Fire Station Visit

Last Tuesday morning we went to visit Uncle Kenny at his new HFD station #16 where he now drives the ambulance. Jason's cousin April, her kids, Nana, and cousin Barrett met us too! We only got to stay for about 15-20 minutes until a call went out and Kenny had to leave....his new station is very busy as they are in the Montrose area. But, it was fun for the brief time that we were there. The kids enjoyed getting in the fire truck, checking out the lights, and of course watching Uncle Kenny drive away in the ambulance with the lights and sirens blaring. We'll have to go back again and hope for a slow day. After we left the station we took all of the kids to the Galleria to eat, look/walk around, and go shopping at the Disney store. It was a fun time!

1st Day of School Part 1

Landon had his 1st day of PPCD for his speech on Monday (he goes on M,W,F). He did very well and seems to like his new teacher. He got on the bus (with new drivers) with no problem whatsoever, which really surprised me. He waited excitedly at the end of the driveway with great anticipation. He came home very happy too! But, he did have to sit in time-out for not sharing during center time, a problem we are really struggling with at home too. When he came home from school on Wednesday I asked him what he did and he said "I played!" followed by a long pause and then "I sat in time-out". Hey, at least he's honest! He starts preschool on Tuesday (he goes T,Th) and has a very good teacher and a great group of kids this year. I'm really excited, but nervous about this year as he is now in preschool (big boy!) and also has to ride in the car rider line. Should be interesting as he is in a different part of the building and things are so different than the past 2 years on the Mother's Day Out side.

The Simple Things in Life

Like....

Luby's mac & cheese!

A Morning at the Park With Daddy

Jason was a brave soul and decided to take both kids by himself to the park yesterday. Anybody else's 2 small kids might not be too difficult, but our Emerson is a runner (which Landon NEVER did) and she's very fast and stubborn. She'll keep doing it over and over again! You can't turn your back for even one second. Here at the house she tries to dart into the street all the time and I'm always running after her just about breaking my ankle in flip flops. I've decided I'm going to have to wear my running shoes more often! She'll look right at you, flash you a million dollar smile, and then she's off. I try ignoring her and looking at her out of the corner of my eye but she still keeps going and will run even faster once she sees you are behind her. The other night I tried spanking her on the hand as she was stepping into the street while telling her "no street, danger" which didn't work at all, but what worked one night was when Jason actually spanked her on the bottom a little bit harder which scared her. The next time she would look at him non-stop as she was running halfway down the driveway and then she would turn around and come right back all with the look of "don't spank me daddy" on her face. We'll see how long that lasts!

Anyways, the kids had a great time at the park and Jason said Emerson behaved very well and mostly followed her brother around and played with a little girl's dog. She also loved climbing everything and running across the bridge about a hundred times. They came home all sweaty and dirty and exhausted. I'm SO thankful that Jason is such a wonderful father and is always doing things with the kids. His life revolves around them. I couldn't ask for a better father for my children and I know they will thank him for it later.

A Mommy Heart Attack

This week has been rough mainly because we have had an uneventful week and have been home way too much due to summer coming to a close. Home too much = whiny kids that fight and scream at each other ALL the time (I'll save all of that for another post). Not to mention that Emerson has almost hit that terrible 2 year old mark (that's another post too!) and has decided to have all of her teeth come in at the same time (like 8 in 1 1/2 months!). Soooooo, to add insult to injury my sweet loving son decided to lock his sister into his bedroom on Tuesday with her SCREAMING at the top of her lungs while he just giggled away. I then spent the next 15-20 minutes frantically with shaky hands trying to unlock the door with the little key that thank goodness we decided to locate and store just a few weeks ago. Of course I could not get it open and Jason was at work in an important meeting. I even tried kicking the door down and unscrewing the doorknob. Oh, did I mention that my terrified daughter was screaming the entire time? She could hear me talking to her and jiggling the doorknob but did not understand why I was not opening it as I always do when she or her brother closes the door (with it unlocked!). After MANY attempts I finally got it open (after Jason left his important meeting to rush home)and Emerson was just sobbing covered in tears and sweat and could not even catch her breath. Makes my stomach hurt right now as I type this! But, after 15 minutes of being cradled and held that stinker went right back to her brother's room and closed the door giving me another heart attack. Needless to say Jason made me practice with the key today as I see this happening again in our very near future! Oh, the joys of being a mother to 2 stinkers! :)

Here is the best picture I could get of Emerson a few minutes after being rescued:

