Cowboys Game!

Allison, Zach, my dad and I all went to the Cowboys vs. Redskins game yesterday. We sat in my dad's suite and it was really enjoyable. The game wasn't as exciting as one would hope, but the ending had us jumping up and down and screaming, so at least there was some suspense. The only good part about the game being boring was that we could really take in the stadium, enjoy the benefits of the suite (food service, full bar) and have some time to talk without feeling like we had to tune in to every play. It was a really fun experience and I'm glad I got to share it with my best friend Al! Too bad the only other cowboy game I have ever been to was a boring defensive battle as well. I am so used to the high octane offense of the Red Raiders, I am spoiled.

Walking in to the stadium.

My dad and Zach having some snacks.

The cheerleaders. Allison and I both agreed that their choreography was super boring, easy and appears that it hasn't changed since the 80s. They at least need a new choreographer for their half time performances. They seem to do the same moves over and over. Not too impressive.

Intruder Alert!

When the cowboys came out there was fire shooting out

Run it!

It was hard to decide what to look at. Do you look at the huge screen so you can see what's going on better, or do you look at the actual players on the field? I did both. I seemed to lose track of the ball when I was watching the field, not sure if that is a common thing or a blonde moment.

We had to stop by Zach's flip which was only like a mile from the stadium, it is looking so cute, almost done, bring on the money!

New Living Arrangements

We are in a major transition phase. We packed up most of our necessities and moved over to my parent's house last weekend. There is still so much to be done at our house before we can put it on the market, so Zach and I (or sometimes just Zach) is over there every night cleaning, throwing stuff away, touching up paint or cracks, organizing, just trying to tie up all the loose ends. It feels like loose ends are blowing all over the place and slapping us in the face repeatedly, but that's basically what we signed up for. We didn't and really still don't have a thought out plan, when we moved over here, we just kind of said today seems like a good day. We weren't getting much done while we were still living in our house full time, so we had to start staying over here. It's especially hard to pack and move when you have a two year old following behind you whining and a baby occupying one arm. Another big step in our move was getting our dogs over here. The yard is huge and the dogs are loving it, in the first few minutes Cricket, the chocolate lab, fell in the pool, started violently splashing around and Zach had to pull her out to safety. That was the first and last incident with the pool and we hope to keep it that way. Last time we were between houses and lived with my parents, my poor dad had to dive in fully clothed to rescue Merlin the sheepdog who can't swim. He was peering up at a large bird and walked right in to the pool. The first night we were here Cricket got sprayed in the face by a skunk and stank up the whole yard. Welcome to the woods. Surprisingly, Blake and Kylie have adjusted to life here and don't even seem to notice or care that they aren't at "home". I guess home really is where your family is. Blake has gotten even more attached to my mom and screams "Ooooommmy!" when she can't find her. Her little voice echoes through this vast 7,411 square foot house. I will take pictures of our set up later when it looks more organized, there is obviously plenty of space for us. Zach's commute is worse, it is taking about an hour and fifteen minutes to get to work. Unfortunate. It bothers me so much that he spends hours every day driving. We have decided he would have to take one for the team while we are living here free of charge, because we will be moving to Coppell as soon as we can swing it. His drive sucked anyway, so it's not that much worse, but still. We also still haven't gotten to enjoy the perks of living here yet, we still have all our bills, we haven't really gone out to eat or taken any walks alone or gone shopping or done anything but go back and forth from Keller and moved more stuff. By the time Zach gets here at night we are both so exhausted from the day, we have a quick talk, do our Bible study (Beth Moore's The Patriarchs) together and then pass out. I am far more tired being a stay at home mom in this huge house than I was in our tiny house. If Blake wants to go up to the playroom I have to make sure I have everything I need, grab Kylie and head up the stairs, if Blake wanders off I have to follow her because this house isn't totally toddler proof. I am going up and down and up and down and up and down the stairs, there is a lot of house to watch over. This has been and is going to continue to be a great experience for so many reasons. We truly are the boomerang generation, this is the third time I have temporarily moved back in with my parents since college and two of my best friends have recently moved their families in with their parents while they are in between houses. I'm thinking this is the last time this boomerang is going to fly back to Mom and Dad's house, we are really hoping to stay put in this next house.

Sitter

The sweet big baby is sitting up! I wouldn't leave her unattended on a wood floor or anything, but she's at the beginning stages of sitting independently. She will sit for a minute or two and then plop, she's down.

And she's pretty happy about it!

What is up with my hair!?

Someone please give me some tips. Ever since I had Kylie my hair hasn't been my hair anymore. First of all it gets oily so fast. My close friends know I used to have such dry hair that I only had to wash it like twice a week. Gross, you say? No, awesome! It actually looked better the second and third days and I loved having hair like this. It was so easy and low maintenance. Now I feel like I have to wash it every other day to avoid having grease head. What am I to do? Is there a certain shampoo you can use, or do you use less conditioner, is there a spray? I knew exactly what worked on dry hair, but I am stumped with how to care for oily hair. Sometimes after I blow dry it, I already feel like its oilyish. I have never experienced this before. I would love to go back to my old hair, but I'm not so sure that will happen. Maybe after all the hormones even out, but in the meantime I need some help. Plus, I am in that post pregnancy phase where it starts coming out everywhere. I have hair piles in my bathroom and so much comes out in the shower. Pregnancy does the strangest stuff to your body. Am I doomed? Do I just have to wash my hair every day or every other day? Or is there some secret that all the oily hair people know about that I can be let in on?

5 Years of Wedded Bliss

My sweet husband and I celebrated our fifth wedding anniversary on November 13. We were made for each other. Isn't is crazy how God leads you to that one perfect person at just the right time in your life? There have been a ton of changes that we have gone through together in these five years, job changes, three moves, two kids, and lots of other little things. We went to eat at Eddie V's in Fort Worth. The food was great, but the dessert was hands down the best dessert either of us had ever eaten. It was insane. Please, if you ever find yourself dining at this establishment, you must not leave until you try the bananas foster. WOW! The restaurant had a great atmosphere, it was a good place to go for an anniversary. We had a lot of fun talking and not worrying about our kids. We go by the traditional anniversary gift list, the 5th year is wood. I got him this red and black box thing, and it has bible verses on these cards that you can see through the box. He took it to work and now he can start memorizing the verses as he looks at them on his desk. He got me a really pretty wooden cross that I'm sure will look beautiful in our new house, whenever and wherever that ends up being. Zach is just awesome, we have fun together, rarely argue, are very supportive of each other, and enjoy each other's company so much. He gets me and I get him. What more can you ask for? It's a pleasure to be Mrs. Zachary Walker!

