Visitors!!

We had a fantastic weekend! Haylea, Chase, and sweet Gage came to see us!

Actually they came to go to the Final Four, but we got to hang out as a bonus! Levi and Gage are 2 months apart and it was so fun to watch them interact with each other!

They saw each other when they were 6 weeks and 14 weeks, but of course they didn't do too much then. Well Gage did, but they were hilarious to watch this time. Gage was infatuated with Levi's hair! It's so luscious and beautiful who wouldn't be?!? Haha...on that note, he's getting a hair cut next weekend because people keep calling him a girl!!! Agh!!! What is girly about a kid dressed in blue riding in a red stroller??? Trust me....if he was a girl, YOU'D KNOW IT! Anyway...Gage and Levi would look at each other and get the biggest grins on their faces! It was soooo sweet!

"Hey man, let's get outta here....these chicks are driving me nuts!"

Story time before bed. :)

I know they will be life long friends. Haylea is like my sister. I love her beyond words and I feel so blessed that we get to travel this journey of motherhood together!

Saturday, Trent and I babysat while Haylea and Chase went to the games. We were tired of sitting in the house so we braved the world with two kids, they were both very good and it was a nice outing. We got asked if they were twins. Really?? Would you look at them? One Mexican looking baby and one blond hair, blue eyed baby. Sure...they're twins. :)

Sunday, we took the babies to the horse track! We kept trying to get them to look at the horses, but all they wanted was the bush that was in front of us. Gage finally petted a horse when we got really close. It was so sweet to watch him giggle as he touched that giant nose with his tiny hand!

Levi in Daddy's "gambling" hat.

I loved watching Gage scoot around the house, he's sooooo close to crawling! He is awesome at crawling backwards, so much so he crawled right under the couch!

Monday I took the afternoon off to go get Levi's passport. Thank goodness it didn't take near as long as I thought so I got to spend the afternoon with the Brownings! Haylea was basketballed out so she let Trent have her ticket to the finals. We got some much needed girl time and them some boy time. Except we had the two screaming kids with us. :) Well actually only Levi was screaming on the way home. Oh but our lives our millions times better because of them!

Randy and Teresa were also in town so they stopped by for a few minutes to visit us! It was so good to have some Amarillo visitors!!

I've just started putting shoes on Levi. I almost always have him in socks that look like shoes, but now I'm kind of obsessed with those teeny shoes! Both of these happen to be courtesy of Tia Diana!

Practicing his "tripod." He usually dumps over 3 seconds later.

Yesterday I got some MUCH needed comic relief in my class. As I've mentioned I have some English Language Learners who speak not much english at all!! One of them asked me "How many T Marty have?" I didn't understand....I thought he said teeth? So I said "I'm not sure the book tells us how many teeth Marty has?" (This is my student who does NOT want you to give him work that is easier...he is SOOOO determined to learn English well.) He says very frustrated "NOOOOOO How many T Marty have?" I finally realize he's asking how to spell Marty, as in how many t's are in the name Marty. While another students (who is not so determined to learn English and does ANYTHING to talk about anything besides her work) says "TEET? You baby have teet? How many teet you baby have?" "No, my baby does not have any teeth yet." "Do you baby um....um....how do you say *crawls on floor* He do like dis????" "No, he doesn't crawl yet either. We call that crawling." This all happened in about 60 seconds. I stopped and thought...what does this have to do with Shiloh? And someone should make a movie about this! Plus, I had to kill a giant spider this week. Giant as in probably 2 inches in diameter (legs and all.) I hate it when I have to be the adult in the room. :)

Happy 5 month birthday!

Holy Cow how did this happen?? I'm not sure where the last 5 months went, but I wish they'd come back!!

We have a big weekend ahead of us! My Batesie is coming! I know I've mentioned her before...but seriously she is the sister I never had. And her sisters are my sisters too. I love them all sooooooo much. Her baby boy is almost exactly 2 months older than Levi and I know we're gonna have a fabulous weekend!!!

