Halloween 2012

This Halloween, we trick or treated with the Hoffmans again. The pictures tell the story better than I can.



Can you imagine this crew showing up at your door? One of Gramps and Mimi's neighbors gave away WHOLE candy bars. Grant got 5 of them.

Abby didn't last - she passed out in the car.

Abby's first steps!

Abby took her first steps at daycare today. So when we got home, she showed off for the camera on the first shot!

Weekend Wrap Up

Friday after work, we took the kids for a treat - Mattitos! Ok - really - it was so mama could have a 'rita. At Mattitos, the kids get ice cream after their meal. Abby and Derek shared. Grant got his own.
Derek brought Abby home after dinner. Grant and I went to pick out pumpkins. He was so proud to pick them out! Once we got home, Derek and the kids went straight to bed. I stayed up and made hats for the kids' Halloween outfits.

Saturday we got up slowly. Abby had to be woken up at 8:45! The kids tried on their hats for Halloween. They fit! (That's something. My first one for Abby didn't.)

We took my car in and went to World Market and Big Lots. It was my first time ever in Big Lots. Oh - Abby's shirt says "I Love My Papa." I love it. She ACTUALLY kept her hat on too. Maybe we're turning over a new leaf!
When we got home, we had some homemade pizza and the kiddos napped. While they were out, I worked in the yard. Derek got on the pool. I did see this little guy while working in the flowerbed:

We have lots of lizards around here, but mostly geckos. So this guy was a different treat. Yes - I jumped when I saw him.

I spent a full 3 hours in the yard, then we headed to Clint and Shauna's for their annual pumpkin carving party.
Daxon slept most of the party. I'm sure that made for a fun night.

We got home around 11:30 and crashed!!

Today we had a big breakfast, then wanted to go show Gaga the kiddos' Halloween outfits. I quickly whipped up a batch of spaghetti sauce and we headed out.

The Halloween outfits were a hit!!! Until they weren't.

We got to see Susie and Kelsey for a minute until they had to go. Then we stripped the kids down for some spaghetti. Abby was even happy in Gaga's arms for a minute. Definitely worthy of a shot. I do love that Gaga doesn't mind. Her response is always "Oh well! Grant warmed up to me! She will too."
We came home and all the kids (and me) napped. It was GREAT! I put together a spaghetti cassarole and breakfast cassarole, then cleaned it all up before the kiddos woke up.

Once the babies got up, Grant rode his bike and we threw washers outside. The weather was PERFECT! Abby enjoyed crawling around. She got her knees dirty. She also had a few bruises on her face from the past few days (learning to balance bruises). I really think bruises and dirty knees are cuter on little boys. Oh - and I won 2 out of 3 in washers. I showed my babies how to win with class. ;) That's only a slight exaggeration.

Football, dinner, baths, then bedtime. That's our weekend!

Although right before bed, Abby had a little fever. And Grant threw up a little. I wonder what's in store for tomorrow?! Hopefully it was just teeth and too much applesauce, respectively.

Just a Tuesday

Hey - look who has a ponytail!
Want to see that a little closer?
While Abby was attacking my camera, Grant read Goodnight Moon about 16 times. It's his favorite book. He knows the entire book. He'll even open up other books and start in with "In the great green room, there was a telephone and a red balloon. And a picture of..." and he proceeds to recite about 3-4 more pages.
Abby actually wanted to be rocked to sleep tonight. So for the second night in a row, she fell asleep on her daddy. Awwww.

Fun weekend

This weekend was action packed! Saturday we went over to the Dacuses to watch the A&M game. The kiddos napped over there before we headed out to Ashley's baby shower.
After the shower we went to Gaga's. Marlene and her family were in town. Grant was excited to see everyone. Since we've seen them, he's "drawn" Gaga and Papa on his Magnadoodle.
Abby didn't really like for ANYONE to hold her at Gaga's (except me). She was happy with Carrie for about 5 minutes, but wasn't happy with anyone else.
After the cookout, my sis and her family came over for pizza! The boys had a good time playing until Grant hit Jacob with a car. There was a little blood, but Jacob said it was an accident.

