Houston Zoo and Angry Easter Bunny!

Hi! Our playgroup visited the zoo yesterday, and we had a great time. The weather was absolutely beautiful, and all the kids had fun seeing all the animals and running around (the ones that can run). You can click here to see the set on flickr. Then, this morning I was pulling out some 12 month clothes, to see what all we have for the summer, and I came across this dog costume that had been donated by one of my mom's friends. Well, I put it on Cara, along with the bunny ears I bought her, and tried to get a cute shot. Out of 37, I think I got one or 2, max! Anyways, thought you'd like to see what fun it is sometimes torturing your daughter into taking pictures!

Love,
Misty

Let the crawling (and babyproofing) begin

We had a great time up in Dallas this weekend visiting Nathan, Shannon and Garrett, and Justin and Ashley for Justin's 30th birthday party! I have uploaded new pictures to flickr and 2 web videos to dropshots.

No, while we were there, Cara made the slightest move to crawl one day, but then didn't do it again. Well, this morning, I caught her doing it, with much coaxing of course. However, she usually takes a few moves forward, then goes backwards to sit down! Anyways, they are online if you'd like to see them. You can click here or on the dropshots sidebar.

George Strait

Well, we went last night, and it was a lot of fun. Eric, Bailey, Matt, Deanna, Chad and I had a good time catching up, watching the rodeo and of course watching George. This was Eric and my about 5th time to see him. He has such a great collection of songs that the concert is always good, however last night he played like 3 NEW songs that no one has heard in a row, TWICE. Not that I didn't like them, but I go to concerts to sing along! haha. Sorry to the people around me. That wasn't as fun, but we still had a great time, and Cara was amazing this morning. Slept till 7, nursed, fussed a little as I tried to have her play in my room. So I laid her back down and she slept till 9:45, thank GOD because mommy needed it!

PS, her first official word was Mama about 2 weeks ago!

Congrats to Dave & Jen Barnes

Little Lowell Xavier Barnes was born 2/22/07 at 6:04 pm. You can get the scoop at their website: http://www.davejenbarnes.com/wordpress/ Here is a picture I downloaded from her flickr stream of the new family of 4!

Congratulations to the happy family!

8 months, I can't believe it!

Cara was 8 months old yesterday! I cannot believe how fast it went. We went yesterday and registered her for preschool starting in September at our church. It's Fridays only from 9-2:30, which will allow me to do some bookeeping, and get some rest if I'm pregnant, like we hope! She has really started being a big girl lately. In the past few weeks, her favorite things to do are say "babababa" and "mamamama" although Eric doesn't believe me that she's calling ME. She also is pulling up on stuff, and if I stand her up and put her on her table play thing, or in her crib, she'll hold on and play. Although, she doesn't like it when she falls. She still isn't crawling, which I think is frustrating her. She has all the motions, the getting up, the rocking, but then she usually ends up on her belly which she doesn't like as much! She also is starting to have a little separation anxiety I think from me, which makes me feel loved, but I'm sure it's not nice for the nursery folks at church, or others that come to visit and all she wants is me. She is the sweetest little girl though, very affectionate. She LOVES her daddy, and loves watching the puppies play. She was pretty good at TMEA once we got past the first night. She loves drinking water, and is eating like a big girl. To date she has had homemade: apples, bananas, pears, peaches, avocado, asparagus, green beans, sweet potatoes, carrots, yellow squash, I think that's it. I went to the store yesterday and got her kale, plums, kiwi and more bananas and avocados. So I'll have to make those soon. She is a great poser for pictures, which is good for me! She still only has the 2 teeth, which I finally zoomed in and got a picture of :) She loves when we walk outside, it's her favorite place to be, thank goodnes it has started warming up. She's a great car rider. We've been to Georgetown, Corpus Christi, San Antonio, Santa Fe (TX), etc without a hitch. She loves being read to. She's starting to wave, which is too cute. We have been teaching her baby signs, and although she can't sign back yet, she understands the few regarding food. If we show her time to eat, she gets excited. And when we say all done, adn she's still hungry, she LETS US KNOW! Well, she's in a falling down phase, I have to go. Love to all, check out the new pictures!

Off to TMEA & Happy Valentine's Day!

Eric, Cara and I are off to TMEA this week. Eric's really excited. I'm glad to get out of Houston for awhile, I just hope Cara sleeps well in the hotel. Cara and I are off to our playgroup's valentines exchange at 10, which should be cute! Then we're leaving for San Antonio around noon today. We look forward to seeing all our old BU friends. Cara and I have some plans to go see the Alamo and Children's Museum during the day while Eric is in conference. I'm going to try to hook up with my cousin Ben who's attending UTSA to take him for a good meal, I just need to get his phone #! :)

Be sure to check flickr often, I've uploaded a couple new and a couple old pictures.

