Crayons!!

I read in a magazine recently a tip to take crayons to the doctor's office for easy

 entertainment in the exam room. I've tried it twice now and it is great!!! 

You must try this! The paper on the exam table makes the perfect canvas for the kids and 

since its not your ordinary coloring page, they LOVE it!! 

Make sure they are washable crayons though ;) 

Last time Kaitlyn colored on the wall in the two seconds I looked away,

 but it wiped right off with a baby wipe!

Try it!

"Pass" Update

Kaitlyn is transitioning well to life without her beloved pacifier. She's still crying each time I put her down but for a very short time so I can live with that. I sure hope we get back to happy sleep times soon though! Before pass broke she would barely even hug me because she was in such a hurry to get in her bed :) 

Despite the progress we've made, this particular day she was convinced she was not ready for morning nap. I walked in to wake her up so we could leave and she had apparently thrown all her stuff out of her bed during her two minute protest ;)

She is doing so well that it has become somewhat of a joke. She occasionally asks for "pass" during the day but has this look in her eye that shows she really does know it's gone but she just figures she'll ask,

 just in case I found one ;) The first couple times I tried to be sympathetic when she asked but then when she repeated it I would say in my "oh that was funny" voice that "pass broke silly." It totally worked and even Addison plays along which helps Kaitlyn.

Also, as a side note,

 the girls are really playing well together again which makes this Mommy VERY happy :)

Just a short little post but atleast you know we're still alive! hehe

Addisonisms

Just a quick post but Addison has been cracking me up lately :) She must be in one of those brain growth spurts. I've never actually read of such a thing but she would be the poster child for some research on it! Periodically she goes through these stages where she is learning so much and her communication skills just can't quite keep up. Here are some examples....

The other day I was busy doing who knows what and Addison came to me crying. As usual I asked "what's wrong?" but that was where the usual ended ;)

Addison answered through her tears "Kaitlyn doesn't know me." Containing my giggles I said, "Of course she knows you silly, what do you mean?"  Addison replied "No! She calls me Addy but I not Addy I Addison!!!" I lost it... she was obviously over tired that day but I thought it was hysterical :)

Then, a couple days later Kaitlyn was napping and Addison was helping me make cookies for a party we were going to. She doesn't let me get by with only allowing her to dump in the pre-measured ingredients anymore, she wants to be intricately involved in every step.  While I was still getting the dry ingredients together she asked if she could stir them. I said she could but she needed to wait just a minute. She let out a very heavy sigh and said "it's hard." "What's hard?" I asked.  "Being patient" hahaha

Last night as I was trying to get her tucked in bed she was stalling a little. We had the trundle bed pulled out and she was walking across it to climb in her "big bed" when she got distracted and started bouncing a little. I reminded her that we do not jump or even bounce on beds and she replied, "I just balancing. See you do your legs like this (squatting a little). When you don't have anything in your knees you balance them like this (bouncing up and down)." LOL She wasn't bouncing huge or jumping and I know some of you think I'm crazy but beds are for sleeping or resting. Anything else becomes a slippery slope and expects too much judgement from a 3 year old (or her 1 year old little sister).

I am so glad to say that we appear to be past the hard stage we were in for a few months and we have moved on to another fun stage instead!!

humbling

34% of Christian families consider adoption

ONLY 1% do it

There are 163+ million orphans in the world who need a Forever Family

If only 7% of Christian families would adopt, there would be NO MORE ORPHANS

**I have not been able to find the original source for these statistics but I have seen them on multiple blogs. Even if they are WAY off they are still INCREDIBLY ALARMING.**

"I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you." 

John 14:18

"A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling. God sets the lonely in families..."

Psalm 68:5-6a

Vacation

I better hurry up and post this before we go out of town again!! haha

 Getting our vacation off to the right start ;)

 Helping Daddy look for bugs, hehe

 Can you tell it was bright? haha

This was our first time in the pool this season and she was doing great!!

We had a great week at home. As you've already read, we spent the first weekend celebrating our 5 year anniversary! We had a great time. Tammy took Monday off so we took advantage and hung out at her house that day... but I didn't think to take any pics.
We went back to my parents' house and relaxed for the afternoon... last visit I got in trouble for not taking a single pic of my mom, so I remembered this time ;)

On Tuesday, Kaitlyn woke up with a new tooth! No wonder she was so fussy the day before ;)

see?
 That afternoon we had our friends, the Afflerbachs, come over and hang out! Isn't it great to have those friends that you can just pick right back up where you left off and it feels seamless? We love hanging out with them :) I really need to quit slacking off on the pictures though!

