Tradition

Growing up I remember helping my mom get Christmas cards together each year.  She always sent out the best cards.  I can still hear her saying, "The best Christmas cards are not just cards, you get something with it or out of it."  One year we had seed packets that were laced to the front cover.  Another year we had a old time newspaper with recipes and neat crafts hidden in the pages.  Like I said, she always did the best cards.

Now that I am grown, I am in charge of the Christmas card list, and the design of the card.  I might not be as creative or as giving as mom, but I do love to think that a photo card gives the recipient a little more than just a traditional card.  I have tried several companies, but by far I have always been impressed with the quality of Shutterfly's quality of 5x7 folded photo cards.

This year I came across a GREAT deal that Shutterfly is offering to bloggers.  50 free photo cards if you do a post about them, and the giveaway.  Umm, OK!!!!  I love their products and had planned on using them this year anyway for not only Christmas cards but also fun gifts for grandparents like photo calendars and birthday cards for Kyle's birthday party.

So, hmmmm, which one will I choose this year?????  So many great options!  I really like the ones with multiple photo spots since we just took pictures with our FAVORITE photographer the fabulous Ms. Sarah Giles with Butterfly Chaser Photography and I can never just choose one of her pictures.

Here are some of the ones I am considering:

So blog readers, which one do you like????

If you would like to take part in Shutterfly's blogger give away, make sure you stop by their website.

Merry Christmas!!!!

They say it's my birthday!!!

Well today, 28 years ago, my mom went thru 28 hours of Hell to get me here.  So first and most importantly, THANK YOU MOMMY!

28...

Hmmm, that just doesn't seem possible.  I vividly remember all my birthdays under the age of 19 because my mom made sure they rocked!  So once again THANKS MOM!

Today I woke up, had breakfast in bed with my favorite little man while watching Minnie's birthday party on TV.  I reminded little Kyle that today was my birthday, his response, "SURPRISE!  Isn't that right mommy?"  Yes sweetheart, that sounds great!

Once we got dressed we headed over to the mall to spend a gift certificate (thanks Gini & Hollis!) at Sephora.  Love that place!  Anyway, then we ate lunch at Chic Fila and watched the "Too many people" trying to stay out of the Houston heat.  Then we strolled down the mall so that he could play in the big kid playground.  The playground now has a cotton candy vending machine next to it. 

Are you kidding me???  Not bagged pre-packaged cotton candy either.  Freshly made, on a long stick, light and fluffy cotton candy.  I am not sure there in much else I love more than cotton candy.  I am sugar junkie.  I will admit it.  So what?  I'm thinking, yes, it is my birthday, and I have a 2 year old.  What better excuse than to spend $2 on Heaven on a stick?  After Kyle finished playing we got our cotton candy and went and sat down on a bench to let me him enjoy his sugar on a stick.  He took one bite and said, "Ewww mommy this is terrible, you eat it."  NOT A PROBLEM KIDDO!

Insert mommy sugar induced euphoria here.  Play the elevator music of your choice.

At this point I chose to use my birthday to spoil my son.  Why?  Who knows, but it made me happy to hear him tell me "Mommy this is totally awesome!"  while riding the ridiculous choo-choo train around the mall.  It made me laugh and smile to watch him pretend to be Buzz Lightyear on the trampoline bungee jump thing.  So I guess that is a pretty good birthday present to me after all.

Now he is napping, I am enjoying chips and salsa while watching crap TV, and we are going out to dinner tonight.  I am not sure I could ask for a better birthday :)

Dinosaur-cation 2010

We took a weekend getaway to Historic Glen Rose Texas to take in the sights.  We stayed at Americas Best Value because they had an awesome deal where you got tickets to all the area sights for a discount.  Also, the prices were not that bad to begin with.

We got there LATE Friday night and little man wanted nothing to do with going to bed as soon as we got there.  After crawling into bed with him and wrestling him to sleep, we finally dozed off at 2am.

Saturday morning we woke up, got dressed and headed out to Dinosaur World to take in all the life size dinos they have there.  It was really interesting, but in hindsight we should have taken the stroller.  Not even halfway little man got tired of walking and daddy got the job of keeping him on his shoulders the rest of the way.  Boy was it HOT.  It hit 102 degrees before we left Dinosaur World.  Little man, loved all the dinosaurs and wanted to touch each one (explicitly NOT allowed) so we had to move quickly to avoid a little dare devil climbing fences.

