My Baby is 3…

This year we decided to throw Tess a party at the house on her actual birthday. It was a way to show off the new house to family and friends and get to know some of the neighbors that we hadn’t met yet. We were one of the first ones to move in on our street so it was nice to get to meet some of the others that had moved in after us.

We bought Tess a big blow up water slide for her birthday. We blew it up a couple weeks before her party to make sure it worked and to try it out. She loved it and wouldn’t stop talking about her slide. It is actually the perfect size for our backyard and for her and a couple of friends to play in. It’s a pretty big slide that has a pool that fills up overtime. The only downside is that it does take some time to dry out after you play.

There is a weight limit but Clayton had to make sure it was safe for the kids.

I had a lot of help setting up for the party, I can only throw parties every couple of years because I have to forget how much effort it takes to get ready for them. Since we had the outdoor slide we went with a beach ball theme party, everything was multi colored. We were running around all morning getting ready. Everything looked good and I was happy with how everything turned out.

The kids had a lot of fun and didn’t even mind that it rained a couple of times and the adults made them come inside. We laid out a picnic blanket and gave them sugar the first rain delay and then opened presents the second. After the second rain delay we sent the remaining kids upstairs to play and they were perfectly happy to play with someone else’s toys. Tess was just happy to have friends over to play.

Tess loved having everyone sing Happy Birthday to her, the smile on her face was so big. That smile makes everything worth it.

This kid is very loved, she got a lot of wonderful presents and could not wait to open each one. I had a lot of trouble keeping up with the cards and telling my mom who gave us each one.  I think all in all it was a great day and I can’t believe that my baby is getting so old, I can’t say big because she is still so tiny compared to kids her own age. 

New House..

Well we moved… 5 months ago. When Clayton and I bought our first house we knew that it was a starter home and that we were not going to be there forever. When Exxon started building in the Spring area we started talking about moving. I am not the best at change so we had to start early. We picked out a nice neighborhood in Cypress and started the building process.

  

Once we started the building process we started thinning out our old house to get it ready to show. We gathered a lot of stuff for a garage sale and started packing up things we didn’t use on a daily basis and stored them at my parents’ house. We put the house on the market and accepted an offer in just 4 days. Once we accepted the offer everything started falling into place. Clayton and I broke down the furniture and wrapped it up so it was ready to be put into the POD. We packed up the house, my mom helped me out one day. Valentine’s Day weekend we packed up the POD and moved in with my parent’s for the week.

I picked out the area and did all the research about the schools. We had several neighborhoods that we had selected to go and look at. We looked at several neighborhoods but we really only saw one floor plan that we liked a lot. Clayton picked it out and it not only fits our family now but it also fits our family as Tess gets older so it works perfectly.

Clayton went by the new house about once a week and took a picture from the same spot. It was nice to see the progress each week. We chose a lot that is right next to a walkway so we only have a house on one side.

We basically added a bathroom and a game room and added some room to each area. I like how open the main area is downstairs. We enjoyed going to the design center and picking out the different aspects of our house. It was nice to see how everything fit together as the house was being built. Some things were a little too expensive at the design center to immediately put in the house so we went with some basics.

We have finally gotten the house mostly finished. It took a little while to get unpacked and we had to buy a couple of extra things for this house. When you walk into the house you instantly see upstairs. I love our entryway.

Right next to the front door is Tess’ Room which will turn into the Guest room when she gets bigger. Her old room was decorated in green, brown and whites but when we moved into the new house I went with a pink, grey and white theme. The bed in her room was my grandfather’s bed that I used to sleep on and now little sleeps on it. It’s kinda cool to have something with such history in her room. We also found her this vinyl saying that says “RAWR means I love you in dinosaur” and this is perfect for her room because Tess loves dinosaurs and has loved them for such a long time. I also found her a “You are My Sunshine” sign at Canton and this was also perfect because I sing this song to her every night. I was afraid that Tess would not want to sleep in her new room, but it was the exact opposite. She loved her new room and her new bed.

Her bathroom is also the guest bathroom so it’s usually pretty clean. We added some pink touches to the white and black theme from our guest bathroom in the previous house. Her bathroom will probably change as she gets older.

