The Rodgers Family

December in Texas

2009-12-16T13:38:00.000-08:00

Despite all of our final exams at the beginning of this month, we have managed to buy and decorate a christmas tree, decorate our yard with lights (pictures to come soon), and most special to me, bound the wreath that my family used year after year for our christmas at home :). Lena is pulling herself up on everything and everyone that is willing, and her crawling speeds are amazing. We are down to only three meals a day with a snack now and then, she is becoming so big! The sweetest thing in the last few days was when Lena started waving. She will raise her whole arm all the way up and open and close her fingers, all with a huuuge smile on her little face :) She also finds great pleasure in handing all kinds of things to me and laughs when I take them out of her hands. She finds that this works even better with mickey, as he will follow her around now to see if she can pick up anything edible and give it to him. Which she happily does. Every once in a while she will spot the kitty somewhere and crawl as fast as she can to get her. She never does. So here are some pictures of decorating efforts and Lena :)

November

2009-12-16T13:01:00.000-08:00

It is getting cold! :) We even had snow here in Houston one day late in November. Our little family is doing great! We moved into a small house with a big yard at the beginning of this month. We are settled, unpacked, and are just loving it. Mickey and Lena especially love the yard, the kitten is slowly getting used to her expanded territory. Andrew and I both are getting to do yardwork now, Andrew mows, I rake,.. its been fun! Lena now has four teeth, two on the bottom, two on the top, and her head keeps growing more hair :), finally. We are getting tired of hearing : " How cute, how old is your little boy?" So computer geek of a brother told me how to batch resize my pictures so that I can hopefully upload way more pictures with way less trouble now. Lets give it a go.

We have TEETH!!!

2009-10-31T14:00:00.000-07:00

Seems like October was the month for those teeth finally to come out! Yay, Lena has been biting everything that she can grab and stuff in her mouth (surprisingly, a whole lot more items than you think fall in that category). This month we managed to do quite a lot of fun stuff, anywhere from just walking around, swimming in the pool, camping, to going to the zoo! Enjoy the pictures :)

September Days... Almost crawling, trying anyways.. :)

2009-09-17T21:44:00.000-07:00

Loving her toys...

Lena made a MESS!
I made food to foster the mess....
Lena cuddling with daddy after a bath on the balcony..
She is such a clown!

Our wedding cake after almost 18 months of marriage! Still tasted yummy :)

Almost the end of the heat...

2009-08-15T14:31:00.000-07:00

August flew by just like the rest of the summer. This was hopefully the last month with temperatures that will only rarely go below 90. As is the trend now, Lena just keeps growing and getting more and more personality. She is such a joy to us and her bright blue eyes who seem to not miss anything that is going on are a blessing to look at. Here are some pictures:

Spitting up and sitting up.... :)

2009-07-27T13:17:00.000-07:00

July is almost over and yet again Lena is growing more than I would like :). She is so alert and interested in everything. Toys are becoming more and more an essential part of our daily life and Lena is awake much of the day. She has been teething for three weeks now, but still no sign of a tooth. A few days ago we discovered that Lena can sit up on her own for a few seconds, and REALLY loves to fall over and be caught by Andrew or me. She is such a joy in our live and her smiles and giggles seem to make the world go round . Here are some more recent pictures:

Nikki's beautiful wedding

2009-07-15T19:00:00.001-07:00

In the Davis's Pool...
Our little wedding outfits :)

Rehearsal Dinner... outside in over 100 Fahrenheit (over 37.7 Celsius) and in the boiling sun
Lena still kept laughing at everyone.. especially Vikki Mathis

Beautiful bride with all her bridesmaids

Texas June - It's getting hot!

2009-06-30T13:12:00.000-07:00

June is over and Lena is almost 5 months old!!! She is growing so fast and is SUCH a joy to our lives. This past month she increasingly likes to lay on her tummy, holding her head up high, and even turned herself from tummy to back a few times. Sadly only when she was alone in her crib so we have yet to see it. Another major development occurred in her eating habits. We are now feeding her fruits, some veggies, and oat based baby cereals, and Lena absolutely loves it. She nurses less and less and instead focuses on how to get that spoon in her mouth quicker and more efficiently. I have to say, she has become a pro! Car rides are getting easier because she is more and more interested in toys and music and can be distracted. Her favorite toys at the moment are stuffed animals and blankets with one corner tied to a knot. She just loves grabbing something soft and pulling it toward her mouth with both arms. Her giggles and laughs bless my day greatly!
Other than Lena's developing and growing, our family is doing great. Andrew just finished his first part of summer school and about to dive in to the next. I have become a pro at driving the stickshift and have come to like it a lot. Doors still have to be fixed (so I don't have to open three of the doors, just to get Lena and I in the car), but that will hopefully happen soon. We have been pretty busy this month with all the events leading up to Nikki and Julians wedding, which will be on July 10th. We are excited, but also sad that they will be leaving for California so soon.
We have also found a family activity that greatly enriches out lives :) EXCERCISE! Good old fashioned excercise. We are going to the YMCA. Lena and I go almost everyday, Andrew makes it a few mornings of the week before work. I absolutely love it. Somedays I swim (up to 30 laps, yeah), somedays I cycle, somedays I do the bodyscultping or other kind of aerobics class). Lena is taken care of very well in their awesome childcare program and gets to see other kids while I work out :).
Here are some recent pictures:
The first time in the pool!!! What a fun family afternoon at the YMCA kids pool!