All the kids laid down and the adults played Joker, chatted and watched football. I was telling Jacob that we were going to talk about mortgages and 401(k)s so that he wouldn't be interested in what we were doing.

Sunday was more fun on the go. It was our babies' first trip to the State Fair of Texas!
Grant loved driving the cars and sitting on the "motorbikel".
Notice anything missing from these photos?
Yeah - that'd be this guy.

That was Big Tex's fiery death - 2 days before our trip to the Fair! After 60 years, he succumbed to an electric malfunction. So we had to be satisfied with these shots with Big Tex:
Derek rode one ride with Grant. His first roller coaster. At this point, Derek was having his annual State Fair food hangover, so one ride was enough for him.
So after that Grant and I rode the elephants!
We had been planning on a picnic in the park with friends, so we invited ourselves over to Jill's for naps. At one point, all the Hickses were asleep! Check out Abby while Grant was riding rollercoasters... and house crashing Jill.
We headed over to the park and enjoyed the amazing weather. Although it was over 80 degrees, it was very pleasant in the shade and with the breeze.

The whole gang (except Jill who took the photo):
A couple candid shots:
I snagged this shot of Derek showing Grant the water. Love these boys.
On the way home, we stopped at the grocery store. We came home, did laundry, cooked 3 meals and cleaned it all up.

Seriously. That was just ONE weekend. I got tired just WRITING about it! We had a ball though.

Picking the losers

We had a fun weekend, in spite of the fact that we continually picked losers all weekend. How?

Saturday we had a bit of change of plans, but we did end up spending some time with the family at Dave's TX/OU watch party.

Unfortunately, the Horns didn't show up to play. That was the first time we picked the loser. But Grant didn't mind - he was happy to dress like Daddy at home.
Saturday night we went to Cy & Emily's birthday/Halloween party. We went as disgruntled Rangers fans - complete with sacks over our head and Rangers cups to drink from. Second time over the weekend that we picked the losers. (But that was the point of the costume). I didn't get a shot of us in costume, but I did get one action shot. That's David Hasselhoff over there throwing washers!
Today we cheered on the Cowboys, again picking the losers. Such a good game though! After the game, we visited Laura and Big Gaga. Abby is a mama's girl to put it lightly, so she didn't like it when I let go of her (or walked away to throw away a diaper). Here's the proof:
All in all, a great weekend!

Potty training update

Grant used the potty at school today for the first time. YEAH! And I realized that I never updated the blog about our potty training session.... if you want to call it that.

Over Labor Day weekend, we tried potty training. We went the pant-less route. On Saturday, Grant peed once in the house (must've been while walking because there was a trail). Every 15 minutes we tried the potty, but he never went. So one time we tried outside. YUP! No problem peeing outside.

Around 10am, Derek left to go to a fantasy football draft. Grant was sitting on my lap (bare bottom) reading a book. When he got up, I realized he must have tooted on me. Just a smudge - no big deal really.

Then right before naps, Abby had a blow out. I picked Abby up - she had leaked through her diaper and I ended up with her blow out on me too. So - great. Derek had been gone about an hour and a half and both kids crapped on me.

I had been a helicopter mom over Grant bc he hadn't "done his business" like he normally does every morning. So I changed Abby and myself, trying to keep Grant in the same room. But I failed. So when I return to the living room, Grant points at the tile by the french doors and says "Oh no!" Yeah - poop. on. the. ground. But at this point, I'm just happy it's the tile and not the carpet.

I cleaned him up and put him in a diaper for nap. When he got up, we got rid of the diaper again. Back to the 15 minute routine. And again - no pee in the potty. But he did pee outside.

About 4pm, Derek got home and we decided to start over some other time. Maybe Thanksgiving?!

