Blankets for Christmas

here are the blankets I made at Christmas (I'm pre-dating this blog post.)  For some reason I didn't get a picture of the one I made for Jill.


This is Burl's (Jana's husband) brand for his cattle.  Turned out great.  I did Kip's Brand for theirs, with a black and white fleece.

This was for Jane and Dad (for Texas Tech.) 

Happy Birthday Sweetie!

Bryan and I had lunch at Perry's (yum!) for his birthday! 
Happy Birthday Bryan - I love you!

Mackenzie Jabbering

Cereal

Mackenzie is 4 months old today.  Every parent with more than two children know this, but it's just crazy how different she can be from Landon. 

We started cereal two nights ago....and she LOVES it.  LOVES, LOVES, LOVES IT!  She wanted to eat more and more.  I started out with just a small amount, but I'm telling you, she could have eaten a whole baby food jar size bowl.  I don't think we're going to have any eating issues with her like we did with Landon (who still won't eat anything new.)

Sibling Interaction

On the way home from school today, Mackenzie was exhuasted and just barely awake, but she started fussing.

Landon says: "Mackenzie (in his sing song voice) remember you're a good girl, and good girls don't cry.  You don't want to be a bad girl.  You want to be a good girl.  Mackenzie...Kenzie...you're such a good girl."

Took all I had not to crack up.

October Update

The kids are wonderful - as I'm sure every parent says about their own kids.  But, we are blessed, cause Landon and Mackenzie truly are really great kids.   I think maybe God knew I couldn't handle more than that. 

Mackenzie has been rolling over.  She loves it. And Landon thinks its hilarious.  He pulls her to her stomach so she'll roll over again.  Then he just cracks up and it starts all over again.

They're both doing "okay" with sleeping.  Landon has been coming down to sleep by Bryan int he middle of the night - luckily a promise of a Star Wars book from the school book fair has put a temporary stop to that, and he's been in his own bed all night for three nights now.  Mackenzie's night waiver.  Last night for example, she slept from 8:30 to 4:30 (AWESOME!)  The night before she went about 6 hours and then another 5 hours.  But the night  before that, she ate every hour from 2:00 on...Am I exhausted?  Sure, aren't most parents (doesn't even matter the age of their kids!)  But she's a great baby, not up crying, screaming, so I'm SOOO not complaining.  I'll deal with her unusual hunger if that's all I have to deal with.

She's eating three 5 ounce bottles at school now.  And then eats again a couple times before bed.  Landon's still a picky eater, and won't eat Tuesdays (Ravioli) or Fridays (fish sticks) of every other week.  he's doing better at home.  He's tried crab and cereal and steak.  LOL.

Mackenzie loves her Landon (bubba.)  She cracks up just when you say "Bubba."  She watches him all over the room.  Landon is ready for her to be mobile.  He was excited when she was rolling over because he thought that meant she got to move up to the next classroom (with Mason's sister.)

Landon is still loving gymnastics.  His bff Mason goes now too, and they're both really good.  He's really in to Ben 10 and is going to be Spider Monkey for Halloween.

Sorry, its been so long since an update.  I'm just enjoying being a mom. 

Oh!  And Bryan - man, oh man.  He had Monday off, so he changed his brakes.  He had the back two tires off and somehow (with a hammer) sliced open his finger trying to get a lug nut off.  he had to try to clean it up and bandage it and then put the tires back on so he could go to the doctor (after he ate lunch, of course.)
She decided not to do stitches, she was afraid she'd introduce more dirt into the wound.  So he has butterflies and antibiotics.  It still looks horrible.  Other than that, he's doing good.

Football Saturday

Kenzie loves, loves, loves watching football.
Landon just loves jumping on Dad and doing flips on the couch.

My Sweet Girl

Purvis 65th Anniversary

Why you shouldn't try to boil playtex nursers

Sweet Girl

Guns Up!

Time for college football!!

Landon's words of wisdom

Random things from Landon this week:

Story 1
Landon: I wish I was God.
Landon: And I wish Mason was God too.
Me: What would you do if you were God?
Landon: I'd make everything good....and I'd go bowling.

Story 2
Landon and I were playing with Mackenzie and I said: "Landon, you sure do love your sister"
Landon gets in Kenzie's face and says: I love you sister, but I'm not going to marry you.  I'm not going to marry no one.

