A Little of This and a Little of That

I think I forgot to post pictures from a butterfly festival we went to about a month ago. Aedan’s class got to watch all the stages of a caterpillar grow into a butterfly and then they got to let their butterflies go at the festival.  The kids had a lot of fun!

We switched Adelaide to her big girl bed about a month ago. So far she has been doing really well. She only comes out if she gets scared by thunder (“nunder”). I found a picture of Aedan taking a nap in his big boy bed for the first time. They look so similar to me.

We have been growing our collection of games. It is the perfect way to spend a rainy afternoon (which we have been having a lot of lately).

Adelaide loves to play with her baby dolls. I took this sweet picture the other day.

We are still in the mist of potty training. Sometimes I think we are making good progress and then other times I am ready to throw in the towel. I guess it is a two steps forward, one step back situation for us. Right now her favorite thing to wear in a Minnie Mouse pull-up (better know as a “min mouse poo-up”), as we are no where near leaving the house in undies.  Hoping we make some good progress soon!

-Lauren-

Muffins for Moms

Yesterday was Muffins for Moms at the kids’ school. It was such a fun morning!

Such a big difference from last years Muffins for Moms! Apparently, I like to wear purple to this event. Ha!

After the school party, Aedan’s class had a special little party for all the moms. It was so cute!

Such a special morning with my two favorite kids!

Oh and just so you know, our days are not all sunshine and roses, this is the text I sent Jon about 5 minutes before we had to leave for school yesterday morning.

Fun times over here, let me tell you! We are potty training this weekend. I thought I could hold her off until after our vacation, but I’m done. White flag thrown. She insists on taking off her own diaper, wiping herself and then trying to put on a new diaper about a thousand times a day. She is more than ready.

-Lauren-

School Pictures

I finally got around to ordered the kids school pictures. The photographer the school uses always gets the kids to smile so well. I wish I could show a class picture, because I am amazed that they can get a class of two year olds to not only all be looking at the camera, but also be smiling at the camera. I can’t even get my two to do that!

Here are their pictures this year…

And this…how is he already almost done with preschool. I am going to be a mess at their preschool graduation in a few weeks!

-Lauren-

Weekend Visitors

This past weekend, my sister and her boyfriend, Taylor came for a visit. Taylor did the Shiner bike on Friday (98 miles!!) so they made a long weekend trip out of it.

Friday they went out an did some kayaking on Town Lake. Then that night we took them to a new outdoor restaurant near us. It was really fun!

On Saturday, Taylor had his bike ride, so Kymberly hung out with us for the day. We did a lot of playing and then during nap time, she and I went out for pedicures.

Sunday we did more hanging out before they had to head back to Houston.

We had a lot of fun hanging out with them! The kids were pretty sad to see them go on Sunday!

We want them to come back soon!!

-Lauren-

Backyard Patio

The guys we had building our patio finished up in 7 days. I was amazed at how fast they got it done. It looks great and we have already been enjoying it quite a bit. It runs the length of our house so it is about 40ft by 16ft. Lots of space!

Before…

After…

The are under the covered roof, has this little seating area. Jon installed an outdoor fan which makes this space an awesome place to hang out.

This area currently has our old patio furniture, but we are looking for a table to put out here for a nice eating area.

Jon added the stone boarder around the patio this past week.

The open area at the far side of the patio will eventually be where we have a fire pit and some chairs. It will be such a nice place to hang out in the fall/winter.

We are really happy with how it turned out. We feel like we have a new room on the house. The kids love it and we still have a good amount of open yard space left.

Now we just need to start throwing some parties!

-Lauren-

Home Projects

Lately we have been getting some stuff done around the house.

A few months ago, we bought a new sectional. The couches we had were going on 10 years and they barely lived through Hiro’s puppy years. Every cushion had at least 3 holes in the corners from puppy teeth. And the pillows that came with the couch? Those along with the matching ottoman were destroyed years ago. Oh the puppy stage! Speaking of which, how cute is this little guy? He turns 8 at the beginning of May.

I had been wanting to upgrade the couches for a long time now and we finally did! We got the sectional at Havertys and I love it. The color is perfect, the size is great (the length of the back is 11ft, so it fits the whole family) and it is super comfortable.

We also got Adelaide a big girl bed. She refuses to sleep in it, so she is still in her crib. I am thinking we are going to have to get rid of the crib all together before she is willing to make the switch. She does love reading, jumping and putting her baby’s to  bed in her new bed.

The biggest thing going on right now is our new back patio. We are going from this…

To this…

We have a great crew working on it this week and as long as it doesn’t rain too much next week, it should be finished up. It will be flagstone across the entire top, including over our existing patio. Those posts will be a pergola which we plan to put a table under. Then on the far left, we plan on putting a fire pit of some kind (probably in the fall). We are pretty excited! I will definitely post more pictures once it is complete.

-Lauren-

Tantrums and More

I haven’t been in the mood to write much lately. I feel like most days look pretty similar and not a lot of exciting stuff is going on. BUT, I love reading back on my old posts. Even if its just the normal day to day stuff, it is such a fun way to remember the little things. So hopefully I can get back on track and back to posting more regularly.

Adelaide is in the throws of being a two year old. Aedan was not a hard two year old. Sure he had his share of melt downs but really nothing too bad. Three was a much harder year for us. With Adelaide, I am hoping two is her hard year, because if things get worse at three, we are in trouble.

Yesterday she woke up from her nap in a bad mood. Don’t you hate with the happens? I hear her wake up crying and know it is just not going to be a great afternoon/evening. I get her up and remind her that we are going to a friends house. Then she decides to throw a fit because she wants to go immediately to the friends house. I try to get her to put on her shoes and she just loses it. As in lay on the floor, kicking legs, screaming, etc.…losing it. There is no rationalizing with her. I am telling her we will leave as soon as she calms down and puts her shoes on, but she is screaming because she wants to put shoes on and leave. Sigh. We work through it eventually and make it out of the house, then she acts like she is happy as can be.

Here she is mid tantrum one morning. Probably over something like the “wrong” milk cup or because I made her oatmeal and a pop-tart and she actually wanted a pop-tart and oatmeal. A completely rational problem.

I think this one was because she didn’t want to hold the ducks, but she also didn’t want them to be set down or held by anyone else.

Other than the tantrums she is at a pretty fun age. We get out and do things a lot and she is tons of fun to play with. She loves to take care of her baby dolls and it is fun to watch. She cooks for them, changes diapers and rocks them. She also puts them in time out frequently. It makes me wonder if she gets put in time out frequently at school. Ha!

Aedan loves to go to the greenbelt with Jon. They have a blast together when they go. Jon says that Aedan’s favorite thing to do is to find a rock, sit and have a snack, move to the next rock and have another snack, and repeat. Hiro loves to go too!

This was one afternoon at lunch. Jon and I were trying to talk, but the kids were playing songs and Hiro was howling because he hates the sound of the harmonica. Aedan and Adelaide think the howling is hilarious so they try to play the harmonica as much as possible. Ha!

Over Easter weekend, Aedan got a little stomach bug. He was only sick for a short time, but it was still no fun. I enjoyed the extra cuddle time though!

Aedan used to dress up as a fireman at least once a day, but for the past few weeks he hadn’t been doing it as much. The other day he and Adelaide were both playing fireman and he got all his equipment out. Jon started a fire with some paper in a pot and let Aedan put it out. Highlight of Aedan’s day for sure!

Next week, we have some people starting on extending our back patio. We are really excited. Hopefully I can post some pictures soon!

-Lauren-