most of July 2010

Ahhh, July. One of the hottest months in the year... especially when you live in South Texas. I'll tell you what, it gets to be ridiculously hot. I don't know if I've posted this on the blog before, but we like to take the advice we were given when we moved here. You treat Texas summers like Utah winters. You don't go outside to "hang out" unless you have a specific activity in mind, i.e. going to the grocery store, swimming, sprinklers (or for winter: sledding, going to the grocery store, skiing, etc.). You don't go outside unless you're REALLY ready for it. Catch my drift?

Anyway, the rules apply. Here we are ROASTING on the 4th of July. Well, technically, I think it was the 3rd of July, but you get the picture.
An All American Family. Three of the four people were Texas born and raised. Well, Aaron moved when he was in school, but the first little chunk of his life was Texas, so it counts.
Amazing.

We're so festive, it hurts.

Ward party? I think so. I seem to be very intent on what Nancy has to say. And, Tillie? Give her crayons and she's a busy beaver.

hanging out in the 4th of July duds. Cal looks up to his older sister in more ways than one.

such a pretty little girl. Those eyes. I'm biased. I am her mother.

cutie Cohen. He used to live across the street. His mom and I were great pals. Sad she left (that seems to be the theme with a lot of our close Texas friends. Why is that?). Anyway, we saw an ice cream truck and all partook. Cohen is a messy eater. Check out the drips on his leg. Tillie was dying and kept saying, "Uh, Oh! Cohen gettin' all dirty!"

I pulled out the bib. Hey, I know how hard it is to get un-natural ice cream dyes out of cute clothing. I don't know if Cal wanted the bib or the ice cream bar more? Luckily, her dad is there to help with the drips. Keep scrolling down and you'll see what I mean.

Way to take one for the team, Aaron. :)

Where was the mom through all this? Enjoying her very own ice cream bar. With chocolate, thank you. It's a rough life, but someone has to do it.

::: Bath time with Cal is always a happy time. What a cutie that boy is! Aaron and I hurried to get the kids to bed, so we could go out and enjoy the fireworks. In our neck of the woods, they are going off until midnight!

yes, all illegal fireworks, I'm sure. Thank you, San Antonio neighbors.

::: Calvin is ALMOST 6 months here. I think this is the day before his first HALF Birthday. For pictures in his actual crown posing it up, click here. These are just a few of him hanging out waiting for his sister to wake up. He had just discovered how to do PUSH UPS. Here he is showing off his new talent.

::: We took part in a little neighborhood garage sale. Mind you, it wasn't the WHOLE neighborhood, just a few of our neighbors all decided to do it the same day in order to bring more traffic. We sold a few things and made some moola. Not too bad. As they say, one man's trash is another man's treasure. Glad to get rid of a lot of random things we weren't using!

Aaron, always making sure we have some good tunes flowin'. So many people thought that he was selling his little speaker and ipod, but no, he wasn't. And, do you love our little matching kids in jammies? I know. Me too.

no words for Tillie's hair, face, or shirt. Wow. Thank you, 1980's.

Aaron thought I should sell this hat, but I love it too much. Apparently, Tillie did too. Poor Cal was locked in the stroller. Sorry, buddy.

remember how hot Texas is in July? Remember how Tillie shares my genes? (both in the RED FACE department AND the desire for a great close up shot.) work it, Til.

Even though she isn't laughing here, she thought she was PRETTY CLEVER. oh, you.

::: Again, HOT being a theme with this post, our cute neighbor invited Tillie over to swim. She loved going to Cohen's house---so swimming was EXTRA exciting to this 2 year old! Here they are splashing around. Cohen is fearless when it comes to the water. Thankfully, Tillie is a little more reserved. I about died of worry when he'd jump in, head first!

Also, I think Tillie's hair looks really cute, for the record. :)

::: This was the day AFTER the Camry died. If you want to read more on that, go here. It was a tragedy. So, we all piled into Ruby, Aaron's Corolla that now belongs to another owner (sniff, sniff) to find us the perfect VAN. I wanted to document how cramped we are in his micro machine, but the camera looks like we've got room to spare. Not so. Ahh, the fun adventures we have had...

