Thank you Shara!

Thank you so much, Shara, for my new blog design. I didn't even tell her what I wanted she was just so creative and came up with it herself! Maybe this will inspire me to update more. Thank you sooo soooo much!

Catching up is hard to do!

Well, I took a little time off from blogging. I was having problems with uploading pictures and just didn't know if I wanted to blog anymore. After some persuasion from friends, I decided to get back in the game. By the way Shara, I would love a blog makeover! Thanks for the offer! So here is a little catching up:

In March we went to Gruene, TX for a wedding with my family. We left the kids at home and all stayed at a bed and breakfast that was right next to Gruene Hall. We had a great time and hope to go back again someday.

John and I at the rehearsal dinner

Eating Breakfast with my brother and his wife

Family at the wedding

Next was Kate's birthday:

Here are some random pictures of the kids:

John's sister graduated from A&M so we went to that last weekend. We are so proud of her.

I am getting really excited about this summer. Although I am sad that Luke won't have Mother's Day out, I think we will have lots of fun being outside and getting to do some different things. The kids are really keeping me busy. Luke will be 3 in July and Kate is 14 months old so they are now both on the move but it makes it so fun. They both love to play outside so I am sure that is where we will be most of the summer!

That about sums it up. That fills in the two months I have been missing. Hopefully I will become a better blogger and have some fun stuff to blog about this summer!

Happy 1st Birthday Kate!

Friday was Kate's 1st Birthday. I really can't believe it has been a whole year. She has been such a special addition to our family. I tried to soak up every bit of the "baby" stage with her because I knew how fast it was going to fly by. I didn't appreciate the time I had with Luke as a baby. I always wanted him to be older and get to the really cute stage. Now, I realize that the baby stage is just as precious and I didn't want it to end with her. It makes me sad just typing this!

Here are things that she is into right now:

-We call her Tweety Bird because she has really blond hair that sticks straight up.

-She loves meat and fruit. That's all.

-She absolutely loves Luke and anything that he does.

-Although she is pretty laid back, if you take something away from her she acts like it is the end of the world.

-She can walk across the room now.

-She plays "Where's Kate" but puts her hand over her ear to hide.

-Her first word was, "Ah, Boo" because that is what Luke says to her.

Happy Birthday Kate. Thank you for being so wonderful. We look forward to the next year!

(These pictures were taken by Cotton Photography. She did such a great job!)

Here are some other favorites:

The Zoo and the Lake

This weekend started out with the zoo. We went with other kids and moms from church. It was a great day to go and Luke loved being around all of the kids.

Luke in front of the monkeys

Kate chillin' in the stroller watching all the kids play.

Luke feeding the ducks. He also tried feeding himself the bread.

Luke and Emma cheesing it up for the picture.

We also took a day trip to Possum Kingdom Lake to be with my cousin and her kids. They have a place right on the lake so it was fun to catch up with them. It was a little windy and cool but we ended up having a great day.

Luke getting ready to play

Playing in the sand with his 2nd cousins.

Luke really enjoyed playing with his great grandmother. They played fetch with the dog by throwing the stick in the water over and over again. Luke loved this game until he held the stick a little too long and the dog decided to come and snatch it out of his hand. That may have scarred Luke for life. Hopefully he will enjoy dogs again someday!

Potty Training...Ugh!

Well, I have decided to start potty training Luke. He is now a little over 2 1/2 and he was showing signs of wanting to start training so last Friday was the big day. So far he has been pretty receptive to it all. Except for going #2. He would rather go in his pants and doesn't seem to care. You can tell when he needs to go because he keeps running to the bathroom and sitting on the potty but won't go. I know that he will get it but I could really see this lasting for awhile. I just want to snap my fingers and all of this be over but I see a long process in the future. I am just praying for perseverance. It isn't one of those things that you can just say, "Nah, I don't wanna." It has to be done. Does anybody have any tips? I would love to hear any advice that you have!

Here is a picture of Kate that I took of her wearing Luke's coat. Just thought I would throw that in.

Someday

Someday I will be able to take lots of cute pictures of my kids. Luke was such a great picture taker when he was a baby. He would smile at the drop of a hat. Then he went through a stage where he would scream when you tried to take his picture. For some reason he just didn't want to be still long enough to take the picture. Now he will at least sit there and say "cheese" just long enough to get one good picture but then the wheels fall off.......

Here is the good picture that I got.

This is the next picture. Luke starts crying because he doesn't want to take another picture. He wants to see the picture that I just took on the view finder of the camera. He can't get out of that wagon fast enough.

Now he is at my feet crying for me to let him see the picture. This time I decided to document it on camera.

Someday I will be able to sit my kids down and have a great time taking cute pictures of them. Although, I don't see that happening in the near future. O-well. There is a time and season for everything!!

Disney World

John and I had such a great time at Disney World. We really enjoyed the break from being parents for a little while. Just being on your own schedule was nice. Getting to sleep when we wanted to and getting to eat when we wanted to. Those were the great luxuries of the trip. We were constantly reminded of our kids though and really missed them. We want to take the kids some day but they will have to be much older. Here are a few pictures from the trip:

Picture with Pooh. Luke loves Pooh!

Race Car Ride

Animal Kingdom Bridge

John with a Lego lady

3D glasses

Fish Tank at Animal Kingdom

Aerosmith Roller Coaster

A friend that I played basketball with in college was going to be in Orlando at the same time that we were so we met on Sunday night and ate at the Rainforest Cafe and then went back to their hotel room to watch the Super Bowl. I was sad to see that the pictures didn't turn out. Don't know why.

Here are my little Mouseketeers

Kate was not too crazy about the hat.