Last week the whole nation got hammered with winter weather. DFW was no exception except we only got a couple inches of ice. A couple inches of ice that put the area on hold for the rest of the week. Tuesday morning we woke up and it was snowing. Cason got all excited when I showed him and wanted to go build a snowman. I told him we had to eat breakfast first so after breakfast, we all got bundled up and walked outside. That was short lived because it was FREEZING out there and we discovered when we got out that it was all ice with a tiny bit of snow on top. Not fun to play in at all.
Because of the ice that fell in the wee hours of the morning, all the schools were canceled. There are very few sand/salt trucks down here and I guess the ones that are down here were all called down to Arlington to keep the area around the stadium clear for the incoming Super Bowl visitors. The temperatures didn't rise above 20 degrees until Friday so all the ice stayed and most people just stayed at home all week and all the schools were closed for the rest of the week too. I don't know if we are crazy or just fairly confident on ice since we both learned to drive in Iowa winters but we didn't stay home a single day.
On Tuesday, our gym was closed all morning and opened in the afternoon. So we just hung out at home all morning and then went to the gym after Bryce's nap. Then we went to a house in our same city to look at a bed we found on craigslist for Cason (more on that later). On Wednesday, Kelly was supposed to go to work but thankfully he had an afternoon show. We went to the gym in the morning and then out for pizza for lunch. The power went out at the pizza place while we were there because the city was doing rolling blackouts to ease the power demand but it was no big deal.
Thursday was a rest day for me so the boys and I went to Target and Bed Bath and Beyond. Couldn't stay cooped up in the house all day! Friday morning it snowed several inches and I thought about not going out but decided to go for it and head to the gym again. The roads were the worst on Tuesday and Friday but we just stuck to major roads, avoided hills the best we could, and went really slow. By Friday afternoon, it had warmed up into the 30's and you could hear all the dripping of melting snow, music to my ears!
Oh, did I mention one of our pipes froze on Tuesday? The cold water going to the kitchen sink froze. Apparently the pipes go through the attic and are not insulated at all (I already knew this) and susceptible to freezing in the winter (I did not know this). I guess if it gets below 20 degrees down here, you are supposed to let all your faucets drip to keep the pressure from building up or something like that. Who knew? Apparently everyone but me. So the rest of the week I was stressed about the pipe bursting and creating a flood but was relieved that it thawed out just fine on Friday.
I really don't know how all my facebook friends stayed at home all. week. long. I would probably lose my mind. I haven't spent more than maybe a day or two in this house without leaving. Ever. Even after my c-section with Cason I only spent a day at home before going to church, running errands, etc. I guess I'm not really a homebody.
I'm certainly ready for spring. There's a reason we don't live in Iowa anymore. Speaking of Iowa, I guess they got 10-20 inches in some areas back home.
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Thank you Denny and Lou Ann!
Thank you Aunt Lou Ann and Uncle Denny for the Valentine's Day package! We took advantage of a freezing cold day to make the magnets. Cason was not in a picture sort of mood but I got one of Rycie working on a magnet.
Cason loves getting cards in the mail and sometimes will carry them around for awhile. This card became his "breakfast book" and he carried it around with him for several days. He would open the card and read off his breakfast options, I guess it was a menu. I didn't get video of it when it was in it's prime and by the time I thought to do it yesterday, he was already kind of out of that mood but you get the idea.
And the chocolate was awesome! Thank you!
Cason loves getting cards in the mail and sometimes will carry them around for awhile. This card became his "breakfast book" and he carried it around with him for several days. He would open the card and read off his breakfast options, I guess it was a menu. I didn't get video of it when it was in it's prime and by the time I thought to do it yesterday, he was already kind of out of that mood but you get the idea.
And the chocolate was awesome! Thank you!
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Casonisms
It's been a long time since I blogged about Cason. He has been so much fun lately. He has a great imagination and plays well with Rycie most of the time these days. Here are a few stories that made me laugh lately.
His preschool is at a Methodist church so they have a cross like this on the outside of their building:
Therefore, he calls preschool "My fire school". It makes me chuckle everytime he says it, I just picture little three year olds getting trained as fire fighters.
I still brush his teeth. I don't know if this is normal or not but I don't trust him to do a good enough job on his own yet. He's not a big fan but he'll tolerate it. Sometimes I will brush the bottom teeth for awhile and then he'll close his mouth and turn his head because he wants to be done. I will say "let me get your upper teeth and then I'll be done". So one day I was brushing his upper teeth and he closed his mouth and said "downer teeth".
