Tadpole or Frog?

Wow, in just a week our tadpole has almost turned into a full fledged frog!! It just needs to lose it's tail! It seemed like forever before we saw any changes. Now everyday he changes more and more. Although they seemed to be dirty creatures when they were living in a bowl on my kitchen counter, I like them much better inside Alex's fish tank....and it has been interesting to watch them change.

What a week!

Whew! We need another week off so we can recover from our spring break!

Alex pics

Here are some random pics of Alex. This one was taken at Alex's school rodeo. Here he is with Julia petting "spotty" the cow! So cute!

Scotty is giving Alex a big ole kiss!

Alex was helping Andy on his Advanced Accounting homework! I bet Andy will get an A!

Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo

Wednesday we took the boys to the rodeo in Houston. They had a lot of fun. Here we are riding the tram from the parking lot to Reliant stadium. It's hard to see, but this was a dog show. This picture shows a dog balancing on one front leg. The boys thought this was pretty neat.

Here we are at Kid's Country. The boys had to wear and apron and carry a basket so they could gather items that would later be sold in the farmer's market. The picked peaches off of peach trees, they feed chickens and then got eggs from the chickens, they got wool from sheep, and a pepper from a garden. Then they took their items to the farmer's market to sell. They got money from the farmer's market and went grocery shopping. They were each able to pick one item from the grocery store. Mason picked apple juice and Alex picked raisin bran!

Mason milked the cow so he could get milk to sell at the farmer's market.

Here they are selling their items at the farmer's market.

The petting zoo was a big hit. The animals were HUGE. I think they get fed WAY too much!

Keith Urban

Tuesday night Andy and I had an awesome date night. We eat dinner at Pappadeux in Houston and then went to see Keith Urban at the rodeo. Keith Urban was amazing! We saw him a couple of years ago in Austin and he was even better there (because it was a 3 hour show vs the hour show at the rodeo). Here is our self portrait.

Fishing in Lexington

Tuesday we drove from Brenham to Lexington to go fishing with lots of my friends from school and their kids. We had so much fun. Below is Stacy's (our hostess) grandparents house. It is made from petrified wood. It was so cool!

Here we are at out fishing spot. The weather was beautiful! All of the kids had a great time playing together and the adults had a wonderful time visiting!

Here is Mason fishing. He had so much fun.

Alex wasn't into fishing so he colored!

Here is Alex with his girlfriend Julia (in the green shirt) and his friend JJ in the blue shirt. They were ssooo cute together.

Houston Children's Museum

Monday we went to the Houston Children's Museum. The museum just underwent a $35 million renovation. It is now 90,000 sqft of exhibits and fun! It was super crowded but we had a lot of fun. In the picture below Andy was showing Mason how sound waves work.

This was a cool exhibit sponsored by Comcast. It was a ton of old phones! Below the phone sculpture they had pay phones that they kids could pretend to talk on.


This exhibit was one of Mason's favorites. It was building blocks that sort of resembled Lincoln logs. Mason built a house and a car. Andy said these would be easy to make. We will add that to the list!

There were lots of water and nature exhibits outside. Mason was making animal tracks in the damp sand.

Here was another favorite...the art gallery. I think the boys each painted 5 or 6 pictures! They loved it. Check out the drying rack in the back of the picture. There were paintings everywhere!

Here the boys were driving in the old car.

Mason LOVED the water exhibits outside. The Channel 2 news was there to talk about the re-opening of the museum. The boys had a chance to be on tv but they quickly ran AWAY from the camera.

The had a kids city where you could work at a job and get a pay check. Then you could deposit your paycheck and withdraw money to go grocery shopping, take your animal to the vet, eat at a restaurant, etc. It was really neat. Alex's favorite part was the vet clinic.

Here Mason is depositing his paychecks. He made $80!

Spring Break in Review

We have had a great spring break so far. Andy was able to take the week off so we packed a lot of fun activities into our week! We started off last Friday evening going to Brenham. We attended a birthday party Saturday and a baby shower Sunday. On Monday we took the kids to the Houston Children's Museum. It was a lot of fun...really crowded....but lots of fun! Tuesday we drove to Lexington to go fishing with a bunch of my teacher friends and their kids. My friend and co-worker Stacy has family land in Lexington and she invited us out for fishing and burgers. It was so much fun. That night Andy and I went on a date! We went to Pappadeux's in Houston for dinner and then to the rodeo to see Keith Urban. Amazing show! Wednesday we went back to Houston (for the third time in 3 days!) so we could take the kids to the rodeo. They loved it! Thursday we came home and had dinner with my parents and Casey and Heather. Friday (this morning) we had to take Mason to the doctor. He has a virus. Poor little guy! Andy is leaving in the morning to attend Casey's bachelor party...of all places....in Houston!! I need another week off to recover!

Gotta love TX weather

My mom and I took the boys to the park after school one day the last week of February. It was so nice I told the boys they could put their feet in the water. This was a couple of days before Mason's birthday (2/27). I told Mason that day that when he was born there was a huge ice storm. The nurses that helped deliver him had to spend the night in the hospital from their shift the day before because the roads were so bad. Six years later we are wearing short sleeves and putting our feet in the water. As I write this post it is raining and COLD. I can't keep up! :)

More Party pics

Here are the pics my mom took from Mason's birthday party. He had so much fun playing with all of his friends. Here is Mason with his "girlfriend" Abby!

Mason and his girls, Abby and Lilah!

Brothers and best friends!

Alex had a blast playing with Catherine.

I love this pic of Mason. He has a REAL smile for the camera!

Mason and his crew climbing the "rock" wall!

Alex loves the big slide.

Awwww, Catherine and Alex. Alex wanted to be held the first HOUR of the 1.5 hour party. When it was almost time he decided he wanted to go play. Catherine asked him to go jump with her and he had a blast. She had him cracking up. She was so sweet!

Mason's 6th Birthday

Mason turned 6 years old on Feb 27th! I can't believe he is 6! He is such a big boy now. He is learning how to read. He problem solves. He can take apart and put back together almost anything you put in front of him. He is so generous and sweet. Everyday he makes something for me, finds a special treasure to give me, and tells me how much he loves me. He is constantly teaching his brother (they play school quite often!). He helps me with anything I for. He is already an independent, caring, smart, loving boy. He makes us so proud!
I don't have many pictures from his birthday to post. My mom has the majority of them so once I get them from her I will send out another post. Below is a pic of the boys getting ready to jump at Mason's birthday party!

Mason wanted a deer cake for his birthday. We had a deer cake with camo plates and napkins. It turned out pretty cool looking!

Here is my big boy at school on his actual birthday. I took cupcakes up to school for his class and we ate them outside on the playground.