Life with Meredith and Jillian

Yee Haw!

2012-01-23T21:18:00.001-08:00

Today our playgroup headed to check out the Fort Worth Stockshow - we had a huge group of friends with us to spend a beautiful day with some fun animals!

First up, we hit the FFA Children's Barn. There were sweet ducklings that Jillian loved - their food was positioned at the top of a water slide, so they would occassionally slip down the slide, making her laugh every time! There were also baby pigs, lambs, goats, a cow, and the baby chicks. On one side of the chick pen, the older chicks had a "ferris wheel" with food that the girls thought was great. But then we walked to the other side and Meredith was good to go. It seems her Sunday School teacher told her about seeing a chick hatch on her trip, so Meredith kept telling me that she was going to see a hatching egg, too. I warned her that we might not get to see it, but as soon as we turned the corner to the incubator full of eggs, we saw a chick exit his egg. I was so excited but not more than Meredith! We hung out for a bit longer, then went to check out the rabbits, but only for a moment until she asked to go back to watch the eggs again. She scoured them and we found a few that were close to hatching again. She was set on getting to see the whole thing! Luckily, there were 2 eggs that were cracked and you could see the chick inside moving! It really was super cool. So, we hung out for probably another 20 minutes on top of the rest of the time we were already there watching one of the little chicks work his way out (with the help of a few of his friends who politely pecked on the outside of his shell). Meredith's day was set - we saw the chick be hatched! I was amazed by the whole process but also by Meredith's dedication and patience! We play "favorite part" at night before bed, and tonight when I asked Meredith her's, she just kept saying - "You KNOW my favorite part!" And when you see that we also rode a pony later, you know that says a ton!

Come on already chicks!

Pure patience.

We left the Children's Barn and headed to check out a few more exhibits. We came to the tractors next - a request from our friend, Jackson, but was a huge hit for everyone!

This was a fun time for the girls in this car, at least. James, who is about 1 1/2 was already in the car, Meredith hopped in to drive and then insisted he be buckled in, too. Then, she directed all of her passengers to and from locations, insisting they buckle and unbuckle each time. James was a great sport!
We also got to meet Elsie (the Borden cow) and her calf Beauregard. The girls were pretty excited. Jillian kept asking to "soff him" (ie pet him)

Next up, we headed to the petting zoo. Luckily for the girls, we were with friends whose mommies had promised pony rides, so I succumbed to peer pressure and let the girls ride, too (ok, it didn't take that much pressure!)

Before we headed in for a lunch of Corn Dogs, we hit the petting zoo. Hitting a petting zoo is always a mixture of excitement and terror for the girls - they like the idea of being with the animals but try to run from the overzealous goats!

The girls finally got away from the goats to feed a very tame (well, actually asleep) bunny.

Look out Hula Girls

2012-01-22T17:18:00.000-08:00

Meredith's class got to have an occupation parade last week. Last year, Meredith was set on being a pizza girl. She still says she will open her Turtle Pizzeria someday, but she has added a few other things to her list for the future - a cowgirl, a firefighter, a "row boater", make American Girl dolls, be a mom, a builder, and most recently, she wants to be a hula girl! So, she settled on being a Hula Girl for the occupation parade. She even decided that since it might take her awhile to commute back and forth between Hawaii and her pizza shop, that she might decide to hula dance as the entertainment at the Turtle Pizzeria. Sounds like a successful business plan if I have ever heard one! Neal is looking into franchising arrangements as we speak.

We found the perfect green hula girl accessories and to steer clear of wearing a bikini to school in January (or at all, for that matter!) I made her a little pillowcase dress out of a tropical fabric - and she was thrilled!

Hula Girl Meredith! She also took along her ukelele (or Uncle Larry as she kept calling it).
Jilly Beans needed to pose too! This picture scares me a little because they are standing on the slope of our yard, so Jillian looks almost as tall as her sister!
Time to be silly!
My proud hula girl, ready to parade!
With a few of her friends - she was the only hula girl, would you have guessed it?

Happy Birthday to Me!

2012-01-22T17:04:00.000-08:00

Last weekend I got to celebrate my birthday for 3 straight days! First, Neal took me out to dinner while Gigi watched the girls. Then, the next day, our family of four celebrated in our favorite way - with Frozen Yogurt! Before heading out for out, the girls gave me a present from them.

A kitty calendar! There is a really long story behind this calendar that I will share with anyone that wants to read it! Last year, the girls and Daddy went to a Chinese restaurant around the beginning of the year. The restaurant gave them a calendar that had all the months on one page and was made of bamboo. It took a very coveted spot in our garage. Meredith loved asking me what day of the week and date it was each day on the way to the car. Sadly, the calendar was all done at the end of 2011, so Meredith wanted a new one. Meredith, Jillian, and Daddy drove back to the restaurant, only to find it closed, so then they headed to B&N and picked out this kitty calendar (since I had kitties when I was little but can't have them now since Daddy is allergic). Such a sweet girl.

Time for YoBerry! I even got calendars (a 3 and 2 singles to make 32) and they sung to me in the store.

Sunday was my actual birthday, so after church, we got to have a yummy pizza lunch with Bubbie and Granddad and then we met up with my whole family at Babe's to celebrate my birthday and Grandma's birthday, too.

Me and Grandma with the Chicken hats ready for the Chicken birthday song at Babe's. Notice, I also got to wear a super special badge all day and there were princess plates, napkins, and paper tiaras for cake after dinner! Hooray for 5 year old little girls planning your birthday!

Shrek ICE

2012-01-18T18:12:00.000-08:00

On New Year's Eve Day we finally got to fulfill our three year tradition of going to the Gaylord to see the ICE display with the Sook Family! The best part of this year was that we got everyone there, which was a first!

We started with a yummy breakfast and the kids had a blast hanging out with Aunt Sandy, Uncle Perry and the three kids (plus significant others!)

After that, we grabbed our huge parkas and went in to check out the Shrek story in ICE - so cold and so much fun!

Meredy coming down the big ice slide -she had a blast!!

Jillian is on the left with me on the right - you can't tell from this picture but poor Beans was too little and I didn't give her a big enough push down, so she got stuck! That was just insult to injury since she hated sitting down on the cold ice to begin with. Finally the guy working at the bottom had to half climb the slippery ice/half use a stick to get her down.
Our whole big group!

Christmas Day with Gigi and Papa

2012-01-06T20:16:00.000-08:00

After our day with just us 4, we visited Bubbie and Grandad and Gigi and Papa because Santa decided to leave stuff for the girls at each of their houses, too!

Both girls loved the Dora trike for Jillian
Checking out her Barbie stage
DJ Daddy took time out to play with a new favorite toy (of the two littlest kids plus this big one here)
Gigi had stockings for the girls' dolls too - how sweet!

Christmas Morning

2012-01-06T19:53:00.000-08:00

We had such a fun and relaxing Christmas morning at home. First up, of course, was running out to see what Santa had left for us!

First, off Jillian's list to Santa was her hippo! Of course, I was a little concerned, because although she had never been specific as to what hippo she hoped Santa would bring, on the way to Gigi's on Christmas Eve, Jillian also mentioned that she thought Santa would bring her a barn to keep her hippo in and carrots to feed her hippo. So, I was a little concerned that Santa might be on the same wave length and bring a real hippo. Luckily, he didn't and she wasn't disappointed.
Meredith was super excited that Santa wrote the girls a note. Although, she was very confused as to how he finds a pen and paper.
Santa came through on Jillian's other big request - Dora Fruit Snacks! Again, the week before Christmas, Jillian added in that she wanted Santa to bring Hippo fruit snacks. I looked into getting her some since it was so late, so I figured Santa might not have time...and believe it or not, there are no fruit snack jungle animals or anything that I could find. Obviously, Santa couldn't either with such short notice, but Jillian was very happy with Dora!
Meredith got this super cool car for Rebecca to drive - Maddie can even ride in it and they love to add a book on top to take other animal friends for rides!
Jillian had also asked for a new purple dinosaur. She has gotten these tiny plastic dinosaurs out of a quarter machine at CiCi's pizza a few times and we have lost her purple one. She even used to insist he come to school and stay in her backpack. From the looks of it, Santa used about $2 worth of quarters in that machine and got no purples - I am thinking he was out of money and a bit frustrated at this point, so he was hoping she would love the rest, luckily, she was thrilled!

So, it looks like we had 2 very good little girls at our house this year, although Jillian was quite insistent that she was on the "Naughty List" (which I think she was quoting from the Dora Christmas episode). She even claimed it was because she hit her friend at church. I kept assuring her she was not naughty, but she didn't quite buy it! She was so super excited about everything from Santa, and she would say "Santa brought this to me! Thank you soooo much, Santa Claus, that is soooo nice of you!"

Next up, we had a fun breakfast of mini doughnuts (that we made to look like snowmen and reindeer) and homemade Kolaches (that I tried out making for the first time) and Cinnamon Rolls from Aunt Katie. Then, it was on to see some fun presents from our family! The girls got several fun things at our house - lots of hippos for Jillian, a horse for each of their dolls, and these stuffed animals I made (a hippo and a turtle, of course!) Neal was able to just totally surprise me by taking the first year of my blog and having it printed to a book - it was something I had been wanting to do forever and was just too overwhelmed to ever take on. He spent hours and hours doing it and I was so happy! I balled like a baby - probably harder than I remember crying in a long time. The girls were so confused - Meredith kept asking why I would cry if I was happy and Jillian kept offering to let me hold her doll to comfort me! I felt like the suitcase I got Neal was pretty lame after that, but hopefully he will enjoy it on all of his business trips!

The girls are posing with the stuffed animals I made them
And then being silly with them!

At one point earlier this fall, I decided I was going to try to make a ton of the girl's presents. It ended up that I made them each their animals and I made this puppet show theater too. It is a little rough up close, but they had fun playing puppets on Christmas morning (or Jillian, here, actually, was the puppet herself!)
Daddy had lots of fun with his present from Santa - a set of 3 Nerf guns!

S0 much fun!

Christmas Eve Service and fun with the Geurin family

2012-01-06T19:30:00.001-08:00

After a nap to recuperate from Bubbie's house, we headed to Christmas Eve service at church. The girls did a great job, even though they were tired. Jillian and I did take a very long field trip to the restrooms, but other than that, they loved the singing and the candle light!

Our family in front of the church Christmas trees - poor sleepy Jillian!

After church, we headed to Gigi's for dinner and some present opening, but first, I forced my family to do a mini photo shoot. Thanks, Aunt Katie, for being our photographer! :)

Meredith doesn't always pick out the most fluffy girly-girl dresses. Usually, she actually just wants whatever is green. However, when we were out shopping for a Christmas dress, she fell in love with this one. I have never seen her eyes light up more. It helped that Rebecca could match, but still I loved how much she loved this dress (even though, truth be told, I would have picked a different one)
After shopping for Meredith's dress, I was excited to get home to see if the dress Meredith wore when she was 2 would fit Jillian - I have always loved the color of this dress and I was excited that it coordinated with Meredith's too. As soon as I pulled it out of the closet, I had another very happy girl on my hands. She loved this "Rella" dress and just turned and spun around in it as much as she could!
This picture makes my Christmas.

Next up, we got PJs on for cousin pictures!

If you pay much attention to the pictures of Jillian and Landon, they are mostly like this - tackling hugs. These two love to hug each other!
Time to be silly!
Meredith was ready to be elf and pass out presents.
We convinced her to wait with some cake!
There was, of course, singing...
And candles to be blown out!
Finally! Time for presents!
Oh, the fun 4 silly girls can have with the huge, beautiful bows my mom makes!
Here is my mom - showing off the 3 pairs of Toms she got for Christmas!
Papa finished up the night reading The Night Before Christmas to the kids on his Kindle!

Christmas Eve with Bubbie and Granddad

2012-01-06T19:27:00.000-08:00

We got to spend Christmas Eve morning with Bubbie and Granddad with our traditional brunch. The girls were very excited to see them, as always, and they even got to wish their friend, Star, the horse, a Merry Christmas with a carrot for a snack!

Meredith was more than ready to get the present opening started!

