Frog Fun

On the morning of Rachel's birthday Andy did some quick yard work and found a frog. The girls were pretty excited that he brought it inside for them to torture, I mean, play with:

Celebrating Rachel's 5th Birthday

The past five years have been pretty amazing with our Rachel. We are so grateful for her and all that she brings to our family. We're glad she's the leader of the pack and tries so hard to please and make good decisions. We certainly got lucky!

We celebrated Rachel's 5th birthday as a family on her birthday, May 9th. Andy took the day off work and we enjoyed the day together. We started off by letting her open up a few presents in the morning. Rachel had first been introduced to Zhu Zhu Pets right before Christmas. Unfortunately her Christmas was already taken care of, so she had to wait until her birthday. But I think she survived... :)

The rest of the morning she enjoyed her Zhu Zhu Pets. Audrey got some as well, so she could play along. Rachel had requested to have mac n' cheese from Olive Garden, so we headed there for lunch. I have to admit that I was a little disappointed in Olive Garden. Here was an adorable girl with a birthday hat on and they didn't do anything special for her. I guess we needed to request something??? I don't know... Anyhow, regardless she did enjoy her meal!

After lunch she went and saw the movie Rio with Andy. A special father-daughter date for sure. And then in the afternoon the girls enjoyed swimming in a pool that we had purchased for Rachel's friend birthday party that was later that week. Here's Rachel blowing bubbles and enjoying the pool:

After dinner Rachel opened up more presents and cards from grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. She sure is a very loved little girl!

We got an ice cream cake for Rachel since she doesn't care for cake really. She enjoyed the ice cream and frosting!

We definitely enjoyed helping Rachel celebrate her birthday. We are looking forward to the adventures and experiences that we'll get to have with her this next year. Life is beautiful with Rachel!

First "All-Up Ponytail"

Andy mentioned the other day that he thought Audrey's hair was long enough to put into a ponytail. Since we've never cut it, because I'm afraid all the curls will disappear, this isn't a big surprise. So, yesterday we tried it and Audrey was thrilled with the result. And of course the girls were more than happy to be their silly selves and pose for me. I love catching the love they have for each other on camera!

Blast from the Past

Last night Andy was sorting through our external hard drive. And it's hard to resist watching a few videos. So, here are a few he shared with me and then the girls this morning. It's so much fun to look back and enjoy! :)

This video was taken October 2007 - Rachel's 17 months old:

These 2 videos were taken in December 2008 - Audrey's brand new to our family (excuse my talking in the background):

Just a side note. Rachel had just become really attached to a lady at church named Alice, so she kept on insisting that Audrey was named Alice... :)

This video was taken August of 2009 - Audrey's 8 months old:

A big shout-out to my parents who had the wisdom to give us a little video camera a few days after Rachel was born. It's nothing fancy, but it has preserved some wonderful moments. The memories are priceless!

Quick Trip to Austin

Andy's work schedule really stinks the first 4 months of the year. It's never that fabulous, but it's especially hard at the beginning of the year. Working until 9-10 PM most nights and then Saturdays as well... So, when I found out my dad was going to be in Austin the first week of May and one of Andy's main clients was going to file May 5th, I figured it was perfect timing/reasoning for a weekend getaway. We've never been to Austin and have always said we wanted to get there.

So, on the morning of May 6th, we headed out. First on our list was meeting Papa Michaelson at Chuck E. Cheese. It happened to be a few days before Rachel's birthday, so she got to open her birthday presents from Papa and Grandma Michaelson while we were at Chuck E. Cheese. It was good to see my dad, as always. He did head home after lunch though, because he does tend to miss my mom like crazy....

Rachel was more than willing to give Chuck E. a big squeeze. Audrey was perfectly content staying 10 feet away. Don't worry, luckily this wore off by the time we got to Disney World later in the month. :)

After lunch we headed to the State Capitol Building. We enjoyed walking around and checking everything out. We even sat in for a few minutes to watch our lawmakers busy at work!