Here it is, in all it's glory. The most delicious concoction on earth. The waiter pours this flaming sauce on it at the table. I fumbled to get my camera and I took so long that by the time I actually snapped the picture all that remained from the blue flames was a tiny puff of smoke. Oh well, you get the idea. Mmmmmmmmm.

6 Months

Kylie's first six months went by super fast. It's hard to believe, but I think it goes by much faster with the second baby. She hasn't been feeling too good, between the teething, cold, shots and a low fever. She wasn't very happy about being at the doctor. She weighs 17.7 lbs (86%), she wears 6-12 months clothes. She is 26.3 inches tall (76%) and head circumference is 16.5 inches (40%). Big baby, except her head. I asked Dr. Z if she was cross eyed because sometimes she looks that way to me in pictures. She told me that she isn't cross eyed, but she does have something called pseudo some long medical word, where the skin on the inner part of your eyes covers up some of the white part, which makes you appear like your eyes are crossed. I didn't ask if she would grow out of it, or if it meant anything else. Last night we were up with her every couple of hours. She was feeling terrible. At one point she was crying so hard and I went to go check on her, she had thrown up in her bed and it was all over her head, in her ears, hanging off her eyelashes, all over her pjs, so sad. She needed a lot of extra love last night. She even slept in the bed next to me for a few hours. I felt like I had a new baby again. Exhausting.

Here is her chair pic. She was dressed up for Amber Hunt's shower in her cheetah dress.

Very Big Day

Today is a huge day. Zach and I are celebrating our fifth anniversary, Baby Ky is 6 months old, Baby Ky had her 6 month well check and we moved in to my parent's house. Much more on all of this later. We will still be making many trips back to the Keller house to get things in order, but we are pretty much out of there. There will probably be a post on each of these things some time tomorrow, I can't get too far behind but it's going to be hard with moving and stuff.

I'm a Dreamer

Ever since I got back on Lexapro for the PPD I was struggling with I have been having wild and crazy dreams. I have them every night all night. I have so many that I try to remember them all and I just can't. I usually wake up thinking, oh my goodness how can my brain come up with some of this stuff? One particularly vivid dream I had the other night was that Ben, Zach's boss hired this kookoo mafia fat white guy that was their neighbor. He ran around plotting to kill us, Jeni wouldn't believe me and she kept trying to tell everyone how nice he was. We were running from him and hiding and so scared. We got snipers, the FBI and military involved. The military flew in at the last minute and took him away. It was so intense. I felt like it played out like a movie and went on and on. I have this other reoccurring dream where I am a senior at Tech, it is my last semester and I keep missing these two classes. It's like I went on the first day and I never went again and now it's the last day and I'm like "oh no! I haven't been going to class this whole semester!" It's always the same two classes. One of them is a human development class and it's in a small auditorium and the other is a really weird math class. I go in thinking that I am going to have to talk to the professor, I tell them my name and they say "where have you been this whole time?" I had this dream last night and I know it's not the last time I will have it. Dreams are so peculiar.

I Want to Wear...

Blake is pretty opinionated regarding her daily outfits. She always wants to go into mommy's closet and try on clothes. Today as I was deciding what to keep and what to give away Blake was asking to wear every dress. I let her wear this one for the morning. A short mini dress on mommy is a long maxi dress on Blake.

She also was set on wearing her 2 shirt from her birthday party. Disregard the wild pigtails, the purpose of them was more functional than anything else. I was trying to keep the hair out of the snotty and drooly face.

Memory Stroll Part II

I scanned in one more round of pictures today. So if you would like, you can stroll with me again.

Zach's 25th

Michelle's Wedding

Tech game

practicing our choreographed fox trot first dance
if you are curious the mirror in the background was done by my dad's golf coach to help with his swing

Mexico

Amy's bachelorette

honeymoon

college

puppy merlin

Blake

High school friends

Stripper Gemini Sr. prank

Rush skits

Christmas dorks

Jeni's baby shower

three generations of goofs

This night is one I will always remember. Zach has asked my dad if he could marry me while we were in Colorado. My dad broke out the champagne and we celebrated, it was kind of like an engagement without the ring. We went out to dinner afterward and we were all so excited.

We took our dogs to my parent's east texas lake house and they had so much fun running free. Cricket is the fastest dog I've ever seen and I had no idea because she has never had that much open space to run. Sidenote-Merlin gets a bad haircut about 70% of the time, here the groomer decided to give him the very unflattering poodle cut.

6 flags

Wedding day

Josh, Andrew, Zach, Justin, Grant out and about in FW

Ranger Game

Out at 8.0s

My bro and I

Classic patriotic pony picture.

Zach and I at Gulf Shores, Alabama for Spring break when I was at SMU.

Friends at my lingerie shower at Al's house

KD bid day sophomore year

In the dorms. Good old Chitwood.

Allison and I in our really sweet Halloween costumes.

At Chimy's before Pat Green

Leah and I 6th grade

college fun

Amy's shower

Al getting her makeup done for my wedding

bid day

Before tech vs. smu when Blake was about a month old.

Christmas 05

This is when Zach asked me to marry him. He woke me up in the middle of the night, there were rose petals all over my bed, he had made a trail of rose petals and candles leading to more candles and the ring box was open on the table in the middle. He just said "will you marry me?" no big speech or anything, I started crying and hugging him and we fell onto the couch and were so happy!

School baby shower

Cordillera, Colorado

Sedona, AZ

Engagement picture

First date party

Zach and I went to this hilarious dog show in fort worth to support our favorite dog breed, the old english sheepdog. What a funny day.

Getting pretty on my wedding day

Ommy (formerly known as G Mom until Blake started calling her Ommy one day) and Blake for the first time

My brother in his Uncle uniform. My dad got them pink hats and pink shirts and Cal's said Blake's Uncle. Very poud!

8th grade

Queen of hearts

I've always liked to cook!

