Thanks, but no thanks!!!!!

Unwanted advice, every mother has experienced it. All mothers do it. Most mothers hate it. Myself, I have been pretty lucky up until this point. Today was a different story. So I walked into Target realizing that Curtis was tired but I just had to grab one last Christmas present. In and out no big deal....until we had a melt down. I believe maybe he wanted something on one of the isles who knows but the temper tantrum that ensued was one of the worst yet (still working on ways of preventing these...its a process). So being the mother that I am I decided to just tell him no and then leave the store. I walked to leave Target he was absolutely histerical, arching his back, just really ticked off and tired. This woman decided to stop me in my haste to leave and ask if I was okay and if I needed some help. She had what looked like a six-eight month old kid in her cart so I thought "hey that's nice some mom to mom sympathy." I politely but hurriedly told her "no thank you he is just throwing a temper tantrum we will be fine." Then the woman had THE NERVE to say "I really think something is hurting him, let me help you." Apparently this woman thought that the five seconds she had spent listening to my child scream gave her some sort of insight into him that I don't have about MY OWN CHILD. I looked her straight in the eye and told her "No, its a temper tantrum" and just walked away. Lady!!! Okay...I feel better now!

Happy Birthday Mike

Happy Birthday Michael!!! We love you!!! We are so blessed to have you in our lives. Hope you have a great day!!!

By the way Jacob says he is sorry that he forgot to call you :)

Happy 1st Birthday Anna!

So we're just barely a day late, but we couldn't go without formally saying Happy Birthday to Miss Anna Jayne Lavine! We love you very much and are so glad that we were able to spend this past weekend celebrating with you on your very special first birthday! We were remembering the anticipation we had last year around this time when we thought you would never come (shout out to Emily for all of her hard work!!!). You have blessed our lives immensely and we can not wait to see the awesome plans that God has for your life. Happy birthday little princess! We love you!

This 'n That

I have been totally absent from the entire blog scene for quite awhile now. So much has happened between my last post and this one! My Grandparents came in from Florida for the Thanksgiving holiday (pictures on Picasa). We had a great visit with them and I feel so blessed that we were able to spend some good quality time with four generations of our family. Curtis absolutely loves his Great Grandparents and they too got caught up in spoiling our little one! Most excitingly I HAVE A NEW NIECE OR NEPHEW!!!!! Dan and Kristy are pregnant, due in July! I am absolutely ecstatic about the news and can not wait to enjoy the precious angel! I am really looking forward to seeing Danny as a Dad, I know they are going to be awesome parents. Curtis is super excited about having another cousin. He has learned through Clare that cousins are a ton of fun. Curtis is pretty sick this week with a really nasty virus so that's all the time I have for now...more to come.

Who was supposed to be watching them?

How ten month olds entertain themselves while the momma's prepare for a picnic...

First Steps

To everyone's amazement Curtis took his first steps on Tuesday. He has been pulling up by himself for awhile now but hasn't been too brave when it comes to letting go of whatever he is holding on to. Dan and Kristy were over for dinner on Tuesday and we looked over and there he went. He took one step away from the couch and then crashed. Since then he has tried many more times all between one and three steps. I can not believe that my precious little baby boy is big enough to be doing this. I bet it will be awhile before he is really up and moving on his own, he still crashes after a few steps...but we will see.

TP Man

So this is what Curtis was doing while I was folding laundry Monday...

The great thing is that I watched him do it the entire time...not only did I allow it but I took pictures of it. I am totally going to regret this when he TP's our house in another month or so but for now it was too cute not to capture!

Curtis' First Hair Cut

It was a big day in the Counts' family...Curtis had his first hair cut! It had gotten pretty long in the last few weeks and was hanging over his collared shirts. It was also my first time cutting hair... Its not exactly easy to cut hair on a squirming 10 month old! It didn't turn out too bad though all things considered. Here are the before and after pictures.

