The Daniels

Boys!

2012-02-08T12:17:00.000-08:00

Is it just in their blood, that boys love anything on wheels?

Shane brought his four-wheelers home from his deer lease last weekend and decided to take the kids for a ride around the backyard, and Carson has been obsessed ever since.

He laughed and screamed the whole time, and cried when we had to go inside. He's been asking to ride everyday this week and the first thing he says to Shane when he walks in the door is, "ride the fur-da-wheel??" He loves it!!

Avery, however wasn't too sure about it. We got her to try it, despite her protest.

Now she'll only get on if mommy rides too, so yesterday all 4 of us were riding around the backyard. How redneck are we?? The neighbors probably got a big kick out of it!!

What a good Daddy!!

Worst Parents Ever!

2012-01-25T11:05:00.000-08:00

Well, we have our first little fracture in the Daniels house.

And to our surprise, it was our sweet, cautious little girl.

Not this crazy daredevil!

And it only took us a week to figure out she had a fracture, bless her little heart, we seriously are the worst parents ever!

Sorry for everyone that's already heard this story, but for documentation's sake, I'm going to tell it again :)

Two weeks ago, I was upstairs with Avery in her room getting her ready for nap. She was standing behind me and I heard her fall down, then she started screaming and holding her ankle. I thought maybe she just tripped or rolled her ankle, there were some books on the floor where she fell. It wasn't really swollen and I could move it around, so I thought surely she had just sprained it or something. Well, the rest of the day she wouldn't put any weight on it and the next morning still wouldn't stand on it. I took her to the pediatrician the day after she fell and she also felt like it was just a little spain but told me to call her if she still wasn't bearing weight on it in a week and we'd get some x-rays. Well by Tuesday of the next week she still wouldn't put any weight on it (despite Shane and I trying to make her, even bribing her to stand on it....I know, worst parents ever!). So we went and got x-rays and sure enough she had a fracture. We made an appointment with the orthopedic group at Childrens for the following day, and I feared all night that she was going to end up in a cast. It turned out to be such a blessing, because she was seen by my friend Gerad from nursing school (he's a nurse practitioner there) He said that she has a "toddler's fracture" which is a spiral fracture of the tibia (shin bone) caused by a rotational type of injury to the bone. (I think she must have slipped on a book and her body twisted around while her right foot stayed planted, causing the bone to twist) Gerad said that he would normally put kids with this type of fracture in a cast, but that since he knew me and trusted that we would make her wear the boot, we could try that first, such a blessing!! So we went home in a walking boot, and she is doing great in it. She didn't want to walk on it and still crawled around for a couple of days, but now she's got the hang of it. She gets to take it off for bath and sleeping, thank goodness!!

She walks with her little arms out to the sides like this for balance.

She's just about back to her normal self, it's amazing how quickly kids adapt to things!

She'll wear it for 5 weeks, then we'll go back for more x-rays to see if she's ready to get it off.

If this is the worst thing she ever has to go through, then we are truly blessed!!

Two VERY Independent Two Year Olds

2012-01-11T12:34:00.000-08:00

Independence.

I don't know if it's more frustrating for them or for me.

Carson and Avery (especially Avery) have become very independent lately.

"My do it" "My do it myself" and "My did it" (they get their I's and My's mixed up) are phrases used daily in this house. Avery gets herself dressed now, completely dressed shoes and all, all by herself. She does not want any help or guidance, therefore her pants and shirt are usually on backwards and inside out, but she sure is proud of herself afterward. It is kinda nice that she is able to dress herself, except when we are running late, which is pretty much everyday :)

Here she is with her bathing suit bottom that she insisted was a hat.

Avery is still such a little mommy. She loves playing babies more than anything else, weather it's a baby doll or her brother.

She loves swinging her baby in her big swing outside.

Carson and Avery have been talking so much more since turning two.

They both love to look at pictures of themselves on my phone. Avery will say, "I want to see Avery." She kinda loves herself... a lot!! She really is so motherly, not only to her babies, but to Carson too. Carson is terrified of loud noises like the trash truck and the tornado siren. He usually ends up crying with his lovie buried in my shoulder, and Avery will stand there and pat his back and say, "It's ok Carson, it's ok Buddy." So sweet!! She also pats anyone that is coughing on the back and says, "goodness." She's become a little bit of a hypochondriac I'm afraid. She had the dreaded awful stomach bug a week before Christmas then got a UTI the next week, so she almost daily will tell me, "I sick, tummy hurts, I need to go to the doctor." Poor thing, I think she was traumatized by it all.

Carson is as rambunctious and tender hearted as ever!! As I said earlier, he is terrified of loud trucks and I cringe during nap time when I hear a truck coming down our street, it will usually wake him up despite the two fans I have in his room for white noise. Poor guy. Even though he is so scared of the trash truck, he still loves fire trucks, which he started calling a "Wire _uck" (fill in the blank:) Shane of course gets a big kick out of this.

Carson finally got a little hair cut before Christmas. I've trimmed his bangs twice now but still haven't touched the back, just can't bring myself to do it.

Carson has been talking so much more lately too. I can understand most of what he says, but sometimes have a hard time figuring out what he is trying to tell me. One of the things that he says now that just make me smile is, "I too happy" (he'll just say this randomly and it melts my heart). He also loves when we whisper in his ear, he holds his ear up to our faces and asks us to tell him a "secret" then he always wants to whisper a secret back. They both do this and always say the same thing," I love you." So sweet. Carson has started playing with some of Avery's baby dolls. He likes to wrap them up in his lovey and rock them while singing Jesus Loves Me. It is precious. They have also started putting their babies in time out and spanking them, which makes me sad and makes me question whether or not we should spank, but I think this is pretty normal play for toddlers to do.

Don't let this face fool you, he knows how to get into some trouble :)

They both love singing and can sing Jesus Loves me, the ABC's, and Twinkle Twinkle fully now. They can also each count to 10 (although Avery will occasionally leave out 3 and 4).

They both love to have the windows rolled down in the car, they say, "roll my wee-woah down." They have a very hard time understanding that Christmas is over and all the neighborhood decorations are packed up. They still ask everyday to go see baby Jesus by the duck pond. We've driven by a couple of times to show them that baby Jesus is not there anymore, but they still don't quite believe us.

Overall, turning two has been exciting, challenging, exhausting, and just plain fun!!

Christmas!

2012-01-01T19:42:00.000-08:00

This has been such a fun Christmas season this year. The kids are really starting to understand Christmas and have loved looking at all the Christmas lights in our house and in the neighborhood. They love singing happy birthday to baby Jesus and every time we leave our house we have to drive by the nativity scene by our neighborhood pond to see baby Jesus. It's so awesome to teach them the true meaning of Christmas and to watch them get so excited about it! Carson continues to be terrified of Santa. Whenever we ask him if he wants to sit in Santa's lap or give Santa a hug, he says, "I just wave." Sweet boy!!

We really enjoyed every minute of our fun and very busy Christmas this year.

I had to work Christmas Eve, so Shane and the kids spent the day together and we all met up at my parent's house for their annual Christmas Eve party.

The kids loved their new pj's from KiKi!

Sweet girls!

Shane's mom and grandparents came in town Christmas Eve as well,

And despite his long day of flying and airport delays, grandpa was still up for our traditional Christmas Eve game of left, right, center!

My favorite people!! Love spending Christmas Eve with such wonderful friends and family!!

Christmas morning was so fun this year! The kids were so excited to see their new toys sitting under the tree, and I think Carson was very relieved to see that Santa wasn't actually waiting for him in the living room :)

Mimi came over at 6:30 (Carson and Avery's normal wake up time) to watch them open presents and then they ended up sleeping in till 8:00 (Merry Christmas to me!!) Sorry MiMi, but thank you for coming so early to help them celebrate Christmas!

Nurse Avery

Carson and Avery's new suitcases from great grandma and great grandpa

Dress up shoes

Carson's new fire truck

After gifts we headed to church. Carson and Avery went to a birthday party for Jesus while we were in worship, it was so awesome to be able to go to church on Christmas day, what a great way to celebrate the birth of Christ!!

Shane and his mom,

Family picture at church

Sweet babies!

After church we went back over to MiMi and Papa's house to eat lunch and open yet some more gifts.

