Weekend pics

Over the past two weekends we've had some fun visits and celebrations!

My parents celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary yesterday! Wow! We surprised them by taking them to dinner in Houston and I was happy for the chance to celebrate two of the most wonderful people I know. Congrats, mom and dad! We love you!

While in Houston we got to see my good friend Keegan, and her boys, Will and Jack. I'm not sure they could be any cuter!!!! Saylor and Will were a bit shy at first but then they warmed up and had a great time playing. Wish we could see them more often!

Brooke, Erick, and Hudson came for a visit a couple weeks ago. It is always so fun to see them and this time Gray and his buddy actually interacted a bit. ;) Isn't Hudson so cute?!

We recently had a going away party for our friends Pete, Rachel and Ella are moving away. :( I HATE saying goodbye to sweet friends and our whole small group will miss them so much! Hurry back y'all!

And here's a picture of Olivia, who is home from the NICU....YAY...definitely worth celebrating!!! I haven't been able to visit her since she's been home -- unfortunately our family is one giant germ fest, and little babies and germs don't mix too well. :) But we love this little girl very much and I can't wait to see her again soon!

Peter Pan!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think I mentioned previously that Saylor has become totally in love with Peter Pan. It is right up there now with Sound of Music it seems. Our couch has become a pirate ship and we no longer take baths but instead go swimming in the lagoon. Saylor always pretends to be Wendy and daddy is Peter. Gray rotates between a lost boy, Michael, or John. She loves to sing and dance to every song and randomly quotes lines from the show throughout the day. :)

Lucky for us, Dallas Summer Musicals was performing Peter Pan this summer with the one and only Cathy Rigby. After many weeks of anticipation, today was finally the day we got to go!!!

On our way out to the performance, tickets in hand

Waiting for the show to start

 So much fun! I loved sharing this special day with her. I wish I could capture the look on her face when Peter flew out over the audience!

  A special treat! We got the chance to meet Peter/Cathy after the show! Saylor became suddenly shy when it was finally her turn, but she perked up when he gave her some pixie dust. On the way back to the car she told me she would share some of it with daddy, but not Gray because no flying until you're at least 3 1/2. :)

Thankful for these fun memories!

Check out what my hubby's been up to!

Click on this link and watch a 2 minute video to see how Matt spends his summers at work! :) Matt works so incredibly hard at this project and I'm so proud of him! We are both thankful he gets to do this for a living.

Summer Fun

This summer is going by so much faster than I thought it would! The kids are doing "summer camp" this month (e.g. MDO) on Mondays  and Wednesdays which is fun for them and helpful for me because I've been working a little more the past few months. Other than that and our recent trip to Houston, we're having fun just relaxing and playing! I keep thinking about last summer when Gray was a newborn. It was so hot we couldn't really be outside with him at all, so we spent most of the summer indoors. Not to mention I was just trying to get a grip on having TWO small kids. Ahhhhh, no wonder this summer seems like a breeze in comparison. :)

Here are some pics of what we've been up to so far this summer:
Swim Lessons!

Saylor did really well with her swim lessons early this summer. She was definitely scared at first and her strong will was showing up in full force. :) But she has done a great job of conquering her fears of getting her face wet and going under.  

 Here she is practicing her float. :)

 Posing with her swimming buddy, Caroline

We did a week of theater camp at the Dallas Children's Theater which was super fun. The last day the kids had a performance where they acted out scenes from The Wild Things (and wore random costumes). :) Saylor kept looking at Matt and I during the show just beaming...she was so proud to be performing on stage!

 Roaring her terrible roar

 She had a great time with Caroline and Audrey!

 Gray has enjoyed swimming this summer too! (Well, actually he most enjoys walking around the perimeter of the pool, which is not so fun, but we're working on it). :)

 Hanging out after a day at the pool

Saylor also did VBS with her friend Harper but for some reason I don't have any pictures from that. They had a great time though!

We took a trip to the Children's Museum with the Dallases. Here's G and Julia at the water table

 And Mae and Saylor

 My good friend Ashley recently got married and bought a house out in Keller. We went for a visit and had a GREAT day. Ashely and Steve have chickens and donkeys and a trampoline and a pool...what more could two kids want??

 Their donkeys are so sweet and friendly! Saylor LOVED them! It was fun.

 We've spent a lot of time in the backyard swimming and playing and being messy. Here we are practicing our writing and drawing with whipped cream...(followed by being hosed down of course).

 Yum yum!

 Lots of driving around the backyard!

 And lots of snuggling inside! I love that they are playing so well together (though many times G still ends up in tears if Saylor takes something or is a bit too rough).

 Early in the summer our friends Caroline and Brian took Saylor kayacking. She is still talking about how much fun she had that day!

Hope you are having a good summer too!

Saylor Says

 

 

It seems like as Saylor's gotten older we have less "funny" sayings and more inquisitive and grown up sayings. But, there have a been a few lately that I do want to remember:

After describing her disappointment about something to me recently: "It was really kind of a bummer, mommy."

After I let out an exasperated sigh the other day (why is it still so hard for me to get us somewhere on time?), Saylor asked me what was wrong. I told her that I was feeling a bit stressed out, to which she replied: "well you should take a deep breath then, Mommy!"

Ever the negotiator, Saylor loves to make her case about something and then say: "how does that sound? good mommy?" I think we hear some form of this at least 10 times every.single.day!


The night before the kids and I left for a trip to Houston, Matt told her he was going to miss her so much. She gently patted him and said "It's ok, daddy, sometimes it's good for us to have alone time."

And a follow up question to that conversation: "Does Jesus know how to get down to Houston, daddy?"

Saylor told Ellen she could hold her hand hand as a special treat for her (ellen's) birthday.

She spent two nights with Matt's parents by herself while we were in Houston. I called over there one night to check on her, and the first thing she said when Matt's mom put her on the phone was: "hi mommy, is your hair up or down?" (the hair obsession continues!)

Say is a fan of Dora, but not so much a fan of Swiper (the "bad guy" in Dora). She has worked her way up to being able to actually READ our Dora books that Swiper appears in, but a few pages before we get to the page with Swiper on it, she starts to prepare us: "ok mommy, swiper's coming, when he gets here you have to read. Mommy, swiper's on the next page, get ready." And when I actually turn to the page he's on, she buries her head under the pillow and yells "tell me when he's gone!".

She has really been into Peter Pan lately. We have a book from when I was a kid and she wants to read it every night! Today, she found a penny on the ground at Target and proudly told me she was going to give it to Wendy and Micheal and John and Peter, her BESTEST friends EVER! (Btw, in my opinion, Caption Hook is MUCH scarier than ole' Swiper, but for some reason Say doesn't agree)!

Happy Fourth of July!

We had a fun day yesterday celebrating the Fourth! We went to our neighborhood parade and carnival in the morning and then enjoyed swimming and dinner with our home group later in the day.

 Running to get the candy from the parade!

 Enjoying some of that candy!

 So thrilled about posing for a picture!

 And just for comparison sake, here they were last year on the Fourth of July! My how they  have changed!

Hope you had a great day too!