Graceyn loves Daddy!

Topher has been coming home from work for lunch, which is wonderful. We love getting to see him in the middle of the day! Graceyn always climbs up in his lap while he tries to eat his lunch. Between her eating his sandwich and putting her grubby little paws in his french onion dip and Esther drinking his Dr. Pepper, he barely even gets to eat! But, he loves having them close even if he has to sacrifice a little lunch. Toph, you are such an amazing Daddy...

even if you do teach the girls a few bad habits!

Dress up

Never underestimate the value of a good hat!


The red shoes add that little bit of "pop", don't ya think?


This is my favorite: Esther needed her "goggles" and "oxygen mask" to scuba dive in her animal ocean!

Princess Esther is packed and ready to go to see Princess Chole and Prince Jaxon.

Graceyn has some BIG shoes to fill!

rainy days

For some reason, in my mind rainy days are lazy, dark, dreary, and make you wish for sunshine. But, when Lala is here, even the rainy days are full of fun! Thanks Lala for brightening our week! We love you! PS...I finally got our zoo post up so look for it below!

Conversation with an almost 3 year-old

Esther and I have fairly deep conversations about life while she is sitting on the potty and I'm on the floor in front of her waiting patiently (usually). I guess it's just that we don't have anything or anyone else distracting us.

Me: "Esther, how did you get to be so beautiful?"
Esther: "God made me."
Me: "Esther, how did you get to be so sweet?"
Esther: "Mommy."
Me, smiling: "Yes, but really God made you sweet. Did you know that God made us and He loves us even bigger than the whole wide world?!"
Esther: "Plus all the rainbows?"
Me: "Plus all the rainbows."
Esther: "Absolutely!"

We're goin' to the zoo, zoo, zoo...

Could there be a better way to spend an extremely hot and humid San Antonio day than at the sparsely shaded, guano scented, family friendly zoo?! Uncle Joe and Aunt Meg are spending their summer in San Antonio, so they met us with us on Saturday of our vacation. Aside from Joe and Bob being stragetically targeted by overhead birds, the day was great. HOT and sweaty, but great!

Esther's favorite animal at the zoo was this ostrich...random! Anyway, when we got home, Topher's mom had found the stuffed ostrich he used to carry around as a kid...also random. Esther loves Ozzy and takes him everywhere with us now!

Graceyn and Aunt Meg won my vote for "Most Hollywood" while Esther practiced her "flamingo whisperer" techniques as she told them all to "stand on one leg!"

The zoo had this awesome sandy beach area with ankle-deep water for the kiddos to play. The girls loved it! They were pretty keen on this turtle statue too...the funny part is that they had real ones just across the way that really look exactly like this!

I know I'm a little biased, but seriously, these girls are soooo cute!

Happy Father's Day

Esther sang to Topher in bed on Sunday morning,"Happy Birthday Daddy's day, Happy Birthday Daddy's day. Happy Birthday to Youuuuuu (pointing into Topher's chest), Happy Birthday Daddy's day!" It was priceless! Lydia has been here for a couple of days (Yea!!) and helped the girls make Toph a present. She said it was an adventure in and of itself. Somehow, she managed to complete the task, take pictures, and get the girls in the tub with little mess...unbelievable!! As sweet Esther says, "Lala is da bomb!"

The rest of Father's day afternoon we spent out at the lake with Topher's parents. It was beautiful. Our girls LOVED the water...they were like fish out there! Speaking of fish...Esther went fishing for her first time. Topher was sooo proud. She fished for all of like 2 minutes before she realized her cousins were swimming without her and decided to join them!

Graceyn loved her little floatie, but preferred to just chill out in her life vest. Lala got to spend the day with us too...they should have a special holiday for aunts and uncles too, don't you think? To me, this picture says it all...Happy Daddy's day, Toph. You are amazing and, we love you the whoooooole world!

Adventures with Shamu

You've got to love summer vacations! Topher's parents took us to San Antonio with the girls and we had the most fabulous time! Actually, Pat and Esther planned this trip months ago after seeing Shamu on a commercial. They did a great job! Topher and I flew with the girls...they were awesome. Esther was so cute walking through the airport with her little ladybug backpack! Graceyn was facinated with her first flight...she enjoyed the view for sure!

The first afternoon we spent on the River Walk and at the Alamo. Esther went crazy at the Rainforest Cafe for dinner. She is so facinated by animals...especially snakes and alligators! The next day, we spent at Sea World...soooo fun! Topher and I were just as giddy as the girls. We got to feed dolphins and the girls loved the aquarium! Esther was so excited to meet "walking Shamu" and Dolly Dolphin.

With temperatures nearing 100 degrees, both girls tried hard to stay cool! Shamu did his best to cool us off, but we managed to stay just above the splash zone.

Esther was sooooo excited to meet one of the trainers...she so aspires to be a scuba diver like her aunt Lala. So this is just the first day and the dry part of Sea World. I'll have to update you all on the zoo and the water pics in the next post...until then!

Unwanted guest

So today is a beautiful day to be outside...Esther and I were playing in the driveway while Graceyn napped. Our friend Lynne walked down with her cute little kiddos Ella and Jack. We decided to go in to the back yard and I had to wipe off the swings with a towel on the back porch. As I threw the towel back down, I saw it. A fat snake at least a yard long! It was about 3 inches away from my feet on the back door mat right in front of the door where I let the girls go out by themselves to play all the time! And it was HUGE! I of course very calmly screamed my head off and danced off the patio. Lynne did basically the same thing when she saw it. Fortunately, Topher the Great works only a few minutes from the house. He came right home on a white stallion with a giant sword to slay the fire-breathing dragon! Actually, he calmly coaxed it into a trash can as if that is what he does for a living, but I think as I watched him I saw more of the first story taking place! When Esther saw it, she said in her sweet little voice, "Oh, how beautiful." Needless to say we are having lots of conversations aobut how dangerous snakes can be and that we don't ever ever touch them! Lynne's question was, "How did that get here? Where did it come from? I mean this is a neighborhood!" She's so funny! Lynne's husband Matt came down to see what all was going on. While Topher held the snake down with a metal rod, Matt reached into the trash can and picked it up by it's head. They said, after looking into its mouth, that it wasn't poisonous, but that didn't really make me feel better about the situation! Anyway...such is the ho-hum day of a stay at home mommy!