Summer

I have heard so many people wax poetic about summer. I'm going to be honest, it's not my favourite time of year. I really prefer spring and fall. I love spending time outside, and summer in Katy is not made for outdoor activities. We go swimming, and go to the park , and we take evening walks, and eat outside. Ok, that last sentence made summer in Katy sound magical. But all of those are early morning or evening activities. Daytime is brutal. We usually spend the hours from 11-5 hiding out inside doing crafts and trying to keep the house somewhat orderly (ok, Andy and I are the only ones trying to keep things orderly, Madeline loves a mess). But in a spirit of optimism and looking at things from a positive light, I am choosing to concentrate on the things I like about summer.

I love early morning visits to the playground.




I love bubbles and pajamas.




I love swimming. I love the smell of sunscreen on my little ones.




I love bringing Owen outside so he can do the exact same thing he always does, except outside. And I love his new set of faces he's learned to make.




I love setting up the sprinkler toys and inflatable pool in the backyard and watching Madeline and Nelson go crazy.




I love flowers in full bloom.




I love sno cones, and red tongues.




I love that the time gets all jumbled up and an afternoon visiting with friends quickly turns into evening and night. Afternoon swims quickly lapse into dinner and popsicles.




I love evening walks as the sun starts to set.




And I love summer naps, and summer nights.

Thursday Nights

One of my favourite things about our neighborhood is all of the activities at the nearby shopping center. They have a beautiful outdoor space with fountains that are made for kids to play in. They sponsor a farmer's market every Saturday morning, and during the summer have a concert series on Thursday nights. Each week brings a different kind of music, but always the same atmosphere. There are kids, so many kids, running and playing in the fountain. And parents visiting. And all smiling and having a good time. I am hoping to go as often as possible this summer.

Happy Father's Day

Andy is probably one of the world's best fathers. He loves both of our little ones with all of his being. He is so helpful with all of the practical stuff. He is exactly what I never knew I wanted, but always did. It makes me so happy to know that our children will grow up with such a great role model and loving father. Because that is exactly what Andy and I both had growing up, and we are so thankful everyday.

Dining Al Fresco

My favorite warm weather activity is outdoor dining. I think everything tastes better when the sun is shining on your skin. We try to have picnics at different parks as often as we can, but for weeknight dinners, we are big fans of backyard dining.



Madeline is a little too small to comfortably eat on our patio furniture, so we usually just spread out blankets and have a picnic. It's kind of fun and feels very comfortable to just sit and eat watching the sun set on another day. When there is a quiet minute you can hear the joyful screams from neighborhood kids playing or the daily conversation of a couple walking along the trail near our house.



After dinner Andy and I take turns playing with Owen and talking about our day. Madeline usually plays with Nelson, ro invents some game to play. This past week she acted out animals as we named them. It was so funny to watch, and pretty hard to photograph, but I kind of think some of the blurred ones are cool.




For a moment I always forget that I am not in some sort of wonderful movie and that this is indeed my life, and then I smile.

Found

You know that wonderful feeling you get when you reach your cold hand into a old jacket on the first cold day of winter and find a $20 bill. That $20 is like the best $20 ever. It is the best way to start a day.
I hardly ever use our point and shoot camera, but I usually keep it with me for those random moments I don't have our nice camera around. Tonight, I reached for it and realized the memory card was full. I was amazed because I hardly ever use it. When I uploaded the pictures I realized I had pictures on there since Halloween! It was kind of fun to find all these pictures. These random snapshots of our lives the past 7 months.
So much has changed. Madeline's hair is so much longer. Her face looks so much more mature. Mine looks so much less puffy (I hope). Owen is alive, and has grown so much.
These are by no means all of the memories from the past few months, but some of the random moments that I'm so glad to relive.


There were laughs at home, rode trips, fun with dogs, and holiday parties.


There was fun with boxes.


There was snow in Katy!


There were Christmas wishes, and Christmas gifts.


There was fun with family.


There was swimming and love.


There were walks to the turtles.


And there were naps for all.

These pictures are certaintly not the best photos we have, and not at all a culmination of our last 7 months, but tonight they were as sweet as those hidden dollar bills just waiting to be found.

Another Awesome Weekend!

I am so lucky, I have had such an amazing May. I love the weekends, who doesn't. It's so nice to be around the people I love all the time, not to put down my coworkers, because I really do like all of them, but they can't compete with my two little ones, and Andy. This weekend we had lots of great family time. Saturday was filled with farmer's market adventures, a golf outing for Madeline and Andy, scrapbooking, and an evening picnic.


