Weekend Fun

Ashlyn got her first taste of being outside on foot. She walked up and down the driveway, very amused with the uphill/downhill thing. She was most focused on getting as many pieces of chalk in her hands at one time.

Colson, as always, enjoyed expressing his true artist self. He was drawing faces and trains - and assisting his Daddy with some Thomas characters!

Welcome Kodak Gallery friends!

Just wanted to welcome those of you who got here after viewing the latest stuff on Kodak! As you can see, it's not much yet. But, it is a nice and easy way for us to share some of the kids' latest activities.
Currently, it's Saturday afternoon and both Muy and Loco are napping! They both had a busy morning here. We went suit shopping for Steve. Both kids were very helpful. Ashlyn was good and enjoyed snacking in her stroller. Colson enjoyed the 3 mirrors and the big step while Steve got his suits tailored. He especially liked roaring at himself in the mirror. Lately, he likes playing the roaring monster. He's a bit odd!
Then, off to our nice and close Super Target for some Saturday grocery shopping. Gotta love Target for building us one 5 minutes from the house. Way to help out our need to multi-task, Target! Both Little Crazies got to pick out a small toy and a book in Spanish - figure it's about time to teach them a new language (beyond a word or two here and there).
So, much was accomplished this morning and both kids were, apparently, wiped! They also both had a fun week. Lots of good playing time together. Ryza would've been 11 this past week, so that's been tough to take. Sadness for Steve and me, but lots of smiles with all the happy memories.
That's all from here for now. Have a great weekend!

Sunday stuff

Yet another busy Sunday here! Actually, we had a fairly busy week. Steve attended his first Entrust annual worldwide sales meeting. Happily, it was in Dallas. So, he was out of town (there at the Marriott for the meeting), but in town all at the same time. It was non-stop with some fun stuff (a dinner/entertaining) night at Southfork Ranch.
Colson had a fun 3 days of school. He has been busy designing and redesigning his tracks upstairs. We put a permanent gate at the top of the stairs, since Ashlyn has become very interested in what goes on up there! So, he tries to find things for her to play with while she's up there, so she doesn't mess with his stuff!
Ashlyn's been teething like crazy. She has almost a constant stream of drool at this point, poor girl! She spent her week working on her everyday goal of taking apart the play kitchen. For some reason, she feels all the drawers and shelves look better on the floor. Also, she has focused some of her play time on the market/cash register they got for the holidays. She loves all the sounds and lights on it - and, of course, pushing the button to make the drawer open...if she could only get it completely off the cash register and on the floor by itself!
Steve and I got a little alone time last night. We finally made it to Williams-Sonoma together to use some gift cards. Then, we decided to try a restaurant we hadn't been to before - The Mustang Cafe. The menu they had online looked great. We got there and there were about 3 other tables taken - and one of the tables was currently sending food back to the kitchen. We left. After learning of the hour and 45 minute wait at Maggiano's, we settled on California Pizza Kitchen. Not quite what we had in mind, but it was there and serving food and drinks to us in a timely manner! The kids had a fun time with Jiggy and Nanny here at home. Ashlyn even got to try her first pieces of pizza! We thought Colson was an amazing eater - she will eat any and every thing you put in front of her. Well, with the exception of baby food. She's SO beyond that!

Happy Weekend!

Hi! It's Friday night, about 9:30ish here. Both kids are in bed and it's about bedtime for their parents. Sad, but true!

It was a good Friday here. Colson had all sorts of fun at school. He played well, slept well and ate well. Can't ask for more than that. Ashlyn spent her home alone time practicing her walking. She is somewhere between crawling and walking. We think once she realizes she'd actually be faster on her little feet, she'll go to that full time!

We had a very yummy Fish City Grill dinner (ate some oysters for you too, Nate!) that was delivered to our door by Jiggy and Nanny. Gotta love family who not only brings you food, but plays with your children so you have time to eat it all!

