Halloween Party

After the wedding on Saturday we headed home and the kids changed into their costumes.  We headed to a friend's house for a 5th birthday party.  We were pretty late to the party with the wedding earlier that day, but I'm glad we ended up going.  The kids enjoyed playing and Shawn and I enjoyed visiting with friends.

Allyson dressed up as Belle (from Beauty and the Beast) and Jase was Jedi Luke Skywalker.  I did not get a good picture of him in his full costume, but my mom came over on Friday night and she made him pants and a long robe.  It looked great and he was giddy over it!!  I will do a better job on Wednesday! :-)

Paige's mom, Heather, did a great job on all the treats!!  They were all super yummy and I think I taste tested all of them! Whoops!!

Ian and Dana Marry

Saturday afternoon we drove out to Kemah to see my cousin Ian get married. He and Dana were married on a boat, which was a first for us.  I brought all 3 kiddos not thinking much about it at all; I take them everywhere with me.  All and all they were fine.  I was a nervous wreck at first because Finn was not a happy camper and was fussy.  I fed him and he calmed down and then Shawn stood up with him during the ceremony in the back.  Everyone in the wedding party looked great, especially the Bride.  The bridesmaids wore the same style of dress that I wore in Alisha's wedding last summer.

The Captain was very nice and let us hang out in his cabinet as long as we wanted.  He even let the kids steer the boat . . . Jase LOVED this!!

So happy for Ian and Dana.  May the Lord bless your marriage!

Zoo Boo

Friday morning we headed out to the zoo for some treats and animal fun!  The Zoo Boo is super fun for the kids.  They have several stations to stop and look at with zoo-related items or booths to trick-or-treat at for goodies.  They also had 4 stations on howler monkeys, which was really neat and the kids enjoyed it.

Friday it was super windy outside so Finn stayed in his stroller most of the time.  This was his first time there and of course he made it a memorable one.  We met up with some friends and stopped and ate a snack in the children's zoo area.  I fed Finn and he proceeded to take a poop, no big deal.  Well it was no big deal until I realized he pooped up his back and way out of his diaper.  He was a mess!!  The onesie he was wearing made it's way into the trash.  So glad I grabbed another set of warm clothes to change him into before leaving the house.  Never a dull moment!

Finally a picture of Allyson looking at the camera.  I remember when Jase went through this stage and it was pulling teeth to get him to smile at the camera.

Favorite PJs

Since Finn has officially out grew his newborn-size clothes, we pulled down the next set of clothes from Jase's closet.  I love going through all of Jase's old clothes and reminiscing about when he used to wear them . . . 5 1/2 years ago (Crazy)!! While going through the clothes I came across a pair of PJs that were my favorite of Jase's.  {I'm not currently connected to my external hard drive or I would post of pic of Jase in them.}

Big 2-5 for Uncle Dave

Today was Shawn's younger brother's birthday; he turned the big 2-5! Wow . . . that was 7 years ago for me! Doesn't seem that long ago, but I guess so!

We enjoyed dinner and ice cream cake from Baskin Robbins (yes I did partake!). I'm glad we were able to go over there and visit and celebrate! Happy birthday Davey Dave!

Minnie Mouse Dancer

Today the girls were able to dress up in their costume for class!  What little girl does not LOVE to dress up?!?!  She was originally going as Tinker Bell.  We got the costume out of the closet, brought it downstairs, got her all pumped about it, then . . . I checked the tag and it said size 7/8!!  YIKES, that will not work!  Plan B in action and she picked Minnie Mouse!!  So thankful her heart was not set on being Tinker Bell.  She looked too cute this morning!

If I'm completely honest last week was not good at all during tap class.  I heard her teacher say her name several times and she is not mean at all, but Ally either has not a clue what is going on or has trouble following along.  Not sure.  I had pretty much made up my mind that we would go this week to tap and then I would only sign her up for ballet in November and drop tap.  Can I tell you that today she did better in class!! YAY!!  The first part of the class she was following along and the second part she kind of glazed over.  Super glad for the improvement though.  Her teacher said that since they do not have class this next week that she would be working on the class structure and changing it up to help keep their attention a little longer.  So glad I did not write tap off!!

Mr. Finn is 3 Months Today!

