"I wanna go under!"

"But I wanna go under!" is what I heard from Cooper when I asked him to put his life jacket on when we went swimming at Mimi's. Up until recently he has had no problem zipping up the jacket and heading straight for the diving board. For some reason, he wants nothing to do with it anymore. He still wants to jump off the board but with no jacket. He is learning how to swim better now that we've put the jacket off to the side but he still likes to hold on to one of us in the pool. His new favorite thing is going under to get the rings. He did so good the first time! I told him to hold his nose and we counted to 3 and went under to retrieve the rings. He loves putting his goggles on too and going under water to talk. He usually just says "hi" or "I love you". It's the sweetest and cutest thing. We love summer and can't believe August is only 2 days away! We better get as much swimming in as we can!!





Cooper and Dada after a successful dive for rings. Cooper's face & hair cracks me up!







A sample of the many faces this boy can make. He is full of personality!





My sweet baby girl trying out a new bow that she got as a gift from a cousin.

Happy Birthday Baby Girl!

My sweet baby girl is now one year old! I know people say all the time how fast time goes by but I seriously cannot believe how fast the time has gone. Maybe it's because I have two now and I'm so busy with them that I don't slow down enough to appreciate every single minute. Either way, what a year this has been since Cate has joined our family! We knew from the beginning that we had a good eater and a good sleeper. Her first word was banana! Forget momma...bring on the bananas!! Cate will wake up around 8am and then want a nap around 11am. She'll sleep for at least two hours and then will sometimes want another little cat nap around 4pm. By the time 7:30pm rolls around...she's begging to be in her bed! What a personality this little girl has too! When she doesn't get her way, she will lay her head on the floor ever so softly and just "cry". She has to look up pretty quickly to make sure she has an audience. She loves her bubba but I think she likes to pick on him a little more than she should at this age. Cate loves to dance, loves to sing, loves to rock her babies or stuffed animal kitty cat and usually loves to be the center of attention. We love our baby girl so much and look forward to learning more about her every day!!


Her DELICIOUS cake from Tempt! Thanks Jamie!!!



Cate sportin' her new shades from Uncle Nathan & Aunt Linz.


She got these books from Aunt Val and wouldn't put them down!


Daniel pointed out that Cate and I are both showing off her gifts upside down. Like mother, like daughter!


Getting ready to blow out her first candle! She loved everyone singing to her.


Digging in! She didn't go crazy like we thought but she loved her banana cake!



Cooper went crazy over the cake!


She didn't want her party to be over...

My Beach Babes

There is nothing like a spur of the moment vacation! At least this time anyway. We had been out of town the weekend before for a wedding but when we were asked if we wanted to go to my uncles beach house in Galveston, we didn't give it a second thought!! We knew the kids would have a blast...Cooper had been once when he was about 18 months but Cate had never been before. They had so much fun!! Cooper loved jumping over the waves and of course playing in the dirt (see pics below). Cate loved playing in the sand and crawling to the edge of the water. We also went to the aquarium in Galveston and had so much fun. Our little baby girl just loves animals so we thought she would enjoy the sea animals too. She didn't just enjoy them, she thought they were the most fascinating things in the world!! I thought she was going to pass out from breathing so hard and so fast when she saw the fish or penguins or anything that moved in the water. It was so cute to hear her go "OH WOOOOWWW!" anytime we walked to a new exhibit. We had so much fun on our spur of the moment mini-vacation!! We are so blessed to have amazing family. I don't know what I would do without them!




Before:



After:





Way After:









This is baby girl after her nap. She always makes this face. It's usually followed by "Look!"

Cate LOVING the aquarium!

Momma and her Rock Star