Our trip to Houston

I could very easily turn this into a book but I will spare you. It was so nice to get out of Mattoon for a week. It's been a while since Baylee has flown commercially at least and didn't know how she'd do having to stay in one spot. Relief...she did great and even slept a little. We got to stay at a Crowne Plaza in Houston with views of sky scrapers and ...Chick-fil-a! Boy do I miss chicken biscuits and Polynesian sauce! We were the last ones flying in and so our whole family plus Grandma Burell and Mackenzie(our cousin) went to dinner that night.

The next day we spent hanging out at Cort's house by his pool and they cooked out for us. Sunday we spent a fabulous day at the beach. Cort took his jetski as well as the fishing supplies. Hagan took his kayak and his fishing supplies. Dad contributed a tube to pull behind the jetski. And they brought a feast. Mom got buckets for the little ones and we all supplied the fun. Everyone had a blast from fishing to eating to swimming to tubing.

We decided to take it indoors some and hit up Nasa/Space Center Houston with Tarrah, Rod and Savannah. And also the Natural Science Museum and the Aquarium. We had the opportunity to go to lunch out in our old neighborhood with Mom's best friend Debbi and were joined by our childhood friend Stacy and her adorable little boy. It was nice for a girls(and kids) only outing while the boys all slept after the overnight fishing excursion the night before. We also had an opportunity to get pics taken of Baylee, Savannah and Brayden together, thus the matching dresses.

Baylee and Brayden had a blast playing together and throroughly enjoyed chasing each other. Savannah is a doll and it was so nice to get to be around her some. All in all, it was a little overwhelming for Baylee and all she wanted was "mommy", cereal bars and fruit snacks, which made it stressful for me and I was ready to cash in on a real vacation when we got home. But I recovered as she returned to Baylee the day after we got back. We had a blast hanging out with the family and wish we could do it more often.

Water, Water and a little more water

Baylee is beginning to love the water and her pool. We have played in it quite a few times since I last wrote. And we have upgraded as well. She now has a cool zebra pool that has an inflatable slide and a sprinkler in the zebra's mouth. She doesn't love the slide completely everyday but I'm sure we will get there. I'm just glad she's doing as good as she is considering how much she dislikes a bath. I think it's helping with that too though.

We've been busy having fun, someone has to do it. One day this we went with our friends Kristen, Reagan and McKinley to the big city pool in the park. It has a playground in the water for the little kids and a big slide for big kids. It also has one of the raining mushrooms and is the zero depth pool so the water is very shallow to start and gets deeper. There's a tire swing in the water and Baylee loved that. She did amazingly well at the big pool and even cried when we left. This made me so happy. I love the water and she hasn't been a huge fan, tides are turning though. We've been able to talk a lot of walks in the evenings with Cody and Odin. Baylee's been walking like a big girl instead of riding in the wagon.

We have also taken time to play at the park a little, go out to play with Libby and Marley, went on a shopping adventure with Kristen and Reagan and had plenty of play time here at the house as well. We have been grilling out with Tyler and Amber some more. Last weekend we went on an exploration of two somewhat local state parks. One we will never return to, hopefully. The other will probably be our new favorite fishing spot. The enclosed on 3 sides dock with picnic table on it, bathroom close by and a wheelchair ramp and stairs to keep Baylee occupied, it was a blast. It was even nice down to the fact that the dock was half shaded and half in the sun all the time.

We have been without air conditioning and will be until Monday, not looking forward to the next two days in the mid- high 80's. I guess I'm just glad we had highs in the low 60s and 70s until today. It was actually cold enough to wear a jacket on Thursday....in JUNE!

Not too much to report. We are looking forward to vacation and the official countdown may now begin, as we have less than a week until departure. We are so excited to be escaping Mattoon for a week. Things are busy with us having fun and still trying to get things done around the house, but no super exciting news to report.

Fun and Sun

We have had our fair share of storm after storm and had a little breakthrough this week. We have finally even broken out the swimming pool...though it needs an upgrade as Baylee has quadroupled in size since last year. Ok so maybe not officially but boy it sure seems like it. Maybe it's just her sassiness that has grown at astronomical speeds and heaven only knows where she gets that! We got a chance to go to the zoo again with our playgroup from school. Yes we bought a stack of train tickets since everything else was paid for and of course it's Baylee's favorite part. We got to eat lunch with our friends there and had such a fun time.

We had our end of the year picnic in the park that was also rescheduled due to the lovely rain. We had pizza and played and played and played. Our dearest little Baylee that was so terrified of the fountain in the park last year absolutely LOVED playing in it this year. Baylee and her friends Marley and Jaye Ann played in the water for about an hour and a half after most everyone else went home, they sure do have some cool moms!

We've gotten together with other friends for lunches and playtimes and some adult time for the moms which is always a plus. Sometimes you need to have someone around during the day that won't assume you want to hear "uh uh uh uh" which means an assortment of things in lazy Baylee language.

I recently made Baylee a sandbox which she loves to play in. Keeping the sand in the box, not a fun task for a one-soon to be two- year old but she's doing well. She's talking like crazy, taking care of her baby, and doing everything big people do. Her baby goes on our walks and has to be strapped into the wagon. She walks her dog like we do Odin. She uses his collar to walk her dog.
And one day after we got home from the library, I decided it was a nice time to play in the rain. So we jumped, stomped, splashed and ran through every puddle we could find. We were soaked but it was so much fun and Baylee just giggled and giggled.

Our fishing has suffered due to weather, either too cold(yes I really just said that) or stormy or rainy. I keep thinking I can put away our jackets for the summer only to find myself pulling them out again a week later. Soon enough I will complain because it's too hot. Mainly because our house has a window unit and not sure how efficient it will be since we have not yet had to use it. Here are our recent adventures.