I must have gotten distracted, because this is where present pictures stop (not like I did any better later in the weekend). But Jillian loved her Dora purse and accessories from Uncle Nelson and Aunt Kathy!

Happy Birthday, Jesus!!

2012-01-06T19:21:00.000-08:00

We went into Christmas weekend with a special baking task - Jesus' birthday cake. Meredith still has most of the creative control in this house (for now...I am guessing Jillian will put in a little more input in the upcoming years!) So, she of course, chose green icing. Then she wanted me to duplicate a drawing of a manger we have on a Christmas decoration at our house. I have a few cake tools, but not what you might need to draw yourself a baby Jesus. All that in mind, I am not too ashamed of how he turned out, since I ended up going the route that gave me the least amount of tools to clean up - just an old fashioned table knife.

Wow. Look at those sprinkles! Can you guess that I got to throw away several empty cans of sprinkles after this project?

I wish it was Christmas vacation all year long...

2012-01-06T18:55:00.000-08:00

We had such a great Christmas break! Neal was off for about 2 weeks and we really just enjoyed hanging out as a family and doing fun stuff! On top of going to see a couple of movies, eating out a few times, and just other time with friends and family, some of the highlights were...

-Going to see the Prairie Lights which we have gotten to do for several years - there are just a ton of lights in a park that are all different scenes. The girls love all the lights but then when you get to the middle of the drive, you get to get out and play!

The super-sonic jungle carousel. Seriously you have to hold on!
Maybe get your daddy to hold you on too!
There was also some impromptu dancing with Daddy followed by cotton candy and hot chocolate. Not sure when everyone went to bed that night! :)

-Another highlight of Christmas was our two trips to Six Flags Holiday in the Park. Jillian has been begging to go on "the scarrrrrry river" (which is the Yosemite Sam ride for anyone who knows the park well.) She has been talking for months about the bunny in the closet (which is how I even figured out what she was talking about although I remembered no closet). Well, we rode - and yes, there is Bugs Bunny, coming out of a door about half-way through. She was thrilled - and now talks about how "Misser Troll had to go in the cage." Meredith is not as big of a fan, but she went along with it after some convincing! We also got to go down the snow hill. Meredith loved it, Jillian was fine until it was our turn. Then she cried the whole way down! She must have had some fun, though, because she went down the next time we went back! The first time, we also got to hang out with Santa and his Reindeer.

-Meredith and Neal had a fun day where they went ice skating and Meredith got to use a Build-a-Bear gift card she had been saving. Sadly, Jillian had a doctor's appointment, but I am so glad Neal and Meredith had a fun day to themselves!

The newest addition to our family, Brownie White.

-We got to go caroling with my parent's neighborhood which the girls loved! There was lots of Jingle Bells and a ton of Jillian begging for "I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas!"

-My mom and I decided at the last minute to take the girls up to the American Girl store for lunch one day and even let Rebecca get her hair done - my girls were in heaven!

Showing off Rebecca's new cool braids!

Christmas at the Zoo

2012-01-06T18:51:00.000-08:00

Meredith, Jillian and I all got a treat by getting to take part in Meredith's zoo school Christmas party, too! The teachers were super sweet to let Jillian hang out with the big kids and served her cookies and hot chocolate like the other kids! And we all loved getting to see the special weekly classroom visitor - a lizard of some kind. I am sure if Meredith was sitting here with me, she would tell me what his technical name was, but for now, we'll call him just a lizard!

Meredith was very excited for us to get to come!

Couldn't be happier than getting to tag along with Sissy!
The lizard visitor.

A Very WAM Christmas

2012-01-06T18:46:00.000-08:00

Every Wednesday night, Meredith is excited to get to take part in WAM at our Church (WAM stands for Worship and Missions) and they got to show us all they learned during the music part at this year's Christmas performance!

The next week, the kids went around the whole church to carol to people that they saw or were working - they were very cute!
After caroling, we all got to go hear Dr. Wiles tell the Christmas story to a room full of VERY excited little ones! I was back behind the kids, so this is the best picture I got, but believe me when I say that this is a really sweet event that I love at our church!

Jillian and Caleb found each other quickly - like they do everywhere!

Preschool Christmas

2012-01-06T18:23:00.000-08:00

Meredith's class did lots of fun things this year as always to celebrate Christmas. The first was their Christmas program where they did lots of cute Christmas songs for all the parents and grandparents!

A week or so later, they had a fun Christmas party in their class - complete with pizza, cookie making, crafts, and a really cute relay where they ended up with red hot noses to look like Rudolph!

You can never have too many sprinkles!
Ready for her turn in the relay!

And now she is "Rudolphed"!

Jingle All The Way

2011-12-05T19:00:00.000-08:00

Jillian's dance class got to do a second performance last night at an event at Dillard's. Although she had not danced at all the first go-round, I was hopeful this time - she had actual danced at parent observation, which was huge! Plus, all she does now is walk around the house doing either the dance or at least the moves (and even says what she is doing with the dance terms!) My hopes were a little dashed when we grabbed pizza right before the performance. Jingle Bells came on the radio and she proceeded to do the dance in the restaurant. I figured that was probably her one and only performance for the evening. When we got to Dillard's, she was very excited to go to "my dance" and see "my Lindsay" (her teacher), so again, I held out hope. But then she went on stage, and she got this little stinker look on her face, like she knew we wanted her to dance, but she thought it would be funnier not to! She did a little more than last time - there was bell shaking and she ended in the right pose (even threw kisses). So, again, I was super proud and she was even prouder.

Post-kiss blowing - look how excited she is at herself!

The whole little class of super cute 2 year olds!

Just a few random pics

2011-12-05T18:45:00.001-08:00

I had a couple of pictures that didn't really go with a whole post that I thought I would share...

We had a fun PJ picnic dinner while watching movies a few weeks ago...

Jillian loves to play instead of going straight to bed...one of her favorite ways to put off sleep was to empty all the money out of her piggy bank and then disperse the coins into shoes or socks or whatever - sometimes they then turned into musical instruments (they were great to accompany her singing Jingle Bells). Sadly, the piggy bank was a victim of a fall during a play session, so this has gone by the way-side. But these pictures shows you how hard she plays...

She just falls asleep standing up apparently. Or is so tired, she decides to go to bed, but just doesn't quite make it...

Sweet girl.

I took a couple pics for my friends the other day and so I started with Meredith. She just looked wintery and cute.
And I ended with one of Meredith and sweet Grace. We sure miss seeing her all the time!

Pantego Christmas

2011-12-05T18:24:00.001-08:00

The Saturday after Thanksgiving is always a busy (and super fun) day for us. After seeing Santa and having lunch, my mom, Katie, and I go shopping while the boys take the kids home for naps. I get home just in time to help Neal set up the Christmas lights outside while we wait on Santa to come through our neighborhood for the annual Candy Train.

Santa finally arrived! Our lights were hung and we were getting pretty chilly, so we were glad to see the firetruck lights hit our street! Meredith asked Neal if we thought Santa would remember her from Bass Pro and if he would still have her list to look at that she gave him that morning, but Neal was pretty sure that he would already have it filed away so he would get all her requests in. She was excited to give him hugs. Jillian was excited to stay away - one Santa visit for the day was plenty for her!

After our visit from Santa, we headed to the park for the tree lighting. We got there with plenty of time and were able to take a ride on the little train and then got some hot chocolate and cookies - yum!

We ran into Meredith's buddy, Esther and so the girls got to ride the train with her!

Next up, the girls were ready to "Pull the Rope" to light the tree!

As always, they were thrilled that they were able to be a part of getting the tree to light up and we talk about it every time we drive past the lit tree in the park. Every year, this is just a reminder of how much I love where we live!

A Visit with Santa

2011-12-05T16:00:00.000-08:00

For the past several years, we have made it a tradition to head to Bass Pro Shops for a visit with Santa the Saturday after Thanksgiving with Landon. Meredith was super prepared with a written out list. We had been working on Jillian to get excited. She saw a big inflatable Santa weeks ago and told me Santa was scary. So, I talked him up, telling her that he loved her and that he would like to talk to her so he could bring her toys on Christmas. Then I threw in that he would probably give her candy. From that point on, I would catch her talking to her self, giving herself a pep talk. "Santa yoooves me. Santa gives candy and fruit snacks!" (not sure where the Fruit Snacks came into this, but...)

As we waited, we also got to see Frosty - Jillian was not prepared for Frosty since he was not a part of her pep talk, so no hugs from her!
Meredith took her list right up to Santa and he very patiently read over the whole thing with her, clarified the things on her list, and then tucked it away in his pocket so he could make sure to look at it at the North Pole.

Jillian was more hesitant about going to see him - she stood from afar and told him that she wanted a Hippo and then she just kept repeating "Dora". It reminded me of Ralphie in the Christmas Story not being able to spit out "Red Rider BB gun" because he was so excited. Luckily, she didn't protest sitting in his lap. She does look a bit suspicious here, though.
A little happier now!

And we got one with Landon too!

Jillian very patiently waited for her candy while Landon talked to Santa. Then she told Santa "Dora Fwoooot Snacks.' Still not sure if she expected him to pull them out of his pocket right then or if that was just a continuation of her earlier request.

Daddy showed the girls how to shoot guns. Merry Christmas.
We love the Reindeer "Carouself" It was a special treat to have Papa with her - and Jillian was trying to get Papa to ride next to her. He decided to just stand next to Jillian's reindeer instead.
Landon and Meredith rode the sleigh and had lots of cousin fun
Then a Hanks Family picture

Thanksgiving

2011-12-05T15:57:00.001-08:00

After our breakfast with Sphrunkles and a little parade watching, the girls and I made some cute turkey cookies to take to Thanksgiving dinner. They were definitely yummy! After we finished this little project, we got to head to Aunt Sandy and Uncle Perry's house with the whole Geurin side of the family. We had a great dinner with the Sook family and then the boys got to go see the Cowboys play! The girls stayed behind for naps and relaxing (and we got a sneak peek of Laura's wedding dress, too!) Then when the guys got home, we had some leftovers and watched the Texas/A&M game. It was really such a fun day with family and friends!

Welcome Home Sphrunkles

2011-12-05T15:46:00.000-08:00

We had a nice surprise when we woke up on Thanksgiving morning - our elf, Sphrunkles, was back! And he brought a treat - Snownuts! The girls were very excited to see him again and Meredith even drew pictures for him, for Landon's elf (Pizza), and for Santa. We are loving seeing him every morning. We had one incident in which he fell from his hiding spot and I had to help him back up. Meredith was pretty concerned, since that meant I had to touch him, but luckily, it seems as though it didn't make his magic go away, so he was back waiting for us the next day.

How we found Sphrunkles the first morning.

Meredith wanted to dictate the caption for this one, so this is what she had to say..."I was so happy that he was back! I was really excited when he was back with his Santa plate. If you touch your elf he will lose his magic. My sister didn't like the donuts. I was really loving his donuts. My sister and my mommy found Sphrunkles. I love him sitting down wherever he flies after the North Pole. Santa is my favorite person. I love visiting him and I like the sky (cause he flies in the sky, that's why).

The proof that the donuts were not Jillian's favorite.

Looks like Sphrunkles had a donut while he waited for the girls to find him! And again from Meredith "He had a messy face! Sphrunkles is the best elf I ever had! And my sister loves seeing the elf"

Oh Christmas Trees

2011-12-05T15:40:00.001-08:00

The girls were very excited to put up their trees, as always. Jillian has developed a love of all things purple, so she kept insisting that she have a purple tree. Since she had just gotten a pink one last year, I decided this was not necessary. Luckily, when I pulled out the tree, she said - "ooooh, it's pink AND purple." It is not, but if she believes it is, I am going with it!

Meredith and Jillian with J's completed pink - er purple- tree!

Luckily, Miss Meredith still loves green so her tree is of course perfect!

Jillian's first Dance Performance

2011-12-05T15:32:00.000-08:00

Jillian got her chance to show off all she has learned in ballet at this year's Holiday Magic. Her class of two year olds have a very cute dance to Jingle Bells. Even though I had gotten to check out her dancing several times, I had yet to see her actually perform her routine - at least when she was "supposed" to. She will do it on a whim if she hears Jingle Bells, just not if someone is asking her to, so I wasn't expecting her feet to even move, which was good, since they really didn't. But it didn't keep me from being super proud of her for standing up there on the stage with so many people in the audience and still smiling!

