Happy Anniversary!

Tim and I celebrated our 6th anniversary! Yeah! Tim and I (and Grant) spent a "romantic" evening together. We keep planning to get away for our anniversary and these children keep being born! Silly kids! Can't you guys get your timing better? One of these years we'll get away! Truly though it has been a wonderful 6 years. There is no one I would have rather been spending my life with than you Tim!

Last Day of Summer...1st Day of Kindergarten

Well, Kindergarten is upon us. I can't believe that it is finally here. It is astounding how quickly the last five years have past and I am really trying to take to heart all the advice: "Enjoy every moment with your children, they will be gone before you know it." I can believe it. While I've been awaiting this morning for many months, I expected to feel more nervous, and a little more sad. But Lillie is amazing! She has been ready and waiting for Kindergarten for three years now. When the moment finally came how could I be sad that she was so very happy? So, I think, I was more nostalgic. We are turning the pages and have finished that chapter of our lives together. No more am I her sole influence. I mean, I know it's just Kindergarten, but from here on out, she will grow into her own person by leaps and bounds. And I worry. Did I teach her enough to be out there on her own. Will she remember what she has learned? Will she come to Tim and I when she has questions and problems. But at the same time I am so excited for her. She looked so beautiful this morning and so grown up! She was so excited and very confident walking into that room this morning. She was just sad enough so that I didn't feel abandoned but confident enough for me to leave after a good long hug. (and it was only long because I started to tear up and wanted to get ahold of myself before she saw!) I'm not sure how Tim did. I know that he has been feeling a little nostalgic to see her grow up and take this big step, but truthfully it was such a surreal experience for me that we were actually old enough to have a child going to school that I wasn't focused on Tim. He does usually keep himself together much better than I do though! So, during the day poor Samuel was a little lost. Lillie went to pre-school of course but that was four months ago and I think the big guy didn't know what to do by himself. At one point coming back from the store we drove by Lillie's school and looked to see if she was on the playground. (She wasn't) and he got so excited. "Are we going to pick up Lillie!?!" he asked. "No buddy, we'll come back later." Oh he was so disappointed. And then thrilled a couple of hours later when I woke him up from his nap to get her. Well, in answer to my prayers Lillie had a fantastic day! The only hiccup as far as I could tell was that at snack time she didn't remember that I had shown her where her snack was in her backpack and so while all the other children ate their snack she just sat there. So sad! But oh well. I know those are the little disappointing experiences that help you grow up. And she definitely now knows where her snack is at! She came home spouting facts about her teacher and singing songs learned in music class. She was sad that they didn't go to the library. (I think she was under the impression that they go every day!) And she made two friends (ironically named Abby, and Emma! - UT cousins) The most important part: she can't wait to go back tomorrow! Really, could I ask for anything more? I am truly so happy for her that she has this. I know that it feels wonderful to grow up.

So here are some pics of the last day of summer and Lillie's first day of Kindergarten. On Saturday night we went swimming with my parents in their neighborhood pool and had a really good time.

Gorgeous! And at 7am too...this is when she's usually rolling out of bed. I can't believe I ever thought 7am was early!

In her classroom ready to start her day and beat the heat with her water bottle.

Have you ever seen two more genuinely happy people? My dad just loves "little" Grant and is so good with him. By the way, we tried putting Grant in the water for the first time that night but he was so scared. It was so, so sad. As you can see though he was very happy to stay right where he was!

Okay, after an entire summer (granted we didn't go to the pool nearly as often as we have in preious summers) Samuel finally started paddling around by himself a week ago. And he is soo proud! Luckily we still have at least 2 months left of serious summer weather so maybe he can get some more practice in!

Little Miss Lillie started learning how to dog paddle last week and here she is giving it a go. I can't believe she doesn't get tired. She must have Tim's swimmer's lungs. She'll get in there and paddle around for an hour and a half without stopping. She is not scared and is so determined to swim like a "big kid"

L to R: Mom Burwell, Samuel, Audrey, Lillie, and Auntie Katie. Thanks for the fun night guys!

