A fun vacation

Sorry we've been out of touch for a few weeks, but we just returned today from a 10 day vacation in Florida and Texas.

We started our fun trip on the 8th and flew into Orlando where we met up with Glammy, Papaw, Uncle Brett, and Cole for two jam-packed days at Disney World. It was Kate's first trip to Disney and she loved it! Her favorite part was "when Cinderella came out," and her least favorite part was "when the fireworks went pop, pop, pop!" She had a blast and Maggie even had some fun riding a few rides. After two days there, we drove over to West Palm where we stayed until Sunday at Glammy and Papaw's condo. It was so relaxing...at least the two hours in the afternoon during naps! No really, Kate loved swimming everyday and she even braved the ocean this year. The weather was better than perfect and we were so happy to be there versus being in Tulsa, where it was snowing!

This past Sunday we flew to Dallas. The girls and I stayed for a few extra days at Mimi and PopPop's house. It was also Kamryn's spring break and Kate was so happy to follow Kamryn around and love on him. We mostly just caught up on sleep and took it easy. We did go to a hibichi dinner where they cook on the table. Kate was not a huge fan! She liked the idea of it, but when the flames leapt up, she did not like it at all. Once the cooking show was over though, she enjoyed her chicken, shrimp, and fried rice. Mostly she just enjoyed sitting by Kamryn and talking his ear off!

I'll post pictures and video from our fun trip once I have a chance to get them loaded onto the computer. Just didn't want anyone to think that we'd given up on this blogging thing!:)

Halfway there

Maggie is halfway to being a big 1 year old...she's 6 months old today! I love every inch of that baby and could squeeze her to death most days. (Big sister Kate dressed Maggie up as a princess too. Maggie loved it!)

New things about Maggie this month: she is really and truly loving Kate! Maggie watches Kate's every move and also laughs at the appropriate times to encourage her big sister to act even sillier. It is a nightly ritual that Kate will go into Maggie's room and repeatedly fall on the floor and say "oh" over and over and Maggie never tires of this routine. It is so, so fun to watch them interact and I'm so looking forward to the day that they can actually play together. Maggie is working on sitting up, however since I'm a terrible mother and don't encourage "tummy time," her core isn't as stable as it should be. But don't worry, I've gotten her on a strict pilates workout to stablize that core and she'll be sitting up in no time!:) She has the frog pose okay, but we are working on the sitting up so hopefully we'll have that to report next month. She is starting to actually babble, more than just the high pitch squeal thing from months past. She lays in her crib and "bah, bah, bahs" over and over...it's really cute!

And just a little side story about sweet Kate Butler: driving home from school on Wednesday and I ask her to "please" not turn her cup upside down so the water doesn't spill out and she replies "Why do you always boss me?" To which I reply, "Because I'm the boss!" Such a mom statement!

Here are the two pictures of the girls on their 6 month birthdays. Kate is the top picture and Maggie is the bottom picture.

Rock Chalk Jayhawk!

Ryan and I were lucky enough to get 2 tickets to the KU/OU basketball game in Norman last night and it was a blast...because the Jayhawks won!! So since it was a big game for both teams and we live in Oklahoma but were rooting for Kansas, the girls sported their Jayhawk tee-shirts to show their support. Sorry OU fans!

A Valentine's weekend filled with hearts and happiness!

We had a very quiet, laid-back Valentine's weekend and it was perfect! We started on Friday night by ordering a heart-shaped pizza which Kate thought was the coolest. And while we ate that cool pizza, we watched a princess movie that we had rented for Kate, which was the second coolest thing that happened to her on Friday night!

On Valentine's Day, Ryan took Kate to get doughnuts and coffee, not coffee for Kate but for me! She loves that special little time with Ryan running those two short errands, plus she gets to eat doughnuts when she gets home! We had a great day just hanging out and playing together. For dinner, Ryan made Kate a special grilled cheese sandwich and I made Maggie a special bottle...not really, but I did make it with love! And then after the girls went to bed, Ryan and I spent some time together enjoying a sushi dinner which is my favorite!

Sunday might have been the best day of all, at least in Kate's world because Kate and I went to Playhouse Disney Live. She had a blast singing and dancing to her favorite Disney characters and it was even better that Caroline was there to enjoy it with her! She told me her favorite part was Handy Manny...she loves that guy!

We heart our baby-sitters!

While I was happily (not really) at jury duty last week, our sweet friends/sitters helped us out on Monday and Tuesday by watching the girls. I can't say enough how incredible it is to have not one, but two people who aren't family members love my girls like Kara and Heather do. (At least that's what they tell me anyway!)

Kara watches the girls every Monday for me so I can run errands child-free which also means I get way more accomplished in half the time. Kate loves when she comes over because they usually do something fun that we don't get to do regularly. Last week, they baked Valentine cupcakes. I called at lunch to check on the girls and Kate got on the phone and excitedly told me that she had made cupcakes for me and to come home and eat mine! She had so much fun baking, icing and decorating.(If you hadn't noticed, Kate is quite into dress-up play these days. This is not a normal hair accessory that we wear out and about!)

Heather is our other wonderful sitter and she came over on Tuesday to play. She is always so quick with my camera to record precious pictures of Kate and Maggie and she even has taken a video or two of them. How she manages to be that quick is amazing to me. I'm usually still sitting there thinking about getting the camera by the time the fun is over and then I've missed it. She captured this sweet game of peek-a-boo between Kate and Maggie. I don't know who was having more fun, Kate or Mags?



And p.s...thanks to my mom for flying in on Tuesday night to help me out on Wednesday. Kara and Heather both work on Wednesday and I was in quite a bind. Luckily, I got released from jury duty Wednesday evening and so mom and I got to spend a couple of days with the girls together.

Snow Day!

Yesterday was an official snow day at our house...Ryan's office was even closed! Kate was dying to get outside and play in the snow. What she didn't realize, no matter how many times we told her, was that it wasn't snow but ice. Nevertheless, that didn't stop her from roping her daddy into going outside for some winter fun. She did better than I thought she would. She stayed bundled up, never asked to go potty, and stayed out for about 45 minutes. Maggie and I watched from the warmth of the house. We did, however, bundle Mags up and get documentation of her first "snow". Enjoy the picture and videos!

5 months!

Yes that's right, Maggie is 5 months old today! We are battling yet another cold, but so is big sister. I guess that's just part of winter. We are in the middle of another ice storm, closing schools today and tomorrow. Maggie's first winter will be remembered by colds and ice storms! She is still a sweet baby. I know I say that every month, but she really is! She always has the biggest grin for us when we talk sweetly to her. I want to just gobble her up! We did have a bit of a stressful week this month regarding Maggie. Fortunately or unfortunately, my girls have their daddy's eyes. Most that know Ryan well, know that his eyes look "sleepy" alot. At Maggie's 4 month check up, our pediatrician Dr. Hughes, was concerned that the shape of her eyes could be a characteristic of Down Syndrome. After sending us down to the lab to have blood drawn, we had to wait a grueling 8 days for the results and that was even with Dr. Hughes requesting the results stat (it usually takes 2-4 weeks). Those were truly the longest 8 days of our lives, but I'm so very happy to report that the testing came back normal and she fortunately or unfortunately has her daddy's eyes! Maggie owes us big time!!!

Again, pictures of both girls on their 5th month birthday. Kate is the top picture, Maggie is the bottom picture.