We also have an entry through the garage which is also our mud room. Clayton and his dad built a coat rack which I love. I picked a couple of coat racks off of Pinterest and showed Clayton and his dad the pictures and let them choose which one they built me. Clayton and I also put in a cork board so that we can pin up important notices or calendars.

Right Across from the garage entry is the laundry room. We actually were able to put the washer and dryer in their proper places. In the old house the washer and dryer were on opposite sides and the dryer door would open into the washer so it made it more difficult to transfer the clothes. The one thing I love about this laundry room is the storage under the stairs. I have already filled up this extra storage space with my luggage and holiday decorations. I think Clayton is going to love not having to go into the attic to get all the holiday decorations this year.

The office/workout room/fire room is right next to the laundry room. After we moved Clayton found out that he was not going to be able to renew his FFL license at the new house so the office was repurposed. All of his fire stuff has been moved to the office but it now has some work out gear in it. We bought a smaller desk and I think this room works well. It’s set off from the rest of the house so you can work out in peace and not really bother anyone else.

The dining room is actually a dining room in this house. Since the office is our fire room we decided to buy a china cabinet and display our china and lladros. We have eaten in here a couple of times but we mostly still eat in the kitchen. I do love that we can finally display all of our fine china and pieces that we received at our wedding.

This next area is my favorite part of the house. The Kitchen, Family room and desk area are all so open. The kitchen has always been Clayton’s domain. He does most of the day to day cooking. I do love to bake even though I would love to have more time to do it. One of his requests was a double oven and I will say it was probably one of the best things we did. We did lose a little cabinet space but I love the huge island we gained. The pros outweigh the cons with our new kitchen.

Right across from the kitchen is this desk nook area. This will come in handy when Tess needs to do homework and we are cooking dinner. Right now we have an old computer set up and we prepare bills and use it if needed. I also needed a little cabinet for medicine so again my handy husband bought one and made me what I wanted. I love when I have a vision and my handy husband creates it for me.

Our Family room is really open and I love it. The room is perfect for a sectional and we originally picked out one sofa from Rooms to Go but it had feathers in it and I kept getting sick. The guy never let us know that the couch actually had feathers so we did a switch and got another couch. I liked the original couch because of how big it was but I still like the new furniture and still think it fits nicely in the room. I do love my ottoman. There are four footrests inside and each top cushion turns into a trey. We spend the majority of our time in this room playing, watching TV and laying around.

The master is just off of the Family room. The furniture arrangement took a little while for me to get used to but I love how much room we have. This room is bigger than our old room and I love it. We changed up our color scheme, I have been wanting to update our colors and I am glad I went with these colors.

Our Bathroom is very different from the old house and our closet is way bigger. We still don’t have enough clothes to fit. We have an entire wall that doesn’t have any clothes hung on it. I am glad that we decided to bring the granite into the bathroom and change up the tile a little bit. Tess loves taking a bath in our Big Bathtub and she loves our big shower. I think she has taken one bath in her bathroom, the rest have been in ours.

The upstairs will eventually be Tess’ domain. We turned the gameroom into her playroom and she loves it. She will tell me some mornings that she is going upstairs to play and won’t invite me because she wants to play by herself. She feels like it is her area to do what she pleases and to be honest it is. She knows that what she messes up she has to help clean up but that is really her only rule. She watches movies up there, cooks in her kitchen, takes care of her babies, and reads her books. I love how it turned out.

Upstairs also has a guestroom and guest bathroom which will eventually turn into Tess’ room when she gets older. Right now Nana and PawPaw spend their weekends there when they come and visit their only grandbaby.

Well that is our new home… we are happy we moved. My commute is quite a bit further but it’s not a bad drive and I am pretty used to it by now. Once the Grand Parkway opens up it will be quicker. We have a lot of children around Tess’ age that live right around us so she is outside a lot and playing with kids her own age. It’s funny but how just moving can sometimes make such a big difference. 

Its been a while...

A lot has happened since the Holidays.. We sold a house, moved into our new one, and started settling in. Before I talk about the house I am going to talk about all of the little things that have been going on in-between. One of the times we were driving to Dallas we stopped at our normal stop Buc-ees and Tess wanted to walk the dogs. Tess doesn’t really walk the dogs she really gets walked by the dogs. It’s pretty funny. 

