It seems like all I've had time for lately is slapping a few pics up on here and giving a little snippet explaining them. Boring. And sorry. So, I thought I'd spend a minute or two describing our two little dynamic personalities - Megan and Connor.

Somewhat overshadowed by his sister's birthday party, Connor turned 11 months this week. Uh yeah, he really did. One more month, and he'll be 1! Holy moly. Anyway, his personality is really starting to come out. He's very verbal and thinks he's actually saying something when he babbles. He has a few words in his vocabulary, including "hi", "no-no", "mom-eee", "dada", and a dinosaur roar. He mimics many sounds and actions. If you ask him to, he'll show you his tongue and his head. We're working on ears and belly (eyes are a little scary for someone who has no real control over his fingers). If told "no-no", and he really wants to do something, he gets a little angry. It's funny to watch him throw his hands down and grunt. I laughed out loud the first time he did it. He walks EVERYWHERE. I can't remember the last time I saw him crawl to get someplace. However, with the constant walking comes numerous injuries. He fell face first into the coffee table last night and bled all over the place. The ginormous gash in his lip seems to have healed. He likes to take his toy hammer to anything and everything around the house. He is pretty much fearless, but there are one or two things that scare him to death. For instance, he'll crawl up to the vacuum while it's going, but one of his toys makes a noise that sends him running off in tears. Weird. He pretty much refuses to eat pureed baby food, and would rather eat whatever we're eating no matter how big of a mess it makes. This week alone, he's been head-to-toe alfredo, spaghetti, stir-fry, and pot roast. And he's so proud.

As you probably already know, Megan turned 4 last week. And we hear about it at least 3 times a day. Where everything was prefaced with "When I turn 4", it's now prefaced with "When I turn 5". She really enjoys school and loves to impress us with what she's learned. Whether it's about Martin Luther King or The Pledge of Allegiance or the days of the week, she she soaks up information like a little sponge. It may not be 100% accurate by the time she gets home, but it's pretty close. About 2 weeks ago, she started gymnastics one night a week. They ask for parents not to take pictures, except for on designated nights, so I'm patiently waiting for one of those special nights. She loves it and is doing very well. Megan needs to have a dictionary for a parent because I bet she asks me at least 20 times a day to define words. And let me tell you, that is hard to do. I mean, have you ever tried to define "object", "situation", and "decision" all within the same 3 minutes? Torture. Of course, she is still obsessed with dinosaurs. Her obsession with dinosaurs could take up blog post of its own, but I won't go there right now. She loves to draw, and her drawings are getting better and better every day. Although some of you may not even believe this, Megan just doesn't wear dresses as much as she used to. Amazing. She has a new found respect for pants...it doesn't hurt as much when she swings and slides. The days of dresses are not over because she asks on a daily basis if she can wear a sundress.

Well, that's enough for now. They are a dynamic duo for sure. And I promise to keep the little "picture with snippet" posts to a minimum.

There are many reasons people choose to blog. I'm not sure what motivates other bloggers, but my motivation seems to fluctuate. At first, I blogged because it was an easy way to tell people about my new kid. Then I blogged because I got obsessed with it. Then I blogged because it was cool. Then I blogged because, well, I've been blogging this long, so why stop? Then I blogged only when I wasn't sleep deprived. Then I fell back in love with blogging when I got my new camera. Then I couldn't seem to find anything to blog about and suffered extreme "blog writers block". Etc. Some days it's easier to blog, but other days I just can't be bothered. And then, I get a message like this from my grandpa (please do not smack me, Double G):

Your interview of the Meg-pie for her fourth birthday cracked me up. I don't express to you nearly often enough how much Granna and I enjoy your blog. We feel just like we are there witnessing all the marvelous things that Meg and Connor do and say. I know how much time, effort and thought you put into keeping it up. You truly have a unique talent in expressing yourself with the written word. "Thank you" seems so inadequate in telling you how we feel about all you do.

And there you have it folks. My underlying motivation, the one that hangs around no matter what, for blogging. I love sharing the happenings of my family with family and friends who wouldn't otherwise get to see us or even this side of us. I don't aspire to have tons of readers/followers or comments, I just aspire to bring a few smiles to my family and friends.

Thanks for reading! And on that note, I'll get busy on my next kiddo post.

They have 2,157 toys in the house, but they went for my plastic-ware today.

The kids are doing lots of new things, and I finally got a few of them on video. Rather than post each one in a separate post, they're all going here together. Hope you enjoy!

Connor roaring like a dinosaur.


Megan swinging by herself. (And the last tidbit is referring to her leaving her dinosaur toy on and running down the batteries earlier that day...)


Connor learned to wave. He also says, "HI!" but I haven't caught that one yet.


One of the many things Megan has learned at school lately. Have I mentioned that I love her school????


The little walker and some brother/sister interaction. They each think the other one hung the moon.

Megan requested that we have a "dinosaur art party". Hmmm...I really had to think on that one. But here's what I/we came up with, and it appears as though we all had a blast.



It stopped raining just before the party started, so I decided to go ahead with the outdoor painting activity. They painted and played on the play set.







Daddy cooked dino-burgers while the kids played.





We also had "lava chips" (potato chips), "dino poop" (beans), and "herbivore trays" (fruit and veggies).







After dinner we did the second art/craft. We made "dino fossils/skeletons" with all kinds of things - beans, pasta, pretzels, etc. The kids got very creative.





We took a break to have cake.





And then opened presents.







We did two last activities...we made "dino-books" and dug for dinosaur fruit snacks in graham cracker crumbs. That was a hit!





