Memorial Day Weekend 2k16

Hello from the other side.... of summer.  I suppose now that it's nearly O-V-E-R I should get to documenting it, huh?  You know my M.O. when it comes to the summer holidays.  I spend too much time relaxing, gorging and chatting which inevitably leads to horrendous documentation and a random smattering of photos.  I regret to inform you that summer 2016 I did not turn over any new leaves.  Let's get to it, shall we?

Right before the holiday weekend, Conroe and its neighboring suburbs were hit hard with rain.  The lake level got up higher than it's been since my parents have owned their house there and it was breathing down the neck of historic levels.  This was very unfortunate but led to this awesome picture of my Mom rescuing Matt's canoe (kayak?).  I have no doubt she'll be SUPER pumped I put this in.  (Love you, Mom!)

This was the view from my parents' walkway down to the dock on Saturday.  You can tell by all the mud that the water came all the way up to the edge of the walkway.

My tribe*

Cheese?  Nah, I'm good.  Cupcakes?  Gimme, gimme.  That's my GIRL.

Clearly we had offended Emery.  Probably by refusing to let her play on the iPad.  As any good sister would, Brynn supported Emery's cause by laughing.

Probably talking Pawpaw into downloading the YouTube kids app.  These two are trouble.

Brynn's love for da-dawgs knows no bounds.

I hope you all had equally family-, fun-, and food-filled weekends.  The sincerest of thanks to all those who have, do, or will serve.  Nothing would be possible without you!

* The use of this term is in no way meant to imply my agreement to Ryan's self proclaimed Native American heritage.

Two-for- (Turning) One Special

This year, as you may have gathered, there was quite a bit going on around the time I should have been planning Brynn's birthday.  Each day I got up in the morning and promised myself that I would look up invitations and start planning.  Some how I got in bed each night with no recollection of how I'd spent a single minute of the day but knew that none of them included party research.  Work was crazy.  House-selling and renovating was crazy.  Some family events that cropped up were crazy.  

As the days crawled by I started to feel more and more guilty that the time was slipping away- especially in a season that was so busy not only for us but for everyone with the holidays approaching.  In talking to Ryan about it he reminded me that when I looked back on my childhood not only do I not remember anything before 4, but the things that I do remember aren't perfect decorations, awesome invitations or intricate themes.  The memories I cherish most are time spent with family and the excitement and wonder that go with all the little things that seem so big at the time- store bought cakes, wrapping paper, bows, etc.  He reminds me of these facts regularly but I normally brush them off.

The week before Thanksgiving I finally gave in to the fact that he was right and that with all that was going on I was going to drive myself into the ground if I tried to pull something together.  So I texted our families and asked if they would be up for having a small party in conjunction with celebrating Thanksgiving.  That way Brynnie got TWO parties (more is better to any kid, right?) and no one was inconvenienced or had to go out of their way.  Winning on all fronts.

So if you've been worried that you were left off of the invite list for a big bash for Boo Boo, rest assured you were not.  (Same goes for Xmas cards- once again, those didn't happen this year.  NEXT YEAR!  Seriously.)

At the Martin's, I mainly only captured the portion of celebration that matters most to kids- the present part.

What is all this attached to my present (the ribbon is the gift.  Duh)?  That box is kind of in the way of me enjoying it.

In awe.  I believe that is Kylie and Emery playing with another one of Brynn's presents in the background.

On Saturday November 28th when we woke up at my parents' house I immediately started setting up for Brynn's party because I was worried if I didn't do it, we would forget.  I have a bad habit of getting lazy (exhibit a: the fact that I never have pictures of our visits) when I get within a 2 mile radius of Camp Nonnie & Pawpaw.  You'll have to excuse the fact that we're in pajamas.  

The finest party-ware that Target had to offer.

View from the Birthday Princess' throne.

Cupcakes?!  For BREAKFAST?!  What did I do right?

What is it with you guys and putting things on my head?  Have I been unclear in the past?  I am NOT a fan.

Difficult to tell in this lighting but she's entertained by this tiny sparkler.

Not entertained by having to wait for food though.  Ever.

They're going to kill me for posting this photo, but how could I not capture how good they look in hats?!

Daddy and sis also rocking those hats.

If GCing doesn't work out, I really think he has a future in party hat modeling.

Doing much better with sweets than she was on her actual birthday.  Maybe those Mama genes are coming alive.

Doesn't look like she's too upset that she didn't have a big fancy party, does she?

Daddy's thinking "I'll never be able to match these."  Brynn's thinking, "he'll never be able to figure out these outfits."  Both accurate.

Sis wasn't interested in the clothing but showed up when toys got involved.

Happiest of Birthday (Parties) to our little Brynnie!  I hope you aren't upset with me for not having a big bash.  Maybe we will for your second birthday.  :c)  We love you more than we could ever possibly put into words!