So promising with all these smiles, but I really am not convinced she budged from this spot.
Let me be fair...she did move her hands so that she could pick her nose. For a decent amount of time.
And she stared down her neighbor who was traumatized with this experience and cried the whole time.
But she ended with lots more smiles!

Pow Wow

2011-12-05T15:29:00.001-08:00

Right before Thanksgiving every year, the Pre-K classes at Meredith's school put on a super cute Pow Wow - complete with a little lesson about Indians and then lots of adorable songs performed by the kids.

Meredith (aka Dancing Bear) and her friend parading into the Pow Wow
Meredith performing on e of my favorites where the "Turkeys go Berserk-y"

Oh, How I Love Jesus

2011-11-03T19:04:00.001-07:00

Meredith had her first choir performance of the year at church on Wednesday night. These sweet kids sang a few songs they have learned on Wednesday nights at WAM (Worship and Missions). Meredith (and all the kids) did a great job! I was really proud!

Singing, "Oh, How I Love Jesus" at the prayer meeting
For the last song, Dr. Wiles' grandson came in, but only if he came with him. Dr. Wiles, sweetly joined him, but told him even though he confessed to us all that he didn't know the song!

Happy Halloween!

2011-11-03T18:31:00.000-07:00

After a good night's sleep my Hippo and Turtle were ready for more Halloween fun! So, first we did a little photo shoot, then headed to our Playgroup's Halloween party!

When we set out to look for a turtle costume, all I could find was Ninja Turtles. I started to brainstorm making my own turtle costume, but I wasn't sure that I was going to be happy with my skills. Luckily, Gigi came to the rescue when she spotted this very cute turtle costume at Target - why hadn't I seen it before? Because it is actually a costume for a large dog! When we added lots of other green pieces including feet and hands (my handmade contribution) Meredith couldn't have been happier!

I actually found a super cute pink hippo costume online, which I thought would have been harder than a turtle. But about 3 weeks out, all 4 sites that showed the costume as not available. I got a little nervous and started down the path to plan b. I found this super cute winter hat on Etsy and fell in love. Plus it was purple, which is really what she was wanting, so it was a no-brainer! I ordered it, then bought similar purple accessories to what I got for Meredith. Then I made her hands and feet just like Meredith's. The night before Gigi's carnival, I decided to add a pink belly to her leotard. Half way through, I realized that I had sewn the front to the back and then ripped it when trying to take out the seam. Talk about stress! I ran up to Target at 9:30, only to find they were sold out of the leotard. The Hippo Fairy was smiling down on me though, because I found this jacket and I think I actually like it better than what I had to begin with. Whew. I added the tummy and then also decided she needed a tail. I was pretty happy with the result. (And I was also quietly saying prayers of thanksgiving that I had not attempted to make both of these costumes completely!)
Before heading off to our party, the girls practiced their trick or treating at our door - I had a little goody bag for each of them and included this book for Jillian - all about a little girl that goes off to be the princess of a land of hippos (and the head hippo is purple!) how perfect!
Here is our playgroup all decked out! We had a few kiddos leave before I thought to do this, but we have a pretty cute group. Look at Spiderman Jackson with his arm around Jillian - too sweet!

Had to get a pic of Jillian and Elliott - both of these little guys separately demanded they be hippos for Halloween - how cute is that!
Caleb was a super cute "fire guy" for Halloween and his mom made him this fantastic firetruck to wear. All the kids wanted a turn wearing it too. When Jillian had her chance, she declared she was "Fire Hippo!"

We headed home in hopes of naps, but I don't think that happened! After trying, we went to Bubbie and Grandad's for some Trick or Treating, then to Gigi and Papa's. As is our tradition, Landon and Meredith' friend Katie joined us. Then as a special treat Caleb came too! We all had lots of pizza then headed out in my parent's neighborhood. The kids had lots of fun and got way more candy than we could ever eat (but we'll still try!)

Jillian and Caleb were excited to start off the night in the wagon

First Fest and all that Fun

2011-11-03T18:11:00.001-07:00

After an already full Halloween weekend (complete with Gigi's school carnival, pumpkin carving, and Pantego's carnival) we topped it off with First Fest, which is a city-wide event our church puts on. The kick-off of First Fest is the Pumpkin Run - I have been running since about March but haven't done any races since my "marathon days", but decided that I might as well! Well, the day of, Meredith kept begging me to win. I had lots of pressure! I talked her down, just told her I was doing it for exercise, but I ended up running with a friend and kept pace with her and was able to come in 2nd for my age group - I even got a medal, which was more than enough to make Meredith pretty proud of her mama!

Right at the finish line!

We quickly left the race to head over to the Levitt Pavillion to watch Meredith dance, her class performed a tap dance to a fast-paced ABC song.

I was pretty proud of how well she did that night - and she had lots of fun!

After a quick costume change, we were ready to go Trunk or Treating with the whole family - then we headed out for a fun dinner before getting home way past bed time but it was all worth it!

Hippo Jillian, Nemo Landon, and Turtle Meredith
Papa joined in for a little fun too!
Sweet Jillian finally realized her dream of being a hippo!
In line for Trunk or Treating Jillian loved playing hide and seek under her hippo hat
Love my girlies!

My Pumpkins at the Patch

2011-10-24T19:15:00.001-07:00

We just barely got in a Pumpkin Patch this year - which says a lot because last year, I think we hit about 4 or 5! And today was a little muddy and started out pretty foggy, but we still had a blast especially because not only did we get to go with Merrick and Caleb, but we also got to meet up with Julie, Anna, and Joseph - and that is always a special treat!

We started off checking out all the character cut-outs...Julie and I decided it is possible our children watch a bit too much TV based on their love for every single one of the hundreds of these they had!

Dora!
Jessie - a big hit for both girls
Jillian was super excited to find the Hippo from Madagascar...
And the Hippo from Backyardigans too!
A picture with Star Wars for Daddy
And Mommy's all-time favorite character (sense the sarcasm) Caillou!

Both girls - getting so big!
Meredy couldn't wait to play in the jail
Jillian was pretty excited at first to climb up into the muddy train

Next up - the Hayride!
Then, of course, is the best part of the Pumpkin Patch for EVERYONE! The time when Mommy wants a perfect picture of everyone happy. Why, oh why, does this never seem to go as flawlessly as planned? Oh, well - what fun would that be?

Good start - Meredith is cooperating. Having fun. Smiling.
Not. Playing. Along.

Jillian will not join in, so we try Silly Meredith.
This picture makes me laugh! This is how we all felt about Jillian's lack of cooperation with my useless need for this picture!
Then we went to this. Poor Beans.
Or should I say, poor Meredith?

Ok, I will settle for a couple of cute ones of them by themselves.
The little playhouse distracted Jillian long enough that I could get them both in the same shot at least.
No smiles, but that is better than tears, right?
And there was some time for a little fun with Anna too!
And hugs for Caleb. Somehow I did not take a single picture of Joseph....possibly because I was so wrapped up in Jillian, oh well.

Even with my self-imposed photography drama, we had lots of fun, again, especially with such great company! Next year, we are either going to do some photo training or I need to leave the camera at home for my own sanity! :)

A Hook Em Birthday

2011-10-19T19:46:00.000-07:00

We were driving back from San Antonio on Tuesday, which was Neal's actual birthday. To celebrate, we stopped by UT's campus. We started with seeing Born to be Wild at the IMAX at the Texas State History Museum. The girls loved seeing the story about the monkeys and elephants. We had lunch at Players, a burger place on campus that we ate at a lot while there. Then walked down to the bookstore. It was incredibly windy, and surprisingly (ha ha) the sidewalks are not stroller friendly, so we were glad to finally get there! After a little shopping, we cut across campus to show the girls a few of the buildings.

Me with my little Longhorn fans. Although, Jillian appears to be very against this stop. Poor girls, being that it was nap time, a little windy, and they were both not feeling great - I am surprised we got a picture this good!

After our quick "tour," the girls and I had a birthday surprise for Neal. I think I have touched on this on my blog before, but the first birthday Neal had while we were dating was while we lived in the dorms. I wanted to have some kind of cake for him, but didn't have the kitchen to make him one. So, I bought him a Hostess cupcake and he blew out the candles in the study room at the end of my hall in Jester. After that, every year, I have gotten him another Hostess cupcake - they worked well on years when we actually celebrated on a different day than his real birthday or on a few when he was traveling on his birthday (and I would stash them in his suitcase to find when he got to his hotel). This year we just had a great setting to keep this 13 year tradition going!

Happy 33rd Birthday Neal! We love you!

San Antonio Children's Museum

2011-10-19T19:28:00.000-07:00

On Monday of our trip, Josh and Liz both had to work, so Neal and I were excited to take the girls to the Children's Museum - the girls and I went with my mom this summer and it was so much fun!

The girls couldn't wait to show Neal the trolley
Jillian's turn to drive!
Lots of concentration in the cool ball area
Hmmm - thinking daddy had as much fun in there as the girls did!
Fun inside the big bubbles

I like Jillian's style of banking!
Time for a little drive-up banking

The grocery store was as much a hit this trip as last time - it is so fun in there!

Jillian must watch Extreme Couponing when I am not paying attention and was getting a steal on these bath products. She cleared the shelves and pretty much refused to buy anything but shampoo and soap.
Look at that line-up of already-purchased bath stuff!
This picture looks like she has some major purchasing decisions she has to make...
Guess she picked a really great detergent!
"But we don't know how to play!" Oh well, they made some good rules!
And got in a little strength training!
Besides the trolley, Meredith was most excited to show Neal the plane - they had fun giving out tickets, flying and seating us all over the plane

After the museum we walked down to the Riverwalk for some lunch - the girls loved seeing the ducks and boats again and we got to eat some yummy food!

San Antonio Zoo

2011-10-19T19:11:00.000-07:00

This past weekend, Neal took off a few days and we headed down to San Antonio to see our good friends Josh and Liz for a long weekend. They just moved to Texas from California and we were anxious to get to see them and take the girls for a fun weekend. We had so much fun seeing them and getting to see the girls hang out with them. Both girls were sick at some point in the weekend - which Neal joked that we were at the perfect place, though, since Liz is a pediatrician! We actually experienced some of Jillian's breathing issues and she really helped me get a better handle on how to manage all of her breathing treatments, etc - so I was really thankful for that. Luckily, the girls held up long enough to have a little fun on our trip and for us to eat some great food too! These pictures are pretty deceiving - somehow I never caught Josh or Liz on camera. I promise they were there though! :)

On Sunday morning after a yummy breakfast, we hit up the San Antonio zoo - it was a beautiful day for it and I think it was a hit for the kids and the adults!

Posing with the lions
In the fun indoor aquarium, we couldn't pass up the chance to take a picture with a really big turtle

There was a cool butterfly exhibit that Liz took the girls through - Meredith was a little upset because a butterfly landed on Jillian's hair flower, but not hers, but luckily she thought it was still cool. And the cut-outs outside the exhibit were just as fun!

My monkeys!
Jillian was super excited to find this fun mama and baby hippo sculpture! She wanted to ride it but it was a little hot - this was the next best thing!
Check out what is behind my hippo-loving girl! When we walked up on them, I excitedly said, "Jillian - look, what's in there!" She, just as excitedly, said "fishies!" I had to keep coaching her to look on past them to see the hippos - not sure she knew that that a live hippo was anything more than a head that popped up out of the water since that is all they do at our zoo!
Now that she knows they are back there, she is super excited!
And then we found more turtles for Meredith!

Sweet Meredith

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

Just a couple of cute pictures of my sweet Meredith...

Neal traveled quite a bit this month and would be gone all week - this is Meredith running to the door when she heard him pull in one day!
And a reunited hug!
Then a few nights later, she had these glow-in-the-dark glasses that she decided were necessary for sleeping - silly girl!

