Cleaning the Pool

His Name

Cousin Time

The splash pad is open!

loving these four together....because it also usually means that I'm with her :)

Kite Flying

The kids LOOOOVE flying their kites.  It involves LOTS of running (in order to keep the kite up).  Tim also had his kite and didn't have as much success (he didn't want to run).  

Soccer Star

Oh our soccer girl.  This has been HER season.  She has been going after the ball, scoring lots of goals, touching the ball lots, and having a blast.   She loves her teammates and coach (although we don't love the Friday evening practices).  Can't believe we are finished with season #3!  

In this set of pictures below, we caught her scoring a goal!!

Foto Friday

A perfect night with ladies I love!!

love.

Mason didn't even ask me for help...he went straight to her.

A Rockets Date Night

I've wanted to go to a Rockets game for awhile now...and my lovely husband made it happen today :)

Family Bike/Run

With the beautiful spring weather, we've gone on lots of family bike/runs. The kids maintain a fairly decent pace, need random little pushes up the hills, and only ask for a water break every 15ish minutes.  There is a three mile loop that suits all of us just perfectly.  

Thumb Sucking

This first picture of Olivia sucking her thumb happened five years ago...April 13, 2008. 

(I blogged about it here)

At first it was adorable and soooo incredibly helpful.  I remember how happy I was when she started sucking her thumb because she also started sleeping through the nights and taking great naps.  It was wonderful.

Throughout Olivia's early years I relied on her thumb A LOT.  It was our tool that we used to help her cope with every transition/fit/injury....anytime things were difficult. I would literally bend down on my knees and tell her to suck her thumb and calm down for a moment.  It worked....really well.  Olivia has also always been a great sleeper and sucked her thumb while sleeping.  She requires more sleep than most of her peers.  To this day, she sleeps 13+ hours at night....and she will still take a nap!!!  We've been limiting her thumb for the past few years to ONLY at sleep time and we knew the transition wasn't going to be easy...

The dentist said that once Olivia turns 5 she really needs to stop the thumb sucking.  After our appointment I asked Olivia what she would like to earn as a reward for stopping...her first request was a rabbit (daddy immediately said no), second request...a squirrel (daddy said if she could catch it she could have it).  In the end, we settled on a fish ;)   I was picturing a small glass bowl with some pea gravel and a fish.  Daddy pictured something completely different and four days later had everything all purchased and set up.  Unfortunately, this was in January. 

Olivia started very motivated and wore band-aids on her thumbs.  Well, that wasn't working.  She would take them off or suck her thumb even with the band-aid.  I found some bad tasting polish and painted her thumbs.  She THREW UP!  Yes, the polish left a taste so awful in her mouth, she actually got sick.  This is probably when her motivation decreased and my anxiety increased.  The last thing I wanted was for Olivia to have these awful memories of puking because her mom wanted her to stop sucking her thumb :(

I reached out to a friend who just finished using thumb guards with success (but she said it did take about 40+ days).  We purchased the thumb guards and after a couple of nights of unsuccessful application/wearing and lots of tears we finally got over the hump.  We did bribe Olivia with more prizes (toys that she picked out).  She had a chart with 50 days and the toys were spaced out along the chart ending with the fish at the end. Every morning it was her responsibility to ask for her sticker to put on the chart. I still paint her thumbs with the bad tasting polish.....yes, even though it made her get sick, she is very motivated NOT to stick her thumb in her mouth.  In the end, although it was not easy, we are all thrilled that she is no longer sucking her thumb...her front teeth are already starting to look so much better!!

Without her thumb, her sleeping positions have been more creative

Here is our big girl with her new fish tank and fish :)

Happy Easter

Happy Easter :)

When the kids woke up they found plastic eggs everywhere.  Olivia absolutely loved this....  She collected eggs and would shake them, if it didn't make noise she tossed it behind her and Mason picked it up.  Little did she know that she was chucking eggs stuffed with CASH!!! lol..oh lifes little lessons ;)

After our laid back Easter morning we went to the Outtens house for a fantastic brunch and inaugural swim in their beautiful new pool!!!!

