houston livestock show & rodeo

my parents were nice enough to get us all tickets to the rodeo last saturday, including tickets to see brad paisley.  have i mentioned that i love me some brad paisley?  i don't buy his music (as my hubby brought to my attention: i don't buy any music.  i know.  i am old.) but i always love it when it comes on the radio.  plus did i mention that he has the sweetest, most genuine little love songs?  anyway, i am a fan so i was uber excited to have a chance to take my little one to the rodeo for the first time and get to see brad paisley in concert!

a little backtracking is probably in order.  colin got to have a slumber party with his honey & daddy jay & his cousins on friday night.  amazing.  the husband & i got to have a much needed date night and colin was so busy having a blast he didn't even notice we were gone.  back to the rodeo.  we picked him up early saturday afternoon and drove to pasadena to pick up my family for the rodeo.  we were bummed my dad couldn't go (he was super sick and is just now starting to feel a little more human) and we missed uncle doug too (he had to work way late on saturday morning and decided it wouldn't be safe to sleep for 3 hours before working again).  but we had a great time!

colin & uncle michael on the "train", aka metro rail.

preggo aunt kim!!! 



posing for the camera!



fun on the farm was so cool!  the kids walked through and fed chickens, "planted" veggies, and milked cows.  at the end of the trail they 'sold' all of their items to the farmer's market and got were able to purchase something from the store for themselves (a snack).  not to mention the tractors.  colin loved it!!!

once we were inside the stadium colin was spoiled with candy and treats.  little did we know the last saturday of the rodeo is the championship which translates to 3.5 hours of rodeo instead of 1.  it was fun but it was forever long.  colin was a trooper - he did great and we even got to see the first 30 minutes of brad paisley.

colin's first taste of cotton candy...think he liked it??!?!

after the rodeo/concert we were all starving to death.  on our way to the food tents the brother got his very first guitar.  precious, right?  notice his rodeo handkerchief too?  thanks to uncle michael he wore that thing all night and loved it.

all in all we had a blast!  we learned what to do again and what to do differently next year.  i can't wait to go back again!!! thanks mom and dad for treating us!

new park

there is a new park we have been seeing on our way to/from school everyday.  today was the day we decided to stop by and try it out - it looked pretty neat from the street and we heard it was open to the public.  the weather was perfect and this park turned out to be a-ma-zing!  it is a perfect little gem of a park and i am sure we will be stopping here on the way home from school on a regular basis. 

he was a little unsure when we first got there.

he warmed up pretty quickly.

we even made friends with a ladybug.

oh my gosh.  he climbed up that wall 100% by himself.  i almost had a heart attack watching him.

we spent some time on the swings too.

more climbing.

the fun roller slide - he said it felt funny on his booty. 

colin's favorite - a tunnel.

we ended the trip w/some more relaxed swinging.  i am pretty sure he might have fallen asleep if i didn't say it was time to leave to go home and make dinner.

i had a fun after-work afternoon with my little man.  we can't wait to go back again and take his daddy with us. 

random.

last week we went to my oldest niece's school play - can't even believe she is old enough to be in a school play - 1st grade sneaks up on you fast! she was beautiful of course and colin was so excited to see his "lolly" - we went to the store and he picked out special flowers just for her.  adorable.

baby elijah cole will be officially joining our family in about 16 weeks and i have been having so much fun thinking of stuff to make for him.  i made him a cute (but not very straight) blanket but forgot to take a picture before i gave it to my sister.  the latest baby item i made were some burp cloths - apparently using cloth diapers as burp cloths are all the rage right now and it makes total sense.  those diapers are so thick they should do the trick just right.  again, they aren't perfect but i don't think he will mind too much.

we were playing outside yesterday and colin saw my camera and wanted to take some pictures - sweet boy. he looks so serious in the first one. 

we were trying to get one of us and our best friend henry - at least we were close.

i went grocery shopping this morning and they had signs posted about a free petting zoo behing H-E-B this afternoon so we mosied on down - figured why not let the little one practice the petting zoo before the rodeo next saturday? and, did i mention that it was free?  and the grocery store is like 10 big steps from our house? 

we didn't know if he would actually get on the pony even though he kept insisting he wanted to do it.  i think it helped that his daddy walked around with him.  so cute and i know he is going to absolutely love seeing all the animals at the rodeo next weekend. 

working for the weekend.

you know how some people say they live to work?  ok, i don't actually know anyone that says that but i have heard it on movies before.  i am the exact opposite - i work to live.  or something like that.  really i am always looking forward to the weekend.  as soon as monday begins i am counting down to friday when i can spend all my time with my loves.  around here we like our weekends low-key and we like to them to move as slow as possible.  doesn't happen all that often but no matter what we are doing i just love spending my whole day with my men.

last weekend we went to sweet serenades.  this is first friends' annual fundraiser and this is where colin goes to school everyday so we were super excited to support everyone there. all of the classes (2 year olds and up) performed a ton of songs and it was so cute.  colin is in the toddler 3 class which is right below the 2 year old class so he sat this one out but next year he will definitely be up on that stage.  i can't wait to see him up there singing!  instead, he and his friend from school literally ran the entire gym for a good 2 hours during all of the singing and silent auction fun.  all of the classes donate items for theme baskets that are auctioned off.  thanks to grammie & pappy we came home with the rainy day basket (that colin's class put together).

so cute, right?  our local weather man is calling for a rainy saturday this weekend so we will definitely be getting some use out of this fun box.  colin already starting tearing through it last weekend but there are enough fun toys/games in there to keep him occupied for hours.

one weekend tradition i love is eating breakfast together.  during the week we definitely do not have an opportunity to do this. i leave the house when luke wakes up (if i am not running late) and way before colin is up for the day.  last weekend, my handsome hubby made a big old pancake breakfast that me and colin were both talking about all day long on saturday, ha!  but really, it was so good and it was so nice to sit on the couch drinking coffee while my love was cooking for us!

keeping it real here folks.  lucky for us we have a huge table so our laundry can reside on one half and we can use the other for meals.  i don't know why all 2-story houses don't have laundry rooms upstairs.

so sweet.  colin loves syrup (shocker, right?) and he wants to do it himself of course. 

mmm. momma's plate and momma's coppee as colin says.  he is always so concerned making sure i drink all of my coffee.  guess he knows how grumpy i can be without it.

the weather has been so nice lately so we have been outside as much as possible.  another favorite pasttime around here is playing with bubbles.  it's crazy but one year ago (heck, even a couple months ago) there is no way my little boy could blow bubbles on his own and now he is semi-pro.  he is growing up so fast.

on the weekends the ice cream truck drives down our street at least 2 or 3 times a day.  luke is the one who always takes colin out to get ice cream.  i am the one telling him it will make his tummy sick.  guess who is the more fun parent on that one?  the little man especially enjoyed his spiderman (our newest obsession around here) ice cream last weekend - he and uncle scot both got one. 

i wish i was better about taking pictures but honestly half the time i forget (read: i am too lazy) to get out the camera.  i am going to try and be better about it.  time is moving way too fast for me.  before i know it my sweet boy will be all grown up.  i am always reminding myself to enjoy the 'now' with both of my guys.  there is always time to worry about tomorrow, right?  here's to another weekend with my little family - i've been counting down all week.