1st soccer practice

Riley had his first soccer practice Thursday night. He is on team #20 for the YMCA! He was SOOOOO excited about going to soccer. He has only been asking when soccer was going to start every single day!
I am also trying to get my exercise in. 2 days a week I am going to bootcamp after school with my fellow teachers. The first day kicked my butt, but the second day wasn't too bad. Thursday was my second day. So as soon as I finished working out I rushed to pick up Riley and we headed off to practice. Randy was planning on meeting us there. He had wonderfully run up to Academy on Thursday to find Riley some cleets, soccer socks, and shorts. Unfortunately he is not wearing them in these pictures because Randy had followed the directions that I gave him to preschool instead of soccer practice. So Randy was about 5 minutes late and we decided that Riley could just practice in his regular shoes. Randy also had to bring the camera to me because I forgot it! OOPS!

So after the boys introduced themselves and met their coach they lined up and practiced kicking the ball in the goal. Then they showed how fast they were by sprinting. They followed that up with kicking the ball in the circle. Unfortunately Riley had trouble paying attention because a little boy had borrowed his ball and Riley really wanted it back.

Alex has a little fun with Daddy while big brother practiced.

Riley's coach watches intently to figure out who to play where. Their first game will be Saturday, March 7.

First weekend at the deer camp!

Last weekend Randy and I took the kids to the deer lease/College Station. Randy already had the trailer down there, so as soon as I could get home on Friday we took off. Saturday morning Riley decided that he wanted to stay with Daddy at the deer lease and see some animals. Alex and I decided that she needed some maroon clothes, and brother too! So off we went in Randy's big truck.

My first adventure was in trying to park that thing. It was crazy crowded in College Station. The traffic looked like a game weekend. Apparantly this was some big weekend for all incoming freshmen and their families. Every hotel was booked. Our first stop was Southgate to hit the 3 bookstores in a row. We wandered around and didn't find too much. At Traditions, I bought her a little maroon onesie/dress. It wasn't really what I was looking for, but it would work.

My shopping had worked up a hunger for her and me. I quickly gave Alex a bottle while sitting in the truck, then we headed to FREEBIRD'S! (My favorite!) You should have seen me trying to park that BIG truck in all those crowded lots. There was no parking out at the back of the lot! Of course, there was a LONG line! We hadn't brought the stroller because there wasn't room in the truck, so here I am lugging that heavy car seat around. Just as I was about to get to the counter, one of the workers stepped over and asked me if I was by myself. I told him I was. So he told me to write down my order and go sit down. Then he would bring my food to me. He told me he understood how heavy that car seat was. After he finished with his previous order, he fixed my burrito and then brought it to me. Amazingly, he told me not to worry about paying for it, that I had already earned it just by standing in that line holding the car seat carrier! :)

After my belly was full, we headed over to Northgate. Again I had to try to park the truck! But I got really lucky, I found 2 spots open together, so I manuevered in. Then as I stepped out to pay the meter, I noticed there was still 45 minutes left on the meter. YEA! AGAIN! We had better luck at this bookstore. I found Riley a maroon and white striped polo shirt for only $13. They had all their children's stuff on sale for 25-50% off. I thought I had found the cutest little maroon & white gingham swimsuit for Alex, but they didn't have her size. After the shopping I had to go out and see the Aggie bonfire memorial. It was really nice. I can't believe that it all happened almost 10 years ago. It only seems like yesterday that we were out in those woods cutting down trees with our axes.
Since I now had something for both kids, I decided I should head back to the lease. As soon as I pulled up Riley ran out to greet me and wanted to drive the truck in. So I let him climb in my lap and he steered the truck into the lease. He immediately started telling me abuot all his excitement. He rode the ranger with daddy and the four wheeler with Papaw. They saw about 40 wild hogs. Apparantly Riley was holding on real well while they were riding until Randy pulled out his gun and started shooting at the hogs. Then his hands went from the seats to his ears. But he wasn't too deterred because after the hogs ran away, they set up a target and Riley shot his first rifle! Daddy held the gun level for him and he pulled the trigger. According to all the guys involved, (Randy, Richard, Homer, and Griz) he was a really good shot. Maybe even better than his daddy!
Finally the guys started our dinner of steaks, potatoes, onions, and sweet potatos. YUM! I love eating out when we are camping. Randy always makes sure that we eat really well! By the time we ate, it was nine o'clock and a very tired little boy climbed into bed in the trailer. I went in to check on him and he hadn't even put on his pajamas. I got him changed so that he could sleep better and he crashed.
It may not have been the weekend that I expected, but we all had a really good time!

