4th at the Lake

After Paige woke up on Sunday afternoon, we left my family at Tanglewood and headed to the lake with our friends.  We went to the Piazza's cabin first and spent some time swimming.  Harper loves to swim and they have a blast out there.  They get to climb on and jump off the big water mat and then go back and forth between the sand and the water.  It was fun to be out in the water with all the adults too because it's the lake and nothing else matters out there.  Just relaxing and chatting and having a good time!  After awhile, we headed back to the cabin to get our stuff and food and go to Sandy Point.  The Spiegels were having a cookout and had invited everyone to come and eat and swim.  Joe took us all over in the golf cart.  The adults talked and the kids played in the sand for an hour.  It was fun having everyone in the same place including a few other families I hadn't meet yet but that Cody knew from school.  My girls love Sandy Point so I didn't even watch them all that much.  They just played with their friends, and then Julianne watched Paige - they love each other.  Kris cooked burgers and hotdogs and everyone else brought a side and dinner was awesome.  After that, we went back down to the water for one more swim.  We eventually had to leave because it was almost 9 and the girls were exhausted.  I gave them a quick shower and then we headed home.  

4th with the Fam

We didn't get to have a family vacation this year so we decided to just spend the weekend with my parents and sisters.  A lot of the lakes are too high and their boat ramps are closed, but Texoma is open and perfect.  So my parents got a hotel room at Tanglewood and we spent the weekend hanging out there.  We met them out there for lunch on Saturday, which was pretty tasty!  Cody stayed in the room while Paige napped.  I took Harper to the pool and we swam with Mimi, Pop, Taylor and Carleigh.  It was super crowded because it was a holiday weekend, so we didn't really swim a ton.  Harper jumped on the bounce house and then we headed back to the room when Paige woke up.  We had a snack and changed into clothes to go play pool.  The girls rolled balls back and forth with Mimi on the other table and Cody and Carleigh played against Gary and I.  It was fun, I haven't played pool in awhile.  They won the first game but Pop pulled out a win for game 2.  After that we went to dinner at the restaurant upstairs and it was good.  Not too crowded so I wasn't worried about the girls being crazy.  By the time we got all of this done it was 8 and we decided to stay for the fireworks show.  We played on the playground and just hung out until it got dark and then loaded up in the boat (in the parking lot) and watched the fireworks.  They said it would start at 8:30, so we thought it would be ok to keep the girls up.  It ended up being from 9:15-9:30 and by the time we got them home and in bed it was super late.  But it was the first time for them to watch live fireworks and they loved it.  Plus Harper loved staying up late.  She felt so big!

We headed back out Sunday morning and went back out on the lake.  It was cool but still fun!  The boat wasn't working all that well so we just drove around and eventually Pop jumped in the lake with Paige and Harper.  They swam around and had a good time.  Paige wanted in and out of the boat and after the 5th time, we just called it quits.  We stopped and ate lunch at a mexican restaurant on the way back to the hotel because we were all hungry!  After that, Cody watched Paige while she napped in the room and the rest of us spent the afternoon hanging around the hotel.  I swam with Paige while Carleigh and Kristi laid out, Taylor read a book inside and Pop wandered back and forth.  It was a nice relaxing afternoon.  We had to head back after Paige woke up but it was a super fun weekend to get away and just spend tons of time with my family.

June

We have been doing a lot of outdoor things lately.  It's been a nice summer so far, hot but not blazing.  It's been 80's and low 90's.  Sunny or rainy, but really nice out!  I've been running outside a lot more since Cody has been home for summer.  It's nice to get breakfast going and go run while it's not too hot out.  I've seen tons of animals out lately due to the rains and it's been a good reminder that this Earth is full of tiny creatures.  We have also been doing a ton of outside projects.  We needed to do them last summer, but it was too hot with Paige being a newborn.  So we have years and years of stuff to do.  We started with a new firepit in the backyard which we thought would be a simple projects.  However leveling and rocks took a long time.  It looks great though and now we have a permanent place to sit and eat smores!  While I was painting the wood, I started shaking the black paint and it wasn't shut.  It went everywhere outside on the rocks and it was a huge mess.  It took me hours to clean up.  I tried washing the rocks off but that just sprayed paint on the house.  So then I just had to shovel all the painted rocks up and get rid of them, shovel more rocks in their place, and clean all the paint off the house.  It was horrible!  We spent the next week cleaning out the patio and moving stuff around.  We got the patio cleaned off so we have more room for chairs and the grills.  Then, we got rid of all the trash that was by the master bedroom and built a patio out of bricks for the golf cart.  While we were doing that we moved the doghouse and found 4 big frogs living under it and we moved the water wall and found a birds nest in the water can.  After that, we started a huge project with the front landscaping and sidewalk.  We pulled up the bricks and now we need to landscape and put down a new sidewalk.  At the end of June, the pears were finally ready to be picked and we spent a few hours getting as many as we could.  We picked 6 tall buckets worth of pears, which was about 600.  We took them to everyone we knew but we still had a ton leftover. 

These two have enjoyed playing together all summer!  They are beginning to sleep in this summer.  Paige until about 7 and Harper until 7:30.  It's also nice because we can stay out until 8 or 8:30 instead of rushing home at 7:30.  Sometimes in the mornings, Harper wakes first, comes in to say hi, and then goes into Paige's room when she wakes up to play with her.  They laugh and read books and Harper climbs in.  And Cody and I get to slowly wake up instead.  It's glorious.  

