Happy Birthday Teagan Kaye!

My sweet baby girl is ONE! Oh how time seems to have flown by even faster! I sat here tonight and rocked her (which if you know Teagan, is a huge thing since that girl doesn't like to be held long at all) and I savored every sweet minute of it! She is absolutely a joy and bright spot in our lives. Her personality is hilarious and she sports a 'tude' often! I love how she is one tough cookie and I call her my Weeble Wobble because when she falls she just rolls over like a weeble wobble and goes about whatever she was doing... Although if she is upset because her brother has something like a snack and she doesn't, then she definately lets you know and will even attempt to steal his while clinging tightly to his bowl and he drags her around as he is trying to get away. There is never a dull moment in our house and I would have it no other way!

Teagan Kaye, your mommy's hearts desire was to have a little girl. I love your brother so very much and love that he is my little man but I knew I would cherish having a daughter. I think I wanted a girl mostly because me and your Gee are so close and I wanted that special relationship with a daughter. God is so good because he blessed my heart and gave me your sweet little self. You are perfect in everyway and I am so thrilled to be your momma and to watch you grow. I pray I would be a godly example to you and that we would have a blast together. You are my sweets! I love you to pieces mieces....

Happy Happy Birthday my sweet girl!

Houston Trip...

Lobby- I was totally digging those awesome curtains!

Where the elevators where...

The hall way....creeped me out at first but then I got used to it. Maybe because it was so dim?

What Chris and the kiddos did right when we got home. Chris played with Buzz while the kids jump up and down on his back...This is a favorite of theirs :)

I didn't do good on picture taking but we did set up the camera to get one of us!

Sweet archway right?

Really unique colors and oldschool wood cabinets and doors. I'm pretty sure it's all original...

Sweet! Look at the rubber ducky! I saw on the price list it was $5...ahaha! Along with a Snickers that was $4.

Shower and bath! And black and white floor!

Cool huh?

The chairs and a chandiler light...

It was actually a really comfy bed! You never know! The colors I thought were odd but maybe they were going with the old? Peach walls, baby blue wood trip and cabinets, strip carpet and funky gold and maroon bedding and curtains... Everything is mix matched which is kind of fun to me! It grew on me by the end!

My mom took this because she thought it was rather funny how many notes I have for being gone just one night! What can I say, I'm OCD?

Bow holder I made...

Well we had a wonderful quick trip to Houston and we are glad to be back. I'm so thankful God gave me someone who misses our kids just as much as I do and would rather be home with them. We talk about them the whole time and miss them and just love getting home to see them. Not that we didn't have fun together not having to rush eating or shopping and just relaxing but I think one night is plenty :) Although today I believe they were testing me to see how far they could push me. It was like they were tag teaming me! And no naps= no fun. Seriously it's rough with no naps. I am starting tomorrow with 'rest time'. Most of the time he naps but occasionally he will skip one or two but I am enforcing a new rule....He must stay in there for rest time. He can do whatever he wants in his crib but it's gonna be rest time by golly :)

So Chris' Dr. appointment went well! No real news is good news and as Layne told me...We thought we had xrays this time but he won't get those until Feb. (that worked out perfectly so we could enjoy our trip and not worry) We did ask if his measurements were getting worse over the last four visits or staying the same...kind of getting idea of the fusing going on. Most of them had gotten better than the first visit! Praise the Lord! Funny note: The measurements he does are like bending down to touch your toes, standing straight against the wall and bending side to side and bending his neck side to side. The Dr. was measuring when he bent side to side with his neck and he said his neck looks awesome and that if he bent it any further it might fall off! ha! Maybe you would have had to been there but anyhoo that's really good since one concern of AS is fusing of the neck! Other than that we are still just fighting the battle of getting Chris motivated to either ride bikes, swim and walk. Those are really the three exercises that are recommended for AS and or arthiritis paitents so they stay mobile and flexible but not hard impact. Well, as well as I know Chris, I KNOW he isn't going to swim, he walks a good amount at work but it's not power walking or anything so the last thing is biking....We will see. The ball is in his court. The only other thing is to have his hip replaced so he won't have any pain in the hip when working out. (that's were his pain comes from) He isn't going to do that anytime soon so that boy better start riding bikes! We were doing so well riding with the kiddos after dinner but with this dern heat, we aren't doing anything outside! Soon we can start up again :)

The hotel we stayed at was called Hotel Icon down on Main street. It was super sweet. It was so old school and everything was so mix in match but really old style and unique. We really liked it. They even turn down your bed at night and give you a chocolate. They only gave us one chocolate?! So who ate it? Yeah, me..for breakfast! ha!

