Last two weeks...........

As usual, the last couple weeks have been pretty busy for us-here's a few of my favorite new pics:

Weekend before last we went over to Keith and Jana's for lunch with Kevin's family-this one is of Hannah and Kaitlyn playing with the fridge magnets. We have the same one at home-I think Hannah is trying to figure out why Kaitlyn is playing with it now, Hannah is a little territorial right now..........

Keith doing "toss the baby" with Hannah-don't worry: the fan appears closer than it really is!

Hunter's turn-they loved it!


July 14th was my dads birthday-the big 65!! Kim asked us to come over and surprise him for dinner and cake. The food was excellent, and the kids got to have their first taste of ice cream-is that bad I haven't given them ice cream yet?? She also had invested in an Elmo dvd and some legos to keep at the house. Needless to say, they were very entertained and we managed not to explode any Dr. Pepper cans this time.........

Hunter is obsessed with colors and chalk or basically anything to do with drawing right now. We got them these cool little trays to use at Hobby Lobby that they love! Obviously he hasn't learned how to stay inside the lines yet--thank goodness for washable crayons!!

I got a wild "hair" a few days ago and decided to go ahead and get Hunters hair cut again. I was going to wait until he turned 2 and then get it cut short, but decided he was getting pretty shaggy. I took him back to Snippets at the mall (it's worth the few extra bucks) and told the lady I didn't know anything about boys haircuts but I thought I may want him to get a flat top-she nixed that idea let me flip through their little boys book. We decided to go short with just enough to spike up on top-she did a great job, he did get nicked with the clippers one time b/c he started flailing around when his rubber duck fell to the floor. After they gave him a sucker-all was well! MY favorite part about his new haircut is the way the back of his head feels now-I am constantly rubbing his head for him, but he doesn't seem to mind! HIS favorite part is that he gets to be squirted with the "water gun" every morning now so I can spike it up a little! He looks SO grown up to me now-definitely not a baby anymore, huh?

This was right after we got home from the mall-PaPa had to come over and see his new "do"

Last night we went to Wings N' More with our good friends Jaime and Larissa, and Katy and Jason. Jaime and Larissa have a 2 month old little girl named Maya Grace now-this was our first time to all go eat together and all the kiddos did great! The local fire department sat down next to us and gave the kids hats-so nice!! It's hard to imagine that not that long ago there would have only been 6 people at the table!!

Hannah, Katy, and Adalee

Maya and Larissa

Kevin and Hunter showing off his new fireman hat

P.S.: For those that are wondering, Hannah and Hunter have remained "binky free"! It has been 2 weeks exactly now and, as I said before, it was not near as hard as I thought it would be. At first they took a little longer to go down for naps and bedtime, but the last several days they've done great! I can't even remember the last time I heard Hannah ask for it, and she definitely saw baby Maya's binky while we were at dinner-I guess they've moved on to more important things!!

"Operation Bye-bye Binky"

It had to be done..............and I finally did it! As of last night (well kind of) Hannah and Hunter are officially Binky free children!!!

Summary of "Operation Bye-bye Binky":

Sunday-
*Used our kitchen sheers to cut off the ends of their binkies before we put them to bed
(they thought it was funny that we cut them at first and had the giggles for a few minutes
until realizing that they didn't have the same effect as before.....not so funny after that)
*cried for approx 45 minutes off and on (we went in every 5-10 minutes)
*slept really well all night

Monday-
*woke up earlier than usual at 7am -happy and still holding their "broken binkies"
*after eating breakfast put on Sesame Street to distract them so I could round up all extra
binkies and throw them in the trash (as seen in picture above)-decided I had to do this
so I couldn't break down later in the day-no excuses!!
*waited for Hannah to ask for her binky (she asks for it a lot)
*gave them their binkies and reminded them that they are "broken"
*told them to throw their broken binkies away in the trash can and offered them a snack
*they gladly threw their binkies in the trash can and never looked back
*later on- went through naptime routine (brush teeth, change diaper, etc.)
*again, Hannah asked for binky-reminded them that they threw them away
*MAJOR meltdown from Hannah..... Hunter just laughed
*put them in cribs w/no binkies and anticipated the worst - contemplated digging in the trash
*cried for approx 10 minutes, went up and rubbed their backs
*didn't make a peep for the next 2 hours!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
*woke up happy-headed to the mall to meet Katy and Adalee
*behaved very well at the mall-minus approx 20 minutes of fussiness (not so bad)
*went through nightime routine-had to remind them again they threw them in the trash
*cried/babbled for approx 15-20 minutes and have been fast asleep since!!!

Overall it wasn't near as bad as I thought it would be-I had mentally prepared myself for many sleepless nights...I guess I made it a bigger deal than it really was. Keep your fingers crossed for us, we are only 1 1/2 days in-hopefully tomorrow will be just as easy!!!!!

Seven Year Anniversary and their 1st "All Nighter"

Seven years ago today, Kevin and I tied the knot, and look how far we've come! I don't think I would have guessed we would have had two kids by now, much less at the same time, but I wouldn't change it for anything!!

I know that he randomly reads the blog-so I will just remind him what a wonderful husband that he is too me....I feel so lucky and blessed to have him in my life. Not only is he an excellent husband, he is still truly my best friend. Thank you for being such a good provider for our family and such a wonderful father to our children-we love you!!

