Friday, September 10, 2010

The birthday cake




We got a chance to celebrate Leah's birthday at her grandma and papa's house. We've got lots of pictures, but today I'll just do a preview with a picture of the cute dog cake that my mom made. Leah had lots of fun!
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Friday, September 3, 2010

A visit to the aquarium




Leah, Ian and I tried to escape the south Texas heat yesterday with a trip to the aquarium with my friend Kristi and her son Braden. For the first time, Leah really seemed to respond to all the displays and the dolphin show (a little).


Here's Leah and Braden waiting for the dolphin show to start.


Checking out one of the tanks that have fish and sharks (yikes!) that are bigger than Leah.


Leah and Kristi spying on the dolphins in their tank, below where they do their show.
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Tuesday, August 31, 2010

in case you missed it

I don't think this ever made it onto the blog after I posted it on facebook, so here it is, better late than never. Life has improved a lot since this picture was taken (I'm thinking back in June sometime??), but some days are still like this. It's not quite as bad as it looks. When they are both crying, I try to remember how much of a blessing they both are.

Sunday, August 29, 2010

Leah at the library




Leah got the front seat in the stroller last week while we were at the library. Even though I visited the childrens room to grab a few board books for her, this is the book she snagged from the shelf as we were making our way down the aisle. Silly girl.

My little family




Leah has started to enjoy her little brother. She seems to act pleasantly surprised when she comes into a room and "finds" him and often holds out her hands as though she wants to hold him. Yeah, that will happen.


That's exactly what happened as I took these pictures. Leah still needs a little help with infant care. Darn it - I was really hoping I could count on her for some free babysitting. Maybe in a few years...
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Ian A





Still looks like Leah, but also tends to favor stephen a bit too, at times. This is 3 and a half months. Almost time for rice cereal!!

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Do you call this eating?




Seriously Ian, how are you ever supposed to get full if this is you at feeding time? Put your game face on already.

The poor man's waterpark




It's still so hot here that Leah didn't mind the shower she got from Michael a few days ago.



It was a bit of a surprise for her though.


She just kept coming back for more.

Church clothes, bowtie included




Not everyone can look this good with at least 4 ounces of spit-up on their shirt. Ian was excited to wear his first button up today to church.

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Saturday, August 21, 2010

Swimming...sort of





I've been meaning to get Leah a pool all summer long, but just hadn't gotten around to it. Last night, I spotted this lovely on clearance at Toys 'R Us for only $7.99! I filled it up this afternoon (evening) and she spent lots of time getting out of it



And then back into it



Perhaps I shouldve spent some of the money I saved on some pool toys or something. I guess as it turns out, just sitting in a plastic pool on the hot driveway with your mom next to you, playing on her iPhone isn't that entertaining. Next time I'm at Toys 'R Us, I guess I'll look for some water toys...
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Friday, August 13, 2010

Summertime love




We got together with some friends on Friday for lunch and swimming. It was lots of fun. Leah seemed to especially love the pool time.


I brought her little float, thinking she would love floating in/on it , but she spent almost the entire time just carrying it.


Ian (shown here with holly) spent the whole time in the shade, in his carseat. He refused to even get up. He's such a baby sometimes.

Where did Leah get the aquanet?




Um, Leah, is that your best impression of that highly favored and sorely missed late 80's and early 90's tradition of 'bangs to heaven'? We better get a closer look:



Oh sure enough, it is. But you weren't anywhere near the aquanet. Hmm, you must've used the syrup from breakfast. Look how smart you are!

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Monday, August 9, 2010

Ian's latest




Ian turns 3 months old this week - I can't believe how fast time flies! It feels like I was still pregnant with him just a couple of weeks ago. Here's an update on him and our life with him in it:

He loves to smile at people. This is especially true when meeshell is the one in front of him. Michael comes home from work and he and Ian have a nice little chit-chat. He gives most of his smiles to his dad. It's pretty cute to see.

