Firsts

We've had a lot of firsts here in our family recently.

1) Weston had his first visit to the Emergency Room and his first black eye. The story: No matter how tight we strap him into things he always seems to find a way free. While shopping at Target he wormed his way out of the safety belt on the cart and then thrust himself over the side landing smack on his eye. Nothing we tried would consule him and within five minutes he was looking like Quasimodo with a serious drooping eye. Ten minutes later he was projectile vomiting. Since trauma to the head mixed with vomiting is not considered a good thing we were told by our doctor's office to take him to the E.R. Luckily after five hours and a clear CAT scan we were able to go home. He did have a nice shiner for a few days.

2) Cicialy started gymnastics for the first time this summer. She is learning to balance on the balance beam, become familiar with being on the bars, do forward rolls and cartwheels, along with different kinds of jumps on the trampoline. Basically just extremely elemental skills, but she is loving it! Her coordination is vastly improving too.

3) We took our first extremely long family road trip a few weeks ago. Since we had already flown to Utah two times in the past year and a half, we decided that this time we would drive. Our reasoning was so that we could stay longer and have access to our own vehicle the entire time. It took two long days in the car to get there but was totally worth it! We spent two whole weeks jammed packed with bar-b-ques, cousin sleepovers, going to Lagoon with all of Dan's siblings and their families (except for Jake whose on a mission), movies, cousins' baseball games, going to Idaho to see my sister and her kids for a few days, and visiting with some of our good friends from Stansbury Park ( Alisa I will never forgive you for not showing up - just kidding but I was really sad not to be able to see you on this trip) - Thanks Holly for all the planning and for the visit. The highlight of the trip, and our main reason for going to Utah as our family vacation this year, was the big Packer family reunion up in Heber on the 3rd and 4th of July. We had so much fun canoeing, participating in the challenge course, camping overnight in cabins, eating endless soft serve ice cream cones, and most importantly seeing Dan's grandparent's, aunts and uncles, and all the cousins, cousins, cousins. My kids were in cousin heaven our entire trip. During the drive back to Utah, and even now a week later, Will starts crying about how much he misses his cousins. Thanks everyone who took the time and effort to make our trip so much fun!

(Cici threw and in Will's eye right before we took this picture)

(I hope Cici is only itching her nose : )

4) Last week William started swimming by himself in the deep end for the first time. The motivating factor - his friend Riley learned how to swim while we were on vacation and I guess he didn't want her swimming around without him!

Preschool Graduation and Visit From Grandma and Grandpa Packer!

At the end of May William graduated from Preschool. He loved it so much and is sad to be out of school for the summer (don't worry, going swimming practically every day is helping in that regard!) The ceremony was so cute with the kids singing all of their gospel pop songs, giving their moms flowers, and singing "You are my rock, my only rock, you make me happy ...." for the Dad's and giving them a big decorated rock. His teachers Ms. Glinda and Ms. Lori were phenomenal. We are all so proud of Will and all he has accomplished and are excited for him to start "big kid school" a.k.a. kindergarten next year.


The last two weeks of school were full of fun, fun, fun. Will had carnival day, which I was able to go to along with Cicialy. They had a big blow up bouncer and obstacle course, rockets, face painting, and an endless supply of snow cones and cotten candy. The last day of school was water day complete with two huge blowup water slides. Will sure is going to miss that place.


Towards the end of May Dan's parents finally came out to visit us for a week! The kids absolutely loved having Grandma Packer and Bompa around. We had ourselves a mini "staycation" visiting several of the area attractions. Houston has the best children's museum I have ever been to and the kids loved it too! We also went to Galvaston for a fun day on the beach and to NASA Space Center. We topped off the week by celebrating Dan's 32 birthday! We can't wait to see everyone in the Packer family when we come up for a visit in July.

The day after Dan's birthday was Memorial Day, and we spent the day swimming with friends from church at one of their parent's pool. Our friend Scott taught Will, our daredevil child, how to flip off of the diving board. Thanks Scott!