Right after the Dr. appointment we stopped and ate at the Goode Company BBQ (since we looked it up on Food Network because Chris is addicted to Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives) and that was so good! Then Chris wanted to drive to Hempstead and go chat with a guy who makes his fishing rods and get some decals for his boat. Chris is what you call a 'purist' in the fishing world...and so is this guy who makes fishing rods, so you can only imagine how long they chatted fishing and rods and reels and yada yada yada. I had fun scoping out the rods he had made and wanting to design my very own that would have pink and turquiose on it...Hmmm I should do some designing for him :) He was extremely friendly and showed us everything and how he does it all step by step. I thought I was going to be bored to tears but I actually enjoyed it because I like tedious things and making those rods is just that, tedious. But seriously, Hempstead is beautiful! I wanted to move there! So green and country and trees! So since I went with him there, we went to the Galleria Wed. And OH MY. I haven't ever been there and I was shocked. We both said it reminded us of New York. Actually the whole hub bub of Houston reminded us of NYC. It was crazy to see the stores in there like Jimmy Choo, Tiffany's, Barney's, Neiman Marcus and so many others I can't even believe! And the store I went too and bought stuff? MAC. Yup MAC makeup, the same thing I could get here at our Dilliards :) But I did get cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory! YUMMO!

So on the way to Houston and home we kept seeing these billboards along the highway advertising for this gas station. They raved about their restrooms and food and such. Well on the way home we stopped. It's in Wharton and it's called Buc-ees. And it's mascot is a beaver. Can I tell you it was amazing?! Their bathrooms were something to rave about! So clean, nice, big, toliet sanitizer and hand sanitizer IN the stalls, beautifully straight, clean and perfect rows of drinks, candy, chips. And then TONS of their own candy and food and such. We were amazed. And we shall now always stop and give Buc-ee's our buisness and if you are ever going through Wharton, check it out! :) ha!

So this is long and I am pooped and there is one last piece of mint chocolate chip cake and I am going to eat it and savor it :)

Tootles for now....

I heart my children...

What?!

Let's just say I can't get this girl to be still to take a picture!

oooh Baskins cake!!!

My lovely Fiesta pitchers! I love them!

One cute kid!

One cute girl!

Her face cracks me up!

Yeah this is my chair and I am cool :)

Classic Teagan face!

Yup! I do! I heart my kids! They are the best thing ever. They seriously crack me up daily. Their personalities are hilarious and I love how different they are from each other. Spices things up a bit ya know? :) Seriously though, we have some major sibling battles happening. Teagan thinks her job in this family is to a.) be one stinkin' cute kid and b.) try to steal, push or get into her brother's things. No matter what the poor boy is doing Teagan will get this look on her face, run over to whatever he has, steal it and run (well her run is a little slow but its a run for her). Then Gauge will either a.) take it back and have to dodge her swinging hands because she is ticked off or b.) pushes her down. Yes ma'am we have some sibling rivalry right here at the dern ages of 2 and 1 year old. Mmmhmmm, I gonna have to nip this one in the bud although my mom and sister reminded me last night that for some reason that is what siblings think their job in life is as kids, to drive their other sibling crazy. As Stephanie reminded me that Layne and I would try to get into her locked bedroom and figured out we could use our library card and slide it in the door and open it. Hahaha. I said it was probably because she had a sweet purple radio that played "Walk like an Egyptian" and what sisters would not want to break into that room to get jiggy with that awesome song?! Good times...

