Eat'em Up Kats!

We watch a lot of football. Mostly college, but some high school and NFL. At this point in the season, more FCS, Division II and III games are on and we love watching those as well.

Sam Houston State has been in the playoffs and next Saturday, they are playing for the FCS National Championship. Well, my dad, Charlotte and Zach and my cousin Keri and her husband Danny all went to Sam. Well, during one of the playoff games we watched, we said "Eat'em Up Kats!" to Taryne and now she randomly says that.

One morning this week, Taryne and I decided to make homemade donut holes and Taryne insisted on having sprinkles on them. Oh and she insisted that the sprinkles had to be orange and blue. Luckily we had blue and orange sprinkles. They were left over from a wedding shower for Charlotte and Zach. So after we made the donuts with sprinkles, I get an "Eat'em Up Kats!" from Taryne.

Unfortunately the blue sprinkles definitely make your mouth, fingers, everything blue.

Until next time...Gig'em! ....and Eat'em up Kats!

Merry Christmas!!

Okay, so it is a few days late....I have been out of town quite a bit lately, but more on that in a later post.

Here is our Christmas card for 2011....

And here is Taryne with her plate of cookies for Santa and carrots for the reindeer. This year she insisted that Santa needed a Capri Sun instead of milk....well, okay.

Here is Taryne the next morning after she realized there was a present left for her and most of the cookies and carrots were gone...

She was very excited about her LeapFrog LeapPad. I know the age recommendation is older than Taryne, but she absolutely loves our iPad, so we thought that this would be a great item for her and something she can grow up with. Well, she LOVES the LeapPad. Some of the apps are a little old for her, but she loves the camera, video camera, art studio and the pet pad.

And here is our annual Christmas family photo....

 We are very blessed for our family and friends. I hope all had a wonderful Christmas and a happy new year!

Until next time...Gig'em!

Christmas Program

Taryne had her "Christmas Program" yesterday after school. Her class basically sang a favorite song. It wasn't a Christmas song, but it was cute.

My little outgoing, loud-singing little girl suddenly became very quiet and shy as more and more people came into the room. She only wanted me to hold her. Thank goodness her teacher gathered them all in the next room right before it began or I don't think she would have gone to the front to perform.

Oh and she stood there with her fingers in her nose before they started....lovely.

After the performances, they had milk and cookies and the kids hung their handmade ornaments on the school Christmas tree.

Until next time...Gig'em!

Christmas at the Creek

Last weekend, we took Taryne to Christmas at the Creek at Wolf Pen in College Station. They had all sorts of holiday things like hay rides, Santa, live performances, crafts, food, hot chocolate and more. Taryne has absolutely no interest in Santa, in fact, she will definitely let us know that she does NOT want to see Santa.

I had wanted to do the hay ride, but the line was ridiculously long. I thought Taryne would enjoy the crafts, but she was only interested in watching the live ballet performances to Christmas music. I guess we have ballet lessons in our future. She kept wanting to go to the stage and dance with them.

The other highlight of the night was the Christmas lights. We now take the "scenic route" home most days from school so she can see more lights.

Until next time...Gig'em!

Look Alike

On a recent weekend, we were at one of our favorite taco shops for breakfast and this guy walked up to our table and asked us a question. He asked Kyle is he was related to Jason Witten. Of course, our answer is "No" and the guy went on to say that Kyle looked just like Jason Witten.


My first thoughts, were "great...." since I can't stand the Cowboys. My next thought was, what on earth does Jason Witten look like. I had no idea since I can't stand the Cowboys, I have never bothered to look him up. So I was thankful I now have an iPhone and did a quick Google search for Jason Witten. Well, I was surprised at how much Kyle actually looked like him. I am also surprised that no one has ever said anything before, but once I mentioned it on Facebook, I got lots of comments on how he does look like him.

 

I will let you be the judge....

Until next time...Gig'em!

It's A Boy!!!!

