No Apologies...

I feel terrible that I haven't posted in so long, but it's been crazy busy. I have a bunch of pictures to post and i'm going to try to do it as quickly as possible. So here goes! :)

We have a picture almost exactly like this of Rachel about this age waking up in our bed.
These little counting bears toys are so fun that Rachel doesn't realize that they're educational!

It's like Bruce Jenner went to Mardi Gras in 1978!

Rachel loves any excuse to get to use her new Tinkerbell umbrella, but it was pretty cold this night and she wasn't out in it for long.

It's moves like this that keep my on my toes all day long!
They are so sweet with one another; I couldn't be happier about it! I'm just hoping they're still like this when they're teens!
"Don't look at me! I didn't do it!"

"Mmmmm! Rootbeer!"
We celebrated Mother's Day and my father in law's birthday with a feast of lobster...
...crabs...
...and what you can't tell is also calamari, frog legs, hush puppies, and corn on the cob.Next up...Easter 2011 :)

Hoedown Videos

Here's the two videos of Rachel's hoedown lunch at school today. She did SO much better than at Thanksgiving (when she pretty much just had the proverbial "deer in the headlights" look the whole time and sang nothing!). It probably helped too that the crowd was much smaller today than at Thanksgiving.

There are two songs on the first video and one on the second. The last song cracks me up because the kids are all over the place and you can't really tell what they're saying until the end. And I apologize for any bad camerawork...I had to hold William while I taped the performance and he kept trying to grab the camera!

I'll have more pictures up later, but this is all I have time for tonight :)

Dancing Queen

Rachel's preschool teacher has got some 'splaining to do :)

Give the video about 30 seconds before it gets really funny

**for clarification, the answer to her daddy's question is "Ms. Cori's room" **

William's Birthday Party

Here are photos of William's first birthday party. Like the white rabbit, I have no time, so enjoy!

My happy birthday boy!

The happy birthday big sister

Birthday cakes; one for him, one for the rest of us

Birthday cake eating progression...watch how he gets messier and messier :)

I'm really glad I didn't dress him in his party clothes until after we had cake!

And opening some gifts

Walking William

I finally got a video of William showing off his walking skills (and quite a bit of caveman grunting...not sure what that's all about!). When people ask me how he's doing with the walking, I say "he's going to be the type to not want to give up his training wheels!" He can walk without holding onto something, but he doesn't like doing it :)

My Baby Is One Year Old!!!

I don't know how it happened because it feels like we just brought him home from the hospital a couple of weeks ago. But William is now officially a year old! :) He still feels like a baby to me; maybe that's because Rachel is turning into such a big girl lately. It also may be because he is so darn cuddly! He loves to cuddle, and he's still so pudgy too which i know won't last much longer once his walking picks up speed. I love my little guy so much, and as far as I'm concerned he can stay a baby forever if that's the way he wants it! Here's some pictures from the last few months of my SnuggleBug (I'll have pics of the party soon!).

Enjoying the sippy cup; the child can drink a whole cup of juice in about 45 seconds!

Now that he's walking everywhere, he gets into everything. So we've fashioned this play area to keep him safe; Rachel has figured out how to get in and out on her own.

Look at all those teeth! He has ten right now and is cutting two more molars on top.

Just some random sweet pictures...

William's adventures out the doggy door...

...me? go out Max's door? never!

Well, maybe I'll just stick my hand out and check the weather.

I'm not really going all the way out, i'm just looking Mom...

Yeah, ok...I'm going outside. Come and get me!

He must stick his tongue out a LOT because i have several pictures like this!
I know 16 year olds who wish they looked this good :)
Being more mobile means now he can get into more mischief!

She's a Big Kid Now!

Rachel's been asking for weeks now for her Daddy to take her ice skating (she's asked him because 1) he can actually skate, and 2)I told her Mama is klutzy enough on dry pavement and carpet). So a couple of weeks ago we decided to treat her because we are finally...drum roll please...almost completely potty trained!!!!! (i say almost because we're averaging about one accident a week which is fine by me; she's even dry when she gets up in the morning) We've been working on this for over a year, and in retrospect I think we handled it correctly. So many times we heard "she'll do it when she's ready" and I thought "great...she'll be in pullups when she starts kindergarten" because she showed no interest in initiating anything (though she would often go when we prompted it). Then one day, just out of the blue, she announced to me quite emphatically that she was "a big girl...me no baby" and she's been using the potty ever since. She's also very excited about her big girl panties, something we'd introduced to her before but she showed about as much interest as she would have in quantum physics. In fact, earlier last week she overheard me (though i didn't know she was within earshot) telling Joshua that the next goal should be to transition from the separate port-a-potty type to the kiddie seat that fits over the regular toilet lid, but we agreed not to push too hard since we're so ecstatic that she's not going in her pants anymore. Not an hour later she said she was going to use the "big potty", moved her stepstool from the sink to the toilet, put the kiddie seat on the big seat, and has been using that ever since. I'm guessing that maybe there was some positive peer pressure from preschool at work here since she's the youngest in her class; all I know is that I'm overjoyed! It's true...she didn't do it until she was ready and it was her idea, but i think she wouldn't be doing it now if we hadn't been practicing beforehand either.

So anyway, back to the ice skating! Here are some photos of her big time at the Galleria Mall Ice Rink in Dallas. Our efforts to go on a weekday were thwarted, so it was a little difficult catching everything on camera with such a crowded rink on a Saturday. But she still had a great time and only fell once, and not badly at that. They skated for a good 45 minutes, even letting go of the wall after the first couple of laps around! I am so proud of my big girl! :)

Here's a video of her first moments out on the ice. You have to wait about 24 seconds before you'll see her; when you see the guy in the aqua blue short sleeve polo with the ball cap come onto the ice, then she comes out right after him. Poor thing, you can see her feet just go right out from under her and thank goodness she has her daddy holding onto her! The poor camerawork is due to me laughing at her cartoon-esque movements! I felt so sorry for her because i know the feeling of stepping onto the ice for the first time, but couldn't help but laugh at how funny she looked, like when cartoon characters run in place before they take off.

Lap #1
Holding tight to the wall! Getting more comfortable :) I asked Joshua if he remembered what she was saying here; he couldn't remember exactly but he does remember her saying several times "Hold tight me daddy!"

Ice skating makes for a very peaceful ride home! (and Daddy would have joined them except he was driving the car!).