Wildlife Ranch with the girls!

Been trying to get more 'field trips' with the girls before I go back to school, hence the fountains and sno-cones and wildlife park etc. I'd rather do less errands and more fun stuff with the three of us together, so that's been my goal the last 4 weeks. We've had fun! Kelli is digging her new favorite snack (above): apples. She also has a favorite book: Dr. Suess, The Foot Book... to which the other day she handed it to me to read her and clear-as-day said to me "fut-but", which I'm assuming means "foot book" because that is what we've always called it. She has done it a few times now... each time we pick it up "fut but"

We got to the Wildlife Ranch and kids are allowed to feed the animals from the car as you go 5mph through the park, so I let them out of their seats. Kelli had no idea what to do here. She was a bit timid at first. Then she warmed up with all the squealing and dancing as soon as she saw animals!

I got video of all the squeals, pointing and dancing.

Look at this Mona-Junior!

Then she decided she was going to try her hand at driving.

I love how she's looking at me here! Affection is rare with Kelli!!

Ostrich!!!

Sydney does not like ostriches!!!!

Loved feeding the zebras!

Kelli's first one-on-one with goats... she was getting frustrated and kept "shooing" them away, then finally I showed her that we can pet and touch them... and she got interested. Especially with the words "soft" and "nice"

Her new peeps.

Sydney's favorite are the babies.

These babies were play fighting, it was adorable!!!

10 minutes into my drive home...

zonked!

love those girls!

Forts

Kelli's favorite play time. Once I start counting "onnnne.... twoooo... threeee" she knows it's time to wrestle on the bed and starts running into my room and towards our bed. She gets up there and recently began crawling under the sheets. I'd make a fort by lifting them up with my arms and leg and she gets such a tickle out of it, begins squealing and rolling over... it's the cutest sight. Sydney likes to join in when she can.

Sydney will get under covers, too, and Kelli pounces on her and like a button, once Kelli gets her, Sydney giggles or screams which makes Kelli laugh hysterically. I got video of this but blogger won't let me upload it.

During Kelli's morning nap I took Sydney to the gym, got a workout then we headed to Booster Juice for a treat. I had to get a ton of work done filling out papers, contracts and stuff for Sydney's school and my school, pay a bunch of bills and so on. So we sat there and they have a little table for little people and Syd played on the computer while I paid bills and filled out a mountain of paperwork. It didn't seem to ever end! But I had an amazing mango smoothie with added fiber boost! yum!

Sending Sydney to this new private school is almost a fulltime job now! This isn't even 1/4 of the paperwork I had to fill out here. The rest is sitting on the chair to the right. But there are ethics contracts, computer safety contracts, carpool/drop of/pick up contracts, health & permission to treat contracts, then tons of forms to fill out if you want your child to participate in this or that activity, forms to fill out just to pick out their lunches for the year, website to go to so you can order "spirit wear" which is for days they don't have to wear a uniform, but it still must be from this company, adding all of the important playdates, coffees, meetups, orientations, conferences, curriculum nights, days of mass etc to my calendar for the next 3 months... and I'm not sure how many times I had to fill out our addresses, emails, numbers, lisence plate numbers, driver lisence numbers, etc etc etc. Whew.

Sydney began getting sick around Monday. We thought it was a sinus thing because she said her head hurt and had a stuffy nose, but her head hurt so bad she wanted to lay down and have a cold pack on her. It later kept developing and then the croup cough started so she's been on the nebulizer for a few days and is getting better. Kelli got something, too.. but it's mostly just congestion, and she's acting fine... not sleeping well but otherwise she's okay.

I took the girls to our favorite sno-cone spot on Barton Springs. We get a little stir-crazy in the house when we're there too long, but at the same time it's kind of hard to get out and run errands with both girls (especially because Kelli is so high maintanence) ... but if I take them out for stuff they both like to do, we have a lot of fun.

Kelli...aka The Boss
She looks SO much like her Mona.

Sydney, my mini-me.
We both get the lemon sno-cone. It's really good!!!!

Girls day out @ Lake Travis

My sisters Jenny & Wendy & I have been planning to get together and have a girls day out for a while so we finally picked a day that worked for all of us and took a boat out on Lake Travis. Mom & Dad watched Kelli and Syd so I could go since Andy is out of town again. I don't know the last time I've actually been out with the girls or my sisters, it's been a while. I usually use up all me "me time" or time "away" for my runs or working out, so it was nice to socialize and relax. I brought stuff for mimosas and was going to try wakeboarding for the first time, but as it turns out I was having too much fun just RELAXING!!! Had a little snafu dropping the anchor, though, and it's now somewhere in the bottom of the lake. Wendy's fault.