4th grade

Sr. year

1st day of school

I was on the golf team my senior year

catching huge fish at lake arlington

Dancing with my dad at Al's wedding

There were these crazy people next door to us on our honeymoon, that would scream and cuss and say the most ridiculous things to each other. We couldn't believe it!

Bach. party in Vegas at Caesar's

Cousins

Before FIJI pig dinner

Al's wedding shower in lubbock

another river experience

1st grade team

What's Happening?!?!

Blake and Kylie are both sick. I just got over the same cold today. Zach is the only one in our family that is out and about in the real world everyday picking up germs. He got sick last week and brought it home to the rest of us. I requested that he please be as proactive as possible with the hand sanitizer, frequent hand washing and vitamins from now on. Blake woke up every three hours last night crying and when she is upset she says, "want a hug, want a huuuuuuuug!" so that is what she was mumbling as she was tossing and turning. The only way I knew Ky was sick is that she isn't as smiley as usual, still smiley though, and she has a little snot dribble running out of her nose most of the time. I figured she would have gotten the antibodies from me since I am still nursing, but I don't think it worked out that way. Blake has been whining all day and she will start coughing and say in a pitiful voice, "what's happening?!", she has also been saying things like "I'm sick", " I want some medicine", and crazy phrases like "mommy, mommy, want a hug, want up with a mommy, mommy, mommy, want a hug, mommy will give you a hug, mommy, mommy, mommy", that is an example of some of her pitiful ramblings that she says really fast and barely takes a breath. I'm expecting tomorrow to be a pretty tough day for this stay at home mommy, two sick kids, extra whininess, extra moodiness, snot crusted faces, tears, many Tylenol doses, all the while trying to pack up the closets and get some stuff done for the move. Maybe they will take some long naps and give me a break.

Let's Take a Memory Stroll

You know when you are going through all your stuff when your moving and you find funny old pictures? I decided to scan some of them in today and thought I would share them on my blog as well. These are not in any kind of order.

This is Mojo and Zach, we were on the way home from picking Mojo up from the breeder. He kept biting and snapping at us because he had been abused in the past so we ended up giving him to another family which was one of the hardest decisions ever.

Baby Paige

This is Zach and I in Sedona, AZ. We were visiting my brother at boarding school.

Leah and I

Amy, Cary, Jordan and I took a trip to Florida when we were 20

Jimmy and Grant, these were some of my best guy friends from high school.

The Mulkeys and I

This was the Thanksgiving feast my first year teaching.

My parents and Eva Longoria have a mutual friend so she sometimes goes to the mavs vs. spurs games with them when she is in town. I haven't gotten to meet her.

Late night grubbing in Dallas

Our first house in Mansfield right down the street from the Gilmores.

Bachelorette

My brother and I

80s dancer

My dad and I went on a "mavs road trip" where you fly on their plane, stay in the same hotel with them, ride on their bus, go to the game and mingle with the players. This was the plane.
We went to Salt Lake City.

Bridesmaid Luncheon

Avery Johnson and I on the plane.

Meesh and I at Dynamic Duo

Leah and I many years later. We were both on the homecoming court, and she won!

One of our first days in the dorms

Merlin, our Old English Sheepdog

Baby Zach

1st grade

Al's bachelorette party. I didn't know any better so I made her wear a penis veil. My apologies.

1st house

Jamaica with the Gilmores

Al and I floating the river with our Diet Dr. Peppers and Vodka. Uh, I shiver at the thought.

My parents sent my bridesmaids and I on an all expense paid trip to Vegas for my bachelorette party and we were up to no good.

Cal and I

Cal and I again

Mommy and me

Cinderella Ball

Dunn's River Falls

Dirk

Jet

Sean Bradley

Al and I at Stingray City in the Caymans

Jordan and I in Florida

Jeni and I at Kappa Delta presentation

My husband the bar tender

Maternity pic with Blake

First Christmas with Blake

Before Jeni's wedding

Michelle Graham's rehearsal dinner

Brett and Karley's wedding

My fav neighbor Amber and Austin on Blake's first Halloween

Blake and Kinsley

Zach, Aidan and the CXT, he used to drive this monster around sometimes when he worked for Irwin tools.

A carefree time

honeymoon

1st family pic

Mel and I in HSB

Tech vs. TCU a few years ago

1st grade team came to visit my hefty self.

Zach and his Mommy

Sorry babe, I know you hate this picture, but I just had to post you and Triton the dolphin!

honeymoon

We were so all about each other. We still are of course, but you know how it is at the beginning of a relationship. We were floating the river and I didn't want to be anywhere but in his tube with him. Terrible picture but fabulous memory!

FIJI ski trip to angel fire.

Honeymoon- costa maya, mexico

honeymoon- on the ship

MHS powder puff football

Rehearsal Dinner

My dad's 30th birthday party

Mall pic of Blake at around 9 months

My pups, Merlin and Cricket

Snuggles!

This doesn't happen very often, so we had to get a picture!

They don't see Zach as much as they used to, so when he is home he is the main source of entertainment!

We Are Going For It!

We have started packing up. We have no deadlines and no schedule, we are just packing a little and slowly moving it over to our temporary upstairs "home" at my parent's house in Fort Worth. We will put the house on the market once the dogs are moved, some small things are done around the house like paint touch ups and landscaping and then once we are all staying over there we will officially list it. We can't put it on the market until we are out because showings will interfere with naps and I can't keep the house clean and picked up to save my life, not even on the day our housekeeper is here. Plus we spent a ton of money in our backyard and no one is going to want to go out there and see how nice it is if two big dogs are panting at the door. Zach and I know this is a great opportunity for us, we will be able to save, save, save for a house closer to work and enjoy the many other benefits of living with built in babysitters. Perhaps we can have a weekly date night like we did pre kids, if I need to run errands that will be no problem, I can actually leave the house again on a regular basis. If Zach is going to have a late night at work like he so often does, don't worry about it! I've got my mom to help with bed time stuff. It's a big leap to take, but we are very at peace with it and we know it is what is best for our family. We were going to wait, but then we started thinking the sooner we move out of our house the sooner we can start saving, so we went ahead and decided to go for it. The current task at hand is to get the house decluttered and make it look as much like a model home as we can. We are leaving our furniture and some decor until it sells, but we have already taken down all the family portraits and started taking stuff out of drawers and cabinets. It's going really well so far and it's nice to not be rushed or have to be out by a certain date. After we sell, we will pack up the remaining stuff and have movers come move all of our furniture either into a storage unit or my parents garage. I think it's like a five car garage so it might be able to fit in there. So that's the latest with our moving plan.

