The Ryan-Ortiz Family

Kiley

2011-05-19T20:26:00.000-05:00

Here is her first school picture. We love it, and we know that, unfortunately, it's all downhill from here - at least in terms of quality school pictures. (I could post Jake & Sydney's school pics as proof of this, but won't do that to them. You'll have to take my word...)

Mat and MC are married!!!

2011-05-12T14:04:00.000-05:00

This past weekend we took a trip to Memphis to see the last of the family get married off. It was exciting to see most everyone in the family and really sad to see them go the following morning. I realized how much I miss them and how grown up they are.

Here are a few pictures from Memphis. Congratulations Mat and Mary Claire!!!! :)

The new married couple

Almost everyone.... (We were missing Bob and Steve and their families)

Sydney taking a pony ride the day before the wedding

We couldn't believe we got Jake on the pony too. He loved it! ...and so did we. :)

Kiley NEVER stopped dancing!

Kiley and Bella at the Botanical Gardens in Memphis

Did you have fun Jake? (i hope to get a decent picture of Jake someday)

Subliminal Message: Bunny....Please

2011-05-02T11:03:00.004-05:00

I thought this was an incredibly cute and creative way for Sydney to ask for a bunny. I've dreamed of bunnies for many nights since she put up the print-outs. I wouldn't say that we've given in but we did lay out the responsibility of having a bunny and what that would mean for her. She's rethinking the idea....i'm sure we haven't seen the last of her subtle hints. I love you Sydney!!

Happy Easter

2011-04-25T13:13:00.000-05:00

We had a really nice Easter, although we so missed being with Martin's family. We'll get to see them soon for Mat and Mary Claire's wedding, so we are looking forward to that (our first long road trip with the kids - wish us luck!!!). This Easter was the start of my reign as the Stewart/Brown family hostess for holiday celebrations. I learned a lot, including:

it's not as hard to make a good pie crust from scratch as you would think
it's much harder to get a cake to come cleanly out of a mold shaped like a lamb
when making whip topping from heavy whipping cream, mixing it faster and longer doesn't make it lighter and creamier; it makes it butter
shoving all the potato peels into the disposal at once = a late night shopping trip for Drano
HEB is closed on Easter Sunday (which I think is great); Wal-Mart isn't
in spite of what Mom said, it is possible to make chocolate pie filling too thick

Even though we made four pie fillings and three cakes in order to serve a cake and two pies, I would say the meal was a success. We had: smoked turkey, black forest ham, broccoli, rice, cheese casserole, zucchini tomato casserole, corn casserole, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans, fruit salad, home-made rolls, chocolate cream pie, banana cream pie, and lamb cake. I think I gained at least three pounds... :(

The Easter bunny brought baskets with little surprises for the kids. You can see below Kiley's reaction to getting her own pink brush (from the dollar store :). The big kids helped hide eggs, and then hunted them with Kiley and two of our good friends who came over and played for awhile while we cooked. Also, below is a picture of my beautiful girls taken at Sydney's recent poetry performance, and one of Jake and Kiley hunting eggs.

The sweetest thank you yet

2011-04-17T00:36:00.002-05:00

Today kiley and I went to the park. Tonight while I was putting her down to bed, while she was hugging me and kissing me good night she said papa thank you for taking me to the park. She is sooooooo sweet.

Papa and the girls at the mall

2011-04-14T12:55:00.007-05:00

We had a blast! We went to the jumpy tents, rode the train and the carousel, and at the end of the evening we got a picture to remember the good times. :)

Jumping jumping jumping jumping (to the tune of where is thumbkin)

On the Train

Round and round we goooo...

Syd and I mimicked what Kiley was doing. It was a fun photo shoot.

Hippity Hoppity

2011-04-14T12:52:00.004-05:00

This is a craft that was intended for our Crowded House but it didn't quite take off. That didn't matter for Kiley. She wanted them for school on Monday (4/11/2011). The picture is a little blurry but I think you get the idea. :)

She absolutely loved them!

Little painter and her masterpiece

2011-04-14T12:43:00.002-05:00

We try to visit the farmer's market for veggies and fruits each weekend. This is Kiley painting a tile at one of the craft booths set up for kiddos.

A pretty flower

Sydney's Poetry Reading

2011-04-08T10:44:00.003-05:00

Sydney worked very hard on her poems over the past few weeks. This was her at her reading in class today and even though it's a little dark you can see her little sister eager to be just like her by sitting on the floor.

Wheee!!!!!

2011-04-08T10:39:00.001-05:00

You know it's getting close to summer when....

Kiley and Papa playing with phones

2011-04-07T08:47:00.003-05:00

Kiley and I were having a ball playing with phones. In between calls she got herself a little dizzy....

Kiley-speak

2011-04-01T10:16:00.003-05:00

We're coming down the stairs in the morning and Kiley says to her puppy, "you are so stinkin' cute!"

Kiley was sings in her so cute little voice "Twinkle twinkle little star how I wonder what you are", puppy. "up above the world so high...."

"Mamaaaa/Papaaaa, wherrrrree arrrrre youuuuuu." We answer, "Kileeeeyyyy, werrrrrreee rightttttt herrrrrrre."

"I need snuggles.", in a sad pouty voice.

"Up the hill papa. Up the hill."

"Wanna go inside?" as she nods her head up and down and smiles. Usually this means she wants to go outside.

"...But the sun's not sleeping yet."

Kiley at the Kiddie Acres

2011-04-01T10:10:00.002-05:00

LAX photos

2011-03-31T13:19:00.002-05:00

Jake is a big time LAX player. If you don't know what that is, I'm sure you are not the only one in TX. I didn't know too much about lacrosse until he signed up last year. He's in the center of this picture. He likes to play defense this year.

This is Sydney enjoying the cool afternoon.

Kiley with my phone. :)

And Kiley again, enjoying her time on the sidelines.

I'm BACK!!!

2011-03-28T10:34:00.000-05:00

My client that I have seriously considered firing and wanted to be done with since December is finally on its way to becoming a distant memory... It's a double-edged sword in that it brought in a lot of income at a time we were putting ridiculous amounts of money into houses, but it had truly taken over my life. And, because of communication issues/style differences, we weren't likely to be successful, which was a huge issue for me. It was a blessing, and I don't mean to complain, but I have really struggled over this one and whether it was a good fit - and now I feel so much lighter that the decision has been made. I expect to be taking better care of my family, cooking more, and taking much better care of my other clients in the coming months. And, I couldn't be happier.

Kiddos say the funniest things....

2011-02-23T11:31:00.006-06:00

...and our little angel is no different. Kiley has discovered pancakes in a big way. She likes them with no butter and with as much syrup as she can get us to add. I've tried honey but it's just not the same for her so we go with the syrup (or as Kiley says, Styrup). She especially likes the cookie cut out of a little gingerbread man, star or heart. She is so incredibly cute.

Courtney posted this on Facebook yesterday:

You have to laugh when 2 year old yells from the table about 20 times 'Are the pancakes done? Are they all done? Are they all done? ...' and then sighs and says quietly to herself, 'I'm very patient.'

She is so stinkin' cute. :)

Eating Pancake Man

2011-02-17T11:01:00.004-06:00

Kiley is so funny. She's on this huge pancake kick and gets really excited when we have them. This was from today at breakfast. I'm really enjoying the personality that she is developing. :)

In the video I prompted her but it usually doesn't take much for her to speak her mind.

Kiley: Sites and Sounds over the last few months

2011-02-11T13:41:00.006-06:00

Kiley busy practicing to be a proper princess

Trying on her swimsuit in anticipation of the summer heat

Kiley in her puppy blanket

Our first daddy daughter impromptu tea-time

Kiley eating some yummy peanut butter and working on our budget

Kiley just being her happy-self

Kiley saying good-bye to her old room as we get the house ready to sell

Dancing in her room with papa

It's really snowing...

Eating pancake man

Pretty eyes

2011-01-10T11:52:00.002-06:00

The following photo features stunts performed either by professionals or under the supervision of professionals. We insist that no one attempt to recreate or re-enact or attempt to perform what is pictured below.

Kiley learning about concave and convex lenses.

Happy New Year

2011-01-04T14:54:00.001-06:00

Kiley, ready to bring in the new year. :)

After Holiday Shopping

2011-01-04T12:21:00.003-06:00

I know the floors at Target are not the cleanest but Kiley was enjoying herself. This is just a clip of the fun we had. She had about 15 of these dancing animals going all at once at one point. I'm not sure others around us were as amused as us but she was very happy.

One of Kiley's Christmas Projects

2011-01-04T12:20:00.001-06:00

Very busy couple of months

2010-12-15T14:12:00.008-06:00

We've gone through a lot of Kleenex, Tylenol and nasal spray over the past few weeks. I can say that we are almost out of the woods. Everyone has been sick and is now headed back to being well again. :)

I'm sooooooo happy, as Kiley would say. So much as gone on over the past few weeks you would think everyone is at 100% and not in recovery. Courtney has a way of making sure we get to where we need to and keeping us all organized as we make it through the November and December months. Our Anniversary, Thanksgiving, birthdays and very soon Christmas and the New Year's seem to all run together.

Birthday
It's been really great. Courtney had her birthday the weekend we moved into a new house in the same neighborhood. The Garage is still jam packed with stuff that we need to find a place for in the rooms but were slowly making progress. As you can imagine it made for a very hectic birthday for Courtney even with the beautiful gift of a new home. Fortunately Karen, Brian and their two girls teamed up to allow us a couple of hours to go out for a quick dinner. When we got home she had a piece of a big cookie, ice cream and lots of singing with the rest of the family and neighbors.

Other Birthday
Courtney's mom had her 80th birthday. If she was online she probably would not be too happy with me for posting this news but I think she'd let me slide a little. Courtney and her brother put together an excellent feast at Green Pastures with her closest friends. We had a wonderful time. If you ever met her you would never think she has turned 80 because she is so stinkin' active and independent.....and very very sweet. We love her so much.

Picture Time
Since every one was fighting off some sort of illness we missed our scheduled picture day for Christmas cards and had to go with an alternate date just this past week. We got everyone prettied up and got quick turnarounds on both the pictures and the cards. It turned out really nice.

Christmas 2010

Merry Christmas everyone!

Closed!!!

2010-12-03T10:22:00.001-06:00

We got a new home we got a new home we got a new home :). We're just a little excited.

A few pics from Thanksgiving 2010

2010-12-02T15:14:00.008-06:00

We had a lot of sick people this year. Kiley was just getting back to normal but now has a stuff nose. :(

Kiley waving hello to everyone. Early in that evening she was a little wild but soon started feeling a little warm and not so energetic.

The happy couple - Mat is the youngest and he and MC (Mary Claire) will be getting married in April 2011.

Other Kiddos....

Thanksgiving Day

2010-11-26T04:24:00.003-06:00

We had a really good Thanksgiving. On Wednesday we went to my parent's house in San Antonio but on the way out we found some great chairs at Crate and Barrel that should match the new table Courtney found at Four Hands. She's really found some amazing deals lately. We didn't plan on stopping at the outlet but thought it would be worth looking and next thing we knew we had chairs. I'm so glad we have a Sequoia.

Once we were in San Antonio, we had a wonderful time catching up with the family and meeting some of the new little ones in the family. Bella and Rishi are the newest additions and boy are they cute. Rishi has quite a personality and Bella is so incredibly cute. Kiley played with them for a short time and Courtney got this excellent picture of Rishi tugging on Kiley's hair. But really it was so special to have the three of them together.

Jake had a blast with the 'little kids' as us 'older ones' call them; Pat, Mat and Andrew. They threw the football around and played a little basketball. He actually played a full game of horse. It was pretty cool. He told us he loves waking up with the full house and talking about what to have for breakfast.