Happy Belated Halloween

I finally have a chance to blog about our Halloween adventures!!! Its only a few days late I suppose. We went to Zoo Boo last Saturday (pictures on our picassa site) thankfully it was cool enough for Curtis to wear his costume...too cute! Halloween day was way too hot for the full suit so its a good thing we had tons of pictures already. We had a great Halloween with all of our neighbors and enjoyed some stew (thanks Sabrina) and beverages while we passed out candy. Hope you had a great one too

Beautiful Weather

What a fantastic weather week this has been! This is definitely my favorite time of year. We have had a lot of fun this week laying on blankets in our front yard and hanging out with Zane and Clare. It makes for a really nice break in the long days Jacob has been having at his new job this week (which he loves by the way). Tomorrow we are headed to ZOO BOO with Kelly, Drew, Jacob, Jane, Adrienne, Hunter, and Nana. I am looking forward to another excuse to play outside! Saturday night we have a wedding for a friend from high school in Richmond. Sunday my mom is being inducted into an amazing spiritual council at our church. I am so proud of her for taking a leap of faith and accepting her nomination. I know she is going to be amazing in her post and really make a difference in our church. So we have a busy weekend as usual. I will post lots of pictures on Monday. By the way congratulations to Brittany and Steven on the arrival of Preston Patrick! We can't wait to see the little man! Have a great weekend!

Just me and my little man

Just us at home again :( Jacob started his new job this morning. He didn't have to be there until 8:30 this morning so we all got to wake up as a family again. He left ridiculously early this morning, (arriving late on your first day just doesn't make the boss feel too confident in his decision) but only got there about fifteen minutes early due to the traffic. Hopefully he can work with his boss to have earlier work hours so he can avoid rush hour from now on! Curtis and I are going to spend the day relaxing from our hectic week and weekend. We are both looking forward to getting back on a more normal schedule this week, although we will definitely miss daddy! By the way we had our second session of our NFP class this Saturday and it went amazing! 10 of our 13 couples returned on their own accord to take the second class (our priest requires engaged couples to take the first class before they can marry in our church). We were thrilled at the huge turn out. Maybe it was our amazing teaching ability?! Or the holy spirit I suppose :) ! Only one more class to go before we are officially certified instructors!

Fantastic Week

We have had such a wonderful week with Jacob home for nine whole days! He is taking the entire week off before he starts his new job on Monday at Ion Geophysics. It has been wonderful to wake up as a family every morning and to be able to run with my two boys at the crack of dawn. We have also done some much needed chores around the house: Installing light fixtures in the play room, touching up paint around the entire house, painting our guest bedroom and ripping out plants in the back yard. Today we are going to work on that dang shower door and hopefully get our new stove installed (if Uncle Mark makes it to our house). We are so blessed to have had an entire week to spend as a family. Hope you have had a great week too!

It is finished

He-who-must-not-be-named is finished. And so I am with those crazy books that are SOOOOO addicting. I have been caught up in books five, six, and seven for the past month now during Curtis's nap time (he actually naps daily now :) what a relief!). If any of you have read the books you will understand just how captivating they are. They really get inside your head. So I'm done now and looking for another interesting read. If you haven't read them you are sorely missing out. The ending is fantastic!

I leave you with a tushie picture of my love bug and my precious niece Clare. I can hardly believe they are nine months old already! They are a blast when they get together and crawl all over the place. It is absolutely not possible for me to love those two any more!!

Brownies A La Mode

So everyone that knows me knows that my biggest weakness as a "domestic goddess" is my lack of cooking ability. In an effort to improve my recent poor performance (read: Digiorno pizza fest) I decided to read up on some new recipes. I turned to The Catholic Daughters cook book from St. Theresa's in Sugar Land. My mother in law gave it to me for mothers day this year (thank you again Jan!). As I combed through the pages this week however, I discovered that the creation of this cookbook had absolutely nothing to do with cooking but everything to do with showing off the recipe that you and only you have the skills necessary to make. For example a recipe for dark chocolate pecan brownies would look something like this:

Mix the ingredients as follows:

* 4 cups and one pinch Flour ((hand ground and made of pure organic wheat (see page 558 for instructions))

*1 and 1/4 cups sugar (Take the tour of the Imperial Sugar Factory down the road, it takes about 35 free packets of sugar...its fresher straight from the source)

*2 cups butter (It is best when freshly whipped from a jersey dairy cow, if no cow available in your back yard try your local farmers market)

*3 robins eggs (Only available from April to July they are best when freshly laid)

*25 Suzie's Dark Chocolate Delights (page 75 for recipe)

Mix all ingredients in a glass bowl. Stir counterclockwise for ten minutes then clockwise for three and one half turns. Place in a dutch oven for thirty-five minutes, rotating every seven minutes. These brownies are delicious with homemade mocha frosty cranberry ice cream (recipe on page 89).

