The Past Month Part 1: Visitors

So I have kind of gone m.i.a. the last month, but for good reason. We had two weeks of visitors followed by two weeks of traveling, so now I will do my best to catch up on everything. We were kind of running a bed and breakfast here for a while. One weekend we had some friends spend Saturday night here and then a different set of friends spent Sunday night here and then that Wednesday my niece Sharon flew in to town to spend 2 weeks with us. That Saturday we moved EZ into our room to make room for our friends' kids and at one point we walked in our room to find that EZ and Netta had made themselves comfortable together in EZ's bed. I really hope they always get along this well.

Having my niece Sharon here was a blast. She got to come for her 13th birthday and it was just so nice to have another almost adult in the house. Thanks to her helping with the kids I was able to go to the dentist and hang out with my friend Sarah without our kids, but no worries I did not abuse her babysitting skills. We were able to do a ton of fun stuff. Sharon loves to read so there were lots of trips to the library and used bookstore. One of the main highlights was going to see the Round Rock Express, the minor league baseball team that plays in the Dell stadium. John gets tickets half off since he works for Dell and the lawn seats are only $6 to begin with so its quite the steal. Also on Monday, which is when we went, they have dollar drinks and dollar hot dogs. You can't beat that! Plus the kids had a blast. I couldn't believe how excited EZ was about watching the game. Now he talks about baseball all the time. Anyway, here are some pics from the game. Sharon and Netta hanging out.

Netta trying desperately to get something out of an empty cup.

EZ with a bright light above his head. I thought it was cool.

USA is A-OK

To celebrate the 4th of July we headed up to Dallas to visit our friends Ruth and Gavin. I wish I had pictures from our first day there, because we went to this water park and Netta was a swimming/crawling fiend. She wasn't really swimming but she would crawl in the water shallow water and would just go deeper and deeper till she couldn't keep her hands on the ground. She didn't even care that her face was halfway in the water. She just closed her mouth and kept on going. So not like EZ at that age that is it almost unbelievable. Anyway, the 4th of July kicked off with a pancake breakfast at the church and then a bike parade for the kiddies. Here is EZ in his decked out tricycle.

Here is Netta looking very patriotic.

We tried to get a good picture of EZ and Caden together on their bikes, but alas this was the best we could do.

This next picture just kills me. Apparently EZ is VERY excited to be an American and VERY excited that he "won the big race," which actually means he got a participant ribbon like everyone else, but he was pretty sure that he had won.

We also had a little trouble getting a picture of Netta and Brynlee together. Notice Netta is three months older but she is the one sitting on the ground because she cant stand on her own. Oh my lazy babies.

After the breakfast we headed to a neighborhood celebration that had a petting zoo and a sprinkler park and all kinds of fun stuff. EZ was being himself at the sprinkler park and didn't really want to go near the water, so Ruth gave him some goggles in hopes that wearing them might make him feel a little braver and he loved them. He not only wore them at the sprinkler, but insisted on keeping them on while playing games . . .

and for the ride home.

We capped the night off by watching the Macy's fireworks on TV. After a long day in the sun none of us felt like trying to fight our way through crowds or traffic with all the kiddies. Luckily Ruth and Gavin have a huge projector for their TV so the fireworks were pretty life like.

Thanks to guys for an awesome weekend and go USA!

Photo Shoot

I have been meaning to get professional pictures of EZ and Netta since their birthdays in May and I finally got around to it today. You may have read my post around Christmas about the horrific experience I had at JCPenny, so this time I decided to go with Portrait Innovations. I have had a lot of friends go here and love it, so I thought it would be worth a shot. My friend Sarah warned that they do such a good job that you end up spending more money than you planned and she was right. I totally spent more than I planned and afterwards I was thinking maybe I should have spent less, but I honestly don't know how I could have. In fact as I was looking back through the cd I saw some pics I wished I had ordered that I didn't. So yeah they are great with kids and I am happy to say that I actually enjoyed going there. So here are some of the pics. I didn't order all the ones I posted and I think I left some out that I ordered, but anyway this gives you a good idea of how many cute pictures there are.

Surprise!!

John managed to surprise me big time and flew my parents in for the weekend. I honestly had no idea they were coming. Of course the kids were just as surprised and excited. Then he surprised me again by saying we were going to San Antonio for the weekend to check out the Riverwalk and Sea World. We had such a blast. We had some amazing Mexican food and did a boat tour of the Riverwalk. It is like being in a whole other world or on a Disney ride or something. Here is a pic of my mom and Netta at Mi Tierra waiting for dinner.

Here is my dad and EZ also waiting for dinner.