Sydney had a blast with Mia. They are seperated by a few years but I think Mia likes hanging with a big kid and Sydney likes the attention. We're going to try to make more time for them to hang out over the Christmas break.

Kiley not feeling well
Our little angel had everyone waiting on her to try to keep her comfortable. She had a fever a few days back that was 104. She definitely improving now but it scared us a little that she was having such a rough time. Mostly she couldn't get comfortable and was so congested that she didn't really want to eat anything. What we hope is the worst of it has passed. Tonight she told me that it was time for bed so I took her up and she was out very quickly.

I watched her most of the night on the monitor and while she's stirred a little, mostly she slept.

Picking the perfect pumpkin

2010-11-01T13:15:00.001-05:00

At school Kiley and her friends found a pumpkin they each liked best. This is Kiley finding one with the perfect little handle.

Lose yourself

2010-11-01T00:57:00.003-05:00

Went on a hilly star lit night run. Thank you God for deep breaths, for painful bliss, for highs and lows, for the pain that you feel when you are on the edge of stopping and yet take the next step....and thank you so much for electrolyte replenishment!!

...Good thoughts for running and for life.

Cowgirl Kiley

2010-10-29T10:03:00.003-05:00

Our little angel went all out this morning. At school they had a pumpkin patch so that the little munchkins could pick a pumpkin to decorate in class today. They were all so cute in their costumes.

New House?

2010-10-28T11:45:00.002-05:00

We are hoping to sign a contract on a new house in our same neighborhood this week. The property is shown here. I've been kind of secretly looking since the start of summer, mostly because Kiley's room is really small and it's hard to work from home with her here and without a door that closes for an office. But, also would like our house to the where the kids and their friends hang out, and this one has a pool and truly a floor plan that is perfect for our family and guests (we'd actually have a guest room!).
We thought the deal was dead but their realtor called back and it sounds like there's a chance they will come down to a price with which we are happy. We should know by the end of the week. Say a prayer for us, dance a jig (ha!), cross your fingers...

Kiley holding a balloon and watching Barney

2010-10-21T22:19:00.001-05:00

Kiley's first text

2010-10-21T22:17:00.001-05:00

Fcdksiiiwwqnzii

Today is Kiley's Birthday! Yay Kiley!

2010-10-21T09:35:00.003-05:00

Happy day day Kiley!

She was in such a happy mood today with her balloons and yummy breakfast snack.

Having fun at Jim's on Kiley's Birthday

Piano time

2010-10-16T13:40:00.002-05:00

Kiley practices day and night with no time for little things like pants. She did have time for her wings though. :)

The line

2010-10-08T00:01:00.001-05:00

Thank you God for strong legs, a strong heart, and quick feet.....and great power songs.

Marathon Training

2010-10-05T12:25:00.004-05:00

The other day, I can't remember how we got on the topic, Jake asked if I was going to do another marathon. After considering it, I decided it was time to dust off the ol' clown shoes (My red, orange and Yellow Nike 5.0s - That's how Kiley knows them) and really make a go of it. I've been very inconsistent in my running for a long time and I know that I'm capable of so much better than my last few tries.

So this week I made a decision to do the upcoming Austin Marathon. I don't want to give it an average try or just do it because I know that I can do the distance but I really want to see what I'm capable of at 4 centuries into the game.

Step one...miles miles miles. so over the next few weeks that's what I'll be focusing on. I have a lot of time until February rolls around and hope to have a good mix of really tiring strong efforts and some good rest days to keep my strength up.

On Sunday night I went on a quick run. It was difficult but really nice to be out on the road and not have to navigate the sidewalks. When I'm pushing Kiley I tend to stay off the road for obvious reasons. I was able to grab onto that line and let it carry me along with some groovy upbeat tunes playing in my ears.

I'll check in periodically to let our readers know how it's going. :)

Kiley after nap

2010-09-26T22:19:00.002-05:00

She is very busy until she realizes I'm recording. :)

Kiddo Chronicles

2010-09-25T21:19:00.010-05:00

Kiley

On Wednesday while Courtney and I were at our small group Kiley was telling the dogs, "no ma'am. no ma'am." I think this is what her teacher at Rising Stars tells her when she is doing something she is not suppose to be doing. :)

Speaking of Rising Stars, they recently had a picnic on a park down the street from the School and I had fun running her around the park to the different playscapes. She also got on one of the big kid swings and was almost pushing herself. It was very cute, but then again most of what she does I think is very cute and very sweet.

Today Kiley was incredibly cute, once again. I think that's the most stated phrase on this blog. In this episode Kiley strapped one of her babies to a stroller and was pushing it around the house really fast. Saying up the hill, and go go go....like she says when we run together. When she passed the little bench where her water bottle sat from earlier she would stop and give some to her baby then take a sip herself. Then she ran off again. She did this a couple of times then when the stroller was kindof getting in her way she started dragging it behind her. I couldn't help but laugh outloud. She continued to stop for water in the same way. It was getting pretty close to her bedtime so I suggested that we get her baby something to eat in her baby highchair and kitchen upstairs. We did that and with the help of Sydney eventually got her to bed. Soon after books, prayers, singing and a little solo time she we fast asleep.

Sydney

Sydney is really growing up. This past week she has been so responsible with her homework and has even been keeping up with her reading which is a really big deal. She isn't crazy about it but does it anyway. Her penmanship is incredibly neat. It's very close to perfect....even though it isn't quite as neat as on an engineering blueprint that is exactly what it made me think of. Part of it is the girlie in her I'm sure.

She's been incredibly helpful and patient with Kiley and her brother. There is still the typical brother/sister, sister/sister spats but she's mostly looked out for her lovely siblings. This weekend Courtney was away working on moving her elderly aunt from Corpus to Austin (Tante has made some great improvements from where she was but were definitely anxious to have her closer so that she can be supported more often by more of us) and I was so thankful to have Sydney here. Kiley had a major blowout. If you have or ever had young kids you know what i mean. ha! Well sydney helped pull things together by getting me and Kiley what we needed every step of the way. I was so thankful she chose to be with me this weekend. Not only for that reason but I like having she and Jake around on the weekends. It gives us a chance to bond, and this was definitely a bonding moment without the rush rush rush feeling that we sometimes get into during school days.

Sydney had her first volleyball game of the season today. She's doing Dr. Johns Volleyball. They have practices and scrimmages as part of the program. Today she told me she really liked playing. I was so happy to hear that. It's a tough sport that with her height she'll have a real advantage.

Jake

Our oldest boy is growing up too. 5th grade is really challenging him. Especially math. He picks up on most everything very quickly but long division is really a challenge. I know he will get it but it's difficult to see him struggle. we will continue to be there for him by encouraging him, guiding him and praying for him. And just like everything else he tackles, he'll overcome this obstacle too.

i can't wait for LAX to start up again. he likes it alot and enjoys playing it with his friends. it's a sport im not entirely familiar with but it's fast and rough. two things that jake likes.

Jake also adores his youngest sister, it's so cute to see them interact. He chases her when she wants to be chased, he lets her have the run of his room, for the most part and he finds music that she really loves.

As I was typing this up Syd has dozed off. I covered her up and snuck away. our kids are great, sweet and have wonderful hearts....and i really enjoy that about them. :) 'night all.

2010-09-25T15:32:00.001-05:00

Me and Syd having fun with playmobil on our lazy Saturday while Kiley naps.

2010-09-18T09:19:00.001-05:00

Heading out the door for school drop-off. I was teaching her to say "I'm so stinkin' cute" on the drive. 'cause she is. :)

2010-09-13T14:02:00.000-05:00

Kiley getting ready to fly a kite at the park.

Kiley's Amazing

2010-09-11T14:34:00.004-05:00

We've kind of avoided the inevitable blog brag, but here it is. I'm going to try to get it all in one post so we only have to be annoying once :). Kiley is kind of crazy smart. It is both exciting and scary at the same time. She knows many of her colors - red, pink, yellow, and orange almost every time and on anything you hold up - blue, black, green and purple most of the time. She can sing the ABC song in its entirety. And, she has a number of sentences that she uses. Things like: 'I'll do it', 'I'll get it' (when the phone rings, she says this and then runs and grabs it), and 'Where is it?'. She says 'go for a run', 'put it back' (she doesn't want me to take things from her, but will say desperately 'put it back' and then do just that when she knows she has something she's not allowed to keep), and 'I want some. Apple juice.' She asks for 'more, please'. And says 'thank you' when you give her something. My favorite Kiley sentence of all is 'I love you!' She told Megan (her nanny) that out of the blue the other day and just melted her heart. She uses words and phrases not typical for an almost two-year-old like 'closer' when she needs to move her chair up to the table, 'tired', 'not yet'. Martin told me today she can pick out the 'K' and the 'Y' from the chicka-chicka-boom-boom book because she recognizes those letters from her name. She holds a pencil correctly and writes in tiny, controlled squiggles like she's actually handwriting. She can count from 1 to 10 but often skips 6.

A couple of months ago she started to be manipulative. Now, when it's naptime, she is 'hungry' - EVERY TIME! And when it's time to get in the car seat she wants to 'snuggle Mama'. With pretty much everything she enjoys, when it's time to stop she wants 'one more time'. She pulls on her pants and skirts, and keeps flip flops on her feet. I am encouraged by the motor skills and the visual recognition of letters in terms of ruling out some of the issues that Jake & Sydney had. It's weird to think that Kiley and I will be the shortest people in our house in a few years, and that Kiley might outsmart all of us. I am further convinced that one of the huge impacts of parenting - at least on me - is the recognition of how little we really have control over in life, and learning to give up the need to control - whether you want to or not.

On another note, things have been rough around here lately. The roof and my car both leaked with all of the rain from the tropical storm this week. And, we also were told this week by the hospital in Corpus that we have a week to find my aunt a nursing facility so they can discharge her. They have ruled out cancer and so it looks like all of these issues arose from the closing of her esophagus and the aspiration of food and drink into her lungs, which caused pneumonia, which caused sepsis. They couldn't get a feeding tube down her throat at all, so are inserting one directly into her stomach. They are releasing her into a skilled nursing facility in the next couple of weeks, and she has agreed to move to Austin. She will be transported via ambulance. I spoke with lots of places here last week that offer both skilled nursing and assisted living, and am making visits this coming week so we can narrow it down. Depending on the type of feeding tube and how often she is fed, some may or may not accept her as a patient. I've learned tons about medicare and insurance. Unfortunately, she let her long-term care insurance lapse in 2008, which was a discouraging discovery this week, but she is fortunate to still have good options for care.

I would seriously recommend that everyone consider long-term care insurance. From what little research I've done on that, it isn't cheap - maybe $250/month if you are older and $150 a month if you are under 45. At $1,800/year, even if you paid for it for 40 years, that's only $72,000. Granted you are forgoing interest or gains on that money invested otherwise, but the cost of ONE YEAR of nursing care in today's dollars is $70,000+. Like any insurance, it is a gamble, but with this particularly, I now understand the crux of the issue that my children will face without it. In a situation like this, you are left to make decisions based on averages. The average person with this illness or that will live x number of years. And, maybe you have enough money for that or maybe you don't - but what if you aren't 'average'. Do your children put you in a lower cost, less preferable facility because they aren't sure they could cover the difference if you blow the curve? That seems selfish when they are your beneficiaries, but if they gamble on the averages and assumptions on the many variables around the condition of an elderly person and lose, where does that leave any of you? Finally, I would look for a policy that pays for assisted living as well as nursing. Some nursing care is covered by medicare - roughly 80% of up to 100 days for every incident requiring a 3 night stay in the hospital. Assisted living is roughly 60-70% of the cost of nursing care - the numbers I'm getting currently are roughly $42,000 to $66,000/year - with very little covered by medicare. I am guessing many scenarios have people moving between nursing and assisted living in their later years, and would think it important to have insurance that would cover both scenarios. I'm stepping off my soap box now, but we will be looking into this insurance before we turn 45.

