Happy Fall Y'all!!!

I can't believe I've taken so long to update my blog...especially because I loooove this time of year. I enjoy the weather, fall colors, falling leaves from trees, being able to take the girls outside without it being soooo hot, decorating with pumkins, crazy squash, bales of hay, spider webs & spiders, Halloween costumes for the girls, and knowing that Thanksgiving, Lily's Birthday & Christmas celebrations are just around the corner.
The girls and I just got back from Oklahoma. We had a fun time. It seemed as if we didn't stop for one minute. We were constantly going and the girls had sooooo much fun playing all of their cousins. Although we've made some really fabulous buddies here in Texas, it's very special & memorable to watch my girls play with all of their MANY cousins in Oklahoma. We were there for a week, but it still wasn't enough time to visit everyone I wanted to see. I made a few drop-in visits. Which I feel is just not fair to those family and friends I dropped in to see, but really wanted to hang out or have lunch with.
So, I remember making this same complaint last year. I guess to resolve this issue I need to visit my home town more often than once a year or stay a month next October!
Before the girls & I went to Oklahoma we visited a couple of Fun Fall places. A Pumpkin Patch not far from our house and the Dallas Arboretum, which I loooovvvveee!
Above are a few of my favorite pics from those places!
Happy Fall Y'all!!!
(i totally stole that saying from one of my facebook friends! it was too cute so i had to use it!)

SCCHHHOOOOLLLLL!!!

I'm about two weeks late in posting this, but Miss Lily started Pre-School! She attends school twice a week from 9am to 2pm. On the first day, I walked Lily to her "ladybug" classroom where all of the kids were making pretend pizza with Play-Do. She sat right down and joined in. I wanted to take pictures so bad, but I was afraid if I lingered too long she might decide, "something is going on and I'm not staying here!" So I took only a couple of pics and walked out. At this point I'm thinking, "wow, I can't believe this was that easy!" During school Lily had a very good time. She gets a mini-report card everyday giving me details of how her day went. On the first day she was chatty, friendly, busy, cooperative, curious, happy &.....teary! Okay, so the first 6 descriptive words are fabulous, but the last word is, well.... SAD. So this is what happened... Nap time rolled around and instead of napping Lily took the princess clip out of her hair and started playing with it. One of her teachers took it away and this BROKE Lily's heart. She immediately started crying and wanting her mommy! The director came in to hold & comfort Lily and, finally, she calmed down then fell asleep. After nap time, the kids play for a bit until it's parent pick up time. When I arrived to pick up Lily she was all smiles. That evening before bed I asked Lily if she had fun at school and she said, "yes!" I asked her her favorite part about school and she said, "apple juice!" Even though she had a tough go of it at nap time I still feel she enjoyed herself very much :)
So the second day came, this is when the husband & I thought Lily would oppose. Lily, Morgan & I pull into the parking lot of the school and Lily said, "No, Momma!"
I said, "Lily this is your school, remember? I packed your lunch and you have a juice box?!" She said, "Oh yea, okay, Mommy"
Morgan & I walked Lily to her classroom, she walked in and over to the pizza making play-do table & started playing. I just stood there for a few seconds dumbfounded. I totally expected her to throw a fit because, at this point, she now knows I'm leaving her all day. So she's totally fine with school!
"Okay, wow, it's time to go" I say to myself. Miss Lily is growing up!



Editor's note: I just now re-read this post...I totally miss-spelled several words...I guess I'm the one that needs to go back to school!
Or learn to use my "spell check"!!!

WP,CO

Since my last post we've enjoyed many happenings. We went on a long weekend getaway to Winter Park for Labor Day. We had some landscaping done since the last time we were there in July, so we wanted to go back and view the finished product. We are thrilled with our new back yard. Its totally different. What used to be an almost minor landslide is now an awesome rock/boulder retaining wall with Aspen trees and a variety of other newly planted trees & bushes. We, again, enjoyed ourselves very much. I totally ruined the nutrition plan I had been following, but eating bad is what you do on vacation, right? The husband & I loved having coffee outside before the girls woke up, taking the girls on our daily walk around the neighborhood, swimming at the rec center, traveling to Grand Lake & listening to live music while having a picnic & shopping the cute stores along the boardwalk. The girls got matching Moccasins to represent their American Indian heritage. The weather was perfect. I was expecting it to be a little bit cooler than it was so with the warmer temps and no humidity I was in heaven. One morning, though, we woke up and it was verrrry chillllly...19 degrees, ouch! It warmed up quickly once the sun came out. Thank goodness!
We have such a nice time in WP. No schedules, no errands, no rush just good ole family time. Okay, so I'm counting down the days till we return.
I almost forgot.... We had a visitor every night, Mr. Fox. The last night Frank & I were feasting on pizza out on the back deck when all of a sudden Mr.Fox jumped up to join us! It scared me...I heard the "landing thump" noise and my first thought was BEAR! I let out a little scream then realized it was Mr. Fox so I relaxed a little bit. I guess he sniffed out of pizza and wanted a piece of his own!
I, also, have to thank Frank's parents for baby sitting for a couple of hours one day. Frank and I put the girls down for a nap then went to Devil's Thumb Ranch (were he proposed!) for a spa afternoon. We both enjoyed wonderful massages then relaxed in steam rooms. Thanks Nana & Papa for our afternoon away!