Carson was so excited about his new undies! (potty training is near)

Christmas night was very exciting because uncle Travis (Shane's brother), aunt JJ, and baby Barrett came into town. This was Carson and Avery's first time meeting their new cousin.

Avery was so excited!!

Grandma with her three great grandchildren.

This is the best shot we got of grandma and grandpa with their great grandchildren, my two were not cooperating.

The day after Christmas, Carson and Avery had a very special surprise waiting outside for them from Grand-D.

They were so excited about their new power wheels cars.

Avery wanted great grandma to ride in her car, so sweet.

Can you believe she is 80? What a fun, sweet, loving great grandma Carson and Avery have!

Travis, JJ, and Barrett

We spent the rest of Monday hanging out with Shane's family. His Uncle Jerry and cousin Catherine drove up from Houston to spend the day with us.

Travis, Catherine, and Barrett

We had a yummy dinner followed by a competitive game of poker (a Daniels/Traub family favorite :)

We were so sad for everyone to leave, the kids especially miss baby Barrett, they've been talking about him all week.

Christmas flew by this year and now it's time for the dreaded Christmas clean up.

Merry Christmas!!

Maybe next year...

2011-12-20T10:54:00.000-08:00

Santa won't be so scary!!

Poor babies.

They recovered quickly though, after they got their candy canes!!

Oh Christmas tree...

2011-12-14T19:21:00.000-08:00

We made our 2nd "annual"(skipped last year, didn't even put up a tree at all...two newly walking toddlers...didn't have it in me) trip to a tree farm to cut down our Christmas tree.

It was quite the experience this year.

We drove close to an hour to this farm and as we were driving in the gates it started pouring down rain.

We waited out the rain for a few minutes then headed out on the hayride to find the perfect tree.

Avery wanted this one

After about 5 min of tree shopping, the rain came back.

The kids didn't care at all and really enjoyed tromping around in the rain and mud.

We then very quickly chose a tree and hightailed it back to the hayride.

A little wet, but still having fun!

And here is the final product!

It's a little bare at the bottom, but it's just as well cause the ornaments have been rearranged about a hundred time by two "helpful" toddlers.

I will consider it a success if we make it through Christmas with the tree still standing!!

Thanksgiving (a little late)

2011-12-13T20:29:00.000-08:00

We had a fun Thanksgiving with my family this year.

Mimi went all out on the table, so pretty!

Arts and crafts at the kids table.

So crazy that they're old enough to sit at a kids table this year.

Daddy fried a yummy turkey!

The big kid table :)

My family trying to get a picture together: craziness! Avery had bronchitis and was on antibiotics and steroids, she was really pretty happy that day, but we could see a little of the "roid rage" kicking in during picture time :)

Sweet cousins

Playing on my old piano

Kennedy is doing competitive cheerleading now, so whenever all the kids get together all they want to do is stunts.

Helping MiMi wash the dishes.

He's going to make a good husband one day!

And it just wouldn't be a Johnson/Miller thanksgiving without the newspaper spread out on the den floor during the cowboys game. Black Friday here we come!!

Sleepy daddy!

We have so much to be thankful for!

So very blessed!

Thirty

2011-11-15T20:37:00.000-08:00

It used to sound so old.

Doesn't sound so old anymore!

I had a wonderful thirtieth birthday week!

Shane and I went to Napa and San Francisco the weekend before my birthday.

It was such a fun trip!

Then on my actual birthday, Shane surprised me with a fun birthday dinner at Los Cucos with my family and friends. It was so sweet and so fun to spend my birthday with so many people that I love!

Then this past weekend we went up to Oklahoma with my family and our friends the Longs. We always go to Oklahoma the second weekend of November for the Broken Bow Folk Festival (which falls on or around my birthday every year, so fun)

Three of my four favorite guys...so sad Ryan, Tiff and the girls couldn't come this year.

Listening to some folk music

My dad and uncle Ken (who comes in almost every year from Florida to fish and go to the festival...yes, we love it that much :)

Hugs

Avery's first s'more. There isn't a picture of Carson with his s'more because he threw his into the fire within seconds of us making it for him.

The Long's, love them!!

My sweet little family!

What a fun, fun birthday week I had. Lots of celebrating, I truly feel so loved.

Turning thirty isn't so bad after all!!

Flintstones, meet the Flintstones...

2011-11-09T13:10:00.000-08:00

We're a modern stone age family!!

We had a couple of opportunities to wear our Fred, Wilma, Pebbles, and Bamm Bamm costumes, the first was at our Fall festival at church.

I made Carson and Avery's costumes out of some fleece, so simple, and we borrowed the Fred and Wilma from some friends, pretty cheap Halloween this year!

I know this pictures doesn't show it, but Carson loved being Bamm Bamm, especially since he got to hit things with a foam club. He called the club his, "Bamm bamm"

Hanging out with their buddy, Spidey

Halloween day we just hung out around the house,

Then went trick or treating with our cousins, and the Miller family.

Sweet Taylor, isn't she beautiful!!

They really do love each other this much!!

My attempt at a group shot

Best I could do this year

Trick or TREAT!!!

My little shy one, she wanted nothing to do with people dressed up in costumes.

Daddy helping the kids dig out the good candy :)

Digging in

Wow, what a haul for a two year old!

Happy (late) Halloween!!

Fall

2011-10-29T13:02:00.000-07:00

I love the fall!! My most favorite season! Pumpkin patches, the cool weather, pumpkin flavored everything, and tons of outside time are just a few reasons that this is the best time of year!

We've been having so much fun enjoying this beautiful fall weather!

We took the kids to the Murphy Maize Days a few weeks ago.

It was a cute little fall festival just a few minutes of our house.

First time trying cotton candy,

They loved the bounce houses and bubbles,

Carson was in heaven when they let him sit in the firetruck, we had to pry his fingers off the steering wheel to get him out.

Not a happy boy.

Should have taken the family picture before we let Carson sit in the firetruck :)

We also went to visit the Owens Family Farm pumkin patch.

Here they are on the little train ride.

They each got to pick out a pumpkin to take home. Carson was more interested in picking up and throwing the pumpkins down the hill.

Who me??

We have taken a couple of trip to the arboretum.

They love the petting zoo.

Climbing in the pumkins, or "poke-ins" as they like to call them.

So heavy.

We met our friends Eli and Jillian and their mommy Brittney at the arboretum last week.

I love Jillian's face in this picture.

Sweet Eli

More climbing :)

Peek-a-boo

We were able to get a couple of cute group shots,

The candy we bribed them with helped,

Otherwise all the pictures would have looked like this :)

Smelling the flowers,

Happy Fall!

Fair Day

2011-10-26T11:55:00.000-07:00

We had a fun trip to the fair a couple of weeks ago.

Lauren (my roomie from Baylor) and her husband David were in town visiting us from Atlanta for the weekend. It was David's first trip to the State Fair of Texas!! I don't think he's ever seen so much fried food before :)

The kids loved the petting zoo!

And they loved the hands on little farmers market!

We had to pry him off this tractor.

And of course we can't go to the fair without a trip to the midway, so that my third child can play games :) I mean, look at this thing, where on earth does he expect us to put it?

Fletcher's corny dogs!! I look forward to them every year!

What a fun day!!

Two, two year olds!

2011-10-21T09:36:00.000-07:00

I've said it a lot, but it's just so crazy to me that my babies are two!

They had their two year appoinment a couple of weeks ago.

Avery weighed 26lbs (50%) and is 34in tall (50%)

Carson weighed 30lbs (75%) and is 36in tall (90%)

So, two years has been fun and challenging already! (and it's only been a few weeks)

I thought the "terrible twos" had just hit us early and maybe, just maybe the worst of it was over.

Nope, we are at an all time high of fit throwing, saying no, and fighting, fighting, fighitng. Did I mention that they fight a lot? :)

They are sure cute though, and they say and do so many cute things everyday.

They are loving school, and get really excited when we talk about it. They have a few friends that they talk about, which I think is just the sweetest thing. They don't even cry when I drop them off now, just run right in without looking back (sigh). They are getting a little too independent for me.

Avery loves shoes! She loves when she gets a new pair of shoes and she loves wearing around mommy's high heals. So cute! She also loves the color pink. Everything is pink and the answer to any color question is always pink. Guess we need to work on our colors a little more.

Carson loves pushing his lawn mower around the yard, especially when Shane is mowing. He gets so excited when he sees Shane getting the lawn mower out, he starts yelling, "daddy mow, outside" over and over!

