isn't this a cute picture?

things i love to hear at dinner:

after trying for most of dinner to get rayna to try her dinner, then putting miniscule pieces of "chips" in her food to bribe her into eating...

r: "this is yummy"
me: "i thought you'd like it if you gave it a try :)"
r: "thank you mama"
me: (heart melting)
(and yes, that really happened, without hints or scripting :)

afton about peach pie:
"pie is like cookies and syrup mixed together" (crust is evidentally like cookies, and we recently had peach syrup, so i guess that's where that thought came from)
and
"this is the messiest pie i ever ate" (that's what happens if you eat it with your fingers!)

what...

... really tuckers you out?

afton says, "church"

...do you take pictures of?

rayna says, "Grandpa!!!"

...is the cutest thing in the whole wide world?

malachi says, "me!"

4th of July in allen

again this year we went to the allen independance day celebration (at celebration park, called celebrate USA, i think there's a theme there, and i think it works) (remember last years celebration?) i took way more pics this year, and the fire trucks were still a bigger hit than the fireworks, but here's a little of what we did this year:

we started our day at the local library for "critterman"'s visit... learning about leg-less lizards, giant bugs, and snakes and alligators and spiders, oh my! then up to grandma's for playing and dinner (and naomi's new puppy, alpha)before rushing off to the park to meet up with cousins and spend lots of time visiting the fire trucks where:

rayna drove a bit (among others):

there was an amazing pink engine (celebrating survivors of womens cancers {not just breast cancer awareness, though i'm sure that's where the pink came from}):

here's the whole crew:

a little relaxing and dancing around:

(obviously the "Y" was contrived, but the rest were definately action shots, it's a lot harder than i thought to get the picture at exactly the right moment!)


(twinkle, twinkle little star :)

a little more dancing around :)

a little back-rubbing :) wish i were on board THAT love train!

(you know rod stewart's going to be in your head the rest of the day now, don't you :)

and finally, a picture of the birthday girl! love you mom, hope your day was the greatest! we loved 'your' party!

the girls weren't as excited about the fireworks as we'd hoped, but it was an amzing show, one of the best-choreographed i've seen, but i didn't get any pictures as i had at least one child in my lap at all times :)

rayna's 2nd birthday

only one month late (okay, month and a day), here's some pictures from rayna's birthday :)

the happy birthday girl (she refuses to smile unless you tell her to say cheese, and i guess we forgot to use the magic word :)

a few of her favorite presents:

a bike helmet to go riding with daddy

really cool sunglasses (2 pairs!) and some puzzles:

and her favorite, two new "phones" that are actually walkie-talkies, so she can really talk on them, assuming she can ever figure out how to push the buttons :) ... doesn't really matter tho' she loves them anyways!

popcorn trees

background: a few months ago, probably mid-to-late march, afton was really sad about the end of spring. i was sad to see spring fade to summer so fast too, but mostly just because it's so hot here in texas... either way, i was surprised by this sentiment from a 3-yr old. she explained it was because she liked the popcorn trees in the spring and didn't want them to go away (cute!)



so a week or two ago, she made a discovery, and she's been commenting on it ever since:

crepe myrtle trees

"look mama, popcorn trees in the middle of the summer!!!

"that's so funny, it's the middle of the summer!"