Sunday, August 25, 2013

6th anniversary trip!

Our anniversary trip came a little late this year due to general busyiness and babysitter availability. Thursday we all went to the beach and played a while. We had supper with my parents at Joe's and then ran away! We stayed in the Tremont Hotel in Galveston the first night. That place is gorgeous! Friday morning, we rode the Bolivar Ferry and drove to Lake Charles, LA. Spent a couple days shopping, watching movies, and tried out a casino for the first time. Sunday morning we drove back down the Bolivar Peninsula and across the ferry to have lunch with Gigi, Grandpa, and the kids. Enough about us, you wanna hear about the kids, right? 

They had a blast! Played on the beach, in the pool, and at the mall playground. Grandpa pulled out his huge kite and James got one just his size to bring home. When he told me about it over the phone I thought he said he got a frog kite but it turned out to be a flag kite. Very patriotic. You should know that for days before the trip he talked about Grandpa and his kite. He decided they were going to fly it together and that Grandpa would buy him one to bring home. That was the first thing he asked him when we saw him on Thursday, too. See below for pictures of both kites. Gpa's kite has a 10 foot tail, btw. J's is a lot smaller, but still pretty great. Of course, he loved hanging with Gigi, too. Every time I mention her or call her he wants to go to her house. Nothing is better than Gigi's house. 

The first day I got a picture of Meg's knees all scraped up from the concrete, but she's a rough n tumble kind of girl and fearless too, so I'm not surprised. She also was quite taken with Grandpa. Gigi said she loved rough housing with him. One time Sunday she followed him up the stairs while the rest of us were playing downstairs. I kept trying to get her to say Gigi but she doesn't quite have it. I won't be too surprised if she suddenly asks for her one day. 

Getting ready to fly

Flying Grandpa's kite

J's kite

Meg watching

Playing with mommy's old xylophone 

Yup, that's why they love Grandpa. He's just so fun!

Cheese!










Monday, June 10, 2013

Our little one year old!

Name: Megan Isabel
Age: 1 year!!
Height: 27.5"
Weight: 18lbs 15oz
Hair: red!
Eyes: blue
Teeth: 4
Favorite birthday presents: Baby doll from mommy and daddy, handmade cloth book from Gigi, and Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site book from Micah
Friends who came to my party: Big bubba James and Micah from camp
Favorite foods: bananas, Gerber squeezy fruit things, rice, anything she can get in her mouth
Favorite things to do: eat, play outside, laugh at James, snuggle with daddy
Development: Crawling, pulling up, and standing alone...still too cautious to walk alone
Absolutely the cutest little girl in the world!!!

See pictures from April and May 2013 here:
https://plus.google.com/photos/112839565689445992474/albums/5887867664401187265?authkey=CKGHus3Ys8zsWg

January-March Pictures...finally

Finally some pictures from January and February including, but not limited to, the Kahindi's visit to Texas...

https://plus.google.com/photos/112839565689445992474/albums/5887854226207627665?authkey=CNr8ybWH-evUggE

I also added more pictures from March...

https://plus.google.com/photos/112839565689445992474/albums/5850857601716791073?authkey=CKTYtODZ0sLT-QE

Saturday, December 1, 2012

Crafty post #2: Hand ornaments

This one I found on Pinterest.  These are so simple and cute.  We made these on Thursday.



What I used:
small red glass ball ornaments
green paint
permanent marker
baby wipes for cleaning the paint off of their hands

How I did it:
I used the marker to write their names and "2012" on them before putting the handprints on them.  I did Meg's first because she was in a good mood (or so I thought).  I strapped her into James' booster seat and put a big bib on her.  I painted her hand with green paint and had her hold the ornament.  She is a little young for this one.  James was way easier because I could tell him to put his fingers around it and let go.  Her's are very messy, but still pretty cute.  She also cried at least half the time.  The baby wipes worked great for cleaning their hands after.  I don't think we got paint on anything we weren't supposed to.  James had so much fun.  It went pretty fast and he wanted to do more but I didn't have any more ornaments.


Thursday, November 29, 2012

New pictures


In case you haven't seen, I posted a bunch of pictures from November today.  Link: https://plus.google.com/photos/112839565689445992474/albums/5816245875559189281

Our Advent Tree/Calendar (first of my crafty posts)

As I said in my last post, James was given a book of Christmas crafts and I'm planning on doing one Christmas activity per week until we leave for VA.  This week we made an Advent calendar.  I didn't follow the book exactly, but pretty close.

What I used:
12" x 18" cardboard
4 pieces scrapbook paper (2 matching blue, one brown, one green)
20 small boxes (most advent calendars have 24 but we're leaving on the 20th)
wrapping paper
scissors, glue stick, marker, tape

How I made it: 
Glue the blue scrapbook paper onto the cardboard.  Cut out the tree and trunk and glue it on.  Wrap all the boxes in wrapping paper.  This took the longest time.  The book recommends matchboxes.  I didn't have enough of those so I used whatever small boxes I could find.  Matchboxes would have been easier because you can slide them open after wrapping them.  But they are also very short which limits what you can put in them.  I took them in another room to stuff and number them so that J wouldn't see what is in them.  I stuffed them with M&Ms and little nativity ornaments.  There is a special treat on his birthday and on the last day.  J helped me tape them to the tree.  Every day in December he'll get to find the right number and get a treat and put up an ornament.  The great part about having the mini nativity ornaments in there is that we can talk about  a different part of the Christmas story each day.  

Christmas has arrived!


We've already celebrated Christmas with the Atkinson, Jrs.  My family will be going to Virginia for Christmas this year and Trey's will be with Amy's family, so we had Thanksmas this year.  Thursday we had our Thanksgiving meal and did Thanksgiving stuff.  Then Friday we put up a tree, ate our Christmas meal, read Luke 2, and opened presents.  It was super fun.  Because I knew we'd be starting Christmas early, we decorated the tree at our house before Thanksgiving.

James got to help pick out ornaments and put them on the tree.

We also wrapped presents that week, of course.  I let James help me with the last few.


I'm going to try to do something Christmasy with James every week until we leave for VA.  I have a book of Christmas crafts and activities that has some great ideas.  We've already done one this week.  I'll be posting about that one soon.  see book here: http://www.amazon.com/Christmas-Crafts-Sesame-Street-Parragon/dp/1445407884/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1354201155&sr=8-6&keywords=sesame+street+christmas+crafts+book