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Some Thoughts

Not a lot to report here. Things are great! God is doing so many incredible, seriously wonderful things in our lives. We have opened ourselves up to Him more than ever before, and the reward is nuts. Zach is loving his new job, we know God placed him right where he needs to be. This is probably where he will spend his career, he loves t he people he works with and in the short time he has been there he is already doing really, really well. It's a perfect fit. The bad side of this is that his office is in McKinney and we are in Keller. Not a pretty commute. We have been thinking and praying about it and we have talked about pros and cons of many places we would like to live and we really feel like we are being drawn to Coppell, for many reasons. The location is awesome, schools are great, neighborhoods are beautiful, it's close to our church that we have fallen in love with, it just seems like a good quality place. We tossed around Southlake, but don't want to feel like Blake isn't cool enough because she isn't driving the latest Lamborghini and carrying the best Louis Vuitton, I just don't want her school experience to be about keeping up with the Jones' you know? We thought hard about Colleyville and Grapevine, but Zach would still have to get in all the 121 114 traffic mess. We thought about Castle Hills in Lewisville, but it seems to be out in the middle of nowhere, it doesn't have an established feel at all and I'm not too sure about the schools. Irving is a great location, but same thing with the iffy schools. I researched a ton of private schools and don't feel like I found any that blew me away. Frisco, Allen, Plano, McKinney are all great, but we just don't really want to live up there, Zach has meetings and appointments all over the place and my Mom is the biggest help and blessing I could ever imagine and I don't want to be a million miles from her. Can you tell this has been a major topic of conversation in our house lately? We even thought about Dallas, but again, it's trafficky and we really like the suburb feel for a young family. That leads me to major discussion point number 2. We have been toying with the idea of putting our house on the market sometime next year, moving in to my parent's enormous house (where we would have our own living room, small kitchen, play room, master bedroom and large bedroom for Blake, not too bad) and save a ton of money so that we can afford an even better house when the time comes. We would have lots of help with the kids and it would really put us in a much better financial situation. We are going to reassess after Zach's review at work, the sale of the Arlington flip and a couple of other things. We would really love to feel settled and be in the house where our kids will grow up and not have that "we only want to be here for five years or less" feeling. We have a lot to think about and continue to pray about. The sooner we can move closer to Zach's office, the better. It's such a big decision when you have kids, you have to think about so much, not just where the shopping and cute houses are. We are so excited to see what God has in store for us, we know it is fabulous, but we still feel kind of like we are in an in between phase and not totally settled. I think Zach and I are craving that settled feeling and are ready to put our roots down. The 20s are a wild age to be in, there is so much change, so much excitement, so much to dream about, so much happening and so much of a roller coaster.

A Buzz and A Boo

We had so, so, so much fun trick or treating with Blake this year! What a difference a year makes. She understood the concept, loved every minute of it and had one of the best nights of her life. Zach and I were having a blast and cracking up at her taking charge and trick or treating like it was something she had done a hundred times. We had to coach her through the first couple of houses since this was her first time, but she caught on right away. Our first stop was Bruce and Tanya's house across the street. We love them, they are hilarious and so nice. Blake walked up, knocked on the door and said trick or treat, got her candy and wanted to eat it immediately. We thought that might be the only house we went to because she wanted to rock in their rocking chair and swing on their porch swing for a good while. They brought her out some kool aid and they brought Zach and I some mummy hot dogs and chips and dip. We had our own little party going on for a bit. We finally convinced her to keep trick or treating and we went all around the neighborhood. She loved seeing other kids in costumes and all the Halloween decorations on the houses. Sometimes she would get confused and try to go in the person's house, she only got really nervous a couple of times, once because someone had their dog on the porch (she is terrified of dogs) and the other time there were just too many kids around pushing their way past us. I will never forget her first trick or treating experience, what a great night!

Little Ky was a ghost, she fell asleep before 7 so she didn't come trick or treating with us.

Blake, Ommy and Kylie

We were afraid the night would be rotten when it started out like this, but she got it together.

I was probably trying to convince her to do something.

Not the cutest place to take a picture all up in the ac units, but it was the only place she would sit still for a minute.

This family picture is the scariest thing I saw all night. Yikes. We all look rough.

Blake and her nemesis.

Doing a bzzzy dance.

On the way to the first house.

Swinging at Bruce and Tanya's

After tons of walking she asked to go up with mommy.

Shoving twizzlers in her mouth. I had Zach on Heimlich watch.

Crazy candy smile

Before we got ready for bed she wanted to put on one last costume. She dressed up as Ommy.

Double the Fun!

2 girls are better than 1!

Somebody call the cops!

'cause we got a streaker on our hands!

Halloween Treats

Yesterday my mom came over and we made lots of yummy treats. We have come to the conclusion that Blake doesn't really like to help make the food yet, but she will gladly be the taste tester. First we made some caramel apples. Blake was so excited. She even sang a song about them..."candy candy apples, candy candy apples, candy candy apples, are so yummmmmy!", this song was choreographed and consisted of spinning and arm rolls.

As you can see, she ate all the caramel and left almost the entire apple. Not surprising.

The second project was some Halloween cookies. I used the sugar cookie recipe from our best bites and it didn't disappoint. I told Blake she could have some dessert if she ate a good dinner. I made stuffed shells last night and she ate so much and so fast and then asked for her dessert. When I showed her the plate of cookies and told her she could pick she was so overwhelmed with joy that she was stuttering and couldn't get her sentence out. She was pointing to her placemat and saying something along the lines of "I wa, I wa, I wa wa w w w, I want..." She wanted me to put the entire plate on her placemat, I told her she could only pick one and the stuttering continued until she finally got it out- I want the mim & ms. I had decorated one of the cookies with tons of m&ms and that is the one she had her eye on. She pulled off each "mim&m" and then took a couple of bites of the cookie. She had black icing all over her.

She had remnants of dinner all over her face.

