The Supan Clan

Picky about Pei Wei

2012-01-30T12:47:00.003-06:00

We used to eat out all the time. Cassidy was so easy to take out b/c she was always happy being fed. Grady not so much. He just doesn't care about food the way she does, so he gets antsy and screams "get down!" Chad's been working a lot, so I begged to go out to lunch on Sunday. We didn't go to church b/c Grady had a fever all weekend and even though it was gone that morning, they don't like for you to come if they've had fever within the past 24 hrs.

Cassidy loving her spring roll and Lo Mein! The girl is awesome and tries most anything. We went to Pei Wei b/c I thought I had a Groupon for it. Well...apparently Mom-brain is in overdrive and I bought some other random fusion food Groupon with a name that looked like Pei Wei! Oops.

Grady wasn't having it. He would not even try it. Normally at home that would be that - if they don't eat what's offered, that's it until the next meal or snack. But I can't do that at a restaurant or to a just-been-sick baby. So he ate Veggie Booty and who-knows-how-long-those-have-been-in-the-diaper-bag cereal bars. :)

To brag on my boy though, Chad made a lentil soup for dinner with squash and kale and who knows what else and he totally ate that. So he's not super-picky, more just moody. :) Happy Monday to you all...it's a dreary day here and we're wishing for some sun.

Entryways and Krazy Kids

2012-01-25T20:43:00.004-06:00

So, a while back I found this great entry way on a girls blog I love. I tried to take the ideas from her entryway and use them. Here is her picture (this girl is crazy-good at refinishing furniture - she did the table):

And here is what I've come up with so far:

Ideally I'll refinish the table to a stained top and a distressed white bottom. I did a table over the holidays that turned out great using this girls techniques, but it's really more just time and motivation with a 1 and 2 year old. Looking at this picture is definitely showing me where I need some work - the wreath looks a little dinky so I need something to fill in those blank spaces, like where she has picture frames, yet I'm hindered by light switches. Maybe some new light switch plates. Hmmm. I LOVE our wreath though - it's a rosebud book wreath and it's fabulous.

Any thoughts on what to do about the lamp cord? Run it along the back of the table? IDK...I would love to wrap all the cords in my house with Ballard Designs cord wraps...maybe in time. :) For the record, so far I have spent less than $20 doing this - I had or made everything already and just used some spray paint. I know that makes dear hubby happy.

C was in school today so I went next door for a little while to let Grady play with Conner and Carley. I found them in the playroom in Carley's crib going CRAZY. I loved it. :)

Cousins from Mommy

2012-01-23T14:02:00.007-06:00

I thought this was a pretty cute picture of Cassidy and Grady with my sister's kiddos. It was Courtney's idea to put them on the slide. I won't show you the cascade of pictures following this one of madder and madder kids. ;) I took this with my iPhone (along with all the recent pics since that is the only camera I usually have on me!)

Then we took this one for my parent's Christmas card (which I'm pretty sure they never mailed!). I cannot believe we got all kids looking at the camera and looking mostly normal! My mom bought all the kids coordinating clothes and I really just think it turned out super fabulous!

Tuna Fish

2012-01-23T13:44:00.007-06:00

While I don't love Houston's weather most of the time, I can't complain about a few 70-something degree days in January. And more than anything, I do love Houston (that's right, I said it) because of the great friendships we have here. Here are the kiddos having breakfast with Tyler and Jack. They love playing with them

And here are my kids wearing shorts and no shoes in January. Playing in the dirt outside for an hour. I seriously need to dig a hole and buy some dirt for my backyard!

I'm already warping my kids. I grew up eating macaroni and cheese with tuna fish. And I loved it. Now I'm feeding it to my kids and they love it!

All of my old roommates used to gag when they saw me eat this. And Chad for that matter. But tuna is SO good for you and this is a great way to get kids to eat it! Not to mention there is an entire line of Tuna Helpers with meals basically just like this! At least mine is slightly less processed. (thank you organic mac 'n cheese - ha!)

I usually make this on nights Chad is working late. :-P

Recipes Worth Trying

2012-01-21T05:34:00.001-06:00

I wonder how many people started a new diet 20 days ago like I did? :) Sadly, I haven't been as consistent as I would like, but I'm definitely no longer living like it's the holiday's and eating everything in sight!

I found this recipe on Pinterest and tried it last night. It was great, Chad loved it and the kids ate it, so I thought I would share.

BUBBLE UP ENCHILADAS
Nutrition Info: Calories
390 Fat 11.5g Carbohydrate 36g Fiber 2g Protein 33g Serves 6
Weight Watcher Recipes 6 points (old points)

1 pound ground turkey
1 (10 ounce) can enchilada sauce*
1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
1 can reduced fat refrigerator biscuits
1 ¼ cups shredded low fat Mexican Cheese

- Preheat oven to 350 F

- Brown Turkey and drain juices if needed

- Pour and mix enchilada and tomato sauce over browned turkey.

- Cut refrigerated biscuits into fourths and stir into meat mixture.
- Dump into a greased 9X13 casserole pan and bake for 25 minutes.

- Take out of oven and sprinkle cheese on top. Bake for an additional 10 minutes.

- Let stand for 5 minutes.

*I could not find canned enchilada sauce so I just bought the McCormick powder packet and mixed it with 10 oz. of warm water - it worked great.

The picture above is before it went into the oven - I forgot to take an after picture. Here is the website I got this from.

I also found the below recipe from a different blog and made it for a MOPS playdate this week. It is in NO way diet-friendly (more like Type II diabetes friendly), but Oh MY...they are divine! Maybe it's just me because I absolutely LOVE oatmeal chocolate chip cookies and this is like those on steroids. :) But I agree with her - go make these now!

Carmelita Bars

32 caramel squares, unwrapped

1/2 cup heavy cream

3/4 cup butter, melted

3/4 cup brown sugar, packed

1 cup flour

1 cup rolled oats

1 teaspoon baking soda

6 ounces semisweet chocolate chips

(*note: these measurements make an 8x8 pan - double everything for a 9x13)

- Combine caramels and cream in a small saucepan over low heat. Stir until completely smooth; set aside.

- In a separate bowl, combine melted butter, brown sugar, flour, oats, and baking soda. Pat half of the oatmeal mixture into the bottom of an 8x8" pan.

- Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes.

- Remove pan from oven and sprinkle chocolate chips over crust.

- Pour caramel mixture over chocolate chips.

- Crumble remaining oatmeal mixture over caramel.

- Return to oven and bake an additional 15-20 minutes, until the edges are lightly browned.

- Remove from oven and cool completely before cutting. They should be stored and served at room temperature.

*To make a 9x13" version, simply double the amounts.

LASTLY! Did you see in the above picture my little red Misto sprayer? This is my new BFF. It's $9.50 on Amazon and worth every penny (red may cost more). You fill it with your own extra virgin olive oil (or whatever you choose) and it replaces Pam or non-stick sprays. But it also can be used to spray your foods. So anything you normally would baste with EVOO (for us, that includes chicken, baked french fries, roasted vegetables, etc.), you now just spray with this. And you use way less than you normally would, saving tons of calories and fat, plus it coats more evenly. For anyone who tries to use less processed foods, or wants to eat healthier, this is a must!

Chillaxin

2012-01-20T08:01:00.001-06:00

Cassidy got washable markers from her friend Cameron for Christmas and she LOVES them. Unfortunately, so does G-man. I put them out of his reach but he found one and was showing me his stash.

Cassidy and I were talking about going potty - she's done awesome at potty training and has pretty much been potty trained since August but she still needs reminders sometimes - so here I was reminding her to go potty if she needs to, and this is her telling me she needs 5 candies for going potty! (for the record, we have used mini-M&M's as an incentive, but she gets 1 for going pee-pee...yet she still tries to negotiate!)

Busy coloring

Guess who dumped all the crayons out? A little hint, it wasn't the girl child!

Heading to Church

2012-01-19T08:51:00.004-06:00

Is that the most exciting title you've ever heard, or what? ;) Well folks, that's our life right now. Ha! But it's a good one with these two cuties. Cassidy is getting more and more interested in what she's wearing. She asked for pigtails on Sunday (I try to get her to wear them all the time and she says no), and then she wanted to wear cousin Megan's headband on top. Stylin'!
Meanwhile, we're all wondering where Grady is....Oooooh Graaaady???

Aha. The iPhone. Should have known. "who, me?" :)

Into 2012 - Girls & Boys

2012-01-18T06:15:00.002-06:00

Supan Christmas 2011

2012-01-17T11:02:00.000-06:00

We love being parents and getting to experience Christmas through the eyes of our kids. It is such a blessing.

This year, the kids got a train table and a scooter (one each) from Santa. We plan to do 3 gifts from Santa to represent/correlate to the 3 gifts the wise men brought Jesus. Grady technically is too little for his scooter but we knew he would want to play with Cassidy's and he's so good at that stuff, he'll have it before he turns 2! We were right...even with 2, they fight over them constantly! (yay)

Uh, Grady, the blue scooter is yours...

I literally threw this picture in because I hardly have any showing Chad!

The chaos:

After lunch, my parents left and Chad's parents showed up and we did it all over again!

Finally getting to eat some of that birthday cake we made.

Mimi C. got a crock pot - can you believe she's 60 and has never owned one?! Cassidy got an ironing board from her Great Grandma Shin - she's very in to doing anything that mommy does (not that I iron a bunch - ha!)

Well that should be it for the Supan Christmas 2011. We are already enjoying this wonderful new year and look forward to all the things God has in store for us in 2012!

Christmas Eve 2011

2012-01-16T05:44:00.000-06:00

This was a wonderful Christmas Eve. As sad as it makes me to see my "babies" growing up, I can't deny how fun and wonderful it is as they age and play and appreciate things more.

Here they are playing after dinner:
Here is Grady, hiding by the tree where he wasn't allowed, while Cassidy is helping Mommy:

Making our birthday cake for Jesus!

Ready to sing happy birthday, and then cut a piece out for Santa!

Annie got shaved a few weeks ago so she was sporting this lovely dog sweater during our one cold day.

Holiday in the Woodlands

2012-01-15T12:35:00.003-06:00

The Woodlands has a neat little Christmas event each year with an outdoor ice rink. Obviously our kids are too young to skate but we still went to walk around and enjoy the lights. We'll probably plan to go back in a few years.

Not Cassidy's best pictures, but it shows how much fun she was having. :) We spent a majority of the time running and up and down the ramp to the ice rink. Good times.

Mommy all bundled up, wishing she lived somewhere that got snow.

Houston Zoo with the Supans

2012-01-14T10:25:00.003-06:00

The Houston Zoo is actually a pretty incredible zoo. Not too surprising since we're the 4th largest city in the nation (New York, LA, Chicago...). This is the new African exhibit and the kids can get right up to the chimp enclosure. Some of them raced over to attack/scare the kids. But when Grady got up there, this chimp came right up to him. I really think he knew it was a baby. He stayed there until some bigger kids came up and scared him away!

Ha! How priceless is that face!?

On the carousel. This was funny b/c the last time we took them on a carousel was at Memorial City mall and she HATED it. I guess a few months makes a difference!

G-man liked it.

We did so many things over the holiday's while Chad was off, so more to come!

1 and a half and ALL boy!

2012-01-12T10:05:00.004-06:00

Our little Grady Harrison Supan is 18 months old! Can you believe it? I know I can't. He is such a crazy man, and absolutely adorable and perfect in every way. :) He went on his first boat ride over Christmas!

