Talon's Favorite Things

Talon has been such a busy little boy. He has recently learned how to crawl into the bathtubs. He loves his bath time and he loves the bathtubs. He crawls in, stomps, yells and laughs. He also loves playing with his brother's toothbrush. If he can get in Rylan's bathroom, Talon has Rylan's toothbrush, guaranteed.All that playing will make a little man tired. Talon doesn't do this very often at all, so we had to snap a picture of him sleeping somewhere other than his bed.

One of his favorite things to do is sit with me and cuddle. He loves to see what I'm doing on the computer or just sit with me and watch tv.

Talon has started talking a lot more. Most of the time it is in his own language, but he will add real words in there and we just laugh at him. He jabbers all the time to everyone, even people he doesn't know. It is so cute. Until next time...

Easter

I had to work on Easter, so Saturday we went to my Mom and Dad's house to celebrate on Saturday. We also celebrated the Twin's birthday with family while we were there. On Sunday, Ky and the boys went to his Papa and Grandma's house to celebrate. Here are some pictures of the boys hunting Easter eggs.

We got to spend some good times with these two and their Mom and Dad. Until next time...

Baseball

Baseball is in full swing around our house. We either play or practice at least 3 times a week. Needless to say, we are busy! Rylan is playing machine pitch baseball this year and it is really fun to watch. He plays pitcher or short stop. Here are a few shots of him in action.
Of course, he is number 10. He has to be just like his Dad. Ky isn't a coach but help the boys a lot at practice and is in charge of the lineup in the dugout during the games. Thank goodness Chelle and Morris are always there to help me corral the beast, aka Talon, during the games. Until next time...

Roasted Garlic Beef Brisket

Friday was spent making delicious food since it was so disgusting outside. I made a delicious brisket and Chelle came over and had supper with us and enjoyed some NCAA basketball. We had a very fun night, be we were very upset that we had to watch Duke on the computer and not on our huge TV.

For those of you who don't know, I don't enjoy cooking. Especially not with weird things or dishes that take a lot of prep work. Ky is the cook in this house. He is a million times better than I am, and he enjoys cooking and watching the Food Network. I would rather scratch my eyeballs out than watch that. We had a brisket in the freezer so I was on a mission to find a recipe for it. Thursday night, I was able to find this recipe. It was so much fun and this was the first time I cooked like real chef! I snapped a few pictures as I was cooking, to share.
The Brisket after I seared it.The onions being sauteed.Garlic added and being sauteed.I even cooked with a real live plant! This is the oregano. I couldn't find fresh basil, so I had to use dried.All the ingredients together to boil.Everything together before cooking the brisket.The finished product.It was so delicious and I was so proud of myself and so was Ky. He was very impressed! Maybe I will whip out my cooking skills more often. If the end result is as good as this, it will be so worth it! Until next time...

Spring Break Part 2

Wednesday and Thursday were spent outside. I am so ready for warm weather and so are the boys. I spent both days cleaning up the porch, pulling weeds from the yard and working in my flower beds. The boys spent the days with sidewalk chalk, swinging, and figuring how to climb up the slide from the stairs and from the slide. Talon was so proud of himself. He is such a little daredevil! Here are a couple of pictures I caught while they were making some art.

Friday, we were stuck inside because it got very windy and cold and even snowed and sleeted early Saturday morning. You can imagine how excited I was to drive to work on slick roads again! But it quickly melted off on Saturday. My next post will be of the meal I made Friday night. Until next time...

Our Spring Break Part 1

The boys and I, along with Ky's mom, spent the first 3 days of our spring break with Ky's sister, Sierra, and her husband Kyle at their house in Panhandle.

