The Lovely Mademoiselle Laura Katelyn

You may have met her at Samuel's first birthday. Well, as Sam as grown, so has she! Miss Laura is an utter delight, she is healthy and strong, so fast, and so determined. She reminds me of Sabrina in her quick decision-making and self-direction. She has such confidence, and knew this was her home to enjoy, introducing herself to lots of new toys & experiences. We were so delighted to have her, Janna, and Chad over. Although the kids are fast approaching 2, Miss Laura & co really stayed close to home except for special events given Laura's health situation. She was born with Hirschsprung's disease: http://www.lpch.org/DiseaseHealthInfo/HealthLibrary/digest/hirschpr.html

Although she has successfully endured 3 surgeries, I do ask for you to continue to pray for Laura and her family. There are still challenges afoot and ahead. We pray most of all that she can avoid stomach illness and future fissures/blockages of her intestines. Thank you!!!!

With the serious stuff addressed, I can share her gorgeous, amusing pictures!

And a reminder, you can click on any of these images to bring up a film strip of larger, easier to see photos!

I just wish she and Samuel could have fun together...

Or that she'd smile every once in a while...

Ok, yeah, I know, she's PRECIOUS!

And here's one of those rare collaborative all in moments to end on (and snap fast!)...

We can't wait to see the wonderful family again. We kept the kids up late because everyone was getting along so well & having fun. Ah, good times...

Ketchup!

I always think of the Pulp Fiction joke, the Mama tomato walks back to the lagging baby tomato, then stomps it and says "Ketchup!" But how sick is it to think of stomping your baby into puree if you are a tomato? Really wish I could get that dumb joke out of my head. Alas, I think it will be stuck with me forever! ;)
Anyhow, we are now fast approaching the end of August. I seem to remember losing track of July. Oh, and what a month to forget! Don't want to! Here are some highlights:
1. July 4th with GG, DDaddy, Hanna, and Jeff. BBQ, slip and slide, bubbles, and fireworks under the stars. Simply doesn't get sweeter. So glad our a/c went out for a mere $900 and we switched venues to their place! Well, that might not be ALL true, but glad for the second half of that - that part IS true!
2. Then came the family plague. A plague is a "severe and potentially deadly bacterial infection." Ok, ok, I'm exaggerating. But this thing had some potency, and latency, that meant 4 of 6 dropped to it. Yuck. We also got exactly zero of our big plans for Philip's birthday & their visit done. Boo hoo. Next time, I promise...! (If they ever come back, there were some dirty duties covered by my loving in-laws. We REALLY appreciated the fact that they didn't bail out to a local hotel when things got rough!) Anyhow, we got to have GG for an extra couple of days and that was good. Sabrina was a bright point too. Although sick, she showed us an incredibly sweet side. Fortunately, she hasn't been really sick since she was about 9 mos. old! She really didn't have a memory of sickness, ever. But now that's done, and we are happy to report she is completely factual when sick, not a whiner or complainer. State what happened, that you are SO much sicker than Daddy, and move on. Cuddle a lot. She was very endearing and loving. And a little pale, but she bounced back FAST! Thank you, Lord!
3. We loved celebrating Sally's birthday.

The table was set...

The guest of honor was ready

The dinner guests didn't mind the occasional "airplane" maneuvers of Philip trying to feed Samuel.

The guests pause to smile at the camera We enjoyed wonderful chicken curry, prepared by Mag, and delicious sides by her & Auntie MJ. Everyone was so glad to be together.

We are so happy to have Uncle Robert in our family now. A certain blonde 4.5 yo thinks he's pretty cool. Poor Robert expects to have a little lady sitting in his lap most of the time when he comes by!

I can EMBED Videos now!

I have wasted some time the last couple of days trying to figure this out. And, as always, it was a SIMPLE answer. HTML instead of 'compose.' If you have/want to blog, I can tell you how to get all your videos in. It's so funny how the littlest things can derail you. And, if you are me, you can't stop until you've figured out WHAT THE HECK THE PROBLEM IS!!! :) All good now. I can (torture) delight you with kid videos now. Heehee!

And the promised video!

Just a regular Thursday night, but...

since Sabrina's swim lessons finished in July, it's a great night, because we are all at home.  Philip made beef stroganoff & salad, we had a quick dinner, and then to the backyard.  We set up the slip n' slide, and the kids went to town.  Memorable moments:

1. I am always the wicked stepmother, or wicked queen.  So young to be typecast, I know, but I fear it is true already.  Tonight I was pleased, for a change of pace, when I got to play the mean housekeeper at Mistlethwaite Manor, to Sabrina's Mary of 'The Secret Garden.'  It all started when Sabrina quoted the movie out of the blue saying, "Where there's a key, there must be a door!"  Then we were off, and Philip & I may have used the occasion to make our servant Mary rub our feet.  Not saying that was a part of the original script, but it was in our version.  Perhaps it was taking advantage a bit, but I'm pretty sure it was worth it.  (Gotta start 'em young!) And Sabrina is always looking for orders when she is playing the part of the unfortunate ragamuffin.  Torturous foot rubs seemed appropriate.

