Our Family According To Em

So You Know It's Going To Be A Good Day When. . .

. . .your son wakes up 30 minutes before you're ready for him to and you let him sit and fuss in his crib until you're dressed and ready for work.   Then when you finally go in and get him you realize just why he's been fussing.  He has a blowout and he and his crib are covered in poo.  Yep, this was my morning. :(  It can only get better from here right?

The Dallas Zoo

We've talked about taking the kids to the zoo for a little while now and finally the weather looked good for Sunday morning.  We went ahead and bought season passes for the next year, so I'm sure we'll be making many more trips back.  This was Evan's first time at the zoo.  I think he loved it.  Although he may have loved pushing the wagon and riding in the wagon more than looking at the animals, but that's ok.  Em loved it as usual.  We stayed for just a couple hours, but were able to see the majority of the animals. 

Big Boy!

So this is going to be a totally boring post for all of you, but since my blog is how I record stuff I wanted to make sure I wrote this down. As of Monday, July 22nd, Evan is officially off bottles and formula!  Woohoo.  It's another bittersweet moment where I realize my baby is growing up.   Yet at the same time, I'm loving having the counter space back in the kitchen. . haha.  For the last week, he had been down to just 1 formula bottle a day, but after running out of formula and not wanting to buy another giant can, I decided it was time for both bottles and formula to go.  Monday morning went well, he didn't even seem to care and drank his milk happily in his sippy.  However, today was a little rougher.  He definitely missed it and looked for it.  But as soon as I got him a snack he was good to go.  I know there might be a few more rough mornings ahead, but it will be worth it in the end.  So here's to no more bottles!  :)

First Day in the Toddler Room

My big boy is moving up to the young toddler room at school. It's sad knowing he's not in the infant room anymore. That just means I have to accept that he's growing up. :( Evan has absolutely loved going to school and all his infant room teachers. I can already tell he's learned so much! I know he's ready to be in the big boy room now and have more space to play. 

Today is Evan's first full day in the young toddler room.  He's been transitioning all week which means he split time between the infant room and toddler room.  But today he's there all day.  Overall he did great during the transition week.  We were able to easily transition him away from the bottles/ formula during the day!  Now he only gets 1 formula bottle a day and that's first thing in the morning when he wakes up.  Other than that it's whole milk in sippy cups.  Woohoo!  I'm hoping the formula bottle goes away soon too. I just didn't want to make too many changes for him all at once.

A few changes in the toddler room include getting to go outside twice a day now for recess, napping on a cot instead of in a crib, sitting in chairs vs. a highchair, he has to wear shoes and they discourage him using a paci.  Although they had been working on getting him down to 1 nap a day in the infant room, if he still needed one in the morning they would let him sleep.  However, in the toddler room he gets only 1 nap a day.  Poor guy was super exhausted at the end of each day.  It will just take a few weeks to get used to all the stimulation from being in a new room.  His teachers said he adjusted very well this week.  He had no trouble napping on his cot, he was a very good listener, ate very well, loved outside time and talked a lot.  :) 

Since today was his first day to be dropped off in the toddler room, I thought drop off might be tough for him with new teachers and new class, but he had no trouble.  It was much harder on me than him.  In this room he gets to eat breakfast as soon as he arrives vs. waiting until later in the infant room.  Eating his breakfast is a huge distraction for him and he didn't even notice I had left.  I just couldn't get over how big he looked sitting at the table!  Luckily he knows lots of friends in his class.  Most of the kids in his class were in the infant room with him too, so it's fun to be back with them. 

I took a few pictures of my young toddler this morning before school.  Doesn't he look so big?!

And just because you all know I love the comparison pics.  Here he is on his first day in the infant room vs. first day in the toddler room.  I'd say he's done a lot of growing up!

Last Sunday In Pictures

This is what happens when it rains all day.  You get creative.  :)

After a while Em asked to go play in the rain.  It was just drizzling by now so Shawn took the kids around the block several times. 



San Antonio Trip Day 4 (& 5 ) - Happy 4th of July!

Thursday was our last full day at the resort and it also happened to be the 4th of July!  Grant and Luke got up early and played golf at the Hyatt Hill Country while the rest of us hung out at the condo.  We took this time to take lots of pics of the kids in their matching 4th of July jammies.  :)  Us girls could resist buying them all matching outfits.



Getting 5 kids (age 4 and under) to all look at the same time is not easy!!

Luke and Grant got back around lunch time and we all got our swimsuits on and headed down to the main pool.  For the Fourth, the resort had lots of special activities going on.  Down by the pool, there was live music and food for lunch.  We were really lucky in that we were able to snag a bunch of lounge chairs in the shade.  The kids loved the pool, but I wouldn't say as much as the lazy river.  It was a bit colder than the lazy river and they didn't have the sand to play in either.  It was still nice though because it had a shallow entrance and the pool itself never got really deep.  It was an indoor/outdoor pool and also had a splash pad too.  There were water slides too, but Em was to small to ride them.  She was really disappointed.

Gotta love the self portraits.

Lane loved carrying around water in the buckets.  :)

After a busy 3 days already, the lack of sleep was starting to catch up to all the kids.  After just a little bit of playing, 4 out of the 5 kids ended up taking naps outside by the pool.

Grace was the first to succumb to the nap.

But Evan quickly followed.

Em was the third one to give in.

Lane tried really hard to hang on. . .

but eventually gave in to the nap.

And before long this is what our group looked like.

But don't worry. . Leah rallied and never gave in to the nap.  Grant kept her company in the pool

Once Grace and Evan woke up, Steph, Court and I decided we needed a little girl time.  So we headed down to float the lazy river for a little bit.  The boys held up the fort back at the pool





 



This is what we saw when we got back to the pool

I love this pic!  If only I knew how to crop Shawn's hand out.

Couldn't resist getting a group shot of all the kids in their 4th of July swimwear.  Many thanks to Leah and Lane for letting us borrow their suits from last year!

After spending all afternoon at the pool, we went back to the condo to change and get ready for the resorts 4th of July party.  They served street tacos and smores and also had a dj.

We had to finish off the day with matching outfits.  :)

Leah and Em were the life of the party.  They loved dancing to the music during the party.

 

We made it about an hour or so before Em and Evan both started to melt down.  The long week was finally catching up to them!  We headed back to the condo and the rest of the group followed shortly after.  All the kids got ready for bed and then we topped off the night with sitting on the balcony watching the fireworks from the Hyatt Hill Country Resort across the street.  We couldn't have asked for a better view! It was a great way to end our trip!

 

 

We all woke up early on Friday and checked out of the resort.  After saying our goodbye's we hit the road and made our way back home.  Both kids were exhausted and quickly fell asleep.  That is until Shawn got pulled over.  :(  That stop made both kids wake up and Evan was not happy about it.  He started screaming!  Luckily I think the cop felt sorry for us and let Shawn off with a warning.  Trust me when I say having our 2 very tired kids wake up was much more punishment than a ticket would have been!



 

 

Since the kids woke up earlier than expected, we stopped and got some lunch at Chick-Fil-A and then headed back on the road.  We hit more traffic than we had hoped on the way home, but overall it wasn't terrible.  We were home around 5:00 and by then we were all exhausted!  Vacations with kids aren't exactly relaxing. . haha.  Luckily we had Saturday and Sunday to recuperate before going back to work / school!