Ben and Caroline's Blog

A few months back I started taking Emily over to the fields by our house to watch the kids play baseball and soccer. It has now gotten to the point where she demands to go to the fields at least once a day. She likes the open space to run and loves clapping during any of the games. If you have kids that play any sport on the fields by Westchester highschool then you probably would recognize Emily as the little toddler that's always running up and down alongside the fence. We usually go after her dinner and sometimes we even bring Mella. Here are some pics from our after dinner adventure this evening.

My dad and his brother Don both celebrated their birthday's this weekend. What do you get a couple of guys that pretty much have everything? Apparently signs...

Happy Birthday!

Read more →

We went up to the neighborhood club this afternoon. The guys played tennis while Johanna and I played at the park with the kids. Addison held Emily's hand to and from the cars to the park. Emily kept smiling and saying "hand, hand."

We went to the park with my mom yesterday afternoon after checking out the Fall Market hosted by our neighborhood women's club. Here are a few pics.

We had a great weekend celebrating Ben's 30th. My parents kept Emily while Ben and I went to Austin for the UT-UCLA game. Emily had a big time with her newest toys of the month and a trip to the mall for several rides on the carousel (she calls it the "up and down") and lunch at chick fil a. Thanks Mimi and Grandy!! Ben and I had a great time too in Austin. It was not the best game but we enjoyed sitting with our friends Chris and Lacey and catching up with all the other friends we ran into before the game.

Ben's sister, Cassidy, had a shower in Houston on Sunday so we enjoyed seeing all the family that was in town for the shower. Cassidy and Jon are expecting a baby boy on January 4th - just a few weeks after we are expecting ours. We are very excited about watching the boys grow up together! Monday was Ben's actual birthday and Ben's parents had us all over for dinner. It was great spending time with our friends and family. Here are some pics from the weekend. Happy Birthday, Ben!

Read more →

Emily really likes this big book with the Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty stories. It came with little cut- outs to match the characters in the story. Emily refers to Cinderella as "pincess" and the prince as "Dada." No matter how many times I refer to the prince as "the prince" she still insists that it is Ben. Apparently she has no trouble differentiating between me and the princess or accepting that "Dada" spends so much time with "pincess." Here are a few pictures of Ben and his princess.

I just picked Emily up from her first day and everything went well. She didn't cry or even skip a beat when I dropped her off. We got there a little early and we played at the park for a few minutes, met all three of her teachers and checked out the classroom. When we got to the classroom she just marched right in and sat at a table and started working on a puzzle. Emily and her 7 classmates are the "Monkeys". I took a few pictures of the outdoor park before class, the indoor park (the glare is bad and it doesnt show how big it is but I love that they have an indoor park) and the drop off gear line up and the classroom. I also added pictures of her daily report and her first art project. The teachers said she never fussed and was good and happy all day. Hooray!!!!

Ready to go!

Emily has been trying to climb on top of the coffee table for months and she finally made it today. I probably shouldn't encourage this type of behavior but she did a little victory dance when she reached the top and I couldn't help but laugh and take pictures.

We joined a Gymboree class earlier this month. We tried another gym class this summer but we really like the Gymboree class because they have "open gym" a couple of times a week in addition to our actual class. They change up the equipment so it is not the same every time we go. Emily LOVES open gym. Here are some pics - I tried to only select a few but this was the best I could do...:)

We are trying to keep Emily busy today until we get in the car to drive to Lufkin. Turns out that James is on dad duty with Emily's friend Addison for the afternoon, so Ben went over there with Emily for a Dad's playdate while I run a few errands before our trip. Wooohoo! I had to snap this pic when I dropped them off. Be nice to the dads girls!

Emily was enjoying her coloring book so much that I thought I could slip in to the kitchen. Then I heard a strange noise...

As we were trying to clean up Emily's mess I heard another strange noise and walked in in Mella doing this... I think she ate most of the purple crayon.

Emily and I had a great morning! Usually when I pick her up from the nursery after my gym class she is already looking tired. But today she was just playing around with the other kids and not ready to stop. I had an errand to run at Memorial City Mall so we headed there next. The mall was pretty empty even though it was after 10 so we went to the big indoor play area. It was great because it was not as crowded as usual and it was just little kids. I finally pulled her away from the play area after promising her food. We stopped at Chick-fil-a and had a nice little lunch. We then finished off the morning with a ride on the carousel that is inside the mall. We had never done the carousel before - she loved it and cried when it stopped. She fell asleep before we could even pull out of the parking lot.

Ben brought this stuffed animal home from work. It is HostGator swag. Ben handed it to Emily but Mella intercepted it and ran off. Usually she just runs around with Emily's things for sport but this time she carried it up to the bed and did this. She is still holding it now.