3 months already!!!  That can't be right, but I just did the math and sure enough it is! ;-)  I took him for his 2 month check-up last week (I know, a little behind schedule, but hey I have 3 kids at home with me now!)  He weighed 12 lb 15 oz and was 23.5 inches tall.  While he's starting to beef up, he's below 50%, which is perfectly fine by me.

He has been cooing up a storm for about a month now.  He's super sweet and really a happy baby.  He occasionally has his nights and days mixed up, but overall a good sleeper at night.  When we are at home all day, he will usually take a good morning nap and sometimes an afternoon one as well, IF the older two are quiet enough that is.  I am still nursing him and he is getting supplemental formula as well to make up for my low milk supply, boo!!  First question I'm asking God when I get to heaven is why I did not have enough breast milk to feed my babies!  Partially kidding! ;-)

When he is lying on his back he can just about roll over onto his tummy; won't be long. He loves to play patty cake! Finn also enjoys taking baths, he never cries when in the water.

We are so in love with our baby boy!!! And while having 3 kids has been a lot, I definitely would not trade it for anything in the world.  So thankful for our babies and blessed by the Lord!

Pumpkin Carving

After the birthday party on Saturday we came back to the house and started working on our pumpkins! I found a pumpkin observation journal here and Jase used it to record guesses about certain attributes (i.e. height, width) and then we would measure and record the actual measurements.  At first when I gave it to him he told me he had his own pumpkin journal (sure!), but he quickly warmed up to what I gave him and enjoyed the questions.

 

Our next thing to figure out was if the pumpkin will sink or float!!  After our experiment we discovered that the pumpkin is a floater!!



 

 

The kids did not know what to think about the inside of the pumpkin.  Actually they both wanted to wash their hands after a few seconds of touching "the brains"!  We carved a pumpkin last year and I know they helped some, but probably not as involved as this year.

 

 



After we finished cleaning our pumpkins, we all got cleaned up and headed to a friends house where they were having a Pumpkin Carving Contest.  Game face was on!!

Last year I picked up Star Wars pumpkin carving kit from Hobby Lobby at 75% and amazingly enough I found it a year later!! Out of all the templates, Jase picked out, wait for, wait for it . . . YODA!  Daddy did a great job on it!

And for the record we got 3rd in the contest.  The evil face below got 1st and the haunted house was 2nd. 

What a busy, but fun day we had!! After 4 wardrobe changes for both older kids, no wonder I am still doing laundry!!

Costume Party

This past Saturday the kids ventured across the street to our neighbor's 1st birthday and it was a spooky one; it was a costume party.  Miss Allyson was Princess Aurora from Sleeping Beauty and she loved every minute of it!  I put a little make up on her and she was glowing!  As for Mr. Jase, he was Luke Skywalker! Surprised?! You can even see Yoda on his back, like in Episode 5 {I had to ask Jase which episode to make sure I was correct!}

Tania did a great job with all the treats!! The kids really enjoyed eating them all and can you say Pinterest!!  I think one of my favorites was the mummy wrapped juice and yoohoo boxes!

And before leaving, they had a costume contest and all the kids were awarded little certificates.  Jase won Most Boyish Costume and Allyson won Best Princess!  The kids enjoyed dressing up, the treats and playing with friends.

Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch

On the way home on Wednesday, we drove up to Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch.  I haven't been there since 8th grade (same time as the Alamo visit) and we knew the kids would love it, so it was a must see!

I was really surprised how much Allyson loved it!!  She has been my little scaredy cat lately, so I wasn't sure how she would do.  I was mistaken though . . . she was talking to the animals and wanted to feed them like crazy; I had to hold her back from hanging out of the car!!  Just listen to how sweet she was to the animals!

And the infamous ostriches!!  These things are NUTS!!  If you've never been, let me warn you that they will get in your car in an instant.  I have a traumatic experience from when I went in the 8th grade.  I was sitting in the passenger seat and we had our bucket of food sitting in the middle of the car, below the radio, and all of a sudden this ostrich comes up, puts his whole head in the car and grabs the bucket of food!!! Right in front of my face . . . very traumatic!! I remember freaking out and reclining the chair back as far as it would go.  My mom was in the back seat with my younger sister and brother and she snapped a picture of the ostrich coming in and grabbing the food, it was priceless!!  Needless to say, our windows stayed up when they were in sight!!

