Alli's 3rd Birthday- Part 1

Alli will be having her birthday party out of town this year. She is sharing a birthday party with her cousin Gavin who turned 4 the day after Alli turned 3. She is very excited about it, but I think is a little confused 'cause she thinks she already had her birthday party.
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Let me explain. I wanted her to be able to have some kind of celebration with her friends here, so I planned a "birthday playdate" if you will at a bounce house. Unfortunately some of her closest friends were not able to make it (we missed you Jack, Grant & baby Jake), but she had an awesome time with Talia and Tatiana which was great 'cause she had not seen them in a long time.
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And of course I didn't feel like it was a proper birthday "celebration" (not a party) without some kind of cake or goodies, so I ordered a cookie cake too...

Alli's "butterfly cookie birthday cake"

She just can't wait to sink her teeth into those butterflies!

Sure enough- they were delish. Notice, she ONLY ate the butterfly- not the cookie underneath it- little stinker!

Just bouncin!
Bouncin' with Tatia (that's what Alli calls her).

Trying to get Alli to pose as well as Talia- not working.
Now that's a poser!!!

Daddy came home with some birthday flowers and gummy worms for Alli (I think the gummy worms were really for daddy).
Then she opened a couple of gifts with the help of TJ... Daddy, Alli and TJ doing the monster mash while listening to Alli's new music...
Not sure what this was about but she kept doing it and alternating legs up in the air. She's so goofy sometimes.
It was a fun day for an amazingly beautiful, sweet, silly & extremely loving 3 yr old little girl! She will be so thrilled to repeat it all but in an even bigger way this weekend.

To be continued...

Sea World

My friend Melissa and I took the kids to Sea World on New Year's Eve. We have been a few times before, but this was the first time Alli and TJ had a chance to ride the kiddy rides. The kids rode every ride they could- some numerous times- and had a blast doing it. We also saw the sea lion show and of course Shamu. It was a fun day. Can't wait till we can go again in 2 or 3 mos when it opens back up.

Jack and Alli ready to take off on the Shamu express! Alli was definitely a little uncertain while the ride was in progress, but had no objections to hopping back on for a second go 'round.

I thought that was fun! Didn't you?
TJ in the paintpot (reminiscent of the teacups)
Weeeeee!
"Tiny little TJ" dwarfed by the amusement ride seat and safety bar. Note my death grip on his leg. He absolutely loved every ride and showed it by throwing a fit every time we had to get off.

McKinney Falls State Park

Dwaine and I have always loved the outdoors and hiking. He even proposed at Pedernales Falls after hiking to a beautiful secluded scenic area (that technically was probably on private property being that we crossed through some barbed wire fencing).

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Anyway, we haven't been able to do much hiking over the last 3 years for obvious reasons. The last attempt we made was when I was pregnant with TJ and Alli was about 16 mos old. Let's just say it didn't go well.

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So, I was a little hesitant when Dwaine suggested we go hiking at McKinney Falls State Park the weekend after Christmas. But it sounded better than staying home (our goal for 2008 is to get out more- cross some things off of that "fun things to do" list- yes we really do have one of those).

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To my surprise, the day went exceptionally well. Both the kids absolutely loved hiking and exploring. It's a good thing 'cause we plan on doing a lot of it with them. I forgot how much I love getting out in nature, hiking around, exploring new places, enjoying beautiful scenery, etc. Thank you Dwaine for sparking my interest in those things when I met you so many years ago.

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Here are some pics from the day...

Checking out the view

Dad and TJ next to the ginormous cypress tree (the picture doesn't do it justice)

Exploring the rock shelter

Cool underwater rock formations

Mom and Alli enjoying the waterfall

Dad and TJ enjoying the waterfall

It says we should go that way Dad!

More important things to do

I was blogging while Alli was watching a movie. She came to find me and tell me she wanted to work on her workbook.
I said "OK, you want to do your workbook now?"
She said "Yes, stop looking at the peuter"
So, who is feeling like a neglectful parent right now? That would be me. Gotta go. I'll get back to that post later. More important things to do like teach my daughter!

