Spring has sprung!

I usually love winter, but this year, I was over it.  It may have been all the sickness that came our way, but I have never been more happy to see Spring come.  How could you not love Spring with the great weather, the sun coming up later which means kids sleeping a little later (at least mine are), and everything turning green again.  Easter is coming soon, and what a great reminder that out of death comes life, than to see everything blooming again.  Cannot wait to celebrate on Sunday! We've spent the past couple of weeks setting up our vegetable gardens, and planting a few new things.  We could have our own little Farmer's Market back there because we have strawberries, tomatoes, squash, green beans, and green pepppers in our garden.  As for trees, we have our plum and clementine trees from last year that are doing great, and we've added two blueberry bushes as well.  We'll see what we get out of all of this!

Check out the cute little plums.  Let's hope they get a bit bigger than that!

Tomatoes

My cilantro is popping up

Our strawberry patch

Mady is loving this weather.  She is not a winter gal at all, and if she had to wear her jacket one more time, she would have lost it.  Not that she didn't many times over the course of winter.  Now, she can play outside after dinner, grab some yogurt at Peachwave, and take trips to the river.  How is it that she is going to be 4 in less than two months?!  That sounds so big!  Granted, she acts like she's going on 16.  She is a strong willed, determined little one.  Just yesterday she threw a huge tantrum, screaming, crying, the works, because I wouldn't let her play outside without clothes on.  Seriously?!

Look at the adorable duck family!!

Joy.

My loves.

He was done by this point.

One of Mady's favorite things to do right now is pretend she's driving.  Do you remember doing this as a kid, because Nick and I sure do!  Now I turn on the car to the air at full blast, the windshield wipers at full speed, and the blinker on.

Random, but I had to throw this in here.  I don't know what it is with this kid and the toilet?!  Must be a boy thing because Mady never had any interest in it.  Could just be an Owen thing.  Anyways, I had my eye off him for a minute, and it was enough time for him to do this:  

Yes, that's my flip flop.

Spring Break

The blog was starting to collect some dust so I thought I better get back at it.  The Hampshire's have been busy with work, kids, family, life, etc, etc, etc.  We've passed the cold weather, and heading into one of my favorite seasons, spring!  Sickness has still not left our house, as Owen is now battling some type of cold and just can't shake it.  He's on breathing treatments now, but I'm not seeing much improvement.  Besides that, we are doing great.  Here is some of the latest:

Owen got his first haircut.  I probably waited a bit too long, but I was putting it off and putting it off.  He looks older now, but still so darn cute.  What a champ too, during his haircut.  He looked like an old man who had been doing it for years.

He is a full fledged walker, and finally figured out how to stand up on his own without using something to pull up on.  No actual words besides mama, and dada.  It took him long enough to say mama, but it is the sweetest thing when he is walking around the house looking for me saying mama over and over.  Its got to be one of the best feelings as a mom.

Big sister was there supporting him the whole way!

We spent the first part of Spring Break visiting my parents, and then got a visit our way by Mimi.  Mady LOVES her grandparents, so it was a successful spring break for her. 

Nick and I got to have a 24 hour date, which was awesome.  We went to TopGolf, and had so much fun.  I'm pretty competitive, but knowing you stand no chance kind of changes things, so I just had fun with it.  I wasn't half bad towards the end of it!  While I did not come close to beating Nick at TopGolf, I am beating him with my bracket ;) We went to dinner, and actually got to talk to each other, and we weren't in a crazy rush to get out.  We even went to see a movie too!  Couple of crazy kids we were.  I love my guy, so it was so nice to get to spend that time with him.  We did miss our little ones though, which was probably shown by the fact that most of our conversation had to do with them.

I've got a future in the Women's PGA!

Soccer times

A couple of months ago Mady started losing interest in ballet.  She didn't want to go when it was time to, and after a few weeks of this, she finally outright said she did not want to do it anymore.  We totally respect that and decided to take a break from it.  Later on if she wants to try it again, she can.  

New Braunfels does a Soccer Tots class for her age group. It's just a four week course that teaches them the basics of soccer, so we decided to give it a go since she's always had an interest in the game.  I thought it would be a good idea to try this before enrolling her in an actual league.  She has really seemed to enjoy it.  Forget pirouettes and ballet walks, she loves to run!  I have to give it to the coaches too because they are great and have fun with them.  Based on how well she's done, we'll probably sign her up in the Fall.  For now, we're going to try a few e different classes through the city and let her have fun trying different things.  

She insists on wearing her Aggie shirt to class

One of her biggest fans.  That hair!

Daughter Daddy Dance

A couple of weeks ago Nick and Mady went to a Daddy Daughter Dance, or as Mady likes to call it, the Daughter Daddy Dance.  The two got all dressed up, and they looked adorable.  They were both so excited.  They danced, had desserts, took a picture before heading to dinner for tacos, Mady's choice of course.  They had so much fun and Mady came home so excited to tell me all about it.  She says she wants to do it again next year.

