2 Piggies, Picnic, and Squishy Face

Rissa came home from daycare with 2 pig-tails in her hair.  I am pretty thankful the daycare workers don't mind doing her hair from time to time, it teaches this mom new things!  And of course, I think it is stinkin' cute!!!

Apparently she was happy with the new 'do!



Crawling at super-speed!



She will eat anything - including our swing!



Nathaniel is loving having picnics right now. 

We have a "picnic" at least twice a week in our backyard or at the park.  Last night he insisted we have a front-yard picnic!

Rissa tends to make her silly-squishy-face on command now...

Cars "Pack-Pack" and "Lellow"

Nate's cousin, Logan, gave him a backpack full of cars from the movie Cars....it has rarely left Nate's side since we headed home.  He is one happy kid! 

He is espeically thrilled with his "peace officer" car. Thanks for the goodies, Logan Brewer!

And a video of "Lellow"....my family will get a kick out of Nate saying yellow in the same way I did as a kid.

And while we are on the subject of Nate...I just want you all to know what a stinking awesome kid he is!  He is honestly one of the funniest kids I know. I love this stage of growing up, the world is making sense most of the time so some cute Nate stories:

• He is such a good big brother.  He loves his sister the best way he knows how...which occasionally results in some "be gentle" reminders from Mom and Dad. 
• He started Tumble Team (gymnastics) a few weeks ago, which really seem to increase his "dare-devil" side....kinda second-guessing that decision! 
• He is social once he gets to know you (just like his daddy) but he has become so comfortable with our sweet neighbors that he goes over pretty much every evening and rings their doorbell.  Sometimes he asks them to come and play, sometimes he barges in an helps himself to the toy stash they have for their own grandchildren, he invited Miss Cathy out to the park with us one evening last week (and she came!), and today he went over in the morning and stayed for almost 2 hours. 
• Awhile back we passed around a pretty nasty stomach bug.  Nate had been to the restroom throwing up 3 times in an hour.  So before we left after his 3rd episode, I asked him " Baby, do you need to throw up again?" to which his reply was, "No, fank you". 
• And he comes up with hilarious things.  Tonight we were encouraging him to eat another bite of his hamburger and he says "OK, come to Papa" as he takes a big bite!  I have no idea where he has picked this up but I had to bust out laughing
• He has recently memorized his address and likes to repeat it at odd, random times.
• He knows is birth date as well as his sisters - but he told me that Mommy and Daddys don't have birthdays and refuses to memorize ours. He just laughs at me when I tell him when ours are!
• We have a little routine at night and I ask him "Who loves you?" to which he replies, "Mommy loves me".  Then I ask, "For how long" and he says, "Forever and ever, no matter what".  Tonight he repeated the Lord's prayer after me and when we got to the end I said "For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever" then I paused so he could repeat after me and he said "forever and ever no matter what!"

He is an absoulte blast. As a Yancy family follower, I hope you know all his crazy, fun, loving sides.  He gives me reason to laugh and smile every day!  

 

10 Months

10 Months Old

Marissa was 10 months old on Memorial Day...and I am finally getting around to what she's doing now.  She babbles a lot (however her favorite is still Da-da-da-da), is waving bye-bye, claps, and is beginning to "dance".  I will have to try to get videos of these amazing acts soon!   She is crawling everywhere and tries to crawl upstairs any time we have the gate down.  Crazy kid.  She recently learned that the cabinets open and close and will spend time in amazement of the never ending open-close fun!  Her other favorite activities include: unrolling the toilet paper and taking things out of containers (this makes doing laundry difficult as she is constantly trying to remove the folded clothing from the basket).  She is a whirlwind of activity these days and is non-stop joy.  Her smile lights up the room and her giggles are contagious.  We sure do love this kid!

What I want for my daughter

Once again, I am at a loss for embedding videos, but tonight I ran across

 this link with the mighty John Wayne. 

 No wonder my Meme loved the Duke so much! 

Waterpark fun at Uncle Robert's

Finally getting around to posting the rest of the pics from Memorial Day/Weekend....