This girl is such a crazy eater.  She loves condiments and usually just licks them off of her foods.  We have had to stop giving her ketchup because she doesn't actually eat the meat with it, just the ketchup.  She usually will eat half of her food and beg to get down, where she just continues eating off your plate instead.  She is constantly asking for a "biiiite, big biiiite."  She eats half my cereal in the mornings - she loves frosted mini wheats.  She wants anything Harper has and most of the time, if Harper drinks her water she copies and drinks hers too.  She does like to take out her straw and dump water on her tray to play with.  She's kind of a mess. 

Carleigh came to visit and my girls had the best two days.  My sisters are always way more fun than me!  They got to play in a fort and read a million books and they didn't fuss or fight all day.  Carleigh even bought her a new headband that is so cute!  We love when we have visitors!

My girls have done so good about going to the gym with me a few times a week.  They love their friends there and the childcare workers love my girls.  

Play date after effects

It's the summer of babies!  And mostly boys!  Kristi had Eli, Lauren had Mae (the only girl so far!), and Emily had Morris all in May.  Lorna had Marcus and Stephney had Anson in June.  Christa is due in August and Erica in November.  It's babies everywhere and almost all boys!  When Marcus was born, I took Reagan and Presley back to the hospital after dance class.  We stopped and got him Birth Day cupcakes and then went to snuggle this sweet boy.  He came quick but he is perfect!  Lorna is great and some of the babies are meeting at dance class this summer!  Stephney, Lauren and I had coffee one morning and then she texted later that day that she was having contractions!  She was set to be induced the next day so she went in.  They helped her along and after a looong time, she finally had Anson the next day.  He is also pretty perfect!  

This man showed up at Harper's birthday party.  I don't know who put it there, but I'd put money on Brian McCool.  I have decided to leave him there.  He has become a part of the decor.  

This girl has had a rough month.  She finally started getting her molars.  She got a double ear infection with the first two up top.  When I took her back two weeks later, she had cut two more teeth on bottom.  She got another ear infection but she only has one tooth left of the bad ones.  She has been miserable and whiney and you can tell she doesn't feel good.  She is constantly biting things and chewing on her finger.  We let her have the paci all the time because we feel so bad for her.  Thankfully Lipscomb told us just to keep him hopped up on tylenol.  One night we gave her a frozen waffle and we thought she would gnaw on it for a while.  But nope, she just chewed it up and ate it in about 5 minutes.  I'm sure it still made her teeth feel better!

This girl loves that her dad is home for summer.  She doesn't like that it's so hot, but she loves to swim and she loves having no school.  She likes that he makes her peanut butter and jelly mixed up.  He plays with her a nap time.  He lets her drive the golf cart.  He watches funny videos with her.  He laughs at all her jokes whether they are funny or not!  And he does a good job of helping her pick out her clothes.

This girl has hit a new phase and it's not super pretty.  She is stuck on mama, like no one else can do anything.  Especially dad.  When I need a break, she will go with him on a golf cart ride but that's about it.  She cries alot and we have had to start being firm with her about not fussing.  She has also hit the stage where she thinks she knows what she wants and she will not have it any other way.  She wants it now!  It's been hard for her, because we don't just cater to her every whim.  She does have Harper who is better, but even she tells me she is tired of the whining sometimes too.  I know it's just a phase but it's pointing to a tough toddler stage and even worse teenage stage!

Memorial Day

Memorial Day weekend we were supposed to go camping with bible study, but the weather forcast said rain.  Then, less rain, then more, then we just weren't sure.  So we cancelled and decided to see some friends at the lake.  The Duff's came in town to camp at the lake so we headed out there Saturday to swim with them.  Sunday, we headed to the Piazza's lake house to swim and have a shrimp boil.  It was rainy both mornings, but was nice by the afternoons.  We put Paige down early Sunday afternoon so we headed out after naptime.  We spent the afternoon at the lake, Harper swimming and Paige playing in the sand.  Harper jumped on the water float and dug in the sand with Lucy and Benton.  Paige didn't like the water as much but loved the sand so she sat around and played there.  At one point, she dumped her cheerios out in the sand and began eating fistfuls of sand just to get the cheerios.  She didn't seem to mind, but it looked gross.  Afterwards, she kept trying to get the sand out of her mouth, but nothing worked.  So I gave her a sip of beer (I didn't have any water) and she loved it.  She kept trying to drink more all night.  We headed back to the cabin to change and have dinner.  Joe did the shrimp boil, the kids played inside, and the adults sat on the patio with a drink.  It was really good food and we sat and talked all night.  Love nights like these.  Paige wasn't doing as hot, so we eventually bathed the girls and headed out at bedtime.

Princess Dance Camp

Dance Xplosion had a 4 week summer camp.  A lot of the girls were doing it, so we decided to stop gymnastics for the summer and do it instead.  She liked being in dance with all her friends again, including Lucy Hebda, Emerson Evans, and Stella Cassidy this year.  Lucy, Evelyn, and Reagan were in class again, as well as Presley.  They got to do 4 classes, 4 dances - one each week.  So she enjoyed doing different things each week and their warmups and games.  She did great and it was fun to see her in dance again.  I also got to hang out the other mamas each week which was nice!  Paige came twice and stayed home with Cody twice so that was a nice break as well!  She got a camp tank top and has worn it every chance she gets.  She feels so cute and girly and loves that it's her dance shirt.