oreos

We love oreos in this house.

Kind of funny because if you know me, you know that I don't really like chocolate.

But I do like oreos.

And I couldn't resist when I saw them on sale at Market Street last week for $1.99. I mean under $2 bucks for heaven in a cookie!

Anyway, this post really isn't about oreos, its how you eat them. You've all seen the commercials with person after person eating their oreo in different ways.

So since this blog is about my girls I thought I would post pics of their first oreos.

They are so different.

Grace - Nov. 2007 (pulled her oreo apart and ate the icing first!)

Emma - Aug. 2009 (she just eats it as fast as she can)

(I wish it were a better picture of Emma... she looks so sad... trust me she wasn't!!)

asleep

Every night before I go to bed I go and check on the girls and make sure they have a blanket over them, that they are still breathing, etc.

Well the other night I flip the stairs light on to find Grace asleep on the stairs. So of course before moving her I had to take a picture.

I guess she got out of bed and knew better than to come and find me so she just hung out there and go tired of waiting for me to notice she was there.

She sure does look cozy there.

breckenridge 2009

Last week we headed to Colorado to get away from the 100 degree weather and enjoy the outdoors.

If you know me you know that I grew up vacationing in the mountains. However our vacations to the mountains always came in the Winter/Spring when there mounds of white fluffy stuff covering everything. I've never been to the mountains in the summer. Except a trip to Colorado Springs (located in the foothills of the Rockys) and it was for a soccer tournament for my older brother and I was in 5th grade.

It is so very different in the summer. Just as beautiful but in a whole new green way. While it did make me miss the snow and skiing (its been over 6 years since I've skied) I gained a whole new love of the mountains.

A family photo at the top of peak 9 at Breckenridge. Brrrr... it was cold up there!

We enjoyed the AMAZING weather - highs in the upper 50's/low 60's.

Emma sporting her cute little Breck gear.

We all enjoyed a little Alpine Slide action. Grace LOVED it. When I rode with her she kept telling me to go faster! She sure does love a thrill.


The girls got a chance to ski...
Emma

Grace

Majority of our time was spent outside. There is a beautiful river that flows right through town that the guys went fishing in (well down stream a bit).

We even made some new friends. We met this sweet Laboradoodle while hanging out one afternoon. Labradoodles are hypoallergenic so Grace was so happy that she actually got to pet the dog. She talked about it the rest of trip. Poor girl... LOVES dogs and cats... maybe one day we will have a Labradoodle??

Emma met a miniature horse. The became fast friends.

We panned for some gold... no luck though.


Went mining... no luck there either.

Grace was COLD... very cold down in the mines and Adam and dad were wearing SHORTS!!

The whole family... my mom sure looks like a natural?

(From left to right)

Todd (my little bro), dad, me, Grace, mom, Adam and Emmy

On yet another walk... the flowers there were beautiful. Seriously you can't grow flowers here in Texas like they can up there. Shoot all the flowers around here are practically dead!

Emma enjoying spaghetti... pretty much the only meal she actually ate. She is becoming quite the picky eater! And yes she is sitting in a regular chair. She has been boycotting highchairs lately and I've decided its not a battle I choose to fight over.

We even enjoyed a little dress up at the local Children's museum.

And of course a little view of the ski hill at Breckenridge... I believe that is peak 7? Grace enjoying the view at Maggie Pond.

Overall, it was a great family trip.

And what trip would be complete without the following -
Adam got sick the last 2 days of our trip.

Grace got ringworm - can't believe I'm writing that here, but thankfully its all gone now... I've decided she got it from the plane ride to Breck!

Grace threw up on the plane on the way home.

Emma screamed for a good 30 minutes on the plane ride home. It was probably a combinations of being overtired, her ears hurting and I think she was ticked about us giving her Benedryl (which didn't work!).

