Quiet time??

So, Craig and I decided to try quiet time with Grace instead of the striaght-up nap that she has been taking every afternoon. She wakes us up at the crack of dawn (5:00ish) and doesn't go back to sleep, so we thought that maybe this way she could still have a little down time while Abby takes her afternoon nap, but be more tired at night. Anyway, today was the first try. I explained to her that if she just played quietly in her room for one hour she wouldn't have to take a nap today which she thought was great. She was in there playing tea party really quietly and when I went to check on her a little later, this is how I found her....


I guess she's not quite ready to go a whole day without a nap yet.....

Our Storm

Yesterday we had the craziest downpour! The morning was sunny and dry, and then around 4:00 we had the LOUDEST thunder I've heard in a long time and within 1/2 hour to an hour we had about 3 inches of rain in our backyard that was topped off with tons of hail. It was even hard for the girls and I to watch it through the windows for a little while. It left our backyard pretty soaked....and when Grace saw the hail she asked for her coat so she could go build a snowman... :)

My social butterfly

Grace is, in one word, SOCIAL. She loves playing with friends and throws the biggest fits on days that she has to stay inside with Mom for whatever reason. Lately we have even had some of the neighborhood girls coming over (who are around 6-7-8) to ask to play with Gracie. Craig and I sit outside to supervise when she plays with these girls, but to Gracie, age is never an issue. A friend is a friend. (I wish I made friends so easy). This is a picture of her playing with her little church friend Megan....What is about little girls and dressing up??

Lizard friends

So, I'm not sure why, but recently we have had tons of little lizards trying to come into our house. Only the really tiny ones sneak in, but still....I'm not a big fan (although such small ones are extremely cute!!). This particular one we found while Daddy was at work, so the girls and I trapped it until Daddy came home. Gracie enjoyed watching the poor thing run from side to side until Daddy put it outside.

My sister the photographer

While we were home, we had my sister take some pictures of our family for us--She has a studio set up in her house and has a real eye for pictures. Here a few of the many AWESOME pictures she took for us. Thanks Krista!

Fun in the Texas Sun

We got to go swimming in the good old NWC pool. My girls had a blast with their little aunts! I love seeing Abby on two feet--so cute!



We went to the Inflatable wonderland with my family too. It's a kids heaven! So many fun bouncy toys--Abby kept trying to run away too.



My parents took us to this awesome place called the Natural Bridge Caverns wildlife ranch. You drive really slow and feed animals as they come right up to your car! Our kiddies were a little wary at first, but loved it in the end! So cool!



We went to Sea World with my family too. My girls actually sat through and enjoyed watching the Shamu show. It is AMAZING what those trainers get those animals to do!



Grace rode her first roller coaster and LOVED it. She rode it a total of 3 times and grinned her way through them all. Craig even got her to hold her hands up for the last ride! Thanks Mom and Dad for such a fun week! We miss you!

July 4th

We enjoyed a great 4th of July 2007. Craig's brother Jeff came down from P-town to hang out with us and Craig grilled up some mean carne asada and hot dogs that we shared with some friends. We also had our first successful (and very large) batch of homemade root beer turn out GREAT! That morning (7:30 a.m.) we went to our ward's picnic breakfast where Grace got to be in the bike parade. They ended things up by giving all the kids HUGE pixie sticks to ensure a nap-less holiday. :) Overall, it was a relaxing and great day and we have enjoyed having Daddy home and Uncle Jeff to play with!