Tillie complaining that she "needs a good snack..." oh brother. we had been in the car for approx. 2.5 minutes. when she's bored, she likes to snack. uh oh. maybe too much like her mom??

And, here I am in the NEW (to us) van! Am I happy (and sweaty/shiny) or what?! And are those polka dotted pants I'm wearing?? Oh, nope. It's a skirt. Whew! Anyway, what a blessed day.

Well, that's most of July! Next stop, FAMILY REUNION: wood style. Get excited.

operation catch up... beginning of MAY 2010

Ahhh, the catch up game continues. Let's go back to May 2010. This month was a great month.

By the time May started, the boys had just finished the boards and we virtually had "forced vacation" until graduation would happen 2 1/2 weeks later. Since we knew some of our BFF's were heading out of Texas in a few weeks (sniff sniff), we all decided to head over to the Guadalupe River and do a little mini camping trip. Only two families decided to stay the night (us and the Nielsons), but we had a lot of fun with our friends. Did I mention this was a weekday that we went? It was great b/c there were virtually no other visitors when we went up.

So, here are some pictures of the fun that was had. Of course, most of the images are of Miss Matilda-pants. Are you surprised? Right now she totally wins "Most Entertaining Person of the Family" award. Aaron had it for a while, but Tillie has stolen the title. I'm sure Cal will give her a run for her money soon (certainly once he lives life outside of his infant car seat).

"Suit on, Mama. Suit On!" ---and she's off.

Cal, charming and "loveable" (as the shirt says). This baby loves the outdoors.

Cute Melissa (on the left) had just given birth 2 weeks before this picture happened. Is she amazing or what?! Who takes their family on an outing like this after just having a baby? Amazing Mother of the Year.
And, Kajsa (on the right) looks WAY too cute to be camping with her little pregnant belly!

Aaron and Tillie hanging out in the river. Tillie LOVING life.

So, I take full responsibility for this little girl's outfit and hair style. I love how happy she is here. Her hair? Perhaps a little goofy. I realize that now.

Upon viewing the above picture, I was reminded of a dolled up puppy dog with crazy hair.
Perhaps a little resemblance? Sorry, Tillie. My bad.

This is what she did when I told her she looked like the above puppy dog. Offended at the tender age of two. Just kidding.
I'm sure she was doing something she wasn't supposed to.
I love how her father is really happy in this picture below. I don't love how sad she is.
This is Tillie's devastated-how-could-this-happen-to-me face. Amazing I captured it.

The lovely Tim + Melissa + Gavin combo. Do you love how they are making IDENTICAL faces? Are they married and in love/sync or what?!


A group shot of the party. Again, don't know what my face is doing. And, sorry, Lindsay & Kaylee, that your eyes are closed. And, Tyler, that your eyes are doing something totally crazy. And, uh? where was Easton?? :)

cute friends.


love this shot.

Don't love this next one NEARLY as much. But i was there. Dawning my old pioneer trek hat, no less.
Those pioneers were always in fashion, as am I.


Tillie is feeling much better as she sneakily steals her dad's hat.

As night approached, the majority of the group left, except for us and the Nielsons. Us brave souls camped and had a lovely sleep in our nice tents and air mattresses. If that's not roughing it, I don't know what is.
Calvin, per his usual, was a perfect sleeper only waking up once in the night and slept great in his car seat. Tillie was thrilled to be sleeping next to mom and dad. And, mom (aka me) was nervous all night that some wild beast was going to attack us. Dad (aka Aaron), per HIS usual, was out like a light bulb. All night. Amazing.

Love this next one of sleepy-eyed-matilda. And, yes, I purposefully chose clothes for her jammies that I wouldn't care if they got ruined. Those are not her normal threads (although, I'm sure at this point, you wouldn't be surprised if they were).

"Gotta get there... fast!" are the words playing through her head.
This is Tillie in a nut shell. Running everywhere, pumping her arms for extra help.

maybe a little too fast? no?
Darn. Hate to say this, but how can I not? She set it up for me.
"Another one bites the dust..."

And the infamous face we caught again on film. The "devastated-how-could-this-happen-to-me" face. Poor baby.