It's April Fool's Day so of course my students tried to pull a few fast ones. The only one that really worked was our identical twins switching on us!!!! They are seriously IDENTICAL. One is about a quarter of inch taller than the other and that's the ONLY difference. Pretty hysterical, and they're just the sweetest girls! Another breath of fresh air in the midst of chaos....Shiloh. :) We're doing a novel study on this book and Marty's mom is trying to make him feel guilty by telling him that Jesus sees everything. We were having a discussion about what she was trying to accomplish when one of my students says "Yeah! And in the Bible it says THE TRUTH SHALL SET YOU FREE!" And then quoted the scripture location. I don't even know if it was the correct scripture location, but man my heart just exploded. I teach in a public school so of course I cannot teach these things, but it melts my heart when one of my students decides to share their beliefs! This is NOT a school where the majority of the kids are exposed to THE TRUTH!

I'll check in again when we're done with our great weekend! :)

A bad week followed by a good weekend!

So when I'm not being a wife or mommy, I'm at school playing teacher. This year has been a major struggle in my classroom. Let's just say my teammates and I keep saying "it can't get any worse." *hanging head in shame* It just got worse. Monday I got ANOTHER new student and this one has more issues than I could have imagined in my worst nightmare. I'll give you a small peek into my classroom - 73 kids, 11 special ed, 3 NON-english speakers, (2 speak Portugese and 1 Albanian, we're not talking espanol here people) FIVE behavior charts, 1 psych evaluation under way, a few kids with MAJOR issues and parents who refuse to accept it and move on, and 3 REALLY crazy parents. If you're not a teacher you might not get that, but we'll just sum it up with H.A.R.D. Thank heavens for my evening walks with my 2 awesome boys...they have no idea how they save me each and every night! We tried out the sippy cup last week. Levi has really been opening his mouth wide when he sees us drinking so we decided to give it a shot. He's not too sure what to do with the water but he has fun trying. :) I was trying to get a picture of the curls on the side of his head. Out of control, but adorable!

Fell asleep helping mommy cook dinner.

Then we headed to San Antonio to see Trent's family. One of his cousins was graduating from Air Force boot camp so the whole family was headed that way. Unfortunately Ashleigh got sick and we didn't get to see her, but we did get to see some of the family! We didn't do anything fancy, just old fashioned hanging out by the pool at Uncle Brent's! The water was still too cold for Levi, but the weather was gorgeous!

Grammy, plump girl, Levi and Poppy

Bad picture, cute necklace! I kept telling Trent to take pictures of me and Levi because I hardly have any with him. Fail.

But look how handsome these two are!

I love how he's looking at gunner here.

Us with Mimi

Our perfect family! (You'll have to excuse that plump girl that keeps showing up here...not sure who she is. :))

Daddy being silly. Another weekend in Uncle Brent's pool with no trips to the ER = success!

Levi getting some Mimi love. :)

So I'm definitely glad I'm starting my week with these memories fresh on my mind rather than harping on last week! I'm praying this one will go a little more smooth. And I'm SUPER praying for no more new students!!!

Spring Break Fun

It's weeks like these I am very thankful for my job! I love getting time off to be with Levi! Nana and Grandpa came down and Daddy went to Miami for work. I of course took hardly any pictures...but it was a great week! Here's a little recap.

Nana and Grandpa's first trip to the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo.
Dinner with Cuz at Pappasitos, yum!
Shopping a LOT with Nana (who might have lost all babysitting privileges by falling asleep on the job) while Grandpa went to Beaumont.
Getting Levi's passport picture taken.
Shopping some more with Nana while Grandpa played golf.
Grandpa babysat while Nana and I got mani/pedis.
A night of cards with my parents, laughing a lot!
*There is a family story of my mom, dad, brother and me taking a trip to Ruidoso during a horrible year in our lives (I was 10 or 11.) We were playing cards and no one remembers what was said, but we all remember LAUGHING HYSTERICALLY for about 30 minutes. Last night before we started playing we talked about that night, and then almost relived it. Except this time we're all in really wonderful places in our lives!

Levi LOVES to be outside! This face shows it all, he is always so relaxed whether we are just sitting on the porch or taking a walk.

Grandpa! Tell her to hurry up with that cereal!

He gets his hair texture from me. When it's even half way humid out (which it almost always is here!) his hair gets all wavy.

Playing with Grandpa this morning. Two very happy boys!

