hawaii day

yesterday at school was 'hawaii day' and kaetlyn let me put pigtails in her hair for the event. she started to complain that they were hurting, but as soon as she saw herself in the mirror she started laughing and really liked them! as is typical, her 'long neck' had to accompany her to school. :)

cj gets to ride frontwards now. as you can see in the pics below, my backseat is FULL! he really likes it !!

he's feeling much better, for which i am thankful. his antibiotics are all done, and kaetlyn is on her last day of ear drops! its been a crazy couple of weeks, but hopefully we will have nothing but good health in the upcoming weeks. there's lots going on, so no time for illnesss!! cj's been making this new 'crinkly nose' face... pretty cute!

this weekend, megan is coming to town and we are having an early birthday celebration for cj. we will be camping memorial day for his real birthday.

TGIF!!!

what a week!

last week was very busy preparing for the perkins' arrival to austin friday night. in addition to everything that needed to be done for the weekend, BOTH children got ear infections & craig got a stomach bug. the result is that i didn't get much sleep, but we made it through.

last thursday night, kaetlyn brough home a white fuzzy catepillar. i fished out the hold hermit crab cage and she put it in there. on friday morning, she looked inside the cage and said, 'OH NO! mom... my catepillar has a spider web over it!' it had made a cacoon! really need. now we are waiting to see it become a butterfly. theresa says the hungry catepillar book says it takes around 2 weeks, so i guess we'll see what happens!!

also on thursday night my keys were found. i lost them 3 weeks ago. someone found them on the road in our neighborhood and turned them in at the gym i go to. i am so thankful for this person and wish that i knew who they were so i could properly thank them. despite the fatigue, thursday was a great day!!

saturday i hosted a 'southern living at home' party for theresa, who is now a sales rep. we had a good turn out and it was fun to make some yummy food and have girl time! following this, we were planning to have a birthday party for cj, but had to make a pit stop to the ER before the party could begin.

apparently his antibiotic was not working, and his temp was over 104! of course i panicked, and craig and i took him the the hospital. new antibiotic & more tylenol / motrin, and we went back home to celebrate cj's, rachel's, and scott's birthday!


you can tell from the pics, he's not doing so hot, but he was a trooper. i think he's finally showing signs of improvement. he went to school today, and they haven't called me, so that's a good thing. :) the perkins' pitched in a got him is very own '3 wheeler' which he loves! i will need to get some pics of him playing with it. :)

thanks to all for a fun weekend. back to work today, but am still tired. hopefully cj will be feeling better and better and i will get a little more rest.

Mother's Day

we had a nice family day... nothing too exciting or extreme, but great quality time. cj woke up early and then was back asleep before 7 am so we didn't actually get out of bed until almost 9! we made pancakes, went to lowes and spent the morning working in the yard. both of my kids LOVE it outside. cj is full on walking and checking everything out... he's a mess and into everything. everyone laid down at naptime and has a peaceful afternoon. tina and sam joined us for dinner, which was nice for kaetlyn to have her buddy to play with for a while... and nice for me to have some grown female conversation! we cooked a nice dinner, spent a little time outside, and let the kiddos play. fun day! i received a barage of items from the kiddos school, and craig also helped the children pick out a present and card for me. kaetlyn picked the dvd 'Brother Bear' and this was my mother's day gift! at their school, kaetlyn's class made strawberry jelly from scratch... YUMMY!

on saturday we went to the farmers market in the morning, and then to 1890 ranch shopping center in the afternoon. nice sushi dinner & book shopping... and baskin robbins. all in all it was a fun weekend with my favorite people in the world.

so continued on from the 'always with you in my heart' conversation last week... last night when i was kissing kaetlyn good night, she put her hand on my check and said:
k: mom, when i'm not with you just put your hand right here. i'll always be with you in your cheek
me: my cheek, huh? (laughing)
k: yes, i'll always be with you in your cheek
funny kid!
me: so, you're going somewhere?
k: yes, i'm going to africa to save the animals

LOVE HER!

work trip

this week i went on my first work trip since cj was born. it was a quick one - to VA - there one day and back the next. boy did i miss my family! craig did a great job with the munchkins and didn't seem too stressed over it.... in fact he seemed to have enjoyed the special time with the children :) both kids slept with him, which as a nice treat for kaetlyn, and cj only woke up once in the night... wish i had it that easy.

the night before my trip i was telling her i would be gone the next day, but that i would lay with her as she fell asleeep. the following conversation ensued:

k: but mom, i don't want you to go on a trip, i want you

me: i won't be gone long and you'll have fun special time with daddy

k: but mom, i want you

me: i have to go to work so i can make money so we can have the nice toys and things we have

k: but mom, i don't want you to go, i want you

me: i will never leave you and will always be with you forever. put your hands on your heart. when you miss me, put your hands on your heart and know that even if i'm not here, i'm always with you in your heart

k (drifting off to sleep): you're always with me in my heart, you're always with me in my heart, your always with me in my heart....