Two Little Dancers

2011-10-19T18:58:00.000-07:00

I've loved observation days at dance since we started there, but this year it is even better because I get to see both my little ballerinas dance! Jillian has been loving her first year of dance - she practices her moves (shuffle, jump in, and turns) constantly and is always talking about the purple star (she gets to stand on one and she always picks a purple star sticker at the end of class)

The little ones weren't quite sure what to think of the moms being in there at first. After I had been in there for several minutes without any interaction, Jillian finally stopped dancing, turned around to me, and said "Hi, mommy!"
Practicing shuffles
The girls loved doing a shuffle choo-choo
Such a big girl!
Jillian and her purple star!

Next up, we went in to check on Meredith's new class - they are doing a fun tap dance and are working on hard on a super-cute bow, too!

A Day at the Beach

2011-10-19T18:53:00.001-07:00

Each year, my parent's neighbors who live on the lake, have a beach party. The girls went with Gigi and Papa this year and had a blast with a few of the other grandkids - so we asked the party hosts if we could come back with playgroup! Although lack of rain in the area isn't great for much, it did make it so that we had a fantastic sandbox to play in all morning - the kids loved it!

Jillian started off the day in her cape. Why not, right?
Another mom and I took turns pulling around this big old wagon full of kids to get our workout for the day!

Pony Rides, Petting Zoos, and Rides!

2011-09-25T20:40:00.000-07:00

This afternoon, we went with my mom to a fun Church carnival we try to get to every year. The girls love it!

First up...Pony rides! There wasn't room for both girls on the first turn, which turned out great since both girls wanted to ride the horse with the pink mane!
Jillian kept referring to it as the "purple one" because of the purple saddle.
Next up - the petting zoo!
Jillian was not a big fan...
Luckily, she had Sissy to make her feel better!

Obviously this little ride was more up Jillian's alley!

What does Jillian say?

2011-09-25T20:06:00.001-07:00

One of Jillian's favorite "games" to play is "What does Papa/Grandad/Daddy (you get the picture) say?" By the way the correct answers to those questions are: Papa - "Sugar", Grandad - "Tatertot" (since that is what each of them call her) Daddy - "Beeeball!" (he doesn't really ever shout baseball, that I know of, but...) So, I thought I would dedicate a post to some of my favorite things Beans says!

-"Jee-ann hippo, hippo-powamus for hawoweeeen!" This is said especially the first time you see her. She will tell everyone. Me, Neal, grandparents, people checking us out at the store, friends that we run into, our pastor who happened to be on the phone at the time, etc, etc, etc. This all started a few months ago when Meredith asked her what she wanted to be for Halloween. Jillian decided then and there she would be a hippo. There is no changing her mind.

-"Jee-Ann Mae kicut (haircut). It's nice. Pretty." Then she goes through everyone else that she has ever met and asks if they got a "kicut" too. Then tells me that their hair looks nice and/or pretty, too. Apparantly, I was very insistent that her hair was "nice" after her recent trim!

-Jillian loves Dora, so we hear lots of Dora quotes around the house. This especially includes things about Swiper. "Swiper is a sneaky fox!" can be heard when there is no sign of Swiper. And she loves to pretend to be Swiper, and say "You'll never see mama now! HA HA HA!" It is somewhat funny. I think?

-Since starting school, Jillian has not only been really excited about being there, but also about being at Sunday School. She comes out and say "I had fun! NO PUSH!" So, she is learning to have fun and valuable rules! Now I wonder, is this a rule that is emphasized to her or to her?

-One of Jillian's favorite past-times lately is setting up a baby doll or stuffed animal in the baby high chair, then serving them a piece of play cake. She then sings them a very passionate version of "Happy Birthday" and then pretends to blow out the candle for them. Then every time, she runs through the house shouting "Mommy! Mommy! Mommy! Baby biwt-day! Baby blow!"

Ladybugs Soccer

2011-09-25T20:00:00.000-07:00

It is time for soccer to start back up for the Ladybugs!

The girls rallying pre-game!
My favorite Ladybug
She wanted to make sure I took a picture of her back!
Patiently waiting exactly where the coach told her to while on defense.
Jillian loves soccer and getting to play with her very own ball!

Zoo School

2011-09-25T19:55:00.000-07:00

As a special perk for Meredith's last year of pre-school, we decided to enroll her in Zoo School one day a week. The class sounds really fun - it includes a zoo hike and an animal visitor each class plus the kids learn about different animal habitats.

Meredith in a cool giraffe shirt for her first Zoo School day!

All About Meredith

2011-09-25T19:44:00.000-07:00

For Meredith's second week of school, she got assigned an "All About Me" Big Book project. First, I had to poll my teacher friends to find out what a Big Book was. Then we started brainstorming. She of course, wanted a turtle-shaped book and then we talked through all the information she wanted to tell her friends. Luckily, the book turned out really cute and she and I had lots of fun. It really didn't start off that way. I stressed out way too much over a Pre-K project - how was I going to cut out a turtle? what should the pages be made of? how big should it be? Then, as we were assembling it, I had a hot glue gun set up on the floor (which just sounds ridiculous written out) and when Meredith excitedly came over to pick out paper to put on the pages and she sat her knee directly on it. I felt awful. She retired to the couch for the rest of the night and came up with lots of rules for me using the hot glue gun in the future. Luckily, we were able to get the book done and had an adorable finished project and she told me she had fun doing it together. Of course, she still points out the wound, but hopefully the emotional scars are healing! :)

Meredith's favorite page! It shows a map of where she has traveled, pictures of her favorite trips, and a picture of her first plane ride. Meredith also decorated each of the turtle's faces - this one has Mickey Mouse ears.

Milestone sans pictures

2011-09-08T20:24:00.000-07:00

I'll save you pictures on this one, but I want to brag on Miss Jillian. After realizing I had like 3 diapers in the house one day and succumbing to "pressure" from Daddy, about 2 weeks ago, I decided to try to potty train Jillian. I really did it one day hoping that she would not take to it, then I could tell Neal I tried and move on for awhile (I haven't admitted this to him yet, so I am sure he is getting a kick out of reading that little tid bit!) But, to my surprise (not because I didn't think she could do it, I just didn't think she would), she did a fantastic job staying dry - and not only that, she would tell me when she needed to go, not just go when I told her to! We stayed at home the first two days, but then we had the marathon day that was Meredith's birthday. I stuck her in diapers for that day and thought I would probably take a few steps back, but instead, she would just tell me she needed to go and would! Even in weird public restrooms!

We are still working out the kinks - I will spare you details, but she can stay dry all day, we just haven't quite conquered other things...if you get my drift. And since I am sparing you pictures of this, I will share with you a few little stories of her during this because it makes me laugh!

So, when she sits on the potty, this is what she will tell you...."Issss comin.....here comes!" Then her jaw will drop to the floor with her eyes smiling like crazy as she starts to go. I know that was probably the look I gave her the first few times, so now she keeps it up! Especially since we laugh when she does it, she does it even more now.

But there are times when she tries and can't go, and this is what she will tell you..."Isssss comin....here comes!" Then she gets a really concerned look on her face and says "Is not wowkin!" Again, she now laughs when she says this because she knows we think it is hilarious!

A new one she added, I think courtesy of her Sunday School teachers (that told me that the first time they took her they told her to listen for it) she now puts her little hand up to her ear and say "Hear it?"

Man, love that her going potty can be as much fun as she makes just about everything else!

The Tale of a Cool Cat and a Little Lamb

2011-09-08T19:49:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday was the first day of school - and this year, Jillian got to join in too! Going into this school year we had some big decisions to make. First, we had to think about if it was the right time to send Jillian to school. Meredith didn't start school until she was three, but she had been to day care and had also spent time with Aunt Sandy while I worked. So, we decided for lots of reasons, that school would be a great thing for Jillian this year. We are excited for her to learn to love independence from me (she always enjoys times at church or wherever even if I am not there, but she still protests going) and for her to get the benefit from other people teaching her. But the biggest decision we had to make this year was related to Meredith. The cut-off for Kindergarten is September 1, which means that she was eligible to go to Kinder this year, but that she would be the youngest in her class. We have known this is a decision we would have to make from the moment she was born and we have not taken it lightly as we have thought about it over the years. We weighed how she would do next year, of course, but also how she would do 3 years and even 12 years down the line. When it came down to it, sending a little girl, who would only be 4 for a good week or so of Kindergarten seemed crazy to me. Even crazier, is sending a 17 year old to college. We felt like giving her another year would help her to become a leader of her class and give her the confidence she needs to excel throughout her schooling. And when it came down to it, this decision gives me the opportunity to have her home with me a little longer - so a win-win, right?

Ok, so on to the first day!

My two big school girls! How excited they both look, right? Well this was many, many takes into the morning...
An outtake - this is mostly what Jillian had for me that morning!
Or there was this one. Morning is looking good, huh?
Jillian was most excited that she got to officially use all of her new gear (although she is a pro at her nap mat - she now ONLY sleeps on it.)
Meredith has been really excited to be a Cool Cat this year! She has two really amazing teachers, Mrs. Mays and Mrs. Guice. I have heard such great things about this class and these teachers! I met with Mrs. Mays last Spring to talk through our decision for the year and she was so great helping me through it.

I realized at meet-the-teacher day, that Meredith was actually a little nervous about her new class. Last year, her class was full of her old friends, but this year, she really didn't know any of the kids, so she was feeling a little "shy." I read a friend's blog, who got a bracelet for her daughter's first day of Kinder to remind her of her family, so I decided to try something similar. We bought a little fabric, then I wrote notes on the strands ("mommy is praying for you", "Philippians 4:6" - a verse I was working on teaching her, so she would remember to pray when she was nervous, etc.) then braided the pieces together. Then we made one for me, for daddy and for Jillian. Jillian didn't want to participate, but the rest of us wore them all day and used it as a reminder to pray. She said that looking at it helped her when she was missing us and it was a good reminder to me to keep praying for both my little girls, so it was a success!

Showing off her bracelet that she and I made together.
No picture taking opportunity would be complete without a silly face!
Jillian is a Little Lamb (but if you ask her, she tells you she is a Hippo). Her teachers are Ms. Nelda and Ms. Erica. They are both very sweet and patient. I actually knew them from 2 years ago when I picked up my friend's little girl from their class, so that has helped me to feel really great about sending my baby off! The other really great part of her class is that her bestie, Caleb is in class with her. His mommy and I had a little hand in that, but it has been really great for them (or at least we assume) in transitioning to school)

Hope you got what you needed, mom, cause I am ready to take my stuff and go.
Daddy joined us for the day!
These are their cute new backpacks with their names and their favorite animals (a hippo for Jillian and a turtle for Meredith).

Both girls did great at drop-off - Jillian cried some, but went much more willingly than I expected and Meredith really didn't show any signs of nervousness. The drop-off was pretty emotional for me. Dropping Jillian off for her first day is such a right-of-passage into making her an independent big girl (if you read above, this is one of our goals with school, so I want this to happen, but then again....) So I choked back the tears as much as I could in the hallways (I was actually pretty unsuccessful especially when I saw some other first-time drop-off mom friends. I had a fun day planned that started with cleaning some closets. Sadly, I chose Jillian's first, and cried when I found a tiny shoe! Bad idea....but then I stopped so I could go to brunch with my friends whose kids were at school with the girls and it was lots of fun and a nice distraction!

Daddy came to pick-up too, then we headed to Sonic for a treat. The girls both said they had fun, Jillian even napped (which I wasn't sure would happen), and Meredith said she wasn't as nervous as she thought she might be. All were big answers to prayers. As I write this, we have had 2 more days of school. Each one Jillian has gone in more happily and without tears. She comes home excited and telling me about her day and talks all about "Jillian Mae's school!"

The 5th Finale!

2011-09-08T19:28:00.000-07:00

After the most birthday celebrations ever, we topped it all of with a crazy exciting day on Meredith's actual 5th birthday. We started off with our tradition of donuts for breakfast!

Yum!

Next up, we headed to Southlake to meet up with our friends, Anna and Joseph, to go to a Safari Park. As an added surprise, Aunt Sandy was able to come too!

