Our cute little bumble bee!!

This Halloween Raleigh was a bumble bee...and quite a cute one!  We now have trouble getting her to smile at the camera, she is actually quite confused by what in the world a camera is.  The only time she would smile was when she got a chance to eat the baby pumpkins...what a handful she truly is!

All she wanted to do was eat those baby pumpkins!

Tasty pumpkins!

Pigs?!?

Raleigh has always had a "buddy" that she has stuck to like glue.  She has always been very tactile and feels everything with her hands, feet and tongue.  Since touch and feel has always been important, the first buddy she had was the Lamb in her baby bed, then she quickly moved on to Lion who had a funny feeling mane.  She has stuck with Lion for a long time until she met her new B.F.F at Kohl's.  We walked in to do a little shopping and she spotted pig.  At that time she proceeded to toss Lion across the store and scream in excitement over pig!  Poor Lion!  Pig belongs to part of the books with "If you give a mouse a cookie" series.  I bought the pig and the book that went with it to try to justify buying a stuffed pig that is the size of my child.  Since that wonderful day, it has been a match made in heaven!  Raleigh loves pig...it has truly been a lifesaver some days.  To this day she still gets excited when she looks at pig...we don't take it personally around here.  I have since gone and bought several "backups" just in case pig gets lost or destroyed.  I never thought I would say this, but around here...WE LOVE PIGS!

Dear Logan and Karly,

Thank you so much for coming to Houston to see me and spend time with me.  Logan, I had so much fun sliding down the slide with you...even though it was a little bit scary because it was my first time!  Karly, I had so much fun playing with you.  You always make me smile.  I also had an awesome time going to the movies with my big cousins...I don't remember much because I was sleeping, but the 3D glasses are really cool!  I can't wait to see you guys soon!

Love,

Raleigh

The Deck

Since moving into our new home, we have yet to be able to get a car into the garage.  The other day Clint said that he wanted to get a ping pong table (for the small village of high school kids that come to our house weekly, of course) for the garage.  At this point we still had all of our outside furniture, grill, etc. in the garage because we hadn't decided what to do with our backyard.  The decision was made that no ping pong table would enter our garage unless some other items left.  So Clint and his brother got to work.  They designed a deck that I approved and their dad would be proud of.  A couple of weekends ago, Keenan and his family came down to help build the deck.  In ONE weekend, those boys built an amazing deck!!  Thank you Keenan for all of your hard work.  Thank you Anne for giving up your husband and weekend for us!  You should see this thing...it just might make you pee in your pants!  Check out the slideshow.

Sick of being sick!

We are sick again!!  Good grief!  Over the past couple of months we have all been sick, especially Raleigh.  Poor baby Raleigh, but we think we are on the road to recovery.  Over the past two months she has had; a virus, a cold, an ear infection, bronchitis, a bacteria infection in her blood ( which put her in the hospital), and now an upper respiratory infection.  We are sick of being sick!  We know that the company boogie wipes will miss our money, but we are ready to get better in this house!  

Look at those sad sick eyes!

We are alive!!

For those of you who have stopped checking our blogspot, I totally understand.  To squelch all of the rumors out there...we have not joined the witness protection program, life has been super crazy.  Since our last post we have: sold a house, bought a new house, been to the emergency room and hospital 3 times, decorated a new house, built a massive deck, quit a teaching job, started a new job, and slept a couple of hours here and there.  We love our new house and can't wait to have more of you guys over.  We are alive and apologize for the lack of information on our part, but we are ready and have a little bit more time to communicate now!

Check out what our new house looks like!  We would love to give you our new address, but don't really want to post it...so feel free to text our email us!

 

A Day at the Aquarium

On Monday, (Clint's day off) we spent the day at the aquarium.  So fun!!  For several weeks now Clint has been mentioning how he would really like to take Raleigh to the aquarium....I of course, made fun of him with the reasoning that she would be too small to enjoy the aquarium.  I WAS WRONG!!!  She absolutely loved it!!!  She talked to the fish, but got a little bit frustrated when she tried to grab the fish and she couldn't touch them through that silly glass.  We had a great day and can't wait to do it again soon!  

Raleigh drove the whole way to the aquarium...she is a crazy driver!!  Not really.  We were giving her a bottle before we went into the aquarium in hopes of her taking the whole thing and not being distracted....it looks like our strategy is working well, or not at all.

Don't ask me why there was a white tiger exhibit at an aquarium, but there was!  RaRa loved the tiger and was not afraid of it at all.  You can see how close she got to the tiger and gave it the evil eye.

Daddy and Raleigh together.  Do you see the baby alligator in the background?

Raleigh trying to catch those crazy fish!  She was unsuccessful, due to the glass.

The look of amazement on the faces of both of them...priceless!

Baby Houdini Strikes Again!!

We don't know how she keeps doing crazy things like this, but it continues to happen.   Many new parents would say, "Our child is so advanced."  We on the other hand would say, "Our child is a sneaky sneak. (don't worry, we do think that she is advanced)."  Raleigh already has a very quiet way of sneaking into the oddest situations.  Take the latest situation for example:

This is the way that Raleigh normally sleeps.  She likes to be cozy.  She sleeps half swaddled in her wedge with two blankets tucked in around her.

This is how we found her the other day after her nap.  During her nap she was silent.  No crying, not a peep.  How does she do this?  What a cute little sneaky sneak!!!

FREEBIRDS!!!!

Finally the Woodlands has put in a Freebirds.  One would think that a community that was founded by an Aggie would have such an establishment much earlier,  but this month we finally got one.  Of course, we had to go on opening day to show our support and love for the burrito.  There were TONS of people there!!!!  They gave away free burritos for a year to the first 35 people...several people slept in tents days before the opening.  It was pure madness!!  We had a super great time eating lunch with our friends and enjoying past memories of A&M.  If anytime you feel the need for a Freebirds burrito, the Ivy's are there!! 

RaRa wearing her maroon tutu....very tired after stuffing her face with a burrito!