown up. To be honest, it hasn't been of much use lately anyway. He doesn't get up during the night. When he wakes up in the morning he just comes down stairs by himself and either comes in our room to wake us up, or he plays with his toys until we come out of our room on our own. Most of the time we hear him pounding down the stairs though.

Even though it's a totally unrelated picture, I wanted to post it anyway. They don't normally get this close to each other, but obviously they don't care if they're both sleeping.

In a totally unre

Vegas (a long story)

2009-06-30T08:03:00.000-07:00

My sister and I were finally able to get away for the weekend for a belated 30th birthday bash. Better late than never, even if it was 2 years late. No kids, no husbands. It was wonderful! Although, I did miss them terribly.

I flew out first thing Saturday morning and met Ann in Vegas. We hung out by the pool and relaxed, we shopped a lot (but mainly window shopping) even though we knew we could never afford the stores we were in. But, we loved it anyway. We ate delicious food although we didn't eat nearly as much as we normally do because we would lose track of time either shopping our hanging out at the pool. We probably walked at least 5 miles each day... in flip flops. Which was better than what some of the women on the strip we wearing. Speaking of wearing, I'm pretty sure we had at least 4 wardrobe changes each day, including swimsuits, and I think we also have a picture of each outfit.

We saw The Lion King production at the Mandalay Bay theater and it was awesome. Somehow, we didn't realize that it was almost word for word as the movie which made it 2.5 hours long. I messed up and thought the play started at 8:30 but it actually started at 8 so we missed about 20 minutes of it. Plus, I wore a pair of my sister's new shoes so she could wear my new shoes that matched her new dress. It wasn't until we were on our way out to the cab and just found out we were late that I figured out her shoes were not working for me at all. About every 10th step or so the strap would come off my right heel and the 3 inch wedge shoe then became a flip-flop. So without even drinking, I looked like I was drunk trying to walk in her shoes. So because we were running late, I ended up carrying my shoes through the casino to get to the theater faster. The entire race there I was apologizing to her for us being late and she was apologizing to me for her shoes.

From the very beginning I had told Ann no dance clubs. I was pretty adamant about it until we passed by Coyote Ugly and she gave me her puppy dog expression begging me "Please, let's just go in for a little bit and then go home." So I gave in an actually enjoyed it a little. I could tell you that the night might have ended with my sister and I dancing on the bar at Coyote Ugly to Beyonce's Single Ladies, but I don't think anybody would believe me.

I thought we would sleep in late and take naps while we were there, but that was not the case. We had a blast though. Now that we finally made the time for ourselves, we will do it again at our 35th and 40th birthdays.

The real excitement came at the end of my trip. My flight left Vegas at 3:30 and arrived in Dallas at DFW at 9. I made it a point of remembering that I parked my car in the parking garage at B26 when I arrived at the airport on Saturday. So you can imagine my surprise when my car was not at B26, nor was it anywhere near there. I walked back and forth in the parking garage looking for it, retraced my footsteps from inside the terminal and everything, but nothing. I knew that I had pulled into $17/day parking, stayed on the ground level, parked on the left side in a parking spot directly beside a handicapped spot. I knew that I had crossed the street, passed one escalator and went up an elevator, past a baggage claim area, security area, and then onto ticketing where I checked my bag. So needless to say, it was dark, I was tired, and I was starting to freak out. So after about 45 minutes of me looking myself, I gave up and went into the airport and asked security for help. All without trying to breakdown, which I think I was pretty close to at the time. I described to him my path just like I just told you, and he was very nice and called someone on his radio for me. That security guard asked me all the same questions, then took me outside and walked me to his car. Apparently, they have a security car for that very purpose, locating lost vehicles. So with his help, we drove around and found my car. It was exactly where I described it was, except it was at B6 instead of B26. I was so embarrassed. He did praise me for being able to give him so many details though.

I also felt better to know that it happens frequently enough that they have a specific form that I had to sign since I had to ride in their vehicle. It had it's own little check box for lost vehicle. Did I mention that I was tired, ready to get home, and ready to see my kids?

So I made it home at around 11:30 last night. My poor sister didn't make it home until 2 am even though we left Vegas at exactly the same time. So, it definitely could have been worse.

Thanks to Gary for taking such good care of the kiddos while I was away.

Alright, who paid him?

2009-06-21T16:51:00.000-07:00

Mason could do no wrong today after saying to me, "Mommy, why you belly getting smaller?" when I was working out. You better believe I gave him a big smile, with a big hug, and a big kiss, which was immediately followed by letting him watch one of his new favorite movies.

Today's GI appointment

2009-06-15T19:55:00.000-07:00

We had Reese's GI appointment today. I have to say that I really liked Dr. An and his bedside manner and how he looked at things. First of all, like I have said previously, she looks great. He wasn't concerned about her size, but was concerned with her anemia and size together. He flat out said she should not be anemic at this point and instead of giving her iron supplement to mask the anemia, we need to figure out why she is anemic. Like I said, I really liked him, as I have been asking WHY all along. He ordered a urinalysis today to see if she might be "peeing out" red blood cells which could account for her abnormal blood counts. But, he was pretty confident that her anemia and lack of significant weight gain together are one of two things...1) either she is fine and that is just HER normal, or 2) she may have celiac disease. I contemplated not even putting that on here because I'm afraid my mom will google it and get freaked out. You can research just about any medical condition online and get the scariest of results, so I have yet to do online research and don't plan on it either.

So our treatment plan is to take her off the iron supplements, leave her on toddler formula, and re-check her blood levels in 2 months. If they are fine, then we know she's fine. If they remain low, then we will perform an endoscopy to check for inflammation in her intestines. So in the meantime, we will take heart in knowing that she is happy and has been in quite the cuddly, yet drama queen-ish kind of mood lately. Baby girl and started throwing some temper tantrums in the grocery store, something that Mason never did and has yet to do. It must be a girl thing and if this is just a glimpse of things to come..."here comes trouble" as Mason says.

Close supervision required

2009-06-10T09:01:00.001-07:00

Apparently, not just being in the same room is enough supervision for an almost 4 year old with finger paints. So even though there were 2 adults with him, he still managed to squeeze out pretty much the entire bottle of finger paint onto his paper. Actually, it was 4 separate bottles of finger paint. I do have to say though, he did a great job keeping it on the paper, at least he didn't decide to put it elsewhere, and if he were to, thank goodness it was washable.

Forgot to mention

2009-06-07T19:28:00.000-07:00

I forgot to mention earlier that Reese started walking well about 1 week ago. She took her first steps 2 months ago, but never really got the hang of it until last week. Now she wants to walk everywhere. So, I apologize to everyone who has been stuck behind us in the last week. We still only have about one speed right now with occasional spurts of energy, like when mama is trying to pick her up in Target.

On a different note, there's nothing like kids in the sprinklers in the summer. Free and and quite entertaining.

Blood work update

2009-06-06T07:53:00.000-07:00

All of Reese's blood work came back normal! Yeah! She is still showing moderate anemia even with iron-fortified formula and an adult dose of iron supplement. So now we will just follow-up with the pediatrician next month at her 15 month check-up. Thanks for checking in!

