My Big Boy!

Wyatt is such a wonderful baby, and I say this not because he's mine but because he is such a sweet and happy easy-going baby that has a smile for everyone. Maybe it's because he's so incredibly sweet and happy at this stage, or more likely it's because he's almost surely my last baby, but every milestone is so bitter sweet for me. Every time he does something new (smile, coo, blow bubbles, bellly laugh) I am so proud of him but a part of me is also so sad because I know it's likely the last time I'll ever experience that "first." The most recent of these firsts is eating solid foods - rice cereal to be exact. No surprise, he LOVES it!




This little chunky monkey weighed in at 17.5lbs (88%) and 25.5 inches (71%) at his 4 month appointment this week. (Most likely the last 4 month appointment I'll ever take one of my kids to - sob)

Addie had her 4 year old appointment at the same time and she weighed in at 41 lbs and was 41 1/4 inches tall! They also checked her vision and hearing and it's official, she can hear just fine...it's the listening we have to work on! She recently informed me that she's "almost 5." This cracks me up because it was only days after she turned 4 but this is just like her grandpa who will say "It's going on 10 o'clock" when it just turned 9:10. SLOW DOWN!!! Let's enjoy being 4 for a while:-)

Addison Turns 4!

My baby turned 4 this past Saturday. My how our lives have changed drastically in the past 4 years. Starting at 7am I was telling Addie what we were doing 4 years ago - we were on our way to the hospital after I'd been awake and in labor from about 3a.m. Through out the day I shared stories with her. We had her third (more on that later) birthday party at my mom and dad's house at lunch and then Chris and I went to Jen Petrash's wedding that evening. I left for a while to feed the baby and it was right around 7pm when I got to my mom's house. After I fed the baby I took Addie aside and told her that this was the time of day she was born 4 years ago. I can't believe how much she has grown in 4 years and how lucky we are to have such an amazingly smart, funny, stubborn, and beautiful little girl.

Back to the 3 parties for this little 4 year old. It started two weekends ago in Fredericksburg. Since Oma and Aunt Courtney were going to be in Mexico on Addie's real birthday we decided to have a party in Fredericksburg on Saturday the week before her birthday. We simultaneously decided to have her 2nd party in El Campo on her actual birthday. This meant Aunt Misty couldn't attend because she had a wedding in the San Antonio area that evening so she joined us for the Fredericksburg party. It was a good time and it worked out perfectly because one of the beautiful dresses that Aunt Cassy gave Addie was perfect for her Pinkalicious party in El Campo. Addie kept telling me that she wanted a rainbow flavor cake so I took an idea that Misty gave me last year (which actually originated on Martha Stewart) and made her the best rainbow cake I could. The one on Martha Stewart's is much prettier but mine didn't turn out too bad. We had a fun lunch and then went fishing in Luckenbach that evening - a perfect day for Addie!






The second party was a Tangled/Rapunzel party at school with all her friends. The school was really sweet and let Nora go into Addie's class room to sing happy bithday and have cupcakes. We sent our camera to get pictures with Addie's friend and funny enough most of the pictures were of Addie and Nora together. Unfortunately the few that were taken of Addie's class were kindof blurry - boo. But there was one really great picture of Addie and Morgan who have been the best of friends since the 12-18 month class!






The third and final party had all of our little cousins which Addie ALWAYS looks forward to. As a special treat, Daddy and Uncle Dwayne had a little cotton tail that they caught the night before hidden under a big planter. The kids gathered in a semi-circle around the pot and we lifted it up. After sitting there for a while the bunny took off across the yard and then the pasture with the kids doing their best to keep up. It cracked us all up! You'll see in the photos Nora even ran after the bunny in her purple princess heels! Only Kennedy was smart enough to know from the start that there was no way that bunny was going to be caught. She just stood there and watched the bunny run! Next was the Pinkalicious pinata that we let them all beat on. (Eventhough it was a pull string pinata - what's up with that by the way, who wants to pull strings??? Beat the thing, that's the point!) After everyone got a chance to hit it, all the strings were pulled, and Camden beat on it some more, we finally ripped it open and out came the candy!


















