Thursday, June 28, 2012

The Grand Hotel

Britton had a conference at the Grand Hotel last weekend, and we tagged along with. It was serious fun, the weather was perfect, and the kids had a fabulous summer-lovin time.





 (oopsie, there's my LARGE glass-o-beer on the pier...)




 This happened.  We did it. I mean all we were missing were helmets to complete the look. Let me just say I'm now on a mad hunt for a pair of mountain bikes. Never in my...20's or 30's... have I felt so free! When is the last time you rode a bike? Like....wind in the hair, feeling the breeze, RODE A BIKE.  You should do it.

 We had 2 sunset dinners here with the lit up trees. We re-nicknamed Peanut Butter the Beefcake. He is just so beefy. He growls, he groans, he tackles, he eats, he smears, he stomps....he's beefy.






Friday, June 22, 2012

Just an update

No real reason for the post, except that we're having a splendid summer and I wanted to share some of that happiness.

Happy Father's Day to my baby daddy.  This right here is one stellar Dad, and we sure do love him a whole awful lot. 
 Also, in a strange turn of events, Pollard now eats. Like 3 meals a day, with snacks. I mean...who thought this would happen?!?! Granted 2 out of those 3 meals is usually a PB&J, and below he is eating cake at brunch....but hey! Whatever gets you through, can I get an amen?
 And here are the Twinks, dressed in their matching preppy shirts. DeDe and Big John picked these up and let's just say, they're popular at our house.  Looking really good guys.
 Pollard got to be the ringbearer for Bart and Morgan Eddins' wedding this month and he took his duties quite seriously. Here we are before the rehearsal.
 And here we are smoochin' before the ceremony. Excuse the messy hotel room...It's not my house, I ain't cleaning it.
 And here is my bud, with little Lila Jeanne Eddins, neice of the groom. What a pair!
 DeDe and Big John came early to wish their ring bearer good luck.

 We've also started gymnastics 2 days a week, and it's an absolute hoot. Pollard seems to LOVE it, and gets massive stamps on each foot when he finishes. Here he is waiting for the 3 year old class to begin. LOVE THIS GUY!
 And lastly we've been hard core about getting outside this summer. It's hot, yes indeed, but these kids cannot be cooped up. I've been working when I can, and trying to spend more time with them while they're little. We went to the pool one night last week when Britton was out of town for the night and had the best time together swimming and eating ice cream.  Most outings with the 3 of us aren't quite this picturesque, so I'd like to think it's getting easier?


All in all, I can truthfully say that about once a day I have a moment where the 2 of these babies of mine are being so wonderfully precious that I stop what I'm doing and pray, thanking God for what He's given me with these two. I don't have a clue what I EVER did to deserve 2 healthy, smart, and hands down hilarious kids, but I cherish them every day. I know they aren't going to be little for long, so for now I'm tired but loving every moment.

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

My best friends of life

I used a gracious plenty of our sky miles and flew to Dallas last month for a reunion with 5 of the 6-pack from college. Kim lives far away in Cali, so we reunited sans her :-( However, it was a very last minute reunion (hence the using of the miles), but words do not describe how good it felt to be with my VERY FAVORITE PEOPLE OF ALL TIME. We did nothing! And had a ball.

 Liz took us to she and Justin's lake house right outside of Dallas, where she made us some drink called the Dazzler. Next thing I knew, I had downloaded an Emoticon app and was texting dolphins and kissy faces.

Ok so this picture kind of contradicts that we did nothing, we did this, which was wrong...so wrong in so many ways. I think one of us peed, and I definitely got flipped off. You should NEVER put this many wanna be college girls on something called the Rock Star. We were screaming like 12 year olds on a ferris wheel.


And lastly, I realized after my last post that I forgot to put the update on what these kiddos are really into at the moment. I figure when I look back years from now, that will be my favorite part, remembering what they loved and what they said.  So here you go!
Angel Penn (14M):
-Can say shoe, dog and juice, hi, bye and hey.
-First audible word was "Stop", with a finger pointed. We can only imagine that is from MONTHS of Pollard doing that to him.
-Loves the dogs, or anyone's dogs for that matter
-Loves his lovie blankies, and a recently recoverd Jellycat bunny rabbit that Pollard used to carry around.
-Only meat I can get him to eat consistently is meat sticks.  Ew.
-Has started to throw the most hilarious temper tantrums when you take something away. Hurling himself on the floor and saying "nooooooo". 
-Can climb up onto and down safely from our bed.
-Most of the time when Pollard violently hurls something (or himself for that matter) at him, just grabs his belly and laughs.


Precious Pollard (3.5 Y):
Ok where to begin....
-New obsession with Star Wars, which he pronounces "Stah Were's". Started out calling Luke Skywalker Luh-lock Scotworth.  Funniest thing ever. We were really dissapointed when he got it down pat.
-If you ask him to do something he doesn't feel like doing (brush his teeth, give a hug, etc), says "I'll do it tah-marrow"
-Has asked us every day of this summer to take him to school.
-LOVES the iPad
-Learning how to swim. Scared of the big pool, but we'll get there.
-Cried real tears when we pretended to send Penn off with Ms Dorothy. "I want PENNY! I want PENNY!"  We were just kidding bud!  But see there, you do love him.
-Every morning when he gets in bed with us, asks us to go get Penn.
-For some reason when he eats a food that is made into a particular shape, he says "Hey! This taste looks like a triangle!"
-Counts 1-10 in Spanish

Monday, June 4, 2012

Boy howdy how time flies

Don't you agree? One minute it's Monday, the next its Friday. One minute you had a baby, the next he's saying "shoe".  There are times it really creeps by, but for the most part it flies, and I'm not so sure I like it.

Here's a little iPhone pic to get us started, I found them like this watching TV. Little loves.

Last month Mom and Dad took us on a lavish vacation to the Paradisus Palma Real resort in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. Correctamundo, the same place we went on our honeymoon FIVE years before, to the date! We celebrated our anniversary there and it was so wonderful.
Here we are at Gabi Beach restaurant 5 years ago...


And here we are at Gabi a month ago on our anniversary! We look pretty good, right?! :-)


We opted for the family concierge package at the resort and boy were we glad we did. The boys got the coolest amenities and special treatment from Mayra, our concierge. One of which was these cool matching swim shirts.



Here's Daddy and Bear (short for Penny-Bear, which Daddy nicknamed him) by our cabana at the pool.
They had these lovely oversized swings you see below right by the pool, the very spot that Bear napped every morning.

The sun really took a lot out of him, so we also had a good long beach nap.



This is a little Russian girl named Anya, who Pollard became wildly obsessed with and madly in love with.  Ok maybe it's a tiny exaggeration but you get the point. Puppy love, if you will.  Too bad Anya spoke not a lick of English and was mean as a snake. He  followed her around for 2 days straight, which ended in Anya pushing his head completely under the pool water, throwing his beach toys in his face and yelling in Russian, all while wearing nothing but a bikini bottom. Ah, young love.

The night setting on my camera can be so fun, but also a wee blurry. Which was good this night because we were all sweating profusely! Right behind this lovely body of water is where we stayed 5 years ago in Royal Service!

Papa and Penn hamming around.

This fountain was the source of a lot of trouble. I don't know why a family friendly resort would have a flowing body of water with child-sized rocks below it....LIKE my kid isn't gonna hurl as many as possible in the fountain EVERY time we walk by...

Penn learned to mimic our faces. Hilarious.

This is pretty much how our attempt at group photos went...


 Big brother and little sister :)

Thanks to Mom and Dad for making that trip possible. We had the BEST TIME EVER!!!