Getting brave

Many of you have asked from time to time, if the babies are still on two naps and when will we be moving to one nap. Well, that day has come. Based on their fussy behaviors, I think they were starting to get really bored being kept "prisoner" in our house. They often times "tell" me they want to leave by patting on the door. Also, they always get so excited when we put their shoes on them to go "bye bye".

They have usually done pretty well with one nap on Sundays when we go to church. I still think they do need or want two naps but we all need a change - to be able to get out of the house more often and that is next to impossible, being on two naps. I think this will also help with my school schedule when I start back to school in a few weeks.

So, during this transition, I've been getting out more with them in the mornings when they would normally be sleeping. They have done pretty well. We haven't really went to "play" yet, doing things like mall play areas, parks or splash parks. I haven't gotten that brave yet. But we have been running errands doing things out of the house but still keeping them somewhat confined in a cart of some sort. We've gone to Target, which we've done many times but I actually took ALL 3 of them with me to the grocery store this morning and that was interesting. It is not easy trying to concentrate on what food to get with so many distractions. But it went fairly well and we may start doing this on a regular basis. And it sure does free up the little bit of "family time" we have each week to actually do things together rather than do nothing but work and run errands separately while the other one watches the babies.

I've loved having one longer nap because it gives me more time to get stuff done without interruption but not getting my first break until after lunch has been a difficult thing for me to adjust to. :) I know, it will all work out in the end.

**More new blog posts below.**

**Updated** 33 - The new magic number!

**Update**

I tell ya, these teeth come in so fast, I can't hardly keep the most recent blog updates on teeth updated. Hannah actually has 10 teeth, including 2 of her one year molars (both on top). So, 33 is the new magic number. :)

So I haven't given a teeth update in a while and we are long overdue - we've been cutting teeth left and right. I routinely check their mouths for new teeth but have lost count a while ago.

Tyler now has 12 teeth, including all 4 of his one year molars.

Whitney has 11 teeth, including 3 (2 on top and 1 on bottom) of her one year molars.

Hannah has 9 teeth, including 2 of her one year molars (both on top).

So, that totals 32 teeth, which is the same as my age. I think that is kinda ironic. :) They are doing pretty well with their teething; they are a little fussier than when the smaller teeth were coming in but overall, they are doing remarkably well.

**Be sure to check below for another recently posted blog.**

Guess who's walking! Such a big girl!

Whitney and I were working quite a bit with her walking a couple of days ago. I rarely am able to get her motivated enough to walk this much, but I have seen her grow increasingly more motivated the past few days. I am so thrilled about this mainly so she can keep up with her siblings and also so her poor knees and tops of her feet will get a break. The carpet here is very coarse and the grout in the tile in our house isn't filled flush with the top of the tile which results in cutting the tops of her feet. I've been putting her in socks and/or shoes along with pants with knee pads and will be so glad to not have to do this because it's just too hot for pants.

I took four videos and planned to share all of them because they are just too cute not to, but I have been having some technical difficulty getting them to load. I have been working on this for several days with no luck, so I think I'll try to get video of it again and load it from my camera to my computer differently next time.

Stay tuned for video of my big girl! She is so proud of herself as are we.

Randomness

Okay, so its been forever since I posted pictures or gave updates on the babies so here goes...

This was at the old house right before we moved when we had HFMD including 103+ temperatures. Tyler was so hot we needed to cool him off.This was our first walk in the new neighborhood. We have a huge gazebo and pond at the entrance of our neighborhood, so we stopped here to feed the ducks.

Then we made a trip to the playground. Whitney rocking on the star.
Hannah didn't like it so much.
Tyler swinging in the HUGE swing.
Playing around the house. The kids are starting to enjoy climbing onto every box left on the floor.
Tyler on his way up. All three of them were taking turns climbing on the box as well as climbing on two at a time but I couldn't manage to get any pictures of it.
Tyler loving on his favorite stuffed animal, the tiger!
Another cute one of Tyler - lounging on the floor with the pillow. Hannah saw me snapping a few pics of Tyler and HAD to jump into the picture.
Whitney not happy about something.


A trip to the new playhouses at the new shopping center in Allen, The Village. This place is so nice. They have several fun playhouses for kids to play in as well as an air conditioned train for the kids to run through and play in. You can also rent it out for private parties. And the whole place is fenced in, which is fabulous!

This is the air conditioned train...

We have the bank...
The gas station/service station...
The train station...
The fire station...
Daddy showing them how to put the fire out.
Waiting with Daddy for their train.

Inside the train
Making a deposit at the bank with Mommy
Paying for our gas with Mommy.

The play area also has this fun little maze for the kids to run through. Hannah is headed for Austin

Tyler headed to the Big DWhitney, our local Allen gal.
Exploring through the maze with Daddy.

Settling in

We are all moved into our new house and are getting settled in more and more each day. We are loving the extra space, the new community and the small town feel. The neighbors are very friendly - several of them stopped by last week to introduce themselves and we got a chance to visit with them for a few minutes before getting back to our unpacking.

