Sisters

The sweetest thing happened tonight. The girls have been sharing a room for about a month now. It is mostly going well, Amelia sleeps through a lot more than I thought she would. But 2 timesI have woken up to Maya crying and go in to see Amelia has filled her crib with toys in the middle of the night. My mean mom mind assumed Amelia was bored in the night and tried to wake up Maya. But tonight after I put them down, I heard Amelia get up and decided to watch in the monitor.

Maya whines as she falls asleep, for probably 5 full minutes. Nothing too loud or sad. Well Amelia got up and went to Maya's crib. She now knows she should never throw a toy in the crib. So I watched as she reached her arms through the slats and patted Maya's face and then held Maya's hand and patted Maya's hand. Maya immediately stopped fussing and just stared at Amelia. Amelia was so gentle and loving and patient. Then she reached in and turned on Maya's music box, Maya turned toward the box and was definitely dosing off. So then Amelia walked away and climbed back into bed and tried to put her blanket back on. Now they are both sleeping soundly.

So many lessons learned. Those few times, Maya probably woke Amelia up and the toys were Amelia's attempt at comforting Maya. My automatic reaction is to think my 2 year old is up to something, when really she was being the sweetest and best big sister possible. And she was so motherly, it was a really special moment. I love my girls so much. I love seeing their friendship develop. It is so good to be a mom.

More Pictures with Friends!

I guess I need to provide proof that we were actually with friends on our vacation. Ha ha, Kasee sent me some pictures she took, she is so good at remembering to get group shots.

 Me and Kasee

 Shopping on the Strand with Lindsey, Blakely, Jason and Kasee.

 Family picture in the sunset. I love Amelia in this one. No idea where Juan is looking... And check out those tans on Juan and Amelia. Maya and I are jealous!

The whole group!

Happy Memorial Day to everyone. Hope y'all have a great weekend!

Galveston Beach Friendcation!

 We hit the road this weekend and went on a vacation to the beach! It was a 4 hour drive and this sums up how the girls did. Amelia falling asleep mid-draw and Maya was happy as always.

Disclaimer: This picture was taken at a restaurant, not in the car. We buckle her up when she's in the car, don't you worry. But she really was this happy.

 Our 3 couple friends joined us on this "friendcation": Cameron & Steph, Blakely & Lindsey, and Jason & Kasee. We each had our own bedroom and the best part was being able to stay up late and talk and play games after the kids were all to bed! Who needs sleep?

 Our house is the one in the center of the photo. It was SO nice and perfect to have a kitchen and the same common area for everyone. And reasonably cheap when split between the 4 of us.

 The weather was beautiful all weekend, the highs were 85.

 We went on walks and found this cute park for Amelia to play nearby.

 Each night after the kids were to bed, we'd go in the yard and play frisbee as the sun went down.

We had beach access about a 2 minute walk from our house which was so fun! Especially at night we took walks down there and saw all the crabs and had cute, tiny frogs in the front lawn.

 We went to the beach in actual Galveston and spent the day. Amelia was in love with the sand! She just parked in her spot and was set for the day!

 She slowly warmed up to the water. 

 By the end, she made friends and they were "swimming" (laying in the sand at the shallow part). 

 This trip made me so happy that our family will have these fun memories at the ocean and we are so blessed to live within a short drive. It was the perfect vacation. We have so much fun with our friends and we want to do this every year!

Maya is 4 Months!

Our little Maya, she LOVES the camera. There were too many good ones to pick just one:

I can't say it enough. Maya is the best baby, awesome sleeper, so happy, super chill. She is growing too fast! Here are some of her favorite things this month:

• She loves to stand. She spends almost all 3 hours of church standing and smiling and looking around.
• She and Amelia share a room now. Maya likes to wake up around 6:30 am cooing and talking as loud as she can. A couple times I have been able to rush in and scoop her out before she wakes Amelia, but some days we have early mornings.
• Maya will smile at anything. We were at the doctor and he couldn't get over it, he kept saying, I am not even smiling at her and she is giving me the biggest smiles. She also braved herself through her shots and whimpered a little, but didn't even cry. 
• She loves Mr Owl, her hanging toy. She is obsessed. I move him back and forth between her playmat and carseat and she will always migrate over to her Owl. It is so sweet. (Especially since I just had to buy it for Amelia and then she had no interest in it whatsoever).
• She loves to play with her sister. Even when Amelia gets a little crazy with Maya, Maya is all for it and keeps a smile on her face.
• She weighs 14 lbs 15 oz and she is 25 1/2 inches long. 
• And I finally caught her on video rolling over onto her tummy. The remote was her motivation:

Food Food Food

The second half of Ginger's visit is summed up in 1 word, Food. We took them to Torchy's and Tacodeli here in Austin, they are rivaling taco places. And Torchy's wins hands down. It is delicious. Best taco of my life. Any of them.

Round Rock Donuts. We couldn't resist the Texas sized!

Chuy's- our local Mexican Restaurant. Their Creamy Jalapeno Ranch, I dream of it. 

We dropped the kids off with Kasee & Jason one night and had a double date night downtown.

We took them to Hopdoddy's, the popular burger joint here. I do have to say, their burgers are pretty good, the shakes even better. This was our second time and we liked it better than the first.

We also took them to see the Bats. At sundown, hundreds of thousands of bats fly out from their home in the bridge. Turns out this isn't the best time of the year to go, we waited for over an hour and even then the bats didn't come out all at once. But it was fun!

 We shopped a TON. Amelia spent a lot of time in the stroller. So she'd get in her nap or find ways to entertain herself.

 We took them to Mount Bonnell. Amelia really got into the climbing and had to do it all by herself.

 It is so pretty up there, we should come more often as our little family on Sunday afternoons.

 I adore Maya's dress and I'm sad that I accidentally took the attention away from her new dress by wearing the same color.

Amelia begging Juan to let her climb down herself. 

Every morning Amelia would run out and ask for "Juh" (Ginger) and "Sah" (Sam). She said good bye Sunday and she understood that they were gone. I asked her after church where they were and she said, Gone. Then she ran to the door and said, Door. She's still sticking to the short and limited responses as you can see. Although she does understand everything we say.

And now it's back to real life. Which looks like this:

Orange Soda mustache.

 We had the best time with Ginger and Sam. But I can't complain, normal life is pretty awesome too.

Corpus Christi

My sister is in town and last weekend we headed to Corpus Christi for an Ocean vacation! 

 We got some fried shrimp at Snoopy's-I'd rate it a 6/10. But we did love the ocean side location.

 Then we headed to Rockport Beach. It was windy but the perfect temp.

 Maya was not a fan of the wind.

 This picture is awesome. Amelia loved to watch the waves.

 Loving the wind!

 Family picture.

 This beach was the best. The water was so blue.

 Beachside playgrounds.

Maya got used to the wind.

The water was luke warm and very shallow for a long way out. Perfect for kids.

 Maya's first time in the ocean!

 Amelia and Juan walking way out.

 We ate at Wallburgers in Corpus. It was Fuddrucker's style but even more delicious. Juan got a stuffed hamburger with bacon and cheese. We all loved it there.

And we are still partying! More to come.