Park Time!

While Laura and Danny were here, Andrew and Danny played early morning ultimate frisbee on Saturday with some people from church.  At the end, Eve and I met up with them for a few minutes of fun at the park. 

Eve was the only one who didn't seem to mind the heat....

Not when there were slides to play on!

And swings!

Even a tunnel!

And she discovered that there is more than one way to have fun on a slide!

We didn't last long, but we had a good time while we could!

Uncle Danny and Aunt Laura Come!

Andrew's sister Laura and her husband Danny came to spend a week with us in the middle of July - what a treat!

Speaking of treats...while they were here, we went out for burgers and Eve must have been super cute that day because the owner of the restaurant gave her a free cookie!  Yum!

We had high hopes of doing lots of fun things while they were here, but between the EXTREME heat, me working, and TWO pregnant women in one house (congrats Laura and Danny!), it didn't seem to happen.

The good thing was (good for us, maybe good for Laura and Danny?), Eve attached herself like glue to them the minute the arrived.  She couldn't go two seconds without holding Danny's hand or asking Laura to play with her; "too!" - meaning, "you too!" - is Eve's way of asking. 

So there was a lot of time spent hanging around the house, reading books, playing games, and running around!  Laura and Danny passed on a lot of knowledge to Eve including important phrases like "what's up hommie?" and teaching her to summersault.  Good fun!

On Saturday, we tried to actually get out of the house and do something - we though the aquarium would fit the bill!  Indoors and air conditioned!  You can see how well that turned out:

And it took us 15 minutes to get to that sign!  We decided that an hour wait in the heat was not really what we had in mind, so we canned the idea of the aquarium and decided to improvise. 

We made a quick stop by the fountain gardens near the aquarium only to find that they're turned off on Saturdays.  Eve was on the verge of over-heating, so I dunked her in the water a couple of times and we poored a water bottle over her head.  All in the name of hydration!

Then it was back to the car to cool off - ice cream always helps with that!

After that, we just drove around a bit and took Danny and Laura to see the Cowboys' stadium....

Can't forget the Rangers!

Yes, that's our car, with everyone crammed inside.  I was the only one to get out - and that just to get a quick shot.  Everyone else enjoyed the view from inside.  Seriously - so hot!  Why did we move to Texas?!

Before heading home, we drove by the Dallas Temple.  And yes, we ALL got out of the car for this one :)

I don't think Eve quite understood why we wouldn't let her play in these fountains like the ones from earlier in the day...

But there were pretty flowes to see!

And a little shade to rest in during our stroll around the grounds. 

"Follow me, Aunt Laura.  Back to the car!"

We had a great week with Laura and Danny - Eve especially!  Thanks for visiting!

3 Years Together!

On July 10th, Andrew and I celebrated our 3rd anniversary! 

In honor of the day....I had to work....it was a Tuesday after all.

But we celebrated by doing exactly what we wanted - staying home that night and eating the delicious dinner Andrew made!  Chicken and dumplings in the crock pot!  It was so yummy!

And for dessert?  Brownies and ice cream! 

Unfortunately (or maybe not so much), we didn't have anyone to take a picture of us and I didn't feel like doing the arms length shot.  When you're already feeling pudgy from pregnancy, those usually aren't the most flattering. 

But we had a great time looking back on everything that's happened to us in the past three years!  4 moves, 3 apartments, 1 house, 1.5 kids, and a whole lot of memories later, we're still going strong!  :) 

What a whirlwind the past three years have been - and we look forward to many more together!

4th of July

On the actual 4th of July, we drove a little way north to spend some time at my Uncle Alan and Aunt Shirlene's house in Sherman.  They have a pool which may be the main reason we didn't gather at our house instead :)

Andrew and I decided not to get in, but Eve wanted to at last take a dip.  She wouldn't let anyone but Grandma hold her....

And most of her time was spend just sitting on the edge with her feet in.  It was so hot!  Almost made me wish I'd gone in instead of sitting out sweating to death while waiting for Eve to be done.

I told you that boy was big!  Asher is a swimming pro (as you can tell from his tan).

There were lots of fun toys at their house - new toys to play with are always a treat!

And yummy food and drink as well!  Eve is becoming increasingly insistent on holding her own cups.  As long as they just have water, we're usually ok with it.  I think this one had root beer, so she was under close supervision.

More play time with Chiara!  Too bad we live so far apart because these two would have a blast together, I'm sure!

Here was my attempt to get some cute 4th of July pictures of Eve (thanks to Aunt Kelly for the cute outfit!).

Grandpa took the time to help Eve up in to the little kids' play loft - it was a steep climb, but well worth the effort!

"Hi, Dad!  Look how high up I am!"

Genevieve will have all the professional looking photos for this, but we took the three cousins outside for a photo shoot.  I spent most of the time trying to get them to look at Gen's camera, but managed to sneak in a couple shots of my own!

After our busy couple of days, we headed home kind of early and were in bed before fireworks began.  I had to work the next day, so we chickened out.  But the rest of the family went out to see our local fireworks.  From what I hear, it went ok.