sweet girl! when i picked her up from school yesterday she was telling me that she wanted to go on an airplane ride because i just went on one. i told her we needed a place to go. she said, 'we can take an airplane to australia... to buy a new horse for me.' that's my girl.

cj's schedule got a little screwed up in my absense and woke up very early both mornings. he's also transitioning to the 1 year old class at school which means only one nap / day.. reviewing his daily reports, it appeared he was his normal happy self, but was so tired by lunch he fell asleep in the high chair tuesday and wednesday!!

i'm so lucky. thank God for all the gifts that have been bestowed on me. grace abounds!

mother daughter tea

this weekend we were in town and took advantage of some time to get some long over due house work marked off the list. kaetlyn and i spent some time together 'no boys... only girls' and attended a Mother / Daughter tea at the church connected to the kids' school. We spent the morning showering, getting dressed up, painting toenails, ironing dresses, etc. kaetlyn's bff - cadence - was there as well, and we had a fun time. was nice to get a little alone time with her. craig and cj did boy things: lowes, yardwork, and nap!

memorial day weekend

boy did we enjoy the long weekend! it was mainly comprised of housework & yardwork, but also included some lounging around and relaxation. at the VERY last minute we decided to have a BBQ on memorial day and we actually had a reasonable showing! it was fun. kaetlyn had a blast! it was very obvious that she was enjoying having friends over to play, and she is quite the little entertainer (show-off). she was pretty darn cute and entertaining to watch. and all the cute little boys... maybe that's what it was! craig and others remarked that the tone of our BBQ's have certainly changed with all the munchkins running around, but it is a refreshing change!

water baby!

on mother's day we got a little inflatable pool for kaetlyn.... boy does she LOVE water! i couldn't get her swimsuit on fast enough.... she was in with her clothes on before i knew it! the pics are pretty darn cute. here are a couple:

i finally got her into a swim diaper on her, but decided at that point that a bathing suit was useless.

last week was my job's annual user conference. this year it was in san antonio, tx, so i was gone from monday - friday. this was the longest i have been away from my girl, and i was very sad. (i even actually cried when i dropped her off at school that monday morning) she's brining out the softie in me, what can i say!?!? megan, nicole, craig, and kaetlyn had an interesting week together, i'll just leave it at that. boy is it nice to be home!!

yesterday kaetlyn and i met tina and samantha at the neigborhood pool. kaetlyn is fearless in the water... she was so excited to be swimming. she was squealing and dancing and wanting to go far away from me... she got her ears wet at least 5 times, but did not care at all! time to invest in ear plugs and an innertube swimsuit!

no pics :(

the past two weekends have been full of visit time with family. we did not succeed in pulling the camera out... for shame!

first, dad and megan came to visit. we didn't do anything too exciting, but kaetlyn enjoyed her poppy and aunt megan. dad was really visiting megan for dad's day at baylor, but they came down when that was over. dad and i took kaetlyn to the neighborhood playground and took a long walk. we also went to the cedar park episcopal church and out to eat on sunday prior to their departure.

last weekend, we met randy, barbara, and alyx at mud buddy's in halletsville for a weekend of 4-wheelering. we ate too much, got really dirty, sat around and visited, and had a good ol' time. kaetlyn just absolutely adores barbara! they were attached for the majority of our trip. it was very cute to see her so enthusiastic about hanging out with someone other than mom or dad. she likes riding the 4 wheeler too. barbara and i both took her for little 'putt-putts' around the parking lot. most of the time she was quiet, just taking it all in, but every once in a while she would look up and smile really big or say, "whee whee!" also, alyx and i collected firewood and built the bonfire all by ourselves with no male intervention or assistance. very impressive, if i do say so myself.

this coming weekend is mother's day. i've already treated myselft to a manicure & pedicure, and besides that, am not sure what's in store. megan and her friend nicole will be in austin beginning saturday to help craig with kaetlyn while i'm out of town for the entire work week! my company's annual user's conference is in san antonio this year, and i am expected to be there from monday - friday. it's always a lot of fun, but i am not too thrilled about being away from my girl for so long! i know she'll be in good hands though.

so much going on....

it has been so long since i've updated this site... there's just been SO much going on! the past month has been go - go - go, and i just haven't had time to sit down and add the excitement to the blog... so here we go!

a few weekends ago we went for a fun hike at lake georgetown w/ the bantas... pics:










the following weekend kelly, annabelle, and willie came to town. we went to eeyore's birthday party and the kids enjoyed each other...

the next weekend, we spent the weekend in houston with the perkins... here's 1 cute pic of kaetlyn, and the rest are on the rucker's blogspot which you can link to from this page.

summertime is busy, but so much fun... HOORAY!

kaetlyn is getting so big.. she's basically crawling in her own sort of way. she's not too quick yet, but certainly getting around. she's also pulling herself up to standing and having a good time pulling stuff off the coffee table. she's gotten a couple bumps and bruises, but that goes with the territory!