It is finally SUMMER! (here)

 

The weather has finally dropped and it finally feels like summer. We are in the high 80’s and we are loving it! We have been going for walks and going to the park and having picnics! It is about time!!

Who doesn’t love Olive Garden Breadsticks?

 

Story about Whitney:

My Mom celebrated her birthday about a week and a half ago. We went to Olive Garden for lunch and I let Whitney have some of the center of the fluffy breadstick.

She loved it and was giggling and so happy.

I turned away for a second and when I looked up she had grabbed off the table a whole breadstick and was practically hugging it and sucking the side of the breadstick.

I mean who doesn’t love Olive Garden Breadsticks? SOOO good! It was the cutest thing to watch.

She was not really taking bites just sucking on it and hugging it. I eventually took it away and we headed out and I headed over to the store to pick up some things. I was in the store pushing Whitney in the cart in her car seat and she was tired and trying to fall asleep. She almost fell asleep, like she usually does, pretty easily, but woke up screaming and was not calming down. I decided to take her out and hold her while I finished and as I took her out I noticed big white blister like hives all over her body and within the next 2 minutes her lips, cheeks, ears, and eyelids were tripled in size and she was red with hives all over her. I called her Dr. and asked if I should head to the ER or go there. They said to come in to their office right away and I headed down there. When I put her in the car, she was so exhausted she fell asleep. I was terrified that her since her lips and everything else was swelling up, that her throat would too and that while asleep she would have a hard time breathing. Lets just say that 12 min. car ride from the store to the Dr. office was pretty emotional.

When I got to the Dr. it slowly started to calm down and when the Dr saw it she said it was a Violent and Serious Reaction to something that she ate, and encouraged us to get her tested with an Allergy Specialist. (We still have not done that yet) She said, with it as serious as it was we should have gone to the ER, and that next time don’t even bother going to the office. It was so hard to see her looking the way she did and to watch her suffer like she did.

I called Olive Garden and just asked them if they had any ideas of what might have done it, and they said either the bread, the butter or the Garlic. She has before and since then had bread and butter, so I am guessing that she is allergic to Garlic. Which, I have never noticed until now how many things actually have some amount of Garlic in them. We will have to really get her tested to see what she is allergic to. 

We love our Whitney and I am so glad nothing too horrible happened then. I will admit, I am terrified to let her try anything new right now. I am watching her so close.

Mornings

This morning I woke up to Whitney's cry first.
I brought her into my bed and we cuddled while I fed her. Such a sweet moment that I get almost every morning. Just me and her.
It is quiet and she loves to cuddle, and I love that we just rub noses and how she softly touches my face. She smiles at me in the sweetest ways.

Then a few moments later, my Kaitlyn stumbles in my room, with her adorable jammies on, whatever she wanted to sleep in the night before.
(Most days, it is a dress over top of her jammies)
She tiptoes in and I can see the top of her head from where I lay. She always goes to Dads side, to look at the clock, make sure it is after 7am and if so, she climbs in on his side of the bed.
She grabs the sheets tightly and pulls herself up to our tall bed, hair all a mess and the most perfect, "Just woke up" look ever.
She, like every morning says, in the most perfect happy morning voice,
"It's Morning-time, Mom"
She laid next to me in my bed, cuddled up to me and Whitney and excited to see her sister says,
"Good Morning, Whitters!!"
Whitney got the BIGGEST smile, as if she has not seen her best friend Kate, for ages!

As I lay in a cool, quiet room with the sun not shining through my windows quite yet, the morning just about to break, my 2 beautiful girls laying next to me, listening to them interact with me and to each other, I can't help but think about how completely perfect life really is.
As I laid there this morning, I started to count my blessings. There are so many.

I am so grateful for my family, the blessings that they are and the blessings that we have.
In a few short years, we will be engulfed in the hustle and bustle of mornings, getting kids off to school, making lunches and setting alarm clocks...
Oh, how I will miss these simple moments!!!

First Trip to Dads Work

 

 

We finally went to go see where Alma works downtown.

  I had been to the outside of his office a few times but never had the opportunity to go inside.

Last Friday, I went to visit a close friend of mine, Janelle, who lives downtown. We had lunch and talked and caught up while the kids played. It was wonderful. Afterwards, I went to pick up Alma from his office since we were super close to where he worked and it was just the right time for him to be heading home. He works at almost the highest floors in his building and the view was fantastic. I couldn’t get enough of it. I kept telling him his view was awesome and he would just chuckle and say,
“I actually don’t see it too much from my cubical.”

