Been too busy to blog.....

So it doesn't take much to see that I'm not so good at this blogging bit! I really enjoy reading other blogs, but when it comes time to mine.. oh well!
Will try to be better and blog after bedtime! We just returned from celebrating Megan's 9th b-day, lots of fun!

Halves

Seeing that Miles and Elaine's b-days are just 4 days apart, it's easy to remember certain dates. For instance, last week Elaine turned 6 months and Miles turned 3 1/2 years. All of a sudden, Miles finds it important to tell you he's already 3 1/2. At lunch today he was talking to his cousin and told her "I know Elise, I am 3 1/2". He's a little more aware of this landmark than Elaine is! Speaking of Elaine, I forget how dang cute 6 months is! She is sitting up very easily by herself and smiles/laughs all the time! We took her to her 6 month check-up Friday and they just can't believe how easy going she is. She is currently in the 85%ile for weight, length and head circumference. We started solids in December and she loves them! I just love those cute baby food jars. Miles is still very into his toys and is loving his new transportation rug in his playroom. He is also enjoying puzzles more (especially the Hawaii puzzle from Jamie) as well as games (hungry hungry hippo, chutes and ladders, and hi ho cherry -o).

Today we went to the DMA (Dallas Museum of Art) to see the King Tut exhibit. It was pretty amazing. The reviews haven't been very great so we were pleasantly surprised. We met Patrick's whole family down there, and I should mention that it was only 35 degrees - a cold and windy Dallas morning. I learned a few new things about King Tut (I for some reason always watch any mummy/Egyptian show on natl. geographic whenever I see they're on...). For instance, when they mummified someone it took either 17 or 70 days (the voice on the device had to be all weird and Egyptian so it was hard to understand). They first removed the liver, lungs and intestines. Then they would wait and remove other organs. They kept each one separate in a jar/container and buried it with the tomb. They also would remove the brain thru the nose using a hook. It was really gross. There were many artifacts in the exhibit from King Tut's tomb, and I couldn't believe all of the gold. We wondered, where did they get the gold from? And it's hard to believe that they remained untouched and undiscovered for over 3,000 years. Amazing that King Tut was only 19 when he died!

It's beginning to look alot like Christmas...

Elaine, my little sweetie, is sitting up!
In Christmas PJs. Elaine is wearing Miles' from his first Christmas

ho ho ho! I bet you can tell where I'm standing!

Once we returned from Florida I found myself as busy as ever trying to get ready for Christmas. We bought our tree right before we left so it was nice to come home to a pretty, decorated (and watered) Christmas tree. We usually order our tree from a Vermont tree farm, but opted for a Home Depot tree this year. We thought that Miles, being 3 1/2, would like to pick it out. He loved it, and fortunately it was the 2nd noble fur that we looked at. It's perfect. 8 feet tall and still very fresh. Miles is having so much fun playing with his ornaments this year. He still asks me before he takes one off and pretty much knows which ones are his (all the cars, trains, rockets, etc...) so that's been fun. Elaine is in the stage where she loves to just stare at the lights - really cute!

We took the children to the Meyerson (the Dallas Symphony Center) for Breakfast with Santa. It was so much fun! We met some friends there and both children did great sitting on Santa's lap. Miles got a football painted on his arm and made a very cool photo flip book. They took a little video of him dancing and then printed it out into lots of little photos to make a flip book. We also visited a musical petting zoo. To top it off, we ended with a concert of Christmas songs and Lisa Loeb was featured. She was so much fun! She has a new CD, Camp Lisa, that is sing along songs from her days at Camp Champions. I might have to order it. She sang "Home on the Range" and "Peanut Butter and Jelly" which Miles loves both!



We've taken the children out 3 times now to look at Christmas lights. Miles loves when he can spot Rudolph and Santa, so I'm glad people still have fun and put them out there!

Florida!

Elaine's first swim
I love this picture of Miles soooo much!
Elaine, in her cute summer clothes, watching the older children swim.
We had another wonderful trip to Florida with our St. Louis friends. This was Miles' 4th trip there (we counted today) and Elaine's first. Our friends have two girls, ages 4 1/2 and 6 1/2, so the kids had lots of fun. Most of our time was spent swimming in the backyard. It was so much fun to be swimming in December! Other highlights include visiting the sea turtle rescue center, the lion country drive-thru safari, eating at our favorite places on the inter coastal, and playing on the beach.

