easter eggstravaganza 09

on easter eve
all through the house,
the wheelers were stirring,
while the tetens slept like a mouse!

(okay, you know how us wheelers, are---saving all the fun for the NIGHT BEFORE a big event!!!)

creating crumpler's cookies placecards,

hand-rolled pasta by eee

even, cam got into the easter spirit, dying eggs at 1am:)

the following day was full of smiles as we had our 2nd annual easter lunch at our house in waco! my fam came down from plano, joan, greg, & cam, and josh's fam came in from arlington, larka, garland, shannon & pop. eee lives down the street so she didn't have to go far! we wanted to throw in some additional fun by inviting over mike & kristin evans and their 2 year (almost!) old twins sam & georgia:)
we got done what we could the night before, then rushed home after a fabulous easter service at highland to put the finishing touches (and last dishes together!) for lunch. our sweet neighbors let us borrow their oven, so we were running around like little ants. in the end, we were able to enjoy friends and family while dining on delicious food and starting traditions for our kiddos. the Lord has blessed us with SO much that my heart overflows with thanks on the weekend that he gave US his son!

josh and patriot, so sweet in their easter blue!

1st easter day egg hunt: patriot had some practice at egg hunting over the past week, at school, at the park, so he was totally psyched to be hunting eggies in his own back yard (only rivaled by uncle cam, whose eggs were up high:)i should have taken a video so you could see how excited pst was about the little elmo in the eggs--so funny! he can sing the theme song, but i promise he doesn't watch it THAT often!!

kissing elmo--patrtiot's new love

well, j and i look cute, but pt was feeling the slide photo shoot! (what are the little red things in his hand, you may ask? little elmo(s)--who has been at his side or sidelined to watch (while things like brushing teeth takes place) ever since!

erin, me, josh, pst, mom, dad & cam

patriot, larka, me, pop, josh & shan
patriot (still kissing elmo!) with big pop and shi-shi on the back porch.
kristin, georgia, samuel, & michael evans--our sweet friends!

the three littles on my NEW birthday swing (thank-you, honey) that i got early so we could all enjoy it for easter weekend!

you can imagine trying to get the 7 of us to LOOK and SMILE at the camera---aaaah...2 year olds!
before he crashed for nap-time, he opened his easter basket (well, of course the only grandchild got his own basket from both sets of g-parents! so josh and i gave him a big dump truck to push around the house filled with a couple more elmo goodies:) i chose this pic, because mom selected the disney movie BOLT for him since it was the 1st full length movie that he watched in the theatre---i'm sure i forgot to blog about that months ago when it happend, so here is my note to self!

i actually picked out 25 pix to put in a slideshow, but after an hour and a half having no success uploading and fooling with picasa's help center, i gave up and started uploading them in small batches to the blog! if you lasted 'til the end, thanks for enjoying our holiday photos!

to my handsome 21 month old...

i really think you get better looking every month! you still turn heads at the store, at restaurants, and at the park as you sweetly say "hello" a flash a grin at complete strangers! but when mama asks you to say goodbye--it usually requires a little coxing! but of course you blow some kisses their way and their hearts melt all over again!

this month it has been fun to listen and watch the new games you play in your crib when you wake up in the morning and at nap. you love to sing to yourself, list off all the people you know and my fave is put your sic'em bears to sleep with a 'tu la tu la' song' while you pat his back! you play 'tackle', 'catch' and MAN do you have an arm! you can spiral a football, score 2pts with any basketball within your reach, and hurl any piece of food you are 'ah done' with! noni says she's grooming a quarterback, and i still wonder where you got your sports gene:)

daddy and i have SO much fun playing with you and can't believe how quickly you learn new words and concepts. you pretend to count things at the store "twoooo...freee....five....twoooo", have figured out how to get the things you are after "peez mama? tank you, mama!", and love to imitate our big people phrases with such amazing comedic timing "oh. my. gosh."
you have even started initiating a game we have played with you forever by asking us this week "where is daddy?....THERE he is! where is pay-chit (that's the new way you say your name)?...there he is!" complete with hiding behind your fingers then laughing with your eyes when you reveal yourself!
your favorite person in the world is your daddy with shy-shy a close second. you constantly ask their whereabouts thru out the day! many mornings i wake up to hear you 'kissing the air' repeatedly to call shy-shy to your bedroom. you love for him to read books with you and follow him all around the backyard. speaking of the backyard as long as it wasn't pouring rain, you and your dad have been spending time outside each evening and on the weekends doing manly projects. you have a few battle scars (that are healing nicely!) to show for your work as well a budding garden. you LOVE to be outside and are constantly in motion.

at nap time you still let me read you a story and rock you to sleep while we sing a song (usually you request 'jesus', 'tu la' or 'booga' from me). i treasure this time cuddling together in your big blue rocker, but i know it won't be long before you are too big to want me to rock you anymore. just tonight you told your daddy "good nite, daddy" twice while he was singing lullaby's over you in your crib to signal you were ready to sleep on your own.