Are these women serious?? Did they ever have children? I would like to join Catholic Daughters one day and enter my own recipe for brownies:

Open box of Betty Crocker Fudge Delights
Follow directions on package
Enjoy with Blue Bell Vanilla Ice Cream :)

Yum...now we are talking! Brownies anyone?

ION Geo-something-or-another

Times are changing in the Counts household...we are no longer bleeding Boeing blue. Jacob has verbally accepted an offer from ION Geophysical Corporation in Stafford, Tx. If all goes well with the paperwork (which I am sure it will) he will start there October 22nd. He decided to make this move in order to gain some more technical experience and to actually use those crazy hard circuit skills he learned at Baylor. I am so proud of him for working so hard to make this change happen. It was definitely not easy to leave such an awesome company but I am sure this will be a great change for his career and our family. Yahoo for ION!!!

This is Curtis contemplating the strong side tackle game plan at his first football game. He has serious coaching potential. Look at the concentration on his face!

Family Fun Day

Today is family fun day :) Daddy stayed home to play with us (or he is taking care of us...depending on who you ask) So far we have had a wonderful day playing in bed, taking walks, watching Curtis crawl around the house and mastering throwing his baseball. Curtis has officially started to sign we get a kick out of watching him practice. So far he has signed Dad, Mom, milk, and outside. He is still perfecting all the signs obviously but he definitely gets a kick out of being able to communicate. The real reason Jacob stayed home today is because Curtis has been pretty sick for the last week. He has Coxsackie (sp?) virus otherwise known as mouth, hand, and foot disease. I took him to the doctor on Monday after six days of extreme fussiness and nose run. When the doctor looked in his throat he found lots of ulcers and inflammation. Poor little man! No wonder he has been a fuss pot! Tylenol seams to help quite a bit and hopefully he will be back to his happy self by the end of the week. Another reason Jacob is home is so that he and I have some time to discuss all of his job offers (three in all) and decide what change, if any, we are going to make. I think we need to decide by the end of the week. Have a great Wednesday!

Excuses Excuses

I have a million of them as to why I have not posted in almost a month...been sick, been traveling, been teething, really I could go on but why?! You are my closest family and friends and you love me despite my lack of blogging. So there I posted... Happy? Will post more if little man decides to tajke a nap today. Be sure to check out our pictures from San Diego on our picassa site! love to all!

Out of Reverse

He finally shifted out of reverse! I can't get over how adorable he looks crawling all over our house with his little tush in the air. A momma's love is so overwhelming! For weeks now we have been thinking he would crawl any day. He has been trying so hard to get going in the right direction. His first real crawl was in my mom's office trying to get to a really cool toy truck. What a big boy! OH, and he has decided that since he is such a big boy that he no longer needs naps. Yesterday he took three twenty minute naps all day long. Crazy boy! I should have no problem shedding these last few baby pounds while I chase him around from now on! He just woke up...more later

I heart my daddy

Okay, everyone who knows me knows that I LOVE my father. I talk about him constantly and am an absolute daddy's girl. He is most definitely one of my favorite people in the entire world. Besides being a fantastic father, loving husband, and compassionate grandfather, he is just a wonderful person. He would give you the shirt off of his back in an instant, family or not. I have always admired my father for his incredible selflessness. He has an amazing way of hitting you with the truth without being judgemental or self-righteous. His unwavering faith is my example. Last but certainly not least he is the rock and the glue of my life and of his family. He is our strength. So seeing him in a hospital bed this weekend was an absolute nightmare. Let me back up and tell you that the Schwartz side of my family doesn't exactly have a good healthy family history. Besides the infamous Schwartz belly and chin (Thanks a lot for those genes dad!) the cholesterol and triglyceride numbers are absolutely astounding in pretty much everyone in our family. My grandfather had twelve brothers and sisters and eleven of them died of heart attacks. Scary stuff! My father has always taken the best of care of his health and I am really proud of the way he keeps up with his preventative tests and medicines. Still, despite all of that I have always feared that he would inherit the fate of his father. So Saturday morning when I got the phone call that dad was in the hospital with chest pains I really thought my fears had come true. Seeing him lie in that bed was horrible for me but even worse for him. Being our rock I know it killed him to have us see him lying there feeling weak. Praise God that throughout the weekend the doctors ruled out the possibility of a heart attack. He has been poked and prodded and tested with no real answer but his heart is very healthy. Thank you to all of you who were a support to my family through this scare. Dad your the best...don't ever do that to us again!!!

