Stuck x 2 -- Last Monday, I took the boys up to the mall to meet a couple friends for lunch.They have these funky chairs in the food court that have really high sides, so Jake thought it would be easier to slither through the hole in the back, rather than hop over the side.That looked easy, so Henry gave it a try and starts SCREAMING! The mall was very crowded and I'm sure everyone thought I was hurting my child. I kinda was though. Me, Amy, Kyle (Sarah's husband) and a helpful janitor pulled, tugged (almost ripped his ear off) ... finally got the chair off his body. His back and chest were red and bruised for a couple days.
Fast-forward to Saturday. Matt and I had a holiday party here in the neighborhood so I asked Amy to keep the boys for a couple hours. Upon returning, I asked Amy how things went and she says, "We had a little incident." Remember, Amy was with me at the mall on Monday. Apparently, Jake, again, thought it would be a good idea to snake out the back of the chair, only this time he got stuck. You'd think Henry's screaming and elephant tears at the mall would have taught him a lesson. Amy says he remained pretty calm while they gently tugged, pulled and even lathered his head with some lotion. The chair wouldn't budge so Pete went to the garage, grabbed his bolt-cutters, wrapped Jake's head in a towel and cut the chair off him. Thank you, Pete, for sacrificing your very expensive "Ghost Chair"Any-hoo, now we are gearing up for the holidays. We hosted Thanksgiving for 14 over here a couple weeks ago. It was a total breeze since my mom brought all the food. Then Sunday, per our family tradition of 20+ years, we traveled to East Texas and cut Christmas trees. The boys had a blast - cousins, hayrides, live animals, cool saw, "timber", picnic. How's all that not fun?

Last weekend was unusually warm for December so we decided to enclose the bottom of our fort. Now Henry and Jake have a clubhouse. It just turned cold, so great timing on that!


Henry is pretty good on his bike now (without training-wheels). Before it got chilly, we were cruisin'.

Matt snuck in to check on the boys before he went to bed the other night. He found Jake sleeping standing up!

A Little Pub
I’m President of the Preston Hollow Early Childhood PTA. A task that was handed down to me was to update our organization's press release and email it to 4 or 5 media outlets. A list was provided to me from past presidents and I added a few more. Anyway, both Preston Hollow People newspaper and Dallas Child magazine editors “knew me” from those emails and asked if I’d do these other interviews.

Enjoying the Fall ~

Henry is in Pre-K now and goes to school every day from 9 to noon. Jake had MDO on Tuesdays 9-3, so Henry stays 'til 3 on Tuesdays too. The first day of school was a little wet but the boys love their school, class friends and their new teachers.

I hated taking Henry out of school but the pumpkin patch at the Dallas Arboretum is too fun to miss. Pumpkins pics there have become our little tradition. Next year Henry will start Kindergarten so it won't be as easy to play hooky.

Last weekend, Mimi rented a lake cabin in East Texas to celebrate Pop's 64th birthday. Henry, Jake, Taylor and Jaden had fun fishing, paddle boating, playing with spiders (daddy long legs and preying mantis'), riding the ATV and just being boys!

Henry's 5!

Stats - Weight 44lbs 75%; Height 3 feet 8 inches

Henry’s 5^th birthday was SUPER! He and his friends (20+) had fun making super hero capes and flying around the park.

On his birthday, Henry specifically asked for "Breakfast in bed with Krispy Kreme donuts and orange juice", so daddy headed to the doughnut shop bright and early.

Henry thinks superheroes are super-cool, and picked the theme for his party, but his favorite toys right now are Bakugans. He loves collecting these little plastic balls that pop open into dragons.

Summer Roadtrips
We just got back from San Antonio. Matt was invited to a client training at the new JW Marriot; and since it just opened in March, I’ve been dying to check it out. Business trips do have their perks!


We also squeezed in a side trip to Boerne to see Cousin Ann and Jackson's new house. They took us to the rodeo where Henry and Jackson got to try calf racing.


For Memorial Day weekend we also went to San Antonio. We stayed at the Westin La Cantera Resort. It was so fun Labor Day weekend last year, we decided to head back but took two other families with us this time.

In June we headed south to see Gram Mellie and Grandpa Bob in Victoria. From there we went to Rockport for a day at the beach. I usually don’t love going to Texas beaches but the big BP oil spill has messed up the coastline from Louisiana to Florida. Now Texas is looking really nice. Rockport has a cute little stretch that’s especially pristine.

More Cousins!
We’ve been blessed with 3 new cousins! Melinda had twin boys on June 1 – Jax and Jace. Jaden was only 21 months, so taking care of 3 under 2 has been an quite an undertaking.


Less than a month later we were blessed again, this time with a baby girl! We couldn’t be more thrilled to add some pink into our sea of baby blue. Kayla Avery is our little princess! (And those cute cheetah briefs are from Aunt Jen!)

Our Little Cyclist
Two neighbor boys, Brant and Mark, have been riding their bike without training wheels for months. Henry didn't care. Matt even told Henry that if he learned to ride without training wheels, he'd buy him a new bike (he's a little big for his bike anyway.) That wasn't motivating either. Then he found out Cousin Taylor could ride his bike with no training wheels. It wasn't a week later Henry was cruisin' down the sidewalk -- Thanks Taylor!

So now that we've got Henry confidence up on the whole bike thing, you'd think he'd want to ride everyday and show off his new skills. No, Henry prefers digging in the yard, looking for bugs, worms and frogs. He's our little nature boy. He caught 2 caterpillars and 2 butterflies at the hotel in San Antonio, and 30 or 40 frogs at Gram Mellie and Grandpa Bob's!

The Athlete
Over the last year, we've had Henry in Karate, Soccer, Gymnastics, Swimming and T-ball. Matt has also taken him golfing. It looks like he's best at t-ball and swimming although golf is catching moving up the ladder. I have him in an all-sports camp right now and he says his favorite sport is "freeze tag". Huh?

Henry's Biggest Fan
Jake follows Henry everywhere, and Henry is the sweetest big brother. At t-ball, Jake yells "Go Henry!" and wants to ride his bike just like Henry. Straddling his little Strider, and going snails pace, Jake walked all the way to our park. I kept trying to help but he'd say "No, mama! I do it! No!" He's very persistent and finally made it to the park 30 minutes later. He pulled in and yelled "I DID IT! I DID IT!"

Jake is prone to meltdowns once a day when he's tired and hungry. (Sounds like mama). Not sure if that's the terrible 2s or just Jake's persistent personality. 99% of the time, though he is talking, giggling and a very happy toddler! He's also very imaginative. He flies through the house yelling "To infinity and beyond!". Flaps the bench cushion and says, "Look, mama - I'm butterfly." Points to glass buildings and screams, "Robot Mama!". At the hotel he pointed to a man with a patch on his eye and cried, "Look - Pirate! I scared uh pirates; I scared mama, I scared!" He also still says "Hold you, mama; Hold you!" when he wants me to carry him. He's my baby so I can't resist.