Dare to Dream

There was no school on Friday so we decided to take the kids to see Disney on Ice: Dare to Dream!!! The girls were so excited. Miss Dottie (from Derek's office) gave the girls some money for a souvenir. So sweet of her and that was the first thing the girls wanted to do.......get their princess treat.

I've never seen anything keep Avery's attention so long. Her eyes were glued to the show the entire time. She even sang along to several songs, especially "Mother Knows Best." At the end of the show she was a dancing machine! Allie was right there in all the action too.

Allie picked out a Rapunzel figurine

Avery and her sweet tooth picked out cotton candy.......at least it came with a crown

Blake surprising slept through most of the show

The girls picked out their own outfits before we went. Avery was going for the "Disney Princess" look. Tutu style skirt, princess shirt, princess shoes, princess watch

Allie was going for the grown up look

First time on Daddy's shoulders and he was all smiles

I've never seen anything keep Avery's attention so long. Her eyes were glued to the show the entire time. She even sang along to several songs, especially "Mother Knows Best." At the end of the show she was a dancing machine! Allie was right there in all the action too. 

VIDEO -- DANCING

Field Day & Bowling

Today we went to a field day at church. We basically just stayed for the Easter egg hunt. Then later we went bowling.

Blake ~ 7 months

Blake is still the most chill and happy baby I've ever seen! He can have his moments when he's tired or hungry, but don't we all! When we're out shopping or walking he is either giving everyone his big gummy grin (well there's two little teeth poking through now) or he falls asleep. I love that he gets so excited when he sees me. Melts my heart! He also loves to get attention from his big sisters.....and I don't think they mind giving him the attention. ;)
As far as milestones, he's sitting up really well on his own now. He's even started this little dance when he hears music or gets excited. He doesn't roll over too much but will if he sees something he really wants. No crawling yet but he is strong enough to hold himself in that position now. I just have to put him on all fours. He scoots or slithers around.....slowly but he does it. His babbling is still  limited. I think he's just taking it all in and one of these days he'll start talking up a storm. He's said little things that sound like words (hi, da, ma, ba) but I know he doesn't know what they mean. He sleeps pretty much through the night. He usually goes to bed right after the girls....around 8pm and will wake up anywhere between 5-6am. Sometimes I'll have to wake him to go to the bus stop at 10 til 7. He's been taking 2 naps during the day which has been great! That's when I can get the most done around the house and give Avery some one on one time. He hasn't had all that many shudders since going to the doctor last month. A few but nothing like before. He finally has an appointment with a neurologist on the 12th.

Blake loves tags. Any toy that has one that's what he goes for. He's also enjoying his exersaucer more and more.......and his bouncy seat less and less. He also loves his little basketball hoop. We call him our little Robbie whenever he plays with it. He likes any toy that plays music and lights up. One of his favorites is his race car track. His sisters really like it too. It's so cute when they are all three sitting around playing with it.

As far as food goes, we haven't ventured out all that far with new things. He prefers his vegetables over anything else. Can't complain about that! His favorite seems to be carrots. He also likes his fruits but seems to prefer them if they aren't really cold. He'll eat cereal but doesn't seem to care for it too much. He still loves his milk!

We just love our little Blakey!

Story behind this: Derek and I were setting up for a garage sale. We put him on the floor with just a few toys around him (he was on his back). He was positioned so that we could see him as we came in and out. He never cried once! Whenever I came in he was always playing. Then he had rolled over....next thing I knew he was all the way on the other side of the room passed out!

Big sisters always want to feed him after dinner.

Texas Bluebonnets

The Texas Bluebonnets are popping up everywhere. I figured we should try to find a little field of them so we'd have some pictures with the state flower. I think it was a success and one of our quickest sessions!

Heritage Duck Pond

The kids finally got to use their cars to watch Cars 2. They even had an entire Kit Kat to themselves! That was quite the treat for them. Allie sat in her car the entire movie. Avery lost interest pretty quickly. I was kind of with Avery on this one. Didn't really care for this movie.

Monday morning Allie woke up with a swollen lip! We're not sure of the cause. Bug bite? Allergic Reaction (maybe to the chocolate since she rarely eats it)? Nerves (with going back to school after having a week off for spring break)? Who knows. It was almost back to normal by the time she got home.

And I have to post a pic of my handsome little guy.....yep, we still have to get bundled up in the morning and then shed layers a few hours later.

Now for one of those Kids Say the Darndest Things moments

We've actually had a lot lately but I forget to right them down and then forget them completely! I hate that!