Skyping with Aunt Holly! Notice his precious little passport picture back there, we are going to visit Aunt Holly this summer! Now I just have to take a day off to get this passport business done.

Daddy comes home tomorow!! We're so excited, it feels like he's been gone forever!!

4 month check up

We saw Dr. Clarke today for our 4 month check up. We're a couple of weeks late because I scheduled it while I was off for spring break. We made it through the day much better than his 2 month check up! I didn't cry at all, and he only cried a little with his second shot. He didn't even flinch with the first one and I thought we might skate outta there with no tears...but the nurse said the medicine in the second one stings a little. He got pretty fussy after waking up from a long nap this afternoon so we gave him a little tylenol for his little legs. He usually LOVES to stand up (well bear weight on his legs) and he would cry when we tried so we knew what was wrong. Here's what the doc said....

14.1 lbs - he's a little on the small side compared to everyone else but according to HIS growth he's right where he should be.
25.75 in. - he's pretty long for his age compared to everyone else
16.5 in. head circumference - again a little on the small side compared to others, but good on his growth chart...I guess he did get a Nelson head. :)

He can start on rice cereal if we want to though there's no rush. We decided we'd try it and listen to him as far as if he's ready or not. We mixed it according to what the doc said and it was a joke! It wasn't hardly "solid" at all but he handled it well. He opened up for the spoon like a champ! Of course he barely swallowed any in the beginning but he got the hang of it by the end. He also said it was ok to try and drop the 10 pm feeding so we're trying that tonight! I guess I better get in bed in case I have to get up way earlier than usual. Here are a few pics from the first "solid" meal.

He ate most of the meal with his leg like this and sucked his thumb in between bites. Silly boy.

And I caught this one right before bed, seriously is that not the cutest face you've ever seen??

Batesie visit and the Rodeo

My friend Shelly was here visiting all the way from Kuwait this week! She actually had training all week so she went home (Crane) last weekend and then hung out with us this weekend. Trent hasn't seen the Bates girls since last year's boat trip so we were so excited they came to stay with us! Leslie drove down from Brownwood, and we wished so bad the last Bates daughter would have been with us! If you know the Bates girls, you know that there is no minute you are hanging out with them that you're not laughing...this weekend was no exception

Here's Levi ready to go to Olive Garden for lunch.

Trying on Dad's shades. :)

Anxiously awaiting salad and breadsticks!

The two coolest boys in the whole world...

The love of my life.

Another treat! My cousin Rob, who I was extremely close to growing up, is an Ag teacher so he's also in Houston this week with his students who are showing their pigs. We stopped by to visit him for just a second on Saturday at the rodeo, but I'm sure we'll see him again this week!

Levi's reaction to the rodeo. I guess I should be comforted by the fact that he probably won't be a bull rider when he grows up! He was fine walking around the fair, shopping, and animals but this is what happened the minute we walked into the rodeo arena. He was SO upset! A totally different cry than he usually cries. I guess it was way too noisy in there for his little ears to handle.

Trent went to check the stroller in and by the time he got back I had decided that we couldn't stay. I didn't want to be those people with the crying kid who just sit their and ruin the experience for everyone else. Once he got back in the stroller he was ok....as long as we kept moving. Every time we stopped this is what happened...

Ok, we're good as long as we keep moving...

I really was just taking a picture of the ridiculous things they have fried, but when I got home I realized the place was called Sweet Cheeks! That's what I call Levi. But seriously, look at the stuff they fried! Oreos? M&Ms? Twinkies? Snickers? Gross. Trent tried a fried twinkie, I stuck to the trusty chocolate dipped cheesecake. Yum! The rodeo definitely does not do good things to my still-inflated waistline!

Shelly's brilliant idea. :)

The closest thing to sisters I have! (we're missing Haylea:( )

And for some odd reason Shelly felt the need to eat this. That's a frog butt people. She said it wasn't too bad until it started to taste fishy, SICK!

We had a fantastic weekend, I'm so glad we got to hang out with Leslie and Shelly. I'm on spring break next week, hallelujah! I'm so excited to spend the week with our precious Levi and hopefully get some stuff done around the house. We go to Dr. Clarke in the morning for Levi's 4 month checkup which includes shots. :( I pray I hold myself together better than I did last time and don't lock my keys in the car, haha.