Aunt Ashley & Baby Preston

One of my college besties and her sweet boy came to visit us last week.  Even though Ashley and I have 30+ minute phone conversations at least every other day, it was so much fun to just get to hang out together for four days.

Annabel loved "Baby Pet-it" so much.

Look at this adorable face.  He was on the go constantly.

Our attempts to get a group shot...

Annabel felt she needed to hold Preston's hand while feeding him his bottle.  So cute!

I was sad to see this cutie go.  He's going to be a heart-breaker!

We mostly just hung out at home, but one of the days, we got a babysitter and Ashley and I went to Crystal Bridges and out to lunch.  It was nice to have a kid-free morning to relax together, just like the good ol' days.  

Ashley went to bible study with me one night and one of my friends said how nice it was that I have friends that can come and stay a whole week with me because when they get to catch up with old friends it's usually a hurried lunch or a quick chat.  I couldn't agree more.  It was such a nice visit and we look forward to making it an annual thing!

Summertime Fun

We've had quite the busy August and I got way behind on blogging, so bear with me.  Let me start where I left off.  We got back from our trip to Texas and spent a few days just playing at home.

This little one woke up from nap one afternoon very cranky.  She wanted to sit in my lap, but refused to look at me.  I took her picture anyway.

We tried on all our dance clothes one day to see what fit and what stuff we needed to buy.  Annabel thought it was fun to put on every skirt we owned.

My girls have the sweetest daddy.  He dances with them all the time and plays the part of Adeline's prince.  Adeline has become obsessed with princesses getting married.  She talks about it all the time.  Adeline: I like it when the prince & princess get married.
Jon: Do you want to get married?
A: Yes.  Who is going to choose?
J: You get to choose.
A: I choose you, Daddy.  You going to be my prince.

Adeline's also had a giant growth spurt this month.  Thank goodness it's acceptable for your pjs to be high-waters.

Annabel wants to wear these Cinderella house shoes all the time.  I think she likes them because she can put them on herself.

Some friends of ours got a box at a Natural's game one evening.  The kids were so excited when the mascot, Strike, came by to visit.

Annabel and Caroline being silly.

We had a backyard play date at our house one Friday.  It was unseasonably cool..like 65 degrees cool.  We had the best time.

This little explosion of personality makes me laugh every day.  This is her favorite dress-up attire.  Adeline tries to tell her every time that princesses don't wear hats.

I worked one Saturday, so Jon dressed the girls in athletic clothes and sandals and took them to Cabela's.  I think they think that place is a playground just like going to Boingo Bounce or something.

That night Juliet and Murry came to visit and we spent all evening outside.  These girls were cracking us up.  Annabel was in the driver's seat, but Adeline was pushing the gas and Murry was steering the car.

Aunt Juliet brought Adeline a Cinderella doll.  She was so excited and said, "That was so sweet of Juliet to give me this Cinderella!"

Annabel is still going strong in her "my do it" attitude.  Sometimes she's more independent than Adeline.

On Sunday night of August 18 she decided it was time to pee in the potty.  She's been doing it ever since.  A lot of times she doesn't even tell me she's gone.  I just happen to notice the potty being full or her running around with no bottoms on.  It's so true that if you wait until they're ready, your life is so much easier!

A few funny conversations...
Adeline: When you & Daddy got married did you kiss?
Me: Yes
A: And then did you ride away on the boat & wave bye bye to all the mermaids?

Adeline: May I have another tiara, please?
Jon:  You mean tortilla?

Adeline: I drank all my water at church and my teacher gave me more, but I didn't use manners and say 'thank you'
Me: We need to always use manners.  Just ask Jesus to help you.
A: Well, when I go to Heaven to Jesus' house, then I'll use my manners.

Adeline: Mommy's got whiskers on her eyes.
Me: Whiskers or wrinkles?
A: Wrinkles!
Jon: Well, she is about to be 30.

I touched a bruise on Annabel's forehead the other day.
Annabel: Bery owie, Mommy!  No ma'am!

Out to eat dinner in a restaurant with very close tables..
Adeline: I ready to get old so I can go see Jesus.
Then pointing & shouting: Look!  That lady right there is old!

As I was putting Adeline to bed the other night she said: You ready for me to go to bed so you can watch Duck Dynasty?
(They pick up on EVERYTHING!)

If you are my friend on Facebook you've already seen all of these, but this is a much better place of keeping up with them all so I had to record my favorites.

Happy Birthday, Nana!

The girls and I traveled to Texas last Thursday for my mom's birthday.  As soon as we got there, Adeline insisted she open her present from us.

Then, I put Cranky Pants Annabel to bed, and Adeline was begging to go outside.  Since this is what the thermometer said....

We broke out the kiddy pool.

Tulip found herself a cool spot, as well.

My grandma cooked a birthday dinner for my mom that night so I got to visit with lots of cousins.  

Annabel is insisting on sitting on the potty multiple times a day, but has yet to do anything.

Friday morning we went to visit Tiny for a little while.

And Friday evening was the big shindig with 22 folks at my mom's favorite Mexican food place.

Saturday we just played at my parents', swam at my grandparents' and visited with lots of family.  Tiny & Big T came to visit that evening and Tiny brought some homemade ice cream.

It was scorching hot, but I feel like my girls just have to experience Texas summer at least once a year.  

Happy birthday, Nana!  We hope it was a good one.