Juicy Lucys and Buttaloes

2009-06-05T20:18:00.000-07:00

Our household has recently undergone a reincarnation of sorts as far as cooking is concerned. Gary got a grill for his early Father's Day present and we have put it to good use. Every night we seem to catch some kind of cooking show and we are hooked. Our favorites right now are Man v. Food and Bobby Flay's Grill It. Recently on Man v. Food they did an episode about theJuicy Lucy. We have since made it 3 times and finally got it right. It is D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S, delicious! Of course, we are always trying to eat healthy so we tweaked it a little and made it a buffalo burger instead. Mason, however, cannot say /f/ sounds yet so it comes out buttaloes. We try to see how many times we can get him to say buttalo in a day because it sure is funny.

A few other funny sayings to come out of his mouth this week:

"Reese, why would you do that?!!!" in response to her pushing the buttons on his trash truck movie.

"A little help here (insert sarcastic voice)!" when trying to open the back door by himself.

"Reese, I'm not going to tell you again, stop it!!!" once again when she was playing with buttons.

"Mama, my peepee not hanging out my undies anymore, I fixed it all by myself!" as we were driving down the road on a very long road trip. It was followed by uncontrollable, shaking, silent laughter from Gary and I in the front seat.

Here's a few pictures from our Memorial weekend getaway to the beautiful Texas Hill Country.

Reese loved looking at all the animals from the front seat. She also liked turning on the wipers, radio, air conditioner and any other knob or button she could find.

This is what it looks like when a little boy falls into extremely cold water. Oh, the faces he made.

Daddy trying to show Mason how to skip rocks across the river.

Mason was so excited to see all the animals too. I thought he would be more scared once they got closer, but this mama seemed to be more anxious than anyone else. Some of those horns looked really sharp.

Have a Blessed day!

Failure to thrive

2009-06-02T19:27:00.000-07:00

Does this look like a little girl that is failing to thrive? I would think not, but unfortunately, all the numbers point to it. She has been fighting off something weird these last couple of weeks. She was treated for strep (for the faint of heart, I won't go into detail as to where the strep was, but I will say it wasn't in her throat) with 2 different rounds of antibiotics only to have a 3rd swab taken and come back positive. It was sent off to the lab for a culture, which we found out today, came back negative. So now we are left wondering what is going on with her. To add to that, she has had 4 nights in a row of lots of tossing, turning, and tooting. That's right. I said tooting. The first night we thought it was funny when she was lying between us for about 2 hours. It made us want to check to make sure there wasn't a grown man hiding in the room somewhere by the sound of it. The second night...not so funny. Three hours of inconsolable crying on top of the tossing, turning and tooting. For a mama's girl, this mama couldn't even console her. We tried a car ride at 1:30 in the morning to no avail. What finally worked was a Tylenol suppository, Baby Einstein on the Farm DVD, a pacifier, a recliner, and mama. The next 2 nights were repeats with out the inconsolable crying.

So all that to say, little girl has once again lost a little weight and dropped down to the 5th percentile. We (when I say we, I really mean I) have been pondering doing more extensive bloodwork just to make sure we aren't missing anything. So with her drop in weight and failure to thrive label we went ahead with lots of bloodwork today. Maybe we can find some answers as to why she needs an adult dose of iron along with iron fortified formula at 14 months to maintain borderline normal iron levels.

In the meantime, we are taking her off all dairy products to see if maybe her GI system is temporarily lactose intolerant after 2 rounds of antibiotics and strep. I forgot to ask how long it should take to hear anything back about the bloodwork. So if you don't mind, please just say a little prayer for baby Reese for normal bloodwork and for her to have a little reprieve from her GI issues and lack of sleep.

Have a blessed day!

Up

2009-05-29T19:38:00.000-07:00

I had a very special date with Mason today...we went to see the new movie "Up". We have been watching the previews for close to 2 months now and even recorded a preview so he could watch it whenever he wanted. He was so excited when I told him we were going to go watch a movie at the movie theater. You would ask him where he was going and he would say " we going to go watch a movie theater!" which sounds more like "moody deeder". So we get there and he picks out Reese's Pieces and a Sprite for his snack, which I could not disappoint. As we were walking through the theater, before we even made it to our seats, he kept saying "dis da best moody deeder eder", otherwise known as this is the best movie theater ever. He sat through all the previews and the entire movie in my lap with only a peep out of him every once in a while, other than laughing out loud. Overall, it was another great movie from the people at Pixar.

Best buddies

2009-05-19T19:26:00.000-07:00

It seems Mason and Reese have each chosen their favorite dogs. Mason and Miles tend to play together more and Reese definitely likes to hang out with Jack more. I knew there was another reason we only had 2 kids, because I am not about to get a third dog for a third kiddo :) I caught Reese and Jack being so sweet together today so just thought I would share it with everyone.

A Whole Lotta Avocado

2009-05-19T19:19:00.000-07:00

Baby girl LOVES her avocado!

Laughter Week at I ♥ Faces

2009-05-12T09:45:00.000-07:00

I haven't shared an I ♥ Faces entry in a while so I thought it was about time. This week is laughter, and I immediately knew which picture I would use. Mason was about 18 months old in this picture and I remember he was being super silly and would throw his head back to laugh at either the dogs or Daddy being silly. It didn't take much to crack him up then.

Cutest Pajamas Ever!

2009-05-09T20:09:00.000-07:00

These pajamas, by far, have to be one of my favorite purchases for Reese. There seems to be a running cow theme for her and it doesn't get much cuter than this. Even better, I bought these Gymboree pj's at Kid to Kid for $4.

We went to a friend's party yesterday where there were several babies Reese's age and younger. If it weren't for her head, I'd say she was pretty close in size to the rest of the babies that were up to 6 months younger than her. I had to bring her to the pediatrician this week and when they weighed her, it turns out that she did not gain any weight at all this past month. WHAT?! We really thought that she had been eating a lot more and she LOVES her bottle right now. So still trying to figure out if she is just petite, or if we should be worried.
Meanwhile, the kiddos are starting to learn how to play together a little better. It seems to go a bit smoother outside so we have been playing in the backyard as much as we can.
These two are something else.

Where does he get this stuff?

2009-05-06T17:32:00.000-07:00

As Mason was playing with his very basic (Dollar General) "computer, that is really just a light on a screen and a pen, he told us... "Daddy, this say that we have to go get some ice cream at the store". RRRRIIIIGGGGGHHHTTTT

Today, as he was helping pick up the paper mess he made on the floor he stopped and said..."My belly getting full, I need to stop, that's ok, my belly too full" as he was patting his belly and sounding so pitiful.

After eating one small ice cream sandwich, he asked for another and I said no. His response was..."I have to eat another one because now I small and one more will make me big".

We find this recent spurt in his communication quite hilarious because just weeks ago we were concerned that his communication skills were a bit behind. His teacher also told us the other day he got in trouble for talking too much at school. We were all shocked, including his teacher.

Scrapbook Challenge

2009-05-02T19:39:00.000-07:00

I know, 3 posts in one day, what is going on right? Well, it's been a lazy day so I have had lots of time to play. This is the last post I promise. I finished this page last night and loved her expression when I caught her chewing on one of Mason's art projects from school. Anyway, the challenge was to use something old and I dug into my stash to pull out some random bits of "old" stuff. I should do that more often because I forgot I had some of these lovely pieces.

Dip-dops

2009-05-02T19:09:00.000-07:00

Mason's first pair of flip-flops. He picked them out after we passed them on an isle at Hobby Lobby. We broke the bank and paid $1 for them. It is hilarious to watch him walk in these. Gary says it looks like he is walking in high-heels. Most of the time he doesn't even have them between the correct toes, but he won't let you fix them. Today he said "Look mom, you have the same dip-dops as me".