Fun day with Nana & Gampa

Riley and Alex had a fun day with Nana & "Gampa" (as Riley calls him) on Monday. After Grandpa got home from work, they went to Incredible Pizza. This was Riley's 1st time and he was in awe. Of course he wanted to ride the go-carts, twice!

Showing off his first place ribbon!
After the go-carts, Nana and Riley took in a little miniature golf.

Apparantly Riley is a better driver, than golfer.

Either way, they had a ball!

Sleep update

Just a quick update for those of you wondering....I repeated my steps from the night before (cereal mixed with applesauce, bath, bottle, night-night.) She slept most of the night. Around 1 this morning, I heard her stir. But when I checked on her, she had just rolled to her stomach and gone back to sleep. Then she woke up around 4:15 this morning. I fed her a bottle and tried to put her back to sleep. Unfortunately, she didn't want to go back to sleep. So I put her in bed with us. Finally around 5:15 she fell asleep. Too bad my alarm went off at 5:30.

Slept through the night!

I have a major reason to celebrate today! Alex slept through the night last night!!!!! She has been wearing me out lately waking up multiple times a night and always starving. So yesterday after school, I went and bought some baby food as well as extra cereal to take over to Tracey's. Last night, Riley and I kept her awake playing at home. Then I fed her some rice cereal mixed with applesauce. I followed that messy affair up with a bath. Finally after dressing her and wrapping her up in her warm sleep sack, I pulled out a bottle. She only drank about 1 oz before falling asleep. Regretfully I put her to bed, figuring that she would be awake in about 2 hours. Imagine my surprise when the alarm woke me up at 5:30, and I was still sound asleep.

Since I am not a first time mother, I am not naive enough to believe that I have fixed the problem. She has had cereal several times before and still not slept through the night, but I will take anything I can get! Its hard to believe that this is the same baby that at 3 months was sleeping from 10pm to 5 am!

Riley loves to solve his puzzles. He is so cute right now, he is always wanting to do his "homework" like the big kids. I think it is great because he is learning every time he does his homework.

Playing in my walker!

Alex has now grown big enough that I pulled out Riley's walker & entertainer. Her feet just barely touch the ground! Focused on making those things turn!

This is the result of trying to hit your husband with a bag of dirty diapers. Needless to say, the bag exploded and we had dirty diapers all over the nursery. Thank goodness my son is such a good helper and he helped me pick up the diapers while Randy took pictures of my mess!

Beautiful Mother Nature!

This picture is not real clear, but it was taken the night we had those real bad storms about a week ago. The houses below are not clear but the color of the sky was true to life.

Then several nights later, Mother Nature blessed us with this gorgeous sunset. Sometimes I really love living out in the boonies!

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day! These were the pictures that we had made at Penney's for Alex's 5 month birthday!
So much sibling love!We had a great Valentine's weekend, although not at all typical. Since Friday was the day closest to Valentine's at school, we had our party Friday afternoon. Then Friday evening, Randy beat me home, so he fixed some lasagna for us. Can you believe he actually cooked 3 times this week????

Saturday morning we got to sleep in, yea! Then Randy & his friend Dion went to the gun show while I stayed home with the kids and got a little house cleaning done. I know it sounds strange, but I really do feel better when I have gotten the house picked up a little. For lunch we all met up with a friend of mine from high school & college, Erik, and his wife Jeannette and his mom, Liz. We had a great time catching up and enjoying Spring Creek Bar-Be-que, yum! Then Saturday evening it was time to catch up with some more friends. We headed over to Phillip & Tiff's to play with Austin & Hailey. The moment we get to the house Riley takes off and he and Austin have a ball all night. They were still going strong at 10:30, when we left last night. They play so well together. No fighting and Austin teaches Riley manners! I love it! While the kids were playing we spent time catching up with Phillip & Tiffany, and Amy & Dion. I so enjoy spending time with them. I just wish that they didn't live in Mansfield and South Arlington.

Sunday morning we again slept in. This time we were bad, though, and skipped church. We got up and did a little more house cleaning and just general hanging out. Then the kids and I headed over to a 1st birthday party for the daughter of the girl that teaches next door to me. First parties are always so cute as you looked back over how much they have changed. Riley again had a ball playing with all the kids. They had a huge game of football going on in the front yard. I tried to take pictures, but of course, my battery was dead on the camera! After the party was over, we head home to watch the first Nascar race of the season, Daytona! It was a pretty good race, even though it ended early with the rain. Neither mine, Kasey Kahne, or Randy's, Carl Edwards, drivers won, but it was still good. Then tonight we took the kids over to my mom & dad's for our Sunday night reprieve. This lets me get one night of sleep uninterrupted. Somehow I always have plans of coming home and getting the house all completely cleaned up. But so far that hasn't happened. Usually I just fall asleep and watch uninterrupted TV. But overall it was a great weekend with lots of time with friends and each other. Just no sappy candelight dinners, who wants to wait 2 hours for a table anyway!

