Long time no post...

I don't know what my deal has been.  I haven't really been pulling my camera out lately to get pics of the kids.  "/  But this evening when it finally cooled off around 8:00pm, Meredith and Wallace wanted to play outside and the lighting was nice.  :)

They were having trike races!  :)  But neither of them uses their pedals when they are being all competitive.

I noticed when I was getting the photos off my SD card that I had forgotten about the pics from Anna's birthday!  

James's face in this one totally cracks me up!  

Haha!  My three kids apparently never have any idea whose birthday it actually is. 

She was just in a posing kind of mood this evening.  :)

Catching up!

It's been a busy couple of weeks for me.  A strange break from the usual monotony.  We had Easter in Gilmer, and then the next weekend I left for a cruise with Jen!  So, I'm just now getting to sit down and get through my photos.  

I didn't get too many pics of the Easter egg hunt...but the funniest thing about it was Leah's puppy had gone around and busted into many of the eggs before the hunt started.  Haha!  

He remained on the prowl the entire time the kids were out there.

I also got to take some pictures of baby Nora while we were there!  :)

She's just like Hayden and Cy....super active and mobile!  

And cute.  :)

The Friday after Easter was Anna's field trip to the zoo!  I was so excited because the zoo is fairly close to where I work, so it was nice and easy to get over there and then back to work that day!  Oh, and Anna finally had enough of her hair.  Thank goodness!  I've so missed the bob.

I'm not sure what kind of flamengos these were, but they were all looking up.  Haha!  It was funny.

And then there was the cruise.  I didn't get many photos on the cruise...probably because Jen and I parked it on the old people deck and read for the majority of the trip.  It was so relaxing.  :)  The deck was nice and shady and there was a bar and a restroom right near by.  

We went on a tour when the ship docked in Progresso.  My favorite part of the tour of Merida was these.  I need to find them in SA.

I also found it very comical and somewhat comforting to see all of the American stores when we got farther inland on the tour.  :) 

The day after we got back from the cruise was Wallace's field trip!  I managed to make it to both kids' field trips!  Yay!

His field trip was to Morgan's Wonderland, and this place was amazing!  All sorts of fun rides and activities and playgrounds.

And unlimited train rides!  Wallace was in heaven.  Oh, and Jen and her Mom came along with me.  :)

I pulled a typical Theresa move and let Wallace pick his own lunch of cotton candy, Funyons, and a big lollipop.  

And then yesterday we had a birthday party for Wallace at the house.  I was doing a pretty terrible job of planning it, so thankfully Jen was still in town and helped out a bunch!  And she even made the cake!  :)

You wouldn't believe how stressed out she got over the icing.  :)  It turned out great!

Even though he doesn't look like it, he was excited...just bummed that we wouldn't let him touch it.

Our little group of friends has procreated extensively over the past few years.  Even without Jen's boys there, we had 6 kids at the house (including our three).  Kids really make a kid birthday more fun.  :)

Wallace was so worried Meredith was about to blow out his candles the whole time we were singing the birthday song to him.  

Apparently he should have been more worried about Anna.  "/  Oh!  Anna got glasses!  It's been a busy couple of weeks.

Rachael even brought a pinata!  My friends really pulled this party together for me!  :)

Haha!  I didn't even see this had happened until I was going through the photos..  :)

Kids love pinatas.  

Except for Lauren....  Maybe she's just freaked out by dinosaurs...

Happy birthday buddy.  :)

It's so funny how nothing really happens for months and then all of a sudden all of the exciting stuff happens in a matter of just a couple of weeks.  :)  

Random Randomness

It's been busy here lately, but nothing too fancy-camera-worthy.  Except, my Mom and I did take the kids to Houston to watch my nieces show their chickens...but I forgot to take the camera.  "/  

Anyway, we had a little stomach bug come through a couple of weeks ago, and it was bad enough to take Meredith down a notch.  Fortunately for me, my Mom got the brunt of Meredith's illness.  Yikes!  I thought she was going to quit on me...it sounded terrible.

Poor girl.  She laid there for 3 hours.  :(

But she was back to her normal, crazy self in no time.  :)

And today was the kids' first soccer game of the season.  Well, technically last weekend was the first game, but we missed it with our trip to Houston.  It was also team picture day today.  There was a new photographer this time, and she appeared to have it together, so I didn't feel the need to hover behind her and take my own pics like a total jerk.  I'm excited to see how they turn out.  

Josh tried to get this look to fly, but I nixed it.

Although he stays with his team a lot better this season, he doesn't tend to be very engaged.  Right before this I had promised him some ice cream if he kicked the ball...so he was on a mission to get at least one good kick in.  