a new routine

Miss Lily and I have started a new routine. She goes to bed a little bit later than Morgan so I read to Lily separately from her sister. Usually, Lily and I sit in the living room and read together on the couch. It never fails she gets distracted by whatever her daddy is watching on TV. A few nights ago a new idea popped in my brain. I hesitated about it at first because I thought Lily would want more than what she was about to experience, but I decided to try it anyway. My idea was for Lily and I to cuddle up in my bed for our story time. This is when I thought she might want to stay in my bed, which she never does, but with Lily sometimes I give her an inch and she takes a mile!
So I tried it anyway. I said, "Lily, lets go read in mommy's bed"
Lily: "Okay, Mommy, put on your jammies"
Me: "okay Lily"
I put on my jammies, we crawled into my bed and cuddled while reading. She loved it! The same event has happened every night since then and I love it! When we finish reading I take her to her bed and her daddy comes in to say prayers.
It's a perfect ending to the day!!!

Miss Morgan

My past few posts have been about Lily so it's time for a post about Miss Morgan. Now days Morgan is getting through the house via walking while holding on to everything...Couches, chairs, walls, cabinets, tables, anything she can grab a hold of, she uses it to maneuver around. She has a very sweet disposition, cute as a button, with hair hanging in her eyes, that I try to keep in a "pebbles" style, until she pulls out her hair band. She is very good about playing by herself, however, she is, also, very interested in what Lily is doing. Many, many times during the day I have to mediate the "toy snatching" that goes on between the two. They both steal from each other, but Lily is in her "mine" stage, still, and it never fails Morgan will be playing with a toy, minding her own business, when Lily comes over and steals it out of her hands. Poor Morgan will scream as if she is saying, "No, sissy, don't, why did you do that???" Sometimes, though, Morgan has such a death grip on the toy, Lily is unsuccessful in the stealing of the toy. I chuckle inside because then Lily leaves her be when she realizes Morgan is not "giving in" to her.
As I stated before Morgan has a sweet disposition. She will come up to Lily or I while we are playing and lay her head on us. She loves to place her forehead on my forehead so we can see directly into each other's eyes. As a baby, she did this when she started to get sleepy, now she does it when she knows someone is going to give her kisses.
She blows kisses & waves at strangers, she returns my smiles when I look at her through the rear view mirror, she loves chocolate milk and eats a ton of fruit. Morgan says a few words now... hi, bye, mommy, lily (yeye), puppy, dadda, ball, belly (baye). She loves to dance and will do it anywhere, anytime! (like her momma!)
She lets out a little scream & giant smile when she hears her daddy unlock the front door and walk down the hallway.
She is an absolute doll & I can't wait to watch her grow up. It will happen too fast I know.

