Patty and Birthday Cake!

It's hard to believe but the "little cousin" Jackson turned 1 last week! He definetly dug his cake! There was red icing everywhere!

He liked it so much that he even decided to lick it off his tray!Pre-red icing licking, the kiddos jumped into the pool for some fun in the sun. I do mean jumped. Abby didn't seem to mind doing belly flops into the kiddy pool. I guess it doesn't hurt as much as it looks like it does!I tried a slip-n-slide in college (don't ask) and I almost died in agony, I guess that used to be fun too.

In a miraculous feat, this hat stayed on for a good 45 minutes. It's a miracle!

The birthday boy swam in various stages of undress from full swimgear to a'la nude. But hey, it's his birthday, if he want to skinny dip he can. We decided that it will be another 5 years before we actually get a good picture of all of them together. On a funny note (well not so funny for Abby) she FREAKED OUT when it started raining. She was SO afraid that the rain was going to hurt the pool. She cried so hysterically that poor Keith had to completely drain it and put it up so she would stop crying. Poor baby.
It was a fun party and we were excited to celebrate a year of Jackson!

In unrelated but makes a good title news, Emmy has decided that she LOVES to play patty-cake. The funniest thing is when she "rolls it up". She bends her wrists way in and moves her hands all around. Here's here patty-caking in the tub!

Memorial Day is for Swimming

We decided to do Memorial Day weekend up right this year, which means we didn't stay at home at all. We started at the zoo to see the new baby elephant. Pretty freaking cute! Emmy just stared at him and said "baby! baby! ooohhhhh!"

Besides that Emmy cared about each of the animal for approximately 3.2 seconds and then told them "bye bye." It's really hard to care about much of anything when it's 850 degrees. She was more intersted in taking off and putting on her hat, running around and walking in her new favorite way. You are chosen to hold one of her hands, it's not necessarily the person closest to her. And if she choses you, you better run because patience is not a virtue she inherited. Ok, she never really had a chance of getting it from me anyway. I couldn't decide which one of these I like better so you get to look at both. You can see just how many curls she has now! She's getting more and more everyday!
We capped off Saturday with a little swimming in GiGi and Pop's pool. At first she said "no, no, no,no" but then she got wilder and wilder. You'll notice the "Vacek Open Mouth" in all the pictures below. It's a family trait that means you're REALLY REALLY having fun =)

First she poured water on Daddy's head. That was pretty fun.

Then Daddy poured water on her head and that was REALLY funny.

Then she said, forget that wimpy bucket, I'm going to stand under the gigantic high pressure spigot. HILARIOUS!The rest of the day, poor Blake spent making Emmy "JUMP!" this was the best of all. Blake can't lift his arms today, but it was worth it to Emmy. She also went down the big kid water slide, by herself. DARE DEVIL!

The next day guess what we did, we swam MORE! We tested out the Graesser's new pool for a Memorial Day cook-out! Ellie showed us what she learned at swim lessons, and Benjamin made Emmy look like a big wuss with his serious jump off the edge of the pool!

And we had lots of fun, as poven by the gigantic open mouths in this picture!

From Khasakstan to Galves-stan

So life has been a litte crazy lately because of some big projects that I had going on at work. We have all reached new levels of exhaustion. I'm taking a bunch of clients around to do some benchmarking on some of Chevron's most important projects. One of those projects just happens to be in Kasaksthan. Kasak-what you say? That's right. I basically got on a plane without having a clue where I was really going. 15 hours later I ended up just north of Iran. The good thing is, I got to fly first class! WHOOHOO! I don't know if I can go back, just LOOK at my footroom!

Kasaksthan (or at least the part I was in) looks a lot like Midland. Flat, brown, bare, and really kind of ugly =( I think other parts are actually very nice.) There was only one green part in the entire place and that was around the sewage retention pond- NASTY!)

My hotel in Atryau was very nice and brand new. But here's where I stayed for a night, no that's not a prison, this is the camp for the plant, which is basically and hours ride into the middle of nowhere from the bigger city I was staying at. Since most people who work at the plant work rotational, the rooms are set up for them to live while they're onsite. It's kind of like a little town. They have bars, a swimming pool, and the picture below is of the movie theatre. Yes, the food was nasty. They eat powdered eggs, I just couldn't go there.

That's about all the pictures I got because I had to be "Cool" with the clients and not run around like a geeky girl with my camera. Overall summary: Food:eh, People: Nice, First class travel: YES PLEASE!

When I got back home from my whirlwind trip did I rest, of course not. We headed out to the Stros with Caroline! It was Carloline's first Astro's game and amazingly she sat completely still and silent for 6 innings. Betsy and I just stared at her for a while. Betsy decided she's going to the Astro's game weekly =)

The next day we headed down to Galveston to look at a beach cabin that Mom and Dad are thinking about buying. We were excited to take Emmy to the beach for the first time. we slathere on the sunscreen and decided to give it a test run before we all got in our swimsuits. Emmy's feelings about the beach can be summed up in one picture...