We then headed over to Dinosaur Valley State Park.  They have several different track sites where you can see actual dinosaur tracks.  (Also known as dinosaur choo choo tracks).  We took the main hike first and got to cool off as we crossed over the shallow rocky Paluxy River.  We saw several that were roped off and under some stagnate water, but then we saw some off to the side that were dried out.  So cool!

After making it almost all the way back to the car without slipping and falling in a puddle, little man did just that.  Ending up with soaked sand covered pants that had to be removed before getting in the car.  We didn't have any spares in the car so little man got to ride back to the hotel in style.

We grabbed lunch and headed back to the hotel where we all enjoyed real Dublin Dr. Pepper (if you haven't ever had this pleasure, find it, indulge, and thank me later) and some fried chicken.  After lunch we made it over to the hotels indoor pool.  It was EMPTY!  Yay for small favors.  Once I finally talked a little man into wearing his life jacket, he had a BLAST swimming by himself.  We swam and splashed and jumped for almost 2 hours.  Insert awesome 2 hour family nap here.

Post nap time we headed back over to the state park to check out some of the other track sites and a few of the trails.  It was still pretty hot so we didn't stay too long.  For dinner we went to Riverside Grill which was inside a beautiful historic home right off the square.  Little Kyle kept saying we were eating dinner in the White House.  Great food and amazing dessert!!  After all of that we were pretty much exhausted so we went back to the hotel watched a little TV and then went to bed WAY earlier than the night before.

Sunday morning we woke up in time to enjoy breakfast at the hotel before we checked out.  We left the hotel and headed over to Fossil Rim Wildlife Center. This was great!  We got the bag of feed from the front and let little man stand in front of the passenger seat.  He had a wonderful time feeding the different animals by hand, including zebras!  He thought it was pretty cool that all the animals came up to him and he got to pet them and feed them.  We had lunch at the halfway point in Overlook Cafe.  A gorgeous view of the property was everywhere you looked.  The second half didn't take as long, but we did get to see a giraffe, a cheetah, and a rhino.

We headed back to Houston and decided to make a short stop at the Dr. Pepper museum in Waco.  Little man had a good time running around and trying all the different buttons and crafts they had laid out.  Our last stop in the museum was the soda fountain where we enjoyed a (as usual) extremely yummy Dublin Dr. Pepper float.  So good!

All in all we had a great time, took WAY TOO many pictures, and decided we want to go back, but maybe in cooler weather.

If you want to see more pictures from our trip you can check out the scrap book I made with Picaboo.  By the way, LOVE this program.

To view the book, click the following link:


http://app.picaboo.com/WebView/Project.aspx?clientID=9da9681f821529e89a43eb710be36781&version=25171

Reading Nora Roberts

Some highlights:
And the next time baby can't make cheese
And the next time it was green
And the next time even Minnie no where on the dinosaur vacation.
And the next time the baby sleeping in the bed.

There are some other things he says in there, however since I have never read this version of the book I can not tell you what they are.

The art of making art

Big Boy Bed

So it is finally time to switch from the baby bed, to the BIG BOY BED.  Well, actually just the converted crib for now :)

To work up to it, we went to the fabric store yesterday and little man got to pick which racing flag fabric he wanted mommy to make the curtains and bedskirt with.  Then when we got home from the store it was nap time.  So we headed upstairs and we talked about how this was his last nap in his BABY bed and that when daddy got home he was getting an awesome BIG BOY BED and his room was now going to be decorated with racing cars!  He was so pumped and took his usual nap.  While he slept I made his new bed skirt and curtains out of the fabric he picked out.

When he woke up I went in to get him out of bed and he informed me that he was not done yet and wanted a little bit more time with "Kyle's last baby nap".  He stayed in there for another 30 minutes just laying there and petting his crib rail!

As soon as daddy got home and we ate dinner, the boys went upstairs with screwdrivers in hand and began building the big boy bed.  He was SOOOOO excited and said "Mommy, mommy get in here!  Kyle has new BIG BED, it is AWESOME!"  So we went upstairs and spent some time in the room with him and talking about all the new responsibility that comes with the big boy bed.  Including, do no get out, if you need mommy and daddy just call for us, no toys are allowed in the bedroom anymore, and a few other things.

The #1 consequence for breaking the rules, the BBB goes away, and the crib comes back.

He response, "Kyle no want that, Kyle LOVE big boy bed, so good, Kyle stay in bed."

He went to bed at around 10pm and was asleep by 10:30pm.  This morning he woke up at 9:30am, sat up in bed and said, "MOMMY!!!!  Kyle all done, come get me!"

