Goodbye Houston!

It seems it wasn't long ago we were leaving Tucson but after a fun filled 2 1/2 years here in Houston, we are about to leave it all behind! I am writing this post sitting on the couch of our box filled apartment with my kids sleeping next to me on the floor. Yesterday, as I watched things get taken off the walls and put into boxes, I started to get sentimental. We moved here with a baby girl and a tiny baby boy and I can't believe how big they've grown! We've learned so much from reading to potty training in this house!

Here are some of the things we are going to miss about Houston:

- Our friends, both big and small.
- Our church ward
- Our beloved YMCA. That includes the greeter Marvin and his stickers he gives the kids, all the wonderful ladies in the kids zone and all my workout friends! We have seen these people 4-6 days a week...they have become like our family!
- Chick fil a. (I know this isn't a Houston only thing, but they don't have them in Lebanon and it became my favorite thing to make for dinner on THOSE nights.)
- Costco, Target, Sonic diet cokes...
- Summer days spent at the YMCA pool
- Walkng barefoot outside in December
- Trips to IKEA just for fun
- The zoo and Children's Museum
- Swimming laps outside (in a heated pool) in December. And with Kim. Thanks Kim!
- I also wonder if my kids are going to miss the constant sound of 610 freeway outside our windows and the big freeway lights coming in our windows all night long.

I know I wasn't too excited about coming to Houston in the first place, but it has been better than I could have ever expected. We will miss you Houston!

Family

We had our family pictures taken by Nicole Caywood and we love them. We took them at Rice and it was my first time on that campus. It was gorgeous!

"Mommy, Santa is wearing rain boots!!"

We had a fun time at our ward Christmas party this year and the highlight was, as always, Santa. Kate was so excited about it and could hardly wait. When he made his entrance and we went to stand in line, she could hardly keep her eyes off him. She was excitedly telling me she was going to tell him she wants a "kid's sewing machine" and I told her she should probably think of another idea too. (that isn't my favorite idea!) She finally settled on Barbies. Sawyer was excited about Santa too but instead of waiting in line he was running around like a crazy person, being "watched" by his Daddy. The next thing I know I have a friend pointing out the fact that Sawyer was sitting on Sawyer's lap. Good job watching, Dad. Eventually he got back in line, waited his turn and asked "Ho ho" for "Woody".
On the way home, Kate was wondering why Santa was wearing rain boots (I said its because he knows it doesn't snow in Houston) and how he got back up on the roof to his reindeer when he was done (magic).
We are loving the Christmas season!

Graduation day!

We are so proud of our Daddy! After 2 1/2 years of intense studying and long hours at the hospital he finally graduated with his Masters in Nurse Anesthesia from Baylor College of Medicine! It was a special day and we were lucky to have his mom here to celebrate with us. The kids loved Daddy's "dress" but weren't crazy about the 1 1/2 hours of pomp and circumstance.

I brought my old lens that I don't use much for the zoom capabilities but it was yucky. So unfortunately I only have yucky pictures of the big day! The good news is that we get a free picture of the "big moment"! Phew.

When it was over we celebrated with some Texas BBQ at Goode Co. Yum!

Congrats Daddy! We are so proud of you! but it was a long day...

November has flown by!

Time is moving crazy fast, as it always does when you are hoping it will slow down a little so you can savor life a little more. (and in this case we're trying to savor Houston!! 2 1/2 years ago I never thought I would say that!) But here we are, after Thanksgiving and really only about 3 weeks until we leave! I haven't been too busy with packing or anything like that but we have tried to just enjoy all the things we have loved here, especially our friends. It has just recently hit me how soon it is coming...actually the thing that made it real was the day I gave my one month notice to our beloved YMCA. Ever since then I've been pretty emotional about everything. So here is a little bit of what we have been doing.

We went to the zoo with some our friends and saw a cute baby elephant and lots of fun monkeys

It got "cold" outside so Kate got to wear a cute wool handmedown we've been waiting forever to wear! (I couldn't get Sawyer out of the picture. He was totally rockin' his outfit, beads and all.)