November fun

Miles giving Elaine a goodbye hug before Cowboy Night

November was quite the busy month! Miles loves his preschool and really enjoyed Dad's Night. Patrick and Papa John were both able to take Miles and he loved it, especially since he was the only one with a grandfather there. He also LOVED wearing his cowboy clothes! Elaine and I had a girls night that consisted of a bubble bath, warm milk and lotion.

We also had Elaine Baptized on November 16th. She was able to wear Papa's Christening Gown that my great-grandmother made. It is absolutely beautiful and I'm so lucky that both of my children have been able to wear it. We laugh though because we plan the Baptism around when the gown will fit our little ones! It's quite small so it's a nice reminder to get that done! Miles sat with us during the service and walked to the front to watch his "sissy" get Baptized. He was very interested in the water and wanted Patrick to hold him so he could see everything. Elaine was perfect - alert, happy and looking all around. Our Pastor of Young Adults, Jay Lee, Baptized Elaine as well as Miles 3 years ago. Pretty neat! He said afterwards that Elaine was the best baby he's ever Baptized. Afterwards we had Brunch at our home. I made an egg casserole with ham that was fantastic! We also made a cheese danish, rolls and fresh fruit. Our cake lady made precious petit fours with Elaine's initials on 1/2 and crosses on the other 1/2. Everything went well.

The last November event was Thanksgiving! We celebrated with the Lodewicks in Dallas for an early dinner and then hit the road for Austin. We are pretty sure this was our last year to do this for many reasons, but mainly adding another family member involves much more packing, planning and energy while traveling. The children were great and took long naps on the way down. Miles was very cute and surprised everyone by saying The Lord's Prayer. He said it perfectly at both homes. This is something he learned at preschool - we didn't practice at all at home. In fact, I had no idea he knew it. He was so proud and confident saying it! I never would have thought that a 3 year-old could memorize that. I'd love to know what he thinks it means!

they call me the fireman....

our fireman and dalmatian

We had a fun Halloween this year! Miles really wanted to be a fireman. He also wanted Elaine to be a "fireman dog". She kept her costume on for a few pictures. Miles loved his costume very much and has been able to wear it a few times. His favorite is to put it on, ride his tractor around the street, and fill up his extinguisher at the hydrant. Every year we go to Patrick's sister's house to trick or treat with the girls. We had fun going around with the children, but I couldn't believe how dark it became sooo quickly! Patrick thinks next year we need to put those fluorescent lights around the little ones necks (he really said a blinking strobe light...).

Thanks for helping me with my uploading questions! I think our firewall is very sensitive and annoying, and it works better if I do one at a time for now. Hopefully I'll be posting away again!

blogspot questions

Is anyone else having a hard time posting pictures to blogspot? It takes like 10 minutes and then there are no images downloaded..uploaded..whatever. I need a blogspot for dummies class! This is the reason for the delay in my postings. HELP!

Nov. 5th

Today while Miles was eating lunch I went to put Elaine down for her nap. The base to the baby monitor is in her room and the handset is in the kitchen so that I can hear her. Sometimes while I'm putting her down I whisper in the monitor to Miles that I'll be right back. Once I put Elaine down and was back in the kitchen, she started to fuss. Miles responded to this by going up to the handset and saying "it's alright Elaine, we love you. shh shh". It was so cute/sweet/precious/surprising all wrapped up. He really loves to try and comfort her, which is not often because this baby is so un-fussy.

We had Miles' parent/teacher conference last week and are very proud of him. He is doing just great. They said he really loves to play with his friends, gets along well with others, enjoys centers and LOVES music. Oh, and that he has a great sense of humor. We got his first "report card", although I think 3 is way too young to be doing this. I'm sure the teachers would agree!

Austin!

