Christmasy Things

We are so on top of things this year...the house is decorated, the Elf is moving around each morning, we've done the gingerbread house, we've made a visit to Santa, and we are enjoying chocolate from our advent calendar. Nothing like a newborn's arrival to kick it all into gear! 

Turkey, Pilgrims, and Indians!

We had a very relaxing and wonderful Thanksgiving this year. Although Emma didn't make her debut, we were prepared and decided not to leave town. It was a nice change of pace, no packing and no driving. 

The week started off with the Thanksgiving Feast at Davis' school. The kids performed a couple songs and we enjoyed some turkey from Bill Miller BBQ!

Can you spot Chief Davis?

Forrest smoked the turkey this year...yum yum!

Eating loads of turkey requires playtime at the park

Ole Holiday Market

I volunteer with the Junior League and every year since joining the league, I sign up for the Ole Holiday Market as my placement. More than 200 merchants come set up booths for the week and each day during the week we put on different events/parties! 

The months leading up to the event are spent planning parties, getting merchants, advertising, getting donations, and much much more. This year I was co-chair for all the events: Sneak Peek, Tween Fashion Show, Girl's Night Out, and Pajamas and Pancakes. Hours and hours are spent during the week of Ole setting up, decorating, coordinating, etc and this year was a little more challenging being on my feet all day while being 7 months pregnant. 

Our event is in October, so trying to twist in a little Christmas cheer is always a challenge. So we went with "Christmas Ole!" Bright fiesta colors decorated Christmas trees! 

My favorite event this year was Pajamas and Pancakes! It was our final event (yay for wrapping it up) and I got to spend time with Forrest and Davis (who I had barely seen all week!!). Kids came in their pajamas, did science experiments with the Children's museum, ate pancakes, painted, and sat down for story-time with the author of the cutest book, Good Night San Antonio. 

Painting with a Twist

Story-time with author of Good Night San Antonio

Davis and Jack

Hot Lava

Soccer season is coming to a close. Surprisingly, it went by quickly. We practiced one day a week - which really was like one big play-date on a huge field with 10 kids - and we had games every Saturday morning. The games proved to be very entertaining. 

The first couple of games, the kids had to learn that not all of them could play at the same time. There were some tears. I think the majority of kids had more fun hanging out by the "snack cooler" than on the field. There were some who would absolutely collapse in complete despair if the other team scored a goal. And there were some kids whose parents were shouting bribes from the sidelines - "If you stay on the field for the next 15 mins, I will buy you bubble gum!!!" Desperate times, desperate times. I will miss Saturday mornings! 

Did I mention the kids came up with their team name...HOT LAVA! Go Hot Lava! 

Trick or Treat

Emma enjoyed her first Halloween. She indulged in plenty of chocolate,  via me. 

Davis also had a great day...starting out with Spooky Chapel at school and the Spooky Parade. In chapel, the kids learned that while they might see scary things that night (ghosts, witches, and monsters), there are people in their lives that love and support them. So sweet. They sang a couple Halloween songs, but my favorite was watching them sing and dance to "The Monster Mash!" 

I brought the kids lunch that afternoon and we played some Halloween games like pumpkin bowling and pin the nose on the pumpkin. Davis came home with me after lunch and was ready to trick or treat right then and there, it was 1pm! I distracted him with some Halloween crafts and we played some games, that helped get us to 3pm. Then it was time for Captain America to get ready!!

Spooky Chapel and Spooky Parade

Captain America to the rescue!

Super-hero shield! 

We met up with our neighbors and made it around the block. It didn't seem like that many houses and somehow Davis came home with an entire bucket full of candy. 

Every year, my favorite part is when we get home, sit on the porch and hand out candy. Davis loves it!

Davis used his glow-sticks to point other trick or treaters towards our house, "come to my house guys!" He looked like he was directing planes for take-off and landing! Then he would meticulously count out three pieces of candy per person. If ever there was a lull, he asked me, "do you think we'll get more customers?"When we ran out of candy around 8pm, I said, "well, Halloween is over." Davis said, "Great, so tomorrow is Christmas?" 

BOO! Happy Halloween!

