May!

Being a house of educators we are predestined for crazy May days, but it seems like we really decided to take it up a notch around here this year. First we had Will's birthday, then we headed to Nebraska for a quick weekend, took in a little Houston art car parade, and all of the sudden -- it's Memorial weekend! All while Todd and I are trying to wrap up the end of the school year, and oh, did we mention we had a baby coming in about 35 days??

We've already given the scoop on the big guy's birthday, so here's the other stuff we've been up to around here. We decided to take one last trip to Nebraska before Bob gets here since we won't be able to travel this summer. It was so fun to see everyone, but it was cold! There were record low temps while we were there (I mean, seriously, 45 in May??) But we threw on some jackets and had a ton of fun anyway.

We were lucky to have Jess take the day off on Friday and spend the day playing with us. We took Will to the Children's Museum for the afternoon and he had a blast. Of course there was one particular exhibit that we had a hard time pulling him away from...

Yep, the farm.



You have to pick corn to feed all your animals, of course!



The next day even though it wasn't the warmest, we decided to stick with our plans and take Will to the Omaha zoo. He LOVES animals and the Houston zoo so I have been wanting to take him in Omaha because they have such a great zoo. And as an added bonus, our friends the Sears joined us! Luke and Will are only a couple of weeks apart and it is always fun to get them together when we are in town. Now we just need to convince them to come our way for a trip...:)

Will having a little chat with a friend...



Crossing the bridge -- and thinking he's pretty hot stuff, I might add.



We've certainly come a long way, haven't we? :)



Remember that baby we have coming?? Well some of my wonderful co-workers decided we needed to celebrate the upcoming arrival and threw us a pretty incredible diaper day. Todd's school also threw us a shower this month and we are definitely "pampered" in this house right now! We are very fortunate to work with such generous people -- they are really amazing.





Houston has an incredible art car parade every year. This year the weather was great and we thought Will would love seeing all the cars decorated so we packed up some snacks, drinks, and chairs and headed downtown to check things out. Will was fascinated -- and I don't think his dad was far behind...I think it brought back some art memories for him too. :)

Will's favorite car of the day -- I said it was a chicken, he informed me it was a rooster. Whichever, it was huge!



Yay! Given credit where credit is due...:)



Kicking back and enjoying the show -- they both look so serious!



And I think that pretty much sums up our May...at least so far! Time to wrap up the school year and bring on the summer fun!

Will's 3!

First of all, let me just say how excited I am that I am sitting on the couch updating the blog this Mother's Day as opposed to sitting in a hospital room with a very hurt little boy. A huge improvement from last year!

Friday was Will's big 3rd birthday! As some friends were talking about remembering the moment they found out Will was here 3 years ago, I was struck -- how can a moment seem like yesterday, but yet it seem like we've never known life without the little guy around? And holy cow -- we're about to experience this all over again -- in less than 2 months when "Bob" joins our little family!

Friday we did our now birthday tradition of celebrating with the culinary delight of hot dogs, mac and cheese, and cupcakes with Will's godparents. It's always so fun to have a small kick off to the bigger party to come during the weekend and it gives Will a chance to open a few presents and have a special night before the big day of the party.

This year's theme was made very clear by Will -- we were on a farm! He asked for a tractor cake well over a month ago and hasn't strayed from that plan. So I decided I was going to give a 3D cake a shot -- I've always wanted to try and I watch about a million hours of food network, so why not? Here's the final product -- probably not getting me a job on any cake shows, but not too shabby for my first try if I do say so myself! Of course Will had seen a picture of some tractor cakes when I was picking out what to do and so when he saw it for the first time he's reaction was something like this -- "My tractor cake!! Yay! Where's the wagon?" Really? Thanks bud.



Then I had to add some little farm animal friend cupcakes to go along with it, right? I knew I was successful when Will and Elyse were picking out which animal they wanted to eat without having to be told what they were! :)




The rest of the food was all farm themed too -- we had a pig pen (pigs in a blanket), veggie patch, fruit orchard, chicken feed (snack mix), and hay stacks (pretzel sticks). Quite the tasty farm...



Will loves to plant pretty much anything, so we made sure to let everyone have their own pot, trowel, and a plant to take home. Here they all are in full planting mode!



Will kept asking me when we were going to put fire on his cake and let him blow it out -- we've apparently seen enough birthday cakes to know what's up around here. He was so excited when it was finally time for singing and candle blowing!




And here is the best family pic we managed to get this year -- by the time all the cameras started going Will had decided he had had enough of the paparazzi and became very shy. But here we are nonetheless.



This collage pretty much sums up the day -- and is also a chance to say a huge thank you to our good friend Becky for being willing to be the resident photographer of the day. We love you Becky!

Happy Easter!

