Happy Birthday Dad!

We all gathered last night at my parent's house to celebrate my Dad's birthday. I'm not sure if he'd want me sharing what number birthday this was for him;-) The only people missing at the party were Maw Maw, the reason my Dad is here in the first place, and Courtney and her boys, that would have made the celebration complete!

It was a fun time...The kids all swam, we ate yummy steak, and my Mom made a really good Texas sheet cake. I think I could have eaten the cake icing by the spoon full, but my hips wouldn't have appreciated that!

Hope it was a great Birthday Dad!

***and notice his longhorn orange shirt, Go Horns!!!

Egypt a no go!

Can you feel my sense of relief? I think moving overseas for a few years would have definitely been an adventure, and a great opportunity, but maybe not with 2 kids under the age of 4. I think Ryan wanted to go, but he had his reservations too.

I think the final decision maker was the other night when I was looking at furniture/wall decor for the girls' rooms online and I wanted Ryan to see it. He said, "Can we just hold off for a little while to get all that stuff?" I'm sure at the time he just wasn't sure what the plan was as far as a move to Egypt. I told him I wished that we could make a decision one way or the other so we could move on with our lives, and that I was ready to make our house more of a home. I think he realized then that my heart was set on staying, but I also didn't want him to have second thoughts later if he really wanted to go. He's fine with staying, he has a few other things in the works as far as work is concerned, so we feel good about it all the way around.

On to the next chapter in our lives!

Farewell to the games

I have to say it's a bittersweet thing for me to say goodbye to the 2008 Olympic games. Bitter because Ryan and I have really enjoyed watching the games and cheering on our USA Olympians, sweet because we can all now get to bed earlier each night! We'd get so hung up on watching the events that we wouldn't realize it was close to midnight, and we have 2 little girls that like to wake up just about the time the sun does. And I'll be glad to say goodbye to all the Chinese Olympians that seem to have swept most of the gold medals. Each time a Chinese diver stepped onto the platform to dive Ryan and I would let out a moan, well, Ryan probably said more than that;-) One night Addyson stayed up a bit later and we were watching the diving. One of the Chinese performed a pretty good dive and she says, "Yay!! GOOD JOB!" Uh no little one, wrong team to cheer for?! I guess the Summer Olympics have a special place in my heart. The day of the opening ceremonies of the 96' Olympics in Atlanta brought along a lot of pain to my parents, sisters and me. We lost our beloved dog Chesley that we grew up with, so that will always stand out. On a much sweeter note, the start of the 2000 Summer games in Sydney brought with it the start of a pretty neat new romance for me! Ryan and I started dating that Summer and I remember us watching a lot of the games over dinners out, with friends at his apartment, etc. The 2004 Athens games were just as special. I guess at the time I didn't think it was so special being on bed rest and just about to give birth to Addyson LeeAnn. ALL I did was lay in bed and watch the Olympics and about every hour getting a call from Ryan, "Are you in the bed? Remember, you aren't supposed to get out of the bed unless it's to go to the bathroom or to get something to eat, remember???" :) The Beijing games are neat because Miss De-lane is now part of our family. Plus, Ryan's younger brother Jordan is serving his mission in Taipei Taiwan right now, fairly close to where the games are being held... So long Beijing!

Operation!

I remember playing this game as a kid, and my sister Brandy always winning! I'd get so frustrated, and I look back on that now and laugh, I acted just the way Addyson does now when she looses a game, guess I can't get too upset with her about it?? :) Ryan and I both liked this game as kids so we decided to add it to our collection of games.

We played last night for Family Home Evening and it was really fun. At first Addyson got a little freaked out at the buzzing sound, but she quickly warmed up to it. We played a few rounds and Addyson won all of them! Well, Ryan helped her with the surgical procedures a little bit, ha ha

They've added a new "ailment", Brain Freeze. I thought it was funny, and it's actually the easiest one to remove...

I took a few pics because well, I love my new camera, and it was a fun night!

One of many trips to The Houston Zoo

We spend SO much time at the zoo, no kidding. If Ryan comes home from work early one afternoon, we head to the zoo. If everyone is awake early enough on a Saturday, we go to the zoo before it gets too hot. The only time we don't go is if it's a holiday because that means "free admission day", and it's no fun to fight tons and tons of people just to get a glance at a shark or something.

Addyson's favorite animals to see are the Red Crowned Crane(I think Zazu from The Lion King is one and that's why she's so fond of them?), the Komodo Dragon named Smaug, the lion named Jonathan the Great, and the giraffes. Today in the reptile house there was a zoo volunteer letting everyone pet this snake she was holding(eek!). Addyson was front and center trying to touch the thing. She finally got to pet it and she was thrilled.

