girl's gotta eat!

"cowgirl"

ok, more like a ladybug, but this cowgirl hung on for way more than 8 seconds!

daddy's girl

poolside view

as summer comes to a close, here are a few more of my favorite shots of my loves...

family vacation: west palm beach edition

in july, we ventured on another wild family vacation adventure with grammy, pappy, aunt kasey, aunt korey, uncle g & tanner to west palm beach, florida. brad and i have visited the gulf side of florida many times, but this was our first trip to the atlantic side, and certainly our first beach vacay with two littles.

let me just say... my how vacations have changed. vacation used to be synonymous to relaxation, extra sleep and laying out on the beach. those days are over!

as predicted, madison decided it would be a perfect week to get her first two teeth (ouch!) she also hit a growth spurt (meaning she woke up at least twice every night), and learned to crawl. developmentally, it was trifecta. parentally, it was a bit exhausting!

mason LOVED spending time with tanner. they played and played and played. after we returned home, mason asked for a week when we could play with tanner again. it was such fun to get to see them finally old enough to interact!

in our week long trip, we spent approximately 7 minutes together on the beach! with 2 pools and a splashpad at the resort, we decided that it was a little more up our alley to play there instead; although brad, mason and i spent a couple of hours playing in the waves one afternoon after a storm blew through. we didn't have our bathing suits on that day, but we still had a blast (and came back thoroughly soaked).

despite the challenges of vacationing with little ones, it was so nice to get away from the daily grind and to spend 7 full days together as a family (both immediate and extended). and we won't mention how many bags of golden oreos we went through in one week :)

i decided to cheat a little on the photos from our trip. we made a photo book of the trip for my mom for her birthday, so i took screenshots of the pages for your viewing pleasure. hey, it's better than nothing, right?! oh, and the one benefit to being the family photographer is that there are no photos of me in a swimsuit! :)

enjoy the ride

way back in july (i know, i know... bad blogger), we took a quick getaway to kemah to enjoy a little family time after a LONG three weeks of nights for brad. we ate, we laughed, we wondered what we were thinking with two little monkeys and two half-crazy adults in one hotel room, but more than anything, we just enjoyed the ride. proverbially and literally.

i haven't been great at blogging lately. our life seems to be in a varied state of controlled chaos (some days are way lighter on the controlled part!) i may not take as many pictures as i'd like, and i'm certainly not posting them as often, but i am trying more than anything to enjoy the ride.

chillin' at church

a few cute shots (albeit a little blurry from the iphone) when we happened to arrive a bit early for church

these two really do adore each other! 

a girl and her cars...

it doesn't seem to matter how many of her toys are around, she always migrates to her brother's cars.

my first raspberry

just a bit tart!

ka-pow! superhero party time

mason's actual birthday was on a wednesday and unfortunately, daddy was out of town. madison and i had a low-key celebration that evening with our birthday boy and let him open a present. 

he was pretty excited, as you can see.

not bad for the slow iphone!

while i'm sure he would love the regular sized legos,

we have a little sister who puts EVERYTHING in her mouth.

she has yet to choke on a duplo!:)

on saturday, mason had his super hero swim party! at 10 am on the nose it started sprinkling, but thankfully it cleared up within 10 minutes. for the second year in a row, his party was held at our neighborhood pool. i love that they let us rent it out & the set-up is super easy. the 1 foot deep pool and splashpad is perfect for crazy toddlers.

the invitation

 invitation details

what's a party without cupcakes?!

sugar 'em up and send 'em home! :)

love this girl

grammy & pappy

4!!

captain america approved the cupcakes

to steal a line from our bodie friends... 

my heart just smiled.

mason's big present was a big boy bike. 

he outgrew his about 6 months ago and we finally replaced it. 

of course it had to be lightning mcqueen.

while mason checked out his bike, grammy & pappy dressed madison in her brother's new basketball shorts. they thought it was hilarious and madison was so proud of herself in brother's clothes!

i still can't believe 4 years have passed, but what a wild ride it has been. mason, we love you more than words can express. you were definitely worth the wait!