Bluebonnet Photo Shoot 2009

Today was our second annual bluebonnet photo shoot! It is a Texas tradition to take pictures of the little ones in a fresh field of bluebonnets (our state flower for those readers who are wondering why I dedicated a post to this!) and today was our big day. We went to the same field that we used last year which is just about 10 minutes from the house located on an access road off the highway. I had been waiting because the field was a little sparse as compared to last year, but I think the cold snap we had earlier kept the blooms light. I realized that the season is almost over and decided to take care of it before we missed our opportunity. I made my mind up that today was the day, but it was certainly not the best choice! The winds today were gusting at 49 mph!! It was insane! It was bright and sunny, but the wind was serious. Colin thought the wind was odd and he kept giving me faces like, "What are we doing here??". I took 40 pictures and most of them were of Colin running away from me in glee. I asked...er...pleaded with Colin to sit down for a few shots but the answer to that was a resounding NO. I still managed to take some adorable ones and I am so glad!! I hope to have a whole series of frames of my children in the bluebonnets every year. They will probably be embarrassed, but I will LOVE IT. :-) To see how much my little man has grown, check out last year's shoot!

Here is my normal view point. Running AWAY. :-)



This one is easily my favorite of the day and will be framed for sure. I think he looks like a little angel!



There was a LOT to look at!

Hey Mama!!! Look over THERE!!! (this is when I would have to take off running since he was heading to traffic!)

This is right when we got there. Colin was all about checking out the field. He could care less that I was trying to take pictures! Occasionally he would yell, "CHEESE!!", but it was when he was running away at the same time. Nice moves. ;-)

The day was good all the way around. Jer, being the scientist that he is, found out the space station was going to be visible in our night sky tonight and he even did the work to tell us the exact time and he took me out into the backyard to show me exactly where it would come from, the exact path it would take and when it would disappear. That man is a lot smarter than me. Anyway...it was SO COOL! We stood outside together and watched it trace across the sky...it felt so strange to know they are up there working in space and I am standing in my aggie pj's in my suburban backyard watching them. Having an aeronautical man living in your house has definite advantages. :) I love you, Jer!!

HAIL!

We had a storm last night that was absolute insanity. I quickly realized at around 10:30pm last night that I had never been in a serious hail storm...until that moment. The thunderstorm kicked in right as we were heading to bed at 10pm. We did not give it a second thought at first...but then the hail started. They were golf ball and SOFTBALL sized!!! It honestly sounded like we were being bombed. I have never heard anything so scary in my life! It was so insane that Jer and I looked at each other and literally took off running for Colin's room. I was in a complete panic. It sounded so horrible that I thought he was going to be scarred for life. Okay, so I am being slightly melodramatic. It WAS insane, though. Colin stirred, but quickly put himself back to sleep. Luckily it was over rather quickly, but it left a lot of damage in our neighborhood. Jer and I keep both of our cars in the garage and it was quite obvious this morning who does not. There are car windows out all over the neighborhood as well as a lot of roof damage. Our roof looks okay, thank goodness! Our grill took a major beating; both side tables got shattered (!) and we had to pick up the remains of it this morning. I am very thankful that the grill seems to be our only loss from the storm.


Colin has not taken a nap or gone to bed without a fight since Jer got home. He even woke up last night at 2:00am needing to be rocked, which has not happened in months and months. It seems that he is afraid that Jer is going to leave again. Poor baby!!! He gets very upset and reaches for Jer every single time we move to put him to bed. It is breaking Jer's heart a bit, but I think he should shake it off soon.


Here is the adorable Colin shot of the day...Jer was using the Swiffer and Colin decided to "help". Precious little boy!!

A Day of Daddy!

Colin is one happy little man today! We had a great day home with Jer that included a fun trip to Going Bonkers, lunch at Wendy's (Colin's all time favorite nuggets), zero nap (too excited) and lots of play at home. Jer has been carrying Colin around on his shoulders and he thinks it is the best thing ever. I got the adorable pictures below...I adore the action shot where Colin is gleefully beating Jer upside the head. The last one is the look on Colin's face when Jer told him to stop hitting him or get down. Hilarious and priceless! ;-) I love my boys!!

DADDY IS HOME!!!

OH HAPPY DAY!!! Jer made it home yesterday morning and we are one big happy family again!! It feels wonderful to have him home and know that we are done with this winter of being split up. Colin was so excited to see Jer and he smiled from ear to ear when we found him at baggage claim. We headed over to Cristina's for lunch on the way home and then got settled in back at the house. The weather finally turned sunny and warm again, so we spent the remainder of the day outside. Jer got a taste of Colin's new love of being in the backyard, so we decided to head over to the neighborhood park for a bit. Colin was full of energy and thrilled to be playing with his Daddy for a change! After a very busy afternoon of serious play, we headed home for dinner and bath time. It feels amazing to have my husband back!! Colin slept late this morning in a happy peaceful slumber and all feels right with the world. Jer is already at Home Depot this morning...he jumped up first thing to start taking care of all his spring "honey-do" projects. I could see him chomping at the bit yesterday, noting all the things he needed to do. One of Jer's best traits is his almost OCD like need to have everything fixed. :-) He already fertilized the lawn last night! He is the best husband in the world.


