Zoo fun

The weather has been so nice lately that we made a couple of trips to the Houston Zoo. The first was just the boys and I and the second was with the Weatherwax family. The kids had an absolute blast both times. It wasn't horribly crowded so they got to run around a lot. During our second trip we got to see the brand new baby giraffe. He was so cute and little in comparison to some of the other young giraffes they have there. We also got to see the new baby elephant that was brought to the zoo after Mac died a few months ago. Here are some photos from the trips.



John sitting on top of the buffalo statue.

Riding the carousel is always a favorite.

The new baby giraffe.

Playing on the playground.

James pretending to be a prairie dog.

First Family Campout

This past weekend was the first time all four of us have gone camping together. Brian and I have taken James twice before but John always stayed behind with family. To make a fun trip even more fun, we brought along the Crouch kids. It was their first time camping out as well. Two of our good friends also came so there was a nice child to adult ratio. We all had a wonderful weekend together. We left around 2 on Friday and spent the rest of the afternoon getting the tents all set up and cooking dinner. Saturday we hiked down to the Brazos River for some bank fishing. While we didn't catch anything the kids had a great time throwing sticks and rocks into the water and hiking along the river. We decided to call it quits and walked back to our site for lunch. The little kids napped while others played football and went hiking. The only downer of the trip was that it rained off and on most of the afternoon and evening the worst of it being right when we started roasting marshmallows. Everyone crashed early that night. Sunday we got up and started packing things up and headed home. While we came home with tons of laundry, everyone had a great time. We've already reserved campsites at another state park in March.




Here are some photos from the fishing portion of the weekend. My camera battery died shortly after that.



John playing with the worms.

James playing with the worms.

James and Cameron throwing sticks in the water.

Everyone on the riverbank getting ready to fish.

Super cute blog backgrounds

I found this link on a friend's blog. They have some really cute backgrounds!!! Check it out whenever you get a chance.

http://thecutestblogontheblock.com/

New Year's Resolutions

Well thus far my two big resolutions for 2009 are going well. James is doing very well with his prep work for Kindergarten. We are using a workbook he received as a Christmas gift from Aunt Jocelyn. We do two worksheets and read for 5+ minutes a day. The worksheets involve colors, numbers, letters, etc. The best part is that they really get him working on his writing skills. He was doing really well with tracing the dots provided but now he's finally starting to write the letters and numbers on his own. Kindergarten Orientation is on March 31st. During this time, they'll evaluate James and see if he's emotionally/socially ready to go to school. I have no worries. He makes friends really easily and isn't afraid to leave me.

My second big resolution was to get John potty trained by his third birthday. I'll admit, I was very lazy from August through December but once we got back from Disney World, we really started working hard on it. Just this week, I moved him into underwear. Thus far he's only having one accident a day which is great!! I'm taking him to the bathroom every hour and he goes every time. I'm hoping that by his birthday he's initiating the bathroom trips. John will be starting Preschool in the Fall which is really exciting.

One of my minor resolutions is to get ready for our new baby way before he's due to arrive. (I had nothing ready when John made is entrance 5 weeks early) Thus far, I'm doing really well. The crib is put back together and the nursery was painted last weekend. (Thanks to two wonderful friends, we got the nursery and John's room painted all in about 6 hours) I've also got everything I need to use cloth diapers this time around. They are way better for the environment and so much cheaper than buying diapers/pull-ups and wipes for 2.5 to 3 years. The clothes have been washed and put away. Everything else can wait until Jude actually arrives in ~18 more weeks.

Mom/Gammie is finally coming home!!!

After 18 very long days and nights, Mom is finally leaving the hospital. There were lots of bumps in the road but she's finally on her way to a full recovery. We are so very happy and blessed that she's coming home. Hopefully she'll be back to feeling 100% again very soon. The boys certainly have missed seeing their Gammie. Thank you all for your positive thoughts and prayers. They definitely worked.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!

Well it's a bit late but we wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!! We had a hectic yet wonderful Christmas this year. We spent the weekend before Christmas painting and redecorating Kristen's kids' rooms and surprised them with the results on Christmas Eve. We spent Christmas morning at our house before heading up to my parents' house to open gifts with my Dad and sister. After a yummy Mexican lunch, we headed over to the hospital to visit my Mom for a little while. We ended the night with a delicious Christmas dinner at Kristen's house. The kids all got to show each other what Santa brought them and play together for a while. We got up the next morning very early as Brian and James had an 8 am flight to catch to Tucson. They had a wonderful visit there with Brian's family members who live in Arizona. They got home on the 30th and then headed up to Granbury to visit Brian's sister, Sally, and her husband, Jason. I stayed back in Katy to be able to visit my mom in the ICU after her surgery on Monday afternoon. We hope to have my Mom back at home recovering early in 2009.


