Ten Years.

Friday night was my ten year reunion. {Insert old lady jokes here} And it would have been really depressing if it hadn't been so fun! 

It was actually not the "real" reunion I guess because there was one at a bar the weekend before that we opted out of. This event was considered the "Homecoming Bash" but was much more our style. I spent MANY friday nights at this stadium in my sequin hat and pettiskirt with my drill team girls, and it was a blast seeing so many of them that I hadn't seen in years! 

We tailgated for a few hours before the game and then watched it all together. It was fun to relive one night of high school! You could not pay me to go back for good, but I had a good high school experience and it was fun to reminisce about old times!

A guy from our high school started his own photo booth company and set up a "selfie station"  to use while we tailgated before the game! 

And my lovely friend Katrina took a ton of photos before and during the game that I straight up stole from Facebook. She doesn't mind! :) 

The halftime show was of course mine and my drill team girl's favorite part! When we danced 10 years ago there were 55 of us. This year there were 89 girls on the team! 

I still have my sequin hat and boots in case Liesl wants to play dress up :) 

High school football will never get old for me. We are starting to take Liam and Liesl this year, and I can't wait to make attending friday night football games a tradition again. It was always one of my favorite parts of the fall season - especially when it gets cold and you're buried under blankets and drinking thermoses of hot chocolate while cheering on your team! I just love it. 

It didn't hurt that our high school is REALLY good! Baylor football was a HUGE let down when I got to college, ha, but they're making up for it now! 

Toward the end of the game we went to see our old drill team director and the girls. The uniforms they are wearing were brand new to us our senior year -- now they are ten years old! Crazy. 

It was SUCH a fun night! But we left after the game to go home to our babies, and THEY make getting old pretty fun too :) 

This & That

Well it's been a birthday whirlwind over here, but we have been up to a few other things as well!

Last week was back to life as usual - preschool, doctor's appointments, playdates, grocery shopping, etc.

One morning we spent 3.5 hours waiting for my car to get serviced. Thank goodness for the playroom at the car dealership, but even that didn't keep the crazy completely at bay.

The kids and I got our flu vaccines, and it was only slightly dramatic. Liam got the nose spray and hid under the table until the nurse bribed him with a sticker and a sucker to come out. And then he did it and was like, oh, that's it? Hopefully he remembers that next year!

We went to a playdate at our local trampoline place. We just discovered it last month and have been 4 times! Wednesdays and Fridays they have a special preschool time which has been great. Needless to say we've been meeting our friends up there A LOT!

Liesl was scaling the walls of the trampolines and Liam was a constant blur!

Saturday we rode the Tarantula train with my family to the Ft. Worth Stockyards. I'll post more about that later -- it was a lot of fun!

Sunday we spent the entire day rearranging the playroom. I had the (possibly not so) bright idea to move our playset inside. Will power-washed it while I purged and reorganized the toys. I was so proud of Liam - he happily filled an entire trash bag full of toys he no longer plays with and rode with Will up to our local donation center to drop it off!

So back to the playset being indoors. Both kids are LOVING it so far, and Liesl proved her love by immediately scaling the ladder and the slide like a pro. She's definitely going to be my dare-devil!

Sunday evening we took a break and hit up the bowling alley with some friends! It was a fun end to a productive day. Until the fun ended and the tantrums began, ha. Being three is hard...NOT. Parenting a three is hard. :)

A couple other things -- I now have 2 completed Project 365's from both my kiddo's first years. Now what to do with them? 

And while Liam is in preschool twice a week, I created a little area for us to have Mommy School during the week. I found the huge cork board and school desk in the back storage room. Soon that board is going to be covered in all things fall! I'm thinking homemade apple tree and leaf creations by Liam, and maybe some favorite fall quotes for me. And probably two little handprint turkeys made by my little turkeys. 

And just for fun, some more pictures of my babies lately...

ALERT THE MEDIA: I figured out a tiny bit of technology and can now reply directly to your comments! If you leave a question, make sure to check back as I always try to answer! 

HAPPY MONDAY! ! ! !

TWELVE Months!

Liesl Penelope, you are TWELVE MONTHS OLD! A WHOLE YEAR! A TODDLER BY SOME PEOPLE'S STANDARDS! (not mine by the way. no way, no how.)

You are holding steady as my petite little princess! At your one year checkup you weighed 18 lbs. 1.5 oz (25%) and were 29 inches long (50%). 

You wear 6-12 month clothes, size 3 shoes, and size 3 diapers. 

