Caroline's Birthday

July 17th started out like any other day: took Sawyer to school, ran home to do a couple things then head down town for a lunch.  But, right as I was getting on the high way Becky called.

She had texted earlier in the day that she was having a lot of contractions but she thought she had just over done it or something.  She said she would start timing then at 10:00 that morning if they didn't stop.  They never stopped.  Michael was on his way home and they were going to head to the hospital. Fortunately, Kristin was able to come hang out with the older girls until I could get there to help out.  I picked Sawyer up from school a little early and we went to Becky's house since they had decided to admit her!!  I hung out with the kids all afternoon while driving my parents and Michael crazy for updates.

We finally got the word to slowly head up to the hospital…so I loaded all the kids up (getting there slowly was not going to be a problem!)  Fortunately Becky & Michael had just bought this new car the night before so I was able to haul everyone to pick up dinner and meet Caroline!

After only an hour or two of toddler wrangling and entertaining…

Caroline Therese made her debut - so beautiful and so perfect!!

The girls thought she was just so cute!

I agree.

Ty stuck pretty close to my dad the whole time, trying to figure out how he was going to survive among all these girls!

But, being just shy of 4 months apart, these two will be best buds before too long!

I just love being an aunt, especially to little ones as sweet as this!!

Coast Trip 2014

Our trip this year was a little different than normal - we had a much smaller group than we usually do.  We missed everyone, but still had a great time.  And, it was Ty's first time to the beach.

Even though he will never remember this, I love being able to include my kids in this family tradition I love so much.  Sawyer was the only little kid there this year so she got TONS of attention and loved every second of it.

She basically spent the entire weekend asking anyone and everyone to build a castle with her.  She had quite a few takers.

Saturday morning Barry's friend Clayton brought his boat over to where we were staying to take Barry, my Dad & Jerry fishing.  Once they were done, they took Sawyer out for a ride.  I think she liked the boat, but wasn't too sure about the fish.  Although, now she is always telling me she is going to ask her dad to take her on a boat.

While Sawyer was busy building and digging all weekend, Ty spent his time totally relaxing.

The last night we were there, more cousins joined us…with lots of kids for Sawyer to play with - Emme, Miles & Zachary, who also happened to like to build castles!  She is obsessed with all things having to do with her cousins so as soon as we told her they were her cousins the shyness was gone and they were instant friends!

Ty & Chloe met for the first time too, Ty is about 3 weeks younger than her - so cute!!

Already looking forward to going back next year with the whole family next time!

Previous Years:

2011

2012

2013

Fourth of July 2014

This year for Fourth of July we had quite the patriotic day!  There was a neighborhood parade in Cinco Ranch that Jeff and Kristin invited us to come to, we thought the kids would love doing that!  And we loved decorating the wagon and dressing everyone patriotically.  Barry made over this garden wagon and it was big enough for the 4 big girls to ride in and he even rigged it to have an umbrella - he's so handy!  The babies enjoyed the ride from the stroller.  Aside from the crazy heat, it was a fun time.

The girls weren't in love with waiting for the parade to start…we tried to distract them by letting them get out and run around, but ultimately it was 4 bags of Cheeze-Its (thank goodness for the Boy Scout snack stand because we all came unprepared!) that made everyone happy.

Ms. Sassy Pants herself.  Barry went with the camo to support the troops.

And, Ty's red cheeks and blue eyes - super patriotic.

Once the parade finally got started it was a short little route around the pool…which made us all wonder why we were walking in the heat and not sitting at the pool.  Next year.

Somehow, we didn't win the decor contest.  They made us switch categories or we totally would have. But, ice cream for the win.

We spent the afternoon at the Jaworski's cooking burgers and watching the hot dog eating contest - doesn't get more American than that.  After a while, we headed over to our friends' firework stand where Sawyer promptly took over.

We didn't go to watch fireworks party because of the huge storm that blew in, and partly because Sawyer was terrified of the thought.  So, we sat on the floor in out living room and watched the ones we could see over our back fence, which were so "sparkly and beau-ful."

God Bless America.