june fun

All the details for these pictures are already in the Chatbooks so I'm not going to include all the details here, but I wanted the pictures in the blog book as well. 

Summer is off to a great start and we have been so thankful that the pool and Hawaiian Falls opened up despite COVID-19!  We've also loved our home playdates with the Hawkins and Funderburks.

We enjoyed a special treat at Hawaiian Falls...

Hawaiian Falls again, but this time with the Lundeens.  Brooke loved having another girl (Harley) to play babies with. 

After finding that caterpillar at Katherine Rose Park in May, I had the idea to order a butterfly garden for Brooke's birthday.  After ordering it, I found the dollhouse for Brooke, and since I didn't want to completely spoil her, I asked Grandma if she wanted to gift the butterfly garden to Brooke.  She did, and Brooke ended up opening it early because I was worried that the caterpillars would form their chrysalids before she saw them as caterpillars. My girl was SO excited about a kit with real live caterpillars in it.  

One emerged the morning before we went to the lake house (yay!!), and Ellie Hawkins agreed to babysit the rest until they emerged.  While on the trip, Ellie sent pictures and videos of the other 2 beautiful Monarchs and their first flight out of their enclosure.

More Hawaiian Falls time... 

Sibling bonding time at the pool...

The kids became really good at wearing masks, and although I didn't take them anywhere for the first two months, we have started venturing out a bit more and I 'm glad they are such good sports about it. 

We had to relocate Brooke's bookcase because this was the perfect spot for her new dollhouse, but it didn't look good with the big orange mirror right about the house, so that had to go.   

I moved the banner from this side of the room, put it over the house, and then shuffled everything else around.

We ended up getting a new yellow flower and yellow swag, and we both loved how it turned out.  It seems silly, but I was a little sad about changing up her room because it meant that she was getting older and her needs and interests were changing, but I suppose that's also a good thing :) She's a happy, healthy, thriving little girl. 

More pool time, and I have been amazed at how empty it has been this summer!  It definitely has worked to our favor, but since we can't invite guests, we either swim with the Hawkins or swim on our own.  I am SO grateful that they have each other. This bond has really grown the last few months and I love that they can play together for hours. (I also love that they want to wear their matching swimmies all the time!)

I finally got my hair done, which was LONG overdue.  My last haircut was December 7th, and the one I had in April was cancelled due to the salon closures.  They opened back up June 1st, but I couldn't get in until the middle of June!

Let's just say that I felt like a new woman when I left!!

More boating as a family...

One of my fav pictures of all time, but it's a bit deceiving because they were being total stink pots about taking a picture!  

Brooke tried wake boarding at Lake Travis, but had a much harder time than Colby.  Kevin determined that she might be a little too big for the "kid board", so he told her that she could have his old board.  She felt SO special, and told everyone that her Dad gave her his old board.  

She talked about it for days and when we went to the lake that next Saturday, Kevin moved the boots to the new board, got the double ropes all ready, and then Brooke changed her mind.  I was super irritated and couldn't understand why she would do that after we made the whole outing about her.  She claimed that the water was just too cold, and I finally pulled her in the water with me because I knew she just needed to jump in and realize that it wasn't cold.  

Well, my plan totally backfired because she was MAD.  She was trying to kick at me and was really upset.  I thought I could just have fun with her and get her out of her funk, but she swam straight back to the boat and sulked in the front for over an hour. I felt bad about pulling her into the water, but I was just trying to snap her out of her grumpiness and I didn't like that she wasted Kevin's time to switch the boots if she was gonna refuse to even try. So, I let her sulk and miss out on the fun.

After more than an hour, she came to me and apologized for having a bad attitude, but added that she didn't like that I pulled her into the water.  I apologized for doing that, but explained how disappointed I was with her attitude and lack of willingness to try new things and appreciate her Daddy's efforts.

We swam as a family for a while, and then she agreed to try to wakeboard. I could tell that she was nervous to get back out there, but Kevin was right by her side the whole time and she was able to stand up on this new board!!  I was screaming and cheering pretty loud because I wanted her to know how proud I was.  I hope that she'll be brave enough to try new things and give her best effort because she's a very coordinated girl with a lot of potential! 