They are loving their new kitchen Grand-D got them for their birthday.

Washing their hands, going "beep, beep" on the microwave, and making coffee for mommy and daddy, are some of their favorite things to do in their kitchen.

We love Carson's hair! It's long, and a little shaggy, and has a little curl to it, and we love how it looks on him. It's still soft baby hair, and reminds me that he is still a baby! He has been mistaken for a girl a couple of times, and we've had several people suggest a hair cut, and we will cut it one day, but not right now :)

Sweet boy, huggning on his baby.

They love wearing their sunglasses.

Avery tries to wear them on her head like MiMi does.

You can see the look of concentration on her face.

Such a handsome boy!

Carson and Avery are just chattering away lately. I am amazed at some of the things they say, and remember. They repeat just about everything I say (good and bad)

Here is what they are saying and doing at 2 years:

-They love singing. Twinkle, twinkle is their favorite right now and they can sing almost the whole thing. They also love, Jesus Loves Me, the Wheels on the Bus, and their ABC's

-They love Target and get really excited when I tell them we are going. Carson starts saying, "pop, pop" (we always get popcorn when we go) and Avery starts saying, "buggy ride" the girl loves riding in the buggy.

-little story: When we were at the doctor's office recently, Avery kept saying, "Nuhcka ball, nuhcka ball" over and over while we were in the exam room and I could not figure out what she was saying until we left to go check out and she ran over to the basket of dum dums and picked one up and said, "nuhcka ball!" That's what she calls suckers now, the "nuhcka" shounds like sucker, and I guess she says, "ball" because it's round like a ball. It's so cute!

-Everytime they get hurt or bump their heads, they run to the freezer and ask for ice.

-Anytime they see a bandaid on someone they say, "oh no, boo boo, kiss it" while they lean in to give the bandaid a kiss, kinda gross but really sweet.

-Carson loves old people, it is just the sweetest thing. He always waves and says hi to any older person he sees, especially if they're in a wheelchair, isn't that sweet?

-They are still obsessed with the potty. Carson has finally pee peed in the potty a couple of time and Avery has pooped twice in the potty. Still not anywhere near ready to potty train them, but they are definetely interested and excited about it.

-They have started telling each other to "moof" (move) and "moof back" (move back), I've been trying to teach them to say excuse me, and they're getting it, slowly.

Happy two years!!

Oink, Moo, Cock-A-Doodle-Do

2011-10-03T12:49:00.000-07:00

We had a very fun farm party on Saturday!

MiMi made the cute invitations,

and these cute banners.

This was such a fun theme! I had so much fun with the planning and decorating!

We had farm food,

a farm family,

farm cupcakes,

and a farm bounce house,

The kids had so much fun in the bounce house.

Carson and Blake had a little run in..

So happy!

Aubrey and Kennedy,

Tay,

I think the little kids loved the bounce house almost as much as the big kids did :)

The bubbles were a big hit too!

Happy Birthday to you!!!

They both actually blew out their own candles.

Yum

We truly have the best family and friends, thank you all so much for helping make Carson and Avery's day so special. I tried to get pictures of everyone, but I missed a few (sorry Loyd's, Everhart's and Alexander's) I'm trying to get better about capturing all these moments and all these relationships on camera, but I have room to grow still!!

Avery and Grand-D

Jo-jo, Bran, and Britty,

Erin and Amy with Molly and Emery Kate

Jenni and aunt TT with sweet baby Jesse

Baker and his mommy Brandy,

Davis family (minus Eli)

Sweet baby Alice and her mommy Amanda,

Brody,

Teagan,

Teagan's mommy Amber and her mom Kasey,

Brooke and Gavin,

Our other twin friends, the Walkers

Sweet Camille, haging out with the "farm dogs" (and no, Carson and Avery did not get puppies for their birthday, I haven't completely lost my mind :)

Carson, Reid and Taylor hanging in the sandbox,

Uncle Ryan and Blake, looking way too excited to be at a kids bday party,

Opening presents was complete chaos,

They would open one, then take it to PaPa so he could take it out of the package for them to play with, completely forgetting about the rest of the presents. It took a long time to get them all open,

They were super excited about the new kitchen Grand-D got them,

Avery put all of her new crayons into her front pocket and carried them around the rest of the day, it was precious!

Carson loves his new trunk Uncle Travis, Aunt JJ, and baby Barrett sent,

Even Maggie had a good time with the new toys, we found her out there the next day like this. There was a pink crayon left in the grass that was a little melted and she decided it would be fun to roll in it,

They were exhausted after the party,

Sweet boy with MiMi,

Happy Birthday Carson, you are our sweet boy and you make us so happy every single day!

Happy Birthday Avery, you are our princess and you bring us so much joy every single day!

Two!

2011-09-29T20:39:00.000-07:00

I just can't believe that I have two, two year olds!

Where did the time go?

They seemed pretty excited that today was their birthday, and told everyone who asked that they are "two."

The birthday girl,

and boy!

Sweet boy hugging on sister,

This is rare, I usually can't get a single picture of them both looking at the camera, let alone being sweet to each other, while looking at the camera. I guess they knew it was a special day!

We had a fun day, presents and breakfast with daddy, then school, then shopping with MiMi followed by dinner with our friends.

Playing ring around the rosie with Gavin and Brooke (who they call "Daddy and Book" :)

It was a fun day!

I am so thankful for these two sweet babies...I can still call them babies right??

Happy 2nd Birthday Carson and Avery, we love you so very much!!

Sniff, Sniff and Hallelujah

2011-09-02T07:07:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was Carson and Avery's first day of "school" (mother's day out).

It was definitely a little bittersweet. I just can't beileve that they're old enough for school, but at the same time, I was so ready for it to start! This mama needs a little break :)

They were really excited to put on their backpacks and carry their lunch totes.

Carson however wasn't too excited about getting his picture taken.

Or holding Avery's hand...

This girl was all smiles though!

Ready to head out the door!

I was able to get a couple more happy pictures in the parking lot before heading in.

Daddy came with us for the first day!

Looking for her class room...

Excited run down the hall (I was shocked, usually when we enter the nursery hallway, Avery starts crying and grabs onto my neck with a death grip, but not this morning :)

According to their teachers, they did great! She said that they were very good, ate all their lunch, and both slept the whole naptime and had to be woken up. I was shocked, first of all, that they slept so willingly and easily on a napmat in the floor with 8 other kids in the room, and secondly, I was schocked that Avery still had her bow and ponytail in her hair when I came to pick her up. This is definitely a first!

So all in all, the first day was a good one, I hope they are going to love their Tuesday/Thursday's as much I will!!

My almost 2 year olds!

2011-08-31T11:51:00.000-07:00

I can't belive that in less than a month, these two are going to be two!!

I just can't belive that I'm about to have 2 year olds, really, where has the time gone?!?

Avery is such a girly, girl! She loves to dress up and wear jewelry, her most favorite though are these mardi gras beads! And notice the tooth brush she's holding in her hand, she's a little obsessed with toothbrushes lately!

She loves wearing these goggles from their tool bench. Everytime she puts them on she comes over to me and says, "pitcha, pitcha" (picture) and then, "cheeese," wanting me to get the camera out and take her picture.

She loves these "little people" she likes to fill up her purse or backpack with as many as she can stuff in and carry them around. So cute!

Some of the cute things Avery is saying these days are:

-"Oh my goodness" anytime there is a mess on the floor, or something dramatic happens

-"there ya go" she stared repeating this after I would say it (I guess I never realized how much I said "there ya go") now she says it all the time...it's so cute!

-"Oh, no man" which is her version of saying, "awww, man"

-she says, "ohhhh" in a very long, drawn out way whenever I've explained something to her.

-and she loves to tattle on her brother. Any time I ask her who did it, or who made this mess she says, "bubby did it." She's a little snitch!

She also loves to get her nails painted. Here is aunt TT painting her nails.

And of course, Carson had to get his done too (which daddy was less than thrilled about :)

Carson, my sweet wild man!

He loves to wear anyone and everyone's sunglasses!

He still loves to swing! We haven't been swinging as much in this horrible month of August, but he still gets out there as much as he can!

Here he is after falling asleep swinging!