His stats are:

Height: 35" (97%)

Weight: 27 lbs. (65%)

Head: 48.3 cm (65%)

So we are still tall and lean! Dr. Knapick told us he's on his way to being taller than his daddy at 6'1"! But obviously it's still way too early to know for sure. Here is what Cassidy was doing at 18 months - they are the same height.

Grady also had his first smore...he liked it. :) He really is a good eater, he's changed a lot in that area because I feel like he eats a LOT right now! And he must have just had a growth spurt because all of a sudden not a single 18 mo. outfit fits him. He's got a mouthful of teeth! And he has NO fear. We've been to a couple jump houses and play areas over the holidays and I kid you not, every time some stranger would comment on him and how he has no fear. He is ALL boy. :)

Happy New Year to everyone! The blog is a renewed priority for me this year so count on a better job of new posts and Supan kids to come!

Merry Christmas!!

2011-12-21T14:07:00.009-06:00

To say we have been busy is an understatement, as I'm sure it would be for all of you! We had family portraits taken over a month ago and got some fairly cute shots. We saw Santa and neither kid would go to him so we ended up with a lovely family picture with Santa. :) And we've been doing one "Christmassy" thing after another, especially now that Chad is off until the new year. Below are a bunch of pictures to share. I hope to pick back up with the blog soon...key word is hope! Merry Christmas, enjoy this celebration of our saviors birth!

Swing, Swing, Swing

2011-11-21T18:58:00.004-06:00

The kids got an early Christmas present from their 4 grandparents! I know neither are smiling in these pictures, but they really are just playing hard and loving it.

Cassidy is so excited to have a "park" in her backyard! We looked for a while but decided not to go with the high end Tree Frogs or Rainbow systems - we just have too many things we need to spend money on right now to spend that much on one. Thankfully our children do not know the difference and they think they are the luckiest kids ever. :)

Our neighborhood is actually building this insanely crazy park just a few houses down from us. We drive by everyday watching the progress. So now we'll have this gated in our backyard and then we can walk down the street and play at the BHR Disneyland!

Choo Choo!

2011-11-10T06:57:00.000-06:00

Last week Chad's parents came into town to babysit so we could go to a wedding (Congratulations Leila and Andy!), and the following day we took the kids to Hermann Park to ride the train. They absolutely loved it! This is one of those things that Houston has that I literally never thought about. We really do have a great city with so much to do - when it's under 100 degrees, that is.

Here comes the train!

Waiting patiently for the train:

Cassidy all smiles.

Grady having a blast:

The group: (it was a Monday so Chad was at work)

Goofing Around

2011-11-09T10:26:00.005-06:00

I'm trying to get as many pictures of the kids as I can just playing. I have some cute videos too, but they take forever to load to blogger and I haven't taken the time to figure out putting them on YouTube then loading here. So for now, here are the stills. :)

This little guy came down with strep throat. :( Apparently it's pretty rare for babies/kids under 2 years old to get Strep...leave it to Grady to beat the odds!

Cassidy is so into dressing up. My mom made a bunch of reversible vests for my nephews back in the day and my kids are loving them. Cassidy has also recently become a fan of Dora so she wears this one a lot. I love watching her little imagination go wild - as much as I'll miss the baby stage, this new stage for her is pretty awesome!

Same morning, different dress up item.

Don't you love how Cassidy is in Christmas PJ's and Grady is in Halloween, and it's November? That's how we roll around here.

Trick Or Treat

2011-11-09T06:04:00.000-06:00

This was a great year for Trick-or-Treating. Cassidy really got into it. Grady tolerated it for a few houses. Here's my cow and cowgirl. :)

With our neighbor Conner, who wanted to be a cowboy like Cassidy. :)

Dewberry Farms has the Supans

2011-11-08T06:40:00.005-06:00

This past weekend we went to Dewberry Farms. We went two years ago before Cassidy was 1, and it was so great having two kids that walk. We went with our friends the Mercers and the Vests. It was gorgeous outside and a great way to spend a Saturday morning!

I'm going to try to catch up on blog posts later today if I can. I pretty much missed October! We did quite a bit, too. Happy Fall Y'all!

15 Months, said the Goat

2011-10-12T12:54:00.004-05:00

Did you know this little guy is now 15 months old? The one in orange...not the one actually posing for the picture. :)

Last weekend we took the kids to the Chappell Hill Scarecrow Festival. It's an annual thing for us and they loved the petting zoo. The petting zoo did not love them, though. Most of the other pictures I have are of all the animals running away from my 1 year old and 2 year old. Oh well.

Grady is trucking along! He's following a perfect little growth curve. He's a little over 32.5" putting him right at 90% and he's 24 lbs. 8 oz, putting him at just under 50%. He mostly lives off milk and Veggie Booty. I'm cool with that. 'Cause I don't have to cook either of those things. He was great at the appt. today minus a little protest crying when I had to put him down to get prodded by the Ped. My Ped said that was a "I'm not in control and I'm letting you know I'm not happy about it cry." Yeah, we hear that one a lot. At least I know neither of my kids will be push overs. Right?

Reflections

2011-09-27T19:42:00.007-05:00

I know, you're all just here for the pictures. Feel free to skip this blog entry. It's for myself, anyway. :)

I've been a mom for 30 months, 24 days, 15 hours and 40 minutes. Some days I cannot believe I'm the parent of two kids. Other days I feel like I've been living and breathing this life my whole life. For the record, it's harder than I thought it would be. I want to be able to savor each moment, and really more so each lesson. Because boy does God use children to teach you some major lessons. When I had Cassidy, I thought it was SO hard. And it was. For someone who had never had to really worry about anyone but themselves. Suddenly my every moment was consumed by this baby girl. And she wanted to be held. All the time. Now that I have two, I realize just how un-hard one was. To be fair, it's not that one wasn't hard...it just means two is harder. ;) I keep saying we're probably done (and we probably are), but just the fact that I would consider a 3rd shows me just how much these babies mean to me and how they have consumed my heart. Because my days are not always very awesome. And some days I'm literally counting down the minutes until I can put them to bed. But other nights one of them wakes up just before I've fallen asleep and I'm actually excited to get to go up and hold them and cuddle them one more time that day. Grady woke up last night and his room felt cold so I put some socks on him. He slept through it. I don't know why it just kind of melted my heart that this sweet baby boy (who I think of as 6 weeks old still but now stretches out close to the length of his crib) slept right through me turning on his turtle night light and lifting up each foot and putting on his little socks. I'm so blessed to be the one who gets to do that.

They are growing up too fast. In the same breath, I can't wait for the future. I love reading my friends blogs whose kids are in school now and seeing all their pictures of heading off to kindergarten. Today I drove behind a school bus for a while on the way to my friends house and I couldn't stop watching each kid get on, seeing their faces and picturing my own babies doing that some day. And somehow I still yearn to hold another newborn, have another tiny baby sleeping beside me in my room. Sit in a dark living room in the middle of the night feeding a bottle. Maybe that never goes away? One of my friends said that no matter how many more kids you have, you will always mourn the moment when you realize you'll never have another.

These days are more of a joy now. I have gotten pretty terrible at blogging, but it really is because we are just busy living. And I need to keep blogging because it's really my only chance to write down some of what happens. To remember Cassidy saying "Mommy, daddy doesn't mind if I do this." Me: "oh really?" Cassidy: "Yeah, he doesn't mind Mommy - he said so." Or whenever she's doing something she's not supposed to be, like pushing the buttons on the oven, and I ask if she's allowed to do that and she responds "Oh, I'm just fixing it mommy, I not do that, I just fixing it." Uh huh...'cause she's super handy don't you know! She is so nurturing, too. Sure, she still shoves Grady or yanks things away or screams "mine!" if Grady even glances in the direction of something she's claimed as hers. But other times she's trying to hold his hand and show him how to play Ring Around the Rosy, or she's giving him a kiss, or she's telling him "Awe, it's okay bub, it's alright...poor baby" when he's crying over a fall or a bonk. And she is beyond sweet to other babies. She loves, loves, loves to try to help them and will stroke their heads and give them kisses.

Meanwhile wild man is tearing the place up and it's going by in a flash. He's so funny. He can do almost anything, from climb our bar stools to get onto the kitchen counters, to climbing the outside of the banister. He is already super independent when it comes to doing things like getting into his carseat by himself. Cassidy didn't start that until 2! But he also would let me hold him all day long. And he's a total mamma's boy. Which I have a love/hate relationship with. :) He is a total doll though and will wave to people and say bye-bye or hi and flirt and smile. He's addicted to his paci so that's new territory for us and I'll be asking his Ped in a few weeks at his 15 month well baby how and when to deal with that. I'm so thankful to God that He gave us a son. I truly love getting to see how different and special and wonderful he is. This from the girl who thought she only wanted girls. Yet another lesson God has taught me.

I guess I am just trying to say my life is pretty awesome. And we are blessed. So blessed. And I don't care if I have another 15 lbs. to lose because my kids and my husband think I'm beautiful. And I don't care if my house is never clean and I haven't mopped in over a month. Because the macaroni on the floor is from a craft I got to do with my precious 2 year old...who will be 3 before I know it and will no longer be singing Away In the Manger at the top of her lungs in my backseat in the middle of September. I'm so thankful. And I pray our children always know just how much we love them and cherish them. No matter how terrible they were that day.

Fall, School & another park

2011-09-22T13:58:00.004-05:00

Cassidy has gotten kind of picky with how she wants her hair. She asks for pigtails a lot. This particular day she wanted pigtails and these two bows. So I tried to find an outfit that matched as best I could. :)

I also made some cookies the other day with a fall theme - trying to pretend it's almost fall despite the excessive heat outside. Cassidy helped me, and we made leaves, a moose, a bear and a squirrel.This is C before school on Wednesday. She wanted to bring Peggy. I gave in and let her. That was the first day she didn't take a nap at MDO. No more Peggy at school!She is so hip...here she is planking. ;)Grady-bub just playing/reading in the sunroom. He's pretty much glued to me these days so I'm a happy camper when he's playing alone!Another park! This is one of our neighborhood parks, and we just found out we are getting all new ones in a few months. We are very excited!

Raining After Church

2011-09-22T13:55:00.003-05:00

We actually got a few days of rain the other day so after church we came outside to play since it had cooled things down a little.

Trying to get the kids to pose together:What was really happening:Out watering our desperate lawn...

SEC and Joys

2011-09-22T13:50:00.006-05:00

Well folks, as much as I'd like to pretend our life was a cakewalk, unfortunately we do live with a 1 year old and a 2 year old.

And they can go from that, to this:

You just never know what you're going to get!

More park pictures from another day...

Grady and MommyNow that our Aggies are joining the SEC (Whoop!), we can wear our Georgia and Arkansas gear even more proudly. Cutie Pies!

Catching up!

2011-09-22T13:46:00.004-05:00

This was a long hiatus! We have just been super busy, and it really is hard to find time to download pictures and get them posted. The weather is finally not in the 100's everyday...lately we've had highs around 94, so we've been able to go to some parks to burn off some energy.

We do a lot of running around!

And climbing and having fun. Grady is a disaster at parks because he thinks he can do whatever his sister can (and he almost can!). He's only fallen off something once...that I know of. :)Grady telling us to check him out!

Ripping the Bandaid Off

2011-08-31T19:35:00.007-05:00

I decided to go for broke today since it was already an emotional day sending off my first born to Mother's Day Out, so I took Grady to get his first haircut. He has the most adorable ringlets in the back so I really hated to do it, but we got asked several times this past weekend if he was a boy or a girl (this happens all the time despite wearing blue and trucks!) so off we went. Here is the back before:

And here is this morning on the bed before as well:

At the kids haircut place:

Happy boy after:

The back:

Cutie pie BOY!