Christmas Morning at home...

Our Christmas tree with all the presents Santa brought
Playing with the Diego rescue set- a very popular toy especially now that it's new and improved. Daddy krazy glued everything together so that it quit falling apart everytime the kids played with it. "A rescate!!" We hear that a lot around here.
Enjoying some of the goodies from their stocking.

T's new giant t-rex and friends. Alli calls the blue aquatic dinosaur a "dolphin whale"
TJ, say "cheese"
You can't tell in the picture (he was tired by this time), but he really loves his new bike. We had a hard time getting him off of it to open any other presents.
Candy cane in the hair- not fun!
Alli catchin' butterflies or trying to at least. We'll have to work on her technique a little. She just stands still holding the nets in one place in hopes that a butterfly might by chance land in one- occasionally it happens and she gets very excited! Lots of Elefun! (I know that was goofy)

Holmes Family Christmas

It was a Holmes family Christmas year, so we headed down to Pearland the friday before Christmas and spent a few days at Grandma and Pawpaw's house.

We had a great time visiting and playing. Alli absolutely loves getting to spend so much time with all her cousins. As a matter of fact she was very disappointed when she realized after our 4 hr drive home on Christmas Eve that we were turning into our neighborhood. She said "NO, turn around. Don't go home. Go back to Grandma and Pawpaw's."

TJ on the other hand was beside himself with excitement to be home- running around like a fool. Don't get me wrong, he had a great time too, but 4 days of a disrupted routine apparently has more of a negative effect on a 16mo old (not sure exactly where that fine line is but it's somewhere between Alli's and TJ's age).

Maddy and Alli enjoyed playing dress up (not sure what the skirts on the head are about but it looks cute)

She would NOT take that Tinkerbell dress off (a new hand-me-down from Lainey). She even insisted on sleeping in it that night.

Alli with Wilson. He's super lovable and always wants to play, but he doesn't know his own strength and needs to learn a bit about personal space. The kids loved him, though!

The grandkids waking Pawpaw from his afternoon nap (he can sleep through anything). "Come on Pawpaw. We're ready to open presents!"

The first time we have been able to accomplish a group photo of all the grandkids- YAY!

From left to right: Gavin (3 almost 4), TJ (16mos), Maddy (5 as of Christmas day), Cade (6), Lainey (3), and Alli (2 almost 3)

2 yr olds...

Before we took our trip to Pearland for Christmas, I had to clean out the Jeep. I had to get rid of all the old food particles, random toys, trash, extra clothes, diapers (clean ones at least), etc. You other moms out there know what I'm talking about right?- please tell me I'm not the only one.
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Back to the story- I decided to let Alli hang out in there with me while I was working. I heard her messing with the coins in the center console (we had saved up a LOT of quarters for the toll road) and told her to stop a couple of times. The clinking of the coins continued and I decided I would deal with it after I finished the task at hand- bad decision!!!!
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When I got up to the front seat and looked around, I saw the empty coin slots in the console and no sign of any quarters anywhere. When I questioned Alli about what she did with them, she said "I put them in there" pointing to the shifter.
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In disbelief that she could have shoved ALL of the quarters into the space where the shifter slides I said "ALL of them?" and she promptly and somewhat proudly said "Yes!"
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Sure enough when I started messing with it, there were lots of rattling coins down in there, but I was only able to pull 4 back out easily.
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So, Daddy had to deal with it when he got home 'cause after messing with it for quite sometime I was afraid I was doing more damage than good.
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Thankfully, after disassembling the console and reaching up through to the space under the shifter, we were finally able to recover all of the coins. No worries about not being able to get into 4wd if needed- phwew!
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And of course, knowing I would want to blog this one, I got the camera out during the operation. I just don't feel right about a post without a picture...

The look on Daddy's face says it all about how he felt about this little situation.

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Thank goodness our little 2 yr old is about to turn 3 and these little mishaps will miraculously stop- right? Alright, stop laughing. If only parenting were that easy and predictable!!!