Hill Country Hyatt

We often get visitors to SA who stay at the Hill Country Hyatt. This particular weekend Annie and Papa Tom stayed there a couple nights and invited Davis. He loves this place, what kid wouldn't? Face painting, buffets at his eye-level, lazy river rides, nightly s'mores, slides, waterfalls, movies on the lawn!

Lazy River fun

Not quite tall enough for the slide...darn

The Move Upstairs

Our upstairs consists of the playroom, the office, and a bathroom. After a full weekend of moving and redecorating, the playroom and office have been combined. The old office is now Davis' new room! 

I held off moving Davis upstairs as long as I possibly could. Stairs make me really nervous and trapping kids with locks and gates make me really nervous too. While I didn't want him to be coming down the stairs in a sleepy state in the middle of the night, I also didn't want to trap him up there in case there was an emergency. So we leave the stairway light on and we still listen for him on the monitor. 

Maybe you recall my post about non-consistent sleep habits a while back? Well (knock on wood) our problems have been solved! Upstairs, Davis sleeps through the night about 90% of the time. Occasionally he comes downstairs because of a bad dream, but for the most part he sleeps from 7:30/8pm till 6:30/7am. He absolutely LOVES his new room, mainly because of the beanbag chair! 

Please ignore the massive armoire in front of the window.
It was too heavy to move that weekend by ourselves. 

Taking after his mama!

There's a couple things I like to take credit for...Davis' olive skin tone, his compassion towards others, his teacher's-pet qualities, and his soccer skills!!

Back in the day I loved soccer. For the most part, the ball stayed on the ground and there was plenty of room between me and the other girls. I'm just not a huge fan of large bouncing basketballs or fast flying softballs. Plus it was the one sport that offered more protection than others...thank goodness for shinguards! Lucky for me, I never went to a massive competitive school, anyone who signed up for soccer made the team...Varsity team in fact. We didn't have enough girls to make two teams! Enough about me and my mad (hope you're sensing the sarcasm here) skills...moving onto the real reason you're here, Davis!

Our first official soccer practice was last week. There are no words to describe his excitement. We bought the cleats, the socks, and the shinguards. And ever since our first practice he's been asking when he gets to play again!

Davis' 1st Day Pre-K 4

Davis, today was your first day in Pre-K 4! 

We packed your bag the night before with your school folder, a blanket for "rest time" and a change of clothes. You didn't understand why you needed a change of clothes. I told you it was just in case you got dirty or had an accident. You told me, "but mom, they have bathrooms." 

You were very excited about the first day of school, so excited that you woke up early. You crawled into bed with us around 4:30am and had a hard time falling back asleep. Once you did finally fall back asleep I tried to let you sleep as late as possible. 

Before you woke up, I boiled you some eggs and poured your bowl of Cheerios. I packed your lunch and made sure to use your new Ninja Turtles water bottle. When Duke and I came into your room to wake you up, you jumped up out of bed immediately and you were excited to see the sun was up.

Getting you dressed and out the door was pretty easy this morning, as if you'd been doing it all summer. Taking pictures was also easy! 

We were the first to arrive in the ramp drop-off line and you were excited to see two of your previous teachers already on the playground, Ms Erin and Ms Amy. We sat and talked in the car for about 5 minutes before they started letting kids out of the cars. You told me that you liked your new teacher and you planned on playing all day. You were a little nervous that your new teacher wouldn't have as many fun toys as Ms Amy did last year, but I assured you she would. You also asked me when you would see Sam (your best friend) because he's not in the same class as you this year. 

I can't wait to come pick you up today and ask you all about your first day in Pre-K! I'm so proud of you Davis!

Vegetables

I used to take pride in how well Davis would eat as a baby. I could get him to eat all kinds of veggies...peas, broccoli, edamame, carrots, etc. I remember thinking, wow, I've gotten his taste-buds to like these vegetables early on and he's going to be eating them forever. Wrong! 

He quickly proved me wrong and my healthy-mother-of-the-year award started to drift further away. So we have resorted to veggie packs (aka Ella's Kitchen Organics) and hiding vegetables. Davis assures me he eats vegetables, "Mom, but I DO eat vegetables. I love corn!" Yes, Davis, I know you love corn but it happens to be one of the least nutrient filled vegetables, but I'll take what I can get. So we always have a bag of frozen corn and some fresh ears of corn on hand. 

