Adding to the family...............

January 2012

2012-02-06T16:08:00.000-08:00

Why a one month post again? Because I didn't pick up my camera once this month. I'm not sure that's ever happened before and plan to be sure it doesn't happen again. Guess we just weren't too exciting. I do have a few pics from my phone though so while lower quality here we go:

We went to Picture People and took pics with Granny. When we get our copy we'll scan it but here are 2 silly girls who were absolutely fantastic taking pictures:

It wouldn't be a month around here if we didn't get some "ice cream yogurt" at Menchie's:

We even had a girls day to go and see Beauty & the Beast which was fun. I've decided that 3D may be a bit much for Abby. Once she calmed down from the previews and moved out of her seat into my lap she was ok. Helps that she knows this movie very well. ; )

Someone got too tall for their car seat and moved into a booster...............

We found a box that was just the right size to ship Abby to Grandma's house in...........

Reagan dressed up like a "little lady" to go shopping. And yes, I let her go out of the house like that.

And we of course had at least 1 birthday party to go to! We helped Truitt celebrate his 5th birthday at Pump It Up.

Reagan & Joe coming down the slide:

Abby & Daddy coming down the slide.

Apparently Reagan & Joe were on a date at the party:

BFF's!

Oddly this month the girls have started pretending to go and see Grandma, Grandpa & Uncle Craig. Sometimes they go on a plane to visit them and sometimes they are greeting them at the door. Reagan has also become obsessed about going to Disney World. They pretend to go there too. While playing pretend isn't usually odd these are because they girls have no idea that we are going to Disney World in March or that we will indeed be seeing Grandma, Grandpa & Uncle Craig there.

Another big thing for January is that the girls have moved in together. Abby started waking up at night and became scared of the dark. On a whim I asked her if she wanted to sleep in Reagan's room and the girls both jumped at the idea. All it took was one night and neither wanted it to stop. We are slowly but surely moving things around to make it work. I'm most scared of sharing clothes space and how that will work but we'll get there!

In February there will definitely be more pictures/posts. A little someone is turning 3, I'm doing a 5K (yikes!), the girls have western day at school, and we start our monthly dinner with friends which I am really looking forward to.

December 2011

2012-01-15T13:12:00.000-08:00

Yep, another recap. Life has been unbelievably busy work-wise. Hopefully it will slow down soon and we'll have a little more family time with some pictures thrown in! I shouldn't even be writing this now but needed to take a break for a minute from work.

December brought back our elf on the shelf, Zack. The girls were very excited to see him and had a lot of fun with him this year.

The girls had their Christmas Program at school:

We took a trip to the zoo with Granny:

We spent a whole day making cookies(I swear Reagan was more excited then she looked):

We spent Christmas Eve with family started with a special Breakfast with Santa at the Aquarium with the Standards(they are family in my book!)

And then we headed over to spend Christmas Eve with Granny, Aunt Kathy, Uncle Robert & Mike where we opened gifts, had dinner and went to church.

It was tough but we kept the girls up on the way home(it was 9pm!) so we could could go out in the rain to put out reindeer food:

We put out cookies & milk for Santa:

Dad read Twas the Night Before Christmas and off to bed they went.

The next morning we were up before the girls and waited and waited......................

Then let the gift ~~spoiling~~ opening begin:

My favorite part was that we let the girls pick out gifts for each other and this is what the result was:

Reagan also hugged her new Rapunzel doll : )

Chaos!

Since the girls were out of school for Christmas break we saw a lot of this while watching movies:

For new years we spent it with our usually crew and it was a wonderful time! The girls were up and partying til 2am before we left. I took zero pics that night but did catch this video, although dark, at 1:30am:

My favorite part so far of starting the new year is no more diapers!

A Quiet November

2011-11-26T13:07:00.000-08:00

November for the most part has been quieter then it's been for awhile. For the most part we have not had many places that we actually had to be at which has been nice for a change.

We snuggled on the couch.

We LOVED the pictures we got of Grandma & Grandpa's trip to Disney World.

We cheered for our Coogs at home.

We played outside.

We cheered for our Coogs on campus when College Game Day came to UH for the first time ever.

We were thankful for important things.

We spent Thanksgiving with Family. Hi Granny.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We even had a photo shoot that got a little silly at times..............

I think we need a potty break............

"What would you do if you saw Mickey Mouse?"

Halloween 2011

2011-11-26T12:52:00.000-08:00

Not to change from what has become tradition we went over to the Stanard's house for dinner and then to go trick or treating with them and the Love family.

Cowboy Cooper, SuperJacob, Princess Belle-Sarah, TinkerAbby, & Rea-Rapunzel-gan

Trick or Treat!

Dads at Work

Good Night!

Soccer 2011

2011-11-26T12:46:00.000-08:00

Reagan decided that she wanted to play soccer again this year. 4 year old soccer was a bit different as we actually had a weekly practice on top of the games. We're not sure if we will be signing up again next year but she sure did have fun this year and misses her soccer friends.

Littlest Cheerleader!

I just noticed she's holding her Coaches hand (really?!)

She loves playing goalie.

Go Dynamo!

Reagan and her soccer BFF Carissa. They were holding hands at practice the first day!

Can you tell how excited Abby was about soccer this year? I think she slept through at least 2 games. When she was awake she was mad she couldn't get out on the field to play too.

Ironman Austin

2011-11-26T12:35:00.000-08:00

We decided not to take the girls to Austin for the Ironman. While they are awesome triathlon cheerleaders we thought that the idea of the drive there and back plus a longer race then they were used to might be a bit much to ask. So we the girls spent the weekend with Granny, Aunt Kathy & Uncle Robert and we headed to Austin on Saturday morning (Oct. 22). We drove straight over to the Ironman Village to get him checked in and walk around a bit. We met up with Delia & Jason who so nicely also drove in for the race to support Scott. We appreciated it so much, especially since it was their anniversary! That day we just hung out a bit, drank a bit and had a nice dinner. We headed back to the hotel and an embarrassingly early time and we headed to bed. Scott headed out early and we headed out a bit later to meet up with him. The whole Ironman experience was quite crazy and had an energy I've never felt before. Especially watching people come in at the finish line. They ranged from collapsing, to doing somersaults. The smiles were endless though. Here are the few pics I got:

And here are all of the professional pics (in random order):

We are so proud of our Ironman!

