New Blog!

After 4 years, and 1500 photos, I've used my free allotment of memory from Google.  Rather than paying a monthly memory fee, I'm going to start a new blog tied to my current gmail account.  I'm going to leave this blog up, but the new blog site is www.thebacotfamily.blogspot.com.  Thanks for following us!

Busy Week

We celebrated Luke's birthday today.  The kids really enjoyed the piñata. 

 Anna Belle ate one piece of candy after another.  Fortunately, her eagerness to devour every piece prevented her from finishing any of the pieces.

 Is there anything in the world cuter than seeing your kids love one another?

 Anna Belle was a little bit afraid when people were swinging the bat at the piñata.  She was soothed when Brady held her hand.

 Luke also had a huge inflatable slide.  The kids really loved it.

My friend Melissa just released her first children's picture book called "Little Miss Molly."  There was a release party in Uptown Park at Carrie Ann's.  Carrie graduated with Melissa and me.  Kelly (in the center of the photo) illustrated the book.

 My church friend, Amanda, is relatively new to Houston.  On Friday we took a little tour inside the loop and then had lunch at Mission Burrito.  The kids enjoyed having the playground to themselves for a little over an hour.

 Similar to my children, Jackson has a lot to say and talked right through my photo snapping.

 After a full month, I finally got my Tiffany's necklace back.  I had a few links added and my monogram on the back of the heart.  I love it , and I've been wearing it almost every day : )

 Melanie and baby Andrew visited us on Wednesday.  Anna Belle loves babies and loved playing with Andrew.  In the photo below you can see them gazing at one another while Anna Belle pats his head.  After I read bedtime stories to Anna Belle, she tells me about a few of her favorite things.  She's added baby Andrew to her list... so sweet.

 Sweet smiles

Better Blogging

I have been LOVING my life as a stay at home mama, but I've been bad about taking time to snap pictures and document all these precious moments.  This weekend was quite busy (the only way to start a busy week is with a busy weekend, right?).  One of Taylor's clients, TMD Temporaries, hosts an annual picnic.  They are absolutely amazing people and have a huge team of people that seem just as happy as their sweet families.  The kids had their faces painted for the first time, which they both loved.

Brady patiently waiting at the face painting table.  His eyes still just melt my heart.

 I held up a mirror for Anna Belle to watch the face painter paint this cute little heart design on her face.  She already loves her weekly stamps from gymnastics (the starts on her hands), but this was really a treat.

Messy hair in the bounce house...

This is just an every day moment.  Anna Belle wants to buckle the top clasp of her car seat on her own, and she loves to snap her highchair together by herself.  

 I sometimes say that I want to go on a Safari where I shoot animals with my Canon.  For now, I'll just hunt my child and shoot HIM with my Canon.  THis is absolutely the easiest way for me to snap smiles of my little guy.  He has the sweetest and most infectious laugh that I've ever heard.

 With the wedding at our home last week, I totally forgot about gymnastics.  This week, I was ready to get back in the game.  I remembered the coaches sending us home with little slips of paper reminding us to dress up the kids up in their Halloween costumes and bring candy.  I was SO prepared, and then realized I missed the Halloween week...  I was quite embarrassed, but Anna Belle didn't mind.  However, she did mind when I stepped 6 feet away to grab my camera.  Here's my teary eyed little lady bug.

 Angelic little face...

Marriage... What bwings us togetha

It's been a crazy week to say the least.  I left the kids with Casey twice this week (the first times for me to leave the kids with a non-family member).  I had a doctor's appointment the first time and then Taylor and I attended a fundraising luncheon for the MSC (which is the organization where we met, at A&M).  I spent a lot of time making a beautiful "Congratulations, Richard and Casey" sign, which I was eager to hang Saturday morning.  I proceeded to set the tables with freshly pressed linens, china, crystal, silver, etc., and then the rain came.  I wasn't worried about a little sprinkle, after all, we had umbrellas.  The little rain turned into strong winds and torrential downpour while I was bathing the kids (a few hours before the wedding).  Taylor was holding onto the umbrella, so the whole table wouldn't blow away.  Amazingly, we didn't break anything.  We only had a few hours to wash and press all the linens (again) and wash all the dishes, glasses and silver (again).  After that bout of excitement, the wedding and reception turned out really beautiful (minus the banner which was tattered for the duration of the wedding).  

A few weeks ago, my neighbor (who I still think of as a 4 year old) got married.  Here's a picture of my sweet sister and me prior to the wedding.

Space Cadets

My friend Casey and I have a weekly play date.  We normally hang out at my house (or in the pool), but today we took the kids to the Johnson Space Center.  It's been almost 20 years since I took the tram tour, which proved to wear on our patience a little.  The main building has an amazing jungle gym area, where the kids happily played for quite awhile.  Anna Belle loves Katie Beth (whom she calls Beth and hugs frequently).

Cutest Kids

I decided to snap a few random pictures before going to AWANA last night.  I feel so blessed to have children who (generally) get a long so well.  They squeal, tickle and laugh together every day.

We joke that Brady is our Baptist and Anna Belle is our Catholic.  Before meals, we used to only say the traditional Catholic blessing.  After hearing Pappaw use a more protestant prayer, he insists that we pray "like Pappaw" after the Catholic prayer.  This confuses Anna Belle who says "amen" at the end of the Catholic prayer and looks confused for the next few minutes.  

Brady's also our Baptist because he loves to carry his Bible.  We frequently talk about what makes Jesus (and his parents) happy vs. sad.  I try to focus on things like being nice to your sister, telling the truth, learning the Bible (mostly encouraging his weekly scripture memory for AWANA).  He picked up on the learning the Bible thing, so he spends a lot of time looking at his Bible... upside down more than right side up.

Brady had to check if Anna Belle had any candy left in her mouth.

They both LOVE when we put Anna Belle on Brady's back.  Brady laughs so hard, he almost has tears in his eyes.

I need to be better at journaling all the precious little moments we share.  I was thinking that yesterday, which inspired today's blog post, but now I can't remember what all I wanted to write.  Here are a few things I do remember:

Brady thinks that small air planes will grow up to be fighter jets.

Anna Belle loves to make the stink eye at you and then laugh about it.  She's also recently realized she can roll her tongue like a taco.

Brady gets an allowance now for doing "chores", such as staying in his bed through the night, taking a bath, brushing his teeth, practicing his weekly Bible verse, completing one of his letter writing worksheets, being nice to Anna Belle, being respectful, etc.  He gets a 5 cents for every  chore, every day, which adds up to $3 - $4 a week.  When I give him his money for a job well done, he walks around the house with his chest out and chin down for quite awhile, basking in his pride.

If there's something that Brady doesn't want to do, he says it's for girls.

Anna Belle loves to go into Brady's dresser, pull out his boxer briefs and put them on.

The kids love to lay down, side by side in front of the TV.  They do this downstairs and up in Brady's room (where they watch Cinderella).

When Brady sees money in my purse, he tells me I should buy a beautiful necklace.

When Brady sees a bride, he always calls her a princess.  Since Cinderella, he asked what they were doing at the end of the movie, and we told them that they got married.  We went on to explain that Mommy and Daddy got married.  Now when he watches anyone get married, he refers to when Mommy married Daddy, like a princess. : )

When Anna Belle wants something, she tries to verbalize it, but it usually takes a little guesswork.  When we have guessed correctly she scrunches up her nose and gives a cheesy grin.

... so many precious moments, I just wish I could hold on to every one.