Snow snow GO AWAY!

i hate to be a big debbie downer but i am tired of the snow. i live in texas and i am perfefectly fine with our bipolar weather but snow comes once a year and is usually gone within a day. WELL NOT THIS YEAR! we are going on day 6 of snow and now it is just annoying. buy anyway, i do have some more super precious pictures to share. both of my children were a little TOO interested in eating the snow. it was one of those moments where i had to just let them do their thing and not freak out that they are eating stuff off of the ground (NASTY) but they were having fun! and i did make snow ice cream but somehow that seems totally different. even though it didn't sanitize it or anything.

 we do not have a very big yard and so and we wanted to take the girls to sled on a "small" hill. so we went to jeremy's mom's house because they have a little bit of land around their house and played in the snow.

 they have beautiful trails behind their house and so jeremy pulled their girls down the trails in the woods and it made some for some beautiful pictures.



i'll be there

miss avery is very much a little entertainer. her preferred method of performing is singing. favorite song (currently): "i'll be there" by the jackson five. she knows every word (or her version of it) and will sing it while she  puts her hands on her hips and sways back and forth. she and her back-up (emersyn) love to sing and dance on my bed and while listening from this... 

avery has always loved loved loved to sing! ever since she was around 8 or 9 months she has been singing (i actually think she sang before she said many words or any phrases). emersyn is not that into it although she does like to be a back-up dancer.

**emersyn is dressed up in a princess dress (belle from beauty and the beast) and this would be how we spend most of our days at home...dressed up like princesses, singing and dancing... avery is usually wearing hers too**

other favorite songs renamed by avery: "mama mia" from the movie, "down down" by jay sean, and "single ladies" by the chimpettes (which has its own little shimmy dance)

maybe i have a future taylor swift..... ;)

Snow Ice Cream

last year, after our beautiful snow, i made some snow ice cream. i thought this was the cutest idea and so i started a tradition because i made it again this year. i don't have any exact measurements but here goes the southern version:  get a big'ole bowl of snow, sprinkle in some sugar, a smidgen of vanilla extract, and depending on the texture you want some version of milk (i used cream but you can use regular milk, or condensed milk) and I like mine milky so i used quit a bit (it makes it a little more ice creamish).

Snowy Snowy Day

SNOW SNOW!! Hip hip hooray!! Living in Texas, we always get excited to see it snow. Until today, last year was the most snow I had ever seen (in my town of course) but today is definitely now the record (in my mind, anyway). It normally only snows once a year and it normally shuts the town down. Everyone freaks out prepares responsibly and empties out the grocery stores. Do not worry, I was definitely among the mad responsible people yesterday because as any mother of two small children knows, you can not be stuck in your house for a few days and not have the essentials: milk, diapers, snacks, and lots of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, compliments of the DVR.

I was very anxious to get the girls dressed and get their pictures taken in the snow. I felt like if I didn't get them out there QUICK the snow was going to spontaneously disappear and this moment would be forever lost. So, my pictures do not do the amount of snow we have received justice. It looks like to me (nothing official, just my eyeball measurement) about 8 inches or so.  

happy snow day!!

Time Machine to Summer 2010!

All day today I have been craving summer. Summer clothes, summer activities, vacations, pools, time off from school, just the overall attitude of relaxation and ease. With that in mind I will take a time machine back....back to the summer of 2010.

This one is from the beginning of summer. The 2nd week of June 2010. We spend lots of time in our backyard playing and these TOO CUTE chairs, that came from Ace Hardware, were just too precious not to get a picture in. Emersyn is only 11 months in this picture so not really into taking pictures or noticing me at all with a camera  but its still sweet. And the next one of Avery is the sweetest and for the LONGEST time if you asked her to smile, that face is what you would get. We worked on it for a while and then I thought you know this is too cute and I should just go with what she gives me now at this sweet point in her life because there will come a time that I wish she would give me such a sweet face like this.

Emersyn, naked, in her swing, the naked thing would be pretty typical because they love to play in their little pool or in the sprinklers and its just easier to strip them down than going in and changing into swimsuits. Both my babies love love that swing.

This picture is actually from May 2010. Probably the first "swim" of the summer which is why I would have pulled out the camera (which is not something I am very good at but the blog is making me better about documenting life as it flies by). They were playing with some bubble machines that I am pretty sure were destroyed (from being drowned, if I remember correctly) in about 3 minutes. Emersyn 10 months and walking, Avery 2 years 1 month.

We went to San Antonio, with our very best friends Dustin and Sara and their sweet children, over the summer and stayed at the Hyatt Wild Oak Ranch (OMG the best best place EVER!!!) and this picture is from the side of their lazy river that also has a little man-made beach on it. It is the most kid friendly place with water slides and a huge pool that doesn't ever get too deep and the lazy river and walking trails, and marshmallow roasts, and movies under the stars, and much more. It is also really close to Sea World.  Anyway, the picture is pretty typical of us trying to get a picture together but one of the few pictures that was taken on this vacation. Avery 2 years 2months Emersyn 11 months.