The aftermath

My dad is totally guilty of buying Blake and Kylie cheesy t shirts every time he goes to Walgreens to pick up prescriptions. This has become a bad habit and we have about ten t shirts now. The girls don't really wear t shirts because I dress them in a cute outfit everyday. We have all the classics- does this diaper make my butt look big?, I go from 0 to cranky in .5 seconds, Who needs pants with a shirt this cool?, My Grandpa is a Hunk and the latest- Hand over the candy and no one gets hurt. Blake actually wanted to wear this one this morning. Oh Dad, what are we going to do with you and your silly ways? He also brought her a life size stuffed tiger from, you guessed it, Walgreens. Now if I could only get him to shift his enthusiastic purchasing from Walgreens to baby Gap, Gymboree or perhaps Neiman's I would be loving it!

Peas

This sums up our first taste of peas.

Naptime Battles

Kylie's new found skill of rolling over has made naptime a little more difficult. If I hear squeals of delight on the monitor after a few minutes I can pretty much guarantee she is in there on her back looking around and pleased with herself.

Here is how she starts- on her tummy under a blanket.

Yes I know I am breaking all the SIDS rules, but I feel fine about it.

Here is how I find her, blanket thrown off, on her back, squealing and kicking and looking around.
Yes I know she is huge and fat and has about five to six rolls per leg going all the way down to her cankle. She likes it that way. Believe it or not there is actually a large roll hidden at the top of her leg under her diaper.

We Don't Eat Makeup

You know you have problems when you find yourself googling "toddler ate makeup" after finding this toddler with a mouth full of bronzer. Obviously it isn't a common problem because my google search left me with no answers. I have this bronzer blush stuff that is little different colored balls and she got one of them out and was playing with it. I didn't really like that she was playing with it, but as moms we have to choose our battles right? She knew it was makeup because she loves to explore my makeup drawer and she was talking about how she had some of mommy's makeup. She is way past the stage of putting weird stuff in her mouth so I'm not sure what prompted such a poor choice of taking a bite of this shiny bronzer ball. I saw her face all contorted and I could tell she had eaten something funky by her expression. I went over to her, pried her mouth open and realized that the shimmery substance she was chewing on was indeed part of my beauty regimen. I took a wash cloth and wiped out what I could and cleaned her golden mouth off, but she still ate most of it. I wasn't really worried, what harm can a little bite of makeup do? I gave her a stern look and said "we do not eat makeup!", she repeated it a few times and I got her some water, which now has a sparkly, bronze spout. At least I won't be puzzled when I change a glitter poo diaper in a day or two.

The Case of the Teething 5 Month Old

We've hit that lovely time in a baby's life where the teeth are popping through and Kylie has not been herself. I noticed her tooth was starting to poke through a couple of days ago and I gave her Tylenol and didn't really think much more about it. Today she has been a total mess. She keeps throwing up, I can't decide if she is sticking her hands and other items into her mouth so much that she is gagging which is causing her to puke, or if it is somehow related to teething in another way. We are on our third outfit and it has spit up remains on the shirt and I'm not changing her again. She is only content if I am up walking around with her and she is no tiny girl. I just went and put her in bed to see what would happen and I don't hear any crying so I am guessing she is resting or sleeping. When I would sit down she would look at me with a sad and quivering lower lip so of course I had to get up and keep pacing. Blake told me that Kylie was sad and that she wants some milk from her mommy. I took Blake's advice and tried to feed her and Kylie has never looked so offended and grossed out. She arched her back and threw her head back as far away from my chest as she could get it. I guess she has lost her appetite. I got the infant Tylenol out and started to get the dropper ready and Blake came running with her mouth wide open saying "I want some medicine!" she loves Tylenol, I had to fight her off and try to get Kylie to take all of it. Sometimes I think people blame too many things on teething, just to find an answer for why they aren't sleeping or whatever, but this is definitely teething. Kylie has spit up more today than she has in her entire life put together. Did your kids spit up when they were teething? Blake didn't, so I'm not sure if it's normal or not.

Finding out Ky's Routine

My parent's have Cowboys season tickets in a suite. My dad has invited me to come along this Sunday for the Seattle game. This will be my first time to venture out to the Cowboys Stadium, and you know I don't do a whole lot of venturing out period, so this is really exciting. Zach has to stay behind and keep the girls, my dad already took Zach to a game a while back so I don't feel too guilty about that. Zach is panic stricken and doesn't know how he is possibly going to handle both of them for an entire day alone. He has requested that I start writing down a detailed list of our daily routine so that he has something to go by on Sunday. I am interested to see what exactly her daily routine looks like. Most days are the same, but I kind of just go with the flow. She doesn't have specific feeding times, I still breastfeed her on demand, and her naps can vary from day to day but she almost always takes four naps for about an hour or two each. She isn't too fond of the bottle and I think that is a main concern for him. Blake is easy to take care of, she entertains herself mostly and always goes to lay down from 1-3ish. Blake is easy by herself, Kylie is easy by herself, but together there is nothing easy about it.

Boots

This time last year Blake still wasn't walking. Remember her temperament motto- when in doubt, don't!, well that applied to most milestones including walking. My favorite shoes when she first started walking and even before she could walk well were pedipeds. Her feet have gotten too big for regular pedipeds so we have graduated to pedipeds flex. I bought her two pairs the other day, some silver mary janes and some brown boots. She is really excited about the boots because it is her first pair. She can walk really well in them and I am such a pediped fan. It's tough being a fashionable girl, you have to have many different colors and styles of shoes. Zach is in big trouble, between me, Blake and Kylie we can do some serious shopping. I'm getting better at bargain shopping and I don't care as much about designer labels as I used to. I used to feel the need to get a new designer bag at least once a year and I have had my big leather Gucci bag for almost two years and I still love it. I have also recently become a lover of Nordstrom Rack, yes, it's hit or miss, but you can always find something there. My priorities may have changed since becoming a mother, but looking cute and fashionable will always be something that's fairly important to me and I like the girls to look adorable as well. Even if I have to hunt for a bargain and or use coupons.

My Daughters

Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb is a reward.
Psalm 127:3

Sometimes I wonder how I got so lucky to be rewarded with these angels that are my daughters. My heart is filled with joy, I feel so blessed that my girls will grow up to be my best friends. Thank you Lord for sending them to me and trusting me to raise them, through all the struggles, mountains and valleys I take comfort in knowing that You are with me every step of the way, guiding me in the right direction.

