Emma 4 Days Old

Emma Rose Brunson 06-15-2011

If someone would have told me that we would go from a family of 3 to a family of 6 in 3 years I would have thought they were crazy, but here we are...all 6 of us!

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EMMA ROSE BRUNSON

JUNE 15, 2011

7 lbs. 4 oz.

19 inches

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GOING HOME

Fire Ants!

Yesterday Jake got attacked by fire ants in our backyard. He was playing in the grass and started to cry. I ran over to him and he had fire ants crawling up his feet and on his hands and on his clothes. I pulled his clothes off and brushed the ants off his hands and feet. There were only about 10 ants on him, but each one must have bit him several times. I counted 39 bites!
This hand had 18 bites!

and this foot had 16 bites. The other hand had only one bite and his other foot had 4 bites. Poor little guy!

Mischief Man

Jake found a bag of goldfish in the diaper bag.....and of course, he decided just to help himself.

The next week he learned how to climb onto the kitchen counter. (Here he is sneaking an apple)

The Bayou

Less than 2 miles from our house is a walking/biking trail called the Bayou. It follows a series of natural swampy lakes. A few weeks ago Gwen came to visit us in Texas. We took her to the Bayou, the kids were hoping to show her an alligator, but we didn't see one. We just saw lots of fish and turtles.

Last week we went back to the Bayou and Jared spotted an alligator, just as we were getting ready to leave. That was the first time I've seen an alligator in Katy.

Can you find the alligator?

Jared and Sara pretending to be scared. The alligator is about 8 feet away from the viewing platform, to the far left of the picture, you can just see his eyes poking out of the water.

Jake....just being cute.

Brazos Bend State Park

Shane and the kids have been wanting to see some alligators, so when they all had Friday off last week they planned an alligator adventure. We drove down to Brazos Bend State Park about 35 miles from our house. What an adventure....in fact, Jared even said, "this is way funner than playing my DS".

Because we had to hike, as Shane puts it, "at pregnant lady speed" we decided to take it easy and go on a 1 mile loop hike around one of the lakes.

Jared's oh-no there's an alligator pose.

Before we started the hike around the lake we walked out onto the pier. Right away we saw a small alligator and then another LARGE alligator hanging out under the pier. (check out the gator - Jake is pointing him out)

Most of the hike was a section of trail only about 10 feet wide with lake on one side and marsh on the other and we saw TONS of alligators everywhere on both sides. Jared took the camera to take a picture of the small gator in the picture below, when he suddenly splashed his tail and dove under water. He came up a second later with a crawfish in his mouth and rapidly started crawling out of the water only a few feet away from where we were standing. Luckily he stopped at the edge to eat his catch. I was SO glad he was a small gator. After that I went from "7 months pregnant lady speed" to "non pregnant lady speed". I could see the look-out tower less than a 1/4 mile ahead and I couldn't wait to get there.

Jared and Sara at the top of the look-out tower.

At the visitors center the kids got to touch a baby alligator.

Bluebonnets

Texas is famous for their Bluebonnet wildflowers. People come from all over to drive out into the country to see fields of blossoming bluebonnets. The full bloom only lasts a couple weeks and we were here just in time, so of course we had to see for ourselves what all the fuss was about.

April Fools Dinner 2011

Jared loves April Fools Day and never lets me forget to make an April Fools Dinner. This year we had "fish sticks" (wafer cookies covered in peanut butter and rolled in Corn Flakes) with "ketchup" (seedless strawberry jam), "red punch" (Jello), and "peas and carrots" (starburst candies).

Texas Sized Update

I finally got my computer up and running again, so here's the Texas-Sized update. We are loving the new house and our neighborhood. The kids enjoy their new-found freedom of riding their bikes in the cul-de-sac and along the walking trails and around the lakes and parks. Their favorite thing to do at the end of the day is to walk over to one of the lakes with their poles and hot dogs (that's what they use as fish bait) and catch some fish. It never takes more than a few minutes (usually less than 60 seconds) to catch something. Their favorite fish-tale was a few days ago....Jared and Shane were trying to unhook a catfish he had just caught and Sara caught a perch at the same time, so she was dragging her fish in the water waiting for them to release Jared's fish when a HUGE bass swallowed her fish, and made a big splash, scaring me half to death - I screamed - Jake cried and Shane quickly grabbed her pole and tried to catch the bass, but he just ended up pulling the perch out of the bass's mouth. They all thought it was very exciting.

Second to fishing are the parks......there are lots and lots of parks!

The kids and especially Paris love having a backyard to play in. Sara was practicing to be a water-hair stylist and was experimenting with Jake's hair.

Everyone, except me, thinks its great that there are creepy crawling things. During the day the kids catch anoles and at night there are geckos. Jared loves to play "laser tag" with the geckos.

Jake is growing up and is just as cute as can be. He is finally walking and loves exploring new things.

The New House

We bought a house in Katy, Texas and Moving Day is almost here. Everyone has been asking to see pics of the new place so I'm finally getting around to posting some pictures. The movers will be here Tuesday and we'll be on our way Wednesday morning.
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View of the Front of the house

Front porch

Back Yard Deck

Back Yard

Front Entryway and Stairs

Dinning Room

Office

Family Room

Kitchen

Master Bedroom (Downstairs)

Master Bath

Bedroom 2

Bedroom 3

Bedroom 4

Bonus Room (Upstairs)

Playroom (upstairs)