Emory on sugar

Last Thursday Trinity had a play date after school with one of her friends, so Emory had the special treat of Hot Chocolate, something becoming more and more rare around here. This is the result of giving a sugar deprived child something so rich...


This went on for at least thirty minutes. She only briefly stopped when it really dawned on her she was being recorded:)

Mean Green Basketball

Yes, that's basketball because apparently we don't go to enough NT sporting events already. On Saturday (after a garage sale and while Trinity and Emory were sick as dogs in Fort Worth with my parents) Greg decided he wanted to go to the North Texas Basketball game and take Addison for her first experience. Although I was yawning the entire time we really enjoyed ourselves! Addison loved the music from the band that was there and all the noise from the crowd. She loved being able to stand up to watch all the action or move around if she preferred (due to the lack of crowd).


Here is a picture to enjoy.

She loves playing with her teeth- her tongue is out almost all the time!

10 months old?!?!

I'm so tired of having the same thought...where does the time go? You know, once when I was in middle school someone told me a child's day is worth three adult days. What she meant was time goes by three times as fast for grown ups as it does for kids because of all the new stuff, opportunities and experiences a kid has in one day. I totally believe that, in fact I would guess it's more like five days for a grown up to one day for a kid.

So, back to the point of this post...Addison is 10 months old! Actually her true 10 month "birthday" came and went and I didn't even realize it until I checked my email and saw my Babycenter.com newsletter for a 10 month old, week 1. I had to stop and read the subject line a couple of times, then check my watch and the calendar to make sure it was right. I felt terribly for not realizing what day it was, but I guess when she's going on three weeks of a fever all but two days the date isn't exactly the forefront of my thoughts.

This month has been huge for our baby girl! She now has a total of five teeth and three that are trying their best to push through and will actually make it any second now (although she is still waiting on one of the top center teeth-funny!). She has realized she can go from laying to sitting all by herself and does it all the time, she is standing all the time and really pulling up on things, she even stands without holding on to things from time to time. She is becoming quite a silly girl and always wanting to play games with us and do anything to make us laugh. She LOVES playing with her sisters' babies and Little People! Anytime music or singing begins she starts dancing, and I'm not entirely convinced she isn't trying to sing along (I'm pretty sure she hums Twinkle Twinkle Little Star- but you know how mommies always hear and see things that aren't really there), she waves to anyone who will look her direction and smiles all the time! The people at school always ask me if she ever doesn't smile, because they have never seen her not smiling (even at nap time, while cutting six teeth, with a cold, fever and ear infection she still finds a way to smile and wave). All her sisters have to do is look in her direction and she will start cackling, which of course draws their attention even more! She loves other kids and really likes to play with them!

Here are a few pictures of her over the past week or two.

Here is her standard monthly shot with "Mister" She is REALLY sick in this pic (102 fever and her eyes are all puffy) but the sight of the camera makes her smile anyway!

This was the only way I could get a shot of her "snaggletooth".

It was last week, so it wasn't quite as defined as it is today

This is our neighbor, Farron (15 months old). Isn't he precious?!

Addison loves playing with him, just the sight of him lights her up!

What a joy she is to have in our lives! We are all so blessed to have her!

Addison, Mommy loves you with all my heart!

Yucky!

We're still batteling the yuckies in our house! Emory seems to be feeling better and her fever seems to have gone away, but Addison is STILL grumpy and STILL has a fever. Trinity's teacher called on Friday for me to go pick her up from school because her temperature was 103.4- ugh! She is handling it pretty well, she has been in bed all day today and as long as she has Motrin in her she doesn't seem to feel too bad and her fever is completely under control. Looks like we will be spending another Monday at the doc's office.

I think I'm coming down with it now too. I've had a low- very low- fever today and I'm exhausted! Maybe it's just the lack of sleep or the exhaustion of three sick girls...let's hope that what it is!

I'll keep you posted...

Our streak is over:(

I'm sad to say our family streak of never having to have antibiotics for our children is over. After Emory having several days of fever on and off along with the normal cold issues (gross nose, cough, etc) and Addison having the most horrific cough of any human being ever for a couple of days along with low fever and yucky nose, Trinity and I got them both in to see the doctor yesterday. Addison has an ear infection in her left ear and Emory has an ear infection in both ears and an extremely inflamed throat:(

Yesterday was the first day either one of them really acted like they didn't feel well, so I'm glad we got them in when we did. We started them both on antibiotics last night and Addison seems to be feeling so much better! Emory is really fussy and grumpy today, but her runny nose and yucky cough are almost gone!

As soon as the doctor told me Emory's diagnosis I asked her if her ears or throat hurt and she said no to both. The doc agreed that she must have a pain threshold of a super-human to have all the infection she does and not complain of any pain- especially at her age! So her new name is SuperGirl! She has never cried at shots or complained at injuries...crazy!

Trinity has been doing fine throughout all this junk, but unfortunately this morning she seemed to be taking a downward turn. We will see how she is when I pick her up from school...

Bath time!

Yesterday we (Emory and I) gave Addison her first bath in the kitchen sink. I hate to have to move everything out of reach just to give a quick bath, but it's a great photo op! She had a great time and thought the spraying water thing was amazing, especially when it would turn the faucet on and off!

