Getting ready for Summer 2013

     The kiddos are almost finished with Mother's day out for the year, even though I feel like I was just getting everything ready for the beginning of the year.  We have lots of fun things planned and have already been to the beach with the Willards this past weekend - which was great!  It's pretty awesome that our kids are old enough to play so well with their cousins now, and I love getting to know all of my nieces' and nephews' unique personalities.  Mae and Chaney were fast friends.  These sweet girls played dress-up, doctor, had a tea party, and played with Murphy (Mitsi's dog) for three days without any fights (amazing, I know!).  Layton had a great time at the beach. He loves to jump the waves with his daddy, and he and I kicked the soccer ball around for a while. The weather was great. The water was a little cold for me (I hate cold water, one of my things), but it was just fine for everyone else.  Hattie Joy ate so much sand that it turned up in her diaper....She literally became "one with the beach"! Haha! It would be great if we could do a yearly trip to the beach with the whole Pair family :)

     

   

     Layton had his first sleepover Sunday night. It might have been a terrible idea to schedule this the day we came home from the beach (Matt and I were pretty exhausted), but we made it happen because it's difficult to schedule things like this with everyone's activities.  I'm so glad it all worked out. Layton and Luke had a great time playing video games and watching movies. They ate pizza and stayed up  late. All in all, a pretty successful sleepover!

Some quotes from the boys:

Layton: Luke, how old is your mom?
Luke: I'm not sure...probably 99 or something...she's older.

Luke: If you put your head under the covers long enough you'll die.

Layton: I put two pillows at the end of the bed at night so monsters don't get me.



Chaney recently had her 2nd birthday party (which was Little Mermaid themed, just like her friend Ella's).  It was extra special because she had lots of family here for it, including two sets of grandparents! She's also made some GREAT friends in Sugar Land over the past year who came to play.  Our home is now filled with dress-up clothes and pink toys.

Chaney is talking non-stop these days.  She loves to sing and dance and knows several songs including: Ring Around the Rosie, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, ABC's, The Itsy Bitsy Spider, You Are My Sunshine, and Jesus Loves Me.  She also knows all her shapes and colors.  I'm thinking about putting her in some dance classes soon.


May 20, 2013

Chaney's words @ 16 months

This is random, I know, but I wanted it in here :)

Tayton (I miss this)
wawa
cup
daddy
mom
pa
nana
hattie
mae
ella
rhett
cracker
berry
car
ball
play
baby
night-night
hot
wet
dog
duck
cheese
potty
diaper
hair
eye
nose
ears
arm
fingers
toes
boat
bubble
sock
shoes
color
cho-cho
mine
apple
what's that
cake
cookie
elmo
purple
mimi
eat
banana
hoho (pirate)
slide
no
play
down
up
bow
wet one
computer
dora
ham
hello
bye-bye

Fall 2012

Layton

Tee-ball is going okay for Layton.  He really enjoys hitting the ball, but getting him to pay attention when someone else is hitting the ball is a different story.  And, getting him to keep his hands out of his pants is another story all together ;)  Layton really loves to color these days, and he is SO good at it.  He's working on filling up a scooby-doo coloring book.  Recently I learned that he's understanding addition. 2+2=4  3+3=6  4+4=8 5+5=10, and he can spell a couple new words, mom, dad, Matt, and he might be able to spell Chaney.  This past week Matt and I went to Boston (which was fabulous! We had THE BEST TIME!), and Layton and Chaney went to Clyde with Matt's mom (Nana).  I'm not sure who had the best vacation! The kids LOVE going "home" to see our families! They were able to go trick-or-treating with their cousins, and play, and play, and play out in the country.  I'm so glad that they're able to do that every-once-and-a-while.  It does make me a little sad that they aren't growing up the same way I did.   We started a "thankful tree" at our house.  We pin a different leaf to our tree every day until Thanksgiving.  So far  the only thing Layton has told me he's thankful for are people. No toys, or TV shows, or games,  I wanted him to come up with some funny, 5 year old stuff, but instead he showed me how much he truly loves his family and how important relationships are to him.