Fall Festival 2011

2011-10-26T04:20:00.000-07:00

The girls had their fall festival at school which ends in a parade in their costumes. Here are a few pictures over the course of the 2 days.

First Dress Attempt

2011-10-26T04:12:00.000-07:00

It's something I've been wanting to try for awhile. I printed out a few different directions that I found online plus took a look at a few dresses that we have. We haven't found any Texans clothes yet for the girls this season and I know that we have a football themed birthday party coming up so I thought I would start there. It took me quite a bit longer then it should have thanks to one really dumb mistake and I still have a lot to learn but from afar it's not too bad. I think due to length it will end up being Abby's. Same dress on both girls:

Zoo Boo 2011

2011-10-26T04:01:00.000-07:00

By luck we were able to find a day that we could get together with the Stanard & Love families at Zoo Boo. We had Tinkerbell, Belle, Superman, Rapunzel & the cutest little Cowboy you've ever seen.

Pumpkin Patch 2011

2011-10-19T16:01:00.000-07:00

It's that time of year! Other then the fact that it is impossible to get Abby to smile on camera and Reagan had a complete meltdown over a lollipop that resulted in us leaving it was a good time.

We curled Reagan's hair that morning for fun.

Abby was scared of the spider.

Pout Pout Abby

Tickling helps

Turkeys

This is my favorite picture. I can't get over Reagan's expression.

In the car she smiles..........

Garden Update 10/14/11

2011-10-19T15:40:00.000-07:00

Before we left for Italy we planted our fall garden. We planted Butternut & Acorn Squash, Broccoli, Carrots, Peas, Lettuce, & Thyme. Most were planted from seed and a bit late so we just crossed our fingers. Well about 6 weeks later (and a couple of days of rain!) this is where we are at:

Butternut Squash

Acorn Squash

Our Basil really loved the rain!

Carrots

Touch a Truck 2011

2011-10-17T19:09:00.000-07:00

After a break from the last school year Touch a Truck was back at school this year. I for some reason felt the need to look back at the blog post from May 2010 here and wow were they little! We headed over this year after Reagan's soccer game and ran into many friends and the girls favorite, their teachers! It was fun to see how things changed from the previous year and what the girls were into this time!

Checking out the firetruck with Ms. Katie

(one of Abby's TTH teachers and her family whom the girls adore)

Dad's & Daughters in the firetruck

Abby's "cheese" face

Katilyn, Emily, Abby & Reagan in the back of the cop car. Uh Oh

Playing in the back of a military truck

Little Sassafrass on the biggest vehicle she could find!

This cracked me up!

This is what Abby was most excited about. She now wants a yellow Corvette.

This is more her size.

They even had a glider.

This was by far their favorite though. Could have had to do with the fact that their teachers were here showing them how to use it. Reagan's teacher was quite impressed by their skills and called them naturals.

We had to wait in line quite a bit for this..........

She thought that was the coolest thing ever. So did her teacher, Ms. Felicity, in the top left of the picture.

And we ended our time there in a car bounce house. Abby got in there and bounced her little heart out which she has never done before. The giggles and squeals coming from this 4 little girls were awesome!

Astros 2011

2011-10-16T19:37:00.000-07:00

I'm almost a little embarrassed to say but we only went to one baseball game this season. For the most part it has been our schedule but also.............did you see them play this season? By the end of the season I hardly knew how anyone was. Odd. Reagan has been begging to go though and the stars must have aligned because we were able to go! Admittedly when we got there I remembered how much I love going to games. Plus the company was good! ; )

How cute is this dress? Reagan got it from her friend Cameron for her birthday

and has been dying to wear it!

Always have to end the night on the ball! The Astros played such a great game with so many hits that we had to leave before the fireworks. Next year is always another season!

Italy - Pt. 4 Venice

2011-10-16T19:26:00.000-07:00

Our last stop before returning home was to Venice. We were told by many that it was somewhere we needed to see and with everyone saying how romantic it was we decided to spend our anniversary there. Unfortunately, we were not fans. I thought it was dirty, there were too many people in a small space, the standing water everywhere was bad, the smell was bad, etc. But we made the best of it and we can now say that we've been there.

We had to take a water taxi to our hotel

Basilica

Canals

Gondaliers

Gondala

Seriously, look at all those people!

Our shuttle to and from out hotel

Our pink palace that we stayed in.

On the train ride home back to Milan. Ready to get home and see our babies.

10 years ago.....................

2011-10-15T07:18:00.000-07:00

On September 15, 2001.........................

In 10 years of marriage we have been through job changes, moves, buying a house, a few car purchases, a few losses, a couple of births, big personal changes, made wonderful lifelong friends, etc. Most importantly we have stood by each others sides through the good and the bad just as we pledged to do. Who knows what the future may bring but at least we know that we will have each other to get through it.

Italy - Pt. 3 Florence

2011-10-14T15:59:00.000-07:00

I cannot put into words how much we loved Florence. It was beautiful, wonderful etc. and somewhere we would definitely go back to!

Ponte Vecchio Bridge

View from the Palace (no pics allowed inside)

Top of the Duomo

View down into the Duomo as we climbed to the top

View from the top - only 462 stairs...........

We could see our hotel!

The palace we toured

The most amazing meal of our lives..............

T-bones

End of the meal. Lots of glasses............

Very yummy sandwiches!

This is where all the shopping was at.

Our hotel!

Mmmmmm.........

A replica of the David as we ran out of time to go inside.

Do you see a theme with the statues?

