Let's Go Aeros, Let's Go!

We just got back from our first Houston Aeros hockey game. Glenn and Becky got free tickets from a friend, so we got to tag along. It was a lot of fun and was Clara and my first hockey game. She wasn't a fan at first. She started crying when the loud music started and the crowd cheered, but she was a trooper and clapped along.

I found the crowd's need for blood and violence rather humorous. The crowd was on their feet and screaming at the first sign of carnage. And what's a pro sports game without unhealthy snacks? I finally had to hide the cotton candy or else she's have eaten the whole bag!

The gals

The whole fam

Oh yeah, we lost 7 to 3 in case you're wondering.

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Clara received yet another Easter goody package yesterday, this time from her great-grandmother. Thank you Nanny!

Enjoying the marshmallow bunny

Hey, Whaddaya think you're doing? Does it look like I'm done?

Come back bunny!

Spring is in the air

Clara woke up yesterday with a runny nose and she sneezed all day long. The best one was during lunch when she had a mouthful of Gerber meatsticks and peas. She sneezed about four times in a row, hurling her meatsticks all over me! Yummy! She was doing better today, though still plugged up a bit.


Clara got a special delivery in the mail yesterday. We opened it up and it was full of Easter goodies from Grandma and Granddad. They must've read my mind because I was just thinking that she needed a few more summer clothes. I love these little one piece suits from Carters. They're so cute and they'll keep her nice and cool when the weather really heats up. Here's a picture of her with some of the Easter haul.

We took dinner to our friends, Eddie and Megan, who just had a baby and got to meet little Claire who's absolutely beautiful. Then we went to Fuddruckers with our friend Erin. Hadn't seen her in a few weeks, so it was fun catching up. Oh, and our friends, Justin and Christi had their baby yesterday. Christi's been in the hospital for a few weeks because her water broke, and Kylie is a preemie, but she's beautiful and healthy and doing fantastic! She's had a lot of people praying for her lately.

So, lots going on yesterday.

And today we did absolutely nothing. I did mop and that's a feat in and of itself. Oh yeah, I scooped poop, too. I'm getting into this whole poop scoopin' thing. It's nice to go into the backyard and not have to scan for landmines. Clara is loving spending time outside. I looked over today and she was in the dog pen, drinking out of their dog bowl. At least she didn't pick up a super fresh piece of poo and bring it to me like she did the other day. Yet another reason I've become the official Family Pooper Scooper. I really don't want Clara to have the job.

Sarah the Preggo

Clara and I made the drive to Huntsville last week for a baby shower up at SHSU where I used to work. The honoree was the lovely Sarah. She was my student worker for the last year and a half of my employment at good 'ol Sam. During my pregnancy, Sarah was regaled on a daily basis with stories of gross pregnancy stuff, she listened to me whine for nine months and freaked out at the sight of Clara trying to claw her way out of my belly. Fun times. And now she's in the same boat. Man, I wish I was in that room everyday to hear Sarah's take on pregnancy.


Anyway, Sarah took my position after I left and ended up preggers not long after. Apparently the rest of the women in the library are avoiding my old chair like the plague. Sarah was there from the beginning....literally. She and Jason were with us when I was in labor. Here we are not long before Clara makes her debut.



And here she is meeting Clara for the first time.


And here she is now. I wish I could be there for her birth. That's gonna be a fun room! At least she's prepared and has seen a woman go through labor. She stepped out of the room for Clara's delivery though, so that part's more of a mystery to her. She's gonna be so grossed out. And the whole first diaper change and stuff.... I want to see the videotape!

But seriously, Sarah is going to a great Mommy. I really miss being around her. She's a sweetie and such a hoot; that kid's gonna say some funny stuff when he gets older!

Here's hoping for a quick and relatively painless delivery and for Sebastian to come out with a smooth head, not one that's "all janked up" like most babies ;)

The Scary Easter Bunny

Becky and I took the kids to meet the Easter Bunny today and Clara was not impressed. There's just something not quite right about a 6 foot tall bunny with vacant eyes staring straight ahead, one whose head doesn't move in the slightest. She was terrified, so there will be no Easter Bunny pics this year. Here's her picture with the scary Easter Bunny last year.


And here's the best we got from today. You can't see her face, but believe me when I say she was not happy. I see why she was scared this year. This new bunny needs to fire his makeup artist! Yikes!