What We've Been Up To

I can't believe how fast this year has been flying by. I swear it was just yesterday that Weston and I were flying to California to attend my mama's (maternal grandmother) funeral, but that was way back at the beginning of January. While I'm mentioning it, I just want to say that I miss the cutest little grandmother that ever graced this earth with her prescence a lot. I'll always remember her with a smile on her face cooking up something delicious in the kitchen. My favorites: oatmeal muffins and strawberries with milk for breakfast! I am grateful for all the opportunities I had to spend time with my grandparents (especially the summer before my junior year of high school where just I got to visit them for 3 whole weeks!) and the precious memories I have from those times. I also want to thank my papa for the wonderful care he gave my grandmother for the last two years when she was unable to care for herself. It was a selfless sacrifice that is very much appreciated by those who love her. Thanks mom and dad for making sure I could attend her service.

So, the following is our year so far in pictures:

Me and Weston, my cousin Lisa and Taylor, my sister Tiffany and Koen the night before the funeral

My grandfather with all of the grandchildren that could make it to California - my sister Beth, cousin Lisa, Papa, cousin Michael, me, and sister Tiffany-(2 grandsons were attending college and 2 other grandsons were on missions so they were unable to attend)

Weston loving his second plane trip in less than one year!

I had so much fun on my little trip to California. The weather was cold but beautiful the day of the funeral and we all felt like it was more of a day to celebrate Mama's life than to be too sad (though we all shed our fair share of tears). That afternoon we even went to the old concrete slide we visited as kids and had a blast almost killing ourselves on that thing (I wish I had pictures - LISA YOU NEED TO EMAIL ME SOME! - because I can't even begin to describe it).

A spot finally opened up at one of the area preschools right after I returned from California, so the second week of January William started attending! He loves it! He goes on Tues. and Thurs. from 9:30 to 2:30, so it has been a nice practice run for kindergarten and a nice break for me and him. Most preschools here in Texas are run by local churches and one of Will's favorite things is Chapel time. They sing gospel kid rock type songs with motions and everything. It is really cute to watch. When you see him this summer ask him to show you the superman prayer.

Papa came to Houston to visit with my parents and my family for a week. We had fun eating out a lot, and the kids loved going to the beach in Galvaston with their grandmother and great grandfather.
In March we experienced the Houston Rodeo, and I am officially inviting any of our family or friends who would ever like to attend a place to stay at our house. It was amazing! I already posted about taking William to see Rascal Flatts, and a week later I went with some friends to see Brad Paisley. The last day we took the kids back to the Livestock Show and Carnival. They had a blast! (Cici wore her Fancy Nancy tutu around pretty much the whole day - too cute!)

We had a fun Saint Patrick's day with green shamrock pancakes and everyone wearing green!
Two weekends before Easter our neighborhood Homeowner's Association hosted an Easter Eggstravaganza complete with Easter Egg Hunt, Petting Zoo, Pony Rides, Puppet Show, and Camel Rides. We really found a great neighborhood to live in!

We had another Easter Egg Hunt with a group of people from our ward and Will had one at his preschool (3 is more than enough!) On Easter the kids loved their Easter Baskets and having dinner at Grandma Freeman's and Papagator's House (I think sometimes they wish we still lived there - I'm talking about the kids!) We are just now finishing off all the candy : )

At the end of April I was able to chaporone Will's preschool fieldtrip to the Zoo. Houston has a great zoo and we had a really fun day!

We finally found the zebras after an hour and a half of looking and being rained on a few times!

Finally (I know this post has been forever long - sorry), the first weekend in May our neighborhood pool opened! We have two pools in our neighborhood and we can't wait until Memorial Day Weekend when the pool with the bigger slides opens up. Until then we are enjoying the athletic pool with its high and low diving boards and the adjacent kiddy pool complete with frog slide, aligator, and mushroom among other things. Anyone jealous? : )

Dan's been working like crazy (12 - 14 hour days all week and at least 2 Saturdays a month), I'm teaching in Relief Society, Dan teaches in primary, and we are having a great time. Now, if only I could find some cute clothes out there and good home decor stores my life would be complete! We are having fun!

Weston is 1!

Well its official, my little Weston is no longer a baby ... he walks, sleeps through the night, drinks from a sippy cup instead of a bottle, hasn't used a binky in months, eats table food, says mommommom and daddaddad and a few other indistinguishable words, gets into everything, and on May 5th he turned one years old. Since Weston's birthday is cinco de mayo we had a little fiesta with just us and my parents complete with pulled pork soft tacos and virgin margaritas. His favorite gifts were his new remote control car and leap frog alphabet pal caterpillar. The highlight of the party was watching him completely demolish his cake. I love this little boy with his huge blue eyes, infectious smile, and open mouthed slobber kisses!