Next stop Venice

Italy - Pt. 2 Rapallo & Pisa

2011-10-14T15:35:00.000-07:00

We had a 5 car caravan down to Rapallo. The plan was to check out Cinque Terre but due to a late start that didn't happen. We instead took in the beautiful view once we got to our hotel.

Chrissy, Kat & I toasting in the room

We headed down to have a drink by the water. Kat

Kelly with "the" Italian sunglasses

Tracy's tuna on fire! We had amazing seafood for dinner that night.

View from our room.

On the way out. Apparently cannon ball style.

And then a little silly posing with the Audi...................

Barrett & Kat

Kelly & Kat

Tracy, Kat & Barrett

Me, Tracy & Kat - Charlie's Angels style

Stressful driving

On the road to Pisa!

This was out little car for the trip.

Next stop Florence!

Italy - Pt. 1 Alba

2011-10-05T16:27:00.000-07:00

We had the pleasure of being invited to a wedding in Alba in Northern Italy. Yes, I said Italy. Not only is the idea of going to a wedding in Italy awesome but the idea that we would then be there to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary was icing on the cake.

We left for Milan on Tuesday afternoon and arrive first in Frankfurt with a layover and then in Milan on Wednesday afternoon. To say that the flight was long is an understatement. By the time all was said and done and we went to bed Wednesday night we had been awake for 36 hours. But that was ok because we were in Italy!

Our view from our room at our bed and breakfast.

Sunset over Alba.

Vineyards on property.

The Duomo where the wedding would take place.

The next day we drove to a winery for a tasting.

Me & Kat

Tracy & Kelly

Our new Italian Mafia ; )

Kat, oh Kat

And then we headed to a second winery for the "rehearsal dinner":

Me, Tracy & Kat - Bride & her Party

A serious cheese plate.

The next day was the wedding! It was absolutely beautiful! The pictures we have of inside of the church hardly do it justice since you couldn't use a flash. It was a great day and a fantastic party that night!

Mr. & Mrs. Finn

Mother of the Bride, Karen, also known as my office Mom ; )

The chef who created an amazing meal!

End to a great night!

The next day we all got up somehow and headed to a Wine Museum which is nothing that I thought it would be though it did end with a wine tasting.........

Uh oh..................

We have the cyclists on the right powering the whole thing around.

Sitting in the back of a class room.

That night we spend our last night all together having pizza in the square.

Duomo at night. From our table.

Pizza 1

Pizza 2

Last morning in Alba:

Grapes at our bed & breakfast that they made the most amazing grape juice out of.

Where we ate awesome breakfasts each morning.

The 5 remaining cars of our group met at the gas station before headed out and on to the coast..........

Twas the Weekend Before Italy

2011-09-05T19:15:00.000-07:00

and all through the house was family fun time! We tried as much as we could to be done with our errands prior to this weekend so we could focus on the girls and for the most part we were successful. With a little sickness from Abby thrown in of course : (.

We started Saturday morning off with donuts. Frosted with sprinkles at that!

We got dressed to cheer on our Coogs to a Victory!

Touchdown!

Sunday we planted our Fall Garden!

Sure how all these seeds turn into yumminess since we couldn't find any plants!

I'm going to miss this face snotty or not.

Dad got a good spray in!

Sunday night we ended up having an impromptu dinner & movie night instead of attending a friend's pool party just in case Abby had a cold and it wasn't allergies. It was the perfect night of pizza and cuddling on the couch watching a movie.

Monday morning brought last minute errands and picking Grandma up from the airport! Two special little girls also each got necklaces.

Sliding like a caterpillar.

Playing pirates.

Getting a little BP in with Grandma.

Tomorrow we are getting......on a jet plane...................(Reagan also starts her first soccer practice!)

First Day of School 2011

2011-08-29T08:49:00.000-07:00

I can't tell you how excited the girls are to start school finally. The last few weeks at home have been trying to say the least. While the entire program at their school is referred to Pre-School Reagan is actually really in pre-school this year. She is beyond excited to be a Busy Bee. Like a senior I think she is ready to rule the school. Abby is signed up in 2 different classes this year as Reagan has been previously and will be attending school. 5 days a week as well. She is very excited to not be at home this year while Reagan gets to go. On MWF Abby will again be a Shining Star as she was last year and on TTH she will be a Tiny Tiger. They woke up this morning ready to go!

Clear Lake Triathlon 2011

2011-08-29T08:41:00.000-07:00

You may remember that just a year ago Scott did his first tri at Clear Lake, reminder. It hardly seems like it has only been a year and has now become just part of our lives in our house. So not only was it exciting to celebrate a year of triathlons but we had SO many more people that we were cheering on this year!

This year Scott was participating in the Olympic distance so we got to see everyone else before we saw him which worked out well since there was no need to be in 2 places at once! We met up with Jess and after we saw Cassie, Erica & Jason come out of the water we headed down to the boats. Reagan got her wish and was able to get on one. Scott may or may not be in this pic I got off the boat:

We headed back down to the race and within a few minutes who did I see come out of the water

After he came out Jess and I took the kiddos over close to transition so we could see the runners come out after they returned their bikes. At this point it was time for a snack.

I sadly missed Cassie each time she came out but we were lucky enough to be able to see people at each point.

Erica getting ready for her run!

Jason heading out!

After Jason headed out we went over to the finish as those doing to the Sprint Distance only had a 2 mile run.

Erica coming in for the finish!

I missed Jason as I handed off Joe to him so they could run in together. SO cute! We headed back to where we could see the runners come out and lo and behold who did we see:

I'm not sure if it was before or after we saw him but Jason told me he had crashed on his bike. I saw him running and assumed all was ok. I can see now on the pics that his elbow is bleeding. He has taken a spill previously so I wasn't too worried. We stood around and chatted a bit until I felt like based on his run times I needed to head over to the finish and wait just in case. This is where things got interesting. Jess told me to look up and that he was on the other side of the finish. I was pretty confused thinking there is no way I could have missed him. I must have looked really confused and he mouthed to be across the finish, "I didn't finish". When he was able to cross over to us I have to say that the look of pure disappointment on his face was pretty heart wrenching. And then he turned around and I saw why. He headed over to the medical tent at this point.