And here's some comparison pics of the girls from this year and last. Ahhh. You'll have to excuse Clara in the picture from today. She was still recovering from her near death experience with the mutant bunny.

Stuff and Things

Here's Clara's newest thing. She loves to put socks on her hands, hers or ours, clean or dirty, doesn't matter. She seems to be better behaved and less whiney when she's got a sock on her hand; not sure what's up with that.




Here's a few pictures from tonight. Clara loves to brush her teeth on her step stool. The third picture is what she does when Mommy takes away her toothbrush. Isn't she lovely?




I did have a nice long blog written, but I lost it. Grrrr. So this is all ya get; I'm not in the mood to rewrite it all.

Playroom decor

Here's the alphabet cards I got for Clara's playroom. I've been wanting to order them online, but I found them in a little shop in Galveston when we were there a couple of weeks ago. I was so excited 'cause I'd never seen them in person.

They're so cute and perfect for what I want to do with them. They're 8 x 10 and good quality. I'm going to make frames for them and hang them along the top of all four walls.

I also want to make curtains and found the cutest material. Only problem is, it's decorator's fabric, so it's pretty spendy. I'm gonna be sweating bullets as I cut into it and attempt to sew them myself. I also thought I'd make a big french memo board to hang pictures and her artwork.

This room is going to be sooo cute.....if I ever get around to doing it. I don't know what's gotten into me, I've become almost crafty. I guess it's all those years of 4-H. That reminds me, I even baked last week! I made zucchini bread and oatmeal cookies. I wanted to see if I could sneak some veggies into Clara and it worked. Hahaha, you ingested vegetables Clara! (Yeah I know, a lot of sugar too, but still.)

Weekend

We had a pretty uneventful weekend here. Yesterday, Clara and I went to a friend's first birthday party. Here's a couple of pictures I took of her in her pretty sundress. I love black and white pictures.




Chris had to go up to work Saturday morning and then he helped a friend all afternoon. Had a light dinner, put Clara to bed and then I had the oddest notion. For some strange reason, I decided to paint the guest bathroom. I don't know what came over me. I got all motivated and stuff and decided that it was a small room, so it won't take long. Yeah right. I had so much taping to do! I already had the paint left over from another room and all the supplies I needed, so it didn't cost anything. I realized I didn't have much tape left though, and since it was the really wide stuff, I decided to tear it in half. Then I did run out, so I did what I could and went and got more tape today and finished it up. Ahhh, it feels good to have one more room done.

The color doesn't show up real well in the picture, but it's a pretty, kinda dark brown. It's close to the same color our bathroom in Huntsville was. The flash in the picture makes it look lighter than it is.

Oh, and last, but not least, we went for a walk tonight right before Clara's bedtime, and she puked all over herself and her stroller! It was nasty! She didn't seem bothered by it though. She had her hand in her mouth because of her teething, so we think we may have hit a bump and she gagged herself or something. Her hand never did come out.

Anyways, that was the excitement at the Judd's this weekend. You're jealous, aren't you?

I'm back

Did I say I'd be distracted by 24 for a week? I meant a couple of days. Finished it up tonight. Man that show is good. There's some really bad acting in the show, but Keifer Sutherland rocks! He's my hero.

I mentioned before that I get really addicted to these tv series on dvd. Well, I get into them so much that I've been given signs (twice now) that I need to lay off the tv watching. This is a long story and may not make sense once it's written down, so sorry in advance. 24 is all about CTU, the counter terrorism unit. They use all sorts of high tech gadgets to catch the bad guys like night vision goggles, satellite heat imaging, torture, lots of things that beep, etc. In this season, there is a blackout that encompasses much of downtown LA, then a shootout in the streets.

On to my story. A couple of nights ago, I had to take dinner to a friend who just had a baby. While I was gone I remembered that Jason (our friend that's living with us) wasn't home yet, but probably would get home while I was gone and would be blocking the driveway so that I wouldn't be able to get back in the garage. Well, when I got home, he still was not home. Sweet! Parking problem solved.

The washing machine was going when I got home, so I figured he must've come home, started a load and then went out. We eat dinner, I put Clara to bed, then Chris and I settle in for 4 episodes of 24. When we finally go upstairs to bed around midnight, I hear the dryer going. So I ask Chris if he's doing laundry. Silly question, I know, but Jason hadn't been home since I got home like 6 hours earlier. Chris laughs and is like, "me, do laundry? What do you take me for, a woman?" Ok, I made that part up. He says Jason's been home all night. I inform him that he wasn't home when I got home because I was able to get in the driveway. So I go look out our window and sure enough, Jason's car isn't in the driveway, nor is it on the street.

