Zoo visit

We visited the zoo with some friends today. This morning it was 37º, which is too cold for me, so I was having second thoughts about going at first. Getting us all out in the morning for a full day in Houston is hard enough. Nevertheless we made it there in one piece and with all of our things and the weather was perfect! Madeline stayed in her stroller most of the time, and Max hopped off and on. Maddie loved the elephant and her favorite was the seal show (even though we were late and only caught the last few minutes).

They enjoyed the panthers

My little monkey trying to climb to see the lion

They had the most fun at the playground though. They were so cute and playing well together. They kept climbing through the lion's head and "falling" out. That is their new thing, they love to pretend fall. They do it on their bikes, ride ons and now the playground. Good times! I just love seeing them play together, it warms my heart.

Max falling

Maddie is 18 months

Maddie is 1 year and half and still full of spunk. She's my purdy-purdy, drama queen, sweet girl, wild thing, circus girl...to name a few. One thing is for sure she's everything I never knew I wanted, but I couldn't imagine my life without her. She is a leader already. She makes up games for her and Max and loves to make him laugh. Fake laughing is one of her favorites. She's a little billy goat too, if I leave her alone she is climbing on tables, escaping the bath, up on chairs. She's also a wonderful sleeper in her own crib. She loves snuggling with her pillow pets and never complains when its time for nap or bed time. Traveling on the other hand is a whole different story. She's a great eater until she gets bored. She loves to feed Tyson and throw food on the floor. Of course, her big brother loves to follow along, which ends meal time for them both!! She loves her big brother, but definitely holds her own when he doesn't share or isn't being nice. The doctor actually noted how strong she was today, saying, "you can tell she has an older brother". She is also a very big girl. Here are her 18 month stats:

Height - 34" - (96 %)

Weight - 26 lb 10 oz (79%)

Head Circumference -18.5" (62 %)

** FYI - Max weighed 27 pounds and was also 34 inches at this age.

Here are some pictures of her lately.

Wearing her jewelry

At Max's school's petting zoo

She loves Elmo

Cuddling with Daddy

Getting ready for potty training - not quite yet, but probably this summer

Such a good eater

Night out for the parents

We had a fun day planned to take the kids to a surprise party in the country. However, Max was running a fever so thankfully my mother volunteered to watch them both.

We had do much fun celebrating with the birthday girl, Sharon and enjoyed cold beer from a keg. Took us back to our old days in College Station. We were checking in with the parents, since Max was sick, but once they were in bed we figured we had some more time for s little after party.


We went over to the Leonard's for dip in the hit tub. We had way too much fun and paid for it the next day, but hey, we gotta have some fun some times.

Typical morning

One of the things I live most about being able to stay home with my kids us that we can have lazy mornings if we want to. It's especially nice In this cold weather. We can snuggle be the fire watching cartoons. Enjoying the moments, because I know it won't always be like this.

BBC Little Christmas party

We celebrated with our workout group. There were so many moms and their babies! We all had a good time and the kids had fun. One if their favorite parts was decorating( and eating) the sugar cookies!

Cheese!!

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Last week of 2011

After an exhaustingly fun trip over Christmas I was so ready to be back home. The kids sleep better, I have all my things, its home after all. We did our usual trips to HEB, target, the park, play dates and re-arranging the house. I had an itch to make a change so we moved some furniture and I love it. Makes the house more open.  In the mean time the kids had fun playing with all their new toys and tearing up the house. 

Maddie has so many qualities that remind me of her Tia Maritza. She LOVES jewelry. She loves putting on all the necklaces, carrying purses and dressing up. Such a girly girl...sometimes!

 We got together with some great friends for dinner at the Cheesecake Factory in the Galleria. It was probably the worst place  I could have picked, and it was my idea. The galleria was so hard to get to, find parking, find the restaurant, catch the elevator since I had a stroller. I was also paranoid I'd lose Max or get mugged on my way to the car. Of course, none of those things happened and we had a great visit (in between mini-meltdowns at the table). I was sad I didn't get a picture of all the kids together, but I did get some of my kids by the tree. Max loved looking down at the ice skating rink.  

 disclaimer: Please disregard his fascination with....well you know....boys will be boys. :)

 We had a small New Year's eve get together at our house. So happy my parents, Lisa & Isabel, and our neighbors made it to eat pozole and have spiked punch and margaritas. We had a great time and the kids stayed up until about 10.

 We got some fireworks and sparklers for the kids, but my three (Max, Maddie and Tyson) wanted nothing to do with it. Luckily Isabel loved it, and was pretending to be the Fairy Godmother from Cinderella. She kept saying "bippity boppiy boo"! It was so cute!

 My parents left early and so did the neighbors since they have a newborn. The rest of us stayed up WAY past our bedtimes, but it was all worth it! Happy New Year!!!!

Christmas 2011

He came! Santa came and brought all the kids were wanting and then some. We went to College Station to spend Christmas with our families and spent extra long there since my sister was visiting from her new home in Minnesota/Wisconsin. We pretty much celebrated from Friday-Sunday! I was glad that my mom and Shawn watched the kids so I could go to dinner with friends and actually "enjoy" some adult conversation and vent a little. :) Only downside is I came home to two kids bouncing off the walls.

Christmas Eve we went to visit Cy & Emily to let my parents get the house in order (my kids tend to tear it up). It was great spending some time with them and the kids. Emily was preparing some yummy food for their X-mas Eve bash. Later on we headed back to my parents to prepare for our Mexican fiesta. We had tamales, enchiladas, chips, dips, tres leches and margaritas. It was just like old times with family and friends. The kids loved when my dad and Dr. Arizpe played music. See the pictures of Maddie dancing and clapping and Max playing the bongos. We stayed up and the kids opened up one gift a piece, and went to bed WAY past their bedtime again.

 Christmas Day we woke up and opened gifts. The kids got so many toys!! You can tell they are loved. Max absolutely loved his guitar from his grandpa and they both loved Maddie's new musical Elmo. Can you tell they come from a musical family? Another favorite was balls. My poor kids don't play with them often since our dog loves them too. Let's see how long we can get them to last. We were so thankful for all the gifts and I know the kids will play with them for a long time. Now its time to donate some of their old toys.

The party didn't stop there thought. We went out to Suzy's for a X-mas day brunch and the kids enjoyed seeing their Honey. We managed to eat more yummy food, but once everyone started napping we headed back home to get ready for our Christmas dinner. Since we weren't all together for Thanksgiving we had an old fashioned turkey dinner with all the sides for dinner. Oh, and we decided to clean out Dad's wine cabinet.....that was fun. Max went to bed early and Maddie was cranky and that made my cranky as well. But she eventually went to bed so I got to relax a little.

All in all it was a great Christmas and we all had fun, but it was SO GOOD to get home. Maddie loved here new pajamas she got for X-mas and the kids enjoyed circus shaped waffles for breakfast, thanks to Tia Memi. Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!