Three

2009-05-02T12:56:00.000-07:00

The number of teeth it takes for a 13 month old baby girl to grind them to the point that even total strangers walking by in a store can hear. It's pretty bad. She has 2 bottom and 1 recently emerged top tooth and she is working them to her little heart's content. I have heard the best advice is to ignore it otherwise we would be reinforcing it by giving her attention. We are trying that route first. Any suggestion?

Weekend road trip

2009-04-27T20:11:00.000-07:00

We had a great visit at my parent's house this past weekend. Reese and Mason spent the majority of time outdoors as usual. I think Reese may be just as in love with CeeCee's horses as Mason. Mason was able to ride the horses all by himself this weekend, with CeeCee standing as much as 15-20 feet away while she videotaped him reigning and kicking the horses to go. Of course, now we can't get the video to upload so we have no evidence of it. I do have a lot of pictures of them playing in the little pool so that will have to do for now. I have to admit that I was so excited to finally put Reese's first swimsuit on, this adorable ladybug suit that was handed down to us by a total stranger. I couldn't have picked out a better suit myself. Enjoy!

My most embarrassing parenting moment to date

2009-04-22T15:22:00.000-07:00

I'm sure there will be many more mortifying moments as a parent, but in 3.5 years, this is at the top of the list. This afternoon, I thought it would be fun to plug in an old wall phone upstairs that we NEVER use and let mason play with it. I figured since we haven't called anyone on it in about 8 years there would be no redial issue so what's the harm? Well Mason pushed a whole bunch of numbers and said he was talking to the lady, but when I checked there was no one there. So then we actually called grandma and grandpa and Mason "talked" to them for a couple of minutes then said goodbye. Then he pushed a whole lot more buttons and said again he was talking to the lady.

So I check again and say hello, only to have this response...

"This is Allen 911, this is the 2nd phone call we have received from the house and there was no response when we tried to call back, is everything ok?" So my response was a huge gasp followed by apologizing profusely and blaming it on Mason, what any good parent would do, right? So then we go downstairs, and was still shaking a bit from being so embarrassed only to have the door bell ring...

and there was a very nice Allen police officer at the door wanting to know if everything was ok. He was even nice enough to park down the street and walk up to the door to make sure we were ok. So then my embarrassment was beyond words. Well, I did manage to come up with a few, once again apologizing and pointing fingers ( I think I actually, physically pointed my finger at my child). He was very nice though and I greatly appreciated that because he could have gone the really annoyed and irritated route, but he didn't. PSA - don't let your kids play with phones with pre-programmed 911 buttons (which in our case was the C button, how was I supposed to know???)

Sister see, sister do

2009-04-19T19:54:00.000-07:00

Not a whole lot of new information to report since the last post. Mason seems to be completely potty-trained at night now as we have not had any incidents since the pull-ups were retired. He also apparently had a growth spurt because now not only can he reach the pedals on his bicycle, he can actually propel it down the street by himself, he's just not that good at steering and braking yet.

Reese has the slowest moving tooth ever. She has been working on one of her top teeth for about a month now and it still hasn't formally introduced itself yet. Even without that top tooth in, she can still leave a mark with those 2 bottom teeth when she bites, which is what she has starting doing lately for fun. She seems to have a special affinity for my big toe. Her other new trait that cracks us up...she laughs at herself when she toots. Hilarious!

Here's just a few pics of them playing recently. Of course, Reese wants to do everything Mason does, and playing at the chalkboard is no exception. I thought she had spit up this afternoon only to realize she had been eating some of the chalk.

Check-ups & pull-ups

2009-04-13T19:12:00.000-07:00

We were a little late, but we finally had Reese's 12 month check-up today. She was sick last week and then before that we were waiting to see how her new iron supplement would fare. So drumroll please....

Weight: 18 lbs, 12.9 ounces (10th percentile)

Height: 29 inches (37th percentile)

Head: 18 1/4 cm (87th percentile)

After trying a higher strength iron-only supplement, Reese's anemia is now in the very bottom of the normal range. Due to the fact that her iron levels are finally normal only with iron fortified formula and an iron supplement, we will be continuing formula until she is 15 months and holding off on milk. She still doesn't eat enough table foods to maintain her iron levels so we will just be on formula a tad bit longer. That also means that my baby, who is no longer a baby, gets to be my baby for a few more months too.

So, if anyone has any unwanted Enfamil coupons lying around, feel free to send them my way :)

Update on Mason, he likes silly string. He especially likes it when Daddy pretends to be sneezing on him with it. He also likes to spray the dogs, but they aren't a big fan of the silly string.

We are in the process of marking off another big milestone for Mason. We are 2 for 2 with no pull-ups at night. We are so proud of him!

Prerequisite bluebonnet pictures in Texas

2009-04-10T19:58:00.000-07:00

I have to admit, these are the first bluebonnet pictures I have ever taken and I have lived in Texas all my life. I guess it was well worth the wait since this is the bluebonnet season since having both my precious babies.

They were never looking at the camera at the same time. That's typical.
She wasn't quite so sure of the bluebonnets (or the little bees buzzing around).

I love this expression!
He is usually a little more photogenic that this, but in his defense, it was bright out today.
I think it was a record, about 34 pictures in about 1 minute and then we were gone. Can't wait until next year!

Cow cake explained

2009-04-05T19:25:00.000-07:00

A friend asked why I chose a cow cake for Reese so I'll take a few minutes to explain. Right now, she only has one word that she says without us prompting and that is "brother" which actually comes out as "bubba or butter" in a slow voice. So cute. Back to the cow. That was her first animal sound she had and it started about 2 or 3 weeks ago. Anytime she sees a cow anywhere in books or on TV she points and says "moo" which doesn't really sound like "moo" but we know that's what it is. I just thought it would be adorable to see her pointing and moo-ing at the cow cake, and it was.

The Not-Birthday Party

2009-04-05T14:08:00.000-07:00

In honor of Reese turning one last week, we had a small gathering to celebrate her birthday, but it wasn't a party. For several reasons, we chose not to do the big first birthday party celebration like we did for Mason. Instead, it was just close family, a small cake for her and just a couple of gifts for Reese to open (Mason took care of that).

For the first time, we were able to capture 4 generations on my mom's side. From left to right, my mom, my grandmother (Guda), myself, and of course my kiddos. My mom has a picture at home that has 5 generations of women on my mom's side that includes my sister and I when we were about 1, my mom, my grandmother, my great-grandmother, and my great-great grandmother. It's a really neat picture to look back at and see now knowing how it felt getting 4 generations together.

I do believe Reese had the cutest cake ever. I just called a local cafe where we always eat on Friday afternoon asking if she could make a cow cake for Reese. She couldn't but gave me the name of a new bakery across the street. So I called her, Michelle Ramirez at Hands on Design, and just asked if she could make me a cow cake for a little girl for her first birthday. That was all I asked for and she did the rest. It was so cute!

Apparently, she prefers to eat her cake with a fork. That's where the damage was done.

At least she did poke around with her finger some, but she was more interested in just playing with the cow and saying "moo".
This was the messiest she got after the cake. I so wanted one of those pictures where the baby was covered from head to toe in icing, but neither one of my kids got the memo.

This was the after shot. See, not much damage done. In fact, we ended up eating the half she didn't touch since we didn't want it to go to waste. It tasted as good as it looked too.

