Tea with Kristin

"Do you want some tea?"


This past Sunday, Kristin invited us to her first tea party. She had her play table set with a tea pot full of water, three tea cups and three little plates of graham cracker cookies. She was even nice enough to leave a bowl full of goldfish for her pet dog "Katie." We got down on the floor to hunch over the little table and we were about to start in on the cookies, when Kristin stopped us and said, "No wait! We have to say prayers first!" Then she prayed, "Dear Lord, thank you for this wonderful tea party! In Jesus' name we pray, Amen!"

"Come on Mommy!"


A rather tight fit...


A couple of party animals


Five minutes later, the party was starting to fizzle. The cookies were all gone and Katie was getting antsy. No one could appease her, so she took matters into her own hands. Just as Jason starting filming this next video clip, Katie stood up to grab the teapot. She almost had it within her grasp, when she knocked over the bowl of goldfish all over the floor. This gave Kristin a chance to grab the teapot before Katie could and then push Katie down with one good shove! On her way down, Katie managed to bring down the table and everything on it with her! I forgot to mention that as Kristin was busy trying to push Katie down, she didn't notice that she was pouring the whole teapot of water onto the floor. So you can imagine the horrible mess of water and soggy goldfish that I had to clean up afterwards! Yikes!



Later on, after the mess was clean and everything was back in its place. Kristin closed up her cottage playhouse and went inside - probably to stew over the morning's events and figure out what went wrong. ;) Katie crawled into her house shortly afterwards and then Kristin (who didn't know that I had followed Katie into her room) said in a low voice, "You ruined my tea party." She barely had the last word out of her mouth when I saw Katie falling gracefully out of the cottage door and onto her back. Kristin apparently threw her out. Poor Katie! She didn't know she had singlehandedly destroyed Kristin's tea party! I didn't approve of Kristin throwing Katie out of her house, but I did feel bad for her. She was so excited about having us in her bedroom for a tea party and she watched the whole thing fall apart before her very eyes. ;) Ah the joys of sibling disputes and skirmishes... ;)

Jason's photo session

Jason isn't one to pick up a camera and go to town with the clicking. However, once or twice a year, he gets a little click crazy for no apparent reason. He takes pretty good pictures for someone who only uses a camera every once in a great while. I, on the other hand, take a little too many pictures all too often...but they still never seem to come out very good (at least I don't think so). I guess I need to add photography classes to my extremely long list of things I'd like to do!
Here are some of the pictures Jason took during one of his rare photo sessions this past weekend - while we were out (of all places) at an outdoor mall. He's so silly... Maybe he was inspired by the lovely weather we were having that day or maybe it was the small patch of pretty green grass that we found (which was a nice change of scenery in comparison to the mass quantities of dead grass we find EVERYWHERE here in San Antonio).

Katie's first time in the grass


She loves it!


Posing for the camera


Kristin's Little Mermaid pose


"This is embarrassing Jason!"


Kristin doing a jump for Daddy


That's one cheesy smile Kristin has going on here! Sheesh!


"Hurry Jason! This is so comfortable!"


Shortly after our photo session, we moseyed over to the closest Costco...for some of their yummy samples of course! I really don't think we've gotten a whole lot out of our membership there (as far as shopping goes). Our membership would be a total waste if it weren't for Costco's mass quantities of samples! If we had more money and some storage space - I would really enjoy shopping there! That's for dang sure! ;) So this is a picture of Jason throwing Kristin way up high whilst in the parking lot. Kristin gives it her own personal style by doing the splits while she's midair...

You've got to have huge meat hooks to throw a kid this far up in the air! ;)


The girls LOVE it when Jason spins them and throw them in the air! While Jason throws them up in the air, he sings (in his best Gaston singing voice), "La la la boom dee a!" First he throws Kristin, then Katie crawls over to him as fast as humanly possible and then she sings - "La la la buh!" - as she awaits her turn to get tossed. It's so cute! I'll have to get a video of it before she stops doing it!