We got there early, so it wasn't too hot or humid and the lake wasn't very crowded.

Right around here Wendy & I are debating whether this stick was actually a snake. I'll swim in lake water but a lot goes through my mind. If anything glides passed me, touched me or bubbles near me... my heart beats a little faster. Sometimes it can cause me to run on water, screaming.

Ronald McDonald House

After my 6 mile run on Saturday morning, I went home and showered then took Sydney to Costco. We picked up some things from the RMH wish list for our "Mommy & Daughter Day" and took them up to the Ronald McDonald House. I explained to her what this charity does and what our donation would mean to the families. We got a lot of laundry detergent, to-go boxes for the kitchen and to-go snacks as well. We went and dropped everything off and Sydney really enjoyed talking to everyone and seeing how it all worked there. We then drove by the hospital and she said she wished she could go in there and play with the kids before God puts them to sleep. That made me sad. I explained the doctors were taking good care of them.

Goofin' Around

The girls & I were playing in Kelli's room for a while this afternoon. Usually I get antsy about making a mess in there, but this time I let them just go at it and we had fun in there. Sydney and I challenged each other at a toss game, which turned into who could knock the other out with this silly ball first... and a lot of giggles ensued, until Kelli caught a smack in the head.

The more pictures I took, off course, the less Kelli wanted to play with her toys and more she wanted to play with the camera. Then crying ensued.

Time to whip out the noise makers.

Apparently I wasn't in enough agony so Sydney tackled me.

This was Kelli's first real "pretend" game. She took an empty cup and a spoon and pretended to feed me (air) from the cup. She'd dip the spoon into the cup and scoop up some pretend food and then feed it to me and say "mmmm" and repeat it over and over, and she was very excited and happy about it. It was cute.

This was our celebratory dinner at the Cracker Barrel for Aunty La & Uncle Wally's 60th Anniversary. (Aunty La couldn't make it due to her hernia). I am making that face because of my eye... the day prior I was at the doctor with the entire right eye swollen shut. I thought I had pink eye but as it turned out that wasn't it. Some allergy. It hurt! Kelli lasted a good 10 minutes and then I had to take her home.

These days, Sydney begs for a bath. Which is great! Though I need to teach her how to wash her hair properly on her own. That'd be awesome!

Me & the Girls

Kelli's favorite game is playing on our bed. When I begin counting she runs in there and I throw her on the bed. She loves wrestling and rolling around and our newest thing is making the top cover a fort. She squeals and laughs... I have to get video. It's really cute.

Sydney grew 2 inches in the last week I think. I keep looking at her and thinking SOMETHING is different... but between all her clothes being so tight, her toes sticking out of her sandals and well... her being a lot TALLER, I just think she hit a sudden growth spurt. She suddenly looked a lot "growner-upper" to me. I think all her "baby face"ness has completely gone.

See? Look how tall she is all of a sudden! This is Sydney being a veternarian and performing surgery on a Panda at the children's museum.

Scrubs look good on her! She should go with it...

Children's Hunger Fund- San Antonio

I volunteered, alongside my amazing neighbors, at CHF in San Antonio last weekend to help at the wharehouse; unpacking, sorting and clearing away. It was an amazing day! You are unable to give to others without giving to yourself. Above is Jonna (the girls' babysitter!) showing us how glamorous volunteering can be!

Me & Veronica taking a break

Palmer Fountains

I haven't updated the blog lately! Been busy trying to keep a good routine running longer distances, staying busy with the kids, getting ready for school and in Sydney's case (with her new school) that has become an almost fulltime job! There are new papers to fill out, new things to rsvp to, stuff to join, things to buy, uniforms, rules to read etc etc... everyday it seems! Well anyhow, it's been very hot here staying in the triple digits for the most part so I've been taking the girls to the fountains and to the pool most days.

Sydney never has a hard time making friends.

This is a good picture to illustrate why we call her Kelli Belly.

Sydney in action.

Andy has been traveling almost all summer it seems. I think I've gotten used to him being gone more than him being home that when it's around time for him to come home, I almost get nervous. Like; what will we do? How will the kids behave? Will our schedule be thrown off? I really hope at some point he won't have to travel as much. I think I'm getting "toooooo" used to it.