Rolls

I was about to go lay down for a while, my back has been hurting so bad lately and both of the girls are in bed. I heard Kylie really loud talking and squealing on the monitor. I pushed the button for the video camera to come on and there she was lying on her back. I put her to sleep on her tummy and have since we left the hospital, so this can only mean one thing- she rolled for the first time! She was looking up at me and chewing on her blanket, I rolled her back over and I hope she dozes off now so I can get some rest. I am so happy that she finally rolled, but disappointed I didn't get to witness it. I also think her first tooth popped through today. What a monumental day in the life of sweet baby Ky!

EEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Shrieks, screams, howls, shrill, yelps, yowls, screeches, that is what I'm dealing with around here on a minutely basis. Kylie, once thought of as "the perfect baby", has started something that isn't so perfect. She screams at the top of her lungs about every two minutes. I don't know how to describe these screams, they are ear drum injuring, they give you shivers, it doesn't even seem possible that a baby can make these sounds. Sometimes I am on the phone with Zach when she is awake and he can hear her screaming from across the house to the point where we can't even carry on a conversation. These are not screams of pain or discomfort, I think she truly just likes to hear herself scream. They get louder and more frequent when she is tired or hungry, they are not accompanied by tears. Sometimes I get really close to her face and say "ssssssssshhhhhhhh!", but she obviously doesn't understand what shhh means. I am always afraid she will wake Blake up from her nap. If I want her to stop screaming I have several options.
1. Hold her and walk around or talk to her
2. Nurse her
3. Put her in bed and endure extra loud screams until she falls asleep

She won't just lay on the floor anymore chewing on a teething toy, she screams and screams until she gets someone's undivided attention. She is screaming right now in her bed, I turned the monitor off so my ears could recover. All I hear is AAAAAAAAAAAAH! AAAAAAAH! EEEEEEE! She has pretty muched replaced all of her cute cooing with obnoxious high pitched squeals.

Reliving the Baby Days

Blake was in a mood and I was playing around and told her I was going to put her in the jumperoo thinking she would say no. She was like "ok!", I stuck her in and then she wouldn't get out. She just sat in there bouncing and watching TV. I was concerned the little underwear type seat wouldn't hold her and the sides would collapse. It turned out ok, there may have been some minor stretching but nothing too bad.

Progress

The kitchen cabinets are in and Zach found some great granite tiles on Craig's list for the countertops. This is not a neighborhood that would typically have granite countertops or crown molding so we are hoping for a quick sale. Zach got the crown from one of the houses he built, it was left over. I feel like I say this all the time, but surely in a few weeks it can be on the market.

The kitchen before

The kitchen with cabinets, you can also see that they took down a wall and made it into a bar

Menopause the Musical

Amy put together a little girl's night out on Friday, we went to Gloria's and then to see Menopause the Musical. It was a silly play about these four women who are going through menopause and all the lovely side effects such as frequent urination, bitchiness, sweating, hot flashes, night sweats, body changes, so much to look forward to. Actually I could relate to a lot of it because weird things start to happen to you when you become pregnant. It was nice to have some margaritas, some laughs and a night with the ladies.

Andrea, Kristen, Regina, Becky, Amy, Allison, Me

No menopause for us yet, we are just getting started!

My mom, Amy's mom, Andrew Tatsak's mom and grandma, Allison's mom

Judging by the roaring laughter erupting from the row behind us, we have reason to believe that these ladies REALLY could relate to the menopause jokes.

Fun friends of all ages!

Watercolor Books

Blake loves a good art project. I read somewhere recently that kids need these three activities everyday- outdoor play, an art project even as simple as just coloring, and reading time. It's pretty easy to fit these in most days, but the one I struggle with is finding different easy arts or crafts that Blake can do. The other day I let her use a glue stick and she snuck away with it and smashed glue all over the refrigerator door that I still haven't cleaned off. When I was little I remember doing paint with water books and loving it. I asked my mom to be on the lookout for some for Blake. She found some at Michael's and Blake has been painting watercolor pictures everyday since. It's a very easy activity and I don't have to be hovering over her making sure she isn't making a huge mess.

Moley Moley Moley

Blake noticed that I have a mole on my chin today and went from curious to borderline obsessive about it. This mole is tiny and the same color as my skin so that is why she hadn't ever said anything about it before. At first she stared at it really hard, then she asked me what it was. She then started touching it and poking it over and over. She asked me if she could have it and if it could come off. She brought her little people prince over to it and poked at it with his hand and asked if he could have it and then she answered her own question, as she so often does, with "it doesn't come off." I was already leaning towards wanting to get it removed and this just verified my desire and makes me want to speed up the process. I hope she doesn't make it a habit of pointing out my many imperfections, but kids will be kids and they don't have a filter. I already learned that the hard way with teaching first graders. One day after what I thought was a mighty fine looking spray tan, my student Joseph told me I looked green. I got everything from "those pants looks skinny on you" to "why do white people have all those brown dots all over them?" she was talking about all my lovely moles and freckles.

5 Month Old Baby

She's five months! Five months is fun! Five months is sweet! Five months is pretty easy! Five months is a good place to be! Let's see, what is she doing that I can report? She is still very drooly, but no signs of teeth. She is a loud squealer and screamer, so loud it hurts my ears and makes Blake cry and hug me. She grabs everything and puts it in her mouth as fast as she can. I am reminded why I cut my hair because she seems to always have a fistful. She laughs and smiles often and cries rarely, almost never. When she wants to eat she says hooo, hooo, hooo over and over. She still takes four naps most days. She goes to bed sometime between 7 and 8 and wakes up around 7:30. She likes eating her cereal. She's the greatest!

My Punkins

We had big plans to go to the Flowermound pumpkin patch this morning, but I opted out at the last minute. I am having a hard time forcing Blake into uncomfortable situations for my own enjoyment. She doesn't like crowds, hyper kids or bounce houses, all of which would have more than likely been at the pumpkin patch. A lot of my best friends were going so I really wanted to try and make it, it's just a far way to drive for a possible stressful time. I did dress Blake and Kylie in some cute little Halloween outfits today to take some pictures in the pumpkins. That's ok, we just took some pictures at home. Blake and Kylie love to be at home, and I am getting to the point where I don't mind it so much. I used to have to be out doing something at least every other day but I am becoming more and more of a homebody as I am realizing that my kids are at peace when they are at home.

