Catch Up Post Before the New Baby

So I've meant to blog every month but here it is October and I haven't blogged since the end of July. I'm (hopefully) days away from our new baby being born so I figured I'd better get one more post in to catch up the last couple months before the blog is dominated by new baby photos. So here's a random array of pictures from the past couple months:

Before the end of the school year last year, we went to the circus. The girls liked it (except for some loud noises which they still talk about), but these pictures were on my phone instead of my camera so they never got downloaded. Tessa wanted to ride a pony but once she was on she wasn't so sure about her decision.

I thought if Tessa had a hard time there's no way Aubrey would do well on the pony, but she begged to take a ride and she actually did well, riding by herself and everything and seeming to enjoy it.

I decided to have a pregnancy picture around 7 1/2 months. It's blurry since Tessa took it, but you get the gist. Aubrey had to be in the picture and show off her belly too.

Tessa started gymnastics class at the YMCA in September. She loves it! We had a hard time the first 10 minutes or so of her first class where she was too scared to participate; but once they were allowed to run and jump around, she decided it was going to be fun. She's been loving it ever since.

They do circuits on the mats, the balance beam, the bar, and Tessa's favorite the trampoline. She picks up new things quickly and is really having fun.

Over Labor Day weekend, we took a mini family vacation down to the Houston area to visit our friends the Bakers. Last time we lived near each other, they had two young kids and Tyler was still in Optometry school. Our families have definitely grown! It was so fun to catch up with them and the kids had a blast together.

We went to a fair they had in our town and surprised the girls without telling them we were going until we pulled into the parking lot. They were so excited. We only rode a couple rides, but the carousel was one of the favorites. I couldn't ride anything in my pregnant condition so Tyler got to be the designated adult since Tessa and Aubrey were too little to ride by themselves.

After Tessa got over her fear of the rides, they finally rode a motorcycle ride together and decided it was the best one.

This is Abby's first day of 1st grade. I only got a few pictures of her as she walked out the door and then they sat on the camera for weeks. She still loves school and doesn't even mind the fact that they have to wear uniforms.

Tessa and Aubrey are home with me all day. Luckily Aubrey is old enough now that the girls play together well. Dress up is still among the favorite things to do.

Grandma's house has the perfect ledge in front of the fireplace that the girls love to use as their stage. This particular day we had wardrobe changes so we had to get multiple pictures.

Finally, last weekend the Air Force Base in our town had a free air show so we took the girls for an afternoon. As we parked and walked to where everything was, we got to watch some of the airplanes doing tricks in the sky. The girls thought the trailing smoke shapes were pretty cool.

They had some pretty cool planes on the base where we got some good photos. The girls loved it all until the very end (see below).

They had lots of jump houses and other free activities for the kids among all the booths and vendors. We had to stop for a picture by the Geico gecko because he was so cool.

In doing so, they talked us into signing up to play their game for the girls to get a free item, and look who stopped by to be in a picture with the girls:

The real Geico gecko!

This was our last picture of the day, however, because about 5 seconds after this picture was taken, the first jet took off for the air show right next to where we were. It was just downhill from there because it was too loud for the girls. Tessa cried and had to be carried the rest of the time with her ears covered and her face firmly squished into Tyler's shoulder. Abby and Aubrey were luckily content with just covering their ears as the jet screamed past over and over. It was really cool to me and Tyler, but there was no more stopping or taking pictures after that. We just walked back to the car and finally got the girls to look one last time for the jet when we were far enough away that it wasn't so loud anymore. But overall it was a good activity and the girls talk about it fondly, so it was definitely worth the trip.

We've had a fun summer and beginning of the new school year. Now we're just anxiously awaiting this new baby girl to join our family. We'll keep you posted...

Summer Fun

I can't believe the summer is almost over. Just a couple more weeks and school starts again. We have stayed busy this summer mostly with swimming and fishing. Here are the highlights of our summer so far:

With a swimming pool in our backyard, we swim almost every day. The girls needed new swimsuits and how could we pass up matching swimsuits when they were only 5 bucks each?!?

We couldn't!

Tyler has gotten into fishing and has been multiple times this summer. A couple kid fishing rodeos got him and the girls started. Abby has enjoyed going with him once they found the right lakes and the right bait. Abby really likes catching fish, and luckily we all like eating it too.

Here's the haul after one of Tyler's fishing trips.

Tyler and Abby took a trip to Utah and fishing was one of the main events. Abby wanted to catch a rainbow trout and here she is with the one she caught!

We took a trip over the 4th of July weekend and went to Hurricane Harbor and a Ranger's Game. It was a long day but we had lots of fun. Once Aubrey got used to the little kid slides, we couldn't keep her off them.

Abby and Tessa preferred the bigger kid slides. Abby went on all four colored slides and loved them all.

Tessa only went on the first two, but after a bad experience on the yellow slide, she stuck with the blue one, even if the lifeguard had to help her out of the pool.

Being pregnant, there weren't a lot of rides I could do anyway, but having my parents and brother and sister-in-law with us gave Tyler some buddies to ride the big rides with. The girls and I hung around the kiddie areas and had a blast.

We went to a Ranger's game that same night and saw them win 15 to 5. The girls enjoyed it; at least they enjoyed all the food we could buy from the vendors walking up and down the aisles.

We also got to see a Fireworks show after the game. Tessa slept through the whole thing, but the rest of us thought it was so cool and well worth the wait.

The girl's love when Tyler gets to swim with us - especially because then they can do their fancy tricks. Only Dad knows how to throw them way up in the air just right.

Taking lessons and swimming practically every day has turned the girls into little fish. Abby loves to swim in the deep end complete with jumping in and doing cannonballs.