Here's a clip of Jason throwing Kristin. Don't mind the squeal at the end of it - that's just me falling off of the curb as I tried to film the toss. How humiliating... :)

New House

Superbowl, Valentines and New House

So it has been two weeks since my last post. So what? You didn't expect me to break tradition and write any sooner than that did you? Why do you expect so much of me? Tell me! I demand to know! I'm bustin' my hump here and you're all breathing down my neck for another one of my Nobel prize-winning stories! Actually - they're more like novels rather than stories (and they're far from prize-winning)...but that's besides the point! Now where was I?
Okay, so there really isn't anything too exciting to write about (since we've been busy for the past couple of weeks with this whole moving/getting settled in thing), but I'll still give a quick recap of what we've been up to.
We'll start with the Superbowl. Giants versus Patriots. Big whoop. We weren't that excited about either team, but we still watched it anyways. It gave us an excuse to grill some burgers and hotdogs and drink some beer! We always enjoy watching all of the new commercials during the Superbowl - which were only so-so this year. I think one of our favorites might have been the Doritos commercial and maybe the Justin Timberlake one. Anyways - here's a few pictures of us preparing for and enjoying Superbowl Sunday.

Picking up snacks at Walmart the night before...


Giant bottle of beer: A staple at any good Superbowl party...


Here is a short video clip of Katie while we were at Walmart. We found some patty cake bear for her to play with while we were in the store and she had a fun time clapping along with it...but then we're not quite sure what made her cry immediately after her clap-along. It was hilarious and yet so sad!



Kristin approves of Jason's football helmet Jello Jigglers!


We're ready to eat and watch some football!


No Superbowl game would be complete without a good tackling...


Okay - let's move onto Valentines! Kristin was very excited to send out her Valentines cards this year. Last year it was easy. She picked out which card went to who, told us what to write on each of them and then she'd add a sticker to each one. This year, she wanted to write them all herself! And boy did I underestimate how long it would take her to fill them all out! Eek! We didn't get them mailed out until Valentines Day! She spent a good two days on them. She named each person she knew that she wanted to mail a valentine too, then I'd write that person's name down for her on a piece of scratch paper...and then she undertook the long arduous process of writing each of those names herself. Whew. It was exhausting! Next year I think I'll have her start a couple weeks early - and maybe only fill out 2 a day. Then again, she just might be able to write a little quicker a year from now. One can only hope...

Kristin hard at work on her valentines...


Yay! She's FINALLY done!


We spent most of our Valentines Day cleaning up our old house to get it ready for inspection the following morning. Tisk tisk. What wonderful timing. Oh well. After finishing up with the house, we drove over to the BX before it closed to buy each other Valentines Day cards and then we came home and had the girls open their presents. We went out to eat at a yummy Tex-Mex restaurant a couple nights afterwards, so we didn't have to deal with any crowds or busy waiters, so I guess it was worth the wait! ;)

Kristin was so excited to get her HS Musical 2 Sharpay doll for Valentines Day!


Katie's approval of her V-Day present was shortlived... There's just no pleasing her! ;)


Valentines Day cards from Grandma Christie and Grandpa Neil!


Valentines Day card from Grandma Capra, Danielle, Joanna, Julia and Emily!


Kristin and I are still going to our ballet classes. So far I still feel WAY behind the rest of the class - mainly because I haven't had a chance to learn/practice all of the positions (from my ballet book) since I've been so busy with our move. Dang blast it! But soon - I will surpass them all!! So help me!! ;)

Kristin before class. She was so happy that her uniform finally came in!


And last, but not least...we packed up a Uhaul two weeks ago and drove it a whopping one block where we arrived at our new home (where we should stay put until July 2010). We finally settled in after the last decoration was hung two days ago. So far, we've only had a heater issue and a mouse issue. But other than that - we love it! It's just a wee bit bigger and it has a brand new cootie-free carpet and that makes all of the difference! Woohoo! I made a slideshow of pictures, but since I'm having problems attaching it to this post, I'll post it separately - for those of you who have been asking for pictures (both of our Mommy-poos and Laura-poo too)!

