Zoo!

This is over two months late, but I want to document Carter's first trip to the Houston Zoo! We went the first week in June so it wouldn't be too hot and we could hopefully beat the school groups since it was the last week of school.  We went with our playgroup which was perfect since most of them had been and showed us the hot spots!

We started in the aquarium with Courtney and Case.  Carter was more interested in the sunscreen tube than the fish.

Then we saw the seals.  Carter loved them until they jumped out of the water to touch the ball and splashed back into the water.  He HATED it and would cry every time they would jump.

Next up was the elephants and longhorns.  I tried to get Carter to say "Bevo" but he wasn't interested. 

 One of the very best parts of the day was the chimps!  They were right up against the window and there was a ledge for Carter to stand on.  He could touch the glass and the chimps would stare right back at him.  They were rolling around, eating and playing together.  We stayed for awhile since it was cool inside and Carter was very content to just sit and watch the chimps play.

Another cool exhibit was the giraffes.  We paid to feed them which was a super cool experience.  Carter didn't really notice and was as interested in people watching as he was in giraffe feeding, but it was still pretty cool.  And provided for some great pictures!

We also saw the rhinos, lions, tigers, bears and monkeys! Well, only one of us saw the monkeys.

Carter NEVER falls asleep in his stroller so you KNOW he was tired if he was sleeping outside and missing the monkeys! He slept the entire way home, too!

I'm anxious for the weather to cool off so we can go back to the zoo.  Especially now that Carter can walk I really think he would have a blast.  We're going to need to look into getting a zoo pass.

Football is Here!

IT'S OFFICIAL! Matt hit the practice fields at 6:15 this morning for the start of 2-a-days! Football season has begun! 

He sent me a copy of his schedule for this first week, and holy cow, he literally is on the field all day.  Varsity practice ended at 10:15am and freshman practice started at 10:16am.  Not even time to go to the bathroom or eat lunch.  Ouch!  I'm going to have one tired, hungry, sunburned coach on my hands this week.  

We swung by to watch a little bit of freshman practice on our way home from the grocery store, and look who we ran into! It was perfect timing, even if Matt was in a bad mood and stressed from first practice.  I'm glad we got to see him since he will be home after Carter goes to bed every night this week.  

It's a little (okay, a lot) bittersweet knowing that we won't see a whole lot of Matt until the season is over.  I'm thankful that Carter is still young enough to not really know the difference or ask for Matt, and extra thankful that I'm still staying home from work so we can run up to the school anytime.  Matt absolutely LOVES his job so it's all worth it when he's as happy as he is.

And the weather is supposed to be low- to mid-90's this week! The "feels like" temps are higher, but still not as bad as it could be, or was last year.  We even have a little rain in the forecast, so hopefully that will provide some cloud coverage for our guys.

17 days until kick-off! 

Happy 3rd Birthday, Brooks!

Happy birthday to you,

happy birthday to you,

happy birthday dear Brooks,

happy birthday to you!

Happy birthday to my best girl! I can't believe you are THREE!! I still remember felling you roll around in your moms tummy and the day you were born feels like yesterday.  The past three years have been so fun and I love watching you grow up.  You are the very best cousin to Baby Carter and he loves you so very much.  Happiest of happy birthdays, Brooxie Kate.  We love you! 

Five on Friday

april/ christina/ natasha/ darci

Sooooo....I've been wanting to link-up with the Five on Friday girls for awhile now.  How fun are they? But, I've held back since my blog is private now and can't really do a link-up.  Lame.  So, I've decided to participate and just not link-up.  Sound like a good compromise?  I thought so too!  Here goes.

{ONE}
I've managed to find some reason to go to Target everyday this week.  Y'all!  I've also managed to stay within our weekly budget, but I feel a little guilty.  In my defense todays trip was to buy gifts on behalf of others and get some velveeta for dinner.  Somehow I managed to get home and the velveeta was still at the store.  Total bummer.  So we had to eat our taquitos with ranch instead of queso, which actually wasn't half bad.  (We used this recipe....you can thank me later.)

{TWO}
Matt and I have a date night planned for Saturday night and I'm so excited...I've been looking forward to this since last weekend.  It's our annual "last night out" before football season starts and we don't see each other for five months.  Two-a-days start Monday and I don't think I will eat a meal with Matt until after our first game on the 29th.  :(  Matt wants to go to Taste of Texas but I'm kind of craving Babins.  Carter is staying with Nana and PawPaw, so if we can stay awake long enough, we may even catch a movie.

{THREE}
I'm on a roll getting smocked clothes for Carter.  Not sure where he will wear them (preschool?) but how cute are these??  #ineedanintervention

{FOUR} 

I posted my first #tbt (throwback Thursday) on Instagram yesterday.  This was one year ago today.  How cute are my boys?? 

This is the perfect excuse to post precious baby pictures of Carter every week, am I right? I can't decide which picture to use next week.

{FIVE}

I recently discovered Amazon streaming with our Prime account.  Whoa, time suck! I've been re-watching season 9 of Grey's (my fav show!) and am planning on starting Downton Abbey next.  Is there anything else I should add to my watchlist??  I love staying up late watching entire seasons of shows back-to-back...it's the only way to watch TV.  :)

source

Galveston

Me: "Carter we're going to the beach to see Eva!"

Carter: "Yay!"