Daddy took and passed his final exam at Baylor!!

We continued our home school with lots of Thanksgiving art projects. Sawyer did all of these too but he was taking a nap when I decided to do a photo shoot before throwing them out.

Kate loved making butter and when we were eating dinner we set it out to put on bread. She was so excited, sitting with a big smile on her face when I was spreading it on...then she took a bite...thought a minute and said, "it tastes like milk."

We spent Thanksgiving with some friends so I wasn't in charge of making the whole shebang, which was nice. I just made 2 pies (cherry and Ryan's favorite, mincemeat), stuffing and corn casserole. I ran a 5k that morning with some friends which was awesome and then just kind of hung out with the family and cooked a little before we headed over to our friends for a feast and games and lots of fun conversation. I also made a popcorn stuffed turkey for the kids to carve.

Even though we missed our families, it was an awesome Thanksgiving with great food and friends!

Baby M

I consider this family my twin family. Our kids are almost exactly the same age and I've watched them grow along with my children. It threw me for quite a loop when their family of 4 decided to become a family of 5! I felt totally unready and yet I felt a little behind!
After holding this little guy and hearing all his newborn sounds, I fell in love! And seeing how much the older siblings adore him was just icing on the cake.
Thanks for showing me how much fun a family of 5 can be! We love you guys!

Its a Potty Training Miracle!

Sawyer hasn't had a lot of interest in potty training and the few times we have tried it out for a day he had little success and I was too overwhelmed (and lazy) to actually buckle down and do it. But for a while I have noticed that when Sawyer wakes up in the morning and from naps he is dry so I started thinking he was ready. And then we were watching some of our friend's kids who are potty trained boys and when I changed Sawyer's diaper he would not let me put his diaper back on and he ran to get some of his underwear. So I told Sawyer that after Halloween (I didn't want pee in his costume!) we would do it!
So Sunday was the day. He wore underwear all night and stayed dry and then woke up and we went to church with a pair of extra clothes and our fingers crossed. I took him to the bathroom before nursery and no success and I told him I would be back after Sunday school. When the time came I walked in to find him in the act of peeing on the floor. Nice. I was also regretting our choice of cowboy boots on his feet because he had filled one of the boots up with pee. I got him all changed and cleaned up the floor and we were good to go. That afternoon he kept telling me "mama, pee pee" and I would rush him to the potty. We would sit for a long time and nothing happened and he said he was done and would run off...and then be back 5 minutes later telling me he had to go. So I knew he was recognizing the urge but he didn't know how to let it go on the potty...and eventually he would just burst wherever he happened to be standing. We had no success all that day and I wasn't looking forward to another day of it.
Monday I sat him on the potty from the time he woke up until we left for the gym because he HAD to go before we left the house and he did it! But it was more just because he was on the potty when he happened to pee. We left with the plan to go the gym, the library and then Target to pick up another pack of underwear. Our 4 pairs weren't cutting it with all the accidents! Sawyer was really excited about that part and kept talking about "Woody underwear". We were all good at the gym and then we headed to the library. When we got there Sawyer was telling me he had to go and holding himself so we ran to the potty and sat...and sat...and sat....finally he said he was done and we went back to the books. 2 minutes later he said he had to go and this time I was determined to wait it out. We went and sat...and sat...I was sitting on the bathroom floor making my grocery list for Target and I kept encouraging Sawyer and nothing happened. Finally after 10 minutes we went to the books and I tried my hardest to hustle us out of there. It didn't take a minute before Sawyer was saying, "uh oh...mama!!!" and peeing all over the floor. Like a gallon. So we did a quick change and I used up all my wipes mopping up the floor. Nice. We made it through the rest of our errands dry and then headed home to more accidents. At this point I was totally confident that he was realizing he needed to go but he still just couldn't get it out at the right time.
That night we had the biggest, loudest thunderstorm that I have ever heard in my life. I am a heavy sleeper and this storm even woke me up! It woke up Sawyer too and at 3am he was in our room saying he needed to go peepee. So I got out the little potty and set it up in front of the TV and went back to sleep. A while later Sawyer came in with his pants and said, "Did it, bed." So I got him dressed and put him to bed and went and checked the potty...and he had done it! It was half in and half out of the potty but it was success! The next day he peed on himself in the morning. After the gym I was determined he would go in the potty so we sat through all of Toy Story and half of Toy Story 2 and there it was! Success! That night at dinner he told me he had to go and then went right as Ryan got home for dinner. We were all excited and gave him his prize and then Ryan came to the table and we started talking over dinner. All of a sudden Sawyer ran up and said, "I did it!" and Kate ran to the potty and said, "He did do it! Poo poo! And its big!" Sure enough, all on his own, he had sat on the potty and went #2!
Wednesday we had a totally and complete accident free day that included the gym and then playgroup at Chickfila where I was hoping I wouldn't have to mop up an accident!
Thursday he went on his own before the gym and then we came home and he went again before we left the house for a long afternoon out. We first went to our friend's house and I kept reminding him about the potty and he finally came up to me and said he needed to go and we went and I sat him down and immediately the pee came! It was the first time I think he really could just turn it on by himself. After our friend's house we went to the Dr where he went twice! And again, it was the same thing where we sat and he immediately went.
So here it is Friday, 6 days into potty training, and I am pretty confident in him! I feel like I can take him places and that he will tell me when he needs to go and he can do it. We have gone 3 days without an accident and that makes me so happy! I know he will probably slip up here and there, but I am just so happy that it has been so much easier than I thought!
Hooray for all my kids being potty trained!

