Steam engine comes through College Station

Yesterday on our way to church we made a quick stop to watch an old fashioned steam engine come through College Station. Tony & Bailey love trains so it was a fun and spontaneous stop which was enjoyed by everyone! The videos pretty quick but you should get a good idea about the size (yes this is the small version) and sounds that this little beast made... thankfully I stopped the video before it went through the crossing right in front of our truck!

Hope you enjoy the video as much as we enjoyed seeing it live!

Favorite Bailey-isms:
- "Mommy you look great!"
- "Water make it all better..."
- "Daddy/Mommy is my buddy."
- "What's that?"
- "I have issues... you have issues?"

February turns to March turns to April

We've been busy, busy bees so here are some highlights of what we've been up to. Bailey is growing up (she grew another two & a quarter inches since January) and she expands her vocabulary almost daily it seems.

2-15-10: Bailey & Grandaddy being cute!

2-20-10: Bailey's first gymnastics meet (who knew 30 two year olds would sit and wait their turns for 1.5 hours - they even stood & put their hands over their hearts for the Star Spangled Banner... so cute).

2-20-10: After the gymnastics meet & nap time Tony, Bailey & I took a walk to a near-by park and Bailey actually wanted her picture taken!

2-21-10: Lately Bailey has been totally obsessed with playing on the fire trucks, so every time Tony is on shift we have to make time to have some quality time with the equipment.

2-23-10 : Tony, Bailey & Me with the snowman we built in our front yard.

2-28-10: Bailey's first bounce on her new trampoline (don't worry, we have the net around it now but at the time Bailey couldn't wait to try it out).

3-13-10: Bailey making the most of one of our first sunny days by getting sometime on her bike (with some push power from Tony).

3-19-10: Bailey & Tony fishing at Gibbons Creek Resevoir.

3-26-10: The Easter Bunny bags that Bailey, Moe (my mom) & I made for Bailey's gymnastics coaches plus Jamie, my mother's trainer, & Amy, my trainer.

3-27-10: Bailey double fisting Easter eggs at the annual Easter egg hunt at the George Bush Library.

3-27-10: After the Easter egg hunt Bailey wanted to climb this tree, so Tony helped her and even convinced her to pose for a quick picture.

4-2-10: Bailey dyeing Easter eggs at Moe & Grandad's.

4-2-10: Tony & Bailey dyeing eggs (I had to include this picture because I think the look on Bailey's face is priceless).

4-2-10: Moe & Bailey posing for a quick pic after dyeing Easter eggs.

4-3-10: Bailey at St. Mary's after the blessing of the Easter Baskets.

4-4-10: Nicholas, Launa Grace, Bailey & Brayton (left to right) search for Easter eggs behind Station 2.

4-4-10: Bailey opening all of her Easter eggs after the hunt.

4-4-10: Nicholas & Bailey check out the ladder truck (looks like they know what they're doing, doesn't it).

4-4-10: Bailey atop the engine playing with the deck gun.

4-5-10: Tony & Bailey playing chess. Tony started by telling her her options about moving, but she picked it up pretty quickly and even made a move or two which took Tony by surprise.

4-5-10: All smiles from Bailey & Tony.

Bailey astounds us every day with the comments which come from her mouth so we figured that we would share a couple which make us smile on a regular basis!

Favorite quotes from Bailey:

- "I've got an idea...."

- "What a great idea!!"

- "My favorite part... What's Mommy's favorite part? What's Daddy's favorite part? What's Itsy Bitsy's favorite part?...."

- "Now I lay me down to sleep"

- "Father, Son, Holy Spirit, knees & toes"

An Anniversary & A Trip To Phoenix

For our 7th anniversary I had a dr's appointment in Houston so Tony & Bailey tagged along and after our appointment we decided to drop in on our friends Carmen & baby Jacob. After a nice lunch at Panera Breads, Carmen & Jacob had to head out to a dr's appointment so Bailey, Tony & I headed to our favorite park in Katy... the Choo Choo park as Bailey calls it!



Feburary 1, 2010 - Bailey playing the piano at Carmen's

Bailey climbing the rock wall all by herself (our little girl is growing up so quick)!