It was a rough morning. He's never not finished. I'm sure he will go into plenty of detail on his blog. I can tell you that after his crash he had a few medics ask him to stop so they could at least rinse off the wounds. Apparently the first one asked him if he wanted to stop and let them help and his reply was "Like hell!". He finally let someone clean it off after during his run and he cramped up and couldn't get back to running after that.

The road rash is pretty gross. It's across his back, on his arms, his elbow was pretty deep, on his hip, his but, his legs and his ankle had a pretty deep cut too. Here are some after pics when he got out of the shower.

My thought was at some point I bet everyone has a race that they do not finish for one reason or another. At least it is done and he can now move on. Next race is the Ironman in Austin!

Avery's 4th Birthday Party

2011-08-29T08:19:00.000-07:00

The very next day after Eileen's party we had a party for Avery and it was another swim party. Fun!

Getting ready:

Eileen's 2nd Birthday Party!

2011-08-29T08:14:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure how it happened but little Miss Eileen turned 2 and we had a wonderful time celebrating with her!

Pic courtesy of Fleurish Imagery

Cooper and Abby playing in a pool full of balls! Such a fun idea!

Sarah & Reagan. This was totally unplanned and is not the first time they have showed up somewhere in the same thing!

Bridgeland Triathlon

2011-08-13T07:13:00.000-07:00

August 7th marked the first triathlon of 2 that Dad has this month. This one had the perfect location as it is just 2 exits up the freeway. We got to sleep in our own beds and leave from our own house which was nice. We got there just in time to give Dad a hug and kiss before the race.

Becoming Pro Tri Cheerleaders

Dad's in there somewhere waiting.

And they're off!

We raced over to the swim exit to find a place to keep an eye out for Dad.

It wasn't long before I spotted him.

Headed over to the bike.

Off on the bike.

The girls were very excited about the bells we got and cheered away.

Wasn't too long before here came Dad.

It was very bright and hot.

The girls entertained me and everyone around by dancing on a ~~manhole cover~~ stage to the music that was being played.

Here came Dad.

For the finish!

We didn't last too long after the race. Seriously, it was freaking hot. We were there long enough for Abby to shove a piece of pizza and a cookie in all at 8:30am. She had one in each hand. It was a good short race. The next one is end of the month and is a Olympic so longer but we will have friends there!

July Zoo Trip

2011-08-13T06:56:00.000-07:00

Told you I had a couple of more pics of July. We headed to the Zoo with most of the Stanard Family. It was hot and we lasted as long as we could.

I think these kids will forever love the meerkats.

Picture Op #1

The misters really came in handy!

One cool dude.

Abby did a lot of this the whole time.

Another mister!

Photo Op #2

It was so hot the chimps were hanging up by the glass for a close view.

How sweet are they?

Photo Op #3

The big monkeys

The little monkeys

Beach Vacation 2011

2011-08-03T16:38:00.000-07:00

This marks the 3rd Annual Vacation with the Stanard and Davis family. We decided to keep it close to home with a stay in Galveston. We rented a house in Pointe West. I had never been down that way in Galveston but it turned out to be perfect with just a short walk to a clean beach and a pool that we had access to as well.

First night the kiddos ran around checking things out. Loving the "hoop a loops" Crissy brought.

The next day we headed out to the beach:

Abby was being a bit pouty and refused to go in the water.

Sand people were built

Kids played Wii

The next day came too soon as it always does. The girls wanted to go and look for shells so we headed over to the beach for a quick trip.

No, our kids did not build this castle, they just stole the shells from it!

Our house in center!

Jess attempted a group shot of the kids. Not bad with 6 kids I think!

And of course a pic of the girls!

Wonder where we will go next year?

July?

2011-08-03T16:12:00.000-07:00

I swear it was just the 4th of July! This month has definitely flown by and we have been very busy. Too busy to often take a camera unfortunately. I do have at least 2 updates I can do with pics but other then those 2 there have been no pictures. So what have we been up to you ask?

- We've been swimming with the family over the 4th weekend
- We spent the 4th with friends
- Abby gave up her pacifier to the "Binky Fairy"
- Due to losing the pacifier she has also dropped her nap so we are a napless house now
- We have shopped
- We have applied for passports
- We have tickets to Italy!
- We spent the weekend at the beach with friends!
- Reagan went to the dentist for the first time and did great
- Celebrated Jacob's 3rd birthday
- We started potty training Abby
- Trip to the Zoo
- Family movie night
- I hit the halfway mark on my C25K plan and am learning to run
- We met with an attorney to have our estate planning documents drawn up
- Our garden died
- Our computer crashed

I'm sure I am forgetting some things too! Whew, no wonder it flew by!

Butterflies!!!

2011-07-01T15:36:00.000-07:00

It happened so quickly on a Friday. That morning the little guys were still in their cocoons marking a week since they had been in. I walked by them a few times that day and each time there was another butterfly! It was really neat. I didn't, however, expect it to be quite so bloody. To be technical what looked like blood per the guide we received was actually meconium. It didn't bother Reagan and she just referred to it as '"red peepee". So if that's going to freak you out you may not what to look at all the pictures.

We kept them in the middle of the table and they were a lot of fun to watch during dinner. However on Monday we had to release them.

With a little encouragement all but one flew off. It was great. After seeing that the little one left behind was not going to take off (he had part of the cocoon still struck to him) we tried to get the girls to go inside just in case. Abby wasn't having it though and yelled at us, "No, butterfly fly!". We tried to help the little guy out and then decided we would just move him to the garden until he was ready.

We learned a lot with these butterflies and it is something I would recommend to everyone!

The oddest thing that I learned was how morbid Reagan is! One of the cocoons didn't attach itself to the top like the others so I had to lay it on the ground of the butterfly house and she told me it was probably dead without batting an eyelash. Then a couple of days after we let them go she told me that the butterfly in the garden probably died. Odd odd child.