It was a super-fun weekend! 

Memorial Weekend 2011

If you know us, you know we love to travel.  However, as I have (gracefully) aged and added children into the mix, I really do not do well with "spontaneous" trips.  Admittedly I am a bit of a packing dork and like to begin at least a few days in advance. So we were planning on staying home over Memorial Day Weekend up until Thursday night.  We had a few things planned with friends but my secret plans were to spend the majority of the time relaxing - which is a crazy dream when you have 2 young children.....then Thurs morning I looked at my husband and said "why don't you go have a guys weekend with your buddies?".  Of course he jumped at the chance!  Friday morning he got things set to have a few days to go spend with his two best friends who live about 5 hours away.  Well, in the meantime, Nathaniel decided, out of the blue, we should go see Uncle Robert...and he preseverated on this all Thurs night.  So after a brief discussion as we were going to bed, we decided the kids and I would go up to my brother's and he would go on to visit his buddies who live about an hour away from Uncle Robert's.  Which sounds good in theory....but I had to pack like a madman when I got home from work on Friday.  And like I said, I want a few days to pack, this made me a bit crazy (crazier than normal) but we got out of the house around 8:00 PM and I actually managed to grab everything we needed.  Whew....the trip up went smoothly.  I really think this is the way to travel with kids.  The baby slept and Nate chatted until he also passed out.

It was a fantastic weekend!  We got in late Friday night but the kids and Tio Ted were up early playing in the back yard and jumping on the trampoline.  Well, until this:

I was just getting out of the shower when all I hear is "Logan, come quick Tio Ted just broke the trampoline".  Yes, it is everyone's fear that they may actually jump THROUGH the trampoline.  Admit it, you have wondered if it would happen to you.  Well needless to say we now have a serious case of catapedaphobia at our house.  And one is left wondering if my kids will ever be lucky enough to someday own their own trampoline.

However, the kids loved it.  In fact, I am told that even though Tio Ted was half way between the trampoline, Izzie and Nate did not stop jumping. They just jumped in circles around him. 

Please note:  No Tio Ted's were seriously harmed in this incident. 

Nate very seriously told Daddy time and time again "You were jumping too close".  Uh....to close to what we are not really sure.  Nate also was sweet enough to apologize to Daddy several times. 

Yes, an amusing (at least for those of us who did not need Advil to get through the day) start to the weekend!

Then Daddy left for his man trip and we had a ton-o-fun with the cousins.  Lots of chase, laughter, and playing ensued.  Saturaday night we went to the lake for the evening to race remote control boats.

Sunday we went to church and listened to Auntie's beautiful singing.  That evening we went down to the harbor, had a nice El Salvadorian dinner, and played in the fountain. 

 Rissa did not get in on the water action due to her recently placed tubes, but she had a great time laughing and squealing in delight at the kids!

When we got home that night, we went back down by the lake for more racing fun, on this beautiful evening.

More pics from this weekend to follow later.....

Never Grow Up

My friend Christy shared this song with me tonight. I am sorry I am not more technically savvy or I would embed this video into the blog.  But listen to Taylor Swift's song, Never Grow Up.  It keeps tugging on my heart-strings!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDbFxAtNNnU&feature=related

Oh Darlin' don't you ever grow up, just stay this little. 

Oh Darlin', Don't you ever grow up, it could stay this simple. 

Gosh, I wish I could keep my kids little forever. 

I got a high school graduation invitation from one of the kids I used to babysit regularly when I lived in Amarillo.  She was 4 years old the first time I spend the weekend babysitting her and her older brother....now she is graduating from High School and ready to tackle the world. I cannot believe she was only a year older than Nathaniel is right now. It may sound cliche, but time really does fly.  I realize that this amazing phase of life will be but a faint memory before I know it.  Although each stage of watching my children grow up will have it's own ups and downs, I just wish I could stay at this phase of life a little longer.  Yes, even with the sleepless nights, I love, love, love it.  Thank you God for allowing me the honor and privilege of parenting these two amazing kids!

...even though you want to, please try to never grow up...