We've got soccer fever!

It all started with Riley getting a soccer set for Christmas...

Then we decided that we should sign him up for league soccer at the YMCA. He was so excited the whole way to sign up. Unfortuately he was terribly disappointed that he did not get to play that day. The coaches' meeting is Feb. 19 and then we will get a call sometime that next week to let us know about practices. Then the first game is March 7. He can't wait! While Randy was working late tonight, I decided to show Riley what real soccer looked like. Matthew (Tracey, our babysitter's son,) had an indoor soccer game. I figured what a great way to introduce him to the game without having to freeze ourselves outside. He was so excited to go. On the way there, he asked me who was going to win. I told him that I didn't know until after the game was played. Then he told me that Matthew was going to win because he is the best! Well he was right, Matthew's team did win!! OK it was a total blowout! But Riley got so excited when Matthew scored a goal. He was jumping up and down. I have to admit that I can't wait to watch my son play sports. Now I don't have super expectations for this first season. I know that there will be a lot of just running around and getting confused, but I can't wait to see my son in a uniform! I'm so glad I had a boy first!!

Beginning of the End

With much sadness, I have come to the conclusion that I am going to start the weaning process. In approximately 2-3 weeks, my little girl will be drinking nothing but formula. It is a sadness because I am not quite ready to let go of this process. I know that drinking breast milk is supposed to be so much better for her and will hopefully be passing on as many antibodies as I can make. But the milk just simply isn't there anymore. I really shouldn't be sad. I can list SEVERAL selfish reasons to stop. More time, I can drink as much caffeine as I want, and did I mention more time! But I will also lose my excuse for watching General Hospital every day. I have been recording it, so that I have something to do while I am attached to the pump. One more bad thing, now I will have to watch what I eat. I won't be burning a zillion calories a day any more! So let's focus on the good- more time and bring on the drinks!

Tummy Time!

Having fun playing on my mat!

5 months old

Alexandra turned 5 months old today. We went and had pictures made with 'Bubba' at JC Penneys. As usual I was disappointed. Not in the photographer, but that my children wouldn't give those amazing smiles that show their dimples. I just have too high of expectations. Either way I still ordered $70 worth of pictures. I will post them when they come in 10 days from now! That is why I am spoiled with Kiddie Kandids and Picture People. I like instant gratification.

Back to Alex...According to my scales, she weighs 13.6 pounds and has fat rolls all over her adorable little legs. She can roll to her stomach, but not back over yet. She is eating CONSTANTLY right now. My milk can not keep up with her...I feel full formula coming on. She is still waking up at night and keeping me sleep deprived. I would let her cry it out, but honestly she acts like she is starving as she sucks down a full bottle in the middle of the night.

We have started cereal, although not very successfully. She is doing lots of tongue thrusting with the food, so very little is actually going into her stomach. Most of it is all over her. She doesn't seem to much care for the taste either. Any suggestions????

This week she moved into 3-6 months clothes! Yea, all new clothes! But it is still sad to pack away some of my favorite from her 0-3 months stage. My baby is getting so big!

Riley's language!

I finally caught Riley in action with his airplane.


Last weekend, we went to my best friend son's 2nd birthday. Riley was so cute and as always had no trouble making friends. While we were there we exchanged the kid's Christmas presents. Riley got a Handy Manny tool set. He was so excited. One of the pieces was a part that makes into a drill. To Riley this looks like a screw. On Sunday morning we are getting dressed and Riley comes up behind me. He put the "screw" part to my back and says "Screw you!" Not having the heart to tell him that it was really bad words,
I just laughed.

Red Shoes to a funeral

Mamaw's funeral was really nice. Many of the people wore red shoes as a special tribute to her. It was absolutely wonderful. That even seemed to be the underlying message in Mike McKee, our minister's, message. The red shoes seemed to describe Mamaw's vibrant personality and strong faith. I know she must have been smiling to see it.

The kids were really good considering all the strangers, to them, and having to sit still for so long. Although in children fashion, Alex finally got hungry during the service and quickly sucked down the bottle. She then started screaming until we could get another one made. Again our minister was wonderful, he told me not to worry about the baby, to just stay in the service. Then Riley needed to go to the bathroom. But everything worked out fine.