Shorter and Sweet

Finally! The hair has been cut! It's been the bain of my (and Katie's) existance lately. Yeah it's nice to be able to throw it up in a pony tail...that is if she lets me but for the most part it's a long, scraggly, snaggly, sweaty mess. It's not quite as short as I was thinking but still super cute!

The BEFORE


The AFTER


And we can't leave Ryan out :)

Summer Days

We're in the throws of Texas summer...if you're not at the pool or doing something water related you're indoors. We do our best to head outside in the morning or evening but the humidity leaves you drenched in sweat after 10 minutes. Of course the kids have a much better tolerance for it than their mother. Then, if the humidity doesn't get you, the man eating mosquitoes will. They are awful...the bottoms of my legs are gnarly. As you can see in some of the pics Ryan's face was a target. And this is all WITH bug spray. It's a ritual every time we go outside. So needless to say it's not my favorite time of year here but we do our best :)

Just trying to get out of the house...a little coloring in the fresh air


Doing some patriotic crafts for 4th of July...


And enjoying some water fun while watering our new trees...

Whirlwind Week With Grandma

Why does time seem to go into warp speed when my mom is here? We wish she would just hurry up and move here already. :) She stayed for a week and we had lots of fun!

The kids loved the Children's Museum of Houston. Surprisingly Ryan loved it more than Katie I think. He loved going from thing to thing investigating. Katie enjoyed the make believe places...the diner, the vet, the grocery store. My chldren are very different!


We took Ryan to see his first movie...Toy Story 3!


Did lots of swimming, including Katie's swim lessons. I am AMAZED at how well she is doing. She's diving for sticks, doing the breast stroke, floating on her back (this picture shows a belt but now she doesn't need it), and swimming across the entire pool taking breaths. I'm truly flabbergasted! We also finally made our first trip to our local pool where Ryan had a blast. He even went down the "Big Slide" by himself multiple times.


We love you Grandma! Come back soon!

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to the father of my beautiful children! Traditional D-A-D pictures are slightly delayed but will get done!


And Happy Father's Day AND Birthday to my Daddy!!! We love you!!

That's Amore!

My girl had her "debut!" Katie had her dance recital Friday night and she did awesome! I wish I could have taken video but it was not allowed but I did buy the DVD so hopefully it is shareable. Their dance was to "That's Amore"

I brought in reinforcements in the hair department...aka Grandma! Unfortunately she didn't do much better than me in the curl department but she gave it a good effort!


Backstage...


Katie's fans and cheering section (sorry bad pic) Daddy, Ryan, Uncle Mike, Aunt Stacy, Aunt Julie, Grandma, Lindsay and Kendall! (Grumpy man in the foreground...NOT with us! :P)


A star is born!


Muuuuuuaaaaah!


Taking her bow at the trophy ceremony...


So proud!

(sad we didn't get a picture with Lindsay and Kendall!!!)

We are so proud of our little dancer! She had fun and definitely has no fear. She went out on stage like it was no big deal. Thank you everyone who came to cheer her on!

Last Dance Class

Katie had her last dance class yesterday. We have had a wonderful experience and this mama...who knows absolutely NOTHING about dance...enjoyed watching Katie grow and have fun. It amazes me what her teachers accomplished with 3 and 4 year olds. They are pretty good if I do say so myself! I can't wait for them to show off all they learned on Friday night at teh big recital. But for now...thanks Miss Jessica, Miss Jane and Miss Amber!


Mondays are long...


If any of you are interested in learning more about the dance studio Katie goes to please email me! I don't like putting specifics about where she goes since this blog is public, but I highly recommend it!

Baby Shower!

We are SOOOOO excited about the upcoming arrival of the kids' first cousin and I'm also very excited to get a new title...Auntie!! Last weekend my sister in law Julie, Stacy's best friend Christie and I threw a baby shower for Stacy and had so much fun.

The food and some of the decor...


A few of the peeps


We can't wait to welcome this sweet little girl to the family!!