On Wednesday the 24th Carter and I hit the road for a day-trip to Galveston, TX.  Emily and her family were there for the week and that's just WAY too close for us to be to each other and not visit.  Plus Matt and I were supposed to go to Midlothian the weekend before and had to cancel so Matt could work.  So I owed Emily a visit and couldn't wait for Carter and Eva to see each other again.

Carter and I hit the road right after breakfast and he napped on the way to the beach.  It took us less than 2 hours to get there, which was perfect for his nap.  We met Emily and her family at the beach and Carter did much better on the Galveston beach than on the Florida beach.  He sat in my lap at first but slowly warmed up to the sand and tried to eat the sand.  Typical.  He didn't venture to walk around the water but was content to just sit and play in the sand.  Success!

It was so good to see Emily, Eric, Ella and Eva.  Ella is so grown up and Eva just seems like she's months older than Carter instead of the actual 2 days that separate them.  She walks so well, eats with a fork and spoon, says more words and says them clearly, and definitely naps better!  Carter would not go down for a nap so he stayed up and played with Ella while Eva napped.  I think he sorta fell in love with Ella...don't tell Eva!

Our best attempt at a group pic

We headed back to Katy about 4:00 and finally pulled into the driveway about 6:30...we hit major traffic.  I actually ended up stopping about halfway home so I could turn his carseat around to face forward so he could watch Praise Baby while we sat in traffic.  Poor baby has his fathers patience and does NOT like to sit in a car that is not moving.

It was too quick of a trip but I'm so thankful we got to see Emily and the girls before school started.  I really wanted to make it up to Midlothian to see Emily's new house, but I'm hoping to make it up before Christmas.

Love you, Em! 

Rosemary Beach, 2013

At the beginning of the month we packed up our stuff and headed west to paradise aka Rosemary Beach, FL.  We had not been to the beach since our Destin trip in 2011, so we were really looking forward to being back in the sun and sand.  Especially with our mini in tow! We were anxious to see how Carter would react to the sand and water: I said he would hate it and Matt thought the opposite.  

Packing for our trip was super stressful! We flew there and Carter sat in our laps so we only were allowed 2 free bags and we had to fit all of us stuff for 3 people in those 2 bags.  I think Carter's stuff took up more room than both of ours! Thankfully the house we were staying at had a pack-n-play, high chair and washer/dryer so we only had to pack a few outfits each.

We were so incredibly nervous about flying with Carter, but he blew us away and did awesome on the airplane! He slept some, played and ate a little, and crawled across our laps visiting everyone.  The most stressful part was checking our carseat and bags (we were 7 pounds over!) and getting through security.  We literally had to run to our gate and right as we got there Carter had a huge blowout so we had to stop and change his entire outfit.  Needless to say this was us once we got on the plane and seated

Matt ordered a Bloody Mary once the drinks carts came around, lol.  The flight was only a little over an hour and a half and was during naptime so Carter Man slept most of the way there.  I'm so proud of my little flyer!

The rest of the day Sunday we spent driving from Panama City to Rosemary Beach, looking for Chick-fil-A only to find one and realize it was Sunday, grocery shopping, unpacking, grilling and exploring the beach and our house for the week.  Stephanie and Robby decided last minute not to come so we were definitely missing them and our little Mason and Graeme.  The left side of this house was home for the week.  Notice our two little rentals cars...they were Yaris'...tiniest cars on the planet!! 

Monday we spent the majority of our time at the beach and pool.  Guess who was right about Carter's reaction to the beach....ME!! He hated it! He was fine as long as you were holding him or if he was sitting on a towel, but he did not want to be in the water or on the sand.  No sir.  This picture is so mean but it perfectly captures his sentiments about the beach

Little did we know that would be our last day at the beach.  Tuesday it started raining and did not stop for the remainder of our trip.  And not just sprinkling....it poured all day and all night for the next 5 days.  We were under severe weather advisories, our street was flooding and the wind was insane.  We walked down one afternoon when the rain wasn't too bad and the sand just felt like needles stabbing you as it hit your skin.  Awful!

So we spent a lot of the rest of the week inside just spending time together.  Matt was really happy because he said his idea of a vacation is inside and in air conditioning.  Haha!  True words from a guy who spends his life on the football field.  We did venture out for some shopping and ice cream at the Sugar Shak!! We even traveled to Destin one day to hit the outlet mall (with every other tourist in the state...that place was slammed.)

Carter loved hanging out at the house.  In the kitchen there was a really deep cabinet that he loved to crawl into and sit and play.  We affectionately called it "baby jail" since we could close the door on him.  He loved for us to open and close the door and play peek-a-boo.

So even though we were inside a lot and had a great time cooking and eating, resting, watching Carter entertain us, and going out to eat.  Since Carter didn't like the beach I guess the weather worked in our favor! 

Eating bacon with Dad

Celebrating the 4th

Making silly faces 

On Friday it actually stopped raining long enough for us to visit the beach again.  It was dark and actually did sprinkle on us some, but by that point in the week we were willing to take what we could get.  Matt walked Carter up and down the beach and he enjoyed people-watching and flirting with other little girls.  

That evening the rain held off enough for us to take some family pictures on the beach.  Carter wasn't smiling or being very affectionate, but I still think they turned out pretty great.  The overcast skies provided just the right atmosphere for great pictures.  

Thanks PawPaw and Nana for another great family vacation! The weather might not have cooperated but it sure was a great week spent with great company.  Again next year?!?