I can't really say how I feel about it. I do like it, but I also think he's the cutest thing on the planet no matter what. But part of me wants to curl into the fetal position and cry. As hard as the past 14 months have been having two under two with me at home at all times, I'm a bit of a mess today as two huge milestones happen to show how much they are growing up and our lives are changing. We thought we were happy and done at two...we got our boy and our girl...but now...I'm not so sure!

1st Day of School!

2011-08-31T09:45:00.005-05:00

Cassidy had her 1st day of "school" today! Here she is saying "Yay School!".

Playing in the front yard before we have to leave.

Watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse in Mommy and Daddy's bed while Mommy gets everything ready.

Overall the morning went well. She did cry but it was only because it took so long to get all her stuff where it goes and some paperwork done. Next time we'll have her check-in form filled out and know where everything goes so she wait be standing around with me so long and getting worried. I know she is ready for this and is going to love it! It makes me so happy that she is in the same room as her Sunday School class so it's familiar, plus there is at least one little boy in there she knows from MOPS. I'm very much looking forward to this new normal, and getting on a schedule!

Grady at the Profs

2011-08-28T21:06:00.004-05:00

I had Grady's picture taken professionally last week and we got a few cute ones. These in-studio shots aren't really my favorite but I did it twice with Cassidy and felt like I needed to go at least once for Grady. I purposely went before cutting his hair, so it's a true mess! But what a sweet boy!

And for kicks, here is Cassidy in the same pose. While I'm more into the outdoor, casual style photography, I have to admit I love having them both like this! And it's fun to compare. :)

Supans at Play

2011-08-24T14:05:00.004-05:00

We went to the neatest little park in Huntsville last weekend while visiting Chad's parents. Cassidy and Grady got to feed the ducks and run around. Although it was over 100 degrees, as usual these days, it was pretty shaded so nobody passed out. :)

We went by the lake house just to see the water - this drought has brought the water down a ton and they can't even get the boat in the water right now. Boy oh boy do we need some rain. I am not sure if people realize just how bad it is here right now. Months on end of little to no rain - it's like a drought to your soul. I know I'm being dramatic, but are done! We don't have the landscaping or the tenacity of desert dwellers!

Happy Birthday Kristen!

2011-08-17T22:44:00.005-05:00

To my sweet wife - happy birthday from your hubby and kids! We thank you for managing the chaos that is our life right now.

(Not pictured - Cassidy, who at this time was in time-out I think. She loves you too!)

Nerd Day

2011-08-11T13:13:00.004-05:00

It was "Nerd Day" at Chad's company today. I think he fit the bill. :)

Mustang is known for these Spirit Days. Today was in anticipation of school starting back up and the school supply drive they are doing. I would like to thank Uncle Chris for giving Chad this awesome shirt. I've never been prouder of my cool husband.

Planes, Trains & Automobiles.

2011-08-06T14:58:00.015-05:00

The Supan kids took their first plane ride a few weeks ago to go see family in Georgia. I have to say, I was expecting the worst and it actually went pretty well! We flew Southwest which was the biggest blessing b/c they still allow you to check up to 2 bags per person so we didn't have to worry about how many bags we took. As you can see, we didn't!

We bought Cassidy a seat and took Grady as a lap baby (and by "bought", I mean we used my dad's air miles - thanks Dad!). Thankfully the plane wasn't full either way so we were able to put Grady in a carseat and Cassidy got her own seat. Grady slept most of the way there. And ate lots of Veggie Booty!

Cassidy had fun playing with the iPad with Mimi B.

Once in Athens, we stayed with my Aunt and Uncle. They were so sweet to take us all in, and we had the best arrangements, with each kid getting their own room. This is at a restaurant we went to for breakfast where they give you chalk and you can color all over the patio and even their building.

We took Grady over to the Grady College of Journalism at UGA. We're hoping one day he'll get a scholarship there because of his name! lol. Of course if we just move to Georgia, our kids can go there for free thanks to the HOPE scholarship. Why doesn't Texas have something like that?!

Grady at the doors of the Grady School, waiting to get in!

Uncle Jim, Aunt Ina, and Uga with Cassidy and Grady on campus. Go Dawgs!Cassidy loved playing with Jim & Ina's fountain!

Here's the main reason we went - so Cassidy and Grady could meet their Great-Grandmommie Sissie. At 96, she's not quite up to traveling to Texas anymore.

We all had lunch at Sissie's new digs in Atlanta. My cousin-in-law Kyle met us there since he couldn't get off work in time to see us at dinner.

Then we drove over to my cousin Ashley's house and got to meet Brooks and see big brother Reid again. Brooks is 3 months older than Grady so it was cute to see them interact!

Cassidy and Grady having fun in the laundry hamper!

Cassidy hugging on Brooks.

Jim took us on a tour of the campus on Friday where the kids got to play in the gym where the Lady Dawgs Gymnastic team practices, and we met their head coach. He's already scouting Cassidy - I guess we better sign her up for lessons!

We then had the honor to eat at their restaurant, Shane's. It's BBQ. It was delicious! Gotta love some fried okra!

Let's just say Cassidy liked it. :)

And here is me, Ashley, our kiddos, and our Grandmommie Sissie.

I'm so glad we had the opportunity to go do this, and that my mom came and Chad was able to get off work to come. I honestly don't know how a mom flies with 2 kids this age. I could never have done it alone! We actually flew into Greenville, SC and can I just say, that is the best airport ever. Seriously, nicest people (including the TSA people!) and easiest pace to maneuver. And we rented a Chrysler Town & Country minivan that rocked our world! As we were getting in, we started strapping in the DVD player we brought with us when Chad looked up and saw it came with one. It also had the key less starter so it could be getting cool before we got in. I will say I've seen the Wiggles more in that week than I hope to see again in my life, but what a lifesaver that thing was!

Now I just need to get Cassidy to start carrying around her little stuffed Reveille instead of the Uga we bought her. She can love those Dawgs, but our Aggies come first!

Happy Trails to You...

2011-07-25T20:53:00.010-05:00

I'm going to be away from the computer for about a week so I'll leave you with a few pictures. None of the kids, which is why I know you all come read this blog, sorry!

Here is Chad and me this past Saturday on our way to his company's Anniversary party. The theme was Camp Mustang.

And this my friends is called rain. I had to look it up online when it started falling from the sky. I had forgotten. We are happy to see it again.

Rockin' the Potty

2011-07-21T13:43:00.003-05:00

This is just too funny not to share. Forgive me, 16-year old Cassidy. :)

Cassidy has been potty training the past week, and let me just say, she is rockin' it. I tried to start last week but then she caught that little bug. So this week I really focused on it. I created a little incentives chart with lady bug stickers, and I also bought M&M's. She gets 1 M&M for pee pee, and 3 for the "other" one. :) Well, she's been in underpants since Tuesday and this kid hasn't had a single accident. She was so ready to do this. She LOVES the chance to get a "candy" and also a sticker. I was planning to put her in diapers or pull-ups for naps but she wouldn't have it so she's also gone all week with underwear on for her nap and done great. And yesterday and today we ran errands with no pull-up and once again, she's done great. I just make sure she is going pee-pee every chance we get. I don't know how everyone does it and I know it's not always wise to use food as an incentive (we never do) but I have to say the M&M's work like a charm. A few times I've suggested she go potty b/c it's been a while and she'll say "no, I'm fine" but then I'll say "you don't want to go pee pee and get a piece of candy?" and she'll immediately run in there and go. So it just makes it so there aren't any battles (yet). But we also never give our kids candy so it's a super special treat here! I'm pretty sure I wouldn't even need to remind her at this point, as she's already gone on her own initiative several times, but I think it's wise to keep asking her to go regularly until we've been potty trained a while. She just amazes me, and I can't believe I pretty much have a potty-trained 2 year old!
But now to the funny part, which is about the above picture. :) I bought her a potty book about this little girl Hannah who is being potty trained. In the story, Hannah sometimes sits on her little potty reading a book while she waits to see if she needs to go. So on Tuesday Cassidy kept saying she needed to go poo-poo but she would go in there and then leave b/c it obviously wasn't happening right away. I suggested that maybe she could bring a book in there like Hannah does so she could read and wait and see if she needs to go. She said YES! and immediately asked to bring Mommy's big Bible in there! HA! I keep my Bible on my nightstand and for some reason she likes to look at it and pretend she's reading it (it has no pictures like her little Bible!) and that is what she chose. She yeah - the first time my daughter went poo-poo on her own in her little potty was while flipping through God's Word. Hilarious! I think it just shows that God really does care about even the little things, like a 2 year old learning to go potty. :)

Hot Houston = Creative Activities

2011-07-17T18:49:00.004-05:00

It's hot here. Pretty much from May-September, I think most families with small kiddos (read: kids that don't live at the pool yet) get desperate for things to do. This weekend we ran some errands and relaxed a little. We also tried to go to a new (for us) farmer's market but that didn't work out so instead we strolled through Central Market (for you non-Houstonians, it is the most amazing grocery store with all kinds of special/weird foods, plus a huge selection of organic food). Then we stopped by the Williams Tower. It used to be the Transco Tower when my sister got engaged there. Chad and I are both pretty much Houston raised and we don't think either of us has ever been there!

Here is Grady just chillaxin' at the house:
Cassidy did one of her best poses yet, on cue and in front of the fountain!

I couldn't even get the top in the picture, it is so big.

Right past the fountains is a huge green space so Cassidy burned off a little energy running around with Daddy.

Tonight we had a great dinner of oven-roasted corn on the cob, cheeseburgers on non-high fructose corn syrup buns (that's for you Chad!), and yummy yellow squash. Grady went to bed early tonight and Cassidy got a little one-on-one time with Dad while mom cleaned the kitchen. My little guy is going through a stage where he is waking up from his afternoon nap too early - he's fine for a while but by supper he is in meltdown mode. It's a little frustrating b/c sometimes I feel like all I do is listen to kids whine all day and it's a gross way to end the day. I'm going to try a few things this week to see if I can work on the problem - wish me luck!

2 Year Stats, Friends, and a Bug

2011-07-14T12:06:00.004-05:00

Tyler and Jack came over yesterday to play while Cristie and I made a couple meals for the week. Baby Jack (9 months) had a little fever but we figured it was the same virus Grady just got over since they were together this weekend. Here is a new game I started - I moved Annie's dog stairs to the living room and pile pillows around it so the kids can climb and jump. Here is Grady, Tyler and Cassidy all on the chair. It's so nice now that Grady is getting big enough to play! (Jack was upstairs taking a nap)
Grady and Tyler climbing up and down, and up and down, and...you get the idea!

Grady feeling like a big man with the chair all to himself!

Tyler went to sit with Cassidy and watch Madagascar. They are so cute together and always talk about each other!

Sadly, after a few hours of playing, Cassidy suddenly crashed. My kid never gets sick so it was shocking. She had a fever of 102. Jack slept forever and then finally Cristie woke him up to go home and his little fever had spiked to 103. Later that afternoon we had a couple kids throwing up (thankfully Cassidy only threw up some apple juice one time). :( And then Tyler joined in on the fun in the middle of last night. Ugh. Grady had a red throat (per the Ped) with his low grade temperature but I didn't think he had the stomach bug, but the more I thought about it he did "spit up" twice so that may have been it. He's almost outgrown his reflux but not totally so I didn't think anything of it. Oh well...at least they all caught it at the same time and are on the mend. It seems to only be about 24 hours.