But now I know why he would text me sometimes and say, “Is it raining there?” He could actually see from his office!!!

Anyway, the girls loved it and this morning when Alma left to go to work, she begged him to go to work with him.  Maybe another day.

It was great to put faces with names and now be able to really view his office while he is gone during the day.

Texas is FLAT!

Serious Picture overload…

 

 

My good friend Anna was sweet enough to spend a Saturday morning before she moved taking some great shots of my family. I think they turned out great!!!! Even though she has no Professional Experience in Photography they were just what we wanted.

We just wanted to not have to set the timer button and try to take our own!

It was super fun for me to load them on my computer and get to crop and mess with the Coloring of the photos to how I wanted them to look. Thanks Anna for taking these pictures for us so we can always have these to remember our family at this time.

 

                       

Thoughts…

 

I can’t get enough of Kaitlyn! She is just too fun. I was thinking about all the things I love about her and there are wayyy to many!!!

She is someone who is laughing all the time! She is always trying to get me to laugh. She cracks up ALL the time. I love her laugh when she laughs really hard.  I love that she can always get Whitney to laugh… not just a giggle… a hard laugh!

She is always thinking about others. Whitney, me or anyone else around. I can’t believe that a 2-3 year old sometimes puts other peoples wants or needs above their own.

She LOVES to role-play. We are always pretending to be someone and doing something. It is a CONSTANT thing and I have to call her by the name of who she is pretending to be. My favorite is when she pretends to be me and I get to be her and we switch places, and she talks like me and I talk like her. Cracks us both up.

I love that every day we have to hide in a new spot when Dad gets home and Jump out at him and yell SURPRISE!!!

I love that she loves to wear dresses and act like a Princess! To me she is one.

I love that she helps me with Whitney and I love when I say, “It’s ok Whitney” that I hear this little voice say, “It is ok Whitters… You’re ok.” Too cute!

I love that she loves everyone and when she gets comfortable around you she will talk your ear off and that life is just so fun!

I love that she is always on the go. Doing something, pretending some game, pretending to be someone, even when she is all alone in the corner of the room.

I love her imagination and all the things that she comes up with. Dragons in the next room and Lots of silly things.

I love that she wears her hooded towel on her head all the time and pretends like it is Rapunzels Hair, her being Rapunzel. And she brushes it with a brush singing, “And I brush and brush and brush and brush my hair stuck in the same place I’ve always been”

I love how she memorizes songs so well. She knows so many songs and all the words to them. Just like her Mom. :)

I love her facial expressions and the when you say something exciting her eyes get huge! Sometimes I just say something ordinary with a voice of excitement and I love that she still gets excited about it. Or when she tells you a story how big her eyes get.

I love that she sings all the time, even if it is just talking about going to the couch to pick up a certain toy.

I love that she is so easy to have a conversation with. It is easy to explain important things to her and she seems so mature to me. She has always done well with talking and carrying on a conversation with me and I love the things that she says to me or that she asks me. I love that she says ‘Please’ and ‘Thank you’ 90% of the time. (that one took a lot of work on Alma and I’s behalf) but totally worth it. Not so much whining at our house.

She is my best friend who I look forward to seeing every morning. I check on her every night before bed, look at her and become in awe of the spirit that she has in her little body. I am so excited for the life she will have, and for the gift I have to share it with her and be a close part of her life. I pray that I never let a day go by without making the most of my time with her. And I hope she always knows that I love her more than anything and more than she will ever know (Or at least until she becomes a Mother)

These things don’t even quite begin to amount to all the things I love about you Kaitlyn. I wish I could write them all. You are truly one in a million girl! I hope you know that we know that!  Love you.

Whitney just hit 6 months!!
We finally got Rain!!! So everyone came outside to play. You know it has been a hot summer when more kids come out when it rains than when it is sunny.

Whitney is still not a huge fan of bottles, but is doing a lot better! We have hardly ever used them. She didn’t successfully drink out of one till about 4 months old, which I should have started her on it sooner just in case I needed to go somewhere I could and not feel so tied to her. But nursing is going a lot better with Whitney than it did with Kaitlyn (once Kaitlyn had a bottle she didn’t want to go back) so I have been a little bit nervous about her loving the bottle and not wanting to continue with Nursing. Alma was taking care of the girls the other day and had to feed Whitney, and Kaitlyn wanted to help. She is such a great helper!

PS. I love that picture because Whitney looks almost as big as Kaitlyn. Won’t be long till they are running around the best of friends. Whitney is growing up so fast!