Done with Blogger

It occurred to me not so long ago that I'm going to need to change the name of this blog pretty soon. So the other day, I set out to remind myself how to do that and also to change the background. And, low and behold, I find out that MY gmail account does not have access to that part of MY blog???? After lots of hassle, I have decided to forget it and start up a new one. You can find it here: http://katcez.wordpress.com/ . It's not finished yet, but I was able to import all of my blogger posts to it. So far, I'm finding wordpress to be a bit more complicated but I really like all the customization they offer.

Happy Reading!

Big Girl Madeleine!!

Miss Moo has used the potty twice!! Oh, how glorious it would be if she was out of diapers by December……

Another trip to Cayman

We went with all of my extended family on this trip, with one exception - J. He had to stay behind and go to school and take a trip to Virginia, poor guy. We had another great time that just didn't last long enough. Both girls loved playing in the sun - Claire loves the sand and beach, while Madeleine much prefers the pool. Good thing we had lots of people willing to help! If you're interested, here are all the shots from the trip - the good, the bad, and the ugly. Claire was quite the photographer with Aunt Luby's camera, and I think you'll be able to tell which ones she took.

And now, August looms, with lots of preparation in store for school starting up soon and a very special 5th birthday party coming in September!

Click here to view these pictures larger

Prince Charming

I forgot to mention the other details from the ultrasound the other day: He's weighing in at a whopping 10 ounces, which puts him in the 22nd percentile. We also got to see him yawn a great big yawn, and he spent most of the time with his fist in his mouth. He was so wiggly the tech left for a bit because he was just not cooperating and holding still long enough for her to make the measurements she needed to. And, the best news of the day was that his heart looked just fine. We had a little scare at the earlier ultrasound when they found a marker for a heart defect, but it's gone now! We'll go back in about another month for the next look at our BOY!!!

The other 20 percent

So way back during our first ultrasound, the baby was lying funny, but the tech was pretty certain this was yet another little girl - 80 percent, she told us. Well, turns out she was 100 percent wrong! We had another ultrasound today, and, no doubt about it this time, this is a BOY! We are shocked and excited, again. (This child sure does have it out for us.) We were afraid of telling Claire, who had proclaimed this baby a girl with the name of Cinderella a long, long time ago, but she took the news surprisingly well. She decided that Cinderella would be a silly name for a boy, so she's now on the lookout for a new name. As are we - looks like there will be no Beatrice or Camille joining us just before Christmas.

Wow, a BOY! Time to shop!!!!

Lately

Things have been busy around here lately. Here's a bit of what's going on with all of us......

Claire is doing great. She's made a nice little group of friends, and she's all set to start school in August. She's also growing like a weed, although we can't seem to get over 31 lbs. She's up to size 5 shirts and dresses and size 4 skirts and shorts. Fashion and jewelry are big interests at the moment, with pink still being a necessity in all outfits and pants still on the "no way" list. She's finally letting me put her hair in a ponytail as long as a trip to the park or the splashpad is in the immediate future, but otherwise it must be down with some sort of huge flowery headband perfectly in place. And, thanks to the movie Tangled, she hasn't had a haircut since she turned 4. She's also reading, and it's pretty crazy how good she is. She won't admit to it if you ask her if she can read something, but then she asks a question about some detail in a book or on tv that she could have only read. Her favorite book at the moment is a reference book about the ocean, and she can't wait to go back to Cayman so she can "snorkle like H". She's also fascinated with planes and has decided she wants to be a pilot, specifically of an F16. Amazing what 5 months at an Air Force base will do to ya.

Madeleine is also doing great. Conveniently, all of Claire's friends have little brothers and sisters her age, so playgroups are fun for all. She still seems to be more interested in sitting and eating rather than playing, but that's fine with me. She doesn't seem to be gaining much, if any, weight, but she is getting so tall. She's just about outgrown her 18 months clothes length-wise, which is a huge bummer since C spent about an entire year in that size and we have tons of clothes. Her hair is bleached from the sun right now, but definitely wants to go reddish, and it is CURLY. She must have pigtails, otherwise it's one big afro mess back there. She is learning new words every day, and her pronunciation is getting better and better. She can also identify quite a few colors and C has started teaching her some letters. It's so very cute to see them sit on the couch together and read a book. M is also starting school in August, and, as long as this little Mommy-only phase we're in goes away, I think she'll do great. She's going 3 days a week, which is more than I originally wanted, but I think by December I'll be wishing it was a boarding program.