The funny thing was Grady had his 12 month well baby appt. on Tuesday right after he was sick, and Cassidy had her 2 year well child appt. today, right after she was sick. They were both fever-free in time for them!

And with that, here are Cassidy's 2-year stats (a few months late!):

Length - 38" - 97%

Weight - 34 lbs - 95%

Head -50cm - 92%

As you can see, she is one proportionate girl! She's actually slimmed down some (which is typical). I'm not surprised since she actually has started leaving food on her plate now and then. She's doing great though, talking in long sentences and getting into everything. It was a horrible visit b/c she cried the entire time - she has never done that before so I was taken aback and not sure how to handle it. Finally I just gave her my iPhone on Tom Cat and let her play with that while I talked to the doctor. Yay for technology! I can't believe at her last visit she was 18 months old, and at her next one she'll be 3. I need the clock to slow down. Please Lord, slow it down! As hard as some days are, I want to enjoy this time and cherish it and hold on to it.

Privacy, Please!

2011-07-12T20:31:00.002-05:00

But seriously, I wanted to let everyone know that we've decided it's in the best interest of our family to make our blog private. So I hope/plan to keep blogging! And if you read our blog and want to continue to keep up with our family, please let me know! You can send me an email to kristensupan (at) gmail (dot) com. Even if I don't know you, please don't be afraid to ask for the invite/access. I know I read several people's blogs whom I don't know and I would be so sad to not ever get to see their blog again - I promise I won't think you're a stalker. It's not so much about strangers reading our blog as it is about the internet privacy. I've had some instances where I found out people found our blog by googling certain things and can then take your kids pictures and use them. It just creeps me out a little. And since the main purpose of this blog is to help people we love keep up with our comings and goings, it just makes the most sense to just limit who has access.

So, please send me an email if you'd like access to the blog - it just requires me sending you an email, and usually once you login once, you don't have to keep doing it. (in my experience reading other private blogs)

I'm going to give it a week or so before changing the access. Then we'll see you on the other side! :)

Cutie Pies and 1 Year Stats

2011-07-12T13:07:00.004-05:00

Little man had his 1 year well baby appt. today. It was a bad one with 4 shots. It's such a helpless feeling being there for that. But he did great the entire time prior to that. He is following along his little growth curve perfectly! He is still our tall, lean boy. And he's passing his sister - he was officially taller/longer than she was at 12 months. I only care about this b/c she tackles him and can be kind of rough and I'm glad he's going to be big enough to hold his own against her at some point!

Stats:

Length - 31.5" - 92%

Weight - 23 lbs. - 53%

Head - 47cm - 68%

All that = Perfect Boy! :)

Grady at 12 Months:
-Has 6 teeth with a couple more coming in
-Still mostly crawls but will try walking more and more and has taken up to 8 steps
-Is wildly busy!
-Hates having his diaper changed or having to get dressed. We literally have to hold him down with our leg sometimes.
-Has almost outgrown his reflux. Only spits about once or twice a week now.
-Is a very good sleeper. Goes 11-12 hours at night, with a morning nap around an hour long and a second nap around 1.5 hours long.
-Wants to be doing whatever Cassidy is doing. Has already climbed up on tables, window sills, etc.
-Will give the best hugs and kisses
-Still takes a paci at night and when we're out and about but not during the day unless he's not feeling well
-Is in 12-18 month clothes.
-Won't wear shoes. I bought him some sandals and he just takes them off.
-Loves to be outside! I can't wait for him to be a full-fledged walker b/c of this!
-Can say several words, but my favorite is "uh-oh!"
-Loves Annie and always lays his head on her trying to hug her
-Sleeps with a couple stuffed animals and a book now
-Loves his whole milk. Not a super-picky eater but not a voracious eater, either.
-Will go to mostly anybody, but still a mama's boy. :)
-Is the biggest flirt, waving at people everywhere we go
-Is Mommy's total joy. I love watching him learn new things, but mostly I'm sad to see him grow up. He's still a tiny baby in my eyes and I'm not sure I'm ready to let go of that.

Mimi B. watched my sugie-boogie while I took Grady to the Pediatrician. She had a great time playing with some Cat app on her iPhone.

I think I've officially begun potty training too. I've been "playing" around with for a while but I think it's time to buckle down and do it. She already does great if she doesn't have pants on so we've been home today and plan to stay home as much as possible this week to see how it goes. I think after a few days I can try underwear and we'll see what happens. The few times I've done underwear so far, she remembers to pee-pee in the potty but still poops in her pants. Not fun! So we'll see if we can move past that. I know, I know...who wants to hear about that?! Sorry but it's just a little update. :) I'm sure someday she'll be thrilled to know I posted that on a public blog.

This above picture is from this morning. Her friend Luke gave Grady a drum set for his birthday that came with this whistle. Cassidy loves this thing and was dancing around with it this morning while little brother looked on.

Another Supan 1st Birthday Party

2011-07-11T09:55:00.008-05:00

Grady had a great time at his 1st Birthday party this past Saturday! It was a Dr. Seuss theme, with just family and a couple friends.

He did enjoy his cupcake!

Cassie Beth had a good time at her brother's party too.

Cupcakes! They were DELICIOUS! We had triple chocolate, red velvet and vanilla cream. Please note the blue cotton candy on top of the white cupcakes...that is Thing 1 and Thing 2's hair! FUN!

You can't have a Dr. Seuss Party without Green EGGS!

There is ham back there too...

The cousins and a few friends eating cupcakes.

The Mercers came. Their boys, Jack and Tyler, are Grady and Cassidy's ages.

Grady's Great-Uncle Tom came down from Dallas!

The Supan house became Whoville for a day!

Grady's little friend Kaylee. She is 1 week older than Grady and her mommy and Grady's Aunt Coco met at Fish camp before their freshman year at A&M! Daddy holding babies! I could not get Jack to look at me.

Look who came to the party! Oh the Places You Will Go, and Happy Birthday to You, by Dr. Seuss!

We had more balloons outside but they popped! It's so windy here in Cypress.

We loved having all 4 grandparents here, Grady's great-grandmother Gigi, Aunt Coco and his 4 cousins (Kyle, Grant, Blake and Megan) from San Antonio, Great-Uncle Tom from Dallas, the Mercer's, and Jenny and Kaylee. Thank you all for coming to celebrate our sweet boy's big day!

Sweeties

2011-07-08T13:25:00.004-05:00

Yesterday we went to Cracker Barrel and Grady got to play with a bunch of the toys in the store. He was obsessed with this puppy that laughed and rolled. Then he just pulled it out and climbed in the basket with it!
The other day Daddy took Grady for a follow-up ear appointment so Mommy and Cassidy got to have some special time with just the two of us. I took her to Arby's for a milkshake. We pretty much never eat at Arby's (we don't really do fast food except Chic-fil-a) but I've convinced her Arby's is the only place to get a milkshake! She'll now even say "Go to Arby's, get milkshake?" Ha!

We also got some really good news yesterday - Cassidy got in to the MDO (Mother's Day Out) program I was hoping for! I wasn't planning to send her to MDO for another year, but things have been tough with the two kiddos this age and Cassidy really does get bored and likes to leave the house so I decided to do it a year early. It will give her some structure and time away, and it will give me the chance to spend some one-on-one time with Grady w/out worrying about what Cassidy is getting into! She was on the wait-list at our church but we got the call that she's in, and on the two days I really wanted! Thank you Lord! Her first day of school will be August 31st! And Grady's birthday party is tomorrow so we're looking forward to seeing family and celebrating our little guy.

Happy 1st Birthday Grady Harrison!

2011-07-07T09:13:00.005-05:00

Waking up 1!
Eating donuts for the first time!It's Grady's Birthday!

Grady,
I pray the Lord will hold you close and keep you through the night,
That you will wake up smiling in the early morning light,
That He will always comfort you and make you brave and strong,
I pray that you will follow Him your whole life long.

I pray that you will grow up to be wise and good and true,
I pray that you will please the Lord in everything you do,
I pray that you will hear His voice and learn to sing His song,
I pray that you will follow Him your whole life long.

I pray the Lord will bless you with His presence everyday,
I pray He will protect you every step along the way,
Help you love what's right and lead you far away from wrong,
I pray that you will follow Him your whole life long.

-Twila Paris, Your Whole Life Long

Holiday at the Big House

2011-07-05T11:02:00.003-05:00

We had an interesting 4th of July. Chad ended up taking the kids with him up to his parents house (about 2 hours from Houston) on Sunday and came back Monday. I stayed home to watch dogs and get a bunch of house projects done. I wasn't sure how I felt about the arrangement, but after getting to sleep past 8am two mornings in a row and getting 2 big projects done, it worked out great!
Cassidy and Grady apparently had a good time at their grandparents new retirement house.

They played and blew bubbles and went for hikes.

I had to crop this picture b/c this is what happens when Mommy isn't around - a naked 2 year old in the background, even though I packed a swimsuit! I guess that is just how they do things in the country. ;)

I'll post before and afters of my home projects soon. We had built-ins done and I want to get them finished and staged before I post.

Happy July 4th!

2011-07-01T14:59:00.002-05:00

We hope...
...you all have a Happy July 4th Holiday!

And that you wear fun summer shoes to show off your first time with painted toenails. :)

Oh, Busy-ness

2011-06-30T13:07:00.004-05:00

Boy oh boy are we busy these days! I honestly just can't keep up with this poor blog. I'm not going away, so don't cry (ha!), but I'm just not sure when to find a time to keep up with pictures along with posting them. Right now I have about 40 minutes to do this post, then go get ready while the kids nap for Grady's follow-up ear appointment, all while waiting for our carpenter to call/show up!
Cassie Beth is keeping us on our toes these days. It is quite the rollercoaster experience living with a 2 year old. In a 3 minute span she can go from being the cutest, most adorable, sweet, funny kid I've ever laid eyes on, to a little terror that I'm not sure I carried because there is no way I could create something that would act like that.

So far we had gotten away with most meltdowns only happening at home. I've now had the joy of witnessing two in public at stores. Thankfully I've been greeted by looks of sympathy and laughter, mostly older people thanking the Lord their kids aren't 2 anymore!

This little guy, while somewhat unpredictable himself, is into a pretty spectacular stage. He just took his first steps yesterday! We thought he was nowhere near doing it and all of a sudden he just up and walked about 4 steps from a chair to the table. What a nut. So who knows, he may be walking by his first birthday yet! He is saying several words like: mama, dada, up, bye...and I think he tries to say others like "dog" but it hasn't been consistent enough yet to count. He is teething like crazy - it took a while for him to get a single tooth, but once it came in, they haven't stopped. He's just a slobbery mess all the time and I just love it. :)

I borrowed my mom's spare walker and he's been cruising around the downstairs in this thing. It's really more like bumper-cars, but it's the only contraption he'll still let me put him in since it doesn't stay stationary. And this kid is on the go! No time for breaks. Places to go. People to see. Drawers to get into. Dog food to eat! Busy!

We hope you all have a great 4th of July! G-man turns 1 exactly one week from today. He's having a small Dr. Seuss party on the 9th. Thing 1 will be there, and Thing 2 will be the main attraction!

All Is Well

2011-06-17T12:48:00.003-05:00

I know you can't tell from this picture:
But all is well in the Supan home. Grady's surgery/procedure went really well. They removed the cyst and it was not behind his eardrum, so he should be free and clear. And it turned out they didn't even have to give him an IV, but just used the mask to put him under.