I have taken over the yard work this summer because I'd rather not pay someone $25 a week to cut it and I don't really want it to take away from our weekend when Kevin could potentially do it. One particularly hot and muggy afternoon, Colby wanted to help and I let him jump right in.  It was definitely much easier for him going towards the fence, but I just gave him an extra boost on the path back and he was able to manage. He'll probably be able to do it on his own before I know it!

Softball started back up and it was fun to go see Kevin play!

More Hawaiian Falls...

Lake Days with friends, and Brooke was having a blast with her littlest friends and the tea set she brought. (She didn't love that the stickers all came off the tea pot, or that someone lost the teapot lid in the lake, but it seemed fun while it lasted.)

The digging is always a hit...

One morning I trimmed all the bushes and the kids did an amazing job helping me clean up all the trimmings.  I want my kids to be hard workers, so I figure I need to teach them young :)

Pool time with my littles.

Every time we heard about Carter's baseball games, Colby would ask me if we could go.  I knew they were requiring masks, but we made it out anyway and Colby was interested for maybe the first 5 minutes, haha.  Luckily, they brought activities to keep themselves entertained.  I actually really enjoyed watching, and of course, chatting with Joanna.

And last, but not least, was the loss of another tooth! That thing had been wiggling for a while, but one afternoon at the pool. it somehow got bumped and was barely hanging on.  She was traumatized from the two front top teeth, so she didn't want anyone to pull it out. By the second night, it was bleeding when she brushed her teeth (picture below), but she continued to be super dramatic about it. I finally said, "Okay, lets just go to bed then."  I went into Colby's room to lay by him, and about 5 minutes later, she barged into his room saying, "It's gone!  My tooth is gone!!" Kevin said she just couldn't stop messing with it, hopped up and turned the light on, then announced to Kevin that he needed to get her tooth out right then!

Love this cute smile! And I was happy to be DONE with that tooth, haha.

Now on to July's adventures...

14th anniversary

I can't quite believe that we celebrated 14 years of marriage!  That just sounds like a long time, but when I stop and think about the years before kids and the years with kids, it seems more possible that it could have actually been that long.

In those years, we lived in a pink house in Provo, UT a townhouse in Arlington, TX, an apartment in Grand Prairie, TX, an apartment in Doral, FL, a townhouse (which we owned) in Pembroke Pines, FL, Jerry and Bev's house (about 4 months) in Flower Mound, TX, and our current home in Grand Prairie, TX.  

During that time, Kevin graduated from college and took his first job at Certifit, I started my Master's Program at UT Dallas, Kevin asked to be put on the bottom of the "moving list" so that I could hopefully finish my program, Kevin was promoted to Store Manager of the Miami store, I graduated remotely (I had one semester left!) from my program in Communication Disorders, I passed my exit exams and officially had my license to practice Speech Language Pathology, I completed a Half Marathon with Daleth, Kevin completed a Triathlon with Andre, we bought our first home, we pursued fertility treatments, moved back to Texas when Kevin was offered the Dallas store,  got pregnant with our first baby,  purchased a business in Missouri, served in numerous church callings, dealt with the closing of the aforementioned business, had a baby boy, adjusted to life with two kids, got pregnant with a baby girl which we lost at 16 weeks, continued to work and serve and raise our busy kids, got pregnant with a baby boy which we lost at 14 weeks, and through it all, we've been able to grow closer together and build upon our love for one another. Those years have been filled with unbelievable happiness, but also trials and sadness.  But I can honestly say that the sad times have forced me to rely on Kevin even more and I think our relationship is stronger because of it.  I am incredibly grateful for the life we have created together and I feel so much peace knowing that we are sealed together for time and all eternity to each other, to Brooke and Colby, and to our two angel babies. 

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Our anniversary was on a Wednesday this year, and since we had our anniversary weekend getaway to look forward to, we didn't really have any plans for that day. The more I thought about it, the more I wanted to do something to celebrate our family's "birthday" since that's essentially when everything started.  We used to love going to P.F. Changs when we lived in Florida, so I thought it would be fun to order take-out and eat dinner at home together. 

