A First for Kendall and Dad

Kendall and I went with some friends - Scott and Seth - on a boat ride today on the Intercoastal Waterway.  We did not have a lot of time, but we were excited about getting out and experiencing something new.  Getting to go with me after church (and skipping nap) was a treat for Kendall, because she was a good girl at church - both hours!  She was pretty excited. 

She is a big fan of Seth.  And Seth is pretty sweet to her.

 She was loving throwing rocks in the water off of the dock.

This is Scott's boat. It is very cool, and very different from the boats that I am used to.

We had so much fun.  Kendall was pretty cautious, but she loved going fast.  She stayed very close to me and hung on pretty tight.  The highlight of her day was seeing a dead 4 ft long gar that's head was busted off - seriously!  She also liked going past the big barges - that was probably the highlight for me.  She asked where we were headed and I told her to the "honey hole" - when we stopped after going fast for awhile she asked me, "Dad, are we at the beehive?"  Honey hole = beehive, get it?
She was wearing my hat to block the wind from her face, she accidently let go, and it ended up in the water.  Scott circled back and I laid down to scoop it up - Kendall thought that was pretty cool.

Direct quote on our way home from Scott's house: "Dad, I love Mr. Scott very very much; he is so funny about boogers!" We had been joking about gummy boogers instead of gummy bears.  That is what happens when you're out with the guys!

Prayers

My mom and granny were both sick last week! Mom had a stomach bug for a few days but Granny was in the hospital for about five days. Kendall knew that both of them were sick, so one night when she was saying her prayers with Randy, he said that this is what she prayed:
"God, I pray for my Granny and my Great Granny. They are my grandparents. I pray that they feel better. They make blankets for me that are so special to me. I hope they make me more blankets. Amen."
I love that! I love how she said, "They are my grandparents." You know, just in case he forgot who they are. :) And that she remembered that both of them have made her blankets. So sweet.

This is the blanket my mom made Kendall when she was born. She cross stitched that whole design!  And, you can't see it real well in this picture, but it has her name at the top and birthday at the bottom.

And this is the blanket my Granny made her. It also has her name and birthday at the bottom. She made it from scraps she had from other projects and we just love it.

"Mom, Lee."

I've posted before about how much of a Daddy's girl Cooper is, but it's hit a whole new level. I am always the one to get her ready for bed and then actually put her in bed. After we put her pjs on, change her diaper, and give her a sass, we go give Daddy and Kendall a kiss and then come back to her room. I turn off her lights, turn on her music, and then lay her baby on my shoulder. Then she lays her head on my shoulder on top of her baby and I rock her for a little bit before putting her in bed.

Well. Last week, we did all this and Randy came in to kiss her goodnight. She handed him her baby and actually set it up on his shoulder. Then she reached for him, pointed at the door, looked at me and said, "Mom, lee." What?! I said, "Cooper, do you want Mommy to leave?" She just looked at me and nodded! I said, "Ok! Goodnight!" and when I walked to the door, Randy said she just watched me and started waving!! Then she layed her head on her baby on Randy's shoulder and let him put her in bed! She has done the same thing about 2 or 3 more times...it makes me so sad!

"Mom, lee." That girl loves her Daddy!!

Matching Sisters!

Kendall and Cooper got cute little matching summer outfits from Gigi and Peeps in their Easter package! We got dressed in them to go somewhere the other day and I was able to get some pictures of them - love it! We are ready for summer!

 I have asked Kendall so many times if I could put her hair in a side ponytail. I just think they are so cute! She always says no, but this day she asked if I would do a side ponytail "just like Brynlee." Brynlee is our friends Jason and Stephanie's daugher who is in fourth grade and Kendall thinks she's so cool! She wanted her hair to look just like her! I love it!

Kendall's Bed

Kendall has been loving helping me make her bed lately. And I love it too! We get all (the many!) babies off her bed, and then I pull up the sheets and the comforter. But then she likes for me to leave the room and she puts all her pillows, blankets, and babies back on the bed exactly where she wants them. Every time they all have a pillow to lay on and they are all covered up. This girl has a lot of babies! But she takes really good care of all of them!

 So proud of how she made her bed!! She is such a good helper!

Easter 2012

We had a wonderful Easter weekend! Friday we went to the beach as a family for our first beach trip of the year. The girls had a blast and it made me really excited about going to the beach with them this summer - Cooper is at a much easier age than last year for that. I took our camera but unfortunately didn't realize til we were out there that I left the memory card at home! They were cute in their matching suits from Granny, though!

Saturday our friends the Monicals had their annual Easter weekend crawfish boil. We took the girls and Kendall stayed in the pool for four hours straight! She is a little fish! Both of the girls had so much fun. And we had fun getting to hang out with our friends!

Sunday I got the girls up and got them ready for church. We even had time to take pictures before we left the house! Getting both of them ready and out the door on time by myself always makes me feel like super mom. :) It's not easy!

But aren't they beautiful! Kendall wore her birthday dress and Cooper wore one of Kendall's old Easter dresses. I thought they looked precious!

