A Song in our Hearts

Sometimes you just gotta sing. That's our philosophy anyway.We just recently purchased a Flip video camera so that we could start capturing these kids live and in person. And I told Carson (no pressure) but I also bought it so that we could get his first steps on camera. He gave me a "yeah right!" look as he crawled away from me. A couple of songs on this one. The old stand by "I love you you love me" with a sweet kiss for Daddy and then a song that I made up. It's called the Hope song and I sing it to the kids everyday. It goes something like, "You've gotta have Hope Hope, you gotta have hope yes you gotta have hope." The kids love to fill in the "Hope Hope" part. Even Carson pipes up with his "Ho! Ho!"

The Sweet Spot

This week I have taken a ton of pictures of our kids. Precious times. I just want to capture this time and bottle it up so that someday down the road I can experience it all over again. I love the innocence of my kids right now. I love that they want to roll around with me on a quilt in the back yard. I love that they think it is just simply hilarious to plop right down on my tummy when I'm fake sleeping. Kate loves it when I bring the quilt out to the back yard. She knows there is some good cuddle time ahead. Carson loves to play on he porch and then crawl over and bury his head into me. It is so sweet and I will always remember what a bond that I feel with both of them even at this young age. I love these pictures because looking at them I can see EVERY expression that my kids make daily. Even the expressions that aren't "camera ready" and I love that, because I know that I will look back at this slideshow and think "Oh that expression right there is SO Carson...or SO Kate." I love that Kate is still wearing a Christmas shirt in April. I love to see her look down at the Santa Claus and say "Ho ho ho! Merwee kissmus!" I love the way Carson's hair stands on end in the breeze.I love that when I say to him, "Give Mommy a kiss!" he will either open his mouth wide and plant a wet one on my cheek or shake his little head fast and say, "No!" as only a little boy can.
This is it. I've found it. The sweet spot of life. It has nothing to do with money, or jobs, or going back to work or not going back to work. It's all wrapped up in a wild haired little girl and blonde blue eyed little boy. They've got my heart and they know it. Somehow they know that they are the sweet spot of my life and they are reveling in it!

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The Breakdown of a Breakdown

Ah, Sweetness and light. Yes well...... just want to let you know in this house we are keeping it real. This is my sweet little lovely having a little tantrum. Caught in pictures of course by Mommy because....well... you know..... they grow up so quick!!! The whole time I am taking pictures she is saying,"No cheese!" because we always tell her to say cheese! when she gets her picture taken. By the way, she wanted me to "Shan up Mommy!" (Stand up) and she got upset because I was perfectly comfortable on the quilt in the warm sunshine.How dare I? I really hope that her husband will one day tell her what I told her that day. "Sweetie even when you are mad you are still beautiful to me!"

Eat! Eat!!

This is what Kate says when she wants to eat. I know that Carson is happy that she learned this word because it usually means he will be eating also. Kate's favorite lately is "mat n cheese." Mac and Cheese in case you don't speak toddler. Eating has been an up and down experience for both of these kids. Kate is slightly picky and likes to eat the same things over and over. And Carson is having trouble eating anything past baby food or baby cereal. But it is getting better on both sides and I have learned that they are both going to be ok. And if you look at both of them you will be assured that these two are not wasting away. Here are some scenes from our crazy cafe.......
Carson's new thing is wanting to feed himself. He throws a fit when I try to take the spoon from him. So it ends up being a very messy.....

Messy....

Messy Experience!! But I love the independence he is gaining.

But when Carson feeds Kate he takes great care to make it very neat.



Carson is SO glad that Kate is a dainty eater. He always helps himself to what she doesn't want and in this case sometimes he helps himself to what she DOES want!

Tuley Time

Our friends Derek and Jodi came over last week with their two boys Hudson and Easton. They brought us fajitas and we tried to catch up with each other lives. We really are so blessed to have the Tuleys in our life. They are our oldest friends here in Fort Worth. We knew them we were all newly married and we have seen each other through really great times and really bad times. Hudson and Kate are the same age and they are so cute and play so well together. I love how Kate says his name, "Hutin!" when she sees him.

Kate loves Hudson but I'm not sure how he feels about her. She grabbed his hand and said, "Say Cheese!" Then she tried to hug him and he was not too pleased. Crazy boy!

We got to see what Kate would have been like if Jared and I had been like normal people and waited until Kate was 2 to have Carson. She was such a little Mommy and wanted to hold him and touch him a lot. When the Tuleys left she yelled, "Bye Baby!" as they car drove away. Sweet girl!

Easter 2010

Easter Sunday was a great day filled with so many blessings. We went to church in the morning and were so encouraged by the singing and the message. As we walked into the auditorium they were singing Kate's new favorite song, "My Saviour Lives". Her eyes lit up and she started clapping her hands and shaking her head. And at the end when we sang "My Saviour lives, my Saviour lives, my Saviour lives!!!!" I could hear Kate's little voice singing, "My sayour ives!!"
After church we went to Uncle Blair's house for some lunch and an Easter egg hunt. The kids really got the hang of hunting eggs. It was so cute to see them discover eggs and then pick them up and put them in their basket. Carson caught on really quick! He then sat down on the grass and started transferring the candy from one egg to another. He even tried to steal some eggs from his cousin Toby's basket. We took some good pictures together and everyone had so much fun.
I think my favorite part of the day was Kate sitting on Blair's coffee table singing the "I love you, You love me" song from Barney. And when it got to the part where they sing "a great big hug and a kiss from me to you" both of her cousins gave her a huge kiss. It was so precious!
This Easter was made extra special for me because my Mom was able to be here. She came down last week to help me with the kids while Jared was working and she got to stay through the week end. She loved being with the kids during Easter. A very special time.

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A Milestone Revisited

I remember very clearly the morning Kate took her first real steps. We had been working on it for awhile and that morning she was really getting her balance. She started taking more and more steps and before the morning was out she was walking and we had the video to prove it. Last Saturday I felt like we lived it all over again. Kate took her first tentative steps with out support on her little cast. And it was just as thrilling as the first time. How many kids get to relive a milestone like that? When I picked her up from her little school yesterday she was running towards me! The cutest little hobbler you ever did see!