Bailey climbing up the tunnel slide.

Tony, Bailey & I pose on the swings for a quick family picture.

On the 4th of February Bailey & I headed to Phoenix, AZ with my parents to visit family for a week. This would have been the longest time that Bailey & I had been separated from Tony but unbeknownst to everyone Tony & I planned a surprise visit so he could visit with everyone too. Tony flew in Friday evening and left Sunday evening but was able to visit with most of our extended family on Saturday at the Train Park in Scottsdale, AZ.

February 4, 2010 - Gigi, Moe, Bailey, Missy Girl, & Me with Aunt B in front.

February 6, 2010 - Aunt B, Gigi, Tony, Bailey & Moe (my mom) riding on one of the trains at the Train park.

Bailey, Me & Tony on the choo choo train!!

2nd cousins - Riley (3), Bailey (2.5), & Elyse (3)

Elyse & Bailey headed over to ride the train.

Tony, Elyse, Aunt Nita, Me, Bailey, Riley, Aunt Linda, Aunt B & Moe riding on the train.

Bailey & Riley go to explore the Pullman cars.

We had a great day at the train park and were glad that everyone had a chance to hang out for a little bit & the kids got a chance to play. There is more of this visit to show but its getting late & we have a crazy week ahead of us. I'll do my best to get another update up soon, until then we hope everyone had a fantastic Valentine's Day.

Long time no blog...

Happy 2010 Everyone!

So we realize that its been over two months since our last blog entry and for that we are truly sorry. It was one of those things that we kept meaning to do and yet never made the time to do, with the holidays it was just too easy to put it off for tomorrow. Thankfully with the holidays over & our back to back celebrations almost at an end, we are taking a chance to breathe just a little bit.

Here is a quick overview of the last two months:

November -

* I set up the Lil' Bit Boutique at the Aggie Mom's Camp in College Station

* We hosted the annual family thanksgiving at our home

December -

* We started a new family tradition of cutting down our own Christmas tree
* I set up the Lil' Bit Boutique to the Arts & Crafts Show at the Brazos Center in Bryan, TX for a weekend
* Uncle Brett flew in from DC to surprise my mom for her birthday & we had a fantastic visit with him capped off with a wonderful dinner with him & our family friends, the Rosetti's, at Christopher's World Grill
* We organized the 6th annual Clovis Court Food Drive and raised 100 lbs of food for our local food bank
* Bailey had surgery to repair a herniated belly button (mom's take note - Bailey herniated her belly button out by pulling on it so watch your kiddos if they like playing with their belly button)
* We attended the annual Kotch Family Christmas party a mere two days after Bailey's surgery, (children's recovery from surgery can be an incredibly quick process)
* Bailey, my mom, Tony & I enjoyed our annual tradition of making & decorating tons of Christmas cookies for friends, family & the residents of Clovis Court (my dad enjoyed his annual tradition of testing the cookies as they came out of the oven)
* We decorated our Christmas & Bailey instructed Tony as to the perfect placement of each and every ornament
* Tony had both Christmas eve & Christmas day off so we spent lots of quality time as a family
* Tony worked both New Year's eve & New Year's day so Bailey & I had lots of mommy/daughter quality time and lots of fun playtime at the fire station

January -
* We celebrated Tony's 33rd birthday and although Tony was on shift, Bailey helped to make and decorate the cupcakes we took to the fire station (and she truly enjoyed the made from scratch icing)
* Bailey is officially potty trained!! In only two days, with the help from a little mermaid named Aerial, Bailey bid farewell to pull-ups (although she still finds panties confusing, if she goes comando she never has an accident)

Bailey is growing up like crazy. She loves reading & gymnastics along with everything to do with the outdoors. Here is a little video from the other day of a newly discovered talent, thankfully she cooperated and let me film her. The first time she pulled this stunt Tony & I simply found all of the clothes from the hangers on the floor of her room, with her in the middle trying to figure out what to wear.

January 25, 2010

A quick closing picture of Bailey sitting on her bed with Tigger & Piglet.

