Why I've started posting to my blog again

Stephen finally got a smart phone, so now we've got no excuses. We've got a camera with us wherever we go. It's the greatest thing ever. It hasn't even been a month yet and there are SO many times when I've "wished" we had a camera to capture a cute moment and didn't have to miss it.

Party Boat - Lake Travis

Some friends invited us out on a party boat. It was one of the funnest things we've done since we had kids. It was a blast watching them enjoy themselves and Stephen and I were so proud of how brave they were. They were both jumping off the 2nd deck of the boat.....until Zoe tried following her dad after he dove in and not just belly flopped, but smacked her face BAD! Before long though, she was back at it. Taya was smart enough to listen when her dad showed her how to do it and she did it with perfect form every time. It was hilarious....hands by her side, feet first, checking first to make sure it was clear. Thata girl!

Spiderman

Zoe found this toy at Eric & Janessa's house. Too cute!! (but I'm glad we don't own it)

McKinney Falls Biking

No the most flattering picture of me, but there's so few pictures taken of me that I felt it was important to include one of me.
Taya' s new snazzy trailer bike. Another great find by dad at the R.E.I. garage sale.
Now we get to share the load. Stephen pulls Taya while I pull Zoe.
Just some of our latest adventures at McKinney Falls. I hope this continues to be a fun family tradition that the girls remember forever. It's starting to feel like our family state park. Most recently, Stephen took the girls to explore the rock shelter while I was off mountain biking. Unfortunately, we've decided it's just too darn hot in August to do our weekly outings.

Zoe a.k.a. TROUBLE

This cutie pie is every bit as mischievous as she looks. She goes a million miles an hour or at a dead stop....nothing in between. I'm convinced she doesn't have a walk mode, which is challenging at the pool. She can hang with the big kids and can boss and pull Chance and Bosley around as good as anyone. She's a momma's girl through and through. One of these years we'll get her to stop sucking on her blankie. "O-tay" Around here, we spell trouble Z-O-E.

Taya and the Toad (get it?....princess and the frog)

That's right....Taya will not only touch, but can catch toads.....thanks to the hundreds of toads we've had in our front yard. Taya is a hard one to understand. She's girlie to the core, likes playing dress-up, babies, and anything princess, yet somehow her dad has managed to teach her some fun things that do require you to get dirty. She absolutely loves rock climbing with her dad and can identify several plans and flowers. It's made me have to learn too just so I can keep up. Since we're bragging about Taya, I thought I add that she's very obedient, a great helper, does her chores (putting silverware away, putting a new trash bag in, and letting the dogs in and out), and loves being in Primary.

Corpus Christi - Mustang Island

For Mother's Day we decided to take a trip. It was just going to be a short 1 night get away, but the trip was shortened even more by Zoe, once again, getting sick. Luckily, we were able to spend some quality time at the beach before she started getting a fever. We ended up leaving just after lunch and the drive home felt much longer than usual. I felt sorry for sick little Zoe who I'm sure wanted nothing more than her bed and blankie. Once again, we're so grateful she was able to have the surgery and is so much healthier now.

How you know this kid is not feeling well.

Zoe literally feel asleep in the middle of the floor within seconds. It was several incidents like this in conjunction with ear infection after ear infection after sinus infection that prompted us to have her tonsils and adenoids removed and tubes put in her ears. They're so darn cute when they're asleep!

Chance

I feel the need to blog this story to maintain it's accuracy over the years. It all started about a month ago when Stephen started mentioning the need to get a puppy soon. We've always said we wanted to get a puppy before Bosley was too old to snub and puppy and want nothing to do with them, but it hadn't occurred to me that the time had come. I began looking on Craigslist and other rescue web sites and was determined to find another Mastiff mix since we'd had such good luck with Bosley. After only looking for about a week, I ran across Brutus. I immediately e-mailed the owner and then showed his picture to Stephen who was very "blah" about the whole thing. The reply I got from his owner was that 2 people were coming to look at the dog tomorrow, but if they fell through, she'd let me know. To which I replied that we were available to come meet him tonight, if they were available to give me a call. I held my breath, waiting to hear back as we moved forward with our plans for Aunt Kim to come watch our kids that night while Stephen and I finally went our for our Valentine's date. As we were half way to The Melting Pot for the start of our date, I got a phone call and was told we could go meet Brutus that night, if we wanted. Stephen reluctantly agreed to go, forfeiting our Valentine's date. When we got there, he barked at us for 10 minutes. He seemed like a good dog, but VERY skittish and scared. After several attempts, I was finally able to get close enough to pet him. It took Stephen even longer. Then Stephen and I went outside to discuss things and decided we definitely needed to take him home to meet Bosley and the kids before we could agree to keep him. We thought there was no way the current owner would let us take him on a trial basis since there were other people interested in meeting him the next day, but when we asked her, she said we could have as long as we needed. She sent us home with a LARGE crate, dog bed, food & water bowls, 6 months of heart worm medicine, dog treats, and leash and collar. He had already had a recent vet visit and was microchipped....all for $50. Talk about a deal!! We discussed a possible name the whole way home and were settled on Chance (after Christopher Chance from a spy action TV show) before we even got home. Needless to say he never went back.

Now he's just one of the family.

Winter Wonderland

I'd been wanting to get a winter wonderland shot before we left. We decided to pull over on our way out and Stephen warned me as we walked over that there was a slippery spot. I was fortunate enough to not hurt Taya, who I was carrying....just left my back sore for a couple weeks. That's why Taya's so happy in this picture. And no, it was NOT warm enough for a short sleeve shirt....even for Stephen. It's only because we were just hopping (or should I say slipping) in and out of a warm car that he didn't have a jacket on and the rest of us weren't dressed any warmer.

Kim's Wedding

My sister, Kim got married on December 11, 2009 in Lake Tahoe. I was dreading the destination wedding a little bit, but it all went amazingly well. It turned into a great family vacation. I take credit for some smart decisions:

1) Talking my way into a great price on a mini-van rental for my parents and our family together instead of 2 separate cars. This proved to be a great decision because we were all together with poor weather road conditions, we only had to worry about chains on one vehicle and we saved on gas.

2) We shared a sweet 2 room hotel suite with my parents, who helped a ton with our kids and provided quality pinochle time.....although we decided altitude must mess with good pinochle playing. Our scores were in the negative more than the positives and I think every game was finished by being 100 apart in the negative.

3) I believe I was the smartie who decided we should grocery shop in Reno before heading up to Tahoe and plan to eat in a lot. It turned out there was very limited food available near the hotel and with the bad weather everyone was limiting their driving. Almost all the wedding guests ended up doing the grocery shopping idea but paying double in Tahoe.

This picture has a great story. This is Kim's husband Green at the pizza dinner they provided for everyone. Green's not a kid person and I can't recall a single time he's held either of my kids. I was shocked when I saw him holding Kyler (the ring bearer) and was giving him a hard time and threw Zoe in his arms too. I honestly think that's the first time he's held her or Taya.

I was shocked she chose me as her Maid of Honor. I hope I didn't disappoint. It really was an honor. Love you sister! Now have some babies so my kids can have more cousins....and I can't wait to see you as a mom.

Monkey See...

This was priceless. Zoe definitely does everything her big sister does....and I mean everything. It's a challenge to teach a 3 year old that someone is looking up to them and will do anything and everything they do so she needs to be careful. So glad to have caught this moment.