Just so you know, it's totally appropriate for little ones to dance in the Capitol:

Exploring the grounds outside the Capitol:
The girls really wanted to take a dip:

After exploring the Capitol we dined at P.F. Chang's, which was a fabulous choice! The girls ate more than I've ever seen them eat and Audrey mastered chop sticks:

After dinner we walked over to the Congress Avenue Bridge to watch roughly 1.5 million bats head out to look for food. There's actually a bat hotline number that you can call and we were on the bridge probably 10 minutes before takeoff. It was really quite amazing. We watched for about 15-20 minutes. It was pretty cool! At first we were on the wrong end of the bridge. But it was kind of like the wave you do at ballparks and the bats underneath us gradually took off as well.

Saturday morning we headed to Zilker Park. The girls had fun playing on the playgrounds and going on a train ride. And then once it got a little hot we headed to a swimming pool for the afternoon. We didn't take any pictures at the swimming pool (we were having too much fun!). But here's a few at Zilker Park:

There's lots of activities at Zilker Park including going kayaking. When the girls are older we'll have to go back! Once we packed the girls in the car to head back to the hotel after swimming, Audrey was out:

We headed back to the the hotel, Andy and Audrey took little naps while Rachel and I played in the hotel lobby. That evening we went out to Chuy's for dinner - one of my favorites! Andy eats there all the time here in Houston for work and I'm always jealous. So, he treated me for Mother's Day. :)

Sunday morning we headed to the Lyndon B. Johnson Library and Museum. We weren't expecting much, but it was free so we figured it was worth a try. We really enjoyed it! We re-learned a lot about the 60's and probably would have stayed longer if we hadn't had the little ones with us... :) Although they were really good for the time we did spend there. Just an interesting fact - this is the only free presidential library in the U.S., which was a wish of President Johnson. We weren't allowed to use the flash on the camera, so not many pictures turned out. Here are a few:

The girls enjoyed listening to the audio clips:

After the museum we picked up a picnic lunch and headed back to Zilker Park to check out the botanical garden. The girls enjoyed (with the help of Andy) climbing up some trees:

Each morning at the hotel the girls and I enjoyed a Texas-shaped waffle. So, the girls were pretty excited to get their picture with this Texas-shaped rock structure:

We then took a quick walk through the botanical garden. It was free and very hot and wasn't that impressive. Definitely worth a walk through on a better weather day. We've just been spoiled to see some pretty amazing gardens in the past. Andy took a few pictures of the girls and I:

We then headed home after that. We definitely enjoyed our weekend getaway to Austin. We didn't do a ton of planning beforehand and it turned out great. For me, it was a fabulous Mother's Day treat as I didn't have to cook or clean for 3 days. After 4 months of not so much family time, it was nice to have a weekend to spend together! :)

Smarty Pants

Audrey does suffer a bit from Second Child Syndrome. It has nothing to do with her ability, it just has to do with a mommy split between two children. Even though Audrey hasn't learned some of the things Rachel had learned by now, Audrey has learned things Rachel never knew at this age. And some of those things have been taught to her by Rachel. Here's a perfect example:

Mother's Day Picnic

On Thursday, May 5th, Rachel invited me to a Mother's Day Picnic at her school. We were instructed to pack a blanket and picnic lunch. Our child was going to be providing dessert. The picnic started with the children coming in and singing a few songs. And of course Rachel refused to look at me the whole time she was singing. She claims she had to watch Mrs. Fry (her music teacher). It cracks me up how my kids can be so shy and nervous around Andy and/or I.... Here's a little snippet of one of the songs they sang:

Rachel and I then enjoyed a picnic lunch together. Rachel was so excited to give me the bath salts that she had made. She was also very proud of how she kept the brownies a secret. They had made them on Tuesday, so she kept quiet for a few days! :)

