Little Bunnies and Lady Bears...

We had an action-packed, fun-filled Easter weekend!

Grammy, Grandpa, Uncle Clark, Aunt Brittany, and Emma all came down to visit. It was soooo much fun.

The girls played so well together all weekend! Caroline LOVED following Emma around :) Thankfully, sweet Emma was patient with Caroline and her lack of sharing skills.

Grammy and Grandpa came Thursday, so Jon and I could go out to celebrate our anniversary. Then, Grammy babysat again on Friday afternoon, while the boys played golf and I cashed in my anniversary present...a day at the spa!!!

Saturday, we hit the neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt. It was really fun! There was a bounce house, petting zoo, pony rides, face painting, balloon animals, a fire truck, the Easter bunny himself, and of course, an egg hunt.

At first, Caroline stuck close to Daddy in the petting zoo.
But then she warmed up. She was chasing the bunnies, pigs, and goats, so it was hard to catch a good pic. Lets just say, she got so excited as she was running around that she stepped in the animals' bowl of water. She was drenched in "goat water" which smelled awesome.


When it was time to line up for the egg hunt, all the kids were waiting so nicely with their parents....Except for ours. Caroline decided she would get a head start and check things out. It's best to get the lay of the land first, so you can have an aggressive plan of attack.
Egg hunting time! Her sweet buddy Jack wanted to make sure she didn't have more eggs than him ;)
Some coaching from Mommy.

Dude, this basket is weighing me down.
She actually wasn't all that interested in hunting eggs. She just liked opening them.

The bounce house, however, was WAY more fun! She didn't care that all the other kids were twice her size.
When her turn was over, Daddy had to go in and fish her out. She didn't want to stop jumping!
The gang (minus Grammy, who was taking the pic)
After naps and a much needed outfit change (seriously, the goat water smelled).

We ate at Waterloo for dinner. The girls seemed to enjoy playing and eating outside!


Sunday, we went to church, then came home for brunch.

Bribed her with candy to get a family pic...

The Easter Bunny brought fun treats! Including Caroline's first ever taste of jelly beans :)
This is awesome!
After brunch, Daddy and Uncle Clark reported that they had seen the Easter Bunny hopping down the trail in the greenbelt next to our house. We decided to check it out right away ;)
At long last, Caroline got into the whole Egg hunting thing. Now that she knew some of the eggs had jelly beans inside, she was off the the races!!
She was running so fast!
She would give each egg a shake...
If it made noise, she'd open it and dig in....Hmm, Jelly Beans! (if it didn't make noise, she'd toss it aside)
Jelly Bean drool.
Sweet girls :)
Me, Grammy, and Aunt Brittany.
I am only 8 weeks ahead of Brit in our pregnancies, and yet I look as big as a HOUSE in the pic. Brittany just has the cutest little bump :)
After all the fun, everyone headed home to Big D. Except for Grammy! She stayed an extra night to babysit for us yet AGAIN!

This time, we hit the road to San Antonio to see the Lady Bears play in the Final Four. We are obviously the biggest bandwagon fans ever ;)

Sic 'Em Lady Bears!
BIG Thank You to our wonderful family for making the trip down to spend Easter with us!!! We had such a wonderful time!
And an especially HUGE thanks to Grammy for allowing us to take advantage of her free babysitting skills all weekend!!!!!

I'm no Fool...

I'm no fool, because I married my best friend and the most amazing man on this very day 4 years ago :) I love having April Fool's Day as our anniversary!

I am looking forward to celebrating our with dinner out tonight...YUM! And Jon's gift to me is what every pregnant girl needs...a day at the spa tomorrow!!!! Woohoo! Like I said, he is amazing :)

My gift to Jon was a surprise photo shoot of me and Caroline. It's a 2 part gift, really. Part 1, he didn't have to get dressed up and get his picture taken ;) Part 2 (the real gifts), are the pictures themselves...framed for his desk at work. I guess it was sort of narcissistic of me to assume that he would love to have a framed photo of ME as a gift...ha ha.

Anyway, here are the results from our photo shoot with Carly

(Cherry Blossom Photography)

My personal fave. I don't get many good pics with me and C!

Smelling the flowers

Looking so grown up

Blowing bubbles

Pop, Pop, Pop!

She looks like she is up to something...

Hi, Baby Miles!

Hugs for Mommy

Happy Anniversary, Jon!!!!

I can't imagine myself on this journey with anyone else...I LOVE you!

If you missed it (and you are REALLY bored ;))...

Last year, I posted "Our Story" in honor our anniversary.