Hope this finds everyone well, we look forward to catching up on reading everyones blog as well as keeping you informed as to the adventures that 2010 has in store!

The El Paso Zoo

Our last day in El Paso Jocelin had to go to work at Fort Bliss so McKenzie, Bailey, Tony, Canaan & I headed out to find and explore the El Paso Zoo. The zoo, although tiny and partially under reconstruction, was incredible. Since we were there on a Monday, the zoo was pretty much empty and we had a front row seat to see all the animals.

Before we left, McKenzie was considering taking a nap in Tony's arm.

Bailey pushing McKenzie up to the ticket booth at the zoo.

Canaan & McKenzie watch Sunny the sea lion "perform".

Canaan, McKenzie (in front of Canaan), Bailey & another little boy get an up close view of the sea lions in one of the underground viewing areas.

Bailey & Tony pop up in the prarie dog exhibit.

Canaan & McKenzie pop up in the prarie dog exhibit.

McKenzie pushing Bailey through the zoo.

Tony enjoys a ride on the chicken on the merry-go-round.

Bailey loving her first merry-go-round experience on a giraffe!

Canaan helping McKenzie to stay on her zebra.

Bailey getting a quick elephant ride after the merry-go-round.

Tony riding a tiger!

Canaan holds McKenzie while she touches some dried elephant poop!

Bailey posing for a quick picture in front of the elephants.

The Ray Family in front of the hummingbird garden, which sadly had no hummingbirds.

Bailey & Tony and the gynormous El Paso moon.

We saw a ton of animals at the zoo including an ocelot, a Galapagos tortoise, some Mexican wolves, two spectacled bears which Bailey thought they looked just like they do on Diego, a Malayan tiger, a Malayan tapir, an orangutan and lots of different birds and monkeys! After exploring the park for a couple hours, we grabbed a quick bite to eat and then headed off to visit with Jocelin at the veternairy clinic she runs at Fort Bliss. She gave us a great little tour but had to get back to work so the rest of us headed to the comissary for some groceries, which brought back a ton of memories from my childhood, and then back to the house to play, relax and prepare for dinner!

We had a fantastic trip to El Paso. Honestly I didn't know that there were so many cool places to explore and so many fun things to do. We didn't have time to visit everything and sadly had to pass on the exhibit of gigantic bugs in downtown El Paso. We are truly blessed to have friends like the Blakes who let us invade their home and then share with us so many great experiences. It was a blast to see Bailey & McKenzie interact and I hope that over the years they grow to be friends, as their parents have.

White Sands National Monument, New Mexico

On Sunday, November 1, we headed to the White Sands because we couldn't pass up the opportunity to sled down a sand dune! On our way there we passed the White Sands Missle Range and tons of beautiful mountain scenery. Once we reached the White Sands National Monutment, which really is an oasis in the middle of the desert, we eagerly searched for the gift shop to find us some toboggans. We did take some time to look through the visitor's center but after a two hour car ride the girls were ready to hit the dunes.

Tony instructing Bailey on how to properly wax a sand toboggan.

Tony and Bailey head up the sand dune for the first time.

Bailey & Tony's first slide down the dunes.

McKenzie not sure she's ready to slide with Canaan.

Bailey's second solo slide down the dune.

Me & Tony atop our dune with the parking lot & more dunes in the background.

Tony & Canaan racing down the dune.

Tony & Bailey take a quick break to pose for a picture in the toboggan.

McKenzie enjoying the dunes.

Our crew: Jocelin, Canaan, McKenzie, Tony, Bailey & me.

Getting ready for the Daddy/Daughter races.

My second slide down the dunes - I totally lost control & fell out at the bottom!

Jocelin maintaining control of her toboggan & filming her ride to boot!

Tony & Bailey buried in the gypsum sand.

The Blake Family

The Ray Family

Bailey thought being buried was really neat!

Bailey passed out as soon as we got back in the van for the ride to Alamogordo for a late lunch/early dinner.

For those of you that are interested, White Sands is 275 square miles of gypsum sand dunes. It is the world's largest gypsum dune field and is one of the most incredibly beautiful places I've been.