2010-09-09T21:40:00.001-05:00

Kiley plays this game on my phone where she earns stickers to put on her sticker page. This is her current page. :)

2010-09-02T02:40:00.001-05:00

Kiley hopping in the car to drive herself to school. She's very independent. :)

Update on my aunt

2010-08-29T12:25:00.000-05:00

I spent a couple of days in Corpus this week. We sorted paperwork, cleaned and organized, and visited Tante (that's what we call her) in the ICU 3-4 times a day for about 10 minutes each time. She had become septic and they have been giving her strong IV antibiotics. She was on the ventilator (breathing tube down the throat) and very sedated and restrained because when she was awake she would pull at the tube. For the most part, she didn't know we were there or seem to have much awake time or awareness of what was happening. However, the past day or two they started to wean her from the Ativan and the ventilator so they could try to remove the tube. She was able to nod her head a little bit and track with her eyes - which was great to see.

They tried yesterday to wean her from the vent and her oxygen saturation was bad; today they were able to pull the tube - and so far she is stable. She remains in ICU and in isolation, and today and tomorrow they will be doing tests to check for lung cancer. There is risk with the tests; when they biopsy, they need to pull tissue from the edge of the lung and it could cause a lung collapse. And, there is a chance that her throat could swell shut from the tube removal or she could have other breathing trouble from the pneumonia, which would require re-intubation in the short-term and a tracheostomy a day or two later. Today is a big day in that she is able to communicate her desires and to understand her situation. She has asked appropriate questions about what has happened and how long she's been in the hospital (9 days now - 7 days on the ventilator). She has been able to consent to re-intubation if needed. She seems iffy on consenting to the trach, but if that's needed, we should have time to give her more information - and hopefully we will have more information to give regarding a cancer diagnosis. We are encouraged that she is doing better - that the tube is out and she can be more awake and aware of what is happening. Thanks to everyone for the thoughts and prayers.

My Aunt

2010-08-26T12:53:00.002-05:00

On the 14th, my aunt came from Corpus Christi to Austin for her 82nd bday. She got sick on that day and went to Brackenridge ER. She was diagnosed with pneumonia and admitted. She was released on Sunday night and stayed with my Mom until Wed. morning, when she drove back to Corpus. My Mom talked to her Friday, and her voice was very hoarse. She has had problems with her throat since radiation treatment for cancer many years ago, so it wasn't a huge concern. On Sunday, we couldn't reach her. Finally, Sunday night, we called the police to do a welfare check, and also started calling hospitals. We found her in ICU on a ventilator. She was apparently admitted on Friday night after a neighbor called EMS.

Anyway, the pneumonia is apparently very aggressive and continued to worsen in spite of the antibiotics. She's been moved to a long-term acute care hospital and is in ICU and in isolation there. My Mom, brother, and we are her only family, and are working to encourage her progress and also get a handle on her affairs. The Dr. has said that the best case scenario has her in the hospital for 6 weeks. Yesterday, her white blood cell count and pulse rate dropped, which is really the first good news we've had. This is her fourth day on the ventilator and they are keeping her pretty doped up. When she's coherent, she is agitated and wants the breathing tube out. We're taking it a day at a time... please send your good vibes, your prayers - whatever you've got to give - her way!

2010-08-25T13:27:00.001-05:00

(Jake's 11th birthday, 8/25/2010) Jake and Spencer enjoying stimulating lego building conversation at lunch.

Kiley - Our Little Artist

2010-08-23T15:28:00.006-05:00

Kiley loves to wra-write and color. When she does she often uses phrases like "another one", "hold this" (meaning the cap to the marker usually.), "purple", "pink", "green", "blue". She mostly gets the colors correct these days. :)

We're still not sure where she learned it but she is very careful to hold anything she is writing or coloring with properly. It's very cute.

Busy little BEE

You can just make out the moon and the stars in this one.

Kiley let papa help with this one

2010-08-20T17:26:00.001-05:00

Enjoying that firefighter hat! :)

2010-08-18T09:28:00.001-05:00

The firetruck Kiley will be seeing in a few minutes at school.

2010-08-17T22:58:00.001-05:00

Jake loving his new legos (early birthday present)

Other Puerta Vallarta Memories

2010-08-11T14:24:00.005-05:00

I think I've made it clear that we had a good time while in Puerta Vallarta. If not I'll say it one more time. It was really cool!!

A couple of days ago I was talking with Kiley at bedtime and I reminded her about the ocean. I said, "remember when mama and papa walked with you out into the ocean". she got quiet for a little while as if to think about what I was asking. Then she said, "here it comes....". Which is exactly what she was saying when a way was about to roll in. I think she remembers. :) Here it comes....with a big smile on her face. I hope we can create many more memories like that for her and the kiddos.

At the beach
So while we were on the beach we played in the sand for a while and walked out into the ocean so that Kiley could try to wash the sand from her feet and hands. I don't think she quite understood that that wasn't going to work and that it wasn't quite like washing off in the swimming pool. It was very cute.

While we were having our fun walking in and out of the water, Courtney was doing flips with one of the really young kids on the beach. She was trying to show him, not that cart wheel flip but the other one where you land on both feet at the same time.....i can't remember. She kept saying it's been a while but pulled it off as if she was as young as the kiddo she was showing.

The older kids were out a little deeper playing in the waves with some other kids. The water wasn't anywhere near as cold as it was the previous week when we were in CA. I say cold but I'm sure it's relative when you consider we are from TX. Anyway it was warmer and the kids had a blast. The only really puzzling thing was that immediately after the sun went down mosquitos EVERYWHERE....it had to have been billions of them. Fortunately for us Courtney's new found friends had some "Off" and we quickly sprayed ourselves down and made our exit. It was so weird how they seemed to come out of no where.

Drama
Kiley locked herself in her room. I know...it was a little scary but we calmly called downstairs and waited for them to come up to the room to help us get her out. It wasn't your typical lock since these were residence accommodations, it was a real lock. Kiley was pretty calm too. We were trying to talk her through turning the bolt the other way. It wasn't working.... When the maintenance person arrived we discovered the key he had did not work. That's right folks, no master key to get our little 22 month old out of the master suite. I started to freak a little but asked the Concierge who made it up to our room as we were trying to figure out what to do next to call a locksmith but she said since it was Sunday there wasn't one available. I said well, we need to call the fire department.

After about 20 minutes, Kiley was getting a little impatient and really wanting this game to end. I kept talking to her letting her know that I was right there and to play with her puppy. That worked for a little. In the meantime, Courtney was outside trying to break in through the sliding glass door with little success. They were very nice doors and were holding up well.

The maintenance guy wanted to knock the dead-bolt through but I stopped him because Kiley was standing right on the other side. I got a little desperate and asked if we could find some bobby pins because I have a little knowledge in lock picking and wanted to give it a try. Fortunately we didn't have to rely on my skills. The large maintenance guy realized that Courtney was on to something and went outside to help. I went with him and Courtney came over to comfort Kiley at the door.

We knew she had had it when she said, "mommy, snuggles". Courtney started crying but continued to comfort her.

After breaking one of his screw drivers, the large maintenance guy and one other person forced the sliding glass doors open. Jake flew through the door and gave Kiley lots of hugs. We opened the door from the inside and Kiley was showered with attention. She was fine. We were fine.....relieved.

Kiley was much more careful the rest of the trip. Poor angel. we love you kiley!! :)

Puerta Vallarta

2010-08-06T13:32:00.007-05:00

We got back from our week long vacation a few days ago. We stayed in such a beautiful place! It was extremely spacious for our needs, the views were incredible, the pools were better than I could have imagined, the service was outstanding, and we even had time for a few excursions.

I would highly recommend it when visiting Puerta Vallarta. It is called the Marival Residence. They have a resort property as well but the experience that you get at the residence is worth the extra cash. :)

In summary, we saw beautiful sunsets daily, had plenty of pool time, not near enough beach time, wonderful drinks, wonderful meals and lots of great memories.

Since I'm actually in the office working, details will be coming in the next few days. :) Here is a shot from our balcony....

Coronado Beach

2010-07-29T23:00:00.010-05:00

We've been on the go the last couple of weeks....Last week we were in Carlsbad, CA. I had to attend a ShoreTel Conference at this fancy resort and we thought it would be good to extend our vacation time this year by having everyone come along. Aside from the room being a little small for all of us and having less than sunny weather, it was very nice.

We stayed at the La Costa Resort which had some great pools and was not far from the beach.

One afternoon, after finishing up early from a training class we went out to Coronado Beach. I really miss it. We visited this same spot last December while staying in San Diego. Strangely, it was about the same temperature back then as it was on this visit. It has a special charm that is difficult to describe. On this trip we did some of the same fun things we did last time. The sand was a hit for Kiley. She kept saying "soft, soft..." as she touched it. I couldn't think of a better way to describe it. Her vocabulary is amazing. It may be the same for most kids her age, i'm not sure, but it seems incredibly extensive. Anyway we had some fun on the beach. Kiley with her sand toys, Sydney strolling on the beach with her mama, and Jake making sure that I was worn out by having me chase him through the dunes. Which by the way, and I didn't know this until today, spells out Coronado from the sky. One of the boys we ran into while there mentioned it to Jake and I had to look it up cause I thought that was pretty cool.

Sydney and Jake on Coronado Beach

Kiley and Papa on the beach

Kiley is getting big

2010-07-08T11:23:00.004-05:00

She was getting ready to fight the jabberwocky and had a bite of cake before climbing into her crib.

Kiley enjoying her play-pen

She is so stinkin' cute!!!

1st Day of School - Pickup Time

2010-07-01T23:40:00.002-05:00

She was awesome, all except for at nap time. They have a scheduled nap way to early in the day for her. :)

Kiley at pickup time on 1st day of school

First Day of School

2010-06-30T11:05:00.010-05:00

Kiley went to school today. She was actually scheduled to go on Monday but her sleep schedule got a little crazy after Family Reunion in Blanco this past weekend.

She is so cute with her little backpack and pig tails. It was funny because since she had never worn a backpack before and she had a little difficulty keeping her balance. Sydney and Mom helped her make her way inside.

She was remarkably comfortable and went straight for the kitchen which is her latest fun thing to do at home. Courtney got her all set up and she loves pulling anyone she can over to that part of the play area so she can make them a cake. All the other kids were outside so we had a chance to meet her new teacher and get her stuff put away without too many distractions.

Here are a few pictures....

Arrived at Rising Stars

Getting her balance with a little help from momma and Syd

Heading into school

Sydney walking Kiley to class
(this is the same outfit that Sydney wore on her first day of school)

She went straight for the kitchen

Kiley is reading

2010-06-23T15:39:00.005-05:00

Okay not really reading but she is repeating her favorite lines in her favorite books. Here are some of the more popular titles with her these days:

the foot book
walpole
the teeny tiny woman ....it's a bit of a creepy story, but she calls for it often, "teeny tiny, teeny tiny"
from head to toe ...we absolutely love this book.
the very hungry caterpillar
the grouchy ladybug
itsy bitsy spider
curious george's abc book
my first ABC book

Some of her past favorites are:
good night moon ...and i can still get away with reading it sometimes.
angelina ballerina books
guess how much i love you

...and just a few other favorite things while i'm thinking about them:
butterflies, airplanes, helicopters, going on runs, playing in the park on the swings and on the slides. She absolutely loves puppies which is a good thing with three of them running around her pretty much all the time. She has a webkinz dalmation that Sydney gave her. She carries that one around the house and on our runs.

favorite foods:
spinach balls
strawberries
beans
green beans
broccoli
she is loving her happy day day food aka, roasted peppers and tomatoes
smoothies
go go go papa (when we are on a run or just want to take a drive)

She pretty much talks all the time, when she isn't singing. Our favorite words by far are "i lub ew". "happy day day" is a close second. :)

If your are on FB you've already seen this video but if not here it is...

i lub ew - Peanut Butter snack

And one more of Kiley singing...

