Summer Trip

We started our summer trip in Atlanta with a visit to the Georgia Aquarium. It was awesome!!! My parents joined us and we all had an excellent time. We also got to see our good friends, Matt and Amy Tuggle, while we were there and it was great to catch up.

Then we headed to Charlotte to my parents house. We don't have pictures of the all the fun we had, but it was a great time - swimming, golfing, playing cornhole, going on bike rides, acclimating Piper to the dog Colby, going to the Children's museum, hanging out with my brother Craig - we were sure sad to leave. Below are pictures of the kids at the children's discovery museum - which was awesome.

We ended our road trip with a stop in Mississippi to see Chris' best friend, Nathan and his wife Beth. We had a great time at their house and it was a nice reprieve from the road. The kids did great on the trip, especially in the car, but Piper sure was glad to see our house and be home again.

Housework

So the housework is finally finished. We have new floors throughout the dining room, entry, living room, and hall all thanks to Ylati. We chose to put tile in the half bath. And there is now slate around the fireplace with major thanks to our dear friend Cindy. Chris added new trim molding to the fireplace and got a saw to complete the job. I guess it's a late father's day gift, but either way we are so thankful not to be living in a construction zone anymore.

Also does anyone notice anything different about the kitchen? - That's right I finally finished taking down "the border from ____" and have given the room a fresh coat of red paint.

Still Waiting

At this point we are still waiting to get our floor replaced. Meanwhile, we've decided that since we're getting a new floor we might as well take the opportunity to replace the fireplace tile with slate so, with that said, we've purchased slate to replace the dull, white, ceramic tile framing our fireplace. We'll see how this goes; pictures to come soon!!!

Water Damage

There are no words to describe this so here's a video!!

Summer Looms

We're now 11 days from summer vacation for students and I think we are all feeling it at our campus. Everyone seems to be a little run down but we're all still pushing through. Taylor became a college grad again over the weekend graduating from the University of Lamar with her Master's Degree in Educational Leadership and I couldn't be a more proud husband. It's been tough getting through it but she did and I'll be graduating in August and we'll both be a little less stressed. Well, we are anxiously anticipating Sebashtian's summer visit and we can't wait to see him. He'll be playing basketball this summer so we're really excited about that and I haven't told him yet but I might be his coach - that would be fun!!! Anyway, Piper can now say, "ball" and we have the whole thing on video:

Other words she's working on are "banana" "peek-a-boo" and "bottle." She understands so much language too. She follows simple commands as evidenced in this next video. Good thing Taylor and Piper aren't sick.

D.I. and the Bluebonnets

This weekend Bash was in town for the State Destination Imagination competition. His team from Lubbock qualified in February and we were so glad the state competition was here in Dallas. His team did a great job even though they didn't place. It was great to see Bash perform. He also had a fun time at the team mixer trading pins with teams from the rest of the state.

Last week we also took Piper to a pretty bluebonnets spot for pictures in her dress from Mimi. Piper felt more sure of the grass in our yard than being by all the bluebonnets, but oh well.

She wouldn't let me put her down so Chris had to do his best to capture pictures without me in them.

Also we had Piper's 1 year old doctor visist. She is 19 lbs. 10 oz., 29 inches tall, and keeping right on her growth track. We are starting to experience some tantrums, that don't last long but we are afraid it may mean staying home for awhile because in public she wants freedom and doesn't understand safety. Even with the tantrums, she is still the sweetest little girl and we love her so much. She has brought so much joy to our lives and continually makes us smile with her energy, explorations, and noises.

Birthday/Easter recap

Sometimes Chris is quicker than I am at updating the blog, but I like to use this blog as a scrapbook of sorts so I'm going back in time on some of these pictures.

For three days over spring break we went to Kerrville to see Mimi and we made a stop in San Antonio at the Alamo and the Riverwalk. Bash was kind enough to carry Piper in the backpack for a little bit. They also had fun playing with a ball in Mimi's driveway and watching some cartoons.

When we returned home Saturday night, DFW was covered in snow again. The boys had a snowball fight Sunday morning before Bash had to catch his flight.

We did a small group Easter Egg hunt at the school by our house. Of course once Piper had an egg in each hand that rattled when she shook it, she was done hunting.

Just looking pretty!

Here starts the birthday fun - she had a party at daycare and loved the cookie more than the cupcake or ice cream.

This is my new favorite pic of Piper. I made her a tu-tu and got her a fairy wand to go with it for her birthday.

On her birthday we went to the Arboretum. I loved it! The tulips were gorgeous and Piper warmed up to the place. This is such a cute father-daughter pic in front of the waterfall.

Me and gram by the snowball tree.

Pops and Piper - another fav!

Sitting in the grass

4 generations picture on my mom's side

Hunting eggs at our house with help from Pops. Of course Molly and Garrett really showed Piper how it was done.

This Dr. Seuss ABC book is her current favorite.

Easter morning with Grammy and Pops

Our Easter family pic (minus Bash, but we get to see him this weekend and cheer him on at the State Destination Imagination Competition!!!)

The ladies :)

One final pic with Grammy before taking her to the airport, at least we'll get to see her again soon for Memorial Day.

Being silly with Dad