Happy 2nd Birthday Kai!

Kai turned two on September 28th and had a "Backyardigans" themed party. Here are some pictures from the big day. We love you Kai-Guy!

Kai eating his blue cupcake (part of Pablo's face):

Emma wearing her Uniqua mask:

Picking up loot from the pinata:

Noni and Jax:

Fishing!

Jamey and a friend of his that he coaches football with went fishing at the mouth of the Brazos a couple of weekends ago. The brought in a haul of redfish, and even had to throw some back because they were over the limit. Here are some pics of his trip:

Jamey with his "wall hanger" (he intends to get it mounted):

The days catch:

Emma standing with the "Catch of the Day:

Hurricane Ike

We evacuated to College Station for Hurricane Ike. My sister and her family were also there, so my parents had a full house for around 5 days. Our house escaped the hurricane with minimal damage compared to a lot of people. We had tree branches down, a fence down and no electricity for 5 days, but other than that we were very lucky! We missed 5 days of school because of the storm, and haven't heard whether or not those days will have to be made up (hopefully not!). Here a couple of pics of what we did during the evacuation (College Station was spared from power outages during the storm, so we didn't have to "rough it" at all while we were there...thank the Lord!)

Emma and Kai in the balls at The Bounce:

Emma swimming with Daddy:

The Policeman Goes to Emma's School

Emma generally doesn't share much information about what she does at school. Today, however, I picked her up and the first thing she told me was, "Mama, I got to be the door holder today!" She was so excited. Then she told me that she "sat on a brown blanket outside, even though there was a pink blanket too, she still sat on the brown one." (A little background for those of you who don't know...Emma is a girly girl. She thinks that brown is a "boy color and girls don't have brown, just pink!" So for her to sit on brown is a major event!) I asked her why they were sitting on blankets outside and she said because a policeman talked to them. When I asked her what the policeman told them, she replied "He said do not use bad sprays!" I have no clue what that means...

Weekend Visit

First off, I want to apologize for slacking on the blogging lately. My excuse is that now that I'm back at work, I haven't gotten into an evening routine yet and am therefore running around until the minute I go to bed. Hopefully I'll get back into the swing of things in a week or so. With Jamey always gone with football, and me having cross country practice after school, I feel like I am barely home during the week and hardly get to spend time with my child. Okay, enough griping.

Last Sunday, Leah, Zeb, Kai and Jax came down the spent the night. Emma was very interested in Leah's breast feeding of Jax. She wanted to know if she should be doing that to her babies, is that all Jax eats, and can she "see where Jax bites Leah". I haven't noticed her trying this with her dolls yet, but won't be surprised if she does soon! Here are some pics from their visit:

Kai and Emma at the park:

Jax at the park:

First Day of School!

Pre-school that is! Emma started pre-school yesterday at Little Hands Academy. She goes Tues/Thurs mornings from 8-11. She goes with Burke, a little boy that her babysitter, Miss Gwen, also keeps. She didn't have a lot to say about her first day, except for that they sang songs, Burke was her "only friend there", and they played on the playground and had to "line up when it was time to go inside". She's growing up so fast! :-)

Jax is Here!

My sister Leah, husband Zeb and big brother, Kai, introduced the newest addition to their family today. Jax Bricker Hood was born at 1:16 pm, weighing in at 7 lbs 11 oz and was 21 inches long. He looks a little like his big brother and has the cutest dimples!

We asked Emma to give Jax a kiss on the forehead and she said "No, I have pretties (lip gloss) on, and you can't kiss a baby with pretties on!"