Rice Cereal Anyone?

Grant tried his 1st solid food today! Yeah! He has been seriously eyeing our food for awhile now with a greedy look in his eyes so we decided to try him out and... he loved it! Of course it took him a couple of spoonfuls to get the hang of it but he caught on pretty quickly. What a genius child! As you can see from the pics below, he's having a pretty good time!Here Lillie and Samuel take a turn with the feeding.

I'm so proud of my boy, what a grown up step!

Trip to Ohio

I got back last week from a great visit with my BFF and old college roommate Dale. Grant and I flew to Columbus, OH (without Lillie and Samuel! I love you guys, but it WAS my first time ever to get away since bearing children). Grant did great on the flight! I swear, he is the perfect kid! The whole time we were there Dale and Joe kept saying they couldn't believe how mellow he was. I know, I'm lucky, and I don't deserve such a well behaved boy. We had a lot of fun hanging out and reminiscing. We did an ice-cream tour of Columbus and enjoyed lots of other good food too! Here we are at Jeni's Ice-cream which is famous for it's interesting flavors and was featured on Oprah. I tried lots of kinds including Thai Chili (too intense!) but finally setteled on Salty Caramel. For memories sake from L to R are Jacob, Dale, Grant, Audrey, Tess, Carey, and Chantel. These were Dale's friends and they were great. It's good I don't live there though, cuz I don't think Dale could handle all the "trash" talk that Carey and I could dish out!

Here is Lauren, Dale and Joe's little girl with Grant. I was happy to get a break but it would have been fun to have Lillie and Samuel there to play with Lauren and Jacob. They would have had a blast. The two girls are so similar and it would have been non-stop. We'll have to get them together soon.

Here are Joe, Dale, Grant, and I at dinner. They treated me to dinner at Mitchell's Steakhouse (deliscious!) Thanks again you guys! Grant and I had such a great time! You guys really are fabulous hosts! This trip sounds like it was all about food, but that's not true, I did get to see 3/4 of Harry Potter 6 before I got kicked out for Grant being too happy. But yeah, the rest was eating and visiting! Isn't that what Columbus is all about!

Happy 5th Birthday Lillie!

Lillie had a GREAT! birthday! I asked her if she wanted her birthday party on the same day, or did she want 2 special days. All in one day was her answer, so that's what she got. Let me tell you, this girl was Wired ALL DAY! We started out by taking a special trip just her and I to get her birthday balloons. Then we rushed back to get ready for her Hello Kitty themed party.

When all the girls came in they got their face painted like a kitty cat and they got a pink hair bow (just like Hello Kitty). Then they got to pick a nail polish color anf proceed to the the kitchen where they got a manicure, paint job, and nail stickers. Poor Samuel, the only boy...he did sport his pink hair bow for a couple of minutes, and enjoyed his manly blue nail polish before he gave up involvement for swinging a plastic bat around like a sword the entire time!

Thankyou to my mom, and sisters Katie, and Allison for helping out... I couldn't have done it without you!Pinata time! Lillie was thrilled that she got to hit it first AND last this time. Actually she enjoyed that the entire day she got to go first, pick everything, and refuse sharing her new toys if she chose. (Which of course she was SO nice about sharing since I wasn't forcing her to do so. I must remeber this reverse psychology business...)

The pinata proved too strong for 14 children and a plastic bat so I had to tear it open myself. Hey, at least everyone got their fair share to beat it up!

So, Lillie got to pick a birthday lunch and dinner. You would think, Chick-fil-A, McDonalds, like Samuel picked. No. Lunch - Pei Wei - an Asian Diner - where she proceeded to eat an entire teryaki bowl with chopsticks (aided be chopstick helpers) and Dinner - we surprised her with Chili's which strangely is her favorite. She was so excited! Hey, I'm glad she has good taste! So here she is with Grant and I and Samuel peaking in at her b-day dinner. In the next pic she's enjoying her ice-cream they brought to her. It took her a little while to get over the embarassment of the ENTIRE restaurant singing to her - but I think secretly she really enjoyed it!