And I have to admit, he was SO adorable when he came out of it. He is so stinkin' busy these days that I rarely get to just sit and cuddle with him so my heart was swelling with joy getting to hold a cuddly baby for a change.

That didn't last though. ;) We are back to our normal, busy self today! All we have to do now is keep his ear dry for 2 weeks and put in some ear drops. The hole in his eardrum should heal and that's that.

Little Miss had a good time hanging out with her Mimi C while we were at the hospital. She got to go to IHOP for pancakes, then to Walmart and Hobby Lobby. What girl wouldn't love that day?

I'm so grateful to God that this turned out to be something minor. In 2+ years, I've never been to the hospital with one of my kids (outside of delivering them!) and it was eye opening to how that must feel for parents that have kids with chronic issues/major illnesses. Bless those strong parents.

We hope everyone has a great weekend and Father's Day! Go spoil those Daddy's!

Silliness and Surgery

2011-06-09T12:47:00.010-05:00

Silly girl:
We are having a fun summer so far!

And we are loving having long enough hair to put some pig tails in! Cassie Beth is truly showing signs of being a girl, asking for her hair to be done a certain way, and starting to have opinions about what to wear. I'll find her naked sometimes b/c she wants to change clothes. Awesome, because I don't have enough laundry to do!

Grady had his ENT appt. today about his Cholesteatoma. Turns out he really does have one, and they are pretty rare. His is congenital, meaning he was born with it vs. developing it later. It is basically a little bump or tumor that looks like a pearl, and right now it's on the outside of his eardrum. Which is good b/c having it behind the eardrum is where it can break bones and cause deafness and all kinds of issues. He will have a little surgery to hopefully remove it next Thursday. It should be quick and easy and we'll be out of the hospital by lunch. There is a small chance that it actually is behind his eardrum too, but they won't know until the surgery. If that is the case, they'll abort the surgery and we'll have to discuss where we go from there. I'm praying that it's just the simple one and he'll be fine - I feel in my gut it is and we have nothing to worry about. They did a ton of hearing tests on him today (let me tell you how fun that is with an 11 month old!) and right now his hearing is great and has not been affected one bit. Praise God for that! And praise God for a pediatrician who caught this - our Pediatric ENT was truly amazed that he saw it, so yay for Dr. Knapick.

Our little guy was such a trooper through the long, involved appointment. After being there over an hour and being poked and prodded and physically held down, he finally had a little meltdown in the consultation room. My son is a sleeper and this was his nap time so I just felt bad for him. Thankfully anytime a nurse showed up, he went into HAM mode and became his normal flirty, happy-go-lucky self. :) Gotta love it when your babies act atrocious for you but are angels for others. Although I've read that it's a good sign b/c it shows how safe they feel with you. He must feel really safe with his Mama! :)

He may have to get a special treat tonight. Maybe pizza, or some icecream. Something I probably didn't give Cassidy until she turned 2....

1 Month to Go until 1!

2011-06-07T14:34:00.004-05:00

Grady Harrison Supan, you are 11 months old today!
This kid is such a mess! I dearly wish I had an adorable, posed picture to post today but he really doesn't sit still for those. I may try again later this afternoon.

With only 1 month to go until you turn 1, you are relishing your first year! You started walking with the help of your little toy walker, and you cruise along furniture and will free-stand for about 1 second, but so far you don't seem too interested in walking now that you've mastered your crazy-man-crawl. You will race us anywhere and make the nursery workers laugh over what a bullet you are when you see something you want.

You are not the eater your sister was, but that's okay. You L-O-V-E Veggie Pirate's Booty (Veggi-booty). And you love Mum-mums, which, by the way, was your first word. You also like cheese, but could do without most all other food groups. You simply don't seem to want to slow down to eat, whether it's bites of food or a bottle. You have places to go!

You definitely say a few words now, which is surprising to me! You say Mum-mum, bye, hi, and I think you say Mama. But your understanding is what amazes me, as we learned the other night when Daddy said it was "time for Grady to go night-night" and you started crying.

You love your sister too, and want to be wherever she is, much to Cassidy's chagrin. You are already living up to that "little brother" label. You also love other babies and will lunge towards baby Jack and try to eat his face any chance you get! (baby Jack is my friend Cristie's 8 month old)

It's hard to say what you're most interested in right now. You definitely like Mickey Mouse on TV. I can already tell a difference in your interest in the TV vs. your sisters. Maybe you'll actually give your mommy a break now and then and watch a show! And you like balls, but mostly I'd say you love the toy kitchen. Beyond that, your favorite toy is whatever toy Cassidy is playing with at that moment. :)

You are becoming a total flirt too. You will wave to any stranger you see any chance you get. I think you've figured out the attention you receive when you do it and you love it. Your big, blue eyes definitely draw people in so when you add a wave and smile to that, look out world! Your "tricks" are waving, putting your hand over you mouth to make the "oh-oh-oh" sound, putting both hands in the air when we ask you how big you are, and clapping. Mama's been trying to teach you to shake your head no when she asks "do you want to be a t-sip?" and you have done it, but we still need some practice.

You have three top teeth with a 4th breaking through right now, and two bottom teeth. You still sleep with a paci, and only the kind they gave you in the hospital. I have to put 5 in your crib at night b/c you think it's fun to throw them out and see where they land, but you get mad when you don't have one in your hand. I had to take you to the pediatrician the other day for your ear and you were 22.6 lbs. Still long and lean. You were diagnosed with a Cholesteatoma in your ear and are going to see an ENT soon about it. We hope it's a minor case and won't be hard to fix.

We love you so much and are so happy you are in our lives. You are a wonderful sleeper and a total trooper when we drag you out on all our family outings. You rarely even complain if mommy forgets to feed you a bottle (not that she ever does that!). I cannot believe you will be 1 year old next month and wish you would stay a baby forever. I was very ready for Cassidy to grow up and reach each new stage, but I would keep you little forever if I could my sweet, little man.

Our World, Going Green

2011-05-26T13:36:00.004-05:00

This is not letting me embed the video for some reason, but I wanted to share this.

http://youtu.be/5vAVkv1LBx8

We have really started to make an effort at this stuff, but it is overwhelming when you think about how much is out there. Short of moving to a farm (sorry, but I'm not The Pioneer Woman!), I guess we just take baby steps and continue to pray for our kids and their health and the world we live in.

(Thanks Jenna for sharing)

Finally Teeth!

2011-05-25T09:11:00.002-05:00

Grady Harrison had some blackberries this morning and to say he loved them is a major understatement! And I love this picture b/c you can finally see his teeth! Sweet boy!
Aunt Coco sent us a horse that her kids outgrew and Cassidy is always wanting me to take her picture on that thing. Here she is this morning showing me her riding skills.

My Busy Boy

2011-05-24T15:34:00.003-05:00

I know this is kind of long, so don't feel like you have to watch. :) But here is a cute video of my diaper boy crawling up the stairs. I keep trying to get his "tricks" on camera but have not had much luck!

My Southern Girl

2011-05-24T14:40:00.005-05:00

Here is a cute video of Cassidy eating corn on the cob. I had never thought to give it to her but we went to the farmers market on Saturday and had a wonderful veggie dinner Sunday evening and she finished off Daddy's corn!

Crazy Girl

2011-05-23T13:26:00.001-05:00

Doing "2" Right!

2011-05-17T13:05:00.002-05:00

Did y'all see the picture a few posts down of where Cassidy got ahold of a brown sharpee marker and drew on my new dining room wall? Well here was yesterday's latest escapade by my 2 year old.
Please note there is a child-proof cap on the pantry door knob. Mommy apparently didn't close it all the way.

Let me tell you how easily those candy sprinkles sweep up. NOT! My sister had a saying for her daughter Megan (who got into everything at 2): "If you're going to be 2, you may as well do it right!" Cassidy is living that statement to the fullest!

And a few pics from the weekend. We ended up going up to Chad's parents house to see their new house and for Chad to help move some heavy stuff.

The kiddos on the deck:

Pool time!

Grady's obsession with cameras is obvious here:

Cassidy on a boat ride. Doesn't she look like she's having a great time? ;)

Sometime in the next few days I'm going to take some pretty pics of my sweet girl...things have been so crazy I haven't gotten any pictures to show how cute she is becoming. :)

Nothing Gets Done

2011-05-11T09:27:00.007-05:00

It's true, nothing gets done. Because of these two munchkins. Thankfully we are going to be here for the next 25 years so we're not in a rush. :)

One thing I did get done was refinishing a table. We got a gift certificate from our builder to a local furniture store. We needed a kitchen table b/c we moved our other one into our dining room. But this store only had the counter-height kind. Super frustrating when you live with toddlers and can't use that. The only table they had that was "normal" is this one:
Don't get me wrong. It's fine. But it just isn't "us". So we bought it anyway, and I repainted all the white parts red and then sanded and re-stained the top to a darker wood. I got the idea from here:

And here is the finished product:

I think it looks pretty good, plus now we have a table that our kids can demolish over the years and we won't care because it was basically free. :)

Chad posted below about Mother's Day and he really did a great job. I got to have a "Mother's Weekend" really. He made me a cake (per my request, marble cake with chocolate cream cheese frosting), he brought me breakfast, he sent me flowers, he had the kids make me a gift, and he got me some new workout tops (to counteract the cake I suppose!). What a great husband, eh? Sorry ladies, he's very taken!

Mother's Day 2011

2011-05-09T21:50:00.003-05:00

A few pics of Kristen and the kids...we had a busy Mother's Day with lots of house projects, trips to Lowe's, and a trip to Brookwood for plants. Kristen got to sleep in a tiny bit. Oh, and everyone ate cake. We hope all the Moms out there had a special day!

Cassidy says, "Happy Mommy's Day!"

The kids and I made a plaster stone with their handprints...sort of. Cassidy was very proud of her handiwork. Daddy and craft projects are a tough combo.

Grady served as Project Supervisor...New dining room wall? Meet Cassidy and a brown Sharpie! Luckily, we're painting this wall soon.

Whew! And New Address :)

2011-05-02T16:16:00.003-05:00

My goodness! I have moved many times in my life. Many. But I have never moved as a "family" and with two kids and an entire house full of furniture. And may I just say my goodness. We've been in our new home a little over a week and there are still boxes everywhere, not to mention a 3-car garage that we can't fit a single car in right now. Turns out it's hard to do much with these two around, so we're left to the evenings (when I'm ready to drop!) and the weekends, of which we've only had one. I figure at this rate we'll be settled in by September. Sounds good. :)

Here's a few recent pics to tide you over until I can blog again...in September.

Last bath at the old house!

What playtime looks like in the new house. :)
Grady eating big-boy food!

Cassidy playing with Easter goodies.

Easter morning (which I must confess happened Monday morning!). Thank goodness for a God who is RISEN, and kids who don't know a Sunday from a Monday.

Cassidy digging through her basket.

Hopefully y'all enjoyed the post last month in the bluebonnets where they were both in their Easter attire. :)

Cozy Coupe, Pigtails, and 9 mo. Stats

2011-04-10T19:23:00.003-05:00

We have a new game! Grady can actually sit up in the Cozy Coupe and hold the wheel while big sister pushed him around. Fun for all! :)

We had Grady's 9 month well baby appt. today and his stats are:

Height - 29 1/4" - 80%

Weight - 20 lbs. 15 oz. - 50%

Head - 45.5cm - 50%

He's still tall and lean! For comparison, here were Cassidy's 9 month stats. They are the exact same height/length, almost the same head size, and Cassidy was 2 lbs. heavier. I'm glad to see this b/c I feel like eventually Grady will be able to hold his own against his big sister.

