a boy and his sucker.....

so suckers have become the new obsession around here with K.
he begs for suckers all day, you would think he would start to learn he gets ONE a day, usually in the afternoon when we are outside playing.

he gets SO excited and thinks he is the coolest thing when he gets one of the in his hand!

That boy makes THE biggest mess, i have never seen so much slobber and sticky mess running down the arm a 2 year old! i mean it is only a dum-dum for heaven sakes, it shouldn't be that messy! if i could just convince him to leave the sucker in his mouth and his fingers out of it , we will survive the stickiness!

this is him finishing up.......

this is him after i tell him he cannot have another 'tucker'.

really, you would think this is the first time i told him 'no' about that same question! poor baby....

after trying for about 25 minute i finally got him to look at the camera long enough to get a decent shot!



i have been trying hard to get my camera out everyday to practice. this is the first time i have been so pleased with what i have accomplished. i got good focus(where i wanted it to fall), good exposure(i tend to overexpose), and good composition(which i have become to realize is the hardest part when your only subject is a 2 year old!). so it was nice to get these pictures loaded on the computer this time!

The best ice cream in the country......

My sister and I brought the kids to tour the blue bell creamery in Brenham, Tx.
It was with L's play group, but it was really for us as much as it was for the kids. i had never been before, so even though i knew the tour was going to be way over k's & k's head we went anyway. He was such a trouper and was rewarded with rainbow sherbet at the end of the tour!






I was able to get some pretty decent pictures, the back-ground helped, it was so beautiful on the grounds! I have been trying really hard to figure out the lighting, and even though we had harsh overhead sunlight, i got a few keepers!

















Wanted to be sure to catch a few of the babies, because they always get left out!















Yes- a small herd! those double strollers are not convenient in a crowd!













T having a small bite of butter pecan ice-cream, you can bet your butt k never had that when he was 8 months!
it was just pure pleasure on his face!


One of these days we will live in either Brenham or Kerville, Tx........in our dreams!

odds and ends.....

K playing at the coolest park we found in Tomball.

T playing in his bedroom, i finally got him some big toys out and he

just loves them!

Burton Cotton Gin Festival

Saturday provided the best weather for a festival!
We headed out to Burton to the cotton gin festival to see what is was all about. we have never been before so it was a neat experience.
I am all about festivals, i would go to a festival every weekend, but my stick-in-the-mud husband is no fun and doesn't really like it.
I like to hang out, really LOOK at everything that is going on, look at all the historical stuff, and of course the carnivals! i love the sensory overload!
S on the other hand, likes to look quickly and leave.
We did have a lot of fun though, watching the big parade come through town was neat. we couldn't tour the cotton gin because of the stroller, and we skipped the carnival.
K had a blast in the petting Zoo. they had the best petting zoo i have ever seen! and he LOVED the antique tractors on display! T couldn't have care less, he just did not want in the stroller!

For our friends of the Texas A&M persuasion, we got this picture with Bevo, the UT mascot!
I did not know anything about him so i researched a little and he is the
14th longhorn to hold the honor of being Bevo.







Just a quick snap-shot to remember where we were. of course we were there in the middle of the day, without a cloud in the sky, not great for getting pictures of the fam!














The cotton gin.



















a not-so-great picture of the very small carnival.














an old firetruck that was in the parade.

Sign, sign, everywhere a sign......

....blocking out the senery, breaking my mind.
do this, don't do that! can' t you read the sign?
(lyrics from the song Signs, sung by five man electric band)


To me, one of the most disturbing things about the city and the over-developed(and under-planned) suburbs are the signs and the billboards.
They are so big, ugly and obtrusive to such a beautiful place we all live.

On the other hand, i have a seceret fondness for old, forgotten about signs.
the ones that are so old, weather torn and have been around for so long that you don't really even see them there anymore.
These signs are along an old, bypassed highway i travel everyday. for a long time i thought how neat they were, then i would think it would be neat to have a picture before they are gone, then finally i decided one day I was gonna stop a take that picture!
So i did get the courage to stop on the side of the road
and click a few. here's to the start of something new!

Just found....