He has teeth!!

Here is a picture of Curtis' two little teeth. I am very impressed with my photography skills by the way. It only took me fifty pictures to finally get one shot of the teeth!!! Curtis thought the drool hanging from his mouth would add depth and character to the picture.

Mr. & Mrs. Kale Kirchner

The wedding this weekend was absolutely AMAZING! The ceremony was candle lit, flowers everywhere, just absolutely stunning. The music was really special with a 12 person bell choir (directed by Jen's mother!), a string quartet, a trumpet player, and most importatnly Jen's grandmother who belted out the most amazing operatic version of the Our Father I had ever heard. Power to the Grannies who still have the lung capasity to belt it out!!! All of the bridesmaids looked like models in their silver satin dresses (which could totally be worn again!!!). When Jen walked down the aisle I thought Kale was going to faint. She was completely stunning. Her dress was HUGE and looked like it came out of a page of a high fashion magazine. The reception was at the Marriott Waterway and was complete with a full bar, prime rib, pasta selections, cooked to order potatoes, and did I mention a full bar? Makes me totally shell shocked to think of having a girl and having to pay for all of that!!! So far we only have rehearsal dinners to worry about (unless Curtis becomes a priest which would be perfectly wonderful too!). We had a wonderful weekend and thoughourly enjoyed our time in the woodlands. Thank you Jen and Kale for inviting us to your special day! We love you and Congratulations! Enjoy the pictures.

Curtis got his second tooth in yesterday. He is growing up before my own eyes! I will try to get a picture of that and post it soon!

Bit of Advice

You know its time to move your crib matress down when your kid can do this....

Chip & Dale's Anyone?

Look at my studly little man!! This was our attempt to get Curtis into a three piece suit...do they make a size 16 neck for infants??? We were all three dying laughing when the top TWO buttons on this size 9 months suit were inches from closing. I believe that is called the Schwartz chin(s). Where is the big and tall section at Babies 'R Us?

All I Want For Christmas...

Is my two front teeth...or at least one of them. Curtis' little toother finally decided to peek its head out last night. I have a feeling the next one is not far behind. Now the newest drama of mommyhood is trying to teach him not to bite! I am pretty impressed by the little fellow though he hardly made a peep throughout the teething process. This weekend we are taking a little family vacation up to the woodlands for a wedding. One of my fellow BU water polo players is finally marrying her high school sweetheart. I will have to post pictures on Monday as I am sure this will be the cutest bride and groom you have ever seen. Jen is under five foot tall and probably weighs ninety pounds soaking wet. Kale is six foot five and has the stature of an offensive lineman. I am trying my best to convince him to carry her down the aisle. The wedding is at the Marriot on the river walk in the Woodlands so we are all going to be glamed up and ready to party. Curtis even has a three piece suit for the event. Its gonna be precious!

Renovations

Jacob and I have officially gone crazy. Last Thursday night we sold our pool table (finally)!!! It sat in our Baylor room totally unused for the entire length of our home ownership. The room was a total disaster and in no way practical for our lives. Friday we got the idea to turn the room into a play room (for Curtis and mommy) Jacob set up a desk for me in the Baylor room so that I can scrapbook during Curtis' minuscule naps. Saturday we decided to put a fan in the Baylor room and somehow that lead to us painting the celling, installing the fan, installing new sconces, painting all the walls, painting the trim, and totally redoing the room as a play/scrapbooking/computer room. It is fantastic!!! I will post pictures as soon as Jacob gets the last three sconces up (hopefully today). I can not tell you how liberating it has been to be able to scrapbook at will again. The best thing is I can leave all my junk out and just close the doors when guests come over. Curtis has a great room to play in as well where we can leave all of his toys sprawled out on the floor. Why did it take us so long to do all of this????