Happy Day Day with moo-thie

Kiley in Crate and Barrel

2010-05-27T16:38:00.002-05:00

Kiley at Crate and Barrel

Kiley was really cute while we were shopping around. She insisted on having her umbrella stroller. Not to ride in but to push around. She was adamant about doing it all by herself.

This is a short clip of her running around the store making all the sales people nervous. ha!!

I love her happy little walk.

Kiley stirring

2010-05-24T21:36:00.000-05:00

It's very late for Kiley....but i've been listening to her on the monitor...she humming and singing and rocking back and forth. i think she's really happy cause she's singing happy day day to you.... :) I can't express in words how cute she is.

Summer is quickly approaching

2010-05-19T10:16:00.000-05:00

Jake and Sydney are both very excited that school is about over. Many of their field trips for the year were delayed until these last two weeks. They love not having homework and not having reading logs to turn in. They continue to read the books that we picked up at the last book fair which is really cool.

Mostly I think Jake is very focused on a trip to Jamaica with his father and step mom. I think in his mind he's already checked out of school and is on his way there. Sydney has it on her mind but she's more anxious about having all this free time to play tether ball with us and her friends. Yesterday she went to a friends house to swim and really wanted to stay longer. I told her that she would have more time after school was done to do lots and lots and lots of swimming.

Kiley's newest words

2010-05-19T10:00:00.000-05:00

There are so many new words that Kiley is using these days. I'm surprised everyday on what new thing she has learned and love seeing that process in our little angel. Some words she is now using pretty consistently....

up the stairs
boom boom (trampoline)
blanket
paci
apple juice
milk
water
stoller / run / park (all of which mean lets head to the park)
strawberry
beans (sometimes meaning green beans, black beans)

star (as in twinkle twinkle, which she also sings)
snack
tortilla
taco (comes out taa-ko)

mommy mommy mommy mommy mommy! is pretty common too.

She's started singing more too. one of her favorite tunes these days is to the tune of happy birthday. We all like her version better.

happy day day to you, happy day day to you, happy day day to kiley..... it is so incredibly precious. Sometimes she'll sit and bang on the piano while she sings (I have to find that video and post it).....so so sooooo cute!!!

Yesterday I was surprised that she could put all the shapes into the little red/blue ball that has circles, squares, stars, triangles....etc.

Goings on....

2010-05-07T15:31:00.001-05:00

So much has happened since I last posted. I'm sure Courtney feels the same way....we often think of posting something but finding the time, even for a few minutes, is sometimes difficult. So I'm going to try to catching up little by little. I know I've forgotten so much so the next few postings will definitely be a hodge podge. I'm going to do the really big stuff first, 'cause, there have been some important things.

We had a couple of losses recently. My last grandparent died last Sunday and we lost Magoo as well. Magoo was a puppy that Courtney has had for longer than any of the kiddos. She was really part of our family. We put her to sleep. She couldn't walk and was eating and drinking very little. It was time. It's very hard to talk about either so I'm just going to post some pictures.

Magoo, Courtney, Boo (Magoo's mom), Martin

Our little Magoo was Boo's puppy. Courtney rescued Boo and found out she was pregnant. Out of all the others she decided to keep Magoo 'cause she was so spunky.

Kiley when she was much younger with her Great Grandma.

Free Summer Movies...

2010-05-03T04:45:00.000-05:00

I love that they do this in the summer - at 10 a.m. Tues - Thurs. Regal Cinemas offers free movies (no catch, really!). Just get there 15 minutes early to beat the field trip buses from the summer camps. Just one of the ways we'll keep busy this summer!

Arbor Cinema @ Great Hills 9828 Great Hills Trail Austin ,TX 78759 512-231-9742
06/08/2010-06/10/2010	Tale of Despereaux (G)
	Planet 51 (PG)
06/15/2010-06/17/2010	Wallace and Gromit (G)
	Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs (PG)
06/22/2010-06/24/2010	Kit Kittredge: American Girl (G)
	The Spy Next Door (PG)
06/29/2010-07/01/2010	Charlotte's Web (G)
	Ice Age: Dawn Of The Dinosaurs (PG)
07/06/2010-07/08/2010	Pirates Who Don't Do Anything (G)
	Paul Blart: Mall Cop (PG)
07/13/2010-07/15/2010	Rugrats In Paris (G)
	Astro Boy (PG)
07/20/2010-07/22/2010	Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius (G)
	Alvin And The Chipmunks Squeakquel (PG)
07/27/2010-07/29/2010	Doogal (G)
	Aliens In The Attic (PG)
08/03/2010-08/05/2010	Jonah: A Veggie Tales Movie (G)
	Monsters Vs. Aliens (PG)

Westgate Stadium 11 4477 South Lamar Blvd. Austin ,TX 78745 512-899-2013
06/08/2010-06/10/2010	Wallace and Gromit (G)
	Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs (PG)
06/15/2010-06/17/2010	Kit Kittredge: American Girl (G)
	The Spy Next Door (PG)
06/22/2010-06/24/2010	Charlotte's Web (G)
	Ice Age: Dawn Of The Dinosaurs (PG)
06/29/2010-07/01/2010	Pirates Who Don't Do Anything (G)
	Paul Blart: Mall Cop (PG)
07/06/2010-07/08/2010	Rugrats In Paris (G)
	Astro Boy (PG)
07/13/2010-07/15/2010	Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius (G)
	Alvin And The Chipmunks Squeakquel (PG)
07/20/2010-07/22/2010	Doogal (G)
	Aliens In The Attic (PG)
07/27/2010-07/29/2010	Jonah: A Veggie Tales Movie (G)
	Monsters Vs. Aliens (PG)
08/03/2010-08/05/2010	Tale of Despereaux (G)
	Planet 51 (PG)

Lakeline Mall 9 11200 Lakeline Mall Dr Cedar Park ,TX 78613 512-335-4793
06/08/2010-06/10/2010	Kit Kittredge: American Girl (G)
	The Spy Next Door (PG)
06/15/2010-06/17/2010	Charlotte's Web (G)
	Ice Age: Dawn Of The Dinosaurs (PG)
06/22/2010-06/24/2010	Pirates Who Don't Do Anything (G)
	Paul Blart: Mall Cop (PG)
06/29/2010-07/01/2010	Rugrats In Paris (G)
	Astro Boy (PG)
07/06/2010-07/08/2010	Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius (G)
	Alvin And The Chipmunks Squeakquel (PG)
07/13/2010-07/15/2010	Doogal (G)
	Aliens In The Attic (PG)
07/20/2010-07/22/2010	Jonah: A Veggie Tales Movie (G)
	Monsters Vs. Aliens (PG)
07/27/2010-07/29/2010	Tale of Despereaux (G)
	Planet 51 (PG)
08/03/2010-08/05/2010	Wallace and Gromit (G)
	Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs (PG)

Good day with Kiley

2010-04-17T21:29:00.002-05:00

This weekend Courtney spent some time with her girlies, so kiley and I were on our own with the bigger kiddos at their dad's house. Kiley is in bed now sleeping. It's fun watching her sleep on the monitor. Today I thought she was napping but when i looked over i saw her sitting in her bed quietly doing the same thing I was doing. Reading a book. I watched her for a while then went up to interrupt her reading. She is always so cute when you first enter her room. she ducks down and hides, so i usually do the same and crawl along the floor up to her bed. it's pretty funny. She seems to enjoy her crib quite a bit (thank you mona!!)

She's there again now but this time definitely sleeping. Today we had some breakfast with our AustinONE friends trying to organize a new leadership team. It was a brief meeting but very productive. Keep you ears to the ground for the next event date.

After that we came home and played a bit. She is really loving books these days. It makes us happy that she is so interested in them. So i read her a couple while she sat in my lap. She doesn't often sit still but she was willing enough this time.

After eating a quick snack she went up for her nap. She slept a couple of hours which is pretty typical. Courtney called me on her way to a pedicure with her friends. She caught me at the perfect time. It was such a nice conversation. Thanks for calling love. :)

So after kiley got up and we had some yummy lunch we got ready for a run. I wasn't sure how long we were going out but I was willing to go as long as i was sure she would be happy. We took my phone and played some music. I was a little worried it would end up in the street but if it was keeping her dancing it would have been worth it. I love watching her dance. She danced, she played with our sunglasses, sang.....she seemed very happy. We saw some puppies and some birds and a plane flying overhead. It was a good run. We ended up going for a whole hour before finishing at trailhead park. fun fun fun. I don't think i could have gone much longer today. I'm just not where I have been in the past but I'm going to work on it a little harder now that the weather is getting warmer and I can load up kiley in the running stroller (thanks again mona!!!) and hit the road.

So kiley and i made it for an hour. That was huge. Kiley has never gone for an hour and if she can do that I'm sure that she can go longer. Recently it's been a barrier of ours. We ran up and down hills around the neighborhood and as we were getting close to the park we were really feeling a burn in our legs. Breathing was fine, our muscles were screaming, but we kept going. As i know we can. you keep telling yourself to relax and focus on form. your running form can carry through those tough times. Kiley did wonderfully and we made it to the park.

We swang on the swings, played on the slides, watched some big kids play basketball while we sat and had a snack and drank our sippy cup. Then before we left we went over to watch some big kids play some soccer.

We took the short run back to the house and played some more, before dinner. Spinach balls, cheese, beans, tomatoes and some yogurt for dessert. Yum Yum. right kiley? perfect for after a workout.

Then while were playing some more....we play a lot as you might have picked up...V and Sam skyped us. We chatted for a while and they got to see how kiley has grown and talks. She raised her eyebrows at them and blew kisses. she is so stinkin' cute!!!

If I'm going to be up much longer I'm going to have to make me a cappicino (courtney got me this incredible espresso machine for my birthday....no really, INCREDIBLE...it makes coffee the same if not better than starbucks..I'm not exaggerating...no really I'm not exaggerating!!!) Anyway, I think i need one. :) my legs are tired tired tired!!!!

It was a good day.

All About Kiley at 17 months

2010-03-31T15:31:00.007-05:00

Kiley and Papa ~ 40th Birthday!

I knew that once Kiley started talking she likely wouldn't stop, and in the last few weeks she's proven that theory. Almost every day is a new word. She says Mommy and Papa clearly, Sydney is nih-ney, and she doesn't really say Jake, but when she's tried it's come out as Gay (not ideal for a 10-year-old boy, but thankfully baby sister can do no wrong).

Kiley likes to lie on the carpet with her feet on the tile floor of our bathroom - and she loves to brush her teeth.

Kiley is independent and determined. She knows what she wants and doesn't want, and can definitely hold her own. I'm trying to respond to her strong emotions with redirection and by firmly telling her to user her words; that she doesn't get what she wants by crying. It's hard sometimes to remember and not give her what she wants when she's shrieking and I just want her to stop, but I'm getting back in the hang of it pretty quickly :)

Kiley can communicate well. She says 'taco' (breakfast taco - can you tell we go to Rudy's one morning a week?), 'wa' for water, and 'chee' for cheese. She has said 'no mo' for no more - the first two word combo that I heard. She doesn't have a word for peanut butter, but it's a favorite right now. Sometimes she open her sandwich and presses the pb bread against her mouth (read face) - to eat it. And then, she'll put her hands in her hair, which drives Mama CRAZY and is probably all the motivation she needs to do that every chance she gets! When I tell her not to put hands in her hair when she eats, she still sometimes cries like she used to every time you said 'no' in any way, shape, or form, but something she gets mad at me and sometimes she just seems not to understand and puts hands flat on her head and looks at me - hmmmmm.