Picture Overload

2009-04-03T17:25:00.001-07:00

If you're not interested in seeing a lot of family pictures, then I would avoid this post. We took Mason and Reese for family pictures today since we don't have any formal pics of us all as a family since she was born. Since she is now 1 year old, we thought it was time.

I have to admit, that as an anti-bow mama (and since she doesn't have hair), I had fun picking out her very first bows and I think she looks adorable with them. I can't believe they stayed with no hair and all.

So, here are some of our favorites.

As every mother would say, I have the cutest kids in the world!

Just a recap

2009-03-31T18:09:00.000-07:00

Well, I don't know if there is much of anything interesting report, but I'll go ahead and fill you in on the last week. Gary was out of town (actually out of state) for 7 whole days and boy did we miss him. I managed to keep busy by painting a new room for Mason and we moved him into it tonight. Then I went on a scrapbooking retreat with some friends and stayed up to 2:30 and 3:30 each night getting a lot done and having tons of fun. Then Gary and I went out with the couples in our small group from church to Dave & Busters for some friendly competition, (which overall we won), but lost at the artistic competition at the dinner table. We don't sing. So we shared the title with another couple and won a gift card. It was so much fun! Last night I was telling Gary my right side was sore, but that I had no idea from what. Then Gary suggested it was the basketball portion of the competition. I think I'm getting old.

Happy Birthday Reese!

2009-03-25T10:10:00.000-07:00

I cannot believe it has been a year since baby Reese was born. I guess we have to stop calling her "baby" Reese now since she is no longer my baby. Although, I might be able to hang on to that a little longer because she still only has 2 teeth and is not walking yet, and still wears mostly 6/9 month clothes with a splash of 12 month shirts. So in honor of the birthday girl, here are some recent pics.

Reese has recently been introduced to Baby Einstein and it seems she is instantly hooked.

Gary's parents got us a double jogging stroller for Reese's birthday since this girl LOVES being outside. I have to say that it is absolutely wonderful. Mason might disagree since it puts little hands so close to him. He was nice enough to share goldfish with her and actually put one in her mouth. So cute!

Did I mention she loves being outside?

As you can see, she is starting to get some longer whispies of hair. Someday they will fit into a pigtail and I can't wait.

Green beans & ice cream

2009-03-24T19:53:00.000-07:00

Mason has been asking for ice cream for the last 3 nights and I have been able to hold him off until today. Yesterday was funny though because he asked after Reese went to bed and this is how our conversation went...(of course it doesn't sound this clear)

Mason: Mommy, let's go get some ice cream.

Me: We can't sweetie, baby Reese is asleep and we can't leave her alone to go get ice cream.

Mason: We can wake her up and she can go with us.

Me: No sweetie, we aren't waking her up.

Mason: I can stay here with baby Reese and you can go get ice cream.

Me: (laughing) No sweetie, that won't work either. We'll get some tomorrow, but those were good suggestions though.

___________________________________________________________________

Apparently you can't heat up green beans in a microwave on a plate without green bean juice. They tend to catch on fire or blow up.

Moving down the hall

2009-03-22T18:35:00.000-07:00

I have just started a new project, moving Mason into a different bedroom. We are switching his room and the guest room/workout room. He will be right next door to Reese now. Why, you might ask, are we moving him? Well, there are many reasons.

1. his new room will have a ceiling fan

2. that will leave the guest room farther away from the kiddos in case we have company

3. the kids will be right next to each other in case of a fire or other emergency

4. my exercise equipment will then be farther away from the kiddos so I have no excuse not to work out at night anymore

5. I can then claim his large walk-in closet for my own scrapbooking closet and Gary can have his half of our master bedroom closet back

When it's all said and done, he will have a cowboy room since he loves my mom's horses. I asked him what color he wanted and he initially said purple, but then he decided on blue. So yesterday we went to Home Depot and spent almost an hour at the paint color trying to tell the lady what we wanted. Last night I started taping the walls to prepare for actual paint today. So this morning, I asked Mason if he wanted to see what his room looked like so far. He was so excited, he dashed up the stairs and flew open the door and said in the sweetest, most honest voice, "It's beautiful!" and he kept repeating it several times. I had to laugh to myself because all that I had done was put up the strip of blue tape that will separate the 2 different sections of blue paint. But, to him, those were his blue walls and he loved them. Oh, if I could just see things as simply as he does.

Scrap Blog

2009-03-20T08:43:00.000-07:00

For those of you who might be even remotely interested, I created a Scrapbook Blog just for the sole sake of displaying my scrapbook pages so my mom can see them. So if by chance you want to check them out, there a link on the right side of this page or you can click here.

Yet again, more pictures

2009-03-20T08:09:00.000-07:00

These two crack me up! They are both 11 months old in these pictures and apparently have the same sense of humor. They are no longer mini-me's... she definitely has blue eyes, which is crazy since the only person in our family with blue eyes is my Granny.

Mason has gotten past not wanting to touch baby Reese as you can see here. He is supposed to be helping her stand up so I can take a picture of them standing together.

From the expression on her face, she doesn't look so sure about it, and the expression on his face says he's having a little too much fun.

The evidence is written all over her face. I found her chewing on some of Mason's artwork from school...I guess it didn't taste too bad but it sure didn't come off very easily.

More pictures

2009-03-19T19:16:00.000-07:00

I was scrolling through our pictures today and Mason was sitting next to me. When he saw this one he said "Baby Ree has 2 teeth. They getting bigger now. She getting bigger now." It was so sweet how he said it too. My baby is getting bigger, both of them.

In the last couple of months, occasionally Mason will get out of bed right after we leave his room at bedtime and will fall asleep at the door. We then have to go back up and squeeze our way through the doorway because he is right up against the door.

Sound asleep.

Out like a light.

Except he turns his light on.

Lots of pictures

2009-03-18T18:22:00.001-07:00

I seem to have a little helper now. Mason loves to vacuum and this little Swifter with the vacuum included is awesome!

Once again, these are the cutest baby shoes ever. Normally, as a PT I do not recommend shoes for kiddos that aren't walking yet, but have you seen them, they are SO cute! Gary makes fun of them everytime she wears them. But, each time she does, which is usually only to church, at least 3 or 4 women ask where I got them.

One of Mason's favorite movies is Dinosaur and for those who aren't familiar with it, there is a scene where all the nice dinosaurs line up to scare the bad dinosaur away. Mason likes to reenact the scene with his dinos. Can you guess what is out of place in this picture?

How about now? I don't remember there being a giraffe in the movie, but apparently Mason thought he belonged.

I love this picture!

Not much going on here

2009-03-17T19:59:00.000-07:00

We don't really have anything new or exciting to say, but I feel bad not posting anything new in a while, so here goes.

Gary had today off so we asked Mason what he wanted to do as a family and he said "the mall". We were actually relieved because with it being Spring Break, the zoos and all other kid places would have been a mad house. So went loaded up and went to Stonebriar so he could ride the horsies on the carousal. That honestly makes me nauseous so Gary has to ride it with him. He's pretty easy to please as he was ready to go after the carousal ride and a trip or two on the escalators. Then it was home and then off to the tax lady to get that done. I actually look forward to taz season each year so I guess that makes me weird.

