Halloween fun...part 1

Today was our first day of Halloween celebrations (if you don't count trying on his costume at home the other night and practicing "Argh" and "Trick or Treat"). Our MOPS group was going to an assisted living facility to show off our costumes and to trick or treat. The kids loved it and the residents REALLY loved it. Here are some of the pictures of my pirate...

Marching through the halls...


Really wanting me to open his Butterfinger...


Taking a break...still has the Butterfinger!


Soooo happy about his "loot"...


See how happy...



He looks like a pilgrim here to me???


Jacob and his Bee buddy Jacqueline...


It's hard to walk to the car and dig in your candy. Don't worry, there weren't many cars around...


After that, we went to a pumpkin patch to pick out a pumpkin. Randy may not know it yet, but he is the designated pumpkin carver since I'm not sure I can handle the smell. So, picking the pumpkin was the least I could do. :o)

Jacob wasn't too thrilled about sitting on the bench to take pictures...


But he did like this spot! You can no longer count on "Say cheese" to get a good picture out of him. Mainly because he will say cheese and will look like he's saying cheese. Well, apparently at school this week, they worked on what a Happy Face looks like. So, I used that and got a great picture!!


Here's that "Say Cheese" face I was talking about.


He loves to point out pumpkins so he was having a field day here.


He finally found the perfect one. Don't worry...I helped him...



And, of course, he got to pick a little pumpkin. I think he made a good choice!


We are planning on going to our neighborhood Harvest Festival tomorrow. So, that will be Halloween, round 2.

Unfortunately, we had swim lessons this morning (before the assisted living trick or treating) and all played at McDonalds after trick or treating, so I didn't think about bringing his Halloween shirts. I know you are shocked, but he has a few (or 4).

I promise to still blog about how much he loves swimming and LOVES school, but I thought these pictures were just too cute!

~ Nancy

Our new house...and a cute boy, of course!

Our new house is wonderful, and I finally feel like we are all moved in. Yes, we still have a completely empty media room (actually, I think there is a cable box in there but no tv), boxes in Hannah's room and no towel racks anywhere, BUT, at least most things are unpacked and I can find them.

We wanted to do Jacob's room a lot like his last one, but can't really seem to find the time to work on it. Before he was born, Randy and I could spend hours up there painting or whatever, but we never seem to have those hours now. Oh well, life is much more fun now! So, we contacted some of the contractors that worked on this house for Westin (our builder) and got a week's worth of work done (for me and Randy) in about 3 hours. It was awesome. So, here is what Jacob's room looks like now. It should look very familiar to his old one. We did the exact same thing! Randy has not painted any murals on the wall, and he probably will but not sure when. He used to do it after I went to sleep and work for hours up there. The only problem is that Jacob is sleeping in there during that time! My thinking is that once I order Hannah's crib, Jacob can sleep in it for a while and Randy can paint. We'll see...

Anyway...here is his room.



I took more pictures, but you get the point. :o)

Mom and I also made curtains for the breakfast area and the window beside the back door. And by mom and I, I mean that I swiped the credit card and she did all of the sewing! I did help her pick the fabric, and I LOVE them. It really made the room feel cozy.






And, because all new curtains look better with a model showing them off (even a grumpy looking model)...



We also (finally) got our gate installed on our driveway. I LOVE it and love having a space where Shelby, Jacob and I can play in the afternoons. He's a big fan of sidewalk chalk, so we go out there a lot.

This is a picture from the day it got installed. Yes, there is painter's tape on the right, but that is gone now. I also realized, just now, that I need to get a picture of the whole house now. One day...


And, last, a cute little boy playing...




Next up will be a blog about school, swimming and all of the fun stuff we do everyday.
~ Nancy

Crazy kid

You say swim diaper?

Jacob says "Hat".




"Real" blog coming soon...maybe.

~Nancy

Sugar Plum Piper Julie Riley Wiltshire

Well, we hate to break the hearts of our precious nieces, but we have chosen a name other than Sugar Plum Piper Julie Riley. We hope they aren't disappointed, but from here on, we'll just call her:

Hannah Grace Wiltshire

Yep, we like to test our families and see who still reads this old blog!

~Randy, Nancy and Jacob

Jacob...lately

Since I no longer do his monthly pictures (thank goodness), I really no longer do updates on what he is up to. So, I thought I would update all of you blog readers (grandparents) even though most of you have already seen/heard him do these things!
-Numbers: He is a counting fool. Well, up to 10. He loves counting from 1 to 10 and gets it right every time. He refuses to accept that 11 and 12 are numbers, will agree with you about 13, 14, and 15, and knows 16 through 20. However, 16, 17, 18, 19 and 20 are sometimes in a random order.
He LOVES to point out numbers wherever we go. A grocery shopping trip with him is similar, I assume, to shopping with a small Rain Man. By the way, I love to shop on Sundays (during his nap) and while Jacob is in school.
-Letters: He knows all of his capital letters. He's very confused that lower case letters exist. He even (mostly) knows the order they go in. Up until about 2 weeks ago, "W" was "dub dub" which we thought was really cute so we never tried to fix it. But, I think his school did. So, now when he sings his alphabet, he says "W" but then doesn't have time to say "X" so he skips it. Great teaching they are doing there!! By the way, when he sings it, he prefers to start at Q...cheater.
-Colors: He still knows them all (red, blue, yellow, green, white, black, purple, pink and peach) and has for a while. He can identify them correctly and sign them all. When he doesn't know the word for something, he just tells me what color it is.
-Songs: He loves songs, but prefers for you to sing. He does sing Row, Row, Row Your Boat all day long (his version) but would prefer to demand other songs for you to sing. I blame Memaw (my mom...who we called Grandma but Jacob calls Memaw) because she took his orders.
-School: He has gone to school 5 times now and seems to like it. He cried one morning when the car pool lady came to the car to get him, but usually he does not. He is SO excited to get in the car when I go pick him up. I don't get much feedback from his teacher other than he "napped" (I'll believe it when I see it) and had a lot of fun.
-Vocabulary: He can pretty much say anything now and amazes me daily with words I didn't know he knew. He's really starting to string them together and says "I clap" or "I bounce" or "I run". He also likes to hand me things and say "Here ya go Mamma". Oh, and he likes to throw me a ball (or whatever) and THEN say "Catch".
I'm sure there is more, but "sissy" and I might need a nap today. So, I'll end with a few cute pictures of him...
He's a big fan of Texas Roadhouse rolls, but mostly likes the butter.




