The Last Couple of Weekends...

We have had such a great time the past couple of weekends...


The weekend before last, Brian, Jaiden, Anthony and I went to Gladewater to celebrate my neice's second birthday. It was so great because we haven't all seen each other since Christmas! After Ella's party we all snuck over to Steve and Judy's (Cassie's parents) where we all hid in the garage and had a surprise 30th birthday party for my OLDER brother Doug! ; ) After the party cleared out, we all (Me, Brian, Jaiden, Anthony, Doug, Cassie, Ella, Ryan, Lindsay, Kai, Steve and Judy) sat in the living room and played with the toys from Ella's toy box. It was a great night. And, just when I thought that it couldn't get any better as we were leaving Lindsay and Ryan told me that I was going to be an aunt AGAIN!! Two of my sister-in-laws are having babies....How awesome is that!


On Wednesday, Anthony got his first haircut by his Aunt Jay! He was so good. Didn't cry for a second! Later on that evening, Jaiden went to her first gym/dance class and had a blast! It's held down at our rec center about half a mile away from the house and that place is awesome! It has everything! I am planning on starting a class on the first of April. I'm actually hoping that with the start date being what it is (4/1), I will just walk into the class and the instructor will say, "April Fools". Probably won't happen though.


So, on Friday, after Jaiden got out of school we headed down to my moms house. Luckily, Anthony was wonderful the entire trip! It took us about an hour longer with all of the bathroom stops, but the trip was nice. Jaiden and Anthony were both worn out from the trip so, when we got there they both fell asleep and Mom, Sean and I sat around and talked for a while. It was really nice to catch up or just talk to Sean. I noticed while I was sitting there that I hardly recognized anything about him. It was wierd. Sad and wierd, but I'm glad that we got the chance to talk. On Saturday, Jaiden, Sean, George and his daughter Melissa went to the Houston Rodeo and then saw Brad Paisley afterwards. Jaiden had a Blast!! She called during the concert saying "Can you hear this?" It was very cute! Me, Anthony and Mom went grocery shopping and then hung out around the house all day. We talked and laughed and played with the baby. It was really great. On Sunday, Mom did an Easter egg hunt for Jaiden and Jaiden ran around the front yard hunting them. It took a little longer than we had planned, but she finally found them all. : 0


After the hunt was over, we had a big lunch that mom and george had prepared. It was yummy. Then we had to pack up and get ready for out long trip home!

It was a great couple of weekends and I am so thankful for all of my wonderful family! I love them all and hate that we only see each other on special occassions and such, but with the way my family is procreating, we are bound to have a new birthday in just about every month of the year, so maybe I'll be seeing them more often in the coming years!

I'll post a slideshow of all of our most recent events later...it's kinda difficult getting pictures in here!

I hope that everyone has a fabulous Easter! God Bless!

Open House

So...tonight Jaiden had open house at her school from 5:00 - 6:30. And, because I am always sooo prepared for what is going to happen, at 6:10, I strapped Anthony on me (Brian had ran to the store to get something to try and fix my car) and we took off walking to the school. We did get there in time, but not with much to spare. Anyways, this story does have a point...and it is this. Jaiden starts the night off by showing me her "newspaper article" which is roughly the size of a posterboard. Each kid in the third grade had one and they are all hanging on the wall in the MAIN hallway. After we found it and were able to get close enough to the wall to read it (there were still a lot of people there) Jaiden starts to read...."I love my family because when I was a baby I had cancer." Of course I blurt out "CANCER!!!'

I'm not sure wether it was Jaiden's reading or my loud mouth, but we had an audience and anyone who knows me knows that I wanted to curl up in a ball and die!!!

Jaiden had mistaken 'surgery' for 'cancer'...you see the resemblance, right?!? Geez!

Unfortunately, the poster is still on the wall and with our tardiness, I didn't have a chance to tell the teacher that Jaiden's bio was thankfully not true!

It's Snowing.....

It snowed! I swear that Jaiden had shorts and a tee shirt on yesterday and tonight it is snowing! Boy, if that isn't some crazy Texas weather...'don't like the weather here, wait a minute, it'll change'! I couldn't get the camera to work real well, but here...

Other than that, things in the Barrera house are fair to middling. Anthony is coming down with a cold and we are praying that it doesn't turn into the croup again! He's also teething, so you can imagine the pleasure cruise that our house is! Other than all of that, he has mastered rolling over and does so ever time that you lay him on the floor. He is also sitting up on his own pretty well. He looses his balance pretty easily, but he's getting it. And, he is holding his own bottle (when he wants to) but still occassionally has those wierd spastic baby moments where he slings the bottle on to the floor or just slides the nipple across his face leaving a nice trail of formula or juice.

Poor baby....

Jaiden is doing okay in school. We have the Reading TAKS Test on Wednesday so we are hoping for the best! We just found out that she is struggling with multiplying her "3's". The rest of the class is now on "7's" and Jaiden is still on "3's". Thing is...they do a number each week and this is the first time that Brian or I have heard anything about her struggling. I understand that Jaiden should have said something to me, but isn't it also a bit on the teacher to send home a (failed) test, or shoot me an email to let me know that she should be working on them extra a bit before she is FIVE weeks behind the rest of the class? I dunno, but that is now our newest focus. Any tips or suggestions on memorizing times tables are greatly appreciated!

Tonight, Miss Jaiden was feeling a bit 'froggy'

Oh come on...it was cute!

Brian is still kickin' butt with his job and we are hopeful that he will get signed on full time. We were just talking about how amazingly blessed we are both being able to be home with the baby! It has really helped Anthony and Brian have a special bond that a lot of fathers aren't able to experience this early on. I was so worried after having him because the first three months or so Anthony was stuck to me (literally!) and would cry when Brian held him. I know that it broke his heart, but know, every time that Anthony sees his Daddy walk into a room, he gets the greatest little grin on his face and usually reaches for him when I am holding him and we're standing next to his Daddy. Thankfully, (and especially right now with him not feeling good), I still get my Mommy moments, so I am happy!

I hope that everyone has a wonderful week and I'll write again soon!