So, ya, a totally uneventful night :)  Let's hope it stays that way!

Happy Birthday 4th Flag Day!

Well the title says it all :)  (If you speak fluent Kyle that is)

Today we celebrate our nation's freedom and I can't think of a better way than to spend it with family and friends. 

Saturday we went to Kyle's great-uncle's home for great food and a whole houseload of people!  Seriously there were probably 50 or so people there!!!  Anway, little man had a great time swimming in their beautiful salt water pool and playing with his cousins.

Today on the actual 4th, we spent a quite day at home and then after naptime headed over to our good friends 4 story house in downtown.  We had even more good food and little man got to play with Uncle Mark's airplane.  Then we all headed up to the roof deck and watched 4 different firework displays from all around Houston.

As soon as we got home (around 10pm) our neighborhood was putting on quite a fireworks show!  It went on for HOURS!  Little man thought it was pretty cool that there were fireworks at "Kyle's house".

I hope everyone had a fun and safe holiday!  I would like to take a moment to also say thank you to those who continue to ensure our freedom as I type this, and those who have served in the past.  Also a huge thank you to those who gave their lives so that my son can grow up in this great country only knowing freedom.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Plant a seed...

So, yes I have been an absent blogger.  I am pretty sure I always will be.  If anyone out there reads this, sorry :)

I have decided to grow things.  Tomato plants to be exact.  From seed no less.  Why would you do that Heather?  I have no clue, other than I am tired of buying massive amounts of cherry tomatos at the store for my son who thinks they are red berries. 

Here is my progress thus far:

First I purchased a Cherry Tomato seed packet and a Jiffy-7 peat pellet window sill green house. (On sale at Home Depot, grand total for both items $4.65)  You add hot water to the tray and watch the pellets expand.  Once expanded you plant 3-4 seeds in each pellet.  Then cap with enclosed clear lid.
Finished product:

Next you wait :)  It really wasn't that bad, it took maybe 5-6 days to turn into this:

Now that it is at this stage, I was instructed to leave it open and DO NOT WATER for an additional 5-6 days.

Now we get to transplant day.  I went and purchased Organic potting soil and a planter (Grand total after coupons $6.75) and now the little pellets get planted in the planter.  Here it is as of today:

Oh, and here is the soil I purchased:

So now we wait some more!  Hopefully these guys will take off so I don't feel like I completely wasted my money.

I can't believe this worked

Ok, so I am a terrible blogger. However as Kyle's half birthday is around the corner I am feeling the need for a post. Wow... he is almost (4 days away from) 2.5 years old. So much has happened in those 2.5 years, and he has grown into quite the little man with a HUGE personality.

So I saw this on my friend Brandy's blog and wondered.... Will Kyle actually answer these questions? Much to my surprise, he did! So here is what I got...

Kyle's favorite things (un-edited, un-prompted answers)

What is your favorite color? Blue

What is your favorite food? Blue food

What is your favorite animal? Monkeys, uh huh, that would be awesome

What is your favorite book? Lighting McQueen book

What is your favorite TV show? Mickey Mouse club house

What is your favorite movie? Mighty Machines

What is your favorite music to listen to? Mommy car, Amen song

What are you really good at? Eating Nemo fishies

If you had a lot of money what would you buy? Mommy money

What is your favorite thing about your mom? ummmmm mommy sing Mighty Machines

What is your favorite thing about your dad? Daddy big truck goes vroom

Tell me something funny. No...

What is your favorite thing to wear? Dragon shirt with fire, RAAAWRRRR

What makes you sad/cry? Uncle Danny boat make Kyle cry

Who is your favorite Mickey Mouse character? BOOSEY!!! (Goofy)

What is your favorite thing to do outside? Dig in dirt

Why is God important? Jesus love me and mommy and daddy and Kyle too!

Thanks Brandy for this idea :)

Sponsor Me at March for Babies!

So much for getting better at blogging..

I guess saying I am going to get better at blogging is like saying I am going to diet. hahahaha.

Here is what we have been up to:

Kyle and I test drove a few mommy groups here in Houston to see if any fit with us. Found one that we do like, and the great thing is they have play dates 6 days a week! So there is always something to do if we want to get out of the house.

We have been stuck indoors a lot lately thanks to this crazy rain we have had. We have been waiting to get our backyard landscaped and put in our new patio until it dries out enough for the builder to come re-grade the dirt. So much for that happening, right now we could host mud wrestling in the backyard.