I've become a pro at hiding some veggies here and there...if I make pizza, I hide butternut squash in the red sauce. Enchiladas have zucchini. Burritos have spinach. And then we always put a vegetable on his plate. And this brings us to last night...

I made this breaded chicken recipe and cut the chicken up in tiny pieces, calling it chicken nuggets! I found something new to try over at Skinny Taste and made some very delicious Broccoli and Cheddar Skinny Potato Skins. With the extra broccoli, I covered it with cheese and melted it for Davis. Yum Yum! We don't usually make Davis eat everything, he just knows that once dinner is over the kitchen is closed, so he better eat. I also don't force him to eat things he doesn't like, but we do encourage him to at least try one tiny bite. And that is what happened last night. We requested one tiny bite of the cheesy broccoli. 

We sat at the table for a good 15 minutes waiting for Davis to take a bite. Tears were streaming down his face. "I don't like broccoli, I like corn! I can't eat it! I just can't!" We were sticking to our guns, afraid to give in. We tried everything...changing the subject, talking about a fun bike ride after dinner, but it didn't work. Whether he ate the bite and actually liked it wasn't even going to happen anymore, I knew the negativity had all gone to his head. I was ready to give up, but Forrest was adament. I told him I needed to google this issue and read some other parent's inputs before deciding what to do next. That is, after all, what all good parents do, we google! 

All of a sudden, Davis took that bite. Ahh! We were so proud! It was like potty training days all over again, we screamed with joy. Davis was laughing and excited with us, at first, then there was some shaking of the head, then some coughing, and then pure disgusting vomit. All over his plate. 

In conclusion, all for the tiniest bite of broccoli, Davis threw up his entire dinner. We went on a bike ride and when Davis came home he ate half a watermelon. The End.

I would love any and all tips and recipes from moms in the same situation!

The stuff 4 year old's nightmares are made of

I miss those predictable nights. Once Davis started sleeping through the night (as a baby) he was easy to put to sleep and we knew we wouldn't hear from him till 12 wonderful hours later. It's a different story now.

I could go on and on trying to analyze and figure it out...he's older, he's in a big boy bed, he doesn't nap, he naps too much, he didn't get enough activity...who cares really. All that matters is that Forrest and I are walking zombies again and I'm freaking out because we have a newborn coming in just 4-5 months!

Each night is unpredictable...a different reason for waking up...a different hour...and you never know if he will fall back asleep.

Last night, I heard him start to cry around 3:30am. I wanted to ignore it, but the sad little whimper just kept coming through the monitor. So I got up and checked on him. He was half awake when I went into his room so I decided to just lay next to him and rub his back, hoping it would calm him down and make him go back to sleep. As he looked at me, I asked him what's wrong. Through tears he responded, "my crocs are broken." I quickly explained to him it was a dream and his crocs were fine. And there you have it, a 4 year old's nightmare.

Looking back, I shouldn't have gone into his room. He probably would have fallen back asleep on his own. I'm paying for it now, Davis was up at 3:30am and never went back to sleep. Neither did we. Fun times.

Turning 4 is FUN!

My sweet tiny little baby boy (I gotta get that in there while I still can) just turned 4 last Saturday! I asked him how it feels to be 4 and he said he still feels 3, but already knows what kind of cake he wants when he turns 5. These are the important things in life. 

We had another pool party this year and it was all things sports themed for our very active boy!

Davis in action!

Miss Molly

Cousin Clark

Blowing out the candle!

Kids sitting quietly, in awe of sugar! 

Time for presents!

A new watch!

Check out those skateboard skills!

Pump me up!

The ultimate water-gun!

My mom, grandmother, and sister.

Eating the last bite of cake!

We got Davis a new bike for his birthday and he rode it like a champ all day long! He thinks the orange is "sooo cool" and our neighbors gave him an awesome blue string of lights to wrap around the bike bars. He's all set!

My best friend Kelly came in town to help celebrate Davis' birthday, so we made a weekend out of it with brunch the next morning for my birthday. We went to Anne Marie's Carriage House in the Botanical Gardens. I had never been or even heard of it, but found it on Yelp. It was quaint, off the beaten path, and delicious.

We don't need to capture my age with a candle anymore.
It can just say "OMG"

That look......