Kate Recognized

This morning Kate was recognized for her concentration in her whole group. She has struggled with this during the year but had a fabulous day on Wednesday and it has set the pace for her. I am so proud of her for her improvement. Her teacher is extremely proud of her. But most of all she is very proud of herself.

See that look?

That is pure pride!

Picture by Carso. He kept walking up and snapping pictures of her:)

How He Spent His Birthday

First stop was Party City to choose his own party balloons. Agent P and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Yep! That's about right:)

He stuck a candle in each cupcake early in the morning

We went to Toys R Us to spend his Birthday money. A very Carson choice:)

We were under strict orders from Kate not to celebrate his Birthday with out her but we lit one candle. Patience is not a virtue of a 5 year old

And then when sister came home we had the full out celebration.

"C" for Carson's Cupcakes

5 Years for Carson!

From the day Kate held up this sign (at the ripe age of ALMOST 7 months) our lives have never been the same. And we are all the better for it. This is the day we found out our  Carson was in fact our Carson. He was a big surprise (a surprise that we were definitely happy about it:). My joy is evident in THIS POST that I wrote about it at the time. To say that he has been surprising us ever since is a huge understatement. I will never be able to explain what joy this boy has been for me in the past 5 years that I have been loving him.

Little did I know how sweet this boy was really going to be. This picture taken just a couple days after he was born gave me my first clue.

 

And then he just grew and grew!

 

18 Months

TWO!

Three

 

Four! (obviously)



And the big FIVE!

 

Lunch With My Boy

A Hiking We Will Go!

My Mommy friend from Kate's school posted some pics on Facebook of her family hiking at a park around here. I was intrigued. Hiking in Texas? I had to know more. It turns out this place is about 5 miles away from our house and so easy to get to. Now, I have hiked Pikes Peak in Colorado. This ain't no Colorado but it was perfect for a 5 and 4 year old. It had just enough steep parts up and down for it it to feel like a real adventure.

Kate looking like a teenager minus the Hello Kitty pajamas of course!

Starting our adventure.

Thems there is Cacti!

There were so many beautiful scenes like this I can only imagine how amazing it is when the trees are at their fullest.

This was our first trail called Lookout. Appropriately named looking out over Eagle Mountain Lake.

Hold it there Kate!

When Carson jams the hands in the pocket that means he's got the extra confidence going on. :)

My beauty!

She held my hand for a good part of the hike. I loved it:) While Carso ran ahead sometimes she was careful not to leave me behind.

"Look Mommy a hole! I think a squirrel dug it!" Yep either that or the Fort Worth Water department. But I like your version better Carso.

Ok this picture rocks. Literally. This was our first steep downhill. Needless to say Carso wiped out. I was about to chuckle and took this picture and not a second later I to wiped out!

The cool think about most of the hills was that they had built in rock steps. Very handy for me and Carso. Kate didn't seem to have any problems and was even running down some with no fear as Carso and I gingerly went down using the sideway step.

Feeling her oats as my Mom would say.

Our first rest stop. Carson insisted we rest. That only lasted about 10 seconds and he was off again to explore!

This picture is a huge victory. We had hiked 1 mile at this point! I mean these are kids who request to be carried while we are walking from the store to the parking lot. 1 mile! Wow! Believe me, I won't let them forget it:)

Kate wanted me to take a picture of her running like this. It's her funny run.

X marks the spot!

This little blur is Kate running to beat her brother to the other side of the fork in the trail.

Picture courtesy of Carson. Kate thinks its funny to act like she's asleep in pictures now. Hmmmm....not funny.

It's hilarious that while you think you are taking an amazing heartwarming picture, your kid is pulling faces the whole time.

No sleeper and no faces. Success!

And when we got home I made blueberry muffins which my kids HATED! I think it's because they don't have a billion grams of sugar in them. Oh well, more for Mom!