Meredith, riding the robot elephant. No matter how hard I tried, Jillian was not interested in taking a turn!
Jillian (and the other kids too) had a blast in the play area with the balls, slide, and the trampoline
Contrary to what this picture shows, the train was a big hit!
Meredith did a little golfing too.
The kids also got to paint little ceramic figures and had so much fun!

After playing hard, we headed to McDonald's for lunch and Anna's special cupcakes for the birthday girl!

So, this should have been enough for a great birthday celebration, but that evening, I had to go to Zoo school orientation, so I had this bright idea that if we were going out there anyway, we should go early and see the zoo. Both girls fell asleep after we left McDonald's, so I drove straight to the zoo, drove around Ft. Worth some, and then hung out in the parking lot until they woke up. When we walked in, it was almost eery - there was NO ONE there. I have never been there when it was like that. As we started to almost pass out from the heat, I started to realize that we were the only people crazy enough to be out at this hour!

Showing off Double Fives
Silly girl on a turtle!
Posing with the froggy - this is when we learned we were being kicked out of the zoo, which happens to close a full hour before the parent meeting. Yipppeee!

So between getting kicked out of the zoo and the meeting, we found a nice Barnes and Noble to play at for a bit. Then after the meeting, we headed to CiCi's pizza for the birthday girl's favorite - spinach pizza! Daddy met us there for pizza and although, we typically love their desserts while we are there, we had one more stop - YoBerry!

Meredith and Daddy cuddling at YoBerry!

Whew - I am exhausted rewriting that and know why I crashed at the same time as the kids that night. But, for this birthday girl, it was worth it!

Happy 5th Birthday Meredith!

2011-08-30T13:59:00.000-07:00

I really keep saying that I just don't know how it can be true that my sweet Meredith is 5. That seems SO grown up for that little baby that is mine! I even told her for the last week or so that I wasn't going to let her turn 5. That she had to stay 4. She was not a fan of this at all. And, I really shouldn't have said this because, being the Meredith that I love so much, she just spent the rest of the time consoling me - "Mommy, Jillian will be 4 soon!" (wow, that one actually didn't help -but she meant well!)

So, I just wanted to take a few minutes to write about my favorite five year old - the one who made me a mommy five years ago and with that changed my world in every possible amazing way I would never even imagine.

Although I am her mom and slightly bias, I have to say that I think it is truly possible that she is the most kind, thoughtful five year old around. She amazes me all the time by her initial need to make sure that others are happy even when that may mean she has to give a little. She shows this so often especially when it comes to Jillian. She will choose to play a game or with a toy just to make Jillian's day, or she will give up something that she wants because she knows it will make Jillian happy (we do have to work on this a bit - don't want her to always give into Jillian, but, I love that this is her heart!)

She also just has this amazing love for learning. One of her favorite times of the day is the 30 minutes or so after Jillian goes down for nap because that means she gets to do "School Supplies" - or some kind of workbook or computer activity that teaches reading or math. She is already an amazing reader - she is now at the point that I can hand her a new book and she can read almost all of it without help. Nothing makes a mama prouder than seeing their baby learn something so big!

One of my favorite parts of Meredith right now is her new-found silliness. She loves making funny faces for the camera and just running through the house making silly noises while doing a crazy dance. She has always been a little more reserved, so this piece of her is so fun to see!

Really, this post could go on and on and on about all the great things about Meredith, but all in all, I just have to say that I am incredibly blessed to be her mama and that I love the little big girl she is becoming. Happy 5th Birthday Meredy Moo!

Sleepover with a 4 year old

2011-08-30T13:54:00.000-07:00

Last year on Meredith's birthday I started a tradition that I think could be my favorite birthday tradition yet! I decided birthday nights are a perfect sleepover with Mommy night. Last year, I slept in Meredith's room with her after some fun pedicures. This year, we invited Jillian too, and we moved it to my room (probably the best update for me, since that meant I wasn't sharing a twin sized bed with kids and LOTS of stuffed animals!) Because of the last minute Rangers game, we were on a more rushed timeline for everything, but we got our pedicures and manicures in for all 3 of us (complete with sparkly nailpolish) and then headed for bed!

Mommy and the birthday girl (and of course Rebecca too!)
The last picture of a four year old!
During pictures, Jillian was planning to sleep on her nap mat, but she eventually joined us too!

Go Rangers!

2011-08-30T13:41:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday night, Neal called me mid afternoon to tell me he could get two free tickets to the Rangers game that night and wanted to see if Meredith wanted to go. I thought this was a no-brainer! When he asked her, though, she sheepishly told him no. I worked on her a bit and asked why. Well, the last time she was there she was terrified of the fireworks that go off after home runs, so she was not going back. Neal and I both talked to her and he promised he would cover her ears if there were fireworks (and he even tipped her off that he thought that the other pitcher would be too good for any homeruns anyway!) After that, she would not stop talking about going! She immediately put on her Rangers shirt, had me go get Neal's to take to him, then we went to the garage to get both of their gloves so they could catch lots of balls (she went on to tell me that she needed a bag because she didn't think they could hold more than about 4 of them in their hands. I encouraged her dream, but also let her know that one ball would be a really nice surprise, but not to get sad if they didn't even get that!). We met Neal as soon as he could get there and I left them for their date! I was so excited to hear more. The first text I got was one with this picture.

Cute, right? It is, but the problem is, they are in the concourse because she has been flipping out because the game is too loud. Luckily, Neal was able to remain calm and get her talked back into going in for a bit longer! He didn't text me for a bit, so I was pretty nervous of how things were going....
Ahhh....luckily, I got this one next! A little time got her calmed down and back to their seats - ready to catch balls!
And, as promised, Neal covered her ears when there was a homerun. Luckily for Meredith, it was actually too windy for fireworks anyway, so she was good to go!

It sounds like after they got through the initial fear, they had a great date night. Neal said he doesn't remember much about the actual game, but with this kind of company, it probably didn't matter anyway!

And while they were there, Jillian and I had a little dinner, did a little shopping, and then as we were leaving the shopping center, we see a fountain with horses in it. From the backseat, I hear "Horsies, mommy, weeeease?" And really, there was no way I could say no! So, we parked, hopped out, and we played and played by the fountain. What a special treat for me and Jillian to get to spend a little mommy-daughter time while big sis got to hang with Daddy!

Turtles + Rangers = Happy Girl

2011-08-29T10:55:00.001-07:00

We celebrated with our family after the swim party with some of Meredith's favorites - pizza and cupcakes! And we had a really crazy Turtle/Rangers scheme going on, too! I found a cute idea to make Turtle cupcakes while wasting time on my new favorite obsession: Pinterest! Meredith was pretty excited for them. Then we headed to the party store for a few things and she decided to go with her turtle cupcakes, she wanted Texas Rangers plates and napkins. Well, of course! She even got dressed in her fan gear and requested we put on the game during dinner.

Silly Meredith...wonder where she gets it from?

Oh, I see...Meredith and her silly daddy posing with her cupcakes.
You can never have too many wishes, right?
Meredith got to open lots of fun presents, but the highlight was this cabinet my dad refinished for her - it is a closet that my Grandpa made for my mom when she was a little girl to keep her favorite doll's clothes in. Meredith was really excited!
Everyone took this as an opportunity to show how silly our WHOLE family can be.
Papa added this sweet note to the inside of the closet. Love it.
The closet is very useful now that it is at home full of Rebecca's belongings, but that night it was also the most fun hide-and-seek spot. Notice the laughter in Landon's eyes and the tiny hands to the right of him? That would be Jillian, not quite tall enough to see over yet!
I tried to get all my Ranger's fans in one pic - Meredith was feeling too sleepy to cooperate.
Eventually she came around...
Especially since it meant she could be silly in another picture!

Party like a 5 year old

2011-08-29T10:40:00.000-07:00

We have been planning this fun birthday party for our favorite five year old for months! The best part was we joined with two of Meredith's friends, who were both in her class and on her soccer team so that we could have it at this great pool not far from our house - it has a super fun splash pool for little ones, a lazy river, and a really big slide for bigger kids. It was the perfect place to have it and it was so much fun to celebrate with these two little girls that Meredith has so enjoyed spending time with!

Meredith, Allison, and Kelsey - the birthday girls! I had fun picking up these identical cakes at Costco - got lots of "TRIPLETS?" questions and looks.
Daddy and Meredith had lots of fun floating the lazy river and splashing in the big pool
The big girls were very ready for cake - the cakes were also ready - can you tell that Meredith's chocolate cake had turned into a molten lava cake? It was HOT out there and it was a good thing we cut the cake when we did!
Making her wish! She told us later she wished for a pool like this one closer to our house. Which is funny because this place is probably only 5 miles from us (if even that). Guess when you are a heading to your 5 year old birthday party that 5 miles takes forever!
Luckily no one cared that the cake was melty - probably just made it tastier!
How could I refuse a slide down the slide with the birthday girl?
So fun!

Playdate with Daddy

2011-08-15T21:16:00.000-07:00

Today, the girls and I headed up to visit Neal at work for lunch and a little playdate! He can get us into the Flight Museum by Love Field for free and he had been wanting to check it out, so we all got the pleasure of tagging along on his lunch break.

The girls had so much fun seeing all the airplanes and playing in the Jay Jay the Jet Plane kids area. Luckily, they actually enjoyed all the exhibits Neal had been wanting to check out too! Now we just have to plan a time to go back when we can stay longer than a lunch hour!

There was a fun airplane that the kids could climb in, fly, sit in the seats as a passenger, and then slide out the back
Captain Jillian and First Officer Meredith

Flying Jay Jay
Meredith climbed all the way up to the top of the Air Traffic Control Tower. Jillian started up but was luckily very happy to stay close to the ground. If not, I am pretty sure that Mama in a skirt or Daddy in work duds would have been climbing up after her to get her down - they were some steep steps!
This was one of the real planes that you could actually go in and see some of the stuff you usually don't experience as a passenger - plus they were also filled with Southwest historical memorabilia.
The back of the plane we got to walk through while on the inside of the museum sticks out into the parking lot of the museum so we went to go get a closer look on our way out.
Meredith thought it was really cool to get to stand underneath the airplane
And touch it!
Jillian wanted to touch it just like Sissy, but then was afraid it would be too hot! She was a few inches shy of touching it herself like she would have liked anyway, but I did lift her up to get a little closer look.

Mom's Weekend Out

2011-08-15T21:05:00.001-07:00

Last weekend I got to have a great getaway with two of my dear friends, Lindsay and Kelly. These two girls and I met while working at American Airlines and then cemented our friendship by running a marathon together almost 6 years ago. Since that time, we have all left American (Kelly moved to Austin and Lindsay is now a teacher) but we figured out that we have managed to get together every summer but maybe one - not too bad for girls transitioning jobs and having a total of 4 babies. This summer we headed to Lake Travis in Austin and just relaxed by the pool, laughed and talked until way past our bedtimes, and even got to visit a winery that was so much fun! Now, I will just start my countdown to next year when we get to do it all over again!

We had so much fun at Flat Creek Estate - it just happened to be pretty close to where we were so we went on a whim. It turned out to be ranked as one of the top wineries in the nation - pretty great whim!
I am impressed that none of us look even slightly green in this picture...this was post driving through the winding hills of Austin and a dinner on a moving pier. The pretty views and the fantastically sweet hamburger buns made it all worth it!

Meredith's American Girl "Birthday"

2011-08-09T20:27:00.000-07:00

Meredith's big wish for her 5th birthday has been an American Girl doll for several months now. I decided it would be really fun to invite all the people that love her out to the store so she could pick out the perfect doll. We found out that if we went today we could get Aunt Sandy AND Laura, Vic, and Sarah, too - so we couldn't pass that up. Luckily, I didn't get any push-back from Meredith on getting to have an early birthday celebration either! :)

Meredith took a trip back to the babies before getting into the big dolls so she and Jillian could do a little playing
Meredith picked a doll that looks like her - brown hair, blue eyes, and freckles. She finally came up with her name late this afternoon - Rebecca!
After picking her doll, she had the task of picking out a few things for birthday presents from Gigi, Grandma, Bubbie, and Aunt Sandy. This was so serious, it meant she needed to RUN!
Oh, my silly girls and their silly poses! Jillian has at this point, adopted a little grey kitten. She found that she could open the boxes herself and find such fun treasures! When she found a kitten, she pulled down two, took one to Meredith and then told me "Kitty. Home." Meredith put hers away but Jillian was very insistent that this kitty was hers!
After shopping, we headed to the Bistro for lunch. The dolls all got their own chairs and Meredith and Jillian each had a crowns for their dolls.
We had lots of dolls celebrating - Laura, Victoria, and Sarah all spent last night getting their childhood dolls ready for the big day!
Helping her doll drink Lemonade.