Rycie does this weird thing where completely out of the blue he'll point to his nose and say "nose". Then he points to Cason and says "nose". I say "yes, Cason has a nose." Then he'll point to me and say "nose" and I'll say "yes, Mommy has a nose". Then he points to the garage door and says "Daddy." I'll say "yes, Daddy has a nose." One day we went through this scenerio and Cason followed it up with "Daddy's nose is at work." Why yes, yes it is.
We had an ice/snow storm on Monday night/Tuesday morning this week that the metroplex still has not recovered from, the schools are out tomorrow for the fourth day in a row. Tuesday morning Cason woke up and I told him to look outside. He was so excited to see snow and couldn't wait to go outside. After breakfast we bundled up and went out and he was so disappointed to find out it was really just ice and not at all fun to play with. Wednesday morning he woke up and as I opened his window shades he said "Good grief. Again?"
Cason still loves his pajamas. He literally wears p.j.s for about 20 hours a day. I have to coerce him to get dressed every morning to leave the house and as soon as we are done eating lunch most days, he grabs his pajamas and changes into them. No real funny story there, just wanted to note how much the boy loves his jammies.
Cason's favorite show is Super Why! He loves it and will often act out scenerios in the show or sing the songs. So every now and then when he starts complaining about something I say "That sounds like a super big problem" (which is a line straight from the every episode). He will laugh and give me a big exaggerated eye roll and say "noooo!" I've already become a cheesy parent.
Here's just some pictures from lately.
Be sure to have your personal floatation device on when jumping off the coffee table.
Note the pajamas in the rest of these pictures. Not sure why he wanted to wear the hat inside. The thing around his neck is a guitar strap that normally is his cape but today it was his scarf.
Showing off his muscles he said.
Building alpha letters like Alpha Pig.
His preschool is at a Methodist church so they have a cross like this on the outside of their building:
Therefore, he calls preschool "My fire school". It makes me chuckle everytime he says it, I just picture little three year olds getting trained as fire fighters.
I still brush his teeth. I don't know if this is normal or not but I don't trust him to do a good enough job on his own yet. He's not a big fan but he'll tolerate it. Sometimes I will brush the bottom teeth for awhile and then he'll close his mouth and turn his head because he wants to be done. I will say "let me get your upper teeth and then I'll be done". So one day I was brushing his upper teeth and he closed his mouth and said "downer teeth".
Rycie does this weird thing where completely out of the blue he'll point to his nose and say "nose". Then he points to Cason and says "nose". I say "yes, Cason has a nose." Then he'll point to me and say "nose" and I'll say "yes, Mommy has a nose". Then he points to the garage door and says "Daddy." I'll say "yes, Daddy has a nose." One day we went through this scenerio and Cason followed it up with "Daddy's nose is at work." Why yes, yes it is.
We had an ice/snow storm on Monday night/Tuesday morning this week that the metroplex still has not recovered from, the schools are out tomorrow for the fourth day in a row. Tuesday morning Cason woke up and I told him to look outside. He was so excited to see snow and couldn't wait to go outside. After breakfast we bundled up and went out and he was so disappointed to find out it was really just ice and not at all fun to play with. Wednesday morning he woke up and as I opened his window shades he said "Good grief. Again?"
Cason still loves his pajamas. He literally wears p.j.s for about 20 hours a day. I have to coerce him to get dressed every morning to leave the house and as soon as we are done eating lunch most days, he grabs his pajamas and changes into them. No real funny story there, just wanted to note how much the boy loves his jammies.
Cason's favorite show is Super Why! He loves it and will often act out scenerios in the show or sing the songs. So every now and then when he starts complaining about something I say "That sounds like a super big problem" (which is a line straight from the every episode). He will laugh and give me a big exaggerated eye roll and say "noooo!" I've already become a cheesy parent.
Here's just some pictures from lately.
Be sure to have your personal floatation device on when jumping off the coffee table.
Note the pajamas in the rest of these pictures. Not sure why he wanted to wear the hat inside. The thing around his neck is a guitar strap that normally is his cape but today it was his scarf.
Showing off his muscles he said.
Building alpha letters like Alpha Pig.
Saturday, January 29, 2011
A nightly occurance
Every night after dinner I do the dishes. Kelly is gone at this time of day almost every single day so the boys head toward the couch where they run around the length of the L shaped couch, jump to the coffee table, wrestle, laugh, and cause other sorts of little boy mayhem. Tonight I took a break from washing dishes to videotape the events. Rycie was crashing repeatedly on the couch and having such a blast. Note in the video which boy is more daring. And please ignore my awesome parenting skills getting the kids to stay off the end table. Ahem.
