Addie’s first french braid

Addie is, for the most part, a little tomboy.  She loves trains, cars and planes.  She’s never found  bug she wouldn’t pick up.  And if you let her pick out her own clothes, she would wear her overalls everyday.  However, there is a bit of girly girl in her too.  She loves shoes, bracelets, and pretty bows for her hair.  She is also pretty good about sitting still and letting me fix her hair.  The other day, we tried our hand at her first french braid.  I have more practicing to do, but she seemed to like it anyway.

Fourth of July Festivities

Blake had a long weekend off from work over the Fourth of July weekend, so we were able to enjoy lots of time together as a family and made some fun memories with friends. 

We started the weekend off with the annual parade.  Since we live in an area of San Antonio that is basically made up of a million tiny little communities, the parade mostly consisted of about a million fire trucks, police cars and city vehicles from all the surrounding communities.  The kids didn’t seem to mind though.  What is better than a parade of nothing but fire trucks with a few tractors thrown in the mix?  Here are some of the highlights.

Getting ready for the parade to start.

Half motorcycle/Half VW Beatle - Who wouldn’t drive that?

The first fire truck.

The Sweetheart Float.

Tractor float complete with fresh crops for decorations.

The Shriners and their crazy little cars.

Enjoying the parade!

More fire trucks.

Some guy on a crazy bike.  Notice the fire truck in the background.

The double decker bus.

And the grand finale!

We also enjoyed some of the family events sponsored  by our new YMCA in the area.  They had free popcorn, an obstacle course and face painting for the kids.

Addie showing Dalton how to do the tire run.

Dalton doing the army crawl.

Addie doing the army crawl.

Dalton’s “turtle”.  Apparently the Y does not employ any art students.

Addie enjoying her popcorn.  She wasn’t to keen on the idea of someone painting on her face, so she settled for popcorn instead.

She also didn’t much care for the “Y”.  I guess it brought back memories of Santa for her.  Remember the Christmas card picture?  Dalton sitting calming on Santa’s lap while Addie was running away in terror.  This wasn’t quite that bad, but almost.

We also enjoyed some time at the park.  This was very special treat since Daddy was able to go with us. 

Doing a little climbing.

Jumping (or getting ready to) and spinning equals fun times!

And then finally, we finished the weekend off watching fireworks with friends.  Taking pictures of fireworks didn’t turn out so well, but here is the crew we enjoyed watching them with.

Look at all those kids…and almost all boys.  Poor Addie!

 

 

Coming Home

The twins are home and doing well!  Sophie got to come home on July 6th and her brother Asher followed her the very next day.  They are just over a month old now and are growing like little weeds.  They have both gained over 2 pounds, sleeping as well as can be expected and are overall very good babies.  Here are some pictures of the precious little ones.

All snuggled up and ready for a nap.

Sophie

 

 

 

 

 

Asher

 

 

One sleeping baby is always as cute as can be….but two, who could resist?

San Angelo Fun

We’ve taken two trips to Angelo so far this summer to visit family.  The kids always have a blast, as there doesn’t seem to be many dull moments when we are there.  Dalton finally took the plunge and is now able to swim without floaties, thanks to Macca and Poc’s pool.  Addie thinks she can too and doesn’t seem to be bothered by finding herself on the bottom of the pool after she has taken her floaties off and stepped out into deeper water.  She is fearless to say the least.  Belle seems to enjoy her visits with Mr. Butters too.  However, I don’t know if I can say the same for Mr. Butters.  He tolerates her, but doesn’t like to share all that much.  Here are some pictures from our trips in June and July.

Addie being silly.  Macca always seems to have something new and exciting for the kids to enjoy.  Who knew a sun visor and pair of glasses could be so much fun?

Addie and Macca taking a peek at some of the creatures at the San Angelo Nature Center.

 

 

 

Dalton and one of the MANY rattlesnakes at the nature center. 

 

 

Addie enjoying watching the Alligators at the nature center.

Watching the bobcats at the nature center or kitties at Addie liked to call them.

Dalton holding a baby raccoon at his cousins house.  Blake’s uncle is a game warden and they often rehab injured or abandoned animals.  It was definitely a once in a lifetime opportunity for our city kids.

 

Addie LOVED the baby raccoon.  We had to pry it out of her hands when it was time to leave.  The kid’s got to go over and help feed it during our second trip home.

 

Father’s Day 2010 with all four generations.

More Inventory

Here is another picture of some of the dress materials.  I sure hope Addie likes dresses, because that’s about all that will be hanging in her closet soon.

The Inventory

After cleaning out my supply of fabrics that I have had way too long, here is what I came up with for my next set of dresses.

This was all made with fabric I originally bought for the nursery of our second child.  However, when I found out I was having a girl, I decided to go a bit more “girly”.  The border fabric will be the bottom of the dress and it will also line the arm holes of the dress once complete.

Most of these were also made from my materials stash, with the exception of the pink/black stripes and dots. 

Once they are at this stage, I then need to decide what size to make each dress, trim the fabric, add the contrasting fabric to the arm holes and  the ribbon for the ties.  Any of the sets pictured above can be made into a dress ranging from sizes 12 months to 4T.  I also plan to make some sizes to fit a 5/6 and 7/8, but I’ll need to make up some inventory in those sizes soon.

My newest hobby…

I saw a picture of a super cute dress online the other day called a pillowcase dress.  It did not appear that there would be much to it, so after a quick search online I found a pattern.  Here are pictures of dresses number one and two.

I love the pink and brown fabric!  They had so many to pick from at the fabric store that is was hard to decide on just two.  I also made a matching bow that is clipped on to the hanger.  I plan to make the dress, bloomers and matching bows for all my creations.

This is dress number two.  I had the pink fabric leftover from another project and thought it would be cute paired with a solid black dress.  The bow and bloomers are still in production.

So far I have fabric cut out for about 10 dresses.  I’m planning to make up several and have some home parties in the near future for some fellow TNT teammates who are fundraising for the fall season and donate a portion of the proceeds to their campaigns.  Let me know if your little one needs a dress!

Taking begging to a whole new level

Here is Belle begging in our kitchen window watching us eat breakfast.   I don’t know anyone else who could half-rest on the grill and make it look comfortable. 

And yes, she is getting big.  And she can jump.