Meredith has passed down her Bitty Baby that Aunt Sandy gave her when Jillian was born to her little sister - I had suggested she let her borrow it just for today, but she wants to make sure Jillian has an American Girl, too!

While we waited on lunch, Aunt Sandy let Meredith open her presents. She got the perfect presents - almost all for her new doll!

Meredith fell in love with this dog in the display, but they were all out of him. They seriously had every other one of the other 12 dogs, but not this one. Amazingly, Sandy had shopped early at the New York store and had randomly picked this exact dog out for her. Can you see her happiness??
The Sooks just got back from Hawaii and PJ picked out this little turtle for Meredith - she was thrilled!
Sandy asked me to get Meredith to pick out a dress that she could make for her, so we browsed the online store. She was a little disappointed that they didn't have a turtle option (ha!) so Sandy made her this dress and gave it to her in advance to wear. When she saw it, she said "Maybe I can ask her to make one for my doll when I get one" not knowing there was one ready to go! As lunch arrived at our table, there was one present left - this dress. She didn't see it and we started to eat. I looked over and saw that Meredith looked a little sad. When I asked why, she told me that she didn't look enough like her doll since they didn't match. We quickly got her to open the last present, and she started beaming! Aunt Sandy saved the day!

There was even birthday cake and ice cream to celebrate!
Me with my sweet 4-year-old! I will take advantage of calling her that for just a little while longer. Can't believe 5 is right around the corner.
The cousins took time to play with the animals that Aunt Sandy treated them to. So Jillian's dream of taking Kitty home was realized!
Having fun with Aunt Sandy!
So loved that all of these ladies and my favorite little guy were all with us to celebrate and spend such a fun day with us!

Car Washing

2011-08-09T20:19:00.000-07:00

After we got back from the beach, the girls and Neal headed out to get some of the sea yuck off of my car....and took the opportunity to wash the girl's cars, too!

Life is a Beach

2011-08-09T18:34:00.000-07:00

Warning for everyone - this might classify under the picture overload category, but we had such a great time on our first ever trip with just our family of four that I couldn't narrow it down!

Neal and I started talking about trying to get away a few months ago and we happened upon a fun looking condo that wasn't too costly and we were sold. The bonus to this trip is that we got to pass by Houston to see our good friends, the Klugs, to meet their newborn son, Landry!

After meeting sweet Landry, we hit the road again and got to Galveston in plenty of time to make our first trip down to the beach. Jillian, who has not been to the beach since she was only a few months old, was possibly the most excited of all of us! She kept demanding "simsoos" (swimsuits) so we could hit the "BEACH!!!" (complete with arms thrown in the air). She was so enthusiastic, she would try to get there through the most direct path - our balcony door. We finally convinced her to take the front door for safety reasons, however! I didn't have my camera for our first excursion, but got plenty on the other days to make up for it.

After a quick trip to check out our beach, we took it easy the first night - we had dinner in the condo and then I headed out for a few groceries while everyone else got ready for bed and watched a movie. When I got back the girls were dying to go to bed since they got to stay in these super-cool bunks that even had their own lights that the girls could control. What could be better?

Meredith was pumped to get the top bunk. We had to really work on her climbing down because she slipped one of the first times she was doing it and then was a little spooked, but by day 2, she was a pro!

I was a little afraid we would have a fight for the top, which I was not willing to let Jillian win for fear she would fall, but she was just thrilled with her bed. She and Sissy did play some on the top bunk which seemed to be just perfect for her.

The next morning after breakfast and me taking the opportunity to go for a run on the beach, we all headed out for a full day of fun!

Jillian, still excited, would periodically, do this "Beach!" pose!

Meredith was most excited to build sandcastles, especially since she had promised to send a picture of one of her creations to her Sunday School teacher.
One of the many castles we made - this one has a Capri Sun packet as a flag. We also made a sand turtle and a sand hippo. Sadly, you can't tell much about them from the pictures I took, but the girls loved them!

Meredith was also pretty excited to fly kites with Daddy. Sadly, I had decided that the two pack from Dollar Tree would fit our needs. This picture shows about how well that kite flew even in some pretty windy conditions.

Luckily, our shell hunt was more successful
Jillian was pretty excited to get into the water too - she loved going out to jump and splash! Big waves scared her and neither girl liked to have water in their faces, but they just loved the beach!
The tiny people out in the water are Jillian and Neal - Meredith stayed behind after having been splashed in the mouth right before this. She made fun in the little waves jumping, though - and then when she saw how much fun they were having, she and I ventured out too.
We also took full advantage of the pool at the condo. Meredith worked on swimming and Jillian loved riding on Daddy's back as much as she could!

That night we headed out to The Strand to explore a little and let Neal get some seafood!

At Fisherman's Wharf - the food and view were both really nice. The girls loved taking breaks from dinner to check out the boats, fish and birds they could see.

The next day, we decided to try out Schlitterbahn. We had so much fun! We spent lots of time in the kiddie pools and their river but we also got everyone on a ride or two!

Our last day we decided to devote to being total beach bums!

There were lots more sand castles!
We tested out floating in the waves

The rings were a hit!

Then I tried to teach the girls to let the waves bring them in from out in the ocean. It turned into them just riding me back to shore, but we had so much fun laughing and splashing!

That afternoon, I was out searching for shells with just Meredith and I was just overwhelmed with what an amazing time we had. I truly just felt like I wanted to bottle up the whole week so I could just go back to it over and over. I was so struck by how big the girls are getting and how blessed I am by this family that I have. I just want to be able to allow myself the time to feel that in normal everyday life. The best part was that, to top off this great vacation, we got to meet our friends, the Hooks family, for dinner. They had just officially moved to the Houston area the week before. I was already missing Jackie and Meredith couldn't stop talking about how she was missing her friend, Grace. We kept the dinner a surprise and she was so excited to walk into the restaurant and see Grace sitting there! After dinner, they came back with us for some fun on the beach. Again, such a great way to end our trip!

This amazing family God has blessed me with! I took advantage of having Jackie there to snap a quick family picture.
Pretty much the only way I get smiley pictures out of the girls anymore is to promise them a silly one. This is the first one we got to do as a whole family and I think I want to keep this tradition up! :)

After lots of playing in the waves and the sand, the Hanks and Hooks kiddos tried out their hands at a silly group pic too!

9 Years and Counting

2011-07-29T19:36:00.000-07:00

On July 27, Neal and I celebrated our 9th anniversary with a fun dinner with our girls. We laughed about how we would have never imagined spending an anniversary with two kids at a little fish place when we first got married. But of course, we had really celebrated the weekend before with a little getaway to Fort Worth and a fantastic dinner. I really couldn't have asked for a better outing (the one with the kids and the one without!) to celebrate with the love of my life! Here's a little pic from our dinner out! Here's to years and years and years of posts just like this one!

Celebrating Jackie and Joyce

2011-07-29T18:32:00.001-07:00

As I said in my last post, my friends, Jackie and Joyce are both moving (Jackie to Houston and Joyce to New York), so last night we had a big party for them. This summer has been pretty emotional for me thinking about these girls not being down the street for me but I am so proud of them and excited for what lies ahead for them.

It was getting late and everything was funny, and I love this picture.

And just because it is so cool, here is Joyce's gift (Jackie has her own that is personalized to her, too). We had our friend, Jon, make these amazing boxes. He personalized them with their names carved inside but also included a symbol that is in our church on the outside. So cool. The necklace includes charms from their friends. We all went to a store and picked out something specific to our relationship with each girl and had them added to the necklace. When I went to pick them up and saw how much they are loved, I really lost it. Luckily, the girls behind the counter didn't judge me too harshly! :)

Jackie and Joyce - not sure what I am going to do without you, except maybe call and text you all the time, but I am going to still miss you both like crazy!

Shoulder to Shoulder

2011-07-29T18:27:00.000-07:00

This summer I got to be a part of an amazing group of women doing an amazing study. My friend, Jackie, spoke at our women's retreat this year on Jesus friendships. She then felt such a calling to the material she had been studying, she went ahead and put together a 6 week study on it. Makes you a little sick, right? Well, it turned out to be one of the best experiences I have ever had. I learned so much and watched all these other women learn along the way, too. The study was bitter sweet as we were also saying good-bye to Jackie and to my other friend, Joyce as they prepare to move. So, on the last night, I brought my camera and took a couple pics...These wonderful ladies

Me and Joyce

Girl Camp

2011-07-29T18:10:00.000-07:00

My friend, Jackie, is the best idea person I know. One of her brilliant ones was Girl Camp. She says she read about this in a magazine, but I wouldn't doubt that she just came up with it on a whim! So, this week, we had 16 girls "enrolled" in girl camp which rotated houses and moms and had fun girly themes each day.

The first day, I hosted with my friend, Amy. She came up with the fun idea to host a circus. We had circus animal shaped waffles for snack, then we had clown crafts, and an obstacle course full of circus activities. We also played pin-the-nose-on-the-clown, tame the lion, then we read books, and watched a circus movie. Amy found this idea to make snake hot dogs, flame thrower fruit kabobs, and popcorn. The kids had a blast!

Meredith, walking the tight rope
Jillian loved playing parachute
After the planned obstacle course, the girls put on their very own circus without any of the moms helping - it was priceless! Meredith was a dancing seal and Jillian just jumped in as needed...
...like to be a baby elephant
Meredith loved her clown gear!

The best part for the moms was that they only hosted one day, so the other days of the week you were girl-free (which, since I am a mom of 2 girls, meant I was kid-free!) On Wednesday, the girls had a Princess Movie day - they watched Tangled, dressed-up, and did Princess crafts. Thursday was craft day at Jackie's family's art gallery. They also took time out to do hair and make-up and a fashion show. Jackie told me that Meredith took such good care of Jillian and they walked the runway together for their portion of the show. Today was the last day, and they had a science and nature day - they took a nature walk, made volcanoes, and brought home goop. Each day Jillian was a bit resistant to being dropped off, but she always told me "had fun at camp!" or "had fun with friends!" And of course Meredith looked forward to it every day. Now, to plan for Girls Camp 2012!

Princess Tea Party

2011-07-29T17:01:00.000-07:00

Several months ago, some of my friends with little girls all bought Groupons to go visit a little store that does Princess Tea Parties and we finally got to treat them to this special treat this week!

First up...sparkly nail polish for the little princesses

And after a little tiny bit of pink blush and eye shadow, Meredith was looking beautiful!
Jillian got the same treatment, but she was a little sleepy, so she was only up for it if I helped
Next, the girls picked out dresses - Meredith picked this one so she would look like Cinderella

Jillian had already picked a blue dress, too - so they were little matchy princesses!
The mommies took turns dubbing their girls "Princess for the Day"
In true Princess Fashion, Jillian insisted her snack and milk come with her (I seriously pulled her out of bed to make it to the party, so I was willing to work with her sleepy demands!)

Our pretty princesses being silly in the carriage
Next up...Tea Time!
She just needs to lift that pinky A TINY bit more.
I had to get a back shot of Jillian's dress that was so long - she was expert at getting around in it, though, especially when...
...she had her entourage helping with her "train"
This little interaction was enough to send my heart swooning. Seriously picturing Jillian in a white version of what she has on....must stop. She is only two.

A little dancing!
The girls loved taking turns in the princess chair
Sister princesses

Cousins Trip 2011 - Sea World!

2011-07-27T20:45:00.001-07:00

On our last day in San Antonio, we headed to Sea World! First up, we hit the Seal show!