J has had quite a few big accomplishments at work lately. He's been awarded two separate grants, with one requiring research at CERN in Switzerland. We're hoping space is available for him next May so we can all tag along. He also just started his PhD program with AFIT and seems to be enjoying it so far, as much as someone can for just being 3 days into it. I have no idea was 75% of the words he uses means, but I have a feeling it won't be long until I'm back in the swing of it. It's definitely weird to hear him use words and phrases that I haven't heard him say in 8 years. And when he's not reading some weird nuclear engineering or military book, he's running. He's training to do another marathon in September, so that will be exciting. C can't wait to watch him race.

I'm doing just fine, too, just trying to rest as much as I can. For those who haven't heard yet, we're expecting Baby#3 in December! I'm 16 weeks along, which makes my due date Dec. 15, my birthday. We've had only 1 ultrasound so far, and the consensus is that this is another girl. She was lying a bit funny, though, so we'll know for sure in about a month. J is not surprised in the slightest, but my symptoms have been completely different this time around, so I was thinking boy. I have absolutely zero sweet tooth, and I could eat peaches, grapes, and raspberries all day long. I can feel her move every once in awhile, and she already has some super kicks since my shirt has already started to jump when she gets me. We haven't come up with any names yet, and if J gets his way, none of you will know until she's born, anyway. I'm working on him to tell the name earlier, but we'll see. I usually have no luck when it comes to that.

Friday

We headed to base on Friday evening for a night filled with fun! Wright Patterson had their annual tattoo, which, unlike what the idiots in J's office thought, had nothing to do with body art. It was a big festival, with lots of music, fly overs, and ended with fireworks. We met up with some friends early in the evening so the kids could enjoy the bounce houses before it got busy, then we found a spot on the lawn to watch the show and eat some pizza. Madeleine LOVED the fly over. She settled herself on my lap and quickly learned to cover her ears when a plane approached. Claire was fascinated at first, but then the appeal of playing chase took over. After the planes were finished, we let the kids do a few more bounce houses, then picked up a funnel cake and said good bye to our friends. We had been told that the traffic getting off base would be horrible after the fireworks ended, so we trooped back to the car to watch from there. I was so impressed that the girls stayed up as late as they did. The fireworks didn't start until after 10, and they were still going strong even after they ended. Sure enough, the traffic was horrible. Even with us leaving immediately after the fireworks, we still sat completely still in the parking lot for 45 minutes before we started moving. Next year, we'll plan differently.

And, of course, the battery on the camera died seconds after I turned it on, so we had to resort to a phone camera again....

Daddy and M coming down the huge slide. C was on the other side but was way too fast to catch her.

Fly over time

Just some pictures off my phone

I took these a couple of weeks ago when we went to a nearby park. The girls love going here to watch the ducks (and the dog who chases them away), smell the flowers, and run through the little maze. It was a hot day, but we had a great time!

See the baby?? The girls were very excited.

Cayman May 2011

Click here to view these pictures larger

Weekend in Pittsburgh

We met J's Aunt Judy in Pittsburgh for the weekend and had a fantastic little trip. We drove 4 hours all the way across Ohio, about 10 min through West Virginia, then another 20 minutes in Pennsylvania before we made it into Pittsburgh. The girls did great in the car, with lots of sleeping, reading, and movie watching. Once we made it into town and unloaded the car, we piled back in with the intention of exploring the 3 Rivers Arts Festival which started that day. We did not realize the crazy amount of traffic headed in exactly the same direction for the Pirates baseball game, so what should have been a 20 minute drive turned into an hour. We finally made it, only to quickly realize that our Suburban was not meant to park in downtown Pittsburgh - it was too tall to fit into any of the parking garages! Definitely a first. So, instead, we picked up a couple of pizzas and went to a great park and conservatory by the Carnegie Mellon campus. And after all that time in the car, the girls did just what they needed to do - run free!

Pizza Picnic

Checking out some flowers

Can you see them? Nope, not squirrels, the girls are bent over looking at clover flowers.