Carson is obsessed with Shane's truck. He talks about it all the time. Every white truck we see when we're driving around, he'll point to and say, "daddy's shruck" (and every red truck we see is "papa's shruck"). When Shane is out of town I'll ask Carson where daddy is and he'll say, "daddy, airmane, shruck" (daddy, airplane, truck) because I guess he figures that wherever daddy is, his truck must be there too! Sometimes he'll grab a bag or a purse and put in on his arm and start waving at me and saying, "bye-bye mommy" and when I ask him where he's going he says, "daddy's shruck" The boy loves his daddy (and his truck :)

His other great loves right now are light switches and the microwave. He wants me to hold him up to the light switches so that he an flip them on and off. When he's not asking to play with the lights, he wants to be held up to the microwave so he can push the buttons and wait for it to, "beep, beep." (which is what he calls it)

I have such a hard time getting a good smiling picture these days.
Everytime they see the camera they start making their silly cheese face.

But every once in a while I get a good sweet smile!

I also wanted to share a few pictures from the summer, that I never got around to posting.

Here is Carson and Shane swinging at our friends the Hammonds house.

They have the best backyard swing!

And here are some fun pictures of Carson and Avery eating some watermelon outside!

I love this "surprise" face he makes, so cute!

Beautiful girl!!

I can't believe that the summer is just about over!

I'm getting so excited about my most favorite season, the Fall, yay!!

Fun Getaway!!

2011-08-29T20:07:00.000-07:00

Last week I tagged along with Shane on his work trip to New York City. It was so much fun, and a much needed little vacation for me!

We stayed at the Waldorf-Astoria. It was so nice!

Friday morning I got up early and went over to the Today Show. I love the Today show, and was so excited to go see it!

The Today Show was having one of their "summer concerts in the plaza." Train was playing, it was packed!

I was standing in the street behind a fence thing, so this is all I got to see of the concert, but it was still fun to see it all!

I walked over to Central Park one day and sat in the park and read, it was so fun!

I am always so amazed by this beautiful park sitting right in the middle of this huge city!

So pretty!

While Shane was working, I did a lot of walking around, a little shopping, and a lot of dessert eating! Yes, I ate chocolate like I'm pregnant (which I'm not :) I really enjoyed myself!!

I went to Serendipity for a frozen hot chocolate, so good!!

And went to a place we saw on the food network called Max Brenner for Chocolate pizza, it was amazing!!

Friday night Shane and I went to see Jersey Boys, it was fantastic!! Such a great show!!

After the show we went back to Max Brenner for yes, some more dessert :) We got the fondue and it was so good!!

Then we headed over to Central Park for a 1:00am carriage ride through the park. Shane and I got engaged here, so the carriage ride is alway so special to us! It was such a perfect time to take the carriage ride, we were the only ones out there, so peaceful! With hurricane Irene on it's way into town, we had to pack as much as we could into just a couple of nights.

And then we passed the LOVE sign on our walk back to our hotel that night, so perfect!!

I was supposed to come home Sunday night, but hurricane Irene changed all of that. It was the craziest thing I've ever seen, this big city basically shutting down. Shane was able to get us on a flight out Saturday morning. There was so much hype, and everything was closing that we just decided to go ahead and come home. We were on one of the last flights out of La Guardia before the place closed, it was crazy, I've never seen so many cancelled flights on one screen!

Despite the hurricane, we had a great time. Shane had to work a lot, but we had a couple of fun date nights, and it was so nice to just be away for a while!

Some Old School Entertainment

2011-08-24T20:13:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, Shane busted out his old school Nintendo... like the original one from the 80's and I couldn't believe it, the thing still worked.

Carson and Avery were fascinated!

They were really excited about playing video games... I think we're in trouble!

And of course, Carson quickly turned his controller into a phone, so cute!!

Here is one more picture of all 3 of my children playing Nintendo together. Shane said he needed to "show" Carson and Avery how to play... uh-huh!! I think he and Avery make the same "concentration face"

Napmat project!

2011-08-15T10:48:00.000-07:00

Carson and Avery are starting mother's day out in just a couple of weeks, so I decided to dust the cobwebs off my sewing machine (that I haven't used since I fisnished my quilt) and make them some napmats.

I found these waterproof mats at Target that were the perfect size.

And after a LOT of cutting, pinning, and sewing....

here is the final result!!

I was so excited with how they turned out!

I've seen some napmats with attached pillows, but my kids don't really sleep with a pillow yet so I decided not to add the extra work :) The mat is thicker at the top end, so I guess that is supposed to be like a pillow.

The top blanket is attached and just pulls back for them to cover up with.

It rolls up nicely for transport.

I made the back with an open flap (kinda like on a pillow sham) so that I can take the mat out to wash the cover.

Avery loves hers!! Carson wouldn't even lay on his long enough for me to take a picture, which doesn't make me too hopeful that he is going to actually take a nap of this thing!

Woodlands Weekend

2011-08-09T17:48:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we went down to The Woodlands to visit Grand-D!

The Woodlands has so many fun things for kids to do, and Grand-D had a lot of stuff planned for us!

We spent Saturday morning at the YMCA pool.

This was the neatest pool, with lots of water slides and dumpbuckets.

Carson and Avery loved it, once they warmed up to it.

Shane spent the whole time playing horsey, which is their most favorite game to play these days. He must have made 20 laps around the pool saying, "neigh" the whole time. Such a good daddy!

My sweet girl!

Running though the sprinklers.

Carson, sporting Grand-D's hat.

Saturay afternoon, we went to the Woodlands Childrens Museum.

It had so many fun activities and stations for the kids to play in.

Carson was in heaven when he found the truck. His most favorite thing to do right now is "drive," and his most favorite thing to talk about is "daddy's truck." Everytime we get in the car he wants to sit in the front seat and play with the steering wheel and all the buttons, so this was perfect for him!

There was a cute little grocery store where the kids could shop for groceries and then pay for them. Here is Carson at the ATM :)

This picture makes me smile. Avery has been so into her stuffed animals and babies lately. She pushed this little grocery cart over to the puppet station and loaded all the puppets into her cart. So cute, and she was so proud of heself!

Sunday morning we went over to another playground area before heading home.

They got to play in the fun sprayground area,

and then headed over to the park to play.

They were worn out for the car ride home.

Saturday night we met up with our sweet friends Jordan and Kristen (our matchmakers back in college) and their kids for dinner at my favorite restaurant in The Woodlands, Guadalajaura (not sure if I spelled that right :). It was so good to see them!

Family pic with Grand-D.

Thanks for a fun weekend Grand-D!

Two crazy kids!

2011-07-20T12:04:00.000-07:00

Some kids like to put rocks in their noses and ears. Nope! Not these two crazy kids!!

Pretzels in the nose...

And the ear!!

Oh, they make me laugh!!

Airplanes and Fireworks!

2011-07-06T10:55:00.000-07:00

We had a fun 4th of July weekend. It was nice to be in town for a weekend, and to have daddy home for 3 days!

Sunday, we went with the Long's to the Addison airshow and fireworks.

It was so fun, and all the old war planes were so neat to watch.

The kids loved it! I was a little nervous about how loud it would be, and it was pretty loud (we were right accross the street from the runway) but they actually did pretty good. Carson loved watching the "airmanes," until it got dark. There was a plane with flashing lights that did some tricks after dark and Carson watched that portion of the show with his head on daddy's shoulder.... so sweet! The fireworks were a good distance away so it wasn't too loud from where we were sitting. Carson and Avery enjoyed the lights, though they were pretty tired by that point.

Watching the show

Watching the plane's take off.

Gavin and Avery

And it wouldn't be the 4th of July without some watermelon!!

Hope everyone had a great 4th!!

19, 20, 21 months

2011-07-02T11:38:00.000-07:00

Wow, I'm behind!

It's been a long time since I posted about all the crazy and cute things Carson and Avery are doing.

They make me laugh daily and I love watching their little imaginations hard at work.

Avery is a little mother!! She has really gotten into playing with her babies lately. Gives them their paci's, feeds them her milk and food, and wants to change their diapers. It's so sweet, she really loves babies, just like her mommy!

She has become such a little helper girl. Loves to "help" fold towels, and put away groceries. Here she is helping daddy wash the truck.

Sweet hugs!

The girls loves socks! She has had up to four on each foot at a time.

She loves to raid my sock drawer!

A little sunday morning reading!

Silly girl wearing Mimi's glasses!