Chris says he must've parked on the street, but I tell him, no, his car's not here. I'm standing on the window seat and he comes over and we're both peering out through the blinds onto the street, at midnight (very 24ish, especially if we'd had binoculars and a sniper gun), and all of a sudden, the streetlights go out all down the street. I jumped off of the window seat and was like, "get down, it's a trap!" Anyway, that was my sign to quit watching 24. It was a weird feeling to know that someone was in my house all evening and I never knew it. Actually, I still don't know where he was parked. Hmmm.

While I'm on the topic, I'll tell you about the other sign. When we lived in Huntsville, we had yet another friend living with us. She had never watched X-files and we have almost all the seasons on dvd......so we had an X-files marathon. Same thing, every night for awhile we'd watch several episodes.

I had been in bed asleep for awhile when Chris came to bed. I hadn't woken up when he first got in bed, but then he said something and I rolled over and said "what?", still mostly asleep. He was propped up on his elbow, looking at the ceiling fan, and slowly said "the fan is turning the wrong direction." His face was so serious and he was fully awake when he said it. I thought he'd been in bed asleep and had woken up because of the oddity, so my heart started racing, and I whispered again, "what?" My only thought was that it must be an alien. Yes, I'm serious, I thought that the aliens had come into my room and caused my ceiling fan to turn the wrong direction. In my defense, I was still half asleep. Chris was just saying it 'cause it explained why our fan hadn't been cooling us off. I, on the other hand, didn't know that fans turned both directions, so I assumed it was the aliens.

I think it was around the same time that Chris woke up in the middle of the night and thought he saw an alien. It was a mysterious, tall, ultra thin figure, creeping slowly down the hallway. I went to get back in bed and he was white as a ghost. I was like, "what, I was trying not to wake you while I went to the bathroom." We stopped watching X-files for a while after that.

Our House

For those of you that haven't seen our house yet and have asked repeatedly to see a picture, here ya go.

I'll take pictures of the rooms as I get them done. So far, I've just painted Clara's room and the powder room. I've also painted her playroom, but I think it looks hideous, so I'll post a pic when it's up to par. I have all planned out what I want to do in there, just need the money to do it. That's the tricky part of course.

I may not be a very commited blogger here for the next week or so. Glenn and Becky loaned us their box set of 24 (season 4) like a year ago. We just hadn't gotten around to watching it. Well, we finally stuck it in a couple of nights ago and watched 4 episodes last night and the night before.

Remember, we don't have cable, satellite, or even rabbit ears, so we watch a total of 0 hours of tv every night. We'll occasionally stick a movie in or watch an episode of some of the tv box sets we have, but never do we sit for as long as we have the past two nights. For those of you who haven't seen 24, every episode is a cliffhanger, so it's hard to stop watching if you can just go on to the next episode. Oh my gosh, my head hurt so bad last night since I'm not used to watching tv. Television is evil! Evil I tell you!

I get really hooked on these box sets. We've borrowed all 4 seasons of 24. I remember with the first one, I think I sat and watched almost all of it one Saturday when Chris was gone. How sad is that? I for one, love not having the tv on all the time. And I really love that Clara doesn't watch it. Most days, it's quiet in our house. I'll sometimes play music or play a children's cd and dance with her, but I just don't want her to get used to having noise on constantly and not be able to function without something in the background. Also, I've heard of children her age that throw tantrums when they can't watch tv! I can't imagine.

As of right now, Clara doesn't know who Dora, Blue, Barney (thank goodness), Elmo, the Wiggles (gag me), or anyone else is and I'd like to keep it that way for awhile. Don't get me wrong, she does have a few videos, but she doesn't watch everyday. Her absolute favorite is the Laurie Berkner Band dvd. She stops everything to come in and watch it for a couple of minutes. As she gets older, I don't mind introducing her to some of these cartoons in small doses, just not right now.

I think a lot of the problems that children have now once they enter school is because of all of the technology that's bombarding them from the time they're born. It's almost impossible to find a toy that doesn't take batteries now. They make dvds for babies. Everything has to be stimulating or it's not a good toy. I was talking to a woman who teaches young children not too long ago. She's taught for 30 years and she said it's sad to see the kids now. She definitely sees a difference in kids today; they don't know how to learn anymore. Well, it's no wonder they can't sit still and pay attention when they get in a classroom setting and aren't being entertained for the first time in their life.