Thankfully we made it home. We also decided we are driving on our next trip. We had to bring WAY too much stuff - 1 pack 'n play, 2 car seats, 1 set of gold clubs and 3 suitcases, plus 1 carry-on backpack for everyone... yes we checked SEVEN items. Thankfully we flew Southwest where you can still check bags for free and 2 baby items count for 1 regular item.

We would still go back in a heart beat. So many things we didn't have time for this trip so maybe next year?!

Thanks for a great trip everyone!

3.5

My baby girl is 3 1/2 years old. How can I possibly have a little girl that is on the bend to her fourth birthday. 4 sounds so grown up doesn't it. Well maybe it isn't, but some days it sure does feel like it. I know in another blink I will be sending her Kindergarten. Thankfully I still have 2 precious more years with her at home.

Grace is such a great daughter. While many days she does say little comments that at first I wonder where she heard it, then I remember that I said it the day before. For example, its been really hot here. I think almost everyday while we are loading up in the car I will say "its hot tamales"... and sure enough now if we are out and about Grace will says "hot toemalees" (yes its sounds like she is saying "toe" "malees"). And we often use the phrase "see you later alligator" and "after a while crocodile"... well she gets the alligator and crocodile mixed up... its really cute and I think when I laugh she knows its wrong but also knows she is just being cute.

These days Grace loves puzzles. She is doing little 15 piece jigsaw puzzles all on her own. She also told me that all her "old" puzzles are now Emma's b/c they are for babies. Well hey at least she is sharing.

Grace's favorite food right now is by far cereal. Good thing her mamma is a crazy couponer and has loads of boxes of cereal. She would eat it for breakfast, lunch, snack and dinner if I let her.

Grace's favorite books right now are Fancy Nancy, still Pinkalious, The three little pigs, and really any other fairy tail. She really loves when I just tell her stories... so sometimes I just make them up as we go along.

She also has a love/hate relationship with her little sister. When Emma is asleep or with my mom, Grace always wants to know where she is. In the same breath, when Emma is up and around she wants whatever her sister has. And of course vise versa... hopefully we get this sharing thing down at some point. I think she has just gotten a little spoiled being home all summer... starting back to school in a few weeks might be a really good thing.

Grace also continues to do great with her speech. We have been working on "s" blends all summer and we are getting there. She will say the words like "sweep" or "swim", but when we try to put it in a sentence it still comes out "fweep" of "fwim". So we will keep working. But she is making strides and trying really hard and that is all we can ask of her. We really couldn't be more proud... she really is a good little student and eager to learn and preform.

I guess that is all that is going on grace's life for the moment. We are really blessed to have such a sweet and happy little girl to be in our lives. We love you Gracie and look forward to many more memories with you!

just Grace...

This weekend Adam and I toook our oldest daughter to the lake! Some of our sweet friends invited us out to their parents lake house on Lake Jacksonville.

It was a perfect lake house made just for entertaining and having fun with friends and family. The house was built over the water so their view from the back deck was amazing. We had fun relaxing, driving the jet skis, drinking our favorite cold beverages, being pulled to our death on the tubes (I am so sore today!!), and going for cruises around the lake in their barge. Leslie, thanks so much for inviting us! We had a blast!!

Enjoying the sunset...

Part of the view... beautiful!

What trip to the lake would be complete without watermelon??!!

And of course Grace trying to "help" Steven drive.... hold on girlfriend... you have a lot more years to go!!

More pictures to come... I didn't have my camera out the first half of the day!

*********************************

Oh and don't worry, Emma was spoiled by my mom. Since the deck had no railing we figured it would be safer (and that Adam and I would have a bit more fun) if Emma stayed at home with my mom. My dad was out of town at a golf tournament so I think my mom wanted someone to keep her company. Thanks mom!

hot time summer in the city...

We have been enjoying summer so much that I've forgotten to update my blog!!

So in case we are wondering how we are doing... we are great!

And in case you are missing pictures of my two cuties... enjoy...

It's hard to tell but I'm not sure they like having their picture taken!

Hope you are having a great summer!!