Happy Halloween!

We've got our candy and our costumes and we're READY!

Hope yours is sweet and safe!

More Potty Talk

Three days in a row Ace has pee peed on the potty in the morning!

LeLe (Leah) gave him potty stickers and a potty chart last year for his birthday and we are just now getting it out. The potty chart sits above the toilet roll and Ace INSISTS on holding it too his chest and saying, "That's MY potty chart."

He gets one sticker on each hand and one on the chart for each success. Good thing LeLe gave us a pack of 124 dinosaur stickers.

He's so proud of himself and so am I. I think Thanksgiving is going to be the big week of concentrated training but, in the meantime, he gets put on the potty about four times a day to try. Wish me luck!!! (I'm hoping to get a poop soon. Every time he has a poopy diaper he raises his hiny out of his diaper saying, "Mommy get it, get it." As if he hasn't been in a poopy diaper for more than 5 minutes!)

Balloon Festival

Since I take all of our family photos with Ace's yearly scrapbook in mind, we came home from the Balloon Festival with over 100 photos! And we only stayed 4 hours! Here's Mr. Cute.

He got a lot of compliments on his jacket (thanks B!).
Jonathan did some fabulous photography of all the balloons in the air.

Daddy was a REALLY good sport to get up before 5am to get us out there to see the balloons launch.

Typical Ace at the moment. I can't get him to look at the camera like he used to. But I figure he'll still want pictures of him and his parents when he gets older.

Halfway through the balloon show, Ace decided he'd rather "hide" than watch. Luckily, we brought a blanket for him to hide under.

Future astronaut?

Future speaker?

The balloon launch was at the NASA offices. They opened their auditorium and guess who took right to the microphone and cried when I quit holding him up to it.

This kid loves a stage.

We had a great time but were sooooo pooped. I even fell asleep on the way home! So did Ace. And we BOTH took even longer naps when we got home. Jonathan and I thought Ace would have enjoyed the balloons a lot more than he did but we sure loved it.

This weekend, we're taking Ace to the air show and, since airplanes are Ace's favorite, we are expecting a big reaction.

"I Gotcha One."

Those are the sweetest words I'm hearing lately. I'll ask Ace, "Do you have a kiss for me?" He turns around and says, "I gotcha one" and puckers up the softest, sweetest lips for me.

Makes me MELT.

Eyes

Ace and I were driving home from Trunk-or-Treat last night

and this is what the sky looked like!

Pretty phenomenal.

It gave me a new mental picture for when I think about God watching over me.

HE DID IT!!!!!

Acey pee-peed in the potty last night!!!!!

I have been putting Ace on the potty every night before his bath. Usually he acts like I'm trying to put his hiny on hot coals. He stiffens his legs out straight, reaches for me and says, "nononononononononono." For a little while now, he has humored me and sat on the potty but he doesn't go and as soon as his toes hit the warm water he pees (so we drain the tub, refill and on and on). So, the other day I thought, "Hmmm, warm water."

Last night, I sat him on the potty and poured warm water on his "don't touch." (I've done this before with no results except for uncontrollable laughter - his and mine.) Nothing happened the first time I did it last night but the second time he peed!!! I scared him by jumping with joy so it stopped but once he looked down again he started going again. And it ALL went into the bowl!!!!!! We danced, we sang, we twirled around, he got chocolate, we called Honey and Sashi, we PARTIED.

Potty training is soooo close I can feel it. I'm scared of how it will affect my work day but we'll adjust, we always do.

Hearing him tell his Daddy "I pee-pee in the potty" was just the BEST. My little man is growing up and I can finally buy him the cutest undies ever.

YEAH ACE!

While Jonathan was away...

Aunt B was taking care of Ace last Saturday morning and Jonathan went for a run so I woke up early and DESTROYED our upstairs. Our attic has been bothering me forever. We have tons of boxes up there and we're always sucking in our guts and weaving between them when we have to get up there. Here's what it looked like once I got everything out of the attic.

I was just crossing my fingers that Jonathan wouldn't come home at this point.
I just HAD to take a photo after I emptied the attic. Too bad that I don't have a before photo!

I felt SOOOO accomplished afterwards. I put everything into plastic bins (on sale for $3.50 at Lowes) and put it back in the attic after the tailgate on Sunday. Now, I have an entire aisle to walk through stacked and labeled bins and even a free space to walk through.

And Jonathan didn't have to lift a finger!

(Can this count as an early birthday present for him?)

P.S. My thighs, behind and calves were on fire until Tuesday!

COF 2009 Tailgate

I really love our church and Sunday was the Annual Texans Tailgate. Sponsors provided barbecue to over 5,000 congregation members for free!!!! We ate our barbecue and snow cones and Ace got to ride the train with Aubrey. He squealed in fright when I tried to get his photo with Toro the mascot!

I don't quite know what this face is all about.

Lucky Mommy.

Cousin Videos

Hilary and Nathan never ask me to babysit the girls even though we are always asking them to take care of Ace. So when they asked Aunt Kelly to watch Brynley and Aubrey while they went to a church group party, I grabbed my camera.

EVERY time Ace and Aubrey see each other, they run to one another with open arms. It is the SWEETEST greeting and I just melt every time they do it. I finally caught it on video.

Jonathan came over with pizza for dinner so we stripped the kids and set them up at the table. I asked them what they were going to be for Halloween: Cinderella, an airplane pilot and a pumpkin. I think Aubrey called me a cow!

And this is Miss Brynley just being cute (with Ace's hiny right in her face). She was so soft and cuddly all night. She'd walk right in front of me and plop her tiny hiny in my lap.

Am I a lucky aunt or what?! Each kid cried once, there were a few time outs and I consider the night a success. I let Ace and Aubrey eat a cookie in the bathtub...anyone know what a wet, chocolate chip cookie looks like. It was gross. I live and I learn. They played and played and Ace went straight to bed when we got home.

Houston Children's Museum

We took Ace to the Children's Museum TWO weekends ago (finally getting the pics off my camera) and had such fun. Of course, Ace gravitated to the one thing that he does ALL the time at home: the cars (or closest thing to them).

Second thing that was like home: banging on things!
Love my boys. They ended up playing Legos most of the time.

They had a HUGE guy made out of old telephones. Ace got on a payphone and thought he was talking to his Sashi...it must have been the phones (since Sashi worked for AT&T for so long).

We'll definitely go again. I just wish it was closer to the house.

Random...

Whenever I move my photos onto my computer, I have a random assortment to post. Here's the latest...Sunday, we made pumpkins (LOVE these because they'll last longer and make less mess than the carved ones...I always hate the mess and loathe spending money on pumpkins that stink up my front porch after two weeks.) See if you can guess who is who...

Right to left: Jonathan, Ace, Mommy. (I've got the bloodshot eyes! Appropro.) Ace keeps telling me that "Daddy's got boogers" whenever we are at the table.

Poor Hula. Happy Ace.
Pouting Ace.

More pouting. I can't even remember what he did that required an, "I'm sorry," but he's been real stubborn lately that he does NOT want to apologize. What a cute pout though, right?

Being silly.

I heard, "Help. Help." This is what I found...a little stinker thinking he was pretty cute. He was right.