Oh - and for those of you who are curious about our mouse issue. We had just got done watching Ratatouille the other night when Jason and I started to head for the kitchen and spotted a mouse running from the dining room to the kitchen where he made a mad dash for the dishwasher where he shimmied himself down the space against the cabinet. Rrrr... Stupid mouse! I'm sure he was thinking, "Oh - they're watching Ratatouille. Surely they must me rodent-loving people! Maybe I should make my presence known!" ;) We didn't know what to do, so we took a big roll of masking tape and taped down the crack between the dishwasher and the cabinet. Little good that did! I came walking into the kitchen the next afternoon only to find him bolting for safety behind my washer and dryer! I quickly called the rodent-catching people (I'm sure there's a better name for them, but who cares) and they came and put down sticky trays with peanut butter. Sure enough that little mouse fell for it and he got stuck on one of the trays. Dumb little mouse! I'm smarter! ;) Luckily Jason was home and he ran the tray outside, across the street and out to the field. I guess we'll have to pick it up eventually, but what am I supposed to do with it? I don't want to put it in my trash can! Ew!

On that happy note - I'm off to bed!! ;)

A visit from the Rao's and other news...

I can't seem to post to this thing more than twice a month! What the heck?! I know that comes as a huge disappointment to most of you who thrive on reading about our adventures - and for that, I apologize. ;)

So a lot has happened since I last wrote. First, Luigi (Jason's best friend from medical school), his wife Stephanie and their two little cuties - Anastasia and Bernadette came to San Antonio to attend some friends' kids' confirmations at church (2 weeks ago). I realize their sole purpose of coming out to San Antonio wasn't to see us, but it was so nice to have them here to visit! We had them stay with us for the weekend - it was great! They were our first non-family visitors since we've been here! Come to think of it - they're also the first non-family people we've even had over for dinner (and we've been here for a year and seven months)! Man - we're a bunch of hermits!

Aw...how cute! Kristin's first sleepover with a friend!


Katie doesn't like to be left out, so I thought I'd include her in my middle-of-the night picture-taking session...


Anyways, sometime after the confirmation ended the following evening, we met up with them at our favorite Mexican restuarant - Mamacitas! We decided to take a few pictures - since Mamacitas is an adventure in and of itself! ;)

He's back!!


Hey! How did that little blonde girl get in there! :)


Jason, me, Kristin, Katie...and the cute little Chinese baby we adopted (for the night anyways)!


We thought a picture in front of the Banos Publicos would capture the essence of the evening... (that's "Public Bathroom" for those of you non-Spanish speaking folks out there) ;)


The next morning we went to Sunday mass with them. We were the only ones who didn't know what was going on, but we had Luigi there trying to guide us through it. :)

After mass


Afterwards we went over to their friends' house for a Belgium waffle breakfast. Mmmm...yummy! Jason felt right at home (since their friends have 8 kids). Of course, Jason naturally migrates towards kids (since he grew up with a house full of kids) - and in a few short minutes, he was playing some outdoor game with all of the kiddie-poos. I'm still surprised that he chose Anesthesiology over Pediatrics (like he had originally planned on choosing). I wonder how old he'll be when he starts choosing adult conversation over acting like a little kid. That might never happen though - my Dad is the same way and he's 50! :)

Jason doing what he does best...playing!


I think Kristin lost the game...poor kid. She didn't seem to mind though.


We left Luigi's friends' house not too long afterwards, so we wouldn't feel like we were imposing. We went home to kill the time until Luigi and Stephanie came back that night. I tried to take a picture of Katie's little teeth that are coming in, but the pictures kept coming out blurry! Stupid camera! I hate you!

