aaaaaaaaaaand I'm back....

Oh. My. Goodness. How pathetic is my blogging? Wow....time to get back on track. Maybe with the 2 big kids in school I'll have a little spare time (ha!) Harper tends to keep me pretty busy now that she's WALKING!! This video is from when she first started taking steps.

Paycos and Kyler have started school! Paycos was really excited the first week and now that's gone...he's back to not liking it. He always says, "I wish we NEVER had to go to school and could stay home all day." I know he has a good time while he's there; he justs hates waking up in the morning and going to bed early. Kyler, on the other hand, LOVES it! She goes 3 days a week but would go everyday if she could. She's such the social butterfly and we get a play-by-play of her day every time. We get nothing out of Paycos...typical boy I guess.

Harper is changing daily! She is super duper smart and makes us laugh all day! She can say mama, dada, uh-oh, bubba, nana, bye bye, and hi. She can also wave, stick out her tongue, smell her toes, clap her hands and so many other funny things. She is such a joy to have!

This video is a more recent one that shows her walking pretty good!

Harper is 8 months old! She has really grown a lot in this past month and is doing many new things:

-She took her first crawling "step"! It took her a while but she is finally getting the hang of it. She can get across the room now so I guess you could say she is oficially crawling - YIKES!

-She got her first tooth! It has been trying to come in for about a week now and FINALLY broke through the skin on Sunday (the 23rd). We can see the other one right beside it but it hasn't popped up yet.

-She can pull up on things! If she can reach it, she will pull up to a standing position. You have to be close by though because she will get distracted and face plant onto the floor!

-She has developed her own opinion! Things that used to not bug her before, now do! Like changing her diaper or buckling in her car seat. She also screams when the kids take something away from her!

-She LOVES her brother and sister! They can make her laugh and smile any time of the day! She adores them and they adore her. They are so sweet to her (especially Paycos; Kyler can be a little rough sometimes!) and they even have a special song they made up just for her. Everytime she gets upset, they start singing and she immediately stops!

-She eats EVERYTHING!! The girl is a piggie! She still loves the baby cereal and pureed baby food but is starting to prefer finger food. She basically eats anything that we can cut up into bite size pieces.

-She is starting to wave bye-bye! When we wave to her, she studies our hand for a minute and then tries it herself. It's so cute!

-She dances! When she hears music playing, or even a consistent sound, she bounces up and down!

-She is stringing syllables together! She says um ma ma da da ma ma ba ba da da...you get the picture! It's so sweet to hear her little voice making all these sounds!

-She is such a joy! From day one she has been a good eater and sleeper and it hasn't changed. She definitely fits the description of the third child: easy, laid back, happy and flexible!

We had some concrete poured and did this before it dried!

Justin arranged for the fire truck to come by after Kyler's t-ball practice and spray the kiddos!

I want to have a sign made that Kyler can wear when we go out in public that says "I dress myself!" She comes up with some wacky outfits!

Harper's favorite place to be (besides my hip!)

School is oficially out for summer! Yay!! In celebration of this, we put up our pool. I didn't want to waste one day of sun without having somewhere to enjoy it. I think it will last us one more year but next year we'll probably have to get a bigger one. It's the perfect size for Kyler but not quite deep enough for Paycos.

Filling it up

First day of 1st grade

Last day of 1st grade

We don't have much planned for this summer but I hope to stay busy to avoid constant fighting between Paycos and Kyler. We are going to Dallas in mid June for a check up appointment with Paycos' neurologist. We're praying she will lower his medication dose since he's been seizure free for almost a year (in August) but we'll see. I can't complain really because he is doing so well on this particular medicine but the only side effect he suffers from is over heating. It prevents him from sweating and he's at MAJOR risk for heat stroke which isn't much fun in the summer. His face will turn BEET red and the heat just drains him. We always carry a spray bottle with water in it to spray him down so we can kind of keep him cool. I'm hoping a medicine reduction could possibly help this but I don't know. But compared to the other side effects he's had from other meds, this isn't too bad!

On a side note, I've been making jewelry! After several people wanting to but some, I made a blog and posted some pictures so they could look at all the options!

Check it out at www.loo-libeads.blogspot.com

Mutton Bustin' and Easter

I'm sure ya'll are just waiting in suspense to find out how Paycos did, right?!? He made the top 30 in the tryouts and qualified to ride in the Thurday night rodeo. He got 1st place that night and went on to ride Saturday night where he got 3rd place!!! We were really excited! He won a great big belt buckle and a gift card to Dollar Western Wear! It's such a fun experience and we were all a little bummed that this was his last year to ride. But what a way to go out!! We're so proud of our mutton bustin' champ!!!

Tryouts:

silly face!!!

Thursday night ride: This is HILARIOUS!!!!

Going out with her boots on!

#118


Saturday night:

Posing with the Rodeo queen and some guy...not sure who he is...

We had a jam packed Easter this year because of the rodeo falling on Easter weekend. Some of my family was in town and my grandmother brought crawfish from Louisiana. DELICIOUS! One of the kids favorite things to do before we boil them is to have crawfish races. You have to pick out a crawfish, put them in the middle of the circle, and try to get them to cross the line first. It's sort of a tradition I guess. We used to do it when I was little too!


I found mine! Wasn't very fast though...

Cheering them on

The Easter Bunny was good to everybody! The kids got LOTS of goodies and had fun dying and hunting eggs. Harper missed out on the hunt. She decided napping sounded better! (Notice Kyler's hair cut!! I took her in for a trim because I was so sick of trying to get out tangles, and she wanted to cut it short!

Time once again...

As you may or may not know, I am the proud mother of the ABC Rodeo's 2009 Mutton Bustin GRAND CHAMPION!  Last year, Paycos beat out 183 other kids to win the title!  He tried out on a Tuesday, made it to the second round which was Friday night in the actual rodeo, then the final 10 competed in the Saturday night rodeo.  It was AWESOME!  It was such a confidence booster for him and I was choking back tears of overwhelming pride!  Justin and I still get giddy when we talk about it.  He held on for dear life and genuinely loved every second of it!  Who would have thought that Paycos, of all kids, would ride?!  We thought he would chicken out at the last minute, but heck no!  That boy jumped right in there as fearless as could be!  I'm re-living this moment and getting excited all over again because it's time for round 2.  Tryouts for the 2010 rodeo are this Tuesday the 30th.  He can't wait!!!!  This will be his last year to ride because the age range is 4-7.  If he makes it into the top 30, they will let us know what night he will compete again.  Then, if he makes the top 10, he'll ride one more time on the final Saturday night rodeo.  Sooooo keep your fingers crossed people!!!!  Here's some pictures from last year.

TRYOUTS:

FRIDAY NIGHT:

SATURDAY NIGHT:

(WEARING THE SAME SHIRT FOR GOOD LUCK!!)

GET ON THAT SHEEP!!!

AND HE WINS A VEST AND BELT BUCKLE!!!

A LITTLE VIDEO FROM THE FRIDAY NIGHT RIDE:

I decided that this year I wasn't going to do the filming because on the other videos, all you can hear is me screaming and it almost makes you nauseas to watch because I was jumping up and down so much!  It was just too exciting!!! 

Wish us luck!!!!!!!!!