Douglas and his sisters

Douglas loves to play with his sisters.


And they love to play with him !



I think he knows that he has them wrapped around his finger.



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Art Show Honors

Last night we went to the Clear Lake arts alliance center for their "Young at Art" exhibit where art teachers from each school in the district were invited to submit 12 pieces of student art. Brenna was one of two fourth-grade students highlighted from her school. She won an excellence ribbon!

Apparently the original assignment was to draw a picture of her shoe and make it into something else. She was very proud to tell me that we did not have that shoe anymore, that it was one we had recently thrown away for falling apart.

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Track Time

Cameron surprised me earlier this spring by saying she wanted to run track at school. I knew that she had gone running a few times with Bryan, but didn't realize she wanted to try her hand at athletics. Apparently when she ran in PE class the coach asked her why she wasn't in athletics! Her coach encouraged her to try out for track team.

So now she has practice after school until 5:30 Monday through Thursday afternoons, and 7 AM practice on Friday!
Track meets are held on Wednesdays from 5 to 9 PM at one of the ISD high schools.

The first track meet she ran a 4 x 800, meaning that she was one of four girls running 800 m in a relay. She ran second. The event was the second to last of the night. Douglas and I sat in the bleachers for three hours waiting for her to run! She finally ran at 8 PM!

The second track meet was canceled for conflict of schedule, and the next week was spring break.
This Wednesday she ran the first event, a master mile. She was a little disappointed with her 10 minute mile time, but it was a beautiful afternoon and we went home early.


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St. Patrick's Day

Happy St. Patrick's Day from a wee Kelly leprechaun wearing his green.





Who's that?











Laughing!

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Location:St. Patrick's Day

Texans Football Playoffs

Some of Bryan's coworkers gave Douglas his first Texans T-shirt and insisted that his wearing it would bring the team good luck for each playoff game. It worked the first weekend when they beat the Cincinnati Bengals.

So we dutifully carried the shirt with us to Fort Worth on MLK weekend, hoping for another Texans victory, this time against the Baltimore Ravens.



Douglas look so cute in his little shirt watching the game with Bryan.

Unfortunately the Texans lost and we didn't get to wear the shirt for any more playoffs, but maybe we will put it on for the Super Bowl! It can only bring us good luck for next year!!

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What the girls do with Douglas

I was scrolling through the 1400 pictures on my phone when I came across some I didn't remember taking. Apparently this is something the girls did with Douglas the week in December when they were off school. They were supposed to be watching him for me and used my phone to take pictures!












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Found My Feet

This morning Douglas is three months old and someone found his feet!





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Location:Bowline Rd,Houston,United States

Tomorrow (Friday) Douglas will be 12 weeks old. He is doing very well after three days at daycare, although this morning he wasn't very awake before I dropped him off. However he doesn't quite go 3 hours between feeding. I think he is getting fussy because he is tired, and instead of settling him down for a nap, they're defaulting to giving him a bottle- and then he falls asleep.

This week and last he has been drooling a lot. He has also started to notice his hands more. He likes to suck on his knuckles, but hasn't found his thumb. Both of the girls were early thumb-suckers and refused to take a pacifier. Douglas likes his pacifier when he's fussy.

He has also started reaching for and trying to grasp toys. He particularly likes his Hungry Caterpillar.











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First day back!

After a long 11 weeks, I went back to work today and Douglas went to daycare. Last night was a very emotional evening and today was a little stressful morning, but Bryan was a lot of help and so were the girls.

It also helped that Douglas was in a great mood. He went to sleep about 10 PM, woke at 3 AM, and went back to sleep until we woke him at 6:45 am. Bryan and the girls got him dressed, and we were almost ready for our scheduled departure at 7:25 am.



Bryan took Cameron and they met Nana, while Brenna came with Douglas to the daycare. It is the same place that Brenna went to when she was an infant. They even let her check on him twice during the day.

I went to work, met with my boss for an hour, then tackled the work on my desk. I only shed a few tears when I first dropped him off. Okay maybe a little crying on the drive to work too. But I knew he would be fine.