I've heard the argument that kids are growing up in a technological world, so they should be introduced as early as possible to the technology or they'll be left behind. Bologna. That's like saying you should give a kid a calculator to teach them how to do math. You teach them concepts and theories and how to use logic and commom sense to figure out problems, then you can show them how technology can aid them.

Anywhoo, didn't mean to get off on a rant there. Please don't think I'm judging anyone for what they do with their children. I watched my fair share of tv as a kid, and I'm perfect! Television watching is just one of those things that I think has gotten out of hand in the US. Which reminds me...... all of these shows don't just stop there. They're breeding lots of little consumers. You can buy bedding, and toys, and eating utensils, and playing cards, and dvd's, and video games, and anything else you can imagine with your little cartoon hero on it. I know that's not a completely new idea because Linsey and I had Strawberry Shortcake bedding and other stuff, but it's like a hundred times worse now. These cartoon faces are plastered everywhere and I am not looking forward to the day when I'm walking through Super Target, minding my own business, when Clara falls on the floor screaming that she can't have the Dora cup. For some reason, I don't mind the thought of a tantrum because she wants the green one or the purple one. But wanting the Dora one? That's just gonna tear me right up.

Ok, I'm done. Here are a couple more pictures of bedtime. This one is from last week. Not a good night. Because of her eczema, I grease her up with Eucerin most nights and sometimes I put it on her head too if it's looking dry. Not a happy camper.

And this one's from tonight taking a stroll on the lamb before bed. Much better.

I'm off to watch some 24. Hopefully I'll be in bed before sunrise!

Surprise!!

Ok, I feel really bad for only getting Chris some Pepto for our anniversary. Let me preface by saying that we have the most awesomest friends in the whole wide world. Chris and I had planned on going out for dinner Friday night for our anniversary since Chris spent Wednesday puking. We were just going to take Clara with us 'cause we're not really good about finding a babysitter.


Well, at 4:30 Becky shows up at the door to pick up Clara. Oh, cool. Chris got them to babysit; that's nice of them. I say, "let me just grab her shoes and bag." And then Becky mentions something about Leah looking forward to having a slumber party. This is followed by a confused look on my face. "Slumber party?" And then Chris says, "I haven't told her." And then I'm like, "huh?" And then Chris says we're leaving for the night. Sneaky boogers. I'm so clueless, I never suspected a thing.


So we load Clara up in the car, alongside another friend's 2 year old who they're taking care of some while his mom is in the hospital. (Did I mention what awesome friends they are?) Chris says we have reservations and to get packed. So we head off to the Coppersmith Inn in Galveston.


This was my first time at a bed and breakfast, so I was pretty excited. Our room was on the 2nd floor and the balcony you see in the picture was our private balcony that was accessible through a walk through window. How cool is that?

After we got checked in, we headed to The Strand (a historical downtown area with shopping and restaurants) for dinner. We stopped in a few of the shops and then headed to Luigi's, where the b&b owners had made reservations for us.

Then we headed back to the inn. When we walked into our room, there were candles lit, music playing, sparkling cider and the best part......a plate of four, HUGE chocolate dipped strawberries! They were sooooo good! And since Chris is allergic to chocolate, I got all of them!! So, I brought them into the bathroom with me and ate them while I took a bubble bath. It doesn't get much better than that. I'm digging this whole bed & breakfast thing.

We had to come back right after breakfast since the dogs hadn't been outside since Glenn came by to let them out late last night (did I mention how awesome Glenn and Becky are?) We went to pick Clara up and brought our bikes in case everyone was up for a bike ride to Market Street, which they were. We had lunch at Johnny Rockets........

Daddy made us very unhappy when he held us up over the fountain and let it shoot us right in the face..........

And best of all, we got loved on by our friends......

There's not much more I could ask for in my simple little life. A husband who would surprise me with such a thoughtful gift, friends who would take my teething child for a night (or 20 if needed), and a beautiful afternoon with all of the above. I am blessed.

Night, Night

Here's Clara tonight before bed in the pajamas Aunt Linsey gave her for Christmas. Aunt Linsey can't resist baby clothes with animal print. Night, night everyone!