Avery is talking so much now. It amazes me the things that she remembers! Some of her cute little sayings are:

-"Thank you mommy" (or daddy, bubby, or whoever else is giving her something)

-"Uh oh baby cry" (when she hears a baby crying)

-"woah mommy" (when I drive over a speed bump or stop quickly)

-"shh, bubby nigh nigh" (with her finger over her lips)

-"shoo fly" (she hates flies)

-"Mommy sit" (while patting the seat next to her)

-"one for bubby" (she always wants to get an extra treat or toy for Carson, and she actually will go give it to him, it's so sweet)

-she's become obsessed with sitting on the potty, and she's actually gone pee-pee in the potty twice, way to go Avery!!

-she also loves to do front rolls and copy her cousin Kennedy's cheers, I see some gymnastics classes in our future!

Carson and Avery have both started doing these cute little "cheese" faces when I tell them to say cheese. They both close their eyes, look up and say, "cheeeese"

Carson, is just as busy as ever! We say almost daily that we need to put him in a padded room and let him run wild. He is just so accident prone, I think it's because he doesn't slow down for anything. He's always on the move!

Carson loves to clean! He is going to make such a good husband one day! He loves to vacuum, he calls it, "ma-moo" and loves to play with the broom!

And he still loves anything electrical. I wouldn't let him plug this extension cord into the plug on the patio so he found a hole in the wood and plugged it into that. So creative!

And then started clapping for himself and saying, "yay," So proud!

Searching for a toy (that's a toy box, not real tires :)

And in he went!

Carson is talking so much more now too! Some of his cute sayings are,

-"oh no" (followed by whatever he is saying oh no about.)

-"nope" (when I ask him if he wants to do something)

-"moon, shhhh" (he loves the moon, and I think he says shhh because of the book Goodnight Moon-and the quiet old lady whispering hush)

-"shhh, baby" (with his finger over his lips whenever he sees a baby)

-"hello PaPa, hello daddy" (sounds more like "heh-row" and he uses just about anything as a phone. His latest phones are the laptop and the straps on the swing. While he's swinging he holds the strap up to his ear and says, "heh-row PaPa" It is precious!)

-"airmane" (while pointing up at the sky when he hears an airplane)

-"poppy, poppy" (which means potty, when he wants to sit on the potty. He'll sit there, but doesn't do anything yet, and he'll still clap for himself and say yay after)

-he has started playing with the back of my hair when I'm holding him, it's so sweet. And he loves to take us by the hand and lead us to wherever he is going. Usually it's out to the swing, the boy loves to swing. I think he could sit in that swing all day!

They are both obsessed with buckles, "bupples" they love to do their own buckles in their carseats, and highchairs. They love drinking from anything with a straw, when I hand them a capri-sun, they both look at me and say, "no no squeeze." So cute! We've also had lots of time outs happening lately. The fighting has gotten out of control, Avery bites, Carson pushes and pulls hair, I feel like someone is always in time out. When I get them out of time out and explain to them that we don't hit/bite/etc, they've started saying, "O-tay mommy" and then they say sorry to each other which is usually followed up with another round of fighting!! Wearing me out!!

Ok, I think that is all of the "baby book" documentation I needed to do :)

Have a great 4th!!

Family fun, Oklahoma style!

2011-06-22T21:18:00.000-07:00

A couple of weekends ago we went up to our cabin in Oklahoma for a vacation with Shane's family.

It was so much fun, and a great way to start the summer!!

Avery and her great-grandpa

Wine tasting at Girls Gone Wine!

Travis and JJ brought their boat up from Del Rio, it was so fun and the babies loved it!! They did so great wearing their life jackets!

Carson loved driving the boat with Uncle Travis

I love this lake!!

We spent a lot of time out on the patio, my favorite place to hang out when we go to the cabin!

Avery lovin on her sweet baby cousin. She was so sweet with aunt "Day-day" and her belly. Kept wanting to give the baby kisses. So sweet!

My baby boy!

Little momma feeding her baby some dinner!

We went to the river one morning to let the dogs and babies play in the water.

Avery and Uncle Travis

And of course, it wouldn't be a trip to Oklahoma without a campfire and smores!

I love these three!!

So thankful for my sweet family!

Lately...

2011-06-06T21:04:00.000-07:00

We have been busy, busy lately!!

I've gotten so behind on posting... so here is what we've been up to this Spring!

We finished up our Tiny Tots music class.

Daddy got to join us for the finale.

They really loved music class. Carson was a wild man for most of the classes, but he had fun!

They still sing the songs and do the motions they learned in class, so fun to watch them learning!

The last class was a little sad for me because this will be my last one to do with them.

We've done 3 semesters of Tiny Tots and next fall they will do the class with their preschool (mother's day out) class. My little babies are so big and will be going to class without me... makes me cry a little!

We visited the petting zoo at the Arboretum.

Celebrated PaPa's 70th Birthday

and MiMi's 56th!

Had our crawfish boil!

Carson and Avery's friend Parker loved the crawfish!

Helping daddy and uncle Ryan

But mostly we've just been outside playing and enjoying the beautiful spring weather (which as of this week has turned into hot summer weather...I already miss the spring)

These two love to be outside!

They go staight to the backdoor as soon as they wake up in the morning saying, "Ow-tide, ow-tide"

Which is why all of our outside pictures seem to be in their pj's.

They've been having so much fun with all of our garage sale finds!

The slide,

picnic table,

and their absolute favorite, the swings!!

They would stay in those swings all day!

I'm going to miss being able to go out and play anytime we want... guess it's a good thing they get up early!

Family

2011-05-25T13:47:00.000-07:00

About a month ago, my cousins Angela and Carole were in town from Charlotte for a conference at the Gaylord Texan. We were so excited to be able to spend a few days with them and Carson and Avery loved playing with Angela's daughter Grace.

Here is MiMi, Carole, Me with Carson and Grace with Avery

Me and Carole.

Me and Angela

Cookout at MiMi and PaPa's house.

So glad that we got to spend some time with my sweet family! I wished we all lived closer!

Mother's Day!

2011-05-24T19:40:00.000-07:00

I am so behind!

We had a fun mother's day weekend in Houston with Shane's family.

Avery has a new best friend. "Teh" (Ted) She loved jumping off the coffee table to "teh" and the next morning, she sat on the couch with her hands turned up saying, "Teh...Doh?" Which means, "where did Ted go?"

It was precious!!

We took Carson and Avery to play in the fountains in the Woodlands.

They loved it!

Such a boy!!

But he's my sweet boy!

Sweet kisses on mother's day!

I am so thankful to be their mom!

Blessed!!

Family picture at Shane's church in Simonton.

It was a great mother's day!

It's done!!

2011-04-27T20:24:00.000-07:00

Last night was my last "pre-school" quilting class.

After 5 weeks of cutting and pinning and pressing and sewing, here it is....

My best friend Jenni and I took the class together

I'm so glad that I took this class. It was a lot of fun,

and a lot of work. I can now really appreciate just how much work goes into making a quilt :)

Easter

2011-04-26T15:52:00.000-07:00

Carson and Avery really got into Easter egg hunting this year.

We had one at MiMi and PaPa's house two weekends ago.

They were naturals!

Digging in!

Then, this past Saturday morning we had another egg hunt at church

Followed up with their friend Emery Kate's bday party and easter egg hunt.

Carson started running a fever right before the party, so he didn't get to go, poor guy!

Avery really enjoyed her cupcake and Peep!

The party was so cute!

The Easter bunny came a little early at our house since I had to work on Easter.

Checking out their Easter baskets

Carson LOVED his new drill

And of course, the grass is more fun than the toys!

They didn't get to go to church Sunday morning since Carson still had a fever, so no Easter morning pictures this year. Oh well, hopefully next year!

Spring Time

2011-04-22T13:01:00.000-07:00

We are loving this beautiful spring weather.

It's so nice to be able to go outside and play anytime of day.

We've taken a couple of trips to the Dallas arboretum lately. They found a fun tree to climb on (I moved the "please do not climb on tree" sign for the picture :)

Avery must have said, "no no pick" at least thirty times that day. Carson spotted the water..They had more fun pushing their wagon then riding in it. We also went to take pictures in the bluebonnets. I love Texas bluebonnets. They are so beautiful. Cousins So sweet....

It was really chilly that day.