I love team huddles.  :)

And little bro photo bombers.   :)

There are at least 4 families on Wallace's team that have another kid on the same team as Anna.  The league must have done this intentionally.  They practice at the same place and the same time, and their games are usually very close together.  Today they were overlapping a little, so I missed the start of Anna's game.  

Anna's found a new favorite thing to do...

In-bounding the ball.  :)

She pretty much doesn't let anyone else do it.  

Yep...this is her big job.  :)

I did catch her getting a leg in there at one point though!

She always makes time to socialize too...

So, they could keep their jerseys from last season if they wanted to, and this season they decided not to bother with numbers... So, you can tell who all is new, or maybe just who lost their jersey.  

Anyway...although we've been busy, it's been nothing too exciting.  "/  Just busy for the sake of being busy.  

And I thought I'd finish off this post with another shot of Princess Meredith.  :)

Hamilton Pool

Today my sister Jenny thought it would be fun for us all to go to Hamilton Pool.  It's a nature preserve outside of Austin.  It's very beautiful, and there's even a waterfall, so I took along the tripod!  

It was a bit crowded (a Spring Break Saturday), but it was as crowded as it was going to get.  The parking lot is fairly small, and once it's full you have to wait in your vehicle at the entrance until someone pulls out.  

Wallace liked running ahead of all of us and scaring the crap out of me!  

Meredith was really good the whole time...until it was time to get back into the car.  "/  We got a solid 2 hours of good behavior out of her though!

I would have loved to have spent more time tinkering with my camera and lenses, but the kids weren't really into it...

Carrying the tripod was a pain in the butt, but it was nice having it for a selfie.  :)  Plus, I'm pretty sure all of the adults ended up taking a turn carrying it, so that was helpful.  

My kids managed to find a "sand box" on our way back out.

Meredith kept bumping her head every time she stood up.  

Tough lighting, but cute sibling pic.  

Thanks for getting us out of the house Aunt Jenny!  We all had a good time...with the exception of Meredith...getting back into the car...  ;)

One busy day!

Meredith's birthday was last Wednesday.  The Ides of March.  I just love that her birthday falls on a day like that.  :)  Josh was out of town all week, and rather than wait for the weekend, we ended up just doing a small party for her at my Mom's house that night.  Anna actually ended up planning the party!  She made a little list of all the things we needed, made party hats, and even invited a couple of guests.  She was so into this birthday party for Meredith.  It was adorable. 

She started blowing out her candles before we were done singing.   :)  I'm not proud to say it, but this was the first birthday that I didn't make a homemade cake...  This Costco cake was amazeballs though!  Wallace picked it out. He really wanted to eat those big icing flowers.

The day ended up being a long one.  I'd managed to squeeze Anna into an ENT appointment to take another look at her tonsils.  Turns out that for now she can keep them.  Her tonsils are ridiculously large, and I worry that someday she's going to hate me for not having them removed while she's young.  So every couple of years I have the doctor check them out and calm me down.

Anna was so excited to get to go to work with me that morning.  I assure her that work is fairly boring, but she always thinks it's so fun.  

She does little art projects.

And this time, a co-worker had her daughter there at the same time since it was spring break.  So the two of them ended up under Celine's desk watching a movie on the iPad, giggling, and making fast friends.  The two of them have planned a summer play date at the downtown park already.  :)

She was kind of over me taking her picture at the doctor's office.  "Mom....Stop taking my picture!"

So after that I took her back to my Mom's and finished off my day at work.  Then I picked up Meredith for her first ever dentist appointment....on her birthday!  What was I thinking???  

This dentist office is pretty cool though. And these two kids were so nice to her even though she interrupted their video game.

Wallace insisted on coming along so he could play with all of the toys too.  "Oh...Meredith's going to the dentist?  Can I come too???"

Even though it was a little tough to get her in the chair, she ended up doing great!

And then it was finally party time!!!  She ended up opening her presents as soon as we got to my Mom's.  They were all sitting out.  As if this girl was going to eat first.  :)

I don't think she's ever gotten this many gifts at once.  And for the first time I felt so confident that I'd gotten her stuff she'd like because Anna helped me pick everything out!  She was so good.  She spent time with each and every gift she got.  

She ate a lot of cake and ice cream!

Over the weekend when I took Anna with me to shop for gifts, she'd decided she wanted to make Meredith a gift.  And she decided on making her blocks.  So I cut and sanded them all, and then we took them to Granny's and she and Granny (mostly Granny) painted them all just the way Anna wanted them.  Anna was getting so offended at the party because the blocks were literally the very last thing that Meredith sat down to play with...  I was worried she might not at all, but then she finally did.  

She would build towers and Wallace would knock them over.

Anna's trying to play it cool here, but she was elated inside.  :)

Happy bithday Meredith!!!