Ian is also cooing alot these days. He'll even laugh outloud, especially if you tickle him. He's a pretty easygoing baby as long as he is fed and his diaper is clean (he gets that from his dad I'm sure).

Leah interacts with Ian more and more everyday. She tried to share her cookie with him today. She'll talk to him and try to cover him up with his blanket. She takes good care of him, lucky for me.

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Thursday, August 5, 2010

My little pacifier hoarder




I so wish I could think of funny or witty or even semi-intelligent posts for my blog. Unfortunately, this is what you get: silly photos of my children. Oh well. Leah is loving pacifiers more and more since she only gets hers while she's in bed. Lucky for her, there's usually a few of Ian's lying around. This morning she took full advantage of what she could find. She's working with what she's got. I love it.
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Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Father and son QT




Michael recently decided to share some of the finer things in life with little Iowa (ie Super Mariocart on the wii).


They are both pretty fond of the frontpack. Soon after being loaded up, Ian went right to sleep.

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Stuck on the couch...




This is what happens when you are stuck on the couch nursing your little baby after your bigger baby grows arms long enough to reach the countertops. Thank goodness I moved the knife that I used to cut the cantaloupe to the back of the counter. I'm pretty sure she realizes the freedom she has once I grab the boppy and the baby and head for the couch. Now if I could just work up enough energy to mop the now sticky floor.

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Wednesday, July 14, 2010

visiting...

We tried to show off the best of what Corpus Christi has to offer while family was in town visiting for Ian's blessing. First stop was the new Bayfront Park in downtown Corpus. Leah loved splashing around while Mom, Dad, Ian and I watched. She is a girl who loves accessories, so I had no trouble getting her to keep her hat on while in the sun.

Leah is having a quite enchanted love affair with my dad these days. While Papa is awake and around, she wants nothing to do with anyone else (including me!!). While visiting, Grandma could only get Leah to hang with her if Papa was still in bed. It was pretty cute. She would sit with him or stand next to him and lean over for a kiss every few minutes, just to make sure we all knew he belongs to her. It was only a problem when Dad was trying to pack up the car and Leah insisted on following him everywhere. It's hard to get things done with a toddler as a shadow. I wonder if it will be the same when we see them next.
We also took a trip to the beach. It was stinky and the beach was full of seaweed (so could not compete with the beaches that we're used to in NC!), but Leah was pretty happy to be there.

Spike's blessing

Our little Ian Alexander was blessed on Sunday. We were lucky to have lots of family in town for his special day. My mom made an adorable outfit for him to wear with a matching blanket. He was all smiles for most of the day.

I think he was getting lots of attention during his little photo shoot.

Umm, a family of four? What are we - real adults now? This picture kind of blew my mind when I saw it. Not a great one, but the best one that shows the whole family.

Grandma and Papa with little Ian. Mom did such a good job on his outfit - thanks Mom!

Saturday, July 3, 2010

At the park

There's an awesome new park here in Corpus downtown on the bayfront. We had a little playdate there this week prior to the hurricane weather moving in (although check out the sky in some of the pictures!). Leah got to play with Holly and Cason. She loved it.





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Date night




Michael left on Tuesday afternoon to evacuate planes for the impending hurricane that never stopped by our house. I had the pleasure of taking care of our children while sick with a virus (so glad I'm not a single mom!!!). It made it a little of a challenging week. So when Michael returned on Friday morning, I decided we (I) needed a date night. We even left Ian with the babysitter for the first time. It was a real treat to be alone. We had dinner at Rudys Bbq (and wished the Arthurs were with us!) and played putt putt (and wished the arthurs were with us again). Meeshell beat me (obviously) but I wasn't that far behind him.




Then we got ice cream at Sonic, where we saw a possum run into a tree in front of our car. I think I've watched 'Ice Age' a few too many times with Leah because embarassingly enough, I asked Michael if possums walked on two legs or four. He explained to me that in real life, they walk on four legs and they don't talk either. Yikes- turn the tv off becca.




(can you spy michaels legs in this picture? He's trying to shake the possum out of the tree so he can see him again. Strange.)


