Good Morning Jack!

Well, the other morning I shot a short video of my efforts to wake Jack up for school on my new iPhone. Apparently I did not understand that Jack was not ready to get up for school, so Jack had to make a point..... I am seriously considering sending this to America's Funniest Home Videos. I am afraid to think how this scenario will be playing out for me in 10 years. Enjoy!

Nutcracker Dance

Today was Kaylyn's last dance class before the holiday break. As a surprise, Ms. Melissa had them perform 2 numbers for the parents and then the girls had a cupcake party before class ended. Kaylyn LOVES her ballet/tap class!

Family Portraits

Our annual family portraits were taken at Portrait Innovations last week.

Donuts with Dad

Last week Palmer Elementary had a Donuts with Dad event . It started at 7am and Brian had been dreading the day for 2 weeks. He kept saying to me, there is no way I am going to be able to get up that early and go with the 2 of them to that. But we know from past experience that Kaylyn has the memory of an elephant and is very aware of all school events and their dates. After listening to Brian complain about not wanting to get up early and go for 2 weeks, I finally said the night before – just tell her you all aren’t going to go because it’s too early. She’ll be disappointed, but she’ll recover from it. It’s not like he hasn’t taken her to every single event at school this year (even when I am at work and he has to take them by himself). Well, I go to work that morning and check Facebook when I have a moment and what do I find?? Pictures from Donuts with Dad…..Brian is such a good daddy, I knew he would take her!

Visiting Saint Nick

Well, I can’t sleep so I am posting several separate posts about recent events since I am so behind on my blog. Here are the kid’s Santa Pictures. We took them at First Colony mall the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. We had just seen Tangled at the movie theater. The kids were having a great day and were excited to see Santa. Kaylyn went first to show Jack how it’s done. She had brought her own handwritten wish list (off the Toys R Us catalog). Her and Santa read it together before their picture was taken. The list comprised of Moon Dough Pizza, Playdough Presto Dots, Crayola markers, and Moon Sand. Such an easy girl to please – she really doesn’t ask for much! Jack also got to spend quality time with Saint Nick. They sat together for a couple of minutes talking before their picture. I have no idea what they discussed.

Dancing Queen

Kaylyn loves to sing and the other day Brian heard her singing a new song to herself. He had no idea what song it was, but could only make out the lyrics "Party in the USA". He looked it up in iTunes and found out that it is a Miley Cyrus song. We didn't know where she had learned this song, but my best guess was that she learned it at school (since she learned the macarena there already!) The next day, Brian played the song he had downloaded on iTunes while Kaylyn was playing on her computer. She immediately started head-bobbing and moving to the beat in her chair, and eventually got up to dance. Brian then played it for her the next night and caught the new dance moves on the Flip. LOL - She's already so grown up! I guess we've entered the Hannah Montana stage....

Brian's Video Documentary

Recently Brian finished working on a film/photo/video documentary piece of his life so far. It moved me to tears, especially the parts about the births of our children. It is beautifully done and so I want to share it with everyone. He chose music from the LOST soundtrack and I think it suits the video perfectly. Enjoy, and if you want to leave him feedback, click here to go to his genealogy pwebsite and leave a comment.

A picture speaks a thousand words :)

Pumpkin Patch Ballet

This past Saturday was Kaylyn's first performance with her ballet class from Sugar Land Dance Center at the Pumpkin Patch and Holy Cross Episcopal Church in Sugar Land. Above is the video I took on the Flip camera.
Afterwards, the kids played on the playground. Jack dressed up in costume for the occasion. Click here to see some of the photos that I took.

Frantic Fall Fun

Below is an assortment of video clips from the recent goings-on. I have been so busy with the kids and their activities and work (we had our EPIC go-live this week) that I have not been posting regularly. I am trying to catch up now...


This first clip is of Jack doing his stretches at gymnastics class. He used to have melt-downs and insist on my being on the mat with him. The coach told us that we needed to physically leave the building for a few classes until he got used to being in class without us visible. This week we stayed for the first time in a month. He didn't even look at us once the whole class. He's getting so good and following directions!!


This clip is from Kaylyn's ballet/tap class. They are wearing their costume tutus for a practice run of their Pumpkin Patch dance. Kaylyn's class has been invited to perform at Holy Cross Episcopal Church Pumpkin Patch event on Saturday, October 30th. Anyone who is interested is invited to come watch! I think the performance is at 3:30pm. I will post more details at the date gets closer.


This final video clip is from my dad's birthday dinner at my parent's house. Kaylyn had baked a chocolate cake with minimal help from her dad. She even cracked the eggs by herself (no shells in the cake!). She then frosted it with white icing and her brother helped decorate it with sprinkles. We all sang happy birthday and had cake after dinner.

Future Golden Globe Winner

Well, obviously the Davis family has become quite busy since school started.

Kaylyn LOVES kindergarten and her new ballet/tap classes.

Jack is attending Colony Kids 2 year-old class twice a week.

We got a new shower after a leak was found under the old one.

Finally, my dad had his total knee replacement surgery done today.

I've been running around like a chicken with its head cut off and Brian should win a "Mr. Mommy of the Year " award for taking care of running the kids around to all their activities and keeping the house in working order.

Now, the video above was a totally improvised clip. Kaylyn and her brother decided to don hats and silly sunglasses one night after their bath and run around the living room. I turned on the video camera and told Kaylyn to "say something" and this is what I got! I've been told by a couple of people that she needs to be in theater classes. Maybe one day she'll be on Broadway or the silver screen....

