Part 2 of Catching Up

I'm back to catch up on the rest of 2016 so far :)

Rhett is a great dad and took the day off on St. Patrick's day to bring the girls to the Houston Rodeo.  They were on Spring Break.

Their favorite part of the rodeo was the mutton busting (google it) and Charlotte has convinced us to let her do it next year.  We shall see if she sticks to her guns on that one.

Emery had his first haircut back in March.  The picture above was "the after."  "The before" involved a nice little mullet in the back, and the front looked amazingly like the lead singer of the Goo Goo Dolls circa 1998.  Below is another "after"...so much better!

We hosted our annual Easter Egg Hunt, the day before Easter, at our house.  We really, really, really missed our old Virginia friends, but the Texas hunt was so fun!  

The picture below is mostly our neighbors, plus Charlotte's best friend, Rhea, who is standing to the right of Charlotte, and Caden, Cate's first grade crush.  Caden is in the blue and yellow Under Armor sweatshirt, in case anyone is interested :)  Oh, also pictured is a bunny piñata in the middle.

Why a piñata at an Easter Egg Hunt, you ask?  I will tell you.  My awesome neighbor, Denisse, has two boys, Brian and Kevin.  They're so much fun to be around and there is always something going on at their house.  You can roll up there and find a giant bounce house or a snow cone machine in their yard randomly, just because.  Denisse ALWAYS brings a piñata to events.  Kid's birthday party? Piñata.  Neighborhood fiesta?  Piñata.  Fourth of July?  Piñata.  Christmas Day?  Piñata.  You get the idea.  Girl loves an excuse.

Next, we must get to the Final Four.  Once Rhett found out that the Final Four was in Houston, he decided that no matter what, he would get his brother and dad here to watch the games, should the Heels make the playoffs.  At the same time, I am pretty sure his brother and dad decided they were going to get to Houston come hell or high water.  

Well, my friends, God had a plan and it was called the Tarheels Make the Final Four.  Luckily Josh had airline points so that took care of travel expenses.  Rhett's good friend is a UNC alumni and was able to find three seats for Rhett to buy in the Carolina section.  It all came together beautifully, although I have expunged the last seconds of the final game from my memory ;)  Here are some pictures...

I will have to leave it there and do a Part 3 in my next post.  Coming up: Rhett's birthday and what we're up to this Spring :)

Catching Up

It seems like most of my friends who have blogs have seriously backed off on posting often, and obviously I am with the crowd on this one.  But, I still like posting pictures of life lately, so here are some snaps:

We sort of slid right into the new year after a busy holiday season and all of a sudden it was 2016.  Cate made a project at school where one of her goals for the year is to do 100 laps around our neighborhood circle.  Oh, but each lap counts as 10.  Nice job, Cate, you are always thinking!

Cate also had her first sleepover in January.  My little one with a 7pm bedtime stayed up the latest of anyone.  It was...wait for it...ONE O'CLOCK AM when she finally went to bed.  And she was up before 7am.  OH OF COURSE SHE WAS.  She kept it together until noon and then took a two hour nap.  She looked like an angel when she woke up.

You will believe me when I say that shot looks drastically different from the Cate that I had earlier in the day.

There was a daddy/daughter dance back in February at church.  Cate was sooooo proud to be able to take her dad.  On a side note, how does her hair look almost Pinterest-worthy when it air dries?  Yet, I spend time blowdrying, teasing, spraying, and styling (only every 3 days BUT STILL) and mine always ends up lame and flat?  #notfair

Here is a random shot of Major just because he is never mentioned.  Maj is nine years old now and has one objective in life--to ensure he is as comfortable as possible.  Man's best friend, I tell you.

This was the first warm day of the year.  80 degrees in February?  Yes please.

Aunt Liz came to visit us on her way to run the Austin Marathon.  We were lucky to see her!  She was especially helpful preparing Cate for her quiz on the Presidents.  And here are the results...

Cate lost her first tooth in March and it felt very momentous.  It was loose for a LONG time, but when it finally came out, it took me by surprise.  I mean, it didn't even come in THAT long ago.  Her giddiness made me happy though.  Here she is with her tooth.  By the way, what do you do with baby teeth?  It feels weird to keep them, but heartless to throw them out--especially the first one.