How awesome that she has a Daddy who loves her so, so much.  She is so lucky, and I should know, because I happen to have a dad like that too!  These two are quite the pair.  She adores him, and he adores her.  She has such a great example of how a man should treat her, and he's going to raise the bar quite high.

He's One!

He's a year old.  Owen is a year old.  As much as I say it, it still doesn't seem true.  How is it that one year has passed already?  I remember my water breaking in the playroom of our house in Euless like it was yesterday.  I was excited, and nervous, and scared, and happy all at the same time.  I remember rushing to put Mady to bed because, well, my water broke and we had to head to the hospital, but also not wanting to scare her/leave her.  I remember being sad that it would be the last time she would be the "only child".  I remember worrying about how this would change her, and us.  I was worried about how a second child would change our normal that we were use to.  Now, looking back, it seems so silly worrying about all of that.  This little guy has brought us so much joy, and I can't imagine life without him.  Mady is the best big sister, and filled that role so beautifully and naturally.

Owen's birthday landed on a Saturday, the day before the Super Bowl.  How perfect I thought!  We'll be able to do a little party on his actual day, and it can be football themed!  Our parents, and even one of my best friends came in town for it.  Turns out, Nick, Owen, and I all came down with a horrible stomach virus and had to cancel the party and spend his birthday in Urgent Care.  We were so sick, it took several days for us to get over it.  To top it off, my mom got sick on Saturday night too, but with the flu!  Needless to say, it didn't turn out the way I had planned, but that's life.  We were able to do a little make-up party the following week, and little guy got to finally have his cake, and we got our picture!  Unlike his sister, who didn't try one piece of her first birthday cake, he loved it once he finally tried a bite.  His first taste of goodness!

The only picture I got of him on his actual birthday

He had his one year check-up last week.  He lost a couple of pounds since his last visit, because of this awful virus we had.  Besides that, he is doing great!  We have to go back in a month for a weight check.  Judging by the way he's been eating lately, I think he'll be ok.  Here are the stats:

Weight:  19lbs 14oz (10th percentile)
Height:  29.75 inches (47th percentile)
Head:  18.5 inches (67th percentile)

Owen did start walking before his first birthday, but he is by no means walking all over the place.  In fact, he's kind of taken a break from it the past couple of days.  I guess he figured he did it, but crawling gets him around much faster.  Typical Owen.  Every now and then he will go off and do it on his own without being prompted to.

He is still a great eater, and will eat anything!  Such a change from his picky sister ;)  He's not saying any words yet besides dada, and mama, but he is recognizing a lot of words.  He waves hi and bye, and can tell me when he wants more or he's all done with his food.

His first taste of peanut butter!

He loves.  That's it, he just loves.  He's such a sweetheart and will give hugs and kisses all day.  I imagined boys being wild, and rough.  This guy is total opposite, and is laid back, calm, and sweet.  Don't get me wrong, he can get mad when he doesn't get his way or something doesn't work the way he wants it to, but for the most part, he is a sweetie.

I remember thinking I didn't know what to do with a boy!  Now, I think, what would I do without this boy!  Owen, you are loved so much.  You only bring happiness to this family, and we can't wait to watch you grow even more.  God blessed us, when he entrusted us with you.  How thankful we are to have you in our lives!

What a week!

We kicked off the week Sunday with a trip to urgent care.  Mady thought it would be a good idea to leap off the couch, but instead, lost her balance and busted her head on Owen's wooden activity cube. I didn't see it happen, so I just heard the thump, and then see Nick lifting her up with blood pouring all over her face.  I would love to get that image out of my head.  The scene was a bit chaotic, but after all was cleaned up, it really wasn't a big cut. Just a bit deep. We headed to urgent care just to be sure it didn't need stitches.  They glued it up, gave her some gummy bears, and we were good to go.

Two days later, Mady comes down with flu AND strep.  Who knew you could get both at the same time!  I've never seen her this sick before.  She hasn't thrown up since she was one, so it really scared her when she did.  She didn't know what was happening, and was just a mess.  So sad, but it was a few days of serious down time, and lots of extra cuddles, tv, and a sleepover with mommy.

Trying to make his sister laugh by dancing to Taylor Swift's "Shake it Off" at the doctor's office (it worked)

She even made me a card (with a little help from Daddy)

In the middle of all of this, Owen decided he wanted to start trying to walk!  He took his first steps on the 10th (gotta record the actual day).  He's still just doing a few steps here and there, but he gets so happy when he does it.  Might still be a while before he is walking around on his own, but it's a start!

By the end of the week, everyone was healthy, the weather was beautiful, and mommy was going stir crazy in the house.  That means we headed out to cash in our Christmas gift from Nick.  Membership to the SA Zoo!!  The weather could not have been better, and we had a blast.  We went to the zoo around this time last year, before Owen was born.  It was one of our last family outings as a family of three.  I remember it being a bittersweet time.   Now, one year later, our lives have only been made more rich because of this little guy.

Who cares about the animals, there are Cheerios down here people!

I got it!

Train time!