Wednesday Kaitlyn got sick and I took her in to the ER.

Looks real sick, huh?

Turns out Mommy was right no matter how cheery she looked while we were there. She had a double ear infection and a sore throat so off we went with a Rx.

Looked like everything was headed in the right direction... until Addison got sick on Thursday. LOL 

She was running a fever for no apparent reason.

We still managed to see most people and make the rounds but it was a crazy week.

On Saturday we got to see and hang out with Trey and Erin!!! And then BBQ with all "the guys" as I've always called them. That expression doesn't work nearly so well now that most of them are married... 

I love getting to hang out with all the wives now though :)

 Happy Birthday Avery!!!

Just like the good old days... haha

We were hoping to go to church on Sunday at the church most of the guys go to but couldn't justify sharing our germs...

Crazy week I'm telling you! 

I'm just glad we are going back in a couple weeks!!!!

"No" "Broke Pass" and Other New Things

My posts will be moving back and forth between past and present for a little while I think, so please bear with me ;)
My sweet Kaitlyn learns new things everyday! Yesterday I took the girls out in the backyard to swing and play. Addison was, of course, ready to go back inside looonngg before Kaitlyn. As I pushed Kaitlyn in the swing for a little while longer I asked if she was ready to go inside. She looked at me, paused, and said "Nooo".  I couldn't help but crack up. It was just so darn cute! I have never seen her think so much about saying anything and then she just waited for my reaction. She thought she might get it wrong, might get in trouble, might be cute... you could tell she just wasn't sure. She is so stinkin' cute!!

Video taken today, one day after the original "no" ;)

Tonight is the night I have been dreading for quite some time. It is the night we begin weaning from the beloved "passer" (coined by Addison when Kaitlyn was still very little. Kaitlyn now calls it a "pass" but I think they will always be "passers" to me for the rest of my days).  Anyways, obviously she enjoys having a pacifier or it would be a non-issue. I understand that, I really do but you must understand that "enjoy" does not come close in explaining her love. It's more like infatuation, pure love, addiction. I promised myself we would conquer this at 15 months this time. We took Addison's away at 16 months and I remember thinking that her memory had improved dramatically in just a month and that it would have been better if we beat that milestone ;)  Sweet Kaitlyn gets her teeth in pairs or sometimes all four in a set come at once and, indeed, this was happening for the last few months. I couldn't bring myself to take away her passer when she was in such distress... Well, we have almost 3 weeks before our next vacation, her canines are all in (wondering if the 2 year molars are coming in but...), and we are finally healthy again sooo it's time. Tonight I cut a slit in the end of her passer. She held it, put it in her mouth, took it out and was generally just confused as to what was going on. And sad. She cried and cried and otherwise fought sleep and sometimes snuggles for about an hour and a half but then just couldn't fight it anymore. Much better than I expected. Somewhere in that hour and a half I was trying to give her words for her sadness and was commiserating with her on her loss. I was explaining that pass is broke now. I asked her to say "broke". She replied "broke pass" :(( Even when she's grieving she's just so irresistibly cute!

Oh, and also, during the crying fest, she learned how to open her bedroom door. Oh joy.

And, just in case I forget to mention it, her final two canines came in last week while on vacation (the bottom ones). One came in on Tuesday and the other on Thursday (I think... I fail at keeping track of teeth). I really hope my children can forgive me one day. I take pictures of just about everything possible but I just can't seem to keep up with the baby book thing...

I'm Back!!

Sorry I have left all 11 of you hanging for so long! It has been a crazy few weeks!!

Now to work on catching up...

We packed up and drove home to Texas a couple weeks ago for a fun trip home visiting family. This trip was extra special though, because it was planned around our good friend, Madison Bowden Ussrey's, wedding! Even though we have lived out of state for all our friends' weddings we have managed to make it to all except 2 I think. This is so important to me :) We had a great time!

When we first found out the details of Madison's wedding we planned to make it a dual purpose trip and celebrate our 5 YEAR anniversary a little early! Hooray! We booked a bed and breakfast in Fredericksburg, Texas for the weekend. It was great! We had never left the girls for an overnight stay, much less a whole weekend but it was a welcomed milestone ;)  They stayed with their Grammy for the weekend and it was reported that a great time was had by all.