This past weekend was my cousin Greg's wedding. We had a busy busy weekend! It didn't work out for all 4 of us to drive in town Friday b/c Miles had his team soccer picture Saturday morning, so I flew down with Elaine. She did fantastic of course and it was so nice to not drive both ways. Friday night Mom babysat Elaine and I met Nina, Chris and Emily for dinner. We went to Z'Tejas and had a great dinner sans babies. Saturday morning Patrick took Miles to his team picture and then to a b-day party at the park. Meanwhile, Saturday we got some errands taken care of in Austin and then had our babysitter come to the house to watch Elaine for the wedding. This was not her first sitter, but I had never met Jessica before so I was a little uncertain about it all. She came highly recommended and is a preschool teacher so I wasn't too worried, but still it's easier to leave your child with a sitter once they can talk and tell you what they did.... Jessica was great. Mom, Ev and I met Patrick in Miles in Walburg for the wedding. This was Miles' first wedding and he had a blast. There were LOTS of kids so that was fun. Greg and Amy's wedding was so much fun and the weather was perfect. We drove back to Dallas Sunday after lunch. This was Elaine's first car ride and she slept the entire time. She is one good baby! Miles had so much fun in Austin that it was hard for him to leave. It's been about 6 months since I've been to Austin due to pregnancy and newborn, so it was a much needed trip. I'm hoping once the holidays are over we will be able to spend more time down there with not lots to do.

We had some pictures taken the past few weeks. First Chris and my sister came in town for TX/ou and he took some great pics. Also we had a lady take some that turned out pretty cute.

pics

Elaine - 3 months!
Miles' silly face
Elaine, Miles, Megan and Elise

Oct. 16th

We'll I've come to terms that I won't recover the last post, which is SUPER annoying to me.
Miles is loving preschool. Tuesday evening we had a moms' night out with the moms in his class. It was so much fun to get to know some of them. I knew about 3 or 4 moms already. Anyways, when we got there we were going around introducing ourselves and telling who our child is, etc.. and one mom said, "wait, who is miles' mom" - I was hoping this wouldn't be an embarrassing story! She said that her daughter, Riley, has a baby at home and named Miles! She thinks Riley has her first crush on Miles. It was too funny - I've got to see this little girl! Then a few other moms said that their kids talk about Miles all the time and how cute he is. Come to find out, there are only about 6 boys in the class and almost 10 girls, so it makes sense! Miles is trying to learn our phone number, which is hard since Dallas is 10-digit dialing! Oh well, we'll get there. He is becoming more interested in games and loves Hi! Ho! Cherry-o! which is fun. I think he'll be getting a few more for Christmas.
Halloween is in full force here! Miles is going to be a fireman and decided that long ago. His costume came in the mail a few weeks ago and he wears it all the time. He will put the whole thing on and ride his tractor down the sidewalk to the fire hydrant... forgot to mention that he has an inflatable fire extinguisher, so he likes to "fill it up" at the hydrant. Miles really wanted Elaine to be a fireman dog (Dalmatian) so I finally found a cute one at Pottery Barn. The others I saw seemed a tad bit tacky so Elaine was almost a ballerina, but thankfully we found one. I even downloaded some instructions on how to make a costume, which would have been scary.
Elaine is doing fantastic! She is 3 1/2 months and soooo happy - we are so blessed with such happy and relaxed babies! Elaine really hardly cries, except when bath time is over. She loves water so much! She also LOVES to watch Miles. Whenever she is in the car she stares at Miles the whole time, which he often looks at her and sticks out his tongue or does something very big brother-like - charming... No, he is really sweet to her and tells her he loves her and kisses her. He loves for her to lie in his bed next to him during story time before his nap if she is awake. His favorite book as of now, Thursday, is "we're going on a bear hunt" thanks to GaGa!!

2 months old!

We took Elaine to her 2 month appointment yesterday. We were dreading it for sure because this is the first round of shots for an infant. I was supposed to take Elaine to the appointment while Miles was at preschool, but Miles has either a random summer cold or allergies so he stayed home. Luckily Patrick's mom could watch him at home and I didn't have to drag him to the appointment. First things first, the nurse weighed and measured Elaine. She is growing fast and is already a healthy 13 pounds! Elaine is at the 95%ile for weight and 75%ile for length and head circumference. I am pretty sure she will slow down because Miles was a huge baby (as you remember!) as well, and is now very average. Anyways, our doctor said she looks great. After that, the dreaded shots came... 3 in her thighs and one oral vaccination - a liquid that she liked. She cried literally for 10 seconds and was over it. That was nice! It's hard to imagine how red a baby's face can turn, the calm before the storm, before they let out those screams. I just started to talk to her and she instantly calmed down.