Emory saw how much fun Addison was having and had to participate in the excitement!

Seriously, is it possible to be any more precious than my little girls?!?!?! I guess you can think yours are, but that is a mother's prerogative!

Trinity's babysitter

Kelly found this picture on her computer of Trinity in Halo's crate from when she was about Addison's age. This time it looks like Trinity is the one babysitting:) How cute is she?

Thank you Kelly!

Our new babysitter

While Addison was working her way around the house this afternoon she managed to finally get INTO Halo's crate. She's been trying to get over the door frame since she's been mobile and today she finally made it. We've decided that next time we need a babysitter for her we will just lock her up in this with Halo, I'm sure she'll be well taken care of :)

I'm sure some of you will remember a picture of Trinity in the same situation, unfortunately I don't have it on my computer to share with you, but hopefully someone will.

Addison was awfully proud of herself!

Looking for signs of fall

Here it is, mid-November and it's in the 80's for the millionth straight day! We are getting desperate for signs of fall to help us remember it's almost Thanksgiving. We've started listening to Christmas music when we're in the car (KVIL started playing it last week) and sometimes when we're at home. We've gone to the stores where they have all their decorations out just to browse and get in the spirit and we've talked about Thanksgiving till we're blue in the face. Other than the fall colds running rampant through our house the only other constant reminder we have is the hail storm of acorns (that is NOT an exaggeration) in our yard and a few trees that are turning. I took a couple of pictures of pretty trees while we were driving this week to prove they really do exist.

This one is in the Toys R Us parking lot

The girls and I have really enjoyed this red tree at Northwest Highway and Buckner. It really stood out with the trees on both sides of it still green.

And the Winner is...

Yesterday was Derby Day for Adventure Princesses, something Greg has been looking forward to since the day they signed up, encouraging Trinity to do the same. Greg was in Indian Guides and Scouts for years, so he and his dad had quite a bit of practice building winning cars for this highly competitive sport. Greg was taking this first Princess competition quite seriously and Trinity was feeding off that. We spent last Sunday afternoon at Greg's Dad's house designing, cutting, sanding and priming the car to prepare for completion during the week. I spent a good part of Wednesday and Thursday painting the car just how Trinity requested, half pink and half purple with diamonds. I felt bad not letting Trinity doing it, but I have a little bit of a hard time letting her loose with a can of spray paint. Thursday we went back to Sachse for setting the axles and putting on the finishing touches. Not long after arriving we discovered a bit of a problem, with all the parts on the car and the pre-drilled holes filled with pellets we were only up to about two and a half ounces and the cars were allowed to be five, this was the beginning of several hours of work for Greg and Hal! They figured out a way to implant weights in the sides of the car, still fill the holes with pellets and have it come in at just five ounces, filled all the holes with wood putty to still have a smooth finish and prepared to be repainted. By the time I got the car repainted and a good, thick coat of clear coat on it you couldn't even tell there were any weights in it! Woohoo!

When we showed up at the race with all the other first year competitors Greg was getting pretty excited about their chances. Several cars were NOT aerodynamic at all, but looked pretty cool. Some of the cars had enough weights to max out, but they were simply glued or screwed on, interfering with their aerodynamics. Then some of the cars were just cars the girls and their dads had fun designing together.

Now it was time for weigh-in. Greg was really nervous! He put the car on the scale and it rolled right off- it was ready to race! Once he got it to stay the number said 5.00 ounces...now that's good work! It's time to check it in and hand it over.

So finally race time is here! This is a highly technical race these days. Each car races four times and the track times their speed in each race. The car with the highest average speed is the winner. Of course at the Y everyone is a winner, so there are several other categories for winning and ever competitor receives a trophy.

Trinity's car won each of her four races, but we weren't sure how she was stacking up against some of the other cars that seemed to be doing the same. The girls were having a great time cheering on each others cars and watching for their own. When it came time to hand out the trophies we started to get a little nervous because we knew Trinity's chances were good. So they're down to the last three awards, 3rd, 2nd and 1st fastest time. I think Greg was starting to sweat a little bit! Then the announcer says, "And the winner of this year's first year Adventure Princess Derby Day race, with a time of 3.1????? seconds is...car #16...Trinity Hinckley!!!" WOO-HOO WE WON! Greg and Trinity were so proud! Trinity's friends and their parents were wonderful supporters and were very proud too! Trinity was a very humble winner, congratulating all of her friends as well and giving each one a unique compliment on their car. What a great time! Here are some pictures of our experience.

Trinity before we left for the race

Greg and Trinity leaving for the race

Cars lined up as their entered, you can see Trinity's is #16

Close up of Trinity's car with it's #16 sticker

Charlotte's Dad, Kelly having to drill holes in the bottom; it weighed in at 5.04 ozs You should have seen it though, it looked like a model car! Three weeks worth of work and 20+ coats of paint!

Jenna, Trinity and Peyton watching the races

You can almost see, Trinity's car is in lane 2.

They didn't know they were about to see true greatness!

Greg and Trinity accepting their first place trophy

Trinity and her Settlement with their Dad's, cars and trophies

Proud winners with their trophy!