Kiley says 'baa' for bath, and then 'out' when she's finished. She says 'car' and 'key' and 'go go go' when she's in the car or the stroller. She says 'baby', 'book', and 'hello' for the telephone (which can be a phone, remote control, or calculator help up to her ear, baby's ear, or anyone nearby really). She says 'toe', 'eye, 'no' for nose and NO for NO. That and 'mine' are still favorites. She says 'broo' for 'broom' and 'boo' for 'balloon'. She says dog and puppy and then follows it with panting and barking sounds, and I've got to get that on video. She does this crazy thing where she raises her eyebrows at people and inevitably they raise them back and the game is on. She says 'walk' and will come grab your hand and pull you where she wants you. She says 'pee' for please and 'tank ta' for thank you. She says 'buckle' for the buckle on a car seat or high chair. She tells me when she has 'poo poo' and needs a new diaper. She asks for a 'wipe' to clean her hands. She says 'hot' and blows on food when it's warm, and 'co' for cold. She asks for a 'bow' for her hair, has said 'jacket' very clearly, and she loves shoes. She can be in her diaper but want to try on various shoes, and thanks to Aunt Jacqueline and cousin Mia, she has plenty to choose from. She gives kisses to everyone before bed, but once in awhile will decide that she doesn't want to kiss one person and will just throw a fit when it's that person's turn. Sometimes it's your lucky day and you get a sweet Kiley kiss; sometimes not! She's gotten better about hitting when she's mad, which she did for awhile - mostly with Jake and Syd - and now she just screams NO and shrieks loudly. I was trying to load a video of that, but I think it's too big. I'll try to put it on facebook. It's a little hard to claim the screaming 'NO' as progress, but I suppose it's better than hitting.

Random photo of the clipboard craft we did for Sydney's 9th Birthday party~we had lots of fun at her monkey/spa sleepover :)

Yesterday, Kiley opened the fridge and pulled out her milk. She tries to wipe her own hands and blow her own nose. She often picks a book, plants herself in a seat and then pats where you are supposed to sit to read to her. Once you sit, she'll climb into your lap for story time. She knows that pens are for writing on paper, and will carry around a paper and marker, stopping periodically for a coloring break. In the span of 60 seconds she can hug three dogs, climb in her car and say 'go go go', climb out, say 'bye-bye' and head to the next room. She's a girl on the go! She is very persistent and has a high tolerance for frustration. Yesterday I watched her try over and over and over to climb up into one of our adult size deck chairs. She finally made it and turned around to sit, kick her legs, and enjoy her accomplishment. She can throw a ball and kick a ball, and thinks it's hilarious. And, she does something that I don't remember either Jake or Sydney doing - she sings! Well, I guess it's humming really since she doesn't have words, but she definitely knows the tune to 'twinkle twinkle' and 'row, row, row your boat' - and she sings them over and over. When it's time for bed she sings row row because her music box in her crib plays that one. She has these little finger puppets and she puts them on and then the puppets talk to each other (like they do when I wear them), but they just babble and babble, which is another thing I really hope to catch on video.

Kiley hanging with the big girls at Sydney's party

Speaking of video, I'm including a bunch of them below. We seem to post in spurts, and it's time to catch up!

Standing in her sand toy - she's a climber and explorer

All dressed up and ready to hunt Easter eggs...

Go, go, go~bye-bye

Feeding baby

Another bloody lip

2010-03-11T02:12:00.000-06:00

We've really put the little angel through the wringer lately. while I was out with her at Phil's icehouse last weekend she fell and busted her lip. i had never seen so much blood from such a tiny person. she was climbing up the stairs for the 4th or 5th time and was probably a little too confident about it. her foot slipped and her mouth fell against the step. her top teeth broke the skin on the outside and her bottom teeth bit into the inside of her lip.

no stitches necessary but not fun at all.

before all that happened we went down the slides and had a blast running around and playing with the stone cows. She has healed up nicely and is definitely back to normal.

More Kiley words....

2010-03-11T02:07:00.001-06:00

I know that some of these have been already listed at some point but it's fun nonetheless to listen to her explore language.

Baby, puppy, hot, good, no more, light, ducky, Go Go Go, out (like take out of the purse), manana (as in banana), mine, bow.

Go go go is pretty funny. she does that when she get's behind the wheel of a car. Ha!!!

Today while with Megan, her nanny, she said, "mine". There was a boy with a shovel or a bucket, i forget, and she walked over to him, took it, and said "mine".

Sometimes she walks around with one of Sydney's oversized puppies, dragging most of it behind her saying, puppy, puppy, puppy....over and over again. She'll also hug it like she does the real oversized puppies of ours and give it kisses. she is awfully sweet.

She recognizes all lights but there are two in particular that she wants turned on when she is eating. One in the dining room and the other above the stove.

Itsy Bitsy Spider

2010-03-08T14:47:00.000-06:00

Something funny that happened yesterday that I wanted to note before I forgot about it. We were eating at Chili's yesterday evening with family and as we were getting ready to leave Kiley wanted to hear Itsy Bitsy Spider....so her Gran started it, then she pointed at her uncle Jeff as if to get him to sing too, then her aunt Nancy, then Courtney, then me. it was hilarious!!! Here you have this little sweet child getting everyone to do just as she wants them to.

It's one of her favorite songs, especially when she's unhappy. Courtney has been singing it to her since she was a little bitty Kiley. So there were are 5 adults singing, including hand motions, at Chili's the Itsy Bitsy Spider song. Thanks for the laughs Kiley.

After wards she applauded us all. :) That would have been one for America's Funniest Home Videos.

Lunch with Jake and Sydney

2010-03-05T16:24:00.000-06:00

We had a fun lunch today. On Friday's I try to go have lunch with Sydney and Jake. It's pretty rare that I don't make it over there. I give them a break from the typical Elementary School Cafeteria food and get to reminisce about my youth while listening to all the conversations that go on.

I ask them what they want for lunch. Mostly it's fast food type stuff but it's really the time with them more than it is an opportunity to add some nutrition to their diet. Sydney ofter chooses Chipotle, which by the way you can order online and schedule your pickup. It even saves previous orders. Very cool. ...And Jake usually picks something else. McDonald's, Dairy Queen, and Burger King have been the most recent options. Like I said nutrition is not the top priority. Anyway they get something they like and I get something I like. :)

Today Sydney sat with her usual friends, Sasha, Gretta, and Anushka (on a side-note, I love the diversity of their school), and talked about going out to the playground for lunch recess and playing tetherball. I was invited to join them but took a raincheck. I had to get back to the office for a call. I'm sure next time i'll be out there. They also chatted about tom and jerry of all things. I find it very interesting that tom and jerry have remained intriguing after so many years. They also talked about soccer and this weekend's games.

When Jake comes in Sydney often tries to keep me from going over to his table. I think it's more a brother sister thing but i like to pretend that I'm so much fun she likes having me around. I escaped her grasp and went over to visit with Jake. He had a Happy Meal today. He always goes with a burger with cheese (not to be confused with a cheeseburger) and a coke. At the boys table we often play with whatever goodie is in the bag and conversation centers around that for a while. Today it was the "all knowing" meatball from iCarly. I haven't seen that episode yet but apparently Spencer would ask the meatball for advice and it would respond yes, no, or ask again later. That's what this thing did. The boys passed it around and asked if so and so like julia, or emily or christine. it was funny. none of them seem ready to admit that they like girls when I know secretly they do. so we passed that around for a while and then the mean lunch lady came by to see what all the commotion was about (every lunch room has to have the mean lunch lady) and immediately stopped the out of control horseplay that was going on. ha! I always get the boys in trouble. but it's not like they wouldn't get into trouble anyway right? :)

In the end we had a blast and they all went out to recess to have a little more fun before going back to class. It was a good lunch.

Food Warning

2010-03-01T12:37:00.002-06:00

As part of my procrastination and general lack of productivity this rainy, wait - now sunny - Monday, I feel compelled to write about a food topic that came up over the weekend. If you prefer to remain blissfully ignorant about what is really in your food, this post is NOT FOR YOU. Move your mouse to the 'x' in the upper-right corner of your browser and say good-bye now.

If you're still here, I'm warning you again that most of you are not going to like me for this info, but here goes nothing... A good friend yesterday at church graciously gave me a bag of fruit snacks for Kiley, who was as hungry as we were unprepared. I read the ingredient list and that sparked a conversation about gelatin, which is the ingredient for which I was checking. My friend is very knowledgeable about nutrition, and yet didn't know what is in gelatin, which is what prompted me to write.

"The gelatin you eat in Jell-O comes from the collagen in cow or pig bones, hooves, and connective tissues. To make gelatin, manufacturers grind up these various parts and pre-treat them with either a strong acid or a strong base to break down cellular structures and release proteins like collagen. After pre-treatment, the resulting mixture is boiled. During this process, the large collagen protein ends up being partially broken down, and the resulting product is called gelatin. The gelatin is easily extracted because it forms a layer on the surface of the boiling mixture." read more...

The biggest culprits that have effected me day-to-day since I learned about gelatin many years ago are jello and pudding - you'd be surprised how many recipes use them in some way. More recently, however, I became aware of gelatin in yogurt, gummy bears, and fruit snacks (the chewy kind for kiddos). And, just today, I found out and confirmed in my pantry that gelatin is also in marshmallows.

Most food facts I am fine with knowing; I can't eat mayo knowing how much fat there is, I know real men's men who work in the meat industry and won't touch a hot dog, you get the idea. But all I'm asking for is a rice krispie treat and a good cup o' hot chocolate with marshmallows, without the mental image of a pig hoof stuffed in my mouth - *sigh*. I guess the moral here is... next time you find yourself eating a chewy treat with no fat that surprisingly retains its shape, you'd be wise to check the label and please comment back here so we can all be sadly better informed!

Funny little ones

2010-03-01T10:32:00.006-06:00

Jake. So last night after we finished getting the kiddos to bed, Jake comes running down the steps. "Martin, can you spray me with a squirt bottle in the morning so that I can get out of bed more quickly." Laughing, I told him I would try to remember. This morning, I didn't remember but he jumped in the shower pretty quickly. I set his clothes out to help him along but he was still feeling very tired from the weekend and was dragging a little. We got to school late this morning and he forgot his ADHD meds. I don't know what made me ask him as he was heading into the school but I hadn't reminded him this morning and thought it better. He said no. It's so nice having the school so close to the house. I'm very spoiled about that. Anyway I brought his medication up to the school and gave it to him. As he's walking down the hallway back to class he calls out to me, "Hey Martin, tomorrow let's do the squirt bottle thing". pretty darn cute. I agreed. HA!!!

Sydney. This morning while Jake was struggling to stay on task and get ready, Sydney was helping me with breakfast and her lunch. This doesn't happen too often but it's really nice when I have one of the kiddos watching my back. Well, she did her lunch. The whole lunch, sandwich, goldfish, an small orange, and I thought I would toss in a couple of chocolate morsels since I was already adding them to the pancakes we were making. You know as a special treat. Well some time passed and I realized that Sydney forgot to pack in a small bottle of water that we usually put in her lunch bag. I pulled one out, got it filled and was adding it to her lunch bag. I noticed pretty quickly as I was shifting things around that she had added a ring-pop to her lunch. I thought about mentioning it to her cause she knows those are for her birthday on the 15th of this month but really thought it was a fair treat since she put her entire lunch together herself. It was really funny when she asked me with a big ol' grin, as I was rearranging things in her bag, "What are you looking for?" I think she saw that I noticed something in there that wasn't really a typical lunch item. I said, "nothing just fitting in the bottle of water". Such a cutie pie.