School was busy that month too.  Cate had a first grade performance and Go Texan Day...

I swear, Cate is not my only child--she has just been busy this year.  Emery is a full on force of nature.  He has made leaps and bounds (almost literally) in the past few months.  He loves to bike around the neighborhood...

He also loves food!  I didn't know what it was like to have a baby that would down meat like it's candy.  Bacon, turkey, steak, bison burgers--he scarfs it all.  He doesn't totally love veggies, but I put a bunch of spinach in a smoothie for him every day and he happily drinks it all up!  Shhhh--don't tell!

Peek-a-boo is his absolutely favorite thing to do...

I will post next time about Charlotte and March Madness...more to come!

Life (Sort of) Lately

*tap tap tap*

Is this thing on?

It has been suuuuuuper long since my last update and I actually really miss having a place to write and post pictures.  I know my readership is so small as in, I *think* my sister still reads (Hi Betsy!) and, yeah, that's about it.

October through December was an absolute blur, but I wanted to show everyone Betsy some of the latest photos and update you on what we've been up to.

Halloween in our new neighborhood is THE BEST THING EVER.  Seriously, it is amazing.  It's basically a bunch of mini block parties where neighbors get together and have a few drinks.  Kids come by and can grab several houses worth of candy in one little stop.  It's warm and everyone is in a great mood.  Wins all around.

Cate chose to do a pumpkin carved like a skull on fire (side note: ??????????) and Charlotte chose the spider carving.  It was the first year that good old Mr. Amazon Prime made the costumes so I spent less than $50 and zero anxiety points on the whole ordeal.  Yippee!

A witchy witch and Minnie Mouse :)

Cate's pumpkin--color me surprised.

Charlotte turned four in November and Minnie Mouse was the theme of the day, of course.  She was so thrilled with every little thing--the decorations, gifts, her gymnastics party--and it was hard not to look at her and smile.

A very Minnie birthday celebration

We spend most of our weekend time outside biking, walking, etc.  Charlotte got a bike for her birthday and took to it like a fish to water.  Our very sweet (and handy?) seven year old neighbor, Skyler, knew Charlotte wanted her training wheels off.  So, a few weeks ago on a weekday afternoon, while I was putting Emery down for a nap, Skyler got busy in the garage by grabbing Rhett's tools and removing those wheels.  Cate and Charlotte were cheering her on.   That weekend Charlotte learned to ride like a big girl and she is unbelievable on her bike.  

Biking around our neighborhood is the best!

Rhett also got a drone, and that is him flying it in the picture above.  He loves it!  Score one for the gift-giver (moi).  Our neighbor joked that now he can play with the eight year old boys down the street--haha!

Emery got a baby helmet at the end of November.  It has been fine--sleeping in it isn't great, but he doesn't seem too bothered.  I'm just happy that the flat spot on the side of his head is gone. and he no longer has a parallelogram shaped noggin.  This is a mold that shows a bird's eye view of his head when we started out...

YIKES!

The back right corner stuck way out and let's be clear, no head should have a corner!  We've got less than four weeks to go in that sucker :)

Baby Tarheel preparing for game time!

My name is Emery and I am the sweetest...

Christmas was a blast!  We hosted two sets of grandparents and made the most of it.  Here is a photo recap...

A Kier tradition: a child always puts the angel on the tree.

Family shot of all five of us--hooray!

The girls got cowboy boots for Christmas from Birdie and Papaw.  They were feeling reeeeeeal Texan after that.

The girls are leaving for the first annual Jammie Cocoa Christmas with Birdie and Papaw.  What is Jammie Cocoa Christmas you ask?  Looking at Christmas lights in PJs, drinking cocoa, eating cookies, and listening to Xmas music.  THE BEST!

Our TV and mantle, complete with many of our Christmas cards from far and wide.

Christmas morning--is there anything better?

Betsy, if you are still with me, thank you for making it to the end.  I promise to post more often!