2. Samuel really tried out the slip n' slide tonight... See pictures/video below.  The funny thing is he would crack himself up just by running towards the slide from the fence, and have to deal with his giggles and stop running before he could go for it.  It's great to have a kid who gets such a kick out of...himself!  He also entertained us by going bananas on the trampoline, saying "jump, jump, jump,"  and also taking it upon himself to practice T-Ball.  He never stops unless he's sleeping!

3. Finally, Sabrina ran the gamut on future life plans tonight.  Upon discussing that she wasn't allowed to say certain phrases to grown-ups, aka "Hush up" and the like, she made several proclamations:
         a. I wish kids were in charge right now.
         b.When I get older, I'll let my kids be in charge.
         c. I'll let them do anything they want.
         d. I'll never get married because my husband will be respectful.  (Upon further questioning she explained that this meant her husband wouldn't go along with the kids being in charge, therefore he would not be wanted.)

video to come, problems with upload!



Chuckling on his way to the slide







Hand talking...



All in all, it was a pretty successful evening.  So blessed to be living this life of ours!!

Blowing you a kiss...

A little bit of busy

Last weekend we celebrated two birthdays, Aunt Sally's and 6YO neighbor Kylie's.  As you would expect, we had daily doses of *cake,* birthday songs, and presents.  We wrapped up the birthday extravaganza with a trip up to Round Rock for some baseball.  Philip loooooooves baseball, and although I'm his most enthusiastic supporter, it is a stretch for me to share his enthusiasm.  Yesterday was definitely one of those times- I really wasn't sure it was such a good idea, but I wanted to support him sharing one of his passions with the kids, so I went along.  Those of you with young ones will definitely understand this - after a busy day and chasing the kids all around Dave & Buster's (mostly Samuel - "go! go!"), I just wasn't clear why he wanted to drive up to Round Rock to do more chasing.  Also, I am keenly aware that trying to do to much with little ones leads to everyone in tears. 
However, Philip had a plan.  We took big breaks, had naps, and the night went remarkably well.  The crowd was thin, so we had plenty of room, great seats behind home plate, and Sabrina was actually interested in learning & following the action.  Samuel was happy to sit on the stairs to watch, and explored close by where we didn't have to worry.  Later we ventured to the playground where Sabrina made friends within nanoseconds.  The finale for our family was going to be after the game, when Sabrina was to use her kids' club t-shirt & run the bases for the first time EVER.
Of course, this would be the night when we get "free baseball" - Philip's phrase - extra innings as the Express dramatically scored 5 runs in the 9th and tied it up.  Whoo hoo - 2 extra innings at 9:45!  My dream come true.  Knowing Sabrina as many of you do, how do you think it would have gone over to pull the rug out from under her dream of running the bases and leaving early?  You are correct in thinking we did not choose to do this, as we had been lording this great prize over her all day.  And we wanted to live to see Monday.  However, this part went smooth as well - wha??? Yes! We found great seats by first base, Samuel was tired & cuddled up with me, then after the game (just 11pm), I recorded Sabrina running the bases.  She skipped 2nd, but who is going to judge? Worthless base. ;)  Surprisingly, she dissolved into tears at finishing.  Why???  It was too fast, and we had really built it up- especially the high five with the Dog Mascot Spike. 
Luckily, Daddy to the rescue again.  Don't worry Sabrina - you can go again.  Yes, the little kids can just keep running all the way up the stairs, around the stadium, down again, and rejoin the line.  Which is exactly what our girl did.  That completely satisfied her, and she proudly high-fived me afterwards with squeals of glee.  And a dance celebration.  Energizer Bunny Sabrina.  Here are some fun videos we have from last night...

I wish I had started recording right away, but these are pretty decent examples...

And running the bases...

Saturday back in April - never posted, oops!

Saturday was wet and chilly.  Yucky day for anything outside.  We stumbled upon the idea to go to the New Braunfels Children's Museum for all of us for $22.  Yay - plan in the making, and we headed out after lunch.  Both kiddos had such fun running around the spacious museum with different play areas.  It was very different from the Austin CM, which has a lot more science/learning/whoa "that's cool" areas.  This one had different play settings, costumes, and toys.  There was the spaceship/outer space zone, the arts & crafts, the hospital/baby nursery, Wild West, camping/fishing/cave, the bank, the newspaper place, a tot zone with soft toys, and a big train set zone.  Outside there were concrete animals to climb, a climbing wall, and a large wet water canal zone with rubber duckies and slides for the duckies.  Although there were a ton of people at the museum, it didn't seem claustrophobic at all.  We easily spent two hours there & explored everything.  Samuel had just as much fun as Sabrina, and Philip & I kept switching kids which kept it interesting & fun for us too.  It was also a great place to try out my new camera.  Had some hits, and definitely some misses!
R2D2!!

Whoa...


Mom fails to get a decent picture of kids on fake climbing camel...

Sabrina checks out the newborn baby in the hospital wing.
Samuel Jams:
First time in a saddle:
Sunday morning impromptu Rock band: Oh - the noise!  :)