with the good comes the bad

Last week ,Frank and I had to rush Lily to the emergency room. She had an abscess on her bottom which needed to be drained. Let me back up... last Tuesday night I took Lily to the Acute Kids Care for an abscess on her bottom. The Pediatric Doctor, also named "Lily", lanced the abscess (which was horribly painful for my Lily) and wrote a prescription for an antibiotic. We came home with Lily running a 102 temp. The next day we followed up with our Pediatrician. She drained it some more and told us to continue draining, warm compresses, and warm sudsy baths, but if Lily continued to run a fever bring her back the next day. Guess what? Lily was still running a fever and the infection was spreading. Every time I drained the abscess a ton of infection came out and the whole process was traumatizing for Lily and I both. So we went back to our Doctor and she sent us straight to Dallas Children's Hospital. We checked in to the ER and waited for the Pediatric Surgeon to see us. I couldn't feed Lily anything to drink or eat because there was a possibility she was going to have surgery later in the evening. During the waiting time in the ER we had three different diagnosis, plans/opinions. Finally, when we saw our Pediatric Surgeon he said, "Surgery and IV antibiotics, you should go home in a couple of days"
Wow!!! Here we are in the ER, Frank and I trying to wrap our heads around our baby, "going to sleep"? We just couldn't believe it.
The nurses came in to install Lily's IV. TRAUMATIC!!! I remind you Lily has nothing to eat or drink. She was dehydrated and the nurses took three tries before getting it right. So here is our sweet baby lying on the bed, hands & body wrapped in a tight blanket so she can't move around, all the while screaming because she is in pain and flat pissed. Again....TRAUMATIC!!!
Surgery went perfectly fine. Literally it took 5 minutes. The recovery process was longer than the surgery. When Lily woke up she asked for her shoes and juice. We gladly accommodated her! Our nurse brought in a DVD player with Thomas the Train DVDs and in no time at all Lily was up dancing to the theme music. Frank and I were very relieved! Lily and I were escorted to our room and were pretty much in quarantine.
Aunt Lisa was so nice to bring us dinner on Thursday & Friday night and Frank spent most of the Saturday with us at the hospital. Miss Morgan was at home being taken care of by Frank's mom and my mom which came in from OK to help out. I knew Morgan was in great hands so that was one thing for me NOT to worry about.
Lily had a dose of IV antibiotic every 6 hours and Tylenol & Motrin when needed. I haven't mentioned during surgery Lily was given an incision with two draining tubes coming out of her bottom. The dirty diaper thing was very difficult to deal with and I will spare you any details.
We spent Thursday, Friday, Saturday night in the hospital. I will always remember room 670, yellow & blue painted walls, with a strange, upside down, painted hot air balloon on one of the ceiling tiles. Weird? The nurses were very sweet to Lily. They brought her stickers, bubbles, and a little stuffed frog. The "child life" services, also, brought Lily toys, bubbles, DVDs, stickers, crayons & coloring books to occupy her time. What a relief, because remember we came to the ER with nothing but the clothes on our back and a diaper bag.
On Sunday, the Surgeon came in, took Lily's drainage tubes out, gave me directions for future cleaning of the wound, and gave us our walking papers!!!
We came home to tell Grandma Suzy, "Thank you, I love you, and Bye, bye!"
Then later that evening Frank's family came over for dinner. I know it sounds crazy having people over just after getting home from the hospital, but the company took our mind off of all the hospital stuff. We enjoyed steak, egg plant rattitoue (sp?), salad, and Sangria.
As of today you would never know Lily had been in the hospital for 4 days. Except for her name bracelet which is on her ankle. She will not let me get close to it to cut it off. It's like it's her battle scar. I might have to sneak in her room and cut it off if she doesn't give in shortly! But other than that you would never guess she was in the hospital. She is back to being my sweet, spicy, caring, independent, curious, loving, active, smart little girl!

Lily's first bike ride!

Lily diving for her rocket

Miss Lily graduated swimming lessons as a Level 1 Red Cross Swimmer. She learned how to blow bubbles, hold her breath underwater, glide underwater, swim with "big" arms underwater, jump off the step and swim to me underwater, and finally fetch a rocket at the bottom of the pool. I'm not talking 6ft or anything, but she can go down to about 3ft underwater to grab her rocket. She is totally a little fish. I have to be extra careful now, though, because she will jump off the step into the water no matter if anyone is there waiting for her. Scary, huh? Needless to say she loves swimming, I'm thrilled, but we keep a careful eye on her while near a pool.
The video is of Lily going underwater to grab her rocket.

WP, CO

Over July Fourth we've made a tradition to be in Winter Park, Colorado. This place is very special to our family....
The husband & I met there, he proposed to me there, and Morgan was conceived there!
While we were there the weather was perfect. No humidity, about 70ish during the day, and evenings 50ish, with a couple of nights dipping into the 40's. During the day we did some walking and Lily started riding her first bike! When we first arrived Lily saw all the bicylists in town and she just had to have one. We bought her a pink Huffy bike, with a Barbie helmet, knee & elbow pads. The evening times were filled with live music in the parks. Tons of families piled in the parks, kids running around, dancing, & playing, while their parents chatted, sipping on their favorite beverage. Just let me say, "I was not ready to come home. I have not had enough of Colorado this summer, and I want to go back!!!!!" But in the same breath, we missed our family and friends. If I could take my family & friends with me to Winter Park, I would be a happy camper!