PS Don't mind how the girls are dressed. They are allowed to pick out their own clothes during the week when we're at home. ; )

Last Swim Lesson

2011-07-01T15:26:00.000-07:00

The girls have really enjoyed swim lessons this year and Reagan has really learned a lot. We are very impressed and wished it were possible to sign her up for another set!

Don't worry, she's not drinking the water but working on blowing bubbles.

Fathers Day 2011

2011-07-01T15:22:00.000-07:00

Fathers Day was a rather quiet day around our house which is what was requested. We went to brunch, did a little shopping and then hung out around the house.

The girls learned how to use water guns. Nothing like a little girl in a bathing suit holding a gun.......

Abby had just woken up. We thought we'd let her go without a swim diaper in the back yard. Note the small puddle underneath her.

Reagan got to try out the fun sprinkler she got for her birthday.

The sprinkler scared Abby who kept safe by the door.

I LOVE this picture. Reagan has her hand on her hip and is wagging her finger at Abby over something and Abby is just giving her the Abby face. Classic.

What Fathers Day is all about.

Abby Zoolander

Company Picnic 2011

2011-07-01T14:32:00.000-07:00

On a day where the heat index was going to be 106 we attended our company picnic. Hey, what are you going do? We do like in Houston after all.

There were soaker balls/frisbees in ice water for the kids to play with:

And Dad played softball:

We had fun with a Food Truck with fun hot dogs and our own ice cream cart. The kids were delighted. Reagan was especially pleased when she got a chance to run onto the baseball field. Needless to say both kids napped that afternoon!

Cocoons

2011-07-01T14:27:00.000-07:00

And like magic suddenly the little guys were in their cocoons and we moved them to their new homes. I actually was able to watch the last one wrap the cocoon around himself and it was pretty neat.

Caterpillars

2011-06-20T19:38:00.000-07:00

We got one of the coolest gifts for Reagan in the mail one day - Caterpillars! Reagan and I opened the box and in no time we were both giggling in excitement. Seriously, there were 10 caterpillars inside. How cool is this!

Each container has 5 caterpillars along with their food. They are just going to hang out in there until they form their cocoons. We wait patiently..........

Sylvan Beach Triathlon

2011-06-20T19:33:00.000-07:00

As far as triathlons go this one was laid out quite well for us as spectators. We got there in time to be able to see Dad before he took off!

As the sun rose the swimmers took off.

The girls ate their cereal (and were not in the best of moods)

We were right there to see Dad come out of the water:

And close enough to be able to see him in transition:

And even see him leave on the bike:

Then we hung out for a bit. There was music playing so the girls danced. Reagan's commentary on what the announcer was saying and about bikes going by brought smirks and snickers to those around us.

And then I saw him coming:

We headed over to the Finish to wait:

We had more snacks too. The girls were running on gas at this point:

I was keeping an eye out even though it was early and look who I saw to my surprise:

It was a quick race which in the heat with cranky girls I was quite happy about. Dad did a great job though, especially with his super speedy run.

Sylvan Beach

2011-06-20T19:16:00.000-07:00

Dad signed up for a triathlon in La Porte, TX. We decided to take advantage and take the kids down to see the beach and stay the night. Reagan has been going on and on about going on vacation to the beach so we had to make her dream come true. The excitement in their eyes when we got there was awesome. They loved everything about it from the waves hitting them in the face to playing in the sand. I can't wait to take them to a real beach one day. I can't imagine the giggles if they could see their feet in the water..................

Guess who decided to move out of the crib.............

2011-06-19T19:57:00.000-07:00

We had moved Reagan's old toddler bed to Abby's room for Reagan to sleep in while the Garouttes were sleeping in her room. Abby immediately starting asking to sleep in it once everyone left. We gave it a go for a nap and she hasn't looked back since.

Well, this was 1 of 3 things we hoped to accomplish this summer. Here's hoping that potty training can go as smoothly.

Swim Lessons

2011-06-19T19:49:00.000-07:00

We looked and looked at where to take the girls for swim lessons and decided to go with the company that our neighborhood pool uses. We lucked in to being accepted into the first round of lessons and they didn't quite have enough kids for a small group so we ended up with semi-private lessons for just Reagan & Abby together. It has worked out quite well and the girls are quite excited when it's time to go see their teacher, Emily. Here are a few pictures of their 2nd lesson:

Family Weekend - the End : (

2011-06-19T19:43:00.000-07:00

The time flew by so fast! We had a lot going on in a small amount of time. Everyday there was time spent outside and more often then not there was a lot of time spent playing baseball with Grandpa. I got a few pictures and sadly we had a mishap in transferring them to the computer. It was a good time!

**If you get grossed out stop reading now. Or at least jump to pictures below.

The last night we went out to eat. Apparently this was not a good idea. We get there and get settled and Reagan started whining and crying at the table. Completely unusual for her. She doesn't want to eat. Then I believe that Matthew threw up everywhere. While he is getting cleaned up Abby knocked over a full cup of milk everywhere and Reagan starts crying because she wants to lay down and go to sleep. I'm pretty sure we ate as fast as humanly possible. I have to say that we had to most wonderful waitress! She took everything in stride and was completely wonderful. We were absolutely "that table" that night that I never want to be. Sadly it didn't stop there as when we got home Reagan had the accident of all accidents and I found out that she had actually thrown up a bit at dinner as well. It was a whirlwind to say the least and not exactly how you want to end a visit. I'm happy to report none of the kids were sick the next day. Just a fluke of course that it happened all at once. I now think back and laugh to admittedly I'm pretty sure we were laughing then too.

Last morning - I had to go in to work so I asked Dad to try and get a pic of the kiddos all together that morning. Not much luck but they are still all so cute.

