Thanksgiving

We had Thanksgiving at our house this year. It's the first time we have had people come to our house for a holiday. It was a little chaotic but it was fun. I had to work Thanksgiving day so we had dinner on Fri. My sister and her family came up from Houston. We did Thanksgiving on Fri, and then on Sat we went to Sea World to see all their Christmas stuff. Enjoy the pictures!

Yes, they are watching He-Man and She-Ra Christmas special in the background.
Kylie made herself right at home with Uncle Kenny and Aunt Chiara.

Feeding the dolphins.

Such wonder.

My friend Valerie works in the Beluga whale and dolphin show. She lets me bring visitors backstage to pet the whales sometimes. Thanks so much Valerie!!

Poor Kylie, she was scared of the whale.

Halloween Post

Sorry I'm so behind. Here's our Halloween post. I am very proud of myself because I made both Gavin and Landan's costumes by hand from scratch, no pattern. I had a really hard time with Kylie's costume. She was going to be a princess but I ran out of time to make one for her. You would not believe how hard it is to find a princess costume for a 12 mo. old. I wanted her to be a regular princess, not a Disney princess and they just don't make princess costumes for her size because she's so little. I finally found one at JoAnns that worked well. I had a crown for her to wear but she kept taking it off.

It was a busy weekend. First we went to San Antonio to go to my niece, Norah's, 3rd birthday party. It was really cute. It was a rainbow party because she likes Rainbow Brite. I love going to this little girl's house because she has to prettiest hair and tons of it so I get to play with it when we visit.

Isn't this the coolest cake ever. That's the actual cake, no frosting. Turned out great.

Then we went to Houston to visit family there. I don't have many pictures except for just on Halloween day. My sister had to work but her kids were off school so we took everyone to the Houston Zoo. It was really fun. The kids got to dress up in their costumes and trick or treat throughout the zoo and see all the animals.

Landan-knight, Gavin- dragon, Kylie-princess, Nathan- Casper the Ghost, Kenny- Batman at the pumpkin patch

Picking out their own pumpkins

Kylie looking at the monkeys. She was so good at the zoo. She just sat quietly in her stroller and never complained. Is this a Thompson face or what?

Behind the kids is a bald eagle that has a bust wing. Someone shot it and they rescued it but since it's wing is messed up it can't go back into the wild. Her name was Liberty.

All tired out.

Pretending to be prairie dogs

Giraffes

After the zoo we hung out at my brothers house until it was time to go trick-or-treating. Here's Gavin in his dragon costume. He was so excited for me to make it.

Here's my knight in shining armor.

Here's my neice and nephew. Aren't they cute? My nephew is only 6 mo. old but he weighs 4 lbs more than my 18 mo old and he's only about an inch shorter. I love his chubby cheeks.

And that was our Halloween.

Kylie 18 Months

Kylie at her first day of nursery. She did great. She really liked coloring.

Kylie went to the doctor a week ago. She was exactly 18 months. She's developing nicely. Only says about 5 words on her own but he didnt' recommend her for speech thank goodness. She repeats a lot of words so she'll be fine, I'm not worried about her. Still little though. The pedi said the AAP redid the weight charts though so she's actually on it now, 2nd percentile. She weighs in at a whopping 18 lbs, 12 oz., and is 29 3/4 in. tall. She's just starting to fit into most of her 12 mo. clothes. She is such a sweetie. She's starting to show a more aggressive side now that we're entering toddlerhood but mostly she's still an easy baby. She adores Landan and loves to give him hugs. She loves to read books too. And she's grown quite attached to her baby doll lately. And that's our little girl in a nutshell.

P.S. She's going to have a new little sister soon. We're having another girl!!

End of Season Party

We had an end of football season party at a park. It was beautiful weather. The kids had a great time.

While Landan was off playing with his football buddies, Gavin entered into a game of dominos.

Honoring the coaches with trophies.

Alamo Bowl Champions

At the end of football season every team plays in a bowl game. We played in the Alamo Bowl against Liberty Hill on Sat. What's funny is that we played Liberty Hill at the beginning of the season and they whooped our rears. It was embarrassing. Not so this time. We creamed them. The kids played great! They were sacking the other team the whole game. The score was 33-6. Our team really turned it around by the end of the year. We are so proud of them. Go Fighting Hippos, Alamo Bowl Champs!

After game pep talk and congratulations

Waiting to get his medal.

