North Carolina and West Virginia trip

Earlier this month, my mom and I took Carson and Avery to North Carolina and West Virginia to visit our family. It was such a fun trip and the perfect time to escape the Texas heat for a little while.

We flew into Charlotte, and the kids did awesome on the way there. They both sat in their seats and wore their seat belts the whole time while watching their dvd's and coloring...it really couldn't have gone any better. They were excited about being on an airplane.

We stayed at my cousin Carole's house for two nights in Charlotte. Carson and Avery had so much fun playing with their 2nd cousins.

Avery and Ella

Avery and Caroline

The first night we were there, Carole had a little birthday party for her kids Jackson and Ella. It was so fun seeing all of my cousins and their kids. It's been way too long since we've all been together.

Here is Ben, Jackson, Grace, Caroline, Avery, Ella, Carson and Bailey

Carson, of course, enjoyed doing stunts in Carole's living room with Angela's husband Charles,

And my cousin Rob

My cousin Angela lives right next door to Carole (they're sisters) and she has a little mini farm in her yard. Carson got to pet the chickens,

and feed the goats, he loved it!!

We went over to Rob's one night for dinner. He had a really cool rope swing in his back yard,

They loved it!!

Me and Carole

We had so much fun in Charlotte and were sad to leave.

On our way up to West Virginia, we stopped at my aunt Carolyn's house in Roanoke, VA for dinner. It was so great to see her!! I have so many memories of summer's spent visiting her when I was growing up.

After dinner in Roanoke we headed on to my grandparent's house in White Sulphur Springs, WV. They live up in the mountains (where there is no cell phone service) it is so beautiful and peaceful there! Carson and Avery enjoyed throwing rocks in the creek in front of Nanny and Papa's house

And Carson enjoyed peeing in it (it was just too cute, I decided to take a picture instead of trying to stop him, I just couldn't resist).

Avery loved the well in Nanny and Papa's front yard

Saturday we celebrated Nanny and Papa's 60th wedding anniversary. It was a fun party/family reunion, and it was so great to see family I haven't seen in years.

Nanny and Papa with all 7 of their kids!

Carson and Avery with their cousin Mia

They loved riding on the Gator with Uncle Teddy

Carson got his fill of feeding animals on this trip. Here he is feeding one of my aunt Bernetta's horses.

His reaction after the horse ate out of his hand. I wish I had it on video, it was so cute, he was screaming and laughing.

Sunday we went to visit an old gristmill that was in this beautiful state park about an hour from my grandparents house. We were soaking up the cooler weather, it was 70 degrees at 1:00 in the afternoon there...in August, I didn't know what to do with myself :)

After the gristmill, we headed over to see the New River Gorge Bridge. There were a ton of stairs we had to walk down (then back up) to see the bridge.

Beautiful view

The New River Gorge Bridge (it's the 3rd highest bridge in America...it was really high)

Sweet babies (yes, I did bribe them with M&M's to get this picture :)

We had a fun day exploring some beautiful sites in West Virginia!

One last Gator ride with PaPa before we had to pack up and head to the airport.

Four generations

Carson and Avery with their great-grandparents

We had about a 5 hour drive back to the Charlotte airport on Monday morning. And as it usually works out for us when we fly with the kids, we had all kinds of issues getting home. We got to the airport just fine, but as we were boarding the plane it started pouring down rain. Thunder, lighting and so much rain. I knew as we were boarding that there was no way that we'd be taking off, but they still boarded away. Then we sat, and sat, and sat some more. We sat there at the gate with the airplane door closed for two hours. You want to talk about some restless 2 year olds! Oh, and my DVD player decided to up and die on me, so my backup plan of keeping them occupied with movies went right out the window. We finally took off and Carson and Avery were passed out within minutes, they were exhausted.

We had such a fun trip. We went non-stop the whole time and loved every minute of it! Can't wait to go back again, I just love it up there!!

We're back!!

It was been way too long since I have updated, but it's been for a good reason!