The Last Month of the Summer!

**I will blog about Disney World when I receive my photo CD.

By August every year I'm pretty much tired of Summer.  I've had enough heat and no routine.  I'm ready for cool breezes and KDO and Bible study and football.  However, I'm not wishing away the time and I'm going to enjoy August as much as I can before the busy-ness of Fall begins.

We had our mail held while we were in Florida and I went to pick it up the day after we got back.  I was so excited to go through all of this.  I love mail and I'm going to be so sad when they stop running on Saturdays.  I think that's coming up this month, actually.  :(

Another thing I was so excited about when we got home?  A home-cooked meal!  Eating out every meal got old fast, real fast.

A lot of this post is going to be about Annabel, because she is just about taking up every ounce of my attention and energy these days.  Her personality is really developing, which is so very fun, but what's not very fun, is that the "Terrible 2s" is rearing its ugly head.  She amazes me with what comes out of her mouth these days.  Adeline was not talking nearly this much at her age.  I think having an older sister plays a BIG role.  The other day she told me, "sit down, Mommy!" and when I did, she climbed right in my lap.  I'll take those cuddles any chance I can get.

These girls have been even more obsessed with princesses since we've been back.  They want to watch Ariel or Cinderella nearly every day.

Adeline had us all pretending we were mermaids the other day.

Tiny came to visit us last week, and we had some fun family time with Shane, Juliet, and Murry, but I didn't get any pictures!  Shame on me.

Saturday morning it stormed so loud it woke me up at 6:15.  I felt pretty rested so I decided to go ahead and get up.  I made myself a cup of coffee, settled into a cozy chair with God's word and my puppy dog and listened to it rain.  It was the most comfortable and relaxed I've been in a long time.  It was so dark and rainy that my whole family stayed in bed until 9:00.  That will go down as one of my most favorite Saturday mornings ever.  Side note - it ended up raining 4 inches in 4 hours that morning!

When Tiny came she brought us a lot of veggies from my parents' garden.  We've been eating them all week.  One of my favorite things about summer!

Saturday afternoon the sun came out, so Mollie & Stephen invited us to go to the lake with them and Mollie's parents.  These three girls loved riding in the boat together.  Mr. Fred even let Adeline drive us, and the girls and Jon got to go for a swim after dinner.  They have a big inflatable slide on their dock where you can slide into the lake.  Annabel had no fear and went down it immediately.  It took Adeline a few times of watching Sister go before she decided she could do it, too.

And Sunday was church day.  The girls accessorized with their pretty necklaces from their cousin Cari.

Mollie volunteered in Annabel's class that morning and she sent me this sweet picture of our two cuties rocking together.  We love Caroline!

Annabel's favorite phrase these days is, "My do it!"  It takes her approximately 20 minutes to finish a carton of yogurt, but she is not about to let me help her with even one bite.  Frustrates me to no end!

After lunch, Adeline said, "I want to go catch frogs, Daddy."  I told him he better take her or never blame me that she's too girly again.  They didn't catch any frogs, but they did find some crawfish and rollie-polies.

Sunday night the young, married adults from church had a sand volleyball tournament.  Mollie and I were two of the only girls in our class who were both in town and not pregnant, so we were automatically recruited.

It was a lot of fun.  We won our first game, but lost the next two, and I'm still nursing a foot injury, but I'm looking forward to playing again.  Another side note - when I was sitting and watching, I was actually cold.  Who would have thought in August?

And here's Annabel crying actual tears after a hysterical meltdown over not being able to push the button to close the car door (since she physically could not reach it).

Silly, sweet sisters.

I got some pretty shots of this blue-eyed beauty when we were outside after dinner one night.

Yesterday we learned about Proverbs 15:1.  I would say something and she had to decide if it would make people happy or sad.  She loved and it, and even got to make up stuff for me to play.

I figured it was time that Adeline knew how to draw a person without the arms and legs coming out of the head.  I did a little OT with her and this was her first drawing afterwards.  Not bad!

And more veggies...

Here's Miss Independent refusing to let me open a sucker for her.  It's that bad.  It's even so bad as she throws a hysterical fit when we change her diaper, because "My do it!!"

Today has been a particularly trying day.  While I was eating breakfast she went to her room and dug through her sister's panty drawer and proceeded to try to put every single pair on, over her pajamas.  (Then threw a fit when I took them off, of course.)

So I decided, fine, wear some panties if you want.  She sat on the toilet every 10 minutes from the time she woke up until after lunch.  Never did a thing.  Every single time involved a fight over her wanting to don/doff her panties, at which she is not an expert.  I finally held her down and put a diaper on her.  She still wouldn't go.

We took a walk because the thermometer said 89.  I should have looked at the humidity & heat index.

"It's too hot.  I'm ready to cool off!"

An hour later we get home, still no pee in the diaper.  We all take a shower and while I'm getting dressed Annabel puts on yet another pair of panties (with both legs in one hole, so basically just around her waist) and the dam finally breaks....all over the living room floor.  Lord, give me strength, and patience, and whatever else I need to get through this phase!

The other day Annabel said, "I'm going to turn on the light, ok?"  Plain as day.  She also pointed to a kite in a book and said, "diamond."  Stubborn AND smart...excellent combination.

She's currently been napping  rolling around in her bed for an hour practicing her favorite phrase "My do it!"  Please pray for me.  Hah!