My family came over last night to celebrate my birthday a little early and brought Macaroni Grill and my all time favorite cake...a Baskin Robbins mint chocolate chip ice cream cake! That right there = an awesome birthday to remember. Yeah I have a severe obsession with mint chocolate chip ice cream from Baskins....but moving on...they also started me on a collection of Fiesta pitchers for my shelf, which is incredibly awesome now with that addition. My favorite thing is when I put them up, Gauge walked in and did like this gasp and pointed and was definately liking the new addition. He liked it so much that he woke up the next morning and pointed again very excitedly while saying 'gee, papa, nini, boog) since they are the ones who gave me them. One smart observant kid if you ask me! I like that he appreciates fabulous additions such as Fiesta pitchers to a kitchen shelf. I love that boy :)

And since Chris doesn't read this blog I will confess my secret here. Teagan was up early this morning and instead of being bummed that she was up earlier than normal, I was thrilled because that means I snuck eating a piece of BR mint chocolate chip ice cream cake for breakfast. (did I mention it was Baskin Robbins?!) If you don't eat cake and ice cream directly the next morning after a birthday, you are seriously missing out. It is by far one of the main reasons I love birthdays. There my secrets out and I feel like a weight has been lifted....My name is Tara and I am a Baskin Robbins-aholic :)

And lastly, Chris and I are going to Houston Tuesday for his semi-annual Dr. appt for his AS and we decided to go ahead and stay the night and kind of do a Dr/birthday trip. We really never go to Houston and stay longer than going to the Dr. and eating lunch and coming home. Any good things to do there? We are staying downtown and I am planning on the Galleria. Because good golly have I not been? I don't think I have! Sadness. So I'm excited about that. Pray that we have good results from his appt and that we have a safe trip.

I'm actually going to take my camera in hopes to get some pictures of the two of us on a 'vacation' :) haha. Until then, enjoy these hilarious photos of our extremely funny children who I will miss even just for 2 short days!

Aunt Tara, Dresses and Baby Showers...

Well I'm a little behind on posting only for the fact that I tried twice to upload pictures to post and it messed up twice! Sheesh. Once it messes up, and because it takes forever, I get flustered and end up moving on to something else. SO! Finally it worked today :)

Aunt Tara went back home to Virgina, which we were sad to see her go, but excited for her to see Robert, who is coming back from Iraq this week! Yay for Tara and Robert! Now we have another Aunt and Uncle that will keep us posting more regularly so they can see what craziness the kiddos are up to :) We love you guys and we are so thankful for your serving our country!

I met the neatest family through etsy (if you have never been on Etsy.com, check it out...they have awesome stuff and it's all handmade) Laura and her daughter Mily have two CUTE CUTE shops and I bought a ring (super cute and vintage style) from her daughter Mily, who was raising money to go on a mission trip. Her mom makes some of the most fabulous dresses EVER and we got one...(Many thanks Laura!!) and I am so eager for her to grow into it. It won't be long because girlfriend is growing up fast! Check out their esty shops...You won't be dissapointed and they are a wonderful Christian family :)

http://www.icandie.etsy.com/

http://www.foidesigns.etsy.com/

SO many people are having babies!!! Seriously I have like 10 people I know having babies! Which means lots of baby showers :) I love baby showers! Well any shower really! Here is a sign for a friend and a couple of burp rags. I can't wait for her to meet little Carlin! Babies are the best gifts from God ever! So amazing and such miracles.

Well! I am busy painting some more signs and I'm doing a new thing this week...a bow holder! I'm excited about that one :) You know how I like bows!!! :)

I better go get some orajel for miss Teagan. Girlfriend is getting a mouth full of teeth since she waited until 11 months to start! Her first one in is the side tooth which is kind of like a bubba tooth right? I mean normally they get the top two or bottom two but Teagan likes to keep us on our toes so she got the side one in first. Ha! That girl is hilarious! I will be glad once they are all in though and she starts feeling better and not so cranky...poor thing!

Fun times tomorrow! Lovely Tiffany is taking me to get a pedicure at Woodhouse spa for my bday and then we go to dinner with the MOPS gals. That sounds like a terrific Tuesday if you ask me!! :)

Sign for Mr. Carlin's baby shower

Oh my love! She is so funny!

Is that not the best packaging ever?!