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
The big 3-0
Yesterday was my 30th birthday and Kelly really wanted to do something special for me. We had a sitter lined up for last Friday but ended up having to cancel because it was too cold to do what he had initially planned on doing. I instead decided that I wanted a cookie cake and to go out as a family for pizza on my birthday. So Kelly and the boys headed to the mall last Friday to order this beauty:
He sprung for the mini m&ms and also asked for an extra pound of frosting on the side because frosting is my ultimate weakness. The cookie cake was awesome, I loved the look of it and it was delicious. I promised Cason he could have a piece after eating a good breakfast because I knew I wouldn't be able to wait all day until he was home from preschool.
I'm usually terrible about customs such as candles, singing Happy Birthday, etc. So yesterday we made sure to light a few candles and Kelly sang.
This is during the Happy Birthday song. Bryce doesn't sing but I don't know what was up with Cason. He didn't sing and made this goofy face the whole time Kelly was singing.
Not sure why my kids both insisted on eating their cookie cake with a knife!
Not long after breakfast I headed to the gym while Kelly got the kids ready and took Cason to preschool. Coach Frogger made up a special birthday wod (workout of the day) that everyone had to (got to?) do. Kelly and I have been doing the Elite programming at our gym because we are training for a competition next month. The Elite programming is for just 10 of the members right now and is designed to hit all of our weaknesses so we can improve on them. So I had to do my Elite wod first and then I joined a friend to tackle my birthday wod. The only problem was the two slices of cookie cake that I ate after breakfast. That proved to be a very bad idea and I wished I would have waited to enjoy my cookie cake but I managed to struggle through both workouts.
That night for dinner we stopped by our current favorite pizza place, Mr. Jims. We stuffed ourselves with breadsticks and pizza and then headed home to put the kids in bed so we could watch a movie. I had a great birthday filled with all of my favorite things: my family, CrossFit, pizza, and frosting. What more could I ask for?
He sprung for the mini m&ms and also asked for an extra pound of frosting on the side because frosting is my ultimate weakness. The cookie cake was awesome, I loved the look of it and it was delicious. I promised Cason he could have a piece after eating a good breakfast because I knew I wouldn't be able to wait all day until he was home from preschool.
I'm usually terrible about customs such as candles, singing Happy Birthday, etc. So yesterday we made sure to light a few candles and Kelly sang.
This is during the Happy Birthday song. Bryce doesn't sing but I don't know what was up with Cason. He didn't sing and made this goofy face the whole time Kelly was singing.
Not sure why my kids both insisted on eating their cookie cake with a knife!
Not long after breakfast I headed to the gym while Kelly got the kids ready and took Cason to preschool. Coach Frogger made up a special birthday wod (workout of the day) that everyone had to (got to?) do. Kelly and I have been doing the Elite programming at our gym because we are training for a competition next month. The Elite programming is for just 10 of the members right now and is designed to hit all of our weaknesses so we can improve on them. So I had to do my Elite wod first and then I joined a friend to tackle my birthday wod. The only problem was the two slices of cookie cake that I ate after breakfast. That proved to be a very bad idea and I wished I would have waited to enjoy my cookie cake but I managed to struggle through both workouts.
That night for dinner we stopped by our current favorite pizza place, Mr. Jims. We stuffed ourselves with breadsticks and pizza and then headed home to put the kids in bed so we could watch a movie. I had a great birthday filled with all of my favorite things: my family, CrossFit, pizza, and frosting. What more could I ask for?
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Long overdue Rycie update
Thanks for taking this picture for me Lacy!
Rycie is now 20 months old and it's been awhile since I've blogged about things he currently does so here we go.
He's talking a lot more now (although I'm probably the only one to really understand him) and stringing a few words together here and there.
He's apparently part Japanese, who knew?!? He has been saying "hai!" for "yes" for months now. It's completely adorable and I will so miss it when he learns the word "yes".
Like most little boys, he LOVES balls. Any ball really but especially footballs and basketballs. He points them out anytime he sees them, has to hold a ball if he sees it, loves balls on his shirts or Cason's shirts, etc. He always wants to watch the older boys play basketball when we go to the park. He will just watch in awe for a long time. A few times I have let him take his basketball and if no one is on the court, he will make me shoot baskets over and over. Basketball is my least favorite sport (I hate it) and I'm terrible but it's nice to have two little kids cheer for me the few times I manage to get the ball in the hoop.
He also loves books. I will often notice that he has gone missing and is really quiet and those are usually the times I find him in his own room sitting in his red chair quietly looking at his books. He also loves to go in Cason's room, pull a Curious George book (and pretty much only the Curious George ones) off Cason's shelf and sit in Cason's blue chair. He will turn the pages and look at it for a few minutes, then literally TOSS the book aside and run to grab another. I guess we still need to work on how to treat books.