Kyle and I, along with our good friend Allison, have been exploring Houston every Wednesday. So far we have adventured to the Alley Theatre(ok so this was just mommy, Allison and her brother Keith), downtown tunnels, the Houston Museum of Fine Arts, and Memorial Park.

We are LOVING our new house. Kyle loves his playroom. We spend 90% of our time in that room during the day. I am still working from home for ReyRey and this playroom has given me the great opportunity to set up shop in a chair in the corner and still be part of the action (aka vroom vroom).

We have decided on a Mothers Day Out / Pre-school program for little man. It is with a LCMS church in Jersey Village. Kyle will start in September and will go Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9am-2pm.

What is little Kyle doing these days?

• Well he has slowed down growing some. He is still way bigger than most kids his age, rounding out that 95-100% in both height and weight.
• He loves driving cars everywhere. By far cars are his favorite toys.
• As for TV he loves Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Word World and a new show I found called Auto-B-Good. Movies he really likes are A Bugs Life, Cars, and Finding Nemo.
• He has become extremely picky about what shoes he is wearing and gets really upset if you don't let him pick.
• He loves fish sticks and b-burbers (cheese burgers) but will destroy corn on the cob instantly! He still eats most fruit, not including melon (those are yucky). He also still eats most veggies, but not quite with the same enthusiasm as before.
• He is becoming quite the talker, considering he didn't have anything to say until he was about 18 months old. I speak fluent Kyle, but most people can get the gist of what he is talking about. He is putting together sentences well. For example, I didn't understand what toy he wanted and he said, "Mommy, I will show you. Follow Kyle."
• He can recognize about 13 letters without prompting and likes to shout from the backseat of the truck different letters that he sees. His favorite letter is M.
• Numbers are still on the fence, but he can count to 4 without messing up. However if you add 5 into the mix you get "2, 3, 5" His favorite number is 2 without a doubt.
• If you ask him how old he is, he will argue to the death that he is "2 days"
• He knows what a square, rectangle, circle, heart, star, and triangle are, and tries to draw them. The only one he has mastered is the circle :)
• He loves to help. No matter what you are doing, he wants to help. It can be frustrating, but I know he gets so excited about helping.
• He LOVES babies. He talks about babies all the time. Talks about how he wants to be a big brother. We will see.
• He makes up silly songs and titles them. This usually happens while we are in the car. Some examples of song titles are, "Backseat of daddy's truck song", "The mommy song", "The big truck in front of us song" These songs usually come with crazy spastic dancing and big belly laughs because he finds himself hilarious.
• If you tell him we are going to Target he says, "Icee please!" :)

Ok, sorry for the really LONG post, with NO pictures, however I haven't been taking many pictures lately. I promise I will get better at it!

Until later friends!

A whole new world.

Well, I figured this new year, new home, new job, new everything deserved a fresh new look. So..... I have decided to start a brand new blog. (Well that and my old blog won't let me use my new email address and that is really annoying :-) )

So, here we are.

2010, wow.

• 10 years have passed since I graduated high school
• 8 years have passed since I met Kyle
• 7 years have passed since I was diagnosed with cancer
• 6 years have passed since I became his wife
• 5 years since I had all test show no more cancer cells for a whole year
• 4 years since I was told I would never have children
• 3 years since I found out I was pregnant
• 2.5 years since my Uncle Bobby passed away
• 2 years since I became a mommy
• 1.5 years since I have been able to stay home with my son full time
• 5 months since Kyle lost his job
• 3 months since we sold our house in Bryan College Station and moved to Houston
• 2 months since my daddy had a stroke
• 1 month in my brand new home with my Kyle's

That is a lot in 10 years!

A high school friend of mine posted on her blog about choosing only 1 word to set as a resolution for the new year. (Thanks Jen :) ). I decided to hop on the band wagon and choose my word.

My 1 word resolution for 2010 - Appreciation

I need to take a step back from every aspect of my life and make sure I appreciate every piece. Appreciate my son trying to help me hang pictures on the wall instead of getting frustrated that he keeps hiding the nails. Appreciate my husband working as hard as possible to provide for Kyle and I, not get frustrated that he isn't home on time. Appreciate our families amazing help, love and support, not get frustrated by grandparent re-programing (any parent will understand this statement).

I could go on and on, but I think you get the point. I just need to get back at looking at the positive side to the coin.

OK, I also need to work on the whole blogging thing :)

Alright that is enough for now!

~Heather

(If you ever want to go look at our old blog, just scroll down :) I imported all our old blog posts )