I wish we could keep this weather (except for the crazy wind) all summer. I am not looking foward to the 100+ degree days I know are coming. Yay for spring!

18 months

2011-04-12T11:32:00.000-07:00

Carson and Avery are 18 months old. Hard to believe they are half way through their second year. Crazy!!

We dug out our old snap and go stoller to lend to my friend who is having twins. Carson and Avery loved playing in it, and wanted us to push them around while they rode in the bottom of it.

I went up stairs to get some clothes and when I came back down, I found this... She went from, "who me?" to "look at me!"

Carson has been teething like crazy lately, if you can't tell by the soaking wet shirt and string of drool below. He has such a harder time with teething than Avery does. I usually can't even tell she's getting any teeth until their in. I wish Carson's teeth would just come on through, he has been miserable lately.

I just love the randomness of toddlerhood. A ski hat, a purse, and a toilet paper roll holder. Entertained him for a good hour.

I'm loving 18 months so far! They seem to be a little less frustrated, and a little more happy most days. Plus they are saying and doing so many cute things.

So to celebrate 18 months, here are 18 things I love about Carson and Avery (thanks, Amy for this idea I stole from one of your posts)

1. First of all, I love that you are twins and that you have each other. You will always have such a special bond.

2. Carson, I love your "back hugs" they are always when I least expect them and always unprompted, and it just melts my heart.

3. Avery, I love your "squeeze hugs" as we call them, you are always so excited to give us tight squeezes around our necks. So sweet.

4. I love finding little things that you've hidden. Like a paci in my shoe or a truck in the dog food bag. It always makes me smile.

5. Carson, I love that you love your daddy and PaPa so much. It makes me realize the importance of having strong male roll models in a little boy's life. And it makes me so excited to teach you about the Lord and to see the relationship you will have with Him someday.

6. Avery, I love the way you run. It is so prissy and cute.

7. I love that the first thing you both do when you wake up is say hi to each other, "hi sissy" and "hi bubby" as we're walking down the stairs.

8. Carson, I love that you want to wave to everyone when we're out in public. Such a charmer.

9. Avery, I love what a good eater you've become. You'll try anything new and love veggies over most other things. I hope you'll always be like this.

10. I love that y'alls favorite place to be is outside. You can both be having total melt downs, and we go outside and suddenly life is good again.

11. Carson, I love your energy and I wish I had half of it.

12. Avery, I love that you cry almost everytime Carson has to go to timeout. You are so protective of him already.

13. I love your imaginations. It's so fun to watch you play pretend and to watch you learn new things everyday. You're like little sponges and I'm amazed at the things you are able to remember.

14. Carson, I love that you are an animal lover. You have such a sweet and kind heart and I have a feeling you are going to be bringing home a few strays one day.

15. Avery, I love your independence. You want to do most things without help. I love the sweet little face you make when you've accomplished something new.

16. Carson, I love that you are so into trucks and airplanes. You get so excited when you see them. You are such a boy, and I love it!!

17. Avery, I love that you still want to snuggle in the middle of the night. Even though I would love for you to sleep all night, the fact that all you want is to snuggle with mommy at 2 o'clock in the morning makes it worth it.

18. But more than anything, I love being your mom! I am so blessed and privileged to have you both. Thank you Lord for this gift!

Wow, that was long! And sorry about all the spaces. I don't know what's up with blogger lately, but I've been having so many problems with spacing. I don't know how to get rid of them, so let me know if anyone else has had this problem and knows how to get rid of it!

Oklahoma weekend.

2011-04-08T18:58:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we went up to Oklahoma with my parents and our friends the Long's. Carson and Avery had so much fun playing with their friend Gavin. We went to ride the train on Saturday.

Which was so fun, and then it de-railed.

Shane and Stephen had it under control though!

Daddy's boy!

Our beautiful girl!

A and PaPa

The Long's, on our way down to the river.

Sweet girl, giving daddy a hug.

The kids had so much fun playing in the river. Even though the water was freezing.

Gavin giving Avery a hug. So sweet!

Avery sat here and played with her feet in the water the whole time we were down there. She loved it and her feet were like ice afterwards.

Carson, on the other hand, wanted nothing to do with the cold water. Can't blame him!

What a fun weekend!!

Shane the Chef

2011-04-07T07:10:00.001-07:00

I have been so blessed with a husband that loves to cook! In fact, one of his dreams in life is to own a restaurant. So his Christmas present from my parents this year was so perfect for him. They got Shane and my brother the "be the chef experience" at Benihana.

They went in for a lesson on how to cook hibachi, then they each got to bring back three guests to cook for. It was so fun and Shane loved it! They even got to wear the hat and apron, it was so cute!

My brother, Ryan They were both naturals!

He got to make all the fun things, like the beating heart

and the choo choo train...

And the food tasted good too.

Job well done!!

After dinner we let the kids go play by the fountains in the Shops at Legacy.

They were facinated!

Ryan, still sporting his Benihana gear :)

Shane and Carson

It was a fun night all around!!

Happy 80th Grandma

2011-04-04T08:08:00.000-07:00

Two weekends ago we had Shane's family in town to celebrate Grandma's 80th birthday!

We had a fun weekend with Grand-D,

Uncle Travis and Aunt JJ (and baby cousin Daniels that will be here in September!!) And of course Percy and Rio too!Carson and Avery probably enjoyed all of Percy and Rio's "stuff" and much as they enjoyed playing with the dogs.

Shane has such a wonderful and sweet Grandma and Carson and Avery are so blessed to have her as a great-grandma!Happy 80th Birthday Grandma! We love you!!

Old Lady Alert!!

2011-03-16T11:33:00.000-07:00

Lately I've picked up a couple of new hobbies that probably label me as an "old lady"!

Couponing! What is that you say? Coupons, that's right.... it's probably not really a "hobby" but with the amount of time it consumes it may as well be. We have been spending WAY too much money on groceries, and household stuff, so I decided to give this couponing thing a try and it is so much fun. I know that sounds crazy, but it really is. I mean who doesn't like to save money?

With the help of thekrazycouponlady.com I organized my very own coupon book.

It took a little time to make, but once I got it all organinzed it's been really easy to keep up with.

Then I got to shopping, I have a new love for grocery stores.

I've seen the shows where people go to the store and get buggies full of stuff for free, and I always thought it was impossible to do, but it's not.

Today I went to Kroger and got all this stuff for.... drum roll please... $1.52.

I know!! Crazy right?!? The milk was $1.99 (I didn't have a coupon for that) so basically I got everything else for free. We have no excuse for anyone in this house to smell bad, and we're stocked up on hygiene stuff for a while.
My other latest hobby is learning how to sew. I'd been wanting to learn how for a while, so my mom bought me a sewing machine for Christmas and taught me the basics.
My first project was a valance for Carson's room.

Then I made curtains for Avery's room.

My sewing machine has lots of fun stitching options.

I did a swirly one for A's curtains.

If these things haven't already earned me the "old lady" label, then the quilting class I'm planning on taking definately will. I'm hoping (depending on Shane's work schedule...we are going on week #4 of him being out of town) to take a 4 week quilting class at the end of the month. Going from only sewing a straight line to quilting may be a big step, but the class isn't called "pre-school quilting" for nothing I guess!

Anyways, that's it. I'm going to get my cane and reading glasses and get back to work :)

Fun Times!

2011-03-09T12:15:00.000-08:00

Last week, Carson, Avery and I got together with my childhood best friends. We haven't all been together in six years, so we had a lot of catching up to do!

Katie, Andrea, Jenni and I all grew up together in the same neighborhood.

So many of my childhood memories involve these three girls!

Here's a little flash back to the late 80's/early 90's.

(we are the three in the back and the front far left)

So many halloween's spent together!
We had such a great week together, laughing, reminiscing, playing games, watching old home vidoes, shopping, eating, and watching our babies play together. It was so much fun!
Here we are 6 years (and 6 kids) since the last time we were together.
Katie, Andrea, Jenni, Me

Jenni's girls:

Aubrey

and Nataley.

Andrea's baby:

Aiden

Katies baby:

MicahWe took all of the kids to the zoo one day (except for Aubrey, who was in school)

This is my attempt to get a picture of the kids together, didn't work out so well.

The giraffe's were so cool!

I love that you can see them face to face.

Carson waving bye-bye to the giraffes.