Story 3
We were all getting out of the car after church on Wednesday.  I was sitting in the back seat with Kenzie and Landon.  Bryan opens his door to get out and Landon says, "I'm going out the front" but Bryan shuts the door, not realizing Landon is climbing into the front seat.  Landon says, "Actually, I'm going out the back"

Story 4
Landon had silly bandz on his arm when I picked him up from school one day this week.  I told him to go back into class and give them back to who ever they belonged to....he tells me, "Hally gave them to me and she told me to wear them til I die."

Goofin' around

Lan thought it was hilarious that Mackenzie was sticking her little booty in the air, so he wanted to copy her.

First Day of School

Mackenzie started school today.  9 weeks old.  And, of course, she already was doing great.  Landon was so excited for her to go to his school.  He was talking to her on the way, telling her she could make new friends and learn to crawl. (Hope he's not dissappointed this afternoon when she still can't crawl.)

We left her in her crib, laughing and smiling.  And I didn't even cry!!

Sunday Best, August 22

Granny and Jana

My Granny and my younger sister came in this week.  We still don't know how she convinced my Granny to come with her, but I'm so glad she did.

They stopped at my Dad's house on the way down and stayed the night there.  Then they took their time as they drove across Texas.  They stopped in Fredericksburg for lunch (they were a little disappointed in the food.)  They did great, but got a little nervous on the toll road when the arm didn't go up fast enough.  It eventually went up, and they were able to go on through, guess it was just a little bit slow. 

Then their GPS stopped talking to them.  "Suzi" wasn't giving them directions.  That, coupled with the four exits to our house changing caused a little panic.  Granny said she was clenching the quarter bag, but Jana was able to navigate around and eventually found the house.

On Sunday, we went to brunch at La Brisa - delicious.  Bryan and I had gone on Saturday with mom - we got the same waiter.  Mom must have tipped him good because he was very helpful on Sunday, even brought tortillas to our table!

After brunch, we went to Galveston.  We dropped Bryan and Landon off at 8 mile road and the girls went to the strand to shop.  First stop was the Candy Store.  They were working the taffy machine, so we got warm fresh raspberry taffy.  We also decided to have some ice cream.  Jana got lime sherbet which she decided was pretty sour.   Granny had strawberry cheesecake and I got caramel torte. 

We walked around a couple blocks, stopping in at Gracies and Tina's - or any where else when we needed some air conditioning.  It was HOT!  Then we got back in the car and headed back to get Landon and Bryan. 

The boys had seen an eel!  It was digging itself into the sand.  Still can't believe it.  Landon was so glad to finally get to go back to the beach!

On Monday after work, I took the girls to Charm.ing Cha.rlie.  We spent an hour and a half in there.  I know they both wished they had more money to spend.  After that, we went buy Joann's.  Jana found plenty she wanted, but decided to save her money.  I got some supplies to finish the nursing cover I'm working on.  Then back to the house for German chocolate cake. 

Tuesday, after work, we went to watch Bryan play volleyball (I go back to Dr. Sands on Tuesday - hopefully for him to say "no surgery required"!)

Thursday, after Mackenzie's checkup, we all came onsite to JSC, showed off MK and then toured MCC.

We had a great time.  I'm so glad they both made the trip out here.  I think we wore Granny out, but I'm pretty sure she had fun.  Another great week.

All smiles

BFF

Landon and his best friend Mason.

Mason and Landon go to school together.  All we hear is Mason this and Mason that.  They each love Ben 10 and scooby doo.  They play great together.  Mason only goes to school Tues-Wed-Thurs, so it was very difficult to get Landon to go on Mondays and Fridays.  He definitely knows which days are  "mason day."

Mackenzie - 2 months

Mackenzie went in for her two month check up today.  First, let me say that 1) she went to sleep by herself last night in the crib.  I put her in there (she was wide awake) and let her watch her mobile for a while.  Then I turned her on her stomach (currently her favorite way to sleep.)  A little while later I checked on her and she was asleep.  2) She slept until 5:40!  I didn't realize it was so long when I woke up.  She's been waking up between 3 and 4.  Needless to say, I was soaked.

Two months - she's 11 pounds, 2 ounces (60%) and 22.75 inches (67%.)  Dr. I was impressed with her.  Mk laughed and coo'ed during the whole appointment (and the 30 minutes we waited in the room before the doctor came in.)  She has gone up from the 16th percent in weight to 60th percentile.  I've said it many times, she's a great eater.