You can click the links to read about...

How We Met and Our First Date

The Engagement Story

The Wedding

The Honeymoon

Hop, Hop, Hop!

Let the Easter celebrations begin!

We kicked off the week with our first ever Easter egg hunt at Caroline's School. It was so much fun!

Despite our attempts to practice, it took her a bit to get the hang of it. She was too busy chasing her friends from class :)

Here we go!
Filling up the basket!

I got this, now, Mom.

I am outta here.

Over it.

Can we go play?

Stealing candy from a baby...

Picnic time!

***Keep scrolling for more new posts***

Birthdays!

Between all our BU Basketball watching this weekend, we squeezed in a few birthday celebrations.

Caroline celebrated her good buddy, Jack's, 2nd B-Day at a nearby gym. WOW. That's all I have to say about that. Unfortunately I have no pics, but Caroline absolutely LOVED it. She ran and jumped and bounced and slid. Nonstop. Talking, cheering, and clapping the entire time.

Everyone always comments that she is "full of personality" and "so much fun" and "a bundle of energy" I am realizing that what they mean to say is..."Have you heard of Ritalin?" :) Just kidding of course. We loved how active and social she is...it is exhausting, but fun!

Later that evening, Jon and I had a night out to celebrate our dear friends Peter and Philip both turning 30. We saw Jerry Jeff Walker play at the historic Paramount Theater downtown. It was SO cool! The theater itself is amazing, and the Jerry Jeff put on a great show!
Heading into the concert
(Mel, Does this count as a belly pic?? ;) Sorta kinda?)
Jerry Jeff performing with his son, Django Walker. SO awesome.
At the Driskell after the show (where we ran into and chatted it up with Django)
Peter, Jon, Philip, Me, Sarah, and Meghan

Happy 30th Birthday, Boys!!! Thanks for including us in the celebration!!!!

***Keep scrolling for more new posts***

Sic 'Em Bears!

As you may have heard, Baylor basketball is AWESOME!

The regionals for the NCAA tournament were in Houston this weekend so we couldn't pass up the opportunity to see them!

Jon went solo (with his buddies) on Friday night to see them take on St. Mary's in the Sweet 16. He had a wonderful time, and of course...THEY WON!

So, Sunday, We decided to make it a family affair. All 3 (and a half ;)) of us loaded up and drove to Houston to see Baylor take on Duke in the Elite 8. I must admit I was very nervous about such a big adventure with Miss Caroline. But thanks to the amazing power of Dora and Fruit Snacks...Caroline did great. The 3 hour drive there and back went better than expected. She ate, slept and watched a few episodes of Dora. During the game, she was endlessly entertained by all of the action!

She clapped and cheered when everyone else did, danced to the music, and kept saying "Sic 'Em! Sic 'Em!" She especially loved the mascot. She would wave and say "Hi Bear!" when he was out on the court, and then look for him whenever he was on the sideline..."Bear? Are you?" I was actually shocked at how well she did! As long as she had plenty of snacks, she was happy.

Checking out the scenery with Daddy. LOTS of Baylor fans in the crowd :)

Snacking with Mommy.

Daddy and his crazy friends.
(Ryan, Craig, Danny, Jon, Tim, Joe, Luke, and Don)

More snacking while watching some of the game.

Hanging out with Mommy's friends...Jamie (expecting Baby Vince in July :)) and Marla!

Of course, it would have been an even MORE awesome day if we'd won, but the Bears played a fantastic game and can hold their heads high for an amazing season!!!

***Keep scrolling for more new posts!***

19 months

Caroline continues to be quite a chatterbox! I am truly amazed at how much she just picks up, and how quickly she learns new words. She repeats EVERYTHING we say. And I mean everything. I am really trying to watch what I say...yikes.

I am pretty sure she is the messiest eater ever. She refused to keep a bib on, so we just gave up. Until, I found this bib with sleeves. Not only does it keep her more covered, but she can't get out of it as easily. Kind of like a straight-jacket ;)

Sometimes when she burps, she'll say "Excuse me, I burp." and put her hand over her mouth.

When we read books, I always say "The End" as I close the book. Caroline has decided she prefers to say "Amen" at the end of the book instead.

She likes sitting at our dining room table. "Nowine's chair" is what she kept telling me.

The other day, we met Daddy for lunch at Chick Fil A. When she was done eating, she put her hands up, looked at Jon, and said "Daddy, hold you?" I just about melted. So sweet.