Day of Thanks 2015

You may or may not recall- but Thanksgiving took place this (I suppose at this point I should say "last") year.  On Thursday November 26th to be exact.  Despite the fact that I am just now getting around to blogging it, we did observe the holiday.  If you know our family you know we don't pass on opportunities to celebrate and/or eat.

We celebrated this holiday by doing our usual tour o' Houston, so I'll keep my verbiage short and sweet so we can all focus on what really matters- MORE pictures of my adorable offspring.  We started off the morning at our house where, despite not having procured holiday-themed outfits for the children, I decided a photo shoot needed to happen.  I have no less than 28 pictures from this 3 minutes that none of us will ever get back.

Mom, why is sis so silly?

This picture.  It sums these two right up.  Em laughing maniacally, most likely at herself, and Brynnie saying "uh uh uh."

Here they are actually smiling.  Not at me, of course.  At their Daddy.  Hey, I'll take what I can get.

Post photo shoot we all loaded up and headed to the Branch to celebrate with the Martin crew.  The day was marked by lots of food, lots of laps around the living room (not me) and looooots of laughter.  Em spends 80% of her time with Kylie laughing hysterically for no reason that any of us can identify.  To say that she idolizes her big cousin would probably be an understatement.  It melts my heart.  

Walk #1 to go check out the Johnson's lights.  If you haven't been, I recommend it.  Your kids will be in total awe of all the things to look at.  You'll be in total awe as you imagine trying to get your husband to agree to putting up that many lights.

Dr. Kylie checking out her patient while Emery the intern looks on.  When asked what his symptoms were he said, "I have a headache and I've been tooting a lot."  Sounds like a regular Thursday for him to me.

Two peas in a pod.  Are you wondering why Em has a different outfit on than in our original photoshoot?  Oh yes.  Let me share.  So Lola was bunking with Grandma & Pawpaw while we had the house on the market so we didn't have to worry about what to do with her for each showing.  Lola was so excited to see us when we walked in that she smacked her weapon tail so hard that it started bleeding.  She then was flinging blood everywhere.  Wouldn't be a family holiday if a load of laundry and approximately 400 paper towels were needed in the first 5 minutes, would it?

These 3 love this game.  They have their Pawpaw's heart for sure.

Standard.  I'm trying to take a picture and she's telling me what she needs.

Brynn's first (real) Thanksgiving.  I promise we fed her.  As you may have gathered from posts in the past, doing so is a two-handed affair.  Since I've not learned to take pics with my foot (YET), there aren't generally photos.

Walk #2 to the Johnson's to check out the lights.

We spent the night at Grandma & Pawpaw's which meant the girls had a slumber party.  They had an ah-mazing time.  Bright and early the next morning, after some delicious pumpkin cinnamon rolls, we hit the road and headed to Conroe.

We spent the remainder of the weekend there and, ONCE AGAIN, I failed miserably at taking pictures.  I have zero.  I do have pictures of Brynnie's Birthday parties, (stay tuned) but otherwise no physical evidence we were there.  If you doubt me, just look at the scale when I stand on it.  Trust me when I say the poundage shown can only be the result of the food consumed there.

As always- we had a great time.  Too much food, lots of games and lots of laughs.  And with that- another perfect holiday is in the books.  Thank you to all who hosted us for their generosity, hospitality and company.  We all love you so very much!

Day of the Labor 2k15

This Labor Day Weekend we broke our standard pattern of heading straight up to Conroe as soon as humanly possible.  Em had swim lessons on Friday evening and we needed to install a new pool cleaner at the house on Saturday morning.  My Dad graciously volunteered to come help us out because we had no idea what we were doing.  This seems to be a common theme.

Thankfully under his tutelage we successfully got the cleaner installed with none of those pesky "extra parts," Ryan swears are a real thing. We celebrated with an inaugural swim in the pool which Em capped off by introducing herself to the neighborhood.

Don't let the tutus and pink booties fool you- they are tough bosses.

Hellllooooooo world!  I'm here.

In order to avoid a visit from the HOA we decided to call it a day on productivity.  Ryan had plans to grunt swear drink beer watch the A&M opener with some of his guy friends, so my Dad was kind enough to shuttle the girls and I up to the lake so that we wouldn't have too many cars on the way back home.  

If you thought that the weekend couldn't get more exciting than installing a pool equipment and nudity, you were sadly mistaken.  Within 30 minutes of our arrival at the lake, Emery tried to eat ant poison and Brynn succeeded in swallowing a mouthful of dirt.  Clearly the ideal adult to child ratio is higher than 3:2.  Thanks to a turkey baster, some water and a cold beer, these situations were remedied without having to call poison control.

Luckily the remainder of the weekend was a little less action-packed.  We checked off all the standard weekend at the lake To-Do items: we swam, we laughed, we watched football, we took turns being manipulated by my offspring, we ate too much, we laughed some more.  So, in summary, it was perfect.  