Despite the extreme heat and the blaring sun, they were enthralled! Meredith loved it when the walrus did sit-ups and Jillian kept talking about the Seals dancing and "shake booty" - complete with a re-enactment!

The kid's area is newly Sesame Street-themed and super cute! Meredith wanted to pose with every character, and Jillian was just excited to wave!

The carousel horses were even muppety looking
Jillian was thrilled to finally find a "carouself" - she was pretty disappointed that neither the outlet mall or the Riverwalk mall had one. The purple horse made up for that!

Meredith and Rosita

Next up - Shamu!! They both loved the show - their eyes were glued on the whales. Jillian will now imitate a whale noise....and since it was a theme, shows you how they shake their "booties" too!

I think Jillian liked watching the whales!
Meredith showed her approval through her heart-shaped hands!
This is a crazy picture that I took on my phone to send to Daddy because the girls wanted to stand in front of the picture of his plane in the Penguin exhibit.

After lunch, we saw a 4D Sesame Street show and then headed to back to the kids area to play in their sprinkler park.

Meeting Burt and Ernie!

Before ending the day at the park, we checked out their water park too - we played in the waves, the river, and the kids play pool. Not surprisingly, Jillian conked out on the way to get snacks!

Sleepy Beans worn out by the fun day!

Jillian also missed feeding the dolphins, but Meredith had a blast!

Such a great trip for all of us - the kids just loved getting to play together. We are so blessed that they get to spend so much time with their cousin and that they truly enjoy being together. Not only that, we are so blessed that Gigi took so much time and effort to plan a fun get away for all of us!

Cousins Trip 2011 - Fun in San Antonio

2011-07-27T20:21:00.001-07:00

Last week my mom treated her favorite grandkids (and luckily for us, myself and Katie were included too!) to a trip to San Antonio! We headed down on Monday, and after stopping for some outlet mall fun, we arrived at our hotel in time for some Riverwalk exploration and a swim in the pool.

Super excited about the ducks on the river

Silly girls having lots of fun watching the ducks, the boats - and the hippos, too, of course.

The next day we took advantage of our Six Flags season passes to check out Fiesta Texas.

Breakfast at the hotel included Texas-shaped waffles - too cute!
Oh, and Fruit Loops. Meredith now thinks these should be a staple at our house.

Riding in the cars at Fiesta Texas

Luckily, they have a great water park that kept us cool in the crazy-hot weather! That night we were able to experience some Mexican food on the Riverwalk with Landon and Katie too! It had started to sprinkle, so the weather cooled off dramatically. We even ate on the patio - which was great, except that there were lots of birds, and Jillian flipped out when any of them came near us. Can't really blame her since it is well known I hate birds!

The next day, we headed back to the river for a long-awaited boat tour!

Meredith and Jillian were super excited on the tour because the boat driver jokingly pointed out a hippo on the river. Meredith was convinced that Jillian had been right about one living in the river all along!

After the boat ride, we walked to the Children's Museum. I think we might plan to move in there - that place is so much fun! I remember loving it a few years ago, but it was so much more fun with all three of these guys getting to do so many great things.

Jillian loved driving the trolley (or "the bus") Every time we would leave an exhibit, she would ask "Bus?" So we made several trips back to let her drive us to school and church.

Landon's favorite (and what I thought was the coolest) was this huge area that had tons of balls and contraptions that fed the balls into a big bucket thing that dumped on top of the kids when it got full. So cool!
The girls loved playing with this board where they could make hand and face imprints
Time for boats in the water and bubble room!
Meredith loved the kid-sized bubble maker and being in the middle of bubbles. Jillian, of course, preferred to watch!
Trying out her construction skills
Not the best picture of it, but both girls loved playing on the plane ("Like Daddy works for!")
Drive-up bank teller fun!
They have the greatest grocery store ever! It even really scans the food you pick out!

After a quick lunch and naps, we took the real trolley to the Market for a little shopping and some more Mexican food.

Happy trolley rider!
We had fun too!

The kids loved dancing to the Mariaci's!

After dinner, we went back the hotel to watch a movie and try to get a good night's sleep since we were heading to Sea World in the morning! The kids just loved having pop corn on the pull-out couch and spending time together - so fun!

I wanna be a firefigher when I grow up

2011-07-27T12:18:00.001-07:00

A few weeks ago, our playgroup headed out to the Pantego firestation for a tour. We did this last year and it was so much fun! The Firefighters are so kind to take time out to show all these little ones how they live and work! We started off seeing their house and then headed out to see the trucks. The kids had a blast!

Meredith brought her own fire hat!

She got to try on the real thing, though, too!
Meredith was excited to get to sit in the fire truck for real
Jillian was being a little clingy all morning, so she wasn't too excited about this task solo, but with mom and sissy, it was fun!

After the tour, they took us back inside and they let me dress up in the 1,000 pounds of hot that is their uniform.

Quite the look.
Jillian decides she should probably get closer as I start looking crazier and crazier.
She was really not sure she was a big fan of this fun
Showing her my face only helped her a little! :)
Seriously - this is so hot and heavy. And I wasn't running through a fire and carrying someone down a flight of stairs. These guys are tough!

This is Jonathan, he isn't even one. After I had all the stuff on, he just sat in his mom's lap and waved and waved at me (while many of the older kids were giving me some questioning looks). Then he was more than happy to come hang out with me! He really helped the other kids feel better about coming up to see me!
Meredith was ready to pose with me, but...
Jillian required an entourage!

Karate

2011-07-12T07:39:00.001-07:00

Not sure where this came from, but for MONTHS, Meredith has asked me "Mommy, when do I get to start Karate?" It is a question like "When are we having dinner?" or "When are we taking a bath?" It seems like she was under the impression that you just take Karate. And I have no idea why. Neither of us (or really anyone we know) has ever done Karate. I kept trying to ignore it, but she was kind of fixated, so we decided to try to figure out a way for her to give it a shot. We found a guy that teaches at the same place we take swimming lessons, which is really close to our house. He offers a free week of lessons, so we decided to try him out.

We showed up on the first of three lessons we were taking and there were a couple of boys in their full get-up and were several years older and then two 13 year old boys came in to try out the class. Meredith was working HARD! Even the stretching was a big challenge and they ran lines and everything. The second we walked out, she declared that she didn't like it. I didn't blame her - it was intense! The teacher was awesome with her, but it was still a lot to learn in one sitting.

Stretching
Working on kicks

I convinced her to go again on Friday. She was the only one there, which was good, but she also seemed even more overwhelmed. I volunteered to do it with her to hopefully help her. It was fun but I was exhausted afterward! I can't even imagine how she was doing it! The next class was on Saturday, and although we had decided that this probably wasn't the best class for her right now, Neal wanted to see it and she was excited to show him. So we went back. This time there were 2 guys in probably their 20s and two boys that had on serious gear. Oh, and Meredith. Again, the teacher was great - really working with her individually while he had the other boys working on skills. But then he also had her doing things like push ups and sit ups. Neal and I were doubled over laughing at one point because having our 4 year old doing push-ups seemed so WEIRD! Again, this guy seems like he is a great teacher for someone older or more serious - and if Meredith's path takes her to either of those one day in Karate, I would definitely look into him again. Until then, I am on the hunt for a pre K Karate class that might be a little less intimidating for her!

I wish this picture was not so dark so you could see her classmates better, but trust me!

First Pedicure

2011-07-12T07:30:00.000-07:00

Somehow that one doesn't seem to be in the baby book anywhere, but thought I would document it here! Meredith and I worked a garage sale with Gigi a few weeks ago, and I decided my treat with some of the money would be a pedicure - when I mentioned it, Meredith was all about it too, so I figured it would be a fun outing for us! Meredith wasn't quite sure what to expect but she was all for it as long as they had green nail polish for her!

They offered to add flowers or zebra embellishments to Meredith's toes, so I let her choose one. She was very excited for the zebras! As soon as they finished her big toe and I told her it looked cool, she turned to me and whispered "Where is his head?" Luckily, I got her excited about the zebra stripe look especially when they add sparkles. I have to remember that she is quite literal! :)

Toes are ready to go!
Excited to see her zebras (ok, zebra stripes!)
The final product for a fun mommy-daughter day!

Summer iPhone fun

2011-07-12T07:14:00.000-07:00

We have been doing lots of fun things this summer...swimming, Six Flags, playing with friends, and lots of field trips. I pulled off a few pics from some of these outings to share!

A trip to the zoo isn't complete without a stop by the meercats for Daddy!
Posing just like the Kangaroo
Jillian and Caleb hanging with the penguins
Sweet picture of the cousins heading to the fireworks show

Gigi and I took the girls and Landon bowling, too - everyone had a blast! Jillian loved picking her ball, trying to help carry it and then shoving it down the ramp. Meredith loved it too - she did great with the ramp and then tried her hand at bowling without it and even got a spare! (The bumpers were up, the ball was barely moving, and I think she stepped over the line, but whatever!)
Everyone wanted to nap at Gigi's house that day and Jillian insisted on napping in the big bed with Meredith (instead of the crib that Gigi has). This is the first time they have shared a bed! There wasn't a lot of sleeping going on - Jillian was even sleeping with her cheek on a phone.

4th of July Parade

2011-07-07T14:10:00.001-07:00

The next day, which was the 4th, we headed to the annual Arlington parade with Gigi and Landon and met the Steelse and Walkers for lots of fun (and heat!)

Caleb was sweet to share his Duckie, who was Jillian's VBS teacher

Light Up Arlington

2011-07-07T13:49:00.001-07:00

To celebrate the 4th of July, we started off with swimming and dinner with my parents, my grandma, and Landon (who got to spend awhile with Gigi and Papa while his parents were on a fabulous vacation!) After dinner, we headed out to Light Up Arlington for some fun and fireworks! The kids got to go in the bounce houses (Jillian politely declined to participate) and then took a fun train ride! It was a really hectic line to get on the ride, so it didn't even occur to me that I should maybe go, too until the train started pulling out of the parking lot onto city streets with three preschoolers inside! Jillian was my biggest fear - that she might decide she was all done and hop out on the side of the road. Luckily, she was thrilled with the ride and everyone came back safely!

A blurry pic, but still cute of the kids on their train!

We had great seats that were super close to where they were launching the fireworks, which was fun for most of us. Meredith has always been scared of firework noise, so before we went she asked for earmuffs. Keeping the 100+ degree temps in mind, I decided, instead to pack my ear buds and let her listen to my iPod. Unfortunately it didn't help too much - there was still lots of nervousness and tears. Landon was a trooper and just kept his eyes glued on the sky - and his hands over his ears! Jillian was a little hesitant at first, but then loved announcing all the colors! "A o-ange one! A pupple one! Look, mama stars!" I loved watching them with her!

Silly cousins and their light-up swords
Meredith pretending to be Statue of Liberty
Jillian needed to, too!
Taking a break from a sword fight
Love these sweet faces
Trying to drown out the firework noise. Next time - noise cancelling head phones!
Jillian enthralled
She took a break to go visit Grandma, too!
Beans took a break from telling me all about the fireworks to give Gigi and Landon a lesson in colors, too.

Vacation Bible School Fun

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

Last week we had a busy week at Vacation Bible School. Meredith loved her class and learning about Jesus everyday. Jillian is going through a protesting church phase and this week was no different. She would attach herself to my leg each morning and then cry when I removed her to drop her off. After the first morning, she would just keep repeating, "Don't want to church. Don't want to friends." Of course, when I would pick her up, she would tell me she had fun and tell me her favorite things. So, go figure! On Wednesday night, the church hosted a fun night of games followed by a concert at the Levitt Pavilion featuring the Biscuit Brothers. We've loved going to these concerts, so we were excited to get to have such a fun night!

Our first stop was the dunking booth! Mr. David is our Children's Minister and he was up. He and Meredith share a special bond because one of her favorite treats is when Mr. David takes her from helping in our Sunday School room down to her room on Sunday mornings. He takes her "Super secret back ways" that she thinks is the greatest thing ever. So, when we found out he was the dunkee - Meredith could not wait! She got close to the target, but not quite close enough....luckily Mr. David is a great sport and let her just hit the target after. And then also let Jillian, too. The girls thought this was fantastic! They both talked about it all night!