As always we wish we had longer with everyone. The girls are old enough now to understand and while it has been a few weeks since everyone left they are still asking for everyone. No one goes unnamed. Abby even asks where the baby is as she never would call Matthew by name. Even looking at the professional pictures she smiled sweetly and pointed to the screen and said, "There's baby!". Hopefully it will not be another 18 months before we can all get together again.

Family Photos

2011-06-19T19:22:00.000-07:00

We were very fortunate to have Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Craig, Aunt Sarah, Uncle Jonathan & Matthew come in for the weekend of Reagan's birthday. It had been about 18 months since we were all together at the same time. We took advantage and got together with Kristine of Kristine Noel and took some family photos. Needless to say we were very pleased and would recommend her to anyone! Even with the wind, cranky kids (notice Abby hardly crack a smile), and the fact we couldn't get one pic with the 3 kiddos we still got some beautiful pictures. Enjoy!

Family Day at the Zoo

2011-06-19T19:10:00.000-07:00

What else do you do after a crazy party day? Go to the Zoo of course.

Uncle Jon followed Reagan through trying to get Abby to go through but it didn't work.

They could look at Nemo & Dory all day.

Abby has a beat!

Cutie pie Matthew

Success, Abby enjoyed the carousel! Wonder if it has to do with Grandma.........

Definitely a couple of monkeys!

Reagan's 4th Birthday Party!

2011-06-16T16:20:00.000-07:00

We asked Reagan several times where she wanted to have her party and she wouldn't budge. She wanted to have her birthday party at A Bunch of Fun just like Abby did a few months ago. So that's what we did. She decided to have a Tangled themed party before she even saw the movie!

ROAR!

Reagan & Michelle the firefighters

Abby loves the kitchen

Ellie

Aunt Sarah & Matthew

Sarah & Jacob

Grandma teaching Abby how to play hopscotch

She got it!

Cooper loves the stairs!

Firefighter Ollie!

Truitt

Happy Birthday to you..........

Making a wish!

Apparently the cupcakes were good

Eileen

They were having a ton of fun

Jess, Me & Crissy

Thanks to Aunt Sarah for helping with the gifts

Happy Birthday Princess Reagan. I hope all yours dreams come true this year.

Last Day of School

2011-05-27T05:30:00.000-07:00

Today is the last day of school and I found this cute little collage from Abby's teacher in my email this morning and wanted to share.

Free photo collage made with Smilebox

Happy 4th Birthday Reagan!

2011-05-23T19:24:00.000-07:00

You've been stubborn from the beginning my love and came out mad at the world at 9:00pm on 5/23/07 after 15 hours of labor.

One year old:

Two years old:

Three years old:

Four years old:

You're still stubborn but oh so sweet. I couldn't imagine our lives without you and can't wait to see what this next year brings. Maybe more ice cream?

Garden Update 05/18/11

2011-05-18T19:21:00.000-07:00

I think I've actually missed a few pictures! We've pulled of a green bell pepper and one of our Sweet Cajun Peppers. Let me tell you there is nothing sweet about that pepper!!!

That is a watermelon!!

Cucumbers are still coming

More of those not so sweet Sweet Cajun Bells

First Poblano. We're really excited about these.

Still waiting on the Creole Tomatos to be ready

Another zucchini soon

Our lemon tree is producing! I'm still annoyed that I can't eat any of them but it's still exciting.

Joe's 4th Birthday & Meeting Jocelyn

2011-05-18T19:08:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we headed up to Ft.Worth 2, well 3 really, reasons:

1. To celebrate Joe's 4th birthday
2. To meet Jocelyn who was born the week before
3. To see the Davis Family! It's no fun living far from friends. : (

We drove in Friday night and went straight to the hotel. Shockingly we ran into the Stanard's at the hotel and talked a bit as the kids ran in circles. It was unfortunately a long night in our room and we were up early the next morning. We all met up for breakfast and then we headed over to the Davis' where I had the pleasure of babysitting sweet little 1.5 week old Jocelyn while everyone else headed to the birthday party.

Seriously, I got to spend a few hours with this cuteness:

Here is the birthday boy!

Sisters!

Reagan quickly found Jason! She has a special place in her heart for him.

Besties!

Born a day apart!

I saw this and wondered what the................

Ah, I should have known! ; )

After the party everyone came back to the Davis house. We had lunch and got the chance to hang out, talk, and just be. And of course you know the girls (and Dad!) wanted to get their hands on Jocelyn!

Reagan couldn't wait to get her hands on her! She waited as patiently as she could for her to wake up.

Getting in a few more snuggles before we hit the road. Look how beautiful Jess looks!

Shortly before we left Abby decided she wanted to hold her and then she wouldn't stop kissing her!

Aw! Dad couldn't keep his hands off of her either. He held her several times and I caught him sitting and watching her sleep for a bit. Don't anyone get any ideas though!

Spring Program 2011

2011-05-11T17:38:00.000-07:00

The girl's school has a Spring Program each year. Last year we were invited to chapel and saw a slide show of pictures and then had a picnic lunch. This year instead of their usual chapel service the kids performed. They all sang/signed 3 songs and then came to sit with their parents and we watched a movie that had pictures and actual video footage of the kids during class. It was fun to see the kids in their classrooms which is something I've always wanted to do. We saw Abby naming things on the calendar and shouting out the answers and Reagan going on a bug hunt. It was awesome. Afterwards we had a picnic.

Garden Update 05/7-11/11

2011-05-11T17:33:00.000-07:00

Almost daily we are starting to pull things out of the garden which is amazing.

Snow Peas! A new addition courtesy of a Mothers Day gift from Reagan that she did with her class.

Watermelon plant is really taking off and flowering.

We have new little cucumbers daily.

Our first zucchini!

One days "harvest"

Our first tomato!

We've done rather well and haven't wasted anything yet. The cucumbers are starting to come in pretty quickly. We've had them on salads, made a spicy cucumber salad and we now have 2 jars of pickles in the fridge!

When Abby asks to have her pic taken.............

2011-05-11T17:28:00.000-07:00

you do it of course.

