June Fun

June was pretty much full from the time we got back from Indiana. I believe we had birthday parties almost every weekend for the kids' friends. It wasn't too hot out yet and we didn't swim a whole lot because of that, well I didn't swim a whole lot. The kids did, but it wasn't quite warm enough for me to get in. Enjoy some of our June photos.

The kids love to play in Zach's closet. He hates it, but the kids love it and they decided to pile up all his shoes against the bathroom door. He was thrilled...not really.

Chloe likes to dress herself and of course we let her, but here she wanted to go outside to play but she had to have her gloves and hat on so her head and hands wouldn't get hot...I think she has that backwards.

Zach's grandfather's 90th birthday party

All the cousins minus some spouses from the 90th birthday party

We Are Pregnant!

So yea, we are pregnant again. Third baby on the way and it will be another girl. Thank goodness because I don't think I could have another wild boy like Levi. Chloe is very very excited and will talk to the baby in my belly and ask when the baby will come out. I don't think she realizes it won't be a full grown toddler to play with, but either way she is excited. Levi doesn't really know what to think. He acknowledges the baby, sometimes, but not like Chloe does.

We have decided to name her Jillian Mae. No specific reason for Jillian, other than the fact that the name has stuck out to us since we were pregnant with Levi and the fact that Zach wouldn't take my other names like Ella Belle, Lilly, Stella or my sister's favorite Gwen. It's probably for the best because I think Jillian is the best out of them. Mae does come from Zach's great-grandmother. Zach doesn't remember a whole lot about her because I don't believe she was alive for many years after he was born, but what he does remember is that he would go into her room and play with his toys while she was sitting in bed because I believe, or what Zach says, she was on bed rest pretty much. He remembers having this little relationship with her even being just a few years old. And I also heard a story that his great-grandmother would not respond to very many people, but as soon as she would hear Zach's voice she would always respond to him right away. So we thought Mae would be just a great middle name.

Come the end of November we should hopefully have a healthy little baby girl. She will be our first Texas baby, but don't expect the big hair or bling everywhere, I'm still trying to shield my kids from the Texas crazy for as long as possible. Although, Chloe has become quite the accessorized little girl. She loves to wear headbands or bows with her necklaces, rings, bracelets and pretend shoes. So we shall see what 3 kids will bring...I'm not sure I'm ready for this.

Indiana Bound

Back home again in Indiana.....

We took a drive, a long drive, up to Indiana for a visit. Since I'm not working we decided that me and the kids would stay up there for a week while Zach just drove with us up to Indiana, then flew home, then flew back to drive back home to Texas with us. He's pretty good to us that Zach. 

The kids love Indiana. I mean they really do love it. I'm not just saying it because I love it, but they love it too. We did a lot while we were there. We went to several parks, the zoo, Dairy Queen, Pizza King, fishing, played with friends and cousins. Since it was Memorial Day weekend we also went downtown Indy to the 500 festival parade. Its a tradition that we use to go to as kids over Memorial Day weekend before the big Indy 500. This was Chloe and Levi's first real parade and of course they loved it.It was a great time and we had great weather. You never really know what kind of weather you are going to get in Indiana, but it was great so we were able to spend a lot of time outside playing. 

One night my sister Christina and I swapped kids. She took Chloe and Levi while my parents and I took Carter and Sydney for the night. We went out to a little Mexican restaurant that has my favorite white cheese sauce and I enjoyed not having to tell anyone to take any more bites or to turn around or sit still or any of that. Christina had Chloe and Levi at her house and she "laid down the law". They sat up to eat in her kitchen at the bar, which they thought was good, but Christina told them at her house they eat their food and don't play. Of course they ate really good for her, but one time Levi did something and so Christina said "No Sir" and Levi did a pathetic cry like he is known to do. He quickly got over it. 

The trip was very relaxing, or at least I thought it was. It was nice to be there for a whole week because we didn't have to cram everything in to just a few days.

The drive is about 15 hours and on the way there I drove at least 10 hours...now Zach did work part of the day but still I had to get this photo of him sleeping while I was driving.

Levi was OUT

This was Chloe's first time going fishing and she loved it. She still talks about going fishing and how she wants to go back. We even bought her a little fishing pole so Zach can take her around here.

Waiting for the train to bring our drinks at Pizza King. This is my favorite place to eat and even now Chloe will ask if we can go to the pizza place with the train.

Driving the Jeep at Aunt Tina's house while the rest of us were out eating Mexican food. The kids thought this little jeep was amazing. 

 

 

FYI...I believe you have to be on the full website to see the above 2 videos.

Way Behind...I mean WAY Behind

Well you would have thought staying home with the kids would allow for more blog posts and keeping up with everything, nope, not for this girl. I just can't get it together. Trying to get back into the routine especially now with the new baby coming. So here is what has been happening since my last post in NOVEMBER...oops. I told you I was way behind.

Christmas

This Christmas my family came from both Indiana and Arizona to all be together (minus Phil who had to work). My sister, Sabrina, and her family came via RV from Arizona. They were with us on Christmas Eve and stayed for a few days. Christmas day was a little crazy since there were 9 of us all opening presents from each other and from Santa. There were packages everywhere! The day after Christmas my parents and other sister, Christina, and her family came for a few days. We had a lot of fun all of us being together. Was it crazy...yes it was, but it was a blast! We went to the Gaylord to see the ice sculptures and ride on the tubes down the ice slide. The ice sculptures were a little underwhelming, but the kids loved sliding down the slide in the tubes. We also made a trip to the zoo and many other adventures. I was sick over most of the time that everyone was here and I passed it along to my niece and nephew as well. You are welcome! Merry Christmas :) All in all there were 14 of us and 3 dogs. It was a whirlwind few days, that is for sure. 

San Antonio Visit 

We made a trip down south to visit Zach's brothers and sister-in-law for a long weekend. We had a blast! His brother, Jeremy, lives near downtown so we were able to ride our bikes downtown to the Alamo and to some other areas of town. We went to this little amusement park that was just the right size for the kids. It was all from like the 20s or something crazy like that and all the rides were just for kids. Levi and Chloe loved it. I think we went twice at least. We also rode a train around the park and went to Sea World. Sea World was good, but it wasn't what I had remembered. The kids still enjoyed seeing the animals and the shows. Somewhere there are photos of the kids picking up dog poop with their uncle Jeremy. He was in his backyard cleaning up a bit and both Chloe and Levi wanted to help. So sure grab a shovel and scoop the poop. The kids thought it was great! I look forward to going back there again as that was my first time to San Antonio as well as the kids' first time.

Levi's 2nd Birthday

Well as with the blog, I also wasn't great at taking photos the past few months. We had a birthday party for Levi that was Minion themed. It was a lot of fun to have all of  Levi's friends over and the kids had a lot of fun. The photo I don't have is the fact that at his party, which was a few days before his birthday, Levi was burned by his birthday candles. I thought it would be fun to use sparklers as his candles and he burnt his finger. So needless to say on his actual birthday when we used an actual candle he was not a fan. Oops.