Blake has the best hair, if I do say so myself. It is thick and has nice curl, it's not really curly but when it air dries it curls up at the ends. I love it.

Her shirt says Hoo's the cutest?

Precious punkin head

The Missing Socks

There have been many theories, few have been proven. It's the age old question, where do the missing socks go? I have been wondering this more than ever before lately. You see, when Kylie was born I had her little sock drawer all nicely organized with many cute socks. There were obviously two of each, slowly but surely they started disappearing. It was so noticeable. I had socks that went to specific outfits and I knew I put them safely in the hamper only to be left wondering a few days later where in the world they had vanished to. I just told myself that the socks are so tiny that they probably got lost somewhere behind her changing table or maybe under the dryer. I kept asking Zach to move the washer and dryer and look around because it was really bothering me that I couldn't complete her outfits with the perfect footwear. Zach came up to me earlier this evening with a shocked look in his eye and said "you have GOT to come see this, it's not bad", he had to throw in the it's not bad part because my anxious self often thinks the worst and I need to be reassured that something catastrophic isn't about to be revealed to me. So I followed him into the laundry room, not knowing at all what he wanted me to so urgently come and see. And there it was, we have solved the sock mystery, at least at our house. No, it's not a sock troll, it wasn't even the dryer that ate them, they all got stuck in this weird little section of our washing machine inside of this rubber part. I will never know what prompted my very Macgyveresque husband to root around in such a spot, but I sure am glad he did. Welcome back baby socks, and now I know your favorite hiding place.

Megan and Jason

We had Megan and Jason over to our house this Saturday. Jason is Zach's hilarious little brother and Megan is his adorable wife. I seriously giggle the entire time Jason is talking, he cracks me up so hard with his paramedic stories, especially the bariatric ones. We wish so badly that they would move closer to us so we could spend more time with them, we always have so much fun together. Not only are they our family, they are our really good friends. Megan and I could talk for days and it is so cool to see Zach and his brother together, they really have a great relationship and there is so much brotherly love there. Blake wasn't at all timid or nervous around them, they are both so good with kids.

Everyone minus me

Blake cheesing it up

My sister in law and I

Having kids....

Having kids means pausing the tech game to go listen to lulu the lamb's heart with Blake, it means pausing the game again to go clean poo off of Kylie's back, it means pausing the game again to give baths, put on pjs and read books. We have no idea how Tech is doing right now because, well, we have kids.

A Few Favorites

I asked Blake some open ended questions this morning about what some of her favorite things are. I would say what is your favorite color? Sometimes I would have to ask her like five times to get an answer. Here are the results of our interview.

favorite color: blue (a couple of weeks ago it was pink and white)
favorite friend: lollihop (a stuffed bunny)
favorite thing to wear: dresses!
favorite snack: goldfishes
favorite food: french fries
favorite movie: miss spider
favorite song: old mcdonald
favorite animal: giraffe and horse
favorite word: NO (yes this was her actual answer, I couldn't believe it, but it is so true)
favorite letter: B
favorite number: bath (obviously she didn't get this question)
favorite shape: rectangle
favorite book: animal hide and seek
favorite drink: dr. pepper (she has only sampled mine and Zach's, but she must really like it)
favorite dessert: cookies
favorite smell: flower
favorite bug: butterfly

I asked her a few more questions, but she had completely lost interest at that point. I may try this again in a couple of months and see how the answers change.

Big Stuff

There was some pretty big stuff going on at our house today. Blake loves playing dress up and has lots of fun dress up clothes. She also likes taking towels, blankets and other non clothing items and making them into clothes. She made this little dish towel into a cute shrug. She walked around like this for quite a while saying "do I look cute frog?, do I look cute ghost?" to her stuffed frog and stuffed ghost. She will often put a towel or blanket all wrapped around her body and walk around saying she is a princess. She is just too cute, I can't handle it.


Next major thing on the daily agenda...Kylie ate cereal for the first time! And boy, was she ready. She wasn't grossed out at all and barely spit any out. She would open her mouth, lean forward for a bite and wave her arms around in excitement. I mean, are we really surprised that she likes to eat?

On to the final and most heart touching moment of the day....Blake acknowledging Kylie's presence! She said "hug for Kylie" and got down on the floor with her and put her head on Kylie's tummy. It was so sweet. Blake rarely interacts with Kylie, probably about once a week. Maybe less. She is still in ignore the baby mode, perhaps indefinitely.

Here she is going in for a nice little kiss. I can tell Kylie loves Blake, but since Blake rarely pays her any attention I don't feel like they have a real connection yet. I hope that will start happening in the next few months.

Here is Blake super awkwardly lying next to Ky on the quilt. I coaxed her into doing this and she clearly wasn't feeling it. She did stay by her for a minute or two though. Just long enough to wap her in the head with the blood pressure cuff from the dr. kit and roll over onto her as she was getting up. Whatever, Kylie rolls with it, there's not a lot that will upset my easy going cool baby.

Scary!

I just got a little insight into the mind of my darling daughter Blake. She is the most shy, nervous, uncomfortable kid that I have ever seen. We went out to play earlier and she asked me to carry her by this cartoonish witch on our front porch. She said, "I want up because the witch is scary, everything is scary." And that is exactly why I don't force her into mother's day out, preschool or any other play dates. She is in a constant state of nervousness and even with me by her side, she panicked in music class today and was telling me she wanted to go home. It doesn't take much to overwhelm her.

PPD

My PPD seems to be much better. I have still had pretty severe anxiety at least part of every day. My head is very tingly and kind of numb feeling, which of course leads someone with anxiety to believe that they have a brain tumor or other debilitating brain disease, but after further research on the internet I have decided it is just another symptom of anxiety. Web MD said it could be a bug bite (no), animal bite (no), or some hyperventilation issue (probably). It's not like I'm walking around hyperventilating, but I'm probably not breathing as deeply as I should be. My heinous thoughts are under control for the most part. I still get a few morbid images in my head, but at least it's not 90% of my thoughts anymore. I think that realizing I have a problem and taking action with a treatment plan will make me a much calmer mother and I can get back to being the person I once was and the person I want to be.