Carson and Avery enjoyed the zoo so much this time, it was fun to watch them get excited when they recognized animals.

And they had their first ride on a carousel. Carson was so tired, he had to bring his paci and blanket with him. Avery was scared when the animals started moving, but loved it after a minute or so. When it was over, MiMi told her it was time to get off and she shook her head, said "no no" and clung onto the giraffe pole for dear life. Guess she likes carousels!

We had such a fun day at the zoo!

Our week together went by way too fast.

I love these girls, and their babies, and I hope it's not another six years before we get together again. Imagine how big of a table we will need by then!!

Goodbye Rat Tail

2011-03-03T19:09:00.000-08:00

It was beyond time to cut Carson's little tail.

I still had a hard time cutting that sweet baby hair.

Just one little snip for now. I have to work my way up to a real hair cut.

17 months

2011-02-24T13:53:00.000-08:00

Carson and Avery will be 17 months next week. I never posted anything about 16 months, so here is 16 and 17 months...

At 17 months Carson and Avery are:

-talking so much. So many new words everyday. Some of the latest are: snack, cracker, outside, sit down, bubbles, bite, off. Carson has started saying up and help (he says, "upa" and "helpa") instead at whining at mommy when he wants to be held or needs help with something. Avery's new favorite word is stuck. Just about everything is "stuck." When she wants out of her carseat or stroller, when she can't get a toy to turn on, or when she actually is stuck.

-doing so great with saying please and thank you. They often say it without prompting now.

-love to give high fives

-doing really well feeding themselves with a spoon, escpecially Avery. She needs everything to be in a bowl with a spoon now.

-doing their fair share of fit throwing and fighting. Makes mommy sad. But I guess that's what toddlers do.

Carson is just my busy boy!!

He plays hard and sleeps hard.

He is such a great sleeper, probably because he burns some serious calories.

He still runs everywhere, climbs on everything and can get things that I thought for sure I had put out of his reach.

But he is still my sweet, sweet boy. He gives me the sweetest hugs. When I sit on the floor with them he'll come over and lay his head on my back and wrap his arms around me. I love it when he does that. Melts my heart!

He pulled this hot pad out of the drawer and put it on his hand while saying, "hot, hot."

Then he walked over to the oven and tried to open the door. It's amazing how much they learn just watching us.
And the climbing, it sure does wear me out!
He likes to climb up onto this window seat and play with the picture frames. He can actually name most of the people in the pictures.

He told himself to "sit down" It was really cute, guess he is listening when I say that.

Oh Avery. Sweet, sassy Avery!

She has been strong-willed since day one, but strong-willed has a whole new meaning when they become toddlers. We've been learning a lot about discipline lately. We've all been learning! Disciplining is hard, emotionally draining, and something I just was not ready for. I think I need a good book on the ways to discipline, so let me know if anyone has any suggestions.

Anyway, back to my sweet girl.

She sure does make me laugh. She knows exactly what she wants, but is still learning how to communicate that to us. Which can be very frustrating for her sometimes.
She loves to pick up and carry around the most random things, mascara, the cap to my seam ripper, chapstick, the list goes on and on. I love to watch her little creative imagination. Here she is with two gift bags that she filled up with stuff and carried around all morning.

And she is still such a little mother. She gives Carson his paci and blanket when he is crying. She likes to pretend to give Carson medicine and last week she started giving her babies medicine. Future nurse?? We'll see!!

"Daddy, if I pretend to be one of the dogs, can I go hunting with you?" Oh those lips, I just want to kiss them!!

They keep me busy, but I wouldn't trade these days for anything. They are just growing up way too fast!!

Valentines Day

2011-02-14T18:44:00.000-08:00

We had a fun day today.

A day full of love!

And they do, love each other!

Goody bags for the funky monkey, the drama queen, and for daddy too.
Digging into their Valentines Day goodies

And what is Valentines Day without some chocolate covered strawberries for dessert?

Wrong side Carson

I think the strawberries were a hit!

Happy Valentines Day!

Is it Spring yet?

2011-02-09T13:53:00.000-08:00

Winter has been rough this year.

We've been inside, wishing it was warm enough to go outside, or at least just leave the house.

We did get a few days of nice weather (before the ice and snow came again) and were able to get out and go places for a change. We started up our spring semester of Tiny Tots and Tunes music class at church yesterday. It was so nice to let Carson and Avery run around and get some of this energy out. And boy did they! Carson was a wild man in class, running all over, dumping the buckets of instruments, trying to steal the other baby's pacis and hair bows, while I chased him around the room. He keeps me moving!! Avery, on the other hand, has become a little mother. There was one little boy in class who had his paci hanging off his shirt on a clip, and she kept going over to him and putting it back in his mouth. She's been so sweet to babies lately (I hope she's not trying to tell me something). She wants to cover them with their blankets and the other night she was feeding Carson his bottle while we were getting him dressed for bed. It was really cute.

Anyway,

Here they are sitting in their lawn chairs praying for an early spring!

They love playing with chairs now.
They drag their little chairs all over the house.
And have learned how to climb up on them to get things they want.

So many ways to play with one toy:

Someone's been watching too much Handy Manny.

Avery loves to talk on the phone.

Everytime my phone rings she says, "Huh-row daddy" (hello daddy).

And she holds the play phone up to her ear and says, "huh-row"

Still talking on the phone.

Carson has his two bottom molars coming in and has had a really rough week. So fussy. I even took him to the doctor Monday because I was convinced he must have an ear infection. Nope, just teething. Poor baby. Avery got all 4 of her molars at the same time and never acted any differently, but Carson is having a much harder time with it.

But I was able to catch a few smile from him this week.

Sweet boy!

Snow much fun...take two!

2011-02-04T11:33:00.001-08:00

We have been having some crazy weather here in Texas. Ice, snow, schools closed for 4 days, temps in the teens and twenties for days. This is just not normal for Texas, but I have to say we have been enjoying it.

We woke up to a beutiful 6 inches of snow this morning. And it's still snowing now.

So pretty outside!
I took Carson and Avery out to play in the snow this morning which was much more fun for them this time around. I safety pinned on their gloves and made Carson some plastic knee-high socks with the help of some rubberbands (so the snow wouldn't get in his shoes, poor child doesn't have any boots), and we went outside for the first time in 4 days.
They loved it!

They walked all over the yard,

checking out the snow.

Carson did a couple of face plants.

Uncle Ryan stopped by for a few minutes.

Avery trying to give Django a kiss. (Django was playing nice today!)

One last face plant, and I think we are ready to head back inside!

Happy snow day everyone!

A New Appreciation....

2011-01-21T06:18:00.000-08:00

For Bungee cords!!

We use them on everything!!

They are great baby proofing devices!!

Especially if you don't want to drill screws into the banister (like my husband). This is much more attractive, don't you think??

Holding up a gate in the large doorway of the dining room.

There is too much glass on the china cabinet doors in this room, makes me nervous!
Baby bungee for the study door.

And my personal favorite, the dual use bungee on the oven door.

Holds up the play kitchen set, to keep Carson from knocking it over and dragging it around the kitchen, and also keeps them from climbing on and pulling open the oven door. (Which they did many times prior to the bungee cord)

I know, a little WT!

I like to think of it as creativity :)

15 Months

2011-01-17T07:51:00.000-08:00

I'm a little late on on this one, but here is 15 months:

Avery 20lbs 4oz (10th%) and 30in (50th%)

Carson 23lbs 2oz. (25th%) and 32.5in (75th%)

Avery has entered into the "toddler picky eater" stage. So sad! She was such a good eater for so long. I guess this explains her drop to the 10th percentile. She still loves fruits and veggies, but isn't much of a carb or meat girl (not my child!!). Carson still eats just about anything, and a lot of it!!

They are both talking so much now. They are saying please, thank you, more, all done, night-night. They can both point to and name eyes, ear, nose, and they stick out their tongue when you ask them where their tongue is. Avery has starting saying mommy, and daddy instead of mama and dada. Her favorite word right now is probably, "pie" which is what she has started calling her paci. When she can't find it, she walks around with her hands turned up in the air saying , "pie? pie?" in the most pitiful voice you've ever heard. It's is so cute!! Here she is looking for it:

She's also started waving and saying bye-bye to my camera everytime I try to take her picture. I thought she was just being cute, until she walked over and hit the camera then said, "bye-bye." I guess she's tired of the camera being in her face.

