spring has sprung

Wow! I cannot believe that we are already halfway through 2016! For Texas, this spring has brought rain, rain, and more rain! In April, my parents went on a trip to China for 2 1/2 weeks, so we held down the fort at their place and took care of their dog while they were gone. We were glad to be there when the first storms hit, because they have a generator that kicked on automatically, so while our house was out of power for most of the day, we were fine at my parents' house! The road in front of their house did flood though, so we were stuck there for half of the day. We were on vacation last week (another post to come about that), but Houston has continued to be hit with more rain and it's been crazy!

A few weeks before my parents left for China, they got a new puppy! She's adorable and loving, but like any puppy, she's very hyper and likes to jump and chew. It's taken Emily a while to get used to her. Addie does great! The house sitting helped a lot with getting Emily more comfortable with her. The dog (Nala) is still learning and getting better, but I'm so glad my parents got her. She completes the picture on their beautiful property!

Emily loved sleeping in the bunk room!

their favorite part of staying at my parents' house was emptying Nana's drawers every.single.day!

doing our chores and checking the mail for Nana and Papa

My brother, Danny, came in town to visit again. The girls always have so much fun with their uncles! We took advantage of the sunny days by swimming and playing outside. We also took a group trip to my dad's office for a little visit :)

Right after Danny went back to Saudi Arabia, my other brother, Stevie, moved back into town with his wife, Shianne. We spent a couple days helping them get settled and putting together furniture with them. We're so glad to have them back!

Nana helped entertain the kiddos while we worked

We threw a baby shower for our friend, Lindsey. It was a twinkle twinkle little star theme, so we were able to reuse some things from Emily's birthday party. Everything turned out really cute and we had a lot of fun!

With the end of the school year came our last day of our preschool co-op and my students' final piano recital. Now I'm gearing up for teaching my preschool class in the fall!

we're going to miss this cute group of kids!

Here are a few more random pictures from our fun spring!

celebrating my birthday dinner at BJ's

my piano students left a little note on the whiteboard ;)

Emily's learned the joys of wishing on dandelions... she calls them "wishing flowers"

mother's day!

who let her garden in her jammies?

working out in her "superhero bird costume"

family trip to ikea!

because I know I'm going to miss this ^^

3 1/2 and 15 months

During the month of march, our girls hit some milestones. Emily turned 3 1/2 and Addie turned 15 months. Here are some updates on these cuties:

Emily is sassy, spunky, and sweet. She is a girly girl and loves everything having to do with princesses. She will tell you that her favorite colors are "pink, purple, and sparkle." She loves being crafty and creating things! She's very smart! She can spell and write her name by herself and is learning to write many more letters. She can recognize the beginning sound of most words. She has become fearless lately! Whether it's going on the big slide, riding a pony, watching scary(-er) movies, or saying the prayer in primary, nothing holds her back! She just goes for it! I've been amazed at how much she's come out of that shy, timid shell recently. She gave her first prayer in primary a few weeks ago and did it all by herself! I thought I was going to cry it was so sweet!! Some of her favorite things to do are play family, doctor, and superheroes, play outside, do "projects" and do tricks. Her favorite movies are The Incredibles, Monsters Inc, and Toy Story 2. We love our M&M!

her double chin kills me!!

-Our Addie girl just continues to grow and grow every single day! I can't believe how fast time is flying! She's in the 60s for both height and weight percentages, so she's much bigger than Emily was at this age! She's very independent, wanting to do everything by herself. She never lets anyone spoon feed her because she wants to do it herself, so that results in a lot of messes! She also doesn't like holding hands while walking. And she knows what she wants! She's definitely not afraid to say no if she's not getting her way! She also uses that word to stick up for herself when Emily's bugging her! She now has over 20 words and animal sounds in her vocabulary and she seems to be learning new ones all the time. She loves doing anything that her sister is doing. Her latest favorite activity is coloring. We just have to keep a close eye on her so she doesn't eat the crayons! She's also a fan of the outdoors and would stay outside all day if I let her! Addie is VERY into soft, cuddly items. She has claimed all the blankets, pillows, and stuffed animals as her own. Emily gets mad because Addie's CONSTANTLY stealing the soft things off her bed and dragging them through the house. Then she throws a fit when Emily tries to take them away! It's not unusual to find Addie laying on a kitchen mat or pulling clothes out of a laundry basket so she can cuddle them. It's hilarious! For the most part, Addie's still pretty easy to please. She doesn't love strangers holding her if I'm in the room. If I'm gone, she's usually fine with anyone. And she's still not the best sleeper. She sleeps through the night for the most part, but she usually wakes up a couple times a week. She'll go back to sleep after a few minutes of crying, though. And occasionally she wakes up really early and then she and I snuggle on the couch and go back to sleep for another hour or so :) She is such a joy and I don't know what we ever did without her!

claiming Emily's bed

stealing sissy's blankie!

-These girls really are best friends! It's so fun watching their relationship develop as Addie gets older and can do more. They play, laugh, snuggle, and give kisses, but they're also driving each other crazy half the time! I guess that's normal for a sibling relationship ;) I love that they have each other!