A Day in the Life...

Yesterday by bedtime I was exhausted...Jake and Grace wear me out...but I am so blessed! They are just a joy and although yesterday I was so tired by the end of the day, I couldn't help but think how wonderful it is to get to stay home with them and be their mom. They're really beginning to play together now which melts my heart. Jake was playing the drums today, and Grace crawled over to see what he was doing so he pulled out a xylophone from his instrument set and showed her how to hit it to play with him. She really just chewed on it, but you could see how happy she was to be like her brother.

Ty has been pushing Grace around on Jake's plasma car, and she loves to steer as she pushes her. Yesterday, I put her on it, and Jake climbed on behind her, and they rode around the house together. He put his arms around her so she wouldn't fall and propelled them with his feet while she steered. I'm so glad that they have built in friends in each other and hope they'll grow up to be close!

(Note: Jake did have a shirt on at one time yesterday! It was cool in the morning though and by the afternoon it had warmed up so he shed his sweatshirt)

A Glorious Day at the Park

Why I'm NOT Martha Stewart

I have such good intentions. I have grand ideas of wonderful crafts I'll make with the kids, fancy desserts we'll make, costumes I'll sew for them...and then, I put my ideas into action and they never quite turn out like I'd envisioned. I scoured websites for fun fall crafts to do with Jake and even bought a few supplies, but I've yet to make the scary pipe cleaner spiders I found or paper mache pumpkins I'd dreamed of.

Last weekend we did make the Haunted Gingerbread House I won at bunco and Jake had a wonderful time with the process. In the end, we were both covered in purple frosting and the house looked nothing like the picture on the box, but we had FUN. He frosted the house himself and put the candy on top. I asked him if he wanted to eat any of it, but he was leery of that...After you see the end result, you'll understand why!

Yesterday I kept my friend Claudia's kids, Jackson and Lillie Beth so she could go to a funeral. Jackson and Jake are friends and had a great time playing cars and trains together. Lillie Beth helped me bake cupcakes and she, Grace, and I watched the Hannah Montana movie together. When the boys woke up from their naps, I let all the kids frost the cupcakes to look like pumpkins. I have a cupcake cookbook that I found the idea in...you use orange frosting, orange sprinkles, and green twizzlers for the stems. I couldn't find green twizzlers and thought green gummy worms would be just as good. WELL, they didn't look like the pictures, but once again the kids had FUN!

Lillie Beth mixing up the cupcakes...she's so adorable! I can't wait until Grace is old enough to bake with me too :)

The "pumpkin"

Jake liked the end result!

I'm pretty sure the lesson I've learned this month is that I don't have to be Martha Stewart and make perfect cupcakes or cookie houses. I can be Amy who is definitely not a perfectionist, and my kids will still have a great time!

Our Dancing Girl

Grace has recently discovered that she loves music and likes to "dance." When she hears fun music playing, she gets so excited and just starts bouncing. Ty hopes she might be the one member of our family to get some rhythm :) Jake also loves to dance, but it looks like he might have inherited his parent's moves and might be "rhythmically challenged." Here's video of Grace: sorry for the horrible quality...I took it with my camera. Pretend it has sound and isn't the grainy quality that you see and enjoy:

O-K-L-A-H-O-M-A

The kids and I headed up to Oklahoma last week for a long weekend to visit my family. On the way there we stopped at my sister-in-law, Casey's house to spend the night and break up the trip. The kids had a great time having dinner with Aunt Casey and playing with her dog Watson. Thursday we finished the trip to Oklahoma and were greeted with super cold weather. It had been 95 when we left Houston on Wednesday and the whole time we were in Oklahoma, it didn't get out of the 50's. The kids got to break out some winter clothes and bundle up while we were there. Of course now that we're home, we've gotten back out the shorts and sandals :)