Huge Baby

Curtis had his 6 month appointment last Friday and is he HUGE! He weighs in at a whopping 18 pounds and is 27 inches long. He measured in the 70th percentile for weight and the 75th for height! To our surprise his head is on the small side and measured in the 30th percentile, we all can breath a sigh of relief that he officially did not inherit Jacob's head :) Curtis' latest trick is pulling up on things and then tumbling backwards when his legs collapse. He is working on getting up on his knees but he is much more interested in standing than crawling. Who knows, maybe he will skip crawling all together! Since he has reached the 6 month mark it was time to introduce some solid foods into his diet. He wasn't too impressed with rice cereal but in true Counts fashion he will eat anything and ate it with a grimace on his face like a good boy! Last night we started squash and he couldn't get enough of that stuff! I can hardly be live he is old enough to be eating real food! Makes a mother want to cry! The picture is of Curtis in his element outside. He can not get enough of the outdoors...I wonder what side of the family he got that from??!

Naked Baby & Our Anniversary

Jacob and I celebrated our two year anniversary this week. I can hardly believe the amazing blessings we have received in just two years! Thank you to all of our friends and family that called or sent cards, you are amazing. So what did we do on our anniversary? We planned to re-enact our first date and go bowling and out for dinner. Curtis however wasn't feeling well so instead we stayed in and had pizza, margaritas, and brownies. It turned out to be a great family night once Curtis' medicine had kicked in! We do have plans to go out just the two of us as soon as my parents return from their travels for a more romantic evening. More than anything our night in made us realize how beautiful our marriage really is. Spending an evening watching each other nurturing Curtis makes us realize what marriage is really all about. We are so blessed! Our naked baby has nothing to do with this post but I thought our anniversary blog should involve at least some nudity :)

Zane Austin Koogler has arrived!!!

Sabrina and John gave birth to a beautiful baby boy yesterday evening at 7:30. Sabrina was absolutely amazing and had handled everything beautifully. She delivered Zane only four hours after her water broke and she started to have true contractions. What a champ! He is 9 lbs 12 oz. Ready to be a football player already! Welcome baby Zane!

Whats new

Curtis is doing wonderfully. He is sitting up really well on his own and really enjoys to play by himself as long as mommy and daddy aren't too far away! He has started to pull himself up on things also. I had NO idea that he would be able to do that so young. Yesterday he did it twice on the laundry basket and today he did it a few more times by holding onto his bumbo seat. We spent the day today with the Meyer clan. Lily Grace is our beautiful God daughter. She was amazingly gentle with Curtis and the two of them enjoyed the visit as well. Check out our picassa site for more pictures. The most exciting thing that happened today is SABRINA IS IN LABOR!! Finally! Keep you posted on details. Her water broke today around one and they headed to the birthing center around four. I can't wait to see if its a boy or a girl! Will post pictures asap!

The babes

I just wanted to post a blog to tell everyone how amazing Curtis and Anna are. I absolutely love these kiddos and it was so special to spend the week with them both. For starters they are just freakin adorable! I love how Anna does a bobble head motion when she is sitting up by herself. It really cracks me up when she gets her right arm into the braves motion at the same time as the bobble. She is a talented little one with great personality. The two of them are truly a sight. Curtis couldn't keep his hands off of Anna and ate her clothing every time we turned around. I think they are in love already! Our trip was absolutely amazing and it made me realize how much I wish we all lived closer to one another. I cry in the airport every time I leave them because I honestly feel like I am leaving my family behind. Michael and Emily are some of my favorite people in the entire world. I am so blessed to have such honest, loving, and dedicated friends. It is so wonderful to have friends who, even though they live half way across the country, I know are always there. I could go on all day about my love for those two. Thanks for everything you guys!!!

Hallelujah!

Jillian visits the holy land...aka the mall of America. Seriously that place is amazing! I can not describe to you the feeling you get when you realize there are hundreds of stores full of stuff and you have an amazing husband with a credit card for you to use at your discretion. HALLELUJAH! The babes rode in the strollers and the husbands entered into every techie store in the place. Emily and I girled it up and had a blast. So I am not even done blogging about our Minnesota vacation and I am already on another one! I am spending the week in Corpus Christi with my mom and dad. Check out Picasa for some pictures of our adventures here. More to come sooner rather than later I hope!