Delaney doesn't get real excited when we go to the zoo because it's so hot, she doesn't seem to be too keen on hot weather. As long as I've got plenty of snacks for her and her sippy cup, she's just fine.

We really love going there, it's become such a big part of our little family. I'll be sad when the girls are grown and won't have the time for it anymore *sniff, sniff*

**After we got home, Addyson was really tired because she was up really late last night. She had a pretty bad crying spell and about an hour after it was over I asked her, "You were pretty upset, huh?" She said, "Yeah Mom, I was having some issues." I had to start laughing, guess she gets the "I'm having issues" phrase from me, I tend to say that to Ryan quite often. Kids are such little sponges!

Sweet little girls slumbering

I mean really, who doesn't love a sleeping child?! I've managed to get some really sweet pictures of my girls snoozing...They're like little angels when they're sleeping. I tend to forget all the crying fits and tantrums when I peek in on them just before I head off to bed;-)

These are a few of my favorites!

Addyson: Our budding photographer

She has this minor obsession with taking pictures with my new camera. I always tell her, "NO, it's not a toy!" But somehow she ends up sneaking it and I find these random shots after I upload everything on to the computer. Ryan and I laugh at the things she decides to take shots of. Who knows, maybe we have the next Annie Leibovitz or Ansel Adams on our hands, wouldn't that be nice?

Here are some of my favorite "Addyson shots"!

Friends!

Earlier today the girls and I met up with my Visiting Teachers from church and their kids for lunch. There were 6 kids all together, I'd say we were brave to do that;) Everyone was really well behaved so it was fun...Amy is about to have her baby on Sunday so this was our last hoorah before baby Jared arrives. Plus, if we decide to make the move to Egypt I want to spend as much time with my friends as I can. It was good visiting with Nora and Amy for a little while!

I took some pics of the kiddos playing in a water fountain just outside the restaurant. These pictures were taken just before Addyson fell off the stairs getting on to the play equipment. She's laying on the couch with her leg propped up as we speak. Something tells me she sprained her ankle.....Of course Ryan is out of town and he'd be able to tell if it was a sprain or not. Keeping my fingers crossed that it's not!

P.S.-Delaney seems fine after her fall on Sunday. She goes to her 9 month well visit tomorrow so we'll have Dr. Lentsch double check to see if everything is ok.

My littlest

This morning Delaney got me up at the usual 6:45, and after changing her diaper, and getting lots of tummy kisses, we went downstairs so I could make her a bottle. I usually sit her in her Bumbo seat while I'm making it, and it's in the middle of the kitchen table. I gave her one of her favorite toys to play with while she was sitting in it, and about a minute later I hear the toy fall on the floor. I glanced over at her, then continued warming her bottle. All of a sudden I hear her screaming, yep, it happened. She fell completely off the table and on to the floor, and she landed on her tummy. I have a mental picture of that I'll never forget. She was screaming and I was crying. And it was a scream I'd never heard from her before(and I've heard LOTS of her screaming, she was a colicky newborn). I picked her up and carried her to our room to get Ryan, but by then he was already out of the bed, half asleep wondering what was going on.

I felt so extremely guilty for what had happened. I knew she was too big for that Bumbo seat, but I never in a million years thought she'd fall out of it. And for the record, the Bumbo has a new home, in the back of the hall closet. I've loved using it, and it's a great thing to have, just not when your baby gets to be bigger than about 8 months.

I've still got a headache from all the crying I did this morning, but the little one seems just fine, thank the Good Lord. He was for sure watching over us this morning...

Details...

So we know a bit more about the Egypt job offer. Ryan got the official job offer and the package that goes a long with it via email this morning. It's something that really would be hard for us to turn down, but we still have some more praying to do about it. Right now even though neither one of us is actually saying out loud that yes, this is something we want to do, I think we both feel like it's something we want. It's a 3 year stay with many perks, hard to turn down. But, Ryan would be traveling a bunch and me being a "single Mom" in a foreign country doesn't sound like the most fun thing. Ryan says we could get a nanny/housekeeper so that would for sure be a plus.

Just my thoughts on the whole thing thus far. I guess now we just keep praying and waiting for what Heavenly Father sees is best for us.

Sick

So we go to Sea World last week to celebrate my birthday and I'm sure while we were there we all picked up some not so fun germs. Guess I got the worse one, strep throat. I went to the Dr. this morning because my throat was on fire and I couldn't breathe, "strep throat" the Dr. says. Oh fun. There is one good thing about being sick right now, Ryan is on vacation this week so I have an extra set of hands around here to help. He even sent me upstairs to "the sick room"(our guest room)to get in a nap this afternoon. God bless him! Not sure how I could have made it the rest of the day without that nap.
And he even took Addyson swimming so we could get her nice and worn out so she would sleep good tonight, let's hope that works!

Come on anti-biotic, work your magic on this throat!