Long Luxurious Locks

This video is from, I think, this past summer so it's about 6 months ago. I just had time to tinker with some video things on the computer and I FINALLY got one to upload! Yay! Cait loves the feel of her hair when she shakes her head so my dad caught this on video! Hope you enjoy!

To the Cake!

We got cupcakes from the best place in town "What About Cupcakes!" We love them! We ordered their oreo flavor and I got the huge cupcake pans and decided to make my own super large oreo flavored cupcake! Mandy helped me bake it the night before and put it together and frost it! It may not look that pretty but it sure was tasty!


Happy 2nd birthday Caitlin!

Trying to get Cait to blow out the candle. She did very well and continued to practice after it was already blown out!

Not sure what this face was but it was a funny one that I thought needed to be shared! She loved the oreo cookies and frosting!

Finger lickin' good!!

Cait's 2nd Birthday Party

Today we had Caitlin's 2nd birthday party! Even though she doesn't actually turn 2 until tuesday, the 7th, Sean had this weekend off so it was best to have it pre-birthday! We had a great time and we hope everyone that came did too! We had several friends come and it was a beautiful day so we all went outside and the kids played on the swingset, the bouncy thing we borrowed from Ruth and Andy, and just ran around wearing themselves out!

I took this picture before everyone got to our house today! And before she got into playing and eating!!

Cait playing in the bouncy thing we borrowed! Thanks Ruth, Andy and Kati for letting us use your toy!

Some of the kids playing on the swings, and some other little ones with their mom's!

Dani and Mandy kept Cait's attention for quite a while today while I was running around getting things ready! Thanks to both of them for their help!

Before the Month is UP!!

I haven't had a lot of time to get anything up this month so before it completely passed me by I wanted to get a couple pictures on the blog! Sorry for those of you that look at it frequently! These are pictures of Caitlin at the end of November, about 2 weeks shy of turning 2 years old!

Caitlin getting ready for the Aggie vs t.u. football game. Sitting with her "BeePaa!"

And finally, this is what Caitlin does best these days. As soon as we get home from school, and sometimes as soon as she wakes up!, we have to watch "Wor Worr" which translated is "Word World" which is a cute PBS cartoon! She loves it and it has her undivided attention for the whole half hour it's on!

Halloween Dress

I kinda winged a dress for Caitlin (and Gillian) for halloween and this is how it turned out! I think it's pretty cute!

Trip to Aggieland

Sean, Cait and I went to Aggieland last weekend for a B-Company class of '01 reunion that turned into a B-Co outfit reunion! We had a great time! We drove down Friday and just went around town doing some shopping, then we went to the "bubble" where the band practices in the afternoon and watched them for a little while, had dinner with the Lair's, then off the bed to rejuvinate for the upcoming events of Saturday!

Saturday morning we got up and headed to campus. Step off for the band was at 0930 and we wanted to be there for that plus we had to meet up with one of my buddies, Roy, to get our game tickets. We found lots of '01 buddies while we waited for the Toones to get to E. King Gill's statue and had a great time begining to catch up. We played Mizzou and got our hiney's spanked. It was bad, but luckily the band was amazing and we had the outfit reunion to look forward to!

After the game we went to the reunion, caught up with a bunch of people from older classes, our buddies, and younger classes. It was a great turn out! Then it was off to the Lair's (Michael's parents) house for a class get together. Needless to say, Cait, not having a nap, was exhausted (see pictures below). She had a little power nap in the car on the way and was up and around playing with the other kids again! That was the neatest part, watching all the kids run around and have a great time. They all had their melt downs and we all took turns watching/playing with them. It was wonderful and I can't wait to do it again!

Sunday, Wendy hosted a brunch for us as we headed out of town at her parents house and so the kids got to play again and we had a little more time to catch up! All in all a fabulous weekend, including Freebirds for lunch before we headed back home!



Cait's first time playing in a coin operated toy at Post Oak Mall! She had a blast driving the ice cream truck!


"Making" yummy treats!

Sacked out after the march in, game, and outfit tailgate. She whooped and played hard!

Can you tell she has a sunburn on her head where her hair is splt into pigtails? Wells he does! Poor baby, but at least she didn't get burned all over!

Texas Renaissance Festival

Last weekend Sean, Cait and I went to Plantersville, TX to the Ren Fest and met up with our friends Connie and Laurie. Laurie's boss Lori (?) came too. Here are some pictures of everyone, but me!!, in their dresses. They were all made by the talented Laurie!


Connie and Caitlin!

Connie's dress is a German style!

Laurie's dress is also a German style.

This is Laurie's boss Lori!

And of course Sean and Cait! Cait's dress was made out of the same material my dress is made of!

I LOVE this picture of the two of them! Laurie is in process of making Sean a kilt!!

A Little Late... sorry!

These were actually taken before we left for our trip to Branson, sorry I didn't get them posted till now. The first two pictures are of Cait and me at HEB. We were shopping for some goodies to take to a bbq we were having with friends but we were also celebrating opening day of AGGIE football! She wanted to wear my hat so badly so all through the store she had it on her head. Cute huh!

Cait has also learned the valuable trick of holding fluid in her mouth. She has been doing this with both her juice and her milk now. So I am constantly telling her to swallow whatever is in her mouth before she laughs and spits it out! Yay, the things we get to learn while growing up are great!!