We take Miles to his 3 year appointment on Thursday and I am hoping that he gets over those shots quickly as well. He loves going to the doctor! Whenever he has a boo-boo he tells me he needs to go to the hospital. He also thinks medicine is really fun and is always playing doctor with Elaine and his stuffed animals. So funny! He is loving preschool and was sad to stay home yesterday. I went to a Junior League meeting last night and his teacher was sitting in front of me. She asked about Miles and told me how much she was enjoying him and that Miles LOVES to play with his friends in the classroom. His teacher is just about the cutest thing I've ever seen - I call her sorority barbie, meaning that as a compliment of course. She is about 25 and just precious. Miles thought that was SO funny that she was at the meeting with me.

I think Miles must be more aware of manners. When I ask him if he wants something, like milk, he will say "No thank you, mommy, but thank you for asking me"! Last night Patrick asked Miles if he wanted to help him do something (don't remember what it was) while Miles was sitting next to me feeding Elaine, and Miles said "Not right now Daddy, I'm doing something very important with baby Elaine." He really loves his little sister! He is also becoming quite independent and LOVES playing with his toys. His imagination is working 24/7 and he loves to pretend to fix things around the house with his hammer and drill, wash the windows with his water sprayer, and do anything and everything imaginary with trucks. He is such a BOY, and it's so much fun.

I was holding Elaine like this and Miles asked to do the same thing... can't believe I captured it! Nothing is cuter....

Elaine - 1 month

Elaine, Sadie's back and Miles

Elaine is one month!

Today Miles went to gymnastics camp with Abby. They had a great time. When I asked Miles what he liked the most he said, "when this nice lady turned the music up and we ran around the room". I guess that is all a 3 year old boy really cares about doing so it was perfect! I think they also jumped on the trampoline and did other "gymnastic" things. They also made a craft (colored a pair of paper sunglasses) and had a snack. Miles didn't even question nap time today so that was the icing on the cake! It's still hard to believe he's old enough to be dropped off at a camp and I can leave. Good thing Miles was busy having fun because Elaine was awake almost the whole morning wanting to "play" (be held) so I wouldn't have had all of my attention for Miles.

They really do look alike....

I've been trying to work on my scrapbook. I've now gotten to the Fall of 2007, so I'm making some serious progress! I am also trying to work on Elaine's baby book, so I've been going thru a ton of pictures on the computer to say the least. I had to share these....

Some Quiet Time

My mother and grandmother came in town on Wednesday. We had a nice visit and Thursday they drove back to Austin with Miles. He is having so much fun with my mom! They made brownies for the firemen, and when they dropped them off Miles was allowed to sit in the fire engine. I know how excited he must have been! Today my sister and mom took Miles swimming. I'm sure they can't believe what a little swimmer he is!

With Miles in Austin, we have had a quiet house! I've been able to work on my scrapbook and organize my closet some. I am loving the time Patrick and I have with Elaine and we are just going crazy over her. With that said, we sure miss our precious little boy. We can't wait to have him back here!

It only took me 2 years to update this.........

Miles meeting Elaine
Miles is 3! Home from the hospital just in time.
Elaine's first bath!!

This blog has been quite neglected to say the least, but my Aunt Cindy and my cousin Emily have re-motivated me!

We had Elaine's 2 week appointment today at she is growing quickly! At birth Elaine weighed 7.12 pounds and was 19 inches long. Today she weighs 8.14 pounds and is 21.5 inches - she's grown 2 1/2 inches!! I am leaning a little towards the initial measurement being on the small side at the hospital, but looking back Miles grew 2 inches the first 2 weeks, too.

Elaine is a fantastic baby and Miles is adjusting really well. Today at nap I put Elaine next to Miles and read them a few stories. Miles didn't listen to the books at all. He kept checking to see if his baby was doing OK and gave her lots of kisses. Very cute, but his nap time routine is a lot easier when Elaine is sleeping ; )

Miles is heading down to Austin tomorrow with my mom and granny. Patrick is going to stop by the store on the way home to get him a digital camera so he can take as many pictures as he likes. He LOVES to take pictures and knows more about a digital camera than most people. I think he's going to be a gadget guy like his daddy!

Patrick and I took Miles to the fair last week and it was hilarious watching Miles feed the animals.

It's hard to believe that Miles is already 15 months! Where has the time gone? We are having so much fun with our little boy. Here are a few of his favorites: garden hoses, animals, airplanes, acorns, and anything that he can turn on and off. We've had a very busy summer and fall so far and we're getting excited about Halloween!

Happy 1st Birthday Miles! We celebrated first with a family dinner at home and the next day we had a picnic party with our friends. It was lots of fun and Miles did great!