Cason likes to say "3...2...1...Go!" like at our CrossFit gym so anytime Rycie wants to run, he will say "3...3...Go!"
He loves to run around the house with Cason. Every day, usually several times a day, they will just start running around the house, chasing each other, making crazy noises, and laughing. Those boys play together a lot more these days, wrestle a lot more, and make each other laugh a lot.
Because Bryce is the polar opposite of his brother, he has shown NO interest in the alphabet but instead prefers numbers and colors. He likes to try to count and if he sees multiple items, he will just throw a number out there.
Rycie: 4!
Me: 4? You see 4 balloons?
Rycie: Hai!
Me: That's three balloons. One, two, three.
Rycie: Hai.
So we're obviously still working on that. He also will hold up a few fingers and say a number. Every once in awhile, the number he says and the number of fingers he's holding up match. Probably just a fluke.
He is very interested in what color things are. He likes to say everything is yellow. He knows the names red, green, blue, yellow, orange, white, and purple. But he doesn't actually know his colors yet. He gets them right once in awhile but again, probably a coincidence. But it's still cute!
He recently started calling the dog "foo". My best guess is he associates the dog with feeding her so he is trying to say "food"? But yeah, he wants to throw the ball for foo, he hears foo barking, looks for foo under his high chair when he's eating. He'll have to learn her name because we're not renaming her.
He still likes his tiger but lately he's been fancying the stuffed leopard Grandma G. brought him at Thanksgiving. I was going to make him a tiger cake for his birthday but I guess if he likes the leopard better, it will be an easy change. I'll have to see which he prefers in May. Hopefully he hasn't moved onto something else altogether because I already bought the cake pan.
For at least a year, Kelly has been doing a chant that goes "Rycie Rycie Rycie Roo Roo Roo", sometimes with a rhyming line after that. He taught this to Bryce so now if you say "Rycie Rycie Rycie", Bryce responds with "Roo Roo Roo".
Both boys love the indoor trampoline that Grandma and Grandpa G. got them for Christmas and Rycie recently learned to get some air on it. He jumps on it several times a day and always wants us to come watch him. He gets a huge grin on his face every time he jumps. He hasn't quite figured out how to jump on just the floor but he's got it dialed in on the trampoline.
And here's just some cute pictures over the past month or so.
Cason was throwing rocks in the pond, which was apparently hilarious.
Rycie is now 20 months old and it's been awhile since I've blogged about things he currently does so here we go.
He's talking a lot more now (although I'm probably the only one to really understand him) and stringing a few words together here and there.
He's apparently part Japanese, who knew?!? He has been saying "hai!" for "yes" for months now. It's completely adorable and I will so miss it when he learns the word "yes".
Like most little boys, he LOVES balls. Any ball really but especially footballs and basketballs. He points them out anytime he sees them, has to hold a ball if he sees it, loves balls on his shirts or Cason's shirts, etc. He always wants to watch the older boys play basketball when we go to the park. He will just watch in awe for a long time. A few times I have let him take his basketball and if no one is on the court, he will make me shoot baskets over and over. Basketball is my least favorite sport (I hate it) and I'm terrible but it's nice to have two little kids cheer for me the few times I manage to get the ball in the hoop.
He also loves books. I will often notice that he has gone missing and is really quiet and those are usually the times I find him in his own room sitting in his red chair quietly looking at his books. He also loves to go in Cason's room, pull a Curious George book (and pretty much only the Curious George ones) off Cason's shelf and sit in Cason's blue chair. He will turn the pages and look at it for a few minutes, then literally TOSS the book aside and run to grab another. I guess we still need to work on how to treat books.
Cason likes to say "3...2...1...Go!" like at our CrossFit gym so anytime Rycie wants to run, he will say "3...3...Go!"
He loves to run around the house with Cason. Every day, usually several times a day, they will just start running around the house, chasing each other, making crazy noises, and laughing. Those boys play together a lot more these days, wrestle a lot more, and make each other laugh a lot.
Because Bryce is the polar opposite of his brother, he has shown NO interest in the alphabet but instead prefers numbers and colors. He likes to try to count and if he sees multiple items, he will just throw a number out there.
Rycie: 4!
Me: 4? You see 4 balloons?
Rycie: Hai!
Me: That's three balloons. One, two, three.
Rycie: Hai.
So we're obviously still working on that. He also will hold up a few fingers and say a number. Every once in awhile, the number he says and the number of fingers he's holding up match. Probably just a fluke.