Dancing Princess

Well, I think we made a good decision to cancel soccer and let Kaylyn take Tap / Pre-ballet. I took her on Monday afternoon after school to the Sugar Land Dance Center to take a tour and watch a class. We both liked the dance studio very much and registered her that day. Today was her first class and it looks like she did really well.....Brian may have to practice his hairbun making skills though, LOL! I was sad that I missed the first class, but I am so glad that Brian caught some of it on video!

First Day of Kindergarten

Well, we set out at 07:30am to make sure we had enough time to get to her school. We parked down the street and walked to the school together. Jack was a big, grumpy mess and Kaylyn was super-excited. When we got to her classroom we ran into an old childhood friend of mine. One of his daughters is starting kindergarten in the classroom next door. Then, when we go inside, Kaylyn sees an old classmate from Pre-K at Colony Kids. She smiles and says good-bye to us with no problem. However, her brother Jack cries for her the entire way back to the car. Then, to top it off, when we get home, he won't have anything to do with me. He only wants his daddy. So I did fine up until then, then I did break down and cry. It's so weird not having Kaylyn running around the house after she was here all summer.

Click here to see pictures.

Last Wednesday we celebrated Brian's 35th birthday. We had dinner at Russo's NY Pizzeria. We then headed back to the house to surprise daddy with his Star Wars cake. The kids had a great time singing happy birthday to daddy and helping him blow out the candles. Brian got a new iPod Touch and accessories - just like he wished for!


To see more pictures from the event, click here.

Galveston Fun

Well, we're back from Galveston and everyone is a little bit tanner. We had a good time. Clarissa had no idea how exhausting the 2 kids would be, especially after being in waterparks with them for 2 days!! We went to Moody Gardens on Saturday and did the Aquarium thing. Clarissa then took Kaylyn on the Ridefilm. After that we headed back to the hotel to eat lunch and change into swimsuits. We then spent the rest of the day at Palm Beach. For dinner that night we tried to go to Rainforest Cafe, but it was a 2 hour wait!! We went on the river ride at the restaurant then had dinner next door at Landry's instead.

Sunday we got up and packed up the car and checked out of the hotel. We had a nice breakfast at Starbucks before hitting Schlitterbahn. I had no idea that Schlitterbahn in Galveston was so toddler friendly. There were multiple kiddie pool areas, some in shade and some in sun. I also like that you can bring your own cooler into the park. The kids favorite part was the wave river...see above picture. Somehow I think Palm Beach will now just be a memory. They will want to go back to Schiltterbahn instead!!

To see the photos from the trip, click here.

This video is so true....

The Greatest Show on Earth

Well, I am a bit behind on my updates here, so let me try to catch up. Last Thursday my mom, my sister, and I took the kids to see the Ringling Brothers Circus at Reliant Stadium. We got cheap seats (they were actually good seats, just not expensive) through 97.9 The Box's website. The kids had a great time and my sister and I ended up spending more money at the circus than on the tickets themselves. The kids made out like bandits, as usual. Although I wouldn't agree that the Ringling Brothers Circus is "the greatest show on earth", it was entertaining. Kaylyn's favorite part was when Mr. Gravity (the evil clown) turned into a Bengal tiger. I personally liked the double human cannonballs just before intermission.

Now, Brian is off to Ohio with his mom to visit family and work on genealogy stuff. Meanwhile, I have the kids to myself until next Tuesday. Clarissa and I are planning to drive the kids down to Galveston on Friday afternoon to spend the weekend doing water activities. We have tickets to Schlitterbahn Galveston and Moody Gardens. We are staying at The Victorian Condos on the seawall. Pictures and stories to come next week when we get back. Hope everyone is having a great summer!

Summer Portraits

Well, not much too going lately worth blogging about. But, today we FINALLY took portraits of the kids. I've been meaning to take them since Kaylyn's 5th birthday (May). We went to Portrait Innovations again. I am always pleased with their work, plus we get the photos immediately after the sitting. It was a rough start to the sitting since Jack was not having any of it. He was grumpy and throwing tantrums. He has definitely reached the "terrible twos". Thank goodness for the patient staff who took time to play with him until he warmed up to them. They managed to get him to smile in his pictures! Kaylyn on the other hand is an old pro at the picture-taking. In fact, the photographer called her "quite the ham." Again, we were pleased with our portraits. Click here to see some of our favorite poses.

Wicked

I finally had a chance to see Wicked as it played here in Houston at The Hobby Center. Chris invited me to see it with her and some friends. We started off with a nice lunch at Artista, in The Hobby Center. We then attended a 2pm showing of Wicked. It was a great show, it was funny and had great music. I loved the 2 witches! I think I'm going to get on Amazon now and find the Gregory Maguire novel to download to my Kindle. Thanks for inviting me Chris!

The Glazery

Brian took Jack to Lufkin on Thursday to spend a long weekend with Nia and Papa. Brian stayed the night on Thursday and then did genealogy research on Friday on the way back home. In the meantime, Kaylyn and I had mommy & daughter time! We started off by seeing The Karate Kid together on Thursday afternoon. Then, we picked up some Sonic and met Aunt Clarissa at the house who fixed our TV for us. "YAY AUNTIE!" On Friday, Kaylyn and I went to The Glazery to paint some pottery together. Kaylyn painted a coffee mug for her daddy and I painted an airplane keepsake box for Jack. They are being fired in the kiln and will be ready to pick up next week. I will post pics of the finished products when we pick them up. After painting, Kaylyn and I had a nice lunch at Pho Mai Vietnamese Noodle House. Then we took a trip to the new Sienna Branch Library to check out some new books. Kaylyn picked out some Curious George books to read before bedtime and I got a Tess Gerritsen audio book, The Bone Garden. We had a great day.