Jeremy and the girls at the Riverwalk in San Antonio. Lots of fun stories from this trip but Jeremy and Dustin picking up my WHALE of a double stroller (with two children) to carry it up and down all of the stairs at the Riverwalk would be one of the funny ones. Wish I had a picture of that because the wheel to the stroller kept falling off and Sara and Dustin had their own stroller too that Sara and I were responsible for picking up with Tad in it. At the moment I am pretty sure it felt disastrous but looking back it was sooo much fun and I am hoping they want to go on an adventure with us again this summer. =)

On the way into to San Antonio there is a drive-thru zoo and this is the very beginning of it (we got out first because we stopped at it on our way into to San Antonio so the kids and adults were ready to stretch their legs and they had a few things to walk around and look at). I have always liked this picture of Avery and Tad looking some kind of animal (meer cat maybe) but I just think this is the sweetest picture of future boyfriend and girlfriends.

The very last day of summer (Sunday before we had to go back to school) we took the girls to up to the Little Missouri Falls near Albert Pike. We have lots and lots of pictures of that and it was a very special sweet day and we had a picnic and just made a fun day of it. Emersyn 13 months Avery 2 years and 4 months.

We made some natural play dough. Emersyn ate it mostly, which is why I made from all food products, but it had LOTS of salt and for whatever reason she kept eating it even though she made this awful face like it tasted horrible and then spit it out. I can not remember when I took this picture but my guess would be July because they are wearing their t-shirts from the drive-thru zoo in San Antonio.

Someone turned ONE on July 4th of 2010 but I am saving all the good pictures from this for it's own post but I really wanted to mention it.

Bathing suit day at Avery's preschool. She was totally into modeling for the camera, which was new at the time and now I can't keep her from jumping in front of the camera any time its out. and once I take her picture she then needs to look at it like she is a teenager and needs to approve every picture, DIVA in the making!!

Another one from San Antonio but this time it's Sea World (sorry about the order, I am still learning), but this was while we were watching the dolphins.

Sweet Pictures and Hair

 I want to add some of my favorite pictures to the blog and as I go through my old computer and transfer over pictures onto my new computer I am going to post the memorable ones and favorites. This one above is from this Christmas (2010). We got the girls their first "car" and they love it but it was f-r-e-e-z-i-n-g Christmas morning so I had to bundle them up. Emersyn is wearing her Elmo hat (he is her favorite) per her request, other than that I was grabbing as many articles of clothing I could find to pile on them. Sweet picture of sweet sisters.

Avery and her Daddy going to check his deer feeder. What makes this picture even better (like it could get much better) is that it was caught from his deer camera that is mounted to a tree. The camera just snaps pictures as it senses movement. The date and time are right but it should say p.m. instead of a.m. What a moment!

My little baby burrito. This is Emersyn (not sure on the age but I would guess 3-4 months, I know I deserve a Mommy award for that) swaddled up laying on her Boppy Lounger in her bassinet. This picture quality is poor because it came from my phone. Both of my girls slept in a bassinet right beside my bed until they grew too big to be in it. I needed that so that when I woke up every 30 minutes to check if they were breathing, I could just roll over and look. I still wake up, probably once a night and go to check on them.

Every once and a while I blow dry Avery's hair for her. SHE LOVES IT! I  have never cut her hair and I don't really want to unless I feel like there is a reason. I want both my girls to have long hair. Emersyn's is still short and very straight so it looks no different than when it air dries, but I blow dry her's sometimes too so she doesn't feel left out.

New Year's - Day 3 - Resolution

My name is Heather, I am a mother of two precious girls, Avery 2 years 9 months and Emersyn - 1 year and 6 months. I am 27 years old and have been married to my best friend (he was literally my best friend all through high school and after), Jeremy, for 6 years and a few months.

BLOG WORLD HERE I COME!

Scary? Yes, I think so. I am the Queen of starting things and not finishing them. I actually set up this blog months ago and never followed through with it (got frustrated and through the computer across the room computer issues). So, back to the intro, every year I make a "going to get skinny" meaningless resolution that I do for about 2-3 days and then give-up, but this year I really wanted to make a GREAT resolution that I had to do with making memories. I read several blogs, some people I know and some I don't, but either way it is enjoyable and I am always envious that these women have a virtual scrapbook (because I have tried scrapbooking and well, we won't go there) to show their children. So after giving up and deciding not to resolute at all, TONIGHT, I decided this was IT. I am going to become a blogger and I am super excited about it!!  I am working on an worn out laptop (the screen is hanging on by one hinge - literally) and it has been used and abused. In efforts to help make blogging a habit, I have ordered a new laptop and this will hopefully keep me going. Also, being very new to this, I am learning about designing (takes FOREVER) and pictures. So bare with me on this learning journey and give me some tips if you have any.

Now on to the important stuff. New Year's is probably one of my least favorite holidays and has been for a very long time. It always seems to be a let down and everyone wants to make BIG plans and nothing ever seems to happen the way it is supposed to and it's very anticlimatic. So most years, my husband I have stay very low key for New Year's and this year was no different. I wanted the girls to know it was a holiday and there is a reason to celebrate a new year (the fact that we are here to celebrate is reason to celebrate, right?) and so I through them a sweet very impromptu party. I let them pick out the decorations and so we got Elmo plates and cupcake decorations with purple balloons (Emersyn's pick) and Tinkerbell napkins and cupcake decorations with pink balloons (Avery's pick).

We also ate "junk" type of food (pizza rolls, mini cheeseburgers, chip and dip) and had chocolate milk (special treat because I only let them have white milk - usually). Then after our meal we made a pallet of blankets to watch Toy Story (their choice) and stayed up late (8:45 as opposed to 7:30).

Daddy and his girls.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!