Halloween 2010

We celebrated Halloween on Saturday, which ended up being a crazy busy day with me gong to a yoga workshop in the morning and then soccer in the afternoon. Ryan was gone studying all day but came home a little early to celebrate too. First we carved pumpkins. I let Sawyer and Kate draw faces on theirs and then I cut them out for them. Sawyer got really into it drawing eyes, nose and mouth and then he started drawing ears, cheeks, foreheads, etc. After we carved pumpkins we ate mummy hotdogs and veggies for dinner and then got dressed up one last time in their costumes. When we dressed up for our party on Friday they were really confused why they weren't bringing their trick or treat bags with them and then we really excited when I said they could bring them tonight and they would get filled with candy! We headed over to the church and had fun trunk or treating in the parking lot. It took Kate about 2 cars before she was more intent on eating the candy then she was on getting more. Then eventually Sawyer was given some bubbles and he was done saying "trick or treat". I laughed the whole way home as I watched my kids eating their candy and Sawyer being covered in chocolate slime. It was a good thing it was our last time wearing the costumes!!
And now its November and I have 1 1/2 months until we are moving...and I still have no idea where! Eeekk!

The last soccer game

Our soccer season is officially over! Kate loved every minute of it but when I told her it was her last game she said, "WAHOO!!" I asked her if that meant she was glad it was over and she said, "No, I'm just excited it is my last game!" She mastered the art of running after, towards and around the ball but was only brave enough to get a few kicks in. The team we played this week had lots of really big and good kids on it and when she was playing goalie (eek!) one of the good kids kicked a ball hard and it went just past her. It is hard to teach my logical Kate that you shouldn't avoid that ball sailing high in the air right towards you but you should get in front of it and block it. We are going to miss the fun practices and games with our friends and our yummy treats we get at the games (that are often swiped by Sawyer!)

I had forgotten to tell Kate that she was getting a trophy so after the game when the coach passed them out she was surprised and totally thrilled. Sawyer saw it and said, " I want one!" I tried to explain to him that it was for Kate because she had played soccer and when he plays soccer then he can get a trophy. I then started packing up the chairs and smiled as I watched Sawyer listen to me and then go and find a soccer ball and start kicking it in the net. The next thing I know, Sawyer came back up to me and said, "I want a trophy!" Not quite what I meant, but good try!