I Love Them!

I found these pictures on my computer and realized that I never did post them. I think they are just too precious not to post them. Here are my little sweethearts. I love that they play together, sometimes. Other times Matthew just takes whatever she has and Allison cries. I am not a huge fan of them crying but I do love them and do find lots of joy in them.
Allison is 8 months in these pictures. These were taken on May 13, 2009.

It's Raining, It's Pouring

The last couple of weeks it has been raining a lot. While we were eating breakfast we couldn't believe how much and long it had been raining. We decided to let Matthew play in the rain, pajamas and all. He had a great time.

Gardening

I have always wanted to have a garden. This summer while we were with my brother and sister-in-law, it was so much fun to go out with her everyday and pick tomatoes and green beans and other vegetables from her garden. It was such a thrill to me. I decided that I was going to have some sort of a garden when we got home. When we did get home, our Elder's Quorum President decided to have and EQ garden on his land. Some families got together for FHE at his house and he made a garden and we planted some tomatoes that night since that was the only thing that could be planted in the middle of Sept. That weekend Chris went and got the materials to do the same thing our EQ Pres. did. I am so proud of Chris because he doesn't normally (or at all) do this sort of thing. It was so awesome to see Chris do this. He was so proud of himself. We don't really have a great place to plant anything in our backyard because we have a lot of trees in the back yard and it is sloped. We are trying it right outside our back door but I don't know if it will get enough sun. Our little garden only gets about 6 hours of sunlight a day. Since planting our tomatoes we have planted carrots, onions, green beans, peas, broccoli, lettuce, and basil. Most of the veggies have come up that I planted as seeds. However, some things like the basil and broccoli are getting yellow leaves. My mom says it might be because I am watering them too much. I thought they got yellow leaves when they were not getting enough water. It has been raining a lot the last couple weeks and then the days that it hasn't rained I have been making sure that I watered so maybe that is the problem. Hopefully they will turn green again. Our tomatoes plants have gotten taller and are even starting to have flowers on them. I hope we get something our of our little garden. If we don't get any produce then we may have to find a different spot like the front yard to have our garden so it can get more sunlight.

Giraffes Can't Dance

Kenn and Donna were so amazing to us. I still can't believe how much they took us in and treated us just like family. They showed so much loved toward us and especially to our children. They still are. Get this!! Donna bought Matthew a whole bunch of little things like Thomas the Tank Engine stickers, which he just loves, notepad for him to color and write his letters in, along with other things including a book called Giraffes Can't Dance. It is a really cute book. Matthew just loved(s) it. Donna told us to leave it there and then she would send it later. Matthew was sad that his book was staying with Kenn and Donna. Kenn helped Donna figure out how to record her voice reading the book and even put the DING in there when Matthew was to turn the page. When Matthew opened his package and saw his book Giraffes Can't Dance, he got so excited. I then put the cd in that Donna made for him. When it started playing, he just got big eyes and said, "(inhaling) AAAA, THAT'S DONNA" He almost couldn't believe that he could hear Donna's voice and that she read the story to him. Within the first 15 min of getting the book, he probably "read" it 10 times. He just couldn't get enough of it. How amazing that Kenn and Donna would do that for my little boy. Thank you SO much Kenn and Donna. Later in the day, Matthew was "reading" his book and Allison was awake. When she heard Donna's voice she just stopped and looked. I could tell in her mind that she was recognizing the voice and then got a really big smile. It was so cute to see that she recognized Donna's voice. THANK AGAIN!!!!

Preschool Started

For those of you who heard about how crazy preschool was last year will be surprised to know that Matthew is doing preschool again this year. I knew that I would not be able to teach like I did last year because it took WAY TOO much time to prepare the lessons and going to school this semester, it just wasn't going to happen. However, while I was in DC talking to Donna she had mentioned that only her last child went to preschool because her friend wanted Donna to watch the teacher's little child and Donna's boy could go to preschool. I figured that was something I could do. All the teachers have either one or two children and I would be the official babysitter. I called up my friend and they decided that would be a good idea. I am so happy that Matthew gets to see his friends at least 2 times a week at preschool. Some days I am able to get more done then others during that preschool time but so far it is working out well.
For the first field trip of the year, we were going to go the county fair that we went to last year. We got there a day early and it wasn't actually open. However, they did let us go in and see the animals that were there so far.

I love seeing Matthew and Allison hold hands. I want them to be the best of friends!!

As you can tell, Allison wasn't a huge fan of these pigs, not even the protection from her brother was going to cut it.

I love this picture and love this little girl. She is such a sweetheart.

My sweethearts and I in front of the bulls.

Since the County Fair wasn't open and we were in Brenham, we decided to go take a tour of the Blue Bell Creamery so our trip wasn't a complete waste. I had been to the creamery before with Matthew but we had never been on the tour. It was really fun to go with our friends. While we were getting ready for the tour there was a big video camera and a couple people together. I don't think I realized that it was actually a news team until about half-way through the tour. They were filming our kids watching how the ice cream is made and everything. At the very end of the tour we got a scoop of ice cream to try. It was really good. While we were eating the news team went around to a couple different friends and interviewed them.

Since Allison is over one she even got in on some of this ice cream. It was fun just being with my kids eating ice cream. I love my children.

My sweet baby girl!!!

I just love giving her kisses on those big cheeks, unfortunately she comes by them honestly:(

My sweeties!!!

