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.  

The Goat Strikes Again!

So we have this cat named Ms. Kitty (aka the Goat).  We got her when Dalton was about a year old while we were still living in College Station.  She quickly earned the nickname "The Goat" because she eats everything!  Bells, keys, anything stringy or anything shiny.  Not long after we got her she pulled out and ate about 9 feet of white-out tape that was on my desk.  Let me tell you how pleasant that was.  Just imagine a second tail for about a week.  Her favorite hobby at Christmas time is to knock the glass Christmas ornaments off the tree and eat the shiny glass shards.  She once chewed through a pair of aluminum TV rabbit ears behind my TV!  Anywho, the Goat recently struck again.  Dalton had just gotten a toy yo-yo from the neighbors and left it lying in the playroom.  I came upstairs and saw Ms. Kitty coughing and something dangling from her mouth.  She had swallowed the entire string from the yo-yo but couldn't get the toy down!  We had to catch her and slowly pull the whole thing out (see above). 

Always a good time at the Lacy household.  Always.

The Weekend

This weekend we had a special visit by Crystal's Mom and her Grandfather.  They were on their way to a Lion's Club event in Kerrville and dropped by to see us.   We went down to the Alamo and the Riverwalk and had a great time.  Of course we rounded out the visit with a trip to Bass Pro Shop to Dalton could play on all the toys. 

 

The kids are all doing terrific.  We weighted Addison on the scale last night and she is up to a total of 14 lbs!   So far her interests include long walks on the beach, horseback riding, and watching movies with her brother .

They also really enjoy bedtime stories together.

Dalton's Classroom

You can take the teacher out of the classroom, but you can't take the classroom out of the teacher.  After a year of staying home and away from the traditional classroom, Crystal has realized how much she misses teaching.  However, being not quite ready to return to teaching full time, Crystal has retrieved all her old kindergarten supplies from the garage and has created a classroom in our upstairs playroom.

Starting this week Dalton will begin attending classes regularly in his own personal classroom.  He will have lots of one-on-one time with a professional teacher (his mom) and will be learning such skills as his alphabet, numbers, counting, days of the week, months of the year, and many many more.  

 Dalton has his own little desk and nametag.  The desk was Crystal's when she was a kid.  Both Crystal and Dalton seem to be very excited about starting their "at home" preschool.  If you notice, they even have a special place for Addie on her turtle in the corner.

Family Reunion

This weekend we went to the Jaques-Soto-Franco family reunion in Helotes, just outside San Antonio.  This is Blake's family on his mother's side and there were over 400 people there!   It was a great time and Dalton and Addison got to see and meet a lot of cousins.  Each family had to introduce themselves and there were genealogy posters on the wall so you could find out how you were related. 

The Franco Family

Dalton and his cousin Arianna. 

Playing with a balloon.

Dalton's first kiss.  

And of course we couldn't post any pictures online without including some of Addison. These are her playing on her leaf pillow at home.

Weekend Fun

This weekend Grandma Kelley came to visit.  We had lots of fun going to many different places.

On Friday we took Addison to Seaworld for the first time. She had fun watching Dalton in the waterpark and got to see the dolphins! She'll have to wait a while before she gets to see Shamu because it's a little loud for her in the theater.

On Sunday, we went to Landa Park in New Braunfels.  Dalton had a blast in the kiddie pool. He went down the slide at least 100 times. 

After swimming, we rented a paddleboat and went out on the river.  We paddled for a half hour and only got 100 yards from the dock.  That current is strong!   Then we rode a train around the park and Dalton tried to play hopscotch under some huge oak trees. We finished the day with a dinner at the Gristmill in Gruene overlooking the Guadalupe River.

Today Dalton started swim lessons at the Landa pool.  You can tell from the picture he loves to swim. Dalton found himself a girlfriend in the pool.  She's the one holding onto the bar.  She's 5 and her name is Kendall.  Apparently he has a thing for older women.

Addie has started to smile!  She always seems to smile the most with Dalton.  He loves to tickle her.  They were both so sad to see Grandma go.

Don't forget to click on the Lacy Family Pictures link to the left to see lots more photos of Dalton and Addison.