Memorial Day

 Today we went to a little Memorial Day parade. Both kiddos seemed to enjoy it. Teddy missed his morning nap so he was quite tired, but extremely interested in everything going on around him.

 My dad helps to organize the parade every year for the last few years. He does a great job. Seeing all the men and women who march in the parade who currently serve our country, and who have served, gets me choked up every year.

 Our group watching the parade.

 Uncle Charlie keeping Teddy out of the sun with Nora's awesome umbrella. :)

 Cute Pic. of the boys.

 Picture of Tony and Steph that I had to post.

 The group that showed up to support our dad. It was so nice that we were all able to be there today.

I cannot believe I braved the freezing water today. I just really wanted to bring Teddy in the pool to see how he would react. Not sure he liked the temperature either. Nora loved it though.

More Mother's Day

 Wanted to post these since it shows what we did on Mother's Day this year. After church, we went to a park and Teddy LOVED being in the swing. He whimpered when I took him out.

 Nora loves going to parks too. She is into climbing on the equipment, but is VERY cautious . She still hesitates to go down the slides at times. By the end of our visits she typically feels more comfortable and will go down on her own.

 Later that day we went to my aunts house and celebrated together. We also celebrated my 97 year old aunts birthday! Nora calls her Miss Angie and tells us we have to be very careful with her because she is fragile. I swear, I did not tell her that-she came up with that one on her own.

Mother's Day and Mexico

 I think Mother's Day may have scooted up to one of the top holidays in my book. I love being a mom. Love, Love, Love being a mom. And I love these two cuddle bugs so very much. Teddy is getting so big and doing so many more things. And, Nora consoles me by telling me it's okay that she is getting big. Ha. Maybe I should stop telling her she is getting too big too fast.

 I hope to get a decent family picture soon. :)

 TJ and I went to Mexico two weeks ago. This was a trip awarded to TJ's team which was so nice. I must admit however, I was not very excited at first. I had a very VERY hard time thinking about leaving our kids for 5 days. I felt sad, guilty, worried, and nervous. Followed by feelings of ungratefullness. I am pretty sure that isn't a word, bt that is how I felt.
Luckily, my mom and sister took a week off of work and stayed at our house, we finished up writing a will, and had MANY discussions. One discussion including the fact that it would not look very good for TJ to go to this trip by himself as he just started with the company and all married couples with children were going.  So...off we flew. 
I will admit, the warm weather, feet in soft sand, and the sound of the ocean was delightful.

 Had to post this picture of this funny Mayan animal. They were so funny. They would sneak out of the trees, steal food, and go hide again.  This guy actually got on top of a table, stole only the white sugar packets (he must know the blue and pink ones are full of fake stuff), and ran.

 We did have a lovely time.  The fact that we were able to skype with the kids daily and we knew all was going well at home helped us relax a bit.  We kept saying how much the kids would love the place and how fun it would be to bring them to a similar resort in the future.  And the few hours we weren't talking about our children, we realized how nice it was to give one another our undivided attention. We haven't done that in 3 years.

While it was extremely hard to leave our children and go out of the country, I can now look back and appreciate that we took the trip. I missed the kids like crazy, but I loved spending that time with my hubby.

Well, this is the first...

So, tonight TJ put Nora down to sleep by reading a book. As I walked out of Teddy's room from putting him to sleep, Nora saw me and of course needed to talk to me. I ended up reading her a book as well and looking at shadows on the wall. I gave her kisses and hugs and left the door open as I walked out as she requested. As I was folding laundry and TJ was working on the computer, I heard noises from her room. I figured she got out of bed and got another book. NOPE! TJ went up to find Nora in a COMPLETELY different outfit. In the matter of 5 minutes, she had quietly got out of bed, undressed herself, and layered on new underwear, t-shirt, pajama pants, and a dress and got back onto her bed!
At least I now know she can definitely get dressed TOTALLY on her own. :)

Join me for a spot of tea-I turned 3!

 We had a little tea party for Nora's 3rd birthday this past weekend. She loved celebrating with her grandparents, aunts, uncle, cousins, and friends. I made tutu's for the girls and capes for the boys. The task seemed quite simple at first but 4 trips to the fabric store proved these fluffy things would take longer than expected. But, it was simple.

 Nora taking a picture with her friends Adeline and Lila.

 Aunt Mel Mel make yummy and delicious cupcakes, cookies, and a teapot cake!

 Cute picture of Lila.

 Super fun dad Tony playing with all the girls. They seem to be loving the game.

 Sweet Leah.

 The Rice boys...such studs.

 Well, TJ and I looked at the camera.

 The girls having a pow-wow with their tutus on. The cutest thing about this was that they all sat their on their own.

 Nora in a zone due to being way overtired from all the birthday excitement.

 The birthday fairy came to decorate Nora's door on the night before her birthday. She was really excited! I cannot believe Nora is 3 already. She is still the sweetest girl. Kind and gentle, funny and smart. She is a blessing and we are so very thankful.

 Nana and Papa surprised Nora with a big girl Bike! 

Grandma and Papa surprised Nora with this great doll house. She loves it!

Some cuteness

 Hmmm...future teacher? I don't know, but she certainly enjoys teaching others at this point in her life-especially her little brother. This may be one of my favorite pictures right now. It portrays Nora and Teddy so well. Nora loves playing with her stuffed animals and treats them like her friends, she loves books and playing with her brother. Teddy, is EXTREMELY interested in everything going on around him.

 T.J. has been taking Nora to swim lessons on Saturday mornings. They both seem to enjoy the time at the pool and Nora  is listening well and learning some basic swim techniques. Pools in the summer scare the poop out of me. So, we are trying to take some preliminary steps for water safety.

 My cute little man with some sticky-uppy hair. His blue eyes are killer!

 "Give me 10 Teddy!"  And 1 and 2 and 1 and 2!!!

 oooo...so serious with his toys. He has squeezable everything-cheeks, legs, butt, arms. Love it!

Grandma and Papa came to town for someone's birthday. Nora and Teddy definitely enjoyed the added attention.

I have to add this little blurb so I remember in the future...
I was sicker then sick on Monday. We caught the a very weird bug at our house. TJ and his dad had it on Sunday and I got Monday. I seriously couldn't move and my body just ached horribly. However, Nora woke up from her nap that day and apparently wrote me a song.  It goes like this..."wake up mommy, wake up. Wake up mommy, wake up". Definitely put a smile on my face.