He's doing great developmentally. He has two bottom teeth, one top tooth, and the second top tooth is coming in, so almost 4 teeth. He is still doing his funny little inchworm crawl, but he's also pulling up and can cruise furniture already so our Ped said he may even skip crawling and go straight to walking. (for all you "older" folk who read this blog, it is an old wives tale that babies need to crawl!) He tries so hard to keep up with Cassidy!

Speaking of big sister, here she is in pig tails. She just now finally has enough hair to pull this off (kind of). Excuse the quality, it was taken with my phone. So fun!

GHS - 9 months

2011-04-07T16:13:00.004-05:00

Hello World, I am 9 months old!

I'm a super happy baby who is into everything.

I LOVE to climb on anything I can get my hands on.

And I have a big sister who I think hung the moon. She's always teaching me new things.

I hear she's pretty cute, too. I just wish she would share Elmo with me.

I haven't had my 9 month well baby appointment yet, but when I do, my Mom will come back and post stats. Assuming I get to go before I turn 1. Later Gators!

SOLD

2011-04-06T19:46:00.003-05:00

And this is why my blogging has taken a hiatus. The Supan Clan is moving. YAY! We are going to miss our sweet home, but we feel extremely blessed to have found this new home, and it will give us the room we need for our growing family. It's been so clear that this was the right decision. We are getting an incredible deal on a brand new home due to the market being the way it is. It's in a neighborhood we love that has a golf course for Chad. :) We weren't sure it would happen since we had to sell our house, but after putting our house on the market on a Tuesday, we had an offer on it by that Sunday evening. AMAZING. And to make things even sweeter, it's a couple with a 16 month old baby girl. So now we are in the midst of trying to pack up this home with a 2 year old and a 9 month old underfoot. Any tips from those of you who have moved with small kiddos? I'm all ears! Happy Trails!

WHOOP!

2011-04-06T09:03:00.001-05:00

Well forget Kentucky! How 'bout those Aggies?! I have to admit I don't typically care about the women's basketball (shame on me), but it is awesome that they are now the National Champs! WHOOP! Gig 'em Ags!

Bluebonnets 2011!

2011-04-05T14:10:00.005-05:00

First of all, as Kentucky fans, Grady would like to say that even though the Wildcats got booted after the Final 4, we still consider them #1!

As many Texans do, we go take pictures in the bluebonnets yearly. This was Grady's first year, and Cassidy's third. I can't believe my sweet girl is old enough to have any yearly thing be her third, but here we are! Surprisingly to Mama, Grady was a joy and easy to get a shot of. Big Sister not so much.

Pretty boy, unfortunately the angle doesn't show off his eyes.

I just love this picture of Cassidy, minus the scowl. :)

Here's a smiley one, but bad lighting.

Grady was totally obsessed with the bluebonnets. I told him that it was our state flower and illegal to pick them, but he did not listen!

It was actually a gorgeous, wonderful Saturday. My blogging has been slowed due to these above two monkeys, plus a couple other things going on. I did make it to my first spin class at the Y yesterday, and it kicked my tail. But I look forward to the next one!

Friday Fun!

2011-03-18T13:07:00.003-05:00

We had all kinds of fun this morning playing outside.

This is from the other day but it is too cute not to post. She is SO into dressing up right now!

Grady checking out the world
She kept striking this pose and sticking her belly out. She cracks me up.

Who needs a door when you can climb through a window?

Hello!

Smiles!

Check out those cheeks!

Hope everyone has a great weekend! Spring officially begins on Sunday! Since we've been in the 80's for a week, I should think so!

Big Girl Room

2011-03-10T06:52:00.000-06:00

I forgot to post pictures a few weeks ago when we moved Cassidy to a big girl bed. Here is her new room with her crib gone, and a double bed. I can't believe my "baby" is in a bed now. She's been doing great overall. Last night was actually our worst night yet in 3 weeks. The only big annoyance has been the mornings - she always has woken up early but she would just sit quietly in her crib and play or fall back asleep. Well now that she can get out, she is quiet no more! I am not loving these new early mornings. I just don't function before 6am so I'm hoping that will level out eventually, and truthfully it is getting a little better and it's more like 6:20am these days. I just wish it was more like 7...or 8! I'm not sure why we chose to do this now. She just seemed too big for the crib. It may have been a bad idea. A 3 year old in a crib is sounding better and better. :)

(I know the shelves are too high, but her changing table used to be under them and I've been too lazy to take them down and relevel them!)

Lots of Babies

2011-03-09T08:00:00.002-06:00

We had a little playdate yesterday at my friend Kylee's house. It was technically the first playdate where it was more about babies Grady's age than Cassidy. :) But big girl still had a great time. Here's the crew hanging out on the couch. Don't they all look thrilled? ;)

8 Month Old Stud Muffin!

2011-03-07T12:42:00.006-06:00

Grady is 8 months old today! Can you believe in only 4 more months he'll be 1? Me either. He LOVES swinging outside. And he LOVES his sister!
Cassidy likes to think she can help push him...but she'd end up in another cast if I let her without close-by supervision.

Here is Grady's "crawl". I put that in quotations because I'm not sure you can really call this crawling. My friend Lindsey watched him this morning and she called him a seal. We call him an inchworm. Either way, the dude gets around all on his own!

A Birthday Bash

2011-03-07T12:34:00.003-06:00

We had a great little family party on Saturday to celebrate Cassidy's birthday. She ate it up, and her cake too. :) Today was an extra-special present: she got her cast off! Praise the Lord that is finally done!

Happy 2nd Birthday Cassidy!

2011-03-03T09:30:00.002-06:00

Our sweet baby girl is 2 years old today! We made waffles to celebrate.

Yum!
Oooooohh....SYRUP!

Grady-bub joined the fun.

I let her open a little gift from her friend Madeline. The rest she'll get at her party Saturday.

Cassidy Elizabeth, you are such a doll. Your personality just can't be topped and we adore you. We pray God continues to grow you into the joy you've become.

Movin' and Groovin'

2011-02-25T06:55:00.004-06:00

Grady is on his way to crawling. I really thought it would be a while, but he just took off. He can get in the crawl position and then lunge over and over to get what he wants. He just hasn't quite figured out the coordination of moving each hand.

Big sister is not loving little brothers new found ability.
My loves (yes, Cassidy still loves those goggles!)

She is so nurturing. Here she is with a baby in her sling, feeding it a bottle. Like Mommy, like Cassidy. :)

TGIF!!!

Five Before Noon

2011-02-21T12:12:00.003-06:00

I've changed 5 poopy diapers already today and it's not even noon yet. I think I've abandoned the idea of a third baby completely. And I think I'm okay with that.

These are our neighbors RoRo (Roland) and Cha Cha (Charlsie). They want us to go in together and buy a new fence. I can't imagine why. The current one is clearly beautiful and in great shape.

Cassidy is totally getting into that showing-off stage. Anytime someone else is around, she hams it up. Here she is showing off for above-mentioned neighbors. (P.S. Rebekah, yes we're in shorts - spring has sprung in Houston!)

We've had a lot going on lately. I remember when Chad and I could complete a project in a day. Now it literally takes months since we can only work in very select times. If it requires power tools, it can't be while the kids are sleeping (naps or nighttime), yet it's near impossible to do anything at all while they are awake. You would think we'd just give up until our kids are like 8. Some days I want to. :)

I'm Good

2011-02-17T10:47:00.004-06:00

Who has a broken arm?

No stinkin' cast is going to slow this girl down!
I took a picture of my guest room last night. I'm wondering if I'm the only one who lets this happen. It is just SO hard to keep up with laundry since I can't put any of it away while the kids are awake without one of them plowing back through it all, and then when they're in bed I can't get to their rooms to put things up. So I use our guest bed as a dump for clean clothes. I hate that I do this, and I'm going to have to come up with another system soon since we're turning the extra room into the playroom in a few weeks. For the record, I sorted it all last night and the bed is clear...for now. :)

T-O-U-G-H

2011-02-14T16:50:00.003-06:00

Tough. That is what this kiddo is.

See that pathetic pink cast? Yep, Cassidy broke her arm. *gasp*
We baked some oatmeal chocolate chip cookies today as a reward for being such a strong, amazing girl.

Long story short, Thursday evening after dinner Cassidy was playing on our bed while we were all in the bedroom. I had just put our feather duvet back on the bed and I guess b/c it's so fluffy, she just didn't realize where the edge of the bed was b/c she basically crawled off and flipped. Apparently she just landed on her arm funny (we have a high bed, too). She just got her cast on today at the Orthopedic surgeons and it went very smoothly. She acts like nothing is wrong and will tell you all about her "boo boo, bed", but mommy gained a few gray hairs from the experience. :) Thankfully she's supposed to recover 100% and will get her cast off in about 3 weeks. Chad and I pick up our "Parents of the Year" awards next week at a banquet. :)

Here's Grady-bub jumping while we bake.

And this is fuzzy but I just loved his hair in this picture!

On a day like this....

2011-02-14T08:25:00.000-06:00

Happy Valentines Day from the Supans! This post is dedicated to my wonderful husband. He was truly a man worth waiting for and the kind of father to my kids I only dreamed about. And for your viewing pleasure, here is the video we used at our rehearsal dinner (edited to go faster so you're not all bored to tears!). For those who have never done the math and can't believe the date on the first slide, yes we've only been married 3 years next month and we'll have a 24 month old and an 8 month old. But we wouldn't change a thing!

Whirly Pop Kind of Day

2011-02-08T18:26:00.005-06:00

Chad has been working insane hours pretty much since the new year and after being out of town last week, he took Monday off to spend with us. We went to Chick-fil-a and Cassidy got "bonked on slide by big kid" and later that day we went to Cypress Orange Leaf. That is a self-serve yogurt place and it is by far the best in the city (in our oh-so-humble opinions!). Today Cassidy's friend Tyler came over while his mommy took his baby brother Jack to the pediatrician, so we just hung out at the house all day.

We went on the patio to play, but it was super windy so that didn't last long!

Silly girl's smile
Grady was not keen on the cool temp and the wind!

Big girl braved it for a while.

Lovin' on brother

Then we came inside and busted out the Whirly Pop. 'Cause it was a Whirly Pop kind of day!

Yum!

I've now got one kid in bed already, and another heading that way. Nobody napped great today and somebody (I won't name names...CASSIDY) was up at 5:15am this morning so early to bed it is!

Stunning Seven Months

2011-02-07T18:11:00.003-06:00

Happy 7 month birthday, Grady!

He is such a happy little guy.
Well, before 5pm anyway. He is like his mommy and really needs his sleep so if he wakes up early from his afternoon naps, the evenings can be difficult. But you wouldn't know it looking at this sweet face!
Grady is sitting up on his own, a trick he learned about a week ago. He can also get up on his hands and knees and rock, but that usually ends in a lunge/face-plant. He can army crawl but tends to end up going backwards.