HATED IT! That's a look of sheer panic on her face. She didn't want to be put down, didn't want you to hold her in the water, didn't want to look at or talk about the water and forget the sand. She just shook her head and said "no, no, no, no, no, no, no.." I think we may pretend like this never happened and call her next time the first time at the beach. We still had to take a family picture juuuuust in case =)

17 Months: No Cupcakes

At 17 months Emmy is doing a lot of the things she did at 15 month, just better. She:

* Has 8 teeth! Two top molars, four on the bottom and two on the top. FINALLY more teeth!
* Weighs about 28 pounds and has grown a couple of inches. She's getting taller and leaner but is still a little chunky monkey.
* Her animals are still her favorite toy but she's liking to color and draw more. She also like to stack her blocks.
* Will imitate anything you say! Her favorite game is to go through all the words she can say. We have a few new animal sounds as well! This is the turkey and rooster.

* Has started learning her colors. So far we know yellow, purple, pink, and blue, but everything is usually "buuuu"
* Gives REAL kisses with some suction and a smack.
* Says "I Love you" "Tank too" and "Peas"
* Is still getting ear infections one after another (I'm over it)
* Has pretty much got hopping down. She's actually leaving the ground
* Knows most of her body parts (belly, toes, fingers, eyes, mouth, head, ear, etc.)
* Still singing and dancing. She's getting pretty good at Old McDonald!

Tea and Snowcones, Moms and Grads

What a wonderful weekend full of family and fun! We celebrated a graduation, celebrated, well ME!, and got the first snow-cone of the season! Summer is here!

Friday afternoon Emmy has a Mother's Day Tea at her school. Being new to the whole "School" thing I called and asked how people dress since it was officially a "tea." The lady on the phone assured me that yes, everyone gets dressed up, all the mommies wear dresses and the little girls all do to. So Emmy and I got all dressy and got ready for Emmy's first tea party!

Well, when we were walking in, I saw the mommy in the gym clothes chatting with the mommy in the capris, and the other in her pajama pants I knew that someone had seriously lied to me. I told Emmy that being overdressed is ALWAYS better than being underdressed but it doens't make you feel any less stupid ... anyway... Emmy's teacher had the room all cute with teapots and cute decorations. Emmy enjoyed some cookies with all her friends.

So while Emmy was chowing I looked around at all the cute decorations. My eyes caught the pictures of all the pretty mommies with their babies and then I noticed something. See if you can find me in the picture below.... That's right... I'm the camel. Turns out Emmy's teacher is a little saucy! If you don't bring you pictures when they request them she turns you into a CAMEL!!!!!!!! Blake and i are going to have to get better at this whole fielding requests from school in a prompt manner thing... snarky teacher! I better do the next thing or there may be donkeys in my future...

On Saturday we headed down to Port Neches (for those of you keeping track that's three times in four weeks!) to celebrate Leslie's graduation from high school! WE are so proud of her achieveing this important milestone. She's headed to UTSA in the fall and we know she'll accomplish great things. Dejo and Ken hosted us at Elena's for yummy fajitas and good times with the fam.Emmy really really REALLY liked the cake.

Today we headed over to Shade in The Heights for a Mother's Day brunch. I was lucky to get to celebrate with all my mommies as my parents and Sean joined the Vaceks for the celebration.

There's only one thing redeeming about a Southeast Texas summer, and that is SNOWCONES!!! For the past few weeks I have been desparately searching for a snowcone to kickoff my summer. Blake gave me one last gift and finally found an open snow cone stand! I'm a little bit of a snow-cone snob, so not just any will do. Mams in the Heights did not dissapoint. Summer can now start!

I think it's safe to say that Emmy has now found a new favorite thing. She even said please and tank too if it got her more bites =)

I always knew I wanted to be a mommy, but I don't think I had ANY clue what I was asking for. This job challenges in ways that no one could ever prepare you for, but it is SO SO SO SO worth it. That beautiful baby girl is the best thing that has ever happened to me. She has taught me the meaning of family, of love, and of pateince. I am so blessed.

Thank you to all these beautiful mommies in my life. You are so very apprecaited and very loved!
Happy Mother's Day!

We be jammin....

This weekend found us back in the Port Neches area for another Big Event.

This is my beautiful cousin Angie with her new husband Jeremy.

It was a beautiful wedding and we got to hang out with the extended fam from my dad's side.

This is my dad with all his brothers and sisters minus one.

I even got to have a few 'ritas with my grandfather.

There were so many adorable little girls at the wedding and Emmy just jumped right in and started jamming with them all. Gigi taught her how to hold hands and dance and she would just run out on the dance floor and hold out her hand until someone would grab it. Then the jammin would commence.

She even got Gigi on the dancefloor with her cousin Rayleigh and Aunt Mary.

Even though she was the smallest little girl there, I think she had arguably, the biggest JAM!



Before the wedding we had a few minutes to snag some pics in the rose garden at Terrel Park.

These are some of my favorites!