Feeling better and a little dustier. She's a trooper. Back to work again with Breks, throwing sand/dirt/pebbles into the wind. all. morning. long.
Amazing what little kids do with their free time.

breks is just chillin'

The end of camping fun. It was a great time. We loved hanging out in a beautiful location and having fun with our great friends. Good times.

***Next event. Purchasing matching jams at Costco (aka the best store on planet earth). Texas is tricky in the summer. It is SO blasted hot outside, that you have to have the AC working over time to make sure you don't die of heat exhaustion. So, it's hot, but then cold at night. Meaning, gotta have long pants and sleeves b/c these two crazies don't keep their blankies on at night, but you can't put them in the big furry sleepers b/c they have their father's DNA and sweat very easily.
So, these jams were the best purchase we'd made in a while. And, of course, Cal will be able to grow into Tillie's pair next month (kidding. probably not NEXT month. but his growth is astounding). So, we got a double whammy, if you will.

We took a few pictures one lazy morning.

tillie is crazy. we know that by now. of course she doesn't want to sit still.

back and calmed down while "holding cal" even though he's probably big enough to hold her.

don't know why I did this next one in black and white, but I sure love it.

***Our good friend, Rex, invited Aaron and Matilda do head down to Port Aransas for a little outing with him and his boys. It was great b/c I was able to stay home and get lots of stuff done with only one kiddo at home. And, when that kiddo is Calvin, I was able to get TONS done. It was great time had by all parties.

Apparently, Tillie used a shovel and little bucket the entire time they were there. She was in her element and loving life. I think these pictures Aaron took are just darling.

*** We went to a fun birthday party this month. I had been looking for an excuse to try out "freezer paper transfers" on t-shirts and we needed to figure out a present. So, "mix it all together and what do you get?" Birthday t-shirts.

My plan was to do a simple Batman logo, but Aaron thought he could pull off the complexities of Mario and Luigi (the birthday boy loves Luigi and pretends to be him on occasion, so we did that for him and little Mario for his little brother), and then Mickey Mouse for Tillie (who she calls "Hot Dog" from the Mickey Mouse playhouse song)---so I let Aaron take over the job. He did great.

They were well received and it's safe to say that the Mickey shirt is Tillie's favorite article of clothing.

If you ever want to give it a try, these are the only real materials you'll need (oh, and a paint brush). Just google "freezer paper stencil tutorial" and you'll have lots of things come up. Pretty easy and fun.

Here Matilda is AT the party for the boys. Yes, that is her running (with already scraped knees) and just about ready to fall... again.

Just fell.
We have a lot of these pictures, it seems. Luckily, this time it was on grass!

***Cutie boy Calvin at 4 months. He is so sweet.
He'd just discovered his hands.

Cal and Tillie on the chair together. She just loves to hold her brother.

***For my dad's birthday, I was lacking in the "great gift" department. While on Etsy one day, I saw a funny sign, "Home is where the Harley is." And I laughed and then thought my dad would laugh. So, I sent him that with this picture of Cal in his "dude rag"---ha! just found out it is actually called a "DO-rag". Whatever. I like "DUDE rag" better.

More cute pictures of the 4 month old.

Tillie was drawing right next to him. So, I snapped a few shots of that crazy as well.


Well, that smile turned upside down pretty fast. Don't remember why, but yet again, we've captured it on film. It's interesting I have so many of these cry faces in ONE month, let alone in ONE post. That combo. doesn't happen very often. Strange.


she loved (spoken with mega sarcasm) that I was snapping these pictures as she was crying. Now, that is a Mother of the Year moment. Nice.
From left to right, starts with the quiver lip and then transitions slowly to the (again) "devastated-how-could-this-happen-to-me" face. Then she calms down.


the resolve and realization that
life never is fair. sad reality.

And, there you have it. Is that a sad way to end off this MEGA post? Kind of. I apologize to leave you on this sad note. But, the kiddos are in bed.
Aaron also tucked himself in a few hours ago (it's been a long weekend and he has to get up bright and early tomorrow).
Calvin spit-up all over me and I have to keep getting wafts of it (a gift he bestowed on me right before he fell asleep for the night).
And, let's face it, when given the opportunity to sleep, I follow Tillie's lead.:
"Gotta get there... fast!"

Good night.