And BOY can this boy JUMP! He is a maniac in his jumpers! Everyone, from my MOPS workers to the YMCA workers comment on this kids jumping. He is busy, busy (a.k.a. squirmy!). He has definitely hit that "golden baby" stage and I wouldn't trade him or this time for anything. He is still spitting up - so much for "most" babies outgrowing reflux by 7 months. But he is off the Prevacid so now it's just a matter of changing clothes a lot, and going through 5 bibs a day. :) He's loving his baby food and so far has had apples, pears, sweet potatoes, acorn squash, carrots, banana, oats and peas. I need to get going on making more variety - I'm pretty sure Cassidy had had double this amount of varieties by this point! He's still not a huge bottle baby - he has 4 bottles per day and typically drinks 6 ounces but can go up to 8 ounces. He's barely getting what the Ped wants him to get each day but he's thriving and growing so we're just letting him lead the way.

He LOVES his sister and will stop jumping and just stare at her anytime she comes near him. They've started having little squealing matches too, both at home and in the car! As loud as it is, it thrills me to see them "playing" together. I can't believe this is how old Cassidy was when we got pregnant with Grady - WHAT were we thinking?! ;) But God knew best and we are so in love with our little Grady Harrison Supan.

Flower Power/Swinging Studmuffin

2011-01-30T11:14:00.002-06:00

Grady is loving the baby swing on the patio. Even though we have a park 3 houses down from us, it's very nice having a patio where they can play safely!
Cassidy totally gets into dressing up, if you didn't already know that. This morning I pulled out this headband for her and she's been prancing around the house, showing off her style.

Our little Hippy.

20 Truths and No Lies

2011-01-28T13:25:00.010-06:00

1. I never participate in this blog-tag stuff, but have twice now through this blog. Apparently I dig her blog-y-ness. She used to be on Lassie. My family will find that funny since I was obsessed with Lassie as a kid and always wanted a collie.

2. I joined Facebook late in the game and don't do status updates, and have never seen Twitter and hope to never know what it really is.

3. I have two kids under 2 and am hoping my husband joins me in wanting to adopt a 3rd child someday (speaking of, I met a girl at MOPS today who is getting certified to be a child advocate and I'm pretty sure God's going to use her to bring us a child down the road - she agrees).

4. We joined our local YMCA and I'm becoming addicted and go almost everyday if I can. So far I'm loving reformer and mat Pilates, Yoga and Zumba. I'm very out of shape due to aforementioned 2 kids under 2.

5. I'm taking my almost-2-year old out today to get her first haircut. Bye bye mullet.

(mullet gone!)

6. My favorite TV show is biggest loser. And I've watched an entire episode while eating Blue Bell Ice Cream.

7. I wanted a cat my whole life. When I was 12 (ish) my parents finally let me get a kitten. She hated me and became attached to my sister. I gave her to my sister for her birthday with a bow around her neck. Chad and I adopted his old roommates cat when we got married. She hated our dog and had to go live with an old lady. I think I'm meant to only have dogs.

8. I love coffee. That was by far the hardest part of being pregnant for me!

9. Chad plays the guitar and has spiky hair. But he's really a big nerd like me.

10. I love to decorate my house for the holidays. Not just Christmas, but all holidays.

11. Although most of my life has been spent in Texas, I would move tomorrow. But only out of the country, or someplace in the south, west or northwest.

12. I've been to Australia and did the Sydney Bridge Climb (take that Oprah!).

13. I have 3 nieces and 3 nephews. My nephew Grant just won his school spelling bee and goes to the city-wide meet in a few weeks.

14. I secretly love listening to my daughter's Praise Baby cd's.

15. I drive a DMV (dirty minivan) and don't think SUV's are any cooler (though I did at one point!).

16. I'm having a really hard time coming up with 20 things to say.

17. I'm secretly (or not-so-secretly) proud that Cassidy would choose broccoli to eat over just about anything.

18. I was on the dance team in high school and even took Salsa classes a few years back, but I am probably the worst "dancer" in my Zumba class. I'm so white it's ridiculous.

19. I would choose a vacation in the mountains over the beach any day.

20. I now know why I never do these things. :)

Wild Things Make My Heart Sing!

2011-01-25T13:08:00.005-06:00

When I was pregnant with Cassidy, I joined an expecting club of mom's all due in March of 2009. Almost 2 1/2 years later and we had our first group playdate! Girls flew in from all over the country (seriously!).

Here is the group (The Wild Things) and where they live:
(top L-R)Hope & Emma (Rhode Island); Tyffani & Alex (Phoenix); Me & Cassidy (Houston); Kelly & Olivia (Illinois); Krystin & Eva (Texas); Molly & Norah (New Hampshire)
(bottom L-R) Jenn & Courtney (Minnesota); Marcy & Halle (Houston); Rachel & Hayden (Missouri); Eva & Jackson (Florida); Elizabeth & Ava (Georgia)

Cassidy hamming it up one night, wearing all her "boas"

Jenn and Courtney stayed at our house. Courtney and Cassidy were born the same day (3-3-09) and have always been very similar and tall!

I LOVED this one. So cute.

Courtney Jo

Sweet Alex

Model Pose Emma

Cutie Pie Norah (and a runny nose!)

Sadly, Courtney and I both caught a stomach bug so the last part of the party wasn't as much fun. But it was such a treat to meet all these women an these precious little nuggets I've heard so much about all these years!

January Visitors

2011-01-25T12:52:00.003-06:00

We've had a busy first month of 2011! Last week my friend Tillie came over since she had MLK day off. It was great to see her, and she was SO helpful with the kiddos, which was especially nice since Chad has been working so late lately.

This little girl is starting to get some at-ti-tude.
Sometimes it's stinkin' cute. Sometimes it's not.

More to come when I can find time to upload more!

Wild Wednesday!

2011-01-12T13:40:00.006-06:00

We had a playdate over at our house today with range of ages from 3 months to 27 months! Cassidy had a blast. Mommy just spent half the naptime cleaning. ;) Both kids zonked right out after everyone left. Whew!

3 month old baby Jack in the jumper

Caroline (or Claire?), ready for a nap! (Karie???)
Claire (or Caroline), sweet, sweet smile!

Cassidy sitting as close to Grant as she could get
(he is a looker, so I don't blame her! ha!)

Grady hanging in the exersaucer

Jennifer with happy Bryson

Tyler would not look at me! Stinker.

One terrible group shot

Another terrible group shot
(w/proof that Jackson was there!)

I'm very thankful for busy mornings like this, and girls that live so close and will be my friends. :)

6 Months Continued!

2011-01-11T17:42:00.003-06:00

Grady had his well baby 6 month visit today and he was a trooper. Poor little guy cried and cried as he kept getting poked (4 shots!!) but as soon as it was done, he zonked out. I really hate that part of well baby visits, but thankfully at 9 months they don't get any shots.

6 Month Stats:
Height - 27.25" - 75%
Weight - 17 lbs. 10 oz. - 50%
Head - 43.9 cm - ??

He's long and skinny! I was happy to see he was average for weight. I feel much better with him at 50% than 25%. His pediatrician said it was no wonder he was skinny b/c he squirmed and moved and jumped the entire visit. He also said it's no wonder he still has reflux. (yay)

Sometimes Grady is awake already when Cassidy awakens from her nap so I'll carry him in there with me and she'll say "Oh Grady!" and then want me to put him in her crib with her.

So serious. This little girl is not very serious. :)
She loves giving kisses to her brother. It's actually been somewhat cold here so Annie
was sporting her old-school sweater.

That's all for now! We have a playdate tomorrow, and MOPS begins again on Friday so I'm looking forward to that. Then my friend Jenn comes into town next week from Minnesota with Cassidy's little twin, Courtney. They were born on the exact same day (3/3/09) and have always both been tall girls and very similar. We can't wait to get them together.

Two Boys and a Girl

2011-01-09T12:39:00.003-06:00

Sounds like a movie title, doesn't it? :)

We went over to Lindsey's house on Friday to play with Jackson and Grant. Cassidy's been there many times but this time when she saw his swing set in the backyard, she yelled "Park!!"
It was the day of the Cotton Bowl (sorry Ags) so we were all decked out in our Aggie finest.

Grant is one of the most handsome little boys you'll ever see - but he would not smile for me! He just kept giving me this scowl.

I love Jackson's hair in this picture - ha! He is like Cassidy and a little ham for the camera.

Cassidy loved getting to play with Jackson's train set so I think we may need to buy one for Grady for his birthday even though he won't quite be ready for it. G-man was there but was being held by others or hanging out in the jumparoo. ;) It's so nice to have friends with kids right at Cassidy's age - I don't know if y'all remember Cassidy's first baby playdate, but we still see almost all of those kiddos and their mama's. Not all at once at my house usually, though. ;)

6 Month Old Baby Boy!

2011-01-07T12:41:00.008-06:00

Who can believe our little baby is now 6 months old? I know Mommy sure can't. This little guy is just a light in my life. Grady is the sweetest baby and overall very easy. Poor little guy is still suffering from reflux and pretty much hates changing clothes 5 times a day, but other than that it doesn't seem to bother him. He has his well baby appt. next week so we'll know his stats then, but I'm pretty sure he's still our peanut. He has 4 bottles a day and eat between 5-8 oz. each time. He has solids once or twice a day and so far has eaten oats, sweet potato, acorn squash, banana, and apples. Somehow I'm managing to make his baby food too, and I still love doing it. He is not that into bottles and would rather be watching big sister or jumping in his jumparoo. And boy does this baby LOVE to jump! He's a rolling fool, so we can no longer leave him on a bed unattended, and he is learning to sit up. He can sit up for maybe 30 seconds, and he can do the tripod sitting for minutes before toppling over. He doesn't really like to sit though - he would rather be standing and really fights being put in the sitting position. He can also already pull up to a standing position by holding my fingers and he'll kind of army crawl or ooch his way to something he really wants. He's doing great and progressing at his own rate - I am in no hurry for my little baby to grow up, though!

Cassidy is doing a wonderful job as big sister. She has grown up enough now to be more empathetic to the fact that he's a baby. And she is totally into her baby dolls b/c of him! She spends most of her day carrying around babies, feeding them bottles, changing diapers, etc. She loves to make Grady laugh and will say "Boo!" to him. We've even gotten to the point where I can actually put Grady on the floor and have her in the same room and actually leave for a minute or two without worrying if she'll kill him. :) She does, however, try to pick him up and carry him so we're not totally free just yet. She is such a loving 22 month old big sister and we're so proud of how good she is with him.

Grady is being left with strangers much more than Cassidy was at this age. I am still doing MOPS and a bible study every Friday at church so Grady goes to the nursery then, as well as Sundays, and then we joined the YMCA and he stays in the nursery there. I have to admit it is a LOT easier to leave your second than your first. I think with two under two, you'll pretty much leave your kids with anyone who will take them. (open to offers, people!) :)

Happy 6 month birthday baby boy!

Where's Waldo?

2011-01-06T09:31:00.002-06:00

Cassidy is such a good helper. After I changed Grady yesterday, he was playing so we stayed on the table and Cassidy decided to give Grady some more things to play with. Think he's got enough?
This morning she found her travel diaper bag and some Cheese Nips that Mimi B. had put in there from the weekend. Surprise morning snack!

After seeing how much Grady was loving the jumparoo, I pulled out the door jumper and he was beside himself with joy! Not to mention it's great b/c if I put him in the door to our bedroom he can easily see me in the kitchen so I can get the dishes done while he parties away!

See ya later folks!

Future Food Network Star

2011-01-04T08:39:00.003-06:00

Cassidy got an awesome kitchen from Mimi B. and Grandpa (Pooh-Pa) for Christmas and she just loves it! Add on the fact that "eat" is her most used word, and I think we may have a future Food Network Star on our hands. :) (Bobbie? Paula?? Anyone???) Aunt Heather gave her the cutest little apron and chef hat...such a stylin' girl!
In the last few days she started making this funny face. Even this picture doesn't do it justice - I just need to bottle her up to save it forever.

