Best Great Grandparents EVER!

 The girls got a package in the mail from GG Virginia and GG Richard.  It was the most MAGICAL package!

They each got their own Army Guy bags for traveling.  GG and GG said that world class travelers like my girls needed to have world class traveling bags.  

 They each have their names on it, exactly the same as Daddy does on his Army Guy stuff.  They are the COOLEST bags too!  Lots of pockets and places to store things.  They are the perfect size for the girls and they will be so great for storing their stuff in on the mega long plane ride to Oki.  (Apparently this is the nickname that people call Okinawa when they are on the island.  Being the little following that I am, I am trying to get down the vernacular down before we get there.  I am pretty much going to rock that place like it has never been rocked before).  

The girls have been filling their bags up with all their treasures to practice for when we go on our Army Trip.  Olivia thinks of things daily that she wants to make sure goes into her own "special bag".  The bags are also super durable and I know they will stand up to the girls playing with them.  They also put some stickers in the care packages along with this map of the world.  

The kids have been getting total kick about busting out that map and drilling us on all the different parts of the world.  The constantly want to know where we live, where Mema and Mena live, where is Auntie Shelley, what part of the map has Auntie Helen, where is Utah when we go on our big adventure road trip before we hit WA.

(Side note:  We have always called my Mom "Grandma" and Marcus' Mom "Mema".  When my Mom came to visit us in Cali, Bianca just took to calling her Mena.  Bianca talks about her all the time, and her name is Mena....not Grandma.  Not sure if we can break her of it, because once that girl decides something that is it.  I kinda love it though because she totally knows the difference between the two and no matter if she is talking about Mena or Mema, she does it with so much love in her voice and a twinkle in her eye.  Sigh.  I love that little girl.)

Basically we are the luckiest family ever.  We have such amazing family that loves and supports us and a really great network of friends.  Even when we are far away from our loved ones I feel how much they love us.  We are one lucky little family indeed!

Memorial Day

 I didn't take very many pictures on Memorial Day, but it was a really great day for our family.  We went to a memorial service in the morning and even though it was raging hot, my heart was so touched by the stories that were shared.

At one point I sat Olivia on my lap in a shady patch and explained to her, in terms she could understand, what today was all about and why we were at this service.  She sat quietly and listened to me talk about brave men that had tried really hard to protect us from people that would try to hurt us.   How these brave men got hurt with owies that couldn't be fixed and that they are now with Heavenly Father.  That today is a special day to think of those brave, strong people and remember them.  So that we can always keep a little piece of them in our hearts.  It was a really special moment between me and her that I will remember my whole life.

Later in the day we met with friends for a little BBQ potluck.  McKell brought a kiddie pool for all the kids to get into and they had SO much fun splashing and playing with that thing.  It was at Lindsey's house and it was three of us families.  They are such a fun group and we always have such a blast when we get together.  Such good conversation and so much laughter.  It was the perfect way to end a really relaxing weekend.  We had Marcus home with us all weekend and it was just what the girls and I needed.

The girls couldn't get enough of him, Olivia wanted to color with him, Bianca wanted to snuggle him.  They both wanted him with them where ever they went.  I told the girls the night before Memorial Day that Marcus would be home with us the next day too.  He got up early and met with some people from his company to put flags on the military section of the cemetery so he wasn't home when the girls got up.  Olivia cried and cried that he wasn't home when she woke up.  It took quite a lot of snuggles and hugs to convince her that he would be home soon, which he was.  The girls are just really in a Daddy stage right now which is really a sweet thing for me to watch.

It was such a special day to be with my family.  I loved it.  To be able to have these memories with them make my heart so happy.

Life according to Olivia

 Over the long weekend, Olivia got a hold of Marcus' iPod and took pictures of all the things that were important and noteworthy to her.  There are about a billion of her making funny faces.  I don't know what it is with my girls but they can make the most realistic fart noises ever.  I have only ever heard boys recreate noises with such accuracy but my girls can really hit it out of the park.

 They will both really get into it when we are in the car and for the whole little trip to where ever we are going I here a constant stream of "braaaaaapt, fluuuuuupt, buuuuuuuuuuft".  Yes that is my literary version of the sound of farts.

 There were some over the shoulder shots of Bianca sneaking up on her.

 Lots and lots of pictures of her smiling to herself.

 Apparently Marcus and I were being really lazy because all the pictures of him are at the computer...

 And all the pictures of me are sitting in the chair channel surfing.

 Olivia's whole life is coloring right now.  She was pretty into it when we left CA but it has reached a fever pitch since we got to TX.  She goes through probably 7 sheets of blank paper and colors in her coloring book.  She will wake up and one of the first things she asks for is her colorings.