On one of our trips to Home Depot to get the house ready to put it up on the Market Tess wanted Daddy to carry her. This is one of my favorite pictures I have of the two of them. You can’t see their faces but I know she is having the time of her life and this picture pretty much sums up their relationship.

 

We had to pack up a lot of Tess’s extra toys since we were putting the house on the market. There was one day that Tess and I both needed to get out of the house. We went down the street to the park, it ended up being the last time we visited this particular park.

She decided she didn't need any help going across the bridge anymore. She got to the other side and forgot the part where she didn't want any help. She made it though and her smile showed how happy she was doing it all by herself.

Swinging is always a favorite at the park. I cant wait till she cant swing by herself and we don't have to push her :).

 

 

While people were viewing our house we would stay over at my parent’s house. Tess got really good at taking pictures from my phone. They were mainly of Lexi but sometimes other people were in the shots as well. After she was done taking the pictures she wanted to scroll through all of them.  

 Tess finally got over her fear of her airplane. She rides her plane all over the place. It’s nice that she has gotten over her fear and that her airplane is finally getting some use. We just have to keep it charged now.

 

Tess celebrated Go Texan Day at her new school, Clayton still does not get the glory that is Go Texan Day. I never knew that other places did not celebrate Go Texan Day, how that is possible I do not know. Our child will grow up with the same illusion until her daddy bursts her bubble and lets her know it’s a made up day for the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. She was pretty cute this year, and she tried to get the dogs to pose in the pictures with her, as you can see it did not work out for her but the struggle is real. I did realize in the one picture with Lexi sticking her tongue out that Clayton and I are in for some big trouble, I mean look at that face.

Lexi scratched her eye again somehow and spent a lot of time in the cone of shame. Clayton took her to the vet and they misdiagnosed it at first and when it didn’t get better he took her back. It wasn’t healing properly and they kept having to re-scratch it to help it heal. She hated that cone of shame but we are happy to report that she eventually was freed from her prison of shame.

 Anadarko sponsored an Appreciation Day at the Downtown Aquarium, and we decided to take Tess. She loves to watch Fish but it was so crowded it was not the best decision we have ever made. She liked some parts of the aquarium but I don’t know if we will go back anytime soon, it is really expensive for how little it is.

Easter Sunday we also celebrated my sister’s birthday. We all went to church and then went and ate lunch and the original Ninfas. I had picked out Tess’s dress pretty early and she would see it in her closet and want to wear it and I of course would tell her no. Well when she finally put it on the first thing out of her mouth was, I don’t want to wear it. Finally I convinced her it was a princess dress and then she was fine wearing it.

Again Tess took over the camera on the phone but this time it was my sister’s phone. She was taking selfies with Diana and then decided to take pictures of everyone at the table even if they were not ready for her to take their picture.

We went up to Dallas to celebrate Caroline turning 2 and Tess got a haircut while she was there. Tess has gotten a couple of haircuts along the way but she doesn’t like a lot of people to touch her hair. Her least favorite person is her daddy. Clayton’s aunt is a hair dresser and Tess for some reason sits still and lets Marcia cut her hair. So if Tess’s hair is long and we are going to be in the Dallas area I get Mona to get an appointment and we get our hair done.

 

For Caroline’s birthday we all went to the zoo. Tess has probably been to the Fort Worth zoo more times than she has been to the Houston Zoo. It has just worked out that way. Tess and Caroline had a lot of fun walking together, riding together, and pushing each other in the wagon. Overall I think it was a good day seeing all the animals.

 

Tess had school pictures done at her new school and this was the first pictures where I felt she looked like a little person and not a toddler anymore. I can’t believe my little baby is getting so big. I don’t think I am ready to have a 3 year old yet. I look at her while she is playing and wonder where all the time went.

 

It has finally gotten hot here, that sounds so weird. Houston has had such a weird May. With all the rain it has kept the temperatures at such a bearable level. Memorial Day weekend I wasn’t feeling well and Clayton was at work but Tess needed to get out of the house so I set up the Sprinkler. She loved it, not sure what she is supposed to do just yet but she loves it.

Well that’s what we have been up to, next is an update on the whole house situation.