Update on Reese: she now knows where here belly and hair are and she will pull her shirt up or pat her hair in response. She makes sounds for the cow and tiger upon request, and has the cutest response for when we ask her what a fishy says. She also repeats "brother" quite well sometimes when we ask her, but still doesn't say mama. Her newest skill, which as a pediatric PT just amazes me, she already knows how to turn herself around and scoot backwards down the stairs and off the furniture. Now if I can just get her talking...

Update on Mason: he informed us today that next year he was going to have 3 horses, have a barn and that he would sleep with the horses in the barn. I guess we better get on that. His new favorite movie is Cars and he loves the movie trailer for "Up" which comes out sometime in May.

Can you feel the excitement? The Twilight DVD comes out this weekend. I guess I shouldn't be feeling all giddy since I already have a "bootleg" version of the movie, but now it will be official. Luckily, I already have plans Friday evening or I may have been pondering the idea of going to some release party to get the DVD at midnight. I know, it's just plain silly.

I Heart Faces

2009-03-16T05:42:00.001-07:00

This week's theme at I ♥ Faces is Green in honor of St. Patrick's Day. I ventured into the photo vault for this one because I knew exactly which picture I wanted to enter. This was the first time Mason ever played in or with grass. He kind of have a "what is this?" expression and of course our grass looked great at the moment.

Not Me Monday!

2009-03-15T16:48:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

I did not dress one of my kids entirely in his Sunday clothes Saturday night for bedtime so that there would be one less kid to dress before church.

I did not somehow get chocolate syrup in my eye when I was eating some much needed ice cream with my chocolate syrup. (Yep, you read that right, there is usually more syrup than ice cream)

I did not have my 3.5 year old unload my entire grocery cart at Super Target because I was too tired holding the baby. Besides, he really likes to help.

I did not let the same 3.5 year old watch the movie Cars at least 6 times this weekend.

I did not count queso at Tin Star as a serving of vegetables (there are tomatoes and something green in there, right?).

I did not bring my baby to the Acute Care Kids clinic Saturday evening thinking she had an ear infection only to find out she is teething. In my defense, I already knew she was teething, but she was presenting the same way the last time she had an ear infection.

Nope, not me!

Update on feeding Reese

2009-03-07T05:04:00.000-08:00

It definitely seems that the change in bottle & nipple did the trick. In the last 2 weeks prior to the change, we were doing good to get her to drink 2-3 ounces at a time and then she started waking up again around 10 and we would feed her again. Now she is consistently eating about 6 ounces in each bottle and just yesterday she shocked us all and downed 8 ounces in one feeding. I am thankful that we solved that problem, but still feel bad as a mother that I didn't solve it sooner.

Y didn't I think of that earlier?

2009-03-04T18:10:00.000-08:00

Reese had her 11 month weight and iron level check yesterday. She barely gained any weight in the last month and is hovering at the 13th percentile, and she is still anemic even after being on iron supplements. That was not the part that concerned me, it was the constant battle we have been having trying to get this little girl to eat. A baby her age (according to all the research) is supposed to be consuming 24-30 ounces of formula a day and eating a lot more solids. In the last month, but mainly the last 2 weeks, 18-20 ounces in a day was a good day and that came with a struggle. She would constantly push the bottle away and we would have to sing, dance, rock, walk, and distract for her to take that much. Same way with her baby food and table food. She has to be distracted and almost tricked to eat food.

So our plan was to not focus on the numbers, and just assume she was making that transition from baby food/formula to table foods, even though she wasn't eating much of that either. So I left with a better feeling, and a stronger iron supplement to try.

In my gut, though, I knew there was something wrong, and I was just praying that it was a simple fix and not something serious or medical. I have been telling my mom now for weeks that my instinct was telling me something just wasn't right. I should have known.

So, I got to thinking...she has been on lactose free formula and iron supplements for a little over a month now, which is when our battle with bottle feeding started. For those of you who don't know (me being one of those until recently), lactose free formula has a more powdery texture to it, which makes it a tad bit thicker. If you add the liquid vitamin supplement to the bottle too, it makes it even thicker. So....if you put thicker formula and a thicker vitamin supplement to a bottle with the same nipple you have been using, it doesn't work. Unfortunately, it took me a month to figure this out. Well, not really. In the last week I have been messing around with her other nipples, poking extra holes in them and adding slits, but it still didn't make a difference. No wonder the girl would cry, arch, push the bottle away, and just all out fight us for the couple of ounces she was getting. It was too much work for too little reward.

Today, I meandered to Babies R Us and bought the Dr. Brown's bottle with a Y cut nipple designed for thicker liquids. Voila! Little girl downed 6 ounces without a fuss, fight, or fidget. It brought tears to my eyes. For two reasons, I didn't realize how much her bottle battle had stressed me out and then I thought that poor thing was trying to tell us there WAS something wrong, her bottle. So we'll see tomorrow how much formula she takes and then see if she can gain a little more weight in the long run.

My instinct was right, there was something wrong, and wouldn't you know it at least part of it is a simple fix. Now we will just check on her iron levels again next month.

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And now just for funzies. Here's a video of little girl herself in her high chair. She loves to growl at us and can contort into some interesting positions (note the upside down watching the TV while in her high chair piece).

I Heart Faces

2009-03-03T18:43:00.000-08:00

It's I Heart Faces time again. This weeks theme was messy faces and I had so many pictures to choose from with our 2 kiddos. Gary made me choose this one for Reese's "Oh my goodness, what did you put in my mouth?" expression with her very first taste of sweet potatoes.

Not Me Monday!

2009-03-02T19:40:00.000-08:00

Here goes my list of things that I absolutely did not do this past week as part of Not Me Monday!

I did not cut my son's hair with clippers and then decide not to take care of all the little "itchies" by disconnecting the hose from the vacuum cleaner and sucking up all the hairs right off his head and neck. Nope, not me.

He did not laugh hysterically and then ask me to "do baby Reese's head too, mommy!"

I did not pick out all the cashews from my husband's snack bags for work only to leave him with cashew-less mix nuts. Sorry sweetie!

I did not whisper "ice cream" in my son's ear so that he would then go beg Daddy to go on a car ride to get some ice cream.

Wow, that doesn't sound nearly as bad as my last parenting confession.

Elmo

2009-02-28T18:20:00.000-08:00

We treated Mason to the Elmo Live show at Nokia today and he and Reese both loved it. Mason was his usual reserved self sitting in our lap the entire time. Reese would stand in my lap, dance, point, and clap her hands throughout the show.

While at dinner afterwards, were talking about Oscar the Grouch since we all know Mason loves all things trash truck related, and our short conversation went something like this...

Somebody at the table: Does Oscar live in a grey or blue trash can?

Mason: (in the most I can't believe you asked that question voice) grey...Oscar is not recyclable!

Us: You're right bud, what were we thinking??!!

Poison ivy & poop

2009-02-25T19:11:00.000-08:00

It turns out Gary, who shaves his head every other day, has poison ivy on his head. I'm sure shaving twice before he figured it out wasn't helpful.

A recent conversation with Mason and myself:

Me: Mason, Reese is asleep so you and mama can do anything you want. What do you want to do?

Mason: Pick up poop.

So Mason and I picked up dog poop in the backyard. Great bonding time!

Baby nursery tour

2009-02-25T11:09:00.000-08:00

I know I am about a year late in posting this, but I am honestly just getting around to it. Not to mention the fact that my "baby" is fast approaching her first birthday and I am already getting very sentimental. When I found out we were having a girl, at first I was scared...then the fear wore off and it was replaced with the excitement of getting to decorate a little girl's room. It has been nothing but blues around here since Mason was born and I have to say it was great fun getting to let my inner "girly-girl" out in a house full of boys (the dogs are both boys too). So for those that are interested (all 2 of you out there) here's Reese's ~~almost big girl room~~ nursery.