Super Baby Food!

Lots have happened since my last update. Cara busted through with her first tooth on her 7 month 'birthday.' Then the second tooth broke through within 3 days. So, she now has 2 pearly (stubby, still not all the way out of the gum) whites. I have yet to get a good picture, will post one soon. Here is one of her in the tubs as we were packing up our Christmas decorations (yes, not until like January 13th!!). Also, I have found she has two favorite things to do now. One is play in the jumper that our friend from Michigan got her (Denise--THANKS!). It hangs from the doorjam, and she just JUMP, JUMP, JUMPS! Her 2nd favorite thing to do is sit in front of the window with the 2 puppies and look out the front porch. This is great because it give me a quick minute to email (or update my blog). Plus, she just looks so cute doing it!

We've got a pretty good schedule down. She's sleeping from about 7 pm till 7:30 am, with 2 naps during the day. We usually grocery shop on Mondays. Go to our playgroup with all of our friends from church Wednesdays at 10, and to library time on Thursdays. She is such a good baby, we have been so blessed! I have started making all of her own baby food, to save some money, and because it's so easy and I know exactly what she's eating. It's been great being able to nurse her for so long and now make all her other foods. Wish us safe travel as Cara and I are off to visit Mawmaw and Pawpaw tomorrow in Georgetown. Love to all!

Happy Birthday Ella!

One of Cara's first friends is having her 1st birthday today. Happy Birthday Ella!

Happy New Year!!

Can you believe it is 2007? It still feels like 2005 to me, 2006 went by WAY to fast! We hope everyone had a great Christmas season, we sure did. We got to visit with our families, and see some of our friends that came into town. Eric's two best friends from high school, Ronnie and Benny, were both in town for almost a week so we got to spend some fun time with them. I've been scrapbooking like crazy trying to get Cara's album up to date (I'm only like 4 months behind ;) !). Eric has really enjoyed his 2 weeks off, but the end tomorrow :(. I think maybe the whole 'no job' thing will kick in once he's back at work. I feel like I quit, but I've been doing CPE and lots of bookkeeping trying to get year end caught up, that I feel like I only had a one week break with Eric. I still have to go in this week as well, but then it should die down. I'm not complaining, God has granted me such a great balance that I wouldn't trade it for the world!

So, for our 'new year's resolutions' which we don't usually do, we've decided we have 2 main goals: 1) to grow spiritually as a couple, as parents, and as individuals, and 2) to make another baby towards the 2nd half of the year ;) We'd like our next child (God willing of course!) to be born in May or June of 2008! So we'll see how that goes. Also, we both want to lose weight, so we'll see if we can make that happen. Anyways, hope that catches you up on our life. Gotta Run!

Stay at Home Mommy and other things!

Well, it's official. I finally quit my job. My last day was last Thursday, however, since I have my CPA and want to keep it, I spent Monday and Tuesday at a boring CPE. Of course this happens when Cara is extremely sick. My mom was able to take off and watch her, we ended up taking her to the doctor yesterday because she has had a runny nose since last Thursday, coughing since Saturday and slept HORRIBLY with all her congestion. At first glance they thought it was RSV. But I took her back today for her 6 month well baby check and other things and it had started clearing up tremendously just since yesterday, so they think it's just a big cold, with some teething (no teeth yet!). She was 18 pounds 5 ounces (90%), 26.75 inches long (86%) and 16 inch head (small). She's growing big. She had been on cereal for a few weeks, but yesterday we started her on apple sauce (her throat was really sore, you should hear her cry, she sounds so pitiful because nothing really comes out, she's hoarse!) which is much more soothing for her throat. Then Friday we're going to start her on some of the Yo! Baby yogurt, which should also help. She's getting to be so big so fast, I can't believe almost 6 months have FLOWN by already.

Anyways, I have quit my job. I'm doing one client's bookkeeping still, and will continue to do some taxes in the spring (if I already do yours, get ready to start collecting all the info you need!), but besides that, I'm all Cara and Eric's. It was great today. I was able to run her to the doctor and run errands without having to worry about going to work tomorrow. This is all thanks to Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover book, and us buckling down. We sold both of our cars and are driving used cars, PAID FOR used cars. We paid off all our debt except our mortgage. Our house is on the market right now and we're looking to move into Katy ISD and 'downsize'. We want a 1 story 4 bedroom, so we keep looking. Anyways, that's all the news in our home right now. Eric has 2 days left before his 2 week vacation, he's very much looking forward to that! Well, I guess that's all the updates for now, hope everyone is enjoying this Christmas season!
Love, Misty