Busy October Weekend

This weekend was busy. It started with a twin club play date and ended with a Sunday school party. It was a mix of busy and relaxed.

Playing on the dragon

Gracie on the top

Lizzie Climbing up the dragon

The girls at the pumpkin patch

 Every year, we go to the same pumpkin patch. It's at a Lutheran church by the house. The girls love it! On Saturday, we went to see the pumpkins.

Little scarecrows

The pumpkin picture

Saturday was nice but breezy..... Look at our hair!

Lizzie loves pumpkins! They are her favorite color.

Gracie loves them too.

 After the pumpkin patch, the girls wanted to play. We took them to the new playground. Of course, everyone in town was playing at the new playground too! The girls had a blast.

Playing

 On Sunday, it was performance time. Lizzie and Gracie started choir practice this year at our church and today was their first performance. They did really well and loved it!

In their choir robes.

 It brought back many memories for me. I sang in the children's choir at my church growing up. Love those memories.

Sunday evening, we had a Sunday school party! It was really fun and we stayed out until dark! The girls loved playing and we enjoyed visiting.

Gracie enjoying a cupcake.

 What a great weekend! October looks like it will be busy for us! More fun to come!

Ice Skating!

On Monday, the girls started ice skating lessons. Wes has been so excited about the girls learning how to ice skate. He learned when he was 5 to skate and played hockey through college. So this was exciting for him! Unfortunately, he had to travel for work and missed the first lesson.

Gracie with skates on

Lizzie with skates on

Learning how to "fall down" - on the soft floor

"Marching" with our skates on

Finally on the ice with "walkers"

The girls had a blast! They loved every minute of it! They were actually pretty good. They were able to "march" back and forth really well. They can't wait to back next Monday!

10th Anniversay Weekend

Friday was our 10th anniversary!

On our wedding day

This young and skinny couple is Wes and I on our wedding day ten year ago. Our marriage has been good, but not without our own ups and downs. We have learned that the only constant was change. We have been through a lot, school, finding jobs, losing jobs, infertility, high risk pregnancy, birth, twins and life with twins. We still work on making a great marriage.

To celebrate, Wes and I went to San Antonio while the girls spent the weekend in Oklahoma with Grandma and Papa. We used some of Wes' well earned hotel points and stayed in a Holiday Inn Express that was converted County Jail. The room was long and narrow. I called it our "cell". Our hotel was within walking distance of everything.

Our cell

As soon as we arrived to our hotel on Friday, I received this text from my sister.

Gracie

And then this one.

Lizzie

I believe this is the work of my niece Sydney. She loves to put on makeup right now.

After we got settled into our hotel, we headed out to the River Walk. It was hot. We walked up and down the river and enjoyed being together. As we got to one part of the river, we saw some people on a stage. Turns out they were rehearsing for a marriage proposal. We hung out a bit to watch and wait for the bride-to-be to arrive. Good news, she said yes. After that, we went and had a great dinner and then went back to the hotel. 

On Saturday, we got up and went to Market Square. It was only a couple of blocks away. We spent the morning there shopping, walking and eating lunch. On the street they were having an old car show. As we walked out of a building, there was a pink car and an orange one (Gracie's favorite color is pink and Lizzie's is orange). It was a beautiful reminder of my sweet girls.

 After we were done with the market, we went back to the hotel and rested a bit. Once we rested up, we got in the car and went to see some sites. We drove by the Alamo (we have both seen it several times) and then went to the King William district to see some old houses. They were really pretty. Once we had seen enough houses, we decided to head to San Marcos outlets. Got all the way there and decided there wasn't anything to see and instead shopped at a shopping center nine miles away. By then, it was time for dinner and we had steak! A cold front moved in and started making it chilly.

On Sunday, we packed up to leave. We checked out of the hotel and had breakfast. After breakfast, we got on the road. We made a couple of detours and stopped in Waco to see our friend Candace. We were exhausted when we got home and ordered a pizza. 

We had a really good weekend and anniversary. We have many more anniversaries to celebrate ahead.