After some hot dogs and a little bounce-housing it was time for the Biscuit Brothers, who were so much fun!

Pre-show dancing snacks and warm-up.

Dancing sisters! Jillian loved this concert - she sometimes gets upset by "characters" - which these guys were not, but she was still all about going up to them when they interacted with the audience and even gave one of the biscuits a high-five.

Then it was time to be silly with Daddy!

Boo Boos

2011-06-26T21:32:00.000-07:00

This has been a bad week or so for scuffed up knees at our house. I fell while running and cut mine up and they were pretty gross. Jillian has been so cute with them - whenever she sees my "ouchies" she says "What happen??" Or "It hurt?" She also spent quite a bit of time one afternoon using her doctor kit stethoscope inspecting them - after ramming it onto my sore-ish knee, she would declare "Betterrr!"

Tonight we were leaving our friend's house and Jillian tripped and got a little cut on her knee. Meredith took over and calmed her down and promised to get her a band-aid when we got home (only after lecturing me that I should have brought some with me!). She led Jillian in the house immediately when we arrived, took her to the bathroom, and quickly got to work doctoring her. I walked in just in time to hear her say "Put your leg out straight just like this." She gave her a Tinkerbelle band-aid, but when she saw the Hello Kitty version and wanted those instead, Meredith apologized and said "Sorry, sister, I should have asked which one you wanted!"

Wish I had gotten a better picture of this sweet interaction!

Papa!!

2011-06-26T21:22:00.000-07:00

We kicked off our weekend with swimming at Gigi and Papa's with friends. I brought my camera to get a few pics of that fun, but it never made its way to the pool. After the party, the girls turned Papa into a jungle gym and had a blast!

Dance Pictures

2011-06-26T21:15:00.000-07:00

My sweet friend, Melanie, came to my rescue by taking these fantastic pics of Meredith in both her dance costume and her Daddy/Daughter Dance outfit. I love them all - thanks again, Melanie! The best part of the morning was hanging out with Melanie and her sweet daughter, Corinne. Corinne is a few months older than Jillian, but Melanie and I always joke that Meredith and Corinne are soul sisters because of little similarities in personalities and their height! All three girls had a blast!

This is how we sleep

2011-06-26T19:56:00.000-07:00

Neal was commenting the other night that Jillian is pretty good about going to sleep without complaining (that is, most nights!) But the truth is, after our bedtime routine (books, songs, prayers, and rocking), she lies down, rolls over very sweetly and closes her eyes a little too quickly. So I have decided, she is actually just trying to get us to leave so that she can do better things. These pictures are from last week - 3 nights in a row of how I found sweet Jillian once she did fall asleep.

Night 1 - a backpack. We find her like this lots. Including the night that we had to spend a bit of time in the bathtub because of tornado warnings. When I brought her into the bathroom, Neal was really confused why I made her put on a backpack to hide out. Ha!

Night 2 - where to start...the girl loves sleeping in shoes. If we don't put them on her before bed, she always seems to find them to put on herself. But she is also particular in which pair she wears. For instance, tonight, she requested "orange" and then later was crying because she needed "pink" instead. Also love how it looks like she either fell asleep while climbing back into bed or, as might be more accurate based on the next picture, she was out of room.
Here is the second version of that night - maybe we need to get this girl a queen to fit all these babies and backpacks!

Night 3 - another common sight - lots of books in bed, but then she added 2 boxes of wipes, a diaper, her orange shoes, a tail-wagging dog, and not pictured here, a whole family of Little People and a plastic Sleeping Beauty.

Not to be outdone, Meredith has been choosing some interesting PJs this week...

On Thursday, we had a playdate at the Hooks' house. The girls were having a blast dressing up as a variety of princesses, and then Meredith came across a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle costume that was Jake's. She was so thrilled! Sweet Jake let Meredith have the costume and she wore it from before dinner through the next morning!
It is June in Texas - temperatures in the 100's - and this is Meredith tonight.

Lemonade!

2011-06-26T19:53:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, my mom and I had a garage sale and I had a special helper who was the best lemonade sales girl ever! She was really excited to help me make the lemonade and then sell it- of course, she also loved drinking it herself! Sweet girl made $10 or so, and would always tell us she wanted to split the money with her sister (who was playing with her Caleb and Merrick.) Love her!

Celebrating with Daddy

2011-06-26T19:16:00.000-07:00

We had a nice full weekend of celebrating Daddy for Father's Day. Saturday night was super special for the girls with a Daddy/Daughter Date night that Chick Fil A sponsored. I told Meredith that you could dress up if you wanted to, so she immediately wanted to wear a tutu! The girls picked out matching tutu like skirts and were super cute!

Tutu girls waiting on their date
Sweet girls were VERY excited!
First date picture! :)

Neal said the whole thing was really well put together - they had reserved tables for the dates, they took their orders at the table and served them, then they also got dessert. Plus the girls got roses and stuffed cows and the they had a dressed up cow ready for pics(which was a hit for Meredith, but Jillian stayed away!) The highlight of the night though was a post-dinner carriage ride! How fun is that!

Jillian was a little scared of the horse at first (as you can tell by the picture) but both girls had a blast on their ride! I can't express how much this added perk made me love CFA even more!

After everyone got home we opened Daddy's presents - following our favorite present tradition, the girls shopped in the dollar section at Target!

Meredith was so excited about the Whoopee Cushion she got for Daddy. She even requested that she store it for him in her playroom.
Jillian and Daddy share a love of popcorn (or "ha-horn" as Jillian says) so she we set on getting him this cup.

On Sunday, we headed to my parent's house for lunch after church and then the whole family headed to Six Flags for a very hot and crowded, but super fun day! The girls loved showing Landon their favorite rides and hanging out with everyone they loved!

splash

2011-06-01T20:30:00.000-07:00

On Friday of last week we had lots of fun things that we had to bring repairmen in for. I was feeling bad that Meredith's first day of "summer" was going to be spent stuck at home until I realized that it was summer - so that means time to break out the kiddie pool! The girls couldn't have been more excited!

Turtle Class of 2011

2011-06-01T20:21:00.000-07:00

After Jillian and I enjoyed some time together, we headed to Meredith's school to celebrate her last day as a Turtle. She has had such a great year - we have been blessed with two really great teachers, Mrs. Harper and Mrs. Lee. She has also gotten to spend the year with many of her friends from last year, but has made new friends, too. This year has been such a big learning year for Meredith, she has really taken to their reading preparation - she loves her sight words and has even started reading some - we are so proud of her! So, we had lots to celebrate at her end of the year party this year. We also got to say good-bye to her sweet friends, who are all going to different schools next year. It will be sad to not see all these same boys and girls every day, but I know she will make lots of great new friends next year.

The day was full of fun - in the morning before the parents got there, the kids and teachers had a water play day complete with snow cones and bounce houses. Then we got there in time for the official party!

All the kids kicked off the party playing a laughing game where they laid on each other's tummies. They thought it was pretty fun!
Jillian decided to give it a shot, too!
The kids each decorated a fun sand bucket with stickers and markers. Guess who picked green?
There was also the ever-popular cookie decorating!
And then more games that Jillian was ready to join right into, too. Meredith loves sharing her sister with her friends - oh, how I pray that continues! I sure love how these sisters love each other!

Six Flags

2011-06-01T19:25:00.001-07:00

Neal has been anxious for a little time away from the office, so he took a few days off so we could have a little family fun - including a day out at Six Flags! Meredith has been asking when she could ride the roller coasters that we see off the highway forever, so now was her chance - and Neal is pretty excited to groom a coaster riding partner!

Our first ride - the trucks. As soon as we were off, Jillian looked at me and said "One more time!"

Next up, the swings! Neal commented on how big Jillian looks just sitting on that ride all by herself. It was pretty cute to watch her get excited to get on the ride, then look around like, what am I doing???

The planes were a little less successful - Meredith had a blast, but Jillian hurt herself getting on the ride, so she cried the whole time.
Posing next to her first big coaster! She said she was a little scared, but I think she had a blast! Daddy was super proud of her because she just hopped on without even questioning if it would be scary! Later in the day, I think she started to catch on that she should be more hesitant, but that is another story!
She and Neal did the mini mine train and the mine train after Meredith and I did the parachutes (that were actually scarier than I remembered them being) So this was really the last big ride we could convince Meredith to do - Neal said she just would take in all the surroundings and would be polite but not too talkative when he would ask her questions to try to keep her calm.
After all the trills, the carousel was right up everyone's ally!
Nothing scary about that!
Meredith was excited to meet Sylvester - Jillian opted to stay with Daddy.
Meredith was very excited to drive the Antique cars while Daddy rode the Texas Giant.
Beans and I were backseat passengers!
We promised Meredith Cotton Candy for snack after seeing some earlier in the day. It took quite awhile for Neal to get through the line for the Texas Giant, so the girls and I headed off to find snack. We seriously walked around for 30 minutes in the most humid heat with no luck finding cotton candy ANYWHERE. Finally, Neal got back and we found a place that had it - but it was enough for 12 people. At that point, I didn't care. We bought it. And if you are craving cotton candy any time soon, swing on by our house.

Can you tell we scooped an almost comatose Jillian out of the stroller for this family picture?
Our only family ride - the cave ride.

We ended the trip with a train ride - love Meredith holding Daddy's hand in this pic. Jillian had been waiting to ride this all day - every time we would see the train she would say "Choo Choo train, I'm comin!"

Last Mommy/Jillian Day

2011-06-01T19:15:00.001-07:00

It was the middle of Wednesday last week when I realized that I needed to not only emotionally prepare for Meredith's last day of school, but also for my last day with just my sweet Beans. For the past two years, she and I have gotten to have lots of great quality time together while Meredith has been at school and I have been so thankful. I remember back to the days when I was at home with Meredith as a tiny baby wondering how I would ever be able to have the same kind of time with another child one day. God was very good to me by allowing me to not only stop working just after Jillian was born to give me more time with both girls, but to also allow us to send Meredith to school. I have treasured those two days with just Jillian. We did everything from just napping together on the couch when she was just a few months old to going to the park or zoo or just running errands and spending time just us two. Next year, we have already signed Jillian up for school, too, which I know will be an amazing experience for her, but I will certainly miss our days of just the two of us.

So, after dropping Meredith off on Thursday, we headed to go feed some ducks, which is always a hit with Jillian!

Looking for some ducks...

There were a lucky few ducks that spotted us and came over for quite a feast! A few more joined them later and then I spotted this really cool big goose that I took Jillian to see. As we got closer, the goose got angry. Then he charged us. As I have probably mentioned before, I have an aversion to birds, so I scooped up a pretty scared Jillian and ran and ran! Probably was hilarious to watch!

After our close call with the crazy goose, we headed to the mall to ride the carousel - much safer!

Jillian went back and forth - first insisting she ride the rabbit, then the cat, but she finally chose the "strich." Again, safest bird of the day!

A little grainy, but still cute!
An M&M cookie - the perfect end to our outing! Plus it was loaded with oranges just for Jillian!

M is for...

2011-05-25T19:36:00.000-07:00

We are wrapping up Meredith's school year and so this week is full of fun! Throughout the year, they have learned characters to go with each letter that are all a part of the Zippity Zoo. Now that they have learned all 26 letters and characters, they got to choose their favorite, dress up like them, and have a parade. For Meredith, choosing Marvin the Monkey was a no-brainer since they share the letter "M."

Happy monkey! I was excited to use my Christmas present - a sewing machine- for its intended purpose. I kept saying I wanted one to be able to throw together random costumes for the girls - and whatever else came along. So I have had fun with it, but now I got to make a "costume." I sewed a tail and made the ears (I also made a Kangaroo tail and ears for her friend since I had way too much fabric). Landon came to the rescue because I wasn't sure I wanted to tackle making a banana too, but he luckily had this cute one courtesy of Uncle Neil's mad-claw machine skills.
My other monkey needed to be in the picture, too, of course!
When I asked for a shot of Meredith's tail, Jillian needed to take part in that too!
Such sweet girls
At the parade with all her friends
Meredith's Turtle class and teachers