We had a different plan of attack for Saturday's venture into downtown. Instead of messing with the Suburban, we dropped it off in a lot just outside of town, then moved everybody into Judy's car. We had no problems parking, then went to explore the area where the arts festival would be starting soon. We walked along one of the rivers and scoped out which art booths Claire wanted to visit when it opened. Of all of us, she definitely had the best time. We were there right when everything opened, which meant she had first choice of all the activities. We spent some time at the PBS tent making a paper plate bug, then moved over to the Children's Museum area where she launched paint rockets and made sand art with Madeleine. The day was starting to get pretty hot, so, much to her disappointment, we finished up at the giant cardboard fish painting station then grabbed some lunch.

Along the river

Paint Rockets

Sand Art

Giant Fish Painting

Catching a quick snooze

Our next stop was to meet up with one of Judy's college friends. We met at Carnegie Mellon, walked the campus, and ended up back at the conservatory from the night before. Claire had wanted to walk the gardens on Friday but it had already closed, so she was happy with getting to explore some more. I was getting pretty hot by this point so I waited in the air conditioned cafe, and soon enough everyone came back ready for ice cream. Claire did a little shopping in the gift shop, then it was on to our next stop of the day - hunting for H's old house and high school in nearby Fox Chapel. We had no problem finding either of them, and I enjoyed putting real places to all the stories I had heard about when he lived in Pittsburgh. We got as close as we could to his house, but it's at the end of a long and winding driveway, so we didn't go far. We oohed and awed over all the gorgeous homes and the beautiful grounds of his school, then headed back to the area of town where we were staying for dinner and bedtime. We were exhausted after such a busy day.

H's old house

Shady Side academic buiding

Sunday brought sleeping in (hurray for sleeping later than 7!) then a big breakfast before we got back in the car for the drive back home. The girls did great again with riding, and we even found a treat for ourselves in Columbus - one of the only 2 Jason's Delis in the entire state! It was glorious! I'm seriously considering buying a franchise just so I can have one closer than an hour away.

Memorial Day

We had a perfectly relaxing Memorial Day - just what we needed after our perfectly relaxing 2 weeks in Cayman. I sat in the shade, the girls played in their little pools and ate homemade popsicles, and J manned the smoker. Couldn't have been better.

Finally, an afternoon without rain!

Of course, not even a minute after I took these shots, the rain started falling.....

And notice the jackets - we barely got into the 50's today. Spring, where are you????

Thanksgiving post

Better late than never.....click here

Before the blog

we had a little Nikon digital camera that we bought just before Claire was born. It pretty much lived in my purse, and therefore recorded just about every little expedition Claire and I took. (Ahhh, days of only one child and our daily photo shoots....) As she grew into a toddler, she was fascinated with this camera (probably since it had spent so much time in her face for her entire life), and I had to be more aware of where I put it down in fear of sticky fingers. Fast forward a bit to Christmas, 2007. Lots of pictures, lots of toys, lots of distraction. And the camera disappeared. The last place I remembered it was when were going through the gifts back at home (in Cypress - wow, 2 houses ago!), throwing away boxes and paper and so forth. It was there, taking pictures of C trying out her new bike seat for Mommy's bike, and then it was gone. Unfortunately, I didn't realize it was gone until after the trash was long gone. We lost all the pictures from Claire's second Christmas. I was very sad. We didn't buy a new camera for quite a while, so I was forced to use the horrible camera off of our camcorder and rely on friends for pictures. So, really, we don't have many decent shots of Claire for a lot of the beginning of 2008. But yesterday, a glorious event occurred.

In celebration of the first day of beautiful weather in a long time, we worked outside a bit in the yard yesterday afternoon. We decided to blow up the bounce house to keep the girls occupied and to make sure it was still working so we could use it for our party coming up. (Honey and H bought it for C for her first birthday, and we hadn't used it in awhile.) J plugged it in, and everything worked exactly as it should. The girls were ecstatic. And then, I saw something:
It's the little Nikon camera!!!!!!!!!!

All these years, we've blamed Claire for throwing it away. But, if you will take a look at the last few shots on the memory card, I think you will see who the true guilty party is:
Daddy!

Hahahahaha!

If you're interested, I downloaded all the pictures on the memory card and put them on walgreens. Click on the little picture of Claire below if you'd like to take a trip down memory lane. These pictures cover from just after C's first birthday to Christmas. It's truly amazing how much Madeleine looks like Claire!!!!

