Tucson!

During tax season, my mom and I had discussed taking a trip to Tucson to visit my sister. We began making plans and suddenly the plan was for me to take both the girls and fly with my mom and dad the first weekend in April! Katrina had no idea that Taylor, Cassidy and I were along for the ride. We were so afraid of letting the secret slip that we actually forgot to tell many people that I was going to visit too! It was pretty comical.
I was excited for Al to get a weekend home alone and then he ended coming down with a horrible flu-bug. It took him out for most of the weekend. It was too bad his weekend was "wasted" on being sick, but it was probably best because he got the rest he needed and didn't infect us!

When the weekend finally arrived, everything went as planned and we even rented a minivan to accomodate all of us for the long weekend.
We arrived at K's place and the girls and I hid in the back seat of the van while mom and dad went to the front door. They asked her to come help unload and this is the shot I got of her when she realized we were in the back. It was priceless!

The rest of the weekend was packed-full with fun. It was HOT though, even for Tucson's standards.
The first full day there, we headed to a zoo and checked some of the animals before taking advantage of a pool on the same property.

Taylor with her new shades posing with the tiger:

Cassie (just barely), me, Taylor, Bumpa and K:

Great animal shots!

Taylor having some lunch with Auntie (and Godmother) K:

Cassidy getting in touch with her inner squirrel:

Swim time! This pool was a lifesaver. The best part was, it was outdoors AND covered!

Cassidy LOVES the water:

Taylor was SO excited to be at the pool. She just kept walking around giggling and singing, "I'm swimming, I'm swimming". It was adorable.

Back at the house, some down time with mommy and the girls:

Unfortunately that day may have done in Taylor. She was out for the next day and a half with a super high fever and no appetite. At first I assumed she had caught what Al had, but in hindsight, she may had been suffering from heat related issues. I'm sure we should've been forcing fluids on her more than we did. Poor baby.

The next day I headed to an art fair with mom, Cassidy, K and Todd but had to leave Tay behind. She was pretty bummed, but at least got to stay home with grandpa.

The art fair was neat and reminded me a lot of the Austin Pecan Street festival.

Cassie was worn out as well:

Amazing owl that we saw during the fair:

Eventually Taylor was feeling a little better and able to take down some food. Poor baby took a trip to Tucson and spent most of the weekend laying on the couch with a cool washcloth on her head and belly. By our last night she got to go on a special trip to In and Out Burger and Putt-Putt golf with grandpa, mommy and auntie K. That made her day!

It was a super fun weekend despite the girls giving mommy a run for her money. No one slept well because of whatever bug or heat-related issues they were having and I was very sleep deprived. I did have a lot of fun moments of course though. Like a night out dancing with mom and K and a sister shopping trip with just Katrina. I'm so glad we made the trip. Looking back, I barely remember the sleep deprivation, but have a lot of fun memories of the family bonding!

March 2011 - Crawling and Baptism!

March was another busy month for us and the girls! I thought winters were supposed to be boring? :)


We fit in a trip to Nickelodeon Universe with our friends the Noymans so the girls could play on some rides. It's fun that they are now old enough to enjoy these things! The babies just watched and slept.

Not sure how I managed to catch this picture, but it's an all time favorite now of my sweet Taylor girl.

Taylor and her Bestie hangin' out before a ride:

Cassidy was able to get in on some of the action too!

Some fun St. Patrick's Day pictures:

My adorable leprechauns!

The biggest event this month was Cassidy's baptism on March 20th. The Pastor was Father Cassidy, how fitting! It was a cool and wet spring day, but a wonderful event. Cassie's godparents, Libby & Lincoln and their boy TJ made the trip back from Virginia as well as Mimi making the trip from Texas! We also had great aunt and uncle Joan & Bryan as well as Mary & Joe to help celebrate with us.

Fun picture of TJ, Al, Cass and Tay.

If you can't tell, Cassidy had received her second haircut earlier in the week. She looks so old after they trim up her bangs!

Family with Father Cassidy:

The Godparents, Libby and Lincoln:

It was wonderful to have Mimi up with us to represent Al's side of the family:

This was near the end of the photo session and everyone was getting a little restless. I think the photo turned out pretty well considering!

Sweet face!

Great photo with the Godfather:

My bestie Libby. Thank you guys so much for making the trip back home!