We had so much fun having everyone over at our house!  We had one final hurrah on Friday night.  Stuart, Genevieve, and the kids had already left, but Uncle Reid, Aunt Jana, Kate, Ben, and Jane came over one last time and we had delicious pizza and just spent some playing games and hanging out.  Dad, Mom, and Eric left Saturday morning and just like that, we were back to just the three of us.  We're excited for our next visitors (Danny and Laura) to get here in a few days!

Happy 4th of July!



3rd of July

Our massive 4th of July celebrations started a day early!  My mom's two brothers and their families were in town from Houston and NJ and it was the only day we could all get together.  Our house was appointed as the gathering place - and what a gathering it was!

Dad did some crazy amount of "cooking" and 6 hours and 12 quarts of homemade ice cream later....yum!  He also treated us to homemade root beer!  Look at it carbonate!

Everyone brought some food so when the time came to eat, we were well stocked!  So many yummy things - and the best part?  I hardly lifted a muscle!  Everyone was so nice to me and did all the work and almost forced me to take it easy.

Genevieve and the kids made it to our house on Monday night (they drove from South Carolina - her younger sister came along to help out with the kids in the car).  And thanks to a last minute miracle, Stuart was able to make it too!  Although he didn't get to our house until later that evening - but he was in time to see the aunts, uncles, and cousins!

Our cute "little" nephew, Asher.  Definitely cute, but despite his age, not so little!  He was so much fun to have around and Eve especially loved to "hold" him. 

See, having that huge spare dining table came in handy!  It turned into the women/kids' table (+ Andrew and Uncle Reid :) ).

While our table became the "man cave".  Dig in!

It also happened that the 3rd was my cousin Michael's birthday, so we got to celebrate that, to boot! 

A yummy cake to go with all the ice cream!

Uncle Phil and Aunt Alicia brought their dog, Scout, along.  Eve was a big fan!  Even when Scout licked her face - Eve still loved it!

She especially loved playing with cousins Kate, Ben, and Jane.  Technically, they're my cousins, but she knows their names from pictures at Grandma's house (and from our trip to NJ last year!) so she was pretty comfortable to dive right in and play with them!  They were so patient with her and helped keep her occupied so we could enjoy the rest of the company.

Eve also had fun playing with cousin Chiara, or "Keera" according to Eve. 

We may have stayed up a little late, but it was so fun to all be together because opportunities like that are few and far between!

Family Fun!

Once Dad and Eric arrived on Sunday, July 1st, the week of non-stop fun kicked into high gear!

On Monday, we took a trip up to Cabelas - it's like a free museum for Eve!  And let's not pretend that the menfolk didn't have just as good of a time :)

Eve was sold the minute we walked in the front door and she got to ride a big tractor!  It was hard to pull her away from that one...

But she found a new friend to help drown her woes!

Crazy as it seems, sitting on this bench and playing with my chapstick was probably close to the top of her favorite things at Cabelas....silly girl!

Andrew and Eric being tough guys.  They're not afraid of the polar bear about to tear them to pieces!

No shoes, no service!

A future cougar in the making!

Eve didn't seem too interested in the fish (the only live animals in the store!).  Maybe I need to rethink my plan to take her to the aquarium soon...I could barely get her to stand their long enough for one picture.  She just wanted to get back to her bench!

That is, until she found out about the kids' toy section!  We spent the rest of our time there, while the guys looked at guns.  So many furry friends to play with!

Snack time!

The best part about leaving Cabelas?  We had to pass the "trucks" again on the way out and Eve got another ride!  Grandpa even let her help drive!

I'll do separate posts about our 3rd and 4th of July - they were busy, family filled days! - but the rest of the week was filled with A LOT of this:

So many people around to read books to Eve!  I don't think we could count how many times Grandma read Eve "The Foot Book".

On Friday night before everyone left to go home the next morning, the men took apart (literally - almost every piece) our spare dining table to get it ready for shipment to Denver with Mom and Dad.  It was nice to have it around when we had the large gatherings at our house over the 4th, but we knew we didn't have room for it long-term.  Now it has a new home at grandma and grandpa's!

Before Stuart, Genevieve, and the kids left on Thursday (yes - they were there too!) we had the chance to go over to the cemetary to see Grandpa Klosowsky's grave.  It was really neat to be there as a family.

Eve just enjoyed Grandpa letting her play in the tree!

It was so fun to have a few days off work and to just spend time with our family!  The last couple days of the week when I was back at work, Andrew, Dad, and Eric fixed so many things around the house!  I can't believe how much they got done - including, but not limited to the doorbell, the microwave, the garbage disposal sink drain, a shelf put up in the garage, attaching our hall bath vanity, and fixing lights on both of our cars.  We appreciated the help so much!

And you'd think Eve had died and gone to heaven with all the playing time she got with her grandparents and cousins.  She still asks about the every day - life is pretty quiet again with everyone gone!