Happy Birthday and Baptism

This weekend was a two-fold celebration!  It was Grandma Kelly's birthday and Addison's baptism.  After spending the week in San Angelo, Kelly (gladly) returned my family to me in San Antonio.  She stayed with us through the weekend to celebrate her birthday and attend Addison's baptism at our church.  For her birthday, we all went out to her favorite Chinese restaurant, PF Chang's.  My parents joined us for a great family style meal and helped us sing a seriously off-key Happy Birthday to You.  The meal came complete with a shot glass birthday cake.   Dalton was quick to taste-test it for us, all of it.

 

Dalton showed off his photography skills at dinner with this shot of my parents.

 

Addison's baptism was of course a very special event. 

All of the grandparents came down to celebrate the occasion with us.  Addison was baptized by our local church pastor Milton Lewis at Northern Hills UMC in San Antonio.   We have found an extremely supportive church family here and can't think of a better place to raise our kids than with this congregation. 

Landa Park

Earlier this month we took a trip up to Landa Park in New Braunfels to feed the ducks and play in the cold spring-fed water.  There is no better place to spend a 100 degree day than in the clear, always-cold, super-shaded Comal river.  Getting entertained by a dozen geese and a three-year-old with a bag of bread is just an added bonus. 

If the ducks and geese weren't enough, there are more fuzzy creatures going for Dalton's bread.

    

 

After a hot afternoon outside, what could be better than a little ice cream? 

Last week, Crystal and the kids got to spend some time in San Angelo with the family.  They had a blast playing in the swimming pool and making Grandma watch every episode of Thomas the Tank Engine ever made!

  

 

 

 

 

There are more pictures online from everything we've done so far this month.  If you'd like to see them just click here.

Our First (and last) Crop

Look at the cute little farmer in the making.  For not ever having raised a garden before, it turned out pretty successful.  We had cantaloupe, carrots, tomatoes, and okra.  This is our first and last "big" harvest of the year because we have decided to let everything die out and start again. We are going to clear the area and raise it up to make a better planting area for next year.  Dalton enjoyed watching the garden grow from small seeds into giant plants and vines. 

Dalton has also been working very hard at learning his alphabet.  Last week he learned the letter A, and this week studied the letter B.   Crystal and Dalton sing songs about the letter, read books, and do arts and crafts related to the lesson.

 

 

 

 

During the lessons, Crystal and Dalton have been working to improve his fine motor skills.  They work on holding a pencil and crayons correctly, using scissors and painting.  He was so excited when he learned how to write the letter A.  For the past two weeks he has been going around writing A's on all the paper he can find.  Our electric bill has a giant A on it!  Now if he could just learn how to write the letter B.

Addison also enjoys "school" time.  She is usually close by on her turtle mat or leaf pillow.   She listens on as Mommy and Dalton read books and sing all their silly songs.  Her favorite time is in the evenings though when Daddy gets home.  They swing together in the backyard almost every night.   She is smiling all the time now, especially when her big brother is nearby.  She is right on the verge of laughing, and has kind of done it three times.  She acts like she could start at any minute, so we're excitedly waiting. 

On a side note; the cat did not die from the yo-yo incident.  She should be down to just a life or two left though.