Love this shot of Mimi, Tay and Al. So much love in one shot!

Cassie's latest, giving wide-open mouth kisses.

Al and TJ playing some guitar.

It was a wonderful day with so many loved ones. Thank you to everyone who was able to make it.

Some fun videos from the month.

Cassidy loves water and bathtime:

Another first this month, crawling!!

February 2011

It's been a LOOOONG time since I posted last and I have run out of excuses. Time to start doing the monthly wrap-ups again before I get a year behind!

Some fun pictures of Cassie's 9th month.



Cassidy's stats and how surprisingly close they are to Taylor's at the same age!:
Weight: 19lb 10oz (60%) - Exact same as Tay
Length: 28.5in (80%) - One pound lighter than Tay
Head: 18in (90%) - Quarter inch smaller than Tay


LOVING her food. Doing our best to keep it out of her hair. It never works. Also notice how Chewy is never too far away during mealtimes. He and Cass are a sneaky team.

Miss Taylor

This was a preview of what to expect in about 5-10 years. Cute little blonde ponytail, complete with bow and checking out her cell phone at the dinner table. Fast forward a few months and we have actually had to give her cell phone etiquette lessons because her pretend use is getting a little out of hand. :)

Another exciting first for Miss Tay this winter. Gymnastics!

We had no idea what to expect because quite honestly, the child is a bit trip and fall-prone. To our surprise, she was a natural and loved it! We will have to do another session next year. Right now we're just trying out everything once. Next up is dance.

A video of our little jumper..only her second time going!

Another fun video of Taylor taking dance lessons from a toy monkey.

Wrapping up January

Well I jinxed it in my last post. I thought I would be catching up before our busy summer started, but alas, I'm back to being MONTHs behind. Somehow gets harder and harder to have those free moments with the two kids keeping us on our toes.

Back to January.
One of the fun things we did with our good friends, the Noymans, was a stay-cation at a Holiday Inn 20 minutes from our place with an indoor water park. Not a huge one by any means, but a couple of slides and a swimming pool. It was our little (afordable) getaway in the middle of winter. We got adjoining rooms so we could be together as much as possible during our one-night stay.

Cassie was almost 8 months and her buddy Gabriel 6 months. They play every day at daycare and apparently Gabriel thinks it's so funny when Cassie crawls all over him. He better not let that become a habit! I can see Miss Cass taking advantage of that one. ;)

A little pool time with our water baby. It was actually a bit chilly though so she didn't stay in too long.

A fun picture of Taylor and the indoor pool area. They made it look like a twilight Venice scene.

It was a fun trip with some eating out at restaurants and fun hotel-room jumping on beds. Without all the hassle of traveling far and packing too much! We will definitely do it again sometime. Perhaps for TWO nights next time.

To wrap up January, here are some fun miscellaneous photos of the girls.

Classic Cassie face. I seem to remember Taylor making a lot of these faces too though.

Always wanting to reach out to things with that mouth! Love those big blue eyes too.

Ta-da!

Some meal-time fun visiting Great-Grandma for her 91st birthday!

Cassie and Taylor wrestling with Grandma. Not sure who's winning...

It just makes great-grandma's day when she gets to see those great-grandchildren. So many to love and snuggle!

Pump It Up!

I made it to January finally! Thank goodness I'll be catching up in the next couple of posts. :)

In mid-January we had another fun birthday party at Pump It Up for Taylor's buddy Elijah. There were a lot of kids there, mostly from daycare, so it was a fun little hang out for the parents too.
Taylor was a lot braver this year (our first time was last year for another friend's birthday when Tay was 2.5).
Al and Taylor braving the slide. Mommy went once too with one of Taylor's buddies and was scared out of my mind! Those suckers are fast!


Elijah's mom (Raechael) was very creative and put together this awesome dinasour cake. I had to take a few pictures.

Chowin' some pizza.

Of course Cassidy wants in on this pizza party. ;)

Love those big blue eyes.

Some of Taylor's friends. I can make out Owen (far left), Olivia (next to Taylor of course) and Cleo.

Close up of the BFFs enjoying some ice cream.

It was an awesome party and only one injury when Taylor and Olivia collided on one of the slides. They learned that rules (going one at a time) are there for a reason! :)