Katie showing off her pearly white stubs (two on bottom, one on top)


Kristin missed Luigi, Stephanie and the girls while they were at their friends' house, so she wrote them a little message all on her own! If you zoom in on the middle of her picture, you'll notice she wrote, "I Lv U" She sounded it and spelled it liked it sounded (to her anyways). Isn't she so cute??!!

Kristin and her I love you message


The next day, we went to the playground to play together for a little while before we ate dinner.

Swing time!


Katie kept giggling and giggling! She couldn't get enough!


Jason and Luigi wearing their sister school t-shirts


Kristin and Anastasia in a slide race


Me and the girls


Speaking of dinner, Luigi and Stephanie made us dinner - which made me feel like a horrible hostess! But it was goo-ood! Luigi put some steaks and hotdogs on the grill and Stephanie made some sweet potatoes and salad. I picked up some california rolls for an appetizer - now that I finally had someone to eat them with (since Jason won't touch them)! They headed out shortly after dinner. I was sad to see them go - it was so nice to have company!

About a week ago - Kristin and I went to our trial ballet classes! Kristin LOVED it - of course! She looked so cute! I'll post a couple pics of her once her uniform comes in. I went to my trial class a couple days after her and it was a good workout...and humiliating! It's a beginner's class, but the people in this class have been coming for quite some time! I wish they offered different levels of teen/adult classes! The instructor assumed I had had some ballet in the past - because she kept speaking to me in ballet language! I had no idea what the heck she was talking about! She's from Portugal or Spain, so she already has a strong accent - but then it's even harder to understand her because she speaks really fast and uses all of the ballet terminology that I haven't a clue about! I did the best I could and tried to pretend like I knew what I was doing (by looking down my nose and sneaking peeks at the other dancers' moves)! I ran out first thing the next morning and bought a ballet book, so I could figure out all of the different positions, so I didn't have to feel so lost and pathetic! I considered backing out of it, but I know I won't do it on my own at home - so I'm just going to suck it up and try and catch up with the rest of the class! Although I don't see that happening overnight! It was very obvious that the other students have had ballet in the past. Dang blast it! I feel like I have plenty of motivation to learn the moves, so I don't feel like a complete idiot!!

What else...let's see... Oh yes! How could I forget?! We just signed the paperwork and got the keys to our next base house this morning! I'm so excited! The housing office felt so bad about making us move (so soon after moving into this house) - that they gave us the option of taking a slightly nicer house. Sure - to the untrained eye, it almost looks the same as the house we're in right now, but it's not! They gave us a field grade officer house (Jason is a company grade officer, but will become field grade 2 years from now when he puts on Major). It looks pretty much the same, but the kitchen and living room is bigger! Hooray! Every little bit of square footage helps! :)

And the most amazing thing happened today... Jason (the boy who LOATHES manual labor) called me this morning from work to ask me to go to Home Depot and buy paint and supplies...so he could paint the new house when he got home from work!!! He even told me to pick up a can of pink paint, so he could paint Kristin's room too! I was completely shocked! I kept asking him, "Are you sure?" This was not like Jason. I don't know what has gotten into him! He came home and went right to work! Three hours later - the living room, dining room and Kristin's room were finished!! I have no idea why it took me a total of 9 hours to paint only the living room and dining room (in this house and the one before it). What - does he think he's better than me?! ;) I am SO upset with myself for not getting a picture of him and Kristin painting her room pink! They were so cute! I even had my dumb camera in my purse while they were there painting! What a bonehead!

We've also decided to move ourselves (since the governement will pay us to do it ourselves). A little extra cash never hurt anybody right? Ugh. I hate moving! I have to go pick up the truck tomorrow and we have to take it to a weigh station to weigh it empty, put everything we own into it and then take it back to the weigh station to weigh it full. The government will give us so many dollars per 100 pounds. It better be worth the hard work and sweat!!

Okay - that's all for now. I'm exhausted and I'm going to bed. We have a long day of manual labor ahead of us. Yay. Does anyone want to come help us? Huh huh huh? You know you want to!!!