She got 3 shots today and one oral immunization.  She cried just a little bit and was over it in less than 30 seconds.

After a little bit of tylenol, she seems to be doing okay.  She was whimpering in her sleep early, broke my heart.  Of course after she woke up, she was all smiles.

Sunday Best - August 14th

Kids Playing

Mackenzie is trying so hard to talk.  She'll coo and then forget how she did it.  She's all smiles now and still loves Landon.  She's eating about 3 bottles a day while I'm at work, only 3 ounces...but then I let her eat as much as she wants to when I get home.  She's still sleeping fairly well.  She eats around 9, goes to sleep around 11 (usually) and then wakes up between 3 and 5.  I wake her up around 6:30 if she doesn't wake up on her own and nurse again.  Then I pump before I leave for work.  Pumping is still going well.  I'm producing more than she needs right now, so I'm able to store up quite a bit.  I'm still amazed every time I open the deep freeze to see all that milk.  It wasn't at all this easy with Landon.  Of course, he never really ate a lot, and still doesn't.  (Not like his mom at all!)

Mackenzie loves to lay on her back and kick her toys.  She gets a kick out of the mirror and loves when Landon plops down beside her and talks.  She is truley in love with him, as much as he is with her.  Its great to see them together.

Landon, of course, is a monkey. He's constantly doing hand stands on the couch or the chair.  He'll run, put his arms and head down and flip up his legs.  He's crazy!
He also does this great act where he jumps up on Bryan's shoulders (while Bryan's watching TV) and then hosts a circus: "Thank you, thank you, everybody.  Look up here, time for circus."  It's hilarious.  (Bryan probably doesn't think so as Landon repeatedly jumps on his shoulders.

Sunday Best

You'll notice Landon's big o' mosquito bite on his forhead...poor guy.

My mom's here this week.  Jill, Kallie and TJ left early Sunday morning.  A lot of the family was in town for the Kleinwood singing.  We went to church in Bellaire and then had lunch at Pappa's Grill (note the ice ship.)

Growing Up

As I was nursing Mackenzie this morning I realized something...

With Landon, I was so excited for him to grow up.  Each time he did something new - I was so happy. First smile, rolling over, coo'ing, laughing, etc.  I wanted him to get bigger and do more things.

With Mackenzie, I don't!  LOL.  I want her to stay a baby.  Looking down at her this morning, she's already so big!  She's growing up too fast (and she's barely 6.5 weeks!)

Back to work...already!

Can you believe it?  It's already time for me to head back to work.  I only took the 6 (paid) weeks off.  We just can't afford to take 6 more weeks unpaid (well, we could afford to, but then my lifestyle would have to change and I don't deal with that very well.  LOL.)

So, I'll be back at work on Monday.  My older sister and two of her kids came in last night.  I'm so excited to have family in for the next couple of weeks.  Last night was already heaven!  Of course, everyone was ready for bed and Miss Mackenzie was wide awake at 11!  Jill and TJ took her to the guest room and rocked her to sleep, letting me go to sleep early.  Once she gets to sleep, she sleeps well, she just likes being up late.  Or I guess I should say, her schedule is skewed by about three hours.  She sleeps really well from 12 to 9.  And then its normal daytime schedule.

I'm so proud of my milk supply this time around.  I just look in the freezer in awe.  I already have so much milk stored up.  And we haven't supplemented at all yet.  Not there's anything wrong with that.  We had to with Landon, it broke my heart the first time, but then you realize that's its more important for him to get the nutrients he needs than for me to stress about producing enough, which in turn causes you not to produce as much. 
But luckily, Mackenzie is a much better eater than Landon.  As you can see from all her pictures.  Speaking of pictures - she looks exactly like my baby pictures.  EXACTLY.

Since we have family coming in for the next 6 weeks to watch Mackenzie, we've also changed Landon to part time at daycare.  He'll only go Tuesday, Wednesdays and Thursdays.  The same as his best friend Mason.  We figured he'd be begging to stay home with family anyway because he doesn't like going when Mason isn't there. So, why not save money at the same time.  He's pretty excited about it.  Although he's really ready for Mackenzie to go to school.  And to crawl.  And to talk.  LOL.

Today's our anniversary.  We don't have any big plans, although my niece Kallie told us that we could go to dinner and a movie while they watched the kids.  She even told us we could pick whatever movie we wanted.  We're all taking a late breakfast at La Brisa, which I've been wanting to do for a while now.  I hope it doesn't disappoint.