I officially took over this week as the Finance Coordinator for our MOPs group so I've been busy with bank changes and getting registrations and such done for "next year". This has taken up my free naptimes but I will be done with it soon and you only have to register once a year, thank goodness. I am looking forward to volunteering my time and helping out.

Playing catch up

It seems these days, that I cannot keep up with the blog. But we want to share some of our latest adventures.

We should play catch up really quickly. The easiest way to do that is through pictures. We've had warm, cold, rainy, dry, sunny, cloudy and even a bit of a freeze in the weather. We like to take advantage when it is nice outside for sure. But we've also been having fun hanging out with friends a lot. First half of April random pics are found here.

We went mushroom hunting one weekend with Tyler and Amber. That was an adventure. We've cooked out with them a few times and just seem to have a good ole time anyway we can. Catching up on the rest of the pics here.

This past Friday, we went to Scovill Zoo. It was supposed to be the school field trip, however they rescheduled due to the weather. Sarah, Thomas, Baylee and I decided we were not in danger of melting from a little rain. We packed up and headed to the zoo anyway. Boy were we glad we did. Yes we got a little wet here and there, no torrential down pours or anything of the sort. And the temperature while it could have been better was decent enough to take the kids out in the rain. This zoo is rather small but it's perfect for kiddos this size. Thomas was so wide eyed the whole time. He didn't say much, those big brown eyes just continuously got bigger. We got to see everything minus a few turtles and the spider monkeys and some of the birds. We rode the train which they both adored and when the rain started to pick up(which we were expecting) we decided to go but not before getting to see an ambulance and a firetruck come to the zoo for a call. All both little ones could do was point and stare in amazement at the coolness of the site.

We then headed over to the mall for some lunch and shopping. Little did we know that the mall was going to be much much much better than we had anticipated. There was a play area in the middle of the food court and right in front of Kohls. So Sarah and I took turns shopping and watching the kids. They played the whole time we shopped. It was a treat for all of us. Needless to say we ended up with some very tired kids on the way home late that afternoon.

Sunday we went fishing of course, however without much luck. Baylee was the only one that caught a fish. We did bring home a baby turtle which unfortunately got killed by the pacus within hours of him being in the tank. We tried to save him but he bit the dust. Odin has been getting to go with us on our fishing trips.
Baylee is attempting to talk up a storm and is doing funny stuff everyday. She is using small phrases and is learning to be bossy. She does love to tell "Ogin" as she calls him "bad puppy". For those interested, Baylee weighs 23 pounds and is 32 1/2 inches tall. It's been a while since we've updated that, figured it was due.

Odin got to go to the vet one day recently, that was an adventure in itself for me with Baylee and an uncooperative Odin and uncooperative Baylee. I got a workout. But the vet is awesome and surprisingly extremely cheap. He's of course by far surpassed the size of Baylee. He's doing very well and has learned most commands. Still working on stay and of course dealing with the leash. But Baylee still loves him and it's awesome to see how happy she gets in the morning when he comes in to get her after she wakes up.

Everything seems to be going good around here, we are just staying busy with trying to get things done and have fun all at the same time. We are still loving the pool table though it's still in the dining room waiting to be moved to the garage, I'm sure we will get to it one of these days. or we may just continue down the redneck path of life? Cody and I celebrated our 3 year anniversary in April. No big plans, just a quiet night at home. And I have recently accepted the challenge of Finance Coordinator for our MOPs group. And I am looking forward to having more input and getting more involved.

Hopefully the next post wont be so long and so far away! There's always a little hope.

Baylee officially inducted as a Lowe fisherman

Last Saturday we decided to hit up the reliable old Airport Pond fishing hole. We are proud to announce Baylee caught not only the first fish, but the most fish and by herself. While we do cast it(her casting invovles throwing the pole usually) and we take the fish off, a one year old and hooks don't make a safe combo, she sets the hook and reels on her own. She even was jigging her line, maybe not purposely but it was working. Amazing. We had so much fun. Unfortunately I didnt think to video the first one, I got her third one, so she was over the super huge excitement. At this point it was almost more of a chore. She would much rather pull the fish onto the bank than reel it, but she's one, we forgive her :) We are looking forward to many more fishing trips!

Easter, a little late

I know it's late posting. But we had a fun Easter. The Easter bunny came and Baylee hunted eggs. We had a big turkey lunch. It was nice to have Cody home for the weekend. It was not super eventful! But of course we have pictures!

I posted videos of the egg hunt on our Youtube. Had to do it in two sections and I apologize for the crazy photographer. ... I'm not good at it yet. Warning for the weak stomached: take a dramamine first.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2p3VgE6NU9U&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YdNcn4NDQ0&feature=channel_page

The Norths visit Mattoon

We had the privilege of having Brian, Kelly and Caleb park in Mattoon amidst their travels. It was so incredibly good to see them. Baylee and Caleb had fun playing together, of course, the wagon was a hit as well as the puppy. Add in the puppy chasing the wagon....all those two little ones could do was laugh. While it was quite the workout pulling them in the grass, it was so worth the buns of steel bootcamp session to hear them crack up nonstop. (thus the 2500 wagon pics I took)

We also out of pure tradition had to make and decorate cookies while they were here. This time, it was nice for Baylee and Caleb to be able to join in and help out, though it still ended up with Kelly and me putting our artwork on most of them. We were a bit out of practice since neither of us have made cookies to decorate since our splitting up last year when we left Georgia. You know it's just not the same without someone to make fun of your latest artwork!

Kelly and Brian were nice enough to take us out for Mexican food for dinner(Thanks again for that!). It was so nice just to go out and hang with old friends. We really enjoyed the visit!