 As soon as we get home from being out she will immediately ask for her colorings.  She colors the entire time Bianca is sleeping and will color more after she wakes up.

 Coloring.  Coloring.  Coloring.  She takes to it like it is her profession.
"Mom, I can't clean up right now.  I MUST color.  I am not done with works of art yet!"
"Mom, I am an ARTISTE.  I must color right now.  You have to get my colorings so I can make works of art right now."
I wish Bianca shared this love of coloring.  She mostly gets bored when inspiration has struck Olivia and will think of ways to torment her to distract her from coloring so she will play instead.  Tricksy little minx.

 Blue Baby is like our 5th family member.  We all treat her like she is a full fledged part of our family.  She is Bianca's most precious possession.  I often give Blue Baby timeouts as punishment for Bianca and it hurts her more than any time out she would have to have herself.  Olivia always touches Blue Baby gently, we all get concerned if she happens to disappear for over an hour and then we issue a house wide man hunt until precious Blue Baby is found.

If Bianca trusts you to hold her Blue Baby, it is a big freaking deal.  She will let me hold her, as long as I have her properly bundled, while Bianca runs potty real quick.  She just recently has let Olivia hold her.  Olivia has the solemn trust of Blue Baby holding now.

Of course Blue Baby is the most shabby looking thing.  You can never take off her blue/yellow gender neutral outfit.  Michelle got her a darling little dress that Bianca puts over her blue baby outfit.  The dress is really classy, but the fact that her blue cotton sleeves stick through make it look a little more ragamuffin.

And then of course she had to take a picture of her most favorite alphabet blankie.  She still sleeps with the sucker every night.  If Bianca has an owie, she will run and get her alphabet blanket to give to sister to make her feel better.

Sweet Desserts

 We were eating at the Olive Garden the other night and had the coolest experience.  Our girls are getting to be pro's at eating at restaurants.  We have been indulging quite a bit with our eating out since we have arrived here.  Downside, we are spending lots of mullah on things to fill our bellies...Upside, our girls are excellent in restaurants!  We plan to tone it down soon, just all the moving shenanigans and getting settled here, it is just so much easier to load up and have someone else cook you dinner!

But I digress.... So we were eating at the Olive Garden and at the end of our meal our waitress brings over this sampler platter of desserts saying it was a special treat from another diner!  I have never had anyone do that for me and the girls about lost it!  They were laughing and squealing, eating their magical desserts with such relish!  I wrote a thank you note and had Olivia do some artwork for the nice people that treated us.  I seriously welled up with tears when she brought the desserts to our table because it was SO nice.

When we gave our waitress the note, she kinda broke the rules and told us which table it was that did it.  She really thought they would appreciate a thank you in person.  It turned out it was the booth to the left of ours.

We had been seated for a little bit when they walked in.  In Bianca's true exuberance for life she immediately waved hi to them as they walked past and showed off her salad she was eating.  Telling them it was SO yummy.  A couple of times she sneaked looks over the bench and smiled ruefully at the family, the little flirt.  She does this any time we go anywhere so I don't really think about it.  Apparently they were quite taken with her and their daughter that was with them was getting married that weekend.  He said she just reminded them so much of how quick it goes and how every little girl deserves sweet treats now and then.  They were the nicest couple and my girls were so sweet with their thank you's.  The whole experience gave me the warm fuzzies for days after whenever I would think about it.

 The kindness that I have found here in the south is mind blowing.  Every where I go it is so easy to strike up conversations, like every one is an old friend.  I will really miss that when we leave here!

Snuggly Girls

I went to check on the girls before I went to bed one night and I found them sleeping peacefully.  With Bianca sprawled out right on top of Olivia.  It was the cutest thing.  I did end up moving her over to her own pillow.  I figured it wouldn't be very comfortable to sleep like that for a long time and Bianca has been having some hard times sleeping at night.  It is always so cute to see them snuggled up to each other.

One morning I heard Bianca crying but then she stopped.  I thought about trying to go back to sleep but just decided to get an early start to my day.  I checked on the girls before I hopped in the shower and Bianca was snuggled up to big sister and Olivia had her arm wrapped around her.  Olivia had comforted her and they both fell asleep.  I love my girls so much and I love how much they love each other.  Melts my heart.

Fun with Friends

 It just keeps getting hotter and hotter around here, so we have to keep finding fun things to do outside that don't give us heat stroke.  Parks with shade are pretty fabulous, and even more magical when you go with friends!

 We have also been getting together for some potlucks with a really great group of friends we met at church.  The kids all play and play and have so much fun.  One smart Mom brought bubbles and the kids were entertained with it forever.