Here's a pic of Netta and I also waiting for dinner and enjoying some live music. There were a bunch of mariachi like bands walking around offering their musical services for a small fee. John had them play a song his mom and grandma used to sing all the time. (John's mom grew up in the Mormon colonies in Mexico so that's why she used to sing in Spanish in case you were wondering). Unfortunately I don't have a picture of that.

After dinner we took the boat tour of the Riverwalk. Like I said it was amazing. This picture hardly does it justice. You should google it or something if you haven't heard of it before.

The next morning we enjoyed some time by the pool. EZ has been taking swim lessons and even though he still cant actually swim he is much better in the water about basic stuff like remembering to close his mouth when he goes under. Pretty important. Here is a pic of Netta looking cute while getting tried off.

After swimming we headed to Sea World. They had a pretty sweet deal where we could all get in for the child price and get a pass for each person to come back one more time for free. Not too shabby. We will definitely be heading back in the fall after the weather cools down a bit. It was hotter than Hades out there. Despite the heat we all still had a blast. Netta got so excited every time she saw an animal/creature which meant she was excited and squealing pretty much the whole time. My favorite part was feeding the dolphins. Here is a nice close up of our dolphin friend.

EZ really liked the big aquarium where he got to see all his "friends" from Finding Nemo. We really need to cut back on his tv time.

Sadly my parents had to leave on Sunday. EZ was a bit distraught and apparently stood in the garage staring at the floor for quite some time after I left to take them to the airport. Luckily we are headed to Pittsburgh in about 4 weeks. Of course I have to say thanks to my rockin hubby who put this all together for me. Thanks babe. I love you!

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to Grandpa Steve and Grandpa Phil and most importantly Dada!

Love,

EZ aka Tom Cruise

and Netta (after enjoying one of EZ's markers)

Dublin Dr. Pepper Birthday Celebration

Saturday we went to the Dublin Dr. Pepper Birthday Celebration. Dublin is a city a little over 2 hours north of Austin where they have the only Dr. Pepper bottling plant that uses pure cane sugar. John thought he had died and gone to heaven. They were giving out free Dr. Pepper and this stuff was phenomenal. Pure cane sugar makes all the difference. My favorite part was when they busted out the birthday cake made with, you guessed it, Dr. Pepper. It was so frickin good. Between that and all the free Dr. Pepper I honestly gained 2 pounds that day. They also had a carnival going on, which EZ loved. It was hotter than all get out, but definitely worth it. Here are some pics from the festivities.

An old fashioned delivery truck stocked with the glass bottles.

Netta and I enjoying a frickin awesome Dr. Pepper float.

The souvenir shop.

Every year they change all the city signs to say "Dr. Pepper Texas"

John as a Dr. Pepper spokesman with his new hat and a drink in hand.

Random Happenings

Just wanted to post about some of the random happenings in our lives as of late. Nothing photo worthy or super special, but I still think worth recording and sharing. So here we go:

Netta
1. Eats everything and I mean everything. The other day she was airing her bum out after a diaper change and pooped on the floor, ate some of it, and then threw up all over the place. It was disgusting and hilarious at the same time, although not all that fun to clean up.
2. Does not learn lessons well. Immediately after throwing up she attempted to eat a crayon. She loves crayons and the other day I found her storing them in her cheeks.
3. Finally has started pulling herself up to standing. She isn't cruising yet, but I am glad she is showing some desire to break away from the floor. I am not necessarily in a hurry for her to walk, but I don't know how I feel about both my kids being late walkers. The doctor said if it ruins in the family then there is less to worry about, but that actually makes me feel worse. I breed lazy children.

EZ
1. Started swimming lessons on Monday and it did not go so well. Spent about half the time screaming his head of and he is the oldest one in the class by far. I kept pointing that out to him, but I don't know how much shame/embarrassment works at his age.
2. Tuesday EZ decided to put on this man pants and things went much better at swim lessons. They changed from a girl teacher to a guy and I don't know if that is what did it but EZ was much more cooperative and was again today.

John
1. Still working hard at Dell. The economy obviously makes everyone a little nervous, especially when you are the new guy, but so far things seem to be looking good for him.
2. Loved by the kids. As soon as he walks in the door the kids are all over him, which is fine by me.

Me
1. The main thing I have been working on lately is weight loss. As with most women, after my first kid I bounced back pretty decently, but not so much after the second. As soon as Netta was weaned I knew I had to get serious and I have been counting calories and trying to work out regularly for the past 3 months. So far I have lost about 15 pounds and I am actually back to my pre-baby and almost pre-marriage weight. Now, my body may not exactly look like it did before kids, but some damage is probably irreversible without major surgery. At times I could cry when I think about how nice my stomach looked before, and to think I hated it back then too. If I only knew then what I do know.