Our little pre-writer

During our shopping spree at Barnes and Noble today, Claire discovered the journals section and was hooked. She really wanted one with Hello Kitty on it, so we made a deal: everyday while I'm putting Moo down for a nap, she'll draw a picture and write a sentence about it. She is perfectly capable of writing and, in a manner perfectly appropriate of her 4-year-old self, spelling, but her confidence for those things is really low. I'm hoping this will get her excited about writing, and so far, so good! She was so proud of herself after writing her sentence about flowers. Any guesses as to what she wrote?

Answer: "Flowers have petals and a middle."

Fiesta Friday!

And Gramma sent some dresses!

Pretending

Even though the temperature never got above 35, and we received about an inch of snow today, we kept on with our plan to go summer clothes shopping in preparation for our quickly-approaching Cayman trip. It was pretty ridiculous to leave the mall with shopping bags full of summer wear, then brave the sideways-blowing snow getting to the car. I've never had to dump snow out of the stroller before putting it in the car. Anyway, when we got home, we continued to pretend it was warmer outside than it was. We did a trial run of the girls' Easter dresses and decorated Easter cookies. What a fun day we had!

Sorry for the quality of these pictures - I was using my phone.

Can you guess which one C decorated???

M's first ponytail!

This was a favorite of Claire's, and now Moo's old enough for one, too!

Fiesta Friday!

We took inspiration from Chuy's this week: fish (or, in my case, shrimp) tacos with Spanish rice, beans, homemade creamy jalapeno dip, and the hit of the night - homemade tortillas. Claire is quite the tortilla press master, might I add.

Here's the dip:

This is the recipe I used - it tasted EXACTLY like Chuy's: http://www.food.com/recipe/chuys-creamy-jalapeno-dip-182136

And Madeleine eating the dip:

And the tortillas: (There were more, but they were so good, we couldn't stop eating them.)

Here's the recipe for these: http://homesicktexan.blogspot.com/2007/03/and-end-to-my-quest-flour-tortillas.html They were so easy, Claire and I are planning a Monday afternoon tortilla-making party so we can freeze a bunch for whenever we want one.

And Claire eating the tortillas:

Trip to College Station

Yes, it happened in November. Life was a bit crazy then, however, so the pictures from that day are just now making it to my computer. Enjoy the recap, nonetheless!

Aggieland

One month

Since today marks exactly one month since the girls and I landed here and Dayton became "home", I thought I do a little recap and record what's been going on.

I'll start with what everyone asks about: The Weather
It's cold. And wet. But it's astounding how fast we changed what our definition of comfortable is. Before we moved here, if the temperature was below 60, I was cold and wanted to stay inside. Now, the new cut off temp is 40. In a month's time, we've gone from average highs in the low 30's to the mid 40's. We even got close to 60 last weekend! But it snowed last night and hasn't gotten about 35 today. Spring is getting closer, but it's not here yet.

The House
We're making amazing progress toward getting unpacked. There are still quite a few boxes in the garage, but the vast majority of the house is unpacked - and even put away! It's amazing what can happen when I'm not stuck on the couch with morning sickness like I was when we moved in to our San Antonio house. We've unpacked many boxes that were packed in Houston, so it's been fun to rediscover our stuff. We've started painting, and I'll make sure to post before and after pictures once we're finished. I think we've picked some great colors that match our tastes while maintaining the integrity of our 1927 bungalow. Well, except for the rock and roll girls' bathroom upstairs.

The Neighborhood
It's great. The houses all are filled with character and history. The parks are fun. We walk just about every day, as long as it's not below 40 or raining. I can't wait for the spring when everything turns green. And our neighbors seem great, too. We met a bunch of them last weekend when the weather was nice and people ventured outside. There are lots of little boys on the street, so we're going to need to venture further to find some girls.

The Girls
Claire and Madeleine are adjusting very well to this big change. Madeleine doesn't get it at all, but Claire does, and I was worried about how she'd do with moving so far away from everyone she knows. We have our moments when she'll get teary and declare "I miss ______" but those moments are happening less and less frequently. She misses going to school very much, so we've found a school where she can start as soon as we want her too, and they also offer a summer program. And, even better, Madeleine will hopefully be able to go next year, too. She's on the waiting list, so we'll see. They seem to enjoy sharing a bedroom, especially in the morning when they wake up and play together and let Mommy sleep just a little bit longer. It'll be even better when Madeleine no longer eats Claire's crayons.