Thank you VERY much to my parents for hosting and taking such good care of us.  There really aren't adequate words in the English language to properly convey our gratitude for this and so many other weekends.  We love you so much- almost as much as Emery likes to de-robe after swimming.  As any reader of this blog the last few weeks can attest- that's quite a bit.

Why do you people keep cramping my style with all these "doors" and "boundaries."

Oh, you don't want me to eat dirt Mom?  Fine.  I'll eat this bean and I'll scream about it while sister cries over the loss of that delicious looking nectar you kept calling "poison."

Who us?  Nope.  Didn't do it.

Camp Conroe

My parents had been itching to take either Em or both girls for a couple of days.  It just so happened that the third weekend of July Ryan planned to take a quick day trip up to Schertz to visit his Grandpa after a short hospital stint AND my parents offered to take the girls.  This meant that Ryan gained a road trip companion and the girls earned an all expenses paid trip to Camp Conroe.  It was a win for everyone!

My parents came and picked the girls up on Thursday July 16th and we retrieved them on Saturday July 18th at lunch time so we could head to a birthday party.  So this meant that Ryan and I had 1.5 FULL days to ourselves.  What did we do with our freedom?  We went to bed early.  Friday we drove to Schertz by way of Bucees in Luling, enjoyed lunch, errands and lots of chat with Grandpa and Nancy.  Saturday morning we slept in, started working on a crazy venture that will be revealed at a later date and had a coffee date at our favorite local breakfast spot.

What did the kids do?  Exhausted their grandparents.

Clearly oatmeal from Nonnie > oatmeal from Mama.

Em taking advantage of Camp Conroe's all-inclusive breakfast.

They thought they were going to take Emery for a walk.  I think this photo suggests a different story as to who is walking who.

Catching a pump works better on a bike than a stroller.

Step 1: Take off hat.  Step 2: Consider swimming.

Nonnie & her fan club.

My little mermaid.

This pic makes my heart smile.  They both look so happy!

Gone in 0.60 seconds.

Obviously containment was lost...

... as were clothes.

As you can tell, the girls had an INCREDIBLE time and were less than thrilled to be returned to us at lunchtime on Saturday.  Thank you so much to my parents for creating such wonderful memories for them.  I hope that they get to do it again!

I-N-D-E-P-E-N-D-E-N-(C-E)

As I stated previously, the 3 day weekend summer holidays are some of my favorites and no matter how much or little we do, I always feel the need to try and capture them on here.  Luckily for the birth of our great nation I seemed to be a little bit more on top of my camera game.  Not much though.

We started our holiday weekend festivities off by deciding to attend our first school picnic/event at Emery's school on Thursday July 3rd.  Prior to this she had always been in the infant class and we didn't feel like she was old enough to really understand or interact anyway.  Unfortunately, the weather was awful and the picnic got moved inside.  On the one hand this meant reduced attendance but on the other it meant more BBQ for the Martin clan.  I think Ryan and Emery chalked this up as a point in the win column.

I thought we were gone for the day.  How did we end up back here Mama?

Daddy- you sit right here.

I love this nugget enough to plant my pregnant behind in a chair made for a pre-schooler.  That's a whole lot.

Perhaps the only documented picture of Ryan with his eyes open when someone else's aren't.

Friday morning was July the 4th and we decided to start it off like any good Americans- at Cracker Barrel.  Some choose to get tattoos of bald eagles- we choose to eat our body weight in bacon, pancakes, flaky biscuits and other breakfast goodies.  The love of America is a many-splendored thing.

Hmmm?  Were you saying something, Dad?  I was just thinking about biscuits.

Yeah, yeah.  You guys keep trying to distract me with these checkers but how can I focus when I know the eggs are juuuuust inside those doors?  (You may think I'm exaggerating but this kid looooooves herself some breakfast.  "Mo," "mo," "mo!" is about all that she says once she hits the seat.)

Our little business professional getting some last minute work in on her puppy laptop.

After breakfast, we hit the road for Conroe to go play with Nonnie, Grampa, the Herndons, Rachel, Morgan & Uncle Matt.  Per usual, I got way too relaxed hanging out with everyone and forgot to take pictures.  Also because it's been many moons and pregnancy brain ago- I can't even recall exactly what all we did.  If it helps you to feel like all my posts don't all sound the same, we'll pretend that we slayed dragons and had deep discussions on how to end world hunger.  It's more likely that we ate too much, drank too much and laughed way too much though, but hey- I aim to please around here.

Her face foreshadows exactly how successful putting her in that float will be.  It lasted 5 seconds.  If America is free, she wanted to be too.

Dad, that shark looks a lot like Grampa.

It was BYOB in the pool this weekend, clearly.

My amazing Mama made me my very own pitcher of virgin margs.  I hope I'm half as incredible to my daughters as she is to us.

Thank you muchly to all who participated in the making of another fantastic birthday for our great nation.  I look forward to many, many more!