Mommy & Me Pictures

I don't make it into many pictures these days, it seems, because I'm usually the one taking them! So when my friend Laura mentioned doing some Mommy and Me pictures, I jumped on the opportunity!! And she did a great job! These are priceless to me!! If you need pictures of any kind taken, check her out! 

June Pics

It's been a busy month! We are making progress with packing up the house and getting all the details worked out for the new place. We have A LOT going on right now, so I don't have much time to devote to the blog, but I did want to post some pictures from this month, so far. :)

Pretty girl!! She's always standing up in her crib after nap time now.

A little wrestling match.....

 .... they're both loving it!

 Carter can really get her laughing!! 

First bruise on her little head. Many of those to come, I'm sure! 

Carter always love to go in with me to get Ella in the mornings. Sweet moment. 

 HA!

 Silly face!

 Ohhhh, she's just so pretty! But I know I'm biased! :)

Cindy brought the twins over to swim this week! The boys were all so excited!! 

Carter and Devin waiting to go to the pool. 

 Silly boys!

 They were supposed to jump in together, but that didn't happen :)

 Devin

 Ella says "Hi Mom!"

 My handsome little guy

 Devin loved it when the pelican dumped water on his head! 

 A rare pic of me and my kiddos. Love them so much! 

Ella at 8 Months!

Ella, you're 8 months old!! And I definitely feel like these monthly updates seems to be coming around faster and faster. :( Here is what's up with you at 8 months.

• You're about 17.5 pounds, fitting comfortable in 6-9 month clothing, and just moved into size 3 diapers.
• You have one tooth, officially, but I'm quite certain another will be cutting through in the next few days! And, I was finally able to get a picture! 

Seeeeee??? :)

• Crawling everywhere, getting into everything, pulling up on almost anything, and starting to get brave and let go for a few seconds to stand on your own before plopping down on your tush. You're crazy busy, and I'm sure you will continue to give me a run for my money!
• You have become a sweet little snuggle bunny at nap time and night time. Normally you merely tolerate for me to rock you only a few minutes before laying you down in your crib with your lovey to nod of on your own. But lately you have been snuggling up to me and laying your head on my shoulder while I rock you, and giving me the sweet eyes while I sing you a little song. Oh, I've been loving that!! It's hard for me to lay you down sometimes, I just want to soak it all up! 
• I can tell lately that you're really understanding a lot of the things we say to you.You definitely understand the word "no" which you've been hearing a lot lately. :)  Also, when you're getting kind fussy out of hunger, I can ask you, "Do you want some milk?" and you'll grin really big, laugh and get really excited. And when you're tired and getting ready to go down, I'll ask you, "Are you tired? Are you ready to go night night?" And again, big grins, giggles, and snuggles from you as if you're saying, "Yes!! I'm so glad you know what I need, Mommy!" Really, too cute!! 
• You've quit spitting up almost completely, which is SO nice!! I was thinking the other day, it's been several weeks since I had to clean up a major spit up mess either on you or on the floor. If there is ever any at all, it's just enough for me to have to wipe off your chin. I'm sure you love it just as much as I do! 
• You're eating almost entirely finger foods at this point. I still give you some oatmeal with pureed fruits for breakfast sometimes, but you'd much rather feed yourself the good stuff than eat mush from a spoon. :) Favorites are strawberries, grapes, bread, blueberries, squash, carrots, corn, and potato. We haven't really started giving you dairy or meats yet, but will start those very soon. You have 3 meals a day now, and are still nursing 5 times a day.
• You have a very easy going temperament 99% of the time. And you're still a pretty big Momma's girl.

So onto the 8 month pictures! Wow. You gave me a fight today to get these, more than you ever have before. I hardly got any good ones because you were so busy and squirmy, but looking back through them cracked me up, so I had to post them even though they are far from posed! 

Hmmm, that looks like something I can tear apart. Maybe I should try.

 Oh, yep! I was right!

 I better hurry, Mom is about to confiscate it!

 Ohhhhhkay.... I'll just relax and lay here.

 Oh, what's this?! 

 Okay, I'll give her one sweet look. But only ONE!! 

 I want this sticker! 

(look at her eyelashes! She's got 'em, too!)

 My little bright eyes!! 

 Busy girl all over the place!

 She just looks too little to be doing all that she does. 

 Walking soon?! We'll see! 

We love you so much, sweet girl!! Happy 8 months!

House News!

After almost 4 months on the market (I'm just gonna pretend we WEREN'T on the market for almost 10 months last year!), I'm so excited to share that we finally have a buyer on our house! The option period has ended, and and the inspection and all that has gone smoothly, so now we wait. Well no, now we PACK!

