4th of July/ 4th birthday party!

Jillian had 3 different 4th of July outfits this year! So, I took pictures of her in all of them! :)


Outfit #2



Outfit #3 (Given by Grandma!)



Kaitlyn and Kennedy sporting their outfits too! This was taken right before their party! This year we decided to have their party on the 4th of July outside with all their friends.The plan was to to just stay out all evening doing fireworks and just having a great time!


Jillian even got a gift too!


Birthday girls! (Kaitlyn on left, Kennedy on right)


Mommy and Jillian....you can tell we were hot!!



Grandma and Pa got the girls a "car wash" and the kids had fun riding and running through it!



Splashing around while the hot dogs were cooking!

Yummmm!!! Dinner time! (Avery, Kaitlyn, Kennedy, Megan, Audrey and Ryder)



The rest of the crew (Morgan, Kennadie and Madison)



Present time!!!






We had to move the lighting of the cupcakes inside the garage due to the wind. Here is Kaitlyn getting ready to blow out her candles!



Kennedy blowing out her candles!!


Cupcakes!!


Little one was having a blast! :)



She got to change into her swim suit too and went from the pool to the grass to walking around.....then back to the pool etc! She was busy!!!


A little later their friend, Liberty, came to have some fun!



Face painting time! (Kennedy)


Kaitlyn getting a star!


We had a wonderful birthday party and 4th of July! Our cul-de-sac stayed out late and we had a blast shooting fireworks! The twins, however, were a little fearful, so they stayed inside. ( Sigh)
Tomorrow (7th) is their official birthday. Can't believe it's been 4 years!

Happy Birthday Tony!

As you can see, he had 2 eager beavers to help him open his gifts! :)



We went out that night and saw The Karate Kid! It was great! Happy Birthday to a wonderful husband and daddy! We love you!

7 wonderful years!

Tony and I celebrated our 7 year anniversary on June 14! Since his family was in town,they graciously stayed with the girls while we got to go to Galveston!!!! We were beyond excited, especially since last year we went to Sonic for our anniversary!! (Sad, I know...but we had a 4 day old baby and I had just come home from the hospital)
This is a picture of where we stayed!! One of our co-workers let us use his beach house for free!! It's on a PRIVATE beach too! WOW!!!! This place was amazing!


A look inside! 3 stories, 5 bedrooms and a beautiful view of the ocean!



We went out to eat that night at Gaido's! Yummy!



We were just so excited to be out without kids for a night! This was our first time leaving Jillian overnight, but she did fantastic.


Relaxing on the balcony!



Our view!


This was what I gave Tony! :) He loved it and I love that he has no problem wearing shirts like this in public!


We went to breakfast the next morning and we proudly wore our shirts and drank our coffee in our new mugs!! I can't tell you how many time people stopped us and asked if we had just gotten married! I loved that we are still so in love after 7 years! :)


My sweet husband! :) I love him so much! We had a much needed, wonderful anniversary get -away! I hope we can do something like this next year too!

Jillian's party

We had Jillian's party with just family this year! Tony's family came down and my family came and we had an awesome time.We had catering from Chick fil a (of course!).This picture was taken before Tony came back with the balloons and food! :)


Here's the birthday girl!!! All smiles, of course!



It's hard to get a good picture of the three of them! (Kaitlyn, Jillian, Kennedy)



All the kids! This is the new table they got from PaPa and YaYa!



Practicing her walking with Grandma!



New chair (with her name on it!) from Uncle Chris and Aunt Jenn



Rocking toy! She loves to rock!



Just too sweet!! I love her smile!


She LOVED it when we all sang "Happy Birthday!"



But didn't enjoy the cupcake so much.....



"Look at my new baby, Aunt Dar!"



Yea!!!!!!!


We had a wonderful time and I was so thankful that ALL our family could be here to celebrate!

June 2010

The girls' Papa and YaYa came down for Jillian's birthday. They brought Shaylee too!! (Tony's brother's little girl) Jillian loved Shaylee and let her hold her! Of course, the twins had an absolute blast with her and they were so sad to see her leave!


Group picture!! Turned out so cute! Tami (YaYa) bought all the girls matching dresses and shoes!!!
Silly one!


Jillian got to open some of her gifts early! This was her first time opening gifts!!



Here are all the girls sitting around PaPa, waiting for him to get the presents out. The twins got their birthday presents too! (a little early!)