Biloxi

The day after Christmas we headed to Mississippi, Tess and Clayton had never been and the whole family hadn’t been back in a while. My mom had found a condo that everyone could fit in and it was across the street from the beach so it was perfect. Matt, Clayton, Tess and I all flew into New Orleans and then rented a car and drove to Biloxi. It worked great because I don’t think that Tess would have lasted the entire car ride. This was her first Plane ride where she had her own seat. She did pretty well for the most part. She is so small that walking through the airport is a little tough. For the most part she hitched a ride on the suitcase.

We were pretty bad about taking pictures the entire trip so I only have a few. The weather was not good but we did see a lot of family. We ate a lot of food. It seemed like we were either eating, visiting family or eating while visiting family. But we had a great time and I was glad that Clayton and Tess were able to meet/see some people. I will not say everyone because it is not possible to see everyone in a long weekend. We have a large family. We will definitely have to make it back soon.

 

Christmas 2014

This year was a good Christmas all around. Clayton and I attended the Anadarko Christmas party this year and had a good time. This was not a year to miss the party as Maroon 5 was the performer and it was pretty cool seeing them perform so close.

 

Last Christmas in Clayton’s stocking was a snowball shooter and this year Tess is big enough to play with it. She loved playing snowball fight and shooting the snowballs all over the living room.

 

Mona and Kevin came down the weekend before Christmas and brought down a SUV filled with presents for Tess. She loved it and couldn’t wait to open all the presents. Last year she was only good at pulling the tissue paper out of the bags and this year she could rip the paper off the boxes. She was ready to get the toys out of the boxes as she opened them up. It was fun watching her open all her presents.

On Christmas Day Tess and I met Clayton and everyone else at my Parents house. We ate made from scratch waffles for breakfast and then started to divvy up the presents into piles for everyone with Tess’ pile being in the middle. She again loved opening her presents and once she was done with hers she went around the room and helped everyone else open theirs. Sometimes she would even open  a present for someone else.

I think this was the best Christmas yet. The only problem we had is that we had to pack up most of her presents because we were putting our house on the market at the beginning of the year and couldn’t have a lot of clutter. So once we move into the new house and unpack, it will be like Christmas all over again.    

Iceland

We decided to visit Moody Garden’s Ice Land this year. This was the first year that the ice sculptures were in Galveston. Clayton and I have been to ICE in Dallas for many years and thought this would be something cool that Tess would enjoy. We had a pretty big crowd, Mona and Kevin were in town for the weekend, my parents came and so did Diana and Matt. Everyone had lunch before heading over to Moody Gardens. Since we went during the day it wasn’t that crowded, some people said that if you went during the Festival of Lights it was a madhouse.

We had to wait in line to get the special jackets to withstand the freezing temps and the smallest jacket that they had was still way too big for Tess. We had to roll up the sleeves but really couldn’t do anything about the height. She walked around and people laughed because you really couldn’t tell if there was a person in there or not because you wouldn’t see any shoes or hands and the hood would cover her face for the most part. But it was pretty adorable.

 Tess and I decided to do the ICE slide and we happened to pick the slowest one possible. I had to propel us down using my hands which I could not feel by the end of the slide. I think she had fun, I couldn’t see her I was just trying to get down as fast as possible so I could stop putting my hands on the ICE.

We walked around and saw all of the sculptures. When Tess was little she would watch a lot of Sponge Bob, more of her Dad’s influence than mine. I tried to get her to watch anything else. Finally she got interested in Mickey and Sponge Bob left us for a while. I wish the theme was different but I think Tess had some fun. Towards the end I think she was over being cold and some of the designs scared her a bit. If the theme is more her style next year we might go but this might be something that might wait a couple of years to repeat. Overall we had fun and it was something new to bring to our ever changing Christmas traditions.

 

Potty Training

We decided to take the big step and transition Tess from Diapers to Panties. Clayton and I bought her a bunch of panties and set up the potty in the living and starting one Friday we hit the ground running. We had a rough time the first couple of days but by Sunday peeing in the potty had clicked and Tess has not turned back since. Tess has always had a hate-hate relationship with poop. We started with regulating her bowel movements and she has started to make progress by pooping in the potty. We started with not pooping at all, moved to pooping in her panties, and then moved to her telling us while pooping in her panties. She has progressed to giving us a little lead time to get her to the potty and has pooped in the potty several times. She gets excited when she goes in the potty because she gets to feed her pig (piggy bank).