And as we were about to exit the ranch, we witnessed two blackbucks fighting each other.  It was AMAZING!!!  We were all locked in on it and could not believe this was going on; this was something you would normally see on National Geographic, but we were seeing it just feet in front of us!!  Pretty cool!

 

Here is some video footage Shawn got.

We had a great time and we will definitely be going here again!!

San Antonio Travels

Even though Shawn was working, we were still able to do quite a bit of stuff while he was off.  It was really a nice time and a blessing to be able to go with him.

On Monday, October 8th, (after the fire evacuation!) we went to the Alamo.  It was in walking distance from the hotel and it felt great outside, a nice little breeze. I haven't been there since the 8th grade so it was nice to go again and walk around and read about it.  Thankful for all of the people who gave their life fighting at the Alamo, which later down the road resulted in Texas' independence from Mexico.

Oh and one funny thing.  Jase watched a Davy Crockett movie back in January and really liked it, in fact he is still talking about it.  Well Ally thinks that it is Daisy Crockett!!  No matter how many times we correct her and tell her it is a boy, she is sticking to her guns with Daisy!!

After seeing the Alamo, we took a little road trip to the northwest part of town and visited our old college campus: The University of Texas at San Antonio.  The campus has grown so much and almost unrecognizable from when we went there.  When we first attended in the fall of 2000 there were about 18,000 students and now there is over 30,000.  It has definitely grown!  We love to drive through the campus every time we are in SA and see what all they have added on.  The kids on the other hand did not see a wink of it; they were passed out in the back seat!!

On our way back to the hotel, we stopped at one of our faves while living in San Antonio: Alamo Cafe!! We love mexican food and their buttery chili con queso and homemade tortillas are an all-time favorite!

On Tuesday morning we headed down to the River Walk.  The kids loved walking around down there and the weather was great that day as well.  We took a river boat trolley cruise and it was very nice.  I don't know why we never did this back in college!  We ate lunch on the river at Hard Rock Cafe.  Allyson did not find a shortage of plants and flowers to pick while we walked around . . . she is my green thumb child!

The adventure continues

On Monday Shawn had to work the morning/early afternoon shift, so me and the kiddos stayed in the hotel room while Shawn was at work. Since we are homeschooling, I just brought school along with us and we did school everyday while on vacation; it really worked out great.

It was about 12:30, we had just finished a snack and we expected Shawn back at the hotel in about an hour and a half and would eat lunch with him then.  The kids were playing when all of a sudden an announcement went off on the loud speaker in the room.  First in Spanish and I sat there hoping they would replay in English.  Sure enough they did and it said "A fire has been reported in the building.  Please find the nearest stairwell and exit the building." I sat there for just a second in disbelief to what I just heard.  Jase, understanding what was going on, came to me with tears sitting in his eyes.  I calmed him down and told him we would be ok.  I got their shoes on, grabbed my wallet, room key, phone, nursing cover and diaper bag and headed to the stairs.  Did I mention that we are on 21st FLOOR?!?!?  I held Finn in my arms, held Allyson's hand and Jase walked right in front of us as we walked down.  We said a prayer as we walked down, praying that no one would get hurt.  The kids really did a great job walking down, no one complained at all.

We finally got to the bottom floor and walked outside.  We made it!!  As soon as we got outside I saw another lady standing there, holding her laptop and then 4 hotel employees we were walking towards the building.  I asked them if the fire was out and if it was safe to go back inside?  A lady said, "no, that was for employees only, didn't you hear that part of the announcement?" I responded with "Ummm, no I didn't hear that part. And we are on the 21st floor." She said "oh and you have 3 kids, I'm sorry."

The other lady holding her laptop joined us as we walked back inside and got on the elevator.  The employee asked what floor and we both said 21.  She mentioned that she did not hear that part of the announcement either and I told them again that was not mentioned on our floor {believe me, I listened to it a couple of times to make sure}.  The employees realized we were telling the truth and said they were sorry and would let someone know about the announcement.  Geez!!

We got back to the room, safe and sound and I was thankful for that and also that there really wasn't a fire.  I reassured the kids that all was ok {Ally started turning on her *scared* voice}.  Needless to say we got our exercise in that day!

Road trip

Earlier this week we took a little road trip to San Antonio.  Shawn was working at a conference Mon-Wed, so we decided to join him and make a little mini-vaca out of it.  Sunday morning we left early, not as early as we'd hoped (2 hours behind schedule), but it all worked out.  We were able to get the kids up, dressed, teeth brushed and breakfast fed to them.  In hindsight this worked out a lot better than just throwing them in the car with crazy hair and not brushing their teeth until noon!