Misty's Baby Shower

Misty Jones Hunter had a baby shower today at Kristen Poleski's house in Arlington. I got to have fun talking to many high school friends. It really helped my anxiety being around funny girls and talking about silly stuff. Misty looks great and sweet baby Morgan got lots of new stuff.

Amy, Kristen, Misty, Me with Ky, Cary

Misty's mom, Amy's mom, my mom

Me, Kylie, my mom, Amy and Amy's mom

Allison's mom Susan, Kylie and my mom

Zach hadn't seen Blake in about five days, he has been a busy boy at work and then he went to Houston for some more work stuff. Blake and Zach were so excited to see each other, they were hanging on each other and enjoying their time together. Zach kept Blake while I was at the shower.

It Snuck Up On Me

I have had an interesting and rough past couple of days. I contemplated whether or not to even write about this issue of mine, but I have decided it can't really hurt anything so why not? I just finally figured out that I have been dealing with post partum depression and anxiety. Yes, Kylie is four and a half months old and it just snuck up on me these last couple of weeks. I guess it can take a while to show up. This is how it went. I have been a little more irritable lately and easily frustrated, but it didn't really seem like a big deal. Then a couple of weeks ago I started having these creepy thoughts of death that wouldn't go away. Thank God they weren't the thoughts of harming myself or my babies. They were more like imagining terrible scenarios of ways that I could die and how my family would deal and imagining Blake and Kylie in coffins or imagining them dead. Horrifying, I know. I was seriously haunted and I have no idea why I didn't tell anyone. I just kept thinking, surely these wack thoughts will go away soon. They actually got worse and worse and more and more frequent until it finally resulted in a classic anxiety attack. My mom and I were watching Gray's anatomy and I was just about to tell her about my innermost freakish thoughts and my brother and his girlfriend walked in. I tried to hold it together and I just couldn't. I started crying and my heart was racing, my stomach was in knots, I was shaky and sweaty. It was pretty bad. It felt so good to tell someone what I had been dealing with though. I called my doctor the next day and talked to the nurse about it and they called me in some anti anxiety meds. Unfortunately I'm no stranger to anxiety so they just called me in my old reliable prescription. I have to go to the doctor in a month and talk to him about it so he can make sure I haven't gone off the deep end, but I'm sure I will be fine by then. I am already so much better. Just taking action and starting on the medicine made me feel better even though it takes like a month for the medicine to start working. This came as a HUGE shock to my mom and Zach. They had no idea I was feeling this way and they could not believe that I was suffering from post partum depression since I had hid it so well. It is so unlike me to keep things inside, I am just such an open person and I still have no idea why I didn't try to talk about it with anyone. I thought I was in the clear since it has been so many months.

On to the next major stressor. I went to my cousin Lucy's wedding tonight with both girls. Zach wasn't going to be back from Houston in time to go, so my mom was on duty. It was a total nightmare. Blake kept trying to touch the open candle flames and she was running around like a maniac. She was stressed about being around people she didn't recognize and she would get so mad if I would redirect her or tell her not to do something. We tried our best and lasted about 45 minutes, the ceremony started late so we didn't even get to see any of the wedding. Blake was screaming and crying and making such a commotion that we left before it even started. Mental note-don't take a two year old to a wedding, especially an outdoor wedding in the rain where there is no place to escape to when two year old throws fit and agitates guests. I'm just glad we left in time before Blake screamed and cried and ruined the ceremony, however I am so sad I didn't get to see Lucy get married. It comes with the territory and I tried my best. My theory is proved time and time again, staying at home with the kids beats the hell out of taking them anywhere ever. Having two kids is a totally different world and having a two year old is a totally different world. Kylie was perfect and didn't make a sound and sat and smiled, babies are so darn easy. She gets a gold star on her behavior chart.

Spooky House

My mom and I ordered this spooky gingerbread house for Blake to help put together. She was so excited to get started and then all she wanted to do was eat the candy and icing. She totally did not get the concept. She was eating the gumdrops faster than we could put them on. I finished up the house after she took a nap and it turned out so cute!

Some more Flippage

It's coming along. I need to have him take a picture of the front of the house. I have heard that it looks really good now. I'm a little irritated at the fact that this tiny flip house has crown molding and our house does not. It looks great though. Cabinets are going in very soon, the wood floors are being refinished and the other flooring is being put in this weekend and then I think there is a little bit of electrical stuff to do. The end is in sight!

Country Club Cuties

Andrea and I took Jackson and Blake to lunch at Colonial after music. I think the staff and other guests were not pleased that we brought in our rugrats. Almost everyone eating in there was an old lady and not the nice kind of old lady that oohs and aahs over little kids, the mean, rich kind of old ladies that don't like disruptions. Our first clue was when our waiter brought out a huge tarp to put under Jackson's high chair. Heaven forbid we get a crumb on Colonial Country Club carpet! Blake had two small fits, one when the waiter took away the sugar cup with all the little packets in it and another when I wouldn't let her run wild through the dining room. Luckily I was able to calm her down quickly with my HTOTB techniques and then she got distracted by looking out the window and commenting on the course. I felt like everyone was staring at me when Blake started to scream, they probably were. It was still fun and we had a nice lunch and it was really nice to put it on my parent's account, thanks mom and dad!

Blake sat in the chair like a big girl, no booster or anything. All she wanted to eat was crackers.

Jackson is the ultimate ham. I pulled out my camera and he did this face for both pictures I took. He is hilarious!

Just like Mommy

Blake loves to raid my closet. She likes to look at all my clothes and shoes, she likes to look at Daddy's belts, she loves my jewelry and she even likes to look at my bras which she calls boobs. She always wants to wear these gold wedges, I think she likes them for the same reason I do, they are easy to walk in. She is a fashionista in the making.

Justin's 30th

It was not easy keeping this party a surprise, but Justin had no idea and was very surprised when he walked into his 30th birthday party. We hung out with Justin and Allison the weekend before his party and I kept almost slipping, secrets are hard for me. It was so fun to get out and spend some time with adults and celebrate Justin entering old manhood. Justin is such a great guy and he and Allison have always been there for us no matter what we are going through. It's so incredible to have best friends like that.

Justin got a really long roll of money from Allison's parents. It made a nice scarf.

I have the best time with these girls no matter what we are doing.

Justin and Zach

Cute, cute Caroline.

She has the best personality and just goes with the flow. I can't even imagine.

A love triangle.