You have THREE, almost four teeth! You spent the better part of your birthday week teething, complete with a 48 hour fever and fussiness. I felt so bad for you because you don't cry much, especially out of true pain, so it was hard to hear. 

You are a speed crawling/cruising/walking with your walker machine! I think you will be walking soon, but I'm not trying to rush you. You also LOVE to climb. You can climb stairs which I found out when you scaled the steps at the trampoline place and helped yourself to the foam pit. Whoops. You also love to climb up in Liam's chairs and on top of your pouf. You will sit in his rocking chair and just rock and rock with a huge grin on your face.  

You are a huge explorer right now and love to test things out with your head?! You seriously head-butt everything, including us, and it makes you laugh and laugh! You have also started exploring by putting things in your mouth, so that's been fun to look out for. Not. You love to take things out and put them back in baskets, bins, boxes, etc. and bang together ANYTHING that will make noise! Thus the nickname Princess Thud was coined by your Daddy. And it's so true that it stuck.

You are a pretty good eater. You eat three full meals a day and snacks. You love breakfast foods  - right now you are loving pumpkin waffles and coconut pancakes. You also have loved every fruit you've tried except I can't get you to eat a blueberry. You spit it out whole every single time! You are still nursing, but only  a couple times a day and now drink whole milk out of a cup too! 

(You were coming in for a kiss here!)

Sleep is just getting better and better and I'm SHOCKED. You were my difficult sleeper in the beginning, but you are starting to really become my best sleeper! (coughliamgobacktobedcough) You go down between 7-8pm and sleep until 8:30am. You also take one LONG nap during the day now! It came out of nowhere about two weeks ago when you started teething so I figured it was just because of that, but you have continued to take 1.5-3 hour naps daily! Some days you take two naps if I have to wake you up early and you just can't wait until the afternoon for your big nap. You are a side or belly sleeper and will sometimes sleep with your legs curled up under you and your bottom sticking up. Oh, I love it. You are also the happiest baby when you wake up. You greet me with a big grin in the mornings and throw your arms up in the air for me to pick you up!

Waving is your very favorite thing to do. You have a very exaggerated wave and will do both hands at the same time when you really get into it. You also give huge open mouth kisses on demand, will pat me on the back when I hold you, still say "mama" "dada" sometimes "bye bye" and you said "ni-ni" once back to Liam when you told you goodnight. You clap and blow kisses, hug and kiss your baby dolls, and love to drive Liam's hot wheels across the floor. You drive your brother crazy playing with his toys and destroying his lego structures, but he is learning to share with you and even when I hear him yelling, "Mommy, Baby Yeedul knocked over my yegos. Come move her!", I know he still adores you. He is never stingy with his kisses and hugs for you, and I know he gets a kick out of how much you adore him.  

Sweet girl, adding you to our family has been such a wonderful experience. Sure there have been rough days adjusting to two and I know there will be more to come, but you make our lives so much sillier/sweeter/girlier. You are a mommy's girl with her daddy wrapped tightly around her finger and a brother with hearts in his eyes for you. We couldn't have wished for a more perfect fit, and God gave us such a special gift when he gave us you! We love you our Liesl Pie/Princess Thud/Sister Bear with all our hearts! Please don't hate us for these crazy nicknames when you're older :) 

Liesl's 1st Birthday Day!

We had Liesl's birthday party on the eve of her birthday, so we had a nice, simple family day on her actual birthday! 

Liesl wore her birthday dress to church that morning! 

After church we went to lunch at Will's mom's house and then came home for naps. I felt kind of bad that we didn't do something fun like go to the zoo like we did for Liam's 1st birthday, but we were wiped from the party the night before and after church/lunch/naps there just wasn't much day left. 

Once the kids were up from their naps, we did family gifts and sang Happy Birthday to our ONE year old! 

We got Liesl some books and my mom took Liam to pick out some gifts for Liesl. I don't know why I didn't think to do that, but we will in the future. Thanks, mom! 

 Liam picked out a pink car and a pink and purple dump truck for his sister. :)

Time for more sweets!

Liam enjoyed a cupcake too, of course :) 

You better believe she ate every last crumb of that cupcake. 

She loves to share her food! 

I was holding off calling her a "one year old" as long as I could that day because she wasn't born until 1:25pm, but now she is officially ONE. I remember so many little details from the day she was born. I especially remember how fast I thought the day went - and now I'm thinking that about an entire year! 

Happy Birthday, sweet Liesl Pie!