9 Years?!?!

It was nine years ago today that Chris and I said "I do". How is it possible that nine years have elapsed since that day?




God has blessed our marriage through the years and I pray that He continues to do so. Chris has been such an amazing husband these past nine years. Yes, he can be a handful, and no, not any woman could handle being his wife, but I was up for the task then, and still am.

I just rolled with the flow when he came up to my work one day and said, "hey, I want to buy a motorcyle", even though he'd never ridden. I just replied, "ahh, that's nice" and we brought one home later that week. And then there was the "hey, I found a group of guys that builds and races sailboats that have to cost less than $100 to build." To which I replied, "Mmm-hmm."

Then he wanted a real sailboat. But remember, that purchase came in handy this past weekend ;)

I wouldn't trade him or his big dreams and ideas for anything though. He has such a selfless attitude toward me and Clara. He has never raised his voice at me, never insulted me and has always made me feel beautiful and loved. He's also been, on occassion, the voice of reason in our home. While dealing with infertility, he would lovingly tell me that God had a plan for our family and we would have a child in His time, not our own. (He had to remind me of this a few times since I was a little hard to convince that I didn't know what was best for me.) And of course, God did give us the child that we ached for for so long.

And He gave me the perfect partner to muddle through this whole parenting thing with. A partner to stand by me through thick and thin. One who'll be with me in this life and the next. I couldn't ask for a better gift.

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Ok, that's enough mushy stuff. Guess what we did for our anniversary. Well, Chris gave me a nice card, and I went to the store to buy him some Pepto-bismol. He spent most the day hunched over the toilet barfing and was running a fever tonight. Ahh, the joys of marriage. Kinda reminds me of our honeymoon. One good thing came of it though; I didn't have to cook on my anniversary. Woo-hoo!

No, You Can't Have an Airplane

I just thought I'd write a quick update. No pictures today though; sorry grandmas.

Yesterday, Chris accompanied our friend Jay, (who is a private pilot), on a flight. I was a tad bit concerned, not for Chris' safety mind you, but for my sanity. Chris has wanted to get his pilot's license for awhile now, and until yesterday he hadn't been up in a plane. I was a little scared that I would never hear the end of how cool it was and that maybe we could sell our car to pay for this new, oh-so-awesome hobby. I didn't have to worry too much though. My response could always be, "but you have a sailboat sweetie." Looks like having a sailboat is actually coming in handy.

Today, we had a girls day out with Becky and Leah. We did the girliest thing there is. Shoe shopping. The girls got their sandals for the spring and then Becky took us out for lunch at Chipotle as my birthday present. Thanks Becky! It was another gorgeous day, so we let the girls play in the sun at Market Street. We have had the best weather this past week or so. The days have been starting off really chilly but get up in the 60-70 degree range. Too bad spring in Texas lasts for about 2 weeks. Speaking of, I saw some bluebonnets on the way to church yesterday. You know what that means...... Clara in the bluebonnets pictures coming soon!

Geocaching

Today was another beautiful day, so the three of us decided to spend a little time outside. We went to find a geocache that was in the little wooded area right behind our house. If you don't know what a geocache is, go to geocaching.com. It's basically little hidden treasures that you use a gps to find, sign the logbook and you can take and leave a little prize. It's really a lot of fun and the best part is..... it's free! Well, once you have the gps, it's free. I'm all about free entertainment right now.

On our way to the cache. Daddy and Max got way ahead of us.

Clara and Daddy with the cache. I think it's somebody's naptime.

Later, we went out to dinner with Glenn and Becky for my birthday. We decided to look for another geocache before it got dark. We had looked for this one about a month ago for about a half hour before we gave up. Turns out our coordinates were just slightly off, so we were looking about 100 feet off. With the correct coordinates, Chris found it right away.

Look what I found!

Leah, Clara, Tristan and Becky's lower half with the treasure. Argghhh.

~Happy Birthday to me. Happy Birthday to me!~

I had a lovely birthday today. Clara and I surprised Daddy at work and we went to an awesome chinese restaurant that has half price lunches. The two of us get out with tip for $10.00! The weather was absolutely beautiful, so we went to Market Street in The Woodlands. Clara played in the fountain for the first time and she loved it.

Then we blew kisses to this nice lady who was just minding her own business reading and then we walked up to her and asked her to pick us up. And she did! Score!



And then we had some yummy ice cream!

And then we went home and put our dress on our head.