He is very interested in what color things are. He likes to say everything is yellow. He knows the names red, green, blue, yellow, orange, white, and purple. But he doesn't actually know his colors yet. He gets them right once in awhile but again, probably a coincidence. But it's still cute!
He recently started calling the dog "foo". My best guess is he associates the dog with feeding her so he is trying to say "food"? But yeah, he wants to throw the ball for foo, he hears foo barking, looks for foo under his high chair when he's eating. He'll have to learn her name because we're not renaming her.
He still likes his tiger but lately he's been fancying the stuffed leopard Grandma G. brought him at Thanksgiving. I was going to make him a tiger cake for his birthday but I guess if he likes the leopard better, it will be an easy change. I'll have to see which he prefers in May. Hopefully he hasn't moved onto something else altogether because I already bought the cake pan.
For at least a year, Kelly has been doing a chant that goes "Rycie Rycie Rycie Roo Roo Roo", sometimes with a rhyming line after that. He taught this to Bryce so now if you say "Rycie Rycie Rycie", Bryce responds with "Roo Roo Roo".
Both boys love the indoor trampoline that Grandma and Grandpa G. got them for Christmas and Rycie recently learned to get some air on it. He jumps on it several times a day and always wants us to come watch him. He gets a huge grin on his face every time he jumps. He hasn't quite figured out how to jump on just the floor but he's got it dialed in on the trampoline.
And here's just some cute pictures over the past month or so.
Cason was throwing rocks in the pond, which was apparently hilarious.
Monday, January 10, 2011
First day of preschool
We didn't enroll Cason in preschool last fall for a variety of reasons. A few months ago, he started talking about preschool again so I started looking into our options for next year. I have a few friends from church and a few friends from our gym that raved about a preschool nearby us. We toured it in October and liked it but weren't ready to enroll him anywhere yet. A few weeks ago, I started thinking about it again and asked my friends from the gym some more questions. They said so many good things that they convinced me that was the school for us. It's tough to get into so I called last week to see if they had any openings now so we could get a better chance of getting him in there in the fall. They were booked up but said they might have an opening soon. Well the next day, they said the spot was ours if we wanted it. We decided to go for it so Cason started back to school this morning. He will go on Mondays and Wednesdays for five hours a day.
I talked it up to Cason ever since last Thursday when we found out so he was really excited to go. I got him this cool shark backpack on ebay a few months ago so he was showing it off for the obligatory first day of school pictures.
And Grandma and Grandpa G. got him this cool penguin lunchbox for Christmas, which he was super excited to take.
Just being goofy.
He was looking at books right before we left and insisted on taking this Curious George book in the car with him.
Cason did much better than I expected. He was excited to go there this morning and when we got inside and met his teacher, he was quiet but not upset. He found his name tag right away and hung his lunch box up. I said goodbye to him and went to the office to fill out some paperwork. A few minutes later I was ready to leave so the director said she would go check on him. She came back and said he was laughing and having fun.
When I picked Cason up, his teacher said he participated in everything except when they had play time inside with trikes and stuff, he just watched for most of the time and then started playing at the end. That sounds exactly like Cason, he likes to observe for awhile before he jumps in to things. Cason told me that he had fun and was really excited to go back on Wednesday. I checked out their calendar and it says they are talking about rocks on Wednesday, one of his favorite things ever! I asked Cason what his favorite part of the day was and he said craft time where they made a rainbow for the letter R.
I talked it up to Cason ever since last Thursday when we found out so he was really excited to go. I got him this cool shark backpack on ebay a few months ago so he was showing it off for the obligatory first day of school pictures.
And Grandma and Grandpa G. got him this cool penguin lunchbox for Christmas, which he was super excited to take.
Just being goofy.
He was looking at books right before we left and insisted on taking this Curious George book in the car with him.
Cason did much better than I expected. He was excited to go there this morning and when we got inside and met his teacher, he was quiet but not upset. He found his name tag right away and hung his lunch box up. I said goodbye to him and went to the office to fill out some paperwork. A few minutes later I was ready to leave so the director said she would go check on him. She came back and said he was laughing and having fun.
When I picked Cason up, his teacher said he participated in everything except when they had play time inside with trikes and stuff, he just watched for most of the time and then started playing at the end. That sounds exactly like Cason, he likes to observe for awhile before he jumps in to things. Cason told me that he had fun and was really excited to go back on Wednesday. I checked out their calendar and it says they are talking about rocks on Wednesday, one of his favorite things ever! I asked Cason what his favorite part of the day was and he said craft time where they made a rainbow for the letter R.
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