I ordered a "Dinner for Two", which included egg drop soup, lettuce wraps, Mongolian Beef, chicken lo-mein, and of course, some fortune cookies.  It was perfect for our family, and the kids were totally into the chopsticks. I only have a picture of Colby, but Brooke's favorite was the soup and Colby's favorite was the beef. They were both willing to try everything, which completely surprised me.  Maybe we need to branch out a bit with our weekly menu so we can increase their exposure to new and different foods :)

Our weekend getaway was so wonderful!  We stayed at a Hilton in the middle of the Southlake Town Center.  I love that plaza, and the fact that it's only about 30 minutes from Grandma and Papa's house was perfect in case the kids needed us.  We checked into the hotel, then decided to walk out and do some shopping,  The Governor of Texas had recently re-issued a mask order, which meant that we had to wander the outdoor shops in our masks.  Obviously, that's less than ideal, but I didn't want that to spoil our weekend.  I was giving Kevin a hard time that his mask perfectly matched his shirt (Cookie Monster blue), but then I realized that mine matched my shirt as well, haha. Let's just pretend that it was intentional, okay??

After shopping for a few hours, we headed back to our hotel to change and head back out for dinner.  As we left the lobby, I spotted a couple trying to take their picture by the fountain.  The girl had propped up her phone with her purse and they were trying to get the angle just right.  I offered to take their picture, which they were super happy about, and then I didn't feel silly asking them to take ours. 

We were pretty indecisive about dinner because we had a few really great options, but we settled on Brio Tuscan grille, which was right in the town square.  We had to wear our masks into the restaurant and they had every other table blocked off so that we could adequately "social distance" from other restaurant patrons, but other than that, it felt like a normal date, haha.  We shared a wedge salad, I ordered a spicy vodka pasta with pancetta, and Kevin ordered a filet mignon with roasted potatoes.  The food was delicious, and even though we talked about random stuff, like Kevin being the Homecoming prince, school dances, dating stories, and first kisses, etc, it was so nice to have uninterrupted time together.

We intended to browse Barnes and Noble after dinner, but I didn't realize that everything had modified hours due to the virus and most retail stores were closed.  Luckily, Milwaukee Joe's was NOT closed, so we shared some yummy ice cream on our walk around the town square.

The rest of the weekend was spent relaxing, going to the pool, and reminiscing about the last 14 years.  I definitely married a good one, and I hope he always feels the same about me, haha.

aubrey's birthday and a sleepover

Aubrey Jane turned 6 in June and we celebrated with a family birthday party at Grandma and Papa's house!  The photo props were a big hit...

While the kids had fun with the props, Uncle Kevin held sweet Emery.  He hasn't held her much during this whole pandemic since he is exposed to quite a few people at work, but Melanie was comfortable with him holding her.  I love the way she's looking at him :)

The kids were eager to get to the piñata, and it was definitely entertaining to watch, haha.

Brooke's powerhouse swing even caused her to completely turn around a few times!

We enjoyed a yummy lunch together, and then it was time for presents!!  (And an Emery nap.) 

I think Colby looks so much like Aubrey in this picture.  Their hair even looks the exact same shade of blonde with the same tiny highlights!

A few days before Aubrey's party, Jerry texted us asking if we could take a "casual family picture" by the swing. He might be getting worse than me about asking for pictures at every single get together, haha.  But the picture did turn out pretty nice...

By about 2 o'clock, Kevin and I headed out on an anniversary weekend getaway.  Grandma and Papa had offered to watch the kids overnight at their house, and we were all excited for a special weekend! Shortly after we left, Melanie sent me these pictures of Brooke and Emery.  She said that the moment she asked Brooke if she wanted to hold Emery, Brooke went straight to the bathroom to wash her hands, then spent the next hour holding her, playing with her, reading to her, etc.  I ADORE how much she adores her tiny cousin. 

Grandma taught all the kids to make their own pizzas, which looked super fun.  Auntie Mel Mel was sending me picture updates throughout the evening.

Brooke invited her cousins to spend the night as well, so all four of the big kids slept over at Grandma's. Our kids have never slept over there without us, so I wondered how Colby would do, but they said he fell asleep quickly and slept all night without a problem.  All four of the kids were lined up in twin aerobeds across the living room floor, so I'm kind of amazed that they slept so well. 

When we came back on Sunday afternoon to get them, they both begged to stay another night :) I guess that means it was a success, right?  Thanks a million, Grandma and Papa.