Water fun

The girls and I had a great time at Andy's friend Garrett's house. Garrett is a stay at home dad (who does an awesome job) so he is around during the day to play. We went over there and Garrett had set up a virtual water park! The girls had so much fun on the slide. Meanwhile, I was in seventh heaven playing with James, their 7 month old. He is the cutest thing ever. I swear that I did not hear him cry at all in the 4 or so hours I was there. He is so adorable, in fact, that I am willing to show a picture that makes the braces obvious. As you can see, he is worth it.

Summer and things that I am happy about...

-watching Natalie run.
-seeing Meagan starting to write, dance, and do gymnastics.
-the Chicago cubs being in FIRST place, even if they are doing their best to throw it away.
-knowing that my girls love to sleep as much as I do.
-getting samples at the little cooking station booth in the middle of HEB.
-knowing that my friends from high school are closer than before (Sandy and Michelle now being in Dallas, Daniel soon to be in Austin.)
-Continuing to revel in my Kansas Jayhawk's amazing sports year because that will never, ever, ever, happen again.
-listening to my girls talk about how much they love their Grandmas, Papas, Uncles, and Aunt.
-the excitement over the election and knowing that a change is around the bend.
-happiness over the fact that the majority of the things I need are close by so I don't have to drive far considering gas costs more than a mortgage.
-knowing that even though it is going to be over soon, I still get next summer, and the summer after that....

Make a Smilebox free ecard

Make a Smilebox photobook

A few random photos

The three photos were taken by Andy's friend John at one of the softball games. I love the one of Natalie eating her ice cream. The child always, and I mean always, manages to get a TON of food on her whenever she eats. I suppose that is heriditary to some extent, as I 99% of the time get food in my hair when I eat. Summer says no one should tell me until I finish eating, as their will still be more to get out anyway.

Natalie's buddy Jackson, Lexi's little brother. He is adorable.

A link to YouTube

We captured my silly little monkeys telling us about their lives today:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cVp11twfJc

I will post tomorrow photos of our evening. We had friends over and played "Would you Rather?", which is a fun board game.

Ah, the sweet irony...

Brian is here visiting and he turns 30 on the 19th. We wanted the gift to be a very special one, so we purchased him a framed photo of George Bush and a snazzy t-shirt bearing McCain's name. Meagan gave him one of her precious chocolate Silk Soymilks! As Brian is a loyal Democrat, we appreciate his sense of humor. I definitely think Andy and I found the gift way funnier than Brian did. :-)

Natalie managed to break a huge Crate and Barrel bowl today, shattering it into a million shards all over the ceramic floor. Uncle Brian cleaned that while Meagan and I cleaned up her big mess of lite brite thingies. I am ready for bed already. Too bad the kids are not.

Awwwww....

Meagan's hair is so long

She wants it braided now because her friend Faith braids hers a lot. Her hair goes all the way down her back. It seems like forever ago that she was my little bald baby (as seen at 4 months with Uncle Peter.)
We have had mixed results with the sharing a room thing. The first night was awesome. They went right to sleep and woke up at 8. The next two nights Natalie ended up back in her room, but last night was a good night again. Happily, they like being together. When Natalie was first born I felt so guilty bringing home a baby when my older daughter was still a baby herself. It was crazy for a long time, but we are reaping the benefits now. They adore one another, although they do bicker. It is usually Nati freaking out about something silly, but Meagan has learned to just agree and say, "You are right, Natalie."

Sharing a room?

Tonight we decided to let the girls share a room. Meagan has a trundle, which is the perfect introduction to a bed for Natalie. They are up there giggling up a storm. Natalie normally sleeps until 9 on her own, and Meagan has been getting up around 7:30ish lately. I don't think we will do this everyday, but it was so cute to see how excited they were. Plus, we didn't have to go through the interminable bedtime routine. Ideally ,I would love for them to share a room for a few years. We don't need for them to share, but that seems like a fun part of having a sister only 19 months younger than you!
They are growing up too fast.

Happy to be in our country

We have been attempting to get the girls to understand, even at the most basic level, that not everyone is lucky enough to live in our country, in the lifestyle that they are used to living. Meagan gets worried about things, like "Do the poor kids get to see fireworks?" Andy made a valiant effort to get her to understand that the poor kids are probably not too worried about the fireworks, but that they could see them somehow.

We started our Independence Day celebration on Thursday at the Avery Ranch display. We had friends come over and then walked down the street for a great view. Last night we went over to Stephanie and Darrell's to let the girls celebrate with Lexi and Jackson and their friends. All of us had an awesome dinner and then went to see the Cedar Park display.

Click on that bottom picture of my goofball girlies. Not to be bragging, but check out to gorgeous eyes on that little one! Both of my girls are beautiful, but just had to show off Natalie's peepers.

The result of two hours worth of work

Ok, so this is sort of pathetic, I admit. But hey, I am a busy mommy of two girls 19 months apart and work full time outside of the home. Therefore, things like pantry cleanout tend to fall to the wayside while more important (like reading a book or talking to a friend) things get my attention. I spent two full hours today taking everything out and cleaning the shelves. The result is above.

Today is Meagan's first real swimming lesson. As I have mentioned before, she hates (hates, hates ,hates) new things. Her teacher said that I should stay inside her house and watch from the window. We will see how that goes.