Rosy Cheeks

First Rockets Game

This wasn't Finley's first basketball game, she has been to a University of Houston basketball game and the NCAA South Regional, but it was her first ever NBA game. The start time was 7:30 pm, which is past Finley's bedtime, but we decided to go ahead and try our luck.  Finley was loving it!  So many lights, sounds and fun.  Her favorite thing was the "Bear".  Clutch is the Rockets mascot and she was totally taken with him.  Clutch rode in on a red motorcycle and kept asking where his motorcycle went the entire game.  On the elevator ride to our car, a guy had a Clutch bear and Finley thought that was too cool.  Sadly, the Rockets lost to the 76ers, but Finley had a great time.  She even made it all the way to the fourth quarter.  Such a trooper!

Me and My Shadow

Finley loves Max. It is borderline obsession. Whatever Max does, she wants to do it too. If only he would teach her his crazy math skills, Max can already add numbers together. Such a smart boy!

Max was over for the morning and Finley was beyond excited. We Skyped with Grammy and Grandad while Finley opened her Valentine's present. Once we were done, I told her it was time to say bye bye. Her response "No, no. Max stay here!"



After the two of them had a big morning of playing and snacking, with Finley insisting she hold Max's hand. It was so cute.

New Ballet Outfit

Finley and her doll got matching ballet outfits from Grammy and Grandad for Valentine's day.  She wasn't too keen on sitting with her doll, but she did love her new tutu.  For the first time in weeks, she was a little clingy at the start of dance class.  Mr. Carlos worked his magic and she was off, dancing away.  After class, all the girls went out to the playground.  It was so cute seeing 4 girls in tutus on the jungle gym. And the shoes were totally at Finley's insistence. We got them at Target on Sunday and she is obsessed. Tights with an open toe shoe? Ack!

Valentine's Party

Kelly is the best party planner I know in Houston, she is an amazing wedding planner and also a fantastic kids' party planner.  She hosted a wonderful cookie decorating party for the kids yesterday, complete with trays that we could fill with cookies to decorate and take home.  She is so clever and I am totally stealing the idea.  We just had to top the trays with Glad Press n Seal and we were ready to transport our cookies home.  She made all the cookies from scratch (whoa!) and made the cutest pink popcorn for the kids.  Finley was thrilled since they had Chick-fil-a nuggets and guacamole, what more does a girl need?   I think Finley did a gorgeous job decorating her cookies. 

Happy Valentine's Day!

Finley had an amazing Valentine's Day!  She started the day off with a Valentine's party at the kid care center at my gym.  Miss Stacey had cookies for the kids and Finley had so much fun.  Finley had made a beautiful Valentine for me with Miss Stacey, she was so proud of it.  After that, we headed down south for a cookie decorating party (more on that later!)  Finley ate her weight in Chick-fil-a nuggets and sprinkles.  Tonight, we headed to Pappasitos for a family Valentine's celebration.  Apparently we weren't the only ones with that idea, since there was a 15 minute wait at 5:45 pm.  After a delcious dinner, we headed home to open presents.  Finley got a cookie decorating and baking set for her oven.  She loved it!  She gave the Valentine she made for Daddy.  Then we opened our gift from Daddy, we are going to the San Diego Zoo and Disneyland for a week.  What fun!  Finley was so excited to open the big card with the pictures of a Mickey Mouse ferris wheel.  Daddy did some research, Minnie's house is alive and well in Disneyland.  Finley will be so excited.  I hope everyone had as amazing Valentine's Day as we did.

Picnic with the Penguins

The penguins make me miss Ugly Bear.  Hauling around six penguins is no easy task, especially when Finley wants to be carried up and down the stairs.  Finley set up a picnic with her penguins today.  She served them several course of food and when she was all through, she knocked them all down.  It was so cute!