But as excited as I am that we are selling our home, I am twice as excited about the new home that we found! It's a really beautiful house with tons of space for our family and a great yard. It's in a wonderful neighborhood in Frisco, and, get this..... literally 2 minutes from Target, Market Street and Costco! Oh, I have died and gone to heaven!! With two small kids, living in the boonies and trekking it almost 15 minutes to the nearest grocery store has been killer! Anyway, we couldn't be more thrilled with our new home. It's absolutely everything we were looking for, and we feel really blessed that, even though I questioned it all time and time again, the timing has truly been perfect. All inspections have gone really well there too, so we'll make it all official on July 6th when we close on both homes.

Now I will leave you with a picture of the new house. 

23 DAYS!! --- not that I'm counting down or anything ;)

5 Years

Eric planned a fun 2-night get away for us to celebrate our 5th anniversary. It started with lunch and some shopping Friday afternoon, then we headed to our hotel to check in. After resting up there for a little bit, we headed to dinner and a movie. Pretty simple day, but lots of fun! 

Saturday was our actual anniversary, and it was a great day! We woke up and headed downstairs for a really tasty and leisurely breakfast. We really appreciated all the meals we got to eat together where we could sit and chat and not be interrupted every 10 seconds by a very chatty little boy or feel the need to rush through it for fear of a certain little girl completely melting! :) Eric had set up a wine tour that picked us up at the hotel around 11, and took us to several local wineries in Grapevine for wine tastings,. We had a great tour guide and enjoyed tasting and learning about the different wines and wineries. We also met some other fun people on our tour, and we all had a really great time together! We got back to the room about 5 for a little bit of rest before heading out to dinner at Pappa's Steakhouse.... definitely one of our favs!! 

Unfortunately we only thought to take a few cell phone pictures the whole weekend. 

Eric and I at our lunch stop on the wine tour.... Fabrina's was SOOOOOO good! Wonderful pizza!

Some of our group at lunch

Then Sunday we woke up, had another really great breakfast before heading to pick up the kids. It was a great little weekend to ourselves, not something we get too often, but we were definitely missing our babies, and were so glad to see them!

It's hard to believe it's been 5 years! We have been blessed with many things the last 5 years, and there's no one else in the world I'd rather do it all with! Here's to many more, hunny! I love you!

Ella's First Tooth!

Well, yet again, Ella has done something that makes me feel like she is just growing up way too fast. I feel like it's something new everyday! Without me even realizing she was about to, the little stinker cut her first tooth this weekend! Eric and I were away celebrating our 5 year anniversary, and Carter and Ella were staying with their Grandma and Grandpa. We picked them up Sunday afternoon, and on Sunday evening, I noticed a little something in her mouth. When I was able to get a closer look, there it was!! I'm pretty sure it had come in the day before, just by how much of it was already showing. So I'm marking it down.... first tooth just shy of 8 months on 6/9/12. Big girl!! She has been drooly and gnawing on things like crazy for a while now, but she had recently started chomping down while nursing (ouch!). I thought it was just a phase.... but now I know why! Other than those things, she has been totally happy and hasn't had sleep problems or anything, so she handled the first one like a champ!! Carter cut his first tooth on his 11 month birthday, so I was thinking it may be a few more months for Ella. Anyway, I'm hoping to get a picture of it soon, but until then, I just had to put it in writing so one day when I'm old and senile, I will be able to look back and see that she cut her first tooth on our 5 year anniversary! :)

Hope everyone had a great weekend! Things have been crazy around here, and I have lots of updating to do to the blog! Check back soon for more on our 5 year anniversary weekend, Ella at 8 months, and exciting house news!!

Lately

I can't believe its June!! May really came and went fast..... and I have a feeling this summer is going to do just the same.

We had a pretty low key Memorial Day since Eric was working out of town. Carter enjoyed some quality time with his Nana and Grandad and went swimming with his cousin Hayden. Ella is now officially ALL over the place. Crawling, pulling up on whatever she can get her hands on, chasing her brother everywhere, much to his dismay, and snatching his toys!! I swear, now that she is so busy, keeping them separated and not getting into each other's toys is a full time job!! Carter starts his private swim lessons next week. I'm excited (and nervous) to see how he does in the water with his teacher! And Eric and I are both looking forward to celebrating 5 years of marriage next weekend with a little weekend getaway!

Anyway, just thought I'd do a quick update. Here are a few recent pictures of the kiddos around the house the last few weeks!

Ella crawled under the table one day.....

 Carter followed her under there and they had a little pow wow.

 Looooong morning at the pool, and this boy was tired!

 Silly girl doing more exploring underneath tables and such.

 Bathtime fun! 

 Ella is loving the finger foods these days!

This was her first full meal of foods.... no purees! 

 Carter pulling Ella around in a laundry basket.... she thought this was pretty funny! 

 Of course, he had to get in too.....

 Oh, it's just hilarious!

 Pestering his sis....

 Wait, who's pestering who now?

 Hard to tell.... but....

 I think Ella wins!!