 When we had this bonfire one night, little Grant who is right beside Olivia was being too cute!  He just followed Olivia around for a good hour straight.  Laughing when she laughed even if he didn't know it was funny.  She was laughing at something I said for this picture and sure enough Grant just starts cracking up with her!

 The bonfire was awesome because it also kept away the insects while we were eating.  The insects here aren't as friendly as I am accustomed to!  Right Like 5 feet behind all our cars was the most massive fire ant hill so we gave the kids a good talking to right when we got there.  Luckily Olivia's fire ant fiasco is burned into her memory so she didn't even walk anywhere in that direction!

I feel like I am getting more and more used to the heat but if I go outside for any time during the day I need to have a shower later on when we get home because I am usually drenched in sweat.  Today was one of the hottest we have had in a long time, it was BRUTAL.

Twinners...or should I say Triplets??

I pretty much love to dress my girls up matching.  They have matching church outfits, matching casual outfits, matching beach outfits, matching shoes/sandals/flip flops.  They do wear things that are different, but they also love to be matching too so more often than not they are!

We went to the park day playgroup on Monday morning and I had the girls pick out their outfits, matching as it turned out, and I didn't realize it until we got to the park that I was wearing the same thing too!  It was almost the exact color of purple as the girls shirts!  I had to take a picture of us all matching because it was too awesome.  (I always have my camera in my purse in case we come across any more tarantulas or anything uniquely Texas or whatever.... not that matching is uniquely Texas, but it is uniquely us and just as picture worthy I think!).

It was pretty hot that day and when we got home we feasted on sonic slushees and popsicles.  Lunch of champions!

It is also thunderstorm season and we have been hit with some pretty big, crazy, BIG storms the last two weeks.  Hail the size of ping pong balls, winds in excess of 60 MPH, streets flooded and turned into rivers.  I am used to rain from WA, but it isn't really rain here.  It is like the sky opens up and dumps and entire lake on you in 20 min.  There was one day that we had some warnings to stay inside due to life threatening lightening and whatnot, but for the most part it has been really cool to see Mother Nature unleash her full fury, as it were.  The girls think it is a riot when it rains that hard.  We happened to be out driving when one hit really bad and one of the streets we had to drive over looked like a river running down it.  In hindsight I probably should have made an alternate route, but I ended up going through it and half way through I started cussing to myself at what an idiot I was to think I could drive through that.  Luckily I maintained control of the car and we were totally fine but I will think twice about driving when it is crazy like that.

 Yes, we did have a talk about the naughty words that Mommy should not have said while driving through the river.   Yes, when I accidentally think my itty bitty car is strong enough to drive through a river I break out in cuss words to rival a sailor.   First step is admitting you have a problem right?

Mother's Day

My sweet girls were matchy/matchy for Mother's Day.  They looked SO cute in their dresses with their hair clips from Auntie Shelly!

We had a pretty busy day the day before so Sunday was a little intense for everyone.  The girls were over tired and super cranky and the Momma was a little cranky herself until her afternoon nap made everything all better!  We did a potluck with our friends and had a total FEAST that evening.  It was mexican themed and we had rice, beans, creamy enchiladas, pork carnitas tacos, fruit salad, pico de gallo and three different kinds of dessert!  It was so awesome because it would have been a ton of work for any one person but way easy when you are only in charge of bringing one or two things.

Bianca ate her weight in watermelon and has had "fire poops" the day after.  I guess a diet of only watermelon isn't too friendly on your digestive track!  It was so fun to get together with friends and all the kids had a blast playing together!  We have totally lucked out here and met so many amazing people and made some really great friends through church here.

The coolest ever is that I get to go and see Wicked while I am in Utah over the summer!  I found out it will be playing while I am there and I have been wanting to see it forever!  As soon as Marcus heard he made sure I bough tickets ASAP.  I love that man!

I am so glad that I get to be the Mommy to my sweet girls and that I have such a loving and supportive husband who gives me breaks whenever I need it!  I am one lucky lady!

Bowling on Base

 On the base they have a bowling alley and a movie theater.  We decided to hit up the bowling alley a couple Saturday's ago.  We went in at lunch time and got some burgers, which were pretty decent considering they were bowling food fare.  We were the only ones in there and after we ate lunch we laced up our shoes and got our bowling on!

 The girls loved wearing their special shoes, the smallest size they have for kids is 9 which is two sizes too big for Bianca but she still rocked them anyway.  Plus the guy brought us some extra curly fries for free during our game.  We left there feeling very stuffed.

 At first we did no bumpers or anything just to see how the kids did.....