Addie received amazing presents at both her family parties and we were so happy to see so many family members in the past two weekends. We are blessed in so many ways!

My Girls!

i'll have to post about Addie's 3 birthday parties but for now here are 2 pics I love of my girls. In the first one they were supposed to be napping at Oma and Opa's house but Aunt Misty was visiting so they both insisted on laying on the recliner with her. In the second one Nora is holding a much coveted (by Addie) frog by it's little back leg - poor thing! Addie the animal lover is talking Nora through the whole experience and trying to talk her out of custody of the frog and little Nora, not to be left out of any experience, is holding the frog despite her strong inclination to put it down. Funny how things are so much more appealing when someone else wants them!

Little Salties

Last weekend Addie was in her 1st Fishing Tournament - Little Salties down in Matagorda. She was super excited that her Daddy, Uncle Dwayne, Cadence and Skylar were fishing on Grandpa's boat with her. I was super excited that Dwayne's mother-in-law was there to take pictures of all the "monster" fish they caught (and promptly threw back because, really, we weren't even going to be close to winning the most weight caught).



We have been unknowingly preparing Addie for one competition in this tournament for most of her little life - the CASTING contest! One of Addison's favorite things to do is to take her fishing rod (or Nora's since it is pink) and go outside to the front yard or back yard and just cast, cast, cast her fishing rod. She's really good at it too but we've never worked on aiming and accuracy. Well, all that practice paid off because she won 3rd place in the 3-8 year old division!!



She was certainly the youngest winner up there at age 3 (yes, she turns 4 on May 21st but still, the other winners were definitely older than her). She was so excited to get both her trophies. Funny thing is she loves the one with the fish on it the most. Each participant received this trophy along with a fishing rod.



Nora, Wyatt, Grandma and I arrived Saturday morning and Aunt Holly and Luke came to the contest site to play with us before all the boats got back. Nora was "fishing" for a while but when Luke came they were all about throwing rocks into the water - big fun! Wyatt slept a good portion of the morning in Grandma's arms. Thank goodness for an extra pair of arms!







It was a great weekend and we are just so proud of our girl. Thanks to Uncle Dwayne and all the other sponsers for this fun tournament! Can't wait until next year.

A Few Favorite Pics...

...from our wonderful Easter weekend in Fredericksburg.

Go Team

Some one clearly isn't sure about wearing the green and gold...



and CLEARLY loves the maroon and white. (WHOOP!)


But no matter what colors he wears, he'll always smile for his mommy:-)

FIESTA!!!

So I'm a little late posting this but better late than never. The kids were in the annual Fiesta Parade at school and they all did great jobs. Each class room dresses in a certain theme. There are kings & queens, 50's, parade floats (decorated wagons), spurs fans, surfers, dancers and so much more. Addie's class dressed as cowgirls and cowboys. We had to buy new boots (which she was SOOO proud of) because she'd outgrown her old ones. First they walked with flags and then the second round they threw candy from bags.





This is important to note because little Nora was an "Extra Spicy" (yes, they matched the names with the personalities - mild, sweet, spicy, extra-spicy) red pepper - and apparently she didn't want to be. To be fair, she did great until she saw me.



First round she just acted shy. My attempts to make her smile (sticking out my tongue at her) didn't get much of a result other than a shy look which I caught on camera. Soon she resorted to crying - this is so unlike her so I'm still not quite sure what happened.



The second round she was once again fine but when she saw me she started full on wailing.




After a quick hug and kiss to comfort her as best as I could, my extra-spicy, crying-red-pepper continued to trudge along with her class. Determined to get a smiling picture from my sweet girl I did the only thing I could think of - I bribed my kid with candy:-) After the 2nd round Addie had picked up a laffy taffy. I got the whole thing on video. She picks the candy up off the parade route, tries to open it, shows it to the teacher who tells her to save it for later, so of course she continues to open the candy at which time I stop recording and go get my girl.

I took her over to Nora, split the candy and like magic, I got smiles! Didn't get eye contact with the camera but that's ok, the smiles were enough.








And what about Wyatt in all of this?? Even the nursery participated. Unfortunately they had him laying down in the crib rather than in a bumbo. Oh well, he was still happy as can be and I got a few pics. All in all a great day!