As you can see from the pictures this was a process, on Saturday she didn’t want to take a nap until her and I were watching a movie and she passed out in my arms. It was a hard weekend but overall I am glad we took the plunge

 

At one point we tried to use the iPad to get Tess to use the potty, we tried anything and everything. In the end she needed to decide when she wanted to start using the potty.

 

 

 

Thanksgiving weekend at the Ranch

 Most years after we eat a wonderful Thanksgiving Day meal with my family we head to the ranch on Friday. Well this year was no different except we had a ton of people at the ranch this year, and Tess loved the attention for the most part. I tried to take pictures but it took her a while to warm up to most people and we are out in the country so I would usually put my phone down and forget about it. That’s an awesome sentence, wish it could happen more often.

When we got there most everyone was out at the land putting a blind up but when they got back Tess latched on to Maggie right away and would refer to her as brown dog for the rest of the weekend. She thought that Maggie was the coolest thing because she was a big dog and Tess only gets to play with little dogs. Maggie was pretty patient with Tess and would let her pet her, lay down with her and play with her but after a certain time of night it was Maggie’s bed time and she would disappear. It was pretty cute to see her try and play with a dog that was bigger than she was.

Rays boys shot a couple of deer that night and Tess was actually pretty interested in the deer, it surprised me a little. We went out to the truck and looked at them and she even congratulated the boys. It was pretty cute.

The next day we went over to the land to walk around and look at the old dinosaur tracks. The boys walked around with us because they didn’t want to be around the older guys putting up another blind. Zach had been trying all evening and morning to get Tess to pay attention to him and she would not give him the time of day. It was pretty funny. She eventually sat next to him but that was it.

While we were on our walk, Martin pulled her in the wagon and then she latched on. She walked next to him and held his hand. He helped her over puddles, trees, and big holes. She trusted him like he was her big brother. You should have seen Zach’s face it was pretty funny since he had been wanting her to play with him and she wouldn’t. Little ones will pick and choose who they like, and one day they like you and they next it’s like you have never met.

We walked back up to where the bunk house is and Tess started picking up sticks and rocks and was making a little house. Being at the ranch solidified how much this child likes being outside. Anytime someone else was outside she wanted to be out there with them, she did not want to be left inside when there was fun to be had outside.

I don’t know what she is going to do if there is ever another little person around because she wouldn’t be the center of attention. She convinced her PawPaw to play horsey with her, it got a little rough but nothing this little cowgirl can’t handle. 

I love that we get together every year at the ranch and have this whirlwind weekend of family time. You walk away from it with a bunch of stories to tell, time well spent and full stomachs. Just wish we could do it more often.

Halloween 2014

Before everything happened in October we had planned on spending Halloween weekend in Dallas, Tess and I would go to Canton with Mona, go Trick-or-Treating and spend some time enjoying each other’s company. Little did we know that by the time Halloween rolled around it would be the 4^th weekend in October that a Harris was in Dallas, Nana and PawPaw got used to having Tess around in October.

So the morning of Halloween we woke up early and got dressed and headed out to Canton. It was only Tess, Mona and I so we were able to visit some areas that we normally miss because we have a bigger crowd. We made one stop at the car to unload and then we went back for some more shopping. I was looking for stuff for the new house and Mona was just looking. I would say that it was a pretty successfully trip overall and to top it off, Tess even took a nap in the wagon.

 Tess was a strawberry this year, I think this might be that last year that I am able to pick out her costume. We went over to Marge and Terry’s house to trick-or-treat. She has known Marge and Terry since birth and sees them if not every time we are in Dallas almost every time we are there so she is pretty comfortable with them. We still have a slight stranger danger issue so I didn’t think going to multiple houses was going to work for us. She got pretty good at saying trick or treat so I think she will be good for next year.

Kevin and Ray went on their Hog hunting trip so we decided to make s’mores by the fire, these were Tess’s first taste and I think she liked them. She wasn’t too sure about how messy they were but who wouldn’t like marshmallows and chocolate mixed together?

After this last weekend in Dallas we really haven’t been back, we went to the ranch for Thanksgiving and Mona and Kevin visited us for Christmas.