Whoop! for Aggie Football! We're trying to teach her how to whoop now. She's got the fish wildcat down pretty well! But who wants to hear "AAAAAAAAAAA" all the time?

And remember the pictures posted of her dinner pal, Bear? Well this time she had to wear her sunglasses to eat her breakfast. I mean, it was bright outside but I think she was just being silly! And if wearing sunglasses and sitting with a stuffed friend will make her eat her meals... I'm all for it!

New Kid in Town...

NO IT's NOT ME!

I'm proud to announce the Gillian Marie Johanningsmeier will be a big sister next April! My sister is pregnant with baby J number 2! At this point the designated names are

girl: Haley Claire
boy: Nathan Michael

So I've already decided if it's a girl I'm calling her HaJay!
Her first doctors visit is in a couple weeks and we'll find out if the baby is doing well and how many are in there... Ben's mom is a twin, I'm just sayin'!!

Little Pieces of Fall in Branson, MO

I had to take a few pictures of what Fall looks like in September almost everywhere else but Texas!

Pictures from Branson, MO

Where did my little girl go? She looks so grown up here!


We took a train ride through Branson and into Arkansas and back while we were there. Cait had a very good time and the people on our train car were really good seeing as there were two toddlers running up and down the aisles the whole trip!

Cait and Gillian had a great time playing and running around Shephard of the Hills. Most of the things were closed for the season but it was a pretty cloudy day and the temperature was great so we just enjoyed being outside for a while!

There was a saddle sitting outside one of the stores and Gillian was the first to get on it, I don't have any pictures because Cait needed a bathroom break!, but we decided to get some pictures of Caitlin afterwards. She was so tired at this point and she did not like sitting on the saddle! I sat with her for a few minutes and she seemed to be ok then. Naptime came very quickly after this. Sean and I went horseback riding and everyone else went back to the condo for some much needed R&R!!

Pictures from Branson, MO

One afternoon on our trip Sean and I left Caitlin with Grandpa, Michelle and Mandy and we went horseback riding. It was a very remote little spot off one of the major highways and we got turned around a couple of times trying to find it. BUT we finally did and we had a great time. It was a trail ride for an hour. This place pretty much let you do your own thing, to an extent, and the horses definitely had personality!



This was the group of horses they had for the rides this day.



This is me and Arnold. He was a good horse, did not like the mouth shield they put on him so we spent most of our trip with him shaking his head rather violently! But all in all, a good ride!!









And what do you do on rainy days? You sit on the porch with your cousin of course! We spent quite a bit of time on the back porch while the rains from Hurricane Hermine swept through. Then we went to Grand Village and found this HUGE chair, so of course we all had to sit in it!

Mandy, Me with Gillian, Michelle (and baby J in her belly) with Caitlin!

Favorite of Mine

This is one of my favorite pictures of Cait and I can't find it posted anywhere in the blog so I decided I'd add it now. I think this was back at the end of March begining of April. She wanted so badly to sit in the chair like a big girl!

Hey look that's green grass! Hasn't been green for a while now! We're on day 27 (I think) of 100+ temps... can we cool off soon please!

Always on the Phone!

Sorry for the sunlight in the background of these photos but they were too funny not to post. About a week ago we were driving to daycare and I hear Cait mumbling like she does in the back seat. We get stopped at a stoplight and I look back and she's "talking" on one of the old cell phones we gave her to play with. She continued to have her conversation all the way to daycare so when we got to the parking lot I took a couple of pictures! She was so relaxed with her arm behind her head and the other hand holding the phone! Must have been a great friend on the other line!

Foreshadowing of when she becomes a teenager? Can't you just hear it now, "MOM! I'm on the phone!!"

Growing Up!

Just a couple pictures to show how incredibly fast Caitlin is growing. She's getting her lower canines right now so pretty soon she'll have all her baby teeth. I'm not sure if she's getting her top canines just yet, I'm not sticking my fingers in there!! She is learing a lot these days. She knows some of her numbers, she loves "Id Biy Baa-buh"(which to the rest of us is Itsy Bitsy Spider) and she does the spider hand motion when she wants it sung! She loves to dance too. Anytime there's music she's dancing! She's getting better at using a fork/spoon but mostly will hold said utensil and eat with her fingers still! She's starting to color more too. She is going to be a great ambidextrous child! And she's is a shoe fiend. This child must have shoes on at all times while awake! And she will let you know if you don't get them on in time too!

Super cute toothy smile she's got now!

This is how long her hair is in the back. I was amazed the other day when I put it up!

The difference a Year Makes...

Caitlin last year, in August, at the splash park in Cameron Park.

Caitlin this year, last week of July, at Cameron Park splash park!

A Day at the Splash Park!

Last weekend we went with some friends to a splash park in Cameron Park. Cait's only been to this place one other time and it was last year so it was a totally different experience this year... she can walk around in the first place!! She loved the little fountains that sprang up the most!

She and Matthew shared a juice break on the bench! They are so cute!

We got to the splashpark early and the shade didn't last more than an hour so when we were finished there we got a clothing change and walked over the the playground! She loved climbing and swinging!

Andrew, Matthew, and Caitlin. Liz and I wanted another picture of the three of them together so we could update our shared use computer background at work! This is the best we got since there was another kid who was wanting to slide down!