All in all, it was a fun date and a great way to spend a Friday night.

Monday, June 28, 2010

Lulled to sleep

Leah has a rough night last night and was up rather late, which she is not used to at all. This morning, she was enjoying her breakfast while I was enjoying (?) my time on the treadmill. I hopped off to turn on the fan and noticed she had fallen asleep. Poor girl. I stuck her in bed and she slept for 4 hours!


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Is this how I hold him, Mom?

Poor Ian - he looks so pathetic and helpless (like he is, when at Leah's mercy). Leah has started acting more interested in Ian. She often wants to "hold" him and help me take care of him. She sometimes will walk up to us (me, sitting on the couch, holding Ian) and try to take him off of my lap. She is most interested in sharing his pacifier with him. If it's laying on the couch, she eyes it from across the room ("I spy with my little eye..."), darts over, her hand shoots out to grab it, and then she runs off, too fast for me to catch her. She thinks its the best game, mostly because she gets to suck on a passy.

Dr. Evil?

Michael and I have recently had an "Austin Powers" marathon (should I really be admitting that??), so when I got this picture of Ian, I immediately thought of Dr Evil ("one hundred billion dollars..."). Here is our little guy. I think he's looking a little like Stephen, no? Maybe it's all the middle of the night feedings when sometimes I go to switch sides and I can't remember if I already nursed on both sides or just the one. Yikes.

For the record, it takes much longer to get a blog post done when you're only using one hand to type and one hand to hold the baby. But I digress...

So I realize my blog has been quite neglected lately, with all the baby-having and adjusting to life with two kids that's been going on around here. I'm going to try to get back on the wagon and use more blogger and less facebook (which is so easy to upload pictures, it feels like I'm cheating).

Here are a couple of pictures of Leah from Sunday. I made her dress this week (which I'm proud to say was finished by Saturday afternoon - I'm usually pushing midnight or later!). Unfortunately, as you'll read below, I perhaps should've worked on it a little longer.





Funny story: this fabric (I think it's called "linen-look" at Joann's) unravels quite easily, much more easily than the cotton I usually use to make her dresses out of. I noticed as I was dressing her at 8:52 on Sunday morning (church starts at 9!) that I had missed a bit of the side seam when I was sewing the front to the back. This is just fancy talk for what basically amounts to a hole in the side of her dress. In my defense, it was quite small and we were t-minus like 6 minutes for church. So, I just figured I could fix it later, hoping beyond hope that Michael wouldn't notice. I mean this kind of craftmanship would give him ammunition for years. As it turns out, the hole got larger as the day at church wore on. Michael did notice and continues to doubt my sewing abilities. And when I picked Leah up from nursery, one of the leaders said, "I think Leah might have torn her dress". How sweet to not say, "um, Becca, it appears that you need to go back to sewing school to learn that you shouldn't send your daughter to church in a holey dress (I couldn't help saying that, he he )". I haven't fixed it yet, but I did inform Michael that sewing is a skill that is developed as you sew. So, I have to keep on making things that might 'look' homemade to get a finished product that isn't noticeably homemade, or maybe could be described as 'handmade' rather than 'homemade'.

he's almost as big as Leah

Here's a picture I took of Ian yesterday after church. He's hit the point where he will respond to you when you talk to him and smile a lot. Since we're his parents, we think it's pretty much the most awesome thing in the world. You know how that goes.

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Ian's photo shoot

My brother Mark and his family drove all the way from North Carolina to visit a couple of weeks after Ian was born. Mark's wife, Keyla is an amazing photographer and she got some great shots of our new little boy. She worked so hard while trying to get him to pose just right! If you live in NC and you haven't had your family's picture taken in a while, hire Keyla. She makes everyone look good!



We were happy to have them visit. Leah wasn't so sure about having to share her toys with Isaac (their 3 year old), but we had fun. Michael and Mark are secret bff's, and they were able to spend many hours playing video games. We visited the aquarium and the Selena Museum. We were sad to see them go. It was a fun visit.