Father's Day 2012

Father's Day was a relaxing family day. I was out of town at the Memory Lane Inn Thursday through Saturday so Sunday was all abut Daddy! We let him sleep in and then Nathan, Charlotte, and I went to the store to get him his favorite breakfast: bagels and cream cheese. After laying around the house for a while, we got dressed and headed to the park where Nathan and Daddy rode their bikes. While we were playing, we noticed that the wind that day was the perfect amount for flying a kite so Wayne went home really quick and grabbed Nathan's kite. Charlotte could have cared less about flying the kite, but Nathan LOVED it!

After the park, we ran a few "Daddy" errands with him, came home and ate lunch, went swimming, watched a movie together, and then let Daddy watch his basketball game in as much peace and quiet as possible with 2 toddlers, ha!  To finish off the night, Wayne said that warm chocolate chip cookies sounded good (Nathan and Charlotte seconded that suggestion!) So I ran to the store to get dough (no mom, I didn't make them from scratch...just did slice n' bake). We all went a little crazy with the cookies and milk. I only had one, yes ONE to wrap up and put away. After eating the whole batch, I don't see why one of us couldn't finish that last one! We had a great Father's Day with our sweet Daddy. We love you Daddy!

Aunt Lisa, Taylor and Victoria

Lisa, Taylor, and Victoria came for a quick visit. Nathan was so excited to see everyone! They came through Dallas on their way to see Taylor's boyfriend, Anthony, graduate from Army Basic Training at Ft. Sill, Oklahoma.

On Monday night, we went to Mama and Papa's house for dinner, and Nathan and Charlotte were in Heaven from getting so much attention from everyone. We haven't seen Aunt Lisa, Taylor, and Victoria in a while, so I worried that Charlotte would be extra shy, but she was the complete opposite! I couldn't believe it! She didn't want to leave Taylor and Victoria's side. And Nathan had to compete for their attention too. It was really cute to see how the two of them worked it out...sharing the cousins...an important skill to know :)

On Tuesday, everyone came over to my house to swim. We had so much fun, and the best part is that both Nathan AND Charlotte took the longest nap afterwards! Even though I was tired too, I took advantage of the chance to have two sleeping babies! That never happens so I had to enjoy it :) Mommy got so much done that day. Actually, I should have been doing housework, but I ended up getting caught up on my favorite shows. BLISS!

Memory Lane Inn, 2012

I am writing this post while I am at a girl's only scrap booking retreat in Tyler, Texas. The house we are staying in is called Memory Lane Inn and is so cute! It's an old, Victorian style home which has been converted into a "crafting" house. There are 17 of us here, and everyone is working on their own projects. We each have our own work stations complete with several outlets, shelves, lights, fans and plenty of work space. Some are painting, some are sewing and crocheting, some are working on home decorations, and so much more.

I am working on getting my baby books updated, blogging, making a photo book of our ski trip, and a few other things like getting caught up on my magazines, sleep, and gossip. We are ALL also drinking cocktails, watching old girlie movies like Dirty Dancing, talking and just plain enjoying our time away from kids and husbands!

It is so amazing to me to see how talented everyone is! I am by far the least "crafty" person, but no one cares. It's is just so much fun to have this "girl" time and get caught up on everything. I got here Thursday morning around 11:00 am and am leaving Saturday night around 6:00...just in time to celebrate Father's Day.

The two living areas downstairs are the crafting rooms. There's also a kitchen and dining room. We put ourselves into groups to prepare meals for everyone, and we also brought community snacks, desserts, and drinks. It is very likely that I will have gained 5 pounds while here! Upstairs there's a movie room and bedrooms. We do this every year, and I already can't wait until next year!

Mr. CEO

Nathan absolutely adores his daddy and wants to be just like him. Last weekend Wayne was working in his office and Nathan and Charlotte went back and forth from the living room to his office, playing with their toys and talking to Daddy. The next day, Nathan told me he needed to do some work in Daddy's office. I said, "Oh, OK, what work are you going to do?" "I'm just going to type some lists like when Daddy does his work." Nathan was so serious about his request so I tried not to laugh, but it was so  hard! I pulled up Microsoft Word, made the font bigger, and put caps lock on. Nathan knows his letters but knows the capital ones best...lower case is still a little hard for him. So I figured he would be able to recognize the letters better if they were all capitals. Then I showed him how to push the return button to go to the next line. He was so cute because he didn't want to type one letter at a time. He wanted to line up his fingers on the keyboard like mommy and daddy and type fast. So cute! I got a picture of what he "typed." He also has seen Mommy and Daddy write things down from the computer, so after he typed a little, he got himself a piece of paper, a pen, and made notes from what he typed.

Pretty soon, Charlotte joined her brother. Nathan loves to copy Mommy and Daddy and Charlotte loves to copy Nathan. The two of them were so cute doing their "work."

Grandma's Birthday

Wednesday was Grandma's 91st birthday! Nathan, Charlotte, and I met Mama at Grandma's apartment so that we could celebrate with her. It is always so much fun to visit Grandma with Nathan and Charlotte because they are always so sweet to her and her friends. And it's funny to me to see how much everyone loves them and their silliness. I always remind them to be on their best behavior, use nice manners, and not be too wild and crazy. But all of Grandma's friends think they are so cute and lively that they encourage them to run around! All Nathan and Charlotte need is a little slack, and they take full advantage. I've finally stopped worrying so much about them being too loud or too silly because I realized that is exactly what everyone loves. Every time we visit, we are the big entertainment :)

But not only do Nathan and Charlotte bring a lot of energy with them, they are also very loving and sweet to everyone. Whenever someone asks for a hug, Nathan and Charlotte always give one. It makes me so proud of them to see how sweet they are to Grandma and her friends and to see how much joy they bring to the place. 

Grandma told Mom that she wanted a good hamburger for her birthday lunch so after visiting for a while, we took her to Country Burger. A great cheese burger is my favorite thing to eat, and Country Burger does not disappoint! Thank you Grandma! All Nathan could talk about was how he wanted a chocolate milkshake. I told him he could have one, but that he'd have to wait until after he ate his lunch to get it, and he could have that for dessert. Well, instead of whining and crying about it, he was so grown up and calmly talked to me about why I should change my mind. "Mommy, if you just let me have my shake first, I PROMISE I will eat all of my lunch with my shake. It will help me chew my food. And I'll even share it with Charlotte! Please Mommy, I really love you." Well, who can say no to that? And guess what? He ate his whole lunch along with drinking his shake! Good idea Nay Nay!

Mama brought a cake over, and Nathan and Charlotte put the candles in. They loved this job because they kept "accidentally" touching the icing and had to lick it off :)

We can't forget the flowers! Nathan was so cute. Mama brought these flowers over and was trying to find a vase to put them in. Nathan spotted this one on one of Grandma's tables, and was so proud of himself for finding the perfect one. And then they both had to take turns putting water into the vase...they pretty much filled it to the brim!

Happy Birthday Grandma! We love you so much!