After the picnic lunch I walked Rachel back to her class. Outside her classroom there was a poster hung up for each mother to take home. Rachel had filled out what she thought some of my favorites are:

I love how she thinks Candyland is my favorite game. It makes me happy to know that she can tell that I enjoy playing with her. The Sponge Bob thing totally cracks me up! Right now Rachel's obsessed with Sponge Bob Go-Gurts, so I guess that's where that comes from. The song she's referring to is: http://www.freeabcsongs.com/skidamarink.html. It was fun to have the opportunity to spend lunch with Rachel. She certainly makes being a mother a pretty amazing experience! :)

High Five

Today we get to celebrate Rachel's 5th birthday! Rachel is so much fun to have in our family. She makes us laugh and smile quite a bit. And she's very sweet and gentle at times as well. Rachel was definitely meant to be a big sister. She takes very good care of Audrey and takes being a big sister very seriously. Rachel is 40 1/2 inches tall and weighs 29.5 pounds. Currently she wants to be a cowgirl dentist, which means she wants to fix people's teeth with boots on. You can tell she's a Texan at heart! :)

Rachel has really taken off with reading. We are close to being completed with her reading lessons. As long as she's patient and tries, she can sound out most words. She loves being able to read and spell words. Her favorite word to tell you how to spell is S-T-O-P. Rachel is very excited for kindergarten to start. It's a good thing we'll have the pool to distract her this summer, otherwise I don't think she'd be able to survive until August...

It seems like our little 5 year-old is finally weaning herself from a nap. I know, we can't complain. There are days that she will still take a nap, but most days she prefers to hang out with mom. Rachel loves to help in the kitchen, fold clothes, make her bed, wash dishes, dust, and vacuum. I just hope her enthusiasm continues through the years...

Rachel is a movie junkie. If I would let her, she'd watch movies all day long. She does love to have friends over and it also makes her day to get to go over to a friend's house. Like most kids, she loves riding her bike and going to the park. Audrey and her love turning music on and dancing away.

The birthday girl only has a few requests to make her day special. She wants to wear a new dress she got from Papa and Grandma Michaelson (she opened her presents from them on Friday with Papa). Rachel wants to go to Olive Garden and have some mac 'n cheese - it's her favorite. She also wants her daddy to blow up her new swimming pool so she can go swimming on her birthday. Rachel's not a huge fan of cake, so she gets to go pick out an ice cream cake which she is very excited about. Hopefully we will be able to make her day special!

We feel so blessed to have Rachel in our family. She definitely makes life sweet!

These Two Girls

The other day I was off just thinking in my head and the thought crossed my mind that "life is good". And it's good because I get to spend each and every day with these two girls. There are lots of other things that make my life good. But these girls are a HUGE part of that equation. I feel so blessed to be a mother and to be able to try my best with these little ones. LIFE IS GOOD! :)

I had no idea...

I really didn't.... Ten years ago I had no idea what I was getting myself into. And I mean that in a positive way. Ten years ago if you had asked me what the next ten years were going to bring, I would have been so off! I am so grateful for a husband who has been by my side the past 10 years. In those years, we've experienced, seen, and done a lot. And it's been an amazing journey so far. I'm not going to make any predictions about the next 10 years, because one thing I have learned is I am far from being in charge. Here are a few of the adventures we've had the past 10 years together:

• Both graduated from college and began our careers (Andy's still going strong with the same one and I've switched gears a bit.)
• Moved to Texas
• Purchased our first home
• Welcomed 2 beautiful, healthy girls to our family
• Moved to Amsterdam
• Traveled to Canada, Mexico, Central America, New Zealand, all over Europe, and we've also covered some of the U.S.
• Moved back to Texas

These are the biggies. There have obviously been lots of stuff in between as well. Life has been good - the ups, the downs and the in-betweens have all been doable with Andy. I am looking forward to the rest of forever with my one and only!
(Next year it won't have to be a picture of a picture... One thing I'm working on currently. And one of the many ways things have changed the past 10 years.)