Grandma and Grandpa Rhodes

Bryan's parents made a quick trip out here to see the kiddos.  They're coming back in late August to babysit.  Landon had a great time playing with Grandma and Grandpa.  And of course, they loved seeing both kids.

Sunday Best

First Bottle

I've started pumping so I'll be ready for work (in two weeks, ugh!!!)

Here's Landon giving Mackenzie a bottle....he loves her so much.  It's just wonderful.

BTW - his shirt is a costume that looks like a Wild West sheriff.  When I woke up on Friday, he was wearing this (Thanks mother-in-law)  We were going to meet Bryan at Perry's for lunch (pretty nice restaurant.)  So I tell Landon we need to change his shirt. 

Landon: "Why mom?  Cause people will think I'm too cool in this one?  They'll think I have a gun."

Ben 10

Landon is loving Ben 10 now.  He has almost all the action figure toys, and wants to check Wal-mart and Target every time we go out.

Bryan got another Ben 10 DVD on netflix for him this week.  We put the DVD in and as it's starting Landon says, "Who's the culprit behind this one?"

I just forget he's growing up!

Mackenzie's First Bath

Airport Past Time

Landon - waiting for our flight to visit family after Kenzie was born.

4th of July

We went to New Mexico for the fourth.  After we got Mom on the airplane in Houston, we headed west.  The kids were great in the car.  Landon stayed in his car seat the whole trip (yeah, yeah, I know, he should always do that...but 10 hours...)  Neither kid minded being in the seats much.  Landon got a new Ben Ten DVD, which we watched about 6 times.

After stopping in Midland for the night, we headed on to New Mexico for the annual fishing at Nana's.  Since everyone in the family was there, Nana Sharon hired a photographer to come out...I can not wait to see the group picture - it will be great.  We also had the photographer take a family photo of us (Rhodes) but I didn't think quick enough to ask someone else to take one, so we'll have to wait to see what she got. Landon was done with pictures pretty soon and cried through the cousins pictures.  And I'll have to be cropped out of mom's grandchildren picture - it was the only way Landon would sit for it.

After pictures, it was time for fishing.  For me, it was time to nurse and cool off inside.  Bryan fished all night (and actually missed dinner because all the food was gone by the time he was finished.)  He came in late, asking calmly if anyone had a knife...we looked up and saw he had a hook stuck in his finger.  His line had caught in the tree, and when he yanked it out, it flew back and stuck in his hand.  After much deliberations and lots of advice, Kip cut his finger with a razor blade so the hook could come out.

Saturday, we woke up early and headed to Muleshoe for the parade.  It rained all the way there, but stopped long enough for the parade and then it started back.  When we woke up that morning, Landon said he didn't want to go - and no one was going.  He repeated that over and over (he was supposed to ride with his cousins on the float...)  Well, once the candy started flying, he remembered that he liked parades.  After it was over, he told Bryan that "his brain was broken.  It didn't remember that parades were fun."  LOL.

After the parade, we visited Williams Bros and then headed to Leal's for lunch.  With 21 people, we had quite a wait.  While we were in the car waiting (I nursed) Keetha came to the car for a short visit.  She had her two kids - who are absolutely beautiful.  Then she was off and we finally got a table.

After Leal's, we headed back to NM to visit with Granny Foster.  The kids played apple baseball in the backyard while Jana, Uncle Ronnie, Granny and I visited inside. Saturday night was back at Nana's for fish and excellent hush puppies!  Delicious.  Landon played with cousins and had a great time.

Sunday, we were able to sleep in since church starts a little late.  When we got to church we noticed it was a bit warm...my cousin Katie and I were in the ladies room nursing and thought we were going to pass out.  We attributed it to being packed in with family (47 of us.)  Sunday Lunch at nana's and then the kids went swimming at Micah's house. 

Services Sunday night were unbearable!  The thermostat read 80 degrees!  It was miserable.  We found out that the AC has a freon leak...man. 

We went back to Nana's for pizza before the fireworks.  For the firework show, we drove down to the college and parked in an empty lot.  The best place to view fireworks.  We were right in front of them, about a 100 yards away.  And the show was spectacular. 

On Monday, Bryan headed back to Houston.  Landon and I stayed til Thursday.  I'll have to make that another post.  Just so much to remember.