I watch him on the web cam, and called once at 3 PM. to see how many bottles he had eaten. In this picture, he is playing on the floor with a kick start gym. His caregiver said it startled him every time he kicked it.

I arrived just before 5 PM, picked up Brenna first, then went to collect my little man. He did great and had big smiles for mommy!



He is in a great mood tonight which makes all of us feel relieved. We hope tomorrow will be good also.



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Talking to Douglas

Douglas really interacts with his Daddy. I caught this "conversation" today between the two of them. I couldn't have predicted the ending, but it's too funny. I've seen Bryan watching this over and over today. He says he just loves to hear him talking. I suspect I'll watch it often when I go back to work this week.

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Happy New Year

Last night we didn't do much except play a long game of Phase 10. Even though it was gorgeous outside, we didn't leave the house today. We rested, played games, with Douglas, cooked, snacked, read, and watched tv and Once Upon A Time on tv.

A happy new year baby





Hanging out with Daddy watching the Texans game. Too bad they lost to the Titans in the last few minutes.


Sleepy baby at the end of the day.


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Cameron lector

I sure hope it's not a sin to sneak out your iPhone and record your daughter as she's doing the second reading at Christmas Eve Mass. I just couldn't help myself.





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Christmas day 2011

Christmas morning came bright and early right on schedule. The girls were awake before seven but waited to come in and wake us until 7:15. I think they even woke their brother.

As usual Bryan made them wait before going into the living room to see if Santa had visited our house.

Of course since they have been such wonderful big sisters, Santa had plenty of reason to leave them what they asked for. Brenna got her Nintendo 3DS, Cameron got a Vera Bradley purse, and Douglas got a crib mobile with a book.

Douglas loves his soft car toy.

Cameron really scored big this year. She has been asking for a cell phone for a long time. Bryan and I kept putting her off, because we didn't think she needed one. She has been very responsible this year and we agreed it was time to take that step.

Bryan turned the phone on and hid it in the Christmas tree. We meant for it to be the last present of the morning, but when I suggested she open the "big" present first (meaning the big wrapped box) he misunderstood and called her cell phone.

Unfortunately I didn't have the video running, because when the phone started to ring she figured it out immediately and became quite excited. Maybe that should be hysterical.

There was only one problem. She couldn't find it. She and Brenna were tossing about all the presents underneath the tree, but they never thought to look in the branches, and she was too excited to stop and listen and figure it out! Eventually she did and I was surprised that she was able to put it aside to open her other presents.

I think my favorite gift exchange was Brenna giving Cameron a necklace she bought at the school holidays store. She was so genuinely excited about Cameron opening it. It was a very sweet moment between sisters.

Everyone had to help clean up afterwards. We had a breakfast casserole and got ready to pack because we were going to Silver Belle Ranch for a few days.

Getting everything together for ourselves and the baby was quite a chore and it wore them out.

We made a short stop at Colonial Oaks to visit Granny and Merr.

After our visit we headed west arriving at the ranch just as the sun set. Lisa's family arrived just after us, but David's family came the next day because Alexander wasn't feeling well.

We had a very nice Christmas day!

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The Christmas Season

It finally started to feel like Christmas on Friday because Bryan was off work. We took Cameron to the church to practice her reading, and she did a great job.



Then Bryan and Brenna went to the mall to buy a few last-minute gifts.

We continued our family tradition of driving around and looking at Christmas lights that evening. McDonald's has a really yummy peppermint mocha right now. We saw some beautiful displays in the neighborhood.

Saturday was Christmas Eve and we spent the whole day in the kitchen making Sunday's breakfast casserole, sausage cheese balls, pecan pie, merry cherry fudge, and banana nut bread.



Despite a drizzly rain, the 6 pm Mass was quite crowded. We arrived early-about 5:25- to make sure Cameron checked in on time. We were in our traditional seats in the front left center pew when Cameron processed in.



I could tell she was a little anxious about lectoring, but she did a perfect job and looked beautiful (and so much older than 12) in my red sweater and her black Douglas was awake, but quiet during Mass.



After Mass we came home and got ready for bed. Brenna and Cameron put out the cookies and milk.



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