Our first stop was Buc-ee's!!  How do you pass it and not stop there?? It is like a novelty.  I took the kiddos inside for a restroom break.  I sat Ally on the potty and SUCCESS!!  We did our little celebration in the stall . . . I was pumped!  Shawn took them back inside for a snack (plus I promised Ally a prize for going potty . . . I am not above bribery!).  He snapped a shot of them with Buc-ee!

Then we were onto San Marcos for a little shopping.  Oh how I love to shop.  And not just any shopping, but clearance shopping!! I love to find good deals; I think that is half of the fun!! This was our first time to take all three kids on a shopping adventure and we weren't sure how it would turn out, but we were up for the task!  All and all the kids did fine.  Finn slept most of the day, guess he liked the motion of the stroller.  And Ally had another success on the potty!!

Later that evening, we met up with the Pope ladies in Gruene (Jay was working).  We ate dinner at the Gristmill and it was great to catch up with Michelle and the girls.  Funny that we had to travel 3 hours away from home to eat dinner together!! LOL! Nevertheless, it was nice. {And Ally had another bathroom success here as well!!}

 

What a busy, but great day!  I got some great deals for everyone at the Gap outlet, had dinner with my best friend and spent time with my family.  :-)  We pulled up to the hotel in downtown San Antonio and Jase reads the sign below:

And informs Shawn and that he is going the wrong way!!  It was pretty funny!! We have a reader on our hands!  It was really neat riding up there and hearing him read billboard signs.  He has came a long way in a short amount of time from over the summer.  Such a blessing to hear him read.

Super Saturday

This past Saturday was super fun for Jase!! Usually the weekends are pretty busy, but this one was extra busy for Mr. Jase. He started the morning at his soccer game. He played pretty good, scoring a goal in the first half. He also had his own little cheering section with 3 sets of grandparents, an aunt and an uncle, cousin and his friends from Church: Caden and Paige and their parents. So blessed to have people come and cheer him on!

Later that afternoon Jase was invited to go to the movies to see Hotel Transylvania with Caden. This is probably one of the first times that Jase has went some where with a friend; he is growing up!! Jase had a great time and said that the movie was really funny.

Later that evening PawPaw picked Jase up to go to the Toby Mac concert in Spring. Jase loves Toby Mac and was super pumped. He is a big fan of his music, so this was a big treat for Jase.

Jase rides a go-cart

This past Friday night, Nanny and PawPaw took the kids to ride go-carts in Baytown. Jase was so excited to go since he's never been.

Both of my kids wanted to take all kinds of stuff. Allyson had a HUGE bin of crayons that she wanted to take and I had to pry it out of her hands and gave her two. And Jase ended up taking 2 ribbon medals he won from some fun runs he did a couple years ago. Pack rats . . . not sure where they get that from! ;)

My mom took some video of Jase riding and it was too funny. When he first started he didn't have a pillow behind him, so he was having trouble reaching the pedals, but after they put the pillow in, he was off! Ally didn't end up riding because she was too small to go by herself and at first they said that she had to ride with one of the workers and she was not having that at all! Then later they said she could ride with PawPaw, but she wasn't interested. Maybe next time. 

Here are a couple of videos of Jase riding. The second one is Jase putting a ribbon around his neck (that he brought from home) and yelling "First Place" then running into the wall. Shawn and I cracked up!!

2nd one is gone!

We were watching the Texans and Yankees tonight and Jase walks in the room and he is holding a baby tooth that had fell out. He said that his tongue knocked it out!! This is his 2nd tooth to lose.

Homemade Granola Bars

We made some granola bars from scratch a couple of months ago and they were so good! I ran out of honey, so I bought some more and have been sitting on the ingredients for a good while now.

Shawn decided to make some more for our trip to San Antonio on Saturday. He ended up making 2 batches and I'm so glad he did. They are super yummy and really easy to make.

We used the recipe from the website below. We are on a walnut kick lately, so we used them and they were so good in there! Jase snuck in the kitchen and ate like 4 of them behind Shawn's back. Haha! Give them a try, you'll be surprised!

http://www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com/blog/2010/05/homemade-granola-bars.html

Homegrown Eggplant!!