Our Easter weekend was packed with fun activities and lots of time with friends and family! I wanted to make sure that I got a few pictures up now -- it seems like springtime around here is always jammed with fun stuff and I didn't want to get too far behind. Not to mention that Will has a new big boy room that we need to show off... but one thing at a time! :)

We started our weekend festivities with a little Easter egg dyeing at home. Here's Todd at his art teacher best, giving a little tutorial to his students. They actually paid really close attention and did a great job with a little help.



The next morning we headed to the church Easter egg hunt. We took the kids over to the little kids hunt first to make sure they secured some eggs and then we tried out the big kid hunt -- as you can see our little guy fit right in and didn't miss a beat!



Our Saturday didn't stop there, although you wouldn't know it by my lack of picture taking...:( After hunting eggs we headed to Humble to see Todd's family. It was a bonus visit because Eric and Sania were in town and we got to spend some time with them. So just picture this...lots of graduation celebrating (go Eric!), egg dyeing part 2, and Easter baskets galore!

It's become a tradition of ours to have dinner at Chuck and Carol's on Easter Sunday and this year was no exception. It turned out to be a beautiful day and all the kids and adults had a great time. Carol always does a great job of having fun stuff for the kids to do and the adults always get a chance to catch up and enjoy some time together as well.

Checking out the yard pool game ...



Will and Elyse having a great time with their new game!



Kiddie table = dinner date!



Somehow we didn't manage to attempt a family picture at all this Easter -- whoops! Just trust that we were all there and in our Easter finest as we enjoyed a great weekend of family, friends, and fellowship -- exactly the way it should be!

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Spring strawberry fields

This time of year is so beautiful here -- it's not hot yet, and we really get a true spring which I love. It makes it perfect for spending our weekends outside doing all kinds of fun stuff around the area. One of the things I remember doing as a kid that was so much fun was picking strawberries. I had heard there was a place not far from here that you could go to, so we had to check it out. This will definitely become a regular thing for us -- I loved it probably more than Will did. There is a huge strawberry field and then they also have a big produce market, picnic area, and smokehouse. After we picked strawberries I got to shop in the produce market, Will played in the picnic area, and Todd got some smoked sausage. Everyone wins! It was a great way to spend a spring weekend.

Here's Will in the picnic area -- I told him that the tire was from an old tractor and he was more than happy to sit on it. :)



Will told us we were "strawberry hunters" and we had to check out many, many rows of strawberries. As soon as we picked some in one place, he was on to the next row to hunt for more. We could have filled our buckets and hardly moved, but no -- we had to go exploring.



Our little farmer hard at work...



Will getting a lesson from daddy on which strawberries are ready to pick -- we told him if they were the color of his shirt he could pick them.



A rare family photo taken by a kind random stranger. And we were all actually smiling at the camera -- a miracle! As I was looking at this one tonight it struck me that this is probably one of the last pictures we'll have as a family of three. I still don't think it's real that we're adding another person to our little world -- and that it's happening pretty soon!

March madness

I have got to do better about posting...but until I do, you'll have to suffer through this long update!

Spring break was about a week ago and it was the perfect chance to catch up on a few things while also enjoying the gorgeous spring weather around here. We did a little painting, gave the yard a spring cleaning, and marked a few things off the to-do list. Luckily we also got to take advantage of the extra time to catch up with a few friends and enjoy some of the fun spring activities around Houston. Of course the big one here is the rodeo and our little guy loves himself some rodeo! Thanks to Aunt B for the great picture taking...:)

So excited to be at the rodeo!



Ready to get some food for the animals in the petting zoo!



While we at the pig races Todd got stopped by one of the local TV stations to be interviewed. I tried to run away, but no such luck. :) Sooo...we were on TV! Of course then that night we completely forgot to watch the news, so we didn't actually see ourselves, but got plenty of phone calls to let us know we had been seen. I'm sure it was fantastic...;)



Will seriously loves tractors. We had to check out the displays and he wanted to know what all the parts were...which of course we had no idea. Sorry Bellamy's...I'll have to brush up my skills. :)



This one had a little video running in the dash to simulate being out in the fields...very cool.



The big project of the week was to get Will's new room painted and prepped to be moved into. The best surprise of the week was that mom decided to come down and help us paint! As soon as Will found out she was coming he started asking if she was here yet so they could get started -- we really should have kept it a secret and saved some of our sanity. :) But finally Grandma showed up with paint brushes in hand and off they went to paint the new room!

Will was such a huge help...



Ok, maybe not a lot of help, but had a ton of fun with Grandma!



After all the work was done, it was time to have some fun. Since the weather was so nice, we decided to check out a Safari zoo that we had been wanting to take Will to. I have a feeling we will definitely be back for another visit with our little animal lover.

I don't know if mom wants to get quite this close to the camel again though...



Hi giraffes!



Another petting zoo, another happy boy.



And just like that, another spring break has chugged away....but we had lots of great adventures along the way. Next stop - summer vacation! :)

Rodeo 2011

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