Happy 3rd Birthday, Colby-Colb!

Colby turned the big "3" on Saturday.

The festivities started at school on Friday. I realized Thursday night that Friday was clown day, so I had to do some creative thinking to come up with a last minute clown suit. Luckily, we had blue hair spray that Matthew used a couple of weeks ago for Crazy Hair Day at camp, I dug the lovely red socks with presents out of my drawer, and we had the multi-colored cotton pom-poms left from one of Matthew's art projects last year. When combined with the lovely camo shorts, we created COLBY-COLB THE BIRTHDAY CLOWN!

Of course, Saturday began with the Traditional Hale Birthday Breakfast (minus Matthew, who was at a friend's sleepover)

After running a ton of errands Saturday morning, making final preparations throughout the day, and squeezing in a nap for everyone......IT WAS FINALLY PARTY TIME!

This is Colby's friend from daycare, Jacob. They are truly best buddies. They are so much alike that it is SCARY!

Being 3 ROCKS!

And he finally pooped out (in his brand new Hulk p.j's)!

Happy Birthday, Colby-Colb! You are a joy and most definitely ONE OF A KIND! Love you bunches.

Vacation Pictures Day #3

Tuesday, the whole gang.....Hales plus Mimi & Pop, Amy & Trey......headed back to San Antonio. We visited the Witte Museum, had lunch at the Rain Forest Cafe, went to the Alamo and then saw "Under the Sea" in 3D at the IMAX.

Needless to say we were all pooped by Tuesday evening. We packed up and left after dinner, so we could drive while the boys slept.

A huge THANK YOU to Trey and Amy for letting us stay with them. I hope by now they are rested and their house is back to normal. Trey, it's time to start turning the downstairs guest bedroom into Isabella's room.

Check back next week for pictures of COLBY'S 3RD BIRTHDAY PARTY!!

Vacation Pictures Day #2 SEAWORLD

On Monday, we left Ryan with Amy and Mimi, and took the big boys to Sea World. The weather wasn't great, but we had a BLAST!

Vacation Pictures Day #1

The Hales packed up last Saturday and headed to Hotel Hartman (that would be my sister and brother-in-laws house :) for a little family vacation. Sunday, we headed to New Braunfels and visited Landa Park (very fun) and the Snake Farm (glad we went, but I don't recommend it). We met up with Mimi and Pop for dinner at Clear Springs (YUMMY!)

ahhhhhhhhhhh

That would be me breathing a sigh of relief!

It's 8:30 on a Friday night. My mother-in-law came this afternoon and took Matthew and Colby.

Ryan is peacefully sleeping. Matt is at an appreciation dinner at his boss's house.

And me?

I'm sitting in my floor with a bowl of popcorn watching "What Not To Wear". Does the carpet need to be vacuumed? Yes. Does the furniture need to be dusted? Yep. Does the dining room need to be swept and mopped? Always. Do the toilets need to be scrubbed? Absolutely.

Am I going to do any of that this evening? NOPE.

I did manage to fold and put away three loads of laundry, so I'm not totally worthless.

So enough about me....What about my super dooper 9 month old?

Ryan is wonderful. Still a little (a lot) clingy, but he's had a big month.

He's eating all kinds of food, got four (maybe more) new teeth coming in, crawling everywhere, pulling up, getting into everything, jabbering (mama, dada, bubba, nananana) AND the doc gave me the o.k. to start replacing formula with whole milk (so now that $40 a week can go straight in my gas tank!)

On Monday at his check-up he weighed 22 lbs. 14 oz.

LIFE IS GOOD!!

Sugar & Spice & Everything Nice.....

....that's what little GIRLS are made of.


That's right, WE ARE HAVING A GIRL!

O.K...not "we" as in Matt and I, but "we" as in my sister and brother-in-law.


Amy found out yesterday that in mid-November we will be welcoming Isabella Grace (or Ilabezza, as Matthew calls her) into our family.


Those that know us well will not be surprised to hear that Mom and I both went shopping as soon as we heard the news. I'm really not sure how you Mommies/Grandmommies with little girls do it. I'm more certain than ever that God gave me boys for a reason. I would be completely broke and naked if I had a daughter to clothe. So many cute clothes to wear....and only 24 hours in a day.

My boys were a little disappointed at first. Matthew says Ilabezza is already giving him a headache, because girls are loud and they talk a lot (He is his Daddy's son for sure). Either way, they are very excited about having a new baby cousin and are quickly warming up to the fact that he is going to be a she.

Amy told my Dad he needed to go out and buy a pink baseball hat for her to wear when she goes out to "check the cows" with the boys. This is going to get very interesting.

Needless to say, I'm tickled PINK (finally)!

P.S. It seems as if poor Ry's monthly birthdays always get upstaged, so I'll do a separate post later about my roly-poly, crawling, pulling up, jibber-jabbering, finger food eating 9 MONTH OLD!