i love you my sweet son and i'm SO thankful that your mine!

love, mama

erin go bra...or is it braugh?

regardless...this one's for YOU aunt eee!

patriot shane is sporting a new, slightly smaller mo-hawk (now a faux-hawk again?)as a happy st. patty's day present to me:) i broke down and hauled him over to smarty pants salon today after mother's day out ended. for only having a 30 minute nap at 'school', patriot was quite the trooper as we waited over an hour to be seen as a walk-in. (apparently tuesdays at 3pm is a BAD time to drop in at kid's hair salon, or maybe 1/2 the kiddos in waco just needed a st. patrick's day trim!)

during our rush-hour photo shoot, he took it literally when we read his shirt to him (which is true, he is a smidge irish lad) and would purse his lips to blow us a kiss or run over and smooch josh:

SO adorable is this precious tot who is looking more and more like a little boy each day!

above is my FAVE shot, because he actually posed and SMILED on our 50th attempt to get a cute pic and NOT run into 5:00pm on-coming Colcord Ave traffic!

big & little denim clad tetens boys

always in motion, it was hard to capture pst's personality in one shot, so below is a collage for your viewing pleasure:

ps. erin, i ACTUALLY posted some pictures ON the day they were taken AND wrote a little something to go with them. i am, however, at least 3 posts behind and WILL be backdating those posts, because ' it's my blog and i'll lie if i want to, lie if i want to, LIE if i want to...you would lie to if it happen to you! la la la la LA! and by lie, i mean document in the proper month, for future reference (and my own sanity) of course!

tristan's #2 buck-a-roo party videos

here are some videos from tristan's 2nd birthday buck-a-roo party held on valentine's day (tristan's actually birthday)!



while patriot wasn't too excited about riding the pony at the time...it made for some super cute video and he requests to watch these clips he calls 'horsey, horsey' almost daily!!!

Tristan's playgroup b-day paaaar-tay:)

our little mug, tristan michael wilson, turned 2 in a big way on Valentine's Day and i'm sorry it took me for...ev....errrr to get them up on the blog. noni and lita---this one's for you!

tristan, aka mom's little love bandit, celebrated in playgroup style at the polnick's casa on the thursday before his BIG party. tune into nic or kimberly's blog for a more detailed description of that fun day!

ok--i had this wonderful plan to take a super cute pic of pst and turn it into a beautiful card to send to his grandparents, but patriot had other thoughts about having his mug shot! he sure has a cute profile though, huh?

a cute face, but really shows the uncertainty of creighton's driving skills!

is this a glimpse of the future?

aren't reese's baby blues AMAZING? yeah, she'll break some hearts like her mama, i'll bet;)
this one is majorly cropped: i thought i'd use kimberly's cute bench and brick set up out front and have pt pose with his little red bag full of valentines from his buddies, but alas...NO eye contact with the camera!!!!!!!!

that little smirk says it all!

wordless wednesday

mama's little love muffin

this week patriot had 3 valentine's day parties to attend, 3 days in a row: mother's day out, story time at the library, and playgroup. while i didn't get any picks of tuesday's party at 'school', i'm SURE ms. olga & ms. rosalie (rosie) did! in the above picture patriot is 'posing' for kimberly & i with a choco chip muffie (that's what he calls 'em:) made by moi in the shape of lips, yep, he chose THAT one!

bubble time is his FAVORITE thing about going to the library, or at least my favorite thing to watch him do at the library:) for valentine's day i bought him his very own bubble gun to use at the house. now, this may take away some of the glamour of story time, but it does save josh & i heck of a lot of blowing soapy bubble wands;)

here is a cute one of crater-bug! he joined us for the party, along with ella & the merritt twins. can you tell he's been asked to pose for pictures a time or two? we love our friends in playgroup and the other mommies help keep me sane. i'm not sure what i would do without these precious friends in my life. nic took some cute pix of our mom's night out from earlier this month--check out her blog to see pix of all the mommies that are usually behind the cameras!

after a busy day at lita & big pop's house...

as you know, grandparents get creative when it comes to finding ways to see their grandbabies, but sometimes the great-grandparents get into the act! great pop (larka's dad) asked us to visit arlington this weekend to hang out with his cousin Erma and part of her family who are in town from arkansas and houston for a mini-reunion.
this morning we took patriot to the Ft. Worth Zoo (his inaugural visit:) and by the look on his face on the way to the car, i felt SURE he crash in the car. nope. after a second lunch at the tetens? nope. after nap-time routine, repeated from the car, again by josh in the bedroom? nope. after 'resting' in his crib for 45min? nope. a diaper change? nope. more songs, rocking, basketball, a walk, football? nope, NOPE, nope...etc.
but when we sat him down for him down for dinner at 6:15pm---VOILA! (see the above video clip taken by larka's cousin vicki for details!)
did i mention that he was up singing and talk in his crib (in our shared room at the tetens') at 7am and went straight thru to dinner without batting an eye? i would like to tell you that he went down easy as pie tonight after this video was shot and we haven't heard a peep all night, but that would be a fairy-tale, not real world parenthood, wouldn't it?;)