After church we were feeling a little bummed that we were just going home by ourselves for lunch. We always miss our family a little more on Easter! Randy and I decided to do something a little special, so I called in an order to Carinos and he took the girls to pick it up. While they were gone, I tried to make the table look festive for Easter. I put the girls' Easter baskets together and set the table. Mom and David sent these flowers the day before to celebrate Easter, so they were our centerpiece. It is such a beautiful arrangement! Kendall got some fruit snacks, some bubbles, and an Angelina Ballerina movie in her basket and Cooper got some bubbles, fruit snacks, and chalk in hers. We always give them their baskets at lunch because Randy is always already at church when they get up in the morning. They know these come from us, but still think the Easter bunny hides the eggs for them to hunt. :)

After good naps, we had our small group Easter party! We were looking forward to this and it helped to have this when we were bummed about lunch. We are in a new small group this semester that meets on Sunday nights. Typically childcare is at our house and we meet at some of the other member's house, but for Easter we all brought our kids and we swam, ate, and hunted eggs! We had so much fun! The girls were very excited about getting to swim again!

This girl loves her Daddy!

Our new friends and student minister, Chris and Jennifer Watson came and brought their two boys. They just moved to town this week! Cooper and Nathan played together  - he just turned two, so he's about 4 months older than her.

Our friends Holly and Nic's kids, Barrett and Harper. We have loved getting to know them this semester!

Kendall didn't really want to get out of the pool - she was cold!

Our friends the Baileys had a great yard for hunting eggs! Beverly put all the eggs together and her and her kids hid them for the little ones. There were so many eggs! They loved it!

Hunting Easter eggs in your swim suit - that's how we do it in South Texas! :)

I stayed with Kendall and Randy helped Cooper. She was so funny - she had to open every single egg as she picked it up!

Barrett found a confetti egg and came and cracked it over Kendall's head. She loved it!

Kendall shared some of her candy with Cooper. So sweet!

Cooper ate the whole time..

...and this is her trail of opened, empty eggs! Ha!

Happy Easter!!

Our Easter Chicks!

Besides our two chicks we always have, we had six extra chicks at our house this weekend! Or as Cooper kept calling them, "Bee-bees! Bee-bees!"

Randy used these six chicks for a bit at church Sunday morning, and he bought them Saturday morning. He took both the girls with him and they were loving the chicks! He told them from the beginning that these chicks were for church and that they were NOT staying at our house. Even so, there were many tears Saturday night when Kendall had to go to bed, knowing they wouldn't be here when she got up the next morning. So much drama. "But I want the chicks to live with me!"

We pet them a lot...and washed our hands a lot!

Three lucky volunteers in a game Randy played with the crowd Sunday were able to take home two chicks each. All three were very excited! One lady even named her chicks "Greg" and "Randy!" ha!

Happy Easter from our (8) chicks! :)

Egg Hunt at the Park!

Last night was the annual Lake Jackson city-wide egg hunt! It is always fun but pretty crazy. They have the field divided up by age levels, and this was the first year we had to be separated with the girls since Cooper didn't hunt last year. Randy took Kendall and I stayed with Cooper.

We saw our friends Matt, Lindsey, and Patrick right when we got there, so we all hung out together while we waited, and tried to stay out of the millions of ants!

Coop was a little unsure of all the people. When she saw the eggs, she was interested, but she never wanted me to be very far away.

In the 1-2 year old area, they don't allow parents to go out with the kids at first. They don't want the kids to get trampled. It makes sense, but Cooper was not leaving my side. So we waited until they gave us the go-ahead, and then both of us went out and tried to find some eggs that hadn't been picked up yet. I think Cooper found four!

"Mom, carry my basket."

After it was all over (about 10 seconds after it started), we saw Patrick and he didn't have any eggs in his basket. Not sure if it was because they were all picked up, or if he had thrown them out. Cooper was very sweet to take one of her eggs out and hand it to him, which he immediately threw down. Throwing toys is kind of his thing. :) She was persistant though, and kept handing him the egg, and even his basket when he threw it. Such a sweet friend!

Out on the 3-4 year old field, our reserved Kendall was a little slow on running out to get the eggs. Again with the crowds overwhelming her. I'm not sure if this is the funniest video ever or the saddest video. I'm going to go ahead and say funniest. Slowest walk ever.

Thankfully, her buddy Connor was there! He saw that she didn't get any eggs - not any - and gave her like half a dozen out of his basket! Randy said he just kept handing them to her! Such a sweet guy!

When I told them I wanted to take their picture, they both immediately started making funny faces. I guess that's what you do when you're four!

 It was pretty hot and humid yesterday afternoon! Look at this sweet little red face after the hunt was all over!

 Love these two!!

I hope you're having a wonderful, relaxing weekend celebrating the most precious gift we have ever been given! Our family is so thankful for Christ's sacrifice for us and we love celebrating it together.

School Hunt!

Kendall had her egg hunt at school today! Cooper, Randy and I went to watch her. She was so excited!

I wish I had taken a picture of her whole line of classmates - she was standing at the end of the line and I realized that she is the tallest one in her class of 9 kids! She's just getting so big. This is her friend Gylliana. They have been in the same class for three years now!

The hunt was out on the playground! Each kid got to find 12 eggs and then they had to stop.

Proud of her eggs!

When she finished, she even gave one of her eggs to "Soups!" I was so proud of her for sharing without me even having to ask her. And Coop liked it a lot, too!

Cooper had chocolate everywhere. :)

I kept trying to get them both to look at me, but they were pretty wrapped up in eating their candy! :)

We had a fun time at the egg hunt! Her school always does such a good job of making it fun for them. Check back for more pictures from the city hunt we went to tonight!