The best website!!
http://thepioneerwoman.com/

The crud....

• Horrible headache/fever
• runny(rushing) nose
• nasty deep cough
• congestion
• pretty much anything else that describes something just shy of the flu.....

This is what i have had for about a week and a half, just when i think i am getting better it feels like i smash head first into a brick wall again.

T has it( with a yucky, yucky runny nose and cough) on top of getting another tooth.

K has a fever for 2 days with a runny nose, but been in a surprisingly good mode! YEAH!

S, of course, is more sick that all of us, and swears he is going to die.

I AM SO SICK OF ALL THE SNOT AROUND HERE, who knew two little kids noses could run so much?!?

Now, for the past 2 days i have missed work because my sisters crew is sick with this mess and they all have fever...etc.

It stinks, stinks, stinks! it just needs to move on , not that i would wish this on anyone, but i don't want it anymore!!

a good thing about all of this is, i have gotten completely caught up on my laundry, cleaned out my junk drawer in the kitchen and cleaned my bedroom.

Hope everyone is doing better than us!

Reservations ....Please

to the ER!

I am surprise and grateful we have not had to make that first dreadful trip to the emergency room with K. But i am sure it is to come as the pictures to follow will prove. we have a little daredevil on our hands! he is scared of nothing, except for ants (which he reminds us of daily, if not more). and he has the energy to care out any stunt he can conjure up in that boy brain of his.

So this is what i find outside when S yells for me to come look. of course i had to scramble to get the camera ready, and it was worth it!

S says he has no idea what possessed him to do this....HUMMM?

2nd Try......

and i am actually pleased with the bluebonnet pictures that we got! we went back to the same spot on Monday evening to see if we could get better results. i was praying to the weather gods the whole way because there were some pretty nasty rain clouds, but the sun peeked out right after we got there and gave us a few beautiful sunset pictures! So lucky!

The not so lucky part, i am embarrassed to admit, is that we had to drive another 10 miles to the next town because about 5 minutes before we got to the destination, i remembered that the memory card was sitting by the computer at home!! you would seriously think i would learn. this time it cost me $36.00. At least wal-mart carries a compact flash card!

L, K and C came along this time, got some super cute ones of them also!

All at once....

Just all of a sudden my little T isn't such an infant anymore. just in the last few days he has learned so much!
for starters, on saturday he learned how to go from his tummy to sitting up with out hitting the floor with his forehead. he is still up on all 4's trying SO hard to crawl, but he just can' t figure out how to get going forward.
Just yesterday his first tooth finally popped through, we didn't think that was ever gonna happen. we are lucky that so far it hasn't been as terrible experience as it was for Kyle! YIPPEE!
And for the best news, well for me anyways, is that finally after about 2 months of trying, just over night he decided to willingly open his mouth and eat big boy food!!!! I did wait to long to start trying to feed him solid food, but i just kept forgetting, our nights are so hectic. of course i am not starving my boy, he eats plenty of formula, it just sounds bad that i forgot to feed him, right? So for about 1 1/2 months or so i have been trying( forcing) him to eat. cereal at first and now cereal and carrots. poor baby would gag and throw up every time i actually got it in his mouth. that started to get better, then he got smart and just stopped opening his mouth and turning his head. i would squeeze his cheeks(not hard) to get his mouth open, but now, tonight, he decided to like it! What a relief, now we will see what happens when i try green beans!
I know i need to stop being so shocked when this stuff happens, i know he is growing up, but it just seems to be going so much faster the second time around!






Just a little something about K....
The first time i feed T cereal, K insisted on having a bite, so i scooped a big 'ol spoon full in his mouth and he threw up EVERYWHERE! he did not just spit it out, he threw up all his food!
SO a few nights after that he smartened up and knew he didn't want to eat it, but he wanted to help me feed T, so i let him hold the bowl. EVERY.SINGLE.TIME i got the spoon in the vicinity of Ty's mouth, Kyle would gag. big gags, tears in his eyes, like i was afraid he was gonna throw up! i know it is mean, but s and i laughed SO hard! he has gotten better now! i don't know what it is about my kids and their gag reflex?!