My mom came into town when I was about 8 months pregnant to help me install the wainscotting paneling (not sure if I spelled that right). It was a fun project because she helped me, but man that was a lot of trips up the stairs measuring and cutting the pieces. I definitely could not have done it without her. Thanks mom!

I wanted to include Mason in decorating her room because I spent quite a bit of time up there and he was a very good helper. He was very into coloring at the time so I gave him some paper and his crayons and he created this masterpiece especially for Reese.

This was my most favorite pregnancy picture (and probably one of the only ones) the second time around. Mason loved to hug my belly whenever it was peeking out under my shirt, which was a lot towards the end.

A friend was nice enough to give us her daughter's old nursery bedding so I coordinated the room around it. Who am I to pass up free, cute and free bedding?

I really wanted some curtains from Pottery Barn Kids, but that just wasn't in our budget. So instead, I made these curtains and I happened to like them better than the PBK's anyway.

My other favorite picture in her room. I got tired of plain wooden picture frames but I couldn't find the exact ones I wanted for her room, so I made this one too.

So I know that Reese is my last baby so I will have to live vicariously through others for cute, new baby nurseries. I would love anyone else's if you're interested in sharing.

Cow Patty Bingo anyone?

2009-02-23T05:37:00.000-08:00

I braved another road trip by myself with the kiddos this past weekend. We drove the normally 5 hour trip without kids to see my parents in Southeast Texas. It took 2 stops and 6 hours, 15 minutes on the drive down and only 1 stop and 5 hours 15 minutes on the way back. They were so well behaved in the car. In fact, Mason didn't nap at all on the way down and Reese only took 2 short 30 minute naps and they were happy the entire rest of the trip. They fared much better than me and my back (or I should say my legs since they were the ones tingling with pins and needles all the way up to my knees requiring me to ride with the seat reclined back as far as I could to still drive and somewhat turned to as much of a sidelying position as possible). But that's a whole other story.

While visiting my parents, my old high school had their annual Possum Bluff Festival. I had not been since I graduated high school a whopping almost 14 years ago. Not much has changed. So when I was telling Gary what all was there for Mason to see, I rattled off the events which included Cow Patty Bingo. I was able to get out a few more words before Gary said "Whoa, back up a minute...did you say Cow Patty Bingo?" I just assumed everyone knew what Cow Patty Bingo was... and if you don't, let me elaborate.

There is a square enclosure, let's say it's about 10 feet x 10 feet (just for easy numbers sake) and it has a fence around it. So the space inside is lined with chalk, to make a grid with squares each 1 foot x 1 foot to give you a total of 100 squares. Someone also has a paper grid and each person pays $5 for a square until the page is full. Then they bring in a cow and wait until the cow poops and whoever's square the cow poops in wins all the money. Simple and entertaining right? Gary thought this was hilarious and didn't believe me at first. Apparently, they don't do that anywhere but the south since he had never heard of it. Anybody else familiar with it?

My hair revisited

2009-02-19T18:25:00.000-08:00

Stop the presses...I had to laugh at this one. I think most guys wouldn't understand, so this is definitely for the ladies. Someone left a comment about my hair cut photo and said they loved the hair color. WHAT???!!! I thought that was hilarious since that is my natural hair color. I have always had almost jet black hair, and of course, like most women you aren't happy with what you have and want someone else's. I tried to be adventurous once about 10 years ago and color my hair myself (with my sister's help). After all the mess, I ended up with the same color I started with. So, thank you for the compliment on both my cut and the color. There's nothing like a good hair day. Especially since you can't ever get it to look like the day you walked out of the salon.

I Heart Faces

2009-02-17T17:00:00.000-08:00

It's fun going back through my old photos trying to find a picture that matches each week's new theme at I Heart Faces. This week is Wonder, and even though I already posted this picture on my blog earlier this week, I just had to post it again because... I wonder what she is thinking.

The long and short of it

2009-02-17T14:32:00.000-08:00

I used to have really long hair. Then I cut it off when I was pregnant with #2 as I knew there was no way I would have the time to "fix" it. Just recently though I thought about growing it out, but then I thought, who am I kidding...it would go into a ponytail everyday. So today I told Mason I was going to get me hair cut. This was our conversation:

Mason: Where you going Mama?

Me: Going to get my hair cut.

Mason: Why you do that?

Me: Because it needs it.

Mason: You hair stickin' out?

Me: Yes, sweetie, it is.

Me: Mason, do you like my new hair cut?

Mason: No, you hair still stickin' out.

That's a ~~man~~ boy for you.

Bits of random information

2009-02-15T19:17:00.000-08:00

All is well in the Kearns house today. Reese has managed to gain a little bit of weight and has started getting some chunk back in her legs (despite having an ear infection). She does still go to bed between 5:30 and 6 most nights and sleep til around 6:30. So we don't know if that's the anemia or if she just needs her beauty sleep. The other day she woke up from her nap with her pacifier stuck in the hoodie of her jacket. Reese and her pacifiers crack us up all the time. Once again, the text is blue and I don't know how to change it.

This was us the other night taking shelter in our laundry room when the tornado sirens were going off. We woke Reese up from a deep sleep and so, of course, when it was time to go back to bed, she was ready to play. Mason was fine with it until we got out of there and the lightning came.

Just a cute picture of her up close.

This is a boy in love...with suckers. Just for the record, he did not eat the entire thing. He had a little help from mama and his puppies.

This is a girl in love...with her bath time. She now just likes to stand at the faucet and try to catch the water.
Daddy got a hold of what little hair she has and tried to give her a mohawk. The funniest part was that he was so caught up in her mohawk that he forgot to rinse out all the shampoo. We had to go hold her over the tub and rinse her hair when I realized the girl still had a head full of shampoo.

Last thing tonight, I promise.

We have started helping Mason says his prayers out loud each night. Tonight, this was how it went.

Me: Let's say our prayers, you go first.

Mason: Ok. Dear God. (long pause)

Me: Dear God. Thank you for...

Mason: Mommy and Daddy... and baby Reese... and Miles and Jack (our dogs)... and Cody and Missy (horses)... the puppies... the horsies....the puppies... the horsies... (long pause)... Dear God.

Me: Amen (chuckling)

Mason: Amen

That makes my heart smile.

Is it just boys...

2009-02-15T17:51:00.000-08:00

Obsessed with bodily functions? Mason wanted to know if he could bring his new "balloon" (a.k.a. whoopie cushion) to church this morning. Without thinking, I said the first thing that came to mind..."no, we don't toot in church". I never ever thought that was something that I would have to tell my son.

Tonight we made lentil soup for the first time. I gave Mason some lentils, he took one, held it up and with a very serious face says..."will this make toot?"

It turns out he likes lentils.

When the boys are in charge

2009-02-14T20:50:00.000-08:00

Reese has an ear infection so I chose to stay home with her while Mason and Gary went to a birthday party at Peter Piper Pizza today. Apparently, they had enough tickets to purchase something from the store there. Mason LOVES balloons, and of course Gary knows that. So with Mason's tickets, he makes a purchase. My wonderful husband convinced Mason that "it's a balloon"...it being a whoopie cushion. So, yes, I leave them alone and they come home with a whoopie cushion, which of course now Mason loves. Poor boy couldn't quite get it figured out how to sit on it on the floor as he kept overshooting and his booty would miss it. Plus, he almost doesn't weigh enough so he has to sometimes bounce on it. Reese didn't know what to think of it so she just stared in utter amazement. The dogs went a little crazy. I could have done without it, but did enjoy hearing Mason laugh so hard at himself.

