Preparing for Halloween

I absolutely love Halloween and after much nagging, Joey helped me put up the decorations. I know that it is a bit early, but I wanted to have them out for as long as possible. We already know what the kids are going to be thanks to Taryn (she helped pick out the costumes)...Cayden will be Master Yoda from Star Wars, Taryn will be Sharpay Evans from High School Musical, and Maddi will be an adorable scarecrow (thanks for the costume K-Love!). I am so excited!

All Smiles

Sometimes I look at this little boy and I am just amazed by him. We have all completely fallen in love with the adorable child and our hearts melt when he smiles at us. He has been doing it so much lately that I know it isn't just gas=) If you get close to his face and make silly sounds he just lights up. Taryn is the best at it, because she just loves to hear her own voice!!

First Flight

I finally broke down and went in a plane that Joey was flying. Maddi has been so excited about going up in a plane with her Daddy, that I gave in. I wasn't too excited about getting in such a small plane that my husband was flying, but I figured it was time to show some faith. We all had headsets (that for some reason didn't work), so we were official. Poor Maddi, her headset was a regular adult size headset and it was so heavy that she leaned to the left. She just couldn't hold her head up. Taryn was an old pro, she even showed me how to talk on the mouthpiece. I can't say that I will be going up in a small plane like that again, but the view was beautiful. We flew over San Marcos and I got to see Texas State (I graduated from there). The bottom picture is of the football stadium...Go Bobcats!

Pre-Kinder

Taryn and Mackenzie have started Pre-K at a private school this year and they are loving it. I have a feeling that Taryn might be a nerd when she gets into "Big Girl School", because she comes home begging to do her homework. Each week they learn a new letter and then typically on Fridays that have a fun day that starts with the letter of the week. The first week was Mr. M's milkshakes, then Ms. F's Funny Feet Friday (the first picture) and then most recently was Mr. H's Happy Hair Friday...we went all out. Of course Maddi isn't in Pre-K, but she loves to participate! I was probably the only Mom that sprayed her children's hair different colors, but I figured that you might as well have fun with it! The kids had a blast and it really helps to reinforce the letters that they are learning.

Chunky Monkey

My sister came into town last weekend to excape the aftermath of Hurricane Ike. No damage was done to their house, but the power was out for four days. They came to town and could not believe how much bigger Cayden had gotten in 3 weeks. We kept saying that he is really filling out, but didn't realize how much weight he had gained. Joey and I took him to the doctor for his one month checkup and he is up to 11 lbs 9 ozs, he has gained nearly 4 lbs in one month (90 percentile) and is 23 inches long, he has grown one inch (92 percentile). The doctor said that he is the size of a 2 month old. Sounds like we are going to have a big boy!!

Soccer Continues

Taryn is still doing very well in soccer...but we have noticed one thing...the games are more like a wrestling match than anything. They are all pushing each other, even the kids on the same team. The top picture is after I told Taryn that she needed to keep her eye on the ball, she had been doing ballerina turns on the field. So in typical Taryn style, she used her binocular hands to find the ball.

Big or Little?

We have been having a debate on whether Cayden is big or if Maddi is little...we can't decide. We took pictures of their feet today...Cayden fits into a size 1 shoe, Maddi barely wears a size 5. Cayden is 23 inches long, Maddi is 32 inches tall. Cayden wears 3 month outfits, Maddi can still wear some 12 month bottoms. Cayden now weighs 10 lbs, Maddi weighs 24 lbs. It is funny because they are 2 1/2 years apart...Cayden might outgrow Maddi before he is a year old!! Either way they are both adorable=)

Cayden is One Month Old

Cayden turned one month old today...I can't believe it! He is still doing very well...eats, sleeps, poops, repeats! The past couple of nights have been tough...he thinks his day should start at 3:30 in the morning...he is bright eyed and ready to be entertained. We are going to work on breaking that habit!!

Go Team!

Taryn's first soccer game was recently and they did so well!! The Red Dragons kicked some bootie (can I say that since this a church league?) I guess it would be better to say that they won and Taryn finally got the hang of playing soccer. There is nothing quite like watching a huge pack of 4 year olds running around a soccer field trying to get the ball from each other. Taryn didn't care if the person she was taking the ball away from was on her team, she was going to get it. At one point in the game she was kicking the ball, kicked a little girl from the other team in the shin, stopped to say that she was sorry, and then continued to kick the ball down the field. Of course, she didn't get that far before a fellow Red Dragon came and took the ball away from her. But at least you can say that she has some manners!

OUCH!!

Well it happened, Maddi has broken a bone!! She was playing hide-and-go seek with Taryn and Mackenzie last night and jumped on the couch, which she is not supposed to play on. She proceeded to bounce off the back cushion of the couch and landed hard on the ground. We heard her start crying and Taryn ran in the room to tell us that Maddi fell off the couch. Maddi can be a bit dramatic, so we weren't really sure if she was actually hurt or not. We iced it and then put a bandaid on it- that didn't fix it. She ended up falling asleep, but this morning she woke up and was really sweaty and crying. Poor thing just kept telling me "hurt" and pointing to her wrist. I took her to the doctor and after a very long day of X-rays and 2 doctor's offices...we found out she had broken her elbow in 2 places (right where the dimple is in your elbow). Funny thing is, she LOVES her cast, she calls it her big bandaid. The only color that Maddi consistenly identifies is yellow- so she picked the yellow cast. There is an option to make the cast waterproof (which I did) so that she can bathe and swim without having to worry about getting it wet. So after a long day of doctor's visits she did what every child with a broken elbow would do, she went swimming. I was a nervous wreck watching her play, but nothing was going to keep her down. She jumped and went down the slide. I was so afraid that she was going to hurt herself, but all she did was laugh her butt off for the 2 hours she played on the slide. I have to say, that little girl is a trooper and I am so impressed with how brave she was.

Sea World AGAIN

We typically live at Sea World during the summer- we would go almost every weekend. This year, with being pregnant and then Cayden's arrival, we haven't really had too many opportunities. We ventured out there on Labor Day weekend, just so we could get the girls out of the house. We went both Saturday and Monday and the girls loved every minute of it. Taryn drug Joey on the "Big Boat Ride" at least 5 times- until Joey got sick of it and told her the line was too long. Saturday was a bit of an adventure- it was Cayden's first trip to Sea World (and last one for a while.) It was just too hot for him (those darn weather forecasters were wrong again!) and we were trying to cool him off most of the day.

Relax!!

I really wish Cayden would learn to relax a little more!! Just kidding, he is so chill that sometimes we have to check him to make sure that he is real!! Unless he is hungry (which is every 2 hours!!) or naked, he is SO easy going. You can take him and turn him any which way and he doesn't care. But if you really want to hear him yell then take him out of the bathtub (of course we get a sprinkler show when he gets cold)!!

He is such a good eater that at his 2 week check up he had gone from 7 lbs 12 ozs to 9 lbs 12 ozs- he had gained 2 lbs since the doctor had seen him. We can credit that to his every 2 hour bottle feedings and a little of his daddy's genes. He jumped from the 25th percentile to the 55th percentile in his weight. He dropped from the 95th percentile in height to the 75th percentile- he hasn't grown longer (the best that we can tell since we couldn't get his leg very straight.)

Joey and I are doing pretty well, other than being exhausted!