Kiley. Kiley was so happy this morning. we have a video monitor that often times gives us a sneak peek as to what she is up to when she wakes up. we've seen her dance around, hug and kiss her many stuffed animals, read her book, sing, dance, and even stare into the camera as if she knows were looking. one time we she stuck her eye right up to the lens....she is very amusing in the morning. This morning she was very talkative. After bringing her down she usually has breakfast and some milk. It was no different today. She was very happy. We communicate pretty well these days. She likes to say the word "no" a lot but is slowly learning the word "yes" too. sometimes I'll ask her if I can share her breakfast, most of the time the answer is "no".

"one little bite, just one."

"no." as she picks up a piece of orange or strawberry or manana (banana) and goes about her business of eating without giving me a second thought. Then when I'm leaving, I'll say "buh, bye, Kiley. Kisses for papa?"

"no." She is a very busy girl. What can a papa expect. ha!

I just have to laugh.....and give her tons of kisses anyway as she laughs and giggles. She is going to be a handful......

I love them all for their uniqueness and unpredictability.... :)

Did it really snow yesterday?

2010-02-24T16:19:00.003-06:00

I had to look back at these few pictures for confirmation. :)

a work in progress

Sydney and a snowman.

He's looking much better now.... (yes it's a "he", i asked.)

This is Jake before I clobbered him and his friends with snowballs. :)

Across the street from Trailhead Park

Random pictures from my Camera Phone

2010-02-23T11:58:00.000-06:00

Sydney running along the beach on Coronado Island

Courtney looking cute at Ikea

A submarine warning. Don't get into the sub if you can't fit through this hole.

Who is the coolest kid in the whole wide world? (Jake on Coronado Island)

Too cute for words.....

Milestones

2010-02-22T11:52:00.005-06:00

Kiley now says:

bye-bye - her first official word that she's been saying clearly for months
hello (when she picks up one of the kids' itouches and holds it up to her ear - comes out as huh-LO
ball
baby
uh-oh - very cute, anytime something drops or someone falls
mo - along with the sign, means more or I'm hungry
no - as in 'can we change your diaper?', answer 'NO'
mama & papa - although she doesn't typically say these when she sees us or in context, (more like babbling 'mamamamama') - once in awhile she will look at me and say 'Mom' or 'Mama' and the same with Papa

She knows where her tummy is, her eyes, her nose. She knows her toes and feet and hands. Her tummy was first - we'd say 'where's Kiley's tummy' and she'd stick it out (which takes very little effort really) and pat it. I love, love, love her feet. I call them her happy feet - as they are in constant motion. When she's really excited in the car she kicks them between the seats while I drive. She also does her happy dance, when she's having fun or something tastes really yummy. She LOVES to eat; now will do green beans, broccoli, spinach, roasted bell peppers (but not raw), tomatoes, strawberries, bananas, oranges, any kind of carb, cheese, yogurt, peanut butter, and on and on. She knows where the girl scout cookies are and she will go to them and point and grunt, or come and grab and hand and drag us over and point and grunt. If she's eaten, I will give her a small bite. She ALWAYS wants 'mo, mo...' and I tell her 'that's a treat and we only eat a little bit. Too much is bad for our body.' And she gets really mad, but we move on and find something else to do.

Kiley took a spill at Brownies the other day because she was tired and missed her nap. She hit her mouth on the floor (carpet) and it bled like crazy. It was scary, but Sydney was incredible - she whisked her to me and then ran to the bathroom for paper towels, then stayed with me while I rinsed Kiley's mouth and stopped the bleeding. Once all was under control, I realized I was shaking and repeating, 'It's ok, it's ok, it's ok...' which I realized I was doing kind of robotically to reassure myself as much as anyone else. Still Sydney was a trooper until a few minutes later when I looked up to see big tears in her eyes. She held it together longer than I did really, and when she lost it she was upset for awhile. I didn't realize that your mouth bleeds so much. Sydney and Kiley's shirts were both ruined because of the stains, and Kiley's mouth looked bad for a few days, but she's just fine now.

Included are a couple of pictures from lunch yesterday. We ate outside at Chuy's and it was gorgeous!! We're expecting a couple of inches of snow tomorrow??? Anyway, you can see Kiley's four teeth (just four) - with the same big gap between the front two that Sydney had with her baby teeth - compared to the gummy grin that is long gone. And, if you look closely, you can see three hair bows in her hair, because she finds them lying around and wants them all in her hair at once these days.

today....

2010-02-17T00:54:00.002-06:00

today, i stopped by for a visit at lunch. when kiley heard the door open she ran over with her arms together and with the biggest smile, ran over to see her papa.

....she had been playing with her mama all morning.

did i mention, how stinkin' cute she is? :)

stuff kiley loves....

2010-02-17T00:39:00.004-06:00

stickers...she just discovered them. or maybe it's something i just noticed. she puts them on our hands, clothes and sometimes on herself.

shoes & clothes....the other day we must have tried on 6 pairs of shoes. My sis donated a lovely selection of what must be 500 pairs of shoes (only a slight exaggeration) and kiley routinely has to try on a few any time she has an opportunity.

her car....yep, kiley has a car. it's not a real car but it's certainly a toy she can not get enough of. she finds a set of keys. our spare keys most of the time....where are those spare keys? Kiley!!!! they can usually be found in the ignition of her fred flintstone car (called that because it's foot powered) or in her einstein music table or in one of her many toy boxes. she's so stinkin' cute.

books....yes she likes books. some of which are the classics like goodnight moon and Angelina Ballerina and some that mia and reid (jacq and ryan's little ones) picked out for her. one is a barnyard book with holes in the pages for the parent reading the story to stick their mouth's into and make the animal sound. pretty funny. I think courtney hid that one. HA!!! She loves the I SPY books too. Loves 'em! and of course the Eric Carle books, the grouchy ladybug, the very hungry caterpillar. the one thing she does that i just think is adorable, is she'll find a book, bring it over to you and sit in your lap for you to read it to her. It's cute when she goes over to anyone but i especially love it when she does it with me.

eye brows.....this has got to be the most hilarious thing yet. okay so you look at her and when she wants to be cute, she'll raise her eyebrows...up and down, up and down. it's the funniest thing. it's like she knows just how cute she is. hahahaha. we have to get a video clip of that. it shouldn't be hard at all. HA!!!

tough little munchkin

2010-02-17T00:27:00.003-06:00

kiley is tough. she's bombarded by 4 dogs daily...yes, four. it's a curse and a source of entertainment. Kiley is constantly trying to avoid tails waggin', tongues licking, nudges of every kind and playing keep away with the snacks she loves so much. it's her little obstacle course....she is at just the right height for all those happenings.

The other day, completely unrelated to dodging dogs all day, on one of her long days without a decent nap she was playing happily and fell down on her precious little face. her two top teeth must have taken the brunt of the impact because her gums were bleeding like crazy. She cried quite a bit but was mostly okay. they were still a little tender for the next few days but now she's as good as new again. quite the resilient little one. i'm sure this will be one of many scratches and bruises that she and jake and sydney will come up against. It's difficult to think of them hurting themselves or getting hurt playing with others but i suppose that's all part of growing up. As for kiley, jake says that she is going to be tough.....for a girl anyway. :) I think he's right, especially with boo, magoo, austin and brownie around.

Valentine's Day

2010-02-13T19:34:00.010-06:00

This past Friday was Valentine's day for the kiddos. It's such a hallmark holiday but it's fun to remember the ones we love in a special way. The day before (Thursday) the kiddos and I put together cards for Courtney so that in the morning they would be able to surprise her. We laid out the plan earlier in the week. We would do cards at bed time and I would run out to get flowers and chocolate covered strawberries for the morning. We thought Friday would be perfect for the surprise since we weren't sure whether the big kids would be with their dad or with us.

Well, it worked. she was very surprised. she was up pretty late coding and finishing up some stuff for the end of the week. Sydney went in to wake her up so that she could have her hair brushed but she said, "mom, brush it out in the living room". jake jumped out and yelled surprise!!! She was very surprised and enjoyed the cards dark chocolate strawberries and flowers (at the kid's request, blue, yellow and red flowers, none with the fake looking dye).

The kids had their party starting at 1:50. Sydney had no trouble finding cards she liked and was so ready for the party days in advance. She had her box decorated and cards ready and at school well before the party. Jake wasn't as industrious and didn't really have his stuff there until the day of the party. Courtney found some great cards for the kids in his class that were very boyish. They were cutout football goals. They were pretty cool. I told him to make sure that he got one too because when the class was playing with them he was going to want to do the same.

At Sydney's party they had ice cream with sprinkles. I got there just in time to have some with her. She is really good friends with Sasha this year and we always find something to talk about. They showed me their mud pies and offered to let me have a taste. They are studying soils and were doing an experiment to see how quickly the mud drys. I passed on that, but did have some of their ice cream. Sydney decided she put too many sprinkles on it. I wasn't as concerned about the number of sprinkles so it suited me just fine. By then it was time to head down to Jake's classroom. The girls tried to tell me i was their maid and wanted me to throw there trash away. ...such is the life of a papa. :)

After that Courtney and I swapped classes. When I got to Jake's they were just finishing up on their snack. Sugar cookies with icing. Perfect for any party. The party's typically follow the same format. Snack, craft or talk/visiting time, and game. In this case we also had the valentine's to open but we ran out of time with the games. He was excited about getting home and loading up his nerf guns. He's got some impressive ones too. He can take you out from over 1000 yards with the laser sight. ha!

He's quite the boy. I should mention that his valentine's box was awesome. Courtney decorated it with pink and red wrapping paper. she cut out his name and pasted each letter to the box. and to make it more boy-ish she added some hearts with skulls!! I love it. She is so wonderful!!

The big kids went to their dad's that night and the bigger kids (Courtney and I) went to a mardi gras party in the neighborhood. It's such a good group of people. All our kids go to school together and have for the past few years. Kiley had her fun too. she had a new sitter that she quickly had eating from the palm of her hand. she's such a cutie pie.

I'll have to dig up some pictures to post. :)

A Stellar New Look!

2010-01-28T04:21:00.005-06:00

I wanted to share the FINAL design for my business card. I think it's beautiful - thank you so much Karen! And, thanks to everyone that weighed in on photos, tag lines, etc. There's a lot that goes into the creative process and I knew that, but it's still different to be in the middle of it, and I was grateful to have so much feedback and support.

Karen and I will be working together on the complete overhaul of a client's website, and I'm so excited to see how that whole process shakes out. They are doing a logo redesign, an on-site photo shoot, using a copywriter to nail the content, and then putting it all together into a new design for a custom wordpress theme. Stay tuned for more on that - I'll be mixing personal posts with more business/technical posts as I gear up to launch my new starlightsystems.com website & blog.

Beach Photos

2010-01-24T21:30:00.007-06:00

It was a little bit cold, but always nice to be by the water.

And to play in the sand. I think Jake would say that the highlight of the trip for him was playing whatever you call it when boys pretend to have guns and fight wars - in the sand dunes with Martin at the beach. If you look closely a the photo below, you can see Jake in the sand dunes - just about in the middle of the picture.

Kiley met a friend her age and got to share some beach toys.

Sydney and I collected shells.

Legoland New Years Eve

2010-01-24T21:07:00.004-06:00

We rang in the New Year at Legoland. It was crazy packed, but fun. On the way out, Jake ran ahead, but we snapped a few lego family photos. Kiley was passed out in the sling (we LOVED that sling on this trip).

The big kids were a little old for Legoland, but for the one day we were there it was perfect and so much fun just to see all of the creations.

These are in reverse order, ending with a family photo from when we first arrived at the park.

Kiley Stats

2010-01-24T21:01:00.000-06:00

We just had Kiley's 15 month appointment. She weighs 24 pounds and is around the 75th percentile in height and weight I believe. We didn't blog about it, but at her last check-up, the Dr. heard a heart murmur and also referred us to an opthomologist to check her eyes, since esp. her left one is sometimes pointed a little inward. In earlier photos, she looks cross-eyed in a few. Even though that had gotten better, I had a stranger stop me and tell me about his son's eyes and recommend I see a specialist for Kiley. So, we mentioned it to the Dr. and he said that if we saw any evidence of a 'lazy eye' past 9 months that he was supposed to refer us. The good news is that the eye specialist told us last month we have nothing to worry about, and this month our pediatrician heard no signs of the heart murmur. Kiley is a perfectly healthy toddling little girl.