We closed on Monday and started moving in a small portion of our stuff ourselves. Craig was planning to do a treatment to the garage floor before we moved our stuff into the garage but many things unplanned things happened and we ran out of time. Tuesday, movers came and we moved all our stuff from inside the house. Tuesday night we went to get the babies from their grandparent's house. Wednesday, we spent the day the day unpacking and organizing. Craig also got sick and was very sick all day and the next. Thursday, he and my brother loaded up our garage at the old house to move it. Our garage floor was still not finished so all our stuff had to stay on the truck. Luckily nothing was stolen, which we weren't really worried about anyway, but it did rain that night so all our belongings were wet. Friday morning we painted the garage floor but it had to dry for 24 hours so our stuff had to stay outside a second night. It rained again...go figure! Luckily most everything was ok to get wet and nothing was ruined. It just made it more difficult to unload the stuff that was in boxes as the boxes were falling apart. Saturday, we got the truck unloaded and everything finally into our garage. Since then, we've been working so hard trying to finish unpacking and organizing our things.

Like I said, we are really enjoying the new house and we are adjusting well. The babies are doing really well and seem to be having no problems. Craig and I, however, are still adjusting to lugging the kiddos up and down the stairs. They can climb up but not down. We have a pretty severe fire ant problem which is not good especially considering Craig is allergic to fire ants. We have treated them and I can already see an improvement.

This entire summer has been such a whorl-wind with all the house selling/hunting/buying. I'm ready to finish getting settled in so we can do some fun summer things

Updates and 4th of July celebrations

Just wanted to write real quick and give you all an update on our moving situation. We closed on our current home last week (July 2nd) and are now renting back our home until the 13th when we close on the new one. We've been so busy running and getting loose ends wrapped up. And let me also say we have been having so much fun preparing to move! We are just so excited to be moving, we can hardly stand it! I started packing a few things last week, but we started majorly packing today and we have gotten so much done!!

An update on the kiddos... They got over their HFMD and all three followed that up with a round of 2 or 3 day high fevers. The girls got it first but their symptoms weren't as serious as Tyler's were, so when it was his turn for the fever, we took him to the doctor and turns out he had tonsillitis. I'm guessing that is what the girls had too. They all seem to be well now and are feeling much better.

For the fourth of July, we had plans to go to our friend, Kim's house, but their shindig was early in the day and since Craig had to work that day, we had to cancel. Then, we got invited over to some other friend's house. We had a good time visiting with them, eating yummy sausage and blueberry pie. Then, after it cooled off a bit, we headed out to the back yard, played on the swing set, Tyler and Craig played basketball and watched as they shot off fireworks.

June! What a month!

We've had multiple doctors appointments for Hannah because of recurring ear infections. Thankfully, her ears are all better now. We have also had ECI out twice to get things set up to have them help Whitney with her walking and help all of them with their speech. By the way, Whitney is walking so much better while holding our hand. She is much more stable. I personally think she could walk on her own now but really just lacks the confidence. She is very cautious!

We worked our little booties off, over a one week period, getting this house ready to sell and boy, did we do something right! We had a contract on the house literally 3 or 4 hours later!

Craig has been wanting to get lasik for quite some time and finally decided to bite the bullet and get it done before heading back to work. He is now on cloud nine! Also, Craig will be returning back to work Friday of this week.

For a couple of weeks after the surgery, Craig has to wear these plastic eye pieces that are attached with this sticky tape. He didn't want to use those, so he went to try and find a more comfortable alternative. This is the alternative...

We had a family Father's Day/June birthday celebration, celebrating Craig, Kyle (Craig's brother), Byron (Craig's BIL), and Steve (Craig's dad) for being the wonderful fathers they are. We also celebrated Kyle, Steve and Victoria's (the oldest cousin) birthdays. It was great fun visiting, having lunch, opening presents and cards and watching Michaela (SIL) practice her cosmetology skills on Lisa (SIL) all while sipping on iced coffee with the girls. :) :)

I had a fun play day with one of my oldest friends, Christi and her little girl, Elizabeth. The kids had fun having lunch together, playing with toys together and playing outside in the pool and on the slide. Elizabeth said she liked Tyler! Maybe a crush??? :) :) It was a great day and Christi and I had a great time visiting and catching up.

Whitney, Hannah, Elizabeth and Tyler

Whitney and Hannah were getting tired and whiny so they went inside with Craig and went down for a nap. Tyler and Elizabeth sitting together at the table. Isn't that cute? Tyler is going for older women!
Craig and I celebrated our 4 year anniversary - an extended version. We spent time together just the two of us in Fort Worth and ate at Texas de Brazil for dinner! We caught a movie, strolled through Sundance Square and went to a museum as well. Fort Worth is such a nice city - they have so much going on downtown. Lots of great places to eat, tons of museums, and I was quite surprised by how "alive" the city was even on a week night.

Since we had so much stuff going on with trying to find a house, we didn't have much of a Father's day for Craig. We did get up that morning and the kids painted their first picture for their Daddy. They also colored their first picture for him too. The finger paints was a rather messy project and they weren't quite ready for it but it was still fun (for me).


Then I let him open his cards and they all wore their "my daddy is my hero" stickers as well as Craig got to wear his "best dad ever" sticker. I registered for school and will be taking another 2 classes in the Fall. After that, only 2 left!

A few miscellaneous pictures from the month of June....

Whitney was so tired, she fell asleep on her back, which is so rare.

Daddy with his girls. Isn't Whitney hilarious? I guess she is imitating her Mommy - wearing the sunglasses, with my phone and the remote to the ceiling fan in her hand. Sixteen months going on sixteen!
Daddy and Tyler being silly putting on pajamas before bedtime.
Hannah just hangin' out on the towel right after a bath.


And she's off...
I love these two of Whitney and Craig. So silly...
So serious...