Rayna Alice turns Two!!

Wow! We just got back from a jam packed and full of fun weekend! Our baby girl turned two and I still can't believe it. We arrived in Houston Friday night after a long, rainy, and traffic filled trip. But we made it and were ready to start our adventures. Friday night Stephen, Shelley, Chris, and I all went to see Anderson in Les Miserables. Mimi and Pops made it possible by staying in the hotel with the girls and entertaining until 11:00pm!

Mimi and Pops said Rayna loved the Jack-in-the-box. They said she must have closed it and wound it at least 100 times. She thought it was so funny when Jack popped out of his box. It must be a special grandparent talent to be able to turn a hotel room into an action packed fun filled adventure but they did it with flying colors!

Here we are ready for our big night! We had an amazing time. We had appetizers before the show at the restaurant in the theatre. It was delicious and so much fun to be out at night with each other and two of our favorite people, Chris and Shelley. Anderson was amazing in the show. We laughed and cried and loved every minute of it. My only problem was not telling everyone I saw that my brother was Marius. I was so proud!

The next morning we all met at a Tex-Mex restaurant for brunch and Rayna's second birthday party! Rayna has been eating Tex-Mex since she was a fetus so it was a great way to celebrate her birthday. Here she is having a great time eating chips and dip, one of her favorites, and wearing all of the bracelets Stella got her for her birthday!

We were so busy, and ran out of room on the camera, so we didn't have time to get a lot of group shots. But here we all are (and don't forget our amazing camera man ;) watching Rayna open her birthday presents.

Of course, Stella was happy to help open presents. It is hard for a three year old to hand over the spotlight for the day but I think Stella did a good job. Although, she did make sure to confirm that her day would come too:)!

Rayna loved all of her presents. It is amazing how many she got for not having a traditional birthday party. Here she is with a mouse puppet from Aunt Shelley. Aunt Melissa and Janan came with a truck full of gifts from them and from Granny and Papas. But by the time we got those our camera was all full! She loved those too.

Here she is opening gifts. She had a system down. She would say, "Pull, pull, pull." as she opened all of her packages.

Here we are singing happy birthday to our sweet girl.

She got very serious during the birthday song. It was like she knew she had a job to do. Stephen got this picture right before it was time for her to blow out the candles. It looks like she is making a sad face but she was just getting ready for her big performance.

She took her job very seriously and got those candles blown out!

As much as you want to see your children grow up and learn new things and experience all of the wonderful things life has to offer it is bitter sweet. I just wanted to soak her up that day and remember her soft baby skin and sweet baby voice. It would be okay if you knew later you could experience it all again but you can't. She is changing every day and growing into the beautiful person she will be. I'm just so thankful I get to witness it all. I really couldn't love you more my Rayna-roo. Words can't describe the joy you bring to my life.

After brunch we headed to the Houston zoo. This is about as good as the family portraits can get at this moment in our life. It was a beautiful day and the Houston zoo was great!

Aunt Melissa, Janan, Aunt Chris, and Aunt Shelley all came with us. The girls had a great time with such an attentive and supportive audience:)

Mimi took Stella on the carousel. This is always a favorite and I just love this picture! Stella had such a great weekend too. She loved being with people that love her so much. I wish we had a picture of every moment so we could try and hold on to it all. But even pictures can't capture it all. Our hearts are a little sad but so full of love. Weekends like this are what life is all about. Watching my brother fulfill his dreams and show his amazing talents, watching my parents love our girls and us with all their hearts, being with family and friends in gorgeous weather, and celebrating another year of life with my precious girls. It just doesn't get better than that. Thank you God for showing us your love through each other. We are blessed beyond measure. Thank you everyone for loving us from near and far. We love you all so much!

The Case of the Missing Socks

Lately I have noticed that the girls didn't have very many socks. Yesterday at the mall I almost got a pack but didn't like any of the ones they had. Now I'm so glad I didn't buy any. When Rayna woke up from her nap she only had one sock on. I started to look around for the other one. I looked behind her crib and look what I found! I pulled the crib out and not only found the missing sock but NINE other pairs. Can you please tell me how my daughter went to bed nine times with socks on and woke up without them and I didn't notice ?! I started laughing and asking Rayna about it and she was excited with me saying, "Socks behind the crib!" Like yeah isn't that great! :) It gave me a good laugh and nine pair of socks!

Saturday at the Dallas Zoo

This weekend we got to bring Stephen to see the Dallas zoo. We had such a great time showing him all around. The zoo has a great Children's zoo. Here they are playing in the water playground. They have a cute petting zoo with horses, pigs, and bunnies. Both of the girls loved petting the bunny!

There are lots of statues of animals all around the zoo. Some are small like this lamb and some are several stories high. The girls love the statues almost as much as the animals. I think it is because they could touch them and pretend they were real.

We brought a picnic lunch and sat at the picnic tables. Here is Rayna watching all of the birds in the trees above us.