And, finally, we got word today that our newest cousin was born last night. Avery Jade Eckert arrived last night, weighing in at 7 pounds 9 ounces. We wish all the best (and a quick road to sleeping through the night!) to her Mommy and Daddy (Cheryl and Scott)!

Have a great weekend! Good night!

At this moment - 7:22pm, 1.8.08

What do you know...eating again while doing a post?! Shocking. Multi-tasking. Currently, Colson is in awe of "Jakers" on Sprout. Not usual for him, but he's interested in the animals tonight. Ashlyn is in and out of the kitchen. Trying to use Rogue as her own personal pony. And, at this very second, "reading" to herself. That is one of her favorite activities. She LOVES books!

We had a pretty calm day around here. Got some laundry done, kids got good naps, had some good play time. All around good stuff!

Both kids were happy to have their Daddy home at normal time tonight. He was just a bit later yesterday, as he was in PA for a meeting. Then, he spent most of the time between getting home and their bedtime successfully repairing the internet connection. We had a random power surge on Sunday and it seemed to kick out our modem completely. So, no internet or phone (VOIP) at all. Thank goodness he's a geek!

Not too much else here to report for now. I suppose we're just enjoying a quiet week. Sadly, Taylor was on the hunt for Ryza today. She and Kane are really noticing that she isn't here. I'm not sure if it's better to be able to understand what happened or to be in their position just wondering. I guess there's just not a good side at all.

Hope all is well where you are reading this from right now. Take care!

At this moment - 1/3/08 - 7:12 PM

At this moment, I'm fininshing up some chicken nuggets. I used a recipe from the Deceptively Delicious cookbook. I put some on a plate for Colson, as I was finishing up cooking the others. He said, "Can I have some ones that are cooking that are good?" We'll keep trying. He ate a bunch of them last time. He was just hoping for the plain old pop them in the toaster oven ones tonight, I guess!

Colson is currently "cooking" a sandwich for Jiggy. He loves to create new dishes in the new play kitchen.

Ashlyn is moving all over the room, playing with as many toys as she can get her little hands on. She is most interested in the ones that her brother is focused on - imagine that!

2008 has arrived!

Welcome! Thanks to the fun I've had reading Scott and Cheryl's Avery blog, I decided to try this myself. Scott's always been my cousin with the smart ideas. I'm pretty sure it was his wise idea to sneak out of the house and head to Denny's when we were all young and wild! :)

But, I thought what better way to get some more updates on Muy (Colson) and Loco (Ashlyn) out to you all. You know, as if the CONSTANT Kodak Gallery albums we send just aren't enough.

So, hang in there and I promise to add some pictures and whatever else I can on here. I'll try my best to figure it all out quickly. I'm not the geek in the house though!

I'll start with a quick update on what's happened so far in 2008...you know, today. We all had a fun family day making a trip to Best Buy. Colson was sure there would be "Bob and Thomas" stuff there. We kept him away from the DVD section. We finally talked ourselves into a new video camera. We were in desperate need of one, as our now old one was really starting to go down hill quickly. And, we were starting to get concerned that Ashlyn would do yet another thing for the first time while we were trying to catch it with a pretty sad camera. Sony cameras, they're iffy! So, with that accomplished, we headed home for lunch and nap time.

Colson's been fighting naps lately. Fun stuff. Ashlyn took an almost 4 hour one. Smart girl! The rest of the day was spent playing with the ridiculous amount of stuff they got for the holidays in the past month. They've totally taken over the house! And, while we all played, Rosie - our new "live-in" cleaned the floors. Santa (Steve) brought Rosie to me for Christmas. Others may call her the Roomba i-Robot, but we decided on Rosie (the maid on the Jetson's). It just seemed right. And, it was much better than Robotic Ryza that I had started with...denial, I had to name SOMETHING around here Ryza!

Okay, that's it for now. Seriously, I PROMISE to have some more exciting stuff on here as time goes on. Hopefully it will be a fun and easy place for friends and family to check in on CXL and ASL and to send messages back to us all!

Good night and Happy New Year!