Safety glasses at Hobby Lobby...you just never know.




His teacher gave him a present on Meet the Teacher day and he was SO excited that it was "Me Mouse" and "Peeto" (Mickey Mouse and Pluto).




Playing with Daddy on the night before his first day of school.




He and Daddy while we waited to eat at El Jarrito for my birthday.




Daddy and I headed to College Station last weekend for the football game, and Jacob got to stay at home with Memaw and Pa Pa. That means he got to hang out naked after his bath. She also made him do homework...see...




We are slowly but surely working on the house. It 'kinda' looks like someone (other than a toddler) lives here. My next post will be showing off some of our hard work!!
~ Nancy

The move

Back before it was time to move, Jacob had to sit down with Donald Duck and let him know what the plans were.




Actually, I have no idea what he was telling him, but it took a while. :o)

Also, Brobee gets very thirsty and needs "mulk".



Hahaha. I just love those 2 pictures and needed to share them.

And, now, some highlights of our move...

Since I'm preggo and sleep all day (seriously), Randy insisted we hire packers and movers this time. We have always used movers, but never packers. I thought that would be too weird. Well, let me tell you, it didn't take much arm twisting for me to agree to it and it was GREAT! You know when you move, by the time you pack and move you are just too over it to unpack. Well, that actually wasn't the case for me this time. I've enjoyed the unpacking process (for the most part) but can only work in short spurts before I want to play with Jacob or take a nap. Unfortunately, that enjoyment only lasted about 3 weeks because now I'm over it. But, at least it wasn't as bad as it would have been!

So, here are our last pictures in the "old" house which we still own. (By the way, anyone need a house in Katy??)

Jacob was a little concerned when they packed up his toy room. But he was thrilled when they emptied one of his canvas bins. He sat here for quite a while...






To say having that much help pack and move made the move perfect would be a lie. We have had nothing but problems (small) with the moving process and new house. From closing not happening when it should to plumbing problems in the new house to sprinklers that won't turn off to cable/internet/phone not working and me yelling at Comcast, it has been eventful. BUT...it's all coming together now. And I love it here!

When we finally hang things on the wall (2014 or so), I'l post more pictures of the new house.

~Nancy

It's a GIRL!!

Yes, I've been MIA for the last month or so, but I'm back. We did get moved and Jacob started school/Mother's Day Out, but I'll save those for another post.

We had our big ultrasound to see Baby #2 scheduled for today right after we dropped Jacob off at school. So, here's how our morning went...
Jacob and I got up, ate breakfast and got ready for his 2nd day of Mother's Day Out. He was feeling great, talking up a storm and singing his version of Row, Row, Row Your Boat all morning. We get in the car, get ALMOST to school, and he starts throwing up all over himself. After a quick stop in a parking lot (at the church where his school is...that's how close we were) to clean him up a little, we headed back home. The main problem with him not being able to go to school today is that they do NOT allow children under 12 in where you get your ultrasound. And they tell you this...a lot. So, he could not go with us. Luckily, he still seemed to feel fine, so after a quick bath, change of clothes and cleaning of his car seat, he went to Adventure Kids (the drop in day care that I use) for an hour or so. Should I have brought him around other kids right after he puked? Probably not. But it had to be done! If we had to re-schedule, it would have been at least a week before we got to see our little one!!

He was fine and seems to be fine now. Randy is sure he just got car sick, but who knows.

So, Randy and I were able to go to our ultrasound and it's definitely a girl! We were told it was most likely a girl after my 16 week ultrasound at the doctor's office. But, I never trust a 16 week as much as a 20 week.

Everything looks perfect with little Sugar Plum Piper Wiltshire. (Brandl's daughter Brooke has been suggesting names since the day we found out it was probably a girl. Since she comes up with such awesome names that I tend to use all 3 of them instead of picking one!)
She is not too big (like Jacob was) although, according to the internet, she is a little bigger than she should be. She does not have any areas of concern...at all. So far, so good!

So, here are some ultrasound pictures. I have already sent these to family, so, sorry, you'll have to see them twice.

First, this is my favorite one. I loved this one with Jacob too. It's just a perfect view of her profile.



This next one is a creepy one. This is a direct shot of her face. These always scare me a little!



Here is proof that she is a girl (XX and the arrow).


Here are some legs and feet. She was kicking me most of the time.


Here is her stretching profile picture. You could really see her stretching her chin up.


And, last is a 3D view that chopped off the top of her head. She really isn't big enough to get good 3D shots. It was so bad that at one point, I thought she looked like a Thanksgiving turkey. When she gets a little plumper, we'll probably do a real 3D one like we did with Jacob.



So, we are very excited, and I'm ready to go buy PINK! And, NO, we have not thought of names yet so quit asking. :o)

I promise to catch up a little about our move and what Jacob has been up to soon!

~ Nancy