Since our anniversary fell on a Monday, we decided to celebrate this past weekend. The picture above was taken right before we left the kids for their 1st overnight visit with Kevin's parents. We decided to keep it casual this year and opted for dinner and a movie, followed by a spontaneous midnight trip to Walmart-it was a blast!! We had no purpose for the Walmart trip other than the fact that we felt like we needed to do something else simply because we could....it was strange not having to worry about how long we were taking anywhere, we felt like carefree newlyweds again! Looking back, it may have been smarter to skip Walmart and take advantage of a good night's sleep, because it was over before we knew it! Oh well, by the time we got up the next morning we were both a little anxious to go get the kids. According to Kevin's parents, Hannah and Hunter had a blast and slept really well through the night at their house. Thank you so much Pam and Dickey for giving us a night to ourselves-our children are available for your entertainment anytime you would like to have them again in the future, ha-ha!!!

Pigtails and shoes

I never know what to do with Hannah's hair since there's not much of it, but we were bored yesterday so I decided to try out some pigtails. She actually let me do it, and they ended up pretty cute! She must have been a restless sleeper, because when she woke up from her nap there was only one pigtail left...still cute though!

I also couldn't resist posting this pic of her with her shoes. Hannah's biggest obession by far right now is SHOES. They are the first the she asks for in the morning, even before food! She prefers her pair of pink crocs right now (probably b/c they are easy to get off and on), but she surprised me a few mornings ago with this:

These were her black patent leather Christmas shoes from last year-I'm not sure how they even still fit her foot, but she managed to get the on (even on the right feet)!!! Can you tell how proud she was??

July 4th

As usual, I am just now getting around to posting our 4th of July weekend. Kevin's band played again at the marina by our house during the day-it was a lot of fun but HOT! I took the kids for about an hour and then headed back home to meet Katy and Adalee at our house so we could see the parade. Our subdivision has a parade each year, I think they may have added a few more golf carts to it this year because it seemed a little longer....maybe a total of 2minutes?? The babies enjoyed watching it out on the porch until the local firetruck came by and honked the horns, Hunter didn't like that too much. Some of the kiddos in the parade through candy into our yard, so I found a few dum-dums called it desert!!

After Kevin's show was over our friends Hilary, Bob, Lauren and Scott headed over to the house to eat dinner and watch our neighborhood fireworks show. Hilary and Bob had just gotten engaged the day before so we got to see pics of their whole engagement-he sent her on a scavenger hunt that ended up on A&M campus where he popped the question!! I am so excited for her and happy that she found such a great guy!! Here are a few pics from the 4th-

Hunter showing off his 4th of July apparel

Dancing with daddy

Adalee eyeing Hannah's poodle, Hannah getting ready to escape

after dinner dum-dum treat

Swim Lessons

Hannah and Hunter just finished their first session of swim lessons, and they will do another round towards the end of July. Kevin's dad Dickey has been my helper throughout the process, and I am so thankful because we wouldn't have been able to do it without him! Katy and Adalee are also in the class with us so that makes it even more fun. Overall it was a good experience- I'm pretty sure that they won't be swimming by the end of it, but at least it has gotten them more comfortable in the water, and it gives us something fun to do during the day!

Getting ready to jump in.....I know, I need some major sun!

Hunter, Hannah, and Adalee

Pa Pa and Hunter blowing bubbles

Hannah doing "ding/dong"-it was her favorite excercisecatching some shadetaken about 2 minutes after we left swim lessons-can you say EXHAUSTED?? Look closely and you'll notice Hannah's hand is still stuck in her snack cup full of goldfish!

Sandbox = unplanned baths

So..... I have really cut back on my addiction to craigs list, but I have been wanting a sandbox for them to play in for a while now. We set up their climber and our table and bench set under a nice shade tree in the back yard, so they could have a place to play out of the sun, and I thought a sandbox would be the perfect addition. We got one off craigslist from a lady in Montgomery a few weeks ago, and just recently have gotten around to filling it with sand. These are some pics of their first encounter with the sand. Hunter jumped right on it and got messy- Hannah took a while to warm up to it, she didn't want to get her hands dirty at first. They really seem to be enjoying it, but I honestly wish I would have thought of something less messy because as soon as they finish with it they have to go straight in the tub. So I guess I need to really strategize when they get to play in the sandbox; either that, or just strip em' down and spray them off with the good old water hose (which they would probably like better)!!

Frio 2009

I'm finally getting around to posting some pics of our trip to the Frio a few weeks ago. Unfortunately with 2 two year olds on our hands we weren't able to take that many, but did get a few. We rented a house in Frio country along w/ Keith, Jana, Kaitlyn, and Kevin's parents. I have been going to the Frio since I was probably 6 years old, and I have never seen it so low before. This was the first time we weren't able to actually float the river, so that was somewhat of a bummer! We ended up having a blast though, the river was just the right level for the kids to splash and play in. Our days were spent waking up early and eating breakfast on the porch, letting the kids run off their steam until it was naptime, then making a beeline to the river while Pam and Dickey stayed with them until naptime was over, then heading back down to the river for more play time. Needless to say the kids were thouroughly exhausted by bedtime and slept REALLY well!

Hopefully if we get to go next year the river will be up, and maybe the kids will have learned how to swim by then!! I'm mad at myself for not remembering to bring the camera with us to the river, so I don't have any shots of them in the water. Most of the pics I took were of them in the car and some of them in Keith and Jana's blow up pool.

Hannah snoozing on the way there

Hunter snoozing

Hannah waking up with Mr. Poodle by her side

snacking on the porch

Hannah giving her famous "mean look"

playing in the blow up pool