Under the big top

I've decided to do a few more "catch up" posts before tackling our family vacation to Hilton Head. That one's going to be another doozie...

Every summer, the girls' school puts on a "circus". It is seriously the cutest thing in the whole world. Each class has an "act", and the kids practice for it all week. Last year it was one of the first events I braved "in public" with Kate soon after she was born. This year she was in it! She loved being a "Dalmation" with her friends for the show...


Kate wasn't quite walking yet for the show, so wonderful Ms. Dianna carried her in the show. Quite the pampered pup she was!

Anna's class was the "Terrible Tigers", but between you and me, they were a little more adorable than they were frightening.

We still regularly play "Terrible Tigers" at home--both in the playroom where we can crawl around like tigers, and in the pool where she can do flips off my shoulders like an acrobat. "Circus" is certainly one of the favorite games around our house these days...

Trouper

To say that Kate has been a trouper over the last week would be a phenomenal understatement. To make a long story short, while on our family vacation with Clint's family in South Carolina, we noticed that Kate had a diaper rash that was getting worse and worse. By the time we were flying home, it had gotten bad enough to make me call the nurse at her pedi's office, and on her advice we took Kate to the ER as soon as we got home "just in case". (It was a Sunday night, so the pedi's office was closed.)

Turns out this overreacting mama wasn't totally overreacting this time--Kate had a pretty serious staph infection that had turned into an abscess, and they recommended immediate surgery. So, first thing Monday morning, she braved "the knife" and had surgery at Texas Childrens'.

The picture above is from right before her surgery. As you can see, by this point she was pretty uncomfortable and not too happy a camper...

But, within an hour from waking up from the anesthesia, she was a whole new lady!! She didn't have any physical limitations put on her by the surgeon, and she took full advantage of that to run around as much as possible!

I think the sleepless night Sunday night and the surgery did finally hit her, though, and she took a nice nap--with her new giraffe from Grammie and Bucko! A HUGE thanks to them for everything they did for us during this ordeal (including both sleeping upright in hospital chairs Sunday night!!).

I remember being a candy striper in high school and thinking these metal cribs would be the most horrific thing to have to put your child in--not necessarily because they're not-so-stylish, but because that meant you had a pretty sick kid. This whole experience was extremely stressful as it was happening, but also made us so incredibly grateful that these metal cribs were something we were just experiencing for a few days because of an easily treatable condition. So so many of the families at Texas Childrens' are there in a much more serious situation than we were, and this certainly reminded us to be thankful for our many many blessings!

Kate enjoyed spending some serious time cruising the halls of the hospital with her grocery cart...

Daddy's visit on Tuesday brought a "resupply", including fresh clothes and some food from home (she was NOT a fan of hospital food). Needless to say, she was a happy girl with her full belly and in her clean clothes. It didn't take long at all for her to settle in and doze off in Daddy's lap...

Egg huntin'

The Easter egg huntin' activities were certainly not limited to the excursion in the Park from the previous post. The girls had their annual Egg Hunt at school, and Anna loved exploring for eggs with all of her buddies!

The tots checking out their loot...

We also had a wonderful Easter afternoon at the Maples house hunting for eggs in their big backyard. So many great places for egg hiding!! Thank you Maples for having us!

And, about the only thing better than hunting for Easter eggs with your best friend/future husband, Owen, is snuggling on the couch with him afterwards. These two are inseparable...

Easter in the Park

As part of this year's Easter festivities, we took the girls to an egg hunt at a local park. They loved meeting the Bunny, and finding lots and lots (and lots!) of eggs.

Let me clarify something on this event--when I say "we" took them to the park, what I really mean is that Clint took them to the park, and I met them there. I had been away for the whole weekend at a crafting retreat, and Clint not only took care of them all weekend, but also managed to get them dressed in matching outfits, with Easter baskets in hand (I hadn't even gotten them out for the season yet!), and to the park (more than 20 minutes from our house!) for the egg hunt. Seriously....Dad of the Year.

Kate not only loved the Bunny and all of the Easter hoopla, but also playing on the playground equipment. She's SO growing up...

For whatever reason, the H-E-Buddy (the "mascot" for one of our grocery stores, H-E-B) was as big of a hit with Anna as the Easter Bunny was! Not exactly sure what the appeal of a giant paper shopping bag is, but Anna was thrilled!

Easter fun

A flashback to our Easter fun...

The girls had so much fun with Easter festivities this year, that I'm going to dedicate the next few blog posting to them. Come on--its a good chance to reminisce about the nice springtime weather while we're sweating out the summer heat...

Anna had her first experience of dyeing eggs this year--she had so much fun with it! In retrospect, I think buying the dye kit on clearance the year before may have been a bit of a mistake--a few of the colors didn't really "take". But, she still loved the whole thing!

She also loved getting to garden with Mommy this year. Having a "Garden Party" for Kate's 1st birthday (the weekend after Easter) was good motivation to go ahead and get everything planted pretty early this year. Looking at this picture makes me smile--this flower is still blooming here in the heat of August, is now covering that entire bed, and is about 3 times the size of Anna. Looks like our little Doodlebug may have quite the green thumb!

Very pleased with her work...

And, what could be more fun than cutting out Easter cookies?

Decorating them...of, course! There are no limits when it comes to decorating cookies at our house--the messier, the better! I think Anna knows this and takes full advantage...

She was quite pleased with her rainbow colored butterfly...

A very joyful and blessed Easter weekend!

Book worms

Just a few pics of Anna and her cronies at a field trip to the local library in February. They had such fun listening to stories, singing songs, and then getting a tour of the library. Even pretty "simple" field trips like this are so fun with these little ones because of the fun they have together! Seeing them all be such good friends is a neat thing to watch...

Making lollies

So now we're venturing all the way back to February for a blog posting...

Anna was so excited to get to help me make decorations for her Strawberry Shortcake birthday party. One of her favorite treats are, as she refers to them "lollies" (lollipops), so it seemed only fitting for the tables to have strawberry "lollie" baskets on them. And, I'm thinking I may have a future little candy-maker on my hands. After me just showing her one time how to fill the molds, she did the rest of the lollies by herself!


As you can see, she was quite proud of her (yummy) work...

Little blossom

Kate was my shopping buddy this spring as we visited my local favorite, Maas Nursery, to spruce up our beds for the season. Looking back at this picture makes me remember the thicker "baby" hair that Kate used to have...before it gave way to her now thinner and a bit lighter toddler hair. Oh, how much difference even 3 months makes at this age!

Kate had a great time looking around at all of the different flowers, and I don't think ate THAT much potting soil...

Catching up...

So, let's admit it, the rate at which I've been updating the blog since, well, our Disney trip in May has been nothing short of sketchy (get it?? :-)). BUT, I am turning over a new page this month, and am committing August as my blog "catch up" month. Some of the pics will probably be more recent (like the one above), and some are as outdated as this past February. Seriously ridiculous, I know...