Of course Grady Harrison is being as cute as ever...almost 6 months old! He LOVES his jumparoo. L-O-V-E-S it! He is our little string bean - he really doesn't care about eating and he is super active. Typical boy I suppose. Here he is mid-jump!

So Long 2010!

2011-01-01T06:29:00.006-06:00

God blessed our little family tremendously this year and we are so grateful. We hope in all our joking that it is known how truly thankful we are for our precious, healthy babies. This life is more than we could ever have asked God for. Going through pictures from this past year to post has literally brought tears to my eyes. I know my babies are still so young but I cannot believe how much Cassidy has grown. It's gone by so fast...too fast. Those weary nights with my newborn son that I wished away so I could sleep are a distant memory, one that despite my feelings at the time, I'll treasure my entire life. Thank you Jesus for my sweet, sweet Supan Clan.

January: Cassie Beth w/her walker

February: Not quite the ham she's become!

March: Bald Birthday Girl

April: Easter Egg Hunt at church May: Hanging out in a model home June: Dressing up on her own begins!

July: Scared Hair Man makes his grand entrance

July: What was left of my heart melts away in adoration

August: Besties

September: The Chaos Ensues

October: For Leila

November: Attempt at Family Portraits December: Christmas Angel
December: Golden Baby Days

We pray you all have a happy, healthy and wonderful New Year. May God bless each of you in 2011 beyond your wildest hopes!

A Few More

2010-12-31T16:45:00.004-06:00

With Daddy home, we've had quite a few trips to the park. I couldn't resist these two. :)

Last Lake Trip of 2010

2010-12-31T16:18:00.003-06:00

Grady had his first overnight trip to the lake, and we had our last Supan Clan trip to the lake for 2010. It was nice to go, but I don't think we'll be spending the night there again anytime soon. We all 4 sleep in the same room and Grady and Cassidy kept waking each other up. Grady decided to have a 1-man party in his crib at 2:30am, which normally wouldn't be a big deal, but big sister wasn't invited!

Grady's Great-Aunt DeeDee hung out with us and fed G-man some homemade apples and oats. Cassidy and Annie loved trompsing around the property, as usual. She really does love being outside!

Happy New Year's Eve everyone!

Christmas Time

2010-12-26T14:02:00.016-06:00

The Supan Clan was very blessed this Christmas, and we spent much of the time with family and friends. Here's a recap:

Each year Bob and Judy White (Jamie's parents) host a fabulous Country Christmas party at their house in Hockley. Cassidy loved the petting zoo, the playground, and the bounce house, and Grady enjoyed getting to snuggle up close to Mom and Dad in the frigid weather. Sadly, both kids were done before getting to meet Santa. Next year they should be able to hang in there until the big guy arrives.

Cassidy and Jamie in the petting zoo with a sheep... Kristen sitting around the fire pit...Grady is in there somewhere

Our first Christmas was at Mimi C and Poppy's with the Corpus Christi Supans. There was a second bonus lunch with the whole Hemann side of the family, where some of my extended family met Grady for the first time. This was the last Christmas in my parent's Missouri City house, as they'll retire to Huntsville in 2011.

Mimi C with all of her grandkids...Cassidy doing what she does best, and you can observe Grady's typical "pose" for any standing picture. Everyone else looks great! Not pictured: Poppy, who was feeling sick and ended up with walking pneumonia - I guess Poppy was on the naughty list.

The Supan cousins at the park after feeding the ducks. Yes, this is what happens when we ask Cassidy to smile.

Samantha and Grady were on my team for Monopoly...also known as "losing to Christopher"

Intermission: for those not familiar with Houston, you should know that we are frequently blessed (or cursed) with 80-degree weather even during the week of Christmas. Kristen and I prefer the cold, but it did provide Cassidy and I the opportunity to play at the park. Grady came a few times, but he's not too good on the jungle gym just yet. Cassidy still loves the rock wall and the slides. It also gives me a chance to practice with our new camera.

Okay, back to Christmas celebrations. Christmas Eve was spent trying to take some decent pictures of the kids, shopping for pre-Christmas Christmas clearance (Really? Target had all of the Christmas stuff on clearance and the Valentine's Day items on display - slow down!), and getting food ready for Christmas Day.

Kristen the lumberjack and the kids...I love Grady in overalls, but it took me about 45 minutes to get them on. There's a rule that Dads are terrible at putting clothes on their kids - seriously, google it.

This was the best of about 100 pictures in this pose. Cassidy still working on her smile...see above.

This is the dessert we served on Christmas Day. Chocolate Truffle Cheesecake - one of these pictures is from Southern Living, and the other is ours. Just try and figure out which is which :). Full disclosure: I stirred some stuff together and put it in the oven. Kristen gets the credit for making it look so nice.

On Christmas Day, the Brown side of the family came to our house. Mimi B brought a delicious breakfast and we opened presents. One thing we are especially thankful for is Cassidy and Grady getting to spend time with their great-grandmother (GiGi). She got big hugs from Cassidy, and smiles from Grady. Kristen and I enjoyed hosting the day and cooking a family meal, though even Grandpa couldn't finish his cheesecake - that's how rich it was.

Cassidy with her big gifts - Mimi B gave her the kitchen and Mimi C the table and chairs. She LOVES cooking, grilling, making coffee, serving it all up at the table, and then washing dishes.

Grady got some awesome presents too, but who cares about those when there's a Slinky box to chew on?

Cassidy definitely understood the concept of opening presents...

Our Christmas table...we served breakfast and lunch on Christmas china that was hand-painted by Kristen's great-aunt (when she was 80!) from Atlanta. As unabashed Christmas lovers, we thought this was spectacular and look forward to making it a tradition.

Kristen thinks this is Grady's cutest outfit, so it's been through the laundry every day for the last month so he can wear it to all the festivities.

4 generations...

This was Aunt Coco's (and Uncle Aaron's) present for the kids. Thanks Coco - she loves it!

The Supan Clan wishes everyone a Merry Christmas and a joyous 2011!

L-O-V-E

2010-12-23T13:51:00.000-06:00

So, so thankful for these two precious ones.

Let the Christmas Festivities Begin!

2010-12-22T13:35:00.004-06:00

Part of me cannot believe Christmas is still several days away! We have been busy, busy. Saturday night my mom (Mimi B) came over for the second weekend in a row to babysit so Chad and I could go out. This time we had his company Christmas party. It was really nice to get to see a bunch of my old co-workers and to drink a glass of wine and enjoy adult company!

Mimi will sit and play Play-doh with Cassidy, which makes her SO happy!
Chad and me before we left...

I didn't get a picture of Grady that night, but here is one from Sunday.

Today Daddy took Cassidy for a bike ride and then to the park. She loves riding the bike and happily wears her helmet!

Grady and I ran a few errands while they were out riding so we met them at the park.

We have many more pictures to come of the Christmas celebrations - we already had the big Supan Christmas, and the Brown Christmas will be on Christmas Day. I asked Cassidy if Santa could come into the house to bring her presents and she said no. :)

Cookies

2010-12-17T12:19:00.003-06:00

Sometimes I feel like a really bad mom. I've said to my husband (my husband who has worked like 140 hours the past two weeks) several times this week that I wish I could trade places with him. The thought of a nice, quiet office where I can sit and drink coffee and just work pretty much sounds like wonderland to me right now. :)

But we're making it. And today I even busted out the stuff to make cookies. Try baking 8 dozen cookies with kids this age!

Cassidy is getting more and more gentle with Grady, and he is definitely at an age where she can entertain him. Too bad I still can't really let her out of my sight around him!

Right now Cassidy is sleeping, 2 dozen cookies are in the oven, and Grady is crying after waking up from the shortest nap on the planet. But hey, it's Christmas and we have to be in good moods during this season, right?!

Dorothy likes to swim

2010-12-15T08:32:00.002-06:00

Cassidy's Dorothy Halloween costume is getting

some mileage! First the shoes under her Christmas

dress, and then the wig for dress up. Apparently

Dorothy likes Christmas and swimming. :)

Grady thinks his sister is hilarious.

His sister thinks she's hilarious too.

Ho, Ho, Ho!

2010-12-14T13:03:00.003-06:00

I think that's about as good as you can get with a 1 1/2 year old and a 5 month old!

The family picture didn't go quite as well. ;)

But little man was SO good, as usual.

Mommy and her boy.

Daddy showing his girl the race car.

A true winter wonderland!

Happy!

And crashed out on the way home...

Ho, Ho, Ho, Merry Christmas!!

Howdy!

2010-12-12T20:51:00.000-06:00

Cheerios and Cold Weather

2010-12-08T15:18:00.003-06:00

My neighbor Jenny gave us one of those little snack cups that Cassidy can carry around to eat. I usually make her sit at the table but occasionally let her use this for cheerios or something. And this is typically what ends up happening:
Cassidy enjoys feeding Annie her snacks (and Annie doesn't mind too much!):

Grady wishes he could eat snacks!

We got a new camera for an early Christmas present so I've been playing around with it and Photoshop. So fun! Wish I had more time to spend doing it!

Starlet

2010-12-05T13:30:00.002-06:00

Somebody has been a little neglected lately on the blog. So here she is!

Sweet Annie will be 13 years old this spring and she doesn't look a day over 10. :)

Getaway

2010-12-04T10:34:00.005-06:00

Chad and I had our first little getaway since adding

Grady to our family. We headed back to the Hyatt Lost Pines

for a short trip with some friends. It is absolutely

gorgeous there, and the weather was spectacular.

They had the flags from the Big 12 hanging in the front

w/A&M and Texas predominately in the front. WHOOP!
The guys played golf at the Wolfdancer Golf Club
while the girls enjoyed some pampering at the Django spa.

Mrs. Claus was there for a visit.

Back at the homestead, Mimi C. kept our little G-man.

And Mimi B. and Grandpa kept Cassie Beth. It was

Grandpa's birthday on the 3rd so we came home and met

them for breakfast. Grandpa loved his present -

he can wear his Alma Mater shirt during their bowl game.

Mimi B. and hambone.

She is such a goofball!

Mommy and her boy.

And Daddy with his son.

Christmas Shopping Magic

2010-12-01T16:34:00.003-06:00

I actually attempted a little Christmas shopping

today by myself with the kids and they did great!

One lady who Cassidy was hamming it up for leaned over

and saw Grady and commented on how lucky I was.

Blessed indeed.

Grady even smiled at several onlookers.
Cassidy got all decked out in one of her Christmas dresses.

And Grady managed to not spit up the entire time

we were out! A true miracle! :)

Both kiddos are ready to spend a few days with their Mimi's. Mommy and Daddy are getting to hang out with their friends the Broeders and drink hot cocoa and relax as we usher in this busy season!

Hallelujah Chorus

2010-11-30T13:06:00.000-06:00

This is incredible - a good start to the Christmas season with a song about the reason!

Rockin' the Rock Wall

2010-11-29T15:16:00.001-06:00

I started taking Cassidy to The Little Gym when she was about 10 months old. I'm not sure if that is why she is such a little dare devil, but the kid can climb! Here is my 1 1/2 year old rockin' the rock wall at our park.

Cassidy would literally eat, sleep and live outside if I let her.

Grady prefers hanging out with his Mama.

Although I did just put him in the exersaucer and he loves it.

He is such an easy going baby.
His spitting up is out of control though...
please sweet baby, outgrow your reflux soon!