Finley's newest attachment is to Little Bear.  He is about the size of the palm of my hand.  I was gone yesterday getting my hair done and visiting Shannon, when I came home, Little Bear was the new top dog in the stuffed animal world.  Clifton had taken Finley to the zoo for the afternoon and I am still unsure where she got Little Bear.  She woke up crying around 9:30 last night crying for Little Bear.  Neither of us had any clue where he was and after extensive searching, he never did turn up.  Little Bear really made me miss Ugly Bear, at least Ugly Bear is big enough to find.  Finley ended up sleeping in our bed for the first time ever last night.  After waking up every couple of hours or so looking for Little Bear, she asked to "Snuggle Mommy."  Finley is not usually a cuddly child and it was 3 am, so I scooped her up and took her to our bedroom.  She still kept waking up and asking for Little Bear, but at least I didn't have to go into her room to comfort her.  Little Bear mysteriously appeared on our couch this morning after breakfast, so all was right with the stuffed animal universe once again.  Thankfully, the penguins were back on top.  I would way rather carry around six penguins than try to hunt for one, easily hidden Little Bear.

First Bacon Sandwich

I am not a huge fan of breakfast foods.  In fact, other than crab cakes Benedict (which is more brunch than breakfast), I don't like any breakfast food that well.  I will eat pancakes, waffles and French toast if we are having them, but when it comes to bacon and eggs, no way.  So instead, I make myself a bacon sandwich.  My grandma taught me the beauty of a bacon sandwich and I am happy to pass it on to Finley.  She asked for bread for her bacon this morning to have a bacon sandwich like Mommy.  She took a few bites, but then it was straight bacon after that.  Followed by her favorite sandwich, a jelly sandwich. I guess compared to a dry bacon sandwich, a jelly sandwich is far more appetizing to a two year old.

The weather outside is frightful...

We got no snow last week, no real ice either...but the cold temperatures are back this week.  Thank goodness Auntie Heather sent Finley a warm fleece hoodie to wear for our frigid temperatures.  And the best part of it was that Finley doesn't have to wear her coat with it.  She hates wearing her coat.  I think the main issue is she gets super constrained in her carseat with it on, even when I loosen the straps.  If we lived in an area where it is often cold, I would have to look for a heated car seat.  The coat battle isn't one worth fighting, so instead the fleece works.  And she likes to pull on the hood, then pull it right off.

Pigtailed Cutie

And all ready for Valentine's Day with her hearts on. We have a cookie decorating party next week on Valentine's Day and I know Finley is excited. This girl loves her cookies! 

The pigtails had been ripped out by naptime, but they were cute while they lasted.  Plus, they are the only way to keep the curly ribbon Gymboree hairbows in her hair.

And you thought the Disneyworld posts were over...

Seeing as how we snapped over 900 pictures during our short stay in Disneyworld, I think I could probably do a Disney post ever day for a month!  Finley is still playing Disneyworld at home.  Tonight, she loaded up all her penguins into color-coordinated bowls and kept saying "close door".  Clifton and I couldn't figure out what she was doing, but then she started "tea cups, ready set go!"  She was having her penguins ride in imaginary teacups aka bowls.  She cracks me up.

The first day in the Magic Kingdom, Finley wasn't sold on riding on Dumbo.  By the last day there, she was riding the dinosaurs over and over and over again thanks to the lack of lines!






Another funny Finley story.  I was out last night with my girlfriends, so Finley was home playing with Daddy.  Max gave her a cupcake set for Christmas and she has been obsessed with it.  So much so that she took it to Grandma's house for her sleep over there this weekend.  She likes to bake the cupcakes in her play oven and then serve them to the penguins, which are this week's toy, Ugly Bear is long gone.  She gets the cupcakes out of the oven and before she serves them, she grabs her toy camera to take a picture.  They really do learn what they see!

Can I Stay and Play, Please?

When I went in to get Finley this morning out of her crib, she was singing and talking to all her animal friends.  Nearly every morning she is asking to go to Disney World.  Hopefully, the weather will be nice this weekend and we can take her to Kemah or the downtown Aquarium to ride some rides.  Every time we drive by the Ferris Wheel downtown she asks to ride it.  And says that Daddy will take her. 

I went to reach for her today and she asked to stay and play.  Normally she is super excited to get out, have breakfast and maybe catch an episode of Toodles to start the day.  So I ran downstairs to get the camera of her cuteness in the crib...

Playgroup Chaos

We had playgroup this week at "Court-ten-knee's" house this week.  Finley absolutely loves going over there.  It is mainly to see her main man Max, but she also loves the abundance of toys and fun.  We had to go over to "Court-ten-knee's" to pick up a package a couple weeks ago and Finley flipped out that Max wasn't there and that we weren't going inside to play.  Apparently, Max had the same reaction the week prior to that at our house.  Courtney was feeding our cats for us while we were in Disney and Max climbed all the way up to the fourth floor looking for Finley.  Those two kids...