Opening presents at MawMaw and Poppa Steve's house

Opening presents at Gammie and Grandpa's house

John all done opening presents from Santa

Santa brought James a Darth Maul lightsaber

Checking out the gifts from Santa

First Disney Vacation

The day after Thanksgiving we left for our frist ever trip to Disney World. We broke up the drive into two days. The first day we stopped in New Orleans for some yummy lunch and to see the aquarium. It was a nice break for the boys. We stayed the night just outside of Mobile, AL. The next day we finished the drive and ended up at our rental home in Kissimmee, FL.

On Sunday, November 30th, we all woke up bright and early and headed to the Magic Kingdom. We had breakfast at the Crystal Palace with Pooh, Tigger, Piglet and Eeyore. We spent the rest of the day riding various rides and collecting character signatures. It was a really long day so we headed back to the house to get a good night's sleep.

On Monday we had breakfast with Mickey, Donald, Goofy and Daisy at Tusker House in Animal Kingdom. The boys had a blast visiting with the characters. After that we did the safari ride where the boys got to see lots of animals just roaming around. We did lots of other fun activities and nature walks at Animal Kingdom.

We had a free day planned on Tuesday and decided to head back to the Magic Kingdom. There were so many rides we missed and a few that James really wanted to do again. The boys had a blast but the lack of naps finally caught up to John. He slept for 3 hours in the stroller while the rest of us did some rides and caught a few shows.

Wednesday we spent the day at Hollywood Studios. The first thing they rode was Star Tours since James is such a huge Star Wars fan. John and I went to get fast passes for the Toy Story ride since he wasn't tall enough to ride Star Tours. James loved it so much, he rode it for a second time. Here we had lunch with the characters from Playhouse Disney. We met JoJo, Goliath, Leo and June. We spent the rest of the day catching various shows like Playhouse Disney Live, Voyage of the Little Mermaid, Indiana Jones and Beauty and the Beast.

Our final day at Disney was a very memorable one. We rode in the very front of the Monorail on our way to EPCOT and got co-pilot cards. We did the new Nemo ride and show at The Seas and also did the ride and video at The Land. After that we ate lunch with the Disney Princesses. We met Belle, Snow White, Ariel, Jasmine, and Sleeping Beauty. John was in Heaven!! He hardly ate any lunch because he was watching them walk around to all the tables. After lunch we visited all of the countries and got our passports stamped. We rode Spaceship Earth before catching the Monorail back to the transportation center. Brian took John home to bed while the rest of us headed to the Magic Kingdom for one last special treat.

We ended our Dinsey vacation with Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party Thursday night. James had so much fun. We were able to get into the Magic Kingdom before the party began so we rode James favorite Buzz Lightyear ride for the third time. After that we grabbed some dinner and headed to Main Street to get seats for the parade. We saw two really awesome shows before the parade started. It was the only parade we were able to catch so James was on cloud nine watching all of the characters go by. After the parade, we caught the Twas the Night Before Christmas show. It was really cute and James enjoyed it. Aunt Jocelyn took James on the Buzz Lightyear ride for the fourth time while I did some shopping. After that, the fireworks show began. It was spectacular!!! We were really tired after a long day so we headed towards the exits. When we got close, I happened to hear that Santa was close by. The line was short so James got to go see Santa. He told him what he wanted for Christmas and took photos.

After five fabulous days at Disney World, we had to make the long drive back to Texas. Unfortunately we didn't have any fun stops planned for the way back so we were stuck in the car for two days. Thank goodness for rear DVD players. All the boys could talk about was the trip, who they saw and what they did. They are already asking to go back!! We'll probably make the journey again in a couple of years.

To see all of our pictures, click on the link below.

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v715/mjhadley/Disney%202008/?albumview=slideshow

To see the photos the Disney photographers took, click on this link. Unfortunately the photos are only available for 30 days so go see them soon.

http://www.disneyphotopass.com/photoshareviewer.aspx?share=6392e656-823f-4457-9378-cf6504b0703c