While in Fredericksburg, I was amazed by how much there is to do and see! I have been before but have never done anything other than shop and pick peaches, hehe.  When Gordon and I pulled into town we went straight to dinner because we were starving! lol  We picked a little German restaurant, appropriately, named Der Lindenbaum. It was super yummy! 

Gordon's beer from Der Lindenbaum... very important to capture the memories.

After dinner we walked the streets and window shopped (literally- everything closes at 6! haha). We eventually made it back to the B&B and enjoyed the hot tub in the back yard. I like hot tubs but would never buy- I only enjoy it for the first 10 minutes...

The next morning we ate at Mahaley's Cafe. AMAZING breakfast. We each got a breakfast taco and shared a DIVINE cinnamon roll. Seriously the best either of us had ever had. Very reasonable prices. I think all that food plus a coffee and bottle of water cost just over $12. You must eat there if you visit Fredericksburg!

After breakfast we killed some time people watching, waiting for the shops to open. This town is serious about their time off, haha! The shops were fun but we bought almost nothing. Just not much that shouted to me that I HAD to have it ;) Gordon thoroughly enjoyed the ability to stop in to little shops and diners and purchase a beer to enjoy while walking and shopping with me. For lunch we went to The Brewery. Super yummy food and yummy beer for G. The beer is made in house so it adds a little extra interest. 

My chicken fried steak from the Brewery. It was absurdly large. Look at it in comparison to the Dr Pepper can!

Just realizing we were not doing a very good job of taking pics ;)

Next on the agenda was a visit to Wildseed Farms. This was a really neat little place. They have wine tastings and concessions in the little shop and then you can roam around on your own admiring all the different varieties of wild flowers that they grow and sell (seeds and matured plants).  

After this we were off to Lady Bird Johnson Park to walk the nature trails. There was some really pretty scenery and it was fun to do something different. Funny how much more conversation you can enjoy when spending time in God's creation (and without the girls no matter how adorable they are). I hadn't ever done any hiking before but I really enjoyed it... even if I did do it in flip flops, hehe.

For dinner, we met Missy and Sumer at Rathskeller, another little German restaurant. We were not impressed with their dinner menu. It was very short with higher prices for the same food that we'd had at Der Lindenbaum and seen elsewhere around town. When Missy and Sumer got there, they agreed so we up and left! haha...  We stood around debating where we should eat and decided to go back to The Brewery :) This is when Gordon bought his Growler. He loves it. Yummy food and great company!

 Us and Sumer :)

Gordon and his beloved growler!

After they left, Gordon and I went out to The Hangar Hotel where we had originally planned on staying. They have an extensive martini list at their little bar with views of the runway so you can watch planes come and go. The hotel is designed after the WWII era and is very classy. We will definitely be staying there next time!

In the morning we tried to eat at Rather Sweet, only to realize that they are closed on Sundays. We walked back down to Mahaley's but they're also closed on Sundays! We were sad but I think part of the charm of this little town is found in the fact that they have not completely converted themselves into a tourist trap. We ended up at Rathskeller and their breakfast menu was yummy! We were both stuffed by the time we left for the Nimitz Museum. We thoroughly enjoyed the museum but had sadly greatly underestimated the amount of time we should commit to it. We should have gotten our passes the first night (good for 48 hours) and spent a little time each day. We were on information overload only a couple hours in and there was so much more to see. Next time!

 There are hundreds of plaques donated to individual soldiers, ships, companies, etc

 Japanese Garden of Peace donated by the people of Japan

Did you know that the 8 consecutive Presidents before Clinton all served in WWII? We think military service should be a requirement for Presidential candidates.

For lunch, we headed back out to the Hangar, this time to their diner. It was super yummy food and there were many planes coming and going so we had quite the show.

Alas, our trip was almost over and we headed to Missy's house to chill and my parents and Ted and Gail met us there. So fun to hang out and laugh a while!

Again, we were off to Madison's wedding :) The wedding was beautiful and it was fun to see some old friends. We had to head out a little early to ensure we would be able to stay awake for the drive home but it left me wishing we would have had a little more time for conversation... o well. Can't believe I didn't take any pictures either, oops.

All in all it was a fantastic weekend!!! 

A big thanks to Tammy for keeping the girls :)