Sweaty Souers

We spent the first part of June in CA visit Blake's family.  I stayed with the girls for an extra week and Sharlene flew back with us to Houston to help me get the girls home.  

Bakersfield is hot this time of year...hot but dry.  Houston, on the other hand is just plain sweaty.... and Blake's mom voluntarily left her dry climate and came to stay for a week.  That's love.  

Granddaughter love!

When Blake was growing up, his brother, Coleman, went through this phase when they were little where he had an alter-ego, named "Sweaty".  To this day, the family still affectionately talks about "Sweaty" and he even made an appearance this past Christmas.

Sweaty would have definitely been in his element with us in Houston.

We were incredibly busy the whole time doing projects around the house, like we always do when she's here, but we also had time to hang out in our jammies and just let these girls get as much time with their Yiggie as possible!

 Whenever Blake's parents come to visit, we are busy from sunup to sundown.

Sharlene is my design consultant, my project executioner and according to the neighbors, the hired help.

This time, we focused primarily on the backyard patio, which required a few new purchases of plants and an umbrella and hanging Blake's hammock.

We moved around my ridiculously heavy pots, nixed our ugly storm door that I ended up selling on Craigslist....

...and then, because we weren't sweating enough, we decided to relocate all the flagstone that was stacked up and throwing off the decor of the newly designed patio.

We rearranged the furniture upstairs, did some light rearranging of the furniture downstairs....

...and even did some sewing.

We went out to lunch, shopped....

...laughed a lot and even laughed even more about how much we were sweating.

Growing up and living in this humid climate, I'm used to it.  But, in all these years of living here, I've never licked my arm to see how salty I tasted from sweating so much.

Actually, come to think of it, I've never seen anyone do that.

Sharlene kept doing it and then gagging/laughing because she was so salty.  I think Coleman needs to send his alter-ego down to Houston with Sharlene for her next summer visit.

I can see it now.... Caroline and Ellie are going to be asking me to lick their arm to determine who is saltier.

Ew, no thank you.  That's what Yiggies are for!  :)

Either way, sweaty or not, we had a great time, and Yiggie, we're already looking forward to your next visit!!

He is Risen Indeed

Every year, Amber's extended family gets together to celebrate Easter at her Grandparents ranch in LaGrange.  They've invited us for the past several years to join them, and it's a total treat for us.

The first year we were there, was the day before we found out I was pregnant with twins.  

Fast forward two years and we have two little girls doing an Easter Egg hunt for the first time.  

Each girl had their own basket and they were able to put anything they wanted in and out of their basket for as long as they wanted.  

Caroline and Ellie were in heaven.

They were completely captivated the entire time.

The front yard of this ranch house is massive and they could walk wherever they wanted.

They kept venturing off walking one direction, but then realizing that their sister was somewhere else, they went to go find the other one.

Then, Amber's Granny comes over and shows the girls that the eggs actually open and there are things inside of them....

...and with that, the plastic eggs got a whole lot cooler, and the girls were trying to open and close the eggs for the rest of the time.

Well...and eating them.

Just like the last 2 years, I wanted to get a nice family picture.

Take 1:  Caroline crying and Ellie totally in the zone

Take 2:

Take 3:  Well, at least Blake and I are smiling....I guess this is the keeper for 2014.

Bobbie, Amber's mom, gave us bunny ears for the girls yesterday, so of course, we had to bring them and let the girls wear them for the day.

At home, they love to TRY ON bows but they love even more to immediately take them off, i.e. just give mommy a tease and not actually wear anything on their head.

Caroline having a brief technology distraction.  This girl and cell phones...

So, of course, we were cracking up when they wanted to keep wearing their bunny ears for the afternoon.  I never know with them.  

It was a great day.  They had fun and we probably had even more fun watching our babies discover new things.

...and as always when we're outside....hearing new things.

Groesbeck

We went to Groesbeck to visit the Byrds again a couple weekends ago.  Caroline and Ellie were just begging us for a weekend to simply "get away from it all."

This is our third time up there and 2/3 times that we've been there, it's been dreary and wet...but still gorgeous.

Caroline

 The girls did so great with the dogs and even wanted to get close to them several times, which is a HUGE step for them!

Ellie watching the dogs from afar

Caroline getting up close and personal.  

We found out while we were there that Debbie is going to have a little girl in August, and we are all thrilled.  Sarah Byrd.

Blake and I can already see it coming....Caroline and Ellie fighting over Sarah!

Blake with Ellie

 We're already looking forward to the fun all 3 girls are going to have playing together in the woods with the dogs and cows...

and who knows, maybe even learning how to hunt with their Daddies!

All that to say, we're all looking forward to the bonds that Sarah and the twins are going to have...or at least we HOPE they will have!

Can't wait to meet Sarah in August!

How do you Capture the Memories?

I have taken about 15,000 pictures of Caroline and Ellie in their first 16 months of life, and somehow, I still feel like I'm not able to capture all the memories that I want to hold dear.

How exactly do you capture in a picture two squealing babies enjoying being pulled in a sled despite the frigid 10 degree weather that they don't even seem to notice?

....or when the girls find their snack cups from the night before and ask to have it in such a sweet way that you just can't say no?

I'm not sure I can get in a picture the sweetness of Caroline ALWAYS wanting to to crawl into  Grandmom's lap and just sit there sucking her thumb.

Or the look that comes on their face in the moments that they hear a familiar song...or in this case, see Mickey Mouse singing his song on TV.

How do a capture in a thousand pictures the increased level of understanding Caroline and Ellie have such as when I tell them to put a toy in the mailbox, they simultaneously rush over to to open the lid and be the first one to get their toy through?

...or how into window sills they are right now.  No matter what house we are in, the window sill is the perfect place to put your toys, apparently.

How does a picture show how they love to be outside...no matter the weather conditions.

...and how they ask to go outside every time they get up from their nap.

And then there is their love for dragging their hands whenever they are moving.  I can take a picture of a hand sticking out of the sled, but I can't seem to capture in a single picture how their hands are total ice cubes at the end of a walk from their constant hand dragging.  

...or here in Texas, how their hands are black from dragging their hands along the top of the wheels while we go along the sidewalk.

I have many pictures of them in the grocery store, but I can't really capture the way they wave in synch to everyone we pass as I'm pushing them side by side in the cart.

How do I get in a picture the way they play with their toys and fight to the point of tears about who gets to pour the tea from their teapot?  

Or how they point to the back door when I ask them where Daddy is during a work day...the back door being the entrance Blake always walks through with arms wide accompanied with two squealing girls when he comes home from work.

I really wish I could somehow get a picture of the way the girls sometimes lay their head on my shoulder in the store parking lot when I pick them up transferring them from the stroller to the carseat...which always opens up a floodgate of tenderness to my heart that I can only just stand there, slightly swaying soaking up the moment while ignoring the other cars that want my parking space, knowing that there's no place I'd rather be than right there, right in that moment.  

And if I could only get a picture of that, I would.  But the picture of that fleeting moment that is burned in my memory and in my heart is more beautiful, more tender than anything I could ever take....

....and all this makes me realize all over again for the thousandth time of how short this time is with my baby girls and how thankful I am to not miss a second of it.