Jillian got some new shoes!!! It was so funny to see her walk in them...you could tell they felt funny to her. :)

The girls' big gift from PaPa and YaYa was a new table for them to color on, eat on etc!! They LOVE it!!! More pictures to come!

zoo trip...not what we expected

Last week, my cousin, Jarrett (8), came to visit from Austin. Our family and my brother's family decided to head to the zoo. The twins were very excited. This was not their first time, but what little kid isn't excited to go to the zoo again? :)


Excited little girls!



uh oh! Well, our excited little girls turned into screaming and crying little girls! Ugh!!!! This is what happened. Our first stop (besides the bathrooms, of course) was the sea lion tank. It's the first thing you see, so we decided to take a look. We looked in and there were no sea lions...instead there were 2 scuba divers (doing what, I don't know....there were also video cameras). When Kennedy and Kaitlyn saw the divers they fell to pieces!!!! See, for about 2 years, they have been afraid of anything with a mask on....this includes mascots, Disney characters, halloween costumes, animal hats and goggles. This has been a very frustrating "phase". Well...once they saw the divers, the whole trip was over. They screamed at the top of their lungs for about 45 min to an hour!! They wouldn't lift their heads out of the wagon either.



Tony and I pressed on. We thought surely this would end when they saw the animals. Noooooo.....it just got worse and worse.We all tried different tactics to get them calmed down. Nothing worked. (You have to imagine the screaming and crying looking at this picture!)



After an hour they smiled again....and got out to look at the giraffes. For about 15 seconds. This was the only animal they saw. :(
There was no water near the giraffes so they figured the divers wouldn't be here.



However, they did enjoy the playground!! (We could have done this for free in our neighborhood!!!) I guess they felt like there would be no divers here either!




They also enjoyed the petting zoo.


Lunch was good too! We ate early and I thought for sure after lunch we were going to have a fresh start. Nope.


We ended the day at the gift shop and went home. (Kaitlyn)


(Kennedy) You would never know by looking at this smile, that this was the most horrible zoo trip. I have a feeling it will be a while before we go back.

Happy 1st Birthday Jillian!!

This time last year our little 7 lb 3 oz bundle of joy arrived!


The morning of her birthday...finishing up her breakfast! It's amazing how much a baby can grow in a year!







My baby is ONE!!! Happy Birthday Jillian!
We will be celebrating her birthday with a party on Saturday with family. This year has gone so fast and we are so blessed to have this sweet little girl in our lives.
Here are some things about Jillian at one year. (This might be long. I'm doing this more for me to remember everything!)

*She loves family pictures on the wall.....LOVES them. She points to them and "tells" you all about them.
*She makes the sound for horse when she sees one!
*She can say: hi, dog, mama, dada, uh oh
*She can sign: bath, hi, milk, dog, hat, eat, more
*She can point to her: eyes, nose, hair, teeth and tongue
*She can comb her hair and pretend to talk on the phone
*Loves to clap!
* Blows kisses
*Uses a paci, but only for naps and bedtime
*Loves to turn on her "fishies" in her bed and play the music. I hear it over the monitor every day!
*Loves to sleep with her "lovey bear" and loves to read the book "Pat the Bunny" before bedtime.
*nurses one time a day (in the mornings only)
*loves mealtime! She likes to eat: mac and cheese, egg, toast, pancakes, yogurt, bananas, blueberries, strawberries (most all fruits) and any kind of snack food. (crackers etc) . She wants to eat everything we are eating at the table for dinner. (Which is hard sometimes b/c she can't have everything we are having just yet.) She also loves milk!
*Has 4 teeth
*She hates having her face or nose wiped and having her hair washed or fixed.
*Loves to watch Baby Signing Time
*Taking steps by herself and loves walking holding on to your fingers
*2 naps most days
* She is in 12 mo clothes and size 3 diapers
* She has the biggest smile and cutest laugh!
*She is a mommy's girl all the way and buries her head in your shoulder when she meets new people

Happy Birthday sweet girl! We love you.

First steps!

Jillian has been working on her "first step" for a while now. A couple of days ago, she took her first full step! We were so excited and so was she. She wasted no time learning. She can now walk with her little walker across the playroom by herself. When she comes to the end of her path, she claps for herself! :)
Today she took FIVE steps all by herself (not holding on to anything!) She did that twice. (Once for mommy and once for daddy to see when he got home!) You can see the determination in her mind when she decides to let go and try. I'm so proud of her! Just 8 more days until her first birthday!!!