Sunday I didn't take many pictures, because a lot of it was spent at the pool, and that just doesn't seem like a safe place to bring my camera. If you had been there, you would have seen 2 very cute little girls (my best friend, Breck, and her boyfriend and his daughter were in town and we all went to the pool together), and the most adorable little boy in the world. Every time I looked around people at the pool (mostly other moms), were pointing towards us with giant smiles on their face. Owen loves the water. He loves baths, and he most definitely loves swimming. He just relaxes and takes it all in. Next time I need to remember my point and shoot camera to take pictures of Owen. And Madeline is really starting to get the hang of swimming. She has work to do, but I'm predicting a short solo swim by mid-summer. We did have some pajama time at the end of the day that I caught on camera. Madeline and Owen are really amazing siblings. They truly enjoy each other so much. They both light up around each other. It's very cool to watch their love grow every day.

Our next two weekends are already full, and then I'll probably have to work through the following weekend, so this weekend was especially nice and peaceful. And how awesome is it that we got to spend the whole weekend together.

Fashion Show

Fashion Show, Fashion Show, Fashion Show at lunch!

That is from one of my all-time favorite Office episodes and I find myself singing that all the time. Now Madeline knows it.

For her birthday last week Andy and I gave her 2 gifts, kind of a his and her gift, but they were both from both of us. We gave her a set of golf clubs, I'll address that on another day, but no we are not crazy parents who are going to push her into jr golf at age 4. We also gave her a shopping spree. This is not nearly as tween-ey annoying as it sounds. Madeline has outgrown a lot of her summer dresses. She usually gets a lot of clothes for her birthday, so I intenionally held off on buying her anything this year. But she had a fun birthday year and got lots of great non-clothes gifts. Usually I got clothes shopping without her. It's easier, and then I can pick out the clothes I like for her, and she doesn't wind up with a wardrobe of exclusively Dora and Barbie. So for her birthday, we went shopping online together. I gave her the choice of shopping online the day after her birthday or waiting until the weekend and going together. She chose online because she loves getting mail. Last week the clothes arrived, and Madeline did a great job of picking out new clothes. She wanted to try them all on, and insisted I take pictures of each outfit. She danced and pranced in each outfit. I didn't know a 4 year old could be so excited about clothes.

Owen does not need the excuse of new clothes to wear 5 outfits per day. He is quite the little drooler and manages to get everything soaking wet. This weekend I gave in and let him wear just a diaper for several hours.

Lazy Weekend

Last weekend we accomplished nothing; it was the most amazing weekend in such a long time. I have a tendancy to plan out every minute of our day, so it was kind of nice to have nothing to accomplish. Plus, it rained almost the whole weekend, so it was the perfect time to just stay in and enjoy each other. Andy went out of town to visit a college friend who finally graduated after 14 years. I was a little nervous going into the weekend. It was my first time with both kids for more than just a couple of hours. Madeline has figured out that she can get away with infantely more when I'm feeding Owen or trying to get him to sleep, and she has started taking advantage of that. It puts me in a very precarious position, do I raise my voice and risk waking Owen up, who fights sleep so hard, or just ignore whatever she is getting in to. I was nervous, but I was also a little excited. I really wanted us to have a fun weekend, and really wanted to prove to myself that I could survive outnumbered.

We were stuck inside almost all day Saturday, but Madeline was amazing. She watched her dance recital video about 5 times, and danced along with every class. Owen and I watched her, and occasionally joined in, but couldn't perform up to Madeline's standards most of the time. I discovered that Owen loves watching the rain. I set his swing up facing the window outside and he loved it. He is going to enjoy summer afternoons on Grandma and Pappy's porch watching the storms roll in with Pappy and Rusty. In the afternoon we worked on a mosaic pixie picture that she had gotten for her birthday. It finally stopped raining in time for us to make a trip quick to the park. Madeline does not stand for her clothes to get wet, so she wore her rain boots, and hiked her dress up as she stomped through the puddles. Owen watched very intently as Madeline tried to explain how to pump your legs so you can swing like a big girl. This is a skill she aquired very recently, but she talks like she is an old pro. My good friend Ashley came over for a dinner of mac and cheese and hot dogs, and then we went to our favourite cupcake place for dessert. It was such a slow peaceful day.

Sunday we had a picnic in the backyard and played silly games that Madeline made up. Madeline decided she was old enough to hold Owen in her lap without any help. She did a great job, and he cooperated nicely. I think that might have been her happiest moment all weekend. She is such an amazing big sister and has so much love for Owen. And he adores her.

I was so nervous going into the weekend that it was going to be hectic and crazy, but it was just the opposite. It was so nice to just enjoy each other and just play. I wish Andy had been there to enjoy it also, but the good thing about weekends is they're only 5 days apart.