We left Lubbock Monday morning, where it was pouring, and met Sierra and Kyle in Canyon to eat at Feldman's. We thought we would drive out of the rain, but we never did. We ran a couple or errands in Amarillo before we let them play at Jump and Jive for a while, and for free I might add! Thanks to the employee who did not know how to run the debit card machine! :) After jumping, we stopped by the Donut Stop and purchased some donuts for the following mornings. And you can't find a donut like the Donut Stop's anywhere in Lubbock! We made our way through the rain to our final destination of Panhandle.

We were stuck inside for most of the visit due to the rain that fell all day Monday. Rylan was so excited to get to see their new puppy Bronx. Rylan kept calling him a Great Hound on the days leading up to the getaway, and I had to correct him and tell him the Bronx in a Great Dane. Needless to say, Rylan was excited to meet him!The girls spent time picking out which candle or should I say candles we wanted to buy from Sierra. We spent hours smelling and laughing! Here is just some of the mess we made.

Talon really did not enjoy smelling the coffee beans and his face was hilarious, but he kept sniffing them. I might add that he did most of his "smelling" with his mouth wide open while trying to smell from it. Quite funny! The face and head shaking that followed the sniff.

Talon spent most of his time getting cuddles form his Aunt C.

Talon also found the dog's water bowl and when I would call his name, this is the look I got. Little stinker.

After he dumped all the water out, he would talk/yell into it and hear his echo.

Rylan spent every spare second he had to play Kyle's XBox. He played some basketball game the entire time.

And his little brother watched him play.
Talon loved the fact that he could easily climb up on their couches and he loved to stand and jump on them. We also spent time Tuesday visiting Sierra's 2nd grade room where Rylan, Talon, and Nana played on the smartboard, and the gym at the elementary playing basketball and I even pulled out some old gymnastics mats. I did about 6 passes on the mats before I got tired and dizzy, so I put them away. I should have known my old body would punish me for this for the next 5 days! We then went to Kyle's classroom where Talon loved playing in the big student desks and we all enjoyed eating Kyle's Cheetos. We then went and had a 2 on 2 basketball game at the new gym. Kyle and Rylan against Sierra and I. The boys won, but Sierra and I let them, for Kyle's sake! We then went and visited Eric and Mandy's house. We didn't get to see either of them, but we did get to visit with Mandy's mom, Karleen, for a while. We concluded Tuesday by eating take home from Fat Tony's and watching American Idol.

We left Wednesday morning and drove back home to Lubbock to beautiful weather! I will post the second part of our spring break later. Until then...

Austin

We made it back from Austin on Sunday afternoon. Ky and I had so much fun with our friends, who are also family! Marsha, Mandy and I and our husbands all stayed in one room at the Embassy Suites and it was so much fun! It was just like a big slumber party all weekend. It was a much needed mini vacation for us, and we are looking forward to going back next year and the year after that! Here are some pictures of the events that took place this weekend.
Marsha, me and Mandy at "The Drum" before we were honored at halftime.The Nazareth Swiftettes.Being honored and receiving two pins from the UIL.

The 2000 Nazareth Swiftettes, or the ones that were able to come. Back: Coach Matt Garrett, Marsha Black Pohlmeier, Whitney Hoelting, Cassie Birkenfeld Damato, Coach Amy Huseman. Front: Wendy Black Wilcox, Shawna Gerber, Mandy Hoelting Schilling.

Mandy, me and Marsha. This is the best picture I got of us. The boys were taking pictures at the same time and we were never all looking at my camera at the same time. At least in this one, we are all looking in the same direction. This picture was taken before we went to 6th Street and spent the best $5 on a comedy show that was hilarious! Then, we spent some time at Pete's Dueling Piano Bar. We got back to the hotel at about 2:15! None of us had been up that late since Kade's wedding!! Yikes! Daryl, Ky and Eric. These boys are also first cousins. What can I say? We just have good taste!

Eric and Mandy
Marsha and Daryl

Ky and I

Somehow, we spent a lot of time with Sierra and Kyle and we never got a picture with them. They will also be back next year and we will make sure we get them in a snap shot then. Until next time...