Chaney

Chaney started putting two words together!! This is major!! She says things like car go, nana dog, daddy work.  She still LOVES to look at books, and gets so excited that she squeals most of the time when someone reads to her :) I read to her for over an hour at a time, and I'm pretty sure she would have listened longer. Chaney is doing great at MDO.  Her teachers are always saying that she is one of the leaders of the group.  Probably has something to do with her LOUD voice! Her favorite songs are row-row your boat, abc's, firework (katy perry), and we are never getting back together (taylor swift).  She loves to dance and spin around in circles (a little scary when she does it around the brick fireplace!).  Chaney tries to do ANYTHING Layton does.  The latest is jumping off the couch. I swear she going to break her leg, and today at the park she tried to jump to a pole to slide down the playscape, Luckily I saw her and caught her mid-air, by her leg, before she landed face first on the ground!  

Trip to Boston!!

Boston Common

We had so much calamari while we were there. Yummy! 

Touring the harbor 

Oh yeah, there was a hurricane!

Our swanky hotel

Harvard Campus. This church was beautiful!

I'm so thankful we were able to take this trip. It was much needed time together. We both realized while we were away that we had to start doing this more often.  Real life is always so busy!


November 2012

Questions

Chaney: what's that?  All day long,  from the time she wakes up until we lay her down for the night!  She wants to know who the people are in pictures, what the decorations are hanging on the wall, what the people are doing outside, and on, and on, and on!  She can tell you where her hair,  nose, eyes, ears. mouth, teeth, hands, fingers, toes, and belly button are. She really likes to point out other people eye's out when she first meets them. Up is down and down is down with her. She LOVES to wave to everybody and yell HI, pretty much the cutest thing ever!  Chaney has been on the move from a very early age, and she's still going. She climbs on everything, and now, she runs. Yesterday Matt found her on top of our bookshelf. We're pretty sure we'll enroll her for gymnastics when she's 18 months! Chaney LOVES to follow Layton around (usually when the feeling isn't mutual).  They do love to play chase in the afternoon, and they'll kick a ball back and forth.

more words:
car, keys, dog, door, banana, berry, diaper, more, Elmo, Mae, Nana, milk, water, hot, shoes, outside, bite, phone, whoa, baby, remote,  ham, cake, thank you, color, haya! (karate noise)



Layton's questions are a little deeper...of course.
Why does it rain?
Why does the sun follow us?
Who made the compass, and which way are we going?
Why does the car engine have to stay a certain temperature?
Which way is California? He's asked me this several times, maybe he plans to move there.

For the past couple weeks I've gotten lots of questions from him about Jesus, probably because he recently went to a vacation bible school.
When is God going to come take my heart out of my body?
When is He going to take me?
What are we going to do up there?
Will Chaney go to Heaven?
Will Nana be there?
Is there a big garage up there to fit everyone's cars?
Can I take your phone to Heaven?
Does God fly down in a rocket ship to pick us up?

Layton is also trying to tell jokes, which is kinda hilarious. He is starting to sound out words and loves using his tag reader.  He chose to play tee-ball this fall over soccer, flag football, and karate.  We'll see how it goes! We've been trying to work on his back-talking problem. Geez. One would think this wouldn't be a problem until they were teenagers......NOPE!   Evidently it starts at 4 or 5.  Let's see, what else... Layton has already lost TWO teeth. Crazy, I know. He was able to collect on the first one, however the second one he swallowed.  He has a birthday coming up, and he'd like pretty much anything he sees on TV or in the store! Ha!

Everything is still going well for Matt at MD Anderson. He was informed a few days ago that he did more plans than any one else in his service this past year. Doesn't surprise me, he is such a hard worker. I start school next week, and I'm ready!  It's time to get out of the house! Matt and I are looking forward to football, cooler weather, Layton's birthday in September,  and our trip to Boston in October!