Anyway, so Derek and I made several cds a while back of some of our favorite songs. There is this one song that isnt the greatest but it's catchy and is fun to sing. It's Sean Kingston's "Beautiful Girls" There is a line in it that goes " you'll have me suicidal, suicidal" It's such a catchy song I didn't even know what I was singing.......until I heard the girls singing it out of nowhere and that is the only line from the song they sing! We didn't want to even begin telling them what that means so instead Derek has cleverly replaced suicidal with crazy. And luckily they caught on quickly and we'll hear them going around singing "you'll have me crazy, crazy, crazy, crazy" Whew!

One more little story........Avery LOVES to color and draw. And she's becoming quite good at it for a 3 year old. We always have so much of her artwork lying around everywhere. She proudly displays it where ever she can find an open place (on the refrigerator, on the couch, fireplace, next to our beds....anywhere!) Wednesday one of my visiting teachers were coming over. She always brings her 2 daughters (ages 4 & 1). So I suggested that Avery pick out some of her papers that were scattered around and give to them. I think she ended up picking out about 5 of them! Anyway she was very excited to give them to them as soon as they got here. They were so sweet and very enthusiastic about them as well. So much so that they asked questions about what the pictures were of. Avery's response to one of them was that it was a monster and that person was killing it! I have no idea where she has picked this up at but we are in for some fun years ahead of us!!!

Prickly Pear

Last Saturday Derek ran in the Prickly Pear race. It was a 10 mile trail run at McAlister Park. It was cold and rainy the morning of the race (and had rained for about 3 days prior to it). Derek still braved the conditions and got in a good workout.

St. Patty's Day

"No, it's not St. Patty, it's St. Patrick" -- in the words of Allie

Our little hoarders were trying to keep Derek from throwing away our chairs and cushions that were on the deck. The ones that the squirrels got last year (and even worse this year).

Spring Break 2012

It's been a very laid back spring break for us this year. I suppose that's good because we still have a little one in tow, the weather has been nice but overcast and a little windy every day (even a few sprinkles) and the time change, oh the time change.......it has really taken a toll on me this year and I think it's even affected the kids. But, all in all, we've still managed to have some fun and we've avoided the crowds, for the most part, which is always good.
Here are a few highlights of our staycation in pictures:

lunch @ McDonalds. They were excited to actually get a Happy Meal and stay and play at the playground. Notice the Mickey Mouse ears......Avery was invited to a birthday party and so the girls were there right before we went to lunch. 

Enjoying the nice weather in the back yard.

The girls were game for making these boxes into cars. We have Cars 2 to watch sometime in the near future. They are planning on sitting in their cars while watching.......

Wednesday night 1/2 price game night a Dave & Busters!!!! This place was a mad house.  Derek was able to get off work "early" and so we met him there @ 5, had dinner, then played! In this picture Avery just won 400 tickets on Deal or No Deal......she chose her case, #3, because "that's how old I am."

Since Avery's strategy worked Allie went with the same and picked case #5. She got 200 tickets!

Blake was such a trooper

Derek has known for a while that he was going to get to take Thursday and Friday off since the boss was going to be gone. We knew we wanted to go camping but waited to long to book anything and everywhere we checked was full. Derek thought to check at Randolph Air Force bases private area on Lake Canyon......and we were in LUCK! We got a prime spot right next to the lake.

The beach. It was pretty low, but surprisingly warm. We didn't get in. Planned to the next day but it was way too windy.

best friends

Blake chillin' in the tent

It was very windy. Perfect weather to fly a kite. We've had this kite for 6 years.....1st time flying it!

Starving......ready to eat!! Good thing we had dessert before dinner.

It was such a windy night. I thought our tent was going to blow away! Blake fell asleep right before dinner and basically slept the entire night. Allie was the first to fall asleep of the girls......Avery was scared. This was her first time camping since she was a little one. I let her climb onto the air mattress with Derek and I and she eventually fell asleep......until the wind really picked up. At that point, Allie also woke up and all four of us were squished together on the full size air mattress (Blake was in his pack n play). Needless to say I didn't sleep hardly any. Below you'll find how the kids slept.

Decent amount of sleep. Just sad that we made the decision to leave early.

Very happy boy that slept through the windy night.

.............................I think we know who was up most of the night............

Saying goodbye to the lake

realizing they were standing in a red ant pile.....lots of screaming and stripping of clothes happened right after this.

Other fun not pictured: a trip to a new park that was a lot of fun. And not really fun, but we went to go out on Monday and the car wouldn't start. What a way to start spring break, huh!?!

I think the girls have had a fun week. They are pretty exhausted today, but already asking what we're going to do tonight and tomorrow.