 Bianca got hers off okay until about halfway down where it stopped and kinda rolled back again.  After the attendant retrieved the ball we added the bumpers and the metal frame thingy to our game.

 You just set the ball on top of the frame and push it down.  Olivia ended up getting one strike, lucky girl!

 Bianca was a little robust about putting her ball on and Marcus and I were on pins and needles every time that she went that her ball would just get thrown on the floor.   She was so concerned about doing it herself that she would run up with the sucker and lob it onto the frame before anyone could help her.  After we assured her repeatedly that she would be able to do it all by herself she would finally do it a little more carefully!

 Momma bowling.  I did okay, considering I haven't bowled in over a year.  I got a couple of strikes which was pretty exciting.  

 Daddy bowling.  I can't remember the actual finishing score but I am pretty sure Marcus wholloped us all.  We had so much fun, cheering on everyone during their turn.  Plus being the only ones there took the pressure off of looking ridiculous.

 The girls would patiently wait for their hot pink balls to roll up.

 This was Bianca with the bumpers, but rebelling about having to use the frame.

And she actually hit some!  We had so much fun, it was pretty cheap and the girls keep asking if we can go again!  The only weird thing was on the screen whenever you did good it would show random sports people while saying great job on your strike or whatever.  So like there was a sprinter crossing the finish line, or a swimming barreling through the water, or a guy soaring over a high jump, or a guy dunking a basket.  It just didn't really fit with the whole bowling stuff so it would make us laugh.

Tom Green County Library

 This library is seriously the coolest library I have ever been in!  We come here every Thursday for Story Time.  The library has three different levels and the entire lower level is just for kids.  It was built just over a year ago and it is beautiful.  The kids area is so much fun.  They have these holes that are cut into the wall and carpeted as reading nooks, plus tons of tables and chairs for reading, a dress up corner, a little kid play station, learning computer games station and a little play house.

 The actual Story Time room is full of this huge cutouts of book characters and has all these toadstool that are cushioned and varying heights for all the kids to sit on during Story Time.  The ceiling is so cool, it has these drop down portions of different heights that have this metal leafed ring around the outside.  The colors are so vibrant and beautiful.  It has a very eclectic feel but it all goes together so smoothly.  I love to just look around at everything.

It is one of the highlights of our week to come here with our friends, get some books, sing some songs and dance around.  We are so lucky to have this magical place to go to!

Unidad Park

 This is the park that we frequent the most here.  Our playgroup meets there Monday mornings and after dinner when it gets a little cooler we will take the kids in the evening.  It has a little trail around it and I have ran it a couple of times we have been there while Marcus is playing with the girls (and if it isn't too hot that I want to die just standing there).

 The park is really spread out and there are tons of shade trees.  It is a really fun park for the girls to play in.

 There aren't very many flowering things around here, but somehow the girls always seem to find some flowers to pick while we are there.  This is also the same park that we saw the tarantula, luckily we haven't seen anymore!

 The girls have been EXTRA fancy as of late, probably something to do with all the Fancy Nancy books we have been checking out from the library.  Their play almost always has something to do with going to Paris.  When we are at home they will pack their backpacks with the essentials, like extra shoes, a princess, my car keys, blue baby and a water bottle.  Lots of times Bianca's backpack (or mackpack as they call it) is full of just shoes.  Like every pair that we have here.  Once they are all packed they will come in and announce they are off to Paris.  I will tell them to have fun, be safe and then I give them smooches goodbye and then they set off.  Paris usually ends up being my room or their room but they go on grand adventures.

 If Bianca can't get a certain pair of shoes on she will bring them to me, in a panic for me to help her, so she can be all ready to go bye bye to Pawa.  If I don't acknowledge that she is headed for Paris she will get so FRUSTRATED with me until I actually say "Have fun in Paris!".  Bianca apparently vacations much more than Olivia.  She takes at least 5 trips "bye bye to Pawa" a day.

Having little girls is SO MUCH fun.  I love that they love to dress up, be girly, jet set to Paris.  It is so fun!  With Bianca's personality I am sure if she had had an older brother instead of a sister she would be a total tomboy.  She is so rough and tumble and on the go all the time.  I love that Olivia brings out more the girlie-ness in her.  Plus Bianca's adventuresomeness really brings Olivia out of her shell more.  I love that they each help to bring out and foster characteristics that the other is lacking in.  It makes them more balanced.  There was wisdom in Heavenly Father sending me these two girls when He did and the order that He did.

They are so precious and so fun, I am so happy to get to be there Mommy and help them along, even when they go to Paris...ESPECIALLY when they go to Paris.