We left these festivities and headed to my parents.  We took the obligatory family pictures...which all came out really well!  All of our kids have MASTERED the self-timer smile...check out the group shot below.  That's impressive kiddos :)

Then we all got to play :) There was an egg hunt, a bunny cake, and some after dinner dancing :)

Forever Friends

In my life I've found how much I truly treasure friends that have withstood the test of time...  We have been friends with the Marshalls since Jenn and I both came into the boys life (the boys have a history that goes waaaaaay back in high school and involves lots of details that will not be shared on here).  

I love us hanging out together.  It's easy and uncomplicated and we are no longer teenagers and we now have four kids...(maybe that makes it complicated??)...and we ALWAYS have fun.

Thank you for traveling to Texas!  We're already looking forward to the next visit!!

A Good Friday!

The Kids Having Fun

 The Adults Having Fun!

I Didn't Take Enough Pictures

I didn't take enough pictures.  I know that seems crazy, but when I look back, I wish I had captured more of the moments...  I know we won't remember these times and I want to remember them...with pictures, the memories come back....

Today was a full day - there may have been a little recovery time in the morning... However, we all rallied and made it to the mall to visit a special bunny.  Afterwards we went out to lunch at market street and Jenn and I took the kiddos to safari stop for some energy burn ;)  Later the kids watched a movie while Jenn and I enjoyed the perfect sunny day by the pool :)  That evening my sister with family and the Outtens came over...  It was an awesome evening with lots of our favorite people.  Happy Times!!!

The Marshall's Have Arrived

Ben and Jenn (with two kiddos) came into town today for a little Texas Vacay :)

The kids hit it off immediately and all ran up the stairs together.

The adults sat together and listened to me share stories about Ben being a potato couch ;)

Excited about the next couple of days with dear friends!

The Box

Between the box and trash bag....I've decided we really don't need anymore toys.

(and yes, Mason is wearing a life jacket...)

Playing Trash Collector

He played with this bag full of paper for so long that I had to re-bag it...three times.  

He then cried when I actually threw it away.  

HA!

Guess who is excited about their sleepover with Aubrey!??!

she cracks me up...every.single.day.

Happy Birthday Aubrey

Today we attended Aubrey's birthday party as a family at Main Event.  I'm not sure who had more fun, Tim...or the kids :)  Tim talked for the next 48 hours about his successes during the laser tag battle....  

Later that day, Olivia said "Mommy, when I grow up and have my marry (aka - wedding) I want it to be at Main Event!"

Needless to say, we all had a blast celebrating a beautiful 8 year old!!!

Foto Friday

She is registered for Kindergarten!!!! 

:):)

 There was a thunderstorm and Jerry was nervous.  He ran up to Olivia's room, where she wrapped a blanket around him and started reading him a book.  Love so much about this.

Happy 1st Birthday Connor

Today we got together to celebrate Connor's 1st birthday!!

A Hawk Garden

Today the Hawks invited us over for an afternoon of playing and dinner.  They have an amazing garden and tonight the children were delighted to pick basil for our meal.  

Oh and then Mason spends the night and the next morning Super Aunt Erin did this?!?!  

When I came to pick up Mason the next day, he told me to go away and go back home.  

Needless to say, we are all loving having the Hawks in Texas with us :)

it was a FUN weekend

after only 10 minutes in the car I reached our destination with two sleeping kiddos

The Hertel Family

Loving this!!!

More with Baby Hannah

First thing in the morning Olivia was able to get the sweetest smile from little Hannah 

After some naps that boys did some artwork 

And prepared the meat for dinner

 While the rest of us helped give Hannah a bath :)

That was exhausting...so she took a little snooze with her cousin.

That night ended with some good old Yahtzee! Mason definitely had a lucky roll :)

Baby Hannah!!!

We've traveled to San Antonio to welcome the Sanner's to Texas and visit with sweet baby Hannah!  Olivia, Tim and I could not get enough "cuddling" time with Hannah.  It's not often that you are around a baby less than a month old...she was SUPER sweet, very sleepy, and gave us some incredible snuggle time!!!  

 Mason and Graham were quite the buddies.  They all had a great time playing together :)

My Little Man and I

Fun Times with Cameron

For the past day we've had Cameron hanging out with us, while his parents were with Connor (you can read more about that here).  

And we had a GREAT time together.  Mason was soooo sad when Cameron had to go back home.  

Just a Fall

This little boy was running at school and fell....ouch!!!