Celebrating my Birthday

My mother and aunt came in town to sit for the sweet baby girls so the husband and I could have a whole 24 hours alone. Spending it however we wanted to. We were kid-free with no decisions to be made, like.... what's for lunch?, what's for snack?, what's for dinner, what time is nap?, when did I change her diaper last?, is it too hot to go outside?, should I try & teach Lily a color today?, someone is crying, what happened?, did Lily steal the toy away from Morgan or was it the other way around?, have I yelled too much today?, did I tell the girls I love them today?, did I hug & kiss them enough today?, did Morgan drink too much chocolate milk today?, is Morgan teething?
See... it's exhausting at times!!! Needless to say the 24 hr, kid-free, birthday celebration was much needed!!!
We left the house at noon on Saturday and returned the next day at noon. We went to the club, I layed by the pool and the husband played 18 holes of golf. The day was soooo hot. I stayed cool by taking a dip in the pool, but those poor golfers. I don't know how they do it. The husband said about every third hole was a huge cooler containing ice towels. He said this was the only thing that saved him from having heat stroke. He literally took the towel straight from the ice and placed it on his head and neck. Crazy what these golfers endure for the game!
After our day at the club, we went to downtown McKinney and stayed at The Grand Hotel. After a nice shower we had drinks in the bar at Rick's Chop House and stayed there for a fabulous dinner. The Grand Hotel is just next to Rick's so we didn't have far to go to get into bed. Thank goodness, we were exhausted.
The next morning we went to Starbuck's, sipped on coffee while reading the Dallas Morning News, and actually had an adult conversation. It's the small things we take for granted once babies are in the family.
But of course, while at Starbuck's, my mind kept thinking about our sweet baby girls. Wondering what they were doing, if they slept all night for Grandma Suzy, what they had for dinner, what they had for breakfast, and how Lily did with potty training. (That is a whole other blog post waiting to happen!)
The only pic I took of that weekend. A faaaaaabulous bottle of wine!

So much on my mind...

I don't know where to start!
I have so many thoughts cruising around in my head. I have so much to post. You should be prepared to sit and read for a bit.
Actually, I will have to break it down into a couple of days worth of blogging so keep in touch :)

Pease Daddy, Bubble baff?!?!

When Frank does "bath time" it is the best!
After the girls eat dinner and if Frank is not outside on the tractor he likes to do "bath time". He tries to get away with giving the girls a shower, but he quickly figures out Lily will not stand for it. She looooves her "bubble baff"
Frank will say, "Come on girls it's shower time."
Lily replies, "No daddy, bubble baff!" We are trying to teach her manners, so Frank says, "What's the magic word?" Lily will say, "Pease Daddy, bubble baff?!" And gives him a big hug!
Of course he can't say, "No" :)
Morgan knows exactly what's going on and she zooms into our bathroom, via crawling, with a smile on her face and squealing once she gets there.
While the girls are taking their "bubble baff" I get to do about 15 minutes of chores before helping Frank get the girls out of their bath and starting their bed time routine.
These last minute chores could be starting a load of laundry, putting away laundry, cleaning up from the girl's dinner, filling the girl's humidifiers with water and getting their bedrooms ready for bedtime, picking up toys, sweeping, making a phone call, getting our diaper bag ready for the next day, laying in the closet stretching my tired body (my favorite 15 minute alone time!), or just sitting, watching the girls smile, laugh, and enjoy their special "bubble baff" time with daddy.

"Good Luck"

In my husband's office stands a Buddha. Lily has not paid any attention to it until recently. She goes up to Buddha and names all of his body parts. I thought this would be a perfect time to add a little "good luck" to Miss Lily.
I tell her, "Lily, rub Buddha's belly for good luck!"
She now has some good luck coming her way!
(Maybe a shake or some chicky-frenchfries are in her near future!)

and one day it all changes

I feel it is very important to show affection. Hugs, kisses, a pat, or something as simple as swiping away a tendrel of hair from one of my girls' faces are all so critical. Everyday I make a special time to tickle, kiss, and hug every inch of their body. When the girls were tiny babies I massaged them with lavender baby lotion after every bath. The believe touch is vital for bonding, the massage is awesome for development, and the lavender smell is so relaxing for bedtime. Lily still loves for me to massage her feet and slowly tickle her back...it will stop her in her tracks and immediately relaxes her to an almost trance like state.
I am also the type of mom who notices small details. Especially when it pertains to my girls. I have memorized every part of their body, from their brown spots, stork bites, toes, fingers, belly buttons to their bottoms. I remember their chubby feet and grummy little fingers and palms. Then one day it all changes and their feet aren't as chubby as they used to be and the creases in their palms aren't filled with goo.
Then sweet baby Lily is putting on her own sandals with the strap in between the wrong toes!!! :)