J
Nothing has changed for J on the job-front, with the exception of it happening in Ohio now instead of Texas. He had a great meeting with his mentor at AFIT this last week, and he's set to start classes in at least the summer, and possibly as soon as the end of March. His research sounds incredible, but that's pretty much all I can tell you because I don't have a security clearance high enough for him to tell me anything other than that.

And, Me
I'm really doing well! I like that I know I can settle in and get situated for awhile without fear of another move looming. I've joined the neighborhood moms' group, and it seems like there are a lot of potential new friends to be found there. Things are definitely moving in the right direction, and I'm sure we'll all feel even more settled a month from now.

Happy Texas Independence Day!

I don't remember ever acknowledging this event in the 30 years I lived in the state, but get us out of it for a month, and it's a big deal! In honor of the day, we'll be enjoying chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes with gravy, and homemade pecan pie. I also found Shiner at Kroger! In the imported beer section, of course.

Fiesta Friday!

Cheese Enchiladas!

Nothing but trouble

About five seconds after I took this picture, 100% of the contents of that white box were all over the closet. And she accomplished that while sitting squarely on her zebra the entire time.

On the subject of Mexican food

In an effort to keep up our accents and maintain some cultural ties, I have instituted "Fiesta Friday" in our house. This means that dinner every Friday will consist of some sort of Mexican food and, much more importantly, J's famous margaritas. Last Friday, due to mountains of moving boxes, I cheated, and we ordered take out from the "best" Mexican food place in Dayton. It was passable, and will do if we're ever desperate. So today is my first real Fiesta Friday. Since the weather has been unseasonably warm, we decided that grilling fajitas would be a good, easy choice, and the girls and I headed to the grocery store this morning to get the fixings. Shouldn't be hard, right? Just meat, beans, and tortillas, pretty much. Well, welcome to Dayton.

Since time was short, I was hoping to find pre-marinaded meat. After the butcher looked at me like I was nuts for asking if he carried any (seriously, his jaw dropped open and he stopped what he was doing to stare at the weirdo with the baby tied to her back), I decided to just pick up some skirt steak and do it myself. Well, they don't sell that. Instead, the closest thing I could find is something called "flat iron steak" which looks close enough. We'll see.

Next, on to pick up rotels for Spanish rice and some refried beans. Nope, no rotels by the rest of the canned tomatoes. And, nope, no refried beans with the rest of the beans....hmmmm.....

Of course! They're on the international aisle!

Arg.

And that shredded Mexican cheese blend? It's called nacho cheese here.

And fresh jalapenos? Forget it. Only pickled.

And you know how tortilla chips constitute about 98% of the chips aisle at HEB? I only have 3 choices here, with the best being On the Border.

Amazingly enough, Kroger has a tortilla bakery thing onsite, so I picked up a pack and we'll see how they do.

I'm thinking my Fiesta Friday is going to be a bit more complicated than I had planned.

The last few weeks in review

After a long time coming, we're finally settling ourselves in for our new adventure in Ohio. J and Grandpa drove up with the pets and a 22-foot Penske a couple of weeks ago, and Grandma helped me fly up last Sunday with the girls. I am so thankful we did not have to drive. The horrible ice storm threatened them the entire way, and they pulled into Dayton just as the worst was coming. And combining that with the incessant screaming of a car-sick cat would have certainly put me over the edge. The boys worked on "little" projects around the house the rest of week, including one involving the building of a second floor to the garage accessible only by dumb waiter. You should see J get down from up there.....

When we flew in we were greeted by freezing temperatures and a layer of snow on everything. Claire was ecstatic. It was too late to go out and play that night, but she did quickly the next day when it was actually snowing.

(Yes, Mom, those are the butterfly pants....)

The novelty quickly wore off, especially when lows dipped to zero by midweek. We had a team of movers and 2 trucks show up early Tuesday morning to unload our stuff, and a new team show up for part of the day Wednesday to unpack our things. I was leery of that at first, but I'm so glad we had them come. They finished in 4 hours what it would have taken us 4 weeks to do. We spent the rest of the week organizing and checking out our new town.

Grandma and Grandpa flew back to SA on Saturday, and we spent the majority of Sunday at home, trying to put things away and organize more. The temperature got up to 55 yesterday, and the snow is starting to melt!

Today is J's first day back to work, and I'm planning to check out the Kroger. Let the fun begin!