This is her family party that night where we celebrated with the Burwell's. Here she is with her princess meal set from Aunt Katie that she had been hoping for...

Nice pick Katie!

And here she is with Grammy and Grandad and their b-day gift...the book Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse, with and actual purple plastic purse and all the things to go inside it - pink rhinestone sunglasses, cheetos, and 3 shiny quarters - too cute! She loves it!

We have had such a fun 5th year with you Lil'Star and are so excited for all the fun things you have planned this year - Kindergarten, Ballet, new friends, CA at Christmastime and all the other adventures you get yourself in to! You are such a wonderful little girl and a great big sister. We are all so blessed to have you in our family. Thankyou to all our friends and family who helped us celerate Lillie this year!

Side note: here are the cakes Tim and I painstakingly worked on. The less impressive cupcake cake was all me. The Hello Kitty cake was designed by me but I only did the grunt work. Tim's steady hand drew the kitty and her name. We love doing this stuff for our kiddos! I know that I'm embarassing you when I say this stuff Tim so I'm sorry. But really, he is such a great dad!

Just let your kids be...

So I'm trying a new thing where I don't interfere as much with my kiddos and I'm really reaping a lot of benefits as are they. Tonight for instance...I went in to Lillie and Grant's room to check on them (we recently changed rooms around as Samuel is not built for room sharing right now) and instead of sleeping (like she was supposed to be) Lillie was reading Grant a story. She was sitting up in her bed and holding the book up for him to see down below. She was so talkative and he was rapt with attention. So sweet! I love to see my kiddos taking care of each other. Whereas I normally would have disciplined her I just enjoyed the moment... and let them enjoy it as well. After all, neither of them were tired. I love being a mom!
So, another blog-worthy moment today... I was cleaning up after we got back from our trip to the coast...fun times with our friends Chris and Falene... and Samuel asked me to play with him and Lillie. I said yes. Sometimes a hard thing to do, but I'm glad I did. They were playing with glow sticks in the bathroom. We ended up making up a game called "BEAR!" where we ran out and waved our glow sticks at Tim and shouted "BEAR!", then ran back to the bathroom laughing. Tim started to "scare" the kids and we all ended up playing together. In the end I was much less stressed and didn't even remember what I had originally been trying to do. I love how kids are so magical!
So yes, we just had a fantastic weekend with our friends Chris and Falene. We went to visit them and their kiddos this weeked. We spent a great day at the beach yesterday where Samuel actually got in to the water! We love the ocean and are so glad we've made the effort to get there while we live in TX. We really enjoyed our weekend - Thankyou Chris, Falene, Aidan, and Gavin for being such wonderful hosts!

Happy 4th 2009!

I hope that everyone had a fantastic 4th of July this year...I know that we did. I have decided that it is one of my favorite days of the year 2nd only to Christmas. But definitely my fav day of the summer. We went to Boerne again with my family and a lot of friends to BBQ, play, and watch the fireworks. Everyone had a blast and poor, tired little Grant was such a trooper. He spent his would be sleeping hours past around until it was too much for him to handle then I strapped him into the Moby wrap and he was good to go! The kids had a blast playing Baseball, soccer, and running around with their friends. And...BIG NEWS!!!!!.....For the first time Lillie was not afraid of the fireworks and was actuallyable to enjoy the show! Grant, whom we were understandably nervous about, loved every minute of the fireworks. He sprawled out on my lap and just gazed up in amazement. Then he fell asleep during the finale. Poor little guy. Samuel, as always, is our fun-loving adventurous one and loved every moment of the fireworks. He had been talking about them, (even praying about them!) for the last few days so he was pretty excited to get to see them. We made some great memories as a family! (Sorry for some of the fuzzy pics. It was nighttime and we own a not-so-great point and shoot!)

We are so blessed to live in this country and be able to live and worship as we choose. I am so grateful for my family, and for those throughout the ages who have fought for people to enjoy the freedoms they deserve.