She made it!

Michelle finally came home!!!! We are all so excited and happy! The boys have spent every free second with her and enjoyed catching up. Jill has also been a big fan and it is so fun for Michelle to get to know her.





Jake and Michelle. Jake adorned her with a massager.





Josh and Michelle enjoy oranges together.

Michelle and Jill enjoying the beautiful weather at Lupe Tortilla.

Kiki, Michelle and I play with Jill as she shows off how she can sit up alone now!

Jill shows off another new skill, thumb-sucking! Yippee. We haven't figured out what it means yet as she rarely does it and clearly doesn't do it for comfort or at bedtime. We can't really figure out why she does it at all.



Owen holds Jill. He enjoys trying to make her laugh more than anything.

BUGZ!

The Second Grade at Rummel Creek had their play BUGZ! tonight. Every student was a different bug and Jake was a caterpillar. He thought his was a pretty good role because he got to roll across the stage on a scooterboard! What could be cooler for a 7 year old boy!


Needless to say, we probably don't have a future thespian on our hands, but I have to say that after some initial shyness he got better and really participated by the time the song was about 1/2 way through.


Sorry for the bad pics, but it was a large, poorly lit cafeteria and I didn't get the best seats. I think some parents had gotten there pretty darn early to get the front row. We were 10 minutes early (from the kids arrival time and 40 minutes from the start time) and were 2/3 of the way back.

Jake at the end of his song holding up the butterfly.

Jake singing and dancing his little heart out in his group's song.





Jake scooterboarding across stage.





Jake and his fellow caterpillars saying their lines.





Jake and other bugs waiting for their turn.

Our neighbor Mary Ann the Ladybug.

Jake the Caterpillar.

Coming Soon!

We are so excited! Auntie Michelle is coming home from her LONG adventures in Switzerland (and surrounding countries) playing professional volleyball. Only 2 more days and we will be re-united!


Yes, I am being melodramatic, but the rest of the family got to see her at least once over the past 7 months so they aren't as Michelle-deprived as I am. See I had this little thing growing inside me named Jill that prevented me from traveling to Europe to visit.


But very soon, Michelle will finally get to meet Jill and I can't wait to post pictures of that.


Until then, here are some pro-Vball pics to look at:

Michelle's Team (this was taken when she first arrived and the team has changed considerably since then).

Celebrating a block.

Michelle ready for action.




The huddle. Michelle is #4. I think it is so weird to see all the ads all over them.




Team shirt logo. I will try to loosely translate it for you. It means "I Love VFM." VFM, of course stands for Volleyball Franches-Montagnes. I totally have one!

Avocados!

Jill had her first taste of avocados last night. I gave her a soft one in her little mesh feeder and at first she wasn't so sure because it wasn't her beloved bananas, but then she went to town.

Easter Part 2

Josh climbs down after hitting the jackpot in the playhouse.




Owen finds a few eggs in the sandbox.




Jake shows off his haul of candy-filled eggs.




Josh and Jill.




Jake and Jill.

Easter part 1

I am still waiting on a few more pics from my mom's camera, but here are a few from our Easter.

We actually got the hunt in with about 15 minutes to spare before the huge rains came! The boys were relieved.

Here is a family portrait taken just prior to the hunt and pics of little Jill being happy with family.

More Later!

A little Visitor

I went out to the car this afternoon to get my cell phone and discovered that we had a little visitor in the grass. Josh and I ran back out to see him and he had taken refuge under my car and then in my tire. Good thing he moved before we had to go anywhere!

Jill's Bath in the Sink

Jill is just now being introduced to solids and it gets messy. We decided to just toss her in the sink and see how she liked it. She loved it! So, we will probably do this more often when we have a particularly messy night.

A Visit with Meemaw and Auntie Karen

Before the whole Josh thing went down we went to visit Auntie Karen and Meemaw. Unfortunately, we don't get to see them as often as we would like to, so it was fun to get together (sans big boys) and just play with Jill.



Auntie Karen and Jill



Meemaw, Auntie Karen and Jill



Meemaw plays with Jill.



Auntie Karen shows Jill Meemaws collection of Elmos.

Oh What a Day!

Today started out like any other. Jake got on the bus, I dropped Josh off at school, and Jill and I went to run some Easter errands. Well then I get the call that every mom dreads, "Mrs. Hyland, you need to come to school, Josh had an accident on the playground and we think he needs stitches." So, you tell the checker at Randall's to hurry since your 5 year old son is hurt at school, you drive like a maniac to the school and run into the office, with your baby swinging wildly in the carrier, to get your kid. Then you calm down a little and realize he isn't going to die, and take your groceries home and toss all the perishables somewhere in the fridge while calling the pediatrician to fit you in.

So, Dr. Cohen sees Josh and tells us we need stitches. He sends us to the ER with a request for a plastic surgeon. We do all that stuff and are still waiting when Dr. Cohen comes by to check on us. He learns we have no idea who we are going to see and that the ER staff hasn't even requested a plastic surgeon. The wonderful doctor then tells the ER staff who to call, in order. His first choice agrees to take us, but at his office. Luckily, across the parking lot!

Then we meet Dr. Barrera (I have all his info if you need him) and he is wonderful. He has us in and out of his office in 10 minutes and managed to get Josh to cooperate like a champ (the previous visits with Dr. Cohen and the ER nurses were not so good). The nurse told me he was the best patient she had seen in 15 years of working there, adult or child. He didn't even freak when he got the numbing shots. We go back Monday to get the stitches out.

And by the way, he was playing at recess and fell off a Razor scooter and landed on the handles. The redness around it is the scrape from the end of the handle.

And SUPER THANKS to Grandeb for coming along to keep Jill while I did all the Josh stuff. And also to Auntie Courtney who brought french fries and Root Beer at Josh's request to the ER for our "lunch."

So here are pics of the fun...


Josh before with his open wound.



Josh after. He didn't want to take the pic so I told him he could do big eyes.




More Josh after.

More Jill

It is just incredible how cute Jill is and how much cuter she gets everyday! And she is SO happy. Just a true pleasure of a baby.

Anyway, sorry for the sap, but here are some sweet pics of her in her Juicy Couture from Aunt Judy. We had a cold snap in Houston this week, and luckily I hadn't packed all of her warm clothes away yet. I was so excited to put the sweatsuit on and find that it fits perfectly! She was adorable, as usual, today.

I just thought these pictures were precious and showed her cute little personality so well.

Jill is 5 Months Old

Jill is now 5 months old! I can hardly believe it. I won't wax philosophical here because everyone knows it will be more of the, "where has the time gone" and "it has all been a blur" stuff, but it is true. I guess that is the way it goes with #3. I am so busy (and tired), that I don't even realized how much time has passed.

Anyway, she was all dressed up for church last Sunday and looked too cute, so I wanted to share. As you can see, it was nice and warm, just the way we like it!

And how about mom snagging a super cute, uber-expensive outfit off of eBay for $5.99? Only $2 shipping, to boot! Yay mom!

Jake's project

Jake's class has been doing a unit on birds. At school they are researching and preparing a report to present to the class. At home, they were required to make a 3-D representation (translation = model) of a bird to go along with the report.

Jake picked a hummingbird, and though slightly (!) larger than actual size, I think it turned out pretty darn good. We had tons of fun making it and Jake was proud to bring it to school to show his classmates.

He is supposed to be in mid-flight, so ignore the 2 sticks that look like legs!