8/21/12

Our move to Sugar Land/Chaney's 1st Birthday

Our baby turned one this week.  I guess that's ok with me, but I wish she would stay a baby just a little while longer.  Chaney walks (started at 10 1/2 months), says a few things (Momma is her FAVORITE word, but she also says Dada, bubba, cool, and baba), and she gave up on baby food a couple months ago because she'd rather feed herself.  She's a pretty independent lady.  She's been my "trial and error baby".  Layton was WAY more "go with the flow."  It took us trying at least 10 bottles until we found one that she liked, and she wouldn't take formula until she was almost 11 months old.  I had to try out several infant carriers until I just put her in a convertible car-seat (that seemed to make her a little happier).  Recently I turned her around, and mostly our trips in the car are MUCH better :)  Trying to switch her over to full cow's milk also didn't go over easily.  For now we're giving her goat's milk (which costs.....$6.29 for a half galloon!).  Of course, she LOVES it!  We'll try to give her cow's milk again and hope for more success!  I guess the girl just knows what she likes!  Chaney has no problem entertaining herself - which is so nice!  Oh, and she smiles all the time!

We moved this past week into a house (that we bought) in Sugar Land!  Loving it so far!  This weekend we put sod down in the backyard.  That was our first priority so the kids could enjoy their time outside.  We'd also like to build a banquette in the kitchen and pull up the carpet to stain the concrete in the play /guest room.  I'm looking forward to school being over after this week!

Growing Kids

Chaney is GroWing so fast! She started crawling this week. Really Chaney? She's only 5&1/2 months. We started feeding her baby food, and so far she likes anything we'll give her. She also likes to shake her head no and then crack up laughing at herself! She laughs all the time :) I wish we were a little closer to family so we could share her more, but for now pictures and videos will have to do. She and Layton have a regular lovefest going on - they absolutely love each other (hopefully that will last a while).

I love this picture!

Layton is doing great in school! He comes home with "awards for the day" for knowing the most letters in his class and for being able to count the highest. He also likes to tell time. Teaching him what the minute hand on the clock means has been a bit of a challenge, but we're working on it. He's really found his sense of humor too - we asked him to replace the word "poop" with ANYTHING else and now he walks around calling us "cheesehead" or "breakfast drink face". Kind of silly but quite funny. Did I mention he talks constantly? On the way to his school in the morning we get a full trip's worth of questions and observations about the cars and people around us amongst other tidbits.

He has one more soccer game this Sunday, and next January he wants to play flag football. I think he'll do really well at sports if he finds something that he really loves! He's soooo fast! I'm sure his grandparents would like him to stick to cross country ;)

We celebrated Layton's 4th birthday a couple weeks ago, and we had a great time! He sure is getting old quickly, and I hate to think about him getting too old for hugs and back scratches (which he calls "petting").


/

Matt is still loving his job, and he's doing a great job there. He was just voted employee of the quarter! Yeah, he's kinda a big deal! School is a little challenging for me with two young children, but I LOVE IT! I'm really enjoying my classes, and I finally have some great teachers this semester. I can't wait to see everyone for the holidays!!

She is here!

Chaney Annabelle is here! She was a tiny nugget weighing in at only 5 pounds and 7 ounces, born April, 27 around noon. The labor went much smoother with her than it did with Layton (thank goodness I didn't have to push for 3 1/2 hours again!) I chose to be induced so that we could make sure someone would be around the Houston area to help out with Layton. My mom, her husband Will, my sister-in-law Mattea, my brother C.W., and Matt's parents were all here to welcome her into the world! What a blessing! My family was able to come down the week before she was born in case I went into labor. Then, Marci and Mitsi came a few days after she was born to help with Layton and clean and cook! After they left my cousin Linda came for a few days so that I could take my final exams, and she also did some cooking! I was very sad to see everyone go. Poor Layton has had to spend more time inside lately - hopefully that will change when summer comes around! Layton really loves Chaney! He likes to kiss her and wants her to be on the couch with him when he watches a movie. He also wants her to come in the car with us if we go anywhere. He's always telling us to be easy with her! I'm sure this won't last long, but I hope it will! We're going to Abilene soon to show her off to our friends and family there. I can't wait!!