Kemah Trip

On Sunday we took a family trip with Jason's family to Kemah. We got there right as everything opened at 11am and it was still H-O-T! We rode the carousel twice, the sky tower, the train, and Landon rode some kiddie rides. I was really impressed that he rode the airplane ride all by himself with no hesitation at all. He LOVED it as he "drove" his airplane the whole time with a look of pure enjoyment on his face. Bless his heart, you can guess what happened when it was time to get off! Emerson really liked the sky tower and looking down at everything. I guess she has no idea what a fear of heights is yet! We cooled off at Joe's Crabhouse during lunch and later enjoyed some icees and snowcones. Landon had a blast and never really seemed bothered by the heat. Poor Emerson didn't fare so well. She gets so dang overheated, like what a redhead does. So she was not a happy camper towards the end. We left around 2pm and she was out in the car before we even hit Nasa Rd. 1. It was a great time and everyone had a blast. Now, our wallets wouldn't say the same thing! Yikes! I'm just glad we are doing all of these fun activities now before we have to pay for two kids once Emerson hits 2 years old. $3.50 per person just to ride the carousel one time! C.R.A.Z.Y. So, we spent almost $30 just for 3 people to ride a few rides. Not to mention $6 parking, lunch, $4 icees, etc. Oh well, what can you do? It was still worth the fun and enjoyment for the kids.

Gym N' Play Party

On Saturday we went to Caleb's fun birthday party at the YMCA. It was a Gym N'Play Party that was very similar to Gymboree. The first 20 min. Landon stood outside the door and observed while Emerson dove right on in and participated in everything running wild. After about 20 min. Landon was fine and enjoyed walking on the balance beam, swinging on the bars, ring, and rope and jumping on the trampoline. Emerson liked climbing up the steps and sliding down the slide 20 times over and over again. Both kids also loved the parachute and bubble time as well as the instruments and music. When it came time for the cupcakes Landon worried about getting his hands dirty and took his time eating half of his cupcake. Emerson shoved the entire cupcake in her mouth and ate the whole thing before Landon even started eating his (thank goodness we gave her one without the chocolate icing!). She is something else! It's safe to say that she loves her sweets just like her momma!

It was a great party and the kids had a blast. That was until Emerson disappeared and gave me a heart attack! I was standing by the exit of the building talking to someone while Jason was saying his goodbyes and Emerson was wondering around on the other side of the room. I saw her over there and then all of a sudden she was gone (I thought there was a wall and didn't know there was another hallway over there). I went to that side of the room and didn't see her anywhere and then went back into the playroom and asked if she was in there and she wasn't. The teacher saw my panic and came out to help me find her. We knew she did not go outside as the door stayed closed and we were right by it. We went back to that side of the room and still did not see her. Then the teacher went inside the dark closed office room and there she was opening up cabinets and pulling things out! She somehow got the office door open and then the door closed behind her. Not sure how she got the door open. Crazy girl!! You should of seen the look on her face when we found her....it was like "What?" like we were bothering her on her mission. I'm sure this won't be the last time she will give me a heart attack!

The Houston Museum of Natural Science & Butterfly Center

On Friday my dad and I took the kids to the Natural Science Museum and Butterfly Center. I hadn't been there since I was 8 months pregnant with Landon while on a school field trip in which I was miserably hot and swollen. Boy, were things different this time around! We first went to the museum and saw the dinosaur exhibit which Landon loved and Emerson stood up in her stroller (while still buckled in) while pointing and talking in her own language. Next we breezed through the not so exciting energy and chemistry exhibits while the kids just enjoyed pushing all of the various buttons over and over again and even fighting numerous times over the same button. Which I might add was normally started by Miss Priss screaming and hitting her brother because she didn't want to "share" her button! She learned well from her brother! Of course they enjoyed the buttons that created some loud noise or light. After that we headed to the wildlife animal exhibit that has all of the wildlife scenes recreated with "stuffed" animals. Landon liked looking at the various animals while Emerson just wanted out of her stroller. After that we decided to head to the Butterfly Center. The part before the butterfly pyramid is really neat. It has all kinds of real bugs to check out and activities related to bugs. I wish we could of spent more time there but Emerson was running wild everywhere since you could not bring strollers in there. Both kids once again enjoyed fighting over all of the buttons and liked looking at all of the disgusting bugs (and there were some very interesting and nasty ones!). We didn't get to stay long in the butterfly pyramid since Emerson was running away from us and there was water and dangerous steps everywhere. It was really pretty and there were butterflies every place you looked (there are 2,000 of them). Both kids were more interested in running around and picking up leaves (of course we came home with 3 of them!). There were a few activities at the end of the exhibit and the kids spent 10 minutes playing with some wooden blocks that you placed in the holes of a flower. They would of spent all day there if we let them. Emerson would place the round blocks in and Landon the square. Over and over again as the blocks rolled back out. Of course Emerson clapped for herself each time she put hers in the hole. After our fun at the museum we headed out for some pizza at Romano's Pizza. Yum! It was a very fun day and I'm glad we got to spend it with my dad (grandpa)!