It was nice to have Stella there to pull all of our stuff ;) She is really turning into such a big girl. I have always heard people talk about preschool age kids asking endless questions. Stella has really started to do that. Yesterday she must have asked me 100 questions. I'm sure it wears you out after a while but right now it is amazing to see her mind growing right before our eyes. But it did surprise me that a 3 year old can ask tricky questions. Sometimes I try to explain and she still doesn't understand so I just tell her, "Well, maybe Daddy can explain it better when he gets home." And she always agrees that that is a good idea.

Miss. Stella loved wearing my sunglasses and keeping track of the map. Here she is telling us what our next stop should be!

Rayna wasn't really in a posed picture mood that day so we were pulling out all the stops to keep her happy trying to get a good picture. Here I was telling them to pretend that Daddy had a butterfly on his head while I touched his head. I love how with kids, even when they know you are just pretending, they have a look in their eyes like maybe you aren't. Everything is potentially magical.

We brought the wagon with us, instead of the stroller, and the girls loved it. It was a beautiful day. I'm so excited that spring is here!

Rayna's Birthday Bike

Gran and DD sent Rayna a new pink tricycle for her birthday! She was so excited when we opened the box and she saw what was inside.

Here she is dancing around the room so excited while Stephen put together her new bike.

Here she is ready to roll! She is still working on pushing the pedals but she had so much fun pressing the buttons on the front that light up and play music.

Of course, Stella had to get in on the fun. She did really well learning to push the petals. Our driveway is a little bit downhill so she loved riding down with Dad's help. Here she is right after making it down the driveway. Thanks Gran and DD!!

Sunbeams

When Mimi came to Dallas she brought a book with "Jesus wants Me for a Sunbeam" as the words of the book. The girls loved it and have been singing it ever since.
They were singing in Stella's room so I had to grab the camera so we could share.




Enjoy!

My 29th Birthday!

Here the girls are working hard to open my birthday gifts for me. It is so nice to have such great helpers!

Stephen got me some gourmet cupcakes from Central Market. They were so delicious and Stella loved the rose on top of this one. She talked about it all day!

After we ate Stephen helped clean the crumbs off of the girls. Leave it to a dad to think of using the dust buster. He could probably market this a "Dad's Little baby cleaner -uper!" As you can see the girls thought it was so hilarious I had to get the camera.

Mimi comes to Dallas!

Mimi came to visit us this week. It really goes without saying that we all had a wonderful time! I think the girls' very favorite part was having Mimi read them lots and lots of books!

But we did go on some adventures too. Here is a little recap.

Our first stop was lunch at the American Girl's Bistro. This is something I have been wanting to do with the girls for a long time. You get to bring your baby doll and they have high chairs for the dolls and little menus.

Here is Stella telling Stephen all about what we were up too. You can see her baby Sadie looking over the menu.

Rayna loved that her baby was in a high chair next to her. She kept telling us "baby high-chair!"

Here she is giving her doll a bite of her cookie. Check out that tongue!

Later Mimi and Stella made cookies. Mimi brought lots of things that start with the letter "D". She has been doing that for a while now. Usually she will send them a package full of little toys and things with a certain letter. But this time she got to deliver it in person. Here they are making Dinosaur and Duck cookies.

Here are Mimi and Stella doing the Hokey-Pokey. The girls had fun dancing and playing the song over and over again.

While I was upstairs Mimi and the girls set up this beautiful tea party place setting for my birthday party.

We had to make a stop at the grocery store and I had my camera in my purse. I was excited to get a picture of the girls with these little shopping carts that they love. The store was pretty empty so it was a great time to "take over" with the girls and their carts.

On Tuesday we went to the Arboretum for the first time. It was a rainy day but we still had a great time. The tulips and lots of other flowers were all blooming and were just beautiful.

They also had lots of little story book themed playhouses or structures. We had a great time reading about the stories and going into each one.

These Toad fountains were really fun. The girls loved that they could go under the water and not get wet!

Here the girls are helping Mimi make a birthday cake for me.

I love how seriously they took it. But tasting everything was the most important part, of course!

Stella helping me blow out the candle!

On Wednesday we went to the Dallas Children's museum. The girls had a great time showing Mimi all of the fun things to do there. Here they are gathering eggs from the chickens. I didn't get many pictures here because they were running too fast from one thing to the next. They all came out blurry. And the pictures weren't nearly as good in general at all of our events with Mimi because our professional photographer (aka Stephen) was at work!

We loved having Mimi with us so much. We had hardly pulled away from the airport and Stella said, "I miss Mimi already!"

We do miss her already but we are so glad she came!

Thanks for being so good to us. We love you Mimi!

Her Royal Highness Big Sister

Stella has really started to enjoy the fact that Rayna is now old enough to run errands for her! Oh, do I remember those wonderful days with my own little brothers. Here was the latest task she had her sister busy with. She was sitting on the potty and as she would finish her stack of books she would call out, "Sister, more books please!" Rayna would hear her and say, "Okay, Stella." And gather up a few more books and bring them in. For now they both think it is fun. We'll see how long it lasts.