Visitors

When we decided to move to Texas, I was really excited about several things. At the top of the list was being closer to my family, and being closer to a long time friend, Emily, who I had not seen since... my wedding. We visited them shortly after Ellie was born, and last weekend they came for a visit here. Emily is a great photographer, so thanks to her- we have some great shots of their visit- mostly of our trip to the splash pad.

Braids

Abigail has been wanting her hair braided every day lately. My favorite part is that I have to get it totally wet to braid it, and by the time it dries... the braid begins to curl. Am I crazy for being afraid that braiding it every day will make it lose some of its curl?? I just love this girls crazy curly hair.

Texas Rain

Texas storms are VERY different than the constant drizzle of Washington. I think I could seriously count on one hand the the times it has rained since we moved here almost 7 months ago. Maybe it has rained here as many days as it has not rained in Washington :)

A while ago we got a pretty good storm. You know, thunder, lightening, HUGE raindrops. Abigail just stood in the window watching in amazement. You would never know this girl spent most of the first two years of her life living in the rain.

Splash Pad

We have spent A LOT of time at the splash pad by our house this summer. The last couple of times we've gone it has been really crowded, so we may take a break for a while. It has been our go-to place for play dates. We took Breklyn with us a couple of weeks ago, and they had a lot of fun.

Back to Blogging.

It seems I live my life in a series of all or nothings. Blogging hits in there, all to often with the nothings. When I am on... I'll do daily posts. When I'm off, I'm lucky to get one up monthly. We have had A LOT going on around here lately. So, lots to blog about. One day at a time...

Two weeks ago, we got to fly to Utah to go to Stuart's wedding. We had a great time visiting with family. We were able to fly in just in time to make it to Grandpa John's birthday party on Friday. Saturday was filled with wedding festivities, Sunday we split between visiting both sides of our families, and then we left Monday.

It was a whirl wind.

It was so good to see family, although- I realize now, I didn't take enough pictures. Somehow, chasing around Abigail and taking care of Ellie kept me a little preoccupied. Here are a few of our trip.

I got Abigail a little suitcase of her own for the trip. When I opened it up to pack it, this is what I found.

Count your many blessings...

I can try to count them. But I am realizing more and more every day,

that the blessings in my life are numberless.

For some reason, it is so easy to forget that though. Why is that?

Why does it sometimes take tragic things to make me realize all that I have?

We have had a pretty heavy week this week. Charles started off his week at work with the news that a coworker that he worked closely with was killed in a hit and run accident on his bike over the weekend. Something so sudden really puts life into perspective. It makes you realize how important it is to live every day to the fullest, and to love and serve others like there is no tomorrow. What it really makes me want to do is just to pull my family in close, and never ever let go.

Late last night we got another call that has weighed heavy on my heart all day. When we moved here, we had a couple of families that really opened their arms to us and helped us and loved us instantly. One of those families happens to live just up the road, and has continued to be great friends to us. They have two little girls, who Abigail adores, and a baby boy. Kajsa has been a great friend to me from the first time I met her, often taking Abigail when I had doctor's appointments, or when I had a new baby. She has showed up here multiple times to take Abigail off of my hands when Ellie was sick, or she knew I needed a break. She has brought gifts and meals. They are a wonderful family. Yesterday they found out that their oldest, 5 year old Jaylie, has a tumor on her brain. They have been in the hospital since then. She will have surgery tomorrow and hopefully the doctors will be able to remove the entire tumor. My heart breaks for this sweet family and this trial they are facing. Please pray for them. Fast for them. Wish on a star, cross your fingers, whatever it is you do.

I haven't been able to stop hugging and kissing on my girls all day long.

I can count my blessings... Or I can just go love on them.

Days like this...

seem to present themselves in clusters. That makes me less than excited for this week where most days are started or ended with longer hours without daddy at home.

It is almost 4.

The house is a mess.

Abigail is a mess.

Ellie won't sleep.

Dinner...? Please, I have no idea. And... we really just had lunch.

I'm still in my workout clothes.

Don't get any crazy ideas though, I never actually made it to the gym.

Abigail has watched more on netflix than I will admit to even myself today as I have been holding, feeding and soothing Ellie for most of the day.

The distinction between clean and dirty laundry is so blurred that I am just going to have to start all over again. All because I never actually folded and put things away after finishing washing everything.

All of this after last night, I lost more than half of the photos of a wedding I spent most of the day Saturday photographing.

Heaven Help this house tomorrow. Let's hope things go a little more smoothly.

Take it all in stride, right??

Now someone please bring me my bon bons.

I'm so glad when Daddy comes home :)

This post requires a little bit of background from two directions.

Every now and then, we will be so anxious for Daddy to get home from work, that Abigail will request that we go look for him. We grab our stools, and head out to the sidewalk where we sit and wait (and look for bugs, or whatever else we feel like doing).