Could there be any more flashcards strewn across the floor?  I especially love that Izzy is still in her jammies.
All the kiddos look super guilty...what flashcards? 

After playgroup, we headed over to Panda Express to get our free Firecracker Chicken for the Chinese New Year.  Finley ate it up, of course, because it was nice and spicy.  We thought it might be our last meal out in awhile because of the impending snow storm.  How wrong were we?  There was no snow, a bit of ice and a whole big ado over nothing.  The weather needs to wake up and realize that part of Houston's allure is the mild winter.  I am tired of the cold!

Fireworks....Woooooo....

The best part of these videos is when we watch them at home, Finley still says "Wooooo" and claps at the end of the show.

Visiting Baby Sydney

Riley has a beautiful new little sister, Sydney.  We headed over with dinner for the new family of four and for some playtime with Riley.  Riley has the best playroom ever.  Georgia has used her former teacher skills to create the most wonderful playroom for the kids.  Finley had so much fun playing in the playhouse, in the kitchen and with the dollhouse.  Her most favorite toy was Riley's pink vacuum cleaner.  She told me that she wanted Grandad to make her a pink vacuum cleaner.  This is to go along with her standing requests of a pink dishwasher and a pink dryers.  Grandad can make any and all appliances.

Riley is such a good big sister!  We are so excited there is a new friend for us to play with, welcome baby Sydney!!!

Tea Cups!

This video is worth watching from beginning to the very end...

Back Into Our Routine

It was a weekend full of no naps, failed attempts at potty training and a whole lotta whining and crying from Miss Finley.  Finley does not like being confined to the house all day and she certainly proved that this weekend.  After a night of fun at Grandma's house on Friday, it was especially hard for Finley to come home to boring Mommy and Daddy.  Today, we headed out early in the morning (I actually had to set an alarm) to get our application for the fall at "Max's School".  Max goes to a school just blocks from our house and we hope that Finley is able to enroll there.  It is our first choice as far as schools and I really hope Finley gets in.  We were able to apply during the returning students because we are on the waiting list, which I think should really help our chances.  It puts us in the first pool of applicants instead of the third.  Finley asked if there would be Christmas Music when we got to the school.  What a memory!

We came home and had some breakfast then it was back out the door to tour another school.  I don't think we will bother applying, it was a little far and the director basically said if you are two and new, it doesn't look good.  Finley did great during the tour, which I hope continues tomorrow because we have another lined up.  After the tour, we headed straight to Gymboree, which is always a great time for Finley.  She had so much fun running around with the kids, she got some of her pent up energy out.  We finished up with lunch at Chick-fil-a and some more playing in the toddler town they have set up.  Finley gobbled up six nuggets, her fruit bowl, over half of my fries, a whole bottle of milk and when we got home, she asked for a snack.  So I gave her a banana and she ate the whole thing.  Goodness!

After all this busyness, Finley napped for nearly two hours.  Let's hope tomorrow keeps her as busy and back into our routine.  We are visiting baby Sydney, hopefully it won't be too cold.  They are calling for snow on Friday!!!

I Love a Parade

On our second day at the Magic Kingdom, Finley got to see both a show at Cinderella's Castle and the Celebrate a Dream Come True parade as we headed back to the Wilderness  Lodge for naptime.  Finley even got picked to participate in a game with one of the castmembers! I think almost every character stopped to personally greet her during the parade, what a lucky little girl.

Edited to add: notice the castmember sitting next to her during the parade.  They were BFFs.  She was so taken with Finley (how could you not be?)

Visiting the Zoo with Friends

It was a gorgeous day yesterday and we set off to the Houston Zoo to meet Finley's friends, Ava Kate and Lia.  The girls had so much fun.  Ava Kate is in Finley's dance class and Lia used to be.  They especially loved the goats, especially Lia.  When we headed for home, Lia was still in the petting area brushing the goats.  It was so adorable!

Just an FYI, the zoo seems to be going through a lot of remodeling and a lot of the animals were not out and about, luckily, the girls didn't mind one bit.