Lena's cubby.

















Lena's friend from church, Maizie (in the class below Lena)

















Lena went immediately to the car on the playground and didn't look back, and didn't cry.

Lena's classroom



















Walking with her class from the playground.

Hooray for Milk!

Hooray! Lena is no longer allergic to milk! It is such a relief now, to know that I don't have to worry about what she can and can't have and to be able to leave her with a caregiver without having to tell them what all she can have and can't have. It's only been about 2 weeks on regular milk, but she's doing great. Sometimes I still have to remind myself when I go to the store that I don't have to get lactose free milk. She made her switchover by refusing all kinds of milk for several days, (very strange for her) and then one day asked for milk. I thought that would be a good time to try out regular milk, since that's all I had. Turns out it all worked out for good.

James' 33rd Bday

James' birthday was actually Aug. 24. James, Lena, Jan (James mom), and I went to Macaroni Grill for his birthday dinner. Our waiter sang happy birthday in italian and had an amazing voice! When they brought out the cake, Lena immediately blew out the candle. I think she was a little confused on whose birthday it was. James, Lena and his mom enjoyed the chocolate cake and I just took pictures.

Coming Soon........

Pictures! Sunday, James had a birthday, on thursday, James and I went to Dallas to the Cowboys football game, and then yesterday, Lena started her first day of Preschool, so I have a ton of pictures to post. I will get to that soon, but since I am down with a horrible cold, I just don't have the energy for all that posting, so I will put it off for now, but it will be coming soon!

Tea Time

Lena had been wanting to have a tea party for a while, so at the beginning of Augest, she and I had a little afternoon tea party. She completely loved it all. She was a wonderful little hostess refilling my plate and pouring more water in my cup. We had a few spills but spills and cleaning them up is part of being two. We had a lot of fun and plan on having more tea parties in the futere.

Snuggle Time

Getting some good snuggle time in with Mommy and Daddy.

Feeding Peacocks

While we were in Midland in July, visiting my parents, my mom and I took Lena to feed the peacocks. There is this land that is right in the middle of town that is right behind my parents house. Basically, you walk out their garage and see peacocks right across the ally. Lena loved seeing the peacocks and my mom had plenty of stale bread to give them. After I did a few peacock calls, they came running to the fence for bread. There were quite a lot of them.

Contest!

Check out 5 Minutes for Mom and their Back to School giveaway! You can also click on the button on the left side of my blog to get there too.

Contest!

The Soft Landing Blog
Click here for Contest

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The Soft Landing--the site that offers products that are BPA free, has a blog where they put up info about new products and all things related to children about BPA free and such. Anyways, they are having a contest and giving away a free Safe Sippy cup. Whoohoo! These sippy cups are supposed to keep drinks cold or hot, whichever you choose to put in. For me, that is a plus, since Lena can't drink regular milk, and it would help for when I have to take her soymilk with us. So, go the the link up above to the Soft Landing Blog, and check it out. Also, you can go to the Soft Landing site, and check out products there too and read up on the info there about BPA.

4th of July at the Lake

We had a fun 4th of July weekend with my (April) side of the family. Lena made cupcakes with her cousins for her 15 yr. old cousin Mitch's birthday, and even tried to eat one right away. When she wasn't following her cousins all over the place, she was at the playground or relaxing in a hammock. She even got to ring the dinner bell once. We had a great time, even though the whole family wasn't there. Lena enjoyed going fishing and riding on the jet skii. I did get her in the lake for a little swimming, but I don't have a picture of that since I was in the water with her. There are a lot of pictures here in several posts of our time at the lake during our 4th of July weekend. I had fun following Lena around and taking pictures.

Here are some of the fireworks we saw out over the lake. It made for a fun challenge trying to take pictures of fireworks.

Lena followed her cousins everywhere! She was the youngest one there, but it didn't seem to bother her. Her cousins were sweet and stopped to play with her every once in a while.

Daddy took Lena on her first jet skii ride. She seemed to enjoy it and didn't cry at all.
She also went fishing with Daddy and together they caught her first fish. She liked it so
much, she decided to try it on her own. Of course she didn't catch anything else, but she still had fun.

Mini Vacation

This week, Lena and I are in Midland visiting my parents and siblings and their families. I'm also going to dinner with my best friend since childhood. I will post all about our 4th of July and this week when I get back home. Just thought I would update on our whereabouts since it has been a while since posting.

Good News

One of the good things that has happened this week is I got a call on Tues. and there is a spot for Lena to go to Brentwood Christian School next year! We are so excited! When she gets to Kindergarten she will have to wear uniforms, but at least we don't have to worry about it till then.

I decided to stop teaching, partly so that Lena could go to BCS, and also so that I could have some time at home to get things done while Lena goes to school. I'm looking forward to having a few hours to myself two days a week in the fall. I love Lena, but it is a lot easier to get things done without a 2 year old around. And the socialization with other children will be good for her.

The other good thing happening this week is that I get to go see the new Indiana Jones movie tomorrow on a date with James!

One

I know it has been awhile since I last posted. My computer has been on the fritz and I haven't downloaded pictures from my camera (whose media card is full now). So, no pictures to post right now. I have now claimed James' laptop as my new computer, so hopefully there will be some posting going on now.

This has been a very difficult week for us. It is even hard for me to post about it because the tears keep getting in the way. I never have posted about this before, because I never was at a spot where I could post about it without crying. But through the tears, I will post about it now. Yesterday marked the one year anniversary of my sweet nephew Connor's death. Pause....lots of tears. He was 13 years old at the time. It was Memorial Day, the family coming home from a weekend of fun at the lake. My 16 year old nephew Hutton, Connor's brother was driving. He fell asleep at the wheel, the back wheel hit a culvert, the suburban overturned and rolled several times, throwing connor out the window. He died instantly. My 18 year old niece Bailey, was injured very badly with one leg broken and the ankle of the other leg injured badly. The other four people in the car had only scrapes and bruises.

It was a very difficult summer and year. The injuries have healed, new memories made, but our hearts are still very broken.

Saturday is my birthday, the day I will turn 31. It's going to be hard to be happy in light of the sadness surrounding this week. So, to distract me from the tears, James is taking me to the movies on Saturday. It should be fun.

So, it's a week of one's. One year without Connor, one year of being in my thirties, but hopefully the start of one fun summer.