Mothers Day 2011

2011-05-11T17:27:00.000-07:00

We went to brunch that morning, I got a couple of great gifts but the highlight of the day would have to be these two awesome kids!

Abby's 1st ponytail

2011-05-05T20:15:00.000-07:00

I've tried to put Abby's hair in a ponytail before and she has taken it right out. Abby came up to me the other morning after I fixed Reagan's hair and said "Abby hair too". I asked her if she wanted a ponytail and she said yes so I figured why not.

So here it is

Sassafrass! This is a common face. Abby, do you like your ponytail?

While I.........................

LOVE it! Come near her like you are going to touch it and she flipped out. She wore it all day and asked for it again the next day.

So at 27 months old she finally has her first ponytail. I foresee many many bows in our future. For anyone that's curious Reagan had her first ponytail in December 2008 when she was 19 months. And now is where you think, wow......................

Garden Update 04/25/11

2011-05-05T20:00:00.000-07:00

Our first cucumber!

Proud little Gardner

Seriously, this garden is getting crazy!

Finally a zucchini is starting to grow!

Not bad right!?

Easter 2011

2011-05-05T19:53:00.000-07:00

I think this post may be why I have putting off posting but.............

Easter morning started off quiet and relaxing. The Easter Bunny made a stop at our house and left the girls each a book, a pair of sunglasses & an egg with candy:

Reagan got Tangled of course.

Showing off her new shades. Abby didn't feel like participating.

Feeling better after a nap once we got over to my family's. Also chips and dip always help.

The girls got Princess Dolls from Granny. Reagan and Granny playing. (Psst, Happy Birthday Granny!)

Apparently some Princess' can fly?!

After we ate the girls sat on the edge of the pool and kicked and splashed with Uncle Robert standing right there.

Trying to learn to hold their breath.

Hey, where did their clothes go???

What I remember about the next event is strictly tunnel vision so some things could be off. After sitting on the side of the pool at one point Reagan decided she was going to sit on the first step off the pool, dress and all. Real cute right? I immediately looked to Abby after I saw Reagan and I could see her mind working. She was going to do it too. Unfortunately Abby chose to do that from the side of the pool, where there is no step. It happened in slow motion. I saw her put one foot over the water and then the other and she was gone. I couldn't move fast enough. I'm guessing I was about 30-40 feet from her. I just know that when I got to the pool I could see her floating face down in the water. She wasn't moving. I was able to reach her ankle pull her to me quickly and up and out of the pool. When she got out I could feel her take a huge breath against me and then let out a cry. She cried for just a few minutes and didn't want to go to anyone else but me. But, after those moments she was ready to get down and go back near the pool. My Mom told me that she wasn't in the water for more then 5-10 seconds. I literally had dropped to the side of the pool to get her and scraped up one knee and had a huge knot/bruise on the other leg. I never felt it. Everyone else had rushed to the pool too but I never saw any of it. This was the single scariest moment of my life. I couldn't shake it and am just now (5/5/11) not having nightmares about it each night. I know that there were 7 adults right there and she was safe no matter what. No one was that terribly far from the kids. It truly just takes a second of looking away. Needless to say we will be looking into swim lessons very soon for safety more then anything.

Easter Eggs with Friends

2011-05-05T19:28:00.000-07:00

The night before Easter..................ok wrong holiday. But seriously, the night before Easter we headed over to the Love's house to have an evening of fun. The Barsch's and the Stanard's were there as well.

We colored Easter Eggs!

Little ones on one side! Abby, Eileen & Cooper

Abby & Jacob waiting patiently

Sarah!

Reagan's is ready

They did such a good job!

Of course they had to have an Easter Egg Hunt!

Abby, Eileen, Cooper, Jacob, Sarah & Reagan

They did a good job at the hunt and I was proud of how Sarah & Reagan let the little ones get a lot of eggs. We enjoyed hamburgers, chips/dip and maybe a few beers. It was a great relaxing evening. I hope we can make it an annual event!

Kaitlyn's 3rd Birthday

2011-05-05T19:07:00.000-07:00

Abby has a BFF in her class named Kaitlyn. They play with each other and love on each other at school. I hear cute things about them from their teachers all the time. Kaitlyn is definitely on my adorably cute kid list. The girls were delighted to be invited to her birthday party, especially at A Bunch of Fun.

Utter cuteness

Why yes, firefighters can have lemonade stands.

And then the fun ended...........

What do you mean the fun ended? Dad started off with Abby. He took off the wrapper to her cupcake. She freaked out because she got icing on her fingers. He tried to hold it for her and she got mad. He gave up and we switched. I tried to hold the cupcake for her, take off the icing, pull it apart, etc. She got so crazy we had to leave the little room. Then she started crying out for cupcakes. She got so hysterical that we ended up having to leave the party. There are no words but luckily all the parents of course understood. Who knew that we would have a kid who freaked out with icing on her fingers?!

Garden Update 04/21/11

2011-05-05T18:42:00.000-07:00

First Cucumber!

Tomatoes are growing!

There are lots of tomatoes!

Peppers

Parsley - We're about to start giving it away on the corner!

L - Mesclun Lettuce

R - Cilantro

Zucchini

Romaine

Spinach

Tomatoes

Our crazy tall Poblano

Basil - take 2

Watermelon is starting to take off

Reagan's strawberries

Everything is growing tall!

MS 150 Weekend 2011

2011-04-25T15:31:00.000-07:00

We woke up nice and early on Saturday morning and shoved 5 adults and 3 kids in car seats into our car and headed to La Grange to drop off Scott & Jason to meet up with their Fedex Team.

As soon as the guys grabbed their bikes and bags and we rearranged a bit in the car Reagan promptly threw up. A little back story - since Wednesday of that week we'd been battling sickness with Reagan. She came home with a fever on Wednesday from school, she had to stay home on Thursday because of the fever and seemed to be much better. She had an accident at school on Friday so since it was a short day for the girls I picked them up. She had an accident as soon as she got home and then all seemed well. She was running around like a maniac and what not. Saturday morning I was a little concerned because she was so quiet but she had no fever and seemed well. After she threw up (thankfully just water) she seemed fine. She was talking a little more and slept some. So we headed on to Dime Box to stay the day/night with Delia's family.

