"Tape Books"

Randy has been gone ALL day to Camp KidJam today, so I decided to pull out some new "toys" tonight for Kendall and me to play with. My mom has been sending Kendall books with CDs for a long time now, and also got her a CD player. When we were little, Alden and I loved to read "tape books" before we went to bed. I wasn't sure if Kendall was quite old enough yet to know how to listen and turn the pages by herself when she heard the "ding!" but she did a pretty good job! I sat with her and helped her get started and she had so much fun and loved all her new CD books!

She wasn't too happy that I was taking her picture...

Look at all those books! We read about 3 or 4 tonight (some several times in a row!), so there are still a bunch for her to look at! Thanks for her collection, Granny!

White Oak Weekend

We just got home from a great weekend in White Oak! This was our annual reunion weekend with our best friends from college, Courtney and Trent and Amy and David. We missed Alden, Scott, and Michelle this year! We rotate where we meet up every year, and this year was Amy and David's turn to host. Since they just sold their house and are building a new one, we stayed at David's parents pool house where they are living in the meantime. We decided we are going to have to just make this the place we come every year from now on - it was so great and we were able to all spread out and just swim and hang out. Our families are growing, and we can't just all camp out in one of our living rooms anymore!

Here is a picture of the group: David, Amy and their daughter Kate (and Baby Mitchell #2!), Courtney, Trent, Cooper, and Madison, and us!

This is not David's parents' house - it is the pool house! David and Amy are staying upstairs and the Vests and us camped out downstairs. We had a bedroom, Kendall slept in the bathroom on a great toddler bed, Courtney, Trent and Madison slept in the office, and Cooper slept in the workout room. It was perfect!!! Both nights we were able to put the kids to bed and just hang out on the porch by the pool talking and staying up way too late. It really was so much fun.

On our way back from dinner Friday night. This is the back of his parent's house. We are so thankful that they let us come this weekend!

Madison and Kendall. They became such good friends this weekend!

The pool was so great. Kendall did a great job swimming after her two weeks of lessons. She is really swimming: head under water, kicking, and paddling! We went in the "little pool" a lot (the hot tub), and she would swim back and forth from me to Randy. I'm so proud of her!

Randy took Kendall down the water slide a lot! She loved it!

Kate, Madison, and Kendall. Sweet friends! This beach area was perfect for the girls to play on!

The Bandits minus Alden and Michelle. We missed you girls!!

Future Bandits? :) Maybe one day they will be roommates together at A&M! Madison just turned 3, Kate will be 2 in December, and Kendall is almost 2 and a half!

David and Amy, thanks so much for hosting us this year! We had such a great time and loved seeing you guys. We're already ready for next year!

Get Well Granny!

My mom, Kendall's Granny, had knee replacement surgery last week! We weren't able to be there with her, but Kendall has been praying for her and talking about her a lot this past week and a half. She asks her all the time, "Granny? Your knee fisked? Your knee better?" We are so excited that she will be able to get around better and will feel better so she can chase after Kendall, and pretty soon, Baby Cooper!


We love you so much Granny! Keep working hard on your therapy and on resting! You'll be all better soon!!

Peeps' Girls

Monday morning before everyone left we took pictures of the three girls with these cute shirts on that Aunt Val made! Peeps is on a camping trip in New Mexico, so Gigi is going to mail him these pictures so he will see them when he gets off the mountain. The shirts turned out so cute and the girls were precious posing in them!

Kendall just loved Baby Evy so much this weekend. She is going to be the best big sister! She's so gentle and sweet with her and she wanted to know where she was all the time. I can't wait to see her with Cooper!

Your girls missed you this weekend Peeps! They wanted to know where you were all the time and they called you on the play phones a lot! Have a fun trip!

Sunday with the Cousins

Sunday, Kendall still had fever, so all the girls stayed home from church while Randy went by himself. The girls slept late again after another long night, and when they got up we decided to go back outside and play in the pool and the bubbles. Mrs. Laurie sent her bubble bucket home for Kendall and Gracie to play in! They were busy girls playing in the front yard.

Kendall was even blowing bubbles herself while sitting in the bubble bucket. It doesn't get much better than that!

Gracie had more fun playing in that pool! If we were inside, she was talking about being outside with the pool. She was fixed on it!

We found a "wormie" on the driveway and the girls came over to investigate.

Kendall wanted to just look at the worm...

...but Gracie was fine with picking it up! She was a brave girl!

Gigi was inside with Baby Evy, but she came out when Evy woke up and Kendall went to sit in her lap. As you can see, she had somehow lost her "swim soup" and was running around the front yard naked!

Love that face!

Before we went in, both girls had to get in the bucket at the same time. It was Kendall's idea, but once Gracie got in, she wanted her out!

That was a full bucket!!

Even though we couldn't go very many places, the girls still had a lot of fun playing around the house! Check back later for some cute pictures we took of the girls this morning before they left!

Cousins' Weekend: Saturday

Kendall began running fever Friday, had a rough night Friday night, and then woke up still feeling bad Saturday. Her fever actually didn't go away until today (Monday), so she had it the whole time they were here! We were hoping to get out and do something fun Saturday, like go to the beach, but Kendall slept so late after being up a lot that night, that we just decided to hang out at the house most of the day.
The girls still had a lot of fun, though! Kendall has been very into "Belle" lately and has been wanting to watch the "Belle Movie." So, the girls dressed up like princesses and danced to the movie! They were so cute!

Kendall wanted to dance with Gracie, but Gracie wasn't too sure about that. She really just wanted to dance by herself. :)

After lunch we decided to try out the Lake Jackson fountains. Kendall was excited to go, but when we got there she wanted no part of it. Gracie on the other hand was loving it! She got right out there in the middle and had a lot of fun!

Check out those sunglasses!

We didn't stay too long because Kendall's fever spiked back up, but I think Gracie had a good time anyway!