Lubbock girls weekend, 2010!

My mom treated Avery and I to a girl's weekend at my sister's house in Lubbock. It was extra special this year because we got to do some wedding planning while we were there. We went and saw the revamped reception place at the Merket Alumni Center - wow, it sure has changed from I went to award ceremonies there! We also got to do a little dress shopping and Ashley might have found the "one" but she wants to do a little more shopping just to make sure!



Avery once again did great on the airplane. This time she was a "ticketed" passenger, so she had her own seat. I brought lots of activities on the plane which kept her well occupied. On the ride home, she actually fell asleep which was fantastic, until I had to carry her out and then haul her and all our stuff to the car. But since that was the only rough part I would say it was a success!

My sister introduced my non-veggie eating daughter to healthy milkshakes that have hidden spinach thrown in and Avery LOVES them. I am eternally grateful, because now Avery has a great way to get her veggies in!!



We also went to this great park that is HUGE and has a wooden town built inside of it. There was everything and anything to run around and climb in. Unfortunately we went right before we had to leave, so we didn't get to spend much time there. . .hence the pic of Avery screaming as I was carrying her out!

Grasshopper

Ahh, little grasshopper - how you provided my family with such fun entertainment. Ahh, grasshopper, you were not so little - more like a Texas kangaroo!

I would not normally make a video about a grasshopper, but it was just so stinkin' funny! These pictures have it all: fear, intrigue, fascination, the "stink eye".

(Again - this video has music. Watch out if you are at work!!)

Grasshopper from c s on Vimeo.

Growin', Growin', Growin' . . . All the kids are growin'

Today I packed away all of the baby bottles for the last time. Once again, I was not sad, but HAPPY! Life is so much easier without having to haul bottles and formula around everywhere. Hailey did fantastically well giving up her bottles. I only really noticed a problem right before naptime, because she was waking up during her nap instead of sleeping straight through. But, I did the same as before and took away the bottles really slowly. I had not been wanting to take away her nighttime bottle because that always means bad sleep during the night. So, about a week ago, I went to make that nighttime bottle and I was out of liners. I figured, well, here we go. She did great! She didn't even need the bottle after all. She is drinking tons of milk during the day and getting her tummy full. Yay, Baby Hailey, one baby milestone behind you already.

Pete just hit a milestone because he is now sleeping in his big boy bed. I know, I know, it seems a little late at 2 1/2 to just now be switching him . . . but I didn't want to mess up a good thing! He never really WANTED to get out of his bed. So when we finally did it, it really didn't faze him at all. This kid has been my easiest sleeper, for sure! Now if he would only sleep past 6:30 . . .

Untitled from c s on Vimeo.

And Avery, sweet, funny, lovable, Avery is just growin' and learning every day! It always amazes me that I can now carry on a conversation with these kiddos! She is singing up a storm and it's really the cutest little thing. Her favorite song is "Twinkle Twinkle" and she loves to say "Ta Da!" when she is finished!

Symbolic of this mommy's life

I love these pictures - I think it captures everything that mommyhood is for me right now: funny, loving, carefree, exasperating, tough, easy, messy, busy, imperfect and yet perfect, the list of goods and sometimes toughies just keeps going and going and going. But that is what we do it all for, right? To see these shining happy faces turn into fabulous little people and then into even greater adults.

Since I was very sick for Mother's Day, I'm going to say these are my Mother's Day pictures for 2010! It all started with two and then became perfect with three.

Pony rides

We went to Kylie's birthday party and she had PONY RIDES!! Avery and Pete kept talking the whole way there about the pony rides. But as soon as Avery saw them, she turned and ran away! She only agreed to ride when she found out the ponies were leaving! Hailey kept riding, but was constantly saying "Down!" throughout the whole thing.

Playground Fun

I don't think that it is possible for me to go to the playground by myself anymore! Hailey is at this new stage of climbin' and being fearless. Daddy Pete and I chased them all over the playground, I think we were more worn out than they were.

Untitled from c s on Vimeo.

Hailey likes corn . . .

Untitled from c s on Vimeo.

Sea World

We took a little vacation to San Antonio this weekend and took the kiddos to Sea World on Friday. We thought it was such a great time to go since all of our kiddos are FREE . . . that's right free! Needless to say, once they aren't free is is going to add up VERY quickly!

Untitled from c s on Vimeo.

It was fun, but I keep using the word "ambitious" in respect to 2 parents and 3 small kiddos. The most difficult part was parking the stroller and walking into the shows/exhibits with the little ones. Those stairs are steep and there are alot of them! By the end of the afternoon I began to understand why kids under 3 are free!

We weren't really sure what to expect out of the kiddos. They ended up being very funny! Pete basically sat clutched to me throughout all of the preformances. Avery and Hailey usually sat with Daddy, but all in all, they really did a good job staying focused and watching what was going on. Little Pete was tired after staying up really late the night before (he was so excited that he kept shouting "Orcas! Whales! Dolphins!")

We got to feed the dolphins and happened to walk up right after the park opened so there was basically only a few people there. As we were leaving, it was SWARMED with people - so we learned that you go see the dolphins first!

Shamu was awesome, plus a new baby had been born in January and was following its momma around everywhere. We also really enjoyed a new cirque-de-solish show called "Azul". It was more of a human type acrobat show on water. Frog people were jumping off the top of the platform and synchronized swimmers were swimming with Beluga whales. And to think we almost missed it becuse we thought the kiddos were too tired!

Pictures,pictures, and more pictures

So, I'm uber-worried about looking back in 20 years and thinking "Omigosh, I don't have a pic of this or that!" and feeling guilty. So in an effort to ease my guilt inducing stress upon myself, I have been havig pictures of the kiddos taken like crazy!

I have wanted for a long time a really great picture of all five of us. Basically it is really hard to get a good picture of all of us, and let's face it - you hand someone my ginormous/complicated looking camera to take a picture of all of us and they look at you like you just grew another head!

Through the wonders of the internet, facebook, and blogging I have become reacquainted with an old friend from high school, Sara. She has created a great side job doing photography. I had been looking forward to this for months (after first having to cancel a while back due to a household infection of pink eye!)



The weather channel had said it would be breezy but nice - boy, were they wrong. We awoke to heavy storms and lots of rain and mud. Sara was a trooper and met us at the park where we proceeded to get VERY muddy! At the time I thought there was no way that we would even get one picture. Again, boy was I wrong! She did a great job and turned a not-so-great day into fabulous pictures! Here is Sara's info, for anyone interested: http://saragriffinphotography.wordpress.com/


Then I took A & P to "Portrait Innovations" for their one year pictures last year. I really wanted some of the same, similar type shots of Hailey. For some strange reason I decided to take the kids n a Friday, by myself to get not only Hailey's portraits done, but heck, why not try to get a picture of all three of them! They really did well (after being bribed with marshmallows) - I NEVER did get a picture of Lil Pete smiling . . . but that is actually his personality: no faking it!




It is truly amazing what a difference one year can make!!

Easter weekend

Easter was a busy weekend this year. We had a lot going on. The kiddos dyed Easter eggs for the first time and truly loved hunting for some eggs. The Easter bunny came to Nana and Papa's this year and brought lots and lots of goodies. We also had many, many Easter egg hunts, and I am still being asked if we can go unt Easter eggs!

These are pics from the kiddos school Easter celebration:



These are pics from Nana and Papa's Easter celebration:







Our sweet neighbors Russ and Steffani surprised the kiddos by being the Easter bunny and filling our front yard with goodie filled eggs. It was fun for all the neighbors to come watch the excitement!