Pray for my friend, Jen, today

My life-long friend, Jen, found out Tuesday that she lost her second child at 34 weeks gestation.  They do not know why Baby Ty's heart stopped beating on Monday and might never have the answer.  He was 4 pounds and 3.5 ounces and measured 18.5 inches long.  Please pray for Jen, Brendan, and their 2 year old son, Tegan, while they grieve-- especially today at 4:30 pm as they bury Ty Gary.  I can not imagine the pain of losing a child; my heart is very heavy today.

Beautiful 2 year old faces

Saturday at the Aquarium

Charlton went took a guys' trip to Dallas Friday and Saturday with some of his college friends.  So, Steven and I went to the Downtown Aquarium with my parents Saturday morning.  Charlton and I  had taken him on Memorial Day and he loved it, but we hadn't made it back there since.  It seemed like a good day since it was cold and gloomy with a chance of rain.  He had such a good time that it was hard to get him to really focus on any of the tanks for very long...

...that is, until we got to the tiger exhibit at the end.  Memorial Day he went right up to the glass and seemed upset that he couldn't pet them.  Saturday, he was scared to be anywhere near the glass and wanted me to hold him for a while at first.  He finally got down to watch more closely, but when the tiger walked close and caught him by surprise his reaction was pretty funny (to us).  We've noticed that since his 2nd birthday he's become a little more cautious and aware that things can hurt you.  He talks daily about things that "can hurt you" like the stove, oven, cars (in the road), his seatbelt (I explained we wear them to protect us from getting hurt).   

He did enjoy this area where you could "touch the starfish and sting rays with one finger," and stand behind the scuba gear.  We don't know the "big boy" in the picture above but he's cute too. 
I always wait to the end to take a picture of Steven and I, and of course as usual, he's done taking pictures by then.

Cadence

Charlton's sister, Jenn, delivered Cadence Elizabeth on Friday around 1:00 pm.  We went to see her after she got home from the hospital yesterday.  She is so tiny (6 pounds and 2 oz.) and precious- very alert not wanting to miss a thing.  Another niece to enjoy girly things with- I love it!  Steven was napping at Mimi's and so has not gotten to meet Cadence yet.  I am so glad we didn't take him because last night before bed his diaper gave evidence to the fact that he has a virus.  We are staying in today and tomorrow but so far he's been fine today- not happy I'm enforcing a BRATS diet- but healthy.  Needless to say it will be a little while until he gets to visit her- I should has known because he got a virus during Meadow's birth too and I didn't get to see her for at least a week.  

Leave of Absence

Sorry about the break I've taken from blogging.  I've been working on setting up my new apple website and blog.  I'm not sure what happened but I was doing something else on my computer over the weekend and a box popped up.  I glanced at what it said and then remember hitting a "Relaunch" button.  Stupid.  I lost everything I set up and it was ready to go, I just hadn't published it yet.  So, I guess I'll keep using this one until either Charlton can recover it or I do it over.  Pictures coming soon.   

Christmas Family Pictures at Mimi's

The trend on Charlton's side of our family is that there's a new baby every year.  We didn't actually have a baby born in 2008 but Meadow was born in November of 2007 and Jenn's due in 4 weeks so it certainly was close this time.  The kids change so fast we try to get family pictures every year around Christmas.

Copies of Patrick and Cheryl's pictures from Christmas.  Man, I love these girls!  How could you not?

Christmas Day at Mammaw's

After a few hours at home we headed over to my mom and dad's house (all the way down the street) and had tons of fun with them, Lindsay, and Kyle all day.  Steven and I made my mom this plate with his handprints on them.  [We made one for Mimi too but I forgot to get a picture of it- remind me to next time we're over, Brenda.]  I took him one morning to Mudpie Company, a paint your own pottery place, and an employee helped us do the handprints.  Then I went back that night with girlfriends from the neighborhood and did the rest.  It was so much fun!

Steven yelled "BIG present" while he was opening this one from Lindsay and Kyle-- next picture...

The "big" one was a Tonka fire truck- pretty cool!

Kyle (and Lindsay) picks out great presents but the reason Steven loves him is because he reads and plays with him.   Though, Steven says you can still keep the presents coming, "Kycle" and "Insey."  =)

Mammaw and Pappaw got Steven a t-ball set (among many other things), 

and a picnic table for the back yard.  

Christmas Morning

Every year since Steven's been born we have set aside Christmas morning for the three of us.  This year we started a few new traditions- I made smoothies (Steven's favorite) to tide us over while we opened presents and stockings and played.  Once Steven got his, he wouldn't put it down.  Then we had a hard time pulling him away from his cars for breakfast- a quiche.  Don't know if I've ever heard of a Christmas quiche, but why not?!  That's what we wanted, so I made it the day before.

His stocking was filled with stickers, fruit snacks, and Cars (Lightening McQueen, Mater, and Doc Hudson to be exact-- to go with a present further down).  I get stickers at the dollar store and scored big when I found Cars (the movie in case you missed that) stamps.  Steven loves getting stamps on his hand at school.  He shows and tells everyone we see about them.  You just can't beat the dollar store, can you?!  If you haven't seen Cars, you really should.  Steven highly recommends it!

Last year we just filled Steven's stocking since we knew he'd get plenty of presents at grandparents' house and wouldn't know the difference.  This year he definitely understood and loved presents, but thankfully, was more interested in playing with what was in them than in opening his others.  He only had a few to open so we took our time.  His presents basically consisted of cars, trucks, and lots of books that I got at Half- Price Books.  I also made him a notebook for his stickers.

Kristi, does this look familiar?  Steven saw his cousin Billy open this Mac car transporter at Ma and Pa's and thought it was the most awesome thing he had ever seen.  =)  I was planning on getting him some kind of car/truck from Cars and this had both so it was perfect!  He has already played with it for hours upon hours.