She has a few words. Her first real word that she uses in context and consistently is Bye-bye. She will wave and say bye-bye - initially often not until the person was out the door, but more appropriately now. She says 'mo' and does the sign for more when she wants more food or drink, and now really when she really wants... something, anything. She can say 'Mama' and 'Papa', but doesn't do it on any regular basis. When she's upset, she will sometimes cry 'mamamamamama' very adamantly. I think we've written about this before, but she has said clearly, 'ball' and 'doggie' - but she doesn't use them regularly. The other word she says a lot now is 'Wow'. I didn't realize how often I use that word, but realize I use it as my personal clean expletive - whenever something surprises me. She's caught on and now whenever I say it I hear her going 'wow... wow... wow...' Pretty funny :)

Kiley now has two top teeth and two bottom teeth. She has that same gap between the top teeth that Sydney had with her baby teeth, and if you look at a photo of Sydney this age and compare it to Kiley there is a huge similarity. It will be interesting to see how that shakes out as Kiley gets older.

What a Difference...

2010-01-24T20:34:00.007-06:00

... 6 years make. This has always been one of my favorite photos of the kiddos from 2003. And, a couple of shots from our San Diego trip.

We had a great time. We hadn't really gone on a long, far-away family vacation since the Disney trip where Martin proposed in 2007. It was really a great, bonding experience. Granted, on day 2 I had to threaten the kids, but once I did, the fighting stopped and the whole dynamic just changed. (I told them I didn't come 1/2 way across the country to listen to them fight and that if they kept it up I would find a babysitter to watch them in the hotel so we could go out and enjoy our vacation away from their bickering...) Somehow being away together just made a difference in how we related. I've been in total catch-up mode since we got back - with work and business end-of-year and tax stuff, but hope to have a decent blog entry soon. Thanks to my wonderful hubby for keeping everyone up-to-date in the meantime!

An evening with the little cutie

2010-01-15T20:50:00.005-06:00

This weekend courtney is out of town working on a new scrapbook project. she does incredible work. I can't wait to see what she comes back with. :)

tonight sydney went to her dad's and jake is hanging out with some of his friends from the neighborhood, so it was kiley and papa. we played alot tonight cause that's what you do when youre 1 year old. one of her favorite games these days is hey chase me papa. so that's what we did for a little while. she runs around and i follow her. "where's kiley, where's kiley, where's kiley?" she dances around singing and dancing as she strolls through the house. i love the way she walks. rocking back and forth, back and forth. if she could whistle i bet she would be. it's very very cute.

we did that for about 10 min. that's about the limit of most games. We moved on to snack time. we had some fruit and veggies. I think the puppies got her last sippy cup today so we'll have to re-arm tomorrow. We need to be moving her to a big girl's cup at some point. maybe it's time?

i was thinking this could get boring for most anyone that's reading this very quickly so i'll shift gears and be brief. played with her car, played with barbie van, stumbled upon her brush on the counter and had to have it. she walked around for a while brushing her hair and dancing in front of a mirror in our bedroom. she is so stinkin' cute!! after one of the snacks her shirt was a little wet so we pulled the shirt off and on she went. playing more and more...we moved to the piano, this little leap frog music table she has, reading books and then climbed the stairs a little. i like to make sure she has lots of practice on the stairs. the sooner she's confident on them the better. :)

kiley goes Up the stairs....kiley goes Down the stairs.....doop-tee, doop-tee, doop.....we had a blast.

i chased her around a little more and finally the yawns and eye rubbing started. we did our good nights and she went to sleep very quickly.

i love our little nugget....:)

Kiley - Quick Post

2010-01-13T01:03:00.002-06:00

I took Kiley up to bed. She was a little cranky. I spread out her blanket and was about to lay her down. She decided she didn't like how I put it in her bed so she picked it up, threw it back down and put her head down in it.....with her butt in the air of course.

She is such a cutie. :)

Kiley Time

2010-01-09T13:50:00.002-06:00

This afternoon Courtney went to lunch with one of her girlie friends and me and Kiley had some time together. If you look around the house you can see exactly what we did. I tried to do everything she wanted to do. we had a snack. Bananas and strawberries, then we went to get tacos for all of us. We went to Rudy's for breakfast tacos. It's funny, when we started to leave from Rudy's this she got upset because she was thinking we were going to eat them there. I had to explain to her that papa dressed her this morning and she was a little mismatched and people would have looked at us funny if we stayed. We were quite a pair. her in yellow jammies, pink socks and a green and blue jacket and me in shorts and flip flops and a beanie in 30 degree weather. :) We looked sharp. Ha!!!!

So we got home and had second breakfast with mom and then played with her car for a little while. After that she pushed her stroller around for a little while with a one of sydney's purses on her arm. very cute. i got some video and some pics of that. After that she was very anxious about going out in the stroller. she kept climbing into it. i tried to explain that it was cold but she was very persistent. So i bundled her up and grabbed a jacket and we took a quick stroll around the block. When we got back we took a bath and played in the tub, then we played with blocks and trains and her little table games.

She's sleeping now so i think i'll pick up a little. We don't really pick up as we play so there is plenty to do.

it was a good morning. :)

San Diego - Day 6

2010-01-02T00:35:00.006-06:00

our final full day! this vacation has been a joy. except for the down times when we couldn't keep the kids occupied enough. they are truly a joy to have around. we took our time this morning and even let kiley get a nap in before heading out. today was a free day to stroll around seaport village. we did a little shopping and caught a couple of street acts before finding pizza.

we headed back to the hotel after a few hours, just in time to do....you guessed it, swim. i played with kiley before going down to the pool. so courtney got a great start on our packing in preparation for tomorrow. heading home....as i mentioned a couple of other times before it's been a great week. we stayed in a fantastic hotel where the staff went out of their way to be accommodating.

...im feeling tired...i may add to this post later. :)

The week went by very quickly, too quickly, and I enjoyed every moment. It was unusual that we would take a trip at Christmas time but our company gave us additional time off and it made sense to take a trip somewhere fun. It was the first time the kiddos have ever been to CA and they loved the beach. They noticed immediately that the sand was so much softer than we have on our Texas beaches. On one of our visits to the beach they buried Kiley's feet and she wasn't sure what to do. it was pretty funny.

San Diego - Day 5

2010-01-02T00:07:00.007-06:00

Hello all. I'm so glad you have made it with me this far. Today is going to be another good day. The plan was to head out to sea for whale watching then to legoland for good times and to bring in the new year with crazy hip-hop and fireworks.

we warned the kiddos that they should expect a boring sail out to the pacific and to bring games. that seemed to work really well because not once did they ask when we would be docking. so when it seemed as though we would not see any gray whales on our little 3 and a half hour voyage we saw a blow way off in the distance. a-hoy matties...

Towards thee I roll, thou all-destroying but unconquering whale; to the last I grapple with thee; from hell's heart I stab at thee; for hate's sake I spit my last breath at thee.

--captain ahab, Moby Dick

...I couldn't help it. We weren't quite ahabs but we almost did not find a whale. so the whale we were searching for were gray whales (whale migration). We didn't seen any flukes or breaching but we definitely saw a whale in the wild which was very exciting.

after docking we hustled off the boat, grabbed a bite then headed for legoland. the kiddos had some great times. miniland was one of the biggest hits and we spent most of our time there. it was also the location of the main stage and the "ball drop" which occurred at 6p.m. local time. (hey it's a kids park and they have bedtimes.) Se we saw what we could of the park and really enjoyed it. after some minor breakdowns as we waited for the countdown and fireworks to get started, i got jake to sit on my shoulders. i think it was as much fun for me as it was for him. so he got some good shots of the stage and then we watched the fireworks. kiley was a trooper as usual. she is amazingly always on the move....just like the rest of her family.

after the fireworks we took a short boat ride around miniland and then headed out. another great day!!

San Diego - Day 4

2010-01-01T23:39:00.006-06:00

I've gotten a little behind on my posting and now I have to remember what happened on day 4 and 5 before moving on to 6. Is that right 6 days? yep, i guess so.

...today the plan was to hit the zoo but it changed slightly because the kiddos had so much fun a the beach yesterday that we had to go back. So we started the day at the beach instead. the water is icy cold, but we went in our bathing suits anyway. Jake's goal was to play in the dunes and sydney's was to get in the water. Icy cold water i might add. so naturally we went to the dunes first. kiley was sleeping when we arrived so courtney stayed in the car with her and read. she loves to read so i think that worked out okay for everyone. we went to the water first and played in the shallows for a while then i went over to the dunes with jake while sydney worked on her tan (it was extremely overcast but she was intent on laying on the beach). we raced to the dunes (i hope we got a picture of them cause jake would really like that). we dove off the dunes and did some guy only stuff, hand to hand combat and grenades and hide and seek sort of stuff. since i was trying to divide my time as evenly as possible we then headed back to syd.

after interupting her tanning session we went back to the water and she and jake went fairly far out into the water, icy cold water, i should remind you. i went out almost to my knees which was far enough for me, then i talked them into building a sand castle that would definitely get hit with the water. we tried to build it so that when the water did eventually hit it, it could withstand one wave. we build barriers and created a moat and made the walls so that the water would flow around. kinda like a wedge. we waited and waited and well, waited until finally we saw courtney coming our way. the distance from the water to the sidewalk was about 100 yards. we went out to meet her at which time i'm sure jake demolished the sand castle. when we got to courtney and kiley we played with kiley for a while but decided that it was too cold for her. so we bundled her up and made our way back to the sidewalk and into the hotel for some hot chocolate and coffee.

the hotel del coronado is beautiful! it's old but the reoutfitted it quite nicely. we rode in an elevator with a operator and the steel gates. really cool. the kiddos didn't really get it but we did.

we got back to the hotel, had a snack then headed to the zoo. quite an amazing place but it got dark very quickly for us today and started raining. in spite of all that we got to see a lion pacing and roaring, elephants walking about and some really cute younger ones, and a recently born giraffe. We took a bus that showed us a lot of the rest of the park and made the best of it.

after another great day, yes you guessed it back out to the pool for time with sydney. ....oh that little sweet girl is nutso about the pool. so that was our day. bedtime came shortly after...goodnight brush, goodnight comb, goodnight bowl full of mush...

San Diego - Day 3

2009-12-29T23:44:00.007-06:00

Another day in beautiful San Diego. Were doing a great job at keeping it simple and staying away from any kindof schedule. woo-hoo! it's such a liberating feeling. it's like running down the hallway of your hotel with just a hand towel yelling woo-hoo, woo-hoo!!! ..um, not that i would know but i imagine it would be like that. :) So today we had breakfast caught up on our down time. jake read and sydney watched some tv. It's funny the kids would be completely content with staying in the room the entire time. if it wasn't for the parents out to show that what they would be missing they would definitely do that.

Today was pretty cool. we went to see the air and space museum in balboa park. at the entrance they have a replica of the the sr-71 lockheed blackbird. for those of you who may have forgotten, it's been around since the 60s and can go mach 3 past light speed, and when it's on the ground it bleeds fuel from it's tanks but only until it's airborne and the fuselage heats up. After that the segments expand and it seals right up. :) so it flys super fast and super high, something like 80000 feet. I'm kindof a fan. anyway i think it's final flight was in 1999, after being retired a couple of times. I actually impressed jake for a whole 20 seconds with that information. HA!! sydney was not impressed at all and kiley was too busy waving at strangers to be either impressed or embarrassed. you can read more about the blackbird on the wiki.