Grace all bundled in her sweater and hat

We had such a wonderful trip. Jake and Grace love Gigi and Poppy's house and as an extra bonus they got to spend everyday with their cousins too. Its so fun to watch the four of them interact now as they're getting older. Hendrix and Jake played really well together and mostly chased each other and ran and ran and ran. They raced the girl's little walker toys around the house. Both boys wanted to play with the toy lawn mower so they had to take turns. At one point, Hendrix took a turn too fast, and fell down so Jake ran quickly, grabbed the lawn mower and was off. Hendrix is one of the funniest kids I've ever met. I love my nephew! He has quite the vocabulary and is dramatic like his Aunt Amy...I have a real soft soft for him :) The funniest Hendrix quote from the weekend is when he got put in time out and said, "I don't want to sit here for one minute, I want to sit here FOREVER!" It was hard not to laugh :)

The boys were NOT excited to get their picture made

Grace and Gentry got along famously as well. They interacted more this trip and Gentry taught Grace how to walk behind a walker. We tried to have a race with the girls, but Grace kept falling down. They both put EVERYTHING in their mouths...they're little mini vacuum cleaners. They keep everyone hopping!

Gigi with the girls

Grace's new trick

Poppy getting Grace to sleep...she loves her Poppy!

We intended on going to a pumpkin patch on Saturday, but it was too cold and rainy so Mom just bought some pumpkins for the kids to take pictures. She also made pumpkin cookies with the boys and Dad played with the boys in the backyard and pushed them in a big wagon which they loved. It's always so nice to be home again and spend time with my family. Ryan and Crystina are so great to bring the kids over everyday when we're home.

Oh, one more highlight of the trip was on Friday night. Thursday we had a family dinner at my Uncle David's and Aunt Cindi's house which was fun. Since we were over there, we missed watching "The Office" so we watched it Friday at Ryan's. I'd been really looking forward to this episode because it was the long awaited wedding of Jim and Pam. In honor of the TV wedding, I made a "wedding" cake. I'm obviously a huge fan of the show and was super excited that Jim and Pam were finally getting married! The episode was one of the funniest TV shows ever...so funny and creative. After we watched the show and ate wedding cake, we had a family dance party. Hendrix loves to turn out the lights and dance with his glow sticks. The whole family danced and danced...Hendrix definitely has some sweet moves :) Jake thought it was great fun and Grace just smiled. I love my family :)

The "wedding" cake

The dance party

We had a great weekend and on the way home on Monday we stopped off in Ft. Worth and had lunch with Destin and Nash. It was good to get home and see Ty as well. I think we're done traveling for awhile...its time to stay home and rest!

Girl's weekend!

Last weekend Grace and I had a girl's weekend with some of my best friends from college. Jake stayed home to have a guy's weekend with Ty and had a great time going out on Papa and JoJo's boat and swimming at Lake Conroe.

I'm truly blessed with some wonderful friends! My friends Rachel lives in Florida but was in Dallas for a conference. Randi lives in Arkansas but her parents live in Dallas so she came over and her parents were nice enough to let us stay at their house. Shannon lives in Dallas but spent the weekend with us at Randi's parent's house. We really missed having Sallie with us, but she had just started a new teaching job in New York and couldn't come.

We had such a relaxing, refreshing weekend! We lounged by the pool and talked and talked and talked. We also shopped a little and ate a lot :) Who could complain about that? These girls have always been such an encouragement to me and have lifted me up spiritually. It doesn't matter how much time goes by, we always pick up where we left off. We can laugh together, cry together, and pray together. Technology today makes the world smaller and we can keep up on facebook, blogs, or by phone, but there is just something about being together that is special.

Grace came along since I'm nursing her, but she did great! She loved all of her surrogate aunts and the extra attention. She didn't sleep well, but that was partly my fault. I stayed up late every night and then would get up early with her around 6:00.

I definitely feel renewed after being with the girls and hope our next reunion comes much sooner. It also makes we want to have a giant Harding reunion as well. Here's to great friends!

Randi, me, Rachel, and Grace

Grace with "Aunt Rachel"

Grace and Auntie Shannon

Shannon and Rachel

Grace and me before church on Sunday...we went with Shannon to the Village--what a great church! Their worship was amazing and the preacher was great.

The girls