God Made You Special

Yesterday I took Alex and his cousin Brenna to see Veggie Tales LIVE! The show was fantastic! For two hours, they sang and danced to Veggie's. We were on the 3rd row so we didn't miss a thing! Brenna thought she would be scared of the characters since she was frightened by Chuck E Cheese a couple years ago. We talked about the costumes on our way to the church and she seemed a bit nervous when they first came on stage. That lasted maybe 5 seconds and then she was up on her feet dancing and singing. She was no longer scared (thank goodness since she's off to DisneyWorld in Jan!). Alex was mesmerized by the characters. He kept saying, "It's Bob!" or "It's Larry!" everytime they were on stage. He really likes Junior too. The story was cute and clever like all things Veggie. Alex is a big Veggie fan and I'm so glad I took him to the show!

Megan - 5 months

Megan turned 5 months last Sunday! She's a very happy baby. Here are some of her favorite things:

Megan likes to hold her bottle. She started doing this about a month ago and I am so pleased. Alex was 15 months before he would do this! When I make her bottle, she starts waving her arms and pumping her legs with a huge grin her face. The girl likes to eat!

She ate cereal this week for the first time and of course loves it. She had to have her own spoon since she kept grabbing mine. She looks so tiny in the high chair!

Megan can sit up alone. She likes to sit up or lay on her stomach to play with toys.

Loves her excersaucer! And toys... especially anything that can go in her mouth. She chews everything.

Megan LOVES her big brother. She watches him play all day and tries to get his attention. Since she's on the floor playing now, we are working on the concept of sharing. What fun!

Best of all, Megan likes to smile. All the time. She's such a sweet, happy baby!

Hurricane Ike

We made it through the hurricane just fine! One tree in our backyard snapped in half and fell onto the back fence. Our neighbors tree fell into our yard. Two of our trees in the front yard fell over but were easy to pick up and replant. The back yard was a big mess (as Alex says, it's "a messy") but we took care of everything in just a couple days. David and our neighbor Joe chain sawed the trees and rebuilt the fence. My mom and I raked the yard to pick up all the limbs. Six bags on debris are out at the curb and the big sections of our trees went over the fence behind us. Thank goodness for the empty lot! Our electricity was out for almost a week so we stayed at my in-laws house. After spending $300 or so on groceries to replace what we lost, I think life is finally back to normal! Here are our pictures from the Hurricane:

Our neighborhood is full of big beautiful trees. It was hard driving home and seeing all the downed trees. All of our neighbors woke up Saturday, checked the damage, and immediately starting cleaning up.

Here's Brian checking out our snapped tree. Thank goodness it fell away from the house!

It's hard to tell in this picture but this tree is from our neighbors yard. It fell into our yard and the one behind us. A small branch came close to our master suite. Yikes!

Our neighbor Joe chainsawing while balancing between a ladder and fence.

David working the chainsaw

We survived Ike party at our favorite Mexican hangout!

Go Astros!

David and I took Alex to an Astros baseball game on Tuesday night. We went with my parents and several others from David's office. Normally, I find baseball BORING but this game was actually fun! The Astros scored a lot which kept the energy level up. Alex really likes the train at the stadium and was very excited when it moved and whistled when the Astros scored a homerun. Alex clapped along with everyone else but kept rooting for the Cowboys!

Hurricane Ike

David, Alex, Megan and I are camping out at my in-laws house for Hurricane Ike. We loaded up necessities for the next couple of days and arrived this morning. There are 17 people staying here! 10 adults and 7 kids. Yep, sounds like fun! Since the rain hasn't started yet, we grilled steaks for lunch. THe guys made an all-important run to Spec's today too. So far we watched TV all afternoon and are laughing at the reporters drama from Galveston. Read Shelly's blog for more about our fun-filled afternoon. We're getting antsy watching TV so I think it's time to get out the cards and play games. It's going to be a LONG night!

1st Day of school

Today was Alex's first day of school. He is going to a Mom's Day Out program at a local church two days a week. He had a great first day! The teacher's note says "Great Day! He didn't miss a beat - socialized well and enjoyed trucks, playdough, and outside play!". No tears, either! His teachers Miss Nancy and Miss Claire are very sweet. He ate a good lunch and slept over an hour. His first day couldn't be any better! What a champ!

Megan's new toy

I brought home an exersaucer today and Megan just LOVES it. She plays with the toys on the side and seems to enjoy sitting up to play. It's been 4 months of laying down on the floor all the time. This is a new world!

Labor Day weekend

We went to the ranch for the weekend. It was a big group - Arthur, Marilyn, Lisa, Brian, Ashley, Daniel, Laurie, Cameron, Brenna, David and I along with our kids. Shelly and Bryan were in San Francisco last week and came home Saturday. Pam, Jack, Merr were at the bunk house with Kay and Donna visiting for the day on Saturday. It's always a lot of fun with all of us there. Alex LOVES riding the ATV's and Megan loves all the attention from her older cousins. I like to work on projects when we go to the ranch - usually scrapbooking but lately I've worked on other craft projects. This time I made picture frames for Cameron and Brenna. The frames were part of their birthday gift. It's a lot of fun to make these and I think they turned out cute! I hope the girls like them. Here are a few pictures from our weekend at the ranch:

Kaylee, Merr, Megan, Donna, Alex, Cameron

Megan - love those cheeks!

Picture frames for the birthday girls