The rest of the museum had it's highs and lows for the kids. one of our favorite moments was sticking kiley in a couple of the small models build especially for the youngins and trying to put a play space helmet on her. very cute!! We had burgers, chips and soft drinks before leaving.

the kiddos were feeling a bit tired and uncertain about where we would drag them off to next. The beach was the obvious choice. We visited coronado island and the famous hotel del coronado. very nice resort type hotel on the beach. it's funny how the beach has such a powerful effect on kiddos. kiley was getting a nap in and we decided it would be best to let her do that instead of waking her so courts and i took turns having fun with the kids at the water's edge. it was way cool!

one of my favorite moments was seeing jake running back toward me after being at the waters edge just like a kid, with his hands waving around, a big smile on his face and very eager to tell me all about his adventure and what we needed to do next. there is nothing like that experience. i imagine he'll remember this beach over several of the others he's visited.

kiley finally woke up and we took her down to the icy water. :) it was quite cold but not icey and after a while she loved both the water and the sand. We stayed for a few hours and plan to make another trip over there before heading back to Austin.

it was a good day....no a GREAT day!!

San Diego - Day 2

2009-12-29T06:56:00.008-06:00

we are enjoying not having a schedule and having the flexibility of going into many of the parks and other places with our "go cards". today we went to the san diego zoo wild life park. it was really cool. most of the animals in the park are not confined as in other zoos. they have wide open spaces to run and play and appear to be very well taken care of. they do have smaller habitats but most seem as close to a natural preserve as you can get when you have a bunch of people wandering through the area. Kiley has been holding up to our non-schedules very well. she naps when she can and hangs with us every step of the way when she can't. she's been pleasant and happy on the travels.

the exhibit i enjoyed the most was seeing the giraffe and rhinos and other various deer type animals. it was the largest of the fields and watching the giraffe walk out from behind one of the hills was really beautiful. I think kiley liked the elephant habitat the best. we were about 40 ft from a small one.

at the elephant exhibit

this is an elephant

notice the recommended first aid in case of a tiger attack

something to climb on :)

a gorilla

Kiley pumping water all by herself

mom and kiley with a tiger....GRrrrrr!

hanging with the cool kids

after getting back to the hotel for the day, sydney decided to take me out to the pool again. two consecutive nights. the pool is heated but the temp is reading 40 degrees so heated or not it's still very cold. but she loves it and i think it's important to do what the kiddos want within reason when they are on vacation. so I'm sure my nights in the pool are not yet over.

mostly the kids are having fun but every once in a while realize they are brother and sister and make each other's lives difficult. it seems to get better with each day that passes.

right now the kids are up with courtney, hopefully getting ready for bed. I'm out doing some laundry in the hotel. it's been very crowded. we thought it would be great to pack only a few days worth of clothes instead of bringing and checking larger bags. The kiddos like to pack and have their own bags for the trip. I don't really get that, but that's the way it is and it helps them learn to be responsible for their own stuff. if it were me i would prefer to have the parents lug my stuff around. Ha!!! ....anyway i'm on my last load of wash (just three) and the dryers are actually working well so i may be out of here soon. I hope so. :)

....although it's strangely relaxing sitting here with very little to do.

San Diego - Day 1

2009-12-27T23:29:00.010-06:00

I'm calling this day 1 but actually it's the first full day. So Day 1, we had a fantastic time. We got up and had a great breakfast downstairs in the hotel lobby. It was very yummy. They had bananas which was extremely important to Kiley. :) She kinda loves them right now.

The time change has us all a little off our sleep patterns and that made for a tired day but we still managed to get in a few boat tours. There are a few boats and submarines that you can wind your way through. I think Jake enjoyed the subs the best but the old galley and storage vessels were pretty cool too. I have a great picture of jake in behind one of the cannons and some others of the rest of the crew too. I'll get them posted later this week.

Touring old ships

Jake below deck with a canon

Jake on a Russian sub

After a harbor tour which lasted an hour or if you ask jake and syd, an eternity we headed back to the hotel for some swim time in the heated pool. Kiley got a very very brief nap in. She is very excited about having been on her first flight.

We've had a few wonderful games of hot potato and some new board game that sydney just loves and seems to make it wonderful for everyone anytime we play it.

Kiley's first flight

Kiley helping to unpack

Kiley's killing some time on the plane

ciao for now!

The first few hours of Christmas at home

2009-12-24T14:48:00.011-06:00

This year we decided to stay home for the holidays (in Austin). My parents went to see the new addition to our family (Rishi) in KY. I can't help but laugh as I type KY because all I can picture is Sam in the I <3 KY t-shirt and how funny that was....I can be somewhat of a child sometimes...back to Christmas.

We made a trip to SA last week so that we could see the ortiz grand parents, visit jacqueline, ryan, mia and reid, virginia and jonathon. It was a very short stop but it was the only time that we were going to see my parents before the left to KY. (hahahaha).

Courtney and I have been laboring a little because we wanted to give jake his first real desk and chair and that led to getting a few other things. Courtney used craig's list to vanish some of his current stuff and make some additional room that we still hadn't gotten to since I joined the familia. While there, she found a couple of perfect pieces for jake that needed a little work. Courtney has some expertise in refinishing and making things look really good so we agreed that was a good way to go. And she was right on. She's done most of the work on the desk and side table but I've been able to share in the experience as well. What a task? All the getting ready for Christmas, cards, gifts, gift wrapping, selling, buying, and planning a short jaunt to San Diego has left us feeling slightly tired. Last night we got all ready to go to church and realized that we messed up the time. It's the only service that we would have been able to go to at our own church and we missed it. We caught most of it online....because our church is so progressive, but really missed being there and seeing a lot of our friends that were sure to attend. It was kindof a bummer for the evening. So instead we got the kids up to bed a little earlier than normal and started back at our furniture duties.

...Veronica and Sam's new baby arriving, the extra time that I've had off from work and the time that we have been able to spend with family and friends has been such a blessing.

Since we're leaving early early the day after Christmas to visit the San Diego Zoo and Legoland and other sites, we let the kiddos start opening gifts today. They were thrilled, of course. Most of their gifts are modest which we like since they have so much already. Thank you to all that thought to send something. They kinda like it when they get extra gifts. :)

....just thinking, with the family so spread out this year everyone should be ready to skype. :)

Merry Christmas!!

Christmas Cards are ORDERED!

2009-11-29T12:41:00.000-06:00

I think it is a record for me to have my Christmas card order placed before the first of December. Some of you have gotten many of my cards the week after Christmas - but not this year! I may be speaking too soon, as we still have to address and stamp them and actually put them in the mail, but at least I'm off to a good start :)

And, for just a tiny preview - here are the mailing labels:

Head Shots

2009-11-27T19:25:00.000-06:00

Today I did head shots for my business. In speaking with a couple of ladies who own High Wire Creative and are wonderful local web designers, I described my business and what differentiates me. One of the things I hear the most is that I am a programmer that people can communicate with. I also think that being a woman in a mostly male dominated business is a differentiator. Our conversations led them to believe that my image should be part of my 'branding' in re-doing my website, so I took the plunge and had headshots done. It seems a little weird and I feel kind of self-conscious about it, but these entrepreneurs have designed absolutely stunning business cards for a couple of other businesses using the logo and contact info on the front and a head shot on the back. And, in considering images to use on my website it seemed to make sense to have a decent business-related picture of me there as well. So, here are the results below, and I'll keep you guys posted as I get the final logo and business card designs and start to work on the overhaul of my website. If anyone needs something like this, I would highly recommend Korey Howell. She does family shoots and other stuff as well.

Christmas Ideas

2009-11-27T12:01:00.011-06:00

It was great seeing the family for Thanksgiving. We talked about Christmas a little bit and maybe this is a little tacky... BUT, we've been asked a lot about gift ideas for the kids and thought that with such a big family, this might be a good way to get the word out. So, here is a list. Maybe you won't mind putting a comment on the post if you get something from this list? We'll see how this works this year...

Kiley (13 months old) - we don't have many kids' toys for her, but did save a LOT of our books. In clothes, she is a size 18 mos for any winter/warmer items and a 24 mo. or 2T for summer things. She is a shoe size 4 right now - but she has very wide feet so some don't fit, and she won't be a 4 for long. Here are ideas for toys:

a jack-in-the-box for $16
Hasbro Playskool Busy Ball Popper for $28
a bath tub toy for $19
gogo caterpillar for $15
LeapFrog Fridge Phonics Magnetic Alphabet Set for $15

Sydney (8 years old) is pretty easy to shop for... in clothes she is more difficult because she is kind of picky and big for her age. She is mostly a size 14-16, a child XL or an adult XS, In pants, we typically find a 12 or 14 for her, but have to shop around to get the length right. Her shoe size is up to a 4 or maybe even a 5. Here are my ideas for Sydney:

Bella's mystery deck - $14 - she loves games and dogs and I like toys that encourage critical thinking and logic
customized Monkey plate - I know this one sounds crazy but she LOVES monkeys and the color blue, and I think it would be a winner. It's kind of pricey at $26 + shipping, but I found a coupon code for $10 off a $50 purchase in case anyone has another purchase to make from this store.
Frigits magnetic balls and ramps - $30
Zoingo Boingo Freestyle Pogo - $22
Justice gift card
Target, Barnes & Noble, Bath & Body Works, or even Gamestop gift card

Jake is by far our hardest to shop for. His attention span is brief and he is picky. And, he is limited in what we allow him to play compared to what he can do with his Dad (in terms of electronics, T rated video games, etc.) He wears a size M in shirts and a 10 in pants and a 4 in shoes, but is picky even about the color of the denim so I can't just go buy him a few pairs of jeans. Here are our best ideas:

a Gamestop gift card
Safari Rush Hour - $18 - he enjoyed Rush Hour Jr. and it was a fun game we could take on trips
~~Black Max football~~ ~~- $10 - Jake is loving football and this sounds like a great ball to try~~
~~Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Last Olympian - $8 - the final in a series of books Jake is currently reading~~
Boys from Brooklyn - $10 - another book that sounds good

When we get a comment that someone has bought something, I will mark that on the list so it stays current, and I can add to the lists if needed. Thank you all so much for trying this out with us!

Santa Claus is Coming...

2009-11-19T13:17:00.006-06:00

Can't believe it but he's already at the mall. We were there last night and there was NO line. Yes, you read that correctly. So, even though Kiley wasn't dressed up or fixed up and her shirt was dirty from dinner, we took the shot anyway. At this age, Sydney was TERRIFIED of Santa, but Kiley sat right down and even patted Santa's chest while she sat on his lap. Maybe Santa will be extra good to her this year... Sydney and Jake were there too, but I couldn't convince them to get in the picture. Sydney keeps asking me 'is Santa real?' over and over this year. I told her I think Santa is awesome and she's not satisfied with that at all. Jake's not saying anything - I'm sure he's afraid his big gift will go away if he's a non-believer.

2nd Anniversary

2009-11-13T16:42:00.003-06:00

My wife is incredible! Our anniversary was really nice. She left notes all around the house for me to find letting me know how wonderful I am. She and the kids made me a pillow that says that im the best papa. kiley stamped her hands and feet all over it.

Courtney also found me the most wonderful towels (cotton is the traditional 2nd anniversary gift). she is very particular about soft towels and i try to make sure that she has the softest towels and bought her a set for last christmas to add to what she had already. Well my wonderful wife thought it was important for me to have towels that were just as nice and comfy. She got me the manly color of olive. VERY VERY NICE!! VERY SOFT!!!

I got her some girly pjs. She has plenty but none that are pink and girly. now she has a few other choices. :)

She also arranged to have megan watch the kiddos so we could go to dinner. we went out to one of our favorite spots. Corazon at Castle Hill (the name changed but the menu is mostly the same).

Happy anniversary love!! xoxoxo