Avery's really loving this purse she got for Chirstmas. She puts all of her bracelets (which are mostly just those snapping baby rings, but she thinks they are bracelets) into her purse and carries it around on her arm.

It has been so interesting for me to watch how Carson and Avery have just naturally taken to certain toys and activities. While Avery will sit and play with her babies and purses, Carson is much happier running around, driving his trucks and trains all over everything. He's even started making the noises when he's pushing his trucks around.

He's also found new and inventive ways to get up onto the window seals, which he does on a daily basis. He's going to start thinking his name is "No-no." In fact, he says, "no-no-no" prior to doing things we've told him not to do (like climbing on the end table, getting behind the tv, splashing in the toilet). It doesn't stop him from doing it, but at least he's realizing that these things are no-no's.

Carson loves his sissy, or he loves to bug her. Not sure which one. He just wants to be where she is. We have two of these cars, but Carson wants to be in the same one as Avery. If she has something, he wants it and if she's doing something he wants to do it too. It's really sweet, but a little exhausting at the same time.

I think her face shows exactly how she feels about this!!

Happy 15 (almost 16) months Carson and Avery!!

Snow much fun!

2011-01-11T07:34:00.000-08:00

We get pretty excited in Texas when it snows.

Especially when it's real snow, and not just the icy, sleety stuff we usually get.

We bundled the babies up and headed out to play in the snow.

They seemed to really enjoy it...

for about five mintues.

Until their hands hit snow.

Poor babies, they refused to wear their gloves.

So we headed back inside for some warm milk and a movie.
And then life was good again!!

Maybe they'll enjoy the snow more next year.

Goodbye 2010

2011-01-07T08:26:00.000-08:00

What a fun year you have been!!

How is it possible that these two babies can look like this...

and this....
all in the same year?!?
Time sure does fly!!

Lots of learning took place in 2010,
How to sit up
crawl,

stand,

walk,

and of course,climb!!

We enjoyed one crazy snow day,

and lots of fun in the sun!!

We went on some fun, family vacations:
Skiing in Colorado,

Beach trip to Key West,

The mountains of West Virginia,

And a couple of weekends at our cabin in Oklahoma!

They were dedicated at church,

took their first trip to the fair,

first trip to the zoo,

celebrated their first birthday,

and had their first visit with Santa!

We've had lots of silly moments,

and some sad ones,
and lots of really sweet ones too!!

2010 has been such a fun year, and I'm kinda sad to see it go.

But I am looking foward to all the fun things we are going to do, see, and learn in 2011.

Happy New Year!!

What a week!!

2010-12-31T07:20:00.000-08:00

Let me just start out by saying that I hate RSV!! Especially when it's RSV times two, or I guess I should say times three, because I'm pretty sure I have it now too.

Carson and Avery started getting sick on Sunday on our drive home, then by Monday morning they both had bad coughs and were starting to sound croupy. Carson was working pretty hard to breathe and starting to make me nervous. I took them in Monday morning and sure enough they have RSV and croup. Their Dr. gave them some steriods and Carson a breathing treatment which seemed to help pretty quickly.

This week has been a pretty rough one. They are miserable, sleep deprived and just plain cranky!! It's been a while since I've had that feeling of, 'there's two of them and only one of me.' But this week I sure have, they both want to be held all the time, but they don't want to share me. It's so sad....I need a clone! They elbow and try to push each other away so they can be the only one being held. But I have gotten a lot of sweet cuddle time with each of them this week. Which, selfishly, is the only good thing about them being sick. They are so tired because they keep waking themselves up coughing. Poor babies, they just want to feel better. We are all exhausted!

Carson has become a little bit of a daddy's boy lately. I heard him in the hall whining and saying "DaDa" and I walked over to find him sitting by the garage door looking for Shane. It was so sad, but kinda sweet at the same time.

Avery loves her paci's (which she now calls, "pie"). She tries to hold as many as she can at the same time. Sweet girl!
On the up side, at least they waited until after Chirstmas to get sick. And at least they both have it at the same time so we only have to do this once. We are ready to be better and get out of this house!!

Christmas

2010-12-28T08:31:00.000-08:00

We had a fun and busy Christmas weekend!

We drove to Del Rio this year to spend Christmas at Travis and JJ's house (Shane's brother and sister-in-law). It is still amazes me that you can drive 8 hours and still be in the same state!! The babies did SO good on the drive both ways. We left during afternoon nap time and they slept and watched their baby einstein dvd's and were such great little travelers.

We exploded into Travis and JJ's house with all of our stuff around midnight. It's crazy how much stuff these babies require for just one weekend.

They had fun exploring a new house and quickly discovered the doggy door. It didn't take long for them to figure out a quick route into the backyard.

Christmas Eve was a beautiful, warm day, so we walked over to the park to let the babies play.

Avery and Grand-D coming down the slide.
Flying!
They were much more interested in the rocks than playing on the playground.

We had to put paci's in to keep them from eating the rocks.

Christmas Eve night we got all dressed up and headed to church for the candle light service. It started at 7:00, so I was nervous about how Carson and Avery would do. Thankfully they took a late nap that day and they were both excellent during the service. Sat through the whole thing, I was shocked and so thankful!

Avery loved aunt JJ's Christmas tree!

Family picture at church. A sweet old lady gave Avery a lemon after the service, kinda random, but she loved it!

Christmas morning!!

Avery checking out all the presents Santa brought.

Opening presents with daddy

As expected, they were more interested in the paper.
"This one's mine!!" Avery making claims on her Christmas presents.

A puppy from Travis and JJ. She loved it and wanted to give it kisses, while sitting in the box of course.

Then Carson decieded he needed to close Avery up in the box.

Carson's new train set.

He's really been into trains lately. He says, "too-too" (choo-choo) while making the motion with his arm. So cute!!

While the babies napped, we made and decorated sugar cookies.

We even got the boys to join in a little.

Showing our school spirit...
Carson and Avery got to decorate a couple....

and eat them too!!

Grandma had so much fun hanging out with her great-grandchildren
And so did Grand-D!

A little snuggle time with my sweet boy, these moments are few and far between these days. He's just too busy!

Avery was obsessed with Rio's ball all weekend. She followed Rio around saying, "ball, ball." Rio learned pretty quickly that if she brought the ball to Avery, that Avery wasn't going to give it back.

Carson was in heaven, having two kid-friendly dogs to play with. Not the case at our house, sadly.

Percy, the bulldog.And one more picture of Percy, because he is just so cute and I love his enormous underbite :)

Hope everyone had a great Christmas, we sure did!

Christmas week

2010-12-23T12:07:00.000-08:00

We have had a fun week leading up to Christmas.

We've been listening to Christmas music and baking treats and getting into the Christmas spirit.

This week we went to Bass Pro Shop to get some last minute gifts.

Carson and Avery enjoyed running around in the huge Santa's workshop. They had no interest in going anywhere near Santa, but they did enjoy the cookie decorating station.

Avery sat so nicely and decorated her cookie. As you can see, Carson isn't in the picture and that's because he stole another little boy's cookie and took off towards the train set :)

We also went over to our friend Angela and Rylin's house this week for a pajama playdate.

It was so much fun and the babies loved playing with their friends!

The mommies enjoyed hanging out and talking as well.

We attempted taking a picture of just the kids, but trying to get 7 one year olds to sit on a couch at the same time just wasn't happening.

Me and Carson
Last night we went over to my parents house to have Christmas with my family.
Avery sitting by the girl's tree.

A and MiMi

Carson and PaPa

Avery opening presents with aunt TT

Carson's new backpack

A and Tay opening their gifts

More presents!!

It was kind of a late night for Carson and Avery, and they did so great. That is until Carson spilled MiMi's wine glass over his head. It was all down hill from there.

Then he got to sit in his new wagon, so life was good again!

Avery's new kitchen from MiMi and PaPa

This is the best I could do on the cousin picture. Considering it was 9:30 at night, I would say it turned out alright.

Now we are off to Del Rio to spend Christmas with Shane's family.

Pray for us and our 8 hour drive!!
Merry Chirstmas!!

Fall Pictures

2010-12-21T08:19:00.000-08:00

Here are the pictures we had taken in November.

This photo session completed the "baby package" we bought from Allison after the babies were born. It makes me sad, but I'm so glad she got so many good pictures...and lots of smiles!!