It was good to have my family here. We hadn't seen my dad and my brother in over a year and I hadn't met my nephew yet. So even though we had a full house, we had a lot of fun.



Batcave time with Uncle Carlos



Giving Zion a "kiss"



Zion and Daddy



Elise and Uncle Carlos



Hanging out with Uncle Carlos and Auntie E



Apparently Zion's car seat seemed like a good place to sit



I don't think these two could look any different



The cousins



Silly brother



Matthew helping Mana give Zion a bath



Elise and Grandpa. I didn't realize how much she looks like my dad until he was holding her this weekend. I suppose this makes sense, though, since I look a lot like my dad.



Since my family was here, we decided to take the opportunity to dedicate Elise. We dedicated Matthew our last Sunday in California so we wanted to do it when we had some family here.







Then we went to lunch at Pappa's BBQ. My brother decided to tease poor Zion by dangling a rib in front of him.





Elise's first boyfriend



The Stewarts and the Whittakers came over on Sunday for dinner and the kids had fun playing. Matthew and Elijah got a hold of some tissue paper and chased each other around the house for a good 15 minutes. Keep in mind that this is about 30 minutes past Matthew's bed time.

Untitled from Melissa S on Vimeo.

On Matthew's birthday we took him out to breakfast and then went down to Kemah. We had hoped to let him run around in the fountain, but once again, the fountain wasn't on (go figure, huh, Erin?). They had a tent set up over it for Wine Fest. However, the new playground was open and he had a good time on the slide.





Most of the family ended up in jail







It was a bit warm so we stepped into Starbucks to cool off

Fruit snack with Grandpa



Zion and Elise



Zion and Auntie



A failed attempt at another picture of the cousins





3 generations



My parents gave Matthew the Fisher Price Laugh and Learn Bounce and Spin Pony for his birthday. He loves it. Here he is testing it out.

Untitled from Melissa S on Vimeo.

One last birthday Happy Meal before going back to normal life and normal diet. Once again, the unhinged jaw.

Well, seeing as Hurricane Ike forced us to cancel Matthew's birthday party last year, we still had all of the Star Wars party decorations and favors to use. However, we couldn't find a decent Star Wars pinata so we bought him an Optimus Prime pinata from Walmart and he LOVED it.

Funfetti cake with chocolate frosting and the candle left over from his 1st birthday.



Elise and Mana



Optimus Prime



Attacking Optimus for candy

Untitled from Melissa S on Vimeo.

Singing "happy birthday" to our 2 year old!



Ice cream and cake. As you can see, he practically unhinges his jaw when he's eating something he loves.





Family picture



Big family picture



Elise and Grandpa



Elise and Mommy



Well, his party was a big success and he made out like a bandit. Thanks to all of our friends and family to coming out and making our little man's birthday so special!

It's been a while, I know. Things should get more consistent now that we got a new AC adapter for the laptop.

We had a good weekend but I'm still recovering. I feel like I could sleep all day but my bosses (kids) won't let me =). I'm going to post pictures in 3 separate posts because there are so many.

Happy girl



What is it with boys and boxes?





Busy weekend Happy Meal. He no longer needs us to cut his burger up for him.



Birthday haircut



I made cakeballs to welcome my family to Texas



Of course Matthew got to sample them to make sure Mom did a good job





Another trip to McDonald's. They ran out of boy toys for Matthew's happy meal so they gave him the girl toy. We thought Elise could get more use out of them. She actually enjoyed gnawing on them since it seems she's getting her first tooth.





Then we went to Target to do some shopping and ended up goofing off a bit. Here's Gilbert doing Matthew's "Hot Dog" dance. "Hot dog, hot dog, hot diggity dog..."



I always said I'd dress up as a bee for Halloween since my name means "honey bee".



Well, Matthew had his 2 year check up yesterday and the doctor said he looks great. He's 29.6lbs and 33.5 inches tall. He got 2 shots and he took them like a champ. He cried for a couple of minutes and then he was back to his happy self. We go back in a month for the 2nd dose of his flu shot and both kids will also be getting the swine flu shot because of the exposure to everything my neighbor's kids bring over.

A nice, long weekend with Daddy home this week. It was fun. the reality is slowly starting to sink in that our little boy will be 2 in less than 2 weeks. His birthday party is next Saturday and we found out this morning that not only will Grandpa and Mana be flying in, but they're bringing Uncle Carlos, Auntie Elizabeth, and Zion with them. My whole family will be here to celebrate. Talk about a full house. Zion and Elise are 7 weeks apart so my brother and I haven't met each others' babies. I haven't seen my dad, my brother, and Elizabeth in over a year. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone, even in the midst of all the chaos =).

Apparently it's completely acceptable for Star Wars characters to infiltrate the Batcave.



My happy, silly boy





She loves her jumperoo so much that she decided to try napping in it. It didn't last long.



Mmmm. Sugar-free chocolate fudge pudding.







Remember the skinny baby I brought home from the hospital?



Well, she's definitely filled out.





Matthew carried his collection of lions down the stairs and decided that Elise needed to play with them, too. How awesome is he?



Daddy and baby time



I guess it's time to really kick things into gear with the party planning. We still have all of the decorations from the party that never happened last year thanks to Ike, so I need to get cracking on party favors, food, and cupcakes. I really can't believe my little boy is almost 2 and my little girl will be 6 months old in just a few weeks.