ps--i think we got a couple cute zoo pix BUT they are in the camera in the room where pt is sleeping (for the moment) so for now you will have to make due with the video:)

feliz navidad--playgroup amigos:)

for christmas this year, in lieu of giving books to patriot's playgroup friends, we donated books to the library my mother-in-law is building in mexico for the school in Chumpon. i waited to publish this post until i had sent out the neat postcards larka had made to announce that the books had been donated-since a few of y'all do read the blog;)

we ended up finding a great deal on several diffent types of spanish books, which can be tricky to locate, in plano. so we wrapped them up, wrote a note to larka listing all of our playgroup kiddos' names, and put them in a giant box for her to open. she was SO excited, like a kid at christmas, looking a each book, and telling patriot about the little mexican/mayan students who would soon be enjoying these stories. her excitement was infectious and soon patriot wanted his own spanish book to read!

there is a book for each friend: tristan, colton, brodie, ella, creighton, bentlee, haylee, hayden, townlin, libby, heidi grace, parker, noah...whew!

pst decided to sit on santa's lap (pronounced senta, by pt!) and read him a story:) hysterical!

ps. i'm hoping to start a blog for larka about the chumpon mayan school in the yucatan jungle, but here are some photos of these sweet kiddos. it's amazing that these students who don't have running water or a library yet already excell in their testing for the state! i can't wait to meet them on my next trip to mexico:)

(ok, the pix keep disappearing, so i'll try to get another copy of them soon!)

viva la San Antonio

it all seemed so easy at first, but then, in true Murphy's law form, it nearly ended before it began...

first, you must know that we waited almost 20 months before deciding to take a weekend trip ALONE (read: without the tot in tow). we had a free weekend stay for a condo in San Antonio that had to be used by the end of january, so we thought this would be the perfect chance for me to bite the bullet and leave my baby(okay, okay...toddler) from sun up to sun down for 2 whole days.

i had stayed up late the night before, tediously typing a schedule and doing some general clean-up and laundry so as not to be too rushed on friday while waiting for our sitter to come over. so naturally, on the day of departure, our sitter for patriot (my sweet sis) came down with the flu & an ear infection.

patriot & i were at the zoo on a mini-playdate with some friends when we got the doctor's report from erin. 'call your mom', the girls said. 'you have to go---it's important for your marriage!' at first i thought, maybe i can get out of this weekend and delay having to leave pst, but then i realized i really WANTED some time off to spend with my man...SO i called my mom. she sweetly packed her bags and headed south for the weekend---- noni to the rescue!

by the time we finally got on the road it was almost 8pm, so we stopped about 40 minutes down the road for some delish BJ's pizza. we arrived in san antonio a little after mid-night and were thrilled at the thought of sleeping in--no baby monitors needed!!

we headed to the river walk that afternoon, amused at the tourists bundled up in parkas, gloves and fleece. but as soon as the sun set, we quickly found a restaurant that served blankets with dinner!

we sat right on the water at boudro's, which came highly recommended by the couple who took our first photo of the evening (san antonio natives:). at one point, i had a blanket underneath me, one over my shoulders and one shared over our laps! the picture of us at the table didn't turn out so stellar (maybe it was josh's swollen eye? sorry, babe!), so instead we snapped a pic of our fabulous waitress, liz preparing our table-side guacamole.
ever had oranges or kosher salt in your guac? me neither, but it was yummy! we ended up ordering a dish called big tails, little tails---shrimp & lobster with an avocado rosoto...Mmmmm.
i have to preface the above pic by saying josh thought this shot looked weird. BUT we didn't have any other pictures of a swanky condo, so i opted for the 'bubble bath gone out of control' pic:) the jacuzzi tub was my favorite feature--i ate breakfast in the bath both mornings:) i decided to try i teeny-tiny bit of bubble bath the second day, and i had 2 feet of bubbles towering over me in a matter of minutes!

of course we checked out the alamo (the b&w photo, does look like we photoshopped ourselves in, however:) and did some shopping on our way back to waco (who can resist the janie & jack outlet in san marcus?) my sweet in-laws took over for mom at lunch on sunday, so they were treating our little man to dinner at the elite cafe when we arrived home.

he didn't seem shocked to see us. he didn't throw his arms around me a gleefully exclaim "mama!", but he let me smother him with kisses and stroke his un-hawked hair, before handing me half of a bite of chicken tender. i certainly missed him, but i'm thankful that we have such loving parents who take such great care of him.

in the end, i'm SO happy we were able to go and spend some time together, just the two of us. we do have the privilege of date night on most wednesdays (thanks eee!) but this time was precious and a new set of memories we will share as a couple.