Chopsticks

Shawn worked late one night and we had a coupon, so what a perfect excuse not to cook. I dreaded this outing, but I was pleasantly surprised. They ate all their food and loved their fortune cookies. Score, we'll be back to Pei Wei for sure!

 Take 1

Take 2

Dancing babies!

My kids love to dance. Shake it!!!! 

p.s. notice Max trying to push his way in the spotlight. Love my kids, equally cute!!

16 months and she's doing what??!?!

So the days pass and then suddenly I realize my baby is 16 months, that's closer to 1 1/2 than 1. I know it sounds cliché or repetitive on this blog, but that is literally how I feel. A few things I can say about her is that she has some serious spunk. She's loud, loving, sweet, fast, precious and fun! One thing I am amazed she can do is jump. Max didn't jump until after his 2nd birthday, so I was surprised to see her jumping so early. She is fast! Her orthopedic doctor (who we saw to evaluate her legs) said that kids with tibial torsion like her are often clumsy but fast. That is so true, she often trips and falls over her feet, but she gets up and gets going. She also loves to dance. She says a few words like mommy, daddy, Ma (Max), Tytin (Tyson), cookie, dance, me (mine) and many other words I haven't deciphered yet. 

She plays at the park.

 We have Starbucks dates.

 She loves slides.

 She paints (or eats the paint).

 She loves her daddy!

 She loves story time!

 She throws tantrums. 

 She eats with a fork and spoon (sometimes).

 She falls and gets boo boos (her right eye).

 She's a girly girl!

Museum Fun

We ventured out to city for an afternoon/evening of playtime. I was so excited to take the kids to the Children's Museum of Houston for two reasons: it was free AND they were having a ballet folklorico perform. It is so expensive to go to the museum ($8x3 =$24), never mind the gas and time.But I love the place, so this seemed like the perfect time to go. We picked up Shawn from work in the galleria, to drive about 5 miles down to the museum district. The only problem was it was 4:30 and it literally took 45 minutes to get there. Seriously? Traffic and me do not mix. I was agitated, but I got over it once we got there.

The kids love it there! When we first go to the tot spot the attendants "nicely" asked how old Max was since you have to be under 36 months to go in. My baby is so tall people think he is 3 or 4. They think I'm lying when I say he's 2! He and Maddie just ran around. Max loves playing with the cars and filling them up with gas. It was cool to show Shawn some of the things we do while he's hard at work. 

Since Shawn was there we explored all the cool exhibits. The kids loved the science area and of course the car. After we explored the museum we went to see the performance. It was running late, there were a few issues with the music, but the kids loved it. Of course Madeline was ready to run around after 5 minutes. So we only stayed for 3 performances. I'm glad we went, but the trek home was another traffic nightmare. We ended the night at California Pizza kitchen, where Maddie was so tired and cranky, but the food was good. We won't be doing that very often, but we will do it again. 

**horrible video I took of the kids. Max eating some pan dulce and Maddie clapping along.

Halloween 2011

We had an unconventional Halloween this year. Poppy was taken to the hospital because he was having trouble breathing. He was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer this past Summer and he's had complications this past month with his treatment. We decided to hit the road to go and visit with him on Halloween afternoon. The kids weren't able to see him since he is in ICU and on top of that both kids have had colds since the beginning of October. That being said we had a short, but good visit. It was good to see Richard and we are praying for him everyday.

After we left the hospital all the family got together for a dinner at Tony Roma's. Again, my kids were in rare form. Maddie was being wild as ever and only settled down a few time. Nevertheless it was nice to visit with everyone, but we were ready to go to do some trick-or-treating. Max was a cowboy(because he refused any other costume). He looked so cute! We went to Shenandoah in College Station with the Terral brother's and their families. We hit 2 streets and we got a lot of candy. Max was sweet and said trick-or-treat and thank 'um (thank you) every time. We went kind of late so most people were trying to get rid of their candy. A few told Max to take more, so he helped himself. Then he thought he should do that at EVERY house. Most people just thought he was so cute, the didn't even flinch. :)

 Maddie also had a medieval princess costume, but she was so mad wearing it. So we dressed her up in black and white. Of course she ripped her shoes off, had a runny nose and was a mess because she had a lollipop. I swore I would never let my baby girl go out like that, but what can I say...you do what you gotta do. She was carried most of the time, but she did pick a few more lollipops for herself.  All in all, we had a good time. We got home, but the kids went right to bed. Happy Halloween!!

A few pictures of the kids in their skeleton hoodies. :)

1, 2, 3

I had to blog about Maddie's latest fascination. She loves collecting things in little cups. Mema noticed it when her and my dad babysat. She loves collecting all of the bathtub fish in a cup....and she "counts" 1, 2, 3. Her favorite number is 2. She is so careful to get them in the cup and says "tuuuu". The next morning at breakfast she was being super fussy. I was ready to just go, but my mom gave her all the jellies on our table and a cup. Low and behold she was happy. What would we do without grandmas? She is talking up a storm lately and loves to repeat things. She always says hi and bye (in a really strong Texas drawl). She loves to jump and say "jump". When she hears a song she likes, she dances around and said "dance". Love my girl!

Pumpkin Patch & Carving

We visited the Fairfield pumpkin patch this year. I went alone with the kids, so it was challenging to get a good shot. They loved it though! Max was so into it and his favorites were the small ones. I tried to get a good picture of the two of them, but Maddie wasn't staying still fo long.

 Of couse Max is at a good age for following directions most of the time. Love this smile!

 They each had fun on the tractor, but they didn't want to share the wheel. I thought this picture was funny. ;)

 I told Max that we would be carving a pumpkin so he was asking all week. Finally on Sunday we carved a pumpkin. Of course Shawn picked a challenging design, but he had done this before so we tried it. I thought Max would have fun picking out the gooey inside, but he wanted nothing to do with it. Maddie on the other hand was all about it. Max had a little pumpkin that he carved and made a mess with.

 The weather was pretty warm and the mosquitoes were out, so had to come inside and Shawn finished his masterpiece. It took a while and the kids had dinner before Shawn finished, but when we got the candle in and turned the lights out the kids loved it. Max was so proud to display it on the front porch. Fun day with pumpkins! Halloween is just one week away!!