My sweet boy

2009-02-10T08:38:00.000-08:00

This morning when I dropped Mason off at school, his teacher asked if she could talk to me for a few minutes. Instantly, my heart sank because I had a feeling what she was going to say. She expressed concern with the fact that Mason doesn't really play with any of the other kids during school. She said when they are all playing in the gym, he keeps to himself and watches everyone, and as a parent herself, it breaks her heart to see him like that. I, too, hate to think that he doesn't want to play with the other kids, for whatever reason. We talked about the fact that he does play with some of his friends in smaller groups, but even then, I think he plays near them or at them, but not "with them. She also expressed her concerns with his "sensory issues". I kind of chuckled, and said "you mean the arm flapping he has done since he was 6 months old?" She was worried that he did it when he was frustrated because she has seen more of it lately. But I told her, on the contrary, he flaps when he is happy or excited. You should see the boy flap when the trash truck rolls through the alley, or when his favorite part of a movie is coming up. Again, I told her that we are very aware of his flapping and she agreed that she doesn't see anything else that concerns her in that area. Being an ECI employee, I have always been completely aware of his "quirkiness" and have come to accept that he is just that, "quirky". I wish I could do more to help him get over being painfully shy though. And I am very grateful to his teacher for at least bringing it up because she could have chosen to ignore it.

By the way, I don't know why the text is blue and I don't know how to change it :)

Not Me Monday!

2009-02-09T20:06:00.000-08:00

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

My turn to play. I have been following MckMama's blog for a while, but never played Not Me Monday yet. So I thought I would give it a try.

I do not have the most comfy pair of blue jeans and workout pants that I did not wear almost every day of the week. And my husband did not ask "Did you wear any clothes this week?" when he did the laundry and noticed that my pile of clean clothes was almost non-existent.

I did not sneak a spoonful of peanut butter with a squirt of Hershey's dark chocolate syrup to make my own peanut butter cup dessert when I absolutely had to have my fix.

I did not forget to brush my son's teeth the very morning of his first dentist visit. I then did not try to brush his teeth in their bathroom with their pre-toothpasted adult brushes when he doesn't even know how to spit out the toothpaste yet. And he most certainly did not accidently pee all over the walls behind the toilet and to the side of the toilet, the toilet, the floor, and the toilet paper roll because the toilet was too tall for him. I did not have to the tell the receptionist that we would be a few more minutes so I could clean it up since we were already 10 minutes late getting there.

I did not leave a sippy cup full of water that was at least 4 days old in Reese's diaper bag and the ladies in the church nursery certainly did not give it to her thinking it was fresh when they were trying to console her on Sunday.

Yikes! My parenting skills have been a little on the fritz lately. But seeing it in writing makes it seem worse.

first trip to the dentist

2009-02-06T14:55:00.000-08:00

Mason had his first trip to the dentist today. I went first so he could see it was no big deal. They had Little Einsteins playing on the TV so I think they could have done just about anything to him and he would have been ok.

He was not a big fan of the foam flouride application.

His favorite part had to have been the suction straw. We kept telling him he had to let go of it so she could keep working.

Apparently, they make flossers for kiddos.

Also not a big fan of the spinning toothbrush with the gritty polish. For the record, neither am I. That's my least favorite part.

Once again, it doesn't really surprise me that he did so well at the dentist. I think he's actually to shy to act out. Which makes most public outings wonderful, but not always.

Nothing new around here

2009-02-06T10:31:00.000-08:00

Gary played in a flag football tournament this past weekend and is now finally over all the soreness. His team won 3rd (not bad for a group of men over 30, except for 2 who are pushing 30). They literally played a bunch of high school guys. We had the perfect kids that day. Mason played from 9am-3pm outside among all the chaos and we could not have asked for a better behaved kiddo. Reese also loved being outside all day, minus the nap she took at home. She loved crawling in the dead grass, and even ate a few pieces I'm sure. I think she has picked up a few pointers from her Auntie. Ann is notorious for storing objects in her sports bra and has even destroyed a couple of cell phones that way. (Apparently, running with your cell in your sports bra doesn't bode well considering sweat is a liquid and cell phones don't survive well in liquid). She's going to kill me for that one.

Mason can also be quite the ham lately. His new thing is always making a silly face when I try to take his picture. Thank goodness I don't need many serious pictures from him.

I Love Jesus, but I drink a little

2009-02-04T05:43:00.000-08:00

This Ellen clip was hilarious! I saw it on another blog and then had to share it myself because I was laughing out loud at this lady.

My new favorite thing

2009-02-03T15:55:00.000-08:00

This is one of my new favorite things. We got this quesadilla maker for Christmas and we LOVE it! We have used it for breakfast, lunch and dinner (not all in the same day though). It really spices up your ordinary everyday lunch sandwiches too.

Weight Check

2009-02-03T13:05:00.001-08:00

Reese had a weight check today. It has been a month since her 9 month well baby that showed she had dropped down to the 7th percentile in weight and was anemic. Well.......she is now in the 10th percentile for weight, 24th for height, and still the 82nd for her head. I'll take the 3 point jump. Woo-hoo! However, she is still anemic, in fact, it has gotten worse in the last month even though she has been on an iron supplement. So we will check it all again at her 12 month well baby.

I Heart Faces

2009-02-03T05:41:00.000-08:00

Each week I Heart Faces has their kids and adults photo contests. Now I know we won't win, but it is still a lot of fun going through my old photos and picking " a winner". This week is The Eyes Have It.

Ice

2009-01-28T10:14:00.000-08:00

Me: This ice is melting outside.

Mason: Into ice cream?

Me: No, Mason, into water (as I was laughing)

Mason: Awwww man!

What can I say, he loves his ice cream.

I Heart Faces

2009-01-27T18:35:00.000-08:00

It's week 3 of I Heart Faces photo blog contest. This is my first time to enter and after looking at a lot of the other entries, we are definitely doing this just for funzies.

Pictures

2009-01-23T07:00:00.000-08:00

It was just a tad bit cold that day.

It's funny what gravity can do to your cheeks when you look upside down through your legs.

Even boys with super short hair can have bed head, or in this case, chair hair.
Once again, Reese is on the little side and still wears some 6 month outfits. Unfortunately, her 6 month outfits that have hats don't fit on her ginormous head.

Daddy's little helpers.

God & Christmas lights

2009-01-21T16:09:00.000-08:00

Mason has recently started a "there's a monster in my room" business that sometimes requires us to go up to his room a couple of times before midnight. Last night, during my turn, I read him 2 more books then began talking to him about monsters. I told him I knew for a fact that there were not any monsters in his room or in our house and then asked him if he wanted to know how I knew that. Of course he said yes, and then I told him that God would protect our house, his room, and him from monsters and that he could go to sleep with good dreams. He very seriously looked at me and said "God and Christmas lights". It took me a few seconds to realize why he said that and then I busted at the seams with laughter. During December, we frequently told him that the Christmas lights around the house and his bedroom door scared monsters away. He has such a good memory, sometimes too good.