And then it was over. Thank you to all of our families and friends who made the day special for Megan. I asked her if she liked her party and she said, "I loved it SO MUCH that I want to do it again!" Um, let me rest up for a while...

Oh, and Connorasaurus made an appearance (this is him roaring).

If I can't find Megan, I'll at least know where to start looking.



She is SO excited about the new, finished play set. We literally had to pull her off, screaming and crying, to go to gymnastics. Connor and I like it, too.



Nothing like 73 degree weather to make the play set even more enjoyable! BIG thanks to Daddy, Justin, and our other neighbors for building the play set. We love it!

Megan and I got birthday flowers from Daddy. Megan got pink roses (he said because pink is her new favorite color), and I got white daisies, which are my favorite flower ever. Being the practical man that he is, he got me a plant that I can put out front in the flower bed. *sigh* He's so good to us!





Being the practical man that he is, he got me a plant that I can put out front in the flower bed. *sigh* He's so good to us!

Well, Daddy and our neighbor Justin have worked tirelessly for the past 3 days on the play set. It's almost finished! There are just a few more finishing touches, but it's at least playable right now. Megan could not wait to get out there to inspect it when we got home today.





She just played around the tools and guys.



Even Connor got excited and enjoyed playing. Yeah, don't call CPS...I had him in the swing backwards, but it was just for a minute, and I learned my lesson.

Well, what can I say? My little girl is 4! It seems like only yesterday that I was holding her in the hospital and worrying about this whole new responsibility.



Oh, how the past 4 years have been a whirlwind of FUN and challenges. I am so glad that I am Megan's mom. She is such a joy in my life. She makes me smile and laugh all day long - even when she's misbehaving because she's so darn "clever" about misbehaving. I love the way her little mind works.

Megan's birthday party is this Saturday, so we did a small family celebration last night. I asked her where she wanted to go to dinner for her birthday, and she asked me to make my alfredo sauce for her. *bestill my heart* We had alfredo with mushrooms and chicken. She said it was "the bestest meal ever!"



Now, this is not my most shining moment as a mom, but it was the thought that counted. I felt bad that she didn't have a cake for her actual birthday, so I decided to throw one together at the last minute. She requested a lemon cake with lemon icing. Excuse after excuse, and I didn't feel good, and wha-la! you have Megan's ugly birthday cake. The cake was rather crunchy on the sides, so I cut the crunches off and basically destroyed the look of the cake. But since it was late and I was in a hurry and we were just going to eat it anyway, and she is going to have a REAL cake on Saturday, I just threw the icing on it. Don't judge. She loved it. (I'll make up for it on Saturday...)





After dinner, I interviewed Megan. Oh my. Enjoy.



I love you, my little Bug. Thank you for loving me back!

I was gone the other night, but Daddy caught the first glimpse of Connor dancing. He's been bouncing while sitting, which was kind of dancing, but I'd never seen the "Connor twist" before....

Daddy decided to take advantage of the summer weather and is putting together the new play set for the backyard. It's a huge project.





Megan and Daddy spent most of the weekend out in the garage together. Meg just can't stand that he's out there working with tools and she isn't. She got in the way a few times but was able to return today for more work. (Daddy gave her a block of wood, a hammer, and a nail...she was good for a while.)



As you've probably heard us say many times before, we have wonderful neighbors. We've had several neighbors down here helping out. At one point, I think there were 4 guys down here last night. I can't wait until the kids are out playing and swinging.



Next time you see our backyard, it probably won't be like this (unless you come over tomorrow).

Due to several reasons, Megan did not start school this fall like every other kid we know. She basically refused to go, and we did not push the issue. But lately, she asks me at least 5 times a day if she gets to go to kindergarten yet. I started talking to her about school, and we "school shopped" rather casually. We found a perfect match, and Megan started school today. She was so excited after visiting the school last Friday. It is the perfect place for her. I managed to get a shot of her before we left the house, but it's complete with syrup down the front of her and a crazy hairdo (which looked perfectly fine 5 minutes before...).



But when I dropped her off, all I saw was the back of her head. She didn't even tell me goodbye! She was off and extremely busy. The director sent me 2 pictures of her today, letting me know that she was doing just fine. Now she is WAY excited about going back. Whew.

We needed some quality family time other than sitting around watching me recover and most importantly, away from the house. We went to the newly remodeled children's museum. Megan was very excited about the dinosaur exhibit and even wore her triceratops shirt.

First stop: Dino Lab! Megan learned about Pawpawsaurus (found in Texas) and many other dinosaurs that I cannot pronounce/spell. She looked at and touched fossils, put together a puzzle, sat in a dinosaur footprint, and measured herself against a dinosaur bone. FUN STUFF!




The "Dino Dig" was an outdoor exhibit, so it was closed due to cold weather. Megan was really upset, but we managed to distract her with some other cool activities. We played on the train tables. Both kids loved it (and apparently I got really into making train/truck noises).




Connor just wanted to walk everywhere. We found a few safe places where he wouldn't get trampled.


Megan was in pretendness heaven. She pretended all over the place. For a while, she was a doctor taking care of a new baby. This is her riding in an ambulance with her patient.


In honor of Elvis' birthday, we made birthday hats.


Megan's work of art.


Megan and Daddy went to a show at the Planetarium. Daddy said there were other kids her age in the show that slept the whole time. Not Megan. She was busy "learning about the Milky Way and con-stall-a-shuns". Connor and I played and played in the little kid area. It was such an enjoyable family day. We can't wait to go back.

"The only thing that separates us from the animals is our ability to accessorize."

She accessorized all by herself today. Complete with the Romo jersey. I'm so proud.

Connor and cousin Nolan are SO cute together! We really enjoyed watching the boys play and interact.