Holding Hands

So, on Wednesday, we stayed at home all day in our comfy clothes and played, made some flubber, made Valentines candy for Atticus' party, didn't take any naps, and went in and out all day tracking sand all over my kitchen. However, it was a fun day! The cutest part involved Atticus and Grace holding hands. Grace has recently been into holding Atticus' hand. Sometimes he is patient and walks slow and takes pride in helping her. Other times, he is a rascal and pulls her too fast or doesn't want to help her. But, on Wednesday, he was into it. He would take her hand to lead her outside and to lead her around the house. She was so proud to hold his hand as well and obeyed perfectly. At one point, he is leading her through the kitchen and looks at me and says so proudly, "Mommy! I think I'm falling in love with Gwacie, Mommy and Daddy!" I love that his thoughts of "falling in love" are with his family! I am looking forward to teaching him more and more how to play with Grace and how to be a big brother to look out for her and be her friend.

Play time

So, usually I put up our random "what we are doing today pictures" on Instagram. But, lately, Instagram is not a good venue because I can't get any good pictures. They aren't really into posing much lately and whether they are posing or not, they are moving and my camera can't always get a goo picture. Plus, Grace sees my phone and then just wants to play with it. So, I've been snapping them on my regular camera and that is what is below. Most of these are from one day of playing. This week we have...

 fed the dinosaur... 

 ran the chainsaw....

 played on the computer...

 played in the kitchen...

 eaten some delicious waffles with a little side of ice cream....

 poured lots of orange juice....

 and then of course drank some...

 and smiled...

 played with our train track...

 messed up Atticus' puzzles that he already put together....

  put LOTS of stickers on paper...(this was fabulous - it took lots of time!)... 

 painted one another in the bathtub...

 ran around naked....

 crawled through tunnels....still naked....

 put a few Frozen stickers on paper....yes, still naked...  

laughed with Daddy....

 posed for a picture where she looked way too grown up....

 checked ourselves out in the mirror....

 found even MORE stickers in the cabinet....

 asked for a snack....

 and got one. But, she fed Doc first....

 and then fed herself.... 

 and then gave Doc a hug...

 played a lot with Daddy....

 hid in the tent...

 kept playing with stickers.... 

 decided to learn how to play Eye Found It at 9:00 at night...

 and then posed for more pictures before going out the next day...

 and requested, through facial expressions and pointing, Taylor Swift's "Shake it Off" in the car (which, by the way, she does recognize and does complain if I put it on a different song--#loyal)... 

 brought Atticus his blanket (as she also does with his sippy cup, certain toys, and his shoes on a regular basis)...

 and ended with some coloring before naps that day.

 

So, these are my pictures for what we've been up to this week!

Martin Luther King, Jr. Weekend Celebration 2015

I think I type the same things each year when I talk about MLK Day. But, 11 years ago a few of us bonded as friends on that weekend and since then, we've liked continuing it as a time to get together each year. This year, Kristofer and Katie invited us to Huntsville to Katie's parents beautiful home that I'd also like to dub a "resort". They have a pool, a hot tub, a bar, a perfect kitchen for us to crowd around and cook in, a poolhouse to do more eating and visiting, a hut to sleep extra people and more than anything, her parents are the kindest, most easy going, thoughtful, generous and fun people to be around.

Vic, Katerina and I headed their way Friday afternoon and didn't come back until noon on Monday. GG came in to watch the kids (and by watch I mean spoil them completely but in a wonderful way of loving them so much! I can't tell you how many little treats of dinosaurs, animals, playdough, books, movies and snacks she brought them. And I can't tell you how many hilarious conversations she told us about after their weekend).

The others to spend the weekend with us included: Taylor & Mary, Kristofer and Katie, Whitney, Abby and then of course Gary & Nancy. And then our other Katie came on Sunday. The entire weekend was spent eating delicious food (Emeril's Mexican Breakfast Casserole, Carnitas tacos, Emeril's Blue Cheese dip, Emeril's Sausage Cheese Bread, Emeril's Chicken Chili, Taylor's smoked brisket and Verett potato salad and finally some monster cookies, wedding cake, and Katerina's Chocolate Chip Pie). We also sat in the hot tub, slept in, drank out of our new fancy koozies that Mary had made, got pedicures & manicures, made Vic play charades, watched Katerina dance and sing to her own playlist, and watch Kristofer and Taylor install all kinds of new fancy TV & music equipment for Nancy & Gary's pool bar area. It was the best!

Our Lovely Hosts Nancy & Gary....

This picture makes me laugh! Mary went down the slide a lot that night!

By this point, on this really cold night, Vic was back into his warm clothes and just serving drinks instead.

These were two of our 3 chefs for the weekend.

Ah...Emeril's delicious Chicken Chili (that is cornbread on top).

I can't imagine what joke had just been told...

  Watching Vic play charades by himself was one of the highlights for me! He may be the best sport ever!

 This is exactly their relationship...hilarious!

 Katerina has always been our dancing queen! This could have been "Bye Bye Bye" by N'Sync or Whitney Houston's "I just wanna dance with somebody!"

 And here is our last morning...always the saddest part to our weekend!

And back home to our babies we went! Oh and by the way, we were pretty sure each child had aged at least 6 months and were talking more and acting more grown up than when we left 4 days before. How does that happen so fast???