The Southern Kellings

Happy Easter!

With this post, I catch up except for the renovation post!

I took the dogs to the vet. Phoenix is healthy. She is slowly a smidge, but you would never guess she is 12.

Toby is 14.5. He is near deaf and near blind. He is actually less skittish. He is slowing a lot. Hard to keep up even at the beginning of the walk. He falls asleep in the yard and cannot hear us calling, so I have to go touch him. Poor puppy!

Fiona's 9 month pictures.

One of the best things about living in Florida was that so many people came to visit. Even if they came for the beach or Disney, we could see them. Well, the best people come to visit you even if you live in Texas!

My good friend Stacy and her son Rowan came and met her mom and step-dad so her mom could get a consultation at MD Anderson. We were so happy to see them, but wished it could have been all fun. And we really missed little Nick and Mr. Lance.

Zoey loved spending time with Miss Stacy again.

Rowan is such a sweetie.

Fiona loved Rowan!

And when they left, we were lucky enough to be on the homeward bound trip of Aunt Tracy and Uncle Bruce. We had a blast hanging out with them.

We met the Pabons to have lunch and see the USS Texas.

Zoey is a huge fan of Uncle Bruce. He is such a good sport!

I like this picture because you can see Fiona in the ergo in the reflection of Nick's glasses.

We were sad when everyone left. But we celebrate Saint Patrick's day.

We toured the Houston Police Department's Mounted Patrol Stable. Zoey was excited but a little nervous, she kept dropping the carrot.

Sam loved it.

This doll is Zoey 's current favorite. For days she said it was named Night Light. But now she has changed it to Moon Rock, which is the road we walk down to go to Samantha's school. She said it sounded better.

My little fashionista.

She is in love with these gold shoes from Target. Unfortunately, the gold is already peeling off. :(

A few photos of Fiona. Notice Christmas jammies. When you are born in a different season, Christmas jammies fit well a few months late :)

Her curious face.

Would have been a great picture except she thought I was trying to feed her the eraser I was using to lure her towards the camera. Silly baby.

Sweet shot.

Her face every time I put her in the pack and play even just to do something with two hands.

She loves swinging so much.

Cute overalls.

Sam chose to go to a friends party and miss the neighborhood egg hunt. Zoey was proud of her tiger egg. And she was so sweet. An older kid who went after Zoey could only find 5 eggs and Zoey agreed to share some of hers. So proud of her generosity.

Zoey still loves swinging too and is learning to pump. Not good enough to start herself but can maintain it pretty well.

Our first Easter with 3 baskets! I ordered Fiona's on clearance but did not pay attention to size. Oh well, she is a Texas girl and everything is bigger in Texas.

And she can sit in it for cute pictures!

Sweet girl!

Happy Easter to all who celebrate! Hopefully I can keep up better in the future, but I doubt it :)

Bunny and Chick pictures

A mom in one of the mom's clubs I am in is a photographer, so I signed the girls up for a bunny and chick session. I was not expecting much with three, but all three girls did so well!

Fiona's tongue is out in this one. And notice that the white bunny made a run (hop) for it and know that Fiona is seconds away from trying to eat the green frilly part of the carrot.

Science is for girls: Zoey turns 5!

How can Zoey be 5! Boy time flies. Zoey wanted a science party and life was too busy to organize much, so I found a place in town that did science parties. It was so much fun. The older kids do slime, but for younger ones you can do a circus theme one with cotton candy. I am not a circus fan in general, but it was more about the people side like balance and bouncing. The kids and adults were all entertained.

I got the big girls shirts made. They are a current favorite.

The big 5!

Fiona loved the ballons.

Her tongue is out. So cute!

Sweet baby!

Balancing. They had to do hands down, hands out, and hands up to compare.

I think she liked the cotton candy!

A science party, but Avengers cupcakes.

Messy face!

Happy birthday to a sweet, spunky red head full of life! Her name fits her so well!

Post 401: February flies by

I had not even realized the last post was my 400th! Yikes!

Here is the miscellaneous assortment of February activities.

I sometimes shop at a neat charity thrift store near us, and when I was pregnant I found these elephant pants. They were new with tags, so I took a chance and bought them not sure if they would even fit. They do and I love them! The perfect pants for me :)

Fiona turned 8 months. It is hard to get the panda picture now as she often just crawls away. I try handing her things but she is so wild.

She loves her food. Eats a lot of variety.

Zoey is a great playmate. Here is the short lived game of Fiona in a basket. When I put the camera up, Fiona flipped the basket and crawled out.

Playing in Fiona's room.

Fiona adores swinging!

Nick just completed his packet for third year review. He has had a tenure track job for 6.5 years, but had to give up years with each move, so he is being counted as a third year. This is a big review to set the goals for tenure, so it was a lot of paperwork. In fact, all said, it was about 1600 pages. He had to write summary reports but also include syllabi, example assignments, example feedback to students, etc. It consumed his life for weeks, including a few late nights on campus.

Samantha had another gold cup piano competition. She worked so hard in the end and got two scores of 5 out of 5. So proud of her! She also won a State Award of Excellence for her photo in the Texas PTA competition. She was not selected to go to the national level, but only about 1% of entries got an award of excellence!