This past Tuesday evening Shawn took the older two kids to Jase's soccer practice and I was home with Finn. We went out back to look at the eggplant and it was ready based on what I had read. {Should be bigger than your fist and mine was about double that size, and should be shiny and mine was that as well.} We cut the largest one off the plant that night and cooked it up last night! I didn't want to fry it up since we watching our food intake, so I looked up a recipe for baking eggplant and came across this one.

http://www.skinnytaste.com/2011/09/baked-eggplant-sticks.html?m=1

I followed it exactly, except I didn't have any breadcrumbs on-hand so I used whole wheat Ritz crackers with some Italian seasoning. And I also used 2 egg whites. Can I just say they turned out awesome!! Shawn and Jase both liked them as well. I could get Ally to try them.

There is something about growing your own food, it just tastes better! We are excited and hope they continue to grow!

Here is Mr. Finn helping me out in the kitchen last night!

Family Videos

I uploaded some videos to YouTube within the past month and I keep meaning to do a blog post about them. . . so here we go!

Daddy always sings "You are so Beautiful" to Allyson and it has become an all-time favorite here at the house.  I was able to capture her singing it not that long ago.

It can get pretty crazy here at the house.  This video is pretty comical {and normal} with Jase making up songs and Allyson echoing him as she stacks books!

And a little over 2 weeks ago I took Allyson to Academy to try on tap shoes.  She was so giddy over them, that I had to record her!

Space Center Houston

Today was Homeschool day at Space Center Houston, so after ballet and tap practice, we headed out there. I have never been, so this was a first for me as well. The theme was Sports-tacular, so there were a lot of sports related inflatables for the kids to play on. There was also a HUGE play gym for the kids to play in.

 

We looked at some of the space exhibits, but if I'm completely honest I had my hands full with trying to keep up with Jase and Ally, and nursing/holding Finn.  We will have to come back when Daddy can go with us.

 

The Houston Symphony had an exhibit set up and the kids had a blast playing and touching all of the instruments.

I'm glad we ventured out today!

Daddy and his boys

Finn is finally big enough that we can put him in the front carrier and he sits in it ok. Daddy put Finn in it tonight while he was putting up dishes! :) I was able to snap a photo of them tonight and then Jase had to jump in too. Love them!

Week in Review

This past week we were pretty busy and I didn't get a chance to post some of the things I wanted to, so this will be a post from last week's current events.

Finn turned 2 months old last Monday!!  He is smiling so much these days and making so many different noises.  I weighed him in at home and he was a little over 12 lbs.

Our garden stopped producing a while back, probably because the cantaloupe and watermelon choked everything out.  The week before last we noticed a new plant growing: eggplant!! The smaller one up top is bigger than my fist and the one on the bottom is even bigger.  I hope they are good and continue to grow!

I have been trying to give Jase more jobs to do lately.  His latest is setting the table.  Tonight he was setting it for me and kept coming back and asking what else he could do.  :)  Last Tuesday I asked him to switch the clothes over to the dryer and as I was passing by I saw him cleaning out the lint catcher, so I had to snap a pic!

Allyson asked me last week if she could put on her make-up.  Sure, why not?  I need to work with her on where her lips are at!! She totally thought she was putting that lipstick on her lips!

SLOWLY, but surely we will get there.  We will have days with no luck at all and then a day out of the blue we will have success. It has been hard for me to work with her as much as I'd like with a newborn, but we are doing the best we can for now.

Jase is doing a great job with school lately.  I asked him to write a sentence and draw a picture with some of the words we were working on last week {below}.  His favorite subject is math and really enjoys it!

Last Wednesday night we caught Uncle JoJo holding Finn for the first time.  He loves the kiddos, but not much on holding the infants! ;-)

 

Allyson LOVES the show Doc McStuffins on Disney Junior these days.  She is always giving everyone a check-up! I love it!

 

Yesterday was Allyson's 2nd Sunday evening in "Big Church".  We need to work on her whispering skills, apparently she has no idea how to do it!! I can't believe she is already old enough to sit in the service!!  I remember when I had Jase and thought he would never be old enough to sit in there; now he has been in there for 2 years and his little sister just started! Time flies!

 

And this is my baby boy from this morning.  Such a cutie and his little cheeks are starting to fill out!  I just love his blues eyes, like his daddy.