Curtis' first trip to the zoo

Saturday morning we took the crew for the babies first trip to the zoo. You should have seen how much junk we stuffed in the expedition! We had two strollers, two bijorns, two diaper bags, coolers, sunscreen, hats, blankets, sunglasses, seriously the list goes on. Since the babies were never in the stroller at the same time I ended up being the crazy lady with the empty stroller for her "baby" the entire day. We wizened up as the trip went on and took only one stroller and one bijorn on our other adventures. Anyhow the Minnesota zoo was fantastic! I highly recommend it if you are ever in the area. They had some of the craziest animals I had ever seen. Michael and Jacob had a great time being photographers and we have about four hundred pictures of every animal known to man (see our Picasa site if you are interested). The babes had a wonderful time and especially loved the shark and fish exhibit. It was really amazing to see how interested they were in all of the exhibits. Our children are geniuses I swear! Curtis had his camo safari hunting outfit on, those moose were trembling in their boots when we passed! Next post Jillian visits the holy land...

Oh geez don't ya know yeah you betcha!

We spent six amazing days up in Minnesota this month. It was Curtis' first vacation and plane ride. We had an awesome time, and I plan to blog at least five times to capture all the highlights. Curtis was a trooper through the two plane trips to St. Paul. Yes, two. We stopped in Atlanta, so Curtis spent 5 1/2 hours on the plane on the way out. Even with an hour delay he was an all star traveler and earned his wings. We visited with Jacob's Grandma Dub and had a picnic with some of his extended family in the evening. Uncle Jim, Aunt Donna, and Robbie made the trip from Minnetonka. Jim looks fantastic and is still a goof ball. Glad to see he hasn't lost his sense of humor! Dave, Mary, Jonathan, and Jennifer came down from Cambridge and rounded out the family crew. Mike, Emily, and Anna joined us as well.

I swear Curtis is already in love with Anna. He was totally intent on her the entire trip. Look at the pictures of them on the couch snuggling...looks like a beautiful relationship in the making to me! Curtis provided the entertainment of the evening with his rendition of the lost art of Native American chant. You got to hear it, too cute! More adventures to come.

A Long Time Comin'

We finally got a new laptop that allows us to actually update our BLOG! Sorry we have been MIA for such a long time. I vow to update our BLOG at least once a week from now on. Things have been non-stop here as usual. Curtis is growing up before our eyes! He is loving his new spot at our dinner table and is obsesed with his favorite toy...his feet! We leave for Minnesota on Wednesday to see Michael, Emily, and Anna, as well as Grandma Curtis and hopefully more of the Curtis family. More adventures to come soon!

Back to the real world...

Since our little trip to TCH, being who we are we haven't slowed down any. Curtis seems pretty content to tag along, as long as Mommy is close by :)

He's made a trip to Wharton for his first wedding (Congratulations Luke & Jenna!!). Mommy was in the wedding party, and Daddy held him while he slept like a champ through the whole wedding. He's a little charmer, and everyone was melting over him. What can I say he takes after his dad....right....

Jacob started work on Monday, so we're all trying to get back in the swing of things. Of course Jillian is staying home with Curtis, and their havin' a blast together.

Last night Curtis had his very first real bath, since the remnants of the umbilical cord fell off on Sunday afternoon. He wasn't so sure about it at first, but he started to like it after he figured out it wasn't one of those evil sponge baths he used to have to get.

P.S. Check out that belly...he loves his Mommy :)

Our billi baby...

So, we're not too good at posting new and exciting events, but we certainly have had our share since the last post.

Within about a day of bringing Curtis home from the hospital we found out he had jaundice (yeah, we know...typical..), but his billirubin levels were high enough that he needed to be admitted to Texas Children's Hospital overnight. Nothing freaks out first time parents of about 3 days (no matter how minor) like a trip to the hospital. He got to fake 'n bake in a little incubator under a billi light to lower the levels. Fortunately, as you can hopefully tell from his pictures (see "Counts Family Pictures" link on right side of pag) he kicked it pretty quickly, and we were back out of the hospital within about 18 hours.

He sure knows how to show those nurses and doctors. Nurses thought he'd be there for 2-3 days, and the residents said probably at least 24 hours. You showed them, didn't you, son.

P.S. Texas Children's and Ronald McDonald house (resident in the NICU at TCH) are frikkin' awesome.