Learning as We Go....: 2013

Friday, May 10, 2013

BFF's

Tucker and Gracie adore each other.

Seriously. ADORE each other.

Tucker says a million and one times a day,

"I LOVE GRACIE TO THE MOON AND BACK!"

Don't get me wrong, they also love to pick on each other.

Okay, I'll just come out and say it, "Yes, my kids fight from time to time."

Hey, we're definitely normal around these parts lol! (I mean, that is normal, right?!)

Anyway, nothing makes my heart smile more than their love for each other.

When I was pregnant with Gracie, I prayed that she and Tucker would be best friends.

I have no idea what I would do without my sisters and brothers.

There's definitely something to be said about having a best friend who you've know your entire life, who loves you unconditionally, had the same experiences that you did growing up, and kinda knows you better than you know yourself :).

I prayed that my children would have that.

For their entire lives.

Well, they still have a lot of growing up together to do,

but I'm pretty confident they've got the BFF part down :).

Playing with Mommy and Daddy's phones

Something's funny at breakfast!

Could Tucker be teaching Gracie to climb out??

Silly Faces!

BFF's!

Ready for the Derby!

Video watching

Reading books

Tea Time!

A little back rub :)

Mommy and Daddy's sweet, sweet babies!

Monday, April 29, 2013

Jennifer's Prom

Wes's youngest sister, Jennifer, went to prom this past weekend.

Of course, we headed to SF to see her all dressed up!

She TOTALLY rocked the leopard print tennis shoes to go with the leopard print on her dress!

Jenn & her date, Swann, an exchange student from France.

She's as beautiful on the inside as she is on the outside :).

And, she has a personality as colorful as her dress!

Potty Learning!

Guess who has been potty learning???

This girl!

Yep, about a week ago (right before she turned 19 months), she decided she had it with diapers.

Once she made the decision, there was no going back.

She has spent her days at home in big girl "undies" and when we go out she's in a pull up.

However, she has not went in a pull up one single time.

She has used the potty at the zoo, Qdoba, the port-a-potties at the Balloon Glow, church, friends' houses....and she stays dry in between.

I'm thinking we're going to take the next step and move into big girl undies all the time!

Yeah, she's just too fabulous for diapers :).

Daddy's shoes and big girl undies!

In other news, this little potty-goer's brother has been teaming up with the boy next door to build rockets.

All boy.

Saturday, April 27, 2013

Balloon Glow 2013

We went to the Balloon Glow for the first time ever.

It was awesome!

Very cool to watch the hot air balloons inflated, and even cooler to watch them do so in unison at night!

A few pics:

Gracie LOVED watching the balloons get "fired up". She clapped and cheered.

Mesmerized! Tucker also loved it. On the way home, he asked Wes and I what we thought was more awesome, the Balloon Glow or garbage trucks. Yep, he's ALL boy!

Daddy & Gracie were pretty mesmerized as well!

We ran into a few friends there as well.

The Lawyer's, Blake, Katelyn & Tinley

The Wade's, Matt, Danielle, Harrison & Harper

Gracie sharing with Tinley

"US!"

A happy girl popping bubbles :).

On the way home tonight, I couldn't help but smile and feel so incredibly blessed. Gracie was fast asleep. Tucker was watching The Lion King. Wes was singing along with the radio. We had had a great time doing something new together. This is the stuff that I look forward to doing with our family. Making memories. Big memories, but also small memories. Just having fun. Enjoying life. Enjoying each other.

I absolutely LOVE my sweet family! Blessed.

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

"VACATION" - It's a beautiful thing!

We were on vacation last week. "Vacation." Isn't that the most perfectly sounding word in the human dictionary? Okay, so maybe it trails just behind words like "love," "child," "happiness," "laughter"...... But, it's a pretty nice word, agree?

We did so much on this vacation, it's hard to believe it was all packed into 9 days! It was our first solo family vacation since Tucker was 6 months old! We've been to the beach several times over the past four years, but always with friends. Which we LOVE doing and they have all been awesome vacations (that I actually hope to do some "throwback" posts on lol!), but we were longing for a little quality family time this time around. (Though not before fitting in some very special family in Jacksonville, FL!) I have been so bad about posting pics from vacations in the past, so I'm committing to doing better this time! There's just always SO many pictures to sort through and I have a pretty hard time narrowing down just a few favs (hence my picture overload posts that are my MO on here!).

Transitioning from vacation is also very difficult for me. I just have a hard time getting back into the swing of non-vacation things.... I'm already SO ready to go back to "vacation"! It's taking everything in me to not visit VRBO! And I'm pretty sure my husband thinks I'm all sorts of crazy since he's getting texts from me that read, "What do you think about the third week of June for our next vacation?" You know, all of 5 weeks after the one we just went on. People do that, right? I mean, we could be those "people," right?? I'm quite positive I would be pretty good at it.... :).

Okay, I've fantasized long enough.... This isn't a real vacation post because it took me way too long to load all the pictures on my computer (I've got to do some research on a good program for organizing pictures... any suggestions???), and I got distracted and decided to give my blog a face lift (whadda think??). Now I'm too tired (and slightly frustrated) and ready for another VACATION (have I mentioned that yet??).

I'll just leave you with ~~a few~~ several teasers ;).

Us at a church we visited Easter morning