Something else you need to know, is that Abigail has the most vivid imagination of any child I have ever seen (but lets be honest... I know her better than any other child I've ever known, so I don't know how much that says...). Anyway, she spends very little time in the day as "Abigail." For example- last night she went to bed a Bengal Tiger, so of course, I wasn't surprised when my baby tiger came crawling into my room this morning looking for her Mommy Bengal Tiger. I managed to get out a roar that appeased her, and got me a few more minutes with my pillow. Throughout the rest of the day today, I had a dance party on the beach with my two baby crabs, and had butterflies for dinner with a sea turtle. You heard me right. It was quite a day. You can be sure that at any point on any given day, she could be a Mommy or a Princess. Those are the recurring rolls in her repertoire.

Another funny story about her imagination- Yesterday we went over to a friends house for dinner. These friends have girls each within a month of our girls and we have become good friends with them. Abigail LOVES Jaidyn, their daughter. I have never seen to kids become such great friends so quickly. Anyway, last night, I was trying to rush Abigail out the door to go to their house. I told her we needed to hurry so Jaidyn wouldn't get sad waiting for us. This immediately sent Abigail into a conversation with Jaidyn that lasted until we got to their house. With her hand to her mouth, shouting, Abigail said, "Jaidyn, I'm coming!" Then she transferred her hand to her ear so she could hear better, "What you say Jaidyn?? Oh, You're my best friend, too!" I was laughing out loud most of the drive over as I witnessed this conversation for the remainder of the trip, mingled with the "Mommy, where we going? We going to Jaidyn's house Mommy?" which she asked over, and over again.

Now, where do these two backgrounds meet up??

Here is Abigail, the Mommy, with her baby. They are waiting outside for daddy to get home from work. There was a joyous reunion when he came home.

She is one of a kind.

Krum

Here is the bulk of the pictures I took this weekend. One of my favorite places in the world is tucked away in the dusty roads of Krum, Texas. Some of my best memories are of times we spent as a family out at the farm, roasting hotdogs or marshmellows over a fire, fishing, riding four wheelers, riding horses, sitting on my dad's lap driving the big trucks scared I was going to run over a cow, LOTS of good memories of this place. I love taking my own kids to do things that I loved so much as a child, and still love today. So Saturday, Dad made tin foil dinners for everyone, Brad got the fishing supplies, and we all headed out the farm for an evening of fun. A big thanks to the boys for DVR'ing the BYU game so they could come with us. I, for one, know what a sacrifice they made. I don't think they regretted it though. Lots of fun, fishing, four-wheelin', watermelon, and s'mores. What's there to complain about?

Brace yourself for the pictures... there are a lot :)

Nana and Papa's

We always try to make it out to visit Nana and Papa any chance that we can. We can normally catch Nana, but Papa isn't one to sit around twiddling his thumbs. We missed him last time we stopped by. This visit, we caught him just as he came home from the farm, before he headed out to dinner and a night of baseball. Abigail loves to go out on the "tractor" and check on the cows with him. This time of year is the BEST, it is when all the new babies are being born. She even got to drive this time.

She loves Nana's play room, full of toys, and wonderful bunkbeds. She loves it even better when there are cousins to play along with. I like that too, that means I can actually sit and visit with Nana instead of play with the toys.

We love being closer to them, and are excited to see them again in a month for their SIXTIETH, that right 60th, wedding anniversary.

Glad Courtney was there too, she held Ellie while me and Nana watched the kids take off with Papa. Nana takes her roll very seriously. She told me she had to come out so she could start hollerin' if Papa drove too fast :)

Mimi and Pops

Last week ended up being a lot of fun, for a not very fun reason.

Let me explain... Courtney and Mom came down on Monday to spend a few days with us during their spring break. I wasn't feeling very good, and by Tuesday, my Mom talked me into going to get checked out. Turned out that I had strep throat. Well, because they are awesome, Courtney and Mom offered to take Abigail home with them and let me get some rest for a few days. Of course that meant that we would HAVE to go pick her up (twist my arm... a visit home? DARN).

We went up Thursday night after Charles got off work, entertained by the BYU basketball game- thank you March Madness iPhone app :)

Friday morning, I still wasn't getting any better with the meds, so I went to the doctor again, this time for a good old fashioned shot in the tooshie. That turned things around quickly and I was up and at 'em Saturday feeling lots better.

We had a lot of fun hanging out with family, so there will be a few posts worth of pictures of the weekend.

We Love our Ellie Girl

This girl gets lots of lovin' around here. Abigail is getting more and more excited about her new roll as a big sister as Ellie is getting older.

As you can see here, she is anxiously awaiting a playmate.

She'll be playing with those toys soon enough Abigail, soon enough :)