Five Years Ago Today...

I married my best friend.....

Happy Anniversary to my partner, my baby daddy, and my love.

I love you Andy.

One of the best things about living where we do..

I love living where we do in The Woodlands....

It's a hike up 45 from Houston, and Andy may have an obnoxious commute...

but isn't it worth it when you get to experience this???

Alright, so the deer by our house aren't as tame as the ones at Old McDonald's farm where we went today..
I like this one....like they've said their goodbyes and are on their way...
But in all seriousness, one of the best reasons about living where we do are friends like the Cocke's....Addison asks for Beckett several times a day

Today we loaded up the kids all in one car and took a little road trip to Humble to Old McDonald's farm. Sheila's and my favorite part was probably the Starbucks and conversation in the car on the way there. Thirty uninterrupted minutes of conversation and coffee that's still hot by the time you get to drink it are both a big deal!

We had fun feeding the animals....
Addison liked checking out the ducks. When we left she said, "See ya Ducks!"

Graham just took everything in....such a sweet baby, can't say it enough.
Addison's favorite part besides the hay barn was probably feeding the sheep...
who were a little eager to eat.....
and actually grabbed the bag of food right out of her hand..

and then it was on to the hay barn, which reminded me of a smaller version of the barn at the Oil Ranch that was so awesome as a kid.

Beckett was very excited.

Addison loved running around in the hay and threw an all out tantrum when we had to leave


I put this picture in here only to show you the MANY school buses that were there. This would be why we only stayed 45 minutes because there were probably at least 700 other kids there who wanted to run and play in the hay too....
This picture is blurry but it makes me laugh because this was Sheila trying to grab both kids and make a run for it as the field trip kiddos started to take over.

Loving it

There is one baby stage that gets me every time. I LOVE when they find their feet. It's the cutest thing. This age...that 4-6 stage is awesome. Because he's finally sleeping through the night, right?

Well, no...

But he's just so sweet, cooing, laughing, entertaining himself with a single toy for 30 minutes, and NOT GOING anywhere. I'm loving it.

Little chubby feet and hands. Stop getting bigger. Stop it.

We had family come out this weekend and had so much fun enjoying the gorgeous Houston weather. Won't be saying that much longer....stop getting hotter...stop it.

Except that if by chance it does continue getting hotter, than perhaps we'll just have to break out the water slide a little more. Loving it.

Aunt Sarah and the sweetest baby ever.

Cousin Iris...so cute in her pink swimsuit.

Take a look at droopy drawers. The top is tiny, tiny, but the bottoms are just falling off of her. She obviously does not get these proportions from me.

Almost able to climb up herself.

And then crutch man dad took over the process of putting everything away. Gave directions while hobbling around the backyard. Stop it.

No seriously, stop it!! Are you kidding me...please don't hurt yourself again....ever.

Look at that intensity.

Speaking of intensity....Addison didn't know what was going on with dessert. We sent Uncle Mike to the store to get ice cream....you know, like regular good 'ole vanilla ice cream to go with....

these..

cupcakes from that new cupcake bakery, Frost. You know you want one. We got 8 so that I could eat 3 and everyone else could eat 1 there was plenty for everybody.

Someone was pretty happy about it.

Crisis Averted

I was sitting down at the computer tonight, which is right outside Addison's room when I heard a loud banging from inside. She had already been "asleep" for an hour, but I went in to check things out.

She immediately stood up and started yelling, "Get out!", "Downstairs".

"Sorry kiddo, it's bedtime and it's time for mommy to finally get some peace and quiet, enjoy a glass of wine while checking in with the outside world through e-mail. you to go to sleep."

Well, she felt differently and proceeded to scale her crib that I swore still had a good year of life left right in front of me before dropping to the floor and running for the door.

"ANDY! We have a situation!" Five minutes later, crutch man has made it upstairs. =)

We decided to blow up the kid aerobed and buy us a few days before having to deal with the toddler bed this weekend. We got her settled in her "new" bed with all 10 things she has to sleep with at night, read her a final story and said goodnight.

She proceeded to wail and run for the door. So we waited her out with video monitor in hand outside the door. All I could think about was the fact that Graham is still getting up 2-3 times each night and now I was going to have to be dealing with this.

Well after 5 minutes of crying, we watched through the monitor as she ran to her crib throwing all 10 things BACK, and begging to go back to her old bed.

So for now, .... crisis averted.

Sweet dreams.

Cheese & Foreshadowing

It's rare that I can get Addison to

(a) look at the camera

(b) smile

or God willing

(c) do both.

I'm trying lately to get her to say cheese, and today, she grabbed her own camera and started taking "pictures" of herself.

"Cheese"

I love how she smiles for her own pictures.

and then Little Man is taking in a show

fast forward ten years, and he'll be like his dad glued to the tube watching a game.

focused on an intense play...

And then I'll try to get his attention and he'll look at me for 0.05 seconds before

going straight back to the game.

Thankful

My dear friend, Becky, gave Graham this cross that I hung in his room today.

And while I was hanging it, I heard Addison playing behind me....and turned around and found her like this...

and I don't know why, but it made me laugh....maybe because she couldn't get out and I have no idea how she got in Graham's bath seat in the first place....
and that she just put up with me taking pictures of her...because, really, what choice did she have?

But I hung that cross in Graham's room today and was reminded how thankful I am that I get to be the mother of these two precious kiddos....and all the laughs and smiles that come with that...

and am so blessed that God has trusted me with that huge responsibility.