Abby is 10 months!

Abby is 10 months now! Here's what she's up to:
Height: We'll recheck at 1 year.

Weight: 21 lbs

Head: We'll recheck at 1 year.

Diaper: 4's

Eating: 7-8 ounces every 3-4 hours. She is eating about 6 oz. of baby food each day and sampling from our plates! She's had more table food this month.
Clothing: 12 month clothes. Still looking for a new source for 12-18 month old girl clothes if you know of anyone!

Sleeping: She would sleep 12-13 hours each night if we let her. I think we'll be phasing out the third nap soon (the extra morning nap that she only takes on weekends anyway).

Talking: She will mimic our words A LOT! Mama, Dada, Bubba, Bye Bye, and maybe even Abby.

Teeth: Her top right is through and now it's lefty's turn!

Milestones: She is pulling up all the time without assistance and CRUISING! We may have a "first steps" post before the end of the month. She can balance standing for 5-10 seconds, but that is hard for her because she usually wants to get down and crawl to chase Lola or Grant.
Abby took her first plane ride over the weekend to North Carolina. She was an angel! Grant's first plane ride was at 3 months. So on your next flight if you're wondering who would bring a kid on a plane, the answer is people like me.

After 1-2 months of chasing after her brother's sippy cup, we've introduced Abby to her own sippy. Grant knows that the yellow one is Abby's and if she takes off after his, he corrects her. Most of the time politely.

Her eczema is barely visible right now. Even when it flares up, it's usually gone within 2 days.

Guaranteed Smiles: She's still a mama's girl - reaches for me all the time. She also BEAMS when we walk into daycare. She saves the best smiles for her favorite teachers!

Guaranteed Crying: Seeing a bottle - her patience is ZERO! She also doesn't like for you to walk away quickly. Lately, I just put her down and tell her to come with me (rather than carry her around), but I can't walk too fast!

Here's a shot from the car ride. Derek's car doesn't have a mirror in the back for Abby's seat. So when we aren't sure whether or not Abby is asleep (Grant's information is pretty unreliable), I just stick my phone back there. Pretty random to stick in here, but it's one of those things I'm sure I'll forget about unless I blog about it.
And here are Grant's stats from his 10 month post. I just looked back at the post and realized that we switched Grant to a formula for 9+ month olds when he was this age. I do NOT remember that at all! Got to love the bloggity blog for keeping track of these memories for me!

I also looked back and realized when G was 10 months, we found out we were pregnant with Abby! It was such an exciting time!

NC Trip Part 2

Saturday morning was rainy, so we took the whole gang to see Sesame Street at the Planetarium. Who is the whole gang? Marlene, Laura, Doug, Lynette, Harper, Ada, Mary, Blythe, Ethan, Brynn, Me, Derek, Grant and Abby. Grant loved it and Abby slept through the entire thing (but not before putting up a good fight before the show started). Grant's favorite part was Cookie Monster. Cookie Monster wasn't part of the show. hmmm.

We grabbed some lunch from Chubbies, then kiddos played and napped while we watched the NC State "game". After naps, the Mitts and Hicks crew headed to an indoor play area at a mall.

We got home, gave the kiddos a bath, got purty, and had an adult night out at the Wild Turkey Bar at Angus Barn.

Sunday was another action-packed day. There was a festival that was supposed to be for the hockey team - Caniac Carnival. No players were there since they are striking, but the FREE festival was going strong! Grant liked the slides. We also got to go down on the floor where they play the hockey games (and NC State basketball games).



We had lunch from Backyard Bistro (good BBQ sandwiches) and watched football while the kids napped (and older kids built forts) at the Holloways' House. And because our flight was later in the evening, we still had time to visit Pullen Park!
Riding the Carousel:

Riding the train:

My family on the train:

All the cousins with Andy and Opie:

Just playing:

After the park, we headed back home. Both kids were good on the plane. YEAH!