The happiest girl... :)

Everything goes in the mouth!
These two pictures are from the first or second day of spoon feeding. She still was not sure what to think of it. She thought she needed to stick her fingers in her mouth after every spoon and suck on them to get the fruit down.

Mickey got a big ham bone... a few days later he had eaten the whole thing!

Lena and Mommy

2009-06-01T13:44:00.000-07:00

These are some pictures that Andrew took during the last few weeks.

Pretty awesome may days... :)

2009-05-29T13:18:00.000-07:00

So the new car is working out pretty well for us. I think I am getting the hang of the stick shift, I rarely kill it anymore and it is not nearly as jerky of a ride as two weeks ago :). Baby Lena is more fun every day. Last week she figured out that pushing the little buttons on her exersaucer make an animal sound and then a song come out of it. It is really sweet when she accidentally pushes a button and then looks at me with a huuuge grin on her face when it makes a sound. She is also getting very fond of her German Children's Song CD. I have also played a personal favorite of mine for her: Rolf Zukovski, who can be found on Youtube.com. (He is a German musician who sings songs with and to children about traffic and the importance of being safe when in the car, on the bike, or just on the street :). Soo.. here are some new pictures:

The never ending car troubles...

2009-05-21T12:22:00.000-07:00

The last two weeks have been a constant battle with our cars. After towing my car twice, having it diagnosed twice by different repair shops, and Andrew spending days on end laying underneath it replacing one part after the next, it just seemed to be getting worse and worse. ALL the workers at Autozone now know me by name, as I have been paying them a visit at least every day, if not twice sometimes. After two weeks of crazyness that did not seem to end, a good mechanic friend from church advised Andrew to get rid of the car as fast as we can because the car would just continue to fall apart. So we sold it via our favorite site, Craigslist, and also found our new car there. It is a Hyundai Accent, 2003, and is a pretty sweet car. There is, however, one downside to this car: ITS A STICKSHIFT! Which i can't drive, and never have. So... I have a new car, but can't drive it... yet. So this weeks theme is either to learn to drive stickshift or have to drive the Buick which does not A.C. and that would not be so fun for anyone, especially Lena. So, pictures of the new car are below.

Just growing so so fast...

2009-05-16T08:15:00.000-07:00

This month has just been so FUN with Lena. She is talking more each day and loves it when I imitate the sound she just made.

Lena also started to 'laugh out loud' ,lol, and chuckle here and there, when something has just been really fun.
This and the next picture show a pretty much constant aspect of our daily life: drule and spit-up. It comes in all forms and shapes, such as runny, thick, white, clear, fast and with pressure (kind of like a vulcano), slow and steady, or even with huuuge bubbles in it (see below). You would think that by now I would anticipate it when we are out, but so often we are in a store and I find myself once again covered in spit up and no burp cloth or rag with me...

Another Fun Week...

2009-04-27T11:56:00.001-07:00

On Sunday afternoon we decided to go on a walk in the lovely Point Aquarius neighborhood and end the day with a little fishing. Lena was excited before we left...
Mickey thought he was the king of the car...
Upon arrival Lena turned out not to be excited after all.
So we skipped the walk and went straight to dock to fish (One of Andrews favorite past times outside :) )

It was a rather long afternoon for Lena and she crashed on the short way home.

On Friday, the T. Rodgers family came over for dinner and a game. Friday was also the day our dishwasher decided to call the quits. Unfortunately for our dishwasher, we had Mr. Tim Rodgers himself in the house who immediately took a look at it. As one can tell by the picture, Andrew provided Tim with companionship, a quite essential role in the procedure :)
Cuddle time...
Play time...
Spit up time...
Yay, first time to sit in the Exersaucer!!!

Woodlands Tea Party

2009-04-20T10:52:00.000-07:00

Teaparty, here we come!

Our little family :)
Lena absolutely loves this carrier.
Some had pretty wild outfits and signs.
Lena signing the attendance scroll. (This is the first time that she held something in her little hand, other than our fingers :))

They said over 5000 people attended this event.

Lena's Third Month

2009-04-20T10:36:00.000-07:00

April Days

2009-04-15T05:47:00.000-07:00

Our kitten really wanted to join our Yahzee game, but sadly she never made it out of the box :)
The new bathtub, what a blast!
Just hangin'.
Lena now also finds her fingers when sitting up or laying on her back.

Tante Anna

2009-03-29T05:56:00.000-07:00

Lena got to meet her aunt Anna. Anna stayed for a week in March and we really enjoyed spending some time with her! Poor Lena had tummy troubles starting the day we picked Anna up from the airport and lasted for about the week Anna was here.

Lena's Second Month

2009-03-20T10:30:00.000-07:00

Lena just loves her daddy!!!

Lena's First Month

2009-02-16T07:42:00.000-08:00

Sleeping Beauty...

Lena's very first bath! We are all excited.

Taking a well deserved nap :)

Lena Marie Rodgers

2009-02-15T14:36:00.000-08:00