Here are a few pictures from the park yesterday. We stuck close to home going to the one in our neighborhood.

Twilight...movie version

I just finished the movie "Twilight". For those of you who do not share my intense fascination with these books, you can probably just skip this post. You know who you are. ;-)

Anyway, I have a LOT of thoughts about the movie. I thought that Edward and Bella were well chosen actors, especially Edward. This was a shock to me because the pictures I had seen floating around of the actor did not lead me to think he would fit the Edward in my head. However, I thought he was great. The scene where he pulls up in his car to save Bella in Port Angeles is when he won me over. He was delish in my opinion! I did not love the choices of the rest of the Cullen kids, at least so far. I think they all needed to be far more beautiful, especially Rosalie. I also pictured Alice much tinier and more adorable. Not that actual real life humans can measure up to the beautiful vampires in my head, but I digress. ;-)

I am well aware that movies simply cannot live up to books....there is just not enough time to cover everything. I thought it was a good movie, but it felt very much like a Cliff's Notes version of Twilight. It seemed to fly by, simply glossing over touching and stunningly written scenes that had created such vivid images in my mind. The book was also written from the mind of Bella, and it really took something away to watch the movie when you could not read her thoughts as you did in the book. Don't get me wrong, I will certainly see the rest of the movies! It is just my opinion that they skipped over a LOT in this opening round. I think they should have spent far more time showing the evolution of Bella and Edward, even if it made the movie an hour longer. It amazed me how they ran through that ending with James. The movie did not create near the incredible situation that the book did. I was left wanting way way more.

I can also admit that it would have been utterly impossible to create a movie that lived up to the world that Stephenie Meyer created in my head. Which is why I think she is an amazing author to say the least!!

CUTE CUTE CUTE!!!!!!!!!

I am running a bit behind on posts this week...time seemed to slip away from me! On Thursday I took Colin to Master Made Feed in Grapevine to check out a very special story that we read in the Ft. Worth paper. Jer's mom pointed the story out to me over dinner last weekend and I had no choice but to check it out for myself! This feed store sells baby ducks and bunnies and they have a kitty named Tigger who lives in the feed store and takes care of the babies as if they were her own! She has been doing this for some time and apparently mourns each litter when they are sold, but soon gets more babies to take care of. Being a sucker for all things fuzzy and adorable, I knew we had to go see for ourselves. Sure enough, this was too much to handle! Tigger got up and headed out when we arrived...she climbed up on some shelves and then disappeared. The owner, who was incredibly sweet and seemed to enjoy Tigger's new found fame, told us that she is usually actively taking care of everyone in the morning hours, so we will go back soon! The little ducks and bunnies were the cutest things you have ever laid your eyes on...Colin LOVED them! He was not pleased that I would not let him in the bin with them. ;-) He was also a huge fan of the feed store in general. They had tons of stuff everywhere and Colin walked up and down the aisles inspecting all of it. What a great time!! We will be stopping by often to check on all the cuteness!

Mommy Reporting

Well, I feel much better. Thankfully my sore throat only lasted 24 hours. I have a regular old cold now complete with stuffy nose and head and the annoying tickle cough. But I feel okay, so I am very thankful!! Colin also has a cold with a runny nose and sneezing, but he is better today.

I have been a very busy bee the last few weeks. I have taken Colin to virtually every single child play facility under the sun. He seems to be thriving with all the action and his afternoon naps have been blessedly long and his sleep at night has been awesome. Every morning after breakfast we venture out somewhere. This week it has been the indoor play area at Northeast Mall, two local parks, and yet another bounce house place this morning. I was very pleased because the place today had a GREAT Sesame Street bounce house with all sorts of goodies inside that Colin loved. There was also a mini slide that I was able to stand beside and hoist him up to with ease. He must have slid 100 times in the hour we were there. He was getting so excited to run back to me and do it again that he started falling down and screaming with laughter. It was adorable and we will definitely go back. This place was $8 for the visit, which is the same as the one we tried Sunday. Colin liked today much better, so we will go back there for sure. However, for pure Colin joy, nothing beats Paradise Pond. In fact, we are going back tomorrow morning! Yea for Thursdays! :-)

Now for the great news...Jer is coming home on Sunday!!!!!!!!!!! I CAN'T WAIT!!!!!!!!!! We Skype with him every night so that Colin can see him and he always kisses Jer's face on the computer screen to say, "night night". He is going to lose his mind with excitement when he can kiss the real thing! And me too, for that matter! ;-)