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He is also quite the backseat driver. Now I know how Gary feels when he drives and I'm in the passenger seat. Sorry Gary for the past 7 years of backseat driving. Mason tells us what color the traffic lights are any chance he can get and if they are green, you better go. Otherwise, he will bump up his voice a notch in case you missed it the first time. If you come to a stop and want to make a turn, he immediately tells you to "go", and again sometimes he makes it known that he wants to go NOW.

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Reese has gained a little bit more weight since her last check-up, but it's so hard to be accurate when you don't use the same exact scales every time. I have the advantage of having infant scales at my office so I sneak her in, actually they don't care, and weigh her each week to see if we are making any progress. I spoke with a dietician the other day and she made a few suggestions: 1)when supplementing with formula switch to a lactose free formula, 2) get her off the Poly-vi-sol vitamins and onto something less toxic and potent (I'd be happy to explain this further if anyone has any questions about that), and 3) and bumping up her caloric intake with an extra 1/2 scoop of formula in each bottle.

After telling her about Reese's "stinky pee", which only happens the morning after she eats a dinner with meat in it (and we have stopped meats all together at this point), she said she would bet money that Reese had type A blood and that lots of food allergies and sensitivites can be traced back to blood type. Also, people with type A blood have more sensitivities to digesting meats.

Anyway, that's the latest here. I'll post more pics soon.

We have a climber

2009-01-13T09:45:00.000-08:00

I have said it before...Reese sure does keep us on our toes. Gary was the first to discover Reese's new climbing skills. Of course, when I saw her do it for the first time, I had my handy camera nearby to capture her new skill. No, I did not leave her to go get the camera.

Mason loves to hang out in my scrapbook closet. I thinks it's funny that he will come in and say "you scrapbooking mommy?" in his little voice and then say "you do a picture of me please". He fell asleep on the floor in the closet with me the other day. Again, please don't judge my housecleaning skills. He was cuddling with Jack and the next thing I knew he was sound asleep on the floor. That is the first time he has ever fell asleep playing on the floor.

Clapping...check

2009-01-09T18:38:00.000-08:00

It's all about trash trucks and clapping hands now. Mason has had an infatuation with trash trucks for at least 2 years now, but now it's turned into an obsession. Santa brought him another trash truck for Christmas so that has helped fuel it. Everyday when Gary gets home from work, Mason wants to take the trash out and inspect the trash cans in the alley for open lids. So you may wonder what that has to do with Reese clapping. It doesn't really, but you can hear Mason talking about the trash truck in the video of Reese clapping. They're both one of a kind!

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Okay, so don't judge my parenting or housekeeping skills, but I just have to list all the things I have fished out of Reese's mouth today...

popcorn kernel
bread twist tie
plastic ear thermometer probe cover
berries left over from christmas decorations
ponytail holder
doodle pro magnet
dog food
pen
scrapbook adhesive squares
toilet paper
coupon
crayon

That doesn't even include the actual edible items she found. Again, please don't judge me. This kid is really keeping us on our toes.

Hooked

2009-01-03T19:31:00.000-08:00

***Update again...finished 3rd book yesterday and finished 4th one today. Going to bed at a normal time tonight. Such good books!

***Update

I purchased the second book yesterday around 2 and finished it at 3:30 this morning. Luckily I can't get my hands on the 3rd until Monday so I will go to bed on time tonight. NERD...

I'm such a nerd, as my husband has said many times in the last 2 days. I started reading the book Twilight Thursday evening and was absolutely hooked. I stayed up to 2:30 Friday morning reading because I just couldn't put it down. I'm even embarrassed to admit that I read the last 2 hours in bed by flashlight so I wouldn't disturb Gary. Coming from a mom of 2 small children, it has to be something special to get me to stay up late if it's not kid-related. I then read off and on all day Friday and finished it Friday night. Only to be even more hooked and had to go out and buy the second book this afternoon and start reading it too. I'm sure I will stay up late reading tonight too. To top it off, my friend Heather (who loaned me the first book to start with) went with me as last minute plans tonight to go see the Twilight movie. Little did I know that she had already seen it twice. So either she was being a great friend or is more of a nerd than I am (it's ok...we already joked about that). So for those of us women who were possibly the smart, shy, and somewhat not the most socially advanced type in high school, this book ROCKS!

Cotton Bowl

2009-01-03T06:16:00.000-08:00

A big thanks to our friends Calder and Amy for sharing some extra, free tickets to the Cotton Bowl yesterday. Unfortunately, our Red Raiders did not do so well, but it was an amazing season nonetheless. Good friends, weather, and food made for a very pleasant afternoon, despite the loss. We even had free entertainment with the very intoxicated lady sitting directly in front of me. She fell on the stranger sitting next to her at one point and didn't really even acknowledge the fact that she fell for a few seconds. Not to mention she was sharing her alcohol with total strangers drinking from her cup. Eeewwwww! Anyway, it was a nice getaway with adults and we are very thankful to our friends for thinking of us.

9 month check-up

2008-12-30T19:32:00.000-08:00

Reese had her 9 month check up today and appears to be almost completely back to her normal self after her bout with RSV last week. Once again, you look at her and think she is petite, but by no means does she look like she is hurting in the baby fat area. The numbers would have to disagree though. She is now in the 7th percentile for her weight, 20th for height, and poor girl's head measures in the 80th percentile. You should see her Daddy's and brother's, it's genetic. She managed to lose 9 ounces since her last weight check last month, but mind you, she was sick for a week, she is a VERY active little girl, and even chose to sleep 13-14 hours straight a few nights this last week therefore missing a feeding each day. I don't know really what else to do. If she sleeps 13-14 hours a day then that leaves me approximately 10 hours to get in 3 meals and 4 bottles which makes her have to eat every 2 hours. That's what we are already doing so I don't know what else to do pack on the pounds. Oh, and forgot to mention too that her CBC today shows she is anemic. So our plan for now is to try to supplement as much as we can (even though she doesn't always finish the bottles she takes now), add one more meal to the mix during the day, and start her on poly-visol vitamins. We go back in one month for another CBC to check her iron levels and another weight check. If she has gone down any further then we will have to look at doing some further blood test to make sure there is not an underlying physiological issue.

In the meantime, Mason and Reese are really starting to play more together. It makes for cute photo opps...like this one in the laundry basket. I just put her in it and they did the rest.

Our Christmas

2008-12-27T19:45:00.000-08:00

My dad's response to this picture was..."cute baby, weird shoes." I happen to think that these are the cutest baby shoes I have ever seen. Coming from a pediatric physical therapist, it means a lot to buy my not yet walking child a pair of shoes. I could not pass them up, actually I did but I went back and got them because I couldn't stop thinking about them. Silly I know.

We had a wonderful and simple Christmas this year. No traveling, no going crazy cooking for hours on end in the kitchen, no late night present buying or wrapping. Thank goodness due to Reese being sick. By the time Christmas Eve night rolled around, she was feeling well enough to get right in the thick of things with Mason unwrapping presents. Who needs snow to make angels? All Mason needs is wrapping paper.

Yes, those are matching candy cane pj's. It will be our tradition every year for them to having matching pj's until I can't find them big enough anymore.

My mom even made a short surprise visit on Thursday and brought the firetruck tent, which was a huge hit. Everyone had to spend a little time in it per Mason's request throughout the day. He even has his couch and DVD player that used to be in his man cave now residing in the fire truck. This time around girls are allowed.