Ever since we told Taryne she was going to be a big sister, she has insisted that she will be getting a little sister. At the most random times, she would tell me that she wanted her sister now!!

Well, she is getting a little brother and from what we can tell, she is super excited. She still mentions "sister" every now and then, but when asked if she is excited about having a brother, we get a huge "YES!!!".  I think one girly-girl in this household is enough!

I can't wait to start decorating Baby Boy Rode's room!! And it really is harder to shop for little boys. I wanted to get his first outfit and I shopped around forever before I found something to get! There were TONS of cute little baby girl things. Maybe I am just used to shopping for a girl.

We were going to be super excited whether we were getting a boy or another girl. Now we will be the lucky parents of a girl AND a boy!

Until next time...Gig'em!

Chalk Artist

Taryne decided one afternoon that needed to play outside with chalk. So I dug out my box of sidewalk chalk and we went out front to play. She really didn't want to draw much, just play with the chalk and for me to write "Taryne Milady Rode" all over the sidewalk and driveway.

I think she had more fun sitting in the grass and rolling around that actually drawing, but we didn't last too long outside because it was hot...especially for a November afternoon.

Until next time...Gig'em!

A New Skirt....

Taryne loves to "shop" in Kyle's dresser drawers. She frequently visits and adds socks, underwear, handkerchiefs and t-shirts to her shopping cart or transports them around the house. Well, one day, she was awfully quiet for a little too long and Kyle found she had decided to wear a pair of underwear (a pair of boxer-briefs) as a skirt.....luckily Kyle was able to catch a few pictures of this.

Until next time...Gig'em!

Halloween!!!

I know, Halloween was a few weeks ago. I feel like a broken record, but life truly has been hectic. Taryne was soooo excited about Halloween. She was ready to get dressed up, she was ready to go trick-or-treating, but I think most of all, she was excited to see Lexus. In fact, she would not take a picture unless it was with Lexus. I snapped that with my phone, so it is not the best.

We were nervous about Halloween because EVERYTHING has been scaring her lately. Luckily, we were able to avoid most scary costumes and houses that night.

So in order to get some pics of her in her Belle costume, I dressed her up last weekend and took some pictures. I "made" her Belle costume by taking her flower girl dress and dyed it yellow. After that, I gathered the top layer of the skirt in several places with ribbon streamers to dress it up. She picked out her Elmo candy bucket and still loves carrying it around.

Until next time...Gig'em!

Pumpkin Patch

Habitat for Humanity does a Pumpkin Patch every year near our house. I have never really taken time to stop until last year so Taryne could pick out her own pumpkin and to take some pictures. So of course we had to go again this year!

We finally had time to go by this morning and of course it had to be HOT. All week we had great fall-like weather here in Texas until today. I really hate the weather here. I just want 4 distinct seasons and it to transition smoothly from one to the other, not this back and forth mess.

So we checked out all the pumpkins and took a few family pictures and Taryne finally decided to get a few of the small pumpkins. I guess it was smart on her part that she chose small pumpkins because she has carried them all around the house and has declared several times how "heavy" they are!

Until next time...Gig'em!

Creativity

I think Taryne inherited my creativity bug. She is ALWAYS wanting to draw, paint, color, arrange things, dress things, etc and she continually amazes me with her thoughts and actions.

She asks to paint quite often. We typically clear off the breakfast table and cover it with paper and let her have at it. This particular time, we let her paint with her little table so she had access to move around, but she really wanted to sit while she painted....

I don't know if she gets bored painting the paper or what, but every time she paints, there comes a point that she must paint herself. This time she also started eating the paint. Thank goodness they make this stuff non-toxic.

Until next time...Gig'em!

Practicing...

We have two Boppy pillows. A regular, normal one and a baby-sized one that came with a tummy-time mat. Taryne always wants us to sit on them, but the other day, I tried to explain what they were used for...besides a soft pillow to sit on.