Carson and Avery are very excited to announce that they will be having a little brother or sister next year. I am due March 1st. We are really excited and the kids are starting to understand that there is a baby in mommy's tummy. Avery has been talking non-stop about her "baby sister" (I hope she's not disappointed if it's a boy).

This pregnancy has definitely been so much harder this time around. I started feeling nauseous around 6 weeks, and I was so exhausted I didn't think I would make it through the first trimester (I know...dramatic, but it was rough). It didn't help that Carson was going through a really early wake up phase (between 5:30-6:00 EVERY morning). I was irritable and cranky and completely lacking the desire to do anything productive. All of it has been so much better the last couple of weeks. I've been feeling so much better and am starting to get a little energy back, and Carson is sleeping better, thank goodness! I am 13 weeks today and I am so excited about the second trimester, the upcoming fall season, and of course mother's day out starting back up again!!

Bye Bye Pies

This past Saturday we said bye bye to our pies and hello to our big girl and big boy beds!!

I was really in no hurry to get rid of the paci's and transition out of the cribs. They were not climbing out and they were both sleeping pretty well, so I was really afraid to rock the boat. However, I made it my goal to get rid of the pies and cribs this summer, so we decided to just go ahead and do it so they'd have plenty of time to adjust before starting school in the fall. We told Carson and Avery that they were going to get a big boy and big girl bed for their rooms but only if they gave their pies to baby Berkley (our friend Brandy's baby that's due this September). Avery cried the first time I told her about our plan, but after talking about it for a couple of days, she was really excited about getting rid of her baby crib and getting to have a big girl bed. Carson was pretty excited about it from the beginning. So Saturday we packed up the pies and said goodbye to them.

One last "pie" picture! (I have to admit it was a little sad for me)

Ready to give their pies to baby Berkley

They both handed them over very willingly, I was shocked that there were no tears or fits, they were actually really excited that baby Berkley got to have their pies.

So exciting!!

So Saturday night Carson and Avery had their first "pie-less" night in their big beds, and they did GREAT!! They both went right to sleep and slept all night, I was again shocked. I was expecting them to have a really hard time getting settled down, but they didn't at all. It hasn't been that consistent since though. Carson has been doing great staying asleep all night, but Avery has been waking up a couple times a night the last two nights crying, so I'm hoping she will go back to sleeping all night again soon. Thankfully neither of them come out of their rooms during the night, or nap time for that matter. Nap time has been hit or miss the last few days for both of them, but at least they are staying in their rooms even if they don't go to sleep. So over all the transition hasn't been too bad, we just need to get them both napping again (good luck with that one right?) and get Avery sleeping through the night again!

We also told them that if they gave up their pies and slept in their big beds they would get to pick out a scooter at Target. So Sunday they got to ride outside on their new scooters.

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They were so excited!

The pies and cribs were our last two baby things to get rid of. So sad.

They are still my sweet babies though!!

Swim lessons

Carson and Avery have been taking swim lessons the past several weeks! We enrolled them in the "infant rescue" type of swim lessons, and they are doing so great!!

They were all smiles (before they realized what was about to happen to them)

You want us to do what?

They learned how to kick their legs

How to float on their backs to rest and get a breath...

And how to swim under water!

They took 4 weeks of individual lessons (4 days a week for 10 min each day). It was very traumatic, to say the least, for the first couple of weeks. There was a lot of screaming, crying, throwing up, and many attempts at various stall tactics, but at the end of the 4 weeks they were swimming and floating. It was amazing! Avery loved it after she released some control and realized that swimming was fun. Carson cried every single day for the whole 4 weeks...poor guy!

After their individual lessons were done, Carson and Avery joined a group class once a week with their  cousin Taylor. 

Standing in the "castle"

They got to jump off the "jump rock" during group class

Taylor comforting Carson when he was crying, so sweet!

Their most favorite part though, was probably the lollipop they got from Ms. Tracey after their lessons! 

Carson and Avery have come a long way these past several weeks. They are swimming so well, and I feel so much more peace when we go to the pool. They absolutely love swimming now!

Here is a Carson before picture...

...and Carson after! So happy in the water now!!

Thank you Ms. Tracey!