She is getting better and better at counting. We will catch her counting on her own every once in a while. The highest she has ever gotten is 8. But, she doesn't do it consistently.

She definitely knows shapes now, and we are still working on colors. With the exception of orange, I would say she is still pretty inconsistent.

She loves to take her purse with her everywhere. She is always sure to pack her phone and her keys. Sometimes she wants to bring her Bible, too :) When we are playing at home, she will pack up her purse, hop on her Dora car, and tell me Bye Bye. If I ask her where she is going, it's usually to "work" or to "church."

When we pulled into her school this week, she started naming off all the kids in her class. It was so cute! I can't believe she knows them all.

When she is ready to go, she will run to the back door and stand there. Luckily, she has not figured out how to actually open doors yet. I soooooo dread the day she discovers that one...

Whenever she hears something, she will stop what she's doing, put her hand to her ear, and say "I hear it" or "hear it"

I keep catching her singing to herself. It's hilarious! The other day she was giving her best rendition of "The Wheels on the Bus" which goes something like this...
"Mommy Shh, Shh, Shh. Around, Around."
(aka, The mommies on the bus say "shh, shh, shh" all through the town.)

She loves to swing on her her swing set out back. She literally cries, until we get swinging high enough. "Higher! Higher!" It's soooo dramatic.

The Energizer Bunny

I have mentioned before that Caroline is very active. She loves to run, climb, dance, you name it, this girl is always on the move. We really enjoy the "ready, set, go" game. It's pretty simple...I say "ready, set, go" and she runs up and down the entry hall. That's all there is to it, and yet, it provides endless amounts of entertainment. Sometimes, she wants me to chase her and tickle her, other times, she is content to just run back and forth.

This clip is kind of lengthy, but it gives you an idea of her activity level :)

She just keeps going and going and going and going...

By the way...I promise I am not ignoring the requests for belly pics (Mel!). I just don't have any to post! I tried to take some by myself, with the timer on the camera, but that didn't work very well. I keep forgetting to have Jon take some for me, but I will do it soon!!!

And by the way again...SIC 'EM BEARS!!! Woohoo!!!!

Nowine

The phrase "No Wine" has many meanings around our house these days...

I can have "no wine" since I am pregnant.

I seem to constantly be telling Caroline "no whining"

"Nowine" is what Caroline now calls herself.

She just recently started referring to herself by name, and I think it's so funny! Caroline sounds more like "No-wine" or "No-uh-wine" when she says it. It's so cute! "Nowine do it." "Nowine shoes on." "Nowine's chair." We'll be driving down the road and I will hear her in the back seat saying, "Nowine? Nowine?" When I look back, she has covered her face with her hands, waiting for me to say "Caroline, where are you?" She loves it when I finally "see" her.

Here we are playing a version of the game with a blanket...good times.

(I hope you can hear her saying "Nowine")

The Rooms

With my mom's help, I was able to get the kids' rooms (pretty much) finished!

Caroline's old room, became Miles's room. Caroline moved into the room next door. I was worried she might be confused by this, but she didn't miss a beat!

Caroline would love to give you the tour of her new room :)

She graciously gave her old crib to her baby brother, and she is sleeping in the new one.

This bed was mine when I was a little girl! It has a canopy, too, but we are waiting until she is a little bit older before we put that on. Since she hasn't graduated to the big bed yet, I am using it as our changing area (as you can see in the pic)

Rather than buy her a dresser, I got this little cube thing from Target. We have one in our playroom, too. Love it!

Here is Baby Miles's room (so far).

It still feels a little bare, so I hope to add a few more little decor items here and there.

I decided to fore go the cute puffy bumpers and quilt altogether this time. We ended up taking Caroline's bumpers off after only a couple of months, and exchanging them for the breathable mesh ones. Although they are not as cute, I have decided that practicality wins with baby #2 :)
The letters spelling out his name are a whole story of their own. I decided I would buy the unfinished letter from Michael's and paint them myself. I chose red (which in hind sight was random, and a big mistake) I was also determined to hang them with ribbon, since that's what I did for Caroline's. I wanted them to look cute! Anyway, in the end, they looked ridiculous. The red was too bright, and didn't match anything, and the ribbon looked girly. So, my mom was generous enough to spring for the prefinished letters from Pottery Barn :) Thanks Mimi!

These prints are vintage Baylor Football Program covers from the 40's, 50's, and 60's. I found them in a calendar at Whole Foods (of all places?). They were the inspiration for our football themed room.
Found this lamp 50% off at Hobby Lobby, and thought it was perfect!
I sure hope Miles likes football... ;)