It was a beautiful day and it didn't take long for Reagan to ask to go and see the horses.

This sweet horse even "kissed" Reagan's finger when she wouldn't let go of the hay. What else were we supposed to tell her? : ) After that she didn't really want to feed him anymore but Abby fed him a few handfuls as well.

After that we played outside for a bit as it was a beautiful day!

We had lunch and then the little ones napped. Reagan took full advantage of having a Grandma on hand. I think they did puzzles, read books, had snacks, etc. Then we headed to a birthday party!

This is the only picture I got. And then for what feels like the rest of the time we were there I spent it in the bathroom with Reagan. She had quite a tummy ache. I'm pretty sure we visited that bathroom at least 20 times. As soon as dinner was over we got her out of there and back to the house for a bath with all 3 kids. Then they were off to bed and the adults got a little ~~wine~~ quiet time.

The next morning was nice and leisurely. As always my kids were up early and Reagan had had a rough night. Poor thing even asked me if we could go home in the middle of the night. We had breakfast and the kids played a bit before we loaded ourselves up and headed to Austin.

Thank goodness Delia has done this before because I would have had no idea where to park, where to head to, etc. Plus I can't tell you the last time I've even been to Austin! Possibly high school. We found a great spot in the shade and tried to keep the kids interested in watching for their Daddy's.

What stinkin cute is Cooper?

We didn't have to wait long to spot them!

We really couldn't have timed it any better. After the guys showered and got their stuff we went out to eat and then loaded us all back up and headed home. We didn't get home til close to 7:00pm. At that time Reagan threw an epic fit. She was upset we were back at our house and not at Cooper's Grandma's house. Once she calmed down from that she was upset because Cooper had to go home. Needless to say we stuck those kids in a quick shower and then right to bed!

It was a very trying yet great weekend. Much thanks to Delia for sharing her family with us and to Jason for introducing Scott to the MS150. I foresee many more years of rides in our future.

Bluebonnets 2011 = FAIL

2011-04-21T19:39:00.000-07:00

For anyone not in Texas, we are in a drought. Really we are very desperate for rain here. Sadly that hugely effected our Bluebonnet Season. The season this year was quite shortly and sadly we missed it. We met up with the Stanard's and drove out to Chappell Hill like we always do and then my nightmare from the night before became reality. The beautiful bluebonnets that line the road like this from last year:

Well, they weren't there. :-( Luckily we ran into someone else who told us about a small patch.

My girls!

Someone was cranky.......

Best Friends!

Little House on the Prairie anyone??

Reagan got blessed by a ladybug!

Do I spy a smile?

Better cover that up!

Picking a flower always helps

Reagan picked flowers for Grandma

Zoobilee 2011

2011-04-21T19:20:00.000-07:00

As soon as I got the flier in the mail I just knew we had to go to Zoobilee. I didn't realize that so did everyone else! The Houston Zoo offers Zoobilee as a members only event. The kids were able to gather stamps for their passports and then get a prize for all their work. We even had dinner at the Zoo and were there until closing at 8:30! We now know why we like to get there when it opens though.

Reagan loves to stop and take a pic with the Rhino

The girls are big monkey fans

Getting their passports stamped!

Sassafrass!

Still loving the new African exhibit!

Drums!

Abby was quite happy to stop for dinner, especially since we sat by the Giraffes!

Someone pouted since she didn't get to sit by Mom...........

Our view while eating!

Garden Update 04/07/11

2011-04-21T19:08:00.000-07:00

We have tomatoes!

Lots!

Bell Peppers!

Reagan knew just what to do with her glove and just how to squat

"Abby turn"

Kemah Triathlon

2011-04-07T19:52:00.000-07:00

Sunday morning came pretty quick. Scott got up at some crazy hour and I got up at 5:30am got myself together and got the girls up and headed down to the lobby at 6am. I grabbed a bagel and the girls chose Fruit Loops (blech!) and we were off. We got to the Boardwalk and loaded up all our stuff (why did we have so much) and headed off to where everyone would be coming in from the water. I was so worried that we were going to miss things but in waiting for the sun to make it's appearance there was a late start. So we found a place and had our breakfast and waited.

And there they all sit waiting to jump in

Uh, that boat is far.

Aren't they cute?!

Finally we could see swimmers!

Once I could see that those with green caps were swimming in I moved us from the water to the red carpet. Yep, they laid out a red carpet where they could run in from the water back to transition. I picked to stand right by the wetsuit strippers thinking the girls would have a chance to yell out to their Dad when he stopped. The area was very chaotic. There was a lot of yelling and movement and it scared Abby. Seriously, she was crying and clinging to me. Unfortunately with this and the fact that everyone was in black making it hard to spot people I wasn't able to get in pics of Scott coming out of the water. It didn't help that he totally bypassed the strippers either. We headed back towards transition to see where we should head next. I knew there was no way we could see him leave out on his bike so we set up to find the perfect place to at least see him come back.

Transition area

It's a serious sport

Looking for Daddy

He was doing this while we were waiting:

And then we finally saw him coming in. He even said hi this time!

I also noticed that he was bleeding. Awesome.

We were able to catch him in transition going out for his run.

So while he was doing this:

Reagan made a couple of friends.

Crossing the finish line!

Waiting for Dad to come out of transition

Reagan's favorite part of races is getting to wear the medal!

Scott did a great job. Yes, there may have been a bike crash but all was well. The girls are becoming good little race buddies too. They were amazingly well behaved. The hardest part of it all was being able to see everywhere at the same time. I wanted to take pictures of the race but every few seconds I would have to look for Reagan. She's is just Miss Social. She made friends, she pet dogs and gave ~~weeds~~ flowers to people. Next event will be he MS 150 but at least I will not be alone!