We love summertime and swimming!

A Look Back at Kindergarten

Abby has completed her first year of school! She actually attended two different schools this year with our move in the middle of the year. The week before she started school, she tried on all her new outfits. This was her outfit for the first day of school complete with her new backpack and lunchbox. She was very excited for school!This is a picture of Abby's school taken while I had to wait in the long line to pick her up after school every day. After about two weeks of this, Abby began riding the bus and it was so much better for all of us.
She kept a brave face on that first day of school, but you can definitely see the nerves in her eyes. I thought the difference between this picture and the first one of her trying on clothes (the week before school) is such a contrast; it's cute.
Here she is in her seat in her classroom.

This was Abby's outfit for 50's day - which was celebrated on her 50th day of Kindergarten.
On Abby's last day before moving and changing schools, we finally got a picture of Abby with her best friend from school, Emma. Here is Abby's class in the library on her last day. I like how Emma's hand is on Abby's leg - so cute. Everyone kept saying they were sad that Abby was leaving.

Especially her teacher, Mrs. Steffen. Abby loved her teacher and Mrs. Steffen loved Abby.

After leaving JKB, Abby wrote a letter to Mrs. Steffen and her class about her new school. Mrs. Steffen had the entire class write letters back to Abby which she loved getting in the mail and reading all the names of her old classmates.

Abby started her new school mid-January, but I didn't get any pictures until about her last week of school. Here she is with her new BFF (as Abby wanted me to type it), Ella, during their Field Day. It rained that day so all the activities had to be held indoors.

They rotated between all four Kindergarten classes for different activities. In the last class they went to, they ate smore's while sitting in the "tent" and singing songs.

Here is Abby with Ms. Vinson, her 2nd Kindergarten teacher for the year. Even though Abby was only there for the last half of the year, she became quickly involved in her class making lots of friends and staying on top of all her learning. She was even among the top 3 readers in her class at the end of the year and was rewarded with a special lunch with the librarian with all the other top readers!

Here are some of Abby's closest friends, Ella and Claire, after their Kindergarten graduation ceremony.

Here is Abby's entire class after the graduation ceremony. We videoed the entire presentation and have watched it multiple times. Abby did a great job singing all the songs.

Sometimes I can't believe Abby is about to start 1st grade, but as we read books each night and as I see how helpful she is around the house, I can't deny the fact that she's growing up! She had a wonderful Kindergarten experience and we are all looking forward to more great school experiences as we continue along.

Congratulations Abby!!

Easter, Mother's Day, A Wedding, and A Birthday....phew

I'm trying to post something at least once a month, so here it is the end of May, and I'm posting again. First, I'll start with some Easter pictures. I thought about making dresses, but then it came down to the week before Easter when I realized I didn't have anything for the girls. Luckily I found some adorable dresses at Sam's Club so I didn't have to pay a fortune to purchase 3 dresses. As soon as Abby got home from school the day we bought the dresses, the girls had to try them on and have a photo shoot. Here are some of our favorite shots:

This was taken on Easter Sunday when Chloe was visiting too. Aren't they adorable little girls?

Next, I was able to get some cute pictures of me and the girls on Mother's Day. They were all very sweet to me that day. They helped Dad make me breakfast and they let me sit around and relax all day while they took care of everything else around the house. I had a breakfast at Abby's school the Friday before Mother's Day as well, so the festivities spread out the entire weekend.

Next, last weekend we celebrated my brother's wedding. John and McKaye were married on Friday, May 20th, and they had a reception on Saturday night. I made 5 matching dresses for all the flower girls (John's nieces) and they turned out really cute. Here are some pictures from ourWeekend Wedding Extravaganza.

We had a babysitter for the kids Friday night during the wedding and dinner, so we enjoyed the adult time with our siblings. Tyler refused to smile just to be mean. :)

Here's the 'true' side of John. He loves to pose, and we had to get a shot of his sweet suspenders.

Here's our side of the family with the newly wedded couple.

We ate at a fancy Italian restaurant and the food was delicious. We had a great time at our table with just the siblings and Matt. We were all laughing and having a great time, I realized we should get out together without the kids more often!

On Saturday, we got to the reception early so we could take pictures with all the family. While waiting our turn, we got a few pictures of just our family. This was the only one where Tessa smiled and it turned out really cute.

Here are the girls in their dresses, with their hair done, and holding their flower girl baskets. Going through my pictures today, I'm just now realizing that I didn't take any pictures of the 5 flower girls together in their dresses I made. Oh well, just imagine two more cuties included in this picture.

I really liked this one of me and Tyler. At least he smiled this time. :)

At different times through the reception, we got some pictures of each of the girls with the bride and groom. I love this one of Tessa because she's staring right at me while John and McKaye are probably looking at the actual photographer.

Here's Aubrey with John during the dancing. They got their groove on together.

Abby was very excited for the dancing. She had plenty of turns to dance with John and McKaye and they were nice enough to let her join them.

She even danced with McKaye's little brother Eli. They were really cute together. He was very sharing of his toys (since the reception was at his house) and he was really cute with Abby.

Finally, I celebrated my 31st birthday this week. I was able to have lunch with Tyler and then order in for the whole family for dinner, so that was fun. For presents, I got a new phone, a new video camera (which I'm super excited about since it's been almost a year exactly since our last one died), a movie, a game, and the specific shoes I asked for. Here's a picture that Abby took of me in my new shoes. It also shows my 19 week pregnant belly which I believe is probably the first time I've ever showed a pregnant picture of me before like my due date.

I had a great Birthday and I have a wonderful family. I am so blessed!!