Football was a great experience for Landan. Luckily he just barely misses the cutoff for moving up so he will be in the same division next year which is good. He needs the practice. Now we can't decide if we're going to do spring football or baseball.

Hallelujah!!

We've hit some milestones. Some big ones. Kylie first. She is finally talking. She is signing about 4 words independently (milk, more, bye bye, and shakes head yes and no) and she says about 3 words independently (ticka ticka ticka (tickle), ma!ma!ma!(mine), mamamamama(mom)). She also repeats A LOT of words you say to her. This is big for me because she's about to hit 18 mo in a few weeks. This means she will be going to the doctor for a check up. If I had to tell a doctor that another one of my children wasn't speaking by 18 months I was going to go mad. She's a girl for goodness sakes. I think she'll be fine though. She picks up on things so much faster than the boys did. Her receptive language skills are great. I can tell her to go get something from another room and she will get it. I can ask her for her foot without pointing and she will hold it out. She knows where her head and hand is. She is so smart.

Now Gavin. HE'S POTTY TRAINED!!!! YAY!!! It only took me 3 weeks. The first two weeks were spent trying to convince him this was something he wanted. See, the thing with Gavin is, if he doesn't care, he just won't do it. He just didn't care about sitting in wet or poopy diapers. He didin't care to be a big boy. He didn't care about going in the potty. So we had to make it an expectation instead of a choice. After about two weeks, he suddenly decided it was cool to be a big boy. And he wanted to wear his Thomas underwear. Now we have another problem. Now that going potty is so cool, so it seems is playing in the potty water. Now when he goes potty he sits down in the water and soaks himself. Hee Hee Hee, fun fun. Nice. He is such a boy.

Now Landan. He's doing really well at school. He's had a little more trouble during Oct. but nothing too bad. His teacher is still doing the interventions she started at the beginning of the year and it seems to be helping. He's right where he should be in math and he's at the top of the class in reading. He's always been at the top of the class in reading. He loves to read. She says he's a very smart little boy.

Landan's football team finally won their first game last Sat. It was the last game of the season. It was so exciting. Although Landan had a rough time. He was playing center and the nose tackle ran him over on one of the plays and then after the play was over he came over and stepped on Landan's arm with his cleat. Of course the refs didn't see it so it wasn't called or anything. Then later in the game the same kid tackled him again and he hit his head really hard on the ground and got the wind knocked out of him. He got up but was feeling dizzy so he started crying and the kid laughed at him. How rude!! That wasn't called either because the ref didn't see it. It just so happened that it was the other teams coaches son who was being so mean. Landan told our coach what happened so our coach told the new center to knock him on his butt. Well the other teams coach heard what he said and complained to the ref. So there was this big commotion. Luckily no penalties were called on our team. I always try to stay out of the way and not be a nosy parent but I was about ready to give that other teams coach a piece of my mind when I saw him in the parking lot after the game. So now we just have a bowl game to end the season. I love football.

Family Changes

My baby Kylie isn't so little anymore. She just turned 17 months. She is starting to get longer and thinner so she looks more like a toddler. She's just sort of starting to say recognizable words, usually after you say them. But she's got a mind of her own and she won;t let her brothers push her around. She is such a delight.

We are actively and strongly potty training Gavin right now. It's been going on for about 2 1/2 weeks now. He's doing ok, but he still misses a lot. He spends most of his time naked because if he's wearing any kind of underwear he promptly pees in it. Everyone keeps saying that he'll get it when he's ready. You know how people also say not to worry because no child has ever gone to kindergarten in diapers? I'm sure Gavin would. Just because he could. But I decided it was time for him to be a big boy now and grow up a little. I have a good reason for it though. Gavin is supposed to start Primary in a couple of months. He's 3 1/2 yrs old. And, I pay for too many diapers.

I currently pay for 3 sets of diapers every month. Kylie is in diapers, Gavin is in diapers, and Landan still pees the bed every night so he is in Pull-Ups every night. And I'm about to have to buy even more diapers. Why? That's right folks. I'm pregnant.

Again....

Surprise!

Yeah, it was a surprise for us too. We were going to wait until Gavin was in school. I guess not. So... I'm due March 31st. We'll find out what we're having in the middle of Nov. So it's about time someone gets out of diapers. I am desperately praying that Kylie is a "typical" girl and potty trains early. We'll see.