I told her they were to help hold a new baby. I even put the regular one around my belly and placed the small one around hers. I then grabbed one of her dolls to show her how to hold a baby using the pillow as a support. I then gave her a doll so she could practice. She did excellent! Until she held the doll by its head, but oh well, she will figure it out.

She is very excited about her new baby brother/sister and she frequently tells me "sister, have it, now!". I guess according to Taryne she wants a sister. Very rarely does she mention a brother. I try to explain to her that she doesn't get a choice. It is also hard to explain to her that she must wait until April because her baby brother/sister is still growing and not ready yet. The look I get is priceless.

Until next time...Gig'em!

The Big Girl Bed...

....that is no more...for the time being.

A few weeks ago, Taryne was home from school (and us from work) for 2 days because of her pesky allergies. Kyle was home with her the first day, but I got the second day, which was a Friday. Nothing like a 3-day weekend with allergies....because I was just as sick as she was.

Well, I have this whole entire timeline of how I want things to happen in regards to getting Taryne potty trained and into a big girl bed so I don't have to worry with it when the new baby arrives. Or even think about it close to when the new baby arrives.

So my plan: transition from the crib, to a toddler bed, to a twin mattress on the floor. She has a nice full size bed set with tons of furniture, but I really didn't want to go straight to that and I want to preserve her play space. So while she is still an only child, I thought we would go to the toddler bed first since it is basically her crib with a different front panel. Familiar space, but with a little freedom.

Well, she sort of wanted to abuse that freedom, so on the day in question, we went from crib to toddler bed, to crib and back to toddler bed and then eventually back to her crib. The good thing it takes about 5 minutes to switch it from one to the other.

The first time, she decided she would just get up and close her door and start playing. Forget about a nap! Well, I put my foot down and made the bed back to a crib and put her to bed. That evening, I had changed it back to a toddler bed because she had been so good and "grown up".  At bedtime, she closed the door within a few minutes. When I checked on her, she was actually in her bed....with a HUGE grin on her face. So I left the door slightly open and about 5 minutes later, she came into the living room (with the same HUGE grin) and said "Hi Momma, Hi Daddy!!!!" Then she told us, "Sit on the couch and watch the football game....please!". So the bed went back to a crib and it has stayed that way since.

I think we will need to get her a gate for her room before we go back to the "big girl" bed. However, since this particular day, she has decided that she wants to try potty training, so this should be fun!

Until next time...Gig'em!

Soup, Water and Coffee

Taryne has a big of an imagination, but I guess most kids do. She just cracks me up quite a bit with the random and surprising things that come out of her mouth.

Recently she was "cooking" and "filled" up her measuring cup with water and asked if I wanted water. Then she went back, refilled the cup and brought me a spoon for soup. After I finished the soup, she went back again and then brought me coffee. We don't drink coffee in this house. At. All.

But one day at one of her doctor appointments, we looked through a magazine and I pointed things out to her. She pointed to a coffee ad and I said it was coffee. Once the doctor came in, she held it up and told him it was coffee. He seemed pretty surprised, especially when I told him that we didn't drink coffee in our house. So, now we have "coffee" often, or whenever she decides to serve it.

She got the cute apron from my friend Amie and her two girls Jacie and Charlee for her birthday.

Until next time...Gig'em!

Runnin' the bases....

So, Taryne likes to run. She runs around the house, in the yard, around the couch, everywhere. I guess she just has a lot of energy cooped up inside and that is how she gets it out.

She likes to have "races" in the yard from the fence to the house or from the back fence to the gate. She gets ready and sets up and yells "go!".

Well, after she ran all over the yard, I tried to get her to take a  break....these are the poses I got....

And then...she starts running in circles on the porch. Anytime she runs in circles or around something, she yells "runnin' the bases!!". Not really sure where she picked it up, but it is pretty funny...and cute. Maybe she wants to be a softball player one day.

Until next time...Gig'em!