Surprisingly this came out ok for taking it myself.

Matthew and Allison outside Blue Bell Creamery

We had a great time inside and then went outside and had our lunch that we all brought. That night on the Houston ABC News some of our preschool people were on the news.
There is a shot of Matthew looking through the window with a few other kids...remember Matthew has on the green and navy blue striped shirt.
There is also a very very quick scene of me holding both of the kids in front of the counter (telling them which ice cream we wanted).
Matthew around 1:30 and the three of us around 1:56 and Matthew's back a couple other times through the interviews.
Here is the link to the news broadcast:

http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/video?id=7016295

Update

I should be studying right now but I do feel like my family history or journaling is important so I am going to take the time for it right now.

For those of you who don' know, Chris and I decided that I should go back to school. I am not quite sure we really knew what we were doing at the time. Chris thinks that if I start now and take two classes at a time and maybe mini-mesters and summer school, I could graduate before we leave A&M. I really don't think that is going to happen. Though I have enough credits to be considered a Jr., not all my credits will transfer to my Psychology degree plan. I took a class at A&M before I had Matthew and I was in the Education department, which only transferred 30 credits to that degree plan. I really hope that more credits will transfer over for this degree plan. I am only taking two classes, Dev. Psychology which ended up being a Child dev. class and I am the only one in the class that has children, even including the teacher so occasionally she will ask me questions, which is kind of funny. Though I probably know a little bit more about how a child develops there are still a lot of theories that I am going to have to study and learn. I am also taking History 106, which funny enough Chris is also teaching but we decided against me taking his class. Chris is teaching 3 classes at Blinn and one class at A&M. We have A&M on MWF so around 1:30pm Chris meets me in the parking lot or on the sidewalk and I leave the kids in the car and he gets in and takes them home. It works out pretty well that he can bring them home and put them down for a nap and sometimes get more studying done, while I go to my classes and then ride the bus home. I only have two classes but it is a lot more difficult then I thought it would be having children while going to school. I was also going to quit my night-time job since I was going to school but since it is TR and so many others were quitting I have decided to keep working for the time being. It is only 2 hours each night. Since we have been here 5 years I had never seen an Texas A&M University Aggie Football game. I heard it is an experience I have to have while being here. Fortunately we are on the downward slope of leaving (probably 3 years of more...considering we have already been here for 5 that is considered the downward slope) and I wasn't sure when I would get to see a game so I decided to be a football usher and that way I could get paid for watching the game. It is really fun and I am enjoying myself helping people along with watching the Aggies play. So far they have won both games they have played. One of these games I am going to take my camera and get a picture. Chris is trying to do his research for his dissertation but he has had to help out A LOT more with the kids since I am going to school. He really is amazing and our house would not function without him. He keeps everything together and running smoothly. He helps me out so much with everything it is unbelievable. Oh yeah, somewhere in there I am TRYING to be a mom. I didn't say a good mom, I just said a mom. It is working pretty well right now because I put Allison down for her nap and then put Matthew on the computer and let him work on his ABCs or something I think is somewhat educational, while I get homework done. As you can probably imagine, we are really busy but yet, I need to make sure other things like housework, finances, and family history (blogging) gets done so I don't get too far behind. I am in the middle of reading the outside book "Sitting Bull" for my History class but if I don't slow down with it I will finish it way too early and then forget everything by the time the test comes around. That is really why I decided to update my blog tonight.
This is just a random picture but I love when Chris is holding both our kids. It is so sweet.

Allison Turned 1!!!

Two days before we left Washington D.C. Allison turned 1 year old. Matthew has been so excited about Allison turning one on her next birthday. We were just going to do something really low key and just have Dwain and Christina and family come over for dinner and cupcakes. Donna decided to do decorations and such so I thought that I needed to at least make her a birthday cake. Luckily Donna has all the Wilton cake decorating supplies. Since it wasn't my kitchen I didn't have exactly everything I was used to but I made the best with what I had. I stayed up until 3:30am making and decorating Allison's cake but that was mostly because I was watching a lot of tv and I was enjoying decorating this cake. It was really fun and not stressful, unlike Matthew's Lightning McQueen cake. Other then the purple looking too blue and the teddy bear, I thought it turned out kind of cute.

Allison's first birthday cake

Since I stayed up so late, Donna got up when Allison woke up and fed her breakfast so I could go back to sleep. When Matthew woke up I just sent him downstairs with Donna. It was heavenly.

When Donna put the spoon up to her mouth the very first time she just turned her head. She had this thing about only wanting me to feed her but she eventually got over that a ate for Donna. Donna feeding Allison breakfast on her first birthday

Our sweet one year old baby girl



Spencer and Matthew became best friends. They loved playing with each other especially because they both love trains so much. Kenn and Donna had two of these pirate hats so they loved wearing them. They were cute little pirates together. They "helped" Allison blow out her candle.

Kenn, Spencer, Allison, and Matthew

Allison didn't particularly love her cake. However, she did absolutely hate getting it all over her. I helped her make a mess all over her and she just screamed. I ended up being the one that had to give her a bath that night since I got her so messy.

Poor baby girl, all over being messy. She did get over it though and became a clean little girl in the bathtub.

Sidenote: She took about 6 consecutive steps the day before her birthday. We tried to have her do it more but she would only take about 2 steps in a row. After that she didn't really have much to do with walking for about a week. Donna really wanted her to walk before we left so I think that is why to took a few for her.