Visit with Alabama Family

This past weekend, we made the long trek to Alabama to visit Wes' side of the family. It's takes about 12 hours with limited stops but with two kids, it takes longer. We had a short but good visit. We packed a lot of fun in a very short time!

In the car on our way there

Ready to see Nana and the family

We left our house early (6:00 am) on Friday and arrived around 9:00 pm. When we got there, we reviewed what everyone was going to wear for picture day on Saturday. Saturday morning, we got up, ate breakfast and picked up some last minute stuff for the pictures. That afternoon, we met a photographer with 17 members of Wes' extended family. Because we were in Alabama, we couldn't use our favorite photographer, LiaLezon and had to go with someone else. We spent about an hour taking pictures and playing in the park. After the pictures, some of us went to get ice cream. Saturday late afternoon into the evening, we played with the dogs, ate yummy food, visited with family and watched football.

Playing in the park after pictures

Wes and the girls

Sunday, we got up and had breakfast out. In the afternoon, we went to a pumpkin patch in Tennessee with Nana and Wes' cousin Brande. The kids all had a blast. We had four kids total with us; Lizzie, Gracie, Huck and Kinsleah. By the time we were done, I had hay in my hair and Lizzie was filthly. We fed animals, watched pigs race, road a "train", walked a corn maze, bounced and went down slides.

Getting ready to go in to the pumpkin patch

Riding the "horses"

Lizzie's horse kept falling over

Kinsleah, Brande, Huck, Lizzie and Gracie

Waiting for the pig races

All aboard! Riding the train

I can't believe he can still carry both of them.

The Big Chair

Brande and Huck

Reading the clues to the corn maze

All weekend, we talked about the cotton field across the street from Wes' grandparents house. On Sunday, we took the girls picture in it. They were so excited!

Cotton Field!

Sassy pose

Cuties

Grace

Lizzie

Wes and the girls

Wes and I

Nana and the girls

Energetic Gracie

Sweet Lizzie

 On Monday, we ate breakfast with Nana and Wes' grandparents. After breakfast, it was time to pack up and head out. We had a really good time. The girls loved playing with all the cousins and seeing their great-grandparents. 

Sydney's Birthday!

This past weekend, we went to Oklahoma to celebrate Sydney's 11th birthday. I can't believe she is that old! Anyway, it was a busy weekend. We found out Thursday that Sydney was going to be in a parade. This was exciting to the girls for two reasons: first they were going to a parade and two Sydney was in the parade. They thought she was awesome.

Saturday morning, we ate breakfast and then went to watch Sydney in the parade. All the girls could talk about was the parade and Sydney. We met my sister there and took my grandma with us. My brother-in-law got us all some cinnamon rolls from the church that was making them. They were yummy. It was a fun parade and the girls loved chasing the candy.

Waiting for Sydney with Sammy

Sydney with the banner

After the parade and lunch, we headed to the skating rink for the party. This is the second time the girls went skating and they loved it. Wes loves to skate too and enjoyed showing the girls how. Little known fact about Wes; he is an awesome skater. He started ice skating when he was 5 and played hockey through college. To improve his form, his coach made him take figure skating lessons (yes, just like the dorky movie Cutting Edge). He is really graceful on ice. Sydney had a really fun party and all the kids had a blast! 

Lizzie with her walker

Gracie with her walker

Wes with the girls

Sammy

 

The birthday girl - Sydney

After the party, we went back to my mom's house for naps and then over to my sister's for pizza. My cousins Chris and Angie came over with Kassidy and baby Dawson. He is such a happy baby. We had a fun evening! Kassidy is sweet and gave the girls some of her old dance costumes. Both girls loved the dresses and Lizzie couldn't wait to put it on! She loved twirling in it.

Today, we had lunch with everyone again. It was a nice time with family. We remembered to get a pictures of all the kids together!

Baby Dawson with Wes

Kassidy and Gracie

Sydney, Crazy Sammy and Lizzie

All the big kids. Love this one of Sammy.

All the kiddos. Love them all. Such good kids.

I can't believe my baby niece is 11. She is acting so grown up. All these kids are getting so big! I can't believe it. We had a really good time celebrating with the family.