Under the Big Top!

The circus came to Houston and of course, I decided we had to go. We had been looking forward to it for weeks and Jack was primed and ready for "lions, and tigers, and bears, oh my!" As you can see, I had completely forgotten what animals were actually part of the circus. : ) Things started out okay...a couple of elephants came out at the beginning of the show and Jack loved them. He loved them so much that throughout the entire first half of the show he would yell at the top of his lungs "elephants, elephants!" Unfortunately, the elephants were the very last act of the entire circus. Once Jack realized he couldn't summon the elephants back on to the stage, he became pretty restless so Jason took him to buy a ten dollar snow cone (again my idea). Although the snow cone did hold his attention for quite a while, it also ended up mostly in my lap much to Jason's dismay. Things continued down the slippery slope of fun until somewhere between sitting on the floor in front of the concession stand putting Jack's shoe on for the fiftieth time while Jason bought a ten dollar hot dog and Jack continuing to try to sit on the disgusting circus scummy floor in front of my seat while we attempted to ignore the kids who one by one began to have melt downs around us...Jason turned to me and said "How long did you say this thing was?" and all I could do was laugh. Luckily the majority of my parenting experiences have completely exceeded my expectations, but I have to say that the circus was not one of them. Jason and I decided that if the boys ever want to go to the circus then they can go with some friends when they are old enough to drive. : )

A Night in Kemah!

We went to the Kemah Boardwalk for dinner and to possibly watch some fireworks on Friday night. It was Gigi's idea because she loves Kemah and can't stand to be away from there for too long. My brother and I have had to limit her to only a few times a year. : ) We ate at the Aquarium and of course Jack was a big fan of all of the fish. He even liked the fish pattern on the back of the booth seats and insisted on kissing them all. I'm telling you, he is quite the lover! After dinner, we had a great time watching Jack play in the fountains outside and listening to the live band. We ended up leaving just before the fireworks because it was so late and Jack was running out of steam. We thought for sure he would crash out on the hour drive home, but instead he talked the entire way! No subject was off limits for the little motor mouth...it was hilarious!

A Work in Progress!

We have been hard at work around here! We are trying to get ready for Baby Hayes' arrival. and transition Jack's baby room to a little boy room. Between going through all of Jack's old clothes, painting the nursery, picking out decorations, etc...there has definitely been a lot to do. Jason and Jack have both been troopers and humored me and my "nesting" needs. Although the renovations are far from complete, I think the rooms and the workers are finally worthy of a few pictures...

Jack and his Big Boy Bed!

Sounds kind of like a fairytale, huh? Well, not exactly. : ) We moved Jack into a toddler bed on Monday night and he did awesome! In the morning, he spent a few minutes talking to his car sheets and then cautiously got out of bed and walked into the living room. We called out his name and he came running into our room yelling "wake up, big boy bed!" Although the night couldn't have gone better, I knew the real test would be nap time today. Everything started off smoothly, but I soon realized that it just wasn't going to fly. After wrestling around the bed for twenty minutes, he got out of bed and went to the door. He began to call out "hey, mama" over and over again. With no response, he began to fake cry which shortly escalated into real cries. He became more and more dramatic and of course I began to second guess myself. I started to think...poor little guy, he didn't ask to be a big boy and get a new bed, he didn't ask to have a new little brother, etc. You get the idea of where things were headed. So of course, I went to comfort my poor little baby and ended up sleeping with him for the next two hours in his big boy bed which is actually really little. Don't forget we also had Kiki, brown bear, Ellie, tiger, and of course Hayes in the bed with us. It was definitely a tight fit and I think my entire left side is still numb, but it sure was sweet to have that chubby little arm around my neck for a few hours...

Wish me luck for tomorrow!

Animals, Animals, Animals!

We had a weekend filled with animals! First, Nina brought over her kitten that she found a few weeks ago by her garage. It was Jackie's first close up experience with a "meow, meow" and he fell fast for the little guy. He was really gentle with him with only one or two exceptions. : ) I hope Hayes is as lucky as the cat! Today, we headed to the Bayou Wildlife Park with Gigi and Grandad. Jack was super excited to see the animals and told us all day that he was going to kiss the bears and the lions. Luckily there weren't any bears and lions to kiss, but he did have a great time saying hi to all of the baby goats and baby deer. Believe me, he tried his best to not leave a single one out! It was a great day...

What an Adventure!

Jason and Peyton had a big race this weekend! It was an adventure race set in downtown Houston. They didn't know much about what to expect, but they did know they would be in for some serious running and biking at the very least. They were only given a map at the beginning(which they ended up losing) and had to use it to make it to several different checkpoints along the way together as partners. Although it was way too hot to even be watching the race, they had a great time and finished in style. Way to go guys!

Brotherly Love!

Jack is really excited about his little brothers upcoming arrival. We aren't sure exactly how much of it he really gets, but we are doing our best to prepare him. We talk to him about Hayes all the time, have taken Jack to every doctors appointment with us, gotten him a book about what to expect, etc. Some days it seems like he really gets it. He likes to hug and kiss "brother" a lot, has apologized to him for kneeing him in the head once, and has even asked permission to sleep with his stuffed animals until he gets here. At our last doctors appointment, we listened to Hayes' heartbeat. Jack had a big smile on his face and when we asked him what his brother was saying, he said "go ball tent" All I can say is Hayes better come out running!

Of course, there are also days when we just aren't so sure how much he understands...those are the days when we ask him what his brothers name is and with a smile he says " JACK!"

A Sneak Preview

As most of you know, we are gearing up for Jack's big 2nd birthday party! Jack has decided (or rather I have decided for him) that the theme this year will be everything and anything related to firetrucks, since they are one of Jack's favorite things. Of course, every great second birthday invitation requires a theme-related picture of the birthday boy and of course, this requires an intense photo shoot to capture that perfect picture. You should have seen my mom and I making fools of ourselves at the local water park trying everything we could to get Jack to 1)keep his hat on and 2)look at the camera for more than a nanosecond. What seemed like a million pictures later we came away with a winner, but since we can only put one pic on the invitation...I had to share some of our other favorites. They are just too cute and it was too much work not to do so. You understand, right?